Track market-moving stories before they get noisy

The 30-day demand for Bitcoin [BTC] is on the way back up after the extreme drop in demand it experienced due to its recent price decline. The metric has now turned positive near 25,000 BTC, reversing from deeply negative levels recorded around June.

That trend indicates that capital is returning, even if demand still isn’t as high as we’ve seen during prior recovery periods. More importantly, it appears derivatives are doing most of the heavy lifting currently.

Still, there may be an environment developing where we could see something like what occurred in May’s move to $82,000.

Source: CryptoQuant Normally, Futures demand provides initial momentum as traders rebuild leveraged exposure and respond to improving prices. Yet previous rallies became more sustainable when spot buying expanded alongside Futures activity.

Thus, unless both Spot and Futures increase in demand, derivatives will likely continue to artificially inflate prices upward and then just as quickly reverse downward.

Bitcoin now needs stronger spot participation to turn this early rebound into sustained buying pressure.

Bitcoin recovery faces key resistance

A dormant Bitcoin address inactive for over 12 years has transferred out all 26.95 BTC, posting an unrealized profit of $1.73 million.

According to on-chain data, a Bitcoin whale dormant for over 12 years has reactivated. The whale accumulated 26.95 BTC when Bitcoin’s price stood at just $823.1. At 15:03:02 Beijing time today, the wallet address transferred out all 26.95 BTC, posting an unrealized profit of $1.73 million.

2 minutes ago

H100 Group announced it increased its holdings by 2,455.4 BTC at an average price of $62,900.

According to official announcements, H100 Group, a Swedish publicly listed Bitcoin reserve company, announced it has acquired 2,455.4 Bitcoin at an average price of $62,900, lifting its total Bitcoin holdings to 3,506 coins.

2 minutes ago

Robinhood launches cryptocurrency trading services for UK investors

According to an official announcement, Robinhood has launched cryptocurrency trading services for eligible customers in the UK. Users can trade over 50 digital assets directly within its main investment app via Bitstamp, the established trading platform it acquired last year for $200 million. The rollout kicked off this week, integrating crypto into its existing offerings of stocks, stock ISAs, options, and futures, all within a single app. Robinhood noted that the service will waive trading fees, account maintenance fees, and custody fees upon launch. However, UK customers will be charged a 0.1% foreign exchange fee, which rises to 0.3% for some weekend conversions.

2 minutes ago

SK Hynix responds to rumors of considering selling its Chongqing plant: No decisions have been made yet.

SK Hynix has issued a statement addressing market rumors that it is selling its Chongqing, China factory valued at 4 trillion won, stating that the company is studying multiple plans to enhance the competitiveness of its packaging business. No specific decisions have been made as of yet, the firm added, noting that should relevant matters be finalized in the future, it will make a further disclosure within one month of the confirmation date. (Source: Jiemian)

2 minutes ago

Industry analysts project that the cost of the iPhone 18 Pro will surge by nearly 40%, and Apple may adjust its gross margin strategy to ensure stable shipments.

According to TrendForce's latest mobile industry research, rising prices of components led by memory chips have pushed up the overall production cost of Apple's upcoming iPhone 18 series. The research firm estimates that the production cost of the 256GB iPhone 18 Pro in the third quarter will be roughly 38% higher than that of the same model launched in the same period in 2025. In 2027, as memory prices are projected to stay on an upward trajectory, the cost increase for the 256GB iPhone 18 Pro may expand further.

2 minutes ago

JPMorgan Chase: Still Bullish on Global Stock Markets, Cyclical Stocks to Lead the Rally

JPMorgan strategists remain bullish on global equities, expecting the rally to broaden in the second half of the year. As corporate earnings and economic activity metrics improve, cyclical stocks are poised to regain leadership and outperform low-volatility shares. The team led by Mislav Matejka wrote in a report that indices will hit new highs in the second half, adding that positioning is far from extreme and the Q2 earnings season has been reassuring. Within cyclical sectors, they focus on banks, luxury goods, construction materials, mining, industrials and cyclical consumer industries, while favoring emerging markets and the eurozone.

2 minutes ago

Researchers found 821 accounts that made $8.2 million by manipulating bitcoin prices in the final seconds before Polymarket settled its short dated contracts. Polymarket has now replaced instant snapshots with time weighted averages, but the structural vulnerability they exposed is not unique to one platform.

Summary

Polymarket replaced its instant price snapshot settlement mechanism with time weighted average prices on August 7, 2026, after a study identified 821 accounts that collectively made $8.2 million in settlement windows classified as likely manipulated across roughly two months of five minute bitcoin contracts. The manipulation worked by accumulating a large position on Polymarket, then placing unusually large orders on Binance in the final seconds before settlement to move the bitcoin price across the contract’s strike threshold, causing the contract to resolve in the manipulator’s favor before the price reverted. Excluding market makers, 93 percent of the losses in windows classified as manipulated fell on retail traders, and the researchers found that a bet the market treated as near certain was overturned one time in three during manipulated windows. Under the new system, five minute markets will use a 30 second average and 15 minute and four hour markets will use a 60 second average, with price data delivered through Chainlink Data Streams, and Polymarket committed $1 million in liquidity rewards across affected markets through August to cushion the transition. Rival platform Kalshi already uses a regulated CF Benchmarks price index with a 60 second moving average and reported conducting 150 to 250 material investigations per quarter with 40 to 50 CFTC referrals so far in 2026, highlighting the surveillance gap between DeFi native and regulated prediction market venues. On August 7, 2026, Polymarket announced it would replace the single price snapshot it had used to settle short dated crypto contracts with a time weighted average price, known as a TWAP. The change followed months of trader complaints, public warnings from onchain analysts, and a peer reviewed study from researchers at Stanford University and Singapore Management University that documented how a small number of accounts systematically profited by moving bitcoin prices on Binance in the final seconds before Polymarket’s settlement windows closed.

The exploit was not a hack. No smart contract was compromised. No private key was stolen. The vulnerability was a design choice: Polymarket settled its short dated crypto markets using a single price at a single moment. Anyone who could move that price for a few seconds could change the outcome of the contract. The researchers called the vulnerability “structural,” and their language was precise. “An asset price contract settles on a financial price,” they wrote, “and that price can be moved by trading the underlying market itself.”

The finding raises questions that extend well beyond one platform. Prediction markets handled $50.6 billion in volume in July 2026 alone. As these markets grow, the intersection between prediction contract settlement and spot market manipulation becomes a systemic concern, not a niche complaint from retail traders who lost money on five minute bets.

The timing of the fix also coincides with Polymarket’s reported effort to raise $1 billion at a $20 billion valuation. For a platform seeking institutional capital, the public documentation of a manipulation vulnerability that went unaddressed for months creates a due diligence problem. Institutional investors do not merely evaluate growth metrics. They evaluate integrity infrastructure. The TWAP transition can be read as both a genuine security improvement and a necessary precondition for closing a fundraising round with investors who take market structure risk seriously.

How the manipulation worked The mechanics were straightforward. A trader would accumulate a position on Polymarket’s five minute bitcoin up or down contract. These contracts pay out based on whether bitcoin’s price is above or below a specific threshold at the moment of settlement. The trader would then wait until the final seconds before settlement and place a large order on Binance, the world’s largest spot exchange by volume, to push bitcoin’s price across the strike threshold.

The order did not need to be large enough to sustain a price move. It only needed to last long enough for the settlement snapshot. Once the contract resolved, the manipulator would close the Binance position, often at a small loss, and collect the Polymarket payout. The Binance loss was the cost of doing business. The Polymarket profit was the payoff.

The strategy worked because five minute contracts have thin time horizons. Moving bitcoin’s price by a fraction of a percent for five seconds is expensive but achievable for a well capitalized trader with access to Binance’s spot order book. The study found that the manipulation was concentrated in the final seconds, with unusually large orders appearing just before settlement and rapid price reversals immediately after.

The cost structure made the trade attractive. A trader might lose $5,000 to $20,000 pushing bitcoin’s price on Binance, but collect $50,000 or more from the Polymarket payout. The spot market loss was predictable and bounded. The prediction market gain depended only on whether the price crossed the threshold at the exact moment of settlement. As long as the Polymarket position was large enough relative to the Binance cost, the combined trade was profitable regardless of where bitcoin’s price ended up minutes later.

The researchers noted that the manipulators showed increasing sophistication over the study period. Early instances involved crude large orders that were visible in the order book for several seconds. Later instances used more fragmented order placement, splitting the price push across multiple smaller orders that arrived in rapid succession during the final two to three seconds. This fragmentation made the activity harder to detect in real time, though the statistical signature in the settlement data remained clear.

The paper did not prove that the Binance orders and the Polymarket positions were placed by the same individuals. It could not, because Polymarket operates as a DeFi native platform where traders use pseudonymous wallets. But the statistical patterns were consistent with coordinated activity, and the timing correlations were tight enough for the researchers to classify specific settlement windows as “likely manipulated.”

What the research actually found The study, published on arXiv by researchers from Stanford and Singapore Management University, analyzed roughly two months of five minute bitcoin contracts on Polymarket. The researchers identified 821 accounts whose trading activity was concentrated in windows where the statistical signatures of manipulation were present.

Those accounts collectively made $8.2 million during the study period. The losses came almost entirely from retail traders. After excluding market makers, who are structurally neutral and profit from spreads rather than directional bets, the researchers found that 93 percent of the losses in likely manipulated windows were borne by retail participants.

One finding stood out. In manipulated windows, “a bet the market treated as near certain was overturned one time in three.” This means that contracts priced at 90 percent or higher probability of resolving one way were flipped by last second price movements. For retail traders relying on market pricing as a signal of likelihood, this created a situation where the odds they saw on screen bore little relationship to the odds they actually faced.

The scale of the losses was asymmetric. A retail trader placing a $100 bet on a five minute bitcoin contract that was priced at 90 percent certainty expected to win $10 in profit nine times out of ten. When manipulation flipped the outcome, that trader lost $100. Across hundreds of settlement windows and thousands of participants, these small individual losses aggregated into the $8.2 million figure the researchers documented. No single retail trader lost a fortune. The damage was distributed across a large number of small participants, each of whom had no way to know that the odds they saw on screen had been distorted.

