Live Feed

Pakistan’s Virtual Assets Regulatory Authority (PVARA) has opened a licensing application portal for virtual asset service providers (VASPs), Cointelegraph reported. Businesses that have been operating locally since before March 5 must apply for a no-objection certificate (NOC) by Sept. 5, or they will have to suspend operations.

Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong said on X that cryptocurrencies give people an escape route. Armstrong said many countries face high inflation or currency volatility, and that in the past, people could avoid that only by emigrating or stockpiling cash. He added that stablecoins now make it much easier for people anywhere in the world to hold relatively strong global fiat currencies such as the U.S. dollar.

An investor who lost $4.56 million over the past five days after making 14 consecutive short bets has opened a 15th BTC short position, according to Lookonchain. The position is a 300 BTC short worth $23.13 million using 40x leverage.

Stablecoin-based digital finance platform Fasset has raised $68 million in funding led by Japan’s SBI Group, CoinDesk reported. The company was valued at $1 billion. The financing came just three months after its $51 million Series B round in May, bringing Fasset’s total funding this year to $119 million. Fasset’s core infrastructure is OWN Network, its proprietary AI-integrated Ethereum layer-two network built on Arbitrum, where stablecoins act as the settlement layer in the backend when users move fiat currencies or assets, increasing speed and lowering fees.

Ledger CTO Charles Guillemet said a security vulnerability found in parts of the hardware wallet provider’s Ethereum app clear-signing process was fixed two weeks ago and urged users to ignore related FUD. Users who have kept Ledger firmware and the app updated to the latest versions are protected from the vulnerability, Guillemet said.

A UK court ordered the liquidation of Key Coin Assets Ltd, a crypto investment firm that raised money by guaranteeing returns of 40% to 100%, according to the UK Insolvency Service. Investigators found no evidence of actual cryptocurrency trading, while nine investors who reported losses had invested more than 300,000 pounds ($379,000) in total. Authorities also identified signs that returns were paid to existing investors using funds from new investors and concluded the scheme was a Ponzi fraud. The invested funds were largely transferred to a company executive’s personal account on the same day they were deposited. Separately, the UK plans to begin enforcing cryptocurrency regulations on Oct. 25, 2027.

The following shows estimated liquidation volumes and position ratios for major crypto perpetual futures over the past 24 hours: - ETH: $140.47 million liquidated (54.48% longs) - BTC: $106.56 million liquidated (65.57% longs) - SOL: $16.51 million liquidated (55.31% longs)

BTC is more likely to move in a range for the time being than post an immediate deep pullback after its recent strong rally signaled a possible trend reversal, crypto analyst KillaXBT said on X. Looking at the 2022 bottoming phase, KillaXBT said most lows were formed alongside a single strong upward candle, with a similar pattern appearing recently. At the time, BTC surged from $16,000 to $25,000 before correcting to $19,000, the 0.618 Fibonacci retracement level. If a similar pattern repeats this time, the downside may be limited, KillaXBT said, adding that BTC could form the lower end of a range at $70,000-$73,000 in the near term before attempting to break above $80,000.

Ethereum-based fixed-rate lending market Term Finance said it has shut down all Term Meta Vaults and revoked DAO governance authority following a recent hack. In a post on X, the project said the closed vaults cannot be restarted, new deposits have been permanently halted, and withdrawals remain available. Based on the investigation so far, the incident appears to have been limited to Term vault governance and has not affected the protocol or the lending market, it said. The team added it is working on recovery efforts with external security firms and will consider additional response measures if it cannot recover the full amount of losses. About $8.5 million in assets was previously stolen from Term Finance vaults in an exploit.

Japan-listed Remixpoint said all of its cryptocurrency holdings had moved into unrealized gains as of 9:00 a.m. UTC on Aug. 24. The company said total unrealized gains on its crypto portfolio stood at 2.631 billion yen ($15.4 million), compared with unrealized losses of 1.945 billion yen at the end of June. Holdings were 1,503 BTC, 901 ETH, 13,920 SOL, 1,191,204 XRP and 2,802,311 DOGE.

South Korean exchange Upbit announced it will temporarily suspend deposits and withdrawals of Metadium (META) from 12:00 a.m. UTC on Aug. 27 due to the token’s hard fork.

Russia’s central bank will introduce a qualified investor exam system on Aug. 31 to lower the barrier for individual investors seeking that status, Bitcoin.com reported. Previously, investors had to hold a CFA credential, maintain high-value assets of at least 24 million rubles, show large-scale trading records, or meet annual income requirements, but passing a financial market knowledge exam will now allow them to obtain qualified investor status. Under a new digital asset regulatory framework taking effect on Sept. 1, qualified investors will face no annual trading cap and will be able to trade all eligible cryptocurrencies on authorized platforms.

Avalon Labs, a Bitcoin-focused on-chain finance platform, announced the addition of a market-neutral yield pool tailored to equity perpetual futures strategies to its Super Earn savings product. The yield pool generates returns by capturing funding rates and price gaps across major exchanges including Hyperliquid, Binance and Bybit. It targets an annual percentage yield of around 15% while minimizing directional market exposure. Avalon Labs, which has received investment from YZi Labs and Framework Ventures, said the launch improves the Super Earn product lineup.

