Cointelegraph

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

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

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

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

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

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

Interstice Digital has launched a cross-chain swap engine with FalconX connecting the Canton Network with Ethereum, Solana and Robinhood Chain.
According to Tuesday’s announcement, the non-custodial engine allows assets to be swapped across the four networks without Interstice taking custody or executing transactions on users’ behalf.
FalconX, a digital asset prime brokerage serving institutional investors, provides liquidity for the engine, which is designed to connect Canton’s institutional markets with assets and trading activity on public blockchains, giving users a route between tokenized assets on Canton and liquidity on networks such as Ethereum and Solana.
Canton is a public blockchain built for institutional finance, with privacy and permissioning controls designed for regulated transactions and tokenized assets. Its ecosystem includes major financial institutions such as JPMorgan, Goldman Sachs and BNP Paribas.
Interstice is a wholly owned subsidiary of Everyrealm and is backed by investors including a16z Crypto, Coinbase Ventures, Galaxy and Brevan Howard. The company did not disclose which assets are initially supported or provide transaction volume figures for the swap engine.
Canton expands institutional tokenization activity
The integration comes as more traditional financial institutions use Canton for tokenized assets and blockchain-based settlement.
In July, electronic trading platform Tradeweb executed an onchain US Treasury trade in which Franklin Templeton transferred a tokenized Treasury security to Virtu Financial in exchange for tokenized cash.
Tradeweb provided execution and price discovery, while Canton synchronized settlement between the two assets in real time. Tradeweb said it was the first real-time purchase and sale of a tokenized US Treasury settled against USDCx, a USDC-backed stablecoin issued on Canton, with other participants including Societe Generale, Digital Asset and Blockdaemon.
Societe Generale has also deployed its euro- and dollar-denominated stablecoins on Canton for tokenized collateral, repo financing and institutional settlement, while Visa has tested private stablecoin settlement on the network.
Other initiatives include a Japanese government bond collateral pilot involving Mizuho and Nomura and S&P Dow Jones Indices placing its iBoxx US Treasuries Index on Canton.
PoC trial for digital collateral management using Japanese government bonds. Source: JPX
Magazine: Solana’s fee overhaul increases burn and makes resource hogs pay

An affiliate of political action committee (PAC) Fairshake, funded primarily by Coinbase and Ripple Labs, has poured more than $2 million into media opposing a Democratic candidate who did not appear to have taken any prominent position on digital assets before the ads were released.
According to records with the Federal Election Commission (FEC) as of Tuesday, the Protect Progress PAC had spent more than $2 million on ads opposing Democratic candidate Oliver Gilbert in Florida’s 24th congressional district. Notably, no candidate in the Democratic primary appeared to have taken a strong position on digital assets as part of their campaigns before the PAC’s involvement.
The Democratic candidate is running for the seat currently occupied by Representative Frederica Wilson, who, in addition to voting against the Digital Asset Market Clarity (CLARITY) Act and Guiding and Establishing National Innovation for US Stablecoins (GENIUS) Act while serving in Congress, endorsed Gilbert. Shevrin Jones, a Florida state senator and Democratic candidate who was ahead of Gilbert in an early August poll, has completed a questionnaire with Stand With Crypto, earning him a “strongly supports” rating from the advocacy organization.
Gilbert reportedly said “[Donald] Trump’s tech billionaire buddies” were behind the “crypto con artists trying to buy a Democratic primary” through the ads, which included fake Miami Herald headlines unrelated to digital asset policy. Wilson endorsed Gilbert at a June 22 event. Cointelegraph reached out to Gilbert’s campaign and a Fairshake spokesperson for comment but did not receive an immediate response.
Fairshake reported holding a $193 million war chest as of January, which it has used through affiliates like Protect Progress and Defend American Jobs to support Democratic and Republican candidates, respectively, for races in the 2026 midterm elections. As of June, the PAC had already poured more than $82 million into primaries and special elections to influence voters through ads.
Primary races to impact party control in 2027
On Tuesday, voters in Alaska, California, Florida and Wyoming will decide on congressional candidates to face off in the general election in November.
The Protect Progress PAC has also spent more than $150,000 on media supporting the re-election of Lois Frankel in Florida’s 23rd district. Defend American Jobs reported a combined $1.5 million on ads in favor of Representative Nick Begich in Alaska’s at-large congressional district, Republican candidate Sydney Gruters in Florida’s 16th district and Representative Harriet Hageman for one of the US Senate seats representing Wyoming.
The primary races will determine whether Democrats retake control of the US House of Representatives and Senate starting in the next session of Congress in January, or Republicans remain the majority. Both chambers are on recess until September, when the Senate is expected to hold a vote on the CLARITY Act.
Magazine: Bitcoin to $1M by 2030 is ‘mathematically impossible’ says Markus Thielen

