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US-listed Bitcoin (BTC) and Ethereum (ETH) exchange-traded funds each recorded their largest week since October 2025, drawing a combined $2.6 billion in the seven days ended August 21.

Bitcoin products captured $1.92 billion of that sum. Ethereum funds added $697.18 million, reversing a $391.96 million combined outflow the previous week.

Bitcoin and Ethereum ETFs Hit Biggest Weekly Inflow in 10 MonthsAccording to SoSoValue, Bitcoin funds recorded five consecutive days of net inflows from August 17 to August 21. The run included a $606 million single-day haul on August 20.

Trading activity climbed alongside the money. Weekly volume in BTC funds reached $22.15 billion, roughly triple the prior week’s total.

The week interrupts a long retreat. Cumulative net inflows into Bitcoin ETFs peaked at $62.77 billion in October 2025 and have since fallen to $53.71 billion.

Ethereum funds followed a similar path. Their largest daily intake since October landed on August 20 at $220.77 million. Total assets, however, remain 53% below the August 2025 high.

The annual picture stays negative for both. BTC funds have shed $2.91 billion in 2026 and ETH products $177.93 million, leaving each on track for its first losing year since launch.

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Assets Grew 9 Times More Than New MoneyThe flow figures understate what actually moved. Combined assets across both products rose by about $23 billion last week, compared with $2.6 billion in creations.

Stripping out flows, the implied gain in the underlying holdings reached 22.9% for Bitcoin and 29.2% for Ethereum. Three sessions from August 19 to August 21 produced most of it.

Revaluation, therefore, did the heavy lifting. Bitcoin traded near $77,125 at press time, while Ethereum changed hands at $2,423.

Altcoin Funds Extend the RunOther major US altcoin spot ETFs also posted net inflows over the same week. XRP (XRP) ETFs led with $39.78 million and set a record for weekly trading volume at $271.74 million.

Crypto ETF Performance in August. Source: BeInCrypto/SoSoValueSolana (SOL) products followed with $28.34 million, marking an eighth consecutive week of inflows. Chainlink (LINK) funds drew $13.35 million, their second-largest week since launching in December. Assets closed at a record $171.59 million.

Hyperliquid (HYPE) products added $3.89 million and also finished at record assets of $360.39 million. Dogecoin (DOGE) funds trailed the group with $654,416.

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Not financial or tax advice. PANews content is strictly educational and informational and is not investment advice, financial advice, tax advice, legal advice, or a solicitation to buy or sell any digital asset, security, or financial product. Do your own research and consult qualified advisers.

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5 hours ago

According to Farside's monitoring, U.S. spot Bitcoin ETFs posted a net inflow of $307.5 million yesterday, marking five consecutive trading days of robust net inflows. In the same period, U.S. spot Ethereum ETFs saw a net inflow of $184 million, extending their streak to seven straight trading days of net inflows.

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Key Highlights ETH broke through $2,500 for the first time since mid-April, climbing 8% on Friday US spot Ethereum ETFs attracted $512.4 million in net inflows across four straight days Short position liquidations exceeded $1.69 billion during a three-day period Daily futures trading volume reached $94.42 billion Market participants now targeting $3,000 as next significant resistance Ethereum pushed past the $2,500 threshold on Friday, marking its strongest price level since mid-April. This advance followed a dramatic 20% rally on August 19, which Coin Bureau identified as ETH’s most significant single-day percentage increase since May 2025.

Ethereum (ETH) Price The second-largest cryptocurrency posted gains of 26.4% across a seven-day window and 23.5% over the past month. Throughout much of August, ETH remained confined below the $2,000 mark before initiating its breakout move.

Spot Ethereum exchange-traded funds in the United States have emerged as a primary catalyst. These investment vehicles attracted $220.7 million in net inflows on Thursday, pushing the four-day accumulation to $512.4 million. Coin Bureau characterized this as the most substantial consecutive ETF inflow period since September 2025.

Spot Bitcoin ETFs Record $307 Million in Net Inflows on August 21, Extending Five-Day Streak

On August 21 (ET), spot Bitcoin ETFs recorded total net inflows of $307 million, marking five consecutive days of net inflows. Spot Ethereum ETFs recorded total net inflows of $185… pic.twitter.com/T4PAlN3ACr

— Wu Blockchain (@WuBlockchain) August 22, 2026

The Coinbase Premium Index, which tracks price differentials between Coinbase Pro and Binance for ETH, has demonstrated an upward trajectory. While still in negative territory, the rising trend indicates strengthening demand from US-based institutional and retail participants.

Massive Short Squeeze Accelerates Rally Bears faced significant losses as the market turned against them. Short position liquidations reached $265 million within a 24-hour span and accumulated to $1.69 billion over three days. During a single day, $237.44 million in short contracts were forcibly closed compared to just $65.14 million in long positions.

When short positions are liquidated, the forced buying pressure adds upward momentum to an already advancing market, creating a feedback loop that propels prices higher.

Futures open interest climbed to $31.79 billion, while 24-hour futures trading volume surged to $94.42 billion. Binance dominated the trading landscape with $26.82 billion in volume, while OKX captured $14.20 billion.

Bullish positioning maintained clear dominance across derivatives markets. The Binance ETH/USDT long/short ratio registered at 2.4, indicating that accounts holding long positions outnumbered those with short exposure by more than two to one.

Coin Bureau observed on X that Ethereum sentiment reached a three-month nadir just 48 hours before the rally commenced, and that ETH currently trades 49% beneath its all-time peak of $4,953 established in August 2025.

🚨BULLISH: Ethereum crosses $2,500 for the first time since March after surging 30% in five days.$ETH is up another 9% today.

It spent most of August stuck below $2,000.

The Aug 19 move was a 20% single-day surge, its largest since May 2025.

Spot ETH ETFs pulled in over $500… pic.twitter.com/Jh5sI21vTQ

— Coin Bureau (@coinbureau) August 21, 2026

$3,000 Emerges as Next Price Objective Market analyst Abbas Khan identified $3,000 as the “next step” following ETH’s successful breach of $2,400. Trader CoinMamba suggested ETH could advance to $3,000 through a rapid price movement. Analyst SantinoCapitals echoed the bullish sentiment, though his extended-term $10,000 forecast remains in the realm of speculation.

Reaching $3,000 would require approximately a 23% appreciation from ETH’s August 21 peak of $2,444.

Blockchain analytics reveal that profit-taking activity has remained subdued. The Network Realized Profit/Loss indicator maintained low readings, while the Age Consumed metric demonstrated that long-term holders are not engaging in significant distribution activity.

From a technical perspective, ETH trades comfortably above its 20, 50, 100, and 200-day exponential moving averages. The Relative Strength Index stands at 87, while the Stochastic Oscillator has reached 99, both signaling overbought conditions. Critical resistance levels are positioned at $2,431, $2,750, and $2,868.

Ethereum’s total market capitalization reached approximately $287.65 billion, supported by a circulating supply of nearly 120.68 million ETH.

Top Loser in Binance's 30-Day Live Futures Trading Closes Out Short Positions, Incurring a Net Loss of $3.46 Million

According to on-chain analyst Ai Yi (handle @ai_9684xtpa)’s monitoring, Binance futures live trading account "Jiujiu Jin" ranks first on the platform’s 24-hour, 7-day, and 30-day loss leaderboards. The account once held a short position of 250 BTC with an average entry price of $63,592, and closed the position at an average price of $77,758.91 at 8:15 AM today, incurring a total loss of $3.46 million.

4 minutes ago

Iraqi President: Some ships carrying Iraqi oil have been cleared to transit the Strait of Hormuz.

According to CCTV News, Iraqi President Amadi stated on the 22nd local time that Iraq had previously held talks with visiting Speaker of Iran's Islamic Parliament Ghalibaf, and conveyed a message to Iran regarding a review of bilateral relations between Iraq and Iran. Amadi also said that some ships carrying Iraqi oil have been granted passage through the Strait of Hormuz. He emphasized that the Iraqi government must engage in dialogue with militia groups, reach mutual understanding, and resolve the weapons control issue through plans that serve Iraq's national and ethnic interests. Amadi added that Iran did not request Iraq to delay its national weapons control process.

4 minutes ago

Jiang Zhuoer: Beware of "serial liquidations" in extreme market conditions, advises using isolated margin mode for high-leverage trading

Jiang Zhuoer, founder of BTC mining pool B.TOP, posted that around 1:10 PM Beijing time today, the entire crypto market experienced a mini flash crash, with BTC, ETH and numerous altcoins seeing notable pin price movements. Even non-crypto assets such as crude oil also synchronized short-term sharp fluctuations. He advised against holding large high-leverage altcoin long positions in a unified account, as under cross-margin mode, a sudden 50% crash in a single coin could lead to insufficient account margin, triggering forced liquidation of other assets in the account. For high-leverage altcoin trading, he recommended using isolated margin mode to separate positions, preventing extreme moves in one coin from affecting the entire account. While isolated margin operations are relatively cumbersome, at minimum, in extreme market conditions, "only one position will be liquidated", reducing the risk of the entire account being wiped out instantly.

4 minutes ago

A mysterious crypto whale took advantage of market momentum to offload 7,700 BTC over the past three days.

According to Lookonchain’s monitoring, a mysterious whale has sold 2,700 BTC again, valued at roughly $211.8 million. The whale has sold a total of 7,700 BTC over the past three days, totaling around $576.6 million.

