Anthropic's IPO timing could enhance its market position, influence AI sector dynamics, and impact investor strategies amid regulatory scrutiny.

The post Anthropic targets September-October IPO ahead of OpenAI: WSJ appeared first on Crypto Briefing.

Rising oil prices due to geopolitical tensions could lead to economic instability and increased market volatility, affecting global financial systems.

The post US-Iran standoff drives oil prices higher, impacts stock market appeared first on Crypto Briefing.

Escalating military involvement in the Gulf of Oman heightens maritime security risks, potentially disrupting global shipping and market stability.

The post Tanker and military forces incident reported in Gulf of Oman: UKMTO appeared first on Crypto Briefing.

The intensified Democratic efforts could reshape Ohio's political dynamics, influencing party strategies and voter perceptions amid ongoing investigations.

The post Democrats intensify efforts to unseat Max Miller in Ohio amid abuse claims appeared first on Crypto Briefing.

Coinbase's UK derivatives expansion may boost market activity, influencing Ethereum's price dynamics and reflecting strategic regulatory alignment.

The post Coinbase launches futures, options for UK pros, eyes Ethereum impact appeared first on Crypto Briefing.

Bitcoin Magazine

Blockstream Debuts Swaps, Allowing Bitcoiners to Move Between Lightning and Main Network With Ease 

Bitcoin infrastructure company Blockstream has announced a new feature allowing users to make trustless swaps. 

Dubbed Blockstream Swaps, the idea is that Bitcoiners will be able to quickly move between the main chain and Lightning network. 

It comes after non-custodial Bitcoin swap provider Boltz suspended its service after it said attackers were finding vulnerabilities faster than its team could fix using AI. 

“In support of the broader Bitcoin and Liquid ecosystem, Blockstream is launching Blockstream Swaps,” Blockstream said. 

“This initiative was already under development to ensure a resilient suite of utility for the ecosystem, and it complements the providers already doing this work rather than replacing any one of them.”

The idea, added Blockstream, is users can move funds across layers while never losing full control over their funds.

To use Lightning, users will not need to run a node or channel — as is normally needed with Lightning — and can simply hold a Bitcoin or LBTC balance and let a swap convert at the moment of payment.

LBTC is the native asset of the Liquid Network, a Bitcoin layer-2 sidechain created by Blockstream. 

“This initiative was already under development to ensure a resilient suite of utility for the ecosystem, and it complements the providers already doing this work rather than replacing any one of them,” added Blocksteam’s announcement. 

Boltz this month suspended its Bitcoin swap service. It said that a surge in AI-assisted attacks left it unable to continue operating safely.

Crypto hacks have surged, with security experts warning that cybercriminals are using AI to search for bugs in crypto projects and then take advantage of errors auditors may have missed.

This post Blockstream Debuts Swaps, Allowing Bitcoiners to Move Between Lightning and Main Network With Ease  first appeared on Bitcoin Magazine and is written by Mathew Di Salvo.

Bitcoin Magazine

BTCPay Server Offers a 3 Bitcoin Bounty for Recovery of Stolen Funds After Wallet Exploit

Supporters of BTCPay Server have committed to funding a bounty of up to three Bitcoins for the recovery of funds stolen through a recently disclosed vulnerability in the open-source bitcoin payment processor, the project said in a statement.

The bounty is set at 10 percent of whatever is recovered, capped at three coins in the event of a full recovery. 

The project even extended the offer to the attacker directly alongside anyone else holding actionable information, directing them to a dedicated security address and offering Signal or other encrypted channels on request. 

Hackers last week managed to extract Lightning Network admin macaroon credentials from affected BTCPay Server instances. The project published technical details and remediation guidance in a separate security advisory.

“To the users who lost funds: we are sorry,” the project said in a statement. “We will examine our mistakes, but regret alone will not help affected users or secure the project. There is no time to waste. We have to learn, improve, and act quickly.”

The BTCPay Server Foundation said it would donate 0.21 Bitcoins to Sparrow Wallet developer Craig Raw and a further 0.21 Bitcoins to the Bitcoin Red Team fund in recognition of their responsible disclosure of the vulnerability.

Separately, the project said it has been contacted by security teams at exchanges, blockchain analytics firms and law enforcement agencies offering assistance in tracking the stolen coins. 

Affected users who have not yet come forward are being asked to share on-chain addresses and transaction details, and to file reports with local authorities and any exchange or service where the funds surface. 

Individual reports, the project said, help preserve records and establish a chain of evidence that improves the odds of funds being frozen.

The project added that improving AI models are making it faster and cheaper to comb large codebases for weaknesses, shifting the balance toward attackers, and that Bitcoin projects are feeling it first because they are unusually valuable targets.

This post BTCPay Server Offers a 3 Bitcoin Bounty for Recovery of Stolen Funds After Wallet Exploit first appeared on Bitcoin Magazine and is written by Mathew Di Salvo.

Bitcoin Magazine

Bitcoin Exchange-Traded Funds See Spike In Inflows Following Huge Hack 

American Bitcoin exchange-traded funds have had their biggest weekly inflow since April, taking in $850 million last week, according to Bloomberg figures. 

The major U.S. funds managed by BlackRock, Fidelity, Grayscale, Morgan Stanley and others have received the cash the week after hackers targeted Coinkite’s popular Coldcard product.

Hackers started stealing millions in Bitcoin from Coldcard wallets after discovering a vulnerability in the product’s software. Some estimates put the amount of Bitcoin lost now at over $130 million. 

The incident has rattled the BTC community that typically praises cold storage solutions. 

Speaking on Bloomberg’s ETF IQ show on Monday, Robert Mitchnick, global head of digital assets at BlackRock, said that since the ETFs’ approval in 2024, investors have wanted a “very simple turnkey trusted vehicle and not have to worry about all the unique elements of Bitcoin and crypto security that generally custody otherwise would require of an investor.”

Speaking about the Coldcard hack, he added: “What’s also important to recognize is that that is not a breach of Bitcoin or any other crypto protocol — those are individual security mismanagement issues that happen from various individuals or providers.”

It isn’t clear whether investors are rotating out of cold storage into the ETFs since the hack but the funds have seen a spike in trading action. 

Bitcoin’s price has typically done well when investors have thrown cash at the products but the leading cryptocurrency is now flat over a seven-day period, priced at $63,861. 

BlackRock’s iShares Bitcoin Trust took most of last week’s inflows but other funds managed by Morgan Stanley and Fidelity also experienced trading action. 

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission in 2024 approved the slew of Bitcoin investment funds which went on to have the most successful launch in the history of ETFs. 

Investors previously put off from buying Bitcoin due to the complexities of cold storage and private keys can now buy shares that trade on stock exchanges that track the price of Bitcoin. 

The ETFs — managed by other top Wall Street fund managers — currently manage nearly $80 billion in assets, according to Coinglass data. 

This post Bitcoin Exchange-Traded Funds See Spike In Inflows Following Huge Hack  first appeared on Bitcoin Magazine and is written by Mathew Di Salvo.

Bitcoin Magazine

TD Cowen Gives Crypto Clarity Act a 25% Chance of Passing This Fall

Investment bank TD Securities has said that the long-awaited crypto Clarity Act has a slim chance of getting passed in a Monday note, citing last week’s delay and potential stalling from the Democrats. 

The bank said that now the bill won’t be passed before the summer, it only has a 25% of getting passed in September. 

Lawmakers were hoping a crucial vote on the long-awaited crypto market structure bill was to go ahead before a five-week recess but news dropped last week that there was a delay and now the Senate will vote on the bill in September. 

“The bill is not dead, but the path forward is harder,” the bank said. “We assign a 75% probability that Clarity fails to become law this fall.” 

TD Cowen said one likely outcome was for cloture to pass initially in September but then for Republicans to block Democratic amendments on the ethics and AML sections, leading Democrats to sink the second cloture vote.

It added that it was also likely no cloture vote ever happens. Cloture is the Senate’s procedural tool for ending debate on a bill so it can move to a final vote.

News dropped last week a vote on the bill would have to wait until lawmakers return from August recess. Bipartisan work has gone into the Clarity Act, which was passed by the House of Representatives last year, but some Republicans have accused Democrats of stalling the bill. 

The bill, if passed, would be a federal rulebook for U.S. cryptocurrency markets. The latest draft of the Clarity Act contains language — drafted by Democrats and Republicans — banning government officials from promoting or making money from crypto. It started circulating in July. 

Still, Democrats like Senator Elizabeth Warren, who has from the beginning criticized the Clarity Act, have claimed that new legislation will benefit the president and his family. 

Major financial institutions — not just crypto companies — have backed the bill, including Goldman Sachs and Fidelity, as well as law enforcement groups. 

This post TD Cowen Gives Crypto Clarity Act a 25% Chance of Passing This Fall first appeared on Bitcoin Magazine and is written by Mathew Di Salvo.

Bitcoin Magazine

Strategy Sells Bitcoin Again For Cash Buffer, STRC Buyback

Bitcoin treasury company Strategy on Monday announced that it again sold Bitcoin last week, and used the cash to buy back its preferred stock. 

In a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission, the Nasdaq-listed company said it sold  1,690 coins for $108.6 million, bringing its holdings to 840,447 coins, down from 842,138 it had the week before. 

The cash, Strategy said, went to buying 1,152,020 STRC shares worth $109 million as part of a buyback program. STRC in June fell far below the $100 stated amount. 

Strategy, which went from being an enterprise software company to buying Bitcoin in 2020, hasn’t bought any Bitcoin since June. 

The company has reassured investors that selling Bitcoin is just part of its plan to grow its cash buffer. Strategy said Monday that it now holds $4.65 billion in cash. 

Strategy’s stock (Nasdaq: MSTR) was trading nearly 3% lower on Monday. The stock has taken a hit since the price of Bitcoin nosedived last year. Investors buy MSTR to get amplified exposure to the biggest digital asset. 

But now, as Bitcoin is nearly 50% below its October record, MSTR is down nearly 80% from the all-time high it notched last year. 

Despite the sale, Strategy has maintained that its long-term posture toward Bitcoin hasn’t changed. 

Strategy — formerly MicroStrategy — began buying Bitcoin in August 2020 as a treasury strategy to boost shareholder returns during the pandemic. 

It has since spent more than $63.5 billion buying Bitcoin and remains by far the largest corporate holder of Bitcoin in the world. 

Strategy’s approach spawned a wave of copycat companies that have since adopted similar crypto-treasury strategies of their own.

The company maintains that its long-term posture toward Bitcoin is still the same. CEO Phong Le he isn’t worried about the current bear market, and that the company plans to remain a long-term buyer of Bitcoin despite its recent sales.

This post Strategy Sells Bitcoin Again For Cash Buffer, STRC Buyback first appeared on Bitcoin Magazine and is written by Mathew Di Salvo.

Grayscale withdrew its registration for the Cardano Trust ETF on Aug. 7, telling the SEC only that it “does not intend to proceed with the planned distribution.”

The move was voluntary and came along with parallel registrations for Hedera and Polkadot, within about three minutes of each other that same afternoon.

