ETHEthereum Price

The week saw a mixed and volatile performance for cryptocurrency ETFs, with Bitcoin and Ether funds showing opposite trends. Despite a mid-week recovery, Bitcoin ETFs ended the week with a net outflow of $61.53 million, breaking a three-week inflow streak. In contrast, Ether ETFs extended their positive run to four weeks with a net inflow of $27.42 million. Among altcoins, XRP and Solana ETFs attracted $14.86 million and $2.82 million, respectively, while Hyperliquid ($HYPE) funds saw significant outflows of $14.75 million. The Federal Reserve's decision to hold interest rates steady contributed to market sensitivity, with investors showing a selective preference for stable assets like Ether and specific altcoin opportunities over more macro-sensitive Bitcoin positions. Overall, July concluded with a net inflow of $172.8 million into Bitcoin ETFs, maintaining a modest monthly recovery.

Bitmine Immersion Technologies expanded its Ether holdings by 10,399 ETH last week, valued at $19.6 million, as part of its ongoing crypto acquisition strategy. The company's total ETH holdings now stand at approximately 5.8 million, worth around $10.9 billion, representing about 4.8% of Ethereum's circulating supply. Bitmine's goal is to reach 5% of the total ETH supply. Additionally, the firm repurchased 4.5 million of its own common shares, bringing total buybacks since July 1 to 16.1 million shares under a previously approved $4 billion program. Bitmine's overall portfolio, including Bitcoin, cash, securities, and equity investments, is valued at $11.3 billion.

BlackRock Launches Tokenized Stablecoin Reserve Fund BRSRV, Expands to Solana and Tempo Global asset management giant BlackRock has introduced BRSRV (BlackRock Daily Reinvestment Stablecoin Reserve Vehicle), a tokenized money market fund specifically designed for stablecoin reserves. Concurrently, the firm is issuing tokenized, on-chain shares of its existing BSTBL (BlackRock Select Treasury-Based Liquidity Fund). A key development is the expansion of supported blockchains beyond Ethereum to include Solana and Stripe-affiliated chain Tempo for recording share ownership. The transfer agent Securitize will manage the process through approved, whitelisted wallets requiring verified identity, with a minimum initial investment of $3 million. The fund will invest solely in cash, short-term U.S. Treasuries, and overnight repurchase agreements backed by U.S. government securities, explicitly avoiding any crypto assets. BlackRock states the structure aims to qualify as a compliant reserve asset under the U.S. GENIUS Act for payment stablecoins. This launch builds upon BlackRock's broader tokenization strategy, notably following its BUIDL fund introduced in March 2024, which now holds over $26 billion in assets. The move places BlackRock alongside other major institutions like Morgan Stanley and Fidelity in offering products tailored for the stablecoin reserve market, signaling a deepening institutional push into tokenized real-world assets (RWA) and on-chain finance infrastructure.

Layer 2 networks like Arbitrum and Optimism are experiencing stalled price action despite significant technical and institutional progress. In contrast, BlockDAG is gaining attention with a confirmed September 2026 launch date for its Super App, which promises to integrate mining, staking, trading, and payments into a single interface. This real-world catalyst contrasts with the uncertain price charts of its competitors. BlockDAG's presale entry price and announced buyback price have sparked discussions of a potential 2100x return, though this remains speculative. The project reports over 10 billion BDAG staked and a global mining footprint, positioning it as a near-term certainty in a market of waiting.

Lido has launched an upgrade to its liquid staking protocol aimed at improving validator efficiency and decentralization on Ethereum. The update, called Curated Module v2, introduces support for Ethereum's 0x02 withdrawal credentials, allowing validators to increase their effective balance from 32 ETH to up to 2,048 ETH. According to Lido's projections, this migration could reduce the total number of Ethereum validators by about one-third, from approximately 880,000 to 628,000. This reduction is expected to streamline the network's consensus layer by decreasing the number of validators and the messages needed to maintain the network, without affecting execution-layer activity or transaction fees. The upgrade also implements new accountability measures for Lido's node operators, including bonding and penalty mechanisms. Future stake distribution may place greater emphasis on operator performance, fees, and contributions to the Ethereum ecosystem. Lido stated that stakers are not required to take any action, as the upgrade will be handled at the protocol level.