New Day Dk007

#SECCryptoRegulation
The SEC proposed Regulation Crypto Assets includes a conditional safe harbor that could allow a crypto asset to be delinked from an investment contract with which it was once associated. The proposal pairs that safe harbor with new exemptions designed for certain investment contracts involving crypto assets.
Earlier today, the SEC proposed Regulation Crypto Assets, a proposed framework for certain investment contracts involving crypto assets. It includes two exemptions from registration under the Securities Act of 1933 and a conditional safe harbor related to the term investment contract.
The startup exemption would permit offerings of up to $5 million during a four-year period. The fundraising exemption would permit offerings of up to $75 million during each 12-month period. Under both exemptions, issuers would provide principles-based narrative disclosures.
The proposal states that issuers would remain subject to the federal securities laws’ antifraud and antimanipulation provisions. It also would preempt state securities-law registration and qualification requirements for offers and sales of securities issued under a Regulation Crypto Assets exemption, as well as certain secondary-market transactions.
Alongside the exemptions, the proposed rules include a conditional safe harbor from the term investment contract in the definitions of security under the Securities Act of 1933 and the Securities Exchange Act of 1934. If the safe harbor’s conditions are satisfied, a crypto asset would be deemed not to be subject to an investment contract for purposes of those definitions.
Commissioner Hester M. Peirce described the safe harbor as a way for an issuer of an investment contract to delink a crypto asset from the investment contract with which it was once associated. The condition described by the SEC is that the issuer has completed or permanently ceased all essential managerial efforts it represented or promised it would take under an investment contract.
The proposal follows the SEC and CFTC’s March 2026 interpretation addressing how federal securities laws apply to certain crypto assets and transactions involving crypto assets. The SEC has presented the proposed rules and earlier interpretation as part of a tailored securities offering regime for crypto assets.
The safe harbor is conditional, and the proposal is not presented as a framework for every crypto-asset model. Peirce said the exemptions and safe harbor will not fit every model and invited public feedback on the proposal.
Peirce also requested input on facilitating a role akin to equity for crypto assets, allowing token holders to share in the growth and value of the enterprise that builds a crypto network. That issue is an area for feedback, rather than a feature established by the proposal.
The proposal’s two exemptions are limited by their respective offering caps and disclosure conditions. The safe harbor, meanwhile, is tied to completion or permanent cessation of the issuer’s essential managerial efforts under the investment contract.
The SEC said Regulation Crypto Assets comes as Congress works to establish a lasting regulatory framework. SEC Chairman Paul S. Atkins said the proposal seeks to provide crypto-asset entrepreneurs and market participants with pathways to raise capital under federal securities laws while those broader efforts continue.
The proposal is now subject to public comment. The SEC says the comment period will remain open for 60 days after publication of the proposing release in the Federal Register.

#XRP $XRP
$XRP Ripple said the $275 million raised will support its expansion into traditional financial services such as prime brokerage and multi-asset clearing, citing strong demand from institutions.
Ripple raised $275 million in a senior note offering that closed on Tuesday to support blockchain enterprise solutions provider’s ongoing US business expansion into financial services.
The senior unsecured notes were issued in a private placement by the company’s non-bank prime brokerage, Ripple Prime, the company announced on Tuesday. Ripple said the note offering attracted a diverse base of institutional investors from financial markets.
Ripple Prime President Noel Kimmel said that the support received during the note offering is a signal of “confidence in our long-term vision for the growing intersection of traditional and digital asset financial infrastructure.”
$XRP Ripple said the proceeds of the offering will be used to support its expansion into financial services including prime brokerage, financing and multi-asset clearing.
The company acquired Hidden Road last year in a roughly $1.25 billion deal. That acquisition allowed the Ripple to launch its institutional prime brokerage business, which was later rebranded as Ripple Prime.
In May, Ripple secured a $200 million credit facility from funds managed by Neuberger Berman to expand the lending capacity of its institutional prime brokerage business.
In July, it launched Ripple Mint, a platform that gives institutions new ways to access, mint, redeem and manage its US dollar-pegged stablecoin, Ripple USD (RLUSD). At last look, RLUSD has a market cap of $1.76 billion,

#ElonMuskUpdates
Social media platform X is in talks to explore how stablecoins, such as Circle Internet’s CRCL$81.56 USDC, can be used to pay royalties to influential users for uploading content, according to a person familiar with the plans.
The conversations with X are ongoing, said the person, who also works with other social media platforms testing stablecoins as a way to pay commissions to influencers.
Media representatives of X did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Stablecoins, which boast a collective market cap of over $300 billion, have become a staple for blockchain payments, facilitating faster, cheaper cross-border transactions for everyone from small businesses to multinationals moving large amounts of money between subsidiaries.
It’s not so surprising the Elon Musk-owned company is looking to stablecoins to pay royalties to content providers around the world. Musk’s SpaceX already uses stablecoins to collect cross-border payments from customers of Starlink, which provides satellite internet services in various emerging markets.
In March, Musk hired crypto veteran Benji Taylor as the head of design at X, tying his role to both xAI and SpaceX. Taylor, who led design at Coinbase Global’s COIN$169.99 Base blockchain network, has a background in wallets and decentralized finance
X is overhauling how it pays creators, as outlined in a recent post by the social media firm, phasing out its long-running Revenue Sharing program in favor of a new system called the Original Content Rewards Program.
The new program is designed to “reward creators who bring original ideas, expertise, reporting, creativity, and commentary to X,” the company said.

