Cointelegraph

The Coldcard hack is testing crypto investigators’ ability to measure losses from self-custody wallets, where victim reports are critical to establishing the scale of the theft.
Blockchain analytics platform CryptoQuant currently puts confirmed losses at 1,432 Bitcoin, while other analysts have traced substantially more funds to the attack.
Galaxy Research and blockchain intelligence company TRM Labs both say their analysis points to a higher toll, while distinguishing between losses directly confirmed by victims and funds attributed to the attack through on-chain patterns.
That makes self-custody attacks difficult to quantify: Unlike an exchange hack, there is no complete list of affected accounts, leaving investigators to build estimates rather than pin down a definitive toll.
Galaxy traces losses beyond victim reports
Galaxy’s Alex Thorn told Cointelegraph the platform’s earlier estimate of as much as 1,816 BTC was a potential figure rather than a confirmed loss total.
As of Tuesday, Galaxy put its high-confidence minimum at 1,730 Bitcoin, with Thorn saying the figure could still increase as more victim reports corroborate attack patterns.
Source: Galaxy Research
“We have directly confirmed 450+ BTC directly from victim reports, but their reports have helped identify other, as-yet-unknown victims in more than 730 total BTC,” Thorn said. Galaxy uses those reports to corroborate broader attack patterns, while withholding funds it suspects but cannot yet sufficiently verify. “We are still withholding many more BTC we suspect but for which we lack sufficient corroboration,” Thorn said.
TRM Labs said its independent tracing lands in the same range as Galaxy, while its recent analysis estimated that attackers drained about 1,816 BTC from more than 5,200 addresses across four waves. “Investigators should expect the estimate to keep moving upward before it stabilizes,” TRM’s global head of policy Ari Redbord told Cointelegraph.
CryptoQuant takes a stricter approach
CryptoQuant’s head of research, Julio Moreno, told Cointelegraph that the company starts with public reports from victims, including wallet addresses or transaction IDs, and then checks those reports against known on-chain patterns from the attack.
That approach puts CryptoQuant’s confirmed tally at 1,432 BTC, which Moreno described as a floor that could rise if more victims publicly disclose their hacked addresses.
Source: CryptoQuant
Moreno said CryptoQuant is cautious about identifying victims solely from on-chain patterns because doing so could produce false positives and inflate the estimate.
“Because the stolen Bitcoin belonged to individuals and not to a centralized entity, like an exchange, we can only confirm what each victim publicly discloses,” he said.
Hard number to pin down
Moreno emphasized the total will remain an estimate because investigators can only confirm what victims disclose. He said:
“Knowing the total BTC stolen is difficult, and it will always be an estimation.”
Chainalysis told Cointelegraph it has not conducted an independent tally of the losses, while blockchain investigator ZachXBT publicly said he has no plans to monitor or trace the incident.
Magazine: Do the Coldcard attacks mean all hardware wallets are now insecure?

Keel Infrastructure said it has decommissioned all US Bitcoin mining operations in preparation for high-performance computing (HPC) site construction, according to its second-quarter report published on Monday.
The digital infrastructure company reported $30 million in revenue, down 50% year-over-year. The decrease was largely attributed to a decline in the average Bitcoin (BTC) price and the shutdown of its Moses Lake crypto mining operations in April 2026.
The company also reported a $141 million operating loss, compared with operating income of $11 million in the same period last year. The loss included $84 million in non-cash depreciation.
Multiple Bitcoin miners have expanded into AI infrastructure, but Keel is among the few to fully exit US Bitcoin mining as it shifts toward HPC. Other companies that halted mining operations to pivot to AI include Bit Digital and Crusoe.
Keel held 1,861 BTC as of Friday after selling 1,085 BTC for $75 million since April 1 as part of its ongoing wind-down of its Bitcoin holdings. The company also reported about $819 million in liquidity, including $698 million in unrestricted cash.
Keel’s stock price fell 12% on Monday, according to Yahoo Finance.
Magazine: How Bitcoin mining heat is being tested to warm Canadian greenhouses

Bitcoin miner Riot Platforms said it secured a 20-year agreement to supply 191 megawatts of capacity from its Rockdale, Texas, campus to a “leading frontier AI” company, according to a Monday press release.
The customer is Anthropic and the deal is valued at about $9 billion, Bloomberg reported Monday, citing people familiar with the matter.
Cointelegraph has approached Anthropic and Riot for comment.
Anthropic also struck a $19 billion deal for a 20-year data center lease with Bitcoin miner TeraWulf on July 6.
The reported agreement would add Riot to a growing list of Bitcoin miners expanding into AI and high-performance computing, including Bitdeer, CleanSpark, MARA Holdings, Core Scientific, Hut 8 and IREN.
Riot’s shares fell 5.4% on Monday but rose more than 21% in overnight trading. The stock is up more than 53% year–to–date, according to Yahoo Finance data.
Riot ranks as the world’s fourth-largest Bitcoin mining company with a $7.33 billion market capitalization, according to CompaniesMarketCap data.
Bernstein said in a July 23 report shared with Cointelegraph that partnerships between AI companies and Bitcoin miners are necessary to address the power crunch constraining AI data centers.
Magazine: How Bitcoin mining heat is being tested to warm Canadian greenhouses

