TheStreet Roundtable

Exclusif : le cofondateur de Rarible affirme que la bulle des NFT est terminée et cite deux grands récits (5:02)
Le milliardaire Adam Weitsman est le propriétaire et le PDG d’Upstate Shredding – Weitsman Recycling, une entreprise de traitement de métaux recyclables basée à Owego, dans l’État de New York. Le milliardaire est également un important collectionneur de jetons non fongibles (NFT).
Un NFT est un certificat numérique unique stocké sur un réseau blockchain qui prouve la propriété d’un objet spécifique, comme de l’art numérique, de la musique ou des objets de collection. Contrairement aux cryptomonnaies comme le Bitcoin (BTC), qui sont identiques et peuvent être échangées une à une, chaque NFT est unique.

Comprendre Ripple, XRP et XRPL (3:17)
Un attaquant a drainé près de 200 000 XRP depuis le pont inter-chaînes Coreum en un laps de temps rapide de 97 minutes le 9 août, en exploitant une faille dans la façon dont le pont a confirmé les dépôts plutôt qu’une faiblesse du XRP Ledger lui-même.
Un pont inter-chaînes relie deux blockchains distinctes, permettant aux utilisateurs de déplacer des actifs entre des réseaux qui ne peuvent pas communiquer directement entre eux.
Le pont Coreum permettait aux utilisateurs de verrouiller des XRP sur le XRP Ledger et de recevoir un nombre équivalent de jetons sur le réseau de Coreum.

‘People are putting money behind the outcome’ — Polygon CEO on Polymarket (4:35)
Italy's heat waves have put the country's "cheese banks" at risk, which store wheels as collateral to grant loans, Euro News reported on Aug. 11.
Italy has the largest variety of cheeses of any nation in the world, with over 2,500 traditional varieties. The Mediterranean country's economy is also deeply tied to its cheese industry.
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The country has a long tradition of "cheese banks," the climate-controlled vaults in the Emilia-Romagna region where enormous quantities of Parmigiano Reggiano cheese are kept as collateral for farm loans.
Parmigiano Reggiano or Parmesan is a hard and granular cheese produced from cow's milk and aged at least 12 months. The variety is named after the Italian provinces of Parma and Reggio Emilia where it is produced. Parmigiano is the Italian adjective for the city and province of Parma and Reggiano is the adjective for the province of Reggio Emilia.
The logo of Parmigiano Reggiano is pictured on a wheel of cheese at the Casearia Castelli, member of Lactalis Group, at the Caseificio Tricolore in Reggio Emilia, Northern Italy, on April 19, 2023.
Getty Images
Blockchain technology digitizes cheese loan process
Credito Emiliano is an Italian bank well-known for storing wheels of Parmigiano Reggiano cheese as collateral for loans since 1953.
Its subsidiary, Magazzini Generali delle Tagliate, matures the cheese in Reggio Emilia and Modena, holding more than half a million wheels worth well over €300 million. Cheese producers can secure 60%-80% of a wheel's value upfront when they collateralize it.
The industry is also using blockchain technology to digitize the loan process, the Euro News report said.
Blockchain technology is a decentralized digital ledger that stores data across a network of computers. Information is grouped into blocks and linked together in a chronological chain. Once recorded, the data cannot be changed without the network consensus, making it safe from tampering.
Thanks to this technology, farmers can even pledge wheels onchain while the cheese stays in their own stores.
However, "cheese banks," which store wheels in vaults as collateral, are still prevalent.
Related: What is blockchain? Explained
Italy's extreme heat puts 'cheese banks' at risk
But the extreme heat in the region this summer is making it risky to keep the inventory at the right temperature, the report said.
Daily power consumption at the cheese vaults rose roughly 30% at the peak of this summer, which forced the bank to upgrade cooling and other systems.
As wheels sometimes mature for three years, every hot summer compounds the cost long before the cheese can be sold, as per the report.
This year's summer is turning out to be one of the hottest in the country's recorded history.
Here is how things get worse. As the temperature hits 40°C, cows rest more and eat less, due to which milk yields reduce by as much as 10%.
"Extreme heat impacts milk's quality and quantity," said the Parmigiano Reggiano Consortium's president Nicola Bertinelli.
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Polymarket traders bet on temperature
Launched in 2020, Polymarket is the world’s largest prediction market. It is built on Polygon, the Ethereum-based layer-2 blockchain network.
The prediction market lets traders predict events like future Bitcoin (BTC) prices, election results, temperature, etc., by paying with cryptocurrency.
Users can deposit Circle's USDC stablecoin, a type of digital dollar, and trade shares that represent the likelihood of specific future outcomes.
As Italy put all 27 of its major cities on the highest heat alert last week, Polymarket traders are betting on the highest temperature in Milan.
Milan is not only Italy's economic capital, it is also a global fashion capital and an international tourist destination. Tourists flocking to the city seek famed Italian cheeses, and the delicacies are a major part of the food tours.
As the tourist city, like other parts of the country, sees its temperature soaring, authorities have warned people to avoid direct sunlight between peak daytime hours, to stay indoors where possible, and to drink at least 1.5 liters of water a day. Tourists could also rethink their Milan plans due to the heatwave.
Highest temperature in Milan on August 13, Source: Polymarket
Amidst these conditions, Polymarket traders are betting on the highest temperature in Milan on Aug. 13.
41% of the Polymarket traders think the city's temperature will go as high as 35°C, 37% of them think 34°C, and 16% of them are betting it will be as high as 36°C.
Less than 1% of the traders think Milan's temperature on Aug. 13 will reach 39°C or higher.
As per the World Meteorological Organization, Milan's temperature stood at 34°C at the time of writing on Aug. 11.
Milan, Italy temperature, WMO
Weather-related markets face criticism
However, such weather-related markets have also faced criticism.
For instance, some U.S. senators recently urged a ban on wildfire-related bets in the wake of Oregon wildfires because they incentivize traders to commit arson or act mischievous to make sure their bets are successful.
"When tragedy unfolds, people turn to the news for commentary and they come to Polymarket for information," A Polymarket spokesperson then told TheStreet Roundtable. "While we are not blind to the risks, removing these markets does not prevent a tragedy but makes the most accurate information less accessible to the people who need it most.”
As reported earlier, a trader betting on Paris temperature in April was found to be manipulating a sensor device to ensure they win the related market.
So, Polymarket trades are highly sensitive and aren't immune to unfair practices.
Related: U.S. senators seek ban on wildfire betting

