TheStreet Roundtable

Inside Michael Saylor's Bitcoin Strategy (4:18)
The Bitcoin (BTC) crash this year forced billionaire entrepreneur Michael Saylor‘s Strategy (Nasdaq: MSTR), formerly MicroStrategy, to sell its Bitcoin stack multiple times.
32 BTC for $2.5 million during May 26-31 — first sale since 2022
3,588 BTC for $216 million during June 29-July 5
1,638 BTC for $104.73 million during July 27-Aug. 2
1,690 BTC for $108.6 million during Aug. 3-9
Related: Standard Chartered revisits Bitcoin price target amid 20% rally
The company had been sitting on an unrealized loss on its Bitcoin holdings for several months this year. When the cryptocurrency crashed as low as $58,300 on June 30, the paper loss soared to approximately $13 billion—worth 20% of its total Bitcoin cost basis.
However, Bitcoin rose above $79,000 on Aug. 21 due to factors such as the Treasury’s decision to at least double the amount of its longer-dated government debt buybacks, President Donald Trump’s pro-crypto declarations, and the subsequent short squeeze.
Thanks to the Bitcoin rally, Strategy is no longer underwater on its holdings.
Right now, it holds 840,447 BTC which it acquired at an average price of $75,385. As Bitcoin is currently trading at $77,145, Strategy is no longer underwater on its holdings.
In fact, the company has approximately $1.48 billion in unrealized profit on its BTC holdings.
The MSTR stock hit the intraday high of $121.90 on Aug. 21, the highest level since June 11 when it reached as high as $121.10.
Nonetheless, Strategy remains the world’s largest Bitcoin treasury company.
Related: Jim Cramer recommends buying Bitcoin

Jim Cramer takes U-turn on Bitcoin (1:59)
Bitcoin’s sharp rebound this week has revived bullish calls across the crypto market, but billionaire investor Mark Cuban is not convinced the move changes the bigger picture.
Bitcoin climbed more than 20% from its Aug. 19 levels, briefly topping $79,000 on Aug. 21 as traders reacted to a series of policy developments out of Washington.
The move also triggered a wave of forced buying, with roughly $1.37 billion in crypto short positions liquidated over 24 hours, according to CoinGlass data at press time.
Related: Standard Chartered revisits Bitcoin price target amid 20% rally
The rally gathered momentum after President Donald Trump hosted crypto executives at the White House on Aug. 19 and urged Congress to pass a “fair version” of the CLARITY Act, which would establish clearer rules for determining whether digital assets are securities or commodities.
Cuban says Bitcoin rally changes nothing
Cuban’s skepticism predates the latest rally.
In a May 21 interview with Front Office Sports, Cuban said Bitcoin had “lost the plot” after failing to behave like the gold alternative he once expected.
“I always thought it was a better version of gold than gold,” Cuban said. “But gold just blew up and went to $5,000, and Bitcoin dropped.”
Cuban also revealed that he had sold most of his Bitcoin holdings, saying the asset had failed to respond as expected when the U.S. dollar weakened.
“It’s not the hedge I expected it to be.”
Getty Images
Asked by TheStreet Roundtable on Aug. 21 whether Bitcoin’s latest rebound had changed that view, Cuban said it had not.
“Just confirmed what I thought. It took the administration causing a short squeeze to push up the price. Nothing has really changed,” Cuban said in an emailed response.
A short squeeze occurs when traders betting on lower prices are forced to buy back their positions as the market rises, creating additional buying pressure that can accelerate the rally.
Cuban’s reference to the administration appears to point to several developments that coincided with the move.
Trump’s White House event strengthened expectations for crypto-friendly regulation, while his push for the CLARITY Act added to optimism over clearer U.S. market rules.
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Separately, the U.S. Treasury said on Aug. 19 that it would at least double some long-dated Treasury buyback operations to $4 billion, a move intended to improve liquidity in parts of the government bond market. Long-term yields initially fell following the announcement, helping ease financial conditions.
While the combination helped force bearish crypto positions out of the market, Cuban’s argument is that such mechanically driven buying does not resolve his concerns about Bitcoin’s underlying investment case.
BTC/USD, Source: Decibel
At the time of writing, Bitcoin was trading around $76,996, up roughly 6% over 24 hours and more than 20% for the week.
Related: HYPE hits a new ATH after White House spotlight

Edge & Node CEO says AI agents are ready to spend money, but humans aren’t ready to let them (4:17)
AI models have become incredibly powerful and capable. You may have heard of agentic commerce, which refers to AI agents that can shop, spend, settle invoices, trade stocks and crypto, and much more.
What’s missing is the answer to a very simple question: When an agent screws up, who is responsible?
Rodrigo Coelho, CEO of Edge & Node, told TheStreet Roundtable that governance, not capability, is the wall between AI agents and real money. He believes that enterprising giving spending power to agents is inevitable, but only after the accountability chain is settled.
“When something goes wrong, someone’s gonna be responsible. It’s gonna be a human at the end of the day,” he said.
The questions no one has answered
Coelho’s conviction was born from sales calls. Edge & Node sells data tools to financial institutions.
“Naturally the discussions would eventually talk about AI and what they’re doing internally,” he said.
What he heard, over and over, was the same thing, and it wasn’t a technical issue.
“Where it breaks down is following the existing policies and procedures, because you typically have humans that authorize and execute,” Coelho said. “When you go to an agent, one of the main questions is: okay, who’s responsible? Is it the company itself? Say the agent does something wrong — is it the developer that’s responsible, or is it the human that authorized it?”
Corporate procedures have an answer for every human mistake. Someone had to approve the decision, someone actually executed the work, and someone signed an incident report. An autonomous agent breaks that chain.
This raises another question for businesses integrating AI into their workflows. How does anyone even know which agent is acting, and for whom?
"How does an agent identify itself when it's going out in the world and acting on behalf of an organization or a person?" Coelho said. "There are now identity systems being developed as open standards... but there's no real universal standard as of yet. I know digital ID has been discussed in India and other countries, but there's no universal standard yet."
