Crypto World
Fake ‘World Assets’ and Onchain Gacha Drive New Crypto Trend
Fake World Assets (FWAs) have reignited attention on Ethereum’s onchain “gacha” niche—an NFT-based system where users pay to spin for randomly selected collectibles. In just days after launch, the protocol reportedly became a top Ethereum gas consumer by fees, underscoring how quickly gamified mechanics can draw speculative participation.
According to DeFiLlama, FWAs briefly ranked as Ethereum’s largest gas consumer over a 24-hour window in late July, with peak daily fees of about $1.53 million on July 25. The project’s token incentive program and the broader appeal of lottery-like gameplay helped drive rapid traction, though skepticism from some market participants suggests much of the current demand may be incentive-driven.
Key takeaways
- Ethereum activity spiked fast: DeFiLlama data shows FWAs briefly became one of Ethereum’s biggest fee consumers by blockspace usage within days of launch.
- Strong early liquidity metrics: Total value locked (TVL) reportedly climbed above $6.15 million by July 31, indicating more than a purely ephemeral burst of interest.
- Fees have normalized after the initial frenzy: Fee revenue eased to roughly $350,000 per day by the latest figures cited in the reporting.
- Demand may be tied to incentives: Investor Simon Dedic argues current participation could be largely fueled by token rewards rather than sustained end-user desire.
- The core bet is on retention: The “real test” for onchain gacha, as framed by critics, will come once incentives fade and novelty wears off.
FWAs surge: from launch to Ethereum gas leader
FWAs are built around an onchain lottery mechanic that trades random NFT outcomes for player participation. Within four days of launch, the protocol reportedly consumed enough Ethereum gas to briefly top the chain’s gas usage rankings by fees over a 24-hour period, according to DeFiLlama.
At the height of the early activity—July 25—FWAs generated about $1.53 million in daily fees, briefly overtaking major stablecoin issuers’ associated onchain activity in the same fee-consumption comparisons. The project’s creators, TokenWorks, publicly celebrated the protocol’s rapid arrival, posting that it had reached a major milestone just days after launch.
While growth appears to have slowed from the peak, the scale remains notable. TVL reportedly rose to more than $6.15 million by July 31. Fee revenue was cited as easing to around $350,000 per day, which implies an annualized run rate of roughly $268 million based on the figures referenced.
How the onchain gacha works
At its core, Fake World Assets uses NFTs as the prize pool. Users pay to interact with an onchain “gacha” machine that selects a randomly chosen NFT backed by Ether. Instead of purchasing a specific NFT directly, participants buy the right to spin and potentially receive one of many collectibles.
TokenWorks has positioned FWAs as part of the broader onchain gacha evolution. The system is described as “latest” within Ethereum-based protocol experiments that apply randomness and game-like purchasing behavior to tokenized collectibles. The prize catalog, as reported, draws from multiple recognizable collections, including CryptoPunks, Azuki, Lil Pudgys, and Art Blocks.
Those who hold NFTs can also participate in the protocol differently: NFT holders are described as liquidity providers who deposit collectibles alongside ETH and receive a share of protocol fees while their NFT remains in the pool. Players, meanwhile, purchase spins for the chance to receive a random NFT and then decide whether to keep the prize or redeem most of its attached ETH value.
Blockworks Research is referenced in the source reporting for an additional detail: around 70% of purchasers allegedly choose to convert their winnings to FWA rather than keeping the received asset, suggesting the system is currently functioning as much like an ETH-linked bet as it is a pure collectible acquisition.
Supporters see gamified commerce; critics worry about incentives
Not everyone is convinced that FWAs represent durable demand. Simon Dedic, founder of Moonrock Capital and an early backer of onchain collectible platforms, expressed enthusiasm for gamified commerce while singling out specific concerns about FWA’s current appeal.
Dedic’s skepticism centers on whether participation reflects genuine consumer interest or is mainly driven by token incentives. In the remarks cited, he characterized the activity as targeted at “crypto degens” seeking to gamble and speculate—an important distinction because incentive-led engagement can diminish quickly once rewards decline.
Other participants and commentators in the reporting highlight the novelty of the combined roles inside the mechanism. The protocol blends player behavior (seeking a favorable random outcome) with “house” behavior (earning fees as an NFT liquidity provider), which some see as a more engaging primitive than simple onchain lotteries or typical NFT marketplaces.
Still, the source framing makes clear that the sustainability question is unresolved. Dedic argues that the industry may be moving toward more gamified shopping behavior as Gen Z’s purchasing power grows, but he also notes a preference for selling assets people actually want—such as widely demanded collectibles—rather than forcing interest through rewards for assets that have little independent pull.
