Cointelegraph

Japan’s JGB yield now at 30-year high
Global long-term bond yields are now at the highest level since the 2008 financial crisis as major long-dated sovereign bonds continued to sell off into trading on Tuesday.
The sell off comes only days after US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent made headlines by announcing that the maximum size of debt buyback transactions would be increased to $4 billion from September.
While the Treasury does not conduct monetary policy, some commentators have compared this to a form of yield curve control. This has brought the debasement narrative, keenly followed by Bitcoin and precious metal investors, back into the spotlight.
https://x.com/TFTC21/status/2094786021401493831
Japan’s 10-year government bond yield surged to 3% for the first time since 1996 on Tuesday, while the 30-year JGB yield topped a record 4.18%. The 10-year US bond yield also surged to a new multi-year high and stands at 4.78% at the time of writing.
10-Year Japanese government bond. Source: TradingView
Officials in both countries face a mutual bind with respect to the Japanese yen: Tokyo can neither raise policy rates without incurring an operating loss that ultimately hits the Finance ministry, nor repatriate capital without divesting the Treasury securities on which Washington’s financing depends.
Industry commentators such as Arthur Hayes have argued for years that the Fed will eventually use its Foreign and International Monetary Authorities (FIMA) repo facility. Through this swap line, Japan’s Finance ministry could borrow dollars against its Treasury holdings and sell them for yen, strengthening the currency without causing an imminent sovereign bond crisis.
This mechanism would create new dollar liquidity, which is why Hayes recommends positioning in Bitcoin (BTC), gold and crypto. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent hinted at the future use of the FIMA facility in August.
Rising long-term yields may be the first sign that Hayes’s scenario is being priced in. Robin Brooks, senior fellow at the Brookings Institution commented on X: “For the past two years, Japan has been in a “Liz Truss” bond market crisis whereby its currency falls even as government bond yields go ever higher. We’ve never had a major G10 sovereign experience something like this and it’s deeply destabilizing…”
10-year interest swap rate and trade-weighted JPY.
Source: Robin Brooks on X.com
Bitcoin continues sideways movement
In the face of Tuesday’s bond sell-off, Bitcoin has been trading sideways near the $78,000 mark, following a minor corrective decline from its morning high close to $79,000.
Cointelegraph previously reported on a thick patch of resistance between the current spot price and $86,000. This has slowed Bitcoin’s upside momentum despite positive news and renewed interest in the debasement trade.
Overall sentiment across recent reports remains mixed to cautiously optimistic in the short term after the strong August recovery, with the $76,000-$82,000 range as the key battleground for the coming weeks.
S&P 500 index futures sold off by 0.3% on Tuesday and the gauge now hovers around 7,660, the lowest level since Aug. 4. This comes as tensions in the Iran war flare up once more. Oil prices rose more than 2%, with WTI around $88 per barrel and Brent above $92, fueled by renewed US-Iran fighting, including strikes, tanker incidents in the Strait of Hormuz, and comments from President Donald Trump.
S&P 500 out-of-hours futures. Source: X.com

A fake Claude desktop application is being used to distribute RevStealer, a Windows malware strain built to steal crypto, password and browser data.
According to a Monday report by cybersecurity company Morphisec, RevStealer was previously distributed through GitHub repositories and game-cheat-themed sites but the most notable is a fake “Claude Opus 5 Free Desktop” project that impersonates AI developer Anthropic and promises free access to Claude. The researchers noted that the malware is designed to leave few traces and searches browser databases, cookies, password-manager records, VPN and remote-access settings, messaging data, screenshots and selected documents. RevStealer also targets over 50 cryptocurrency wallets.
The malware checks whether the machine looks like a real user device before unlocking its malicious payload, looking at available memory, the number of processor cores, hostname, username and graphics hardware. It also monitors for the debugging delays typical of malware analysis environment.
If RevStealer detects anything out of the ordinary, it does not move on to the next stages of infection and malicious activity. If the system passes those checks, the payload is decrypted, stored under a random name and covertly executed.
The report follows the discovery by Russian cybersecurity company Kaspersky of a new malware framework targeting cryptocurrency investors called OkoBot, which can harvest crypto wallet files, browser data and user credentials, inject malicious extensions and capture wallet application windows to steal assets.