That gap is where many of the emerging agent-payments stack is being built. Open protocols for agents to authenticate themselves and settle in stablecoins. It’s similar to the travel-rule issue crypto is facing for institutional finance, except the party being identified isn’t a person, it’s software.
Until those answers exist, adoption runs through three offices that have nothing to do with model quality.
"At the enterprise level, a chief legal officer, chief security officer, chief financial officer — these are people that ultimately have to sign off to say they feel comfortable implementing these systems within their businesses," Coelho said. "That's really what's the impedance right now."
From sandbox to autopilot
Coelho explained that despite these concerns, institutions are moving forward with research and experimentation.
"Financial institutions move very slow," he said. "Typically internally there's an AI team and maybe a blockchain team, and they're starting to do experimentation — starting to look at how they might improve processes, implement these solutions to save money or be more streamlined. What's happening now is sandbox environments, proof of concepts, very limited controls, limited spend."
The path to more integrated agents, as he describes it, will not happen overnight. It will be a slow loosening of the leash as executives become more comfortable with the technology and appropriate guardrails are introduced.
"Maybe there's a human authorization now, but eventually they'll become fully automated — after enough time passes and enough comfort is built and the rules are solidified that they can be turned on and left to run autonomously," Coelho said.
Stablecoins firms have poured money into agent payment rails in 2025 and 2026, a category of commerce that Bloomberg has said “barely exists.”
In light of this, some may argue that the space is over the tips of its skis in this buildout, but it can also be seen as validation of Coelho’s thesis about where agentic commerce is headed: it is not necessarily the smartest agents that will win going forward, but the most accountable ones.

Robinhood Builds Its Own Blockchain to Power Tokenized Markets (2:37)
Robinhood Markets (Nasdaq: HOOD) shares jumped more than 15% on Aug. 21, extending a volatile week for the retail brokerage as the prices of cryptocurrencies and crypto-linked equities rallied.
The move sent the stock to the intraday high of $109.71 so far, against its previous close of $95.10.
Robinhood is a U.S. online brokerage that offers commission-free trading of stocks, options, cryptocurrencies and prediction markets. Its business is particularly sensitive to crypto activity and sentiment.
Related: Veteran trader who called 50% gold crash buys Bitcoin
The company has also given investors several growth catalysts recently.
On Aug. 10, Robinhood launched crypto trading for UK customers, offering access to more than 50 digital assets through Bitstamp UK. Three days later, Robinhood Ventures Fund II priced an IPO that valued the fund at $225.5 million before expenses.
Those developments follow a record second quarter, when Robinhood reported revenue of $1.31 billion, up 32% year over year.
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Crypto rally gives Robinhood another boost
The latest leg higher, however, has coincided with a broader crypto rebound.
Bitcoin climbed to its highest level since May on Aug. 21, while Coinbase Global (Nasdaq: COIN) and other crypto-linked stocks also rallied.
Momentum accelerated after President Donald Trump hosted executives from Robinhood, Coinbase, Kraken and other crypto firms at the White House on Aug. 19 and urged Congress to approve a “fair version” of the Clarity Act.
The proposed legislation would establish clearer rules for determining whether digital assets fall under securities or commodities regulation.
For Robinhood, higher crypto prices can also translate into increased customer trading activity, although its stock can move for many reasons and the current rally does not guarantee future gains.
Disclaimer: This article is for informational purposes only and does not constitute financial advice. Cryptocurrency investments are highly volatile and risky. Always conduct your own research before making any investment decisions.
Related: Jim Cramer recommends buying Bitcoin

Bitget CEO on Bitcoin’s future: ‘$200K for Bitcoin is not crazy..’ (3:44)
After the U.S. Treasury announced its decision to at least double the amount of longer-dated government bond buybacks on Aug. 19, Standard Chartered analyst Geoff Kendrick predicted a Bitcoin (BTC) price target of $100,000 by the end of 2026.
The Treasury’s announcement is “exactly the type of thing Bitcoin loves,” the analyst remarked and added that the cryptocurrency has a historical tendency to benefit from government liquidity interventions and its fixed supply, making it resistant to monetary debasement.
Bitcoin was trading around $64,000–$65,000 on Aug. 19 before rallying after the U.S. Treasury announcement. It subsequently climbed above $79,000 on Aug. 21, representing a gain of more than 20% from its Aug. 19 levels.
Related: Coinbase CEO predicts 450% upside for Bitcoin
Kendrick says $100,000 price target may be ‘too low’
Following these developments, Kendrick revisited his Bitcoin price target for 2026. In a note shared with Cointelegraph on Aug. 21, he said there is a risk that his year-end target of $100,000 is “too low.”
The latest Bitcoin rally is primarily driven by the short squeeze, with help from inflows in spot ETFs, he argued.
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The analyst expects low open interest to lure more investors as price rises. He went on to say that Bitcoin may retest its all-time high (ATH) of $126,000 before the end of the year, with the rebound potentially hastening after Oct. 6.
Note that Bitcoin hit the ATH of $126,080 on Oct. 6 last year before the flash crash on Oct. 10 erased those gains.
The cryptocurrency is yet to recover from the shocking crash and is still trading 38% from its peak despite the recent rebound.
BTC/USD, Source: Decibel
As per Decibel, Bitcoin was trading at $76,996 at the time of writing.
Related: Jim Cramer recommends buying Bitcoin

Standard Chartered predicts $150,000 bitcoin price (1:59)
Veteran trader Peter Brandt said he bought Bitcoin (BTC) after a technical pattern he had previously viewed as bearish changed direction, reversing a cautious stance he held earlier this month.
On Aug. 20, Brandt said on X that Bitcoin had been forming an inverted head-and-shoulders pattern, a chart formation traders often interpret as a possible bottom.
Chart uploaded by Peter Brandt on X
In simple terms, the pattern on his chart shows Bitcoin making three major lows, with the middle decline deeper than the two on either side. A breakout above the horizontal resistance line, known as the “neckline,” can signal that sellers are losing control.