The retention test: novelty vs. real utility
Even if FWAs can keep drawing transaction volume, the long-term question is whether the protocol can continue without strong incentive support. The early numbers—high peak fees, rising TVL, and significant early volume and purchase counts mentioned in the source—suggest there is real attention and a willingness to pay for the mechanic.
However, “hype” can be measured in weeks, not months. If users continue spinning even after incentives taper off, that would indicate the system has found something closer to a retail use case. If activity drops sharply once token rewards lessen, FWAs may follow the pattern of other short-lived crypto experiments that attract bursts of attention but fail to convert them into durable user demand.
What makes the outcome particularly relevant for the broader market is that onchain gacha is part of a wider trend: tokenized versions of familiar collectibles and randomized purchase mechanics. If FWAs demonstrate sustained retention, they could strengthen the case that gamified retail primitives can coexist with token liquidity models. If they fail, it may reinforce the view that the current wave is mostly speculation riding on incentives.
For now, readers should watch how fee generation and participation evolve as token incentives change, and whether a majority of users keep engaging for the collectible mechanic itself rather than primarily for conversion to incentive-linked rewards.
Americans are experiencing historic national pessimism. Polls find Americans feel that the country needs major changes, but doubt these changes are possible.
For many Americans, just following the news can feel exhausting. Each day, Americans see health protections rolled back, climate commitments abandoned, and more technologies that nobody asked for and nobody can opt out of. The decisions that shape our lives—health coverage, the air children will breathe, the tools they will grow up with—seem to be made far above our heads.
In many ways, the country is moving in the opposite direction the public wants. Americans largely favor expanding clean energy, yet federal incentives for it are being dismantled and the banks are walking away from their climate pledges. Similarly, national healthcare programs are more popular than ever, yet policy is moving to strip coverage from millions. And an astonishing 97% of Americans say the immensely wealthy AI industry should face some form of oversight, and yet Washington has moved to stop states from regulating it.
What is there to do when big companies, and even the government, stand in the way of progress on national emergencies? The scale of these problems alone is intimidating: one may reasonably worry, “Can I make any difference? Even if I take action, will others join in?” It is well documented that this sense of futility is demotivating. And, research also shows that when people believe powerful actors will not do their part, they conclude their own effort is both pointless and unfair, and they disengage from the issue. Faced with all of this, is civil society simply powerless?
Our research suggests a more hopeful outlook. Even amid systemic opposition, the public’s voice matters—a lot. Specifically, we find social change can be mobilized when two groups are united behind a solution: scientists and the public.
Through a mix of survey and field studies involving more than 55,000 Americans, we examined how people decide whether to act on a national problem when they receive signals about what to do from a variety of influential players in society: scientists, fellow citizens, governments, and private companies. The finding was strikingly consistent. The joint endorsement of scientific experts and the general public was the most powerful force motivating Americans to act, whether on climate, public health, or technology.
We found that when people learned that scientists and the public both backed a solution, they became more supportive of climate, health, and AI policies, more inclined to pursue solutions like electric vehicles and new vaccines, and more willing to donate their own money to the cause. Collectively, these choices are the building blocks of social change: the votes, purchases, donations, advocacy, and visible support through which public opinion begins to shape markets, movements, and eventually institutions.
Crucially, these effects held even when government bodies and private companies actively opposed the action. In one experiment we conducted, options backed by scientists and the public were chosen about 80% of the time, even when people learned both the government and industry opposed them. We then experimented with the reverse scenario: when a solution was backed by government and industry but opposed by scientists and the public. In this case, the solution was less than half as likely to be chosen.
In other words, failure of our major institutions need not leave the public powerless and immobilized. Government and industry opposition can make progress feel unrealistic, futile, or out of reach. But our findings point to an antidote to the demotivating pull of institutional inaction: it can be offset by a different kind of signal, a bottom-up one, that helps keep the public from giving up.
When you speak up, you are not simply expressing a private opinion. You are helping create the public signal that others use to decide whether change is possible. Your voice becomes part of the evidence that people are not alone in wanting change and that powerful institutions do not have to get the final word. When citizens’ support is made visible alongside scientific consensus, it can move others to act—even when government and industry stand in the way
Together, visible support from scientists and citizens can restore the two things institutional retreat takes away: confidence that action is sound, and confidence that it will not be taken alone.
