Crypto Breaking

Crypto payments platform Coinsbuy says it has covered all client losses after wallets tied to the service were allegedly drained on Sunday. Blockchain investigator SpecterAnalyst reported that more than $7.9 million was moved out across Ethereum and TRON, with parts of the proceeds routed through exchanges and into Monero.
According to SpecterAnalyst’s Telegram post, the attacker initially began converting the stolen funds into Monero via exchange activity. The same report claimed ChangeNOW was involved in freezing a six-figure portion of the assets during the incident.
Key takeaways
Coinsbuy confirmed an Aug. 9 security incident and stated affected client funds were fully covered from its own reserves.
SpecterAnalyst alleged that attackers moved over $7.9 million across Ethereum and TRON, with additional steps to route value into Monero.
Coinsbuy temporarily paused deposits and withdrawals, later restoring both services to normal operations.
The platform offered a $100,000 reward for information leading to the identification of those responsible, with an extra bonus for help recovering the funds.
Alleged multi-chain drain and attempts to obscure proceeds
SpecterAnalyst’s report focused on on-chain activity tied to Coinsbuy-linked wallets. The investigator said the stolen funds were routed through multiple addresses and then moved onward into Monero through exchange interfaces, a strategy commonly associated with attempts to reduce traceability.
In the same Telegram post, SpecterAnalyst identified three addresses linked to the compromised funds—two on Ethereum and one on TRON—suggesting the attacker exploited access across more than one network rather than relying on a single chain or transfer pattern.
The alleged scale is central to why this case matters for the broader payments market: payments platforms typically sit at a crossroads between user custody, exchange-like routing, and business workflows. When that infrastructure is compromised, the incident can quickly ripple from a single compromised wallet into large cross-chain movements.
Coinsbuy response: coverage from reserves and operational restart
Coinsbuy acknowledged the incident in a statement shared with Cointelegraph. The company said unauthorized withdrawals affected several platform wallets, but that all affected client funds have been fully covered from its own reserves—meaning users were not expected to bear direct financial loss.
Coinsbuy also said the platform is back to normal operation, with deposits and withdrawals restored. SpecterAnalyst previously reported that Coinsbuy temporarily paused both deposits and withdrawals following the incident before reinstating service.
While Coinsbuy did not confirm or dispute the reported $7.9 million figure attributed by SpecterAnalyst, it did not provide additional technical details during the early stages of investigation. The company said it is still investigating and plans to disclose technical information only after its review is complete and findings are verified.
Freezing assistance and what remains unclear
SpecterAnalyst claimed that ChangeNOW helped freeze a six-figure portion of the assets during the incident. That point is important for investors and operators because it highlights how quickly counterparties can sometimes mitigate exposure once abnormal flows become apparent. At the same time, the overall timeline, the exact mechanism used by the attacker, and the full extent of assets that were frozen versus successfully moved were not fully substantiated in the publicly available reporting.
Coinsbuy’s statement did not detail the attack method or explain whether compromised keys, misconfigured permissions, or another failure mode was responsible. For readers, the key takeaway is that the public narrative currently rests on investigator tracing of blockchain activity and the platform’s assurance of coverage, rather than on confirmed technical findings.
Given that the platform is delaying technical disclosure until verification, what watchers should monitor next is whether Coinsbuy’s eventual investigation identifies the initial breach vector and whether it leads to changes in internal controls, monitoring, or custody procedures across its networks.
Incentives for information and possible recovery efforts
Beyond covering client funds, Coinsbuy said it offered a $100,000 reward for information that leads to identifying those responsible. The platform also indicated it would provide an additional bonus for help recovering stolen funds.
Rewards of this type can be a practical lever for incident response, especially when stolen assets are dispersed across exchanges and networks. They can also encourage third parties—such as analysts who can link wallets to identities or brokers who may have custody-relevant information—to share actionable details before assets become permanently difficult to trace.
For users of crypto payments infrastructure, the reward plus coverage stance provides some near-term stability, but it does not eliminate the longer-term concern that vulnerabilities in operational security can recur if root causes are not addressed. The most consequential follow-up will be whether Coinsbuy’s later disclosures point to structural weaknesses that can affect other platforms with similar architectures.
As Coinsbuy continues its investigation and refrains from releasing technical details for now, the next signals to watch are: any confirmed update on the attackers’ initial access method, whether additional funds beyond what was reportedly frozen can be recovered, and what operational or custody safeguards the company says it will change after verification.
This article was originally published as Coinsbuy Announces $100K Reward After Sunday Security Breach on Crypto Breaking News – your trusted source for crypto news, Bitcoin news, and blockchain updates.

TRON closed its second quarter with a sharp rebound in stablecoin activity, ending the period holding $87.9 billion in circulating USDT—a level that, according to a Messari report, pushed TRON ahead of Ethereum in USDT circulation. The network also handled $2.1 trillion in USDT transfers across the quarter, underscoring how central stablecoin throughput remains to TRON’s growth story.
Messari’s “State of TRON Q2 2026” report attributes much of the expansion to stablecoin market concentration and renewed transfer momentum. It found that USDT made up 98.5% of TRON’s stablecoin market, while the overall stablecoin base 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 it had declined in the first quarter.
Key takeaways
USDT circulation on TRON hit $87.9 billion in Q2, with Messari noting TRON surpassed Ethereum on circulating USDT.
USDT transfers increased meaningfully, with average daily transfer volume up 4.3% to $22.8 billion.
Network usage hit new highs: 11.8 million average daily transactions (+8.7%) and 3.6 million active addresses (+11.7%).
Fees reversed a two-quarter decline, rising 15.9% to $699.4 million as network fees climbed for the first time since an August 2025 governance change.
DeFi activity weakened, with DeFi TVL down 1.9% to $4.4 billion and DEX volume falling for a fourth straight quarter.
Stablecoin momentum returns, and activity follows
The quarter’s headline numbers point to a clear relationship: higher stablecoin transfer flow translated into stronger on-chain usage. Messari reports that TRON averaged 11.8 million daily transactions during Q2, up 8.7% quarter-over-quarter. Daily active addresses also increased, climbing 11.7% to 3.6 million.
On peak days, usage reached even more visible milestones. The report says TRON processed a record 14.6 million transactions on June 15. For investors and traders tracking TRON’s health, this kind of throughput matters because it often correlates with broader stablecoin utility—especially when USDT dominates the stablecoin mix.
Messari’s breakdown reinforces that dominance. With USDT at 98.5% of TRON’s stablecoin market, the network’s stablecoin growth is effectively synonymous with USDT growth. That can create outsized upside when transfers accelerate, but it also concentrates risk if stablecoin demand shifts across chains.
Network fees improve after an earlier policy shift
Beyond volume, Q2 also marked a change in revenue dynamics. Messari notes that higher activity helped reverse a two-quarter decline in TRON network fees. Fees increased 15.9% to $699.4 million, their first quarterly increase since an August 2025 governance change reduced the price of TRON’s “energy unit,” a key metric that influences transaction costs.
From an economic perspective, this is an important nuance. Lower energy unit prices can reduce per-transaction costs, which may improve user experience but can also compress fee totals—at least until activity ramps enough to offset the unit price effect. Messari’s finding that the fee decline has now been reversed suggests Q2’s throughput was strong enough to compensate for the earlier pricing change.
DeFi fades while fundamentals for stablecoins strengthen
Not all parts of TRON’s ecosystem followed the same direction. Messari reports that DeFi TVL fell 1.9% to $4.4 billion. The report also shows that average daily DEX volume dropped 21.7% to $49.3 million, continuing a trend of contraction: it was the fourth consecutive quarterly decline.
For market participants, this divergence between stablecoin rails and DeFi activity is worth monitoring. Stablecoins can remain highly active even when trading and on-chain lending demand soften, particularly if users primarily use the chain for payments or settlement rather than DeFi strategies.
TRON’s token supply dynamics also remained a mixed signal. Despite the higher activity levels, the report states that TRX supply stayed inflationary. Circulating supply increased by 87 million tokens during the quarter, with issuance continuing to outpace burns. That means network usage growth in Q2 did not translate into immediate deflationary pressure on supply.
Institutional access expands across trading, tokenization, and staking
Alongside the on-chain activity metrics, Messari highlights a separate thread: growing institutional access to TRON products during Q2. Securitize reportedly launched Hamilton Lane’s tokenized Senior Credit Opportunities Fund on TRON, described as the network’s first TRON-issued asset. The fund began with about $4.3 million under management.
Grayscale also expanded the conversation around institutional custody and exposure by adding TRX to its list of assets under consideration. Separately, a proposed staked TRX exchange-traded product from Canary Capital remained in registration, according to the report.
Broader market access reflected similar momentum. Bitnomial launched spot TRX trading in the United States, OKX Europe introduced MiFID-regulated TRX expiry perpetuals, and Binance.US restored trading in the token during the quarter.
The push for institutional infrastructure did not stop after Q2. Earlier coverage noted that Anchorage Digital added native TRX staking and custody for TRC-20 assets in July, enabling institutional clients to stake TRX directly from its custody platform.
Taken together, these developments suggest TRON’s narrative is broadening beyond consumer usage and stablecoin transfers toward more regulated, institutional-friendly access paths. For investors, that can matter because improved access often reduces friction—both operational and regulatory—when firms decide how to allocate capital across crypto assets.
Looking ahead, readers should watch whether TRON’s stablecoin-driven strength can pull more DeFi liquidity back in, given that DEX volumes and DeFi TVL fell for multiple quarters. At the same time, the sustainability of higher fees after the earlier energy unit change will likely be tested by the next round of network usage—especially on peak days like the June 15 transaction record.
This article was originally published as TRON USDT Supply Reaches $87.9B as Q2 Transfers Hit $2.1T: Messari on Crypto Breaking News – your trusted source for crypto news, Bitcoin news, and blockchain updates.

