The surge in profits for Australian resource firms may signal broader commodity demand, yet gold price expectations remain cautiously tempered.

The post BHP, Woodside Energy profits soar on high commodity prices appeared first on Crypto Briefing.

Konat's impressive debut highlights his potential to be a key figure in Real Madrid's evolving squad under Mourinho's strategic rebuild.

The post Ibrahima Konate records most touches in La Liga debut for Real Madrid appeared first on Crypto Briefing.

Brazil's rare earth facility strengthens Western supply chains, reducing reliance on China and reshaping geopolitical dynamics in critical minerals.

The post Brazil opens first rare earths facility to support US supply chain efforts appeared first on Crypto Briefing.

Rising costs for U.S. grain farmers may influence voter sentiment and economic policy, potentially impacting midterm election outcomes.

The post Iran conflict drives up costs for US grain farmers amid midterm elections appeared first on Crypto Briefing.

This lawsuit could redefine AI training practices, impacting how companies balance innovation with respecting intellectual property rights.

The post WikiHow sues OpenAI for scraping over 11,000 articles without permission appeared first on Crypto Briefing.

Bitcoin Magazine

Cypher Tank Returns to Lugano, Expanding Its Bet on Bitcoin Founders

Cypher Tank is back. 

Applications for 2026’s Bitcoin-focused pitch competition are now open after last year’s event drew over 4,000 participants from 64 countries. 

Like 2025’s event, the format, promoted and funded by the Plan ₿ VC Fund and the Plan ₿ Foundation, pairs a “Shark Tank”-style negotiation format with a documentary-style production, filming real pitches, deals and judge deliberations for release as an online series. 

This year’s edition expands the finalist field to 12 projects — eight for-profit and four nonprofit — up from last year’s eleven, with founders competing to negotiate direct investment from a panel of judges known as the “honey badgers” and to win one of three $100,000 prizes in incubation, acceleration, or relocation services.

Finalists are chosen by committee against three criteria: alignment with the values of individual freedom, privacy, decentralization, and resilience; execution ability, sustainability, and market feasibility; and integration within the broader Plan ₿ ecosystem.

The competition unfolds in four phases. Applications opened August 13 and close September 25, after which finalists are notified starting September 30. The finals themselves run October 25–27 at PoW Space Lugano, immediately following the Plan ₿ Forum — beginning with a coaching day where finalists rehearse pitches with communication experts, followed by two days of live pitching and negotiation split into batches on October 26 and 27.

Winners are selected at the close of the second day. The recorded episodes then go into post-production through the end of the year, airing online in January 2027, with the winners’ incubation and acceleration support kicking off at the end of February once their NDAs lapse.

The show’s first season launched in 2025 with similarly high stakes — over $850,000 in total prizes and a judging panel that included Tether CEO Paolo Ardoino, Blockstream’s Adam Back, Ten31’s Matt Odell, Lightning Ventures’ Mike Jarmuz, and Ego Death’s Preston Pysh. 

It rode the momentum of a record-breaking Plan ₿ Forum, which drew more than 4,000 attendees from 64 countries and upward of 800,000 livestream viewers, before its episodes premiered at Plan ₿ Forum El Salvador in January 2026 and winners were formally honored in Lugano that March.

With season two now underway, Cypher Tank is betting that a bigger finalist pool and a tighter four-phase structure can build on that first-season visibility — continuing its push to position Lugano as a global hub for Bitcoin and freedom-tech innovation.

For more information and applications, founders can visit the application portal.

This post Cypher Tank Returns to Lugano, Expanding Its Bet on Bitcoin Founders first appeared on Bitcoin Magazine and is written by Mathew Di Salvo.

Bitcoin Magazine

UK Banks Still Blocking Bitcoin, Policy Group Tells Parliament

Bitcoin Policy UK has slammed British banks for applying blanket restrictions to lawful bitcoin activity. 

The organization said in an announcement Friday that it had submitted evidence to the Crypto and Digital Assets APPG’s parliamentary inquiry into banking access, revealing that no improvements had been made over the past three years in how banks treat bitcoin activity. 

The issue: UK policy treats “crypto” as one thing, so bitcoin is caught by rules written for unbacked tokens and issuer-dependent stablecoins.

The British government has said since 2023 that banks should assess case by case rather than restrict by sector. The group says practice has not followed, and that the gap is widening as the UK moves toward full implementation of its cryptoasset regime in 2027. 

Bitcoin Policy UK called on British banks to give reasons for rejecting bitcoin-related activity. 

“Almost three years after we first raised blanket banking restrictions with the City Minister, our evidence to the Crypto and Digital Assets APPG inquiry shows the problem hasn’t improved,” Bitcoin Policy UK said in a Sunday post on X.  

“Roughly 40% of bank-to-exchange transfers in the UK are currently blocked or delayed.”

The organization filed evidence with the Crypto and Digital Assets All-Party Parliamentary Group’s inquiry into banking access. 

A joint survey by Startup Coalition, the UK Cryptoasset Business Council and Global Digital Finance, published in January 2025, found that half of the UK fintech and crypto firms it canvassed had been refused a bank account or had one closed, and that only 14% had opened and kept an account with one of the country’s nine largest banks. Most were UK-based operations rather than firms with no domestic presence.

Virgin Money, Metro Bank, Starling Bank, TSB and Chase UK block transfers and card payments outright, while Barclays and HSBC cap transfers at £2,500 ($3,400) per transaction, Bitcoin Policy UK said. 

It added that 80% of the exchanges said restrictions had increased over the previous year. None reported an improvement. An IG Group survey from August 2025 found 40% of active crypto investors had a payment blocked or delayed by their own bank.

The submission makes four requests: a regulatory statement that bitcoin activity through an FCA-registered exchange should not face blanket restriction; a duty on banks to give specific reasons and an appeals route; confirmation that FCA registration can serve as a risk basis, as in Hong Kong; and a published periodic measure of restriction levels.

In December, City Minister Lucy Rigby said that Britain can “without a doubt” compete with the United States and become an international hub for cryptoassets.

This post UK Banks Still Blocking Bitcoin, Policy Group Tells Parliament first appeared on Bitcoin Magazine and is written by Mathew Di Salvo.

Bitcoin Magazine

Strive Stock Soars After 1,110 Bitcoin Buy 

Strive, Inc. bought 1,110 bitcoin last week, the Dallas-based company’s largest single-week purchase in months, lifting its treasury to 21,356 coins, according to Monday filing. 

The company’s stock (Nasdaq: ASST) soared following the news, with shares trading over 7% higher on Monday. Strive is an asset manager which rebranded in 2025 as the first publicly traded asset-management bitcoin treasury company. In January 2026, Strive completed the acquisition of Semler Scientific in an all-stock deal — the first instance of a publicly traded Bitcoin treasury company acquiring another publicly traded Bitcoin treasury company. 

An 8-K filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission revealed Strive made the buys from August 17 through August 21 at an average price of about $73,409 per bitcoin, including fees and expenses, for a total near $81.5 million. 

The buy raised Strive’s holdings roughly 5.5% from the 20,246 coins it reported in mid-August, and it lands at prices well above the low-$60,000 range the firm paid through most of the summer. 

Strive funded the purchase with proceeds from at-the-market offerings of its ASST and SATA shares. Cash and cash equivalents stood at $171.9 million, up from the $154.1 million the company reported in July.

A faster pace as prices climb

Monday’s filing marks a sharp change in cadence. Strive bought 147 bitcoin between August 3 and 7 at an average of just over $64,800, then another 79 the following week at $63,231. Last week’s total exceeds those two rounds combined by a factor of five.

The acceleration tracks a rally in the underlying asset. Bitcoin rose nearly 25% last week, closing Friday at $77,387, and traded near $80,000 on Monday. 

ASST closed Friday at $18.22, up almost 13%, and gained more than 5% in premarket trading Monday. SATA preferred shares held near their $100 par value.

Strive now ranks as the seventh-largest public corporate holder of bitcoin, behind Strategy’s 840,447 coins, Twenty One Capital, Metaplanet, MARA and Bitcoin Standard Treasury Company.

Strategy, by contrast, has sat out the market for close to two months while rebuilding its dollar reserve.

Chief executive Matt Cole said Sunday he holds “very strong” conviction that the bitcoin bear market has ended, pointing to breakouts against both the dollar and gold.

This post Strive Stock Soars After 1,110 Bitcoin Buy  first appeared on Bitcoin Magazine and is written by Mathew Di Salvo.

Bitcoin Magazine

Bitcoin Rally Accelerates, With $80,000 in Sight After ETFs Have Stellar Week 

Bitcoin’s price surged further on Monday, flirting with $80,000 after U.S. exchange-traded funds had their best week since October. 

The leading cryptocurrency was recently trading more than 2% higher over a 24-hour period after flying past $79,155. It earlier on Monday morning in New York reached as high as $79,954. 

Over the past week, the coin has risen 25%. Its rise comes after a sluggish June and July when it mostly traded below $65,000. 

Last week, U.S. investors reversed course and bought up shares in the Bitcoin ETFs, which had their best week since October, when bitcoin notched its record of $126,080. Data from Farside Investors shows that the funds — managed by the likes of BlackRock, Fidelity, Grayscale, and Morgan Stanley — received $1.9 billion in new cash. 

“This is one of the benefits of a commodity in a constant state of supply shock,” Bloomberg Intelligence ETF analyst Eric Balchunas wrote on X on Monday. 

The surge in interest in bitcoin’s was triggered by the Treasury Department’s announcement last week to at least double the size of its long-dated bond buybacks.

Since the Treasury made the announcement, yields have gone down, while bitcoin and gold have shot up. The dollar last week was trading at a three-month low and on track for its worst week of August. Bitcoin, on the other hand, had its best week since 2023. 

Positive regulatory news coming out of the White House also helped: President Donald Trump held a meeting with crypto executives earlier last week, and urged lawmakers to get the Clarity Act over the line. 

Lawmakers will vote on the long-awaited crypto legislation, which the digital asset industry has long called for, in September. The proposed law will establish a framework for distinguishing between digital assets that are securities, commodities or payment stablecoins. 

Bitcoin notched an all-time high in October but was hurt later that month after the biggest liquidation event in crypto history saw over $19 billion in bets closed. The coin continued its plunge after the Federal Reserve made it clear it was in no hurry to lower interest rates and investors increasingly threw money at artificial intelligence-related stocks. 

This post Bitcoin Rally Accelerates, With $80,000 in Sight After ETFs Have Stellar Week  first appeared on Bitcoin Magazine and is written by Mathew Di Salvo.

Bitcoin Magazine

Strategy Again Skips Bitcoin Buy And Establishes USD Cash Dollar Reserve 

Bitcoin treasury Strategy has established a new cash reserve that it will use to buy Bitcoin, according to a Monday filing. 

The Nasdaq-listed company said it not only had increased its typical cash buffer to $5.1 billion but also created another pot of $1.59 billion which it may use to buy bitcoin and stock. 

Strategy has not bought bitcoin since June, instead focusing on stock buy-backs and creating a cushion — as well as occasionally selling bitcoin. 

“USD Cash is a separately designated pool of U.S. dollar liquidity that the Company may retain for future deployment for general Bitcoin Treasury Company purposes, which may include acquiring bitcoin, paying declared cash dividends on Strategy’s preferred stock and interest on its outstanding indebtedness, repurchasing Strategy’s MSTR Stock or preferred stock, repaying, repurchasing or redeeming Strategy’s outstanding convertible notes, increasing the USD Reserve, and other similar Bitcoin Treasury Company purposes,” the filing stated. 

Strategy has said that its buyback plan — approved in July — is about balance-sheet strength rather than retreat. President and CEO Phong Le has said that Strategy intends to remain a long-term bitcoin buyer. 

Shares of Strategy (Nasdaq: MSTR) were trading higher Monday morning in New York. The company’s stock rallied last week as the price of bitcoin rose. 

Strategy said in the filing that it sold about $2 billion in common shares last week, and also repurchased $136.4 million of its Stretch preferred shares.

Corporate software company Strategy — formerly MicroStrategy — started buying bitcoin in 2020 as a way to protect shareholder returns. 

It has since spent nearly $64 billion on the cryptocurrency largely using leverage and now holds 840,447 BTC worth $66.4 billion at today’s prices, making it the largest corporate holder of the digital coin. 

Investors can get exposure to Bitcoin via stock and dividend-paying instruments that Strategy has issued. 

Bitcoin’s price recently stood at $79,031, up 25% over a seven-day period. 

This post Strategy Again Skips Bitcoin Buy And Establishes USD Cash Dollar Reserve  first appeared on Bitcoin Magazine and is written by Mathew Di Salvo.

A newly merged Ethereum proposal would retire the network’s 512-validator sync committee, remove its rewards, and make the current Altair light-client interface obsolete by replacing it with offchain zero-knowledge proofs.

The Draft EIP-8390 estimates that deleting the committee’s reward weight would reduce annual consensus issuance by roughly 33,800 ETH.

Ethereum would give up an in-protocol mechanism that lets lightweight clients follow the beacon chain before the proposed replacement proving service, migration interface, and economic support have been specified.

A sync committee is a 512-validator sample whose messages give light clients a compact way to track Ethereum without processing the full validator set.

The proposal entered the official EIPs repository at 02:04 UTC on Aug. 24, but its Draft status makes it a design for discussion, not an adopted upgrade. It has no activation epoch or Ethereum roadmap commitment, and the document leaves scheduling to client teams.

The author’s discussion thread listed no external reviews in its initial-draft update.