4 minutes ago

Iraq confirms some oil tankers have obtained passage permits for the Strait of Hormuz.

According to Al Arabiya TV, the Iraqi President stated: "We discussed with Iranian Parliament Speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf the issue of re-examining relations between Baghdad and Tehran. Currently, some ships carrying Iraqi oil have indeed been allowed to pass through the Strait of Hormuz. Given the current situation, I believe the United States wants to reach an agreement to end its conflict with Iran. It must be noted that we are among the countries most deeply affected by the war, and the government is doing its utmost to avoid getting involved in it." (Jinshi)

4 minutes ago

Arthur Hayes warns: FLOP has not yet been launched, and there is no presale or Meme coin.

BitMEX co-founder Arthur Hayes has issued a reminder that Flop Labs has not yet released its FLOP token, nor is there any presale or meme coin associated with the project. Hayes noted that FLOP is not officially live, and cautioned the community against mistaking related tokens circulating in the market for official assets. He added that Flop Labs plans to launch an airdrop in the coming months and roll out its mainnet next year. Earlier public information showed the project had previously targeted a large-scale airdrop in Q4 2026, with the mainnet genesis block set for Q1 2027. Hayes had earlier announced he would lead Flop Labs, which is designed to build economic infrastructure for AI Agents, with FLOP serving as the native asset for AI Agents to pay for resources such as computing power and storage.

4 minutes ago

Not financial or tax advice. PANews content is strictly educational and informational and is not investment advice, financial advice, tax advice, legal advice, or a solicitation to buy or sell any digital asset, security, or financial product. Do your own research and consult qualified advisers.

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Disclosure. PANews may publish sponsored content, partner content, advertisements, affiliate links, event promotions, and market commentary involving Web3 projects, service providers, or financial products. PANews personnel, contributors, or affiliates may hold digital assets or other interests related to covered topics. See our Terms of Service.

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Ethereum whales intensified profit-taking after a two-day rally exceeding 20%, placing fresh selling pressure against still-strong market demand.

According to Lookonchain, 7 Siblings sold 14,000 ETH worth $32.85 million at an average price of $2,346. Another whale sold 11,252 stETH worth $26.5 million and 1,824 ETH worth another $4.26 million.

The transactions coincided with ETH’s sharp rise and profit-taking was a probable reason for the selling by large holders.

However, the distribution came as ETH was still trading close to the whales’ average selling points. The positioning raised the significance of demand at $2,346, with sellers converting massive amounts of their inventory into stablecoins.

Buyers counter whales as Ethereum leaves exchanges Aggressive spot demand provided the clearest counterweight to the whale selling observed during Ethereum’s price rally.

The 90-day Spot Taker CVD remained taker-buy dominant, indicating that there was more buying activity than selling activity in the market.

Therefore, buyers continued taking available offers despite whales offloading large amounts of Ethereum.

Exchange Spot Netflows strengthened that demand picture further, rather than confirming broader distribution across the market.

According to CoinGlass, ETH recorded approximately $40.43 million in negative Spot Netflows as of the time of writing.

This led to a decline in exchange side availability, while aggressive taker demand competed with the circulating supply.

Whale profit taking had brought some resistance near term especially with the rapid rise in price.

However, the taker buy dominance and exchange outflows provided the buyers with two buffers against such big holder supply.

Source: CryptoQuant Can buyers crack the $2,378 ceiling? The battle between demand and supply was brought directly to $2,378, the significant resistance zone for Ethereum.

Ethereum [ETH] had rallied from $1,945 prior to hitting around $2,353 and testing the broken supply level.

Importantly, buyers entered that zone with strong directional conditions rather than approaching it through weak participation.

The +DI has rallied to 51.69 while the -DI has fallen drastically to just 7.17.

The ADX is currently at 30.19, indicating strong momentum in the direction of the trend. Those readings favor buyers as ETH tests an area that previously capped advances during the April and May sessions.

Still, $2,377.89 represented the immediate threshold separating the rally from a cleaner technical expansion.

A continuation break may create a larger opportunity to the major $2,795.75 resistance level.

Rejection could also swing momentum back to $2,145 before other supports came into play.

Source: TradingView Liquidity could amplify the supply-zone battle Leveraged positioning added another layer to Ethereum’s attempt to clear its nearby supply pressure.

The 24-hour Liquidation Heatmap showed significant liquidation liquidity below price in the $2275 – $2290.price range

Specifically, the brightest concentration formed around $2,280, which makes for a major downside liquidity pocket.

However, liquidity also accumulated above ETH as price approached the upper boundary of its supply zone.

Clusters in the $2,380 to $2,400 range sat just past the resistance that buyers are facing.

Therefore, a move through $2,378 could expose nearby liquidation levels and strengthen the upside extension.

A rejection could otherwise drive ETH back down before any buyers would try and resume the upward run.

Importantly, spot demand remained supportive while those competing liquidity pools surrounded the current price structure.

The next direction would then be driven by whether buyers could absorb supply around the $2,378 region.

Source: CoinGlass Final Summary Whale profit-taking has increased, but taker buyers continue absorbing available ETH supply. A $2,378 breakout could expose upside liquidity and strengthen Ethereum’s ongoing recovery.

A new Ethereum Improvement Proposal wants to make account abstraction actually work the same way everywhere. EIP-8130, drafted by Chris Hunter of Coinbase/Base, introduces a universal account standard designed to bring consistent authentication, gas sponsorship, and call batching to every EVM-compatible chain, not just the ones that happened to implement their own flavor of smart accounts.

How it works At its core, EIP-8130 introduces a new transaction type, designated AA_TX_TYPE = 0x79, paired with an onchain Keystore contract deployed at a fixed address. Think of the Keystore as a universal settings panel for your account. It stores your authentication preferences onchain so that any compliant EVM chain can read them.

Instead of requiring nodes to simulate entire wallet bytecode to verify a transaction, EIP-8130 separates authentication from account logic entirely. Nodes validate transactions using a fixed set of canonical authenticators, enabling what the proposal describes as O(1) checks without full EVM tracing.

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The canonical authenticators baked into the proposal include secp256k1/k1 (Ethereum’s existing signature scheme), P-256 (used by Apple and Google secure enclaves), WebAuthn (the standard behind passkeys), and a delegate authenticator. That last one enables use cases where one account can authorize transactions on behalf of another.

Two profiles, one standard EIP-8130 defines two adoption profiles. Level 1 is designed for Ethereum mainnet and similarly structured chains. It uses a normative gas schedule and permissive acceptance, meaning it’s more flexible about which authenticators and account configurations it will process.

Level 2 is built for high-throughput chains like Base and other L2 rollups. It restricts validation to a canonical-only pathway, sacrificing some flexibility for predictable performance at scale.

The proposal also maintains backward compatibility through an ERC-4337 fallback mechanism. Chains that haven’t adopted EIP-8130 natively can still process these accounts through the existing ERC-4337 infrastructure, making the standard fully portable without requiring protocol-level changes on every chain.

The backers and the timeline Base, Coinbase, Optimism, and WalletConnect are all listed among its backers. The proposal claims a 63% reduction in transfer costs compared to the existing ERC-4337 model.

Base is targeting its Cobalt upgrade in September 2026 as the vehicle for deploying EIP-8130. That gives the proposal roughly a year from its October 2025 drafting date to move through discussion, iteration, and testing. The proposal currently sits in draft status, with active discussions happening on Ethereum Magicians and GitHub.

EIP-8130 builds on several prior EIPs, including EIP-2718 (typed transaction envelopes) and EIP-4337 itself.

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

Ethereum is gaining momentum, with its price action strengthening near a major resistance level that traders are watching closely. The sustained rally has been accompanied by a notable drop in large-holder balances and exchange reserves, evidence that more ETH is being locked away in staking, bridges, and smart contracts, potentially lowering immediate market supply.

Rising price targets and major resistanceETH is currently trading at $2,310.70, supported by a daily trading volume of $29.26 billion and a market capitalization of $278.96 billion. The coin recorded a 1.77% increase over the last 24 hours, with its technical charts and onchain metrics signaling a possible bullish reversal.

Crypto Patel, a well-known cryptocurrency analyst, noted that Ethereum has rallied approximately 50% from the $1,500 accumulation zone, which he previously identified as a strong long-term entry point. As demand remains steady, market attention has shifted to the $4,700 resistance level, considered the next major threshold.

Momentum continues to build for Ethereum as it approaches the $4,700 resistance, where a strong breakout could open the path to even higher price targets under favorable market conditions.

Crypto Patel and other analysts see $4,700 as pivotal for ETH, with a conclusive breakout potentially triggering a bull run. Hypothetical targets mentioned include $10,000, $15,000, and eventually $20,000, though these remain subject to overall market trends and risk appetite.

Onchain trends and whale activityRecent data from Santiment Intelligence indicates that the largest Ethereum wallets have continued reducing their holdings for three consecutive months. Whale balances collectively dropped by 1.7 million ETH during this period, now accounting for just 2.9% of total supply. Meanwhile, the share of wallets holding between 1 and 10 ETH has increased from 4.38% to 4.52%.

Santiment monitors Ethereum blockchain metrics and wallet flows, providing real-time data on investor behavior across the network.

Mini dictionary: Santiment Intelligence, a blockchain analytics firm that provides data and analytics on asset holders, wallets, and onchain trends, enabling traders to assess market sentiment and behavior.

