Canada's shrinking trade surplus highlights vulnerabilities in its economic reliance on US exports, amid looming tariff tensions.

The post Canada’s July trade surplus narrows sharply as US exports take a hit appeared first on Crypto Briefing.

Coinbase's full trading activation for CP-USD enhances market accessibility and liquidity, potentially boosting Cluster Protocol's adoption and visibility.

The post Coinbase activates full trading for Cluster Protocol’s CP-USD pair appeared first on Crypto Briefing.

Liverpool's squad depth highlights UEFA's registration challenges, impacting player morale and strategic planning for European competitions.

The post Liverpool omits Federico Chiesa and Wataru Endo from Champions League squad appeared first on Crypto Briefing.

GPT-6 Astra's integration streamlines creative workflows, reducing manual labor and potentially transforming digital content production industries.

The post OpenAI’s GPT-6 Astra enables 3D modeling from Blender to Unreal Engine 5 appeared first on Crypto Briefing.

The Token Transparency Framework could enhance investor confidence and drive institutional adoption by standardizing crypto asset disclosures.

The post Blockworks’ Token Transparency Framework introduces fact sheets to standardize tokenized asset disclosures appeared first on Crypto Briefing.

Bitcoin Magazine

French Hill Eyes Bipartisan Path for Clarity Act Ahead of September Vote

U.S. congressman French Hill expressed the importance of bipartisan support to get the long-awaited crypto market structure bill, the Clarity Act, over the line before the midterms. 

The lawmaker told Fox Business Thursday that Democrats and Republicans have come to “narrow their differences in getting the bill drafted. 

Pro-crypto lawmakers were hoping the Clarity Act passed before Congress departed for August recess. After a delay, a vote will now go ahead on September 15. 

“Can Democrats work with Republicans and make sure America leads the world in distributed ledger technology and financial services?” Hill said. 

“This one remaining significant issue is the ethics provision, and that is best solved by passing the legislation because everybody — no matter what family they belong to, the Trumps or not — would then be under a regulatory framework fully scrutinized by the United States government in commodity and securities and banking regulators,” he added. 

The Clarity Act was first introduced by Hill, the House Financial Services Chairman, last year. 

Crypto companies have long called for clear regulations for the industry. The Clarity Act drafts a framework to formally divide oversight between regulators, distinguishing which digital assets are securities, commodities or stablecoins. 

The House of Representatives passed the bill last July but it has been stalled this year, mostly because the banking lobby clashed with crypto companies over paying customers stablecoin yield. 

A new draft tackling the issue of ethics started circulating in July. It bans government officials from promoting or making money from crypto — something Democrats have criticized the Trump family for doing. 

A group of Democrats said the bill fell short and wanted amendments. Some were accused of deliberately holding it back by Republicans like Cynthia Lummis. 

Some have praised the bipartisan work that has already gone into the bill, namely Coinbase, America’s biggest crypto exchange. The company’s Chief Policy Officer, Faryar Shirzad, said in July that while some Democratic lawmakers were holding back the long-awaited legislation, younger Democrats wanted to pass it. 

President Donald Trump in August said that in order for the U.S. to remain the “undisputed leader in Bitcoin and crypto,” lawmakers had to pass the “very, very powerful legislation.” 

This post French Hill Eyes Bipartisan Path for Clarity Act Ahead of September Vote first appeared on Bitcoin Magazine and is written by Mathew Di Salvo.

Bitcoin Magazine

Kraken and SoFi Link Crypto Trading To Banking Rails

Payward, the parent company of crypto exchange Kraken, and fintech company SoFi Technologies on Thursday announced a deal to route SoFi customers’ crypto orders through Kraken’s institutional trading platform and list SoFi’s stablecoin on the exchange.

Under the agreement, SoFi will send its digital asset order flow to Kraken Prime, Kraken’s prime brokerage arm, which launched in 2025. 

Rather than filling trades against a single order book, Kraken Prime uses smart order routing to compare prices and depth across multiple venues and execute where the fill is best. SoFi said customers will see no change to the app itself.

Payward is also joining the SoFi Exchange Network, the bank’s real-time settlement system, and will list SoFiUSD — SoFi’s bank-issued stablecoin — on Kraken. 

Kraken Prime’s institutional and business clients will in turn gain access to SoFi’s business banking services and round-the-clock fiat settlement. The companies said qualified custody services would follow later.

SoFi holds a national bank charter and has 15.8 million members. The partnership is the latest in a series of tie-ups between Kraken and established financial firms, following arrangements with Deutsche Börse on foreign exchange and derivatives infrastructure, Nasdaq on a tokenized equities gateway, and Franklin Templeton on tokenizing exchange-traded funds.

The news comes after SoFi, a purely digital lender, last year became the first nationally chartered bank in the United States to launch crypto services for retail customers.

The company’s new SoFi crypto platform allows members to buy, sell and hold bitcoin directly within their bank accounts.

Kraken — like other crypto exchanges — is pushing into the traditional finance world, allowing users to trade stocks, bonds and other assets. The company has sold its app as a “primary account for everything.”

This post Kraken and SoFi Link Crypto Trading To Banking Rails first appeared on Bitcoin Magazine and is written by Mathew Di Salvo.

Bitcoin Magazine

Bitcoin Rallies Over $81,000 — And Brings BTC-Related Stocks With It

Bitcoin surged on Thursday — but industry-related stocks rose even quicker as a rally that started weeks ago again picked up steam. 

The price of the biggest cryptocurrency hit as high as $81,282 on Thursday morning in New York, a nearly 3% increase over a 24-hour period. 

Over the past 30 days, the bitcoin price has surged over 23% following both positive regulatory news and announcements from the U.S. Treasury Department regarding debt buybacks. 

But other major crypto company stocks rose quicker. Bitcoin treasury Strategy (NASDAQ: MSTR) was trading more than 13% higher on Thursday. The company on Monday resumed bitcoin buys after a 10-week pause to reshuffle its cash balance sheet. 

America’s biggest crypto exchange, Coinbase, also saw its stock shoot up. Nasdaq-listed COIN was trading 11% higher in the same time period. 

Elsewhere, bitcoin mining companies had a boost too. Top public companies in the space — including the Nasdaq-listed HIVE Digital, MARA, and CleanSpark — all were up on Thursday. 

HIVE Digital led the pack with a 13% jump, while MARA Holdings was up more than 10% on the day. 

Clean energy bitcoin miner CleanSpark jumped by 9%; IREN, which is slowly phasing out its mining operations to focus on AI-compute, was up by 4%. 

Bitcoin had a phenomenal run in August — its third best such month in its history — after the U.S. Treasury Department said it would more than double the size of its government debt repurchases.

The announcement, aimed to tame surging yields not seen in nearly 20 years, hurt the dollar but has benefited non-yielding assets like bitcoin and gold. 

Soon after, President Donald Trump urged lawmakers to get the long-awaited crypto Clarity Act over the line — digital asset legislation the industry has long called for. 

Investors rushed back into bitcoin exchange-traded funds as a result, throwing over $2.8 billion at the vehicles — the most since October, when the coin hit a new all-time high. 

Bitcoin had spent a lot of the year trading below $80,000 per coin, with June and July mostly below $65,000. The coin hit a new record of $126,080 in October. It is now nearly 40% below that number. 

This post Bitcoin Rallies Over $81,000 — And Brings BTC-Related Stocks With It first appeared on Bitcoin Magazine and is written by Mathew Di Salvo.

