Not financial or tax advice. PANews content is strictly educational and informational and is not investment advice, financial advice, tax advice, legal advice, or a solicitation to buy or sell any digital asset, security, or financial product. Do your own research and consult qualified advisers.
Disclosure. PANews may publish sponsored content, partner content, advertisements, affiliate links, event promotions, and market commentary involving Web3 projects, service providers, or financial products. PANews personnel, contributors, or affiliates may hold digital assets or other interests related to covered topics. See our Terms of Service.
South Korea’s semiconductor cluster has received enhanced policy support, with the government covering up to 100% of its infrastructure construction costs.
Moody's assigns SK Hynix a Class A rating for the first time, as the AI storage boom has boosted the company's performance.
Global credit rating agency Moody’s has for the first time upgraded SK Hynix’s credit rating to the A range, reflecting the chipmaker’s enhanced competitiveness in the AI storage market, as well as improvements in its profitability and cash generation capabilities. The day before, Moody’s raised SK Hynix’s long-term issuer rating and senior unsecured bond rating by one notch, from Baa1 to A3, with a stable rating outlook. This marks the first time SK Hynix has obtained an A-level rating from Moody’s since it was acquired by SK Group in 2012, and it is also the first of the three major international credit rating agencies to assign an A-level rating to SK Hynix. Currently, both S&P Global Ratings and Fitch Ratings assign SK Hynix a rating of BBB+, with S&P holding a positive outlook and Fitch a stable outlook. Moody’s forecasts that SK Hynix will maintain strong profitability and cash generation capabilities over the next 12 to 18 months, with its financial position set to improve further. Moody’s noted that the company has built up sufficient cash reserves, strengthening its ability to withstand downside risks from the semiconductor cycle.
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CNN: Trump has not yet made the "fatal mistake" of expanding the war with Iran, but is facing a critical choice.
CNN published an analysis stating that U.S. President Donald Trump has not yet taken the biggest risk in the Iran conflict: escalating the war to an uncontrollable scale. But as the diplomatic deadlock drags on, Trump is facing three options: further escalation, expanding military operations, or withdrawing from the conflict. The report notes that after Iran refused to hold further talks, Trump recently issued another stern warning, saying Iran’s leadership faces a "last chance." However, analysts argue that simply expanding airstrikes will not necessarily force Iran to back down; instead, it could prompt Iran to target infrastructure of U.S. allies in the Gulf region, escalating regional conflict. Currently, the U.S. is still limiting the scope of its military operations, targeting primarily military sites. Further strikes on civilian infrastructure such as energy facilities and power grids, or even ground operations, could push the conflict into a higher-risk phase. CNN points out that history—including the Vietnam War, Iraq War, and Afghanistan War—shows that leaders often escalate conflicts to avoid defeat or protect their reputation, ultimately falling into a "no-win, no-exit" trap. Analysts note that Trump won the 2016 election by campaigning against "endless wars," and the Iran conflict will now be a key test of his political legacy. With the U.S. midterm elections approaching, further escalation could carry higher political costs. Trump is currently balancing diplomatic and military pressure, and the ultimate trajectory of the Iran conflict will impact his presidential tenure evaluation and the U.S. Middle East strategy.
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Whale 0x2e80 withdraws 112,000 $ETH ($208M) from Gemini in 3 weeks, stakes all
Whale 0x2e80 withdrew another 19,000 $ETH ($35.44M) from #Gemini and staked it. Over the past 3 weeks, the whale has withdrawn a total of 112,000 $ETH ($208M) from #Gemini and staked it.
2 minutes ago
A crypto whale withdrew 112,000 ETH from Gemini over the past three weeks and staked the tokens, with the holdings valued at approximately $208 million.
According to Lookonchain monitoring, whale address 0x2e80 has once again withdrawn 19,000 ETH (valued at approximately $35.44 million) from Gemini, and subsequently staked the entire amount. Over the past three weeks, the address has cumulatively withdrawn 112,000 ETH from Gemini, totaling around $208 million, all of which has been allocated to staking.
BitMine Immersion Technologies expanded its Ethereum holdings during the week ended August 2, purchasing 10,399 ETH and bringing its total to 5,797,813 ETH. The company reported that this figure now represents 4.8% of Ethereum’s entire token supply, which totals 120.7 million ETH. Alongside the crypto purchase, BitMine repurchased 4.5 million shares under its ongoing $4 billion buyback program.
Ongoing Ethereum accumulation and market impactThe digital asset treasury firm, which focuses on Ethereum accumulation strategies, maintained its weekly purchase rhythm with the latest move. BitMine, which shifted to this accumulation approach last year, had added 9,946 ETH just one week earlier. These additions occurred despite a broader downturn in cryptocurrency markets and ongoing paper losses tied to the firm’s substantial Ethereum position.
Data from DropsTab indicated that BitMine, which trades on the NASDAQ under the ticker BMNR, is facing unrealized losses of approximately $8.8 billion from its Ethereum portfolio. This valuation is subject to market fluctuations, making the actual impact variable over time.
Despite short-term declines in the broader cryptocurrency market, BitMine continued building its Ethereum position on a weekly basis, even in the face of significant unrealized portfolio losses.
Chairman Tom Lee repeated a positive stance on Ethereum, noting in July that returns on the cryptocurrency outpaced the Nasdaq 100 by 25%. He discussed Ethereum’s market performance as a key pillar of BitMine’s treasury strategy.
Lee specifically pointed to the increase in ETH price from $2,375 in July 2025 to $4,057 by the end of August, though he also cautioned that historical gains are not a guarantee of future performance for either Ethereum or BMNR stock.
MetricValueRecent ETH Purchase10,399 ETHTotal Holdings5,797,813 ETHETH Supply Percentage4.8%Unrealized Losses$8.8 billionStaking strategy and rewardsBitMine confirmed that a significant portion of its Ethereum holdings are allocated to staking, with 4,917,189 ETH reportedly staked, totaling a value of roughly $9.2 billion. Based on its estimates, annualized staking rewards reach $247 million, though these figures can vary with staking yields and validators’ reliability.
Staking allows BitMine to generate rewards denominated in ETH, while simultaneously holding Ethereum on its balance sheet. Dollar-denominated rewards, however, remain subject to market volatility and performance of the broader cryptocurrency ecosystem.
The company’s approach provides US investors with indirect stock market exposure to Ethereum. Unlike a spot exchange-traded fund, BMNR stock exposes shareholders to both the cryptocurrency and corporate factors like management decisions and capital allocation strategies.
Additional risks to shareholders include volatility in the cost basis, potential dilution from capital raises, various financing choices, and operational complexities connected to staking activity.
BMNR shares rose following the announcement of the recent Ethereum purchase and share buyback. The stock traded at $17.34, marking a 0.38% increase, according to Yahoo Finance.
Tom Lee also cited historical correlations among Ethereum, the Nasdaq 100 (tracked by QQQ), and BMNR shares. He observed that in past months, when ETH outperformed QQQ, BMNR typically delivered enhanced returns the following month.
BitMine Immersion Technologies operates as an Ethereum-focused treasury company specializing in large-scale digital asset accumulation, staking, and providing alternative stock market exposure to the blockchain sector.
Mini dictionary: Staking, a process allowing users to lock up their cryptocurrency—such as Ethereum—in a blockchain network to help validate transactions and secure the network. In return, participants receive staking rewards, typically paid in the same cryptocurrency.
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.
Not financial or tax advice. PANews content is strictly educational and informational and is not investment advice, financial advice, tax advice, legal advice, or a solicitation to buy or sell any digital asset, security, or financial product. Do your own research and consult qualified advisers.
Disclosure. PANews may publish sponsored content, partner content, advertisements, affiliate links, event promotions, and market commentary involving Web3 projects, service providers, or financial products. PANews personnel, contributors, or affiliates may hold digital assets or other interests related to covered topics. See our Terms of Service.
Bitmine Immersion Technologies just dropped another 150,120 ETH into staking, a move worth roughly $278 million. That brings the company’s total staked Ethereum to over 5 million ETH, a figure that should make anyone paying attention to Ethereum’s supply dynamics sit up a little straighter.
The firm, led by chairman Tom Lee and traded on the NYSE under ticker BMNR, now holds approximately 5.8 million ETH in total. That’s about 4.8% of Ethereum’s entire circulating supply. For a company that didn’t exist before mid-2025, that’s a remarkably aggressive accumulation pace.
The Alchemy of 5% strategy Bitmine isn’t being subtle about its ambitions. The company’s strategic roadmap, dubbed the “Alchemy of 5%” plan, aims to control 5% of all ETH in circulation. Based on the latest numbers, they’re essentially there already.
The staking operation runs through Bitmine’s proprietary MAVAN platform, short for Made in America Validator Network. The company has been staking between 70% and 87% of its total ETH holdings, depending on the reporting period, generating projected annual yields between $247 million and $290 million.
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The weekly cadence of accumulation and staking throughout 2026 suggests this isn’t a one-off treasury allocation. It’s the core business model. Buy ETH, stake ETH, earn yield, repeat.
Tom Lee has consistently emphasized Ethereum’s strategic importance and Bitmine’s role as a bridge between the asset and traditional financial markets. The NYSE listing reinforces that positioning, giving institutional investors a public equity vehicle for exposure to Ethereum staking yields without needing to touch the underlying crypto infrastructure themselves.
What 5 million staked ETH means for the network From a supply perspective, 5.8 million ETH sitting in one company’s wallet, with the vast majority staked and therefore illiquid, creates meaningful scarcity pressure. That’s ETH that isn’t sitting on exchanges waiting to be sold.
The company was founded on June 30, 2025. In roughly 10 to 11 months, it went from zero to holding nearly 5% of all circulating Ethereum.
Bitmine also maintains supplemental holdings in Bitcoin and other investments, though Ethereum clearly dominates the portfolio.
What this means for investors If Bitmine is generating $247 million to $290 million annually from staking rewards, that creates a self-reinforcing accumulation cycle. Staking rewards get reinvested, the ETH pile grows, more staking rewards follow.
Concentration of 4.8% of a major network’s supply in a single entity raises centralization concerns that Ethereum purists won’t ignore. Regulatory scrutiny of staking-as-a-business-model remains an evolving landscape, and any reclassification of staking rewards or validator activities could impact Bitmine’s economics significantly. There’s also the straightforward market risk: a sharp decline in ETH price would compress the dollar value of those holdings and staking yields simultaneously, creating potential pressure on the company’s balance sheet and stock price.
Disclosure: This article was edited by Editorial Team. For more information on how we create and review content, see our Editorial Policy.
Leading cryptocurrencies lacked momentum on Monday as traders balanced geopolitical risk from Iran against selling pressure from large corporate Bitcoin treasuries.
What’s Impacting Crypto Market?Bitcoin jumped to an intraday high of $64,020 late afternoon before pulling back to around $62,000, while Ethereum remained stuck in the $1,800 region.
Over $240 million was liquidated from the cryptocurrency market in the last 24 hours, with short position traders losing more vis-à-vis long position traders, according to Coinglass data.
Bitcoin’s open interest rose 1.93% over the last 24 hours. An increase in open interest alongside an increase in price indicates long buildup, meaning new buyers are entering the market.
Top Gainers (24 Hours)
The global cryptocurrency market capitalization stood at $2.2 trillion, following a dip of 0.79% over the last 24 hours.
Stocks Enter Record TerritoryMarkets opened the fresh trading week on a high note. The Dow Jones Industrial Average jumped 693.38 points, or 1.32%, to end at a record close of 53,178.41. The S&P 500 rallied 1.48% to end at 7,600.50, while the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite climbed 2.13% to settle at 25,913.90.
President Donald Trump called off a planned strike on Iran during the weekend to resume negotiations, but Tehran later denied that direct talks with Washington were underway.
Trump accused Iranian negotiators of being “unbelievably duplicitous” in a Truth Social post and warned them that only two options remain at the table: “Deal” or “Total Surrender.”
Still No BTC Bottom?On-chain analytics firm CryptoQuant noted that Bitcoin’s Adaptive Sell-side Risk Ratio—an indicator that quantifies overall selling pressure—has declined to levels historically associated with accumulation phases.
“Historically, such zones have appeared during the late stages of bear markets,” CryptoQuant said. “This improves the long-term risk-reward profile, but it does not mean a local bottom has already formed.”
Michaël van de Poppe, a widely followed cryptocurrency analyst and trader, said things have started to “look great” for Ethereum.
“I would assume that we’re going to hold $1,800 and break the $2,000 barrier. After that, it’s a fast run to $2,300 and higher,” Van De Poppe projected.
Photo: KateStock / Shutterstock
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BlackRock has launched a tokenized money market fund designed for stablecoin reserves on the Solana and Ethereum blockchains, according to Decrypt. This move marks an expansion of BlackRock’s existing onchain cash management offerings, which already include a tokenized share class of the BlackRock Select Treasury Based Liquidity Fund (BSTBL) on Ethereum. The initiative aims to provide stablecoin holders and issuers with regulated reserve assets that can yield returns on short-term Treasuries and cash. As the world’s largest asset manager, BlackRock’s continued foray into blockchain-based financial products underscores a growing institutional interest in the tokenized money market sector.
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Key Takeaways BlackRock’s new tokenized money market fund appears to expand its existing blockchain-based offerings, now including Solana alongside Ethereum. Market participants may interpret this development as consistent with increased institutional adoption of Ethereum, suggesting potential impacts on Ethereum’s price outlook. The launch of these products could indicate a broader trend of integrating stablecoin reserves with regulated financial products on public blockchains. What to Watch Observers will likely monitor how the launch of BlackRock’s tokenized funds influences Ethereum’s market dynamics, particularly in the context of Ethereum reaching significant price thresholds by the end of 2026. Key actors such as the Ethereum Foundation and major asset managers like Fidelity may play roles in shaping market sentiment. Additionally, regulatory developments or technological advancements in blockchain infrastructure could further impact Ethereum’s adoption and price trajectory.
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Term Structure
Contract Odds Δ since publish Volume 24h December 31, 2026 1.8% — — View market → December 31, 2026 2.6% — — View market → December 31, 2026 2.8% — — View market → December 31, 2026 4.2% — — View market → December 31, 2026 5.5% — — View market → January 1 2027 10% — — View market → January 1 2027 12.5% — — View market → January 1 2027 2.1% — — View market → January 1 2027 2.9% — — View market → January 1 2027 2.6% — — View market → January 1 2027 4.3% — — View market → January 1 2027 6.5% — — View market → January 1 2027 49.1% — — View market → January 1 2027 8% — — View market → January 1 2027 3% — — View market → January 1 2027 34.5% — — View market → January 1 2027 26% — — View market → January 1 2027 17.5% — — View market → January 1 2027 83% — — View market → January 1 2027 56.5% — — View market →
FXRP clears its first institutional lending vault on EthereumXRP holders have a new way to put their assets to work. Flare's (@FlareNetworks) FXRP is now approved as collateral in Sentora's RLUSD Main vault on @Morpho, marking the first time a version of XRP has been accepted as collateral in an institutionally managed lending vault on Ethereum.
The mechanics are straightforward. Users mint FXRP on Flare, bridge it to Ethereum through Stargate, deposit FXRP into the lending market on Morpho Blue, and borrow RLUSD against their collateral. Throughout the process, XRP exposure stays intact.
The lending market sits inside Sentora's RLUSD Main vault, which holds roughly $280 million in RLUSD deposits, making it the largest institutionally managed RLUSD vault on Ethereum.
Sentora said it reviewed FXRP's market behaviour, oracle design, liquidity, and liquidation mechanics before approving it as collateral. Flare CEO Hugo Philion (@HugoPhilion) framed that review as meaningful in itself, noting that "XRP is now collateral that an institutional risk team underwrites on Ethereum mainnet, which is a stronger form of recognition than another bridge listing."
A WBTC moment for XRPThe model draws a direct comparison to Wrapped Bitcoin (WBTC), which lets Bitcoin holders use their BTC in Ethereum-based DeFi without selling. FXRP is designed to do the same for XRP, giving holders access to Ethereum lending markets.
The timing aligns with broader momentum behind Ripple's stablecoin. RLUSD operates on both the XRP Ledger and Ethereum, with the dual-chain design tapping into Ethereum's DeFi ecosystem while leveraging XRPL's fast, low-cost payment network. RLUSD is issued under a NYDFS Trust Charter.
The XRP community has historically had limited access to sophisticated DeFi strategies, but Flare has been building the foundations for XRPFi through FXRP and a growing set of integrations. Flare is also working on direct FXRP minting from the XRP Ledger to Ethereum, which would remove the separate bridge step and make the process faster.
For now, the infrastructure is in place. One of crypto's largest assets has spent years sitting idle. Plugging it into onchain credit is how that changes.
Sources
Decrypt: XRP Holders Can Now Borrow Ripple's RLUSD on Ethereum Without Selling Their Crypto
AltcoinBuzz: FXRP Becomes First XRP Collateral for RLUSD Loans on Ethereum
Flare Network: First-ever modular lending for XRP debuts on Flare via Morpho and Mystic
According to Onchain Lens monitoring, a Hyperliquid trader opened high-leverage long positions over the past hour: a 40x leveraged long of 400.88 BTC (worth approximately $25.16 million) and a 25x leveraged long of 10,000 ETH (worth around $18.51 million), bringing total position value to roughly $43.68 million. The position currently has an unrealized profit of about $193,300, though the trader’s cumulative historical losses still stand at around $1.95 million.
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Analysis: After multiple threats and concessions from Trump, Iran’s leadership believes he does not want to escalate the war.
According to a report by U.S. broadcaster CBS, Iran appears to be growing increasingly skeptical of former President Donald Trump’s “carrot and stick” diplomatic strategy. In April this year, Trump warned Tehran it must agree to a ceasefire or “the entire civilization will perish,” but later extended the deadline. He repeated similar tactics in May and June. Internal Iranian sources stated this approach has instead reinforced the country’s leadership’s view that Trump is not seeking to escalate the conflict, but rather bargaining chips in negotiations. They believe Iran can withstand pressure and raise the costs for the U.S. via proxies such as Yemen’s Houthi movement and threats to global shipping, until Washington concludes there is no military solution to the conflict. Tehran’s current assessment is that time is on its side.
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Trump says Strait of Hormuz may reopen at the latest tomorrow, Iran negotiations enter second phase.
US President Donald Trump said that U.S.-Iran talks are advancing rapidly, with both sides discussing the reopening of the Strait of Hormuz, which "could reopen by tomorrow at the latest." Trump noted that the first phase of the talks aims to reopen the Strait of Hormuz, while the second phase will focus on Iran's "denuclearization" issue. He stated that if anyone tries to charge fees in the Strait of Hormuz, "the U.S. will collect the fees," emphasizing that Iran will not be allowed to charge fees in the waterway. Trump also said this is Iran's "last chance," adding that the talks are being held at Iran's request, and relevant results could be announced today or tomorrow. Prior to this, tensions in the Strait of Hormuz have remained high, and markets are closely monitoring its impact on global energy supplies and oil price trends.
