Nikita Bier, who led product at X for 13 months until Aug. 5 and now remains an adviser, said trade buttons are on the way for crypto charts embedded in X posts. He did not give a launch date, and the statement has not been backed by any public post from X or X Money. The remark matters because nearly all public information tied to X’s crypto product efforts has come from Bier’s personal account, not from the company’s official channels. That includes the launch of Cashtags, its described scope, product framing and the only trading-volume figure that has been publicly cited. X has no help-center page for Cashtags, and X Money’s product site does not mention crypto, bitcoin, trading, brokerage or cashtags. Bier has also made a broader claim before and later narrowed it. In February, he initially said Smart Cashtags would let users trade stocks and crypto directly from the timeline, then corrected himself hours later, saying X would not execute trades or act as a brokerage and was only building financial data tools and links. That distinction remains central now: a button that routes orders to an external broker would fit that explanation, while native execution on X would not. So far, no one at the company has publicly clarified which version is being built.

X, the social platform owned by Elon Musk, is in early talks with partners about using stablecoins including USDC to pay influencers and content creators under a new original content rewards program, according to CoinDesk, which cited a person familiar with the matter. The idea would replace X’s existing revenue-sharing model with direct payouts tied to original posts, expertise and commentary brought to the platform. The plan remains exploratory, has not been finalized and does not yet have a set timeline. X did not respond to a request for comment by press time. CoinDesk also reported that the same source is involved in other social media tests that use stablecoins to pay influencer commissions. Separately, SpaceX has already used stablecoins to collect cross-border payments in its Starlink business. In March, Musk hired crypto veteran Benji Taylor as X’s head of design; Taylor previously worked on design at Base, the blockchain network backed by Coinbase, and has experience in wallets and decentralized finance.

RootData has laid out the methodology behind its 2026 roundup of dead crypto projects, arguing that project shutdowns should be judged by verifiable operating signals rather than rumor. The data provider said it classifies a project as dead or no longer operating if the team publicly announces a shutdown or bankruptcy, if its website and social channels go silent for more than six months, or if both its website and social accounts become inaccessible or are closed. Most cases fall into the second category. So far, RootData has counted 124 dead projects in 2026, versus more than 400 in both 2024 and 2025. It said the lower tally this year is largely a timing issue because many projects that stopped updating between February and June have not yet crossed the six-month threshold. Looking across its broader database, RootData said around 12,000 projects still have active, non-deleted X accounts, but only about 2,200 were still posting in August, rising to roughly 3,400 when measured across June through August. At the same time, more than 200 projects have stopped posting each month this year, while only 70 to 100 new projects have been added monthly. RootData said that gap points to a net decline in active crypto projects since mid-2025. It also said newly listed projects are shifting away from infrastructure and toward application and distribution categories such as prediction markets, tokenized stocks, perpetuals, AI agents and memecoins.

Real-world assets remain one of the few crypto segments still expanding while native DeFi activity softens. Data cited by Foresight shows the publicly distributed RWA market, excluding stablecoins, reached $38.17 billion as of Aug. 10, 2026, leaving it $1.83 billion short of the $40 billion mark. The number of holders climbed to 1.7 million, with article figures showing sharp growth from June 30. That expansion is concentrated rather than broad. Tokenized U.S. Treasurys, tokenized equities and tokenized commodities account for the clearest gains, while a small set of products controls most of the market’s value. The report cited in the article tracked more than 7,000 tokenized products, yet only 62 assets represented 88% of market value. The piece argues that traditional financial firms, not crypto-native experimentation alone, are driving this phase. BlackRock’s BUIDL, Franklin Templeton’s tokenized funds and Ondo Finance are all highlighted, alongside rising RWA deposits and trading activity inside DeFi. At the same time, the article says unresolved issues around custody, legal ownership, redemption paths and regulation still stand between current growth and durable scale.

Nikita Bier said he is no longer running product at X, but will stay on as an adviser. In his farewell post, he said the last roughly 400 days included a rebuild of the timeline, Android app, onboarding, notifications and chat, along with nearly 30 new product launches. Those changes included a Grok-powered custom timeline, XChat upgrades, an account transparency feature called About This Account, and Smart Cashtags for crypto and financial posts. Bier also said X’s new users and engagement are setting records, with App Store rank up 70 places from a year earlier. X has not named a direct successor. Bier pointed to Benji Taylor, Singhai and Jonah Katz as the people continuing the work. The move keeps him inside X, just no longer in charge of the product roadmap he helped shape.

Nikita Bier, head of product at X, has announced he is stepping down to take an advisory role. In his farewell post, Bier credited the past year with record user growth and engagement, a 70-place jump in App Store rankings, and a 400-day stretch in which the team rebuilt major features including the timeline, Android app, onboarding, notifications and chat while shipping nearly 30 new products. Citing the role's round-the-clock demands, Bier said he now needs to rest. Benji Taylor moves to design, Singhai to core product engineering and Dinkin Flicka to mobile engineering.

BNB Chain has become the largest blockchain custody network for Franklin Templeton’s Benji platform, holding about $1.5 billion in tokenized money market fund assets. That amount represents 61.7% of the platform’s total $2.44 billion in assets under management, putting BNB Chain ahead of both Stellar and Ethereum by share. The platform, however, remains multi-chain and has not shifted entirely onto a single network. The change in asset distribution points to a broader institutional preference for lower-cost, higher-throughput blockchains in real-world asset settlement. In this setup, transaction fees and execution efficiency are emerging as key considerations when institutions choose the underlying network for tokenized products.

Data from Touzhong Jiachuan CVSource shows that 261 listed company limited partners, or LPs, made 331 fund commitments in the first half of the year, with disclosed subscribed capital totaling RMB 50.644 billion. Excluding financial firms, 254 non-financial listed companies made 307 commitments worth RMB 25.103 billion. The figures point to a segment that draws close attention as a proxy for market-oriented capital, even if its share of the broader LP market remains small. The report says non-financial listed company LPs accounted for 4.0% of all LP commitments by deal count and 2.5% by committed capital, based on 7,616 LP commitments and RMB 989.161 billion across the wider market in the same period. More than 80% of listed company LPs made only one commitment in H1. JHET and Bojun Technology led by frequency with four commitments each, while Mixue Group ranked first by disclosed commitment amount at RMB 1.5 billion. At the manager level, Jinding Capital received commitments from nine listed companies, the highest by investor count. By disclosed capital, Kaibo Capital ranked first with RMB 1.523 billion, followed by Xingwang Investment at RMB 1.5 billion and Heyi Capital at RMB 1.05 billion. Semiconductor led all sub-sectors with 39 commitments involving 32 listed companies, while battery and energy storage stood out on total disclosed capital.