Gate Ventures Weekly Crypto Market Briefing (July 27, 2026)

Summary

• Compared with the close of the previous Friday, the three major U.S. stock indexes all fell in the week of July 20–24, 2026. The S&P 500 fell 0.61% to 7,411.98; the Nasdaq Composite fell 2.13% to 24,975.82; and the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 0.38% to 51,947.25. The main drivers of this pullback were worries in the market about large tech companies’ capital expenditure targets, along with continued weakness weighing on semiconductor stocks.

• Geopolitics-driven supply disruptions pushed the energy market sharply higher. Brent crude rose 11.5% on the week, and closed on Friday at $98.69 per barrel. Escalation in the Persian Gulf and Red Sea region, along with tanker blockades, intensified market concerns about potential interruptions to global oil transportation.

• Safe-haven demand remained limited, with U.S. Treasury yields rising across the curve. The 10-year Treasury yield climbed to 4.681%. Meanwhile, spot gold closed at around $4,053 per ounce, supported by ongoing inflation worries and market repricing of the Federal Reserve’s rate outlook.

• STRC continued to trade below par value, at around $86, while institutional holdings rose, making it the largest holding among the three major U.S. preferred stock ETFs.

• KB Kookmin Bank and JPMorgan’s Kinexys partnered to jointly explore building blockchain-based payment infrastructure in South Korea.

• Kakao and Circle are exploring stablecoin payment solutions backed by the KRW.

• Augustus completed a $180 million funding round, valuing the company at $1 billion, to build stablecoin-era clearing infrastructure.

Macro Overview

AI capital expenditure concerns from big tech companies and the Middle East energy shock reshape risk appetite

During the week ending July 24, 2026, global financial markets once again experienced turbulent “risk-off” trading. The drivers of this selloff came, on the one hand, from the massive capital expenditure guidance disclosed in the highly watched earnings reports of large tech companies, and on the other hand from energy supply shocks triggered by the escalation of conflict between the United States and Iran. The benchmark equity index S&P 500 fell 0.61% on the week to 7,411.98; the Nasdaq Composite, with a higher concentration of tech stocks, fell 2.13% to 24,975.82. Weakness in the semiconductor sector was particularly pronounced.

The main catalyst pressuring growth stocks was the start of the second-quarter earnings season for mega-cap tech companies. Alphabet raised its full-year capital expenditure forecast to a range of $195 billion to $205 billion, while Tesla disclosed cash burn for the first time in two years and expected capital expenditures to expand further. These updates reignited institutional investors’ concerns about whether the enormous spending on artificial intelligence can generate capital returns in a timely manner, prompting funds to pull back from richly valued tech stocks and reallocate.

As the U.S.-Iran conflict expanded to a maritime blockade across the Persian Gulf and the Red Sea, the geopolitical risk premium rose sharply. Middle East supply routes suddenly faced threats, driving crude oil prices higher. Brent crude futures rose 11.5% on the week to a settlement price of about $98.69 per barrel; West Texas Intermediate (WTI) rose 10.55% to $91.47 per barrel.

In fixed income and precious metals markets, energy-driven inflation risks reshaped rate expectations. Strong domestic macro indicators— including an eight-month high in the preliminary S&P Global Composite PMI rising to 53.6, and initial jobless claims falling to 187k— further indicated that economic resilience remained. As a result, the bond market increased the probability of expectations that the Federal Reserve would tighten policy, pushing the benchmark 10-year U.S. Treasury yield to 4.681%. Rising real yields and a stronger U.S. dollar limited upside for spot gold, and the gold price ultimately closed at about $4,053 per ounce. (1)

Key Points on Performance of Various Asset Classes

U.S. Dollar Index (DXY)

The dollar index rose by about 0.71% on the week, closing near 101.47. Support for the dollar’s strength included sticky energy-driven inflation, strong economic activity data, and rising market bets on the possibility of Federal Reserve rate hikes. (2)