South Korea will expand its crypto Travel Rule to all transfers between registered virtual asset service providers (VASPs), removing the current 1 million won (about $700) threshold.
The country’s Cabinet approved amendments to the Enforcement Decree of the Act on Reporting and Using Specified Financial Transaction Information on Tuesday.
Under the changes, the Travel Rule will apply to all transfers between registered crypto service providers regardless of value. Receiving platforms will also be required to obtain sender and recipient information and may request missing information or reject transactions when required data is unavailable.
Removing the threshold is intended to prevent users from circumventing the rule by splitting transfers into smaller amounts, according to the Financial Intelligence Unit.
It cited one case in which a user bought Tether USDt (USDT) after depositing about 200 million won into a crypto exchange and then made 216 withdrawals, each worth less than 1 million won.
South Korea tightens rules for overseas exchanges, personal wallets
The amendments also introduce new Anti-Money Laundering (AML) requirements for transfers involving overseas crypto exchanges and personal wallets.
Registered local VASPs will be required to determine which transfers they allow based on the risk posed by the counterparty. Transfers to low-risk overseas exchanges will be permitted, while transfers involving other foreign exchanges and personal wallets will generally be allowed when the sender and recipient are the same person.
However, transactions involving counterparties deemed high risk will be prohibited.
Crypto platforms will also have to establish their own suspicious transaction monitoring systems for transfers worth at least 10 million won involving foreign exchanges or personal wallets.
South Korean authorities said suspected money laundering involving overseas exchanges and personal wallets has increased as gaps in existing AML rules governing such transfers have been exploited.
The decree also strengthens registration requirements for crypto service providers, including financial health, internal controls, staffing and infrastructure standards, while expanding scrutiny of major shareholders.
The VASP registration provisions will take effect on Aug. 20, although existing providers will have an additional year to comply with some financial, staffing, infrastructure and internal control requirements. The expanded Travel Rule and other transfer-related AML requirements will take effect six months after the decree is promulgated.
Asia Express: Thailand’s 0% crypto tax. Bitcoin Red Team forced to use Chinese AI

Payments platform Decta will use USDC to settle its own funds internationally, bringing stablecoins into its back-end treasury operations.
Decta said Tuesday that it will use OpenPayd, a financial infrastructure company, to convert company funds into USDC for international settlement, according to an announcement shared with Cointelegraph.
“This is a proprietary treasury use case rather than a customer-facing payments flow,” Lux Thiagarajah, chief commercial officer at OpenPayd, told Cointelegraph.
“Decta transfers its own funds into OpenPayd’s regulated infrastructure, where they are converted into USDC via OpenPayd’s over-the-counter capabilities to support international operational settlements,” he added.
The integration shows how stablecoins are moving into traditional payments infrastructure as a tool for internal treasury and liquidity management, without making stablecoins part of its customer-facing payment services.
Stablecoins move into payments firms’ treasury operations
Decta said the integration will help it move funds between its entities internationally, manage liquidity and streamline treasury operations.
Scott Dawson, CEO of Decta UK, said the company wants technology to make its financial operations faster, simpler and more resilient while maintaining its existing controls and regulatory discipline.
Founded in 2015 in London, Decta is a payments platform that provides payment processing, acquiring, card issuing, banking and other financial infrastructure to businesses. The company operates across 32 countries and serves hundreds of companies, according to its announcement.
Decta has also explored stablecoin issuance in the past. In August 2024, Decta Limited and France-based Next Generation said they were exploring a potential euro-pegged stablecoin that Decta could issue under the European Union’s Markets in Crypto-Assets Regulation (MiCA), subject to regulatory approval.
OpenPayd, founded in London in 2018, provides financial infrastructure connecting fiat and digital assets. The company secured authorization under MiCA in June, allowing it to provide crypto services across the European Economic Area, including fiat-to-stablecoin on- and off-ramps. It counts Kraken, eToro, OKX and B2C2 among its clients.
Magazine: BIP-110 ends with a whimper, CLARITY vote punted: Hodler’s Digest, Aug. 9

Bitcoin developer Luke Dashjr has been removed as an editor of Bitcoin Improvement Proposals following a dispute over his role in BIP 110.
Bitcoin developer Mark Erhardt opened the pull request on Sunday after recommending Dashjr’s removal on the Bitcoin Developer mailing list.
Erhardt said Dashjr had been “heavily involved” in creating and implementing BIP 110 and alleged that he unfairly favored the proposal while serving as an editor, including by attempting to assign it a BIP number before mailing-list discussion and quickly merging an update to it.
Bitcoin developer Jon Atack said he had verified that Dashjr no longer had editor or administrator privileges in the BIPs repository following the mailing-list discussion. Atack then merged the pull request, removing Dashjr from the list of BIP editors.
“This is just an abuse of power by Core,” Dashjr said. “They have no authority to do so.”
BIP 110 sought to temporarily restrict the amount of arbitrary data that could be embedded in Bitcoin transactions. The proposal triggered a minority chain split after nodes enforcing it rejected blocks from miners that did not signal support, but the fork quickly stalled with little hashpower support.

