US-listed spot Bitcoin exchange-traded funds (ETFs) returned to inflows on Monday, led almost entirely by BlackRock, while Ether, XRP and Solana funds continued attracting capital.
SoSoValue data showed that Bitcoin ETFs recorded $216.7 million in net inflows on Monday, reversing the $201.8 million in withdrawals recorded on Friday.
The Friday outflows ended a nine-session run that brought more than $3 billion into the funds. Bitcoin (BTC) was trading near $78,700 at the time of writing, up about 1.5% over the past 24 hours, according to CoinGecko.
Meanwhile, Ether ETFs extended their inflow streak to 11 trading sessions, while XRP and Solana funds each recorded a 10th consecutive positive session.
US spot Bitcoin ETF flows. Source: SoSoValue
BlackRock accounts for 95% of Bitcoin ETF inflowsBlackRock’s iShares Bitcoin Trust ETF (IBIT) led Monday’s Bitcoin ETF rebound with $205.9 million in net inflows, accounting for about 95% of the category’s daily total, according to Farside Investors.
Fidelity’s Wise Origin Bitcoin Fund (FBTC) added $6.9 million, followed by the Bitwise Bitcoin ETF (BITB) with $4.3 million. Morgan Stanley’s Bitcoin Trust added $3.6 million, while Grayscale’s Bitcoin Mini Trust attracted $9.4 million.
VanEck’s Bitcoin ETF (HODL) was the only fund to record withdrawals, posting $13.4 million in net outflows. The remaining funds reported no flows.
US spot Bitcoin ETF flows per fund. Source: Farside Investors
Ether, XRP and Solana ETFs extend inflow runsSpot Ether ETFs attracted $87.7 million on Monday, marking their 11th consecutive trading session of inflows.
BlackRock’s iShares Ethereum Trust ETF (ETHA) led with $59.9 million, followed by Grayscale’s Ethereum Mini Trust with $13.5 million and Fidelity’s Ethereum Fund with $9.3 million, according to Farside.
XRP ETFs extended their positive run to 10 sessions with $5.64 million in net inflows, according to SoSoValue. The funds have attracted capital during every US trading session since Aug. 18.
Solana ETFs also posted a 10th consecutive positive session, though daily inflows slowed to $925,010 from $18.1 million on Friday. Monday’s figure was the category’s weakest inflow during its current run.
Magazine: Mystery surrounds why an OG burned $1M in Bitcoin
This article is produced in accordance with Cointelegraph's Editorial Policy and is intended for informational purposes only. It does not constitute investment advice or recommendations. All investments and trades carry risk; readers are encouraged to conduct independent research.
Speaking to CNBC, Tom Lee, Head of Research and Chief Investment Officer at Fundstrat, shared his latest expectations regarding the Fed’s September policies and global markets.
Noting that September has historically been a weak month for markets and highlighting uncertainties regarding interest rate scenarios, Lee argued that, contrary to general expectations, markets could spring an upside surprise.
The renowned analyst stated that the FED meeting on September 15th is a critical turning point, and that if the central bank does not make any changes to interest rates, the stock markets could trigger a very strong rally.
He suggested that a major correction might be postponed until October, or that stocks could experience a limited pullback after rising above the 8,000-point level in the S&P 500 index.
Lee argued that the periodic slowdown in the cryptocurrency market (“crypto winter”) was quite shallow and is nearing its end, reminding that crypto assets became the best-performing macro asset class in the third quarter of the year.
Lee, pointing to institutional investors turning to crypto stocks, argued that investor interest would quickly return as the 4-year crypto cycle comes to an end in the coming days.
The analyst pointed out that regulatory changes could be the biggest catalyst for the sector, stating the following:
“If the CLARITY Bill passes Congress this year, Bitcoin and Ethereum will have an extremely strong and massive fourth quarter.”
*This is not investment advice.
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Not financial or tax advice. PANews content is strictly educational and informational and is not investment advice, financial advice, tax advice, legal advice, or a solicitation to buy or sell any digital asset, security, or financial product. Do your own research and consult qualified advisers.
Disclosure. PANews may publish sponsored content, partner content, advertisements, affiliate links, event promotions, and market commentary involving Web3 projects, service providers, or financial products. PANews personnel, contributors, or affiliates may hold digital assets or other interests related to covered topics. See our Terms of Service.
Leading cryptocurrencies rose on Monday as investors increased risk appetite, spurred by whale investors’ purchases.
Crypto Market RalliesBitcoin rose to an intraday high of $79,247, supported by a 43% jump in trading volume. Ethereum, XRP and Dogecoin also traded in the green.
The spike followed Strategy Inc.’s (NASDAQ:MSTR) purchase of $370 million worth of Bitcoin, which ended a two-month buying drought.
The apex cryptocurrency was on track to deliver its third-strongest August performance, posting gains of 24.82% as of this writing.
Over $150 million was liquidated from the cryptocurrency market in the last 24 hours, with $100 million in bearish shorts alone wiped out, according to Coinglass data.
Bitcoin’s open interest spiked 2.60% over the last 24 hours after the spot price rose. Binance Long Traders, i.e, the top 20% of users with the highest margin balance, remained net long, though their long exposure declined sharply over the past few days.
Top Gainers (24 Hours)
The global cryptocurrency market capitalization stood at $2.65 trillion, increasing by 1.05% from the previous day.
Read Next
Stocks in Red After Iran TensionsStocks opened the new trading week lower. The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 374.09 points, or 0.7%, to end at 53,185.9. The S&P 500 slid 0.33% to close at 7,686.14, while the Nasdaq Composite ended 0.12% lower at 26,370.89.
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Renewed U.S-Iran strikes over the weekend exacerbated tensions, sending oil prices higher. The United States Oil Fund (NYSE: USO), which tracks West Texas Intermediate crude oil, closed 3.08% higher.
Will Bitcoin Pull Back?Michael Terpin, CEO of Transform Ventures and author of the book “Bitcoin Supercycle,” told Benzinga that Bitcoin’s latest rally is a confirmation that a “very long march to the next bull market” has begun.
“Right now is the time to be bullish,” Terpin said. “It doesn’t mean you have to put all your spare cash in today, but you should start DCAing [Dollar-Cost Averaging] now.”
Terpin added that even if a pullback occurs, they do not expect Bitcoin to fall below $70,000.
Michaël van de Poppe, a well-known cryptocurrency analyst and trader, said Bitcoin looks “very strong” for an upward breakout, targeting $82,700 initially and potentially $90,000,
Meme coin MOO, paired with Micron stock on Long.xyz, has broken through the $18 million market cap mark, surging over 330% in a single day.
According to GMGN market data, the meme coin MOO, paired with Micron stock on Long.xyz, has exceeded $18 million in market capitalization, currently trading at $18.27 million, with a daily gain of over 330%. BlockBeats Note: Stock Meme is an emerging concept merging traditional meme coins with tokenized U.S. equities: instead of pairing with USDT or ETH, meme coins are directly paired with on-chain U.S. stock tokens (e.g., NVDA, TSLA, AAPL, etc.). This model preserves meme coins’ high volatility and community-driven speculative traits, while tapping into the popularity and narratives of real stocks. A portion of transaction fees is often redirected to the community treasury to accumulate the corresponding U.S. stock tokens, forming a dual-driven model of "sentiment-fueled speculation + real asset anchoring".
9 minutes ago
Robinhood Chain’s DEX 24-hour trading volume exceeds $900 million for the first time.
Crypto analyst Adam’s data shows that the 24-hour trading volume of decentralized exchanges (DEX) on Robinhood Chain has topped $900 million for the first time. The meme token launchpad recorded a record-high trading volume of $438 million yesterday, while real-world asset (RWA) trading volume also exceeded $200 million for the first time.
9 minutes ago
Tensions between the US and Iran remain elevated, with the two major global crude oil benchmarks rising nearly 1% intraday.
According to Bitget market data, WTI crude oil has climbed above $86 per barrel, with an intraday increase of 0.73%. Brent crude oil touched $91 per barrel, up 0.75% on the day.
9 minutes ago
FOMO Co-founder: The platform is growing rapidly, adding 30 new users every minute.
Fomo co-founder @seyong announced on X that the platform has seen rapid growth recently, adding 30 new users every minute. Additional data shows that in the week ending August 24, the weekly trading volume of the social trading app neared $1.3 billion. The daily active user counts of Fomo and Pump are close to those of Polymarket, Hyperliquid, and Phantom, ranging from 60,000 to 100,000 respectively.
9 minutes ago
1.5TB reduced to 214GB: Tencent releases extreme quantized version of Hy4 preview
Beating AI News: Just after the Hy4 preview went open-source, Tencent has released an extreme quantized version of its Hunyuan model. The original model weights are nearly 1.5TB, while the new GGUF version is only around 214GB, drastically lowering the local deployment barrier for this 770B MoE model. Tencent did not uniformly quantize the entire model to 1.25-bit; instead, it applied different quantization levels based on each layer’s sensitivity to precision: non-critical layers are compressed to as low as ~1.31-bit, while sensitive layers retain 2-bit or higher precision, resulting in an average of ~2.38 bits per weight (bpw). In four benchmarks provided by Tencent, the quantized version only dropped 0.2 to 1.6 points compared to the BF16 original. After compression, Tencent also tested heterogeneous device joint inference with prima.cpp. A setup consisting of an RTX 4090 laptop and a 4-A4000 server, with only 80GB of total VRAM and 64GB of RAM, achieved an inference speed of 1.02 tokens per second—roughly 6 times faster than running the model offloaded on the laptop alone. Multiple devices with different configurations can also jointly share the model inference workload.
Japan's 10-year government bond yield rises to 3% for the first time in 30 years.
Japan’s 10-year government bond yield climbed to the 3% level for the first time since September 1996.
5 minutes ago
The X-Agent AI MCP Hackathon 2026 will kick off on September 2, featuring two tracks competing for USDT and X-Points prizes.
X-Agent has announced that the X-Agent AI MCP Hackathon 2026 will officially launch on September 2, inviting global developers and teams to submit practical, verifiable Agent and MCP applications. The online global event is supported by OlaXBT and features two tracks: 1. The Open Innovation Track encourages participants to build any practical API-driven Agent or MCP capabilities, focusing on areas including AI, crypto assets, data, automation, and Agent infrastructure. 2. The OlaXBT × X-Agent Trading Challenge grants participating teams access to OlaXBT Nexus MCP, enabling them to develop trading strategies, run backtests, analyze performance, and utilize market data to validate strategies and build related Agent or MCP applications. Total rewards consist of USDT and X-Points. Each track’s first-place team will receive 500 USDT, while the top five teams in each track will split X-Points—tokens eligible for participating in the airdrop of X-Agent’s $XAGT. Winning and selected projects will also gain access to support such as MCP standardization, ecosystem exposure, market integration, and paid call commercialization. The registration and development period runs from September 2 to September 19. Technical review and judging will take place between September 20 and October 1, with the winner list expected to be announced from October 2 to 4. Participants must submit projects via the official GitHub repository. For registration and event details, please refer to the original link.
5 minutes ago
Trader 'CBB' bought $10.5 million worth of HYPE spot, completing a 1:1 spot-futures hedge by shorting an equal amount.
According to TradingBeats monitoring, trader "CBB"-linked sub-accounts have cumulatively purchased 125,492.4 HYPE spot tokens since 00:45 today, for approximately $10.5506 million at a weighted average price of $84.073. Meanwhile, alongside these spot buys, the account added a short position of 125,458.02 HYPE perpetual contracts on 10x cross margin, with a position size of around $10.5524 million and an average entry price of $84.111. The quantity and value of both trade legs almost perfectly align, forming a nearly 1:1 spot-perpetual hedge. Currently, HYPE’s funding rate remains positive, meaning long positions pay funding fees to shorts. The account has received roughly $1,818.6 in funding fees today via its short perpetual position. This strategy also uses borrowing to boost capital efficiency: the account has enabled portfolio margin, holding approximately 190,538 HYPE as assets while borrowing around 7.56 million USDC, resulting in a USDC balance of roughly -$5.96 million. The main account has seen a net inflow of around $10 million this cycle, with the remaining spot exposure primarily funded through USDC borrowing. This address is a sub-account named "2 HYPE DN" under the main wallet 0x49e9. The main account currently holds an additional ~15.696 million USDC and controls multiple related sub-accounts. Main account: 0x49e96e255ba418d08e66c35b588e2f2f3766e1d0; Trading sub-account: 0x642ed9529b2c4fc33da54d1005b6aa12aefdf814 On-chain perpetual and address analysis tool TradingBeats is now live, supporting real-time Hyperliquid data viewing, address-based tracing of whale operations, and comprehensive in-depth analysis.
5 minutes ago
PeckShield: 50 major hacking incidents hit the crypto industry in August, up 67% month-on-month.
According to PeckShield’s monitoring, 50 major hacking incidents hit the crypto industry in August 2026, a 67% rise from the 30 cases in July, with total losses of roughly $136.3 million—down 49.5% month-over-month. Among these, the Cronos ecosystem lending protocol Tectonic suffered a hack that caused about $74 million in losses, making it the largest single incident of the month and the fourth-largest crypto asset theft case of the year. The attackers only bridged approximately $6 million to Ethereum before Cronos suspended its network, leaving most of the remaining funds stranded on Cronos.
5 minutes ago
Monetary Authority of Singapore launches public consultation on stablecoin regulation.
Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) is soliciting public comments on proposed legislative amendments to the Payment Services Act 2019, aiming to establish a stablecoin regulatory framework in Singapore. The regulator is also seeking public feedback on related proposals for additional regulatory requirements, which draw on developments in the stablecoin industry since 2023. The consultation additionally collects input on policy stances including recognition of cross-jurisdictional and offshore-issued stablecoins. The comment deadline is October 16.
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Robinhood CEO: Robinhood Banking's assets have topped $4 billion.
Robinhood CEO Vlad Tenev stated in a post on X that Robinhood Banking’s assets have exceeded $4 billion, adding that this growth reflects users’ trust in Robinhood’s fund management. Tenev also noted that Robinhood is developing "Trump Accounts", which it aims to make the default tool for charitable donations in the U.S. Traditional charitable giving involves complex rules and regulations, requiring donors to evaluate charities, confirm that funds are used as advertised, and assess their efficiency. Trump Accounts allow donors to directly invest funds into investment accounts held by U.S. children, reducing intermediary steps in the donation process. Donors can clearly track their funds’ destination, children own the related assets, no fees are charged, and account assets grow long-term via compounding at market rates—a model expected to bring positive changes to U.S. philanthropy.
Not financial or tax advice. PANews content is strictly educational and informational and is not investment advice, financial advice, tax advice, legal advice, or a solicitation to buy or sell any digital asset, security, or financial product. Do your own research and consult qualified advisers.
Disclosure. PANews may publish sponsored content, partner content, advertisements, affiliate links, event promotions, and market commentary involving Web3 projects, service providers, or financial products. PANews personnel, contributors, or affiliates may hold digital assets or other interests related to covered topics. See our Terms of Service.
Not financial or tax advice. PANews content is strictly educational and informational and is not investment advice, financial advice, tax advice, legal advice, or a solicitation to buy or sell any digital asset, security, or financial product. Do your own research and consult qualified advisers.
Disclosure. PANews may publish sponsored content, partner content, advertisements, affiliate links, event promotions, and market commentary involving Web3 projects, service providers, or financial products. PANews personnel, contributors, or affiliates may hold digital assets or other interests related to covered topics. See our Terms of Service.
US stocks closed, with the storage and Neocloud sectors leading the gains; GLXY rose nearly 6%, while SanDisk gained 5.5%.
According to BIT (bit.com) market data, US stocks closed lower across the board on Monday, with the three major indexes all declining: the Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped 0.7%, the S&P 500 index fell 0.33%, and the Nasdaq Composite slipped 0.12%. The storage sector led gains, with SanDisk (SNDK) rising 5.50%, Micron Technology (MU) up 2.77%, SK Hynix (SKHY) increasing 2.20%; Western Digital (WDC) fell 1.94%, Seagate Technology (STX) down 0.17%. The Neocloud sector saw mixed performance: Galaxy Digital (GLXY) gained 5.99%, IREN up 4.70%, Cipher Digital (CIFR) rising 2.18%; TeraWulf (WULF) dropped 1.43%, Nebius (NBIS) down 1.37%. Most semiconductor stocks advanced, with Qualcomm (QCOM) climbing 3.83%, NVIDIA (NVDA) up 1.36%, Arm increasing 1.20%, and AMD gaining 1.10%. Optical communication stocks were mixed: Astera Labs (ALAB) rose 2.59%, Lumentum (LITE) up 2.21%, Applied Optoelectronics (AAOI) gaining 1.37%; Credo (CRDO) fell 2.82%, Marvell Technology down 2.29%.