Blockchain enterprise solutions provider Ripple has partnered with digital asset infrastructure company SettleMint to offer financial institutions solutions for custody, issuance and management of tokenized assets across their full lifecycle.
The strategic partnership will integrate Ripple’s institutional digital asset custody infrastructure, Ripple Custody, and SettleMint’s Digital Asset Lifecycle Platform (DALP) to offer institutions a less complex way to secure digital assets, Ripple announced on Tuesday.
A day earlier, digital asset service provider Coincheck Group partnered with wallet infrastructure provider DFNS to build digital asset wallet technology and custody services in Japan.
DFNS’s wallet-as-a-service offers institutions full transaction lifecycle management, including workflow orchestration and governance controls, under a single platform that supports more than 100 blockchain networks.
Both partnerships are seeking to build more institutional digital asset services to address the infrastructure gap hindering the entry of regulated financial institutions.
The Asia-Pacific region ranked as the fastest-growing area for onchain crypto activity and experienced a 69% year-over-year increase in value received, according to Chainalysis’ 2025 global adoption index.
Many countries in the region are developing their own cryptocurrency regulatory frameworks. In July, Japan’s parliament passed revisions that classify crypto assets as financial assets under Japan’s Financial Instruments and Exchange Act.
Japanese Finance Minister Satsuki Katayama signaled the intent to bring crypto under the same umbrella as traditional finance assets in January, to ensure that citizens will “benefit from digital and blockchain-based assets.”

Stablecoin payments company Kast has launched a platform combining business accounts, payment cards, cross-border transfers and yield-bearing balances on stablecoin rails.
Kast said its KAST Business platform allows companies to receive funds through fiat virtual accounts provided by regulated partners, deposit supported stablecoins and crypto, issue virtual cards and make local payouts in more than 20 currencies. The company said it serves more than 170 countries, although availability varies by jurisdiction.
The platform offers up to 8% annual percentage yield on idle balances, which Kast says is generated through short-term US Treasurys and stablecoin yield, alongside up to 3% cashback on purchases.
Kast is a financial technology company rather than a bank, with regulated services provided through licensed partner institutions.
The launch comes after Kast raised $80 million at a reported $600 million valuation in March. The company said it would use the funding to develop products, secure licenses and expand across North America, Latin America and the Middle East.
Kast subsequently hired former US Securities and Exchange Commission adviser Stephanie Allen to lead policy communications as it prepared the business-platform rollout.
Kast claims more than 1 million users and aims to onboard between 1,000 and 5,000 active businesses by the end of 2026.

Crypto wallet addresses linked to the North Korean state-affiliated hacker collective Lazarus Group moved $30 million in digital assets through the decentralized exchange Hyperliquid.
The Lazarus-tagged wallets sent funds to Hyperliquid and HyperUnit via Bitcoin (BTC), traded them into Ether (ETH) or Solana (SOL) and bridged them out to Tron, Solana or the Ethereum network, according to blockchain data shared by Arkham analyst Emmett Gallic in a Monday X post.
https://x.com/emmettgallic/status/2094529501493383311
Ultimately, the deposits were sent to crypto exchanges KuCoin and Kraken, as well as Lbank, along with several unlabeled services based on the Tron network.
The transfers occurred weeks after US President Donald Trump said that Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) Chair Michael Selig was working on a regulatory pathway to introduce Hyperliquid into US markets, according to a speech during a White House event on Aug. 16.
The Lazarus Group is the main suspect in some of the largest-ever cryptocurrency hacks, including the $1.4 billion hack of Bybit exchange in 2025, the industry’s largest so far.
North Korea-linked threat actors were tied to at least $578 million of the $634 million stolen in crypto-related incidents in April.

The London Stock Exchange (LSE) and cryptocurrency exchange Kraken are reportedly launching tokenized stock trading on the stock market operator’s new night-time trading venue.
The LSE has partnered with Kraken’s parent company, Payward, to launch access to tokenized stocks tracking the value of leading UK equity products starting in 2027, Payward’s chief commercial officer, Mark Greenberg, told the Financial Times according to a Tuesday report.
The tokenized stocks will be listed on LSE’s new night-time trading venue, LSE 24, that will offer 24/5 trading, operating from Mondays to Fridays, the company announced on July 21.
The initiative makes the London bourse the latest traditional exchange operator to explore blockchain-based stock offerings that can be traded 24 hours a day with fractional ownership. Other traditional finance (TradFi) institutions exploring tokenized equity products include the Nasdaq, CME Group and the Intercontinental Exchange (ICE), the parent company of the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE).
In August, Nasdaq agreed to acquire LeveL Markets, the third-largest alternative trading system in the US by trading volume, as part of its push into tokenized markets with round-the-clock trading.
TradFi companies deepen tokenization push
Some of the world’s largest TradFi institutions have been exploring tokenized stock offerings.
In March, Nasdaq, the world’s second-largest stock exchange by market capitalization, partnered with Payward and its Backed subsidiary, the issuer behind xStocks, to develop an equities transformation gateway. The plan builds on Nasdaq’s tokenization proposal filed with US securities regulators in September 2025.
A week earlier, ICE invested in crypto exchange OKX to bring NYSE-listed tokenized stocks to the exchange starting from the second quarter of 2026.
In April, Deutsche Börse invested $200 million in Payward, as part of the German exchange operator’s plans to offer access to a wider array of blockchain-based securities and tokenized investment products and build on its prior partnership with Kraken.
In January, CME Group, the largest derivatives exchange by volume, announced plans to launch crypto futures contracts tied to Cardano (ADA), Chainlink LINK and Stellar (XLM). Three months later, CME announced plans to add Avalanche AVAX and Sui SUI futures contracts starting May 4, subject to regulatory approval.
Tokenized stocks, total value onchain, all-time chart. Source: RWA.xyz
The value of tokenized stocks increased by 15% in the past 30 days to $2.53 billion, while the number of tokenized equity holders grew by 153% to 2.45 million, according to data provider RWA.xyz.
Magazine: What NYSE’s exploration of onchain systems means for financial markets