Bitcoin Magazine

Standard Chartered Debuts Bitcoin Trading In the United Arab Emirates 

Multinational bank Standard Chartered announced Thursday that it had debuted bitcoin spot trading for institutional clients in the United ‌Arab Emirates. 

The bank said that eligible institutional clients would be able to use the service — the first of its kind in the country. 

Standard Chartered in 2024 launched digital asset custody services in the UAE, months before it debuted spot crypto trading in other countries. 

“The UAE has developed a clear digital assets regulatory framework that supports institutional participation and innovation,” Rola Abu Manneh, Chief Executive Officer, UAE, Middle East and Pakistan at Standard Chartered, said.

He added: “By combining execution with secure custody, governance and the connectivity of a global bank, we are providing clients with a more integrated way to participate in digital asset markets.”

Standard Chartered in 2025 set up a trading desk for bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies in London, making it one of the first global banks to enter spot cryptocurrency trading.

The crypto desk became part of the forex trading operation. The bank the same year debuted a blockchain unit called Libeara to help institutions tokenize traditional assets. 

Standard Chartered has lately said that bitcoin’s price should continue to surge this year. Writing in an August note to investors, the bank’s Global Head of Digital Assets Research, Geoffrey Kendrick, said that a $100,000 price forecast by year-end was too low. 

“Once investors remember how quickly prices can accelerate to the topside, and we get past the 6 October date (12 months after the all-time high) an overshoot towards the all-time high (USD126k) before year-end may be possible,” he said, adding that bitcoin’s bear market so far has been the shallowest on record. 

This post Standard Chartered Debuts Bitcoin Trading In the United Arab Emirates  first appeared on Bitcoin Magazine and is written by Mathew Di Salvo.

Bitcoin Magazine

‘Crypto Capital of the World’: SEC Chair Expects Clarity Act to Pass This Month

Wall Street’s top regulator has said that he expects the long-awaited Clarity Act will get passed this month and the U.S. will be on track to be the “crypto capital of the world.” 

Speaking to Fox Business on Tuesday, Securities and Exchange Chairman Paul Atkins confirmed that the regulator was pushing ahead with rules to help the crypto industry. 

Pro-crypto lawmakers had hoped to pass the Clarity Act before Congress broke for August recess, but the vote slipped to September. The bill will establish a framework for distinguishing between digital assets that are securities, commodities or stablecoins. 

“The Clarity Act will be voted on in the Senate on the 15th of September,” Atkins said. “I anticipate and hope that it will be passed by the Senate and sent ultimately to the President’s desk for a signature.”

He added: “We’re changing the past approaches to try to update [rules], modernize them in the age of blockchain and crypto assets.”

Despite a vote on the Clarity Act being delayed, regulators like the SEC and Commodity Futures Trading Commission have said they will still proceed with trying to shape crypto policy. 

Last week, the SEC sent a proposal to the White House aiming to “clarify the framework for the custody of crypto assets” for investment advisers and companies. 

Despite being passed by the House of Representatives last year, the Clarity Act has been in a deadlock for most of this year after the banking lobby clashed with lawmakers and crypto businesses over whether platforms like Coinbase should be able to pay customers yield. 

Some lawmakers have sought to change wording in the bill regarding ethics, and a new bill started circulating in July. The draft bans government officials from promoting and making money from crypto. 

But other Democratic lawmakers said it still fell short; a number of pro-crypto Republicans accused Democrats of deliberately playing politics and delaying the bill. 

This post ‘Crypto Capital of the World’: SEC Chair Expects Clarity Act to Pass This Month first appeared on Bitcoin Magazine and is written by Mathew Di Salvo.

The Bank for International Settlements released a working paper on Sept. 2 describing a prototype for checking the authenticity of official statistics. The system turns a statistical file into a cryptographic fingerprint, anchors a summary of those fingerprints on XRP Ledger, and lets a recipient compare the file with the public record.

The result creates a split verdict for XRP. The prototype gives XRPL a credible institutional-style use case, while its batching design keeps the direct fee-burn pathway mechanically small. One ledger transaction can represent thousands of datasets, so useful activity can scale much faster than the number of transactions consuming XRP.

The research first appeared online through SAGE on Aug. 1; Sept. 2 marks its release as BIS Working Paper 1374. The paper presents the authors' views and says its references to firms and projects are illustrative. Its implementation remains an experimental XRPL DevNet proof of concept, and the reviewed sources disclose no commercial relationship with Ripple.

How the authentication system works

Official statistics commonly travel in SDMX, a standard for exchanging statistical data and metadata. The prototype normalizes an SDMX file and applies SHA3-512 hashing to the whole file or to individual data series. It then combines those fingerprints in a Merkle tree, a structure that compresses a large group of records into one summary value called a root.

The root is written into the memo field of an XRPL transaction. Underlying statistics and the prototype's operational stores and proofs stay off-chain. The returned SDMX file embeds the transaction reference, ordered fingerprints, and a signed verifiable credential, giving a recipient the material needed to rebuild the root and compare it with the ledger.

XRPL therefore serves as a timestamped public notary for the commitment. It does not serve as the database holding the economic figures. The open-source implementation describes itself as experimental, unsuitable for production, and unmaintained.

The authors selected XRPL for low nominal fees, fast consensus finality, and accessible developer resources. They also made the blockchain interface replaceable, so another ledger could perform the same anchoring role. That design choice makes the prototype evidence for the authentication method and for XRPL's ability to host it, rather than evidence that the method depends on XRP Ledger.

Performance results came from a single developer workstation connected to XRPL DevNet and using a synthetic SDMX corpus. In those controlled tests, median publication latency was three to five seconds and verification took one to two seconds. The evaluation excluded sustained Mainnet load, an enterprise firewall, hardware-security-module-backed signing, and adversarial conditions. DevNet uses test XRP with no real-world value, so the run produced technical measurements instead of live token demand.

Those boundaries still leave a meaningful result. A statistical publisher could provide an independent integrity check without exposing confidential data on a public ledger. The economic trade-off appears in the same mechanism: Merkle batching reduces the number of on-chain commitments needed to authenticate a large body of information.

The XRP value-capture math

XRPL's standard transaction cost normally starts at 10 drops, equal to 0.00001 XRP. When a transaction enters a validated ledger, its fee is destroyed. Network load can raise the cost, and special transaction types can carry different minimums, but the BIS paper uses 10 drops as its base case.

The fee scales with anchoring transactions, while dataset volume can be compressed into batches. The following arithmetic illustrates the gap under a constant 10-drop minimum and standard transactions:

These are scale illustrations, not deployment forecasts. Actual burn would reflect how frequently publishers submit anchors, how many datasets they batch, prevailing network load, and the transaction type. The DevNet prototype generated none of this Mainnet demand.

The paper's cost model points in the same direction. It assumes a 10-drop fee and an illustrative price of $0.30 per XRP, which is a model input rather than a current quote. With a batch size of 1,000, the authors calculate an on-chain cost of $0.000000003 per dataset. Above roughly 50 items per batch, processing and raw storage dominate the chain and proof-storage costs in their examples.

Urgent releases can favor smaller batches because waiting for more datasets creates delay. Even then, the paper says XRPL's low nominal fee bounds the penalty. For XRP holders, this means production cadence matters more than the headline number of files or series authenticated.

Mainnet reserves create a second, conditional pathway. Under current XRPL reserve rules, each address must hold a 1 XRP base reserve, with another 0.2 XRP for every reserve-counting ledger object. The network holds those balances as prefunding; ordinary transaction fees are the XRP that gets destroyed.

