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COTI launches Nightfall testnet in 2-phase push for enterprise privacy
Edgen Crypto·Jul 22 2026, 18:11Share to
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[1] COTI Nightfall goes live on testnet, advancing enterprise privacy toward Ethereum (https://crypto-economy.com/coti-nightfall-goe ...)[2] ️@COTInetwork Unveils Nightfall Enterprise ZK Privacy Layer - KuCoin (https://www.kucoin.com/news/insight/COTI/6a5f ...)
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Jul 22 2026, 19:06
UK digital gilt pilot faces a $34 million stablecoin problem
The UK Treasury, Bank of England and FCA are targeting a first transaction for the Digital Gilt Instrument, or DIGIT, by early 2027 via HSBC and the London Stock Exchange Group, according to a government announcement. "The challenge then, as now, was how to settle that bond on-chain using a counterparty risk-free settlement asset, and we do not yet have a compelling solution," Jannah Patchay, founder of Markets Evolution, said. The UK gilt market sees aggregate daily trading volumes exceeding 45 billion pounds, and the Wholesale Digital Markets Champion report projects global tokenized real-world assets could grow to $88 trillion by 2035. Yet only four pound-pegged stablecoins exist, with the largest — TGBP — holding a market capitalization of $34.2 million in a global stablecoin market valued at $300 billion, according to CoinGecko data. The UK's crypto regulatory framework does not take effect until October 2027. Without a viable onchain settlement asset, the DIGIT pilot risks becoming an infrastructure demonstration that cannot scale into a functioning capital market, potentially pushing liquidity and innovation to jurisdictions with mature stablecoin regimes in the EU and US. **The settlement gap that seven years of pilots haven't solved** Santander issued a tokenized corporate sterling-denominated bond in 2019, proving that bonds can be represented on a distributed ledger. What no pilot has solved is how to settle that bond on the same ledger using cash that carries no counterparty risk. The UK's settlement finality laws do not account for distributed ledgers, creating a regulatory gap where transactions could be legally reversed if a participant becomes insolvent. Patchay said the next step is building market infrastructure around compliant sterling stablecoins, which she described as having "significant potential to catalyze adoption across the market by providing that onchain settlement mechanism." The Digital Securities Sandbox now allows certain firms to use stablecoins as the settlement asset, creating a live — albeit capped — environment where a tokenized security and a stablecoin cash leg can move together on the same ledger. The Wholesale Digital Markets Champion taskforce has deployed nine industry action groups targeting a live, end-to-end tokenized repo transaction by spring 2027. **A regulatory timeline that trails the market** The FCA published its final cryptoasset rules on June 30, 2026, including policy statements on stablecoin issuance, market abuse, and a prudential regime for crypto firms. The authorization gateway opens September 30, 2026, and the application window closes February 28, 2027, with the full regime going live on October 25, 2027. The Bank of England's near-final stablecoin rules impose a roughly 40 billion pound per-issuer issuance limit and require 30% of backing assets to sit in unremunerated reserves at the central bank. The EU's MiCA regime has been fully applicable since December 2024, and the US GENIUS Act became law in July 2025 — meaning the UK will have regulated alternatives available for three years before its own framework is operational. Varun Paul, global business lead for central banks and financial market infrastructure at Fireblocks, said the DIGIT project has enough institutional backing from the Treasury, Bank of England and FCA that it would be difficult to reverse despite the recent change in prime minister. Andy Burnham took office on July 20, replacing Keir Starmer, with John Healey succeeding Rachel Reeves as chancellor. "If anything, I think this might support increased demand for UK debt at a convenient time for the UK government," Paul said. A separate analysis by Barclays argued that the value of digital government bonds lies not in their issuance but in their ability to support repo and collateral management across secondary markets. The Bank of England has confirmed it will open CHAPS settlement from 01:30 a.m. starting September 2027, a first step toward near 24/7 operation. This article is for informational purposes only and does not constitute investment advice.
Jul 22 2026, 19:03
SEC's Peirce warns DeFi vaults face securities rules as Morpho drops 5%
SEC Commissioner Hester Peirce said some crypto vaults and onchain lending strategies may fall under federal securities laws, warning that moving financial products onto blockchain does not exempt them from existing rules. "Tokenized securities are still securities," Peirce, a Republican commissioner at the SEC, said in a statement Wednesday. "If you do headstands, backflips and other gymnastics to read the law so that it does not apply to crypto assets and activities that are well within the scope of the federal securities laws, you will have a painful fall." The statement triggered an immediate market reaction, with Morpho's token falling about 5% to $1.97, underperforming the broader crypto market. Vaults have become one of decentralized finance's fastest-growing sectors, with $8.6 billion in assets across 788 curated products reaching 1.4 million users as of July, according to Vaults.fyi. Major platforms including Coinbase and Robinhood have integrated vault-based yield products for stablecoin holders. Peirce said vaults with active management or curator selection could resemble investment companies or advisers under existing securities laws, potentially requiring registration or compliance restructuring. She invited developers to engage with the SEC during product development rather than assuming blockchain technology places them outside the agency's remit. Peirce noted that vaults span a wide range of designs, from fully automated smart contracts to products where managers or curators select investment strategies, rebalance assets or appoint others to make those decisions. Those activities could trigger registration requirements under the Investment Company Act of 1940 or the Investment Advisers Act of 1940, she said. Onchain lending arrangements may also raise similar questions depending on how interest rates, collateral requirements and supported assets are determined. The commissioner said any regulatory analysis must be based on the specific facts of each case while respecting the limits of the SEC's statutory authority and safeguarding developers' free speech rights. She encouraged industry participants to engage with the agency during product development and said the SEC is open to considering regulatory updates that enable innovation while continuing to protect investors. The warning comes as the SEC under Chair Paul Atkins has taken a more measured approach to crypto enforcement compared with the previous administration, though Peirce's statement signals that certain DeFi activities remain firmly within the agency's jurisdiction. The $8.6 billion vault market faces potential structural changes if protocols with active curation are required to register as investment advisers, a process that could take months and impose significant compliance costs on protocols and the major exchanges offering their products. This article is for informational purposes only and does not constitute investment advice.
Jul 22 2026, 18:43
Celo adds native MPP support as agent wallet creation jumps 33%
Celo added native support for the Machine Payments Protocol, allowing AI agents to settle USDC payments with zero gas costs for buyers. "Native support for x402 and MPP means builders can settle agent payments on Celo regardless of the standard their buyers already use," Lena Hierzi, Developer Relations Lead at Celo Core Co., said. The integration uses the mppx SDK and operates through the transferWithAuthorization function under the EIP-3009 standard. The facilitator sponsors gas fees and submits transactions without taking custody of funds. The network's ecosystem recorded a 33% increase in agent wallet creation over the past month, according to 8004scan.io data. Nearly 50% of applications in Prezenti's recent grant round focused on autonomous agent solutions. The deployment aligns with Celo's "Vision 2030" plan, presented by co-founder Rene Reinsberg in April 2025. By supporting both the x402 standard backed by Coinbase and the MPP protocol backed by Stripe and Tempo, Celo aims to capture the emerging agentic economy where AI agents execute autonomous payments across enterprise systems. The current architecture supports a one-time charge model with a fixed rate per request. Features for continuous sessions and recurring subscriptions are not yet available on the EVM path, according to official project documentation. Celo, an Ethereum layer-2 network focused on global payments, ranks second in agent feedback volume among blockchain networks, per 8004scan.io metrics. Technical resources and developer guides are now accessible through Celo's official documentation portal. This article is for informational purposes only and does not constitute investment advice.