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Abraxas Capital has bought another 13,000 ETH worth $32.39 million in the spot market to hedge part of a 141,180 ETH short position on Hyperliquid valued at $353.27 million.

Summary

Abraxas Capital bought another 13,000 ETH worth $32.39 million in the spot market, according to Lookonchain. The purchase was made to hedge a 141,180 ETH short position on Hyperliquid valued at $353.27 million. The latest spot purchase covers just over 9% of the short when measured by the number of ETH. Abraxas previously accumulated more than 211,000 ETH worth over $477 million during a six day buying run in May 2025. Lookonchain said on Sept. 8 that Abraxas Capital purchased the additional Ether while keeping its much larger short position open on the decentralized derivatives platform. The blockchain analytics account described the transaction as another spot purchase made specifically to hedge the short.

At the values provided by Lookonchain, the latest purchase was made at an implied price of roughly $2,491 per ETH. The 13,000 ETH position equals just over 9% of the firm’s 141,180 ETH short when measured by the number of tokens.

Abraxas therefore remains heavily net short based solely on the positions disclosed by Lookonchain. Subtracting the latest 13,000 ETH spot hedge from the 141,180 ETH short leaves 128,180 ETH of net short exposure before considering any other holdings or positions controlled by the firm.

Abraxas Capital keeps $353 million ETH short open Lookonchain valued the Hyperliquid short at approximately $353.27 million at the time of its post, compared with $32.39 million for the latest spot purchase.

The hedge gives Abraxas exposure to ETH in opposite directions. The short position benefits from a decline in Ether’s price, while the spot ETH gains value when the token rises. Lookonchain specifically characterized the latest purchase as a hedge, rather than a closure or reduction of the underlying short position.

Large leveraged positions have become common on Hyperliquid, where whale accounts have carried several billion dollars in combined positions this year.

In May, crypto.news previously reported that Hyperliquid whale positions had reached $4.039 billion. Long exposure stood at $1.981 billion, while shorts accounted for $2.058 billion, producing a long-to-short ratio of 0.96.

Both sides of the whale book were underwater at the time. Long positions carried roughly $30.8 million in aggregate unrealized losses, compared with approximately $14.6 million in losses on short positions.

One of the largest individual trades in the May snapshot involved an ETH whale using 15x leverage. The account held roughly $87 million in Ether exposure from an entry near $2,265 and was sitting on more than $3.6 million in unrealized losses.

A separate reading five days earlier placed Hyperliquid whale exposure at $4.236 billion. Long positions totaled $2.099 billion, or 49.55% of the total, against $2.137 billion in shorts.

The split produced a long-to-short ratio of 0.98, leaving large traders almost evenly positioned between bullish and bearish bets.

Abraxas has made large Ethereum purchases before The latest transaction is not Abraxas Capital’s first large on-chain move involving Ether.

In May 2025, the investment manager withdrew 138,511 ETH valued at roughly $297 million from centralized exchanges over two days, according to Lookonchain. The transfers occurred during a sharp ETH rally that pushed the token above $2,300.

Abraxas then increased its holdings with another 33,482 ETH purchase worth $84.7 million.

Lookonchain data cited at the time showed that the firm had accumulated 211,030 ETH over six days, worth more than $477 million. The purchases followed the earlier withdrawal of approximately $297 million in ETH from exchanges.

The 2025 accumulation occurred under different market conditions and does not establish the purpose of the firm’s current positions. Lookonchain has specifically described the Sept. 8 spot transaction as a hedge against the Hyperliquid short.

Hyperliquid whale positioning has changed considerably at different points this year. In April, large trader positions totaled $3.4 billion, consisting of $1.737 billion in longs and $1.663 billion in shorts.

Long positions were carrying approximately $153 million in aggregate unrealized losses at the time, while shorts were sitting on roughly $161 million in unrealized profits.

An ETH whale tracked in the same dataset held a 15x leveraged long from around $2,148.70 and was down approximately $8.6 million.

Ethereum trades close to $2,500 Abraxas made its latest hedge while Ether remained close to the $2,500 level following a recovery from early September lows.

On Sept. 7, Ethereum traded near $2,493 after moving between approximately $2,475 and $2,537 during the session.

ETH had repeatedly failed to hold above $2,500, while its daily relative strength index had eased to 63.62 after the August rally.

Liquidation data cited in the report showed notable leveraged positions clustered around $2,430 below the market and between $2,540 and $2,600 above it. The nearest support zone was concentrated between roughly $2,423 and $2,475.

Ether had been trading considerably lower less than a week earlier. On Sept. 2, the token fell to an intraday low of $2,356 after failing to clear resistance close to $2,550.

Approximately $94.2 million in ETH futures positions were liquidated over 24 hours during the decline, while Ethereum fell below $2,400.

ETH remained above several medium-term moving averages at the time, including its 20-day simple moving average near $2,299 and its 50-day, 100-day and 200-day averages near $2,054, $1,903 and $2,030, respectively.

The token later recovered toward the $2,500 area, putting Abraxas’ latest 13,000 ETH spot purchase close to the same price zone.

Institutional demand for spot Ether has remained active during the recovery. U.S. spot Ethereum exchange-traded funds recorded $225.8 million in net inflows on Aug. 28, extending a nine-session buying streak to $1.42 billion.

BlackRock’s ETHA accounted for $1.02 billion, or roughly 72%, of the nine-day ETF inflows. Fidelity’s FETH recorded $56.2 million on Aug. 28, while BlackRock’s staked ETHB product added $20.7 million.

Lookonchain’s Sept. 8 figures put Abraxas Capital’s latest spot hedge at 13,000 ETH worth $32.39 million, while the firm’s Hyperliquid short remained at 141,180 ETH with a notional value of $353.27 million.

The plan would snapshot ONE at the final block and redirect emissions to an AI video business, but Harmony urged users to exit smart contracts before Sept. 10 because onchain apps and liquidity pools will not migrate.

Harmony has proposed fully sunsetting its blockchain after seven years and migrating its native ONE token to Ethereum, with holders receiving new ONE through a final-block snapshot and airdrop. Token emissions would be redirected to a new business the team calls the “Remix Economy for AI Video.”

Under the proposal, the snapshot would cover ONE held in user wallets, staking delegations, validator rewards, smart contracts and centralized exchanges. New tokens would be airdropped to the same wallet addresses on Ethereum without a separate claim process, while delegated stakes and unclaimed rewards would go to individual governor vaults.

The transition creates a Sept. 10 deadline — Thursday — for users with ONE deployed onchain. Harmony said multisig safes, liquidity pools and apps cannot be migrated, and urged users to exit all smart contracts before that date. Validators may begin shutting down nodes on Sept. 10.

Harmony attributed the proposal to security risks, saying “the threats posed by state actors and AI agents are too great.” The notice describes the proposal as non-binding and says all plans are subject to change.

What Harmony Is Pivoting ToHarmony said newly issued tokens would fund a video platform in which creators publish open prompts and assets that others can fork, with AI agents generating additional clips from each remix. “Tokens issued through emissions will now be allocated to our new mission,” the team said, adding that it would take “governor feedback.”

The team said it would “bootstrap this economy with creators and operators who make AI videos,” and that “advertising could generate tens of millions of dollars from a million users.” Harmony did not publish user numbers or a launch date for the platform.

Harmony said ONE’s total supply and emission rate would remain unchanged after the move. The project also said it would publish the ERC-20 contract, governor-vault contract, snapshot calculations and airdrop scripts for public audit.

Exchange Gap Narrowed to 6.58B ONEThe proposal lands while Harmony is still reconciling the August incident that prompted it. In a separate update, Harmony said the exchange-related ONE gap tied to the Aug. 11 incident had been adjusted to 6.581 billion from about 10.234 billion.

Harmony said the revision followed reconciliation with Binance, Binance.US, Gate, KuCoin, MEXC and OKX, and came from matching 295 cross-exchange transfers totaling roughly 3.493 billion ONE and accounting for circular transfers. The team said the reduction “does not equate to newly recovered funds,” and that Binance data remained provisional while some Gate and OKX figures awaited verification.

Harmony said exchanges had frozen ONE balances and proceeds linked to the attacker, and that “the current priority is to coordinate the resumption of ONE deposits, withdrawals, and trading as soon as possible.” Each exchange would announce its own timing.

The incident prompted Harmony to patch two verification paths after reports of unauthorized ONE issuance. As The Defiant reported, Harmony asked exchanges to block four wallets, paused its bridge and evaluated rollback options. Harmony did not confirm onchain account Juiceberg’s claim that four billion unauthorized ONE had been created.

Current Network FootprintHarmony’s staking dashboard showed about 3.04 billion ONE staked across the network, with an effective median stake of 6.83 million ONE. The chain had $146,337 in decentralized finance total value locked and $4,611 in 24-hour DEX volume, according to DefiLlama, which lists the chain as deprecated. Chain fees over the same period were $2.35.

ONE traded at about $0.00071, down 1.3% over 24 hours and 2.3% over the week, for a market capitalization near $10.6 million, according to CoinGecko. The token reached $0.379 in October 2021.

Validator TermsFor validators, Harmony set aside a $1.372 million transition pool, which it said equals the network-wide rewards issued during the year before the Aug. 11 incident. Harmony said validators who shut down on time, sign an agreement, retain their stakes and serve as governors in its new initiative would receive compensation in four quarterly installments.

The Ethereum Foundation (EF) has shared the results of its comprehensive review process for Hegotá, planned as one of the next major upgrades to the Ethereum network. The study, published by Protocol Cluster within the Foundation, examined and rated 62 Ethereum Improvement Proposals (EIPs) proposed as part of the upgrade.

Published under the title “Hegotá EIP Opinion Compilation and Rating List,” this assessment is the first unified EIP rating list prepared by Protocol Cluster for a single Ethereum network upgrade. Approximately 60 researchers, engineers, and domain experts from nine different teams within Protocol Cluster participated in the review process. Participants submitted a total of 397 evaluation comments, with some of the controversial proposals discussed in face-to-face meetings.

Another study published by the Ethereum Foundation outlined the current and long-term development priorities for the Ethereum protocol layer. The most notable of these goals was making the Ethereum Layer 1 network resilient to quantum computers by December 2029.

The foundation stated that the scope of the Hegotá upgrade was determined by considering the Protocol Cluster’s long-term technical commitments and the shared priorities identified among the teams. The published rating of the 62 EIPs is also expected to contribute to the decision-making process regarding which proposals will be included in the upgrade.

*This is not investment advice.

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By Kang Jae-eun

SEOUL, Sept. 8 (Yonhap) -- Ethereum Institutional welcomes South Korea's latest push to integrate tokenized security offerings (STOs) into the formal capital market framework and is willing to support institutions planning to adopt its network, the organization's co-founder said.

Matthew Dawson, the co-founder of the nonprofit organization, made the remarks in an exclusive interview with Yonhap News Agency in Seoul, which came on the sidelines of his first visit to the country.

