Lawson, one of Japan's major convenience store operators, will run an in-store pilot of stablecoin payments at POS terminals at two locations in Tokyo on Aug. 6 and Aug. 17, according to ChainThink, citing an official announcement. The trial will support the stablecoins JPYC, USDC and USDT.

U.S. spot Ethereum exchange-traded funds recorded total net outflows of $11.42 million yesterday, according to Trader T data. BlackRock's ETHA saw $9.03 million in net redemptions, while Grayscale's ETHE posted $7.84 million and Fidelity's FETH $930,000. Offsetting part of the selling, BlackRock's Staked ETHB attracted $5.78 million in net inflows and Morgan Stanley's MSSE added $600,000. Other products were broadly balanced between inflows and outflows.

Mastercard has completed its $1.8 billion acquisition of BVNK, a stablecoin infrastructure provider. The deal brings together Mastercard's global payments network and BVNK's on-chain technology, as the companies look to scale stablecoin-based payments, settlement, treasury services and cross-border transfers. BVNK said existing customers will keep access to the same products and integrations. Mastercard first announced the acquisition in March.

Bitmine Immersion Technologies (BitMNR), linked to Fundstrat's Tom Lee (@fundstrat), said it added 10,399 ETH to its holdings last week, according to a press release. The company now reports total Ether holdings of 5,797,813 ETH, valued at about $10.9 billion. The position equals roughly 4.8% of Ether's 120.7 million circulating supply, putting Bitmine close to its stated goal of reaching 5% of total ETH supply. Bitmine also repurchased 4.5 million shares last week.

XRP holders have a new way to unlock dollar liquidity on Ethereum without exiting their positions. Sentora has approved Flare's FXRP as eligible collateral in its RLUSD Main vault, allowing users to borrow RLUSD while keeping exposure to XRP. Flare said Monday that FXRP—a Flare-wrapped version of XRP—is now accepted as collateral for RLUSD borrowing on Ethereum. The process: convert XRP to FXRP, bridge FXRP to Ethereum, deposit it into Sentora's RLUSD vault (a Morpho-powered lending market), then borrow RLUSD. Because the loan is overcollateralized rather than funded by selling, borrowers retain XRP price exposure while accessing a dollar-pegged asset. FXRP is designed to do for XRP what Wrapped Bitcoin (WBTC) does for BTC, making a non-EVM-native asset usable in on-chain applications. The market runs on Morpho Blue, which uses isolated lending markets intended to contain risk to a single market if issues arise. Sentora said it reviewed FXRP's market behavior, oracle design, liquidity profile, and liquidation mechanics before approving it. Flare co-founder and CEO Hugo Philion said infrastructure has been the main barrier to XRP's use in DeFi, calling the approval a meaningful signal: XRP is now collateral that an institutional risk team is willing to underwrite on Ethereum mainnet. Sentora co-founder and CTO/CPO Jesus Rodriguez described the integration as a step toward making XRP "useful onchain," citing the asset's liquidity and limited adoption in on-chain credit. The rollout also supports Ripple's broader effort to position RLUSD as an enterprise-grade stablecoin. Ripple began testing RLUSD on Ethereum and the XRP Ledger in August 2024 and received approval from the New York Department of Financial Services in December 2024. Last month, Mastercard said it would support settlement for regulated stablecoins including RLUSD, Circle's USDC, and SoFi's SoFiUSD. The integration expands XRP's DeFi utility by enabling FXRP-backed RLUSD borrowing on Ethereum, offering traders and institutions a path to dollar liquidity while maintaining XRP exposure and improving capital efficiency.

BlackRock is taking its tokenization strategy to Solana, rolling out a new money market structure designed for stablecoin reserve allocations while also tokenizing shares of an existing cash fund across multiple chains. The firm said Monday it has launched the BlackRock Daily Reinvestment Stablecoin Reserve Vehicle (BRSRV) and introduced onchain shares of the BlackRock Select TreasuryBased Liquidity Fund (BSTBL). "Cash remains a foundational building block for investors, corporations, and financial institutions," Jon Steel, Global Head of Product and Platform for BlackRock's Cash Management business, said. He added that rising demand for high-quality reserve assets supporting stablecoins and other tokenized products is driving interest in additional ways to access money market solutions across traditional and digital rails. How the tokenized shares work A prospectus filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission on Friday states that ownership of the tokenized shares will be recorded on Ethereum, Tempo, and Solana. The onchain shares are issued through a permissioned system that interfaces with those public, permissionless networks. Securitize will serve as transfer agent, overseeing approved, whitelisted wallets. Wallets must be linked to verified identities. The transfer agent retains the ability to restrict transfers and, when necessary, freeze, revoke, or reissue tokenized shares. The vehicle also carries a $3 million minimum initial investment, indicating an institutional target market. Portfolio composition and restrictions BlackRock said BRSRV will invest only in cash, short-term U.S. Treasury securities, and overnight repurchase agreements backed by Treasuries. The prospectus also specifies the fund will not invest in cryptocurrencies and will operate under Rule 2a-7 of the Investment Company Act of 1940. Regulatory and operational considerations BlackRock structured BRSRV to qualify as an eligible reserve asset under the GENIUS Act, the new U.S. law governing payment stablecoins. The filing cautions that future regulatory changes could affect whether stablecoin issuers can continue using the fund as a reserve asset. The prospectus also highlights operational risks, including blockchain outages and smart-contract vulnerabilities that could interrupt transaction processing. Strategic context The Solana expansion follows BlackRock's broader push into tokenized money market products. In March 2024, the firm launched the BUIDL tokenized money market fund, which now manages more than $2.6 billion in assets. BlackRock is joining other large managers, including Morgan Stanley and Fidelity, in introducing offerings geared toward stablecoin reserve management after the GENIUS Act's passage. Why it matters By placing tokenized shares on Solana and Ethereum while backing them with traditional cash instruments, BlackRock is linking institutional cash management to onchain infrastructure. The use of permissioned wallets, identity checks, and a high minimum investment signals a focus on regulated institutional participants and stablecoin issuers, not open retail distribution.

Onchain analyst Ai Yi reported that wallet 0xb37…a66ca withdrew its SKHX limit buy orders placed between $991.22 and $1,016.60. After SPCX rebounded, the same address opened a 20x leveraged long in SPCX, buying 147,000 tokens at $114.96. The position is valued at about $16.98 million and is now the largest SPCX position on Hyperliquid.

Spot Ethereum exchange-traded funds (ETFs) saw a combined net outflow of $11.4178 million on August 3 (U.S. Eastern Time), according to SoSoValue data cited by Odaily Planet Daily. BlackRock's Staked ETH ETF (ETHB) led the group in single-day net subscriptions, pulling in $5.7791 million. ETHB's cumulative historical net inflows rose to $550 million. Morgan Stanley's Ethereum Trust (MSSE) ranked second, recording $603,300 in net inflows; its historical net inflows reached $20.46 million. On the outflow side, BlackRock's ETHA posted the largest single-day net redemption, with $9.03 million leaving the fund. ETHA's total historical net inflows stand at $11.437 billion. As of publication, spot Ethereum ETFs held $10.233 billion in total net asset value (NAV). Their net asset ratio—ETF market capitalization as a share of Ethereum's total market cap—was 4.54%, while cumulative net inflows since launch totaled $11.199 billion.

TODAY: Tom Lee's Bitmine staked an additional 150,120 ETH valued at $278 million. The move brings the company's total staked holdings to 5,067,309 ETH, representing 87.4% of its overall ETH position.