Cointelegraph

Decentralized finance (DeFi) vault infrastructure protocol More Markets had a lending reserve drained of about $9.3 million in digital assets on Flow EVM, according to Web3 security platform Blockaid.
The attacker drained about 15.5 million Wrapped Flow (WFLOW) tokens, valued by Blockaid at approximately $9.3 million, from the mFlowWFLOW lending reserve, according to blockchain data shared by Blockaid in a Monday X post.
Blockaid said the attacker used Ankr Staked FLOW (ankrFLOW), a liquid staking token, alongside E-mode to overborrow from the reserve.
E-mode, short for efficiency mode, is an Aave V3 feature that increases borrowing power for assets whose prices are expected to move together, such as a liquid staking token and its underlying asset.
The exploit pushed total losses from cryptocurrency hacks to $139.7 million for August, making it the third-largest month by value stolen so far in 2026. However, it marks a significant decrease from $254 million stolen during July, according to DefiLlama data.
On Sunday, Cronos halted its blockchain network after a reported $75 million exploit targeting DeFi lending protocol Tectonic.
More Markets had not publicly confirmed the incident or disclosed whether users suffered losses at the time of publication. Cointelegraph contacted Blockaid for more details but did not receive a response by publication and was unable to reach More Markets for comment.

Cronos halted its blockchain after an exploit targeting decentralized lending protocol Tectonic involved an estimated $75 million, most of which remains on the Cronos network at the time of writing.
On Sunday, Cronos said it identified an exploit in Tectonic and halted the network, promising updates. Tectonic separately warned users not to interact with the protocol while it investigated. Neither project has confirmed the cause or loss, and no restart timeline had been announced at publication.
Researcher Weilin Li said the attacker exploited TONIC’s 20% collateral factor and thin liquidity, pumping the governance token’s price 100-fold within 20 minutes before borrowing other assets. Li described it as a “Mango-market style” pump-and-borrow attack.
Li initially estimated $66 million was affected. He said the attacker bridged about $6 million to Ethereum before the halt, leaving $60 million on Cronos. Li later identified another attacker-controlled address holding about $8 million, bringing his estimated loss to roughly $75 million.
Crypto.com CEO Kris Marszalek said the company’s app and exchange were unaffected and operating normally, adding that funds there were safe.
Cronos and Tectonic have not said whether they will restrict the attacker’s addresses, recover the assets or compensate affected users. Cointelegraph contacted both projects and Crypto.com for comment.

Strategy’s Michael Saylor said “We’re Back” in his latest signal on X (formerly Twitter) of the company’s likely return to Bitcoin buying.
For market watchers, the post could be a strong psychological signal as Saylor has a track record of dropping cryptic weekend teasers that precede official Monday morning treasury purchase announcements.
Should that record, and community interpretation, hold true, his post points to the resumption of corporate Bitcoin accumulation following a notable summer hiatus.
To put the message in context, over the past two months, Strategy paused its regular weekly Bitcoin buying spree. Instead of expanding its crypto holdings, management pivoted toward bolstering its balance sheet. The firm focused on stabilizing its preferred stock offerings, building a $5.1 billion US dollar reserve, and introducing a dedicated $1.59 billion cash pool generated through massive common stock offerings.
This strategic breather coincided with a challenging market stretch that left Strategy’s industry-biggest BTC treasury sitting deep in the red on paper. However, recent macro momentum has propelled Bitcoin past the $80,000 threshold.
Because Strategy holds more than 840,447 Bitcoin at an average cost basis hovering around $75,385, the recent price recovery has pushed the firm’s overall position back into positive territory for the first time in months.
Saylor’s “We’re Back” declaration functions on multiple levels. Operationally, it likely signals that the company is ready to deploy its considerable dry powder back into the asset class it champions. Psychologically, it marks a triumphant return to profitability and a renewed offensive for the world’s largest corporate Bitcoin treasury.
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Russia’s largest bank, Sber, plans to expand its crypto-backed lending to accept Tether’s USDt stablecoin and Ether as collateral alongside Bitcoin, according to a senior executive.
Sber will adapt its existing products and gradually expand its offerings as Russia’s new crypto law takes effect, Deputy Chairman Anatoly Popov said, according to a Friday TASS report. The bank plans to add the assets as collateral after the Bank of Russia permits them for public trading, he said.
The plans come as Russia rolls out a regulated crypto market under a law signed by president Vladimir Putin on Aug. 4, with core provisions taking effect Sept. 1.
The law gives the Bank of Russia authority to determine which crypto assets can trade on regulated exchanges. The central bank proposed Bitcoin, Ether and USDT for regulated exchange trading on Aug. 11, saying they met requirements including market capitalization, trading volume and at least five years of price history on overseas markets.
Sber has taken a more cautious view of the digital ruble, Russia’s central bank digital currency (CBDC), ahead of its wider rollout on Sept. 1. Sber’s chief financial officer Taras Skvortsov reportedly said that the bank sees little evidence of broad demand for the CBDC.