Issuance falls, but the security trade changes

Ethereum’s consensus reward formula assigns the sync committee a weight of 2 within a denominator of 64. EIP-8390 would remove that weight without redistributing it, producing a 2/64, or 1/32, reduction in consensus issuance.

The draft reports a snapshot of 901,505 validators and 42,328,615 ETH staked. Against its estimate of about 1.082 million ETH in annual consensus issuance, the removed share works out to approximately 33,800 ETH per year.

The 1/32 calculation does not translate into a 3.125% cut to every validator’s total realized yield. It applies to consensus issuance allocated to sync-committee rewards, while realized returns can include other consensus rewards and execution-layer income.

Altair defines no slashing condition specifically for a validator that signs a malicious sync-committee message. EIP-7657, a separate proposal that sought to add such a penalty, is now marked Stagnant. It warned that applications securing more than 512 times 32 ETH, or 16,384 ETH, should combine the light-client protocol with other protections.

That figure was a design warning under a 32 ETH maximum effective balance, but it nevertheless captures the concern behind EIP-8390: the sampled signatures help light clients follow Ethereum, yet malicious sync-committee messages do not carry their own protocol slashing condition.

Removing the sample would exchange that accountability problem for a different dependency. Light clients would be expected to verify a zero-knowledge proof of Casper FFG finality across the full validator set.

That proof would become the finality signal for clients that do not process the full validator set.

Ethereum light clients would need an unbuilt replacement

EIP-8390 would remove its validator duties, network messages, light-client data containers, and several Beacon API endpoints. The proposal says deployed Altair light clients that sync through LightClientUpdate would stop working at the fork.

The affected category includes software that uses the standard Altair update flow. Helios, which can be embedded in wallets and decentralized applications, relies on a consensus endpoint supporting Ethereum’s light-client Beacon API. Lodestar provides a consumer-side light-client package built around that path.

Nimbus exposes a light-client interface for the same update objects, while Datachain’s Ethereum IBC client constructs headers from LightClientUpdate and FinalityUpdate data obtained through Beacon RPC.

These projects are confirmed examples, and their actual fork impact would depend on whether they still use the removed interfaces and what migrations their maintainers release.

The current Altair specification defines the update flow those implementations consume. EIP-8390 removes that flow without supplying a replacement Beacon API contract or client migration specification.

EIP-8390 asserts that Casper FFG finality could be proved within one epoch on one GPU and verified in milliseconds, but the draft cites no reproducible implementation, circuit, hardware profile, or benchmark to support that claim.

One comparable public full-set design reports sub-minute preprocessing on a 64-core CPU without GPU acceleration and describes parts of the final proof composition as future or unbuilt work. The work shows progress under a different hardware setup.

The EIP does not define the proving service, its client interface, reliability model, operators, or funding. The draft also explicitly adds no in-protocol incentive to produce finality proofs and proposes none, although offchain or public-goods funding could still emerge outside the protocol.

Ethereum would be swapping one imperfect trust mechanism for infrastructure that is not yet part of the specification. The issuance savings are concrete in the proposal’s own numbers, while the replacement’s availability, migration path, and economics remain open.

Moving EIP-8390 toward activation would require a tested interface for light clients, working migrations for current Altair consumers, and public proof production that remains available when users depend on it.

The post Ethereum proposal would cut 33,800 ETH issuance and break every deployed Altair light client appeared first on CryptoSlate.

FalconX Bravo wants US regulators to treat cash-settled perpetuals tied to a single security or a narrow-based security index as security-based swaps under SEC rules when they fall outside the joint SEC-CFTC security-futures framework.

The filing expressly includes comparable contracts offered through DeFi protocols.

The firm submitted its proposal to the Securities and Exchange Commission and Commodity Futures Trading Commission on Aug. 12. FalconX Bravo is listed on the CFTC’s registered swap dealer roster and describes its business as focused on digital assets and digital asset market participants.

FalconX’s definition covers the specified perpetuals and options on them. It does not extend to Bitcoin perpetuals or crypto perpetuals generally.

A qualifying contract listed as a security futures product on a market authorized by both agencies stays in the joint regime. That route carries listing and market safeguards covering the underlying security or index, clearing, margin, position limits, surveillance, and trading halts.

FalconX examples include bilateral and over-the-counter transactions, contracts offered by eligible venues or platforms authorized for security-based swaps, non-US venues, and comparable DeFi protocols.

For affected dealers, SEC treatment can trigger registration, business-conduct, transaction-reporting, capital, margin, and segregation requirements. A platform may also come within the security-based swap execution framework, depending on its structure and any applicable execution or clearing mandate.

Dealer status and other duties depend on the participant and transaction, so classification would not automatically require every protocol developer or trader to register.

FalconX also asks the SEC to reduce duplicated requirements for firms already overseen by the CFTC. The requested amendment to Rule 18a-10 raises its combined-notional threshold for alternative compliance from 10% to 49%. FalconX keeps the fixed-dollar cap, SEC registration and oversight, and requirements not covered by the relief.

The CFTC’s June policy statement reserved other asset classes for separate review and identified equity and narrow-index products as distinct regulatory questions.

A comment filed Aug. 21 by independent researcher Amadeus Brandes recommended the existing mixed-swap process, with protections addressing insider information, manipulation, leverage and funding-rate risks.

The comment window closes Aug. 24. The agencies have FalconX’s listed-versus-unlisted test and Brandes’ mixed-swap alternative before them, but neither submission is agency policy. Closing the docket changes no jurisdictional rule, authorizes no product, and does not commit either regulator to rulemaking.

The post FalconX asks SEC to bring single-stock perpetuals from DeFi under swap rules appeared first on CryptoSlate.

Datavault AI reaches its Nasdaq minimum bid-price deadline on Aug. 24, with DVLT 68% below the exchange's $1 threshold and no disclosed decision on whether the company will receive more time or a delisting notice.

DVLT's last sale was $0.3186 on Aug. 21, according to Nasdaq's official quote feed. Nasdaq historical data showed every close/last reading from Aug. 7 through Aug. 21 below $1.

Datavault disclosed in a Feb. 27 filing that Nasdaq had given it until Aug. 24 to regain compliance, which requires a closing bid price of at least $1 for at least 10 consecutive business days.

With only Aug. 24 left in the window, the sub-$1 close/last reading on Aug. 21 left no practical route to complete a new 10-day closing-bid cure.

Nasdaq now decides whether Datavault gets more time

Under Nasdaq's compliance rules, a Capital Market issuer can receive another 180 days if it meets the applicable continued-listing test for market value of publicly held shares and every other initial listing standard except bid price.

The company must also give Nasdaq written notice that it intends to cure the deficiency during the second period through a reverse stock split if necessary, which serves as a commitment to a potential cure.

Datavault's June-quarter filing reported $245.9 million of stockholders' equity and 949.7 million shares outstanding as of Aug. 19. At $0.3186, that share count implies about $302.6 million of total equity market value.

Total market value is not Nasdaq's unrestricted public-float measure, and public filings do not establish required holder and market-maker counts. Nasdaq still controls the eligibility determination.

The timestamped SEC submissions feed and Datavault's press-release index showed no extension or Staff Delisting Determination at the Aug. 24 refresh.

The only authority located in the reviewed SEC filings was a 2025 authorization permitting a 1-for-5 to 1-for-20 split no later than that year's annual meeting. The SEC submissions feed showed no newer proxy or information statement granting replacement authority.

A reverse split would mechanically reduce the share count and, absent other factors, raise the per-share price. It would not itself create economic value, guarantee that DVLT stays above $1, or resolve Datavault's separate capital needs.

Datavault agreed to sell 109.1 million shares at $0.55 in May and reported $1.4 million of cash alongside $79.96 million of operating cash use for the first half. Recent reports detailed those financing pressures in connection with the company's proposed bank acquisition.

The decisive signal is now a formal exchange or company notice. An additional period would postpone the bid-price test, while a Staff Delisting Determination would begin the next listing process.

The post Datavault hits Nasdaq deadline 68% below $1 as extension or delisting decision looms appeared first on CryptoSlate.

Reported losses from deepfake scams in 2026 have already exceeded last year's total by 263%, according to TRM Labs, highlighting a growing crypto security problem in which attackers increasingly manipulate authorized users rather than break blockchain code.

The blockchain intelligence firm’s new AI-in-Crime Adoption Index classifies scams as the only crypto-crime category where artificial intelligence has reached a “Mature” level of adoption.

TRM said reports involving scammer-side use of AI, including deepfakes, chatbots and AI-powered lures, have risen roughly 13-fold since 2022.

The shift exposes a weakness that traditional smart-contract security does not address. An exchange account can be properly authenticated, a hardware wallet can sign correctly, and a smart contract can execute exactly as programmed, yet funds can still reach an attacker if a deepfake convinces the person controlling those systems to approve the transaction.

That puts more of the security burden on the moment before authorization, when an exchange decides whether an account-recovery request is genuine, a treasury signer approves a transfer, or an individual accepts payment instructions from someone they believe they know.

AI scams reach maturity as impersonation scales

TRM’s index measures the prevalence of AI within different crime types, how broadly it is used across stages such as targeting and deception, and the sophistication of the tools involved.

The firm said its broader series covering all scam reports that mention AI has increased about 25-fold since 2022. That figure also includes cases where victims used consumer AI tools while investigating suspected fraud. The narrower 13-fold increase isolates reports where scammers themselves used AI.

TRM separately said reported losses tied to deepfake scams in 2026 through the period covered by its Aug. 17 report were 263% higher than the reported total for all of 2025.

Notably, other datasets nevertheless point in the same direction.

Chainalysis said inflows to impersonation scams rose more than 1,400% year over year and found that scam operations with visible on-chain links to AI service providers generated 4.5 times more revenue on average than those without such links.

The company cautions that those figures are based on addresses it has identified and can change as attribution improves.

The FBI’s 2025 Internet Crime Report recorded 22,364 complaints carrying an AI-related descriptor and $893.35 million in associated reported losses. Separately, complaints involving cryptocurrency descriptors totaled $11.37 billion in losses.

Taken together, these datasets show why AI is increasingly useful to scammers: it can make impersonation cheaper, more convincing, and easier to operate at scale.

A single attacker can maintain conversations with victims in multiple languages. Synthetic video can strengthen a false identity during remote verification. Voice cloning can imitate an executive or family member. AI-generated documents, profiles and communications can make a fraudulent request appear consistent across several channels.

The breach increasingly happens before the signature

The problem becomes more consequential in crypto because transactions are difficult to reverse once authorized.

TRM’s separate review of first-half crypto hacks showed that smart-contract vulnerabilities remained common, but the largest losses were concentrated in infrastructure and operational compromises.

Such attacks can involve stolen credentials, private keys, or other forms of access that allow an attacker to issue instructions the underlying blockchain accepts as legitimate.

Deepfakes extend that problem by helping attackers obtain cooperation rather than merely stealing access.

At an exchange, an attacker could impersonate a customer during account recovery, change authentication factors, and add a new withdrawal destination. Each subsequent step may appear valid because the attacker has already compromised the identity decision that controls access.

That makes post-onboarding identity checks increasingly important. FinCEN has warned financial institutions to watch for mismatched identity information, suspicious device or location changes, third-party webcam tools, resistance to multifactor authentication, and rapid transactions following account changes.

A recovery-factor change followed by a new device, new withdrawal address, and immediate transfer can therefore require stronger verification before assets leave the platform.

Corporate treasuries also face a similar risk.

A synthetic voice or video of an executive can pressure an employee to approve a transfer, alter a signer or add a new payment address. Hardware wallets can confirm that the correct private key signed the transaction, but they cannot determine whether the human controlling that key was deceived.

Multiperson approval, pre-established confirmation channels and delays before newly added withdrawal addresses become active can move the critical decision outside the communication channel controlled by the attacker.

The FBI has also warned that North Korean IT workers have used false identities, manipulated video, AI tools and remote-access infrastructure to gain positions that can provide privileged access to corporate systems and cryptocurrency.

For individual holders, the attack can be even simpler. A convincing video call, voice message, or profile can persuade the victim to make the payment personally. In that case, blockchain monitoring begins only after the decisive security failure has occurred.

On-chain tools remain useful for detecting suspicious flows, tracing stolen assets, and supporting freezes where centralized intermediaries can intervene. However, they are less effective at stopping a transaction that appears legitimate because the victim or authorized signer willingly approved it.

TRM’s data therefore points to a security gap that sits outside the smart contract itself.

Crypto companies still need contract audits, private-key protection, wallet simulation, and transaction monitoring. But as AI makes impersonation more effective, the more consequential control may increasingly be the one that challenges who is giving the instruction before an irreversible transaction is signed.

The post AI scammers no longer need to hack your wallet if they can convince you to use it for them appeared first on CryptoSlate.

Fidelity’s FETH and FSOL staking plans give its Ethereum and Solana exchange-traded products authority to stake up to 100% of their crypto under normal conditions, while pairing that ceiling with a layered plan for meeting redemptions when network exits take too long.

The matching framework appears in Aug. 21 prospectuses for the Fidelity Ethereum Fund, or FETH, and Fidelity Solana Fund, or FSOL. Neither fund has a minimum staking requirement, and sponsor FD Funds Management can keep ether or SOL unstaked for foreseeable redemptions, expenses, asset protection and its liquidity program.

The 100% figure is an authority ceiling, not evidence that both funds are fully staked. FSOL reported 1,675,797 SOL staked out of 1,687,589 SOL held at June 30, with a fair value of $126.3 million. Its quarterly report put net assets at $127.079 million and its trailing 30-day staked percentage at 99.64%.

