CoinPhoton

Hyperliquid traders are valuing Unitree Robotics at nearly $38 billion ahead of its Shanghai stock market debut, more than four times the roughly $9 billion valuation implied by its IPO price.
Unitree priced its STAR Market IPO at 150.80 yuan ($22.37) per share, while pre-IPO perpetual contracts on Hyperliquid were trading around $92–$94, according to blockchain analytics firm Allium.
The huge premium reflects strong expectations for the Chinese robotics company, whose revenue reportedly rose 335% last year to $253 million, while humanoid robot shipments exceeded 5,500 units. Unitree’s IPO was also reportedly more than 8,000 times oversubscribed by retail investors.
However, the gap between the IPO price and Hyperliquid’s synthetic market creates significant liquidation risks. Allium estimated that even if Unitree opens at around $45 — twice its IPO price — the stock would still be about 52% below current perp prices and could liquidate roughly one-third of leveraged long positions.
Conversely, an opening near $128 could liquidate an estimated 53% of short positions. If the shares debut near the current $92–$94 perp price, neither side would face major forced liquidations.
The two Unitree pre-IPO markets on Hyperliquid have accumulated about $9.1 million in open interest and $59 million in trading volume. Positioning is almost evenly split overall, although smaller traders are notably bearish, with about 70% of positions under $50,000 short by value. $HYPE

DefiLlama delayed the launch of its official mobile app for months while trying to get Apple to remove fake phishing apps impersonating the crypto analytics platform from the App Store.
DefiLlama founder 0xngmi said the team wanted all fraudulent apps removed before launching its own app to reduce the risk of users being scammed.
According to 0xngmi, one malicious app remained available for months despite repeated reports. Apple removed it within days only after the DefiLlama team downloaded the app and documented how it drained funds from a small crypto wallet.
Fake crypto apps have repeatedly appeared on major app stores. Previous cases involved apps impersonating Rabby Wallet, Curve Finance and Ledger Live.
A fake Ledger Live app listed on Microsoft’s store in 2023 resulted in about $588,000 being stolen across 38 transactions.

Strategy has criticized MSCI’s proposed methodology for identifying “non-operating companies,” warning that the rules could remove the world’s largest Bitcoin treasury company from MSCI’s global equity indexes.
“Digital assets are assets. Index providers should measure markets, not decide which assets companies are allowed to own,” Strategy said, arguing that MSCI’s approach is out of step with regulators, markets and investors.
Under MSCI’s latest proposal, a financial-ratio screening method would be used instead of an earlier rule specifically targeting companies with large digital asset holdings. Applying the new methodology to May 2026 data would have excluded Strategy, Metaplanet and uranium investment company Yellow Cake from the MSCI ACWI IMI.
Strategy previously opposed an MSCI proposal that could have excluded companies if digital assets represented at least 50% of total assets.
The company maintains that it is an operating business rather than a passive Bitcoin investment vehicle, citing its software operations, active treasury management and Bitcoin-backed credit products.
Strategy concluded its latest response with a pointed message: “Bitcoin doesn’t need MSCI. Neither does Strategy.” $BTC

Crypto startups raised $11.2 billion across 377 disclosed funding rounds in the first half of 2026, with capital overwhelmingly concentrated in regulated businesses, according to research by Dubai-based crypto lawyer Irina Heaver and NeosLegal.
Payments and stablecoins led with $3.7 billion, followed by prediction markets at $2 billion and exchanges and trading platforms at $1.7 billion. Major deals included Kalshi’s $1 billion raise, Polymarket securing $600 million from NYSE owner ICE, and a $355 million round for Canton Network backed by Abu Dhabi’s ADIA, a16z, Apollo and HSBC.
Traditional financial giants including BlackRock, Goldman Sachs, HSBC, BNP Paribas, Citadel and Nasdaq also invested in regulated crypto companies. Mastercard separately agreed to acquire stablecoin payments firm BVNK for $1.8 billion.
Investors increasingly view regulatory licenses as competitive assets because obtaining approvals such as VARA licenses or MiCA authorization can take years and cost millions of dollars.
However, industry executives cautioned that the trend does not necessarily mean permissionless crypto is disappearing. Bitget CEO Gracy Chen noted that retail users continue to generate substantial activity outside the regulated businesses attracting institutional capital.
The data suggests institutional crypto investment is increasingly shifting toward licensed companies with established revenue models, regulatory approval and stronger barriers to entry.

