Rising bond yields could destabilize global equity markets, challenging investor confidence and prompting a reevaluation of risk strategies.

The post JPMorgan warns rising bond yields threaten global equities in September appeared first on Crypto Briefing.

Berkshire's yen debt strategy highlights the potential for lucrative returns but risks arise if Japan's interest rates increase significantly.

The post Berkshire Hathaway CEO Abel says raising debt in Japan remains appropriate appeared first on Crypto Briefing.

Vertiv's acquisition of UIG highlights the growing importance of microgrid solutions in meeting the rising power demands of AI data centers.

The post Vertiv drops $1.45B to acquire microgrid specialist UIG as AI data center power demand surges appeared first on Crypto Briefing.

UEFA's debut patch initiative with Fanatics highlights a growing trend of monetizing sports memorabilia, impacting collectibles' market dynamics.

The post UEFA partners with Fanatics to put debut patches on Champions League shirts appeared first on Crypto Briefing.

Chevron's investment in Venezuela could alter global oil dynamics, enhance US energy security, and diversify supply chains amid geopolitical risks.

The post Chevron commits over $7B to expand Venezuela operations after Trump deal opens access to massive oil reserves appeared first on Crypto Briefing.

Bitcoin Magazine

Bitcoin Slides as US-Iran Tensions Escalate 

Bitcoin slid on Tuesday after investors went into “risk-off” mode following escalating attacks between the U.S. and Iran. 

The largest cryptocurrency had initially shrugged off President Donald Trump’s threats to the Middle Eastern nation, as well as the first strikes. 

But things heated up on Tuesday, and bitcoin’s price slid. It was recently down more than 2% on the day, trading for $77,363. The coin had pushed past as high as nearly $81,282 on Friday. 

The Tuesday attacks from the U.S. were because Iran tried to put mines in the Strait of Hormuz, and also because of an attack on an American military base in Jordan, according to President Trump. 

U.S. Central Command said on X that Iran had also attacked commercial ships. 

“The strikes follow recent attempted attacks by the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps against commercial shipping in the Strait of Hormuz and against American service members deployed to the region,” the post read. 

Iran responded with a “decisive operation” against U.S. military bases, according to Iranian media. Oil surged on the news. 

Bitcoin’s price has been sensitive to geopolitical tensions this year — especially after Iran and Israel attacked Iran. The cryptocurrency has typically faced downward pressure on news of war, only to then rally when Trump raised hopes of a ceasefire. 

Despite Bitcoin’s price being relatively muted, in recent months, it has made more wild swings since mid-August. 

Bitcoin’s immediate reaction to rising oil prices is to drop: more expensive energy means higher inflation, and higher inflation typically means the U.S. central bank will postpone rate cuts, which can restrict the liquidity that bitcoin needs to gain momentum. 

The Federal Reserve’s chair, Kevin Warsh, last week gave his first major speech as leader of the central bank and said that inflation in the world’s largest economy had not come down enough. 

Traders are now no longer pricing in an interest rate cut this year, instead expecting a hike. Bitcoin has typically performed well in the past in low interest rate environments. 

Still, the coin had one of its best runs in August after the U.S. Treasury said it would at least double the size of its liquidity-support buyback operations, in response to surging borrowing costs. 

The announcement hurt the dollar but non-yielding assets like bitcoin and gold have benefited. 

This post Bitcoin Slides as US-Iran Tensions Escalate  first appeared on Bitcoin Magazine and is written by Mathew Di Salvo.

Bitcoin Magazine

Bitcoin Defies Seasonal Slump With Third-Best August Ever

Bitcoin is known for its summer slumps. But August was different. 

In fact, the leading cryptocurrency had its third best August ever. 

As highlighted on Tuesday by Bitwise’s European Head of Research, André Dragosch, bitcoin delivered returns of 25% last month. 

“No ‘summer lull’ so far,” Dragosch wrote on X, highlighting that the only better Augusts the coin has had were in 2017 when it gave investors returns of nearly 66%, and 2013, with close to 31%. 

Multiple analyses point to the months of June-September showing weaker average returns than the rest of the year.

Throughout most of June and July, bitcoin’s volatility was particularly muted, and the coin traded below $65,000. 

But that changed in mid-August after the U.S. Treasury Department said it would more than double the size of its government debt repurchases due to fixed income markets under pressure and yields surging to levels not seen in nearly 20 years. 

Lower long-term yields reduce the opportunity cost of holding non-yielding assets like bitcoin and gold, and generally support risk-on sentiment. 

Investors flooded into bitcoin as a result. 

Positive news soon followed, with President Donald Trump urging lawmakers to get the long-awaited crypto Clarity Act over the line. The digital asset industry has long called for clear rules on how regulators should treat bitcoin, stablecoins and other cryptocurrencies. 

Despite a delay in a vote on the legislation, Trump called the draft “very powerful.” The president made the comments after having met with crypto industry bigwigs and CEOs. 

Investors also rushed back into ETFs in August, throwing over $2.8 billion at the vehicles — the most since October, when the coin hit a new all-time high. 

Bitcoin in August had its best run in three years — and is up nearly over 20% over the past month. 

The asset reached as high as $81,281 last week before sliding again on Friday. 

Bitcoin’s price recently stood at $76,883, nearly down 3% over a 24-hour period. 

This post Bitcoin Defies Seasonal Slump With Third-Best August Ever first appeared on Bitcoin Magazine and is written by Mathew Di Salvo.

Bitcoin Magazine

BlackRock’s iShares Bitcoin Trust Is Beating Top S&P 500 ETF 

BlackRock’s iShares Bitcoin Trust exchange-traded fund has delivered better returns since its 2024 launch than Vanguard’s popular S&P 500 fund. 

That’s according to Bloomberg data highlighted by the firm’s senior ETF analyst, Eric Balchunas, who said that the BlackRock product’s cumulative percentage return was only slightly ahead of Vanguard’s in the time period. 

BlackRock’s bitcoin ETF is up 71% since its January 2024 debut, while Vanguard’s S&P 500 ETF up 66% on a total-return basis.  

The iShares Bitcoin Trust — IBIT — started trading in 2024 after the Securities and Exchange Commission gave the green light to 11 spot bitcoin ETFs following a decade of denials. 

“IBIT’s path to 70% looks like the El Toro roller coaster at Great Adventure (I needed two Advil last time I rode that thing) while $VOO was a walk in the park in comparison,” wrote Balchunas on Tuesday. 

U.S. investors now have several funds to choose from to buy shares that track the price of bitcoin managed by the likes of Fidelity, Grayscale and Morgan Stanley. But BlackRock’s product is the most successful: It currently manages $61.4 billion in assets, according to its website. 

By comparison, the second biggest bitcoin ETF, the Fidelity Wise Origin Bitcoin Fund, manages nearly $11 billion. 

BlackRock, which manages over $15 trillion in assets, sent shockwaves through the crypto space after it applied for a spot bitcoin ETF in 2023. Its fund now allows more traditional investors to get exposure to bitcoin; its product also experiences more day-to-day trading action than the other ETFs. 

Investors piled back into ETFs in August, which has also helped bitcoin’s price. From August 17 to 27, investors threw over $2.8 billion at the vehicles — the most since October, when the coin hit a new all-time high. 

Bitcoin reached as high as $81,281 last week before sliding again on Friday. 

The price of the biggest cryptocurrency recently stood at $77,539, nearly down 1% over a 24-hour period. 

Bitcoin started a phenomenal run two weeks ago — its best in three years — and is up nearly 30% over the past month. 

This post BlackRock’s iShares Bitcoin Trust Is Beating Top S&P 500 ETF  first appeared on Bitcoin Magazine and is written by Mathew Di Salvo.

Bitcoin Magazine

South Korea’s Bitcoin ‘Kimchi Premium’ Returns

Bitcoin is up this month but there’s one place where it’s more significantly more expensive: South Korea. 

The so-called Kimchi Premium — when bitcoin costs more on Korean exchanges — is back as retail investors pile back into the coin. Bloomberg first reported the news and CoinGecko data shows that bitcoin’s price is nearly 1% higher on Upbit, Korea’s biggest exchange, than Binance. 