Comment Elon Musk est devenu important pour la crypto (2:59)
En avril, Elon Musk a fait une déclaration que la plupart des gens ont classée sous la politique relative à l’IA et ont ensuite oubliée. En la relisant en août, alors que le Bitcoin se négocie près de 64 000 $ et que l’IA élimine des emplois à raison de 27 000 suppressions par trimestre, la lecture change.
« Si l’IA et les robots augmentent la production », a écrit Musk sur X, « alors vous devez émettre des dollars à la population, sinon il y aura une énorme désinflation ».
Son argument central est simple : l’automatisation pourrait accroître la production de manière si spectaculaire que les prix s’effondreraient, sauf si le pouvoir d’achat est réparti pour correspondre à la nouvelle offre.

Inside Tether: How the USDT issuer works and why it is questioned (4:10)
Tether has given the last users of its gold-backed lending platform just weeks to pull their assets out before it closes for good.
The company is best known for USDT, the world's largest stablecoin, a digital token designed to trade at a fixed value, in this case one U.S. dollar.
Related: Popular gold holder shuts down dollar experiment
That peg is maintained by a large reserve portfolio. As of Tether's second-quarter 2026 attestation, reviewed by accounting firm BDO, the reserves totaled about $187.8 billion and were held mostly in U.S. Treasury bills and cash-equivalents (roughly 80%), alongside about $18.8 billion in gold, roughly $7 billion in Bitcoin, and a smaller pool of secured loans and other investments.
That gold pile is what makes Tether unusual. The company reported holding more than 146 metric tons of physical bullion at the end of the second quarter — worth roughly $18.8 billion and stored in a private Swiss vault — after adding 14 tons during the quarter.
That makes Tether the largest known private holder of physical gold outside of central banks and sovereign governments, with more bullion than many national reserves.
What Tether is shutting down
In June, Tether said it would wind down Alloy, a separate platform it launched in 2024 that let users mint a dollar-pegged token called aUSDT. New minting has already closed.
Unlike USDT, aUSDT was not backed by dollars or Treasuries. It was backed by Tether Gold (XAUT), Tether's token that represents ownership of physical gold, with each XAUT standing for one troy ounce of a London Good Delivery bar held in a vault.
Alloy's design was unusual. Rather than holding cash reserves, it let users lock up their Tether Gold tokens as collateral and mint aUSDT against them — an "overcollateralized" model, meaning the gold backing was always worth more than the dollars issued, to cushion against gold's price swings.
The countdown to Sep. 17
Alloy users now have until Sep. 17 to return their aUSDT and reclaim their underlying XAUT tokens representing gold ownership.
As of Aug. 11, that leaves 37 days on the clock.
After the deadline, anyone who has not returned their aUSDT will lose the ability to recover their XAUT gold from the platform, making the coming weeks the last window to act.
For all the finality, the data shows how small the experiment stayed.
Alloy's statistics page lists just five open positions remaining, with about 399,089 aUSDT still owed against 194.41 units of Tether Gold, worth roughly $836,000, held as collateral.
The platform has drawn 209 addresses holding aUSDT over its lifespan.
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Nearly all the outstanding balance sits with three holders: one owes about 300,750 aUSDT, another 95,308, and a third 3,008.
