Large “smart money” holders are adding to their Bitcoin and Ether positions as crypto valuations drift toward levels commonly associated with late-stage bear markets, according to CryptoQuant’s latest Smart Money report, reviewed by Cointelegraph.

The blockchain analytics firm argues that the key signal is not just that whales are holding more, but that their balances have continued to rise during price weakness—an accumulation pattern that, historically, can line up with market bottoms even though it does not guarantee an immediate reversal.

Key takeaways

• CryptoQuant says Bitcoin whale balances (excluding exchanges and mining pools) rose to about 3.06 million BTC, up from roughly 2.87 million BTC in December 2025.
• The firm links the acceleration in Bitcoin accumulation to a period after BTC fell below $60,000 in June.
• For Ethereum, wallets holding 10,000–100,000 ETH collectively reached a record 19.6 million ETH, while very large holders added around 1.8 million ETH since mid-2025.
• In XRP markets, CryptoQuant notes “big whale” spot order sizes remained elevated, while a neutral 90-day taker cumulative volume delta points more toward passive absorption than aggressive buying.
• CryptoQuant also cites realized price—an estimate of the market’s average on-chain cost basis—as support for a potential move toward a bottom, though it warns further downside remains possible.

Whales build positions during weakness

CryptoQuant’s Smart Money report focuses on large-holder behavior as a potential guide to market direction. The underlying premise is that when major holders increase balances while prices are under pressure, they can effectively reduce liquid supply and concentrate ownership among fewer entities.

For Bitcoin, CryptoQuant reports that whale holdings excluding exchanges and mining pools climbed to approximately 3.06 million BTC, compared with about 2.87 million BTC in December 2025. The report highlights that accumulation accelerated after Bitcoin dipped below $60,000 in June, suggesting that at least some large investors continued to add despite worsening price conditions.

On Ethereum, CryptoQuant’s distribution-based view shows parallel strength. Wallets holding between 10,000 and 100,000 ETH collectively amassed a record 19.6 million ETH. Meanwhile, wallets with more than 100,000 ETH added roughly 1.8 million ETH since mid-2025, according to the report.

What the “smart money tell” implies—especially for bottoms

Beyond raw balances, CryptoQuant points to valuation metrics tied to cost. In particular, it references realized price—often used in on-chain analysis as an estimate of the average price at which coins last moved on-chain. The firm frames the spread between current prices and realized price as a sign the market may be approaching a bottom.

At the time of writing, CoinGecko data showed Bitcoin trading at $63,935, above its realized price of $52,900. Ether was quoted around $1,858, below its realized price of roughly $2,450. XRP traded near $1.10 versus a realized price around $0.75.

CryptoQuant’s assessment is that rising whale balances into price weakness are “the clearest smart-money tell,” and that similar accumulation patterns have historically preceded market bottoms. However, the firm also cautions that the market remains vulnerable to further downside, underscoring that whale accumulation can coincide with bottoms without guaranteeing the timing of a trend reversal.

Cross-market nuance: XRP shows absorption more than conviction

CryptoQuant’s report extends beyond Bitcoin and Ether to look at XRP market microstructure. It says average spot order sizes stayed in its “big whale” category while XRP traded between $1 and $1.20—indicating that large participants remained active in placing orders.

Yet CryptoQuant adds an important nuance: a neutral 90-day taker cumulative volume delta suggests passive absorption rather than aggressive buying. In practical terms, the indicator implies that while whales may be leaving significant liquidity footprints, the flow of taker-side demand has not been strongly one-directional, which can matter for how quickly price can respond to renewed buying pressure.

Context from other analysts on whether a bottom is forming

CryptoQuant’s on-chain framing is arriving alongside other research suggesting potential bottoming behavior. On Monday, 10x Research said Bitcoin could confirm a bear-market bottom if it posts a monthly close above $63,000, according to coverage on Cointelegraph.