Named after a popular dish in the Asian nation, the phenomenon comes down to Korea’s market being partly walled off. Prices have historically run higher there because of strong local retail demand combined with strict capital controls and trading regulations.

As a result, the Bitcoin/won trading pair is more common in South Korea compared to the Bitcoin/U.S. dollar pair in other places. When there is demand for the asset, it will naturally be higher in the country as compared to other places.

The phenomenon has been described as a retail FOMO indicator, since Korea has few notable crypto funds and tight capital controls. The premium has reached as high as 21.5% in 2022. 

Bitcoin was recently trading for $78,287, unmoved over the past 24 hours. It’s also at the same price it was seven days ago, but over the past month, the coin has rallied by 24%. 

The price of the biggest digital asset started surging after the U.S. Treasury in August said it would at least double the size of its liquidity-support buyback operations. The announcement hurt the dollar but non-yielding assets like bitcoin and gold have benefited. 

President Donald Trump also said the same week that the long-awaited crypto Clarity Act was an important piece of legislation, and urged lawmakers to get it over the line. 

Crypto industry bigwigs have been calling for clear rules for distinguishing between digital assets that are securities, commodities or payment stablecoins, and news that regulators will soon have such a framework has typically benefited crypto markets. 

Speculators are now betting on Polymarket that there’s a 59% chance bitcoin will be above $82,500 this month, leading some to call an end to the bear market.

This post South Korea’s Bitcoin ‘Kimchi Premium’ Returns first appeared on Bitcoin Magazine and is written by Mathew Di Salvo.

Bitcoin Magazine

BlackRock Re-Underwrites Bitcoin, and the Portfolio Math Still Holds

Bitcoin’s roughly 50% decline from its October 2025 high has created a useful test for the institutional investment thesis. It is relatively easy to make the case for a new asset while prices are rising, correlations are favorable and capital is flowing into the market. The more revealing exercise comes after a major drawdown, when investors can revisit the original assumptions and determine which were structural and which were simply products of the preceding cycle.

That is effectively what BlackRock has done in its latest research, Re-Underwriting Bitcoin: Still a Portfolio Diversifier. Rather than treating the recent drawdown as evidence for or against Bitcoin in isolation, the firm returns to the question most relevant to an allocator: how has Bitcoin actually affected the risk and return characteristics of a diversified portfolio?

The results are more consequential than the headline return figures suggest. In BlackRock’s rolling 10-year analysis through May 29, 2026, a traditional 60/40 equity and fixed-income portfolio generated an annualized return of approximately 9.9% with annualized standard deviation of roughly 10.1%. Introducing a 1% Bitcoin allocation increased annualized return to approximately 10.9%, while volatility moved only modestly higher to roughly 10.3%. At a 2% allocation, annualized return reached approximately 11.8%, with standard deviation of about 10.6%.

Put differently, the 2% allocation added roughly 190 basis points of annualized return relative to the traditional portfolio while increasing annualized volatility by approximately 50 basis points. The portfolio’s Sharpe ratio improved from 0.81 to 0.96, while maximum drawdown changed from -20.3% to -20.9%. Those figures are hypothetical and backward-looking, but they illustrate why judging Bitcoin primarily by its standalone volatility can produce an incomplete assessment of its portfolio impact.

The more relevant question is how that volatility interacts with everything else an investor already owns. BlackRock continues to characterize Bitcoin as having risk and return drivers that are fundamentally different from traditional assets, rooted in its fixed supply, decentralized structure and independence from any sovereign issuer. Those characteristics do not prevent Bitcoin from trading alongside risk assets during periods of deleveraging, but BlackRock’s research suggests those correlations have historically been episodic rather than permanent.

That distinction helps explain the portfolio results. A modest allocation does not import Bitcoin’s standalone volatility into a portfolio on a one-for-one basis. What matters is the marginal contribution of that allocation to total portfolio risk relative to the return it has historically generated. In BlackRock’s analysis, that trade-off remained favorable at 1% and 2%, even after incorporating one of Bitcoin’s most significant recent drawdowns.

Why 1–2% keeps appearing in BlackRock’s work

This is not the first time BlackRock has arrived at this range. Its earlier portfolio research approached Bitcoin sizing through risk contribution, concluding that a 1–2% allocation could represent a reasonable range for investors willing and able to accept Bitcoin’s risk. At those weights, BlackRock found that Bitcoin could contribute a similar share of overall portfolio risk as an individual mega-cap technology holding in a conventional 60/40 portfolio. Beyond 2%, however, Bitcoin’s contribution to total portfolio risk begins to increase disproportionately.

The new analysis approaches the same question from the opposite direction. Rather than asking how much risk Bitcoin contributes, it examines what investors historically received for assuming that additional risk. The improvement in Sharpe ratio from 0.81 for the traditional portfolio to 0.90 with 1% Bitcoin and 0.96 with 2% Bitcoin suggests that the incremental return historically more than compensated for the additional portfolio-level volatility.

This does not establish 1% or 2% as an optimal allocation, and BlackRock does not present it that way. The appropriate exposure will depend on liquidity requirements, investment horizon, governance constraints and risk tolerance. What the analysis does provide is a more rigorous framework for the discussion. The allocation question can increasingly be evaluated in terms of marginal risk, correlation, drawdown and portfolio efficiency rather than through a binary debate over whether Bitcoin itself is too volatile to own.

BlackRock has also seen the demand firsthand

There is another dimension to BlackRock’s latest analysis that is difficult to separate from the firm’s experience in the market.

BlackRock launched the iShares Bitcoin Trust, IBIT, in January 2024. Less than a year later, it had accumulated more than $50 billion in assets, making it what BlackRock itself has described as the largest exchange-traded product launch in history. It reached that milestone roughly five times faster than the previous record holder.

Its significance has only grown since then. BlackRock now describes IBIT as the world’s largest and most traded Bitcoin ETP, and the fund became the firm’s highest-revenue ETF in 2025 despite competing within a global BlackRock lineup of more than 1,000 products.

The concentration within the U.S. spot Bitcoin ETF market is equally notable. According to current ETF holdings data tracked by Bitcoin For Corporations, U.S. spot Bitcoin ETFs collectively hold approximately 1.25 million BTC, representing nearly 6% of Bitcoin’s fixed 21 million supply. IBIT alone accounts for roughly 775,000 BTC, or more than 60% of the Bitcoin held across the U.S. spot ETF complex.

View the full Bitcoin ETF Dashboard.

That does not make BlackRock’s research independent of commercial context; IBIT is an important and increasingly valuable BlackRock product. That context should be understood rather than ignored. But it also means the firm’s reassessment is occurring alongside more than two years of observing how investors actually use Bitcoin exposure at scale.

The distinction is useful. The theoretical case for Bitcoin as a portfolio asset is increasingly being accompanied by observable allocation behavior. Investors have now had access to Bitcoin through familiar brokerage, advisory and institutional infrastructure across multiple market regimes, including periods of rapid appreciation and severe drawdowns. IBIT’s growth suggests that demand has persisted well beyond its initial launch window.

A drawdown is precisely when a thesis should be re-underwritten

The timing of BlackRock’s report may ultimately be more informative than the portfolio simulation itself.

Bitcoin is not being reassessed at an all-time high. BlackRock published the analysis after an approximately 50% drawdown from Bitcoin’s October 2025 peak, a period the firm associates with leveraged positioning being unwound, slowing ETP flows and weaker demand from companies accumulating Bitcoin. Its conclusion is that these forces represented a positioning correction rather than a fundamental change in Bitcoin’s investment case.

That is what re-underwriting is supposed to accomplish. An investment thesis should not survive because investors are attached to it; it should survive because its underlying assumptions continue to hold when conditions change.

For Bitcoin, those assumptions extend beyond historical returns. The asset remains scarce by design, globally liquid, independent of a sovereign issuer and structurally different from the liabilities that dominate traditional portfolios. BlackRock argues that concerns around fiscal sustainability, monetary stability and geopolitical risk may therefore become increasingly relevant to Bitcoin’s long-term adoption.

