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Ripple Prime closed an upsized $275 million private placement of senior unsecured notes this week, yet the XRP price failed to react, trading just below $1.
The brokerage arm’s fundraising success stands in sharp contrast with the token’s persistent price weakness.
Inside Ripple Prime’s $275 Million Raise
A senior unsecured note is a form of corporate debt that ranks above other unsecured obligations in repayment priority, though it carries no collateral backing. Institutional investors across major financial markets purchased the notes.
Ripple Prime operates as the company’s non-bank prime brokerage arm, offering clearing, financing, and prime brokerage services to institutional clients. The firm said proceeds will cover working capital and general corporate purposes as it expands operations in the US.
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@Ripple just raised $275M through a BBB-rated senior unsecured notes offering. That capital is going into multi-asset clearing and prime brokerage. Ripple is building serious institutional infrastructure.https://t.co/xeFFD3OUrT
— Ripple Bull Winkle | Crypto Researcher 🚀🚨 (@RipBullWinkle) August 18, 2026
Piper Sandler served as lead placement agent for the transaction. Kroll Bond Rating Agency assigned the notes a BBB investment-grade rating, matching the score it had already given Ripple Prime as an issuer.
Noel Kimmel, the unit’s president, said the funding provides additional capital to invest in the team and technology needed for growth.
“With the completion of this offering, we have an additional source of capital to invest in our team and technology as we execute on our ambitious growth roadmap and bolster our position as one of the largest non-bank prime brokers globally,” Kimmel said, quoted in Ripple’s official statement.
An investment-grade rating typically signals lower default risk to institutional buyers than unrated or speculative-grade debt. That distinction matters for a sector where conservative capital has historically stayed cautious.
Whether the rating and the raise translate into a meaningfully larger US client base remains to be seen. The company has not disclosed specific onboarding targets or a timeline for measurable growth.
Why XRP Price Still Isn’t Responding
XRP price told a different story entirely. The token traded near $0.9998, hovering just below the psychological $1 level after a modest 0.1% move over 24 hours, according to BeInCrypto data.
Market cap stood at $62.7 billion, with trading volume around $813 million. XRP recently posted one of its lowest weekly closes in nearly two years amid broader weakness in the crypto market.
That divergence fuels an ongoing debate. Community members increasingly question how closely Ripple’s corporate success actually correlates with the token’s market value.
$XRP just hit its lowest weekly close again in nearly 2 years.Is XRP finally forming a bottom? pic.twitter.com/5xDF9afLSh
— Ash Crypto (@AshCrypto) August 18, 2026
The same day brought another announcement entirely separate from this raise. Ripple partnered with Jeonbuk Bank, becoming the first regional Korean bank to deploy Ripple Payments for cross-border remittances.
That deal adds to a growing list of Asian institutional wins, following earlier partnerships in insurance and digital banking. Those collaborations demonstrate practical infrastructure use cases beyond speculative trading.
For now, Ripple continues to secure institutional capital and banking relationships, while XRP continues to test the patience of holders awaiting a price response to match.
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Stablecoin reserves parked on centralized exchanges have shrunk to roughly $64 billion, down about $16 billion from a late-2025 peak near $80 billion, CryptoQuant data shows.
The drain leaves less idle capital sitting ready to buy. What remains has pooled into fewer venues, with Binance alone accounting for 68.5% of exchange stablecoin liquidity.
Binance Absorbs a Shrinking Liquidity Pool
CQ Research said that Binance has “proven considerably more resilient” compared to other major exchanges. Balances at Coinbase, Bybit, OKX, and smaller venues contracted more sharply.
That divergence lifted Binance’s share from the low-60% range in late 2025 to 68.5% today. The exchange is winning a larger slice of a smaller pie.
“The divergence has allowed Binance to gain market share even while its own absolute liquidity declines, illustrating that the current downturn is simultaneously reducing aggregate liquidity and concentrating what remains,” the report read.
Binance Share of Stablecoin Exchange Reserves. Source: CQ Research
CryptoQuant flagged the same trend in February. Binance then held 65% of tracked reserves, worth $47.5 billion in stablecoins.
Concentration follows order books. Binance captured 38.7% of centralized exchange spot volume in the second quarter, according to CoinGecko. Bybit placed second near 10%.
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Fear Language Spreads Even as Sentiment Lifts Off Its Low
The liquidity drain coincides with deteriorating retail sentiment. Blockchain analytics firm Santiment reported last week that bearish vocabulary is spreading across social platforms.
“Crypto ‘dead’ chatter is rising again… This is fear language. It usually appears when retail patience is breaking, prices feel stuck, and traders start treating temporary weakness like permanent failure,” the firm said.
Santiment noted that crypto markets often make their sharpest moves when investors become overly convinced that further gains are unlikely.
“When ‘crypto is dead’ talk rises while Bitcoin holds key levels, stronger hands keep accumulating, and forced sellers fade, the setup often becomes more attractive for patient buyers,” it added.
The Crypto Fear and Greed Index tells a more mixed story. The gauge read 46 on Wednesday, still inside fear territory but well off last week’s low. Alternative.me put the index at 27 a week ago and 29 a month ago. It closed Tuesday at 41.
What a Shrinking Supply Means For Markets
Stablecoins serve as the primary quote currency across crypto trading pairs. Their aggregate supply is the market’s most readily available source of on-chain buying power. When they fall, fewer dollars sit ready to absorb selling pressure or fund the next leg higher.
Total supply has fallen to $300.89 billion from a high of nearly $316 billion in May, according to DefiLlama data. USDT sits at $182.95 billion and USDC at $71.97 billion.
That 4.8% market-wide decline is far shallower than the 20% drain from exchanges. The gap suggests that much of the liquidity leaving exchanges may be moving elsewhere on-chain rather than exiting the crypto market altogether.
Moreover, historical extremes have not been reached. Stablecoin supply fell 34% between April 2022 and August 2023 in a prolonged, grinding contraction, while Bitcoin’s (BTC) price dropped 43% over the same period.
The current decline is considerably milder. If the decline continues and approaches those historical extremes, it could signal a more significant deterioration in crypto’s available buying power and add pressure on Bitcoin and the broader market.
For now, however, the relatively modest contraction suggests the market has not yet entered a liquidity drain comparable to the 2022–2023 period. The key indicator to watch is whether stablecoin supply stabilizes or resumes its deeper decline, particularly if exchange balances continue to fall.
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Unitree Robotics stock opened 629% above its IPO price in Shanghai on Wednesday, overshooting the valuation crypto derivatives traders had priced into pre-IPO perpetual futures.
The Hangzhou company raised about 6.1 billion yuan, or $905 million. Its stock opened at 1,100 yuan against an offer price of 150.8 yuan, then pared gains to 968.1 yuan.
Pre-IPO Perps Called the Unitree Stock Pop and Still Undershot It
Perpetual futures tracking Unitree changed hands near $100 on Hyperliquid on Tuesday. That level implied a valuation of $40.5 billion, according to Bloomberg.
The offering itself valued the robot maker at nearly $9 billion. Perp pricing, therefore, signaled a first-day gain of roughly 347%. The open delivered 629%.
Perpetual futures for CXMT, the Chinese memory-chip maker, also pointed to a sharp rally before its debut last month.
IPO-linked perps have attracted growing attention this year, particularly for highly anticipated listings. Contracts tracking SpaceX, for example, drew significant trading interest ahead of its June IPO.
Most equity-linked perpetuals give traders exposure to US companies. CXMT and Unitree mark a notable expansion of that market, offering exposure to companies listed on the mainland China market.
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DeepSeek Money Meets a 50,000 Robot Forecast
Unitree’s IPO drew strong demand from both retail and institutional investors. Last week, the Chinese robotics maker said its offering was more than 8,000 times oversubscribed among retail investors.
The company’s existing backers include Chinese technology giant Tencent. DeepSeek, the Chinese artificial intelligence (AI) company, has also invested about 140.8 million yuan ($19.6 million) in Unitree.
The firm also unveiled its latest humanoid robot, Superman, on Monday ahead of the IPO. The company says the robot can perform a standing jump of more than 2 meters and reach a top running speed of 12.66 meters per second.
The strong investor interest comes as expectations for China’s humanoid robotics industry continue to rise. In June, Morgan Stanley nearly doubled its 2026 forecast for Chinese humanoid shipments to 50,000 units, up from 28,000. The bank expects the market to grow from $2 billion this year to $15 billion by 2030.
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Strategy says 12 of its 15 largest institutional holders added to their MSTR positions in the second quarter of 2026. The Q2 13F filings show combined holdings among that group climbed by roughly $700 million.
Strategy released the data to show that big investors still trust its stock. The company built its reputation on a “never sell Bitcoin” pledge, and it broke that pledge this year.
MSTR Institutional Holders Keep Buying
Capital International Investors remains the largest holder. It added $346 million, lifting its stake to $3.49 billion, or 9.4% of shares outstanding.
Vanguard’s two largest entities added a combined $147 million. BlackRock Institutional Trust grew its position by $84 million, and Goldman Sachs nearly quadrupled its stake to $555 million.
12 of the Top 15 institutional shareholders of $MSTR added to their positions in Q2 2026. Combined holdings increased $1.2B. pic.twitter.com/18VtXPJtVy
— Strategy (@Strategy) August 18, 2026
However, three holders pulled back. Capital Research Global Investors cut $462 million, the largest reduction in the group, and UBS Financial Services trimmed $142 million.
Geode Capital Management made a smaller cut of $5 million. Even so, the net gain across all 15 holders reached roughly $700 million for the quarter.
In contrast, the Q1 additions were larger. In that quarter, an additional holder was added, bringing the number of top 15 institutional shareholders who added shares to 13, and combined holdings rose by $4.6 billion.
A Test of Institutional Confidence
The filings arrive at a sensitive moment for Strategy. Since May, the company has sold Bitcoin in multiple tranches to fund dividends on its STRC preferred shares.
That marks a reversal of the accumulation-only approach that built its reputation. Executives call the sales capital structure optimization, not a retreat from Bitcoin.
Meanwhile, some analysts question whether the flywheel model still works when Bitcoin’s price sags. The debate centers on how much Strategy can rely on Bitcoin sales without eroding investor trust.
Continued institutional buying gives Strategy a counterargument. It suggests that large, long-term holders remain unbothered by the pressure on its capital structure, at least for now.
As a result, analysts still see upside in MSTR stock, even with Bitcoin’s price flat. The next few quarters will show how far Strategy can lean on its Bitcoin reserves before that confidence fades.