Reserve demand grows when a deployment needs new accounts or ledger objects. A dataset does not carry its own reserve requirement, and repeated memo anchoring from an existing account does not lock another 1 XRP each time. Validator voting can also change the reserve levels. Production usage could therefore increase held XRP across many new institutional accounts, but the effect depends on deployment architecture rather than dataset throughput.

The paper supports a narrow value-capture conclusion. XRP would supply the fees and reserves for a Mainnet version, while Merkle batching deliberately compresses the recurring fee flow. Under the paper's assumptions and current fee mechanics, the direct burn channel stays small even as authenticated data volume rises.

XRP's market price can still respond to expectations, liquidity, and activity elsewhere on the network. Those forces sit outside this prototype. The BIS work establishes XRPL as a viable low-cost authentication layer under controlled conditions; material token demand would require sustained anchoring cadence, broad account creation, or other XRP-centered activity that the experiment did not demonstrate.

The post BIS shows why real institutional adoption on XRP Ledger won’t trigger the XRP supply squeeze holders expect appeared first on CryptoSlate.

The Aug. 28 Solana fee vote on SGP-0003 produced an unusual result: a majority of participating stake supported the reform, yet the proposal failed. The outcome offers the clearest evidence so far that co-founder Anatoly Yakovenko can shape the network’s economic agenda while validators and stakers retain formal authority over a mandate.

SGP-0003 finalized with 142.844 million SOL in favor, 50.146 million against, and 72.025 million abstaining across 1,152 voters. About 265.015 million SOL participated, equal to 61.14% of the 433.486 million SOL snapshot. Quorum was comfortably cleared. Approval stood at 53.90% because the governing calculation included abstentions, leaving the For side roughly 33.83 million SOL short of the required two-thirds.

Abstaining stake remained separate from opposition, but it still increased the support needed for approval. That rule turned the large middle of the electorate into a decisive part of the result and made coalition breadth more important than a simple For-versus-Against comparison.

The vote bundled a rulebook test with an economic package

The rejection exposed a conflict inside Solana’s new governance record. The frozen text of SGP-0003 said no quorum applied and excluded abstentions from its approval calculation. The current governance FAQ and the Constitution ratified in the same cycle count For, Against, and Abstain toward quorum participation and the two-thirds denominator.

The official system applied that inclusive rule and finalized the proposal as rejected. The frozen ballot’s wording would have yielded a different approval percentage, but the recorded outcome follows the FAQ and Constitution. For voters, abstention therefore offered a way to decline the full mandate without joining the Against camp. That describes the ballot’s effect rather than any individual voter’s motive.

CryptoSlate’s earlier coverage of Solana’s governance framework outlined how stake can sponsor proposals and override validator choices. SGP-0003 provides a live demonstration of how the denominator shapes power: public advocacy can put a policy on the agenda, while approval still depends on a sufficiently broad stake coalition.

The economic package made that coalition difficult to assemble. Yakovenko’s public support focused on the proposed starting rate. On Aug. 25, he backed a rate of one-tenth of a lamport per requested cost unit, according to Solana Compass. The ballot covered a full three-stage path, with later feature gates lifting the resource-fee rate to one-quarter and then one-half of a lamport.

Validators and stakers were thus deciding on more than the first step Yakovenko highlighted. They were asked to endorse the entire ramp and the distributional consequences built into SIMD-0553.

The technical plan would replace Solana’s 5,000-lamport fee per signature with a 2,500-lamport inclusion fee per transaction, paid to the block leader. It would add a resource fee based on the scheduler cost requested by a transaction and burn that fee in full. Priority fees would remain unchanged and continue going to the leader.

Charging for requested resources would affect users unevenly. Applications that set loose compute limits could pay more or encounter insufficient-balance rejections. Efficient low-resource transactions could pay less. Legacy validator vote transactions would need compute-budget and fast-path updates ahead of Alpenglow, and every validator client implementation would need the relevant feature gates before the consensus-breaking change could first activate.

CryptoSlate previously examined the design’s potential burn effect. The final Solana fee vote supplies the political lesson. General support for pricing scarce resources left major questions about the rate path, the cost burden, and how much policy should be approved in a single mandate.

The Solana fee vote makes coalition-building part of protocol design

The recorded positions crossed prominent operators and delegated-stake holders. Validator Info listed Jupiter, Drift, Bitwise Onchain Solutions, and Forward Industries among opponents. Figment, Staking Facilities, Kiln, and P2P.org were among the supporters.

The arithmetic rules out a single-voter explanation. Jupiter’s allocation of roughly 11.78 million SOL was substantial, yet the For side needed approximately 33.83 million additional SOL to reach two-thirds. The wider distribution of opposition and abstention produced the shortfall.

Yakovenko’s public comments also complicate a founder-versus-validator reading. In an Aug. 27 reply, he said validator revenue encourages more people to stake. His argument placed validator economics within the network’s security model, even as he promoted the reform’s initial resource-fee rate.

Formal governance covers only one stage of the change. An SGP provides a directional stake mandate. Technical design lives in a SIMD, and deployment still requires compatible validator-client releases and separately scheduled feature activation. Finalizing a vote locks the tally. The implementation process follows separately.

That division of authority defines the practical constraint on Yakovenko. His endorsement elevated the fee question and supplied an economic argument. The full three-stage package still fell short of the coalition required for a stake mandate. Validators and stakers exercised the authority granted by the ratified rules, while developers retain responsibility for technical review and implementation.

Yakovenko’s agenda-setting role remains visible in the proposed response. AMBCrypto reported after his initial endorsement that he favored splitting the reform into one proposal replacing the fixed signature fee and another deciding whether validators or an automatic mechanism should set future rates. Unbundling those choices could isolate areas of agreement and give voters a clearer view of each tradeoff.

A smaller successor could begin through the optimistic SIMD process. Under Solana’s governance process, holders of 15% of active stake can still force a network vote. The Constitution also directs fundamental economic changes toward the SGP path. Splitting the plan would improve its packaging while leaving open the possibility of another validator and staker decision.

SGP-0003 therefore marks a change in how founder influence operates on Solana. Yakovenko’s support helped define the problem and the first proposed rate. The electorate rejected the bundled mandate under a supermajority rule. Any successor now needs either a more focused technical scope, a broader stake coalition, or both.

The Solana fee vote demonstrated the governance system’s ability to stop a founder-supported implementation. The next round will test the other half of the power equation: how effectively the same founder can reframe the policy, separate its contested parts, and persuade enough stake to move it forward.

The post What Solana’s failed fee vote reveals about Anatoly Yakovenko’s power appeared first on CryptoSlate.

Hyperliquid Strategies, a Nasdaq-listed company using equity sales to build a treasury of Hyperliquid's HYPE token, has expanded its committed-equity facility with Chardan Capital Markets to $2.5 billion from $1 billion.

The immediate runway before a new dilution constraint applies is far smaller than the headline commitment. Hyperliquid Strategies' annual report disclosed $646.6 million of gross facility proceeds through June 30, followed by another $117.1 million raised through facility shares after quarter-end. Together, those figures show at least $763.7 million of proceeds, leaving no more than about $236.3 million before aggregate sales reach $1 billion. Any later sales would reduce that headroom, and the September 1 filing did not provide an updated utilization total.

Once aggregate facility sales pass $1 billion, the issue price becomes decisive. Under the operative amendment, Hyperliquid Strategies cannot complete a sale if doing so would take the aggregate number of facility shares issued at prices below $12.02 above 42,641,847. That exchange cap equals 19.99% of the company's pre-amendment voting power or outstanding common shares. Issuance above the cap requires stockholder approval unless that approval is not required under Nasdaq rules.