Two days later, ADA crossed a regulatory threshold that could have made its case for a spot ETF considerably easier. CME's regulated ADA futures had traded for six months as of Aug. 9, the track record the SEC's generic listing framework accepts as one path to spot-commodity ETP eligibility.

Cardano's only dedicated spot applicant walked away right before the rule that could have helped it took effect.

What is fact and what is inference

Other Grayscale altcoin registrations, including Bittensor, Aave, BNB, NEAR, and Zcash, remained active and preliminary the next day. That pattern points to a portfolio-level product decision, though Grayscale has not confirmed why it walked away.

ADA has also fallen more than 41% year-to-date and roughly 70% since Grayscale's original ETF filing. That decline fits a broader story about shrinking appetite for altcoin products, but it does not confirm what Grayscale was weighing when it pulled the filing.

The registration of the Grayscale Cardano Trust ETF never became effective, and the filing states plainly that no securities were issued or sold under it. There was no operating fund holding ADA, so there was nothing to unwind.

The only dedicated US spot ETF application built to hold ADA itself is gone. A vehicle like that would have allowed brokerage and institutional demand to convert directly into ADA purchases every time new shares were created.

With Grayscale gone and no other single-asset spot filing currently on record, ADA is missing that specific demand channel until a new sponsor steps in.

Why futures funds and baskets fall short

Volatility Shares runs a Cardano ETF built primarily on CME ADA futures, and its prospectus states that the fund does not invest directly in ADA.

Its combined net assets across both the standard and leveraged versions totaled roughly $1.26 million as of July, a small amount relative to ADA's roughly $7.1 billion market cap.

Grayscale's CoinDesk Crypto 5 ETF dropped ADA in its January rebalance, replacing it with BNB once the underlying index reselected its five components. Franklin Templeton's Crypto Index ETF still holds ADA, but at just 0.69% of net assets, about $70,709 worth as of the end of last year. Neither structure lets ADA demand flow in on its own terms.

A $25 million ADA ETF would represent about 0.35% of ADA's current market cap; a $100 million fund would reach roughly 1.4%; a $250 million fund would approach 3.5%, and a $500 million fund would cross 7%, enough to make ADA a visible allocation product on its own.

Creations, hedging, and secondary trading all complicate the relationship, but they show the size of the demand channel that just went quiet.

Under the SEC's generic listing standards, qualifying commodity-based trust shares can list without the exchange first filing a separate Section 19(b) proposed rule change for that individual product.

That removes the bespoke 19b-4 review track, which under Exchange Act Section 19(b)(2) can run from an initial 45-day review period to as long as 240 days if proceedings are instituted and extended.
Cardano's six-month futures history put ADA in a position to use that faster path.

Which way Cardano's investability goes

The bull case has another issuer filing on the strength of ADA's now-qualifying futures history, using the same six-month CME track record Grayscale had access to.

A new spot application inherits a faster review window and does not have to rebuild the regulatory case from zero. Grayscale's exit becomes a handoff between sponsors, and ADA regains a path toward the demand channel a dedicated ETF represents.

The bear case has issuers directing their attention toward tokens with clearer demand, Solana, XRP, Dogecoin, and BNB among them, leaving Cardano without a sponsor willing to file.

Futures wrappers stay near their current size, multi-asset baskets keep ADA at a small weight or drop it entirely, and the market starts reading the missing spot filing as a signal about ADA's institutional standing.

Cardano cleared the regulatory bar built to make a spot ETF possible. Whether ADA becomes an easier asset to invest in now depends on whether anyone else decides that bar is worth clearing.

The post Cardano finally cleared the SEC shortcut for a spot ETF, but its last remaining sponsor quit two days too early appeared first on CryptoSlate.

Standard Chartered initiated coverage of Chainlink (LINK) with a $200 price target for 2030, laying out a staged path to get there: $13 by the end of this year, $41 in 2027, $82 in 2028, $133 in 2029, and $200 in 2030.

LINK trades near $7.47 today, meaning the 2030 target implies roughly 27 times the current price. Even the bank's nearest milestone, the $13 call for the end of 2026, sits about 74% above LINK's current price.

The firm previously shared a $3,500 target for AAVE, which is close to 50 times the $70 initiation price. UNI carries a $100 target against an initiation price near $2.50 to $2.70, and MORPHO carries a $60 target against a coverage price near $2.13.

Every one of the four implies returns in the 25 to 50 times range.

The $4 trillion assumption behind the LINK prediction

The bank expects tokenized assets to grow from about $340 billion today to $4 trillion by the end of 2028, with assets deployed in decentralized finance expanding 37 times to $2.7 trillion by 2030.

For Chainlink specifically, the bank expects fees to rise roughly 25 times as that tokenized activity grows.

Chainlink already secures more value than any other oracle network, with Standard Chartered's note putting total value secured above $110 billion, roughly 70% of oracle-dependent DeFi value globally and more than 80% on Ethereum. Aave V3 alone accounts for 44% of that secured value.

The bank's analyst Geoff Kendrick named Swift, DTCC, Euroclear, JPMorgan, Mastercard, UBS, Fidelity, and S&P Global among the institutions already using Chainlink's services.

He argues that tokenized funds and bonds need net asset values, interest rate data, and reserve attestations. Off-chain customers paying for that data should become a larger share of Chainlink's fees over time.

More than $7 billion in token value has moved from legacy bridges to Chainlink's CCIP since the April exploit on KelpDAO's multichain infrastructure. CCIP volume reached $4.9 billion in the second quarter, up 353% year over year.

The last three times Standard Chartered did this

Following Standard Chartered predictions, UNI rose 22.5% around the bank's $100 call, MORPHO traded more than 13% higher over 24 hours around its $60 target, and AAVE gained 5.6% around the $3,500 initiation.

Broader crypto conditions moved alongside each report too, so the moves coincided with the calls without proof that the calls caused them.

LINK traded at $8.27, down 0.8% on the day, right around the time Standard Chartered published its note. Traders may be skeptical of Chainlink's path from usage to token value, or the $200 call may have already been partly priced in.

LINK may react on a longer delay than UNI or MORPHO did.

Standard Chartered's math assumes that tokenization growth directly translates into higher LINK value. Chainlink's own economics documentation states that its Reserve accumulates LINK through both off-chain enterprise revenue and on-chain service usage, a mechanism intended to bridge institutional adoption and token demand.

Whether that bridge actually holds is the entire bet Standard Chartered is making, since Chainlink could become widely used infrastructure without much of that value ever reaching LINK holders.

What decides whether the pattern repeats

The bull case has traders eventually doing with LINK what they did with UNI and MORPHO, rotating in as CCIP volume keeps climbing and more tokenization headlines reinforce the thesis.

LINK moves toward the $13 to $25 range over the next six to twelve months and starts trading as a tokenization-beta asset. The delayed initial reaction sets up a later move.

The bear case has Chainlink's institutional usage staying exactly that, usage, without turning into fees and reserve accumulation large enough to move the token.

Competitors take share of the oracle and data market, and enterprise clients keep paying without that value reaching LINK holders in a meaningful way. The token remains range-bound between $5 and $8, while the underlying network continues to expand regardless.

Chainlink already sits underneath more tokenized value than any other oracle network. Whether that translates into a $200 token depends on whether the market ever agrees to price in the value-accrual story Standard Chartered just told.

The post LINK could be next in line after Standard Chartered’s UNI and AAVE targets sparked sharp repricings appeared first on CryptoSlate.

Grayscale has formalized a mandatory minimum cadence for converting staking rewards from three crypto exchange-traded products into cash and paying the net proceeds to shareholders.

Trust amendments executed Aug. 6 for the Grayscale Ethereum Staking ETF (ETHE), Grayscale Solana Staking ETF (GSOL) and Grayscale Avalanche Staking ETF (GAVA) require each product to reduce “Staking Consideration” to cash no less often than quarterly. Net proceeds must then be distributed promptly after applicable fees and trust expenses.

The three trusts currently intend to make distributions monthly, according to Form 8-K filings submitted Aug. 7, but the binding floor is quarterly.

As the trusts receive staking rewards, they must periodically sell that earned consideration and pass the resulting cash to investors. The rule therefore creates a recurring market sell flow for reward tokens.

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It does not create scheduled liquidation of the trusts’ principal ETH, SOL or AVAX holdings. The distribution clauses apply to staking consideration earned by the products. Other disclosures still permit token sales for separate purposes, including redemptions, fees and expenses.

The amendments establish that reward tokens will be converted, but not how much will be sold in any future period.

As of June 30, ETHE reported $1.22 billion in total assets and $999.96 million in staked ETH, equivalent to roughly 81.7% of its assets. GSOL reported $101.16 million in assets and $101.05 million of staked SOL, or about 99.9%. GAVA reported $4.27 million in assets and $3.45 million of staked AVAX, or about 80.9%.

The reports do not provide current annualized reward rates. Future sales and payouts will depend on rewards actually received, the amount staked, protocol-level reward rates, token prices, and deductions.

ETHE charged a 2.5% annual Sponsor fee, while its Sponsor staking fee and validator fees together accounted for 23% of gross rewards as of June 30. GAVA disclosed a 0.35% annual Sponsor fee and the same 23% aggregate reward deduction. GSOL disclosed a 0.19% annual Sponsor fee and a 7% aggregate staking-related deduction covering Sponsor and validator fees.

The annual Sponsor fees and the reward deductions use different bases and should not be treated as additive percentages.

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Jun 21, 2026 · Gino Matos

ETHE offers an operating precedent without a forecast. The fund paid approximately $9.4 million, or $0.083178 per share, on Jan. 6 after selling staking rewards earned from Oct. 6 through Dec. 31, 2025. Different asset levels, staking participation, fees, reward rates, and token prices make it unsafe to extrapolate that payment across the three products.

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Grayscale move creates a tax complexity

The conversion to cash planned by Grayscale may simplify what shareholders receive, but ETHE and GSOL tax disclosures indicate that the underlying activity can create multiple potential tax consequences.

Assuming grantor-trust treatment applies, a US holder is generally treated as receiving a pro rata share of staking income when the trust earns it.

A subsequent trust sale of reward tokens to fund a cash distribution can also allocate a pro rata capital gain or loss to the holder. Under the treatment described in the filings, receiving the cash itself should not be an additional taxable event.

The disclosures caution that the grantor-trust position is not guaranteed. They also flag potential unrelated business taxable income for some tax-exempt holders and unresolved sourcing or withholding questions for non-US investors.

The amendments therefore create a recurring operational loop: earn reward tokens, sell them, and distribute net cash. Its market sell flow will depend on realized rewards and deductions, not headline asset totals alone.

The post Grayscale turned more than $1.1 billion of staked crypto into a recurring reward-sale machine for ETF holders appeared first on CryptoSlate.

Ethereum treasury company SharpLink reported a $1.08 billion net loss for the six months ended June 30. Its Aug. 7 quarterly filing attributes most of that result to price-related accounting charges. Much of the company’s treasury is staked, making conversion time a material part of its liquidity profile.

The filing attributes $827.7 million of the loss to an unrealized decline in the value of ETH and another $267.8 million to impairments of LsETH and weETH, tokens representing liquid staking and restaking positions. Those predominantly non-cash charges exceeded the net loss because other results partly offset them.