"I can't think of a better time with regulatory clarity coming to meet Korean institutions, as they look to define their digital asset strategy," he said during the interview held Monday.

Ethereum Institutional is an independent organization that supports institutions seeking to launch assets on the ethereum ecosystem -- the second-largest blockchain network in the world after bitcoin.

Matthew Dawson, the co-founder of Ethereum Institutional, speaks during an exclusive interview with Yonhap News Agency in Seoul on Sept. 7, 2026. (Yonhap)

Dawson's comment comes after South Korea's financial services commission (FSC) unveiled a three-step road map Friday to expand STOs beyond fractional investment products into conventional securities, including stocks, bonds and funds.

The first stage will start in early February, when related legislation takes effect, with the tokenization of money market funds (MMF) and bonds for institutions.

The second phase calls for the tokenization of publicly offered securities, such as bonds, stocks and funds, while the third step aims to establish an on-chain payment infrastructure linking stablecoins.

"As the FSC road map unfolds and we see institutions actually deploying those assets ... we will be supporting them in whatever way they need," Dawson said, noting tokenized MMFs from major U.S. institutions, including BlackRock, J.P. Morgan and Fidelity, already operate on the ethereum network.

In South Korea, domestic virtual asset exchange operator Upbit hosts a stablecoin payment system on the ethereum layer-2 blockchain called GIWA.

The price of the ethereum cryptocurrency is displayed on a screen inside the Bithumb building in southern Seoul, in this file photo taken Nov. 5, 2025. (Yonhap)

Dawson described South Korea as a "powerhouse" in both finance and technology, saying its strong developer community, as well as its capacity to build both traditional financial institutions as well as fintech and neo-banks, make it an important country for the ethereum ecosystem.

The co-founder is seeking to meet with several financial institutions here, including major brokerages, asset managers and banks, during the trip.

The organization also plans to scale up, actively hiring technical and business consulting roles across Asia, including South Korea, to bring more capacity to support institutions directly, Dawson added.

When asked about Ethereum Institutional's long-term goals in South Korea, Dawson said it plans to focus on the network's actual deployment, to stay committed to ethereum's "unique" identity as global infrastructure for everyone to use.

"I saw ... in the news that Korea is actively working to make AI accessible to everyone and to have less dependency on U.S. and Chinese models," he said, pointing to a project to develop publicly accessible artificial intelligence services led by South Korea's science ministry.

"If we take that framing and consider that from a blockchain perspective, ethereum is the most neutral blockchain, which gives confidence to Korean institutions, regulators and governments that they can operate globally without the threat of a foreign nation taking advantage or control of this."

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Aave’s newly launched V4 protocol on Ethereum is now distributing USDe rewards through its dedicated Ethena ecosystem market, giving DeFi users a fresh set of incentives to park capital in one of the most actively used synthetic dollar systems in crypto.

The activation marks a significant operational milestone for both protocols. Aave V4 rolled out with a purpose-built Ethena environment featuring two “Spokes,” the largest ecosystem-specific deployment at launch, supporting USDe, sUSDe, PT-sUSDe, and PT-USDe as collateral assets.

What the Ethena Spokes actually do Inside those Spokes, users can deposit Ethena’s synthetic dollar USDe and its staked variant sUSDe to borrow against, earn rewards, or engage in what the community has affectionately dubbed “Aavethena” strategies. These are recursive borrowing loops where a user deposits USDe, borrows against it, converts the borrowed funds back into USDe, and repeats the cycle to stack yield.

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USDe is designed as a delta-neutral synthetic dollar, meaning Ethena Labs backs it with productive assets hedged through perpetual futures positions. The net exposure stays close to zero while the underlying positions generate yield.

During peak periods, Aave has supported over 50% of the total USDe supply, making Aave the single most important liquidity venue for Ethena’s flagship asset.

USDe’s growth trajectory USDe supply recently surpassed $12 billion. USDe reportedly crossed the $10 billion mark in under 500 days from its inception, a pace of growth driven in large part by the leveraged looping strategies enabled by Aave’s lending infrastructure.

Ethena distributes discretionary incentives that accrue to sUSDe holders through a token vault structure. As rewards accumulate, they increase the USDe value backing each unit of sUSDe, creating a compounding dynamic that draws in yield-seekers.

New features reduce friction One of the notable additions accompanying the V4 launch is Liquid Leverage, a feature that allows users to make 50/50 USDe/sUSDe deposits. The practical upside: it enhances liquidity and rewards while reducing the cooldown period that typically applies when unstaking sUSDe.

Aave’s governance has also implemented structural safeguards for the partnership. Whitelisted redemption mechanisms are in place to manage inter-protocol risk, essentially creating controlled exit channels that prevent a bank-run scenario where mass redemptions could destabilize either protocol.

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

TLDR: Bitmine added 53,501 ETH through Aug. 30, lifting its disclosed Ethereum treasury to 5.9 million tokens. More than 5.06 million ETH are staked at a 2.67% annualized yield, creating a powerful rewards engine. A modeled year of staking could generate about 135,000 ETH, nearly matching Bitmine’s remaining gap. An additional 51,000 ETH purchase would cut the shortfall to about 83,000 tokens under Bitmine’s benchmark. Bitmine is still expanding its Ethereum treasury even as staking rewards move the company closer to its stated goal of owning 5% of the ETH supply. The Nasdaq-listed treasury company bought 53,501 ETH in the week through Aug. 30, raising its officially disclosed holdings to 5.9 million tokens. 

Of that total, Bitmine had already staked 5,067,309 ETH at an annualized seven-day yield of 2.67%. Meanwhile, on-chain data indicates that the company may have resumed buying almost immediately after the reported period ended. The staking base itself now produces a material stream of new ETH under the disclosed yield, changing the arithmetic behind the target.

Bitmine Adds 53,501 ETH as Staking Base Expands On Sept. 1, blockchain analytics platform Lookonchain said wallets linked to Bitmine appeared to acquire another 51,000 ETH from FalconX and BitGo. The transaction carried an estimated value of about $126 million.

Bitmine had not formally confirmed that acquisition in its latest corporate disclosure. Therefore, the transfer remains separate from the company’s official 5.9 million ETH balance. If the attribution proves correct, and the transfer represents an incremental purchase, Bitmine would hold roughly 5.95 million ETH.

That would move it considerably closer to the 5% ownership target. Using Bitmine’s own benchmark of 120.7 million ETH in circulation, a 5% position would require about 6.035 million tokens. Against its disclosed holdings, the company remains about 134,000 ETH short of that threshold.

Bitmine’s large staking position could reduce that shortfall without requiring an equal amount of direct buying. The company had 5,067,309 ETH staked as of Aug. 30. If that balance and the disclosed 2.67% yield remained constant, the stake would generate roughly 135,000 ETH over a modeled year. 

That amount nearly matches the gap between Bitmine’s official holdings and its stated ownership target. Under flat-supply and fixed-yield assumptions, the company would need to retain nearly 99% of one year’s modeled rewards.

If the additional 51,000 ETH acquisition is confirmed, the remaining gap would fall to about 83,000 tokens. Under the same assumptions, roughly 61% of the modeled annual staking rewards would cover that difference.

Tom Lee Links Regulation With Crypto Adoption Outlook Bitmine chairman and Fundstrat managing partner Tom Lee has also tied the next phase of crypto adoption to U.S. regulation. During Monday’s Global Money Talk, Lee said the CLARITY Act could “open up the floodgates” for institutional adoption.

He said the current U.S. framework remains fragmented across states and argued that one federal agency should oversee the market. Lee pointed to Japan and Russia as countries that have moved toward broader national frameworks.

He also cited Ethereum’s sharp outperformance against memory stocks as evidence that investors have started positioning for another phase of crypto adoption. Russia, meanwhile, approved its first comprehensive digital asset legislation, allowing exchanges, depositories, and other providers to operate from Sept. 1.

It also caps annual retail purchases at about $3,800 through a licensed intermediary and gives digital-asset holders judicial protection. At the time of writing, Ethereum trades at $2,490.35, up 0.57% over 24 hours, according to CoinMarketCap.

Its market capitalization stands at $303.88 billion, while daily volume has risen 39.68% to $10.32 billion. The volume-to-market-cap ratio stands at 3.39%. CoinMarketCap’s chart shows ETH rose above $2,520 before retreating toward $2,490, while prices briefly fell near $2,478.

Ethereum’s circulating and total supply currently stand at 122.02 million ETH, with no fixed maximum supply.

Ethereum’s wider network is gaining momentum as Layer 2 and DeFi tokens outperform other crypto market segments, coinciding with a significant uptick in on-chain activity.

Layer 2 Scaling Networks Dominate ActivityTrader Daan Crypto pointed to a clear rotation in the market, noting on Sunday that Ethereum, along with Layer 2 networks and DeFi tokens, led major crypto sectors over the previous week. His market analysis, which excluded smaller memecoins, suggested this rotation signals more than just a brief altcoin rally.

Recent blockchain data indicates that Ethereum’s Layer 2 scaling solutions have become dominant, now accounting for 94% of all transactions across the amalgamated Ethereum mainnet and Layer 2 environment.

According to growthepie, Ethereum Layer 2 networks currently handle approximately 29.95 million daily transactions, while the Ethereum mainnet processes just 1.97 million. In terms of computational output, L2s now represent 97% of the system’s total throughput, facilitating about 92.4 million gas units per second compared to just 2.52 million on mainnet.

NetworkDaily TransactionsGas Units/secValue SecuredEthereum Mainnet1.97 million2.52 million$162 billion (Stablecoins)Layer 2s (Total)29.95 million92.4 million$14.51B (Base), $12.47B (Arbitrum), $2.8B (Robinhood Chain)Leading Layer 2 platforms include Base, which secures $14.51 billion or 41% of total L2 value, and Arbitrum with $12.47 billion. Robinhood Chain has drawn particular attention after growing its secured value by more than 150% in 30 days, now reaching $2.8 billion.

The expansion of these networks is reflected in token markets. ARB, the native asset of the Arbitrum network, has surged over 120%, driven in part by increased activity associated with the Robinhood Chain.

Mini dictionary: Robinhood Chain is a relatively new Ethereum Layer 2 network designed to enhance scalability and reduce transaction fees within the Robinhood ecosystem, contributing to increased DeFi activity and token performance.

DeFi Activity Shifting, But Capital Base Remains on MainnetOver the last 30 days, Ethereum Layer 2 networks processed an estimated 337 million decentralized finance transactions. This represents approximately 99% of all Ethereum DeFi transactions, reflecting a near-total migration of activity from the mainnet to L2s.

Uniswap, a leading decentralized exchange, contributed more than 57 million Layer 2 transactions within the period, making it the most-utilized application in Ethereum’s L2 ecosystem by transaction count.

Uniswap emerged as the most heavily used Layer 2 DeFi application, generating more than 57 million transactions in the past month.

Despite this, the majority of capital remains on Ethereum’s mainnet. The main network holds around $162 billion in stablecoins, dwarfing the $12 billion present on Layer 2 networks. Meanwhile, institutional data places the mainnet DeFi total value locked (TVL) close to $49 billion.

