The fire at a key Russian rocket engine plant underscores vulnerabilities in Russia's defense industry, potentially affecting military operations.

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Heightened tensions could destabilize regional security, impacting global markets and complicating diplomatic efforts for peace in the Middle East.

The post Israel braces for potential Iranian attack during Jewish holidays appeared first on Crypto Briefing.

Qatar's call for restraint may foster diplomatic dialogue, potentially influencing US-Iran relations and regional stability efforts.

The post Qatar urges halt to military operations amid Middle East tensions appeared first on Crypto Briefing.

Escalating U.S.-Iran tensions could destabilize global markets, influence U.S. politics, and increase the risk of regional airspace restrictions.

The post US airstrikes on Iran escalate conflict, impact global energy prices appeared first on Crypto Briefing.

Rising European gas prices highlight the region's vulnerability to geopolitical tensions, underscoring the need for diversified energy sources.

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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.

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 Deribit already holds 96.6% of Coinbase’s derivatives open interest ahead of Sept. 9 migration 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 A major layer-1 chain will pause new transactions for 24 minutes to unlock a 10x speed boost appeared first on CryptoSlate.

Bitcoin’s hashrate has spent 316 days below its record as miners redirect power toward AI.

The seven-day network average stood near 914 exahashes per second on Aug. 31, about 20.6% below its October 2025 peak of 1,151.6 EH/s. The stretch without a new high is the longest in a decade, exceeding the previous 252-day maximum in the same Blockchain.com series.

The decline followed months of weak mining economics, summer power curtailments and a growing shift by some operators toward artificial intelligence and high-performance computing. Twenty One Capital CEO Raphael Zagury has described the episode as Bitcoin’s first sustained “economic hashrate bear market.”

That description has become more significant because Bitcoin itself has already delivered the kind of price recovery that historically helped revive mining.

BTC rallied 34.9% from late June through late August reaching as high as above $81,000, while network hashrate fell 10.1% over the same period, only the second such divergence since 2012.

Higher Bitcoin prices increase the dollar value of block rewards and normally encourage miners to restart machines that became uneconomic during a downturn. This time, the response has been much weaker.

The difference is that some of the power and data-center capacity leaving Bitcoin now has somewhere else to go.

Bitcoin’s rally has not brought enough machines back

The usual recovery signals are already appearing across mining economics.

VanEck estimated network hashrate at roughly 885 EH/s in the week through Aug. 11, while mining difficulty stood 18.3% below its November 2025 peak. That was the largest difficulty drawdown since China’s 2021 mining ban.

The Puell Multiple, which compares the dollar value of daily Bitcoin issuance with its one-year average, averaged about 0.73 over the preceding 30 days, placing it in the 16th percentile and pointing to unusually weak miner revenue conditions.

Those pressures forced marginal machines offline. Bitcoin then began doing what it was designed to do.

As hashrate falls, the protocol eventually reduces difficulty, allowing the remaining miners to compete for the same block subsidy with less computing power. Better margins can then entice idle capacity back.

However, signs of that rebound also emerged in August.

VanEck said the Aug. 8 difficulty adjustment rose 1%, the first upward move in the sequence it tracked, as hashrate recovered toward 925 EH/s. Difficulty later fell 1.31% on Aug. 23, providing another round of relief.

By Aug. 31, Hashrate Index put seven-day hashrate at 915 EH/s, up 3.3% from 886 EH/s a week earlier. Blocks were arriving every 9 minutes and 56 seconds, almost exactly on Bitcoin’s 10-minute target.

Hashprice had also improved to $39.36 per petahash per second per day, above its 30-day average of $34.63.

That combination of a roughly 35% Bitcoin rally, lower difficulty, and better hash price would normally make restarting machines increasingly attractive. Yet hashrate remains far below its record.

AI changes what happens after a miner switches off

For some operators, shutting down Bitcoin machines no longer means waiting for mining margins to recover.

IREN cut installed self-mining capacity from 50 EH/s in June 2025 to 23.2 EH/s by June 2026 as it decommissioned miners and redirected power and data-center infrastructure toward AI Cloud Services. About 40 megawatts of AI Cloud capacity was already operating at the end of June.

TeraWulf has also moved operating capacity toward high-performance computing. It reported 81 MW of critical-IT capacity at June 30 and 102 MW energized in July, alongside 145 MW of legacy Bitcoin mining capacity.

Riot Platforms highlighted how long those alternative commitments can last when it signed a roughly $9 billion, 20-year compute agreement with Anthropic in August.