The six-month loss was 934.3% above the roughly $104.4 million recorded a year earlier. The comparison spans different operating profiles because SharpLink launched its ETH treasury strategy on June 2, 2025, near the end of the earlier period.

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What Ethereum can become cash, and when

SharpLink held $56.2 million in cash and cash equivalents at June 30. In a separately dated snapshot, it reported 888,938 unencumbered ETH-equivalent units as of Aug. 3: 634,255 native ETH, 181,748 ETH on an as-if-redeemed basis from LsETH and 72,935 ETH on the same basis from weETH.

ETH traded at $1,916.57 as of Aug. 10, giving the Aug. 3 count an illustrative gross mark of roughly $1.7 billion. That mark mixes dates and includes as-if-redeemed staking positions, so cash proceeds would depend on redemption timing and sale prices.

SharpLink estimates that, under Ethereum network conditions at the time of the filing, a material portion of its staked ETH could be withdrawn and converted to cash in about 30 days.

The company puts the entire staking portfolio at about 90 days, and the filing states the 90-day timing for the staking portfolio and separately reports 888,938 ETH-equivalent units in the total treasury.

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Ethereum validator exits vary with network demand and require sweep processing after exit. LsETH redemptions can require validator exits when protocol liquidity is insufficient, while weETH withdrawals can face network-dependent delays despite having no fixed lock period.

SharpLink’s common shares issued and outstanding increased 10.3% to 216.98 million at June 30 from 196.71 million at the end of 2025. In June, the company raised about $75 million gross by selling 10,013,351 shares with accompanying warrants at a combined purchase price of $7.49 per package.

It used part of the proceeds to buy 10,000 ETH for about $16.1 million and repurchased 2.13 million shares.

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SharpLink describes its unencumbered crypto assets as additional liquidity support beyond cash. The filing also warns that stressed markets could impede sales or force unfavorable pricing, and its liquidity depends on both conversion time and the price available when cash is needed.

The post SharpLink posts $1B loss as its $1.7B Ethereum treasury could take 90 days to fully convert to cash appeared first on CryptoSlate.

South Korea is nearing an Aug. 11 deadline for public comments on proposed crypto seizure rules that could give exchanges just seven days to disclose customer holdings once served with a court order.

The Supreme Court’s proposed amendments to the Civil Execution Rules would create a standardized process for creditors to freeze, identify and liquidate virtual assets held by debtors. If finalized on the current timetable, the rules are expected to take effect Oct. 1.

That would leave exchanges and other virtual asset service providers roughly seven weeks after the consultation closes to prepare for a more formal role in civil debt enforcement.

For crypto held through a custodian, a court could attach the debtor’s right to receive the assets rather than initially seizing the coins themselves. Once served, the provider would be barred from transferring the corresponding assets to the debtor, who would also lose the ability to dispose of the claim.

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Creditors could then ask the court to require the provider to disclose what it holds. The exchange would have one week to state whether it recognizes the debtor’s claim, identify the type and quantity of assets, and disclose competing seizures, provisional orders, or priority rights.

The framework could have broad reach in one of the world’s most retail-heavy crypto markets. As of February 2025, 16.29 million people held accounts across South Korea’s five largest exchanges, equivalent to nearly 32% of the population. The figure exceeded the roughly 14.2 million people who held domestic listed stocks at the end of 2024.

Once assets are identified and frozen, courts could assign them to creditors or order their liquidation. A virtual asset service provider could execute the sale, while crypto could also be transferred to an enforcement officer’s account or converted into more liquid assets before disposal.

However, the process becomes harder when a debtor controls the crypto directly.

A court could prohibit disposal and order a transfer to an enforcement officer, but seizure would take effect only when the officer actually receives the assets, leaving private-key control as a practical constraint.

The proposal also fits into South Korea’s broader effort to build formal rules around a crypto market that has moved deep into the financial mainstream.

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Authorities have already introduced statutory protections for virtual asset users and are tightening exchange registration and anti-money laundering requirements, including planned expansion of the travel rule and additional controls around personal wallets and stablecoins.

The seizure rules would extend that regulatory build-out into civil debt collection. They would also apply to proceedings already underway when they take effect, making the period between the Aug. 11 consultation deadline and the proposed Oct. 1 rollout particularly relevant for exchanges preparing to handle court orders.

The post South Korea puts crypto exchanges on a seven-day clock under new seizure rules appeared first on CryptoSlate.

Since 1 July 2026, crypto service providers in the European Union may only operate if they hold an authorisation under the MiCA regulation. Anyone who failed to obtain one by that date has to wind down their EU business and ask customers to withdraw their balances. A wave of fraud has grown out of exactly that: tens of thousands of investors across Europe are right now receiving a perfectly legitimate message telling them to move their money elsewhere. For criminals this is the most convenient starting position in years, because their own demand no longer has to sound plausible. It only has to look genuine.

Supervisors in several EU member states have issued warnings over the past few days. According to the French markets regulator AMF, quoted in international reporting on 5 and 6 August, perpetrators pose as staff of supervisory authorities or licensed trading venues and instruct customers of unauthorised providers to move their holdings urgently. Stéphane Pontoizeau, who covers this area at the AMF, is quoted as saying that the current moment offers fraudsters a better opportunity than usual. The same reports note that ESMA has found its own name and logo being misused in letters of this kind.

This article is written as a checklist: how to recognise a genuine withdrawal request, which two registers you need for that, and what to do if your provider really is winding down.

Why crypto phishing works so well after the MiCA deadline

Fraud in the crypto market normally depends on talking a victim into an action they would never take on their own. A stranger writes that there is a security problem and that the balance has to move to a safe wallet immediately. Anyone who has read about this before grows suspicious, because the request comes out of nowhere.

In the summer of 2026 that layer of protection is missing. The request does not come out of nowhere. It is the routine process that the supervisors themselves ordered. According to reporting on the state of the register, around 323 companies have received a MiCA authorisation, while more than 1,700 others have to stop doing business in the EU. Those figures come from analyses at the end of July and keep shifting, because further authorisations are still coming through. In our own review of the register, only 21 of those entries were trading platforms in the narrower sense, meaning providers where retail investors actually buy and sell. How it came to that is set out in our analysis of the MiCA register.

The result is a window in which a great many people are all expecting a legitimate message that tells them to move their money. The AMF says it deliberately avoided short wind-down deadlines, because time pressure drives those affected straight into the hands of the perpetrators. After this week, that is the most important point for you: a genuine wind-down gives you time. If something is rushing you, that alone is the warning signal.

What a fake withdrawal request looks like

The letters that have reached the authorities are well made. What has been described includes rebuilt websites that follow a genuine provider or authority down to the layout, documents carrying copied letterheads and file references, messages from supposed officials, and transfer instructions pointing to wallets that belong to the perpetrators. Phone calls come on top of that.

What is striking is what these letters regularly leave out. They rarely give the file reference of a wind-down, they do not point to a register entry you could look up yourself, and they give you no route by which to reach the sender independently. What they do supply is a destination address and a reason to hurry.

A second variant is more subtle. Instead of a wallet address you receive a link to a platform that is supposedly MiCA-licensed. You open an account there, you even verify yourself with an ID document, and you then see your balance as a number on an interface that belongs to the operators. Withdrawals subsequently fail because of alleged taxes. This version is the more dangerous one, because it copies the familiar process of opening an account.

The register test: is the crypto exchange MiCA-licensed at all?

There is one check that settles the great majority of these cases, and it costs you two minutes: look the provider up in an official register, using an address you type in yourself rather than a link from the message.

The reason is straightforward. Fraudsters can send any claim, rebuild any logo and fake any confirmation page. What they cannot do is create an entry in a supervisory authority's database. If a supposedly licensed provider is not in there, the matter is settled, however convincing the letter looks.

The ESMA register: every MiCA authorisation in the EU

The European securities regulator maintains the central directory of all service providers authorised under MiCA. It shows you whether a company holds an authorisation, which member state granted it and which services it covers. A provider may well be authorised without that authorisation covering every activity. Open the ESMA MiCA register and search for the legal entity name, not the brand. Many trading venues operate under a brand name but are registered under a different company. If the message gives no company name at all, that too is a finding.

The BaFin database: crypto custody and trading in Germany

For providers holding a German authorisation, the Federal Financial Supervisory Authority maintains its own company database. It is the faster route if your provider is based in Germany, and it additionally shows which permission was granted. The BaFin company database can be used without registering.

Both registers, however, only answer the question of whether a company is authorised, not the question of whether your email really came from that company. Hence the second step.

Second step: reach the provider through the official channel

Once you know the provider exists, you check whether the message came from it. A single rule applies here, and it is less comfortable than it sounds: you use no contact route whatsoever taken from the message. No telephone number from the email, no link, no attached PDF, no QR code.

Instead you open the app you already have on your phone, or you type in the provider's domain yourself. If there is no notice about a wind-down inside the logged-in area, then as far as you are concerned that wind-down does not exist. A company telling its EU customers to withdraw does so in the account itself, precisely because it fears this kind of confusion.

Authorities, incidentally, virtually never write to retail investors directly in such cases. Neither BaFin nor ESMA will email you asking you to move balances to a particular address. A message that does exactly that while looking official can be treated as a forgery without any further checking.

Language markers: how to spot a phishing email in the text

If you have a message in front of you and cannot reach the registers at that moment, a handful of markers will help. None of them is proof on its own, but together they paint a clear picture.

• A specific destination address in the text. Genuine wind-down notices describe routes, not wallets. If a recipient address appears in the message, that is the clearest indication there is.
• A deadline of a few days or hours. Wind-downs under MiCA run over weeks and months.
• A new contact channel. If the conversation moves to a messenger when everything so far arrived by email, something is wrong.
• A request for login credentials or the recovery phrase. There is no legitimate process in which anybody needs your twelve or twenty-four words.
• A domain that is almost right. An extra hyphen, a different ending, one letter swapped. Compare it character by character against your password manager.
• Fees payable before the withdrawal. If you are asked to pay in order to reach your own balance, the case is clear.

Conversely, a professional appearance is not a mark of authenticity. The forgeries the supervisors are warning about are a problem precisely because they are well made. Spelling mistakes as a giveaway are advice from an earlier era.

When your crypto exchange really does close its EU business

Suppose the check comes out like this: the message is genuine, your provider did not receive a MiCA authorisation and is closing its EU business. You then have a real but solvable problem. The order matters, because a wrong first step gets expensive.

Secure your paperwork first. Download transaction histories, account statements and tax reports while you still have access. Once the service is switched off you often only reach that data through written requests, and you need it for your German tax return: the acquisition date and acquisition cost of every position decide whether a later sale falls under the one-year holding period.

Only then do you look for a destination. An authorised trading venue is the obvious choice if you want to carry on trading; which providers cleared the MiCA hurdle and how they differ on fees and custody is set out in our comparison of regulated crypto exchanges. If you intend to hold for the long run anyway, self-custody is the alternative that makes you independent of the authorisation question.

Only after that do you move any balance, and you do it with a test amount. Send a small sum, wait for it to arrive and transfer the rest afterwards. That costs one extra network fee and protects you from the most expensive mistake of all, the wrongly copied address.

