Bonzo Bytes Newsletter - #36 🐵🗞️

Hello, Bonzo Community!

Welcome to another edition of Bonzo Bytes! Last Friday's 𝕏 Space covered major milestones — from Bonzo Vaults audits officially starting, to HBAR's Robinhood listing bringing millions of new users to Hedera. Plus, we had great community discussions about vault mechanics and future plans.

Listen to this week’s 𝕏 Space recording: July 25 Bonzo Bytes Space

🔍 Bonzo Vaults Audits Officially Underway

The Bonzo Vaults smart contracts have been submitted to Halborn for security auditing. The audit process is moving quickly, with completion expected within a few weeks.

Brady recently had an in-depth conversation with The HBAR Bull about what Bonzo Vaults will bring to the ecosystem. As Brady explained, this was one of the first full-length interviews discussing how Bonzo Vaults ties into the overarching mission of Bonzo Finance, becoming The Liquidity Layer of Hedera.

🥩 $BONZO Staking Hits All-Time High

Over 28 million $BONZO governance tokens are staked on app.bonzo.finance/stake, representing close to one-third of the total circulating supply.

Adding the 41 million $BONZO tokens supplied to the lending protocol, "almost 60 to 70% of $BONZO are locked right now, which is really great," as Gaurang pointed out.

🛒 Premium Bonzo Merch Coming Soon

The team is putting serious effort into an upcoming merchandise drop. As Brady explained, "We didn't want to approach this the way a lot of other companies do, where they slap a logo onto a mediocre T-shirt and ship it."

Instead, Bonzo is working with a designer based in Milan, Italy, who has worked with some top-tier brands. "We wanted to create something that people feel really good about – that they feel good about wearing and is high quality" Brady shared.

The designs are "more of an expression of who we are as a community and what Bonzo is as a protocol, and the feelings and values associated with it."

📊 Bonzo Finance TVL & Scoreboard Update

Track Bonzo Finance on DeFiLlama: https://defillama.com/protocol/bonzo-finance

🪶 HBAR Listed on Robinhood

Robinhood officially added HBAR trading support on July 25th, making it the 29th cryptocurrency available on the platform.

The move allows retail users to buy, sell, and hold Hedera’s native token, HBAR, without needing third-party wallets or exchanges, representing part of Robinhood's broader strategy to attract retail investors by including emerging altcoins alongside major assets like Bitcoin, Ethereum, XRP, and Solana.

The listing sent HBAR trading volumes sharply higher, with a mid-day breakout around 12:00 UTC on July 25 pushing prices through the $0.26 mark amid more than 713 million tokens traded in a single hour. The exchange had previously listed HBAR for EU customers in January, making this the completion of full US market access.

The timing coincides with broader crypto-friendly regulatory momentum and may be connected to Robinhood's acquisition of Bitstamp last year, where HBAR was already listed.

Read more: Robinhood US lists Hedera HBAR

💰 Hedera Consensus Service Price Update

Hedera announced its first transaction fee adjustment since 2019. HCS ConsensusSubmitMessage prices increase from $0.0001 to $0.0008 USD - an 8x increase taking effect January 2026.

Brady provided context: "One of the things that [Y Combinator] advises is — often people are scared or companies are scared to raise their prices... but doing so is an important part of growth, adoption, and revenue optimization."

He noted this reflects broader Layer 1 network maturation: "We're starting to enter an era where Layer 1 networks are having to prove their fundamentals, prove their adoption, prove that their network revenue equates to some degree of sustainability."

Read more in the Hedera blog post: Price Update to ConsensusSubmitMessage in Consensus Service

🪐 Orbit Trading Platform Launches Next Week

The all-in-one DeFi trading platform is set to go live next week, featuring real-time analytics, one-click execution, and limit orders. Brady explained it's not a SaucerSwap competitor but rather "a layer above it that allows for additional functionality of limit orders and analytics and new ways for people to engage the SaucerSwap protocol."

📱 Telegram Launches TON Wallet in the US

Telegram rolled out its self-custodial crypto wallet to 87 million US users - the first crypto wallet embedded directly in a mainstream messaging platform. The move signals growing regulatory clarity under the new administration.

Read more on CoinTelegraph: TON Wallet goes live for Telegram users in US

🏫 Understanding Real World Assets (RWAs)

Real World Assets (RWAs) represent tangible assets tokenized on blockchain networks to enable fractional ownership and increased liquidity. The RWA sector has reached $12.7 billion in total value locked as of June 2025, driven primarily by fiat-backed stablecoins ($224.9 billion), tokenized treasuries ($5.5 billion), and commodity-backed tokens ($1.9 billion).

Key Benefits: RWAs unlock stable yields less correlated with crypto volatility, increase global investor access by lowering entry barriers, and enable fractional ownership of high-value assets like real estate and gold.

Growth Areas: Commodity-backed tokens (primarily gold) grew 67.8% to $1.9 billion, while private credit protocols recovered to $558.3 million in active loans, led by Maple Finance's 67% market share.

Challenges include regulatory hurdles, reliance on centralized asset management, and untested legal frameworks for tokenization contracts.

Read more on Coin Gecko: What Are Real World Assets (RWA)? A Complete Guide for 2025

🎙️ Monthly Bonzo AMA 𝕏 Space - Friday, August 1 at 12 PM ET

Join us on Friday for the monthly Bonzo Finance AMA. Submit a question for the team here.

Set a reminder on 𝕏

🍌 Bonzo Points Season 3 Ends - September 3, 2025

Supply and borrow to maximize your point accumulation before the final Bonzo Points season ends.

Thank you for being part of Bonzo Finance and the Hedera DeFi 2.0 journey.

- The Bonzo Finance Team

The views shared in this newsletter are personal opinions and do not represent official Bonzo Finance advice. Any forward-looking statements about Bonzo Finance and its associated projects involve risks and uncertainties. Please do your own research and consult a professional before making any investment decisions. Bonzo Finance is not liable for any actions taken based on the information provided.