Bitfinex Securities, the tokenized investment platform associated with crypto exchange Bitfinex, has listed five tokenized notes giving eligible investors exposure to Strategy, Metaplanet and other publicly traded Bitcoin treasury companies.
The trading platform announced that the products track the economic performance of shares in Strategy, Metaplanet, Sweden’s H100 Group and France’s Capital B. Bitfinex Securities also listed Strategy’s variable-rate perpetual preferred stock, STRC.
Bitfinex Securities described the launch as the first time such products have been made available for secondary trading on a regulated tokenized securities exchange.
The notes were issued through ORO (II), a Luxembourg umbrella securitization fund managed by SICOS Securities. According to Bitfinex Securities, they are backed by the underlying securities, which are held with regulated financial institutions, but do not give investors direct ownership of the corresponding company shares.
Bitfinex Securities said fractional exposure is available from about $1, with the products trading against the US dollar, Tether’s USDt (USDT) and Bitcoin (BTC). However, availability is limited to eligible investors and excludes US persons.
The listings follow Bitfinex Securities’ record $50 million tokenized capital raise for metals company Alkemya in August. The platform said its listed assets now exceed $500 million.

The Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) is reconsidering its earlier restriction on stablecoins issued across multiple jurisdictions, proposing a route for some jointly issued tokens to qualify under its regulatory framework.
MAS opened a public consultation on Tuesday, covering legislative amendments to implement its stablecoin framework and additional policy proposals reflecting developments since 2023.
Under one proposal, stablecoins jointly issued by a Singapore issuer and a foreign issuer could be regulated under the framework and labeled “MAS-regulated stablecoins,” provided that the associated risks are sufficiently mitigated.
MAS is also considering recognizing a limited number of foreign-issued stablecoins regulated under comparable overseas frameworks, citing their potential use in cross-border wholesale transactions.
The proposals revisit MAS’s 2023 position that qualifying stablecoins must be issued solely in Singapore. The regulator finalized a framework that year covering single-currency stablecoins issued in Singapore and pegged to the Singapore dollar or a G10 currency.
At the time, MAS cited difficulties establishing regulatory equivalence and cooperation with other jurisdictions. It also noted technical challenges in tracing where commingled stablecoins originated and determining whether overseas reserves would be sufficient to meet redemption requests.
MAS proposes additional issuer safeguards
The broader consultation seeks to implement the 2023 stablecoin framework through amendments to the Payment Services Act (PSA), the primary law governing payment services and operators in Singapore.
The proposed requirements cover reserve-backed value stability, capital, redemption at par and issuer disclosures. Only issuers licensed under the framework would be permitted to market themselves as MAS-regulated stablecoin issuers and label their tokens “MAS-regulated stablecoins.”
MAS also proposed prohibiting issuers from paying interest on regulated stablecoins and requiring them to conduct stress tests and maintain recovery and orderly wind-down plans.
Additional consumer safeguards would require issuers to protect customer money received before the corresponding stablecoins are issued. Stablecoins outside the dedicated framework would continue to be treated as digital payment tokens under existing rules.
MAS is accepting public comments on the proposals until Oct. 16.
Magazine: How Hong Kong is turning tokenized bonds into real market infrastructure