The restriction does not, however, translate into a clean dollar ceiling. Shares sold at $12.02 or more do not fall under the price-specific cap, while the remaining capacity for lower-priced sales depends on how many qualifying shares already count toward it. The filings disclose aggregate shares, proceeds and an average price, but not the transaction-level price mix needed to calculate that count. The amendment also permits the cap to be reduced by other transactions that Nasdaq treats as part of the same issuance.

The dilution mechanism matters because equity sales have financed the company's crypto treasury strategy. An August 27 update said Hyperliquid Strategies had deployed $773.4 million to acquire about 16.5 million HYPE and held roughly 29.3 million HYPE in total. It also reported $646.6 million raised at an average issue price of $8.70; that figure did not include the additional $117.1 million of post-June 30 facility sales disclosed in the annual report.

The $2.5 billion facility therefore represents optional financing capacity, not a guaranteed HYPE buying program. The dated disclosures indicate at most $236.3 million remained before the $1 billion trigger; beyond that point, access to the full commitment will depend on sale prices, remaining exchange-cap headroom and whether stockholders must authorize additional discounted issuance.

The post Hyperliquid treasury company increases token buying strategy to $2.5 billion as shares run out appeared first on CryptoSlate.

Bitcoin may be slipping beyond its four-year cycle as institutional capital and macro liquidity gain influence over price.

On Sept. 3, Bitcoin analyst Willy Woo said that Bitcoin could be moving toward a 6-to-8-year rhythm tied more closely to traditional finance’s short-term debt cycle than to its halving schedule.

According to him, this shift does not make halvings irrelevant. Instead, it means their influence is shrinking relative to the scale of capital now moving through exchange-traded products, corporate treasuries and other institutional channels.

Bitcoin’s April 2024 halving cut the block reward to 3.125 BTC, leaving annual new issuance at roughly 164,250 BTC, or about 0.82% of current circulating supply. The next halving, expected in 2028, would cut that pace again to about 82,125 BTC a year, equivalent to roughly 0.41% of today’s supply base.

That makes each new supply shock smaller just as Wall Street’s footprint grows larger.

Institutional capital is starting to rival Bitcoin’s internal clock

The balance has already changed materially, with institutional holdings now dwarfing the amount of new Bitcoin miners add to circulation each year.

Data from Bitcoin Treasuries shows 100 public companies now hold more than 1.2 million BTC, while Bitcoin exchange-traded products around the world control more than 1.5 million coins.

Together, those two groups account for more than 2.7 million BTC.

That stock is already more than 16 times the amount of new Bitcoin miners currently produce in a year. After the 2028 halving, the gap would widen further as annual issuance falls toward 82,125 BTC.

The comparison does not mean institutional holders dictate price. It does show how much smaller the miner-supply shock has become relative to the Bitcoin already sitting inside corporate balance sheets and regulated investment products.

Woo’s argument is that this changing balance could make credit conditions, global liquidity and portfolio flows increasingly important in determining major market turns.

Bitcoin’s historical four-year rhythm has always been approximate rather than mechanical. Halvings, monetary policy and investor psychology have overlapped across previous cycles, while the limited number of completed cycles makes any fixed pattern difficult to establish.

Recent research has also stopped short of declaring the old framework dead.

Galaxy Research said in June that the four-year cycle remained visible, although its amplitude was compressing. A 21Shares midyear review similarly described the pattern as evolving rather than broken.

Fidelity Digital Assets has also argued that Bitcoin’s larger market capitalization, broader institutional base and lower volatility could make future cycles behave differently from earlier boom-and-bust periods.

Woo’s 6-to-8-year thesis therefore remains a developing framework rather than a confirmed replacement.

The measurable change is already underway: annual miner issuance is shrinking toward a fraction of circulating supply while millions of Bitcoin accumulate inside institutional vehicles.

If that trend continues, the next major Bitcoin cycle may depend less on the halving clock alone and more on the same credit and liquidity forces that already shape traditional markets.

The post Bitcoin may be leaving its 4-year cycle behind for a 6-to-8-year Wall Street rhythm appeared first on CryptoSlate.

Revolut filed with the OCC and FDIC on March 4 to establish Revolut Bank US, an insured national bank that would take deposits, issue credit cards, make loans, and connect directly to Fedwire and ACH.

Nearly six months later, that application remains pending, while federal regulators have spent the same stretch conditionally approving or converting bank charters for Circle, Ripple, Coinbase, Paxos, BitGo and several other crypto firms.

Revolut has not been denied, though its application sits under review, and comparing it directly to those crypto approvals misses what each company asked Washington for.

A national bank wants more

Revolut's application describes a full-service digital national bank supporting deposit accounts, card products, consumer and commercial lending, cross-border payments, and investment and trading services, built to reduce the company's reliance on partner banks.

The company says it serves more than 70 million customers across 40 markets and carries a $75 billion valuation, reached in a November 2025 secondary offering.

That puts the application through every layer of traditional bank review at once. Regulators must weigh capital and liquidity adequate to survive stress, credit underwriting and loss reserves for its lending book, and BSA and OFAC compliance given the deposits and payments involved.

Community Reinvestment Act obligations tied to insured status add another layer, along with an OCC judgment on whether Revolut's management can run a US national bank safely. Federal deposit insurance adds exposure to the Deposit Insurance Fund itself, an industry-funded, government-backed layer none of the crypto trust charters carry.

Most crypto approvals cover something narrower than Revolut's case

The OCC's December 2025 approvals for First National Digital Currency Bank and Ripple National Trust Bank, along with conversions for BitGo Bank, Fidelity Digital Assets Trust Company and Paxos National Trust, were national trust-bank approvals.

They centered on custody, reserves, and digital-asset services, well short of full deposit banking.

Circle's charter provides custody for the firm, its affiliates, and a limited set of institutional customers. Coinbase National Trust Company offers digital-asset custody and related transactional services strictly to custody clients.

World Liberty's trust bank issues and redeems its USD1 stablecoin and holds reserves. Its OCC decision states plainly that the company has no plans to become an insured depository institution, so Community Reinvestment Act requirements do not apply.

Bridge, owned by Stripe, received a similar stablecoin-and-custody trust charter, with the OCC noting that the stablecoins involved are not deposits and carry no FDIC insurance under the GENIUS Act framework.

Still, these are not the same license Revolut is seeking, but the gap between them is worth reading into.

The comparison that runs through other fintechs

Three other companies pursued the same full-service insured bank charter Revolut wants, and their outcomes show what the OCC requires.

Nubank received preliminary conditional approval in January for a new national bank offering lending, deposits, and digital-asset custody. The OCC noted it still needs FDIC insurance and other preopening approvals before final sign-off.

Upstart received similar preliminary conditional approval in July for a fully digital insured lender focused on consumer credit, while bunq did not clear that bar.

The OCC denied bunq's application over issues with capital, management experience, profitability assumptions, and risk to the Deposit Insurance Fund. The agency found that bunq's proposed leadership lacked sufficient US banking and credit-product experience and that its financial projections were not adequately supported.

Revolut sits inside that same full-bank lane, which makes Nubank, Upstart and bunq the honest comparison set, well beyond Circle or Coinbase.

The Revolut review has turned contested on its own terms

Fair Finance Watch filed formal opposition to Revolut's application on May 7, citing the company's international compliance history and criticizing its Community Reinvestment Act plan.

