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1inch has joined the SEAL Whitehat Safe Harbor Agreement, enabling whitehat hackers to step in effectively when needed. 

In DeFi, attacks don’t happen slowly. They unfold in real time. Funds move in minutes. And in that narrow window, the difference between loss and recovery often comes down to whether someone is willing - and able - to act immediately. That “someone” is often a white hat hacker.

What are white hats and what’s their role in DeFi?White hat hackers are security researchers who identify vulnerabilities in protocols - not to exploit them, but to prevent damage.

In traditional software, their role is relatively straightforward:

find a bugreport itreceive a bountyIn DeFi, the stakes are higher.

Protocols are live, permissionless and often hold hundreds of millions in user funds. When an exploit begins, there may be no time to report and wait. The only way to stop the attack may be to act immediately - interacting directly with smart contracts, moving funds, or front-running the attacker.

In other words, white hats may need to behave like attackers in order to stop one.

What is SEAL?Security Alliance (SEAL) is a crypto security nonprofit founded by samczsun, one of the most respected figures in the DeFi security space.

The organization focuses on improving how the industry responds to threats in real time. Its initiatives include:

SEAL 911 - an emergency response hotline for active exploitsSEAL Intel - a threat intelligence sharing networkSEAL Frameworks - open-source security playbooksSEAL Certifications - certifications for operational securityThe goal is to move beyond static security and toward coordinated, rapid response.

What is the Safe Harbor Agreement?The Safe Harbor Agreement is designed to solve a very specific problem: enabling white hats to act during active exploits without fear of legal consequences.

At its core, it is a simple commitment from a protocol:

If you step in to protect funds during a live exploit and follow the rules, we will not pursue legal action against you.

This creates a defined framework for emergency intervention, where speed is critical and traditional processes are too slow.

How the agreement works in practiceThe Safe Harbor Agreement establishes clear boundaries for white hat action.

White hats are allowed to intervene - but only under strict conditions.

They can act only during an active exploit, not for general testing or vulnerability research. The agreement is explicitly limited to situations where funds are at immediate risk.

They must contact the protocol’s security team as soon as intervention begins, ensuring coordination and transparency. For 1inch, the designated contact is 1inch Security ([email protected]).

Any funds recovered must be returned in full within 72 hours to a designated recovery address designated in the adoption. This ensures that rescued assets are secured quickly and do not become a secondary risk.

White hats are also incentivized. Successful interventions are rewarded with a bounty - typically a percentage of the recovered funds, capped at a predefined amount.

At the same time, the agreement provides legal protection, reducing the risk of liability for good-faith actions taken under these conditions.

Importantly, researchers can remain pseudonymous, identifying themselves to the protocol without public disclosure. Bounty payment is subject to sanctions and AML screening under 1inch’s adopted terms.

What the agreement does - and does not doThe Safe Harbor Agreement is not a guarantee of recovery.

It does not:

ensure that funds can be savedbind regulators or third partiesreplace traditional security practicesWhat it does is remove a key barrier to action.

It gives white hats the confidence to step in when it matters most—during the narrow window where intervention can still make a difference.

From passive security to active defenseDeFi security has traditionally focused on prevention: audits, bug bounties, and responsible disclosure.

But as exploits become more sophisticated, prevention alone is not enough.

The industry is moving toward active defense:

real-time monitoringcoordinated responserapid interventionWhite hats are central to this shift. They are often the first to detect anomalies and the only actors capable of reacting fast enough to mitigate damage.

The Safe Harbor model formalizes their role—not as external observers, but as participants in emergency response.

A growing industry standardThe Safe Harbor Agreement has already been adopted by leading protocols, including Uniswap, zkSync, Pendle, PancakeSwap and Balancer.

Its adoption reflects a broader recognition: DeFi needs mechanisms that enable action, not just analysis.

As protocols become more complex and interconnected, the ability to respond quickly to exploits becomes a critical layer of security.

Building safer DeFiBy adopting the SEAL Whitehat Safe Harbor Agreement, 1inch is aligning with this emerging standard. The adoption was approved through 1inch DAO governance.

The agreement provides clear guidelines for action, increases the protection of user funds and demonstrates a commitment to proactive security - empowering white hats to act when it matters most.  The covered protocols (including the 1inch Aqua Protocol), the designated recovery addresses and the bounty terms are set out in 1inch’s adoption record (1IP-104). 

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Disclaimer: This article is a summary for informational purposes only and does not constitute legal advice. The terms of the SEAL Whitehat Safe Harbor Agreement and 1inch’s published adoption record govern in all cases; nothing in this article expands or modifies them.

Ondo Perps Crosses $8B in Cumulative Volume@OndoPerps has hit another milestone, surpassing $8 billion in cumulative trading volume as demand for tokenized perpetual futures continues to accelerate. The latest figure builds on rapid momentum that has seen the platform scale from zero to billions in volume within weeks of its public launch.

The Street reported that the platform had already crossed $7 billion in cumulative volume just weeks after opening to the public in July 2026, with the sharpest gains recorded through early August. The $8 billion mark represents yet another step in what has been a steep, sustained climb.

Open interest has now risen to $90 million, up from the $67 million to $72 million range tracked in earlier weeks, pointing to growing conviction among active traders on the platform.

Tokenized Equities as Margin: The Capital Efficiency PlayA key driver of adoption is the platform's collateral model. Rather than requiring traders to hold stablecoins as margin, Ondo Perps lets traders post tokenized stocks and other real-world assets directly as collateral, keeping holdings productive rather than parked. Ondo calls this its "productive capital" approach.

Institutional investors are increasingly using Ondo tokenized equities as margin to take leveraged positions in decentralized futures markets. The platform offers up to 20x leverage across equities, ETFs, and commodities including names like Tesla, Nvidia, Apple, gold, and silver, with 24/7 trading available to users outside the United States and other restricted jurisdictions.

The model addresses a well-known friction in on-chain derivatives: traders have historically needed to liquidate positions or source separate stablecoin pools to open futures exposure. Ondo Perps removes that step, allowing spot holdings and perpetual positions to be managed on the same platform.

With volume and open interest both climbing, @OndoPerps is positioning itself as a leading venue for real-world asset derivatives, at a moment when tokenized finance is drawing serious institutional attention.

Sources:
The Street: Ondo Perps hits $7 billion in volume weeks after launch
Ondo Finance: Introducing Ondo Perps
Yahoo Finance: Ondo Perps hits $7 billion in volume weeks after launch

Hyperliquid announces HIP-4 has rolled out multiple new features: Deployers can now add named results after a question is created, with the new results’ initial balances matching the pending fallback balance; Template instantiation now requires setting a deployerFeeScale — a fee multiplier similar to HIP-3, which deployers can configure between 0 and 10 to charge result fees; A new shortString type hint has been added for template-side names, simplifying interface field parsing; Settlement details have been pruned from L1 state, so dependent node APIs or precompiled application readers can index required data independently; Multiple new template sets have been added to the testnet, with template IDs using sequential suffixes — all except the highest sequential ID in each set are marked as deprecated templates. After the next network upgrade, the fee mechanism will activate for validator-deployed result markets, with the average transaction fee for these markets set at half the rate of non-result spot trades. The HIP-4 mainnet launch will follow a conservative phased rollout: Each deployer will initially be capped at 100 concurrent results and a maximum of 500 result deployments per day; Once the technology stabilizes, these limits are expected to quickly rise to 1000 concurrent results and 5000 daily deployments, with further limit increase plans to be developed based on feedback.

Relevant content

Moon of the Dark Side (Kimi): Alert to fake financing scams impersonating the company; no so-called "friend funds" or "special channels" exist.

Dark Side of the Moon (Kimi) issued a solemn statement, noting that in response to illegal and criminal activities involving false financing conducted under its name in the market, the company has reported the case to public security authorities and vowed to pursue accountability to the fullest extent. The firm emphasized that there are no so-called "friend funds" or "special channels", no so-called "old share allocations" or "reserved quotas", nor any so-called "official agents" or "authorized intermediaries". It reminded market participants to be vigilant against related false information and suspicious transactions.

9 minutes ago

Netanyahu is struggling in his election campaign, with Trump yet to publicly voice his support.

According to Axios, two weeks ago, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu met with US President Donald Trump in the Oval Office, where Trump asked Netanyahu about his poll numbers ahead of the October 27 general election. Netanyahu paused in silence for a moment before one of his advisors interjected: "Mr. President, he’s leading." Netanyahu’s lead is not substantial. Despite repeated queries from reporters, Trump has not yet provided the support Netanyahu had expected. Trump could still change his mind, but with only 75 days remaining until the election, Netanyahu is running out of time. Netanyahu’s current ruling coalition is polling at just 49 to 53 seats—far below its current 68 seats and short of the 61 seats needed to form a government. Meanwhile, Israel’s opposition holds 67 to 70 seats in surveys. Netanyahu’s main rival, former Israel Defense Forces Chief of Staff Gadi Eisenkot, has higher support in most polls. (Jinshi)

9 minutes ago

JPMorgan Chase upgrades Sandisk's rating to Overweight, with a target price of $2,250.

According to CNBC, JPMorgan Chase has upgraded its rating on SanDisk (SNDK) from Neutral to Overweight, setting a $2,250 target price that implies roughly 47% upside from Thursday’s closing level. SanDisk’s stock has surged 544% so far this year. JPMorgan analyst Harlan Sur noted that the rapid growth of AI inference is driving a structural inflection point in NAND demand, leaving SanDisk uniquely positioned to benefit. The acceleration of AI applications has lifted storage demand and created supply tightness. At its New York Investor Day, SanDisk disclosed it will adopt a new business model including structured pricing mechanisms and advance payment agreements with major clients. JPMorgan said this framework is expected to boost the company’s profit margins and reduce its business cyclicality. To date, SanDisk has signed 8 related long-term agreements, with a total contract value of approximately $94 billion based on the price floor, and a weighted average contract term of over four years. LSEG data shows that among the 25 analysts covering SanDisk, 22 have assigned a Buy or Strong Buy rating, while the remaining 3 have given a Hold rating.

9 minutes ago

Kraken's parent company Payward reported a 71% year-on-year drop in pre-tax profit to $23 million in the second quarter.

According to Bloomberg, Payward Inc., parent company of crypto exchange Kraken, reported an adjusted pretax profit of $23 million in the second quarter, down 71% year-over-year from $79.7 million in the same period last year. Adjusted revenue rose 17% YoY to $508 million, while total platform trading volume reached $310 billion, an 18% YoY decline. Payward said the number of funded accounts grew 42% YoY to 6.6 million in Q2, hitting an all-time high. Co-CEO Arjun Sethi noted that as spot trading volumes in the crypto industry fell, Kraken’s traditional futures, equities and tokenized equities businesses all grew, with the firm’s spot market share rising for three consecutive quarters. Against the backdrop of slowing crypto market trading activity, multiple exchanges are expanding into derivatives and real-world asset-related trading. Payward laid off roughly 150 employees earlier this year, adding that AI technology adoption has improved operational efficiency. Bloomberg previously reported that Payward’s highly anticipated initial public offering (IPO) could occur as early as later this year, or may be delayed until early 2027.