TRON ended the second quarter with a major stablecoin milestone: it recorded $87.9 billion in circulating USDT, putting it ahead of Ethereum on the same metric, while processing $2.1 trillion worth of USDT transfers over the quarter. The figures underscore how deeply USDT liquidity has embedded itself in TRON’s rails, even as parts of the ecosystem show softer momentum elsewhere.
According to a Messari report on the network’s second-quarter performance, USDT represented 98.5% of TRON’s stablecoin market. Stablecoin supply on TRON also rose, climbing 4.1% quarter-over-quarter to a record $89.2 billion. After a drop in Q1, average daily USDT transfer volume resumed growth, increasing 4.3% to $22.8 billion.
Key takeaways
TRON led on USDT circulation in Q2, reaching $87.9B and processing $2.1T in USDT transfers during the quarter.
Stablecoin dominance remained extreme, with USDT making up 98.5% of TRON’s stablecoin supply.
Network usage hit new highs, including 14.6M transactions on June 15 and record-level daily activity.
Fees reversed direction, rising 15.9% to $699.4M, the first quarterly increase after a prior governance change.
DeFi activity cooled even as payments grew, with DeFi TVL down 1.9% and DEX volumes falling for a fourth straight quarter.
USDT expansion drives TRON’s transaction growth
Messari attributes TRON’s improved throughput to stronger day-to-day demand for USDT transfers. The network averaged 11.8 million daily transactions in Q2, up 8.7% from the prior quarter. Active usage also improved: average daily active addresses increased 11.7% to 3.6 million. The report also highlights the peak day, when TRON processed 14.6 million transactions on June 15.
From an investor and market-structure perspective, this matters because USDT activity often translates into consistent utilization of on-chain infrastructure. Even when broader on-chain applications fluctuate, stablecoin transfer volume can sustain network demand—particularly on chains where stablecoins are heavily concentrated.
Fees recover after an earlier governance shift
Beyond transaction counts, the report notes that TRON’s fee environment changed as well. Network fees rose 15.9% to $699.4 million in Q2, described as the first quarterly increase since an August 2025 governance change reduced the network’s energy unit price. In other words, Q2’s fee growth appears tied not only to higher activity, but also to a longer arc in TRON’s fee mechanics after that policy adjustment.
Still, the relationship between network fees and usage can be nonlinear when protocol parameters change. Traders and builders watching TRON may want to pay close attention to whether future fee levels keep rising with demand or whether they plateau as the impact of the earlier energy-unit pricing adjustment stabilizes.
DeFi softens while supply growth continues
Despite the payment-heavy momentum, parts of TRON’s on-chain ecosystem showed uneven performance. Messari reports that DeFi TVL fell 1.9% to $4.4 billion during the quarter. Decentralized exchange activity also cooled: average daily DEX volume dropped 21.7% to $49.3 million, marking a fourth consecutive quarterly decline.
This divergence—strong stablecoin transfer volume alongside weaker DeFi engagement—suggests that Q2’s growth may have been driven more by utility and circulation than by risk-taking or trading depth on TRON’s DeFi venues. For users, this can affect liquidity conditions and token execution quality on DEXs; for developers, it may signal that ecosystem growth is currently being led by transfers rather than by on-chain lending, borrowing, and trading.
Meanwhile, the report indicates that TRX supply remained inflationary. Even with higher activity, circulating supply increased by 87 million tokens during the quarter, with issuance continuing to outpace burns. That dynamic is notable because it can influence long-term expectations around token supply pressure, particularly when network usage is improving but supply reduction mechanisms aren’t yet keeping up.
Institutional access expands through tokenization and custody
While on-chain metrics show clear usage trends, institutional infrastructure around TRON also advanced during the quarter. Messari highlights that Securitize launched Hamilton Lane’s tokenized Senior Credit Opportunities Fund on TRON—its first TRON-issued asset. The fund reportedly started with about $4.3 million under management.
Broader institutional interest also included token listing and potential product developments. Grayscale reportedly added TRX to its list of assets under consideration. Separately, a proposed staked TRX exchange-traded product from Canary Capital remained in registration.
On the market-access side, TRX trading availability improved across venues. Bitnomial launched spot TRX trading in the United States, while OKX Europe introduced MiFID-regulated TRX expiry perpetuals. The quarter also saw Binance.US restore trading in the token.
The institutional push continued after Q2 ended. Earlier coverage noted Anchorage Digital adding native TRX staking and custody for TRC-20 assets in July, enabling institutional clients to stake TRX directly from its custody platform. For market participants, custody-and-staking workflows can be a critical step toward deeper institutional adoption, as they reduce operational friction compared with self-custody or manual transfer processes.
Read together, TRON’s Q2 pattern looks less like a pure “DeFi rally” and more like a chain consolidating stablecoin circulation and steadily improving institutional plumbing. The key question for the next quarter is whether stronger USDT throughput can translate into renewed DeFi demand—particularly DEX volumes and TVL—or whether TRON will remain primarily a stablecoin settlement venue while trading and application activity lag behind.
This article was originally published as TRON USDT Supply Climbs to $87.9B as Q2 Transfers Hit $2.1T, Messari on Crypto Breaking News – your trusted source for crypto news, Bitcoin news, and blockchain updates.

Wallets tied to crypto payments platform Coinsbuy were reportedly drained of more than $7.9 million in funds spanning Ethereum and TRON on Sunday, according to blockchain investigator SpecterAnalyst.
In a Telegram post, SpecterAnalyst said the attacker began routing the stolen assets into Monero via exchanges. The investigator also reported that ChangeNOW helped freeze a six-figure portion of the funds during the incident.
Key takeaways
SpecterAnalyst alleges attackers moved stolen Ethereum and TRON funds into Monero through exchanges.
ChangeNOW is reported to have frozen part of the assets, reducing what the attacker could immediately keep.
Coinsbuy paused deposits and withdrawals after the incident, then restored both services.
Coinsbuy says it covered all affected client funds from its own reserves, without client losses.
The company offered a $100,000 reward for information identifying the responsible parties.
Reported theft and fund movement
SpecterAnalyst’s report claims the compromise involved multiple wallet addresses connected to Coinsbuy. The investigator identified three addresses associated with the stolen activity: two Ethereum addresses and one TRON address.
Rather than leaving the funds on-chain, the alleged operator reportedly initiated transfers aimed at increasing privacy. SpecterAnalyst stated that the attacker routed the proceeds into Monero through exchanges, a path commonly used in laundering attempts where the goal is to obscure fund trails across networks.
The investigator further indicated that ChangeNOW played a role in limiting the damage by freezing a portion of the stolen assets—described as a six-figure amount—after the incident began.
Coinsbuy confirms incident and compensates clients
Coinsbuy acknowledged the security incident in a statement shared with Cointelegraph, saying unauthorized withdrawals affected several platform wallets. The company said the impact was handled internally: all affected client funds were “fully covered… from our own reserves,” according to Coinsbuy’s statement, meaning users did not suffer financial losses.
Coinsbuy also stated that operations were restored and that the platform is “back to operating normally,” with deposits and withdrawals available again. In the immediate aftermath of the reported hack, the platform had temporarily paused those functions, a step that typically aims to stop further outflows while incident response teams assess wallet activity and implement controls.
While SpecterAnalyst reported a theft of more than $7.9 million, Coinsbuy did not confirm or dispute that figure. The company said it is investigating the event, but will refrain from disclosing technical details until the investigation is complete and its findings have been verified.
Reward program and what to watch next
Beyond compensating users, Coinsbuy said it is offering a $100,000 reward for information that leads to identification of those responsible. It also added that there would be an additional bonus for help recovering the stolen funds.
For affected users and monitoring communities, the most important open questions now center on how the compromise occurred and what controls failed—or were circumvented. Coinsbuy’s decision not to publish technical details yet means observers will need to watch for later disclosures that can clarify whether this was primarily a custody issue, an operational security lapse, a smart contract problem (if applicable), or something else entirely.
Given SpecterAnalyst’s claim that stolen funds were moved toward Monero via exchanges, the timeline for additional enforcement and tracing will likely depend on how quickly exchanges and compliance partners can identify related transactions and block further conversion or withdrawal routes. The reported freezing of a portion of funds highlights that intervention can matter during the early hours of such incidents, but it does not automatically indicate how much remains recoverable.
How this fits the broader crypto payments risk picture
Incidents like this underscore a persistent challenge for crypto payments and custody-adjacent businesses: even when clients are made whole, platform wallets become an attractive target because they concentrate balances, enable faster movement, and can provide an immediate payout surface if access controls are breached.
Coinsbuy’s statement that it covered client funds from reserves is a useful data point for users evaluating risk around payment providers—compensation reduces direct losses, but it still signals that operational disruptions can happen and that recovery efforts may be complex. The temporary halt in deposits and withdrawals also reflects the standard incident-response pattern: contain outflows, assess exposure, and then reopen services once systems are deemed stable.
Investors and builders in the sector may also want to pay attention to what controls Coinsbuy says it will improve later. The lack of technical disclosure right now makes it difficult to assess whether similar weaknesses could affect other platforms using comparable wallet management, exchange integrations, or withdrawal workflows.
Next, readers should look for updates from Coinsbuy’s investigation—especially any verified technical findings—and for additional reporting on whether more of the stolen funds can be traced, frozen, or recovered as the laundering path into Monero and off-chain exchange activity unfolds.
This article was originally published as Coinsbuy Launches $100K Bounty After Sunday Security Breach on Crypto Breaking News – your trusted source for crypto news, Bitcoin news, and blockchain updates.

BlackRock has expanded its Canadian spot-Bitcoin ETF lineup with two Toronto Stock Exchange listings, including one fund that pairs broad international equity exposure with a small allocation to Bitcoin. The new products begin trading Monday on the TSX.
The ETFs are the iShares Equity + Bitcoin ETF Portfolio (IBQT) and the iShares Core MSCI All-International Equity Index ETF (XINT). While both are managed through BlackRock Asset Management Canada under the RBC iShares alliance, only IBQT includes a direct Bitcoin component.
Key takeaways
IBQT is a “core” equity fund with a 3% Bitcoin sleeve, implemented via exposure to BlackRock’s Canadian iShares Bitcoin ETF (IBIT).
XINT provides diversified international equities by tracking the MSCI ACWI ex North America IMI Index across more than 5,000 companies.
Both funds primarily hold other iShares ETFs, using fund-to-fund structures rather than selecting individual stocks directly.
BlackRock positions Bitcoin access as a small allocation within a broader portfolio approach rather than a standalone Bitcoin product.
A Canadian equity fund with a Bitcoin allocation
IBQT is designed to combine globally diversified equities with limited Bitcoin exposure. According to BlackRock, the fund allocates 97% of its portfolio to Canadian, U.S., international and emerging-market equities, with the remaining 3% dedicated to Bitcoin exposure through BlackRock’s Canadian iShares Bitcoin ETF (IBIT), which trades on Cboe Canada.
Importantly, IBQT does not attempt to hold individual stock positions on its own. Instead, it primarily invests in other iShares ETFs to gain both its equity exposure and its Bitcoin component. The structure matters for investors who are evaluating how Bitcoin is being integrated: rather than building a portfolio around crypto volatility, IBQT is framed as an incremental allocation inside an equity-oriented portfolio.
XINT targets ex–North America international diversification
The second listing, XINT, focuses on international equities outside Canada and the United States. BlackRock states that the fund tracks the MSCI ACWI ex North America IMI Index, a benchmark that aims to capture large-, mid-, and small-cap companies across developed and emerging markets.
BlackRock also highlights the breadth of the index XINT follows: exposure to more than 5,000 companies spanning over 40 developed and emerging markets outside Canada and the U.S. For Canadian investors who prefer a “set and track” approach to international equity diversification, XINT offers a standalone index-linked option alongside IBQT’s hybrid design.
What BlackRock says about scale in Canada and beyond
Both funds are managed by BlackRock Asset Management Canada through the RBC iShares alliance. BlackRock said its iShares ETF business managed approximately $6.2 trillion in assets across more than 1,700 ETFs as of June 30.
That scale is relevant when new ETF products launch, because it can influence operational maturity—such as liquidity management, fund administration practices, and index/fund replication workflows—especially for multi-asset products that rely on holding other ETFs.
Bitcoin access follows BlackRock’s existing ETF footprint
IBQT’s Bitcoin sleeve routes through BlackRock’s Canadian iShares Bitcoin ETF (IBIT). BlackRock’s U.S.-listed iShares Bitcoin Trust (IBIT) is also a major reference point in the company’s spot Bitcoin ecosystem.
CoinMarketCap data indicates IBIT is the largest U.S. spot Bitcoin ETF by assets under management, with about $47.9 billion in AUM at the time referenced by the listing data: CoinMarketCap.
By using IBIT as the mechanism for its 3% Bitcoin allocation, IBQT effectively imports the established Bitcoin ETF wrapper into a broader equity product. That approach may appeal to investors seeking Bitcoin exposure without making it the dominant risk driver—though it also means the Bitcoin allocation will typically be smaller in magnitude than what many standalone Bitcoin ETFs provide.
Why this matters for Canadian investors
Bringing a “small allocation” Bitcoin fund to the TSX signals a continued push to normalize crypto exposure inside traditional portfolio frameworks. For investors, the practical question is how the 3% Bitcoin allocation changes the character of an equity-heavy holding—especially in periods when Bitcoin trades independently of global equities.
Traders and portfolio managers may also watch how BlackRock’s fund-to-fund implementation performs in Canada, since IBQT’s design depends on the underlying Canadian iShares Bitcoin ETF for its BTC exposure while the rest of the portfolio is tied to broad equity holdings via iShares ETFs.
As with any newly launched ETFs, attention will likely turn to how assets build after the initial trading start, as well as to whether the funds attract consistent flows from investors seeking either diversified international equities (XINT) or a blended approach that includes Bitcoin (IBQT).
Investors should monitor near-term developments such as IBQT’s uptake on the TSX, trading liquidity as the market digests the new hybrid structure, and how BlackRock’s Canadian iShares Bitcoin ETF (IBIT)—the source of the BTC sleeve—continues to perform as demand for Bitcoin exposure broadens beyond standalone products.
This article was originally published as BlackRock Debuts Two Canadian ETFs, One Holds 3% Bitcoin Allocation on Crypto Breaking News – your trusted source for crypto news, Bitcoin news, and blockchain updates.

