Kaito AI has launched Kaito Katalyst, a creator marketing incentive platform built on its formalized data partnership with X. The release came alongside a busy week for DeFi and crypto infrastructure, with Uniswap, 1inch, and Lido each rolling out updates tied to protocol revenue, liquidity design, and validator architecture.
Uniswap activates protocol fees on V4 pools and links UNI to protocol revenue
According to Crypto News, Uniswap governance approved two proposals: one to turn on V2 and V3 protocol fees on Robinhood Chain, and another to activate V4 protocol fees across seven chains including Ethereum, Base, and Arbitrum.
The fees will flow into the TokenJar contract, then be bridged back to Ethereum mainnet for UNI buybacks and burns.
That changes UNI’s token model in a meaningful way. Before the UNIfication plan passed in December 2025 with 125 million votes in favor, UNI’s value proposition was limited to governance rights. With protocol fees now active, the token is tied directly to protocol revenue.
Crypto News reported that Uniswap founder Hayden Adams said on July 12 that the protocol was generating average daily fee revenue of $5.2 million. On Robinhood Chain, Uniswap recorded more than $6 billion in cumulative trading volume in the first 18 days after launch, making it the largest single source of incremental volume at this stage.
Protocol fees are now running on 11 chains, including Ethereum, Base, Arbitrum, Polygon, Optimism, and BNB Chain. V4 and Robinhood Chain are the newest additions.
1inch launches Aqua with a registration-based liquidity model
In a July 28 announcement, 1inch said Aqua had gone live publicly on 13 EVM chains on day one, including Ethereum, Arbitrum, Base, BNB Chain, and Robinhood Chain.
The design removes the need to deposit funds into a pool in advance. Liquidity providers connect a wallet, approve token allowances, and create positions, while the assets remain in their own wallets. When a trade matches a position’s terms, the protocol pulls the required tokens in a single atomic transaction and returns proceeds and fees. The same balance can support multiple positions at once.
1inch cited Dune research showing that 85% of concentrated liquidity on major DEXs sat idle in the first half of 2026. That amounts to $1.6 billion out of $1.84 billion. On average, about $542 million each week was entirely out of range, leading to roughly $150 million in annual fee loss.
Aqua also adds a verified-counterparty mechanism. Every executor in a trade must be a verified market maker or arbitrage bot, with verification performed on-chain in real time. 1inch said this is the first time a risk-controlled counterparty verification system has been introduced in a liquidity venue.
The related liquidity incentive program is backed by 10 million 1INCH from the 1inch Foundation and 500,000 USDC from the DAO, with distribution handled through Merkl.
Lido rolls out CMv2 and starts a validator migration worth about $16 billion
The Block reported on July 27 that Lido had launched Curated Module v2, or CMv2, marking its biggest core protocol upgrade since V2 went live in May 2023.
Lido plans to migrate more than 265,000 validators from the older 0x01 withdrawal credentials to the 0x02 standard introduced after Ethereum’s Pectra upgrade. Under 0x02, a single validator can hold as much as 2,048 ETH, versus the previous 32 ETH cap.
The Defiant reported that Lido expects the consolidation to reduce Ethereum’s total validator count from about 880,000 to about 628,000, a drop of roughly one-third. It also expects attestation message volume per epoch to fall by about 29%, while the share of staked ETH sitting on 0x02 validators rises from roughly 32% to about 52%.
By the figures cited in the report, the migration covers more than 8 million ETH, valued at around $16 billion.
CMv2 also introduces a bond requirement for professional node operators for the first time. In the past, operator accountability relied entirely on reputation. Under the new rules, each operator must post a single bond covering all of its validators, held in ETH, stETH, or wstETH. The bond can be slashed for penalties, prolonged downtime, or violations tied to execution-layer rewards.
LDO holders approved the upgrade in on-chain vote #203 held from July 15 to July 18. The contracts were deployed to mainnet on July 7 after audits by Certora, Statemind, MixBytes, and Composable Security.
Kaito brings Katalyst to market after formalizing access to X data
Crypto Economy reported on July 29 that Kaito AI had launched Kaito Katalyst, a platform for creator-focused marketing incentives. Projects can pay creators based on actual conversion results, including mindshare, clicks, sign-ups, deposits, and in-app activity.
The system relies on Brevis zero-knowledge proof verification technology and Kaito’s data arrangement with X.
The context matters. In January 2026, X tightened its API policy, which forced Kaito to shut down its Yap-to-Earn rewards program. KAITO fell 17% that day. Crypto Briefing later reported that Kaito signed a formal data agreement with X, restoring official direct access to X data streams. Katalyst is the first product built on that relationship.
KAITO rose about 120% in July, climbing from below $0.50 at the start of the month to nearly $1.30 at its peak. The token’s market capitalization stood at about $300 million, with more than 415,000 holders.
Other developments across the market
- GRVT completed its token launch: The decentralized derivatives exchange has issued its native GRVT token. Previously reported airdrop registration closed on July 27, and the Multiplier Plan selection window closed on July 17. A total of 28% of token supply was allocated to the community airdrop.
- Injective unveiled Injective Mint: According to Injective, the platform is designed for institutional RWA issuance and allows users to create and manage institutional-grade real-world asset tokens on the Injective chain. The release followed the Injective Washington Summit on July 16.
- Ethereum Foundation board update: SEAL 911 co-founder Pavel Caversaccio has joined the Ethereum Foundation’s board. SEAL 911 is a white-hat security response team, and Caversaccio is also known for his work in Solidity security auditing.
- Fluid introduced Fluid Liquidity as a Service: The product is designed to help asset issuers bootstrap liquidity on-chain.
- Zama launched Confidential RFQ: The system uses fully homomorphic encryption, or FHE, to let counterparties match trades without revealing trade size or asset type.
- Altura said bank action froze redeemed user funds: Specific details were not disclosed.
- Variational received support from the Arbitrum Foundation: The funding will be used to expand security audits and subsidize gas fees.
- fxyz went live: It is a native trading agent built for Hyperliquid and Lighter.