Cointelegraph

Four of the five candidates supported by ads funded by the cryptocurrency-aligned political action committee (PAC) Fairshake won their primaries or otherwise advanced on Tuesday, potentially a bellwether for the industry’s influence in the 2026 midterm elections.
On Tuesday, Democratic and Republican candidates supported by media funded by the Fairshake-affiliated PACs Protect Progress and Defend American Jobs, respectively, notched wins across three US states. Altogether, the PACs spent about $3.6 million on House and Senate races in Alaska, Florida and Wyoming.
Democrat Lois Frankel won re-election in Florida’s 23rd congressional district after Protect Progress spent more than $150,000 on supportive media. Defend American Jobs also spent a combined $1.5 million on ads to support Republican Nick Begich in Alaska’s at-large congressional district, Republican candidate Sydney Gruters in Florida’s 16th congressional district and Representative Harriet Hageman for the US Senate in Wyoming. Gruters and Hageman won their primaries, while Begich is expected to advance in Alaska.
All four candidates will likely go on to face challengers in the 2026 midterms in November, but a Democrat in Florida’s 24th district also won despite being the target of more than $2 million worth of negative ads funded by Protect Progress. Oliver Gilbert defeated challengers Shevrin Jones and Kendrick Meek with 34.4% of the vote, in a race that addressed the potential influence of the crypto industry.
Florida’s 24th congressional district results for Democratic primary. Source: The New York Times
According to an Aug. 12 Miami Herald report, Gilbert said “[Donald] Trump’s tech billionaire buddies” were behind the “crypto con artists trying to buy a Democratic primary” through the Protect Progress ads. The news outlet said the ads included fake Miami Herald headlines misrepresenting Gilbert’s policy positions, though a spokesperson for the PAC claimed that “the underlying facts in our ad are true.”
The Fairshake PAC, which reported holding a $193 million war chest as of January, was responsible for funding more than $130 million worth of ads supporting candidates it considered pro-crypto in the 2024 election cycle and opposing many who spoke negatively about the industry or voted against its interests. As of June, the committee had spent more than $82 million on races ahead of the 2026 midterms.
Gilbert did not mention the crypto industry or the ads in his Tuesday night acceptance speech. Fairshake spokesperson Geoff Vetter said that the PAC was “just getting started building the largest pro-crypto Congress in history” following the three state primaries and other candidates winning in 2026.
Makeup of next Congress to impact crypto market structure law?
Both the US Senate and House of Representatives are on recess until September, when the former is scheduled to address a cloture motion on the Digital Asset Market Clarity (CLARITY) Act, a bill expected to establish comprehensive regulations for digital assets. Although the legislation passed the House with bipartisan support in July on a 294-134 vote, many Senate Democrats have been pushing for stronger ethics provisions related to the Trump family’s crypto investments.
Following the 2026 elections, US Congress could shift from a Republican to Democratic majority depending on the outcome of key races potentially influenced by PACs like Fairshake. Lawmakers elected in November could advance or stymie legislation affecting the crypto industry, including CLARITY, if the current session does not address the bill before 2027.
Magazine: 200,000 fake AI ‘victims’ deployed to scam bait online fraudsters

FalconX and Ethena have launched a $1 billion secured lending facility that will use assets backing USDe to fund overcollateralized loans to institutional borrowers.
The facility is structured through a special purpose vehicle, with FalconX originating and servicing the loans and managing collateral. Assets securing the loans will be held at qualified custodians, while the facility gives Ethena access to institutional lending as an additional source of returns on the assets backing USDe beyond the crypto basis strategies it has traditionally used.
FalconX said the facility can support financing for institutional trading strategies, corporate treasury management and payments. The companies did not disclose the facility’s expected returns, loan terms, borrowers or how much capital has initially been deployed.
The agreement expands an existing relationship between the two firms, with FalconX already supporting USDe across its institutional trading and financing services.
USDe, Ethena’s dollar-pegged synthetic asset, has a market capitalization of about $4 billion, according to DefiLlama data. Unlike fiat-backed stablecoins such as USDT and USDC, USDe was designed to maintain its dollar peg using crypto collateral paired with short derivatives positions, with returns generated in part through funding rates and basis spreads.
Top five stablecoins by market cap. Source: DefiLlama
Magazine: ‘Fabricated rumors’ about BitMart founder, Binance bStocks dominate: Asia Express