XRP faces renewed downside pressure as Polymarket traders assign strong odds to the token trading near the $1 level. The shift follows the delay of the CLARITY Act vote until September. Meanwhile, short-term markets show limited strength, while longer-term contracts signal weaker expectations for a major XRP recovery.
XRP Price Holds Near The $1 Support
Polymarket data shows a 71% probability that XRP will reach $1 on August 10. Another contract gives XRP a 99% chance of reaching the $1 to $1.10 range. However, the same market assigns only a 1% probability to the $0.90 to $1 range.
Separate contracts also show limited upside for XRP during the session. The token has a 28% probability of reaching $1.05, while another contract gives $1 a 5% probability. Therefore, current market activity places greater attention on the $1 area than higher price levels.
Short-term contracts remain stronger than daily and four-hour projections. Polymarket gives XRP a 96% chance of rising during the next hour, while 15-minute odds stand at 76%. However, five-minute odds fall to 50%, while daily and four-hour markets show only 10% and 7% chances.
XRP Faces Wider Weekly Price Pressure
Polymarket’s weekly contracts also show mixed expectations for XRP between August 10 and August 16. One contract assigns a 50% probability that XRP will not reach $0.90 during that period. Another standalone contract gives a 99% probability that XRP will reach $1.70.
These contracts measure separate price outcomes, so their probabilities do not represent a single price forecast. However, the data shows a wide range of possible outcomes as traders assess XRP’s near-term direction. At the same time, longer-term contracts show limited expectations for a new record high.
Polymarket places the probability of XRP reaching an all-time high by December 2026 at 5%. The probability for XRP reaching a record high by the end of September stands at 1%. Therefore, the market data points to restrained expectations despite possible short-term moves.
Clarity Act Delay Adds Pressure To XRP
The delayed CLARITY Act vote has added another source of uncertainty for XRP and the wider crypto market. Senate Majority Leader John Thune filed a cloture motion on the motion to proceed. The Senate now plans to consider the cloture vote on September 15 after the August recess.
The bill still faces disagreements over several provisions before lawmakers can advance it. Senators have raised concerns about stablecoin rules and provisions involving stablecoin yields. Meanwhile, law enforcement groups and prosecutors have objected to protections covering non-custodial blockchain developers.
The legislative outcome could influence XRP’s next major price move because the bill affects the broader digital asset framework. CoinGape analysis identifies $1.08 and $1.12 as key resistance areas for XRP. A stronger trading volume could push XRP toward $1.18, while a failed bill could send XRP back toward $1 and $0.95.
This article was originally published as Xrp Price Faces Fresh $1 Risk As Clarity Act Vote Moves To September on Crypto Breaking News – your trusted source for crypto news, Bitcoin news, and blockchain updates.

The US Senate is moving the Digital Asset Market Clarity (CLARITY) Act toward a renewed floor push in mid-September after Majority Leader John Thune filed a cloture motion, according to reports from the Senate Daily Press and coverage of the filing by Cointelegraph. The procedural step is designed to bring the bill up for consideration, ending uncertainty that Congress might take additional action well beyond a year after the measure cleared the House.
As the Senate calendar reshuffles for a month-long recess, proponents of CLARITY say the delay is politically costly—coming with roughly 50 days before the 2026 midterm elections, a window that may compress lawmakers’ ability and appetite to finalize the bill.
Key takeaways
John Thune filed cloture to advance the CLARITY Act to the Senate floor, with a vote now expected when the chamber reconvenes in mid-September.
Even if the Senate votes, passage would require 60 senators, keeping the outcome highly dependent on broad bipartisan support.
Industry leaders and advocates publicly criticized the lack of scheduling before the recess, while still framing September as the “finish the job” moment.
Prediction market traders remain split: wagers on Kalshi imply strong odds of a September vote window, while Polymarket odds for passage within the current year look much lower.
Cloture filed as Senate returns from recess
On Saturday, Senate Daily Press reported that Majority Leader John Thune filed cloture on a motion to move the CLARITY Act to the chamber floor. The move, as described in coverage including this Cointelegraph report, reduces speculation that lawmakers would delay action beyond a year after the House passed the bill.
With the Senate set to reconvene in mid-September, the next procedural hurdle is not simply scheduling—it is the actual vote. Under Senate rules, CLARITY would need support from at least 60 senators to clear the chamber.
For advocates, the timing matters. Multiple industry figures have suggested that the push to September compresses the political runway ahead of the 2026 midterms. That compression could make it harder to assemble the supermajority needed to pass legislation of this scale.
Lawmakers’ delay draws frustration from crypto executives and senators
After the Senate did not set a vote before the recess, Senator Cynthia Lummis expressed frustration publicly. In a post shared Friday on X, cited in the reporting, Lummis said, “You can imagine how frustrated I am,” and added that she will “continue working with my colleagues to get this done,” characterizing the effort as “far from over” (Cynthia Lummis on X).
Crypto industry executives echoed the disappointment but did not pivot away from September. Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong called the Senate’s action “disappointing,” while also indicating September would be when lawmakers “finish the job.” Coinbase’s chief policy officer Faryar Shirzad similarly pointed to September as the next push (Brian Armstrong on X) (Faryar Shirzad on X).
Not every market participant treated the setback as a meaningful break in momentum. Bitmine chair Tom Lee, in a company weekly report referenced in the coverage, suggested financial markets appeared more preoccupied with softer inflation and jobs data than with the implications of CLARITY stalling (Bitmine/PR Newswire).
Where negotiations may be stuck: ethics, investments, and stablecoin edge cases
Beyond pure scheduling, the broader legislative path has remained complicated. The coverage noted reports of progress in bipartisan discussions around crypto market structure, but also highlighted that Senate leaders did not announce solutions in response to Democratic calls for tighter ethics provisions—especially rules related to how President Donald Trump’s crypto investments are handled.
That ethics pressure sits within a larger political narrative in Congress. Reporting referenced continued scrutiny of Trump’s family’s crypto business, World Liberty Financial, and attention on a memecoin launched days before he took office.
Separately, there has been debate among banking advocates about how CLARITY’s framework could still allow certain activity involving stablecoin holders. A point raised in a Thursday Wall Street Journal editorial—published ahead of Thune’s cloture filing—suggested that, under CLARITY, smaller banks could miss out because they depend on interest payments to attract deposits. The editorial’s criticism centered on the idea that some crypto stakeholders want to operate like quasi-banks without the same regulatory obligations.
“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.“
For readers, the practical implication is that CLARITY’s supporters and critics are not only arguing over whether a bill should pass, but over what regulatory tradeoffs it would institutionalize—particularly around banking-like functions and how stablecoin-related incentives are treated.
Prediction markets: odds diverge on vote timing versus yearly passage
Even after the Senate delay, prediction markets continue to price the likelihood of CLARITY advancing. On Kalshi, one event contract—referenced in the coverage—has reportedly wagered $1.23 million and priced users at an 88% chance that the Senate would vote on CLARITY before Oct. 1 (Kalshi).
On Polymarket, a related contract has offered a materially lower outlook. The coverage states the contract gave users a 26% chance of the bill being signed into law this year, with total wagers topping $5.79 million (Polymarket).
That gap between “vote odds” and “signed into law” odds is important. If the Senate does vote in September as expected, CLARITY would still need to return to the House for another vote if there are changes. Only then could it proceed to the president’s desk. In other words, markets appear to be separating procedural progress from the final end-state.
For participants, the uncertainty is unlikely to disappear quickly. The next decisions—cloture timing, scheduling, the 60-vote threshold, and any House re-approval requirements—could each move the probability landscape.
As the Senate reconvenes in mid-September, investors and builders who have been watching CLARITY for clearer regulatory treatment should focus on one concrete question: will cloture translate into a floor vote with enough support to overcome the 60-senator bar, and if it does, what changes (if any) trigger a second House vote?
This article was originally published as Crypto Advocates Criticize Delay in CLARITY Vote on Crypto Breaking News – your trusted source for crypto news, Bitcoin news, and blockchain updates.

Strive has grown its corporate Bitcoin treasury once again this month. The asset manager purchased 147 BTC and pushed total holdings to 20,167 BTC. The move confirms the company’s steady push to build one of the largest corporate Bitcoin reserves.
Strive Adds 147 Bitcoin to Treasury
Strive bought the 147 BTC between August 3 and August 7, according to a recent filing. The company paid an average price of about $64,812 per Bitcoin for this batch. That brings the total value of its holdings to roughly $1.3 billion.
Chief Executive Officer and Chairman Matt Cole confirmed the update on X. He stated that Strive now holds 20,167 BTC in total. BitcoinTreasuries.NET also ranked the company as the seventh-largest public corporate Bitcoin holder worldwide.
Welcome Back to The Hurdle Rate
Episode 69: What's New With Strive?
In this week’s Hurdle Rate, the crew breaks down Strive’s Q2 results, including a 23.9% Bitcoin yield and how the company’s incentive structure supports its broader Bitcoin treasury strategy. We then turn to… pic.twitter.com/FLdoxjS58k
— The Hurdle Rate Podcast (@HurdleRatePod) August 10, 2026
This purchase continues a pattern of steady accumulation throughout 2026. Strive bought 1,109 BTC in May and followed with 2,500 BTC in June. Smaller purchases in July and early August kept the momentum going.
Strive Reports 24% Bitcoin Yield in Q2
Strive posted a Bitcoin yield of 24% for the second quarter of 2026. The figure rose to 38% when measured across the first half of the year. The company uses this yield metric to track Bitcoin growth against diluted shares outstanding.
The asset manager also retired its debt completely during the second quarter. Strive currently holds about $155 million in cash reserves. This combination gives the company flexibility as it continues expanding its Bitcoin position.
Strive also introduced SATA, a preferred stock product that pays daily dividends. The company positions this product as part of a broader financial strategy. Bitcoin holdings, cash reserves, and debt management now work together under one plan.
On August 10, Strive launched a new Bitcoin treasury dashboard and website. The platform gives the public real-time updates on the company’s holdings. This transparency effort supports the company’s ongoing communication around its Bitcoin strategy.
Bitcoin Strategy Expands After Semler Merger
Strive’s Bitcoin treasury grew sharply after its all-stock merger with Semler Scientific. The deal closed in September 2025 and reshaped the company’s balance sheet. Bitcoin holdings jumped from about 5,000 BTC to roughly 10,900 BTC almost overnight.
Additional purchases continued steadily through 2026, including the latest 147 BTC addition. Strive has kept its focus on increasing Bitcoin holdings while running its asset management business. The strategy blends traditional financial services with a long-term Bitcoin accumulation plan.
Some tracking services estimate Strive’s average purchase price across its entire treasury at about $94,700 per BTC. The latest purchase price of roughly $64,812 sits well below that broader average. This gap suggests Strive picked up its newest Bitcoin at a comparatively favorable price.
Strive’s leadership continues to frame Bitcoin as a core treasury asset rather than a side bet. The company pairs its Bitcoin strategy with debt discipline and new financial products like SATA. Together, these moves signal a company building its identity around Bitcoin accumulation and asset management growth.
This article was originally published as Strive Buys 147 More Bitcoin, Treasury Tops 20,167 BTC on Crypto Breaking News – your trusted source for crypto news, Bitcoin news, and blockchain updates.

