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The U.S. Treasury said it will launch the Quantum-Readiness Task Force to address quantum computing threats to the financial system. The public-private initiative will include government agencies, financial institutions, financial market infrastructure operators and technology companies, and will support the financial sector’s transition to post-quantum cryptography, or PQC. Its main tasks include supporting and coordinating the sector’s PQC transition, strengthening external vendor response capabilities, and managing risks tied to digital assets and emerging technologies. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said the effort will help maintain the stability, security and competitiveness of the U.S. financial system as new technologies reshape the global landscape.

Pendle said the large-scale liquidations in Morpho’s PT-reUSD/USDC market were not caused by an oracle configuration error. PT-reUSD, a token representing the right to redeem principal at maturity, was liquidated after the PT price briefly fell 3%, with that market price reflected in the oracle benchmark, according to Pendle. The protocol explained that this reduced the collateral value of positions that repeatedly borrowed USDC on Morpho to increase PT exposure. Some positions with health factors below 1.03, leaving less than 3% room to withstand a price drop, were liquidated in the move. Pendle added that the oracle uses the lower of PT’s 15-minute average market price and a benchmark price reflecting a 6% annual discount rate through maturity. The oracle functioned as designed, no bad debt emerged during the liquidation process, and Morpho’s Pendle ecosystem vaults were unaffected, Pendle said.

BTC futures open interest has fallen to 587,584 BTC, the lowest level in the past five months, CoinDesk reported, citing Glassnode data. The figure dropped sharply from 645,760 BTC on Aug. 14, local time. CoinDesk said recent BTC gains from $62,000 to $80,000 were driven more by short liquidations than by fresh leveraged long positions. At the same time, annualized funding rates for perpetual futures have remained stable below 10%. CoinDesk assessed that limited leverage overheating and a growing share of cash-margined futures point to a more stable market structure than in the past and support the sustainability of the price uptrend.

About 40 banks in Japan will take part in a pilot for interbank transfers using blockchain-based deposit tokens, CoinPost reported. GMO Aozora Net Bank will begin the test in August with blockchain firm DeCurret DCP and Abeam Consulting. The initiative aims to build infrastructure for instant, 24/7 remittances and settlements without going through existing interbank payment networks, with commercial deployment expected in fiscal 2027, which runs from April 2027 to March 2028. The pilot will test two methods: one in which banks open deposit accounts with one another and adjust balances by the amount transferred, and another that uses stablecoins as an intermediary.

Nikita Bier, an adviser to X and its former head of product until recently, said the platform will soon let users buy and sell cryptocurrencies directly on X. Pushing back on a user’s claim that X had recently limited the visibility of crypto accounts, Bier said he built the cashtag feature that allows Solana and Ethereum charts to be embedded in posts and added that a trading button is also set to be introduced soon.

U.S. spot Solana ETFs recorded $33.5 million in net inflows on Aug. 24, extending their inflow streak to five trading days, CoinDesk reported. It was the largest daily net inflow so far this year. According to SoSoValue data, cumulative net inflows rose to a record $1.22 billion. Trading volume reached $166.8 million, the highest since October last year. Bitwise's BSOL led the day with $25 million in net inflows, while Fidelity's FSOL and Grayscale's GSOL posted $4.8 million and $3.7 million, respectively. Total net inflows over the five trading days since Aug. 18 came to $61.8 million.

South Korean exchange Upbit announced it will temporarily suspend deposits and withdrawals for 25 cryptocurrencies from 12:00 p.m. UTC on Aug. 31 to 8:00 p.m. UTC on Aug. 31 as part of its monthly virtual asset balance inspection. The affected assets are BTC, XRP, ETH, SOL, DOGE, XLM, SHIB, ETC, ONDO, LINK, NEAR, AVAX, STX, ENS, ATOM, SAND, WLD, ARB, PEPE, DOT, CTC, AXS, ENA, CRO and APT. Staking applications for ETH, ATOM, CRO and SOL will also be suspended during the same period.

Binance announced the addition of three spot trading pairs: USDC/ARS, ACE/USDC and PUMP/U at 8:00 a.m. UTC on Aug. 26.

Spot CVD is an order-book analysis chart for the BTC/USDT spot trading pair. The upper panel shows the volume heatmap, while the lower panel shows cumulative volume delta, or CVD. - The volume heatmap in the upper panel tracks trading volume by price range. The background color becomes brighter when the price stays in a specific range for an extended period or moves sharply. Brighter areas may act as support or resistance levels. - The CVD indicator in the lower panel reflects buy and sell orders by capital size, and the line for each color rises as buying orders increase. The yellow line represents orders between $100 and $1,000, while the brown line represents large orders between $1 million and $10 million, among other categories.

Metaplanet CEO Simon Gerovich said his stake in the Japanese Bitcoin treasury company fell to 14.19% from 17.99% as of today because of new share issuance, not because he sold any shares. In a post on X, Gerovich said, "주식은 한 주도 팔지 않았다. 신주 발행으로 발행주식 총수가 늘면서 지분율이 낮아졌을 뿐 보유 주식 수는 변하지 않았다. BTC와 메타플래닛 모두 강세를 예상하고 있다"

According to CoinNess market monitoring, BTC has fallen below $79,000. BTC is trading at $78,997.26 on the Binance USDT market.

Flop Labs CEO Arthur Hayes said the basis trade, which seeks to profit from the price gap between spot and futures markets, is showing signs of a comeback and could particularly benefit Ethena's ENA. In a post on X, Hayes said OTC brokers had started reaching out about dollar borrowing and described that as a positive sign that the basis trade was becoming active again, although rates remain too low. Hayes added ENA would be a particular beneficiary and still has significant upside. Separately, Hayes has previously invested in ENA through his family office, Maelstrom.