“I don’t see any clear interest in this instrument, apart from the central bank’s,” Skvortsov said, adding that neither retail nor corporate clients nor financial institutions are actively pushing for the CBDC.

Real Trump Coins has denied launching, promoting or authorizing the Trump Digital GOLD token that briefly appeared across its online presence before collapsing, blaming the promotion on “third-party bad actors.”
The denial came after the Real Trump Coins X account promoted the Solana-based token on Saturday and directed users to RealTrumpCoins.com, where GOLD was also advertised. The X posts were later deleted, while the account now links to a separate domain, TrumpCoins.com.
“Trump Coins has not authorized and will not launch, promote, or authorize any digital token,” Real Trump Coins said in an X post on Saturday, adding that it was working with authorities to investigate the matter.
The statement follows a highly concentrated GOLD launch, with Lookonchain reporting that the developer and newly created wallets controlled 82.45% of its supply. According to the blockchain analytics platform, 15 wallets linked to the team sold their holdings for about $330,000, making an estimated $312,000 profit.
The involvement of both the X account and RealTrumpCoins.com confused crypto observers, with X user Rune questioning how both the account and the domain could have been compromised.
While the Real Trump Coins X account bio linked to TrumpCoins.com, the account was still directing customers to RealTrumpCoins.com as recently as Aug. 25 in a post that remained online at the time of publication.
The Real Trump Coins X account directed customers to RealTrumpCoins.com on Aug. 25. Source: Real Trump Coins
At the time of publication, RealTrumpCoins.com still displayed the GOLD promotion. Trump also continued to follow the Real Trump Coins X account, one of 53 accounts he followed on the platform.

Polygon has disclosed several previously private security vulnerabilities that could have disrupted its proof-of-stake network, after deploying fixes through two recent hard forks.
The vulnerabilities affected Polygon’s Bor and Heimdall clients and included denial-of-service risks, validator resource exhaustion and flaws affecting checkpoint and milestone processing, according to a Thursday disclosure from Polygon Labs’ Validators Support Team.
Polygon said the flaws were fixed through the Austin and Kyoto hard forks, which were deployed privately and tested before being activated on mainnet and publicly disclosed.
The most severe issue involved Heimdall, where a specially crafted transaction could force validators to perform excessive processing work, potentially disrupting the network. The Austin hard fork separately addressed two denial-of-service risks in Bor that could have slowed block processing or caused nodes to crash.
None of the vulnerabilities were observed being exploited on mainnet, according to Polygon, which said the fixes were deployed proactively before details were made public.
Nodes running older versions of either client past the hard fork activation heights have already fallen out of consensus and must upgrade to rejoin the canonical network, according to the disclosure. Bor v2.10.0 is required for all Polygon PoS nodes, while Heimdall v0.11.0 is required for validators and full nodes, with both upgrades already active on mainnet.
POL, Polygon’s native token formerly known as MATIC, was trading around $0.10 at the time of writing, down about 4% over the past week but up 44% over the past month and 2.3% year to date, according to CoinGecko data.
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The value of tokenized real-world assets (RWA) on Stellar has climbed roughly 360% in 2026 to nearly $4 billion, up from $868.8 million at the end of last year, according to a Dune Analytics dashboard maintained by Stellar.
The network’s RWA market cap stood at $3.996 billion as of Aug. 29, spread across US Treasurys, private and public credit, non-US government debt and other tokenized asset classes.
The market is concentrated among a handful of issuers. Spiko accounted for $1.55 billion of Stellar’s RWA value as of Aug. 27, followed by Realiz at $559 million, Tradable at $548 million, Franklin Templeton at $546 million and Ondo at $535 million.
Stellar’s RWA market cap has surged in 2026. Source: Dune Analytics/Stellar
Stellar has gained ground in non-US government debt. Citing RWA.xyz data, the Stellar Development Foundation said the network held about $490 million in the asset class as of Aug. 20, including tokenized Mexican CETES and Brazilian government bonds issued through Etherfuse.
Source: StellarOrg
Despite the growth in RWAs, the blockchain’s native XLM token is down about 11% year to date, trading near $0.18, according to CoinGecko data.
Institutional adoption drives Stellar’s RWA growth
The expansion comes as financial institutions and tokenization platforms deepen their use of the network.
In May, the Depository Trust & Clearing Corporation (DTCC) announced plans to connect its tokenization service to Stellar, with DTC-tokenized assets expected to become available on the network in the first half of 2027. The integration could eventually support tokenized US Treasurys, major index ETFs and stocks in the Russell 1000.
That institutional push continued in July, when tokenization platform Tradable announced plans to bring up to $1 billion in private credit assets to Stellar. The integration is designed to support compliance, investor onboarding and asset lifecycle management, building on $1.7 billion in private credit that Tradable has already tokenized across nearly 30 positions.