Tom Lee, chairman of Bitmine Immersion Technologies, said BlackRock’s new Bitcoin report reinforces the case for Ethereum (ETH). He pointed to artificial intelligence (AI) and robotics as the reason.
BlackRock’s paper, called “Re-Underwriting Bitcoin,” examined Bitcoin’s more than 50% decline from its October 2025 high. It said capital had rotated into AI-themed equity funds instead.
What Lee Argued
Lee, who also co-founded Fundstrat, wrote on X that AI capabilities are advancing along a steep S-curve. He said recent research points to AI systems developing a form of collective coordination.
🧵1/Crypto more relevant today given the rapidly increasing capabilities of AI and robotics. Agree with @BlackRock take to see growing use cases. In our view, @ethereum $ETH will be the most important L1tickers: $BMNR $BMNP https://t.co/HOcHgJrD68
— Thomas (Tom) Lee (not drummer) FundstratDirect.com (@fundstrat) August 18, 2026
Blockchains and smart contracts, he argued, keep humans involved in overseeing that behavior. He extended the same logic to robotics, citing a video of a robot outperforming human athletes.
In the same post, Lee called Ethereum the most important base layer, or “L1.” The term describes the foundational network that other blockchain applications rely on.
“we see $ETH as an important downstream story for AI”
Where the Case Gets Thin
But BlackRock’s report never mentions Ethereum, robotics, or blockchain verification of AI systems. Instead, its authors frame AI-linked equity funds as competition for capital, not a use case for smart contracts.
Still, Lee’s framing goes further than the report itself. BlackRock links Bitcoin’s pullback to leverage and shifting fund flows, not a change in Bitcoin’s role as a monetary hedge.
This is not the first time Lee has tied Ethereum to the AI trade. Bitmine holds about 4.8% of Ethereum’s circulating supply, making Lee one of the asset’s largest institutional stakeholders.
That position gives Lee a clear financial incentive to link Ethereum to major crypto narratives, including Bitcoin’s own investment case.
Ethereum trades near $1,908 as of Aug. 19, 2026, according to CoinGecko data. Whether Lee’s AI-and-robotics framing gains wider traction may depend on concrete examples of blockchains verifying autonomous systems in practice.

