CMC Market Pulse delivers actionable market insights, giving you all the key narratives and developments you need in under 5 minutes.
Market Overview 📉
*Data as of 6:45 AM UTC on July 31, 2026.
Bitcoin (BTC) lost steam this week, dragged down by weakness in momentum names in the equities market, falling 1.92%. Ethereum (ETH) fared much better, rising 0.72% amid the increased volatility. Total crypto market cap fell slightly to $2.19T, down 1.35% from $2.22T in the week before.
Weekly liquidations spiked amidst the early week volatility, taking out close to $1B in long positions over the beginning of the week, before flattening out closing into the end of the week. Funding rates largely remained unchanged, with some moving higher into the positive ranges, though generally still at healthy levels.
📌 Michael Saylor’s Strategy increases their USD reserve by $525M, bringing their total reserves to $3.75B. - Link
📌 BNY announces the launch of its new Digital Transfer Agency, which seeks to support digitally native funds. - Link
📌 Large declines in SK Hynix stock leads to liquidations from increased volatility on perps, with Trade[XYZ] opting to refund losses resulting from the unexpected downward spike. - Link
Why does it matter?
Continued selldown in memory and AI-adjacent names continue to weigh on momentum traders, while the broader index as a whole continued to hold strong. Momentum stocks, however, saw a bailout as Leopold Aschenbrenner’s Situational Awareness fund was bailed out by Citadel, leading to a strong recovery in the market. Crypto largely seemed unaffected by the swings, maintaining its price action in a relatively tight range. The S&P 500 is up 0.42% this week, while the Nasdaq fared worse at 0.90% down.
Notable altcoin outperformers this week included DeXe (DEXE), SOON (SOON), Uniswap (UNI), Audiera (BEAT), and DigiByte (DGB).
Narrative of the Week 📰
The CLARITY Act continues to grip the crypto space as the deadline to pass the Act before the Senate Recess approaches.
📌 The CLARITY Act is placed on hold to prioritize sanctions on Russia, making the Act unlikely to pass before the Senate’s August 8th recess. - Link
📌 The SEC and CFTC have announced plans to enact their own crypto rules in the U.S. if the CLARITY Act fails to pass. - Link
📌 The National Fraternal Order of Police officially endorses the CLARITY Act, reversing their initial opposition to the draft. - Link
Why does it matter?
The CLARITY Act is a key piece of legislation to set aside regulatory guesswork with a clear federal rulebook, allowing builders to build with clarity.
Major Project Updates 🗓️
📌 Centralized exchange, BitMart, announces plans to wind down, with operations officially ceasing on 31 January 2027. - Link
📌 Circle acquires almost 1,000 patents from IBM regarding blockchain technologies, making them the leading U.S. blockchain patent holder. - Link
📌 RWA protocol, Ondo, introduces Ondo Network, the execution layer for Ondo which powers Ondo Perps. - Link
📌 Moonpay and Stripe’s Tempo announce their partnership to support on and off-ramp services via Moonpay. - Link
📌 Social intelligence AI protocol, Elfa AI, introduces Iris, a real-time intelligence stack for AI agents, granting real-time context for monitoring and trading. - Link
📌 Base launches Base Verify Onchain, an on-chain sybil resistance program to prevent double claiming of rewards on Base. - Link
📌 Phantom to halt support for Monad on August 26th. Users can still export their private keys to another Monad-compatible wallet to retain access to their assets. - Link
Why does it matter?
BitMart is the latest in a long list of centralized exchanges and crypto projects to shut down this year, in light of weakening market conditions and eroding market share.
DeFi Brief 🏦
*Data as of 6:45 AM UTC on July 31, 2026.
📌 Uniswap introduces Permissioned Pools, a new hook standard enabling permissioned asset trading with compliance enforced on-chain. - Link
📌 1inch introduces Aqua, a self-custodial shared liquidity layer, enabling liquidity to be shared across multiple positions while remaining in your wallet. - Link
📌 Perp DEX, GVRT, announces changes to their tokenomics before their TGE, pushing all token allocations to release over 12 months instead of all at once, with the speed of unlock tied to activity. - Link
Why does it matter?
Uniswap’s Permissioned Pools continues their push towards institutional finance, by enabling the trade of regulated and compliant assets on a public AMM for the first time.
Fundraises 💰
📌 Robinhood memecoin launchpad, Memecoin.fun, raises $3.5M in a strategic round led by Becker Ventures, with support from BitValue Capital, Mason Labs, Negentropy Labs, and more. - Link
📌 Sam Altman’s World raises $52.5M in a funding round led by Pantera Capital, with participation from Bain Capital Crypto, Selini, Susquehanna Crypto, and more. - Link
📌 Decentralized AI robotics network, Axis Robotics, raises $12M in a seed round led by Hack VC, with support from Nomad Capital, Pi Ventures, 10K Ventures, and more. - Link
📌 Sports prediction market, ProphetX, raises $35M in a funding round with investors including Parlay Capital, Data Point Capital, and more. - Link
Tweet of the Week 📝
Source: @pandawatch88
Ken Griffin strikes again.