Set against Tether Gold as a whole, the amount locked in Alloy is tiny. By one illustration from when the wind-down was announced, for every $10,000 of Tether Gold in circulation, only around $3 sat inside Alloy, leaving the vast majority of the token untouched.
Tether Alloy Statistics
Gold stays, the experiment goes
Tether has been clear that it is not stepping away from gold. Tether Gold (XAUT) remains one of the products the company says it wants to focus on. What is ending is Alloy and the aUSDT token built on top of it.
Tether called the decision as a way to "focus resources on areas where it is seeing stronger user demand, deeper liquidity, and broader long-term market opportunity, including XAUT and other core products across its ecosystem."
Related: Bitcoin miner pledges 18,750 BTC for $600M, here's what it means

MoneyGram apporte du cash-to-crypto (3:32)
MARA Holdings Inc. (anciennement connue sous le nom de Marathon Digital Holdings) vient d’effectuer l’une des opérations de financement en Bitcoin les plus importantes sur le plan corporatif de 2026.
Le mineur coté en bourse a obtenu 750 millions de dollars de facilités de prêt combinées via deux prêts à terme qui ont été conclus le 4 août, selon le dépôt trimestriel de la SEC de l’entreprise. Ces prêts sont garantis intégralement par 18 750 BTC d’une valeur d’environ 1,2 milliard de dollars aux prix actuels.
Cependant, seuls 600 millions de dollars représentent un nouveau recours à l’emprunt. Coinbase Credit a fourni une facilité de 450 millions de dollars, comprenant 300 millions de dollars de financement frais et le refinancement de la ligne de crédit existante de 150 millions de dollars de MARA. Deux Prime Lending ont, pour leur part, accordé séparément un prêt terme de 300 millions de dollars entièrement tiré.

Comprendre Ripple, XRP et XRPL (3:17)
La Banque nationale du Canada, la sixième plus grande banque commerciale du Canada, a révélé dans un dépôt 13F auprès de la Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) américaine qu’elle a une exposition à XRP via des ETF dans son portefeuille.
La banque détient également du Bitcoin (BTC), de l’Ethereum (ETH) et de la Solana (SOL) via des ETF et des actions de crypto-monnaies populaires dans son portefeuille.
En lien : Un autre grand ETF révèle une vente massive de XRP
XRP
Avec une capitalisation boursière de 63 milliards de dollars, XRP est la sixième plus grande crypto-monnaie.

Les piratages cryptographiques ont vidé 3,4 milliards de dollars en seulement un an (3:33)
BTCPay Server, le logiciel gratuit et auto-hébergé que de nombreux commerçants utilisent pour accepter le Bitcoin, a révélé le 7 août qu’une faille critique était activement exploitée contre des serveurs en production — et que certains utilisateurs avaient déjà perdu de l’argent.
Le projet a indiqué que la vulnérabilité permettait à un attaquant d’obtenir des identifiants d’admin macaroon LND à partir des instances concernées et d’accéder aux portefeuilles du réseau Lightning connectés.
En termes simples, la faille a donné aux attaquants les clés du nœud Lightning derrière le serveur de paiement d’un commerçant, leur permettant de déplacer l’argent. Le bug touche toutes les versions antérieures à la 2.4.2, et les victimes confirmées incluent le fabricant du portefeuille matériel Passport, Foundation, ainsi que la publication Citadel21, dont les nœuds ont été balayés avant même que l’avertissement public ne soit mis en ligne. BTCPay n’a pas indiqué le montant dérobé ni le nombre de serveurs touchés.