9 minutes ago

Cumberland transferred 3.72 million UNI tokens to CEXs in nearly 23 hours, worth approximately $12.63 million.

According to on-chain analyst Yu Jin’s monitoring, approximately 3.72 million UNI tokens (valued at around $12.63 million) were transferred by market maker Cumberland to trading platforms including Binance, Coinbase, OKX, and Bybit over the past 23 hours. During the same period, UNI’s price fell from $3.59 to $3.22, a decline of roughly 10%.

9 minutes ago

Prominent trader: If BTC falls below $60,000, it may further dip below $57,000 in August.

Prominent crypto trader Killa noted in a post that Bitcoin has been in a steady downtrend leading up to August 14, with the key focus now being whether it can hold its current trading range and stay above $60,000. He believes that if BTC continues to trade above $60,000, a short-term low may form near the current price zone. Conversely, if BTC breaks below $60,000 and loses its current range, the likelihood of further declines over the remainder of August will rise significantly. A break below $60,000 from its current position could push BTC down to below $57,000. On the flip side, if Bitcoin retains its technical structure after August 14 and reclaims the $61,000 to $62,000 level, Killa predicts it may rebound within its range for the rest of the month.

9 minutes ago

Hyperscale Data (NYSE American: GPUS) sold roughly 685 Bitcoin for approximately $43 million, using the proceeds to slash about $30 million in debt and funnel remaining capital into its Michigan AI data center campus. The company now holds around 275 Bitcoin, down from over 1,000 just weeks ago.

The numbers behind the sell-off As of July 19, Hyperscale Data’s Bitcoin stash sat at 1,087.4527 BTC, valued at roughly $70.3 million at the time. Then came a sale of approximately 100 Bitcoin in late July, earmarked for the Michigan data center project. The 685-coin sale announced around August 14 was considerably larger, generating around $43 million in gross proceeds.

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Of that $43 million, an estimated $30 million went directly toward paying down corporate debt. The remainder is being directed toward expanding the company’s AI data center operations through its subsidiary Sentinum.

Executive Chairman Milton “Todd” Ault III affirmed that Bitcoin will remain central to the company’s strategy, positioning the sale as a capital allocation decision rather than a philosophical shift away from crypto.

Why Michigan, why now Hyperscale Data operates at the intersection of two capital-hungry industries: Bitcoin mining and AI data centers. The dual-track approach, running Bitcoin mining alongside AI data center operations via Sentinum, lets the company play both sides.

Selling 685 BTC for $43 million implies an average sale price of roughly $62,700 per coin. The debt reduction cuts $30 million in liabilities, improves interest coverage, frees up future cash flow, and leaves 275 Bitcoin still on the balance sheet as residual crypto exposure.

The company also plans to divest Ault Capital Group in 2027 to concentrate efforts more squarely on data centers and digital asset management.

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

Israel’s largest commercial bank is finally ready to put crypto on the same screen as your savings account. Bank Leumi has announced a partnership with Galaxy Digital and its custody subsidiary GK8 to offer trading in Bitcoin, Ethereum, and Solana directly through its Leumi Trade platform and Pepper mobile app, with a planned rollout in early 2027.

The bank’s roughly 2.5 million retail clients would be able to buy, hold, and sell digital assets alongside stocks and bonds, all in one place. Leumi will handle custody through GK8’s infrastructure and take responsibility for tax compliance on behalf of customers.

The second act
This is not Leumi’s first attempt at getting into crypto. In 2022, the bank tried to launch Bitcoin and Ethereum trading through a partnership with Paxos, only to shelve the whole project when the Bank of Israel declined to grant regulatory approval.

What’s changed since then is the regulatory environment. Israel has made meaningful progress on its framework for virtual asset service providers, creating a clearer path for banks that want to offer digital asset services. That updated landscape is what makes this 2026 announcement feel more durable than its predecessor, though final sign-off from the Bank of Israel is still pending.

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Galaxy Digital’s announcement of the partnership came in mid-August 2026. The involvement of GK8, a custody-focused subsidiary, addresses one of the thorniest problems banks face when integrating crypto: keeping clients’ assets safe without taking on operational risk the bank can’t manage.

Why 2.5 million clients is a meaningful number
Bank Leumi is not a niche fintech running a pilot for early adopters. It is the largest commercial bank in Israel, with a retail customer base that spans essentially every demographic. Dropping a crypto trading feature into an app that 2.5 million people already use for mortgages, payroll, and bill payments is a very different distribution strategy than launching a standalone exchange.

The specific mechanics of the service, including fees, withdrawal options, and the granular details of how custody works in practice, have not been publicly disclosed yet. The structural architecture is clear: Leumi owns the client relationship, GK8 owns the security infrastructure, and Galaxy Digital provides the broader digital asset expertise tying it together.

What this means for the Israeli market and beyond
More than 25% of Israel’s population has engaged with cryptocurrencies, according to available reports. A green light from the Bank of Israel for Leumi’s new service would carry symbolic weight that goes beyond the bank itself, given that Galaxy Digital oversees approximately $9 billion in client assets and holds the necessary financial licenses.

Israel’s regulatory environment has also seen relaxed deposit requirements for funds originating from digital assets, showcasing a more accommodating environment for banks to integrate crypto services. The Leumi model, combining an established custody partner with an existing retail app, offers a blueprint that competitors could replicate without building from zero.

There is still a meaningful caveat sitting over all of this: regulatory approval. Leumi’s 2022 effort is a reminder that bank announcements and bank launches are not the same thing. The Bank of Israel will need to formally bless the arrangement before a single client can execute a trade.

What to watch between now and early 2027: the Bank of Israel’s formal response, the fee structure Leumi chooses to publish, and whether any competing Israeli banks announce similar partnerships in the months that follow.

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

TLDR

Morgan Stanley disclosed new holdings in three XRP ETFs through a Q2 2026 SEC filing.
The bank also revealed 50,540 shares in Ripple backed Evernorth Holdings’ SPAC, Armada Acquisition Corp II.
The XRP ETF positions are small compared to Morgan Stanley’s other crypto investments.
Spot XRP ETFs saw 2.25 million dollars in inflows this week, though total assets under management dropped.
XRP price traded near 1.01 dollars with mixed signals in futures open interest.

Morgan Stanley has disclosed new holdings tied to XRP through a fresh regulatory filing. The investment bank revealed positions in three separate XRP exchange traded funds.

The disclosure came through a 13F filing for the second quarter of 2026, submitted to the US Securities and Exchange Commission. Morgan Stanley manages more than 1.9 trillion dollars in its investment portfolio.

The filing showed the bank holds 6,715 shares in Franklin’s XRP fund. It also listed 255 shares in the REX-Osprey XRP fund and 67 shares in the Bitwise XRP fund.

🚨BREAKING: MORGAN STANLEY EXPANDS XRP ETFs & EVERNORTH SPAC ARMADA's EXPOSURE

Q2: Franklin XRP ETF (6,715 Sh), REX-Osprey XRP ETF (255 Sh), Bitwise XRP ETF (67 Shs)

50,540 Shs in Evernoth Holdings SPAC Armada Acquisition Corp II

Q1: Volatility Shares XRP ETF (1,700 Shs),…

— Rednirav (@CryptoRednirav) August 14, 2026

Morgan Stanley’s Growing Crypto Exposure
These new positions follow a pattern from earlier in the year. In the first quarter of 2026, Morgan Stanley held Grayscale’s XRP fund and a Volatility Shares XRP fund.

That earlier disclosure led to speculation that Morgan Stanley might launch its own XRP fund. The bank had already rolled out Ethereum and Solana funds before that speculation began.

The XRP holdings remain small next to Morgan Stanley’s broader crypto book, which includes larger Bitcoin and Ethereum fund positions. Even so, the filing shows the bank continuing to build out its XRP exposure.

Morgan Stanley also disclosed 50,540 shares in Armada Acquisition Corp II, the SPAC partner working with Ripple backed Evernorth Holdings. This filing came one day after JPMorgan Chase reported its own holdings in a Bitwise XRP fund, a Grayscale XRP fund, and the Evernorth SPAC.

XRP ETF Flows and Price Action
Spot XRP ETFs in the US continue to draw interest from institutions. On Thursday, these funds recorded 2.25 million dollars in combined inflows.

Bitcoin funds saw redemptions on the same day. The Bitwise XRP fund was the only XRP product to post inflows.

Data from SoSoValue shows XRP funds have taken in 1.51 million dollars total since launch. Total assets under management fell to 942.25 million dollars, down from a peak above 1.25 billion dollars.

That drop happened even as banks like Morgan Stanley and JPMorgan added XRP exposure. The price of XRP has stayed fairly flat during this period.

XRP traded near 1.01 dollars over the past day. The 24 hour low was 0.998 dollars and the high was 1.01 dollars.

XRP Price on CoinGecko
Trading volume fell 22 percent over the same 24 hour window. The number of wallets holding more than one million XRP coins has grown.

Still, price forecasts point to selling pressure building near the 1 dollar mark. XRP needs to close above a key trendline resistance to change that outlook.

Futures data from Coinglass shows open interest fell 1.23 percent to 2.69 billion dollars. At the same time, open interest on the CME exchange rose 1.84 percent within a single hour, pointing to fresh institutional futures activity even as spot markets stayed quiet.

JPMorgan, with AUM of $5.1 trillion, has revealed its quarter two (Q2) report with the U.S SEC. Its latest SEC filing shows a sharp rise in Bitcoin exposure and a 338% jump in Ethereum ETF holdings.

The bank also returned to XRP through two ETF positions and added a new position in the Bitwise Solana Staking ETF.

JPMorgan Doubles Down on Bitcoin ETF ExposureAccording to JPMorgan’s Q2 2026 13F filing, the bank held a combined 10.4 million shares of BlackRock’s IBIT, worth about $355.7 million as of June 30. These shares appear across three separate IBIT fund entries in the filing and add up to the reported total. 

That marks a sharp increase from the first quarter, when JPMorgan reported about 8.3 million IBIT shares worth nearly $162 million.

JPMorgan’s options position also shifted during the quarter. IBIT call options increased to 3.94 million, while put options dropped from 4.75 million to about 3.5 million.

The increase comes even as Bitcoin ETF flows have remained unstable. U.S. spot Bitcoin ETFs recorded $131.1 million in net outflows on Aug. 13, following a much larger $61.16 million outflow on Aug. 12.

Ethereum ETF Exposure Jumps 338%JPMorgan’s Q2 filing also showed a much larger position in BlackRock’s iShares Ethereum Trust (ETHA). The bank held nearly 1.17 million ETHA shares worth about $14.3 million, marking a 338% increase from the previous quarter.

The ETHA position shows that JPMorgan has increased its exposure to both Bitcoin and Ethereum through U.S.-listed ETF products.