FETH was at a different point. Its June 30 report listed 476,311 ether and $758.609 million in net assets without a staked-ether line. Fidelity amended the trust and custody arrangements in August, and the new prospectus said staking was expected to begin as soon as practicable after Aug. 21. It did not disclose a current staked amount.

How the redemption ladder works

Reserves are the first buffer. If they are insufficient and unstaking cannot finish within the standard settlement window, the sponsor may extend settlement temporarily. If an exit still is not practicable within a reasonable extended period, it may deliver cash in place of some or all of the crypto owed in an in-kind redemption. The filings describe these as discretionary options, not automatic protections or tools that have already been used.

The timing risk for FETH and FSOL staking differs by network. FSOL expects to regain complete control of its staked SOL within two days under normal conditions, without guaranteeing that result. FETH gives no fixed duration: Ethereum validators must leave the active set and pass a mandatory wait before the network’s withdrawal sweep processes them. Heavy exit demand or network disruption can lengthen either timeline.

Fidelity also lists possible future backstops, including a credit facility involving the sponsor or an affiliate, direct borrowing of digital assets, sales or transfers of validator positions, and structures involving liquid staking tokens or tradable rights to staked assets. Neither trust had a line of credit as of Aug. 21, and several mechanisms depend on legal, tax or exchange-rule changes.

Each trust pays aggregate staking fees equal to 15% of gross rewards and retains the remaining 85%. The retained share can fund trust expenses, quarterly cash distributions, redemptions and additional staking, in that stated priority order, though the sponsor can change the order. The trusts would pay quarterly distributions in cash after selling rewards, but their amount and timing are not guaranteed.

The post Fidelity grants ETFs power to stake 100% of crypto while outlining exit delay risks appeared first on CryptoSlate.

Phantom Wallet is removing two networks from its app. Monad disappears on August 26, 2026, Sui on September 24, 2026. Anyone holding a balance there will no longer see it in Phantom afterwards. That does not mean the funds are gone: the coins stay on their blockchain, and you can reach them from another wallet with the same recovery phrase. You still have to act, because the convenient route through the app is only open until each cut-off date.

Both announcements arrived within a few weeks of one another and affect different numbers of investors. The Monad deadline is the tighter one, while the Sui deadline concerns the older network: SUI has been running on mainnet since 2023, whereas Monad only launched its own in November 2025. This article sorts out what happens on which date, which two routes are left to you, and where a simple move accidentally turns into a taxable sale.

Phantom Wallet and Sui: what ends on September 24

Phantom published the decision on August 24, 2026 at 01:01 UTC through the @phantom account on X. The wording there says that Phantom and Sui have agreed to end Sui support in Phantom on September 24 and to leave the door open for future cooperation. It comes with an assurance: "Your funds remain safe and fully under your control." Before September 24, the post continues, you can move your wallet to another app that supports Sui.

One distinction regularly gets lost in reports of this kind. Network support means that the wallet app displays the balances of a particular blockchain, calculates them, and can sign and broadcast transactions on it. When support ends, that is precisely what ends. The blockchain itself carries on unchanged, and your keys remain valid on it.

The integration did not have a long history. Phantom announced the Sui connection in December 2024 and switched it on on January 29, 2025. Roughly twenty months later, it is over. According to consistent reports in the trade press, this was a joint decision by both sides and not a unilateral removal.

Monad in Phantom Wallet: why August 26 is the harder deadline

For Monad there is a more detailed primary source. In its help article on the Monad exit, Phantom names August 26, 2026 as the transition date and writes unambiguously: "Your assets are not lost. They remain on the Monad blockchain and can be accessed using a compatible wallet with the same credentials." Your holdings are not lost, in other words; they stay on the Monad blockchain and can be opened in a compatible wallet with the same credentials.

After the cut-off date, Phantom no longer displays Monad balances and no longer processes Monad transactions in the app. The provider itself offers two routes: swapping the Monad holdings into a network that remains supported before the transition date, or exporting the secret recovery phrase from the settings and importing it into another Monad-capable wallet.

The fee waiver has limits

By its own account, Phantom has waived its in-house fee on cross-chain swaps from native MON to wrapped MON on Solana until the transition date. Network fees and trading venue fees still apply, as the help article states. The route is therefore not free, only cheaper.

A wrapped token is a representation of a coin on a foreign blockchain: the original is locked, and a tradable stand-in is created on the target chain at a ratio of one to one. For the holder that adds a further party carrying risk, namely whoever administers the lock. If you would rather avoid that risk, take the move to another wallet instead of the swap.

Are your coins gone when a wallet drops a network?

No. A self-custody wallet does not hold coins, it manages keys. The balances sit on the blockchain and belong to the address derived from your recovery phrase. If the app falls away, the address remains. What falls away is the convenient interface to it.

This design is the decisive difference from an exchange. When a trading venue delists a token or closes your account, it genuinely holds your coins in custody, and the question becomes one of withdrawal deadlines and, in the worst case, forced liquidation. We have written up the exchange deadlines currently running separately, and they are sharper than what is at stake here. With Phantom the case is milder: access never ends, only the convenience does.

Exporting your secret recovery phrase: the route without a transaction

Moving to another wallet is the route that triggers no transaction, costs no fee and leaves your tax position untouched. You import the same recovery phrase into an app that supports the network, and you see the same balances there. The coins do not move at all; you only change the window through which you look at them.

What you need to watch out for

The recovery phrase is the master key. Whoever holds it holds everything attached to it, including the balances on every other network under the same phrase. That is exactly why the export is the most delicate moment of the entire exercise. It belongs on a computer you trust, not in a cloud note and not in a photo. We have set out at length how to store the phrase safely for the long term in our guide to keeping your seed phrase secure.

If your Phantom wallet manages Solana or Bitcoin holdings alongside Sui or Monad, you have two options. Either you import the phrase into the new app as well and keep using both in parallel, or you set up a fresh wallet with its own phrase for the departing network and transfer the balances there. The second variant is cleaner, but it costs network fees and, for tax purposes, counts as a transfer between your own addresses, so it is not a sale. Which software wallets are candidates for which chains is set out in our software wallet comparison.

Swap instead of move: what the fee-free exchange really costs

The second route is the swap inside Phantom. It is more convenient because you never leave the app, and for Monad holdings it is exempt from Phantom's own fee until the transition date. Three items remain even so: the network fee of the outgoing chain, the fee charged by the executing trading venue, and the price deviation between the quote on screen and the actual fill.

That last item is readily underestimated. On thinly traded tokens, the gap between the expected price and the realised one quickly eats up more than any fee does. If you hold a larger position, check the price a second time before sending and split the swap when in doubt. On very thin pairs, execution through a regulated trading venue can work out cheaper than the swap in the wallet, simply because more counterparty is available there.

Tax on a wallet change: when a move becomes a sale

This is where the two routes part company clearly, and for German investors it is the most important passage in this text.

Moving to another wallet is a non-event for tax. You transfer between your own addresses, or you merely import the key; no disposal takes place, and the holding period runs on unbroken.

The swap is a different matter. An exchange of coin for coin counts, for income tax purposes, as the disposal of the asset given up and the acquisition of the asset received. Under section 23 of the German Income Tax Act, the gain remains tax-free if more than a year lies between acquisition and disposal; within the year, the exemption threshold of 1,000 euros applies to the sum of all private disposal transactions in the calendar year. Once it is exceeded, the entire gain becomes taxable, not merely the part above the threshold.

The contested case: wrapping

Whether wrapping the same coin onto another chain counts as an exchange is disputed among tax advisers. In economic terms you continue to hold the same thing; in legal terms you receive a different token. That is an assessment rather than settled law, and we are not aware of a supreme court decision on the point. The practical consequence for you: if you would rather avoid that uncertainty, take the wallet export and leave the holding alone. If you choose the swap regardless, record the date, price and quantity cleanly. A portfolio and tax tool takes that documentation off your hands, provided you enter the transaction promptly.

Sui wallet alternatives: what Phantom itself names

For Sui holdings, the reports on the announcement point to two applications as the destination for the move: Suiet and the official Sui wallet, which now trades under the name Slush. Both are self-custody wallets and therefore accept the import of an existing recovery phrase.

We are not assessing these applications here and make no recommendation. Before importing, check for yourself whether the app supports the derivation scheme of your phrase. If the new wallet shows a balance of zero after the import, the cause is often a different derivation path rather than the holding itself. In that case it helps to reveal further accounts under the same phrase in the settings of the new app before you panic.

Phishing at the deadline: why unsolicited migration help is almost always a scam

Every publicly announced deadline is a diary entry for fraudsters. The pattern never varies: a message that quotes the genuine occasion correctly, a tight time frame, and a link to a supposed migration tool that asks for the recovery phrase.

Phantom has given this a paragraph of its own in the help article, writing that the company will never contact you first, will never ask for your secret recovery phrase or your private key, and will never offer to move your funds for you. Any unexpected offer of help with the migration should be treated as an attempted fraud.

That rule carries further than the current case. No reputable provider needs your phrase in order to help you, and no genuine migration requires you to type it in anywhere except into the new wallet app itself, locally on your own device. We have broken down the other markers of such messages using the example of fake withdrawal requests from crypto exchanges. The sheer number of active BaFin warnings about crypto platform series shows how large the field has become.

Why wallets drop networks: what the retreat says about the market

Putting this in context means separating the evidence from the interpretation. The evidence is this: Phantom is ending support for two networks within a few weeks, in the Sui case by its own account in agreement with the network team.

The explanation behind it is where interpretation begins. Every additional chain in a wallet costs work permanently: its own node connection, its own signing logic, its own price sources, its own support desk. If usage does not carry that effort, the integration turns into a loss-maker. We are not speculating about orders of magnitude here, because we have no reliable usage figures for individual networks.

For you, one practical consequence follows regardless of which explanation is correct: a wallet's network list is no promise of permanence. It can change, and in the best case you hear about it four weeks in advance.

What the case teaches about self-custody and hardware wallets

The real protection in this episode is the recovery phrase. It is the reason a discontinued network integration turns into an annoyance instead of a loss. Anyone whose coins sit on an exchange has no such safety net.

For larger holdings, a hardware wallet moves the key onto a device with no internet connection. The software interface then stays interchangeable while the key stays where it is. Which devices support which chains and what they cost is set out in our hardware wallet comparison. It is worth checking the supported networks before you buy, because compatibility cannot be taken for granted there either.

Checklist: what to sort out by September 24

Open Phantom first and see whether you are affected at all. Many users never activated either of the two chains and have nothing to do.

If you find a Monad holding, time is short: only a few hours of room to manoeuvre remain in the app before August 26, 2026. For Sui holdings you have until September 24, 2026, though you should not push it into the final week, because network fees and waiting times tend to climb shortly before a deadline expires.

Note down your balance before the move as well. If a different amount appears in the new app after the import, you will want to know whether a price difference or a wrong derivation path is behind it.

Checking your Phantom move: what to take away

1. Establish whether you are affected and choose your route. Check your Phantom wallet for Monad and Sui holdings. If you want to keep them, export the recovery phrase and import it into a suitable app; you will find an overview of the candidates in the software wallet comparison.
2. Settle the tax consequence before you click. Moving between your own wallets is not a sale, whereas the swap is. Record the date, quantity and price of every transaction, most easily with a crypto tax tool that tracks the holding periods for you.
3. Secure the key for the long term. If this case forces you to export your phrase, it is the right moment to reorganise how you store it. For larger holdings the key belongs on a separate device: hardware wallets compared.

(As of August 24, 2026. This article is not investment advice. Prices and fee structures change; check the terms with the provider before you buy.)

Ethereum trades at $2,472 as of 24 August 2026, up 0.38% on the day and roughly 28% over the past seven sessions. That is the strongest weekly performance ETH has printed all year, and it came out of nowhere for anyone who was not watching the macro tape.

Three catalysts stacked on top of each other in the space of 48 hours. The US Treasury announced it would at least double its buybacks of longer-dated government debt, lifting the operation size from around $2 billion to $4 billion. That pushed long-end yields lower and reopened the risk appetite window that crypto had been locked out of since spring. Almost simultaneously, the SEC published a proposed framework letting crypto projects raise capital under defined exemptions and exit securities classification once core managerial commitments are met, and President Trump publicly pressured the Senate to move on the Clarity Act, which is now scheduled for a procedural vote in September.

The market was positioned exactly wrong for all of it. More than $3 billion in leveraged crypto positions were wiped out in 24 hours, with short positions accounting for roughly 92% of the damage, around $2.77 billion. That is the fuel behind the vertical candle you see on the chart. $ETH went from below $1,950 to an intraday peak near $2,546 on 22 August, and it has held most of that ground since.

Institutional flow is confirming rather than fading the move. Spot Ether ETFs pulled in $71.47 million on 18 August with BlackRock's ETHA taking $64.68 million of it, and 30-day inflows reached $524.3 million. On the protocol side, the Ethereum Foundation activated the Platåberget public testnet on 17 August as the staging ground for Glamsterdam, targeted for Q4 2026.

So the fundamental backdrop is genuinely better than it was three weeks ago. The question is whether the chart can absorb a 29% move without giving it all back.

What does the Ethereum chart say right now?

ETH has flipped from a downtrend to a confirmed bullish structure for the first time since February, but it is doing so in deeply overbought territory.

The 200 EMA sits at $2,139.36 and had acted as a ceiling for the entire summer, sloping down and capping every rally attempt from May through mid-August. Price spent June crashing to roughly $1,512, then July and early August grinding sideways in a $1,850 to $1,980 box.