Of the ETH withdrawn from large wallets, roughly 300,000 coins have moved to smaller wallets. Most of the remaining ETH has been transferred to staking services, bridges, exchanges, or smart contract addresses. Exchange reserves have also declined, dropping from about 7.07 million ETH to 6.54 million, signaling less ETH is available for immediate trade.

MetricPrevious LevelCurrent LevelETH whale balance4.6 million2.9% of supplyWallets with 1-10 ETH4.38%4.52%ETH on exchanges7.07 million6.54 millionNext steps for ETH price movementEthereum’s next significant test lies at the $4,700 level. A decisive break above this resistance would likely reinforce bullish sentiment and pave the way for higher price targets. Conversely, if ETH fails to breach this barrier, analysts expect a phase of consolidation and possible selling pressure.

Ethereum remains at a pivotal point, where exchange reserves and whale holdings are declining, potentially supporting the case for a bullish breakout if demand increases.

As the circulating supply on exchanges contracts, market participants are monitoring ETH’s approach to $4,700 closely, with future price action expected to provide further direction for both traders and investors.

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.

21h35 ▪ 6 min read ▪ by Luc Jose A.

Summarize this article with:

Like many companies, SharpLink Gaming transforms its treasury into a yield machine. Indeed, the Nasdaq-listed firm has just injected an additional 39,319 ETH into staking, approximately 91 million dollars. This new investment thus strengthens its position as the second largest institutional holder of Ether after BitMine. Like a volatile market, the company executives have decided to make their reserves work directly on Ethereum. This maneuver explains the transformation of crypto treasuries, currently developed as productive assets likely to generate on-chain income, rather than as reserves intended to sit idle on a balance sheet.

In brief Sharplink Gaming immobilizes an additional 39,319 ETH (91 million dollars) in staking, bringing its total treasury to nearly 889,000 ETH. Under the leadership of Joseph Lubin and Joseph Chalom, the firm allocates its tokens between native Ether and liquid staking tokens (LsETH and weETH) to maximize its on-chain revenue. Staking generates 11.2 million dollars in Q2 2026, offsetting a net quarterly loss of 394.3 million linked to Ether price decline. Management stays the course by directing every financing decision toward continuously increasing the number of ETH per share. Sharplink consolidates its Ether treasure through staking The allocation of 39,319 ETH, detected on August 21, 2026 by the on-chain analytics platform Lookonchain, fits into a methodical programming implemented by the management of SharpLink for over a year. This new allocation of 91 million dollars supplements an already significant company balance sheet, which was about 888,938 ETH on August 3, compared to 886,725 ETH at the end of June.

Thanks to its strategic pivot made in mid-2025, abandoning sports betting marketing under the impetus of its president Joseph Lubin, one of the Ethereum co-founders and head of Consensys, the company places staking at the center of its financial activity.

Such a meticulous distribution respects an accounting orthodoxy in which capital inactivity is viewed as an exceptional opportunity cost. Opposite to passive treasury models, SharpLink chose to place almost all of its cryptos in network validation mechanisms while maintaining a concise arbitrage between liquidity and yield.

The financial indicators for the second quarter of this year reveal this balance sheet engineering, organized around three complementary pillars :

632,719 ETH held directly in the form of native Ether, ensuring direct control over the main reserves ; 181,299 ETH mobilized through the liquid staking token of ETH to maintain operational flexibility ; 72,707 ETH committed on the weETH protocol, complemented by a 100 million dollar contribution of staked ETH aimed at kick-starting the 125 million dollar Galaxy Sharplink Onchain Yield Fund. SharpLink tested by the market: between yield and volatility The direct impact of this development is reflected in the company’s earnings composition. SharpLink’s staking activity generated 11.2 million dollars during the second quarter of this year. This amount represents almost the entire general quarterly turnover of the company.

Although this result falls slightly below Wall Street professionals’ estimate, who expected 12.3 million dollars, the trend is clear compared to the 25.6 million dollars of staking revenues earned in all of 2025. However, price corrections negatively impact this protocol.

During the same quarterly period, Sharplink suffered a colossal loss of 394.3 million dollars. Such a critical result includes 321 million dollars of unrealized losses on crypto holdings as well as 76.1 million dollars of impairments related to liquid staking positions.

Despite these original dimension balance sheet variations, management’s guidance is directed towards a single fundamental indicator. Co-CEO Joseph Chalom, recruited from BlackRock’s crypto team, emphasized during the financial update presentation in June the company’s vision: “all our financing decisions are based on a long-term goal: to increase the number of ETH per share”. Quarterly accounting turbulences matter little compared to the accumulation of Ether per share for SharpLink’s management.

Institutionalization of staked reserves: toward a new standard for Wall Street This initiative carried out by SharpLink fits into a global trend where corporate treasuries no longer want just a store of value, but rather a proper yield. Referring to observations published by specialist Everstake, staking operations now generate on average 60% of the revenues of companies that have chosen a treasury based on Ether, although the peer group accumulates more than 1.4 billion dollars of collective accounting losses considering market volatility.

Furthermore, it should be noted that the interest of major investors in this approach is increasing. The proportion of institutional investors in SBET’s capital now reaches 60%. This share is supported by the filing of a Schedule 13G form with the SEC, attesting to a new large passive stake acquisition.

This constant opposition between the creation of native cash flows and stock price fluctuations consecrates a new paradigm in corporate finance. While the methodical accumulation policy led by Joseph Lubin and Joseph Chalom exposes the stock to significant accounting difficulties, it provides in return a unique capital self-generation capacity through on-chain yields.

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Luc Jose A.

Diplômé de Sciences Po Toulouse et titulaire d'une certification consultant blockchain délivrée par Alyra, j'ai rejoint l'aventure Cointribune en 2019. Convaincu du potentiel de la blockchain pour transformer de nombreux secteurs de l'économie, j'ai pris l'engagement de sensibiliser et d'informer le grand public sur cet écosystème en constante évolution. Mon objectif est de permettre à chacun de mieux comprendre la blockchain et de saisir les opportunités qu'elle offre. Je m'efforce chaque jour de fournir une analyse objective de l'actualité, de décrypter les tendances du marché, de relayer les dernières innovations technologiques et de mettre en perspective les enjeux économiques et sociétaux de cette révolution en marche.

DISCLAIMER

The views, thoughts, and opinions expressed in this article belong solely to the author, and should not be taken as investment advice. Do your own research before taking any investment decisions.

BitMine Chairman Tom Lee has identified BMNR as the US-listed stock most closely tied to Ethereum, citing an 80% correlation while predicting that ETH will outperform Bitcoin during the current cycle.

Summary

BitMine showed an 80% correlation with ETH in Fundstrat’s comparison of 17 large-cap stocks. Lee expects tokenization and AI applications to support Ethereum’s performance against Bitcoin. BitMine held 5.82 million ETH, or 4.8% of the token’s supply, as of Aug. 16. US spot Ethereum ETFs attracted $365 million in July, compared with $205 million for Bitcoin funds. Fundstrat said in a Friday post on X that its study covered 17 companies with market values above $2 billion, giving stock investors a list of publicly traded businesses that have moved closely with Bitcoin or Ethereum.

For equity investors seeking exposure to crypto, particularly the sizable moves made by @ethereum and Bitcoin

The 17 large cap (>$2b) stocks with correlation to crypto shown below:

– $BMNR highest correlation to $ETH (80%)
– next closest is $COIN (74%)

– $MSTR highest… pic.twitter.com/p7CM92Uk6m

— Thomas (Tom) Lee (not drummer) FundstratDirect.com (@fundstrat) August 21, 2026 BitMine Immersion Technologies led the Ethereum group with a correlation of 80%, while Coinbase ranked second at 74%. Among stocks linked to Bitcoin, Strategy recorded the highest reading at 78%, followed by Coinbase at 74%.

Lee said he expects Ethereum to beat Bitcoin during the present cycle because tokenization and AI applications could create demand for Ethereum’s network. In his view, the two uses matter more than the themes that supported ETH during earlier market cycles.

The post did not disclose the period used to calculate the correlations or explain whether Fundstrat measured daily, weekly, or monthly returns. Correlations also change as prices and market conditions change, meaning the figures describe the relationship found in Fundstrat’s dataset rather than a fixed link between each stock and the corresponding cryptocurrency.

BitMine stock gives investors an indirect route to Ethereum BitMine’s position at the top of the list follows its decision to build the world’s largest corporate Ethereum treasury. As of Aug. 16, the company held 5,815,164 ETH, 210 Bitcoin, $78 million in cash and marketable securities, and investments in Beast Industries and Eightco Holdings.

Using an ETH price of $1,893, BitMine valued its combined crypto, cash, securities and other investments at $11.4 billion. The company said its Ethereum position represented 4.8% of the token’s stated 120.7 million supply, placing it 96% of the way toward its target of owning 5%.

During the week ending Aug. 16, BitMine purchased another 9,926 ETH. The company has bought Ether every week since adopting its Ethereum treasury strategy on June 30, 2025, according to its latest update.

An Aug. 10 treasury update previously covered by crypto.news showed BitMine holding approximately 5.81 million ETH after another 7,391-token purchase. At that time, the company had also repurchased three million BMNR shares under a $4 billion authorization.

BitMine added another 1.7 million shares to its repurchases during the following week, taking the total since July to more than 20.8 million. Lee said management considered the common shares undervalued, although that assessment represents the company’s view rather than an independent valuation.