The researchers described the vulnerability as inherent to any event contract that settles on a real time financial price. The specific platform, the specific asset, and the specific contract duration all affect how easy the manipulation is. But the underlying dynamic, that the settlement price can be influenced by trading the referenced asset, applies to any platform using instant price snapshots.

The manipulators exploited a timing asymmetry that exists whenever a financial contract settles on a single price observation. In traditional futures markets, settlement prices are typically calculated from a volume weighted average of trades over a defined window, precisely to prevent the kind of end of period manipulation that Polymarket experienced. The fact that Polymarket launched with a single snapshot mechanism suggests either that the platform’s designers did not anticipate this attack vector or that they accepted the risk as a tradeoff for simpler oracle design. Either way, the result was a settlement system that rewarded traders who could move prices by small amounts for brief periods, a capability that requires modest capital relative to the profits available from correctly positioned prediction market contracts.

JUST IN: Polymarket adopts Chainlink TWAP for short-term crypto markets

Five-minute contracts now settle on a 30-second average price pic.twitter.com/EmC268lyeh

— crypto.news (@cryptodotnews) August 8, 2026 Why it took months to fix The capital efficiency of the attack is what made it particularly difficult to detect through conventional surveillance. Each individual trade was small enough to look like normal market activity. The manipulators did not need to sustain the price movement for more than a few seconds, and the prediction market positions they held to profit from the manipulation were on a separate platform from the spot exchange where they moved prices. This cross platform structure meant that no single exchange could see both sides of the trade. Binance saw small orders that briefly moved bitcoin’s price. Polymarket saw contracts settling at prices that happened to favor certain accounts. Only by correlating the timing of trades across both platforms could the researchers identify the pattern, and that correlation required access to data from both systems and the statistical tools to analyze it. The attack surface existed not in any single platform’s code but in the gap between two platforms that each operated correctly in isolation but whose interaction created an exploitable seam.

Polymarket knew about the problem before the study was published. Onchain analysts raised concerns publicly as early as May 2026. Variance Lover, a pseudonymous analyst, posted an extensive breakdown on May 21 documenting the manipulation mechanism and identifying specific settlement windows where the patterns were visible.

“By now, most people are aware that market manipulation has become a major problem on Polymarket’s five minute crypto markets,” Variance Lover wrote. “The mechanism is simple: accumulate a large position on Polymarket, then move the price on Binance during the settlement window to force the market to resolve in your favor.”

A contributor who goes by the handle Christine on X noted on May 11 that the manipulation was becoming more severe, citing “precise reversals in the last few seconds.” Josh Stevens, a Polymarket developer, responded publicly: “We are looking into this a bit deeper. Do not worry.”

The gap between acknowledgment and action spanned nearly three months. During that time, the manipulation continued. The delay is notable because the fix Polymarket ultimately deployed, replacing a snapshot with a TWAP, is not a novel solution. Time weighted averages have been standard in DeFi oracle design for years. Uniswap V2 introduced TWAP oracles in 2020 specifically to prevent single block price manipulation. The concept was available off the shelf.

Polymarket has not publicly explained why the fix took as long as it did. One possibility is that switching the settlement mechanism required changes to the smart contracts that resolve bets, which need auditing and testing. Another is that the platform was reluctant to change rules midstream for live markets with open positions. A third, less charitable interpretation is that the manipulation generated volume and fees that the platform was not in a hurry to curtail.

The delay had real costs. Variance Lover estimated that manipulation continued throughout June and into July, with increasingly aggressive activity as manipulators learned they could operate without consequences. Several retail traders posted screenshots showing positions that should have been winners based on prevailing market prices but resolved as losers because of last second price spikes. The trust damage was compounding. Each manipulated settlement that went unaddressed made the next complaint louder and the platform’s credibility thinner.

JUST IN: Study finds signs of manipulation in Polymarket Bitcoin prediction markets

Stanford and Singapore Management University researchers identified 821 suspected manipulators who earned 8.2 million dollars pic.twitter.com/CQuLUeX9YO

— crypto.news (@cryptodotnews) July 16, 2026 How Polymarket’s fix compares to Kalshi The fix Polymarket deployed mirrors safeguards that Kalshi, its regulated rival, already had in place. Kalshi resolves its short dated crypto markets using a CF Benchmarks price index, which aggregates prices from multiple regulated exchanges. It then applies a 60 second moving average, making it significantly harder to move the settlement price with a brief burst of trading on a single venue.

Kalshi also operates under CFTC oversight, which gives it enforcement tools that Polymarket lacks. A Kalshi spokesperson told CoinDesk that the platform has conducted 150 to 250 material investigations per quarter and made 40 to 50 referrals to the CFTC so far in 2026. Those figures cover all Kalshi markets, not just short dated crypto contracts, but they illustrate the surveillance infrastructure that comes with operating within a regulatory framework.

The structural difference between the two platforms matters. Kalshi requires identity verification for all traders. Polymarket’s DeFi version does not. When manipulation is detected on Kalshi, the platform can identify the trader, freeze the account, and refer the case to a regulator. When manipulation is detected on Polymarket, the platform can identify a wallet address but cannot easily connect it to a person.

Polymarket does operate a US regulated version under CFTC oversight, but its integrity and surveillance infrastructure has been developed largely in response to external pressure rather than as a foundational design choice. The company is reportedly seeking a $1 billion raise at a $20 billion valuation, and the manipulation episode highlights the tension between growing rapidly as a DeFi protocol and building the compliance infrastructure that institutional capital typically requires.

Polymarket faces manipulation allegations as $58M Zelenskyy suit bet nears resolution

Polymarket’s $58M Zelenskyy suit bet nears resolution as $UMA voters dispute media consensus, sparking manipulation claims and credibility concerns.

— crypto.news (@cryptodotnews) July 4, 2025 What the exploit reveals about prediction market design The comparison between Polymarket and Kalshi illuminates a broader tension in prediction market design between decentralization and market integrity. Kalshi operates as a CFTC regulated exchange with centralized order matching, surveillance systems, and the ability to cancel trades that result from manipulation. Polymarket operates on Polygon with smart contract settlement that is transparent but largely automated. The transparency means that manipulation is visible to anyone who examines the blockchain, which is how the Stanford researchers identified the 821 accounts. But visibility is not the same as prevention. A centralized exchange can intervene in real time when it detects suspicious activity. A decentralized protocol must design its settlement rules to be manipulation resistant from the start, because retroactive intervention contradicts the trustless execution model that gives blockchain based markets their appeal.

The Polymarket manipulation exposed a broader design tension in prediction markets that settle on financial prices. These markets sit at the intersection of two trading systems: the prediction platform where bets are placed and the spot market where the referenced price is determined. When the two systems are connected but not coordinated, the cheaper market becomes a tool for profiting from the more expensive one.

In this case, moving bitcoin’s price on Binance for a few seconds cost less than the Polymarket payout it generated. The arbitrage was negative in the spot market and positive in the prediction market, creating a combined trade that was profitable as long as the settlement mechanism allowed it.

This is not a problem unique to Polymarket or even to prediction markets. It is a variant of the same cross venue manipulation that regulators have spent decades combating in traditional finance. The SEC’s Regulation SHO, the CFTC’s anti manipulation rules, and the EU’s Market Abuse Regulation all address scenarios where trading in one market is used to influence outcomes in another. The difference is that those frameworks assume centralized, identity verified markets with shared surveillance feeds. The prediction market version plays out across pseudonymous DeFi platforms and centralized exchanges in different jurisdictions.

The TWAP fix addresses the most obvious attack vector by making brief price spikes less effective. But it does not eliminate the underlying vulnerability. A well capitalized manipulator who can sustain a price move for 30 or 60 seconds rather than five can still influence settlement under a TWAP system. The cost is higher, but the attack is not impossible. The question is whether the increased cost makes the manipulation unprofitable, and that depends on the depth of the liquidity in the referenced market and the size of the positions available on the prediction platform.

The economics of the manipulation also raise questions about market depth. The reason five second price pushes were possible on Binance is that bitcoin’s order book, despite being the deepest in crypto, still has moments of relative thinness. During periods of lower activity, particularly around the clock during Asian or European off hours, the cost of moving bitcoin’s price by a fraction of a percent drops significantly. The manipulators timed their activity to coincide with these low liquidity windows, compounding the settlement vulnerability with a liquidity vulnerability. A TWAP reduces one problem but does not address the other.

As regulatory frameworks for prediction markets continue to develop, the settlement mechanism question will become more prominent. Platforms that want to offer contracts on financial prices will need to either use regulated price feeds, implement robust TWAP mechanisms, or accept that their markets will remain vulnerable to the same class of manipulation that Polymarket just addressed.

What to watch Manipulation patterns after the TWAP transition. The 30 second and 60 second TWAP windows raise the cost of manipulation but do not eliminate it. Watch for evidence of sustained price pushes that last longer than the averaging window, which would indicate that manipulators are adapting to the new settlement rules.

Polymarket volume changes on short dated crypto markets. If volume declines significantly after the transition, it may indicate that a portion of the trading activity was driven by manipulators rather than genuine prediction market demand. A volume drop would validate the concern that the platform’s growth was partly artificial.

Regulatory response from the CFTC. The study provides a public, peer reviewed record of manipulation on a platform that overlaps with CFTC jurisdiction. Watch for formal inquiries, enforcement actions, or rulemaking proposals that address cross venue manipulation between prediction markets and spot exchanges.

Chainlink Data Streams performance. The TWAP mechanism depends on Chainlink for price data delivery. Any latency issues, outages, or oracle manipulation attempts would expose a new attack surface. The reliability of the data feed is now a critical dependency for Polymarket’s market integrity.

Kalshi and Polymarket competition for institutional capital. The manipulation episode and subsequent fix narrow the structural gap between the two platforms. Watch for whether Polymarket’s $1 billion fundraising effort is affected by the integrity concerns or whether the fix is treated as sufficient by prospective investors.