Cypherpunk Technologies is expanding its footprint in the Zcash ecosystem, launching what it says is the world’s largest Zcash mining operation after acquiring a mining fleet from Winklevoss Capital, signaling growing institutional interest in the privacy-focused network.
Cypherpunk said Tuesday that it acquired the fleet through an equity-based transaction valued at $33.33 million. The mining operation is already online at facilities across the United States, producing roughly 4.2 GSol/s, or about 18% of the Zcash network’s current hashrate.
If the company’s figures are accurate, the transaction gives a single publicly traded company a significant share of Zcash’s mining capacity.
The expansion adds mining to Cypherpunk’s existing Zcash holdings, which currently stand at 323,394 ZEC, representing about 1.9% of the cryptocurrency’s circulating supply. The company has set a target of eventually holding 5% of the ZEC supply.
Cypherpunk has pitched Zcash mining as offering more attractive economics than Bitcoin mining or AI data center workloads at current market conditions. However, those economics depend heavily on factors including ZEC’s price, network hashrate, mining difficulty and operating costs.
The push follows a sharp rise in ZEC during the second half of 2025, when renewed interest in privacy-focused cryptocurrencies helped propel the asset higher. The rally brought greater attention to Zcash and other privacy-preserving technologies after years of comparatively muted market interest.
Despite its correction, Zcash (ZEC) is up more than 1,300% over the past 12 months. Source: CoinMarketCap
Ironwood upgrade addresses risk in Zcash shielded pool
The Zcash network underwent its Ironwood upgrade on July 28, introducing a new shielded transaction protocol to replace the Orchard pool and improve the network’s security architecture.
The upgrade followed the discovery of a flaw affecting Orchard that, under certain conditions, could have allowed an attacker to create counterfeit ZEC within the shielded pool without immediate detection.
While there was no evidence the vulnerability had been exploited, the potential for undetected ZEC creation posed a risk to the integrity of the cryptocurrency’s supply and highlighted the security challenges associated with privacy-preserving transactions.

An effort by Alex Mashinsky, the former CEO of now-defunct cryptocurrency lending platform Celsius, to convince a federal court to vacate his 12-year sentence for fraud and market manipulation faces pushback from US prosecutors in the Southern District of New York (SDNY).
In a Friday filing, SDNY Attorney James McDonald and Assistant US Attorney Allison Nichols said that the court should deny Mashinsky’s petition to vacate his conviction and sentence, saying that many of his legal arguments were “without merit” and pushing back against claims of ineffective assistance of counsel.
The former Celsius CEO informed the court in May that he would be proceeding pro se — that is, representing himself in the case — and filed a motion to vacate, including claims about cryptocurrency exchange FTX and his former colleague, the company’s chief revenue officer Roni Cohen-Pavon.
“Mashinsky has not even submitted a sworn declaration in support of these baseless allegations, and his petition should be denied without a hearing or further fact-finding,” said prosecutors, adding:
“[...] He presents a litany of complaints, blaming others for problems at Celsius and rehashing the evidence presented at his sentencing hearing. Though Mashinsky stops short of claiming that he is factually innocent, he blames his lawyers for failing to press certain arguments on his behalf.”
As of Tuesday, the judge overseeing the case had not responded to the federal prosecutors’ filing. Mashinsky was sentenced in May 2025 to 144 months in prison, having pleaded guilty to commodities fraud and securities fraud related to “manipulative and deceptive devices” at Celsius. Cohen-Pavon, who according to the government provided “substantial assistance” to the prosecutors case again Mashinsky, was sentenced to time served in May.
Celsius was one of a slew of crypto companies to file for bankruptcy in 2022 amid a market downturn starting with the collapse of Terraform Labs. Authorities indicted Mashinsky and Cohen-Pavon in 2023 and both subsequently pleaded guilty. The former CEO was ordered to pay $48 million in forfeiture at sentencing and agreed to pay $10 million as part of a separate settlement with the US Federal Trade Commission.
Mashinsky banned from commodities markets trading
The US Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) announced in June that the former Celsius CEO was permanently banned from trading in markets within the commodities regulator’s purview.
The CFTC case was one of the last against Mashinsky and Celsius to be resolved following the company’s collapse in 2022. However, the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) civil action against the co-founder, first filed in 2023, was still ongoing despite the court reaching a judgment against the platform months after the initial complaint.
As of July 30, the SEC reported that its attorneys and Mashinsky were “engaged in settlement discussions.“ The regulator asked the court for 60 days to file a status report on the matter, pushing any potential resolution to the end of September.
Magazine: ‘Fabricated rumors’ about BitMart founder, Binance bStocks dominate: Asia Express

