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Here's a quick preview of today’s content: a16z continues to lobby for crypto legislation, Justin Sun goes to space, hedge fund genius Ray Dalio sells his last shares, OpenAI raises more capital at an eye watering valuation, CoinDCX engineer gets arrested for theft, an exchange deleted 17,000 BTC on accident, and so much more

Happy Monday - Let’s dive in.

Market Snapshot

• The global crypto market saw a broad sell-off, with total market cap dropping over -3.5% to around $3.68T

  • The correction was driven by new U.S. tariffs and disappointing employment data, while upcoming ETF decisions, token unlock events, and ongoing regulatory developments are shaping cautious sentiment heading into the new week

• Bitcoin fell to lows near $114,000–$115,000, its lowest in three weeks, while Ethereum dropped as much as -4.5%, settling under continued pressure

  • Altcoins like Solana and XRP also declined, though some lower-cap tokens started to show relative strength by weekend’s end.

• Crypto ETFs experienced major outflows, with Bitcoin funds losing $812M and Ethereum ETFs ending a 20-day inflow streak

Market Prediction

• Bettors on Kalshi are predicting how low will Ethereum get this year?

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

• Justin Sun went to space with Blue Orgin (X)

• Strategy shocks Wall Street with a 46,671% EPS beat in Q2 - see full earnings here

• The statue of Satoshi got stolen in Switzerland (CD)

• Wall Street is buying crypto ‘quietly’ (CD)

• US crypto ETFs open August with largest outflows in months following record-breaking July (TB)

• Ray Dalio dumps final Bridgewater stake as he warns of rising debt collapse risk (CT)

• Bitcoin miner profits hit highest monthly mark since halving (DC)

• Trump Media confirms $2B Bitcoin treasury and $300M options strategy in Q2 earnings - see full report here

• Arthur Hayes sold over $13M worth of crypto holdings, including ETH, ENA, and PEPE, and moved to accumulate USDC (CD)

• Cathie Wood’s Ark Invest bought nearly $30M worth of Coinbase shares and added $17M worth of Ethereum treasury firm BitMine shares across three of its funds (TB)

• Tether’s $127B in US Treasury holdings now surpasses South Korea’s reserves (CT)

• Japan’s Metaplanet plans $3.7B stock raise to fund massive bitcoin buying spree (DE)

• a16z urges Senate to drop ancillary asset loophole and pass Clarity Act instead (CT)

• El Salvador lawmakers approve constitutional change for indefinite presidential reelection (CT)

• Coinbase Q2 earnings reveal USDC margin compression for Circle, per Mizuho (TB)

• Tyler Winklevoss says Trump CFTC pick Quintenz has “disqualifying” crypto views (CD)

• Trading volumes at top crypto exchanges dropped in July as summer lull hit markets (TB)

• Over 40% of Jupiter’s trading volume now routed through private AMMs (TD)

• Grayscale launches Story Trust to offer exposure to tokenized intellectual property assets (TD)

• Mill City shares fall as Sui treasury firm targets additional $500M raise (TB)

• U.S. added just 73K jobs in July as unemployment ticks up to 4.2% (CD)

• SBF’s Spotify playlist leaks, reveals love for Coldplay, AI leaders, and crypto tracks (DE)

• Bitcoin tops $115,750 monthly close, setting new all-time high close in July (TD)

• July saw 30 key crypto hires, exits, and reshuffles across Web3 firms and VC outfits (TB)

• PancakeSwap sees major DEX volume bump as activity consolidates on few platforms (TB)

• Coinbase legal chief says FDIC still stonewalling crypto debanking records (DE)

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Venture Capital

• OpenAI raises $8.3B at $300B valuation in latest blockbuster AI funding round (CT)

• Pantera Capital leads a $20M funding round into Subzero Labs, a startup that’s building a blockchain designed for "internet‑scale decentralized applications" with Coinbase Ventures and others contributing to the round (TB)

• Metaplanet officially files for $3.7B raise to expand BTC reserves and investor reach (TB)

• Mill City confirms plans to raise $500M to build out Sui-linked crypto treasury (CT)

M&A Announcements

• DevvStream buys $10M in BTC and SOL as it prepares to tokenize carbon credits (TB)

• Coinbase acquired 2,509 BTC in Q2, joins Tesla in top 10 public bitcoin treasuries (TB)

Launches

• Visa expands stablecoin settlement to Stellar and Avalanche, adds support for PYUSD and USDG (TD)

Regulation

• Retail investors in the U.K. will be able to buy crypto exchange-traded notes cETNs starting October 8th (CD)

• Uniswap, a16z, and allies urge Senate to carve out DeFi from new market structure bill (TB)

Cybersecurity

• Arkham says $3.5B LuBian Bitcoin theft went undetected for nearly five years (CD)

• CoinDCX engineer arrested after July exploit tied to $43.4M loss (CD)

• NFT project Pixel Vault removes CEO GFunk after rug pull accusations (TD)

Extra Reads

• When it comes to Bitcoin mantras, “not your keys, not your coins” is as pure as it gets - The insane story about the exchange that accidentally deleted its 17K Bitcoin wallet file

• With the Bitcoin price recently consolidating near all-time highs, many are looking to miners for clues about what might come next - Are Miners Front-Running the Next Bitcoin Price Rally

Chart of the Day

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