New crypto ETFs are on their way

There’s never a dull moment on the blockchain. Here’s what you need to know this week:

A new Solana ETF (with staking) has launched. Also, Bitcoin posted a record monthly close, and BitMine plans to raise $250M to buy ETH.

Venture capital is doubling down on stablecoins. Why startups in this sector are seeing record levels of investor interest.

A major increase in crypto transactions in Bolivia. Plus, more key stats from around the cryptoverse.

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MARKET BYTES

Solana fund launch kicks off “crypto ETF summer”

After surging to start the week, markets of all kinds — from crypto to stocks — dipped slightly on Tuesday, as some traders likely sold to lock in profits. By Wednesday, however, BTC had recovered to above $109,000.

Prices have overall remained near historic highs for months, with bitcoin finishing June at $107,000 — the highest monthly closing price ever recorded. And even though summer has sometimes been a slower season for crypto, there are plenty of reasons to be optimistic about the coming months.

For one, a wave of new crypto ETFs is expected to arrive in the near future, kickstarted by the Tuesday approval of Grayscale’s mixed-crypto ETF (which blends 80% BTC with a smaller mix of ETH, XRP, Solana, and Cardano) and the Wednesday launch of a new kind of ETF built around Solana (more below.) “This marks the unofficial kickoff of ‘Crypto ETF Summer,’” Nate Geraci, president of The ETF Store, told Bloomberg.

Meanwhile, Bitcoin ETFs tallied their third consecutive month of inflows, with investors ponying up more than $4 billion in new capital.

And for crypto HODLers looking to buy a home, the Federal Housing Finance Agency created a new rule last week directing mortgage providers to take crypto holdings into account when assessing applicants.

Here are more of the week’s biggest crypto headlines…

Solana ETF (with staking) began trading Wednesday

Last year, the arrival of spot bitcoin exchange-traded funds (ETFs) — which allow traders to gain exposure to BTC via conventional stock markets — arrived and helped kickstart crypto’s current bull run.

On Wednesday, a new kind of crypto ETF built around Solana opened for trading. According to Rex Shares and Osprey Funds, their Rex-Osprey Solana + Staking ETF is the "first-ever staked crypto ETF in the U.S.,” meaning that 50% of the SOL it holds will be staked and earning rewards.

(Staking is part of the “proof of stake” mechanism that Solana, Ethereum, and some other cryptocurrencies use to process transactions, secure their networks, and issue new tokens.)

Solana prices spiked from around $150 to $160 on Monday on the news, before dipping on Tuesday.

The fund is just one of many new crypto ETFs currently in front of the SEC. According to Bloomberg Intelligence analysts, there is now a 95% chance that other SOL funds, as well as funds holding XRP and Litecoin, will gain approval by the end of 2025.

Staking a claim... Market watchers predict that this approval increases the odds that more ETFs — including those that hold Ethereum — will begin to incorporate staking. “The move to allow ETFs that offer staking yield is a further step in the marriage we are seeing between public markets and the crypto economy,” as one analyst put it to Bloomberg.

Publicly-traded company plans to raise $250 million to buy Ethereum

On Monday, shares of the publicly traded firm BitMine Immersion Technologies surged around 400% after it announced plans to raise $250 million to buy and hold ETH in its corporate treasury.

Previously, BitMine had focused on acquiring BTC, following the lead of Strategy (formerly MicroStrategy), which purchased nearly 5,000 more BTC this week, bringing its total holdings to just over 597,000 BTC.

But according to BitMine’s new board chair, Tom Lee, Ethereum could offer an even bigger long-term opportunity, boosted by the rise of stablecoins and other tokenized assets that run on the Ethereum blockchain. "Ethereum is the blockchain where the majority of stablecoin payments are transacted and thus, ETH should benefit from this growth," Lee said.

All in… BitMine isn’t the only company pursuing the ETH-accumulation strategy. Minnesota-based publicly traded firm SharpLink Gaming added about $30 million in ETH last week to the more than $470 million it purchased earlier this year.

VENTURE TIME

Stablecoin companies are tallying record-breaking VC activity

The meteoric rise of stablecoins appears to show no signs of slowing, and the venture capital industry is taking notice in a big way.

