Vester Update: News Agent Incoming

Our second specialized agent is set to launch later this month, following final validation and testing by our technical team.

The News Agent will be Vester’s pulse on the market.

It continuously scans headlines, sentiment, and social media narratives to overlay real-time context on market data and token activity. This second lens captures what the charts can’t: soft catalysts, sentiment shifts, and early-stage narratives.

You’ll start to see this agent surface dynamic insight tied to ETF flows, regulatory language changes, or sudden token-specific momentum. It’s like an opinionated Bloomberg terminal for crypto, designed to power The Pulse in your portfolio and in your inbox.

As a reminder, join our discord to stay in the loop and connect with the team here at Vester.

This Week in Crypto

1. Robinhood Goes Full-Stack

Robinhood announced a major crypto expansion this week, launching trading across the European Union and rolling out wallet withdrawals for U.S. users. The update also includes crypto perpetual futures in the EU and staking for Ethereum and Solana in the U.S. Presented at an event in Cannes, the move signals Robinhood’s shift from a simple trading app to a full-stack crypto platform with integrated fiat onramps, tokenized equities, and self-custody options.

This consolidation of access and execution makes Robinhood one of the most important distribution engines for retail crypto globally. But while it redefines how users enter the ecosystem, it does not address what happens after. Execution is easy. Making sense of what to do next is still unsolved. (Read More)

2. Ripple Applies for Fed Access and Bank Charter

Ripple has filed for a national bank charter and a Federal Reserve master account. If approved, it would gain the ability to hold reserves, settle payments through Fed systems, and issue RLUSD without relying on external banks. This is a play to move upstream, away from being a crypto company using banks and toward becoming a bank itself.

It also reflects the broader shift in strategy from firms that want to operate inside the system rather than fight it. Ripple is positioning itself to compete directly with traditional institutions by offering settlement, custody, and stablecoin infrastructure under federal regulation. If approved, this would mark a first for crypto and a signal that parts of the industry are preparing for long-term integration with U.S. financial plumbing. (Read More)

3. Solana ETF Launches with Native Yield

The REX Osprey Solana Staking ETF (SSK) began trading on July 2 on the Cboe BZX Exchange. It recorded around 33 million in first-day trading volume and attracted 12 million in net inflows. The fund provides investors with exposure to Solana along with staking yield paid out in monthly distributions.

The ETF holds approximately 80 percent of its assets in spot SOL, with 50 to 60 percent actively staked on-chain. It currently delivers an annual yield of 7.3 percent. Anchorage Digital acts as both the custodian and staking provider. Unlike futures-based products, this structure combines direct token exposure with protocol-level yield inside a regulated wrapper. This marks the first US-listed ETF offering both spot crypto access and native staking rewards. Its early traction shows demand for altcoin income products and lays the foundation for future staking-enabled ETFs tied to other proof-of-stake assets. (Read More)

4. 80,000 Dormant BTC Suddenly Wake Up

On July 4, 2025, nearly 80,000 BTC mined between 2010 and 2011, worth tens of billions collectively, were moved from wallets that had been inactive for over a decade. None of the coins have been deposited to exchanges or sold, but their sudden movement has stirred widespread speculation.

Early Bitcoin is often treated as effectively removed from circulation. When those assumptions break, even without a sale, markets take notice. These transfers raise questions about who controls these wallets - original miners, heirs, institutions - and why they’re moving now, during a period of low volatility and mounting institutional interest.

While the coins remain off-market for now, their movement alone is enough to pressure positioning. Long-dormant wallets waking up reminds investors that supply-side risks still exist beneath the surface. It also forces traders and risk desks to reassess the probability of future large-scale sales, introducing a new layer of uncertainty at a delicate moment in the cycle. (Read More)

5. Crypto Gaming Finds a Second Wind

Recently there have been early signs that gaming teams are rethinking token models and user incentives. Playful Studios raised 6.5 million to support Thousands, a collectible-card action game launching with no team allocation, its entire token supply is reserved for players. This reflects a growing move toward community-first mechanics and sustainable game economies.

Voya Games is also gaining traction with Craft World on Ronin, where DynoCoin rewards will go to the top 25,000 players based on in-game activity. Rather than betting on hype cycles, these projects are focusing on ownership, interoperability, and aligned incentives, laying the groundwork for a more resilient gaming sector. (Read More)

Chart of the Week: ETH’s Moment to Turn?

The ETH/BTC ratio has experienced a persistent downtrend over the past year, clearly indicating a market-wide shift in favor of Bitcoin. This dominance has been largely fueled by the immense capital flow into spot Bitcoin ETFs, the prevailing "digital gold" narrative, and Bitcoin's perceived alignment with traditional finance. However, beneath this surface of Bitcoin's ascendancy, there are subtle but significant signals of exhaustion for this relative underperformance from Ethereum.

Our chart, which overlays the ETH/BTC ratio with a 14-day Relative Strength Index (RSI), frequently shows the RSI dipping below the 30-threshold this year, a classical indicator of oversold conditions. This recurring signal suggests that the selling pressure on ETH, relative to BTC, may be reaching a point of capitulation.

Why the conditions are lining up now:

1. Unyielding Fundamentals: ETH's underperformance is disconnected from its robust core. Ethereum's on-chain activity remains strong (with transaction volumes hitting new highs driven by Layer 2s), and a significant 28-29% of ETH is actively staked (over 34 million ETH), demonstrating deep, long-term conviction and reducing sell-side pressure.

2. Impending ETF Catalyst & Capital Reallocation: While Bitcoin ETFs captured initial flows, the recent launch of Ethereum spot ETFs has already begun to unleash substantial new institutional demand, especially with potential staking capabilities. Notably, Ether-based products have seen consistent net inflows even as Bitcoin flows moderate, foreshadowing capital rotation toward Ethereum as investors seek the next accessible, regulated asset with higher upside potential.

3. Compelling Mean Reversion Setup: The accumulating "oversold" RSI signals, combined with Ethereum's fundamental strength and these impending catalysts, create a potential setup for mean reversion. This pattern, where capital shifts from the initially dominant asset (Bitcoin) into large-cap alternatives like Ethereum once the former's gains stabilize or new catalysts emerge for the latter, has been a recurring dynamic in previous crypto market cycles, notably in 2017 and 2021. A significant price rebound for the ETH/BTC ratio isn't just possible; it's increasingly probable.

After a year plus where sentiment weighed heavily on Ethereum's performance, overshadowing its potential, the tide may finally be turning.

Closing Thoughts

Thanks for reading. Four editions in, and we're still experimenting to make this newsletter the best it can be for you. We'd love to hear your questions, advice, or what you think of the format. Don’t be surprised if there is a mid-week edition, with a deep-dive into one of the more compelling topics above.

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See you next week.