BMNR closed at about $22.72 on Aug. 21, gaining roughly 5.3% during the session. Coinbase rose around 7.5%, while Strategy added about 5.9%, as Bitcoin and several large altcoins advanced during the same trading period.

Ethereum staking has become central to BitMine’s model Of BitMine’s 5.82 million ETH, 5,067,309 tokens were staked as of Aug. 16. The amount represented about 87% of the company’s Ethereum holdings and was valued at $9.6 billion using the price cited in its announcement.

Based on a seven-day annualized yield of 2.61%, BitMine projected around $250 million in annual staking revenue from the position. The company said potential annual rewards could reach $287 million after its remaining ETH is staked through its MAVAN platform and external partners.

Staking gives BitMine a source of revenue that Strategy cannot generate from its Bitcoin holdings because Bitcoin does not use a proof-of-stake system. BitMine’s estimates, however, depend on Ethereum’s staking yield, ETH’s market price, validator performance and the amount of company-owned Ether placed into staking.

The company also joined the Russell 1000 large-cap index on June 26, giving US fund managers and benchmark-tracking products another route to obtain indirect Ethereum exposure. BMNR trades on the New York Stock Exchange, while its 9.5% Series A perpetual preferred stock trades under the ticker BMNP.

Compared with a spot Ethereum ETF, BMNR carries risks tied to its operating costs, capital decisions, share issuance, staking activity, and other investments. Its market value can also trade above or below the value of the ETH and other assets held on its balance sheet.

Tokenization supports Lee’s Ethereum thesis Lee has described tokenization as one of the main reasons Ethereum could gain against Bitcoin. In BitMine’s Aug. 17 update, he said the ETH/BTC ratio had risen to 0.02994 and moved above a long-running downward trend.

Earlier ETH/BTC analysis showed the ratio testing resistance near 0.0286 in July after recovering from an early June low around 0.026. The ratio measures how much Bitcoin one Ether can buy, so a rising reading indicates that ETH is gaining value against BTC.

According to Lee, Ethereum’s relative gains during earlier cycles were supported by initial coin offerings in 2017 and 2018, NFTs in 2020 and 2021, and stablecoin adoption in 2025. He expects Wall Street tokenization and blockchain-based AI agents to support the next period of ETH outperformance.

RWA.xyz data offered additional context for the tokenization argument. As of Aug. 21, the analytics platform tracked 2,267 real-world assets on Ethereum and $13.99 billion in RWA transfer volume over 30 days, an increase of 20.45%.

The same database placed the stablecoin market value on Ethereum at $157.11 billion, with 26.6 million holders and $1.55 trillion in 30-day transfer volume. Tokenized-asset platforms listed on the network included Ondo, Securitize, Circle, Tether, and Sky.

Wall Street involvement has also extended beyond companies holding ETH. BlackRock, JPMorgan, and several asset managers have developed or tested tokenized funds, collateral products, and settlement services that use Ethereum or networks compatible with its software.

US Ethereum ETFs show signs of institutional demand US-listed exchange-traded funds have provided another measure of demand from investors who prefer regulated brokerage products. Spot Ethereum ETFs attracted $365 million in net inflows during July, while spot Bitcoin ETFs received $205 million.

The July result was Ethereum funds’ strongest month on record and the first time their monthly inflows exceeded Bitcoin ETF inflows by more than two to one, according to a recent ETF flow review. On July 23, Ethereum products received $72.64 million, compared with $68.99 million for Bitcoin funds.

Ethereum ETFs added another $53.75 million on Aug. 4, followed by $202 million over the next three trading days. During July, the ETH/BTC ratio rose by about 11%, moving from roughly 0.027 to 0.030.

AI applications form the second part of Lee’s forecast. Ethereum.org says blockchain-based agents can control wallets, execute transactions, interact with smart contracts and use stablecoins to pay for computing resources, data and application access.

Ethereum.org also describes the technology as experimental and warns users to exercise caution. Agent activity does not guarantee demand for ETH because applications can use other blockchains, layer-2 networks, or off-chain payment systems.

Lee has pointed to Robinhood Chain as one example of financial and blockchain services coming together. The Ethereum layer-2 network uses ETH for transaction fees and sends its final transaction records to Ethereum, while Robinhood reported 27.4 million funded customers at the end of the first quarter.

Within weeks of its July launch, the network had recorded almost $9 billion in cumulative decentralized-exchange volume, $431 million in locked assets and more than 250,000 daily active users, according to Robinhood Chain data. More than 80% of its early exchange volume came from memecoins, while temporary fee waivers reduced trading costs during the network’s first 90 days.

Altcoins

22 August 2026 | 01:42 Bitcoin punched toward $78,500 and Ether cleared $2,500 as the market's recovery dug deeper into high-beta altcoins, extending a risk-on rotation catalyzed by the U.S. Treasury’s latest liquidity maneuvers.

The tape rotates beyond Bitcoin and Ether Bitcoin and Ether set the market’s direction, but the distribution of gains is more revealing than either headline price. The table shows where buying accelerated most recently and where the largest weekly repricings had already occurred according to information from CoinMarketCap at the time of writing.

Asset Price 1h change 24h change 7d change Bitcoin $78,490 +1.3% +78% +24% Ethereum $2,510 +3% +8.5% +34% BNB $683 +1.2% +4.6% +13% XRP $1.40 +2.4% +11.8% +41% Solana $93.5 +2% +7% +24.7% Hyperliquid $76.8 +1.5% +2.7% +37.5% Dogecoin $0.0915 +5.2% +14% +31.3% Zcash $723 +2% +26.7% +47.5% Chainlink $12 +3% +14.9% +36% Cardano $0.225 +2.6% +14% +26.5% The hourly leaders and the 24-hour leaders are not identical. Zcash’s biggest move took place earlier in the session, while Dogecoin, Chainlink and Cardano were still gaining faster than Bitcoin at the latest reading. That split suggests fresh risk-taking, rather than a single uniform move across the market.

Participation is broader than a Bitcoin-only rally, but it is still selective. BNB and Hyperliquid trailed the fastest movers, while Tron and LEO were barely changed in the wider snapshot. The data supports a rotation into liquid, higher-volatility assets, not proof of a full altseason or identifiable institutional flows.

Even so, breadth remains selective. Laggards like Tron and UNUS SED LEO sat out the party, confirming this is a calculated capital rotation rather than an indiscriminate altseason.

How a Treasury policy shift lit the fuse The broader macro pivot began when the U.S. Treasury announced plans to effectively double its maximum long-dated bond buyback operations from $2 billion to at least $4 billion per cycle. Long-duration yields softened instantly, sending immediate tailwinds through Bitcoin, Ether, and gold.

As we detailed in our deep dive on Treasury’s expanded long-bond buybacks, this policy isn’t a backdoor quantitative easing engine. Rather, it unclogs vital liquidity channels for aging government paper, driving yields down and pushing yield-hungry capital out the risk curve.

That macro injection slammed straight into a digital asset market that had spent weeks grinding sideways in a tight cage. Once price action broke key resistance levels, trapped short positions faced a brutal reckoning. CoinGlass flagged the August 19 flush as crypto’s eighth-largest liquidation event in history. We dissected the mechanics of that cascade in our report on the $2.99 billion liquidation event.

Catching up to equities, but let’s drop the “undervalued” label Bulls love to lean on a relative-value narrative here. U.S. equities have been printing record highs all month, the S&P 500 settled at 7,798.99 on August 13, prompting UBS to bump its year-end target to 8,100 on the back of resilient tech earnings and AI capex.

Crypto entered the week nursing a multi-week hangover of compressed volatility. Calling tokens “undervalued” based on traditional equity metrics misses the mark, unlike stocks, tokens lack quarterly earnings reports or predictable cash-flow multiples. But the price action tells a simpler story: while equity investors piled into AI winners and safe-haven gold, crypto sat sidelined, making it an oversized sponge for newly unlocked macro liquidity.

Institutional desks smell momentum, but hold reservations Wall Street desks are tracking the move closely, though caution remains the overriding theme. CF Benchmarks noted that its institutional factor basket clawed back 16.2% after six consecutive weeks of pain, pointing out in their August 21 Factor Friday update that capital is heavily clustering in high-beta large caps rather than lifting the entire market equally.

According to Investopedia, analysts at Jefferies urged clients to keep champagne on ice, noting that it is far too early to declare a structural bull trend while regulatory milestones like the CLARITY Act remain pending.

It is a fair warning. Short squeezes can launch prices skyward on fast momentum alone, but long-term market health depends entirely on organic buyers stepping in long after the liquidations dry up.

What confirms a real trend shift? Watch for three critical signals to determine if this catch-up trade has legs:

Bitcoin defends the breakout zone: BTC needs to establish a firm base at or above $78,500 rather than sliding back into its old range once derivatives positioning cools. Altcoin breadth expands: Continued, orderly outperformance across Ether, Solana, XRP, and LINK provides a much cleaner health check than isolated token pumps. Macro tailwinds hold steady: Continued relief in bond yields and a softer dollar are vital to sustaining a risk-on environment. If Bitcoin rolls over and gives back the breakout, this week will be remembered as nothing more than a textbook leveraged flush. As our team explored in June why an AI-bubble burst could fuel a crypto bull market, any macro shift away from overcrowded equity trades could fundamentally rewrite crypto’s playbook. For now, the tape proves one undeniable truth: crypto is back to acting as the fastest horse in the macro race.