Copycat manipulation on other DeFi prediction platforms. The settlement vulnerability that Polymarket’s TWAP fix addresses exists on any platform that uses instant price snapshots. Smaller prediction market protocols with less liquidity and less sophisticated monitoring are potentially even more vulnerable. Watch for reports of similar manipulation patterns on competing platforms that have not yet adopted TWAP settlement.

Academic follow up research on TWAP effectiveness. The Stanford and Singapore Management University researchers documented the pre-fix manipulation in detail. A follow up study measuring whether manipulation persists or adapts under the TWAP regime would provide the first empirical test of whether the fix works in practice, not just in theory. The research community’s engagement with this question will shape regulatory confidence in TWAP as a sufficient safeguard.

Frequently asked questions What happened on Polymarket with the five second exploit? Traders accumulated positions on Polymarket’s five minute bitcoin contracts and then placed large orders on Binance in the final seconds before settlement to move bitcoin’s price across the contract’s strike threshold. The contract would resolve in the manipulator’s favor, and the price would revert immediately after settlement. Researchers identified 821 accounts that made $8.2 million using this pattern.

How did researchers discover the manipulation? Researchers from Stanford University and Singapore Management University analyzed roughly two months of five minute bitcoin contracts on Polymarket. They found statistically significant correlations between unusually large Binance orders in the seconds before settlement and rapid price reversals after settlement. The study was published on arXiv.

Who lost money from the Polymarket exploit? Excluding market makers, 93 percent of the losses in settlement windows classified as likely manipulated fell on retail traders. These were users who placed bets on five minute bitcoin contracts and lost when last second price movements changed the contract outcome.

What is a TWAP and how does it prevent manipulation? A time weighted average price, or TWAP, averages the price over a window of time rather than using a single instant snapshot. Polymarket now uses a 30 second average for five minute markets and a 60 second average for 15 minute and four hour markets. This makes it more expensive to manipulate settlement because the attacker must sustain the price distortion for the entire averaging window rather than just a single moment.

Does Kalshi have the same problem? Kalshi uses a regulated CF Benchmarks price index with a 60 second moving average and requires identity verification for all traders. A Kalshi spokesperson told CoinDesk that these safeguards make brief price manipulation u0022significantly harder and more expensive.u0022 However, a Kalshi user disputed this, claiming to have witnessed similar issues on the platform.

Is the TWAP fix enough to prevent future manipulation? The TWAP raises the cost of manipulation but does not eliminate the underlying vulnerability. A well capitalized trader who can sustain a price movement for the full averaging window can still influence settlement. The fix is a significant improvement over instant snapshots but not a complete solution.

Why did Polymarket take three months to fix the problem? Polymarket has not publicly explained the delay. Possible factors include the need to audit and test smart contract changes, reluctance to change rules on live markets with open positions, and the complexity of integrating Chainlink Data Streams as a price oracle. Onchain analysts raised concerns publicly starting in May 2026.

Can this type of manipulation happen on other prediction market platforms? Yes. The vulnerability is structural to any event contract that settles on a real time financial price using an instant snapshot. Any platform, whether DeFi native or regulated, that uses single point price resolution is theoretically vulnerable. The difference is the cost of the attack and the surveillance infrastructure available to detect it. This is educational analysis, not investment advice.u003cemu003eDisclaimer: This article is for informational purposes only and does not constitute financial, investment, or legal advice. Cryptocurrency markets carry significant risk. Always conduct independent research before making investment decisions. Information is current as of August 8, 2026.u003c/emu003e

Bitcoin BIP Editor Mark “Murch” Erhardt called for Luke Dashjr’s removal from the editorial team on Aug. 9, escalating a dispute over Dashjr’s handling of BIP110 and the proposal’s recent chain split. 

Summary

Murch proposed removing Luke Dashjr as BIP Editor, alleging procedural favoritism involving the contentious BIP110. Dashjr rejected the allegations, calling them false and arguing he consistently followed established BIP procedures. Several Bitcoin contributors backed removal, while others urged clearer procedures before changing Dashjr’s editorial access. BIP110’s enforcing branch stalled after two blocks while Bitcoin’s dominant chain continued advancing without support. BIP3 still lists Dashjr among six editors and provides no explicit procedure for removing one. Murch posted the motion to the Bitcoin Development Mailing List and then opened GitHub pull request 2248 as a proposed implementation.

Dashjr rejected the allegations less than an hour after Murch’s mailing list post. As of Aug. 10, the removal PR remained open, while the current BIP3 document continued to list Dashjr alongside five other BIP Editors. No removal has taken place.

Murch ties the removal motion to BIP110’s editorial process Murch alleged that Dashjr exercised his editorial authority inconsistently while being closely involved with BIP110. He cited an attempt to assign the proposal a BIP number publicly before mailing list discussion and a later merge completed within minutes of a related pull request opening. Murch also claimed Dashjr produced fewer than 1% of BIP Editor comments after additional editors began serving in April 2024.

Since it will likely land here on Twitter soon anyway:
I have recommended the removal of Luke Dashjr from the BIP Editors to the mailing list. pic.twitter.com/95TfZoccIN

— Murch (@murchandamus) August 9, 2026 The current BIP3 process says authors should present an idea and draft to the Bitcoin Development Mailing List before formal submission. Editors then check that the proposal received prior discussion, assign a BIP number in the pull request and merge it when ready. The document describes the position as administrative and editorial and says editors do not decide whether a proposal is likely to gain adoption.

Murch also alleged that communication between Dashjr and the other editors had broken down. He framed the matter as a conflict between Dashjr’s editorial responsibilities and his involvement in advancing BIP110. Those are Murch’s allegations, rather than findings from a formal Bitcoin governing body.

Dashjr denies claims as contributors debate removal Dashjr disputed Murch’s account. “These are false accusations,” he wrote, adding that he had consistently followed the BIP process. Dashjr also challenged Murch’s account of their communication breakdown and argued that Murch should instead lose his editor position.

Other contributors backed the removal request. Bitcoin developer Matt Corallo supported removing Dashjr, while fellow BIP Editor Olaoluwa Osuntokun formally seconded Murch’s motion. Osuntokun said his support centered on what he viewed as bypassing editorial procedures rather than punishing a developer for advocating a controversial proposal.

However, the discussion also exposed a procedural gap. Jameson Lopp said there was no formal governance structure covering management of BIP Editors. Antoine Riard supported Dashjr stepping aside, potentially temporarily, but argued that contributors should allow time for a public response and establish clearer procedures before resolving the dispute.

BIP110 chain split adds pressure to the editor dispute The dispute follows BIP110 entering mandatory signaling at block 961,632 on Aug. 8. Only 51 of the previous 2,016 blocks, or 2.53%, had signaled support. As crypto.news reported in coverage of the mandatory signaling split, enforcing nodes created a minority branch that produced two blocks before stalling.

A later snapshot covered in the branch’s widening gap showed the dominant Bitcoin chain 111 blocks ahead, with no BIP110 signals among its first 113 blocks of the new difficulty period. BIP110 itself is a temporary consensus proposal intended to restrict certain forms of arbitrary transaction data.

Murch said the project “appears to evolve into a hard fork,” but that description should not be treated as a confirmed next step. Experimental proof of work change code exists, but its maintainer Chris Guida has described it as contingency code and said no activation date has been set. Earlier coverage of Dashjr’s backing also documented his support for the proposal amid opposition from other Bitcoin participants.

What happens next for Dashjr and BIP110 The immediate issue is pull request 2248. It remains open and currently proposes removing Dashjr from BIP3’s list of editors. BIP3 still names six editors, including Dashjr, and describes the BIPs repository as a publication and archive rather than a governing body that decides Bitcoin development or adoption.

A second open proposal is addressing BIP110 itself. Pull request 2245 seeks to change its status from Complete through Deployed to Closed following the stalled activation attempt. The discussion remains unresolved, and the live BIP110 specification still labels the proposal Complete.

The two open requests now leave Bitcoin contributors with separate questions: whether BIP110 should be formally closed and whether Dashjr should retain editorial access. There is currently no published deadline for resolving the removal motion, and the mailing list discussion has not produced a formal decision.

A dormant Bitcoin address inactive for over 12 years has transferred out all 26.95 BTC, posting an unrealized profit of $1.73 million.

According to on-chain data, a Bitcoin whale dormant for over 12 years has reactivated. The whale accumulated 26.95 BTC when Bitcoin’s price stood at just $823.1. At 15:03:02 Beijing time today, the wallet address transferred out all 26.95 BTC, posting an unrealized profit of $1.73 million.

2 minutes ago

Robinhood launches cryptocurrency trading services for UK investors

According to an official announcement, Robinhood has launched cryptocurrency trading services for eligible customers in the UK. Users can trade over 50 digital assets directly within its main investment app via Bitstamp, the established trading platform it acquired last year for $200 million. The rollout kicked off this week, integrating crypto into its existing offerings of stocks, stock ISAs, options, and futures, all within a single app. Robinhood noted that the service will waive trading fees, account maintenance fees, and custody fees upon launch. However, UK customers will be charged a 0.1% foreign exchange fee, which rises to 0.3% for some weekend conversions.

2 minutes ago

SK Hynix responds to rumors of considering selling its Chongqing plant: No decisions have been made yet.

SK Hynix has issued a statement addressing market rumors that it is selling its Chongqing, China factory valued at 4 trillion won, stating that the company is studying multiple plans to enhance the competitiveness of its packaging business. No specific decisions have been made as of yet, the firm added, noting that should relevant matters be finalized in the future, it will make a further disclosure within one month of the confirmation date. (Source: Jiemian)

2 minutes ago

Industry analysts project that the cost of the iPhone 18 Pro will surge by nearly 40%, and Apple may adjust its gross margin strategy to ensure stable shipments.

According to TrendForce's latest mobile industry research, rising prices of components led by memory chips have pushed up the overall production cost of Apple's upcoming iPhone 18 series. The research firm estimates that the production cost of the 256GB iPhone 18 Pro in the third quarter will be roughly 38% higher than that of the same model launched in the same period in 2025. In 2027, as memory prices are projected to stay on an upward trajectory, the cost increase for the 256GB iPhone 18 Pro may expand further.

