

Velvet fell 37% on July 24 as $32.33 million in leveraged capital exited the perpetual market and short positioning intensified, according to CoinGlass data. "The decline in leveraged capital weakened VELVET's derivatives market and left price support increasingly dependent on spot demand," CoinGlass data showed. Whale vs Retail Delta climbed to 0.098, one of the highest readings this year, confirming elevated whale participation during the sell-off. The Funding Rate dropped to -0.0314%, with short traders paying longs to maintain positions — the most negative reading since June 29. Before that decline, positive Funding Rates showed that long positioning dominated the market. Afterward, positive readings remained close to neutral, suggesting that bullish leverage had weakened considerably. The sell-off resembled DeXe's 87% crash after both tokens previously led the market's gainers. Across 15 days, total leveraged outflows reached $516 million, while Netflow stood at approximately $16.1 million. Net outflows over the past day hit $1.55 million. Despite the crash, VELVET retained a 367% gain over the past 90 days. Spot Netflow fell to -$357,000, showing that exchange outflows exceeded inflows — a pattern that may indicate accumulation because tokens leaving exchanges become less immediately available for sale. Over seven days, Spot Netflow reached -$1.03 million, maintaining the pattern of net exchange outflows. Sustained spot demand could cushion VELVET's decline, though weak derivatives positioning may delay a broader recovery. If the pattern from late June repeats, limited long positioning could reduce the likelihood of a leverage-driven rebound. This article is for informational purposes only and does not constitute investment advice.

Dogecoin fell 5.3% to $0.0685 after Elon Musk told The Economist he got "carried away" with politics and his role leading the government's DOGE department. "I think I got a little too involved in politics, got carried away, frankly," Musk, chief executive officer of Tesla Inc. and SpaceX, said in the interview published Thursday. The memecoin's decline pushed its weekly loss to 5%, with 24-hour trading volume reaching $690 million, according to CoinGecko. Musk donated more than $250 million to back President Donald Trump's 2024 campaign and later led the Department of Government Efficiency, a cost-cutting initiative that shut down July 4 after cutting jobs and funding across federal agencies. The admission raises questions about Musk's future engagement with the crypto sector, given his history of influencing Dogecoin prices through social media posts and public appearances. DOGE now faces a key support test at $0.0650, a level not breached since early June. Musk's four-month stint at DOGE ended in late May 2025, after which he and Trump had a falling out over the One Big Beautiful Bill Act. The relationship later mended, with Musk attending a White House dinner in November and joining Trump on a trip to China with other tech leaders in May. The billionaire's political involvement spilled over onto his companies, with Tesla's stock sinking during his time in the administration. Musk had also explored launching a third political party, though the effort never materialized. For Dogecoin, the risk is that Musk's retreat from politics could also mean reduced engagement with the memecoin he has long championed. The token remains the largest memecoin by market capitalization but has struggled to reclaim levels above $0.10 since late 2024. 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.