Track market-moving stories before they get noisy

Solana price climbed 5% to $91.28 on Friday, extending its four-day advance to roughly 21% in active trading. SOL is back above $90 for the first time in over 3 months.

The gain came after the strongest net inflows into U.S. spot Solana ETFs in three weeks, of 14.59 million.

SOL was supported by ETF demand because enhancing market liquidity prompted investors to make more exposure to major cryptocurrencies. Crypto market sentiment enters greed territory as the Fear & Greed Index rises above 72, its highest level since July 2025.

CMC data Broader Crypto Rally Strengthens Solana Price Momentum The wider crypto market rose 6.8% to $2.6 trillion overall during the same period.

Bitcoin price increased by 8.49% to hit a high of $79,500, and Ethereum price retained its position of above $2,400 after its recent surge.

The mood changed when the U.S. Treasury doubled long-term bond buybacks, which would inject liquidity.

🚀 Bitcoin hit $79,500, up nearly 10% in 24h after the US Treasury doubled its long-term bond buybacks and Trump rallied crypto execs at the White House to push the CLARITY Act.

Notably, tokenized assets led trading volume growth even though traditional markets were quiet last… pic.twitter.com/4J5RZS9LBk

— CryptoRank.io (@CryptoRank_io) August 21, 2026

The resurgence in the CLARITY Act also intensified hopes of more transparent regulations on cryptocurrency in the United States.

Favorable trends within the ecosystem of Solana offered more fuel, and the token outperformed some huge competitors in the market.

Nevertheless, the future step of SOL can be conditional upon further demand of ETF and the ability of the wider market to maintain its progress.

US Spot Solana ETFs Post Largest Daily Inflow in Three Weeks U.S. spot Solana ETFs had their largest net inflows in three weeks, which was $14.59 million inflows yesterday.

🚨JUST IN: U.S. spot Solana ETFs recorded $14.59 million in net inflows yesterday, their largest single day inflow in three weeks.

Track here: https://t.co/8nZJxjM9rd pic.twitter.com/DTVYZzf9or

— SolanaFloor (@SolanaFloor) August 21, 2026

Grayscale’s GSOL led the products with $7.14 million, while Bitwise’s BSOL attracted $6.57 million. The VSOL by VanEck contributed almost $877,630 and the other listed funds had no new inflows.

Sosovalue data The funds recorded a day trading value of $75.52 million, which is an indication of an increased activity in Solana investment products. The total net assets stood at $1.06 billion or 2.08% of the market capitalization of Solana. Total inflows since launch are now almost $1.18 billion of funds available in the United States.

Solana Price Outlook: How High Can SOL Go? The latest SOL Price surged to $90.98, extending its strong four-hour advance within a rising channel.

The Relative Strength Index reached 89.62, throwing SOL into the overbought region. 

The Chaikin Money Flow was also positive at 0.28, which showed that there was a high inflow of capital. Further increase in demand might lead to another rise.

Source: SOL/USDT 4-hour chart: TradingView Solana price reached $93.39 during the session before retreating from its intraday peak. 

Further action might drive the future Solana price outlook to reach the next significant resistance zone of $95. A breakout will then be confirmed, which can open the way to $100.

In brief Bitcoin climbed above $72,000 Thursday after gaining nearly 15% since Monday. Analysts pointed to Treasury bond purchases, policy headlines, and a massive short squeeze as drivers of the rally. With much of the short squeeze exhausted, analysts are watching spot demand, technical levels, and Treasury yields. Bitcoin's rally above $72,000 wiped out billions of dollars in bearish bets, but analysts say it will need fresh buyers to keep climbing.

Bitcoin reached its highest price since June on Thursday after gaining nearly 15% since Monday, with more than $3 billion in crypto short positions liquidated. That's the largest liquidation of short positions on Bitcoin since at least 2021. What's more, spot Bitcoin ETFs pulled in $517 million Wednesday, their largest single-day inflow since May.

Myriad: Bitcoin price next move? Click to make your prediction.Julio Moreno, head of research at CryptoQuant, attributed the rally to the U.S. Treasury buying long-dated government bonds, which markets interpreted as increasing liquidity, and President Donald Trump suggesting that the U.S. government could purchase Bitcoin.

"The rally may be sustainable if spot demand growth continues after the initial impact of these macro events," Moreno told Decrypt. "Officially we are still in a bear market, so a price pull back is possible, more so after this sudden increase."

Moreno said he is watching Bitcoin's 365-day moving average, currently around $83,000, along with CryptoQuant's profit-and-loss index and bull score, neither of which has turned bullish.

"To confirm that a bull market has started, I'm watching CryptoQuant's P&L Index, specifically if it crosses its 365-day moving average to the upside, which it has still not crossed," Moreno said. "Moreover, CryptoQuant's bull score continues in bearish mode, so I'm waiting for it to switch into bull territory."

Nansen Senior Research Analyst Nicolai Sondergaard said Bitcoin's technical picture has improved after reclaiming its 200-day simple moving average around $69,000. Bitcoin also sits about 8% above its 20- and 50-day moving averages, while its MACD, a momentum indicator used to track changes in price trends, has turned bullish.

"The key line is the 200-day SMA near $69,000 and holding above it keeps the breakout valid, while a close back below would signal a failed move," Sondergaard told Decrypt. "Above, the recent high ~$72,824 is immediate resistance."

However, Sondergaard warned that much of the rally was driven by liquidations rather than sustained buying, leaving Bitcoin vulnerable once the short squeeze runs out. Positioning remains mixed, he said, though whales and public figures on Hyperliquid are net long by $27.9 million and $33.9 million, respectively.

"The largest risk is that this was a short-squeeze spike, not fresh sustained buying," he said. "Once forced covering exhausts, thin follow-through can reverse quickly."

Sondergaard said trader positioning remains mixed and warned that "any reversal in that narrative or a broader risk-off move could stall the rally fast."

Adam McCarthy, a researcher at crypto trading firm Lo:Tech, also attributed the move to the Treasury's expanded buyback program and the short squeeze. More than half of Wednesday's gain occurred within a single hour as traders were forced out of a one-sided short position, he said.

"The Treasury's buyback expansion gave the market a reason to reprice, but more than half of Wednesday's gain came in one hour when a one-sided short position was forced out," McCarthy told Decrypt. "That fuel is spent, so the next leg has to be bought rather than squeezed."

McCarthy said he is watching the 30-year Treasury yield, particularly whether it moves back toward 5.3%, and crypto funding rates for signs of sustained buying.

"In crypto, whether funding starts showing a real long premium, because that's what actual buying looks like," he said.

McCarthy warned that the short positions that helped drive Bitcoin higher have largely been cleared.

"The short base is largely cleared and nothing has replaced it, so the move that got us here can't repeat," McCarthy said. "And if dealers are short gamma at $70k as we think, the hedging that exaggerated the way up exaggerates the way down."

Bitwise Research Analyst Ishmael Asad was more bullish, calling the rally the strongest indication yet that Bitcoin has bottomed. He pointed to the Treasury's expanded bond buybacks, the SEC's proposed Regulation Crypto Assets framework, and this week's White House crypto summit as catalysts.

"After this steep leg up, I wouldn’t expect the rally to continue at the same pace from here," Asad told Decrypt. "But I would take this move as the strongest confirmation we’ve seen yet that the bottom is in."

Asad said much of the potential downside, including the failure to pass the Clarity Act this year and possible rate hikes, has already been priced in. Still, he said a return to a bull market would require additional catalysts.

"The market will likely move sideways or higher in the coming months as we look towards the next milestones, like a potential Senate vote on Clarity in September," he said.

CoinShares Head of Research James Butterfill also expects conditions to remain favorable, but said Bitcoin is more likely to trade within a range than enter a sustained breakout.

"The rally is primarily a macro story rather than a crypto specific one," Butterfill told Decrypt. According to Butterfill, recent inflation and employment data have weakened expectations for further Federal Reserve tightening, while large Bitcoin holders have stopped selling and begun accumulating again.

“We expect the constructive backdrop to persist, but we would characterize the market as range-bound for now rather than in a sustained breakout, as accumulation by large holders is not yet at a scale that would imply one,” he said.

Digital asset investment products have also attracted about $1.3 billion so far this week. Still, Butterfill expects Bitcoin to remain range-bound because accumulation by large holders is not yet strong enough to support a sustained breakout.

Myriad: Bitcoin price on Sunday? Click to make your prediction.Bitcoin's move above its 200-day moving average has improved the technical picture, Butterfill said, with $80,000 now a key level to watch.

"On the upside, the US $80,000 area remains the important boundary, and a decisive move through it would likely require clearer confirmation from the Federal Reserve that policy risks have shifted away from further tightening," he said.

Monetary policy, he added, remains the biggest risk, noting that persistent inflation could force the Federal Reserve to keep policy tighter for longer, reversing the liquidity conditions supporting Bitcoin's rally.

"With accumulation by large holders still modest in scale, the market lacks the depth of conviction that typically underpins a durable breakout," Butterfill said.

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OrdinalsBot, the first inscription service in the Bitcoin (BTC) Ordinals ecosystem, has announced its shutdown. The project will sell its brand, intellectual property, and full technology stack.

It opened about a month after the Ordinals protocol went live in early 2023. The project said that sustaining the business is not viable.

OrdinalsBot Puts Brand, IP, and 90 Code Repositories Up for SaleThe team announced the decision in a post on X. OrdinalsBot said it had explored measures, including restructuring and a business pivot, but ultimately determined that continuing operations was no longer viable.

“Unfortunately, the Ordinals market has contracted sharply over the past year…In these 3 years, we have achieved many great things and met amazing, like-minded people looking to bring new use cases to the mother chain and create a robust fee market,” the post read.

Rather than allow the business and its technology to gradually lose value, the company has opted to sell its entire asset portfolio through an open, competitive bidding process. The package includes the OrdinalsBot brand, intellectual property, domains, social media accounts, Discord community, and GitHub presence.

It also includes more than three years of research and development spread across more than 90 code repositories. According to the company, the assets could give a prospective buyer an established foundation for building on Bitcoin without having to develop the underlying infrastructure from scratch.

OrdinalsBot said it has already informed investors about the wind-down and has begun receiving acquisition bids. 

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Shutdowns Pile Up Across Crypto in 2026OrdinalsBot joins a long queue. More than 120 crypto projects shut down, filed for bankruptcy, or went dark so far this year, according to RootData.

The closures span wallets, exchanges, NFT platforms, and DeFi tools, pointing to a broader shakeout across the industry. Crypto exchanges BitMEX and BitMart both announced shutdowns last month.

Decentralized finance (DeFi) portfolio tracker Zapper closed in August. OrdinalsBot differs in one respect. Its founders are trying to sell the pieces rather than switch off the servers.

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U.S. President Donald Trump met with executives from crypto and fintech firms including Coinbase, Ripple, Robinhood, Gemini, and Chainlink at the White House’s Roosevelt Room on Wednesday local time, delivering a speech in support of cryptocurrencies. Trump said his administration has “completely ended the war on cryptocurrencies,” noting the industry is thriving, and the U.S. must retain its “undisputed leadership” in areas such as Bitcoin, cryptocurrencies, prediction markets, and artificial intelligence, while committing to becoming the “world’s crypto capital.” He added that the U.S. government has discussed accumulating “significant quantities” of Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies, claiming crypto assets “have greatly eased pressure on the U.S. dollar.” Meanwhile, he urged Congress to pass a “fair version” of the Clarity Act (Digital Asset Market Clarity Act) promptly, arguing this would keep the U.S. ahead of China and other countries. Trump also noted that the SEC Chair is working to bring Hyperliquid to the U.S. market in a compliant manner, and highlighted policy achievements including the signed Genius Act (stablecoin legislation), strategic Bitcoin reserves, and the ban on central bank digital currencies (CBDCs).

