Bitcoin reclaimed levels above $80,000, pulling a wave of momentum through crypto equities and the broader digital-asset “plumbing” that links token demand to traditional finance. The rally has coincided with expectations around US long-dated Treasury bond buybacks and renewed political pressure for clearer US crypto regulation, helping lift miners, exchanges, and stablecoin-linked businesses.

At the same time, the market’s focus is narrowing onto how access to dollar-based capital markets and payment rails translates into real onchain activity and institutional balance sheets. From Circle’s USDC growth thesis to Strategy’s debt-servicing risk framework and Solana’s record throughput, this week’s developments underline a common theme: crypto performance is increasingly tied to traditional liquidity conditions and regulated financial infrastructure.

Key takeaways

• Bitcoin trading above $80,000 lifted crypto stocks, with miners and digital asset treasury firms posting double-digit gains as broader risk appetite improved.
• Bernstein says Circle’s USDC supply growth resumed after a six-month slowdown, pointing to a potential “next leg” driven by tokenized capital markets and payments adoption.
• Regime Intelligence frames Strategy’s main vulnerability as financing access rather than a BTC price collapse, emphasizing the ability to service annual obligations.
• Solana recorded a new high of 4.2 billion onchain transactions in July, supported by a concurrent 40% price move and accelerating real-world asset (RWA) tokenization activity.

Bitcoin’s rebound pulls crypto stocks higher

Bitcoin’s move back above $80,000 helped drive gains across public crypto markets. According to Cointelegraph Markets coverage, the week’s advance lifted miners and digital asset treasury companies, while broader sentiment tracked with expectations around the US Treasury’s plan to double certain long-dated bond buybacks.

Over the past week, Canaan, MARA Holdings, and Strive were cited among the biggest gainers. Coinbase and Robinhood also rallied as the recovery extended. CoinMarketCap data cited in the original reporting showed Bitcoin pushing its weekly advance beyond 23%, while Ether rose nearly 30% to trade above $2,500.

On the policy front, President Trump renewed calls for Congress to pass the CLARITY Act, though the bill remained stalled after lawmakers failed to move it forward before the August recess. The bill’s potential impact—clearer rules for US crypto markets—remains a key variable for long-term institutional participation. Trump also revived the idea of government Bitcoin purchases, but neither scenario is guaranteed.

For investors, the market’s reaction suggests that timing matters: risk-on conditions can quickly reprice shares tied to crypto asset exposure, even before regulatory clarity arrives. What remains important is whether the rally can persist without a further improvement in capital-market liquidity.

Bernstein renews its USDC growth cycle outlook for Circle

Circle has also come under fresh analyst attention, with Bernstein arguing that USDC could enter a renewed growth phase over the next 12 months as stablecoin supply growth picks up again.

In a Monday research note, Bernstein said USDC supply increased by roughly $2 billion in seven days, ending a six-month stretch of stagnant or declining growth. The firm maintained an Outperform rating on Circle and a $140 price target—an outlook that implies around 60% upside based on the assumptions in its coverage. The original report also noted that Circle’s shares had risen about 40% over the past month.

Bernstein’s thesis ties the next stage of USDC growth to several connected catalysts: renewed crypto momentum, improving US regulatory clarity, and broader adoption of tokenized capital markets and payments. The firm also pointed to early signs of demand from AI agents, though the underlying data for that claim was not detailed in the source.

One specific metric cited in the report—USDC’s share of adjusted transaction volume—helps explain the argument’s direction. Bernstein reported that USDC’s share rose from roughly 40% in 2025 to over 60% so far in 2026, overtaking Tether’s USDt on that measure. In a competitive stablecoin market, share of transaction volume can matter as much as raw supply growth because it reflects which asset is being used as the settlement layer in active flows.

The analyst backdrop is complicated by Circle’s own trading history since its June 2025 IPO, when shares were priced at $31. After an early post-IPO surge, the stock fell back toward that level by November 2025 as crypto markets entered a downturn—an episode that underscores how sensitive even “infrastructure” narratives can be to risk cycles.

Strategy’s key risk: capital market access, not a BTC price wipeout

While much of crypto reporting focuses on Bitcoin’s price path, a Regime Intelligence report highlighted a different risk channel for Strategy: the threat is not necessarily that BTC collapses, but that the company loses access to capital markets needed to service its obligations.

According to the original report, Strategy’s vulnerability centers on its ability to meet annual obligations of $1.76 billion without having to sell BTC, which is structurally relevant because Strategy’s balance sheet and financing model depend on continued funding conditions. The company holds 840,447 BTC backing $22 billion in debt and preferred claims, and the report stated there are no margin calls tied directly to Bitcoin’s price.

