Business Insider reported seeing images showing “Gemini 3.8 Flash Preview” on Jetski, Google’s internal coding platform. An employee suggested it performed better than Gemini 3.7 Flash but cautioned that the assessment might be inaccurate.

Google declined to comment. Neither the model designation nor a public release date has been officially confirmed.

Google Accelerates Gemini Flash Releases and Cuts Pricing

Google introduced Gemini 3.6 Flash on July 21, followed by Gemini 3.7 Flash on August 13, just over three weeks later.

During Alphabet’s second-quarter earnings call, CEO Sundar Pichai said releases would arrive “almost at a monthly cadence” while Gemini 4 development continued.

Google describes Flash as a “workhorse” for coding and agents, where repeated model calls can generate substantial token costs.

Gemini 3.7 Flash’s introductory pricing runs through 2026 at $0.75 per million input tokens and $3.75 per million output tokens. Those rates halve Gemini 3.6 Flash’s launch prices of $1.50 and $7.50, respectively.

Gemini Flagship Delays Accompany AI Model Competition

On May 19, Google said Gemini 3.5 Pro was operating internally and would launch in June. By July 21, partner testing continued, with public availability deferred until readiness.

Google consequently continues competing on pricing and release speed while its flagship remains pending.

Artificial Analysis assigns Gemini 3.7 Flash an Intelligence Index score of 56 at high reasoning effort. GPT-5.6 Sol scores 61 at maximum effort, while Claude Fable 5 scores 62.

OpenAI’s Luna tier costs less, charging $0.20 per million input tokens and $1.20 per million output tokens. Across models, pricing ranges from cents to tens of dollars per million tokens, depending on capability.

Enterprise AI Spending Faces Greater Budget Scrutiny

Gartner forecasts global AI platform and model spending of $64.25 billion in 2026, up 63.4% from 2025.

Analyst Arunasree Cheparthi said enterprise budgets face “greater scrutiny,” with efficiency, cost control, and measurable outcomes receiving more attention.

Ramp data shows Claude Fable 5 represented 6% of businesses’ Anthropic token purchases during its first month. It generated 11.4% of Anthropic model spending despite launching atop Artificial Analysis’ intelligence ranking.

Anthropic charges $10 per million input tokens and $50 per million output tokens for Fable 5.

Ramp economist Ara Kharazian said the figures suggest a ceiling on business spending for raw capability. This favors affordable, fast models suited to specific tasks, the segment Google is targeting.

For now, information about Gemini 3.8 Flash remains based on Business Insider’s reporting. Google has not acknowledged the reported demonstration, leaving its eventual release uncertain as model names and launch schedules continue to change frequently.

The post Gemini 3.8 Flash Enters Reported Internal Testing as AI Costs Rise first appeared on Coinfea.

The attack drained cbBTC, USDC, wstETH, and ETH out of real depositor liquidity. Moonwell, a decentralized lending protocol, has suffered its third security incident in nine months. An attacker manipulated the price of the illiquid MAMO token on Moonwell’s Base lending market, driving its value up about eightfold from around $0.0105 to nearly $0.088 and allowing them to borrow real crypto assets like cbBTC, USDC, wstETH, and ETH against inflated collateral that was never repaid.

Moonwell suffers its third incident in nine months

The security firm ExVul says the attacker spent about $7 million buying MAMO to force the price up, then sold roughly $3.2 million of it back, taking a loss of close to $3.8 million on the token trades alone. The loss was a calculated cost that let the attacker borrow around $10 million in real assets from Moonwell, leaving a net haul of roughly $6 million. The Blockaid security firm first flagged suspicious activity against the mCBTC market, reporting an initial drain of 50.6 cbBTC, worth over $4 million.

The attacker’s wallet then moved most of the stolen funds, holding just over $4,600 hours later. Because the exploit was still unfolding, loss estimates shifted in real time. Blockaid’s early estimate was just over $4 million, the lowest figure, while ExVul put the loss at roughly 71.36 cbBTC, worth about $5.7 million. CertiK said the attacker’s address had collected close to $8.7 million, while others reported that $9 million had already been drained.