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Sweden-listed H100 Group has reported a pre-tax loss of 98 million Swedish kronor ($10.3 million) for the second quarter as the decline in Bitcoin’s price weighed on the company’s treasury holdings.

Summary

H100 Group reported a SEK 98 million ($10.3 million) pre-tax loss for the second quarter. Nearly all of the Q2 loss came from a non-cash write-down tied to Bitcoin’s price decline, according to the company. H100’s first-half pre-tax loss reached SEK 253 million, while operating income rose to SEK 6.1 million. The company now holds 3,506 BTC after acquiring two Norwegian Bitcoin treasury firms. H100 ranks as Europe’s second-largest listed Bitcoin treasury company by holdings. H100 Group said in its interim report published Wednesday that its pre-tax loss reached SEK 253 million for the first six months of 2026, while operating income remained small compared with the losses recorded during the period.

The health-tech and Bitcoin treasury company reported SEK 3 million in operating income for the second quarter, unchanged from the same period in 2025. For the first half, operating income increased to SEK 6.1 million from SEK 5.8 million a year earlier.

In a separate X post on Wednesday, H100 attributed nearly all of its second-quarter loss to a non-cash write-down tied to Bitcoin’s (BTC) decline during the reporting period. The accounting charge reduced reported earnings without representing an equivalent cash outflow from the business.

Bitcoin traded through a difficult second quarter, putting companies holding large amounts of the cryptocurrency on their balance sheets under pressure as lower market prices affected the value of their treasury assets.

Bitcoin write-down drives H100 Group’s Q2 loss For H100, the impact has become more significant as Bitcoin has taken a much larger role on its balance sheet over the past year.

The company started its treasury strategy with only 4.39 BTC in May 2025. Its shares jumped nearly 40% after the first purchase, which was worth about $490,000 at the time, as crypto.news previously reported.

H100 continued raising capital for additional purchases during the following months. By July 2025, the company had secured more than $54 million through share and convertible debenture issues, including a directed share issue of about SEK 173 million and a convertible debenture issue of SEK 342.3 million.

Blockstream CEO Adam Back was among the investors backing the strategy. Earlier financing included a SEK 150 million convertible loan guarantee from Back, following SEK 21 million in zero-interest convertible loans involving Back and other investors.

Those fundraising rounds helped H100 increase its Bitcoin holdings from a single-digit position into hundreds of coins during 2025. By late August that year, its treasury had reached 957 BTC after the company acquired another 46 BTC, according to earlier H100 coverage.

The company later increased its holdings to 1,051 BTC before turning to acquisitions as another way of expanding its treasury.

H100 has expanded its Bitcoin holdings through acquisitions A major part of that expansion came from Norway.

H100 disclosed in March that it planned to acquire Norwegian Bitcoin companies through an all-share transaction that could take its holdings to roughly 3,500 BTC. At the time, the company held 1,051 BTC, while the acquisition targets collectively controlled about 2,450 BTC.

Under the proposed structure, H100 would issue shares to the sellers instead of paying cash, allowing the acquired Bitcoin holdings to move under the listed Swedish company.

The Norwegian acquisition plan initially involved Moonshot AS and Never Say Die AS and was subject to due diligence, corporate approvals, and stock exchange requirements. H100 later completed the transaction in August, acquiring the Norwegian businesses and their cryptocurrency holdings.

The completed deal added roughly 2,455 BTC and increased H100’s total position to 3,506 BTC. The company funded the transaction by issuing about 790.5 million new shares at SEK 1.86 per share rather than using cash.

H100 said the structure left satoshis per basic share unchanged while increasing satoshis per fully diluted share by about 5%. The transaction also substantially increased the company’s outstanding share count.

Before the Norwegian deal, H100 had also completed its acquisition of Switzerland-based Future Holdings AG in February, establishing an operating presence in Switzerland as part of its treasury business.

H100 becomes Europe’s second-largest Bitcoin treasury company With 3,506 BTC following the Norwegian transaction, H100 has become Europe’s second-largest listed Bitcoin treasury company by holdings, according to BitcoinTreasuries data cited in the source report.

At a value of roughly $226 million, its position sits just behind Germany’s Bitcoin Group, which holds about 3,605 BTC.

The ranking represents a major change from H100’s position when it began buying Bitcoin in 2025. After holding 370 BTC in July of that year, the company was ranked 49th among publicly traded Bitcoin treasury companies worldwide.

H100’s expansion has also come while other treasury companies have faced pressure from weaker cryptocurrency prices. A June report found that several listed digital asset treasury companies were carrying large unrealized losses as Bitcoin, Ether and Solana prices declined, with the treasury sector facing pressure from lower asset valuations.

Bitcoin treasury companies can be particularly exposed to such moves because changes in cryptocurrency prices feed directly into the market value of the assets held on their balance sheets. The accounting treatment and resulting earnings impact depend on the reporting rules applied by each company.

For H100, Wednesday’s figures show how that exposure has affected reported earnings even as the company continued building its Bitcoin position through corporate transactions.

Q2 2026 is out.

The reported loss before tax was −98.2 MSEK. Almost all of it is non-cash, principally a write-down of our bitcoin. What the business actually consumed was −5.1 MSEK in the quarter and −12.7 MSEK for the half year, and we ended June with 18.1 MSEK in cash.…

— H100 (@H100Group) August 19, 2026 H100 shares remain down in 2026 H100’s treasury expansion has not prevented its listed shares from remaining under pressure this year.

The company’s stock fell 4.2% on Tuesday and was down about 24% since the beginning of 2026, according to StockAnalysis data cited in the source report.

The performance contrasts with the market reaction to H100’s first Bitcoin purchase in May 2025, when its shares climbed almost 40% after the company announced that it had bought 4.39 BTC.

H100 subsequently used equity and convertible debt to fund additional Bitcoin purchases before moving toward share-funded acquisitions. In July 2025, one directed share issue raised approximately SEK 14.1 million from qualified investors at SEK 9.30 per share, while a much larger financing round earlier that month brought the company roughly SEK 516 million through shares and convertible debentures.

By the time H100 announced the Norwegian transaction in March 2026, management had chosen an all-share structure that did not require cash consideration for the acquired Bitcoin holdings.

The transaction was completed in August, with H100 issuing approximately 790.5 million shares to acquire the Norwegian businesses and about 2,455 BTC, bringing the company’s total holdings to 3,506 BTC.

Maya Protocol has undergone a halt after an attacker exploited 6 chained bugs to drain roughly $1.7 million from the decentralized liquidity protocol.

The pseudonymous co-founder, Aaluxx, disclosed the losses. Native token CACAO collapsed by 88% as the attacker converted the stolen supply into Bitcoin (BTC), Ethereum (ETH), and other assets across all Maya liquidity pools.

Maya Protocol Loses $1.7 Million in Latest HackThe attack involved a single transaction that bundled 23 separate instructions. This structure tricked the network into thinking a theft had occurred.

The protocol then tried to compensate for the pool it believed had been robbed. However, the payout had no upper limit, so the system credited about 49 million CACAO to a pool that held almost nothing.

The credit was never funded. Maya’s reserve held only 168,000 CACAO, so the transfer failed, leaving the inflated balance on the books.

The attacker deposited 100 CACAO into that pool, claimed 99.93% ownership, and withdrew 48.87 million CACAO. That is nearly half the token’s 100 million supply. 

CACAO fell from $0.115 to $0.013 before recovering to around $0.032. The attacker sent 20.83 BTC, worth roughly $1.34 million, to a single Bitcoin address across about 10 blocks.

Founder Aaluxx Myth announced a global halt in the project on Discord and asked the attacker to return the funds.

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DeFi Hacks Keep Stacking Up in 2026DefiLlama has logged 219 hacks worth $1.26 billion so far in 2026. All of 2025 produced 146 incidents, even though the dollar total reached $2.71 billion.

August alone has produced 16 separate incidents. THORChain, the protocol Maya forked from, lost $10.7 million in May.

Recovery now depends on whether the attacker accepts the bounty offer. Aaluxx Myth also said the team will contact the arbitrage traders who absorbed the pool value.

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VanEck said on Aug. 18 that Bitcoin may be approaching an accumulation phase after eight of its 12 capitulation indicators remained active as of Aug. 12.

Summary

Eight of VanEck’s 12 Bitcoin capitulation signals were active on August 12, indicating late cycle stress. All 12 indicators entered capitulation territory during the three months preceding VanEck’s August research update. Long term holder supply dropped 356,534 BTC, leaving 11.84 million BTC untouched for over one year. U.S. spot Bitcoin ETPs absorbed $663 million while realized volatility declined to 27.2% over 30 days. Historical capitulation clusters lagged Bitcoin’s baseline for six months, outperforming only across one year holding periods. The asset manager’s latest report placed the current correction in its tenth month, measured from Bitcoin’s October 2025 peak. VanEck estimated that the next turning point could arrive between September and November if the current cycle follows earlier patterns.

However, the firm did not present the historical timetable as a reliable price forecast. VanEck disclosed that it has exposure to Bitcoin and warned that its forward return study uses a small number of heavily overlapping observations.

Bitcoin capitulation signals point to late cycle stress VanEck considers a signal active when its latest reading reaches an extreme historical percentile. Most indicators must fall within the bottom 15% of their recorded history, or the top 10% when a high reading represents stress.

Price drawdown uses a separate threshold. VanEck activates this signal when Bitcoin falls at least 35% from its peak. Bitcoin was down approximately 49% from its October record in the firm’s analysis, although that decline ranked only in the 35th percentile of its own history.

Applying the same percentile rule to the drawdown would reduce the total from eight active signals to seven. VanEck defended the separate threshold by arguing that institutional ownership and spot ETP demand could produce a shallower bear market than previous cycles.

The firm said it “expects a shallower trough this cycle,” but acknowledged that this remains an assumption rather than a confirmed market outcome. Earlier Bitcoin bear markets produced drawdowns ranging from 78% to 94%.

Historical returns offer no clear six month advantage VanEck’s backtest provides a cautious reading for investors expecting an immediate rebound. When between eight and 12 indicators were in capitulation territory, Bitcoin returned an average 12.8% over the following 90 days. Its baseline return for all comparable periods was 15.2%.

The same group generated an average 32% return over 180 days, below the 36.3% baseline. Outperformance appeared only across the one year horizon.

Source: VanEck VanEck warned that the one year result came from 115 observation days that overlapped heavily. Those observations represent only a small number of separate market episodes. The firm said it does not place substantial weight on that result.

The findings suggest capitulation readings may identify late cycle conditions without identifying an exact bottom. They also leave room for prolonged sideways trading before a durable recovery begins.

U.S. fund inflows absorb long term holder selling U.S. spot Bitcoin ETPs recorded approximately $663 million in net inflows during the 30 days covered by VanEck. The total represented about 10,400 BTC at prevailing prices and reversed roughly $2.4 billion of outflows during the preceding month.

Fund flows remained uneven after VanEck’s measurement period. U.S. spot funds lost about $385.2 million across the week ending Aug. 14, as crypto.news reported in its analysis of why liquidity has yet to return.

Demand then recovered. Farside data showed $297.5 million of net inflows on Aug. 17 and another $189.3 million on Aug. 18. The combined $486.8 million partly reversed the previous week’s withdrawals.