However, the size of the Bitcoin position remains much larger. JPMorgan’s IBIT holdings are more than 20 times the value of its reported ETHA position.

JPMorgan Added XRP Back Through ETFsThe biggest surprise in the filing may be JPMorgan’s return to XRP.

The bank’s Q1 filing showed that its Bitwise XRP ETF position had fallen from 3,870 shares to zero. The latest filing reverses that move, showing fresh exposure through both the Bitwise XRP ETF and Grayscale XRP Trust ETF.

The Bitwise position was worth about $1,356, while the Grayscale XRP ETF holding was valued at roughly $3,763.

JPMorgan also reported 19,894 shares of Armada Acquisition Corp II, worth approximately $207,295. The company is linked to a Ripple-backed deal and trades under the XRPN ticker.

In addition, JPMorgan initiated a new position in the Bitwise Solana Staking ETF (BSOL), holding roughly 47,500 shares.

The next 13F filing, expected in November, will show whether the bank continued adding Bitcoin, Ethereum, and XRP exposure during Q3 or reduced its positions.

Story Ends Here

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Read the Next News

A USENIX Security ’26 study has identified 65,340 high-risk address instances across Ethereum and BNB Smart Chain, linking them to 126,982.94 ETH and 17,726.7 BNB in native-token losses. 

Summary

Researchers identified 65,340 high-risk address instances across Ethereum and BNB Chain in their large-scale study.
Estimated losses reached 126,982.94 ETH and 17,726.7 BNB, valued by researchers above $574.8 million overall.
Researchers extracted 16.3 million private keys from 63,004 GitHub repositories for their cross-chain analysis dataset.
Their detection framework achieved 99.11% precision after manual sampling validation across both analyzed blockchain networks.
Two newly described attack vectors exploited deterministic contract addresses and EIP-7702 delegated account control mechanisms.

The paper, presented at the 35th USENIX Security Symposium in Baltimore, estimates their dollar value at more than $574.8 million.

The dollar figure needs context. The researchers say they valued the token losses using reference prices of $4,408 per ETH and $847 per BNB rather than prices at the time of every transaction. They describe their findings as a “conservative lower bound” because the analysis covers only native ETH and BNB on the two networks and may miss less obvious cases.

USENIX Security '26 Study Identifies 65,000+ High-Risk Crypto Addresses Linked to $574.8M in Losses

A study presented at USENIX Security '26 identified 65,340 high-risk cryptocurrency addresses involved in abuse across Ethereum and BNB Chain, with estimated losses exceeding… pic.twitter.com/JAX3IR6Kgy

— Wu Blockchain (@WuBlockchain) August 13, 2026

Ethereum address misuse spans contract and private-key risks
The researchers divide “Address Misuse” into two categories. Contract Account misuse happens when users treat an address without deployed contract code as a contract address, often because the same address is used in another network context. The study identified 49,344 such instances, associated with losses of 22,738.41 ETH and 8,681.41 BNB.

Externally Owned Account misuse involves addresses whose private keys are exposed or show strong onchain signs of compromised control. Researchers identified 15,996 EOA misuse instances associated with 104,244.53 ETH and 9,045.29 BNB in losses. More than 95% of EOA misuse losses came from the GitHub exposed-key subtype.

Two new attack paths account for about $15.7M
The first newly described attack takes advantage of deterministic contract-address creation. Attackers can promote a contract address on a testnet, wait for users to mistakenly send mainnet funds to the matching no-code address, and later deploy withdrawal code at the same location. Researchers linked 469 malicious contracts to 3,446.37 ETH and 431.79 BNB in losses.

The second uses EIP-7702 against accounts with already exposed private keys. Attackers delegate those EOAs to malicious code that automatically sweeps incoming funds. The paper found 17,270 cases, producing losses of 25.86 ETH and 33.45 BNB. Using the paper’s reference prices, the two newly described vectors together account for roughly $15.7 million.

The 99.11% figure is precision, not universal verification
The team mined 63,004 GitHub repositories created between January 2015 and May 2025, extracting 10.3 million unique candidate addresses and 16.3 million private keys after deduplication. It also used Ethereum Stack Exchange and Stack Overflow data before analyzing transactions on Ethereum and BNB Smart Chain.

Researchers manually sampled results and reported 99.11% overall detection precision. That does not mean every one of the 65,340 instances was individually manually verified. The authors acknowledge possible heuristic false positives and incomplete data, while ERC-20, NFT and other chains are excluded from the headline loss calculation.

EIP-7702 security concerns are widening
Ethereum’s official guidance warns that malicious EIP-7702 delegation can give hostile contract code control over assets. A separate USENIX Security ’26 study found more than 63% of analyzed EIP-7702 authorization transactions were associated with malicious EOA-targeted attacks, identifying 924 malicious contract accounts across seven supported chains.

As previously reported, EIP-7702 delegations were linked to automated wallet-draining activity after Ethereum’s Pectra upgrade. In related coverage, attackers later drained about $3.1 million from Polymarket users through phishing and malicious delegated execution.

The authors recommend wallet warnings for known exposed keys and cross-chain contract mismatches, stronger secret management for developers and clearer address-to-network documentation. They also propose considering chain identifiers in future contract-address derivation. Those are research recommendations, not adopted Ethereum or BNB Chain protocol changes.

The researchers plan to expand future work to additional chains and token types. Until then, the 126,982.94 ETH and 17,726.7 BNB totals are best read as measured native-token losses within the study’s defined scope, while $574.8 million remains a standardized valuation estimate.

Key Highlights

Chainlink unveils “Chainlink for Agents,” a foundational infrastructure designed for autonomous AI agents in blockchain environments
The platform delivers tamper-proof data access, cross-blockchain functionality, and protected computation capabilities for AI-driven operations
Through the Cross-Chain Interoperability Protocol (CCIP), agents can transfer assets and perform operations across multiple blockchain networks
The Chainlink Runtime Environment (CRE) bridges offchain artificial intelligence processing with onchain smart contract functionality
Compatible frameworks at launch encompass Claude Code, Cursor, OpenClaw, Hermes, and Codex

Chainlink has introduced a groundbreaking infrastructure solution named Chainlink for Agents, purpose-built to equip autonomous artificial intelligence agents with essential capabilities for secure and dependable blockchain operations.

👀👀 Yet to be announced, it already appears in #chainlink's webpage.

CHAINLINK ENGINE
FOR AGENTIC ECONOMY

Agent micropayments & agents requiring data for their workflows is gonna be a big boom in coming years starting from now on. $LINK pic.twitter.com/iBLqQNrNAc

— David Miller ⬡ (@CryptoDavid_) August 13, 2026

This infrastructure grants agents entry to authenticated market intelligence, cross-blockchain asset movement, and protected transaction execution. The primary objective is eliminating the technical barriers that have historically hindered AI agent advancement within cryptocurrency ecosystems.

According to Chainlink’s description, the platform serves as the authenticated data, execution, and interoperability foundation for the emerging agent-driven economy.

Technical Architecture Explained
The foundation of this ecosystem rests on the Chainlink Runtime Environment, abbreviated as CRE. This component functions as a coordination mechanism linking offchain artificial intelligence decision-making with onchain smart contract operations.

CRE additionally manages transaction fee processing and exception management, addressing two significant challenges developers encounter when building blockchain-enabled agents.

Regarding information access, agents utilize Chainlink Data Feeds alongside Data Streams. These resources deliver verifiable market intelligence and minimal-latency pricing data, enabling agents to execute decisions grounded in reliable information.

Cross-blockchain capabilities operate through Chainlink’s Cross-Chain Interoperability Protocol. This technology enables an agent operating on a single blockchain to retrieve funds or execute operations on completely separate networks.

The infrastructure also incorporates Chainlink Confidential Compute. This feature preserves the privacy of sensitive business or financial information while permitting automated directive execution.

Applications and Development Resources
Among the prominent applications is yield maximization. An agent possesses the ability to evaluate authenticated interest rates spanning numerous blockchains, transfer assets to the most profitable chain through CCIP, and allocate funds into platforms such as Aave, operating entirely without manual intervention.

Additional agent applications encompass automated trading mechanisms, inter-chain token exchanges, and direct cryptocurrency wallet-based payments for computational services.

For the development community, Chainlink has introduced a comprehensive skills library. This resource integrates with AI development environments and enables creators to construct agent processes utilizing standardized Skill.md documentation.

The solution accommodates any agent framework utilizing these file specifications. Initially supported frameworks comprise OpenClaw, Hermes, Cursor, Claude Code, and OpenAI’s Codex.

Development teams can initiate implementation by executing a simple command-line instruction to deploy the Chainlink for Agents skill package.

Built-in agent transaction processing operates via x402 pay-per-call mechanisms, providing agents immediate access to Chainlink-enabled operations without supplementary configuration requirements.

Chainlink characterizes this offering as core infrastructure supporting what it terms the “agentic economy,” an environment where software agents independently conduct transactions and engage with decentralized platforms.

TLDR

Chainlink price rose 10% this week, trading near $8.85 after a 2.14% daily gain.
Analyst Ali Charts pointed to an MVRV golden cross that has historically preceded major LINK rallies.
The same signal appeared before a 155% rally in November 2024 and an 85% rally in July 2025.
LINK open interest climbed 4.58% to $568.75 million even as trading volume fell 12.86%.
Chainlink launched “Chainlink for Agents,” an infrastructure platform for autonomous AI agents on blockchains.

Chainlink price rose to $8.86, up 2.14% over the past 24 hours. The gain extends a broader move higher for the token this week.

LINK has climbed 10% over the last seven days. That places it among the stronger performers in the market this period.

Bitcoin traded above $63,400 as the wider crypto market steadied after a volatile stretch. The calmer backdrop coincided with LINK’s climb.

Analyst Ali Charts flagged an on-chain signal that may support further gains for Chainlink. The analyst shared the data point in a tweet posted on August 13, 2026.

CHAINLINK READY FOR A 30% PRICE SURGE

1/7 🧵👇

— Ali Charts (@alicharts) August 13, 2026

In the post, Ali Charts wrote that Chainlink was “ready for a 30% price surge” and laid out the reasoning across a seven-part thread. The analyst pointed to LINK’s Market Value to Realized Value ratio, which had formed a golden cross against its 200-day simple moving average for the first time in over a year.

Ali Charts noted that the same crossover appeared in November 2024, right before LINK rallied 155%. Another crossover showed up in July 2025, followed by an 85% gain, according to the thread.

On-Chain Signals Point Higher
The MVRV ratio compares a token’s market value to the average price paid by current holders. A golden cross like this suggests the token’s value is rising faster than what people originally paid for it.

LINK derivatives volume fell 12.86% to $367.59 million during the same period. Open interest, however, rose 4.58% to $568.75 million, based on data from Coinglass.

Chainlink Price on CoinGecko
The rise in open interest despite lower volume suggests traders opened new positions even as overall activity slowed. On the four-hour chart, LINK’s Relative Strength Index sat at 65.28, close to overbought territory near 70.