One note on tax: a pure transfer between two accounts that both belong to you is not a disposal and triggers no tax in Germany. Selling because the provider only pays out in euro, by contrast, is a taxable event. So check beforehand whether it hands over the coins themselves.

Crypto sent and fraud noticed: what still helps

A crypto transfer cannot be reversed. Anyone promising you otherwise on the telephone belongs to the second wave: so-called recovery services, which get in touch after a loss and offer to retrieve the funds against an advance payment, are a well-documented fraud pattern in their own right.

Plenty is still worth doing. File a report with the police, because investigators piece addresses together and exchanges can freeze blocked funds when a withdrawal is attempted. Report the incident to BaFin. Preserve messages, domains and transaction hashes before the other side shuts its infrastructure down. And change the passwords and two-factor methods of every account you logged into on the fake site.

What changes permanently for crypto investors in the EU

For you, the licensing requirement leaves behind a habit that outlasts this summer: before you deposit money with a provider, you look it up in the register. That was hard before MiCA, because there was no single directory. Since this year it is one search query. Anyone wanting to follow the market clear-out in context will find the wider picture in our analysis of the winners and losers of the MiCA deadline.

Transparency note: in our comparisons we assess providers with some of whom partnerships exist. This has no bearing on the checks described here; the registers linked above are official directories.

What to take away

1. Check the provider in the register before you move anything. Type the address of the ESMA register or the BaFin database in yourself and search for the legal entity name. If it is not there, the message is dealt with. Which authorised trading venues are open to you is shown in our comparison of regulated crypto exchanges.
2. Confirm every withdrawal request inside your logged-in account. Open the app or the website by your own route, never through a link from the message. If no notice is waiting there, you do nothing. If you are switching anyway, our overview of crypto exchanges compared will help you choose.
3. Move your holdings into self-custody if you intend to hold for the long run. That way you no longer depend on any service provider's authorisation. Which device is suitable and what matters for the backup is covered in our hardware wallet comparison. Here too, send a test amount first.

(As of August 7, 2026. This article is not investment advice. Prices and fee structures change; check the terms with the provider before you buy.)

Transparency note: This article was produced with the assistance of artificial intelligence and reviewed by our editorial team before publication. All figures and claims were checked against the primary sources linked in the text. The feature image was generated with AI.

The SEC has scheduled an open meeting for Friday, August 14, 2026 at 10:00 a.m. ET, and there is exactly one item on the agenda: whether to propose new rules creating a tailored offering regime for certain investment contracts involving crypto assets.

That is Regulation Crypto. It is the first formal SEC crypto rulemaking of Chairman Paul Atkins' tenure, and the notice landed Monday night with unusually short lead time.

What exactly is the SEC voting on?

Not a finished rule. Friday's vote decides whether to publish the proposal and open it for public comment. The three-member, all-Republican commission is expected to green-light that step.

The meeting runs from the Commission's Washington headquarters and will be webcast on sec.gov.

What would Regulation Crypto actually change?

Based on the framework Atkins laid out in March, the proposal is expected to give crypto projects a route to raise capital without triggering full securities registration, plus an exit path out of SEC jurisdiction once a team is no longer actively managing the network.

Earlier reporting on the draft pointed to capped raises for early-stage issuers and a multi-year exemption window. Those numbers are not confirmed until the text is public on Friday.

The bigger point is durability. Everything the agency has issued so far on crypto has been staff statements and policy guidance, which the next chairman can erase in an afternoon. A rule in the Federal Register cannot be undone without another full rulemaking cycle.

Does this mean the CLARITY Act is dead?

No, but it is late. The Senate left for August recess without a vote on the CLARITY Act. Majority Leader John Thune filed cloture on the motion to proceed on August 8, which sets the first procedural vote for 2:15 p.m. ET on Tuesday, September 15.

That vote needs 60 senators. If it fails, the bill loses its realistic path for 2026. Open fights remain over illicit-finance provisions, stablecoin yield and government ethics language.

Analysts read Friday's meeting as the SEC moving on without Congress. TD Cowen described it as the first of several rulemakings the agency will run to deliver certainty after the Senate stalled.

When do these rules actually bite?

Not soon. A proposal opens a comment period that typically runs two to three months, followed by a rewrite before any final adoption. Realistically this is a 2027 story for compliance teams.

For markets, the signal matters more than the timeline. Washington now has two tracks running in parallel, and only one of them needs 60 votes.

Bitcoin Bought Before March 2021: When a Sale in Austria Can Still Be Tax-Free

Anyone who bought Bitcoin before March 2021 may hold a considerable tax advantage in Austria. Gains on newer Bitcoin holdings are generally taxed at 27.5 percent, but older coins fall under transitional rules. The decisive date is February 28, 2021: cryptocurrencies acquired up to that day generally count as legacy holdings. The Austrian crypto tax regime in force since March 2022 does not automatically extend to those coins.

Why Old Bitcoin Can Be Sold Tax-Free in Austria

Before the crypto tax reform, privately held Bitcoin was generally treated under the rules for speculative transactions. A sale was taxable above all where no more than a year had passed between acquisition and disposal. Once that period had elapsed, the sale could generally take place tax-free.

Take an investor who bought Bitcoin in 2020 and has held it unchanged ever since. The one-year speculative period that applied at the time expired long ago. A sale in 2026 can therefore be tax-free in principle, even if the Bitcoin price has multiplied since the purchase.

Example:

Bitcoin purchase in 2020: 10,000 euros
Sale in 2026: 80,000 euros
Increase in value: 70,000 euros

If the coins genuinely still qualify as private legacy holdings and no special rules apply, that gain can remain tax-free in Austria in principle. Had the same Bitcoin been bought after February 28, 2021, the identical increase in value would generally fall under the new crypto tax regime and, as a rule, under the special tax rate of 27.5 percent.

An Intervening Swap Can End Legacy Status

The transaction history is what matters most here. The question is not whether the investor has been “invested in crypto” since 2020, but whether the precise coins being sold today still trace back to a purchase made before March 2021.

Under the old legal framework, swapping Bitcoin for another cryptocurrency also counts as a disposal. Say old Bitcoin was swapped for Ether in 2023. The disposal of the old Bitcoin can still be tax-free, because the speculative period had expired long before. The Ether acquired in that swap, however, dates from 2023 and therefore forms new holdings.

The Austrian finance ministry confirmed as much in 2025 for a comparable token swap: where the speculative period on the legacy holding has already expired, its hidden reserves are not taxed, and the cryptocurrencies received in exchange count as new holdings from that point on.

An old purchase receipt on its own is therefore not enough. Investors have to be able to trace the entire chain through to the coins they hold today.

Legacy and New Holdings in the Same Wallet

Things get complicated when a single wallet holds Bitcoin bought in 2020 alongside coins bought later. The Austrian cryptocurrency ordinance generally allows the holder to choose which units count as sold in a disposal. Where no choice is made, the unit acquired earlier is treated as sold first in case of doubt.

In practice that can make a substantial difference.

An investor holding 0.5 BTC from 2020 and a further 0.5 BTC from 2024 who then sells 0.5 BTC should document which holding is being disposed of. Otherwise the exchange and the investor may reach different conclusions on the tax treatment.

Take Care With Lending and Other Crypto Income

Legacy holdings also become more complicated where the Bitcoin has been used to generate ongoing crypto income.

An investor who used old Bitcoin for lending after February 2022 already falls under the new crypto tax regime as regards the ongoing income earned from it. The cryptocurrencies newly acquired in this way count as new holdings. The fact that the Bitcoin originally deployed is old does not automatically extend legacy status to the lending rewards.

On April 28, 2026 the Federal Finance Court also decided a relevant case on the interest-bearing investment of cryptocurrencies before the new crypto tax law took effect. The court concluded that lending at that time qualified as another service rather than as a classic transfer of capital under section 27(2) of the Austrian Income Tax Act. An official appeal has been lodged against the ruling, so the legal question is not yet finally settled.

For old Bitcoin with a lending history, a blanket claim that legacy holdings are tax-free is therefore inadvisable.

Documentation Becomes the Decisive Factor

Anyone planning to sell a larger legacy holding tax-free in 2026 should be able to show that the Bitcoin in question was acquired on February 28, 2021 at the latest and that no new acquisition has taken place for tax purposes since.

The following records matter in particular:

• purchase statements from the original exchange,
• bank transfers relating to the Bitcoin purchase at the time,
• wallet addresses and blockchain transactions,
• CSV exports from old exchange accounts,
• evidence of wallet-to-wallet transfers,
• earlier crypto-to-crypto swaps,
• documents on lending or other yield models.

Where legacy and new holdings are mixed, investors should also document which Bitcoin was allocated to the sale.

Conclusion

Anyone who bought Bitcoin on February 28, 2021 at the latest and has held it as a private legacy holding can in principle still sell those coins tax-free in Austria in 2026. The new flat-rate taxation of crypto gains at 27.5 percent does not apply automatically to such legacy holdings.

The history is what decides the matter. Swaps made in the meantime can produce newly acquired cryptocurrencies, lending rewards count as new holdings under certain conditions, and with mixed wallets it has to be established which units were actually sold.

Where values have risen sharply, the problem is therefore less today's Bitcoin price than the question of whether the legacy holding can still be documented without gaps after five years or more.

(As of August 11, 2026. This article is not investment advice. Prices and fee structures change; check the terms with the provider before you buy.)

Transparency note: This article was produced with the assistance of artificial intelligence and reviewed by our editorial team before publication. All figures and claims were checked against the primary sources linked in the text. The feature image was generated with AI.

Holding Bitcoin as a Business Owner: Private or Business Assets?

Business owners in Austria do not have to allocate Bitcoin to business assets automatically. What matters is the purpose the cryptocurrency actually serves. If it is held purely as a personal investment, it can generally remain private property. Where there is a clear link to the business activity, much points towards business assets. The classification has direct consequences for taxation, bookkeeping and the offsetting of losses.

When Do Bitcoin Count as Business Assets?

Bitcoin are likely to be business assets where a company:

• receives them as payment for goods or services,
• uses them regularly for business payments,
• holds them as part of a crypto, mining or trading operation,
• deliberately deploys them as part of a corporate treasury strategy.

If a self-employed consultant buys Bitcoin purely as a private investment, by contrast, the coins do not become business assets simply because the purchase went through the business account. The decisive factor is the actual business function. The source of the payment or the label on a wallet are only indications.

Sole Traders and Limited Companies Are Treated Differently

In a sole proprietorship the owner and the private individual are legally the same person. For tax purposes, private and business assets still have to be kept apart. The position differs for a limited company (GmbH): Bitcoin bought by the company or received as a customer payment belong to the company. The shareholder may not simply move them to a private wallet. Private use of company assets can be treated as a hidden distribution and trigger additional tax.

What Tax Applies When Business Bitcoin Are Sold?

For sole traders, gains on Bitcoin held as business assets can in principle also fall under the special tax rate of 27.5 percent. That does not apply without limits. Where crypto trading or mining forms the core of the business activity, the gains may be taxed at the ordinary progressive income tax rate. In a limited company, profits are first subject to corporation tax. If they are later distributed to the shareholder, capital gains tax can apply on top.