Intuitively, scientists and the public meet two distinct human needs: Scientists are typically seen as knowledgeable, satisfying the need to be right, while fellow citizens are seen as relatable and likable, satisfying the need to belong. Our theory is that because the two core needs operate through different psychological channels, the duo is more persuasive than either alone. By contrast, the influence of government and industry on Americans’ decisions to take action is relatively weaker. Government support or opposition to a solution carried less weight than some may assume, perhaps due to Americans’ historically low trust in government.
While there is a lot to be hopeful about in these findings, there is an important catch. Our studies show what happens when people are given clear signals that scientists and the public hold a particular view. But in day-to-day life, people may not know what the general public or scientists actually think. We rarely get unfiltered information about public opinion or scientific consensus. Instead, their positions are conveyed to us through the media, political elites, and heads of industry who can amplify, mute, or distort them. The predictable result is that Americans badly misjudge where everyone stands. People consistently underestimate how many of their fellow citizens, and how many scientists, support action on issues like climate change. And when those misperceptions are corrected, willingness to engage goes up.
In our eyes, this points to a clear course of action: We must build coalitions between scientists and citizens and make those coalitions visible. A scientific consensus on its own can be shrugged off as esoteric or impractical, and a popular movement on its own may be dismissed as uninformed, but articulated together, in the form of “the experts agree, and so do the neighbors next door,” they become far harder to ignore.
In this effort, journalists, communicators, and advocates become indispensable, because the public cannot draw motivation from an agreement it does not know exists. Correcting the widespread underestimation of how much scientists and ordinary people actually want action may be one of the highest-leverage things a communicator can do. And it means no one should mistake the silence of governments and corporations for the last word. Their opposition, our results suggest, is far less paralyzing than it feels in the headlines, as long as the alternative coalition is loud enough to be heard.
None of this means institutions don’t matter. Ultimately, durable solutions need policy and capital behind them. But our findings overturn the assumption that may be underlying America’s current pessimism: that the public needs to wait for action from the top. It doesn’t. The most powerful force we found in moving Americans to act toward social change was not a government mandate or a corporate pledge, but the visible agreement of scientists and ordinary people. That coalition already exists on many of the nation’s most urgent problems—it may simply be invisible to Americans. Every time you voice support for a solution the science backs, you are not just expressing an opinion; you are supplying the evidence someone else needs to believe change is possible. Two hundred and fifty years in, that remains the idea this country stands for: that ordinary people, not the powerful, get the final word.
A crypto whale has bet more than $23 million that gold price goes up. Deutsche Bank agrees. Its analysts put gold’s fair value near $4,700 an ounce, well above Monday’s price.
The gold industry’s own research body disagrees. It sees gold stuck near $4,100 for the rest of the year. That gap is worth watching.
The Whale Sold Crypto to Buy Gold
On-chain monitor Mlm on-chain spotted the moves across four wallets. They belong to Loracle, one of the most watched traders on Hyperliquid.
Loracle closed a 503,000 HYPE long worth $26.5 million. He then sold another 800,000 HYPE for $52.7 million. A short of 595,000 HYPE, worth $31.4 million, took its place.
He also closed about $95 million of long bets on Ethereum, Zcash and Solana. Then came the gold long. An Ethereum short above $28 million followed.
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So how big is $23 million here? All of Hyperliquid’s builder-run markets held about $3.59 billion in open bets on Monday, per analytics site Loris Tools. The bet is large but not dominant.
Those markets exist because of HIP-3. That upgrade lets outside teams launch their own futures markets on Hyperliquid. Gold and stock contracts trade there, not on the main exchange.
Loracle’s record is why people watch him. On-chain trackers say he built $42.2 million in profits over roughly 10 months. One HYPE short then wiped it out in 18 days. He closed that trade down $46.46 million. HYPE went on to hit a record $76.70 in June.
Why Deutsche Bank Sees $4,700
Analysts Michael Hsueh and Bryant Xu sent the note to clients on Monday. They say gold has been in an explosive price phase since August 2024. Only five such phases appear in the data since 1975.
The pair ran three tests to see if gold should fall further.
The first compares gold with other commodities. It points to $2,600 an ounce. The second uses a statistical bubble test. That one suggests the drop already ended near $3,900.
The third test settled it.
“Third, gold has closed the gap to fair value… we would still see gold fair value as likely to register around USD 4,700/oz by year-end, above our USD 4,600/oz forecast for Q4’26.”
The bank kept its $4,600 fourth-quarter target.
The $3,900 call is close to what actually happened. Gold bottomed at $3,959.33 on 24 June, World Gold Council data shows. It had peaked at $5,595.47 on 29 January.