6 minutes ago
Anthropic inks $35 billion cloud computing deal, backed by Nvidia.
Beating AI Express News: According to a Wall Street Journal report, sources familiar with the matter disclosed that Anthropic has signed a $35 billion cloud computing agreement with Lambda, a cloud service provider backed by Nvidia. The relevant data center is located in Nueces County, Texas, built by Bitcoin miner and data center developer Hut 8. Nvidia has signed an agreement with Hut 8 to lock in computing capacity and will directly hold the data center lease. Under the transaction, Lambda will install chips purchased from Nvidia in the data center built by Hut 8, then provide cloud computing services to Anthropic. It remains unclear how much Lambda will pay Nvidia for data center usage. This arrangement allows Lambda to secure a large contract with Anthropic without procuring its own data center space, while helping Anthropic access Nvidia’s computing resources. Earlier this year, Anthropic faced tight computing power supply, and this month it also signed a $45 billion deal with another Nvidia-backed cloud service provider, Nscale, to rent Nvidia computing power at its West Virginia data center. Hut 8 previously disclosed that its 700-megawatt campus in Texas has been granted a 15-year full lease by a high-investment-grade company; the facility is valued at $20 billion and will be used to deploy Nvidia chips.
6 minutes ago
Trump says he may strike Iran, reiterates that U.S. interest rates are too high.
U.S. President Donald Trump said in an interview at the White House on Monday local time: "A large number of vessels passed through the Strait of Hormuz last night. On average, 30 vessels transit the strait every night, and a huge volume of oil flows through the Strait of Hormuz." When talking about how the situation will develop in the future, Trump stated: "We may strike Iran. Let's wait and see. I think the Iranians themselves don't even know who their leader is. No one knows who Iran's leader is. Iran is a failed country." Trump also addressed interest rates: "Interest rates are currently too high. I have great respect for Federal Reserve Chair Walsh, and he will do what he needs to do." (Source: Jin10)
6 minutes ago
Circle surges more than 6%, now trading at $92.67
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ByteDance's New Stock Guru Takes Over: US Stock Assets Surge 23-Fold in 7 Years, Core Strategy "Buy Early and Hold Steadfast"
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Hyperliquid is in discussions with Kraken's parent company about entering the U.S. market.
According to market sources, Hyperliquid is in talks with Kraken's parent company to enter the U.S. market.
Bitcoin held near the $78,000 area as geopolitical tension around the Strait of Hormuz pushed Brent crude above $90, giving traders another macro-risk event to price across energy, inflation, and risk assets.
The move followed a CENTCOM statement on the escalation, while oil markets reacted to the risk of disruption around one of the world’s most important energy chokepoints. Bitcoin’s stability during the move drew attention because traders often watch whether BTC behaves like a risk asset, a liquidity asset, or a geopolitical hedge during stress events.
The answer is not always clean.
Bitcoin can fall with risk assets during panic. It can rise when traders seek alternatives. It can also hold steady while other markets move first. That makes the latest setup useful, but not conclusive.
For more details, visit the official Centcom platform.
TL;DR Bitcoin held near $78,000 as geopolitical tension around the Strait of Hormuz lifted oil prices. Brent crude moved above $90 as traders priced supply risk. The event should be framed as macro-risk context, not proof that Bitcoin is a guaranteed war hedge. Why Oil Matters For Bitcoin Traders Oil shocks can ripple through global markets.
If crude prices rise sharply, traders may start thinking about inflation, shipping costs, energy supply, central-bank policy, and consumer pressure. Those expectations can affect Treasury yields, the dollar, equities, and risk appetite.
Bitcoin now trades inside that macro complex.
A sharp oil move does not automatically move BTC, but it can change the broader conditions around it. If higher oil revives inflation fears, rate-cut expectations may shift. If geopolitical stress rises, liquidity preference may increase. If risk appetite weakens, crypto can come under pressure.
That is why Bitcoin traders are watching oil.
The Strait Of Hormuz Is A Serious Market Risk The Strait of Hormuz matters because a large share of global oil flows through the region.
Any threat to shipping, energy supply, or military stability there can have immediate effects on crude prices. Even the possibility of disruption can cause traders to reprice supply risk.
That puts macro assets on alert.
Oil above $90 can become a psychological and policy marker. It raises questions about inflation persistence, central-bank reaction, and whether risk assets can keep rallying if energy prices remain elevated.
Bitcoin’s ability to hold near $78,000 during that backdrop is notable.
But one session is not enough to define the asset’s role.
Bitcoin’s Hedge Narrative Needs Care Bitcoin is often described as a hedge against geopolitical instability.
Sometimes that narrative fits. Sometimes it does not.
During acute risk-off events, crypto can sell off because it is liquid, volatile, and widely held by leveraged traders. In other periods, Bitcoin can benefit from distrust in fiat systems, capital controls, or broad concerns about monetary policy.
The latest move sits somewhere between those narratives.
Bitcoin did not collapse as oil reacted. That shows resilience. It does not prove BTC will always protect portfolios during geopolitical stress.
Traders should treat the reaction as data, not doctrine.
Liquidity Still Matters The bigger driver may still be liquidity.
If geopolitical stress pushes investors toward cash and the dollar, Bitcoin may face pressure. If markets expect central banks or governments to respond with easier conditions, Bitcoin may benefit. If energy prices feed inflation and keep rates higher, BTC may struggle.
That is why the oil move is important.
It can affect the policy path indirectly. Bitcoin traders are not only watching missiles, shipping lanes, or headlines. They are watching how those events filter into inflation expectations and liquidity.
The Market Test The next test is whether Bitcoin continues holding the $78,000 area if oil remains elevated.
If BTC stays firm while crude holds above $90, traders may argue that demand is absorbing macro stress. If Bitcoin starts to weaken alongside equities, the hedge narrative may fade again.
Either way, the setup matters because it shows crypto markets are being shaped by more than ETF flows and exchange positioning.
Geopolitics is back in the frame, oil is moving, and Bitcoin is being tested as part of the wider macro map.
This article is based on CENTCOM materials, public Bitcoin price data, and oil market pricing.
This article was written by the News Desk and edited by Samuel Rae.
Fundstrat’s Tom Lee is treating September’s crash fear as a contrarian signal. He says a market this braced for weakness could rally instead, carrying Bitcoin (BTC) toward $150,000.
Lee has not dropped his correction call. He has moved it, pointing to the September 15 Federal Reserve (Fed) meeting as the moment that decides direction.
The September Fear Lee Is Betting AgainstThe fear has an evidence base, because across 10 US midterm election years since 1986, the average stock market low landed on September 2.
Those lows followed an average slide of 16.77% from the prior high. That history is what makes the current dangerous September pattern worth watching.
This year adds a hawkish twist. Three Fed presidents voted for a rate hike in July, not a cut. Chair Kevin Warsh then used his first Jackson Hole speech to put inflation first. Six-month PCE inflation was running at 4.1%.
Bonds tell the same story, with the 30-year Treasury yield has held above 5%, well clear of an effective fed funds rate near 3.63%.
US Treasuries and Bitcoin Price Performance. Source: TradingView
“I’m actually now thinking because of all this mounting concern, the market might surprise us to the upside,” Lee said, suggesting he sees a crowd leaning too far one way.
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Why September 15 Decides DirectionLee spent August expecting those worries to converge and cost equities roughly 10%. Weak seasonality, hike talk and the AI data center backlash all pointed the same way.
His base case now is that policymakers neither hike nor cut.
“If the Fed doesn’t cut, doesn’t hike, which is our base case, I think actually the markets could rally very strongly,” he added in a CNBC interview.
Should the pullback slip into October, Lee thinks it could start above 8,000 on the S&P 500. The low might land near 7,300.
Bitcoin Could Reach $150,000, Tom Lee SaysBitcoin’s current price level sits near $78,875, up only 0.3% over 24 hours. BTC still trades about 37% below its record from October 2025.
Bitcoin Price Performance. Source: BeInCryptoLee calls the past year a shallow crypto winter caused by forced selling, not broken fundamentals. Very few investors still hold crypto, he argues.
He counts four catalysts.
Crypto led all macro assets in the third quarter
The four-year crypto cycle ends next month
Korean traders are rotating back from AI stocks
The CLARITY Act, a US market structure bill setting which regulator oversees digital assets, could pass this year
Rising institutional crypto ETF inflows reinforce his view that larger buyers are positioning for a strong fourth quarter.
Lee still treats $150,000 as possible for Bitcoin, alongside an S&P 500 above 8,200. For Bitcoin, that constitutes a 1.9 times gain, or about 2x. Both rest on earnings estimates that keep climbing.
Bitcoin and S&P500 Performance. Source: TradingViewFresh jobs and inflation prints land before the meeting. Lee says weak readings on both would stop traders pricing a hike at all.
Bitcoin (CRYPTO: BTC) has stalled near a key level, which could determine whether the bear market is officially over.
Where Is BTC’s ‘Line In The Sand?‘According to cryptocurrency analyst Benjamin Cowen, Bitcoin’s 50-week moving average is the key level to break before a potential new bull cycle.
Cowen sees similarities between the current rally and 2018, when Bitcoin rallied more than 40% from its summer low before stalling at the 50-week MA.
Cowen stressed that stalling does not necessarily mean rejection, as previous bull-market transitions spent weeks around the level before breaking higher.
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Sustained weekly closes above the 50-week MA would make Cowen abandon his bearish bias.
Until then, he believes historical precedent leaves the door open for another decline later this year.
Could Bitcoin See One More Q4 Low?Cowen also noted that during the previous three cycles, Bitcoin’s final bear-market bottom arrived after the U.S. midterm elections.
Another reason for his skepticism is that Bitcoin’s decisive recoveries above the 50-week MA following previous bear markets occurred during pre-halving years rather than midterm years.
Still, Cowen isn’t recommending investors wait indefinitely for another crash.
His strategy remains to gradually accumulate after the summer low and accept the possibility of another Q4 decline, noting that purchases made before the final bottoms in 2018 and 2022 still proved attractive over longer time horizons.
Binance Reserves Flash WarningOn-chain data adds another potential obstacle around $80,000.
CryptoQuant data shows Binance’s Bitcoin reserves rising to around 687,000 BTC, their highest level of 2026.
Rising exchange balances can indicate holders are preparing to sell, hedge or use Bitcoin as collateral, although wallet reorganizations, custody transfers and market-making activity can also influence reserve figures.
The combination leaves Bitcoin facing a significant test: a 50-week MA that has historically separated bull markets from bear-market rallies, alongside potentially greater available supply on Binance.
Bitcoin, the leading cryptocurrency, has experienced a significant surge in recent days, climbing from $62,000 to over $81,000.
Whales were the biggest buyers during this rise, and there was a clear divergence between the actions of large and small investors.
According to on-chain data shared by CryptoQuant writer Woo Minkyu (using a pseudonym), large wallets holding more than 100 BTC acquired an additional 60,000 BTC in August. Conversely, smaller-scale whales took advantage of the surge and engaged in profit-taking.
According to the analyst, the total assets of wallets holding 100 BTC or more increased by approximately 60,000 BTC between August 1st and 30th. In contrast, wallets holding between 1 and 100 BTC saw a decrease of approximately 33,000 BTC, while those holding less than 1 BTC experienced a decrease of approximately 14,000 BTC.
Whale Purchases Accelerated After the Big Rise! The analyst noted that the momentum in whale buying intensified after Bitcoin broke above the $62,000-$65,000 trading range on August 19th.
Bitcoin rose to the $81,000 level after the breakout before subsequently pulling back from that region. According to the analyst, the structure of the price movement points not to a highly leveraged rise, but rather to a process where Bitcoin is being transferred from the wallets of smaller investors to those of larger investors.
This indicates that the rise is not solely driven by leveraged positions in futures contracts, but also reflects a significant shift in the ownership structure of the spot market.
All Eyes on the Fate of 60,000 BTC! The analyst also noted that whether these whales will release the approximately 60,000 BTC they have recently accumulated back into the market is important for the future of BTC.
According to the analyst, if large investors start selling these Bitcoins, the assessment that the August movement was a strong transfer from small investors to whales may weaken.
However, the analyst stated that as of August 30th, there was no clear indication that whales had put the aforementioned 60,000 BTC up for sale.
*This is not investment advice.
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In brief Bitcoin held around $78,623 on Monday, down just 0.7% on the day but set to close August up more than 24%—its strongest month since 2017—despite a difficult macro backdrop. Fresh U.S. strikes on Iran over the weekend sent oil higher and pushed stocks lower, with the S&P 500 off 0.5% and the Nasdaq down 0.4%. Fed Chair Kevin Warsh's hawkish Jackson Hole remarks lifted September rate-hike odds to ~58%;with Bitcoin's rally stalling and spot ETFs snapping a nine-day inflow streak as Ethereum funds kept drawing cash. Bitcoin is proving resilient at the start of the week, holding above $78,000 even as fresh U.S. military strikes on Iran drove oil prices higher and pushed equities into the red.
The largest cryptocurrency traded around $78,623 on Monday, down just 0.7% over 24 hours, according to CoinGecko, after dipping to an intraday low near $77,162. Despite the softer session, Bitcoin is on track to close August with a gain of more than 24%, its best month since 2017.
Myriad: Bitcoin's next price move? Click to make your prediction.The steadiness stands out against a rough backdrop for other assets. The weekend brought the first U.S.-Iran exchange of strikes since late July, reviving fears over shipping through the Strait of Hormuz and sending crude sharply higher.
West Texas Intermediate futures climbed 2.6% to around $85.60 a barrel. Stocks slid, with the S&P 500 off 0.5% at about 7,673 and the Nasdaq Composite down 0.4% near 26,289.
Iliya Kalchev, an analyst at Nexo Dispatch, framed Bitcoin's composure as the more telling story. Kalchev noted that a hawkish Federal Reserve and a live geopolitical escalation rarely hit risk assets in the same week, and argued that Bitcoin holding its ground against both at once is arguably a more meaningful signal than the August gain itself.
Kalchev pointed to derivatives data suggesting traders are repositioning rather than committing fresh capital, with 24-hour volume more than doubling to $183 billion while open interest stayed roughly flat.
Compounding the pressure is Fed Chair Kevin Warsh's hawkish Jackson Hole address, which pushed September rate-hike odds to around 58% from roughly 35% before he spoke. Even gold pulled back, slipping to near $4,440 as the firmer rate outlook outweighed its usual safe-haven appeal.
The session caps a strong but choppy stretch for crypto. Bitcoin's August rally stalled late last week amid Warsh's remarks, while spot Bitcoin ETFs snapped a nine-day inflow streak even as Ethereum funds kept drawing cash. Ethereum traded near $2,448 on Monday, down slightly but heading into month-end with a gain approaching 30%.
Attention now turns to Friday's U.S. jobs report and the August CPI reading due September 11.
Daily Debrief NewsletterStart every day with the top news stories right now, plus original features, a podcast, videos and more.
In brief Bitcoin held around $78,623 on Monday, down just 0.7% on the day but set to close August up more than 24%—its strongest month since 2017—despite a difficult macro backdrop. Fresh U.S. strikes on Iran over the weekend sent oil higher and pushed stocks lower, with the S&P 500 off 0.5% and the Nasdaq down 0.4%. Fed Chair Kevin Warsh's hawkish Jackson Hole remarks lifted September rate-hike odds to ~58%;with Bitcoin's rally stalling and spot ETFs snapping a nine-day inflow streak as Ethereum funds kept drawing cash. Bitcoin is proving resilient at the start of the week, holding above $78,000 even as fresh U.S. military strikes on Iran drove oil prices higher and pushed equities into the red.