The stress-test framing is also notable. The cited analysis says Bitcoin would need to fall 96% for Strategy’s holdings to no longer cover its convertible notes, suggesting a wide buffer against a severe but not “catastrophic” drawdown. The report further said Strategy holds cash reserves equal to 2.6 times its annual obligations, and that its BTC holdings were worth $66.7 billion versus a cost basis of $63.36 billion.

Komodo Platform co-founder Kadan Stadelmann told Cointelegraph that even if equities unraveled, Strategy’s BTC holdings would put it in a relatively strong position to weather most scenarios—because the company holds far more Bitcoin than its annual cash obligations.

However, the risk is more about financing than mark-to-market. The report’s logic suggests that if financing conditions worsen—especially alongside a declining Strategy share price and lower mNAV—raising fresh capital could become harder. In that situation, Strategy might have to draw down reserves or sell BTC to maintain its operating structure.

Stadelmann emphasized that Strategy’s weakness lies in the need to issue capital to service its structure, adding that if equity markets collapse, the company could end up parting with Bitcoin as part of its operating needs. The original reporting also noted Strategy has sold BTC four times since May, while CEO Phong Le said the company accumulated 25 times more BTC over the same period and plans to resume purchases.

For readers, the practical takeaway is that “survivability” in institutional Bitcoin plays can be disconnected from short-term BTC volatility. Liquidity access can become the binding constraint even when downside math looks survivable.

Solana hits record throughput as RWA tokenization grows

On the network side, Solana’s activity surged alongside price. The original report said Solana processed a record 4.2 billion onchain transactions in July, preceding a 40% rally that pushed SOL above $100 for the first time since February.

The transaction data was attributed to onchain figures presented by The Kobeissi Letter. In the same coverage, activity was described as rising 13.5% from June and 91% from December—adding roughly 2 billion transactions over that span. Record throughput matters because it can signal that demand isn’t limited to a single category of applications; instead, it suggests broader usage that can translate into ecosystem fees and more robust onchain settlement.

Tokenization is a key part of that broader narrative. The Kobeissi Letter also cited RWA.xyz data indicating that nearly $4 billion worth of real-world assets are tokenized on Solana, up 11.8% over the past month. Across tracked networks, distributed RWAs were reported to have surpassed $38 billion.

The rally in SOL was also linked to macro conditions. The original article connected Solana’s upward move to a US Treasury Department announcement about doubling certain long-dated bond buybacks to at least $4 billion per operation, which was described as helping push yields lower and improve risk appetite. Still, the report cautioned that continued gains depend on ongoing network activity and further RWA adoption, not just a temporary macro tailwind.

Investors watching Solana may want to monitor whether transaction growth sustains after the initial repricing of risk assets, and whether RWA tokenization continues to scale into a deeper base of recurring usage rather than remaining concentrated in early categories.

Going forward, the market will likely keep oscillating between two drivers: traditional liquidity signals (such as Treasury buyback expectations) and crypto-specific infrastructure metrics (stablecoin usage shares, onchain transaction throughput, and institutional financing access). The next question is whether this week’s rebound turns into a durable shift—or fades if capital-market conditions tighten again.

Circle, the issuer of the USDC stablecoin, is stepping into English football sponsorship on a high-profile stage. The company announced that its name and the USDC brand will appear on Chelsea Football Club jerseys for the 2026/2027 season.

The move lands only months after the UK Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) warned Premier League clubs about sponsorship arrangements involving “unauthorized” financial firms—including crypto-related businesses—raising questions about how stablecoin brands fit into the regulator’s broader expectations for marketing and authorization.

Key takeaways

• Circle will sponsor Chelsea FC and place the USDC brand on team jerseys starting with the 2026/2027 season.
• The announcement follows FCA warnings to Premier League clubs about sponsorship deals with unauthorized firms that could breach UK financial services rules.
• Circle UK Trading Limited is listed by the FCA as authorized to provide certain financial services to UK residents.
• USDC is stated to be issued by regulated affiliates, but Circle says it is not issued or regulated under UK law.

Chelsea jerseys to carry USDC branding

In a Friday press release, Circle said its name and USDC would be featured on Chelsea FC players’ jerseys during the 2026/2027 season. The sponsorship effectively brings a stablecoin brand into a mainstream consumer spotlight where millions of fans watch matches and associated media coverage.

For Circle, the rationale is straightforward: football sponsorship offers global reach and brand visibility for a payments-focused token built to maintain a stable value relative to a reference currency. For Chelsea supporters, the change will be more immediate—USDC will become a visible part of the club’s on-field identity.

Why the FCA warning matters

The sponsorship arrives about three months after the FCA said it had sent warning letters to football clubs in the Premier League, potentially including Chelsea. According to the FCA, the letters were tied to “unauthorized” companies using sponsorship deals to target football fans, which the regulator said could violate UK financial services rules.