Kalshi filed with the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) to launch perpetual futures tied to a major US stock index and to copper, extending a leverage-trading structure it pioneered in Bitcoin (BTC) earlier this year.
The filing puts a prediction market operator in direct competition with CME Group and Cboe Global Markets. Both exchanges have built decades of business on contracts with fixed expiration dates.
A Product Built for Crypto, Now Aimed at Stocks
Perpetual futures, known as perps, carry no expiration date. Traders hold a position indefinitely, paying or receiving periodic funding to keep the contract price aligned with the underlying asset.
Historically, the structure originated offshore, because domestic regulators had not approved a similar listing. Exchanges outside the country built entire businesses on crypto perps as a result.
However, that changed in May. The CFTC approved Kalshi’s Bitcoin perpetual futures contract, the first allowed on a US-regulated exchange.
TradFi is officially borrowing crypto’s best product. Kalshi just filed for perpetual futures on equity indexes (US500 tracking a large-cap benchmark basically like the S&P 500) + copper. No expiry, continuous exposure, leverage, funding rates — the full perp experience, but…
— Richman | Macro & Crypto (@Richmanvn) August 19, 2026
The contract crossed $1 billion in trading volume within its first week, Kalshi CEO Tarek Mansour said. It topped $5.5 billion within two weeks of launching June 3.
Kalshi has since used that approval as a template. It filed for gold and silver perpetuals last month, followed by stock index and copper contracts on Tuesday.
CME’s Lawsuit Looms Over the New Filing
Kalshi’s stock filing lands as CME Group pursues a lawsuit over crypto perps. CME argues the Bitcoin perpetual is a swap, not a future.
Kalshi and the CFTC disagree, however, maintaining it is simply a futures contract without a fixed expiration date. The stock index filing leans on the same argument. It points to standardized contract sizes, central clearing, and margin requirements.
Traditional exchanges have not stood still either. Cboe Global Markets launched Mini-S&P 500 binary options through Interactive Brokers in June. In contrast, Cboe’s product uses fixed-settlement binary options rather than a perpetual structure.
BitMEX, the exchange that invented the offshore crypto perpetual swap in 2014, announced its closure in July. Meanwhile, it will close by September 23.
Analysts have cited reasons behind BitMEX’s closure as a sign the offshore era for perps may be ending. US-regulated venues are capturing that volume onshore instead.
The CFTC has not set a timeline for reviewing Kalshi’s stock index filing. Therefore, the CME lawsuit’s outcome will likely determine how quickly leveraged, never-expiring stock exposure reaches American traders.

A new mystery shopping study from the Bank of Italy, Italy’s central bank, found stablecoins offer no systematic cost advantage over traditional remittance channels.
The Bank of Italy sent 200 USD Coin (USDC) across ten real-world corridors. The routes linked Italy with Argentina, Brazil, South Africa, the United Arab Emirates, and Japan.
Fiat Conversion, Not Blockchain, Drives Costs
Total transfer costs ranged from 0.3% to nearly 9% of the amount sent, the study found. That range straddles the United Nations’ target of cutting remittance costs below 3% by 2030.
Researchers tracked five phases of each transfer, from funding an exchange account to withdrawing cash at the destination. The on-chain blockchain transfer itself averaged just 0.4% of total cost.
The different transfer costs via USDC. Image Source: BANCA D’ITALIA
Funding, currency conversion, and withdrawal drove almost all of the expense instead. Those are the steps that still run through banks and exchanges rather than the blockchain.
A United Arab Emirates to Italy transfer illustrates the problem. The sender had no bank transfer option and had to fund the trade with a credit card instead. That card carried a 3.8% surcharge, which pushed the total cost to nearly 9%.
The World Bank puts the global average remittance cost at 6.4%, well above the UN’s 3% target. Against the World Bank’s country-specific benchmarks, however, stablecoins beat traditional costs in every corridor the study tested except the UAE.
The Bank of Italy also compared USDC against Wise, a money transfer operator, on the same routes. Stablecoins came out cheaper on three corridors and more expensive on four others, undercutting any claim of a consistent edge.
Domestic Payment Rails Determine Speed
Execution times varied just as widely as costs. Transfers settled in under 20 minutes wherever instant payment systems existed. Brazil’s Pix network and the euro area’s TARGET Instant Payment Settlement (TIPS) service both qualified.
South Africa lacked that kind of infrastructure. A stablecoin transfer there took one to two business days, the same timeline as a conventional bank wire.
The findings complicate a narrative that stablecoins are already quietly replacing bank payment rails. The Bank of Italy’s researchers argue the technology still relies on the banks it aims to bypass.
The study also reviewed global stablecoin rules. It named Europe’s Markets in Crypto-Assets Regulation (MiCA), the bloc’s framework for crypto-asset issuers, among the more comprehensive regimes.
A related review of Europe’s post-MiCA crypto market found Circle remains the dominant compliant stablecoin issuer.
Strict regulation carried its own cost, though. The Bank of Italy found that Japan’s rules pushed users toward unregulated wallets rather than curbing demand. Whether looser on-ramp rules could close that gap remains an open question for policymakers.

Andrew Yang, the 2020 presidential candidate, renewed his call for an AI tax on CNBC’s Power Lunch. He argues the government should tax artificial intelligence (AI) instead of payroll.
Yang co-founded the Forward Party and now runs Noble Mobile as chief executive. He said firms skip payroll taxes and healthcare costs by choosing AI over new hires.
Andrew Yang’s AI Tax Push
Yang built his political brand on automation warnings during his 2020 campaign. He proposed a universal basic income plan he called the Freedom Dividend. He also backed cryptocurrency adoption and clearer digital asset rules as a candidate.
His comments echo remarks from March, when he told CNBC’s Squawk Box the government should stop taxing labor. That debate has also drawn similar AI job displacement concerns from sitting US senators.
Yang pointed to Anthropic chief executive Dario Amodei, who floated a 3% AI revenue tax in 2025. Amodei said the levy would apply each time a model generates revenue.
Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei called on governments to tax AI companies to fund a universal basic income and introduce employee retention incentives to account for the potential impact the technology could have on the labor market. https://t.co/3e0iCzOSUq
— Bloomberg Tax (@tax) June 12, 2026
Yang said the same logic should apply broadly. However, he argued it would force firms to weigh AI costs against payroll costs.
What the Data Shows
A CNBC and Generation Lab survey published August 13 polled Americans aged 18 to 34. It found 45% expect AI to hurt their careers, while only 10% expect it to help.
Bridgewater Associates executives Greg Jensen and Nir Bar Dea wrote a New York Times opinion piece. They estimated AI could displace 18% of current US jobs within five years.
The pair used that estimate to back their own AI token tax proposal, echoing Amodei’s earlier idea. Meanwhile, the shift is already visible in customer service. The sector employs roughly 2.9 million Americans, according to the US Bureau of Labor Statistics.
Yang proposed sending the tax revenue directly to workers as checks. He said retraining programs rarely help displaced workers find new careers. He pointed to past efforts aimed at coal miners and warehouse staff as examples that largely failed.