That changes the economics of a mining recovery.

A machine taken offline because hashprice fell can be restarted when Bitcoin becomes more profitable. However, power committed to a long-duration AI customer cannot return nearly as quickly, even if Bitcoin rallies and difficulty falls.

Years spent building mining operations have made the sector particularly attractive to AI developers. Miners already control large power allocations, grid connections and data-center sites built to handle dense computing loads.

The hashrate downturn cannot be attributed entirely to that shift. Seasonal curtailments, particularly in Texas, reduced mining during periods of high electricity demand, while inefficient fleets were also shut down as margins deteriorated.

AI becomes important because it can determine what happens to that capacity afterward.

Better mining economics now have to compete with AI

The next phase of Bitcoin’s hashrate recovery will show how much capacity was merely idle and how much has effectively moved on.

Some miners are still expanding aggressively.

MARA reported 70.3 EH/s of energized hashrate as of June 30, while Bitdeer reached 76.7 EH/s of self-mining capacity in July. Riot increased deployed mining capacity to 44.4 EH/s from 38.5 EH/s even as it expanded into AI.

That leaves the industry split between operators still adding Bitcoin machines, those diverting infrastructure toward computing customers, and companies trying to pursue both.

Bitcoin’s own recovery mechanism remains intact. Difficulty continues to adjust, blocks are arriving near target and the recent rebound toward 915 EH/s shows that some hashpower is returning.

But the 316-day drought suggests the response has not yet been strong enough to restore the network’s late-2025 peak.

The question now is whether improving Bitcoin prices, hashprice and difficulty economics can pull enough idle machines back to end that drought.

If they cannot, the reason may increasingly lie outside Bitcoin itself: some of the infrastructure that once waited for the next mining recovery is now being paid to stay somewhere else.

The post Bitcoin’s 316-day hashrate drought shows why AI could make this mining downturn harder to reverse appeared first on CryptoSlate.

Robinhood Chain revenue from applications totaled between $2.66 million and $2.82 million over a rolling 24-hour window early on Sept. 1, creating an eye-catching measure of network activity with no disclosed bridge to Robinhood’s corporate accounts.

DefiLlama tracks application revenue, chain revenue and chain fees as separate layers. Its dashboard showed $963,612 of chain revenue on $1.07 million of chain fees during the same period. Public records provide no formula that turns either revenue figure into a Robinhood GAAP revenue line.

The recipients also show where the app total went. DefiLlama’s revenue table placed trading bot GMGN first at about $1.11 million and token launchpad Pons second at about $1 million. Uniswap led the corresponding protocol fee table.

What Robinhood Chain revenue means for the company

Robinhood has described its own monetization in transaction terms. During the company’s second-quarter earnings call, CFO Shiv Verma said Robinhood earns a few basis points per transaction, with approximately half shared with Arbitrum. He emphasized transactions as the basis instead of transaction volume.

The company provided no precise rate, eligible transaction count, fee base or reconciliation to its financial statements. DefiLlama also defines the $963,612 chain figure as gas revenue remaining after Ethereum execution and blob costs and the Arbitrum Expansion Program share. The available disclosures therefore establish substantial fee activity while leaving Robinhood’s exact corporate take unquantified.

The chain’s growth metrics still matter because sustained use could create a larger future earnings base. Rolling 24-hour decentralized exchange volume reached about $1.4 billion, led by Uniswap, compared with nearly $370 million on July 29. Chain-wide active real-world asset market cap rose from nearly $28 million in late July to about $163 million.

The composition tempers that growth signal. DefiLlama’s RWA table attributed about $95 million of the total to Syrup USDG private credit, the chain’s largest listed asset. The increase therefore reflects broad RWA growth across Robinhood Chain rather than equivalent growth in Robinhood-issued stock tokens.

Other short-term indicators also pulled in opposite directions. Twenty-four-hour chain inflows were negative by about $20 million even as DEX volume and RWA value remained well above their July snapshots. A trading bot and launchpad continued to lead application revenue.

Robinhood Chain has expanded its transaction and tokenized-asset base since July. The Robinhood Chain revenue mix and Robinhood’s limited monetization disclosure leave the larger question unresolved: how much of that growth will become recurring revenue in Robinhood’s accounts.

The post $2.7 million poured into Robinhood Chain apps in one day, but it barely touches corporate revenue appeared first on CryptoSlate.

The Pocket Bitcoin breach exposed more than email addresses and support conversations for 291 customers, the company said. Some copied records linked real-world identities to public Bitcoin activity.