The breakout candle did not just clear the 200 EMA. It cleared $2,200 and $2,430 in a single session, which is three separate structural levels in one move. Price is now trading 15.6% above the 200 EMA, and the moving average itself has started to curl upward for the first time in months.

That is the bullish read. Here is the caveat: RSI (14) prints 79.30 against its own signal line at 65.00. Anything above 70 is overbought, and 79 on the daily is the kind of reading that usually resolves through either a sharp pullback or an extended sideways cooling period. It rarely resolves by simply continuing straight up.

There is also the shape of the move to consider. The candle from $1,950 to $2,300 is close to vertical, which means there is almost no traded volume in that band. Thin ranges like that tend to get revisited eventually, because there are no resting bids inside them to slow a decline.

What are the upside targets for ETH?

$3,000 is the objective this structure points to, but it is a Q4 target reached in three steps, not a two-week move.

Start with why $3,000 is the number worth watching rather than an arbitrary round figure.

Measure the entire bear leg from the August 2025 all-time high near $4,950 down to the June 2026 low around $1,512. That is a range of roughly $3,438. The 0.382 retracement of that decline sits near $2,825 and the 0.50 retracement sits near $3,231. In other words, $3,000 falls almost exactly in the middle of the standard recovery band for a move of this size. It is also the round number that carries the heaviest resting order flow, and it sits inside the zone where ETH spent significant time trading in early 2026 before the breakdown, meaning there is real historical volume anchoring it rather than empty air.

From the current $2,472, that is a 21% move. For context, Ethereum just delivered 29% in a single week, so the magnitude itself is not the obstacle. The sequencing is.

Here is the path in order.

• Step one, $2,546. The swing high from 22 August. ETH tagged it, rejected, and has been building a tight range between roughly $2,424 and $2,483 since. Nothing happens on the upside until this clears on a daily close.
• Step two, $2,750. Above the swing high the chart is clean all the way to this level, marked as the upper yellow band. It was the last meaningful supply zone before the spring breakdown. This is the genuine test, because it is the first place where trapped sellers from the earlier decline get their chance to exit at breakeven. Expect the move to stall here at least once.
• Step three, $3,000. Only reachable if $2,750 breaks on expanding volume rather than a low-volume wick. On the chart above, this level sits off the top of the visible range, which is worth stating plainly: it is an extension target, not a level currently being tested.

The honest framing on that upper target is that it requires the macro tailwind to persist. Specifically, it needs the Clarity Act procedural vote in September to go the market's way, and it needs ETF inflows to keep running above $70 million a day rather than flattening out the way they did in mid-August. If either of those breaks down, $2,750 caps the move and $3,000 stays theoretical.

Where is support if Ethereum pulls back?

$2,430 is the first line, $2,200 is the real test, and $2,139 at the 200 EMA is where the bull case actually lives or dies.

Work down the chart in order.

• $2,430 is the immediate flip level. It was resistance on the way up and price is currently using it as a floor. Losing it on a daily close signals the breakout is being sold rather than absorbed.
• $2,200 is the next horizontal. This is a level ETH respected repeatedly in May before the breakdown, and it sits right at the midpoint of the August spike. A retest here would be normal and healthy, and it would work off the RSI overbought condition without breaking anything structurally.
• $2,139.36 is the 200 EMA and the single most important number on the chart. Ethereum spent four months below it. Falling back under it would reclassify the entire August move as a liquidation-driven spike rather than a trend reversal, and it would put $2,000 back in play immediately.

Below that, the air gets thin fast. The $1,900 area was the July and August base, and $1,800 is the horizontal that held through the whole summer recovery. A move to $1,800 would mean the macro trade unwound entirely, and realistically that requires the Treasury liquidity story to reverse or the Clarity Act to die in the Senate.

Is the ETH breakout sustainable or is this a squeeze?

It is both, and that is exactly why the next two weeks matter more than the last two.

Short squeezes are real price discovery, but they are not organic demand. The $2.77 billion in liquidated shorts created forced buying that has now largely exhausted itself. What replaces it determines the next leg.

The bullish evidence for sustainability: ETF inflows continued through and after the squeeze rather than reversing, corporate treasury accumulation is ongoing with BitMine holding roughly 5.82 million ETH or about 4.8% of supply, and the regulatory catalysts are forward-looking rather than already priced.

The bearish evidence: derivatives leverage has already reset once, with mid-August deleveraging cutting around $3 billion in open interest, and analysts have flagged concentrated leveraged positions on Aave as a hidden liquidation risk if price moves sharply in either direction. $Ethereum also remains roughly 50% below its August 2025 all-time high near $4,950, so there is a great deal of trapped supply overhead as price climbs.

The clean tell is the monthly close. August closes on Sunday. A monthly candle that closes above $2,400 means the market absorbed the breakout. A close back below $2,200 means it was sold into.

Ethereum price prediction summary

• Base case: ETH consolidates between $2,400 and $2,550 into early September, works the RSI back toward 60, then attempts $2,750 once the September Clarity Act vote clears. This is the most likely path, and it puts $3,000 in reach late in Q4 rather than this month.
• Bull case: a daily close above $2,546 on strong volume takes ETH to $2,750 within two weeks. Clearing $2,750 opens $3,000, which lines up with the 0.382 to 0.50 retracement band of the entire bear leg and would coincide with Glamsterdam anticipation building into Q4.
• Bear case: failure to hold $2,430 triggers a retrace into the thin $2,200 zone. Losing the 200 EMA at $2,139 invalidates the reversal, reopens $1,900, and takes $3,000 off the table entirely.

The level that decides everything is $2,139. Everything above it is a bullish structure with a pullback risk. Everything below it is a failed breakout.

The short answer first: you can buy more bitcoin at a price of around $77,000, but not every method is the right one at this level. If you are already invested, a bitcoin savings plan is the calmer route, because it smooths out the weekly and daily swings. If you have been standing on the sidelines for months and want to invest a fixed amount, a lump sum purchase is statistically no worse, and more often than not it is better. The useful question is therefore not which method wins in general, but which one suits your starting position and the amount you have in mind. That is what this text is about.

It is Sunday, August 24, 2026. Bitcoin gained 22.78 percent in the week from August 16 to 23 and, according to a CoinMarketCap reading taken on August 23 at 11:28 UTC, stands at $77,256.75. Trading volume over the past 24 hours came to $27.80 billion. It is the strongest bitcoin week since March 2024 and the first price level above $77,000 since the spring.

How to Buy More Bitcoin Cleanly at $77,000

The easiest way to get your head around the topic is to look at a concrete amount. Take 6,000 euros that you will not need in the next three to five years. That gives you three basic options. First: you invest everything today. Second: you spread the 6,000 euros over twelve months at 500 euros each and let a savings plan run. Third: you combine the two, buying part of it today in one go and the rest gradually. All three routes are legitimate, all three carry different risks. There is no single correct answer, but there is one that fits the reality of your life.

The underlying assumption matters: you buy bitcoin only with money you can absorb losing. Bitcoin regularly moves 20 to 30 percent up or down within a month. Anyone who cannot stomach that should halve the amount rather than switch strategy.

What Pushed the Bitcoin Price Up 22 Percent This Week

Last week's rise hangs on several events whose timing added up. On August 19, US President Donald Trump received the leadership of the crypto industry and its regulators at the White House and there publicly called for the Clarity Act to be passed. The bill is meant to end the turf war between the SEC and the CFTC and to classify crypto assets as either a security or a commodity depending on how they are built. It already passed the House of Representatives in 2025 and has been stuck in the US Senate for months.

On the same day, US spot bitcoin ETFs recorded net inflows of $517 million, the strongest day in three and a half months. Of that, $284.7 million went to the iShares Bitcoin Trust. Inflows into Ethereum came to $189 million. On top of that came the announcement by US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent that buyback limits for long-dated bonds would be doubled. That pushes long-term rates down and shifts capital into real assets, a category many investors count bitcoin among.

The point for your decision: the lift comes from a regulatory promise and from macro-driven reallocation, not from any new application. Whether the Clarity Act clears the Senate in 2026 is open. Prediction markets currently give it around a 16 percent chance, and the cloture vote in the Senate is scheduled after the return from recess on September 15. Anyone buying today is buying ahead of a regulatory promise that has yet to be delivered.

Lump Sum or Savings Plan: Which Strategy Suits Which Investor

A lump sum purchase means you swap your amount into bitcoin on a single day. The advantage: you are invested immediately, you pay the order fee only once, and you lock in the starting point of the next price move. The drawback: if the price falls ten percent the day after your purchase, you carry a visible paper loss, and that hits most investors emotionally harder than a quiet run of losses spread over weeks.

A bitcoin savings plan breaks the amount into equally sized portions and buys them at fixed intervals. The advantage: you smooth the swings, you never hit the single worst entry day, and you relieve yourself of the psychological question of whether today is the moment. The drawback: in rising markets a savings plan systematically lags the lump sum purchase, because later purchases are made at higher prices.

Academic work from Vanguard's research arm in the US shows that over long periods a lump sum purchase beats the savings plan in two out of three cases on average, because markets rise more often than they fall. For bitcoin the rule does not hold quite as neatly: price moves are more violent and recovery phases longer. That is why the bitcoin savings plan is usually the calmer choice for beginners, though it is not automatically the higher-returning one.

How a Bitcoin Savings Plan Works Technically and What It Costs

A crypto savings plan is a recurring chain of purchase orders at a provider of your choice. You set which day of the month a given sum is debited from your reference account and swapped into bitcoin at the market price. For this the provider charges you either a fixed order fee, a percentage markup on the market price, or it earns through the spread between the buying and selling price.

The cost range in Germany runs from roughly 0.5 percent per execution at the cheapest broker savings plans to more than 1.5 percent at convenient app solutions. Anyone saving 500 euros a month pays 60 euros a year at a fee of one percent. Over five years that is 300 euros flowing into the provider's margin instead of into bitcoin. If you are torn between two providers, the fee is the first criterion you may stop worrying about once it sits below one percent. Our comparison of regulated crypto exchanges provides an overview.

Which intervals work in practice

Monthly is the most common choice and works for most savers, because salary and outgoings are on a monthly rhythm. Weekly smooths the price swings more strongly, but triples the number of executions and with it the total fee, provided the provider bills per execution. Daily makes little sense at most German providers, because minimum amounts and per-execution fees bite. A two-week rhythm is a solid compromise where your broker allows it.

Why You Should Not Rule Out a Lump Sum Purchase at This Price

A widespread reflex says: after a rally you do not go in with a lump sum. That sounds sensible but is empirically questionable. If you examine bitcoin weeks with a gain of more than 20 percent since 2018, the price four weeks later was higher in the majority of cases, not lower. The reason lies in the structure of the bitcoin market: in many cycles rallies mark the transition into a momentum phase rather than the end of one.

What the Cost Average Effect and Volatility Really Mean for Your Calculation

The cost average effect is the mathematical consequence of the savings plan. If you invest the same euro amount every month, you buy less bitcoin at high prices and more at low ones. Your average entry price ends up below the arithmetic mean of all monthly prices. This is no magic effect but a consequence of the harmonic mean, which mathematically is always smaller than or equal to the arithmetic one.

Volatility, meaning the typical price movement over time, currently sits at around 60 percent a year for bitcoin. Equity indices such as the DAX move at around 20 percent. In everyday terms bitcoin therefore swings three to four times as much as a broad equity market. For the savings plan that is an advantage, because large swings amplify the cost average effect. For the lump sum purchase it is a risk, because the chance of a false start of 15 to 30 percent within a month is real.

How Large the Amount Should Be and When You Are Better Off Doing Nothing

A workable rule of thumb for the size of your bitcoin share of total assets sits between two and ten percent. Below two percent, bitcoin will not move your portfolio noticeably whatever happens. Above ten percent, a single asset class carries your financial wellbeing, and with an asset running 60 percent annual volatility that is careless. Anyone putting all their savings into bitcoin is speculating, however the order is structured.

There are moments when you are better off buying nothing. If you have no liquid emergency cushion of three to six months of net salary, your next euro belongs in an instant access savings account rather than in bitcoin. If you are servicing a loan at more than four percent interest, paying it down is the better return. And if you first heard of bitcoin within the past seven days, give yourself a week to think before you trigger an order.

Which German Providers Come Into Question for Savings Plans and Lump Sum Purchases

German investors have several routes. Regulated crypto exchanges based or licensed in the EU offer both lump sum purchases and savings plans, often with BaFin-registered custody solutions. Neobrokers from the traditional securities world offer crypto savings plans as ETP-like constructs, where you hold bitcoin economically without holding the coins yourself. Pure crypto apps offer the lowest entry amounts, often from one euro, but the highest percentage fees.

Which route suits you depends less on the provider's name than on two questions: do you want to transfer the coins to your own wallet later, or is custody at the provider enough for you? And do you trust yourself with a seed phrase and a private key, or should a third party handle custody? Anyone wanting to hold the coins themselves picks an exchange that allows withdrawals to a hardware wallet. Anyone taking the convenient route picks a neobroker with a crypto savings plan.

What the Clarity Act and the ETF Tailwind Mean for Your Timing

Regulatory impulses have repeatedly triggered short-term price jumps in recent years, but they have rarely determined the long-term direction on their own. Should it become law, the Clarity Act would give US trading venues more legal certainty in handling crypto assets. Institutional inflows through ETFs could accelerate. Should the bill fail in September or October, a price setback is likely, because part of the rally rests on that expectation.

For your savings plan both outcomes are irrelevant, because by construction it absorbs either case. For a lump sum purchase the following applies: anyone timing their purchase date around a political vote accepts the corresponding headline risk. Anyone setting that date independently is buying a position in the running cycle, with no special expectation attached.