Those inflows followed earlier signs of ETF demand supporting the $64,000 area. Bitcoin traded near $64,250 on Aug. 19, above VanEck’s Aug. 11 closing reference of $63,549 but still below its 200 day moving average.

Long term holders complicate the accumulation case Coins held for longer than one year declined by 356,534 BTC over 30 days, according to VanEck’s Glassnode based figures. Holdings fell 2.9% to 11.84 million BTC, equal to 59.1% of circulating supply.

All six long term age groups contracted. Coins aged between one and two years recorded the largest reduction at approximately 156,000 BTC. Holdings older than ten years fell by only about 4,000 BTC, suggesting the oldest wallets remained comparatively inactive.

VanEck said some movements may have involved wallet security rather than sales. The firm cited concern following the Coldcard security failure, which crypto.news examined in its coverage of the $89 million wallet drain.

It nevertheless called the security explanation difficult to verify. Confirmed losses were far smaller than the total movement by aged coins. Exchange inflows separated by coin age could help determine whether holders transferred funds to trading venues or moved them between private wallets.

The period from September through November now provides the next test of VanEck’s cycle framework. A sustained increase in spot demand, stronger trading volume and stabilization in long term holdings would support the accumulation case. Continued distribution or renewed fund outflows would weaken it.

Disclosure: This article does not represent investment advice. The content and materials featured on this page are for educational purposes only.

BlackRock’s iShares Bitcoin Trust (IBIT) pulled in roughly $143.57 million in net inflows in a single day, adding another data point to what has become a remarkably consistent pattern of institutional Bitcoin buying through the fund.

The purchase, facilitated through authorized participants who create new ETF shares backed by actual Bitcoin held in custody, reinforces IBIT’s position as the dominant vehicle in the US spot Bitcoin ETF landscape.

IBIT’s grip on the spot ETF market IBIT has maintained its status as the largest US spot Bitcoin ETF by assets under management since launching in early 2024.

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The fund captured $693 million out of $853 million in total spot Bitcoin ETF inflows in August 2026. That’s roughly 81% of all money flowing into the entire product category landing in a single fund. The rest of the field, which includes offerings from Fidelity, Ark Invest, and others, is essentially competing for scraps.

Multiple inflows around the $144 million mark have been recorded throughout 2026, suggesting this isn’t a one-off event but rather a recurring rhythm of institutional allocation.

The mechanics behind these flows involve custodians like Coinbase Prime, which holds the actual Bitcoin backing the ETF shares. Every time authorized participants create new IBIT shares to meet demand, real Bitcoin gets purchased and deposited into custody.

Why BlackRock keeps winning the ETF race BlackRock’s dominance in this space isn’t accidental. The firm manages roughly $10 trillion in total assets across all its products, and that scale creates a self-reinforcing advantage. Institutional investors already have existing relationships with BlackRock. Adding a Bitcoin allocation through a familiar counterparty is a much easier internal conversation than onboarding with a crypto-native firm.

The company has also made strategic moves to lower investment thresholds, aiming to bring in smaller institutions and family offices that might have previously found the entry point too steep.

When the SEC approved these funds in January 2024, pension funds, endowments, registered investment advisors, and wealth management platforms all gained a compliant, exchange-listed way to get Bitcoin exposure without dealing with wallets, private keys, or the operational headaches of direct custody.

Disclosure: This article was edited by Editorial Team. For more information on how we create and review content, see our Editorial Policy.

The Royal Government of Bhutan has once again sparked discussions among market participants, with its latest transfer of 300 Bitcoin. Although the transfer was made to a new wallet, it has fueled speculations over a potential BTC selloff, especially given the experiences of past events.

For context, the Bhutan Government has continued to offload its Bitcoin holdings lately. Besides, it also comes amid a time when Bitcoin (BTC) price appears to be targeting the $65,000 resistance.

Bhutan Govt Moves 300 Bitcoin, Raising Selloff Concerns The latest Bitcoin transaction by the Royal Government of Bhutan has quickly caught the attention of crypto traders. On-chain tracking platform Lookonchain reported that a wallet linked to the Royal Government of Bhutan transferred 300 BTC. The coins were valued at roughly $19.3 million at the time of the transaction.

Source: Arkham Meanwhile, the destination was a new wallet. That detail makes the transaction difficult to classify immediately, while a wallet transfer does not automatically confirm that Bhutan sold the Bitcoin.

However, previous movements linked to the government have increased market sensitivity around such transactions. In early July as well, Bhutan Government-linked wallets have sold more than $43 million in Bitcoin.

BTC Price Faces Major Resistance Battle The Bhutan transfer arrives as Bitcoin (BTC) price approaches an important technical barrier. Notably, market participants are watching the area around $63,000 to $65,000 for signs of a breakout or rejection.

Meanwhile, in a recent X post, analyst Ali Martinez has highlighted $63,111 as a major on-chain level. Glassnode-based data showed that about 623,000 BTC previously changed hands near that price, which could create selling pressure as holders reach their cost basis.

In addition, Martinez also noted that the BTC miners are booking profits, which might also dampen the much-anticipated rally in the asset’s price. According to his analysis, the miners have offloaded 1,648 Bitcoin over the past ten days.

However, it’s worth noting that despite the pressure, BTC price has stayed near the flatline and exchanged hands at $64,768 at the time of writing. Besides, prediction markets data showed that Bitcoin price is unlikely to visit the $60,000 mark in August.

Meanwhile, to track these whale wallets and analyze metrics on your own, you can utilize the top crypto on-chain analysis platforms available today.

Metaplanet just wrote one of the more creative checks in recent corporate history: 2,100 Bitcoin and $2.5 million in cash to acquire a controlling stake in Super League Enterprise, a Nasdaq-listed gaming and media company. The total deal is valued at approximately $134.6 million, with the Bitcoin portion alone worth roughly $132.1 million at current prices.

Super League’s stock responded the way you’d expect when a company suddenly becomes a vessel for one of the most aggressive Bitcoin treasury strategies on the planet. Shares surged from a previous close near $3.00 into the $6 to $7+ range during intraday trading, representing gains between 50% and over 100%.

The deal structure Metaplanet, which trades on the Tokyo Stock Exchange under ticker 3350, is executing the acquisition through its US subsidiary. When the transaction closes, targeted for Q4 2026, Metaplanet will own approximately 95.7% of Super League’s common stock. If you account for pre-funded warrants being exercised, that figure dips slightly to around 93.6%.

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As part of the deal, Super League will rebrand as Superplanet, Inc. and begin trading under the ticker SUPA on Nasdaq. The company will continue its existing operations in gaming and media.

The agreement includes several structural safeguards worth noting. Metaplanet’s equity holdings carry a five-year lockup period. There are also protective board control rights through preferred stock, giving Metaplanet governance authority that extends beyond simple share ownership.

Metaplanet secured a 24-month right to invest an additional $210 million in junior preferred stock. That’s not a commitment to invest, it’s an option to.

Why this matters beyond the stock pop Metaplanet has been building a reputation as Japan’s answer to MicroStrategy, the Michael Saylor-led company that pioneered the corporate Bitcoin treasury playbook. By taking control of a Nasdaq-listed entity, Metaplanet effectively creates a dual-listed Bitcoin treasury operation spanning both Tokyo and New York, giving the company direct access to US capital markets, US institutional investors, and the deeper liquidity pools that come with a major American exchange listing.

The fact that the acquisition is being funded primarily in Bitcoin rather than cash or traditional equity is itself a statement. Metaplanet isn’t selling Bitcoin to buy a company. It’s using Bitcoin as the acquisition currency, treating it the way a traditional corporation might use its own stock in a share-swap deal. The 2,100 BTC being transferred represents a significant portion of corporate treasury assets being deployed as strategic capital rather than held passively on a balance sheet.

The MicroStrategy comparison, and where it breaks down The parallels to MicroStrategy are obvious and intentional. Both companies have made Bitcoin accumulation a core part of their corporate identity. But Metaplanet’s approach diverges in one key respect. MicroStrategy has primarily used debt instruments, convertible notes, and at-the-market stock offerings to fund its Bitcoin purchases. Metaplanet is doing something different: using its Bitcoin holdings to acquire operating companies and establish new exchange listings.

The five-year lockup period on Metaplanet’s equity holdings in Superplanet locks the company into this position through at least 2031. For Super League’s existing shareholders, post-closing, existing public shareholders will hold somewhere between 4.3% and 6.4% of the company, depending on warrant exercises. The $210 million in additional preferred stock subscription rights suggests Metaplanet sees this as just the beginning of its US market presence.

Disclosure: This article was edited by Editorial Team. For more information on how we create and review content, see our Editorial Policy.

In brief BitBox shipped the Dixence update after internal AI audits found two severe vulnerabilities plus a bootloader issue. Exploiting them required a successful phishing attack plus the user unlocking a tampered device. BitBox says no user funds were stolen and the wallet seed was never at risk. BitBox, the Zurich-based maker behind the BitBox02, released the Dixence security update this week after its own engineers uncovered two severe flaws in the cryptocurrency wallet's firmware.

The company disclosed the issues itself, with no evidence they were ever exploited. But the news itself is likely enough to set off the alarms of most Bitcoin holders, given the recent exploit of hardware wallet maker Coldcard that’s resulted in over $130 million in stolen BTC.

Myriad: Bitcoin's next move? Click to make your prediction.For BitBox, the first problem lives in the bootloader, the code that decides which firmware a device will accept. A fix shipped in July's Oeschinen release (v9.26.2) closed most of it, but BitBox now says the original issue was worse than first reported. An attacker who ran a phishing scam—tricking a user into installing a fake BitBoxApp and unlocking the device—could have loaded malicious firmware onto a genuine BitBox02 and walked off with the coins.

The BitBox02 Nova, the newer model, was never exposed because of its bootloader version.

The second severe bug is a memory-corruption flaw in the Multi edition of the BitBox before it's been set up with a wallet. Paired with a hostile computer, it could allow arbitrary code execution and, again, malicious firmware. The Bitcoin-only edition doesn't carry the affected code, so it's clear.

A third issue, less dangerous, touched the wallet's silent-payment feature. It couldn't steal coins directly, but could have locked funds to a wrong address in a ransom-style move. All three are fixed in v9.26.5.

BitBox leaned on frontier AI models during its internal review, part of a wider push the company described in a separate post about auditing firmware with AI help.

It’s another reminder that hardware wallets, long considered the ideal choice for security-conscious crypto users, aren't bulletproof.

Myriad: When will OpenAI release GPT-6? Click to make your prediction.The Coldcard Bitcoin exploit showed how a five-year-old firmware bug let thieves drain roughly 1,596 BTC, the largest hardware-wallet hack of 2026. Days ago, the data breach of hardware wallet maker SafePal stoked fresh fears of so-called wrench attacks on wallet owners whose personal details, including physical addresses, were exposed.

In this case, BitMox says there’s nothing to worry about besides updating. Per BitBox's disclosure, "There are no reports of stolen user funds and there is no reason for users to panic."

The fix is live at bitbox.swiss/download, and older firmware stays exposed until users install it.

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10h05 ▪ 5 min read ▪ by Ghiles A.

Summarize this article with:

The digital asset market is going through a more uncertain phase as companies linked to bitcoin adjust their reserves. Strategy now has $4.8 billion in cash, offering several options. Michael Saylor believes this financial cushion can support purchases, share buybacks or debt reduction. At the same time, the company also wants to be able to sell its digital assets if conditions change. This flexibility becomes central as the MSTR stock falls sharply.

