Clinical progress and policy shifts drive market interest

Interest in the space continued in H1 as drug candidates advanced into pivotal trials, particularly in the treatment of depression, anxiety and PTSD. Cybin (NYSEAMERICAN:CYBN) reported meaningful progress, citing investor and regulatory confidence in the therapeutic potential of psilocybin, LSD analogs and DMT derivatives.

Cybin’s 2025 financial results, released on June 30, highlighted significant progress in its lead programs, as well as its strong financial position, with C$135 million in cash reported.

CEO Doug Drysdale emphasized the company’s progress in building a strong foundation for anticipated clinical and regulatory milestones.

Key highlights include strengthened intellectual property with new patents for CYB003 and CYB004, strategic partnerships with Osmind and Thermo Fisher Scientific, and promising Phase 2 efficacy data for CYB003 in MDD, showing 100 percent responder rates and 71 percent remission with two 16 mg doses. The Phase 2 study for CYB004 in GAD is underway and expected to be completed around mid-2025.

Likewise, COMPASS Pathways (NASDAQ:CMPS) announced that its COMP360 psilocybin treatment successfully met its primary goal in a Phase 3 trial for treatment-resistant depression on June 23.

A single 25mg dose of COMP360 significantly reduced depression symptoms compared to a placebo at six weeks, showing a clinically meaningful difference and strong statistical significance. This marks the first Phase 3 efficacy data reported for a classic psychedelic, and Compass Pathways said it plans to discuss these positive results with the FDA.

Policy signals were equally consequential. Notably, the Texas House and Senate passed SB 2308 in May, which will provide up to US$100 million in state funds for ibogaine trials.

The results of the trials will be presented to the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for potential approval of ibogaine for opioid use disorder, co-occurring substance use disorder and other neurological or mental health conditions. Governor Abbott signed the bill into law on June 11, representing a notable and progressive shift in the Republicans’ approach to drug policy.

However, the sector continues to face real challenges, such as costly clinical access and inconsistent regulatory frameworks that have resulted in a patchwork of state-level regulations. Despite these challenges, there are ongoing efforts towards federal reform and standardized guidelines.

Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. recently told members of Congress that new therapeutics using psychedelic substances could revolutionize treatment for mental health challenges.

‘This line of therapeutics has tremendous advantage if given in a clinical setting and we are working very hard to make sure that happens within 12 months,” he said during a House subcommittee meeting regarding the Trump administration’s proposed budget for the US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS).

FDA head Marty Makary has likewise labeled the assessment of MDMA and other psychedelics as a “top priority,” announcing initiatives aimed at potentially expediting their approval.

One new program in particular aims to accelerate drug approval, potentially cutting review times from six months to one month.

This initiative might relax requirements for some drugs, possibly waiving placebo-controlled studies, which have been a hurdle for psychedelic research because patients often know if they’ve received the drug.

Bitcoin and Ethereum price update

Bitcoin (BTC) was priced at US$16,964, down by 0.5 percent over the last 24 hours. Its highest valuation on Wednesday was US$118,644, while its lowest valuation was US$116,079.

Bitcoin price performance, July 30, 2025.

Chart via TradingView

Markets rallied briefly following the release of the White House’s crypto policy report, which called for greater SEC clarity and new legislation to regulate digital assets, but pulled back after the Federal Reserve left interest rates unchanged and warned of slowing economic growth.

Ethereum (ETH) was priced at US$3,764.26, down by 0.1 percent over the past 24 hours. Its lowest valuation on Wednesday was US$3,708.13, and its highest was US$3,820.17.

Altcoin price update

• Solana (SOL) was priced at US$176.09, down by 2.9 percent over 24 hours. Its lowest valuation on Wednesday was US$173.22, and its highest was US$179.83.

• XRP was trading for US$3.10, down by 0.6 percent in the past 24 hours. Its lowest valuation of the day was US$3.04, and its highest valuation was US$3.15.

• Sui (SUI) is trading at US$3.77, down 1.3 percent over the past 24 hours. Its lowest valuation of the day was US$3.66, and its highest was US$3.81.

• Cardano (ADA) was trading at US$0.7600, down by 2.3 percent over 24 hours. Its lowest valuation on Wednesday was US$0.7414, and its highest was US$0.7759.

Today’s crypto news to know

Ethereum marks a decade since launch

Ethereum marked its 10th anniversary on July 30 with growing corporate interest in Ether as a potential treasury reserve asset.

The Ethereum network launched in 2015 and has since maintained uninterrupted uptime, becoming the backbone of the decentralized finance (DeFi) movement. In the lead-up to the anniversary, Ether’s price approached US$4,000, driven in part by renewed institutional inflows and growing confidence in the asset’s long-term utility.