14 minutes ago
Michael Saylor: I have never sold any Bitcoin. MicroStrategy's BTC trading is part of the company's capital management activities.
Strategy founder Michael Saylor posted a statement clarifying that his earlier "Never Sell Your Bitcoin" stance was shared with other Bitcoin holders in his capacity as an individual investor. Saylor said he has never sold any Bitcoin, "not even a single satoshi". He emphasized that Strategy is a public company, not a personal wallet, and has publicly disclosed since 2020 that it may buy or sell BTC for capital management purposes. Saylor noted that Strategy and its investors’ long-term conviction in Bitcoin remains unchanged, adding that the company’s related operations are part of its corporate financial strategy, while his personal stance on holding Bitcoin stays consistent. Previously, the market had been monitoring whether Strategy would adjust its Bitcoin holding strategy; Saylor’s latest remarks aim to clearly distinguish between personal Bitcoin holding behavior and public company asset management decisions.
14 minutes ago
Head of Amazon Cloud Business: AI Business Has Enormous Potential Scale
Amazon (AMZN.O)’s cloud unit head said clients are shifting from using its services to train AI models to integrating these models into their own business processes, a trend driving surging demand for inference computing. Matt Garman, CEO of Amazon’s Cloud Computing Division, said on Monday: “We still see some companies using large training clusters, but as these models grow more popular and powerful, more firms are integrating this inference capability into their own workloads.” He noted that the potential of the AI business is “extremely huge,” adding that the company will continue to increase capital expenditure to meet growing demand. As the world’s largest provider of computing power and data rental services, Amazon said last week it projects capital expenditure will reach $220 billion in 2026, up from its prior forecast of $200 billion. The spending hike reflects rising prices of storage chips and other components required for data centers.
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The US military stated that it will continue its maritime blockade of Iran, and has altered the routes of 44 merchant ships.
US Central Command stated local time on August 3 that the U.S. military remains strictly enforcing the maritime blockade against Iran. As of that day, the U.S. military has altered the routes of 44 commercial vessels, disabled two vessels, and boarded and inspected two others.
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US officials said there are currently no plans to hold new negotiations with Iran.
According to U.S. network CBS, citing a U.S. official, despite Trump’s earlier announcement that negotiations with Iran would begin Monday afternoon (local time), no new talks are currently scheduled. Instead, ongoing discussions are underway between U.S. Middle East envoy Witkoff, Kushner, and the U.S. negotiating team and Iran via intermediaries.
Users can convert their XRP into FXRP and use it as collateral on Ethereum to borrow RLUSD without selling their holdings.
Flare has announced that its FXRP token can now be used as collateral in Sentora’s RLUSD vault on Morpho, marking a new step for XRP in decentralized finance. The update allows XRP holders to access lending markets on Ethereum without selling their underlying holdings.
The integration follows Sentora’s approval of FXRP for use in its institutionally managed RLUSD vault, announced on August 3, 2026. The vault holds about $280 million in RLUSD and now includes a dedicated FXRP/RLUSD market on Morpho Blue.
FXRP Approved as Ethereum Lending Collateral According to a press release sent to CryptoPotato, this is the first time a version of XRP has been accepted as collateral in an institutional lending vault on Ethereum mainnet. Users can mint FXRP through Flare’s FAssets system, transfer it to Ethereum through Stargate, and borrow RLUSD while keeping exposure to XRP.
The lending market is open to all users and does not require a whitelist before participation. A supply cap has been introduced at launch, with the limit expected to change as liquidity grows.
Commenting on the milestone, Flare Co-founder and CEO Hugo Philion said limited infrastructure had restricted XRP’s use in decentralized finance for years. He added that the approval shows institutional risk managers now recognize FXRP as collateral on Ethereum rather than simply another bridged asset.
Echoing that view, Sentora Co-founder and Chief Technology and Product Officer Jesus Rodriguez said the integration brings XRP into on-chain credit markets. He noted that the development expands the practical use of XRP across decentralized lending.
Risk Controls and Future Development Before approving the asset, Sentora completed a review covering market behavior, price oracles, liquidity, and liquidation mechanisms. The company said FXRP will continue to undergo the same monitoring process applied to other approved collateral assets.
You may also like: Bitmine Buys Another 10,399 ETH, Treasury Nears 5.8 Million Coins Ethereum’s Network Is Booming, So Why Is ETH Still Underperforming? Four in a Row: Will XRP Buck Its Bearish August Streak? Morpho Blue isolates each lending market, limiting potential risks to the specific FXRP/RLUSD pool. The structure also gives the market its own oracle system and liquidation parameters.
Under this setup, borrowers will pay interest based on market utilization and must maintain enough collateral to avoid liquidation. Flare is developing Smart Accounts that will allow users to complete the process directly from XRP Ledger wallets. The company is also working on direct FXRP transfers from the XRP Ledger to Ethereum.
Bitmine Immersion Technologies said its crypto, cash, marketable securities and strategic investments reached $11.3 billion as the company continued expanding its position as the largest corporate Ethereum holder.
The company held 5,797,813 ETH as of August 2 after purchasing another 10,399 ETH during the previous week. The position was valued at approximately $10.9 billion using an Ethereum price of $1,880.
Bitmine said its holdings represent 4.8% of Ethereum’s total supply of approximately 120.7 million ETH, bringing the company closer to its goal of controlling 5% of the network’s supply.
Its remaining holdings include 209 Bitcoin, $173 million in cash and marketable securities, a $180 million investment in Beast Industries and a $61 million stake in Eightco Holdings.
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Bitmine also repurchased 4.5 million common shares during the past week. The purchases brought its total repurchases since July 1 to 16.1 million shares under a previously authorized $4 billion program.
Chairman Tom Lee said management considers Bitmine shares attractively valued following Ethereum’s strong performance against technology stocks. Ethereum outperformed the Nasdaq 100 by 25 percentage points in July, according to the company.
Lee said periods of strong Ethereum performance relative to the Nasdaq 100 have previously been followed by Bitmine shares outperforming Ethereum during the following month.
Bitmine described the repurchases as the largest common stock buyback conducted by a crypto digital asset treasury company. That characterization is based on the company’s own assessment.
The company has also staked 4,917,189 ETH, representing about 85% of its Ethereum treasury and approximately $9.2 billion at the price used in the announcement.
Bitmine projects that its existing staked position could generate approximately $247 million in annual revenue based on an annualized seven day yield of 2.67%.
If its entire Ethereum position were staked at the same yield, the company estimates annual staking rewards could reach $291 million. These estimates remain dependent on Ethereum prices, network rewards and the performance of its staking infrastructure.
A portion of the holdings is staked through MAVAN, Bitmine’s institutional Ethereum validator network. The company plans to expand the platform to serve custodians, institutional investors and other ecosystem partners.
Disclosure: This article was edited by Estefano Gomez. For more information on how we create and review content, see our Editorial Policy.
Smart accounts replace seed phrases with passkeys, social recovery, and gas sponsorship, making self-custody usable without memorizing 12 words.
Summary
Account abstraction (AA) upgrades Ethereum wallets from fixed key pairs to programmable smart contracts that define their own validation rules. ERC-4337, live on mainnet since March 2023, introduced AA without changing Ethereum’s core protocol by routing transactions through an alternative mempool of UserOperations. Passkey wallets such as Coinbase Smart Wallet and Safe replace seed phrases with biometric authentication tied to the device’s secure enclave. Gas sponsorship (paymasters) lets applications pay transaction fees on behalf of users, removing the requirement to hold ETH before interacting with a dapp. Social recovery allows a set of trusted guardians to restore wallet access if a device is lost, eliminating the single point of failure that seed phrases represent. Introduction The standard advice for anyone entering crypto has not changed in a decade: write down 12 words, store them offline, and never lose them. This instruction is correct under the old model. Externally owned accounts (EOAs) derive a single private key from that mnemonic, and whoever holds the key controls the funds. There is no recovery, no spending limit, no way to require a second signature. Lose the phrase, lose everything.
Account abstraction changes this premise. Instead of coupling wallet security to a single secret, AA turns the wallet itself into a smart contract, one that can enforce arbitrary rules about who may sign, how gas is paid, and what happens when a key is compromised. The upgrade does not require users to understand smart contracts. From the outside, a passkey wallet looks like logging into an app with a fingerprint. Underneath, the architecture is fundamentally different.
This guide explains how AA works at the protocol level, what ERC-4337 introduced, and why the shift matters for self-custody going forward.
How Ethereum wallets worked before account abstraction Every Ethereum address before AA was an externally owned account. An EOA is controlled by a private key derived from a mnemonic seed phrase. The account has no on-chain logic. It can send transactions and sign messages, but it cannot enforce rules about those actions. For a broader overview of wallet types and their mechanics, see what are crypto wallets.
This design has three structural limitations:
No recovery mechanism. If the private key is lost and no backup exists, the account is permanently inaccessible. Chainalysis estimates that roughly 20% of all Bitcoin is held in wallets whose keys are presumed lost. Ethereum faces the same problem.
No spending controls. An EOA cannot limit transaction size, restrict destination addresses, or require multiple signatures. A single compromised key means total loss. Organizations that need shared control over funds must use external multisig contracts instead of native account features. For how those multisig setups work and where they have failed, see how crypto’s biggest treasuries get secured and robbed.
Gas must be paid by the sender. Every transaction requires the signing account to hold ETH for gas. A new user receiving tokens on Ethereum cannot move them without first acquiring ETH from somewhere else. This creates an onboarding dead end that has persisted since Ethereum’s launch in 2015.
What ERC-4337 introduced ERC-4337, authored by Vitalik Buterin, Yoav Weiss, Kristof Gazso, Namra Patel, Dror Tirosh, and Shahaf Nacson, went live on Ethereum mainnet in March 2023. It delivers account abstraction without requiring a hard fork, which was a critical design constraint. Previous AA proposals (EIP-2938, EIP-3074) required protocol-level changes that validators and client teams were reluctant to adopt. ERC-4337 sidesteps this by operating entirely at the smart contract layer.
The standard introduces four components:
UserOperations. Instead of sending a regular transaction, users submit a UserOperation (UserOp), a data structure that describes the intended action. UserOps enter a separate mempool, not the standard transaction mempool. Each UserOp contains the sender’s smart account address, the calldata for the intended action, gas limits, and an optional paymaster address.
Bundlers. Specialized nodes collect UserOps from the alternative mempool, bundle them into a single on-chain transaction, and submit that transaction to the network. The bundler pays gas upfront and is reimbursed by the smart account or a paymaster. Bundling creates gas savings: the fixed overhead of an Ethereum transaction is paid once per bundle rather than once per user action.
EntryPoint contract. A singleton contract deployed at a canonical address on every ERC-4337 chain. All bundled UserOps pass through this contract, which calls each smart account’s validation function, executes the operation, and handles gas accounting. The EntryPoint contract has been audited by OpenZeppelin and is immutable once deployed, providing a stable trust anchor for the entire system.
Paymasters. Optional contracts that sponsor gas on behalf of users. A paymaster can pay fees in exchange for ERC-20 tokens, absorb costs as a dapp subsidy, or implement any other payment logic. The paymaster’s validatePaymasterUserOp function is called during validation, and the paymaster can reject operations that do not meet its criteria.
The result: a wallet is no longer a key pair. It is a smart contract with a programmable validateUserOp function that decides whether a given operation is authorized.
The UserOperation lifecycle in detail Understanding how a UserOp moves through the system clarifies what makes AA different from regular transactions.
Construction. The wallet application constructs a UserOp containing the target contract call, gas parameters, and a nonce. If a paymaster is involved, the paymaster address and its approval data are included. Signing. The user signs the UserOp. The signature format is defined by the smart account, not by the protocol. This is the key flexibility: the smart account can accept ECDSA signatures, passkey signatures, multisig thresholds, or any other scheme. Submission. The signed UserOp is submitted to a bundler via a JSON-RPC endpoint (eth_sendUserOperation). The bundler validates the UserOp off-chain to ensure it will not revert. Bundling. The bundler groups multiple UserOps into a single transaction that calls the EntryPoint contract’s handleOps function. Execution. The EntryPoint calls each smart account’s validation function. If validation passes, the EntryPoint executes the operation. If a paymaster is present, the EntryPoint charges the paymaster instead of the smart account for gas. Confirmation. The bundled transaction is included in a block. Each UserOp within it is treated as an independent action that either succeeds or fails without affecting other UserOps in the bundle. This lifecycle means the user never interacts with the Ethereum mempool directly. The bundler handles gas estimation, nonce management, and transaction submission. From the user’s perspective, the experience is closer to submitting a form on a website than to broadcasting a raw blockchain transaction.
Passkey wallets and the end of seed phrases The most visible consequence of AA is that wallets can now authenticate users with passkeys instead of seed phrases.
A passkey is a cryptographic credential stored in a device’s secure enclave (the Secure Enclave on Apple devices, Titan M on Google Pixels, or TPM on Windows machines). The user authenticates with a fingerprint, face scan, or device PIN. The private key never leaves the hardware.
Coinbase Smart Wallet, launched in June 2024, uses this approach. Account creation takes under 10 seconds. The user authenticates with a biometric, and the wallet deploys a smart contract account that recognizes that passkey as a valid signer. There is no seed phrase to write down, no browser extension to install. Coinbase reported deploying over 10 million smart accounts through this flow by early 2026.
Safe (formerly Gnosis Safe) has integrated passkey signing into its smart account framework. Users can add a passkey as one of multiple signers on a multi-signature account, combining the convenience of biometric login with the security of threshold signatures.
The tradeoff is platform dependency. A passkey created on an iPhone is synced through iCloud Keychain. If a user loses all Apple devices and cannot access iCloud, the passkey is gone. This is why social recovery exists as a complementary layer. Passkey wallets are strongest when combined with at least one backup signer that uses a different authentication method.
Social recovery: replacing backup with guardians Social recovery, proposed by Vitalik Buterin in a 2021 blog post, replaces the single backup (seed phrase) with a group of guardians.
The mechanism works as follows:
The wallet owner designates a set of guardians. Guardians can be friends, family members, institutional custodians, or even other smart contracts. The owner sets a threshold. For example, 3 of 5 guardians must approve a recovery request. If the owner loses access, they initiate a recovery process from a new device. Guardians independently confirm the request. Once the threshold is met, the smart account replaces the lost signing key with a new one. The guardians do not need to coordinate simultaneously. Most implementations include a time delay (typically 24 to 48 hours) during which the original owner can cancel a fraudulent recovery attempt.
This model eliminates the single point of failure. Losing a device does not mean losing funds, as long as enough guardians are reachable. It also eliminates the physical security burden of storing a seed phrase in a fireproof safe or safety deposit box.
Guardian selection matters significantly. Guardians should be distributed across different geographies, communication channels, and relationship types. If all guardians are in the same group chat and that chat is compromised, the recovery mechanism becomes an attack vector. Some implementations allow adding institutional guardians (such as a hardware wallet provider or a custodial service) alongside personal contacts, creating defense in depth.
Gas sponsorship and how paymasters work Before AA, a new user who received USDC on Ethereum could not send it anywhere without first acquiring ETH to pay gas. This chicken-and-egg problem has been one of the largest onboarding barriers in crypto.
Paymasters solve this. A paymaster is a smart contract that agrees to cover gas costs for a UserOperation, subject to its own rules.
Three common paymaster models have emerged:
Dapp-sponsored gas. The application pays all gas for its users. The dapp deposits ETH into the paymaster contract and authorizes UserOps from its users. From the user’s perspective, transactions are free. Dapps treat gas as a customer acquisition cost, similar to free shipping in e-commerce. This model is particularly effective on Layer 2 networks where gas costs are fractions of a cent per transaction.
ERC-20 gas payment. The paymaster accepts an ERC-20 token (USDC, DAI) instead of ETH. The user pays for gas, but in a token they already hold. The paymaster swaps the token for ETH to reimburse the bundler. This removes the need for users to hold two separate tokens (the asset they want to use plus ETH for gas).
Subscription or session-based. The paymaster authorizes a batch of operations within a time window or spending limit. A gaming dapp might sponsor 100 transactions per day per user, for example. Session keys extend this concept further: the user signs a single transaction that grants a temporary key the right to perform specific actions (such as moves in a game) without requiring approval for each one.
Pimlico, Alchemy, and Stackup operate paymaster infrastructure that dapps can integrate with a few API calls. Alchemy alone has facilitated over one million smart account deployments through its paymaster and bundler services. The economics are straightforward: on Layer 2 networks where gas costs pennies, sponsoring user transactions is trivially cheap.
EIP-7702 and the road to native account abstraction ERC-4337 works without protocol changes, but it is not the end state. Ethereum’s roadmap includes EIP-7702 (authored by Vitalik Buterin and Sam Wilson), which was included in the Pectra upgrade.
EIP-7702 introduces a new transaction type that allows an EOA to temporarily point to smart contract code for the duration of a single transaction. The EOA does not permanently become a smart contract. Instead, it can behave like one when needed, gaining access to batched calls, sponsored gas, and custom validation logic, and then revert to standard EOA behavior.
This matters for two reasons. First, it lets existing EOA holders (anyone with a MetaMask wallet today) access AA features without migrating to a new account. Migration has been a major friction point: users do not want to move all their assets, permissions, and on-chain history to a new address. Second, it reduces gas costs because the permanent smart account deployment overhead is avoided for users who only need AA features occasionally.
The long-term vision, discussed across multiple Ethereum Foundation roadmap posts, is that every account on Ethereum becomes a smart account by default. StarkNet and zkSync already implement this: on those networks, every account is a smart contract from creation. EIP-7702 is the bridge that moves Ethereum’s existing user base toward this model without breaking backward compatibility.
Where account abstraction is deployed today AA adoption is concentrated on Layer 2 networks where gas costs make experimentation cheap.
Base has the highest density of smart accounts, driven by Coinbase Smart Wallet. By mid-2026, Base had processed over 30 million UserOperations. The network’s sub-cent gas costs make paymaster sponsorship economically trivial.
Polygon integrated AA early and offers native account abstraction at the protocol level in its zkEVM rollup. Polygon’s focus on gaming and social applications aligns well with the session-key model, where users need many low-value transactions without repeated approval prompts.
Arbitrum and Optimism support ERC-4337 through the standard EntryPoint contract. Major dapps on both chains have begun migrating onboarding flows to smart accounts, particularly DeFi protocols that want to offer gasless first trades. For context on how Ethereum updates enabled wallets to operate as smart contracts, the timeline begins with the ERC-4337 EntryPoint deployment.