In Brief Strategy has $4.8 billion in cash to enhance its financial flexibility. The company could buy back its MSTR shares if they suffer a steep discount. Strategy wants to keep enough cash to buy bitcoin, repurchase shares or reduce its debt. Michael Saylor states the company must be able to sell bitcoin as much as to buy depending on market conditions. Strategy Keeps Several Options Open With Its Cash Strategy does not prioritize buying back its own shares immediately. Michael Saylor has, however, indicated that “the company could intervene if MSTR showed a steep discount compared to its net asset value.” The stock has lost about 38% since the start of the year and 73% over twelve months. This decline notably accompanies the fall of bitcoin and regular issuances of common shares.

For now, management is focusing its efforts on preferred shares, particularly STRC. In an interview with CoinDesk, CEO Phong Le also defends the new issuances of MSTR despite dilution concerns. According to him, “This method can benefit shareholders when the price exceeds the asset value associated with each share.” Strategy can then use the raised funds to acquire more bitcoin.

The logic therefore depends on the gap between the share price and the value of the assets held. When this gap remains favorable, new issuances can increase the amount of assets associated with each share. Conversely, a steep discount could make buybacks more interesting. This approach gives the company several levers to manage its capital.

$4.8 Billion to Maintain Maneuvering Room The recent drop in STRC has also changed cash management. Phong Phong Le now emphasizes the importance of having enough liquidity to cover dividends related to STRC preferred shares. The company currently holds $4.8 billion and plans to keep substantial reserves. This position should allow it to act according to bitcoin market developments.

Michael Saylor described several uses for this cash. The company could buy bitcoin or repurchase MSTR shares or preferred shares, but also reduce its debt. This reserve is therefore not solely for funding a new bitcoin acquisition. It also constitutes a financial management tool against different market phases.

This flexibility also concerns the digital assets held by the company. Saylor believes that “strategy must be able to sell bitcoin as much as to buy.” The market price then plays a role in the pace of decisions. When the price clearly exceeds its 200-week average, the company could retain more of the raised funds.

A Strategy Tied to Bitcoin Market Cycles Conversely, a bitcoin near or below its 200-week moving average could represent a more favorable buying area. This reference thus provides a framework for future decisions without imposing a fixed timetable. Strategy, therefore, maintains an approach that depends on market levels and its financial needs. The cash provides more time to adapt this policy.

STRC follows a different logic than MSTR. This preferred share mainly aims to provide income through dividends while maintaining a price close to $100. Saylor explained the company could sell more shares above this level. It could also support the price by buybacks if it falls below this zone.

Finally, the company does not plan to acquire profitable operational companies to generate additional liquidity. Michael Saylor considers that such diversification would complicate the company’s evaluation for investors. He also recommends MSTR holders to have a horizon of at least four years, preferably seven to ten years. This vision reflects a desire to go through several market periods rather than respond to movements.

The next step will therefore depend on the evolution of the BTC price, cash reserves, and financing needs. With $4.8 billion available, Strategy keeps multiple choices, from purchases to buybacks. Its ability to sell is also integrated into this strategy, depending on the conditions observed on the market.

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Ghiles A.

Journaliste et rédacteur web passionné par l’univers des cryptomonnaies et des technologies Web3. J’y traite les dernières tendances et actualités afin de proposer un contenu de haute qualité à un large public du secteur.

DISCLAIMER

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.

Short seller James Chanos described Strategy and Bitcoin as an “$80 billion actionable spread” on Aug. 18, reviving debate over the valuation of Michael Saylor’s Bitcoin treasury company.

Summary

Strategy held 840,447 bitcoin after recent sales, below the 847,363 coin peak disclosed in June. At $64,188 per Bitcoin, Strategy’s remaining holdings were worth approximately $53.95 billion on Tuesday morning. MSTR’s market capitalization was about $34.4 billion, but direct comparison ignores senior financing claims entirely. Chanos previously closed his short MSTR, long Bitcoin trade in November 2025 after spread compression. Strategy’s dashboard placed its mNAV near 1.04, indicating only a narrow enterprise value premium Tuesday. Chanos called the relationship one of the largest “pure arbitrage opportunities” he had seen. His earlier trade involved shorting Strategy’s MSTR shares while taking a long position in Bitcoin.

The latest claim requires context. Strategy no longer holds the 847,363 BTC cited in some reports. Recent company disclosures place its balance at 840,447 BTC following several sales during July and August.

At Bitcoin’s Tuesday price of approximately $64,188, those holdings were worth about $53.95 billion. MSTR had a market capitalization of roughly $34.4 billion, while its shares gained close to 5% to $97.68.

Strategy shares price chart, source: Google Finance The $19.5 billion difference between those two figures is not a direct arbitrage profit. It excludes debt, preferred stock, cash, software operations, taxes and the costs required to maintain a hedged position.

Chanos’s $80 billion figure is not a simple market gap Chanos did not publish a complete calculation showing how he reached the “$80 billion actionable spread.” The figure therefore remains his characterization of the opportunity rather than a directly verifiable difference between two market prices.

One of the greatest pure arbitrage situations, ever. An $80B actionable spread. $MSTR #Bitcoin

— James Chanos (@RealJimChanos) August 18, 2026 Strategy’s own dashboard placed its modified net asset value multiple, or mNAV, near 1.04 on Tuesday. That measure compares enterprise value with the value of its Bitcoin after accounting for parts of the capital structure.

An mNAV of 1.04 indicates a premium of approximately 4%, based on the company’s methodology. It does not show MSTR trading at the wide premium that supported Chanos’s original trade in 2025.

Comparing common equity market capitalization directly with Bitcoin holdings produces a discount because common shareholders rank behind creditors and preferred shareholders. Strategy has issued several preferred securities carrying dividend obligations and also has outstanding debt.

The company’s software operation, dollar reserve and other assets must also be included. As a result, buying MSTR does not provide the same economic exposure as holding an equivalent dollar amount of Bitcoin.

Strategy’s Bitcoin balance has declined from its peak A June 29 SEC filing showed that Strategy held 847,363 BTC at the end of June. The company had spent $64.1 billion acquiring the coins at an average price of $75,651.

Strategy subsequently sold Bitcoin under a board authorized monetization program. The program allows sales to fund its dollar reserve, interest expenses, preferred dividends and security repurchases.

As previously reported, the company sold 1,690 BTC and used the proceeds for preferred share repurchases during the week ending Aug. 9.

Those sales reduced the balance to 840,447 BTC. The remaining tokens carried an aggregate acquisition cost of approximately $63.36 billion and an average cost of $75,385 per coin.

At Tuesday’s Bitcoin price, the position was approximately $9.4 billion below its disclosed purchase cost. That is an unrealized accounting difference rather than a realized loss unless the coins are sold.

The same filing series showed that the company raised cash by issuing additional MSTR shares. Common stock issuance increases liquidity but also expands the number of shares participating in the Bitcoin exposure.

MSTR and Bitcoin carry different financial risks Direct Bitcoin ownership exposes an investor mainly to changes in Bitcoin’s market price and the security of their custody arrangement. MSTR adds corporate financing and management risks.

Strategy has issued STRC, STRF, STRD and STRK preferred shares. These securities sit ahead of common shareholders and carry dividend rates ranging from 8% to 12%, subject to their respective terms.

The company has also established a dollar reserve to meet preferred dividends and interest obligations. In related coverage, the reserve reached $4.65 billion after further common stock sales.

Strategy’s board authorized up to $1.25 billion of additional Bitcoin sales to help fund that reserve. It also approved separate $1 billion repurchase programs for preferred securities and MSTR common stock.

These layers prevent the trade from being risk free. A short seller must borrow MSTR shares, pay borrowing costs and manage the possibility that the stock rises faster than Bitcoin.

The long side also requires financing. If Bitcoin falls while MSTR rises because of short covering, new financing or changing investor demand, both parts of the trade can lose money temporarily.

Chanos previously exited after the premium contracted Chanos began constructing his earlier position in late 2024, when MSTR traded at a large premium to the value of Strategy’s Bitcoin. The premium exceeded three times the Bitcoin value at points during November 2024.

He publicly described the trade in 2025 as long Bitcoin and short MSTR. Chanos argued that investors were paying too much for Bitcoin exposure available directly or through lower cost exchange traded products.

As Reuters reported, Strategy’s market value stood around 1.74 times its Bitcoin holdings when Chanos renewed his criticism in June 2025.

The gap later narrowed. Chanos said his firm closed the hedged position on Nov. 7, 2025, after the trade gained more than 50%. He described the remaining opportunity as too small to justify keeping the position open.

His latest statement does not confirm that he has reopened the trade. It also does not disclose position size, entry prices, borrowing costs or the instruments that would be used.

Future SEC filings will show whether Strategy continues selling Bitcoin, issuing MSTR shares or repurchasing preferred securities. Those decisions, together with Bitcoin’s price and changes in financing costs, will determine whether the company trades at a premium or discount to its adjusted asset value.

Bank of America (BofA) has expanded its exposure to Bitcoin, Ethereum, XRP, and Solana through exchange-traded funds (ETFs). The Wall Street giant also trimmed its holdings in Strategy (MSTR), American Bitcoin Corp (ABTC), and other crypto stocks.

Bank of America Holds Almost $94 Million in Bitcoin, Ethereum and XRP ETFs The Wall Street giant, with a $1.55 trillion investment portfolio, has increased its investments in multiple crypto ETFs in Q2 2026, according to a 13F filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). Bank of America holds $94 million in net exposure in Bitcoin, Ethereum, and XRP ETFs.

Bank of America raised its holdings in BlackRock Bitcoin ETF (IBIT) by 77% in the quarter. It now holds over 1.72 million IBIT shares, up from 972,590 shares earlier.

It also has investments of more than $10 million in Bitwise’s BITB, $2.24 million in Grayscale Bitcoin Mini ETF, and $1.32 million in FBTC. The bank also holds exposure to GBTC, VanEck’s HODL, and Direxion Daily Bitcoin Bull 2X ETF (BTCU).

Moreover, Bank of America (BofA) has also expanded its BlackRock Ethereum ETF (ETHA) exposure by 2,838%. It now holds 1.98 million shares in ETHA, up from 67,492 shares.

In addition, Bank of America increased its XRP ETF holdings slightly in Q2, after keeping exposure the same as in the last quarter. The Wall Street giant holds 13,260 shares of the Volatility Shares XRP ETF (XRPI).

In contrast, the bank has sold the remaining 10,296 shares of Volatility Shares Solana ETF from its investment portfolio. It has fully exited Solana ETFs after selling 700 Volatility Shares 2x Solana ETF shares last quarter.

These holdings align with broader trends as many institutions build positions in spot crypto products. Notably, JPMorgan and Morgan Stanley revealed XRP holdings via ETFs amid tradFi’s push into tokenization, treasury management, and real-time payments.

Bank Trims Strategy (MSTR) Stock Exposure Bank of America (BofA) also revealed 1.17 million MSTR stock holdings worth almost $102 million, down 70% from 3.96 million stocks. BofA trimmed MSTR exposure as the largest corporate Bitcoin treasury started selling BTC holdings to pay dividends and build cash reserves.

The Wall Street giant also sold 3,800 Strike (STRK) perpetual preferred shares. The bank even adjusted positions in Strategy convertible senior notes.

The bank sold all 85,508 shares in Trump family’s American Bitcoin Corp (ABTC), while increasing Bitmine Immersion (BMNR) stock holdings by 78% to almost $22 million. It also increased stock holdings in Hyperliquid Strategies Inc (PURR) by 167% to 635,407 shares.

