Gm frens, welcome to our first news round-up in August.
World Cup generated $20B, Tether makes $1.5B in Q2 2026, while Bitcoin could hit $380K-$450K. Pi Network begins Protocol 26 upgrade, as Kenya moves credentials onto Avalanche, and a Solana memecoin raises over $14,000. Finally, RLUSD comes to Zypto App.
Let’s dive in.
World Cup generated $20B in prediction market volume
The 2026 FIFA World Cup drove $20 billion in blockchain-based prediction market volume and $24 million in digital collectible trades. There were more than 400,000 wallets participating in blockchain-based betting, according to a report from blockchain analytics firm Chainalysis.
The $20 billion figure includes trading before and during the tournament, with bettors placing roughly $5.7 billion in wagers over the five-week World Cup itself. World Cup-related markets accounted for about 63% of all prediction market activity during that period.
According to the report, users from every continent except Antarctica participated in World Cup prediction markets. The United States and China generated the highest attributable trading volumes, followed by Canada, Thailand, and the United Kingdom.
Despite the scale of betting activity, illicit participation remained limited. Chainalysis said fewer than 1% of wallets participating in World Cup prediction markets had ties to illicit actors. However, it identified roughly $5.4 million in flows originating from sanctioned entities and other illicit sources.
The report also highlighted growing adoption of blockchain-based digital collectibles. Fans traded about $24 million worth of FIFA Collect NFTs during the tournament, while more than 100,000 match tickets were distributed through the platform.
Chainalysis affirmed that the findings suggest blockchain will play a growing role in major global events and underscored the importance of compliance measures as platforms attract broader participation.
Tether makes $1.5B in Q2 2026
Stablecoin issuer Tether generated another multibillion-dollar quarter as income from its U.S. Treasury portfolio continued to bolster earnings, even as the broader crypto market remained under pressure.
Tether’s latest quarterly attestation, released last Friday, reported a net operating profit of $1.5 billion for the second quarter. It was driven primarily by interest earned on U.S. Treasury holdings and repurchase agreements, or short-term loans backed by government securities.
Tether reported total assets of $187.75 billion against liabilities of $183.64 billion on June 30. Three months earlier, assets stood at $191.77 billion. The asset side therefore fell about $4 billion while token liabilities barely moved. Add the $1.5 billion earned during the quarter, and the gap implies roughly $5.6 billion of unrealized losses or outflows.
Despite a broader contraction in the stablecoin market, the circulating supply of USDT increased by $446 million during the quarter to $184.6 billion. Consequently, the increase allowed Tether to maintain more than 60% of the global stablecoin market. The total stablecoin market is valued at roughly $307 billion as of this writing.
Tether remains one of the world’s largest holders of U.S. Treasury securities, which have become the backbone of its reserve portfolio. The company has benefited from elevated short-term interest rates, which boosted income from Treasury bills and related cash-equivalent assets.
Bitcoin could hit $380K-$450K by March 2028
Bitcoin could climb to between $380,000 and $450,000 from March 2028, according to crypto analyst Sykodelic. Their latest market outlook has sparked a heated debate on social media platform X over whether the current bear market is actually a mid-cycle correction.
The forecast stands out because it argues that BTC has not yet completed its broader bull cycle, even with many traders believing that the market topped in October 2025. In a July newsletter preview shared on X, Sykodelic said the current bear market is a mid-cycle correction and not the end of the cycle.
It has been compared to stretches from 2011 to 2013 and 2019 to 2021. With that in mind, the analyst predicted that BTC will reach between $380,000 and $450,000 starting in March 2028.
His price target leans on two tools: the 200-week simple moving average multiplied by five and a quantile-95 statistical band already sitting near $330,000. The market watcher pointed out that from BTC’s current price level to $380,000 is only a 5.5x move, way smaller than the asset’s 23x run from $3,000 to $69,000 in 2020.
The forecast drew immediate criticism.
One of the doubters, X user Bitcoin Daily, who identified themselves as a data scientist, said they ran Sykodelic’s own 890-day spacing rule backward from the October 2025 high and landed in spring 2023. This, by his own framework, would make October 2025 the top, not the midpoint.