2 minutes ago

JPMorgan Chase: Still Bullish on Global Stock Markets, Cyclical Stocks to Lead the Rally

JPMorgan strategists remain bullish on global equities, expecting the rally to broaden in the second half of the year. As corporate earnings and economic activity metrics improve, cyclical stocks are poised to regain leadership and outperform low-volatility shares. The team led by Mislav Matejka wrote in a report that indices will hit new highs in the second half, adding that positioning is far from extreme and the Q2 earnings season has been reassuring. Within cyclical sectors, they focus on banks, luxury goods, construction materials, mining, industrials and cyclical consumer industries, while favoring emerging markets and the eurozone.

2 minutes ago

Elliott Alexander, a member of the Ethereum Foundation, has joined BitPay after being laid off.

Former member of the Ethereum Foundation’s Developer Growth Team, Elliott Alexander, announced in a post that he was recently laid off by the Ethereum Foundation and has now joined crypto payment firm BitPay.

2 minutes ago

The firm said whale accumulation near realized prices aligns with the late stage of a bear market.

Large Bitcoin, Ether, and XRP holders continued accumulating during recent market weakness, analytics firm CryptoQuant said.

The firm’s weekly report, Buying the Bear: A Signal of the Bear Market’s Final Stage, examined the recent accumulation by the largest wallets. It said the steady buying reflects behavior often seen during the closing phase of a bear market.

Whales Accumulate Bitcoin, Ethereum, and XRP For Bitcoin, wallets linked to major holders, excluding exchanges and miners, expanded their combined balance to about 3.06 million BTC this year. Buying accelerated after Bitcoin fell below $60,000 in June, though holdings remain below the 2025 cycle peak.

Ethereum showed an even stronger accumulation trend among its largest holders. Wallets holding between 10,000 and 100,000 ETH reached a record of 19.6 million ETH. Addresses with more than 100,000 ETH have added about 1.8 million ETH since mid-2025, lifting their holdings by roughly 70%.

The accumulation trend contrasted with activity among smaller Ethereum holders. CryptoQuant noted that wallets outside the largest groups reduced their combined balance by about 2.7 million ETH since January, showing a growing divide between large and smaller holders.

A similar shift was also visible in XRP, where large holders continued increasing their positions despite fears and liquidations.

Realized Prices Point to Late Bear Market Conditions The recent accumulation comes as all three assets trade near key realized price levels. Realized price is widely used to assess market cycles because it estimates the average acquisition cost of holders.

You may also like: Wall Street Tightens Grip on Crypto as Institutions Now Drive 72% of Spot Flow: Report Ripple (XRP) ETFs Record Another Green Week but Fresh Concerns Surface We Asked ChatGPT: Is XRP Doomed to Fall Below $1 After the CLARITY Act Delay? Bitcoin was trading around $65,000 compared with a realized price of roughly $52,900, while Ether changed hands near $1,920 against a realized price of about $2,450. XRP traded near $1.04 with a realized price of approximately $0.75, levels the firm described as consistent with late-stage bear market conditions.

According to CryptoQuant, the combination of whale accumulation and prices trading near realized values is consistent with the closing phase of a bear market. The firm added that further downside remains possible before a market bottom is confirmed.

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A crypto analytics firm says large investors are boosting their stakes in Bitcoin, Ethereum and XRP, hinting that the prolonged market downturn could soon be over.

CryptoQuant’s new report, “Buying the Bear: A Signal of the Bear Market’s Final Stage” examines the recent accumulation by the largest wallets.

The firm says whales have stepped up positions across the key crypto assets, displaying buying activity that often marks the final phase of a bear market.

“Smart money is positioning across the majors.

Bitcoin whales are accumulating. Bitcoin whale holdings (excluding exchanges and mining pools) have risen through 2026 to roughly 3.06M BTC, with whales adding aggressively as price dipped below $60K in June — though still below the 2025 bull-cycle peak near 3.23M.

XRP whales are quietly positioning. Spot order sizes remain in “big whale” territory while price holds the $1.0–$1.2 range, yet 90-day taker CVD sits in a neutral phase — accumulation by absorption rather than aggressive market buying.

Large ETH holders are accumulating the bear market. The 10k–100k balance cohort has climbed to record highs near 19.6M ETH and the 100k+ balance mega-whales have added roughly 1.8M ETH since mid-2025 (about +70%), even as the smaller 1k–10k cohort keeps distributing — down ~2.7M ETH since January. Valuations are approaching the undervalued zone across the board. Bitcoin (~$64K) and XRP (~$1.1) trade near their realized prices ($52.9K and ~$0.75), while ETH (~$1,900) trades below its realized price of ~$2,450, near the lower band — historically late-bear-market zones.”

Although the firm believes the risk-reward in crypto markets has improved markedly, CryptoQuant warns further downside is always possible before a confirmed floor is reached.

Leading cryptocurrencies fell alongside stock futures on Sunday evening as investors weighed U.S.-Iran diplomatic efforts to reach a peace agreement.

Cryptocurrency24-Hour Gains +/-Price (Recorded at 9:22 p.m. EDT)Bitcoin (CRYPTO: BTC)+0.10%$64,979.73
Ethereum (CRYPTO: ETH)
               -0.10%$1,914.85XRP (CRYPTO: XRP)                         -0.52%$1.03Solana (CRYPTO: SOL)                         +1.17%$76.72Dogecoin (CRYPTO: DOGE)             -0.70%$0.06974Crypto Market LagsBitcoin spiked to $65,400 late evening, only to sharply retreat below $65,000, while trading volume jumped 11% over the last 24 hours.

Ethereum followed a similar trajectory, rallying to an intraday high of $1,935.53, but failing to push beyond that level. XRP and Dogecoin traded lower.

Senate Majority Leader John Thune filed to advance the CLARITY Act, setting up a key vote for the cryptocurrency legislation when the Senate returns from its August recess in September.

Over $160 million was liquidated from the cryptocurrency market in the last 24 hours, with $113 million in bearish short positions erased, according to Coinglass data

Bitcoin’s open interest rose 0.53% over the last 24 hours. Meanwhile, retail and whale derivatives traders on Binance remained net long on the apex cryptocurrency

“Fear” sentiment prevailed in the market, according to the Crypto Fear & Greed Index.

Top Gainers (24 Hours) 

Cryptocurrency (Market Cap>$100 M)Gains +/-Price (Recorded at 9:22 p.m. EDT)Tutorial (TUT)      +60.36%    $0.1908Ribbita by Virtuals (TIBBIR)                   +19.08%    $0.1188Pump.fun (PUMP)              +13.86%    $0.002759The global cryptocurrency market capitalization stood at $2.21 trillion, following a 0.10% dip over the last 24 hours.

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Stocks Futures SlipStock futures ticked lower overnight on Sunday. The Dow Jones Industrial Average Futures fell 86 points, or 0.16%, as of 9:06 p.m. EDT.  Futures tied to the S&P 500 dipped 0.07%, while Nasdaq 100 Futures lost 0.05%.

Iran said a deal on the Strait of Hormuz was in its “final stages,” but Tehran reiterated that the critical shipping would not reopen unless the U.S. honors the June interim deal.

President Donald Trump said earlier on Sunday that the U.S. is “only semi-negotiating” with Iran.

BTC’s Critical LevelMichaël van de Poppe, a widely followed cryptocurrency analyst and trader, identified $65,800 as a “critical level,” a breakout above which could spark a “volatile move” upward, targeting $73,700 initially and $82,900 as a higher objective.

Ardi, another chartist and cryptocurrency trader, projected Bitcoin’s next cycle peak between $184,000 and $230,000, if $57,000 holds as the cycle floor

“If Bitcoin’s diminishing-return structure remains intact, this is where the next bull market would most logically reach its peak,” the trader added.

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2 hrs ago

2 min read

Bitcoin tops $65,000 with US inflation data due this week. (stevepb/Unsplash)Summary

Bitcoin climbed above $65,000, gaining nearly 3 percent over the week, as a weak U.S. jobs report eased fears of further Federal Reserve rate hikes ahead of key inflation data on Wednesday.Major cryptocurrencies mostly advanced, with ether, BNB and Solana posting weekly gains while XRP lagged as the only large token in the red over both the day and the week.Global equities and chipmakers extended recent rallies, oil prices rose on renewed Middle East tensions, and U.S. Treasury yields and the dollar firmed, even as bitcoin weathered recent technical setbacks in its own ecosystem.The upcoming U.S. consumer price report is seen as the next major test for bitcoin, with a hotter inflation reading likely to revive expectations for higher interest rates and pressure the cryptocurrency.Bitcoin rose above $65,000 on Monday, up nearly 3% over the week, with July inflation data due Wednesday at 8:30 a.m. ET after Friday's weak jobs report eased worries the Federal Reserve would need to raise rates.

Ether traded near $1,919 and is also up almost 3% on the week. BNB gained 0.3% to $603 and matched that weekly move. Solana was the strongest major, up 1% on the day to nearly $77 and almost 5% over seven days. Tron held at 33 cents.

XRP was the only major in the red on both views, slipping 0.4% to $1.03 and down 4% on the week. Hyperliquid's HYPE fell over 1% to $54 but remains up over 3% on the week, and dogecoin eased to under 7 cents.

Equities set the tone. The MSCI All Country World Index rose 0.1%, its seventh gain in eight sessions, with the Asian gauge up 0.6% after Friday's soft jobs report sent the S&P 500 to a record.

Chipmakers led, with a regional semiconductor gauge rallying more than 1.5% on gains at Taiwan Semiconductor and SK Hynix.

Oil went the other way. Brent rose 1% to $84.40 a barrel, extending a gain of more than 5% over three sessions, after Iran rejected talks with the U.S. and a deal to reopen the Strait of Hormuz stayed out of reach. Treasuries gave back some of Friday's rally, with the 10-year yield up a basis point to 4.66%, and the dollar strengthened against most major currencies.