The largest cryptocurrency traded around $78,623 on Monday, down just 0.7% over 24 hours, according to CoinGecko, after dipping to an intraday low near $77,162. Despite the softer session, Bitcoin is on track to close August with a gain of more than 24%, its best month since 2017.
Myriad: Bitcoin's next price move? Click to make your prediction.The steadiness stands out against a rough backdrop for other assets. The weekend brought the first U.S.-Iran exchange of strikes since late July, reviving fears over shipping through the Strait of Hormuz and sending crude sharply higher.
West Texas Intermediate futures climbed 2.6% to around $85.60 a barrel. Stocks slid, with the S&P 500 off 0.5% at about 7,673 and the Nasdaq Composite down 0.4% near 26,289.
Iliya Kalchev, an analyst at Nexo Dispatch, framed Bitcoin's composure as the more telling story. Kalchev noted that a hawkish Federal Reserve and a live geopolitical escalation rarely hit risk assets in the same week, and argued that Bitcoin holding its ground against both at once is arguably a more meaningful signal than the August gain itself.
Kalchev pointed to derivatives data suggesting traders are repositioning rather than committing fresh capital, with 24-hour volume more than doubling to $183 billion while open interest stayed roughly flat.
Compounding the pressure is Fed Chair Kevin Warsh's hawkish Jackson Hole address, which pushed September rate-hike odds to around 58% from roughly 35% before he spoke. Even gold pulled back, slipping to near $4,440 as the firmer rate outlook outweighed its usual safe-haven appeal.
The session caps a strong but choppy stretch for crypto. Bitcoin's August rally stalled late last week amid Warsh's remarks, while spot Bitcoin ETFs snapped a nine-day inflow streak even as Ethereum funds kept drawing cash. Ethereum traded near $2,448 on Monday, down slightly but heading into month-end with a gain approaching 30%.
Attention now turns to Friday's U.S. jobs report and the August CPI reading due September 11.
Daily Debrief NewsletterStart every day with the top news stories right now, plus original features, a podcast, videos and more.
Strategy, the Nasdaq-listed bitcoin treasury company led by Executive Chairman Michael Saylor, acquired 4,603 bitcoin for $369.7 million last week, its first purchase since late June, lifting its total position to 845,050 BTC, according to a Form 8-K filing dated August 31, 2026 with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. The disclosure, part of the company’s regular weekly update, ends a roughly two-month pause in accumulation and arrives as bitcoin trades near $78,000 following its strongest month in nearly two years.
The filing shows Strategy bought the coins between August 24 and August 30 at an average price of $80,318 each. The aggregate purchase price of $369.7 million, inclusive of fees and expenses, brings the company’s cumulative holdings to 845,050 bitcoin acquired for $63.73 billion at an average cost of $75,412 per coin. The new coins were added at a price about 6.5 percent above that long-run cost basis, a reminder that the company is still willing to pay up to expand its position after pausing for two months. Strategy remains the largest publicly traded corporate holder of the asset.
Funding the Purchase Through Stock Sales The acquisition was financed through Strategy’s at-the-market, or ATM, offering program. The 8-K reports that the company raised $602.8 million in net proceeds from sales of Class A common stock during the week, splitting the deployment into four pieces: $369.7 million toward the bitcoin purchase, $151.8 million to repurchase shares of its variable-rate STRC preferred stock, $50.7 million to cover dividends on that preferred stock, and $30.0 million added to its cash account. The STRC repurchases continue a buyback program Strategy announced on June 29 that still has about $364.8 million of remaining capacity, according to the filing.
The company also reported a U.S. dollar reserve of $5.10 billion and a separate cash balance of $1.61 billion as of August 30. Strategy has funded its bitcoin accumulation since 2020 through a combination of equity, preferred shares and convertible debt, and the latest tranche follows that same playbook rather than drawing down the company’s existing bitcoin or cash reserves.
Ending a Two-Month Pause in Accumulation The purchase ends a stretch in which Strategy did not add to its position, with its previous bitcoin acquisition reported in late June. The return to buying follows the company’s largest single week of accumulation, when it acquired roughly $1 billion of bitcoin in April, and it indicates that management still sees room to expand the treasury even with the asset trading well above the company’s average cost basis.
Saylor has repeatedly framed the company as a long-term holder rather than a trader, telling investors to measure the strategy in years and recently describing a four-year minimum holding period for MSTR investors. Resuming purchases at current prices is consistent with that stated posture, and it reopens a debate among investors about how aggressively the company should keep adding exposure.
Market Context and What Remains Unsettled The disclosure lands in the middle of a broad crypto rally, with bitcoin up more than 30% in August and on track for its best month since November 2024, while MSTR shares moved higher in premarket trading after the announcement. Because Strategy’s purchases and financing activities are closely watched across the sector, the return to buying is likely to be read by other treasury-style holders as a signal of continued institutional conviction.
The filing does not commit the company to future purchase amounts or a schedule, and the pace of accumulation will continue to depend on how much capital Strategy can raise through its ATM program and other instruments. Saylor has argued the treasury can absorb prolonged price weakness, pointing to models suggesting the company could last for decades even at zero bitcoin returns, but the decision to buy rather than hold cash reflects a continued bet on the asset at today’s levels. Investors will now watch whether Strategy sustains purchases in its next weekly filing and whether the pace of ATM share sales accelerates to fund additional buying.
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With over five years of experience in crypto, blockchain, and tech content, Ishtiyaq makes complex topics easy to understand. He simplifies blockchain and digital currency concepts for a wide audience, ensuring that beginners and experts alike can grasp key ideas. His clear and engaging writing helps readers stay informed about the latest trends, developments, and innovations in the crypto space. Whether explaining blockchain technology, digital assets, or DeFi, Ishtiyaq breaks down complicated ideas into simple, digestible content. His goal is to help people navigate the fast-changing world of cryptocurrency with confidence, clarity, and a deeper understanding.
Sberbank, Russia’s largest lender, announced it expects crypto trading volumes to reach 4 trillion rubles ($46.43 billion) during the first year of its new digital asset initiative. Deputy Chairman of the Executive Board Anatoly Popov provided the projection, emphasizing the bank’s “conservative” outlook for the rollout.
Sberbank’s crypto expansion plansAnatoly Popov further stated that trading volumes are forecast to increase to 7.5 trillion rubles ($87.06 billion) by 2029. Sberbank has outlined plans to launch a wallet for Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies by December, which will be accompanied by digital asset custody services.
The move comes as Russia accelerates efforts to establish a comprehensive framework for cryptocurrency activity. The Bank of Russia released draft regulations for crypto trading in July, and the country’s State Duma is working on broader digital asset legislation.
Sberbank revealed on Friday that it intends to accept Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies as collateral for loans, reflecting its growing commitment to integrating digital assets into its service offerings. Anatoly Popov highlighted this initiative as a first for a Russian financial institution.
Mini dictionary: Sberbank is the largest banking and financial services company in Russia, majority-owned by the Russian government. It serves millions of clients across the country and offers a broad range of retail and corporate banking services.
Regulatory developments and limitationsNew legislation signed by President Vladimir Putin this month sets out regulations for digital currencies and digital rights in Russia. The law stipulates that only registered entities can operate as official crypto exchanges and places restrictions on the volumes that retail investors can trade.
However, individual use of cryptocurrencies for payments remains prohibited. Since 2022, using digital assets as a medium of exchange or legal tender within Russia is banned, a policy that the authorities continue to enforce despite recent regulatory progress.
Despite significant developments in infrastructure and oversight, Russian law does not permit the usage of crypto as a recognized means of payment or as legal tender within the country.
Geopolitical context and enforcementPresident Putin has previously expressed favorable views about Bitcoin, referring to the cryptocurrency’s resilience and global reach. After Russia’s exclusion from the SWIFT payments network in 2022, Russian businesses have looked to Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies to facilitate foreign trade and mitigate the effects of international sanctions.
Nevertheless, the Russian government maintains strict controls over the use of cryptocurrencies by its citizens. Authorities have taken action against unregistered crypto trading platforms, with enforcement measures including arrests of individuals involved in unauthorized operations.
One high-profile case involved a nuclear engineer in Sarov, who received an 18-year prison sentence after allegedly sending approximately $13 worth of cryptocurrency to organizations labeled as terrorist groups by the Russian government.
YearExpected Trading Volume (RUB)Expected Trading Volume (USD)Year 14 trillion$46.43 billionBy 20297.5 trillion$87.06 billionAmid ongoing global sanctions and efforts to modernize its financial sector, Russia continues to shape the landscape for the future of digital assets in the country, balancing innovation with regulatory safeguards.
Bitcoin (BTC) maintains stability above $78,000 support on Monday as crypto prices broadly consolidate. Gold (XAU/USD), meanwhile, holds above $4,400, marking two consecutive days of declines.
Sentiment remains positive amid steady Bitcoin ETF inflowsSentiment in the broader cryptocurrency market remains broadly positive, with the Fear & Greed Index holding at 62 on Monday, down slightly from 69 the previous day. If sentiment remains in the Greed territory, demand for Bitcoin spot Exchange-Traded Funds (ETFs) could absorb overhead pressure. Stability is required to defend $78,000 support and raise the odds of a breakout above $80,000.
According to SoSoValue, inflows into US-listed spot ETFs amounted to $924 million through Friday, down from $1.92 billion in the week ending August 21. Cumulative inflows currently stand at $55 billion, with net assets under management at $98 billion.
Bitcoin ETF flows | Source: SoSoValueUS and Iran exchange strikesThe United States (US) and Iran exchanged military strikes for the first time in weeks over the weekend, renewing geopolitical tensions in the Middle East. US Central Command announced strikes targeting what it described as Iranian rocket launchers on Larak Island, in the Strait of Hormuz.
The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) claimed responsibility for strikes targeting US military installations in Jordan and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) on Sunday, framing the action as direct retaliation against recent US operations.
The renewed fighting in the six-month war comes after US President Donald Trump announced a shift in strategy last week to "economic warfare," heaping pressure on Iran with new sanctions in an attempt to break the stalemate in the conflict.
Technical analysis: Bitcoin bulls defend $78K supportBitcoin trades at $78,000, holding a clear bullish near-term bias as the price stands well above the main Exponential Moving Averages (EMAs). The 50-day EMA is at $69,687, the 100-day EMA at $68,889 and the 200-day EMA at $72,249.36, all trailing below the market, suggesting a firmly supported uptrend after the recent surge from the mid-$60,000s.
Momentum stays constructive, with the Moving Average Convergence Divergence (MACD) indicator moderating from earlier extremes yet remaining in positive territory, while the Relative Strength Index (RSI) hovers just under the overbought threshold near 70, hinting at strong but stretched buying pressure.
BTC/USDT daily chartImmediate support is found at the latest close around $77,995, where any pullback would first test the current pivot before exposing deeper demand at the rising 200-day EMA near $72,249. Below there, a more significant corrective phase would likely draw buyers toward the clustered 50-day and 100-day EMAs at $69,686 and $68,889, respectively, which reinforce the broader bullish structure. The pair’s path of least resistance remains higher in the short term, though the elevated RSI hints that fresh gains could be increasingly vulnerable to bouts of profit-taking.
"Bitcoin holding around $78,000 after a 23% surge is more telling than the surge itself. For months this market sat compressed, sold-out, and left for dead, and I argued that stillness was accumulation rather than decay," Yusuf Fakhro, Partner at ARP Digital told FXStreet in a comment, adding "it resolved, violently, to the upside in the strongest weekly gain since the post-election rally of November 2024, and the fact that it has consolidated at these levels rather than handing the move back is, to my mind, the strongest confirmation that this was a genuine regime shift and not a flash in the pan."
Technical outlook: Gold extends declineGold holds a constructive near-term bias as it remains above the 50-day, 100-day, and 200-day EMAs, clustered between roughly $4,315 and $4,365, suggesting underlying trend support after reclaiming the former descending resistance trendline around $4,335.
The RSI at 52 sits just above neutral, hinting at balanced but slightly positive momentum, while the MACD histogram has slipped below zero, warning that bulls may grind higher more slowly rather than in an impulsive rally.
XAU/USDT daily chartInitial support lies at the 100-day EMA near $4,363, followed by the reclaimed trend-line area at $4,335 that aligns with the 50-day EMA at $4,334, forming a dense support band. A deeper pullback would expose the longer-term floor defined by the 200-day EMA at $4,315, where buyers are likely to defend the broader uptrend as long as daily closes remain above this level.
(The technical analysis of this story was written with the help of an AI tool. Know more.)
Bitcoin, altcoins, stablecoins FAQs Bitcoin is the largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization, a virtual currency designed to serve as money. This form of payment cannot be controlled by any one person, group, or entity, which eliminates the need for third-party participation during financial transactions.
Altcoins are any cryptocurrency apart from Bitcoin, but some also regard Ethereum as a non-altcoin because it is from these two cryptocurrencies that forking happens. If this is true, then Litecoin is the first altcoin, forked from the Bitcoin protocol and, therefore, an “improved” version of it.
Stablecoins are cryptocurrencies designed to have a stable price, with their value backed by a reserve of the asset it represents. To achieve this, the value of any one stablecoin is pegged to a commodity or financial instrument, such as the US Dollar (USD), with its supply regulated by an algorithm or demand. The main goal of stablecoins is to provide an on/off-ramp for investors willing to trade and invest in cryptocurrencies. Stablecoins also allow investors to store value since cryptocurrencies, in general, are subject to volatility.
Bitcoin dominance is the ratio of Bitcoin's market capitalization to the total market capitalization of all cryptocurrencies combined. It provides a clear picture of Bitcoin’s interest among investors. A high BTC dominance typically happens before and during a bull run, in which investors resort to investing in relatively stable and high market capitalization cryptocurrency like Bitcoin. A drop in BTC dominance usually means that investors are moving their capital and/or profits to altcoins in a quest for higher returns, which usually triggers an explosion of altcoin rallies.
Bitcoin just passed one of the most closely watched tests in technical analysis. Katie Stockton, founder of Fairlead Strategies and a Chartered Market Technician, says the largest cryptocurrency has decisively cleared its 200-day moving average, a development that tends to get momentum traders reaching for their buy buttons.
As of August 21, Bitcoin was trading around $78,400, having recently touched above $81,000 before pulling back slightly. Stockton describes the current setup as a “base breakout” following a basing phase that began in June and was retested in July.
What the technicals are saying Stockton’s read on the current situation is nuanced. Bitcoin is “no longer oversold” but “not overbought yet,” she noted during a recent CNBC appearance. That middle ground matters. An oversold asset has already been beaten down enough to attract bargain hunters. An overbought asset is due for a cooldown. Sitting between those two extremes, with upward momentum building, is arguably the sweet spot for bulls.
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The key levels to watch sit between $83,000 and $84,000. Stockton has identified this zone as critical resistance, meaning a clean break above it would further confirm the bullish case.
Stockton’s track record and tactical approach Stockton isn’t just an analyst who comments from the sidelines. Fairlead Strategies runs a tactical Bitcoin ETF under the ticker BNAV, which dynamically adjusts its Bitcoin exposure based on technical signals. The fund operates with a base allocation of roughly 70% Bitcoin, scaling up to approximately 150% when conditions warrant it.
When she describes current conditions as showing “notable follow-through momentum,” the market listens.
How Bitcoin stacks up against traditional assets One interesting comparison Stockton has drawn is between Bitcoin and gold. With gold trading around $4,636 per ounce during the same period, both assets are demonstrating strength, but Bitcoin’s technical setup may offer more room to run precisely because it hasn’t yet reached overbought territory.
For traders watching these levels, the setup is relatively clean. A hold above the 200-day moving average keeps the bullish thesis intact. A push through $83,000 to $84,000 confirms it. And a failure to clear that resistance, or worse, a drop back below the 200-day MA, would force a reassessment.
Disclosure: This article was edited by Editorial Team. For more information on how we create and review content, see our Editorial Policy.
Fundstrat’s Tom Lee told CNBC on Monday that the four-year crypto cycle ends next month and that Bitcoin (CRYPTO: BTC) could reach six figures if the Fed holds rates at its Sep. 15 meeting.
What Lee Said About the Fed and MarketsLee said that September has historically been a weak month, but mounting bearish consensus may actually set the market up to surprise to the upside.
