SpendNode Podcast: Crypto News & Analysis

South Korea's central bank plans live CBDC transactions with nine banks in September, moving its digital won pilot from lab testing to real settlement. Read the full article: https://www.spendnode.io/blog/bank-of-korea-cbdc-live-transactions-nine-banks-september-2026/

Polymarket puts a 93.5% probability on the Fed holding rates at its July 29 meeting. Here is how crypto traders are positioned as BTC sits at $63,873. Read the full article: https://www.spendnode.io/blog/polymarket-93-percent-fed-rate-hold-july-29-2026/

Cardano's Van Rossem hard fork went live July 20, cutting smart contract execution costs and setting up the Ouroboros Leios throughput upgrade due late 2026. Read the full article: https://www.spendnode.io/blog/cardano-van-rossem-hard-fork-leios-scaling-july-2026/

Hyperliquid's HIP-4 vote lets anyone deploy custom outcome markets by staking 500,000 HYPE, moving prediction-style markets into a permissionless model on-chain. Read the full article: https://www.spendnode.io/blog/hyperliquid-hip-4-permissionless-outcome-markets-500k-hype-july-2026/

Cointelegraph says the CLARITY Act market structure bill hinges on Trump's conflicts of interest, and the odds of a clean passage aren't looking great. Read the full article: https://www.spendnode.io/blog/clarity-act-trump-ethics-crypto-market-structure-july-2026/

Allbridge Core halted its cross-chain bridge after a $1.65M flash loan attack manipulated its stablecoin swap pricing. Here is what happened and why bridges keep failing this way. Read the full article: https://www.spendnode.io/blog/allbridge-core-165m-flash-loan-exploit-bridge-pause-july-2026/

A Japanese logistics company plans to pay thousands of transportation contractors in JPYC, the regulated yen stablecoin, in one of Asia's first high-volume payroll rollouts. Read the full article: https://www.spendnode.io/blog/japan-logistics-jpyc-stablecoin-driver-payroll-july-2026/

A UK offence effective July 17, 2026 ties delayed wallet identification to criminal liability of up to 14 years, forcing crypto firms to rebuild custody records. Read the full article: https://www.spendnode.io/blog/uk-wallet-identification-14-year-criminal-penalty-crypto-firms-july-2026/

Japan recognizes crypto as a financial product, South Korea plans tokenized treasuries, and Russia opens USDT and USDC trading to qualified investors. Read the full article: https://www.spendnode.io/blog/asia-crypto-regulation-japan-korea-russia-wave-july-2026/

Roughly 2,000 institutional investors disclosed Bitcoin exposure in their Q1 2026 SEC filings, a fresh sign of how far ownership has spread beyond retail. Read the full article: https://www.spendnode.io/blog/institutions-2000-bitcoin-holdings-sec-filings-q1-2026-july-2026/

A firm branded Bitcoin Japan is raising $60M despite holding zero BTC, the latest example of a treasury-company name outrunning its actual balance sheet. Read the full article: https://www.spendnode.io/blog/bitcoin-japan-60m-raise-zero-btc-july-2026/

South Korean authorities are investigating 30 crypto market manipulation cases under the country's new digital asset law, an early test of its enforcement teeth. Read the full article: https://www.spendnode.io/blog/south-korea-30-crypto-market-manipulation-cases-new-law-july-2026/

Zcash developers released Zakura v1.0.0, a node built to push private payments from about 1 transaction per second toward the 50,000 TPS that Visa handles. Read the full article: https://www.spendnode.io/blog/zcash-zakura-node-visa-scale-privacy-50000-tps-july-2026/

Bloomberg Intelligence says Bitcoin ETFs are set to mirror gold's 22-year ETF maturation, giving investors a timeline for institutional crypto adoption. Read the full article: https://www.spendnode.io/blog/bitcoin-etf-gold-22-year-adoption-path-bloomberg-july-2026/

Bank of America appointed new executives to scale its digital asset platforms, tokenization business, and AI work, signaling a deeper institutional commitment to blockchain. Read the full article: https://www.spendnode.io/blog/bank-of-america-digital-asset-tokenization-executives-july-2026/

Morgan Stanley updated its spot Ethereum and Solana ETF filings, moving the products closer to launch as Wall Street pushes past Bitcoin-only crypto funds. Read the full article: https://www.spendnode.io/blog/morgan-stanley-ether-solana-etf-amended-filings-launch-july-2026/

Tether CEO Paolo Ardoino says USDT is onboarding over 30 million new wallets per quarter, a sign of where stablecoin demand is actually landing in 2026. Read the full article: https://www.spendnode.io/blog/tether-usdt-30m-wallets-per-quarter-stablecoin-adoption-july-2026/

The largest token launchpad on Robinhood Chain closed abruptly after collecting $12M in fees, reviving questions about governance and user protection on new chains. Read the full article: https://www.spendnode.io/blog/robinhood-chain-launchpad-shutdown-12m-fees-july-2026/

Consensys disclosed that a North Korea-linked developer contributed to MetaMask code before access was revoked, reviving concerns about DPRK infiltration of crypto teams. Read the full article: https://www.spendnode.io/blog/metamask-north-korea-developer-code-access-revoked-july-2026/

With $400M into Crypto.com and $200M already in Kraken, Citadel Securities holds stakes in two $20B rivals chasing the same tokenized-securities market. Read the full article: https://www.spendnode.io/blog/citadel-600m-two-rival-crypto-exchanges-kraken-crypto-com-july-2026/

Ripple Payments Europe joined ESMA's MiCA register alongside 13 other crypto firms on July 17, 2026, lifting the EU's total licensed providers to 294. Read the full article: https://www.spendnode.io/blog/ripple-payments-europe-mica-license-eu-register-294-providers-july-2026/

Citadel Securities invested $400M in Crypto.com, lifting the exchange to a $20B valuation in its first institutional funding round as Wall Street market makers move deeper into crypto. Read the full article: https://www.spendnode.io/blog/crypto-com-20b-valuation-citadel-securities-400m-july-2026/

An Argentine judge froze 25 crypto accounts and ordered six exchanges to identify the holders, a sharp escalation in how the country polices onchain money. Read the full article: https://www.spendnode.io/blog/argentina-judge-freezes-25-crypto-accounts-exchanges-identify-users-july-2026/

Injective has filed for SEC transfer agent registration, aiming to keep securities ownership records for tokenized assets and RWAs directly onchain. Read the full article: https://www.spendnode.io/blog/injective-sec-transfer-agent-registration-onchain-securities-july-2026/

Fintech platform Tradable plans to tokenize up to $1 billion in private credit assets on Stellar, one of the larger single commitments of real-world credit to a public chain. Read the full article: https://www.spendnode.io/blog/tradable-1b-private-credit-assets-stellar-july-2026/