Bitwise chief investment officer Matt Hougan said a recent Israel-Iran flare-up showed how quickly capital can move into 24/7 on-chain markets such as Hyperliquid when traditional exchanges are closed. He noted that tokenized crude oil, gold and prediction markets saw heavy weekend activity and now expects traditional finance to adopt blockchain-based rails sooner than his previous five to 10 year timeline. Hougan added that investors seeking to stay competitive may need to use stablecoin wallets and crypto derivatives venues while the NYSE works on its own around-the-clock tokenization platform.

Billionaire investor Ray Dalio told the All-In Podcast on Tuesday that Bitcoin should not be relied on as a long-term store of value or safe-haven, stressing that central banks overwhelmingly favor gold. He questioned Bitcoin's privacy, its vulnerability to future quantum computing, and its correlation with tech stocks, while reiterating gold's role as the most established form of money in times of geopolitical and economic stress.

Nasdaq MRX has applied to the United States Securities and Exchange Commission to list cash-settled, yes-or-no Outcome Related Options tied to the Nasdaq-100 and Nasdaq-100 Micro indexes, with contracts priced between $0.01 and $1. If approved, the product would let traders take binary positions on stock index-related events for companies such as Nvidia, Apple, Microsoft, Amazon, Google, Meta and Tesla.

On Saturday, crypto outflows from Iran's largest exchange Nobitex jumped more than 700% to over $500,000 within minutes of US and Israeli airstrikes on Tehran, later nearing $3 million in a single hour. Elliptic linked the spike to possible capital flight as funds moved to overseas exchanges, while TRM Labs argued the broader crypto ecosystem in Iran is instead slowing amid severe internet blackouts. The turmoil follows a major Iranian bank collapse, mounting risks for several other lenders, and an $81 million hack at Nobitex in June.

Aave said it has exceeded $1 trillion in cumulative lending as CEO Stani Kulechov outlined plans to deepen bank and fintech integrations. The protocol secures over $27.2 billion in TVL and generated $83.3 million in fees in the past 30 days, while AAVE holders debate a package of up to $42.5 million in stablecoins and 75,000 AAVE for Aave Labs.

Prediction market platform Kalshi said on Wednesday it banned a former California gubernatorial candidate for five years and fined him $2,000 after he bet on his own race in violation of insider trading rules. The same platform also penalized a YouTube editor who traded about $4,000 on creator stream markets in 2025, issuing a two-year suspension and roughly $20,000 fine, while the CFTC has created a prediction markets advisory to pursue insider trading cases.

Payoneer said on Tuesday it applied to the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency for a US national trust banking charter to create PAYO Digital Bank and issue its PAYO-USD stablecoin. The firm plans to use the GENIUS Act-compliant token as a wallet holding currency and to support cross-border payments for its nearly two million mainly small and medium-sized business customers.

Bitwise acquired staking provider Chorus One, a firm overseeing more than $2.2 billion in staked assets, and said on Tuesday that 50 Chorus One employees will join Bitwise Onchain Solutions. The deal expands Bitwise’s staking reach to over 30 proof-of-stake networks, including Solana, Hyperliquid, Monad, Avalanche and Sui; terms were not disclosed.

On Monday, a report from Citrini Research was partly blamed for a sell-off in software and payments stocks, with IBM falling 13.1% to $223.35 and several tech and card networks also lower. The "Global Intelligence Crisis" report warned AI agents could upend the economy, threaten the $13 trillion US mortgage market, and create "Ghost GDP" that appears in national data but bypasses the real economy.