Cointelegraph

DefiLlama delayed the launch of its mobile app while it spent months trying to get Apple to remove phishing apps from its App Store that impersonated the analytics provider, according to the company’s pseudonymous founder, 0xngmi.
“We waited ‘till all the fake apps were taken down before we launched ours to avoid any user getting scammed,” 0xngmi said in a Saturday X post.
DefiLlama had tried for months to get one malicious app removed, but Apple took it down “in days” after the team downloaded the app and documented a small wallet being drained, 0xngmi added.
Cointelegraph has approached Apple for comment.
Fake apps impersonating major crypto brands have appeared on the App Store before, including those impersonating Rabby wallet and Curve Finance in 2024.
In November 2023, a fake Ledger Live app on the Microsoft Store resulted in the theft of $588,000 across 38 transactions.
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Ethereum developers are currently reviewing 66 proposals to narrow them down as part of scoping the next major Ethereum upgrade, Hegotá, with several proposals aimed at bringing more privacy capabilities into the protocol.
FOCIL is currently the only Ethereum Improvement Proposal (EIP) scheduled for inclusion in the upgrade. Frame Transactions (EIP-8141), Keyed Nonces (EIP-8250) and Recent Roots for Frame Transactions (EIP-8272) should also be included to “unlock native privacy, allowing privacy apps to work without having to rely on intermediaries,” wrote Ethereum Foundation contributor Toni Wahrstätter in a Sunday X post.
FOCIL, short for Fork-choice enforced inclusion lists, seeks to allow a committee of validators to force pending transactions into blocks to boost the network’s censorship resistance, while the other proposals could provide protocol primitives for privacy applications.
Core developers aim to ship the Hegotá upgrade next year. The next Ethereum core developer calls will shape a significant part of Ethereum’s development trajectory for 2027. Proposals that do not make the cut for Hegotá could be reconsidered for a later upgrade.
The next Ethereum developer call is scheduled for Monday at 2:00 pm UTC.
Meanwhile, Ethereum developers are preparing to first ship Glamsterdam, arguably one of the most consequential upgrades this year. Glamsterdam is designed to improve scalability, harden the layer-1, and make the network easier to use, with a mainnet launch expected sometime in the second half of 2026, according to Ethereum’s public roadmap.
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The number of tokenized stock holders has more than doubled over the past month to 1.31 million, according to RWA.xyz data.
Monthly transfer volume surged nearly 180% over the same period to $23.13 billion, while monthly active addresses increased 34.62% to nearly 572,000. The total distributed value of tokenized stocks also rose 5.9% to $2.38 billion.
At the time of writing, Ondo leads the market with about $872 million in distributed value, followed by Kraken’s xStocks at $557.8 million and Binance’s bStocks at $521.8 million. BStocks launched in June and is already within roughly $36 million of xStocks in distributed value.
According to RWA.xyz, the largest individual tokenized assets by distributed value include Securitize at $145.2 million, Strategy PP Variable xStock at $135.6 million and Ondo’s tokenized Circle shares at $99.7 million.
Source: RWA.xyz
Related: Hyperliquid RWA contracts grow to 32% of trading activity in Q2
Tokenized stocks push into private markets
The recent growth in tokenized equities follows a wave of crypto platforms pushing into private-market and pre-IPO products earlier this year, particularly around SpaceX ahead of its June 12 public-market debut.
In the months leading up to the listing, Binance, Coinbase, Kraken, Bybit, Bitget and Blockchain.com rolled out products tied to SpaceX, ranging from tokenized pre-IPO exposure to perpetual futures and proxy tokens.
Despite substantial demand, including $557 million drawn by a Binance campaign ahead of the listing, the push did not go entirely to plan. Binance, Bybit and Bitget Wallet canceled their tokenized SpaceX IPO campaigns after xStocks failed to secure enough underlying shares to meet demand, triggering refunds for subscribers.
Despite the failed pre-IPO allocations, tokenized SpaceX exposure through Binance’s bStocks has grown to $67.9 million in distributed value since the company’s June 12 listing, ranking seventh among individual tokenized assets tracked by RWA.xyz data.
The growth in tokenized equities comes amid a broader expansion in real-world asset tokenization, which Standard Chartered forecasts could become a $4 trillion market by the end of 2028.
Top tokenized stocks by distributed value. Source: RWA.xyz
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Bitcoin could bottom in October before recovering to around $130,000 ahead of the 2028 halving, according to Swan Bitcoin CEO Cory Klippsten.
Bitcoin’s (BTC) price peaked above $126,000 in early October 2025, meaning that the “market should bottom in October,” Klippsten told Cointelegraph.