The article is provided for informational purposes only and does not constitute investment advice.

Author

Kosta has reported on cryptocurrency markets and blockchain infrastructure since 2020, bringing over six years of hands-on experience in the crypto industry built through daily tracking of markets, trends, and emerging blockchain developments. Specializing in Bitcoin on-chain analysis, institutional ETF flows, and digital asset price action, his work at Coindoo has been cited by other news agencies and consistently covers market developments with a focus on data-driven reporting across Bitcoin, Ethereum, Solana, and XRP. Over the years, Kosta has contributed to multiple crypto media outlets in different regions, authoring over 6,000 articles across the sector. His reporting spans cryptocurrency markets and the broader fintech industry, tracking not only price action but also the technological and regulatory forces shaping the ecosystem. To support his analysis, Kosta actively leverages on-chain data and metrics from leading platforms such as Santiment, Glassnode, and CryptoQuant, enabling deeper, evidence-based market insights. He believes in the power of transparency and the data that underpins the blockchain ecosystem. His academic background in Marketing Management from Denmark further complements his analytical approach, adding a strong understanding of communication strategy and content positioning to his work.

イーサリアム（ETH）は8月22日、NADAイーサリアム指数において40万円の大台を突破した。ETHは24時間比で10%近い上昇を見せており、同指数における40万円台への回復は、2026年1月31日以来で約7カ月ぶりとなる。

今回の価格上昇の背景には、米財務省による長期国債買い入れ枠拡大に伴う米長期金利の低下があり、リスク資産全般への資金流入が影響している。

あわせて、米国の現物イーサリアムETFに対する資金流入の継続や、暗号資産デリバティブ市場におけるショートポジションの強制清算が市場価格を押し上げる要因となっている。

なお、イーサリアムの直近の上昇率はビットコインを上回っている。

[CoinMarketCapから] ｜文：栃山直樹
｜画像：Adobe Stock

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BTCS Inc. reduced its DeFi leverage in the second quarter, repaying $8.2 million in debt to the Aave protocol as the company shifted its balance sheet away from more aggressive borrowing.

In its Q2 2026 Form 10-Q filing, BTCS reported ending the quarter with $317,113 in cash and stablecoins. The company also reported $36.0 million in outstanding loans payable to DeFi protocols, showing that its digital-asset balance sheet remained heavily tied to crypto, staking, and DeFi activity.

The numbers are striking, but they need careful framing.

This is not proof that BTCS is insolvent. It is not evidence of an Aave failure. It is a corporate treasury and risk-management story involving Ethereum, DeFi borrowing, and balance-sheet leverage.

TL;DR BTCS repaid $8.2 million in debt to Aave during Q2 2026. The company ended the quarter with $317,113 in cash and stablecoins. BTCS still reported $36.0 million in outstanding loans payable to DeFi protocols. Corporate Treasuries Are Getting More Complex Public companies involved in crypto no longer just hold Bitcoin or Ethereum on the balance sheet.

Some stake assets. Some borrow against assets. Some use DeFi protocols. Some run validator infrastructure. Some hold a mix of tokens, cash, stablecoins, loans, and operating assets.

BTCS fits into that more complex category.

Its filing shows a company using crypto-native financial infrastructure while still reporting through traditional public-company disclosures. That combination gives investors a rare view into how DeFi leverage can appear inside a listed company’s financial statements.

The result is more transparent, but also more complicated.

Why The Aave Repayment Matters Aave is one of the largest DeFi lending protocols.

Repaying $8.2 million in Aave debt suggests BTCS was actively reducing leverage rather than simply carrying the same borrowing profile forward. That can be read as a risk-management move, especially during a period when Ethereum and DeFi markets remain volatile.

Reducing debt can lower liquidation risk and simplify the balance sheet.

But it also shows how closely some crypto companies are tied to on-chain lending conditions. When a company borrows through DeFi, its financial position can depend on collateral values, interest rates, liquidity, and liquidation thresholds.

That is very different from a plain cash-and-equity treasury.

The Cash Figure Needs Context The $317,113 cash and stablecoin figure may look low at first glance.

But it should be read alongside the rest of the balance sheet, including digital assets, staking exposure, and outstanding DeFi loans. Crypto-native companies may hold value in assets that do not resemble traditional cash reserves.

That does not remove risk.

Low cash balances can limit flexibility, especially if operating expenses rise or market liquidity weakens. But it also does not automatically mean a company is insolvent.

The cleaner read is that BTCS was managing a balance sheet where most value remained tied to digital assets and DeFi positions.

DeFi Leverage Is Now A Public-Market Issue This is the broader point.

DeFi borrowing used to be mostly a wallet-level or protocol-level story. Now it can appear inside public-company filings. That means traditional investors need to understand terms like collateral, liquidation, protocol debt, staking, and on-chain credit exposure.

As more companies use Ethereum and DeFi infrastructure, these disclosures will matter more.

Investors will not only ask how many coins a company holds. They will ask whether those assets are borrowed against, staked, locked, lent, or exposed to smart-contract risk.

BTCS offers an early example of that shift.

What Comes Next The next filings will show whether BTCS continues reducing leverage or rebuilds DeFi exposure as market conditions improve.

If the company keeps lowering debt, investors may view the strategy as more conservative. If it increases borrowing again, the balance sheet may become more sensitive to Ethereum price swings and protocol conditions.

Either way, BTCS highlights an important trend.

Corporate crypto strategies are no longer simple reserve stories. Some companies are operating inside DeFi as active balance-sheet participants.

That creates opportunity, but it also creates risk that investors need to understand.

This article is based on BTCS Inc.’s Q2 2026 Form 10-Q filing and related company financial disclosures.

This article was written by the News Desk and edited by Samuel Rae.

BitMart Reverses Shutdown Decision, What Changed?

Ethereum ETF Pulls $221M as ETH Eyes Another Breakout

Ahmed Barakat

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Ahmed Barakat is a journalist and copywriter based in Georgia with a growing focus on blockchain technology, DeFi, AI, privacy, digital assets, and fintech innovation.

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Ethereum is back in the spotlight after U.S. spot Ethereum ETF pulled more than $220 million in fresh capital on August 20. The funds recorded more $219 million in net inflows, extending their winning streak to four consecutive trading days. BlackRock’s ETHA once again dominated the session with about $173 million in inflows.

That puts the August 20 flow above the $189.15 million recorded one day earlier. The back to back inflows suggest institutional demand has not slowed after Ethereum’s sharp recovery.

Ethereum ETF Flows, CoinglassETH is also surging above the $2,300 level. CoinGecko data shows Ethereum trading around the $2,360 area in recent market data, with its market cap remaining above $270 billion.

Trade ETH Market on Kalshi and Get a $25 Signing-up Bonus

BlackRock Ethereum ETF Is Doing the Heavy LiftingBlackRock’s ETHA accounted for roughly $173 million of the August 20 inflows. That was followed by BlackRock’s ETHB with about $35.9 million, while Fidelity’s FETH added $5.8 million.

Bitwise’s ETHW brought in around $2.8 million. VanEck’s ETHV added another $1.7 million. The remaining products recorded either smaller flows or no meaningful change during the session.

Biggest ETF Day Since May, BTC Back Above $70K

Aug 19 BTC & ETH ETF Net Flows: +$684.4M

Three straight inflow days, +$1.08B combined. BTC now trades
at $71,653, up 9.7% in 24 hours and back above $70K for the
first time since early June.

🟢 BTC: +$507.3M
IBIT (BlackRock):… pic.twitter.com/UOBwN2349T

— CoinMarketCap (@CoinMarketCap) August 20, 2026 The result is important because it came immediately after the $189 million inflow recorded on August 19. That earlier session had already been described as Ethereum’s strongest single day since October 2025.

As of now, August is shaping up as a major turnaround for Ethereum ETF. The funds had struggled through May and June, when combined net outflows exceeded $1 billion.

The money is moving in the opposite direction. Ethereum ETFs have posted several consecutive positive sessions while ETH has reclaimed levels that looked out of reach during the recent weakness.

Discover: The Best Token Presales

ETH Price Has Another CatalystEthereum price action is giving the ETF numbers even more weight as it jumped sharply during the recent move, reaching above $2,300 and briefly trading near $2,400.

The token’s recovery also came with a sharp improvement in sentiment. Ethereum is now testing whether the $2,300 area can turn into support rather than another temporary stop. That matters because ETF demand is becoming increasingly difficult to ignore. Four straight days of inflows means institutions are adding exposure while ETH is already trading significantly above its recent lows.

There is another supply signal worth watching. Santiment data previously showed exchange held ETH falling from roughly 7.70 million coins on June 2 to 6.54 million on August 18. That represents a decline of around 15% over 11 weeks.

Fewer ETH sitting on exchanges can reduce immediately available selling supply. Combined with stronger ETF demand, that creates an interesting setup if buying pressure continues.

The big question now is whether Ethereum can turn this ETF momentum into a sustained breakout as the $2,400 area is the next obvious test. If ETH clears it decisively while ETF inflows remain strong, the market could start looking toward the next major resistance levels.

For now, the message from Wall Street is getting louder: institutions are buying the dip, and Ethereum is listening.

Discover: The Best Crypto to Diversify Your Portfolio

The crowd's bearish turn preceded ETH's latest surge, while the crypto asset's move higher has brought a closely watched level into focus.