The portfolio evidence does not prove what Bitcoin will return over the next decade, nor does IBIT’s success establish what an appropriate allocation should be. What the two developments show together is that the institutional conversation has advanced considerably. Bitcoin is no longer being evaluated solely as an unconventional asset that institutions may or may not choose to own. It is increasingly being evaluated through the same disciplines applied elsewhere in capital allocation: sizing, risk contribution, correlation, liquidity, drawdown and expected return.

What this means for corporate leaders

For CFOs, boards and corporate operators, that evolution may be the most important takeaway from BlackRock’s work.

The relevant decision is not whether Bitcoin is volatile; that is already known. Nor does a corporate allocation need to resemble the concentrated Bitcoin strategies pursued by companies that have explicitly built their capital structures around the asset. Between zero exposure and a Bitcoin-centric balance sheet sits a much broader spectrum of possible allocations.

BlackRock’s research provides a useful framework for thinking about that spectrum. A relatively small allocation was sufficient to materially alter the historical return characteristics of a conventional portfolio without producing a comparable increase in portfolio-level risk. At 2%, approximately 190 basis points of additional annualized return came with roughly 50 basis points of additional annualized volatility in the period studied. The allocation was small; its effect was not.

For corporate leaders, the implication is less about adopting BlackRock’s specific allocation range than adopting the discipline behind the analysis. Bitcoin can be underwritten like any other strategic allocation: define its purpose, determine an acceptable risk contribution, establish liquidity and governance requirements, size the position accordingly and periodically revisit the assumptions.

That is a considerably more mature question than whether a company should simply “buy Bitcoin.”

As Bitcoin becomes more deeply integrated into institutional portfolios and financial infrastructure, the burden of analysis is shifting. The question facing the C-suite is increasingly not whether Bitcoin belongs in the conversation, but what allocation, if any, can be justified by the company’s objectives, constraints and cost of capital.

BlackRock has now re-underwritten that question after another full market cycle and a roughly 50% drawdown. Its historical portfolio math still makes the case that, in measured amounts, Bitcoin can improve the equation. For corporate decision-makers, that is the takeaway worth bringing into the boardroom.

Disclaimer: This content was prepared on behalf of Bitcoin For Corporations for informational purposes only. It reflects the author’s own analysis and opinion and should not be relied upon as investment advice. Nothing in this article constitutes an offer, invitation, or solicitation to purchase, sell, or subscribe for any security or financial product.

This post BlackRock Re-Underwrites Bitcoin, and the Portfolio Math Still Holds first appeared on Bitcoin Magazine and is written by Nick Ward.

Binance is putting options on more than 1,000 selected US stocks and exchange-traded funds inside the same account that already offers crypto and several forms of equity exposure.

The product is limited to eligible users outside the US, and the securities machinery behind the offer does not belong to Binance.

The company said on Sept. 1 that Nest Trading Limited will introduce the orders and route them to Alpaca Securities LLC. Alpaca will execute, clear, and settle the trades, then custody any shares delivered when an option is exercised.

Eligible customers can move among more products without leaving Binance, while Nest and Alpaca carry distinct responsibilities behind the scenes.

Who does what behind Binance

Binance is the customer-facing access point, Nest Trading is the introducing broker, and Alpaca provides execution and post-trade infrastructure.

An options customer places an order through Binance, but Nest introduces it to Alpaca. If physical settlement produces shares, Binance says Alpaca holds them on the user's behalf.

Nest's Abu Dhabi Global Market register lists the firm as active under financial services permission 260000. Its permitted activities include arranging deals, dealing as an agent, and arranging custody, but the register says Nest cannot hold or control client money.

Alpaca's FINRA BrokerCheck profile identifies the firm as SEC- and FINRA-approved and lists options activity, securities clearing and settlement, and electronic trading among businesses it conducts or expects to conduct.

The profile also says Alpaca can hold or maintain funds or securities and provide clearing services for other broker-dealers.

The contracts are physically settled. Exercising a call can produce the underlying shares, while exercising a put can require delivery of them. Until exercise and settlement, the option is a contractual right.

Binance says an exercise instruction must be submitted through its platform by the relevant cutoff, as late as 30 minutes before expiry. Even an in-the-money contract will not exercise automatically without that instruction.

A position without an instruction becomes subject to best-efforts auto-liquidation before trading closes. If it cannot be sold, it may expire worthless, leaving the holder with a loss of the premium.

Binance said eligible retail users may buy calls and puts, with maximum potential loss limited to the premium. The statement does not extend that defined-loss description to option-writing strategies.

The exchange also says that the options remain subject to jurisdictional and user restrictions. Alpaca's options documentation says every customer account must be approved before its first options trade, with financial circumstances, experience, risk tolerance and investment objectives supplied alongside a signed options agreement.

Four products behind one account

The options join three existing routes to equity exposure inside Binance. A single account can make them look adjacent, but their ownership and settlement mechanics differ.

Binance made the ownership distinction explicit when it introduced direct stock trading and previewed bStocks in June. It said direct-stock users would own equities held by a US-regulated clearing broker, while bStocks would not give holders direct ownership of the underlying company shares.

The options add another regulated route, consolidating convenience for users.

Shunyet Jan, Binance's head of exchange and trading, called stock options an “important next step” toward a “fuller multi-asset platform.” Binance said equity-linked perpetuals generated about $342.9 billion in volume during August, represented about 79% of its TradFi perpetual activity and grew more than 800-fold from January.

The launch release shows how Binance is presenting demand within its own ecosystem, but it does not establish how much demand the new physically settled contracts will attract.

The options announcement expands what a crypto account can distribute. Binance controls product discovery and the customer experience, while Nest and Alpaca define the operational route into regulated securities markets.

That structure gives Binance much of the strategic benefit of a securities super-app without making it the entity that executes, clears, or custodies every product on screen.

For users, the practical test is whether they understand which firm holds the asset, which rules govern the account, and which action they must take before an option expires.

The post Binance deepens TradFi push with physically settled options on over 1,000 US equities appeared first on CryptoSlate.

Cardano’s 2026 Constitutional Committee renewal had crossed both voting thresholds in a pre-boundary snapshot on Sept. 1, but formal ratification still waited for the epoch change. The narrow margin on the stake pool side exposed how non-participation can become an effective veto in the network’s on-chain governance.

Cardano divides governance authority among delegated representatives, stake pool operators, and the Constitutional Committee.

DReps vote with ADA delegated to them, SPOs represent block-producing stake pools, and the committee reviews the constitutionality of actions that require its approval. For an update to the committee’s own membership, DReps and SPOs vote while the committee does not.

A synchronized Koios voting snapshot retrieved at about 09:59 UTC showed DRep support at 69.36% against a 67% threshold. SPO support stood at 51.18% against a 51% requirement, leaving a margin of 0.18 percentage points at that observed moment.

The proposal’s on-chain record still showed no ratification, enactment, or expiration, and the Koios chain tip remained in epoch 652. The decision was due at the boundary into epoch 653 at about 21:44 UTC on Sept. 1.

The thresholds come from Cardano’s epoch-652 protocol parameters, while Cardano's governance overview and CIP-1694 set out the division of voting authority.

The key mechanism sits inside the SPO denominator. The Cardano Developer Portal’s governance rules say stake behind a pool that does not cast a ballot remains against ratification in the effective calculation. The pool has not submitted an explicit No, but its uncast stake still makes the Yes threshold harder to reach.

Abstention follows a different path. Explicit abstentions and stake assigned to alwaysAbstain are removed from the effective calculation.

The Koios breakdown separated roughly 2.008 million ADA of explicit SPO No votes from about 5.316 billion ADA in the total No or default-No side of the calculation. The gap indicates that non-participating stake created most of the drag on approval.

The four committee seats due to lapse raise the stakes of that denominator rule. Those seats remain valid through epoch 653 and expire as epoch 654 begins on Sept. 6. Without an enacted renewal, the committee would fall to three active members, below the minimum of five.

The five-seat line

Voting closes as epoch 652 ends, and ratification is assessed at the boundary into epoch 653. If the update is ratified there, it is scheduled to enact one epoch later at the start of epoch 654, the same boundary at which the four current seats lapse. The action page and a ledger-focused chronology align those two events.