Bank of America has also invested in Circle, Coinbase, and Bitcoin mining crypto companies including MARA Holdings, Riot Platforms, and CleanSpark shares.

For retail investors looking to follow Wall Street’s lead safely, utilizing fully compliant US crypto exchanges like Coinbase ensures adherence to rigorous security and domestic regulatory frameworks.

Vice President JD Vance took the stage at Bitcoin 2025 in Las Vegas on May 28 and made the administration’s position about as clear as it gets: the US government should be leaning into Bitcoin, not away from it.

His reasoning centered on a familiar adversary. “If the communist Republic of China is leaning away from Bitcoin, then maybe the United States ought to be leaning into Bitcoin,” Vance told the conference crowd, framing the world’s largest cryptocurrency as both a strategic asset and a geopolitical chess piece.

From seizures to strategy Vance’s remarks build on a policy foundation the Trump administration laid earlier this year when the president signed an executive order on March 6, 2025, establishing a Strategic Bitcoin Reserve alongside a US Digital Asset Stockpile.

The core idea behind the reserve is straightforward: stop selling seized Bitcoin and start treating it like a long-term national asset. The US government is the largest state holder of Bitcoin in the world, having accumulated hundreds of thousands of BTC through law enforcement seizures over the years. Previous administrations routinely auctioned off those holdings. The current approach flips that playbook entirely.

Vance’s speech highlighted what he sees as Bitcoin’s key attributes: scarcity and security.

Skin in the game The vice president isn’t just talking his book. He’s also holding one. Financial disclosures reveal that Vance personally owns Bitcoin valued between $250,001 and $500,000. That puts him among the most crypto-exposed officials in the administration’s history, and it makes his advocacy less abstract than it might otherwise seem.

Whether you view that as a conflict of interest or proof of conviction probably depends on your priors. Either way, it’s worth noting that the person making the case for government Bitcoin accumulation stands to benefit personally from the policies he’s promoting.

The broader crypto landscape Approximately 50 million Americans now own Bitcoin, representing roughly 15% of the US population. Vance’s appearance at Bitcoin 2025 was as much a political signal as a policy statement. Last year, then-candidate Trump made headlines with his own Bitcoin 2024 appearance.

Disclosure: This article was edited by Editorial Team. For more information on how we create and review content, see our Editorial Policy.

The company raised $333.7 million selling MSTR shares last week and spent all of it on preferred dividends, preferred buybacks and its dollar reserve, leaving its 840,447 bitcoin untouched.

Original Image Credits: Gage Skidmore / flickr.com

Posted August 17, 2026 at 9:48 am EST.

“No bitcoin purchases or sales were made this week,” Strategy said in a Form 8-K filed Monday. The company neither bought nor sold bitcoin between Aug. 10 and Aug. 16, and every dollar it raised selling stock went to servicing its preferred shares instead.

The company sold 3,458,866 MSTR shares for $333.7 million in net proceeds, about $96.48 a share after commissions. It sent $52.4 million to dividends on its STRC preferred stock, $132.2 million to buying that same preferred stock back, and $149.1 million into its USD Reserve. Those three uses account for the entire raise. Strategy sold no preferred stock, having halted the STRC issuance that once funded its bitcoin buying.

Eight Weeks Since the Last Buy Strategy last bought bitcoin in the week ended June 21, when it added 520 BTC for $34.9 million at an average of $67,068 a coin. Monday’s filing was the eighth straight to report no purchase, a stretch that has taken in a $216 million bitcoin sale and the start of a financing overhaul. Executive Chairman Michael Saylor had pledged in May to buy 10 to 20 bitcoin for every one the company sold.

Holdings stand at 840,447 BTC bought for $63.36 billion, an average of $75,385 a coin. With bitcoin near $63,530 on Monday, the position is roughly $9.96 billion underwater.

Buying Back Preferred Below Par The week’s repurchase covered 1,388,720 STRC shares at about $95.19 each, close to 5% under the $100 par value and a shade above STRC’s $94.78 close on Friday. Strategy told investors in June that it wanted the security to trade near par. About $653 million of the $1 billion preferred repurchase authorization remains, alongside an untouched $1 billion for common stock.

The USD Reserve finished the week at $4.80 billion, up from $4.65 billion. Strategy’s board set a floor in June of 12 months of expected preferred dividends and interest, which the company put at about $1.76 billion a year. In a post on X, Strategy said the week “increased USD Duration by 41 days to 2.8 yrs and tightened STRC’s BTC Credit by 4 bps to 114 bps.”

Related Listen: Strategy Sells $216M in Bitcoin. Is Saylor a Buyer or a Seller Now?: Bits + Bips

AI-assisted content: This article was produced with the assistance of AI tools and was reviewed, edited, and fact-checked by a member of the Unchained editorial team before publication.

Strategy, the Nasdaq-listed digital asset company formerly known as MicroStrategy, entered another week without purchasing or selling Bitcoin. The company maintained its Bitcoin holdings unchanged, opting instead to strengthen its cash reserve amid market turbulence.

Cash reserve strategyAccording to a recent regulatory filing, Strategy raised $333.7 million by issuing 3,458,866 shares of its MSTR common stock. The company allocated $149.1 million of this sum to expand its USD reserve, while $52.4 million was used to pay dividends on STRC preferred stock. Additionally, Strategy spent $132.2 million repurchasing its own stock.

Chairman Michael Saylor emphasized the company’s efforts on social media, highlighting the $150 million increase in reserves and the repurchase of $132 million worth of STRC stock. With this move, the USD reserve now sits at $4.8 billion. Saylor also reported that the company extended its USD duration to 2.8 years and narrowed the STRC BTC credit to 114 basis points.

Strategy raised $333.7 million through a stock sale, bolstered its USD reserve by $150 million, and repurchased $132 million of STRC shares, while maintaining its Bitcoin holdings and supporting investor returns.

Mini dictionary: Strategy is a Nasdaq-listed company focused on digital assets and is the largest publicly traded corporate Bitcoin investor. Previously named MicroStrategy, it has shifted toward strengthening its cash position through stock offerings alongside its crypto holdings.

ActionAmountShares sold (MSTR)3,458,866Funds raised$333.7 millionUSD reserve addition$149.1 millionSTRC stock buyback$132.2 millionDividend payments$52.4 millionBitcoin holding policyStrategy has refrained from both buying and selling Bitcoin during the latest reporting period, halting all Bitcoin sales after previously reducing its holdings earlier in the year. This marks a shift from its aggressive accumulation strategy that peaked in 2025.

As of August 16, 2026, the company holds 840,447 BTC, worth $53.4 billion at an average acquisition price of $63,357 per coin. Despite volatile market conditions, Strategy continues to present itself as the largest corporate Bitcoin holder.

Strategy initiated its large-scale Bitcoin purchases in 2020, outlining its intention to use the asset as a hedge and a tool for enhancing shareholder value. Since then, it has served as a model for other corporations adopting similar crypto-treasury management approaches.

Stock performance and outlookMSTR shares have faced significant downward pressure throughout 2026. The stock has dropped more than 60% since the start of the year and now trades at just over $95, down nearly 80% from its 2024 peak.

Speaking earlier this month, CEO Phong Le addressed investor apprehension around the company’s strategic direction, citing confidence in their long-term commitment to Bitcoin. Le described Strategy as akin to “the J.P. Morgan of the crypto economy,” suggesting minor sales are negligible compared to their broader holdings and philosophy.

Strategy’s leadership asserts that their commitment to Bitcoin remains unchanged and that recent moves to boost cash reserves do not indicate a shift away from their core digital asset strategy.

Influence on industry peersStrategy’s approach to balancing a large Bitcoin treasury with traditional financial reserves has influenced a wave of companies to adopt similar treasury strategies. As market conditions evolve, many firms look to blend crypto assets with cash holdings to navigate volatility and support long-term objectives.

Disclaimer: The information contained in this article does not constitute investment advice. Investors should be aware that cryptocurrencies carry high volatility and therefore risk, and should conduct their own research.

SafePal’s latest disclosure hits a less obvious layer of crypto infrastructure: the commerce systems around wallet sales rather than the custody layer itself. The wallet provider confirmed that order information tied to nearly 40,000 customers was exposed, according to the original report.

SafePal has not disclosed whether the records were held on its own systems or by a third-party fulfillment vendor. That detail will matter to customers because a logistics partner breach can be just as dangerous as a compromise of the wallet maker’s internal database.

What did not move is just as important. SafePal said private keys, seed phrases, and crypto assets were not compromised. That distinction defines the risk here: this is not a failure of the signing device or the wallet’s cryptographic design, but of the operational layer that handles purchases and customer data.

Order records can still create a real exposure. Names, shipping addresses, purchase history, and contact details are the kind of data that feeds targeted phishing, fake delivery notices, and social engineering attempts. An attacker does not need a seed phrase if they can convince a customer to enter it into a convincing lookalike interface built from leaked order context.

AUTHOR

Kester is an experienced freelance content writer. His focus is primarily on blockchain technology and cryptocurrency. One might even refer to him as a "blockchain enthusiast." He has been following advancements in the crypto and blockchain area for several years, researching and writing his insights in the media. In addition to being a skilled content writer, Mushumir is also knowledgeable in SEO and digital marketing. He aspires to succeed as a content creator in the digital realm, dealing with customers in the finance and tech industries to generate traffic through engaging taglines and content. Mushumir enjoys traveling, reading, and playing cricket when he is not writing. He now works as a news and article writer for BlockchainReporter.

JPMorgan Chase now lets institutional clients pledge Bitcoin and Ethereum as collateral for U.S. dollar loans, placing crypto on the same ledger as Treasuries and blue-chip equities. For a bank whose CEO spent years calling Bitcoin a fraud, the reversal rewires how capital moves between Wall Street and decentralized networks, and forces every competitor to answer the same question.

Summary

JPMorgan Chase launched a program in March 2026 allowing institutional clients to pledge Bitcoin and Ethereum as collateral for U.S. dollar loans through its Kinexys digital assets platform, with custodians including Fidelity Digital Assets and Coinbase Custody holding the pledged tokens.
The bank applies estimated haircuts of 30% to 50% on crypto collateral, meaning a client pledging $100,000 in Bitcoin may receive only $50,000 to $70,000 in financing, with real-time oracle feeds from providers such as Chainlink adjusting valuations continuously.
This move follows JPMorgan’s filing of bitcoin-backed structured notes tied to BlackRock’s IBIT exchange-traded fund, offering leveraged returns of up to 1.5x and potential gains of 16% if IBIT hits predetermined targets by December 2026.
Goldman Sachs, Citigroup, and Bank of America are building a tokenized deposit network launching in the first half of 2027, suggesting JPMorgan’s collateral program is the opening act of a broader Wall Street integration.
The cultural shift is stark: CEO Jamie Dimon once called Bitcoin a “hyped-up fraud” and a “pet rock,” yet the bank now treats Bitcoin identically to stocks, bonds, and gold on its collateral schedule.

The pledged assets never leave cold storage at third-party custodians such as Fidelity Digital Assets and Coinbase Custody, but the dollars they unlock are as real as any credit line backed by government paper. JPMorgan Chase opened the program in March 2026 through its Kinexys digital assets platform, and the competitive cascade it triggered is already reshaping the banking industry.