Meanwhile, the native governance token of Moonwell, WELL, initially spiked about 25% but later corrected downward by roughly 13% to around $0.0032. The company has about $72.77 million in total value locked, according to DeFiLlama, making the attack a significant blow to both the protocol and depositors. The Moonwell team acted quickly after the attack, cutting the MAMO market’s borrowing limit to the smallest possible amount (1 wei). The move basically stopped anyone from borrowing more against that token.

They also lowered the supply limits for both MAMO and WELL. The attack is currently under investigation. Before this incident, Moonwell had suffered two oracle-related failures. The first occurred in November 2025, when a spot-price manipulation classified as oracle manipulation occurred. On February 15, 2026, a separate $1.78 million bad-debt event occurred due to a misconfigured cbETH oracle that reported the asset at about $1.12 instead of roughly $2,200. The second incident drew more attention because the relevant code changes listed Anthropic’s Claude Opus 4.6 as a commit co-author, and that sparked a debate over AI-assisted “vibe coding” in DeFi.

The post Moonwell hit for $9 million in price manipulation exploit first appeared on Coinfea.

The decision came one day after another ruling favored the exchange in a separate recovery claim. Two of its four lawsuits remain pending as smaller domestic competitors Coinone and Korbit introduce trading fee waivers.

Bithumb Court Decisions Advance Recovery Claims

Judge Kim Yu-seong of Seoul Central District Court’s Civil Division 90 upheld an unjust enrichment claim against a customer identified only as A. The single-judge case involved 194,000,443 won, the second-largest claim among the four lawsuits.

On August 26, the same court awarded Bithumb 4,989,990 won in another case. Both proceedings used public notice service, which deems documents served through posting when defendants’ addresses or workplaces cannot be located.

Claims involving 500 million won and 14.8 million won remain undecided. Bithumb sued four customers in March after they sold mistakenly credited bitcoin and retained the proceeds.

The February error occurred when an employee selected bitcoin instead of won while processing event rewards. Users received 620,000 BTC units, reportedly worth approximately $43 billion, exceeding the exchange’s actual bitcoin holdings, according to Cryptopolitan.

Financial authorities said Bithumb froze trading and withdrawals after discovering the mistake, recovering 618,214 units. However, 1,786 BTC had already been sold. On March 10, Bithumb told the National Assembly it had recovered 99% of 1,788 units outstanding at that stage.

Bitcoin Payout Error Prompts Regulatory Proposals

Following the incident, the Financial Services Commission (FSC) proposed continuous reconciliation systems comparing customer ledgers with exchange holdings every five minutes. Proposed safeguards also included automated verification and multiple approvals for manual transactions, including event rewards.

Separately, Cryptopolitan reported that identity-verification failures had resulted in a 36.8 billion won fine, approximately $25 million. Bithumb also received a six-month partial suspension, which it paused on May 1, allowing operations until a final ruling.

Bithumb Faces Competition From Fee Waivers

Coinone eliminated fees for trading every cryptocurrency listed on its platform and offered a renewable 30-day zero-fee voucher. Digital X, Korbit’s operator, waived won-market fees for one year through August 24, 2027.

Mirae Asset Consulting recently acquired more than 97% of Korbit, taking control of the exchange. Korea Investment & Securities, meanwhile, holds a 20% ownership stake in rival exchange Coinone.

This month, Coinone accounted for 2.39% of won-denominated trading volume, while Korbit held 0.52%. Upbit led with 68.11%, followed by Bithumb at 28.95%.

Bithumb recorded more than 2 trillion won in trading volume over 24 hours last Saturday. Bitcoin briefly traded above $80,000 during that period. The increase followed an 83.4% decline in the exchange’s operating profit during the first half of the year.