Bitcoin (BTC) saw its highest levels since the start of June after Wednesday’s Wall Street open as markets reacted to a US government liquidity move.
Key points:
Bitcoin spikes 6% on the day to hit $69,749, its highest level since June 2.
The US Treasury plans to at least double the maximum size of debt buyback operations to $4 billion. This might fuel a broader risk-asset rally.
A lack of stablecoin liquidity on exchanges means that BTC price upside remains limited, says Bitfinex. Stablecoin liquidity has decreased by $14 billion since May.
Bitcoin surges as US bond yields fall on buyback plan
Data from TradingView showed BTC/USD passing $69,700 on Bitstamp, up 6% on the day.
BTC/USD one-day chart. Source: Cointelegraph/TradingView
US stock markets opened higher after the US Treasury Department announced that it would at least double the level of government debt buybacks, from $2 billion to a minimum of $4 billion per operation, beginning on Sept. 9.
The US 30-year bond yield, which had hit its highest level in nearly 20 years on Tuesday, fell immediately on the news and was at 5.19% at the time of writing, down 9bps.
“This increase in buyback operation sizes reflects Treasury’s desire to provide greater liquidity support in longer-dated nominal sectors where there is consistent strong sponsorship from market participants, as evidenced by the significant volume of high-quality offers Treasury routinely receives in longer-dated buyback operations,” an official press release stated.
US 30-year bond yields one-day chart. Source: Cointelegraph/TradingView
Increased debt buybacks mean that the US government will add liquidity as a buyer to the longer-term debt market. Earlier, analysts pointed to increasing corporate debt, especially in the AI sector, as one motivator of the yield surge.
“This is NOT a debt paydown, it is just a rearrangement of the maturity schedule of Treasuries,” Peter Boockvar, chief investment officer at One Point BFG Wealth Partners, said, quoted by CNBC.
The announcement comes as US national debt approaches the symbolic milestone of $40 trillion. On Tuesday, trading resource The Kobeissi Letter noted that interest payments on the debt pile had reached $1.4 trillion over the past 12 months alone, tripling since 2020.
“If rates remain stable, interest payments are set to rise to $1.7 trillion by November 2028,” it forecast in a post on X alongside data from Bank of America.
US Treasury interest payment data. Source: The Kobeissi Letter on X.com
Stablecoin liquidity keeping Bitcoin rebound in check: Bitfinex
Discussing current BTC price strength versus the S&P 500, which hit new all-time highs last week, crypto exchange Bitfinex pointed to Bitcoin’s own liquidity problem. Stablecoin supplies on exchanges, it noted, had decreased by $14 billion since May.
“Until stablecoin supply turns, the rally stays unfunded,” it told X followers.
Stablecoin liquidity acts as “dry powder” waiting on the sidelines to be deployed into cryptoassets, and its absence reflects a belief among investors that major opportunities are not yet imminent.
Data from onchain analytics platform CryptoQuant’s Stablecoin Supply Ratio (SSR) indicator, which measures Bitcoin’s market cap relative to the aggregate stablecoin market cap, reflects tightening liquidity conditions over the past six weeks in particular.
A higher SSR means that stablecoin liquidity is leaving exchanges, and since June 30, it has risen from 9.82 to 11.69. The highest SSR reading of 2026 was observed on Jan. 14 at 12.83.
Bitcoin SSR data. Source: CryptoQuant

The US Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) announced consent orders related to its civil cases against former Alameda Research CEO Caroline Ellison and FTX co-founder Zixiao “Gary” Wang.
The orders, filed in the US District Court for the Southern District of New York on Tuesday, require Ellison and Wang to continue cooperating with the CFTC and imposed a five-year trading ban on both former executives. Ellison also received a 10-year registration ban, while the commodities regulator imposed an eight-year registration ban on Wang.
“Ellison and Wang were senior executives who committed fraud at Alameda and FTX for which they were found liable,” said the CFTC’s enforcement director, David Miller. “Their sanctions, however, reflect their material assistance in the Commission’s FTX-related investigations.”
The CFTC consent orders resolved the agency’s enforcement actions against Ellison and Wang, named as defendants in the initial December 2022 complaint alongside former FTX CEO Sam “SBF” Bankman-Fried. The commission ordered FTX and Alameda to pay $12.7 billion in disgorgement and restitution to affected users as part of an August 2024 decision.
Ellison and Wang, along with FTX’s former engineering director Nishad Singh, were indicted on fraud charges and testified against Bankman-Fried at trial related to their roles in misusing customer funds at the now defunct crypto exchange. The former FTX CEO was found guilty and sentenced to 25 years, while Ellison received a two-year sentence and was given early release in January. Singh and Wang were given time served.

