Cointelegraph

Strategy raised $333.7 million through common stock sales last week but made no Bitcoin purchases, leaving its holdings unchanged at 840,447 BTC.
The company sold 3.46 million MSTR shares between Aug. 10 and Aug. 16 through its at-the-market offering program, according to a Monday 8-K filing with the US Securities and Exchange Commission.
Of the proceeds, $52.4 million was used to fund the twice-monthly dividends on STRC preferred stock, while $132.2 million funded repurchases of the same security. Another $149.1 million was added to the company’s US dollar reserve.
Strategy repurchased about 1.39 million STRC shares for $132.2 million during the week. It made no repurchases of its other preferred securities or MSTR common stock.
STRC was down 0.12% in premarket activity Monday at $94.67 after closing Friday 1.03% lower at $94.78, according to Yahoo Finance.
The company reported no Bitcoin purchases or sales during the period. Its 840,447 BTC were acquired for an aggregate $63.36 billion, including fees and expenses, at an average purchase price of $75,385 per coin.
Strategy’s US dollar reserve stood at $4.80 billion as of Sunday, including expected proceeds from stock sales that had not yet settled. The reserve is intended to support preferred-stock dividends and interest payments on outstanding debt.

Harmony plans to roll back its blockchain to Aug. 11 following an exploit that created forged ONE tokens, discarding more than 109,000 transactions confirmed after its chosen checkpoint.
The layer-1 network said Monday that validators would revert to blocks recorded at 11:25 pm UTC on Aug. 11. New blocks will be produced from the next heights using replacement databases.
The discarded window includes 109,126 regular transactions and 315 staking transactions. Harmony said selectively restoring transactions was unsafe because balances, contract states, nonces and other conditions would differ on the replacement chain.
Harmony was considering a rollback last week after reports that unauthorized ONE had been minted and sent to exchanges.
It said Monday that investigators had traced nearly all of the forged ONE to wallets or service boundaries and were working with exchanges, bridges and law enforcement. At last look, the token had a market cap of roughly $10.8 million, according to Coingecko data.
Harmony’s plan puts it alongside Ravencoin among networks seeking to reverse already confirmed blockchain activity after an exploit.
Ravencoin faced a potential three-day blockchain reorganization after a consensus flaw was exploited. Mining pools controlling most of Ravencoin’s hash rate began building a competing chain that could reverse previously confirmed transactions.
Ravencoin recent price of $0.002819 showed a market cap of $46.3 million.