The Ethereum Foundation will commemorate the milestone by issuing celebratory NFTs and organizing more than 100 events globally.

A live broadcast featuring Vitalik Buterin, Joseph Lubin, and Tim Beiko will also be hosted to reflect on the network’s origins and future direction.

SEC greenlights in-kind ETP creations and redemptions

On Tuesday, July 29, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) gave its approval for in-kind creations and redemptions by authorized participants for crypto asset exchange-traded products (ETPs).

“It’s a new day at the SEC, and a key priority of my chairmanship is developing a fit-for-purpose regulatory framework for crypto asset markets,” said Chairman Paul Atkins in the announcement. “Investors will benefit from these approvals, as they will make these products less costly and more efficient.

“Today’s approvals continue to build a rational regulatory framework for crypto, leading to a deeper and more dynamic market, which will benefit all American investors. This decision aligns with the standard practices for similar ETPs.”

Authorized institutions can now directly exchange crypto assets like Bitcoin or Ethereum for shares of a crypto ETP, and vice versa, making these products more efficient and potentially cheaper to manage than when only cash transactions were allowed.

Senator Lummis proposes bill to allow digital assets for mortgages

In a Tuesday notice, Wyoming Senator Cynthia Lummis introduced the 21st Century Mortgage Act, a law that could compel mortgage purchasers to consider digital assets in applications.

Lummis said her proposed bill would initiate congressional action following a June order from the US Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) that mandated US mortgage purchasers Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac “consider cryptocurrency as an asset for single-family loans.”

“This legislation embraces an innovative path to wealth-building, keeping in mind the growing number of young Americans who possess digital assets,” said Lummis.

A similar crypto mortgage proposal, the American Homeowner Crypto Modernization Act, was introduced by Republican Representative Nancy Mace on July 14. Mace’s proposed bill would mandate that mortgage lenders incorporate the value of a borrower’s digital assets held in cryptocurrency brokerage accounts into their mortgage credit evaluations.

The bill is one of three that the US Senate may consider after a month-long recess, alongside a digital asset market structure bill and a bill aimed at barring the Federal Reserve from launching a central bank digital currency.

eToro expands 24/5 trading and tokenizes US stocks

Trading platform eToro has announced plans to expand its current 24/5 trading for 100 popular US stocks and ETFs, meaning customers can now trade these assets five days a week, almost around the clock, even outside regular market hours.

Co-founder and CEO Yoni Assia spoke with Yahoo Finance Executive Editor Brian Sozzi about the move on Tuesday (July 29).

“We’re expanding a lot of the trading universe and trading hours on the eToro platform. Announced today, more 24-hour stock trading on the platform, as well as near 24/5 trading on exchange CME traded futures, a new type of futures product,” Assia said.

“That’s very exciting for our users worldwide. And very excited also about revamping tokenization in eToro, launching those 100 stocks that trade 24/5 on the eToro platform as tokenized assets, gradually available to people with the eToro crypto wallet.”

The company also announced the launch of tokenized versions of these same US stocks as ERC20 tokens on the Ethereum blockchain.

This will eventually enable true 24/7 trading and transfers, and is part of eToro’s strategy to tokenize all assets on their platform and integrate them into the broader decentralized finance world. They’re also rolling out spot-quoted futures with CME Group, a simpler futures product, currently in Europe, with plans for wider availability.

Trump Working Group calls for aggressive federal action on crypto markets

A White House-appointed working group on digital asset markets has released a sweeping set of recommendations to overhaul US crypto policy, according to a preview.

The group, established under an executive order by Donald Trump in January, urged Congress to pass the Digital Asset Market Clarity Act and called on regulators to use existing powers to support immediate crypto market growth.

The report recommends that the Commodity Futures Trading Commission be granted broader oversight over spot markets for non-security tokens and that safe harbor provisions be used to accelerate product launches.

It also advises federal banking regulators to clarify permissible crypto-related bank activities and modernize capital rules to reflect token-based risks.

The Trump administration said the proposals would help ensure US leadership in the “blockchain revolution” and usher in a “Golden Age of Crypto.”

JPMorgan to let Chase customers buy Crypto via Coinbase

JPMorgan Chase (NYSE:JPM)has announced a major partnership with Coinbase that will allow Chase credit card users to purchase cryptocurrencies directly from the exchange.

The service is expected to roll out in fall 2025, with full account-linking functionality available by 2026. Customers will also be able to redeem Chase credit card reward points for USDC, a stablecoin pegged to the US dollar.

The move marks a notable shift in the firm’s stance toward crypto, going from a cautious observer to an active participant in retail-focused blockchain infrastructure.

With crypto’s total market cap recently crossing US$4 trillion, large banks are now racing to integrate digital asset capabilities into their core offerings.