ETH is currently trading near $2,500, recovering from $2,390 earlier in the week. Ethereum exchange-traded funds have continued to report net inflows, reinforcing ongoing institutional interest amid a broader return of demand for crypto investment products.

Two-Tiered Ecosystem EmergesThe Ethereum ecosystem is now separated into distinct layers: Layer 2 networks are responsible for processing the vast majority of activity, while the mainnet remains the primary hub for capital allocation and settlement.

Layer 2 platforms fuel record transaction volumes, while Ethereum mainnet retains its role as the asset and liquidity center.

This division may explain why current market strength is spreading from ETH itself to DeFi and Layer 2 tokens, rather than being isolated as a simple upward move in Ether’s price alone.

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

TLDR: RedSonic Vault lost 9.25 ETH after an attacker exploited a dual-asset pricing flaw entirely. A permissionless registerErc20 function let the attacker add a second, conflicting stETH share class. The attacker flash-loaned 1,139 WETH from Balancer and needed zero starting capital of their own. ExVulSec traced the full exploit, including the Curve swap and the final loan repayment step. A flash loan attacker drained 9.25 ETH from Ethereum’s RedSonic Vault in a single transaction. Blockchain security firm ExVulSec identified the exploit and published a full technical breakdown. 

The attacker manipulated a permissionless asset-registration function to double count the same underlying collateral. On-chain records show the entire operation executed inside one self-contained transaction.

How the RedSonic Vault Exploit Unfolded The attacker flash-loaned 1,139 WETH from Balancer to fund the entire operation. No upfront capital of their own was required.

RedSonic’s vault prices its rsvETH shares through a function called getTotalAssetBalance. For the Lido position, that function reads the vault’s raw stETH balance directly.

That design choice became the exploit’s foundation. Share prices tied directly to a raw balance can shift if that balance changes unexpectedly. No corresponding shares need to be minted or burned.

The vault’s registerErc20 function carried no access restrictions, according to ExVulSec. Anyone could register a brand new asset class inside the vault.

The attacker registered stETH as a second asset, creating a class called rsvstETH. Both share types then drew from the exact same underlying stETH balance.

The exploit contract self-destructed once execution finished. Security researchers note that self-destructing contracts often complicate later on-chain tracing efforts.

Flash loans let borrowers access large sums without posting collateral, provided the loan gets repaid within the same transaction. Attackers commonly use this mechanism to fund exploits that would otherwise demand substantial capital.

🚨 ALERT — Exploit on Ethereum @reddio_com RedSonic Vault was drained for ~9.25 ETH. A no-capital attacker flash-loaned 1,139 WETH from Balancer, inflated the vault's share price, and cashed out. The exploit ran inside a self-destructing contract's constructor.

Root cause:
the…

— ExVul (@exvulsec) September 5, 2026

RedSonic Vault Exploit Exposes a Dual-Asset Flaw The attacker deposited 1,130 ETH first, acquiring close to 99% of all outstanding rsvETH shares. That position set up the rest of the exploit.

Next, the attacker deposited 9.34 stETH directly into the vault. That single deposit inflated the stETH balance without minting any new rsvETH shares.

Because rsvETH pricing reads the raw stETH balance, the extra deposit pushed the share price higher artificially. The attacker’s existing rsvETH holdings gained value instantly as a result, without any new rsvETH being issued.

The attacker then redeemed rsvETH for 1,139.5 ETH, according to ExVulSec’s transaction analysis. That single redemption produced the full 9.25 ETH profit.

The same attacker also redeemed the rsvstETH shares for stETH separately. The identical underlying collateral effectively paid out twice from one shared, pooled vault balance.

ExVulSec reported that the recovered stETH was swapped for ETH on Curve. The attacker repaid the Balancer flash loan within that same transaction.

Etherscan data lists the attacker’s wallet as 0x70f2333d21Ed7E7D105F6578227A9A747687982C. The RedSonic Vault contract itself sits at 0x4315990d9eeaffdfafd49958b4851f203fa1126f.

The attack transaction carries the hash 0xe3cba90e865c6cba950ebce36a52607f51f1fd33cd9fb920c78803f19b57791a. It remains publicly viewable on Etherscan for anyone verifying the exploit’s details.

U.S. spot Bitcoin and Ethereum exchange-traded funds attracted a combined $1.20 billion during the trading week ending Sept. 4, with Bitcoin products accounting for more than 80% of the total.

Summary

Spot Bitcoin ETFs recorded $986.7 million in weekly net inflows. Ethereum ETFs added $215.3 million, down sharply from the previous week. BlackRock’s Bitcoin funds attracted $691.5 million across the five sessions. The largest combined inflows arrived on Sept. 3 as crypto prices rebounded. Bitcoin ETF inflows approach $1 billion According to data from Farside Investors, U.S. spot Bitcoin ETFs recorded $986.7 million in net inflows between Aug. 31 and Sept. 4. The weekly intake increased about 6.7% from the $924.5 million added during the previous five trading sessions.

The funds opened the week with $216.7 million in net inflows on Aug. 31 before recording $236.5 million in withdrawals on Sept. 1. Demand returned over the following three sessions, producing inflows of $101.1 million, $730.8 million, and $174.6 million.

Sept. 3 accounted for roughly 74% of the entire weekly total. BlackRock’s spot Bitcoin products attracted $454 million that day, while ARK Invest and 21Shares’ ARKB added $137.7 million. Fidelity’s FBTC and Grayscale’s Bitcoin Mini Trust recorded $74.4 million and $48.8 million, respectively.

BlackRock’s products led the full week with about $691.5 million in net inflows. ARKB followed with $137.7 million, while Fidelity’s fund added $94.8 million.

Bitwise’s BITB received $41.7 million during the period. VanEck’s HODL posted approximately $33 million in net withdrawals, while Grayscale’s converted GBTC fund recorded a modest $18.6 million inflow.

The five-day result brought cumulative net inflows across the U.S. spot Bitcoin ETF market to approximately $55.69 billion, according to Farside’s data.

Ethereum ETF demand slows from the previous week U.S. spot Ethereum ETFs recorded $215.3 million in net inflows over the same period, Farside data showed. Although the funds remained net positive, weekly inflows fell by around 73.6% from $815.7 million during the previous week.

Ethereum products started the period with an $87.6 million inflow on Aug. 31 and added another $8.6 million on Sept. 1. The group then recorded $48.2 million in net outflows on Sept. 2 before attracting $141.4 million on Sept. 3 and $25.9 million on Sept. 4.

BlackRock’s ETHA brought in $136.4 million during the week, while its staked Ethereum product ETHB added $81.8 million. The two BlackRock funds therefore received a combined $218.2 million, slightly more than the category’s total net inflow after withdrawals from competing products were included.

Fidelity’s FETH ended the week with only $4.7 million in net inflows. The fund attracted $65.1 million on Sept. 3 but lost $48.3 million the following session.

Grayscale’s higher-fee ETHE recorded $37 million in weekly net outflows. Grayscale’s lower-cost Ethereum Mini Trust partly offset those withdrawals with $17.1 million in inflows.

Cumulative net inflows into U.S. spot Ethereum ETFs reached approximately $13.19 billion by the end of the week.

Crypto ETF inflows diverge from wider U.S. funds The $1.20 billion combined inflow into Bitcoin and Ethereum ETFs came during a cautious period for conventional U.S. investment funds.

Investors withdrew $11.12 billion from U.S. equity funds during the week ending Sept. 2, according to LSEG Lipper data reported by Reuters. Large-cap funds accounted for $7.52 billion of those withdrawals, while money market funds attracted $48.76 billion.

Reuters tied the broader caution to rising bond yields, higher oil prices and tensions in the Middle East. Those factors weighed on risk assets earlier in the week, but sentiment improved on Sept. 3 after Federal Reserve Governor Christopher Waller said he could support keeping interest rates unchanged if inflation continued to ease.

The shift coincided with the largest daily crypto ETF inflows of the week. Bitcoin and Ethereum funds collectively attracted about $872.2 million on Sept. 3, while Bitcoin climbed above $81,000 and Ethereum moved back toward $2,500.

The subsequent reversal showed that ETF inflows did not remove short-term macro risks. Bitcoin was trading near $79,664 at the time of writing, down about 1.8% over the latest session, while Ethereum traded around $2,458 after a 2.8% decline.

U.S. data keeps rate expectations in focus The next test for ETF demand could come from changing expectations for U.S. interest rates. The Bureau of Labor Statistics reported that nonfarm payrolls increased by 162,000 in August, while the unemployment rate remained at 4.1%.

The stronger labor data reduced some of the optimism created by Waller’s comments because a resilient economy could give the Federal Reserve more room to keep borrowing costs elevated.

Investors will now focus on the Sept. 11 U.S. consumer price index report and the Federal Reserve’s Sept. 16 policy decision. Further evidence of persistent inflation could pressure crypto prices and ETF demand, while softer inflation would support the case for stable or lower interest rates.

Despite those risks, the weekly figures showed that U.S. investors remained net buyers of both major crypto ETF categories. Bitcoin products maintained their momentum from the previous week, while Ethereum funds stayed positive even as their weekly intake slowed.

Fireblocks published an optimized EVM implementation of an ML-DSA-44 signature verifier, a post-quantum cryptographic scheme compliant with NIST’s FIPS 204 standard. The headline number: verification now costs 1.23 million gas, down from the previous state-of-the-art benchmark of 8.09 million gas set by ZKNox’s ETHDILITHIUM project. That is a 6.6x reduction, achieved without any changes to the Ethereum protocol itself.

What actually changed under the hood ML-DSA-44, formerly known as CRYSTALS-Dilithium, is a lattice-based signature scheme selected by NIST as a post-quantum standard.

Fireblocks targeted the specific bottlenecks. The largest single gain came from optimizing SHAKE-256 hashing, a core component of the ML-DSA scheme, cutting its gas contribution from roughly 3 million down to approximately 400,000. Additional improvements came from more efficient number theoretic transform (NTT) computations and smarter memory expansion techniques within the EVM.

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For comparison, EIP-7885, a pending Ethereum improvement proposal that would add a dedicated NTT precompile to the protocol, was projected to bring ETHDILITHIUM’s cost down to around 5.73 million gas. Fireblocks reached 1.23 million without any precompile support, working entirely within the existing EVM instruction set.

An AI team did most of the heavy lifting Fireblocks used an autonomous AI-driven research team of 144 agents operating over nine days. Total cost: approximately $7,500.

The AI agents conducted formal verification as well as performance tuning, producing over 320 verification tests and 62 machine-checked arithmetic properties validated in Z3, a formal verification tool from Microsoft Research.

Where this fits in Ethereum’s quantum roadmap Ethereum’s longer-term roadmap already anticipates the need to replace its native signature scheme. The plan involves account abstraction, specifically moving toward a model where smart contracts, rather than the protocol itself, handle signature verification. This architecture, sometimes called de-enshrining native signatures, means any NIST-approved post-quantum scheme can be deployed as a contract verifier without requiring a hard fork to change Ethereum’s consensus rules.

