Today we look at how Aptos became one of the only general purpose L1s earning holders more than it pays operators, and the overhaul that flipped Token Holder Net Income (THNI) positive. On markets, the Crypto Equity Cohort leads everything on the back of Circle's 16.0% run, while BTC and most token sectors sit red ahead of this morning's July CPI print.

Yesterday we saw a boring tape, with the Crypto Equity Cohort (+2.9%) the standout while BTC slipped -0.4% and the S&P 500 idled -0.2% ahead of today's July CPI print. Only Oracle (+5.8%) printed a bigger number; Memes (+3.0%), Exchange Tokens (+2.5%), and RWA (+2.4%) followed, while DEXs (-4.1%), Privacy (-3.7%), and Solana Eco (-3.1%) anchored the red half.

The weekly view makes leadership explicit. Crypto Equity Cohort leads everything at +12.0%, ahead of Oracle (+7.6%) and gold (+7.1%), while BTC (-0.7%), the S&P 500 (-0.4%), and most token sectors sit red; Solana Eco (-10.0%) and Crypto Miners (-11.2%) round out the bottom. The gold move was likely macro, as July payrolls showed a 23K contraction versus an expected 80K gain, trimming the odds of a September Fed hike.

Inside the Crypto Equity Cohort, this is largely a Circle story. CRCL gained 16.0% on the week; BLSH (+4.4%) and GLXY (+2.3%) chipped in, while FIGR (-4.0%) and GEMI (-3.2%) sat the move out. The broader Crypto Equities index added just 0.1%. 

Circle reported Q2 on August 5, posting revenue and reserve income of $701M (+7% YoY), adjusted EBITDA of $143M, USDC supply of $73.3B (+19% YoY), and $14.8T of onchain transfer volume (+151% YoY). The reaction has been a slow build rather than a day-one pop. 

CRCL closed the earnings release session up just 3.2%, reached 8.7% by Friday, and finished yesterday at ~$71, 16.0% above pre-earnings level. The move suggests growing conviction in two forward catalysts: Arc mainnet goes live September 16 with BlackRock, Visa, and DTCC among founding validators, and federal regulators approved Circle National Trust, making it one of the first stablecoin issuers with a federal bank charter.

— Sam

Aptos Value Accrual

Aptos is now one of the only major general-purpose L1s earning its holders more than it pays its operators. Token Holder Net Income (THNI) measures what holders earn as a class: network revenue minus operator payments, with staking rewards treated as an intra-holder redistribution rather than an expense. On that calculation, Aptos turned positive in May 2026 and has remained positive since. Ethereum, Solana, and Sui all currently run negative.

The decisive leg of the inversion came after this year's February and March protocol changes. In January 2025, Ethereum earned holders about $42 a year per $10,000 of FDV and Solana several times that, while Aptos ran roughly -$105 per $10,000. By July 2026 the ranking flipped: Aptos +$6.33 per $10,000, Ethereum -$0.95, Solana -$1.89, Sui -$6.18.

This comparison covers the general-purpose platform majors. Hyperliquid is an app-chain built around a single exchange; BNB's token utility and semi-permissioned validator set are tethered to Binance; TRON is functionally a stablecoin chain; and Avalanche runs as a network of sovereign chains within its own ecosystem rather than one shared-state execution environment.

The driver is a four-part overhaul executed between February 19 and March 19: gas was repriced 10x, staking rewards were halved to a flat 2.6%, supply was capped at 2.1B, and 210M was permanently locked. Revenue rose ~16x while operator commission halved, moving both lines of the income statement at once. 

Notably, demand grew straight through the repricing. Transactions rose from ~4.5M to 12M+ per day at 10x the old fees, led by Decibel's fully onchain perps order book, which now generates the majority of chain transactions.

That transaction mix is the burn engine. A dollar traded through a fully onchain order book burns on average ~50 times more APT than a dollar swapped through a pool, since every quote, cancel, and fill is its own gas-paying transaction. It is why Decibel accounts for over half of Aptos's trading dollars but 97% of its transactions, and why running a CLOB fully onchain is only economic at Aptos's fee and throughput levels.

Beyond THNI, the number to watch is burn as a share of issuance: 0.2% in January, near 10% today. The ratio matters because issuance creates inherent sell pressure, even when it represents a redistribution among holders. Validators may sell rewards to cover operating costs, while funds may sell them to realize yield. With the reward rate fixed, unlocks collapsing after October, and Decibel's roadmap still expanding, everything is now set up for activity to scale and value accrual to strengthen with it.

— Sam

Fluent: Data Dashboard Primer

Blockworks Research published a dashboard primer on Fluent, the consumer chain launched in April whose economics run through its stablecoin rather than gas. Transaction fees total about $1.2K since mid-March; USDnr treasury yield has earned $79K since mainnet, funding a $65K BLEND buyback.

The combined float stands at $11.5M with roughly 80% staked into sUSDnr, whose exchange rate has climbed uninterrupted to 1.0133. Usage is still early: roughly 3K daily transactions, 87% from oracle and infrastructure contracts, and transfer volume fell from $332M in April to $115M in July, a sign USDnr is held for yield rather than payments.

Robinhood Chain: Can It Move Robinhood's Bottom Line?

Blockworks Research analyst Ryan Graham examines whether Robinhood Chain can revive Robinhood's shrinking crypto business, with Q2 crypto revenue down 38% YoY to $100M, 8% of total revenue. The launch ranks among the strongest in recent L2 history: $3.6M in July REV, 38% of tracked L2 chain revenue, ahead of Polygon and Base.

But memecoins drove 51% of spot volume versus 5% for RWAs, its stated use case, and known revenue streams annualize to $54.8M, 14% of Robinhood's crypto revenue. Materiality requires scaling USDG and monetizing main-app distribution, where Morpho thrived while Lighter's Wallet-only integration captured 0.2% of its volume.