Bitcoin (BTC) is starting the new week at around $63,000, but bear-market history continues to repeat with weekly close below a key long-term trend line.
Key points:
Bitcoin has been trading in a range between $57,700 and $67,300, but last week’s close came with a drop below the key 200-week moving average at $64,216.
Markets are pricing in near-70% odds of a hold by the Federal Reserve in September, as July meeting minutes are due this week.
Japan Q2 GDP figures fall short of expectations at 1.1% as analysis warns of “global tightening” that could impact Bitcoin and risk assets.
Bitcoin sees weekly close below 200-week moving average
Bitcoin price action enjoyed a modest rebound after Sunday’s weekly close, seeing local highs of $63,655 on Bitstamp.
BTC/USD one-hour chart. Source: Cointelegraph/TradingView
Data from TradingView shows BTC/USD continuing to tread water as the week begins, failing to challenge either side of a narrow trading range.
Analyst Benjamin Cowen, however, drew attention to the fact that BTC/USD is now back below its 200-week simple moving average (SMA). As Cointelegraph reported, this moving average was a defining feature in the 2022 bear market, when it turned resistance in August before BTC entered its long-term bottoming phase.
“What is interesting is how in both summer 2022/2026, Bitcoin capitulated below the 200W SMA, then bounced, then gave it up in mid-August,” he wrote in a post on X.
BTC/USD one-week chart with 200 SMA. Source: Cointelegraph/TradingView
Commenting, trader and analyst Rekt Capital added that price had failed to reach his own weekly-close target of $63,220, thus positioning for further downside in future.
“A rejection from $63,220 would fully confirm the breakdown and send price lower within the current ~$58,000-$66,000 Range (blue-blue)” he told X followers alongside an explanatory chart.
BTC/USD one-week chart. Source: Rekt Capital on X.com
Fed minutes due amid policy dissent
Friday sees the release of preliminary Purchasing Managers’ Index (PMI) data for the manufacturing and services sectors. The data has recently been in an uptrend diverging from relatively weak employment figures, which have seen several months of downward revisions.
Last week’s Consumer Price Index (CPI) and Producer Price Index (PPI) releases, meanwhile, painted a softer-than-expected picture of US inflation trends. This sparked a rethink on future interest-rate hikes by the Federal Reserve.
The latest data from CME Group’s FedWatch Tool shows near-70% odds that the Fed will hold rates at their current 3.50-3.75% range, compared with 42% odds a month ago.
Fed target-rate probability comparison for September FOMC meeting (screenshot). Source: CME Group
“A pair of reports showing moderating inflation is helping keep the outlook for monetary policy from turning too hawkish,” trading resource Mosaic Asset Company summarized in analysis released on Sunday.
Mosaic noted that while CPI came in at 3.4% year-on-year, this was still far above the Fed’s 2% target — a goal that chair Kevin Warsh continues to state will be achieved. On Wednesday, the Fed will publish the minutes of its July meeting. Rate hikes were paused in the prior meeting with the largest split among officials over the move since 1970.
Last week, Cleveland Federal Reserve Bank president Beth Hammack, who was one of three dissenting voices calling for a 0.25% rate hike in July, questioned whether public patience would tolerate it if the return to 2% rates took several years.
“Maybe we’d get there, but if it takes another three to four years to get there, is that OK? Is that enough?” she said at an event with the Dayton Area Chamber of Commerce in Kettering, Ohio, quoted by Bloomberg.
Japan on the radar as GDP disappoints
Japan’s central bank is on the radar for risk-asset traders this week after Q2 GDP figures significantly missed expectations. Quarter-on-quarter and year-on-year GDP increased 0.3% and 1.1%, respectively — below the anticipated 0.5% and 2.0%.
The timing of the print comes as markets see the Bank of Japan (BoJ) hiking rates from current 1.0% levels in September amid surging bond yields and continued weakening in the yen. Previously, Cointelegraph reported on a rare joint intervention in yen currency markets by Japan and the US after JPY/USD weakened to new 40-year lows.
BoJ interest-rate probabilities (screenshot). Source: RateProbability
The GDP print, meanwhile, included the first drop in private consumption in eight quarters, signaling that existing stimulus measures were failing to prop up consumer confidence.
“The boost to consumption from policy measures is already fading, and inflation will increase in H2 as firms will pass on increased costs, deteriorating consumers’ purchasing power,” Norihiro Yamaguchi, lead Japan economist at Oxford Economics, told CNBC.
The yen avoided major volatility on the back of the GDP data, lingering near 159 per dollar on Monday.
USD/JPY four-hour chart. Source: Cointelegraph/TradingView
Responding to the aftermath, Axel Adler Jr., a contributor to onchain analytics platform CryptoQuant, noted potential implications for risk assets to come. Japan’s 10-year bond yield hit 2.93% on Monday, its highest levels since 1996.
“For now, this is not a signal to sell risk assets. But the market is approaching an important point: JGB > 3% + further BOJ rate hikes + a stronger yen + rising US Treasury yields,” he wrote in an X post.
“If these factors align, Japan’s rate normalization could turn into a global tightening of financial conditions and hit stocks and Bitcoin.”
Japan 10-year bond yields one-day chart. Source: Cointelegraph/TradingView
Bitcoin forgotten as consumer sentiment lows contrast with stocks gains
Rising stocks paired with record-low consumer sentiment are flashing a new warning sign for Bitcoin, which is increasingly being overlooked.
In the latest edition of its regular newsletter, The Week Onchain, crypto analytics platform Glassnode revealed a striking divergence between Bitcoin and equities in terms of sentiment.
“Consumer Confidence remains among the weakest readings of the past decade even after two consecutive improvements, while the US Stock Market Index set a fresh all-time high on August 7 and holds just beneath it,” it summarized.
The softer US inflation prints helped send the S&P 500 to all-time highs of 7,816 on Thursday. At the same time, the consumer sentiment survey by the University of Michigan is expected to drop 7.6% in August.
“Weak sentiment next to record prices looks like a contradiction until the driver is named: households that expect living costs to rise and the economy to soften are moving out of cash and into assets. The equity market, carried above all by the AI trade, is where that capital lands,” Glassnode commented.
US consumer sentiment data. Source: University of Michigan
Bitcoin continues to be left out of this capital rotation. A sign of change, Glassnode argued, would be a sustained rebound in institutional inflows to the US spot Bitcoin exchange-traded funds (ETFs).
Last week, these saw net outflows of $267.2 million, per data from UK-based investment company Farside Investors. Just one out of five trading days finished with net inflows, totaling a mere $7.8 million.
US spot Bitcoin ETF netflows (screenshot). Source: Farside Investors
Exchange BTC reserves grow with whale inflows in focus
Bitcoin supply dynamics are the latest troubling feature for its price trajectory, CryptoQuant analysis reports.
Whales have started to dominate exchange inflows, exacerbating an existing absence of retail interest and causing exchange BTC reserves to reverse higher. Binance’s whale ratio reached 0.71 on Aug. 10, its highest since early March.
“Exchange deposits do not necessarily mean immediate selling, but they increase the amount of BTC available for trading or hedging,” CryptoQuant commented.
Binance exchange whale ratio. Source: CryptoQuant
Binance’s BTC reserves totaled 674,332 BTC on Sunday, up 2.57% month-to-date and at their highest since November 2025.
“The long-running trend of BTC leaving exchanges may therefore be weakening,” CryptoQuant continued.
Binance BTC reserves. Source: CryptoQuant
As Cointelegraph reported, exchange activity has been driven by derivatives markets as BTC/USD trades in a tight range since early June. On Binance, futures trading volume was eight times that of spot markets in early August.