Bonds are slamming stocks just days after Wall Street set fresh records. A global bond selloff is now pushing borrowing costs to multi-decade highs.
The S&P 500 and Nasdaq Composite fell to two-week lows on Tuesday. In contrast, long-dated Treasury yields jumped to their highest levels in nearly two decades.
Records, Then a Reversal
The S&P 500 closed at a record 7,798.99 on Aug. 13. Cooling inflation data and strong AI-linked earnings had powered that rally.
The S&P 500 has dropped from its recent record high. Image Source: Trading View
The Dow Jones Industrial Average had also set an AI-earnings record close alongside the S&P 500 on Aug. 5. However, the mood flipped just days later.
The Nasdaq Composite slid to a two-week low as semiconductor stocks tumbled, denting a record-setting 2026 rally.
How Bonds Are Slamming Stocks
The US 10-year Treasury yield climbed to 4.748%, its highest since January 2025. The 30-year yield reached 5.33%, its highest level in 19 years.
The rout is not just American. Japan’s 10-year government bond yield reached a 30-year high of 2.945% this week.
The gap between short-term and long-term US yields is now the widest in four years. That steepening signals investors are demanding more compensation for long-run risk.
Renewed doubts over a Middle East peace deal pushed oil prices higher, fanning inflation fears. Meanwhile, a record wave of corporate bond issuance is competing with government debt for investor cash.
Issuance has totaled nearly $1.7 trillion so far in 2026, according to SIFMA data. That pace is on track to top last year’s record of $2.2 trillion.
A Moving Market is Worth a Look
Meanwhile, South Korea’s KOSPI fell 1.5% and Japan’s Nikkei dropped 2.5% in sympathy. The Philadelphia SE Semiconductor Index tumbled 5% as investors reassessed AI-linked valuations.
In contrast, the pullback lends weight to Fundstrat’s Tom Lee. He has said a 10% market correction may be needed before the S&P 500 can sustainably clear 8,000.
Wednesday’s Federal Reserve minutes may decide whether this pause holds or the selloff deepens. Investors are already positioning for that Fed minutes preview, the next major catalyst for both stocks and bonds.

The $40 trillion US debt mark is now within reach, at $39.9 trillion on Tuesday. That equals roughly $116,000 for every American, or nearly two Bitcoins at today’s price.
Bitcoin (BTC) backers call the debt the best reason to own a scarce asset. However, a new Conference Board report shows that the same debt is draining the budgets that fund everyday crypto buying.
AMERICA’S $39 TRILLION DEBT HITS EVERYDAY FINANCESA Conference Board report warns that rising U.S. debt could increasingly squeeze families and businesses through higher borrowing costs.The debt now exceeds $39 trillion, or roughly $116,000 per American.Higher deficits…
— *Walter Bloomberg (@DeItaone) August 18, 2026
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Why the $40 Trillion US Debt Hits Household Budgets
The Peter G. Peterson Foundation’s debt tracker showed $39.9 trillion on Tuesday, as did the Fiscal data dashboard. Interest alone burns through more than $2.8 billion per day, according to the foundation.
US Federal Debt As of August 13. Source: Fiscaldata.treasury.gov
The Conference Board, a nonpartisan business research group, released a report the same day. It modeled five fiscal paths, including a one-week US default.
In that scenario, small business loan payments jump by 21.6%, student loan costs by 8.7%, and housing costs by up to 6.7%.
The default case is a stress test, not a forecast. Congress has always raised the debt ceiling before missing payments, most recently after the 2023 standoff.
The baseline path is still heavy. The report sees debt at 154% of GDP by 2036. It also flags 2032 as the year Social Security’s main trust fund runs dry.
AMERICA’S $39 TRILLION DEBT HITS EVERYDAY FINANCESA Conference Board report warns that rising U.S. debt could increasingly squeeze families and businesses through higher borrowing costs.The debt now exceeds $39 trillion, or roughly $116,000 per American.Higher deficits…
— *Walter Bloomberg (@DeItaone) August 18, 2026
A retiree on a $2,100 monthly benefit could then lose about $170 per month.
“The national debt is not just a number on the government’s balance sheet—it affects the financial decisions Americans make every day,” David K. Young, president of the CEO Center at the Conference Board, said in the announcement.
Could Americans Even Afford Bitcoin and Crypto?
Bitcoin trades near $64,594 after gaining 0.5% in 24 hours, per BeInCrypto Markets data. At that price, the average debt share of $116,000 equals about 1.8 BTC.
Bitcoin Price Performance. Source: BeInCrypto
Most buyers never get close to a whole coin. A JPMorgan Chase Institute study covering 2015 through mid-2022 found that the median buyer moved about $620 into crypto in total. That was less than one week’s take-home pay.
Today, that $620 buys less than 0.01 BTC. The debt squeeze eats the same money. The Conference Board’s higher-deficit path adds $55,000 to a modeled family’s five-year mortgage bill, over $900 per month.
The strain is felt most at the bottom. In the JPMorgan data, lower-income millennials paid about $45,400 per Bitcoin on average, versus $42,400 for top earners. Buying late, at high prices, was the norm.
Debt and crypto stress already overlap. An Office of Financial Research (OFR) brief studied areas where crypto use runs highest. The share of low-income households there holding mortgages nearly quadrupled between 2020 and 2024, from 4.1% to 15.4%.
US housing regulators have even studied Bitcoin as mortgage collateral. Crypto now sits deep inside household balance sheets.
Rising Treasury Yields Test the Bitcoin Hedge Trade
The squeeze deepens as bond yields climb. The 30-year Treasury yield trades near levels last seen in 2003. Strategists at Barclays and BMO Capital Markets attribute the move to fiscal concerns and a heavy bond supply.
US 30-Year Treasury Yield. Source: TradingView
The fiscal data backs them up. Treasury figures showed a $432.3 billion deficit in July, the widest monthly gap since March 2021. Interest costs are on track to hit $1.37 trillion this fiscal year, behind only Social Security and Medicare.
Companies are crowding the market too. US firms have sold nearly $1.7 trillion in bonds this year, up 27% from the same period in 2025. All that supply competes with crypto for investor cash.
Higher safe yields raise the bar for risk assets. Still, Bitcoin carry trade returns recently beat two-year Treasury yields. And the bond selloff has revived debate over which assets stay safe at all.
The answer is a qualified yes. A typical $620 stake remains within reach for most households. The harder question is whether that cash survives rising loan payments. Where yields settle in the coming months may decide it.

