Top crypto stories of week 29, 2026
Mon 13 to Sun 19 July 2026
The 20 top stories on Kiwi News from Mon 13 to Sun 19 July 2026, ranked by upvotes, comments and clicks, with 16 comments in total. Most-shared sources: x.com, firefly.social, farcaster.xyz.
Text under a title is an AI summary of the linked article.
- @leonardoalt: built kamerafrei.com, walk/bike route planner that avoids cameras (firefly.social)
- The fine print in 2.2M US laws has a map now. (visualizelaws.com)
- Breaking: A Crypto Media Crisis is Upon Us (x.com)
The author, who runs the crypto media company The Defiant, argues that crypto media is in a full-blown crisis and that the cause is structural, not just a bear market. Crypto venture funding fell to about $4 billion in Q1 2026, down 50% from the prior quarter, according to Galaxy Research, while AI startups captured roughly 80% of global venture funding in that quarter, per Crunchbase. The piece also points to companies building in-house newsrooms and funding influencers, and to a Gallup figure showing only 28% of Americans trust the media to report fully, accurately and fairly.
- @vitalik.eth: anon billboard with moderation demo on Aztec (farcaster.xyz)
- Sablier Labs is Entering Maintenance Mode (x.com)
Sablier Labs has stopped active product development and entered maintenance mode, with funded maintenance of its interface running through June 2028 while the protocol's smart contracts continue operating onchain. The company cites weak Q1 2026 usage and revenue, customer launch delays tied to deteriorating crypto markets, and AI-assisted coding making its products cheaper to replicate. Starting July 13, 2026, the official interface stops accepting vesting streams and airdrops with end times after June 2028, and open-ended payment streams are fully blocked. The Sablier EVM contracts' license has also moved up from BUSL 1.1 to GPL, effective July 13, 2026, and the interface is expected to become an open-source public good. Co-founder and CEO Paul Razvan Berg wrote the announcement.
- Unified API to resolve Ethereum names across ENS, WNS, and GNS. (github.com)
This is a README for @1001-digital/ethereum-names, a viem-based TypeScript library that resolves Ethereum names across ENS, the Gwei Name Service (GNS), and the Wei Name Service (WNS) through one API. Names ending in .gwei route to GNS and names ending in .wei route to WNS, while other dotted names fall back to ENS. The library reports whether a result was verified and whether several systems claimed the same name. By default, reverse lookups are forward-verified to guard against spoofed ENS reverse records, and ambiguous names resolve to null rather than guessing, with custom registries able to join the resolving path.
- @mikematvei: CryptoPunks community mocked Brian Armstrong into dropping his PFP (firefly.social)
The author argues that the CryptoPunks community drove away a high-profile supporter by mocking him over his profile picture. Brian Armstrong, Coinbase's CEO, had used a fake CryptoPunk as his avatar... Wait, the article does not say Coinbase or CEO, so I must avoid that. Revised summary: The central point is that the CryptoPunks community's mockery of Brian Armstrong over his profile picture led him to stop using a CryptoPunk avatar altogether. The writer says that whether or not the image was an official Punk, Armstrong was showing CryptoPunks to millions of people daily, and that people focused on whether it was real instead of appreciating that exposure. The piece concludes that a community should not push away someone with that reach who chooses to represent its culture.
- @Nick_Researcher: crypto wallet IP-exposure scorecard after main wallet drain (x.com)
The Open Source Press analyzed network traffic from popular Web3 wallets on a clean Android device with no SIM, a fresh APK install, VPN enabled, and no wallet created, logging only what each wallet sent to the internet after launch. Scores run from 0 to 100, with higher meaning less exposure, based on unique IP addresses and unique domains contacted. Cake Wallet generated 0 outbound packets and contacted 0 domains before user interaction, while Zodl contacted one endpoint and Unstoppable contacted two. At the other end, SafePal contacted 26 domains across 41 IP addresses right after launch, and OKX Wallet initialized several analytics and fingerprinting services before a wallet existed.
- An NFT Experiment I'd Like to See (x.com)
The author, a former JPG team member, proposes an onchain collectible called Canonicle and open-sources the idea for others to build. Canonicle would be a free-to-mint device NFT, built as an ERC-721 paired with an ERC-6551 token-bound account, that holds tradeable onchain trinkets, skins and a soulbound seed-generated banner. The concept draws on earlier projects the author names, including Canonicon, Terraforms, Corruption(s*), Uniswap V3 and V4 position NFTs, Nouns, Disney Pinnacle and Chonks. The author says they lack smart contract skills and will not build it soon, but offers to be a first minter or to brainstorm with anyone who tries.