President Donald Trump is expected to attend a White House meeting on Wednesday with leaders from the crypto, prediction market and AI industries, according to people briefed on the plans.
Executives from Coinbase, Ripple, Gemini, Robinhood, Polymarket and Kalshi are expected to participate, alongside CFTC Chairman Mike Selig. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick may also attend.
The gathering will take place ahead of the first meeting of the CFTC’s new Innovation Advisory Committee on Thursday. The committee also includes executives from traditional financial firms such as CME Group, Nasdaq, Intercontinental Exchange and DTCC.
Thursday’s CFTC session will focus on crypto regulation and remaining challenges to establishing a durable U.S. federal market structure.
The meetings come as the Trump administration continues negotiations over the Digital Asset Market Clarity Act, whose progress in the Senate has been complicated by disputes over proposed ethics restrictions related to Trump’s personal involvement in the crypto industry.

SafePal said a security flaw in its order-tracking system exposed the personal data of approximately 39,798 customers who made purchases between March 2, 2025 and April 11, 2026.
The leaked data included names, email addresses, phone numbers, shipping addresses and purchase details. SafePal said seed phrases, private keys, wallet passwords, payment card information and other wallet credentials were not affected, with no evidence that the breach directly compromised customer funds.
The company warned affected users to expect phishing attempts from scammers impersonating SafePal staff and offering fake firmware updates, refunds or replacement hardware wallets.
SafePal said it received the first potentially related report in early May but initially treated it as an isolated incident. Customers were publicly reporting highly targeted scam attempts by early July, while SafePal said it only recently confirmed the authorization flaw as the root cause.
The company has taken down more than 30 phishing websites and links associated with the campaign. The disclosure follows similar customer-data breaches affecting Trezor and Ledger, although in all three cases the companies said wallet private keys remained secure. $SFP

Attackers exploited a critical vulnerability in Apple’s Screen Sharing feature to take control of internet-exposed Macs and install Monero mining software, according to the Netherlands’ National Cyber Security Centre.
Apple patched the flaw on Aug. 6 in macOS Tahoe 26.6.1, Sequoia 15.7.9 and Sonoma 14.8.9. Unpatched Macs with Screen Sharing exposed to the internet remain vulnerable.
Security firm Huntress said the bug allows attackers to bypass authentication entirely, meaning changing Screen Sharing passwords does not mitigate the issue. Researchers identified tens of thousands of potentially exposed Macs, including many rented bare-metal machines operated by hosting providers.
U.S. authorities have rated the vulnerability, tracked as CVE-2026-65400, at a critical 9.8 out of 10 on the CVSS scale.
The attackers used compromised Macs for Monero cryptojacking, taking advantage of XMR’s ability to be mined on ordinary computers and its privacy-focused transaction model. Apple users who rely on Screen Sharing are advised to install the latest macOS security updates immediately.

Sports-focused prediction market Novig has filed a federal lawsuit against Wisconsin Attorney General Josh Kaul and gaming administrator John Dillett, seeking to block the state from taking enforcement action against its sports event contracts.
Novig began offering contracts to Wisconsin residents just one week before filing the case and is seeking expedited consideration of a preliminary injunction. The company argues that its contracts are swaps regulated exclusively by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission under federal law, while Wisconsin maintains that sports-outcome contracts remain gambling under state law.
Wisconsin previously sued Kalshi, Polymarket, Robinhood, Crypto.com and Coinbase in April over similar sports contracts. The CFTC has separately challenged Wisconsin’s enforcement efforts, although a federal judge denied the agency’s preliminary injunction request in July.
Wisconsin is now the fifth state whose officials Novig has sued since Aug. 4, following cases in New York, New Mexico, Massachusetts and Washington.
The legal push comes as Novig expands nationally. The company recently signed an exclusive multiyear partnership with the New York Mets, making the MLB club the first to partner directly with a prediction market platform.

