

**Key Takeaways:** - Institutional funds increased average STRC position 105% to $3.5 million per fund - BlackRock and VanEck led $756 million in inflows into Strategy's preferred security - Retail ownership of STRC fell to 71% from 78% between March and July Institutional funds increased their average position in Strategy's preferred security STRC by 105% to $3.5 million per fund, according to a disclosure from Chief Executive Officer Phong Le on Thursday. "The institutions are coming," Le said in a post on X, citing data showing retail ownership of STRC declining to 71% from 78% between March and July as large-scale buyers entered the instrument. BlackRock and VanEck led $756 million in inflows into STRC, the company's preferred security known as "Stretch" that Strategy uses as a vehicle to raise capital for Bitcoin purchases. The concentration of institutional capital reflects growing confidence in the Bitcoin accumulation model the company has been executing since 2020. The displacement of retail investors is a structural shift in STRC's holder base. As funds enter with average positions in the millions of dollars, individual investors face relative dilution in both influence and market entry conditions. The preferred structure of STRC offers priority over common shares, making it attractive for institutions seeking Bitcoin exposure with downside protection. Strategy is scheduled to report second-quarter 2026 earnings on July 30, when the market will see the full scope of Bitcoin purchases funded by the recent capital raise. The company held more than 500,000 Bitcoin as of its last disclosure, making it the largest corporate holder of the cryptocurrency. This article is for informational purposes only and does not constitute investment advice.

**Lido's biggest protocol overhaul cleared every governance hurdle and heads to mainnet.** Lido DAO approves its Core Upgrade on July 23, bundling CSM v3 and Curated Module v2, with zero vetoes across Dual Governance. "Lido DAO has approved the vote, which includes upgrading CSM to v3 and adding a new Curated Module v2 on-chain," the Lido team said in a statement. "Given no veto, it will be enacted and deployed to mainnet." The Core Upgrade bundles two components. Community Staking Module v3 expands permissionless node operator access, while Curated Module v2 introduces bond-based security — node operators post collateral as a performance guarantee instead of relying on governance-managed reputation. The upgrade passed Dual Governance, Lido's highest-level approval mechanism, with no vetoes from any stakeholder. For stETH holders, the upgrade operates entirely at the protocol layer — no migration steps required. Lido controls a significant share of total staked ETH on Ethereum, meaning infrastructure changes ripple across lending protocols, liquidity pools, and structured products that have integrated stETH. The upgrade strengthens Lido's security model by making node operator alignment structural rather than reputational. The upgrade did not arrive overnight. Lido ran the components through testnet phases before the DAO vote opened, and multiple independent security audits assessed the smart contracts and governance logic. Existing stakers do not need to take any action. stETH holders wake up on mainnet deployment day with the same holdings and no migration steps required. Lido is the dominant liquid staking protocol on Ethereum, competing with platforms like Rocket Pool and Coinbase's cbETH. Its stETH token is one of the most widely integrated assets in DeFi, used across Aave, Curve, and MakerDAO. The bond-based security model in Curated Module v2 changes the economic incentives for node operators — when operators have skin in the game through posted collateral, the protocol's alignment with good validator behavior becomes structural. LDO, the governance token of the Lido protocol, gives holders voting power in the DAO. The DAO manages fee parameters, node operator selection, and other protocol decisions. The clean passage through Dual Governance shows broad stakeholder alignment on the upgrade's direction. The Core Upgrade represents Lido's biggest architectural overhaul since liquid staking became a major DeFi category. By reducing governance overhead per operator and introducing bond-based security, Lido is building infrastructure for the next phase of Ethereum staking growth. This article is for informational purposes only and does not constitute investment advice.

World Foundation raised $52.5 million through a sale of locked WLD tokens to strategic investors, the nonprofit steward of Sam Altman's World protocol said Friday, as demand for human verification tools grows alongside the proliferation of AI-generated content online. Pantera Capital led the funding round, with Bain Capital Crypto, Eightco Holdings, Selini Capital and Susquehanna Crypto also participating, according to a statement shared with Cointelegraph. All WLD tokens sold in the raise are subject to a 12-month lockup. "The need for Proof of Human is becoming acutely clear with the acceleration of AI development," Cosmo Jiang, general partner at Pantera Capital, said in the statement. The funds will go toward expanding World ID, a biometric identity system that uses a spherical device called the Orb to scan a person's iris and generate a unique digital credential stored on their phone. The system lets users prove they are a unique human without revealing their identity. World, rebranded from Worldcoin in 2024, was co-founded by OpenAI CEO Sam Altman to build a global proof-of-personhood layer for the internet. More than 39 million people have joined the World Network, with 18 million verified in person via an Orb and 475 million World ID proofs processed since launch, the foundation said. The technology is being integrated this year with platforms including Zoom, Docusign, Okta, Vercel and Tinder, alongside a new enterprise release, World ID 4.0, that lets outside developers build their own credentials into the system. The raise coincides with the project's third anniversary and marks a shift from building the network to scaling its utility, World said. WLD traded at roughly $0.37 with a market capitalization of just over $1.3 billion, according to CoinGecko data. World's iris-scanning model has drawn regulatory pushback across multiple jurisdictions. Hong Kong ordered it to cease operations in 2024, a Kenyan court ordered it to delete users' biometric data, and Brazil banned the project from paying people for iris scans. Spain moved to halt its data collection, and South Korea fined the project $830,000 for privacy violations. Institutional interest has continued to grow despite the scrutiny. Eightco Holdings, one of Friday's investors, built the first corporate WLD treasury last year, and Grayscale filed for the first US exchange-traded fund tied to the token this week. The World Network previously raised $135 million in a private token sale to a16z and Bain Capital Crypto in May 2025. This article is for informational purposes only and does not constitute investment advice.