Separately, K33 highlighted in a July 7 report that Bitcoin has historically reached cycle lows within weeks after more than half of circulating supply was held at a loss. This type of supply-at-loss perspective differs from realized price, but both approaches share a common theme: bottoms often appear when broader holder pain and valuation disadvantage have pushed into extremes.

Taken together, these views suggest a market that may be searching for stabilization rather than already having fully turned. CryptoQuant’s emphasis on late-stage bear valuations and its repeated warning about further downside reflect that tension: the evidence for “smart money” accumulation may be strengthening, but the path from accumulation to sustained recovery is not automatic.

Investors and traders watching this setup should focus on whether whale balance growth continues alongside improving price/realized-price relationships, and whether other bottoming conditions—such as the kind of monthly-close thresholds or supply-at-loss measures cited by separate research—start to align. Until then, CryptoQuant’s own message remains the most important watchpoint: accumulation during weakness can be a bottom signal, but it does not rule out additional volatility or downside.

Western Union has partnered with stablecoin infrastructure provider Rain to launch Stablecard, a digital wallet and Visa-branded card that enables users to hold and spend a US dollar-backed stablecoin, marking one of the company’s biggest moves into blockchain-based payments.

On Wednesday, Western Union said Stablecard allows users to hold, receive, transfer and spend USDPT, a US dollar-backed stablecoin issued by Anchorage Digital Bank on the Solana blockchain.

Stablecard launched in 37 markets, with Western Union aiming to expand availability to more than 60 markets by the end of the year. Users can receive Western Union money transfers directly into a USDPT wallet, transfer funds to compatible crypto wallets and exchanges and spend their balances anywhere Visa is accepted, including through Apple Pay and Google Pay.

The launch reflects Western Union’s effort to expand its role in the global remittance market as stablecoins gain traction for cross-border payments. The product is aimed at remittance recipients and consumers in countries with volatile local currencies, offering them the ability to hold savings in a dollar-backed digital asset while spending through existing payment networks.

Western Union unveiled USDPT in May as part of its broader digital asset strategy, describing it as a stablecoin designed to align with the framework established under the GENIUS Act, the recently enacted US law that sets federal rules for the issuance and oversight of payment stablecoins. The company has already expanded the token’s ecosystem through exchange partnerships, with Bybit adding support for USDPT trading and transfers in June.

Related: Mastercard expands support to USDC, PYUSD, RLUSD stablecoin settlement

Stablecoins push deeper into global money transfers

Stablecoins are increasingly reshaping cross-border payments as users seek faster and lower-cost alternatives to traditional remittance services, particularly in Africa and South America. 

The trend has prompted established money transfer companies to expand into digital assets. Western Union rival MoneyGram recently launched MGUSD, a US dollar-pegged stablecoin on the Stellar network. The token is designed to integrate with the MoneyGram app through a self-custodial wallet, allowing users to hold dollar-denominated balances, send funds globally and convert them into local currencies when needed.

However, stablecoins are not a universal solution for remittances. A recent Bank of Italy study found that stablecoin-based remittances did not consistently outperform traditional payment channels on cost or speed. The researchers attributed much of the remaining friction to fiat currency on- and off-ramps, where converting between bank deposits, cash and digital assets accounted for most transaction costs and settlement delays.

Related: US, UK reaffirm support for stablecoins, tokenization in joint financial regulation talks

What to say to someone you’re worried about

Michigan’s 13th Congressional District Democratic primary delivered a high-profile rebuke of an incumbent widely seen as friendly to the cryptocurrency industry. State Rep. Donavan McKinney defeated two-term U.S. Rep. Shri Thanedar, winning 51.9% of the vote to Thanedar’s 48.1%, according to The New York Times.

The race became a focal point for criticism that crypto-aligned political spending was aimed at rewarding incumbents. The campaign also underscored how crypto-backed political action committees (PACs) continue to invest heavily in state-level primaries ahead of the November general election.