How to Factor Tax and the Holding Period In at the Point of Purchase

In Germany, bitcoin counts as a private economic asset under Section 23 of the Income Tax Act. Price gains from a sale are tax-free after a holding period of twelve months, provided you hold them as private assets. If you buy on August 24, 2026, a sale from August 25, 2027 onwards will be tax-free, assuming the current legal position holds. Within the holding period the gain is charged at your personal income tax rate plus the solidarity surcharge and, where applicable, church tax, once annual gains exceed 1,000 euros. Losses within the year can be offset against other private disposals.

With a savings plan, every monthly tranche has its own holding period. The tranche from August 2026 becomes tax-free in August 2027, the tranche from September 2026 in September 2027. Your broker should manage these tranches automatically using the first-in-first-out method. For the tax report, using a crypto tax tool from the outset pays off, so that a later partial sale does not force you to sort order CSVs retrospectively.

Buying More Bitcoin: What to Take Away

Three numbered steps with which you can make the decision today.

1. Set your budget before choosing a provider. Define the bitcoin share of your total assets at between two and ten percent and work out what that means in euros. Halve the figure if a loss of 30 percent would cost you sleep. Only then do you compare the exchanges that fit.
2. Choose the method that suits your starting position. If you are already invested and want to top up, a bitcoin savings plan is the calmer route. If you have been waiting for months and the move is getting on your nerves anyway, buy three quarters of your target position today in one go and put the rest into a savings plan. You will find the providers for that in the savings plan comparison.
3. Think about custody and tax from the start. Small amounts may sit at the exchange, larger holdings belong in your own wallet. Anyone planning to hold for the long run picks capable hardware. The overview is in the hardware wallet comparison.

For context on this week and the triggers of the price jump, see our article Bitcoin Price Above $75,000: 3 Reasons for the Rally. If you want to go deeper into the macro-financial framework, the connection between the dollar, gold and bitcoin is in our analysis Dollar at a Two and a Half Month Low, Gold Above $4,400, Bitcoin Up 8 Percent.

Two market reports serve as primary sources for this text: the overview by CNBC on the White House meeting and the inflow data on spot bitcoin ETFs at The Block.

(As of August 24, 2026. This article is not investment advice. Prices and fee structures change; check the terms with the provider before you buy.)

Bitcoin Savings Plan in Austria: How the Moving Average Price Is Calculated for Tax

Bitcoin savings plans spread the purchase across many individual transactions. Anyone investing 200 euros a month, for instance, inevitably buys their bitcoin at different prices. For the later tax calculation the question therefore arises: which purchase price applies when only part of the coins is sold?

Austria uses the moving average price for this as a matter of principle. Where units of the same cryptocurrency are acquired one after another and held at the same crypto address, their acquisition costs are merged into a single average price. With a wallet, the wallet as a whole can serve as the relevant reference unit instead.

How the Calculation Works

An investor buys through a savings plan:

• 0.01 BTC for 300 euros
• 0.01 BTC for 400 euros
• 0.01 BTC for 500 euros

In total they then hold 0.03 BTC with acquisition costs of 1,200 euros.

The moving average price therefore comes to:

1,200 euros ÷ 0.03 BTC = 40,000 euros per BTC

If the investor subsequently sells 0.01 BTC, acquisition costs of 400 euros are as a rule attributed to that portion.

What is not decisive, then, is whether the bitcoin sold are the ones bought first, last or at a particular price.

Every New Savings Plan Purchase Shifts the Average

The average price is not fixed for good. Every further purchase of the same cryptocurrency at the same relevant address or wallet changes it.

Anyone buying a further 0.01 BTC for 600 euros, for example, then holds:

• 0.04 BTC
• total acquisition costs: 1,800 euros
• new average price: 45,000 euros per BTC

At the next taxable sale this updated average price is used as a matter of principle. The Austrian crypto asset regulation prescribes this method both for the capital gains tax deduction and for the income tax assessment.

Several Wallets Can Carry Different Average Prices

Anyone spreading their savings plan holdings across several wallets should note that not all of a person's bitcoin are automatically merged into a single average price. The Austrian rules attach in principle to the respective crypto address or wallet. As a result, two wallets holding bitcoin belonging to the same person can carry different acquisition costs for tax purposes.

With an Austrian provider obliged to withhold capital gains tax, that provider may determine whether the individual address or the wallet as a whole is used as the reference unit. Once used, this reference unit is then also decisive for the assessment.

Legacy Bitcoin Holdings Are Treated Separately

One important exception concerns bitcoin acquired up to and including February 28, 2021. Such legacy assets are not included in the moving average price of the newer holdings. Bitcoin for which flat-rate acquisition costs were applied because tax data was missing likewise do not feed into the normal average price. Despite regular savings plan purchases, investors may therefore face a tax separation between older and newer holdings.

When Does Tax Actually Arise?

The savings plan purchase itself does not as a rule trigger income tax on price gains. The holding becomes relevant for tax purposes above all on a later realisation, for instance on a sale for euros. For bitcoin acquired after February 28, 2021, realised gains are as a rule subject to the special tax rate of 27.5 percent. The holding period plays no role in principle.

Example:

• average acquisition costs: 40,000 euros per BTC
• sale of 0.1 BTC at a price of 70,000 euros
• sale proceeds: 7,000 euros
• acquisition costs: 4,000 euros
• taxable gain: 3,000 euros

At 27.5 percent this produces a tax of 825 euros as a matter of principle.

Conclusion

With a bitcoin savings plan, Austria does not work out the acquisition price for tax separately for each unit sold. For bitcoin of the same kind acquired one after another at the same relevant address or wallet, the moving average price applies in principle. Every new savings plan purchase shifts that average. Legacy holdings from before March 2021 and certain flat-rate valued holdings, by contrast, are treated separately. With long-running savings plans in particular, investors should therefore document purchase history, wallet transfers and the tax cost basis used in each case on a lasting basis.

(As of August 24, 2026. This article is not investment advice. Prices and fee structures change; check the terms with the provider before you buy.)

Anyone forced to close an account at a crypto exchange should download the full transaction history before the cut-off date. The reason is crypto tax: it is up to you to prove to the tax office when you bought and what you paid. Once the account is closed, the trading record is as a rule no longer retrievable, and the burden of proof still sits with you.

This is not a theoretical question at the moment. Over the coming weeks, several trading venues reach deadlines after which accounts are closed, balances are sold off by force, or individual tokens are pulled from trading. It also catches investors who did nothing wrong and simply happened to be at the wrong exchange.

Crypto Tax and the Duty of Proof: Why the Exchange Does Not Keep Your Records for You

A crypto exchange is not a German credit institution. It issues no annual tax certificate, it withholds no capital gains tax, and once the business relationship ends it owes you nothing beyond the statutory minimum. What is left of your trading year is whatever you secured yourself.

With a securities account in Germany, the bank does this work. It knows your acquisition costs, offsets losses and reports the result. In crypto, that automatic process does not exist. For private investors, gains from selling Bitcoin or other crypto assets fall under other income and are declared on the Anlage SO form, using figures that you supply.

That shifts the risk. If you sit down to your tax return next April and discover the exchange has been offline for seven months, you do not have an evidence problem with the exchange. You have one with the tax office.

What the Tax Authorities Want to See on Private Disposals

A private disposal means a sale within the statutory period whose gain is taxable. For crypto assets, Section 23 (1) sentence 1 no. 2 of the German Income Tax Act applies, the rule for other economic assets. It turns on whether no more than one year lies between acquisition and disposal.

The entire data requirement follows from that one sentence. To show that a sale took place after the one-year period expired, you need the acquisition date. To calculate a gain, you need the acquisition cost in euros. And to prove that you stayed below the exemption threshold, you need every transaction of the calendar year, not only the large ones. Under the wording of the law, the total gain from private disposals stays tax-free only if it came to less than 1,000 euros in the calendar year.

An exemption threshold is a different thing from an allowance: once it is exceeded, the entire gain becomes taxable and not merely the part above it. Someone who ends the year at 1,050 euros pays tax on 1,050 euros. That is exactly why completeness matters and an approximate overview does not.

Five Deadlines Before the End of September: Which Accounts Are Closing Now

What prompted this article are deadlines already running, not a forecast. According to the notices of the respective providers and consistent reports in the trade press, five dates fall before the end of September that concern German investors directly:

• BitMart ends trading on August 26, 2026 at 01:00 UTC; by its own account, the exchange accepts withdrawal requests only until 05:00 UTC the same day.
• Kraken has set a withdrawal deadline of August 27, 2026 at 14:00 UTC for a series of delisted tokens; remaining balances are liquidated by the exchange itself thereafter.
• Bitfinex permits withdrawals for 13 affected tokens until August 31, 2026 at 10:00 UTC.
• Luno closes its EU accounts on September 1, 2026; selling and euro withdrawals are possible only until August 31.
• BitMEX, following its own delisting notice in August, has announced the closure of the entire exchange for September 23, 2026.

A detailed list of these dates with the respective times can be found in our overview of crypto exchange deadlines. For the tax question, one point is decisive that rarely appears in the announcements: all of these notices govern how long you can withdraw your money. None of them says how long you will still reach your data afterwards.

Transaction History, Tax Report and Account Statement: What Separates the Terms

These three things get mixed up in everyday use, even though they are worth very different amounts.

Transaction history

The transaction history is the raw file of every movement on your account, usually a CSV with timestamp, trading pair, quantity, price and fee. It is awkward to read and at the same time the most valuable thing you can take with you, because everything else can be reconstructed from it.

Tax report

A tax report is an already processed summary that calculates gains and losses by a particular method. It is convenient, but only as good as the assumptions behind it, and it is hard to verify without the underlying raw data.

Account statement

The account statement shows deposits and withdrawals in euros. It proves that money moved, but says nothing about which coins were bought when and at what price. As the sole basis for crypto tax it will not do.

If you have to choose between the three formats, take the raw data. A finished report can be produced from it at any time, for instance with one of the programs in our comparison of crypto tax tools and portfolio trackers. The other way round does not work.

Section 90 of the Fiscal Code: Why “the Exchange No Longer Exists” Is Not an Excuse

There is a provision that fits precisely this case, and in the debate about crypto tax it usually falls by the wayside. Section 90 of the German Fiscal Code obliges the parties involved to cooperate in establishing the facts. For matters abroad, subsection 2 requires them to exhaust every legal and factual possibility to clarify the facts and obtain evidence.

The uncomfortable part for you sits at the end of that subsection: nobody can invoke a lack of means to clarify matters if they could have secured those means through the way they arranged their own affairs. Someone who knew their account would close at the end of the month and still did not pull the export is therefore in a worse position than someone whose exchange collapsed without warning.

In practice this leads to estimation. If the tax office cannot determine the tax base, it may estimate it under Section 162 of the Fiscal Code, and an estimate rarely turns out in your favor. In the worst case an acquisition price of zero is assumed, so that the entire disposal proceeds count as gain.

FIFO and the Holding Period: Which Data Decide Tax Exemption

FIFO stands for “first in, first out” and means that where several holdings of the same kind exist, the ones acquired first count as sold first. The law prescribes this order expressly for equivalent foreign currency amounts, and the tax authorities apply the same thinking to crypto holdings held per wallet or per exchange.

The tax exemption of a sale therefore hangs on one very specific piece of information: the date of the oldest acquisition in each case. Anyone who has been buying regularly for years has dozens of such dates. They sit in the transaction history and nowhere else.

An example makes the difference tangible. Suppose you bought Bitcoin in small amounts over three years and sell part of it in the fall. If the matched purchase lies more than a year back, the gain stays tax-free under current law. If you cannot document the date, the exemption counts as unproven, because the burden of establishing circumstances that reduce tax sits with you. The same applies to holdings in Ethereum or any other coin.

Forced Liquidation and Delisting: Why an Enforced Sale Is Still Taxable

Many of the current cases do not end with someone selling voluntarily. In a delisting followed by liquidation, the exchange sells the remaining holdings itself and credits the customer with the proceeds. For tax purposes that is a disposal like any other. The fact that you did not trigger it changes nothing about that.

An awkward combination follows from this. The taxable event and the loss of access to the data fall on the same date. The disposal you have to declare in the following year therefore takes place at exactly the moment when the records for it disappear. How such a forced sale plays out in detail is something we set out in our piece on the forced sale at a crypto exchange.

On top of that come costs that eat into the proceeds. Several venues winding down charge fees on balances left behind after the cut-off date; what that adds up to we have collected in our text on residual balances after an exchange closes.

DAC8 and the Crypto Asset Tax Transparency Act: What the Tax Office Will Soon See Anyway

Alongside these wind-downs, the information available to the tax offices is changing. Under the EU directive DAC8, implemented in Germany through the Crypto Asset Tax Transparency Act, providers of crypto asset services become subject to reporting duties. The competent authority is the Federal Central Tax Office, which receives the data and passes it on according to taxing rights. The stated aim is to uncover cross-border arrangements.

For you this has one immediate consequence. Part of your trading data will in future reach the tax office without any action on your part, and it will do so from the exchange's point of view. If your own record then diverges from the reported one, you have to be able to explain the divergence. That works with complete raw data and fails with an estimate from memory.

The scope matters here: the providers carry the reporting duty, you do not. The report does not replace your tax return and does not necessarily contain the acquisition data that matters for the holding period. Above all it raises the likelihood that a gap is noticed.