From “pet rock” to pledgeable asset
Jamie Dimon’s public disdain for Bitcoin has been a recurring fixture of earnings calls and conference panels since at least 2017. He called it a fraud, compared it to tulip mania, and warned employees that trading it would be grounds for termination. Yet JPMorgan’s institutional clients kept asking for exposure, and the bank kept quietly building infrastructure to serve that demand. The Kinexys platform, formerly known as Onyx, now processes more than $5 billion in daily transaction volume and has handled over $3 trillion in cumulative settlements since its launch. Adding crypto collateral to that engine was less a philosophical U-turn and more the logical next step for a system already designed to move tokenized value at scale.

The internal evolution at JPMorgan tells a more nuanced story than the public rhetoric suggests. While Dimon was calling Bitcoin a fraud in shareholder letters, the bank’s technology division was hiring blockchain engineers, filing patents on tokenized settlement systems, and building the infrastructure that would become Kinexys. The digital assets team operated with a degree of autonomy that allowed it to build production-grade systems while the CEO continued to express skepticism on CNBC. That dynamic, where the engineering side of a bank runs ahead of the executive messaging, is common in large financial institutions. It happened with derivatives in the 1980s, with electronic trading in the 1990s, and with algorithmic market-making in the 2000s. The public stance catches up to the private investment, usually when a revenue opportunity becomes too large to ignore.

Eric Trump captured the irony at Consensus Miami 2026, pointing out that JPMorgan had gone from “crapping all over bitcoin” to offering mortgage products backed by crypto holdings in roughly 18 months. The timeline matters because it compresses what analysts expected to be a multi-year adoption curve into something closer to a sprint. When the bank that sets the pace for Wall Street lending accepts an asset as collateral, it sends a signal that cascades through compliance departments, risk committees, and boardrooms at every other major financial institution.

How the collateral program works
The mechanics mirror traditional securities lending more closely than most observers expected. A hedge fund or corporate treasury deposits Bitcoin or Ethereum with a third-party custodian, typically Fidelity Digital Assets or Coinbase Custody. JPMorgan never takes direct possession of the tokens. Instead, the bank receives a custodial receipt confirming the deposit, and the Kinexys platform records the pledge on its permissioned blockchain. The client then receives a U.S. dollar loan, with the crypto holdings serving as security.

Real-time price feeds, sourced from oracle providers including Chainlink, continuously update the valuation of the pledged assets. If the value of the collateral drops below a predetermined threshold, the system issues a margin call automatically. The client must either deposit additional collateral or repay part of the loan. If neither happens within the specified window, the custodian can liquidate the crypto position to cover the shortfall. The entire lifecycle, from pledge to margin call to potential liquidation, runs on blockchain rails that operate around the clock, a meaningful upgrade over the batch-processing cycles of traditional collateral management.

One detail that distinguishes this program from crypto-native lending platforms is the separation between custody and credit. On platforms like Aave or Compound, the collateral and the lending pool exist in the same smart contract ecosystem. A bug in the protocol can expose both simultaneously. JPMorgan’s structure intentionally fragments these functions across different entities: the bank underwrites the loan, the custodian holds the tokens, and the oracle provider supplies the pricing. That fragmentation adds operational complexity but creates firebreaks. A failure at any one layer does not automatically cascade into the others.

The initial rollout targets high-net-worth clients and institutional players. Retail access is not part of the current scope, though internal JPMorgan documents referenced by Bloomberg suggest the bank is evaluating a phased expansion that could include qualified retail investors by mid-2027.

The haircut question
Collateral haircuts are where the details reveal how seriously a bank treats an asset class. U.S. Treasuries typically carry haircuts of 1% to 5%, reflecting their low volatility and deep liquidity. Investment-grade corporate bonds sit in the 5% to 15% range. Gold, depending on the form and custodian, attracts haircuts of 10% to 25%.

JPMorgan’s reported haircuts for Bitcoin collateral land between 30% and 50%. That range acknowledges Bitcoin’s realized volatility, which has averaged roughly 50% to 70% annualized over the past five years, while still treating the asset as meaningfully pledgeable. A client depositing $1 million in Bitcoin would receive between $500,000 and $700,000 in loan proceeds. The spread within that range likely depends on the client’s creditworthiness, the loan tenor, and prevailing market conditions.

These numbers are not punitive by historical standards. When Goldman Sachs and other tier-one banks first explored Bitcoin-backed lending through tri-party repo arrangements, internal models suggested haircuts as high as 70%. The compression from 70% to a midpoint of roughly 40% over just a few years reflects both declining realized volatility as the asset matures and growing confidence in custodial infrastructure. If Bitcoin’s annualized volatility continues to fall, as it has with each successive halving cycle, the haircuts will tighten further. A world in which Bitcoin collateral receives a 20% haircut, comparable to high-yield corporate bonds, is plausible within the next three to five years.

What changes when Bitcoin becomes a balance-sheet instrument
The shift from speculative asset to pledgeable collateral rewires incentive structures across the financial system. Consider three immediate consequences.

First, it creates a reason to hold Bitcoin that has nothing to do with price appreciation. A corporate treasurer sitting on $50 million in Bitcoin can now borrow against that position to fund operations, acquisitions, or working capital without triggering a taxable event. The cost of capital for that borrowing, once haircuts and interest rates are factored in, may compare favorably to unsecured corporate debt for many mid-tier firms. Bitcoin becomes a tool for liquidity management, not just a bet on number-go-up.

Second, it introduces a new class of forced sellers. Margin calls on crypto-collateralized loans create liquidation pressure that did not exist when Bitcoin sat entirely outside the banking system. A sharp drawdown that triggers widespread margin calls at JPMorgan and its eventual competitors could amplify selling in a way that the market has not yet experienced at institutional scale. The plumbing that makes collateral possible also makes cascading liquidations possible.

Third, it pressures accounting standards. Under current U.S. GAAP rules updated in late 2024, companies can carry Bitcoin at fair value with changes flowing through earnings. If banks are treating Bitcoin as loan collateral, auditors and regulators will face increasing pressure to harmonize the treatment of crypto assets across the financial system. The gap between how a bank values Bitcoin as collateral and how a corporate borrower accounts for it on its balance sheet creates friction that the system will eventually resolve.

Fourth, it changes how Bitcoin miners and large holders think about treasury management. Companies like MARA Holdings have already used Bitcoin to refinance debt through crypto-native lenders such as Arch Lending. The entry of JPMorgan into this market gives those same borrowers access to cheaper capital, longer tenors, and the reputational cover of borrowing from a systemically important bank. The interest rates on JPMorgan’s crypto-collateralized loans have not been publicly disclosed, but the bank’s cost of funding is significantly lower than any crypto-native lender. That cost advantage will pull borrowing volume away from decentralized platforms and into the traditional banking system, an ironic outcome for an asset class built on the premise of disintermediation.

The competitive cascade
JPMorgan rarely moves first without knowing that competitors are watching. Goldman Sachs has been working on its own crypto-collateral program through tri-party repo structures. Citigroup is building custody rails designed to handle $30 trillion in tokenized assets. Bank of America, Wells Fargo, and Citigroup are jointly constructing a tokenized deposit network that launches in the first half of 2027 and would allow round-the-clock corporate fund transfers. Each of these initiatives is a precondition for accepting crypto collateral at scale.

The pattern echoes what happened with prime brokerage services for hedge funds in the 1990s. Once one bank offered a comprehensive package, every competitor had to match it or risk losing clients. The same dynamic is playing out with crypto services. JPMorgan has already filed to issue bitcoin-backed structured notes tied to BlackRock’s IBIT ETF, offering leveraged returns and conditional principal protection. Goldman Sachs is expected to announce similar products before the end of the third quarter. The question is no longer whether traditional banks will offer crypto-backed financial products, but how quickly the full menu will be available.

Regional banks face a different calculus. They lack the technology budgets and regulatory relationships to build Kinexys-style platforms from scratch. Most will rely on infrastructure partners, likely the same custodians and oracle providers that JPMorgan uses, to offer white-label versions of crypto collateral services. The result is a tiered market in which the largest banks offer bespoke crypto lending directly, mid-tier banks partner with fintechs, and smaller institutions simply refer clients elsewhere. That tiering already exists for foreign exchange and derivatives. Crypto is following the same organizational logic.

The opposing case: why this could unravel
Every structural shift comes with scenarios that could reverse it. The most direct threat is a regulatory crackdown. The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency has not issued definitive guidance on bank-held crypto collateral, and a change in administration or a major crypto-related loss at a systemically important bank could prompt restrictions that make the economics unworkable.

Volatility remains the fundamental challenge. Bitcoin’s 30-day realized volatility spiked above 100% during the March 2020 crash and exceeded 80% during the May 2021 selloff. A similar spike under the new collateral regime would trigger margin calls at a scale the system has not been tested against. If custodians cannot process liquidations quickly enough during a flash crash, the resulting losses could make banks pull back from crypto collateral entirely.

Custodial risk is the dark scenario. The collapse of FTX in 2022 showed that even large, apparently reputable crypto custodians can fail catastrophically. JPMorgan mitigates this by using regulated third-party custodians with segregated accounts, but the risk is not zero. A breach, hack, or operational failure at a major custodian could freeze collateral and create cascading defaults.

The invalidation criteria are clear: if any G-SIB (global systemically important bank) suspends its crypto collateral program due to losses or regulatory action within the next 18 months, the competitive cascade described above stalls. If two or more suspend simultaneously, the entire thesis reverses and crypto reverts to its pre-collateral status as a purely speculative asset class in the eyes of traditional finance.

Ethereum’s parallel path and the altcoin question
JPMorgan’s program accepts Ethereum alongside Bitcoin, but the two assets occupy different positions in the institutional hierarchy. JPMorgan’s own analysts have argued that Bitcoin has pulled decisively ahead as the institutional base layer, with spot Bitcoin ETFs recovering roughly two-thirds of their October 2025 outflows while spot Ethereum ETFs clawed back only about one-third.

The divergence matters for collateral because it affects how banks model risk. Bitcoin’s correlation structure, its relationship to equities, gold, and real interest rates, is better understood and more stable than Ethereum’s. A risk committee evaluating Ethereum collateral must also consider smart contract risk, network upgrade risk, and the possibility that DeFi activity on Ethereum declines further, reducing the fundamental demand for the token. These factors justify wider haircuts on Ethereum than on Bitcoin, and internal bank models reportedly reflect that asymmetry.

The broader altcoin universe is nowhere near collateral eligibility. Tokens with lower liquidity, shorter track records, and less regulatory clarity will remain outside the banking system’s collateral framework for the foreseeable future. The gap between Bitcoin and Ethereum on one side and everything else on the other is widening, not narrowing, as institutional infrastructure develops. Solana, despite processing JPMorgan’s first public-blockchain commercial paper issuance, is not on the collateral schedule. Neither are any stablecoins, wrapped tokens, or governance tokens. The threshold for collateral eligibility in the traditional banking system is far higher than the threshold for exchange listing, and that distinction will shape capital allocation for years to come.

For Ethereum specifically, the path to tighter haircuts runs through proving sustained network utility. If staking yields stabilize, layer-2 activity grows, and real-world asset tokenization on Ethereum scales meaningfully, risk committees may eventually treat ETH collateral on terms closer to Bitcoin. But that convergence is not guaranteed, and the current data points in the opposite direction.

What the Bitcoin ETF ecosystem means for collateral
The existence of spot Bitcoin ETFs creates a bridge between crypto-native collateral and traditional securities lending. A bank can accept shares of BlackRock’s IBIT as collateral without ever touching Bitcoin directly. The ETF wrapper provides regulatory clarity, custodial simplicity, and a familiar risk framework. JPMorgan’s structured notes tied to IBIT are an early example of this hybrid approach.

