🇺🇸 America's GENIUS Move
Plus a massive CryptoPunks sweep has traders asking - are NFTs back?
GM!
Today's top news:
SOL and ETH lead crypto majors; ETH at $3,820 and SOL $192
Trump signs GENIUS Act into law
Pantera-backed Ether Machine raises $1.5B for ETH TreasuryCo
Memecoin market cap rallies to $85B after DOGE rips 33%
NFTs soar on back of 45-Punk sweep
🇺🇸 Trump Signs GENIUS Act Into Law
Trump just signed America’s first real stablecoin law in a huge win for crypto.
And Tether is already scrambling to comply.
📌 What Happened
President Trump signed the GENIUS Act into law on July 18, marking the first-ever federal framework for U.S. dollar-backed stablecoins. The law requires:
1:1 backing with cash or Treasuries
Monthly audits by U.S.-registered firms
Registration with both federal and state regulators
AML/KYC compliance and resolution planning
Tether responded immediately, announcing it will use the “foreign issuer” pathway to legally register USDT in the U.S. and launch a new U.S.-compliant stablecoin later this year. They have 3 years to get fully compliant or risk being shut out of the U.S. market.
Meanwhile, Circle’s USDC is already largely compliant.
🗣️ What They’re Saying
“Tether will comply with the GENIUS Act and establish a new vehicle in the U.S.”
— Paolo Ardoino, Tether CEO
“GENIUS creates a clear and strong framework for stablecoins. This is a major milestone.”
— Jeremy Allaire, Circle CEO
“Trump inviting Tether CEO Paolo Ardoino to the GENIUS Act signing ceremony and shouting him out by name seems notable.” - Nic Carter on X
🧠 Why It Matters
This is the regulatory clarity the crypto industry has begged for.
The GENIUS Act creates a path for compliant stablecoin growth, real-world adoption, and institutional capital inflows.
It also sets the stage for a potential shakeup in the stablecoin rankings:
Tether must rebuild its compliance stack; its current audit partner (BDO Italia) won’t cut it under U.S. rules.
USDC becomes the de facto leader in the U.S.
New entrants (like banks or TradFi fintechs) now have a clear path to launch regulated stablecoins.
That last bullet is arguably the biggest wildcard here - which banks are going to launch stablecoins, and how soon?
The answer is likely most of them, and ASAP. It will be interesting to see how Circle and Tether hold up amidst competition from the biggest players in TradFi.
With that said, it’s still a major win for crypto overall, and the US.
The U.S. just laid the foundation for global stablecoin dominance, without needing a CBDC.
Now let the great stablecoin proliferation begin…
🌎 Macro Crypto and Memes
A few Crypto and Web3 headlines that caught my eye:
Crypto majors were green with SOL & ETH leading; BTC +1% at $118,700, ETH +3% at $3,810, XRP +1% at $3.55, SOL +6% at $191
CFX (+47%), PENGU (+27%), JASMY (+18%) and KAS (+12%) led top movers
BTC dominance fell to 60.7%, its lowest level since March 1
The ETH ETFs saw $402.5M in inflows on Friday, besting the BTC ETF inflows for the 2nd day in a row
Trump signed the GENIUS Act into law, establishing the first federal regulatory framework for U.S. dollar-backed stablecoins
Tether’s CEO Paolo Ardoino immediately laid out plans for USDT to fully comply with the new stablecoin rules so that they could issue a stablecoin in the US
Peter Thiel’s Bullish filed for an IPO following Gemini and Grayscale
Charles Schwab’s CEO told CNBC that they expect to offer spot BTC and ETH trading soon
Jack Dorsey’s Block will become the 2nd crypto company to enter the S&P 500, following Coinbase
In Corporate Treasuries
Ether Machine (DYNX) has raised $1.5B to build an Ethereum TreasuryCo, with $800M earmarked for ETH purchases
BTBT added another 19.683 ETH last week to bring its total to 120,306
In Memes
Memecoin leaders were very green led by DOGE and PENGU; DOGE +8%, Shiba +3%, PEPE +3%, BONK +4%, PENGU +25% , TRUMP +10%, SPX +6%, and FARTCOIN +3%; WIF +11% was another notable mover
DOGE has rallied 30% in the past week, now up to $41B
SPX hit $2 and a new ATH; REKT rallied 33% on the week to $245M and a new ATH
Ani jumped 60% to $45M leading SOL onchain movers; GOR +45%, LOCKIN +40% and TROLL +31% were other notable movers
💰 Token, Airdrop & Protocol Tracker
Here's a rundown of major token, protocol and airdrop news from the day:
The Pump team started doing daily 25% buybacks using the day’s revenue (PUMP at $4.4B fdv)
Polymarket added 4% yield to its 2028 election market (still to be rolled out) and also teased a new resolution process
Myriad was added to the Linea Hub inside MetaMask portfolio and launched several new ETH-related markets on Linea
Memecoin launchpad volumes jumped 15% last week with BonkFun taking a 69% share
Kaito introduced several new changes to its Yapper Leaderboards along with a new gKaito system
🤖 AI x Crypto
Section dedicated to headlines in the AI sector of crypto:
Overall market cap up 6% at $12.1B, leaders were mostly green
FARTCOIN (+3%), VIRTUAL (+6%), ai16z (+7%), FAI (+1%) & AIXBT (+4%)
OPUS (+36%), MemesAI (+24%) and Simmi (+17%) led top movers
🚚 What is happening in NFTs?
Here is the list of other notable headlines from the day in NFTs:
ETH NFT leaders were very green up 10-20%; Punks +17% at 47.75 ETH, Pudgy +13% at 16.6, BAYC +21% at 13.4 ETH
Punks rallied to a $180,000 floor after a 45-Punk sweep and 87 overall sales in the past day
Moonbirds were a top mover over the weekend, jumping from 0.75 ETH to 2 ETH
Several generative art NFTs rallied after Squiggles were swept to 6 ETH, Fidenzas reached 28 ETH and Ringers jumped 50% to 19
Robotos rallied 1,500% after the team teased a comeback on X
Bitcoin NFTs jumped 20-30% as well led by Taproot Wizards +30% to 022 BTC
Abstract NFTs were mixed led by Klara (+45%)
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