He argued that Bitcoin has so far bottomed about 12 months after each previous bull market peak, while cautioning against extrapolating from only a few previous cycles.
Klippsten’s prediction for an October bottom builds on a June interview with Cointelegraph, when he said Bitcoin may bottom earlier than in previous cycles as long-term holders accumulated a record share of supply, or 14.7 million BTC.
In the latest interview, Klippsten said Bitcoin could fall to $57,000, or even $53,000, before a quick recovery, and could reach around $130,000 ahead of the 2028 halving.
Other analytics providers are eyeing an earlier bottom. Markus Thielen, founder of 10x Research, said that Bitcoin could confirm a bear-market bottom in August with a monthly close above $63,000, which would turn several of the analytics firm’s cycle indicators bullish.
Altcoins are dead as money, crypto will become TradFi
Klippsten said altcoins are “basically dead” as competitors to Bitcoin as money, arguing that the best outcome for crypto and decentralized finance (DeFi) is to “become part of TradFi.”
When asked about his thoughts on altcoins that may outperform the broader market, Klippsten pointed to Hyperliquid, arguing that centralized crypto businesses will eventually be brought under traditional finance regulation.
“Hyperliquid is a business and it has a token. If it’s a business that’s centralized, it will eventually just get sucked up by TradFi and be thought of as an exchange and a bank.”
Hyperliquid generated $5.9 million in revenue during the past week, ranking as the industry’s fifth-largest DeFi protocol by weekly revenue, according to DefiLlama.
The Hyperliquid (HYPE) token rose 130% year-to-date, while Bitcoin’s price fell 28% during the same period, TradingView data shows.
BTC and HYPE tokens, year-to-date chart. Source: Cointelegraph/TradingView
In a July report, crypto market maker Wintermute argued that the growing presence of institutional investors has changed the dynamics of altcoin markets, resulting in altcoin rallies becoming narrower and more selective. Wintermute said liquidity was concentrating in the assets institutions favored while activity across the market’s “long tail” weakened.
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A Washington state judge has ordered prediction market platform Kalshi to stop offering a broad range of event contracts in the state, rejecting its argument that federal commodities law preempts Washington gambling law.
King County Superior Court Judge John McHale barred Kalshi from offering contracts tied to sports, elections, politics, entertainment, culture, tech and science, and “mentions.” Contracts involving commodities, climate, economics and finance are exempt.
“We’re holding Kalshi accountable for running an illegal gambling operation,” Washington Attorney General Nick Brown said Thursday on X, citing a recent court ruling.
Kalshi must implement IP-address and residency-based geofencing by Aug. 19 and a GeoComply multi-source geofencing system by Sept. 2 to prevent people in Washington from purchasing contracts covered by the injunction.
The amended order, signed Wednesday, sets the terms of a preliminary injunction McHale granted in July. The judge found that the Commodity Exchange Act does not preempt Washington gambling law and that the state had shown a likelihood of success on claims under three state laws.
Kalshi maintains that the Commodity Futures Trading Commission has exclusive jurisdiction over its exchange. The Washington Court of Appeals denied its request to stay the injunction.
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Galaxy Digital has lowered its estimate of the Digital Asset Market Clarity (CLARITY) Act’s chances of passing in 2026 to 10%.
It warned that multiple political issues remain unresolved and the Senate will have only about two to three weeks to pass it when it reconvenes on Sept. 14.
Unless an initial motion to proceed vote occurs immediately upon lawmakers’ return to Washington, there would be enough time for the CLARITY Act to pass the Senate only if it “dominates basically the entire working session,” wrote Galaxy’s head of firmwide research, Alex Thorn, in a Friday X post.
Thorn added that lawmakers would still have to work through multiple issues, including ethics rules for government officials’ involvement in crypto and pressure from banks over stablecoin yield provisions.
Galaxy lowered its previous estimate from 60% to 50% on June 26, after cutting it from 75% to 60% on June 6. Its 75% estimate was set on May 22.
The CLARITY Act aims to establish the first regulatory framework for digital assets in the US, but it has faced criticism. It cleared the Senate Banking Committee in May, but most Democrats and the banking industry pushed back, arguing that it would allow crypto firms to offer yields on stablecoins without facing the same requirements as banks.
At the beginning of June, over 200 crypto companies and organizations urged the US Senate to pass the CLARITY Act in a letter shared by crypto lobby group Stand With Crypto.
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Gen Z traders on Binance are allocating a growing share of their equity activity to exchange-traded funds (ETFs), with the products accounting for 25% of the cohort’s trading volume in early August, according to Binance Research.