The ETF bridge also creates an interesting arbitrage dynamic. If a client can pledge IBIT shares at a 10% haircut through a standard securities lending agreement, or pledge the underlying Bitcoin at a 40% haircut through the crypto collateral program, the economics strongly favor the ETF route. This means that much of the early demand for crypto collateral may flow through ETFs rather than spot crypto, at least until haircuts on direct Bitcoin pledges tighten to competitive levels.

Over time, the two tracks should converge. As banks gain experience with direct Bitcoin custody and the realized loss rates on crypto-collateralized loans become visible, the haircut premium for spot Bitcoin over ETF shares will narrow. The end state is one in which Bitcoin, whether held directly or through an ETF, is treated as a single asset class on the collateral schedule, with haircuts reflecting the underlying volatility rather than the wrapper.

The regulatory dimension reinforces this convergence. The Clarity Act, which JPMorgan publicly backed despite lowering its estimate of the bill’s passage probability to below 50%, would provide a federal framework for digital asset classification. If passed, the act would remove much of the legal uncertainty that currently justifies wider haircuts on spot crypto versus ETF shares. Even without the Clarity Act, the SEC’s approval of spot Bitcoin and Ethereum ETFs has already created a regulatory precedent that treats the underlying assets as legitimate enough to wrap in registered securities. The collateral question is the next logical extension of that precedent.

What to watch
The next 12 months will determine whether JPMorgan’s collateral program is the beginning of a permanent structural shift or an experiment that gets walked back under pressure. Three signals matter most.

The first is competitor entry. If Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley, and at least one European universal bank launch comparable programs by mid-2027, the shift is durable. If JPMorgan remains alone, something is wrong with the economics or the regulatory environment.

The second is haircut compression. The current 30% to 50% range for Bitcoin reflects uncertainty. If that range tightens to 20% to 35% within a year, it means realized loss rates are low and the bank’s risk models are being validated by actual experience. If haircuts widen, the opposite is true.

The third is a stress test. The program has not yet been through a genuine market dislocation. The first 20%-plus drawdown in Bitcoin while significant collateral is pledged through the system will reveal whether the liquidation mechanisms work as designed. A clean liquidation cycle, one that processes margin calls and sells collateral without systemic disruption, would be the strongest possible endorsement of the program’s architecture.

Beyond these three signals, watch for the accounting and regulatory responses. If the Financial Accounting Standards Board issues updated guidance specifically addressing crypto collateral in banking contexts, it signals that the infrastructure is being built to last. If the OCC publishes interpretive letters clarifying the permissibility of crypto-backed lending for nationally chartered banks, the door opens for institutions that have been waiting on the sidelines. Conversely, if enforcement actions or congressional hearings target bank-held crypto collateral specifically, the expansion timeline extends significantly. The regulatory posture in Washington over the next year will shape the speed of this transition more than any single bank’s internal decision.

This article is for informational purposes only and should not be considered financial or investment advice. Cryptocurrency investments carry significant risk, and readers should conduct their own research before making any financial decisions. Published on August 16, 2026.

Publicly listed / traded Bitcoin mining companies have reportedly reduced their dedicated computational capacity more rapidly than the broader network, as a growing number shift electricity and data-center resources toward artificial intelligence and high-performance computing applications.

This development signals that many operators are prioritizing more predictable income streams over traditional cryptocurrency production.

Three months earlier, analysis had shown a redistribution of power within the sector.

Firms including Core Scientific, IREN, Cipher Digital, TeraWulf, and Keel Infrastructure were scaling back Bitcoin operations, while Bitdeer, MARA, Riot Platforms, and American Bitcoin absorbed much of the displaced share, keeping the overall public cohort roughly stable. Second-quarter results, however, indicate that this equilibrium is eroding.

Operators continuing to reduce exposure kept decommissioning equipment, yet fewer peers expanded sufficiently to offset the losses.

At the same time, colocation and related revenues climbed markedly among those furthest advanced in the transition.Core Scientific recorded $136.7 million in colocation income during the second quarter—nearly five times its $27.5 million from Bitcoin mining—accounting for 83 percent of total sales, up from 67 percent in the prior quarter.

TeraWulf followed a parallel path, with high-performance computing lease revenue reaching $31.9 million, or 71 percent of overall revenue, against $12.8 million from mining.

For these two companies, non-mining activities have already surpassed Bitcoin production as the primary revenue driver.

Elsewhere in the sector the shift remains less advanced: Riot Platforms reported $23.2 million in data-center revenue versus $113.7 million from mining, while Bitdeer generated $14 million from AI cloud services compared with $197.1 million from mining-related operations.

Hut 8 and MARA showed smaller contributions from compute services, and Cipher and Keel Infrastructure had not yet begun recognizing high-performance computing revenue.

Drawing on an expanded set of public miners and updated network data, TheEnergyMag calculates that the tracked cohort delivered a combined realized hashrate of 368.3 EH/s in the fourth quarter of 2025, 344.4 EH/s in the first quarter of 2026, and 319.0 EH/s in the second quarter—a 13.4 percent decline over six months.

The Bitcoin network’s quarterly average fell from 1,071 EH/s to 993 EH/s and then to 957 EH/s, a 10.6 percent reduction.

Public companies therefore contracted faster than the network as a whole.

In the first quarter, expansion by a few operators largely masked the scale of shutdowns elsewhere; by the second quarter those offsets proved insufficient.

Bitdeer provided the largest counterweight, increasing its realized hashrate 44 percent from the fourth quarter to the second quarter to reach 63.0 EH/s.

Excluding Bitdeer, the remaining cohort’s realized hashrate declined 21.2 percent, from 324.6 EH/s to 255.9 EH/s.

Bitdeer’s growth stemmed from its proprietary SEALMINER production line; by June the company reported 73 EH/s of self-mining capacity and 15.9 EH/s of co-mining capacity, producing 990 Bitcoin in the month—388 percent more than a year earlier.

MARA and American Bitcoin also continued to expand, yet their gains could not fully compensate for reductions at Cango, Cipher, Keel, Core Scientific, TeraWulf, and IREN.Cango illustrates the speed of the economic shift.

After entering Bitcoin mining in late 2024 and deploying 50 EH/s during 2025, the firm began decommissioning less efficient machines, leasing hashrate, and relocating capacity to lower-cost regions.

Its realized hashrate dropped from 44.8 EH/s in the fourth quarter of 2025 to 31.3 EH/s in the first quarter; estimates place second-quarter capacity near 16.5 EH/s—a 63 percent reduction in six months.

Keel Infrastructure advanced further, completing the decommissioning of all US Bitcoin mining operations in the second quarter ahead of data-center construction, while Canadian mining continues during the phased transition.

Replacement revenue has yet to materialize fully.Viewed over a longer horizon, the second-quarter data underscores the unwinding of the post-China expansion cycle.

China’s 2021 mining ban temporarily removed roughly half the network’s computing power, with hashrate bottoming at 57.5 EH/s in June 2021 before miners relocated and the network recovered by December.

The United States became the dominant hub, prompting an institutional build-out in which public miners raised capital, secured power sites, and ordered successive generations of ASICs, eventually driving the network past one zettahash per second.

Only one halving has occurred since that expansion.

Now, machines and electrical infrastructure accumulated during the post-China race are being idled, impaired, or depreciated so that power can be reassigned to GPUs.

The industry expanded at substantial cost, only for some of its most prominent operators to begin dismantling capacity after a single halving cycle. Unlike the China ban, the present contraction lacks a single dramatic catalyst; it arises from the combination of weak mining economics and a competing demand for capital and electricity.

58 min ago

2 min read

The Kremlin in Moscow (Artem Beliaikin/Unsplash)Summary

Moscow and parts of Kursk banned crypto mining and pool participation through Dec. 31, 2032, under government decree No. 936 to preserve power grid stability.The Energy Ministry enacted the year-round restriction to mitigate power-capacity shortages as energy-intensive mining facilities continue to strain regional grids.This decision follows Russia's legalization of registered mining in 2024 and subsequent bans in 10 other regions due to rising electricity demand.Crypto mining was banned in Moscow, the surrounding Moscow Region and parts of Kursk, with the restrictions set to run through Dec. 31, 2032.

The measure, established under government decree No. 936, also prohibits participation in crypto mining pools. The decree was signed on July 25 and published on July 31, local media reports.

Russia as a whole accounted for an estimated 175 exahashes per second, or 16.4% of Bitcoin’s global computing power, in the first quarter, according to Luxor’s Hashrate Index. That placed it second behind the U.S., although it’s unclear what capacity was located in the newly restricted region.

The country’s Energy Ministry said a year-round restriction was needed to reduce the risk of power-capacity shortages as energy-intensive mining facilities connect to regional grids. Mining currently consumes roughly 1 gigawatt in the Moscow power system, while the region’s data-center capacity could reach 3.6 GW, or 17% of peak demand, by 2032, Interfax reported after the decree was first signed.

Mining is also linked to the country’s Western sanctions.

Russian companies had been using domestically mined bitcoin in international payments after legal changes designed to counter Western restrictions, Finance Minister Anton Siluanov said in December 2024.

Legislation passed by parliament in July maintained Russia’s ban on domestic crypto payments but preserved exceptions for foreign-trade settlements and transactions involving mined cryptocurrency, keeping the mechanism available as sanctions restrict conventional payment channels.

Adding to that, the U.S. Treasury sanctioned BitRiver and 10 subsidiaries in 2022, saying Russian mining companies helped the country monetize its energy resources and could offset the impact of sanctions.

Russia legalized registered crypto mining back in 2024, before banning the activity in 10 regions through March 2031, citing electricity demand. Year-round restrictions were later extended to southern Irkutsk and most areas of Buryatia and Zabaykalsky Krai.

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Building the Zcash Machine: Tachyon and Quantum Readiness

Building the Zcash Machine: Tachyon and Quantum Readiness

Zcash’s Tachyon upgrade aims to scale shielded payments, improve quantum readiness, and test whether its funding, security, and governance can hold.

Jun 30, 2026

Zcash’s Tachyon upgrade aims to scale shielded payments, improve quantum readiness, and test whether its funding, security, and governance can hold.

Why it matters:

Zcash’s Tachyon upgrade aims to scale shielded payments, improve quantum readiness, and test whether its funding, security, and governance can hold.

According to monitoring by Onchain Lens, Jump Crypto has continued transferring Bitcoin (BTC) to Binance this week, with total deposits reaching around 1,560 BTC valued at approximately $99.2 million, suspected to be for a sale operation. The latest data shows Jump Crypto transferred an additional 286.83 BTC to Binance just two hours ago, worth roughly $18.01 million. As of now, Jump Crypto’s wallet still holds around 1,410 BTC valued at about $88.58 million. The market will continue to track its subsequent transfers and changes in holdings.

Relevant content

ABFinance officially announced it will shut down in approximately five months and is currently initiating an orderly liquidation.

Crypto finance platform ABFinance, founded by former Bybit co-CEO Helen Liu, announced it will not proceed with its planned launch and is now in the process of orderly shutdown. ABFinance stated on social media that it thanks all team members, community users, and partners involved in its development, adding: "Thank you for your trust, support, and belief along the way." In March this year, after leaving Bybit, Helen Liu announced the launch of her startup ABFinance, which aimed to build a one-stop financial platform connecting fiat and crypto assets, integrating functions such as deposits, yields, trading, and payments, and emphasized that it would be built under the U.S. compliance license framework from day one. According to prior reports, Bybit announced that Helen Liu would step down on April 30, 2026, to embark on her personal entrepreneurial journey. However, just about five months after ABFinance unveiled its project plan, the platform announced it would halt its launch and enter the shutdown process. The specific reason for the shutdown has not been disclosed by officials so far.