Key takeaways

• Donavan McKinney won Michigan’s 13th District Democratic primary over incumbent Shri Thanedar, 51.9% to 48.1%, per The New York Times.
• A crypto-backed PAC, spending over $2 million on media, supported Thanedar in an attempt to secure his re-election.
• McKinney’s campaign framed the contest as “payback” from the industry, citing Thanedar’s pro-crypto legislative record and alleging large political donations following former President Donald Trump’s time in office.
• Protect Progress, the super PAC backing Thanedar, is affiliated with Fairshake, which has previously directed major spending into election cycles involving crypto policy battles.
• McKinney’s likely November opponent is Republican Taras Nykoriak after the primary process moved both parties forward.

A contested primary built on crypto-policy accusations

Thanedar’s defeat is notable because he ran as an established member of the House while simultaneously attracting significant crypto-aligned political support. During the primary, a super PAC tied to the crypto sector poured more than $2 million into media to help re-elect him, as reported by Cointelegraph, citing coverage of the race’s spending.

McKinney, described by many observers as a progressive challenger, positioned his campaign around concerns that Washington prioritizes corporate interests over constituents. In the Democratic primary, he accused the cryptocurrency industry of paying “my opponent back” for efforts he linked to Thanedar’s voting record and alleged benefits received during Trump’s time in office.

That messaging resonated with voters enough to overcome the incumbent’s advantage. McKinney’s campaign later received support from prominent progressive Democratic groups, including the Democratic National Committee and the Democratic Socialists of America, as referenced by the DNC.

Who funded the pro-incumbent push

According to reporting referenced in this coverage, Protect Progress—the super PAC responsible for funding ads supporting Thanedar and attacking McKinney—is affiliated with Fairshake. Fairshake has been backed primarily by crypto companies including Coinbase and Ripple, and the network has spent heavily on campaigns where candidates’ positions on crypto regulation and enforcement have been central.

The broader pattern matters because Fairshake and allied committees have already demonstrated a willingness to escalate media spending well beyond general elections. In the 2024 election cycle, the group and its affiliates reportedly spent over $170 million on races involving candidates seen as pro- and anti-crypto, and then continued deploying resources across additional primaries in 2026, as described in earlier coverage by Cointelegraph.

In Michigan, those efforts did not translate into an incumbent victory—an outcome that could influence how investors and political watchers interpret the effectiveness of crypto-backed messaging in competitive primaries.

Legislation, campaign finance, and the “conflict” narrative

The clash also centered on legislative alignment and claims of conflict. The incumbent, Thanedar, reportedly voted in favor of multiple pieces of crypto-related legislation, including the GENIUS Act and the CLARITY Act, according to the source material.

At the same time, the race included allegations tied to Thanedar’s personal financial activity. As reported by The Intercept, he reportedly lost more than $600,000 in the second quarter of 2026 after investing $3.7 million of campaign funds into crypto companies. Those facts were part of a larger argument, echoed by McKinney, that political influence around crypto policy can blur lines between governance and profit.

McKinney framed the election in blunt terms in a Wednesday post on X, arguing that Washington has served billionaires and corporate interests for too long and reiterating his intent to serve his constituents rather than special interests.

What comes next for McKinney and the broader election map

With the primary now settled, McKinney moves toward the November general election against Republican Taras Nykoriak. According to the reporting, Cointelegraph attempted to obtain comment from McKinney’s campaign on Wednesday but did not immediately receive a response.

The Michigan result also fits into a larger picture of crypto political engagement across the country. In Washington’s 4th District—another contest shaped by crypto-aligned spending—an affiliate of Fairshake, Defend American Jobs, reportedly spent more than $65,000 on media to support a Republican candidate (Amanda McKinney, not related to the Michigan representative). That candidate will face Democrat John Duresky in November after both advanced with more than 30% of the vote in the primary.