#ZEC $ZEC
Grayscale has filed its fourth amendment to convert the Zcash Trust into an exchange-traded fund while disclosing that a Digital Currency Group subsidiary is considering an investment representing about 200,000 ZEC, currently worth roughly $110 million
According to an Aug. 18 registration statement filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, Grayscale plans to list shares of the converted trust on NYSE Arca under the existing ZCSH ticker, subject to the registration becoming effective.
The latest amendment also identifies DCG International Investments Ltd., a subsidiary of Grayscale parent Digital Currency Group, as a potential investor. The company is discussing a purchase of shares representing exposure to approximately 200,000 ZEC.
With Zcash trading near $555, the proposed amount would be valued at roughly $111 million. Grayscale stressed that no binding purchase agreement has been reached and that the eventual transaction, if one takes place, could differ substantially from the amount under discussion.
“However, because these discussions are not binding agreements or commitments to purchase, the Potential Investor could determine to purchase more, fewer or no Shares,” the filing said.
The amendment moves forward a conversion process built around Grayscale’s existing Zcash investment vehicle, which has provided investors with ZEC exposure without requiring them to hold the cryptocurrency directly.
Grayscale filed for the conversion in May, proposing to move ZCSH from its existing over-the-counter structure to NYSE Arca. The trust would continue holding ZEC while its publicly traded shares would provide investors with exposure to the value of the underlying cryptocurrency.
A subsequent crypto.news review of the filing found that the trust held 391,103.89 ZEC worth about $99.4 million as of March 31. Coinbase Custody was listed as custodian, BNY Mellon as administrator and the CoinDesk Zcash Price Index as the pricing benchmark.
The latest SEC filing shows that the trust’s principal market net asset value had increased to about $155.25 million as of June 30, with a principal market NAV per share of $32.15.
Under the proposed ETF structure, authorized participants would be able to purchase and redeem shares in blocks of 10,000 shares, which Grayscale defines as baskets. The trust intends to issue shares continuously once the registration becomes effective and the NYSE Arca listing is completed.
Grayscale’s filing states that the investment objective remains for the value of ZCSH shares, based on ZEC held per share, to track the value of the trust’s cryptocurrency holdings after expenses and liabilities.
The possible DCG International Investments purchase could add a sizeable investor to the product, although Grayscale has not provided a timetable for the discussions or stated whether the subsidiary has committed capital to the transaction.
Alongside the investment disclosure, Grayscale has expanded the registration statement to account for the security incident that affected Zcash earlier this year.
The issue centred on a vulnerability in Orchard, Zcash’s shielded transaction pool, which could have allowed an attacker to create counterfeit ZEC without leaving an obvious public record of the additional supply.
Developers deployed emergency network changes in June after the flaw was discovered. Although the Zcash team said it found no evidence that the vulnerability had been exploited, the privacy properties of Orchard meant developers could not conclusively prove that counterfeit ZEC had never been created.
The uncertainty became particularly important for an investment product designed to hold ZEC because any hidden inflation could affect the cryptocurrency’s circulating supply and, in turn, the value of assets held by the trust.
Zcash developers later prepared the Ironwood upgrade to deal with the remaining supply question. As reported ahead of activation, Ironwood was scheduled for July 28 at block 3,428,143 and introduced a separately tracked shielded pool alongside controls governing funds leaving the old Orchard pool.
The upgrade included a supply turnstile designed to prevent more ZEC from leaving Orchard than had legitimately entered it. The mechanism did not identify individual counterfeit coins but provided a way to contain any excess hidden supply if the earlier vulnerability had been exploited.
$ZEC Zcash founder Zooko Wilcox also explained before the fork that the old Orchard pool would effectively be sealed, while funds could leave through the turnstile under the network’s accounting rules.
When Ironwood activated on July 28, Zcash replaced the vulnerable pool with a new shielded pool backed by a formally verified design. Orchard stopped accepting new shielded transfers and remained available for withdrawals as users began moving funds into Ironwood.
More than 40,000 ZEC had moved into the new pool shortly after activation, while about 3.6 million ZEC remained in Orchard, according to data cited at the time.

#CryptoStocksToday
Crypto stocks jumped in premarket trading on Thursday after US President Donald Trump pushed Congress to pass the Clarity Act, giving the cryptocurrency industry a clearer set of rules. The move came after Trump met cryptocurrency industry executives at the White House.
Trump asked lawmakers to pass a “fair version” of the Clarity Act, an industry-backed bill that has been stuck in the US Senate. Trump has repeatedly said he wants the US to become the “crypto capital of the world,” according to Reuters. The Clarity Act could bring more clarity to how cryptocurrencies are regulated in the US. The bill would help decide whether different cryptocurrencies should be treated as securities or commodities.
The bill would also help define the roles of two major US regulators — the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC). This could make it clearer which agency is responsible for different parts of the crypto market.
Crypto companies and analysts say clear legislation is important because current rules can change with political decisions and court cases. Without a law passed by Congress, companies face uncertainty over how cryptocurrencies will be regulated in the future, according to Reuters.

#TRUMP $TRUMP
$TRUMP President Donald Trump will participate in one of the most consequential White House crypto summits in history.
The administration is bringing together top crypto executives, traditional finance players, and regulatory chiefs. The to chart a path forward on digital assets.
The White House crypto summit arrives at a critical legislative moment.
The CLARITY Act, the landmark bill that would define SEC and CFTC jurisdiction over digital assets, remains stalled in the Senate.
Passage odds on Polymarket have slipped into the low teens to around 20% range for 2026, well below earlier projections.
Congress left on August recess with a key procedural vote not expected until mid-September.
That stall pushed the administration toward agency-level action.
The kickoff was for the CFTC’s newly formed Innovation Advisory Committee, which holds its inaugural session tomorrow from 1–4 p.m. ET.
The 35-member panel, which includes Coinbase, a16z, Ripple, Chainlink, Kalshi, CME Group, and Intercontinental Exchange, will center its agenda on “Crypto’s Regulatory Evolution: From Uncertainty to Clarity.”
Patrick Witt, executive director of the president’s council of advisers for digital assets, is also expected to attend.
The meeting was first reported by Semafor’s Eleanor Mueller on August 14, citing people familiar with the plans.
Beyond the CLARITY Act, the White House crypto summit is expected to put tokenization of real-world assets and prediction markets front and center.
The presence of Nasdaq, NYSE, CME Group, and DTCC, the backbone of traditional U.S. financial infrastructure, reflects how seriously TradFi is now treating on-chain finance.
Platforms like Polymarket and Kalshi add a prediction-market angle that has become a visible priority for the Trump administration.
The administration is signaling that even without full legislation, it can advance crypto through safe harbors, exemptions, and coordinated SEC-CFTC rulemaking.
Coinbase and Ripple executives, firms that have navigated constructive dialogue at prior White House crypto meetings, are expected to make the case for tokenization infrastructure and clearer on-chain equity frameworks.
Figures from a16z, Chainlink, Paradigm, and Robinhood are also among those circulating across reports, alongside White House digital-assets advisers.
Meanwhile, the Coinbase and Ripple attendance expected at this summit has drawn particular attention given both firms’ ongoing roles in shaping market-structure legislation.
Investors are watching closely. Agency-led progress can deliver near-term regulatory clarity even without full legislation.
$BTC Bitcoin and major crypto assets have historically reacted positively to pro-industry Washington signals.
Though, concrete outcomes remain uncertain until official statements or rulemaking emerge after 2:30 p.m. ET today.
Discover promising new crypto projects before the crowd catches on.