SINGAPORE, CoinFerenceX, the Web3 conference series known for curating high-signal gatherings of founders, investors, and builders, today announced it has combined forces with The Best Event, the events production group behind 80+ live experiences across 10+ global cities, to launch CoinFerenceX The Best Event Singapore, the next tier of the world’s first Decentralised Summit. The event will take place 5-6 October 2026 at Gardens by the Bay, positioning it as a leading alternative during Singapore’s Token2049 and Asia Crypto Week.
The partnership pairs CoinFerenceX’s content curation and community depth with The Best Event’s large-scale production and sponsor-activation track record, creating what the two companies describe as “the event nobody else can build.”
What sets the conference apart is its decentralized summit model: a 2 day event shaped by the industry rather than dictated by an organizer. Where traditional conferences sell booths and speaking slots, CoinFerenceX and The Best Event will invite the founders, funds and ecosystem leaders who show up to help shape the agenda itself, deciding which conversations matter and which builders take the stage. While the organizers handle the production and logistics, the direction of the summit is set by the Web3 players with real skin in the game. It’s a gathering built by the people driving the ecosystem forward, for the people driving it forward.
The Best Event brings a track record of 80+ delivered events, a presence in more than 10 global cities, over 50 million annual organic impressions, and north of 1 billion in social reach. The group’s attendance has grown from 35,000 in 2025 to a projected 70,000 in 2026. Its sponsor case studies point to concrete ROI, including one partner that turned a $50,000 investment into $1 million raised, another that saw a $50,000 spend convert into $1 million in ROI, and a third that converted two leads into a $400,000 deal.
At CoinFerenceX, partners help shape the agenda itself rather than simply buying booth space and a speaking slot. CoinFerenceX’s community includes 7,500+ curated attendees from more than 70 countries, over 500 ecosystem and media partners, and more than 300 VCs and investment funds. Roughly 60% of its attendees are C-level executives or founders, and independent feedback shows 94% of past partners say they would return, with 89% rating CoinFerenceX among the top 25% of Web3 events globally.
The combined summit is designed around four experience tracks:
The Leaders Summit: an invite-only, C-level gathering where governance decisions and strategic partnerships take shape.
Protocol Deep Dives: technical workshops where protocols demonstrate what they are actually shipping.
The Founders’ Den: a venue for early-stage builders to pitch directly to 200+ VCs and investors.
The Innovation Showcase: live product demos from established players and emerging protocols alike.
Early figures for the Singapore edition point to more than 4,000 curated attendees, 500+ VCs and investors, 400+ ecosystem and media partners, 85+ C-level speakers, and more than 8,000 total event registrations. As with prior CoinFerenceX editions, roughly 60% of attendees are expected to be C-level executives or founders.
Organizers say the agenda will be co-created by founders and ecosystem leaders with skin in the game, focused on sessions that deliver actionable insight or substantive content over celebrity keynotes.
“We’re incredibly excited for this edition, it’s bigger, sharper and more ambitious than anything we’ve done before. With the whole industry in Singapore that week, we’ve curated a stage and an audience that turns that energy into real conversations and real deals. This is CoinFerenceX The Best Event at its strongest,” shared Prince Gupta, Co-Founder of CoinFerenceX
Tobias Bauer, Co-Founder of The Best Event, added, “This partnership is the best of both worlds: CoinFerenceX’s curated speaker line-ups meet The Best Event’s scale of 50,000 attendees a year, the largest Web3 event series globally. Together we’re bringing one of the biggest two-day conferences to Singapore, our home market, with frontier thought leadership and production quality unlike anything else in the space.”
Event Details
Event: CoinFerenceX The Best Event Singapore
Dates: 5-6 October 2026
Venue: Gardens by the Bay, Singapore
Tickets & partner applications:coinferencex.com/singapore
About CoinFerenceX
CoinFerenceX is a global decentralized Web3 summit connecting founders, investors, blockchain companies, developers, and industry leaders to accelerate innovation and collaboration in the digital economy. Through its ecosystem-driven approach, CoinFerenceX creates a platform for meaningful networking, knowledge exchange, startup opportunities, and strategic partnerships shaping the future of Web3. The summit brings together the brightest minds across blockchain, AI, DeFi, gaming, and emerging technologies to explore industry trends, showcase groundbreaking solutions, and build the next generation of decentralized ecosystems.
About The Best Event
TBE is the events arm of TBV, an early-stage venture capital fund backing web2.5 and web3 startups across Southeast Asia and North America. TBE curates high-caliber gatherings that anchor the biggest weeks in web3, with a track record of 80+ delivered events across 10+ global cities. Every event is built around one goal: putting the right founders, funds, and operators in the same room so real deals and partnerships can happen. That network runs deep, backed by a 10,000+ strong Telegram community and a social following north of 100,000.
Media Contact
Anmol Malviya
Head of PR
CoinFerenceX
media@coinferencex.com
This article was originally published as CoinFerenceX and The Best Event Join Forces to Launch “CoinFerenceX The Best Event Singapore,” the Decentralised Summit on Crypto Breaking News – your trusted source for crypto news, Bitcoin news, and blockchain updates.

Bitcoin dipped below $64,500 on Monday after Wall Street’s open, tracking a broader risk-off mood tied to fresh uncertainty around US-Iran tensions and the Strait of Hormuz. While crude prices moved higher, equities failed to hold their early direction, and BTC’s early weakness underscored how quickly macro headlines can dominate crypto price action.
At the same time, market attention is being split between geopolitics and FX—particularly the Japanese yen. The yen continued to weaken against the US dollar even after a rare joint Japan-US intervention, putting additional pressure on liquidity-sensitive assets like bitcoin.
Key takeaways
Bitcoin slid to around $64,447 on Bitstamp shortly after the US open, reflecting risk-off positioning alongside US stocks.
Iran’s deputy speaker, Ali Nikzad, said reopening the Strait of Hormuz has “no military solution,” adding to uncertainty for energy markets.
USD/JPY pushed toward 160 in early Asia trading, as the yen remained under pressure after the Japan-US FX intervention.
On-chain and derivatives signals show stronger institutional demand, but analytics firms describe spot-market recovery momentum as still not fully confirmed.
US spot Bitcoin ETFs logged net inflows of $865.3 million last week, yet analysts still characterize the rebound as tentative.
Geopolitical uncertainty and macro spillover into BTC
According to TradingView data cited in the report, BTC/USD touched $64,447 on Bitstamp—its lowest level since Friday—before recovering modestly. The move closely followed the pattern in US equities, which initially fell as traders reassessed the likelihood that the Strait of Hormuz oil route would reopen.
Iranian officials added to that caution. Addressing the Islamic Consultative Assembly, deputy speaker Ali Nikzad reportedly said that the “opening of the Strait of Hormuz has no military solution,” a statement quoted by Al Jazeera and other outlets.
Energy markets reflected the same tension. US WTI crude oil was up nearly 5% to about $80.90 per barrel at the time of writing, even as the S&P 500 managed to turn green after dipping—still below Friday’s all-time highs. For bitcoin, the takeaway is less about oil’s direction alone and more about how quickly broader macro uncertainty is feeding into risk appetite.
Yen weakness after Japan-US FX action raises liquidity questions
Beyond geopolitics, the yen remained a focal point for markets. The Japanese currency continued to slide against the US dollar despite a rare joint intervention by Japan and the United States earlier, with USD/JPY reaching 159 on Monday and edging toward the 160 threshold during the first Asia session.
Economist Mohamed El-Erian warned that Japan may need stronger or more decisive policy follow-through for the intervention to translate into sustained FX stabilization. On X, he wrote that the yen has been weakening gradually since the joint Japan-US FX intervention, calling it a reminder that correcting a “mispricing” depends on getting the policy mix right—and that delays could make the intervention’s goal “more elusive.”
For crypto traders, this matters because FX stress can alter global liquidity conditions and risk positioning. When the yen weakens rapidly, it can coincide with shifts in cross-asset funding and hedging behavior—dynamics that often spill into high-beta markets.
Institutional inflows support the backdrop, but analysts see uneven momentum
While bitcoin’s price action looked shaky, institutional and on-chain data offered a more constructive—though not fully decisive—picture. Glassnode’s latest Market Pulse update pointed to what it described as improving components that typically precede more sustainable uptrends, but it also highlighted a key missing piece: the overall momentum in the spot market.
Glassnode said momentum had returned toward neutral and that spot taker buying had accelerated sharply. However, it noted that centralized exchange turnover remained subdued. In the report, the firm interpreted the gap between stronger spot absorption and weaker exchange activity as indicative of demand improving within a broader consolidation environment rather than a broad-based speculative expansion.
ETFs and derivatives hint at accumulation—yet “tentative” remains the watchword
Institutional flows were among the clearest positives in the week’s data. The report cited Farside Investors data showing that US spot Bitcoin ETFs recorded net inflows of $865.3 million last week. Such inflows can matter because they represent steady demand from traditional capital channels, often helping stabilize sentiment during choppy periods.
On the derivatives side, CryptoQuant data referenced in the report indicated that hedge funds had flipped to net long CME bitcoin futures. The CEO of CryptoQuant, Ki Young Ju, characterized the shift as “rare,” arguing that the typical positioning behavior had structurally favored being short via basis trades—an approach he said cannot easily be carried into net long positions. In his framing, hedge funds betting on upside suggests more conviction than simple hedging.
Still, the overall conclusion from the analytics commentary is that bitcoin’s rebound attempts are not fully “locked in.” The report described the comeback as “tentative,” with Glassnode’s divergence between accelerating spot taker buying and subdued exchange turnover serving as a caution signal. In other words: inflows may be arriving, but market breadth and turnover are not yet confirming a full expansion cycle.
Going forward, traders are likely to keep a close eye on whether macro uncertainty around the Strait of Hormuz continues to dominate price action, and whether FX conditions—especially USD/JPY—stabilize or deteriorate further. On the crypto side, the next test is whether ETF-led demand and derivatives positioning can translate into stronger spot-market momentum, rather than staying confined to consolidation.
This article was originally published as Bitcoin Gives Back Weekend Gains as Oil Jumps 5% on Strait of Hormuz Uncertainty on Crypto Breaking News – your trusted source for crypto news, Bitcoin news, and blockchain updates.

Strive has added 147 Bitcoin to its corporate treasury, lifting its total holdings to 20,167 BTC. The purchase strengthens the company’s Bitcoin reserve as it continues expanding its digital asset strategy. Meanwhile, Strive reported strong Bitcoin yield figures, retired its debt, and maintained substantial cash reserves.
Bitcoin Treasury Reaches 20,167 BTC
Strive purchased 147 BTC between August 3 and August 7 at an average price of $64,812 per Bitcoin. Consequently, the latest purchase increased the company’s total Bitcoin holdings to 20,167 BTC. Based on current valuations, Strive’s Bitcoin treasury now carries a value of roughly $1.3 billion.
The latest acquisition continues a buying trend that accelerated throughout 2026. Strive purchased 1,109 BTC in May and added another 2,500 BTC during June. The company then continued its accumulation with additional Bitcoin purchases during July and early August.
Strive now ranks among the largest public companies holding Bitcoin in their corporate treasuries. BitcoinTreasuries.NET listed the company as the seventh-largest public Bitcoin holder. Therefore, the latest purchase further strengthens Strive’s position within the growing corporate Bitcoin market.
Bitcoin Yield Supports Treasury Strategy
Strive reported a Bitcoin yield of 24% during the second quarter of 2026. The company also recorded a Bitcoin yield of 38% during the first half of the year. Strive calculates the metric by comparing changes in Bitcoin holdings against diluted shares outstanding.
Meanwhile, the company fully retired its debt during the second quarter. Strive also held approximately $155 million in cash reserves after completing its debt reduction. Together, the cash position and Bitcoin holdings provide the company with two major treasury assets.
Strive has also introduced SATA, a preferred stock product that pays daily dividends. In addition, the company launched a Bitcoin treasury dashboard and website on August 10. The new tools provide regular updates about its Bitcoin holdings and treasury activity.
Bitcoin Expansion Follows Semler Merger
Strive significantly increased its Bitcoin reserves after completing its all-stock merger with Semler Scientific in September 2025. The transaction raised Strive’s Bitcoin holdings from about 5,000 BTC to approximately 10,900 BTC. Since then, the company has continued adding Bitcoin through regular treasury purchases.
The company’s 2026 acquisitions have pushed its holdings well above the level recorded after the merger. The May and June purchases accounted for 3,609 BTC before the latest acquisition. With the additional 147 BTC, Strive has continued building its reserve at a faster pace.
Tracking services estimate Strive’s average acquisition cost at about $94,700 per BTC across its entire treasury. However, the latest purchase price of $64,812 remained below that estimated average. As a result, the new acquisition added Bitcoin at a price below the reported cost basis of its broader holdings.
Strive’s growing Bitcoin reserve now forms a major part of its corporate financial strategy. The company continues combining Bitcoin accumulation with its asset management operations and treasury products. Meanwhile, its debt repayment and cash reserves provide additional financial resources as the strategy expands.
This article was originally published as Strive Expands Bitcoin Treasury With 147 BTC Purchase on Crypto Breaking News – your trusted source for crypto news, Bitcoin news, and blockchain updates.