Metaplanet, the Tokyo-listed company that has adopted Bitcoin as its primary treasury reserve asset, plans to take a controlling stake in Nasdaq-listed Super League Enterprise, expanding its Bitcoin treasury strategy into the United States and potentially opening up new sources of capital.
On Tuesday, Metaplanet CEO Simon Gerovich said the company plans to contribute 2,100 Bitcoin (BTC) and $2.5 million in cash to Super League, which will be renamed Superplanet and become the company’s US Bitcoin treasury platform.
The 2,100 BTC contribution represents just under 5% of Metaplanet’s 43,000 BTC holdings and is worth roughly $135 million at current Bitcoin prices. Because the Bitcoin will come from Metaplanet’s existing treasury, the transaction does not represent a new BTC purchase.
Gerovich said the structure would give the company two avenues for raising capital, with Superplanet tapping US markets while Metaplanet continues to raise funds in Japan. The deal is expected to close in the fourth quarter of 2026, subject to customary closing conditions, including approval from Super League shareholders.
Under the proposed structure, capital raised by either company could support the group’s broader Bitcoin treasury strategy. Metaplanet said Superplanet could also pursue acquisitions in the US Bitcoin treasury sector that may not be available to the Japanese parent company.
Super League Enterprise currently operates an immersive gaming, content and advertising business. Its shares surged more than 50% following the announcement, accompanied by a sharp increase in trading activity.
Trading volume reached roughly 37.3 million shares, compared with about 393,000 shares previously, an increase of nearly 95-fold, according to Yahoo Finance data.
Super League Enterprise (SLE) stock. Source: Yahoo Finance
Bitcoin treasuries face new capital pressures
Metaplanet has emerged as the third-largest corporate Bitcoin holder, trailing Twenty One Capital by roughly 500 BTC. Twenty One Capital is a publicly traded Bitcoin treasury company backed by Tether, Bitfinex and SoftBank that was formed to accumulate Bitcoin and increase holdings on a per-share basis. Metaplanet last added to its Bitcoin holdings in early July, according to BitcoinTreasuries.NET.
Michael Saylor’s Strategy remains the largest corporate Bitcoin holder, with more than 840,000 BTC. However, the company has also sold Bitcoin in recent months to fund dividends, share repurchases and its US dollar reserve, highlighting some of the capital-management challenges facing publicly traded Bitcoin treasury companies.
Magazine: ‘Fabricated rumors’ about BitMart founder, Binance bStocks dominate: Asia Express

Asset manager Neuberger has launched its first tokenized fixed-income fund through Securitize, offering an actively managed high-yield strategy across four blockchains, Ethereum (ETH), Solana (SOL), Avalanche (AVAX) and Sui (SUI).
The Neuberger Securitize High Income Tokenized Fund (HINC) will invest primarily in high-yield bonds, with additional exposure to collateralized loan obligations and leveraged loans, according to an announcement Tuesday.
The launch comes as investors are demanding higher yields amid heated competition for corporate and government funding.
“The previous market regime rewarded investors for assuming that capital would remain cheap and plentiful,” Saxo chief investment strategist Charu Chanana said in a Tuesday client note. “The emerging regime may reward investors for recognising that capital has a price again.”
The new fund is available to qualified investors, with Securitize providing the infrastructure to issue and manage tokenized shares across the four blockchain networks.
Neuberger will serve as subadvisor to a tokenized fund for the first time. Its fixed-income platform manages more than $230 billion in assets, while the firm manages about $613 billion overall.
Securitize has about $4.96 billion in distributed asset value across 26 tokenized real-world assets, according to RWA.xyz data. Its products include BlackRock’s $2.7 billion BUIDL fund, a $355 million tokenized AAA CLO fund and a $95 million Apollo diversified credit fund.
The company’s shares rose around 5% in Tuesday morning trading, giving the company a market capitalization of about $838 million. Despite the gain, the stock remains down more than 50% from levels reached shortly after its public debut in July.
Securitize’s distributed asset value. Source: RWA.xyz
Magazine: ‘Fabricated rumors’ about BitMart founder, Binance bStocks dominate: Asia Express