#BNB $BNB
Reuters reported that Binance supplied transaction records and identity documents later used in a terrorism-financing case against Yuri Belenkiy
Binance reportedly provided Russian authorities with transaction records and personal information belonging to a customer accused of financing terrorism via cryptocurrency donations to Ukrainian fundraising campaigns.
Russian investigators used information supplied by Binance as evidence against IT specialist Yuri Belenkiy, who was detained in September 2025 and is awaiting trial in Russia, according to law enforcement documents reviewed by Reuters.
Russia’s Investigative Committee alleged Belenkiy sent more than $700 in crypto between January 2023 and March 2024 to the Ukrainian military and a banned organization that Reuters identified as the group known at different times as the Azov Brigade and the Azov Regiment.
Reuters’ review found that Russian authorities asked Binance for Belenkiy’s transaction history and received information linking him to the transfers, along with his date of birth, address, phone number and passport number. The response also included copies of his Russian passport and Bulgarian residency permit
A Binance spokesperson declined to comment on specific confidential law enforcement requests or individual cases.
$BNB “Binance does not make or enforce the laws of any jurisdiction, determine charges, or decide how any government uses information in legal proceedings. Like other global financial institutions, we cooperate with lawful information requests from law enforcement globally, subject to applicable legal, privacy and regulatory requirements,”

#BTC $BTC
$BTC Bitcoin ETFs recorded nearly $390 million in net outflows last week, reversing strong inflows earlier in August. Weak Bitcoin prices, interest-rate concerns and limited progress on US crypto legislation have dampened investor sentiment. Analysts said institutional demand remains cautious, potentially affecting Bitcoin prices and market liquidity
Spot Bitcoin exchange-traded funds (ETFs) in the US witnessed their biggest weekly withdrawals since late June, signalling renewed caution among investors after a strong beginning to August.
According to a report by Bloomberg, the 13 US-listed spot Bitcoin ETFs recorded net outflows of $389.7 million during the week of August 10.
The reversal came after the funds attracted $853.5 million in the previous week. The first week of August had delivered the strongest weekly inflows since April.
The shift in ETF flows reflects weakening sentiment around Bitcoin, according to market observers. Bitcoin has struggled to regain momentum, trading around $63,000, roughly 50% below its record high reached in October last year.
Concerns that interest rates could remain elevated are weighing on risk appetite, while a lack of progress on the proposed US Clarity Act, which seeks to establish a regulatory framework for the crypto market, has added to investor uncertainty.
Spot Bitcoin ETFs have become a major route for traditional investors seeking exposure to the cryptocurrency without directly purchasing or storing Bitcoin. As a result, their fund flows are closely watched as an indicator of institutional demand.
The strong ETF inflows earlier in August followed a security incident involving Coldcard-branded offline wallets produced by Toronto-based Coinkite. A vulnerability reportedly made the generation of some Coldcard keys predictable, raising concerns about the security of hardware wallets.
The incident temporarily strengthened the argument for gaining Bitcoin exposure through regulated financial products rather than directly holding the underlying asset.
$BTC Bitcoin itself remained largely range-bound last week, moving within roughly a 2% range. Its implied volatility index, which uses options prices to estimate expected 30-day price swings, stood around 37 on Monday, below its average for the year and well below its February peak of 82.2.
With ETFs now representing a significant channel for institutional Bitcoin investment, sustained outflows could put additional pressure on the cryptocurrency's price and liquidity if other sources of demand remain weak.

