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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.

Ethereum developers have proposed an upgrade for a quantum-resistant deposit contract to address potential threats from quantum computing. The proposal, published on GitHub, includes introducing cryptographic scheme identifiers and variable public keys to support multiple signature systems. It also calls for applying next-generation cryptography to address security weaknesses in the signature scheme used for existing staking and for significantly improving system efficiency. In addition, the proposal recommends phasing out older signature methods and pursuing a full transition to a quantum-resistant security framework.

According to CoinNess market monitoring, BTC has fallen below $80,000. BTC is trading at $79,797.61 on the Binance USDT market.

Cardano founder Charles Hoskinson said on cryptocurrency influencer David Gokhshtein’s podcast that a Cardano-based Bitcoin DeFi project has secured $500 million in preliminary investment commitments. Hoskinson said the project could attract more than $1 billion in investment as it advances. He added that the initiative aims to build a Cardano-based DeFi layer without undermining Bitcoin’s identity, creating additional yield opportunities. Hoskinson said institutional investors are expected to drive initial demand, with retail participation likely to follow. He also said the proof-verification capacity required for BTC DeFi, which was heavy in the early stages of development, has become lighter, while verification times and transaction validation costs have fallen sharply. Hoskinson added that the technology is open-source, allowing anyone to review the code, and said the ultimate goal is to create an environment where BTC holders can generate additional returns with a single click.

A proposed U.S. SEC exemption from securities registration requirements for cryptocurrencies could significantly improve fundraising conditions in the altcoin market, crypto options trading platform BIT, formerly Matrixport, said. BIT said some cryptocurrencies, including Pump.fun’s PUMP, nearly doubled in a week after the news, adding that broader market liquidity would improve further if the proposal is finalized. The SEC had previously formally proposed a rule that would exempt certain cryptocurrencies from securities law registration requirements.

Legendary U.S. hedge fund investor Stanley Druckenmiller warned that U.S. Treasury bond buybacks could instead amplify market risk, CoinDesk reported, citing a recent Wall Street Journal opinion piece by Druckenmiller. In the article, Druckenmiller said governments that try to defend asset prices against fundamentals have always failed. Druckenmiller added that higher interest rates signal risks ahead, and artificially suppressing them could undermine fiscal discipline and encourage political excess. Druckenmiller also argued that the current 10-year Treasury yield of 4.70% is a normal level reflecting nominal growth, while financial conditions remain accommodative, leaving little justification for market intervention. Druckenmiller is also known as a mentor to U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, who previously worked as a hedge fund investor.

Monad, an Ethereum-compatible layer-one blockchain, has proposed to the community a plan to separate wallet addresses from the authentication methods used to control them, CoinDesk reported. The core idea is to let users replace lost or outdated keys without moving assets to another wallet or changing addresses. If approved, the proposal would allow Monad wallets to support passkeys, multiple signers, account recovery features, and upgrades to quantum-resistant cryptography. MON was trading up 0.76% at $0.03001, according to CoinMarketCap.

Corporate and foreign investor trading in South Korea’s virtual asset market is being conducted mostly through South Korean exchange Upbit, Monday Newspaper reported, citing data lawmaker Park Sang-hyuk of the ruling Democratic Party obtained from the Financial Supervisory Service. The report said more than half of the active corporate and foreign accounts and custodial assets registered across South Korea’s five largest exchanges — Upbit, Bithumb, Coinone, Korbit and Gopax — were concentrated at Upbit. A total of 6,590 corporate accounts were registered across the five exchanges, holding about 43.38 billion won ($32.5 million) in crypto assets. Of that, 27.08 billion won ($20.3 million), or 62.4%, was held on Upbit.

South Korean exchange Bithumb announced it will temporarily suspend deposits and withdrawals of XPLA at 8:00 a.m. UTC on Aug. 25.

Decred said via its official X account that an inflation bug was exploited on its mainnet between Aug. 16 and Aug. 17, resulting in the irregular creation of a total of 2,077.96933695 DCR, worth about $30,000 at current prices. The project said the issue stemmed from a code flaw and was fixed immediately through an emergency patch. Decred added the bug made double-spending possible and said it asked exchanges to temporarily suspend DCR deposits and withdrawals to prevent further damage. The project also said it monitored for any additional double-spending before the patch was rolled out and found no further irregular issuance. According to CoinMarketCap, DCR was trading at $13.98, up 0.75%, at the time of writing.

The following are the 24-hour long/short ratios for BTC perpetual futures on the world’s three largest crypto futures exchanges by open interest: Overall: 51.73% long, 48.27% short - Binance: 51.25% long, 48.75% short - Bybit: 51.33% long, 48.67% short - OKX: 50.93% long, 49.07% short

Bitwise President Teddy Fusaro said BSOL, the Solana staking ETF managed by the crypto asset manager, posted a record daily trading volume of about $108 million. Fusaro added that BSOL trading volume has topped $261 million over the past four trading sessions. According to CoinMarketCap, SOL was trading at $101.78, up 8.07%, at the time of writing.

Circle minted $1 billion worth of USDC on Solana over the past 24 hours, according to SolanaFloor.

Two whale wallets believed to be controlled by the same entity closed Bitcoin long positions held for about two months around an hour ago, locking in $11.6 million in profit. The two addresses were said to have opened 300 BTC long positions each in early July, then exited the positions in three transactions during the same period today. According to CoinMarketCap, BTC was trading at $80,615.88, up 4.52%, at the time of writing.

Japan’s Financial Services Agency has asked the finance ministry for ¥40 billion ($270 million) in its fiscal 2027 budget to strengthen digital capabilities in financial administration, local media including Kyodo News reported on Aug. 24. The request is about 60% higher than the fiscal 2026 budget. The agency’s initial budget request for fiscal 2027 includes plans to build an AI-based market surveillance and monitoring system and support a transition to post-quantum cryptography, according to the reports. It also includes measures to strengthen oversight of cryptocurrency service providers and increase specialist staffing for cyber security and advanced AI-related risk responses.