Live Feed

Japan’s Financial Services Agency has lifted the 1 million yen ($6,700) cap on stablecoin transactions for some operators, a move seen as opening the market to broader institutional participation, according to Crypto Briefing. The limit had applied to second-category funds transfer service providers. Crypto Briefing said the cap, introduced under the revised Payment Services Act in 2023, had drawn criticism for limiting stablecoin use largely to small peer-to-peer payments. Alongside the change, Japanese authorities plan to create a dedicated department for cryptocurrencies and stablecoins and establish a pathway for overseas-issued stablecoins to enter Japan.

Daily fees on HyperEVM, the EVM environment on Hyperliquid’s HYPE-native layer-one chain, climbed above $500,000 to a record high. According to DefiLlama data, HyperEVM generated $538,080 in fees on Aug. 23. Hyperliquid uses network fee revenue to buy back and burn HYPE.

Bitcoin has recently shown both risk-asset characteristics and hedging qualities against uncertainty at the same time, strengthening its appeal as a long-term hard asset, according to Zaye Capital Markets, a global financial market research firm. Wu Blockchain reported that the firm said Bitcoin continues to behave like a risk asset while also serving as a hedge against inflation, government debt and geopolitical uncertainty. The firm added that further gains would require genuine investor demand beyond buying driven by traders covering bearish positions. It also said institutional inflows, regulatory progress and conditions in the U.S. Treasury market could become more important drivers of Bitcoin’s price than simple momentum going forward.

An experiment by the Cleveland Federal Reserve using a survey of U.S. households last year found that respondents exposed to information about Bitcoin’s price gains were more likely to hold virtual assets, according to CoinDesk. CoinDesk said the Cleveland Fed showed one survey group that Bitcoin had risen 14% over the previous year, and the share of respondents holding cryptocurrencies increased by 2.5 percentage points. Since about 11% of respondents said in their initial response that they held cryptocurrencies, the information exposure amounted to roughly a 23% increase in the holding rate. CoinDesk said the results could serve as evidence that exposure to past returns may bring new investors into the market.

USDD, the algorithmic stablecoin issued by the TRON DAO Reserve, has officially launched a vault feature on the Ethereum network, according to its official X account. The USDD Vault lets users deposit ETH or WBTC as collateral and mint USDD against a portion of that value, with a minimum collateral ratio of 130%, effectively offering a lending function. USDD also launched a WBTC vault on the TRON network in April.

Robinhood CEO Vlad Tenev expressed a bullish view on the crypto market, saying on the overseas podcast The Iced Coffee Hour that he also trades cryptocurrencies on Robinhood and personally likes the asset class. Tenev said his portfolio is fairly diversified and he remains optimistic about the crypto market and Bitcoin, although he does not make extreme forecasts such as BTC reaching $1 million within a specific period. Robinhood is widely seen as a crypto-friendly company in the United States and recently launched Robinhood Chain, its own Arbitrum-based Ethereum layer-two network.

MicroCloud Hologram, a Nasdaq-listed Chinese technology services provider, announced the acquisition of 140,268 shares of Strategy (MSTR) worth $15.76 million. The purchase was made through capital-linked structured notes. MicroCloud Hologram has also invested $200 million in Bitcoin-related derivatives and holds 2,353 BTC on its balance sheet.

One fund under global asset manager Fidelity International has doubled its gold holdings, Bloomberg reported. George Efstathopoulos, the portfolio manager running the fund, said the position had been doubled over the past three weeks as investors moved away from long-term Treasuries and began buying gold after the Federal Reserve’s meeting in July. He said this could be interpreted as a sign of weakening confidence in the Fed and rising policy uncertainty. Efstathopoulos added that if the U.S. dollar’s safe-haven status continues to weaken, the fund could consider raising its current 5% cap on gold holdings.

South Korean exchange Bithumb announced it will temporarily suspend STABLE deposits and withdrawals at 3:00 a.m. UTC on Aug. 26.

HashKey Exchange, a Hong Kong-regulated eligible cryptocurrency exchange, said on Aug. 24 it partnered with Franklin Templeton to distribute the asset manager’s on-chain money market fund grBENJI to investors in Asia. The fund primarily invests in government money market instruments, including U.S. Treasuries, and U.S. dollar-denominated cash-equivalent assets. Starting Aug. 24, grBENJI is officially available through Earn, HashKey Exchange’s deposit product channel, allowing eligible investors to invest directly in the fund.

BitMEX co-founder Arthur Hayes said ETH is likely to outperform all other major altcoins in the current cryptocurrency market rebound. Speaking on the Altcoin Daily YouTube channel, Hayes said ETH has the largest developer community and DeFi ecosystem, adding that if Bitcoin reaches $200,000 within the next five years, ETH could climb as high as $30,000 and BTC dominance could fall to 40%. Hayes also said BTC could reach $126,000 by year-end, while a policy pivot by the U.S. Federal Reserve could open the way for a sharper rally. He added that excessive U.S. government debt and Treasury issuance would ultimately lead to Fed liquidity provision, and argued BTC serves as a refuge from declining fiat currency values. At the same time, Hayes said the CLARITY Act, a U.S. crypto regulatory bill now being pushed in the United States, could instead hamper innovation.

South Korean exchange Upbit announced it will temporarily suspend deposits and withdrawals of Conflux (CFX) at 9:00 a.m. UTC on Aug. 24.