#ChinaEconomy
China’s economy lost momentum across the board in July, as consumer spending stalled and urban investment contracted at a faster pace while unemployment ticked higher, adding to pressure on Beijing to step up support in the second half.
Retail sales eked out a 0.6% growth from a year earlier, according to the National Bureau of Statistics on Monday, missing the estimated 1.5% jump in a Reuters poll, and slowing from the 1% growth in June.
China’s urban fixed-asset investment, including real estate and infrastructure, contracted 6.7% this year as of end-July from a year earlier, worse than the estimated 6% decline in the poll. The decline also steepened from the 5.7% drop in the first half of this year.
Industrial output rose 4.5% in July, undershooting the estimated 4.8% growth and slowing from 5.3% rise in June.
The urban unemployment rate stood at 5.2% in July, ticking up from 5% in June.
The data, which was released at 3 p.m. instead of the usual 10 a.m., reinforced concerns about the health of the world’s second-largest economy that has grappled with a deepening supply-demand imbalance.
Industrial production and exports tied to the global AI investment boom have helped cushion weak consumption and private investment, but July data suggest that support may be thinning.
China must “accelerate the transition to new growth drivers,” the statistics bureau said in the English statement, while calling for greater reforms and opening up further.
During the Monday presser, statistics bureau spokesperson Fu Linghui said that geopolitical pressure abroad and high temperatures domestically impacted China’s economy last month. While acknowledging that key economic metrics softened last month, Fu pointed to 5% growth in services retail sales over the first seven months of the year, versus 1.1% jump in retail sales of goods.
Exports, new growth drivers and macro policy would support China’s economy in achieving the full-year growth target, despite “shocks” from extreme weather in July, Fu added.
China’s retail sales growth has slowed sharply over the past year, with nominal growth easing to just 1.3% in the first half of this year from 5% in the same period last year, according to Goldman Sachs, as a government trade-in subsidy program that pulled purchases forward has since become a drag.
China’s consumer inflation had eased to a six-month low of 0.5% in July, while core CPI, excluding volatile food and energy prices, rose 0.9%.
Wang Guanhua, another statistics bureau spokesperson, said Monday that the softening consumer inflation in July was in part due to the dip in global crude oil prices, and cited the latest Politburo meeting’s plan for more fiscal support.
In another sign of persistent weakness in spending, new bank loans issued in July — typically a slow month for lending — recorded their largest monthly decline on record, according to Barclays. Household loans, including mortgages, shrank in July after a brief recovery in June, according to CNBC’s calculation of official figures, amid soft housing activity and a weak labor market.
Mortgage demand has weakened through the multi-year property downturn, while banks, wary of borrowers’ repayment capacity, have grown more reluctant to lend.
The jobs picture may be worse than official figures suggest. A private survey conducted by the team of Li Daokui, a professor of economics at Tsinghua University, showed China’s broad unemployment rate at 10.2% as of July, significantly higher than the official figures of around 5%.
The survey, counting in people who have been jobless for the past two years and are no longer covered in the official labor force survey, also showed that more than half of the roughly 24 million long-term unemployed are aged 16 to 24.
Official youth unemployment rate stood at 14.9% in June, the highest rate for the same month since the government excluded university students from the sample more than two years ago.
Behind the weak hiring is a slump in investment. Urban investment declined for the first time in decades last year, falling 3.8% from a year earlier, and has deteriorated further this year, as the property downturn and tighter constraints on local governments’ borrowing hampered one of China’s traditional growth drivers.
Investment in real estate declined 19.2% in the first seven months this year, while infrastructure and manufacturing investment contracted 3.6% and 1.7%, respectively.
Signaling state priorities, high-tech investments grew by 5% year on year during the first seven months of the year. The category includes information services, aerospace and equipment manufacturing.
The intensity of pullback in overall investment has been “unprecedented,” said Li, describing the contracting investment and high youth unemployment as the biggest obstacles to China meeting its growth targets.
Factory and construction activity also lost momentum in July, with the official manufacturing PMI unexpectedly contracting for the first time since February.
Amid Mideast energy disruption, crude oil production in China rose 0.8% in July from a year ago to a record-high, Fu said. He added that natural gas and electricity production remained high in July, ensuring sufficient daily supply.

#TRUMP $TRUMP
$TRUMP President Donald Trump backed World Liberty Financial is collaborating with a Hong Kong based venture offering artificial intelligence models developed by Chinese companies the U.S. administration has flagged for national security concerns.
$TRUMP President Donald Trump-backed World Liberty Financial is collaborating with a Hong Kong-based venture offering artificial-intelligence models developed by Chinese companies the U.S. administration has flagged for national security concerns.
World Claw, founded earlier this year, offers customers access to a suite of AI models and accepts World Liberty’s crypto tokens as payment. The Trump family, through its ownership stake, earns revenue from the use of World Liberty’s tokens.
A Reuters review found that 43 of the 90 models available through World Claw’s website, or nearly half, were developed by Alibaba, Baidu, Z.ai and other Chinese technology companies the Trump administration says pose risks to national security and intellectual property. World Claw also offers access to dozens of models from U.S. firms such as OpenAI and Anthropic.
There’s nothing illegal about World Liberty’s collaboration with World Claw or with World Claw’s relationships with the Chinese companies. And such Chinese models, which are typically less expensive, are gaining traction globally, including among U.S. tech companies.
Still, seven experts on Chinese technology, trade and government ethics said the business collaboration — and the potential profits for President Trump through World Liberty — runs counter to his administration’s stance towards Chinese tech companies.
”As the U.S. government tries to respond to the rise and threat of Chinese AI, it seems hypocritical to go out through World Claw to use these tools from China to try and make a bunch of money,” said Sam Bresnick, a fellow at Georgetown University’s Center for Security and Emerging Technology.
Reuters could not establish the details of World Liberty’s financial arrangements with World Claw or how much money the Trump family has made from crypto payments on the platform. The president’s two eldest sons have publicly promoted World Claw, and a World Liberty executive has worked as an advisor to World Claw
World Liberty makes money from the use of its USD1 stablecoin, including when World Claw users elect it as their mode of payment for access to AI models. Like other U.S. dollar-based stablecoins, USD1 is backed by traditional assets like U.S. Treasury securities so that it maintains a constant value. The Trumps are entitled to a percentage of the interest earned on those assets.
White House spokesperson Anna Kelly said in a statement that “there are no conflicts of interest” in the relationship between World Liberty and World Claw and that “President Trump only acts in the best interests of the American public.”
David Wachsman, a spokesman for World Liberty, said World Claw was an independent company and noted that major U.S. firms offer AI from Chinese as well as American tech companies. “This is a common and widely accepted approach,” he said in an email.
A World Claw spokesperson said in a statement that the company “helps American AI companies reach international users” and that “making a model available does not constitute an endorsement of its developer.”

