Real-world asset activity expanded on-chain during the week ending July 17, 2026, even as stablecoin payments lost momentum. Data cited from RWA.xyz showed total on-chain RWA market capitalization rising to $34.9 billion, up 3.74% from a month earlier, while the number of asset holders climbed to 1.077 million, a record high. At the same time, stablecoin market capitalization edged down to $299.06 billion and monthly transfer volume fell 20.9% to $5.49 trillion, pointing to a split between broader user participation and softer settlement demand. Regulation moved on several fronts. In the United States, a bipartisan housing bill containing a central bank digital currency ban became law automatically after Donald Trump declined to sign it. The UK set an early-2027 target for a digital sovereign bond, the European Central Bank selected 36 payment firms for a digital euro pilot due to begin in the second half of 2027, and regulators or governments in Russia, South Korea, Bolivia and Tanzania also advanced new digital asset rules or pilots. On the industry side, JPMorgan, Bank of America, Citi, Wells Fargo and HSBC are joining a shared tokenized deposit network operated by The Clearing House. DTCC is working with nearly 40 institutions on tokenized stocks and U.S. Treasuries, while Japan remained a focal point through SBI, Progmat and Lawson. Funding activity also stayed strong, led by Alpaca’s $135 million round, Flex’s $70 million financing and Velocity’s $38 million Series A.

WuBlockchain’s daily crypto roundup brought together five separate developments spanning macro data, Bitcoin ownership, market structure, US politics and African regulation. In the US, initial jobless claims for the week ended July 11 came in at 208,000, the lowest reading since the week of May 2, 2026. A separate ranking of Bitcoin holders showed Satoshi Nakamoto at the top with about 1.096 million BTC, valued at roughly $71 billion, while Coinbase, Strategy, BlackRock and Binance followed among major entities. The US government was listed with about 325,000 BTC, mainly from asset seizures, and the two largest single wallet addresses were both Binance cold wallets. CoinGecko’s Q2 2026 report said the total crypto market cap fell 12.6% to $2.1 trillion by the end of June, while stablecoin market value slipped 1.6% to $305.1 billion. Spot trading volume on centralized exchanges dropped 27.9% to $1.95 trillion, but perpetual futures volume showed a smaller 10.0% decline to $12.7 trillion. On the policy side, the US Senate unanimously approved a non-binding resolution saying FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried should not receive a presidential pardon or sentence reduction under any circumstances. In Tanzania, central bank governor Emmanuel Tutuba said the country is finalizing a legal and regulatory framework for virtual assets, cryptocurrencies and stablecoins, with attention on investor protection, money laundering, terrorist financing and financial stability risks.

The Bank of Tanzania is accelerating work on a regulatory framework for digital assets, according to Governor Emmanuel Tutuba. He said the relevant laws and regulations have entered the final drafting stage and will cover virtual assets including cryptocurrencies and stablecoins. Tutuba said the effort is intended to strengthen investor protection, with particular attention to young people participating in the crypto market. He also said the framework is meant to address risks tied to money laundering, terrorist financing, and other illicit activity, while improving the central bank’s capacity to supervise the digital asset market. The update points to a more formal approach to crypto oversight in Tanzania as policymakers move closer to completing the legal structure.