A committee below its five-member minimum could not supply the approval required for new treasury withdrawals, protocol parameter changes, hard fork initiations, or a new constitution. The Cardano ledger implementation treats an undersized committee as lacking the voting threshold needed for actions that require committee approval.

No-confidence and update-committee actions would remain available because the committee does not vote on them. The cited protocol rules describe a ratification bottleneck affecting specified governance actions.

If the threshold-crossing snapshot held through the epoch boundary and the ledger ratified the action, the immediate three-seat bottleneck would be avoided. The vote would still leave a governance lesson: SPO approval rested just 0.18 percentage points above the line after billions of ADA in non-voting stake weighed against passage.

Intersect had warned that failed renewal could interrupt governance continuity and may affect progress toward Dijkstra, Cardano’s next hard-fork program. Cardano has separately described the constitutional preparation required for Dijkstra.

Those sources frame a timeline impact as a risk rather than a confirmed delay.

At the latest synchronized pre-boundary snapshot, late voting had moved the renewal above both thresholds. Its razor-thin SPO margin still demonstrated the force of Cardano’s participation rule: when uncast stake remains in the denominator, governance silence can decide whether the network’s decision-making machinery keeps moving.

The post Cardano clears key voting thresholds for constitutional committee renewal by 0.18% margin appeared first on CryptoSlate.

DeFi Technologies reached its Sept. 1 Nasdaq minimum-bid deadline after its US-listed DEFT shares closed Aug. 31 at $0.6032, making it impossible to complete the required 10-business-day streak at or above $1.

The threshold miss moves the company into an eligibility review, with either a second compliance window or a written delisting determination as the next formal outcome.

Nasdaq notified DeFi Technologies on March 5 that DEFT had closed below $1 for 30 consecutive business days as of March 4, and gave DeFi Technologies an initial 180-calendar-day period ending Sept. 1.

The stock's daily history through Aug. 31 showed every August close below $1, so a move above the threshold during the Sept. 1 session could not produce the required consecutive closing-price streak in time.

Nasdaq's test uses consecutive closing prices. DEFT entered the final day without an active qualifying streak, and the Aug. 31 close was about 40% below the $1 threshold. The company's March filing also said Nasdaq staff can require generally up to 20 consecutive business days before confirming compliance.

Extension or delisting notice

Nasdaq can grant a second 180-calendar-day period if DeFi Technologies satisfies the continued-listing requirement for the market value of publicly held shares and all other applicable initial standards for the Nasdaq Capital Market, apart from the bid-price rule.

The company must also notify Nasdaq in writing that it intends to cure the deficiency during the additional period.

If DeFi Technologies does not qualify, or Nasdaq staff concludes it cannot cure the deficiency during a second window, Nasdaq would issue written notice that the shares are subject to delisting. The company could appeal that determination to a Nasdaq hearings panel.

Shareholders have already authorized the board to conduct a share consolidation of up to 12-for-1. The annual meeting circular left the board to decide whether and when to use that authority, making the consolidation a contingency rather than a committed corporate action.

The authorization allows the board to choose a consolidation ratio up to the approved limit before the next annual meeting, or to take no action. That flexibility gives DeFi Technologies a mechanism for addressing the per-share requirement while leaving the decision dependent on its Nasdaq compliance path.

DeFi Technologies' Aug. 13 management filing still described the company as noncompliant and identified the authorized consolidation as a mechanism available to address the bid-price requirement. Company materials through Sept. 1 showed no scheduled or executed consolidation.

At 11:19 UTC on Sept. 1, the company's public newsroom and SEC submissions contained no announcement of a second compliance period, a delisting determination, regained compliance, or an executed consolidation.

The post DeFi Technologies misses Nasdaq $1 deadline as DEFT faces delisting review appeared first on CryptoSlate.

Nearly all the open interest displayed on Coinbase’s derivatives dashboard already sits at Deribit, its global derivatives venue, eight days before institutional positions at the much smaller Coinbase International Exchange are scheduled to move there.

A Coinbase derivatives dashboard snapshot retrieved at 15:42 UTC on Sept. 1 showed $40.65 billion of daily open interest across three venues. Deribit accounted for $39.26 billion, about 96.6%, while Coinbase Derivatives held $1.17 billion and International Exchange held $226.98 million.

The Sept. 9 transfer covers the $226.98 million International Exchange book, client accounts, and trading infrastructure. The $39.26 billion already at Deribit stays where it is, on the venue that represents almost all the open interest displayed on Coinbase’s dashboard.

Open interest measures outstanding derivatives positions, a different metric from customer assets, exchange revenue, unique capital and solvency.

The dashboard’s headline total was $40.55 billion at the same retrieval, $100 million below the venue-level panel. The venue panel is the relevant basis for comparing where the displayed open interest sat, and all of the figures remain a live snapshot.

What changes on Sept. 9

Coinbase says institutional International Exchange accounts, open positions, and balances remain scheduled to migrate to Deribit on Sept. 9. The company cautions in its migration materials that the date depends on client readiness and regulatory approvals and remains subject to change.

The cutover is operationally significant even though International Exchange contributes less than 1% of the displayed open interest, and Coinbase expects about 30 minutes of downtime.

Its institutional FAQ says all open International Exchange orders will be canceled, positions settled at the mark price with profit and loss crystallized and funding paid, resulting balances transferred, and positions recreated on Deribit at the same settlement price through matched migration trades.

Coinbase’s International Exchange trading rules treat the contracts as continuous and enforceable under Deribit FZE’s rules. The FAQ describes how those positions will settle and be rebooked during the migration window.

Independent venue settlement before the cutover can produce an immediate unrealized profit or loss when Deribit markets reopen, even as the migration preserves a client’s economic exposure. Coinbase classifies the tagged migration trades as administrative records.

For institutional traders, the deeper change is the replacement of International Exchange’s operating conventions with Deribit’s.

Perpetual contracts settle every five minutes on International Exchange. On Deribit, settlement occurs once a day at 08:00 UTC, when session profit and loss is credited or deducted while positions remain open.

International Exchange applies funding hourly without a rate clamp, while Deribit accrues funding continuously, reflects it in realized session PnL, quotes an eight-hour rate, and applies a damper that reduces funding to zero when the mark price is within 0.025% of the index.

Coinbase says Deribit caps the eight-hour rate at 0.5% for BTC, 1% for ETH, and 5% for USDC- and USDT-related contracts in either direction.

International Exchange API endpoints will cease supporting trading after Sept. 9, and clients need new Deribit credentials for REST, WebSocket, FIX, or SBE connections. International Exchange APIs are expected to preserve historical order and trade data for about 12 months.

One venue, several legal routes

The migration concentrates execution while counterparty and custody arrangements vary by institution.

For institutions that only have an International Exchange account, Coinbase Bermuda Limited will act as broker and custodian, routing orders to Deribit for execution. Institutions that already trade on both International Exchange and Deribit will use Coinbase Bermuda as custodian but trade directly with Deribit FZE as counterparty.

Some clients continuing with third-party custody will move their trading relationship to Deribit Panama, which Coinbase identifies in its entity disclosures as DRB Panama, Inc.

Execution can converge at Deribit while brokerage, custody and counterparty exposure remain divided by client type and jurisdiction. On May 29, Commodity Futures Trading Commission staff said the digital-commodity perpetuals described by Coinbase Financial Markets could be categorized as foreign futures.

Staff also issued a conditional no-action position allowing the registered futures commission merchant to post eligible customer-owned digital commodities and payment stablecoins through Coinbase Bermuda to Deribit for foreign-futures and foreign-options margin under a right of re-use.

The CFTC staff letter creates a fact-dependent intermediation route for Coinbase Financial Markets customers: the US-registered firm is the futures commission merchant, Coinbase Bermuda acts as the foreign broker, and Deribit FZE is the foreign venue. Deribit remains a foreign venue, and its open interest stays separate from Coinbase Derivatives.

The no-action position carries nine conditions. Among them, the entities must remain wholly owned by Coinbase Global, Coinbase Financial Markets must arrange and file a Part 30 acknowledgment-style agreement, relevant customers must be able to access Deribit’s audited financial statements and SOC 2 report, and a criminal-disqualification bar applies to Deribit, Coinbase Bermuda, and their affiliates.