Solana’s daily network fee revenue recovered to $1 million on Aug. 19, marking the highest level in the past six months, Crypto Briefing reported. The outlet said the increase came amid a surge in on-chain activity. In the Solana ecosystem, the network fee metric is commonly referred to as REV and includes base fees, priority fees, and MEV tips combined. Solana-based applications also generated $82.9 million in revenue in July, the highest level since February. According to CoinMarketCap, SOL was trading at $94.05, up 0.93%.

South Korean exchange Bithumb announced it will temporarily suspend deposits and withdrawals for Conflux (CFX) at 9:00 a.m. UTC on Aug. 25.

Bernstein maintained an Outperform rating on Circle (CRCL) and kept its price target at $140, The Block reported. Bernstein cited Circle shares' current rally as having little correlation with progress on the CLARITY Act, a $1.7 billion increase in USDC supply last week, and USDC’s expanding share of stablecoin trading volume.

Cumulative stablecoin loads on crypto cards reached $13.8 billion as of August 2026, up by about $10 billion over the past 12 months, according to CryptoRank. Monthly card spending also kept rising even during periods of weakness in the crypto market. By chain, Base led with $1.2 billion in cumulative payment volume, followed by Solana (SOL) at $635 million, Polygon (POL) at $544 million, Optimism (OP) at $509 million, Scroll (SCR) at $369 million, Ethereum (ETH) at $354 million, and Arbitrum (ARB) at $315 million.

About $408.3 million in short positions across major centralized exchanges would be liquidated if BTC rises above $78,180, according to CoinGlass data. If BTC falls below $76,500, about $375.15 million in long positions would be liquidated.

Bitcoin open interest has been falling, indicating lower leverage, according to Santiment. Santiment said BTC rose from $63,500 to $77,700 between Aug. 12 and Aug. 18, while open interest fell 11% to around 312,600 BTC on Aug. 23 from about 353,500 BTC before the rally. The analytics firm added that this was measured in BTC terms, while U.S. dollar-denominated open interest rose about 8%. As the price climbed more than open interest did, open interest declined only in BTC terms. Unlike prior moves, Santiment said BTC’s gains were driven by spot buying, while many futures positions were cleared out during the rally.

BNB Smart Chain will implement the Pasteur hard fork at 2:30 a.m. UTC on Aug. 25, with the upgrade focused on strengthening validator and cross-chain security while improving network throughput, U.Today reported. In a test environment, transactions per second rose to 2,324 from 1,237, although the same level of performance improvement is not guaranteed on the mainnet.

South Korea’s National Assembly National Policy Committee will review a bill requiring influencers to disclose their virtual asset holdings at a full committee meeting, Digital Asset reported. The South Korean National Assembly’s Political Affairs Committee plans to place the amendment to the Virtual Asset User Protection Act, introduced by Democratic Party lawmaker Kim Seung-won, on the agenda at a 1:00 a.m. UTC meeting on Aug. 26. The bill is intended to let users determine whether finfluencers have conflicts of interest. The agenda also includes a revision to the Act on Reporting and Using Specified Financial Transaction Information aimed at preventing incidents like Bithumb’s mistaken BTC over-crediting case and another amendment that would abolish the one-exchange, one-bank rule.

As Bitcoin has risen 30%, fresh capital has also flowed into the market, suggesting the rally is being built on a firmer foundation without an expansion in leverage, CryptoQuant contributor Woo Minkyu said.

Most Bitcoin short-term holders have moved back into profit, while the amount of BTC they are sending to exchanges has also increased, potentially raising selling pressure, according to an analysis by on-chain analyst Axel Adler Jr. In a blog post, Adler said the share of short-term holder supply in profit rose to 74.9% from 26.1% on Aug. 17. At the same time, short-term holder exchange inflows increased to positive 28,600 BTC on Aug. 24 from negative 18,700 BTC on Aug. 16. Adler added that if the exchange inflow indicator remains above 25,000 BTC, the share of profitable supply moves closer to 90%, and the price uptrend slows, the risk of short-term overheating and profit-taking could increase. By contrast, if the share of profitable supply stays above 50% while exchange inflows move closer to zero, that could point to a healthier correction.

CryptoQuant contributor Darkfost said a bull-bear market indicator has just entered the early stage of a bull market. Darkfost added it was not a perfect signal, but it showed market conditions had improved significantly and warranted close monitoring over the next few weeks.

No project received an excellent grade of A- or higher in an evaluation of 81 domestically developed digital assets listed on South Korean exchanges, Digital Asset reported. According to a themed page on domestic digital assets by digital asset rating platform Apy, the highest-rated token was Story (IP) with 78.91 points, or B+, while more than half of the reviewed projects received grades of C+ or lower.

As AI lowers the cost of producing and replicating software, content and analysis, Bitcoin’s scarcity value is likely to rise further, Simon Gerovich, CEO of Japan-based BTC accumulation company Metaplanet, said on X. Gerovich said AI is sharply reducing production and replication costs, and in a world where supply can be expanded easily, assets whose supply cannot be increased regardless of how much intelligence is applied will become more valuable. Gerovich added BTC’s 21 million supply cap is not set arbitrarily but guaranteed by network rules. Gerovich also said Japanese households have experienced a decline in currency value over a generation, adding BTC, which cannot be replicated or diluted, is the scarcest asset in an age of abundance.