“The completion of the H&S bottom changed that. I bought the breakout for better or worse,” Brandt wrote.
Brandt said the unfinished pattern previously had a “60/40 chance” of breaking lower because Bitcoin was still trending down and its final, or right, shoulder had taken unusually long to form.
The trade marks a shift from Aug. 9, when Brandt’s chart pointed toward a possible Bitcoin decline to roughly $58,000.
Brandt has traded commodities for more than five decades and is best known for calling major market reversals. In 1980, after gold surged to a record near $850 an ounce, he turned bearish before the metal entered a prolonged collapse that ultimately erased more than half its value from the peak.
He later made a similarly notable Bitcoin call. In January 2018, with Bitcoin still trading above $10,000 after its 2017 boom, Brandt predicted the cryptocurrency could fall below $4,000. By December that year, Bitcoin had dropped to roughly $3,200, validating the direction of his bearish forecast.
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Bitcoin rally forces traders to reconsider bearish bets
Brandt’s purchase comes after Bitcoin sharply reversed months of weakness this week.
The rally accelerated after the U.S. Treasury said on Aug. 19 that it would at least double some long-dated Treasury buybacks, while President Donald Trump separately reiterated his support for crypto legislation at a White House meeting with industry executives.
Bitcoin has gained more than 20% for the week, its strongest weekly performance in more than three years.
The move has also triggered a large short squeeze. CoinGlass recorded about $1.49 billion in crypto liquidations over the past 24 hours, including roughly $1.19 billion in short positions, meaning traders betting on further price declines were forced out as prices rose.
Bitcoin accounted for about $735 million of 24-hour liquidations.
BTC/USD, Source: Decibel
At the time of writing, Bitcoin traded around $77,610, up 7% over 24 hours, according to Decibel.
The cryptocurrency remains below its Oct. 6, 2025 record above $126,000, but the latest breakout has brought it back to levels last seen before its summer selloff.
Related: Jim Cramer recommends buying Bitcoin

Crypto just can't avoid Jim Cramer (3:38)
Popular television host and former hedge fund manager Jim Cramer is well known for his blunt takes on the latest market movements and whoever calls him on the show “Mad Money” is bound to get an honest response.
On Aug. 20, Sanjay from California called Cramer to ask if the Bitmine Immersion Technologies (NYSE: BMNR) stock is still a good buy.
Bitmine Immersion is the world’s leading Ethereum (ETH) treasury company which holds 5.81 million ETH tokens. The digital asset treasury firm also holds 210 Bitcoin (BTC) on its balance sheet as of Aug. 16.
In response to Sanjay’s query, Cramer asked him to “just go buy Bitcoin” and not bother with derivatives like the BMNR stock which he called “too dangerous.”
"You can buy Bitcoin. I like that," Cramer recommended to Sanjay.
Related: Coinbase CEO predicts 450% upside for Bitcoin
Only weeks ago, Cramer said he will sell Bitcoin
Cramer’s Bitcoin buying recommendation comes only weeks after he said he is going to sell the leading cryptocurrency
When Cramer asked IBM CEO Arvind Krishna during an interview whether technological advancements in quantum computing could eventually encrypt the cryptographic functions securing his Bitcoin, Krishna responded, “I think that you should give yourself three or four years, and at that point, I would get rather paranoid about it.”
A few days later, Cramer revealed that he is going to sell his Bitcoin following Krishna’s warning.
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Bitcoin surpasses $79,000
On Aug. 21, Bitcoin surpassed the price mark of $79,000 following the broader crypto rally that began on Aug. 19.
That day, the U.S. Treasury announcing at least doubling the amount of longer-term government bond buybacks.
The same day, President Donald Trump doubled down on his vow to cement the U.S. as Bitcoin capital of the world and pressed the Congress to pass a “fair version” of the CLARITY Act.
Related: Trump once stamped his face on gold, now his eyes are on Bitcoin

Industry veterans send Bitcoin price predictions (5:19)
The price of Hyperliquid’s native token, HYPE, climbed to a fresh all-time high (ATH) of $77.55 on Aug. 21, extending a rally that accelerated after U.S. President Donald Trump publicly discussed bringing the decentralized derivatives crypto exchange into the United States.
Hyperliquid is a decentralized exchange offering high-leverage perpetuals trading of cryptocurrencies, commodities, and tokenized stocks. It has become very popular, attracting a large number of high-frequency and speculative crypto traders.
HYPE was trading at $76.04, up more than 5% on the day and more than 35% over the past week. Its market capitalization stood near $16.95 billion.
HYPE/USD, Source: Decibel
The move came alongside a broader crypto rally.
Bitcoin gained 7% to $76,992.58, while Ether rose 4% to $2,381.20, and XRP jumped 18% to $1.41. Total crypto market capitalization increased 5% to $2.66 trillion.
CoinGlass data showed about $1.5 billion in positions were liquidated over 24 hours, including roughly $1.21 billion in shorts.
Related: Trump hosts crypto executives at the White House — and one token surges 19% on his remarks
Trump comments add fuel to HYPE rally
The price rally follows Trump’s Aug. 19 White House meeting with crypto and traditional finance executives, including leaders from Coinbase, Kraken, Ripple, Robinhood and Gemini.
Trump used the event to promote his administration’s crypto agenda and call for passage of a “fair version” of the CLARITY Act.
During his remarks, Trump specifically singled out Hyperliquid, saying CFTC Chair Michael Selig was:
“Working to bring Hyperliquid into the United States in a fully compliant and legal fashion.”
HYPE was trading around $66 before the remarks and surged above $77 within two days.
The comment was significant because Hyperliquid does not offer its services to U.S. users due to uncertainty over decentralized exchanges and perpetual futures.
U.S. regulators have nevertheless been developing pathways for regulated perpetual-style crypto products, signaling a potentially more accommodating environment for platforms such as Hyperliquid.
Related: Liquidations hit highest level since Oct. 10 crypto market crash

Trump crypto profits (2:28)
In March 2026, U.S. President Donald Trump sat in a cabinet meeting and said four words that told you everything about where his instincts sit.