Earlier in 2026, other research efforts focused on SPHINCS+-derived schemes, a hash-based post-quantum approach that achieved costs around 127,000 gas. Hash-based schemes come with significant drawbacks including large signature sizes and statefulness requirements that make them awkward for general wallet use. The lattice-based ML-DSA approach Fireblocks optimized is the NIST primary recommendation for general-purpose digital signatures.

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

Robinhood Chain has stopped producing blocks for more than 14 minutes, preventing the Ethereum layer-2 network from confirming token transfers and smart contract transactions.

Summary

Robinhood Chain stopped producing blocks for more than 14 minutes at around 12:57 p.m. UTC. Transfers and smart contract calls remained pending until block production resumed intermittently. Robinhood has not disclosed the cause or provided a detailed account of the disruption. HOOD shares fell as much as 5.1% from their previous close before recovering part of the loss. Robinhood Chain stopped confirming transactions Robinhood Chain block explorer data showed that the network stopped adding blocks at around 12:57 p.m. UTC on Sept. 4, leaving submitted transactions without confirmation for more than 14 minutes.

Transfers, smart contract calls, and router interactions could not move forward while the chain remained at the same block height. New transactions continued to appear in the explorer, but several stayed pending because the network was not producing blocks to process them.

News aggregator Aggr News was among the first to report the interruption on X.

Block production later restarted, although explorer records showed uneven activity during the first stage of the recovery. Robinhood had not disclosed the cause of the halt or published a technical account of the event at the time of reporting.

The company also had not provided a specific recovery schedule. Its main status page did not list an incident for the chain, leaving the explorer as the main public source for tracking whether blocks were being produced consistently.

No report indicated that balances were lost during the interruption. Transactions submitted while production was paused could not receive on-chain confirmation until the sequencer began creating blocks again.

A sequencer halt froze Robinhood Chain activity As crypto.news explained in July, Robinhood Chain is an Ethereum layer-2 network built with Arbitrum Orbit technology. It runs transactions outside Ethereum’s main execution layer and posts data back to Ethereum.

Robinhood launched the public mainnet on July 1 with 95 tokenized stocks and access through Robinhood Wallet in more than 120 countries. The chain uses ETH for transaction fees and supports Ethereum-compatible wallets, applications, and smart contracts.

According to the network explainer, Robinhood Chain relies on a sequencer to order transactions and produce blocks. When the sequencer stops, users can submit transactions, but the network cannot confirm or settle them until block production returns.

Robinhood Chain normally produces blocks every 100 milliseconds. At that speed, a 14-minute interruption represents approximately 8,400 expected block intervals without normal production.

The halt affected blockchain activity rather than Robinhood’s conventional brokerage system. No evidence showed that customers lost access to U.S. stocks, exchange-traded funds, options, or other assets held in standard Robinhood brokerage accounts because of the chain interruption.

Block production is especially important for decentralized finance users. Without new blocks, traders cannot complete swaps, transfer collateral, repay loans or interact with smart contracts, even when their wallets continue displaying previously recorded balances.

Tokenized stock activity had climbed before the outage The interruption arrived after a sharp increase in trading activity across Robinhood Chain. On Aug. 25, the network recorded approximately $945 million in daily decentralized exchange volume, according to a recent network analysis.

Cumulative DEX volume had surpassed $47 billion since the July 1 launch, while its 30-day total reached approximately $15 billion. The data placed Robinhood Chain fifth among tracked networks by 30-day decentralized exchange volume, behind Solana, BNB Chain, Ethereum, and Base.

A separate Sept. 2 report found that RWA-linked trading volume had reached $390 million. By July 27, Robinhood had accumulated approximately 328,000 tokenized-equity holders, equal to around 44% of the 752,000 holders tracked across five large tokenized-stock platforms at the time.

Robinhood represented about $44 million of the tokenized assets in that comparison. Ondo held approximately $857 million, while xStocks accounted for about $487 million, showing that Robinhood’s holder count did not give it the largest value of tokenized assets.

Uniswap has operated as the chain’s primary public automated market maker since launch. Uniswap founder Hayden Adams said in late August that combined stock-token trading volume on Robinhood Chain had reached $1 billion.

Robinhood Chain had also processed more than $12 billion in DEX volume and over 150 million transactions by the end of July, according to figures cited by Bernstein. The research firm used the figures when maintaining an Outperform rating and a $160 price target for Robinhood Markets.

HOOD shares fell as much as 5.1% During Friday’s U.S. session, Robinhood Markets shares opened at $120.48 after closing at $124.72 on Thursday. HOOD then traded as low as $118.30, representing a decline of approximately 5.1% from the previous close.

Shares later recovered to around $122.81, cutting the daily loss to roughly 1.5%. Robinhood’s market data showed an intraday high of $124.60 and trading volume of 13.96 million shares, compared with an average daily volume of 24.82 million.

Available market data did not establish that the chain outage caused HOOD’s decline. The stock had already traded near $120 in the premarket session when reports of the network interruption appeared.

Friday’s trading also followed a 16.6% rally in HOOD on Thursday, when the stock closed at $124.72. Analyst upgrades and Robinhood’s expanding product range had supported the previous session’s advance.

U.S. investors cannot access Robinhood Stock Tokens Robinhood Stock Tokens remain unavailable to U.S. residents, even though many of the products track U.S.-listed companies. The company offers the tokens in eligible overseas markets as derivative contracts that provide economic exposure to the referenced securities.

Token holders are not shareholders of record and do not receive voting rights attached to the underlying stock. Robinhood has said that a U.S.-licensed institution holds assets supporting the contracts.

In July, two securities transfer groups asked the SEC to distinguish between issuer-approved tokenized securities and products created by unrelated platforms. Continental Stock Transfer & Trust Company and the Securities Transfer Association said third-party tokens may not establish a direct legal relationship between buyers and the company whose shares determine the token’s value.

The groups also raised concerns about custody, shareholder records, voting, dividends, sanctions checks, and claims during insolvency. They asked the SEC to prioritize issuer-backed structures and impose investor safeguards before granting regulatory relief to unaffiliated stock-token products.

Hargreaves Lansdown opened access to nine Bitcoin and Ether exchange-traded notes on Sept. 3, bringing regulated cryptocurrency exposure to eligible users of the United Kingdom’s largest retail investment platform.

Summary

Hargreaves Lansdown added nine Bitcoin and Ether ETNs for eligible users through Advanced Investing service. Approximately two million platform clients may access products after successfully completing required investor protection checks. Investors must self-certify, pass an appropriateness assessment, and complete a 24-hour cooling-off period before access. The FCA reopened eligible crypto ETNs to retail investors in October 2025 under safeguards nationally. Crypto ETNs track asset prices without giving investors direct ownership of Bitcoin or Ether themselves. The products come from BlackRock’s iShares, WisdomTree, 21Shares, Invesco, CoinShares and Bitwise, according to a Financial Times report. The issuers charge annual product fees ranging from 0% to 0.35%.

UK’s Largest Investment Platform Hargreaves Lansdown Opens Bitcoin and Ether ETNs to 2 Million Investors

According to the FT, the UK’s largest investment platform, Hargreaves Lansdown (HL), will open crypto ETN trading to its approximately 2 million investors from September 3,… pic.twitter.com/a37mVTK3ex

— Wu Blockchain (@WuBlockchain) September 3, 2026 Hargreaves Lansdown serves approximately two million investors. However, the crypto ETNs are only available through its Advanced Investing service and are not automatically accessible to every customer.

Hargreaves Lansdown adds crypto after long delay The launch comes almost 11 months after the Financial Conduct Authority ended its four-year restriction on retail access to qualifying crypto ETNs. Other major British investment platforms had already introduced the products.

Hargreaves Lansdown initially adopted a more cautious position. In October 2025, the platform told investors that “Bitcoin is not an asset class,” while acknowledging that some customers might still want speculative exposure.

Doug Abbott, Hargreaves Lansdown’s chief product officer, said the platform delayed its launch to ensure client testing and safeguards were properly designed. He said customers should understand the products and encounter the “right level of friction” before investing.

The company’s current crypto ETN page warns that the instruments are volatile and high risk. It says investors could lose all the money they commit.

Investors face eligibility checks and a waiting period Customers must first self-certify as advanced investors. They must then complete an online appropriateness assessment designed to test whether they understand the products and associated risks.

Eligible customers must also complete a 24-hour cooling-off period before viewing the available ETNs. They need either a Fund and Share Account or a self-invested personal pension to buy, hold or sell the instruments.

Hargreaves Lansdown charges a 0.35% annual platform fee for holding crypto ETNs, capped at £12.50 per month. Dealing charges range from £3.95 to £6.95, depending on the customer’s trading frequency. These charges are separate from each product’s management fee.

The notes trade during London Stock Exchange market hours. They do not provide continuous 24-hour trading like cryptocurrency exchanges.

Crypto ETNs provide exposure without direct ownership Crypto ETNs are listed financial instruments designed to follow the price of an underlying digital asset. Investors purchase a note issued by a financial institution rather than buying Bitcoin or Ether directly.

The issuer arranges custody of the underlying cryptocurrency. Customers therefore do not control private keys, manage wallets or withdraw the digital assets represented by their investment.

This structure introduces risks that differ from direct cryptocurrency ownership. Investors depend on the issuer, custodian, trading venue and investment platform. Product fees and market spreads may also cause returns to differ from movements in the underlying asset.

Crypto.news previously reported that BlackRock listed its Bitcoin product on the London Stock Exchange after the retail restrictions changed. The listing was among several products introduced as regulated providers prepared for wider individual access.

FCA rules restrict how platforms offer crypto ETNs The FCA lifted its retail prohibition on qualifying crypto ETNs on Oct. 8, 2025. Products must appear on the regulator’s Official List and trade through a recognized U.K. investment exchange.

The regulator classifies the products as restricted mass-market investments. Its official guidance requires appropriateness assessments, customer categorization, cooling-off periods and prominent risk warnings.

Platforms cannot offer incentives encouraging customers to invest. They must also identify an appropriate target market and take reasonable measures to prevent foreseeable consumer harm.

As crypto.news reported when the policy was announced, the FCA reopened retail access while keeping crypto derivatives prohibited. The regulator said investors would not receive the same protections available for conventional regulated investments.

Demand remains an open question Hargreaves Lansdown said it had received a consistent level of customer enquiries about crypto ETNs, particularly from experienced investors. That interest has not yet established how many eligible clients will invest.

Other platforms have described British retail uptake as modest. Restrictions preventing newly purchased crypto ETNs from being held in conventional stocks-and-shares ISAs may also limit demand.

The launch nevertheless gives Hargreaves Lansdown customers a regulated route to Bitcoin and Ether price exposure without opening an exchange account. Future adoption will depend on investor demand, cryptocurrency prices and whether the available product range expands.