Binance reportedly provided Russian authorities with transaction records and personal information belonging to a customer accused of financing terrorism via cryptocurrency donations to Ukrainian fundraising campaigns.
Russian investigators used information supplied by Binance as evidence against IT specialist Yuri Belenkiy, who was detained in September 2025 and is awaiting trial in Russia, according to law enforcement documents reviewed by Reuters.
Russia’s Investigative Committee alleged Belenkiy sent more than $700 in crypto between January 2023 and March 2024 to the Ukrainian military and a banned organization that Reuters identified as the group known at different times as the Azov Brigade and the Azov Regiment.
Reuters’ review found that Russian authorities asked Binance for Belenkiy’s transaction history and received information linking him to the transfers, along with his date of birth, address, phone number and passport number. The response also included copies of his Russian passport and Bulgarian residency permit.
Binance announced a full exit from Russia in September 2023, selling its local business to CommEX.
A Binance spokesperson declined to comment on specific confidential law enforcement requests or individual cases.
“Binance does not make or enforce the laws of any jurisdiction, determine charges, or decide how any government uses information in legal proceedings. Like other global financial institutions, we cooperate with lawful information requests from law enforcement globally, subject to applicable legal, privacy and regulatory requirements,” the spokesperson told Cointelegraph.

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 by Wednesday.
The account said in a Monday post that some users remained unable to withdraw funds and that some employees had not received their final salary or compensation, while calling on Xia to disclose BitMart’s wallets, assets, liabilities and available reserves, according to a machine translation of the post.
The post said if Xia 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.
It was unclear who authored Monday’s post or whether the account remained under the company’s control. Cointelegraph contacted BitMart for comment but did not immediately receive a response.
BitMart announced on July 26 that it would wind down its exchange as its BMX token plunged and users reported withdrawal delays. The company said trading on the platform will end on Aug. 26 and operations will cease on Jan. 31.
The exchange has stopped accepting new deposits and registrations as part of the shutdown and warned that some withdrawals could face additional compliance and security reviews.
Claims on official account called “fabricated”
Xia responded in an X post on Monday, calling the claims in the post “fabricated rumors” and saying evidence had been preserved, according to a machine translation.
“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.
Xia also said employees were not being prioritized over customers in the handling of assets, adding that “everyone is a client” and there were no privileges.
He previously denied that BitMart had misappropriated user assets. On Aug. 8, Xia told users not to believe unverified claims or screenshots purportedly provided by current or former employees.
Wallets attributed to BitMart by Arkham held about $36.5 million in crypto assets as of Monday, down from roughly $71 million on July 26 and $102 million on July 6.
The tracked wallets may not represent all assets controlled by BitMart, and it is unclear how much of the decline reflects customer withdrawals, asset consolidation or transfers to other wallets.
This is a developing story.
Hodler’s Digest: Data of 54,000 wallet users leaked, CLARITY odds just 10%

Austria’s financial regulator has fined crypto platform Bitpanda 70,000 euros ($82,000) for violating the European Union’s Markets in Crypto-Assets Regulation, in the watchdog’s first published final penalty under MiCA.
The Austrian Financial Market Authority (FMA) said Friday that Bitpanda failed to submit a crypto-asset white paper to the regulator at least 20 working days before its publication, as required under MiCA.
Bitpanda also distributed a marketing communication before publishing the required white paper, according to the regulator.
The FMA said another marketing communication omitted mandatory disclosures stating that it had not been reviewed or approved by a competent authority and that the crypto-asset provider was solely responsible for its contents. It also lacked a required telephone number and email address.
The proceedings were concluded under an expedited procedure, and the penalty decision is final.
Cointelegraph contacted Bitpanda for comment but did not immediately receive a response.
MiCA established a harmonized regulatory framework for crypto assets across the EU, including disclosure, marketing and authorization requirements for crypto companies.