#BTC $BTC
Blockchain data shows the Japanese treasury firm moved the bitcoin between wallets it controls, not to an exchange, so the transfer isn't a sale despite its $1.4 billion paper loss.
A mid-day check on crypto markets show bitcoin giving up early-day gains in the U.S. session and falling towards the lower end of its tight trading range.
At 12:00 Eastern time, it traded at $63,350, largely flat over the past 24 hours but down 1.6% from the session highs before this morning’s U.S. CPI report. BTC has been trading in a narrow range between $62,000 and $66,000 over the past five weeks, and the inflation data matching expectations did not provide the fuel the break out in either direction from that band.
XRP (XRP), meanwhile, is teetering on the brink of falling below the $1 level, which has been holding since November 2024. Among larger cryptocurrencies, Hyperliquid’s native token (HYPE) and Near Protocol’s NEAR (NEAR) stood out with more than 4% gains, while Uniswap’s UNI (UNI) fell 5%.
Looking at traditional markets, the S&P 500 and Nasdaq 100 pared early-session gains, but were 0.2% and 0.7% higher from Tuesday’s close. Gold was holding above $4,400 an ounce, near its two-month highs.
WhiteFiber (WYFI) and Nebius (NBIS) shares both jumped around 15% after strong Q2 results. WhiteFiber revenue rose 54% to $28.8 million, supported by initial billing at NC-1, its flagship North Carolina data center with 40 megawatts contracted and potential expansion to 300 megawatts.
Nebius revenue surged 454% to $582.3 million, while adjusted EBITDA swung to $236.2 million. Investors welcomed accelerating AI demand, new contracts and expanding capacity, despite continued net losses and heavy capital spending.
Wednesday’s in-line CPI report avoided the upside surprise that could have rattled risk assets, but inflation remains too hot to give the Fed an all-clear, analysts said.
Headline inflation at 3.4% remains well above the Fed’s target, while energy prices are nearly 15% higher than a year ago, noted Daniela Hathorn, senior market analyst at Capital.com. That should keep inflation front and center after Fed Chair Kevin Warsh stressed the need to prevent elevated prices from damaging the economy.
Hathorn said markets now price roughly 60% odds of no change in September versus 40% for a 25 basis-point hike. A month ago, market participants saw only 30% chance of a pause versus 70% odds for hiking rates, according to CME FedWatch.
For crypto, the report takes an immediate inflation shock off the table without offering much fuel for a breakout. Ryan Lee, chief analyst at Bitget Research, said the print “neither forces a hawkish re-pricing nor delivers a clear dovish catalyst,” leaving bitcoin traders to focus on ETF flows, liquidity and derivatives positioning while awaiting Jackson Hole and more inflation data.
Iggy Ioppe, CIO at Theo, struck a similar note, arguing that keeping rates unchanged still amounts to effective easing given current inflation and labor-market conditions and should support risk assets over the medium term.
US stock futures rose Wednesday as strong AI earnings lifted sentiment before today's inflation data.
CoreWeave surged 16% after hours on booming AI-compute demand and Super Micro rallied 7.6% on a revenue forecast that topped the highest estimates, pushing Nasdaq 100 futures up 0.3%. Korea's Kospi jumped 4%, with Samsung and SK Hynix both up about 6%.
The bigger event lands at 8:30am ET, when July CPI is expected to show headline inflation easing to 3.4% from 3.5%.
It's the first inflation read since the weak jobs report cut September rate-hike odds to about 36%, and a soft print would firm the case for the Fed to hold.
Metaplanet shifted 3,881 BTC, worth about $247 million, across several transactions over three hours on Wednesday, per Arkham data.
The move went from the company's cold wallets to new addresses it also controls, not to an exchange.
Transfers to fresh self-custody wallets don't add to tradable supply the way deposits to an exchange do, so on their own they aren't selling.
Metaplanet has done this before. It moved nearly 5,000 BTC in March in the same pattern, test transactions followed by larger amounts into new wallets, and analysts then read it as internal custody reshuffling rather than distribution. Nothing in Wednesday's on-chain data points anywhere different.
Metaplanet bought its roughly 43,000 BTC at an average of about $96,000, so with bitcoin near $63,600 the company is sitting on an unrealized loss of about $1.4 billion, down 34%.
$BTC Metaplanet has been one of the most aggressive corporate buyers since April 2024, with a stated target of 210,000 BTC.

#NEAR $NEAR
$NEAR Protocol (NEAR) has seen a roughly 5% increase over the last day, primarily driven by a technical bounce at a key support level and amplified by a growing narrative around protocol fee-funded buybacks, rather than any new fundamental announcement.
The immediate driver of NEAR's price increase is a technical reversal from a support zone that many traders are closely monitoring. Over the last 24 hours, NEAR moved from about $1.55 to around $1.63, a gain of roughly 5%, with the bulk of the move occurring between 11 Aug 4:05pm UTC and 12 Aug 5:15am UTC. Several high-visibility accounts have framed this move as a bounce from higher timeframe support and a potential bottom in the correction, noting a bullish MACD divergence and upside targets toward $1.85 and $2.40 in Q4. Multiple technical traders are also highlighting a falling wedge pattern and expecting an upside breakout, which tends to attract momentum and breakout traders into the same price area.
The price move aligns with a widely watched technical inflection. Once enough traders believe a support zone and pattern are valid, their positioning itself becomes the catalyst for a bounce, even in the absence of fresh fundamental news.
Simultaneously, there is a renewed narrative that NEAR is effectively buying back its own tokens using protocol fees. A well-followed analytics account pointed out that about $2.6 million in protocol fees have gone into a buyback multisig over the last 30 days against roughly a $2.1 billion float, arguing that NEAR is "slowly removing its own supply from circulation," with the protocol itself becoming a recurring marginal buyer. This buyback dynamic is not brand new in the last 24 hours, but its visibility appears to have increased in that window.
The renewed focus on protocol fee-funded buybacks probably strengthened conviction among existing bulls and helped justify buying at support, adding fuel to a technically driven move rather than serving as an isolated, one-off announcement.
The move in NEAR is also notable because it happens against a mostly flat or slightly soft broader market, suggesting idiosyncratic interest rather than just beta to crypto. Over roughly the same 24-hour window, total crypto market cap is up only about 0.1% and the aggregate altcoin market cap excluding BTC is down roughly 0.2%, meaning most alts have been flat to slightly weaker while NEAR is up around 5%. NEAR’s reported 24-hour volume is near $190 million and social posts are calling out that it has surpassed about $160 million in daily volume, which indicates above-average trading activity relative to its recent corrective period.
Since the wider altcoin market did not move similarly, NEAR’s price action looks like a combination of local technical setup plus elevated trading interest, rather than a broad macro or sector-wide catalyst lifting all boats.
$NEAR 5% move in NEAR over the last day is best explained by a confluence of factors rather than a single discrete piece of news. The core driver appears to be a technically driven bounce from a key support zone and falling wedge pattern that many traders are watching, reinforced by a circulating narrative that protocol fees fund ongoing buybacks, with this all playing out while the rest of the altcoin market stayed flat and NEAR attracted above-normal volume and short-term trading focus. There is no evidence of a major new fundamental announcement, listing, or regulatory development in the last 24–25 hours specifically tied to NEAR, so the move looks like positioning and narrative-driven price discovery around existing themes rather than a reaction to fresh hard news.