Standard Chartered’s Geoff Kendrick has laid out a bullish long-term case for Chainlink (LINK), tying potential LINK growth to the expanding tokenization of real-world assets (RWAs) and the infrastructure needed to make those assets work reliably on-chain.
In a report shared with Cointelegraph, Kendrick forecast that tokenized RWAs could reach $4 trillion by the end of 2028—creating a larger market for secure, verifiable external data. He argues this could translate into a major increase in Chainlink’s fee generation and ultimately push LINK to as high as $200 by the end of 2030, up from roughly $8 at the time of the report.
Key takeaways
Standard Chartered expects tokenized RWAs to grow to $4 trillion by the end of 2028, expanding demand for secure on-chain data services.
Kendrick links that demand to increased fee generation for Chainlink and a potential LINK price target of $200 by 2030.
The forecast also projects tokenized and crypto-native decentralized finance (DeFi) assets rising to $2.7 trillion by 2030.
Risks to the forecast include slower-than-expected institutional tokenization, competitive pressure from other oracle providers, and possible technical setbacks.
Why tokenized RWAs could boost oracle demand
Kendrick’s central point is that tokenized assets require more than just on-chain execution—they need trusted external information to be brought securely to blockchains. He said the growth of tokenized RWAs would increase the need for external data delivered “securely onchain,” which could support higher fee generation for Chainlink.
The report frames Chainlink as a key infrastructure layer for that process. By Kendrick’s account, tokenized ecosystems will need dependable data feeds, interoperability across networks, privacy-preserving compliance, and integration with established financial systems—requirements that he argues only Chainlink is currently positioned to provide.
From DeFi growth to a larger “data plumbing” market
The bullish thesis extends beyond RWAs. Standard Chartered also forecast a 37-fold increase in tokenized and crypto-native assets deployed in DeFi, projecting such assets could reach $2.7 trillion by the end of 2030.
That matters because DeFi participation often depends on continuous access to verified information—whether for pricing, settlement conditions, risk parameters, compliance-related checks, or cross-chain interoperability. Kendrick suggested these use cases will require trusted data delivery, privacy-preserving compliance, and system-to-system integration, creating broader demand for oracle services across multiple DeFi and tokenization workflows.
Signals from the market: tokenized RWA volumes are rising
The report arrives as on-chain tokenized-asset activity continues to expand. Cointelegraph noted that tokenized RWA trading on decentralized exchanges reached a new all-time high of $141 billion in July, according to CryptoRank data cited in the article. The same dataset indicated this represented a 19.5% month-over-month increase, with public equities identified as a major driver.
While a single month of DEX trading volume doesn’t automatically translate into future oracle revenue, it does reinforce the direction of travel: more tokenized assets are being traded onchain, and that usually implies a larger ecosystem of issuers, exchanges, custody and compliance providers, and the middleware needed to keep systems synchronized and verifiable.
Chainlink’s position—and the caveats
In the same coverage, Chainlink was described as the leading decentralized oracle provider for cross-chain communication, with $34.4 billion in total value secured, while Chronicle was cited as second with $7.36 billion. Those figures were attributed to DefiLlama’s oracle data.
At the same time, Standard Chartered’s Kendrick stressed that the LINK price path to his $200 target is not guaranteed. In the report, potential risks include slower-than-expected institutional tokenization efforts, competition from specialist oracle providers, and potential technical setbacks that could affect performance or adoption.
For investors and builders, the practical takeaway is that the thesis depends on execution on multiple fronts: tokenization must scale, institutional participants must move beyond pilots, and the required data and compliance tooling must work smoothly at real-world volume. If any of those steps stall, the timeline—and the magnitude—of the projected LINK upside could be pressured.
Readers should watch next how tokenized asset issuance and DEX/DeFi deployment evolve through the remainder of the decade, and whether oracle competitors gain traction. The most important variable will likely be whether tokenization growth keeps translating into sustained, verifiable on-chain data demands—the same mechanism Standard Chartered’s forecast is built on.
This article was originally published as Standard Chartered Sees $4T Tokenized RWA Boost for Chainlink to $200 by 2030 on Crypto Breaking News – your trusted source for crypto news, Bitcoin news, and blockchain updates.

Strategy, the publicly traded firm with the largest corporate Bitcoin treasury, has again converted part of its BTC holdings into cash to support buybacks of its STRC preferred stock. In its latest SEC filing, the company reported a second consecutive week of Bitcoin sales used to fund repurchases of STRC shares.
According to a Monday 8-K filing with the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), Strategy sold 1,690 Bitcoin for $108.6 million between Aug. 3 and Aug. 9. The proceeds were used to buy back 1.15 million shares of its STRC preferred stock for the same $108.6 million total.
Key takeaways
Strategy sold 1,690 BTC for $108.6 million (Aug. 3–Aug. 9) to repurchase STRC preferred shares.
This was the company’s fourth disclosed Bitcoin sale of 2026, bringing 2026 total BTC sales to 6,948.
Strategy still holds 840,447 BTC with an aggregate purchase price of $63.36 billion, implying ongoing long-term exposure.
The filing shows remaining repurchase capacity under both the preferred stock and common-stock buyback programs.
Alongside STRC buybacks, Strategy continued building a US dollar reserve, reporting $4.65 billion as of Sunday.
Bitcoin sales tied directly to STRC buybacks
Strategy’s latest filing reinforces the company’s funding approach: using periodic Bitcoin liquidations to finance preferred stock repurchases. STRC is a variable-rate preferred stock structured to pay monthly dividends, and Strategy’s buybacks appear designed to manage capital structure while continuing dividend-related obligations.
On this occasion, the company reported an average net sale price of $64,262 per Bitcoin for the 1,690 BTC it sold. For comparison, Strategy’s broader Bitcoin cost basis is higher: the company cited an average purchase price of $75,385 per BTC for total holdings, including fees and expenses.
Strategy also previously disclosed a similar sequence. Earlier coverage noted that Strategy sold 1,638 BTC for $104.73 million between July 27 and Aug. 2, and used those proceeds to fund STRC repurchases as well. The current week’s sale follows that pattern closely—suggesting the company is maintaining an active, repeatable mechanism rather than relying on one-off treasury adjustments.
How much BTC Strategy has sold in 2026
While the latest transaction adds another step to Strategy’s 2026 funding routine, it does not represent a major shift away from holding BTC. The filing states the trade marked the company’s fourth disclosed Bitcoin sale of the year, bringing total 2026 BTC sales to 6,948 BTC.
After the latest sale, Strategy still holds 840,447 Bitcoin purchased for an aggregate $63.36 billion. That large remaining position matters for investors because Strategy’s balance sheet exposure to Bitcoin remains the dominant driver of its treasury value, even as the company periodically monetizes BTC to meet financial objectives.
From a market perspective, these disclosures also keep the question of “how much BTC is converted” in focus. If Strategy’s buyback-linked sales continue on a regular cadence, traders may increasingly weigh whether those conversions pressure sentiment around BTC liquidity at specific intervals—even if the firm’s long-term exposure remains intact.
Repurchase capacity and the dollar reserve build
Beyond the immediate buyback, the 8-K includes additional numbers that help map out how Strategy plans to fund and sustain the preferred stock program. The filing says Strategy has $785.2 million remaining under its digital credit securities repurchase program, which covers the preferred stock. It also reports another $1 billion available under its Class A common-stock repurchase program.
Strategy simultaneously continued building its US dollar reserves. The company reported a $4.65 billion balance as of Sunday, up from roughly $4 billion in the previous weekly update. In the filing, Strategy said $650 million of $653.1 million in net proceeds from recent MSTR stock sales went toward the reserve.
The reported cash number also includes expected proceeds from at-the-market (ATM) sales that had not yet settled at the time of the update. Taken together, the reserve build is relevant because it may reduce the need for frequent immediate BTC liquidations under certain market conditions—while still leaving BTC as the core long-duration holding.
STRC share momentum alongside buybacks
Strategy’s STRC buybacks come at a moment when the preferred stock has shown strength. The article cited that STRC shares rallied during Strategy’s recent repurchases, reclaiming $90 on Aug. 3 after rebounding 24% from their June lows.
In premarket trading Monday, STRC was up 0.46% to $95.45, after closing Friday at $95. According to Yahoo Finance, Strategy’s MSTR shares were also slightly higher, up 0.25% to $100.26 at the time of the report.
While price moves in any single session can’t be attributed solely to buybacks, the sequence is still notable: repurchases funded by BTC sales are arriving while market participants appear willing to bid up STRC from earlier weakness. For investors, the practical takeaway is that Strategy’s corporate actions are being tested in real time by equity market liquidity, particularly around preferred stock where dividends and variable-rate mechanics can influence demand.
Looking ahead, readers should watch two things: whether Strategy continues the pace of BTC-to-STRC conversions disclosed in its SEC filings, and how the firm’s remaining repurchase capacity and US dollar reserve evolve week to week. Any change in the cadence—or in the average net sale price compared with its cost basis—could affect how investors interpret the trade-off between maintaining BTC exposure and supporting the company’s preferred stock funding engine.
This article was originally published as Strategy Uses 1,690 BTC to Fund $108.6M STRC Buyback on Crypto Breaking News – your trusted source for crypto news, Bitcoin news, and blockchain updates.

Standard Chartered’s Geoff Kendrick has outlined a bullish long-term scenario for Chainlink’s LINK token, arguing that the accelerating rollout of tokenized real-world assets could significantly expand demand for secure onchain data infrastructure.
In a Monday report shared with Cointelegraph, Kendrick suggested tokenized assets reaching $4 trillion by the end of 2028 could translate into a more than 25-fold increase in LINK by the end of the decade—potentially pushing the token toward $200 by 2030, compared with roughly $8 at the time of the analysis.
Key takeaways
Standard Chartered forecasts tokenized real-world assets could reach $4 trillion by end-2028, which the report links to increased onchain data needs.
Kendrick argues that securely bringing external data onchain at scale may raise Chainlink’s fee generation, supporting an end-2030 outlook of $200 for LINK.
The bank also projected a 37-fold rise in tokenized and crypto-native assets deployed in DeFi, reaching $2.7 trillion by 2030.
Cointelegraph notes that tokenized RWA trading on decentralized exchanges reached a new all-time high of $141 billion in July, according to CryptoRank data.
Standard Chartered flagged several risks to its LINK price view, including slower institutional tokenization, competitive pressure from other oracle providers, and potential technical issues.
Why tokenized assets could boost oracle demand
Kendrick’s thesis centers on a practical bottleneck: as tokenized real-world assets move onto blockchains, the ecosystem increasingly depends on reliable, permissioned, and verifiable information to function correctly onchain.
According to the report, tokenized assets will require “external data” to be brought securely onchain. Kendrick linked this to potential increases in Chainlink’s fee generation, suggesting that the LINK token could benefit if tokenized asset growth translates into broader network usage.
The bank’s onchain growth scenario for DeFi and tokenization
The report does not focus solely on tokenized RWA volumes. It also points to broader DeFi expansion, forecasting a 37-fold increase in tokenized and crypto-native assets deployed in decentralized finance—rising to $2.7 trillion by the end of 2030.
To support that kind of growth, Kendrick argued these assets will need more than just tokenization mechanics. The report highlights requirements including trusted data sourcing, interoperability between networks, privacy-preserving compliance, and integrations with existing financial systems.
In Kendrick’s view, meeting these needs is a capability currently embodied by Chainlink—an argument framed around the role of decentralized oracle infrastructure and the practical integration of offchain information into onchain applications.
Market momentum: tokenized RWA activity on DEXs keeps rising
The bullish framework arrives as tokenized RWA trading activity appears to be gaining traction in public markets.
Cointelegraph cited CryptoRank data showing tokenized RWA trading on decentralized exchanges reached a new all-time high of $141 billion in July. The same dataset was described as representing a 19.5% month-over-month increase, with public equities listed as a major driver.
That growth aligns with the report’s underlying premise: if more tokenized products—particularly those tied to traditional financial instruments—are actively traded onchain, the ecosystem’s dependency on secure and interoperable data workflows tends to rise in parallel.
Chainlink’s competitive positioning and the risks to the forecast
Standard Chartered’s bullish conclusion also builds on Chainlink’s standing in the oracle sector.
The report referenced crosschain oracle infrastructure metrics compiled by data aggregation services. Cointelegraph notes that Chainlink is ranked as the leading decentralized oracle provider for crosschain communication, citing $34.4 billion in total value secured, while Chronicle is listed second with $7.36 billion, according to DefiLlama’s oracle data.
Even with that positioning, Kendrick’s report included explicit caveats. Standard Chartered said risks to its LINK price forecast include slower-than-expected institutional tokenization initiatives, competition from specialist oracle providers, and potential technical setbacks that could affect performance or adoption.
What investors should watch next
Whether LINK reaches the kind of valuation implied by Standard Chartered’s end-2030 outlook will depend on how quickly real-world asset tokenization scales beyond pilots, and whether oracle infrastructure sees sustained fee growth alongside rising onchain trading and DeFi deployment. Readers should monitor both RWA adoption metrics and signs of intensifying oracle competition or execution risk.
This article was originally published as Standard Chartered Sees Tokenized RWA Growth to $4T, LINK Could Hit $200 by 2030 on Crypto Breaking News – your trusted source for crypto news, Bitcoin news, and blockchain updates.