As such, bitcoin has managed this without much help from its own corner. A fourth wave of sweeps against Coldcard-generated wallets, a critical flaw in BTCPay Server that drained merchant Lightning nodes on Friday, and a chain split over BIP-110 that produced two blocks and stalled have all landed in the past ten days.

U.S. consumer price data is the next test. Friday's jobs number did the work for bitcoin, and an inflation reading that revives the case for higher rates would take it back.

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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.

PANews reported on August 10, according to SoSoValue data, the crypto market sectors showed a slight overall upward trend, with Bitcoin (BTC) up 0.57%, breaking through $65,000; Ethereum (ETH) up 0.48%, breaking through $1,900. The Meme sector performed outstandingly, up 0.36% in 24 hours, with Tutorial (TUT) up 52.38%, Pump.fun (PUMP) up 11.39%, Pepe (PEPE) and FLOKI up 2.47% and 2.81% respectively.

In other sectors, the Layer1 sector rose 0.27% in 24 hours, with Solana (SOL) up 1.44%; the PayFi sector rose 0.25%, with Monero (XMR) up 3.80%; the CeFi sector rose 0.14%, with Aster (ASTER) up 1.59%; the Layer2 sector fell 0.23%, with zkSync (ZK) up 2.41%; the DeFi sector fell 0.91%, with Curve DAO (CRV) up 6.39%;

Additionally, the AI sector fell 1.76%, but Worldcoin (WLD) rose 6.61%; the GameFi sector fell 3.97%, within the sector, Audiera (BEAT) fell 6.65%, WEMIX fell 3.08%.

Crypto sector indices reflecting historical sector performance show that the ssiNFT, ssiMeme, and ssiAI indices rose 2.85%, 0.63%, and 0.60% respectively.

Strategy CEO Phong Le published a post stating that Bitcoin has once again demonstrated resilience, even amid Strategy’s sell-off, security threats, stalled Senate legislation, and a soft fork.

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Iran's Parliamentary National Security and Foreign Policy Commission Approves Strait of Hormuz Security Framework

According to Iran's Mehr News Agency, the National Security and Foreign Policy Commission of Iran's parliament has approved the outline of the strategic action plan to ensure the security and development of the Strait of Hormuz. (Xinhua News Agency)

7 hours ago

Analysts: Bitcoin faces resistance at the $67,000 and $72,000 cost levels, with potential selling pressure.

CryptoQuant analyst ShayanMarkets noted that Bitcoin’s realized price UTXO time intervals show investors who have held BTC for 1 to 3 months and 3 to 6 months have average cost bases of approximately $67,000 and $72,000 respectively. Both figures are currently higher than BTC’s spot price of around $65,000, meaning these two groups of holders are collectively in unrealized loss. The $67,000 cost line for 1-3 month holders is closer to the current price. If Bitcoin continues its rebound, these loss-making holders may reduce their positions once the price approaches their cost basis, creating resistance at this level. The $72,000 cost line for 3-6 month holders forms a higher resistance level. If Bitcoin can reclaim both of these realized price levels, it would signal that the market is absorbing potential sell orders from recent buyers and strengthen the outlook for a market recovery. Until then, Bitcoin still faces significant resistance on the upside.

7 hours ago

PUMP surges over 15% in 24 hours, currently trading at $0.0027.

According to HTX market data, PUMP has surged over 15% in the past 24 hours, currently trading at $0.0027.

7 hours ago

Cathie Wood: Bitcoin and stablecoins may emerge as two major beneficiaries of the commercial transformation of smart agents

Cathie Wood, widely known as "Wood" (her Chinese nickname "木头姐"), believes the latest U.S. jobs report may appear concerning on the surface, but the actual situation is not as bad as it seems. The real focus should be on the economic shifts behind the employment data. The U.S. federal deficit currently stands at 5.6% of GDP, a level she notes is similar to that in the early 1980s at the start of Reaganomics. If productivity and technology adoption continue to accelerate as ARK Invest expects, this ratio could approach 5% by year-end. She added that the bigger risk ahead may not be inflation, but deflation—especially for companies that fail to adopt AI and productivity tools. On oil, a supply glut is forming: after the UAE exited OPEC in May, its production hit an all-time high. Cathie Wood forecasts oil prices could drop sharply, viewing this as a deflationary driver for most of the world. Meanwhile, capital expenditure has broken out of its 30-year range. She argues that market fears of an AI bubble are overblown, as the technology remains in the early stages of its revolution. On crypto assets, Cathie Wood says Bitcoin’s performance relative to gold is stabilizing again, and she believes Bitcoin and stablecoins could be two major beneficiaries of the commercial transformation of AI agents.

7 hours ago

US officials stated that Trump is handling the Iran deadlock patiently, with a primary focus on ensuring navigation through the strait.

According to The Wall Street Journal, U.S. officials said Trump is patient and expected to weather the current diplomatic impasse, especially with gasoline prices holding steady. A White House official insisted that the U.S. has completed all military targets against Iran. Trump’s current focus is on ensuring unimpeded global energy transit through the Strait of Hormuz, and the U.S. will retain military options if Iran launches further attacks on ships. On the nuclear issue, officials added that Trump has privately told senior aides in recent weeks that the U.S. military destroyed three major Iranian nuclear facilities last year, making it highly unlikely Iran will restart its nuclear activities during his tenure. Trump said in recent meetings that if Iran attempts to rebuild nuclear facilities or secretly develop nuclear weapons, U.S. intelligence agencies will detect it in a timely manner, and he believes the threat of further U.S. strikes will serve as a lasting deterrent. Officials said that if the U.S. can contain Iran’s nuclear program and the Strait returns to unimpeded navigation, Trump is more likely to extend the current ceasefire indefinitely. If Iran fully reopens the Strait, Trump is also expected to lift the U.S. military blockade on Iranian ports. (Jinshi)

7 hours ago

July’s CPI is expected to edge slightly lower, with Citigroup and Bank of America holding differing views on the outlook for a September interest rate hike.

Economists surveyed by Reuters expect the U.S. headline CPI annual rate to fall to 3.4% in July from 3.5% in June, while the core CPI annual rate will drop to 2.5% from 2.6% last month. Citigroup economists argue that, as anticipated, if inflation readings soften for the second consecutive month, it will signal more than one month of cooling inflationary pressures, effectively ruling out the possibility of a September interest rate hike. However, economists also forecast that core services inflation in July will rise slightly, with prices increasing 0.3% month-on-month, after being flat from May to June. Bank of America analysts note that the rebound in the core services metric could keep a September rate hike on the table. Analyst Kate Duguid said that if the latter view prevails and inflation data comes in below expectations, the Federal Reserve may delay a rate hike until December or later. (Jin10)

7 hours ago

An employee at a Shenzhen technology company has been sentenced to three years and three months in prison after stealing proprietary R&D data and attempting to extort his own employer by pretending to be a foreign hacker. The ransom demand: 0.88 BTC, an additional 0.8 BTC, and 90,000 USDT, which prosecutors valued at over 630,000 RMB, roughly $87,000 to $88,000.

The company didn’t pay. Instead, it called the police. And the employee, identified only as Jia, learned the hard way that disguising yourself as an overseas threat actor is significantly harder when you’re logging in from the same office network.

Inside the scheme Jia’s plan was straightforward in concept if not in execution. With access to his employer’s sensitive research and development files, he exfiltrated data and then sent ransom demands via email, styling himself as a foreign cybercriminal to throw investigators off the trail.

Jia’s motivation wasn’t ideological or even particularly sophisticated. According to court findings, he had accumulated significant debts from online lending platforms. Drowning in repayment obligations, he decided to monetize the one asset he had easy access to: his employer’s intellectual property.

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The company’s refusal to engage with the demands proved critical. No payment was ever made, no data was released to third parties, and law enforcement was able to trace the extortion attempts back to Jia. He was subsequently arrested, charged, and convicted.

Beyond the prison sentence, the court imposed a fine of 10,000 RMB.

Why the legal reasoning matters more than the crime In its ruling, made public in August 2026, the Shenzhen court explicitly recognized both Bitcoin and USDT (Tether’s dollar-pegged stablecoin) as virtual assets possessing property value. This distinction is crucial in a country where cryptocurrency trading has been effectively banned since 2021 and digital tokens are explicitly not classified as legal tender.

The court threaded a legal needle. It acknowledged that while Bitcoin and USDT don’t function as currency under Chinese law, they carry sufficient economic significance to serve as the basis for extortion charges. In practical terms, demanding crypto as ransom is legally equivalent to demanding cash or physical goods of comparable value.

For prosecutors to secure an extortion conviction, they needed to establish that the demands had quantifiable monetary value. By valuing the combined crypto demands at over 630,000 RMB, the court created a framework that treats digital assets as property even within a jurisdiction that has otherwise tried to squeeze crypto out of its financial system.

Chinese media coverage has flagged this ruling as a potential turning point for how courts handle cases involving digital assets, with implications for market liquidity and the perceived role of Bitcoin as an asset hedge.

China’s complicated relationship with crypto China’s stance on cryptocurrency has been one of the more dramatic regulatory arcs in the industry’s short history. The country was once home to the majority of Bitcoin mining operations globally and hosted some of the world’s largest crypto exchanges. In 2017, China banned initial coin offerings. In 2021, regulators declared all cryptocurrency transactions illegal and ordered miners to shut down operations, triggering a massive migration of hash power to the US, Kazakhstan, and other jurisdictions.

Yet throughout these bans, Chinese courts have periodically been forced to grapple with crypto’s existence in legal disputes. Property ownership cases, fraud proceedings, and now extortion charges have all required judges to assign some form of legal status to tokens that the government officially discourages citizens from holding.

Implications for digital asset recognition For companies operating in China’s tech sector, the case serves as a reminder that insider threats remain one of the most persistent cybersecurity risks. Jia had legitimate access to the data he stole. No zero-day exploit was needed, no supply chain compromise, just a financially stressed employee with database credentials and a cryptocurrency wallet address. The fact that his employer refused to pay and immediately reported the incident resulted in both a criminal conviction and the preservation of the company’s data.