Anthropic reportedly plans to hand CEO Dario Amodei and his co-founders supervoting shares. The extra votes would shield the leadership team from public market pressure once the Anthropic IPO lands.
The Information reported the plan, citing two people familiar with the matter. It would be the first time Anthropic’s leaders hold stock with extra voting power.
Supervoting Shares Arrive Before the Anthropic IPO
Anthropic filed a confidential S-1 with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) in June. The S-1 is the paperwork that starts a US stock market listing.
The company has the numbers to back one. Its latest funding round valued the firm at $965 billion. Meanwhile, its revenue run rate hit $65 billion in late July, about $25 billion ahead of OpenAI.
The report from The Information points to a potential September IPO, although Anthropic has not confirmed a date.
*ANTHROPIC IS PREPARING TO GIVE CEO DARIO AMODEI AND FOUNDERS SUPERVOTING SHARES AHEAD OF ITS IPO: THE INFORMATION*ANTHROPIC AIMS TO PROTECT ITS LEADERSHIP FROM OUTSIDE SHAREHOLDER PRESSURE BEFORE A POTENTIAL SEPTEMBER IPO
— tradfi news (@tradfi) August 18, 2026
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Why extra votes? Founders who take their companies public often fear one thing. Outside shareholders can force short-term profit over the long-term plan.
Google wrote the modern defense in 2004. Its founders kept 10-vote shares so they could ignore quarterly noise. Meta later copied the model, and Mark Zuckerberg still controls his company through it today.
The SpaceX Template and One Big Difference
Elon Musk ran the boldest version yet. SpaceX listed on Nasdaq on June 12 under the SPCX ticker. Its S-1 filing gives public Class A shares one vote each. Insider Class B shares get 10.
The result is stark. Musk holds a 48.4% stake but commands more than 82% of shareholder votes. Class B holders also elect the majority of the board.
The filing contains no sunset clause either. The extra votes never expire. In addition, SpaceX counts as a controlled company under Nasdaq rules, so it skips the independent board requirement.
In short, Musk answers to almost no one. That is the playbook Anthropic is borrowing.
Now for the difference:
Anthropic would spread the extra votes across several co-founders rather than one person.
It also keeps a watchdog SpaceX never built. The company runs as a Public Benefit Corporation, a legal form that binds it to a public mission alongside profit. Its governance includes the Long-Term Benefit Trust (LTBT), an independent body.
Anthropic vs SpaceX IPO: Similarities and Differences
The LTBT’s trustees include former Federal Reserve Chair Ben Bernanke. The Trust helps pick board members to protect Anthropic’s AI safety mission, whoever holds the biggest votes.
The public S-1 will reveal the fine print, from vote ratios to any expiry terms. Until then, the trade for future investors is simple. They get the upside. The founders keep the wheel.

Michael Saylor has a simple message for young people entering an AI-heavy economy: learn the technology early, then use it to find opportunities others have not seen. He also mentioned a trick called “finding the new S-curve.”
The Strategy founder (formerly MicroStrategy) made the argument during a recent Diary of a CEO interview with Steven Bartlett.
Don’t Try to Outwork AI
Saylor believes AI will increasingly handle routine knowledge work. For an 18-year-old deciding what to study, learning tasks AI can already perform may offer less long-term value.
“You don’t want to learn how to do things the AI can do,” Saylor said. His alternative: “What you want to do is learn how to ask the AI to do something that’s never been done before.”
That could mean creating a product or using AI to make an existing service cheaper. He also stresses that people still need expertise in a particular field.
Find the New S-Curve
Saylor describes technological progress as an S-curve: a technology develops slowly, enters rapid improvement, then eventually matures.
His advice is to position yourself near the start of that rapid-growth phase. AI and other emerging digital technologies, in his view, still offer that opportunity.
The goal is to spot something that has only recently become possible and build around it early.
“So, let me tell you why you shouldn’t buy a house… [you’re] taking on a massive tax load and you’re taking on a maintenance load. These things are all hard, right? Real estate business is hard. Starting your own company is hard. Investing in other companies is hard… So that’s why Bitcoin is such a compelling thing. Why shouldn’t the typical person just be able to take their money, put it into an asset which appreciates in value 15% a year, and they don’t have to worry about it?” Saylor said.
Is Saylor Right?
Broadly, yes. Stanford researchers said in July that AI’s impact on worker productivity is generally positive, while the tougher market for recent graduates may already be partly linked to AI.
The strongest part of Saylor’s argument is domain expertise. Knowing how to prompt ChatGPT alone is unlikely to create a durable advantage. Combining AI fluency with deep knowledge of a specific problem has a stronger economic case.
MicroStrategy Is Having a Difficult 2026
Saylor’s own company also shows the risks of aggressive bets. Strategy held 840,447 Bitcoin as of August 16, bought for roughly $63.36 billion at an average price of $75,385.
MicroStrategy Shares Lost Nearly 40% Year-To-Date. Source: Yahoo Finance
It reported an $8.22 billion Q2 net loss, largely from falling Bitcoin prices. Strategy has also faced criticism over shareholder dilution and recent Bitcoin sales after years of Saylor promoting a strong hold philosophy.
This week, Saylor told investors to prepare for “difficult years.” His broader point still stands: being early can create opportunity, but execution and risk matter.

Wall Street fears Nvidia (NVDA) is quietly turning into a bank for the AI boom. Bank of America (BofA) says that fear is exactly why Nvidia stock trades at up to a 50% discount, and it kept its $350 target.
Analyst Vivek Arya made the call as Nvidia guaranteed up to $105 billion in leases for an OpenAI data center in Ohio. Earnings arrive on August 26.
Why Investors Fear Nvidia’s New Role as AI Financier
On Monday, Nvidia agreed to backstop up to $105 billion in leases at a new Ohio data center campus. SB Energy, a developer backed by SoftBank and OpenAI, will build and own the site.
The campus sits on a Cold War-era uranium enrichment site in Pike County. OpenAI signed a 20-year lease for the facility, according to Nvidia’s announcement.
The worry is easy to grasp. Nvidia sells chips to OpenAI, has pledged to invest up to $100 billion in the company under a 2025 partnership, and now backs its rent. Critics call the money loop circular.
However, Arya says the market is misreading the deal. Nvidia does not guarantee OpenAI’s full rent. It covers only the leftover gap if OpenAI defaults and the site is re-leased or sold. Even then, the bill is capped at $105 billion, well below the $250 billion floated in earlier reports.
There is also a prize for taking that risk. Nvidia becomes the exclusive AI compute provider on the campus, locking rivals out of scarce land and power. CEO Jensen Huang put the logic plainly in the release, saying
“land, power and shell have become vital in the age of AI.”
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BofA Sees Nvidia Stock at a 34% to 50% Discount
Arya values Nvidia piece by piece on its free cash flow. Even after loading in every financing risk, his math shows the shares trading 34% to 50% below fair value.
“Nvidia’s ecosystem investments, especially into disruptive frontier labs and neoclouds, are critical to accelerating the [artificial-intelligence] cycle, though they risk lower earnings quality and a depressed trading multiple,” said Arya in his latest note.
Neoclouds are smaller cloud firms built to rent out graphics processing units (GPUs). In plain terms, Arya thinks the deals speed up the AI boom, even if they scare shareholders today.
His fix is simple. Nvidia puts only about half of its free cash flow into buybacks, while peers return 75% to 100%. A bigger program would hand cash back, ease doubts about earnings quality, and could lift the multiple.
$NVDA – BOFA: NVIDIA COULD BE UP TO 50% UNDERVALUEDBank of America says Nvidia may trade at a 34%-50% discount, as investors could be overstating AI-related risks.BofA sees Nvidia’s aggressive AI investments as a long-term opportunity, despite potential balance-sheet risks if…
— *Walter Bloomberg (@DeItaone) August 18, 2026
Wall Street Consensus and the August 26 Test
Nvidia stock, NVDA, traded for $219.74 as of this writing. A run to $350 means roughly 59% upside, or about $3 trillion in added value on its $5.45 trillion market cap.
Nvidia (NVDA) Stock Performance. Source: Yahoo Finance
Arya is bullish but far from alone. TipRanks data shows 36 of 37 analysts rate the stock a Buy, with an average target of $309.94. Even the lowest target on the Street, at $250, sits above the current price.
Nvidia (NVDA) Stock Forecast & Price Target. Source: TipRanks
The risks are real, though. If AI demand cools, re-leasing a giant Ohio campus becomes much harder. The stock has also dropped after past earnings six times since August 2024.
Arya expects Nvidia to detail its off-balance-sheet commitments on August 26. If that disclosure lands well, the discount he sees may finally start to close.