US President Donald Trump’s administration remains committed to passing the CLARITY Act in September despite the Senate’s decision to delay action until after its August recess, according to the White House’s top crypto policy official.
Patrick Witt, executive director of the President’s Council of Advisors for Digital Assets, said Tuesday on X that the administration would continue negotiating with Democrats “all the way up until the September vote,” adding, “we also can’t afford to wait forever.”
The Senate is expected to hold a cloture vote on the bill in mid-September, a procedural step that would require 60 votes to advance CLARITY toward a final vote.
The CLARITY Act would establish a federal market structure for digital assets, including rules governing when crypto tokens fall under securities or commodities laws and how trading platforms are regulated.
Several disagreements remain unresolved ahead of the September vote. Senate lawmakers have yet to announce a solution to Democratic demands for stricter ethics provisions targeting Trump-linked crypto interests. Banking groups have also pushed for changes to rules that could allow companies to pay rewards to stablecoin holders.

Trump Media said it plans to revamp its digital asset treasury strategy after unrealized losses on crypto and securities helped push the company to a $238 million net loss in the second quarter.
The company reported $190.4 millio n in unrealized losses across its digital assets, pledged digital assets and equity securities in its Q2 earnings release on Monday.
Trump Media said the new framework is intended to preserve its long-term digital asset exposure while managing volatility and improving the productivity of its balance sheet.
Trump Media is the publicly traded company behind Truth Social, Truth+ and financial services brand Truth.Fi. The company is tied to US President Donald Trump, who is the sole beneficiary of a trust that held about 41.1% of Trump Media’s voting power as of Feb. 25, according to its latest annual report.
Its Q2 filing shows the company is already using options to manage Bitcoin volatility and generate premium income, while deploying some BTC through lending and other yield-generating arrangements.
The company also said it plans to direct more resources toward Truth Social, Truth+ and other parts of its media business as part of a broader shift in how it allocates capital.
Trump Media boosts Bitcoin holdings after Q2
Trump Media’s Bitcoin holdings were little changed during the second quarter before the company stepped up its direct Bitcoin exposure in July.
As of June 30, Trump Media held 9,477.16 Bitcoin, down from 9,542.16 BTC at the end of the previous quarter.
Separately, the company had pledged 2,077.34 BTC as collateral for its options strategy. Of its reported holdings, 4,260.73 BTC was serving as collateral for convertible notes.
In July, the company sold Bitcoin-related securities worth $159.6 million and used the proceeds to purchase Bitcoin.
By July 31, Trump Media reported holding approximately 14,139 BTC, including pledged Bitcoin, worth about $890.5 million at the time.
Trump Media flags risks from Bitcoin yield strategy
Trump Media also warned that its efforts to earn additional income from its Bitcoin carry counterparty credit risk and the potential loss of its assets.
The company said it has deployed a portion of its Bitcoin holdings to third parties through lending, placement and other yield-generating arrangements, which it described as relatively new strategies.
Some of those counterparties may not be rated by major credit rating agencies and could default during market downturns, liquidity crises or other financial distress.
If an arrangement is unsecured, the company said it may be unable to recover its Bitcoin if a counterparty becomes insolvent. Trump Media is also limited in its ability to sell or pledge Bitcoin while it is deployed, while counterparties may use those assets at their discretion.
Magazine: Bitcoin will never fall below $60K again: Nansen founder

A federal judge ordered that a civil case initiated by the US Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) be stayed pending the outcome of a criminal case against a US soldier who is alleged to have used nonpublic information to profit from a Polymarket event contract on the removal of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro.
In a Monday ruling in the US District Court for the Southern District of New York, District Judge Andrew Carter granted a motion filed by prosecutors in July to stay the CFTC’s civil case “pending the outcome of the criminal proceeding.”
The cases against Gannon Ken Van Dyke, a US Army Special Forces Master Sergeant, involve allegations of making more than $400,000 on Polymarket event contracts tied to Maduro’s removal. According to the US Justice Department, Van Dyke was involved in the operation to oust Maduro in January, leading to allegations he used nonpublic information to profit on prediction markets.
The criminal and civil cases, both filed in April, could have significant implications for lawmakers and government officials using prediction markets. The US soldier has already filed a motion to dismiss the criminal indictment on different legal theories, including that the CFTC’s enforcement of event contracts as “swaps” on prediction markets was “ambiguous.”
Van Dyke pleaded not guilty to all charges and is potentially looking at a criminal trial beginning in late 2026 or early 2027.

TRON, the layer-1 blockchain founded by Justin Sun, ended the second quarter with $87.9 billion in circulating USDT (USDT), surpassing Ethereum (ETH) while processing $2.1 trillion in USDT transfers during the period.
According to a Messari report, USDT accounted for 98.5% of TRON’s stablecoin market, which grew 4.1% quarter-over-quarter to a record $89.2 billion. Average daily USDT transfer volume also returned to growth, rising 4.3% to $22.8 billion after declining in the first quarter.
The increase coincided with record network usage. TRON averaged 11.8 million daily transactions during the quarter, up 8.7%, while average daily active addresses climbed 11.7% to 3.6 million. The network processed a record 14.6 million transactions on June 15, the report said.
State of TRON Q2 2026 report. Source: Messari
Higher activity also helped reverse a two-quarter decline in network fees. Fees rose 15.9% to $699.4 million, their first quarterly increase since an August 2025 governance change cut the network’s energy unit price.
Growth was uneven elsewhere. DeFi TVL slipped 1.9% to $4.4 billion, while average daily DEX volume fell 21.7% to $49.3 million, marking a fourth consecutive quarterly decline. TRX supply also remained inflationary despite higher activity, with circulating supply increasing by 87 million tokens during the quarter as issuance continued to outpace burns.
TRON expands institutional access
Institutional access to TRON widened during the quarter, with Securitize launching Hamilton Lane’s tokenized Senior Credit Opportunities Fund on the network, its first TRON-issued asset. The fund launched with about $4.3 million under management.
Asset manager Grayscale also added TRX (TRX), the native token of the TRON blockchain, to its list of assets under consideration, while a proposed staked TRX exchange-traded product from Canary Capital remained in registration.
Meanwhile, TRX saw broader market access during the quarter. Bitnomial launched spot TRX trading in the United States, while OKX Europe introduced MiFID-regulated TRX expiry perpetuals and Binance.US restored trading in the token.
That trend continued after the quarter ended, with Anchorage Digital adding native TRX staking and custody for TRC-20 assets in July, allowing institutional clients to stake TRX directly from its custody platform.
Magazine: Bitcoin will never fall below $60K again: Nansen founder