The post Bithumb Wins Second Court Ruling Over Bitcoin Payout Error first appeared on Coinfea.

CoinGlass reported an August gain exceeding 25%, putting Bitcoin on course for its best August performance since 2017. The advance unfolded over 10 days, from $62,000 on August 17 to approximately $81,000 on August 25.

Bitcoin subsequently traded near $78,500, while resistance at its declining 50-week moving average continued to limit the broader recovery.

Bitcoin Moves Above Recent Holders’ Average Cost

Bitcoin crossed the Short-Term Holder Realized Price of $67,125 on August 19 and remained above that threshold afterward. At the reported price, Bitcoin stood approximately 17% above this cost basis, providing a buffer above the reclaimed threshold.

The metric measures the average cost basis of coins last moved within 155 days, representing what recent holders paid.

Prices below this threshold leave the cohort with unrealized losses, encouraging selling during rebounds as holders seek to recover costs. A sustained recovery above it puts those holdings into unrealized profit, changing the level’s role from resistance to support.

Bitcoin Ends Ten Months Below Holder Cost Basis

The previous convincing reclaim occurred in April 2025, weeks after Bitcoin reached approximately $75,000 during the tariff selloff.

Bitcoin remained above the threshold throughout that summer before falling decisively below it after the October 10 liquidation cascade. Recovery attempts subsequently failed until the latest breakout, leaving recent holders below their average purchase cost for roughly ten months.

Bitcoin briefly touched this cost basis in May but failed to hold it, reinforcing resistance before the latest breakout.

Look into Bitcoin’s historical examples, including the 2019 recovery, March 2020 crash, mid-2021, late 2022 lows, and periods through 2024. These recoveries have clustered near turning points, although identifying them retrospectively is easier and the full-cycle sample remains small.

Recent holders selling relief rallies four weeks ago now hold paper gains, changing their position during a 5% decline.

Bitcoin Faces Resistance at the 50-Week Moving Average

Bitcoin reached $81,265 this week, touching the 50-week moving average at $81,063 before closing approximately $2,300 beneath it.

The average supported repeated pullbacks during the 2024 and 2025 advance, but that relationship reversed after November 2025’s breakdown. It also acted as resistance during the extended declines of 2018 and 2022.

Its slope has continued falling since November, leaving the longer-term structure unchanged despite the short-term holder reclaim. Rejection at a declining long-term average remains consistent with an existing bearish structure.

A broader trend change requires a weekly close above $81,063, followed by the moving average flattening. Until those conditions occur, the reclaim near $67,000 remains the identified structural improvement, while weekly resistance remains intact.

The post Bitcoin Reclaims Short-Term Holder Cost Basis as $81K Weekly Resistance Holds first appeared on Coinfea.

The same company later helped United States prosecutors trace transactions and build their criminal case against the developer in federal court.

Chainalysis relayer role draws criticism

Relayers let mixer users withdraw funds without exposing wallet addresses. Storm argued that records from his case show Chainalysis provided this service for Tornado Cash and received fees.

“So the company that helped trace my ‘criminal’ transactions was itself profiting from Tornado Cash transactions, while I was prosecuted over software I helped create,” Storm wrote Tuesday on X.

He also criticized the continued prosecution. “Prosecutors are supposed to protect American interests and go after people who broke the law,” he wrote.

“A jury deadlocked on the two most serious counts against me. And still SDNY won’t stop, because this case was never just about me. It’s about setting an example.”

Retrial moves to April 2027

United States District Judge Katherine Polk Failla postponed Storm’s retrial from October 26, 2026, to April 26, 2027. A final pretrial conference is scheduled for April 20 at Manhattan’s Thurgood Marshall Courthouse.

The change followed an August 3 defense motion seeking 90 preparation days after Failla rules on Storm’s acquittal motion. Prosecutors opposed the adjournment, but Failla approved it while the motion and continuance request remain pending.

Storm filed the acquittal motion in September 2025, with oral arguments heard in April. No decision followed for roughly one year.