For readers tracking how crypto policy may change in the next Congress, these contests matter because incumbents and challengers alike are increasingly forced to address not only regulation proposals but also the legitimacy and transparency of campaign spending tied to the industry.

With McKinney headed for November and crypto-aligned groups already signaling continued willingness to fund primary battles, the key question for investors and political observers is whether the Michigan result shifts the balance of influence—particularly within competitive primaries—or simply reallocates spending strategies toward more favorable districts as general-election pressure ramps up.

Bitcoin BTC$64,663.13 was little changed, adding 0.16% since midnight UTC to trade near $64,000, even as global equities hit new highs, fueled by optimism over AI and progress toward reopening the Strait of Hormuz, which pushed oil prices lower.

MSCI’s All Country World Index rose 0.4% toward another record close, its Asia Pacific benchmark gained 2.2%, and Australian shares hit a new peak after the S&P 500 and Dow Jones Industrial Average closed at all-time highs Tuesday.

The broader CoinDesk 20 (CD20) is unchanged since midnight, with 11 components rising and nine declining.

The divergence points to crypto-specific weakness. U.S. spot bitcoin ETFs recorded $5.4 billion of net outflows in the first half of the year as capital rotated into AI-linked assets.

“Institutional and retail interest in crypto as an investment has cooled as AI absorbs a disproportionate share of capital and attention; most sectors, not just crypto, have underperformed AI over the past year,” DWF Labs wrote in a report.

Today’s direction may find a catalyst in U.S. employment figures and ISM services PMI due later.

Circle Internet (CRCL) shares fell about 3% in premarket trading Wednesday after an initial jump after the stablecoin issuer reported second-quarter earnings. While the company topped profit expectations, revenue came in slightly below Wall Street forecasts.

Circle posted adjusted earnings of 18 cents a share, beating analysts’ consensus estimate of 16 cents, while revenue and reserve income rose 7% from a year earlier to $701 million, missing expectations of $712 million. Net income from continuing operations reached $48 million, topping analysts’ estimates of $43 million, while adjusted EBITDA climbed 8% to $143 million.

USDC, Circle’s dollar-backed stablecoin, continued to expand. Circulation reached $73.3 billion at the end of June, up 19% from a year earlier, but down from its 2026 peak of nearly $80 billion. Onchain transaction volume surged 151% to $14.8 trillion during the quarter.

“Our quarterly financial results reflect the current rate environment and a crypto market that has slowed,” CEO Jeremy Allaire said in a statement. “But the institutions using USDC today, like BlackRock, BNY and Standard Chartered aren’t piloting, they are expanding.”

The earnings also offered the clearest update yet on Arc, Circle’s blockchain network scheduled to launch its public mainnet on Sept. 16.

Michigan State Representative Donavan McKinney won a Democratic primary against incumbent House Representative Shri Thanedar in a race that raised accusations of payback by the cryptocurrency industry.

McKinney won the primary for Michigan’s 13th Congressional District with 51.9% of the vote against Thanedar’s 48.1% as of Wednesday, the New York Times reported. The primary saw a cryptocurrency-backed political action committee (PAC) spending more than $2 million on media in an attempt to re-elect Thanedar, who has voted in favor of many bills favoring the industry while in Congress. 

Election results for Democratic primary in Michigan’s 13th congressional district. Source: The New York Times

McKinney, considered by many to be a progressive challenger to two-term Thanedar, has already received support from the Democratic National Committee and the Democratic Socialists of America on his primary victory. During the campaign, he accused the crypto industry of “paying my opponent back for helping Trump make over $1 billion since taking office,” likely referring to Thanedar’s voting record.

Protect Progress, the super PAC responsible for funding the ads supporting Thanedar and opposing McKinney, is affiliated with Fairshake, a group backed primarily by crypto companies Coinbase and Ripple. After spending more than $170 million in the 2024 US election cycle on similar races involving pro- and anti-crypto candidates, Fairshake and its affiliates have poured additional millions of dollars into media for politicians in this year’s primaries in several US states ahead of the November general election.