An individual previously under investigation in the UK for money laundering following the collapse of a cryptocurrency business was reportedly behind buying $100 million worth of tokens from the Trump family company, World Liberty Financial.
According to a Sunday New York Times report, Guren Zhou, also known as Bobby, was behind the Aqua 1 entity that purchased $100 million of WLFI tokens from the Trump family crypto business in June 2025. The token purchase financially benefitted members of US President Donald Trump’s family and that of World Liberty co-founder Zach Witkoff.
Zhou’s reported involvement in the World Liberty purchase followed speculation that the individual behind Aqua 1 was Dave Lee. The Aqua 1 foundation acknowledged in July 2025 that Lee joined the company as co-founder and CEO in April 2025, but did not say whether he was behind the funds going into the WLFI tokens.
The source of the investment from Aqua 1, which described itself as a “Web3-native fund” based in the United Arab Emirates, raised questions about potential conflicts of interest in the Trump administration, with foreign actors tied to his family’s crypto company. White House spokesperson Anna Kelley has repeatedly said that there were “no conflicts of interest“ with the president’s investments.
According to the New York Times report, how Zhou was able to invest millions of dollars into World Liberty was a “mystery,” given his 2021 arrest in the UK for suspected money laundering and the collapse of a multimillion-dollar crypto business he launched. Some of World Liberty’s biggest backers include Tron founder Justin Sun, who initially invested $45 million in the company’s tokens, and An Abu Dhabi entity backed by Sheikh Tahnoon bin Zayed Al Nahyan, with a reported $500 million stake.

Wallets linked to crypto payments platform Coinsbuy were reportedly drained of more than $7.9 million across Ethereum and TRON on Sunday.
According to a Telegram post from blockchain investigator SpecterAnalyst, the attacker began moving the stolen funds into Monero through exchanges, while ChangeNOW helped freeze a six-figure portion of the assets.
Coinsbuy temporarily paused deposits and withdrawals following the incident before restoring both services, according to SpecterAnalyst. The investigator identified three addresses linked to the stolen funds, including two Ethereum addresses and one TRON address.
Source: SpecterAnalyst, Telegram
Incorporated in Panama, Coinsbuy is a crypto payments platform that provides businesses with infrastructure to accept, store, send and exchange digital assets.
Coinsbuy covers client losses, offers $100K reward
Coinsbuy confirmed the Aug. 9 security incident in a statement shared with Cointelegraph, saying unauthorized withdrawals affected several platform wallets. The company wrote:
All affected client funds have been fully covered by Coinsbuy from our own reserves, so our users have not experienced any financial losses. The platform is back to operating normally, with all services fully available.
It is investigating the incident but said it will not disclose technical details until the investigation is complete and its findings have been verified. The company did not confirm or dispute the reported $7.9 million figure.
Coinsbuy also offered a $100,000 reward for information leading to the identification of those responsible, plus an additional bonus for help recovering the stolen funds.
Magazine: Do the Coldcard attacks mean all hardware wallets are now insecure?

With the Digital Asset Market Clarity (CLARITY) Act now set for a cloture vote in September, many advocates and industry leaders are frustrated and disappointed at lawmakers’ failure to act before the US Senate broke for a month-long recess.
On Saturday, the Senate Daily Press reported that Majority Leader John Thune filed cloture on a motion for the CLARITY Act to go to the chamber floor for consideration, ending speculation that lawmakers would address the bill more than a year after it was passed by the House of Representatives. The CLARITY vote is now expected when the Senate reconvenes in mid-September, and would require support from 60 senators to pass.
Across the crypto industry, many executives and advocates expressed their disappointment with the Senate’s inaction, as the push to September will happen with just 50 days before the 2026 midterm elections, likely reducing the odds of CLARITY passing.
“[Y]ou can imagine how frustrated I am,” said Senator Cythnia Lummis on Friday after the chamber did not schedule a vote on CLARITY, adding: “I will continue working with my colleagues to get this done — this fight is far from over.”
Source: Cynthia Lummis
Others, including Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong and the exchange’s chief policy officer Faryar Shirzad, called the Senate’s action “disappointing” but said that September would be the time to “finish the job.” Bitmine Chair Tom Lee noted in the company’s weekly report that “financial markets seem more focused on the recent softer inflation and jobs data” rather than any potential impact of CLARITY not passing.
While there were reports of progress in bipartisan talks on the crypto market structure bill, lawmakers in the Senate didn’t announce solutions in response to pushes from many Democrats for stricter ethics provisions, in particular for rules affecting US President Donald Trump’s crypto investments. Trump continues to face scrutiny from many in Congress over his family’s crypto business, World Liberty Financial, and his own projects, including the memecoin launched days before he took office.
Some banking advocates, in contrast, have been pushing lawmakers to address how CLARITY could still allow companies to pay interest to stablecoin holders in certain situations, challenging the industry. In a Thursday Wall Street Journal op-ed published before Thune’s cloture motion, the publication’s editorial board said that, under CLARITY, small banks would miss out “because they rely on interest payments to attract deposits.“ The editorial continued:
“The Clarity Act can serve a useful purpose with some language changes,“ said the editorial board. “The crypto industry and its friends in Washington portray themselves as defenders of free markets. What they really want is to be quasi-banks without abiding by the same regulations.“
Prediction market users still anticipating CLARITY by 2027
Despite the setback for the bill in Congress, some event contracts on prediction market platforms are still offering users favorable odds on CLARITY passing by the end of the year.
On Kalshi, an event contract with $1.23 million wagered gave users an 88% chance of the Senate voting on the legislation before Oct. 1, while a similar one on Polymarket gave a 26% chance of the bill being signed into law this year. That contract had total wagers topping $5.79 million. If passed by the Senate, CLARITY would need to return to the House for a vote before potentially going to Trump’s desk.
Magazine: BIP-110 ends with a whimper, CLARITY vote punted: Hodler’s Digest, Aug. 9