US Comptroller of the Currency Jonathan Gould said that his agency would have final rules related to the implementation of a payment stablecoin law out by November.
Speaking at the Wyoming Blockchain Symposium on Wednesday, the regulator said that following the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency’s (OCC’s) proposal to implement the Guiding and Establishing National Innovation for US Stablecoins (GENIUS) Act, OCC would release finalized rules ahead of the law’s scheduled January 2027 enactment.
Gould said that the OCC “will have a final rule out by November” as the agency considered feedback from the crypto industry following the release of its proposed rules in February. He added that he expects the regulator could begin processing applications related to stablecoin issuers starting in 2027.
The GENIUS Act, signed into law in July 2025, aims to create a regulatory framework for payment stablecoins in the US, requiring rules from the government agencies overseeing the products, including the OCC, Treasury Department, Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) and the Federal Reserve Board.
Although the OCC moved forward with a 376‑page proposal to implement GENIUS in February, government agencies have only until Jan. 18 to finalize regulations as the law goes into effect. Several regulators have already published proposals and collected public feedback related to the implementation of GENIUS, but did not release finalized rules by July, potentially resulting in regulatory uncertainty for stablecoin issuers.

Standard Chartered and HSBC have completed the first live cross-border transaction on Swift’s blockchain-based ledger, demonstrating interoperability between the banks’ tokenized deposit systems a month after the ledger’s launch.
The transaction involved payment messages exchanged between the two through Swift’s ledger, with the resulting obligations recorded on HSBC’s Tokenised Deposit Service and StanChart’s tokenized deposit infrastructure.
Swift’s ledger acted as an orchestration layer, matching and netting the obligations between the banks before final settlement through existing payment systems.
The transaction follows a July announcement from Swift, the world’s largest financial messaging network, that its blockchain-based ledger was ready for initial use, with 17 banks across six continents preparing to pilot live transactions using tokenized deposits.
Other banks in the pilot group Citi, BNP Paribas, BNY, Wells Fargo, UBS, MUFG, DBS and ANZ.
The ledger is designed to connect tokenized deposits issued on separate bank infrastructure, enabling 24/7 cross-border payments while retaining existing settlement, compliance and risk controls.
Banks push toward interoperable tokenized deposits
Banks are increasingly testing tokenized deposits across institutions and jurisdictions as efforts shift toward interoperability and 24/7 settlement.
In November 2025, HSBC said it planned to expand its Tokenised Deposit Service to corporate clients in the US and UAE in the first half of 2026, adding to deployments in Hong Kong, Singapore, the UK and Luxembourg. The bank launched the service in the US in April, offering eligible corporate and institutional clients 24/7 domestic and cross-border transfers using tokenized deposits.
Standard Chartered has also participated in broader efforts to test tokenized bank money across institutions. In July, it was among 28 financial institutions and central banks involved in real-value settlement trials under the Bank for International Settlements’ Project Agorá, which settled about $1 million across six currencies using tokenized commercial bank deposits and central bank reserves.
Banks are also developing infrastructure specifically intended to connect tokenized deposits across institutions. The Clearing House, a payments operator owned by some of America’s biggest banks, reportedly plans to launch a tokenized deposit network in the first half of 2027, connecting traditional payment rails with digital asset infrastructure for round-the-clock settlement.
Magazine: 200,000 fake AI ‘victims’ deployed to scam bait online fraudsters

Bitcoin could be poised for a run toward $100,000 by year-end as the US Treasury ramps up support for the long end of the government bond market in an effort to rein in surging interest rates, according to Standard Chartered analyst Geoff Kendrick.
In a recent client note shared with Cointelegraph, Kendrick said Bitcoin’s (BTC) key technical level is $65,500, with a break above that threshold potentially confirming that the cycle low is already in.
“Investors should now be positioning for a move ot USD $100,000 by year-end 2026,” he wrote.
Beyond Bitcoin’s four-year cycle dynamics, which Kendrick said point to an imminent low, he highlighted Wednesday’s announcement from the Treasury Department that it will at least double the maximum size of certain liquidity-support buybacks for longer-dated government bonds.
Treasury will increase the maximum size of buyback operations targeting 10- to 20-year and 20- to 30-year nominal coupon securities from $2 billion to at least $4 billion per operation. The expanded program is scheduled to run from Sept. 9 through Nov. 4.
The announcement sent long-dated Treasury yields sharply lower, easing some of the pressure that had built across financial markets following a steep bond selloff.
Wednesday’s Treasury announcement “is exactly the type of thing Bitcoin loves,” Kendrick wrote, pointing to the digital asset’s historical tendency to benefit from government liquidity interventions and its fixed supply, which makes it resistant to monetary debasement.
Early signs appear to support Kendrick’s thesis, with Bitcoin surging more than 6% to nearly $69,000 in Wednesday’s late morning US trading, its highest level since early June, according to CoinMarketCap.