Greenlane Holdings’ BERA-focused crypto treasury ended the second quarter valued at $16.4 million, less than a quarter of its $70 million cost basis, according to a regulatory filing.
On Friday, the company said it held 81.3 million BERA and BERA-equivalent tokens as of June 30. The $53.8 million gap between their cost and fair value left the portfolio 76.6% below cost.
Greenlane reported a $19.1 million noncash fair-value loss on digital assets during the quarter, contributing to a net loss of $24.8 million. Meanwhile, its digital asset segment generated $309,000 in staking and yield revenue over the same period.
Greenlane Holdings is a Nasdaq-listed former cannabis accessories company that shifted to a digital asset treasury strategy centered on Berachain’s BERA token.
The company adopted BERA as its primary treasury reserve asset in October 2025, after completing a $110.7 million private placement. It increased its holdings from 77.7 million BERA and equivalent tokens at the end of March despite the declining valuation.
BERA has fallen 75.9% year to date and was trading at about $0.146 at the time of writing, according to CoinGecko. The token briefly traded above $1.20 earlier this year before declining steadily toward $0.15.

Blockchain analytics company Chainalysis has sued the United States government over an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) decision to award a sole-source contract to competitor TRM Labs.
On July 27, Chainalysis Government Solutions filed the challenge in the US Court of Federal Claims. The relevant motion became publicly accessible through CourtListener’s RECAP archive on Sunday.
A federal award notice values the contract at about $94.6 million and says it covers forensic software and support services for Homeland Security Task Force investigations. The one-year award runs from July 1, 2026, through June 30, 2027.
Chainalysis alleged that ICE’s decision was “arbitrary, capricious, and unreasonable.” It said it had submitted a capability statement in response to ICE’s notice of intent to obtain forensic software and support services from TRM, but that its economic interests would be affected by the decision.
Both companies provide blockchain analytics tools that government agencies use to trace cryptocurrency transactions and investigate crime.
According to the motion, the complaint remains under seal because it contains Chainalysis’ confidential and proprietary information and trade secrets. The court granted Chainalysis permission to maintain the complaint under seal on July 31.
TRM intervened in the case on July 28. The court has scheduled responses from the government and TRM for Friday and oral argument for Sept. 2. The government requested a decision by Sept. 10. The public filings do not detail Chainalysis’s specific objections or requested remedy.
TRM Labs declined to comment. Chainalysis and ICE did not respond to requests for comment before publication.
Magazine: Data of 54,000 wallet users leaked, CLARITY odds just 10%: Hodler’s Digest

DefiLlama delayed the launch of its mobile app while it spent months trying to get Apple to remove phishing apps from its App Store that impersonated the analytics provider, according to the company’s pseudonymous founder, 0xngmi.
“We waited ‘till all the fake apps were taken down before we launched ours to avoid any user getting scammed,” 0xngmi said in a Saturday X post.
DefiLlama had tried for months to get one malicious app removed, but Apple took it down “in days” after the team downloaded the app and documented a small wallet being drained, 0xngmi added.
Cointelegraph has approached Apple for comment.
Fake apps impersonating major crypto brands have appeared on the App Store before, including those impersonating Rabby wallet and Curve Finance in 2024.
In November 2023, a fake Ledger Live app on the Microsoft Store resulted in the theft of $588,000 across 38 transactions.
Magazine: How a ‘Wrong Number’ message turned into a $3.4M crypto scam

Ethereum developers are currently reviewing 66 proposals to narrow them down as part of scoping the next major Ethereum upgrade, Hegotá, with several proposals aimed at bringing more privacy capabilities into the protocol.
FOCIL is currently the only Ethereum Improvement Proposal (EIP) scheduled for inclusion in the upgrade. Frame Transactions (EIP-8141), Keyed Nonces (EIP-8250) and Recent Roots for Frame Transactions (EIP-8272) should also be included to “unlock native privacy, allowing privacy apps to work without having to rely on intermediaries,” wrote Ethereum Foundation contributor Toni Wahrstätter in a Sunday X post.
FOCIL, short for Fork-choice enforced inclusion lists, seeks to allow a committee of validators to force pending transactions into blocks to boost the network’s censorship resistance, while the other proposals could provide protocol primitives for privacy applications.
Core developers aim to ship the Hegotá upgrade next year. The next Ethereum core developer calls will shape a significant part of Ethereum’s development trajectory for 2027. Proposals that do not make the cut for Hegotá could be reconsidered for a later upgrade.
The next Ethereum developer call is scheduled for Monday at 2:00 pm UTC.
Meanwhile, Ethereum developers are preparing to first ship Glamsterdam, arguably one of the most consequential upgrades this year. Glamsterdam is designed to improve scalability, harden the layer-1, and make the network easier to use, with a mainnet launch expected sometime in the second half of 2026, according to Ethereum’s public roadmap.
Magazine: Ethereum’s EEZ could pull other blockchains into its orbit

