POAP, the digital collectible project known for turning event attendance into on-chain badges, is shutting down further development after more than five years. Co-founder Isabel announced the decision on Aug. 3, prompting many early users to reopen their wallets and revisit badges tied to Ethereum conferences, hackathons, community gatherings and major moments such as the Merge. The badges remain visible on-chain, even as the team behind them steps away. The project began as an ERC-721 experiment at ETHDenver in February 2019 and later grew into one of crypto’s most recognizable participation credentials. By March 2020, POAP had appeared at more than 100 events and around 7,000 badges had been claimed. It later expanded into brand campaigns, including activations by Adidas and Estée Lauder, and saw one of its defining moments during Ethereum’s September 2022 Merge celebration, when more than 41,000 people watched the official party and participants placed more than 366,000 pixels on a collaborative canvas. The report argues that POAP’s core tension resembled an earlier Web2 experiment: GetGlue, a check-in and digital sticker platform that also turned user activity into collectible artifacts but failed to build a lasting business. In POAP’s case, on-chain persistence solved the record-retention problem. It did not solve monetization. The same qualities that made POAP meaningful as a free, low-friction record of shared experience also made it difficult to turn into a sustainable company without undermining the product’s original purpose.

TRON updated the community on the rollout of its GreatVoyage-v4.8.2, known as Pyrrho, during the 67th core developers meeting. The network has remained stable so far, with 19 super representatives already upgraded, and community nodes were advised to complete the update by 23:59 on Aug. 16. The meeting also covered a proposal to enable related network parameters at the same time so TRON can support features tied to Ethereum’s Prague and Osaka upgrades. The exact creation and activation dates for that proposal have not yet been set and will be decided in a later meeting. In parallel, TRON released Solidity Compiler v0.8.28, which is compatible with Ethereum Solidity v0.8.28 while adding stronger support for native TRON functions including TRX, TRC-10 assets, resource delegation, and voting. A new wallet-cli version was also introduced with a TypeScript architecture and dual output modes designed for both machines and developers in AI Agent workflows.

Users of MOACT, a rewards app operated by a wholly owned subsidiary of Kansai Electric Power, can now convert NORM loyalty points into JPYC on Polygon, according to a Thursday press release from wallet developer HashPort. The feature went live on July 30 and moves points earned through social-impact missions in the app into users’ own HashPort Wallets, where they can connect to DeFi platforms. Previously, MOACT points could only be redeemed for electronic gift certificates. JPYC, issued by JPYC Inc., is described as Japan’s first regulated yen-pegged stablecoin and can be redeemed one-for-one for yen under the country’s Payment Services Act. The rollout adds to a broader push to bring Japan’s loyalty-point economy onchain. HashPort previously enabled Diners Club point conversions into JPYC on June 1 and launched an in-store yen stablecoin payment pilot with KDDI at Lawson stores on July 13. Polygon said it now handles more JPYC volume than all other chains combined, while 84% of JPYC holders use HashPort Wallet.

Japanese mystery writer Keigo Higashino died of colorectal cancer on July 23 at the age of 68, with the news announced by longtime publishing partner Kodansha on July 27 and confirmed by NHK, Sponichi and Oricon. His latest Galileo series novel, "Eien no Kioku" (tentatively translated as "Eternal Memory"), is still scheduled for release on Aug. 5 by Bungeishunju, turning the book into a posthumous final work. Born in Osaka in 1958, Higashino studied electrical engineering at Osaka Prefecture University and worked as an engineer at DENSO before winning the Edogawa Rampo Prize in 1985 for "Houkago" ("After School"). After years of modest sales, he broke through with "Secret," "Byakuyako" ("Journey Under the Midnight Sun") and later "The Devotion of Suspect X," which won both the Naoki Prize and the Honkaku Mystery Award in 2006. His books have sold more than 100 million copies in Japan. ABMedia also highlighted how several of Higashino’s works engaged early with questions that now sit at the center of AI governance debates, including DNA databases, algorithmic policing, facial recognition and the limits of machine inference.

Global crypto market cap inches up 0.3% to $2.29T but Fear & Greed Index remains at 20 (Extreme Fear). Bitcoin mining difficulty has fallen nearly 20% from peak, signaling miner capitulation. Japan's corporate pension fund plans crypto allocation from FY2026; Osaka to get first ATM. Taiko cross-chain bridge drained over $1M.

A Japanese corporate pension fund plans a 1% crypto allocation from fiscal 2026, while COINHUB is scaling compliant bidirectional crypto ATMs and targeting a nationwide network of 3,000 machines.

BNB trades at $630, 54% below all-time high, requiring a 117% surge to recover. Binance listed three new pairs and the Osaka hard fork targets 20,000 TPS, but massive burns haven't stopped the decline as capital rotates to low-cap presales.

A Japanese corporate pension fund covering about 1,200 SMEs and managing more than ¥21.3 billion plans to allocate around 1% of assets to cryptocurrencies in fiscal 2026.