Injective Institutional Services, an entity affiliated with the Injective blockchain ecosystem, said its registration with the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) as a transfer agent is now effective, adding a regulated securities recordkeeping function to Injective’s tokenization infrastructure.
Wednesday’s announcement said that the registration allows the affiliate to maintain securities ownership records and process ownership changes, an important function in traditional securities markets that could also support tokenized real-world assets (RWAs).
The company plans to pair the transfer agent function with Injective Mint, its platform for issuing and managing tokenized assets.
The registration follows Injective’s expansion of its tokenization efforts in recent months, including markets offering exposure to digital asset treasury companies, equities and shares in pre-IPO companies.
As Cointelegraph reported, Injective Institutional Services filed its application to register as a transfer agent with the SEC in July.
Transfer agents are part of the regulated infrastructure underpinning US securities markets. They maintain records of who owns securities and process ownership changes, a function that becomes particularly relevant when securities are issued or transferred onchain.
Magazine: Data of 54,000 wallet users leaked, CLARITY odds just 10%: Hodler’s Digest

The Securities and Exchange Commission’s (SEC) new regulatory proposal marks a significant step forward from a set of “inapt” crypto rules to clearer and more enforceable digital asset regulations, according to Commissioner Hester M. Peirce.
A “whole generation has struggled with the SEC’s insistence” and the application of “a set of inapt rules to crypto,” but the SEC’s new crypto guidelines mark an important step toward “putting clear, sensible, enforceable rules in place for crypto offerings,” said Peirce in a statement released on Tuesday.
SEC Chairman Paul S. Atkins also praised the initiative and said that the agency’s prior enforcement-heavy approach has “driven investment offshore, limiting the type of protections that we can provide investors here,” according to a separate statement.
In a Tuesday notice, the SEC proposed new rules to create a “clear and fit-for-purpose framework for certain investment contracts involving crypto assets,” allowing entities to raise capital while preserving investor protections.
The proposal came days after the US Senate failed to advance the Digital Asset Market Clarity (CLARITY) Act, which would provide a comprehensive framework for financial regulators overseeing the crypto industry.
On July 27, Atkins told CNBC the agency was “ready, willing, and able to come out with rules“ on digital assets if the Senate failed to pass the CLARITY Act.
Meanwhile, Galaxy Digital has cut its odds on the CLARITY Act’s chances of passing in 2026 to 10%, warning that multiple political issues remain unresolved and the Senate will have only about two to three weeks to pass it when it reconvenes on Sept. 14.
Magazine: Why Meta is choosing partners over power in its 2026 stablecoin push

Centrifuge has added Symbiotic’s liquidity network across three tokenized funds that represent about $1.6 billion in assets under management, giving eligible holders another route to exchange their positions for USDC.
The integration covers Janus Henderson’s JAAA, an AAA-rated collateralized loan obligation strategy, JTRSY, a short-duration US Treasury strategy and New York Life Investment Management’s HYB, a US high-yield corporate bond strategy.
Symbiotic’s Liquid Lane uses an onchain request-for-quote (RFQ) marketplace where market makers can tap liquidity from vaults to fill redemption requests. Market makers can then redeem the acquired fund tokens through the issuer or sell them through another RFQ transaction.
The arrangement allows investors to receive USDC immediately while the funds’ normal redemption can take place separately.
Centrifuge is an asset tokenization and vault platform where asset managers issue and manage tokenized funds. Janus Henderson, a global asset manager with about $500 billion in assets under management, has been a significant contributor to the platform’s growth through its JAAA and JTRSY products.
By December 2025, Centrifuge had attracted about $1.3 billion in new inflows, driven primarily by the two Janus Henderson funds, according to Token Terminal. JAAA alone had contributed about $1 billion in total value locked and was one of the largest tokenized funds in the market.
Symbiotic joins existing liquidity routes
Liquid Lane is not the first liquidity route available for Centrifuge’s tokenized funds, Felix Lutsch, Symbiotic’s head of ecosystem, told Cointelegraph.
“We’re not claiming to be first, and other liquidity routes exist. That’s healthy for the market,” Lutsch said.
Centrifuge announced a partnership with Wintermute in February 2025 to provide 24/7 instant redemptions for JTRSY. HYB launched in June with a separate liquidity arrangement for near-instant redemptions.
Lutsch said the distinction with Liquid Lane is the capital structure behind the transactions rather than their speed. Its marketplace allows multiple market makers and curators to participate without market makers having to pre-fund and carry inventory for individual assets, he said.
“The bigger constraint has been flow,” Lutsch said, adding that low trading volumes in tokenized assets have historically given market makers little incentive to commit capital.
He said aggregating redemption demand across issuers and asset classes could improve those economics as tokenized funds are increasingly used as collateral and financing assets in onchain markets.
Magazine: ‘Fabricated rumors’ about BitMart founder, Binance bStocks dominate: Asia Express