The Federal Reserve has since pressed Revolut on BSA and OFAC obligations, the timeframe behind its CRA plan, and its planned service to low- and moderate-income communities.

Lithuania's central bank fined Revolut €3.5 million in 2025 for anti-money laundering deficiencies found during a routine inspection, covering gaps in transaction monitoring and suspicious-activity detection.

Regulators identified no confirmed money laundering, and Revolut says it has committed to corrective action.

Inner City Press has separately alleged that the OCC withheld more than 1,000 pages of records tied to the Revolut review in response to a FOIA request.

That claim shows the review has become genuinely adversarial at the same moment the OCC is publicly marketing itself as newly open to chartering.

Comptroller Jonathan Gould said in August that the OCC had received 40 new charter applications since President Trump took office, with 23 involving digital assets.

The agency had resolved many complete applications within roughly 120 days, a timeline applied only to complete filings.

The OCC's guidance allows it to return deficient filings or request additional information when supervisory, compliance, or CRA issues remain open. A faster chartering posture and a cautious approach to insured deposit-taking can coexist inside the same agency without contradiction.

The length of the full-bank lane

The bull case has Revolut eventually joining Nubank and Upstart with conditional approval, showing that a global fintech can become a US national bank if it fully satisfies capital, CRA, management, and compliance requirements.

Under that path, more competition arrives in deposits, cards, remittances, and crypto-linked retail finance, and the broader “crypto banking boom” narrative gains a genuine full-bank chapter alongside its custody and stablecoin one.

The bear case has Revolut's review dragging on, facing a bunq-style denial, or ending in withdrawal, while trust-bank approvals for crypto firms keep moving forward on their own separate track.

In that scenario, the apparent boom in crypto banking narrows considerably in practice. Custody and stablecoin infrastructure keep advancing under federal supervision, while the harder door into deposit-funded, FDIC-insured banking stays about as difficult to walk through as it always was.

Washington has genuinely opened federal banking infrastructure to digital assets this year. It has not yet decided how far it will open the older, harder door sitting right next to it, and Revolut's application is where that answer is getting tested.

The post Revolut hit by Washington crypto boom illusion, exposing massive two-tier banking system appeared first on CryptoSlate.

PONS, the token behind Robinhood Chain's biggest meme coin factory, flipped CASHCAT to become the chain's largest cryptocurrency by market cap—and its chart looks like a hockey stick.

The forthcoming bill would pause advanced AI development, create a federal regulator, and threaten violators with up to 20 years in prison.

The model can independently discover and exploit unknown security flaws across hardened systems, triggering a staged rollout and White House review before public access.

The three AI platforms restored service Thursday after users said the simultaneous disruptions brought their work to a halt.

Ethereum funds broke a 12-day winning run and XRP snapped an 11-session streak on Wednesday, while Bitcoin ETFs bounced back with $101.15 million in one day after their worst outflow since July.

Bitcoin has decisively reclaimed its closely watched 50-week moving average.

House Republicans’ decision to cut the September legislative session short could significantly delay the CLARITY Act.

XRP ETFs outpace the token by 100% amid an abnormal liquidity mismatch in U.S. order books during a $27.2 million  trading session.

U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent’s warning that the world is "awash in debt" has inadvertently made the case for Bitcoin.

Binance shares new safety measures on how users can protect their funds amid rising phishing attacks from scammers tricking victims.

TLDR

• Hyperscale Data reports about $110 million in stockholders’ equity for June.
• Total assets reached about $360 million at the end of the June reporting quarter.
• Net book value stands near $0.95 per share based on the June 30 share count data.
• Gross asset value reaches about $3.10 per share before liabilities are deducted.
• GPUS falls 3.68% to $0.1911 as the company releases its balance sheet update.

Hyperscale Data (GPUS) shares reported about $110 million in stockholders’ equity for the quarter ended June 30, 2026. The company also reported $360 million in total assets and about 116 million shares outstanding. Meanwhile, GPUS fell 3.68% to $0.1911 after dropping below $0.20 during the session.

Hyperscale Data, Inc., GPUS

Hyperscale Data Reports $110 Million in Stockholders’ Equity

Hyperscale Data said common stockholders held about $110 million in net stockholders’ equity at quarter end. The company reached that figure after accounting for the carrying value of its preferred stock. It used reported balance sheet figures from its Form 10-Q for the calculation.

The company had 116,290,473 shares outstanding on a post-split basis as of June 30. Hyperscale Data divided its net common equity by that share count to calculate book value. The calculation produced a net book value of approximately $0.95 for each common share.

The reported book value provides an accounting measure of common shareholder equity at the end of the quarter. However, the figure does not represent liquidation proceeds or an estimate of future market performance. Instead, it reflects the company’s recorded financial position on the reporting date.

Gross Assets Reach $360 Million at Quarter End

Hyperscale Data also reported total assets of $360.038 million for the June quarter. Those assets supported a gross asset value calculation of about $3.10 for each common share. The company used the same June 30 share count when calculating that measure.

Gross asset value differs from net book value because the measure does not subtract company liabilities. Therefore, it represents the company’s reported asset base rather than residual equity available to common stockholders. Hyperscale Data presented both measures to provide broader balance sheet context.

The calculation also shows the difference between total assets and equity attributable to common shareholders. Liabilities and other balance sheet obligations account for much of that difference. As a result, the two per-share measures serve separate accounting purposes.

Hyperscale Data Maintains Data Center and Strategic Asset Focus

Hyperscale Data operates as an artificial intelligence data center company with a business strategy anchored by Bitcoin. The company also holds operating businesses and strategic investments across data center infrastructure and other industries. Its latest update focused on the accounting value attached to those assets and businesses.

Management presented the figures to provide shareholders with additional context about the company’s reported financial position. The update focused on stockholders’ equity, total assets, outstanding shares, and related per-share calculations. It did not provide a new earnings forecast or financial guidance.

The reported figures reflect Hyperscale Data’s financial position as of June 30, 2026. Future filings could change these measures as assets, liabilities, equity, or outstanding shares change. The latest disclosure therefore provides a quarter-end balance sheet snapshot rather than a forward-looking valuation.

The post Hyperscale Data, Inc. (GPUS) Stock: Company Reveals $110 Million in Stockholders’ Equity appeared first on Blockonomi.

TLDR

• Roblox stock gains 1.58% as creator earnings top $1.5 billion during 2025.
• U.S. Roblox creators generated a $752 million GDP impact during 2025 alone.
• Creator earnings jumped from $923 million in 2024 to above $1.5 billion in 2025.
• Roblox says studied markets supported nearly 12,000 full-time job equivalents.
• Jumpstart and Incubator programs aim to expand Roblox’s developer pipeline.

Roblox Corporation gained 1.58% to $41.86 as new creator economy data highlighted stronger platform earnings and wider economic reach. The stock recovered from midday weakness after briefly moving above $43 earlier in the session. Roblox said creator earnings exceeded $1.5 billion in 2025, sharply above the prior year’s total.

Roblox Corporation, RBLX

Roblox Creator Earnings Top $1.5 Billion

Roblox reported that creators earned more than $1.5 billion during 2025 across its global platform. That figure surpassed the $923 million paid to creators during 2024. The increase showed stronger monetization across games, virtual items, and other creator-led experiences.

Roblox also said its studied markets supported nearly 12,000 full-time job equivalents worldwide. The company included the United States, Australia, Mexico, the European Union, and MENA in its reports. Together, the findings showed a broader economic role for the platform beyond gaming activity.