Donald Trump Jr.-linked investment firm 1789 Capital is reportedly investing about $300 million in Polymarket, a blockchain-based prediction market.
1789 Capital, where Donald Trump Jr. is a partner, will make the $300 million investment as part of a $1 billion round that would value Polymarket at $21 billion, people familiar with the matter told the Wall Street Journal on Monday.
The investment would bring 1789 Capital’s total investment in Polymarket to about $500 million and make it one of the platform’s largest backers.
Cointelegraph has approached 1789 Capital and Polymarket for comment.
ICE remains Polymarket’s largest disclosed investor. In a July 30 10-Q filing, ICE said it had invested a combined $1.6 billion in Polymarket preferred shares. The holdings had a carrying value of approximately $2 billion as of June 30 and represented about 22% of outstanding shares, or 14% on a fully diluted basis.
Polymarket reportedly started talks to raise $400 million in fresh capital in April, when it was seeking to raise the funds at a potential $15 billion valuation, below the $22 billion valuation of its main competitor, Kalshi.
Prediction markets are facing increasing regulatory scrutiny in the US and worldwide. On Aug. 14, JPMorgan Chase reportedly ended a banking relationship with Polymarket over regulatory concerns but said it remains keen on a potential underwriting role should Polymarket attempt to go public.
More than a dozen US states have taken legal action against Polymarket, Kalshi, or both over sports event contracts, while authorities in several countries have also blocked or restricted access to Polymarket.

US-listed spot Bitcoin exchange-traded funds (ETFs) returned to inflows on Monday, led almost entirely by BlackRock, while Ether, XRP and Solana funds continued attracting capital.
SoSoValue data showed that Bitcoin ETFs recorded $216.7 million in net inflows on Monday, reversing the $201.8 million in withdrawals recorded on Friday.
The Friday outflows ended a nine-session run that brought more than $3 billion into the funds. Bitcoin (BTC) was trading near $78,700 at the time of writing, up about 1.5% over the past 24 hours, according to CoinGecko.
Meanwhile, Ether ETFs extended their inflow streak to 11 trading sessions, while XRP and Solana funds each recorded a 10th consecutive positive session.
US spot Bitcoin ETF flows. Source: SoSoValue
BlackRock accounts for 95% of Bitcoin ETF inflows
BlackRock’s iShares Bitcoin Trust ETF (IBIT) led Monday’s Bitcoin ETF rebound with $205.9 million in net inflows, accounting for about 95% of the category’s daily total, according to Farside Investors.
Fidelity’s Wise Origin Bitcoin Fund (FBTC) added $6.9 million, followed by the Bitwise Bitcoin ETF (BITB) with $4.3 million. Morgan Stanley’s Bitcoin Trust added $3.6 million, while Grayscale’s Bitcoin Mini Trust attracted $9.4 million.
VanEck’s Bitcoin ETF (HODL) was the only fund to record withdrawals, posting $13.4 million in net outflows. The remaining funds reported no flows.
US spot Bitcoin ETF flows per fund. Source: Farside Investors
Ether, XRP and Solana ETFs extend inflow runs
Spot Ether ETFs attracted $87.7 million on Monday, marking their 11th consecutive trading session of inflows.
BlackRock’s iShares Ethereum Trust ETF (ETHA) led with $59.9 million, followed by Grayscale’s Ethereum Mini Trust with $13.5 million and Fidelity’s Ethereum Fund with $9.3 million, according to Farside.
XRP ETFs extended their positive run to 10 sessions with $5.64 million in net inflows, according to SoSoValue. The funds have attracted capital during every US trading session since Aug. 18.
Solana ETFs also posted a 10th consecutive positive session, though daily inflows slowed to $925,010 from $18.1 million on Friday. Monday’s figure was the category’s weakest inflow during its current run.
Magazine: Mystery surrounds why an OG burned $1M in Bitcoin

Thailand’s Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has proposed allowing intermediaries to facilitate retail access to certain digital asset derivatives traded overseas.
Under the proposal, eligible products would need to resemble crypto derivatives traded in Thailand, including their underlying assets, maturity, leverage and settlement methods.
The products must also trade on an exchange that uses a central counterparty for clearing and is overseen by a regulator belonging to specified international regulatory or exchange groups.
The consultation marks Thailand’s latest step toward bringing crypto-linked products into its regulated capital markets. The SEC formally designated cryptocurrencies and digital tokens as permissible derivatives underlyings in a notification dated March 5 and is discussing potential contract specifications with the Thailand Futures Exchange.
Meanwhile, crypto derivatives that do not meet the proposed conditions could only be offered to institutional investors. The regulator said institutions are better equipped to assess and manage complex and high-risk products.
Existing rules allow intermediaries to facilitate overseas derivatives investments for retail and high-net-worth clients only when the products resemble those traded domestically. According to the SEC, overseas crypto derivatives require tailored rules because structures and risk levels vary.
The consultation remains open until Sept. 30. The SEC did not provide an implementation date for the proposed amendments.

