Richard Heathcote, the former chief investment officer of Tether, is reportedly looking to sell part of his stake in the stablecoin issuer, according to a Bloomberg report citing people familiar with the matter. Heathcote holds 1.26% of Tether, and the planned transaction would involve only a portion of that ownership.

Tether, which issues USDt (USDT), remains privately held despite operating as one of crypto’s most profitable businesses. The reported partial sale is notable not only because of Heathcote’s senior role, but also because it would be among the few glimpses into ownership at a company that underpins a large share of the stablecoin market.

Key takeaways

• Bloomberg reports that former Tether CIO Richard Heathcote plans to sell part of his 1.26% stake, offering rare insight into Tether ownership.
• USDT remains the dominant stablecoin by market capitalization, with DefiLlama data placing its circulating supply around $184 billion (about 59% market share).
• The potential sale comes as Tether faces increased regulatory pressure in Europe, including platform delistings after Tether did not align with the EU’s MiCA framework.
• Broader IPO chatter continues in crypto, even as exchanges weigh listing paths amid regulatory and operational constraints.

Why Heathcote’s stake sale matters

Bloomberg’s report focuses on the planned sale by Richard Heathcote, who stepped away from the role of Tether’s chief investment officer in March. The report says he moved into an advisory capacity after overseeing the company’s investment portfolio.

For markets, transactions involving insiders in key stablecoin issuers are often watched closely—even when only partial. Tether’s scale means its ownership structure and governance are relevant to traders and institutions that rely on USDT’s liquidity. While the report does not specify deal size beyond the portion of the stake, it underscores that influential executives at stablecoin issuers are not necessarily bound to long-term illiquidity, despite the asset’s centrality to crypto settlement and exchange activity.

Heathcote’s stake also highlights the challenge of assessing control and incentives in privately held crypto firms. With Tether not publicly listed, investors and observers have fewer direct market signals about internal changes. A reported sale, even a partial one, can become a data point for how senior stakeholders view holding periods, risk, and governance in a fast-changing regulatory environment.

USDT’s market position remains central

Any ownership move at Tether inevitably ties back to USDT’s dominance. According to DefiLlama data, USDT has a circulating supply of roughly $184 billion and accounts for approximately 59% of the stablecoin market by market capitalization.

This matters because USDT is not just a retail token—it is deeply embedded in the infrastructure of exchanges, trading pairs, and on-chain activity. When large portions of market liquidity are concentrated in a single issuer, stakeholders tend to pay particular attention to credible updates on that issuer’s financial posture, governance, and regulatory standing.

At the same time, the reported sale is not automatically a signal about USDT’s strength or weakness. Stablecoins can remain widely used even as regulatory constraints limit where they are permitted. The more meaningful question for investors is whether Tether’s regulatory path and distribution access continue to affect demand for USDT in key jurisdictions.

Regulatory pressure in Europe intersects with business uncertainty

The Heathcote sale report arrives as Tether faces heightened scrutiny in Europe. Earlier coverage from Cointelegraph noted that USDT has been delisted by an increasing number of platforms operating under MiCA authorizations after Tether chose not to comply with the EU’s crypto framework.

That tension has been visible in operator decisions. Cointelegraph previously reported that Revolut would remove USDT from its platform, reflecting how regulatory alignment—or lack of it—can translate into immediate distribution losses for a stablecoin issuer.

For market participants, this creates a split reality: USDT may remain dominant by market size, but issuer exposure to regulation can change the on-ramps and availability that sustain that market share in Europe. In that context, insider ownership moves may be read less as a market bet on USDT itself and more as an adjustment to the broader uncertainty around compliance, platform access, and long-term growth channels.

IPO speculation continues elsewhere in crypto

While Tether’s executives have publicly indicated the company does not need to go public, crypto’s IPO debate appears to be broadening beyond stablecoins. Several other firms have reportedly explored listing routes.