Central bank buying backs the bullish case too. Banks bought 289 tonnes in the second quarter. That is a record for any second quarter. It is also five times the 57 tonnes bought in the first. Poland took 51 tonnes and China 33 tonnes.
The Bubble Test Nobody Can Time
That bubble test has a long name. It is the Backward Supremum Augmented Dickey-Fuller (BSADF) test. In plain terms, it spots prices climbing faster than a normal market allows.
Deutsche Bank says the reading has fallen from 3.3 to 1.3. It still sits above the level that flags a bubble.
The test comes from the Bank for International Settlements (BIS), the central bank for central banks. Its December 2025 study found gold and the S&P 500 in bubble territory at the same time. That had not happened in 50 years.
The authors added a warning that stings bulls and bears alike.
“While the test has reliably detected past bubbles, it provides no information on when bubbles may burst.”
The BIS also checked who was buying. Small investors poured into gold funds. Big institutions sold or sat still.
The Gold Council Sees a Smaller Range
The World Gold Council is the industry’s research body. Its mid-year outlook is far less bullish.
If nothing changes, it expects gold to trade within 5% of $4,100 for the rest of the year. That caps the range near $4,305. Deutsche Bank’s number sits roughly $400 higher.
Gold needs a trigger to reach $4,500, the council said. It listed a geopolitical shock, a shift in rate expectations, or steady long-term buying.
Right now the opposite looks more likely. Traders expect the Federal Reserve to raise rates before October under Chairman Kevin Warsh. Higher rates make gold less appealing to hold.
The council also puts a price on central bank demand. Every extra 20 to 30 tonnes above the usual 600 tonnes a year lifts gold by about 1%.
Gold futures traded near $4,093 on Monday, down 0.3%, in line with a flat August gold price outlook. Crypto money has already moved into tokenized gold products this year.
Loracle has now added leverage to the same bet. The test he is trading against still cannot say when it ends.
The post Whale Bets $23 Million on Gold as Deutsche Bank Sees Fair Value at $4,700 appeared first on BeInCrypto.
Bitget said it will stop providing crypto trading services to residents of Japan, citing efforts to comply with local regulations.
The crypto exchange, ranked fifth by Coingecko with trading volume of roughly $714.7 million over the past 24 hours, stopped accepting new registrations from Japanese residents on Sunday, according to a Monday announcement.
Japan reclassified cryptocurrencies as financial instruments following legislation approved by its parliament in mid-July. The new rules are expected to take effect next year and include fines of about $62,800 and prison sentences of up to 10 years for operation without registration.
Existing users who believe Bitget has incorrectly identified them as Japanese residents must complete a Level-2 identity verification, including proof of address by Nov. 1, the company said. Accounts that do not complete the process will be considered Japanese, it added.
Bitget will place those accounts into close-only mode starting Nov. 1, according to its FAQ. Users will not be able to open or add to positions or use services, including spot and futures trading, copy trading, trading bots and their earn products. Deposits, subject to limits, and withdrawals will remain available.
People likely have different protein needs
Despite some promising research on protein restriction, people shouldn’t start eating diets that are very low in protein, Lamming and other scientists of aging say.
“While we know that protein restriction extends lifespan in yeast, fruit flies, mice, and rats, that doesn’t necessarily mean it will do so in humans,” says Christopher D. Morrison, a professor at Louisiana State University’s Pennington Biomedical Research Center whose lab pioneered the discovery of a life-extending hormone known as FGF21 that is required by mice to respond to protein restriction. The hormone also increases in people eating a protein-limited diet.
Protein restriction studies in people have also been small in scale and short-term, Lamming says. He adds that more research is needed into how protein restriction might impact exercise and people of different ages and needs.
Matt Kaeberlein, a molecular biologist and longevity scientist, says there could also be some negative consequences of a diet that is very low in protein, such as poor immune function and lower bone density. He also points out that while the diets of lab animals in protein restriction studies can be extreme, the studies in people have involved more moderate diets. “We’re not talking about extreme protein restriction down into malnutrition territory,” he says.
A former FBI special agent has been indicted after being accused of stealing somewhere in the region of $1 million in cryptocurrency from the agency.
Specifically, Patrick Steven Yaroch, who worked at the FBI from February 2025 through July 2026, has been charged with receipt of stolen goods and interstate transportation of stolen goods.
This is according to an affidavit filed by another FBI special agent.
