Meta CMO and head of analytics Alex Schultz doesn't treat stablecoins as a bet — he treats them as a given. In a wide-ranging conversation with CoinDesk, Schultz laid out why Meta thinks agentic commerce could dominate the global economy, with over a million businesses already running Meta AI agents. His read on creativity in the AI era is equally direct: taste is now the only real moat, and the people who thrive will be the ones managing fleets of AI tools rather than competing with them. He invokes the radiologist argument — that every automation wave has created more jobs than it killed — to push back on AI doomerism, and draws a straight line from WhatsApp's conversational commerce in Brazil and India to where the rest of the world is heading. On what Meta missed with TikTok, why the Valley has always been crypto-bullish while the rest of America hasn't caught up, and what he'd tell a founder building a brand from scratch today — it's all in the full video.
Strategy sold 2.7 million MSTR shares for roughly $263.5 million through its ATM program last week, lifting its USD reserve to $3.225 billion while leaving its 843,775 BTC stash untouched — the second consecutive week it chose equity dilution over bitcoin sales. The move is a direct response to pressure on its preferred stock dividend structure: annual obligations have grown sharply and the company is prioritizing cash buffer over accumulation. At $64,700 per coin, the BTC treasury is worth roughly $55 billion.
Cardano's Van Rossum hard fork activated July 18, moving the network to protocol version 11 — but the bigger story is how it happened. For the first time in Cardano's history, the upgrade was proposed, debated, and ratified entirely through its onchain governance system, without Input Output directing the outcome. Delegated representatives voted 78.97% in favor, well above the 60% threshold; the constitutional committee unanimously approved it; and pool operators cleared it 53% to 47%. The fork lowers smart contract execution costs and lays procedural groundwork for Ouroboros Leios, the scaling upgrade expected later in 2026 that will actually change what users feel.
A quiet bitcoin volatility signal is approaching a zone that has preceded every major crash of the past year. BVIV, bitcoin’s 30-day implied volatility index, is hovering between 34% and 38% — the range that flashed just before the drop from $74,000 to $60,000 in a week, before February’s correction, and before the October all-time high reversal. A “volmageddon” may be brewing. Separately: U.S. forces struck Iran for the ninth consecutive day, two oil tankers exploded in the Strait of Hormuz, and Brent crude hit $91 — a one-month high. China’s Kimi AI release rattled chip stocks further, leaving crypto pinned between war driving oil up and the AI selloff dragging equities down. Despite equity futures advancing, crypto drifted lower Monday, with the Fear and Greed index at 34. The one standout: PUMP surged 20% on a single post from a crypto influencer.
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L1.co Disclosure: This material is for informational purposes only, and the content contained herein should not be considered investment advice or a solicitation, offer, or recommendation to sell or buy any asset, strategy, or product. Investing in digital assets involves a high degree of risk, including the loss of principal.
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A bitcoin ‘volmageddon’ may be brewing, key indicator suggests.
Bitcoin’s 30-day implied volatility index, BVIV — often described as the crypto equivalent of Wall Street’s VIX — is hovering between 34% and 38%, a range that in recent years has reliably preceded volatility spikes and price declines. The pattern is consistent: in late May, BVIV reached this zone just before bitcoin dropped from $74,000 to under $60,000 in less than a week. The same setup appeared just before February’s correction and before the October all-time high reversal. Implied volatility is mean-reverting by nature — periods of compressed vol tend to be followed by explosive moves. At 38%, BVIV sits below both its 30-day and 200-day simple moving averages, meaning volatility is historically cheap and at a well-established support zone. When the index bounces from here, price tends to move sharply and usually lower. Bitcoin currently holds just above $64,000, maintaining the range-bound pattern that has persisted since last week. Two consecutive weeks of spot ETF inflows are constructive, though the net capital movement — described by one analyst as “peanuts” relative to the $4.5 billion yanked in June — has yet to demonstrate institutional conviction. Elsewhere on the vol surface: South Korea’s KOSPI VIX is above 70%, its highest since the 1990s. Wall Street’s VIX jumped 12% to 18% on Friday and is hovering there. The MOVE index — the 30-day vol gauge for U.S. Treasuries — remains steady around 70%, broadly constructive for risk assets. But a BVIV at 38% whispering of a coming explosion deserves attention heading into a week that includes the ECB rate decision, Big Tech earnings, and the FOMC meeting in eight days.
Oil bounce and lingering AI selloff push bitcoin under $64,000.
Bitcoin slipped to around $63,900 on Monday, down 1.3% on the day but still up roughly 2% on the week, as crypto stayed caught between two independent headwinds. On the energy side, Brent crude climbed to a one-month high above $91 a barrel after Iran said two oil tankers had exploded and been immobilized in the Strait of Hormuz, and the U.S. struck Iran for the ninth consecutive day. The oil move revives the inflation fear that this month’s soft CPI had briefly eased — and higher oil is bad for rate-cut expectations, which have been one of bitcoin’s main tailwinds in July. On the AI side, the release of China’s Kimi K3 model — which rattled chip stocks on Friday — continued to weigh on semiconductor names in Asia, with South Korea’s Kospi down 3.5% on the day, though U.S. equity futures pointed higher. Ether slid 1.1% to $1,850. XRP slipped to $1.09 and dogecoin lost 1.4%. Hyperliquid’s HYPE remained the weakest of the majors, down 8% on the week to $60. The Kimi AI IPO announcement from Moonshot AI — filing within six months — added to the sense that Chinese AI is closer to the frontier than markets had priced in, and that the secular thesis for chip spending deserves another skeptical look. Iran separately said talks with the U.S. could be pursued based on national interests, erasing some of the early oil gains, with Brent trimming to $88 before finding support again.
Crypto market slips even as equities advance. PUMP surges on social-media chatter.
With Nasdaq 100 and S&P 500 index futures gaining 0.35% and 0.20% respectively, and gold holding above $4,000 while the Dollar Index barely moved, crypto had no clean macro narrative to explain its weakness on Monday — it just drifted lower. The Fear and Greed index sits at 34, deep in fear territory. Average RSI across crypto pairs has slipped to 44, nudging back toward the oversold conditions that set up July’s brief relief rally. In derivatives, futures volume surged 81% to $127 billion in 24 hours but open interest stayed flat at $111 billion — a churn signal, not a conviction signal. Bitcoin OI stalled near 750K BTC despite last week’s swing above $64,000. Solana OI declined to 62 million tokens, the least since early May, down from the June 24 peak of 76 million — significant position unwinding. The one standout was Pump.fun’s PUMP token, which surged 20% after crypto influencer Ansem posted bullish commentary alluding to the platform generating $30–$40 million per month even in a bear market — underscoring how concentrated and narrative-driven the day’s momentum was. The only other notable mover was Jupiter (JUP), up 1%. AI tokens gave back gains: FET −2.94%, TAO −2.58%. CoinMarketCap’s Altcoin Season indicator is at 55/100, the highest reading in months, though that reading coexists with a Fear and Greed score of 34 — an unusual split between positioning and sentiment. The divergence between crypto and equities that has defined much of 2026 extended further on Monday, reinforcing that the two asset classes are being driven by increasingly separate forces.
CoinDesk Disclosure: The information contained in this newsletter, and any information linked through the items contained herein, is not intended to provide sufficient information to form the basis for an investment decision. You should seek additional information regarding the merits and risks of investing in any cryptocurrency or digital assets.
L1.co Disclosure: This material is for informational purposes only, and the content contained herein should not be considered investment advice or a solicitation, offer, or recommendation to sell or buy any asset, strategy, or product. Investing in digital assets involves a high degree of risk, including the loss of principal.
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