The number of tokenized stock holders has more than doubled over the past month to 1.31 million, according to RWA.xyz data.
Monthly transfer volume surged nearly 180% over the same period to $23.13 billion, while monthly active addresses increased 34.62% to nearly 572,000. The total distributed value of tokenized stocks also rose 5.9% to $2.38 billion.
At the time of writing, Ondo leads the market with about $872 million in distributed value, followed by Kraken’s xStocks at $557.8 million and Binance’s bStocks at $521.8 million. BStocks launched in June and is already within roughly $36 million of xStocks in distributed value.
According to RWA.xyz, the largest individual tokenized assets by distributed value include Securitize at $145.2 million, Strategy PP Variable xStock at $135.6 million and Ondo’s tokenized Circle shares at $99.7 million.
Source: RWA.xyz
Related: Hyperliquid RWA contracts grow to 32% of trading activity in Q2
Tokenized stocks push into private markets
The recent growth in tokenized equities follows a wave of crypto platforms pushing into private-market and pre-IPO products earlier this year, particularly around SpaceX ahead of its June 12 public-market debut.
In the months leading up to the listing, Binance, Coinbase, Kraken, Bybit, Bitget and Blockchain.com rolled out products tied to SpaceX, ranging from tokenized pre-IPO exposure to perpetual futures and proxy tokens.
Despite substantial demand, including $557 million drawn by a Binance campaign ahead of the listing, the push did not go entirely to plan. Binance, Bybit and Bitget Wallet canceled their tokenized SpaceX IPO campaigns after xStocks failed to secure enough underlying shares to meet demand, triggering refunds for subscribers.
Despite the failed pre-IPO allocations, tokenized SpaceX exposure through Binance’s bStocks has grown to $67.9 million in distributed value since the company’s June 12 listing, ranking seventh among individual tokenized assets tracked by RWA.xyz data.
The growth in tokenized equities comes amid a broader expansion in real-world asset tokenization, which Standard Chartered forecasts could become a $4 trillion market by the end of 2028.
Top tokenized stocks by distributed value. Source: RWA.xyz
Magazine: Bitcoin to $1M by 2030 is ‘mathematically impossible’ says Markus Thielen

Bitcoin could bottom in October before recovering to around $130,000 ahead of the 2028 halving, according to Swan Bitcoin CEO Cory Klippsten.
Bitcoin’s (BTC) price peaked above $126,000 in early October 2025, meaning that the “market should bottom in October,” Klippsten told Cointelegraph.
He argued that Bitcoin has so far bottomed about 12 months after each previous bull market peak, while cautioning against extrapolating from only a few previous cycles.
Klippsten’s prediction for an October bottom builds on a June interview with Cointelegraph, when he said Bitcoin may bottom earlier than in previous cycles as long-term holders accumulated a record share of supply, or 14.7 million BTC.
In the latest interview, Klippsten said Bitcoin could fall to $57,000, or even $53,000, before a quick recovery, and could reach around $130,000 ahead of the 2028 halving.
Other analytics providers are eyeing an earlier bottom. Markus Thielen, founder of 10x Research, said that Bitcoin could confirm a bear-market bottom in August with a monthly close above $63,000, which would turn several of the analytics firm’s cycle indicators bullish.
Altcoins are dead as money, crypto will become TradFi
Klippsten said altcoins are “basically dead” as competitors to Bitcoin as money, arguing that the best outcome for crypto and decentralized finance (DeFi) is to “become part of TradFi.”
When asked about his thoughts on altcoins that may outperform the broader market, Klippsten pointed to Hyperliquid, arguing that centralized crypto businesses will eventually be brought under traditional finance regulation.
“Hyperliquid is a business and it has a token. If it’s a business that’s centralized, it will eventually just get sucked up by TradFi and be thought of as an exchange and a bank.”
Hyperliquid generated $5.9 million in revenue during the past week, ranking as the industry’s fifth-largest DeFi protocol by weekly revenue, according to DefiLlama.
The Hyperliquid (HYPE) token rose 130% year-to-date, while Bitcoin’s price fell 28% during the same period, TradingView data shows.
BTC and HYPE tokens, year-to-date chart. Source: Cointelegraph/TradingView
In a July report, crypto market maker Wintermute argued that the growing presence of institutional investors has changed the dynamics of altcoin markets, resulting in altcoin rallies becoming narrower and more selective. Wintermute said liquidity was concentrating in the assets institutions favored while activity across the market’s “long tail” weakened.
Magazine: Bitcoiners turn to dice throws as self-custody setups are re-evaluated