The reports also showed that many creators operate independently instead of through large studios. In the United States, 83% of surveyed creators worked as individual creators. That structure gives smaller developers access to platform tools, distribution, and direct earning opportunities.

U.S. Creator Economy Adds $752 Million to GDP

Roblox’s U.S. creator economy generated an estimated $752 million in GDP impact during 2025. The figure represented a 69% increase from 2024, according to analysis from Nordicity. That growth strengthened Roblox’s position as a digital platform with measurable economic activity.

Creator payments also reached regions outside major technology centers across the United States. About 66% of U.S. creator earnings went to areas with lower concentrations of technology workers. Those payments totaled nearly $444 million and reached creators across 5,257 ZIP codes.

Roblox said U.S. creators contributed an estimated $2.37 billion to the economy between 2017 and 2025. The longer-term figure shows how creator activity expanded as the platform grew. It also adds context to the company’s latest annual earnings and employment estimates.

Roblox Expands Programs for New Developers

Roblox continues to expand tools and training programs designed to support new and experienced creators. The company offers Roblox Studio and a mobile-first Build tab for creating platform content. These tools lower technical barriers for people entering game development.

The company also added Jumpstart and Incubator programs during 2026 to support developer growth. Jumpstart helps creators learn the platform and experiment with different types of games. Incubator runs for six months and helps teams develop concepts into scalable products.

Roblox also supports learning programs that introduce younger users to coding and design skills. These efforts connect platform growth with a larger pipeline of future developers. The latest economic reports place that strategy beside rising creator earnings and broader regional activity.

The post Roblox Corporation (RBLX) Stock: Surges as Creator Economy Earnings Top $1.5 Billion appeared first on Blockonomi.

TLDR:

• Crypto market capital is returning after artificial intelligence investments attracted much of the speculative money earlier this year.
• CZ says investors are moving “hot money” toward Bitcoin and spot ETFs, supporting renewed demand across major digital assets.
• Bitcoin rose from below $65,000 in mid-August to about $78,500 on September 3 amid stronger institutional crypto flows.
• CZ argues finance will retain its economic role because people and artificial intelligence systems will continue requiring money.

The crypto market is attracting capital that previously moved toward artificial intelligence investments, Binance co-founder Changpeng Zhao says. The shift is helping Bitcoin and other digital assets recover after a weak period earlier this year.

CZ said speculative “hot money” is beginning to leave AI stocks and enter Bitcoin, crypto exchange-traded funds, and related assets. He linked the change to renewed institutional participation and stronger ETF demand.

Bitcoin traded near $78,500 on September 3 after falling below $65,000 in mid-August. That represents a recovery of more than 20% from those August lows. The move provides early evidence of improving demand, although CZ did not disclose specific capital-flow figures.

Crypto Market Draws Money Previously Chasing AI Growth

Earlier this year, CZ argued that the AI investment boom had diverted speculative capital from digital assets. Investors poured money into chipmakers, infrastructure providers, data centers, and companies connected to generative AI development.

That concentration left less risk capital available for the crypto market, contributing to weaker prices and lower trading activity. The latest rotation suggests investors are reassessing opportunities after the strong run across AI-linked assets.

CZ described the returning funds as “hot money,” a term for capital that moves quickly between markets. Such funds often follow momentum, liquidity, and short-term return opportunities instead of long-term fundamentals.

The AI capital rotation does not mean investors are abandoning artificial intelligence. Instead, some traders may be reducing crowded positions and seeking assets that have underperformed. Bitcoin’s rebound gives those investors a fresh momentum signal.

CZ also rejected concerns that AI could reduce the long-term importance of financial services. “The money industry is not going away,” he said. “You and AI will still need money.”

His argument positions blockchain networks and digital assets within an economy increasingly shaped by autonomous software. AI systems may eventually conduct transactions, purchase computing resources, or pay for digital services. Those activities would still require payment and settlement infrastructure.

The returning capital could increase liquidity across major assets if the rotation continues. Nevertheless, fast-moving speculative funds can leave just as quickly when momentum weakens or another investment theme gains attention.

Institutional Crypto Flows Strengthen the Market Recovery

CZ linked Bitcoin’s August rally partly to the return of institutional investors. He also pointed toward capital entering ETFs that track spot cryptocurrency prices.

Spot ETFs allow investors to gain regulated price exposure without directly holding tokens. They also provide familiar brokerage access, established custody arrangements, and standard reporting structures. These features can reduce operational barriers for institutions entering the crypto market.

Bitcoin’s rise above $78,000 indicates that demand strengthened after the mid-August decline. The recovery also came while investors reconsidered allocations across technology stocks and alternative assets.

Still, price appreciation alone cannot confirm a lasting capital rotation. Trading volume, ETF inflows, stablecoin liquidity, and corporate purchases offer clearer evidence of whether new funds are entering the sector.

Institutional crypto flows can affect more than Bitcoin. Stronger demand often spreads toward Ether and other liquid assets after Bitcoin establishes upward momentum. Smaller tokens may also benefit, although they usually carry greater volatility and thinner liquidity.

CZ remains an influential figure within the digital asset industry despite stepping down from Binance leadership. Investors closely follow his public comments because of his experience running the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange by trading activity.

Binance remains privately held, meaning investors cannot buy its shares on a public stock exchange. Therefore, traders seeking exposure to renewed activity must use digital assets, listed crypto companies, or regulated investment products.

The crypto market now faces a test of whether returning speculative funds develop into sustained demand. Continued ETF purchases and broader institutional participation would provide firmer support for CZ’s capital-rotation view.

The post Crypto Market Draws Fresh Capital as CZ Flags AI Rotation appeared first on Blockonomi.

TLDR

• MSTR jumps 14.62% as Strategy unveils seven-city AI forum with Google Cloud.
• Strategy and Google Cloud launch enterprise AI forums across seven U.S. cities.
• The October forum series targets enterprise data, governance, and AI at scale.
• Strategy brings Google Cloud into a seven-city U.S. enterprise AI forum series.
• MSTR rallies to $141.20 as Strategy expands enterprise AI outreach with Google.

Strategy Inc. (MSTR) stock surged 14.62% to $141.20 as the company announced a seven-city forum series with Google Cloud. MSTR climbed throughout the session and held near its intraday high, giving the announcement added market attention. The series will focus on enterprise data, governance, business context, and the operational demands of scaling artificial intelligence systems.

Strategy Inc, MSTR

Strategy and Google Cloud Launch Seven-City AI Forum

Strategy will hold the AI Transformation Forum across seven major United States business and technology centers during October 2026. The program will visit New York, Boston, Washington, Sunnyvale, Chicago, Dallas and Atlanta across four weeks. Google offices will host the New York, Boston, and Sunnyvale forums, while separate venues will handle the other sessions.

New York will open the series on October 1, followed by Boston on October 6 and Washington on October 8. Sunnyvale will host the next forum on October 14, before Chicago takes its turn on October 20. Dallas follows on October 22, while Atlanta will close the announced schedule on October 29.

The forums will target data chiefs, information officers, technology leaders, and executives managing enterprise analytics and transformation programs. Sessions will address trusted enterprise data, semantic layers, governance, compute efficiency, and methods for moving pilot programs into production. Strategy and Google Cloud will also bring enterprise specialists into discussions about practical deployment challenges and business requirements.

Enterprise Data and Governance Drive Forum Agenda

Companies increasingly need consistent business definitions and governed information as automated systems take on more operational tasks. Strategy says enterprises must control how systems access internal data and interpret business context before expanding deployments across departments. The forum agenda therefore connects data quality, governance, and operational consistency with broader enterprise technology decisions.

