Welcome to the Protocol, Coindesk’s weekly wrapping of the most important stories in cryptocurrency tech development. We are Margaux Nijkerk & Jamie Crawley, journalists at Coindesk.
In this number:
- Nasdaq-listed sofi taps bitcoin lightning to transfers
- Bitcoin Defi Project comes into Solana with BTC-supported token YBTC
- Valantis acquires sthype and expanded to range on hyperliquid
- Hyperbeat ensures $ 5.2 million
Network news
Sofi Taps Bitcoin Lightning to transfers: Sofi technologies will soon allow transfer payments at the top of the Bitcoin Layer-2 Lightning Network through a Light Partnership with the aim of bringing real-time international money transfers to its members. Sofi’s transfer product, which is expected to roll out later in the year, allows users to send us dollars through the Sofi app, with recipients receiving local currency deposits abroad (Uma). Lightsparks UMA gives access to a global payment rail designed for speed and scale. Transfers are displayed pre -exchange courses and fees and addresses many years of pain points in traditional transfer services. The launch follows Sofi’s re -entry into crypto after stopping services in 2023 during its transition to a national bank. Earlier this year, it revealed plans to offer international transfers through blockchain and stablecoins and allow users to invest in crypto. – Jamie Crawley Read more.
Bitlayer comes into Solana with YBTC: Bitcoin Defi Project Bitlayer has collaborated with Kamino Finance and Orca to bring its Bitcoin-backed token, YBTC, to the Solana ecosystem. This integration is intended to combine Bitlayer’s security with Solana’s speed and scalability, which adapts to Bitlayer’s goal of expanding the Bitcoin Defi sector. It will give Bitcoin holders native BTC exposure and yield options, said Charlie Hu, co-founder of Bitlayer. YBTC, tied 1: 1 with BTC, is central to Bitlayers BitVM Bridge, designed for trust minimized Bitcoin transfers by eliminating centralized intermediaries. The token acts as a direct representation of the users’ locked BTC within the Bitlayer ecosystem, enabling trouble -free interoperability between Bitcoin and decentralized financing applications. By keeping YBTC, Solana users can maximize the yield through Kamino’s institutional quality-term vaults that provide auto-associated and optimized BTC-denomined returns, helping assets to grow effortlessly. – Omrar Godbole Read more.
Valantis acquires sthype: Valantis, a decentralized exchange (Dex) Protocol, have acquired stacked hype (Sthype)the second -largest floating stacking token (Lst) on hyperliquid. Financial conditions for the agreement were not revealed. Sthype launched as the first LST on Hyperevm currently has about $ 180 million in the total value locked (Tvl)according to the sthype site. Following the agreement, Sthype’s operations, development and scaling of Valantis Labs are administered. Addison Spiegel, founder of Thunderhead, the team behind Sthype, will serve as an advisor to Valantis. Liquid Staking has become a central pillar in Hyperliquid’s ecosystem. According to Defillama, Liquid Stitching accounts for more than half of Hyperliquid L1’s $ 2.26 billion in Defi Tvl. The acquisition is based on Valantis’ previous launch of LST-specific DEX pools for both sthype and hhype, which together have attracted nearly $ 70 million in Tvl and treated more than $ 500 million in trade volume. – Oliver Knight Read more.
Hyperbeat gets $ 5.2 million. In seeds: Hyperbeat, a protocol that drives yield infrastructure on the hyperliquid decentralized exchange, has closed an over -thought -out round of $ 5.2 million led by Ether.Fi Ventures and Electric Capital. The increase will be used to build their dividend infrastructure for dealers, protocols and institutions used for the hyperliquid ecosystem. The round also drew investments from Coinbase Ventures, Chapter 1, Selini, Maelstrom, Anchorage Digital and Community Backers via hypercollective. Hyperbeat acts as the original yield layer for Hyperliquid, builds permission-free financial infrastructure that allows everyone to earn, realize and use directly from their on-chain portfolio. It unlocks yield generated by Hyperliquid’s financing rates – foremost only available to sophisticated market participants – and packs it into simple, tokenized vaults. The news of the seed increase comes as Hyperliquid’s total value locked exceeds $ 2.1 billion and when institutions begin to develop greater interest in its ecosystem. – Margaux Nijkerk Read more.
