BTC continues to struggle while gold regains momentum. Bitcoin fell 3.1% last week even as equities and gold moved higher, with softer inflation data reducing expectations for another Fed hike.

Meanwhile, Hyperliquid has found its next battleground. After HIP-3 drove its expansion into RWA perps, xStocks, EQX and Dinari are now competing to build out tokenized equities on spot. We look at whether the market can finally gain traction, alongside compute futures and tokenization’s shift from access to utility.

BTC once again looked weak last week, falling 3.1% while every other major benchmark ended higher. The Nasdaq led with a 1.4% gain, followed by gold at 0.8% and the S&P 500 at 0.5%.

Gold had a stellar start to the year, with YTD gains peaking at 30% toward the end of January. It then spent much of the year giving those returns back, falling from around $5.6K per ounce to $4K. Over the past month, however, gold has started to look strong again, gaining 10.7% and comfortably outperforming the other major benchmarks.

Softer inflation data last week reduced expectations that the Fed will raise interest rates next month, with the odds falling from 47% a month ago to 30% today. At the same time, central banks have continued to buy gold at record levels. According to the World Gold Council, net purchases between April and June were more than five times higher than during the previous three months.

While gold and BTC are both seen as hedges against inflation and dollar debasement, the same momentum has yet to reach Bitcoin. BTC remains stuck between $62K and $64K, while weekly ETF flows continue to flip between inflows and outflows. Funds recorded $159M of net outflows last week.

Across the different sectors, the Oracle index led the market with a 14.5% gain, followed by L2s at 6.7%.

The Oracle index was driven by LINK, which gained 14.5% and accounts for most of the basket. Standard Chartered’s bullish price targets in a recent client note may have helped drive the move. We saw a similar short-term rally in UNI when the bank initiated coverage earlier last month.

DEXs were the weakest sector, falling 16% as UNI ended the week down 18%. Uniswap had rallied earlier in July on the back of strong Robinhood Chain volumes, where it is the main DEX, and several fee-switch proposals that improved its revenue outlook. It has since pared some of those gains as meme-driven activity on Robinhood has begun to cool.

Looking ahead, the focus will shift to the US consumer, with Walmart, Target and Home Depot reporting earnings this week. Their results should give markets the clearest read on whether consumer spending remains resilient.

— Kunal

Hyperliquid’s Spot Wars

While Hyperliquid's RWA perp expansion has been the core of its 2026 growth via HIP-3, its spot deployments via HIP-1 have seen little similar success, particularly within tokenized RWAs. Unit registered USPYX, branded Unit SP500 xStock, in July 2025, but the pair never traded. Since Unit already handled Hyperliquid’s core spot assets, uBTC and uETH, no credible deployer emerged to take its place in equities.

However, this might be changing: in the past month, two spot equity deployers have entered Hyperliquid's ecosystem through HIP-1. xStocks, Kraken parent Payward's tokenized equity program, has bought ten tickers since July 15 and listed five USDC pairs. EQX, a venture-funded New York startup, has also competed in the last week, adding five tickers of its own.

On xStocks, Payward is extending a program already succeeding on Solana, where the tokens did $91M of DEX volume in the past week. Five of its ten Hyperliquid tickers are listed as USDC pairs (SPYX, MUX, NVDAX, SKHYX, QQQX), but volume has been minimal at $1.1M since the August 10 launch, held back by spreads still far above mature perp markets: 18 bps on average against 0.1 to 1 bp on the equivalent xyz perps (0xArchive, August 10 to 17). According to Payward, deployments will continue in the coming weeks, with SpaceX, Sandisk and Tesla next and UK, European and Asian equities to follow.

Far less is known about the second entrant. EQX is a New York startup building in stealth: beyond a $3.26M raise disclosed in its SEC Form D and the claim that its tokens will be 1:1 backed by DTC-custodied stocks, it has published almost nothing, and nothing about the product is verifiable yet. Onchain, the intent is clear enough: it took the chain's last five ticker auctions for EQQQQ, EQSPY, EQNVDA, EQTSLA and EQAAPL, the latest cleared this morning.

Neither entrant is actually first. Dinari, the SEC-registered transfer agent behind dShares, deployed its SpaceX token (SPCXD) on HyperCore in June. It has quietly become the chain’s most traded equity, generating $16.3M in volume since its June 12 listing. Of that, $1.1M came in the past week, roughly matching the combined volume of xStocks’ five pairs since launch. Its dShares carry dividend and redemption rights within KYC-enabled wallets, and with Dinari making 724 tokenized US stocks to US investors in August, its catalog is the deepest of the three.

While it is unclear exactly how each entrant will progress, Hyperliquid’s RWA spot market has become a key area to watch in the coming months, especially with real competition emerging among deployers. 

— Shaunda

Deep Dive: The Next Trillion-Dollar Futures Market

Chamath argues that compute could become a major new asset class as AI capex reaches $765B and CME prepares to launch its first compute futures contract. The market would allow AI companies, GPU providers, lenders and data center developers to hedge volatile rental prices, hardware depreciation and the long lead times involved in building new capacity. However, its success depends on overcoming concentration and standardization challenges, with Nvidia dominating chip supply and identical GPUs delivering performance differences of up to 38%. The report concludes that durable contracts may require standardized compute grades similar to energy markets, but could eventually reduce risk across the AI economy and support trillions of dollars in trading activity.

The Evolution of Tokenization

The article traces tokenization from early experiments in real estate, gold and credit to today’s institutional RWA market, arguing that the real challenge was never putting assets onchain but making them trusted, liquid and usable. Early products proved the technology worked but struggled with weak liquidity, regulatory constraints and limited distribution. That began to change as BlackRock, Franklin Templeton, Maple, Ondo and major oracle and exchange infrastructure brought institutional credibility, pricing and access to the market.

Even so, tokenized assets remain highly concentrated and much of the market barely moves onchain. The next phase is therefore shifting from simply representing assets onchain to making them composable, allowing tokenized treasuries, credit and equities to be used as collateral, deployed across DeFi and integrated directly into financial applications.