Bitcoin (BTC) slipped below $64,500 after Monday’s Wall Street open as markets digested more US-Iran uncertainty.
Key points:
Bitcoin joins US stocks in selling off amid uncertainty over whether the Strait of Hormuz will reopen.
The Japanese yen commands attention as it slides back toward historic lows against the dollar.
Bitcoin analysis doubts market strength despite “exceptionally strong” institutional inflows.
Iran warns “no military solution” to Hormuz closure
Data from TradingView showed BTC/USD hitting $64,447 on Bitstamp, its lowest since Friday, before a modest rebound.
BTC/USD one-hour chart. Source: Cointelegraph/TradingView
This mirrored US stocks, which initially fell as the odds of the Strait of Hormuz oil route reopening appeared to fade.
Addressing Iran’s Islamic Consultative Assembly, deputy speaker Ali Nikzad said that the “opening of the Strait of Hormuz has no military solution,” as quoted by Al Jazeera and others.
US WTI crude oil was up by almost 5% on the day at $80.90 per barrel at the time of writing, while the S&P 500 index nonetheless reversed to turn green, still below Friday’s all-time highs.
CFDs on US WTI crude oil one-hour chart. Source: Cointelegraph/TradingView
Attention also remained focused on the Japanese yen, which continued to weaken against the US dollar despite an earlier rare joint intervention by Japan and the US. USD/JPY hit 159 on Monday, nearing the psychological boundary of 160 before the end of the week’s first Asia session.
Economist Mohamed El-Erian warned that more decisive government policy action from the Japanese side would be required.
“The yen has been weakening gradually since the large joint Japan-US FX intervention, a sharp reminder that the key to fixing a currency ‘mispricing’ is getting the policy mix right. The longer Japan delays in doing so, the more elusive the goal of this historic intervention becomes,” he wrote in a post on X.
USD/JPY four-hour chart. Source: Cointelegraph/TradingView
Bitcoin comeback “tentative” despite $865 million ETF inflows
Bitcoin analysts warned that the attempted BTC price rebound “remains tentative” despite some promising signals.
Glassnode’s latest Market Pulse update highlighted weak spot-market momentum as one key missing component of a sustainable recovery.
“Momentum has returned toward neutral and spot taker buying has accelerated sharply, but overall centralized exchange turnover remains subdued,” the onchain analytics platform said. It added:
“This divergence points to improving demand within a broader consolidation regime rather than a broad-based expansion in speculative activity.”
Among the positive catalysts were institutional inflows, which Glassnode noted were “exceptionally strong.” Last week, the US spot Bitcoin exchange-traded funds (ETFs) recorded net inflows of $865.3 million, per data from UK-based investment company, Farside Investors.
US spot Bitcoin ETF netflows (screenshot). Source: Farside Investors
Data from onchain analytics platform CryptoQuant, meanwhile, showed that hedge funds had flipped net long CME BTC futures — an event that CEO Ki Young Ju described as “rare.”
“The basis trade keeps them structurally short. That’s why this chart’s been red for years. You can’t carry trade into a net long. The suits are betting on upside,” he told X followers.
CME Bitcoin futures positioning data. Source: Ki Young Ju on X.com

BlackRock Canada launched two exchange-traded funds Monday, including a portfolio that combines globally diversified equities with a 3% allocation to Bitcoin.
The two funds, which began trading on the Toronto Stock Exchange, are the iShares Equity + Bitcoin ETF Portfolio (IBQT) and the iShares Core MSCI All-International Equity Index ETF (XINT).
IBQT allocates 97% of its portfolio to Canadian, US, international and emerging-market equities and 3% to Bitcoin (BTC) exposure through BlackRock’s Canadian iShares Bitcoin ETF (IBIT), which trades on Cboe Canada. Rather than investing in individual stocks, IBQT primarily holds other iShares ETFs to provide its equity and Bitcoin exposure.
XINT tracks the MSCI ACWI ex North America IMI Index, providing exposure to more than 5,000 companies across over 40 developed and emerging markets outside Canada and the US.
Both funds are managed by BlackRock Asset Management Canada through the RBC iShares alliance. BlackRock said its iShares business managed approximately $6.2 trillion in assets across more than 1,700 ETFs as of June 30.
The asset management giant’s US-listed iShares Bitcoin Trust (IBIT) is the largest US spot Bitcoin ETF by assets under management, with about $47.9 billion in AUM, according to CoinMarketCap data.
Top five US spot Bitcoin ETFs by AUM. Source: CoinMarketCap
Magazine: BIP-110 ends with a whimper, CLARITY vote punted: Hodler’s Digest, Aug. 9