His base case is the Fed holds rates steady at the Sep. 15 meeting, and if that happens alongside weaker jobs and CPI data, he argued markets could rally very strongly.
Any October weakness from there would likely be shallow, with S&P (NYSE:SPY) support around 7,300 to 7,400, before the index pushes toward 8,200 or higher by year end.
Why Lee Thinks Crypto Has a Big Q4 AheadLee laid out four reasons on CNBC why September and Q4 could be a breakout period for crypto:
Crypto is already the best-performing macro asset of Q3 The four-year crypto cycle ends next month, bringing sidelined investors back Korean investors who rotated into AI stocks early this year are already showing volume pickups in crypto A CLARITY Act passage would give Bitcoin and Ethereum (CRYPTO: ETH) a major fourth-quarter tailwind “Very few people own crypto,” Lee said. “That’s why I think Bitcoin could easily be in the six figures.”
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He added that institutional investors are already buying crypto stocks, with volumes jumping as a sign they are positioning for a big Q4.
What Lee and Hayes Said About ETH SpecificallyLee told Milk Road last week that Ethereum (CRYPTO: ETH) could reach roughly $6,000 if Bitcoin hits $150,000, calling that a conservative estimate rather than an aggressive one.
Meanwhile, Hayes told Cointelegraph that Ethereum currently offers the best risk-reward in crypto, saying ETH could deliver a 3x to 5x move quickly.
He added that rival asset Hyperliquid as measured by Hyperliquid Strategies (NASDAQ:PURR) no longer offers the same relative upside it once did, making ETH the cleaner trade at current levels.
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Strive’s stock soared on Monday after the company announced a $143 million bitcoin buy, making it the fifth biggest publicly traded crypto treasury.
The Nasdaq-listed company announced its latest buy of 1,800 bitcoins between August 24 and August 28. It snapped up the coins for an average price of $79,431, according to a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.
The Dallas, Texas-based company now holds 23,156 coins worth $1.8 billion at today’s prices. Its stock (NASDAQ: ASST) was trading 9% higher at about 12.30pm in New York. Year-to-date, Strive’s stock has risen by nearly 40%.
Strive’s year-to-date Bitcoin yield, a metric that compares growth in bitcoin holdings relative to share count, reached 40.8% as of its Aug. 28 filing, up from less than 37% in early June.
Strive now is the fifth biggest bitcoin treasury, behind only Strategy, Twenty One, Metaplanet, and MARA.
Founded by former Ohio gubernatorial candidate Vivek Ramaswamy in 2025, after raising $750 million to buy Bitcoin, Strive debuted as an official bitcoin treasury.
In January 2026, it completed the acquisition of Semler Scientific in an all-stock deal — the first instance of a publicly traded Bitcoin treasury company acquiring another such company.
The idea is that investors can get amplified returns from Strive’s stock. The company buys bitcoin with equity, and maintains a debt-free balance sheet: no bonds, no credit lines, and no leveraged positions that could trigger forced liquidation in a downturn.
Strive CEO Matt Cole has described the company as debt-free with zero margin requirements and zero encumbered bitcoin.
Strive’s latest purchase comes as Strategy, the biggest corporate holder of bitcoin, restarted its buying last week.
The software company had paused buying bitcoin for 10 weeks but announced it had bought 4,603 bitcoins for $369.7 million between August 24 to August 30.
Mathew Di Salvo
Mathew is a reporter who's covered the space since 2019, reporting on everything from Salvadoran president Nayib Bukele's Bitcoin bet to crypto exchange FTX's bankruptcy.
Bitcoin’s ability to extend its August rally has come under a fresh test as analysts have pointed to sustained spot ETF demand as a key requirement for overcoming rising expectations of a September Federal Reserve rate hike.
Summary
Bitcoin is trading near $78,700 after retreating from last week’s high above $81,000. Bitfinex analysts say spot buying and relatively contained leverage suggest the market is not showing signs of overheating. CoinEx’s Jeff Ko sees $80,000–$83,000 as a major supply zone where real capital allocation will be tested. BTSE’s Jeff Mei says ETF demand needs to remain strong across multiple funds, while softer inflation could ease pressure from the Fed. U.S. labor and inflation data will be closely watched before the Fed’s Sept. 15–16 meeting. According to Bitfinex analysts in an Aug. 31 market report shared with crypto.news, Bitcoin’s latest advance has relied increasingly on spot demand rather than excessive leverage, leaving the market in a stronger position to absorb selling even as U.S. monetary conditions become less supportive.
According to data from crypto.news, Bitcoin (BTC) price was trading around $78,700 at the time of writing, down about 0.4% over the past 24 hours. The asset briefly climbed above $81,000 last week before falling to a low of $76,857 after Federal Reserve Chair Kevin Warsh used his Jackson Hole address to signal that interest rates may still need to rise.
The decline interrupted a rally that had carried Bitcoin from below $65,000 in mid-August to above $80,000. As previously covered by crypto.news, Bitcoin gained about 24% during the previous week as Treasury buybacks, ETF demand, and forced short covering helped fuel the recovery.
Bitcoin ETF demand now faces a tougher test Bitfinex analysts said the derivatives market has not shown the kind of rapid leverage build-up that typically accompanies an overheated rally. Bitcoin open interest stood at $55.6 billion, more than 20% above its level at the start of August, but the increase has been gradual while basis levels have remained relatively low.
“We are in a market driven by spot buying and, notwithstanding large short liquidations, open interest has only gradually increased, while basis has remained relatively low and at healthy levels historically,” the analysts said.
Holding $77,100, which Bitfinex identified as an important lower-timeframe support level, alongside continued spot buying would indicate that the market remains relatively balanced, according to the report.
ETF flows provide another measure of whether that demand can continue.
U.S. spot Bitcoin ETFs absorbed about $3.04 billion during nine consecutive positive sessions from Aug. 17 through Aug. 27, according to Bitfinex. Friday then produced the first net outflow in 10 sessions, with investors withdrawing $201.9 million as Bitcoin reversed from above $81,000.
Despite Friday’s redemptions, the funds still finished the week with $924.5 million in net inflows, while inflows across the previous two weeks reached about $2.8 billion.
BlackRock’s IBIT accounted for only $33.4 million of Friday’s withdrawals after collecting roughly $2.3 billion during the preceding nine sessions. ARKB and BITB together recorded $164.6 million in outflows.
Institutional demand has also been absorbing Bitcoin sold by larger holders, Bitfinex said. Whale addresses holding between 1,000 and 10,000 BTC have reduced their balances by 50,500 BTC since the end of June, while institutional custodial holdings associated with exchanges and ETF platforms increased by 59,100 BTC.
During the latest August advance alone, custodial balances rose by 31,500 BTC, a move the analysts said closely tracked ETF inflows.
“While whales took profits during the rally, institutional demand absorbed that supply, indicating that assets moving into these regulated vehicles may be less prone to sudden liquidation on the basis of short-term macroeconomic news.”
$80K–$83K could test whether real buyers remain Jeff Ko, chief analyst at CoinEx, told crypto.news that part of Bitcoin’s August rally came from Treasury buybacks pushing yields and the dollar lower at the same time that traders had built large short positions.
Ko said the mechanical part of the resulting squeeze has now “largely played out,” leaving spot demand as a more important factor around $80,000.
“Treasury buybacks pushed yields and the dollar lower, and that impulse collided with crowded short positioning to produce the squeeze,” Ko said. “What matters from here is whether spot buyers keep absorbing supply around $80K.”
The Treasury catalyst had already produced a sharp response earlier in August. On Aug. 19, the department announced that it would at least double the maximum size of liquidity-support buybacks for 10-to-20-year and 20-to-30-year nominal coupon securities from $2 billion to at least $4 billion per operation from Sept. 9 through Nov. 4.
The change helped compress long-term yields as Bitcoin surged. An Aug. 20 analysis of the buybacks found that BTC jumped 8.2% from an intraday low of $64,100 to $69,500 within 12 hours of the Treasury announcement, while $1.44 billion in short positions were liquidated.
Ko now sees $80,000–$83,000 as more than a technical resistance area because the zone could show whether new investment can replace the buying pressure previously created by forced short covering.
“It is a major supply zone, and the point at which the rally stops being a short squeeze and becomes a test of real capital allocation.”
Ether could provide another signal. Ko said ETH had traded near $2,490 heading into Jackson Hole but subsequently lagged Bitcoin on price. If Treasury yields and the dollar remain elevated while Ether starts outperforming Bitcoin on both price and investment flows, he would view the move as evidence of stronger crypto risk appetite.
Bitfinex also pointed to Ether ETFs as a possible gauge of demand. U.S. spot Ether products took in $815.7 million last week and extended their positive run to 10 sessions, according to the firm. Nearly 12.3% of cumulative Ether ETF inflows since launch arrived during August, while demand adjusted for the relative size of the assets was roughly four times as intense as Bitcoin ETF demand during the past week.
Fed rate hike risk threatens the liquidity support The pressure on Bitcoin now comes from a less favorable interest-rate outlook.
Warsh’s Jackson Hole remarks pushed the market-implied probability of a September rate increase to about 57%, according to Bitfinex. Ko similarly said CME-implied odds had risen from 39.9% on Aug. 21 to 57% following the speech, while the two-year Treasury yield moved to around 4.31% and the dollar returned toward a two-week high.
Bitfinex analysts said persistent inflation remains one of the main constraints on easier monetary policy. Headline Personal Consumption Expenditures inflation stood at 3.7%, with core inflation at 3.3%, while private domestic demand expanded at a 4.2% annualized pace during the second quarter.
Jeff Mei, chief operating officer of BTSE, told crypto.news that Warsh’s speech had raised the hurdle for Bitcoin because higher interest rates could reduce the amount of liquidity available for crypto assets.
“For a sustained rally, we need a few things to happen. First, ETF demand has to stay strong across all ETF products, and not just BlackRock’s IBIT ETF. Second, we need better inflation data for the Fed to back off and keep rates steady.”
Mei also cautioned that the boost associated with Treasury buybacks could fade quickly.
Earlier in August, Bitcoin broke above $76,000 as ETF inflows accelerated alongside improving U.S. liquidity conditions. Spot Bitcoin ETFs took in $606 million on Aug. 20 alone, extending a run of institutional demand that accompanied the recovery from the mid-August lows.
Bitcoin needs U.S. data to ease the rate pressure Attention now turns to a run of U.S. economic releases that could alter expectations before the Federal Reserve meets in September.
Ko identified Friday’s August payroll report as the most important immediate event and the final jobs report before the FOMC decision. July payrolls fell by 23,000 against an 80,000 consensus estimate, while May and June were revised lower by a combined 103,000 jobs, according to figures cited by Ko. The unemployment rate currently stands at 4.1%.
Before payrolls, ISM Manufacturing and JOLTS data are due Tuesday, followed by ADP employment figures and the Federal Reserve’s Beige Book on Wednesday and ISM Services on Thursday. Bitfinex analysts also identified the August labor-market and inflation releases as the next major tests for rate expectations.
The August inflation report is scheduled for Sept. 11, putting another major data point immediately before the Sept. 15–16 FOMC meeting.
Ko also pointed to the CLARITY Act as a crypto-specific U.S. catalyst, with a Senate procedural vote currently scheduled for Sept. 15. In his view, the vote represents one of the largest asset-specific events on the September calendar, while the Fed meeting will determine the monetary backdrop facing Bitcoin and other risk assets.
For price, Mei sees $87,000 as the next level that would materially strengthen the bullish case after Bitcoin clears the nearer resistance areas.
“If we break the $87k mark and hold, $100K becomes the real target, and we could be looking at a bull market.”
Michael Saylor’s company has just resumed its bitcoin acquisitions, but at a price that raises questions. Strategy has just bought 4603 BTC at 80318 each for 369.7 million dollars after about two months of absence. However, the company had sold several thousand bitcoins a few weeks earlier at a significantly lower price. Thus, this market return is not a simple resumption of accumulation, but it provides insight into the financial arrangements that now mark this group’s bitcoin strategy, between capital raises, liquidity management, and share buybacks.
In brief Strategy resumes its bitcoin purchases after nearly two months of interruption. 4603 BTC were acquired for 369.7 million dollars, at 80,318 dollars each. The company repurchases bitcoin about 29% more expensive than during its previous sales. Strategy now holds 845,050 BTC and 6.71 billion dollars in USD assets. A first bitcoin purchase in nearly two months While the group’s chairman had revived speculation, Strategy bought 4630 BTC between August 24 and 30. This transaction brings its reserves to 845,050 BTC, acquired for a total sum of 63.73 billion dollars, which is an average cost of 75,412 dollars per BTC. Michael Saylor summarizes this scenario:
Strategy acquired 4603 BTC for 370 million dollars, increased its USD cash by 29 million dollars, and repurchased 152 million dollars of STRC shares. As of August 30, we hold 845,050 bitcoins and 6.71 billion dollars in USD assets, which brings our net leverage to 0.0%. $MSTR.
To finance its operations, Strategy sold 4,531,421 MSTR shares through its ATM (At The Market) program. The company then raised 602.8 million dollars net of fees. Not all of these funds were converted into bitcoins. Indeed, some were dedicated to STRC and others to the USD cash reserves.
The 602.8 million dollars raised were allocated among four uses :
369.7 million dollars for the purchase of 4603 BTC ; 151.8 million dollars for the repurchase of STRC shares ; 50.7 million dollars for STRC dividends ; 30 million dollars transferred to the USD Cash account. Bitcoins repurchased at significantly higher prices than they were sold The developments of recent months provide another reading of the acquisition. Strategy had sold 6948 BTC between May and August for nearly 432.5 million dollars, at a price close to 62,250 dollars each. The company is now back on the market at an average of 80,318 dollars per BTC, nearly 29% higher than its previous sale prices. After this sequence of sales and purchases, Strategy has 2345 BTC less than before the start of the sequence and keeps about 63 million dollars difference in cash.
The BTC sales responded to a financing need. STRC had fallen below its nominal value of 100 dollars in June, closing a financing channel formerly used to acquire bitcoin. Michael Saylor’s company then implemented its “Digital Credit Capital Framework”. This program authorizes up to 1.25 billion dollars of BTC sales to cover dividends and repurchase preferred shares at a discount. The current return to acquisitions happens after a sufficient rise of MSTR so that issuing shares becomes the least costly financing option again.
Strategy restructures its financial balances around bitcoin New operations on the company’s financial structure accompany this resumption of acquisitions. During the relevant week, Strategy repurchased 1,557,177 STRC shares for an amount of 151.8 million dollars. There are still 364.8 million dollars available on the one billion dollar digital credit repurchase authorization. A separate one billion dollar envelope, dedicated to MSTR repurchasing, remains fully unused.
The dollar balance sheet has also strengthened. On August 30, Strategy showed 5.10 billion dollars of USD Reserves and 1.61 billion dollars in unrestricted USD Cash, bringing its dollar assets to 6.71 billion. According to the group, this posture reduces its “net leverage” to 0.0%. These statistics place the new bitcoin acquisition within a strategy where BTC accumulation now coexists with liquidity management of various financial instruments of the company.
With 845,050 BTC in holdings, Strategy remains fully exposed to bitcoin. This return to acquisitions shows that accumulation continues if its financing conditions allow it. The recent scenario also reveals a less linear reality. Thus, the company can sell BTC, consolidate its dollar reserves, act on its shares, then return to bitcoin at a higher price. The continuation of this policy may therefore depend on the conditions under which Strategy raises new capital.
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Diplômé de Sciences Po Toulouse et titulaire d'une certification consultant blockchain délivrée par Alyra, j'ai rejoint l'aventure Cointribune en 2019. Convaincu du potentiel de la blockchain pour transformer de nombreux secteurs de l'économie, j'ai pris l'engagement de sensibiliser et d'informer le grand public sur cet écosystème en constante évolution. Mon objectif est de permettre à chacun de mieux comprendre la blockchain et de saisir les opportunités qu'elle offre. Je m'efforce chaque jour de fournir une analyse objective de l'actualité, de décrypter les tendances du marché, de relayer les dernières innovations technologiques et de mettre en perspective les enjeux économiques et sociétaux de cette révolution en marche.