Ethereum mainnet supports ERC-4337 but higher gas costs mean paymaster sponsorship is more expensive. Most mainnet AA usage comes from high-value multi-sig wallets (Safe) rather than consumer dapps. Safe manages over $100 billion in assets across its smart account deployments.
StarkNet and zkSync implement native account abstraction at the protocol level, meaning every account is a smart contract by default. This is the direction Ethereum’s long-term roadmap points toward.
What this does not cover This guide focuses on the mechanism of account abstraction and its immediate consequences for wallet design. It does not cover:
Detailed comparison of specific smart account implementations (Safe, Kernel, Biconomy, ZeroDev) The MEV implications of the UserOperation mempool (for MEV mechanics, see what is MEV) Formal security audits of individual paymaster contracts Cross-chain account abstraction and how smart accounts interact with bridging Practical checks for evaluating an AA wallet Before trusting funds to a smart account wallet, consider these questions:
Is the smart contract audited? Check whether the wallet’s smart account implementation has undergone third-party security audits. Safe’s contracts are among the most audited in DeFi. Newer implementations may not have the same track record.
What happens if the provider shuts down? A passkey wallet tied to a single vendor creates a new form of dependency. Look for wallets that allow adding multiple signers, including a traditional private key as a backup.
Where is the passkey stored? Understand whether the passkey is device-bound or synced through a cloud provider. iCloud Keychain and Google Password Manager sync passkeys, which is convenient but expands the attack surface to include cloud account security.
Does the wallet support social recovery? If the only authentication method is a passkey and the passkey is lost, funds may be unrecoverable. Social recovery adds a safety net. Check how many guardians the wallet supports and whether the recovery process has been tested.
What chains does the smart account work on? A smart account on Ethereum mainnet has a different address than the same account on Arbitrum unless the wallet uses CREATE2 deterministic deployment. Verify cross-chain compatibility before depositing funds on multiple networks.
What is the upgrade path? Some smart account implementations are upgradeable (the contract logic can be changed by the owner). This is powerful but introduces risk: a compromised upgrade key could rewrite the wallet’s validation logic. Check whether upgrades require a time delay or multi-party approval.
What is account abstraction in simple terms? Account abstraction turns a crypto wallet from a fixed key pair into a programmable smart contract. Instead of relying on a single seed phrase, the wallet can enforce custom rules for signing, recovery, and gas payment. The user experience changes from “guard these 12 words with your life” to “log in with your fingerprint.”
Is ERC-4337 the only way to implement account abstraction? No. ERC-4337 is the most widely adopted standard on Ethereum because it works without protocol changes. StarkNet and zkSync implement native account abstraction at the protocol level. Ethereum’s roadmap includes EIP-7702, which allows EOAs to temporarily delegate to smart contract logic, bringing native AA closer to mainnet.
Are passkey wallets safe? Passkey wallets are as secure as the device’s secure enclave and the cloud sync service backing them. The private key never leaves the hardware security module, making remote extraction extremely difficult. The main risk is losing access to the cloud account that syncs the passkey across devices. Adding a backup signer or enabling social recovery mitigates this.
Can I still use a seed phrase with account abstraction? Yes. A smart account can accept a traditional private key (derived from a seed phrase) as one of its authorized signers. Many AA wallets allow users to add a seed-phrase-based key as a backup alongside a passkey. The difference is that the seed phrase is no longer the only option.
What is a paymaster? A paymaster is a smart contract in the ERC-4337 system that pays gas fees on behalf of users. It can sponsor transactions entirely (dapp-subsidized), accept ERC-20 tokens as gas payment, or enforce spending limits. Paymasters remove the requirement for users to hold ETH before transacting.
How does social recovery work? The wallet owner designates a group of guardians and sets a threshold (for example, 3 of 5). If the owner loses access, they request recovery from a new device. Once enough guardians approve, the smart account replaces the lost key with a new one. A time delay allows the original owner to cancel fraudulent attempts.
Do I need to pay gas to deploy a smart account? Deployment costs gas, but the user does not necessarily pay it. Many AA wallet providers sponsor the deployment transaction through a paymaster, so the smart account is created at no cost to the user. The deployment typically happens lazily, only when the user sends their first transaction, rather than at account creation.
Which networks support account abstraction today? ERC-4337 is live on Ethereum mainnet, Base, Arbitrum, Optimism, Polygon, Avalanche, BNB Chain, and most major EVM networks. StarkNet and zkSync have native AA built into their protocol. Layer 2 networks see the highest usage because low gas costs make paymaster sponsorship economically viable.
*Disclaimer: This article is for informational purposes only and does not constitute financial, investment, or legal advice. Cryptocurrency involves significant risk, and you should conduct your own research before making any decisions. Information is accurate as of August 2026.*
Restaking lets staked ETH secure additional protocols beyond Ethereum, creating a marketplace for decentralized trust but introducing new layers of slashing risk.
Summary
Restaking allows already-staked ETH to simultaneously secure other protocols (called actively validated services, or AVSs), extending Ethereum’s economic security without requiring new capital. EigenLayer, launched on Ethereum mainnet in June 2023, is the largest restaking protocol, with over $15 billion in total value restaked at its peak. Liquid restaking tokens (LRTs) from protocols like Renzo, Ether.fi, and Puffer add a liquidity layer on top of restaked positions, letting users trade or use restaked ETH in DeFi. The key risk is compounding slashing: restaked ETH can be slashed by Ethereum’s consensus rules and by any AVS the operator has opted into, creating multiple simultaneous loss vectors. The restaking model is expanding beyond Ethereum. Symbiotic, Karak, and Babylon (for Bitcoin) are building competing restaking marketplaces. Introduction Ethereum’s shift to proof of stake in September 2022 created a pool of economic security: over 30 million ETH staked by validators who risk losing their deposit (slashing) if they behave maliciously. This security pool protects Ethereum, but it sits idle with respect to every other protocol.
New protocols that need decentralized validation face a bootstrapping problem. An oracle network, a data availability layer, or a cross-chain bridge needs validators, and those validators need economic stakes large enough to make attacks unprofitable. Building this security from scratch is expensive. Each new protocol must attract its own set of stakers, issue its own token for staking rewards, and hope that enough capital commits to make the system secure.
Restaking proposes a different model. Instead of building independent security, new protocols borrow it from Ethereum. Stakers who already have ETH committed to Ethereum’s consensus opt in to additionally securing other services. The same capital backs multiple protocols simultaneously.
EigenLayer formalized this concept and built the infrastructure for it. This guide explains how restaking works, what EigenLayer introduced, and where the risks compound.
How Ethereum staking works before restaking To understand restaking, start with what it extends.
Ethereum validators deposit 32 ETH into a staking contract. In return, they earn rewards for proposing and attesting to blocks (currently around 3% to 4% annualized). If a validator acts maliciously (double-signing, proposing conflicting blocks) or goes offline for extended periods, a portion of their 32 ETH is slashed.
This creates an economic security guarantee. Attacking Ethereum’s consensus requires controlling enough staked ETH that the cost of being slashed exceeds the profit from the attack. With over 30 million ETH staked (roughly $100 billion at mid-2026 prices), that threshold is prohibitively high.
Liquid staking protocols like Lido (stETH) and Rocket Pool (rETH) added a layer on top. Users deposit ETH, receive a liquid token representing their stake, and can use that token in DeFi while still earning staking rewards. The underlying ETH remains staked with validators. For a detailed breakdown of how liquid staking tokens work and the depeg risks they carry, the mechanics are important context for understanding the additional risk layer that restaking introduces.
Restaking adds a second layer on top of staking (or liquid staking). The same ETH that secures Ethereum also secures additional protocols.
EigenLayer’s architecture EigenLayer is a set of smart contracts on Ethereum that coordinate restaking. The system has three roles:
Restakers. Users who commit their staked ETH (or liquid staking tokens like stETH) to EigenLayer. Restakers deposit into EigenLayer’s contracts and delegate their stake to an operator.
Operators. Entities that run validation software for actively validated services. An operator registers with EigenLayer, receives delegated stake from restakers, and opts into one or more AVSs. Operators are responsible for meeting each AVS’s validation requirements and face slashing if they fail.
Actively validated services (AVSs). Protocols that use EigenLayer’s restaked security. An AVS defines its own validation logic, reward structure, and slashing conditions. When an operator opts into an AVS, the restaked ETH backing that operator becomes subject to the AVS’s slashing rules.
The flow:
A restaker deposits stETH (or native ETH) into EigenLayer. The restaker delegates to an operator. The operator opts into AVSs (for example, EigenDA, a data availability service). The operator runs the AVS’s validation software. The restaker earns additional rewards from the AVS, on top of their base Ethereum staking yield. If the operator violates an AVS’s rules, the delegated stake can be slashed. EigenLayer’s contracts enforce the delegation and slashing logic, but they do not define what constitutes a slashable offense. Each AVS writes its own slashing contract, which EigenLayer’s DelegationManager calls when a slashing event is proven. This modularity is what allows any type of protocol to become an AVS, but it also means the security of each AVS’s slashing logic varies independently.
What actively validated services look like AVSs are the demand side of the restaking marketplace. They are protocols that need decentralized validation but do not want to build their own validator set and token economy from scratch.
The first and largest AVS is EigenDA, a data availability layer built by EigenLayer’s team. Rollups can post their transaction data to EigenDA instead of Ethereum’s calldata or blobs, reducing costs while inheriting security from restaked ETH. By mid-2026, EigenDA was processing data for multiple L2 rollups, providing an alternative to Celestia and Ethereum’s native blob space.
Other AVS categories include:
Oracle networks. A decentralized oracle can use restaked ETH as its security bond instead of requiring oracles to stake a separate token. If an oracle submits a false price, the restaked ETH backing it gets slashed. This provides stronger economic guarantees than a standalone oracle token with a small market capitalization.
Cross-chain bridges. Bridge validators can be backed by restaked ETH, creating an economic deterrent against fraudulent attestations far larger than what a standalone bridge token could provide. Given that bridge exploits have caused over $4 billion in losses, the appeal of Ethereum-grade security for bridge validation is significant.
Keeper networks. Protocols that require off-chain computation or automation (liquidation keepers, MEV relayers) can use restaked security to guarantee performance. An AVS slashing contract can penalize operators who fail to execute required actions within a time window.
Coprocessors. Off-chain computation services that produce verifiable results, such as ZK proof generation or AI inference verification, can use AVS slashing to enforce correct output. This category is expanding as more protocols look to verify off-chain computation without running it on-chain.
By mid-2026, over 20 AVSs had launched on EigenLayer, with EigenDA processing the highest volume. EigenLayer’s expansion to accept any ERC-20 token as a restakable asset broadened the potential collateral base beyond ETH and its liquid staking derivatives.
Liquid restaking tokens: the third layer Just as liquid staking created tradable representations of staked ETH (stETH, rETH), liquid restaking protocols create tradable tokens representing restaked positions.
The major liquid restaking protocols:
Ether.fi (eETH). The largest liquid restaking protocol by TVL. Users deposit ETH, Ether.fi stakes it and restakes it through EigenLayer, and users receive eETH that they can use across DeFi. Ether.fi outpaced competitors in the liquid staking sector by offering a streamlined one-step deposit flow and integrating with major DeFi protocols for composability.
Renzo (ezETH). Abstracts the EigenLayer delegation process. Users deposit ETH or stETH, Renzo handles operator selection and AVS opt-in, and users receive ezETH. Renzo differentiates by offering diversified AVS exposure: the protocol spreads delegated stake across multiple operators and AVSs to reduce concentration risk.
Puffer (pufETH). Focuses on solo validator participation and anti-slashing technology alongside liquid restaking. Puffer’s approach includes secure-signer technology that aims to prevent validators from producing slashable messages, even if their keys are compromised.
Kelp (rsETH). Aggregates restaked positions across operators and AVSs into a single liquid token. Kelp aims to provide diversified restaking exposure similar to an index fund approach.
LRTs add convenience but also add another layer of smart contract risk. The stack becomes: ETH -> staked ETH -> liquid staking token -> restaked on EigenLayer -> liquid restaking token. Each layer introduces its own contract, its own governance, and its own potential failure mode. A bug or exploit at any layer can cascade downward.
The arithmetic of shared security Restaking’s value proposition depends on simple economics.
Suppose a new oracle network needs $100 million in economic security to make attacks unprofitable. Without restaking, it must convince stakers to buy and lock $100 million worth of its native token. The token needs price stability, liquidity, and market confidence, none of which a new project has on day one.
With restaking, the oracle network becomes an AVS on EigenLayer. It borrows security from ETH already staked, a liquid asset with deep markets and established value. The oracle does not issue a staking token. It pays ETH-denominated rewards to operators, and the $100 million in restaked ETH backing those operators provides the security.
The cost to the AVS is the reward it must pay operators (and by extension restakers) to opt in. This is typically denominated in the AVS’s own token or in ETH. The cost is lower than bootstrapping a standalone staking economy because restakers already earn base staking yield. The AVS only needs to offer enough marginal reward to justify the additional slashing risk.
For restakers, the appeal is yield stacking. A position might earn:
3.5% from Ethereum consensus staking 0.5% from liquid staking protocol fees 1% to 3% from AVS rewards via restaking Aggregate yields of 5% to 7% on ETH drew significant capital into restaking during 2024 and 2025. At its peak, EigenLayer held over $15 billion in restaked assets, making it one of the largest DeFi protocols by TVL.
However, yield stacking is not free money. Each additional percentage point of yield comes with a corresponding increase in risk exposure. The higher the aggregate yield, the more slashing vectors the position is exposed to.
Slashing risk: where restaking gets dangerous The compounding of yield comes with compounding of risk. Restaked ETH is subject to slashing from multiple sources simultaneously.
Ethereum consensus slashing. If the underlying validator double-signs or commits an attributable fault, the base stake is slashed under Ethereum’s rules. This risk exists with or without restaking.
AVS slashing. Each AVS the operator opts into introduces its own slashing conditions. An operator running three AVSs faces three independent sets of slashing rules. A bug in any single AVS’s slashing contract could trigger an incorrect slash.
Correlated slashing. If an operator runs multiple AVSs and a single infrastructure failure (a data center outage, a key compromise) causes violations across all of them, the same stake can be slashed multiple times. EigenLayer’s contracts permit proportional slashing, meaning the total slash can exceed what would occur from any single AVS.
Smart contract risk in slashing contracts. AVS slashing logic is defined in smart contracts written by the AVS team. A bug in the slashing contract could slash honest operators. Unlike Ethereum’s consensus slashing, which has been battle-tested since 2020, AVS slashing contracts are new and less audited.
LRT compounding risk. Users holding liquid restaking tokens face all the above risks plus the smart contract risk of the LRT protocol itself, and the risk that the LRT depegs from its underlying value during a slashing event or a liquidity crisis.
Systemic risk. If a large-scale slashing event hits a major operator, the resulting sell pressure on LRTs could trigger cascading liquidations in DeFi protocols that accept LRTs as collateral. A restaking-linked liquidation cascade has not occurred yet, but the structural possibility exists as more DeFi protocols integrate LRTs as collateral types.
The competitive landscape beyond EigenLayer Restaking is no longer an EigenLayer monopoly.
Symbiotic launched in 2024 as a permissionless restaking protocol. Unlike EigenLayer, which initially only accepted ETH and liquid staking tokens, Symbiotic accepts any ERC-20 token as collateral. This allows protocols to restake their own governance tokens or stablecoins. Symbiotic’s architecture is also more modular: slashing conditions, reward distribution, and operator management are separated into distinct contracts that each AVS can customize independently.
Karak introduced the concept of restaking across multiple chains, with support for restaking on Arbitrum, Mantle, and other L2s in addition to Ethereum mainnet. Karak’s multi-chain approach appeals to AVSs that want security from assets on chains other than Ethereum, and to restakers who want to avoid bridging to Ethereum mainnet.
Babylon applies the restaking concept to Bitcoin. BTC holders lock their Bitcoin in a time-locked script and use it to secure proof-of-stake chains. The Bitcoin never leaves the Bitcoin blockchain (no wrapping, no bridging), but it is subject to slashing via a cryptographic penalty mechanism called extractable one-time signatures. If a staker signs conflicting messages, the EOTS scheme reveals their private key, allowing anyone to claim the locked Bitcoin as a penalty.
The emergence of competitors suggests that restaking is becoming a category, not a single product. The long-term question is whether security fragmentation across competing restaking layers weakens the shared security model that makes restaking valuable in the first place. If the same capital is split across EigenLayer, Symbiotic, and Karak, the security each provides is proportionally reduced.
How operator selection shapes risk Not all EigenLayer operators carry the same risk profile. The choice of operator determines which AVSs your stake is exposed to, the quality of the infrastructure running those AVSs, and the operational maturity of the team managing the node.
Professional operators (Figment, P2P, Kiln, and similar institutional staking providers) typically run redundant infrastructure across multiple data centers, maintain dedicated security teams, and limit the number of AVSs they opt into. Solo operators or smaller teams may offer higher yields by opting into more AVSs, but they also concentrate risk in fewer hands and less resilient infrastructure.
The operator’s track record is the most reliable signal. EigenLayer’s delegation dashboard shows historical uptime, slashing events (if any), and the list of active AVS commitments. An operator with 99.9% uptime across 12 months of operation and a conservative AVS selection provides a meaningfully different risk profile than a new operator running aggressive multi-AVS strategies.
Delegation is not permanent. Restakers can re-delegate to a different operator, though the process involves a withdrawal delay. If an operator begins opting into AVSs with unclear slashing conditions or questionable audit histories, re-delegation is the primary risk management tool available to restakers.
What this does not cover This guide explains restaking mechanics and risks. It does not cover:
Detailed comparison of individual AVSs and their reward structures The tokenomics of the EIGEN token and its governance functions Step-by-step instructions for restaking through specific protocols The regulatory classification of restaking yields Practical checks before restaking Understand operator risk. When you delegate to an operator, you inherit their slashing exposure. Review which AVSs the operator has opted into, their uptime history, and their infrastructure setup. An operator running 15 AVSs on a single server in a single data center is a concentrated risk.
Review AVS slashing conditions. Before your operator opts into a new AVS, understand what triggers a slash. Some AVS slashing conditions are straightforward (fail to submit data within a window). Others are complex or depend on dispute resolution mechanisms that have not been tested under stress.
Assess LRT risks separately. If you hold a liquid restaking token, you carry the restaking risk plus the LRT protocol’s smart contract risk. Check audit reports for both the LRT protocol and the underlying restaking contracts. Consider the LRT’s redemption mechanism: some LRTs allow instant redemption, while others queue withdrawals.
Monitor your position. Restaking is not a deposit-and-forget strategy. New AVSs, operator changes, and slashing events can alter your risk profile. Protocols like EigenLayer provide dashboards showing operator performance and AVS status. Set up notifications for operator changes if the protocol supports them.
