Live Feed

Former New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo said the U.S. Congress must pass the Clarity Act to connect the cryptocurrency and traditional financial markets, CoinDesk reported. Speaking at the SALT conference in Jackson Hole, Wyoming, Cuomo said the Clarity Act could pass and must pass, adding the U.S. is already far behind on crypto regulation. Cuomo also said companies need to know the rules of the game to comply with regulations, including what counts as fair play and what crosses the line. Cuomo currently leads a joint venture established by Intercontinental Exchange, the operator of the New York Stock Exchange, and crypto exchange OKX, according to CoinDesk.

California Public Employees’ Retirement System, the largest public pension fund in the U.S., holds 381,048 shares of Strategy (NASDAQ: MSTR) valued at about $35.5 million, BitcoinTreasuries.net reported. Both its MSTR holdings and their value declined noticeably from last November, when the pension fund held 448,000 shares worth about $80 million. CalPERS manages about $637 billion in assets and serves more than two million public employees, retirees and other members.

Upbit announced it will temporarily suspend deposits and withdrawals for NEO, GAS, ONT, ONG, and MBL at 1:00 p.m. UTC on Aug. 26 for wallet upgrades on the NEO N3 and Ontology networks.

Kraken’s payments app Krak has launched a crypto debit card in the U.S., The Block reported. Developed in partnership with Stripe, the card can be used at Visa merchants. Users can hold and spend more than 600 currencies and cryptocurrencies, and receive up to 2% back in U.S. dollars or BTC on purchases. The card was previously launched in the UK and Europe.

Maya Protocol founder AaluxxMyth said the protocol was hit by a hack that led to the theft of about 20 BTC, worth roughly $1.4 million, and other assets worth about $300,000. According to PA News, the Maya Protocol team has halted operations to prevent further damage and is working on a fix for the vulnerability to restore trading. Most of the losses stemmed from arbitrage tied to severe slippage and liquidity pool fee losses. The team plans to recover funds through measures including an investment in Aztec Chain and will pay a bug bounty if the hacker returns the funds.

Fading BTC volatility, volume push traders toward AI stocks and prediction markets Traders are rotating from crypto into AI-related stocks and prediction markets as Bitcoin’s volatility and trading volume fall sharply, CoinDesk reported. CoinDesk said BTC’s 30-day realized volatility had dropped to an annualized 42%, while narratives that had previously driven the market, including issues tied to U.S. President Donald Trump and digital asset treasury companies, had lost momentum. It added that delays in regulatory progress on the U.S. CLARITY Act were also extending declines in trading volume and liquidity. According to CoinDesk, traders are moving funds into AI-related equities and prediction markets such as Kalshi and Polymarket, where returns may be more attractive. The outlet added that exchanges and trading firms are moving to cut costs and reduce headcount, and said a wait-and-see mood is likely to persist until regulatory clarity improves or another macroeconomic trigger emerges.

Evernorth Holdings, a company focused on strategic XRP accumulation, said it filed an S-4 registration statement with the U.S. SEC for a merger with special purpose acquisition company Armada Acquisition Corp. II. If the merger is completed, Evernorth is expected to trade on Nasdaq under the ticker XRPN. The company said it has raised more than $1 billion, with investors including Arrington Capital, Ripple, SBI Holdings, Pantera Capital and Kraken. The S-4 still requires SEC approval, and the deal also remains subject to approval from Armada II shareholders and Nasdaq listing approval.

CoinMarketCap’s Altcoin Season Index stood at 44 today, unchanged from yesterday. The index is calculated by comparing the price performance of Bitcoin and the top 100 cryptocurrencies by market capitalization, excluding stablecoins and wrapped coins. If 75% of the top 100 coins outperform Bitcoin over the past 90 days, the market is considered to be in altcoin season. The opposite is considered Bitcoin season. A reading closer to 100 indicates stronger altcoin season conditions.