The firms must also maintain consolidated risk and information-security controls. The right of re-use must be allowed under applicable foreign rules and used only to margin or secure customer foreign-futures and options obligations.

Enhanced customer disclosures, collateral haircuts and segregation requirements also apply. The letter’s scope is a staff position tied to the represented facts and specified products, and staff can change or withdraw it.

Coinbase’s dashboard presents a combined derivatives footprint, but 96.6% of the venue-level open interest in the Sept. 1 snapshot sat on Deribit, while Coinbase Derivatives remained a much smaller, separately regulated US venue.

The Deribit concentration predates the Sept. 9 consolidation of International Exchange users, interfaces, positions, and market infrastructure.

For traders, the immediate consequences are a short period without control of positions, new APIs and records, different settlement and funding mechanics, and a client-specific counterparty map.

For US market structure, access to the dominant venue in Coinbase’s displayed footprint can be intermediated under CFTC conditions, while the offshore liquidity pool and the onshore regulated venue remain distinct.

The 96.6% figure measures the venue location of Coinbase’s displayed derivatives positions. Asset custody and the scope of the Sept. 9 transfer are separate questions.

The post Coinbase is moving $227 million onto the venue already holding over 96% of its derivatives appeared first on CryptoSlate.

MultiversX has given node operators nine days to prepare for an upgrade designed to make its blockchain 10 times faster.

The Supernova upgrade is scheduled to activate Sept. 10 during epoch 2233, cutting block times to 600 milliseconds from six seconds and forcing more than 5,000 nodes to migrate onto software capable of processing the new rules.

The upgrade goes beyond shorter block intervals. Supernova restructures MultiversX’s consensus pipeline so validators can vote on a block while execution proceeds in parallel, removing transaction execution from the critical path that previously constrained block production.

The design is also intended to preserve deterministic finality while pushing intra-shard finality below 250 milliseconds and cutting cross-shard settlement from about 18 seconds to roughly 2.4 seconds.

Meanwhile, MultiversX is keeping its epoch length unchanged and maintaining backward compatibility for addresses, keys, and balances.

The countdown begins as MultiversX’s EGLD token shows renewed momentum. Data from CryptoSlate showed that EGLD crossed $4 over the weekend for the first time since May, reaching about $4.05 before pulling back below the threshold.

Most MultiversX nodes are still on the old software

Early indications show validators are still preparing for the switch.

A mainnet configuration release candidate published Aug. 31 identified round 32157661 as the planned activation point, setting up a coordinated transition during the Sept. 1 to Sept. 10 migration window.

A Sept. 1 check of MultiversX’s public network data showed no visible Supernova migration yet, with 95.35% of its 5,171 nodes still running v1.11.11.0.

That does not indicate the network is behind schedule at the start of a nine-day window. However, it establishes the baseline against which the migration can now be measured.

The stakes rise once Supernova activates.

MultiversX’s validator guidance says processing changes require operators to upgrade so nodes continue interpreting transactions the same way. Old and new binaries can coexist before activation, but once the new rules take effect, an outdated node could produce a different transaction result and lose synchronization with the majority chain.

The transition will also include a temporary slowdown before the faster network takes over.

MultiversX expects mainnet to stop accepting new pool transactions for roughly 240 rounds under the existing six-second clock, equivalent to about 24 minutes, while clearing transactions already in flight. New transactions submitted during that period are expected to remain queued until Supernova begins processing them.

The immediate benchmark is therefore visible before Sept. 10: whether the network’s version mix shifts decisively toward Supernova ahead of round 32157661.

If that coordination arrives on schedule, attention will move to whether the upgrade can deliver its promised speed on mainnet. If a meaningful number of operators remain behind, MultiversX will have to manage the consequences of introducing substantially faster processing across a network that has not fully moved in sync.

The post Layer-1 chain to pause new transactions for 24 minutes to unlock a 10x speed boost appeared first on CryptoSlate.

New Form TA-2 questions would make agents report how many share registers they keep on distributed ledgers.

The North Carolina Republican bought less than $1,000 of contracts on her own race and drew a three-year ban.

The open-source agent framework that started the "autonomous AI" hype cycle just shipped its biggest update ever, almost by accident, and it's coming for the enterprise now.

The deal, part of MediaTek's record $3.9 billion bond offering, ties Nvidia's chip ecosystem to a Taiwanese rival building its own AI accelerator business.

Trading on the Ethereum Layer 2 climbed 61% in a matter of days as DeFi deposits and stablecoin holdings approached $800 million.

XRP Ledger is closer to the long-awaited million threshold.

Remixpoint liquidates all XRP, ETH, and Solana to pocket a ¥117 million profit and pivot entirely into Bitcoin.

Hyperliquid is being pressured by institutional investors who add more to the sell-side liquidity.

Another fake Grand Theft Auto VI leak is putting crypto users at risk.

Robinhood CEO Vlad Tenev has fueled fresh speculation that the trading platform could expand its memecoin offerings.

TLDR:

• Tether froze $42.4M in USDT after an informal HSI request, with no warrant issued at the time.
• A seizure warrant arrived in February 2026, months after Tether had already blacklisted the wallets.
• Plaintiffs argue Tether kept earning Treasury yield on reserves while their tokens stayed frozen.
• The lawsuit questions whether the warrant authorized Tether to burn and reissue the seized USDT.

Two Thai businessmen have sued Tether over a Tether USDT freeze involving $42.4 million in stablecoin holdings. The case was filed in the US District Court for the Southern District of New York.

According to attorney Ariel Givner, the plaintiffs say Tether froze their wallets without a warrant. The lawsuit centers on an informal request from Homeland Security Investigations made in October 2025.

A court-issued seizure warrant only arrived months afterward, raising questions the complaint seeks answered.

Freeze Preceded Court Order, Lawsuit Claims

Plaintiffs Nutthawat Rukthammachalern and Natthawat Kasamvilas allege Tether blacklisted their Ethereum addresses on October 30, 2025.

Givner wrote that the businessmen say Tether froze their assets “after an informal request from an HSI agent.” The frozen amount totaled 42,417,785.62 USDT, according to the filing. No warrant, court order, or advance notice accompanied the freeze, the lawsuit states.

Givner explained that HSI’s Raleigh office “opened it from a victim tip.” The tip described romance and investment fraud run through a fake trading platform.

Funds were allegedly layered through multiple wallets to obscure their origin, she wrote, describing the flow as “accumulate, layer, integrate.”

One wallet named in the case, address 0xf3bF…A3eB, held roughly $26.1 million in USDT. Givner noted the wallet had already been mapped as a consolidation point before the government paperwork existed. She wrote that “the court paper arrived later,” well after Tether’s blacklisting action.

A seizure warrant eventually followed on February 19, 2026, issued by the Eastern District of North Carolina. Warrant 5:26-MJ-1267-JG directed Tether to burn the frozen USDT. The order also called for reissuing equivalent tokens to a government-controlled wallet.

Plaintiffs Challenge Tether’s Authority Over Frozen Tokens

The complaint does not dispute the underlying criminal allegations tied to the case. Five days after the warrant, EDNC and HSI announced a $61 million USDT seizure. Officials described the funds as “traced to addresses allegedly associated with laundering proceeds,” per Givner’s account.

Instead, the lawsuit argues Tether froze secondary-market holders before receiving any court authorization. Givner summarized the dispute plainly, writing that Tether “locked secondary-market holders first” and “kept earning Treasury yield” throughout the freeze. The plaintiffs say they could not touch their funds during that stretch.

According to the filing, the main claims include a declaratory judgment against the freeze and burn. Additional counts cover conversion, trespass to chattels, and unjust enrichment tied to reserve yield. The plaintiffs also seek an injunction to remove the wallets from Tether’s blacklist.

Givner framed the core dispute as whether “a stablecoin issuer can lock $42 million on an informal government ask” while continuing to collect interest.

Requested relief includes lifting the freeze and damages if the tokens are destroyed. Punitive damages are also sought, though the case remains a complaint rather than a ruling.