Stellar has also expanded its role in digital payments. MoneyGram launched its MGUSD dollar stablecoin on the network in June, allowing users to hold dollar-denominated balances and move funds through its global payments network.
MGUSD joins roughly $438 million in reserve-verified stablecoins currently issued on Stellar, according to the Dune dashboard.
Stellar’s RWA and stablecoin market caps. Source: Dune Analytics/Stellar
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Tokenized stock activity surged over the past 30 days, with monthly transfer volume climbing more than 415% to $29.5 billion, according to data from RWA.xyz.
Monthly active addresses rose more than 209% to around 1.3 million, while the number of tokenized stock holders climbed 167% to 2.36 million over the same period. The total value of tokenized stocks distributed onchain also rose 1.45% over the past 30 days to $2.54 billion, up roughly 637% from $344 million a year ago.
Tokenized stock activity accelerated in August. Source: RWA.xyz
Securitize Corp. was the largest individual tokenized stock tracked by RWA.xyz at about $163 million, followed by Strategy PP Variable xStock at $136 million and an Ondo-tokenized version of Circle Internet Group at $109 million.
By platform, Ondo led with $842.8 million in distributed value, followed by Kraken’s xStocks at $609.3 million and Binance’s bStocks at $599.9 million. Together, the three accounted for roughly 81% of the market.
Tokenized equities move deeper into crypto platforms
The surge in activity comes as crypto platforms introduce new ways for investors to trade, hold and use tokenized equities onchain.
On Aug. 24, Coinbase’s tokenized US stocks went live on Base, allowing eligible non-US users to trade the assets around the clock and use them across decentralized finance applications. The B20 tokens include companies such as Nvidia, Apple, Meta and Alphabet and can be held in self-custody wallets.
Source: Base
A day later, Bitwise launched automated portfolios built from Coinbase’s tokenized stocks, allowing eligible non-US investors to follow preset strategies while keeping the underlying assets in their own wallets. The initial portfolios target the “Magnificent Seven,” robotics and artificial intelligence sectors.
Other platforms have also expanded how tokenized stocks can be used. In July, Bybit added tokenized shares of Nvidia, Apple, Tesla and other US companies as collateral for margin loans, while Robinhood-backed DEX Arcus launched more than 95 stock tokens and perpetual markets on Robinhood Chain.
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A Solana-based token promoted by a Trump-linked coin brand collapsed within hours of its launch, raising questions over who was behind it and its unusual trading activity.
Real Trump Coins, a brand US President Donald Trump publicly promoted in 2024, touted the “Trump Digital GOLD” token on X before deleting related posts on Saturday, according to blockchain analytics platform Lookonchain.
The Real Trump Coins website continued promoting GOLD as of publication, advertising a 4% trading fee and pledging to use 99% of trading fees to buy back the token in an effort to make it a top-10 crypto asset by market capitalization.
The launch has left crypto observers questioning GOLD’s legitimacy, with some suggesting the Real Trump Coins website and its Trump-followed X account may have been compromised.
GOLD token wallets sell amid 82% supply concentration
The token surfaced early Saturday when the Real Trump Coins X account, which Trump’s official account follows, announced the GOLD launch and directed users to RealTrumpCoins.com to buy the token.
Lookonchain flagged the launch shortly afterward, noting that the developer held 600 million GOLD while 15 newly created wallets spent $18,657 to acquire another 224.5 million tokens. “The team currently controls 82.45% of the total supply,” Lookonchain said, advising users to be cautious.
Lookonchain later reported that the 15 wallets, which it linked to the team, sold all 224.5 million GOLD for 3,178 Solana (SOL), worth about $330,000. GOLD subsequently lost nearly all of its value, with its market capitalization falling from about $50 million to $500,000 at the time of publication, according to DEX Screener.
Source: DEX Screener
“GOLD just rugged!” Lookonchain said, estimating that the wallets made a $312,000 profit, or roughly 17 times their initial investment.
What is Real Trump Coins?
Trump publicly promoted RealTrumpCoins.com in September 2024 when announcing his silver medallions, describing the website as the exclusive place to buy them. The site says the products are not manufactured, distributed or sold by the Trump Organization.
The sudden GOLD promotion and subsequent deletion of related X posts fueled speculation that the brand’s X accounts and website had been compromised. Several crypto outlets have since described GOLD as an apparent scam or rug pull, while unverified reports have linked the suspected compromise to Iranian hackers.
US President Donald Trump promoted the Real Trump Coins brand in September 2024. Source: Truth Social
The GOLD episode adds to scrutiny of Trump-linked crypto ventures as the president pushes Congress to advance legislation that would reshape US oversight of the industry.
Trump urged lawmakers on Aug. 19 to pass a “fair version” of the CLARITY Act, proposed legislation that would establish a regulatory framework for crypto assets and clarify whether tokens fall under securities or commodities rules.
