From Aug. 2 to Aug. 8, project-side developments clustered around restaking changes, meme-token issuance tools, DAO treasury mechanics, perpetual DEX volumes, corporate control litigation, token circulation outlooks, Layer 2 infrastructure upgrades and sector-wide market data.
ether.fi shifts restaking away from weETH and continues its exit from EigenLayer
ether.fi has removed all EigenLayer restaking exposure from weETH, turning it into a standard liquid staking token. The restaking component will move to a separate Symbiotic-based token, weETHs.
The protocol said its remaining restaked assets on EigenLayer now account for less than 1% of the total and are expected to fall to 0% in the third quarter of 2026. It also plans to remove validators’ EigenPod withdrawal credentials in the fourth quarter. ether.fi’s staking business currently stands at about $3.3 billion, down from a peak of $12.43 billion in August 2025.
Uniswap launches meme-token platform Pools on Robinhood Chain
Uniswap said it has launched Pools, a token issuance platform on Robinhood Chain. The product supports two launch formats, Crowd Launch and Instant Launch, and includes auto-reinvested liquidity, permanent liquidity locking, anti-sniping protection and optional creator fees.
Pools does not charge a launchpad fee and only applies standard Uniswap v4 protocol fees. Each trade carries a 0.25% LP fee that is automatically converted into permanent liquidity, and creators can choose to receive 0.05% of that amount. Uniswap said the platform is aimed at highly volatile meme tokens that may go to zero, and tokens launched through Pools are not reviewed or endorsed by Uniswap Labs.
According to data from @Adam_Tehc, Pools recorded $99.1 million in trading volume on its first day, accounting for about 54.2% of all token launchpad volume on Robinhood Chain that day.
Lido DAO opens voting on the NEST automated buyback mechanism
Lido DAO said on-chain voting for the NEST automated buyback mechanism began on Aug. 5, with the main voting phase running until 14:00 UTC on Aug. 8. NEST is a rules-based automated mechanism intended to create an on-chain link between Lido protocol performance and LDO. Its design and parameters were approved in a Snapshot vote in May.
Under the proposal, a portion of staking revenue above the operating baseline would be swapped into LDO through CoW Swap, with the purchased tokens sent directly to the DAO treasury.
At the same time, Lido Alliance BORG has proposed appointing Bryce Howarth as a new director. That Snapshot vote runs until 16:00 UTC on Aug. 10. If approved, current director Adrian Cachinero Vasiljevic would step down.
Hyperliquid tops the rest of the top seven perpetual DEXs combined in July
Hyperliquid posted $218 billion in July trading volume, exceeding the combined roughly $189 billion handled by the other seven major perpetual DEXs. That gave it about 54% of total volume across the top eight platforms.
Aster, Lighter and GRVT recorded about $43.6 billion, $36.4 billion and $34.4 billion, respectively, during the same period. Aggregate volume across the top eight perpetual DEXs fell by about $85 billion from the previous month, a 17% decline, though liquidity remained highly concentrated on Hyperliquid.
Ondo founder’s mother sues for control of the company
Kathleen Allman, the mother of late Ondo Finance founder Nathan Allman, has filed suit in the Delaware Court of Chancery seeking control of the company and the removal of Ian De Bode as CEO and president.
The complaint says that after Nathan’s death, Ondo’s board no longer had any serving directors, and that De Bode held himself out publicly as CEO without board approval while attempting to appoint himself as the sole director. Kathleen, acting as the personal representative of Nathan’s estate, argues that she holds the company’s controlling voting power and has the authority to reconstitute the board.
She later used written shareholder consent to appoint herself as sole director and expand the board. On July 24, she and newly appointed director Tahnee Towill voted to remove De Bode from all positions and appoint Kathleen as chair and CEO. De Bode denied the allegations, calling them baseless, and said the current management team continues to have the support of key stakeholders, major investors and the Ondo Foundation.
Optimism Foundation outlines budget and circulation outlook
The Optimism Foundation released its annual budget update and outlook for the next budget year, saying about 343 million OP is expected to enter circulation between May 2026 and April 2027.
That total includes 200 million OP for the ecosystem fund, 47.6 million OP for early core contributors and 15.3 million OP for investors, among other allocations. Circulating supply is projected to rise to about 2.504 billion OP, or 58.3% of total supply. The foundation said the tokens all come from the original allocation framework, no new token allocation has been requested, and the update is intended to improve transparency.
World Chain to deploy EIP-7928 on mainnet
World Chain said it will deploy EIP-7928 on mainnet on Aug. 17 through a runtime flag, becoming the first production Layer 2 network to stream full Block-Level Access Lists, or BALs, every 200 milliseconds inside flashblocks.
The technology allows validators to verify transactions in parallel while a block is being built. The stated goal is to raise throughput to 1 gigagas per second without increasing hardware costs for independent validators.
Meme-token market cap drops to $18.6 billion in July
Total meme-token market capitalization fell to $18.6 billion in July, down from $18.8 billion in June. Trading volume dropped 20%, reflecting weaker speculative demand and continued capital outflows from the segment.
The value of Murad’s meme-only portfolio fell from a peak of $67 million in July 2025 to about $10 million a year later, a drawdown of roughly 85%.
Shaw says ai16z token is finished and the foundation will shut down
ai16z founder Shaw said in a post that he is abandoning the token and severing all ties with it. He said the team had gone through lawsuits, team departures and community accusations. Although he said he had not sold tokens and had lived modestly, he decided to let the token go completely to zero because he could no longer tolerate what he described as excessive blame from the community and gambling culture in crypto. The foundation will stop operating.
Shaw said the team will keep the IP and continue focusing on the Eliza operating system and open-source AI agents. No token will be allowed near Eliza in the future, he said.
ai16z was launched on Solana in October 2024 by Shaw Walters as an AI-driven DAO, a parody of a16z, using the Eliza/ElizaOS AI agent framework for investment decisions and governance. Its main narrative token, AI16Z, reached an all-time high of about $2.47 in early January 2025 and was priced at $0.000286 at the time referenced in the source. Eliza also hit an all-time high of about $0.1528 in early January 2025 and was down to $0.00012.
DeFi TVL rises in July after six straight monthly declines
Total value locked in decentralized finance rose 5.3% month over month in July to about $73.8 billion, ending a six-month slide.
Most of the increase came from long-tail blockchains rather than the largest networks. TVL in the “other” blockchain category jumped from about $3.46 billion to $7.02 billion, more than doubling. CryptoRank attributed that move to the launch of Robinhood Chain and rapid growth across other smaller blockchains. Ethereum remained the largest network with about $40.46 billion in TVL.