Aster Chain mainnet launches with 450M staked and 112 RWA markets

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[1] Aster Chain mainnet launches with 450M ASTER staked and 112 RWA markets live (https://cryptobriefing.com/aster-chain-mainne ...)[2] Galaxy commits $5M to prepare Bitcoin for quantum threat - Crypto Briefing (https://cryptobriefing.com/galaxy-bitcoin-qua ...)

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Jul 21 2026, 15:41

Dogechain to shut down Aug. 8 as users race to withdraw bridged assets

Dogechain will permanently shut down on Aug. 8, giving users until 12:00 PM UTC to withdraw all bridged DOGE and tokens before the network goes dark. "After careful evaluation of the current market conditions, we have made the difficult decision to sunset the Dogechain network," the project said in its June announcement, citing "challenging market conditions" that made continued operation unsustainable. The Polygon Edge-based sidechain launched in August 2022 with the goal of bringing DeFi, NFT, and gaming functionality to Dogecoin holders. Its native token DC now trades at roughly $0.00002 with a market capitalization of approximately $2 million, according to CoinGecko. Trading volumes have been negligible, and earlier signs of trouble emerged in 2024 when wallet interfaces and other infrastructure components were shuttered. The shutdown highlights a broader risk in DeFi: bridged assets only exist on a network as long as that network operates. Users who fail to withdraw before the Aug. 8 deadline risk losing access to their funds permanently, as the bridge will go dark alongside the network. Reports indicate a rush among users to pull their assets off the chain, with heightened activity on the bridge in recent weeks. The process involves using Dogechain's bridge to move bridged DOGE and related tokens back to their native chains before the cutoff. The mass withdrawal has not yet caused a noticeable impact on DOGE's price. Dogechain's total value locked was never large relative to DOGE's broader market, so even a complete liquidation of bridged assets would represent a rounding error for Dogecoin's overall trading volume, according to CoinGecko data. For investors, the broader lesson centers on counterparty risk in DeFi. When users bridge assets to a secondary network, they trust that the network will continue to operate and that the bridge will remain functional. Dogechain's shutdown is an orderly one with advance notice — the best-case scenario for a project failure. Not every project that fails will give users 60 days' warning. This article is for informational purposes only and does not constitute investment advice.

Jul 21 2026, 15:30

Augustus raises $180M to build clearing bank for stablecoin era

Augustus, a startup building federally chartered clearing infrastructure for stablecoin-era payments, raised $180 million in Series B funding at a $1 billion valuation, the company said Tuesday. "We think distribution breaks at the clearing bank layer," Ferdinand Dabitz, chief executive officer and co-founder of Augustus, said in an interview. Legacy clearing systems are "slow, unavailable, take two days to settle and close on the weekends," he said. The round was led by Tiger Global, with participation from Hummingbird, QED Investors, and the founders of Nubank, Ramp, Circle and Deel. Additional backers included Soma Capital, Brevan Howard Digital, and Variant. The financing follows Augustus' conditional approval for a US national bank charter from the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency in May, making it the eighth bank to receive such approval since 2010. The company is targeting a less visible but crucial part of the financial system — correspondent banking — which it says has been left with slow, low-tech incumbents or middleware fintech providers. Augustus plans to use the capital to expand dollar clearing services and add customers across Latin America, Southeast Asia, the Middle East and Africa, markets where access to US dollar banking remains limited. Rather than issuing its own stablecoin, Augustus provides the banking infrastructure that lets financial institutions move money across traditional payment systems — Swift, ACH, SEPA — and blockchain networks. The company's API-first platform supports operating and FBO accounts with named virtual accounts, and its proprietary core banking system, Marble, enables faster settlement times and 24/7/365 availability by deploying artificial intelligence across the bank's back office. Augustus already processes billions of dollars annually for customers including crypto exchange Kraken, Dabitz said. The company operates euro clearing through a regulated entity in Finland and, once it receives final OCC approval, plans to add direct access to US dollar clearing. "We think in 10 years from now all clearing banks will offer stablecoin rails like they offer Fedwire," Dabitz said. The startup was founded in 2022 by Dabitz, Joshua Becker, Simon Wimmer and Peter Lieck, and has raised $210 million to date. Its leadership includes Greg Quarles, a former bank CEO and senior regulator at the OCC, and Benjamin Alexander, former chief compliance officer at Column and an executive at JPMorgan and HSBC. The investment comes as Western currency dominance faces new challenges. China has launched the Digital Yuan, and Russia is proposing BRICS Pay as an alternative clearing system. By providing a distinctly Western alternative, Augustus hopes to help secure dollar and euro dominance for the decades to come, the company said. Dabitz also sees stablecoins as critical for AI-driven finance. "If AI agents should interact with the bank in a meaningful way, they will need programmable money," he said. The company estimates trillions of dollars remain locked in idle correspondent accounts today, representing a massive opportunity for always-on settlement infrastructure. This article is for informational purposes only and does not constitute investment advice.

Jul 21 2026, 15:24

Circle builds Arc stack to challenge Tether's $184B stablecoin dominance

**Circle is building a four-layer financial stack around its Arc blockchain, but Tether's USDT still commands nearly three times the market cap of USDC.** Circle generated $653 million in reserve interest in the first quarter — 94 percent of its $694 million in total revenue — as it pushes into blockchain infrastructure to diversify beyond stablecoin issuance. "Arc is designed as an economic operating system that settles transactions in under a second, with fees paid in USDC," Circle said in its first-quarter report. More than 100 firms joined the Arc testnet after its October 2025 launch, including Goldman Sachs, Mastercard and Visa. The testnet processed roughly 15 million transactions in the week ending July 15. Circle raised $222 million in an ARC token presale at a $3 billion valuation, with BlackRock, a16z crypto and ARK Invest participating. The company also secured final OCC approval for a national trust bank charter. The stack is Circle's escape plan from near-total dependence on reserve income. But Tether's USDT, with a market cap near $184 billion, still dwarfs USDC's $73 billion — a gap that has widened from $77 billion since the end of March. **Tether's Network Effects Prove Sticky** USDT turned over roughly $48 billion in the past day, four times USDC's total, DefiLlama data shows. Tron alone carries some $89 billion in dollar-pegged stablecoins — a single chain that outweighs USDC's entire supply. History explains the loyalty. USDC fell to $0.88 in March 2023 after $3.3 billion of its reserves sat frozen at the collapsed Silicon Valley Bank. Traders remember. Tether also moves fast when Washington calls: it froze Iran-linked USDT worth $131 million within hours of new US sanctions this month. Circle, meanwhile, faces a Wisconsin criminal complaint for refusing to recover a scam victim's funds without a court order. **One Strong Counter — and a Stock Market That Isn't Sold** USDC handled 63 percent of stablecoin transaction volume in the first quarter, per Visa Onchain Analytics figures in Circle's results. The metric suggests USDC is used more actively for payments and DeFi, even if USDT holds more idle supply. Yet Circle shares have collapsed roughly 76 percent from their post-IPO peak. A split market may be forming: one where Circle wins the infrastructure race but Tether still owns the dollar. The GENIUS Act, which sets compliance standards for stablecoin issuers, could reshape the competitive dynamics. USA₮ and USDC meet its requirements; USDT does not, according to regulatory analysis. If enforced, that regulatory gap could narrow Tether's lead — but only if Washington follows through. This article is for informational purposes only and does not constitute investment advice.