U.S. 10-Year and 30-Year Treasury Yields

As traders reassessed the Fed’s policy path, Treasury yields across maturities moved higher. The 10-year U.S. Treasury yield rose to 4.681% (4.549% the prior week), and the 30-year Treasury yield rose to 5.161% (5.072% the prior week). (3)

Gold

Spot gold fluctuated within a range of $3,983 to $4,166 per ounce, and ultimately closed at about $4,053 per ounce. Rising bond yields and a stronger dollar offset safe-haven demand stemming from Middle East geopolitical risk. (4)

Crypto Market Overview

Mainstream Assets

BTC Price

ETH Price

ETH/BTC Ratio

Bitcoin (BTC) rose 1.1% last week, while Ethereum (ETH) rose 4.4%, lifting the ETH/BTC ratio by 2.2%.

Spot Bitcoin ETFs saw net inflows of only $33.8 million this week, reaching the lowest level since launch; spot Ethereum ETFs attracted net inflows of $103.9 million. (5)

Market sentiment improved slightly, rising to 30, but it still remained in the “fear” zone. (6)

Total Market Cap

Crypto Total Marketcap

Crypto Total Marketcap Excluding BTC and ETH

Crypto Total Marketcap Excluding Top 10 Dominance

Total crypto market cap rose 1.03% last week. After excluding Bitcoin and Ethereum, the overall market cap was largely flat, down just 0.1%; while the market outside the top ten coins fell only 0.7%.

STRC Performance

STRC’s trading volume last week was $377 million. The price stayed around $86, marking the ninth consecutive week below par value.

Digital credit is increasingly entering the mainstream institutional view. STRC is now the largest holding among the three major U.S. preferred stock ETFs, with total combined holdings of $756 million across BlackRock’s PFF, Virtus InfraCap’s PFFA, and VanEck’s PFXF. (7)

The share of retail holdings fell from 78% in March to 71% in July, while institutional holdings grew by 105%, reflecting a steadily increasing adoption rate among professional investors.

Among Bitcoin-reserve preferred securities, STRC accounted for 76.6% of total volume last week, up from 75.7% the week before. The second-largest was SATA under Strive, at a 9.4% share. (8)

Performance of the Top 30 Crypto Assets

Source: Coinmarketcap and Gate Ventures, as of 27th July 2026

The top thirty cryptocurrencies fell an average of 1.1% last week, with SHIB leading the market.

Key Developments in the Crypto Industry

KB Kookmin Bank brings JPMorgan’s Kinexys payments to South Korea

KB Kookmin Bank, the largest bank in South Korea, will launch blockchain-based cross-border payment services in August, using JPMorgan’s Kinexys network. In the initial phase, the service will provide dollar payment support for import and export companies across 10 countries, including the U.S., Singapore, Saudi Arabia, and the UAE, while interfacing with existing SWIFT infrastructure to enable near-instant transfers and FX settlement. The launch marks another step forward for institutional blockchain applications, as tokenized bank deposits and blockchain payment rails are increasingly being integrated into the traditional cross-border banking system. (9)

Kakao and Circle explore won-backed stablecoin payments in South Korea

Kakao Group, Kakao Pay, and Kakao Bank have signed a memorandum of understanding with Circle to jointly explore payment infrastructure for won-denominated stablecoins. The collaboration connects Circle’s blockchain and global settlement network with Kakao’s consumer and financial platforms. The cooperation will assess use cases including retail payments, cross-border remittances, merchant settlement, and tokenized financial services, but no specific product or launch timetable has been announced yet. This move reflects that major tech and financial groups in South Korea are setting up plans ahead of the expected stablecoin legislation, while policymakers continue to discuss issuer qualification, reserve requirements, and the regulatory framework for won-backed stablecoins. (10)

BPI pilots stablecoin payments for Filipino remote workers

Bank of the Philippine Islands (BPI) is preparing a stablecoin-based cross-border settlement pilot with digital clearing company Meridian. The target users include freelancers, virtual assistants, and other overseas-income Filipino workers. Stablecoins will serve as the settlement layer; funds will then be converted into Philippine pesos and deposited directly into the recipient’s BPI account, reducing payment costs and processing time, and users do not need to hold crypto. The initiative reflects that bank-led stablecoin rails are expanding in remittances and payroll disbursement, but broader rollout will still depend on requirements such as central bank coordination, consumer protection, and reserve transparency. (11)