The program will also address rising token use and computing costs as organizations expand workloads beyond early experiments. Strategy plans to examine methods that reduce resource consumption while improving the economic return from larger enterprise deployments. That focus links infrastructure efficiency with the financial demands companies face when they scale data-heavy applications across operations.

An IDC survey cited by Strategy found 93% of respondents increased attention toward semantic layers due to enterprise AI priorities. Semantic layers help organizations apply shared definitions and business meaning across data used by different teams and applications. Strategy will use the forum series to position governed data and common business context as key parts of enterprise deployment.

The post Strategy Inc. (MSTR) Stock: Surges 14% as Google Cloud Seven-City AI Forum Launches appeared first on Blockonomi.

TLDR

• ORBS stock jumps 21% after Eightco expands its major share buyback program.
• Eightco reports about $380 million across crypto, cash and private tech stakes.
• Worldcoin remains a major treasury holding with nearly 302 million WLD tokens.
• Eightco holds 16,278 ETH alongside OpenAI and Beast Industries investments.
• Share repurchases and treasury exposure drive a sharp rally in Eightco stock.

Eightco Holdings (ORBS)  shares surged 21.18% to $1.0150 after the company released a fresh treasury and share buyback update. The stock extended its intraday rally toward the session high near $1.04, marking a sharp market response. The update showed $380 million in holdings and more than 25 million shares repurchased during the past month.

Eightco Holdings Inc., ORBS

ORBS Buyback Supports Strong Stock Rally

Eightco said it repurchased more than 25 million common shares during the past month. The purchases fall under its previously announced $125 million share repurchase program. The company presented the buyback alongside an updated breakdown of its treasury assets and strategic private investments.

As of September 2, Eightco reported total holdings of about $380 million across several asset categories. Cash and stablecoins accounted for about $122 million of that total. The portfolio also included digital assets and stakes in several private technology companies.

Eightco built its treasury around artificial intelligence, digital identity, and the creator economy. The company uses OpenAI, Worldcoin, and Beast Industries as its main exposures to those themes. Therefore, the latest update connected the share repurchases with the company’s broader treasury structure.

Worldcoin Position Represents Major Treasury Exposure

Eightco held 301,971,219 Worldcoin tokens as of September 2. The company valued the WLD position at $0.37 per token for its latest treasury calculation. That holding represented about 29% of Eightco’s reported treasury assets.

The company said its WLD position equals about 8.3% of circulating supply. Eightco described the stake as its largest publicly disclosed institutional Worldcoin position. The exposure links its treasury strategy with digital identity infrastructure and World network growth.

World expanded its identity technology through the open-source release of ProveKit on September 2. The toolkit supports zero-knowledge identity proofs and already powers privacy features within World ID. Eightco highlighted that development as relevant to its digital identity exposure and long-term treasury theme.

Ethereum Holdings Add Another Digital Asset Component

Eightco also reported holdings of 16,278 Ethereum tokens in its latest treasury update. The company did not assign a separate portfolio percentage to the ETH position. However, Ethereum remains one of the major digital assets inside its treasury mix.

Beyond crypto, Eightco reported a $90 million indirect investment in OpenAI through special purpose vehicles. It also listed an $18 million funded investment in Beast Industries. A separate $1 million position gave the company exposure to Mythical Games and the gaming sector.

OpenAI exposure represented about 24% of treasury assets, while Beast Industries represented about 5%. Meanwhile, the company maintains significant liquid reserves through its cash and stablecoin position. The combined portfolio gives ORBS exposure to private technology companies, digital assets, and liquid holdings.

The post Eightco Holdings (ORBS) Stock: Surges 21% After Major Buyback and Treasury Update appeared first on Blockonomi.

XRPL developer Denis Angell launched a live dashboard this week that scores every amendment on the XRP Ledger for how much of its functionality has actually been exercised on devnet before it reaches mainnet.

The tool turns amendment readiness, previously a matter of trust in the process, into a public scorecard that shows exactly which transaction types, fields, and result codes have never been touched by a real transaction.

What the Dashboard Actually Tracks

Angell built the tool, hosted at amendments-staging.xrpl.foundation, to read each amendment’s full spec surface directly from the node rather than maintaining it by hand. That includes every transaction type, optional field, flag, result code, and ledger entry the amendment introduces.

The dashboard then watches devnet activity and checks whether a validated transaction has ever exercised each one, with green cells linking to the transaction that first did it and red cells marking what hasn’t happened yet.

The developer explained the reasoning behind the project directly, saying:

“Every new XRPL feature ships as an amendment. Validators vote it in, and once it’s active it’s part of the protocol for good. That deserves real evidence that the feature has been exercised end to end on devnet, not just tested in isolation.”

As of this week, the dashboard is watching 16 amendments live on devnet, and 13 of them still have untested surface.

The widest gaps sit in newer amendments: Sponsor has 65 of its 107 possible checks never exercised, XChainBridge is missing 30 of 40, and MPTokensV1 is short 27 of 102.

This week’s scan also turned up 59 findings across the set: two spec bugs, 23 documentation gaps, and 34 test gaps.

One amendment, XLS-75 permission delegation, which lets an account hand off narrow powers to another key, such as freezing trust lines and nothing else, closed out its remaining test gaps this week.

According to Angell, the team added logic mapping each delegated transaction back to the specific permission behind it, then exercised every remaining cell on devnet, bringing all 122 checks across its 12 granular permissions to full coverage.

He’s framed the effort as crowdsourced, encouraging XRPL builders to “go find the red cells” and run the missing transactions themselves, since the dashboard picks up new activity within seconds.

Amendment Testing Comes as Adoption Lags

The push for more rigorous pre-activation testing follows a rocky upgrade cycle. As CryptoPotato reported in July, Ripple’s v3.2.0 update, which renamed the core server software from rippled to xrpld and cut node memory usage by 30% to 40%, had sat unadopted by more than half of XRPL nodes weeks after release, even as 89% of the network’s trusted validator set had moved it.

The post New XRP Ledger Tool Turns Amendment Testing Into Public Scorecard appeared first on CryptoPotato.

ZEC and XMR are among the market’s top performers over the past 30 days, both experiencing double-digit price increases.

The former remains the largest in the privacy coin sector, so we wanted to check whether it will keep its throne by the end of 2026 or be replaced by some of its competitors. Here’s what three widely used AI-powered chatbots said on the matter.

ZEC Has a Solid Chance

As of this writing, Zcash has a market capitalization of more than $14 billion, making it the 10th-biggest cryptocurrency, and ChatGPT expects the token to finish the year as number one in its niche for various reasons.

First, it noted that ZEC has better exchange accessibility, stating that it is available on major platforms like Binance and Coinbase. In contrast, its biggest competitor, XMR, was removed from the biggest crypto exchange in 2024 and has never been listed on Coinbase.

“This gives ZEC deeper liquidity and easier access for speculative and institutional capital,” the chatbot said.

Another positive development is the recent launch of the first Zcash ETF. The product is issued by Grayscale and represents a conversion from the existing Trust to an exchange-traded fund.

The financial product saw the light of day on August 25, and the social buzz prior to the launch drove a rally to a historic peak above $870. In the following days, ZEC experienced heightened volatility, briefly surpassing that record after reaching nearly $890 before retracing to the current $847 (per CoinGecko).

It is important to note that ChatGPT also praised XMR as a “strong privacy product,” but gave it a 33% chance of topping the ranking by the end of 2026. ZEC, in turn, has a 65% likelihood of keeping its first spot.