The MACD line remained just below the signal line, at 0.119 versus 0.118. The next resistance sits at $9.00, with $9.50 and $10.00 as further targets if that level breaks.

A drop below $8.50 support could send the price toward $8.00. Continued selling pressure could push LINK down to $7.50.

Chainlink Expands Into AI Agent Infrastructure
Separately, Chainlink introduced Chainlink for Agents, a platform built for autonomous AI agents operating on blockchains. It gives agents access to tamper-resistant data feeds, cross-chain transfers, and protected computing.

The platform runs on the Chainlink Runtime Environment, which connects offchain AI decisions to onchain smart contract actions. Agents can move assets between blockchains using Chainlink’s Cross-Chain Interoperability Protocol.

Chainlink Confidential Compute lets agents handle sensitive financial data while still executing transactions on their own. One example involves an agent scanning interest rates across chains and shifting funds into platforms like Aave without human input.

The platform works with development tools including Claude Code, Cursor, OpenClaw, Hermes, and Codex. Developers can start using it by running a single command-line instruction to install the skill package.

Solana is preparing for one of the biggest changes to its consensus architecture. The upcoming Alpenglow upgrade targets a dramatic reduction in transaction finality from roughly 12.8 seconds to about 150 milliseconds.

The upgrade will make reaching cryptographic finality (the point at which the network has reached sufficient consensus) dramatically faster. 

The change could arrive as soon as September, and Solana's finality is on track to fall from 12.8 seconds to 150 milliseconds and make transactions "feel almost instant." 

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Solana's official documentation, however, currently places the Alpenglow rollout in the third quarter of 2026. A recent Solana Foundation update says the upgrade is expected to activate through Agave 4.3, which is targeted for October. The exact September date therefore should not be treated as confirmed.

Finality is not the same as confirmationThe distinction is crucial to understanding why a 150ms finality target matters.

When a Solana transaction is submitted, users can already receive confirmation very quickly. Solana's current slot time has also been reduced as part of a separate upgrade, with the network moving from 400ms slots toward 200ms slots. A transaction therefore does not normally leave a user staring at a screen for 12.8 seconds before seeing an indication that it succeeded.

A transaction can be included in a block and viewed as confirmed while the network has not yet reached its strongest level of consensus about that block. In an extreme situation, the chain could reorganize and an earlier state could be rolled back. Finality is the mechanism that gives applications stronger certainty that the state they are observing will not subsequently be reversed.

Under Solana's current TowerBFT consensus, that stronger finality can take roughly 12.8 seconds. Alpenglow's goal is to compress that process into roughly 150 milliseconds.

Responding to the discussion about faster finality,  Solana co-founder Anatoly Yakovenko has argued that finality is "really only important at the cash register." 

Imagine buying a product with cryptocurrency. A merchant may be willing to accept a transaction after a fast confirmation, but for larger-value payments it may want much stronger assurance that the payment cannot disappear from the canonical chain.

However, for an ordinary Solana user, the change may not feel as dramatic as the raw numbers indicate.

Gemini, the crypto exchange founded by Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss, has built up a corporate Bitcoin treasury totaling 5,528 BTC. At current market prices, that stash is worth roughly $324M, placing Gemini among a growing cohort of crypto-native firms treating Bitcoin as a balance sheet asset rather than just a product to sell.

Approximately 80% of that Bitcoin position was financed through borrowing from the Winklevoss twins themselves. In other words, the founders are lending Bitcoin to their own company to beef up its treasury.

How the numbers stack up
Activity from Winklevoss Capital, the twins’ personal investment vehicle, appears to support this buildup. In April 2026, roughly 572 BTC worth approximately $43M was transferred to Gemini custody addresses. That suggests the treasury expansion isn’t a one-time event but an ongoing, actively managed process.

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Meanwhile, Gemini Space Station, a publicly associated entity tied to the exchange, holds between 3,839 and 4,827 BTC with valuations ranging from $240M to $306M. Together, the Gemini-affiliated ecosystem’s total Bitcoin exposure could be substantially north of $500M depending on how these entities overlap.

The gap between the Space Station’s reported range and the 5,528 figure attributed to Gemini’s broader treasury raises questions about which entity holds what, and whether these positions are additive or partially overlapping.

The founder-lending dynamic
Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss are simultaneously Gemini’s controlling shareholders, its most visible public advocates, and now its largest creditors on the Bitcoin side. The arrangement means that if the twins ever called those loans back, or if market conditions forced a restructuring, the exchange’s treasury position could change dramatically overnight.

Why exchanges are hoarding Bitcoin
Gemini has had its share of turbulence in recent years. The exchange navigated the fallout from its Gemini Earn program and regulatory scrutiny from multiple agencies.

Precise details regarding the reported 5,528 BTC figure and the specifics of the Winklevoss lending arrangement have not been extensively covered in prominent financial media outlets, raising questions about transparency and market communication.

Traders watching this space should pay attention to future on-chain transfers between Winklevoss Capital and Gemini custody addresses. The April transfers suggest more accumulation could be coming.

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

The XRP Ledger's decentralized exchange is seeing a pickup in activity. Weekly DEX volume climbed 45% to $19.89 million, while daily transactions approached 3 million in the latest 24-hour window, with 48,403 active addresses recorded on the network.

Onchain Trading Still a Fraction of Total Volume Despite the uptick, XRPL's onchain trading remains a small slice of its overall market footprint. DEX activity accounts for roughly 0.04% of total $XRP volume when measured against centralized venues, underscoring how dominant exchange-based trading continues to be for the asset.

DeFi total value locked (TVL) on the ledger sits at $29.97 million, according to DefiLlama data. That figure is down sharply from a peak of nearly $120 million reached in July 2025, reflecting a broader pullback in locked liquidity even as transaction counts hold near multi-month highs.

Stablecoin Supply Nears $920 Million, RLUSD Dominant One area where XRPL continues to show structural growth is stablecoins. The chain's total stablecoin supply stands at $920 million, with Ripple's RLUSD accounting for 88% of that figure. DefiLlama data shows RLUSD dominance on XRPL at 88.39%, with the chain's stablecoin market cap near $925 million. The stablecoin's rapid rise tracks a broader expansion: supply on the XRP Ledger more than doubled since December 2025, reaching $568 million as of March before continuing higher.

The fee picture illustrates just how low-cost the network remains. Those 2.96 million daily transactions generated only $333 in chain fees over the same period, with app-level fees reaching $26,874, per DefiLlama. XRPL supports native tokenization through built-in ledger objects and includes a built-in decentralized exchange that automatically provides order-book-based liquidity for issued tokens. That low-cost design has helped the ledger attract stablecoin issuers and institutional settlement flows, even as DeFi TVL has yet to recover to prior highs.

The gap between XRPL's stablecoin footprint and its DeFi TVL points to a network where capital sits largely in transit or custody rather than deployed into lending or liquidity pools. Whether rising DEX volume and transaction counts can close that gap remains a key question for the ledger's onchain economy.

Sources
DefiLlama: XRPL Chain Overview (TVL, Fees, Stablecoins)
Bitcoin Foundation: 5 Major XRPL Changes in 2026