Bitcoin (BTC) hit $65,000 after Tuesday’s Wall Street open as US stocks rebounded in spite of geopolitical pressure.
Key points:
Bitcoin reaches $65,000 for the first time since Aug. 10 as risk assets navigate fresh US-Iran signals.
Analysis warns of surging US 30-year bond yields, which hit 29-year highs of 5.34%.
BTC price analysis flags decision time on a head-and-shoulders bottoming structure.
Bitcoin diverges from US stocks as Trump says Strait of Hormuz “open”
Data from TradingView showed BTC/USD building on the week’s gains as the S&P 500 bounced from 7,696, its lowest level since Aug. 4.
BTC/USD four-hour chart. Source: Cointelegraph/TradingView
This came after US president Donald Trump posted a map of the closed Strait of Hormuz oil route to Truth Social where it was labeled “new US territory.”
Both the US and Iran lay claim to control of Hormuz, with Trump threatening US ally Oman with military action over its plans to work with Iran on charging tolls to shipping traffic. In a subsequent post, Trump confirmed that further diplomacy with Iran was not on the agenda.
“There are no talks or conversations going on, or scheduled, with the Islamic Republic of Iran. The Naval Blockade remains in full force and effect. The Hormuz Strait is open and operating. All water mines have been removed or detonated,” he wrote.
S&P 500 one-day chart. Source: Cointelegraph/TradingView
As on Monday, oil avoided major volatility, with WTI crude down 1% at the time of writing at $84 per barrel. US government bonds continued to show strain, with the 30-year yield hitting 5.34%, its highest since January 2007.
“Bond prices are sending warnings,” BNY Mellon analyst Geoff Yu wrote in a research note quoted by the New York Times. Yu said that the surge came as “investors demand more compensation for inflation risk,” while also attributing the upside to government borrowing.
US 30-year bond yields one-month chart. Source: Cointelegraph/TradingView
BTC price faces crunch rebound test
Updating X followers on BTC/USD, trader and analyst Aksel Kibar eyed the culmination of a potential reverse head-and-shoulders pattern at $62,300.
“If $BTCUSD is going to rebound, it has to come from here,” he argued on Monday.
Kibar offered a $53,000 target in the event of the head-and-shoulders structure failing, with $76,000 a potential upside target should the rebound sustain.
BTC/USD one-day chart. Source: Aksel Kibar on X.com
Previously, Cointelegraph reported that underwater investors were contributing to Bitcoin’s inability to break higher. Its rebound to $64,500 also stopped short of an overhead trend line, the 50-month exponential moving average (EMA). This moving average is now in place as resistance at $65,827.

Toyota’s finance arm is launching a tokenized bond that retail investors can buy directly through the Japanese carmaker’s mobile payment app, Toyota Wallet.
Toyota Finance said Tuesday that applications have opened for the one-year bond, with investments starting at 100,000 Japanese yen ($676). The new bond will be distributed directly by Toyota Finance, allowing investors to buy it without opening a securities account.
The 1 billion yen bond carries a 1.72% annual interest rate and will be managed on blockchain infrastructure provided by Japanese security-token firm BOOSTRY.
The carmaker said the direct distribution model will allow it to integrate applications, communications with bondholders and investor benefits within the same ecosystem.
Investors may also receive Toyota Wallet balances and qualify for benefits including Fuji Speedway tickets and test-drive experiences, including in Lexus and selected classic Toyota vehicles.
The offering is Toyota Finance’s second security token bond following its debut issuance in March 2025, which was sold through securities companies.