Sweden-listed health-tech and Bitcoin treasury company H100 Group reported a pre-tax loss of 98 million Swedish kronor ($10.3 million) for the second quarter and a loss of 253 million kronor for the first half of 2026.
H100 also reported 3 million kronor in operating income, flat with Q2 2025, and 6.1 million kronor for H1 2026, up from 5.8 million kronor for H1 2025, according to its interim report published on Wednesday.
Nearly all of the Q2 loss was a non-cash write-down attributed to Bitcoin’s (BTC) price decline during the period, the company said in a Wednesday X post.
H100 became Europe’s second-largest Bitcoin treasury company earlier in August, after acquiring two smaller Norwegian Bitcoin treasury firms along with their cryptocurrency holdings.
The deal brought H100’s Bitcoin holdings to 3,506 BTC, or about $226 million, making it Europe’s second-largest Bitcoin treasury company by holdings, behind Germany’s Bitcoin Group with 3,605 BTC, according to BitcoinTreasuries.
H100 Group’s share price fell 4.2% on Tuesday, extending its 24% year-to-date decline, according to StockAnalysis data.
Magazine: Bitcoiners turn to dice throws as self-custody setups are re-evaluated

Ripple raised $275 million in a senior note offering that closed on Tuesday to support blockchain enterprise solutions provider’s ongoing US business expansion into financial services.
The senior unsecured notes were issued in a private placement by the company’s non-bank prime brokerage, Ripple Prime, the company announced on Tuesday. Ripple said the note offering attracted a diverse base of institutional investors from financial markets.
Ripple Prime President Noel Kimmel said that the support received during the note offering is a signal of “confidence in our long-term vision for the growing intersection of traditional and digital asset financial infrastructure.”
Ripple said the proceeds of the offering will be used to support its expansion into financial services including prime brokerage, financing and multi-asset clearing.
The company acquired Hidden Road last year in a roughly $1.25 billion deal. That acquisition allowed the Ripple to launch its institutional prime brokerage business, which was later rebranded as Ripple Prime.
In May, Ripple secured a $200 million credit facility from funds managed by Neuberger Berman to expand the lending capacity of its institutional prime brokerage business.
In July, it launched Ripple Mint, a platform that gives institutions new ways to access, mint, redeem and manage its US dollar-pegged stablecoin, Ripple USD (RLUSD). At last look, RLUSD has a market cap of $1.76 billion, according to Coingecko data.
Magazine: What NYSE’s exploration of onchain systems means for financial markets

Bitcoin (BTC) falling more than 50% from its $126,200 all-time high was a “positioning correction,” BlackRock says.
Key points:
A BlackRock report attributes Bitcoin’s decline below $60,000 to cascading liquidations as leverage was purged from the market.
The long-term BTC investment thesis as a “low-correlation diversifier” remains intact, analysts confirm.
BlackRock sees Bitcoin’s risk-asset correlation declining as time goes on.
BlackRock predicts falling correlation of BTC with risk assets
In a report published this week, the world’s largest asset manager preserved its bull thesis despite waves of outflows from its spot Bitcoin exchange-traded fund (ETF) in 2026.
BlackRock’s iShares Bitcoin Trust (IBIT) saw net outflows of $78.9 million in the week through Aug. 14. Across all ETF products, outflows totaled $267.2 million.
“We view bitcoin’s ~50% pullback from October 2025 highs as a positioning correction rather than a change in its investment case. A historically overleveraged market, enabled by perpetual futures, suffered cascading liquidations compounded by slowing ETP outflows and digital asset treasury demand,” the report states.
US spot Bitcoin ETF netflows (screenshot). Source: Farside Investors
During last year’s peak, Bitcoin experienced a surge in speculative positioning. BlackRock pointed to open interest on Bitcoin derivatives markets passing $90 billion in early October amid heavy use of leverage. The unwinding of these positions increased the correlation between BTC/USD and risk assets more broadly.
“A macro-driven risk-off catalyst (China tariff headlines) triggered large-scale deleveraging across precious metals and crypto markets. The resulting liquidation waves drove prices down to cycle lows below $60,000 per bitcoin by June 2026,” it explained.