“I’m a gold person.” The context was a commemorative 24-karat gold coin bearing his portrait, authorized by the Treasury Department to mark America’s 250th anniversary, unveiled in July 2026 by Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent. The coin carries the inscriptions “In God We Trust” and “Liberty 1776–2026.”
Five months later, the same president walked into a White House meeting with crypto executives from Coinbase, Payward, and Blockchain.com, and became the most powerful Bitcoin catalyst of 2026.
There is no contradiction between a gold person and a Bitcoin president. Gold has protected wealth for 5,000 years by being scarce, durable, and outside the reach of any single government’s printing press.
Bitcoin does all of the same things, faster, cheaper, and with a harder supply cap than any gold mine can match. Trump’s instinct, whether he frames it in those terms or not, has consistently run toward assets that governments cannot debase.
If both gold and Bitcoin moves land, a formal Bitcoin accumulation programme alongside the U.S.’s existing 8,133-tonne gold reserve, America would hold more of both scarce assets than any nation on earth.
Related: If you invested $1,000 in gold, Bitcoin and $TRUMP on Inauguration Day, here is what each is worth today
That is not a coincidence of policy. It is a deliberate positioning of the United States at the intersection of old money and new money simultaneously. The country that wins that position does not just participate in the next financial era.
What Trump said at the White House
On August 19, Trump met with crypto industry leaders and pressed Congress to pass a “fair version” of the CLARITY Act before the September 15 deadline. When asked directly about additional U.S. Bitcoin purchases for a strategic reserve, Trump said the idea “has been talked about.”
He also revealed that the CFTC is working on a compliant regulatory pathway for Hyperliquid, the decentralized perpetual futures exchange, to operate in the U.S.
The U.S. government already holds 328,000 BTC, accumulated entirely through law enforcement seizures including the Silk Road shutdown and the Bitfinex hack recovery.
A March 2025 executive order established a Strategic Bitcoin Reserve and halted further government auctions. Wednesday’s comments left the door open for the reserve to grow by choice rather than confiscation.
What both markets did
Gold is trading at approximately $4,489 per ounce today, up 66% from the $2,697 it traded at on inauguration day in January 2025.
The metal hit an all-time high of $5,589 per ounce on January 28, 2026, driven by Iran war fears and dollar weakness.
Bitcoin is trading at approximately $71,500 today, up from below $65,000 just four days ago, driven by the largest short squeeze since October 2025 which wiped out $1.74 billion in bearish bets in 24 hours according to CoinGlass.
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Bitcoin remains 43% below its all-time high of $126,000 reached in October 2025.
The scorecard
The president who stamped his face on gold and called himself a gold person has presided over gold’s best 18-month run in decades.
On the same week he gestured toward a government Bitcoin purchase programme, Bitcoin staged its biggest rally since March 2026.
Both assets are responding to the same underlying force, a president whose instincts run toward hard assets, whose Treasury is buying back long-dated bonds to push yields lower, and whose administration has now made digital asset regulation a stated priority.
Gold got Trump’s face. Bitcoin got his attention. The market gave both a significant move in the same week.
Related: Elon Musk's AI warning about the dollar is starting to come true

Explained: What are crypto ETFs? (4:16)
Crypto markets extended their sharp rebound on Aug. 20, with the total market capitalization climbing more than 5% to about $2.5 trillion as Bitcoin (BTC), Ether (ETH), and XRP moved higher.
Institutional demand also strengthened. U.S. spot Bitcoin exchange-traded funds (ETFs) recorded about $517 million in net inflows on Aug. 19, their third consecutive day of positive flows.
The rally forced traders betting against crypto to unwind positions. More than $3 billion in crypto shorts were liquidated over a 24-hour period, with Bitcoin and Ether accounting for most of the short squeeze.
Sentiment improved alongside prices. The Crypto Fear & Greed Index turned from 46 or “Fear” a day earlier to 63 or “Greed” at press time.
Related: Trump hosts crypto executives at the White House — and one token surges 19% on his remarks
MARA leads crypto stock gainers
Company
Ticker
Daily move
MARA Holdings
MARA
+15.44%
Riot Platforms
RIOT
8.36%
CleanSpark
CLSK
7.93%
Strategy
MSTR
7.81%
Coinbase
COIN
7.75%
Crypto-linked equities largely followed the market higher, particularly companies whose businesses or balance sheets are closely tied to Bitcoin.
Bitcoin miner MARA Holdings (MARA) was the strongest of the major crypto-linked names, surging 15.44% to close at $11.15 on Thursday.
Fellow miners Riot Platforms (RIOT) rose 8.36% to $20.98, while CleanSpark (CLSK) gained 7.97% to close at $12.60.
Strategy (MSTR) climbed 7.81% to $112.39, while Coinbase (COIN) rose 7.58% to close at $172.35.
Coinbase received an additional catalyst after CEO Brian Armstrong said on Aug. 20 that there was a “good chance” Bitcoin could return above $100,000 this year.
Armstrong also pointed to the Trump administration’s push for the CLARITY Act following a White House meeting with crypto executives on Aug. 19.
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Strategy’s move tracked Bitcoin’s rebound closely. The company remains the largest corporate Bitcoin holder, making its shares particularly sensitive to changes in BTC prices.
The rally came despite weakness in the broader U.S. equity market, with the S&P 500 closing 0.87% lower and the Nasdaq Composite falling 1% on Aug. 20.
Not every crypto stock participated in the rally
Company
Ticker
Daily move
Fold Holdings
FLD
-10.44%
Core Scientific
CORZ
-1.76%
Block
XYZ
-1.04%
Robinhood
HOOD
0.56%
IREN
IREN
-0.56%
On the losing side, Fold Holdings (FLD) fell 13.12% to $0.45, making it the steepest decliner among the selected stocks.
Core Scientific (CORZ) dropped 1.76% to $18.39, Block (XYZ) fell 1.05% to $80.08, Robinhood (HOOD) slipped 0.70% to $95.10, and IREN (IREN) declined 0.56% to $42.60.