Consider the withdrawal queue. Restaked positions may have longer withdrawal periods than simple staking. EigenLayer enforces a withdrawal delay (currently 7 days), and during high-demand periods the queue can extend. Do not restake funds you may need to access quickly. Factor withdrawal timing into your liquidity planning.
What is restaking in simple terms? Restaking means using ETH that is already staked on Ethereum to simultaneously secure other protocols. The same deposit earns staking rewards from Ethereum and additional rewards from the other protocols it helps secure, in exchange for accepting additional slashing risk.
What is an actively validated service? An actively validated service (AVS) is a protocol that uses restaked ETH from EigenLayer for its security. Examples include data availability layers, oracle networks, bridges, and keeper networks. Each AVS defines its own validation requirements and slashing conditions.
How is restaking different from liquid staking? Liquid staking (Lido, Rocket Pool) creates a tradable token representing staked ETH. The ETH secures only Ethereum’s consensus. Restaking takes that staked ETH and commits it to securing additional protocols beyond Ethereum. Liquid restaking combines both: it creates a tradable token representing a restaked position.
Can I lose my ETH through restaking? Yes. Restaked ETH is subject to slashing from Ethereum’s consensus rules and from every AVS the operator has opted into. If the operator behaves maliciously or suffers a fault that triggers AVS slashing conditions, a portion of the restaked ETH can be permanently destroyed.
What returns does restaking offer? Returns vary by operator and AVS. Base Ethereum staking yields approximately 3% to 4%. AVS rewards can add 1% to 3% or more, depending on the service. Total yields of 5% to 7% were common during 2024 and 2025, though these fluctuate with market conditions and AVS demand.
Is restaking safe? Restaking introduces additional risk layers beyond standard staking. Each AVS adds a new slashing vector, and the slashing contracts are newer and less battle-tested than Ethereum’s consensus penalties. Operator selection, AVS due diligence, and smart contract audit quality all affect the safety of a restaking position.
What is a liquid restaking token? A liquid restaking token (LRT) is a tradable token representing a restaked position. Protocols like Ether.fi (eETH), Renzo (ezETH), and Puffer (pufETH) issue LRTs that let users maintain DeFi composability while their ETH is restaked. LRTs carry the underlying restaking risk plus the LRT protocol’s own smart contract risk.
Can I restake Bitcoin? Yes, through Babylon Protocol. BTC holders lock Bitcoin in a time-locked script on the Bitcoin blockchain (no wrapping or bridging required) and use it to secure proof-of-stake chains. Slashing is enforced through a cryptographic mechanism that extracts the staker’s private key if they sign conflicting messages.
*Disclaimer: This article is for informational purposes only and does not constitute financial, investment, or legal advice. Cryptocurrency involves significant risk, and you should conduct your own research before making any decisions. Information is accurate as of August 2026.*
The latest move by BitMine to add more than 10,000 ETH in a single week pushes the publicly traded company deeper into Ethereum’s supply. With a balance now approaching 5.8 million ETH, the firm controls roughly 4.8% of all coins in circulation. Few non-exchange entities come close.
BitMine disclosed the acquisition in a weekly update, according to the original report. The company purchased 10,399 ETH over the past seven days, bringing the total to 5,797,813 ETH. It has allocated 4,917,189 ETH into staking, or about 85% of its holdings. At current yields, that staked position generates an estimated $247 million in annualized revenue.
Staking at Scale The staking ratio alone signals a concentrated bet on Ethereum’s proof-of-stake economics. BitMine is not simply accumulating; it is actively locking up coins, removing them from liquid supply. The firm’s staked balance represents a substantial chunk of the total ETH staked on the Beacon Chain. That level of commitment can tighten available float, especially when demand for ETH from decentralized finance protocols and layer-2 networks remains steady. Ethereum’s ongoing developer activity reinforces its position as a leading smart contract network, which supports the underlying demand that makes staking yields reliable.
For BitMine, staking also acts as a cash flow engine. The $247 million run rate comfortably funds operations and buybacks without needing to liquidate ETH. That design mirrors strategies used by mining firms in the Bitcoin ecosystem, where hoarded coins serve as collateral and income sources.
BitMine also repurchased 4.5 million of its own shares last week, a signal that management views the company as undervalued relative to its asset base. With total crypto, cash, marketable securities and other investments pegged at $11.3 billion, the firm carries a sizable war chest. That balance sheet not only gives it staying power in a downcycle but also allows it to buy ETH aggressively when market sentiment dips. A move like this fits a broader trend of publicly listed crypto firms using their treasuries as strategic levers rather than passive holdings. Recent institutional staking activity on other chains shows that firms are willing to lock up assets to earn yield while maintaining exposure.
What remains less clear is BitMine’s acquisition pace over the coming months. The company did not comment on whether this weekly buy was part of a systematic accumulation plan or a one-off opportunistic trade. If the pattern continues, ETH’s liquid supply could contract meaningfully, potentially amplifying price moves in either direction. The market will also monitor whether the staking allocation grows further, as any move above 90% would reduce the buffer available for operational needs.
Broader Institutional Appetite for ETH BitMine’s accumulation is not happening in isolation. Across the market, institutional capital has been migrating toward Ethereum-based products, including staking funds, tokenized real-world assets, and regulated settlement rails. The tokenization of traditional assets recently crossed $20 billion on-chain, a threshold that underscores how deeply crypto infrastructure is being integrated into conventional finance. BitMine’s decision to stake nearly the entirety of its ETH holdings reflects confidence that Ethereum’s staking yields will remain attractive even as more validators join the network. However, as total staked ETH increases, individual validators’ returns decline, potentially compressing margins over time.
For now, BitMine’s composition of staked ETH and corporate treasury looks durable. But the Ethereum network’s evolving validator dynamics and potential regulatory shifts around staking providers could introduce friction. Watching how the firm manages its $11.3 billion portfolio—and whether it continues to absorb ETH at this clip—will be a key signal for the market.
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Why Lee Is Buying More ETH Right Now?Lee said in a Monday company update that ETH outperformed the Nasdaq 100 by 2,500 basis points in July, the largest margin since July 2025.
He noted that last July, ETH rallied from $2,375 to above $4,000 by the end of August, and argued that strong relative ETH performance has historically preceded gains in BMNR shares since the company adopted its Ethereum treasury strategy.
Where Bitmine’s Holdings Stand?Bitmine now holds 5,797,813 ETH worth roughly $10.9 billion, representing 4.8% of Ethereum’s total circulating supply and sitting 96% of the way to the company’s stated goal of owning 5%.
Total holdings including cash, marketable securities, and investments stand at $11.3 billion.
Of the 5.8 million ETH, 4,917,189 are staked through MAVAN, Bitmine’s institutional-grade validator platform, generating a 7-day annualized yield of 2.67% and projecting $247 million in annualized staking revenues. At full deployment, projected staking rewards reach $291 million annually.
Alongside the ETH purchase, Bitmine repurchased 4.5 million common shares last week, bringing total repurchases since July 1 to 16.1 million shares under its $4 billion buyback program.
Lee called it the largest common stock buyback ever executed by any Ethereum, Bitcoin (CRYPTO: BTC), or crypto digital asset treasury.
Moreover, Bitmine’s institutional backers include ARK’s Cathie Wood, Founders Fund, Pantera, Kraken, DCG, and Galaxy Digital, with Lee himself a personal investor.
Where Does BMNR Stand Technically?BMNR pulls back to $17.04 Monday after last week’s push toward $18 ran into the descending trendline that has capped every rally since January 2026.
The Supertrend flipped green at $14.45 in July, the first bullish signal in months, and remains intact.
The 20-day EMA at $16.58 and 50-day EMA at $16.98 are converging just below price as a tight support cluster.
Key levels for BMNR: $17.50 — descending trendline, a daily close above this changes the near-term read $19.15 — 100-day EMA, next resistance above $16.58 to $16.98 — EMA cluster support to hold Photo via Shutterstock
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BlackRock, the world’s largest asset manager, has introduced two tokenized money market funds aimed at serving as reserve assets for payment stablecoin issuers. The initiative brings additional regulated financial products onto blockchain platforms, further integrating traditional finance with digital asset infrastructure.
New fund products targeting stablecoin issuersThe first product, BlackRock Select Treasury Based Liquidity Fund OnChain Shares (BSTBL), represents a new tokenized share class for BlackRock’s existing Select Treasury Based Liquidity Fund. This offering operates on the Ethereum blockchain and allows eligible investors to transfer tokenized fund shares between designated approved wallets. The underlying fund maintains investments in cash, short-term US Treasurys, and Treasury-backed overnight repurchase agreements.
BlackRock stated that BSTBL enables institutional investors to access on-chain versions of traditional money market fund shares, opening more options for digital asset-backed treasury management.
The second product, named BlackRock Daily Reinvestment Stablecoin Reserve Vehicle (BRSRV), is a newly established tokenized money market fund tailored for institutional clients. Unlike BSTBL, BRSRV supports multiple blockchain networks, providing broader compatibility for users who operate across different platforms. The fund is structured to automatically reinvest daily dividends, and it is designed for use cases in digital asset markets, including stablecoin reserve management.
Mini dictionary: Stablecoin reserve assets, also known as “reserve backing,” refer to the portfolio of cash, government securities, or short-term assets maintained by stablecoin issuers to ensure their tokens can be redeemed for fiat currency or maintain price stability.
Compliance with new US stablecoin regulationBoth BSTBL and BRSRV are structured to qualify as eligible reserve assets for permitted US payment stablecoin issuers under the GENIUS Act. The GENIUS Act, a federal stablecoin law passed in July 2025, introduced new regulatory standards for stablecoin reserve management and transparency requirements for issuers that payout in US dollars.
The asset manager reported that these funds are built to align with compliance expectations in the evolving US regulatory landscape, positioning them as reserve products for stablecoin companies seeking to meet federal criteria.
BlackRock expands its position in tokenized TreasurysWith the launch of BSTBL and BRSRV, BlackRock further enhances its role in the growing market for tokenized Treasury products. BlackRock’s USD Institutional Digital Liquidity Fund (BUIDL), which tokenizes short-term US Treasury exposure, is already the largest tokenized Treasury fund, holding more than $2.6 billion in assets as confirmed by industry sources.
By expanding its tokenized product suite for institutional investors, BlackRock aims to capture demand from fintech companies and stablecoin issuers looking for transparent, regulated, and blockchain-integrated reserve assets.
ProductTypePrimary BlockchainMain Target UsersDaily Dividend ReinvestmentReserve Asset Qualification (GENIUS Act)BSTBLTokenized share class of existing fundEthereumInstitutional investorsNoYesBRSRVNew tokenized money market fundMultiple blockchainsInstitutional investors (stablecoin issuers)YesYesDisclaimer: 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.
Two new BlackRock funds, BSTBL and BRSRV, are extending the asset manager's push into onchain finance.
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BlackRock just added more tokenized products to its onchain cash management lineup. The investment giant launched OnChain Shares, tied to its Select Treasury Based Liquidity Fund (BSTBL), plus a new multichain release dubbed the BlackRock Daily Reinvestment Stablecoin Reserve Vehicle (BRSRV).
BlackRock has launched two tokenized money market funds.
The $6.2 billion BlackRock Select Treasury Based Liquidity Fund (BSTBL) now has a tokenized share class issued on @ethereum, with BNY as transfer agent and tokenization provider.
A second vehicle, BRSRV, launches… pic.twitter.com/qz9Srpqa8F
— Ethereum Institutional (@ethereuminsti) August 3, 2026 What's the Scoop?Two providers: BSTBL tokenizes BlackRock's existing $6.2B Select Treasury Based Liquidity Fund as a share class on Ethereum, with BNY Mellon acting as transfer agent and tokenization provider. On the flip side, BRSRV is a new multichain fund aimed at digitally native institutions, with Securitize running transfer agent duties.Straightforward holdings: Both funds stick to cash, short-term US Treasuries, and Treasury-backed overnight repo. In other words, it's standard money market exposure, just wrapped onchain.Built for GENIUS: Additionally, both funds intend to qualify as eligible reserve assets for permitted U.S. stablecoin issuers, positioning BlackRock to capture reserve business as GENIUS Act-compliant stablecoin supply scales up over time.Preview potential: BlackRock's Cash Management arm alone oversees roughly $1.07T, a sliver of the firm's +$15T in total AUM. The size here hints at how much capital could eventually make the jump onchain.Not their first rodeo: BSTBL and BRSRV join BUIDL, BlackRock's original tokenized Treasury fund, which has grown past $2.5B and expanded to eight chains since launching with Securitize in 2024.
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XRP just got a DeFi upgrade it’s been waiting for. Flare Network’s FXRP token has been approved as collateral in Sentora’s RLUSD lending vault on Morpho Blue, a vault currently holding roughly $280 million in deposits. It’s the first time any representation of XRP has been greenlit for an institutionally curated lending market on Ethereum’s mainnet.
The practical upshot: XRP holders can now mint FXRP through Flare’s FAssets protocol, bridge it to Ethereum, and borrow RLUSD, Ripple’s dollar-pegged stablecoin, without ever having to sell their underlying XRP.
How the plumbing works Flare’s FAssets protocol creates FXRP tokens backed 1:1 by actual XRP. These tokens can then be moved to Ethereum through Stargate, the cross-chain bridging protocol, where they land in an isolated FXRP/RLUSD market on Morpho Blue.
The “isolated” part matters. Rather than pooling FXRP with dozens of other assets, Sentora set up a dedicated market. That limits contagion risk if something goes sideways with FXRP pricing or liquidity.
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Sentora, the vault curator, ran extensive due diligence on FXRP before approving it. That process covered market behavior analysis, pricing oracle reliability, and broader risk factors. The firm has also committed to ongoing monitoring of FXRP’s performance within the vault.
Access to the vault is non-custodial and permissionless. No KYC gate, no minimum deposit threshold.
Why this matters for XRP’s DeFi problem XRP is one of the largest cryptocurrencies by market cap, but its presence in DeFi has been remarkably thin. The XRP Ledger wasn’t built with composable smart contracts in mind, and that’s made it difficult for XRP holders to access the yield opportunities and lending markets that Ethereum users take for granted.
FXRP has been live for lending activities on Flare’s own network since at least February 2026. Enosys Loans, one of the first FXRP lending products, launched with a $4 million initial minting cap back in December 2025. Going from a $4 million cap on a native Flare lending product to collateral eligibility in a $280 million vault on Ethereum is a significant leap.
Flare CEO Hugo Philion framed the development as validation of XRP’s role in decentralized finance. Sentora’s co-founder pointed to the integration as opening further pathways for XRP’s utility in on-chain credit markets.
The bigger picture and what investors should watch The $280 million RLUSD vault on Sentora is currently the largest institutionally curated vault of its kind on Ethereum.
For XRP holders, the immediate benefit is capital efficiency. Instead of selling XRP to access stablecoin liquidity, they can borrow against it.
The risk side deserves attention too. FXRP is backed 1:1, but the bridging step from XRPL to Flare to Ethereum introduces multiple layers of smart contract risk. The isolated market structure on Morpho mitigates some of that concern, but liquidation mechanics in a cross-chain context can get complicated quickly if XRP experiences sharp price movements.
Looking ahead, Flare is developing Smart Accounts, designed to enable single-signature XRPL wallet flows. Instead of navigating multiple transactions across multiple chains just to deposit collateral, the goal is to let users do everything with one signature from their existing XRP wallet.
Disclosure: This article was edited by Editorial Team. For more information on how we create and review content, see our Editorial Policy.
Ethereum (ETH) treasury firm BitMine Immersion Technologies (BMNR) continued its share buyback spree last week after repurchasing 4.5 million shares of its common stock. This purchase brings the total stock buyback since July 1 to 16.1 million shares, part of a previously authorized $4 billion repurchase plan.
"Since Bitmine pivoted to an Ethereum Treasury strategy on June 30 of last year, sizable outperformance of ETH vs QQQ (monthly) has typically been followed by Bitmine’s shares outperforming ETH over the following month," said BitMine Chairman Thomas Lee in a Monday statement.
The company also acquired 10,399 ETH last week, lifting its total holdings of the top altcoin to 5.797 million ETH. That figure represents 4.8% of ETH's circulating supply, bringing BitMine closer to its alchemy of 5% goal.
"In July, ETH outperformed the Nasdaq 100 by 2,500bp (or 25 percentage points). This is the largest outperformance since July 2025, and we believe it is reflective of the strengthening fundamentals of crypto," Lee added.
BitMine also reiterated that it has staked 4.917 million ETH from its holdings through its Made in America Validator Network (MAVAN). The funds are projected to earn annualized staking revenues of $247 million using a 7-day yield of 2.67% generated by BitMine's staking operations.
While BitMine continued share buybacks and ETH acquisition, its total cash and marketable securities fell to $173 million. The company's total cash has been falling since it resumed the stock buyback program.
BitMine also reported holdings of 209 Bitcoin (BTC), a $180 million stake in Beast Industries and $61 million in Eightco Holdings (ORBS).
BMNR trades at $17.3, up 0.14% at the time of writing on Monday.
Ethereum Price Forecast: ETH tests $1,850 support following weekend declineEthereum has seen $69.8 million in liquidations over the past 24 hours, led by $47.7 million in short liquidations.
On the daily chart, ETH is consolidating in a neutral tone as it holds near the 20- and 50-day Exponential Moving Average (EMA) at $1,870 and $1,850. This configuration hints at a capped near-term bias, with price caught between short-term support and overhead dynamic resistance.
The 100-day EMA at $1,929 adds an additional barrier higher up, while the Relative Strength Index (RSI) at 50 and the Stochastic near 27 suggest subdued momentum after the latest pullback rather than a clear trending phase.
On the topside, initial resistance is located at the medium-term cap at the 100-day EMA around $1,929. Above that, a stronger supply zone emerges at the horizontal level of $1,961 before the next resistance areas at $2,172 and $2,431.
ETH/USDT daily chartOn the downside, immediate support is provided by the 50-day EMA at $1,850, with a deeper floor at the horizontal level of $1,809. If that area gives way, the next notable supports are seen at $1,701 and $1,507.
(The technical analysis of this story was written with the help of an AI tool. Know more.)
Flare has announced that its FXRP token is now officially accepted as collateral in Sentora’s RLUSD vault, which operates on the Morpho protocol. This milestone allows users to borrow Ripple’s RLUSD stablecoin on Ethereum without liquidating their XRP holdings, enabling new options for accessing liquidity and participating in decentralized finance markets.
New pathway for XRP in DeFi lendingThe updated integration enables XRP holders to convert their tokens into FXRP, Flare’s Ethereum-compatible representation of XRP. After bridging FXRP to Ethereum, users can deposit the token into Morpho’s lending protocol and borrow RLUSD, Ripple’s stablecoin pegged to the US dollar.