Bitcoin futures open interest data (screenshot). Source: BlackRock
Institutional Bitcoin demand has suffered this year as a combination of geopolitical uncertainty and growing inflation pressures saw capital flowing into established risk-asset classes, among them US equities, with the S&P 500 hitting record highs last week. Bitcoin has failed to follow suit, but BlackRock forecasts that this may change.
“With speculative excess now largely purged, we believe bitcoin’s recent episodes of elevated risk correlation should normalize lower, consistent with its longer-term record as a low-correlation diversifier,” it continued.
Longer-term resilience of BTC stands out
The report highlights that long-term BTC investment returns follow key political and macro events. These include the COVID-19 outbreak in March 2020, the US presidential election the same year, as well as the regional banking crisis and president Donald Trump’s multiple international trade-tariff declarations.
While it initially struggled following some of these events, Bitcoin produced solid returns on a 60-day basis. In the case of the 2020 election, these hit as high as 113%.
“Through multiple shocks in recent years, bitcoin often outperformed both the S&P 500 and gold in the weeks and months following the onset of disruptions,” BlackRock commented.
“This pattern has held true thus far in 2026 amid ongoing conflict between the U.S. and Iran, with bitcoin delivering positive returns and outperforming equities and gold following the onset of hostilities in February and the end of the ceasefire agreement in July.”
Macro asset returns comparison (screenshot). Source: BlackRock
Further data puts Bitcoin’s 12-month realized volatility at 40% compared to 26% for gold and 12% for the S&P 500. The rolling six-month correlation between Bitcoin and the S&P, presented as a 10-year average, is now 0.18 — still notably higher than gold’s 0.06 reading.
“Bitcoin’s underlying investment case aligns more closely with that of gold — as a global monetary alternative and a hedge against inflation, global disorder, and declining trust in fiat currencies. Even for gold, which tends to be viewed as a standard uncorrelated, store-of-value asset, brief periods of high equity correlation exist, including COVID in 2020-2021 and the monetary easing cycle in 2023,” the report added.
Bitcoin vs. S&P 500 correlation data (screenshot). Source: BlackRock
Since October 2025, BTC price performance has led some to question its role as a form of “digital gold.” In a Q1 report, asset manager Grayscale described short-term behavior as being more like a growth stock than gold, noting its low correlation to the latter.

Nexo Australia launched crypto-backed credit lines after becoming a credit representative under Australia’s National Consumer Credit Protection Act, the company said in a Tuesday announcement shared with Cointelegraph.
The new credit lines allow eligible clients to borrow Australian dollars or stablecoins by using their cryptocurrencies as collateral without having to sell them.
Funds are generally available within 24 hours with flexible repayments, with no fixed term or origination fees. Interest rates range from 0.9% to 21.9%, depending on the credit line and the client’s loyalty tier.
Clients can choose between Smart and Standard credit lines, Peter Stanhope, general manager at Nexo Australia, told Cointelegraph.
“The main differences are in rates, asset selection, and how client collateral is managed if their [loan-to-value ratio] rises,” Stanhope said.
Nexo said borrowing against digital assets carries margin-call and liquidation risks, meaning clients could lose some or all of their collateral if its value falls.
The milestone makes Nexo one of the few crypto platforms to offer regulated crypto-backed credit lines to Australian users. In May 2026, Block Earner became the first crypto company in Australia to secure its own Australian Credit License from ASIC.
Nexo Australia is registered with the country’s anti-money laundering watchdog, AUSTRAC, as a virtual asset service provider and is a member of the Australian Financial Complaints Authority (AFCA).
Magazine: Why Australia’s $17B crypto opportunity depends on regulation

BitMEX co-founder Arthur Hayes said he would lead Flop Labs and updated his X profile to identify himself as the company’s CEO. Flop Labs is developing a proposed network through which AI agents would pay for computing and other services.
“I’m coming out of retirement to lead @flop_labs,” Hayes said in a Tuesday X post.
Cointelegraph has approached Hayes for comment and asked whether this position would affect his existing role as chief investment officer of Maelstrom Fund.
Hayes said Flop plans a “massive airdrop” in the fourth quarter of 2026, before the network’s genesis block launches in early 2027. Further details will be announced later.
Flop brands itself as a “proof-of-useful-inference protocol founded by Arthur Hayes,” in which AI agents spend the protocol’s native Flop (FLOP) token for inference and decentralized memory services.
Hayes co-founded cryptocurrency exchange BitMEX in 2014 but stepped down from his role as CEO in October 2020. In July 2026, BitMEX announced that it would shut down its exchange on Sept. 23.
Magazine: Why Bitcoin has recently reacted more to liquidity conditions than to rate cuts

US-listed spot Bitcoin exchange-traded funds drew $189.3 million in net inflows on Tuesday, lifting August net inflows to about $951 million.
The latest gains followed $297.6 million in net inflows on Monday, bringing the two-day total to $487 million, or more than half of the funds’ net inflows so far this month, according to SoSoValue data.
BlackRock’s iShares Bitcoin Trust led the day’s inflows with $143.6 million, while Fidelity’s Wise Origin Bitcoin Fund added $23.9 million.
The rebound followed three consecutive sessions of net outflows from Aug. 12 through Aug. 14, when the funds shed about $250 million.
Cumulative net inflows into US spot Bitcoin ETFs stood at about $52.28 billion, while total net assets reached roughly $79.3 billion.
Meanwhile, spot Ether ETFs recorded $71.5 million in net inflows on Tuesday, bringing August net inflows to about $345 million.
Bitcoin traded at $64,234 at the time of writing, while Ether was priced at $1,914, according to CoinGecko.