The divergence shows that while rising crypto prices can support the sector broadly, company-specific factors can still produce substantially different equity returns.
At the time of writing, Bitcoin traded at $72,726, up 4.97% over 24 hours, according to data by Decibel. Ether was at $2,330, up 3.52%; and XRP traded at $1.24, gaining 12.01%,
Related: Donald Trump just made Cathie Wood's $1.5 million Bitcoin target look less crazy

Infineo CEO calls life insurance ‘blue chip collateral,’ and he’s putting it on chain (3:34)
Life-insurance is a multi-trillion dollar asset class that almost nobody thinks of as an asset. That didn’t stop Jay Rogers, cofounder and director of infineo, who pooled half a billion dollars of institutional policies, convinced banks to lend against them, and is putting the whole structure on a blockchain. He sat down with TheStreet Roundtable to explain how infineo is transforming this industry.
Rogers’ firm merged with the tokenization platform at the end of 2024 and has tokenized roughly $622 million in policies since then, among the largest real world asset (RWA) digitizations anywhere.
"Our plan was to go out and build this technology on our own, but we were introduced to Infineo, who was quite a bit further ahead of where we were,” he said of the merger.
His thesis is that the asset was already institutional grade, and tokenization adds distribution and efficiency.
The most misunderstood asset class
"Life insurance is one of the most misunderstood asset classes in our economy," Rogers said. "It's a foundational component of the US economy — and really any country's economy. What life insurance is at its core is a management fund. These carriers are management funds of large assets."
Seen through this lens, life insurance is less of a bet on dying, instead it acts as a share of one of the oldest and most conservative run investment pools in finance.
Another reason institutions love these investments is because they receive tax-preferential treatment.
"Institutions invest billions of dollars to acquire these policies that have tax-preferential treatment, and they get yields by participating essentially in the general account of these management funds — whether it's New York Life, Mass Mutual, all of these companies," Rogers said.
Institutions have held life insurance policies for decades as a balance sheet staple. Banks call it BOLI (bank owned life insurance), and as of late 2024, more than 3,000 US banks reported BOLI holdings with a combined cash surrender value of $205.7 billion.
Rogers spent his pre-crypto career selling exactly that.
"Prior to blockchain even being at the forefront of anyone's mind, we were selling institutional life insurance policies to credit unions, banks, healthcare systems, universities — helping them both to retain people and drive yield on their balance sheet in a tax-efficient way," he said.
The insight infineo was built around is that an asset this established shouldn’t remain so static.
Proving it as collateral
Before blockchain ever entered the picture, Rogers was asking banks to treat life insurance as collateral at scale.
"We developed a pool of these assets, we got to 500 million in assets under management, and we went to work with different banks in the United States to create a CDO backed by our trust," he said. "We were provided a line of credit off of that collateral, truly proving that this is viewed as unbelievably safe and secure collateral."
Then he said something that will raise eyebrows.
"It's one of the only assets that's guaranteed to go up in value every year," Rogers said. "It might not go up by the same amount every year, but it's not going to go down in value — like a pool of mortgages, for instance."
This “guarantee” is a promise written into permanent life insurance contracts that the policy’s value can only grow. This promise, however, is only as good as the company making it.
This is why bank regulators liken these policies to making a long term loan to the insurer, and tell the banks themselves to vet insurance companies the same way they would vet any other borrower.
The other risk these policies face is them collapsing because someone stops paying the premium, which Rogers immediately addressed.
"Institutional life insurance is normally fully funded, prepaid, and just sitting at that institution until these people die," he said.
The key word here is “sitting,” and it’s what infineo was built to fix.
An asset class, worth trillions, fully paid for, growing quietly, and stuck. It is impossible to trade, borrow against easily, or move. Infineo thinks it can increase liquidity and help banks do more with their assets.

Bitget CEO on Bitcoin’s future: ‘$200K for Bitcoin is not crazy..’ (3:44)
Billionaire Brian Armstrong is the founder and CEO of Coinbase Global (Nasdaq: COIN), the largest crypto exchange in the United States.
He was among those present at the White House meeting on Aug. 19 where President Donald Trump doubled down on his pro-crypto agenda and urged the U.S. Congress to pass a “fair version” of the CLARITY Act. The legislation aims to establish the most comprehensive regulatory framework for digital assets in the U.S.
The Treasury also made a major announcement yesterday that it is going to increase the amount of longer-term government bond buybacks at least twice. The move could inject liquidity into the market.
Following these twin announcements, the crypto market immediately began rallying.
Related: Analyst predicts 1,000% rally for Bitcoin
Armstrong praises Trump administration for ‘urgency’ on CLARITY Act
As Bitcoin (BTC) surpassed the price mark of $72,000 for the first time after more than 2.5 months on Aug. 20, Armstrong appeared for an interview with Stuart Varney on Fox Business.
When Varney asked Armstrong if Bitcoin was rallying due to anticipation around the passage of the CLARITY Act, the Coinbase CEO didn’t disagree. He talked about the upcoming Senate vote on Sep. 15 and said the bipartisan compromise on the legislation makes him hopeful for more than 60 votes in favor of the bill.
Armstrong said there was a “big sense of urgency” from the Trump administration at the meeting yesterday, which wants to pass the legislation soon.
These factors are leading to the Bitcoin rebound, and it’s the beginning of the next crypto bull run, he added.
When Varney further asked Armstrong if the U.S. is the world’s crypto capital as Trump had promised, the billionaire agreed and credited the president for the development.
He not only mentioned Trump’s pro-crypto initiatives such as the executive order to create a federal-level strategic Bitcoin reserve, the GENIUS Act to regulate stablecoins, and the appointment of Paul Atkins and Mike Selig as chairs of the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), but he also emphasized the requirement of the CLARITY Act for clear crypto regulation in the country.