Cointelegraph previously highlighted that Kraken has taken steps that could lead toward an IPO. Fortune reported in September 2025 that Kraken raised $500 million at a $15 billion valuation, fueling expectations that the exchange was positioning for a public listing. Kraken also announced it had confidentially filed a draft registration statement with the US Securities and Exchange Commission in November 2025 for a proposed initial public offering.

However, Bloomberg later reported that Kraken’s IPO timeline could slip into 2027 after layoffs tied to the company’s increasing use of artificial intelligence. The implication for readers is that even when a path to liquidity exists, operational restructuring and market conditions can delay capital-market milestones.

In South Korea, Cointelegraph reported that Bithumb delayed its IPO until after 2028. The exchange said it was working to strengthen accounting policies and internal controls after earlier regulatory setbacks, underscoring how compliance process—not only investor demand—can shape public-market timing for crypto firms.

Separately, Cointelegraph has also published coverage focusing on anonymity-related risks and how AI may be used to identify hidden identities in crypto activity, reflecting the broader environment in which regulators, exchanges, and compliance teams are operating.

What to watch next

For Tether, the next signals likely won’t come from ownership headlines alone. Investors should track whether additional European platforms follow through on delistings under MiCA and how Tether responds operationally and commercially in regions tightening stablecoin rules. Meanwhile, Bloomberg’s reported stake sale may prompt renewed attention to how insiders manage liquidity in privately held firms as crypto firms weigh—or postpone—public listings.

Strategy sells 3,588 Bitcoin for $216M to fund dividends

Michael Saylor’s Strategy sold 3,588 Bitcoin (BTC) to fund preferred stock dividend payments and replenish its cash reserves.

Strategy sold the Bitcoin for $216 million, reducing its total holdings to 843,775 Bitcoin, according to a Monday 8-K filing with the US Securities and Exchange Commission.

This included 1,363 Bitcoin sold at an average price of $59,256 between last Monday and Tuesday, and 2,225 Bitcoin sold at an average price of $60,773 between Wednesday and Sunday.

Strategy disclosed the sale of 32 Bitcoin in early June, as its first reported Bitcoin sale since the 2022 tax-loss transaction.

Before Strategy disclosed its latest Bitcoin sale, Bernstein said the company was unlikely to be forced to sell its holdings, citing its liquidity position and cash reserve coverage.

Bernstein’s report said Strategy had 17 months of cash to cover dividend obligations and interest payments. It added that the company remained a net buyer of Bitcoin and served as a strong “balancing force” in a market where leading US Bitcoin miners are net sellers due to their pivot to AI.

Donald Trump says ‘nothing wrong’ with $1.4B crypto windfall while in office

US President Donald Trump has responded to criticism of his 2025 financial disclosures, showing that he earned $1.4 billion in income from crypto-related ventures while in office.

In a Thursday interview with CNBC’s Joe Kernen, Trump said that there was “nothing illegal” and “nothing wrong” with profiting from his crypto investments as president. He claimed that other people were responsible for his investments and he didn’t “even know who they are,” not directly answering questions about perceived conflicts of interest as president.

Trump’s comments followed the release of his 2025 financial disclosure report by the US Office of Government Ethics, showing that he took in more than $2 billion from his businesses and investments, about $1.4 billion of which was connected to crypto projects like his memecoin and family’s platform World Liberty Financial. Many advocacy organizations have characterized the investments as a “grift” allowing the president to influence related legislation like the Digital Asset Market Clarity (CLARITY) Act.

Trump disclosed that his memecoin generated about $636 million, World Liberty sales about $588 million and $197 million from equity in a stablecoin venture.

US senator calls for ban on elected officials issuing memecoins

Senator Kirsten Gillibrand, one of the US lawmakers behind negotiations for a digital asset market structure bill in Congress, has proposed barring elected officials and the president from issuing or sponsoring their own tokens, citing President Donald Trump’s and First Lady Melania Trump’s memecoins.

In a Friday notice, Gillibrand said that Congress should support measures barring elected officials and their spouses from “issuing or sponsoring their own digital assets.” The New York lawmaker said that the proposed restriction would include any US president and their spouse, but did not specifically mention extending the provision to the office of the vice president or other members of their families. 