What is Ethereum and who invented it?

Co-founder Buterin said in a 2016 interview that Ethereum was born out of admiration for Bitcoin’s decentralized structure and frustration at its limited capabilities.

“I thought [those in the Bitcoin community] weren’t approaching the problem in the right way. I thought they were going after individual applications; they were trying to kind of explicitly support each [use case] in a sort of Swiss Army knife protocol,” Buterin said, summarizing his motivation to build something more adaptable.

From this foundational idea, Ethereum emerged as a decentralized, programmable blockchain — a “world computer” that would host smart contracts and decentralized applications (dApps), cutting out middlemen and enabling new forms of coordination.

The foundation of the fledgling project was laid between 2013 and 2014. After releasing his white paper in late 2013, Buterin attracted a handful of co-founders, including Gavin Wood, Charles Hoskinson, Joseph Lubin, Anthony Di Iorio, Jeffrey Wilcke, Mihai Alisie, and Amir Chetrit. Together, they spearheaded a crowdfunding campaign in mid-2014 that raised over US$18 million, one of the earliest and most successful Initial Coin Offerings (ICOs) in crypto history.

Despite this momentum, the Ethereum blockchain didn’t launch until July 30, 2015. That release, dubbed “Frontier,” was a basic, raw, and developer-focused version of Ethereum designed for building the infrastructure that would follow.

ETH, Ethereum’s native coin, initially traded for under a dollar. The early months saw little market movement as ETH hovered between US$0.70 and US$2.00, supported mainly by enthusiasts and developers interested in dApp potential.

When was Ethereum’s first major peak?

Ethereum’s first major price rally came during the 2017 crypto bull run, when rising global interest in blockchain technology and the initial coin offering (ICO) boom brought ETH into the mainstream.

After beginning the year at just barely US$8, Ethereum surged to a then-record high of around US$1,400 by January 2018, capping off one of the most explosive price increases in the history of digital assets. This more than 17,000 percent rise was driven by a combination of speculative demand and the emergence of Ethereum as the preferred platform for launching new tokens via ICOs.

By early 2018, however, the market began to reverse. A sweeping crypto correction saw Ethereum’s price fall back below US$100 by the end of that year. The drawdown exposed Ethereum’s technical bottlenecks, such as high gas fees and slow confirmation times during network congestion.

What was the DAO Hack, and how did it influence Ethereum’s trajectory?

Ethereum’s ethos of decentralization was also tested early on. In 2016, an experiment in decentralized governance — the Decentralized Autonomous Organization or DAO — raised about US$150 million in ETH from the community. The idea was to create a venture capital fund governed entirely by smart contracts and token-holder votes.

But just weeks after launch, a vulnerability in the DAO’s code that allowed for recursive call exploit was discovered, draining 3.6 million ETH or about a third of the fund.

At just ten months old, Ethereum was now facing a crisis that tested its fundamental principles, chief among them the immutability of the blockchain and the inviolability of smart contracts.

Three primary responses were debated. One option was to do nothing, honoring the hacker’s actions as legitimate under the rules of the code and accepting the theft. Another was to implement a “soft fork” that would blacklist the child DAO’s address, effectively freezing the stolen funds.

The most radical option was a “hard fork” that would roll back the ledger and return all stolen Ether to the original investors, which would undo the hack entirely.

Ultimately, the hard fork went ahead, and Ethereum split into two chains: the main Ethereum chain (ETH), where the funds were returned to investors, and a new chain called Ethereum Classic (ETC), which preserved the original ledger including the DAO hack.

How has Ethereum performed post-2020?

Ethereum price performance July 30, 2015 – June 30, 2025.

Chart via TradingView.

Ethereum reached its all-time high price of US$4,878 on November 10, 2021, during the peak of the 2020–2021 crypto bull run. The rally was driven by a convergence of factors: institutional adoption of crypto, a massive expansion of decentralized finance (DeFi), and explosive interest in NFTs, most of which were built on Ethereum’s ERC-721 standard.

By late 2021, Ethereum was settling billions in daily transaction volume and powering thousands of decentralized applications, cementing its position as the leading smart contract platform.

However, the peak was short-lived. Inflation fears and global risk aversion in early 2022 triggered a sharp correction across risk assets, including crypto. Ethereum’s price dipped below US$1,000 in June 2022 amid cascading liquidations and platform collapses like Terra and Celsius.

Still, even through the drawdown, Ethereum remained the backbone of DeFi, NFT markets, and layer-2 innovation, setting the stage for its long-planned transition to proof-of-stake later that year.

In the years that followed the fork, Ethereum faced growing pressure to scale and reduce its environmental impact, particularly as DeFi and NFT activity surged.