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

Rob Hamilton was in the middle of something genuinely useful. The AnchorWatch CEO had assembled a volunteer “Bitcoin Red Team” to run AI-powered security audits on open-source Bitcoin repositories, and the results were piling up fast. Then OpenAI pulled the plug.

On August 9, 2026, Hamilton publicly disclosed that OpenAI’s “trust cyber program” had blocked him from continuing his analysis on a codebase that had already been responsibly disclosed. This happened despite Hamilton having completed the platform’s onboarding and KYC processes. The fix was straightforward, if ironic: he switched to Chinese open-source models.

What the Red Team actually found The Bitcoin Red Team wasn’t a vanity project. It was a direct response to a serious incident: a late-July 2026 vulnerability disclosure involving Coldcard hardware wallets that exposed a flaw leading to the theft of more than 1,000 BTC.

Hamilton, alongside developer Calle and roughly 16 other volunteers, decided to take a systematic approach. Using cutting-edge AI models, the team set out to scan as many open-source Bitcoin-related repositories as they could, as quickly as possible.

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The pace was remarkable. In the first 30 hours alone, the Red Team scanned over 390 repositories and recorded 4,962 findings. Of those, 85 were categorized as critical and more than 635 as high-severity. The reproduction rate sat at roughly 21%, meaning about one in five flagged issues could be independently verified as real vulnerabilities.

Total AI compute spending for the project landed somewhere between $20,000 and $40,000. The team used a mix of models including Kimi K3 from Moonshot AI (which did most of the heavy lifting), GPT Sol with OpenAI’s Cyber Harness, Anthropic’s Claude Fable and Opus, and GLM 5.2.

The findings were privately disclosed to repository maintainers, following standard responsible disclosure practices.

The access problem OpenAI wasn’t the only platform to push back. Anthropic also imposed access restrictions in the early stages of the project. Both companies had already put Hamilton through their verification processes. He’d done the paperwork. He’d been approved. And then his access was revoked anyway.

Hamilton described the OpenAI blockage as a policy “local minima,” a term borrowed from optimization theory that essentially means the system found a comfortable resting point that isn’t actually the best outcome. He tagged US officials in his public disclosure to highlight the regulatory challenges that compliant researchers face when trying to use American AI tools for legitimate security work.

The practical result was a migration to Kimi K3, a model developed by Chinese AI company Moonshot AI. The team found it less restrictive for their purposes. That’s a sentence worth sitting with for a moment: US-based security researchers, working to protect Bitcoin infrastructure, were pushed toward Chinese AI models because American platforms wouldn’t let them do the work.

After the project gained visibility and public attention, OpenAI reportedly allowed some access again.

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

A $13.5 Billion Berkshire Hathaway Mystery: What Is Greg Abel Buying Beyond Alphabet?

Bitcoin [BTC] has extended its decline, with the asset struggling once again to clear the $65,000 psychological threshold after another failed run at the level.

Even as some optimism builds around the prospect of Bitcoin gearing up for a much broader rally, analyst Joao Wedson has warned that the risk of a deeper decline remains firmly in place.

Wedson pointed to the liquidation levels below $57,000 as a major concern, arguing the unliquidated longs stacked there could trigger a massive liquidation event and force Bitcoin lower.

Source: alphractal He noted a similar pattern in 2022, when the price plunged one final time before finding its bottom, a sequence he expects could repeat for Bitcoin. Even while flagging those concerns, Wedson maintained the market still holds opportunity for investors.

If another large liquidation event comes, it could create one of the most interesting opportunities to position.

He explained these types of liquidation events have historically marked some of the best places to accumulate an asset, given the strong odds of a subsequent market rebound.

Bitcoin demand stays weak Demand for Bitcoin does not yet look strong enough to support a bullish rally, with accumulation staying thin over an extended stretch.

The spot market netflow shows buying over the past 30 days has run well below what a bullish market, one driven by heightened accumulation, would typically produce.

Bitcoin’s spot netflow recorded -$412 million, marking net accumulation as coins left exchanges, though the figure stays modest by market standards, and over the past 50 days the netflow has peaked at only -$1.10 billion.

Source: CoinGlass Minimal accumulation of this kind signals a thin appetite for buying Bitcoin, a dynamic absent when an asset trades in genuine bull-run conditions.

Over the past 15 days, Bitcoin netflows totaled $182 million in sell‑offs. Moreover, negative netflows indicate net buying as coins move off exchanges, while positive netflows reflect heavier selling as assets shift onto exchanges. 

Bitcoin exchange balances climb The bigger concern right now is Bitcoin’s balance across exchanges, which has been climbing. At press time, Exchange Reserves have trended higher, with the total balance held on exchanges reaching 2.71 million BTC at the latest reading.

A rise in Exchange Reserves usually means traders have moved more Bitcoin onto exchanges, placing the asset in a selling position, since higher exchange balances reflect a growing readiness to sell.

Source: CryptoQuant For now, the setup keeps Bitcoin exposed to further downside over the next couple of days.

Final Summary Analyst warns that unliquidated longs below $57,000 could trigger a large liquidation event and drag Bitcoin lower, while creating a prime accumulation window. On-chain data backs the caution, with thin spot accumulation over 30 and 50 days and climbing exchange reserves at 2.71 million BTC.

https://senate.arkansas.gov/senate-history-education/history-of-the-chamber/

The U.S. Senate has advanced the CLARITY Act, a significant cryptocurrency regulation bill, closer to a full vote, a move that could shape the future regulatory framework for digital assets. Majority Leader John Thune’s decision to set up a procedural vote points towards imminent consideration on the Senate floor, although the bill still requires sufficient support to overcome a potential filibuster. The legislation, which establishes federal guidelines for classifying digital assets as securities or commodities, comes after approval from the Senate Banking and Agriculture Committees earlier this year.

Market participants appear to interpret this legislative progress as a potential catalyst for Bitcoin’s future price movement. The likelihood of Bitcoin reaching $200,000 by the end of 2026 has seen a slight uptick, with certain sub-markets reflecting increased optimism. The movement suggests that passing the CLARITY Act may provide regulatory clarity that could be supportive of higher Bitcoin valuations.

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The active sub-markets for Bitcoin’s price reflect mixed sentiments, with some seeing a notable increase in odds for significant price milestones. As the Senate moves forward with this bill, market observers are closely watching for further developments that could influence these trends.

Key Takeaways Senate action on the CLARITY Act appears to suggest potential regulatory clarity for digital assets. Market pricing implies a slight increase in the likelihood of Bitcoin reaching $200,000 by the end of 2026. Sub-market activity indicates mixed but slightly optimistic sentiment regarding Bitcoin’s future price trajectory. What to Watch Watch for the outcome of the Senate vote on the CLARITY Act, as its passage could further influence Bitcoin’s price outlook. Key indicators will include whether the bill secures enough votes to overcome a filibuster and any subsequent market response. Additionally, developments in regulatory announcements or major institutional adoption could impact market sentiment further.

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What Price Will Bitcoin Hit Before 2027

Contract Odds Δ since publish Volume 24h December 31 2.1% — — View market → December 31 2.1% — — View market → December 31 2.9% — — View market → December 31 3.9% — — View market → December 31 4.5% — — View market → January 1 2027 8.5% — — View market → January 1 2027 21.5% — — View market → January 1 2027 3.9% — — View market → January 1 2027 2.4% — — View market → January 1 2027 2.1% — — View market → January 1 2027 3.4% — — View market → January 1 2027 4.2% — — View market → January 1 2027 5.5% — — View market → January 1 2027 59% — — View market → January 1 2027 8.5% — — View market → January 1 2027 1.8% — — View market → January 1 2027 3.2% — — View market → January 1 2027 36.5% — — View market → January 1 2027 13.5% — — View market → January 1 2027 7.5% — — View market → January 1 2027 3.6% — — View market → January 1 2027 2.5% — — View market → January 1 2027 1.8% — — View market → January 1 2027 1.2% — — View market → January 1 2027 0.9% — — View market → January 1 2027 11.5% — — View market → January 1 2027 23.5% — — View market → January 1 2027 34.5% — — View market → January 1 2027 52.5% — — View market → January 1 2027 72.5% — — View market → When Will Bitcoin Hit 150k

Contract Odds Δ since publish Volume 24h December 31, 2026 3.6% — — View market →

In brief Supporters of BIP-110 split off into a minority Bitcoin chain on Saturday at block 961,632, but it mined only two blocks in about eight hours before stalling, falling dozens of blocks behind the main network. The fork inherited Bitcoin's difficulty setting with barely any hashpower—about 2.53% of recent blocks signaled support, far below the 55% activation threshold, BIP-110 sought to temporarily block non-financial data like Ordinals inscriptions from transactions, a move critics including Michael Saylor call a dangerous precedent. The long-simmering fight over a controversial Bitcoin network proposal finally produced a chain split over the weekend, but the breakaway Bitcoin fork sputtered almost immediately, grinding out just two blocks in roughly eight hours before stalling out.

The fork came as a result of a Bitcoin Improvement Proposal known as BIP-110, whose supporters claimed would protect the network from unwanted spam and the legal liability that comes from hosting non-financial data on the network. Its detractors, the majority of the Bitcoin community, viewed it as an attempt at censorship.

The fork triggered Saturday at block 961,632, when Bitcoin nodes running BIP-110 software began rejecting any block that failed to signal support for the proposal. A block mined by AntPool without that signal was accepted by the main network and rejected by BIP-110 nodes, while a miner on the Ocean pool produced the alternative the minority chain followed.

Hours later, the splinter chain sat far behind, trailing the main network by dozens of blocks as Bitcoin kept churning out one roughly every ten minutes.

The stall stems from a problem the fork can't easily escape. Bitcoin only recalibrates its mining difficulty every 2,016 blocks, and the breakaway chain inherited the network's current setting while commanding a sliver of its computing power—about 2.53% of recent blocks signaled for the proposal, far short of the 55% needed to activate without splitting. At that pace, the chain would need roughly 350 days to reach its next difficulty adjustment, versus about two weeks for Bitcoin, leaving blocks hours apart.