Perplexity also ranked Zcash’s token as the leading candidate on this front, giving particular attention to XMR:

“Monero will almost certainly remain the go-to for maximal privacy, but it’s unlikely to outperform ZEC on price and access by year-end under the current regulatory regime.”

More in Favor

Google’s Gemini agreed with the theories presented by the aforementioned chatbots. It claimed that the existence of a ZEC ETF could capture Wall Street liquidity, making it really difficult for XMR to keep pace. Additionally, it noted that the current market cap gap between the two coins is nearly $5 billion.

“For Monero to overtake Zcash by the end of 2026, it would need a massive surge to overcome major hurdles like centralized exchange delistings, slower P2P liquidity, and ZEC’s strong lead from institutional ETF capital. With only a few months remaining, XMR would have to drastically outpace ZEC’s growth – an unlikely scenario barring an unexpected regulatory shift,” Gemini concluded.

The post Who Will Win the Privacy Coin Battle in 2026: ZEC, XMR, or Another Competitor? (3 AIs Weigh In) appeared first on CryptoPotato.

Bitcoin has gained almost 23% over the past month, but a few choppy sessions briefly dragged the asset below $76,500. BTC has since stabilized above $77,700 following a minor 1.4% surge on Thursday.

The latest uptick came mainly from short covering rather than a fresh increase in leverage, according to QCP Capital, as markets continued to face a firm Federal Reserve stance.

Fragile Positioning?

Kevin Warsh reinforced the Fed’s focus on maintaining a 2% PCE inflation target, while headline PCE remains at 3.7%. This leaves little visible support for near-term rate cuts. Treasury long-end buybacks were doubled to $4 billion quarterly, but QCP said the amount represents only 0.013% of the $31.5 trillion Treasury market, which points to liquidity support rather than a policy pivot.

Heavy long-dated investment-grade issuance is also adding pressure, as technology companies account for 38% of 10-year-plus supply. Additionally, ETF inflows near the 95th percentile indicate genuine spot demand, although MSTR’s Bitcoin accumulation was funded through equity issuance.

“With policy guidance scarce and liquidity narrow, is this conviction or fragile positioning?”

Meanwhile, analyst NoName said that Bitcoin’s next major move could depend on whether it can close above $83,000. The analyst is also watching a CME futures gap above the current price and sees it as an important level separating a genuine reversal from another relief rally. A daily close above the level, supported by strong spot volume, would be needed to confirm a new uptrend.

Without that confirmation, NoName said that the recent bounce was a retest of previous supply. They warned that a rejection at $83,000 followed by a break below $74,000 could send the crypto asset toward $50,000-$55,000.

CryptoPatel also flagged the exact level and said that Bitcoin could face further losses if it fails to reclaim it with a higher-timeframe candle close. In that scenario, the analyst expects potential declines toward $70,000, $65,000, and $60,000. If the bearish market structure remains intact, the crypto asset could eventually fall toward the $50,000-$40,000 range. However, a higher-timeframe close above the $83,000 level would invalidate the bearish setup.

Another market watcher, Rain, noted that Bitcoin is starting to lose the demand support that helped the August rally.

The Case for Further Upside

Not everyone sees further downside ahead. Doctor Profit, for one, reiterated his stance that the bear market is over. He had previously stated that BTC broke out above key resistances and entered the Soft Bull Market, which he expects to turn into a full bull market escalation.

“Many desperate investors that wish for a lower Bitcoin price, some even call for a new low, and others say the bear market isn’t over. In fact, and I say it with my full conviction, I consider the bear market as over!”

More on the current market state can be found in our latest video below.

The post Bitcoin (BTC) Rally Driven by Short Covering, Not Fresh Leverage: QCP appeared first on CryptoPotato.

The cryptocurrency market has posted a slight resurgence over the past 24 hours, with ADA and SUI among the best performers.

Certain factors suggest that the uptrend may be just starting, while numerous analysts have been making bullish bets lately.

ADA’s Potential

Cardano’s native token has jumped by 6% on a daily scale, reclaiming the $0.20 psychological level. What’s more, the popular analyst Ali Martinez revealed that the asset’s Tom DeMark Sequential indicator has flashed a buy signal.

He noted that on previous occasions, such a development has identified price bottoms and has been followed by double-digit increases. “Now the indicator is signaling another rebound for ADA could be underway,” Martinez concluded.

Another positive sign is the recent exchange net flow. Data show that over the past several days, outflows have exceeded inflows, suggesting that investors have shifted from centralized platforms to self-custody, thereby reducing immediate selling pressure.

X user Sjuul | AltCryptoGems said ADA has truly surprised him this cycle after printing “very strong higher highs, one after the other in a perfectly bullish fashion.”

“Probably not a coin I would fade in the coming months,” he added.

The Moon Show also chipped in, arguing that ADA “survived the deep retrace.” The X user believes that a firm move above the $0.205 level would mean that recovery “starts looking a lot more serious.”

SUI’s Case

As of press time, SUI trades at approximately $0.76, translating into a 7% increase for the day. Similar to ADA, the token might be gearing up for a further uptick, at least given another insight from Martinez.

He claimed that SUI’s TD Sequential has flashed a buy signal on the asset’s daily chart, hinting that the recent correction could be nearing its end.

“This indicator points to a potential 1–4 daily candlestick rebound or the beginning of a new bullish countdown. I’m watching for the rally to begin,” Martinez said.

Other popular analysts who have given their two cents on the cryptocurrency lately include Michael van de Poppe and Celal Kucuker. The former noted that SUI has outperformed Bitcoin, opining that “the uptrend has started.”

For their part, Celal Kucuker claimed the asset “is making a move,” envisioning a price explosion to as high as $10 in a bull market. The X user also suggested that September could be a good month for SUI in case “OTC flows are any indication.”

The post Cardano (ADA) and Sui (SUI) Flash Buy Signals: What Are Their Next Targets? appeared first on CryptoPotato.

After a few days of suppressed price action, the crypto market is on the move again, with bitcoin leading the pack with a surge past $80,000 for the first time in a week.

Most altcoins followed the sharp uptick, leading to more than $140 million in shorts getting wrecked in the past hours alone.

It was just 24 hours ago that the primary cryptocurrency struggled to hold the $77,000 support and dipped to a 10-day low of $76,200 amid the escalating tension in the Middle East.

However, the asset rebounded successfully in the following hours, as reported earlier today, and quickly reclaimed the $77,000 and $78,000 levels. The past hours or so have been even more impressive, as bitcoin just soared past $80,000 for the first time since last Friday, when it was rejected and driven south to $77,000 after Kevin Warsh’s hawkish speech at Jackson Hole.

Many altcoins have joined the ride, posting notable 1-hour and 24-hour gains. ETH is up to almost $2,500 as of now after a 2.6% surge in the past 60 minutes and a 4.4% pump since this time yesterday. BNB has rocketed past $720, while XRP has gained 9% on a daily scale (and 4.3% in the past hour alone).

This price volatility has harmed overleveraged traders. Data from CoinGlass shows that the hourly wrecked positions have risen to $157 million, with more than $142 million coming from shorts. On a daily scale, the total liquidations are over $400 million, and shorts are responsible for $315 million.

Nearly 110,000 traders have been wiped out in the past day, with the single-largest liquidation occurring on Binance, totaling more than $5.2 million.

The post Over $140M in Shorts Wrecked in an Hour as BTC, ETH, XRP Suddenly Explode appeared first on CryptoPotato.