Ethereum extended its rally after climbing by over 5% on Friday and touched $2,420 for the first time in months. With ETH now trading above $2,380, new data suggest that several signals aligned ahead of this sharp move.

The recovery has pushed the $4,700 resistance into focus, which could open the door for $10,000, $15,000, and $20,000 targets.

Next Big Test According to Santiment’s latest analysis, the crowd sentiment on ETH hit a three-month low on August 17. Its seven-day weighted sentiment average fell to its lowest reading in at least three months and turned negative. Two days later, ETH shot up.

On August 18, Santiment’s eth_whale_dump anomaly fired once at roughly $7.55 million, compared with five events in each of the prior two weeks. ETH held on exchanges also fell to about 6.54 million coins, the lowest level of the stretch.

Then macro factors took over as the US Treasury expanded long-end bond buybacks, followed by a record wave of short liquidations. The analytics platform said that the negative crowd did not cause the rally, but it did leave a record pile of shorts in its path.

The breakout has prompted Michaël van de Poppe to expect further upside, although the MN Fund founder said that the crypto asset could see some consolidation after the recent move. He believes ETH can continue higher as long as it stays above $2,000. His short-term upside levels include $2,465 and potentially $2,900. The market commentator added that a higher high would signal the end of the bear market.

Higher Targets Come into Focus Crypto Patel’s chart puts longer-term upside in focus. Ethereum has gained more than 55% from the $1,500 accumulation zone highlighted in Crypto Patel’s analysis. The $4,700 has now emerged as a key resistance and breakout point. If the asset clears it, the analysis points to potential targets of $10,000, $15,000, and $20,000.

You may also like: 1.15 Million Ethereum (ETH) Left Exchanges – And The Exodus Isn’t Slowing ETH’s Rare Double-Digit Surge Could Be Just the Beginning Over $1B in Liquidations as Bitcoin Surges to 2-Month High Above $69K Axel Bitblaze also saw a familiar setup in ETH’s latest move. The analyst noted that Ethereum also bottomed near $1,500 in April 2025 before spending weeks below $1,950 and then pushing toward $2,400. With the current price action following a similar path, the analyst expects some sideways trading and added that the token could see one more dip before making another move higher.

On the institutional side of things, US spot Ethereum ETFs are also drawing fresh capital. These funds added yet another positive sign for the asset. On August 20, total net inflows topped $220 million, just a day after logging $189 million.

Tags:

Montevideo, Uruguay, August 20th, 2026, Chainwire

Aligned allows fintechs and institutions to build financial products on Ethereum, with one-click solutions for wallets, rollups, interoperability, and zero-knowledge services.

Today, Aligned, a full-stack Ethereum infrastructure project, has launched $ALIGN*, the native token of its ecosystem, with listings on major exchanges. Aligned is working to turn Ethereum into the world’s financial backend, and its ecosystem is the single integration fintechs, institutions, and enterprises use to build financial products on Ethereum.

Less than one percent of the world’s assets are onchain, and most of what has moved sits on Ethereum as stablecoins, tokenized treasuries, and wrapped assets. Building on top of them is still harder than it should be. A fintech going onchain usually signs with multiple vendors, one for wallets, another for scalability solutions (including rollups and proving systems), then spends months wiring them together and keeping them in sync. There is no standard way to ship a financial product on Ethereum yet.

Aligned was built to fix that. It’s built in close collaboration with LambdaClass, a company behind key contributions across the Ethereum ecosystem, including work on Starknet, zkSync, Polygon Miden, and EigenCloud (formerly EigenLayer), as well as Ethrex (the execution client which powers Aligned’s Rollup-as-a-Service) and lambdaworks, a cryptography library written in Rust. By integrating with Aligned, users can access wallets, rollups, interoperability, and zero-knowledge services through a single stack.

Aligned ships the stack one piece at a time:

Proof Aggregation Service: live on mainnet alpha. Batching the proofs a rollup generates so verification stays cheap as Ethereum scales. Wallet-as-a-Service: MVP already launched. Users sign in with Google or Face ID and get a real Ethereum wallet, with no seed phrases, extensions, or gas fees. Rollup-as-a-Service, the LambdaVM, and the interoperability protocol: in development. The LambdaVM is Aligned’s RISC-V zkVM (zero-knowledge virtual machine), built in collaboration with LambdaClass and 3MI Labs. Each ships as it’s ready. The world’s assets are moving onto Ethereum, and Aligned is creating the stack that makes it easy to build on. In the future, $ALIGN will be available as an option to pay for the services across that stack, from Proof Aggregation to Wallet-as-a-Service. As more teams build on Aligned, it will be the asset they use to pay for that usage. It is a utility token. It is not equity, a share, or a claim on revenue or dividends, and it does not promise a yield or a price.

$ALIGN has a fixed supply of 10 billion tokens, with about 16% circulating at launch. The full allocation and the Genesis airdrop are laid out in the ALIGN tokenomics. The airdrop was distributed across several waves spanning developers and researchers, the Discord and Galxe communities, distinguished contributors to Ethereum and ZK such as Protocol Guild, L2BEAT, ZachXBT, and ZK Podcast, and holders of ecosystem tokens including Starknet, Mina, zkSync, Polygon, Scroll, Taiko, and EigenCloud.

Aligned is committed to Ethereum by choice, focusing all of its efforts on it. Through the rest of the year, the team plans to ship the remaining pieces of the stack and grow the number of products built on it. The longer-term goal is to make building a financial product on Ethereum a single decision, not a systems-integration project.

Check eligibility and follow the launch at community.alignedlayer.com. To hear more, read the ALIGN tokenomics at blog.alignedlayer.com and follow @alignedlayer.

About Aligned

Aligned builds the tools that turn Ethereum into the world’s financial backend. It gives fintechs, institutions, and enterprises one integration for wallets, rollups, interoperability, and zero-knowledge services, so they can build real financial products on Ethereum instead of assembling a stack from separate vendors. Users can learn more at alignedlayer.com.

*$ALIGN is the native asset of the Aligned ecosystem, built on Ethereum as an ERC-20 token and also available on Base, with a fixed total supply of 10 billion and an initial circulating supply equal to approximately 16% of the total token supply. It will be used across the Aligned stack. $ALIGN is not equity, a share, or a claim on revenue or dividends. This announcement is informational only and is not financial advice. Do your own research.

Montevideo, Uruguay, August 20th, 2026, Chainwire

Aligned allows fintechs and institutions to build financial products on Ethereum, with one-click solutions for wallets, rollups, interoperability, and zero-knowledge services.

Today, Aligned, a full-stack Ethereum infrastructure project, has launched $ALIGN*, the native token of its ecosystem, with listings on major exchanges. Aligned is working to turn Ethereum into the world's financial backend, and its ecosystem is the single integration fintechs, institutions, and enterprises use to build financial products on Ethereum.

Less than one percent of the world's assets are onchain, and most of what has moved sits on Ethereum as stablecoins, tokenized treasuries, and wrapped assets. Building on top of them is still harder than it should be. A fintech going onchain usually signs with multiple vendors, one for wallets, another for scalability solutions (including rollups and proving systems), then spends months wiring them together and keeping them in sync. There is no standard way to ship a financial product on Ethereum yet.

Aligned was built to fix that. It's built in close collaboration with LambdaClass, a company behind key contributions across the Ethereum ecosystem, including work on Starknet, zkSync, Polygon Miden, and EigenCloud (formerly EigenLayer), as well as Ethrex (the execution client which powers Aligned's Rollup-as-a-Service) and lambdaworks, a cryptography library written in Rust. By integrating with Aligned, users can access wallets, rollups, interoperability, and zero-knowledge services through a single stack.

Aligned ships the stack one piece at a time:

Proof Aggregation Service: live on mainnet alpha. Batching the proofs a rollup generates so verification stays cheap as Ethereum scales. Wallet-as-a-Service: MVP already launched. Users sign in with Google or Face ID and get a real Ethereum wallet, with no seed phrases, extensions, or gas fees. Rollup-as-a-Service, the LambdaVM, and the interoperability protocol: in development. The LambdaVM is Aligned's RISC-V zkVM (zero-knowledge virtual machine), built in collaboration with LambdaClass and 3MI Labs. Each ships as it's ready. The world's assets are moving onto Ethereum, and Aligned is creating the stack that makes it easy to build on. In the future, $ALIGN will be available as an option to pay for the services across that stack, from Proof Aggregation to Wallet-as-a-Service. As more teams build on Aligned, it will be the asset they use to pay for that usage. It is a utility token. It is not equity, a share, or a claim on revenue or dividends, and it does not promise a yield or a price.

$ALIGN has a fixed supply of 10 billion tokens, with about 16% circulating at launch. The full allocation and the Genesis airdrop are laid out in the ALIGN tokenomics. The airdrop was distributed across several waves spanning developers and researchers, the Discord and Galxe communities, distinguished contributors to Ethereum and ZK such as Protocol Guild, L2BEAT, ZachXBT, and ZK Podcast, and holders of ecosystem tokens including Starknet, Mina, zkSync, Polygon, Scroll, Taiko, and EigenCloud.

Aligned is committed to Ethereum by choice, focusing all of its efforts on it. Through the rest of the year, the team plans to ship the remaining pieces of the stack and grow the number of products built on it. The longer-term goal is to make building a financial product on Ethereum a single decision, not a systems-integration project.

