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USDe’s 75% growth just made it a stablecoin giant

USDe’s 75% growth just made it a stablecoin giant

PLUS: Ethena dominates July, jobs data shocks Wall Street, and ETFs bleed billions.

Cryptopolitan News
August 01, 2025 • Estimated Reading Time: 9 minutes

Welcome back, friends —

The SEC just unveiled “Project Crypto,” and for once, it’s not about lawsuits. It’s a blueprint. Solana’s ETF game is getting serious, and the U.S. quietly confirmed it might grow it’s Bitcoin stockpile.

From policy shifts to staking plays, the tone in Washington has officially changed.

Let’s break it down.

🇺🇸 The SEC just launched “Project Crypto”

Read the full scoop

And it’s not about lawsuits. It’s about leadership. (Finally)

While everyone was still dissecting the White House’s 166-page playbook, the SEC made a bold move of its own: launching Project Crypto, a full-scale regulatory reboot designed to pull crypto into the U.S. financial system — not push it out.

Unveiled at the America First Policy Institute, this initiative isn’t some back-office study. It’s a commission-wide mandate, led by Hester Peirce and powered by the newly revived Crypto Task Force.

The SEC is finally saying out loud what the industry’s been asking for: clarity, not chaos. And it's promising rulebooks that match today’s tech.

The big ideas inside:

Draft clear rules to define tokens: security, commodity, collectible, or stablecoin
Create safe harbors for airdrops, staking, ICOs, and network rewards
Legalize U.S. participation in token launches. No more “not available in your country”
Modernize custody rules for both self-custody and third-party providers
Enable tokenized securities to trade on SEC-regulated platforms
Back “super-apps” offering bundled financial services under one license
Update legacy frameworks like Reg NMS for on-chain equity trading
Embrace DeFi and modular infrastructure and not just tolerate them

Why it matters:

For years, the SEC was crypto’s biggest roadblock. But this time, it’s building bridges.

Project Crypto marks the clearest shift yet: from enforcement-first to framework-first. The tone is different. The language is different.

With support from the President’s Working Group and top-down pressure to keep up with MiCA and Asia, the U.S. is finally signaling that crypto has a seat at the financial table.

🧾 TL;DR: What you’d tell a friend who just asked “So what?”

– The SEC launched “Project Crypto” to modernize U.S. crypto laws
– Led by Hester Peirce, backed by Trump’s policy group
– New rules coming for token launches, staking, DeFi, and tokenized stocks
– Crypto custody will be updated to reflect on-chain realities
– SEC wants to enable crypto+securities platforms and finance “super-apps”
– The era of regulation by lawsuit? Might finally be over.

☀️ Summer of SOL(ana): This time, it’s (almost) real

Read the full scoop

Solana ETFs are finally entering their serious phase with staking, cash creation models, and hope for SEC’s quick approval.

On Wednesday, Grayscale and VanEck filed amended S-1 forms with the SEC for spot Solana ETFs marking a key step toward public listing and regulatory approval.

These aren’t just placeholder filings. They outline:

Custody details (Coinbase, Gemini)
Fee models (2.5% for Grayscale, 1.5% for VanEck)
Staking decisions (VanEck says yes, Grayscale says maybe later)

If approved, they’d become the first true spot Solana ETFs accessible to U.S. investors. But… weren’t we already there?

🧐 Wait — didn’t a Solana ETF already go live?

Yes, but not quite like this.

In July 2025, the REX-Osprey Solana + Staking ETF (under the 1940 Act) launched on Cboe becoming the first staking ETF for SOL. It saw $33 million in trading volume on Day 1, including $8 million in the first 20 minutes, and ended the day with $1 million in AUM.

But it wasn’t a pure "spot" product in SEC eyes. Why?

It launched under the Investment Company Act of 1940, not the 1933 Act trust structure used by spot Bitcoin ETFs
It’s governed by stricter rules, including mandatory custody safeguards (with Anchorage Digital handling both storage and staking)

Grayscale and VanEck’s ETFs, on the other hand:

Are grantor trusts, just like spot BTC and ETH ETFs
Use the 1933 Act structure for faster approval and broader appeal
Don’t need to meet the same diversification or liquidity thresholds

💡Translation? These new ETFs are built for Wall Street adoption, not regulatory workaround.

VanEck is especially bold:

Staking SOL from launch
Plans to introduce liquid staking tokens (LSTs) when feasible
Picking validators based on performance and slashing history

Meanwhile, Grayscale is taking a slower approach, with no staking, cash-only redemption, and NAV based on the CoinDesk SL50 Index.

📈 Both ETFs come just as Solana is riding high on dApp momentum, NFT resurgence, and record DePIN interest.

🧾 TL;DR: What you’d tell a friend who just asked “So what?”

– Grayscale and VanEck just filed upgraded Solana ETF proposals
– They’ll be “true” spot ETFs, unlike the earlier REX-Osprey product
– REX-Osprey did $33M in volume at launch — great, but not BTC/ETH levels
– VanEck wants to stake SOL from Day 1; Grayscale will wait
– These new ETFs are structured like Bitcoin ETFs and could be next in line for SEC approval

🧠 Signal vs Noise

Remember when people laughed at the idea of the U.S. government buying Bitcoin?

The narrative was:
“America’s only BTC exposure is from Silk Road seizures and FBI auctions.”
Seemed plausible. Even official documents only hinted at a national reserve.

But that was the noise.

NEW: @BoHines confirms White House plans for strategic Bitcoin reserve.
— Cryptopolitan (@CPOfficialtx)
12:47 PM • Aug 1, 2025

This week, in an on-record interview from the White House, Bo Hines the Executive Director of the President’s Council of Advisers on Digital Assets dropped a bombshell:

❝

We have it. It’s been established by the executive order… We also have the strategic national digital assets stockpile.

Translation:
The U.S. has a strategic Bitcoin reserve not just seized coins, but an intentional, accumulating stockpile.

He didn’t give numbers, but wallet watchers like Nansen peg U.S. government holdings near 198,000 BTC .
And Hines made the intention clear:

❝

We want as much as we can possibly get.

That’s the signal. Quiet accumulation. Codified in executive action.
And it’s now part of U.S. national economic strategy like oil in the Strategic Petroleum Reserve.

🫥 Noise: “The U.S. doesn’t buy Bitcoin. They just seize it.”
📈 Signal: A strategic reserve exists and they’re not done stacking.

🎟️ Marta from marketing is booking her flights

If she’s going, you know it’s worth it. Here are the August events turning heads.

🔬 Science of Blockchain (Aug 4–6, Berkeley)
Top cryptographers + protocol devs. Zero fluff, all signal.
🇧🇷 Blockchain.Rio (Aug 5–7, Brazil)
LatAm’s biggest. Sun, scale, and serious momentum.
🇹🇼 Asia Blockchain Summit (Aug 6–8, Taipei)
Policy meets AI meets crypto. Asia’s key signal event.
🧱 Vietnam Build Week (Aug 8–10, HCMC)
BUIDLathons, big bounties, and hungry devs.