ETFs accounted for 21.9% of Gen Z net equity inflows in July, up from 18.5% in June, while the share going to individual stocks fell to 74.2% from 77%.
The analysis examined activity across direct equities, tokenized stocks and traditional finance perpetuals, comparing Gen Z accounts with Millennials, Gen X and Baby Boomers on measures including trading frequency, net flows and leverage use.
The younger cohort traded less frequently than other working-age generations across all three products. Gen Z averaged 13 monthly trades in TradFi perpetuals, compared with 17 for Millennials and 16.5 for Gen X.
Among Gen Z direct-equity accounts, 22% had never placed a sell order, compared with 19% of Gen X accounts and 9% of Baby Boomer accounts. Millennials had the highest share of buy-only accounts at 30%. Among those Gen Z buy-only accounts, top assets by cumulative purchases included Broadcom, Tesla and the Schwab US Dividend Equity ETF, according to Binance.
Net buyers by generation and product. Source: Binance
Gen Z also showed relatively little appetite for leveraged and inverse ETFs; 88.2% of Gen Z TradFi perpetual accounts recorded no activity in those products, compared with 84.5% of Millennials and 85.9% of Gen X.
Binance cautioned that its direct-equities product only reached meaningful scale in June, leaving a relatively short data window for establishing longer-term trends.
Related: Binance to restrict transactions involving HTX, 10 other crypto platforms
Binance bStocks briefly overtakes xStocks
Binance’s bStocks briefly overtook Kraken’s xStocks as the second-largest tokenized stock issuer this week, less than two months after launching. As of Tuesday, bStocks held $610.6 million in tokenized stock value, compared with $601.2 million for xStocks, according to Token Terminal data.
The positions had reversed by Friday, with Token Terminal showing xStocks at $610.7 million and bStocks at $579.6 million, representing 22.3% and 21.2% of the roughly $2.7 billion market, respectively. Ondo Finance remained the largest issuer at $971.8 million.
The broader tokenized stock market has continued to expand, with RWA.xyz tracking $2.43 billion in distributed value as of Friday, up about 5% over the past 30 days.
Tokenized stock market cap by issuer. Source: Token Terminal
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The government of Ireland published a comprehensive anti-money laundering strategy, detailing how the country would address digital assets potentially used for illicit purposes.
In a Thursday notice, Ireland’s government released its first National Anti-Money Laundering, Countering Financing of Terrorism and Countering Proliferation Financing Strategy. The document included proposed reforms on cryptocurrency-related policies related to strengthening Anti-Money Laundering (AML) and Countering the Financing of Terrorism (CFTC) measures.
“The bulk of this has been implemented with these final elements introducing new anti-money laundering obligations for crypto-asset service providers, requiring enhanced checks on transfers involving private crypto wallets and stricter due diligence when dealing with overseas crypto firms,” said the Irish government.
The document, prepared by the country’s finance department, noted that there was “well advanced” legislation to implement AML/CFT rules under the European Union’s Markets in Crypto Assets (MiCA) framework. It also included addressing industry standards “relating to the acceptance of crypto-related activities” as a source of funds for gambling.
Ireland’s AML strategy was the latest example of the government attempting to address issues with digital assets potentially being used for money laundering and terrorism financing. In June, the country released its first national risk assessment related to crypto in seven years, saying that it planned to implement industry standards by the second half of 2027.

Kraken parent Payward reported $508 million in adjusted revenue for the second quarter, up 17% year over year despite a decline in crypto spot trading and overall transaction volume.
According to Friday’s earnings report, total transaction volume fell 13% year over year to $310 billion, while funded accounts increased 42% to 6.6 million.
Payward remained adjusted EBITDA positive at $23 million. Asset-based and other revenue accounted for 60% of total revenue, up from 55% a year earlier, as the company generated a growing share of its revenue outside transaction-based activity.
Payward said growth in traditional futures, equities and tokenized equities helped offset weaker crypto spot activity. The company also said it gained spot market share for a third consecutive quarter.
The results come as Payward has expanded beyond spot crypto trading over the past year into equities, tokenized stocks, pre-IPO exposure and futures.
The company has also broadened its financial infrastructure business through acquisitions including futures trading platform NinjaTrader in May 2025 and regulated derivatives exchange Bitnomial the following year, as well as its more recently announced deal to acquire Magic Labs’ wallet infrastructure business.
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UK Reform leader Nigel Farage will face an investigation that had been briefly paused following his resignation from Parliament after winning a by-election on Thursday with no major party candidates participating.