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Armstrong addresses banks’ opposition to CLARITY Act
Regarding the banks’ opposition to the CLARITY Act, he said that though some banks like Goldman Sachs, Citi, and BNY have come around to accept it, some banks are opposed to it because they fear competition from the digital assets industry.
There is a tussle going on between the banking and crypto industries for months now over the provision regarding stablecoin rewards in the legislation. Notably, Armstrong had withdrawn his support from the bill in January during the controversy.
Related: Explained: What is a stablecoin?
The banks fear these rewards would lure their users to close their savings accounts and instead hold stablecoins which promise higher rewards than savings interests. But the crypto industry thinks the banks are being anti-competitive.
This is exactly what Armstrong emphasized in the latest interview also, arguing that free market competition offers the ultimate consumer protection and nobody wants “protectionist behavior” from a “small group of incumbents.”
But he underlined that most banks have come to realize that it’s an opportunity instead of a threat.
Armstrong predicts 2030 price target for Bitcoin
Toward the end of the interview, Varney asked Armstrong if Bitcoin will hit $100,000 by the end of the year. The Coinbase CEO said there is a “good chance” it would and further predicted,
"I'd say by 2030, I think it’s very likely we'll see $300,000-$400,000 Bitcoin, and we’ll see how it goes."
BTC/USD, Source: Decibel
Bitcoin hit the all-time high of $126,080 on Oct. 6 last year. At the time of writing, the cryptocurrency was trading at $72,472 as per Decibel.
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How Cathie Wood became one of crypto’s earliest believers (3:41)
Cathie Wood has been repeating her $1.5 million price target for Bitcoin since most people thought she had lost the plot. The ARK Invest founder built her bull case on three pillars: institutional adoption, fixed supply, and Bitcoin’s emergence as a legitimate digital store of value.
She has also said, repeatedly, that one specific catalyst could accelerate the timeline significantly: the U.S. government buying Bitcoin.
On Aug. 19, that catalyst got a great deal closer.
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What Trump said on Bitcoin
President Donald Trump met with crypto executives at the White House yesterday and pressed the Congress to pass a “fair version” of the CLARITY Act, a legislation that would establish the clearest regulatory framework for digital assets in American history.
When asked directly about additional U.S. Bitcoin purchases for the strategic reserve, Trump responded that the idea “has been talked about.”
The U.S. government already holds 328,000 BTC from law enforcement seizures. What Trump left open yesterday was whether that number grows by choice rather than confiscation.
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Why this matters for Wood’s call
Wood has consistently named government accumulation as one of the most powerful catalysts in her $1.5 million call for Bitcoin.
The logic is straightforward, sovereign demand on a fixed supply of 21 million coins produces price pressure that institutional ETF flows alone cannot replicate.
Every country that formally adds Bitcoin to a national reserve changes the calculus for every other country still sitting on the sideline.
ARK’s base case sits between $730,000 and $750,000 by 2030. The $1.5 million figure is the bull case, and it requires a version of what Trump gestured at yesterday.
Where Bitcoin stands today
At the time of writing, Bitcoin was trading at approximately $71,500, up from below $65,000 just four days ago, driven by the largest short squeeze since the crash on Oct. 10 last year.
The asset is still 43% below its all-time high of $126,000. Getting from $71,500 to $1.5 million by 2030 requires a 20-fold increase in under four years.
Four years ago, Bitcoin was at $35,000. It hit $126,000 in October 2025, a 3.6x move in roughly that timeframe without a single government announcing a formal purchasing program.
Wood’s $1.5 million target for the cryptocurrency looked enormous when she made it. This week’s signals from Washington have not made it certain. But they have made it less easy to dismiss her prediction.
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Elon Musk and X Make HUGE Step Toward Crypto Adoption (2:40)
Elon Musk has singled out the country he believes poses the biggest challenge in the global race to build artificial intelligence.
In a post on X, the Tesla and SpaceX chief Elon Musk wrote that “China is also by far the strongest competitor in AI,” responding to a resurfaced comment he made in 2011 about the country’s long-term challenge in rocket technology.
The remark quickly circulated among technology and policy watchers.
Musk has repeatedly pointed to China’s rapid progress in AI models, manufacturing scale and energy capacity as factors that could allow Chinese companies to take the lead.
A consistent view on the competition
Musk’s latest comment builds on earlier statements. In a recent interview he said there is “a good chance” Chinese AI firms will become the leaders if they gain greater access to computing power.
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He has noted that Chinese labs are already delivering strong results with relatively limited compute resources.
Electricity and advanced chips remain the main constraints on AI development, he has argued, and China holds a clear advantage in power generation.
Musk has also highlighted China’s strength in robotics and physical AI systems. He has described Chinese companies as highly capable at scaling manufacturing, a point he has made when discussing Tesla’s own humanoid robot efforts.
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Why the warning carries weight
The post comes as independent assessments show the performance gap between leading U.S. and Chinese AI models has narrowed significantly. Reports indicate the two countries have traded the top spot in certain benchmarks over the past year.
While the United States still leads in private investment and the number of notable models released, China dominates in research papers, citations and patents.
Musk has long warned about the broader risks of advanced AI, including the possibility of systems that escape human control.
His focus on China frames the race not only as a technological contest but as a strategic one with national implications.
For now, his message is straightforward that in AI, as in rocketry years earlier, China stands as the primary challenger.
Where crypto enters the picture
Musk’s emphasis on power and compute as the true bottlenecks helps explain a shift already reshaping the crypto industry. Bitcoin miners, which run large, energy-hungry data centers, have been repositioning themselves as AI infrastructure providers, leasing their power capacity to AI companies desperate for it. The logic mirrors Musk’s own: whoever controls electricity and computing capacity holds an edge in the AI race.
The deals have been striking in scale. In December 2025, Hut 8 signed a 15-year, $7 billion lease with cloud provider Fluidstack for 245 megawatts of capacity at its River Bend campus in Louisiana, tied to a broader partnership to host AI workloads for Anthropic. In July 2026, TeraWulf signed a 20-year lease with Anthropic expected to generate roughly $19 billion in contracted revenue, a figure that exceeded the miner’s entire market value at the time. Closer to home for U.S. readers, Riot Platforms struck a $9 billion, 20-year compute deal with Anthropic in August 2026, leasing 191 megawatts at its Texas campus.