By using FXRP as collateral rather than selling their XRP outright, borrowers retain full price exposure to the underlying asset while securing dollar-denominated loans. This arrangement allows users to participate in DeFi lending products and manage risk without giving up potential upside on XRP.
Co-founder and CEO of Flare, Hugo Philion, emphasized the significance of this development.
Hugo Philion described XRP as one of the largest crypto assets, yet among the least utilized in decentralized finance, mostly due to limitations in available infrastructure. He noted that XRP is now collateral approved by an institutional risk team for use on Ethereum mainnet, calling it “a stronger form of recognition.”
Institutional review and risk managementPrior to FXRP’s approval as collateral, Sentora’s risk team conducted an extensive review of its market dynamics, including oracle design, liquidity levels, and liquidation mechanisms. The Morpho Blue lending platform, which underpins Sentora’s vault, uses isolated lending markets specifically structured to contain risk if issues arise with any single asset.
This model echoes established frameworks such as Wrapped Bitcoin (WBTC), which has enabled Bitcoin holders to access Ethereum-based lending without liquidating their BTC. FXRP is similarly intended to unlock new DeFi opportunities for XRP holders.
Growth of RLUSD and broader stablecoin acceptanceRipple has consistently positioned RLUSD as an enterprise-focused stablecoin, targeting both cross-border payments and decentralized finance applications. In August 2024, the company began testing RLUSD on both Ethereum and the XRP Ledger. Regulatory approval followed in December 2024, with the New York Department of Financial Services giving the green light ahead of RLUSD’s official launch.
Ripple’s push for RLUSD adoption recently received a boost from Mastercard, which in May confirmed support for settlement of regulated stablecoins, including RLUSD, USDC, and SoFiUSD. This support is seen as an important step for wider integration of dollar-pegged assets in mainstream financial operations.
As decentralized finance continues to expand, platforms like 1stepSwap seek to further reduce barriers between traditional finance and blockchain technology. By moving real-world assets directly onto the blockchain, 1stepSwap enables users to hold shares of leading US companies and commodities such as gold and silver within their wallets. This eliminates complicated processes and intermediaries while ensuring that trades occur at the most favorable market rates, creating portfolio diversification through a streamlined user experience.
Commenting on FXRP’s approval, Sentora co-founder and CTO-CPO Jesus Rodriguez wrote that the move represents a “major step” in increasing XRP’s onchain utility.
Rodriguez explained that XRP, despite its large scale and liquidity, has until now seen limited use as collateral in onchain credit—something that he said is set to change with this integration.
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.
BlackRock has launched two tokenized money market products as the world’s largest asset manager expands its blockchain-based cash management and real-world asset strategy.
Summary
BSTBL will issue tokenized shares on Ethereum that approved investors can transfer between compliant wallets. BRSRV will support multiple blockchains and automatically reinvest dividends each day. Both products will hold cash, short-term U.S. Treasuries and Treasury-backed overnight repurchase agreements. BlackRock’s cash management group oversees nearly $1.1 trillion across its broader liquidity strategies. BlackRock launches BSTBL shares on Ethereum The BlackRock Select Treasury Based Liquidity Fund, or BSTBL, will introduce tokenized shares of an existing money market fund on Ethereum.
Institutional investors will be able to move the shares between approved wallets, subject to regulatory and compliance requirements. This structure brings transferability onto a public blockchain while retaining controls commonly applied to regulated financial products.
BNY Mellon will serve as BSTBL’s transfer agent and tokenization service provider. Its role will connect the fund’s shareholder records and transaction processes with the infrastructure used to issue and transfer the on-chain shares.
BSTBL will invest in cash, short-term U.S. Treasury securities, and overnight repurchase agreements backed by Treasuries. The portfolio aims to preserve principal and liquidity while generating returns from short-duration government debt.
The model differs from a stablecoin because investors hold fund shares rather than tokens designed to maintain a fixed redemption value. Returns will depend on the income generated by the underlying portfolio.
BRSRV targets stablecoin reserve management BlackRock’s second product, the BlackRock Daily Reinvestment Stablecoin Reserve Vehicle, or BRSRV, is designed for digitally native institutional investors.
Unlike BSTBL’s initial Ethereum-based structure, BRSRV will support access across multiple blockchains. The fund will also reinvest dividends daily, allowing income generated by its assets to remain within the product.
BlackRock said BRSRV could be used in several digital-asset settings, including stablecoin reserve management. Stablecoin issuers typically need liquid, low-risk assets to support redemptions, making Treasury bills and Treasury-backed repurchase agreements common reserve instruments.
Securitize will act as the fund’s transfer agent and tokenization service provider. The company already supplies infrastructure for tokenized securities and previously worked with BlackRock on its blockchain-based investment products.
BRSRV will use the same core asset categories as BSTBL: cash, short-term U.S. government debt and overnight repurchase agreements collateralized by Treasuries.
BlackRock expands its role in tokenized U.S. markets The two launches extend BlackRock’s involvement in real-world asset tokenization beyond individual blockchain products.
crypto.news reported in July that BlackRock joined a Depository Trust & Clearing Corporation pilot testing tokenized stocks and U.S. Treasuries. The initiative involves securities already held within DTCC’s custody framework, which safeguards about $114 trillion in assets.
JPMorgan, Goldman Sachs, Vanguard, the New York Stock Exchange and nearly 40 other financial firms are also participating. The pilot lets institutions test blockchain-based representations of traditional securities without moving the underlying assets outside established market infrastructure.
For U.S. institutions, that model may reduce the operational gap between conventional securities and on-chain markets. However, wallet transfers, investor eligibility and access will remain subject to regulatory requirements rather than operating as permissionless crypto transactions.
BlackRock’s cash management group now oversees close to $1.1 trillion for corporations, banks, insurers, foundations and public institutions. Its scale could help introduce tokenized fund shares to investors already using its traditional liquidity products.
BlackRock builds across crypto and traditional finance BlackRock has also expanded its position in regulated cryptocurrency markets through the iShares Bitcoin Trust, its U.S. spot Bitcoin exchange-traded fund.
As previously reported by crypto.news, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission approved an increase in the position limit for options tied to the fund. The limit rose fourfold from 250,000 to 1 million contracts, giving eligible traders room to hold larger options positions linked to IBIT.
The tokenized fund launches represent a separate part of BlackRock’s digital-asset strategy. Rather than providing Bitcoin exposure, BSTBL and BRSRV place traditional cash-management assets on blockchain infrastructure.
Their adoption will depend on institutional demand, regulatory access, and whether on-chain transfers provide meaningful operational advantages over existing money market fund systems.
In brief BlackRock launched a tokenized money market fund for stablecoin reserve management. The fund records ownership on Solana, Ethereum, and Tempo while investing entirely in cash and short-term U.S. Treasuries. The product targets institutional investors as tokenized Treasury funds continue to grow. BlackRock is expanding onto Solana with a new money market fund designed for stablecoin reserves, adding the blockchain to its list of tokenized investment products.
The world's largest asset manager on Monday launched the BlackRock Daily Reinvestment Stablecoin Reserve Vehicle (BRSRV) alongside tokenized on-chain shares of its existing BlackRock Select Treasury-Based Liquidity Fund (BSTBL).
"Cash remains a foundational building block for investors, corporations, and financial institutions," Jon Steel, Global Head of Product and Platform for BlackRock's Cash Management business, said in a statement. “As demand grows for high-quality reserve assets to support stablecoins and other tokenized financial products, these funds provide clients with additional choice in how they access and use money market fund investment solutions across traditional and digital markets.”
In a prospectus filed with the SEC on Friday, BlackRock said ownership is recorded on Solana, Ethereum, and Tempo, with investors holding shares through approved wallets managed by transfer agent Securitize.
“The Fund issues OnChain Shares through a permissioned system that operates in connection with one or more public, permissionless blockchains, which, as of the date of this Prospectus, include Ethereum, Tempo, and Solana, and may include other supported networks in the future,” BlackRock wrote.
The fund invests entirely in cash, short-term U.S. Treasury securities, and overnight repurchase agreements backed by Treasuries.
According to BlackRock, the fund does not invest in cryptocurrencies.
“The Fund will continue to invest in accordance with the requirements in Rule 2a-7 under the 1940 Act and the terms of this Prospectus,” BlackRock wrote. “The Fund will not invest in any digital assets, including any virtual currencies.”
Wallets must be whitelisted and tied to verified identities, allowing the transfer agent to restrict transfers or, in some cases, freeze, revoke, or reissue tokenized shares. The fund also has a $3 million minimum initial investment.
BlackRock said the fund is structured to qualify as an eligible reserve asset under the GENIUS Act, the U.S. law governing payment stablecoins. Its prospectus also notes that future regulatory changes could affect whether stablecoin issuers can continue using the fund as a reserve asset, while blockchain outages or smart contract flaws could disrupt transactions.
The launch builds on BlackRock's broader tokenization strategy. The firm introduced the BUIDL tokenized money market fund in March 2024, which now manages more than $2.6 billion in assets.
BlackRock joins Morgan Stanley, and Fidelity, which have also introduced products aimed at stablecoin reserve management following the passage of the GENIUS Act.
Daily Debrief NewsletterStart every day with the top news stories right now, plus original features, a podcast, videos and more.
In brief BlackRock launched a tokenized money market fund for stablecoin reserve management. The fund records ownership on Solana, Ethereum, and Tempo while investing entirely in cash and short-term U.S. Treasuries. The product targets institutional investors as tokenized Treasury funds continue to grow. BlackRock is expanding onto Solana with a new money market fund designed for stablecoin reserves, adding the blockchain to its list of tokenized investment products.
The world's largest asset manager on Monday launched the BlackRock Daily Reinvestment Stablecoin Reserve Vehicle (BRSRV) alongside tokenized on-chain shares of its existing BlackRock Select Treasury-Based Liquidity Fund (BSTBL).
"Cash remains a foundational building block for investors, corporations, and financial institutions," Jon Steel, Global Head of Product and Platform for BlackRock's Cash Management business, said in a statement. “As demand grows for high-quality reserve assets to support stablecoins and other tokenized financial products, these funds provide clients with additional choice in how they access and use money market fund investment solutions across traditional and digital markets.”
In a prospectus filed with the SEC on Friday, BlackRock said ownership is recorded on Solana, Ethereum, and Tempo, with investors holding shares through approved wallets managed by transfer agent Securitize.
“The Fund issues OnChain Shares through a permissioned system that operates in connection with one or more public, permissionless blockchains, which, as of the date of this Prospectus, include Ethereum, Tempo, and Solana, and may include other supported networks in the future,” BlackRock wrote.
The fund invests entirely in cash, short-term U.S. Treasury securities, and overnight repurchase agreements backed by Treasuries.
According to BlackRock, the fund does not invest in cryptocurrencies.
“The Fund will continue to invest in accordance with the requirements in Rule 2a-7 under the 1940 Act and the terms of this Prospectus,” BlackRock wrote. “The Fund will not invest in any digital assets, including any virtual currencies.”
Wallets must be whitelisted and tied to verified identities, allowing the transfer agent to restrict transfers or, in some cases, freeze, revoke, or reissue tokenized shares. The fund also has a $3 million minimum initial investment.
BlackRock said the fund is structured to qualify as an eligible reserve asset under the GENIUS Act, the U.S. law governing payment stablecoins. Its prospectus also notes that future regulatory changes could affect whether stablecoin issuers can continue using the fund as a reserve asset, while blockchain outages or smart contract flaws could disrupt transactions.
The launch builds on BlackRock's broader tokenization strategy. The firm introduced the BUIDL tokenized money market fund in March 2024, which now manages more than $2.6 billion in assets.
BlackRock joins Morgan Stanley, and Fidelity, which have also introduced products aimed at stablecoin reserve management following the passage of the GENIUS Act.
Daily Debrief NewsletterStart every day with the top news stories right now, plus original features, a podcast, videos and more.
Ethereum is maintaining its price above a key support range, as buyers work to keep the cryptocurrency from entering a deeper correction phase. Although ETH has posted a modest 0.55% gain over the last 24 hours and currently trades at $1,861.67, technical indicators point to an easing of bullish momentum.
Key support area and market sentimentOver the past day, trading volume for Ethereum has reached $21.41 billion, while its market capitalization stands at $225.24 billion. These figures suggest that investor activity remains strong, despite recent volatility in the asset’s price.
Crypto analyst Ted highlighted on August 3, 2026, the importance of the $1,800 to $1,850 support range for Ethereum. He views this as a crucial zone, with the potential to determine Ethereum’s short-term direction. If ETH holds above the support, buyers could attempt to move the price toward the next resistance levels. However, a decisive break below this range could trigger a decline toward $1,700.
Support zones often play a critical role during uncertain periods, as these levels historically attract buying interest. If such a zone is breached, additional selling pressure from short-term participants can increase downward momentum.
Crypto analyst Ted emphasized that the $1,800 to $1,850 range is key for ETH, noting that holding this level could enable further upward moves, while a break lower may send the price down to $1,700.
Long-absent Ethereum holder returns to marketMarket monitoring platform Lookonchain reported a significant transaction involving a long-standing Ethereum holder. After remaining inactive for nearly three years, this wallet sold 2,250 ETH — with a total value of $4.15 million — on August 3, 2026.
According to on-chain data, the investor originally purchased these tokens over eight years ago at an average price of $489 per ETH. Despite the time away from trading, the sale has resulted in substantial profits for the holder.
Large transactions from dormant wallets tend to draw attention, raising concerns about short-term selling pressure and potential shifts in sentiment. However, one isolated sale does not necessarily signal an overarching trend in the market.
Lookonchain reported the sale from an early investor, emphasizing the notable profit margin given the purchase price eight years ago was around $489 per ETH and the recent sale amounted to $4.15 million.
Technical analysis points to fading bullish strengthIndicators show that Ethereum’s most recent bounce is losing strength. The Relative Strength Index (RSI) stands at 51.05, having slipped below its moving average of 56.59. Although the RSI remains just above the neutral 50 mark, it has drifted under its signal line, pointing to a decrease in buying pressure without a shift to overtly bearish conditions.
The Moving Average Convergence Divergence (MACD) further suggests the uptrend is fading. The current MACD value is at 21.65, below its signal line at 31.30, and the histogram has turned down to -9.65. This bearish crossover indicates that sellers are strengthening their position.
If buying momentum does not reappear soon, analysts expect Ethereum might either trade sideways or decline. The next several sessions will likely influence near-term price direction, with buyers aiming to protect the $1,800 support, and sellers attempting to push the price lower.
Ongoing attention remains on the actions of major long-term holders and whales, as their transactions can contribute to volatility. Investors are also monitoring volume dynamics, watching for shifts in either buying or selling patterns.
During these periods of technical uncertainty, platforms such as CryptoAppsy offer traders an integrated dashboard with real-time prices, portfolio management, and smart alerts. This allows users to respond quickly to changes in ETH price, discover new coin listings, set up custom news filters, and keep track of macroeconomic trends, such as Fed interest rates, helping investors stay proactive as market conditions shift.
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.
Robinhood Chain Takes the Lead in RWA Holders@RobinhoodCrypto has claimed the top spot in real-world asset (RWA) holder count, surpassing established Layer 1 networks with 365,212 unique addresses according to data from @Rwa_xyz. The milestone is especially striking given that the network only launched its public mainnet on July 1, 2026.
The chain sits ahead of @Solana (323,832 holders) and @BNBChain (299,884 holders) in the race to bring tokenized assets to a broad retail base. @plumenetwork, which has built RWA-native infrastructure from the ground up, follows with 249,276 holders, placing it ahead of @Ethereum at 221,314.
The speed of Robinhood's rise is explained in large part by its existing customer base. Unlike many blockchain projects that first focus on crypto-native users, Robinhood entered the space with millions of existing brokerage customers, and that distribution is translating into rapid adoption of real-world assets. The company can promote blockchain-based financial products directly to approximately 28 million funded brokerage accounts.
Context: Holder Count vs. Asset ValueThe holder count lead does not tell the full story. Ethereum's RWA value sits between $17 billion and $18 billion, while Solana's RWA market exceeds $3.3 billion. Robinhood's distributed asset value of $24.12 million is roughly 0.1% of what Ethereum's RWA ecosystem is worth. In other words, Robinhood Chain leads on breadth of participation, not depth of capital.
Activity on the chain has also been mixed in its early weeks. Tokenized assets are not yet the chain's dominant activity driver, with meme coin trading currently accounting for the majority of decentralized exchange volume, even though tokenized stocks are viewed as the network's long-term differentiator. More recently, however, momentum has shifted. The value of tokenized equities and related holdings has climbed rapidly, with the market capitalization of RWAs on the network growing approximately fivefold over a two-week span and exceeding the $70 million threshold.
Robinhood Stock Tokens are accessible in over 120 countries and issued as debt securities by Robinhood Assets (Jersey) Limited. The chain runs on the Arbitrum Orbit stack with 100-millisecond block times, integrations with Chainlink oracles for price feeds, and support for the Paxos-issued USDG stablecoin.
The broader RWA sector is expanding quickly as well. The number of RWA holders across all chains has grown to 1.09 million, up from around 375,000 a year ago. Whether Robinhood Chain can convert its holder lead into deeper balances and sustained transfer activity remains the key question for the months ahead.
Sources:
Crypto Briefing: Robinhood surpasses Solana in RWA holder count
CryptoPotato: Robinhood Chain becomes largest blockchain by RWA holder count
Crowdfund Insider: Robinhood Chain RWAs surge as tokenized stocks scale up
Bridges move assets between blockchains using lock-and-mint, burn-and-mint, or liquidity pool mechanisms, but their trust assumptions have made them the most exploited category in crypto.
Summary
Cross-chain bridges transfer value between blockchains that cannot natively communicate, using mechanisms like lock-and-mint, burn-and-mint, and liquidity pools. Bridge exploits have caused over $4 billion in losses since 2021, making bridges the single most attacked category of smart contracts. The Ronin ($624 million), Wormhole ($326 million), and Nomad ($190 million) hacks each exploited different trust assumptions, from compromised validator keys to faulty message verification. Light client bridges and zero-knowledge proof verification offer stronger security guarantees but are more expensive to operate and slower to deploy. Users should evaluate a bridge’s verification mechanism, audit history, and total value locked relative to its security budget before transferring significant funds. Introduction Blockchains do not talk to each other. Ethereum cannot read Solana’s state. Arbitrum cannot verify a transaction on Avalanche. Each chain maintains its own ledger, its own consensus, and its own finality rules. This isolation is a feature of security design, but it creates a practical problem: users hold assets on one chain and want to use them on another.
Bridges exist to solve this. A bridge is a system that lets a user deposit assets on chain A and receive corresponding assets on chain B. The concept sounds simple. The implementation is where billions of dollars have been lost.