#WLD $WLD
$WLD Worldcoin (WLD) appears to have moved mainly on a combination of a fresh team wallet unlock, broad market macro headlines, and short term leveraged trading, not a single major announcement.
Key Factors Influencing Worldcoin's Price
1. Team Wallet Unlock and Supply Overhang
The only clearly Worldcoin specific event in the last 25 hours is a sizable team related unlock that onchain watchers highlighted.
An onchain analyst reported that the Worldcoin team “unlocked 4.418m WLD to a personal wallet” on 11 Aug 2026 and noted that this wallet had previously received 2.779m WLD a year earlier but had not sold, likely due to a one year lock up. The post warned that “more than 7m WLD could be dumped at any price over the next few days” if that lock up ended and the holder chose to sell Worldcoin team unlock tweet.
While this transfer on its own does not prove immediate selling, it increases perceived circulating supply risk. Traders seeing a potential 7 million WLD unlock often anticipate extra sell pressure and either derisk or take tactical short positions. That can create volatility in both directions as positions are opened and then covered.
This unlock sits on top of a broader tokenomics backdrop where Worldcoin had already signaled changes to the unlock profile. In April 2026 the project announced that the WLD unlock rate would decrease by about 43 percent from July onward, framing a medium term reduction in new supply WLD unlock rate cut. The fresh team wallet movement you are seeing is a shorter term flow event inside that longer schedule.
In your specific 25 hour window, the clearest WLD specific catalyst is the visibility of a new 4.4 million WLD unlock to a team associated wallet, which likely affected trader expectations about near term supply and helped drive active repositioning.
Beyond that token specific flow, the move in WLD is happening against a market wide backdrop of regulatory news and macro focus.
In the last day, market coverage has highlighted that Bitcoin is largely range bound around 63,000 dollars with mixed action across majors, and Worldcoin is mentioned only in passing in tables, trading around 0.33 dollars and about 1.9 percent down at that earlier snapshot Bitcoin market update including WLD. This suggests WLD is moving with the broader altcoin complex rather than on an isolated listing or delisting.
Regulators are also in the headlines. The US SEC has scheduled a meeting to propose “Regulation Crypto,” a tailored offering framework for certain crypto investment contracts, with community coverage noting that this is the first formal crypto rulemaking push under the new commission SEC Reg Crypto meeting coverage. Parallel pieces discuss the CLARITY Act delays and SEC CFTC guidance on crypto asset categories regulatory framework summary. These do not target WLD directly, but they affect risk appetite across altcoins.
Macro traders are also focused on the US CPI print and its impact on rates and dollar strength. Coverage notes that major coins are mostly flat to modestly volatile into CPI, with options markets pricing relatively low but not zero volatility CPI driven crypto volatility discussion. Again, WLD is not singled out, but as a high beta altcoin it tends to move more than Bitcoin on the same macro information.
Part of the 3.8 percentage point swing you are seeing is consistent with “beta” behavior to overall crypto headlines and macro catalysts, rather than a unique fundamental event for Worldcoin.
Short term price changes of a few percentage points in a day are often strongly influenced by how leveraged traders position around support, resistance, and order book depth.
Multiple active trading accounts on X posted short term setups for WLD in this same window, with detailed entries, tight stops, and high leverage (for example 10x and 75x shorts around the 0.334–0.337 dollar area, with targets down in the 0.313–0.325 region) WLD short setup example, another WLD short plan. There are also long setups shared around 0.337 dollars WLD long call.
One trader explicitly describes WLD’s recent move as a textbook “pullback” to retest a breakout zone, emphasizing how “technically extremely clean” the retest is and that “the market respects the structure” WLD pullback as breakout retest. That language signals that some part of the move is simply price discovering around a prior resistance support flip, rather than reacting to new information.
When you combine visible token unlock news with these tightly risk managed leveraged trades, small absolute flows can produce noticeable percentage swings. Stop losses and take profit orders can cascade around key levels, so a wave of short covering or long liquidations can easily explain a 3–4 percentage point net move over a 24 to 25 hour lookback even with no single blockbuster headline.
The detailed short and long plans around WLD, plus comments about clean technical structure, indicate that intraday leverage and order book microstructure likely amplified whatever directional push was created by the unlock news and general market mood.
$WLD 4.4 million WLD (with a total of about 7 million WLD associated with the address), which increased perceived supply overhang and prompted trading attention. The rest of the 3.81 percentage point price movement is best explained by WLD trading as a high beta altcoin in a market preoccupied with regulatory and macro headlines, plus short term leveraged positioning around technical levels that magnified the effect of relatively modest underlying flows.