Together, these deals show how scarce, grid-connected power has become one of the most valuable resources in the AI buildout.
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Understanding Ripple, XRP and XRPL (3:17)
XRP rallied 22% in the last 24 hours to hit $1.26 as the broader crypto market rallied following two major announcements on Aug. 19.
First, the U.S. Treasury said it is at least doubling the amount of longer-term government bond buybacks, which will increase market liquidity.
Related: World's second-largest bank boosts XRP holdings
Second, President Donald Trump reiterated his vision to turn the U.S. into a Bitcoin superpower. The president underlined his pro-crypto initiatives such as passing the GENIUS Act and urged the Congress to pass a “fair version” of the CLARITY Act.
Following these positive announcements, the total crypto market capitalization rose 8% in 24 hours to $2.5 trillion.
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Top analyst predicts XRP rally to $1.64
As XRP began rallying yesterday, popular crypto analyst Ali Martinez reminded the X community, “I told you!”
Ali was referring to the prediction he made on Aug. 9 in which he predicted a bullish rally for X. The cryptocurrency was trading at $1.04 back then.
That day, the analyst said he saw the Tom DeMark Sequential flashing a buy signal on XRP’s monthly chart.
The Tom DeMark Sequential is a technical indicator that tries to identify when a trend is running out of momentum and a reversal may be approaching. What it meant was a potential macro shift from bearish to bullish momentum.
As per Ali, the indicator has marked several major XRP reversals over the past six years, such as:
April 2020 buy signal: 1,074% rally
August 2022 buy signal: 973% rally
April 2025 sell signal: 57% decline
4/5 The key resistance to watch is $1.06.
On-chain data shows nearly 3 billion XRP were transacted around this level. A monthly close above it could clear the way for $1.35, then potentially $1.64. pic.twitter.com/a7doWDQcBr
— Ali Charts (@alicharts) August 9, 2026
He also highlighted whales accumulating more than 380 million XRP over the past week and said they seem to be positioning for the macro turn.
Ali indicated that the key resistance level is $1.06, and if it surpasses the level, XRP could hit $1.35 and even potentially $1.64.
XRP/USD, Source: Decibel
As XRP rallied to $1.26, the cryptocurrency’s price still falls short of Ali’s target of $1.64.
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Exclusive: Peter Schiff, top industry executives sound alarm over Trump's Tariffs in Roundtable discussion (8:03)
Bitcoin’s climb past $72,000 has plenty of investors cheering, but Peter Schiff isn’t one of them.
In a post on X on Thursday, the economist and longtime Bitcoin critic called the rally a “fakeout, not a breakout” and advised investors to sell the cryptocurrency and buy gold instead.
Schiff linked the price jump to a surprise Treasury buyback announcement that caught markets off guard. He argued that many Bitcoin holders have long expected a return to easier monetary conditions to lift both gold and Bitcoin.
"Bitcoin's rally above $72K is a fakeout, not a breakout. The Treasury buyback announcement caught markets by surprise," Schiff shared in the post.
According to Schiff, those investors are only half right. While easier money may support gold, he sees no lasting benefit for Bitcoin.
"Bitcoin investors have long believed a return to easy money would be the catalyst for gold and Bitcoin to soar. They are only half right. Sell Bitcoin, buy gold," he wrote.
A familiar warning from a gold bull
Schiff has spent years arguing that Bitcoin lacks the intrinsic qualities of a true store of value.
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He has repeatedly predicted that the digital asset would eventually collapse, while positioning gold as the superior hedge against inflation and currency debasement. Thursday’s comment fits that long-standing view.
The timing of his post coincides with a period of renewed attention on both assets.
Bitcoin had pushed past the $72,000 level amid broader market reactions to fiscal signals from the U.S. Treasury.
Bitcoin price at press time. Source: Decibel
Schiff maintained that the move was driven by short-term surprise rather than any fundamental shift in Bitcoin’s prospects.
Markets react, critics push back
Schiff’s message quickly drew responses across social media. Some Bitcoin supporters mocked the call, pointing to past instances where the cryptocurrency continued higher despite his warnings.
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Others treated the comment as consistent with Schiff’s well-known preference for physical precious metals over digital assets.
Schiff did not provide additional details on price targets or timelines. His core message remained direct, the latest Bitcoin rally should not be trusted, and capital is better directed toward gold.
For investors who follow his commentary, the latest post reinforces a clear preference that has defined his public stance for more than a decade.
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ETH POS (2:30)
One of this year’s more successful crypto short sellers has been wiped out. A wallet known as “pension-usdt.eth” had spent two months betting that Ethereum‘s (ETH) price would fall.
On Aug. 20 morning, that bet collapsed, and the trader’s 50,000 ETH short position, worth about $106 million, was forcibly closed at a loss of $23.92 million.
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How the position unraveled
The trade came apart in seconds. According to trading records on Hyperliquid, the decentralized crypto exchange where the position was held, the liquidation ran from 04:51:03 to 04:51:15, broken into five forced sales as the exchange scrambled to close the position.
It sold 9,989 ETH at about $2,194, then 20,698 at $2,210, then 15,830 at $2,214, then 1,872 at $2,237. For the final 1,417 ETH, no buyers were left, so Hyperliquid absorbed the remainder into a backstop fund it maintains for exactly these situations.
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Here’s the trap: over those 12 seconds, ether’s price climbed about $43. Because closing a short means buying the asset back, the trader’s own forced purchases helped push the price up, making each remaining chunk more expensive to close, a costly feedback loop.
Source: Lookonchain
A painful reversal of fortune
The loss stings more given the wallet’s track record. It had booked around $49 million in profits this year betting against crypto, including nearly $6 million on a 60,000 ETH short and $3.6 million on a 1,400 BTC short, both closed in June.