What is a stablecoin? Explained (3:33)
KAST, a financial platform built on stablecoin technology, has appointed Connor Fitzgerald as its U.S. general manager, tapping a payments-industry veteran to drive its expansion in the world's largest financial market.
KAST is a company that lets people and businesses send, receive, and convert money across borders using stablecoins, digital tokens pegged to a currency like the U.S. dollar, rather than traditional banking networks.
Founded in July 2024 by former Circle executive Raagulan Pathy, it offers dollar-denominated accounts and payments across more than 170 countries.
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What Fitzgerald will take on
In the new role, Fitzgerald will lead KAST's U.S. operations, scaling its core platform, launching a business-focused product called KAST Business, building a local team, and bringing new consumer and business offerings to the market.
The company said it has grown to about 250 full-time employees across engineering, product, and compliance, reached more than one million users, and is processing roughly $5 billion in annualized transaction volume.
"We're excited to have Connor as part of our exceptional KAST team to scale in the world's biggest financial market," said Pathy, KAST's founder and CEO, adding that Fitzgerald knows how to drive growth across fintech.
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A résumé built in payments and crypto
Fitzgerald joins from Bridge, now part of Stripe, where he was head of partnerships for cards and helped build its global stablecoin card program from scratch, expanding it to more than 100 markets.
Earlier, he led business development and product strategy at Coinstar and was an early employee at the fintech app Dave, helping scale it through its 2022 public listing.
Fitzgerald said stablecoins require rebuilding finance "from first principles," and that KAST stood out for investing early in hard areas like licensing and compliance, real infrastructure, and greater ownership of the underlying rails.
The hire follows KAST's $80 million Series A round, which the company said is funding expansion across North America, Latin America, and the Middle East.
KAST also noted that global stablecoin volume hit a record $33 trillion in 2025, exceeding Visa and Mastercard combined, citing Bloomberg and Artemis Analytics.

Comment trader la crypto (4:26)
La semaine dernière, le président russe Vladimir Poutine a signé une loi visant à instaurer pour la première fois une réglementation complète des crypto-monnaies dans le pays.
Après son hochement de tête, la banque centrale du pays a proposé le lancement de l’échange de trois crypto-monnaies, à savoir le Bitcoin (BTC), l’Ethereum (ETH) et le stablecoin USDT de Tether.
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Que signifie la dernière loi pour les traders de crypto russes
La loi historique signée par Poutine le 4 août permet aux investisseurs particuliers (non qualifiés) d’acheter les crypto-monnaies les plus liquides, plafonnées à 300 000 roubles (3 700 dollars) par an et par intermédiaire, mais elle n’impose aucune telle restriction aux investisseurs qualifiés.

Les données sur l’emploi manquent à l’appel et font trembler les marchés (1:57)
Bullish, l’échange de cryptomonnaies axé sur les institutions soutenu par l’investisseur milliardaire Peter Thiel, aborde la publication de ses résultats du deuxième trimestre avec, côté Wall Street, l’attente d’un potentiel de hausse important malgré un trimestre difficile pour les entreprises de trading crypto.
La société devrait publier ses résultats avant l’ouverture des marchés américains le 13 août, exactement un an après sa spectaculaire entrée en bourse.
Les analystes de Wall Street s’attendent à ce que Bullish annonce un bénéfice ajusté de 0,09 $ par action et environ 87,4 millions $ de revenus, selon des données de Yahoo Finance.