Moving Bitcoin to a Private Wallet Can Be Taxable

Anyone who permanently moves business Bitcoin into private assets makes a withdrawal for tax purposes. This is generally valued at the current market price.

Example:

• Business acquisition cost: 15,000 euros
• Market value at withdrawal: 40,000 euros
• Possible business gain: 25,000 euros

A pure transfer between two business wallets, on the other hand, is generally not a taxable sale. The business allocation does have to remain documented.

Contributing Private Bitcoin to a Business

Private Bitcoin can also be contributed to a business. An increase in value that has already accrued privately is not automatically wiped out for tax purposes. As a rule, the existing acquisition costs are carried forward. If the current value sits below the original acquisition cost, the lower figure can be the relevant one instead. A contribution should therefore be documented with the date, the amount of Bitcoin, the wallet address, the acquisition cost and the market value.

A Clean Split Prevents Bitcoin Tax Problems

Business owners should avoid keeping private and business holdings in the same wallet. Separate wallets, exchange accounts and transaction histories are the sensible route.

What should be documented in particular:

• date of acquisition and purchase price,
• the purpose of the acquisition,
• business deposits and withdrawals,
• wallet transfers,
• contributions and withdrawals,
• fees and sale proceeds.

Conclusion: What Decides Whether Bitcoin Are Business Assets

Whether Bitcoin belong to private or business assets is not decided by the business account alone. What counts is their actual function. Anyone who receives Bitcoin as a customer payment or uses them directly in the business will normally hold them as business assets. A personal investment can remain private property. Particular care is needed with transfers between the company and the private individual, and with Bitcoin held by a limited company. An unclear or retrospectively altered allocation can create additional tax and documentation problems.

(As of August 11, 2026. This article is not investment advice. Prices and fee structures change; check the terms with the provider before you buy.)

Transparency note: This article was produced with the assistance of artificial intelligence and reviewed by our editorial team before publication. All figures and claims were checked against the primary sources linked in the text. The feature image was generated with AI.

Selling Bitcoin at an ATM: the tax duties Austrian users need to know

Bitcoin ATMs are usually associated with a quick and simple crypto purchase. Some machines, however, work in both directions: you can send bitcoin from your wallet to the operator and receive banknotes in return. In tax terms, that transaction amounts to more than a withdrawal from your own digital assets.

Anyone who sells bitcoin for euros at a machine in Austria generally realises a taxable event. For bitcoin acquired after February 28, 2021, the gain can be taxed at 27.5 percent. The taxable figure is the difference between the sale proceeds and the tax acquisition costs of the coins sold, rather than the full cash amount handed over.

Whether the ATM operator already withholds capital gains tax depends on its tax status and on how the transaction is settled. Where no correct withholding takes place, you generally have to work out the gain yourself and report it in your Austrian income tax return. A cash payout makes a bitcoin sale neither anonymous nor tax free.

How selling Bitcoin at an ATM works

At a so called two-way machine you can buy bitcoin as well as sell it. The machine usually displays a receiving address or a QR code. You send the bitcoin you want to sell from your wallet to that address and receive cash once the required number of blockchain confirmations has been reached.

The Austrian financial market authority explicitly describes two-way machines as devices through which bitcoin can be sold from the customer wallet to the operator, with cash paid out in exchange.

In economic terms, two connected steps take place:

• You transfer bitcoin to the ATM operator.
• The operator pays you euros in cash.

For Austrian income tax purposes this is generally a sale of cryptocurrency for euros. It makes no difference whether the proceeds are transferred to a bank account or handed over immediately in banknotes.

Selling Bitcoin for cash is a taxable disposal

The Austrian Income Tax Act explicitly counts the disposal of cryptocurrencies for euros among income from realised capital gains. An exchange for recognised foreign currencies or for other goods and services can also constitute a taxable disposal.

When you sell at a bitcoin ATM, part of your bitcoin holdings leaves your assets and euros come in. That distinguishes the transaction from a simple transfer between two wallets you own yourself.

Transfer between your own wallets: generally not a sale
Transfer to a machine in exchange for cash: generally a taxable sale

The tax treatment does not change because no conventional exchange account is involved. What counts is the economic substance: bitcoin is disposed of in exchange for legal tender.

Only the gain is subject to tax

Tax is not levied on the entire amount paid out at the machine. As a rule, only the gain is taxed.

The simplified calculation is:

Sale proceeds
minus the acquisition costs of the bitcoin sold
minus any deductible transaction costs
equals the taxable gain

An example:

• bitcoin originally bought for 4,000 euros
• later sold at a machine for 7,000 euros
• taxable gain before further costs: 3,000 euros
• tax at 27.5 percent: 825 euros

The 4,000 euros originally invested are not taxed a second time. They represent the tax acquisition costs.

The Austrian finance ministry confirms that the disposal gain is calculated from the difference between the proceeds and the acquisition costs. Directly attributable incidental acquisition and transaction costs can reduce the taxable gain where the statutory conditions are met.

Which amount counts as the sale proceeds?

At a machine, the economic consideration can differ from the publicly quoted bitcoin market price. Operators frequently apply their own exchange rate and factor their margin or fee into the payout.

If you sell bitcoin with an exchange value of 1,000 euros and receive only 920 euros at the machine, the amount actually obtained is generally decisive for the gain calculation. Whether the difference is treated as a separately deductible fee or as part of the agreed sale price depends on how the operator settles the transaction.

The receipt should therefore show:

• how much bitcoin was sold,
• which euro rate was applied,
• which gross value formed the basis,
• which fee or margin was charged,
• which amount was actually paid out.

Without a detailed statement it may later be unclear which part of the difference stemmed from the exchange rate and which from a separate transaction fee.

Which Bitcoin purchase price applies?

If you bought bitcoin in several tranches at different prices, you cannot simply pick the purchase price of any transaction you like.

For units of the same cryptocurrency acquired one after another and held at the same crypto address or wallet, Austria generally requires the moving average price in euros. This valuation method applies to income from realised capital gains received after December 31, 2022.

An example:

• purchase of 0.05 BTC for 1,000 euros
• later purchase of 0.05 BTC for 2,000 euros
• total holding: 0.1 BTC
• total acquisition costs: 3,000 euros
• average acquisition costs: 30,000 euros per BTC

If you then sell 0.02 BTC at a machine, the calculated acquisition costs of that portion generally come to 600 euros. With several wallets, exchange accounts and a mix of legacy and new holdings, the calculation can become considerably more complex. The machine does not know that history automatically.

When does the 27.5 percent rate apply?

The current Austrian crypto tax regime generally applies to bitcoin acquired after February 28, 2021. Such coins are treated as new holdings.

Gains from selling them within private assets are generally subject to the special tax rate of 27.5 percent. The holding period does not change that. A bitcoin held for three, five or ten years does not become tax free on account of that holding period alone.

The special rate normally does not push up the progressive tax rate applied to your remaining income. It applies whether the tax is withheld directly as capital gains tax or assessed later through the income tax return.

A different treatment can apply above all where crypto trading goes beyond private asset management and qualifies as a commercial activity.

What applies to legacy Bitcoin holdings?

Bitcoin acquired on or before February 28, 2021 generally counts as a legacy holding. The new tax regime does not automatically apply to it. The earlier legal position has to be examined instead.

For bitcoin held privately and not invested in an interest bearing way, a sale could be tax free under the old rules, in particular where more than one year lay between acquisition and disposal.

An example:

• bitcoin bought privately in 2019
• no interest bearing investment
• sale at a machine in 2026

In a typical case the former one year speculation period may have expired long ago. The sale could therefore remain tax free. The precise assessment depends on how the coins were used at the time.

Particular care is needed where legacy holdings were later:

• lent out,
• used in lending products,
• invested in an interest bearing way,
• swapped for other tokens,

part of a business activity.

You also have to be able to prove that the coins sold really were those old bitcoin. Merely asserting that a holding is legacy stock is regularly not enough where the transaction history is missing.

Does the machine withhold capital gains tax automatically?

Since 2024, certain domestic debtors and crypto service providers have generally been obliged to withhold capital gains tax on relevant crypto income and pay it to the tax office. After a correct withholding, the income concerned is regularly final taxed within private assets.

At a bitcoin ATM you should nevertheless not assume that the tax has already been settled. Among the decisive points are:

• who operates the machine,
• whether the operator qualifies as a domestic withholding agent,
• whether the statutory conditions for the withholding are met,
• whether the operator holds the correct acquisition costs,

whether the receipt actually shows a tax deduction.

A machine receipt showing a general service fee is no evidence of capital gains tax paid. Withheld tax would have to be clearly identifiable as a tax deduction.

Where no capital gains tax was withheld, the tax liability does not disappear. You generally have to calculate the gain yourself and enter it in your income tax return. The finance ministry makes clear that capital income without a possible domestic tax deduction has to be declared in the assessment. The special tax rate can still apply.

Missing acquisition costs are the biggest practical risk

The operator essentially sees how much bitcoin you send and which euro amount you receive for it. It does not necessarily know:

• when the coins were originally bought,
• how high the purchase price was,
• whether they come from an earlier crypto to crypto swap,
• whether they are legacy or new holdings,
• whether the wallet contains several acquisition tranches,
• whether the coins were inherited or received as a gift,

whether a relocation value is decisive.

Without acquisition costs the gain cannot be determined correctly.

You should therefore not wait until the sale to reconstruct your history. Closed exchange accounts, missing CSV files and bank statements that are no longer available can cause serious problems years later.

The records to secure include:

• purchase statements from the original exchange,
• account statements showing payment of the purchase price,
• complete transaction histories,
• wallet addresses and transaction IDs,
• evidence of transfers between your own wallets,
• information on earlier crypto to crypto swaps,
• documents relating to inheritances or gifts,

documentation of your tax relocation to Austria.

Which fees apply when you sell at a Bitcoin ATM?

Several costs can arise on a sale:

• the machine fee charged by the operator,
• the margin built into the exchange rate,
• the bitcoin network fee,
• an additional processing or payout fee.

These fees should be looked at separately.

A machine or transaction fee directly connected with the sale can generally reduce the taxable disposal gain, provided you actually bear it and can document it in a comprehensible way. The finance ministry generally recognises directly attributable transaction fees when the gain is determined.

The bitcoin network fee can carry a tax component of its own. Where it is paid in bitcoin, coins are used that leave the investor assets. The Austrian income tax guidelines generally treat fees paid in cryptocurrency for a transfer to another address as an exchange for a transaction service.

A machine sale can therefore bring two realisations together:

• the sale of the bitcoin transferred to the operator for euros
• the use of further bitcoin to pay the network fee

In practice the second amount is often small, yet it belongs in a complete tax calculation.

A simplified worked example

An Austrian investor sells 0.02 BTC at a machine.

• average acquisition costs: 20,000 euros per BTC
• acquisition costs of the 0.02 BTC: 400 euros
• market value at the general exchange rate: 1,200 euros
• actual cash payout: 1,100 euros
• separately stated machine fee: already reflected in the payout
• additional network fee: 0.00005 BTC

For the sale itself the simplified result is:

Cash proceeds: 1,100 euros
Acquisition costs: 400 euros
Gain: 700 euros
Tax at 27.5 percent: 192.50 euros

You then also have to check whether the bitcoin used for the network fee produced a further small gain.

