Real-world asset markets kept expanding in the week covering July 24 to July 31, 2026, even as stablecoin settlement activity remained weak. Data from RWA.xyz showed on-chain RWA market capitalization reached $36.82 billion as of July 31, up 2.43% from a month earlier, while the number of holders climbed to 1.4469 million, a 40.81% monthly increase and the largest monthly gain on record. In stablecoins, total market capitalization was largely unchanged at $296.63 billion, but monthly transfer volume dropped 29.29% to $5.07 trillion, extending a sharp slowdown in on-chain settlement demand. Regulation also moved across several jurisdictions. South Korea advanced work on a comprehensive digital asset bill that would cover stablecoin issuance and exchange standards, while lawmakers are also set to review an opposition proposal to scrap a crypto tax scheduled for 2027. Kenya lowered the minimum paid-up capital requirement for stablecoin issuers by 40% to about $2.32 million, and Zimbabwe approved seven crypto and tokenization projects for its regulatory sandbox. On the industry side, the Bank for International Settlements-led Project Agorá completed a live cross-border payment test worth about $1 million across six currencies with five central banks and 28 commercial banks. In Europe, 10 financial institutions formed the Regulated Layer One cooperative, or RL1, to build tokenized asset infrastructure for regulated markets. Ondo Finance also introduced Ondo Network, a new execution layer that replaces the prior Ondo Chain direction.

Crypto exchange Luno is cutting about one-fifth of its workforce worldwide, according to comments chief executive James Lanigan gave to Bloomberg on Tuesday. Lanigan did not disclose how many roles will be affected, but said the company has made material investments in automation and wider operational improvements over the past year. He said new internal tools are changing the resources needed to run the business, allowing Luno to move to a leaner structure. The company, owned by Digital Currency Group and based in London, has 16 million users across Africa and the Asia-Pacific region. The latest reduction marks Luno’s second major workforce cut in recent years, after a 35% layoff round in January 2023 tied to what it then described as an extremely difficult year for the crypto market. Luno is also reshaping its business mix. The exchange is pushing to grow its business-to-business arm, where lenders, fintech companies and telecom firms can offer crypto products under their own brands using Luno’s liquidity, wallet infrastructure and compliance rails. At the same time, it is targeting non-U.S. stablecoins in emerging markets and expanding institutional settlement services aimed at lowering the cost of moving money across borders. The move comes during a broader stretch of layoffs and consolidation across crypto firms.

Corporate use of stablecoins and blockchain rails is moving well past small-scale crypto experiments and into payment operations, collateral management and debt issuance. The article contrasts that shift with a much older form of financial engineering: in the 1970s, U.S. companies exploited check-clearing delays to keep cash on their books for a few extra days when interest rates were above 10%. Today, the same underlying corporate goal — freeing trapped liquidity and speeding settlement — is being pursued with tokenized money and digital ledgers instead of distant bank branches and mailed checks. The piece points to several examples. Siemens first issued a €60 million bond on Polygon in February 2023 with a two-day settlement period, then completed a €300 million issuance in September 2024 via SWIAT and settled it in minutes using the Bundesbank’s trigger solution. Deel, which handles payroll for more than 40,000 companies and 1.5 million workers across more than 150 countries and territories, now lets firms use stablecoin treasuries for payroll and has introduced DLUSD. JPMorgan’s Kinexys processes roughly $5 billion a day and has cleared $3 trillion in total, while Tether generated $10.09 billion in profit in 2025 with a team of about 300. The central argument is that automation can remove operational friction in moving cash, collateral and securities, but it does not erase the cost of judging counterparties. Credit assessment, KYC, fraud reviews and margin calls still require people, even as the pipes become faster.

A U.S. federal court’s approval of Anthropic’s $1.5 billion class-action settlement with certain authors, publishers, and other rights holders is drawing attention to a question many AI companies still struggle to answer: where does the data come from, and what rights actually attach to it? The article argues that the headline number should not be read as a court-set price for AI training or as a damages ruling that automatically defines liability. What matters more is the court’s approach: it examined each stage of the data pipeline separately, rather than treating data acquisition, library building, model training, retrieval, and long-term retention as one legally uniform process. That distinction has direct implications for startups that rely on third-party models, build retrieval-augmented generation systems, or use public and paid databases. Access to content does not necessarily grant the right to download it in bulk, copy it, slice it, fine-tune on it, or keep it in a commercial knowledge base indefinitely. For Chinese AI companies, the piece says the immediate task is practical governance: stop adding high-risk data, map what is already in the system, document source and authorization boundaries, and make sure problematic files, vector records, and model-linked assets can be identified, isolated, replaced, or removed if needed.