Related: Nigel Farage to resign from UK Parliament amid crypto “gift” scandal, will stand in by-election

In addition to voting for bills like the GENIUS Act and CLARITY Act in the House of Representatives, Thanedar also reportedly lost more than $600,000 in the second quarter of 2026 after investing $3.7 million of campaign funds into crypto companies.

”Washington has spent too long serving billionaires and corporate interests,” said McKinney in a Wednesday X post. ”I will always only serve the people I represent.”

McKinney will face off against Republican candidate Taras Nykoriak in the November election. Cointelegraph sought a comment from McKinney’s campaign on Wednesday but did not receive an immediate response.

PAC-supported candidate wins Washington primary

In addition to Protect Progress’ efforts in Michigan, the Fairshake affiliate Defend American Jobs spent more than $65,000 on media to support Republican Amanda McKinney (no relation to the Michigan candidate) in Washington’s 4th congressional district. McKinney will face off against Democrat John Duresky in November, with both candidates securing more than 30% of the vote in Tuesday’s primary to advance to the general election.

Magazine: Here’s why the CLARITY Act’s ethics deal may be so hard to reach

• World Chain launches streamed EIP-7928 on mainnet Aug. 17.
• New feature enables parallel block verification for validators.
• Upgrade targets higher throughput without more hardware.

World Chain said it will become the first production layer-2 blockchain to deploy streamed EIP-7928 block access lists, introducing the feature on its mainnet from Aug. 17 in a move aimed at improving transaction throughput without increasing validator hardware requirements.

The network said it will stream full block access lists inside every flashblock, allowing validators to begin verifying transactions while blocks are still being assembled.

The implementation is designed to address one of the blockchain industry’s key scaling challenges—boosting transaction capacity without compromising decentralization by forcing validators to use increasingly powerful hardware.

According to the company, the rollout marks the first production implementation of streamed EIP-7928 block access lists and contributes to Ethereum’s broader scaling roadmap.

Parallel verification targets higher throughput

On most blockchain networks, validators verify blocks by re-executing every transaction sequentially before confirming a block’s validity.

World Chain said full block access lists change that process by recording the blockchain state that each transaction reads and writes, enabling independent transactions to be verified simultaneously across multiple CPU cores.

The company said its implementation extends the EIP-7928 specification by streaming access list data every 200 milliseconds through its flashblock architecture.

Instead of waiting for an entire block to be completed, validators can begin verifying transactions immediately as the block is built.

World Chain said this approach reduces validation latency while distributing verification work throughout the block-building process.

The network said the technology allows it to target throughput of up to one gigagas per second while keeping validator hardware requirements effectively unchanged.

Deployment avoids hard fork requirement

Unlike Ethereum’s planned implementation of EIP-7928, which is expected to arrive as part of the future Glamsterdam upgrade, World Chain said it is deploying the feature through a runtime flag rather than a hard fork.

This approach allows client operators to upgrade software ahead of the Aug. 17 mainnet rollout without requiring a coordinated network-wide upgrade.

The company said internal benchmarking on World Chain test networks showed validation latency remained effectively stable even as throughput increased substantially, reaching up to one gigagas per second using standard cloud infrastructure.

According to the results, higher transaction throughput can be achieved without a corresponding increase in the computing resources required for independent chain verification.

Focus on scalability and decentralization

World Chain said the rollout is intended to demonstrate a practical approach to improving blockchain scalability while preserving accessibility for independent validators, which it described as an important requirement for maintaining decentralized networks.

The layer-2 network is built using the OP Stack, secured by Ethereum, and forms part of the Superchain ecosystem.

It is integrated with the World protocol and is designed to support applications including stablecoin payments, international remittances, commerce and other real-world use cases.

The network also incorporates World ID’s proof-of-human technology and can be accessed through compatible wallets, including World App.

LOSERS: Establishment Democrats