The core difficulty is verification. When a user claims to have deposited 100 ETH on Ethereum and asks for 100 ETH on Arbitrum, someone or something must verify that the deposit actually happened. The mechanism chosen for this verification determines the bridge’s security model, its speed, its cost, and its attack surface. As a Coinbase analysis of bridge hacks noted, bridge security failures consistently stem from the gap between the trust assumptions a bridge claims and the trust assumptions it actually enforces.
This guide covers how the major bridge architectures work, why each of the largest exploits succeeded, and what to check before trusting a bridge with your funds.
Lock-and-mint: the original bridge mechanism The earliest and most common bridge design is lock-and-mint. The mechanism works in three steps:
Lock. The user sends tokens to a smart contract on the source chain. The tokens are locked (held) in that contract, not burned or transferred. Verify. A set of validators, relayers, or an oracle observes the deposit on the source chain and attests to its validity on the destination chain. Mint. A smart contract on the destination chain mints a synthetic version of the locked token. The user receives “wrapped ETH” or “bridged USDC” that represents a claim on the locked original. To move back, the process reverses: the user burns the synthetic token on the destination chain, validators attest to the burn, and the original tokens are unlocked on the source chain.
The security of lock-and-mint depends entirely on the verification step. If an attacker can convince the destination chain that a deposit occurred when it did not, they can mint unbacked tokens. This is exactly what happened in the largest bridge exploits.
The arithmetic problem. Lock-and-mint bridges must maintain a 1:1 ratio between locked originals and minted synthetics. If 10,000 ETH is locked on Ethereum, exactly 10,000 bridged ETH should exist on the destination chain. Any discrepancy means some bridged tokens are unbacked. When exploits create unbacked synthetics, the last users to redeem find the vault empty. This creates a bank-run dynamic: once news of an exploit spreads, every holder of the wrapped token rushes to redeem, knowing that only the first to arrive will receive real assets.
Burn-and-mint: native cross-chain tokens Burn-and-mint eliminates the wrapped token problem by destroying the original and creating a new one.
Burn. The token is permanently destroyed on the source chain. Verify. The burn event is verified on the destination chain. Mint. New tokens are minted natively on the destination chain. This model works only for tokens whose issuers control minting on multiple chains. Circle’s Cross-Chain Transfer Protocol (CCTP) for USDC is the largest implementation. When a user bridges USDC from Ethereum to Avalanche through CCTP, the Ethereum USDC is burned and native USDC is minted on Avalanche. There are no wrapped tokens, no liquidity fragmentation, and no unbacked synthetics.
The limitation is that burn-and-mint requires the token issuer to deploy and operate infrastructure on every supported chain. It is not a general-purpose mechanism. Arbitrary ERC-20 tokens cannot use burn-and-mint unless their developers build the cross-chain minting infrastructure. CCTP currently supports over a dozen chains, but each integration requires Circle’s direct involvement.
Liquidity pool bridges: speed through capital A third model avoids both wrapping and burning by using pre-funded liquidity pools on each chain.
The mechanism:
Deposit. The user deposits tokens into a pool on the source chain. Withdrawal. The user (or a relayer acting on their behalf) withdraws equivalent tokens from a pool on the destination chain. Rebalancing. The protocol periodically rebalances pools across chains to maintain adequate liquidity. Stargate (built on LayerZero) and Across Protocol use variations of this model. The advantage is speed: because tokens already exist on the destination chain, there is no minting delay. The user receives real, native tokens immediately.
The tradeoff is capital efficiency. Liquidity must be pre-positioned on every supported chain, and that capital earns a return only when bridges are actively used. During low-volume periods, liquidity providers earn little while their capital sits idle. The aggregate capital requirements across all supported chains can reach hundreds of millions of dollars, creating a barrier to entry and a concentration risk if a single liquidity provider dominates.
The Ronin bridge hack: $624 million from compromised keys On March 23, 2022, attackers drained $624 million in ETH and USDC from the Ronin bridge, which connected Ethereum to the Ronin sidechain used by the game Axie Infinity.
Ronin’s bridge used a multisig validation scheme. Nine validator nodes verified bridge transactions, and any five could authorize a withdrawal. The security assumption was that compromising five of nine independent validators would be impractical.
The assumption was wrong. Sky Mavis, the company behind Axie Infinity, controlled four of the nine validator nodes. A fifth validator had granted Sky Mavis temporary permission to sign on its behalf during a period of high transaction volume and never revoked the permission.
The attackers (later attributed to North Korea’s Lazarus Group by the FBI) compromised Sky Mavis’s systems and obtained the private keys for all five validators. With five of nine signatures, they authorized two fraudulent withdrawals: 173,600 ETH and 25.5 million USDC.
The exploit was not discovered for six days. It came to light only when a user tried to withdraw 5,000 ETH and found the bridge did not have enough funds.
The lesson. Multisig security is only as strong as the independence of its signers. When a single organization controls a majority of keys, the multisig is a single point of failure with extra steps.
The Wormhole hack: $326 million from a verification bypass On February 2, 2022, an attacker exploited the Wormhole bridge to mint 120,000 wETH (wrapped ETH) on Solana without depositing any ETH on Ethereum. The exploit was worth approximately $326 million.
Wormhole’s bridge relied on a set of 19 guardians to verify cross-chain messages. The guardians would observe a deposit on Ethereum, produce a signed attestation (called a VAA, Verified Action Approval), and the Solana-side contract would verify the signatures before minting.
The vulnerability was in the Solana-side signature verification. Wormhole’s Solana contract used a deprecated system instruction (verify_signatures) that did not properly validate the accounts passed to it. The attacker crafted a fake guardian set, submitted a forged VAA with signatures from that fake set, and the contract accepted it as valid.
In effect, the attacker told the Solana contract “these guardians approved this mint” and the contract did not check whether the guardians were real.
Jump Crypto, which backed Wormhole, replaced the stolen 120,000 ETH from its own reserves. The full restoration happened within 24 hours, an unprecedented response that prevented cascading losses across Solana DeFi protocols that held wETH.
The lesson. Bridge verification code is high-value attack surface. A single logic error in how signatures are validated can allow unlimited unauthorized minting.
The Nomad hack: $190 million from a faulty update On August 1, 2022, the Nomad bridge was drained of approximately $190 million. Unlike Ronin and Wormhole, Nomad was not attacked by a sophisticated group. It was drained by hundreds of individual copycats after the initial exploit became public.
Nomad used an optimistic verification model. Cross-chain messages were submitted and assumed valid unless challenged within a 30-minute window. A routine contract upgrade introduced a bug: the contract was initialized with a trusted root of 0x00, the zero bytes32 value.
In Nomad’s verification logic, every message was checked against the trusted root. Because 0x00 is the default value for uninitialized storage in Solidity, every message automatically passed verification. Any user could submit any message and the contract would accept it as proven.
Once the first attacker demonstrated that arbitrary messages were accepted, others copied the transaction, changed the recipient address, and replayed it. The bridge was drained by a swarm of opportunistic attackers, including white-hat hackers who later returned approximately $36 million in recovered funds.
The lesson. Initialization bugs in bridge contracts can be catastrophic. A single misconfigured parameter turned Nomad’s security model from “optimistic verification with fraud proofs” to “no verification at all.”
The Harmony Horizon hack: $100 million from a two-of-five multisig In June 2022, the Harmony Horizon bridge lost $100 million when attackers compromised the private keys of two out of five validators in the bridge’s multisig. Harmony’s bridge required only two of five signers to approve a transaction, an unusually low threshold for a bridge holding $100 million.
The attack reinforced the Ronin lesson: multisig bridges are only as secure as their weakest signer set. When the threshold is low relative to the number of signers, a single infrastructure compromise can be sufficient. Security researchers had publicly criticized Harmony’s two-of-five threshold before the attack occurred.
The lesson. Threshold selection matters as much as validator count. A five-of-nine multisig offers meaningfully different security than a two-of-five multisig, even though both use the same underlying mechanism.
Cumulative losses and attack patterns The scale of bridge losses is without precedent in smart contract security. Bridge exploits represent roughly $3 billion of the $17 billion in total crypto hacks over the past decade, making bridges the single most attacked category of smart contracts.
The attack patterns cluster into three categories:
Key compromise. The attacker obtains enough validator or signer keys to forge bridge messages. Ronin and Harmony followed this pattern. The vulnerability is not in the code but in the operational security of the signer infrastructure.
Verification bypass. The attacker finds a bug in the verification logic that allows forged messages to pass. Wormhole followed this pattern. The vulnerability is a code-level error in the most critical function of the bridge contract.
Initialization or upgrade errors. The attacker exploits a misconfiguration introduced during deployment or upgrade. Nomad followed this pattern. The vulnerability is procedural: the team made an error during a routine operation.
Each pattern requires a different defense. Key compromise is mitigated by increasing signer diversity and using hardware security modules. Verification bypass is mitigated by auditing and formal verification. Initialization errors are mitigated by upgrade procedures that include mandatory test runs on forked networks.
A fourth emerging pattern deserves mention: governance attacks. An attacker who accumulates enough governance tokens to control a bridge’s upgrade mechanism can modify the bridge contract to drain funds. This attack is slower and more visible than the others, but it targets bridges whose governance is concentrated or whose time-lock on upgrades is too short. Bridge teams increasingly use multi-day time-locks (48 to 72 hours) on contract upgrades to give users time to withdraw before a malicious change takes effect.
The intent-based alternative to traditional bridges A newer approach sidesteps bridge contracts entirely by using intent-based cross-chain transfers. Across Protocol and UniswapX’s cross-chain mode let users express a bridging intent: “I have 1,000 USDC on Ethereum and want 1,000 USDC on Arbitrum.” A solver (called a relayer) immediately sends tokens from their own inventory on the destination chain, then later claims reimbursement.
This model reduces the trust surface. The user never deposits tokens into a bridge contract that holds pooled funds. The solver takes on the reimbursement risk, and the settlement contract enforces that the user received the promised output. There is no large pool of locked assets for an attacker to target.
The tradeoff is solver dependency: if no solver is willing to fill the intent at an acceptable price, the transfer does not execute. For high-traffic routes (Ethereum to Arbitrum, Ethereum to Base), solver competition is strong. For low-volume routes, solvers may not be active.
Light client bridges and zero-knowledge verification The exploits above share a common weakness: they rely on external validators or multisigs to attest that something happened on another chain. If those attestors are compromised, the bridge fails.
Light client bridges take a different approach. Instead of trusting a validator set, the destination chain runs a light client that verifies the source chain’s consensus directly.
A light client bridge to Ethereum, for example, would track Ethereum’s validator set and verify block headers and state proofs on-chain. When a user claims to have deposited tokens on Ethereum, the bridge contract verifies the Merkle proof against the Ethereum block header it has already validated.
This approach is trust-minimized: the bridge trusts the source chain’s consensus, not an external committee. But it is expensive. Verifying Ethereum’s consensus on another chain requires significant computation, which translates to high gas costs.
Zero-knowledge proofs offer a solution to the cost problem. Instead of verifying every validator signature on-chain, a ZK proof can compress the verification into a single succinct proof. The destination chain verifies one proof instead of hundreds of signatures.
Projects like Succinct Labs, Polymer, and Lagrange are building ZK-verified bridges. These are still maturing, but they represent the strongest security model for cross-chain communication: trust the math, not the committee. Early implementations show verification costs dropping as ZK proving systems become more efficient, with some bridges already operating on mainnet with proving times under 30 seconds.
What this does not cover This guide explains bridge mechanics and the largest exploits. It does not cover:
Token-specific bridging strategies or which bridge to use for a given asset Detailed comparison of bridge aggregators (Li.Fi, Socket, Bungee) The economics of liquidity provision for bridge pools Cross-chain messaging protocols beyond their bridging function (LayerZero, Axelar, Chainlink CCIP as general messaging layers) Practical checks before using a bridge Check the verification mechanism. Multisig bridges are the weakest model. Light client and ZK-verified bridges are the strongest. Optimistic bridges fall in between. Know what you are trusting.
Look at the validator or guardian set. For multisig bridges, check how many signers exist, who operates them, and whether they are genuinely independent. If the majority of signers belong to the same organization or geographic jurisdiction, the multisig provides limited security.
Review audit history. Bridge contracts are high-value targets. Look for multiple independent audits from reputable firms. A bridge that has not been audited, or has been audited only once, warrants extra caution. Pay attention to the scope of audits: an audit of the token contract does not cover the verification logic.
Consider total value locked versus security budget. A bridge holding $500 million with a five-of-nine multisig presents a very different risk profile than a bridge holding $5 million. Attackers target bridges where the potential payout justifies the effort. The rational attacker calculates whether the cost of compromising enough keys is less than the value that can be extracted.
Test with small amounts first. Before bridging significant value, send a small test transaction. Verify that the receiving address, token, and amount are correct. Bridge transactions are typically irreversible.
Prefer native bridges for rollups. For Ethereum L2 rollups (Arbitrum, Optimism, Base), the canonical bridge inherits security directly from Ethereum’s consensus. Third-party bridges may be faster but introduce additional trust assumptions. Use canonical bridges for large transfers where security matters more than speed.
What is a cross-chain bridge? A cross-chain bridge is a system that transfers assets or data between two blockchains that cannot natively communicate. The bridge locks, burns, or pools tokens on one chain and issues corresponding tokens on another, using a verification mechanism to ensure the transfer is legitimate.
Why have bridges been hacked so often? Bridges are high-value targets because they hold large pools of locked assets. They also introduce complex trust assumptions at the boundary between two different security models. A vulnerability in the verification mechanism (compromised keys, faulty signature checks, initialization bugs) can allow an attacker to drain the entire pool in a single transaction.
What is the difference between lock-and-mint and burn-and-mint? Lock-and-mint holds the original token on the source chain and mints a synthetic (wrapped) version on the destination chain. Burn-and-mint destroys the original and mints a new native token on the destination. Burn-and-mint produces native tokens rather than synthetics but requires the token issuer to control minting on both chains.
Are wrapped tokens safe? Wrapped tokens are only as safe as the bridge that issued them. If the bridge is exploited and the backing assets are drained, the wrapped tokens become unbacked and lose their peg. Users holding wrapped tokens bear the bridge’s security risk, not just the underlying asset’s risk.
How long does bridging take? It varies by mechanism. Liquidity pool bridges and intent-based bridges (Across) can complete in seconds. Lock-and-mint bridges with multisig verification typically take 10 to 30 minutes. Optimistic bridges with fraud proof windows can take 7 days for withdrawals from optimistic rollups to Ethereum, though fast bridges can front the liquidity to reduce this.
What is a light client bridge? A light client bridge verifies the source chain’s consensus directly on the destination chain, rather than relying on an external validator set. It checks block headers and state proofs, trusting the source chain’s own security. This is more trust-minimized than multisig or optimistic verification but costs more gas to operate.
Can I lose money using a bridge? Yes. If the bridge is exploited after you have deposited but before you have withdrawn, your locked tokens may be stolen. If you hold wrapped tokens and the bridge is hacked, your wrapped tokens may become worthless. Additionally, incorrect destination addresses or unsupported token types can result in permanent loss.
Which bridge should I use? No single bridge is best for all situations. For USDC, Circle’s CCTP is the most secure option because it uses burn-and-mint with no wrapped tokens. For general ERC-20 transfers, compare the verification mechanisms of available bridges. Prefer bridges with light client or ZK verification, multiple independent audits, and a track record of secure operation. Bridge aggregators like Li.Fi can help compare routes.
*Disclaimer: This article is for informational purposes only and does not constitute financial, investment, or legal advice. Cryptocurrency involves significant risk, and you should conduct your own research before making any decisions. Information is accurate as of August 2026.*
Michael Saylor: I have never sold any Bitcoin. MicroStrategy's BTC trading is part of the company's capital management activities.
Strategy founder Michael Saylor posted a statement clarifying that his earlier "Never Sell Your Bitcoin" stance was shared with other Bitcoin holders in his capacity as an individual investor. Saylor said he has never sold any Bitcoin, "not even a single satoshi". He emphasized that Strategy is a public company, not a personal wallet, and has publicly disclosed since 2020 that it may buy or sell BTC for capital management purposes. Saylor noted that Strategy and its investors’ long-term conviction in Bitcoin remains unchanged, adding that the company’s related operations are part of its corporate financial strategy, while his personal stance on holding Bitcoin stays consistent. Previously, the market had been monitoring whether Strategy would adjust its Bitcoin holding strategy; Saylor’s latest remarks aim to clearly distinguish between personal Bitcoin holding behavior and public company asset management decisions.
1 hours ago
Head of Amazon Cloud Business: AI Business Has Enormous Potential Scale
Amazon (AMZN.O)’s cloud unit head said clients are shifting from using its services to train AI models to integrating these models into their own business processes, a trend driving surging demand for inference computing. Matt Garman, CEO of Amazon’s Cloud Computing Division, said on Monday: “We still see some companies using large training clusters, but as these models grow more popular and powerful, more firms are integrating this inference capability into their own workloads.” He noted that the potential of the AI business is “extremely huge,” adding that the company will continue to increase capital expenditure to meet growing demand. As the world’s largest provider of computing power and data rental services, Amazon said last week it projects capital expenditure will reach $220 billion in 2026, up from its prior forecast of $200 billion. The spending hike reflects rising prices of storage chips and other components required for data centers.
1 hours ago
The US military stated that it will continue its maritime blockade of Iran, and has altered the routes of 44 merchant ships.
US Central Command stated local time on August 3 that the U.S. military remains strictly enforcing the maritime blockade against Iran. As of that day, the U.S. military has altered the routes of 44 commercial vessels, disabled two vessels, and boarded and inspected two others.
1 hours ago
US officials said there are currently no plans to hold new negotiations with Iran.
According to U.S. network CBS, citing a U.S. official, despite Trump’s earlier announcement that negotiations with Iran would begin Monday afternoon (local time), no new talks are currently scheduled. Instead, ongoing discussions are underway between U.S. Middle East envoy Witkoff, Kushner, and the U.S. negotiating team and Iran via intermediaries.
1 hours ago
The Nasdaq’s gains expanded to 2%, with Google surging over 5% and Tesla rising 3.8%.
According to market data from Bit (Bit.com), the Nasdaq’s gain widened to 2%, the S&P 500 rose 1.3%, and the Dow rose 1%. Oracle (ORCL.N) climbed 7.3%, Google (GOOG.O) gained over 5%, Amazon (AMZN.O) and Microsoft (MSFT.O) rose over 4%, Tesla (TSLA.O) increased 3.8%, and Nvidia (NVDA.O) gained 3.2%.
1 hours ago
Jensen Huang: AI infrastructure investment will create a large number of six-figure-paying technical positions.