Read more: FBI details how USDT is laundered through Binance
After stealing the crypto, Yaroch apparently told a Department of Justice employee about what he had done, claiming that it was “eating him up inside.”
On July 29, Yaroch contacted FBIHQ to set up a meeting to discuss what he’d done, and during the interview it was revealed that the value of Yaroch’s wallet was “approximately one million dollars.”
That same day, when the FBI went to his residence to collect property, he surrendered key phrases for crypto wallets, though about half an hour later he withdrew that consent according to the affidavit.
Read more: FBI Director Kash Patel’s undisclosed Strategy trade is down 45%
Once the FBI obtained Yaroch’s cell phone, they were able to get access to his Kraken account, which contained “approximately $188,570.58” worth of value, principally in USDC and US dollars.
Additionally, the FBI review revealed that Yaroch had previously transferred approximately $1 million to Suilend.
Yaroch apparently told the FBI agents that “he chose this service simply because he liked that the logo was a water droplet.”
ChatGPT helps plan an escape
While the FBI was reviewing ChatGPT conversations on Yaroch’s phone they found fascinating conversations.
These included him asking ChatGPT:
- “If I had a million dollars, how would you suggest investing it/spending it to maximize profit and return”
- “If you had a bucket of money (around $1 million) and you wanted to leave the USA and become a resident or citizen of an EU country, what would you do?”
ChatGPT helpfully suggested to him that Portugal would be his best choice.
The FBI affidavit notes, “FBI Agents located an upcoming trip from the United States to Portugal” for Yaroch.
Yaroch also tried to claim to the FBI agents that “he was not planning to funnel money into Portugal,” and while recognizing he would no longer be allowed to visit Portugal, “he hoped his wife and child would still go on the trip.”
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The CLARITY Act’s narrowing path through the U.S. Senate could trigger another crypto sell-off before the market recovers later this year, according to Bernstein analysts.
Summary
- CLARITY Act passage odds have fallen to 28% as the Senate’s summer recess approaches.
- Bernstein expects a failed vote or delay to produce an immediate negative crypto market reaction.
- The bill remains absent from the Senate’s Aug. 3 schedule, leaving lawmakers only days to act.
- An Aug. 5 cloture filing could allow an initial procedural vote on Aug. 7.
CLARITY Act misses the Aug. 3 Senate schedule
The Digital Asset Market Clarity Act, or CLARITY Act, was not included in the U.S. Senate’s published schedule for Monday, Aug. 3, reducing the time available for lawmakers to begin floor proceedings before the summer break.
The official Senate schedule lists a 5:30 p.m. cloture vote on the motion to proceed to H.R. 6500, a legislative vehicle for a continuing resolution. It does not include scheduled action on H.R. 3633, the CLARITY Act.
The Senate’s cloture ledger also records the July 30 filing for H.R. 6500 but no corresponding petition for the crypto market-structure bill.
The omission does not prevent Senate Majority Leader John Thune from bringing up the legislation later in the week. However, it leaves the bill without a publicly confirmed floor timetable before the Senate’s tentative state work period begins on Aug. 10. The break is scheduled to continue through Sept. 11.
Bernstein warns of another crypto market decline
Bernstein analysts said a Senate failure to advance the bill could generate an immediate negative response across Bitcoin and the broader crypto market.
The analysts described the possible reaction as an industry “knee-jerk” sell-off that could produce another leg down for digital asset valuations. The warning comes as Bitcoin trades under pressure, and investors monitor whether Congress can complete its crypto policy agenda before the midterm elections.
“From a tactical standpoint, we expect the crypto market to bottom and start showing momentum towards late Q3 and early Q4 prior to the mid-terms,” Bernstein analysts wrote in a Monday report shared with clients.
Prediction market traders have also become less confident. Polymarket places the probability of the CLARITY Act passing before the end of 2026 at 28%, down 10 percentage points over the past week and 12 points over the past month. Traders have wagered about $3.77 million on the market.
Galaxy Digital previously cut its estimated probability of the legislation becoming law this year to 50%, citing the Senate’s limited remaining calendar.
Regulators could move faster if Congress fails to act
Bernstein said a legislative delay could pressure the Securities and Exchange Commission and Commodity Futures Trading Commission to provide more regulatory guidance through Project Crypto.
The joint initiative seeks to use the agencies’ existing authority while Congress works on a permanent market-structure framework. Bernstein expects regulators could issue interpretations covering token classifications and decentralized finance while accelerating a proposed exemption for some token issuances.
Such an exemption could temporarily shield qualifying token offerings from securities requirements under defined conditions. Agency guidance, however, would not provide the same statutory certainty as legislation passed by Congress.