FactBlock, the organizer of KBW, announced on Aug. 24 that Ethereum co-founder and Consensys CEO Joseph Lubin has joined the speaker lineup for the main conference of KBW2026 with Upbit. At the event, Lubin is set to share his views on how the on-chain conversion of real-world assets such as U.S. Treasuries could affect global financial markets and the Ethereum ecosystem, as well as on the next phase of the Web3 industry. Other speakers include Charles Janssen, head of DeFi transition at S&P Global, Yuval Rooz, CEO of Canton Network operator, Bo Hines, CEO of Tether USA₮, Jeff Yan, co-founder of Hyperliquid, Arthur Hayes, CIO of Maelstrom, Patrick Witt, executive director of the White House President’s Council of Advisers for Digital Assets, Chris Land, executive director of the U.S. Senate Banking Committee’s digital assets subcommittee, and Bermuda Prime Minister David Burt.

South Korea’s Financial Services Commission will attend a parliamentary policy questioning session today, while the National Assembly is set to begin full-scale committee work on a basic law on digital assets, or the second phase of legislation, Edaily reported. Attention is focused on the outcome of stablecoin-related legislative discussions as the government and ruling Democratic Party are reviewing an integrated proposal for next month. The National Assembly is scheduled to hold a plenary meeting of the National Policy Committee at 5:00 a.m. UTC today at the parliament building in Yeouido, Seoul. Financial Services Commission Chairman Lee Eog-weon is expected to attend. A National Assembly official said the bill is being pushed for introduction before the parliamentary audit and for passage during the regular September session, although sharp differences remain within the ruling party and multiple pending issues, including the fallout from single-stock leveraged exchange-traded funds, could make the process difficult.

ARK Invest CEO Cathie Wood said Circle’s recent share weakness does not properly reflect its long-term growth potential. In a post on X, Wood said Circle has risen 84% since its IPO, while stock-market action over the past year shows short-term inefficiency, adding that technology is disrupting the traditional financial order and Circle will be a major beneficiary. According to an Artemis chart, Circle shares are down about 42% over the past year, trailing Visa, up 7%, and Mastercard, down 1%.

South Korean exchange Upbit announced the addition of LIT for trading against the South Korean won at 4:00 a.m. UTC on Aug. 24.

Dunamu, the operator of South Korea’s largest cryptocurrency exchange Upbit, denied reports that it is preparing for a U.S. listing, according to The Asia Business Daily. Dunamu said it plans to pursue a listing after a comprehensive stock swap is completed, but added that it has not yet decided in which country it would seek the listing. The company also said speculation about U.S. listing preparations stemmed from inquiries about differences between South Korean and U.S. accounting standards.

According to CoinNess market monitoring, BTC has fallen below $77,000. BTC is trading at $76,996.84 on the Binance USDT market.

South Korean exchange Bithumb announced the addition of PROM for KRW trading.

Phantom announced it will end support for the SUI network on Sept. 24. Users need to move any SUI holdings to another wallet app or swap them into assets supported by Phantom before that date.

Abraxas Capital opened an ETH short position worth about $100.06 million on Hyperliquid and has been hedging it by withdrawing 73,872 ETH worth $173.17 million from Binance over the past four days, according to Lookonchain. Hyperscan data showed the liquidation price for the ETH short at $3,946.19. Abraxas also holds short positions worth $95.31 million in BTC, $84.19 million in HYPE and $23.97 million in SOL, with liquidation prices of $127,766.50, $135.96 and $335.85, respectively. All of the positions use 5x leverage, bringing the total short exposure to about $783 million.

South Korea’s Fair Trade Commission said today it will give advance notice for 20 days through Sept. 14 on a revised consumer protection guideline for prepaid installment transactions, under which pre-need service providers and other prepaid installment businesses must balance stability, liquidity and profitability when managing customer prepayments. The revised guideline requires sufficient review before high-risk transactions, including excessive investment in high-risk assets with a greater chance of principal loss such as derivatives, virtual assets and leveraged financial products, according to Aju Economy. Large companies holding at least 100 billion won in customer prepayments must set up and operate a prepayment management review committee to ensure stability in fund management and transparency in decision-making.

A Trump team-linked token address sold 1.1 million TRUMP in the early hours of today, securing 2.94 million USDC, EmberCN reported. The address had previously transferred 3.837 million TRUMP, worth $9.33 million, to OKX yesterday.

Bloomberg ETF analyst Eric Balchunas said BlackRock’s spot Bitcoin ETF, IBIT, showed a typical "Flipping the Bird" pattern in its daily fund flows last week, with a taller middle bar and smaller bars on either side, calling it a bullish signal. Earlier, NatGeraci.com President Nate Geraci, citing The Block reporter Zack Abrams, said U.S. spot Bitcoin ETFs, including IBIT, posted about $2 billion in net inflows last week, while spot Ethereum ETFs drew $700 million, with both marking their largest weekly net inflows since October last year.