Cross-chain decentralized exchange (DEX) Maya Protocol halted its network after an attacker exploited a series of software flaws to obtain an estimated $1.7 million in crypto.
On Wednesday, Maya Protocol’s pseudonymous co-founder Aalux said the attacker stole about 20 Bitcoin, valued at $1.4 million and another $300,000 in assets. He said the protocol implemented a global halt, contained further damage and started working on a fix to resume swaps.
A preliminary technical analysis shared by Aalux attributed the incident to six chained bugs involving trade accounts, outbound transaction handling and liquidity pool calculations. It said the attacker used a single transaction containing 23 messages to trigger a false theft detection, artificially inflate a low-liquidity pool and withdraw 48.87 million CACAO tokens from Maya’s Asgard module.
The report calculated that about $1.36 million was transferred to external blockchains, while the attacker retained about $291,000 in CACAO and trade-account positions on MAYAChain.
Independent blockchain security researcher Vini Barbosa summarized the findings and noted that CACAO fell by 88.7%, from approximately $0.115 to $0.013 during the incident.
The analysis estimated a wider $10.9 million decline in pool value, but said that figure included arbitrage activity and CACAO’s devaluation rather than assets stolen solely by the attacker.

The Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB) has proposed guidance outlining when companies may classify certain stablecoins as cash equivalents under generally accepted accounting principles in the United States.
On Tuesday, the FASB said the proposed Accounting Standards Update would add illustrative examples to the current definition, addressing inconsistent treatment of digital assets such as stablecoins. The definition itself would remain unchanged.
The proposal says a qualifying digital asset would need an on-demand contractual redemption right, a direct redemption right with its issuer for a known cash amount and at least one-to-one segregated reserves held in short-term, highly liquid assets.
One example said active secondary markets would not be enough if the holder lacks a direct issuer redemption right. Another example said reserves comprising crypto assets and gold would disqualify a token due to valuation risks.
Companies would retain the choice of whether to present qualifying assets as cash equivalents and would need to consider relevant laws and regulations.
FASB is accepting public comments on the proposed update until Nov. 19. The organization will set an effective date after reviewing stakeholder feedback.

BitMart account demands founder explain funds status, Xia calls claims ‘fabricated’
BitMart’s official Chinese-language X account has publicly demanded that founder Sheldon Xia explain the whereabouts of user funds and produce a repayment plan.
It said some users were unable to withdraw funds and some employees have not received their final salary or compensation and threatened Xia that if he does not provide a verifiable asset disclosure and repayment plan by the deadline, it would continue to submit evidence to regulators, law enforcement, lawyers and the media.
Xia called the claims in the post “fabricated rumors” and promised a counter-attack.
“We have collected full evidence of the content on X, all of which is fabricated rumors. During daytime US time, we will file a police report and send a lawyer’s letter to X, demanding technical and data forensics,” Xia said.
Binance bStocks pass xStocks as second-largest tokenized stock issuer
Binance bStocks have overtaken xStocks to become the second-largest tokenized stock issuer by value less than two months after launch.
BStocks reached about $624 million on Aug. 3, surpassing xStocks at roughly $579 million but trailing Ondo Finance at about $927 million, according to Token Terminal data.
The issuer landscape has shifted sharply as the tokenized stock market has grown. A year earlier, xStocks led with $40.7 million, followed by Robinhood at $37.2 million, while Ondo held about $65,000. The total value tracked by Token Terminal has since surged from roughly $80 million to about $2.7 billion.
NORTH KOREA
Inside the fake crypto startup that fooled North Korean IT workers
Suspected North Korean IT workers joined a fake crypto startup — without realizing their every move was being tracked to extract valuable intel. Cointelegraph came along for the ride.
Suspected DPRK IT workers pitch for venture capital backing from the fictitious Definitive Communications, played by Cointelegraph. Source: ANY.RUN
ISRAEL
Israel’s largest bank taps Galaxy to offer Bitcoin, Ether, Solana trading
Israel’s Bank Leumi will become the first local bank to offer crypto trading, after partnering with Galaxy Digital to let customers trade Bitcoin, Ether and Solana through the bank’s investment platform from early 2027.
The companies said Friday that customers of Leumi and Pepper, its mobile banking arm, will be able to buy, hold and sell the three cryptocurrencies through a dedicated section of the Leumi Trade app.
JAPAN
Metaplanet CEO shuts down Bitcoin sale speculation after $322M transfer
Metaplanet CEO Simon Gerovich has shut down speculation that the Japanese Bitcoin treasury company is selling its holdings after the company transferred 5,014 BTC ($322 million) over a 24-hour span last week.
“This was a routine custody operation. No Bitcoin was sold, and our holdings remain 43,000 BTC,” Gerovich said.
Metaplanet is the third-largest publicly traded Bitcoin treasury company and the largest in Asia. According to Arkham data, it is sitting on an unrealized loss of about $1.4 billion.
MUFG PoC to bring Japanese government bond repo transactions onchain
Four MUFG companies plan to bring Japanese government bond repo transactions onchain using the Canton Network, as part of a new proof of concept (PoC).
The companies said they seek to improve operational efficiency through automation of the transaction lifecycle, enable real-time intraday settlement 24/7, as well as enhance funding and capital efficiency.
SINGAPORE
Singapore introduces mandatory tax reporting
Singapore has finalized regulations that require crypto firms to report user transactions to the tax department. The rules implement the OECD’s Crypto-Asset Reporting Framework into Singapore domestic law and take effect from January 1, 2027 for new users, while existing users can tarry until December 31, 2027.
Singapore. Source: Pexels
Binance and RedotPay stoush heats up
Binance and RedotPay are disputing whether a Singapore case related to their nearly $473 million Hong Kong legal battle is coming to an end. The stablecoin payments card issuer told Cointelegraph it expects Binance to discontinue the Singapore proceedings and will seek legal costs.
Binance said that’s not going to happen and it “is not abandoning its claims and has informed both the court and RedotPay accordingly.”
The plaintiffs previously alleged in a Hong Kong court that RedotPay diverted more than 470,000 Binance Card users by allowing Binance Pay funds to be used for stablecoin card top-ups outside the terms of a commercial agreement.
Meanwhile RedotPay’s US IPO has reportedly been delayed as it seeks regulatory approvals.
KOREA
Shinhan Asset Management partners with Plume on tokenized fund pilot
South Korea’s Shinhan Asset Management signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with tokenization-focused blockchain network Plume to develop a proof of concept for a Korean won-denominated tokenized fund.
The pilot is intended to test the overseas use of won-denominated financial products in onchain markets that have largely developed around dollar-denominated assets.
HONG KONG
HashKey begins beta distribution of Hong Kong-regulated HKDAP stablecoin
The Standard Chartered-led Anchorpoint Financial has started to rollout the first regulated Hong Kong dollar backed stablecoin called HKDAP. HashKey Exchange will be an authorized distributor, potentially expanding access to the fiat-backed asset as the territory’s stablecoin market takes shape. Retail access will be limited initially, with the focus on institutions.
Meanwhile, the Securities and Futures Commission reportedly identified 65 fraudulent websites impersonating HashKey.