The finding expands the scope described in the Swiss non-custodial Bitcoin service's Aug. 21 disclosure. In an Aug. 31 update, Pocket Bitcoin said correspondence with partner banks contained varying combinations of names, postal addresses, Bitcoin addresses used for transactions, identity-document copies and source-of-funds records. Most people in the cohort had only some of those fields exposed, the company said.

The distinction creates a privacy and phishing risk without giving an attacker control of anyone's wallet.

Why public Bitcoin addresses still matter

Bitcoin addresses are public. Anyone with an address can inspect its balance and transaction history on the blockchain, as Bitcoin.org's privacy guidance explains. Connecting an address to a name and, for some customers, a postal address or payment amount removes a layer of separation between a person's offline identity and public on-chain activity.

The exposed information cannot, by itself, move Bitcoin. Spending requires a valid signature made with the corresponding private key, according to the Bitcoin developer guide. Pocket Bitcoin said it is non-custodial, never held customers' private keys and saw no risk to customer funds.

The more immediate concern is deception. Pocket Bitcoin warned that details from copied support correspondence could make emails, calls or messages about the incident look more credible. Separately, Switzerland's National Cyber Security Centre has documented scams and threats that use a recipient's real home address to increase pressure. That guidance illustrates the broader danger of exposed location data but is not evidence that Pocket Bitcoin customers have been targeted.

How the Pocket Bitcoin breach changed the disclosure

Pocket Bitcoin's initial disclosure said Bitcoin addresses, its customer database containing know-your-customer data and transaction history were not affected. The company later said that wording was too broad.

Pocket Bitcoin said neither the customer database nor the transaction database was compromised. However, related information was included in some correspondence stored in the affected support system. Payment amounts were often present when exposed records involved source-of-funds documents or discussions of a payment, the company said.

The company said every customer in the 291-person cohort received an individual notice listing the data affected in that person's case. It also said the forensic investigation and its review of the relevant partner-bank correspondence were complete, the vulnerability had been closed, the incident had been reported to the Swiss Federal Data Protection and Information Commissioner, and a police report had been filed.

Pocket Bitcoin said it had no indication that the copied information had been misused, adding that its current visibility was not a guarantee.

The post Leaked compliance records shatter anonymity of 291 crypto users by matching names directly to wallet activity appeared first on CryptoSlate.

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.

Bitcoin has lost ground in eight of the last 13 Septembers. The stock market's had the same problem since 1928. Here's the case for the curse, what broke it last year, and what's coming in the next round.

Attackers reportedly registered Lenovo IDs using victims’ email addresses, allowing them to sign into existing Dropbox accounts without their passwords.

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.

The amount is not the Bitcoin bull's personal debt, but the disclosure is very notable nonetheless.

The mysterious figure behind the recent Grand Theft Auto VI leaks has reportedly cashed out roughly $350,000 from the CYBERLEEK crypto operation.

Choosing between AI stocks and Bitcoin is a mistake, according to Bitwise CIO amid the $40 trillion US debt dilemma.

Key Takeaways

• CEO Lip-Bu Tan acquired 105,263 Intel shares at $95 apiece on August 11, investing approximately $10 million via a family trust.
• Shares have declined below Tan’s purchase price, with INTC starting September 1 at $89.51.
• The company completed a substantial equity offering of 242.1 million shares at $95 per share, generating approximately $23 billion.
• Institutional investors control 64.53% of shares, with Korea Investment Corp acquiring 3.1 million shares valued at $434.8 million during Q2.
• Wall Street assigns INTC a consensus “Hold” rating with a $107.46 target, pointing to foundry risks and pressure from AMD and Nvidia competitors.

On August 11, Intel’s CEO Lip-Bu Tan made a significant commitment by acquiring nearly $10 million in company shares, buying 105,263 shares at $95 through a family trust. However, the stock has declined since that purchase, starting September 1 trading at $89.51.

Intel Corp., INTC

The $95 price point wasn’t random. Intel utilized this exact figure for its substantial equity offering, which expanded to $20 billion on August 10. After underwriters fully exercised their option, the arrangement totaled approximately 242.1 million shares, bringing in roughly $23 billion in gross capital.

This represents significant new supply entering the market. The fundraising dilutes current shareholders, making Tan’s choice to purchase at the offering price alongside new investors a notable demonstration of belief in the company’s transformation strategy.

Major Institutions Continue Building Positions

The CEO isn’t alone in backing the stock. Korea Investment Corp established a new stake valued at approximately $434.8 million during Q2 2026, acquiring 3.1 million shares. Intel now accounts for 0.8% of their investment portfolio and ranks as their 17th-largest holding.

