This week in crypto and AI, Strategy continues its Bitcoin accumulation, Kite AI secures $18 million to advance decentralized AI infrastructure, Trust Wallet rolls out tokenized stocks and ETFs, and Anthropic’s Claude AI expands into crypto operations with a $183 billion valuation. We break down the key developments, technical insights, and expert perspectives.
Top Gainers and Losers
MemeCore (M) - impressive results this week. Rising up by 26.87% to the price of $1.57.
Pump.fun (PUMP) - Is coming right after it with a typical rise of 9.97% and price of $0.004638.
XDC Network (XDC) - in third place this week with its 5.66% and $ 0.0825 total price.
Ethena (ENA) - the biggest loss of this week -4.12%, with a total end price of $0.6711.
Aave (AAVE) - followed by AAVE with 4.06%, and total price of $310.37.
Vaulta (A) - significant -2.36% this week with total price of $0.466.
Strategy adds $449m in bitcoin, slowing August pace
Michael Saylor’s Strategy, the world’s largest corporate holder of Bitcoin, disclosed a fresh $449.3 million purchase last week, adding 4,048 BTC at an average of $110,981 each, according to a US Securities and Exchange Commission filing. This lifts the firm’s total reserves to 636,505 BTC, worth roughly $70 billion at current prices, with an average entry of $73,765 per coin.
In total, Strategy acquired 7,714 BTC in August, a sharp drop from July’s 31,466 BTC. The firm funded the purchases through ongoing at-the-market equity offerings, a method co-founder Michael Saylor once described as part of the company’s “Bitcoin defense department.”
The Bitcoin Defense Department pic.twitter.com/fT9l35Vhuh
— Michael Saylor (@saylor) July 23, 2025
Despite the continued accumulation, Strategy’s shares have slipped to multi-month lows, down more than 16% since July earnings. Commentators note the buy signal continued long-term conviction, while others warn that reliance on equity offerings can pressure the stock and raise dilution concerns, an argument reflected in recent analyst coverage and reporting on investor sentiment.
Paypal Ventures leads an $18 million series for Kite AI to build agents' infrastructure
Kite AI, a decentralized AI infrastructure startup led by PayPal Ventures secured $18 million in a Series A round led by PayPal Ventures and General Catalyst, bringing its total funding to $33 million as it expands infrastructure for autonomous AI agents in Web3. Other participating investors include 8VC, Samsung Next, SBI US Gateway Fund, Vertex Ventures, Hashed, HashKey Capital, Avalanche Foundation, LayerZero, and Animoca Brands.
The funding fuels Kite’s AIR (Agent Identity Resolution) platform, a system enabling AI agents to authenticate, transact via programmable identities and stablecoins, and operate under enforced policies. AIR comprises an Agent Passport (cryptographic identity with guardrails) and an Agent App Store (for service discovery and on-chain payments). PayPal and Shopify integrations are already in pilot, with merchants becoming discoverable to AI shopping agents.
Kite co-founder and CEO Chi Zhang frames the future plainly:
“Today’s human-centric systems are too rigid and brittle for swarms of agents conducting micro-transactions at machine speed.”
Alan Du of PayPal Ventures adds:
“Kite bridges [the] critical gap by providing stablecoin-based, millisecond-level settlement.”
This investment marks a shift toward what some developers call the “agentic web,” where autonomous software agents can manage transactions and interactions without human intervention.
While the model is still in its early stages, Kite’s focus on identity verification and stablecoin settlement provides a structural backbone for such ecosystems. Competing projects like Anoma emphasize intent-based infrastructure for agents to translate high-level goals into blockchain actions, while experimental apps such as Clanker have shown that consumer-facing AI agents can already generate significant transaction volumes, over $34 million in fees in a single month by launching tokens on demand. Against this backdrop, Kite positions itself not just as another AI-Web3 crossover, but as one of the first to tackle the critical rails of identity, trust, and payments needed for large-scale agent economies.
CZ-owned Trust wallet enables tokenized stocks and ETFs
Trust Wallet, a self-custodial wallet founded by Binance co-founder Changpeng “CZ” Zhao, has launched support for tokenized U.S. stocks and ETFs through a partnership with Ondo Finance and 1inch, tokenized stocks and ETFs are powered by smart contracts on the Ethereum blockchain, with Solana support planned soon.
The integration utilizes the 1inch Swap API to facilitate seamless and secure transactions within the Trust Wallet app. Users can trade tokenized versions of U.S. equities and ETFs, such as Tesla (TSLA), Apple (AAPL), and the Invesco QQQ Trust (QQQ), directly from their self-custodial wallets. The minimum investment is $1, and transactions are settled using stablecoins like USDC.
Trust Wallet CEO Eowyn Chen explained that integrating RWAs into self-custodial wallets is a critical step toward democratizing financial markets. Marketing head Sami Waittinen told, adding:
“Ondo brings the assets, 1inch powers the rails, and Trust Wallet makes it accessible in self-custody.”
Self-custody can extend beyond crypto, giving users direct access to traditional assets while maintaining control.
Lucien Bourdon, an analyst at the hardware wallet company Trezor, distinguished two perspectives when addressing the mix of self-custody and RWAs.
“If a blockchain supports real-world asset tokens, any self-custodial hardware wallet that supports that chain can hold them securely,” Bourdon said.
It’s a step toward broader financial inclusion and a glimpse of how DeFi and traditional finance can work together.
Anthropic valuation triples to $183b as claude ai expands into crypto
Anthropic, the AI developer behind the Claude family of large language models, has reached a $183 billion valuation following a $13 billion Series F funding round co-led by ICONIQ Capital, Fidelity Management & Lightspeed Venture Partners. Other notable backers include Goldman Sachs Growth Equity, BlackRock-affiliated funds, Baillie Gifford, and Jane Street. The valuation is more than three times higher than Anthropic’s reported $61.5 billion value earlier in 2025, demonstrating strong market confidence in the potential of AI.
Anthropic’s Claude is a large language model designed to process vast amounts of data, reason across complex scenarios, and generate actionable insights. Coinbase uses Claude to enhance customer support and operational workflows, praising its competitive results, while Crypto.com leverages Claude 3 via Amazon Bedrock for real-time market sentiment analysis. The company’s revenue run rate has surpassed $5 billion, with over 300,000 business customers, including deployments in the cryptocurrency sector. AI tools like Claude could become foundational for crypto firms needing 24/7 compliance and monitoring.
Though Anthropic’s ties to blockchain remain limited, the adoption of Claude by major exchanges demonstrates AI’s growing role in crypto operations. Fraud detection and regulatory compliance to customer service efficiency, this funding and expansion shows both the rapid commercialization of AI and its increasing intersection with digital asset markets.
Roman Zaika
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