Strategy, which holds the largest corporate Bitcoin treasury, sold BTC for the second week in a row to repurchase its STRC preferred stock.
The company sold 1,690 Bitcoin for $108.6 million between Aug. 3 and Aug. 9, according to a Monday 8-K filing with the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).
Strategy used the proceeds to buy back 1.15 million shares of its STRC preferred stock for $108.6 million. STRC is a variable-rate preferred stock designed to pay monthly dividends.
The transaction marked Strategy’s fourth disclosed Bitcoin sale of 2026, bringing its total Bitcoin sales for the year to 6,948 BTC, while the company still holds 840,447 BTC purchased for an aggregate $63.36 billion.
Bitcoin becomes part of the funding engine
Strategy sold the latest batch at an average net price of $64,262 per Bitcoin, while its total holdings carry an average purchase price of $75,385 per BTC, including fees and expenses.
Strategy’s prior disclosed sale involved 1,638 BTC for $104.73 million between July 27 and Aug. 2, when it also used Bitcoin sale proceeds to fund STRC repurchases.
Source: SEC
The latest filing shows that Strategy has $785.2 million remaining under its digital credit securities repurchase program, which covers its preferred stock, while another $1 billion remains available under its Class A common-stock repurchase program.
$4.65 billion reserve cushions preferred dividends
Strategy also continued building its US dollar reserve, reporting a balance of $4.65 billion as of Sunday, up from roughly $4 billion in the previous weekly update.
The company said $650 million of the $653.1 million in net proceeds from recent MSTR stock sales went toward the reserve, while the latest figure also includes expected proceeds from at-the-market (ATM) sales that had not yet settled.
Source: SEC
STRC shares have also rallied during Strategy’s recent buybacks, retaking $90 on Aug. 3 after rebounding 24% from their June lows.
STRC was up 0.46% at $95.45 in premarket trading Monday after closing Friday at $95, while MSTR gained 0.25% to $100.26, according to Yahoo Finance.
Magazine: Strategy became a symbol of the dot-com crash: Could history repeat?

The Chainlink (LINK) token may see an more than 25-fold increase by the end of the decade, as tokenized real world assets (RWA) will reach $4 trillion by the end of 2028, according to a forecast by Geoff Kendrick, the global head of digital asset research at Standard Chartered.
Kendrick said that the growth in tokenized assets will require more external data to come securely onchain, which may increase Chainlink’s fee generation and push its LINK token to $200 by the end of 2030, up from $8 today, according to a Monday report shared with Cointelegraph.
The report also forecast a 37-fold rise in tokenized and crypto-native assets deployed in decentralized finance, pushing these assets to $2.7 trillion by the end of 2030. Kendrick said these assets will require trusted data, interoperability between networks, privacy-preserving compliance and integrations with existing financial systems, which “only Chainlink is currently equipped to provide.”
The report follows growing demand for tokenized assets. Tokenized RWA trading on decentralized exchanges (DEXs) reached a new all-time high of $141 billion in July, marking a 19.5% monthly rise largely driven by public equities, according to data provider CryptoRank.
Chainlink is the blockchain industry’s leading decentralized oracle provider for crosschain communication, with $34.4 billion in total value secured. Chronicle ranks second with $7.36 billion, according to data aggregator DefiLlama.
Standard Chartered’s Kendrick said that potential risks to its Chainlink price forecast include slower-than-expected institutional tokenization initiatives, competition from specialist oracle providers and potential technical setbacks.
Magazine: What NYSE’s exploration of onchain systems means for financial markets