Abraxas Capital, a London-based digital asset firm managing over $4 billion, just scooped up 16,554 ETH worth roughly $39 million. At the same time, the firm is sitting on 120,178 ETH in short positions on Hyperliquid, the decentralized perpetual futures exchange.

The two-sided trade The firm’s short exposure on the platform has frequently exceeded $700 to $900 million in gross positions across ETH, Bitcoin, and Solana. Of that, Ethereum consistently accounts for the largest single-asset chunk, with ETH shorts ranging between $120 million and $194 million depending on the day.

Earlier in August, Abraxas withdrew 73,872 ETH from Binance over a four-day stretch, a haul worth approximately $173 million. The latest 16,554 ETH purchase adds to that accumulation pattern.

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Abraxas is collecting ETH at spot prices while using short positions to earn funding rates and hedge against downside risk. When the market pays you to hold shorts (because long traders are paying a premium), you can accumulate the underlying asset while your short positions generate yield.

Profits in the hundreds of millions On August 29, Abraxas posted a $21 million profit in a single 24-hour window, generated from a portfolio containing $472 million in short positions. That kind of daily return, roughly 4.4% on the short book alone, illustrates why the firm keeps scaling into this approach.

The total short exposure has at times ballooned to between $598 million and $783 million across all assets on Hyperliquid. On-chain analysts have been tracking Abraxas’s wallets closely, and the firm frequently ranks among the platform’s top traders by volume.

Why Hyperliquid matters here Hyperliquid operates on its own Layer-1 blockchain and has carved out a niche as the go-to venue for on-chain perpetual futures trading. Its native token, HYPE, has attracted attention partly because institutional players like Abraxas are generating enormous volume on the platform.

What this means for the ETH market The dual approach of accumulating spot ETH while maintaining enormous short positions suggests Abraxas is positioning for multiple scenarios. If ETH drops, the shorts profit. If ETH rises, the spot holdings appreciate. And regardless of direction, funding rates from perpetual futures provide a steady income stream.

A sudden ETH rally would generate unrealized losses on the shorts that need to be managed carefully, even if the spot book offsets some of that pain. Abraxas has faced unrealized losses during volatile stretches, though cumulative profits have remained positive.

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

In brief Spot Ethereum ETFs posted $48.08 million in net outflows Wednesday, ending a 12-day inflow streak that had pulled in $1.62 billion. Spot XRP ETFs recorded $7.2 million in outflows, snapping an 11-session run that brought in roughly $170 million and pushed cumulative inflows to $1.68 billion. Bitcoin ETFs rebounded with $101.15 million in net inflows, a day after posting $236.5 million in outflows, their largest single-day exit since July 31. US spot Ethereum and XRP ETFs broke their winning streaks on Wednesday. Bitcoin funds went the other way, pulling in $101.15 million in fresh money, per SoSoValue and Decrypt data.

ETFs, or exchange-traded funds, are funds that trade like stocks and let investors buy exposure to a cryptocurrency's price through a regular brokerage account instead of holding the coin itself. Crypto ETFs have been extremely popular among investors, and market observers keep a close eye on the money going in and out of these funds as a key indicator of current sentiment.

Bitcoin ETF Net Flows. Image: DecryptEthereum ETFs had logged 12 straight days of net inflows, meaning more money came into the funds than left them every single day for two and a half weeks. That streak gathered $1.62 billion before ending Wednesday with $48.08 million walking out the door.

BlackRock's iShares Ethereum Trust (ETHA) led the exodus with $53.4 million in outflows. Fidelity's FETH lost $26.2 million, and Grayscale's Ethereum Staking ETF (ETHE) shed $23.5 million. BlackRock's staked Ethereum ETF, ETHB—a fund that locks up its Ethereum to earn network rewards and passes some of that yield to shareholders—absorbed part of the damage with $52.9 million in inflows.

Ethereum ETF Net Flows. Image: DecryptXRP told a similar story on a smaller scale. Its 11-session streak had brought in about $170 million, lifting cumulative inflows to $1.68 billion, before Wednesday's $7.2 million outflow. The withdrawal came almost entirely from Bitwise's XRP fund, while the four other XRP products, issued by Franklin, Canary, 21Shares and Grayscale, recorded no flows either way.

Bitcoin moved in the opposite direction. Wednesday's $101.15 million inflow reversed Tuesday's $236.5 million outflow, the category's largest single-day exit since July 31, when BlackRock's IBIT alone accounted for 85% of the damage. This time IBIT led the comeback, pulling in $115.45 million on its own, more than the day's entire net total, while Grayscale's original GBTC fund still lost $56.21 million.

The whiplash caps a volatile stretch. Bitcoin ETFs pulled in $3.52 billion in August, their best month of 2026, a run that included a $606 million single-day haul in mid-August, the biggest since May. Total net assets across the category now sit at $97.22 billion, with cumulative inflows near $54.7 billion since the funds launched in January 2024.

XRP ETF Net Flows. Image: DecryptSeptember has a habit of testing that momentum. Bitcoin has closed the month lower in eight of the past 13 years, a pattern Decrypt has tracked as Red September, and this year's version arrives with the Federal Reserve's rate decision landing September 15 to 16, the first hike debate since the central bank's 2022-2023 tightening cycle

Why the money picked BitcoinWednesday's split wasn't just Ethereum and XRP losing steam. Solana ETFs also posted a $6.13 million outflow the same day, meaning three of the four major crypto ETF categories retreated while only Bitcoin advanced. That's a narrower signal than "crypto is cooling"—it looks more like capital consolidating into Bitcoin specifically rather than spreading across digital assets broadly, a pattern that also showed up during last month's institutional buying spree.

In the most overly simplistic explanation, Bitcoin is the bigger, thus safer asset in the ecosystem.

Myriad: Bitcoin's next price move? Click to make your prediction.Another thing to consider comes with simple market expectation. Ethereum and XRP had each just run their longest inflow streaks in months, 12 and 11 sessions respectively, so a pause to lock in gains was overdue on both. Bitcoin, by contrast, was coming off Tuesday's outflow and had room to bounce.

The rest is macro nerves. Fed Chair Kevin Warsh's hawkish Jackson Hole remarks pushed September rate-hike odds above 60% on the CME's FedWatch tool, and when crypto investors get defensive, Bitcoin is typically the first asset they buy back into and the last one they exit, since it carries the deepest liquidity and the longest institutional track record of any crypto ETF on the market. XRP and Ethereum, both newer and thinner by comparison, tend to see that caution show up as outflows first.

The simplest explanation tends to be the right one.

Disclaimer

The views and opinions expressed by the author are for informational purposes only and do not constitute financial, investment, or other advice.

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TLDR: Ethereum saw accelerated August activity across Layer-2 upgrades, institutional adoption and ecosystem development. BlackRock expanded tokenization on Ethereum while Gnosis and Whitechain pursued Layer-2 transitions. Privacy tools and wallet infrastructure advanced through new applications, security features and post-quantum technology. DeFi growth continued as Aave, Morpho and Uniswap reached new deposit and trading milestones. Ethereum development activity accelerated through August as builders across the ecosystem shipped new upgrades, launched fresh protocols, and expanded institutional integrations.

Layer-2 networks advanced their infrastructure, decentralized finance protocols recorded fresh deposit milestones, and privacy-focused applications gained new momentum.

The developments touched governance, tokenization, wallet security, and onchain gaming across the wider Ethereum landscape.

Institutional and Layer-2 Expansion Gain Momentum Ethereum’s Layer-2 ecosystem saw structural changes this month. GnosisDAO approved a vote to move Gnosis Chain from an independent Layer-1 network to a ZK-proven Ethereum Layer-2 rollup.

The shift introduces synchronous composability, allowing applications on Gnosis and Ethereum to interact within a single transaction.

Institutional interest in Ethereum also expanded. BlackRock introduced its Select Treasury Based Liquidity Fund with a tokenized share class deployed on Ethereum mainnet.

The asset manager additionally began tokenizing share classes tied to its $311 billion European money market fund series on the network.

Ethereum is for shipping.

Here are 35 things the Ethereum ecosystem launched, upgraded, and announced through August.

1/ GnosisDAO approved a vote to transition @gnosischain from its own L1 to a ZK-proven Ethereum L2 rollup with synchronous composability, so apps on Gnosis and…

— Ethereum (@ethereum) September 3, 2026

Arbitrum activated its ArbOS Elara upgrade, bringing more responsive transaction fees to Arbitrum One. The update also increased Stylus smart contract capacity fourfold and added new features for chains built on the Arbitrum stack.

Elsewhere, Whitechain, the network connected to the WhiteBit exchange ecosystem, announced plans to transition from an independent Layer-1 into an Ethereum Layer-2 built on the OP Stack.

Ethereum client teams also introduced the Platåberget testnet to prepare implementations ahead of the Glamsterdam network upgrade.

Privacy Tools and Wallet Infrastructure Advance Privacy-focused development remained active across the Ethereum ecosystem in August. Aztec Network launched Alpha v5, a protocol upgrade that reduced private transaction proving times. The release also brought an initial group of privacy-preserving applications onto the network.

Privacy Boost introduced a new frontend application enabling users to send private transfers directly from connected wallets.

Separately, Privacy Pools launched onchain payroll support, letting employers issue recurring wage payments while keeping salary amounts and recipient addresses private.

Wallet security also advanced through new releases. MetaMask launched its Agent Wallet, an agentic tool built with spending limits, allowlists, and configurable risk profiles.

Freedom Factory opened presales for PQ1, an air-gapped hardware wallet that signs transactions using post-quantum cryptography through an Ethereum smart account.

Privacy-focused wallet Cloaked reported reaching $650,000 in deposits and $1 million in transaction volume during its first 90 days of operation.

Web3Privacy also released an updated Ethereum Privacy Ecosystem Mapping for 2026, documenting the network’s growing privacy tooling landscape.

DeFi Growth and Ecosystem Programs Continue Decentralized finance activity on Ethereum showed continued expansion during the month. Aave v4 surpassed $525 million in deposits on Ethereum mainnet.

Morpho reported crossing $880 million in total deposits on Robinhood Chain within less than two months of going live, while also reaching $5.75 billion in deposits on Base.

Uniswap processed more than $1 billion in stock token volume on Robinhood Chain, contributing to over $20 billion in total volume since the platform’s July launch.

The exchange also launched v4 Permissioned Pools, a hook standard enabling allowlisted swaps for regulated assets while keeping the base protocol permissionless.

Coinbase launched tokenized stocks on Base for non-U.S. users, backed one-to-one by a regulated custodian and held in self-custody wallets.

Base separately opened applications for its Base Batches 004 accelerator program, supporting ten early-stage teams building on the network.

Ether.fi expanded its crypto neobank offering with tokenized stocks and portfolio-backed loans facilitated through Aave.

The Ethereum Foundation also launched an autoresearch challenge focused on post-quantum security, built alongside zkSecurity and EigenLabs, placing a machine-verified security problem on a public leaderboard for open contribution.