NVIDIA CEO Jensen Huang said the wave of AI infrastructure development will not only drive growth in the software sector, but also create numerous high-paying technical jobs that do not require a college degree. Speaking in a conversation with BlackRock CEO Larry Fink at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Huang noted that the world is undertaking "the largest infrastructure build in human history," with large-scale construction of AI data centers, semiconductor factories, and AI facilities set to generate massive employment opportunities. He pointed out that future high-paying roles will not only include software engineers and computer scientists, but also electricians, plumbers, steelworkers, and data center construction and maintenance personnel. "You don’t need a computer science PhD to earn a good income," he said. Global tech firms are projected to invest around $7 trillion in AI infrastructure by the end of this decade. As data centers and semiconductor facilities expand rapidly, demand for skilled industrial workers is rising steadily. McKinsey data shows that between 2023 and 2030, the U.S. will need an additional roughly 130,000 trained electricians, 240,000 construction workers, and 150,000 construction supervisors to meet infrastructure build requirements. Meanwhile, the impact of AI on traditional white-collar job markets has drawn attention. Ford CEO Jim Farley noted that AI is reducing demand for entry-level roles at tech companies, but the U.S. manufacturing and construction sectors still face severe labor shortages. Farley added that the U.S. is currently grappling with a major shortage of factory and construction workers, and future AI-driven reshoring of manufacturing and infrastructure investments will require more skilled industrial talent. BlackRock CEO Larry Fink has previously emphasized that skilled technical workers like electricians are critical for building and operating large AI data centers.
Bitcoin (BTC), Ethereum (ETH) and Ripple (XRP) steadied on Monday after falling over 2.8%, 3.55% and 2.35%, respectively, the previous week. BTC trades below the key resistance level, ETH consolidates between the 50-day and 100-day Exponential Moving Averages (EMAs). Meanwhile, XRP steadies above the key support zone, with all three top cryptocurrencies near crucial technical levels; the next breakout or breakdown could determine their near-term direction.
Bitcoin slips below key support zoneBitcoin price trades at $63,265 on Monday, keeping a bearish near-term tone as price holds below the 50-day, 100-day and 200-day EMAs at $64,676, $67,205 and $73,001 respectively. The dense overhead EMA stack suggests rallies remain corrective. At the same time, the Relative Strength Index (RSI) at 46 leans slightly bearish, and the Moving Average Convergence Divergence (MACD) stays below zero with a negative reading, hinting at persistent downside pressure.
On the topside, initial resistance appears at the nearby horizontal level around $64,004, followed by the 50-day EMA at $64,676, which caps the first meaningful recovery attempts. Higher up, the 100-day EMA at $67,205 and the 200-day EMA at $73,001 define a broader supply zone before the major horizontal barrier near $84,410, leaving immediate downside levels undefined and suggesting any fresh selling would explore new support areas below the current price.
Ethereum consolidates between 50-day and 100-day EMAsEthereum price trades at $1,870 on Monday, with the pair capped below the 100-day and 200-day EMAs at $1,929 and $2,153, respectively, which keeps the broader bias mildly bearish despite holding above the 50-day EMA at $1,851.
The RSI sits near a neutral 51, hinting at consolidative momentum, while the MACD remains below zero with a negative reading, suggesting downside pressure is not yet fully exhausted.
On the topside, initial resistance appears at the 100-day EMA around $1,929, ahead of the psychological and structural barrier at $2,000, with the 200-day EMA near $2,153 acting as a deeper hurdle for any sustained recovery.
On the downside, immediate support is provided by the 50-day EMA at $1,851, and a more distant structural floor emerges at the prior horizontal support level near $1,385.00.
XRP’s momentum indicators show weakening signsXRP price trades at $1.076 on Monday, holding below the 50-day, 100-day, and 200-day EMAs at $1.121, $1.203, and $1.397, respectively, which keeps the broader tone bearish and rallies capped.
The RSI at 45 sits just under the midline. At the same time, the MACD is marginally negative, together hinting at subdued upside momentum and a market that remains vulnerable to further softening while these overhead EMAs are not reclaimed.
On the topside, initial resistance emerges at the 50-day EMA near $1.121, followed by the 100-day EMA at $1.203 and the horizontal barrier at $1.300, before a stronger structural ceiling at the 200-day EMA around $1.397 and the distant resistance line at $1.900.
On the downside, immediate support is aligned with the horizontal level at $1.000, where buyers would be expected to show interest; a daily close below this floor would reinforce the bearish bias and open the door to a deeper corrective phase.
(The technical analysis of this story was written with the help of an AI tool. Know more.)
Cryptocurrency prices FAQs Token launches influence demand and adoption among market participants. Listings on crypto exchanges deepen the liquidity for an asset and add new participants to an asset’s network. This is typically bullish for a digital asset.
A hack is an event in which an attacker captures a large volume of the asset from a DeFi bridge or hot wallet of an exchange or any other crypto platform via exploits, bugs or other methods. The exploiter then transfers these tokens out of the exchange platforms to ultimately sell or swap the assets for other cryptocurrencies or stablecoins. Such events often involve an en masse panic triggering a sell-off in the affected assets.
Macroeconomic events like the US Federal Reserve’s decision on interest rates influence crypto assets mainly through the direct impact they have on the US Dollar. An increase in interest rate typically negatively influences Bitcoin and altcoin prices, and vice versa. If the US Dollar index declines, risk assets and associated leverage for trading gets cheaper, in turn driving crypto prices higher.
Halvings are typically considered bullish events as they slash the block reward in half for miners, constricting the supply of the asset. At consistent demand if the supply reduces, the asset’s price climbs.
Coinbase increased its Bitcoin holdings during the first half of 2026 even as the overall value of its digital asset portfolio declined. The latest figures show the exchange continues to strengthen its Bitcoin treasury while slightly reducing its Ethereum exposure, signaling a cautious shift in its balance sheet strategy as market conditions remain volatile.
Bitcoin Holdings Rise While Ethereum SlipsAs of June 30, Coinbase held 17,311 BTC, up 12.5% from 15,389 BTC at the end of 2025. The company added 1,922 BTC during the first six months of the year, reinforcing its long-term confidence in Bitcoin.
Ethereum holdings, however, moved in the opposite direction. Coinbase ended the period with 150,279 ETH, down 0.6% from 151,175 ETH at the end of last year. While the reduction is relatively small, it highlights a noticeable divergence in the company’s allocation between the two largest cryptocurrencies.
Despite accumulating more Bitcoin, the fair value of Coinbase’s crypto portfolio dropped from $1.99 billion to $1.47 billion, reflecting the broader decline in digital asset prices during the first half of 2026.
Stronger Treasury, But Business Faces PressureCoinbase recently reported its second-quarter financial results, offering more insight into the company’s performance before entering August.
Revenue came in at $1.22 billion for the quarter ended June 30, down 14% quarter-over-quarter and 19% year-over-year as crypto trading activity slowed across the industry.
The company posted a GAAP net loss of $359 million, although much of the loss stemmed from non-operating items, including a $209.5 million non-cash markdown on crypto assets, $52.4 million in restructuring charges, and $238 million in stock-based compensation.
On an adjusted basis, Coinbase remained profitable, reporting Adjusted EBITDA of $208 million.
Although overall crypto trading activity weakened, Coinbase continued gaining market share. Its share of global crypto trading volume increased to 10.3%, up from 9.1% in the previous quarter, setting a new company record.
The exchange also continued expanding beyond trading. Subscription and services revenue reached $555 million, accounting for 48% of total net revenue. Coinbase noted that 88% of its net revenue now comes from businesses outside Bitcoin spot trading, including staking, stablecoins, subscriptions, derivatives, and other products.
August Remains a Key TestOn the other hand, Coinbase stock entered August after gaining 6.76% in July, recovering from June’s weakness. However, August has historically been its weakest month since listing on Nasdaq.
The stock fell 19.28% in August 2023, 18.27% in August 2024, and 19.38% in August 2025, making this month another important test for investor sentiment.
Wall Street also remains divided. Rosenblatt maintained an Outperform rating with a $240 price target, expecting growth from derivatives and prediction markets. Meanwhile, JPMorgan lowered its target from $283 to $196, citing concerns that Coinbase’s revenue-sharing agreement with Hyperliquid could reduce future income from USDC reserves.
With Bitcoin holdings increasing and Ethereum exposure remaining largely unchanged, Coinbase’s treasury strategy is showing a stronger preference for Bitcoin. Whether that allocation trend continues through the second half of 2026 could become an important development for the market.
Story Ends Here
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ETH ended July in the green but it's still 60% away from its ATH. At the same time, the network is performing a lot better.
On-chain data shows that the Ethereum blockchain has developed a lot in the past few years, currently processing more activity than ever before.
At the same time, the underlying asset has failed to benefit, as it continues to struggle below $2,000. One analyst believes this disconnect has become one of the biggest debates surrounding the altcoin and the network behind it.
Ethereum Activity Rockets Aside from the highly anticipated Merge upgrade deployed several years ago, the team behind Ethereum has completed several other, perhaps less hyped but similarly impactful updates over the years that have managed to scale the network. The blockchain is seemingly handling significantly more activity than it did during its proof-of-work years.
Data shared by popular analyst Tanaka claims that Ethereum’s layer-1 generated over $88 million in Real Economic Value (REV) during Q2, up 7% from the previous quarter. However, it’s still down by nearly 70% year-over-year.
Applications built on the world’s second-largest blockchain generated $1.8 billion in fees, meaning that Ethereum itself, which recently celebrated its 11th birthday, captured only around 4.9% of the economic value created by its application layer. The contrast becomes even more apparent when examining the network activity.
Ethereum rollups are currently processing around 1,270 user operations per second, compared to roughly 20.4 UOPS on the mainnet. Robinhood Chain is reportedly processing almost 5 times as many operations as Ethereum’s layer 1.
The analyst described the technical progress as impressive, but questioned how much of that growing activity ultimately benefits ETH holders. Current data shows:
You may also like: Ethereum Just Had Its Best Month in a Year: Can ETH Keep Rallying in August? Bitcoin, Ethereum Outperform Markets in July as Chip Stocks Plunge 22% Why Is Lido Moving $16B in Staked ETH to Pectra-Era Validators? – Total ETH supply: approximately 121.88M
– ETH in the Beacon Chain: approximately 41.10M
– Roughly 33.7% of the total ETH supply is securing the network
– Staking issuance yield: around 2.6%
– Recent annualized supply growth: around 0.85%
– Seven-day blob fee burn: only around 0.22 ETH
Changed Bull Case The analyst doesn’t believe Ethereum is broken, but noted that ETH’s long-term investment thesis is undergoing a substantial change. Instead of “more users leading to more fees and more ETH burn,” the focus now is gradually shifting toward tokenized finance.
The value of Real-World Assets (RWAs) on Ethereum has recently exceeded $17 billion, while the broader stablecoin market is up to almost $300 billion. The analyst argued that Ethereum’s competitive advantage is no longer cheap transactions but its position as the leading settlement layer for institutional finance.
Going forward, they said the key questions are whether layer-2 activity will eventually make blob space economically valuable, whether stablecoins and RWAs generate meaningful on-chain turnover, and whether institutions increasingly hold the underlying asset as reserve collateral for the Ethereum ecosystem.
The analyst will continue to hold and accumulate ETH as they remain optimistic about its near- and long-term future, especially since Ethereum has already solved its scaling problem.
US spot Bitcoin ETFs shed $61.53 million over the past week, while their Ethereum counterparts pulled in $27.42 million.
The flow breakdown Bitcoin ETF outflows of $61.53 million represent a continuation of choppy patterns that have defined much of 2026. The week wasn’t a one-way street either. Late July saw individual days where BTC products lost between $11.6 million and $12 million, while Ethereum ETFs picked up roughly $9 million on those same days.
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BlackRock’s products, including IBIT for Bitcoin and ETHA for Ethereum, continue to dominate both volume and net flow leadership. Fidelity’s FBTC and FETH trail behind, with Grayscale’s GBTC still in the mix despite its historically higher fee structure.
July 2026 was particularly bumpy for Bitcoin ETFs, with multiple days of significant outflows that totaled in the hundreds of millions on select trading sessions. Those dramatic single-day moves were frequently offset by Ethereum inflows, creating a tug-of-war dynamic that kept aggregate crypto ETF flows relatively stable even as individual products swung wildly.
Why the rotation matters Bitcoin has been trading around the $60,000 level recently, and that price action appears to be driving much of the flow behavior. When BTC consolidates or dips, some institutional money rotates into Ethereum products as a way to maintain crypto exposure while shifting risk profiles.
The lack of any major regulatory catalyst behind these flows is telling. No new SEC guidance, no issuer-specific announcements, no structural changes to the products themselves. This appears to be pure market sentiment at work.
What investors should be watching BlackRock’s continued leadership in both volume and inflows hints at a consolidation of market share among the largest issuers. Both Bitcoin and Ethereum ETFs have accumulated substantial cumulative inflows since their respective launches, even accounting for periodic redemption waves.
Disclosure: This article was edited by Editorial Team. For more information on how we create and review content, see our Editorial Policy.
Kripto para piyasasında yatırımcıların yakından takip ettiği token kilit açılışları (token unlock) yeni haftada da gündemin önemli başlıklarından biri olacak. 3-9 Ağustos tarihleri arasında PROVE, HYPE ve ENA başta olmak üzere birçok projede milyonlarca dolarlık token dolaşıma girecek. Özellikle dolaşımdaki arzın büyük bölümünü etkileyecek PROVE unlock’u, yatırımcıların en dikkatle izlediği gelişmeler arasında yer alıyor.
PROVE Tokenında Dev Kilit Açılışı Yeni haftanın en dikkat çeken token unlock’u Succinct Labs ekosistemine ait PROVE tokenında gerçekleşecek. Paylaşılan verilere göre 5 Ağustos’ta yaklaşık 208 milyon PROVE tokenının kilidi açılacak. Bu miktar, mevcut dolaşımdaki arzın yaklaşık %104,17’sine denk gelirken, güncel piyasa değeri yaklaşık 35,4 milyon dolar olarak hesaplanıyor. Dolaşımdaki arzın tamamından daha büyük bir miktarın serbest kalacak olması, PROVE fiyatında yüksek volatilite yaşanabileceğine işaret ediyor.
İlginizi Çekebilir: Arthur Hayes Ethereum ve Bu 2 Altcoin’i Sattı!
Haftanın dikkat çeken diğer iki token kilit açılışı ise Hyperliquid (HYPE) ve Ethena (ENA) projelerinde gerçekleşecek. HYPE tarafında 6 Ağustos’ta yaklaşık 433 bin token dolaşıma girecek. Kilit açılışının değeri yaklaşık 22,67 milyon dolar olurken, bu miktar dolaşımdaki arzın yalnızca %0,19’una karşılık geliyor. Öte yandan Ethena (ENA) için 5 Ağustos’ta yaklaşık 171 milyon token serbest bırakılacak. Yaklaşık 15,1 milyon dolar değerindeki unlock, dolaşımdaki arzın %1,97’sini oluşturuyor.
Token Unlock’lar Neden Önemli? Token kilit açılışları, daha önce belirli süre boyunca kilitli tutulan tokenların dolaşıma girmesi anlamına geliyor. Bu tokenlar genellikle ekip üyeleri, erken dönem yatırımcılar, danışmanlar veya ekosistem teşvik programları için ayrılıyor. Kilit açılışı sonrasında yatırımcıların satış yapması durumunda piyasadaki arz artabileceği için fiyat üzerinde kısa vadeli baskı oluşabiliyor. Ancak unlock miktarı, dolaşımdaki arz oranı ve piyasa likiditesi gibi faktörler fiyat üzerindeki etkinin büyüklüğünü belirleyen en önemli unsurlar arasında yer alıyor.
Piyasa analistleri, özellikle dolaşımdaki arzın tamamını aşan büyüklükte token unlock’u gerçekleştirecek projelerde volatilitenin belirgin şekilde artabileceğini belirtiyor.
Değerlendirme 3-9 Ağustos haftasında gerçekleşecek token kilit açılışları arasında en dikkat çeken proje PROVE olarak öne çıkıyor. Dolaşımdaki arzın %104’ünü aşan unlock miktarı, fiyat hareketlerinin sertleşmesine neden olabilir. HYPE ve ENA tarafındaki kilit açılışları ise daha sınırlı arz etkisine sahip olsa da yatırımcıların yakından takip etmesi gereken gelişmeler arasında yer alıyor. Token unlock dönemlerinde yatırımcıların yalnızca açılacak token miktarını değil, ekip cüzdan hareketlerini, işlem hacmini ve piyasa likiditesini de birlikte değerlendirmesi daha sağlıklı kararlar alınmasına yardımcı olabilir.
Son dakika kripto para haberleri için hemen tıkla
Konu ile ilgili yorumlarınızı bize yazabilirsiniz. Ayrıca, bu tarz bilgilendirici içeriklerin devamının gelmesini isterseniz, bizleri Telegram, Youtube ve Twitter kanallarımızdan takip edebilirsiniz.
Arthur Hayes, the founder of BitMEX and a closely followed figure in the cryptocurrency market, continues to increase his Ethereum investments. According to data shared by the on-chain analytics platform Onchain Lens, Hayes purchased approximately 1,337 ETH using a total of 2.5 million USDC.
According to the shared information, Hayes initially transferred 2.5 million USDC to his Galaxy Digital account. Following the transfer, it was determined that 1,337 Ethereum (ETH) was purchased with these funds. At the time of the transaction, the total value of the purchased ETH was approximately $2.5 million.
According to data reported by Onchain Lens, Hayes didn’t stop there. The renowned investor was also seen sending the same amount, 2.5 million USDC, to the FalconX institutional digital asset trading platform account.
However, it was noted at the time of the announcement that the transaction related to this transfer was not yet complete and the process was pending. Market participants speculate that these funds could also be used to purchase Ethereum or another digital asset.
Arthur Hayes has attracted attention in recent years, particularly with his optimistic views on Ethereum and the decentralized finance (DeFi) ecosystem. In his previous assessments, he stated that improving global liquidity conditions and expectations of monetary policy easing could support risky assets, especially Ethereum.
On-chain transactions by major investors in the cryptocurrency market are closely watched by investors. In particular, the purchases and sales made by industry leaders like Arthur Hayes are considered important indicators of market sentiment.
While analysts emphasize that large-scale purchases alone are not sufficient to determine price direction, they note that the continued interest in Ethereum from institutional and high-capital individual investors can be considered a positive signal for the market in the long term. How the second 2.5 million USDC sent to FalconX will be utilized will become clearer in the coming days with on-chain data.
*This is not investment advice.
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Q3 is shaping up to be the most bullish phase of the 2026 cycle so far.
From a technical lens, the total crypto market cap has gained 6%+ this quarter, putting the market on track for its first bullish quarterly close since Q3 2025. Since then, crypto has failed to close a single quarter in the green.
The key question now is whether this momentum can be sustained through the rest of Q3.
