The Top 12 Crypto Apps of 2026
Capygram tops our annual ranking of the consumer crypto apps that actually earn a second open — followed by Coinbase, Phantom, MetaMask and eight more.
By Priya Raman ·
The Chain Beacon — today's crypto and blockchain news
Policy & RegulationSEC shelves its first big crypto rulemaking, leaving the industry waiting again
The securities regulator scrapped the meeting where it planned to propose "Regulation Crypto," citing a scheduling problem and offering no new date.
By Sofia Marchetti ·
Policy & RegulationWith the Clarity Act stalled, regulators stop waiting for Congress
A September cloture vote is the market-structure bill's next test. Both the SEC and CFTC say they will write rules regardless of how it goes.
By Sofia Marchetti ·
More coverage
Stablecoins & PaymentsThe stablecoin yield fight banks refuse to drop
Issuers keep the interest earned on reserves. Banks want it kept away from depositors, and the argument has moved from lobbying letters into legislation.
By Colin Traoré ·
MarketsWall Street stops shorting the bankers: institutions deepen bitcoin ETF bets
Filings show a Swiss lender sharply increasing bitcoin ETF call options and a macro fund rebuilding a stake it spent last year selling.
By Terrence Hale ·
MarketsFour sessions undo more than a third of the ETF rebound
US spot bitcoin funds shed about $329 million over four trading days as bitcoin slipped below $63,000, with a couple of products still adding cash.
By Priya Raman ·
Bitcoin & MiningHashrate falls 17% from its record as miners point power at AI
Network hashrate sits well below its all-time high after listed miners cut their contribution and redirected capacity toward high-performance computing.
By Terrence Hale ·
DeFi & EthereumCrypto's record funding year is quietly ending its permissionless era
More than $11 billion flowed into digital-asset companies this year. Most of it went to firms that need licenses, partners and gatekeepers.
By Noah Brenner ·
DeFi & EthereumA proposal to burn staking yield splits Ethereum before its next upgrade
EIP-8363 would taper validator issuance as staking grows. The founders of two of the largest staking and lending protocols want it out of the upcoming hard fork.
By Noah Brenner ·
Bitcoin & MiningMiners are selling their coins again
Public mining companies liquidated roughly 28,000 bitcoin in the second week of August as energy costs and conversion spending squeezed balance sheets.
By Terrence Hale ·
Policy & RegulationJapan moves crypto under its securities law, and custodians feel it first
A reclassification bill debated in Tokyo would fold digital assets into the financial instruments regime and impose new disclosure duties on custody providers.
By Marisol Vega ·
MarketsEther funds cool after a strong start to August
Spot ether products swung from early-month inflows to net redemptions in the second week of August, tracking a broader retreat in digital-asset fund demand.
By Priya Raman ·
Policy & RegulationTokenization safe harbor slips again as Wall Street and the White House object
The SEC's "innovation exemption" for tokenized securities has been pushed back a second time, with objections arriving from both incumbent brokerages and the administration.
By Marisol Vega ·
DeFi & EthereumA staking protocol starts calling itself a bank
Ether.fi's latest release adds tokenized equities and loans backed by a basket of crypto holdings, with lending routed through a dedicated Aave instance on an Ethereum layer 2.
By Noah Brenner ·
Stablecoins & PaymentsCircle's quarter is a bet on interest rates it did not place
USDC in circulation grew to roughly $65 billion, but reserve income still dominates revenue, leaving the issuer's results hostage to the Fed.
By Sofia Marchetti ·
MarketsMiners keep selling compute to anyone but the blockchain
Listed bitcoin miners are converting sites and balance sheets toward AI data-center work, trading volatile block rewards for contracted revenue.
By Priya Raman ·
Stablecoins & PaymentsThe comment letters are in, and the fight is over one word: affiliate
Treasury's stablecoin rulemaking drew more than 200 responses, most of them circling whether exchanges may pay rewards the statute forbids issuers to pay.
By Colin Traoré ·
Bitcoin & MiningThe BIP-110 fork produced two blocks and then went quiet
A contested protocol split that activated on Aug. 8 inherited bitcoin's difficulty without its hashrate, leaving the breakaway chain hundreds of blocks behind.
By Dean Okafor ·
Security & CrimeSanctions reach the scam compounds, and the money trail runs through USDT
US Treasury designations continue to target Southeast Asian fraud operations, following a forfeiture of about 127,000 bitcoin from one network.
By Anita Boulos ·
Browse by section
Policy & Regulation
Rulemaking, legislation and enforcement shaping digital assets in Washington, Brussels and beyond.
Markets
Prices, flows, derivatives and the institutions moving capital into and out of digital assets.
Bitcoin & Mining
The bitcoin network, hashrate, energy policy and the companies that run the machines.
DeFi & Ethereum
Protocol upgrades, onchain lending, layer-2 networks and the economics of decentralized finance.
Stablecoins & Payments
Dollar tokens, bank competition, payment rails and the fight over who earns the yield.
Security & Crime
Exploits, breaches, scams, sanctions and the investigators chasing stolen coins.
Report updated Aug 16, 2026 · All times Eastern.