A recent TechFlowPost article, translated by BlockBeats from a piece by Bohan of Chemistry, offers a ground-level look at how startup financing works in China after meetings with top-tier investors and management teams at leading robotics and biotech companies. The account argues that China has built real advantages in open-source AI, biotech and robotics, while remaining intensely focused on what Silicon Valley is thinking and building. The piece says many Chinese founders are racing toward IPOs not because their businesses are fully ready or market timing is ideal, but because they often face financing terms that can require capital to be returned within six to eight years at a minimum return threshold. In that structure, buyback obligations can even fall on founders personally. With M&A exits still underdeveloped, public listings often become the only viable path. It also breaks down three major pools of venture capital available to Chinese founders: local RMB funds backed by provincial or municipal governments, domestic USD funds run by established Chinese venture firms, and foreign funds whose direct exposure to China has dropped sharply. The article adds that China’s venture market relies heavily on FA intermediaries and on closed relationship networks, while government industrial policy remains deeply embedded in the innovation system.

A broad set of crypto and AI developments landed over the past day, spanning regulation, market structure, fundraising, protocol upgrades and security incidents. Kenya cut the paid-in capital requirement for stablecoin issuers by 40% to about $2.32 million while keeping strict reserve and redemption rules in place. Russia’s central bank published its first draft framework for organized trading in digital assets, and Myanmar passed a cybercrime law that allows life sentences for crypto-related fraud. In the U.S., Senate Republicans are still trying to move the Clarity Act before the August recess, though ethics provisions and bank lobbying remain major obstacles. On the corporate side, PayPal posted better-than-expected second-quarter results and did not address a previously reported buyout approach. Luno and Visa both outlined layoffs tied to restructuring and capital allocation, while Morgan Stanley Investment Management rolled out exchange-traded products tied to Ethereum and Solana. Zcash activated its Ironwood NU6.3 upgrade, Layer 2 TVL on Ethereum fell to its lowest level since 2023, and Bitcoin briefly dropped below $63,000 as AI and semiconductor weakness spilled into crypto. Security reports also stayed in focus, with Blockaid saying crypto losses from hacks topped $1 billion in the first half of 2026 and several fresh token incidents reported across the market.

Bitcoin Asia 2026 will run Aug. 27-28 at the Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre, pairing its broader two-day event with a dedicated business and institutional program built around Deal Day and the Bitcoin for Corporations Symposium. Organizers said the conference is expected to draw more than 10,000 attendees from over 125 countries, with the event hosted by Metaplanet and produced by BTC Inc., a subsidiary of Nasdaq-listed Nakamoto Inc. (NAKA). Deal Day is structured as an invitation-only format focused on scheduled 30-minute one-on-one meetings between Bitcoin companies and banks, funds, and research analysts. BTC Inc. said it will tailor meeting calendars in advance, with the program also including a hosted lunch, panel sessions, and a closing Deal Summit reception. The company cited data from Bitcoin 2026 in Las Vegas, where Deal Day brought together 23 exhibiting companies and 23 investment partners for more than 200 meetings. On the same venue floor, the Bitcoin for Corporations Symposium will return to Hong Kong on Aug. 27 from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m., focusing on how companies are putting Bitcoin on the balance sheet and building supporting financial and operating infrastructure. BTC Inc. also included a forward-looking statements section outlining risks tied to Bitcoin price volatility, distribution channels, regulation, competition, integration with Nakamoto Inc., and macroeconomic conditions.

Visa plans to cut about 2,600 jobs, or roughly 7% of its workforce, with the reductions centered on its technology and product teams, according to Bloomberg. CEO Ryan McInerney said the move is meant to improve operating efficiency and redirect resources toward higher-potential areas of the business. The company said those priority areas include consumer payments, commercial and money movement solutions, and value-added services. Visa said that last category covers stablecoins, cross-border payments, and business-to-business, or B2B, operations. The restructuring places stablecoin-related work alongside other payments initiatives that Visa sees as more attractive for future investment. Visa also said artificial intelligence is helping it cut repetitive work and speed up product development. At the same time, the company said AI is not the only reason behind the latest layoffs. The job cuts, strategic refocus, and AI comments together show how Visa is reshaping parts of its business while continuing to invest in payments infrastructure tied to digital assets and global money movement.