A Washington state judge has ordered prediction market platform Kalshi to stop offering a broad range of event contracts in the state, rejecting its argument that federal commodities law preempts Washington gambling law.
King County Superior Court Judge John McHale barred Kalshi from offering contracts tied to sports, elections, politics, entertainment, culture, tech and science, and “mentions.” Contracts involving commodities, climate, economics and finance are exempt.
“We’re holding Kalshi accountable for running an illegal gambling operation,” Washington Attorney General Nick Brown said Thursday on X, citing a recent court ruling.
Kalshi must implement IP-address and residency-based geofencing by Aug. 19 and a GeoComply multi-source geofencing system by Sept. 2 to prevent people in Washington from purchasing contracts covered by the injunction.
The amended order, signed Wednesday, sets the terms of a preliminary injunction McHale granted in July. The judge found that the Commodity Exchange Act does not preempt Washington gambling law and that the state had shown a likelihood of success on claims under three state laws.
Kalshi maintains that the Commodity Futures Trading Commission has exclusive jurisdiction over its exchange. The Washington Court of Appeals denied its request to stay the injunction.
Magazine: Why Argentina is blocking Polymarket despite its global growth

Galaxy Digital has lowered its estimate of the Digital Asset Market Clarity (CLARITY) Act’s chances of passing in 2026 to 10%.
It warned 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.
Unless an initial motion to proceed vote occurs immediately upon lawmakers’ return to Washington, there would be enough time for the CLARITY Act to pass the Senate only if it “dominates basically the entire working session,” wrote Galaxy’s head of firmwide research, Alex Thorn, in a Friday X post.
Thorn added that lawmakers would still have to work through multiple issues, including ethics rules for government officials’ involvement in crypto and pressure from banks over stablecoin yield provisions.
Galaxy lowered its previous estimate from 60% to 50% on June 26, after cutting it from 75% to 60% on June 6. Its 75% estimate was set on May 22.
The CLARITY Act aims to establish the first regulatory framework for digital assets in the US, but it has faced criticism. It cleared the Senate Banking Committee in May, but most Democrats and the banking industry pushed back, arguing that it would allow crypto firms to offer yields on stablecoins without facing the same requirements as banks.
At the beginning of June, over 200 crypto companies and organizations urged the US Senate to pass the CLARITY Act in a letter shared by crypto lobby group Stand With Crypto.
Magazine: Why Meta is choosing partners over power in its 2026 stablecoin push

Gen Z traders on Binance are allocating a growing share of their equity activity to exchange-traded funds (ETFs), with the products accounting for 25% of the cohort’s trading volume in early August, according to Binance Research.
ETFs accounted for 21.9% of Gen Z net equity inflows in July, up from 18.5% in June, while the share going to individual stocks fell to 74.2% from 77%.
The analysis examined activity across direct equities, tokenized stocks and traditional finance perpetuals, comparing Gen Z accounts with Millennials, Gen X and Baby Boomers on measures including trading frequency, net flows and leverage use.
The younger cohort traded less frequently than other working-age generations across all three products. Gen Z averaged 13 monthly trades in TradFi perpetuals, compared with 17 for Millennials and 16.5 for Gen X.
Among Gen Z direct-equity accounts, 22% had never placed a sell order, compared with 19% of Gen X accounts and 9% of Baby Boomer accounts. Millennials had the highest share of buy-only accounts at 30%. Among those Gen Z buy-only accounts, top assets by cumulative purchases included Broadcom, Tesla and the Schwab US Dividend Equity ETF, according to Binance.
Net buyers by generation and product. Source: Binance
Gen Z also showed relatively little appetite for leveraged and inverse ETFs; 88.2% of Gen Z TradFi perpetual accounts recorded no activity in those products, compared with 84.5% of Millennials and 85.9% of Gen X.
Binance cautioned that its direct-equities product only reached meaningful scale in June, leaving a relatively short data window for establishing longer-term trends.
Related: Binance to restrict transactions involving HTX, 10 other crypto platforms
Binance bStocks briefly overtakes xStocks
Binance’s bStocks briefly overtook Kraken’s xStocks as the second-largest tokenized stock issuer this week, less than two months after launching. As of Tuesday, bStocks held $610.6 million in tokenized stock value, compared with $601.2 million for xStocks, according to Token Terminal data.
The positions had reversed by Friday, with Token Terminal showing xStocks at $610.7 million and bStocks at $579.6 million, representing 22.3% and 21.2% of the roughly $2.7 billion market, respectively. Ondo Finance remained the largest issuer at $971.8 million.
The broader tokenized stock market has continued to expand, with RWA.xyz tracking $2.43 billion in distributed value as of Friday, up about 5% over the past 30 days.
Tokenized stock market cap by issuer. Source: Token Terminal
Magazine: Solana’s fee overhaul increases burn and makes resource hogs pay