The CLARITY Act would establish rules for digital asset issuers and trading platforms while dividing oversight responsibilities between the SEC and CFTC. Senator Cynthia Lummis released updated legislative text on July 22, combining work from the Senate Banking and Agriculture committees.
Banking groups have opposed parts of the proposal, arguing that its stablecoin provisions could allow crypto platforms to offer rewards without facing requirements comparable to those imposed on banks.
Aug. 5 may be the final practical filing window
Under the Senate’s standard Rule XXII process, a cloture petition requires signatures from 16 senators. A petition filed Wednesday, Aug. 5, could allow a cloture vote on Friday, Aug. 7, if the chamber remains in session.
That vote would only determine whether the Senate limits debate on the motion to proceed. It would not pass the CLARITY Act. Invoking cloture on legislation generally requires 60 votes and can permit up to 30 additional hours of consideration.
Senators would still need to vote on the motion to proceed, debate amendments, and hold a final passage vote. A second cloture process could also be required.
White House officials are meanwhile considering a bipartisan ethics proposal negotiated by Republican Senator Thom Tillis and Democratic Senator Ruben Gallego. The proposal would reportedly allow state attorneys general to challenge the Justice Department when it fails to enforce federal ethics rules.
With no floor action yet scheduled, the Senate’s remaining days before recess will determine whether the CLARITY Act advances now or returns to an increasingly crowded agenda in September.
South Korean crypto exchange Bithumb says it is moving toward a public listing, with plans to apply for a preliminary listing review in 2027 and complete an initial public offering (IPO) in 2028. The timetable is described as flexible and could shift based on market conditions and the scheduling of relevant regulators.
In a statement released Monday, Bithumb linked its IPO roadmap to internal restructuring efforts designed to clarify responsibilities across business units and reduce potential conflicts of interest. The exchange also outlined operational changes it says are part of its preparation for the scrutiny that comes with becoming a listed company.
Key takeaways
- Bithumb plans to pursue a preliminary listing review in 2027 and target an IPO for 2028, subject to regulatory and market timing.
- The exchange says it reorganized its structure, including spinning off Bithumb Asset, to better separate responsibilities and limit conflicts of interest.
- Bithumb is preparing to strengthen internal controls and transition from domestic accounting standards to K-IFRS.
- The company’s listing push follows a separate incident in February involving an over-crediting error tied to a promotional reward mechanism.
Restructuring and accounting changes ahead of an IPO
Bithumb’s IPO plan is anchored in a set of organizational and compliance steps. According to the exchange, it has reorganized its business structure, including spinning off Bithumb Asset, with the stated goal of clarifying what each unit is responsible for. Bithumb said this approach is intended to reduce the risk of conflicts of interest before it enters the listing review process.
Beyond governance and structure, the exchange also said its preparations include upgrading internal controls. It further stated that it plans to move away from domestic accounting standards and adopt K-IFRS, the international accounting framework used by listed companies in South Korea.
While the company set out a broad timeline—application for preliminary review in 2027 and an IPO in 2028—Bithumb emphasized that the schedule is not guaranteed. It said changes could be required depending on market conditions and how quickly authorities complete their review processes.
A crypto market shifting toward traditional finance ties
Bithumb’s move toward going public is unfolding as several South Korean crypto exchanges tighten their relationships with traditional finance and technology groups. The exchange is among five South Korean platforms that offer fiat currency trading via real-name bank accounts, and it operates that service through a partnership with KB Kookmin Bank.
In the broader sector, the competitive landscape has increasingly reflected corporate and financial integration. Rival exchange Korbit saw a major change when Mirae Asset Consulting took control on July 23, while Upbit operator Dunamu is pursuing a share-swap arrangement that would make it a wholly owned subsidiary of Naver Financial, though the transaction is described as subject to regulatory and shareholder approvals.
For investors and market participants, these developments matter because they suggest that the “crypto exchange” category in South Korea is increasingly being treated like a mainstream financial business—one that attracts scrutiny around corporate governance, accounting practices, and the boundaries between crypto operations and affiliated entities.
The February “620,000 BTC” promotional error and governance implications
Bithumb’s listing ambitions arrive after a notable operational failure earlier this year. In a February promotional mistake, the exchange mistakenly credited customer accounts with balances totaling 620,000 Bitcoin instead of distributing 620,000 Korean won in cash rewards, according to earlier coverage. Bithumb later recovered 99.7% of the erroneous credits, but some customers sold about 1,788 BTC before account freezes were applied.