“This is a commonsense requirement that should get broad bipartisan support – public officials and their spouses should not be issuing memecoins,” said Gillibrand. “We cannot let self-dealing destroy an opportunity to strengthen consumer protections, crack down on illicit finance, and expand economic opportunity for the millions of Americans our financial system has left behind.”

Vitalik Buterin shares top priorities for new ‘Lean Ethereum’ strawmap

Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin has named quantum resistance, scalability and privacy as three of Ethereum’s top priorities under a new “Lean Ethereum” strawmap, which lays out the network’s technical direction for the remainder of the decade. 

In a post to X on Saturday, Buterin said the collection of upgrades will roll out over the next three to four years, touching nearly every layer of Ethereum in a transformation he compared in scale to the September 2022 Merge, which shifted the network away from energy-intensive mining. 

“Quantum safety has shifted up a LOT in priority,” he said, adding that finalizing a quantum-safe solution for blobs has “become urgent.” Enhancing privacy is another priority, Buterin said, stating that it has become a “first class goal.”

Dankrad Feist, a former Ethereum Foundation researcher behind the payments-focused layer-1 Tempo blockchain, praised the new plan but argued the 3-4 year timeline is too slow, stating that AI could help developers ship the upgrades within a year. 

Financial companies join forces for US dollar stablecoin, keeping reserve earnings

More than 140 companies have reportedly signed onto a US dollar-pegged stablecoin project that allows them to “receive all of the earnings” from its reserves.

In a Tuesday notice, Open Standard said it was launching the Open USD (OUSD) stablecoin, a US dollar-pegged coin supported by financial companies including Visa and Mastercard, as well as crypto companies Coinbase, Ripple, OKX and Bybit. The project will allow businesses to mint OUSD “at no cost and with no artificial limits on volume,” and keep earnings from the coin’s reserves.

“When Visa, Stripe, Mastercard, Coinbase and Google coordinate on a new stablecoin, the signal is unmistakable,” said Rhino.fi co-founder and CEO Will Harborne. “Open USD is the first launch with a real chance to win share from USDT and USDC, because reserve revenue flows back to everyone who holds it. But that same incentive is what drives fragmentation at scale.”

As the week continued, some of the signatories denied making any firm commitments to the consortium.

Winners and losers

At the end of the week, Bitcoin (BTC) is at $64,039, Ether (ETH) at $1798, and XRP (XRP) is at $1.14. The total market cap is at $2.12 trillion, according to CoinMarketCap.

Among the biggest 100 cryptocurrencies, the top three altcoin winners of the week are MemeCore (M) at 105%, Lighter (LIT) at 39%, and ether.fi (ETHFI) at 29%.

The top three altcoin losers of the week are Venice Token (VVV) at -13%, Stable (STABLE) at -10% and Audiera (BEAT) at -5%.

Top Prediction of the Week

Bollinger Bands creator eyes Bitcoin bear-market end, ‘W’-shaped reversal

John Bollinger, creator of the Bollinger Bands volatility indicator, believes he has spied a “W”-shaped double bottom on BTC/USD on the charts.

“$BTC has seen a series of bullish patterns broken, evidence of the power of the downtrend,” he commented in X posts on Friday.

 “Will this ‘W’ be the one that breaks the trend?”

“W”-shaped reversals involve two swing lows with a rejected rebound in between, with price ultimately breaking through that rejection level to form a new uptrend.

Bollinger has been bullish on BTC for some time. In early May, he revealed a new long position via his Bitcoin investment vehicle.

As Cointelegraph reported, an increasing number of price indicators are flashing signals not seen since the last bear market in 2022. Despite this, market participants broadly believe that the next macro bottom is still to come and is due in Q3 or later.

Top FUD of the week

Tim Draper says Arkham got Bitcoin wallet attribution ‘wrong’

Billionaire investor and longtime Bitcoin bull Tim Draper said blockchain analytics company Arkham incorrectly linked him to a wallet involved in a large Bitcoin transfer to Coinbase Prime.