Additional prominent investors also expanded their positions. State Street grew its holdings by 2.8%, Capital World Investors boosted its stake by 20.3%, and Morgan Stanley increased its position by 20.4%. Norges Bank initiated a new investment exceeding $2.2 billion. Collectively, institutional shareholders control 64.53% of Intel.

Hedge fund activity also accelerated prior to the recent financing round. Insider Monkey’s tracking data revealed 138 funds holding long INTC positions at Q2’s conclusion, rising from 112 during Q1.

Strong Quarterly Results, Ongoing Concerns Persist

Intel delivered Q2 earnings of $0.42 per share, substantially exceeding the $0.21 consensus forecast—a double beat. Revenue reached $16.13 billion, surpassing analyst expectations of $14.43 billion and marking a 25.2% year-over-year increase.

Looking ahead to Q3 2026, Intel provided EPS guidance of $0.38. Wall Street analysts project full fiscal year earnings of $1.00 per share.

The stock’s 52-week trading range spans from $23.68 to $142.35, with the 50-day moving average at $103.61 and the 200-day moving average at $86.94.

The skeptical perspective is clear. The $23 billion capital raise itself signals the substantial funding Intel requires for its manufacturing expansion plans. Foundry success hinges on securing customers, improving yields, and flawless execution, with potential for additional dilution if cash flow doesn’t meet expectations.

SK Hynix temporarily lifted investor sentiment when speculation emerged about potentially using Intel Foundry for upcoming HBM4E base dies. However, the company subsequently refuted the partnership, eliminating that potential growth driver.

Analyst sentiment remains measured. INTC currently holds one Strong Buy, 15 Buy ratings, 31 Hold ratings, and three Sell recommendations. The consensus price target stands at $107.46.

Daiwa Securities lowered its rating from Strong Buy to Hold on August 4. Meanwhile, AQR Capital Management reduced its stake by approximately 7% while maintaining 10.7 million shares.

The post Intel (INTC) Stock Falls Below CEO’s $95 Purchase Price After Massive Equity Raise appeared first on Blockonomi.

Key Highlights

• Hyperliquid’s HYPE token climbed 1.29% to approximately $83 following its integration into Hashdex’s NCIQ cryptocurrency ETF
• The token secured a 3.36% allocation in the Nasdaq CME Crypto Index, bringing the total number of assets in the fund to nine
• On September 1, Hyperliquid Strategies increased its equity financing arrangement with Chardan Capital Markets from $1 billion to $2.5 billion
• Cryptocurrency analyst Ted (@TedPillows) reported on X that a major investor acquired $11.8 million worth of HYPE within 24 hours
• The platform is currently negotiating with Payward, Kraken’s parent entity, to provide regulated perpetual futures contracts for U.S.-based traders

The HYPE token from Hyperliquid is currently valued at approximately $83, marking a 1.29% increase following the simultaneous announcement of two significant developments. Investment firm Hashdex incorporated HYPE into its diversified spot cryptocurrency ETF, while Hyperliquid Strategies expanded its equity financing capability to $2.5 billion.

The modification to Hashdex’s Nasdaq CME Crypto Index ETF, trading under NCIQ, became effective on September 1, 2026. The portfolio now encompasses nine digital assets, representing an expansion from its previous eight-asset composition.

HYPE joins the index with a 3.36% allocation. Bitcoin maintains its position as the dominant holding at 74.36%, with Ethereum following at 11.88%, XRP at 5.21%, and Solana at 3.79%.

The current index composition features Bitcoin, Ethereum, XRP, Solana, Hyperliquid, Stellar, Cardano, Chainlink, and Bitcoin Cash.

NCIQ was introduced by Hashdex in February 2025, initially containing only Bitcoin and Ethereum. The fund operates on a rules-based framework that evaluates factors including liquidity, market capitalization, custodial infrastructure, and compliance with regulatory listing requirements.

Samir Kerbage, Chief Investment Officer at Hashdex, emphasized that expansion was integral to the fund’s design. “The intention behind launching NCIQ in February 2025 with two assets was always portfolio expansion,” Kerbage explained.

Kerbage further highlighted Hyperliquid’s decentralized exchange architecture and emerging regulatory clarity as factors contributing to the ecosystem’s growing significance in traditional financial markets.

Hyperliquid Strategies Boosts Capital Facility

Coinciding with the ETF news, Hyperliquid Strategies submitted documentation to the SEC expanding its equity financing arrangement with Chardan Capital Markets from $1 billion to $2.5 billion. This expanded framework represents available capacity rather than capital already secured.