As of Friday, the UK Parliamentary Commissioner for Standards website showed that Farage was currently under investigation for “failure to register an interest” related to the Reform leader receiving millions of dollars’ worth of donations and gifts from two figures tied to the crypto industry. The investigation was halted in July after Farage resigned as a member of Parliament, but resumed following his reelection as Clacton’s MP.
The commission will probe cryptocurrency billionaire Christopher Harborne giving Farage $6.7 million as well as the Reform leader’s staff and security funded by George Cottrell, a convicted fraudster tied to a crypto casino.
Under UK parliamentary rules, new members must register all current financial interests within a month of their election, as well as any benefits received in the 12 months prior. Farage initially called Cottrell’s donation a “reward” for campaigning for Brexit and later described both men’s contributions as “gifts” given “on an unconditional basis.”
Should the investigation determine that Farage violated parliamentary rules, he faces a possible suspension from parliament, which could trigger another by-election. Cointelegraph reached out to the Parliamentary Commissioner for Standards for comment on the probe but did not receive an immediate response.
Source: Nigel Farage
The by-election triggered by Farage’s resignation in July saw the Reform leader winning with 63% of the vote, defeating satirical candidate Count Binface’s 27%. None of the other major parties participated in the race, which then-Labour leader and UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer called a “desperate stunt” by Farage. Andy Burnham has since become prime minister.
UK mulling permanent ban on crypto “gifts”?
Amid Farage’s political scandal, Labour lawmakers reportedly proposed that a moratorium on crypto donations implemented in March be made permanent as part of measures to address the potential influence of foreign actors.
According to the International Bar Association, unincorporated associations are allowed to give more than $675 directly to UK politicians, offering a loophole for companies with business in the country to be used as “conduits for foreign or dark money.”
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Israel’s Bank Leumi has partnered with Galaxy Digital to let customers trade Bitcoin (BTC), Ether (ETH), and Solana (SOL) through the bank’s investment platform, with the service expected to launch in early 2027.
The companies said Friday that customers of Leumi and Pepper, its mobile banking arm, will be able to buy, hold and sell the three cryptocurrencies through a dedicated section of the Leumi Trade app. Leumi and Galaxy said the rollout would make Leumi the first Israeli bank to offer digital asset trading services to customers.
Leumi will use GalaxyOne Institutional for trading and related services, while Galaxy’s custody infrastructure platform, formerly known as GK8, will support the bank’s digital asset infrastructure.
According to Leumi, the bank serves millions of customers across its retail and business operations.
The partnership comes after Galaxy reported an $85 million net loss in the second quarter, which it attributed largely to declining digital asset prices. Despite the loss, its digital assets business generated $66 million in adjusted gross profit, up 34% from the previous quarter.
Galaxy Digital, founded and led by Mike Novogratz, began trading on the Nasdaq under the ticker GLXY in May 2025. Its shares were trading at $21.38 on Friday morning, up about 2% on the day but down roughly 25% over the past year, according to Yahoo Finance data.
Magazine: Solana’s fee overhaul increases burn and makes resource hogs pay

A $116 million hardware wallet exploit has reopened one of Bitcoin’s oldest debates: Is holding your own keys worth the risk? Days later, US spot Bitcoin ETFs recorded their strongest inflows since April, prompting Bloomberg analyst Eric Balchunas to wonder whether security scares could eventually push more investors away from self-custody and toward ETFs.
Elsewhere, Strategy is preparing to resume Bitcoin purchases after a rare bout of selling, Riot Platforms is reportedly turning its mining infrastructure into a $9 billion AI deal, and Trump Media is rethinking its crypto treasury strategy after a $238 million quarterly loss.
Strategy CEO says company will resume Bitcoin accumulation this year
Strategy CEO Phong Le said the company plans to resume Bitcoin accumulation later this year, seeking to reinforce its long-term strategy after a series of relatively small sales drew scrutiny over its once-firm “never sell” stance.
Le told FOX Business that Strategy bought roughly 175,000 BTC and sold about 7,000 BTC this year — about 25 times more buying than selling. The company now holds more than 840,000 BTC, making it the largest institutional holder, but has sold Bitcoin on four occasions since May, most recently unloading 1,690 BTC to support preferred dividends, buybacks and its dollar reserve.
Those sales have highlighted the competing demands facing Strategy as it balances its Bitcoin accumulation strategy with obligations to common and preferred shareholders. The treasury model has also come under pressure. According to Novaque Research, when companies trade below Bitcoin net asset value, raising capital becomes increasingly dilutive and the financing cycle harder to sustain.