The post Tether Sued for $42.4M USDT Freeze Tied to Alleged Pig-Butchering Case appeared first on Blockonomi.

TLDR

• Bitcoin gained 7.36% in July and 24.95% in August 2026, according to CoinGlass.
• September has not always been a down month for Bitcoin — it rose in 2015, 2016, 2023, 2024, and 2025.
• The U.S. Senate has scheduled a cloture vote on the CLARITY Act for September 15.
• The vote is procedural, not a final decision on the bill itself.
• Reuters reports lawmakers disagree over ethics rules and anti-money-laundering provisions in the legislation.

Bitcoin closed July and August 2026 with strong gains. The cryptocurrency now moves into September under a lot of attention.

Data from CoinGlass shows Bitcoin rose 7.36% in July. It followed that with a 24.95% gain in August.

Those two months came after a rougher start to the year. Bitcoin lost value in January, February, May, and June.

Traders often talk about September as a weak month for Bitcoin. The idea is based on past patterns, not fixed rules.

Bitcoin’s September Track Record Is Mixed

CoinGlass records show September has not always been a losing month. Bitcoin gained 2.35% in September 2015.

The pattern repeated in later years too. Bitcoin rose 6.04% in September 2016.

More recent years tell a similar story. Bitcoin gained 3.91% in September 2023, 7.29% in September 2024, and 5.16% in September 2025.

This means a claim that September always ends lower after two green months does not hold up against the data.

Seasonal trends are one factor traders watch. Liquidity, institutional demand, and macroeconomic conditions also shape price moves.

A Senate Vote On Crypto Rules Is Coming

Away from price charts, U.S. lawmakers are working on crypto regulation. The Senate has scheduled a vote for September 15.

The vote is a cloture vote on the motion to proceed to H.R. 3633. That is a procedural step, not a final vote on the bill.

The legislation in question is the Digital Asset Market Clarity Act, known as the CLARITY Act. It aims to give clearer federal rules for digital asset markets.

Reuters reported disagreements among lawmakers. The disputes cover ethics rules, anti-money-laundering safeguards, and other provisions in the bill.

A successful procedural vote could keep the legislative process moving forward. A failed vote could slow expectations for a law passing this year.

Bitcoin’s direction in September will likely depend on both market data and this legislative process. The next update on the bill’s progress is expected around the September 15 vote.

The post Bitcoin (BTC) Price: Rises 24.95% in August Ahead of September Senate Vote appeared first on Blockonomi.

Key Takeaways

• Take-Two shares declined 6.7% to $219.70, ranking as the S&P 500’s fifth-worst performer Monday
• Market analysts attribute the decline to delay speculation rather than leaked GTA VI footage
• Netflix’s exclusive GTA VI gameplay premiere attracted 31.1 million viewers, topping charts in 87 out of 93 countries
• Bank of America believes additional delays are improbable now that complete gameplay footage has been released
• Consensus rating on TTWO remains Strong Buy with analysts projecting an average target of $297.29

Take-Two shares experienced significant downward pressure Monday, declining 6.7% to $219.70 amid growing speculation that Grand Theft Auto VI might encounter another postponement.

Take-Two Interactive Software, Inc., TTWO

Social media chatter initially attributed the selloff to unauthorized GTA VI gameplay footage circulating online. However, market analysts dispute this interpretation.

Freedom Capital Markets senior research analyst Nick McKay indicated the decline stemmed from delay speculation rather than leaked content. In his Monday research note, he characterized these postponement rumors as “low-quality.”

McKay referenced a recent statement from Rockstar Games executive Rob Nelson, who reaffirmed the development timeline remains unchanged during an Aug. 28 interview with Famitsu.

Jefferies analysts supported this assessment, noting the leaked footage had negligible influence on share performance.

Bank of America’s Omar Dessouky suggested further delays appear improbable. “The release of comprehensive gameplay footage indicates extremely low probability of additional postponement, as this disclosure demonstrates the game has reached a playable state,” his analysis stated.

Prior to Monday’s downturn, TTWO closed at $235.39 Friday following the gameplay trailer’s Netflix and YouTube debut on Aug. 27. This represented a 1% gain from Thursday’s closing price.

Netflix Premiere Breaks Viewership Records

The exclusive premiere generated extraordinary engagement on Netflix. The approximately 27-minute gameplay showcase accumulated 31.1 million views, establishing itself as the streaming platform’s top-performing content for the week.

The video claimed the No. 1 position across 87 of Netflix’s 93 monitored markets. The platform maintained exclusivity for six hours before the content became available on YouTube and competing services.

The gameplay trailer even surpassed viewership for Netflix’s new Robert De Niro feature film, The Whisper Man, along with Outer Banks’ fifth season premiere. This marked Netflix’s inaugural promotional partnership for an unreleased video game title.

This enthusiasm builds on existing momentum. The initial GTA VI announcement trailer from 2023 has accumulated approximately 293 million YouTube views to date.

Unauthorized Content Fails to Diminish Enthusiasm

Take-Two has confronted ongoing challenges with unauthorized content distribution. Over a dozen GTA VI gameplay clips surfaced online ahead of the authorized premiere. The publisher subsequently issued subpoenas to messaging platform Discord seeking to identify the source.

In an Aug. 26 statement posted on X, Rockstar Games described the unauthorized leaks as “heartbreaking,” while simultaneously apologizing for the game’s previous delay. The title was initially targeted for fall release, subsequently moved to May 2026, and currently carries a November 19 launch date.

The leaked content ultimately failed to diminish consumer interest, with the Netflix premiere numbers providing compelling evidence of sustained demand.

Analyst consensus currently assigns TTWO a Strong Buy rating, supported by 18 Buy recommendations issued over the past three months. The average price objective sits at $297.29, suggesting approximately 37% upside potential from present trading levels.

The post Take-Two (TTWO) Stock Drops 7%: Smart Entry Point Ahead of GTA VI Release? appeared first on Blockonomi.

TLDR

• Crypto funds pulled in $3.2 billion last week, the largest weekly inflow since October 2025.
• BlackRock’s IBIT led the pack with $928 million, adding to $1.3 billion the week before.
• Ethereum, Solana, XRP, Hyperliquid, and Dogecoin funds all kept their inflow streaks alive.
• Crypto funds have averaged $1.3 billion in weekly inflows for four straight weeks.
• Bitcoin funds saw a brief outflow, pointing to a possible shift toward altcoins.

Crypto funds took in $3.2 billion last week. This is the biggest weekly inflow the sector has seen since October 2025.

The data comes from The Kobeissi Letter, which tracks fund flows across the crypto market. It shows investors are putting money into both crypto and gold funds at the same time.

BlackRock’s IBIT fund led the way. It brought in $928 million last week alone.

That follows $1.3 billion the week before. Together, IBIT pulled in more than $2.2 billion over two weeks.

Bitcoin was not the only asset getting attention. Ethereum, Solana, XRP, Hyperliquid, and Dogecoin funds also kept their inflow streaks going.

Four Weeks of Steady Inflows

Crypto funds have now averaged $1.3 billion in weekly inflows for four straight weeks. That is the strongest four-week pace the market has seen in about ten months.

The steady pace suggests demand has held up over time. It has not been a single spike.

But there is a twist in the data. Money appears to be moving from Bitcoin toward other coins.

A Shift From Bitcoin to Altcoins

U.S. Bitcoin funds saw a nine-day inflow streak come to an end. That week, they recorded $202 million in outflows.

Even so, Bitcoin funds still pulled in $925 million for the week overall. IBIT alone brought in $938 million during that stretch.

Ethereum funds told a different story. They saw $824 million in weekly inflows.

An extra $102 million came in on August 28. That extended Ethereum’s inflow streak to 10 sessions in a row.

Solana and XRP funds also picked up fresh money during the same period.

This pattern has led some analysts to suggest investors are shifting toward altcoins. The move appears to be happening ahead of what traders call the “September effect.”

Scott Melker, known online as “The Wolf of All Streets,” commented on the trend. He said, “The bid rotated. It did not reverse.”

His comment points to a change in where money is going, rather than a drop in overall demand.