Hyperliquid’s open interest has climbed back above $12 billion for the first time since October last year, according to Crypto Briefing. Crypto Briefing said the increase in open interest on the decentralized perpetual futures exchange reflected growing trader interest in on-chain derivatives. The outlet added that much of the growth stemmed from the HIP-3 governance proposal, which allows external developers to build perpetual futures markets directly on Hyperliquid. Open interest tied to HIP-3 at one point exceeded $4 billion, which the outlet said meant about one-third of positions across the platform came from traders gaining exposure to stocks and indices through cryptocurrency.

Robinhood CEO Vlad Tenev said on X that the world has entered the early stages of a tokenization supercycle, arguing tokenization goes beyond simply putting stocks on a blockchain and instead rebuilds the infrastructure for asset ownership. Tenev said tokenization allows assets to move as freely as information on the internet and predicted tokenized stocks will carry the full set of shareholder rights attached to traditional equities. He added Robinhood Chain has processed 100 million transactions in just over a month since launch, although it is still unavailable to U.S. users. Tenev also said tokenized listed stocks are only the beginning and that less liquid, less accessible assets such as stakes in private companies could be the next phase of tokenization, while U.S. regulators need to move faster to adapt to the market.

Spot CVD refers to 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 tracks trading volume at each price level. The background 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 order size. As buy orders increase, the line in the corresponding color moves higher. 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.

CoinMarketCap’s in-house Crypto Fear and Greed Index rose one point from yesterday to 41, indicating that the market remained in neutral. The index signals extreme fear as it approaches zero and extreme optimism as it nears 100. CoinMarketCap calculates the index based on price movements among the top 10 cryptocurrencies by market capitalization, market volatility, derivatives-market indicators including the put-to-call ratio, the stablecoin supply ratio, or SSR, and CoinMarketCap’s own search data.

The slump in the cryptocurrency market this year has sharply reduced the value of digital assets held by South Korea’s major exchanges Upbit and Bithumb, Yonhap News TV reported. According to filings with South Korea’s Financial Supervisory Service as of today, the fair value of virtual assets held by Dunamu, the operator of South Korean exchange Upbit, stood at 1.3779 trillion won ($991.4 million) at the end of the first half, down 39.6% from 2.285 trillion won ($1.64 billion) at the end of last year. The value of virtual assets held by South Korean exchange Bithumb also fell 30.5% from the end of last year to 194.1 billion won ($139.7 million) at the end of the first half.

A wallet believed to be tied to Multicoin Capital deposited 172,710 HYPE, worth about $10.15 million, to Coinbase, according to Onchain Lens. Onchain Lens added the transfer appeared to be intended for a sale. The wallet still holds about 2.16 million HYPE, worth roughly $126.63 million. According to CoinMarketCap, HYPE was trading at $58.59, down 1.39%.

KakaoBank has extended its real-name deposit and withdrawal account service agreement with South Korean crypto exchange Coinone by one year, continuing their partnership tied to virtual-asset trading, Newsis reported. Under the renewed contract, Coinone users will continue to deposit and withdraw won through KakaoBank accounts and trade virtual assets as before. The two companies have completed internal procedures for the extension and signed the contract, while Coinone has also completed the related prior filing process with South Korea’s Financial Intelligence Unit. The release did not disclose detailed business results such as the number of KakaoBank accounts brought in through Coinone customers, deposit balances, or partnership fees.

Strategy, the largest corporate Bitcoin holder, said through its official channel that 12 of the top 15 institutional holders of its stock increased their MSTR positions in the second quarter. Those institutions expanded their positions by a combined roughly $1.2 billion. Goldman Sachs posted the largest increase, adding $407 million in MSTR holdings during the quarter, followed by Capital International Investors with $346 million and BlackRock’s Ireland unit with $98 million. By contrast, Capital Research Global Investors recorded the largest reduction, cutting its position by $462 million.