Bitcoin starts the week with new August highs as traders weigh the impact of crunch US inflation data.
Key points:
US CPI and PPI data comes amid fluctuating bets on Federal Reserve interest-rate hikes in 2026.
The Japanese yen remains at the forefront as it creeps back toward the key 160 level against the US dollar.
Bitcoin (BTC) traders see the area around $65,800 as crucial for bulls after BTC/USD hits new month-to-date highs.
Larger Bitcoin wallets contrast with retail holders after a conspicuous two-month accumulation spree.
Baskets of onchain indicators still see the bear market continuing in the second half of the year.
CPI, PPI data comes at crucial time for Fed
Key US inflation data is due as markets shift their expectations of Federal Reserve interest-rate policy.
The July prints of the Consumer Price Index (CPI) and Producer Price Index (PPI) will be released on Wednesday and Thursday, respectively.
The timing of the release is important — recent US inflation cues have given mixed signals to Fed watchers, while resolution of the US-Iran war likewise remains far from certain. The latter has implications for CPI in particular, given oil’s price sensitivity to events around the Strait of Hormuz shipping route.
“Crude oil prices remain ​caught between opposing forces, as markets assess the possibility of a breakthrough over the Strait of Hormuz ‌against ⁠Iran’s conditions for reopening the strategic waterway,” Sugandha Sachdeva, founder of New Delhi-based research company SS WealthStreet, told Reuters on Monday.
CFDs on US WTI crude oil one-hour chart. Source: Cointelegraph/TradingView
Last month’s CPI and PPI results both surprised to the downside, with the former seeing its largest monthly decline since April 2020. Nonfarm payrolls numbers last week continued the trend, showing weaker-than-expected labor-market conditions.
Both bolstered odds of a more dovish Fed going forward, with markets switching from a 0.25% rate hike probability to a continued pause as the most likely outcome at its Sept. 16 meeting. CME Group’s FedWatch Tool showed a 56% chance of a pause as of Monday.
“A week ago, market-implied odds strongly favored a rate hike at the Fed’s next meeting in September. Those odds now slightly favor the Fed keeping rates on hold, with just one hike before pausing well into next year,” trading resource Mosaic Asset Company wrote in the latest edition of its newsletter, The Market Mosaic.
Fed target rate probability comparison for September FOMC meeting (screenshot). Source: CME Group
Mosaic added that last week’s ISM Manufacturing and Services data pointed to the US economy “holding up just fine,” despite the data sparking concerns over signs of future “stagflation” — rebounding inflation gauges combined with slow economic growth and rising unemployment.
Yen reverses days after US intervention
The US role in manipulating the Japanese yen remains a key point on the radar for traders worldwide after the first joint US-Japanese intervention since the late 1990s.
After JPY/USD weakened to its lowest levels since 1986 at the start of August, the New York Fed, acting on behalf of the US Treasury, purchased yen using euros via the Exchange Stabilization Fund, or ESF, a stockpile of foreign exchange reserves.
At the time, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent hinted that the door was open to repeat interventions in future.
“We strongly support Japan’s decisive market and monetary steps to correct the substantial undervaluation of the yen,” he wrote in a post on X.
In the interim, however, the yen has begun to weaken again after initially strengthening to around 156 per dollar. At the time of writing, it was back above 158.50, closing in on the key 160 level once more.
Analyzing the history of yen interventions, Robin Brooks, a senior fellow in economic studies at the Brookings Institution, warned that the mechanism would be unable to change the status quo on its own.
“You’d think — given everything that’s getting thrown at markets — that the yen would have risen more than during the previous two intervention episodes we saw earlier this year, but that’s not true,” he wrote in a blog post on Friday. He said:
“Price action is comparable to the NY Fed’s rate check on Jan. 23, which came just ahead of Japan’s Feb. 8 general election. That’s underwhelming and supports my general take that this intervention - like past ones - will fail to stop the Yen’s weakening trend.”
USD/JPY one-day chart. Source: Cointelegraph/TradingView
Previously, Cointelegraph reported on the longer-term implications for the yen carry trade, a key liquidity consideration for crypto and risk-asset traders.
“For global markets, the question is less about any single intervention and more about whether higher Japanese yields alter the incentives for domestic investors to allocate capital overseas,” trading company QCP Capital commented last week.
Trader eyes BTC bullish divergences with $65,800 now key
Bitcoin saw new month-to-date highs of $65,420 into Sunday’s weekly close, subsequently consolidating progress as TradFi markets returned.
Data from TradingView still showed BTC/USD acting in a stubborn range, with the 50-month exponential moving average (EMA) in place as resistance overhead at $65,827.
BTC/USD one-day chart with 50-month EMA. Source: Cointelegraph/TradingView
In his latest market analysis, crypto trader Michaël van de Poppe saw three BTC price breakout signals nonetheless locking in on classic price indicators. The moving average convergence/divergence (MACD) and relative strength index (RSI) both have “strong” bullish divergences on both three-day and one-week time frames, he reported at the weekend.
Alongside a chart showing the divergences, in which the indicators set higher lows while price makes lower lows, Van de Poppe put $65,800 as the key target for bulls to break through next.
“All in all, if $65,800 breaks (which is the crucial weekly level), I expect to see a volatile move upwards as short-side liquidity will be forced to move out of its position after this consolidation,” he said.
BTC/USDT one-week chart with MACD, RSI data. Source: Michaël van de Poppe on X.com
The latest exchange order-book data from CoinGlass shows liquidity building either side of spot price, with $65,800 likewise a key area for potential short-position liquidations. The new August highs appeared not to catch traders by surprise, with 24-hour cross-crypto short liquidations at $53 million at the time of writing.
BTC liquidation heatmap. Source: CoinGlass
Andrew Kamsky, a contributor to onchain analytics platform CryptoQuant, eyed a breakout from a falling wedge construction on the daily chart. He suggested that a “decision window” could determine the fate of the range by Aug. 17.
“A rejection between $66.4K and $66.8K, followed by a series of higher lows, could begin forming an ascending triangle and create another opportunity for an upside breakout. A move back inside the wedge would weaken the bullish setup, while a crack below wedge support would invalidate it and suggest that the market is forming a different structure,” he said.
As an upside target, Kamsky gave $72,000 as a “possible scenario.”
BTC/USD one-day chart (screenshot). Source: CryptoQuant
Large BTC investor accumulation hits multimonth high
Larger Bitcoin investors are drawing attention to themselves this week as new analysis flags a “sharp shift toward accumulation.”
Data from CryptoQuant shows a rapid increase in Bitcoin exposure involving addresses holding more than 10,000 BTC. On a 60-day rolling basis, the cohort’s balance increased by 46,420 BTC on Aug. 9, marking the largest uptick since March 15.
“More notably, the latest reading is nearly double the 23,238 BTC accumulation peak recorded in mid-March, pointing to a significant acceleration in activity among the largest balance group,” CryptoQuant commented.
More recently, larger hodlers have begun to diverge from smaller wallets traditionally associated with retail investors. After initially accumulating through July, addresses holding between 0.1 BTC and 1 BTC distributed around 9,700 BTC for the 60 days through Aug. 9.
“The divergence is notable because it shows two very different positioning trends developing simultaneously: the largest BTC balance cohort is increasing exposure while smaller holders are reducing it,” CryptoQuant said, noting the timing of the accumulation coinciding with the upcoming US CPI and PPI data releases.
Bitcoin accumulation and distribution by cohort. Source: CryptoQuant
Last week, Cointelegraph reported what CryptoQuant called “strong accumulation” between $62,000 and $65,000, with around 0.7% of the total BTC supply — around 155,000 coins — last moving onchain within that range. At the same time, a record divergence between spot and futures trading volumes has placed doubt over Bitcoin’s ability to recover lost ground in the current climate.
Commenting on daily spot-market turnover relative to market size, Rafael Schultze-Kraft, cofounder of onchain analytics platform Glassnode, described spot markets as “virtually dead.”
“Daily spot turnover ratio sits at just 0.32%, the lowest level in our data, while dollar volume is down ~64% YoY. Textbook apathy. A healthier move higher needs participation to come back,” he told X followers last week.
Bitcoin spot turnover data. Source: Rafael Schultze-Kraft on X.com
Indicators see Bitcoin bear market continuing
On aggregate, Bitcoin onchain metrics and associated price gauges still demand cooler conditions before a reliable long-term reversal hits.
In separate research, Schultze-Kraft revealed a record “capitulation” phase in a basket of 45 price indicators which make up Glassnode’s Bitcoin Cycle Position Heatmap. This compares market health across four-year BTC price cycles, with current conditions characteristic of the final stages of the bear market.
“Today it sits in its coldest stretch since FTX: late in the bear, but not yet the unanimous deep blue that previously marked a floor,” Schultze-Kraft commented on the heatmap’s latest readings last week.
A similar compilation from CoinGlass, which it dubs its Bull Cycle Peak Indicators, currently sits at 32% toward its ideal “sell” zone.
Bitcoin Bull Market Peak Indicators. Source: CoinGlass
The data ties in with the views of an growing number of Bitcoin traders looking at historical patterns to determine BTC price performance for the rest of 2026. This week, trader and analyst Rekt Capital drew particular comparisons to the 2022 bear market.
“Bitcoin is forming Lower Highs here relative to the July upside wick In 2022, August actually developed a Higher High relative to the preceding July,” its weekend post said.
Rekt Capital reiterated Bitcoin’s current inability to reclaim the 50-month exponential moving average (EMA), currently at $65,827 — a classic predecessor of a final bear-market capitulation.
“No matter the structure however, 4 years ago Bitcoin positioned itself for a bearish retest of the 50 Month EMA (purple) to reject and drop lower later. Today as things stand, Bitcoin is technically positioned for the same thing,” he added.
BTC/USD one-month chart with 21, 50 EMA. Source: Rekt Capital on X.com

