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The Ethereum Foundation published a policy guide for governments and institutions on Wednesday. The foundation argued that Ethereum can support digital identity, public records and asset tokenization. The foundation urged policymakers to distinguish decentralized public blockchains from company-controlled networks.

Circle shares fell 18% on Tuesday after news of competing stablecoin Open USD, which is backed by Coinbase, Visa, and Mastercard. Clear Street analysts said the sell-off looked overdone without solid evidence that Open USD can gain traction. Circle shares later gained 3% but remained more than 75% below their 52-week high.

Florida's HB 505, now Chapter 2026-178, creates a virtual currency kiosk framework with fraud warnings, receipts, daily caps, registration filings, and a conditional refund right. Most of the act takes effect Jan. 1, 2027. The law sets a $2,000 daily cap for new customers and a $10,000 cap for existing customers.

Standard Chartered executed its first digital asset prime brokerage trades with LMAX Group, covering spot Bitcoin with T+1 settlement. The bank became one of the first G-SIBs to test a digital asset prime brokerage model inside established risk and compliance frameworks. The transactions ran on LMAX Digital, and settlement completed through Standard Chartered's digital asset custody platform in DIFC. In 2025, flows through prime brokers and OTC desks grew at more than 10 times the rate of flows into exchanges.

Bitmine, Sharplink and Consensys CEO Joseph Lubin are backing Ethereum Institutional, a new independent nonprofit focused on institutional Ethereum adoption. David Walsh said the organization aims to act as a neutral counterpart for institutions building on Ethereum. The launch follows the Ethereum Foundation cutting 20% of its staff last month.

Sentient committed $42 million through its Open Source AGI Grant and Investment Program on June 24. The program funds outside builders through non-dilutive grants and startup investment. Sachi Kamiya wrote that open-source AI models are now only 3–6 months behind closed-source counterparts.

Securitize shares are expected to begin trading on the New York Stock Exchange under the SECZ ticker on Thursday. Securitize is a BlackRock-backed tokenization company that has assisted companies with issuing securities on-chain. President Brett Redfearn said tokenized real-world assets can reduce intermediaries in traditional businesses.

Ethereum Institutional launched in 2026 to help banks and asset management firms enter the Ethereum ecosystem. The non-profit was founded by David Walsh, Marius Smith, and Matthew Dawson after incubation within the Ethereum Foundation. The organization says it charges no advisory or consulting fees.

Ethereum Institutional launched to coordinate institutional outreach for a network that Token Terminal says hosts nearly 58% of tokenized RWAs. BitMine, SharpLink, Joe Lubin and other contributors are backing the independent nonprofit. DeFiLlama data shows Ethereum accounts for roughly half of the $311 billion stablecoin market.