Ethereum developers are reviewing 66 proposals for Hegotá, the network’s next major upgrade targeted for 2027, with native privacy emerging as a key focus.
FOCIL is currently the only confirmed proposal, while developers are considering EIP-8141, EIP-8250 and EIP-8272 to enable privacy applications to operate with less reliance on intermediaries. FOCIL would also strengthen Ethereum’s censorship resistance by allowing validator committees to force eligible pending transactions into blocks.
Proposals that miss Hegotá could be pushed to later upgrades. Ethereum’s next developer call is scheduled for Monday at 2:00 pm UTC.
Before Hegotá, developers are preparing Glamsterdam, a major upgrade aimed at improving scalability, strengthening Ethereum’s layer 1 and enhancing usability, with mainnet deployment expected in the second half of 2026. $ETH

The number of tokenized stock holders has more than doubled over the past month to 1.31 million, highlighting accelerating demand for blockchain-based equities.
According to RWA.xyz, monthly transfer volume surged 179% to $23.13 billion, while monthly active addresses increased 34.6% to nearly 572,000. The total distributed value of tokenized stocks rose 5.9% to $2.38 billion.
Ondo currently leads the sector with about $872 million in distributed value, followed by Kraken’s xStocks at $557.8 million and Binance’s bStocks at $521.8 million. Binance launched bStocks only in June, but it is already within roughly $36 million of overtaking xStocks.
Among individual tokenized assets, some of the largest include Securitize products worth $145.2 million, Strategy PP Variable xStock at $135.6 million and Ondo’s tokenized Circle shares at $99.7 million.
The expansion follows a broader push by crypto platforms into tokenized private-market and pre-IPO exposure earlier this year. Binance, Coinbase, Kraken, Bybit, Bitget and Blockchain.com all introduced products linked to SpaceX ahead of its June 12 public-market debut.
Demand was substantial, with one Binance campaign attracting about $557 million. However, Binance, Bybit and Bitget Wallet later canceled some tokenized SpaceX IPO allocations after xStocks was unable to secure enough underlying shares to meet investor demand, resulting in refunds.
Despite those setbacks, tokenized SpaceX exposure through Binance’s bStocks has grown to about $67.9 million in distributed value since the listing, making it the seventh-largest individual tokenized asset tracked by RWA.xyz.
The rapid growth in tokenized equities is part of a much broader expansion of real-world asset tokenization. Standard Chartered has forecast that the tokenized RWA market could reach $4 trillion by the end of 2028.

Bitcoin reaching $1 million by 2030 is “mathematically impossible,” according to Markus Thielen, head of research at 10x Research, who argues that the enormous capital inflows required make such forecasts unrealistic.
With Bitcoin trading near $63,900 and carrying a market capitalization of roughly $1.28 trillion, Thielen estimates that pushing BTC to $1 million would require around $15 trillion in additional capital. That would be equivalent to roughly a quarter of the total value of the U.S. stock market flowing into Bitcoin within about four years.
“It takes trillions and trillions of dollars to move the price materially higher,” Thielen said, arguing that Bitcoin’s historical inflows over the past 15 years are nowhere near sufficient to support such a rapid increase.
He also believes Bitcoin’s growing nominal price creates a psychological barrier for retail investors. As one $BTC
becomes increasingly expensive, investors may be less attracted to buying small fractions of a coin, even though Bitcoin is divisible into satoshis.
Thielen cautioned against assuming Bitcoin will quickly repeat the recovery patterns of previous market cycles. After reaching a record above $126,000, he said even a recovery to around $100,000 next year would represent a significant achievement rather than expecting an immediate return to new all-time highs.
His view contrasts sharply with bullish forecasts from prominent crypto figures including Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong, Jack Dorsey and ARK Invest CEO Cathie Wood, who have suggested Bitcoin could reach $1 million around 2030.
Thielen said extreme price targets often generate attention but can also encourage unrealistic expectations among retail investors. While he would not rule out Bitcoin eventually reaching $1 million, he said the target is unlikely by 2030 and may remain far further away than many investors expect.