Which Exchange Delivers What: Why You Should Check This Beforehand

How much a trading venue hands over varies widely, and it can hardly be compared reliably from the outside: the help centers of the large providers are largely blocked against automated retrieval, and what is written there often applies only to certain countries. A dependable list of who issues a finished German tax report and who supplies only a CSV file is therefore something we cannot present at this point.

What can be said: a full raw data export is common at most established venues, whereas a finished report under German tax law is the exception. Check this inside your account while you still have one. When choosing a new venue, this point is worth as close a look as the fees; our overview of regulated crypto exchanges classifies the providers licensed in the EU.

What Exactly to Export Before Access Ends

The following order is sorted by importance. If time is short, work through it from top to bottom.

The complete trading record

All trades since the account was opened, not only the current year. Make sure the export period really reaches back to the first purchase; many interfaces propose only the last twelve months by default. If an annual limit applies, pull the file several times, year by year.

Deposits and withdrawals in euros as well as all crypto transfers

These movements connect your bank account with the exchange account and your exchange account with your wallet. Without them there is no way to show later where a holding came from. Transfers between your own addresses are not a disposal, but you must be able to prove that the addresses were your own.

Staking, interest and bonus payments

These inflows are treated differently for tax purposes than a sale and frequently appear in a separate list that the standard export leaves out. Check whether your venue reports them separately, and download that file as well.

Fee statements and the final balance

Trading and withdrawal fees reduce the gain and should therefore be documented. A screenshot of the balance on the last day costs you fifteen seconds and is a serviceable anchor later, should a figure become disputed.

Save everything twice, in two different places, and do not change the file names. An unaltered original file with the name the exchange gave it looks more credible in a query than a table you named yourself.

If Access Is Already Gone: Which Routes Remain

If you are reading this text too late, not everything is lost. Contacting support is worth it even after the closure, because many providers have to retain data for a while for regulatory reasons, even when the interface has been switched off. A request for access under Article 15 of the General Data Protection Regulation is a legitimate way to obtain the data held about you.

Beyond that, your own traces help: bank statements show deposits and withdrawals with date and amount, old confirmation emails often contain individual trades, and transfers to your own wallet can be traced on the blockchain. Whatever you rebuild from this you should label as a reconstruction and document the method. How to proceed in such a case is described in our piece on crypto taxes without a complete history.

For larger amounts, or if you are unsure whether a gap might be judged reckless, going to a tax adviser with crypto experience is the more sober choice than trying to patch the matter up yourself.

Retention: How Long You Really Need the Data

A statutory retention period of the kind that applies to merchants does not apply to you as a private investor. What is relevant in practice are the periods within which a tax assessment can still be amended. The regular assessment period for income tax is four years and only begins at the end of the year in which the return was filed. In cases of tax evasion it extends to ten years.

There is a second reason, though, that reaches further than any deadline: the holding period itself. As long as you hold a position, you need its acquisition date, even if the purchase was ten years ago. Someone who bought in 2017 and never sold needs the records from 2017 in the year they decide to sell. The rule of thumb is therefore simply this: keep the acquisition data for as long as you hold the coins, and the sale data for at least five years afterwards.

If you are moving your holdings to a new venue anyway, that is a good moment to set up your filing cleanly once and for all. Which providers come into question is shown by our comparison of crypto exchanges.

Securing Crypto Tax Records: What to Take Away

1. Pull the complete export before the deadline of your trading venue expires. Trading record since the account was opened, deposits and withdrawals, transfers, staking inflows and fees, as the original file and backed up twice. Whether your provider is affected at all is answered by a look at the list of regulated crypto exchanges.
2. Bring the raw data into a form you will still understand in the spring. A CSV file on its own helps you little if you open it again only in April. A program from the comparison of crypto tax tools and portfolio trackers works out the holding periods and the gain on each sale from it.
3. When you next open an account, check what the provider will hand over to you later. Export function, period and format belong among the selection criteria, not the fee alone. The crypto exchange comparison is the starting point for that.

(As of August 24, 2026. This article is not investment advice. Prices and fee structures change; check the terms with the provider before you buy.)

The open-source AI hub is fielding buyout interest at nearly triple its 2023 valuation, weeks after a security breach and days after Stripe's OpenRouter deal reset the price of AI infrastructure.

The company increased its Bitcoin holdings by 5.5%, but its Bitcoin per fully diluted share rose only about 1.4%.

Ox Alpha is topping benchmark scores, reads a million tokens, takes video as input, and has developers guessing who's behind it.

Bitcoin and gold rose as the dollar weakened following expanded Treasury bond buybacks, reflecting concerns about U.S. fiscal policy, analysts say.

The tokens represent shares held by regulated custodian Alpaca and can be traded or used in decentralized finance applications on Base.

The market needs more upside fuel in order to continue the current growth, even though a minor correction isn't a big problem.

Bitcoin’s high-stakes charge toward the historic $80,000 mark met sharp intraday resistance today.

XRP has staged a massive multi-week recovery, surging over 47% in seven days to test a critical structural ceiling around the $1.50 level.

Dogeocoin treasury firm sells 463 million DOGE to fund AI data centers for Nvidia’s biggest rival.

A group of protesters gathered outside Ripple co-founder Chris Larsen’s San Francisco home on Friday as part of a nationwide campaign against automated license plate readers.

Every crypto business looking to add exchange functionality without building the stack in-house needs a way to connect with an external exchange. Crypto exchange APIs offer that bridge. They let Web3 businesses embed swaps, cash-out options, cross-chain asset movement, and even fiat on/off-ramps.

The challenge is finding one that does it all well. Plenty of APIs can return exchange-related data, but far fewer are shaped to facilitate smooth business-oriented exchanges.

This article has sourced some of the best crypto exchange APIs that can deliver such functionalities in 2026. We rank them by functionality, asset coverage, and commission model.

After our evaluation, ChangeNOW proves to be the best crypto exchange API for Web3 business integrations. The solution provides access to deep liquidity sourced from both CEX and DEX, supports over 1500 crypto assets across 110+ networks, and over 2 million exchange pairs. It also allows businesses to offer both fixed-rate and floating-rate swaps with no setup or monthly fees. Revenue sharing is based on transaction volume and starts at 0.4% with an option to customize it.

The list of best crypto exchange APIs:

• ChangeNOW
• 1inch API
• 0x API
• SimpleSwap
• Fireblocks

Each of the above APIs has its unique commission model and the number of assets and networks it supports. The table below provides a direct comparison for easier evaluation.

Overview: ChangeNOW Crypto API is a non-custodial API that lets Web3 businesses integrate its exchange functionalities directly into their products. Its model is built as a plug-and-play layer where, when a business integrates it, users swap directly without leaving its page while ChangeNOW handles liquidity routing and execution. The API supports both fixed and standard rates, which gives businesses a simple way to expand their client base. It also offers 99.99% reliability, a 350 ms response time, 24/7 support, and free post-integration maintenance.

The API fits wallets, crypto exchanges, payment platforms, SaaS products, and fiat on/off-ramp services that need crypto-to-crypto, cross-chain, and fiat-connected exchange flows in one integration.

Asset Coverage: ChangeNOW supports 1,500+ crypto assets and 2M+ trading pairs across 110+ networks. It also has an optional fiat on- and off-ramp with support for over 70 fiat currencies.

Commission: ChangeNOW’s commission model is flexible to match businesses’ needs. Commission starts at 0.4% per transaction and can be customized by asset, pair, or swap size. Profits can be withdrawn in both fiat and crypto.

1inch API

Overview: 1inch serves more like an API infrastructure rather than a simple crypto exchange API. Its business page is made up of a suite of Web3 APIs ranging from swap and order book services, token data, price feeds, portfolio trackers, and more. These APIs are what connect businesses to 1inch’s DEX-aggregating capabilities and allow their users access to market data, price feeds, swaps, and more, depending on the API chosen.

Due to this collection, 1inch plays out well for business teams building cross-chain apps, trading interfaces, portfolio dashboards, or products where exchange swaps sit inside other DeFi functions.

Asset Coverage: 1inch gives businesses access to optimized swap routing for thousands of ERC‑20 tokens, stablecoins, wrapped assets, and real-world asset (RWA) representations across 13+ chains.

Commission: Since 1inch does not charge a standard swap fee, businesses earn commission through the integrator fee feature. They add a small fee (set in basis points) to swaps executed through their interface. The fee is deducted from the output tokens during execution and shared with the business through a designated wallet. However, since the real costs depend on the route, gas, volume, and enterprise terms, business teams should be careful when building revenue assumptions around this feature, as it could cost their users in excess.

0x API

Overview: The 0x swap API serves as a premier liquidity aggregator built to enable businesses to embed swaps into their products. The API applies the smart order routing system, which divides transactions among various liquidity sources to ensure minimal slippage. Its service boasts 99.92% uptime, a <250 ms response time, and more reliable execution rates. The API is ideal for Web3 businesses that need more control over on-chain execution.

Asset Coverage: With 0x API, users can access 9M+ tokens with liquidity from 370+ sources across 16+ chains. One additional feature of this API is that instead of relying on a fixed internal asset catalog, it allows businesses to tap active token markets where liquidity already exists.

Commission: 0x offers businesses two options to monetize their order flow. The first one is the integrator fee model, where businesses add a percentage fee on trades initiated within their interface. Second, it allows what it calls a ‘trade surplus,’ where if a user’s execution improves over the quoted price, the business gets to keep the positive slippage generated.

SimpleSwap

Overview: SimpleSwap operates as a lightweight crypto exchange API designed for products that need basic swap functionality with minimal setup. Its API model allows businesses to choose between three types of API keys: for all kinds of exchanges, only for fiat-to-crypto and crypto-to-fiat exchanges, or only for crypto-to-crypto exchanges. Once an integration has been built, users can create exchanges with SimpleSwap without having to switch between numerous tabs, while the business earns rewards in USDT.

Asset Coverage: The API supports more than 2,000 crypto assets across 280+ networks, along with more than 40 fiat currency options.

Commission: SimpleSwap API uses an affiliate-based commission model. Businesses integrating it can customize their rewards starting from 0.4% to 2% on every completed exchange. Customization can be done based on token, volume, or user segment.

Fireblocks

Overview: Fireblocks takes a different approach from most providers on this list. Rather than acting as an exchange or liquidity aggregator that facilitates swap integrations, it operates as an MPC-based digital asset platform built primarily for institutional custody and treasury management.

Among its key products is the Wallet-as-a-Service (WaaS), an API-based solution that lets businesses create, manage, and secure wallets for any number of users without handling the security work themselves. With this API, businesses can manage their workspace, automate transaction flows, or use webhooks to get push notifications on workspace activity.

The API product is compatible with various businesses, including retail services, Web3 companies, financial services and banking, exchanges, and financial market infrastructures.

Asset Coverage: The WaaS API covers 1,500+ assets and comes with native support for 150+ blockchains where businesses can store assets. And even if a blockchain is not supported, Fireblocks offers raw signing so businesses can still securely manage their assets.

Commission: Fireblocks does not publish a public rate card. Pricing and commission are enterprise contract-based, calculated against outgoing transaction volume, cold storage usage, number of internal platform users, and wallet address count. Direct sales engagement is required for a quote.

Conclusion

A crypto exchange API can help generate revenue for Web3 businesses with minimal setup and cost required. However, that can only happen if the right choice is made. The list we have discussed above offers a good starting point to evaluate and choose from.

ChangeNOW stands out as the strongest all-around option for Web3 businesses that need crypto, fiat, cross-chain swaps, broad asset coverage, and flexible monetization in one integration. 1inch and 0x are stronger for businesses that need decentralized liquidity and smart routing, while SimpleSwap works better for those that require basic swap functionality with minimal setup.

Fireblocks stands apart from the rest. It isn’t built for swaps at all but for businesses that need secure wallets and custody infrastructure at scale. Therefore, the smart move is to match a business to the suitable provider. And before signing with any of them, first test their documentation and be sure to confirm how commissions are actually paid out.

The post Best Crypto Exchange APIs for Business in 2026 appeared first on Blockonomi.

Hyperliquid has become one of the standout winners of the latest crypto rebound. HYPE surged from around $58 to above $80 in less than a week, delivering roughly 37% gains as capital rushed back into high-beta altcoins. The move has put $100 firmly into the Hyperliquid price prediction conversation, but it is also pushing retail toward projects sitting much earlier in their own growth cycle.

ChainSpin is one of them. The new crypto has passed $120,000 raised, with its live presale showing roughly $126,000 collected and more than 10 million $SPIN sold. Buyers are still entering Stage 1 at $0.0125, while ChainSpin already has its casino live with thousands of games alongside an operational sportsbook.

HYPE’s 37% run puts $100 back on retail screens

HYPE’s breakout accelerated dramatically on August 19, when the token gained almost 19% in a single session before continuing higher through the weekend. It reached above $83 on August 23, extending a rally that has taken the token from the high-50s into the $80 region within days.

The rally is not happening without catalysts. Hyperliquid continues to attract attention for its revenue and token-buyback model, with Q2 revenue reported around $169 million and approximately $141 million allocated toward HYPE buybacks. Institutional interest has also strengthened, with recent reporting highlighting Multicoin Capital building a position worth more than $100 million.

From around $80, $100 would add another 25%. A move to $150 would represent another 87.5% and take HYPE significantly deeper into large-cap territory.

The early HYPE trade, however, has already delivered extraordinary gains. Retail buyers searching for the next asymmetric setup are increasingly looking for tokens that have not yet entered public-market price discovery.

ChainSpin is still at the stage HYPE buyers wish they caught earlier

This is where ChainSpin offers a completely different entry point.

