The best-performing ETF in the US this year is not tied to crypto, AI, or any other technology trade. It is the Breakwave Tanker Shipping ETF, or BWET, which Protos said has risen 5,100% over the past year and 3,600% since January 1, 2026. The fund is built around long positions in forward freight agreements and a rolling basket of near-dated freight futures, with roughly 90% of its exposure linked to the Middle East-to-China supertanker route, including traffic affected by Hormuz. According to the report, BWET’s rise has tracked a sharp jump in oil tanker charter rates as conflict around Iran, the Strait of Hormuz, and Bab el-Mandeb disrupted shipping conditions. Protos said the fund started 2026 with just $2 million in net assets and now holds $200 million. It also noted that BWET fell more than 40% within two weeks after a June 17 memorandum signed by Donald Trump and Masoud Pezeshkian to reopen Hormuz raised early hopes for peace, then recovered those losses by July. The article added that BWET jumped another 10% on Friday morning and traded above $700 per share for the first time after imagery circulating online appeared to show a massive smoke plume over Saudi Arabia’s East-West oil pipeline. Fund sponsor Amplify, however, warned that the product’s extraordinary gains reflected unusually favorable market conditions and may not be repeated.

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission is set to hold a public meeting on Aug. 14 to consider a proposed "Regulation Crypto" framework that would let some crypto projects raise capital without completing a full securities registration process. If advanced for public comment, it would become the SEC’s first formal, durable rulemaking effort aimed specifically at the crypto sector. The proposal would also outline a route for projects to exit SEC oversight once developers stop actively managing the network and the project becomes decentralized. SEC Chair Paul Atkins has previously said the exemption period could last as long as four years, though no fundraising cap was disclosed. On the litigation front, a federal judge in Connecticut ruled that Kalshi’s sports-event contracts are not swaps under the Commodity Exchange Act, meaning the Commodity Futures Trading Commission did not obtain exclusive jurisdiction on that basis. The decision lands as Kalshi remains under pressure in New York, where the CFTC said it used “emergency powers” to require the prediction-market operator to continue operating after the company sought assistance following a lawsuit from New York Attorney General Letitia James. Elsewhere, the market snapshot showed broad declines among major tokens over the past 24 hours, while project, funding, security and AI headlines spanned Bitwise layoffs, a reported COLDCARD Mk3 wallet flaw, Hyperliquid and Robinhood Chain user metrics, and a string of new financings across crypto, AI and financial infrastructure.