Stablecoins (which are digital tokens pegged to the price of another asset, typically the U.S. dollar) have notched $33 trillion in transactions in the last year and now make up the second-largest payments network in the world, according to a new a16z crypto report.

This surge in activity — combined with increasing regulatory clarity and the blockbuster success of Circle’s recent IPO — has, according to The Block, helped fuel new levels of interest in stablecoins from the VC community, who are betting that their utility will continue to grow in the coming years.

Here’s what you need to know.

Stablecoin startups are seeing record levels of funding

Over the past year, venture capital firms have funded more than 140 stablecoin and payments startups, a high-water mark that surpasses the peak of the 2021 crypto bull run.

In the past month alone, stablecoins have moved more than $3.7 trillion in transaction volume, and they are gaining traction across a wide variety of financial services, from cross-border payments to business-to-business transactions.

"There is not a single financial services or fintech company in the world that doesn't have a stablecoin strategy today," said Rob Hadick, general partner at Dragonfly, a VC firm.

Startups that have received funding this year include Conduit, a cross-border stablecoin network, which raised $36 million from investors including Dragonfly, Altos Ventures, and Circle Ventures; Noah, which raised $22 million and allows tech firms to build stablecoin payments into their platforms, and BVNK, a stablecoin payments firm that received $2 million from Visa Ventures.

Stablecoin mergers and acquisitions are booming too

It’s not just venture capitalists: Major crypto and fintech firms are also getting involved in the stablecoin sector via corporate acquisitions that seek to deepen the links between blockchains and the existing financial system.

This spring, crypto-payments giant Ripple announced the $1.25 billion acquisition of Hidden Road, a prime brokerage that uses Ripple’s stablecoin, RLUSD, across its network.
Earlier this year, blockchain infrastructure company Moonpay announced a pair of major acquisitions: the $100 million purchase of Iron (which builds stablecoin APIs for merchants and institutions globally) and the $175 million purchase of Helio (a Solana-based payment processor).
In February, Stripe — which processed nearly $1.5 trillion in payment volume last year — completed a $1.1 billion acquisition of Bridge, a company that uses stablecoins to enable fast, secure transactions in areas with unreliable payments infrastructure. Since the acquisition, Stripe has launched a number of stablecoin-focused features, including stablecoin denominated bank accounts for businesses in more than 100 countries.

Circle’s post-IPO performance shows market demand is high

Last month, USDC issuer Circle debuted on public markets with one of the year’s biggest IPOs, raising more than $1.1 billion as the stock spiked from $31 to as high as $292 before correcting slightly to around $182 this week. (Disclosure: Coinbase has an equity stake in Circle.)

This week, analysts from a wide range of firms (including Barclays, Bernstein, and Needham) issued “buy” ratings for the stock, a signal that there could be pent-up demand among investors for exposure to the stablecoin sector. Currently, Circle is the only publicly traded stablecoin firm in the U.S.

"CRCL is building a market-leading digital dollar stablecoin network, with a strong regulatory edge, liquidity headstart and marquee distribution partnerships. This is hard to replicate, in our view," Bernstein analysts said in a note.

NUMBERS TO KNOW

$24 billion

The number of “real world assets” issued onchain as of June, with McKinsey projecting that the total sector will expand to trillions over the next few years. Currently, the bulk of tokenized financial assets are issued on Ethereum and ETH–compatible chains.

530%

The increase in cryptocurrency transactions reported in Bolivia in the first half of 2025, as compared to the first half of last year. According to the country’s central bank, citizens seeking “a hedge against the depreciation of the local boliviano currency” conducted $294 million worth of crypto transfers in the first six months of this year.

$527

The price that Bitcoin Cash reached on Monday, setting a new 7-month high. Analysts linked the rally to increased onchain activity by large holders and broader “risk-on” sentiment. That said, BCH’s current market cap remains far below its 2017 highs (after it “forked” from its predecessor, Bitcoin).

$15 million

The amount of bitcoin that the Royal Government of Bhutan is planning to sell, out of its stash of nearly $1.5 billion in BTC. The small Himalayan nation has invested in state-run bitcoin mining initiatives for years.