The ultimate funds raised will vary based on share distribution volumes and market pricing. The organization has indicated that proceeds may support general corporate operations, potentially including additional HYPE token acquisitions, though no specific allocation requirements exist.

As of August 19, Hyperliquid Strategies maintained holdings of 29.3 million HYPE tokens. Beginning in December 2025, the firm deployed $773.4 million to purchase approximately 16.5 million tokens at a mean cost of $46.77 per token.

PURR, the company’s publicly traded stock on Nasdaq, concluded September 1 at $11.36, representing a 7.3% decline for the session. This valuation remains beneath the $12.02 reference threshold connected to share issuance limitations outlined in the revised financing agreement.

The post Hyperliquid (HYPE) Surges to $83 After Hashdex ETF Addition and Whale Activity appeared first on Blockonomi.

Key Highlights

• The US Commerce Department has deployed Chainlink oracle technology to distribute official economic statistics across public blockchain networks.
• The initiative includes six distinct data feeds tracking GDP, inflation metrics, and private sales figures across 10 different blockchain platforms such as Ethereum, Base, and Arbitrum.
• Data refreshes occur on a monthly or quarterly basis, synchronized with official Bureau of Economic Analysis publication timelines.
• Market observer @TheEliteCrypto highlights LINK’s current market capitalization near $8.5B, identifying $10B as a critical resistance threshold.
• Standard Chartered Bank forecasts LINK could reach $200 by 2030’s conclusion, driven by tokenized asset expansion.

In a groundbreaking move, the US Department of Commerce has integrated Chainlink’s oracle infrastructure to transmit verified economic statistics onto public blockchain networks. The Bureau of Economic Analysis serves as the source for three critical metrics: real GDP figures, the PCE Price Index, and Real Final Sales to Private Domestic Purchasers.

Two separate feeds exist for each economic metric. The first reports absolute current values, while the second displays quarter-over-quarter percentage changes calculated on an annualized basis. This configuration produces a total of six distinct data streams.

These feeds operate simultaneously across 10 blockchain ecosystems: Ethereum, Arbitrum, Avalanche, Base, Botanix, Linea, Mantle, Optimism, Sonic, and ZKsync. According to Chainlink representatives, additional networks may join the program if market demand warrants expansion.

Data refreshes align precisely with the BEA’s official release calendar, occurring either monthly or quarterly based on the specific economic indicator. Blockchain participants gain access to identical information distributed through conventional government channels, reformatted for smart contract compatibility.

The real GDP metric measures inflation-adjusted national economic production expressed in billions of chained 2017 dollars. Meanwhile, the PCE Price Index represents the Federal Reserve’s primary inflation benchmark, heavily scrutinized by participants across equity, fixed income, foreign exchange, and cryptocurrency markets.

Real Final Sales to Private Domestic Purchasers excludes government expenditures, international trade balances, and inventory fluctuations. This metric provides concentrated insight into consumer behavior and private sector investment patterns.

Understanding Chainlink’s Oracle Infrastructure

Blockchain-based smart contracts lack native capability to retrieve external information independently. Chainlink fills this technological gap, transforming government economic releases into blockchain-compatible formats that decentralized applications can process through automated protocols.

Potential implementation scenarios encompass inflation-indexed financial instruments, decentralized prediction platforms, perpetual derivatives contracts, and lending systems that dynamically recalibrate risk parameters following economic releases. Chainlink identified these as theoretical applications rather than confirmed integrations connected to this government collaboration.

Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick stated: “We are making America’s economic truth immutable and globally accessible like never before, cementing our role as the blockchain capital of the world.”

Chainlink’s data distribution framework maintains ISO 27001 and SOC 2 Type 1 security certifications. This collaboration extends an August 2025 initiative where the Commerce Department similarly partnered with Pyth Network to broadcast BEA statistics across blockchains including Bitcoin and Solana.

Market Analysis and LINK Price Projections

Cryptocurrency market analyst @TheEliteCrypto observed that LINK’s market capitalization currently hovers near $8.5B, representing substantial growth from the $3B–$6B range observed during previous market corrections. The analyst identified $6B as a crucial support floor and designated $10B as the next significant resistance barrier.

Standard Chartered Bank established a $200 valuation target for LINK reaching through 2030, with analyst Geoff Kendrick attributing this outlook to anticipated expansion in tokenized asset markets and decentralized finance protocols. The financial institution forecasts blockchain-based assets could attain $4 trillion in total value by 2028’s conclusion.