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The views, thoughts, and opinions expressed in this article belong solely to the author, and should not be taken as investment advice. Do your own research before taking any investment decisions.
The new chain has replaced SHA256d, which is Bitcoin's mining algorithm with BLAKE2b under its hard-fork rules.
David Schwartz, the Ripple CTO emeritus, argued on August 31 that supporters of Bitcoin’s BIP-110 fork crossed from governance into an attack after rejecting the soft-fork result and continuing on a separate proof-of-work chain.
His exchange with fork supporter loogart captures the dispute: whether losing a consensus fight justifies creating a new Bitcoin chain, or whether that move itself amounts to attacking the network.
New Chain Goes Live The account loogart opened the exchange by describing the sequence from the group’s perspective: it objected to the direction Bitcoin Core was taking, was told to fork, forked with a different proof-of-work algorithm, and is now building a separate chain, all while still being called an attacker.
“You’re not ‘still’ attacking,” Schwartz wrote in response to loogart’s take. “You switched from participating in governance to attacking when you refused to accept that you lost.”
Loogart replied that their group had accepted defeat and continued their version of Bitcoin elsewhere. They argued that open dialogue, a soft fork, and eventually a hard fork cannot amount to an attack because no one was compelled to follow, writing, “Nobody was forced to follow us.”
However, Schwartz rejected that framing, stating that inventing language that makes disagreement impossible to reason through moves the dispute beyond a good-faith disagreement and into what he called attacks and lunacy.
“I’m not arguing that you are incapable of pretending you have good faith disagreement over governance,” the XRP Ledger architect added. “I’m arguing that there’s lots of evidence that when you do so, you are pretending.”
The chain he referenced went live through a flag-day hard fork at block 961,640, replacing SHA256d with BLAKE2b as the mining algorithm. The update also introduced a new 164-byte block header and temporary rules capping block size at roughly 300 kilobytes until September 2027.
Bitcoin Knots developer Luke Dashjr defended the switch on August 30, arguing that BLAKE2b carries none of SHA256d’s known weaknesses, such as ASICBoost, and that the redesigned header closes a block-withholding loophole that previously relied on miner monitoring to catch.
You may also like: Strive Keeps Buying Bitcoin: Another 1,800 BTC Push Holdings Past 23K BitGo Buys NYDIG’s Institutional Trading Arm for $7M Cash and $35.5M in Stock ‘We’re Back,’ Says Saylor: Is Strategy About to Buy Bitcoin Again? A Fork That Struggled Before It Split Again As CryptoPotato reported previously, the BIP-110 chain split from Bitcoin’s main chain at block 961,632 after failing to draw enough miner support.
The backing pool, Roughnecks, produced only two blocks before the branch stalled while the main chain kept its normal pace, and the gap between them grew to several hundred blocks within weeks. Dashjr was separately removed as an editor of Bitcoin’s improvement proposal repository over what was described as a conflict of interest in his handling of BIP-110.
The dispute traces back to Bitcoin Core dropping its old limit on OP_RETURN data, which let more non-monetary content, including Ordinals and Runes, fill blocks that BIP-110 supporters wanted reserved for payments.
That disagreement has since split Bitcoin’s online community into camps, exemplified by how one X user, Robin Seyr, called BLAKE2b hostile in the same way Bitcoin Cash (BCH) and Bitcoin SV (BSV) were viewed, while another poster, Luke Mikic, described BIP-110 as an attempt to fix bugs introduced by Taproot rather than an attack on Bitcoin at all.
Adam, a researcher at Greeks.live, stated that the recent rapid rise in Bitcoin has significantly boosted market sentiment, and a noticeable recovery is being seen not only in BTC but also in different sectors of the cryptocurrency market. However, it was noted that as the pace of the rise slows, large investors in the options market have lowered their expectations regarding future price movements.
According to Adam, while the implied volatility (IV) of short- and medium-term options is rapidly declining, the IV level for these maturities remains only about 10% higher compared to two weeks ago. In medium and long-term options, the increase has fallen below 2%, indicating that investors expect more limited price fluctuations in the coming period.
According to Greeks.live data, approximately 40% of existing option positions will expire at the end of the month. A concentration of options with strike prices between $80,000 and $90,000 is particularly noteworthy. Adam also noted that the Bitcoin price has recently approached the region where high-volume transactions occur in the futures market, suggesting that these levels could constitute a significant resistance area for upward movement. However, it is assessed that if this region is breached, the high concentration of positions could increase upward pressure on Bitcoin.
*This is not investment advice.
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After a two-month dry spell, Strategy has resumed its Bitcoin buying spree. On Monday, the world’s largest digital asset treasury announced that it had purchased $370 million worth of Bitcoin at an average price of roughly $80,300 per BTC. Strategy shares rose nearly 3% following the announcement and were trading at about $130.
The company bought Bitcoin using part of the money it raised by selling newly issued MSTR shares, according to the SEC filing. It used the rest to pay dividends and repurchase STRC, a separate class of Strategy shares that pays investors regular income, and add $30 million to its cash balance.
Strategy’s latest purchase comes amid a brief rebound in Bitcoin, which was trading at roughly $78,800 on Monday. After spending much of the previous 10 months in a bear market, the cryptocurrency jumped more than 23% in a single day on Aug. 21, reclaiming $79,000 for the first time since May, according to crypto data aggregator CoinGecko. Bitcoin’s recent rally has also pushed the value of Strategy’s holdings back above what it paid for them, reversing a trend of steep paper losses.
Strategy, which holds 4% of the total Bitcoin supply, has struggled in recent months. The company’s aggressive accumulation model, which was historically funded through sales of new shares and borrowed money, came under pressure during the downturn. As Bitcoin’s value fell, Strategy’s holdings became less valuable, while its ability to raise fresh cash to continue its purchases weakened.
As a result, Strategy shifted from its earlier “never sell your Bitcoin” posture. In late June, when Bitcoin was trading at $58,500, a 53% drop from its all-time high, Strategy sold some of its holdings to meet its financial obligations. Over the summer, the company sold Bitcoin on three additional occasions. In total, the sales amounted to roughly $544 million.
This time around, Strategy has moved away from debt issuance as a Bitcoin-buying instrument. The company has faced growing shareholder pressure over its aggressive buying strategy, particularly as MSTR shares have fallen more than 60% over the past year. In response, Strategy has sought new ways to fund its approach—though several have drawn criticism or produced disappointing results.
In July 2025, Strategy introduced STRC, a dividend-paying share class designed to draw income-focused investors and give the company another source of cash for Bitcoin purchases. STRC investors receive regular payouts, unlike MSTR common shareholders, who mainly benefit if Strategy’s stock rises.
In June, after Bitcoin’s downturn strained the model, Strategy created a new financial backstop. The plan set aside cash for dividend and interest payments and gave the company the option to buy back shares or sell Bitcoin if needed. But Strategy still has to generate cash to make regular payments to STRC investors, leaving it reliant on new share sales or Bitcoin sales.
More recently, Strategy has focused on rebuilding its cash reserves to make sure it can keep paying dividends even if Bitcoin’s price remains weak.
Eric Trump, son of the American president and a fervent crypto supporter, took advantage of an interview with Wolf Financial to clarify his current projects. American Bitcoin is prominent among them. He provided elements that illuminate the company’s strategy. However, the debate over production costs remains very present.
En bref American Bitcoin mined 932 BTC in the second quarter of 2026—its best result to date—thanks to a fleet of approximately 90,000 machines running at full capacity. Eric Trump announced gross margins of 49% and daily production of 11 to 13 BTC, with cash reserves now totaling 8,300 BTC. Forbes disputes these figures and estimates the production cost to be closer to $90,000 per BTC, compared to approximately $57,000 according to management. The company relies on Texas’s cheap electricity to justify its strategy of accumulating Bitcoin through mining rather than purchasing it on the market. 932 BTC in one quarter: American Bitcoin’s strongest run so far The second quarter of 2026 will remain notable for American Bitcoin. The company mined 932 BTC, its highest level recorded to date. Its fleet of around 90,000 machines runs at full capacity. Eric Trump detailed the performance on the Wolf Financial podcast.
We are one of the largest miners in the world. We do it with gross margins of 49%.
Cash holdings now reach 8,300 BTC, valued at over 600 million dollars at the current rate. Daily mining ranges between 11 and 13 BTC. Listed on the Nasdaq under the ticker ABTC, the stock has risen about 50% in one month.
This move coincided with bitcoin’s rise from 64,000 to over 80,000 dollars. The company emphasizes the efficiency of its mining operations. It also highlights the speed of bitcoin transactions, much higher than that of the traditional banking system.
The ugly fight over what it really costs to mine These results are however contested. Forbes estimated that American Bitcoin’s production cost would be closer to 90,000 dollars per BTC. Eric Trump on the other hand claims a figure around 57,000 dollars. He called the report politically motivated.
The gap is significant. A margin of 49% according to management, a potentially much less favorable situation according to Forbes. Eric Trump highlights the American energy advantage. “It’s really an energy game,” emphasizes Eric Trump.
The company uses low-cost electricity in Texas. It compares this situation to that of the United Kingdom, where the cost per bitcoin could reach 300,000 dollars. However, Forbes estimates that some indirect costs, such as maintenance and personnel, could be undervalued.
Neither side has published a detailed breakdown since. The doubt about the real profitability of mining therefore persists.
Stacking bitcoin the hard way: mine it cheaper than you can buy it American Bitcoin’s strategy is based on a clear idea. Mine bitcoin at a cost below the market price.
We mine every day. It’s really an energy game.
The company has 28.1 EH/s of computing power. Its efficiency is 16 joules per terahash. The machines operate without interruption. Eric Trump recalls: they never stop, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.
Fourth quarter 2025 revenue reached 185.2 million dollars, well above expectations. However, if the production cost really approaches 90,000 dollars, the accumulation bet becomes riskier.
A sustained drop in bitcoin would expose the company more. Mining remains at the heart of the model. It is a trade-off on energy as much as pure BTC production.
How getting shut out by banks pushed a family deeper into crypto Eric Trump’s involvement in crypto originates from a personal experience. Capital One closed 300 of the Trump family’s bank accounts overnight. He calls this episode “debanking.” He sees a parallel with the difficulties faced by the crypto community.
This situation pushed him to defend a more open system. He believes major banks will have no choice but to face the ongoing evolution. He sees stablecoins as the future rails of finance. He also calls on the crypto industry for greater professionalism.
User experience must improve. He compares bitcoin adoption to that of the Internet in the 1990s. According to him, the best is yet to come. American mining, with its energy advantages, fits into this broader vision.
Key figures of the dossier BTC price at the time of writing: 78,133 dollars American Bitcoin’s daily production: 11 to 13 BTC Gross margin announced by Eric Trump: 49% Company’s BTC cash holdings: 8,300 BTC Production cost according to Forbes: 90,000 dollars per BTC American Bitcoin displays production records, but the debate over costs remains. Meanwhile, Michael Saylor, more a buyer than a miner, seems back on the scene. He recently hinted at a possible return to bitcoin acquisitions. Accumulation continues in various forms.
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La révolution blockchain et crypto est en marche ! Et le jour où les impacts se feront ressentir sur l’économie la plus vulnérable de ce Monde, contre toute espérance, je dirai que j’y étais pour quelque chose
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Blockstream just overhauled its Bitcoin and Liquid block explorer for the first time since launching the original version back in November 2018. The new design turns what was essentially a blockchain search engine into something closer to a network command center, complete with live mempool visualizations, fee recommendations, and a dedicated Liquid network dashboard.
The explorer, freely accessible at blockstream.info, remains built on the open-source Esplora framework. But nearly everything sitting on top of that foundation has been rethought.
What the new explorer actually does The most visually striking addition is the live next-block mempool visualization. Pending transactions appear as colored tiles, sized according to their virtual size and color-coded by fee band.
The redesigned dashboard surfaces a handful of metrics that previously required bouncing between multiple tools. Time since the last block, suggested transaction fees displayed in both sat/vB and their USD equivalents, and mempool congestion gauges all live on the main page now.
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Price charts are baked in as well, which means users no longer need to cross-reference a separate site just to contextualize on-chain activity against market movements.
For the Liquid network, Blockstream’s federated sidechain, the explorer now features its own dedicated health view. This dashboard highlights key asset metrics, transaction volumes, and network statistics specific to Liquid. It also supports tracking of peg-in and peg-out transactions, the mechanism by which Bitcoin moves between the mainnet and the Liquid sidechain, along with confidential transactions that obscure amounts and asset types.
The explorer covers Bitcoin mainnet and testnet alongside Liquid mainnet and testnet, making it a single pane of glass for developers working across both networks.
Built for developers, not just browsers One detail worth noting: every page in the new explorer is powered by the same public Blockstream Explorer API that third-party applications already use. That means the dashboard isn’t pulling from some hidden internal data source. If you see a metric on the explorer, you can programmatically access the same data for your own app.
The new version also adds enhanced tracking of SegWit versus legacy transaction fee savings. SegWit, the protocol upgrade that restructured how transaction data is measured, typically allows users to pay lower fees. Surfacing those savings directly in the explorer gives users a concrete reason to ensure their wallets support the newer format.
Privacy as a feature, not a footnote The site operates as a no-tracking, privacy-oriented public resource, meaning it doesn’t harvest user data or build advertising profiles from search queries.
The Liquid-specific privacy tools add another layer. Confidential transactions on Liquid hide the amounts and asset types being transferred, and the explorer is designed to respect and display these transactions without undermining their privacy properties.
The original Blockstream Explorer launched in November 2018 alongside the Liquid Network itself. What differentiates Blockstream’s offering is the dual coverage of both Bitcoin and Liquid from a single interface, combined with the API-first architecture that makes every displayed metric available programmatically.
Disclosure: This article was edited by Editorial Team. For more information on how we create and review content, see our Editorial Policy.
September is usually known for weak performance in the cryptocurrency market, but XRP is showing signs of resilience that defy this seasonal pattern. While many investors are cautious in anticipation of a traditional September pullback, recent technical and market data indicate that XRP could outperform this month.
XRP’s historical performance stands outTechnical analyst Xaif Crypto highlighted that since 2018, XRP has delivered a positive monthly close in September five times, compared to just three negative months. During these periods, the average return for XRP reached 12.19% despite broader market hesitancy.
This recent trend sets XRP apart from Bitcoin, which typically faces downward corrections heading into September. As August ended, XRP, Stellar (XLM), and Bitcoin each formed identical weekly technical formations, an unusual synchronization that analysts describe as rare for the market.
All three cryptocurrencies rebounded from their local lows and are now testing important price levels for continued recovery. Currently, the key support for XRP is $1.35, while Bitcoin is consolidating at $77,600.
Technical analysts view the synchronized patterns among these top cryptocurrencies at the start of a new month as a signal that significant capital may be positioning for a strong upward move. The alignment, just ahead of September, carries weight given the market’s cautious mood.
Mini dictionary: Xaif Crypto is a technical analyst known for using historical trading data to identify price trends and statistical patterns in cryptocurrencies, often followed by digital asset traders for technical insights.
ETF inflows, legislation and escrow support XRP outlookSeveral developments beyond chart patterns are also underpinning the optimistic scenario for XRP. At the end of August, weekly net inflows into spot XRP exchange-traded funds reached $110.49 million, according to SoSoValue. The total assets under management in these ETFs now stand at $1.44 billion.
Banking giant Goldman Sachs, one of the world’s leading financial institutions, disclosed in its latest 13F regulatory filing holdings of over $86 million in XRP ETF positions, further signaling growing institutional interest in the cryptocurrency.
A key political catalyst is also on the horizon. The US Senate is scheduled to vote on the CLARITY Act on September 15. If approved, the legislation would define XRP as a digital commodity and could significantly reduce regulatory uncertainty for market participants.
Meanwhile, Ripple’s monthly escrow release—scheduled for September 1—will unlock 1 billion XRP tokens. Historically, between 600 million and 800 million of these tokens are promptly returned to new escrow contracts, minimizing any potential selling pressure on the market.
FactorDetailsAverage September return (since 2018)+12.19%Record weekly ETF inflows$110.49 millionAssets in spot XRP ETFs$1.44 billionGoldman Sachs XRP ETF holdings$86 millionKey support level (XRP)$1.35XRP, XLM, and Bitcoin each formed identical weekly chart setups at the end of August, rebounding from local lows and testing critical price levels that could set the stage for a strong upward move in early September.