The Clarity Act has been punted to September after lawmakers missed the August window due to disagreements over ethics provisions, stablecoin yields, illicit finance measures, banking industry concerns, and a packed Senate calendar.
According to a statement by US Senator Jim Risch, the Senate will hold a procedural vote on the act on September 15. The delay brings the United States Securities and Exchange Commission’s (SEC) rule-making agenda in the spotlight. SEC Chair Paul Atkins has stated that the commission can, in partnership with the CFTC, provide a regulatory bridge while the Senate continues working on the act.
Clarity Act Faces Another Delay
The Clarity Act has been delayed yet again after lawmakers failed to agree on several key issues, including stablecoin yields and ethics provisions, the two sticking points. Senate Democrats have ruled out supporting the bill, arguing it does not satisfactorily address potential conflicts of interest involving federal officials, including the president, and their digital asset holdings. They have demanded stronger language in the bill, highlighting President Trump’s 2025 financial disclosure, which reported $1.4 billion in crypto-related income.
Additionally, the banking lobby introduced last-minute changes to key provisions dealing with stablecoin rules, while a packed legislative schedule meant the Senate prioritized other legislation, including funding extensions, Russia sanctions, and federal nominations over the Clarity Act.
Senators Ruben Gallego and Thom Tillis sent a bipartisan ethics proposal to the White House. The proposal would give state attorneys the authority to enforce restrictions on federal officials issuing digital assets. The proposal also requires President Trump to divest his crypto interests. However, President Trump has yet to approve the proposal.
Vote Set For September
Senate Majority Leader John Thune confirmed the delay on Thursday, while Senator Jim Risch stated that the Senate will begin the process of passing the Clarity Act on September 15.
“On September 15th, the U.S. Senate will start the process of passing the Clarity Act. The stakes couldn’t be higher. We must advance this important bill and make it law.”
Risch argued that the delay in passing the legislation could leave US citizens vulnerable to scam and fraud attempts, while shifting jobs and investments abroad.
Democratic support is crucial in ensuring the bill passes the Senate. The Republicans hold only 53 seats, significantly short of the 60 seats needed to invoke cloture and defeat a filibuster. While Republicans and crypto-friendly Democrats try to iron out a compromise, Senator Elizabeth Warren wants the Clarity Act to be rejected because it does not offer enough protection for investors and the financial system.
SEC Takes Center Stage
The legislative deadlock puts regulatory responsibility on the SEC while Senators continue efforts to get the legislation passed. SEC Chair Paul Atkins proposed working with the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) to provide a regulatory bridge and create a parallel regulatory track. Atkins stated that the collaboration would include token classifications and potential exemptions, permitting some on-chain transactions under specific federal requirements. The agencies issued joint guidance in March, stating that most cryptocurrencies are not securities.
The SEC’s July regulatory agenda targeted specific policy areas, including crypto, custody, fundraising, and tokenized securities. Separately, it is creating rules governing how crypto can be held, traded, and issued under federal securities laws.
However, the SEC Chair has clearly distinguished agency rules from a market framework, calling Congressional legislation “the way to future-proof” crypto regulation in the US. Atkins outlined the SEC’s authority regarding crypto, stating that the agency could clarify how securities laws could apply to crypto, address custody rules, establish exemptions, and create rules for securities-related on-chain activities.
Crypto Industry Not Worried
While the delay may have disappointed the industry, key figures believe crypto will thrive even if the Clarity Act fails to pass. Bitwise CIO Matt Hougan believes the industry will move forward despite regulatory uncertainty and legislative delays. Hougan stated,
“Crypto will be fine. Even if Clarity doesn’t pass, the crypto industry will find a way forward.”
Investors, market watchers, and analysts are hopeful after Senator Thune said the Senate will vote on the bill in September. However, with a packed legislative schedule, it might be difficult for the bill to pass this year.
Chris Niebuhr, analyst at Beacon Policy Advisors, stated,
“Nothing is dead until the year is up, technically speaking, but it’s hard to see the issues that have come up being solved in the time they have left.”
Disclaimer: This article is provided for informational purposes only. It is not offered or intended to be used as legal, tax, investment, financial, or other advice.
This article was originally published as Clarity Act Delayed Until September As Impasse Over Ethics Provisions Bogs Down Negotiations on Crypto Breaking News – your trusted source for crypto news, Bitcoin news, and blockchain updates.

Bitcoin opened the week by printing fresh August highs as traders digested incoming U.S. inflation figures and renewed attention on global rate expectations. With the latest month-to-date strength pushing price toward the mid-$60,000s, market participants are now focusing on whether key technical levels can hold—especially with volatility risk rising ahead of CPI and PPI releases.
At the same time, the macro backdrop remains complicated: markets are still recalibrating the path for Federal Reserve policy into 2026, while the Japanese yen has moved back toward the widely watched 160-per-dollar area after recent U.S.-linked intervention. The mix of macro drivers and onchain positioning is helping shape a market debate that’s increasingly split between large holders and smaller retail addresses.
Key takeaways
U.S. CPI and PPI data land this week, arriving after mixed-but-cooler inflation and labor signals that have shifted rate-hike odds.
The Japanese yen is back near the 160 level following earlier intervention dynamics that traders link to broader risk-asset liquidity.
BTC bulls are centered on the $65,800 region, framed by multiple traders and order-book-derived liquidation focus.
CryptoQuant data points to a multi-month high in accumulation among large Bitcoin wallets (addresses holding >10,000 BTC).
Despite pockets of strength, onchain “cycle” indicators still suggest the bear market phase may not be over—particularly in the second half of 2026.
Inflation data and the Fed’s tightening/pausing calculus
This week’s market attention is firmly on the release schedule for the Consumer Price Index and Producer Price Index. The July CPI is due on Wednesday and the July PPI on Thursday, milestones that often move expectations around the Federal Reserve’s future interest-rate path.
Recent inflation signals have been uneven, and the new prints arrive amid additional uncertainty tied to the U.S.-Iran conflict. According to Reuters, oil prices have remained sensitive to developments around the Strait of Hormuz—an exposure that can feed through to CPI depending on whether shipping conditions deteriorate or reopen. SS WealthStreet founder Sugandha Sachdeva told Reuters that crude oil remains “caught between opposing forces” as markets weigh the possibility of a breakthrough over the strait versus Iran’s conditions for reopening.
Beyond oil, the immediate context for traders is the direction of prior U.S. macro releases. Cointelegraph previously noted that last month’s CPI and PPI results surprised to the downside, with CPI posting its largest monthly decline since April 2020. Labor-market data also contributed to a cooler tone: after nonfarm payrolls fell short of expectations, Cointelegraph reported weaker-than-expected labor conditions and rising odds of a more dovish Fed.
Those changes have mattered for rate pricing. As reflected in CME Group’s FedWatch Tool, the probability of the Fed pausing at its Sept. 16 meeting stood at 56% as of Monday, after earlier market pricing leaned more heavily toward a hike. In the latest edition of its newsletter, Mosaic Asset Company wrote that a week earlier implied odds favored a September rate hike, but now pricing “slightly favor[s] the Fed keeping rates on hold,” with just one hike before pausing well into next year.
Yen dynamics return to the center of risk-asset debate
While U.S. data drives part of the narrative, traders are also monitoring currency flows that can alter liquidity across global markets. The Japanese yen has remained a focal point after a rare episode of U.S.-Japanese coordination—the first joint intervention since the late 1990s.
After USD/JPY weakened to its lowest levels since 1986 earlier in August, the New York Fed—acting on behalf of the U.S. Treasury—purchased yen using euros via the Exchange Stabilization Fund. U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent indicated at the time that further interventions were possible, arguing the U.S. strongly supports Japan’s steps to correct what he characterized as the yen’s “substantial undervaluation.”
In the days since, the yen’s trajectory has been mixed. It initially strengthened toward around 156 per dollar, but has since weakened again and is back above 158.50, edging toward the key 160 level.
Brookings Institution senior fellow Robin Brooks cautioned that intervention mechanics alone may not reverse the underlying trend. In a Substack post, he compared the effectiveness of the move to prior “rate check” dynamics around Japan’s Feb. 8 general election, arguing that price action didn’t show meaningful reversal and suggesting the intervention is unlikely to stop the yen’s weakening trend.
Earlier Cointelegraph reporting also flagged how the yen carry trade can influence liquidity conditions for crypto and other risk assets. QCP Capital similarly emphasized that the larger issue is whether higher Japanese yields change incentives for investors to allocate capital overseas.
BTC technical focus shifts to $65,800 while traders watch liquidity
Bitcoin’s price action during the week has been defined by a blend of breakout expectations and resistance from widely watched moving averages. Into Sunday’s weekly close, BTC printed month-to-date highs around $65,420, then consolidated as traditional markets reopened.
TradingView data continued to show BTC/USD stuck in a range, with the 50-month exponential moving average (EMA) acting as overhead resistance near $65,827. Still, trader Michaël van de Poppe argued that three breakout signals are forming based on traditional momentum indicators. He reported “strong” bullish divergences in both MACD and RSI across three-day and one-week time frames—an approach that looks for confirmation even when price temporarily stalls.
In van de Poppe’s framework, the pivotal line is $65,800. He suggested that if the $65,800 weekly level breaks, a “volatile move upwards” could follow due to short-side liquidity being forced to exit after consolidation. Separately, CoinGlass order-book-derived liquidation mapping also highlighted $65,800 as a key area where liquidations could cluster if price turns decisively.
At the time of reporting, cross-crypto short liquidations over the prior 24 hours were $53 million, indicating that while the market is not in a full-scale expansion phase, traders are positioned enough for moves around key levels to have feedback effects.
Other technical commentary from CryptoQuant contributor Andrew Kamsky pointed to a falling wedge pattern on the daily chart and described a potential “decision window” for the range by Aug. 17. He framed scenarios where rejection between $66.4K and $66.8K followed by higher lows could build toward an ascending triangle, while a move back inside the wedge would weaken the bullish setup and a break below support would invalidate it. As an upside possibility, Kamsky cited $72,000 as a “possible scenario.”
Onchain signals: large-wallet accumulation rises as smaller holders reduce
The most constructive onchain development comes from growing activity among large Bitcoin investors. CryptoQuant’s analysis points to a sharp shift toward accumulation among addresses holding more than 10,000 BTC. On a 60-day rolling basis, that cohort’s balance increased by 46,420 BTC on Aug. 9, which CryptoQuant described as the largest uptick since March 15.
CryptoQuant also emphasized that the latest reading nearly doubled the 23,238 BTC accumulation peak recorded in mid-March. In other words, the acceleration has not merely continued—it has intensified.
Just as importantly, CryptoQuant described a divergence between large holders and smaller addresses. After accumulating through July, wallets holding between 0.1 BTC and 1 BTC distributed roughly 9,700 BTC over the same 60-day window through Aug. 9. The implication is that large holders are adding exposure while smaller participants are trimming, a positioning split that matters because it can influence how quickly demand absorbs sell pressure if price tests lower support levels.
This week’s accumulation narrative also fits into a broader backdrop of participation concerns. Cointelegraph previously cited CryptoQuant-era observations of strong accumulation between $62,000 and $65,000 alongside order-book and market-structure debates. Glassnode cofounder Rafael Schultze-Kraft added another angle in social commentary: he described spot markets as “virtually dead,” pointing to a daily spot turnover ratio of 0.32% (the lowest level in his data) and a roughly 64% year-over-year decline in dollar volume.
Cycle indicators still warn that the bear market may be lingering
Even with accumulation data and bullish divergences on short-term charts, some analysts argue the market remains in a late-stage bear-market condition. Schultze-Kraft discussed a record “capitulation” phase in a basket of 45 indicators tracked via Glassnode’s Bitcoin Cycle Position Heatmap. In his description, the market is in its coldest stretch since FTX—late in the bear cycle but not yet in the most definitive “deep blue” stage that previously marked a floor.
CoinGlass offers a similar framing through its Bull Cycle Peak Indicators compilation, which it reports as sitting 32% toward an ideal “sell” zone. Taken together, these approaches suggest that while selective accumulation and liquidity dynamics may support short-term upside attempts, structural reversal confirmation may still require more broad participation than what spot metrics currently indicate.
Trader and analyst Rekt Capital added a historical lens by comparing the current chart structure to the 2022 bear market. In a weekend post, he argued that Bitcoin was forming lower highs relative to a July upside wick in 2022, while August produced a higher high in that earlier cycle. He also reiterated that Bitcoin has yet to reclaim the 50-month EMA around $65,827—presenting the same technical ingredient that often precedes a deeper bear-market capitulation phase.
For traders and investors, the next decision points are likely to converge: how CPI and PPI shift Fed expectations, whether the yen’s approach to 160 changes global liquidity incentives, and whether BTC can turn $65,800 into a confirmed support level rather than another range boundary. Watch whether onchain accumulation broadens alongside spot activity—or whether the market continues to show strength dominated by a smaller set of large holders.
This article was originally published as Bitcoin Weekly: Markets Shift From Fed Pause Bets to CPI Focus on Crypto Breaking News – your trusted source for crypto news, Bitcoin news, and blockchain updates.