"The total value of crypto assets that have been stolen to date exceeds the yearly GDP of a medium-sized nation."

So reads the start of the Motivation section in the EIP-7906 draft proposal, which was created in early 2025, meaning that "GDP" has swelled from various exploits since then.

Of course, the problem of onchain theft isn't unique to the Ethereum ecosystem, but Ethereum does undoubtedly have a major thorn here, namely "de facto blind signing" of everything, as EIP-7906's authors put it, since today there's no way to easily vet and restrict what transactions will do once signed.

In other words, there's no network-level handle on outcomes, only on signed calldata. This means something like a wallet or a tx simulation UI can display wrong data, or miss hostile intentions, and Ethereum will still commit whatever was executed because a provided signature authorizes execution, and not a checked outcome.

This gap between intention and execution is exactly what EIP-7906, a.k.a. transaction assertions, is meant to solve. This standard's introduction will be pivotal, to the point that its arrival will mark a sort of "before" and "after" milestone in Ethereum UX.

Transactions assertions will be one of those features that we look back on and wonder how we used Ethereum without them. https://t.co/cUtPzeBCIq

— ً (@lightclients) September 1, 2026 It seems we won't have to wait very long, either. EIP-7906 is proposed for inclusion (PFI) in Ethereum's Hegotá upgrade and has already been demoed in a Hegotá devnet next to frames. The EIP isn't officially considered/scheduled for inclusion yet, and it may get pushed to Ethereum's following upgrade, but it's possible we'll see it live in 2027 at the earliest.

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That's all the general background here, but to understand how transaction assertions actually work, you have to know the basics of "frame transactions" per EIP-8141, which is already formally slated for Hegotá and which EIP-7906 is fundamentally built around.

As you can imagine from the name, frame transactions break transactions into frames, i.e. short, labeled steps with different jobs. One frame can validate a signature, another can let a sponsor pay your gas, with others you can make approvals, swaps, batches, etc.

EIP-8141: Frame Transaction

Add frame abstraction for transaction validation, execution, and gas payment

Ethereum Improvement Proposals

However, in its default structure, EIP-8141 doesn't have a baked-in outcomes check to make sure your list of frames only do what your wallet screen has indicated. Here then cue in transaction assertions, as EIP-7906, if pushed to mainnet, would add a frame mode for precisely this type of checking job.

The EIP's new proposed frame mode is specifically POST_TX, which would have to sit at the very end of your frames list. It'd run as a static call, so it could read but not write anything, and its three new opcodes, TXTRACE, TXDIFF, and EVENTDATACOPY, would only work inside it.

The neat thing is that by the time POST_TX runs, your real balance, storage, and event diff changes would already exist, and then your smart account would get a look at that data. If the results don't match with what's expected, the execution frames will revert. Accordingly, EIP-7906 can provide vetoes on onchain outcomes rather than mere (and potentially flawed) previews of them.

Under this paradigm, you'd be able to guarantee a swap will fire off as expected or dodge an approval drainer after trying to ape into an NFT mint that was discreetly nefarious, and so on. Everything that opcodes expose could get checked against your transactions' literal traces instead of simulations or calldata summaries that hostile frontends can fake.

To be sure, transaction assertions aren't a panacea for all of the Ethereum ecosystem's security problems, but it's safe to say that they can prevent plenty future onchain losses. We don't have to sign transactions and just hope for the best. We can authorize execution and then refuse to keep the results if something's gone wrong.

That's a powerful shift that will prove to be a big level up for Ethereum UX. For now, the main question that remains is the timeline. In one week, Ethereum client teams will submit their ranking preferences for further Hegotá inclusions, so we'll know more then on the community's appetite for transaction assertions coming sooner or later, like the upgrade after Hegotá.

According to official announcements, Solana ecosystem trading aggregator Jupiter has launched its cross-chain deposit feature, Universal Deposit. Users no longer need bridging tools to send tokens from any supported chain to Jupiter, and will receive USDC directly in their Solana wallets. The feature automatically integrates routing, cross-chain bridging, and swap workflows, eliminating the need for users to switch networks or execute additional transactions. Currently, Universal Deposit supports asset deposits from networks including Ethereum, Base, Arbitrum, and Sui, with users able to complete operations using their existing wallets. The service applies a unified fixed rate, charging $0.30 per transaction regardless of the transfer amount—whether it is $100 or $10 million. Jupiter noted that the feature is designed to deliver a more convenient cross-chain asset transfer experience.

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Japanese trading house stocks rose on Thursday after Greg Abel, CEO of Berkshire Hathaway, said the firm plans to keep its stakes in these trading houses for decades to come. The trading house sector was among the top gainers in the Topix index on Thursday. Mitsubishi Corp. jumped as much as 4.5%, hitting its highest level since May; Sumitomo Corp., Mitsui & Co., Itochu Corp., and Marubeni all rose more than 2.5%. Berkshire currently holds roughly a 10% stake in each of the five trading houses. Abel, who took over as CEO from Warren Buffett in January this year, told CNBC in an interview on Wednesday that Berkshire’s holdings in the Japanese trading houses are "long-term investments" and the company intends to hold them for decades. Since Berkshire disclosed its stakes in 2020, the share prices of these Japanese trading houses have benefited from their association with Buffett. A market analyst at Tokai Tokyo Research Institute noted that Abel’s renewed show of confidence "may rekindle investors’ interest in buying trading house stocks."

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Ansem: Robinhood’s Stock Price Bottoming Out and Consolidating, Expected to Hit New High in Q4

Crypto KOL Ansem wrote in a post that traditional finance (TradFi) firms consistently lag behind when integrating new crypto operations, as their suited executives often take too long to access relevant data. He believes Robinhood (HOOD) is a strong investment pick, noting its stock has been consolidating from the bottom, while the company is adding a key new revenue stream through its Layer 2 blockchain business. Robinhood’s stock is projected to hit a new all-time high in the fourth quarter, rising 50% from its current level.

10 minutes ago

The US Department of Commerce has announced the integration of Chainlink, a leading provider of blockchain oracle solutions, to transmit official economic data to public blockchain networks. This program enables transparent and immutable dissemination of key economic statistics, as released by the Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA), across 10 different blockchain platforms.

Official data streams on public blockchainsThe initiative currently broadcasts three core economic metrics: real gross domestic product (GDP), the PCE Price Index, and Real Final Sales to Private Domestic Purchasers. Each indicator is distributed through two separate data streams—one showing the latest official value and another reflecting annualized quarter-over-quarter percentage changes. In total, six unique data feeds are available.

These statistics are updated in line with the BEA’s official release schedule, with some refreshed monthly and others quarterly. All information matches what is released via traditional government platforms but is formatted specifically for smart contract applications and decentralized platforms.

The data streams operate simultaneously across 10 blockchain ecosystems, including Ethereum, Arbitrum, Avalanche, Base, Botanix, Linea, Mantle, Optimism, Sonic, and ZKsync. Representatives from Chainlink indicated that network support could expand in response to future demand.

The real GDP feed reports inflation-adjusted US economic output in chained 2017 dollars. The PCE Price Index, closely watched by financial markets as the Federal Reserve’s top inflation gauge, tracks price growth across the economy. Real Final Sales to Private Domestic Purchasers offers insight into consumption and private investment, excluding government, trade, and inventory swings.

Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick emphasized accessibility, stating that making America’s economic data globally verifiable and immutable secures the nation’s position as a leader in blockchain technology.

Data integrity is maintained through strict compliance with international information security standards, including ISO 27001 and SOC 2 Type 1. This program extends a previous effort in which the Commerce Department worked with Pyth Network to make BEA economic data available on blockchains such as Bitcoin and Solana.

How Chainlink connects government data to smart contractsChainlink, a decentralized oracle network, bridges the gap between external real-world data and blockchain smart contracts. By converting BEA statistics into blockchain-compatible formats, Chainlink enables decentralized applications (dApps) to utilize official economic indicators for automated protocols and financial contracts.

Potential applications for these on-chain data feeds include inflation-indexed digital instruments, derivative protocols, and lending platforms that can automatically adjust risk provisions based on the latest macroeconomic figures. However, Chainlink has described these as hypothetical use cases rather than confirmed commercial deployments within this specific collaboration.

Mini dictionary: Chainlink, established in 2017, is a decentralized oracle network that allows smart contracts to securely interact with real-world data, APIs, and traditional payment systems without compromising security or reliability.

LINK performance and market outlookCryptocurrency analyst @TheEliteCrypto reported that LINK’s market capitalization has climbed to $8.5 billion, reflecting a significant recovery from previous levels between $3 billion and $6 billion. The analyst identified strong support at the $6 billion mark and a key resistance target at $10 billion. In earlier market cycles, LINK’s capitalization exceeded $20 billion at its peak.

MetricPrevious RangeCurrent ValueMajor ResistanceAll-time HighLINK Market Cap$3B – $6B$8.5B$10B$20B+Standard Chartered Bank pegged a $200 price target for LINK by 2030, driven by the expanding market for tokenized assets and growing decentralized finance infrastructure. Analyst Geoff Kendrick projected that blockchain-based assets could collectively reach $4 trillion in value by the end of 2028.

Chainlink recently expanded its oracle services with new data feeds for Coinbase-issued tokenized equities on the Base network, including digital representations of companies such as NVDAc, AAPLc, METAc, and GOOGLc. These feeds support the development of collateralized lending protocols and bring traditional assets into blockchain-based financial systems.

2 hours ago

According to an announcement by Japanese listed firm Remixpoint (ticker: 3825), the company sold all its altcoins on September 1—including Ethereum (ETH), Solana (SOL), XRP, and Dogecoin (DOGE)—for a total of 878.8 million yen, generating a profit of 117.8 million yen. Post-sale, Remixpoint’s only remaining cryptocurrency holding is Bitcoin (BTC), with approximately 1,506 BTC in reserves. Breakdown of the altcoin sales: 901.4467 ETH sold for 353.4 million yen, yielding a 60.2 million yen profit; 13,920.0726 SOL sold for 227.9 million yen, with a 49.3 million yen profit; roughly 1.1912 million XRP sold for 260.4 million yen, netting a 11.52 million yen profit; and approximately 2.8023 million DOGE sold for 37.08 million yen, incurring a 3.26 million yen loss. The company plans to recognize the ~118 million yen in sale proceeds in its second quarter results for the fiscal year ending March 2027. Remixpoint stated the portfolio adjustment is designed to further consolidate its crypto asset holdings, formalize its Bitcoin-centric investment and operational strategy, and boost capital efficiency. The sale proceeds will be considered for use in expanding assets in growth sectors such as grid-scale energy storage, strengthening its financial foundation, and other initiatives to enhance corporate and shareholder value. Additionally, the firm disclosed that between February 24, 2026, and August 31, it earned BTC lending income of 14.92055902 units, equivalent to approximately 164.2 million yen. As of August 31, its staking income from ETH and SOL combined totaled roughly 29.875 million yen.