The US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has proposed new rules that could affect the cryptocurrency industry after lawmakers in Congress failed to pass a market structure bill before breaking for a month-long recess.
In a Tuesday notice, the SEC said that the agency proposed rules to create a “clear and fit-for-purpose framework for certain investment contracts involving crypto assets.” According to the regulator, the “tailored securities offering regime” would allow entities to raise capital while preserving investor protections.
The agency’s rules did not include an “innovation exemption” for crypto-based stocks, which had also been expected to be announced. Notably, the proposed rules came just days after the US Senate failed to advance the Digital Asset Market Clarity (CLARITY) Act, a bill expected to clarify the roles federal agencies would have in overseeing and regulating crypto.
“[L]egislation remains indispensable to enacting ‘future-proofed’ rules of the road that are durable enough to protect the work we are undertaking today from being unwound by a future rogue regulator,” said SEC Chair Paul Atkins. “The SEC has and will continue to support Congress in delivering the CLARITY Act to President Trump’s desk.”
According to the proposed rules, crypto companies would be offered exemptions allowing the issuance of up to $5 million in tokens during a four-year period and up to $75 million during a 12-month period, as well as a safe harbor exempting cryptocurrencies from being treated as ”investment contracts.” Token issuers would be required to make financial statements and “would be subject to ongoing reporting requirements.“
The public will have 60 days to comment on the proposal after publication in the Federal Register.
The SEC’s proposed rules in the absence of legislation from Congress came ahead of a scheduled Thursday meeting of the US Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) on crypto, AI and prediction markets. The commodities regulator said it planned to address “areas where regulatory action can complement future congressional legislation.”
Atkins had been scheduled to speak at the Wyoming Blockchain Symposium on Tuesday, but canceled amid the SEC announcement. White House crypto adviser Patrick Witt said at the event that US regulators would “let loose” on crypto regulation if Congress was unable to move forward on the CLARITY Act.
CLARITY’s chances before a new Congress is sworn in?
Before the Senate broke for its August state work periods, Majority Leader John Thune filed cloture on a motion to take up the CLARITY crypto bill when lawmakers return in mid-September.
Following the August recess, senators only have 14 days in session before breaking again ahead of the November election. If Thune and Republican lawmakers can’t get a floor vote before then, the Senate has another 22 days in session before 2027, when new members of Congress will be sworn in.
Magazine: Will the crypto lobby’s $189M campaign get CLARITY over the line?