Trump and his family have backed or launched several crypto ventures, including the Official Trump (TRUMP) memecoin and World Liberty Financial. The ventures have drawn conflict-of-interest concerns as his administration shapes crypto policy, while the White House has denied any impropriety.
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The Bank for International Settlements is renewing its criticism of stablecoins, questioning their credibility as everyday money as governments worldwide build regulatory frameworks around the tokens.
BIS General Manager Pablo Hernández de Cos, a candidate to succeed European Central Bank President Christine Lagarde next year, argued that stablecoins do not credibly function as a means of payment at scale. He said tokenized bank deposits offer a stronger alternative, Reuters reported on Friday.
“Tokenised deposits offer a more direct path to harness tokenisation while preserving the monetary system’s foundations,” de Cos said.
The comments come as regulators worldwide grapple with stablecoin adoption, while a new study from the BIS-linked Financial Stability Institute (FSI) shows significant differences in how major markets regulate stablecoin issuers.
Stablecoins could lower government borrowing costs
Hernández de Cos acknowledged that stablecoins could lower government borrowing costs, an argument also made by US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent.
But the effect could cut both ways for consumers. If customers move bank deposits into stablecoins, banks could face higher funding costs and pass those expenses on to households and businesses through higher borrowing rates, Hernández de Cos said.
He also pointed to limited interoperability between stablecoin platforms and difficulties consistently applying anti-money laundering controls. Growing use of US dollar-pegged stablecoins outside the US could also undermine monetary sovereignty and weaken domestic monetary policy, he said.
Stablecoin issuers face different rules worldwide
The FSI study, published on Thursday, compared stablecoin regulations in the US, European Union, United Kingdom, Hong Kong and Singapore, finding substantial differences in which entities may issue stablecoins and what other business activities they can conduct.
The US and Singapore take relatively restrictive approaches toward non-bank issuers. Under the US GENIUS Act, lending, staking, proprietary trading and custody of third-party crypto assets generally fall outside the activities permitted for payment stablecoin issuers.
Stablecoin issuer rules across major markets. Source: BIS
Hong Kong, the UK and EU take a less restrictive approach, allowing some additional activities with separate authorization, regulatory consent or other applicable permissions.
The researchers also found that restrictions across all five jurisdictions apply to the issuing entity rather than the wider corporate group, meaning other group members can conduct activities that the stablecoin issuer itself cannot.
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US-listed spot Bitcoin exchange-traded funds (ETFs) ended a nine-day inflow streak as Bitcoin fell below $78,000, while several altcoin ETF categories continued to see inflows.
Bitcoin ETFs recorded $201.8 million in net outflows on Friday, ending nine consecutive trading sessions of inflows, according to SoSoValue data.
The reversal followed more than $3 billion of net inflows during the nine-session run, while August flows remained positive at $3.3 billion with one US trading session left in the month. Total net assets fell to $97.6 billion after topping $100 billion on Thursday.
Daily flows into US spot Bitcoin ETFs since Aug. 14, in USD. Source: SoSoValue
The Bitcoin ETF reversal contrasts with continued inflows into Ether and XRP funds, while Solana ETFs have reached new asset milestones.
ARK 21Shares leads Bitcoin ETF outflows
The ARK 21Shares Bitcoin ETF (ARKB) led Friday’s withdrawals with $114.9 million in net outflows, followed by the Bitwise Bitcoin ETF (BITB) with $49.7 million, according to Farside Investors data.
BlackRock’s iShares Bitcoin Trust ETF (IBIT), the largest US spot Bitcoin ETF by assets, recorded $33.4 million in outflows.
US spot Bitcoin ETF flows on Friday. Source: Farside Investors
Morgan Stanley’s Bitcoin Trust (MSBT) was the only fund to record inflows Friday, adding $9.3 million.
Ether, XRP ETFs buck Bitcoin outflows
Ether and XRP ETFs continued to see inflows Friday despite the reversal in Bitcoin funds, adding $102.2 million and $26.2 million, respectively, according to SoSoValue data. The funds last recorded net outflows on Aug. 11 and Aug. 5, respectively.
Solana ETFs have also maintained positive momentum. Bloomberg ETF analyst Eric Balchunas said Friday that the category had attracted $1.7 billion in cumulative flows without a sustained stretch of outflows.
Bitwise’s Solana ETF also became the first fund in the category to cross the $1 billion mark, according to the analyst.
Balchunas called the performance “impressive” despite what he described as a “nightmare downturn” in the first half of the year.
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Solana validators have approved a proposal to double the network’s annual disinflation rate, reducing future SOL issuance.
According to finalized voting results, the proposal received 67% support, with 25.16% voting against and 7.84% abstaining. Overall participation reached 60.7% of eligible stake.
The proposal, known as SGP-0002 or Double Disinflation, increases Solana’s annual disinflation rate from 15% to 30%, while leaving the network’s long-term inflation target of 1.5% unchanged.