USDG, a dollar-pegged stablecoin issued directly by Paxos, has reached $929.2 million in decentralized finance deposits, Crypto Briefing reported. Crypto Briefing said USDG is a stablecoin regulated by Singaporean authorities and that its on-chain expansion is accelerating despite its relatively short history. The outlet added that USDG’s circulating supply stands at around $3 billion, with DeFi deposits accounting for about one-third of that total.

South Korean crypto exchange Upbit operator Dunamu will not hold its Upbit D Conference this year and plans to take a one-year break, Bizwatch reported. Instead of hosting UDC in the second half of 2026, Dunamu has internally decided to sponsor Korea Blockchain Week 2026 and focus on the Upbit Institutional Summit, a pre-event to KBW 2026. The pause marks the first suspension in eight years since the conference launched in 2018. A Dunamu official said UDC has shared a range of insights alongside the blockchain industry’s growth over the past eight years since 2018, and added the company is taking 2026 to reorganize for its next leap and plans to return with a more meaningful event after the revamp.

The Financial Accounting Standards Board has outlined criteria under which certain stablecoins can be recognized as cash equivalents, CoinDesk reported. The nonprofit body, which sets U.S. Generally Accepted Accounting Principles, said qualifying stablecoins must meet three conditions: issuers must hold highly liquid reserve assets equal to or greater than the amount of stablecoins in circulation, disclose the composition of those reserves annually, and allow redemption into U.S. dollars at any time. The move is significant for how U.S. companies determine the accounting treatment of dollar-pegged stablecoins and also expands the cryptocurrency-related accounting policies the FASB is building.

Solana Policy Institute CEO Miller Whitehouse-Levine said the odds of the Clarity Act, a bill aimed at defining the U.S. cryptocurrency regulatory framework, passing Congress before the November midterm elections are only around 10%, according to The Block. In an interview with The Block, Whitehouse-Levine said the bill is currently stalled as the U.S. Senate is in recess. Whitehouse-Levine added there is less time left before the current congressional session ends, making passage increasingly difficult. Whitehouse-Levine said this is likely the sixth attempt to advance a market structure bill in the United States, and if the measure fails again, the tens of thousands of staff hours invested by lawmakers and congressional aides would represent a major opportunity cost. Whitehouse-Levine said it is now more important for regulators to move quickly on their own. Solana Policy Institute is a nonprofit organization independent of the Solana Foundation that responds to U.S. policy and regulatory issues tied to the Solana ecosystem.

Bitfinex said two of the three conditions needed to support a Bitcoin uptrend have already been met, and the asset may be close to emerging from a bear market, according to CryptoPotato. Bitfinex said expectations for interest rate cuts and easing financial conditions are already in place. The exchange added that if capital flowing into tech-focused hardware and artificial intelligence markets spills over into crypto, it would naturally support further gains in Bitcoin, calling that the final condition for a sustained uptrend. Bitfinex added that favorable capital flows into the crypto market could help Bitcoin reclaim $70,000, while prolonged negative flows could send it down toward support around $57,000.

Kraken co-CEO Arjun Sethi is exploring an expansion of the exchange’s banking business in Europe and asset management partnerships, The Block reported.

Crypto-backed PAC Fairshake has spent about $2 million on a U.S. House race in Florida, according to Crypto Briefing. The move came as a retired Florida congressman who voted against the GENIUS Act and the CLARITY Act backed the Democratic candidate.

The three major U.S. stock indices closed lower today. - S&P 500: -0.69% - Nasdaq: -1.33% - Dow Jones: -0.22%

Prediction market firms were not invited to a White House event for technology industry participants scheduled for Aug. 19, according to an Axios reporter. Citing a White House source, Alex Isenstadt said prediction market companies were not invited to the event and will not attend. President Donald Trump is also scheduled to attend, along with executives from Ripple, Coinbase, Andreessen Horowitz (a16z), Chainlink and Paradigm. Reports had previously circulated that the White House was planning a meeting with representatives from the cryptocurrency and prediction market industries.