The example shows why the publicly quoted bitcoin price cannot simply be equated with the sale proceeds for tax purposes. What counts is the actual payout and the specific fee structure.

A cash payout does not mean anonymity

Some users associate bitcoin machines with a sale outside conventional financial accounts. For tax purposes the form of payment is irrelevant. Proceeds received in cash also belong in the tax calculation.

Operators of crypto services can also be subject to anti money laundering duties. These can include establishing the identity of the customer and making flows of funds traceable. The FMA points out that participants in the financial market have to collect customer data and make transactions traceable in order to prevent money laundering.

Depending on the operator, the amount and the risk classification, the machine may ask for:

• a mobile phone number,
• proof of identity,
• a scan of an identity document,
• facial recognition or video identification,
• further information on the source of funds.

Independently of that, the bitcoin transaction remains visible on the blockchain. Choosing a cash payout in order to hide a taxable disposal does nothing to remove the statutory duty to declare it.

Does the sale belong in your tax return?

Where Austrian capital gains tax was withheld correctly, a private disposal gain is generally final taxed and regularly does not have to be included in the income tax return again. A voluntary assessment can still make sense, for example for an overall loss offset or for the option to be taxed at the standard rate.

Where no capital gains tax was withheld, a taxable gain generally has to be declared in the income tax assessment.

• That can apply in particular where:
• the machine operator is not an Austrian withholding agent,
• the receipt shows no capital gains tax,
• the acquisition costs were unknown to the operator,
• the tax calculation of the operator does not match the actual result,
• you sell through a foreign operator.

An ordinary employee assessment is not sufficient in every case. Capital income you have to declare yourself can require a full income tax return.

Losses from a Bitcoin ATM sale

Where the payout falls below the tax acquisition costs, the sale can produce a loss.

An example:

• acquisition costs of the bitcoin sold: 1,500 euros
• cash payout after fees: 1,100 euros
• tax loss: 400 euros

Losses from cryptocurrencies can generally only be offset against certain positive income from private capital assets, and only under the statutory rules. Offsetting them against a salary or against any other income is not possible.

An automatic loss offset across several providers, or between cryptocurrencies and other types of capital assets, does not take place in every case. Any offset beyond that can require an income tax return and the corresponding evidence.

Keep the machine receipt permanently

Users should not treat the printout from the machine like an ordinary till receipt that is thrown away after a few days.

The receipt should be stored together with the following data:

• the date and exact time of the sale,
• the location and operator of the machine,
• the transaction ID on the bitcoin blockchain,
• the amount of bitcoin sent,
• the network fee,
• the exchange rate applied,
• the cash amount paid out,
• machine and service fees,
• any capital gains tax shown,
• the acquisition costs of the bitcoin sold,
• the calculation of the tax gain or loss.

Thermal paper can fade over time. A digital copy of the receipt is therefore advisable, together with an export of the wallet transaction and the underlying acquisition history.

VAT is not the main problem for a private user

Under the case law of the European Court of Justice, the exchange of bitcoin into legal tender and back is generally exempt from VAT. The Austrian finance ministry adopts that classification for the exchange of euros into bitcoin and back.

For a private seller the focus is therefore regularly on income tax on the realised price gain rather than on VAT.

The situation can look different where bitcoin is held as business assets or where sales are carried out in the course of a commercial activity. Additional accounting, record keeping and corporate questions then have to be examined alongside income tax.

Conclusion: a cash sale is an ordinary Bitcoin sale for tax purposes

Anyone who sells bitcoin for cash at an Austrian machine generally realises a sale for euros. For new bitcoin holdings, the difference between the payout and the acquisition costs is regularly taxed at 27.5 percent.

The key points are:

• The cash payout is a sale for euros in tax terms.
• The gain is taxed, not the entire amount paid out.
• Bitcoin acquired after February 28, 2021 is generally taxed at 27.5 percent.
• Legacy holdings can be sold tax free under the earlier rules.
• A machine operator does not necessarily withhold the correct capital gains tax.
• Without a withholding, you generally have to declare the gain yourself.
• Machine, trading and network fees have to be documented separately.
• The receipt alone does not replace evidence of the original acquisition costs.

The greatest tax risk therefore does not necessarily lie in the size of the sale. An incomplete history is the real problem. If you can prove neither the purchase price nor the acquisition date, you risk an incorrect gain calculation and difficulties in a later audit.

(As of August 10, 2026. This article is not investment advice. Prices and fee structures change; check the terms with the provider before you buy.)

Transparency note: This article was produced with the assistance of artificial intelligence and reviewed by our editorial team before publication. All figures and claims were checked against the primary sources linked in the text. The feature image was generated with AI.

Futures, perpetuals and options spanning crypto, commodities, equities and FX, limited to clients who qualify as professional investors.

The APPG has asked banks to explain their crypto policies, warning that access could be one of the single biggest barriers to growth.

Ethereum’s updated roadmap puts quantum resistance, privacy and AI-assisted formal verification at the center of the network’s technical ambitions.

AUSTRAC has suspended the registration of the operator running 96 of Australia's roughly 1,800 crypto ATMs, effective August 9.

A security firm says Atlassian's AI assistant will quietly ship your Jira tickets and Confluence docs to an attacker, using instructions buried in a file you'd swear was empty.

On-chain data clears the XRP Ledger as a fatal logic flaw forces the TX bridge to validate fake deposits and authorize its own 200,000 XRP drain.

BNB's upcoming update implementation on the mainnet will change a lot of things.

Ripple veteran and XRP Ledger architect David Schwartz has criticized Bitcoin Knots over its response to the failed BIP-110 fork attempt.

Riot Platforms has secured a massive long-term deal with artificial intelligence company Anthropic.

Different assets on the market show uneven performance, which is not the best scenario for a longer-term recovery.

TLDR

• Terafab Texas is a $16.8 billion chip factory being built by SpaceX and Tesla in Grimes County, Texas.
• The site covers about 100 million square feet, more than five times the size of the world’s current largest building.
• The first phase of the project is expected to create 3,000 jobs.
• The factory will combine chip logic, memory, and advanced packaging in one location.
• SpaceX has filed for local tax breaks, and Texas Governor Greg Abbott has confirmed state support for the project.

Elon Musk has announced a new chip factory in Texas called Terafab. The project is being built by SpaceX and Tesla.

The factory is expected to cost $16.8 billion. Construction is already underway in Grimes County, Texas.

Terafab will cover about 100 million square feet. That makes it more than five times larger than the world’s current largest building.

The plant will combine several stages of chip production in one place. Logic, memory, and advanced packaging will all happen under one roof.

This setup is different from most chip factories. Many companies split fabrication, packaging, and testing across separate plants in different locations.

A Record-Breaking Building

The New Century Global Center in Chengdu currently holds the record for the largest building on Earth. It measures around 18.9 million square feet.

Terafab Texas is planned to be far bigger than that. Musk said the building would be the largest and most valuable on the planet.

He also described the building as visually striking. Musk has made similar claims about other projects in the past.

The first phase of Terafab is expected to create 3,000 jobs. More jobs could follow as later phases of the project move forward.

Musk said the goal is to produce AI chips at scale. He said the chips would be used both on Earth and in space.

Public Money and Political Support

SpaceX has filed eight tax incentive applications with local school districts. The company is asking to freeze certain property taxes near 48 percent of appraised value for ten years per phase.

SpaceX also wants the state of Texas to cover the difference through the Texas JETI program. In a filing, the company said the project’s return would fall below its minimum threshold without the tax break.

The filing named Arizona as a competing location. It said the project could move there if Texas does not offer a similar deal.

Texas Governor Greg Abbott confirmed the scale of the investment. He said the first phase represents a capital investment of more than $16.8 billion and will create 3,000 new jobs.

Abbott added that Texas is a place where big ideas grow bigger. Neither SpaceX nor the governor’s office has answered requests for further comment.

No construction start date has been confirmed yet. Terafab Texas remains one of the largest single building projects announced anywhere in the world this year.

The post SpaceX and Tesla Break Ground on Terafab Chip Factory in Grimes County appeared first on Blockonomi.

Key Takeaways

• Intel expanded its equity offering from $15 billion to a massive $20 billion
• Shares priced at $95 each, representing a 6.5% markdown from Friday’s market close
• The deal involves issuing 210.5 million shares, plus a greenshoe option for 31.6 million additional shares
• Expected net proceeds of approximately $19.7 billion designated for general corporate use
• INTC shares dropped 4% on Monday and continued declining roughly 1% in premarket trading Tuesday

Intel has announced a substantial $20 billion equity raise, expanding the size from its initial $15 billion target. The semiconductor giant set the offering price at $95 per share, marking a 6.5% discount compared to Friday’s closing market price.

The offering encompasses 210.5 million common stock shares. Additionally, underwriting institutions received a standard 30-day greenshoe option allowing them to acquire up to 31.6 million supplementary shares.

After accounting for underwriting fees and expenses, Intel anticipates receiving approximately $19.7 billion in net proceeds. The company has stated these funds will support general corporate objectives.

Shares of INTC declined 4.1% on Monday, settling at $97.52 when the offering details became public. In Tuesday’s premarket session, the stock continued its downward trajectory, losing about 1%.

Intel Corp., INTC

Despite Monday’s pullback, the stock has delivered impressive returns in 2025, surging over 160% through Monday’s close. This remarkable rally made an equity-based capital raise anticipated among Wall Street analysts.

Among semiconductor companies, Intel currently ranks as one of the most capital-intensive. The corporation has been consuming significant cash reserves while aggressively expanding its manufacturing infrastructure.

Capital Spending Escalates

During its latest quarterly earnings presentation, company leadership increased its 2026 capital expenditure forecast to exceed $20 billion, up from an earlier projection of approximately $18 billion. This increase mirrors rising customer demand for Intel’s product portfolio.

Free cash flow projections point to modest negativity for the current year. Spanning the period from 2022 through 2025, Intel consumed a combined $44 billion in free cash flow.

The foundry division remains unprofitable on a quarterly basis. Intel is banking on its advanced 18A and forthcoming 14A manufacturing nodes to attract third-party clients and gradually narrow these losses.

Transformation Efforts Continue

The stock’s impressive 2025 performance stems from increasing investor confidence in Intel’s comprehensive transformation strategy. The semiconductor manufacturer is striving to regain its former dominance in chip fabrication after losing market share to competitors.

Bloomberg initially broke the story before Intel officially confirmed the expanded offering late Monday evening. The original plan targeted a $15 billion raise.

INTC appeared on Barron’s list of recommended stocks for 2026. While year-to-date performance remains strong, shares have retreated approximately 19% during the past three-month period.

With Monday’s closing price of $97.52, Intel’s market capitalization stands at roughly $492 billion.

The post Intel (INTC) Shares Slide 4% Following Surprise $20B Stock Offering appeared first on Blockonomi.

TLDR

• Pump.fun earned $10.03 million in fees during the week of Aug. 3 to 9, up 12% from the prior week.
• Pump.fun’s revenue over the last 30 days reached $35.67 million, passing Hyperliquid’s $32.46 million.
• The platform used $5.02 million to buy back and burn 2.15 billion PUMP tokens.
• Weekly trading volume hit $2.97 billion, the strongest total since late January.
• PUMP rose 33.8% over the week, but a new token unlock is set for Wednesday.