Des startups crypto proposent des prêts sans intérêts qui ne peuvent pas être liquidés (6:25)
La plupart des analystes qui suivent le Bitcoin parlent actuellement de creux et de reprise. Alessio Rastani parle, lui, de ce qui vient après le rebond, et le tableau qu’il dresse est nettement plus sombre que celui qui fait consensus.
Le trader chevronné et analyste des marchés pense que le Bitcoin est en passe de connaître une reprise à court à moyen terme au cours des trois à six prochains mois. Ensuite, selon lui, les choses se compliquent.
Un rebond d’abord, puis la vraie chute
Le cadre de Rastani sépare ce qui se passe maintenant de ce qu’il s’attend à voir en 2027.

Expliqué : Qu’est-ce que le minage de Bitcoin ? (6:23)
Riot Platforms (Nasdaq : RIOT), la société d’infrastructure de données bien connue pour ses activités de minage de Bitcoin (BTC) et d’intelligence artificielle (IA), a signé un bail de 20 ans avec un grand laboratoire d’IA le 10 août. Bloomberg a identifié ce laboratoire d’IA comme étant Anthropic.
Riot a annoncé la location de son centre de données avec Anthropic pour une capacité informatique critique de 191 MW sur son campus de Rockdale. L’accord devrait générer environ 9,1 milliards de dollars de revenus totaux liés au contrat sur la période initiale de 20 ans, a indiqué l’entreprise.

Solana devient le « Nasdaq de l’onchain », selon un dirigeant de la Solana Foundation (2:25)
MoneyGram a lancé son service de ramp crypto on- et off-ramp sur Solana, permettant aux personnes sur le réseau d’échanger des actifs numériques contre du cash physique, grâce au réseau mondial de la société de paiements.
MoneyGram est une société de paiements forte de plus de 85 ans d’expérience, qui sert plus de 60 millions de clients via près d’un demi-million de points de vente dans le monde.
Son produit, MoneyGram Ramps, est un outil qui permet aux applications de connecter les utilisateurs aux services cash-to-crypto et crypto-to-cash, un « ramp » étant le pont entre l’argent traditionnel et les actifs numériques.

Avec le BlackRock Bitcoin ETF, les adultes sont là (0:57)
Le responsable des actifs numériques de BlackRock, Robert Mitchnick, s'est présenté à une interview sur Bloomberg le 10 août, au cours de laquelle il a tenu des propos forts sur le sentiment qui prévaut actuellement chez les investisseurs en Bitcoin.
BlackRock a lancé iShares Bitcoin Trust (IBIT), son fonds négocié en bourse (ETF) au comptant sur le Bitcoin, aux États-Unis, en janvier 2024. Depuis lors, le fonds a conservé sa position de plus grand ETF Bitcoin malgré les hauts et les bas.
Selon SoSoValue, IBIT détient des actifs nets d'une valeur de 48,51 milliards de dollars au 7 août.

‘Crypto must earn trust’: Crystal Intelligence CEO on scams and security (5:25)
Russell Wilson is the billionaire founder of CoinSpot, one of Australia’s largest cryptocurrency trading exchanges. Founded in 2013, CoinSpot reported a $270 million net profit in the 2025 financial year.
On Aug. 10, a local media outlet reported that he has sued an ex-employee for allegedly stealing around $500,000 from the exchange.
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The court documents filed by CoinSpot’s parent company, Casey Block Services, claim that customer support team member Iresh Pawan Perera moved $478,932 out of the company into his personal bank account across 76 transactions in the two years to March.
The lawsuit claims Perera converted CoinSpot’s digital currency for “his own use by exchanging it” into cash. His job was terminated immediately on March 9 because the alleged misappropriation of funds amounted to “material breaches” of his employment agreement. Perera is yet to file a defence.
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Wilson’s company is seeking damages worth $478,932, in addition to interest. The case will resume in September.
A CoinSpot spokeswoman told the publication that she could not reveal more details about the crypto exchange’s legal battle with its ex-employee while the matter is sub judice.
“CoinSpot enforces robust safeguards to ensure operations and assets remain secure,” she said. “We take the security of our customers’ holdings extremely seriously and have not had customer funds impacted on our platform. CoinSpot has zero tolerance for fraud and will always work closely with law enforcement to protect our users."
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Président de l’Institute for Policy Solana sur les règles relatives aux stablecoins (3:13)
Solana est devenu l’un des endroits les plus actifs pour les stablecoins, la valeur de ces jetons sur le réseau ayant fortement augmenté au cours des trois dernières années.
Solana est une blockchain conçue pour des transactions rapides et peu coûteuses, des qualités qui la rendent particulièrement adaptée aux stablecoins, des jetons numériques indexés sur une devise comme le dollar américain et utilisés pour transférer de l’argent ou effectuer des échanges sans les fluctuations des autres crypto-monnaies.
D’après des données fournies par la société d’analyse Artemis, l’offre totale de stablecoins sur Solana est passée d’environ 1,5 milliard de dollars il y a trois ans à environ 16,7 milliards de dollars aujourd’hui.