#VIRTUAL $VIRTUAL
$VIRTUAL 6.21 percentage point move in Virtuals Protocol (VIRTUAL) over the last 3 hours is most plausibly driven by a cluster of social and narrative catalysts rather than a single hard event.
Over the last day, VIRTUAL shifted from being a recent large loser to showing strong intraday upside with rising volume. A Benzinga style market wrap noted Virtuals Protocol as one of the top losers in the prior 24 hours, framing it as a heavily sold asset before this bounce. A Bybit spot dashboard update showed VIRTUAL among the top three coins by volume change, with volume up about 291 percent over the prior period, which signals fresh capital rotating in rather than only thin order book moves. Multiple traders on X discussed VIRTUAL sitting in a multi week range around 0.54 to 0.56 dollars, with repeated defenses of that area, low volatility, and bullish divergences, and pointed to a reclaim of the 0.62 to 0.65 dollar zone as a key trigger for a larger reversal. One such thread described this range as “acting as a strong low” and laid out upside levels near 0.62 to 0.65 dollars if reclaimed.
The 3 hour push is likely the local expression of a broader “range break with volume” dynamic rather than an isolated blip.
There is a clear attempt among both the team and observers to frame VIRTUAL as a play on physical AI agents and robotics, not only software agents. An in depth X post framed the current move as “VIRTUAL starting a run,” noting price around 0.59 dollars, up roughly 12 percent on the day with about 82.5 million dollars in volume, nearly 3 times the previous day’s level. That post explicitly tied the move to fundamentals: an “Eastworlds” initiative that pushes Virtuals beyond purely digital agents into physical AI and robotics, expansion around Robinhood Chain that could widen distribution for its agent infrastructure, and work on decentralized AI inference as part of a “agents doing economically useful work” thesis. Another community thread in Vietnamese highlighted that Virtuals has been repeatedly featuring robotics projects like StrikeRobot, Humanoid Network, Openmind AGI and Eastworlds in its recent updates and reposts, and argued that robotics is no longer just a side narrative but the center of a growing ecosystem for the protocol. A trader with a sizeable following mentioned considering buying VIRTUAL “given the Unitree news,” linking the token to robotics brand Unitree in the same breath as recent price strength.
The 3 hour move likely piggybacks on this robotics and physical AI narrative wave, with traders bidding as they discover or re rate VIRTUAL via tweets about Eastworlds, robotics partners and Unitree.
Within roughly the same daily window, several influencer style accounts and sector threads put VIRTUAL directly in front of active traders. A curated AI agents thread listed VIRTUAL alongside other agent coins like Kite, OriginTrail, Unibase, Allora and others, explicitly asking whether readers were bullish on any AI agents projects. Inclusion in such “sector baskets” tends to drive incidental buys from people who do not research deeply but want exposure to the theme. Another popular trading account highlighted that VIRTUAL “just delivered a massive 33x” then “56x,” using that performance to shill a new microcap. Even though that message was really about the new coin, it repeatedly used VIRTUAL’s name as the exemplar of outsized gains, which can prompt traders to re open its chart and consider entries after the dip. A more technical analysis oriented X account shared a multi level roadmap for VIRTUAL’s 3 day setup, with specific bounce and short zones (for example targeting 0.5914, then 0.6514 and possibly 0.6815) plus clear instructions for long and short setups. This type of content effectively hands lower time frame traders a plan, and when enough traders act on similar levels, moves can cluster within a few hours near key price zones. A separate post about Project VEX, explicitly tagging Virtuals, described a “runtime rebuild,” “complete audit trail,” and a forthcoming Windows unlock as reasons an associated agent might be “finally reliable enough for real capital,” calling those “a strong short term catalyst,” again explicitly tying that to VIRTUAL in the same tweet.
The marginal buyer driving the last 3 hours is probably not a single insider or institution, but a mix of traders reacting to technical setups and a burst of influencer and narrative coverage.
$VIRTUAL 6.21 percentage point move over the last 3 hours. Instead, the move appears to be the local acceleration phase of a broader reversal attempt driven by:
A technically important breakout from a multi week accumulation band with sharply rising spot volume.A strengthening robotics and physical AI narrative around Virtuals Protocol, including references to Eastworlds, Robinhood Chain expansion and “Unitree news.”A cluster of influencer and AI sector posts that pushed VIRTUAL back into trader attention with specific levels and bullish framing.
In this context, a 6 percentage point intraday move looks like a natural expression of that combination rather than something that requires a hidden or undiscovered discrete catalyst.

#VVV $VVV
$VVV 3.52 percentage point move in Venice Token (VVV) over the last ~17 hours appears driven by a combination of improving fundamentals and short-term trader activity in a moderately liquid market, rather than a single major headline.
Venice.ai positions VVV as a token tied to usage of a private, censorship-resistant AI platform where stakers receive access to inference capacity and the protocol uses revenue to support the token economy. The latest chatter is specifically about strong fundamentals.
In the last day, an analytics account highlighted “seven straight days of record revenue at @AskVenice,” with the seventh day also setting all-time highs for new subscriptions, API credits, and VVV burned in a single day, even while noting that “ VVV is down 15% since July 1” and then sharing an on-chain data thread on X. That combination, “record revenue and record burns but price still down,” is exactly the kind of setup that often attracts buyers who are looking for fundamentals to catch up with price. Even if this thread is not an official announcement, it broadcasts to a trader audience that protocol-level numbers are improving.Against this backdrop, the latest CoinMarketCap snapshot shows VVV up about 1.72% over 24 hours with 7-day performance around +2.45%, suggesting a modest attempt to mean revert from recent drawdowns rather than a blow-off rally.
A publicly discussed streak of record revenue and burns gives traders a fundamental justification to lean bullish after a pullback, which can easily produce a few percentage points of price movement in a short window.
Beyond daily revenue, there are clear structural and product catalysts in the background that shape how traders value VVV.
Earlier in August, Venice announced that annual VVV emissions will be reduced in two stages, from 3 million VVV per year to 2.5 million on 1 September 2026, and then to 2 million on 1 October 2026. VVV emissions fall to 2M annually This is framed as a step “on the road to a net deflationary VVV with native yield through lower emissions and increasing burns.”That supply path matters because it changes the medium-term dilution profile. As the market gets closer to those dates, traders tend to start pricing in the idea that, if revenue and burns stay strong, a lower issuance rate pushes VVV toward a net deflationary regime.Separately, crypto event calendars flag a near-term product launch: “LTX 2.5 Fast and Pro go live on Venice” with a go-live date of 12 August 2026, referenced in multiple event roundups. This suggests a concrete upgrade to the Venice AI product stack designed to improve speed and user experience.
The emissions changes were first announced about a week ago, not in the last 17 hours, but the combination of “upcoming emissions cuts” with “fresh product release” and “record revenue and burns now” is exactly the narrative that can underpin incremental buying during the period you are looking at.
The market is digesting a clear path to lower emissions and a product upgrade landing right in this timeframe, which strengthens the medium-term bull case and can nudge price upward even without a single, new headline at the exact hour of the move.
Short-Term Trading Flows in a Moderately Liquid Market
The remaining piece is microstructure. VVV trades in a market that is not extremely illiquid but also not deep enough to ignore coordinated trader flows.
Over the last 24 hours, VVV’s reported volume is about $7.91 million against a market cap near $570.29 million, which is roughly 1.39% of market cap. That is moderate liquidity, where incremental flows from a few million dollars in net buying or selling can move price by several percentage points.On X, you can see short-term trading and “signal group” style activity around VVV. For example, one account boasts “We gave VVV a good pump, +100% and another $3,800 clean profit” while advertising a free signal group. Pump style trading post Another trader posts short-term bearish and bullish chart calls on VVV over different time frames. There is also hype around a smaller venue listing process. A launchpad account wrote “New Listing Around the Corner... $VVV . The Community Vote Dashboard for VVV is Now Live for Holders on our Moonshot V2 Launchpad,” encouraging holders to vote for a listing. Listing vote tweet While this is not a major exchange listing, it adds a short-term speculative hook.
Taken together, these social signals show that:
Active trading groups are explicitly targeting VVV for short-term trades.Technical traders are trading levels intraday.There is minor listing-related speculation.
None of this is “fundamental news,” but in a book with this level of liquidity, it is more than enough to amplify the effect of the positive fundamental narrative described above into a 3–4 percentage point move over a 17-hour window.
The order flow picture points to ordinary trading dynamics, with some coordinated and speculative activity, rather than a single large investor or structural shock.
$VVV 3.52 percentage point move in Venice Token over the last 17 hours. Instead, the move is most plausibly the result of traders reacting to:
A visible streak of record revenue and token burns,A well-defined path to lower emissions and a near-term product upgrade, andOngoing short-term trading and listing vote speculation in a market where volume is modest relative to market cap.
In that context, a low single-digit percentage move over a short window is consistent with normal price discovery rather than an isolated major catalyst.