“It just wasn’t me. I haven’t touched it. Arkham has it wrong,” Draper told Cointelegraph, adding that he still expects Bitcoin to reach $250,000 within one year.

The statement came after blockchain analytics platform Lookonchain reported Friday that a wallet “possibly linked” to Draper had transferred 1,000 Bitcoin worth about $62 million to Coinbase Prime, citing data from Arkham.

Draper is best known in the crypto community as one of Bitcoin’s earliest high-profile investors, having won a US Marshals Service auction for nearly 30,000 Bitcoin seized by US authorities from Silk Road-related holdings in 2014. The holdings are now worth $1.9 billion, meaning Draper selling could have a big impact on Bitcoin’s.

Bitcoin profit and loss ratio falls to 43-month low

Bitcoin’s realized profit and loss ratio has fallen to a 43-month low of -0.35, a figure that signals extreme market-wide loss conditions but has historically coincided with market bottoms, blockchain analytics platform CryptoQuant said.

The Bitcoin realized P&L ratio — which measures the net percentage of Bitcoin (BTC) in profit or loss relative to total supply — hasn’t fallen this low since December 2022, shortly after FTX shockingly collapsed and sent Bitcoin below $16,000.

“Historically the indicator has marked BTC bottoms with extreme precision,” CryptoQuant said on Thursday. In 2015 and 2019, the Bitcoin realized P&L ratio also fell below -0.35 before price rallies followed. 

The data could lift market sentiment, which has repeatedly fallen to near-record lows during the course of Bitcoin’s latest 50% drawdown from $126,080, set in October. Market sentiment has risen cautiously over the last 10 days, with Bitcoin up more than 7% since tanking to a near two-year low of $58,190 on June 25.

Upbit says it only expressed interest in future OUSD participation

South Korean crypto exchange Upbit said it is not participating in the issuance of Open USD, after its operator Dunamu was named among more than 140 businesses involved in the new stablecoin initiative. 

“Upbit has only indicated our potential willingness to consider taking part in the future expansion of the OpenStandard ecosystem,” an Upbit spokesperson told Cointelegraph. 

The clarification follows similar pushback from Samsung Electronics and other South Korean companies listed by Open Standard. 

According to a Friday report by ChosunBiz, Samsung said it had not held formal discussions with the project and did not know what role it was expected to perform. Meanwhile, Shinhan Financial Group and KBank reportedly said they had only indicated that they would consider the initiative. 

Cointelegraph reached out to Open Standard for comments but did not receive a response before publication. 

Top Cointelegraph Features of the Week

The biggest blockchain upgrades still to come in 2026

From Ethereum’s Glamsterdam and Solana’s Alpenglow, to proposed post quantum security changes for Bitcoin, 2026’s key crypto upgrades are some of the most significant in years.

Has Strategy’s capital overhaul put an end to ‘death spiral’ fears?

Has Strategy’s new capital overhaul defused the fears swirling around STRC, or has it simply bought more time before the next bout of stress?

From Bitcoin critics to blockchain believers: The 5 biggest crypto backflips

From crypto hater Nouriel Roubini launching the Technodollar to Bitcoin critic Peter Schiff putting out tokenized gold, meet the skeptics who are now cashing in on crypto.

The DAO behind the Bonk (BONK) memecoin says an unknown actor drained $20 million in tokens from its Solana treasury, claiming the theft was carried out via what it describes as a “malicious governance proposal.” BonkDAO says it has contacted law enforcement and is working to recover the funds and determine who is responsible.

On Monday, the Bonk project posted on X that it reported the incident to authorities after the attack, which it says resulted in the transfer of $20 million worth of BONK tokens from the DAO’s treasury. The project did not identify the attacker, but framed the event as an abuse of its governance process rather than a simple compromise of its wallet or infrastructure.