Chainlink recently expanded its services by launching price feeds for Coinbase-issued tokenized equities on Base network, encompassing NVDAc, AAPLc, METAc, and GOOGLc, facilitating collateralized lending protocols within DeFi ecosystems.

The post US Commerce Department Deploys Chainlink (LINK) Oracles to Broadcast GDP Data Across 10 Blockchains appeared first on Blockonomi.

Key Takeaways

• Cango shares dropped over 21% following disclosure of an $81.6 million quarterly net loss for Q2 2026.
• Quarterly revenue totaled $50.8 million, representing approximately a 50% decrease from the prior quarter, with bitcoin mining contributing $47.4 million.
• During the quarter, the firm produced 656 BTC and maintains holdings of 1,065 BTC valued at approximately $82.8 million.
• Operational hashrate reached 27.58 EH/s following the retirement of legacy S19 mining equipment.
• Earnings per share registered at ¥-13.370, falling short of the ¥-6.820 analyst consensus by ¥6.55.

Shares of Cango (CANG) were changing hands near $1.89 during Tuesday’s session, declining more than 21% following the cryptocurrency mining company’s disclosure of an $81.6 million net loss in the second quarter.

Cango Inc., CANG

The quarterly performance significantly underperformed Street forecasts. Earnings per share registered at ¥-13.370, falling ¥6.55 below the analyst consensus of ¥-6.820. Meanwhile, revenue totaling ¥341.24 million came in substantially lower than the ¥577.37 million estimate.

Second quarter revenue reached $50.8 million, representing approximately half the figure generated in the first quarter. The bitcoin mining segment generated $47.4 million of total revenue.

The significant drop in revenue stemmed from a strategic operational adjustment. The company decommissioned aging S19 mining equipment and transitioned portions of its capacity toward a hosted leasing arrangement, characterizing this as a move to optimize its mining footprint.

As of June 30, the company’s operational hashrate stood at 27.58 EH/s. This figure comprised 19.94 EH/s from proprietary mining operations and 7.74 EH/s from leasing arrangements.

The firm produced 656 Bitcoin throughout the quarter. As the period closed, its treasury contained 1,065 BTC in holdings, representing approximately $82.8 million in value based on current market rates.

There was a modest bright spot regarding expenses. The streamlined operation enabled a reduction of roughly 5% in average cash costs per bitcoin mined compared to the first quarter, lowering the figure to around $73,313. The company has additionally implemented hedging strategies for its bitcoin holdings to mitigate volatility risks.

Emphasis on Efficiency Rather Than Expansion

Chief Executive Officer Paul Yu indicated the organization is now prioritizing “unit economics rather than scale” within its cryptocurrency mining operations. This strategic adjustment signals a departure from merely expanding computational capacity.

The company has simultaneously been diversifying into artificial intelligence infrastructure. Cango is repurposing its Georgia-based mining facility to accommodate GPU computing capabilities, with the location designed to support up to 3 MW.

Expansion Into AI Computing

Income from the Georgia GPU facility is anticipated to commence during the third quarter. This projection makes the upcoming quarterly report critical for evaluating whether the artificial intelligence strategy is yielding tangible revenue.

CANG shares have declined 42.69% during the trailing three-month period and have fallen 89.76% over the past year.

According to InvestingPro, Cango’s overall financial health receives a “fair performance” assessment.

The post Cango (CANG) Stock Plummets Over 20% as Q2 Bitcoin Mining Revenue Crashes appeared first on Blockonomi.

Key Highlights

• Ethena Pay, a self-custody financial application powered by Avalanche, has entered beta testing in 48 nations worldwide.
• Users can earn annual percentage yields reaching 6% on USDe holdings and receive cashback rewards up to 10% from participating merchants like Uber and Spotify.
• The ENA governance token has appreciated approximately 68% during the last 30 days, currently trading around $0.16.
• A governance proposal from the Ethena Foundation suggests allocating 95% of net protocol revenue to ENA token buybacks after USDe supply crosses $7.5 billion.
• Following the buyback announcement, ENA jumped over 10% and registered approximately $595 million in daily trading activity.

Ethena Labs has officially released the beta version of Ethena Pay, an innovative financial application operating on the Avalanche blockchain. The platform is currently accessible in 48 nations, spanning regions including Brazil, Mexico, Kenya, Singapore, and Australia.

Built with self-custody principles, the application enables users to maintain balances in USDe, Ethena’s algorithmic dollar token, displayed as dollar-equivalent amounts. Incoming transactions in either traditional or digital currencies automatically convert to USDe upon receipt.