BIP-110, as Decrypt has previously reported, is a soft-fork proposal to temporarily bar people from stuffing images, text, and other non-financial data into Bitcoin transactions. Backers argue the practice, popularized by Ordinals inscriptions, clogs the network and drives up fees for ordinary payments.

Opponents counter that anyone paying for block space has earned the right to use it as they see fit, and that letting miners and node operators police transactions erodes Bitcoin's censorship resistance. Strategy's Michael Saylor has been among the critics, warning that turning a spam dispute into a consensus change sets a dangerous precedent.

On early Sunday morning, Saylor posted on X: “Bitcoin worked exactly as designed. BIP-110 was free to fork, and the network was free not to follow. The result was decisive: about 99.85% of Bitcoin's hash power stayed with Bitcoin. The BIP-110 branch mined only two blocks and is already more than 80 blocks behind.”

Bitcoin worked exactly as designed. BIP-110 was free to fork, and the network was free not to follow. The result was decisive: about 99.85% of Bitcoin's hashpower stayed with Bitcoin. The BIP-110 branch mined only two blocks and is already more than 80 blocks behind.

— Michael Saylor (@saylor) August 9, 2026

Jameson Lopp, a long-time Bitcoin advocate and the co-founder of Bitcoin security company Casa, echoed the sentiment and took it a step further: I won't be ‘welcoming back’ or unblocking any BIP-110 supporters,” he posted on X. “They proved themselves to be susceptible to delusional propaganda from folks emanating reality distortion fields. In many cases they spewed vitriol and harassed the very people who have devoted their lives to supporting and improving Bitcoin.”

I won't be "welcoming back" or unblocking any BIP-110 supporters.

They proved themselves to be susceptible to delusional propaganda from folks emanating reality distortion fields. In many cases they spewed vitriol and harassed the very people who have devoted their lives to…

— Jameson Lopp (@lopp) August 9, 2026

There's a further catch for anyone holding the fork's coins: because both chains accept identical transactions, a sale on the minority chain can be replayed on Bitcoin, potentially handing a buyer real BTC from the same seller. The mandatory signaling window closes at block 963,647—a mark the chain won't come close to reaching.

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A controversial Bitcoin soft fork designed to strip arbitrary data from transactions managed to produce exactly two blocks before running out of steam. The BIP-110 minority chain stalled at block 961,633 on August 9, while the main Bitcoin network kept chugging along as if nothing happened.

What BIP-110 tried to do BIP-110 was pitched as a temporary soft fork, roughly one year in duration, that would restrict data-heavy transactions on Bitcoin. The target: non-financial data that critics call “spam,” referring to things like NFT inscriptions and other arbitrary payloads that bloat block space.

The proposal required nodes enforcing the new rules to reject any block that didn’t carry a specific version-bit-4 signal. At block height 961,632, the signaling window opened, and the chain split began.

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The problem was immediate and fatal. BIP-110 needed 55% of mining hashpower to signal support for lock-in. It got nowhere close. Approximately 99.85% of hashpower stayed on the dominant chain, leaving the BIP-110 branch with a sliver of computational power so thin it could barely produce blocks at all.

Two blocks. That’s what the minority chain managed before grinding to a halt. Meanwhile, the main chain advanced by roughly 48 to 57 blocks within eight hours, reaching heights between 961,681 and 961,690.

The neutrality debate PlanB and Michael Saylor both raised concerns that BIP-110 risked undermining Bitcoin’s neutrality. Their argument: once you start filtering transactions based on content, you’ve opened a door that’s very hard to close. Today it’s NFT data. Tomorrow it could be transactions from specific addresses or jurisdictions.

That precedent-setting concern appears to have resonated with miners. When 99.85% of hashpower refuses to signal for your proposal, the market has spoken with unusual clarity.

Exchanges didn’t flinch Coinbase and Kraken both reported no operational disruptions during the split. Deposits, withdrawals, and trading continued normally.

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

US-listed spot Bitcoin and Ethereum exchange-traded funds attracted a combined $1.1 billion in net inflows during the most recent trading week.  This performance stands as the most robust weekly result for these vehicles since April, according to the latest figures and data compiled by SoSoValue.

Spot Bitcoin ETFs led the charge, securing approximately $853.5 million across five consecutive sessions of positive flows.

Daily contributions varied, with stronger activity earlier in the week giving way to more moderate gains toward the close.

BlackRock’s iShares Bitcoin Trust (IBIT) dominated the category, accounting for the overwhelming majority of the new capital—more than 80 percent in some tallies—while other providers such as Fidelity also recorded meaningful additions.

Cumulative net inflows into Bitcoin products have now surpassed $52 billion since their launch, with total net assets hovering near $80 billion.

Ethereum-focused spot ETFs contributed the remainder, drawing in roughly $245 million.

This marked their strongest weekly showing since the same period in April and extended a streak of positive weekly flows to five consecutive periods.

BlackRock’s corresponding Ethereum product again captured the bulk of the activity.

The combined result for Bitcoin and Ethereum funds highlights a clear rebound after a quieter stretch of summer trading.

Interestingly, the surge in capital occurred against a backdrop of relatively subdued trading volumes.

Bitcoin ETF turnover declined notably, and Ethereum volumes fell even more sharply.

Analysts have interpreted this pattern as evidence that longer-term institutional allocators are steadily building positions rather than short-term speculative traders driving the activity.

The concentration of inflows into the largest and most established funds further suggests a preference for scale and perceived quality among professional investors.

Market observers have pointed to several potential contributing factors.

Some have linked the timing to heightened attention on self-custody risks following a recent hardware wallet security incident, which may have reinforced the appeal of institutional-grade products for certain holders seeking long-term exposure.

Others note broader improvements in sentiment toward digital assets after periods of weaker flows earlier in the year.

Regardless of the precise catalysts, the data indicates that demand for regulated access to Bitcoin and Ethereum has strengthened meaningfully in the short term.

These products have transformed how traditional investors gain exposure to the two largest cryptocurrencies.

By holding the underlying assets directly and trading on conventional exchanges, they remove many of the operational and custodial hurdles associated with direct ownership.

The latest weekly figures underscore their continued role as a primary conduit for institutional capital entering the space.

While one strong week does not guarantee sustained momentum, the scale of the inflows—especially after months of more muted activity—offers a constructive signal. Investors and market participants will now most likely closely monitor subsequent flow data to determine whether this represents the start of a more durable recovery in demand for crypto ETFs.

Stacks, the Bitcoin layer-2 protocol that enables smart contracts on top of the world’s largest blockchain, has been highlighted by Bitfinex as a leading protocol in terms of actual Bitcoin usage. The recognition comes amid a broader push by the exchange to deepen its involvement in the Bitcoin layer-2 ecosystem.

Bitfinex’s engagement with Stacks goes well beyond a simple shoutout. The exchange listed the native STX token on April 8, 2025, and simultaneously took on the role of a network signer, meaning Bitfinex is actively helping to secure the Stacks blockchain itself.

What makes Stacks different Most layer-2 networks in crypto are built on Ethereum. Stacks took a different path entirely, anchoring itself to Bitcoin through a consensus mechanism called Proof-of-Transfer, or PoX. Miners on Stacks commit actual BTC to participate in block production, tying the network’s security directly to Bitcoin’s.

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That mechanism has resulted in more than 4,000 BTC moving on-chain through PoX since 2021. To put that in perspective, that’s roughly $400M worth of Bitcoin at current prices flowing through a single layer-2 protocol’s consensus engine.

Then there’s sBTC, a Bitcoin-backed asset that lives natively on Stacks. Deposits into sBTC surpassed 5,000 BTC as of late 2024, representing a separate and substantial pool of Bitcoin being actively used within the ecosystem.

The STX token itself serves multiple functions within this system. It powers transactions, enables governance participation, and allows holders to earn stacking rewards denominated in Bitcoin.

Why Bitfinex went deeper than a token listing As a network signer, Bitfinex contributes exchange-grade liquidity to the Stacks network and participates in its operational security. This requires ongoing infrastructure commitments and signals that Bitfinex views Bitcoin layer-2 solutions as strategically important to the exchange’s future.

The broader Bitcoin layer-2 landscape The 5,000-plus BTC sitting in sBTC deposits represents genuine demand for using Bitcoin in decentralized finance applications. Historically, Bitcoin holders who wanted DeFi exposure had to bridge their assets to Ethereum or other chains, introducing counterparty risk and complexity. sBTC offers a more native path, keeping users within Bitcoin’s economic orbit.

A February 2026 report from blockchain analytics firm Nansen examined the Stacks ecosystem’s liquidity profile and institutional integrations, underscoring the protocol’s growing relevance in the broader market.

Because stacking rewards are paid in BTC, there’s a natural correlation between STX participation rates and Bitcoin’s price movements. When Bitcoin appreciates, the dollar value of stacking rewards increases, which should theoretically make STX stacking more attractive and drive demand for the token.

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

Strategy CEO: Bitcoin has once again demonstrated resilience, even amid tests including Strategy's sell-offs and security threats.

Strategy CEO Phong Le published a post stating that Bitcoin has once again demonstrated resilience, even amid Strategy’s sell-off, security threats, stalled Senate legislation, and a soft fork.

1 hours ago

Iran's Parliamentary National Security and Foreign Policy Commission Approves Strait of Hormuz Security Framework

According to Iran's Mehr News Agency, the National Security and Foreign Policy Commission of Iran's parliament has approved the outline of the strategic action plan to ensure the security and development of the Strait of Hormuz. (Xinhua News Agency)

1 hours ago

Analysts: Bitcoin faces resistance at the $67,000 and $72,000 cost levels, with potential selling pressure.

CryptoQuant analyst ShayanMarkets noted that Bitcoin’s realized price UTXO time intervals show investors who have held BTC for 1 to 3 months and 3 to 6 months have average cost bases of approximately $67,000 and $72,000 respectively. Both figures are currently higher than BTC’s spot price of around $65,000, meaning these two groups of holders are collectively in unrealized loss. The $67,000 cost line for 1-3 month holders is closer to the current price. If Bitcoin continues its rebound, these loss-making holders may reduce their positions once the price approaches their cost basis, creating resistance at this level. The $72,000 cost line for 3-6 month holders forms a higher resistance level. If Bitcoin can reclaim both of these realized price levels, it would signal that the market is absorbing potential sell orders from recent buyers and strengthen the outlook for a market recovery. Until then, Bitcoin still faces significant resistance on the upside.