President Donald Trump is expected to attend a White House meeting on Wednesday with executives from the cryptocurrency and prediction market industries, according to people familiar with the plans.
CFTC Chair Michael Selig is also expected to attend. The meeting is scheduled for 2:30 p.m. ET at the Eisenhower Executive Office Building and is intended to serve as a kickoff for the Commodity Futures Trading Commission’s first Innovation Advisory Committee meeting the following day.
Invitees reportedly include executives from Coinbase, a16z, Ripple, Chainlink, Kalshi and Paradigm, as well as representatives from The Digital Chamber. SEC Chair Paul Atkins is also expected to be at the White House.
The CFTC’s Innovation Advisory Committee will meet Thursday from 1 p.m. to 4 p.m. ET. Its agenda includes three major areas: crypto asset regulation, artificial intelligence and prediction markets.
The 35-member committee includes Polymarket CEO Shayne Coplan, Kalshi CEO Tarek Mansour and Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse, alongside executives from traditional financial institutions including Cboe, CME, DTCC and Nasdaq.
The meetings come as major U.S. crypto legislation remains unresolved. The Senate is scheduled to hold a procedural vote on the Clarity Act on Sept. 15, with 60 votes required to invoke cloture and move the legislation forward.
Prediction market regulation is also expected to be a major focus. The CFTC and several U.S. states are disputing whether federal regulators have exclusive authority over event contracts. Selig has argued that the CFTC holds exclusive jurisdiction, while states have pursued enforcement actions against platforms including Kalshi and Polymarket.

Harvard University’s endowment stopped reducing its stake in BlackRock’s iShares Bitcoin Trust (IBIT) during the second quarter of 2026, ending two consecutive quarters of selling.
Harvard Management Company reported 3.04 million IBIT shares worth $101.4 million as of June 30, unchanged from the previous quarter. The endowment had previously cut its position by 21% in Q4 2025 and another 43% in Q1 2026.
Harvard now holds more exposure to gold-related ETFs than to Bitcoin. Its disclosed gold positions totaled about $171.2 million, compared with $101.4 million in IBIT. Bitcoin represented roughly 2.4% of Harvard’s $4.26 billion portfolio disclosed through 13F filings.
Abu Dhabi sovereign investors also maintained their Bitcoin exposure. Mubadala Investment Company held 14.72 million IBIT shares worth about $490.1 million, while the Abu Dhabi Investment Council retained 8.22 million shares worth $273.6 million. Together, the two entities held roughly $764 million in IBIT with no change in share count during the quarter.
Among major Wall Street institutions, JPMorgan increased its reported IBIT holdings from roughly 8.3 million shares to 10.4 million, while Morgan Stanley reduced its position by about 4.5% to 16.5 million shares.
Tudor Investment Corporation, founded by billionaire macro investor Paul Tudor Jones, increased its IBIT position by 109,446 shares to 688,529 shares worth approximately $22.9 million. The fund also reported significant put and call option positions linked to IBIT.
Dartmouth College also left its crypto ETF holdings unchanged during the quarter, maintaining exposure to Bitcoin, Ethereum and Solana-related funds.
The filings suggest that several prominent institutional investors maintained or increased Bitcoin ETF exposure despite the sharp market downturn. Bitcoin was trading near $63,000, almost 30% lower year-to-date and roughly 50% below its October 2025 record above $126,000. $BTC

