SEC Chair Paul Atkins said public blockchains are more transparent than any legacy financial system. The SEC has introduced an “innovation exemption” that allows tokenized shares of Apple, Tesla, Nvidia and other stocks to trade 24/7 on blockchain with almost zero full registration. Ripple is part of the UK government’s tokenization team, and JP Morgan and BlackRock have already tokenized U.S. Treasuries on the XRP Ledger. Those tokenized assets can trade on XRP Ledger RWA marketplaces.

Bitcoin rose past $79,000 and extended its rally. Crypto short positions and ETF inflows also surged. Meanwhile, the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission is exploring potential crypto-related regulatory rules, Investor's Business Daily reported.

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission has issued a new regulatory framework for digital assets, reshaping existing crypto rules. The framework is intended to provide clearer regulatory guidance for the digital asset market. Specific provisions and implementation details have yet to be released. The move is seen as a significant policy update that could have far-reaching implications for how the industry approaches compliance.

XRP rose nearly 20% over 24 hours, with trading volume climbing into the top tier globally. Ripple’s CEO held a closed-door meeting with the U.S. Secretary of Commerce to discuss a path forward for the Clarity Act, which could bring institutional capital into compliant tokens if enacted. On-chain data show 23% of XRP volume concentrated in the three-hour overlap between London and New York trading, a pattern often associated with institutional activity. Ripple minted more than 74 million RLUSD stablecoins and burned 35 million in a single day, while whales added more than 300 million XRP this week, taking total holdings to 16.36 billion.

Ripple’s XRP surged 20%, with the market widely attributing the rally to progress on an upgrade to the XRP Ledger (XRPL) lending protocol. The upgrade is intended to add native lending functionality to XRPL and further strengthen its DeFi ecosystem. The sharp price move reflects positive expectations around XRPL’s expanding capabilities. Investors are watching whether the upgrade could boost on-chain use cases for XRP and support token demand.

Crypto-linked U.S. stocks climbed sharply in premarket trading after Bitcoin jumped 6.6% to nearly $77,800 and Ethereum gained 2.7%. Strategy rose 9.3%, while Coinbase added 6.2%, Robinhood gained 5.1%, and Hyperliquid Strategies advanced 3.2%. Investors have grown more confident that the U.S. crypto regulatory environment is turning more favorable, lifting sentiment across the sector.

Asset-management giant Fidelity has filed an application with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) seeking permission to add staking to its Ethereum exchange-traded fund. The move is intended to create an additional source of returns for the fund’s shareholders. If approved, it would represent a significant evolution in the structure of Ethereum ETF products and further integrate traditional financial products with crypto-native yield mechanisms.

Maya Protocol has suspended all operations following a multi-vulnerability attack. The attacker exploited multiple security flaws to steal the platform’s native CACAO token and a large amount of cross-chain assets, with the specific loss amount not disclosed. As a decentralized cross-chain liquidity protocol, the incident damaged its core assets and liquidity across related pools, raising concerns about the security of cross-chain infrastructure.