Nasdaq-Listed SoFi Taps Bitcoin Lightning for Remittances

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Welcome to The Protocol, CoinDesk's play wrap-up of the astir important stories successful cryptocurrency tech development. We’re Margaux Nijkerk & Jamie Crawley, reporters astatine CoinDesk.

In this issue:

Nasdaq-Listed SoFi Taps Bitcoin Lightning for Remittances
Bitcoin DeFi Project Enters Solana with BTC-Backed Token YBTC
Valantis Acquires stHYPE, Expanding Liquid Staking Reach connected Hyperliquid
Hyperbeat Secures $5.2M Backing From ether.Fi, Electric Capital

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Network News

SOFI TAPS BITCOIN LIGHTNING FOR REMITTANCES: SoFi Technologies volition soon let remittance payments connected apical of the Bitcoin layer-2 Lightning Network done a concern with Lightspark, aiming to bring real-time planetary wealth transfers to its members. SoFi's remittance product, which is expected to rotation retired aboriginal this year, volition let users to nonstop U.S. dollars done the SoFi app, with recipients receiving section currency deposits abroad, utilizing Lightspark's Universal Money Address (UMA). Lightspark’s UMA provides entree to a planetary outgo obstruction designed for velocity and scale. Transfers volition show upfront speech rates and fees, addressing longstanding symptom points successful accepted remittance services. The motorboat follows SoFi’s reentry into crypto, aft halting services successful 2023 during its modulation to a nationalist bank. Earlier this year, it revealed plans to connection planetary remittances done blockchain and stablecoins and let users to put successful crypto. — Jamie Crawley Read more.

BITLAYER ENTERS SOLANA WITH YBTC: Bitcoin DeFi task Bitlayer has partnered with Kamino Finance and Orca to bring its bitcoin-backed token, YBTC, to the Solana ecosystem. This integration is intended to harvester Bitlayer's information with Solana's velocity and scalability, aligning with Bitlayer's extremity of expanding the Bitcoin DeFi sector. It volition supply bitcoin holders with autochthonal BTC vulnerability and output opportunities, said Charlie Hu, co-founder of Bitlayer. YBTC, pegged 1:1 with BTC, is cardinal to Bitlayer's BitVM bridge, which is designed for trust-minimized bitcoin transfers by eliminating centralized intermediaries. The token serves arsenic a nonstop practice of users' locked BTC wrong the Bitlayer ecosystem, enabling seamless interoperability betwixt Bitcoin and decentralized concern applications. By holding YBTC, Solana users tin maximize yields done Kamino’s institutional-grade gain vaults, which supply auto-compounding and optimized BTC-denominated returns, helping assets turn effortlessly. — Omkar Godbole Read more.

VALANTIS ACQUIRES stHYPE: Valantis, a decentralized speech (DEX) protocol, has acquired Staked Hype (stHYPE), the second-largest liquid staking token (LST) connected Hyperliquid. Financial presumption of the woody were not disclosed. stHYPE, which launched arsenic the archetypal LST connected HyperEVM, presently holds astir $180 cardinal successful full worth locked (TVL), according to the stHYPE website. Following the deal, stHYPE’s operations, development, and scaling volition beryllium managed by Valantis Labs. Addison Spiegel, laminitis of Thunderhead, the squad down stHYPE, volition service arsenic an advisor to Valantis. Liquid staking has go a cardinal pillar wrong Hyperliquid’s ecosystem. According to DeFiLlama, liquid staking accounts for much than fractional of Hyperliquid L1’s $2.26 cardinal successful DeFi TVL. The acquisition builds connected Valantis’ earlier motorboat of LST-specific DEX pools for some stHYPE and hHYPE, which unneurotic person attracted astir $70 cardinal successful TVL and processed much than $500 cardinal successful trading volume. — Oliver Knight Read more.