Source: Binance EN

Disclaimer: In compliance with MiCA requirements, unauthorized stablecoins are subject to certain restrictions for EEA users. For more information, please click here. This is a general announcement and marketing communication. Products and services referred to here may not be available in your region.
Fellow Binancians,
From 2026-08-14 00:00 (UTC), Binance will launch an airdrop campaign rewarding all eligible users who hold Ripple USD (RLUSD) on our platform. Eligible users will share rewards from a grand prize pool of 1 million XRP tokens.
XRP will be distributed as weekly rewards to RLUSD holders every Friday.
Campaign Period: 2026-08-14 00:00 (UTC) - 2026-09-11 00:00 (UTC)
How to Participate:
Eligible users must hold RLUSD in balance (net assets), in any of the following account categories on Binance:
Earn Account (RLUSD in Flexible Savings);Margin Account (RLUSD in Cross Margin, Isolated Margin, or Portfolio Margin);
Eligible users will have to maintain at least 0.01 RLUSD in their Earn or Margin Accounts, and an average daily Margin or Futures trading volume of at least $500 on any trading pairs to qualify for rewards during the Reward Period.
Qualifying Trading Volume: $500 in Margin or Futures trading volume can be in any tokens, as long as users are using RLUSD as collateral.
RLUSD acquired by borrowing the other stablecoins will receive a haircut of 60%, after accounting for liabilities in Margin Accounts from other stablecoins, including USDT, USDC, U, USD1, and FDUSD.
Campaign Details:
Prize Pool: 1 million XRP tokens will be distributed over 4 weekly installments. Distribution: Rewards will be airdropped directly to eligible users’ Spot Accounts of their Binance master accounts. Distribution Frequency: Weekly airdrops during the Campaign Period.
Reward Distribution:
Rewards start accruing from 2026-08-14 00:00 (UTC). Weekly rewards will be distributed by 18:00 (UTC) every Friday in XRP tokens. Distribution records can be found in Distribution history.
The Weekly Reward Amount will be roughly calculated as follows:
Qualifying Balance of each day = the lowest RLUSD balance recorded across all hourly snapshots for that day.Weekly Rewards = (7-day average of the Qualifying Balance * Effective APR on the distribution day * 7) / 365
After each weekly distribution, the effective APR for that period will be updated in this announcement. In determining the effective APR on the distribution day, Binance will take into account a number of factors, including, without limitation:
Lowest balance of the snapshots each day;The daily aggregated amount of Qualifying Balances across all eligible holders of RLUSD;7-day average across all eligible holders of RLUSD
For RLUSD acquired through borrowing other stablecoins:
Eligible balance in Margin Account = RLUSD Balance Before Leverage + Leveraged Amount * (1 - 60%):
RLUSD Balance before Leverage = MAX [RLUSD Balance in Margin Account - Margin Account Liabilities of the Other Stablecoins, 0] Leveraged Amount = RLUSD Balance in Margin Account - MAX [RLUSD Balance in Margin Account - Margin Account Liabilities of the Other Stablecoins, 0]
Note: ”Other Stablecoins” include USDT, USDC, U, USD1, FDUSD.
PeriodEffective APRXRP Token Value1st Distribution on 2026-08-21Reward Period: 2026-08-14 00:00 (UTC) to 2026-08-21 00:00 (UTC)To be updated on 2026-08-21To be updated on 2026-08-212nd Distribution on 2026-08-28Reward Period: 2026-08-21 00:00 (UTC) to 2026-08-28 00:00 (UTC)To be updated on 2026-08-28To be updated on 2026-08-283rd Distribution on 2026-09-04Reward Period: 2026-08-28 00:00 (UTC) to 2026-09-04 00:00 (UTC)To be updated on 2026-09-04To be updated on 2026-09-044th Distribution on 2026-09-11Reward Period: 2026-09-04 00:00 (UTC) to 2026-09-11 00:00 (UTC)To be updated on 2026-09-11To be updated on 2026-09-11
Case examples:
User A holds 10,000 RLUSD as collateral in Margin throughout week 1, trades a total of $7,000 qualifying trading volume in Margin throughout week 1. Effective APR is 20%, User A's rewards due to be received at the end of week 1 will be as follows:$7,000 / 7 = $1,000 > $500, qualify for rewards. (10,000 * 20% * 7) / 365 = 38.35 USD worth of XRPUser B borrowed 5,000 RLUSD from VIP loan or Margin, which is treated as a “liability”. Among this borrowed 5,000 RLUSD, 4,000 RLUSD was used as collateral in Margin, the remaining 1,000 RLUSD was held in their EARN Account in week 1. The effective APR is 20%, User B’s rewards due to be received at the end of week 1 will be as follows:Qualifying Balance = 0 [(0 * 20% * 7) / 365] = 0 USD worth of XRPUser C traded a total of $7,000 qualifying trading volume in Margin throughout week 1. The user had 1,000 RLUSD in the Margin Account and used it as collateral to borrow 4,000 USDT through Margin (“Liabilities of the other Stablecoins”), then converted this 4,000 USDT to RLUSD. The user therefore holds 5,000 RLUSD in the Margin Account (“RLUSD Balance”) during week 1. The effective APR is 20%, User C’s rewards due to be received at the end of week 1 will be as follows:$7,000 / 7 = $1,000 > $500, qualify for rewards. Qualifying Balance = MAX [5,000 - 4,000, 0] + {5,000 - MAX[5,000 - 4,000, 0] } * (1 - 60%) = 1,000 + (5,000 - 1,000) * (1 - 60%) = 2,600(2,600 * 20% * 7) / 365 = 9.97 USD worth of XRP
Important Notes:
Users may not be eligible for rewards if there are active restrictions on their accounts.Sub-account trading volume and balances are aggregated at the Master Account level for calculation, and rewards are distributed only to the Master Account. For Broker accounts, the rewards will be distributed to virtual sub-accounts. Users’ RLUSD Qualifying Balance will be calculated as net assets (assets minus liabilities). RLUSD as liabilities (e.g., borrowed from VIP loans, Margin loan, etc) will be excluded from the Qualifying Balance for this campaign. Snapshots of user balances and total qualifying balances will be taken at any time during each hour to get users’ hourly balances in the above mentioned account categories. The lowest RLUSD balance captured during those snapshots on each day will constitute their Qualifying Balance and be used to calculate their rewardsFor example, a user’s lowest RLUSD balance captured on day 1 is zero, then their qualifying balance for that day is zero. At any snapshot time, any one of users’ supported assets must be greater than 0.01 RLUSD to be included in the calculation.Users are recommended to maintain their RLUSD holding throughout the Campaign Period to maximize their rewards. Qualifying Trading Volume is rounded up to the nearest whole number. If all of a user’s qualifying trading volume is recorded under a sub-account, and that sub-account is deleted on a given day, then the user’s qualifying trading volume for that day will be treated as zero.Rewards distributed are rounded down to 2 decimal places. Kindly note that the distribution time is not guaranteed and may change from time to time.There is no individual cap on rewards. Users’ rewards depend on their qualifying balance relative to the total qualifying balance of all eligible users and other factors.Stay tuned for weekly reward distributions and updates on the Campaign.
Terms and Conditions:
Users may not be eligible for rewards if there are active restrictions on their accounts.XRP token value for airdrop distribution will be based on the official Binance market closing price on the day before the airdrop distribution date.Snapshots of user balances and total pool balances will be taken multiple times at any point of time each hour to get users’ hourly balances in the abovementioned account categories. The lowest RLUSD balance captured during those snapshots on each day will constitute the user’s Qualifying Balance and be used to calculate their rewards.At any snapshot time, a user's balance must be greater than 0.01 RLUSD to be included in the calculation.Broker accounts are eligible for this campaign. Binance reserves the right to periodically update the rules to accommodate changes in legal, regulatory, or other factors.Users must complete account verification (KYC) and also be from an eligible jurisdiction to participate in the campaign. Currently, users residing in the following countries or regions will not be able to participate in the RLUSD campaign (notwithstanding that they may hold RLUSD): Åland Islands (Finland), Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Canada, Crimea (Ukraine – disputed territory), Croatia, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, Donetsk People’s Republic, Estonia, Faroe Islands, Finland, France, French Guiana, Germany, Gibraltar, Greece, Guadeloupe, Guernsey, Hungary, Iceland, Ireland, Isle of Man, Islamic Republic of Iran, Italy, Japan, Latvia, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Luhansk People’s Republic, Luxembourg, Malta, Martinique, Mayotte, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Republic of Cuba, Réunion, Romania, Russian Federation, Saint Martin (French part), Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, United Kingdom, United States of America and its territories.Please note that the list of excluded countries provided here is not exhaustive and may be subject to changes due to evolving local rules, regulations, or other considerations. This list may be updated periodically to accommodate changes in legal, regulatory, or other factors.Binance reserves the right to disqualify a user’s reward eligibility if the account is involved in any dishonest behavior (e.g., wash trading, illegally bulk account registrations/logins, self dealing, or market manipulation). Binance further reserves the right to disqualify any participants who tamper with Binance program code, or interfere with the operation of Binance program code with other software.Binance reserves the right at any time in its sole and absolute discretion to determine and/or amend or vary these terms and conditions without prior notice, including but not limited to canceling, extending, terminating or suspending this Promotion, the eligibility terms and criteria, the selection and number of winners, and the timing of any act to be done, and all Participants shall be bound by these amendments.Binance reserves the right to suspend any user's Margin borrowing at any time, without prior notice, in its sole discretion, if any abnormal or suspicious activity is detected.There may be discrepancies between this original content in English and any translated versions. Please refer to the original English version for the most accurate information, in case any discrepancies arise.
Thank you for your support!
Binance Team
2026-08-14
Trade on-the-go with Binance’s crypto trading app (iOS/Android)
Find us on
TelegramWhatsAppXFacebookInstagramDiscord
Binance reserves the right in its sole discretion to amend or cancel this announcement at any time and for any reasons without prior notice.
Disclaimer: Digital asset prices can be volatile. The value of your investment may go down or up and you may not get back the amount invested. You are solely responsible for your investment decisions and Binance is not liable for any losses you may incur. The APR is calculated weekly, and is expressed as an annualised percentage yield for illustrative purposes only. Each APR is not indicative of future results. The APR is likely to fluctuate week-to-week and the estimated rewards may differ from the actual rewards generated. APR is an estimate of rewards you will earn in cryptocurrency over the selected timeframe. It does not display the actual or predicted returns/yield in any fiat currency. Past performance is not a reliable predictor of future performance. You should only invest in products you are familiar with and where you understand the risks. You should carefully consider your investment experience, financial situation, investment objectives and risk tolerance and consult an independent financial adviser prior to making any investment. This material should not be construed as financial advice. For more information, see our Terms of Use, and our Risk Warning. To learn more about how to protect yourself, visit our Responsible Trading page.

Tether, the issuer of the world’s largest stablecoin USDT, has announced the completion of its first independent audit of reserves, conducted by KPMG U.S. The El Salvador-based company described the review as the most extensive inaugural financial audit in history.

KPMG signs off on Tether’s reservesFor years, Tether faced criticism for a lack of transparency regarding its reserve holdings. Industry observers regularly questioned the absence of an independent, thorough audit conducted by one of the Big Four accounting firms.

According to Tether, KPMG performed a detailed review, including the physical verification of each gold bar held in its reserves. The audit included independent substantive testing and verification of all assets and statements, rather than relying solely on reports from external custodians or counterparties.

Tether stated that this process involved KPMG physically counting and inspecting each gold bar to confirm its existence and identifying features.

CEO Paolo Ardoino addressed the doubts surrounding the review, stating that detractors have long claimed an audit of Tether could not be completed and accused the company of avoiding rigorous scrutiny. “We have once again proven them wrong. Completing our financial statement audit sets a new standard for the industry and reflects the leadership we’ve brought to this market from the start,” Ardoino said.

“They said the Company refused to subject itself to the most rigorous scrutiny. We have once again proven them wrong. Completing our financial statement audit sets a new standard for the industry and reflects the leadership we’ve brought to this market from the start.”

Tether did not refer specifically to its sizeable Bitcoin reserves within the audit statement and did not immediately respond to external inquiries on this point.

Mini dictionary: KPMG, one of the “Big Four” accounting firms, provides audit, tax, and advisory services for major corporations and financial institutions worldwide, and an independent reserve audit by such a firm is considered a significant benchmark of transparency in the financial sector.

Breakdown of Tether’s reservesTether, established as a leading stablecoin issuer, holds a diversified reserve portfolio that includes gold, U.S. Treasuries, and substantial holdings of Bitcoin. Recent years have seen the company increase its gold acquisitions and amass nearly $60 billion in Bitcoin, according to Arkham Intelligence.

With its USDT stablecoin, Tether has reached a market capitalization of over $183 billion, making it the world’s third largest cryptocurrency by market value.

AssetDetailsGoldPhysically inspected and verified by KPMGBitcoinNearly $60 billion held in reserves (Arkham Intelligence)US TreasuriesHoldings exceed reserves of some countriesArdoino further highlighted Tether’s evolution, emphasizing that the firm has grown from a disruptive stablecoin issuer into one of the most significant private financial companies globally. He commented, “This audit demonstrates that our financial infrastructure and governance have evolved alongside that responsibility.”

“This audit demonstrates that our financial infrastructure and governance have evolved alongside that responsibility.”

The completion of the audit marks a milestone for Tether and the broader stablecoin sector, addressing longstanding calls for transparency and independent validation of reserves.

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.

Polkadot [DOT] fell below $0.80 as sellers erased another part of the token’s early-August recovery.

The weakness comes after Grayscale abandoned plans for its proposed Polkadot Trust ETF, with the decision removing a potential US-listed investment product for DOT. Although, before the withdrawal, the token was already losing ground, according to analysis of its price chart.

Grayscale walks away from Polkadot ETF Grayscale submitted its withdrawal request to the US Securities and Exchange Commission on August 7, saying it was not continuing with the planned distribution of the trust’s shares.

Its registration statement had been active since August 2025, but the product never reached the market, and the latest filing provides no reason for the decision.

Importantly, the SEC did not reject the ETF, but it was Grayscale that chose to withdraw its registration before any shares were issued or sold.

The company also withdrew some other proposed products within minutes of the Polkadot filing, making it difficult to see the move as a negative judgement on DOT.

But with this move, Polkadot loses a possible route for investors seeking exposure through a regulated US-listed product, and whether another issuer eventually pursues a DOT ETF remains unclear.

Can Polkadot price recover above $0.80? DOT traded near $0.774 on August 13 after its latest rebound was unable to move beyond $0.87.

The token has now dropped below $0.79–$0.80, an area that previously helped buyers contain declines, but as it is unable to hold that level, it leaves the recovery looking increasingly shaky.