“My acquittal motion is still sitting there, undecided,” Storm wrote. “I honestly don’t know when this ends.”

Deadlocked charges return before jury

A Manhattan jury convicted Storm in August 2025 of conspiring to operate an unlicensed money-transmitting business. The offense carries a five-year maximum sentence.

Jurors could not reach verdicts on conspiracy to commit money laundering or violate United States sanctions. Prosecutors will retry both counts, carrying a potential 40-year sentence.

The Southern District of New York case began in August 2023 and has continued for three years. Storm was arrested in Washington state, pleaded not guilty, and received a $2 million recognizance bond. Co-founder Roman Semenov remains at large after being charged alongside him.

Supporters describe the prosecution as a test of whether writing code constitutes a crime. The Solana Policy Institute pledged $500,000 toward the Tornado Cash founders’ defense in 2025.

Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin publicly supported Storm and called privacy “necessary for many parts of our society.”

Storm’s attorneys also cited a recent Supreme Court ruling involving internet provider Cox. That decision found Cox was not responsible for customers pirating music. The defense argued its reasoning should similarly protect developers from liability for how others use their software.

The post Roman Storm Accuses Chainalysis of Earning Tornado Cash Relayer Fees first appeared on Coinfea.

The strategic agreement marks Shinhan Financial Group’s second stablecoin partnership within four months.

The companies signed the agreement on August 24 at Shinhan’s headquarters in central Seoul. Their pilot seeks to develop a business model suited to South Korea’s financial market. The pilot covers issuance, remittance, and redemption functions.

Visa Platform Supports Broader Payment Trials

The partnership will test stablecoins across issuance, person-to-person transfers, and conversion back into cash. Shinhan and Visa will also examine their use for settling card payments.

Further work will cover artificial intelligence-powered payment models and expanded business-to-business and business-to-consumer payment services. Shinhan plans to connect Visa’s global network with key subsidiaries, including Shinhan Bank, Shinhan Card, and Jeju Bank.

Jin Ok-dong, chairman of Shinhan Financial Group, described the agreement as an extension of the companies’ existing relationship. “Through this agreement, we have expanded our long-standing partnership with Visa to the broader digital finance sector,” he said.

He added that Shinhan intends to “deliver differentiated financial experiences to our customers.”

Shinhan Extends Recent Solana Initiatives

The Visa agreement follows an April memorandum between Shinhan Card and the Solana Foundation. That partnership involved testing stablecoin payments using Solana’s layer-one blockchain.

Shinhan’s asset management division then partnered with the Solana Foundation, Etherfuse, and Orca in early August. That project will test a tokenized fund denominated in South Korean won.

In July, Shinhan joined OpenUSD alongside Samsung Electronics, Dunamu, and ten other Korean companies. The 140-company initiative aims to standardize a dollar-backed payment token supported by Visa and Mastercard.

Discussions leading to the latest Visa agreement began in April, when executives from both companies considered closer cooperation. Shinhan reported quarterly net income of 1.82 trillion won, equivalent to roughly $1.3 billion.

Korean Stablecoin Rules Continue Taking Shape

Shinhan is developing these payment capabilities before South Korea formally authorizes their commercial use. Lawmakers are advancing the Digital Asset Basic Act, covering stablecoins, exchange licensing, and crypto exchange-traded products.

In December, lawmakers and regulators proposed limiting won-backed stablecoin issuance in South Korea to consortia. Under that plan, commercial banks must hold ownership stakes of at least 51 percent.

The proposal responded to Bank of Korea concerns that non-bank issuers could weaken monetary policy and deposit protection. Its bank-led structure would place established lenders at the center of won-token issuance.

Rival KB Financial completed its own won stablecoin pilot on the Kaia blockchain in May. That trial reduced cross-border transfer times to approximately three minutes.

Shinhan’s agreement with Visa now adds another payment infrastructure test while the legislative framework remains under consideration.