Phong Le appearing on FOX Business. Source: FOX
Bitcoin ETF demand rebounds as self-custody risks come into focus
US spot Bitcoin ETFs attracted roughly $1 billion in net inflows for the week, signaling renewed institutional demand even as Bitcoin’s price remains subdued and a major hardware wallet exploit puts fresh attention on the risks of self-custody.
Bloomberg ETF analyst Eric Balchunas said it was the third-best week since October, a period he described as Bitcoin’s “silent IPO,” a term popularized by investor Jordi Visser. The theory holds that early investors have been selling into growing ETF and institutional demand, creating enough supply to keep Bitcoin subdued despite fresh capital entering the market.
The rebound also followed a Coldcard hardware wallet exploit linked to faulty key generation that drained about $116 million in Bitcoin. Balchunas said the incident could ultimately bolster ETFs’ appeal among investors concerned about self-custody risks, pointing to post-hack inflows as a possible, though unproven, connection.
He cautioned that correlation does not imply causation, but added that “long-term I can’t imagine there aren’t some who migrate over.”
Source: Eric Balchunas
Anthropic reportedly struck a $9 billion compute deal with Bitcoin miner Riot
Anthropic reportedly struck a $9 billion deal with Riot Platforms for 191 megawatts of capacity from the Bitcoin miner’s Texas campus, highlighting how access to power is becoming increasingly valuable as AI data centers face capacity constraints.
Riot said it secured a 20-year agreement to supply 191 megawatts from its Rockdale campus to a “leading frontier AI” company, which Bloomberg identified as Anthropic. The deal follows Anthropic’s $19 billion TeraWulf data center lease and adds Riot to a growing list of Bitcoin miners expanding into AI, including Bitdeer, CleanSpark, MARA Holdings, Core Scientific, Hut 8 and IREN.
Riot shares fell 5.4% Monday before rising 21% overnight and are up roughly 50% year-to-date. The fourth-largest Bitcoin miner has a $7.33 billion market capitalization, while Bernstein said partnerships between AI companies and miners could help address the power crunch constraining data center expansion.
Trump Media to revamp crypto treasury strategy after $238 million Q2 loss
Trump Media said it will revamp its digital asset treasury strategy after unrealized losses on crypto and securities helped push the company to a $238 million second-quarter net loss, highlighting the balance-sheet risks of corporate crypto holdings.
The company reported $190.4 million in unrealized losses across its digital assets, and pledged digital assets and equity securities in the second quarter. It held 9,477.16 Bitcoin as of June 30, down from 9,542.16 the prior quarter. In July, it sold $159.6 million in Bitcoin-related securities and used the proceeds to buy more Bitcoin, bringing its holdings to about 14,139 BTC worth $890.5 million by July 31.
Trump Media warned that generating additional income from its Bitcoin holdings could expose it to counterparty risk, particularly if a partner should default or become insolvent. In some cases, the company could be unable to recover Bitcoin committed under unsecured arrangements. It also plans to direct more resources to Truth Social, Truth+ and other media operations as part of a broader shift in capital allocation.
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Bitcoin (BTC) declined into Friday’s Wall Street open as traders increasingly saw a BTC price breakdown next.
Key points:
Bitcoin stays below $63,000, heading steadily closer to new August lows while US stocks build on record highs.
Analysis says that $63,220 must be reclaimed by the weekly close to avoid a deeper rout.
Markets look to PCE inflation data as the next key test for risk assets.
Bitcoin price sags with stocks at all-time highs
Data from TradingView showed BTC/USD down 1.3% on the day at $62,570, near its lowest levels month-to-date.
BTC/USD four-hour chart. Source: Cointelegraph/TradingView
Despite encouraging US inflation data lifting risk assets and reducing the odds of interest-rate hikes, Bitcoin failed to follow US equities, which closed Thursday’s session at all-time highs. The S&P 500 and tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite Index were both green at the time of writing, up 0.11% and 0.14%, respectively.
BTC/USD vs. S&P 500 one-hour chart. Source: Cointelegraph/TradingView
Commenting on Bitcoin price performance, trader and analyst Rekt Capital warned that Sunday’s weekly close needed to be above $63,220.
“A Weekly Close below the orange level would probably set price up for a breakdown,” he wrote in a post on X.
The analyst noted that $63,000 was now failing as support after weakening throughout August, having previously noted that the 50-month exponential moving average (EMA) at $65,827 was back as resistance, copying the 2022 bear market.
BTC/USD one-week chart. Source: Rekt Capital on X.com
Cointelegraph previously reported on increasing chances of a long liquidation event for Bitcoin as it approaches an area of liquidity around $61,000 amid growing open interest (OI) in derivatives markets.