The government of Ireland published a comprehensive anti-money laundering strategy, detailing how the country would address digital assets potentially used for illicit purposes.
In a Thursday notice, Ireland’s government released its first National Anti-Money Laundering, Countering Financing of Terrorism and Countering Proliferation Financing Strategy. The document included proposed reforms on cryptocurrency-related policies related to strengthening Anti-Money Laundering (AML) and Countering the Financing of Terrorism (CFTC) measures.
“The bulk of this has been implemented with these final elements introducing new anti-money laundering obligations for crypto-asset service providers, requiring enhanced checks on transfers involving private crypto wallets and stricter due diligence when dealing with overseas crypto firms,” said the Irish government.
The document, prepared by the country’s finance department, noted that there was “well advanced” legislation to implement AML/CFT rules under the European Union’s Markets in Crypto Assets (MiCA) framework. It also included addressing industry standards “relating to the acceptance of crypto-related activities” as a source of funds for gambling.
Ireland’s AML strategy was the latest example of the government attempting to address issues with digital assets potentially being used for money laundering and terrorism financing. In June, the country released its first national risk assessment related to crypto in seven years, saying that it planned to implement industry standards by the second half of 2027.

Kraken parent Payward reported $508 million in adjusted revenue for the second quarter, up 17% year over year despite a decline in crypto spot trading and overall transaction volume.
According to Friday’s earnings report, total transaction volume fell 13% year over year to $310 billion, while funded accounts increased 42% to 6.6 million.
Payward remained adjusted EBITDA positive at $23 million. Asset-based and other revenue accounted for 60% of total revenue, up from 55% a year earlier, as the company generated a growing share of its revenue outside transaction-based activity.
Payward said growth in traditional futures, equities and tokenized equities helped offset weaker crypto spot activity. The company also said it gained spot market share for a third consecutive quarter.
The results come as Payward has expanded beyond spot crypto trading over the past year into equities, tokenized stocks, pre-IPO exposure and futures.
The company has also broadened its financial infrastructure business through acquisitions including futures trading platform NinjaTrader in May 2025 and regulated derivatives exchange Bitnomial the following year, as well as its more recently announced deal to acquire Magic Labs’ wallet infrastructure business.
Magazine: El Salvador’s Bitcoin experiment turns 5: ‘It was for us, not them’

UK Reform leader Nigel Farage will face an investigation that had been briefly paused following his resignation from Parliament after winning a by-election on Thursday with no major party candidates participating.
As of Friday, the UK Parliamentary Commissioner for Standards website showed that Farage was currently under investigation for “failure to register an interest” related to the Reform leader receiving millions of dollars’ worth of donations and gifts from two figures tied to the crypto industry. The investigation was halted in July after Farage resigned as a member of Parliament, but resumed following his reelection as Clacton’s MP.
The commission will probe cryptocurrency billionaire Christopher Harborne giving Farage $6.7 million as well as the Reform leader’s staff and security funded by George Cottrell, a convicted fraudster tied to a crypto casino.
Under UK parliamentary rules, new members must register all current financial interests within a month of their election, as well as any benefits received in the 12 months prior. Farage initially called Cottrell’s donation a “reward” for campaigning for Brexit and later described both men’s contributions as “gifts” given “on an unconditional basis.”
Should the investigation determine that Farage violated parliamentary rules, he faces a possible suspension from parliament, which could trigger another by-election. Cointelegraph reached out to the Parliamentary Commissioner for Standards for comment on the probe but did not receive an immediate response.
Source: Nigel Farage
The by-election triggered by Farage’s resignation in July saw the Reform leader winning with 63% of the vote, defeating satirical candidate Count Binface’s 27%. None of the other major parties participated in the race, which then-Labour leader and UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer called a “desperate stunt” by Farage. Andy Burnham has since become prime minister.
UK mulling permanent ban on crypto “gifts”?
Amid Farage’s political scandal, Labour lawmakers reportedly proposed that a moratorium on crypto donations implemented in March be made permanent as part of measures to address the potential influence of foreign actors.
According to the International Bar Association, unincorporated associations are allowed to give more than $675 directly to UK politicians, offering a loophole for companies with business in the country to be used as “conduits for foreign or dark money.”
Magazine: Inside the fake crypto startup that fooled North Korean IT workers

Israel’s Bank Leumi has partnered with Galaxy Digital to let customers trade Bitcoin (BTC), Ether (ETH), and Solana (SOL) through the bank’s investment platform, with the service expected to launch in 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. Leumi and Galaxy said the rollout would make Leumi the first Israeli bank to offer digital asset trading services to customers.
Leumi will use GalaxyOne Institutional for trading and related services, while Galaxy’s custody infrastructure platform, formerly known as GK8, will support the bank’s digital asset infrastructure.
According to Leumi, the bank serves millions of customers across its retail and business operations.
The partnership comes after Galaxy reported an $85 million net loss in the second quarter, which it attributed largely to declining digital asset prices. Despite the loss, its digital assets business generated $66 million in adjusted gross profit, up 34% from the previous quarter.
Galaxy Digital, founded and led by Mike Novogratz, began trading on the Nasdaq under the ticker GLXY in May 2025. Its shares were trading at $21.38 on Friday morning, up about 2% on the day but down roughly 25% over the past year, according to Yahoo Finance data.
Magazine: Solana’s fee overhaul increases burn and makes resource hogs pay