Bitcoin dominance, however, has yet to reclaim the 60% level. Unless BTC.D breaks above that resistance, calling for a sustained crypto rally through the rest of Q3, may be premature, especially with BTC historically underperforming in August and September.
Notably, this is where Ethereum starts to take center stage.
Source: TradingView (ETH/BTC) As the chart above shows, the ETH/BTC ratio has climbed 10%+ in Q3, putting it on track for its strongest quarterly performance since the 56% rally in Q3 2025. The rotation is already playing out.
Ethereum surged 18.55% in July, more than 2x Bitcoin’s return, highlighting a textbook rotation from BTC into ETH.
But what if this is more than just a typical rotation cycle?
Historically, capital rotates from Bitcoin into Ethereum as investors move further out the risk curve. However, Ethereum’s market structure suggests something stronger may be unfolding.
ETH dominance closed July up more than 11%, signaling that Ethereum is gaining a larger share of the total crypto market rather than simply benefiting from short-term capital flows.
According to AMBCrypto, if this trend continues, Ethereum [ETH] could remain the market leader through the rest of Q3. In that case, a repeat of ETH’s 2025-style outperformance against BTC looks increasingly likely.
Ethereum’s ROI is catching investors’ attention Looking back at 2025, Ethereum closed Q3 up 66.55%, marking its strongest quarterly rally on record.
The move was fueled by a 48% rally in July and an 18% gain in August before a healthy 5% pullback in September. Over the same period, Bitcoin returned just 6.31%, underscoring ETH’s clear outperformance.
More importantly, the ETH/BTC pair gained 56%+, suggesting that nearly 84% of ETH’s Q3 gains were driven by capital rotating out of BTC, while the remaining upside came from ETH’s own market strength.
Notably, a similar setup may now be taking shape. As the chart below shows, Ethereum’s exchange supply ratio has dropped to 0.127, marking the lowest level on the chart.
Combined with rising institutional demand, the declining liquid supply strengthens the case for another “ETH-led” rally.
Source: CryptoQuant In this context, the 10% gain in the ETH/BTC ratio so far this quarter and rising on-chain accumulation point to a setup similar to 2025, when Ethereum outperformed Bitcoin by more than 10x in Q3.
Moreover, with Bitcoin [BTC] also facing its historically weaker August and September window, the odds of Ethereum taking the lead for the rest of Q3 are starting to look increasingly favorable, with the potential for another 2025-style double-digit quarterly close.
Leading cryptocurrencies edged higher on Sunday as investors weighed President Donald Trump’s remarks about a potential Iran peace agreement.
Crypto Market ConsolidatesBitcoin wobbled within a range of $62,890 to $63,700, with trading volume surging 19% over the 24-hour period. Ethereum also remained stuck within $1,800, while XRP and Dogecoin traded in the green.
Nearly $150 million was liquidated from the cryptocurrency market in the last 24 hours, predominantly in bearish short positions, according to Coinglass data.
Bitcoin’s open interest rose 0.31% over the last 24 hours. Retail and whale derivatives traders remained net long on BTC, but trimmed their exposure from the day before.
"Fear" sentiment prevailed in the market, according to the Crypto Fear & Greed Index.
Top Gainers (24 Hours)
The global cryptocurrency market capitalization stood at $2.17 trillion, following an increase of 0.82% over the last 24 hours.
Stock Futures Lift on Peace HopesStock futures climbed overnight on Sunday. The Dow Jones Industrial Average Futures rose 205 points, or 0.39%, as of 8:41 p.m. EDT. Futures tied to the S&P 500 spiked 0.42%, while Nasdaq 100 Futures rallied 0.65%.
The upsurge came after Trump canceled planned strikes on Iran after being "asked" by Tehran and other Middle East nations to "hold off" to allow a deal to be reached.
BTC’s ‘Strong and Vital Move’ Incoming?Michaël van de Poppe, a widely followed cryptocurrency analyst and trader, noted record-low Bitcoin sentiment and high net negative positioning in the current cycle
He predicted that a sustained breakout above the $67,000-$68,000 resistance would trigger a “strong and vital move” due to liquidations, “accelerating” the move upward.
On-chain analytics firm Santiment also spotlighted Bitcoin’s lowest positive-to-negative commentary on major social platforms, with just 0.58 bullish comments for every 1 bearish comment.
“This panic reading is larger than the peak war fears earlier this year, as well as the other aforementioned events from crypto’s past,” Santiment added.
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Ethereum (ETH) price is currently hovering at $1.8K. The downtrend intensifies in both short-term and long-term timeframes. As of August 1, the largest altcoin, Ethereum (ETH), is within the $1,800 range. The price has settled into a tighter band, with the session ranging between $1,847 and $1,888. Meanwhile, the 24-hour trading volume has reached $7.43 billion, down by 15%.
Notably, July ended with a reasonable gain, and August is historically a slower month for most markets. Also, the first few days of a new month tend to bring choppy price momentum and fake-outs before any clear direction emerges for the assets.
The rebound from the long-term ascending trendline played out as expected. But buyers are now facing their first technical challenge, resistance exactly where previous analysis had flagged it. Rather than collapsing after hitting that zone, ETH has been defending a sequence of higher lows while consolidating beneath it.
Ethereum’s Potential Price Levels to Watch Upon reclaiming the $1,880 level, the flush to $1,800 looks like the low. That is the zone which confirms the buyers are back in control of the ETH market. Conversely, losing $1,848 opens the door to a range below $1,840 as the next crucial area to concentrate. Below that, the ascending trendline becomes the last line of defence for the broader recovery thesis.
On the upside, a confirmed breakout above the resistance zone that capped the latest advance would strengthen the developing reversal structure and move upward to continue aiming higher targets.
Moreover, volume down during consolidation beneath resistance is normal; it reflects the market waiting rather than retreating. The next decisive move above or below current levels will confirm whether July’s gains hold into August or give way to the seasonal slowdown.
Technical Outlook: Which Direction Will ETH Move? The ETH/USDT pair’s Moving Average Convergence Divergence line is found below the signal line. And as both lines are below zero, the overarching market setup indicates a strong, active downtrend with expanding bearish momentum.
The negative sentiment is intensifying on both short-term and long-term timeframes. Traders often view this as a clean downtrend-continuation zone, and look for shorting opportunities until signs of a bullish crossover appear.
In addition, the daily Relative Strength Index (RSI) of Ethereum is at 40.79, suggesting bearish-to-neutral momentum. It shows that the sellers control the market, though not aggressively enough to trigger oversold conditions.
Being under 50 confirms that the overall market favours sellers. It is worth noting that there is still room for price to move down. Traders wait for a drop to 30 to spot buying opportunities, or a cross back over 50 to confirm a recovery.
Crypto Market Highlights
PI Price Is Pushing Higher: The Test to Hold This Level Begins
Content Writer | Crypto Enthusiast | Bridging Literature and Blockchain
Market news: Anthropic's annual revenue has risen to $80 billion, and is expected to exceed $100 billion by the end of August.
Market analyst Nick Dorsey revealed that Anthropic's annual recurring revenue (ARR) reached $80 billion as of mid-July, and at this pace, it may exceed $100 billion in ARR by the end of August. Nick Dorsey (@Midnight_Captl), a former global sourcing expert at Apple, focuses on investment analysis in the AI and semiconductor sectors.
7 minutes ago
The USD/JPY exchange rate fell 170 pips in the short term, breaking below the 156 level.
USD/JPY's decline widened to 170 pips within 15 minutes, marking its first break below the 156 level since May 6, with a daily drop exceeding 1%. Earlier, the United States and Japan said they would not hesitate to further coordinate foreign exchange market interventions.
7 minutes ago
Strategy may sell nearly 300 Bitcoin again.
According to monitoring by Onchain Lens, a wallet associated with MicroStrategy transferred 299.843 BTC (valued at approximately $18.91 million) to an address 9 hours ago. The address had previously sent Bitcoin to Galaxy Digital, Binance, and Coinbase. Analysts noted a similar transfer occurred last month, around the time MicroStrategy reported selling BTC worth roughly $216 million.
7 minutes ago
CEO of crypto custody firm BitGo issues a 100 BTC challenge to Anthropic, accusing the latter of overhyping AI hacker risks.
Crypto custody firm Bitgo CEO Mike Belshe deposited 100 BTC into a public Bitcoin address on August 1, worth roughly $6.3 million at the time, and invited Anthropic’s Claude models to attempt to transfer funds out of the address. On-chain records show the wallet received the funds on July 31, and no transfers had been made from the balance as of August 2. Anthropic previously disclosed that 3 incidents were found during 141,006 cybersecurity assessment runs, with 6 assessment sessions involving 3 models accidentally interacting with real organizational systems. The models in question include Claude Opus 4.7, Claude Mythos 5, and an unreleased internal research model, stemming from configuration errors by third-party testing partner Irregular that allowed the test environment to connect to the internet. Belshe’s latest challenge targets Bitgo’s institutional custody platform, which uses multi-signature or multi-party computation technology to distribute signing authority across multiple independent keys. As of August 2, Anthropic has not publicly responded to the challenge.
7 minutes ago
South Korea's stock index extended its decline to 5%, with Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix seeing their losses widen to 8%.
According to Bitget market data, South Korea’s KOSPI index extended its morning session decline to 5%, with Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix seeing their losses widen to 8%.
7 minutes ago
HIP-3 decentralized exchange platform Paragon has acquired Unitree Technology’s ticker.
According to data from hl.eco, HIP-3 decentralized exchange Paragon acquired tickers UNITREE (from Unitree) and RDDT (from Reddit) in a recent HIP-3 auction for 577.66 HYPE. Currently, HIP-3 decentralized exchange Paragon has 12 stock contract trading pairs, with daily trading volume in the millions of U.S. dollars, and has been expanding continuously through frequent ticker auctions recently.
The winner actually had the best month in terms of market performance in a year.
After two consecutive painful months in which they lost billions of dollars, the spot Bitcoin ETFs finally turned the page in July, but inflows were still modest.
Meanwhile, the exchange-traded funds tracking the performance of the largest altcoin enjoyed the month more, attracting over 2x more fresh capital.
Bitcoin ETFs in July March and April were quite bullish for the spot BTC ETFs as the financial vehicles attracted well over $3 billion. However, the trend changed violently in May when they lost $2.43 billion. June became the worst month on record, as investors pulled out just over $4.5 billion. In total, the net outflows for May and June stood at nearly $7 billion, and the cumulative total flows dropped from over $58 billion to $51 billion.
July started more positively, with almost $200 million in net inflows during the first full week. Another $76 million followed during the second, and a more modest $34 million in the third. The trend was obvious as the initial high numbers gradually declined, aligning with the underlying asset’s controversial and sporadic price performance and ultimately leading to a very modest increase throughout the month.
The last week in July was once again in the red, with investors pulling $61.53 million out of the funds. Friday was the most painful day, as the total net outflows stood at over $265 million. As such, the month ended with $172.42 million. On one hand, green finally overcame the red wave, but on the other, the number was nowhere near enough to offset some of the recent losses.
ETH ETFs Do Better The Ethereum ETFs entered July after a similarly painful two-month streak, in which they lost $541 million in May and another $529 million in June. However, investors were more persistent, and the actual net inflows for July were at a more respectable $365.17 million, thus outpacing the BTC ETF flows by over 2x.
Moreover, the ETH ETFs closed all four full weeks of July in the green, including the last one, which saw only one day in the red. Perhaps this investor behavior is among the reasons behind the underlying asset’s major resurgence in July. As reported earlier, ETH ended the month with a substantial 20% increase, making it the best in precisely a year.
You may also like: Ethereum Just Had Its Best Month in a Year: Can ETH Keep Rallying in August? Bitcoin Price Rebounds as Trump Calls Off Iran Strikes and Hints at a Deal Bitcoin Fear Reaches Record High as Coldcard Exploit Shakes Confidence in Self-Custody All eyes are now on August, which hasn’t been ETH’s most favorable month historically, but there are some major double-digit exceptions.
Blockchain security firm CertiK has noted that on July 23, 2026, an attacker successfully targeted the Ethereum cross-chain bridge of the Verus Protocol, extracting roughly $7.44 million in assets that included ETH, tBTC, various stablecoins, and MKR. The exploit hinged on a fundamental difference in how Verus and Ethereum processed notarization data.
CertiK added that by embedding malicious duplicate state-root entries within otherwise valid notarizations that were signed by legitimate Verus notaries and then forwarded to Ethereum, the attacker overwrote the trusted state root.
This allowed submission of a forged bridge import proof that authorized large withdrawals, even though the original export involved only a negligible 0.01 VRSC transfer.
A Verus notarization functions as a signed cross-chain checkpoint that sets the reference root used to validate subsequent transaction and export proofs.
It records details such as the system or currency involved, the notarization height, one or more proof roots (including system ID, chain height, state or proof root, block hash, accumulated power, and currency or converter state), a link to the prior notarization, and proposer or node information.
These roots draw from publicly available Verus and Ethereum chain data.
While anyone can propose or relay a candidate notarization, acceptance requires spending the correct notarization-thread UTXO and providing necessary consensus evidence.
Notary signatures form part of the public evidence that can be retrieved and relayed.
The attack unfolded in several stages. First, the attacker poisoned notarizations on the Verus network.
Starting from a genuine notarization, successive transactions spent the previous accepted output while secretly incorporating extra malicious state-root entries.
Verus processed the serialized roots by loading them into a vector and inserting them into a map, effectively overlooking the duplicates in its own view.
Legitimate notary software then validated the initial legitimate roots, after which notaries signed the full raw data—including the ignored malicious entries.
The attacker harvested these signatures via RPC calls and packaged them for use on Ethereum.
On the Ethereum side, the attacker relayed the notarizations through calls to the bridge’s setLatestData function.
During deserialization, the proof roots were processed in a loop that overwrote the state root for every matching system ID entry.
Consequently, the genuine Verus root was replaced by the attacker-controlled value.
With this compromised root in place, the attacker initiated a minimal 0.01 VRSC export request through the Bridge.vETH contract, which the converter and associated pool processed into a batch transfer.
Finally, a crafted submitImports call on Ethereum used a fabricated hashtransfers value matching the desired large drains, along with adjusted input counts and selectively reused proof components.
The remaining elements of the Merkle Mountain Range proof were constructed so that the final root matched the previously injected malicious state root.
The core vulnerability stemmed from inconsistent cross-chain semantics: Verus interpreted the notarization bytes as containing a valid genuine checkpoint, while Ethereum treated the same data as establishing an attacker-controlled one.
Once Ethereum accepted the false root, any export proof derived under it passed verification.
CertiK further explained that an additional shortcoming in the Ethereum bridge contract was the absence of checks confirming that the requested payout amount matched the value actually exported on Verus.
A fabricated hashtransfers field proved sufficient to clear the relevant verification.
After the drain, the attacker converted the stolen assets into approximately 2,778.87 ETH through a relay service and deposited the proceeds into Tornado Cash.
Blockchain security firm CertiK also mentioned that the episode underscores the risks inherent in cross-chain systems where subtle differences in data interpretation between chains can enable significant losses, highlighting the need for stricter consistency checks and amount-validation logic in bridge designs.
XRP-backed exchange-traded funds (ETFs) pulled in $27.29 million in July, marking a fourth straight month of net inflows.
The token itself trades near $1.08, down roughly 40% since the start of the year, in line with a generally poorly preforming crypto market. But many expect intuitional money and these products to be bolstering XRP, and others.
Instituional MoneyCumulative XRP ETF inflows now sit near $1.5 billion, the largest total among altcoin products. The price keeps sliding anyway.
XRP funds have ranked first or second in monthly inflows since April, without barely any outflows. Inflows ran $81.59 million in April, $131.94 million in May, $59.46 million in June, and $27.29 million in July, showing the pace has cooled even as the streak holds.
XRP ETF inflows have had an impressive run of inflows even with the price falling. Image Source: Coin Glass That steady buying stands out against a market where fresh capital keeps concentrating in a handful of tokens. Several smaller altcoin funds recorded no net flows in July. XRP kept adding, even at a slower pace.
Why the Price Isn’t Following the FlowsSteady ETF demand alone hasn’t lifted XRP’s price. Some of the pressure traces to a specific seller. Grayscale chief executive Peter Mintzberg filed to sell XRP ETF shares he acquired before the fund’s listing. He priced the sale at $20.45 a share, about half what earlier Grayscale insiders got in January.
Momentum indicators tell a similar story. XRP recently hit its most oversold readings on record. Traders remain split on whether the sell-off has finished.
Competition for capital plays a role too. Solana funds have pulled in about $1.15 billion since launch, edging back into second place in July. Hyperliquid funds added roughly $293 million in May and June before posting a first monthly outflow in July.
Bitcoin (BTC) and Ethereum (ETH) funds still dominate the category. They pulled in $172 million and $365 million in July, respectively.
Steady ETF buying shows institutional appetite for XRP has not faded. Whether that demand eventually lifts the price may depend on the broader altcoin market finding its footing first.
Cover image via depositphotos.com 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.
While weekend news feeds remain quiet, an important scenario is unfolding on the charts at the start of August as Bitcoin is attempting to form a reversal, but Ethereum is technically one step ahead.
Right now, BTC is hovering near $63,382, carefully drawing the right shoulder of a classic inverse head-and-shoulders pattern. Behind it lies a heavy decline from May highs above $81,000 and a nervous search for a bottom near $57,000.
TechCharts analyst Aksel Kibar calls this setup the only real reason for short-term optimism among bulls at the beginning of August.
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Fresh Bitcoin price outlook by Aksel Kibar, Source: Aksel Kibar (@TechCharts) via XBut while Bitcoin is still standing at the foot of the climb, wondering whether buyers have enough strength for a decisive push toward the key neckline at $67,200, Ethereum has already completed this journey.
In the ETH/BTC pair, a similar reversal bottom has already broken to the upside.
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The leading altcoin has established itself in an uptrend and is confidently moving toward the technical target of 0.0312, proving that large capital currently prefers to park in ETH rather than in the market flagship.
This liquidity rotation is draining Bitcoin and depriving it of the volume needed for a quick start.
Against the U.S. dollar, Ethereum is now carefully retesting the $1,875 level from above. Should this support withstand the pressure, a direct path toward $2,163 will open for the coin.
$67,200 ultimatum: Will Bitcoin mirror Ethereum's breakout or validate the bears?This relative strength in ETH is an excellent sign for the broader market, but the situation remains tense for Bitcoin holders. Either BTC follows the example of its younger sibling and delivers a rapid move above $67,200, confirming the classic reversal, or the pattern breaks down.
Based on the context provided by Kibar, without an assault on the neckline in the coming days, bears will regain control and send Bitcoin toward the solid support levels at $60,000 and $58,000. Considering all the factors, the price action over the next few days at the beginning of August will decide everything.