Book Review: Changpeng Zhao's 'Freedom of Money' (2:34)
How much money does a person actually need? Changpeng Zhao, the crypto billionaire better known as CZ, has a number in mind, and it is a lot smaller than his own fortune.
In a May 9 interview on the show Crypto Banter with host Ran Neuner, Zhao argued that wealth stops buying happiness far earlier than most people assume.
"You don't need that much money to have a decent life," he said, "and also having luxury watches doesn't make you happy."
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The number that counts as 'enough'
Pressed on where "enough" begins, Zhao put a figure on it.
"I think USD 10 million is enough for financial freedom if you live a normal life," he said. Above that, he argued, the benefits fade fast: a jump from $10 million to $20 million might still make a small difference, but "beyond 50 million? Zero difference."
He set $100 million as the ceiling where money stops mattering entirely.
"If you have 100 million dollars and you say, 'oh, I am not happy, 200 million dollars would make me happier,' that is just craziness," he said.
Why chasing more backfires
Zhao's larger point was that treating money as the source of happiness is a trap.
"I don't think you should make it your goal to enjoy your money," he told Neuner, "and then you're working for the money. And then your money controls you."
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The billionaire offered himself as proof. Asked what his wealth actually buys him that he enjoys, Zhao pointed to a collection of camera gadgets he rarely touches.
"I use them once, I put them away, but it doesn't make me happy," he said, adding that once someone has enough, "you shouldn't rely on having more money to make you happy. That doesn't work."
Changpeng Zhao, famously known as CZ, attends the 'CZ meets Italy' at Palazzo Brancaccio on May 10, 2022, in Rome, Italy.
Antonio Masiello/Getty Images
His personal style backs up the philosophy. Despite his fortune, Zhao is known for dressing simply, usually in Binance-branded hoodies and T-shirts rather than the luxury trappings his wealth could easily afford.
What matters more, he said, is family and health.
The advice is striking coming from its source. Zhao founded Binance in 2017 and built it into the world's largest cryptocurrency exchange, and Forbes pegs his real-time net worth at $109.7 billion as of August 10, the 17th-largest fortune in the world, and by his own math, more than 1,000 times what a person needs.
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Missing Jobs data sends markets reeling (1:57)
Friday's US jobs report landed like a surprise. Economists surveyed by Bloomberg had forecast 80,000 new jobs created in July. The actual number was negative 23,000, meaning the economy shed jobs rather than added them.
According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, the unemployment rate ticked down to 4.1 percent, though that decline was driven partly by a shrinking labour force rather than stronger hiring.
Within minutes of the release, Bitcoin cleared $65,000, a level that had resisted it for weeks, and touched an August high of $65,300.
To anyone watching both headlines simultaneously, the move made no obvious sense. The economy lost jobs. Bitcoin went up. Here is exactly why those two things are connected.
The Fed is the link
The Federal Reserve sets interest rates. When the economy is strong, jobs growing, inflation elevated, the Fed raises rates or holds them high to cool things down. When the economy weakens, jobs falling, hiring stalling, the Fed has less justification to keep rates high and more reason to cut them.
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Higher rates make borrowing expensive, strengthen the dollar, and pull money toward safer assets like Treasury bonds, away from risk assets like Bitcoin.
Lower rates do the opposite. They weaken the dollar, make bonds less attractive, and push capital toward higher-return assets.
Friday's jobs number, negative 23,000 against an expectation of positive 80,000, is a significant miss.
It makes a September rate hike significantly harder to justify. Following the report, futures markets moved to price in roughly a 56 percent chance the Fed pauses at its September 16 meeting, up from roughly 35 percent the previous day.
That single shift in rate expectations was enough to send Bitcoin through the resistance level it had been unable to break for weeks.
Why Bitcoin specifically
Bitcoin is increasingly traded as a macro asset, not just a crypto one. Large institutional holders, ETF managers, and hedge funds treat it as part of a broader risk-on, risk-off framework alongside equities, gold, and emerging market currencies.
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When the macro environment shifts toward lower rates and a weaker dollar, money moves into Bitcoin alongside those other assets.
Bitcoin’s 24-hour trading volume reached approximately $21.2 billion heading into the Aug. 7 weekend, significantly above its recent daily average.
The surge suggests Friday’s move was backed by stronger market participation rather than being driven solely by retail activity.
The number to watch now
Bitcoin is trading at approximately $64,940 today, holding most of Friday's gains. The September 16 Fed meeting is now the single most important date on the crypto calendar.
If the jobs report weakness persists into August data, due before that meeting, the case for a Fed pause strengthens further and Bitcoin's path toward $70,000 becomes cleaner.
Bad jobs data is good for Bitcoin. Not because the economy suffering is good for anyone. But because the Fed's response to that suffering is what drives the trade.
Related: Bitcoin has never broken this line in 15 years, it is on it right now