They also noted that Sykodelic’s chart had entirely skipped the 2015 to 2017 cycle. Furthermore, Bitcoin Daily highlighted that the last three cycle tops landed 525, 546, and 534 days after their halving. Meanwhile, March 2028 falls 38 days before next year’s halving, meaning Sykodelic’s $380,000 top would come in a period where such an event has never happened before.
Sykodelic dismissed those objections, questioning the claim that spring 2023 could be considered a mid-cycle high only months after the November 2022 bear market low. He also said that he didn’t include the period between 2013 and 2019 since it never experienced a mid-cycle correction.
Pi Network begins Protocol 26 upgrade
Pi Network saw a modest rise as the Pi Core team began rolling out Protocol 26, the first of two remaining upgrades to its mainnet. The Pi Core team announced the rollout last week and directed operators to its node page for instructions.
Protocol 26 is the ninth protocol upgrade Pi has shipped over the past few months. Protocol 27 will close the current sequence. The team stated that together, the two releases will bring the mainnet up to date with the network’s latest protocol features and functionality.
Meanwhile, Pi price ticked higher on the upgrade development. The token increased by 6.66% to $0.082 as of the announcement, outpacing the broader crypto market’s 0.71% gain. A similar reaction followed the network’s product work. PI gained more than 3.5% in mid-July when Pi redesigned its mining app menu and profile page.
Earlier upgrades produced the same pattern. Pi activated Protocol 25 on July 22, and Pi briefly tagged $0.103 days earlier before losing the $0.10 level. Supply explains part of that ceiling. PiScan data showed roughly 4.25 million PI unlocking each day, with about 1.71 billion scheduled to enter circulation over 12 months.
Node operators have until August 11 to finish the upgrade to maintain their connection to the mainnet. This hands traders another dated catalyst. Prior deadlines delivered short bonuses rather than a durable trend, and the upcoming upgrades will test whether that changes.
Kenya moves 30 million academic credentials onto Avalanche
Kenya has launched a blockchain-based system for verifying academic credentials through the Kenya National Examinations Council (KNEC), placing more than 30 million records on the Avalanche network in an effort to combat certificate fraud and make credentials easier to verify.
KNEC and Avalanche announced the initiative, saying the platform is designed to address the thousands of forged academic certificates reported in the country each year.
The system allows employers, universities and other institutions to verify academic credentials onchain, making records more difficult to tamper with. While the verification platform is now live, neither KNEC nor Avalanche disclosed how widely it has been adopted by students, employers or educational institutions.
For Avalanche, the rollout marks one of the blockchain’s largest public-sector deployments, extending its use beyond decentralized finance and digital assets into government record verification.
However, the announcement does not clarify whether the deployment is expected to generate demand for Avalanche’s native token, AVAX.
Solana memecoin raises over $14,000 for a Marmot study
A Solana meme coin tied to a 64-year-old marmot study has outraised its own OnlyFans campaign in just days. Researchers launched the OnlyFans page this spring after a major grant renewal fell through. A Pump.fun token followed soon after, and it now brings in more money for the project.
The Marmot Adaptive Dynamics (M.A.D) Lab at the Rocky Mountain Biological Laboratory (RMBL) tracks yellow-bellied marmots near Crested Butte, Colorado. Daniel Blumstein, an ecology professor at the University of California, runs the project. He spoke about how a National Science Foundation (NSF) grant denial had reduced their teaching assistants.
This led to a string of creative crowdfunding attempts. Julien Martin, a University of Ottawa professor who co-runs the study, also joined the fundraising push.
It began with a partnership with Irwin Brewing Co. in Crested Butte to release Marmot Tears IPA, a special-edition beer, by the end of July. A portion of the proceeds went to the lab. Next, the meme coin community created $ONLYMARMS, a Solana token. Finally, the team is also planning a Fat Marmot Week event by the end of August.
OnlyMarms is a community-launched token on Pump.fun that lets anyone create a Solana-based token in minutes. Martin signed up on Pump.fun himself to claim the token’s creator fees for the lab.
The M.A.D Lab’s project page puts total crypto donations at more than $14,000 so far, while the lab’s Marmot Project Instagram account puts OnlyFans donations at more than $6,000. This amounts to around $4,000-$4,800 after platform cuts.