Check eligibility and follow the launch at community.alignedlayer.com. To hear more, read the ALIGN tokenomics at blog.alignedlayer.com and follow @alignedlayer.

About Aligned

Aligned builds the tools that turn Ethereum into the world’s financial backend. It gives fintechs, institutions, and enterprises one integration for wallets, rollups, interoperability, and zero-knowledge services, so they can build real financial products on Ethereum instead of assembling a stack from separate vendors. Users can learn more at alignedlayer.com.

*$ALIGN is the native asset of the Aligned ecosystem, built on Ethereum as an ERC-20 token and also available on Base, with a fixed total supply of 10 billion and an initial circulating supply equal to approximately 16% of the total token supply. It will be used across the Aligned stack. $ALIGN is not equity, a share, or a claim on revenue or dividends. This announcement is informational only and is not financial advice. Do your own research.

ContactRoberto Catalan
Aligned Layer
[email protected]

Disclaimer: Press release sponsored by our commercial partners.

Daily Debrief NewsletterStart every day with the top news stories right now, plus original features, a podcast, videos and more.

Ethereum’s price extended its strong rebound on Friday, rising above $2,430 for the first time in nearly four months. This rally was supported by renewed institutional demand and notable movements of ETH by large holders on and off cryptocurrency exchanges.

Institutional flows and ETF inflows boost sentimentETH gained approximately 29% in the past week, reflecting a broader trend of recovery seen across the cryptocurrency market. Alongside Ethereum’s gains, Bitcoin briefly crossed $79,000 as investor appetite for digital assets improved.

US spot Ethereum exchange-traded funds (ETFs) recorded significant demand. According to market data provider SoSoValue, US-listed spot Ethereum ETFs attracted a net inflow of $220.77 million on August 20. This represented the highest single-day inflow for these products since October 28, 2025.

Combined inflows into these funds totaled $512.25 million over the past four sessions. Assets managed by US Ethereum ETFs increased to $13.58 billion, the highest amount since May 11. Cumulative net inflows in these products reached $11.97 billion as institutional participation showed continued strength.

US spot Ethereum ETFs attracted $220.77 million of net inflows on August 20, marking their strongest daily result since late October and extending a four-day positive streak.

Earlier in the year, institutional demand for Ethereum weakened as price declines led to significant outflows from ETF portfolios. The recent turnaround has prompted renewed optimism within the sector.

Mini dictionary: SoSoValue, an analytics platform specializing in tracking ETF flows and on-chain data for major cryptocurrencies, provides detailed daily reports for institutional and retail investors.

Whale activity highlights mixed signalsOn-chain activity shows a divided approach among major ETH holders, also known as whales. Blockchain analyst Lookonchain reported that wallet 0x2d59 withdrew 30,000 ETH, valued at $67.42 million, from Binance. Over the last three weeks, the same address has removed 120,000 ETH worth about $237.7 million from the platform.

Abraxas Capital, a London-based investment firm, withdrew 18,000 ETH worth $39.56 million, while a newly created address moved 6,704 ETH, approximately $14 million, out of Binance. Withdrawals of this scale are often seen as a signal of reduced short-term selling pressure, as coins move into private storage rather than remaining available for quick sale.

Simultaneously, some large investors took the opportunity to sell at higher prices. Lookonchain tracked a group called 7 Siblings selling 14,000 ETH for $32.85 million at an average price of $2,346. Another address converted 11,252 stETH and 1,824 ETH into 30.78 million USDT. In addition, a separate whale is reported to have realized $1.76 million in profit after selling 5,250 ETH.

Large exchange withdrawals by entities like wallet 0x2d59 and Abraxas Capital suggest that whales remain actively involved in Ethereum’s supply dynamics, even as profit-taking emerges around resistance levels.

With Ethereum approaching the key $2,500 resistance zone, inflows into ETFs and the steady removal of coins from exchanges point to enduring institutional interest. However, a simultaneous wave of profit realization among major holders introduces a note of caution as ETH faces critical price levels.

Whale/EntityAmount of ETHUSD ValueActionwallet 0x2d5930,000$67.42 millionWithdraw from BinanceAbraxas Capital18,000$39.56 millionWithdraw from Binance7 Siblings14,000$32.85 millionSold at $2,346 avg.Other wallet (stETH + ETH)13,076$30.78 millionConverted to USDTDisclaimer: 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.

Cover image via U.Today Disclaimer: The opinions expressed by our writers are their own and do not represent the views of U.Today. The financial and market information provided on U.Today is intended for informational purposes only. U.Today is not liable for any financial losses incurred while trading cryptocurrencies. Conduct your own research by contacting financial experts before making any investment decisions. We believe that all content is accurate as of the date of publication, but certain offers mentioned may no longer be available.

According to the Ripple stablecoin tracker website, Ethereum has now overtaken the XRP Ledger in RLUSD supply.

Based on current data supplied by the page, RLUSD circulating supply on the XRP Ledger is now $941.36 million, which has been surpassed by that of Ethereum, which is $989.34 million.

The change comes as Ripple continues to adjust RLUSD liquidity across its supported blockchain networks. Specifically, the last 24 hours have seen more RLUSD minted on Ethereum than on the XRP ledger, with larger activity in favor of the former (Ethereum). 

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On August 20, $73.8 million RLUSD was minted on ethereum with $23.5 million burned. On August 21 so far, $53.2 million RLUSD was minted on Ethereum with $15 million burned. 

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This surpasses XRP Ledger, which saw $36.1 million RLUSD minted on August 20 and $15.4 million RLUSD burned in this timeframe. So far on August 21, $12.5 million RLUSD was minted on the XRPL and $6.5 million burned. 

Ripple stablecoin tracker X account details some of these transactions over the last 24 hours.

In recent hours, two transactions of 25,000,000 RLUSD and 20,000,000 RLUSD minted on Ethereum were reported, while 10,000,000 RLUSD was burned on the blockchain. One transaction of 10,000,000 RLUSD minted on XRP Ledger was reported. Another three transactions of 20,000,000 RLUSD, 14,000,000 RLUSD and 16,000,000 RLUSD minted on Ethereum were reported within the last 24 hours. 

RLUSD nears $2 billion in circulating supplyWith the ongoing activity, the RLUSD total circulating supply is fast approaching the $2 billion milestone, currently at $1.93 billion according to the Ripple stablecoin tracker page.  The current figure of $1.939 billion in total circulating supply marks an all-time high for the Ripple USD (RLUSD) stablecoin, which launched in December 2024. 

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RLUSD was launched with support for both the XRP Ledger and Ethereum, allowing its access across two major networks.

In June, the XRP Ledger surpassed the Ethereum blockchain in RLUSD circulating supply for the first time. Now, a recent supply shift has flipped this tide, and the XRP community is watching what comes next. 

Crypto Price Analysis August-21: ETH, XRP, ADA, BNB, HYPE

The biggest single day ETH move in two years did not trigger the liquidation cascade. But the concentrated staking correlation trade on Aave is one bad day from unwinding.

Summary

Ethereum surged approximately 18% on Aug. 20, 2026, its strongest single day move since March 2024, climbing from roughly $1,920 to above $2,270 as trading volume jumped 402%. More than $1 billion in Ethereum short positions were liquidated across derivatives markets during the rally, contributing to a broader $3 billion crypto liquidation event. On Aave, the largest decentralized lending protocol with roughly $12.2 billion in total value locked, just 9% of positions carry approximately half of the platform’s total debt. These concentrated positions are built around a leveraged Ethereum staking correlation trade, using WETH debt against liquid staking collateral like weETH (42% of collateral), rsETH, and wstETH, with average health factors near 1.06 and debt to equity ratios near 10.7 times. An 8% to 9% discount in liquid staking wrapper prices relative to ETH could trigger on chain liquidations across hundreds of accounts, creating a cascade risk that the Aug. 20 rally obscured but did not eliminate. The number that matters from Aug. 20 is not 18%. It is 1.06.

Ethereum’s single day gain of roughly 18% dominated the headlines. Trading volume surged 402%. More than $1 billion in short positions were liquidated. The altcoin market cap crossed $1 trillion. By every surface metric, it was one of the strongest days for Ethereum in two years.

But underneath the rally, a structural vulnerability in decentralized lending sat untouched. On Aave, 9% of positions carry roughly half the protocol’s total debt. Those positions run at an average health factor of 1.06, a margin of safety so thin that an 8% to 9% move in the wrong direction could trigger a liquidation cascade on chain.

The rally did not test that vulnerability because ETH moved higher, not lower. The concentrated positions survived. But surviving is not the same as being safe.

The anatomy of the correlation trade To understand the risk, start with the trade itself.

Ethereum’s transition to proof of stake created a new asset class: liquid staking tokens. When a user stakes ETH through a protocol like Lido, Rocket Pool, or EtherFi, they receive a derivative token (wstETH, rETH, or weETH) that represents their staked position. These tokens are designed to trade at or near a 1:1 ratio with ETH, accruing staking rewards over time.

The correlation trade exploits the tight relationship between these wrapper tokens and ETH itself. A trader deposits liquid staking tokens as collateral on Aave, borrows WETH against them, stakes the borrowed WETH to create more liquid staking tokens, and repeats. Each loop adds leverage. The profit comes from the staking yield, which compounds with each layer of recursion.