The post Shinhan Visa Stablecoin Deal Expands Digital Payment Tests in South Korea first appeared on Coinfea.

The token climbed more than 16% to $1.26 within 24 hours. ATLAS will direct 75% of fees remaining after venue rebates toward buying and burning ZRO.

ATLAS Converts Trading Revenue Into ZRO Demand

ATLAS, short for Aggregated Trading, Liquidity, and Settlement, applies one all-in fee per trade, then rebates the venue generating the volume.

Under Open ATLAS, rebates range from 20% to 65%. The amount depends on a venue’s trading volume and the quantity of ZRO it stakes.

A quarter of the post-rebate fee goes to market creators, while the remaining three quarters fund ZRO purchases and burns. This structure connects exchange activity with recurring token demand and gives venues a reason to lock ZRO supply.

LayerZero said venues must stake up to 1% of the ZRO supply to receive the highest rebate.

Venues Access Shared Trading Infrastructure

ATLAS has no consumer application or proprietary front end. Brokers, exchanges, and financial institutions can integrate the system into products while retaining their users, branding, and interfaces.

The backend combines trade matching, clearing, settlement, and risk management. This removes the need for each venue to build those functions or obtain them from a competing exchange.

Participants are divided into three roles. Venues operate customer-facing applications, market creators determine which assets trade, and market makers supply liquidity.

Supported markets can include spot tokens, perpetuals, stocks, bonds, commodities, memes, and prediction markets. LayerZero is also developing offerings for public crypto markets, prediction platforms, and institutions using customized trading rules.

“We built ATLAS to be the neutral, performant backend to power them all,” LayerZero co-founder and CEO Bryan Pellegrino said.

Zero Builds After Major Bridge Exploit

ZRO also secures Zero through delegated proof-of-stake, pays network gas fees, and supports governance voting. Staking remains the only route to ATLAS’s higher rebate levels.

LayerZero introduced the finance-focused zero-knowledge chain in February with Citadel Securities, DTCC, ARK Invest, and Intercontinental Exchange. ARK CEO Cathie Wood joined its advisory board, while ARK and Citadel purchased ZRO.

ATLAS is the first product built on Zero, according to strategy lead Jack Melnick, who previously worked at Berachain.

Several projects moved cross-chain operations to Chainlink after an April attack drained 116,500 rsETH, then worth about $292 million, from Kelp DAO’s LayerZero-enabled bridge. Chainalysis linked the exploit to North Korea’s Lazarus Group. Kelp later migrated routing to Chainlink and strengthened verification.

LayerZero said its OFT standard has processed over $290 billion across more than 160 blockchains. ATLAS launches later this year. ZRO later traded at $1.23, up 12.7% daily and 58.3% weekly, with $206.1 million in volume.

The post LayerZero ATLAS Links Trading Fees to ZRO Buybacks and Burns first appeared on Coinfea.

The index had stood at 36 one month earlier and 41 a week ago, both reflecting fear. CoinMarketCap called it the year’s fastest shift between sentiment extremes.

Sentiment Rebounds From February Capitulation

The gauge hit 5 on February 5, its 2026 low, signaling capitulation. Its climb to 81 within six months shows how rapidly market confidence recovered.

Alternative.me offered a cooler assessment. Its longer-running tracker remained in greed, with a reading about 6% below CoinMarketCap’s 81, although both measures showed the same overall upward direction.

The sentiment reversal followed a Bitcoin rally triggered by a United States Treasury announcement rather than an exchange-traded fund development. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent doubled planned long-duration bond buybacks on Wednesday, raising the planned operations from $2 billion to at least $4 billion each.

Bessent told CNBC the following day that the eventual total could increase further. However, no funds had moved because the broader program runs from September 9 through November 4.

Treasury Signal Drives Bitcoin Rally

The announcement changed market expectations before affecting liquidity. Long-bond yields dropped within minutes after approaching a nearly two-decade high following weak demand for 30-year debt.