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Morgan Stanley downgraded Circle (CRCL) stock rating from "Hold" to "Underweight" on August 3, slashing its price target from $106 to $38. Analysts attributed the rating cut primarily to the contraction in USDC circulation, which exposed Circle’s high sensitivity to reserve-related revenue. Meanwhile, the company’s business structure is shifting toward a transaction-based revenue model with lower profit margins. The report also cut Circle’s USDC size forecasts for 2027 and 2028 by approximately 33% and 44% respectively, and projected the company’s GAAP earnings per share (EPS) to be about 3% and 20% lower than market consensus. However, Morgan Stanley’s latest filed 13F document shows that as of June 30, its holdings of Circle shares surged from around 1.46 million to 8.32 million, marking a clear position increase in the second quarter. This means that while Morgan Stanley publicly downgraded Circle’s rating and price target in early August, signaling a cautious outlook, its disclosed holdings as of the end of Q2 showed a significant position increase. It should be noted that 13F filings reflect holdings as of June 30, and cannot reflect whether positions were adjusted before or after the August rating cut. The market’s focus centers on the stark contrast between the institutional research view and the historical holdings disclosure.

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Payment giant PayPal’s acquisition talks with Stripe and private equity firm Advent Global Opportunities are heating up, with a potential deal to be finalized in the coming weeks. Back in July, Stripe and Advent proposed acquiring PayPal at $60.50 per share, valuing the deal at roughly $53 billion, but PayPal rejected the offer at the time. However, sources familiar with the matter revealed that negotiations have not broken off and are still ongoing. Neither PayPal nor Stripe has confirmed the reports. PayPal declined to comment, while Stripe said it does not respond to market rumors or speculation. The potential sale comes as PayPal seeks to reverse its growth struggles. Since PayPal CEO Enrique Lores took office in March this year, he has rolled out a restructuring plan splitting the business into three segments: checkout and PayPal core services, consumer financial services (including Venmo), and payment services and crypto operations. Lores has stated that PayPal will return to its identity as a technology company and strengthen its core payment capabilities. Meanwhile, the company plans to boost efficiency through cost cuts, with an estimated 20% workforce reduction over the next two to three years. Founded in 1998, PayPal’s founding team includes Silicon Valley figures such as Peter Thiel, Elon Musk, and Max Levchin. The company grew rapidly during the pandemic due to the e-commerce boom, but has faced challenges including slowing growth and downward pressure on its stock price in recent years. If the deal is completed, it will be one of the largest acquisitions in the fintech industry in recent years.

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Duan Yongping has bet on SpaceX for about 20 days, with paper gains exceeding $5.4 million.

According to public information from Xueqiu platform, Duan Yongping recently participated in SpaceX (SPCX) via two transactions: options and common stock. On July 24, he sold 1,000 SPCX put options expiring on December 18, 2026, with a strike price of $115, at a transaction price of approximately $23.26, corresponding to a premium of about $2.326 million. Then, on August 5, Duan Yongping bought 100,000 SPCX shares at a cost of roughly $108.68 per share. Based on SpaceX’s latest closing price of $140, this long stock position has an unrealized gain of around $3.132 million. Combined, Duan Yongping’s round of SpaceX trades has generated an unrealized profit of approximately $5.458 million in about 20 days. However, it should be noted that although the premium from selling the put option has been credited, the option has not yet expired. If SPCX subsequently falls below $115 and is exercised, he will still be obligated to take delivery of the shares at the strike price. SPCX has been highly volatile recently: after its June listing, the stock once surged to above $200, then dropped back to around $105. In August, as the impact of the first batch of restricted stock unlocks was weaker than expected and market risk appetite recovered, the stock price rebounded to the $140 level. As a result, Duan Yongping’s current trade has evolved from "selling puts to collect premiums" to a staged high-probability trade.

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The Cboe BZX Exchange has filed a proposed rule change to list and trade the first-ever 3x leveraged Bitcoin ETF in the US. The filing, designated SR-CboeBZX-2026-065, was submitted on August 10, 2026, and represents a meaningful escalation in the arms race of crypto-linked investment products available to American traders.

Volatility Shares LLC, the firm behind the product, is sponsoring a suite of 3x leveraged funds covering Bitcoin, Ether, Gold, Silver, Crude Oil, and Natural Gas. For Bitcoin specifically, the fund would aim to deliver daily investment results equal to three times the performance of Bitcoin, achieved through first- and second-month CME Bitcoin futures contracts.

What triple leverage actually means
A 3x leveraged ETF does exactly what it sounds like: it multiplies the daily return of its underlying asset by three. If Bitcoin futures rise 2% in a day, the fund targets a 6% gain. If they fall 2%, you’re looking at a 6% loss.

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That daily reset is the part most people gloss over, and it matters enormously. Over longer holding periods, the compounding effect of daily rebalancing can cause the fund’s returns to diverge significantly from simply tripling Bitcoin’s cumulative return. A volatile, sideways market can eat into returns even if the underlying asset ends up flat. These products are designed for short-term trading, not buy-and-hold retirement portfolios.

The US market already has 2x leveraged Bitcoin ETFs. Europe got ahead of the curve, with 3x Bitcoin exchange-traded products beginning to trade in November 2025. This Cboe filing would bring the US in line with what European investors have already had access to for months.

Structure and regulatory path
One of the more interesting wrinkles in the filing is the fund’s legal structure. Rather than registering under the Investment Company Act of 1940, which governs traditional mutual funds and most ETFs, the 3x Bitcoin fund would be structured as a commodity pool. That’s a meaningful distinction because it places the product under a different regulatory framework, one overseen by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission rather than the SEC’s investment company rules.

The filing also relies on amended generic listing standards that Cboe developed between 2025 and 2026. These standards essentially create a streamlined pathway for listing certain types of derivative-based ETFs without requiring individual SEC approval for each product, provided they meet pre-established criteria.

There’s one important caveat: shares of the fund cannot actually begin trading until the associated S-1 registration statement becomes effective. The exchange approval was granted on the same date as the filing, but that doesn’t mean the fund is immediately available. The SEC still needs to greenlight the registration, and no specific listing date has been confirmed.

Disclosure: This article was edited by Editorial Team. For more information on how we create and review content, see our Editorial Policy.

In brief
A reported breach of France’s tax authority exposed data tied to 678,437 people and businesses.
The records allegedly include income figures, addresses, tax identifiers, and family information.
The data could help criminals craft targeted scams against wealthy taxpayers and Bitcoin holders.
A hacker is selling a trove of French tax records that could expose more than 678,000 people and businesses, including Bitcoin holders, to phishing, identity theft, and targeted attacks.

According to a report by French cybersecurity outlet FrenchBreaches, a hacker is selling records allegedly stolen from France’s tax authority, the DGFiP, during a June breach for several thousand euros.

Myriad: Bitcoin's next move? Click to make your prediction.“More bad news for Bitcoiners living in the leading country for wrench attacks,” Chief Security Officer at Bitcoin security platform Casa Jameson Loop wrote on X. “The French tax authority has been hacked, and 678K records leaked.”

FrenchBreaches said the database contains records on 392,867 individuals and 285,570 professionals, including 26,805 people with reference tax income of at least $116,000, 386 above $1.16 million, and eight above $11.6 million; the hacker is reportedly offering the file for several thousand dollars.

FrenchBreaches said a sample of the leaked data included names, birth details, home and email addresses, phone numbers, income figures, withholding tax rates, family status, dependents, and tax-share information.

“There DGFiP officially confirms the intrusion in its information system,” FrenchBreaches wrote in an update. Stolen credentials were used in late June to access and extract taxpayer data, and the number of people affected remains under investigation, the firm added.

According to FrenchBreaches, the attacker used stolen VPN credentials and an internal search tool to extract names, contact details, tax identifiers, income figures, withholding rates, and family information before officials cut off access.

“A scammer with real tax information and knowing of the existence of an old approach to the DGFiP could, for example, construct a fraudulent message that is much more credible than a simple fake generic email,” FrenchBreaches wrote.

While the FrenchBreaches report focused on the data leak, it comes amid a rise in wrench attacks, in which criminals use violence or threats to steal cryptocurrency.

In July, CertiK reported 52 attacks worldwide during the first half of 2026, including 33 in France. Earlier this month, Chainalysis reported 46 attacks through June, including 30 in France, with more than $30 million stolen.

“Criminals have recognized that crypto holders are high-value targets because they possess wealth in an instantly and irreversibly transferable form,” Chainalysis wrote.

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Citigroup, one of the world’s largest financial institutions, has expressed support for the Crypto CLARITY Act and called on the US Senate to advance the new digital asset regulation bill. The endorsement came as Citigroup CEO Jane Fraser emphasized the need for comprehensive legislation governing crypto markets in the United States.

Citigroup’s stance on the CLARITY ActJane Fraser voiced appreciation for current efforts to draft the Crypto CLARITY Act, while also noting that the bank continues to advocate for improvements in the legislation. Citigroup remains a major player in global banking and has increasingly engaged with digital asset markets in recent years.

Fraser stressed the importance of moving forward with the bill, even as discussions about potential amendments persist. “We’re not giving up on pushing to get some improvements made to the bill, but we would like to see a good bill go through. I think it would be excellent for the system,” Fraser stated during an interview with Fox Business.

“We’re not giving up on pushing to get some improvements made to the bill, but we would like to see a good bill go through. I think it would be excellent for the system.”

Citigroup has previously noted that regulatory progress in digital assets could help drive institutional adoption. The bank regards legislative clarity as a potential turning point for both compliance and market participation by large investors.

Market context and legislative aimsThe call for regulatory clarity comes after a difficult period for cryptocurrencies, with the global market capitalization falling by over $2 trillion in the past year. Supporters of the CLARITY Act believe the new legal framework could pave the way for a more stable and trusted crypto sector, contributing to market recovery.

The Crypto CLARITY Act is designed to establish defined rules for digital assets in the US. Its primary goals are to provide regulatory certainty, encourage institutional engagement, and strengthen investor protection.

If enacted, the legislation could help address common concerns about scams and security vulnerabilities that persist in the crypto industry. The promise of greater safeguards may help attract new participants to the market while reassuring existing investors.

Mini dictionary: Crypto CLARITY Act, proposed US legislation aimed at improving regulatory oversight and investor protection in digital asset markets. The act seeks to create clearer legal distinctions for crypto asset classes and establish consistent rules for their use and trading.

Citigroup’s recent outlook on the crypto marketWhile supporting stronger legislation, Citi recently adopted a more cautious view towards digital asset performance. On July 1, the bank reduced its 12-month price target for Bitcoin from $112,000 to $82,000. Citigroup also adjusted its projection for Ethereum, lowering it from $3,175 to $2,240.

AssetPrevious 12-Month TargetNew 12-Month TargetBitcoin$112,000$82,000Ethereum$3,175$2,240Jane Fraser’s positive remarks on the proposed crypto bill follow these cautious adjustments, reflecting Citigroup’s dual approach of backing regulatory clarity while remaining vigilant about sector volatility.

Disclaimer: The information contained in this article does not constitute investment advice. Investors should be aware that cryptocurrencies carry high volatility and therefore risk, and should conduct their own research.