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Daily trading volume on decentralized exchanges topped $10 billion on Aug. 20 for the first time since June 5, Cointelegraph reported. The move was seen as a sign that trading activity and on-chain liquidity in the crypto market are expanding again.

OKX has blocked employees working in Hong Kong or traveling to mainland China from using Anthropic’s AI model Claude, Bloomberg reported. After its enterprise Claude account was temporarily suspended, OKX found that access by Hong Kong-based staff may not have complied with Anthropic’s regional access policy and restricted access for employees in those locations in early August. The enterprise account was later restored. Anthropic does not allow Claude to be used in Hong Kong or China. OKX also decided not to support VPN-based workaround access to Claude for employees in those regions and plans to offer other AI models instead.

GIB UK, the UK unit of Saudi government-owned Gulf International Bank, holds 19,842 shares of Strategy (MSTR) worth about $2.27 million, according to BitcoinTreasuries.net. The holding gives GIB UK indirect exposure to BTC through Strategy, the world’s largest publicly traded corporate holder of BTC.

Global trading platform Capital.com plans to launch spot cryptocurrency trading in the United Arab Emirates, Finbold reported. The move follows Capital Vault UAE, an affiliate, obtaining a cryptocurrency brokerage and custody license from the local Capital Market Authority. The company also plans to roll out additional crypto products later.

OpenLedger co-founder Ram Kumar expects AI agent-based payments, or 'agentic payments,' to become the leading use case combining AI and cryptocurrency, The Block reported. Kumar also expects 'agentic trading,' in which AI agents autonomously execute trades, to grow after agentic payments. OpenLedger plans to expand its B2C business over the next two years while introducing no-code AI customization tools and additional privacy features.

A study suggests 152 wallets trading on prediction market platform Polymarket may have placed bets using nonpublic information, including U.S. military secrets, Reuters reported. According to the Anti-Corruption Data Collective (ACDC), which analyzed markets settled through May 5, the wallets generated a combined $8 million in profits in military and defense-related markets and posted an average win rate of 97.2%. ACDC said the wallets typically placed large bets on low-probability outcomes shortly after opening accounts, then took profits and stopped trading. It added, however, that the trading pattern does not prove the use of insider information and may also reflect luck. Separately, access to Polymarket in South Korea was blocked following a decision by a subcommittee of the Korea Communications Standards Commission on Aug. 18.

U.S. Senate Banking Committee Chairman Tim Scott criticized Democrats for delaying action on the CLARITY Act, according to Crypto Briefing. Scott argued Democrats want to restrict cryptocurrencies rather than regulate them, adding that the longer the bill is delayed, the longer the regulatory gap will persist, exposing consumers to harm and pushing innovation overseas. The CLARITY Act passed the House on a bipartisan basis last year and cleared the Senate Banking Committee in May. Some Democratic lawmakers, however, have called for revisions to strengthen provisions on consumer protection, illicit finance prevention and market integrity.

Nasdaq-listed Bitcoin miner Bitdeer (BTDR) has signed a five-year long-term supply agreement covering about 50% of the capacity of A102, a 9.5 MW AI cloud data center in Malaysia, The Block reported. The contract is expected to generate about $400 million in revenue. Bitdeer plans to expand its AI cloud data center capacity to as much as 350 MW by the first quarter of 2028, while its AI cloud business pipeline currently under negotiation exceeds $2 billion. Revenue from the deal is expected to be recognized starting in the first quarter of 2027.

Some whales sold BTC and ETH to lock in profits amid the crypto market rally, according to Lookonchain. An anonymous whale address beginning with 0x4cee sold 5,250 ETH for $11.76 million, booking a $1.76 million profit. Another whale address beginning with bc1qqt sold 550 BTC for $39.43 million, realizing a $4.5 million profit.

Spot CVD is an order-book analysis chart for the BTC/USDT spot trading pair. The upper panel shows a Volume Heatmap, while the lower panel shows cumulative volume delta, or CVD. - The volume heatmap in the upper panel tracks trading volume at each price level, and the background becomes brighter when the price stays in a specific range for an extended period or moves sharply. Areas closer to brighter colors may act as support or resistance. - The CVD indicator in the lower panel reflects buy and sell orders by capital size, and the line for each color rises as buy 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.

X is considering paying creator content rewards in stablecoins including USDC, CoinDesk reported, citing sources. Discussions are underway, though no details have been disclosed on whether the plan will be adopted or when it could be introduced. X is rolling out a new program that rewards original content after scrapping its previous revenue-sharing program. Another Elon Musk-led company, SpaceX, is also using stablecoins for some cross-border Starlink payments in certain countries.

Cronos CEO Ryan Wyatt said CRO tokenomics need to be reassessed, with topics under discussion including CRO buybacks and burns funded by Cronos revenue, as well as community burns. In a post on X, Wyatt said there is much to discuss and flesh out over the next few months and that the related plans are scheduled to be disclosed in the fourth quarter.