Bitcoin retained its advance as yields moved higher on Thursday. Roughly $3 billion in short positions were liquidated the next day, forcing purchases that accelerated the increase.

Bitcoin rose approximately 24% during the week, its strongest weekly gain since 2024, while outperforming the broader crypto market. CryptoQuant’s Bull Score climbed from 30 to 80, its highest since October 2025, as eight of ten indicators turned bullish.

CryptoQuant said the market had entered the early stages of a new bull market but stopped short of confirmation. It wants Bitcoin to close a week above its 365-day moving average near $83,000.

LMAX Group strategist Joel Kruger identified the May 2026 high of $82,820 as another threshold. A break above that level would confirm a cycle bottom for some observers and reopen the path toward $100,000.

Leverage and Whale Selling Raise Risks

Funding rates paid by leveraged long traders reached a 20-month high. Similar conditions preceded several sharper Bitcoin pullbacks during the previous two years, reflecting increased reliance on borrowed capital.

Short-term holder whales realized about $1.2 billion in profits between August 20 and August 22, CryptoQuant reported. That included a record $614 million on August 20.

Exchange inflows also reached roughly 53,000 BTC, their highest level since June. Traders’ unrealized profit margins rose to 20.5%, while Bitcoin previously dropped about 30% after the measure reached 19% in early May.

The post Bitcoin Extreme Greed Returns as Market Risks Rise first appeared on Coinfea.

Arthur Hayes noted that Scott sounded different from Yellen, yet both reach for liquidity when Washington keeps spending, and Treasury yields push higher. Arthur wrote: “I saw that. Don’t let the haters get you down. The crypto community is with you. You had no choice; we love you. Keep it up! Don’t stop printing money because if the markets go down, there will be no free shit for all the rich people and everyone else in America who believes that if they believe hard enough in capitalism, they will get rich too. If there isn’t any free shit, then AOC is going to raise our taxes, oy vey.”

Arthur Hayes discusses the similarities

Arthur Hayes noted that starting in late 2023, Yellen sold more Treasury bills and fewer longer bonds. Bills mature within one year, so money-market funds treat them like cash. Those funds could use the Fed’s Reverse Repo Program (RRP), which pays rates near the federal funds rate. Treasury bills had to offer more yield because congressional funding fights can delay repayment. The RRP held about $2.5 trillion. More bill supply pushed yields enough to pull money-market cash out of the Fed. By January 20, 2025, when Scott took office, $100 billion remained.

Arthur Hayes counts the $2.4 trillion drop as liquidity released into markets. Bitcoin and the Nasdaq 100 rose, while the 10-year yield backed away from 5%. Arthur wrote: “If you don’t understand why Bitcoin and risk assets pumped even as the Fed held rates at the highest level since 2008 and simultaneously shrank its balance sheet, then you will miss the next bull market that just began. This is the reason academics coined the term Activist Treasury Issuance (ATI) to describe the sorcery Bad Gurl Yellen wielded.”

The 5% level matters because 10-year Treasuries feed into mortgages, corporate bonds and consumer credit. Arthur says both secretaries want financing costs below that point. The issue for Scott is federal debt issuance, and for Treasury, it is cheap funding. Bills can easily be marketed due to the desire of investors to get short-term, dollar-denominated instruments. Cryptocurrencies are linked with this trend via the USDT issued by Tether and the USDC by Circle Internet Group (NYSE: CRCL).

According to Arthur Hayes, the Federal Reserve can facilitate the demand through the reserves management program by making bank reserves as well as purchasing bills. He further states that the process is controlled by John Williams from the Federal Reserve of New York. Scott can sell off bills and then purchase back long-term securities using the proceeds. On August 19, Scott added $20 billion to planned long-end buybacks. Ten-year yields fell, and Bitcoin rallied for two days, but yields soon moved above their pre-announcement level.