This single liquidation erased roughly half of everything it had earned. Hyperliquid’s leaderboard now shows the account holding just $35.61, down 100% over the past 30 days.
The wipeout came as crypto surged broadly. A Treasury buyback announcement helped send ether up about 18% in 24 hours and pushed Bitcoin from around $64,000 toward $70,000.
The wallet was far from alone: it was part of roughly $2.74 billion in short positions liquidated across the market in a single day.
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Ledn Bitcoin Loans (4:10)
Bitcoin (BTC) had been trapped in a range between $61,500 and $65,000 for six consecutive weeks. Volatility had been treading multi-year lows and traders were prepared for the range to continue.
On Aug. 19, the entire setup collapsed in under an hour, and $1.74 billion in short positions were gone before most of the market had time to react.
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That figure, $1.74 billion in crypto short liquidations over 24 hours, makes Aug. 19, 2026, the second-largest short liquidation event on record, surpassed only by the Oct. 10, 2025 crash which was $2.47 billion, according to CoinGlass.
Short positions represented roughly 92% of all liquidations. Traders who had bet against Bitcoin for six weeks were forced to buy it back at a loss, and that forced buying pushed the price higher, which triggered more liquidations, which pushed the price higher still.
On Aug. 20, Bitcoin surged 10% in 24 hours to surpass the $72,000 price mark.
What triggered it
The first catalyst came from Washington. The U.S. Treasury announced it would at least double its long-dated bond buyback operations, raising the maximum from $2 billion to $4 billion per operation.
The 30-year Treasury yield, which had spiked to 5.337%, its highest since 2007, pulled back sharply. Cheaper long-term money favors assets that pay no yield. Bitcoin was the first beneficiary.
The second catalyst arrived hours later. President Trump met with crypto executives from Coinbase, Payward, and Blockchain.com at the White House. He floated the possibility of the U.S. buying “sizable” amounts of Bitcoin and called for Congress to pass the CLARITY Act before the Sep. 15 deadline.
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Mechanics of short squeeze
A short squeeze happens when traders betting on falling prices are forced to buy back their positions as prices rise, that forced buying pushes prices even higher, triggering more buying in a self-reinforcing loop.
Bitcoin’s push above $72,000 hit a dense band of short liquidation levels that had accumulated over the six-week consolidation. Once that floor broke, the forced buying became self-reinforcing.
As per the onchain analysis platform CoinGlass, crypto shorts worth more than $3 billion and longs worth more than $305 million got liquidated within the last 24 hours.
Bitcoin with $1.67 billion and Ether with $1 billion led the short squeeze.
What comes next
The Fear and Greed Index jumped from 41, fear, to 59, greed, in a single session.
Bitcoin is now testing its 200-day simple moving average at $69,031, a level it has not sustained since October 2025 when both the price and the average were above $100,000.
More than 44,300 BTC have been sent to exchanges since the rally began, a sign that some holders are taking profit.
Whether fresh spot demand can replace the forced buying is the question the market is sitting with right now.
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Bitget CEO on Bitcoin’s future: ‘$200K for Bitcoin is not crazy..’ (3:44)
After the U.S. Treasury announced on Aug. 19 it is at least doubling the amount of longer-term government bond buybacks which will increase market liquidity, the crypto market began to aggressively rally.
On Aug. 20, Bitcoin (BTC) surpassed the $72,000 price mark for the first time since June 1. It was trading at $71,945.58 at press time, up 11% in 24 hours.
Ethereum (ETH) was trading at $2,292.23, up 19% in 24 hours. XRP also rose 19% in 24 hours to trade at $1.19.
As per the onchain analysis platform CoinGlass, crypto shorts worth $2.73 billion got wiped out on Aug. 19. In contrast, longs worth only $248.10 million got liquidated on the day. In short, crypto positions worth $2.97 billion got wiped out yesterday.
Note: This is a developing story. Please keep refreshing for latest updates.
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Industry veterans send Bitcoin price predictions (5:19)
Crypto markets extended their rebound on Aug. 20 after beginning to rally a day earlier, with Bitcoin (BTC) surpassing $72,000 for the first time since June 1.
Bitcoin traded up nearly 10% over 24 hours, while Ether (ETH) gained more than 19%. The rally triggered heavy losses for bearish traders.
Roughly $2.97 billion in leveraged crypto positions were liquidated on Aug. 19, including about $2.73 billion in shorts, according to CoinGlass data.
The rebound comes after a difficult stretch for Bitcoin, which remains well below its October 2025 record above $126,000 despite the latest surge.
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Analyst sees Bitcoin cycle repeating
Popular analyst Crypto Patel said on Aug. 19 that Bitcoin is repeating a pattern seen during its previous major market cycles.
“Each Cycle: Smaller Drawdown. Higher High. Same Playbook,” Patel wrote on X, pointing to Bitcoin’s roughly 84% decline after its 2017 peak of $19,666 and 77% drop following its 2021 high of $69,000 before both downturns eventually gave way to new records.
Chart shared by Crypto Patel on X
Patel expects the current cycle could eventually produce a smaller drawdown. He expects Bitcoin to plunge 69% below its 2025 peak of $126,000 to the $40,000-$50,000 range.
As per Patel, Bitcoin is sitting at a bullish order block zone, a technical term for an area where traders expect substantial buying demand. He then projected “1000% upside” for Bitcoin from that setup.
"The Pattern Has NEVER Failed. Bookmark This. Thank Me Later," he remarked.
A 1,000% gain from the $40,000-$50,000 range would mathematically imply a Bitcoin rally to the $440,000-$550,000 range, although Patel did not provide a specific price target or statistical model supporting the forecast.
His thesis is based primarily on previous cycle patterns, which do not guarantee that Bitcoin will follow the same trajectory again.
Crypto market heatmap at press time.
At the time of writing, Bitcoin traded at $71,463.93, Ether at $2,270.74, and XRP at $1.20.
Disclaimer: This article is for informational purposes only and does not constitute financial advice. Cryptocurrency investments are highly volatile and risky. Always conduct your own research before making any investment decisions.
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