1 hours ago

PUMP surges over 15% in 24 hours, currently trading at $0.0027.

According to HTX market data, PUMP has surged over 15% in the past 24 hours, currently trading at $0.0027.

1 hours ago

US officials stated that Trump is handling the Iran deadlock patiently, with a primary focus on ensuring navigation through the strait.

According to The Wall Street Journal, U.S. officials said Trump is patient and expected to weather the current diplomatic impasse, especially with gasoline prices holding steady. A White House official insisted that the U.S. has completed all military targets against Iran. Trump’s current focus is on ensuring unimpeded global energy transit through the Strait of Hormuz, and the U.S. will retain military options if Iran launches further attacks on ships. On the nuclear issue, officials added that Trump has privately told senior aides in recent weeks that the U.S. military destroyed three major Iranian nuclear facilities last year, making it highly unlikely Iran will restart its nuclear activities during his tenure. Trump said in recent meetings that if Iran attempts to rebuild nuclear facilities or secretly develop nuclear weapons, U.S. intelligence agencies will detect it in a timely manner, and he believes the threat of further U.S. strikes will serve as a lasting deterrent. Officials said that if the U.S. can contain Iran’s nuclear program and the Strait returns to unimpeded navigation, Trump is more likely to extend the current ceasefire indefinitely. If Iran fully reopens the Strait, Trump is also expected to lift the U.S. military blockade on Iranian ports. (Jinshi)

1 hours ago

July’s CPI is expected to edge slightly lower, with Citigroup and Bank of America holding differing views on the outlook for a September interest rate hike.

Economists surveyed by Reuters expect the U.S. headline CPI annual rate to fall to 3.4% in July from 3.5% in June, while the core CPI annual rate will drop to 2.5% from 2.6% last month. Citigroup economists argue that, as anticipated, if inflation readings soften for the second consecutive month, it will signal more than one month of cooling inflationary pressures, effectively ruling out the possibility of a September interest rate hike. However, economists also forecast that core services inflation in July will rise slightly, with prices increasing 0.3% month-on-month, after being flat from May to June. Bank of America analysts note that the rebound in the core services metric could keep a September rate hike on the table. Analyst Kate Duguid said that if the latter view prevails and inflation data comes in below expectations, the Federal Reserve may delay a rate hike until December or later. (Jin10)

1 hours ago

Strategy CEO: Bitcoin has once again demonstrated resilience, even amid tests including Strategy's sell-offs and security threats.

Strategy CEO Phong Le published a post stating that Bitcoin has once again demonstrated resilience, even amid Strategy’s sell-off, security threats, stalled Senate legislation, and a soft fork.

25 minutes ago

Iran's Parliamentary National Security and Foreign Policy Commission Approves Strait of Hormuz Security Framework

According to Iran's Mehr News Agency, the National Security and Foreign Policy Commission of Iran's parliament has approved the outline of the strategic action plan to ensure the security and development of the Strait of Hormuz. (Xinhua News Agency)

25 minutes ago

Analysts: Bitcoin faces resistance at the $67,000 and $72,000 cost levels, with potential selling pressure.

CryptoQuant analyst ShayanMarkets noted that Bitcoin’s realized price UTXO time intervals show investors who have held BTC for 1 to 3 months and 3 to 6 months have average cost bases of approximately $67,000 and $72,000 respectively. Both figures are currently higher than BTC’s spot price of around $65,000, meaning these two groups of holders are collectively in unrealized loss. The $67,000 cost line for 1-3 month holders is closer to the current price. If Bitcoin continues its rebound, these loss-making holders may reduce their positions once the price approaches their cost basis, creating resistance at this level. The $72,000 cost line for 3-6 month holders forms a higher resistance level. If Bitcoin can reclaim both of these realized price levels, it would signal that the market is absorbing potential sell orders from recent buyers and strengthen the outlook for a market recovery. Until then, Bitcoin still faces significant resistance on the upside.

25 minutes ago

PUMP surges over 15% in 24 hours, currently trading at $0.0027.

According to HTX market data, PUMP has surged over 15% in the past 24 hours, currently trading at $0.0027.

25 minutes ago

Cathie Wood: Bitcoin and stablecoins may emerge as two major beneficiaries of the commercial transformation of smart agents

Cathie Wood, widely known as "Wood" (her Chinese nickname "木头姐"), believes the latest U.S. jobs report may appear concerning on the surface, but the actual situation is not as bad as it seems. The real focus should be on the economic shifts behind the employment data. The U.S. federal deficit currently stands at 5.6% of GDP, a level she notes is similar to that in the early 1980s at the start of Reaganomics. If productivity and technology adoption continue to accelerate as ARK Invest expects, this ratio could approach 5% by year-end. She added that the bigger risk ahead may not be inflation, but deflation—especially for companies that fail to adopt AI and productivity tools. On oil, a supply glut is forming: after the UAE exited OPEC in May, its production hit an all-time high. Cathie Wood forecasts oil prices could drop sharply, viewing this as a deflationary driver for most of the world. Meanwhile, capital expenditure has broken out of its 30-year range. She argues that market fears of an AI bubble are overblown, as the technology remains in the early stages of its revolution. On crypto assets, Cathie Wood says Bitcoin’s performance relative to gold is stabilizing again, and she believes Bitcoin and stablecoins could be two major beneficiaries of the commercial transformation of AI agents.

25 minutes ago

US officials stated that Trump is handling the Iran deadlock patiently, with a primary focus on ensuring navigation through the strait.

According to The Wall Street Journal, U.S. officials said Trump is patient and expected to weather the current diplomatic impasse, especially with gasoline prices holding steady. A White House official insisted that the U.S. has completed all military targets against Iran. Trump’s current focus is on ensuring unimpeded global energy transit through the Strait of Hormuz, and the U.S. will retain military options if Iran launches further attacks on ships. On the nuclear issue, officials added that Trump has privately told senior aides in recent weeks that the U.S. military destroyed three major Iranian nuclear facilities last year, making it highly unlikely Iran will restart its nuclear activities during his tenure. Trump said in recent meetings that if Iran attempts to rebuild nuclear facilities or secretly develop nuclear weapons, U.S. intelligence agencies will detect it in a timely manner, and he believes the threat of further U.S. strikes will serve as a lasting deterrent. Officials said that if the U.S. can contain Iran’s nuclear program and the Strait returns to unimpeded navigation, Trump is more likely to extend the current ceasefire indefinitely. If Iran fully reopens the Strait, Trump is also expected to lift the U.S. military blockade on Iranian ports. (Jinshi)

25 minutes ago

Can Crypto Advance Without the CLARITY Act? Grayscale Says Yes

Bitcoin’s BIP-110-enforcing branch stalled at block 961,633 on Sunday after producing only two blocks, while the non-enforcing chain advanced to 961,721, widening the gap to 88 blocks. 

According to the BIP-110 monitor, updated at 10:19 am UTC, the branch’s latest block had been mined about 12 hours earlier. Ocean records show that a pseudonymous mining group called Roughnecks produced the branch’s first two blocks using Ocean’s Decentralized Alternative Templates for Universal Mining (DATUM) mining protocol. 

The divergence began after BIP-110 entered mandatory signaling at block 961,632 on Saturday. Only 51 of the preceding 2,016 blocks, or 2.53%, signaled support. During this window, BIP-110 nodes reject blocks that do not signal through version bit 4, while ordinary Bitcoin nodes accept both signaling and non-signaling blocks. 

Under the proposal, mandatory signaling continues through block 963,647. The enforcing branch must mine through the remainder of the 2,016-block adjustment period before its difficulty can adjust, making progress slow without substantially more hashpower.

BIP-110 has faced opposition from prominent Bitcoin advocates. Strategy executive chairman Michael Saylor said he shared the proposal’s objectives but argued that its approach threatened Bitcoin’s neutral rules and consensus. 

Blockstream CEO Adam Back warned that the consensus-level change could damage Bitcoin’s credibility and potentially make certain unspent transaction outputs unspendable. 

Cointelegraph is committed to independent, transparent journalism. This news article is produced in accordance with Cointelegraph’s Editorial Policy and aims to provide accurate and timely information. Readers are encouraged to verify information independently.

Grayscale, the world's largest digital asset management company, has spoken out about the anticipated cryptocurrency legislation, the Clarity Act.

Grayscale Research Director Zach Pandl said that the CLARITY Act, which aims to create a comprehensive regulatory framework for the cryptocurrency market in the US, now seems unlikely to pass Congress this year. Pandl noted that the Senate’s busy schedule and election year politics make it difficult to reach a bipartisan agreement on the bill.

According to Pandl, the failure of the Clarity Act to become law will not directly impact the demand for Bitcoin as a store of value, the functioning of major blockchains, or the growth in stablecoin payments in the short term. The cryptocurrency sector has been developing in the US for nearly 17 years without comprehensive market structure legislation.

However, a Grayscale executive noted that the lack of comprehensive regulation could slow new investment activity and capital formation in the U.S. The CLARITY Act aimed to open new avenues for capital formation through blockchain technology, support the development of tokenized securities markets, and create a comprehensive oversight framework for digital asset intermediaries. The bill also included various protections for consumers, investors, and software developers.

Pandl believes that federal regulators will continue to fill regulatory gaps in the crypto sector even without new legislation. In particular, the SEC and other agencies are expected to develop new rules and regulations in various areas, especially tokenized securities, in the coming months.

According to Grayscale, significant progress has been made in favor of the sector in the regulatory approach to institutional custody services, banking access, staking, and crypto exchange investment products under the current administration. However, Pandl warned that in the absence of comprehensive market structure legislation, a larger portion of new investments and developer activity could shift to countries outside the US.

*This is not investment advice.

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