Market analysts note that this combination of technical signals, surging institutional inflows, supportive political developments, and managed token unlocks could enable XRP to continue outperforming its historical September averages, despite long-standing market skepticism.
Russia has approved new regulations set to take effect on September 1, 2026, creating a stricter framework for the use of digital assets by both individuals and businesses. The regulations focus on distinguishing between digital assets used for payments and those treated as securities, aiming to limit the accessibility of most altcoins to the general public.
Retail access tightly restrictedUnder the incoming rules, Russian retail investors will be restricted to purchasing only Bitcoin (BTC), Ethereum (ETH), and Tether (USDT). The annual purchase limit for individuals will be capped at 300,000 rubles, or approximately $3,632. This restriction includes purchases made through brokers, crypto exchanges, and asset managers.
Individuals must also undergo a formal assessment that tests their ability to understand and manage the risks associated with trading digital assets. Those who meet the requirements may qualify for advanced investor status, which would allow access to a broader selection of cryptocurrencies beyond BTC, ETH, and USDT.
Retail investors in Russia face a 300,000 ruble yearly limit on crypto purchases, applying even if funds are transacted via brokers, exchanges, or other intermediaries; only those passing a special evaluation can access a wider range of digital assets.
Rules for businesses and exceptionsFor Russian businesses, the regulations specify that only companies listed in a designated registry will be permitted to conduct transactions involving digital assets. In early August, President Vladimir Putin signed the law codifying these rules, which continue to prohibit the use of cryptocurrencies as a payment method for domestic transactions.
However, select exceptions apply. Digital assets may be used to settle certain foreign trade contracts, and the legalization of income from crypto mining remains in place. The framework also accommodates security settlements and the circulation of digital rights tied to digital assets.
One key area of focus is stablecoins. Sberbank, the largest bank in Russia, has asked authorities to evaluate the potential use of USDT as a settlement layer for select operations, highlighting growing institutional interest in stablecoins for cross-border trade and settlements.
Mini dictionary: Sberbank, Russia’s largest banking institution and a state-owned enterprise, is a major player in the country’s financial sector, providing banking, investment, and payment services for individuals and businesses.
Central Bank prioritizes investor protectionThe Central Bank of Russia emphasized that these measures aim to shield non-qualified investors from the unpredictable volatility associated with cryptocurrency prices. Liquidity remains a primary consideration for asset approval, which is why major tokens such as XRP and Solana (SOL) have not been made widely available to retail investors in the initial phase. The restrictions are intended to prevent retail investors from exposure to assets with low liquidity and greater price swings.
For institutional lenders such as Sberbank, the inability to use USDT for legal settlements could increase risk in the event of borrower defaults. Meanwhile, retail holders of XRP in Russia face similar obstacles, as they must successfully pass the special evaluation procedure before being able to purchase beyond the prescribed limit.
CryptocurrencyRetail Purchase LimitRequires Special EvaluationBitcoin (BTC)300,000 rubles/yearNoEthereum (ETH)300,000 rubles/yearNoTether (USDT)300,000 rubles/yearNoOther cryptocurrenciesBlocked unless advanced statusYesLiquidity and future prospectsOn the Moscow Exchange (MOEX), leveraged XRP trading is available, but daily volumes remain subdued at just a few thousand dollars, reflecting low demand and liquidity. American-developed cryptocurrencies generally see limited participation from Russian investors due to current regulatory preferences.
Looking ahead, proposed amendments in 2027 may increase the number of cryptocurrencies accessible to retail investors, potentially broadening the range of digital assets available for purchase in Russia.
Japan’s two-year government bond yield climbed to 1.746% on Monday, its highest level in more than 31 years. The move raises the cost of the yen carry trade that has helped fund global risk assets, including Bitcoin (BTC).
Two-year yields track what traders expect from the Bank of Japan (BOJ). Swap markets now price roughly 88% odds of a rate increase in September.
Japan’s 2-Year Yield / Source: CNBCJapan Spent $97 Billion And The Yen Still FellThe BOJ lifted its policy rate to 1% in June, the highest since 1995. Longer maturities followed. The 10-year Japanese government bond (JGB) yield now sits near 2.93%.
Higher rates would normally support a currency. Instead, the yen weakened. It traded at 160.16 per dollar on Friday and touched 160.20 again on Monday.
USD/JPY daily chart / Source: TradingviewTokyo deployed 15.4 trillion yen, close to $97 billion, between July 30 and August 26. That included a rare joint intervention with the United States on July 31. However, the currency has already surrendered more than half of those gains.
The Rate Gap Is Shrinking, Yet The Yen Keeps SlidingThe spread between US and Japanese two-year yields has narrowed to 2.64%. At its 2023 and 2024 peak, that gap ran close to 5%. Half the carry incentive has vanished.
For four decades, the yen tracked that spread closely. Now the two have separated. The currency keeps weakening while the reward for borrowing yen shrinks.
US/Japan 2Y Bond Yield Spread / Source: MacroMicroThat divergence points away from interest rates as the main driver. Mounting Japanese bond losses and heavy debt issuance suggest a confidence problem that higher rates alone cannot solve.
What The Yen Carry Trade Means For Bitcoin NowInvestors borrow yen cheaply, then buy higher-yielding assets abroad. Sharp yen appreciation makes those loans costlier to repay. Forced selling can follow.
August 2024 demonstrated the mechanism. Bitcoin and Ethereum lost as much as 20% as yen-funded positions closed.
Bitcoin trades at $79,087, up 1.3% over 24 hours. The token slipped below $77,000 last week on hawkish remarks from Federal Reserve chair Kevin Warsh.
Therefore, the September BOJ decision matters less as a shock than as a marker. A move priced at 88% odds is largely absorbed. Meanwhile, the position that has yet to unwind keeps building.
Bitcoin (CRYPTO: BTC) remains in a narrow range around $78,000, with analysts pointing out that only a select few cryptocurrencies can expect meaningful gains in the future.
What Technical Analysts ForecastProminent technical analyst Doctor Profit posted his weekly update on X Sunday, noting that $71,000 remains extremely strong support, $78,500 the next major resistance and $82,000 as the level that confirms a full bull market.
He called the daily RSI hot but noted weekly and monthly readings remain neutral, arguing the move was driven by a short squeeze rather than heavy spot buying or new leveraged longs piling in.
Crypto Rover posted on X that Bitcoin is pushing higher over the weekend while spot cumulative volume delta remains nearly flat, meaning leverage rather than real buyers is driving the move.
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He flagged that the last time this exact setup appeared, Bitcoin dropped from $81,000 to $77,000. Without spot buyers stepping in to validate the move, the pump risks a sharp reversal.
Widely-followed trader Smiley Capital on Sunday pointed out that the market is showing a clear three-tier structure:
Majors like Bitcoin and Ethereum (CRYPTO: ETH) lead and can be considereds core long-term positions. Revenue-generating protocols like Hyperliquid as measured by Hyperliquid Strategies (NASDAQ:PURR) and Pump.fun (CRYPTO: PUMP) are worth owning rather than just trading. Other altcoins and meme coins that “you play but do not hold.” What the ETF Data ShowsAccording to SoSoValue, ETH ETFs pulled in $824.42 million for the week ending Aug. 28, the strongest weekly total of 2026 and above the prior week’s record of $697.18 million.
August 28 alone brought in $102.18 million, led by BlackRock’s iShares Ethereum Trust ETF (NASDAQ:ETHA) with $83.79 million.
However, Bitcoin ETFs told a different story, recording a $201.81 million outflow on Aug. 28 and ending a nine-day inflow streak that had pulled in roughly $2.8 billion.
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Russia’s regulated cryptocurrency trading volume may reach between 3.5 trillion and 4 trillion rubles, or $46.43 billion, during its first year following legalization, according to Anatoly Popov, Deputy Chairman of Sberbank, one of Russia’s largest state-owned banks.
Regulated trading begins with conservative estimatesPopov presented these figures prior to the Eastern Economic Forum, describing the estimates as conservative. Sberbank relied on data from the Ministry of Finance, which observed that crypto transactions within Russia amount to around 50 billion rubles daily, totaling approximately 18 trillion rubles annually.
SberCIB Investment Research, a division within Sberbank specializing in market analysis, projected that about 20% of this total—equivalent to 3.5 to 4 trillion rubles—could initially transition to regulated platforms once the appropriate legal framework is in place.
Sberbank, referencing Finance Ministry statistics, indicated that only a fraction of Russia’s existing crypto transaction volume is likely to enter the official market soon after new regulations take effect.
Most current crypto trading activity in Russia is expected to remain outside formally regulated exchanges in the near term, given patterns of behavior and the nature of the transition process.
Market growth potential and regulatory timelineSberbank believes that Russia’s regulated crypto market will expand in the coming years as domestic infrastructure matures. Popov stated that annual regulated trading volumes may reach between 4.75 and 5.25 trillion rubles by 2028, rising further to about 7.5 trillion rubles ($87.06 billion) by 2029.
This growth projection signals a gradual migration of crypto activity from unofficial channels toward licensed financial institutions.
YearRegulated Crypto Trading Volume (Trillion Rubles)USD Equivalent (Billion)First year after legalization3.5–4$46.4320284.75–5.25–20297.5$87.06Russia’s legal framework for crypto exchanges is set to take effect on September 1. The law gives professional market participants until July 1, 2027, to obtain the necessary licenses. As a result, full-scale adoption of regulated crypto trading is unlikely until after this transition deadline, keeping the initial volume modest by comparison.
The regulatory structure is designed to encourage a staged rollout, potentially reducing risks for both investors and the wider financial system.
Mini dictionary: Sberbank – Russia’s largest state-owned financial institution, actively involved in digital asset market development, banking, and investment services.
Retail restrictions and asset limitationsPopulation-wide adoption will be influenced by limitations on retail investment. Reports indicate that non-qualified investors are restricted to a maximum investment of 300,000 rubles, approximately $3,800, in crypto per year, provided they complete a financial risk-awareness test. Qualified investors have higher thresholds, but both groups will remain bound by regulatory limits.
Another factor shaping the market’s early phase is the list of approved digital assets. Currently, only Bitcoin, Ethereum, and Tether’s USDT are sanctioned for trading on Russian-regulated exchanges. Many other cryptocurrencies remain outside the legal perimeter for now.
This may encourage some investors to continue using unlicensed exchanges to access a wider selection of digital assets, limiting the initial share of total crypto activity conducted on regulated platforms.
Access to only Bitcoin, Ethereum, and USDT through official exchanges could drive demand for alternative assets elsewhere, affecting the pace at which overall activity shifts into regulated channels.
While total crypto activity in Russia could reach 18 trillion rubles per year, Sberbank anticipates that only a modest fraction will move to the regulated sector during the first phase after legalization.
For banks, brokers, and regulated exchanges, the introduction of a legal framework for crypto trading presents significant business opportunities alongside increased state oversight. For investors, the current framework does not equate to unrestricted trading rights.
Future market expansion depends on how licensing procedures evolve, investor demand develops, regulations are updated, and whether authorities choose to broaden the list of approved digital assets. Based on current forecasts, Russia’s regulated crypto market could grow to $87 billion a year by 2029 if these elements progress as expected.
Fundstrat’s Tom Lee said Bitcoin and Ethereum are positioned for a major fourth quarter if the CLARITY Act passes this year, calling it one of four catalysts he expects to drive crypto higher into year-end.
Lee’s Four Catalysts for a Crypto Comeback
Speaking in a CNBC interview, Lee laid out a multi-part case for strength in digital assets. First, he pointed to crypto’s performance relative to other asset classes, explaining it has been the best-performing macro asset in the third quarter so far, a track record he expects to draw fresh institutional allocation in September and the fourth quarter.
Second, Lee said the crypto market’s traditional four-year cycle is set to end next month, which he expects to bring back investors who had stepped away from the space. He specifically cited South Korean investors, historically a major force in crypto trading, who rotated into AI stocks earlier this year but are now showing renewed trading volume in crypto markets.
Third, Lee opened up about strengthening fundamentals building throughout the year, including strong momentum in tokenization and what he described as a breakout product launch from Robinhood, alongside broader tailwinds from generative AI adoption benefiting the sector.
The fourth catalyst, Lee said, is the CLARITY Act itself. “If Clarity Act passes, which could happen this year, and if it does, I think Bitcoin and Ethereum have a huge fourth quarter,” Lee said.
Is Crypto Winter Over?
Asked whether crypto’s recent strength offsets the declines seen over the past year, Lee said the downturn had actually been shallower than widely believed, despite significant deleveraging events, including a sharp pullback in October and two additional drawdowns earlier this year.
“I think it’s been a very shallow crypto winter,” Lee said, adding that relatively few investors currently hold crypto positions, a dynamic he believes leaves room for Bitcoin to potentially reach six-figure territory.
Bitcoin’s Rally Already Underway
Lee’s comments come as Bitcoin has already staged a recovery. Cryptocurrency markets experienced their largest weekly rally in three years during late August 2026, pushing Bitcoin back above $80,000 after months spent trading in a lower range. Altcoins also posted gains between 30-50%.
Story Ends Here
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The crypto market has posted sharp gains across Bitcoin and several major altcoins, but Cryptex Finance data covering 36 assets and roughly 92% of the digital asset market shows that capital remains heavily concentrated in Bitcoin and Ethereum despite prices rising across the market.
Summary
Cryptex’s 36-asset index gained just 1.92% over the trailing seven days, even as several major cryptocurrencies posted much larger gains from their recent lows. Joe Sticco said low price dispersion suggests cryptocurrencies are moving together rather than investors rotating capital between assets and sectors. Sticco said roughly nine out of every ten dollars entering regulated crypto products during one recent session went to Bitcoin and Ethereum. U.S. spot Bitcoin ETF inflows provide evidence of institutional demand, although Sticco said rising asset values should not be confused with fresh capital entering the funds. Cryptex Finance co-founder Joe Sticco told crypto.news that participation in the recent rally had spread across the market, but the allocation of capital had not followed at the same pace, leaving cryptocurrencies trading more like a single group than a market in which investors are selecting individual winners.
Cryptex’s market index stood at 1,199.69, almost 20% above the base level of 1,000 set on Feb. 20. The index tracks 36 assets across five sectors using Coinbase pricing, giving Sticco a larger sample than Bitcoin or a handful of major altcoins alone.
Over the trailing seven days, however, the index had risen only 1.92%. Sticco said the figure matters because much of the rally that produced large percentage gains from recent lows took place within roughly 72 hours between Aug. 19 and Aug. 21, followed by several days of relatively flat trading.
“Measure from the low, and you get a rally. Measure the trailing week, which is what most readers think they’re being told, and you get almost nothing,” Sticco said.
Bitcoin’s acceleration during that period followed a major derivatives flush alongside renewed spot demand. Earlier market coverage showed BTC jumping from below $65,000 to around $69,500 on Aug. 19 as more than $1 billion in crypto short positions were liquidated within an hour.
Crypto market gains show little separation between assets Price dispersion within Cryptex’s index provides another reason Sticco is reluctant to describe the rally as a full capital rotation.
On the day measured by Cryptex, the strongest constituent gained 6.71%, while the weakest declined 1.49%. Despite covering 36 cryptocurrencies from five sectors, the entire range between the best and worst performers amounted to roughly eight percentage points.
“That is not a market sorting winners from losers. That’s a market moving as one block,” Sticco said.
According to Sticco, such low dispersion indicates that a common market factor is lifting cryptocurrencies together instead of investors moving money between assets based on individual fundamentals.
Major tokens nevertheless produced very different headline returns when measured across the rally. Sticco put Bitcoin’s seven-day increase at roughly 14%, XRP’s at 28%, and Solana’s at about 19%.
Capital allocation did not match the apparent spread in price performance. Bitcoin dominance remained around 57% to 60%, depending on the market universe used, while Sticco cited an Altcoin Season Index reading below 40, far under the 75 level generally used by the index to signal an altcoin season.
Solana also remained more than 50% below its October 2025 level despite gaining about 19% during the week, according to Sticco.
“Participation broadened. Allocation didn’t,” he said.