For years, banks ignored stablecoins. Then they tried to regulate them. Now they’re buying them for $1.8 billion. That’s not adoption. That’s capitulation.
The Acquisition Nobody’s Framing Correctly
Mastercard just acquired BVNK for $1.8 billion.
The headlines called it a “strategic move into digital payments.” A “bold bet on stablecoins.” An “expansion of Mastercard’s crypto infrastructure.”
All technically accurate. All missing the point.
Here’s the correct framing: one of the most powerful financial institutions on the planet just paid $1.8 billion to buy something it spent years trying to make irrelevant.
That’s not a strategic move. That’s a surrender with a press release.
What BVNK Actually Is
BVNK is a stablecoin infrastructure company. It allows businesses to send, receive, and settle payments using stablecoins, without the friction of traditional banking rails.
It’s fast. It’s global. It settles in seconds, not days. It doesn’t close on weekends. It doesn’t charge $25 wire fees. It doesn’t require the sender and receiver to have accounts at the same institution or even the same country.
In other words: it does everything that Mastercard’s network does, but without Mastercard.
That’s what Mastercard just paid $1.8 billion for.
Not to build better technology. To eliminate a competitor before it eliminated them.
The Timeline Of Denial
To understand what this acquisition means, you have to understand how long it took the traditional finance world to take stablecoins seriously.
2018-2019: Stablecoins are dismissed as a crypto curiosity. Useful for traders to park funds between positions. Not a real payments threat.
2020: USDC and Tether volumes start growing. Banks notice but frame it as a niche use case. “Real businesses use real banks.”
2021: Stablecoin transaction volumes surpass Visa’s annual volume for the first time. Banks start paying attention, not to adopt, but to lobby against.
2022-2023: Regulatory pressure mounts. Banks argue stablecoins are unsafe, unregulated, a systemic risk. The implicit message: regulate them out of existence.
2024: Stablecoins settle $46 trillion annually. The regulatory campaign fails. Congress starts moving toward legitimizing stablecoins rather than banning them.
2025: JPMorgan, Citigroup, and others begin building their own stablecoin products. The strategy shifts from “kill it” to “become it.”
2026: Mastercard pays $1.8 billion for BVNK.
That’s not a story about innovation. That’s a story about an industry losing a war and buying peace.
Why $1.8 Billion Is An Admission
Every acquisition has a story underneath the press release. Usually it’s one of three things:
Acqui-hire: We want your team. The product is secondary.
Market access: We want your customers. Cheaper to buy than build.
Threat elimination: You were going to hurt us. Now you won’t.
The BVNK acquisition is the third.
BVNK wasn’t just building a payments product. It was building a payments product that didn’t need Mastercard. Its infrastructure routes around the card networks entirely, no interchange fees, no network rails, no Mastercard.
Mastercard paying $1.8 billion for BVNK doesn’t add BVNK’s technology to Mastercard’s arsenal. It removes BVNK’s technology from the competitive landscape.
That’s what $1.8 billion buys: the absence of a threat.
What Mastercard Is Actually Afraid Of
Mastercard’s business model is elegant and simple: sit between buyers and sellers, charge a small percentage of every transaction that crosses your network, and collect that fee billions of times per day.
The model has worked for 60 years because there was no alternative. If you wanted to accept payments, you needed a card network. Period.
Stablecoins are the first credible alternative.
A merchant who accepts USDC doesn’t pay interchange fees. A business that settles invoices in stablecoins doesn’t need a correspondent bank. A company that pays international contractors in stablecoins bypasses the entire wire transfer system.
Every transaction that settles on stablecoin rails is a transaction that doesn’t cross Mastercard’s network.
At $46 trillion in annual stablecoin volume and growing, this isn’t a rounding error. It’s an existential question about whether the card network model survives the next decade.
Mastercard’s answer: buy the infrastructure before it scales beyond reach.
The Pattern Across Financial Services
Mastercard isn’t alone. The pattern is consistent across traditional finance:
JPMorgan spent years dismissing Bitcoin, then launched its own blockchain (JPM Coin), then integrated crypto products for wealth clients.
BlackRock called Bitcoin a “money laundering index” in 2017. It now manages $175 billion in Bitcoin ETF products.
PayPal fought crypto regulation for years. Now it issues its own stablecoin (PYUSD).
Visa called Bitcoin “not a payment system.” Now it runs stablecoin settlement pilots.
The sequence is always the same: dismissal → regulation attempts → failed regulation → build your own → acquire the competition.
Every institution eventually reaches the same conclusion: the technology works. The users want it. You can’t stop it. So you buy it.
BVNK at $1.8 billion is just the latest data point in a pattern that’s been playing out for five years.
What This Means For Crypto’s Future
The BVNK acquisition has implications beyond a single deal.
Stablecoins are no longer a crypto product. When Mastercard pays $1.8 billion for stablecoin infrastructure, stablecoins become financial infrastructure. The distinction between “crypto” and “payments” collapses.
The regulatory argument shifts. Banks argued that stablecoins were dangerous because they were unregulated. Now that banks are buying stablecoin companies, that argument becomes self-undermining. You can’t argue an asset class is too dangerous to exist while simultaneously acquiring it.
The innovation cycle accelerates. When incumbents start buying challengers, the challengers that weren’t acquired build faster. BVNK being acquired doesn’t eliminate the threat; it signals to every stablecoin startup that they’re worth acquiring. That’s fuel for more innovation, not less.
The price of independence goes up. Every stablecoin startup just got a new benchmark. If BVNK is worth $1.8 billion to Mastercard, what’s the next one worth? The acquisition creates a market for exactly the kind of infrastructure banks are trying to buy.
The Irony Worth Noting
The entire premise of crypto was disintermediation. Remove the middlemen. Let value move directly between people without banks taking a cut.
Now Mastercard, the quintessential financial middleman, owns a stablecoin company.
The technology that was supposed to eliminate Mastercard is now inside Mastercard.
That’s not a failure of crypto. That’s what happens when technology works well enough that the incumbents can’t ignore it. They integrate it, wrap it in their existing infrastructure, and charge for access.
This is what happened to the internet. The open web became the platform economy. Free communication became mediated by Google, Facebook, and Amazon. The technology remained. The disintermediation didn’t.
Stablecoins are following the same path. The technology is real. The utility is proven. And now the institutions are buying it, which means they’ll also control access to it.
Whether that’s good or bad depends on what you thought stablecoins were for.
The Question Crypto Has To Answer
If Mastercard owns BVNK, and JPMorgan owns its blockchain, and PayPal issues its own stablecoin, at what point does “crypto” just become “finance with better infrastructure”?
That’s not a rhetorical question. It has real implications for everyone who believed in the original premise: a financial system that doesn’t require institutional permission.
Every acquisition of a crypto company by a traditional institution is a step toward a world where the technology is decentralized but the access is not.
You can use stablecoins, as long as you use the ones Mastercard controls. You can hold Bitcoin, as long as you hold it through a BlackRock ETF. You can access DeFi, as long as you access it through a compliant on-ramp.
The rails are being bought. One acquisition at a time.
What Comes Next
Expect more acquisitions. Not because traditional finance suddenly loves crypto. Because the alternative, competing against it, is increasingly expensive.
BVNK at $1.8 billion is a bargain compared to what it would cost Mastercard to lose 10% of global payment volume to stablecoin rails over the next five years.
This is how incumbent industries absorb disruption: not by fighting it, but by buying it.
The crypto industry should take note. Because every acquisition is also a validation and a warning.
Validated: the technology works. The use case is real. The value is undeniable.
Warning: the infrastructure you built to escape the system is being bought by the system.
The question is whether there’s enough left outside the perimeter to still call it a revolution.
This article was originally published as Mastercard Just Paid $1.8 Billion For A Stablecoin Startup on Crypto Breaking News – your trusted source for crypto news, Bitcoin news, and blockchain updates.

