Good Morning,

Here's a quick preview of today’s content: Google cloud launching a layer 1, crypto firm Unicoin is in hot water with the SEC, Iran crypto flow drops during war, Mastercard deepens its partnership with Circle, Anthropic report says cybercriminals are using AI to run real-time extortion campaigns, and so much more

Happy almost Friday, Let’s dive in.

Market Snapshot

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• Crypto markets are rebounding midweek after a volatile start, with total capitalization climbing +2.2% to around $3.97T 

  • Bitcoin rose +2% to $112,000, while Ethereum gained +2.3% to $4,640, with Standard Chartered forecasting that ETH could hit $7,500 by the end of the year

  • The BTC price is on track for the smallest August drop since 2021, and the month-end options expiry could spur further gains before September

  • ETH ETFs have accumulated over $8B since July with major corporate buyers like BitMine and SharpLink stacking aggressively

• The CD20 and CD80 indexes have both added more than 3% in the past 24 hours

• Crypto majors are rebounding, with SOL leading the way and HYPE hitting a new ATH

Market Predictions

• Bettors on Kalshi are predicting if Donald Trump will launch an NFT this year

• Trade your predictions on a range of events, only on Kalshi

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Headline Roundup
^{_{The major headlines driving crypto markets}}

• Google Cloud confirms it’s building its own Layer 1 blockchain (TD)

• Iran crypto flows drop 11% this year to July amid conflict with Israel (CT)

• Howard Lutnick says "We're going to put out GDP on the blockchain” in recent video - see here

• ​​A quarter of British adults polled say they’re open to crypto forming part of their retirement plans (CT)

• Bitcoin, Ether and XRP show some volatility after Nvidia reports second-quarter earnings - see earnings breakdown here

• Institutional investors increase their Ethereum exposure via ETFs by 388,301 ETH in the second quarter (CS)

• Crypto wallet provider MetaMask adds native support for .sol domain names issued by Solana Name Service (TD)

• Cronos hits a three-year high after President Trump's media company said it would build a CRO treasury (DC)

• Base’s 70% NFT trading volume surges to $47M in the last 30 days (CT)

• Hyperliquid faces chaos as a group of whale wallets buys millions of pre-market XPL tokens and surge price over 200% in two minutes (TD)

• AI tokens climb nearly 6% in 24 hours, lifting their market value to $29.4B (DC)

• KindlyMD shares drop after it files for a $5B equity offering program to fund its Bitcoin treasury strategy (CT)

• BNB Chain offers between 1.5% and 3% yield for staking its native token BNB (CT)

• Chinese fintech company Linklogis announces a partnership with XRPL to digitize global supply chain finance (CS)

• The SEC accuses crypto firm Unicoin and its executives of misleading investors and inflating deals (DC)

• Mastercard deepens its partnership with Circle to allow settlement of transactions in the USDC and EURC stablecoins (TD)

• Cryptocurrency whales are buying hundreds of millions of Ether, as analysts point to an organic rotation of investor mindshare toward altcoins (CT)

• Digital asset lender Ledn taps Swiss crypto bank Sygnum to refinance its $50M Bitcoin-backed loan (CT)

• Cryptocurrencies rebound in popularity in Venezuela as citizens attempt shield themselves from a collapsing currency (CT)

• LBank announces the partnership with WLFI to champion the USD1 stablecoin and its innovative USD1 Points Program (CD)

Venture Capital

• Metaplanet approves a plan to raise 130.3B yen ($880M) through an overseas share issuance (CT)

• The Clearing Company, launched by former Polymarket members, secures a $15M seed round led by Union Square Ventures (BW)

• Decentralized AI project Swarm Network raises $13M from Sui, Ghaf Capital, Brinc, Y2Z, Zerostage and others(CT)

M&A Announcements

• Avail has acquired Arcana, a chain abstraction protocol, with all XAR tokens to be swapped for AVAIL at a 4:1 ratio (TB)

Launches

• Citigroup is now expanding its services to cover stablecoin custody and payment services (CD)

• Aave Labs launches Horizon, which enables institutions to borrow stablecoins using tokenized RWAs as collateral (TD)

• Digital bank VersaBank unveils plans to expand its blockchain-based Digital Deposit Receipts to the US (CD)

• Symbiotic launches a new rewards feature that allows protocols to distribute their own native tokens directly to stakers and node operators (BW)

• Webull rolls out crypto services in Australia (CT)

• MEXC announces the launch of the WLFI Launchpad (CD)

Regulation

• Thailand’s Ministry of Finance selects crypto exchange KuCoin as the first international platform to support the nation’s new G-Token initiative (TD)

• The US CFTC says it is deploying Nasdaq’s advanced market-surveillance technology to strengthen oversight crypto markets (TD)

• 112 crypto companies call on the US Senate to include protections for software developers and non-custodial service providers in upcoming market structure legislation (CT)

Cybersecurity

• A new Anthropic report says cybercriminals are using AI to run real-time extortion campaigns, with ransom notes using Bitcoin as the payment rails (DC)

• Bluprynt completes a pilot project aimed at stifling counterfeit cryptocurrencies, integrating a “Know Your Issuer” framework into stablecoins from Circle and PayPal (DC)

• US prosecutors appeal the sentences of time served given to the co-founders of HashFlare for their $577M Ponzi scheme (CT)

• The US Treasury Department announces sanctions against a web of North Korean, Russian, and Chinese groups for their alleged role in stealing crypto from American businesses by posing as IT workers (DC)

Extra Reads

• A solo Bitcoin miner achieved an ultra-rare feat by mining block 907,283 ($373,000) through the Solo CKPool - What made his one‑in‑a‑million win possible

• Developers need “additional robust, nationwide protections from misclassification under securities and commodities laws” - A deeper look at the industry’s crypto market structure demands

• DAO governance has long struggled with lop-sided voting, insider problems and voter apathy, among many other problems - Understanding futarchy on Solana

Chart of the Day

Bitcoin added 13 new 1K+ BTC wallets and Ethereum 48 new 10K+ ETH wallets in August, signaling renewed accumulation by key stakeholders

Meme Dump

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