“Traders have added substantial risk, most of it long, into a market that shows no matching demand,” onchain analytics platform Glassnode summarized in the latest edition of its regular newsletter, The Week Onchain.
PCE in focus after Bitcoin ignores inflation relief
In its latest analysis, trading and investment company QCP Capital drew attention to crypto markets’ refusal to rally on improving US inflation conditions — a phenomenon it described as “increasingly important.”
“Last week, BTC demonstrated resilience in absorbing several negative headlines without a sustained breakdown,” it wrote, adding:
“This week has reinforced the distinction between resilience and momentum: the range remains intact, but softer inflation data have so far generated only a muted response from crypto.”
QCP added that macro traders are now focused on the Aug. 26 Personal Consumption Expenditures (PCE) index release, known as the Federal Reserve’s preferred inflation gauge. The index’s last print in July marked its first monthly decline since 2020, per data from the Bureau of Economic Analysis.
US PCE data percentage change (screenshot). Source: BEA

US investment banking giant Morgan Stanley reported larger crypto fund positions in the second quarter, led by an increase of more than 3 million shares in BlackRock’s Bitcoin exchange-traded fund (ETF).
Morgan Stanley’s reported holdings in BlackRock’s iShares Bitcoin Trust ETF (IBIT) increased by 23% to around 16.5 million shares from 13.4 million, according to its Q2 13F filing with the US Securities and Exchange Commission on Thursday.
Morgan Stanley also reported 2.57 million shares of its own Morgan Stanley Bitcoin Trust (MSBT), worth about $43.3 million. The product began trading in April.
The filing showed increases across several direct crypto fund positions in Q2, even as reported holdings declined in Coinbase and some other crypto-linked companies.
Morgan Stanley grows Bitcoin and Ether ETF exposure
Despite adding about 3.04 million IBIT shares, the position’s value fell about 18% to $549 million from $667 million as Bitcoin fell during the quarter.
Morgan Stanley also sharply increased several smaller Bitcoin ETF positions, including the Grayscale Bitcoin Mini Trust ETF (BTC) and Bitwise Bitcoin ETF (BITB), while its Fidelity Wise Origin Bitcoin Fund (FBTC) holding rose nearly 38%.
Bitcoin (BTC) price chart year-to-date. Source: CoinGecko
Ether holdings grew as well, with Morgan Stanley increasing its iShares Ethereum Trust ETF (ETHA) position by about 202% to 4.6 million shares and its Grayscale Ethereum Staking Mini ETF (ETH) position by about 26% to 5.1 million shares.
In addition to initiating its MSBT position, Morgan Stanley added new exposure to the Grayscale Solana Staking ETF (GSOL) and Fidelity Solana Fund (FSOL), worth about $4.25 million and $2.26 million, respectively.
Circle and Bitcoin miners gain ground
Morgan Stanley made an even larger move in Circle Internet Group (CRCL), the company behind the USDC stablecoin, with reported holdings increasing from about 1.46 million shares to 8.32 million shares.
The filing also showed substantial additions to several Bitcoin mining and infrastructure companies, including Cipher Digital (CIFR), Core Scientific (CORZ), Hut 8 (HUT) and Bitdeer Technologies (BTDR).
Not every crypto-linked position grew. Morgan Stanley reported about 550,000 fewer Coinbase (COIN) shares, cut its CleanSpark (CLSK) position by more than 3.1 million shares and fully exited a roughly 8 million-share Bitfarms (BITF) position.
Magazine: Bitcoin will never fall below $60K again: Nansen founder

JPMorgan’s reported position in BlackRock’s Bitcoin exchange-traded fund increased by about 25% in the second quarter, while its Ether ETF position more than quadrupled, according to its latest securities filing.
The Form 13F filing with the US Securities and Exchange Commission, submitted Wednesday, covers holdings as of June 30 and includes 17 other investment managers across JPMorgan.
That makes it difficult to determine whether individual positions reflect a directional market view, Jonatan Randin, senior market analyst at PrimeXBT, told Cointelegraph.
“It gives you some idea of what they are doing but not their opinion about the future direction of a specific market,” Randin said.
JPMorgan reports larger Bitcoin, Ether ETF positions
The filing showed about 10.4 million shares in BlackRock’s iShares Bitcoin Trust ETF (IBIT) in Q2, up from 8.3 million shares in Q1 with a reported value of roughly $356 million.
Its position in the iShares Ethereum Trust ETF (ETHA) rose more sharply, climbing more than fourfold to about 1.17 million shares from roughly 267,000.