Ireland’s Department of Finance has unveiled plans for a new tax-advantaged investment account to encourage more retail investing, but crypto will be excluded from the preferential structure alongside derivatives, underscoring regulators’ ongoing cautious approach to digital assets.
In a roadmap published Monday, the department said the accounts will allow investments in stocks, bonds, exchange-traded funds and other investment funds. Crypto assets and derivatives will be excluded, with the government classifying them as “highly complex and risky” products.
Key features and exclusions of the new investment account. Source: Department of Finance
According to the roadmap, the accounts will be available to Irish residents next year, although no specific launch date has been set. The tax rate and tax-free threshold will be announced in Ireland’s Budget 2027.
The exclusion leaves digital assets outside a new framework intended to make investing easier and more tax-efficient for Irish residents. It also comes as Ireland takes a more active approach to crypto oversight, including proposed reforms to strengthen Anti-Money Laundering requirements for the sector.

Webull, a self-directed brokerage and trading platform, is expanding its Canadian offering to include cryptocurrencies, adding Canada to a crypto footprint that already includes the United States, Australia and Brazil.
The company announced Monday that its Canadian crypto offering will run on Coinbase’s Crypto-as-a-Service infrastructure, with Coinbase providing the underlying trading and custody services. Webull’s Canadian website currently displays 10 cryptocurrencies, including Bitcoin (BTC), Ether (ETH) and Solana (SOL), while indicating that additional assets are also available.
The addition of crypto broadens Webull’s Canadian offering beyond stocks, exchange-traded funds and options, bringing digital assets alongside the traditional investments already available to its retail clients.
Webull cited growing crypto adoption in Canada as one reason for the expansion, pointing to Ontario Securities Commission research that it says shows digital asset ownership has risen to 25% this year from 10% in 2023.
Canadian crypto investment is growing as the country’s regulators move to establish clearer rules for the industry, including a federal framework for stablecoins. Canada doesn’t yet have comprehensive rules for fiat-backed stablecoins, but the Stablecoin Act, introduced following the 2025 federal budget, would set requirements for both domestic and foreign issuers.

Bitcoin (BTC) gyrated around $78,000 at Monday’s Wall Street open as US bond yields neared 20-year highs again.
Key points:
Bitcoin reacts as the US Treasury Secretary comments on bond markets in a mainstream media interview.
Analysis warns that bonds are “ignoring” policy changes as new 20-year highs loom for the 30-year yield.
BTC price analysis sees an emerging hidden bearish RSI divergence contributing to month-end weakness.
Bitcoin spikes as Bessent discusses bond yields
Data from TradingView showed BTC/USD trading in a narrow range, up around 1% on the day.
BTC/USD one-hour chart. Source: Cointelegraph/TradingView
After falling into the start of the US trading session, the pair saw a swift rebound as US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent hinted at further interventions in the US bond market. In an interview with CNBC, Bessent stressed that he had not yet acted to shore up the long end of the yield curve — 10-year and 30-year bonds.
“I haven’t bought anything yet,” he told the network, adding that he was “fine” with yields rebounding after the announcement.
This month, the Treasury announced that it would be at least doubling the size of its debt buyback transactions to $4 billion from September. At the time, yields fell, but on Monday, the 10-year yield was back at its highest levels since January 2025 at 4.76%.
US 10-year bond yield one-week chart. Source: Cointelegraph/TradingView
The 30-year yield reached 5.269% on the day, six basis points short of its highest levels since January 2007.
“The bond market appears to be completely ignoring the US Treasury,” trading resource The Kobeissi Letter responded in a post on X.
US 30-year bond yield one-day chart. Source: Cointelegraph/TradingView
Earlier, Ray Dalio expressed skepticism at the Treasury’s ability to control bonds, even under the new program. Forecasting a future US debt crisis, he named both Bitcoin and gold as potential hedges.
“As general advice, I suggest diversifying well in asset classes and countries that have strong income statements and balance sheets and are not having great internal political and external geopolitical conflicts, underweighting debt assets like bonds, and overweighting gold and a bit of Bitcoin,” he wrote in a post on LinkedIn.
US stocks, meanwhile, remained red on the day, with both the S&P 500 and Nasdaq Composite Index trading around 0.4% lower as tensions over new US-Iran strikes filtered through to markets.
Bitcoin RSI sparks new bearish warning
Ahead of the August monthly candle close, BTC/USD maintained its 50-week exponential moving average (EMA) at $77,269 as support.
BTC/USD one-hour chart with 50-week EMA. Source: Cointelegraph/TradingView
Previously, Cointelegraph reported that this level is a key line in the sand for bulls. Month-to-date gains have neared 25% in Bitcoin’s best August performance since 2017.
In a note of caution, trader and analyst Rekt Capital warned of a hidden bearish divergence playing out on daily time frames between price and the relative strength index (RSI). Despite bullish RSI signals on the weekly chart, the latest daily values, he warned, pointed to waning momentum.
“if the Daily RSI continues to make Lower Highs (blue), that’ll contribute to mounting weakness here,” he told X followers alongside an explanatory chart.
Daily RSI measured 70.7 on Monday, still within “overbought” territory.
BTC/USD one-day chart with RSI data. Source: Rekt Capital on X.com