The US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) proposed Regulation Crypto Assets on Tuesday, opening a legal route for token sales to US investors and a formal exit from securities treatment.
The exit question sat at the center of the SEC’s long court fight with Ripple over XRP. Tuesday’s proposal would replace years of litigation with written conditions.
What the New SEC Crypto Rules Offer Token Issuers
The proposal creates two exemptions from Securities Act registration:
A one-time option covers raises of up to $5 million across four years.
A second track allows up to $75 million every 12 months.
Both routes require plain narrative disclosures for investors.
Projects using the larger exemption must also publish financial statements and file ongoing reports. Federal rules would override state registration requirements for these offerings and certain secondary trades.
The structure loosely recalls the initial coin offering (ICO) era, when projects raised billions from the public before enforcement closed that channel. This time, dollar caps and disclosure duties frame the activity from day one.
The package builds on the joint token taxonomy the SEC and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) issued on March 17.
That interpretation explained how a non-security crypto asset can enter and leave an investment contract, the legal wrapper that pulls a token sale under securities law. Public comments stay open for 60 days after Federal Register publication.
🚨 TODAY: The SEC proposed new rules, “Regulation Crypto Assets,” that would create a clear and fit-for-purpose framework for certain investment contracts involving crypto assets. pic.twitter.com/SAA2sErMXF
— U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (@SECGov) August 18, 2026
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The Question XRP Made Famous Gets a Written Answer
The SEC sued Ripple in 2020, arguing its XRP sales amounted to unregistered securities offerings. Judge Analisa Torres ruled in 2023 that XRP itself was not a security, though certain institutional sales crossed the line. The case closed in August 2025.
That outcome left a puzzle every project since has faced. A token could escape securities status in court, yet no rule told issuers how to get there without a judge.
The proposed safe harbor supplies the missing mechanism.
Once a team completes or permanently ends the managerial work it promised buyers, the asset would no longer sit under an investment contract.
“In line with the Commission’s earlier interpretative guidance, this proposal would also allow for a safe harbor once an issuer has completed or permanently ceased all essential managerial efforts that it represented or promised it would take under an investment contract,” SEC Chairman Paul S. Atkins said in the release.
Markets showed little immediate reaction. XRP trades near $1, little changed over the past day, with a $62.7 billion market cap that ranks sixth overall. The token still sits well below its July 2025 record of $3.65.
XRP Price Performance. Source: BeInCrypto
Attention now turns to the comment window and to Congress, where the CLARITY Act, a bill setting market structure rules for digital assets, still awaits a Senate vote. The safe harbor’s final conditions will determine whether issuers that built offshore actually bring token sales back to the US.

How do you capture a new territory and expand your country in 2026? In ancient times, it happened through war, invasion, physically overthrowing a government, and claiming the land. But in modern times, one apparently just needs to post on social media. That is what the POTUS did today.
Donald Trump and the White House posted an image today showing the Strait of Hormuz as a brand-new US Territory. Perhaps the 51st state. Hormuz is open for all ships – the POTUS claimed, but maritime data would disagree.To be clear, there has been no transfer of sovereignty. Hormuz remains an international strait between Iran and Oman. Trump’s claim may be political theatre. Or something more strategic, like an attempt to turn US military control into negotiating leverage.
pic.twitter.com/MxwhOXd4uv
— The White House (@WhiteHouse) August 18, 2026
Hormuz is Nowhere Near Open
Kpler data cited by Reuters showed just six commodity vessels crossed on Monday. Before the war, almost 140 ships would pass through every day.
So, yes, Hormuz might be technically open, but it’s not operational. Among the six ships that crossed, no VLCC crude supertankers or LNG carriers were recorded crossing.
Oil prices clearly reflect that. Brent crude oil has jumped nearly 15% in August. And global pressure is reaching a boiling point.
Crude Oil Price in August So Far. Source: Oiprice.com MarketRiskWhyBangladeshCriticalGas shortages and power-saving measures; reduced LNG availabilityPakistanHighHeavy dependence on oil and LNG moving through HormuzIndiaHighDozens of Qatari LNG cargoes disruptedEU/GermanyHighElevated gas prices and unusually weak storage ahead of winterCountries at High Risk of Oil and Gas Supply
Then there is Bitcoin.
Bitcoin Price Could Care Less About Hormuz, More About Fed Action
BTC trades near $64,700, almost exactly where it stood a month ago around $63,900. During that period, oil surged, Hormuz talks broke down, and US Treasury yields climbed.
Bitcoin, for the most part, didn’t care. The slight uptake on BTC price this week came from positive ETF flow returning to the US spot and confirmation that the Fed won’t likely increase interest rates.
But there is also little room for easing interest rates. Continuous Hormuz disruption (despite Trump’s claim of liberation) keeps oil elevated, which feeds inflation and higher bond yields, reducing the Federal Reserve’s room to ease.
Wall Street giant Citi will launch $BTC custody later this year.Integrated into its new Custody+ platform, clients can manage both traditional assets and crypto under one roof.The rollout also adds 24/7 tokenized deposits, real-time asset servicing, and instant settlements. pic.twitter.com/AyIpe42oAU
— BeInCrypto (@beincrypto) August 18, 2026
So, the US President can call Hormuz American territory. Oil traders clearly care about who actually controls the ships.
Bitcoin, for now, seems more interested in the Fed.