The platform features IBAN banking integration, facilitating seamless fund transfers between Ethena Pay and conventional bank accounts using local currency denominations. Transactions in USD, EUR, and GBP carry no fees, while alternative currencies incur charges ranging from 0.05% to 0.1%.

A tiered membership structure governs yield generation. Standard tier participants receive 5% annual yields on balances up to $5,000. Pro tier members, achieved by staking $2,000 in ENA tokens or completing 10 referrals, earn 6% yields on balances reaching $15,000. VIP status, requiring $10,000 in locked ENA or 50 successful referrals, provides 6% yields on balances up to $50,000.

Rewards Program and Payment Features

The platform incorporates a payment card system distributing cashback rewards in AVAX tokens. Standard members receive 4% cashback, while Pro tier users earn 4.5% and VIP members collect 5% on general purchases. Enhanced rewards of up to 10% apply for Pro and VIP tiers at partner merchants including Uber, Spotify, and Claude.

Iron, a MoonPay subsidiary, powers the technical infrastructure supporting the application. Avalanche serves as the sole settlement blockchain for all transaction processing and fund movements.

Notable exclusions from the initial launch include the United States, European Union, Canada, Taiwan, and South Korea. Ethena anticipates expanding to these jurisdictions during the beta phase, subject to obtaining necessary regulatory clearances.

Token Performance and Revenue Allocation Strategy

The ENA token has experienced an approximately 68% appreciation over the previous 30-day period, despite trading below earlier peak valuations. CoinGecko data shows the token exchanging hands near $0.16 on Tuesday.

Last Friday, the Ethena Foundation introduced a governance proposal to channel 95% of protocol net revenues into ENA token repurchases. This mechanism would activate when USDe’s total circulating supply achieves the $7.5 billion threshold.

Market response was immediate, with ENA advancing more than 10% post-announcement and accumulating 27% gains throughout the week. Daily trading volumes reached approximately $595 million, representing a 16% increase from the previous session.

Market analyst LAR (@LAR7Crypto) identified a Double Bottom chart formation developing for ENA, observing that price action had successfully breached a critical resistance threshold. The analyst projected a medium-term price objective of $0.30 and an extended target of $1.50, suggesting a potential pullback to $0.13 could provide an optimal entry opportunity.

USDe maintains a circulating supply near $4 billion, significantly reduced from its September 2025 peak of approximately $15 billion. With a market capitalization of roughly $4.1 billion, USDe holds the position as the sixth-largest stablecoin in the cryptocurrency ecosystem.

The post Ethena (ENA) Surges 68% Following Avalanche-Based Payment App Launch appeared first on Blockonomi.

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.

The post Bitcoin Price Analysis: Warning Signs Emerge as BTC’s Breakout Loses Momentum appeared first on CryptoPotato.

Goldman Sachs, Jane Street Group, and Millennium Management were the three largest reported holders of spot XRP ETFs in second-quarter 13F filings, according to Bloomberg Intelligence data shared by James Seyffart on August 31.

The filings show that institutional exposure has grown alongside a sharp increase in XRP ETF inflows, even as the Ripple token itself has pulled back from its August highs.

Advisors Dominate XRP ETF Holdings

Bloomberg’s compilation puts Goldman Sachs well ahead of other reported holders, with $87.4 million in ETF exposure representing 84 million XRP. Jane Street followed with just under 16 million XRP, worth $16.6 million, while Millennium Management held 15.5 million tokens valued at about $16.2 million.

Intesa Sanpaolo ranked fourth with $14.4 million in exposure, followed by Marex UK Holdings at $8.1 million. Citadel Advisors also appeared in the filing data, although its XRP exposure fell by $645,000. But SIG Holdings recorded a much larger reduction, with its reported XRP exposure down by roughly $4.6 million.

Across the identified holders, total exposure reached $183.5 million, representing about 176.4 million XRP. Bloomberg also grouped the holders by category and found investment advisors far ahead of the other groups, with $120.9 million in exposure. Hedge fund managers accounted for $25.1 million, brokerages for $17.9 million, and banks for $14.8 million.

ETF Demand Rises While XRP Price Cools

The numbers come as demand for spot XRP ETFs has picked up, with the funds attracting $110.5 million during the week ending August 28, their strongest five-day inflow since the first week of December 2025, when they drew in more than $230 million. SoSoValue data shows another $5.6 million entered the products on August 31, taking cumulative net inflows to about $1.67 billion, with total net assets reaching roughly $1.45 billion.