Institutional flows remain concentrated in Bitcoin and Ethereum Regulated investment products give Sticco another way to separate rising cryptocurrency prices from the destination of new capital.
During one recent Wednesday session, Sticco said U.S. spot Bitcoin ETFs received about $232 million, while Ether ETFs attracted roughly $192 million. XRP products brought in around $28 million, compared with approximately $15 million for HYPE products and $9 million for Solana.
By his calculation, close to nine dollars out of every ten went into Bitcoin and Ethereum. Weekly figures showed a similar concentration, with Bitcoin receiving about 71% of flows and Ethereum another 26%.
The concentration comes even as U.S. spot products have helped support Bitcoin’s recovery. A previous report on ETF demand found that U.S. spot Bitcoin ETFs had taken in approximately $1.9 billion across five consecutive inflow sessions by Aug. 24, while analysts said continued spot buying would be needed after forced short covering helped accelerate the initial breakout.
Sticco said the subsequent streak had reached eight consecutive sessions of net Bitcoin ETF inflows totaling about $2.8 billion, while Ether ETFs had also recorded eight positive sessions and more than $1 billion in inflows.
August Bitcoin ETF inflows had exceeded $3 billion by the time of his comments, making it the strongest month of 2026, according to Sticco. He said BlackRock had absorbed a large portion of the demand, including around $1.3 billion during the previous week.
“Eight straight sessions of regulated spot creations is not what a short squeeze produces,” he said.
The ETF numbers, however, require another distinction when assessing how much new institutional money has entered Bitcoin.
Sticco said net assets held by the funds had climbed from roughly $77 billion in mid-August to just above $99 billion by Tuesday, an increase of about $22 billion. Actual net inflows during the eight-session streak totaled only around $2.8 billion.
Much of the difference came from Bitcoin’s rising price increasing the value of assets already held by the funds, he said, rather than investors supplying another $22 billion in fresh capital.
Earlier in August, five consecutive inflow sessions had brought approximately $853.5 million into U.S. spot Bitcoin ETFs between Aug. 3 and Aug. 7, reversing withdrawals recorded during the preceding week.
Sticco also cautioned against viewing August in isolation. He said spot Bitcoin ETFs lost roughly $5.4 billion during the first half of 2026 and remained about $2.5 billion in negative territory for the year despite the latest inflows.
ETF demand is clearer than derivatives positioning Separating institutional buying from leverage requires looking at different parts of the market, according to Sticco.
ETF flows and market depth measure demand, while funding rates, futures basis, and open interest give more information about trader positioning. Sticco said falling open interest alongside rising prices can indicate shorts are closing rather than new buyers entering.
He declined to characterize current open interest as either bullish or bearish because publicly available readings differed. Some datasets quote open interest in Bitcoin while others measure its dollar value, which can produce different trends when BTC itself moves sharply.
Market depth presents a similar problem. Sticco described depth as one of the most useful measures for institutional participation because it shows how much capital can enter or exit without materially moving the market.
“Price tells you what the last trade cleared at. Depth tells you what the next big one will cost.”
Available public depth figures were not current enough for Sticco to say confidently how much liquidity had recovered. He pointed instead to the damage following the October 2025 deleveraging event, when he said an estimated $10 billion to $20 billion in leveraged positions were erased and Bitcoin’s top-of-book depth on major venues fell more than 90% intraday.
Market makers subsequently reduced resting liquidity after getting caught with inventory while hedges were force-closed, according to Sticco, leaving order books at their thinnest since 2022.
For Sticco, the institutional side of crypto has therefore developed faster than the liquidity supporting the underlying market.
U.S. policy and Treasury conditions remain part of the rally Macroeconomic conditions have also played an important role in the latest advance, according to Sticco, who pointed to the U.S. Treasury’s Aug. 19 decision to increase long-dated debt buybacks as an important catalyst.
The Treasury doubled the maximum size of certain long-end liquidity support buybacks from $2 billion to at least $4 billion per operation. The Treasury announcement was followed by falling long-term yields and an 8.2% Bitcoin advance from an intraday low around $64,100 to approximately $69,500 in less than 12 hours.
Sticco said Bitcoin’s close relationship with software stocks during the move shows how crypto has become more connected to U.S. macro conditions. As interest-rate expectations later changed and short-term yields rose, Bitcoin surrendered some of the gains even though the legislative situation in Washington had not materially changed.
Congress presents another variable for U.S. investors. Sticco pointed to the CLARITY Act, which would establish a statutory division of responsibilities between the SEC and CFTC for parts of the digital asset market and create a federal framework affecting exchanges, brokers, dealers, and custody.
The Senate Banking Committee advanced the legislation 15-9 in May, with Democratic Sens. Ruben Gallego and Angela Alsobrooks joining Republicans. Sticco, who attended the markup as part of Cryptex’s policy work, said both Democrats made clear at the time that their committee votes did not guarantee support on the Senate floor without progress on unresolved provisions.
A Sept. 15 cloture vote requires 60 votes to move the legislation forward. Previous coverage of the negotiations identified ethics rules, stablecoin rewards, and financial-crime provisions among the issues still unresolved ahead of the procedural vote.
For regulated index products, Sticco pointed in particular to provisions covering CFTC registration of digital commodity exchanges, brokers, and dealers. Capital, asset-segregation, surveillance, and customer-protection requirements could increase the number of regulated venues capable of supporting assets used in exchange-traded products, he said.
Sticco also cited custody provisions and changes affecting financial holding companies as potentially important for institutions, while arguing that statutory classification of digital assets would give index providers more certainty than relying on agency interpretations that future regulators could change.
Policy expectations, however, have weakened even as cryptocurrency prices have risen. Sticco said Polymarket odds for the CLARITY Act becoming law in 2026 had fallen from roughly 82% in February to around 25% in late August, while Galaxy Research placed the probability closer to 10%.
The Sept. 15 vote will also fall on the first day of the Federal Reserve’s Sept. 15-16 meeting, leaving two major U.S. policy events scheduled within the same period.
Unresolved Senate negotiations include ethics and conflict-of-interest rules involving government officials, possible secondary enforcement authority for state attorneys general, illicit-finance provisions and banking-industry objections to crypto exchanges paying yield on stablecoin balances, according to Sticco.
Crypto analyst Ali Martinez assessed the technical outlook for Bitcoin and Dogecoin, highlighting critical price levels investors should watch. According to Martinez, the $73,880 level for Bitcoin is a crucial threshold for maintaining the bullish scenario.
Martinez noted that the “-0.5” level in Bitcoin’s MVRV price bands currently corresponds to approximately $73,880. According to the analyst, if BTC manages to stay above this region, the next major target indicated by the MVRV price bands could be $100,000.
Martinez also stated that Bitcoin’s current price structure shows similarities to the movements that followed the bear market bottom in 2022.
According to the analyst, after breaking its long-term downtrend in 2023, Bitcoin tested its previous August peak, then retreated to around $20,000 before entering a strong bull run.
Martinez believes a similar pattern may be forming again right now. He noted that the critical area to watch in this scenario is the peak of approximately $83,000 seen in May 2026.
If Bitcoin is rejected around $83,000, the analyst stated that the potential pullback could present the next significant buying opportunity for BTC.
Another cryptocurrency on Martinez’s radar is Dogecoin (DOGE). According to the analyst, a bullish flag pattern may be forming on DOGE’s hourly chart.
Martinez stated that, within the framework of the formation, there is still a possibility that the price will first retrace to the important support level at $0.081, while the critical level for an upward move is $0.090.
The analyst stated that a technical breakout could be confirmed if DOGE closes the hourly candle above $0.090, and in such a scenario, the price could rise to $0.115.
*This is not investment advice.
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The expansion is contingent on new crypto rules taking full effect and the Bank of Russia permitting the assets for public circulation.
Sberbank plans to accept bitcoin, Ethereum and the Tether stablecoin as loan collateral after the Bank of Russia permits the assets for public circulation and the country’s new crypto rules take full effect.
Anatoly Popov, deputy chairman of Sberbank’s management board, outlined the plan in an interview excerpt published by TASS. He said the bank would adapt its existing products to the new requirements and then expand its range of crypto-backed loans.
Popov separately said Sberbank was seeing demand from businesses, particularly miners and companies for which crypto represents a significant part of their assets. Their main request was to obtain liquidity without selling bitcoin, according to a second TASS excerpt.
Popov also said improved methods for valuing digital collateral could open the product to a broader group of clients.
Sberbank Has Tested Crypto CollateralSberbank has previously conducted a pilot transaction using crypto as loan security. In December 2025, the bank made a pilot corporate loan to Russian mining operator Intelion Data, with digital currency mined through the company’s own computing infrastructure serving as collateral, according to Intelion’s account.
The bank used its own crypto storage system and a Rutoken hardware device to safeguard the pledged asset during the loan. Popov said the pilot tested mechanisms for working with digital collateral that could support future regulation and be relevant to miners and other companies that own crypto assets.
The new statement adds a defined prospective asset list — bitcoin, Ethereum and Tether — but ties acceptance of all three to the central bank’s public-circulation decision and the implementation of the new rules.
Direct Regulation Replaced the Experimental RouteThe framework behind the proposed expansion is direct regulation, not the experimental legal regime discussed earlier in Russia’s policy process. In December 2025, the Bank of Russia said it had abandoned the experiment because it did not have time to run a trial and then spend additional years developing a permanent system.
The resulting law will take effect Sept. 1. The central bank said the regulated market infrastructure will include existing financial institutions as well as crypto exchanges and digital repositories, and that the requirements for cryptocurrencies will also apply to foreign stablecoins.
Russia will continue to prohibit crypto payments within the country. Market participants have a transition period through July 1, 2027, to obtain licenses and bring their operations into compliance.
Sberbank tied the planned collateral expansion to two conditions: all provisions of the new regulation taking effect and the Bank of Russia permitting bitcoin, Ethereum and Tether for public circulation.
PANews reported on August 22 that crypto analyst Ali posted on social platform X that in the final stages of Bitcoin’s two historical bear markets, a key feature appeared—a sudden strong weekly reversal. Such “giant bullish candles” often caught most market participants off guard and could become a signal for the start of a new bull market. Such moves are usually driven by “short squeezes.” When the Bitcoin price rises, bearish traders keep adding short positions, and as the rally accelerates, these short positions are forced to close, further pushing prices higher.
Historical data shows that at the end of the 2019 Bitcoin bear market, there was a single-week gain of 31.98%, which was followed by a new uptrend cycle. In January 2023, against an extremely pessimistic market sentiment after the FTX collapse, Bitcoin rose 24.90% in a single week, reversing the previous bearish expectations.
A similar trend may be replaying in the current market. Although many investors expected a market bottom in October based on the “four-year cycle theory,” Bitcoin recently rose from $62,700 to $79,500, a weekly gain of 26.81%. If historical patterns continue, this strong weekly reversal may mean Bitcoin (BTC) has already entered the early stages of a new uptrend cycle.
According to market data from BIT (bit.com), Circle’s shares rose more than 6% intraday, currently trading at $92.67. Earlier reports noted that Hyperliquid is in discussions with Kraken’s parent company to enter the U.S. market.
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Viewpoint: Bitcoin’s rebound momentum remains strong, with institutional allocations and speculative leverage rising in tandem.
Glassnode noted in a report that Bitcoin is currently trading around $78,600, having largely held onto the strong rally it launched from the $64,000 zone at the end of August after earlier breaking above $80,000. The broader digital asset market still shows strong institutional demand, though activity in spot and derivatives trading has cooled in some segments. Meanwhile, price momentum has clearly exceeded the upper bound of its statistical range. The secondary market’s trading volume and spot Cumulative Volume Delta (CVD) indicate that the balance of buying power in the market may be shifting, while retail participation has also weakened. Traditional finance capital continues to flow into regulated crypto investment products. U.S. spot Bitcoin ETF holdings remain profitable and have maintained weekly net inflows. At the same time, short-term, price-sensitive capital is entering the market, coinciding with high options open interest and a rapid narrowing of volatility spreads—signaling that market participants may be underestimating short-term volatility risks. On-chain data also reflects a pattern of "active settlement but weakening user participation": entity-adjusted transaction volumes are significantly above normal levels, while daily active addresses and total fee revenue have declined slightly. Overall, the Bitcoin market is in a transition phase from a strong rally to structural divergence. Sustained institutional capital allocation and a rebound in on-chain valuations are providing market support, though speculative leverage is rising and signs of short-term capital selling have begun to emerge. The market’s fundamentals remain solid, but short-term volatility and correction risks are on the rise.
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Not financial or tax advice. PANews content is strictly educational and informational and is not investment advice, financial advice, tax advice, legal advice, or a solicitation to buy or sell any digital asset, security, or financial product. Do your own research and consult qualified advisers.
Disclosure. PANews may publish sponsored content, partner content, advertisements, affiliate links, event promotions, and market commentary involving Web3 projects, service providers, or financial products. PANews personnel, contributors, or affiliates may hold digital assets or other interests related to covered topics. See our Terms of Service.
The U.S. government has transferred a portion of Bitcoin previously seized from Alameda Research accounts held on Binance.US. This transaction was highlighted by blockchain analytics company Arkham, which monitors activity involving high-profile blockchain movements.
Details of the transactionArkham reported on August 26 that Bitcoin was moved from assets originally confiscated from Alameda on Binance and Binance.US nearly three years prior. While the transfer’s amount was characterized as small, Arkham did not indicate that the movement signaled an outright sale, nor did it clarify the final destination of the funds.
Such transactions have become increasingly common as the government actively manages digital assets seized in connection with the collapse of Alameda Research and the associated FTX exchange. These ongoing asset reallocations follow several high-profile forfeiture actions spanning multiple cryptocurrencies and exchanges.
Broader government asset movementsIn May, Arkham observed the transfer of approximately $1.9 million in a mix of Alameda Research altcoins to Coinbase Prime. The assets included Render (RNDR), Uniswap (UNI), The Sandbox (SAND), Mask Network (MASK), and Axie Infinity (AXS).
Earlier, in July, wallets attributed to U.S. government authorities moved over $288 million in seized Bitcoin and Ether to Coinbase Prime. These funds originated from multiple criminal proceedings, not exclusively those linked to FTX and Alameda, underscoring the government’s ongoing effort to process forfeited digital assets.
Arkham revealed that more than $300 million held in Alameda Research accounts on Binance and Binance.US was seized by the government as part of a comprehensive forfeiture initiative totaling over $700 million in FTX- and Alameda-related assets.
The seized holdings included a significant sum of Bitcoin and wrapped Bitcoin, valued at over $102 million at the time. These actions represent just a portion of the billions in assets ultimately linked to the FTX and Alameda investigations.
Mini dictionary: Alameda Research, a quantitative cryptocurrency trading firm formerly led by Sam Bankman-Fried, was closely tied to the FTX exchange before both collapsed in 2022 following revelations of financial misconduct and mismanagement.
Legal aftermath and victim compensationSam Bankman-Fried, founder of FTX and executive at Alameda Research, received a 25-year prison sentence and was ordered to forfeit over $11 billion after being convicted of fraud and related charges. Federal Judge Lewis Kaplan authorized the U.S. government to distribute recovered assets as restitution to victims affected by Bankman-Fried’s actions.
The organized transfer and liquidation of digital assets is part of the ongoing process to satisfy the court-ordered forfeiture. An inspector general report from the Department of Justice revealed that the U.S. Marshals Service had received a $627.9 million settlement as a partial payment against the $11 billion total, with funds actively distributed to qualifying victims.
The Department of Justice emphasized that ongoing payments to victims are being sourced from funds recovered through asset seizures and settlements connected to the FTX and Alameda investigations.
Asset TypeAmount MovedDestinationDateBitcoinUndisclosed (small amount)Not specifiedAugust 26Altcoins (RNDR, UNI, SAND, MASK, AXS)$1.9 millionCoinbase PrimeMayBitcoin, Ether$288 millionCoinbase PrimeJulySettlement (USD)$627.9 millionVictimsOctober 2025Authorities have continued to coordinate the disposition of seized digital assets as they advance efforts to provide restitution and actively monitor substantial cryptocurrency movements resulting from legal proceedings in the aftermath of FTX and Alameda’s failure.