The latest weekly numbers show crypto funds are still pulling in cash across the board. Bitcoin, Ethereum, Solana, XRP, Hyperliquid, and Dogecoin funds have all posted inflows in recent weeks.

The four-week streak of $1.3 billion in average weekly inflows remains intact as of the most recent data. Whether the rotation from Bitcoin to altcoins continues will depend on flows in the coming weeks.

The post Crypto Funds See $3.2 Billion Weekly Inflow, Largest Since 2025 appeared first on Blockonomi.

Key Highlights

• ARK Invest divested 7,450 AMD shares valued at approximately $3.4 million from two separate funds on September 1
• Over two consecutive trading sessions, ARK accumulated more than 700,000 Rocket Lab shares totaling approximately $44.5 million
• ARK acquired 456,059 Block shares valued at $38.1 million during a market dip
• To finance these acquisitions, ARK liquidated roughly $26 million in Palantir holdings along with positions in Tempus AI and Shopify
• Analyst consensus rates both AMD and Rocket Lab as Strong Buys, with price targets of $647 and $110.60 respectively

On September 1, Cathie Wood’s ARK Invest executed several significant portfolio adjustments, reducing exposure to certain technology names while deploying substantial capital into Rocket Lab and Block.

Rocket Lab USA, Inc., RKLB

Strategic Reductions in AMD and Palantir Positions

The investment firm offloaded a total of 7,450 Advanced Micro Devices shares from its ARKQ and ARKX portfolios. With AMD closing at $459.61, these transactions represented approximately $3.4 million in total value.

Despite this trimming, ARK maintains a significant AMD position valued at roughly $160 million across its exchange-traded funds. This represents a modest portfolio adjustment rather than a complete divestment.

Following AMD’s impressive performance trajectory, ARK appears to be capturing gains through standard portfolio rebalancing practices.

Additionally, the firm liquidated approximately $26 million worth of Palantir stock, alongside smaller holdings in Tempus AI and Shopify, generating capital for reinvestment elsewhere.

Substantial Capital Deployment in Rocket Lab and Block

ARK’s September 1 activity included purchasing over 504,000 Rocket Lab shares distributed across ARKK, ARKQ, and ARKX funds, representing approximately $31.6 million in value. This followed ARKK’s acquisition of another 200,303 shares the previous day for roughly $12.9 million. Combined, these transactions totaled more than 700,000 Rocket Lab shares.

Rocket Lab’s stock price has declined over 58% from its May peak. Wood’s buying activity suggests she’s capitalizing on the downturn.

Recent headwinds have weighed on the aerospace company’s valuation. NASA’s decision to award a Mars communications contract valued at up to $700 million to Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin—bypassing Rocket Lab—disappointed investors. Additional concerns have emerged regarding insider stock sales and possible timeline extensions for the Neutron rocket initiative.

Despite these challenges, Rocket Lab delivered strong Q2 results with revenue climbing 62% to a record $234 million. The company’s backlog expanded 137% to reach $2.36 billion. Management continues to target Q4 2026 for Neutron’s arrival at the launch facility.

Simultaneously, ARK purchased 456,059 Block shares totaling $38.1 million as the stock declined 1.9%. This extends a sustained accumulation pattern that included approximately $21 million in purchases during early August and $15.4 million in mid-August.

Block’s second-quarter results showed gross profit reaching $3.17 billion, marking a 25% increase, with Cash App contributing 31% growth. The company achieved record adjusted operating income of $864 million.

Management elevated its 2026 gross profit projection to $12.51 billion and now anticipates adjusted earnings per share of $4.02, representing 70% year-over-year expansion.

Wall Street analysts maintain Strong Buy recommendations on both AMD and Rocket Lab. The consensus price target for AMD stands at $647.19, indicating 41% upside potential. Rocket Lab’s average analyst target of $110.60 implies possible gains of 77% over the next twelve months.

The post Cathie Wood’s ARK Invest Loads Up on Rocket Lab (RKLB) and Block While Reducing AMD (AMD) and Palantir (PLTR) appeared first on Blockonomi.

The cryptocurrency market is a weird one and frequently offers investors the opportunity to make enormous gains in just days, sometimes even hours. Of course, securing such profits requires more than skill; one also needs a bit of luck, perfect timing, and the courage to sell when the moment is right.

Here’s the story of a certain trader who missed their chance to become a millionaire.

Selling Too Early

The analytics platform Lookonchain revealed the case of a crypto trader who bought 7.99 million PONS tokens a month ago for roughly $443,000. Shortly after, the price of the coin headed south, and the investor cashed out their entire position, taking a $308,000 loss.

What happened next must have been hard for the mysterious trader to watch. PONS experienced a major pump, with its price skyrocketing by approximately 1,100% over a two-week period. Lookonchain estimated that those 7.99 million coins would now be worth nearly $3.46 million, meaning the investor would have made a $3 million profit (at least on paper).

PONS is a relatively new token that currently boasts a market capitalization of around $275 million. It is closely connected to Robinhood Chain; if you are interested in learning more, take a look at our detailed article here.

Previous Unlucky Traders

Selling too early can be just as painful as buying at the top, only to watch a major price decline drag your portfolio down with it.

This is what happened to one unlucky trader in the summer of 2024. Back then, they spent more than $900,000 to buy 7.2 million Restore the Republic (RTR) tokens. The anonymous person hopped on the bandwagon when the valuation of the Trump-related meme coin exploded upon launch.

Instead of a further rally, the token’s price crashed hard, and the trader eventually sold the stash for only $18,000.

The post Selling at the Wrong Time: Here’s How an Unlucky Crypto Trader Missed a $3 Million Profit appeared first on CryptoPotato.

Bitcoin was rejected on a few occasions at $79,000 in the past several days, and the latest leg down pushed it to under $76,500 for the first time since August 23.

The most evident reason behind this correction, which has impacted numerous altcoins as well, comes from the Middle East, where the US and Iran initiated new violent strikes against each other.

BTC Slips

The primary cryptocurrency’s major breakout that began on August 19 led to a massive surge of over $16,000, driving it to over $81,000 on a couple of occasions last week before the bears stepped up and halted the move. The subsequent retracements were quite modest aside from the Friday drop to $77,000 after the hawkish speech from Jackson Hole by the new Fed Chair, Kevin Warsh.

Nevertheless, BTC’s more positive sentiment prevailed in the following days, and the asset managed to recover some ground during the weekend. It even tapped $79,000 on Sunday evening before the US and Iran resumed the strikes against each other, and bitcoin dipped by two grand.

The bulls intervened once again on Tuesday, pushing the cryptocurrency to $79,000 once again. However, another leg down followed that drove BTC to $76,500 for the first time in ten days. This came after reports that the US and Iran had carried out more violent strikes.

BTC remains at $77,000 as of now, with its market cap of under $1.550 trillion. Its dominance over the alts has also declined slightly to 59.6% on CoinMarketCap.

FIL, UNI, BTW Defy the Trend

The larger-cap alts are almost all in the red. Ethereum is down below $2,400 after a 2% daily decline; XRP has slipped further away from $1.35; SOL is slightly below $100. TRX, HYPE, ZEC, DOGE, XMR, and LINK are also in the red. Uniswap is the only notable exception, surging by almost 10% to over $6.2.

There are also other gainers from the mid- and lower-cap alts, such as FIL (14%), BTW (13%), and SKY (6%). Most other alts have retreated over the past day.

The total crypto market cap is down by almost 1% daily to $2.6 trillion on CMC.

The post Bitcoin Drops to 10-Day Low, Altcoins Retrace Following New US-Iran Attacks: Market Watch appeared first on CryptoPotato.

Robinhood Chain has been booming in popularity throughout the past month, becoming the talk of town in crypto Twitter, or more like crypto X.

The network saw its total value locked expand by a whopping 93% in the past 30 days, according to data from DeFiLlama, surpassing the likes of Plasma, Avalanche, Sui, and others.

The popular platform, which allows users to scan newly released cryptocurrencies by chain and monitor the performance of different tokens, DexScreener, is flooded with coins on Robinhood Chain, which is indicative of the level of interest the network is attracting. Platforms like FOMO are seeing a surge in interest as the concept of social trading gains traction.