Meanwhile, the token itself was trading near $1.40 at the time of writing, having hit a multi-month high of $1.70 last week. Although that price represents a nearly 9% dip over seven days, it is still 28% higher than where it was a month ago and almost 40% up from its level two weeks ago. That said, XRP’s value is still nearly half of what it was this time last year, and it is stuck approximately 62% below its all-time high of $3.65 recorded in July 2025.

Traders are now watching the $1.35 to $1.38 zone closely, since a break below could open the door to more downside, while analyst Ali Martinez fingered $1.60 as the next major resistance level were XRP to attempt another recovery.

The post These Wall Street Giants Are the Biggest Holders of Spot XRP ETFs appeared first on CryptoPotato.

July and August have been quite successful for the self-proclaimed Dogecoin killer, with its price closing both months in the green.

Nonetheless, certain important elements suggest that September may not be as beneficial and could deliver a move south.

The Worrying Signals

The first concerning element on the list is Shiba Inu’s burn rate, which has declined by 6% on a monthly scale. Data shows that less than 600 million tokens have been sent to a null address throughout August, an amount whose USD equivalent is negligible.

The burning mechanism aims to reduce the overall supply of the meme coin and potentially make it more valuable, but little to no activity on that front poses a serious obstacle to that mission.

Next is Shibarium’s stalled activity. The layer-2 scaling solution was exploited last year, and since then, the number of processed daily transactions has dropped to mere hundreds or even thousands (at most).

The feature has been labeled numerous times as important for the overall advancement of Shiba Inu’s ecosystem and something that can positively impact its price.

Last but not least, we shall mention the seasonal element. September has been a predominantly poor month for SHIB, with its price finishing the period in the red three out of five times. In 2022, July and August were green (just like this year), yet the following month stopped the uptrend. We have yet to see whether history will repeat itself.

The Bright Side

Not all aspects suggest that the meme coin could experience a downtrend in the coming weeks.

According to CryptoQuant, the amount of SHIB held on exchanges has declined over the past month, signaling that investors continue to abandon centralized platforms in favor of self-custody. This, in turn, reduces immediate selling pressure and could set the stage for a potential additional price ascent.

The post 3 Reasons Why Shiba Inu (SHIB) May Plunge This Month appeared first on CryptoPotato.

Artificial intelligence could usher in a new wave of concern over financial privacy, according to a Grayscale research report. The firm’s Head of Research, Zach Pandl, expects AI to create new privacy threats and drive demand for new solutions.

He sees Zcash as one potential option.

Zcash For Blockchain Privacy

Public attention to financial privacy has historically increased alongside major technological changes. The first wave came in the 1970s, when computers enabled the digitization and automation of financial record-keeping. A second wave followed in the 1990s with the expansion of the Internet and growing concerns over online privacy.

Grayscale believes a third wave has now begun as AI becomes more widely used. Pandl said AI tools are likely to create new privacy challenges across the economy, and the issue is particularly pressing for public blockchains that are transparent by default.

For instance, on the Bitcoin network, every transaction is recorded on a public ledger and can be viewed by anyone. When blockchain activity is linked with off-chain information, user addresses could potentially be de-anonymized, a risk also noted in the Bitcoin white paper.

While that risk existed before AI, Grayscale said advances in the technology could make blockchain address labeling more effective and widely available, increasing the need for privacy protection. Unlike Bitcoin, Zcash offers additional privacy features through shielded transactions, which use zero-knowledge cryptography to conceal both the addresses involved in a transaction and the amount being transferred. Grayscale said this privacy feature could become a “must-have” for users who prioritize financial privacy.

Grayscale had made a similar point earlier, while noting that ZEC had surged about 20 times in the past year but was still worth less than 1% of Bitcoin’s market cap. The firm said Zcash’s privacy features and other advantages may not be fully reflected in its current valuation, which leaves room for further gains.

The comments come days after Grayscale converted its Zcash Trust, launched in 2017, into a spot ZEC ETF. The fund began trading on the NYSE Arca on August 25.

$1,800 Target

ZEC has posted a strong performance. The privacy-focused crypto asset gained nearly 80% over the past month alone. Following the sharp rally, ZEC is trading around $850, but crypto analyst Ali Martinez is betting on further upside.

He said that “Zcash is about to melt faces,” while identifying $1,800 as the “first stop.”

The post Zcash May Have a Bigger Role to Play as AI Threatens Financial Privacy: Grayscale appeared first on CryptoPotato.