On paper, the trade appears low risk. The collateral (liquid staking tokens) is correlated with the debt (WETH). As long as the wrapper tokens maintain their peg to ETH, the health factor remains stable. The borrower earns staking yield on every layer of collateral while paying borrowing costs on the WETH debt.

In practice, the risk is concentrated in the peg itself.

Where the leverage sits The data on Aave’s concentrated positions is specific enough to be alarming.

Just 9% of Aave positions hold approximately half the protocol’s total debt. The debt weighted loan to value across this cohort runs near 90%. Their average health factor sits at 1.06. Their debt to equity ratio is approximately 10.7 times.

The collateral backing these loans tells the story. Ethereum staking and restaking wrappers, including weETH, rsETH, and wstETH, make up about 66.2% of the collateral. weETH alone accounts for roughly 42%. WETH makes up about 73% of the group’s total debt.

Total stablecoins supplied on Aave stand at $8.98 billion, with $7.40 billion borrowed, producing a utilization rate of 82.46%. The protocol’s total value locked is approximately $12.2 billion.

The concentration is remarkable. A small number of highly leveraged positions, all running the same fundamental trade, hold enough debt to create systemic consequences if they unwind simultaneously.

What a depeg would look like A health factor of 1.06 means the collateral is worth 6% more than the minimum required to avoid liquidation. For these positions, that translates to a buffer of roughly 8% to 9% in wrapper discount before liquidations begin.

A wrapper discount occurs when a liquid staking token trades below its expected value relative to ETH. This can happen for several reasons: a rush to exit staking positions, a smart contract vulnerability in the staking protocol, a governance failure, or simply a market wide liquidity crunch that drives sellers to accept below peg prices.

Aave learned this lesson in March 2026. A stale risk oracle parameter led to approximately $26 to $27 million in wstETH liquidations. The incident was contained because it affected a single collateral type and the parameter was corrected quickly. But it revealed how oracle latency could interact with concentrated positions to produce outsized losses.

A broader depeg scenario would unfold differently. If weETH, which backs 42% of the concentrated cohort’s collateral, were to trade at a 10% discount to ETH, the health factors on hundreds of accounts would drop below 1.0 simultaneously. Aave’s liquidation mechanism would activate, selling wrapper tokens into a market that is already discounting them. The selling pressure from liquidations would widen the discount, triggering more liquidations.

This is the same feedback loop that operates in centralized derivatives markets during a short squeeze, but in reverse and on chain. Instead of forced buying pushing prices higher, forced selling pushes prices lower. And because the liquidated collateral is the same asset that is being discounted, the cascade feeds on itself.

JUST IN: Aave founder Stani Kulechov announces he is personally contributing 5,000 ETH to DeFi United as the team works nonstop to deliver the best outcome for users pic.twitter.com/CHhe0GlLFu

— crypto.news (@cryptodotnews) April 24, 2026 Why the rally masked the risk Ethereum’s 18% surge on Aug. 20 had the opposite effect on the concentrated Aave positions. Higher ETH prices improved health factors across the board. Wrapper tokens rallied in line with ETH, maintaining their pegs. The positions that sit at 1.06 health factor at current prices were temporarily safer.

But the rally also encouraged behavior that makes the eventual risk worse. When ETH prices rise, staking yields become more attractive in dollar terms. Traders have an incentive to add more layers of recursion to the correlation trade, increasing leverage. If the concentrated cohort added positions during or after the rally, the health factors may have returned to the same 1.06 level at higher absolute prices, meaning the dollar value at risk has increased even though the percentage buffer remains the same.

DeFi lending protocols do not have circuit breakers. There is no exchange operator to halt trading during extreme volatility. There is no margin call that gives a borrower time to add collateral. When the health factor drops below 1.0, liquidation is automatic and immediate. The speed of the cascade is limited only by block time and gas availability.

The rally was driven by macro catalysts including Treasury buybacks and a White House summit. If those catalysts fade and ETH retraces, the concentrated positions will be the first to feel the pressure.

The staking yield illusion The correlation trade is popular because the math looks compelling in normal conditions. Staking yields on Ethereum currently range from 3% to 5% annualized, depending on the protocol. At 10 times leverage, the effective yield on equity approaches 30% to 50% annualized, minus borrowing costs.

But this calculation assumes the wrapper peg holds perfectly. It assumes liquidity in the wrapper market remains sufficient to absorb large sales without price impact. And it assumes that no exogenous shock, whether a smart contract exploit, a regulatory action against a staking provider, or a sudden spike in ETH volatility, disrupts the correlation.

Each of these assumptions has been violated at least once in the history of liquid staking tokens. Lido’s stETH traded at a 7% discount to ETH during the Terra/Luna collapse in June 2022. Rocket Pool’s rETH briefly dipped below peg during the FTX contagion in November 2022. These dislocations were temporary, but they occurred during conditions when leveraged positions on the same tokens would have been liquidated.

The August 2026 rally created an opportunity for traders to take on more of this risk at what feel like higher prices and wider margins. Whether those margins are real or illusory depends entirely on what happens next.

Aave’s risk management response Aave is not unaware of the concentration risk. The protocol’s governance forum has discussed parameter adjustments to address the wstETH/weETH correlation trade, including reducing the loan to value ratio in E mode (the enhanced efficiency mode that allows higher leverage for correlated assets) and increasing liquidation incentives to attract faster liquidator participation during stress events.

The March 2026 incident, in which a stale oracle parameter caused $26 to $27 million in unintended liquidations, prompted a review of oracle update frequencies and fallback mechanisms. The protocol now runs multiple oracle sources for major collateral types.

But governance adjustments move slowly in DeFi. Proposals must pass through community discussion, snapshot votes, and on chain execution. The concentrated positions exist now. A parameter change that takes two weeks to implement offers no protection against a depeg event that unfolds in two hours.

The broader DeFi ecosystem faces the same challenge. Compound, Morpho, and other lending protocols have varying degrees of exposure to the same liquid staking correlation trade. If a depeg event triggers liquidations on Aave, the selling pressure would affect wrapper prices across all platforms simultaneously. Institutional custodians watching from the sidelines would have reason to reconsider their DeFi exposure calculations.

What to watch Wrapper discount thresholds. Track the price of weETH, wstETH, and rsETH relative to ETH on DEX aggregators. Any sustained discount above 3% is a warning sign. A discount above 8% would begin triggering liquidations on the concentrated Aave positions. Aave E mode parameter proposals. Governance proposals to reduce the loan to value ceiling in E mode for liquid staking collateral would force the concentrated cohort to reduce leverage. Track the Aave governance forum and snapshot voting page. ETH volatility after the rally. The 18% move was driven by macro catalysts. If those catalysts fade and ETH retraces, the concentrated positions will be tested. A 15% decline from current levels would bring ETH back to the pre rally range near $1,920, which could stress wrapper pegs. Liquidation bot capacity. On chain liquidation depends on bots that monitor health factors and submit liquidation transactions. If gas prices spike during a cascade, slower bots may fail to participate, reducing liquidation efficiency and increasing bad debt risk. Aave’s total stablecoin utilization rate. At 82.46%, utilization is already high. If it climbs above 90%, withdrawal liquidity shrinks and the protocol’s ability to absorb a cascade deteriorates. How much of Aave’s debt is concentrated in a small number of positions? Approximately 9% of Aave positions carry roughly half of the protocol’s total debt. These positions run at an average health factor of 1.06 with debt to equity ratios near 10.7 times.

What is the Ethereum staking correlation trade? Traders deposit liquid staking tokens (weETH, wstETH, rsETH) as collateral on Aave, borrow WETH against them, stake the borrowed WETH to create more liquid staking tokens, and repeat. Each loop increases leverage and staking yield exposure.

What would trigger liquidations on these positions? An 8% to 9% discount in liquid staking wrapper prices relative to ETH would push health factors below 1.0, triggering automatic on chain liquidations. A 10% depeg could flip hundreds of accounts below the danger threshold simultaneously.

Has a liquid staking depeg happened before? Yes. Lido’s stETH traded at a 7% discount during the Terra/Luna collapse in June 2022. Rocket Pool’s rETH briefly dipped below peg during the FTX contagion in November 2022. Both dislocations were temporary but would have triggered liquidations on leveraged positions.

What is Aave’s total value locked? Aave holds approximately $12.2 billion in total value locked as of August 2026, with $8.98 billion in stablecoins supplied and $7.40 billion borrowed, producing a utilization rate of 82.46%.

Why did the March 2026 Aave incident happen? A stale risk oracle parameter led to approximately $26 to $27 million in wstETH liquidations. The incident highlighted how oracle latency can interact with concentrated positions to produce unintended losses.

Does Aave have circuit breakers? No. DeFi lending protocols do not have the ability to halt trading or pause liquidations during extreme volatility. When a health factor drops below 1.0, liquidation is automatic and limited only by block time and gas availability.

How does Ethereum’s 18% rally affect the concentration risk? The rally temporarily improved health factors by pushing collateral values higher. However, it may also have encouraged traders to add leverage, potentially returning health factors to the same tight 1.06 level at higher dollar values, increasing the absolute amount at risk. This is educational analysis, not investment advice.

Disclaimer: This article is for informational purposes only and does not constitute financial, investment, or trading advice. Cryptocurrency markets and DeFi protocols carry substantial risk, including the risk of total loss. Always conduct your own research before making any investment decisions. Published Aug. 21, 2026.