Under the new schedule, Solana is expected to reach its 1.5% terminal inflation rate in about 2.8 years, compared with roughly 5.7 years under the previous schedule, Solana Compass reported. The change would result in an estimated 18.9 million fewer SOL being issued over the next six years, reducing dilution for SOL holders but also lowering staking rewards for validators and delegators.
SGP-0002 passed with 67% support and 60.7% participation. Source: Solana Governance
The vote was part of Solana’s first binding governance process, which also approved a proposed Solana Constitution while rejecting a separate proposal on resource and inclusion fees.
Some of the largest participants were divided over SGP-0002. Figment, the largest voter shown in finalized governance data with 17.1 million SOL staked, voted entirely against the measure, while Helius and Jupiter overwhelmingly backed it.
Kraken was among those whose position shifted during the vote. The US-based crypto exchange initially voted against SGP-0002 at 12:33 UTC, temporarily pushing support below the required threshold. By the end of voting, more than 90% of its roughly 8.9 million SOL voting stake backed the proposal.
Top voters were split on SGP-0002. Source: Solana Governance
Solana ETF assets cross $1 billion
The governance vote comes as US-listed Solana investment products continue to attract investor capital despite SOL’s weaker performance earlier this year.
Bitwise’s Solana ETF recently surpassed $1 billion in assets, becoming the first Solana ETF to reach the milestone, according to an X post from Bloomberg ETF analyst Eric Balchunas on Friday.
US Solana ETFs have attracted roughly $1.7 billion in cumulative net inflows, with little sustained outflow since their launch, Balchunas said Friday.
Source: Eric Balchunas
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Circle, the issuer behind the USDC stablecoin, will be the latest sponsor for the Chelsea Football Club just months after the UK’s financial watchdog warned about “questionable sponsorship deals with unauthorized financial firms,” including crypto companies.
In a Friday announcement, Circle said its name and USDC would appear on jerseys for Chelsea FC players in the 2026/2027 season. The partnership deal between the football club and the digital asset company came about three months after the UK’s Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) said it had sent warning letters to clubs in the Premier League, potentially including Chelsea.
The letters concerned “unauthorized” companies, including crypto businesses, using sponsorship deals to target football fans, potentially breaching UK financial services laws.
“Millions of football fans trust their club’s badge,” said Lucy Castledine, the FCA’s director of consumer investments. “Clubs should not let unauthorised financial firms exploit that loyalty by putting potentially dodgy products in front of millions of fans.”
Circle UK Trading Limited, the company’s UK arm, has been listed as a company authorized under the FCA to provide certain financial services to residents since 2018. Stablecoins like USDC are also legal to use in the country, though lawmakers are working to establish a comprehensive regulatory framework for the digital assets.
Notably, although Circle said that USDC was “issued by certain regulated affiliates,” the stablecoin was “not issued or regulated under the laws of the United Kingdom.” Cointelegraph reached out to Circle and the FCA for comment but did not receive an immediate response.

Institutional crypto exchange operator Bullish has provided USD.AI with a $100 million stablecoin-based debt facility to finance loans secured by GPU infrastructure, the companies announced Friday.
USD.AI will use the facility to lend to AI infrastructure operators, with the loans secured by the underlying GPU hardware rather than the borrowers’ broader corporate assets.
USD.AI is an onchain financing platform developed by Permian Labs that provides financing backed by AI computing hardware, connecting stablecoin liquidity with demand for GPU infrastructure financing.
Bullish said it plans to list USD.AI’s sUSDai across multiple trading pairs and support the token with a dedicated market-making program, which it expects to improve secondary liquidity and price discovery for GPU-backed debt.
The facility adds to USD.AI’s growing GPU financing business. In June, it announced a $98.1 million loan backed by 2,304 Nvidia B300 GPUs, while a $34 million loan backed by 768 Nvidia B200 GPUs was fully funded.
The deal also builds on Bullish Capital’s $4 million investment in USD.AI in September 2025.
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Bullish shares gain 48% over past month
Bullish went public on the New York Stock Exchange in August 2025, raising about $1.03 billion after pricing its initial public offering at $37 per share. The stock opened at $90 on its first day of trading.
The company’s shares remain down more than 60% from their public debut, according to Yahoo Finance data. However, the stock has recently rebounded, gaining about 45% over the past month to trade around $33 on Friday.
Bullish’s recent rally comes as other crypto-related stocks have gained alongside a recovery in digital asset markets. Over the past month, Bitcoin treasury company Strive has gained about 88%, Bitcoin miner Canaan around 55% and stablecoin issuer Circle nearly 40%.
Strive stock price over the past month. Source: Yahoo Finance
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Bitcoin (BTC) saw volatility after Friday’s Wall Street open as markets reacted to US Federal Reserve chair Kevin Warsh’s comments on future monetary policy.