At a February 11 National Assembly parliamentary hearing, Bithumb CEO Lee Jae-won said the exchange’s process for checking the planned distribution against actual holdings had failed. He also stated that the promotional amount had not been set aside in a separate account, a factor that complicated the detection and containment of the error.
While the episode appears to have been addressed through clawback of the majority of the mistaken credits, it is the kind of incident that regulators and auditors often consider when assessing internal controls—precisely the area Bithumb says it is upgrading as part of its IPO preparations.
Listing cleanup for Bithumb-linked public firms continues
Bithumb’s timetable for an IPO also intersects with governance and listing challenges involving entities connected to the exchange. Two Bithumb-linked listed companies have faced ongoing audit and listing issues, with their shares trading suspended since March 2023.
Yonhap reported that Bucket Studio, which indirectly controls Vidente (a major Bithumb shareholder), appointed a former police official as its standing auditor in June. Separately, Vidente has said it plans to appoint a former National Tax Service official to the same auditor role. According to Yonhap, South Korea’s Government Public Service Ethics Committee cleared both hires after concluding there was no close relationship between the officials’ previous duties and their new positions.
These developments are relevant to Bithumb’s listing ambitions because they show how tightly regulated the ecosystem can be in South Korea, not only at the exchange level but also across corporate relationships and audit oversight.
For readers tracking Bithumb’s path to the public markets, the next key indicators will be whether the exchange’s stated internal control upgrades and K-IFRS transition proceed on schedule, and how regulators respond to both the IPO review process and lingering questions raised by prior compliance and governance issues. The 2027/2028 targets are not fixed—so market conditions and authority review timing will likely determine what actually happens next.
Galaxy Research head Alex Thorn has hinted that Coldcard was hit by a fourth wave of attacks on August 3, estimating that the attackers moved 448.7 BTC from 709 wallets belonging to victims.
Thorn based his findings on blockchain analysis rather than device records, describing the addresses as “likely Coldcard victims.”
A Fourth Wave?
Thorn described the addresses hit by the suspected attack as “likely Coldcard victims,” adding that the unspent outputs and transactions matched the vulnerable wallet pattern. Galaxy’s initial snapshot covered blocks 960,778 through 960,792, identifying 218 transactions involving 388.9 BTC and 462 potential victim addresses. The updated estimate expanded the figures to hundreds of transactions involving 448.7 BTC and 709 potential victim addresses.
Thorn posted the findings on X:
“LIKELY 4TH ORGANIZED WAVE COLDCARD ATTACK OCCURING RIGHT NOW THERE ARE STILL SIMILAR TXS IN THE MEMPOOL WAITING TO BE CONFIRMED AND THE PREVIOUSLY-CONFIRMED TXS SIGNAL RBF OPT-IN, CHECK YOUR FUNDS, AND YOU MAY BE ABLE TO RBF YOUR WAY OUT OF THIS.”
According to Thorn, Galaxy measured 13.8 sweeps per block, a 45x increase compared to 0.3 sweeps per block measured during a pre-incident control period. The siphoned funds were sent to a new address instead of a shared wallet. Some of the stolen funds were subsequently moved to new addresses, making them difficult to track.
Previous Waves
Galaxy has already mapped three prior waves that siphoned 1,367.05 BTC from 4,585 addresses, with the first wave targeting 1,082.05 BTC across 1,196 addresses. The latest wave brings the total figures to 1,815.75 BTC across 5,294 addresses. However, the figures are yet to be confirmed by authorities, Coinkite, or the wallet owners. Additionally, it isn’t clear whether one entity was responsible for all four waves.
Thorn also added that there were transactions awaiting approval in Bitcoin’s mempool, giving holders an escape route. According to Thorn, Bitcoin Core documentation states that unconfirmed opt-in Replace-by-fee transactions can be replaced. This means a user still in control of an affected key could broadcast a conflicting transaction with a higher fee and send the funds to a secure wallet. However, it cannot be replaced once it enters the block, and a replacement is not guaranteed to succeed.
Coldcard Users Must Generate New Seeds
The ongoing issue arises from an RNG integration error that occurred during a March 2021 firmware change. Coinkite estimates that the affected Mk2 and Mk3 seeds have around 40 bits of effective entropy, while seeds generated on affected Mk4, Mk5, and Q releases have 72 bits instead of 128.
Additionally, an engineering team from Block discovered that the firmware called a deterministic MicroPython fallback instead of the hardware random-number generator. However, the Block team clarified they could not confirm exploitability without full empirical testing.