- Peer-to-Peer #1: Tech Authoritarianism here. Now what? (p2p.coincenter.org)
Coin Center launches Peer-to-Peer, a publication aiming to explain why it advocates for open source, privacy-preserving software, arguing that human freedom depends on open, decentralized and private tools. The launch post says it will cover tech authoritarianism, surveillance and censorship, and the technologists building alternatives. It highlights the Flock license plate reader company, whose CEO called DeFlock, a camera-tracking open source project, "terrorists," and it argues that the EU's push for digital sovereignty and open source reflects a broader case for neutral technology and payments. It also argues that debanking affects many groups beyond crypto firms, citing public comments on the Fed's proposal to remove "reputation risk" from bank supervision.
- Major Blockchain Firm Consensys Accidentally Hired a North Korean Hacker (dropsitenews.com)
Consensys, the Fort Worth-based firm behind the MetaMask crypto wallet, accidentally hired a software developer linked to North Korea, according to internal messages obtained by Drop Site News. The consultant used the alias "Tyler Knapp" and worked on core MetaMask platform code, including parts related to conversion between crypto and fiat currency, starting March 9 until access was terminated in April 2026. General counsel Matt Corva said the company discovered the threat quickly, found no misappropriation of assets or data, and notified law enforcement, and the company has since reviewed its practices for third-party engineering work.
- How Is a Pre-IPO Company's "Share Price" Determined on Hyperliquid? (newsletters.feedbinusercontent.com)
Trade.xyz launched a Pre-IPO perpetual contract, xyz:CXMT, on Hyperliquid on July 14, tracking the expected USD value of one A-share of ChangXin Memory Technologies, which is not a stock and gives no ownership, IPO allocation, dividends or voting rights. The contract started from a $5 reference price set by Trade.xyz, and its price is set by order book trading rather than an external share price. Per the article, the mark price was about $7.37 as of 02:13 UTC on July 16, roughly 5.76 times the RMB 8.66 IPO price, with a 20% Discovery Bound that re-anchors up to seven times in each direction explaining the moves through $6, $7.20 and $8.64.
- Proof of Clean Hands: Keep the Obligation, Drop the Plaintext Store (human.tech)
Proof of Clean Hands, a zero-knowledge KYC design from human.tech, argues that regulators can keep AML and identity obligations while dropping the plaintext identity store that collect-and-retain KYC requires. The article says that store became a liability through breaches, AI-enabled misuse and future quantum decryption. It describes a system where users prove they are real, unique, non-sanctioned and over 18 without revealing documents, with identity recoverable only under a public, pre-committed onchain condition and every disclosure logged.
- @adamhurwitz.eth: Safe adding gas fee payments from account balances (farcaster.xyz)
- A path forward for Session (getsession.org)
Session will continue development beyond July 8 after its team secured funding from community support, with a smaller team working through 2027. The Session Technology Foundation and Session Team say shutdown procedures have been cancelled, and the project will now be led by Jason Rhinelander, long-time Chief Software Architect and member of the Foundation. Donations currently cover critical infrastructure, retaining Jason as a developer, and possibly one other full-time developer. The app reportedly has millions of downloads and recently surpassed 1.7 million monthly active users, and the foundation says additional donations would allow it to expand the development team.
- @hrkrshnn: Grok Build uploads code to xAI cloud despite zero data retention (x.com)
- @jessepollak: Base pivots from social to global finance after Q1 2026 setback (x.com)
Base leader Jesse Pollak says he was wrong to bet that onchain social experiences would drive crypto adoption, and Base is now focusing on global finance. He says Farcaster, Zora, miniapps and creator coins disintegrated in the first quarter of 2026, leaving Base behind scaled competitors in perpetuals and prediction markets. Pollak has handed the Base app back to Coinbase, where Cobie will take it over, and says Base's 2026 priorities are trading, payments and agents. He names Robinhood and Stripe as formidable competitors.
- Neo-Cypherpunk Summit report (docs.fileverse.io)
- @ROBNESSOFFICIAL: Brian Armstrong should buy an $80M historic trashcan instead (firefly.social)
- @ripe0x: Jesse's creator coin push had institutional force, trust takes time (firefly.social)
Jesse's creator coin push carried institutional weight, and rebuilding trust will take time, according to @ripe0x. The author says they like Jesse and believe he was sincere both then and now, but argues that creator coins were promoted with enormous personal and institutional force. He cites Jesse's replies and DMs urging people to coin their work, and says his credibility made the idea seem more substantial than a typical speculative thesis. Many people took that conviction seriously, made their own bets, and lost money, so a new vision following an admission seems out of proportion to how forcefully the idea was pushed.