🦙 Llama News Round-Up | 24 July - 31 July
News 📰
→ BitMart is shutting down
→ UAE’s Emirates airline partners with Cryptocom to accept crypto payments for flights
→ EU adds HTX to Russia sanctions list
→ Russia charges Telegram founder Pavel Durov with facilitating terrorism, issues international arrest warrant
→ New York sues Kalshi, claiming the prediction market runs an illegal gambling operation
→ Circle secures NYDFS trust charter
→ Strategy reports Q2 $8.2B loss
→ Binance US will apply for CFTC license to operate prediction market
Layer 1 & 2 ⛓️
→ IP blockchain Lamina1 is shutting down
→ LayerZero is ending support for low-activity chains
→ Polkadot launches Products Devnet
→ Aave ends deployments on Sonic, Aptos, and more, while deprecating 50 low-adoption asset reserves
→ BlackRock’s BUIDL launches on Tempo via Securitize
→ Zcash activates Ironwood upgrade
→ Base launches Verify Onchain sybil resistance feature
DeFi 🏦
→ Dango shuts down
→ Lido expects fewer, larger validators with Curated Model v2 upgrade
→ Phantom ends support for Monad
→ Uniswap announces launchpad aggregator on Robinhood
→ Ondo launches Ondo Network execution layer
→ Jupiter Exchange launches Swap V2
→ Kyle Samani says Multicoin is working against Solana builders
→ SEAL911 cofounder and “Ethereum Cypherpunk Manifesto” author joins Ethereum Foundation board
Reads 📚
→ Vitalik Buterin: Obfuscation Pt.II
→ Arrakis: Who is actually buying RWAs?
→ a16z crypto: how organizations evolved through time and technology
→ Francesco Andreoli: The rise and quiet death of the Neobank
→ DefiLlama Research: A one-year comparison of perp DEX volume vs OI
Raises & Acquisitions 💰
→ World Network raises $52.5M
→ MoonPay acquired six companies in 78 days
Security 🛡
→ Stablecoin processor TripleA loses $9.7M in hot wallet exploit
→ Bankr’s X account compromised, gets hacked for 1.5 billion BNKR
→ Vitalik Buterin-backed Freedom Factory announces first quantum-proof hardware wallet
→ US Consumer Federation finds crypto scams cost Americans $80.7B in 2025
AI 🤖
→ Anthropic releases Opus 5
→ Tiger Research on AI agent payment data-powered lending
Llama Update 🦙
→ Report: “The Vault Economy: Scale and Composition” w/ Sentora
→ Introducing V2 of the RWA Dashboard
→ Catch our X Space with Binance’s Shunyet Jan on how crypto rails are rewiring global trading
→ What is DefiLlama’s MiCA Dashboard? An explainer thread
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