$SPIN remains in Stage 1 of a 12-stage presale at $0.0125. More than 10 million tokens have already been sold, Stage 1 is over 25% complete and the price is scheduled to increase as the presale moves forward.

ChainSpin also publishes a planned listing price of $0.12, putting that level 9.6 times above the current opening-stage price.

The bigger retail hook is that ChainSpin is unusually early from a token perspective while already advanced from a product perspective. Its core platform is operating before $SPIN has reached its first exchange, allowing the project to build users while Stage 1 buyers are still securing the earliest presale allocation.

Hyperliquid proved how powerful buybacks can become

There is another reason the HYPE comparison is particularly interesting.

Hyperliquid has turned platform revenue into one of the central narratives supporting HYPE. Strong activity generates fees, and substantial amounts have been directed toward token buybacks. That mechanism has become a major part of the bullish HYPE thesis.

ChainSpin is building around a similar retail concept from a much earlier stage.

Its published SPIN Cycle is designed to direct portions of future platform revenue toward open-market $SPIN purchases. Tokens acquired through the model are intended to be divided between 60% permanent burns and 40% holder and staker rewards.

That means growing the platform can potentially create another source of $SPIN demand beyond investors simply buying the token.

Could $SPIN become the earlier asymmetric trade?

HYPE’s latest 37% run shows exactly why retail chases tokens with strong products, growing activity and buyback narratives. The difference is that Hyperliquid has already reached public markets and HYPE now trades around the $80 level.

ChainSpin remains before that stage entirely.

$SPIN is still $0.0125, the project has passed $120K raised, more than 10 million tokens have been sold and the main platform is already operating. Maximum supply is fixed at 1 billion $SPIN, while the published token model combines buybacks, permanent burns and holder rewards.

For traders looking beyond the next Hyperliquid price prediction, ChainSpin offers the earlier part of the same type of hunt: finding a working ecosystem before its token has experienced its first open-market valuation.

VISIT CHAINSPIN OFFICIAL WEBSITE

FAQs

What is the latest Hyperliquid price prediction?

HYPE has surged roughly 37% from the high-$50s into the $80 region, putting $100 back into focus after its powerful August breakout.

What is the current ChainSpin presale price?

$SPIN remains priced at $0.0125 in Stage 1, with ChainSpin showing more than $126,000 raised and over 10 million tokens sold.

Why are buyers watching ChainSpin?

ChainSpin combines an opening-stage token price with an already-live core platform and a published model designed to connect future platform revenue with $SPIN buybacks, burns and holder rewards.

The post Hyperliquid Price Prediction: HYPE Jumps 37% as New Crypto ChainSpin Raises $120K With Its Casino Already Live appeared first on Blockonomi.

Building crypto functionality can be challenging for many Web3 businesses due to inadequate coding skills or resources. But what if these businesses do not need to build or redesign such functionality and can instead use existing solutions?

This is what crypto widgets offer. They allow businesses to embed crypto functionality such as exchanges or payments, market data tracking, tickers, and portfolio views in their products. And since widgets directly integrate into a business’s app or website, they create a smooth, unified experience for users without redirecting them to another platform. All this happens while businesses can still modify colors and logos or set the widget up to match their design.

In this guide, we break down five of the best crypto widgets business teams can use to embed crypto functionality in their products. We evaluate them based on their asset coverage, customization model, and who they are best for.

Our evaluation finds ChangeNOW to be the best crypto exchange widget for integrating swap functionality into Web3 businesses. The widget combines broad asset coverage with over 1,500 cryptocurrencies available for exchange on more than 110 networks. Businesses can deploy it with minimal technical effort, customize it to match their products, and earn commission revenue from completed swaps.

The list of the best crypto widgets:

• ChangeNOW
• Swapzone
• CoinGecko
• MoonPay
• CoinMarketCap

The above providers offer different functionalities. Some focus on transactions, such as crypto swaps or payments, while others deliver live market data to display cryptocurrency prices, tickers, or portfolio details to site audiences. The table below provides a direct comparison for easier evaluation:

Overview: ChangeNOW Crypto Exchange Widget is a ready-made solution that allows businesses to put crypto swaps on their products in a couple of hours. This means users swap right where they are instead of getting routed elsewhere. In return, these businesses earn a commission on every transaction they facilitate, starting from 0.4% or higher, since there is an option to customize the commission based on specific assets/pairs. All this happens with a simple development setup that often does not require engineers.

Asset coverage: The ChangeNOW widget supports over 1,500 crypto assets, available for exchange on more than 110 networks and over 2M exchange pairs. New assets are constantly being added, so businesses always have access to the latest and most trending assets.

Customization: The widget offers several customization options to match brands’ designs. Businesses can set the widget to make it a classic rectangle or a landscape banner-style layout, set a default language or let users pick their own. They can also match the widget’s primary and background colors to their site’s design, and switch on a dark theme.

Best for: The exchange widget is suitable for small Web3 projects that already work with digital assets, including crypto news websites, exchanges, wallets, and other crypto-related services.

Swapzone

Overview: Swapzone Swap Widget is a feature that allows any website or application to embed swap options. Once embedded, users on these platforms can trade any asset from the entire Swapzone exchange crypto selection without leaving the platform. A key benefit of the swap widget is that it outputs data directly from the Swapzone aggregator to display the best price to users. Businesses embedding the widget earn a percentage of the service fee on every transaction made. The reward scheme is cumulative, meaning the higher the monthly volume, the greater the profits for businesses, with revenue-sharing rates ranging from 0.05% to 0.25% per swap across five commission tiers. Partners with higher volumes can also negotiate custom profit-sharing agreements.

Asset Coverage: The widget provides swap support for more than 1,000 crypto assets, including all those listed by Swapzone’s aggregator partners.

Customization: Businesses adding the Swapzone widget into their products can choose the theme they like, either dark or light, and the orientation, either horizontal or vertical. They can also choose their custom default tokens from various pairs available or whether they want Swapzone’s logo to be shown or not.

Best for: Crypto exchange comparison sites, portfolio trackers, and established Web3 platforms with steady swap volume.

CoinGecko

Overview: Unlike the first two providers, which offer swap widgets, the CoinGecko widget operates as a tool for displaying cryptocurrency market data. The widget is made up of several services termed the ‘widget library,’ which includes a coin ticker, coin price chart, coin converter, coin heatmap, coin list/market table, and a random coin widget. All these visualizers focus on data display pulled from CoinGecko’s own price/market data and include referral links and buttons that direct users to external trading platforms.

Asset Coverage: The widget supports tens of thousands of coins tracked by CoinGecko, though individual widgets only display selected assets.

Customization: Each CoinGecko widget has configurable width and height, theme (either dark or light), currency, locale, and (for some) number of coins shown.

Best For: Crypto media, blogs, and portfolio sites that want live price/market data display.

MoonPay

Overview: MoonPay widget is a fiat-to-crypto on/off-ramp. Its architecture allows websites or applications to embed both fiat-to-crypto purchases and crypto-to-fiat payouts directly into their interfaces. For a buy transaction, the user picks an asset and payment method, then completes the flow inside the widget itself. Businesses can integrate it as a fully hosted widget for fast deployment or use MoonPay’s headless SDK to build a custom UI. One requirement worth flagging is that every user must pass KYC and risk-management checks in line with applicable laws. Also, the widget is not available in every country, and some of its features are also restricted by region.

Asset Coverage: The widget supports 100+ cryptocurrencies across major chains and multiple fiat payment rails, including cards, Apple Pay, Google Pay, bank transfers, and several local payment methods. Availability depends on the region.

Customization: Businesses can customize the widget to feel like a native part of their site or application. This can be done by adjusting button and background colors, choosing which cryptocurrencies customers can buy or sell, setting their own fees, or adding their logo to the transaction emails sent to customers. The widget also allows businesses to pre-fill user information such as their wallet address, email, selected token, fiat currency, amounts, and preferred payment methods.

Best For: Wallets, exchanges, and Web3 apps that need users to fund their accounts with fiat or cryptocurrency.

CoinMarketCap

Overview: CoinMarketCap operates as a market data widget similar to CoinGecko. The widget lists support for three layout formats on its official tools page: a coin ticker, coin price marquee, and coin price blocks. The ticker displays coin prices and can include fields such as market capitalization or trading volume. The marquee format operates as a running ticker, while the coin price blocks are used to present assets in separate price panels. All these solutions pull their data from the CoinMarketCap core dataset.

Asset Coverage: All three CoinMarketCap widgets cover tens of thousands of tracked cryptocurrencies. However, the number and type of assets that appear depend on what businesses configure.

Customization: The widget allows site owners to select a visual format, such as a ticker, marquee, or price blocks, and configure the assets to display. Businesses can also choose which stats to surface (ticker/rank/market cap/volume) and the theme, either light or dark.

Best For: News sites, blogs, and portfolio trackers.

Conclusion

As the crypto user base grows, so does the pressure on businesses to build products that meet their needs. But as we have seen, businesses no longer need an in-house developer team to address the issue. Widgets let them add crypto functionality in hours. And in most cases, this happens while they earn revenue.

The providers we have discussed above offer a good list to choose from. If your business wants users to swap crypto without leaving your page, ChangeNOW and Swapzone are the strongest options. If you need users to buy crypto with fiat, MoonPay fits that role. And if you simply want to display live prices and market data, CoinGecko and CoinMarketCap provide that. The secret is to match the widget to the right use case, and it will actually deliver on what your users need.

The post Best Crypto Widgets for Your Project in 2026 appeared first on Blockonomi.

TLDR

• Broadcom shares retreat as credit markets price higher risk from AI guarantees
• Broadcom credit risk rises as chip financing guarantees draw fresh market concern
• AI chip financing deals push Broadcom credit costs higher as shares lose ground
• Broadcom faces pressure as large financing backstops raise balance sheet questions
• Rising bond yields add pressure to Broadcom as AI financing commitments expand

Broadcom (AVGO) shares fell 2.02% to $361.00 Monday, and rising credit costs added pressure near the session’s lows. Bond markets also priced greater risk, while Broadcom expanded financial support for large chip financing packages across the technology sector. The move links equity weakness with growing concern over guarantees tied to expensive data center expansion and custom chip demand.

Broadcom Inc., AVGO

Broadcom Credit Risk Rises With Financing Exposure

Broadcom’s 5.15% bonds due in 2031 lost ground during August, and their yields climbed about 14 basis points. Meanwhile, five-year credit default swap costs increased 28 basis points, surpassing comparable moves recorded for Oracle and SpaceX. Those measures signal higher perceived credit risk, although Broadcom continues to generate strong cash flow from semiconductor operations.

Broadcom is discussing more than $60 billion of debt for a chip financing plan supporting Anthropic and other companies. The company could guarantee part of a senior-secured tranche, and negotiations continue over the structure and final allocation. That potential support would extend Broadcom’s exposure beyond direct chip sales and increase its role in customer financing.

Earlier this year, Broadcom agreed to backstop most of a separate $35 billion debt package for custom chip purchases. Apollo Global Management and Blackstone supplied capital, and the structure funded chips that firms planned to lease to Anthropic. The arrangement showed how chip suppliers can use balance-sheet support to expand customer purchasing power during rapid infrastructure spending.

AI Financing Guarantees Raise Balance Sheet Questions

Chipmakers have increased guarantees and related support during 2026, and large cloud infrastructure projects continue demanding heavy upfront capital. Broadcom and Nvidia have used these structures to support clients, while lenders finance equipment purchases through separate funding vehicles. This model can accelerate chip orders, but it can also shift part of customer financing risk toward suppliers.

Credit markets now focus on commitments that may sit outside traditional debt balances, including guarantees, leases, and purchase obligations. These commitments can become costly during an industry slowdown, and weaker customer finances could trigger payments from supporting companies. Broadcom therefore faces scrutiny over potential obligations, even while its core semiconductor business continues benefiting from strong infrastructure demand.

The latest stock decline does not prove financing guarantees caused the entire move, but credit indicators strengthened the market concern. Broadcom still holds a central position in custom chips, networking products, and infrastructure software serving large technology customers. However, larger financing commitments could add balance-sheet pressure if chip demand slows or funded customers struggle to meet obligations.

The post Broadcom (AVGO) Stock: Retreats as Credit Risk Climbs on AI Chip Financing Deals appeared first on Blockonomi.

TLDR

• INFQ stock drops 7.12% as Japan launches its first neutral-atom quantum system
• Infleqtion powers Japan’s Shunkai quantum computer with neutral-atom technology
• Japan’s Quantum Moonshot project targets a system with up to 10,000 physical qubits
• Shunkai starts near 50 qubits with plans to scale toward roughly 500 qubits
• Infleqtion expands its global quantum role through Japan’s Moonshot program

Infleqtion, Inc. (INFQ) shares fell 7.12% to $13.11 after a sharp morning selloff. The decline came as Japan launched its first operational full-stack neutral-atom quantum computer. Infleqtion supplied key quantum hardware for the project and remains a major technology partner.

Infleqtion Inc, INFQ

Infleqtion Supports Japan’s First Neutral-Atom Quantum Computer

Japan’s Institute for Molecular Science led the development of the new system with support from Infleqtion. The computer, called Shunkai, uses neutral-atom technology for quantum processing and system control. Infleqtion provided its quantum processing unit as part of the wider research program.

The project forms part of Japan’s Quantum Moonshot initiative, which supports advanced quantum computing research. Japan Science and Technology Agency selected Infleqtion as the program’s only foreign quantum partner. That role gives the company direct involvement in one of Japan’s leading quantum development efforts.