There was an increase in trading activity picked up when DOT turned lower in early August. On-Balance Volume has also continued to fall, suggesting buying interest has weakened alongside the price.

Source: TradingView The next area to watch is around $0.75. Buyers defending that level could give DOT another opportunity to challenge $0.80, and a break below it would instead put $0.70 back in view.

Even a return above $0.80 would only be an early improvement, but DOT would still need to overcome $0.86–$0.90, where its witnessed a sell-off, before the broader recovery becomes more convincing.

Final Summary Grayscale voluntarily withdrew its proposed Polkadot ETF alongside other planned crypto products. DOT has lost $0.80, making $0.75 important for preventing another move towards $0.70.

20h35 ▪
6
min read ▪ by
Luc Jose A.

Summarize this article with:

XRP has just lost a level it had defended since late 2024. Briefly falling below $1, Ripple’s token now shows more than a 5% drop over one month, unlike Bitcoin, Ethereum, and Solana. Yet behind this weakness lies a paradox: long-term investors are massively accumulating, while derivatives markets intensify selling pressure and flows to ETFs have sharply dried up. Two opposing forces now clash around XRP, and their duel could determine the token’s next move.

In Brief

XRP suffers a drop of more than 5% over one month and slips below $1, against the modest gains of Bitcoin, Ethereum, and Solana.
The cohort of wallets holding at least 1 million XRP has grown by 32 in three months, taking advantage of the drop to accumulate.
XRP deposit addresses on Binance have dropped by 96%, confirming investors’ intention to keep their tokens out of selling circuits.
Net flows on XRP spot ETFs have fallen to zero over the last four sessions, totaling only one million dollars in the first twelve days of August.

The silent accumulation of major investors and the drying up of deposits
Despite a continuously falling double-digit market capitalization over recent weeks, on-chain indicators attest to massive accumulation by the biggest holders in the market. According to analysts at Santiment, 32 new wallets have been added to the number of addresses holding at least one million XRP during the last three months. Thus, these gradual acquisitions methodically absorb the coordinated bearish pressure from retail investors.

Santiment’s team of experts views such dynamics as a long-term conviction strategy. They state: “when the number of wallets holding at least one million XRP increases while market capitalization decreases, it means the strong hands absorb the panic. Patience takes precedence over mere speculative enthusiasm related to price, and the prospects of future volatility become all the more attractive for buyers.” Additionally, there is a quantitative increase in daily interactions due to user behavior on the network. Active addresses rose from 26,400 in July to 35,700 in August. August 11th saw a peak in activity, unmatched since June 5th.

The current state of centralized exchanges shows tokens locked outside immediate selling circuits. Data published by CryptoOnchain reveals a considerable drop of 96% compared to monthly and quarterly norms. Meanwhile, inflow and outflow volumes have respectively fallen by 79% and 85% relative to their 90-day moving averages. Moreover, for CryptoOnchain’s analyst, this trend reflects strict retention of XRP coins: “The network records strong activity, but tokens are not transferred to exchanges to be sold.” In this context, the majority of long-term XRP holders, far from succumbing to general panic, deliberately chose to isolate their positions off-exchange despite the price correction.

Such resilience by the network’s historical holders is reflected through various accumulation metrics :

Growth in the number of whales : wallets holding at least one million XRP have increased by 32 over the last three months, amidst falling prices ;
Collapse of deposit activity on Binance : a 96% drop in XRP deposit addresses compared to usual averages, alongside a decline in inflows (-79%) and outflows (-85%) ;
Steady increase in network usage : daily active addresses rose to an average of 35,700 in August (up from 26,400 in July), peaking on August 11.

Stagnant adoption under selling pressure from derivatives
Despite the strength of activity from historical wallets, this does not demonstrate an ecosystem growth nor buying momentum on futures markets. In this perspective, Santiment nuances the overall picture. The analytics platform indicates that new address creation is stubbornly stagnant at 2,260 per day currently, compared to 2,270 in July. Analysts state: “presenting the situation as growing user activity is only half true. The existing user base is simply conducting more transactions, but the overall number of wallets is not increasing.”

Without new dynamism in the network, short-term speculation would continue to influence prices. Regarding the derivatives market on the Binance exchange, selling pressure is firmly established. The taker buy/sell ratio plunged to 0.86, its lowest value since May. Analyst Arab Chain highlights the significance of this figure: “a value below 1 indicates that the volume of sell orders executed by traders exceeds buy orders, thus reflecting clear selling pressure from market participants operating directly on the market.”

A Cumulative Volume Delta (CVD) confirms this clear dominance of sellers. The indicator remains in the red around –4.15 million, despite maintaining a 0.84 correlation with price. Arab Chain draws this conclusion: “despite strong CVD-price correlation, the CVD value remains anchored in negative territory. This shows market flows strongly favor selling, proving buying activity is insufficient to shift net flow balance into positive territory.” Therefore, short-term sellers continue setting the pace against buyers unable to reverse the trend in order books.

The scarcity of flows on XRP ETFs
Institutional investors are also slowing down. Data from SoSoValue shows that XRP ETFs have recorded a zero net balance over the last four sessions. Such a steep decline was spectacular in the week ending August 7.

Indeed, these products, after accumulating $14.86 million the previous week, attracted only $1.01 million, a colossal drop of 93%. Thus, over the last twelve days of this August, cumulative inflows barely exceed this mere million dollars, indicating temporary disinterest from professional investors.

Ultimately, the confrontation between whales’ firmness and retail investors’ disinterest in ETFs as well as derivatives places XRP in a precarious balance. The absence of new users contributes to limiting the market’s capacity to absorb aggressive selling by short-term traders. A resumption of inflows into ETFs could trigger sustainable bullish dynamics.

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Luc Jose A.

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

DISCLAIMER

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

In brief 6th Man Ventures Co-Founder Mike Dudas said Solana is positioned to attract mainstream users because it supports trading, payments, and settlement on a single network. He argued that corporate-backed networks such as Coinbase’s Base and Robinhood’s blockchain face pressure to steer users toward fee-generating products. His comments come as Solana validators consider proposals to slow token issuance and burn more SOL. Solana could bring hundreds of millions of people into crypto without most of them realizing they are using a blockchain, investor Mike Dudas said on a recent episode of Decrypt's Fomo Hour podcast.

Dudas, co-founder of crypto venture firm 6th Man Ventures and an early backer of Pump.fun and various other Solana projects, said the network's advantage is the range of activity it supports.

“The reason I think Solana is in a great position is because it is sort of the everything chain of trading and money movement and settlement,” he told Decrypt. “So it’s performant, it’s flexible, and it’s multi-use case.”

Dudas said consumer apps have made crypto easier to use by hiding many of its technical elements. Users can now fund accounts through services such as Apple Pay without handling wallets or interacting directly with a blockchain.

Today we sat down with @mdudas to chat about @solana and its ecosystem!

3:30 - Solana's place this cycle
7:10 - Thoughts on the latest Solana Governance vote
8:40 - Are Memecoins back?
14:40 - El Toad Pepe backstory
18:07 - How to make a memecoin a "good coin" ?
21:05 - The… pic.twitter.com/zR7LewjEll

— Decrypt (@DecryptMedia) August 12, 2026

“I think that’s how most people are going to experience ‘on-chain’ moving forward,” he said.

Dudas argued that Solana’s less visible infrastructure—including round-the-clock availability, deep liquidity, low fees, and near-instant settlement—makes those consumer products possible.

“The unsexy stuff enables the stuff that people use,” he said.

Corporate-backed blockchains face different pressures, Dudas said, pointing to Coinbase’s Base and Robinhood Chain. He argued that both companies have an incentive to direct users toward products that generate revenue.

Dudas also said he supported efforts to reduce Solana’s token issuance—a topic that’s making the rounds of late as calls to reduce inflation in both the Solana and Ethereum ecosystems intensify.

“The notion that you need massive amounts of inflation for security has been overdone,” he said, calling the latest proposal “reasonable.”

Solana validators are considering two measures bundled under SGP-0003. The proposals would accelerate reductions in new SOL issuance and increase the amount of SOL burned through network fees. If it goes through, it could result in the kind of supply-size squeeze investors would likely benefit from, assuming demand stays steady or increases.

Dudas said Solana’s meme coin ecosystem also proved more resilient than much of the crypto market during the downturn, arguing that the network’s willingness to support uses ranging from speculative tokens to stock trading has become one of its strengths.

“The beauty of Solana is that the chain supports all of these different use cases,” he said. “As much crap as the Solana Foundation gets, and as much crap as I sometimes give it, they unequivocally and vocally support all of these broad use cases—and you can see it.”

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

Fireblocks has added TRON to its Flow payment infrastructure, letting payment service providers and fintech companies accept stablecoin payments directly from TRON wallets. The integration, which went live on August 12, opens up TRON’s sprawling stablecoin ecosystem to the more than 2,400 institutions already using Fireblocks.

What Fireblocks Flow actually does
Fireblocks Flow launched on June 2, 2026, during Money20/20 Europe. Think of it as a universal adapter for digital asset payments: one integration that handles wallet connectivity, compliance, settlement, and reconciliation all in a single stack.

Before this update, Flow supported EVM-compatible networks, Solana, Sui, and Bitcoin. TRON is now the newest addition to that source-chain roster.

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A payment service provider can now accept a TRON-based stablecoin deposit from a customer’s wallet and settle it in whatever stablecoin the merchant has configured. No juggling multiple integrations, no bolting together separate compliance layers for each chain.

Flutterwave was among Flow’s initial launch partners, signaling that the product was designed with emerging-market payment corridors in mind from day one.

Why TRON matters for stablecoin payments
Fireblocks itself has secured over $14 trillion in cumulative digital asset transactions across more than 100 chains.

The institutional stablecoin push accelerates
Earlier mentions of TRON’s potential integration with Fireblocks Flow surfaced in July 2026, with official confirmation arriving in mid-August.

Both Fireblocks and TRON DAO framed the move as bringing TRON’s established payment infrastructure into a professional-grade environment used by over 2,400 institutions.

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

Conflux Network has scheduled its v3.1.0 hard fork for Aug. 25, requiring node operators to install the update before seven network proposals and a private security fix take effect.

Summary

Conflux node operators must install v3.1.0 before the network reaches the Aug. 25 deadline. Seven proposals will improve Ethereum compatibility and correct transaction and staking problems. CIP-173 is expected to take effect on Aug. 26, one day after the upgrade deadline. Conflux will disclose details of a private security fix after the hard fork is completed. Conflux v3.1.0 requires a mandatory update Conflux Network said in an Aug. 3 announcement that all nodes must install version 3.1.0 before the blockchain reaches epoch 155140000, which is expected on Aug. 25.

An epoch is a numbered stage in a blockchain’s operation. Conflux has used the target number to set the official deadline because the precise activation time can change depending on how quickly the network produces blocks.

Node operators who update before the deadline can install the new software and restart their systems. Conflux advised operators to complete the process within two days of beginning the update.