Randin said a 13F can combine holdings from different parts of an institution, including positions related to client activity and inventory, making it difficult to determine the purpose behind individual holdings. Form 13F filings also exclude short positions, meaning JPMorgan’s reported long holdings do not show its net exposure.
XRP appears in JPMorgan’s holdings
Beyond Bitcoin and Ether, Randin pointed to small positions reported in XRP investment products.
JPMorgan reported 181 shares of Grayscale’s XRP product worth $3,763 and 113 shares of Bitwise’s XRP ETF worth $1,356 in Q2, after reporting no positions in either product in Q1.
Randin linked the timing to regulatory developments around XRP and the emergence of spot XRP investment products in the US.
“From my point of view this adds credibility to the regulatory improvements surrounding XRP,” he said.
Additionally, JPMorgan cut positions in several Bitcoin miners, which Randin said have become less straightforward proxies for Bitcoin as some expand into artificial intelligence and high-performance computing.
“If that was the reason for holding them, trimming that part of the portfolio makes a lot of sense regardless of your view of the future direction of price,” he said.
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Binance will stop processing transactions involving crypto exchange HTX and 10 other listed crypto platforms and service providers from Aug. 23.
The cryptocurrency exchange cited recent regulatory developments for the decision in a Friday announcement. From Aug. 23, Binance will stop processing transactions involving HTX, Rapira, Aifory Pro, ABCeX, WhiteBird, NoOnecrypto INC., Tradex, Monease Ltd, BitPapa, Exnode and EXMO.
Transactions attempted on or after the effective dates may be held and subject to compliance review. Binance said restrictions may also be applied to impacted wallets while the review is ongoing.
HTX, formerly Huobi, was added to the European Union’s sanctions package targeting Russia in late July. The UK government also designated Huobi Global S.A. in May, citing “reasonable grounds to suspect” that it supported Russia’s government by providing financial services or making available funds and economic resources to A7 LLC and Garantex Europe OU.
HTX denied the UK sanctions allegations, arguing the designation applies only to Huobi Global S.A. as a separate legal entity and saying its online exchange and user funds remain unaffected. The UK’s Office of Financial Sanctions Implementation later said it considers the HTX exchange itself subject to the sanctions because it is owned by Huobi Global.
The US Treasury sanctioned Shelbit and Aban Tether on Aug. 7.
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Cryptocurrency exchange Gemini reported a 37% year-over-year increase in second-quarter revenue to $45.5 million, while posting a $107.7 million net loss as exchange trading weakened.
Exchange revenue fell 38% to $12.5 million as trading volume dropped to $3.8 billion from $11.3 billion, the company said Thursday.
Services revenue climbed 149% to $23.5 million, led by a 231% increase in credit card revenue to $16.2 million and a 50% rise in staking revenue to $4 million. Including interest income, services revenue and interest income totaled $26 million.
Meanwhile, transaction losses rose to $20.1 million from $3.6 million a year earlier, primarily due to a $16.1 million provision for credit losses tied to an identity fraud event involving the credit card portfolio. Gemini said the elevated provision was concentrated among affected accounts and did not reflect broader deterioration in the portfolio.
Operating expenses rose 24% year-over-year to $122.4 million, though they fell 15% from the first quarter as the company continued cost-cutting measures announced earlier this year.
Gemini’s stock price rose 3% during regular trading on Thursday, but fell nearly 5% in pre-market trading on Friday following the earnings release, according to Yahoo Finance data.
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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 project will use a Shinhan won-denominated ultra-short-term bond fund as its underlying asset and BlackRock’s BUIDL tokenized fund as a benchmark to test the issuance and distribution process, Shinhan said on Friday.
The companies will also test compliance requirements for tokenized investment products, including whitelist-based transfer restrictions, onchain operations, Know-Your-Customer checks and Anti-Money Laundering controls.
Shinhan said 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.
In April, fellow Shinhan Financial Group affiliate Shinhan Card signed an MOU with the Solana Foundation to test stablecoin payment technology and explore the use of non-custodial wallets. Another group affiliate, Shinhan Bank, completed a stablecoin remittance pilot in July 2023.
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Bitcoin (BTC) long positions are “facing liquidation” as volatility shows signs that a range breakout is finally coming.
Key points:
Bitcoin long positions face multiple threats as BTC price action heads toward new August lows, analyst warns.
The correlation between Binance open interest and price reached 0.25 on Thursday as both fell.
The Bitcoin bull market is not ready to make a comeback, CryptoQuant CEO Ki Young Ju says.