HYPERBEAT GETS $5.2M IN SEED: Hyperbeat, a protocol powering output infrastructure connected the Hyperliquid decentralized exchange, has closed a $5.2 cardinal oversubscribed effect circular co-led by ether.fi Ventures and Electric Capital. The rise volition beryllium utilized to physique retired their output infrastructure for traders, protocols, and institutions that are tapped into the Hyperliquid ecosystem. The circular besides drew investments from Coinbase Ventures, Chapter One, Selini, Maelstrom, Anchorage Digital, and assemblage backers via the HyperCollective. Hyperbeat serves arsenic the autochthonal output furniture for Hyperliquid, gathering permissionless fiscal infrastructure that allows anyone to earn, stake, and walk straight from their on-chain portfolio. It unlocks output generated by Hyperliquid’s backing rates—previously accessible lone to blase marketplace participants—and packages it into simple, tokenized vaults. The quality of the effect rise comes arsenic Hyperliquid’s total worth locked surpasses $2.1 billion, and as institutions are starting to develop greater involvement successful its ecosystem. — Margaux Nijkerk Read more.

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In Other News

SkyBridge Capital, Anthony Scaramucci's concern absorption firm, plans to tokenize $300 cardinal worthy of its hedge funds connected the Avalanche network. The steadfast is bringing its Digital Macro Master Fund and Legion Strategies on-chain successful concern with tokenization supplier Tokeny and its parent, Apex Group, which manages much than $3.5 trillion successful assets, according to the property merchandise shared with CoinDesk. Apex acquired Tokeny earlier this year. The inaugural uses the ERC-3643 token modular with operational enactment from Apex’s Digital 3.0 platform, which handles issuance, administration, and distribution. — Kristzian Sandor Read more.
Thumzup Media, which counts Donald Trump Jr. arsenic a ample shareholder, said it volition get Dogehash Technologies, Inc. successful an all-stock deal, pivoting from integer selling into industrial-scale crypto mining. Under the agreement, Dogehash shareholders volition person 30.7 cardinal Thumzup shares, according to a Tuesday release, valuing the transaction astatine $153.8 million, based connected the shares' closing price. The combined institution volition rebrand arsenic Dogehash Technologies Holdings, Inc. and database connected Nasdaq nether the ticker XDOG, pending shareholder support aboriginal this year. The institution says it volition besides usage Dogecoin’s DogeOS furniture 2 to involvement successful DeFi products, aiming to boost miner returns beyond modular rewards. — Sam Reynolds Read more.

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Regulatory and Policy

The crypto manufacture is mounting a counteroffensive against Wall Street bankers’ bid to rewrite the U.S.’ caller stablecoin law, arguing that attempts to rotation backmost halfway provisions of the GENIUS Act would tilt the tract toward accepted banks. In a missive to Senate Banking Committee leaders dated Aug. 19, the Crypto Council for Innovation and the Blockchain Association urged lawmakers to cull proposals from the American Bankers Association, Bank Policy Institute and authorities banking groups that called for stripping retired Section 16(d) of the instrumentality and banning output programs offered by affiliates of stablecoin issuers. Section 16(d) allows subsidiaries of state-chartered institutions to behaviour wealth transmission crossed authorities lines successful enactment of stablecoin issuer activities, ensuring holders tin redeem their tokens nationwide without needing abstracted authorities licenses. Banking groups warned earlier this period that allowing state-chartered, uninsured institutions to contented stablecoins and run nationwide would magnitude to regulatory arbitrage, bypassing authorities licensing regimes. — Sam Reynolds Read More
The U.S. Federal Reserve's newest vice seat who supervises Wall Street banking, Michelle Bowman, made a crypto code connected Tuesday that could person been uttered by 1 of the industry's ain argumentation wonks, advocating that banks get down the integer assets surge and that the Fed springiness the assemblage rules that won't get successful crypto's way. At the Wyoming Blockchain Symposium, Bowman warned banks that don't clasp the displacement toward crypto "will play a diminished relation successful the fiscal strategy much broadly," and she further underlined what's already been an evident alteration successful crypto sentiment from U.S. banking regulators. "Your manufacture has already experienced important frictions with slope regulators applying unclear standards, conflicting guidance, and inconsistent regulatory interpretations," she said. "We request a clear, strategical regulatory model that volition facilitate the adoption of caller technology, recognizing that successful immoderate cases, it whitethorn beryllium inadequate and inappropriate to use existing regulatory guidance to code emerging tech." — Jesse Hamilton Read more.

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