Key points:
Bitcoin initially fell during Fed chair Kevin Warsh’s Jackson Hole keynote speech before circling $79,500.
Warsh said he sees no trend change in inflation despite recent lower PCE and CPI prints.
BTC price action sustaining above $83,000 hinges on Bitcoin derivatives traders, analysis says.
Warsh: Inflation trends have not “meaningfully improved”
Data from TradingView showed BTC/USD dipping to $78,442 on Bitstamp in volatile trading conditions, down around 1% at the time of writing.
BTC/USD one-hour chart. Source: Cointelegraph/TradingView
In his first keynote speech at the annual Jackson Hole Symposium, Warsh delivered a cautionary tone on inflation, committing to the Fed’s 2% target. The Fed chair doubled down on an earlier pledge to reduce the scope of hints over future policy that the Fed offers to markets, avoiding forward guidance altogether and stating that it would not make a reappearance in the future.
“Forward guidance as a regular practice was adopted by my colleagues and me during the Global Financial Crisis. It was essential at the time, and we introduced it with much fanfare. But, as with other legacies of crises past, I believe that the practice has overstayed its welcome,” he stated.
Warsh further dismissed recent lower-than-expected inflation prints in the Consumer Price Index (CPI) and Personal Consumption Expenditures (PCE) index as a sign of a downtrend being in progress.
“Each of these broad inflation measures have fallen significantly from their highs of a few years ago, but progress through the past couple of years has been more modest, and while this summer’s PCE and CPI readings were better than expected, they do not tell me that underlying trends have meaningfully improved,” he continued.
US stocks avoided losses on the back of Warsh’s words, which also included a complimentary view of business performance and AI sector growth. Both the S&P 500 and the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite Index were up around 0.5% at the time of writing.
Analysis stresses derivatives’ role in further BTC price gains
BTC price action thus continued to gyrate around the $80,000 mark, acting in a narrow intraday range ahead of the August monthly close.
Previously, Cointelegraph reported on expectations for the monthly close, with analysis demanding that BTC/USD break above a downward-sloping trend line and defend the 50-week exponential moving average near $77,250 to sustain the uptrend.
BTC/USD one-day chart with 50-month EMA. Source: Cointelegraph/TradingView
Onchain data additionally revealed a thick patch of resistance between the current spot price and $86,000, slowing upside momentum.
Commenting in its latest analysis, trading company QCP Capital argued that even if price were to break higher, derivatives markets would need to provide the necessary support by keeping both funding rates and open interest growth in check.
“If price continues higher while funding remains contained and open interest rebuilds gradually, that would indicate a different market structure from one where leverage accelerates rapidly alongside price,” QCP Capital wrote, adding:
“The key distinction is therefore not simply whether BTC trades above or below $83.3k, but whether subsequent price action continues to be supported by spot participation or becomes increasingly driven by leveraged positioning.”
At the time of writing, BTC/USD was up 26.35% month-to-date, per data from CoinGlass, marking its best August performance since 2017.
BTC/USD monthly returns (screenshot). Source: CoinGlass

Bitcoin’s return above $80,000 is exposing just how much the crypto industry now runs through traditional capital markets. Michael Saylor’s Strategy needs a receptive market to finance its Bitcoin machine (BTC), Circle’s outlook increasingly resembles a bet on the growth of dollar-denominated financial infrastructure and Treasury bond buybacks helped provide the backdrop for the latest surge in crypto equities.
This week’s Crypto Biz looks at how that relationship is reshaping the companies, balance sheets and networks behind the market’s rebound.
Bitcoin rally sends crypto stocks soaring
Bitcoin’s rally above $80,000 lifted crypto stocks as miners and digital asset treasury companies posted double-digit gains, tracking a broader recovery fueled by the US Treasury’s plan to double certain long-dated bond buybacks.
Canaan, MARA Holdings and Strive were among the biggest gainers over the past week, while Coinbase and Robinhood also rallied. Bitcoin extended its weekly advance past 23%, while Ether gained nearly 30% to trade above $2,500, according to CoinMarketCap data.
Support also came from President Trump renewing calls for Congress to pass the CLARITY Act, though the bill remains stalled after lawmakers failed to advance it before the August recess. The bill could establish clearer rules for US crypto markets, while Trump separately revived the prospect of government Bitcoin purchases, though neither outcome is assured.
Bernstein bets on fresh USDC growth cycle
Bernstein analysts are bullish on Circle, arguing that a new growth cycle for its USDC stablecoin could provide a significant boost over the next 12 months as supply growth picks up again.
In a Monday research note, the firm said USDC supply increased by roughly $2 billion in seven days, ending a six-month period of stagnant or declining growth. Bernstein maintained its Outperform rating on Circle (CRCL) and a $140 price target, implying roughly 60% upside. Circle shares have risen about 40% over the past month.