Bitcoin (CRYPTO: BTC), Ethereum (CRYPTO: ETH) and Solana (CRYPTO: SOL) are retreating from their recent highs, but experienced trader DonAlt says the first pullback after the explosive rally has yet to invalidate the bullish market structure.
Why Crypto Can Go "Sideways/Up"“Nothing’s really changed,” DonAlt said in a podcast on Aug. 29, noting that BTC’s weekly chart has barely deteriorated following one of its strongest recent upside impulses.
He argued that traders calling for an immediate return toward $70,000 to $72,000 may be overlooking the importance of momentum.
DonAlt expects Bitcoin to move "sideways slash up" unless reclaimed support breaks, with a deeper pullback likely leading to prolonged consolidation.
Trending
The $75,000 to $76,000 region represents Bitcoin’s first significant test.
Bitcoin could still retreat toward around $72,000 to $73,000 without destroying its weekly structure, according to DonAlt.
However, a monthly close below roughly $73,000 would be a more significant warning that the rally was simply a bounce into resistance.
Ethereum’s $4,000 Target, Solana Breakout IntactDonAlt is even more constructive on Ethereum, calling its technical structure one of the strongest among major cryptocurrencies.
"The more I look at this, the more bullish it seems to me," he said.
The trader sees $2,300 as key Ethereum support, with a break potentially leading to $2,100-$2,200 and extended consolidation. If $2,300 holds, he sees the breakout intact with $4,000 as a potential target.
On the other hand, Solana surged out of its previous range and approached DonAlt’s $125 target before pulling back. Despite the retreat, it remains above its important breakout region around $96.
A return below that area would weaken the setup, while the larger bullish thesis would face a more serious challenge closer to $80 to $81.
He highlighted Solana’s recent shift from a low to a higher low followed by a sharp upside impulse as materially different from its behavior during the preceding bear market.
Bitcoin, the largest cryptocurrency by marketcap, is holding above $78,000 on Monday even as a stronger dollar, rising oil prices and renewed geopolitical tensions create a risk-off backdrop for crypto markets.
Bitcoin briefly fell below $77,000 in the early hours before recovering, leaving it down less than 1% over 24 hours. The cryptocurrency remains up more than 24% in August, putting it on track for its strongest monthly performance since 2017 and its largest monthly gain since November 2024.
Solana Leads the Majors Solana leads Monday's declines among major cryptocurrencies, falling roughly 3% in the past day. Despite that, the weekly picture looks considerably stronger for Solana. After reaching a weekly high of $110 over the weekend, $SOL has slipped to about $102 but remains up more than 7% over the past week. That gives it the strongest weekly performance among the top 10 cryptocurrencies by market capitalization.
Solana remains up more than 40% in August. With Monday marking the final day of the month, $SOL remains on course for its largest monthly green candle since 2024.
The network also maintains the top position in DEX volume across daily, weekly and monthly timeframes. Last week, Solana completed voting on 3 major governance proposals and recorded its biggest week ever for token launches, with more than 800,000 new tokens created.
Solana ETFs Post Record Inflows Institutional demand has also strengthened. U.S. spot Solana ETFs recorded more than $153 million in net inflows last week, marking their strongest week of 2026 and setting a new yearly record.
Only the final week of October 2025, when U.S. spot Solana ETFs launched, produced larger weekly inflows.
The strong ETF demand comes alongside Solana's broader market gains, although the latest price pullback shows that institutional flows have not insulated $SOL from wider macroeconomic pressure.
Saylor Returns to Bitcoin Buying Strategy made its first Bitcoin purchases since late June, adding 4,603 $BTC for $369.7 million last week at an average price of $80,318.
The company funded the acquisition through $602.8 million in common-stock sales. It allocated the remaining proceeds to $151.8 million in STRC preferred-stock buybacks and additional cash reserves.
Executive Chairman Michael Saylor now leads a company holding 845,050 $BTC acquired for $63.73 billion at an average price of $75,412 per Bitcoin.
Strategy was not alone in adding exposure. Bitcoin treasury firm Strive purchased 1,800 $BTC last week for $143 million, paying an average of $79,431 per coin. The purchase brings Strive's holdings to 23,156 $BTC, worth nearly $1.8 billion.
Iran conflict sends oil above $90 Geopolitical tensions added another source of pressure to markets after U.S. forces struck Iranian rocket launchers, triggering retaliation against local military bases and pushing crude prices sharply higher.
President Donald Trump declared on Truth Social that "Iran is officially a Failed Nation".
Following the declaration, brent crude climbed over 3% to $90 per barrel, while WTI rose 3% to $86.3. The oil surge has renewed inflation concerns and could complicate the Federal Reserve's interest-rate outlook.
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Ripple‘s native cryptocurrency, XRP, is trading near $1.37 on Monday after posting a 2% decline during the day’s session. This performance comes after a strong August, when XRP jumped nearly 27%, and surged 35% over the past two weeks, moving from $1.06 to a peak of $1.58, supporting strong returns for investors amid a broader digital asset market rally. As September begins, attention turns to whether XRP can sustain this positive momentum through the coming month.
XRP forecast for September 2026XRP has previously seen gains reversed by subsequent declines, but each market cycle brings new factors that can shift outcomes. On-chain analytics and price prediction firm CoinCodex issued its outlook for September 2026, indicating the potential for further gains in the coming weeks. Analysts noted that XRP remains one of the most closely watched digital assets due to its current upside potential and recent market performance.
CoinCodex predicts that XRP could climb to $1.50 by the end of September 2026. This projection suggests a roughly 10% increase from current trading levels for the token. In practical terms, if this prediction is realized, investors who enter the market now could see a return of $1,100 on a $1,000 investment.
XRP is expected to deliver double-digit returns in September 2026, with CoinCodex forecasting a target of $1.50 as the broader cryptocurrency market remains optimistic and follows Bitcoin‘s upward price moves.
Market context and broader trendsThe anticipated gains in XRP coincide with renewed optimism across the cryptocurrency sector. Bitcoin recently surged from $62,000 to a high of $78,000 and continues to maintain strength near $77,000. This upward momentum in Bitcoin is supporting other digital assets, including XRP, and could drive additional gains if the rally continues through September.
As investors monitor key resistance levels and technical setups, broader market interest is also shifting. Instead of relying solely on traditional brokers, a growing number of retail and institutional players are turning to Web3 platforms. This trend has brought attention to solutions like 1stepSwap, which allow users to hold tokenized shares of leading U.S. companies, gold, and silver directly in their crypto wallets. By packaging real-world assets as tokens and automatically sourcing the most competitive prices, 1stepSwap eliminates the need for intermediaries.
XRP’s recent performance has made it a focal point in ongoing debates about the sustainability of altcoin rallies. While past performance suggests some risk that gains may be transient, market conditions and new infrastructure trends may offer additional support in the months ahead.
Potential gains and ongoing volatilityAnalysts emphasize that even a 10% monthly gain is notable, as few financial assets consistently deliver such short-term returns. The continued bullish sentiment for XRP and other leading cryptocurrencies hinges on factors such as Bitcoin’s momentum, overall trading volume, and investor confidence moving into September.
Market participants see this as a window of opportunity, but also recognize that historical price reversals remain possible and ongoing monitoring of both technical and fundamental signals is essential.
As the crypto markets navigate September, XRP will likely remain under close observation, with its trajectory providing insight into broader digital asset trends and investor sentiment in this cycle.
The human brain runs on roughly 20 watts. The world’s fastest supercomputer, LineShine in Shenzhen, draws 42.2 million watts. That gap has become the internet’s favorite argument about AI energy use, and most of it is wrong.
The comparison itself holds up. However, the numbers circulating on social media trace back to a single paper. The most striking one has been misattributed for three years.
China just topped the global supercomputer ranking for the first time since 2017.
LineShine. Shenzhen. 2.198 exaflops. 2 quintillion calculations per second. 20% faster than the US's El Capitan.
built entirely on domestic Chinese CPUs. no Nvidia. no US chips. no export controls… https://t.co/Tuuk6svl6l pic.twitter.com/fwFKWN0Mr4
— IT Guy (@T3chFalcon) June 24, 2026
AI Energy Use: What 20 Watts Actually Buys
The 20-watt figure rests on decades of metabolic measurement. The brain accounts for about 2% of body weight and roughly 20% of resting oxygen consumption.
Neuron counts are shakier than they appear. The widely quoted 86 billion rests on four male brains and is currently under dispute in the journal Brain.
Viral posts often use 12 watts rather than 20. That figure appears in a 2023 paper in Frontiers in Artificial Intelligence, stated without any citation at all.
The same paper produced the number everyone shares. Its authors estimated that digitally recreating a human brain would draw 2.7 billion watts.
That estimate came from extrapolating a 10-million-neuron simulation to mouse scale, then multiplying by a thousand.
The paper also states that the simulation ran about 30,000 times slower than biology. Social posts drop that detail. Secondary sources then credit the figure to the Blue Brain Project, which never published it.
A Viral Post on LinkedIn Claiming How the Human Brain Only Needs 12 Watts to Think. Source: Evolving AI
Reliable numbers do exist elsewhere. Epoch AI estimated a typical ChatGPT query at 0.3 watt-hours in early 2025. A peer-reviewed study in Joule later landed on 0.31.
Two independent methods agreeing that closely is unusual. However, the figure changes sharply with workload, and reasoning models that produce longer answers can cost several times as much.
What Biology Does Differently, and What Silicon Copied
Cortical activity is sparse. Average firing rates are below 1 Hz, and energy follows change rather than clock cycles.
Modern AI reached the same conclusion independently. Kimi K2 activates 32.6 billion of its 1.04 trillion parameters per token, close to 3.1%.
That ratio is falling fast. Mixtral used roughly 28% of its parameters in 2023, while DeepSeek-V3 now uses 5.5%.
Biology also computes at low precision. Nothing inside a neuron resolves to 32 bits.
Chipmakers followed the same path. DeepSeek trained a 671-billion-parameter model in eight-bit precision. NVIDIA has since pretrained a 12-billion-parameter model in four-bit.
Power draw on a logarithmic scale, from a brain to a data center / Source: BeInCrypto
The third difference is the largest and the least copied. Brains hold memory and computation in the same physical place.
Digital machines separate them. Stanford’s Mark Horowitz showed the cost of that split. Fetching an operand from memory can consume hundreds of times more energy than the arithmetic itself.
The Brain-Shaped Chips That Never Arrived
Hardware built explicitly to imitate neurons has struggled. No neuromorphic or analog system has trained or run a frontier model in production.
Intel’s Hala Point packs 1.15 billion artificial neurons across 1,152 chips. It remains a research prototype installed at Sandia National Laboratories. Mike Davies, director of Intel’s Neuromorphic Computing Lab, speaking to The Register in 2024, said:
“We’re not mapping any LLM to Hala Point at this time. We don’t know how to do that.”
The commercial picture is thinner still. BrainChip is the sector’s flagship listed company. It reported $700,000 in customer receipts against $5.3 million of operating outflow last March quarter.
Others have stalled outright. Rain AI, which sought $150 million and failed to raise it, explored a sale in 2025.
Researchers inside the field describe a circular problem. Catherine Schuman, assistant professor of electrical engineering and computer science at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, stated:
“The hardware companies are waiting for there to be a killer application, but it’s really hard to understand how to build those applications without having hardware to prototype on.”
More than 20 researchers signed a 2025 consensus paper in Nature. It argued that the field still lacks the ecosystem it needs.
Biology’s principles won. The hardware built to embody them did not.
Everyone Is Bidding for the Same Electrons
Efficiency matters now because electricity has become the binding constraint. The International Energy Agency put global data center consumption at 485 terawatt-hours in 2025.
AI-focused facilities grew 50% during that year alone. The agency expects them to triple by 2030.
Grid access, rather than chip supply, now gates construction. Median time from an interconnection request to commercial operation exceeds five years, according to Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory.
Microsoft chief executive Satya Nadella said in November that his company holds processors it cannot plug in. The shortage is powered buildings, not silicon. Institutional investors have raised similar questions about grid readiness.
Bitcoin miners spent a decade solving exactly that problem. They hold energized sites, signed power agreements, and interconnection rights that newcomers wait years to secure.
The result has turned mining into an energy and infrastructure business. Retrofitting a working site costs roughly $3 million to $4 million per megawatt. Greenfield construction runs $10 million to $12 million, VanEck estimates.
Announced deal values are enormous. Public miners have signed AI contracts worth more than $70 billion in aggregate.
Delivered capacity tells a quieter story. Second-quarter 2026 filings show roughly 750 megawatts actually energized across the sector.
Core Scientific accounts for about 437 of those megawatts. Galaxy’s Helios campus delivered 133; TeraWulf 102; IREN 50; and Riot 25. Hut 8 has contracted 949 megawatts and energized none.
Contracted capacity against what has actually been switched on / Source: BeInCrypto
The pivot has been costly. Combined quarterly losses at miners MARA and CleanSpark reached $851 million in August.
Most mining capacity will never convert. Preliminary Cambridge survey data presented in July showed that about 10% of miners had allocated power to AI.
The obstacles are physical. Mining tolerates interruption, whereas AI tenants demand firm power, dense cooling, and fiber that remote sites rarely have.
Even so, the direction of travel is clear. Core Scientific now earns 83% of its revenue from colocation and just 13% from mining itself.
Investors have priced that shift in. Miners holding signed leases trade at far higher multiples of their energized power. Meanwhile, the next AI bet increasingly looks like electricity rather than chips.
Why Efficiency Will Not Fix AI Energy Use
Efficiency gains have absorbed demand growth in the past. Global data center compute grew by 550% between 2010 and 2018, while energy use rose by about 6%.
Then the pattern broke. United States data center consumption climbed from 58 terawatt-hours in 2014 to 176 in 2023.
Evolution optimized under a hard ceiling. A skull drawing 200 watts would have killed its owner, so efficiency became the only available answer.
AI has never faced that ceiling. It has faced a capital ceiling instead, and capital stretches far more easily than electricity does.
That is now changing. The open question is no longer whether biology is more efficient. It is what AI becomes once power, rather than money, decides what gets built.
US-listed spot Bitcoin exchange-traded funds (ETFs) ended a nine-day inflow streak as Bitcoin fell below $78,000, while several altcoin ETF categories continued to see inflows.
Bitcoin ETFs recorded $201.8 million in net outflows on Friday, ending nine consecutive trading sessions of inflows, according to SoSoValue data.
The reversal followed more than $3 billion of net inflows during the nine-session run, while August flows remained positive at $3.3 billion with one US trading session left in the month. Total net assets fell to $97.6 billion after topping $100 billion on Thursday.
Daily flows into US spot Bitcoin ETFs since Aug. 14, in USD. Source: SoSoValue
The Bitcoin ETF reversal contrasts with continued inflows into Ether and XRP funds, while Solana ETFs have reached new asset milestones.
ARK 21Shares leads Bitcoin ETF outflowsThe ARK 21Shares Bitcoin ETF (ARKB) led Friday’s withdrawals with $114.9 million in net outflows, followed by the Bitwise Bitcoin ETF (BITB) with $49.7 million, according to Farside Investors data.
BlackRock’s iShares Bitcoin Trust ETF (IBIT), the largest US spot Bitcoin ETF by assets, recorded $33.4 million in outflows.
US spot Bitcoin ETF flows on Friday. Source: Farside Investors
Morgan Stanley’s Bitcoin Trust (MSBT) was the only fund to record inflows Friday, adding $9.3 million.
Ether, XRP ETFs buck Bitcoin outflowsEther and XRP ETFs continued to see inflows Friday despite the reversal in Bitcoin funds, adding $102.2 million and $26.2 million, respectively, according to SoSoValue data. The funds last recorded net outflows on Aug. 11 and Aug. 5, respectively.
Solana ETFs have also maintained positive momentum. Bloomberg ETF analyst Eric Balchunas said Friday that the category had attracted $1.7 billion in cumulative flows without a sustained stretch of outflows.
Bitwise’s Solana ETF also became the first fund in the category to cross the $1 billion mark, according to the analyst.
Balchunas called the performance “impressive” despite what he described as a “nightmare downturn” in the first half of the year.
Magazine: Bitget CEO isn’t buying the Bitcoin rally — She’s waiting for $50K
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