JPMorgan Chase ended its banking relationship with prediction market Polymarket in October 2025 over regulatory concerns, according to reports from the Financial Times and Reuters.
Polymarket subsequently moved its accounts to another unidentified lender. However, the split was not complete: Polymarket says it still maintains a “close, active relationship” with JPMorgan, and the bank reportedly wants to remain in contention for an underwriting role if Polymarket eventually launches an IPO.
At the time JPMorgan closed the accounts, Polymarket’s original platform was not serving U.S. customers following a 2022 settlement with the Commodity Futures Trading Commission. Polymarket later returned to the U.S. through its $112 million acquisition of derivatives exchange QCX and clearinghouse QC Clearing.
The FT also reported that the CFTC has an ongoing investigation involving Polymarket, although the regulator has said it cannot confirm or deny whether such an investigation exists.
Despite the account closure, JPMorgan continues to have other ties with Polymarket. CEO Shayne Coplan has spoken at several JPMorgan events, including a private banking conference in Miami, and Polymarket says JPMorgan remains involved across multiple entities, integrations and customer fund flows.
The development comes as Polymarket reportedly explores raising about $1 billion at a valuation above $20 billion. The company was valued at $9 billion in October 2025 after NYSE parent Intercontinental Exchange agreed to invest up to $2 billion.
Prediction markets are meanwhile facing intensifying regulatory pressure in the U.S. Baltimore sued Polymarket and rival Kalshi over sports contracts this week, Washington state ordered Kalshi to halt most offerings there, and New York City opened an investigation into the marketing practices of Polymarket, Kalshi, Coinbase and Gemini Titan.
Polymarket and Polymarket US generated a combined $12.9 billion in trading volume in July, well behind Kalshi’s roughly $40 billion.

Swan Bitcoin CEO Cory Klippsten expects Bitcoin to potentially bottom in October 2026 before recovering toward $130,000 ahead of the 2028 halving.
Klippsten said Bitcoin, which peaked above $126,000 in October 2025, has historically reached bear-market lows roughly 12 months after a cycle peak. He said BTC could fall as low as $57,000 or even $53,000 before staging a rapid recovery, while acknowledging that past cycles provide only a limited sample.
Other analysts are more optimistic. 10x Research founder Markus Thielen said Bitcoin could confirm a bear-market bottom as early as August if it closes the month above $63,000.
Klippsten also argued that altcoins are effectively “dead” as competitors to Bitcoin as money and said the strongest long-term outcome for crypto and DeFi is integration into traditional finance.
He cited Hyperliquid as an example, saying centralized crypto businesses with tokens could eventually be regulated and treated more like traditional exchanges or banks.
Hyperliquid generated about $5.9 million in weekly revenue, while its HYPE token has gained roughly 130% year-to-date, compared with a 28% decline for Bitcoin over the same period.
Wintermute has similarly argued that growing institutional participation is reshaping the altcoin market, with liquidity increasingly concentrated in a smaller group of institutionally favored assets rather than producing broad-based “altseasons.” $BTC $HYPE

RedotPay Delays U.S. IPO as Regulatory and Binance Legal Issues Mount
Stablecoin payments firm RedotPay has reportedly delayed its planned U.S. IPO while seeking regulatory approvals and dealing with legal disputes involving Binance.
Bloomberg reported that the Hong Kong-based company postponed its U.S. listing plans as it works through regulatory requirements. RedotPay declined to comment on the IPO timing but said it secured a U.S. money transmitter license this week and is preparing to launch its services in the country.
RedotPay had reportedly been working with JPMorgan, Goldman Sachs and Jefferies on a New York listing that could raise more than $1 billion, targeting a valuation above $4 billion.
The delay comes amid a major legal battle with Binance. Binance affiliates recently sued RedotPay’s founders in Hong Kong, seeking nearly $473 million in damages over allegations that they used confidential information from their previous work at Binance to build a competing payments business and divert customers.
RedotPay has rejected the allegations and said it will vigorously defend itself. The dispute has also extended to Singapore, where the two companies disagree over the status of a related lawsuit.
Separately, RedotPay has reportedly explored raising up to $150 million in new private funding as it expands internationally and prepares for a potential future IPO. $BNB