OnlyMarms is trading at $0.0029, up over 600% in 24 hours. While the token may have spiked and dipped, it is showing good returns. That kind of swing mirrors other viral animal tokens in the past.
Researchers can’t yet say whether Pump.fun fees are a repeatable funding source or a one-time spike. Meme coin volume usually fades once attention moves on. Analysts have also flagged meme coin profit structures as a concern. Profits often favor infrastructure and early holders over the cause’s tokens’ claim to support.
RLUSD comes to Zypto App
Ripple’s US dollar-denominated stablecoin, RLUSD, is now fully supported in Zypto App, joining the wide range of stablecoins Zypto already offers across 20+ major blockchains.
Within Zypto, RLUSD lives inside a self-custodial wallet architecture, meaning users retain control of their private keys and on-chain assets at all times. Once RLUSD is added to a Zypto portfolio, users can view balances, monitor activity, and track their stablecoin positions across supported networks from a single interface.
Zypto’s RLUSD integration focuses on making acquisition and ongoing management straightforward for everyday users, traders, and businesses. Users can buy RLUSD in-app through supported on-ramp partners, then allocate that balance across XRPL, Ethereum, Base, and Optimism as Zypto expands multi-chain support.
Zypto App turns RLUSD into a practical rail for cross-border transfers, remittances, and treasury flows. Users can send RLUSD globally from their Zypto wallet to compatible addresses, leveraging Ripple’s focus on speed and low-cost settlement.
RLUSD’s role in Zypto is not limited to static holding or simple transfers; it slots into the app’s broader multichain swap infrastructure. Zypto already supports routing swaps through major protocols such as Uniswap and Raydium, giving users access to over 20 networks and tens of thousands of crypto and local currency trading pairs.
Zypto’s routing engine is designed to show users estimated fees, exchange rates, and expected outcomes before confirming RLUSD swaps, so traders and everyday users can evaluate slippage and routing quality in real time. Since RLUSD is meant to mirror the value of $1, Zypto’s integration emphasizes both asset security and reserve transparency.
Zypto’s decision to integrate RLUSD aligns with a broader trend: wallet providers competing on asset coverage and the depth of their integrated DeFi and payment experiences. RLUSD complements existing dollar-pegged tokens in the app and adds another enterprise-grade liquidity layer to Zypto’s swap and payments stack.
Closing remark
The 2026 FIFA World Cup driving $20 billion in blockchain-based prediction market volume underscores both the global reach of on-chain betting and the growing role of compliance in major events.
Tether posted a $1.5 billion net operating profit in Q2 2026 and maintained a multibillion-dollar reserve buffer, even as its asset base shrank and outflows emerged. Crypto analyst Sykodelic projects Bitcoin could reach $380-$450,000 by March 2028. It is a call that sparked sharp criticism over its treatment of past cycles, but they defended it as a mid-cycle correction thesis.
Pi Network’s core team has started rolling out Protocol 26, the ninth in a recent sequence of mainnet upgrades. It lifted PI’s price modestly as node operators face an August 11 deadline and traders eye whether these catalysts can produce a more durable trend.
Kenya’s National Examinations Council has put more than 30 million academic records on the Avalanche blockchain to combat certificate fraud and enable on-chain verification.
There’s a bit of uncertainty as to how much of OnlyMarms’ volume reaches the lab long-term. OnlyFans built the early audience, and the token turned that attention into faster funding.
With support for XRP, RLUSD, and other major assets within one interface, Zypto is positioning itself as a multi-chain hub. In it, users can hold a dollar stablecoin, move it across networks, and tap into DeFi or FX-like swaps without leaving their primary wallet.
FAQs
How much did the World Cup generate in prediction markets?
The 2026 FIFA World Cup drove $20 billion in blockchain-based prediction market volume.
What's the latest on Tether?
Tether reported a net operating profit of $1.5 billion for Q2 2026.
What is Pi Network planning?
Pi Network began rolling out Protocol 26, the first of two remaining upgrades to its mainnet.
What did Kenya do?
Kenya has launched a blockchain-based system for verifying academic credentials on the Avalanche network.
How did a Solana memecoin help with the Marmot study?
OnlyMarms, a Solana memecoin, was launched and helped raise over $14,000 for the Marmot study.