Nasdaq-listed miner Ionic Digital (IOND) posted $48.6 million in second-quarter revenue, up 31% from a year earlier, as leasing digital infrastructure for AI and high-performance computing accounted for $43.8 million, or 90% of total revenue, reflecting its shift away from a BTC mining-centered business. Net loss came to $35.3 million, including $28.2 million in non-cash losses tied to fair-value declines in virtual assets including BTC. Adjusted EBITDA was $37.6 million.

LD Capital founder Jack Yi said on X that BTC’s strong rebound above $68,000 signals the end of the cryptocurrency market’s downcycle. Yi added that he had previously stressed July and August were the last chance to buy at lower levels, and said investors should not try to pinpoint the exact bottom or take short positions in the bottoming range. Yi said the focus should now shift to strategies for maximizing gains in a new upcycle.

Solmate Infrastructure (Nasdaq: SLMT), a publicly listed company accumulating SOL under its treasury strategy, has selected PwC as an adviser to review a potential expansion into AI and digital infrastructure, The Block reported. PwC plans to analyze potential growth areas based on market opportunities, corporate valuation, market acceptance and business execution feasibility. Solmate currently focuses on blockchain and staking infrastructure and holds about 1.26 million SOL.

Tokenization remains a major theme in the digital-asset market, with clear real-world use cases among institutional investors, Andy Baehr, a managing director at GSR Asset Management, said, according to The Block. Baehr cited the tokenization of fixed-income products such as short-term bonds for use as collateral as a representative example. Baehr added GSR has recently found institutional demand shifting toward yield-bearing products and tokenized traditional assets.

Abraxas Capital has just withdrawn 18,000 ETH worth $39.55 million from Binance, The Data Nerd reported. Exchange withdrawals are typically interpreted as a sign of holding intent.

As Bitcoin surged 11.7% over the past 24 hours, Binance saw its largest BTC short squeeze since launching BTC futures, according to an analysis by on-chain analyst Darkfost. Darkfost said more than $1.4 billion in short positions were liquidated across the broader crypto market yesterday, while more than $311 million in BTC short positions were wiped out on Binance in just a few hours. Darkfost added that forced buying from short liquidations amplified the rally and created a chain reaction that can trigger immediate, sharp volatility across the broader market.

According to CoinNess market monitoring, BTC has risen above $72,000. BTC is trading at $72,028.99 on the Binance USDT market.

Hanwha Asset Management plans to work with Ripple and U.S. asset manager Canary Capital to gain an early edge in digital assets, The Korea Economic Daily TV reported in an exclusive. Canary Capital CEO Steven McClurg said Hanwha and Canary Capital strongly believe the tokenization of real-world assets, or RWA, is the future of the financial system. McClurg said the two sides have discussed how tokenization could evolve and whether it could become the next stage of the global economy and financial system. Through cooperation with the Ripple Foundation and Ripple, Canary Capital launched the first XRP ETF in the United States, and the firm’s goal is to launch an ETF in South Korea as well.

Bitcoin’s daily gain reached 5.8 on a 30-day volatility-adjusted basis, marking its strongest upward move since October 2023, according to a Glassnode analysis. Glassnode said a similar-sized daily gain was seen in February, but that move was a rebound from a 14% drop the previous day. The latest rise was unusual because it came without an immediate sharp decline beforehand.

An anonymous whale is holding a 500 BTC short position and has placed an additional 300 BTC short order, which would push the total position above $50 million if fully filled, according to on-chain analyst ai_9684xtpa. The current position is a roughly $35.75 million 20x BTC short with an entry price of $70,892.7 and a liquidation price of $86,954.5. The additional order, worth about $21.65 million, has been placed in the $71,800-$72,500 range.

HippoProtocol’s dapp, Hippo Medisafe, showcased a real-world use case related to hospital data security at KHF 2026, an international hospital and health tech expo hosted by the Korean Hospital Association at COEX in Seoul from Aug. 19 to 21. Hippo Medisafe encrypts hospital data, distributes backup copies across multiple physical servers in South Korea, and records hash values from each backup point on HippoProtocol to verify data integrity. The company said changes to backup data can be checked by comparing them with the hash values recorded on the blockchain. Meanwhile, Choi Hyun-seop, CEO of Hipporcrat Labs, the developer of HippoProtocol, took part as a speaker in a KHF 2026 data track seminar on Aug. 20. Choi gave a presentation titled 'Is Our Clinic Safe? - The Reality of Security at Clinics and Hospitals,' introducing industry participants to the current state of information security at medical institutions and key response measures.

According to CoinGlass data, about $2.41 billion in long BTC positions on major centralized exchanges would be liquidated if BTC falls below $67,280. If BTC rises above $72,068, about $122.31 million in short positions would be liquidated.

Securitize President Brett Redfearn said the U.S. SEC had held back announcing a crypto innovation exemption as it considered a vote on the CLARITY Act, The Block reported. Redfearn expects the SEC to roll out related rules after the Senate votes on the CLARITY Act on Sept. 15, with the timing likely falling in early October, according to the report. The exemption is expected to include a provision allowing digital asset companies to avoid registering with regulators such as brokerages and exchanges for a set period.