Sweden-listed health-tech and Bitcoin treasury company H100 Group completed its acquisition of Norwegian Bitcoin companies holding 2,455 Bitcoin (BTC), more than tripling its Bitcoin treasury to 3,506 BTC.
The transaction involved no cash consideration, with H100 issuing 790.5 million new shares to the sellers, the company said in a Monday press release.
The newly issued shares diluted existing shareholders by about 70%. H100 priced them at 1.86 Swedish kronor ($0.20) each, valuing the transaction at about 1.47 billion kronor ($155 million).
H100 said the consideration was calculated on a 1:1 “Bitcoin-for-Bitcoin” basis, with the number of shares issued determined by the sellers’ proportionate share of the combined Bitcoin holdings of H100 and the acquired companies. Other assets and liabilities were excluded from the calculation.
The acquisition brought the value of H100’s Bitcoin holdings to about $228 million, making it Europe’s second-largest Bitcoin treasury company by holdings, behind Germany’s Bitcoin Group SE with 3,605 BTC, according to BitcoinTreasuries.
H100 first announced the deal in March, when it signed a letter of intent to acquire privately held Norwegian Bitcoin companies Moonshot and Never Say Die, along with their Bitcoin holdings.
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The UK’s Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) has reportedly held talks with banks and other industry participants over potential rules for tokenized gold.
The FCA has also sought feedback on the use of tokenized gold as collateral in wholesale markets, people familiar with the matter told the Financial Times.
The regulator is reportedly preparing to outline plans for new regulatory standards for tokenized gold. Cointelegraph has approached the FCA for comment on the matter.
London is the world’s largest over-the-counter gold trading hub, accounting for about 70% of global notional gold trading volume, according to the World Gold Council.
The talks come amid a broader UK push to expand tokenized financial markets. A government-backed industry task force said in July that tokenization could add as much as 33 billion British pounds ($44 billion) to the UK’s annual economic output by 2035.
The roadmap also calls for the UK’s first tokenized government bond by early 2027 and seeks to make tokenized securities usable for trading, settlement and as collateral.
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