#NEAR $NEAR
$NEAR Protocol (NEAR) appears to have moved mainly because of short-side derivatives positioning and technical selling against a slightly weak but not crashing altcoin market, with no clear fundamental news catalyst identified.
Over the last 24 hours, the broad crypto market and altcoins drifted lower, but not enough to explain NEAR’s magnitude of weakness by themselves.
Total crypto market cap fell about 1.17% over the past 24 hours, while the altcoin market cap (excluding BTC and ETH) slipped about 0.3% in the same window.By comparison, NEAR Protocol (NEAR) is down about 6.22% over 24 hours, clearly underperforming the average altcoin move.Hourly price data for NEAR over roughly the last day shows a grind from about $1.62 to around $1.58, with the bulk of the drop spread out rather than a single sharp crash bar, which is more consistent with steady selling than a one-off shock.
The backdrop was risk-off enough to lean prices lower, but NEAR’s 3.9 percentage point move over 9 hours is larger than the broad market move, so we have to look at coin-specific flows and positioning, not just macro.
Social/derivatives commentary around NEAR over the last 24 hours highlights significant short interest and trade setups pointing down, which can amplify a relatively modest market dip into a larger coin-specific move.
A derivatives-focused account reported that NEAR perps had open interest of about $46.9M with roughly 6 shorts for every 1 long and net short positioning of about -$5.5M, plus a large short of around $2.8M opened at $2.38 sitting on roughly $1.3M in profit, with funding near 0.0013% (essentially free to hold shorts). This indicates a crowded and comfortable short side, not stressed longs.Another trader described NEAR’s auction rotation showing sellers “distributing below value area low” and posted a short setup with entry around $1.603 and take-profit levels below, reinforcing that active traders were leaning into downside continuation rather than fade.Net sentiment for NEAR on X over the past day sits near 4.79 on a 0–10 scale, a mildly bearish tilt. Top bearish posts focus on perp positioning, low spot participation, and tactical short ideas; top bullish posts mostly talk about the possibility of a short squeeze rather than any new fundamental driver.
The most concrete “catalyst” you can see is positioning. A cluster of leveraged shorts, low funding costs, and technical short setups make it easier for steady selling and perp flow to push NEAR down faster than the rest of the market when the overall environment is mildly risk-off.
$NEAR roughly 3.9-percentage-point move over the last 9 hours sits on top of a mildly weak crypto environment but stands out because of short-heavy derivatives positioning and technical selling pressure unique to NEAR. I do not see a clear, widely discussed NEAR-specific news or fundamental catalyst, so the move is best explained by trader positioning, perps flow, and short-term risk-off conditions in altcoins rather than any single headline event.

#MORPHO $MORPHO
$MORPHO (MORPHO) experienced a 3–4 percentage point increase in the last 21 hours, driven by new integrations and visible whale accumulation rather than a single catalyst.
Uniswap Labs introduced "Earn," a lending tab that allows users to deposit USDC, USDT, and wETH directly into Morpho vaults curated by Gauntlet on Ethereum mainnet. This integration makes Uniswap a front-end distribution channel for Morpho vaults, enhancing Morpho's visibility and adoption. Gauntlet manages three Prime vaults (USDC, USDT, WETH) and handles risk parameters and allocations, while interest paid by borrowers is streamed to depositors. Uniswap charges no additional fees beyond gas. This development strengthens the narrative of Morpho as core infrastructure and supports incremental buying, even if the price reaction is moderate. Uniswap Earn integration with Morpho
Several news articles highlight Morpho's role for large, non-retail users, contributing to positive sentiment around the token. Coinbase's UK derivatives launch article mentions that its April "borrow against BTC, ETH and cbETH" product for UK customers is implemented via Morpho on Base, reinforcing Morpho as the lending backend for these loans. Zama's privacy token listing at Revolut, which partnered with Morpho and Steakhouse Financial to launch a "confidential DeFi yield vault" using fully homomorphic encryption, positions Morpho as a building block for privacy-preserving institutional DeFi. These stories reinforce Morpho's status as yield and borrowing backend for large exchanges, privacy technology projects, and major DeFi front ends.
On-chain watchers have documented sizable MORPHO accumulation and CEX outflows, reducing liquid float and creating bullish social chatter. One tracking account highlighted a wallet that accumulated 1.26 million MORPHO worth about 2.42 million dollars in five days, funded entirely from Binance, with MORPHO as the only asset held. Another wallet pulled roughly 520,701 MORPHO worth about 1 million dollars off Binance, again with MORPHO as the only asset. These actions reduce near-term sell pressure and contribute to a positive feedback loop between social sentiment and modest price appreciation.
$MORPHO roughly 3 percentage point move in the last 21 hours is the cumulative effect of new integrations, fresh coverage tying Morpho to institutional and privacy-focused projects, and sizable whale accumulation and Binance outflows. These factors together are consistent with the modest 24-hour gain and recent trading pattern, although the move remains small and plausibly influenced by broader market conditions.