BlackRock and VanEck released back-to-back reports this week explaining why Wall Street’s arrival failed to prevent the 50% Bitcoin (BTC) crash. Both firms argue the same infrastructure that accelerated institutional adoption also amplified the sell-off.
BlackRock’s whitepaper blames extreme leverage and capital rotation into AI funds. VanEck’s latest ChainCheck counts 8 of 12 capitulation signals firing and suggests the correction may be entering its final months.
Bitcoin Price Performance Since October Peak. Source: BeInCrypto Leverage and Fund Flows Drove the Bitcoin Crash
BlackRock’s “Re-Underwriting Bitcoin” whitepaper describes a market that entered October 2025 dangerously stretched. Futures open interest topped $90 billion, and 80% of it sat in offshore perpetual contracts offering up to 125x leverage.
When Washington announced fresh China tariffs on October 10, forced liquidations wiped $20 billion of open interest in a single day. Equities recovered within weeks, but bitcoin kept sliding and broke below $60,000 by June.
Fund flows deepened the damage. Spot Bitcoin ETFs drew $60 billion between January 2024 and October 2025. They then bled more than $5 billion while AI-themed funds absorbed $46 billion.
BlackRock, however, frames the rotation as cyclical rather than a structural loss of demand.
From new Blackrock write up on re-underwriting the Bitcoin thesis: pic.twitter.com/xA8qGdAK0C
— Will (@WClemente) August 18, 2026
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VanEck Sees the Sell-Off Entering Its Final Phase
VanEck’s mid-August ChainCheck reaches a similar verdict through on-chain data. Eight of 12 capitulation signals are active. The drawdown has also entered its 10th month, against a historical average of 11 to 13. That timeline mirrors analyst Benjamin Cowen’s call for an October cycle bottom.
The firm also expects a shallower trough than the 78% to 94% wipeouts of past cycles because no major lender has collapsed this time.
“We expect a shallower trough this cycle, and we would rather state that assumption plainly than hide it inside a threshold,” The VanEck research team, led by Head of Digital Assets Research Matthew Sigel, wrote in the report.
Meanwhile, with on-chain researchers arguing the market has entered an accumulation zone, neither firm, BlackRock nor VanEck, promises a quick rebound.
BlackRock still models a 1% to 2% allocation improving a 60/40 portfolio. VanEck, meanwhile, concedes capitulation buys have historically paid off only at the one-year mark.
The next few months will test whether Wall Street’s Bitcoin era can soften the bottom it could not prevent.

Bitcoin (BTC) pushed against $65,000 on Tuesday. At the same moment, two Wall Street giants deepened their commitment. BlackRock repeated its call for a 1-2% portfolio allocation, and Citi confirmed its Bitcoin custody service will arrive this year.
The timing is striking. Bitcoin still sits about 50% below its October 2025 peak, yet the firms building institutional access keep expanding.
Bitcoin Price Performance. Source: TradingView BlackRock Sticks With Its 1-2% Bitcoin Allocation
BlackRock re-examined Bitcoin in a note published Monday. Digital asset executives Robert Mitchnick and Will Su wrote it after the market’s steep slide. Their verdict? The selloff came from forced selling inside crypto markets, not a weaker long-term case.
The refreshed 10-year analysis matched guidance from June. Back then, the firm first told institutions exactly how much Bitcoin to hold.
A 1-2% slice, funded from stocks, would have improved risk-adjusted returns in a classic 60/40 portfolio.
JUST IN: BlackRock says 1-2% Bitcoin exposure is ideal, core thesis intact.🔸Expects TradFi correlation to trend lower.🔸AI products now the biggest capital rival. pic.twitter.com/3jvJ1aAxVq
— Bitcoin Archive (@BitcoinArchive) August 18, 2026
The authors also pointed to Bitcoin’s low long-term link with stocks and bonds. Periods when it trades in lockstep with equities tend to fade, they argued.
The stance matters because of BlackRock’s scale. It is the world’s largest asset manager. Its iShares Bitcoin Trust (IBIT) held over $47 billion in assets by March 2026.
Moreover, BlackRock client buying rebounded in late July, even with the average US spot ETF buyer sitting 22% underwater.
Citi Puts BTC Inside Its New Custody+ Platform
Meanwhile, Citi answered a different question. Where do institutions actually keep the bitcoin they buy? The bank unveiled Custody+ on Tuesday, a platform built for markets that never close.
Wall Street giant Citi will launch $BTC custody later this year.Integrated into its new Custody+ platform, clients can manage both traditional assets and crypto under one roof.The rollout also adds 24/7 tokenized deposits, real-time asset servicing, and instant settlements. pic.twitter.com/AyIpe42oAU
— BeInCrypto (@beincrypto) August 18, 2026
Digital asset custody goes live later this year, starting with Bitcoin. Clients will hold stocks, bonds, and crypto inside one setup, with no separate crypto systems.
The scale behind the build is real money. Citi says it spends over $2 billion a year on its platform strategy. Its custody network covers more than 100 markets.
“Custody+ is the product of a multi-year commitment to building infrastructure that matches the speed of our clients’ strategies,” Amit Agarwal, Head of Custody at Citi Investor Services, said in the announcement.
The launch also feeds the race among major banks for institutional Bitcoin demand. Fidelity currently leads Strategy’s Bitcoin Banking Adoption Index, which ranks how far big lenders have moved into bitcoin. Citi sits among the chasers.
Bitcoin traded near $64,708 at press time, having pulled back from an intra-day high of $65,058, levels last tested over a week ago.
However, the bigger story sits behind the chart. Institutions have long cited two practical barriers, sizing and safekeeping. BlackRock now supplies the math. Citi supplies the vault.