Bitmine Immersion Technologies extended its Ether buying streak to 65 consecutive weeks, adding 53,501 ETH last week as a broader crypto market recovery lifted the value of its burgeoning digital asset portfolio despite sizable unrealized losses.
The latest purchase brought Bitmine’s holdings to more than 5.9 million ETH, valued at roughly $14.8 billion based on an Ether price of $2,511 as of Sunday. The company now owns 4.9% of Ethereum’s 120.7 million circulating supply, putting it within striking distance of its stated goal of owning 5%.
Bitmine’s chairman, Tom Lee, said Ether, Bitcoin (BTC) and Solana (SOL) have been the three best-performing major assets since June 30, with ETH leading the gains.
“We believe this sets the stage for institutions to add to their crypto holdings given the substantial outperformance of crypto versus other macro assets in 3Q so far,” Lee said.
Following the latest purchase, Bitmine is sitting on roughly $5.1 billion in unrealized losses on its Ether holdings, according to DropsTab data. The paper losses reflect sustained accumulation through the downturn, which began in the fourth quarter of last year and sent Ether and the broader crypto market sharply lower.
The company’s NYSE-traded BMNR shares were up 1.3% on Monday morning, at $24.09 apiece, poised to end the month with an almost-40% increase, according to Yahoo Finance data.

Strive, a publicly traded asset manager and Bitcoin treasury company, added 1,800 Bitcoin to its holdings last week, accelerating an accumulation strategy that has propelled it into the ranks of the world’s five biggest publicly traded corporate Bitcoin holders.
The company purchased the Bitcoin (BTC) for approximately $143 million between Aug. 24 and Aug. 28, paying an average price of $79,431 per BTC, including fees and expenses. CEO Matt Cole confirmed the acquisition on Monday.
The purchase brought Strive’s total holdings to 23,156 Bitcoin, up from 21,356 BTC a week earlier. As Cointelegraph reported, the company had purchased 1,110 BTC the previous week for roughly $81.5 million at an average price of $73,409 per coin.
Strive has accelerated its Bitcoin accumulation in recent weeks. Adam Livingston, an adviser to Saturn Credit, noted that the latest purchase increased the company’s Bitcoin holdings by roughly 8.4% in just five business days.
Source: Adam Livingston
The acquisition also pushed Strive past Bullish, the crypto exchange and digital asset infrastructure company, to become the fifth-largest publicly traded corporate holder of Bitcoin, according to industry data.
Corporate Bitcoin buying returns as price rebounds
Strive’s latest purchases have coincided with a broad recovery in Bitcoin and the wider digital asset market that began on Aug. 19, when the US Treasury Department announced plans to double the size of certain long-term bond buybacks. The move helped push Treasury yields lower and fueled a rebound in risk assets, with Bitcoin rallying more than 23% to a recent high above $81,000.
Strive isn’t alone in ramping up its Bitcoin purchases. Michael Saylor’s Strategy, the world’s largest corporate Bitcoin holder, announced Monday that it had resumed buying BTC for the first time since June, acquiring 4,603 Bitcoin at an average price of $80,318.
The purchase lifted Strategy’s holdings back above 845,000 BTC following four Bitcoin sales since May.