Analysts said the next leg of growth could be driven by renewed crypto momentum, US regulatory clarity, tokenized capital markets and broader payments adoption, with early signs of demand from AI agents. USDC’s share of adjusted transaction volume rose from roughly 40% in 2025 to over 60% so far in 2026, overtaking Tether’s USDt on that measure.
Circle shares have been volatile since the company’s June 2025 IPO, when the stock was priced at $31. After an initial post-IPO surge, shares fell back toward that level by November 2025 at the onset of the crypto market downturn.
USDC’s share of stablecoin transaction volume has grown sharply. Source: Bernstein
Strategy’s real risk is capital market access, not Bitcoin price
A Regime Intelligence report finds that Strategy’s chief vulnerability is not a Bitcoin price crash but losing access to capital markets, which could threaten its ability to service $1.76 billion in annual obligations without selling BTC.
Strategy’s 840,447 BTC backs $22 billion in debt and preferred claims, with no margin calls tied to Bitcoin’s price, according to the report. Its stress tests suggest Bitcoin would need to fall 96% for the company’s holdings to no longer cover its convertible notes. Strategy also has cash reserves equal to 2.6 times its annual obligations, while its Bitcoin holdings are worth $66.7 billion against a cost basis of $63.36 billion.
“Even if equities unraveled, Strategy’s Bitcoin holdings put it in a good situation to weather most any storm. The company is holding far more Bitcoin than its annual cash obligations,” Komodo Platform co-founder Kadan Stadelmann told Cointelegraph.
The bigger risk emerges if financing conditions deteriorate. A prolonged Bitcoin downturn, combined with a falling Strategy share price and lower mNAV, could make raising fresh capital increasingly difficult, potentially forcing the company to draw down reserves or sell Bitcoin.
“Strategy’s weakness lies in the need to issue capital to service the structure. If equities markets collapse, the company could have to part ways with Bitcoin as part of its operating structure,” Stadelmann said.
Strategy has sold BTC four times since May, though CEO Phong Le said the company accumulated 25 times more over the same period and plans to resume purchases.
Strategy remains the largest institutional Bitcoin holder, despite selling BTC four times since May. Source: BitcoinTreasuries.NET
Solana activity hits record as SOL rallies 40%
Solana processed a record 4.2 billion onchain transactions in July, preceding a 40% rally that pushed SOL above $100 for the first time since February, according to onchain data presented by The Kobeissi Letter.
Transaction counts rose 13.5% from June and 91% from December, adding roughly 2 billion transactions over that period. The Kobeissi Letter also cited RWA.xyz data showing that nearly $4 billion worth of real-world assets are now tokenized on Solana, up 11.8% over the past month. Across tracked networks, distributed RWAs have surpassed $38 billion.
The rally accelerated after the US Treasury Department announced plans to double certain long-dated bond buybacks to at least $4 billion per operation, helping push yields lower and boost risk appetite across crypto markets. Still, SOL’s gains came as part of a broader market recovery, while continued growth in network activity could depend on further RWA adoption and macroeconomic conditions.
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Polish prosecutors charged the head of the Polish Olympic Committee in an investigation linked to defunct cryptocurrency exchange Zondacrypto.
Authorities detained the committee’s president, Radosław Piesiewicz, in connection with the Zondacrypto probe, Poland’s Justice Minister and Prosecutor General Waldemar Żurek announced in an X post on Thursday.
Żurek later said prosecutors charged Piesiewicz under two provisions of Poland’s Penal Code, involving allegations of influence peddling and favoring some creditors over others while facing insolvency.
According to local news outlet TVP World, the allegations include Piesiewicz recovering all the money he had invested through Zondacrypto while thousands of other customers could not withdraw their funds. The exchange became a general sponsor of the Polish Olympic Committee in October 2025.
Source: Zondacrypto
Piesiewicz’s detention marks one of the first arrests in the Zondacrypto investigation. The exchange stopped trading in April amid a liquidity crisis, around the same time then-CEO Przemysław Kral said it could not access a wallet holding about 4,500 Bitcoin because it did not have the private keys.
Kral has reportedly been charged with participating in large-scale fraud and is cooperating with investigators in an effort to receive a reduced sentence.

California lawmakers passed a bill restricting public officials’ involvement with memecoins, citing concerns around conflicts of interest and “pay-to-play arrangements.”
The California Senate passed Assembly Bill 2409 in a 40-0 vote on Wednesday, according to Legiscan data. The Assembly subsequently voted 78-0 to concur in the Senate’s amendments. The bill entered the enrolled stage and awaits the governor’s signature.
The bill would prohibit digital asset service providers from offering California residents memecoins issued on or after Jan. 1, 2027, that are offered by or in partnership with federal public officials or state or local public officers. The bill defines memecoins as digital assets whose value is derived primarily from public interest, speculation or community engagement.
Investors in the US president-linked Official Trump (TRUMP) memecoin are an estimated $3.2 billion underwater, with most of those losses unrealized, according to a Thursday report from nonprofit consumer advocacy organization Public Citizen.