MoonPay has integrated Cash App Pay as a payment option for cryptocurrency purchases, allowing eligible US customers to fund transactions using their Cash App balances.
The crypto payments company said in an announcement shared with Cointelegraph Tuesday that Cash App Pay is now available through MoonPay’s own checkout and with select partners, including Trust Wallet, Bitcoin.com, MetaMask, Moonshot, Ledger, BitPay, Uniswap, Tangem, LOBSTR and Edge.
The integration lets customers use their Cash App balance to buy crypto directly through MoonPay without switching between apps or completing a separate login.
MoonPay now supports payment integrations with Cash App, PayPal and Venmo, having added PayPal in 2024 before later expanding to Venmo.
Cash App, the mobile payments service operated by Jack Dorsey’s Block, already allows customers to buy and sell Bitcoin directly through its app. The MoonPay integration broadens that access to a wider range of cryptocurrencies. Cash App reported 59 million active users in June, according to Block’s second-quarter shareholder report.
“Cash App is where tens of millions of Americans already manage their money,” MoonPay co-founder and CEO Ivan Soto-Wright said. “This integration means that those users can access the digital asset ecosystem, funded instantly from an app they already know and trust.”
Expansion beyond crypto onramps
MoonPay is licensed by the New York State Department of Financial Services through a BitLicense and Limited Purpose Trust Charter, and is authorized under the European Union’s Markets in Crypto-Assets Regulation in the Netherlands.
The company has spent much of 2026 on an acquisition spree as it expands beyond its traditional fiat-to-crypto onramp business. It acquired Solana trading infrastructure provider DFlow in May, following an April deal for crypto security firm Sodot as part of a broader push into institutional crypto services.
In July, it acquired cross-chain infrastructure startup Glide and launched PayBox, a vault that lets ChatGPT and Claude users authorize crypto transactions while keeping custody of their assets.
Asia Express: ‘Fabricated rumors’ about BitMart founder, Binance bStocks dominate

Bitcoin (BTC) short liquidations hit their highest in almost one month as it hit $64,500 on Monday, new data reveals.
Key points:
Bitcoin passed $64,000 thanks to a short squeeze on derivatives markets, CryptoQuant says.
An ongoing downward funding-rate reset from 0.006% to 0.003% over 24 hours could mean further short squeezes.
The absence of spot demand raises doubts whether the upside is sustainable after a week of $267.2 million in net ETF outflows.
Bitcoin short liquidations near one-month high
BTC/USD rallied after Sunday’s weekly close, gaining up to 3% on Monday to top out at one-week highs of $64,550 on Bitstamp.
BTC/USD one-hour chart. Source: Cointelegraph/TradingView
Examining the impetus behind the latest BTC price gains, onchain analytics platform CryptoQuant pointed to illiquid markets and funding-rate imbalances among exchanges.
Before rebounding on Monday, BTC circled near $62,750. Around this level, funding rates between exchanges began to diverge. Shorts were dominant on major platforms such as Binance, Bybit, OKX and Deribit, while the funding rate on HTX briefly spiked to 0.05%.
Funding rates refer to periodic payments exchanged by long and short traders on Bitcoin derivatives markets in order to maintain their positions. Positive aggregate funding rates show that long traders are actively paying shorts, with the reverse true for negative funding rates.
“This crowded short positioning served as the primary catalyst, fueling a short squeeze that drove prices higher,” CryptoQuant continued.
BTC/USD one-hour chart with exchange funding-rate data (screenshot). Source: CryptoQuant
Data puts total Bitcoin short liquidations at 637 BTC for Monday, the largest single-day tally since July 21.
Describing the event as a “low-volume liquidity trap,” CryptoQuant nonetheless suggested that the market could see more short squeezes next, with funding rates already declining again as traders increase short exposure.
Bitcoin short liquidations. Source: CryptoQuant
Crucial spot demand remains absent
Previously, Cointelegraph reported that Bitcoin futures markets accounted for the majority of trading volume in the current range, with spot traders broadly uninterested.
In further analysis on Monday, CryptoQuant called the lack of spot demand the primary hurdle to sustained upside, alongside the lack of inflows to the US spot Bitcoin exchange-traded funds (ETFs).
“A break below $60K alongside rising exchange inflows would weaken the structure and increase downside risk toward $50K. Selling pressure is cooling, but demand still needs to return,” it commented.
Recent buyers who remain underwater on their BTC allocation have helped cement the current trading range. Short-term holders — wallets holding a UTXO for less than 155 days — have their cost basis at around $68,700, reinforcing that level as resistance.

China’s central bank has added eight banks to its digital yuan network, bringing the number of e-CNY operating institutions to 30.
The People’s Bank of China (PBOC) added Ping An Bank, Hengfeng Bank, China Bohai Bank, Bank of Shanghai, Bank of Hangzhou, Huishang Bank, Bank of Changsha and Guangxi Beibu Gulf Bank, according to a Xinhua report published Monday on the government’s website.
The banks will be connected to the PBOC’s digital yuan system and begin offering services after completing operational and technical preparations.
The expansion follows the addition of 12 institutions in April, when city commercial banks joined the operator list. Before this year’s additions, only 10 banks were authorized operators, with Industrial Bank the last to join in 2022.
Dong Ximiao, chief researcher at Merchants Union Consumer Finance, said new operators could fill gaps in services for regional small and medium-sized enterprises and cross-border trade.
The PBOC began researching a digital currency in 2014 and launched pilots in late 2019. China has since expanded the e-CNY into merchant payments, public utilities and government services. The central bank said it would continue expanding the operator network to promote competition and broaden access.