Cryptocurrency trading in Russia is expected to bring 4 trillion rubles ($46.4 billion) in trading volume for regulated domestic exchanges in the first year after legalization, according to estimates from Sber, the country’s largest bank.
Domestic crypto trading volumes on regulated exchanges could grow to about 7.5 trillion rubles by 2029, Sber’s Deputy Chairman, Anatoly Popov, told Tass in a Saturday report.
Popov attributed the conservative forecast to the fact that a large share of crypto transactions will continue to be conducted through cryptocurrency exchanges that are not regulated in Russia, bypassing trading on organized platforms.
The forecast was revealed shortly before Russia’s new crypto market regulations take effect on Sept. 1, under a law signed by President Vladimir Putin on Aug. 4.
On Aug. 11, Russia’s central bank compiled a proposed list of crypto assets that could be admitted to public trading on exchanges under the new rules. The list includes Bitcoin, Ether and Tether’s stablecoin USDT.
Under the rules, non-qualified investors could buy up to 300,000 Russian rubles worth of cryptocurrency per year through each intermediary, including a broker, crypto exchange service or asset manager. Qualified investors would face no purchase limits for crypto assets traded on exchanges or over-the-counter markets.

In March, someone moved $1 million worth of Bitcoin through a large crypto custodian. Three weeks later, almost exactly the same amount came back. Incredibly, less than two months after that, the Bitcoin was deliberately destroyed.
The wallet had been dormant for almost 12 years before it suddenly sprang back to life. Bitcoin educator Bennet noted it sent 20.00010537 BTC to “a custodian of some kind” before receiving it back again (minus $3 or so).
“The whole balance went out to what looks like an exchange hot wallet, and almost exactly the same amount came back three weeks later. Seven weeks after that, it was burned.”
The mystery BTC transaction is part of a wider enigma surrounding 107 BTC burned in May, worth roughly $8.5 million at the time.
New blockchain analysis shows that five wallets that ultimately destroyed their Bitcoin appear to have been controlled by the same person. It was likely an early Bitcoin holder who had funds on the collapsed Mt. Gox exchange.
But why on earth would anyone deliberately destroy millions of dollars worth of Bitcoin?
The BTC wallets behind the burn
The five addresses that eventually sent their Bitcoin to an unspendable address show “strong indicators of common ownership” according to Chainalysis.
How to destroy Bitcoin. Source: Bennet.org
All five wallets were initially funded on the same day in April 2014, and each subsequently sent almost the same dollar-equivalent amount of BTC to the same deposit address at a large centralized exchange.
The addresses also seem to have operated on a rotational basis: one would send Bitcoin to the exchange until its activity stopped, then another would take over with transactions of a “similar cadence and value.”
Most of the funds, Chainalysis says, can be traced back to Mt. Gox, “suggesting the owner was an early adopter of Bitcoin.”
That doesn’t necessarily mean the coins were withdrawn directly from Mt. Gox, since the exchange ceased trading in February 2014, and the five wallets were funded in April. Bennet says:
“It’s entirely possible that the owner of these coins was one of the lucky ones who managed to get their coins off the exchange before it collapsed.”
The custodian itself remains unidentified. Chainalysis confirms it’s a large centralized exchange but says it does not publicly disclose the names of services it identifies.
Bennet’s analysis suggests the address behaves like a static customer deposit address at a large custodian.
That’s because the address doesn’t maintain a balance, and the deposits are swept into transactions containing dozens of other inputs before being consolidated into an omnibus wallet.
Once the Bitcoin enters the custodian’s system, the public blockchain can no longer tell us what happened to those coins. And that makes the wallet’s earlier activity even more intriguing.
The $10,400 clue
One of the five addresses sent 19.6 BTC in 60 transactions to the custodian between 2022 and 2024.
The Bitcoin amounts were vastly different, ranging from about 0.15 BTC to 0.62 BTC. But when measured in dollars, the transactions reveal extraordinary similarities.
This address sent 19.6 BTC in 60 transactions to the same custodian. Source: Mempool.space
Despite Bitcoin’s price more than quadrupling during the period, 58 of the 60 transfers were within 10% of approximately $10,400 when they were sent.
So, while the owner wasn’t repeatedly sending the same amount of BTC, they were repeatedly sending almost the same dollar amount. Bennet says:
“This suggests to me a planned liquidation strategy.”
There is no way to prove this theory from the blockchain, since the BTC was mixed with large numbers of other coins once it reached the custodian, and the data doesn’t show whether the Bitcoin was sold, held or transferred elsewhere.
Interestingly, “while payment size was constant,” Bennet says, “frequency was not — these $10k transfers came in clusters,” which could be more consistent with someone sending fixed-dollar amounts when required rather than following an automated schedule.
The $1 million round trip
While the $10,400 transactions offer a possible explanation for the wallet owner’s earlier relationship with the custodian, they do not help explain the $1 million round trip that happened in March.
After sitting untouched for roughly 12 years, the wallet suddenly moved its entire balance of 20.00010537 BTC and received 20.00006037 BTC back, a difference of just 4,500 satoshis, or around $3.
That weighs against the idea that the owner was simply trading the Bitcoin, since whatever happened inside the custodian, almost exactly the same amount came back.
This address sent 20 BTC and received 20 BTC back. Source: Mempool.space
The returned Bitcoin was also split into three transactions of 7 BTC, 7 BTC and 6.00006037 BTC, sent over three consecutive days.
Bennet says the round numbers are consistent with a daily withdrawal limit imposed by the custodian. Crucially, the Bitcoin didn’t simply end up in another wallet; it returned to the same address that had sent it.
The transaction history also indicates that the same key holder controlled the coins before and after the round trip, Bennet says: spending the Bitcoin in March required the private key, while burning it in May required the same key again.
That makes the sequence particularly difficult to explain as a conventional exchange transaction.
So why did they do it?
There are several possibilities, but none fits all of the evidence. The liquidation theory makes some sense of the earlier transactions, but it doesn’t explain why the owner would send roughly $1 million through the same infrastructure in March and then retrieve virtually all of it.
Perhaps the owner was testing an old wallet or custody arrangement after 12 years of dormancy, moving the coins through a major custodian and successfully getting them back to show that an old key and custody setup still worked. But then, why destroy the Bitcoin afterward?
Tax or compliance reasons could potentially explain why someone moved an old stash through a major custodian, but then, there is no evidence linking the transaction to a particular tax or regulatory event.
There is also a privacy explanation. Sending Bitcoin through a custodian that sweeps deposits into an omnibus wallet makes the subsequent movement of those coins much harder to follow onchain. That’s certainly plausible but still provides no clues as to their ultimate destruction.
Perhaps the Bitcoin burn itself was intended as some kind of statement. Yet beyond a few blockchain sleuths, the action almost went unnoticed.
Burning Bitcoin is irreversible, so whoever controls the private keys chose to send the coins somewhere they can never be spent again, rather than simply leaving them untouched. Bennet says:
“There’s also the possibility that a very wealthy individual without heirs decided to permanently burn their coins (thereby publicly reducing the total bitcoin supply), rather than just destroying their keys.”
For now, even the firms best placed to analyze the blockchain are at a loss. Chainalysis concedes:
“We don’t have a clear explanation for why the owner would move a long-dormant stash through a custodian, retrieve roughly the same amount, and then deliberately burn it.”
While the blockchain can give us an unusually detailed record of what happened, it can’t tell us why. For now, at least, that remains the million-dollar question.
Magazine: El Salvador’s Bitcoin experiment turns 5: ‘It was for us, not them’