Bitcoin Longs Face Liquidation Pressure as Binance Open Interest Falls
Bitcoin leveraged long positions are coming under increasing pressure as BTC prices move toward fresh August lows, according to analysis published on CryptoQuant.
The analysis highlighted a simultaneous decline in Bitcoin price and Binance futures open interest, suggesting leveraged longs are being stopped out, closed or liquidated. The correlation between BTC price and Binance open interest rose to 0.25 on Thursday, which the analyst interpreted as evidence that the expected leverage cleanout had begun.
Binance Bitcoin open interest had climbed to around $8.15 billion on Wednesday as futures activity increasingly dominated while spot traders remained relatively inactive.
CryptoQuant said the market initially saw open interest rise even as prices fell, indicating both dip-buying longs and new short positions were entering. More recently, however, both price and open interest have declined together, pointing to long-position capitulation.
CoinGlass data showed about $236 million in total crypto liquidations over 24 hours at the time of the report.
CryptoQuant CEO Ki Young Ju also remained cautious about the broader market outlook, saying conditions for a renewed Bitcoin bull run have not yet aligned, with several onchain indicators still signaling bearish conditions. $BTC

Nigel Farage Faces Renewed UK Parliament Probe Over Crypto-Linked Donations
UK Reform leader Nigel Farage is again under investigation by the Parliamentary Commissioner for Standards after winning reelection as MP for Clacton.
The probe concerns an alleged failure to register financial interests involving millions of dollars in donations and benefits from figures linked to the crypto industry. The investigation had been paused after Farage resigned from Parliament in July but resumed following his return.
Investigators are examining roughly $6.7 million provided by crypto billionaire Christopher Harborne, as well as staff and security expenses reportedly funded by George Cottrell, who has ties to a crypto casino and a prior fraud conviction.
If Farage is found to have breached parliamentary rules, he could face suspension, potentially triggering another by-election.
Farage won the latest Clacton by-election with 63% of the vote, while major UK parties did not field candidates.
The controversy has also intensified calls from Labour lawmakers to make the UK’s temporary ban on crypto political donations permanent, amid concerns that digital assets and certain donation structures could facilitate foreign or undisclosed political funding. $BTC

Ireland Unveils Stricter AML Rules for Private Crypto Wallets and Overseas Firms
Ireland has released its first national anti-money laundering strategy, proposing tighter controls on cryptocurrency transactions involving private wallets and overseas digital asset companies.
The government said crypto service providers would face new AML obligations, including enhanced checks on transfers to and from private wallets and stricter due diligence when dealing with foreign crypto firms.
The strategy also outlines plans to implement AML and counter-terrorist financing rules under the EU’s Markets in Crypto-Assets (MiCA) framework.
Ireland is also considering new industry standards governing the acceptance of crypto-related funds in gambling activities.
The measures are part of a broader effort to reduce the risks of digital assets being used for money laundering, terrorist financing and other illicit activities. Ireland previously said it aims to introduce additional crypto risk-management standards by the second half of 2027.

Gen Z on Binance Shifts More Equity Trading Toward ETFs
Gen Z traders on Binance are allocating a growing share of their equity activity to exchange-traded funds while trading less frequently and using less leverage than older working-age groups, according to Binance Research.
ETFs accounted for 25% of Gen Z equity trading volume in early August. Their share of net equity inflows rose to 21.9% in July from 18.5% in June, while the share going to individual stocks declined.
Gen Z also traded less frequently. The cohort averaged 13 monthly TradFi perpetual trades, compared with 17 for Millennials and 16.5 for Gen X.
Among Gen Z direct-equity accounts, 22% had never placed a sell order, suggesting a stronger buy-and-hold tendency. Popular assets among these buy-only accounts included Broadcom, Tesla and the Schwab U.S. Dividend Equity ETF.
The group also showed limited interest in leveraged or inverse ETFs, with 88.2% of Gen Z TradFi perpetual accounts recording no activity in such products.
Separately, Binance’s tokenized-stock platform bStocks briefly surpassed Kraken’s xStocks this week before falling back behind it. By Friday, xStocks held about $610.7 million in tokenized assets versus $579.6 million for bStocks, while Ondo Finance remained the largest issuer at roughly $971.8 million.