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Ethereum (ETH) holds above $2,400 on Tuesday after recording a 32.5% gain in August, its best-performing month since July 2025. This marks two consecutive positive months for the top altcoin as it continues its recovery from a nearly 70% drop spanning October to June.

US spot ETH exchange-traded funds (ETFs) played a key role in the recovery, attracting $1.85 billion in net inflows, its best month in over a year, per SoSoValue data. The products ended August on an 11-day inflow streak, with only four negative days throughout the month.

ETH ETF Flows. Source: SoSoValueAugust also saw major rotation across wallet cohorts. Investors with a balance of 10K-100K ETH, which fall within the whale bracket, accumulated 430K ETH during the month, with nearly all of that figure coming in the past two weeks as ETH began to rally.

Meanwhile, retail investors, wallets with a balance of 100-1K and 1K-10K ETH, offloaded 447K and 292K ETH, respectively, with distributions accelerating in the last two weeks.

ETH Balance by Holder Value. Source: CryptoQuantWith the rotation accelerating during the recent ETH rally, it suggests whales are accumulating supply from retail investors who are potentially booking profits or stepping to the sidelines after breaking even. The Realized Price, or average on-chain cost basis of the 100-1K and 1K-10K ETH cohorts at $2,350 and $2,260, shows these investors have largely been distributing, given the latter.

Meanwhile, inflows into staking contracts also increased, with Ethereum staking contracts adding 1.4M ETH during the month, their largest since February 2024. With more supply locked in staking contracts, available selling pressure reduces, improving the price growth outlook.

Ethereum technical outlook: ETH eyes 20-day EMA after break below $2,431 supportEthereum saw $71.6 million in liquidations over the past 24 hours, led by $59 million in long liquidations.

On the daily chart, ETH is extending its advance well above all major Exponential Moving Averages (EMAs), reinforcing a bullish near-term bias. Momentum remains constructive with the 14-day Relative Strength Index (RSI) hovering in the mid-60s and the Stochastic Oscillator (Stoch) holding in overbought territory, suggesting strong but increasingly stretched buying pressure as price hovers just over the nearby horizontal level around $2,431.

On the downside, ETH briefly broke the immediate support at the $2,431 horizontal line. The 20-day EMA follows that level at $2,310, which would be the first meaningful dynamic floor on a pullback. Below that, cluster support emerges from the 200-day EMA at $2,220 and the $2,172 horizontal level, ahead of deeper downside levels at the 50 and 100-day EMAs at $2,115 and $2,046, respectively.

ETH/USDT daily chartOn the topside, initial resistance emerges at $2,656, ahead of a higher barrier at $2,787, where a decisive break would open the door for a continuation of the prevailing uptrend.

(The technical analysis of this story was written with the help of an AI tool. Know more.)

Ethereum spot ETFs traded in the US continued to attract investor interest. According to SoSoValue data, a total net capital inflow of $87.68 million was recorded in Ethereum spot ETFs on August 31st, extending the net inflow streak to 11 days.

The largest daily capital inflow was recorded in BlackRock’s Ethereum spot ETF, ETHA. According to the data, ETHA achieved a net inflow of $59.94 million on that trading day. With this figure, the total net capital inflow accumulated since the fund’s launch reached $12.797 billion.

Grayscale’s Ethereum Mini Trust ETF ranked second in net inflows. The product saw net inflows of $13.50 million, bringing its historical total net inflow to $1.924 billion.

The total size of the Ethereum spot ETF market has also reached remarkable levels. According to the data, the total net asset value of Ethereum spot ETFs in the US is recorded at $15.614 billion. The net asset ratio, which shows the ratio of these products to Ethereum’s total market capitalization, is at 5.23 percent.

Ethereum spot ETFs have recorded a total net capital inflow of $13.062 billion since their inception. The uninterrupted net inflow over the past 11 trading days demonstrates continued interest in Ethereum from institutional and traditional finance investors.

BlackRock’s ETHA product continues to stand out in terms of daily and cumulative capital inflows. Total inflows exceeding $12.7 billion highlight its position as one of the leading Ethereum investment tools experiencing strong institutional demand.

ETF inflows in the market are among the closely watched indicators regarding the direction of the Ethereum price. While a sustained series of net inflows is seen as potentially supporting demand in the spot markets, investors will be monitoring capital movements towards funds in the coming days.

*This is not investment advice.

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As Ethereum [ETH] advanced toward $2500, traders went all-in, adding massive amounts of leverage on both Binance and Bybit.

The combined Open Interest (OI) on these two exchanges grew by $1.12 billion over the seven days ending on the 22nd of August, after traders began to chase Ethereum’s breakout.

Recently, that momentum has dramatically fallen off. As of the 30th of August, the leverage collapsed 90.9% to just $102 million. Binance fell from $843 million to $94 million, while Bybit plunged from $277 million to $8 million.

Source: CryptoQuant However, ETH is still trading near $2500, even though derivatives are being added by much smaller margins. In other words, this means that the rally is now relying less on rapid expansion of derivatives in order to continue supporting the price.

Ultimately, if Ethereum holds $2500 while leverage decreases, then this would likely indicate a rally based on growing demand.

With leveraged trading cooling, Ethereum’s support is increasingly coming from spot ETFs.

The volume of ETH being bought by institutions through spot ETFs has grown with each session since the 15th of August. Since then, U.S.-based Ethereum ETFs have had approximately $1.5 billion in investment over 10 days.

Source: Farside Over this same period BlackRock’s ETHA accounted for 71.9%, or approximately $1.02 billion, of total investment in all U.S.-based Ethereum ETFs. At an ETH price level of $2,400-$2,500, these investments would represent approximately 570,000-630,000 ETH worth of net purchases.

More importantly, ETF inflows matter because they create direct demand for ETH in the spot market without adding leverage through futures. All in all, it is likely that continued ETF inflows will support ETH’s stabilization even if derivative positions continue to be reduced.

Whale selling tests ETH demand That institutional demand now faces a direct supply test, as whale 0x2Ea2 has moved substantial ETH onto major exchanges. Over two days, the wallet deposited 40,881 ETH worth $100.67 million, spreading transfers across Binance, OKX, Bybit, Kraken, and Gate.

Source: Arkham Several deposits reached thousands of ETH, including 8,629 ETH sent to Binance within one day. This does not necessarily mean that whale 0x2Ea2 sold this amount of ETH.

However, placing ETH directly on an exchange makes it immediately available to be traded. This is important since continued sales of ETH could potentially absorb some of the spot demand for ETH currently at around $2,500.

Meanwhile, the whale still possesses 10,506 ETH worth roughly $25.52 million, and thus there are additional potential supplies. If that balance follows, ETF demand must absorb heavier selling to maintain price stability.

Final Summary

Russia’s regulated cryptocurrency trading volume may reach between 3.5 trillion and 4 trillion rubles, or $46.43 billion, during its first year following legalization, according to Anatoly Popov, Deputy Chairman of Sberbank, one of Russia’s largest state-owned banks.

Regulated trading begins with conservative estimatesPopov presented these figures prior to the Eastern Economic Forum, describing the estimates as conservative. Sberbank relied on data from the Ministry of Finance, which observed that crypto transactions within Russia amount to around 50 billion rubles daily, totaling approximately 18 trillion rubles annually.

SberCIB Investment Research, a division within Sberbank specializing in market analysis, projected that about 20% of this total—equivalent to 3.5 to 4 trillion rubles—could initially transition to regulated platforms once the appropriate legal framework is in place.

Sberbank, referencing Finance Ministry statistics, indicated that only a fraction of Russia’s existing crypto transaction volume is likely to enter the official market soon after new regulations take effect.

Most current crypto trading activity in Russia is expected to remain outside formally regulated exchanges in the near term, given patterns of behavior and the nature of the transition process.

Market growth potential and regulatory timelineSberbank believes that Russia’s regulated crypto market will expand in the coming years as domestic infrastructure matures. Popov stated that annual regulated trading volumes may reach between 4.75 and 5.25 trillion rubles by 2028, rising further to about 7.5 trillion rubles ($87.06 billion) by 2029.

This growth projection signals a gradual migration of crypto activity from unofficial channels toward licensed financial institutions.

YearRegulated Crypto Trading Volume (Trillion Rubles)USD Equivalent (Billion)First year after legalization3.5–4$46.4320284.75–5.25–20297.5$87.06Russia’s legal framework for crypto exchanges is set to take effect on September 1. The law gives professional market participants until July 1, 2027, to obtain the necessary licenses. As a result, full-scale adoption of regulated crypto trading is unlikely until after this transition deadline, keeping the initial volume modest by comparison.

The regulatory structure is designed to encourage a staged rollout, potentially reducing risks for both investors and the wider financial system.

Mini dictionary: Sberbank – Russia’s largest state-owned financial institution, actively involved in digital asset market development, banking, and investment services.

Retail restrictions and asset limitationsPopulation-wide adoption will be influenced by limitations on retail investment. Reports indicate that non-qualified investors are restricted to a maximum investment of 300,000 rubles, approximately $3,800, in crypto per year, provided they complete a financial risk-awareness test. Qualified investors have higher thresholds, but both groups will remain bound by regulatory limits.

Another factor shaping the market’s early phase is the list of approved digital assets. Currently, only Bitcoin, Ethereum, and Tether’s USDT are sanctioned for trading on Russian-regulated exchanges. Many other cryptocurrencies remain outside the legal perimeter for now.

This may encourage some investors to continue using unlicensed exchanges to access a wider selection of digital assets, limiting the initial share of total crypto activity conducted on regulated platforms.

Access to only Bitcoin, Ethereum, and USDT through official exchanges could drive demand for alternative assets elsewhere, affecting the pace at which overall activity shifts into regulated channels.

While total crypto activity in Russia could reach 18 trillion rubles per year, Sberbank anticipates that only a modest fraction will move to the regulated sector during the first phase after legalization.

For banks, brokers, and regulated exchanges, the introduction of a legal framework for crypto trading presents significant business opportunities alongside increased state oversight. For investors, the current framework does not equate to unrestricted trading rights.

Future market expansion depends on how licensing procedures evolve, investor demand develops, regulations are updated, and whether authorities choose to broaden the list of approved digital assets. Based on current forecasts, Russia’s regulated crypto market could grow to $87 billion a year by 2029 if these elements progress as expected.

The crypto market has posted sharp gains across Bitcoin and several major altcoins, but Cryptex Finance data covering 36 assets and roughly 92% of the digital asset market shows that capital remains heavily concentrated in Bitcoin and Ethereum despite prices rising across the market.

Summary

Cryptex’s 36-asset index gained just 1.92% over the trailing seven days, even as several major cryptocurrencies posted much larger gains from their recent lows. Joe Sticco said low price dispersion suggests cryptocurrencies are moving together rather than investors rotating capital between assets and sectors. Sticco said roughly nine out of every ten dollars entering regulated crypto products during one recent session went to Bitcoin and Ethereum. U.S. spot Bitcoin ETF inflows provide evidence of institutional demand, although Sticco said rising asset values should not be confused with fresh capital entering the funds. Cryptex Finance co-founder Joe Sticco told crypto.news that participation in the recent rally had spread across the market, but the allocation of capital had not followed at the same pace, leaving cryptocurrencies trading more like a single group than a market in which investors are selecting individual winners.