These challenges set the stage for a major protocol overhaul: Ethereum’s transition from Proof-of-Work (PoW) to Proof-of-Stake (PoS) was considered to be one of the most ambitious technical feats in blockchain history. Officially known as “the Merge,” the upgrade combined Ethereum’s execution layer (the mainnet) with the Beacon Chain, which introduced staking-based consensus.

The Merge took place in September 2022 and the environmental impact was immediate: Ethereum’s energy consumption dropped by over 99 percent.

While the Merge had little short-term effect on price, it marked a crucial moment for Ethereum’s long-term viability. At the time of the upgrade, ETH was trading at around US$1,600, which was a sharp decline from its all-time high of US$4,891 in November 2021 during the height of the crypto bull market.

That price peak had been driven by unprecedented network demand as NFTs and decentralized finance exploded in popularity, both largely built on Ethereum. By mid-2022, however, macroeconomic tightening, rising interest rates, and a series of high-profile crypto failures, including the collapse of TerraUSD and the insolvency of major lending platforms, had triggered a broad downturn.

After the Merge, ETH remained volatile. It already lost ground by as much as 70 percent against crypto leader Bitcoin since the Merge, and the introduction of EIP-1559 in 2021 had already created a more deflationary pressure on ETH supply through base fee burns.

Despite this setback, ETH showed relative resilience compared to many altcoins. In 2023, Ethereum hovered mostly between US$1,200 and US$2,100, with price movements closely tracking investor sentiment toward regulatory developments, Bitcoin’s performance, and broader market liquidity. Institutional interest in Ethereum also grew during this period, with more funds launching ETH products and staking services expanding.

Entering 2024, Ethereum gained momentum amid improving macroeconomic conditions and renewed optimism about real-world applications for blockchain technology. The network saw moderate success in sectors like tokenized assets, layer-2 infrastructure, and decentralized identity.

ETH briefly reclaimed the US$4,000 level in early March 2024 before retreating again due to renewed regulatory scrutiny in the US. Despite the pullback, Ethereum remained the second-largest cryptoasset by market capitalization and retained the majority share of developer activity across all chains.

The 2025 Swing

Ethereum 1-year price performance, July 28, 2024 – July 28, 2025.

Chart via TradingView.

Ethereum, as well as the rest of the crypto landscape, saw a full positive swing in 2025 as regulatory clarity dominated the first half of the year.

In June, the US Senate approved the Guiding and Establishing National Innovation for US Stablecoins (GENIUS) Act with bipartisan support. President Donald Trump, now serving his second term, publicly backed the bill, calling it “a win for American innovation and financial leadership.”

The GENIUS Act establishes a regulatory framework for US-pegged stablecoins, requiring full reserve backing, independent audits, and federal licensing for large issuers. It also clarifies that qualifying stablecoins are not securities, pulling them out of the SEC’s jurisdiction and instead aligning oversight with banking regulators like the OCC and Federal Reserve.

Crucially, the law defines “payment stablecoins” as a new category of digital cash, and Ethereum has emerged as one of the largest beneficiaries of this policy shift. The majority of dollar-backed stablecoins, which include USDC, USDT, and newer entrants like PayPal USD, are issued and transacted on Ethereum.

The GENIUS Act’s legal recognition of stablecoins has given institutional players more confidence to engage with Ethereum-based infrastructure.

As a result, capital inflows into Ethereum have accelerated, with analysts noting a sharp uptick in demand for ETH as a “platform asset” powering tokenized dollars and digital settlement rails.

ETH’s price also soon followed. Following the Senate’s approval of the GENIUS Act in June 2025, ETH jumped over 25 percent in two weeks, briefly reaching US$3,824 — outperforming Bitcoin and breaking out of a multi-month consolidation range.

The act has also prompted strategic shifts among financial institutions. BlackRock, Fidelity, and JPMorgan have expanded their Ethereum-based offerings, including on-chain fund administration, tokenized treasuries, and collateralized lending protocols that rely on smart contracts.

Several US banks are also piloting internal payment rails using tokenized dollars on Ethereum rollups.

What’s next for Ethereum?

Buterin himself has acknowledged that Ethereum’s current roadmap is not the end. Speaking in late 2022 before the Merge, he noted that “Ethereum is 55 percent complete.”

The long-term vision includes greater privacy features, zero-knowledge proofs for secure scalability, and expanding the reach of dApps to a billion users.

As of mid-2025, Ethereum currently trades around US$3,400, buoyed by strong institutional adoption, continued growth of layer-2 networks like Arbitrum and Base, and early signs of real-world asset tokenization gaining traction among banks and fintech firms.

While Ethereum’s price remains well below its 2021 peak, its performance since 2020 reflects growing maturity, with fewer speculative surges and more interest anchored in a more crypto-friendly environment.