South Korean authorities have ordered access to Polymarket to be blocked after determining that the crypto prediction market provides an illegal gambling environment to users in the country.
The country’s media and communications review commission said Tuesday that Polymarket falls under information that facilitates gambling or the opening of a gambling venue under the Criminal Act, as well as prohibited analogous betting activity under the National Sports Promotion Act.
The regulator said Polymarket’s winner-takes-all structure, where users can gain or lose money based on outcomes including politics, sports and weather, encourages speculative gambling behavior. It also cited Polymarket’s role in operating markets, setting trading rules, providing crypto deposit, withdrawal and settlement systems and collecting transaction fees.
In its statement to the commission, Polymarket argued that it had removed Korean-language services, does not support payments in Korean won and operates through noncustodial transactions and smart contracts rather than directly managing user funds.
The commission rejected those arguments, saying technical characteristics such as decentralization, trading interfaces and order books do not exempt a service from South Korean law.
France, Australia and Germany are among countries that have also blocked access to Polymarket on gambling-related grounds.

Hardware wallet maker BitBox has released a firmware update that fixes two vulnerabilities it described as “severe” that could have enabled the installation of malicious firmware or put user funds at risk.
In a security disclosure on Monday, BitBox said one involved memory corruption affecting Multi editions of BitBox02 and BitBox02 Nova that had not been configured with a wallet. A malicious host could exploit it to execute arbitrary code and potentially install malicious firmware, which could lead to lost funds.
The second affected BitBox’s Silent Payments implementation and could have allowed a malicious host to lock Bitcoin to an unintended address. Direct theft was not possible, but an attacker could potentially demand a ransom to cooperate in recovering the coins, according to BitBox. The company said it had received no reports of either vulnerability being exploited or causing users to lose funds.
The disclosure comes at a sensitive moment for self-custody, after a Coldcard firmware flaw was linked to more than $112 million in Bitcoin thefts, underscoring how weaknesses in devices designed to protect private keys can become points of failure.
Cointelegraph reached out to BitBox for more information but did not receive a response before publication.
BitBox patch follows Coldcard thefts, wallet data leaks
The BitBox security update follows a wave of hardware-wallet incidents involving devices and the services surrounding them.
The most damaging was the Coldcard flaw, which traced to a March 2021 firmware change that went undetected for more than five years. The vulnerability affected wallet-seed randomness, allowing attackers to brute-force impacted wallet seeds and derive their private keys without physical access.
Galaxy Research said Friday that Coldcard-related losses had exceeded $112 million, with about 1,778.6 BTC swept from more than 8,600 addresses.
More recently, separate data breaches involving Trezor and SafePal exposed customer and order information belonging to more than 53,000 customers. Trezor attributed the exposure of 13,689 customers’ data to shipping provider ShipMonk, while SafePal said an authorization flaw in an order-tracking plug-in exposed details belonging to 39,798 customers.
Neither incident compromised devices, private keys or recovery phrases, but both companies warned that the information could enable targeted phishing and impersonation attacks.
Magazine: Do the Coldcard attacks mean all hardware wallets are now insecure?

The Ethereum Foundation (EF) has warned that some wallets, indexers and gas estimators may break because of gas-model changes in the upcoming Glamsterdam upgrade.
On Monday, the EF’s Protocol DevOps team said any tool relying on a hardcoded maximum gas limit “will break” and must be updated. It urged developers to test their systems on Plataberget, a public testnet intended to operate for several months.
According to upgrade tracker Forkcast, Plataberget launched on Aug. 13. Meanwhile, the Glamsterdam fork is scheduled to activate on the network on Thursday, before its deployment on the Sepolia and Hoodi testnets.
The EF’s Protocol DevOps team said EIP-8037 would introduce a separate state-gas dimension for operations that create new state. Under the changes, a plain ETH transfer to an existing account would still cost 21,000 gas, while sending ETH to a new account would incur an additional state-gas charge.
The foundation said developers should revisit software that assumes 21,000 gas covers every ETH transfer or uses only one gas dimension when estimating transaction costs.
Glamsterdam also includes enshrined proposer-builder separation, block-level access lists and increased limits for contract and initialization-code sizes.