Bitcoin longs feel the squeeze as price drops
Insights published on onchain analytics platform CryptoQuant by community analyst “BorisD” on Thursday suggest that leveraged long BTC positions are being flushed out as BTC/USD targets month-to-date lows.
BTC/USD one-hour chart. Source: Cointelegraph/TradingView
The analysis focuses on the relationship between price and open interest (OI) on Binance. OI represents total active derivative positions, both long and short, and reflects capital commitment in a given market.
While price has traded in a narrow range since June, CryptoQuant data show that Binance OI has gradually increased, reaching $8.15 billion on Wednesday as futures increasingly steer the market while spot traders sit on the sidelines.
Bitcoin open interest on Binance. Source: CryptoQuant
With price now seeing downside volatility on lower time frames, the correlation between price and OI has entered a state of flux, potentially squeezing long positions that have built up in the low $60,000 zone.
“In the Bitcoin market, the Binance Open Interest (OI) Correlation and liquidation warning signals clearly reveal the process of leveraged positions being flushed out. Initially, as the price fell, the correlation shifted to the negative side, indicating that OI was rising despite declining prices,” the analyst wrote.
“This showed a double-sided squeeze and [an] increasingly complex liquidity structure — driven by long positions trying to buy the dip on one end, and additional short positions entering the market on the other.”
BTC/USD vs. Binance OI data. Source: CryptoQuant
The latest correlation data showed a reading of 0.25, a number that the analyst said reflects declining long positions as price continues to fall, suggesting the “anticipated cleanout has begun.”
“The simultaneous drop in both price and OI indicates that leveraged long positions are giving up, getting stopped out, or facing liquidation,” the analyst continued.
Data from CoinGlass put total 24-hour cross-crypto liquidations at $236 million at the time of writing.
Crypto liquidation history (screenshot). Source: CoinGlass
CryptoQuant CEO: “Stars haven’t aligned” for Bitcoin bull market
In his latest market commentary, CryptoQuant CEO Ki Young Ju said conditions for a renewed Bitcoin bull market have yet to emerge.
“The stars haven’t aligned for a Bitcoin bull run just yet,” he wrote on X alongside a basket of onchain indicators still in “bear” territory.
Bitcoin onchain indicator heatmap. Source: Ki Young Ju on X.com
Cointelegraph has previously reported on several composite onchain indicators reaching similar conclusions about the current stage of the BTC price cycle. One of them, from onchain analytics platform Glassnode, is currently in its longest “capitulation” phase since the end of Bitcoin’s last bear market in 2022.

RedotPay’s plans for a US stock market debut have reportedly been delayed as the stablecoin payment company prepares to expand into the country.
The company delayed plans for a US initial public offering (IPO) while it seeks regulatory approvals and contends with legal disputes involving Binance, Bloomberg reported on Friday, citing people familiar with the matter.
A RedotPay representative declined to comment on the timing of an IPO to Cointelegraph. The representative instead pointed to the company’s US expansion, saying RedotPay obtained a money transmitter license in the US this week and is preparing to launch its product in the country.
The reported setback follows a nearly $473 million lawsuit filed by Binance affiliates and comes as RedotPay works to expand its regulatory footprint in the US and other markets.
RedotPay’s IPO ambitions surfaced in February
RedotPay, founded in 2023 and based in Hong Kong, first emerged as a potential US public-market entrant in February, when reports surfaced that the company was considering a New York listing.
RedotPay has reportedly been working with JPMorgan Chase, Goldman Sachs and Jefferies Financial Group on a listing that could raise more than $1 billion. At the time, the company was seeking a valuation of more than $4 billion.
Separately, RedotPay has reportedly been in talks to raise up to $150 million in new funding amid organizational changes and preparations for a potential IPO. “As we transition from an early-stage startup to a unicorn, we are evolving our organizational structure and talent pool to support our ongoing growth trajectory,” RedotPay told Cointelegraph in March.
Binance lawsuit adds legal pressure
Binance affiliates sued RedotPay’s founders in Hong Kong earlier in August, seeking nearly $473 million in damages over allegations that they diverted hundreds of thousands of customers from Binance to RedotPay.
The plaintiffs allege that RedotPay’s founders used confidential information obtained through their previous work with Binance to build a competing payments business and attract Binance users. RedotPay rejected the allegations and told Cointelegraph it would “vigorously defend all claims.”
The dispute has also spilled into Singapore, where Binance and RedotPay disagree over the fate of a related case. RedotPay told Cointelegraph this week that it expected Binance to discontinue the case, while Binance rejected that account and said its claims remain active.
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