Operators who wait until after the target epoch will face a more difficult process. According to the announcement, they will have to remove their existing blockchain data, install the latest version, and download the network records again.

Nodes that remain on older software will no longer be fully compatible with the upgraded blockchain. Conflux warned that affected operators may be unable to download new blocks, process transactions, or continue mining.

The update also requires operators to replace an important settings file with the new copy included in the release. Using the old file will prevent a node from starting because version 3.1.0 applies stricter checks to its settings.

Operators who previously changed where their node stores data or records activity can transfer those choices to the replacement file. Conflux has also provided an updated list of entry points that nodes use when first connecting to other participants on the network.

A separate optional setting can reduce the amount of storage used by a node. Activating it will make the first restart take longer while the software rebuilds a current record of account balances and other network information, but later restarts should return to their normal duration.

Seven Conflux proposals will change network rules Conflux plans to activate CIP-166, CIP-167, CIP-172, CIP-173, CIP-174, CIP-175 and CIP-176. A CIP, or Conflux Improvement Proposal, describes a planned change to the network’s rules or features.

Three proposals will make Conflux eSpace work more closely with applications built for Ethereum. eSpace is the part of Conflux that supports Ethereum-based smart contracts, wallets, and development tools.

CIP-166 adds a new operation that allows applications to count the empty digits at the start of a computer value. While mainly useful to developers, the change keeps Conflux aligned with a recent Ethereum network standard.

Under CIP-167, Conflux will add direct support for checking a type of digital signature commonly used by passkeys and online identity systems. Passkeys allow users to sign in through methods such as a fingerprint, facial scan, or device security code instead of entering a traditional password.

The proposal may help developers create wallets and applications with more familiar login systems. According to Conflux, the same signature method is already used by WebAuthn, the online authentication standard that supports passkeys.

For U.S.-based developers, the update provides a technical route for building applications that work with passkey systems already available on widely used devices and browsers. The Conflux announcement does not introduce separate trading, tax, or regulatory rules for American CFX holders.

CIP-174 will limit the size of information sent to a calculation-heavy network feature and increase the transaction fee charged for using it. Conflux linked the proposal to two Ethereum changes designed to prevent unusually large requests from consuming too many network resources.

Conflux previously expanded its Ethereum-compatible environment to support wallets, applications, and token transfers built around Ethereum standards. That design recently gained more importance for CFX traders after Upbit restricted deposits and withdrawals to Conflux eSpace.

As crypto.news previously reported, the South Korean exchange warned users that CFX sent through Core Space or another unsupported network could require a lengthy recovery process. Core Space is Conflux’s original operating environment, while eSpace supports Ethereum-compatible tools.

Transaction and staking problems will be corrected Four proposals focus on flaws found in existing network behavior. CIP-172 will require every transaction added to a block to follow one approved format.

Conflux said the current issue can allow the same transaction to receive more than one identifying code. Since blockchain services use those codes to locate and verify transfers, the update will require a single standard format.

Nodes running the new software will begin rejecting incorrectly formatted transactions before the full hard fork takes effect. The early protection will apply as soon as an operator installs version 3.1.0.

CIP-173 addresses problems in the network’s process for reviewing disputes involving proof-of-stake validators. Validators lock CFX to help confirm network activity and can face penalties when they break the rules.

The proposal will also extend an existing lock on staked CFX to validators who have already started withdrawing their entire deposit. Conflux expects CIP-173 to activate at proof-of-stake block 3749400 on Aug. 26.

CIP-175 corrects a problem affecting certain calls between Core Space and eSpace. In some cases, the network did not properly recognize the permission that one account had given another account to act on its behalf.

CIP-176 fixes how the network prepares stored information for use during a transaction. When the same account appeared several times in a transaction’s access list, Conflux prepared only the information attached to its final appearance. Version 3.1.0 will process all relevant entries.

The software release also improves how the proof-of-stake system handles pending transactions and new block proposals. Conflux said existing nodes will not need to download the entire blockchain again solely because of the internal storage changes included in the release.

Major Conflux upgrades have previously drawn attention to CFX. In July 2025, coverage of Conflux 3.0 recorded a roughly 70% rally from $0.1450 to $0.2416 after the earlier update was announced.

Trading volume and open positions in the derivatives market also rose sharply during that period. The v3.1.0 announcement, however, provides no CFX price forecast and focuses on the steps required from network operators.

Security fix will remain private until the hard fork Conflux said version 3.1.0 contains a fix for a security weakness but will not publish the related technical details until the network upgrade has been completed.

According to the project, an early disclosure could give attackers enough information to target nodes that have not yet installed the update. Conflux will therefore delay publishing the affected sections of its software until operators have had time to move to the protected version.

The team also warned operators against building their own version from the project’s latest unfinished software. Such copies may not match the official mainnet release and could cause an operator to follow a different version of the blockchain.

Conflux used a similar coordinated process in March 2025 when it repaired a flaw affecting how contracts were placed at blockchain addresses. Earlier security coverage reported that the problem could allow a contract to replace another contract already stored at the same address and return its settings to their original state.

The project said version 2.5 corrected the flaw after the ecosystem team, GraFun, privately reported it. GraFun received 60,000 CFX, including 50,000 CFX for finding the problem and 10,000 CFX for reporting it quickly enough to reduce the risk of exploitation.

Beyond the private security patch, version 3.1.0 repairs several crashes that could be caused by damaged messages from other nodes, incorrect requests sent to the network, or unusual information recorded on-chain.

The update also adds two new tools for eSpace services, improves controls that limit excessive requests, and corrects several errors in transaction records. Conflux has removed an older connection method while keeping the commonly used web and live connection options unchanged.

Additional maintenance work covers a crash during shutdown, excessive activity records during periods of heavy network use, and several outdated software parts. Version 3.1.0 also adds a meter that allows operators to monitor the number of transactions their nodes process in real time.

USDe issuer Ethena announced it has partnered with digital asset prime broker FalconX to become its institutional lending partner. As part of FalconX Global’s institutional lending allocation, Ethena will invest in its stablecoin lending facilities via overcollateralization. The collaboration enables FalconX to expand its balance sheet, while Ethena benefits from FalconX’s expertise in lending and secured loans, securing more favorable risk-adjusted terms than alternative channels.

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Stablecoin issuer Tether has completed its largest-ever full financial audit, with KPMG issuing an unqualified opinion, showing reserves exceeding liabilities by $6.814 billion.

USDT issuer Tether announced it has completed a full independent audit of its 2025 fiscal year financial statements by KPMG U.S., receiving an unqualified audit opinion—the most positive outcome an independent auditor can issue. Dubbed "the largest first-time financial audit in history", the engagement saw KPMG conduct comprehensive substantive testing on Tether’s balance sheet, reserve asset composition, outstanding token liabilities, income statement, changes in equity, and cash flow statement. Critically, instead of relying solely on custodian reports, KPMG physically counted every gold bar held by Tether to verify their existence and identifying details. The audit confirmed Tether’s reserves exceeded its liabilities by $6.814 billion as of December 31, 2025. Tether CEO Paolo Ardoino stated: "Critics have for years claimed Tether could not complete an audit, and we have once again proven them wrong. An unqualified opinion means Tether has secured a clean audit." CFO Simon McWilliams called the milestone "a landmark in Tether’s commitment to transparency", noting the firm has wrapped up a historic project with the Big Four accounting firms and will continue to elevate standards moving forward. Tether has long published independent reserve attestation reports; this full financial statement audit marks a jump in its financial reporting regime from the attestation level to the full audit tier.

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Over $1.4 billion worth of crypto options are set to expire today, with Bitcoin’s max pain point at $64,000.

BTC and ETH options are set to expire this Friday, with open interest concentrated around several key strike prices. BTC’s nominal open interest stands at roughly $1.28 billion, with its max pain point at $64,000. The highest concentration of call options is at $68,000, followed by $70,000 to $72,000. ETH’s nominal open interest is approximately $161 million, with its max pain point at $1,900. The highest concentration of call options is at $1,950 and $2,000. BTC’s put/call open interest ratio is 0.85, while ETH’s is 0.94.

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Bitwise Chief Investment Officer (CIO): DeFi’s market size and pricing power are both underestimated, and projects like Hyperliquid have far greater potential than imagined.

Bitwise Chief Investment Officer Matt Hougan stated that people evaluating current decentralized finance (DeFi) applications are making two overlapping mistakes: regarding market size, they believe they are targeting the $2 trillion cryptocurrency market, but in reality, they are targeting the $500 trillion asset market; regarding value capture, they think they have maximized fee revenue, but have only scratched the surface. Projects such as Hyperliquid, Uniswap, Aave, Morpho, Aerodrome, Lighter, Pump and others have a larger TAM (total addressable market) and stronger pricing power than commonly perceived.

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75% of stocks in the S&P 500 tech sector have returned above their 200-day moving average, with historical averages indicating a potential gain of up to 33.4% over the next year.

Last week, 75% of stocks in the S&P 500 Tech sector closed above their 200-day moving average (DMA), marking the first time this threshold has been hit since October 2024, ending a 219-trading-day stretch of prolonged weakness. This is the 9th-longest downturn on record, with the longest such stretch in history lasting 759 trading days, ending after the dot-com bubble burst on April 22, 2003. Historical data shows that after the end of such prolonged downturns, the tech sector posts an average gain of 2.5% in the following month, 7.3% in three months, 15.5% in six months, and a whopping 33.4% in 12 months. Meanwhile, 69% of stocks in the Nasdaq 100 index are now above their 200-day moving average, near the highest level since July 2025. This notable improvement in the breadth indicator signals that the tech stock rally is expanding beyond a handful of heavyweight stocks to the broader sector, as market momentum builds. The tech sector had previously faced multiple headwinds including memory chip sell-offs, deleveraging of leveraged ETFs, and concerns over AI capital expenditures; this technical repair provides positive support for future market performance.

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Bitcoin falls below $63,000, with a 1.03% drop in the past 24 hours.

According to HTX market data, Bitcoin has dropped below $63,000, with a 24-hour decline of 1.03%.

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CFTC releases agenda for first meeting of its Innovation Advisory Committee, focusing on regulation of crypto assets, AI, and prediction markets.

U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) Chairman Michael S. Selig has released the agenda for the inaugural meeting of the Innovation Advisory Committee (IAC). The meeting is scheduled to be held in Washington on Thursday, August 20, and will focus on topics including crypto asset regulation, artificial intelligence, and prediction markets. Selig said: "The United States has long been a global hub for financial innovation. I look forward to meeting with entrepreneurs, thinkers, and builders of the CFTC Innovation Advisory Committee to explore how emerging technologies and financial products can shape our markets in the new financial frontier." The public may submit relevant comments by August 27, and all received submissions will be published publicly. The meeting agenda may be adjusted based on other priorities of the IAC; the full agenda is available on the CFTC’s official website. The CFTC also emphasized that the views and opinions expressed by the advisory committee represent only the committee itself and do not reflect the positions of the CFTC, its staff, or the U.S. government.