Major Venture Capital Deals

Augustus completes $180 million funding round with a $1 billion valuation to build stablecoin-era clearing infrastructure

Augustus is an AI-native clearing bank focused on building always-on payment infrastructure that connects traditional banking rails and stablecoin networks for financial institutions, fintech companies, and crypto businesses. The company raised $180 million in a funding round led by Tiger Global, valuing it at $1 billion. The funds will be used to support dollar clearing operations, international expansion, and plans to transition into a federal registered bank after obtaining conditional approval from the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC). Augustus does not issue its own stablecoins; instead, it aims to revolutionize agency banking by using programmable 7×24 settlement, reflecting growing investor demand for compliant clearing infrastructure connecting stablecoins and traditional financial systems. (12)

Tenor completes an extended seed round led by Variant

Tenor is a non-custodial lending platform that provides an entry channel for fixed-rate stablecoin markets for asset managers and large borrowers through institutional-grade execution and account management tools. After completing a $2.5 million pre-seed round in 2025, the company has now completed an extended seed round with the amount undisclosed, led by Variant, with participation from existing investors including Nascent and Prelude, Coinbase Ventures, Lattice, and Very Early. Tenor is built on Morpho’s Midnight fixed-rate lending infrastructure and adds features such as customizable markets, over-the-counter matching, and organized permission controls, reflecting rising investor interest in putting institutional credit and global fixed income markets on-chain. (13)

Adapt secures strategic investment to scale AI-powered quantitative trading

Adapt is an AI-native trading platform. Through a coordinated network of autonomous trading agents, it provides users with institutional-grade quantitative trading capabilities. The platform includes 100 millisecond execution latency, continuous market monitoring, and infrastructure designed to support more than one million concurrent agents within the Sui ecosystem. The strategic investment will be used to support further product development and ecosystem expansion, reflecting growing investor interest in AI agents—agents that can independently analyze markets, execute strategies, and manage on-chain investment portfolios at institutional-grade speed. (14)

Venture Capital Market Data

In the previous week, 8 deals were completed in total: 4 in the infrastructure sector, 3 in social, and 1 in DeFi.

Weekly Venture Deal Summary, Source: Cryptorank and Gate Ventures, as of 27th Jul 2026

The total disclosed funding amount for the previous week was $196.5 million, with 4 additional deals whose funding amounts were not disclosed. The sector with the highest funding amount was infrastructure, totaling $193 million. The largest deal by funding size was Augustus ($180 million).

Weekly Venture Deal Summary, Source: Cryptorank and Gate Ventures, as of 27th Jul 2026

The total weekly funding amount for the fourth week of July 2026 was $196.5 million, down 74% from the previous week.

About Gate Ventures

Gate Ventures is Gate’s venture capital arm, focusing on investments in decentralized infrastructure, ecosystems, and applications, with the aim of reshaping the world in the Web 3.0 era. Gate Ventures collaborates with global industry leaders to empower teams and startups with innovative thinking and capabilities, redefining how society and finance interact.
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Reference:

1. Reuters: Nasdaq lags on angst over AI spending ahead of earnings reports,

2. DXY Index, Investing.com,

3. US 10 Year Bond Yield, US 30 Year Bond Yield, Investing.com, ,

4. Gold Price, Investing.com,

5. BTC & ETH ETF Inflow:

6. BTC Greed and Fear Index:

7. STRC as the largest holding of three ETFs:

8. STRC Institutional Adoption:

9. KB Kookmin Bank brings JPMorgan’s Kinexys payments to South Korea,

10. Kakao and Circle explore won-backed stablecoin payments in South Korea,

11. BPI pilots stablecoin payments for Filipino remote workers,

12. Augustus raises US$180M at a US$1B valuation to build stablecoin-era clearing infrastructure,

13. Tenor raises extended seed round led by Variant,

14. Adapt secures strategic investment to scale AI-powered quantitative trading,