Meanwhile, Coinkite has released version 4.2.0 for Mk2 and Mk3, 5.6.0 for Mk4 and Mk5, 1.5.0Q for Q, and 6.6.0X or 6.6.0QX for Edge releases. However, simply updating the existing firmware does not fully address the vulnerability. Once updated, users must generate a new seed and verify the receiving address. Once verified, they must send a test transaction before migrating the complete balance.
Coinkite also clarified that seeds created using a minimum of 50 fair, private dice rolls are not considered at risk, and that a unique BIP-39 passphrase could serve as a second line of defense. However, it recommended that users complete the migration. The advisory does not cover TAPSIGNER, OPENDIME, and SATSCARD because they use separate codebases.
Disclaimer: This article is provided for informational purposes only. It is not offered or intended to be used as legal, tax, investment, financial, or other advice.
Crypto World
Greece Battles Raging Wildfires After Collision Between Firefighting Helicopters Kills Two
Ursula von der Leyen, president of the European Commission, also remembered the contributions of the fallen.
“It takes a special courage to fly towards the flames so that others can be safe. As we continue to battle these fires side by side, Europe grieves with Greece and Denmark,” she said.
Widespread wildfires devastate Europe
Wildfires have swept across regions in France, with President Emmanuel Macron describing the situation as “the toughest since the Second World War.”
Elsewhere in western Europe, an emergency incident was declared in Suffolk, England, last week as firefighters tackled a blaze the size of at least 210 soccer pitches.
Much of Europe is in the midst of yet another heat wave, further compounding the issue and raising concerns that even contained fires may gather pace once more.
Crypto investor Arthur Hayes warned on August 3 that markets should watch this week’s Federal Reserve H.4.1 release for signs that Japan used US Treasury holdings as collateral to obtain dollars during recent yen intervention efforts.
The move has raised questions about how central banks may manage currency pressure without disrupting bond markets, with potential effects on global liquidity and risk assets like Bitcoin (BTC).
Watching the Fed’s Balance Sheet
The H.4.1 report publishes weekly details on the Fed’s balance sheet, including any repo activity with foreign central banks, which is why Hayes pointed traders there for confirmation.
His post followed last Friday’s coordinated currency action, which Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said had been taken to counter “disorderly yen movements,” and that his department is still in close contact with the BOJ and Japan’s Ministry of Finance and “will not hesitate to participate in further joint intervention.” He also called for the FIMA repo facility, which lets foreign central banks borrow against Treasury holdings, to be expanded in the coming months.
“If Bessent can get the counterparty limit increased then the Fed can create money using MOF TSY as collateral,” Hayes wrote in response.
The H.4.1 publication adds to a list of macro events already on the radar of traders, including Friday’s Nonfarm Payrolls report and this week’s ISM Manufacturing PMI.
Bitcoin advocate Adam Livingston called the US-Japan action “one of the funniest pieces of elite macroeconomic theater,” pointing out how the Asian economic giant had spent years pinning rates low, monetizing debt, and turning its fiat currency into a funding source for global carry trades. Now it has weakened, with Washington describing it as “substantially undervalued.”
The crypto author noted that Japan needs dollars to defend the yen, and it holds a large stock of US Treasuries, which, if sold, could push American yields higher and raise US financing costs as well as tighten liquidity. However, a bigger FIMA facility allows Japan to borrow dollars against those Treasuries instead of dumping them onto the market.
The crypto community has been watching the yen issue because Japan’s low-rate environment supported the yen carry trade for years. Investors borrowed the currency cheaply and placed money into higher-yielding assets, like stocks and cryptocurrencies. Last week, analyst EGRAG CRYPTO warned that a fast unwind of such carry trade-funded positions could force selling across risk assets, including BTC, if the yen strengthens too quickly.
Where Crypto Stands This Week
At the time of writing, the global cryptocurrency market cap was holding near $2.2 trillion after a slight 0.8% dip in 24 hours. BTC was trading closer to $63,000 than $62,000, down about 1% on the day and over 4% across one week. Meanwhile, Ethereum (ETH) sat near $1,800, about 6% from where it was a week ago.
Analyst Daan Crypto Trades observed that Bitcoin and the broader crypto market have underperformed the recent bounce in tech stocks. He attributed the pattern to a liquidity rotation where speculation returns more readily to equities once they recover, leaving crypto lagging unless stocks move sideways for a stretch.
The post Here’s Why Crypto Traders Need to Watch the Fed’s H.4.1 Report This Week appeared first on CryptoPotato.
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