Key takeaways

• BonkDAO claims $20 million in BONK tokens were removed from its Solana treasury through a “malicious governance proposal.”
• The project says it has informed law enforcement and is pursuing a fund-recovery effort while investigating the responsible party.
• BONK’s price reportedly fell about 7% over 24 hours following the reports, while broader memecoin market capitalization has been volatile.
• The incident echoes other recent memecoin-related compromises where attackers exploited on-chain mechanics around liquidity or governance.

What BonkDAO alleges happened

According to Bonk’s announcement on X, the DAO’s treasury on Solana was drained by an entity the project says it cannot yet identify. BonkDAO specifically points to a governance proposal that it characterizes as malicious, suggesting that the attacker used the protocol’s decision-making mechanics to move funds.

The project stated that the parties involved drained $20 million in tokens from the BonkDAO treasury. As part of its response, Bonk said it has already contacted law enforcement, and it is focused on two immediate goals: recovering funds and identifying those behind the proposal.

While the company’s exact internal controls and the timing of the proposal were not detailed in the post, the core claim—that the theft route involved governance—matters for token holders because governance systems are typically designed to be resilient to single points of failure. If a malicious proposal can pass or execute successfully, it raises questions about how proposals are validated, how voting authority is distributed, and what safeguards exist against fraudulent or coercive actions.

Market reaction and broader memecoin fragility

The reporting of the attack coincided with weakness in the BONK market. The article notes BONK was down roughly 7% over 24 hours and trading around $0.05 at the time of publication.

That move occurred during a period when memecoins broadly have struggled. The market capitalization of major memecoins—including Dogecoin (DOGE), Shiba Inu (SHIB), and Pepe (PEPE)—hit a reported two-year low last week, falling to roughly $22 billion before recovering to more than $26 billion in July. Based on CoinMarketCap data, total memecoin market capitalization stood at about $25.3 billion at the time of publication, down more than 54% compared with the prior 12 months.

For investors, incidents like this tend to amplify existing concerns about risk management and operational security across the memecoin sector. Even where the affected token is not the only one linked to memecoin sentiment, governance-driven treasury drains can quickly affect confidence in how safely community-controlled funds are managed.

Security pattern: governance and liquidity attacks

BonkDAO’s framing aligns with a wider pattern seen in the memecoin ecosystem, where attackers have targeted the mechanisms that make token economies function—especially liquidity and permissions.

Earlier coverage cited in the article described how the memecoin launch platform DxSale reported losing $7.3 million in tokens after a cyberattack connected to liquidity providers on the BNB Chain. In that case, sleuths were said to have identified the attacker’s wallet, but an expert also warned that tracing can be complicated by the infrastructure used to move stolen funds.

Taken together, these episodes highlight a recurring asymmetry: even when analysts can identify wallets or link activity on-chain, recovering assets may remain difficult if funds are transferred rapidly across multiple addresses or through tools that obscure the trail. BonkDAO’s statement that it is working to recover funds suggests the project expects the process to be complex, potentially involving coordination with exchanges, chain analysis efforts, and legal processes.

Related pressure on memecoin investors

The article also points to reporting about losses among holders of Official Trump (TRUMP), a memecoin associated with U.S. President Donald Trump. The New York Times, the article says, reported that about 1 million investors holding TRUMP had collectively lost $3.8 million as of June 30, citing data from blockchain analytics provider Nansen.

While that report focused on performance and holder outcomes rather than theft, it underscores a key reality for memecoin participants: the sector can deliver sharp drawdowns quickly. When governance incidents and broader volatility overlap, traders and long-term holders alike may face heightened uncertainty, especially around treasury actions, token distribution, and the transparency of risk controls.

Readers should watch next for whether BonkDAO can publish additional technical details about the governance proposal—such as the voting pathway, approval mechanism, and the steps taken to prevent similar actions—as well as for any updates from law enforcement or chain-monitoring efforts tied to the stolen funds. Until the investigation clarifies how the malicious proposal succeeded and whether any assets can be recovered, the incident remains a reminder that memecoin “community control” still depends heavily on robust smart-contract and governance safeguards.