Crypto Startup Pitches Interest-Free Loans That Can't Be Liquidated (6:25)
Every loan in history has come with an interest rate, a due date, and someone who can take your collateral.
"When you say credit or debt, it's a loaded term and people assume certain things," Colin Sinclair, chief business officer at Mayflower said to TheStreet Roundtable. "You're gonna have to repay somebody by this point in time. Until you repay them, there's gonna be interest payments. And if the value of your collateral goes down, they're gonna liquidate you so they don't lose money."
None of that is malice, it's what lending between humans requires. His answer is to remove the human. The Assured Value Machine, or AVM, is what he calls "the core innovation of our whole stack."
"It charges a one-time borrow fee. There's buy, sell and borrow fees, but there is no ongoing interest," he said.
Related: Explained: What is a smart contract?
A vending machine with a floor
"Think of it like a vending machine," Sinclair said. "I put my dollars in, I get my token out."
Every dollar that buys in stays inside the machine, creating a bonding curve that is itself the entire market for the token.
"Now it has a full view of the supply. So using math, some calculus and code, it can establish a floor price. If everyone who just bought their tokens decided to turn and sell, the last one sold would still fetch that floor price," he said.
Because the machine knows the minimum every token can be redeemed for, it can lend against that minimum with no fear of a shortfall.
"There's no need for a liquidation engine. It doesn't even have one. This is trustless. You could leave and go to Mexico and spend your money on the beach, and your tokens are locked until you repay that debt. But if you don't repay that debt, everything else functions as normal," Sinclair said. "Think of it like a perpetual loan where no other holder of those tokens cares or relies on anyone else to be a good steward of that debt."
It's worth being precise about what the borrower gives up. The loan is capped at the floor value, which sits below market price, and the tokens stay locked until repayment.
In practice, "obligation-free credit" resembles a partial redemption with an option to buy back in. The obligation hasn't vanished so much as been prepaid in collateral.
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'Tell that to the guy who bought Nakamoto'
To explain what the AVM actually fixes, Sinclair pointed to one of crypto’s biggest trades in 2025: digital asset treasuries.
More specifically, he pointed to Nakamoto ($NAKA), the Bitcoin treasury formed through a merger with KindlyMD. Nakamoto’s stock has fallen roughly 95% from its May 2025 peak, and its market cap sits at around 25-30% of the value of its Bitcoin holdings.
Many would use this extraordinarily low multiple of net asset value (mNAV) to argue that NAKA was undervalued and a good investment. Sinclair doesn’t see any reason to think that.
"There's zero actual connection between the NAV and what the shares are worth," Sinclair said. "Tell that to the guy who bought Nakamoto 40% below."
The AVM, he argues, is what a treasury company would look like if the discount were impossible.
"Think of it like an on-chain reserve, a digital asset treasury, where it cannot trade below the NAV. It can trade above it, and there's an area of volatility above this floor price. But that floor price is a hard stop. Math and code doesn't care what anyone thinks or says," he said. "If you think you could sell one of these AVM assets below the floor, that would be the equivalent of saying: watch this, I'm going to take my calculator and type in 4 plus 4 and it's not going to equal 8. Good luck with that.”