Quantum computing is increasingly framed as a looming break in the cryptography that underpins major blockchains, but one overlooked risk is operational: an attacker may not need to hack exchanges or wallets in the usual way. Instead, a sufficiently powerful quantum computer could derive private keys directly from public data on-chain, enabling theft without triggering clear evidence of a “cryptographic break,” according to Christopher Smith, CEO and co-founder of blockchain security startup Quantus Network.
Smith’s comments highlight why so-called “Q-day” — the moment when quantum machines can realistically defeat widely used public-key systems — could look less like a dramatic breach and more like confusing, untraceable losses. Combined with rapid progress in quantum-related research and algorithmic improvements, the discussion is shifting from whether quantum attacks are possible to how quickly they may become practically actionable.
Key takeaways
Quantum attacks may be hard to detect because compromising keys via public information could leave little or no forensic trace of “how” funds were stolen.
Early targets might not be the most famous holdings; researchers point to high-value administrative keys and hot-wallet access as more likely first moves.
Estimates for when quantum systems can break elliptic-curve cryptography vary widely, with uncertainty still high across industry leaders.
Several teams are already preparing post-quantum signature migrations, reflecting a view that waiting for certainty is not an option.
Why quantum theft could evade traditional incident response
In conventional attacks, a breach often leaves clues—malware, compromised systems, exposed credentials, or unusual access patterns. Smith argues that a quantum-enabled key derivation would be different. “When someone cracks your key, you don’t get a memo saying how they did it,” he told Cointelegraph.
In his scenario, an attacker could use the public keys available on-chain to infer the corresponding private keys using quantum computation, then move funds without necessarily breaching the victim’s internal infrastructure. This creates a high-stakes detection problem: even well-run organizations might only discover the problem after funds have already been drained, while forensic teams see no “breach” in the traditional sense.
Smith described this as potentially producing a confusing outcome where “the only forensic evidence would be that there was no breach.” For investors, exchanges, custody providers, and institutional operators, that distinction matters: if incident response teams are trained to look for signs of intrusion, they may need new playbooks designed around cryptographic compromise rather than system compromise.
What attackers might go after first
The public debate around Q-day often centers on Bitcoin and the fear that dormant holdings could suddenly become vulnerable. Cointelegraph notes that Satoshi Nakamoto’s estimated holdings are often cited in the tens of billions, with one reference in the report placing the figure at $63 billion at the time of writing. Smith’s framing, however, suggests the first targets might be different and could be driven by attacker economics and operational convenience rather than symbolic value.
He argued that state-grade targets could be prioritized, pointing to “military systems and state secrets.” Within crypto specifically, he suggested that the highest-value keys might be operational or administrative rather than widely celebrated. “If I’m focusing on blockchain, what’s the single most valuable key? It’s probably Tether’s minting key,” Smith said.
His reasoning is that a quantum-capable attacker might mint tokens from an administrative wallet and sell into the market before the issuer can fully react. The report further notes that USDT is multi-chain and that some networks supporting its issuance are already working on post-quantum migration efforts.
Security researcher Sean Cheetham from Blockchain Capital added another angle: rather than aiming at the most famous cold wallets, attackers could focus on hot wallets at exchanges. In his view, those targets are more likely to avoid triggering alarm bells because their access patterns can resemble ordinary operational risk.
Smith also described an alternative tactic: a quantum-enabled theft could be disguised through plausible deniability. He suggested an attacker might present the incident as an ordinary loss of keys, using the uncertainty of how the keys were compromised to reduce the chance of immediate escalation.
How the timeline for Q-day keeps slipping and sharpening
One reason Q-day remains difficult to plan for is that timelines are unsettled. The report highlights recent developments that have compressed estimates for when quantum machines could attack elliptic-curve cryptography.
It points to a March update in which Google accelerated a post-quantum migration timeline to 2029, citing an AI-assisted breakthrough indicating elliptic curve cryptography could be cracked with fewer physical qubits than previously thought. Cointelegraph also attributes an explanation for why forecasts may have missed the mark to the parallel growth of AI-assisted approaches to quantum problem-solving.
Still, consensus is lacking. Smith, whose company is building a blockchain network intended to be quantum-resistant from launch, said there is a “50-50” chance the capability arrives by 2028, while Cheetham expects the early 2030s as “almost a certainty” and frames an earlier arrival as a trailing probability.
Michael Coates, chief information security officer at the Solana Foundation, declined to give a precise estimate during an earlier interview, saying “there’s no way to know,” while noting that industry discussions have often treated quantum timelines as “five years away” for much longer than a decade. He added that while uncertainty should temper prediction, it should not delay action.
Across these views, the common theme is not a shared date but a shared urgency: improving forecasts may be faster than compliance cycles and security migrations, so teams are trying to reduce dependency on assumptions.
Post-quantum migrations are already becoming the default security posture
Even with timeline disagreement, the report emphasizes that blockchains are not waiting for a clear verdict. It quotes NGRAVE CEO Roy Blackstone arguing that threat models have underestimated how quickly AI could advance alongside quantum technology, but regardless of exact timing, the migration work is underway.
Smith said Quantus is focused on launching a blockchain designed to be quantum-resistant from the outset, reflecting a “bake it in” approach rather than a last-minute retrofit. Blackstone similarly stressed that damage would be “catastrophic” if systems did not migrate, and that blockchains have begun shifting toward post-quantum signatures.
For market participants, this creates a different way to think about quantum risk. Instead of treating Q-day as a single future cliff, readers may need to evaluate how resilient different networks are today—particularly whether they rely heavily on legacy public-key schemes, and whether migration strategies are actively implemented across critical components.
What to watch next is less about a single predicted year and more about measurable migration progress: whether major ecosystems complete post-quantum signature adoption in a verifiable way, and whether security teams update incident response procedures to account for cryptographic compromise that may not look like a conventional breach.
This article was originally published as Quantus Founder: First Crypto Quantum Attack May Mimic a Breach on Crypto Breaking News – your trusted source for crypto news, Bitcoin news, and blockchain updates.

Bitcoin (BTC) briefly crossed $65,000 early on Monday, holding its gains over the weekend and reporting an increase of nearly 4% over the past week. Bulls defended key levels during last week’s pullback, but the flagship cryptocurrency remains well below its 100-day EMA at $66,905.
Ethereum (ETH) and Ripple (XRP) are also showing positive signs. ETH is up 3.60% over the past seven days, while XRP held above $1, posting a marginal recovery after a significant 5% decline.
Bitcoin (BTC) Above $65,000
Bitcoin (BTC) closed July with a substantial decline of almost 3% to $62,825. The price rebounded on Sunday (August 2) to reclaim $63,000 but registered another substantial decline on Monday ($62,743) before rebounding to $63,466 as buyers and sellers struggled to exert influence. Buyers gained control on Tuesday, and the flagship cryptocurrency reached $64,891 on Friday (August 7), driven by a weaker-than-expected jobs report that eased concerns about another interest rate hike. CoinGlass data shows Spot Bitcoin ETFs also registered substantial inflows, supporting price action, while whale accumulation provided support.
BTC is currently trading above $65,000, above the 50-day EMA. However, it remains below the 100 and 200-day EMAs, suggesting near-term strength within a larger downtrend. The Relative Strength Index (RSI) sits between 50 and 55, suggesting a slight bullish bias, while the Moving Average Convergence Divergence (MACD) indicates a gradual build-up of buying pressure.
BTC continues to face resistance at the 100 and 200-day EMAs. A close above these levels could suggest the market is entering a long-term bullish trend. On the other hand, if BTC loses the $64,000 level, it could start a deeper correction, taking the price closer to $60,000. A drop below this level could trigger liquidations and spark marketwide panic.
Markets Positive
Ethereum (ETH) and other cryptocurrencies also traded in positive territory, with the exception of Ripple (XRP), which is down 3% over the past week. ETH crossed $1,900 last week, reaching a day high of $1,932 on August 7. The world’s second-largest cryptocurrency is currently trading at $1,925, just above its 100-day EMA of $1,924. A decisive close above this level could fuel a push towards $2,000, a level not seen since May 2026. BNB is up nearly 4% over the past week, while Solana (SOL) is up almost 6% as it continues building momentum. The overall crypto market cap is also positive, up 0.32% to $2.21 trillion, according to data from CoinMarketCap.
Traditional markets also traded in positive territory, with the MSCI All Country World Index rising 0.1%. Japan’s Nikkei and South Korea’s Kospi also recorded substantial gains, while a softer-than-expected jobs report pushed the S&P 500 to record levels. Among chipmakers, Taiwan Semiconductor and SK Hynix also recorded positive movement.
Brent briefly crossed $84 before a marginal decline to $83.60 after US-Iran talks to reopen the Strait of Hormuz bore little fruit. Meanwhile, the US Dollar strengthened against other major global currencies, and the 10-year yield reached 4.66%.
A Closer Look At Ripple (XRP) Price Action
Ripple (XRP) has seen substantial movement over the past week. The altcoin recorded a sharp decline last week, falling over 5%. However, it held above $1 and made a marginal recovery over the weekend. XRP is currently trading around $1.03, well below the 50-day EMA at $1.10, which is acting as the immediate resistance. The RSI is around 39, while the MACD is negative, indicating a near-term bearish bias. XRP has strong support at $1, a level where buyers could step in and stop the downtrend.
A Crucial Week
A wave of market data is due this week, starting with Wednesday’s Consumer Price Report (CPI) data following Friday’s jobs report. The data could help gauge whether the market has withstood geopolitical headwinds after a noticeable improvement in June. CPI fell in June, but the resumption of conflicts in the Middle East could impact the July report. Energy prices have risen again after oil shipments through the State of Hormuz and the Bab el-Mandeb were impacted, pressuring the price of other goods as well.
Producer Price Index (PPI) data is due on Thursday. PPI numbers were higher than expected in May but declined in June. An increase could indicate that prices will rise as businesses pass rising expenses to consumers. Weekly jobless claim data is due Thursday, while retail and consumer sentiment data is expected on Friday.
Disclaimer: This article is provided for informational purposes only. It is not offered or intended to be used as legal, tax, investment, financial, or other advice.
This article was originally published as Bitcoin (BTC) Crosses $65,000, Ethereum (ETH) Eyes Possible Breakout, Markets Face Crucial Week on Crypto Breaking News – your trusted source for crypto news, Bitcoin news, and blockchain updates.

Australia’s financial crime watchdog has ordered Cryptolink’s Bitcoin ATM network offline for three months, citing unresolved compliance concerns under anti-money laundering rules.
According to the Australian Transaction Reports and Analysis Centre (AUSTRAC), the suspension of Cryptolink’s Virtual Asset Service Provider (VASP) registration—effective for a three-month period starting Sunday—means the company’s crypto ATMs will not be permitted to operate during that time. The move comes as Australian regulators have intensified scrutiny of crypto ATM activity, including alleged misuse by criminals.
Key takeaways
AUSTRAC suspended Cryptolink’s VASP registration for three months, taking its crypto ATMs out of service during the suspension.
The regulator cited failures to meet basic reporting obligations, especially threshold transaction reports, and said the company did not respond to information requests.
AUSTRAC said it remains concerned about the ability to manage “high-risk transactions” through crypto ATMs (CATMs).
The action follows prior enforcement steps in 2025, including an enforceable undertaking tied to alleged late reporting and risk assessment gaps.
AUSTRAC suspends Cryptolink’s ability to operate
AUSTRAC CEO Brendan Thomas said Monday that Cryptolink’s VASP registration has been suspended for three months, beginning Sunday. In practical terms, the suspension prevents Cryptolink’s Bitcoin ATMs from operating because the company lacks active authorization to provide virtual asset services during the period.
AUSTRAC also pointed to specific compliance shortfalls. The regulator said Cryptolink failed to satisfy core reporting requirements, “particularly threshold transaction reports.” AUSTRAC added that the company did not respond to the regulator’s request for information—an issue that, in AUSTRAC’s framing, compounded the broader monitoring and oversight concerns.
“As part of our continued focus on digital currency as a money laundering risk, AUSTRAC has ongoing concerns about the company’s ability to manage high-risk transactions through its CATMs,” Thomas said.
Why regulators are targeting crypto ATMs
Australia has the highest concentration of crypto ATMs across the Asia-Pacific region, and regulators have been focused on how these machines can be exploited for illicit activity. AUSTRAC’s latest action underscores that the compliance expectations for crypto ATM operators are not merely formalities; they are intended to prevent gaps in reporting and oversight that can enable money laundering.
Late 2024 onward, authorities have increasingly discussed criminal use of crypto ATMs, including cases involving the targeting of vulnerable users. Against that backdrop, the operational suspension of a major ATM operator signals that regulators are willing to use enforcement tools that immediately restrict market access when compliance standards are not met.
Enforcement history: from an undertaking to a paid infringement notice
AUSTRAC’s decision does not arrive in isolation. The suspension follows steps taken in 2025 after issues were identified during Cryptolink’s compliance review process.
In October 2025, Cryptolink entered an enforceable undertaking with AUSTRAC after its Cryptocurrency Taskforce identified alleged breaches. AUSTRAC cited issues including late transaction reporting and shortcomings in Cryptolink’s risk assessments. The undertaking was accompanied by further enforcement: AUSTRAC also issued a $56,340 infringement notice, which Cryptolink paid.
While the October 2025 undertaking and infringement notice reflect earlier remedial and punitive measures, Monday’s suspension indicates AUSTRAC still viewed compliance performance as insufficient—particularly around reporting to AUSTRAC and responsiveness to information requests.
What the suspension means for users and the ATM footprint
Cryptolink operates 96 ATMs in Australia, enabling customers to exchange cash for Bitcoin. The network includes machines in major cities such as Sydney, Melbourne, and Brisbane.
During the three-month suspension window, these ATMs will be prevented from operating because AUSTRAC has removed the company’s ability to run as a VASP under its registration. That restriction affects not just new transactions but also ongoing consumer access to crypto acquisition through ATM channels.
Cointelegraph contacted Cryptolink for comment, but the company’s response was not included in the information provided with AUSTRAC’s announcement.
What to watch next
Crypto ATM operators in Australia—and users who rely on them—will be looking closely at whether Cryptolink can address AUSTRAC’s specific concerns around threshold reporting, high-risk transaction controls, and regulatory engagement. The suspension ends after three months, but the key question is whether the underlying compliance gaps that AUSTRAC described are actually resolved in time to restore authorization.
This article was originally published as Australia Forces Cryptolink Bitcoin ATMs Offline for Reporting Gaps on Crypto Breaking News – your trusted source for crypto news, Bitcoin news, and blockchain updates.