A $116 million hardware wallet exploit has reopened one of Bitcoin’s oldest debates: Is holding your own keys worth the risk? Days later, US spot Bitcoin ETFs recorded their strongest inflows since April, prompting Bloomberg analyst Eric Balchunas to wonder whether security scares could eventually push more investors away from self-custody and toward ETFs.
Elsewhere, Strategy is preparing to resume Bitcoin purchases after a rare bout of selling, Riot Platforms is reportedly turning its mining infrastructure into a $9 billion AI deal, and Trump Media is rethinking its crypto treasury strategy after a $238 million quarterly loss.
Strategy CEO says company will resume Bitcoin accumulation this year
Strategy CEO Phong Le said the company plans to resume Bitcoin accumulation later this year, seeking to reinforce its long-term strategy after a series of relatively small sales drew scrutiny over its once-firm “never sell” stance.
Le told FOX Business that Strategy bought roughly 175,000 BTC and sold about 7,000 BTC this year — about 25 times more buying than selling. The company now holds more than 840,000 BTC, making it the largest institutional holder, but has sold Bitcoin on four occasions since May, most recently unloading 1,690 BTC to support preferred dividends, buybacks and its dollar reserve.
Those sales have highlighted the competing demands facing Strategy as it balances its Bitcoin accumulation strategy with obligations to common and preferred shareholders. The treasury model has also come under pressure. According to Novaque Research, when companies trade below Bitcoin net asset value, raising capital becomes increasingly dilutive and the financing cycle harder to sustain.
Phong Le appearing on FOX Business. Source: FOX
Bitcoin ETF demand rebounds as self-custody risks come into focus
US spot Bitcoin ETFs attracted roughly $1 billion in net inflows for the week, signaling renewed institutional demand even as Bitcoin’s price remains subdued and a major hardware wallet exploit puts fresh attention on the risks of self-custody.
Bloomberg ETF analyst Eric Balchunas said it was the third-best week since October, a period he described as Bitcoin’s “silent IPO,” a term popularized by investor Jordi Visser. The theory holds that early investors have been selling into growing ETF and institutional demand, creating enough supply to keep Bitcoin subdued despite fresh capital entering the market.
The rebound also followed a Coldcard hardware wallet exploit linked to faulty key generation that drained about $116 million in Bitcoin. Balchunas said the incident could ultimately bolster ETFs’ appeal among investors concerned about self-custody risks, pointing to post-hack inflows as a possible, though unproven, connection.
He cautioned that correlation does not imply causation, but added that “long-term I can’t imagine there aren’t some who migrate over.”
Source: Eric Balchunas
Anthropic reportedly struck a $9 billion compute deal with Bitcoin miner Riot
Anthropic reportedly struck a $9 billion deal with Riot Platforms for 191 megawatts of capacity from the Bitcoin miner’s Texas campus, highlighting how access to power is becoming increasingly valuable as AI data centers face capacity constraints.
Riot said it secured a 20-year agreement to supply 191 megawatts from its Rockdale campus to a “leading frontier AI” company, which Bloomberg identified as Anthropic. The deal follows Anthropic’s $19 billion TeraWulf data center lease and adds Riot to a growing list of Bitcoin miners expanding into AI, including Bitdeer, CleanSpark, MARA Holdings, Core Scientific, Hut 8 and IREN.
Riot shares fell 5.4% Monday before rising 21% overnight and are up roughly 50% year-to-date. The fourth-largest Bitcoin miner has a $7.33 billion market capitalization, while Bernstein said partnerships between AI companies and miners could help address the power crunch constraining data center expansion.
Trump Media to revamp crypto treasury strategy after $238 million Q2 loss
Trump Media said it will revamp its digital asset treasury strategy after unrealized losses on crypto and securities helped push the company to a $238 million second-quarter net loss, highlighting the balance-sheet risks of corporate crypto holdings.
The company reported $190.4 million in unrealized losses across its digital assets, and pledged digital assets and equity securities in the second quarter. It held 9,477.16 Bitcoin as of June 30, down from 9,542.16 the prior quarter. In July, it sold $159.6 million in Bitcoin-related securities and used the proceeds to buy more Bitcoin, bringing its holdings to about 14,139 BTC worth $890.5 million by July 31.
Trump Media warned that generating additional income from its Bitcoin holdings could expose it to counterparty risk, particularly if a partner should default or become insolvent. In some cases, the company could be unable to recover Bitcoin committed under unsecured arrangements. It also plans to direct more resources to Truth Social, Truth+ and other media operations as part of a broader shift in capital allocation.
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