Pump.fun brought in $10.03 million in protocol fees during the week of Aug. 3 to 9. This is the first time the platform’s weekly total has crossed $10 million under its current reporting method.

The figure marks a 12% increase from the previous week. Pump.fun called it the platform’s “first week above $10M” in its latest newsletter.

Independent data from DefiLlama backs up the trend, though its measurement window is not exactly the same. DefiLlama recorded $10.49 million in Pump protocol revenue over its own seven day period.

Revenue Passes Hyperliquid

Pump.fun also said it had overtaken Hyperliquid in revenue over a 30 day period. DefiLlama’s numbers support this claim.

Pump.fun generated $35.67 million in revenue over the last 30 days. Hyperliquid generated $32.46 million in the same stretch.

The comparison is not exact, since the two platforms are measured differently. Pump.fun’s number includes bonding curve fees, PumpSwap fees and Terminal fees. Hyperliquid’s revenue mostly reflects fees sent to its Assistance Fund for HYPE purchases.

Pump.fun’s total gross fees were much higher, at $88.87 million over 30 days. That larger figure includes fees spread across the wider ecosystem, not just the platform’s own revenue.

Trading activity also picked up. Pump.fun reported $2.97 billion in ecosystem volume for the week, its highest since late January. Bonding curve trading made up $751.6 million of that, while PumpSwap handled $2.22 billion.

Buybacks Continue To Reduce Supply

Pump.fun spent $5.02 million buying back and burning about 2.15 billion PUMP tokens during the week. This is part of a policy that sends half of platform revenue toward token buybacks through a locked smart contract.

The platform says its total buybacks and burns have now removed 15.7% of PUMP’s original supply.

DefiLlama’s own tracking shows a close but not identical number. It recorded $5.16 million flowing to PUMP holders through burns over its seven day window.

PUMP was trading near $0.0028 on Aug. 11. The token gained 33.8% over the past week and 104.1% over the past month, putting its market cap around $1.1 billion.

Despite the gains, PUMP remains about 68% below the record high it set in September 2025. The rally happened alongside the fee increase, but the report does not show one causing the other.

A new token unlock is scheduled for Aug. 12. DefiLlama’s data shows 4.167 billion PUMP for the team and 2.708 billion for investors becoming unlocked that day.

The combined 6.875 billion tokens were worth about $19.2 million at recent prices. That represents about 1.75% of the token’s circulating supply.

Pump.fun has also been expanding its social trading features. It launched token callouts, zero fee trading and cross chain trades funded with USDC on Aug. 7.

The newsletter said callouts rose 44% during the week, while replies increased 87%.

The platform still faces a separate legal matter in the U.S. The case, Aguilar v. Baton Corporation Ltd., is filed in the Southern District of New York, with its last known filing dated April 13, 2026.

Plaintiffs allege securities violations tied to tokens sold on the platform. These remain allegations and have not been proven in court.

The next test for Pump.fun’s revenue streak arrives with Wednesday’s token unlock, which will show whether trading activity holds up under new supply pressure.

The post Pump.fun Weekly Fees Surpass $10 Million For First Time appeared first on Blockonomi.

Key Highlights

• Shares of ONON plummeted over 13% during premarket hours following disappointing Q2 sales figures
• Second-quarter sales totaled CHF 850.3 million, falling short of the CHF 881.4 million analyst forecast
• Earnings per share of CHF 0.31 exceeded the CHF 0.29 projection
• Direct-to-consumer sales surged 34.3% on a constant currency basis across all geographic markets
• Annual revenue forecast of CHF 3.47–3.56 billion aligned with or marginally trailed consensus projections

Shares of On Holding plummeted over 13% during Monday’s premarket session after the Swiss athletic footwear and apparel maker reported second-quarter sales figures that failed to meet analyst projections.

On Holding AG, ONON

Second-quarter sales climbed 21.6% on a constant currency basis to CHF 850.3 million, falling below the Wall Street consensus forecast of CHF 881.4 million.

On the profit front, earnings per share registered CHF 0.31, surpassing the CHF 0.29 projection. The results presented investors with contrasting signals.

While the revenue figure disappointed, profit margins remained robust. Gross margin expanded to 65.4%, marking a 3.9 percentage point improvement versus the prior year. Management highlighted that this performance was delivered while completely absorbing elevated U.S. tariff costs, without any tariff reimbursements factored in.

Adjusted EBITDA totaled CHF 168.1 million, with the corresponding margin expanding to 19.8% from 18.2% in the year-ago period.

Direct Sales and Clothing Categories Fuel Expansion

The direct-to-consumer segment emerged as a standout performer. DTC sales jumped 34.3% on a constant currency basis and exceeded projections in all regional markets.

Apparel revenue skyrocketed 56.2% on a constant currency basis, maintaining its momentum as the faster-growing category compared to footwear.

The Asia-Pacific region now accounts for more than 20% of worldwide sales, with particularly strong performance in Japan, South Korea and Greater China.

On reported that shoppers aged 34 and younger now represent over one-third of its total customer base. The Cloudtilt product line has been instrumental in attracting this younger demographic.

Co-CEO and company founder David Allemann emphasized that the quarterly performance demonstrates the brand’s ability to expand while maintaining its premium market position.

“This financial strength allows us to reinvest in what drives our long-term success: authentic brand connections, premium customer experiences, and, above all, continuous performance innovation,” Allemann said.

Annual Guidance and Projections

Looking ahead to the full fiscal year, On anticipates sales growth in the low-20% range when measured on a constant currency basis.

Based on current exchange rates, this guidance points to annual revenue between CHF 3.47 billion and CHF 3.56 billion. The upper bound of this range aligns with the CHF 3.56 billion analyst consensus.

Management expects the direct-to-consumer channel to deliver stronger growth than the wholesale segment during the second half of the year.

The company projected full-year gross margin of at least 65.0% and adjusted EBITDA margin between 19.5% and 20.0%.

The sharp premarket decline exceeding 13% occurred despite the earnings beat and impressive margin expansion, with the revenue shortfall appearing to trigger the selloff among investors.

The post On Holding (ONON) Stock Plunges 13% as Q2 Sales Fall Short of Forecasts appeared first on Blockonomi.

TLDR

• Trump Media posted a $238.1 million net loss for the second quarter
• Bitcoin holdings rose to about 14,139 coins by the end of July
• The company sold $159.6 million in Bitcoin related securities to buy Bitcoin directly
• Trump Media ended its planned Cronos treasury venture with Crypto.com
• Revenue grew 89% to $1.67 million during the quarter

Trump Media reported a $238.1 million net loss for the second quarter on Aug. 10. Falling values of digital assets and securities weighed on the results.

The loss came mostly from unrealized losses on investments. Combined unrealized losses across digital assets, pledged assets, and equity securities totaled $190.4 million.

Trump Media also recorded $116.7 million in realized and unrealized losses tied directly to digital assets. Investment losses on securities added to that total.

Despite the loss, revenue increased during the quarter. Revenue rose 89% to $1.67 million, up from $883,300 a year earlier.

The gain came from advertising deals, subscriptions to the Truth+ Patriot Package, and management fees from Truth.Fi funds. Lower advertising revenue at Truth Social partly offset the increase.

Bitcoin Holdings Jump After Quarter End

Trump Media held 9,477.16 BTC at the end of June. That holding carried a fair value of about $557.1 million against a cost basis near $1.01 billion.

The company also held about 756.1 million CRO tokens valued at $40.6 million. That token is tied to the Cronos network and Crypto.com.

The Bitcoin balance changed fast after the quarter ended. Trump Media sold $159.6 million worth of equity securities linked to Bitcoin products in July.

The company used that money to buy Bitcoin directly. By July 31, Trump Media held about 14,139 BTC, worth around $890.5 million.

Some of that Bitcoin is not fully free to trade. The company has pledged 4,260.73 BTC to back convertible notes, with restrictions lasting until May 29, 2028.

Another 2,077.34 BTC is pledged to support an options strategy. Trump Media also said it has placed some Bitcoin with third parties through lending and other yield deals.

The company warned that these arrangements carry risks. Those risks include counterparty credit issues, insolvency, and custody problems, and the assets do not carry government insurance protection.

Cronos Deal Ends, Merger Moves Forward

Trump Media ended its planned Cronos treasury deal on Aug. 7. The plan had involved a large treasury vehicle built with Crypto.com and Yorkville.

The company’s existing CRO holdings remain separate from that canceled deal. Trump Media becomes eligible on Aug. 26 to sell up to 68,442,704 CRO tokens over the following six months.

Trump Media is also working on a merger with fusion company TAE Technologies. The company is targeting the fourth quarter of 2026 for the deal to close.

The timeline depends on regulatory approval and other closing conditions. Trump Media plans to file a Form S-4 covering the transaction.

The company is trying to grow revenue outside its investment holdings too. Its Truth API service launched on Aug. 1 and has already signed more than 10 customer agreements.

Trump Media said the service is already generating revenue. That income arrived after the quarter ended, so it was not part of the Q2 results reported this week.

The post Trump Media Reports $238 Million Loss as Bitcoin Holdings Grow appeared first on Blockonomi.

XRP is under a lot of selling pressure at the moment, even though BTC has remained relatively stable at around $64,000. The cross-border altcoin is inches away from dipping below $1.00 for the first time in nearly two years, and we will take a look at what analysts expect from it next.

At the same time, the spot XRP ETFs had a green week, but with a major elephant in the room, while the XRP Ledger issued a worrisome scam update.

XRPL Growth and Scam Alert

The official X account of the XRP Ledger reposted Token Relations’ chart showing how Ripple’s network has grown since the start of the year in terms of tokenized real-world assets. More precisely, the total value of RWAs on XRPL has skyrocketed by nearly 400% to $4.4 billion.

Interestingly, a large portion of that came from a tokenized electricity asset from Argentina’s Justoken called JMWH. It launched on XRPL in mid-January, and its market share on the network has grown to 51%.

Separately, the account issued a warning to the entire XRP community last week about new phishing attempts and fake giveaway posts. The team emphasized that there are no “XRP airdrops or rewards given out by us, Ripple, or wallets in the community.”

They urged investors and followers to refrain from sharing their XRP wallet keys, as when something sounds too good to be true, it usually is.

Regulatory Progress Reminder

Ripple has been making significant progress on the regulatory scene in major jurisdictions. One of the latest achievements came in early July when the company secured a full MiCA license. In a new video on X, the company outlined the significance of each such move as, “Regulatory clarity is the foundation of institutional trust.”

The firm’s UK and Europe Policy Director, Matt Osborne, explained the benefits for Ripple and its clients:

“Regulated banks, fintechs, and corporates can access our complete payments infrastructure across all 30 EEA countries. MiCA is enabling a new era of regulated finance, and Ripple is built for it.”

XRP ETFs: The Latest

CryptoPotato reported during the weekend last week’s performance of the exchange-traded funds tracking the cross-border altcoin. The week ended in the green, making it the fourth consecutive week in this positive streak, but there was a major issue. The actual net inflows were extremely slim, especially compared to the week that the BTC and ETH funds had.