In other news
- Skybridge Capital, Anthony Scaramucci’s investment management company, plans to tokenize $ 300 million of its hedge funds on Avalanche Network. The company brings its digital macro-master fund and legion strategies on-chain to partnership with tokenization provider Tokeny and its parent, Apex Group, which manages more than $ 3.5 trillion in assets, according to the press release shared with Coindesk. Apex acquired Tokeny earlier this year. The initiative uses the ERC-3643 Token Standard with Operational Support from Apex’s Digital 3.0 platform that handles issuance, administration and distribution. – Kristzian Sandor Read more.
- Thumzup Media, which counts Donald Trump Jr. As a major shareholder, it said it will acquire Dogehash Technologies, Inc. in an all-Stock agreement that rotates from digital marketing to industrial crypto mining. Under the agreement, the Doghash shareholders will receive 30.7 million Thumzup shares, according to a Tuesday release evaluating the transaction to $ 153.8 million, based on the shares’ closure price. The combined company will redirect like Dogehash Technologies Holdings, Inc. And list of Nasdaq under Ticker XDog, pending shareholder approval later this year. The company says it will also use Dogecoin’s Dogeos Layer 2 to be included in DEFI products with the aim of increasing mines returns beyond standard rewards. – Sam Reynolds Read more.
Legislative and politics
- The Crypto industry mounts a counter -offensive against Wall Street Bankers’ bid to rewrite the new stablecoin law of the United States, claiming that attempts to roll core regulations in the genius law would tilt the field against traditional banks. In a letter to leaders of the Bank Committee’s leaders dated August 19, Crypto Council for Innovation and Blockchain Association called for legislators to reject proposals from the American Bankers Association, Bank Policy Institute and State Bank groups calling for Removing Section 16(d) of the law and prohibited dividend programs offered by affiliated companies by stablecoin issuers. Section 16(d) Allows subsidiaries of state institutions to implement money transfer across state lines to support stablecoin issuing activities, ensuring that holders can redeem their token’s nationwide without needing separate state licenses. Banking groups warned earlier this month that allowing state, uninsured institutions to issue stablecoins and operate nationwide would constitute regulatory arbitrage and bypass state licensing regimes. – Sam Reynolds Read more
- The US Federal Reserve’s newest vice -president, who oversees Wall Street Banking, Michelle Bowman, gave a crypto speech on Tuesday that could have been pronounced by one of the industry’s own political winners, and advocates that the banks are getting behind the digital assets that are wavy and that bold gives the sector rules that do not get Crypto’s way. At Wyoming Blockchain Symposium, Bowman warned banks that do not embrace the shift against crypto “will play a diminished role in the financial system more broadly,” and she further emphasized what has already been an obvious change in crypto mood from US banking regulators. “Your industry has already experienced significant frictions with bank regulators that use unclear standards, conflicting guidance and inconsistent regulatory interpretations,” she said. “We need a clear, strategic legislative framework that will facilitate the adoption of new technology, acknowledging that in some cases it may be inadequate and inappropriate to use existing legislative guidance to tackle new tech.” – Jesse Hamilton Read more.
Calendar
- 22-28. September: Korea Blockchain Week, Seoul
- 1-2 October: Token2049, Singapore
- 13-15 October: Digital Asset Summit, London
- 16.-17. October: European Blockchain Convention, Barcelona
- November 17-22: DevConnect, Buenos Aires
- 11-13. December: Solana Breakpoint, Abu Dhabi
- 10-12. February 2026: Consensus, Hong Kong
- 5-7 May 2026: Consensus, Miami