The TRUMP token ranks as the fifth-largest memecoin with a $688 million market capitalization. The token rose 53% during the past week, recouping some of the losses from its 67% decline over the past year, according to CoinMarketCap.
The Trump family’s crypto ventures have also raised obstacles to passing the US crypto market structure bill known as the Digital Asset Market Clarity (CLARITY) Act.
A bipartisan ethics addendum, which has not been made public, would reportedly allow Trump to defer capital gains taxes on any required divestitures, potentially leading to tax savings in the millions.

French Bitcoin treasury company Capital B announced that it raised €21.0 million ($24.5 million) through private share placement.
According to an Aug. 28 announcmeent, the fundraise was conducted at €0.58 per ABSA — one share bundled with four share-subscription warrants — without pre-emptive subscription rights. The raise saw the participation of legendary cypherpunk and Bitcoin-centric blockchain development firm CEO Adam Back as well as asset manager TOBAM.
If all the issued warrants were to be exercised, Capital B would see a further €135.8 million ($158 million) capital injection through the issuance of 144,876,280 ordinary shares. The company reserves the right to trigger an accelerated warrant exercise period if the volume weighted average price of its shares over the previous 20 trading days exceeds 130% of the exercise price of the relevant warrant tranche.
Capital B plans to use the proceeds of the raise to acquire 270 Bitcoin (BTC), raising its total holdings to 3,415 BTC. According to CoinMarketCap data, the company is currently the 29th largest publicly traded Bitcoin treasury company with 3,139 BTC in worth under $249 million in its coffers — behind Bitcoin Group SE with its 3,605 BTC worth under $286 million. While sizeable, Capital B’s Bitcoin holdings pale in comparison to first and largest Bitcoin treasury companyStrategy with its 843,775 BTC worth nearly $67 billion at the time of writing.
The news follows Capital B submitting a proposal to the board of directors seeking to allow the establishment of up to 5 billion euros ($5.8 billion) in capital increase through 125 billion shares at current nominal value and $116 billion in credit instruments back in early June. The resolution passed with 162,486,459 votes — 99.34% — in favor, while smaller treasury companies were selling their holdings instead.

According to some metrics, Bitcoin (BTC) has ended its bear market as a composite BTC price indicator flips bullish for the first time since October 2025.
Key points:
Bitcoin has exited its 2026 bear market, Ki Young Ju says as a profitability metric prints a positive reading of 0.042.
The breakout from negative to positive numbers repeats a bull-market recovery signal also visible in early 2023.
Concerns remain over insufficient market liquidity to support a macro BTC price trend change.
Bitcoin profit metric offers first bull signal in ten months
The latest data from onchain analytics platform CryptoQuant has led its CEO, Ki Young Ju, to call time on Bitcoin’s 2026 bear market.
In an X post on Wednesday, Ki flagged the first positive reading on CryptoQuant’s Bull/Bear Market Cycle Indicator since early October.
“The Bitcoin bear cycle is over,” he wrote in accompanying commentary.
The indicator is derived from the P&L Index — initially devised by CryptoQuant’s head of research — and measures the P&L Index’s distance from its 365-day moving average. The P&L Index itself is composed of several onchain profitability metrics: the market value to realized value (MVRV) ratio, net unrealized profit/loss (NUPL) and the spent output profit ratio (SOPR). Together they provide an overall picture of Bitcoin investors’ realized and unrealized profits and losses. Values above zero for the Bull/Bear indicator point to bullish phases in the BTC price cycle as profitability improves.
Current cycle lows came on Feb. 5 as BTC/USD fell to $60,000, with a reading of -1.244 corresponding to “extreme bear” conditions. As of Aug. 26, the most recent date for which full data is available, Bull/Bear displayed a positive reading of 0.042, placing it in its “bull” bracket.
Bitcoin Bull/Bear Market Cycle Indicator. Source: CryptoQuant
The combination of P&L metrics and their 365-day moving averages has proven accurate at confirming macro BTC price trend changes. Ki notes that Bull/Bear likewise called the end of the previous bear market as upside returned in early 2023.
Bitcoin Bull/Bear Market Cycle Indicator historical data. Source: CryptoQuant
Misgivings over BTC price strength continue to mount
Bitcoin has seen the slow return of bull signals from various indicators in recent weeks, including the relative strength index (RSI), a recovery for which was also present at the end of 2022.
Consensus among market participants over Bitcoin’s recent upside marking the end of its macro downtrend is by no means unanimous. Previously, Cointelegraph reported on concerns that a lack of demand could see BTC/USD revert to downside, with multiple liquidity hurdles lined up immediately above spot price.

In ongoing market commentary, trader and analyst Rekt Capital argued that the August monthly close would be “pivotal” for the fate of the recovery, referring to a potential breakout from a downward-sloping resistance trend line in place since October last year.