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Saturn Credit Taps Ondo's Tokenized Asset Base@Saturn_Credit has partnered with @Ondo to bring institutional-quality tokenized stocks into its on-chain credit infrastructure. The integration begins with STRCON, which will be incorporated into the $sUSDAT yield-bearing stablecoin, giving Saturn access to more than $957 million in Ondo's tokenized traditional assets as collateral for on-chain credit products.

The move positions Saturn to build credit instruments directly backed by real-world productivity rather than purely crypto-native collateral, a meaningful structural shift for decentralized lending. The $sUSDAT stablecoin acts as the bridge, absorbing yield from Ondo's tokenized asset base and passing it through to Saturn's credit stack.

A Wider Market for Non-US InvestorsOne of the clearest use cases here is geographic access. Saturn's integration builds on that by directing the yield generated from those assets into on-chain credit products available to non-US and non-EEA users, people who have historically faced significant barriers to US equity and fixed-income exposure.

Saturn's credit layer adds another dimension, allowing that exposure to underpin yield-generating credit products rather than simple token holdings.

Ondo's tokenized asset ecosystem has expanded rapidly. The Saturn partnership draws on that scale, using Ondo's institutional backing as the foundation for a new class of on-chain credit.

The partnership reflects a broader trend of DeFi protocols moving away from crypto-only collateral models and toward real-world assets as the basis for lending and credit. With Ondo's regulatory standing reinforced after , the infrastructure underpinning this integration carries a cleaner compliance profile than many earlier RWA experiments.

Sources:
Ondo Finance: Ondo Stocks
CoinDesk: Ondo Finance debuts SEC-aligned tokenized stock model
Crypto Briefing: Ondo Finance enables native swaps for 260+ tokenized stocks

Pump.fun’s PUMP token climbed 27% from its Aug. 8 low as record weekly fees strengthened its buyback-and-burn program, while buyers absorbed volatility around a 6.875 billion-token unlock.

Summary

PUMP price rose from about $0.0022 to $0.0028 between Aug. 8 and Aug. 13. Pump.fun generated $10.03 million in weekly fees as ecosystem volume reached $2.97 billion. The platform bought and burned 2.15 billion PUMP worth $5.02 million during the week. Daily RSI reached 73.12, leaving the rally vulnerable to short-term profit-taking. PUMP price holds near $0.0028 after 27% rally According to data from crypto.news, PUMP price traded near $0.00279 on Aug. 13 after rising from approximately $0.0022 on Aug. 8. The token briefly reached an intraday high of $0.002895 before buyers and sellers settled around the $0.0028 area.

The move gave PUMP a gain of roughly 27% over five days, even after the token encountered profit-taking near $0.0029. Its Aug. 13 daily candle remained 1.34% higher at the time the chart was captured.

Price action over the past month shows a wider trend reversal. PUMP recovered from a June low near $0.0012 and broke above a series of lower highs that had controlled the market since February.

PUMP price daily chart — Aug. 13 | Source: crypto.news The token has now moved above its 20-, 50-, 100-, and 200-day simple moving averages. The 20-day average sits at $0.002288, while the other three averages are grouped between $0.001779 and $0.001875.

Trading above all four levels indicates that buyers control both the short- and medium-term trend. However, the large distance between PUMP and its 20-day average also shows that the rally has become extended.

The daily relative strength index reached 73.12, above the commonly watched overbought threshold of 70. The RSI average is lower at 68.08, showing that momentum remains positive but increases the chance of consolidation or a temporary pullback.

Buybacks support PUMP despite scheduled supply increase Pump.fun’s fee growth provided the main fundamental support for the rally. The Solana-based token launch platform generated $10.03 million in fees between Aug. 3 and Aug. 9, according to data previously reported by crypto.news.

Ecosystem trading volume reached $2.97 billion during the same period, its highest level since late January. The figure was not an all-time high, but it showed a strong recovery in activity across Pump.fun and its related trading products.

Under Pump.fun’s current token model, half of the protocol fees are used to purchase PUMP from the open market and burn the acquired tokens. The project’s token page confirms that 50% of protocol fees fund the program.

The latest weekly allocation resulted in $5.02 million of purchases and the removal of 2.15 billion PUMP from circulation. Regular market purchases provide a recurring source of spot demand, while burning the tokens prevents them from returning to circulation.

However, PUMP also faced a larger scheduled supply event. DefiLlama’s unlock schedule showed 6.875 billion tokens becoming available on Aug. 12, including 4.167 billion assigned to the team and 2.708 billion for existing investors.

The unlocked amount represented about 1.75% of the circulating supply and was worth approximately $19.2 million at the prevailing price. An unlock does not prove that holders sold their tokens, but it increases the amount that could enter the market.

PUMP’s ability to remain near $0.0028 after the event suggests that available demand has so far prevented a deeper reversal. Still, future transfers from team or investor wallets could create additional pressure if recipients move substantial amounts to exchanges.

PUMP technical setup points to $0.003 resistance The 4-hour chart shows PUMP consolidating after its latest advance rather than immediately surrendering the breakout. Price remains above the Bollinger Band midpoint at $0.002757, with the lower band at $0.002667.

PUMP price 4-hour chart — Aug. 13 | Source: crypto.news The upper band stands at $0.002848, close to the latest intraday high. A 4-hour close above that band would put the $0.0029–$0.0030 area back in focus.

The $0.0030 level carries both technical and psychological importance. It sits near the upper end of the latest price range and could attract selling from traders who entered during the July recovery.

The Awesome Oscillator remains positive at 0.000117, confirming that short-term momentum favors buyers. Its histogram has weakened from the Aug. 11 peak; however, indicating that the rate of price acceleration is slowing.

Immediate support sits around $0.00275, where the 4-hour Bollinger midpoint is located. A loss of that level could send PUMP toward the lower band at $0.00267.

A deeper correction would bring $0.0025 into view. That area previously acted as resistance and could now serve as breakout support. Holding above it would preserve the wider sequence of higher highs and higher lows.

Liquidation clusters could increase PUMP volatility CoinGlass’ 24-hour liquidation heatmap shows leverage building on both sides of the current price.

PUMP liquidation chart | Source: CoinGlass The nearest overhead clusters appear between approximately $0.00282 and $0.00290. A breakthrough at $0.00285 could force short sellers to close positions, adding market buy orders and accelerating a move toward $0.0030.

Larger downside liquidity is visible around $0.00271–$0.00273, with another concentration near $0.00264. Price often moves toward areas containing dense leveraged positions, although a heatmap cannot determine which cluster will be reached first.

A drop below $0.00275 could therefore produce a long-liquidation move toward $0.00270. The stronger bullish structure would only face material damage if sellers push PUMP below $0.0025.

For U.S. traders, the token’s platform-specific rally is unfolding while the broader crypto market remains cautious following the July inflation report. The Bureau of Labor Statistics released the data on Aug. 12, with annual headline inflation easing to 3.4%.

PUMP’s relative strength despite restrained movement in Bitcoin suggests that buybacks and platform activity are currently carrying more weight than the wider macro backdrop. The bullish case now depends on a break above $0.0029, while an overbought daily RSI and newly unlocked supply remain the main near-term risks.

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

Publicly traded Bitcoin miners are cutting mining capacity faster than the Bitcoin network overall, suggesting that more operators are redirecting electricity and infrastructure toward data centers and high-performance computing (HPC), in another sign of the sector’s evolution beyond creating more crypto.

In the latest Miner Weekly newsletter, BlocksBridge Consulting reported that realized hashrate among a cohort of public Bitcoin miners fell from 368.3 exahashes per second (EH/s) in the fourth quarter of 2025 to 319 EH/s in the second quarter of 2026, a 13.4% decline.

The contraction was even sharper when excluding Bitdeer, which continued to expand its mining operations. Without Bitdeer, the cohort’s realized hashrate fell 21.2% over the six-month period, from 324.6 EH/s to 255.9 EH/s. Bitdeer’s realized hashrate, meanwhile, increased 44% to 63 EH/s.

By comparison, the Bitcoin network’s average hashrate declined 10.6% over the same period.

The shift comes as more miners report a growing share of revenue from non-mining activities. Core Scientific generated $136.7 million in colocation revenue during the second quarter, compared with just $27.5 million from Bitcoin mining. TeraWulf reported $31.9 million in HPC lease revenue, compared with $12.8 million from mining.

Core Scientific and TeraWulf are now generating the majority of their revenue from non-mining activities.
Source: TheEnergyMag

Riot Platforms and Bitdeer remain much earlier in the transition, with Bitcoin mining continuing to account for the vast majority of their revenue in the most recent quarter.

Unwinding post-China mining boomBlocksBridge framed the current pullback as an unwinding of the expansion cycle that followed China’s Bitcoin mining ban in 2021, which triggered one of the sharpest declines in network hashrate before a rapid recovery as miners relocated overseas.

In North America, that migration helped fuel an expansion among public miners, which raised capital and acquired new power sites to expand their operations. 

One halving cycle later, the economics have shifted significantly. Weaker mining profitability, coupled with surging demand for AI infrastructure since 2022, has prompted several public miners to repurpose sites and power capacity away from Bitcoin mining entirely.

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

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.

As revealed in the latest SEC filing, U.S.-based Riot Platforms will sell 4,300 BTC and direct the proceeds toward expanding its data center network for AI workloads, confirming that the largest miners are moving away from the strategy of passively accumulating cryptocurrency.

The shift in priorities was driven by a prolonged decline in mining income. In the second quarter, the company's mining revenue fell 19.3% due to rising electricity costs and hashprice falling to historic lows.

Bitcoin mining margin pressures are funding the AI pivotThe market situation remains tense. Bitcoin is trading within a narrow range of around $63,500–$63,700, while the average cost of mining it across the market, according to industry models, stands at $76,000–$78,000 per coin.

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As a result, the average miner on the network is currently operating at a loss, as hashprice has fallen to a record low of $30–$35 per PH/s per day. Only operators with extremely cheap electricity and the latest equipment remain profitable.

Bitcoin miners revenue (USD) over the last 6 months, Source: Blockchain.comRiot's figures are better than the market average, but the broader trend has affected the company as well. Its direct cost of mining one Bitcoin rose to $49,912 due to higher energy rates and the expansion of its capacity in Kentucky. 

This forced management to partially liquidate its holdings by selling some of its accumulated coins, while mining revenue stood at $113.7 million.

At the same time, the company maintains a strong balance sheet and a $1.2 billion cushion of liquid assets, including $548.9 million in cash and a reserve of 11,380 BTC.

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However, its business model is shifting toward a more predictable infrastructure business. Riot has already delivered its first capacity for AMD, while its key long-term project is a 20-year contract to lease AI laboratory facilities, with expected revenue of $9.1 billion.

Riot's actions reflect a broader market trend in 2026, as miners gradually transform into operators of computing centers. Other major players, including MARA Holdings, Core Scientific, and Bitdeer, have previously partially or fully liquidated their crypto reserves to fund the construction of AI infrastructure.