As CryptoPotato reported, the volume aggregated through the network’s automated market makers hit $1.3 billion.

But what are some of the more interesting projects that are attracting investors? Let’s find out.

PONS: Pons Family, Robinhood’s Pump.fun?

Starting off, we have PONS, the native cryptocurrency of the Pons (dot) family platform. As described in their own documents:

“pons is a place to launch and trade tokens on Robinhood Chain. You can browse launches, open any token to see its details, and trade straight from your wallet. Pons never holds your funds. Every launch and trade is a transaction your wallet asks you to approve.”

Undoubtedly the main large actor on Robinhood Chain, PONS boasts a market capitalization of around $285 million at the time of this writing – impressive for a coin launched less than two months ago.

Its price action has been all over the place over the past few days, especially after Hyperliquid announced it would support perps for PONS. The token skyrocketed to a high of slightly below $0.5, only to plummet to about $0.36 and then recover to $0.4, where it’s currently trading at the time of this writing.

PONS is seen as the main “infrastructure play” on Robinhood Chain, and many associate it with Pump.fun – an alternative token launchpad that was largely behind the “meme coin season” that took place on Solana in 2024. However, some market observers have expressed caution, pointing out that expansion of existing solutions (much like Pump.fun itself) to Robinhood Chain could cause serious pressure on PONS.

Cash Cat (CASHCAT)

If you’ve been on crypto X in the past couple of months, you’ve undoubtedly heard stories of people becoming millionaires in a few days after buying and holding Robinhood Chain’s premier meme coin – CASHCAT.

There’s really no way to explain what the token is about other than just reading its name – it’s just that: a cat-themed meme coin, currently sitting at a market capitalization of $280 million, up 40% in the past week. It’s pretty much impossible to break down its gains for a longer period of time because the zeros become far too much, but that’s also a tale as old as crypto meme coin cycles now. Recall DOGE, SHIB, WIF, FARTCOIN, and whatnot.

Holders argue that it’s the network’s largest and most promising meme coin, while countless others are trying to replicate its success by minting alternative meme coins on Pons.

Artificial Inu (AI)

Things change fast in this space and AI is perhaps the main example. The token is actually paired against tokenized Nvidia stock – it’s not paired against the USD, which is one of the more interesting concepts of Robinhood Chain. In other words, the “dog” trades directly against NVDA, which is largely described as the most important stock in the AI space.

Trading activity is also growing the token’s vault, while the generated fees are either burned or locked.

Combined with the virality of a dog-themed meme coin, this has allowed it to explode in both interest and value throughout the past few days, and achieve a market cap similar to that of Cash Cat.

The above are three of the largest coins on the Robinhood Chain by market cap. None of it should be taken as financial advice or recommendation. The article is strictly for informational purposes.

The post Watch These 3 Coins on Robinhood Chain This Week appeared first on CryptoPotato.

UNI is trading around $6.31, up 16.5% in the last 24 hours, after Robinhood Chain’s decentralized exchange volume hit a new daily high above $1.3 billion, according to CoinGecko.

The move ties Uniswap’s token price directly to trading activity on Robinhood Chain, where Uniswap is the network’s primary automated market maker and collects fees on that volume.

Robinhood Chain’s Volume Keeps Climbing

UNI’s 24-hour range ran from $5.58 to $6.37. The token is up nearly 46% for the week and more than 51% for the month, though still down about 35% for the year and roughly 86% below its all-time high of $44.92, set in May 2021.

UNI also gained about 12% against Bitcoin and nearly 13% against Ethereum over the same window, according to CoinGecko’s pairing data.

Trading activity also picked up alongside the price, with the token’s 24-hour volume hitting $1.17 billion, up 95% from the previous day.

Robinhood Chain’s volume has been climbing for weeks, with a record $875 million in daily DEX volume on August 30. By today, CoinGecko’s tracking puts that figure above $1.3 billion, nearly 50% higher within three days.

Separately, Arkham reported that Robinhood Chain is now generating more in chain fees than Solana, Base or Ethereum, pointing to $1.49 billion in DEX volume and 5.52 million daily transactions as the drivers, along with a new trading pattern that pairs meme coins directly against tokenized stocks.

One example it cited is Artificial Inu, a meme coin with a $184 million market cap that trades against a tokenized version of Nvidia stock rather than a stablecoin or the network’s native asset.

Uniswap’s Growing Role on Robinhood Chain

Uniswap’s position on Robinhood Chain goes beyond just facilitating trades. As CryptoPotato reported in August, the platform launched Pools.trade, a token launchpad, on the network early that month, letting users create tokens through either a four-hour Crowd Launch or an Instant Launch before liquidity gets locked into Uniswap v4 pools.

The rollout pulled traders away from rival launchpad token PONS, which fell nearly 14% in 24 hours and almost 48% over the week that followed.

Uniswap still trails other Robinhood Chain applications on direct fee capture. GMGN generated $1.11 million in application fees, and Pons brought in $930,000, compared with $307,000 for Uniswap, according to Arkham’s data.

Meanwhile, Robinhood’s total value locked (TVL) has climbed to $740 million, up 23% on the week, on a network that only launched on July 1.

The post UNI Jumps 16% as Robinhood Chain DEX Volume Hits $1.3B appeared first on CryptoPotato.

Bitcoin continues to hover below $78K, but the absence of meaningful upside progress is becoming increasingly important. After the initial breakout impulse, repeated failures to challenge the $80K-$82K supply area suggest demand is losing strength, raising the probability of a deeper corrective move.

Bitcoin Price Analysis: The Daily Chart

The daily chart shows BTC transitioning from an impulsive breakout into a clear loss of momentum. Following the rapid advance from the mid-$60K region, Bitcoin has spent several sessions fluctuating between roughly $77K and $81K without establishing a fresh high.

This behavior is particularly notable because the price is consolidating directly beneath the major $80.5K-$82.5K resistance zone. The inability to absorb supply around this area, combined with repeated upper wicks, suggests buyers are struggling to maintain the strength seen during the initial rally.

Although the broader structure remains bullish following the breakout above the moving averages and previous resistance levels, the probability of a deeper pullback has increased. The $72K-$74.4K zone is the first major daily support area and represents a logical destination if selling pressure expands.

For the immediate bearish risk to diminish, BTC would need to regain momentum and establish acceptance above $80.5K-$82.5K. Until then, the prolonged hesitation beneath resistance favors caution.

BTC/USDT 4-Hour Chart

The deterioration is more apparent on the 4-hour timeframe. Bitcoin initially formed an ascending channel following its breakout, but the price subsequently lost the lower boundary and failed to recover it.

The latest consolidation has developed into a smaller rising structure around the $77K-$80K area. However, the recent rejection from its upper boundary has pushed BTC back toward the lower trendline near $77K. This makes the current area an important short-term decision point.

A breakdown below this structure would strengthen the case for a larger correction, particularly given the lack of bullish follow-through over recent sessions. In that scenario, the $72K-$74.4K support zone would become increasingly relevant.

Alternatively, buyers could still invalidate the developing bearish setup by reclaiming $79K-$80K and eventually breaking through the $80.5K-$82.5K resistance zone. Yet, without such a move, the repeated inability to extend the rally suggests that downside risk is gradually building.

Sentiment Analysis

The one-week Binance BTC/USDT liquidation heatmap provides additional support for the possibility of increased volatility. Bitcoin is currently positioned between substantial liquidity concentrations on both sides of the market, but the downside cluster is particularly relevant given the weakening short-term price structure.

A broad concentration of liquidation liquidity is visible below the current price, extending approximately through the $74K-$77K region. If BTC loses its current short-term support, this liquidity could act as a magnet and accelerate a sweep toward lower levels.

There is also substantial liquidity above the market, most notably around $80K-$82K, meaning an upside liquidity hunt remains possible. However, Bitcoin’s repeated inability to sustain advances toward this region reduces the strength of that scenario for now.

Overall, the heatmap and price structure point to an increasingly fragile consolidation. A downside liquidity sweep toward the mid-$70K region, potentially followed by a test of the major $72K-$74.4K technical support zone, appears more plausible than it did previously unless buyers quickly restore momentum above $80K.

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