The spot XRP ETFs attracted a modest $1 million, while two of the five trading days saw no reportable action, according to SoSoValue. This worrisome trend continued yesterday, with inflows remaining flat at $0.00.

XRP Price Struggles

The lack of institutional support through the ETFs and the overall bearish sentiment across the entire crypto market have harmed Ripple’s native token. It failed at $1.10 a few weeks ago and continued to dig new local lows. The CLARITY Act setback didn’t help either, as XRP slipped to $1.02 after the bill was delayed once again.

It tried to rebound over the weekend, but it was halted in its tracks. The past 12 hours or so have been quite painful as well, as XRP slipped to $1.002 for the first time since November 2024. Although it remains inches above that key psychological level, many analysts still believe in its upcoming resurrection, posting impressive targets of up to $50 if XRP rebounds from the $1.00 support.

The post Important Ripple News and XRP Price Update: August 11 appeared first on CryptoPotato.

Bitcoin’s price adventure above $65,000 came to a halt yesterday evening as the asset was rejected and driven south by approximately $1,500 to under $64,000.

Several larger-cap altcoins have followed suit, including ETH, which has dropped below $1,900, and XRP, which is just inches away from slipping below $1.00 for the first time since November 2024.

BTC Halted at $65K

The primary cryptocurrency slumped at the beginning of the previous week as well, going from $63,800 to a monthly low of $62,200 within hours before it finally found some support. It erased the losses immediately and even jumped past $64,000 a day later. Its gradual ascent continued for a few days to $65,000 before the CLARITY Act’s latest setback in the US Senate sent it south toward $64,000.

However, that support held, and the weaker US jobs data on Friday resulted in another leg up to $65,400. BTC failed to overcome that level, though, and calmed at around $65,000 for the weekend. It didn’t really make a move for the next 48 hours before it tried a minor breakout on Monday, which was stopped at $65,400 once again.

This time, though, the bears were more persistent and drove the cryptocurrency south to $63,800 as Peter Schiff used the opportunity to urge investors to sell. BTC didn’t dip any further and now sits at around $64,000 once again.

Its market cap has dropped below $1.290 trillion, while its dominance over the alts sits above 57% on CG.

XRP, PI, ADA Drop

Ethereum is down by 2.5% in the past day and now struggles below $1,900. Ripple’s native token is among the poorest performers lately, and it has dipped to a 21-month low at inches above $1.00. It’s now agonizingly close to breaking below that coveted level. ZEC has dumped by almost 5% to under $490, while ADA is below $0.19 after a 4% decline.

In contrast, BNB, TRX, HYPE, DOGE, RAIN, XMR, and LINK have marked some gains within the same timeframe. MNT is up by over 6%, while WLF has gained more than 4%.

Pi Network’s native token has dropped below the $0.09 support after another near-5% daily crash.

The cumulative market cap of all crypto assets has erased around $40 billion since yesterday and is down to $2.250 trillion on CG.

The post XRP Dumps to 21-Month Low as BTC Price Falls to $64K: Market Watch appeared first on CryptoPotato.

Pi Network’s native token experienced a substantial resurgence over the past several days, but its run has been halted, and it has now dropped below the key support at $0.09.

Meanwhile, the project’s vast community expects updates on the next protocol upgrade, which is supposed to be the second-to-last one.

PI Tanks Again

After a painful July in which it marked consecutive all-time lows, including the last one at $0.07 in the middle of the month, PI entered the new month with more hopes for a rebound. Although it was stopped at $0.088 at first and slipped toward $0.08, that support managed to hold, and the asset went on an impressive run.

By August 6, it had climbed above $0.09 and even surged past $0.096. As the community was hopeful for another leg up toward the major $0.10 level, the token was rejected and dipped below $0.09 once again last Friday. Nevertheless, the bulls reemerged during the weekend and helped reclaim that line. PI peaked at $0.094 on Sunday morning.

As it typically happens when it stages a notable rally, though, the bears are usually close by, ready to halt its move north. The same occurrence took place in the past several hours, as PI was stopped at $0.092 and pushed below the key $0.09 support. It dropped to $0.084 minutes ago, where the buyers stepped up and helped it recover to the current $0.086.

Its market cap has dropped below $950 million, making it the 67th-largest cryptocurrency by that metric on CoinGecko.

Big Deadline Arrives

Aside from PI’s price moves, Pioneers’ attention today is also turned to the second-to-last protocol upgrades (version 26), which, as reported last week, are supposed to be completed by August 11. The Core Team later reminded Mainnet Nodes that they need to upgrade to the new version by today or risk being disconnected from the network.

The team has previously outlined the significance of version 26, the last step before the final upgrade to version 27. They have already completed eight successful migrations since the start of the year.

It’s worth noting, though, that some of those upgrades came without an official announcement from Pi Network. As such, version 26 could also be deployed without a big statement, but there’s no chatter about it on social media as of press time.

The post Pi Network’s PI Crashes Below Key Support as Pioneers Await Major Update Today appeared first on CryptoPotato.

Another push above $65,000 failed to hold on Tuesday, sending Bitcoin back below $64,000. The crypto asset was down more than 1.6% over the past day.

Against this backdrop, large BTC wallets are back at levels not seen in months. Meanwhile, smaller holders are steadily losing ground.

Elite Wallets Are Moving Up

Bitcoin’s elite wallet count has returned to a six-month high. There are now 90 wallets holding at least 10,000 BTC. According to the latest data shared by Santiment, the number has risen by 6 wallets over the past 8 weeks, a 7% increase. At the same time, holdings among micro wallets have been falling in August. The analytics firm attributed this decline to retail FUD following the Coldcard hacks and delays surrounding the CLARITY Act.

Santiment explained that the supply is moving toward stronger hands ahead of the next major market fluctuation. This shift usually raises the likelihood that the next major fluctuation will be bullish.

Bitcoin’s next move could now depend on whether it can clear $65,400. Doctor Profit recently said that the level remains important after several failed attempts to break above it. A move past it alone would not confirm a breakout; the analyst is looking for several weekly closes above the level instead.

If the crypto asset manages that, the next major resistance areas sit around $77,000 to $78,000 and $83,000.

A rejection, however, could put $61,500 back in focus, followed by $54,000. The analyst also flagged a change in market sentiment, as stablecoin holders are now showing more fear of missing out as BTC pushes higher.

Institutional Demand Takes a Hit

Institutional interest cooled on Monday as US spot Bitcoin ETFs recorded $144.67 million in net outflows. It was the first negative session for the funds in August, which ended a five-day winning streak.

BlackRock’s IBIT was the biggest loser, shedding $53.5 million. Grayscale’s GBTC followed with more than $52 million, while Fidelity’s ETF lost over $40 million.

Meanwhile, the world’s largest corporate Bitcoin holder continued to sell part of its holdings. The company offloaded another 1,690 BTC for $108.6 million and used the money to buy back 1.15 million STRC preferred shares. It also sold 6.59 million MSTR shares and raised a little over $653 million. That pushed its USD reserve above $4.6 billion.

Its holdings have now fallen to 840,447 BTC, which were acquired for $63.36 billion at an average price of $75,385.

The post Only 90 Bitcoin Wallets Hold 10K+ BTC: And That Number Just Hit a 6-Month High appeared first on CryptoPotato.

[PRESS RELEASE – London, UK, August 10th, 2026]

CT3 has announced the start of comprehensive preparations for the future listing of the CT3GB token. The company has begun scaling its data storage infrastructure, building financial and infrastructure reserves, and preparing its own tokenized economy, in which CT3GB will become the platform’s primary settlement asset. At the same time, the transition to a new data storage architecture based on specialized smart contracts is underway, while an independent audit of the entire core smart contract infrastructure will be conducted ahead of the listing.

Over the past several months, CT3 has significantly expanded the capabilities of its platform. One of the most important milestones was the implementation of automatic backup technology, following which demand for data storage services increased substantially. The growth in data volumes confirmed the platform’s readiness to support continuous data storage scenarios and became a signal to move on to the next stage of ecosystem development.

The company notes that further scaling cannot be considered separately from the platform’s economy. For this reason, preparations for the CT3GB listing began before the token enters the open market.

Transition to an In-House Settlement System

Today, most internal CT3 operations are carried out using the Polygon infrastructure. Following the launch of CT3GB, the company plans to transition all major financial processes within the platform to its own token.

CT3GB will be used to pay for data storage services, settle payments with infrastructure owners, distribute rewards, facilitate internal settlements between network participants, and carry out other operations required for the functioning of the CT3 Cloud ecosystem.

Thus, the token will become not merely an additional means of payment, but a fundamental element of the platform’s economy, facilitating the flow of value between users, storage infrastructure, and CT3 services.

Preparing the Economy Before the Listing

According to CT3, the sustainability of a tokenized economy is determined not by the moment of listing itself, but by the degree to which the infrastructure is prepared to operate after the listing.

That is why the company has already begun expanding its data storage network, increasing available computing capacity, and building reserves that will enable the platform to continue scaling without compromising performance.

Part of this strategy is being implemented through the Storage Contracts program. The company views it not as a separate stage of product development, but as one of the tools for building financial and infrastructure reserves. This approach makes it possible to gradually increase the network’s capacity while maintaining a high level of commercial utilization and, at the same time, creating the resource buffer required for the continued growth of the ecosystem after the listing.

A New Network Architecture

In parallel, CT3 continues to modernize its technology platform.

One of the key areas of development is the segmentation of the storage infrastructure into separate specialized smart contracts. Instead of relying on a single architecture, different products within the ecosystem are gradually being assigned their own contracts with independent capacity limits and resource accounting.

According to the company, this model will enable more efficient platform scaling, improve transparency in infrastructure utilization, and provide greater flexibility for developing new services without affecting products that are already operational.

Independent Audit Before the CT3GB Launch

Another mandatory stage of the preparation process will be an independent audit of the smart contracts.

Before CT3GB enters the public market, the company plans to complete a comprehensive review of the smart contract infrastructure that will support the token and the platform’s key services. The audit will focus on verifying the security of the contracts, the correctness of their business logic, and compliance with industry standards.

CT3 notes that the audit is considered an essential part of preparing for the public launch of the project’s economy and one of the factors that can help strengthen trust among users, partners, and cryptocurrency exchanges.

The Next Stage of CT3’s Development

The preparation for the CT3GB listing is part of CT3’s long-term development strategy aimed at creating a fully autonomous data storage infrastructure with its own economic model.

Once the preparations are complete, CT3GB will become the platform’s primary settlement asset and will be used for all internal operations across the ecosystem. At the same time, the value of the token will be driven not only by market demand but also by its practical utility in the day-to-day operation of CT3 Cloud services.

Infrastructure expansion, reserve creation, the implementation of a new storage architecture, and preparation for an independent audit are all part of a unified strategy designed to ensure that CT3GB launches within an ecosystem that is already prepared for further scaling and growth.

About CT3

CT3 is a technology company developing next-generation decentralized data storage infrastructure. The company’s ecosystem combines a distributed storage network, NFT-based access keys, automatic backup technologies, and a scalable smart contract architecture. CT3 solutions are designed for both individual users and the corporate sector, providing secure long-term data storage, backup, and protection of digital information.

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