Cryptex’s market index stood at 1,199.69, almost 20% above the base level of 1,000 set on Feb. 20. The index tracks 36 assets across five sectors using Coinbase pricing, giving Sticco a larger sample than Bitcoin or a handful of major altcoins alone.

Over the trailing seven days, however, the index had risen only 1.92%. Sticco said the figure matters because much of the rally that produced large percentage gains from recent lows took place within roughly 72 hours between Aug. 19 and Aug. 21, followed by several days of relatively flat trading.

“Measure from the low, and you get a rally. Measure the trailing week, which is what most readers think they’re being told, and you get almost nothing,” Sticco said.

Bitcoin’s acceleration during that period followed a major derivatives flush alongside renewed spot demand. Earlier market coverage showed BTC jumping from below $65,000 to around $69,500 on Aug. 19 as more than $1 billion in crypto short positions were liquidated within an hour.

Crypto market gains show little separation between assets Price dispersion within Cryptex’s index provides another reason Sticco is reluctant to describe the rally as a full capital rotation.

On the day measured by Cryptex, the strongest constituent gained 6.71%, while the weakest declined 1.49%. Despite covering 36 cryptocurrencies from five sectors, the entire range between the best and worst performers amounted to roughly eight percentage points.

“That is not a market sorting winners from losers. That’s a market moving as one block,” Sticco said.

According to Sticco, such low dispersion indicates that a common market factor is lifting cryptocurrencies together instead of investors moving money between assets based on individual fundamentals.

Major tokens nevertheless produced very different headline returns when measured across the rally. Sticco put Bitcoin’s seven-day increase at roughly 14%, XRP’s at 28%, and Solana’s at about 19%.

Capital allocation did not match the apparent spread in price performance. Bitcoin dominance remained around 57% to 60%, depending on the market universe used, while Sticco cited an Altcoin Season Index reading below 40, far under the 75 level generally used by the index to signal an altcoin season.

Solana also remained more than 50% below its October 2025 level despite gaining about 19% during the week, according to Sticco.

“Participation broadened. Allocation didn’t,” he said.

Institutional flows remain concentrated in Bitcoin and Ethereum Regulated investment products give Sticco another way to separate rising cryptocurrency prices from the destination of new capital.

During one recent Wednesday session, Sticco said U.S. spot Bitcoin ETFs received about $232 million, while Ether ETFs attracted roughly $192 million. XRP products brought in around $28 million, compared with approximately $15 million for HYPE products and $9 million for Solana.

By his calculation, close to nine dollars out of every ten went into Bitcoin and Ethereum. Weekly figures showed a similar concentration, with Bitcoin receiving about 71% of flows and Ethereum another 26%.

The concentration comes even as U.S. spot products have helped support Bitcoin’s recovery. A previous report on ETF demand found that U.S. spot Bitcoin ETFs had taken in approximately $1.9 billion across five consecutive inflow sessions by Aug. 24, while analysts said continued spot buying would be needed after forced short covering helped accelerate the initial breakout.

Sticco said the subsequent streak had reached eight consecutive sessions of net Bitcoin ETF inflows totaling about $2.8 billion, while Ether ETFs had also recorded eight positive sessions and more than $1 billion in inflows.

August Bitcoin ETF inflows had exceeded $3 billion by the time of his comments, making it the strongest month of 2026, according to Sticco. He said BlackRock had absorbed a large portion of the demand, including around $1.3 billion during the previous week.

“Eight straight sessions of regulated spot creations is not what a short squeeze produces,” he said.

The ETF numbers, however, require another distinction when assessing how much new institutional money has entered Bitcoin.

Sticco said net assets held by the funds had climbed from roughly $77 billion in mid-August to just above $99 billion by Tuesday, an increase of about $22 billion. Actual net inflows during the eight-session streak totaled only around $2.8 billion.

Much of the difference came from Bitcoin’s rising price increasing the value of assets already held by the funds, he said, rather than investors supplying another $22 billion in fresh capital.

Earlier in August, five consecutive inflow sessions had brought approximately $853.5 million into U.S. spot Bitcoin ETFs between Aug. 3 and Aug. 7, reversing withdrawals recorded during the preceding week.

Sticco also cautioned against viewing August in isolation. He said spot Bitcoin ETFs lost roughly $5.4 billion during the first half of 2026 and remained about $2.5 billion in negative territory for the year despite the latest inflows.

ETF demand is clearer than derivatives positioning Separating institutional buying from leverage requires looking at different parts of the market, according to Sticco.

ETF flows and market depth measure demand, while funding rates, futures basis, and open interest give more information about trader positioning. Sticco said falling open interest alongside rising prices can indicate shorts are closing rather than new buyers entering.

He declined to characterize current open interest as either bullish or bearish because publicly available readings differed. Some datasets quote open interest in Bitcoin while others measure its dollar value, which can produce different trends when BTC itself moves sharply.

Market depth presents a similar problem. Sticco described depth as one of the most useful measures for institutional participation because it shows how much capital can enter or exit without materially moving the market.

“Price tells you what the last trade cleared at. Depth tells you what the next big one will cost.”

Available public depth figures were not current enough for Sticco to say confidently how much liquidity had recovered. He pointed instead to the damage following the October 2025 deleveraging event, when he said an estimated $10 billion to $20 billion in leveraged positions were erased and Bitcoin’s top-of-book depth on major venues fell more than 90% intraday.

Market makers subsequently reduced resting liquidity after getting caught with inventory while hedges were force-closed, according to Sticco, leaving order books at their thinnest since 2022.

For Sticco, the institutional side of crypto has therefore developed faster than the liquidity supporting the underlying market.

U.S. policy and Treasury conditions remain part of the rally Macroeconomic conditions have also played an important role in the latest advance, according to Sticco, who pointed to the U.S. Treasury’s Aug. 19 decision to increase long-dated debt buybacks as an important catalyst.

The Treasury doubled the maximum size of certain long-end liquidity support buybacks from $2 billion to at least $4 billion per operation. The Treasury announcement was followed by falling long-term yields and an 8.2% Bitcoin advance from an intraday low around $64,100 to approximately $69,500 in less than 12 hours.

Sticco said Bitcoin’s close relationship with software stocks during the move shows how crypto has become more connected to U.S. macro conditions. As interest-rate expectations later changed and short-term yields rose, Bitcoin surrendered some of the gains even though the legislative situation in Washington had not materially changed.

Congress presents another variable for U.S. investors. Sticco pointed to the CLARITY Act, which would establish a statutory division of responsibilities between the SEC and CFTC for parts of the digital asset market and create a federal framework affecting exchanges, brokers, dealers, and custody.

The Senate Banking Committee advanced the legislation 15-9 in May, with Democratic Sens. Ruben Gallego and Angela Alsobrooks joining Republicans. Sticco, who attended the markup as part of Cryptex’s policy work, said both Democrats made clear at the time that their committee votes did not guarantee support on the Senate floor without progress on unresolved provisions.

A Sept. 15 cloture vote requires 60 votes to move the legislation forward. Previous coverage of the negotiations identified ethics rules, stablecoin rewards, and financial-crime provisions among the issues still unresolved ahead of the procedural vote.

For regulated index products, Sticco pointed in particular to provisions covering CFTC registration of digital commodity exchanges, brokers, and dealers. Capital, asset-segregation, surveillance, and customer-protection requirements could increase the number of regulated venues capable of supporting assets used in exchange-traded products, he said.

Sticco also cited custody provisions and changes affecting financial holding companies as potentially important for institutions, while arguing that statutory classification of digital assets would give index providers more certainty than relying on agency interpretations that future regulators could change.

Policy expectations, however, have weakened even as cryptocurrency prices have risen. Sticco said Polymarket odds for the CLARITY Act becoming law in 2026 had fallen from roughly 82% in February to around 25% in late August, while Galaxy Research placed the probability closer to 10%.

The Sept. 15 vote will also fall on the first day of the Federal Reserve’s Sept. 15-16 meeting, leaving two major U.S. policy events scheduled within the same period.

Unresolved Senate negotiations include ethics and conflict-of-interest rules involving government officials, possible secondary enforcement authority for state attorneys general, illicit-finance provisions and banking-industry objections to crypto exchanges paying yield on stablecoin balances, according to Sticco.

Three changes just hit the 21Shares Ethereum ETF and its four sister funds for Bitcoin, XRP, Dogecoin, and Polkadot. New SEC filings show new fund names, a new pricing source, and a new fee schedule.

Holders keep the same shares. Behind the label, however, the products start working differently on Thursday.

The three changes hitting 21Shares’ five US crypto funds this week. Source: BeInCryptoStaking Moves Into the Ethereum ETF’s NameStart with the names. On August 25, 21Shares renamed two funds in Delaware. The 21Shares Ethereum ETF became the 21Shares Ethereum Staking ETF. The Polkadot (DOT) fund became the 21Shares Polkadot Staking ETF. Five 8-K filings published this week confirmed the changes.

Not every fund got a new name. The Bitcoin (BTC) fund, run with Cathie Wood’s ARK Invest, stays ARKB. The XRP and Dogecoin (DOGE) funds keep their names too.

The Ethereum fund has staked its ether since earlier this year and publishes a reward schedule. So the rename changes the label, not the machine. Yield is now the headline feature, written into the product’s legal name.

That label matters because the yield race is crowding fast. BlackRock launched a separate staked fund, ETHB, on February 18. Its original spot fund, ETHA, still does not stake. Fidelity went further on August 10. It filed to stake FETH’s ether and pay holders quarterly cash. Investors keep 85% of those rewards, while fees take the rest.

Big money has noticed. Intesa Sanpaolo, Italy’s largest bank, cut its Bitcoin fund stake by 94% last quarter and tripled its staked-Ethereum position. Recent flow data tells the same story. Buyers are chasing yield over price.

New FTSE Pricing and Quarterly Fees Land ThursdayThe second change is the price feed. From Thursday, August 27, all five funds will value shares using FTSE indices. FTSE Russell is the London Stock Exchange Group arm behind the Russell 2000.

The switch follows 21Shares ending its CF Benchmarks license. Those CME-branded rates expire for the funds on August 31.

That is a quiet break from an industry standard. CF Benchmarks’ rates still anchor IBIT, BlackRock’s giant Bitcoin fund. Even ETHB, BlackRock’s staked fund, prices against a CME CF rate. The benchmark sets each fund’s daily net asset value, so the switch touches every holder’s statement.

The third change is fees. 21Shares will now collect its sponsor fee at least quarterly instead of weekly. Payment stays in coins, from Bitcoin to DOT.

One caution belongs next to the shiny new names. Staked ether can take weeks to exit a crowded withdrawal queue, a gap raised around Morgan Stanley’s Ethereum ETP. Thursday’s flows will show whether yield on the label wins the money.