Shunkai is expected to begin operations with about 50 qubits during its early stage. Researchers plan to expand the platform toward roughly 500 qubits as development continues. The expansion will test system integration, reliability, and performance across larger neutral-atom computing workloads.

Moonshot Program Targets 10,000 Physical Qubits

The next phase of the project began in April 2026 under Professor Kenji Ohmori’s research group. The team will improve stability, integration, and scalability across the full quantum computing platform. Researchers also plan to strengthen quantum error detection and correction capabilities.

The long-term target includes a fault-tolerant neutral-atom computer with up to 10,000 physical qubits. That scale would move the project beyond small research systems toward broader quantum computing applications. The program also aims to support more complex workloads across science, engineering, and industrial research.

External users are expected to gain access as the project develops and system capabilities improve. That access could support application testing across universities, laboratories, and commercial technology groups. It may also expand research into practical error correction methods for larger quantum systems.

INFQ Stock Falls Despite Major Quantum Milestone

The share decline contrasted with the company’s expanded role in Japan’s national quantum program. The announcement highlighted operational progress but did not prevent selling pressure during the session.

Infleqtion develops neutral-atom systems for quantum computing, networking, sensing, and security applications. Its portfolio includes quantum computers, optical clocks, radio-frequency receivers, inertial sensors, and Superstaq software. The company combines these products through a full-stack approach covering hardware and quantum software.

Infleqtion already works with major government and technology organizations across several markets. Its systems support projects involving NASA, the United States government, the United Kingdom, and NVIDIA. The Japan project now adds another large-scale deployment to the company’s growing quantum technology portfolio.

The post Infleqtion, Inc. (INFQ) Stock: Slides as Japan Launches First Neutral Atom Quantum Computer  appeared first on Blockonomi.

Ethereum saw one of its biggest weekly moves in years after staging an impressive 30% rally. The altcoin crossed $2,500 briefly, then slipped back slightly below that level.

New data shared by crypto analyst Ali Martinez suggests that ETH could be on a path toward $5,000 if it clears a major resistance zone.

Growing Buying Pressure

On August 19, Ethereum’s MVRV Ratio formed a golden cross above its 160-day moving average. Martinez also pointed to stronger whale accumulation. The number of addresses holding more than 10,000 ETH has increased by 1.74%. In fact, 17 new whale addresses joined the network over the past week.

At the same time, the token supply is moving off exchanges. More than 180,764 ETH, which is worth about $440 million, has been withdrawn over the past week. Martinez said the trend supports the case for increasing buying pressure.

However, it still faces a major resistance zone between $2,722 and $2,970. URPD data shows that 16.70 million were previously acquired within this range, which makes it a major supply wall. If Ethereum breaks through the zone, the next major MVRV Pricing Band is near $5,363, at the 2.4 level. The analysts also noted that a rejection could first send the altcoin back toward the Realized Price near $2,235 before a potential move toward the 2.4 MVRV band.

Besides, Ethereum has once again reached its 200-week moving average, which happens to be the 11th such instance over the past five years, ‘The Long Investor’ found, who pointed to a repeated pattern in the crypto asset’s price history. Each time it has moved below the 200 WMA, it has later returned to the moving average.

The analyst therefore called any percentage below the level “free money” and said investors cannot lose.

Additionally, ETH’s 50-week and 200-week moving averages are now at the same level. This creates a confluence zone. If the asset turns that level into support, the analyst expects bulls to take it back to its all-time highs. ETH remains a buy.

ETFs Draw Fresh Capital

US spot Ethereum ETFs have attracted their biggest inflows since October 2025, as demand picked up sharply during the mid-week. Net inflows stood at $30.85 million on Monday and $71.47 million on Tuesday. The pace increased after Wednesday’s announcement from the US Treasury Department. The department said it would double the maximum size of liquidity-support buybacks for longer-dated government debt, lifting them from $2 billion to at least $4 billion per operation. Wednesday recorded a capital influx of $189.15 million.

The figure rose again to $220.77 million on Thursday, while Friday recorded another strong $185 million in net inflows.

The post $5,000 Ethereum? Analyst Identifies the Levels That Could Decide ETH’s Next Move appeared first on CryptoPotato.

The meme coin niche has been one of the biggest beneficiaries of the latest market pump, with Shiba Inu (SHIB) standing out as a prime example.

The price of the self-proclaimed Dogecoin killer has climbed to a three-month peak, and some industry participants believe there is still plenty of room for further growth. However, certain factors suggest the rally may not be as sustainable as the bulls would hope.

Parabolic Jump Incoming?

As of press time, SHIB trades at around $0.000005455 (per CoinGecko), marking a substantial 22% increase on a weekly scale. Its market capitalization has surpassed $3.2 billion, solidifying the token’s position as the second-largest meme coin.

According to Crypto Patel, the latest revival is nothing compared to what might be coming next. The analyst noted that SHIB has completed a 95% macro correction over the years and is now trading within a historical accumulation zone, where the weekly structure is repeating the fractals that preceded previous price explosions. That said, they claimed the coin could be gearing up for a 2,200% rally.

The analyst’s bullish scenario includes a weekly close above $0.000006697, which, combined with a successful retest and rising volume, might trigger the next HTF expansion. At the same time, a weekly close below $0.0000035 would invalidate the current accumulation thesis.

Crypto With Gopal presented an even more optimistic prediction. He opined that SHIB has printed a textbook falling wedge formation and is consolidating inside a long-termsedcending structure, with sellers losing momentum as price compresses near the lower boundary. The analyst assumed that a clean break above the upper trendline could fuel a major rally to as high as $0.00025, or a nearly 5,000% increase from the current levels.

“Bulls are waiting for confirmation – major breakout could be next,” he added.

It is important to note that some popular market observers touched on SHIB prior to the latest market revival. Last week, David Gokhshtein claimed that people writing off DOGE, SHIB, and PEPE “are going to be in a rude awakening.” For their part, Whale News Daily suggested that Shiba Inu’s ignition will be “epic” and that it will start a proper altseason.

The Concerning Signals

Despite the positive performance, certain elements suggest that SHIB may not be completely out of the woods. Data show that Shiba Inu’s burn rate has declined by more than 91% over the past month, meaning the asset’s supply remains enormous after the team and community have scorched only a negligible amount of coins.

Next on the list is Shibarium’s waning activity. Daily transactions processed on the layer-2 scaling solution are in the mere thousands, signaling weak user engagement and potentially undermining investor confidence.

The post Top Shiba Inu Price Predictions as SHIB Soars 22% in a Week appeared first on CryptoPotato.

Bitcoin (BTC) spent this past week ripping from the low $60,000s to just under $80,000, and to trader Nonzee, none of it looks like conviction.

They are calling the move a trap built on forced buying rather than real demand, and say the next leg is down, not up.

The Case for a Distribution Phase, Not a New Bull Run

Nonzee’s argument starts with the size of the squeeze, where more than $3.1 billion in short positions were wiped out during the run, and Bitcoin alone was responsible for roughly $1.65 billion of that figure. In their view, that is what actually pushed the price higher, not a change in sentiment.

“That was not a reversal. It was a liquidity squeeze,” they wrote.

The trader tied the timing to two catalysts: Trump putting the CLARITY Act back in the headlines and the Treasury Department increasing its long-term bond buybacks. Both, they argue, forced shorts out and pulled fresh longs into a market that was already stretched thin.

Their read on where things stand now is that the $70,000 fair value gap, a pricing gap left behind during an earlier fast move that traders watch for a return visit, has been filled, the short squeeze has run its course, and FOMO buying is happening in real time.

Next will come distribution, then the selloff, in their framing, with a downside path running from $77,000 to $67,000, then $55,000, before a final leg down to between $48,000 and $45,000.

Bitcoin was trading around $78,000 at the time of writing, up roughly 2% on the day and about 22% over the past week, according to CoinGecko. It has swung between $76,000 and $79,000 in the last 24 hours alone. Still, the OG crypto remains 39% below its all-time high of around $126,000, set back in October 2025, and it is still down 33% on a one-year basis despite the bounce.

A Choppy Few Days Either Way

Whether or not Nonzee’s call plays out, the past several days have already been rough on traders in both directions. BTC briefly touched almost $80,000 on Friday before slipping to around $75,500 over the weekend, as CryptoPotato reported, with the drop coinciding with reports that market maker Wintermute had built a sizable short position on Hyperliquid. During that stretch, altcoins fared worse, with ETH down 5% and XRP off by more than 6%.

The bounce also pushed the Fear and Greed Index to its highest reading since last October’s crash, a jump that has some drawing comparisons to the conditions right before that selloff wiped out billions in leveraged positions.

Elsewhere, HYPE printed a new all-time high above $82 even as BTC cooled off, and separately, data from analyst nocoffeenobrain shows open interest climbing from around $22 billion to nearly $25 billion during the rally, a slower pace than the move in price itself, which points to traders adding positions cautiously rather than piling on leverage all at once.

The post Bitcoin’s $80K Rally Is a Trap, Analyst Warns of $45K Drop appeared first on CryptoPotato.

ZEC is one of the best-performing top 100 cryptocurrencies over the past week, with its price surging by nearly 65%.

And while many market observers believe the bulls aren’t done yet, one analyst warned that a violent move south could come next. Here’s why.

ZEC is Not BTC

The cryptocurrency market has enjoyed a sudden and evident resurgence over the last several days, following the monetary policy changes in the US announced by the Treasury Department, among other factors.

ZEC caught the green wave and rallied harder than BTC, ETH, XRP, and many other popular cryptocurrencies, probably because another catalyst directly affected it. As CryptoPotato reported, the leading digital asset manager Grayscale revealed discussions with a Digital Currency Group (DCG) subsidiary over a contribution of roughly 200,000 ZEC to its Zcash Trust. Later, it was revealed that the product would be converted into an ETF, with the launch scheduled for August 25.

ZEC’s price briefly jumped to roughly $880 on August 23, representing the highest mark since January 2018. In the following hours, the bulls lost some steam, and the asset currently trades at around $848 (per CoinGecko), with a market capitalization of over $14 billion.

X user jussy recently opined that ZEC “is looking good” after its solid increase, anticipating further gains to $930 if it successfully breaks $850. For their part, Crypto Tony claimed that $1,000 is the minimum of the cycle.

Contrary to the predominant optimistic views, Crypto with Harris ₿ argued that ZEC’s “real value” lies below $500. The analyst reminded about the critical vulnerability Zcash experienced earlier this year, which triggered a massive price collapse. Back then, the crash prompted some prominent industry figures, such as Arthur Hayes, to sell their entire positions in the coin.

Crypto with Harris ₿ paid close attention to ZEC’s chart and noted that the price is well above its daily averages and even the upper Bollinger Band. In their view, this is proof that the move has already been “extremely stretched,” warning people to be aware of influencers who project rallies beyond $2,000.

“ZEC is ZEC. It is not Bitcoin,” they concluded.

Another Bearish Sign

Anyone looking to engage with ZEC should also take into account its recent exchange net flow.

Over the last several days, inflows have far outpaced outflows, indicating that many investors have abandoned self-custody and flocked to centralized platforms. This is considered a bearish signal as it increases immediate selling pressure.

The post Zcash (ZEC) Explodes to an 8-Year High, But an Analyst Warns of a Major Crash appeared first on CryptoPotato.

A meme coin tied to the GTA VI leak saga is having an absolutely wild run. CYBERLEEK, a Solana-based meme coin promoted by the person or group behind the alleged leaks, has jumped another 35% in the past 24 hours.

That comes after an almost unbelievable 40,000% surge over the past week. The token is now trading around $0.028, as fresh GTA VI gameplay footage continues to appear alongside its promotion.

CYBERLEEK, however, asserted that there is more to the token than a quick crypto gamble. They claim it is connected to a “secret project” and that the money raised will go toward building infrastructure and security for the project.

GTA VI Leaks

International Cyber Digest reported that CyberLeek has burned almost $1.5 million worth of developer tokens to argue that the meme coin isn’t a pump-and-dump scheme. The group has collected around $40,000-$70,000 or more in transaction fees. It also reportedly sought a 400 Monero “donation,” worth roughly $165,000 at the time, to initiate contact for potential advertising deals.

CyberLeek began posting GTA VI gameplay footage last week, which included details about the game’s map and free-roam gameplay, and was later removed from X following a copyright strike from Rockstar Games. The group said the token was created to raise funds for a “secret project” that cannot yet be disclosed because revealing it would give large corporations time to prepare defenses.

It denied that the project is a cash grab and added that the funding is intended for infrastructure and protection against corporate counterattacks.

CyberLeek’s posts briefly pushed the token’s market capitalization to over $20 million on Monday. According to the now-blocked website, the group had asserted that its actions were driven by objections to anti-consumer practices in the gaming industry, including digital pre-orders, paid single-player content, and limited long-term offline access. But the use of leaked footage to promote its own meme coin has raised serious questions.

Take-Two Hunts the Leakers

The leaks have continued despite Take-Two Interactive seeking information from Microsoft and Discord that could help identify those behind them. On August 22, two more videos were released, one showing supercar gameplay and an armed robbery, while the other featured a strip club scene.

Take-Two said in its court filings that GTA VI material, including audiovisual content, artwork, images and dialogue, had been posted through Microsoft’s GitHub platform and Discord. Microsoft said it was working with Take-Two and Rockstar to protect their creative work and intellectual property. Discord, meanwhile, said it reviews and complies with valid DMCA subpoenas. Rockstar has not publicly confirmed whether the leaked footage is authentic.

The post The Group Behind the GTA VI Leaks Has a Meme Coin, Millions in Value, and a Secret Agenda appeared first on CryptoPotato.