Arthur Hayes says $20 billion is tiny against roughly $40 trillion of federal debt. Scott also backed wider FIMA use, letting foreign holders, including Japan, borrow Fed-created dollars against Treasuries instead of selling them.

“The best case for Bitcoin would be for Scott to announce a BOJ-style bond market manipulation where he informs the market he will conduct unlimited buy-backs of 10-year plus tenors if the yield is >5%. Initially, 10-year bonds would pump, and yields dump as the market showed Scott some fucking respect. But as with all uneconomical market manipulation schemes, the market will test Scott and see if he is ready to back up his words with a dollar bazooka,” Arthur Hayes said.

Arthur Hayes believes that small-scale buybacks will take place unless the stress level rises to become severe, and uses the MOVE Index level above 130 as one of the indicators. The Treasury could also empty its Treasury General Account of around $1 trillion for buying purposes. Arthur Hayes expects Bitcoin to keep rising but also sees violent pullbacks. He says non-full-time traders should avoid leverage and hold their crypto exposure while watching Scott’s liquidity moves.

The post Arthur Hayes says Bessent is repeating Yellen’s mistakes first appeared on Coinfea.

The vaults.fyi report, which is regarded as the widest survey of curated onchain markets so far, mapped $11.29 billion across 856 vaults, 131 curators, and 18 protocols, with data current as of August 20. Results of the survey show that 69.3% of the measured market runs through just five curators. Spreading deposits across several vaults does not spread the risk if one team runs all of them. A curator picks the markets, the collateral, the caps and the exposure limits. However, when five of them sit on top of two-thirds of the capital, the choices of a few people shape the risk that thousands of depositors carry.

Curated DeFi market climbs as Morpho leads industry

Over the past year, the curated portion of the market climbed to 12.51% of supply-side DeFi TVL, up from 5.24%. The survey found that it expanded by 39% even as the broader supply-side market contracted 41.8%. Nearly half of all curated capital, about 46.2% of it, runs through Morpho across Ethereum-based chains and Solana, according to the report. The remaining 53.8% is split among 17 other protocols. Morpho’s leading position comes from the system it helped build with Morpho Blue and MetaMorpho.

The setup splits the basic lending function from the risk management side and allows outside managers to create separate lending markets and package them into single vaults. This design is now attracting big traditional finance companies like Bitwise Asset Management, which has teamed up with Morpho to launch non-custodial vaults. The first product is aiming for a 6% yearly return. Bitwise also predicted that onchain vaults, which it calls “ETFs 2.0,” will double their assets under management in 2026.

The report also reveals that across the 25 largest Morpho stablecoin vaults, which hold $3.71 billion, bitcoin backs 54.1% of the lending. A depositor who thinks they hold a USDC position may, underneath, be lending against bitcoin, exposed to its liquidity, its oracle and the market’s ability to liquidate collateral in a crash. Concrete and Sentora, which were not ranked twelve months ago, are now part of the current top five, with Concrete sitting at fourth now and Sentora at second.

Usual dropped from fourth all the way to thirty-fourth. The report says the reshuffle is partly due to stress and points out that after problems tied to Stream and Resolv, weaker managers were washed out and money flowed to the teams that survived. A separate DefiLlama study, which references Sentora data collected in July, tells the same concentration story. Using 55 tracked curators and a $7.18 billion total, it lists the top three curators as Steakhouse Financial ($2.03 billion), Sentora ($1.97 billion) and Gauntlet ($1.46 billion). Together, they control 75.9% of TVL, while the top five control 80.9%.

The vaults.fyi report mentions that big players outside the crypto world are now getting into curated vaults. For instance, Apollo recently began working with Securitize, Midas teamed up with Fasanara, and JPMorganChase is launching tokenized money-market fund vaults. In May, the trading firm Wintermute also started its own curation platform called Armitage. Wintermute said it can accept types of collateral that other curators cannot, because it can handle liquidations on its own.

The post Morpho climbs high in the curated DeFi as five curators hold 69% first appeared on Coinfea.