South Korea ordered domestic access to Polymarket blocked, citing violations of the country’s Criminal Act and National Sports Promotion Act over gambling concerns.
The Korea Communications Commission announced the decision on Tuesday, after consulting with police and gambling regulators, ordering internet providers to cut off access nationwide.
Why South Korea Ordered the Block
Gambling is illegal for South Korean citizens, with the Criminal Act imposing fines of up to roughly $7,000 for offenders. That law now applies directly to Polymarket’s operations in the country.
The commission said Polymarket constitutes information that facilitates gambling or provides a venue for it, as well as activities resembling sports betting under the National Sports Promotion Act.
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South Korea Blocks Polymarket Over Gambling ConcernsSouth Korea’s media regulator voted on Aug. 18 to block access to Polymarket, saying its winner-take-all markets on events including politics, elections, sports and weather encourage gambling. Polymarket argued that its… pic.twitter.com/MKgsozIqia
— Wu Blockchain (@WuBlockchain) August 18, 2026
Regulators consulted the National Police Agency, the National Gambling Control Commission, and the Korea Sports Promotion Foundation before finalizing the block. Those agencies concluded that Polymarket’s operations could constitute an unlicensed gambling venue under existing law.
The commission argued that Polymarket’s structure inherently encourages gambling. It said the winner-take-all format makes financial outcomes heavily dependent on events users cannot control, such as politics, sports, and weather.
Regulators also pointed to Korea-specific betting markets as evidence that the platform targets local users. They specifically cited a listing on Seoul rainfall totals for August.
What Polymarket Does and How It Pushed Back
Polymarket lets users trade on real-world outcomes, from elections and World Cup matches to central bank decisions and geopolitical events, with transactions running through cryptocurrency.
One case drew particular attention earlier this year. A US soldier reportedly used classified information in January to win more than $400,000 betting on the raid to capture Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro.
The world is truly a casino.A US soldier allegedly helped plan the secret mission to capture Maduro, then opened Polymarket and bet $33,000 that it would succeed.He allegedly turned it into $410,000 overnight.These are the people you're trading against. pic.twitter.com/KijWjwOc3u
— Jeremy (@Jeremybtc) April 24, 2026
Polymarket pushed back during a July 6 hearing. The company said it had removed its Korean-language service and does not accept payments in Korean won, arguing that those changes place it outside the relevant communications law.
The platform also argued that it does not directly hold user funds or issue betting tickets, meaning it should not meet the legal threshold for gambling violations.
Regulators rejected both arguments. They said companies cannot avoid Korean law simply by relying on technical features such as language availability or currency support.
South Korea now joins more than 30 jurisdictions restricting Polymarket over similar gambling concerns. France and Argentina already block access to the platform, part of a broader pattern of regulatory pushback worldwide.
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Arthur Hayes says he is ending his retirement to lead Flop Labs, a new startup building a token for AI agents. The FLOP airdrop lands in Q4 2026, while the blockchain behind it only arrives in Q1 2027.
In other words, the token will exist before the chain it runs on. Almost nothing else about the project is on paper yet.
I’m coming out of retirement to lead @flop_labs $FLOP is food for your AI agent. No presale No VCs100% fair launchLet’s build the agentic economy’s currency together fam and get fucking rich!More details to come, but expect a massive airdrop in Q4, genesis block Q1 27 https://t.co/ChnTAAFRUh
— Arthur Hayes (@CryptoHayes) August 18, 2026
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FLOP Airdrop Comes Before the Blockchain
Hayes revealed the plan on X (Twitter) on Tuesday, hours after the official Flop Labs account introduced the project. He also rewrote his bio to read CEO of Flop Labs.
Flop Network calls itself a proof-of-useful-inference protocol. In plain terms, AI agents would pay FLOP for computing power and memory. Miners supply that power, while validators check the work, according to the project’s website.
Announcing the Flop Network $FLOP is food for your AI agent pic.twitter.com/rso5Ava3kb
— Flop Labs (@flop_labs) August 18, 2026
Here is the catch. The airdrop arrives a full quarter before the network’s first block. Until then, recipients would hold a claim on a chain that does not exist.
The paper trail is just as thin. The project has published one landing page, three application forms, and one overview graphic. There is no whitepaper, no supply schedule, no named chain, and no audit. Meanwhile, Hayes brings roughly 806,000 X followers to a Flop Labs account that counted 570 at launch.
Fair Launch Promises and Missing Details
The pitch leans on the absence of insiders. No presale, no venture capital (VC) allocation, and a 100% fair launch. It echoes Bittensor (TAO), the best-known AI network to launch without investors.
“It’s very easy to understand the Bittensor opportunity when you see it as Bitcoin-like: fair launch, no VC funding round, completely decentralized.”“But instead of rewarding Bitcoin miners, it incentivizes people to solve the world’s problems.”~ @BarrySilbert pic.twitter.com/0sRZ7uwT8C
— xTAO – a Bittensor company (@xtaohq) May 27, 2026
Yet one group already knows how it will get paid. Key opinion leaders (KOLs) will earn FLOP based on their communities’ activity. That role is the most detailed part of the project so far.
Hayes also carries heavy history into this launch. He co-founded BitMEX in 2014 and co-created the perpetual swap, the contract that now dominates crypto trading volume. He pleaded guilty to a US Bank Secrecy Act charge in 2022 and received a presidential pardon in 2025.
BitMEX announced its closure in July after an 11-year run, and BeInCrypto examined why BitMEX shut down. Hayes’ retirement therefore lasted less than a month.
His recent trades add tension. In June, tracking firm Lookonchain tied a $2.09 million Hyperliquid (HYPE) purchase to Hayes days after he sold the token. He denied the disputed HYPE buyback.
The problem FLOP targets is real, however. Deutsche Telekom is helping build AI agent payment rails, and Hayes himself has warned an AI credit bust could reshape markets.
For now, FLOP is a promise attached to a famous name. The next tests are simple. Publish a whitepaper, name the chain, and show what airdrop recipients actually receive.

Intesa Sanpaolo, Italy’s largest bank, disclosed a $966.42 million stake in SpaceX just weeks after slashing its exposure to BlackRock’s Bitcoin ETF.
The shift marks a clear pivot from direct crypto exposure toward an indirect bet through traditional equities.
SpaceX Stock Gets Confidence from Banks
According to the filing submitted on August 4, Intesa acquired 5.66 million SpaceX shares. The position became the largest in the bank’s entire US portfolio.
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From Bitcoin ETF to SpaceX: Italy’s Biggest Bank Makes a Bold Pivot. Source: SEC
The stake represents roughly 33% of the $2.92 billion the bank holds in US-listed assets. SpaceX went public on June 12. Elon Musk’s company holds 18,712 BTC on its corporate balance sheet.
That reserve gives Intesa indirect exposure to Bitcoin, even as it scaled back its direct ETF bet elsewhere in the same filing.
The bank was far from alone in targeting SpaceX this quarter. Harvard Management Company disclosed a $2.2 billion stake, its largest individual holding, surpassing Amazon, TSMC, and NVIDIA.
The University of California’s investment fund also revealed a position worth nearly $1 billion. Both universities joined a small group of early institutional shareholders.
$SPCX – HARVARD BETS $2.2B ON SPACEXHarvard Management disclosed a $2.2B stake in SpaceX (SPCX), making it over 50% of its $4.26B disclosed U.S. equity portfolio.The position includes roughly 12.94M shares, making SpaceX Harvard’s largest reported U.S. holding.Other major…
— *Walter Bloomberg (@DeItaone) August 17, 2026
Why Intesa Retreated From Its Bitcoin ETF
Intesa’s crypto retreat proved equally dramatic. The bank cut its position in BlackRock’s iShares Bitcoin Trust by 94%, reducing it from 646,809 to 40,723 shares.
That remaining stake was worth only $1.36 million at the end of June. Intesa also eliminated roughly 99% of its outstanding IBIT call options.
In its place, it acquired a put option covering 500,000 shares, a contract that gains value as the ETF’s price continues to fall. The bank did retain 3.47 million shares in the ARKB ETF, however.
Broader market context explains part of the shift. Bitcoin fell 14% during the second quarter, its third consecutive quarterly decline, while US spot BTC ETFs recorded net outflows of $4.89 billion during the same period, according to SoSoValue data.
SpaceX shares currently trade near $142.46 in pre-market, after touching a record low of $108.27 in early August. The stock had earlier climbed above $225 shortly after its Nasdaq market debut.
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SpaceX (SPCX) Price Performance. Source: TradingView
That volatile ride has not stopped Intesa, Harvard, and the University of California from holding substantial positions in Musk’s space company, betting on long-term gains despite the swings.