Metaplanet, the fourth-largest corporate Bitcoin treasury, moved 4,800 BTC worth nearly $377 million to Coinbase today, triggering speculation about the company selling its holdings.
According to Arkham Intelligence data, Metaplanet transferred 4,800 BTC to Coinbase Prime today, following the company’s transfer of 2,000 BTC worth $155.5 million two days ago, another series of transfers three days ago totaling 3,331 BTC worth nearly $266 million and lastly a transfer from six days ago moving 139 BTC worth $11.1 million. In total, those deposits amounted to 10,270 BTC worth approximately $806.3 million this week alone.
Metaplanet is the fourth-largest corporate Bitcoin (BTC) holder with 35,102 BTC worth $2.75 billion in its coffers. If confirmed to be a sale, the transfers would reduce the company’s holdings by over 29%.
The report follows news that French Bitcoin treasury company Capital B appears to be moving in the opposite direction as it announced that it successfully raised €21.0 million ($24.5 million) through a private share placement to acquire 270 BTC. Still, Metaplanet is following the broader industry trend, with smaller treasury companies recently selling their holdings.

Japan’s Financial Services Agency (FSA) submitted a request to exempt trust-type stablecoins from mandatory tax filings starting in fiscal year 2027.
Japan’s FSA urged regulators to exempt trust-type stablecoins from submitting beneficiary-by-beneficiary trust reports and calculation statements that include the beneficiaries’ names and income, as part of its tax-reform request for the new fiscal year, issued on Saturday.
The agency argued that trust-type stablecoins circulate among a broad number of users, are used for frequent and numerous transactions and that users can not earn income from holding these assets.
Subject to legislative approval, the tax exemption could apply to trust-type stablecoins starting April 1, 2027, the beginning of Japan’s fiscal year 2027.
The country’s lawmakers have been moving closer to bringing crypto under the same umbrella as traditional financial assets, an intent first signaled by Finance Minister Satsuki Katayama in January.
In July, Japan’s parliament passed revisions that classify crypto assets as financial assets under the country’s Financial Instruments and Exchange Act (FIEA).