A whale dormant for four years recently sold 1,400 BTC worth $111.61 million, according to Lookonchain. The whale bought 2,200 BTC four years ago at an average price of $45,024, for a total of $99.05 million, and did not sell through the bear market. At one point, the position’s unrealized profit expanded to as much as $178 million. Combining realized and unrealized gains, the whale is now sitting on a profit of $76.5 million.

Metaplanet, a Tokyo Stock Exchange-listed Japanese company accumulating Bitcoin as a treasury strategy, has surged 45% over the past five trading sessions, The Block reported. On Aug. 25, the stock closed at 330 yen, up 8.2%.

Tokenized securities backed by domestic underlying assets such as money market funds, or MMFs, can now be issued and distributed in overseas blockchain markets, The Korea Economic Daily TV reported. The move follows an interpretation from South Korea’s Financial Services Commission that issuing and selling tokenized securities, or STOs, overseas based on domestic underlying assets is unlikely to be viewed as a violation of the current Electronic Securities Act. The report said the products must be sold only through private placements to overseas investors, while purchases and resales by South Korean residents must be blocked through technical and contractual measures.

Japanese cryptocurrency exchange bitbank has launched an Ethereum staking service, CoinPost reported. Users can participate by holding ETH in a bitbank account, agreeing to the staking service terms, and enabling reward receipt settings. There is no separate lock-up period, and rewards are paid around 11:00 p.m. UTC every Monday. The estimated annual yield for customers is 1.78%.

South Korean exchange Bithumb announced it will temporarily suspend deposits and withdrawals for 25 cryptocurrencies for 10 hours from 8:00 a.m. UTC on Aug. 31 to 6:00 p.m. UTC on Aug. 31 as part of its monthly virtual asset audit. The affected assets are BTC, XRP, ETH, SOL, DOGE, WLD, XLM, SHIB, ONDO, TRX, ADA, KAIA, ETC, LINK, BCH, PEPE, SUI, HBAR, VIRTUAL, PENGU, BASED, 0G, PRL, BLEND and B3. Applications for fixed-term staking and unstaking in those assets will also be suspended during the period, Bithumb said.

On-chain analyst Axel Adler Jr. said BTC’s short-term market structure has improved markedly after recovering the short-term holder average cost basis of $68,200 and moving above the 200-day moving average of $69,000 and the 111-day moving average of $67,500. However, Adler added the 111-day and 200-day moving averages both remain below the 365-day moving average of $83,200, meaning the longer-term bearish structure has not been fully reversed. A break above and hold over $83,200 could provide a strong signal supporting a trend reversal, Adler said.

Eleven addresses linked to crypto options trading platform BIT, formerly Matrixport, closed a combined $419 million in BTC and ETH long positions, realizing $55.095 million in profit, according to on-chain analyst ai_9684xtpa. Only one long position remains, with address 0xf78 holding 1,602.11 ETH worth $3.97 million and showing $707,000 in unrealized profit.

Standard Chartered has been selected as the first financial institution to distribute HKDAP, a Hong Kong dollar-pegged stablecoin, Crypto Briefing reported. HKDAP is the first regulated stablecoin to be issued under Hong Kong’s new stablecoin licensing regime, with SC-backed AnchorPoint Financial participating in the issuance. Access to HKDAP is currently limited to institutional and corporate clients.

According to CoinGlass data, if BTC falls below $78,230, about $1.03 billion in long positions on major centralized exchanges would be liquidated. If BTC rises above $81,470, about $463.12 million in short positions would be liquidated.

About $36.39 million in PT reUSD loop positions were liquidated on decentralized lending protocol MORPHO after a large YT reUSD trade by an anonymous address starting with 0x854e, according to blockchain security firm PeckShieldAlert on X. As the address repeatedly bought YT reUSD, the expected annualized yield surged from the 11% range to the 20% range. Liquidations then occurred as the address quickly sold the YT reUSD position. YT reUSD represents the right to receive yield generated by reUSD until maturity, while PT reUSD represents the right to recover principal at maturity. A loop position is a leveraged structure that repeatedly borrows against collateral and redeposits the funds.

CryptoQuant contributor Darkfost said BTC spot and futures demand has risen together over the past 30 days to around 170,000 BTC. Darkfost said short-term overheating signals are increasing, but strong demand appears to be absorbing profit-taking supply as the market’s uptrend gains traction. Darkfost added that the strongest rallies in the past emerged during periods when spot and futures demand increased together, and the rally could continue even if the market enters overbought territory as long as demand holds.

A Las Vegas businessman has been convicted in a cryptocurrency Ponzi scheme that defrauded at least 400 investors of $24 million and could face a maximum combined sentence of 280 years, Cointelegraph reported, citing the U.S. Department of Justice. Brent Kovar was found guilty over allegations that from 2017 to 2021, his firm Profit Connect claimed to use AI to mine cryptocurrency and promised fixed annual returns of 15% to 30%, but had no actual revenue-generating business or crypto reserves. Prosecutors said Kovar used money from new investors to pay returns to earlier investors and to fund home purchases. Sentencing is scheduled for Nov. 30.

China’s Foreign Ministry spokesperson Lin Jian said China-Iran cooperation has consistently been carried out within the framework of international law and should not be subject to interference or disruption, Yonhap News TV reported. Earlier, the Donald Trump administration announced expanded sanctions on Iran that include measures targeting third parties doing business with Iran. The core provision is the imposition of secondary sanctions on third parties involved in transactions with Iran related to digital assets, technology, gold, aviation, and shipping.