The FCA framed the issue as a consumer protection concern. In comments accompanying its warning, Lucy Castledine, the FCA’s director of consumer investments, said that clubs’ loyalty-based relationships should not be used to expose fans to “potentially dodgy products.”

While Circle’s sponsorship is not being presented as a direct response to the FCA’s earlier action, the timing makes the regulator’s stance impossible to ignore for market participants. The core question for investors and users is whether stablecoin marketing—especially when tied to major sports audiences—falls cleanly within the FCA’s interpretation of authorized activity, or whether additional scrutiny will follow.

Authorization vs. where the token is “issued”

Circle’s relationship with UK regulatory oversight appears to be split between its corporate authorization and the legal status of the stablecoin itself. Circle UK Trading Limited—the firm described as Circle’s UK arm—has been listed by the FCA as an authorized company able to provide certain financial services to residents since 2018.

At the same time, Circle said USDC is “issued by certain regulated affiliates,” but it is “not issued or regulated under the laws of the United Kingdom.” That distinction matters because FCA warnings were aimed at unauthorized financial firms and marketing practices that could be inconsistent with UK financial services requirements.

The company’s messaging suggests it views its UK operations as compliant in terms of the entities that interact with UK residents, even if the stablecoin’s issuance and regulation occur under other jurisdictions. For readers, the practical implication is that sponsorship does not necessarily settle regulatory questions on its own; what matters is the scope of authorization and the jurisdictional framework covering the token.

Broader policy pressure around stablecoins

The Chelsea deal also sits within a wider UK policy environment still working out how stablecoins should be governed. The UK has said lawmakers are working toward a more comprehensive regulatory framework for digital assets. In parallel, stablecoin usage in the country is described as legal, but regulatory clarity remains a moving target.

That context raises the stakes of visible consumer-facing campaigns. When a stablecoin brand becomes associated with a mainstream sports club, it can accelerate awareness well beyond crypto-native audiences—exactly the kind of attention the FCA typically tries to manage when it fears consumer harm from products presented through trusted institutions.

Regulatory questions are likely to remain open

Circle’s sponsorship may be entirely lawful under its stated authorization structure, but the FCA’s earlier warnings indicate the regulator is focused on how financial firms reach fans through club branding and what authorization claims are presented to the public. Investors, builders, and users should watch for any follow-up guidance, further enforcement signals, or public clarification on how stablecoin marketing is expected to align with UK rules.

Institutional crypto exchange operator Bullish has signed a $100 million stablecoin-based debt facility with USD.AI to fund AI-focused loans secured by GPU infrastructure, the companies announced on Friday. The arrangement is designed to channel stablecoin liquidity into demand for compute hardware while tightening collateral coverage by tying repayment to specific GPU assets.

USD.AI, built by Permian Labs, provides onchain financing backed by AI computing hardware—using the GPU as the primary collateral rather than relying on a borrower’s broader corporate balance sheet. Bullish says it will also list USD.AI’s sUSDai token across multiple trading pairs and run a dedicated market-making program to support secondary liquidity and price discovery.

Key takeaways

• Bullish is providing a $100 million stablecoin-backed debt facility to USD.AI for GPU-secured loans.
• Loans are collateralized by underlying NVIDIA GPU hardware rather than general corporate assets.
• USD.AI uses onchain financing to match stablecoin liquidity with demand for AI compute infrastructure.
• Bullish plans to list sUSDai on multiple trading pairs and enhance liquidity through a market-making program.
• The new facility builds on USD.AI’s earlier GPU-backed financing rounds, including deals backed by NVIDIA B300 and B200 GPUs.

A stablecoin facility aimed at GPU-backed lending

Under the agreement, USD.AI will use Bullish’s $100 million debt facility to originate loans for AI infrastructure operators. The central distinction is collateral structure: Bullish and USD.AI stated that the loans will be secured by the GPU hardware being financed, not by borrowers’ wider corporate assets. For lenders, this can reduce reliance on overall balance-sheet credit risk; for borrowers, it points to a financing model where access to capital is linked to the specific compute equipment they acquire or operate.

USD.AI positions the platform as a bridge between stablecoin liquidity and the capital needs of companies buying or deploying AI infrastructure. In practice, the facility effectively scales a financing pipeline where compute hardware becomes a financial primitive—something that can be underwritten, financed, and supported through token-linked liquidity.

What Bullish says it will do with sUSDai

Bullish also outlined plans to support the USD.AI ecosystem beyond the initial facility. The exchange operator said it expects to list sUSDai across multiple trading pairs and to back the token with a dedicated market-making program. Bullish’s stated goal is to improve secondary liquidity and price discovery for debt products tied to GPU-backed financing.

From an investor and market-structure standpoint, liquidity and trading depth are often the practical bottlenecks for newer tokenized instruments. By committing to market-making and broader exchange availability, Bullish is attempting to ensure that token demand and pricing can develop alongside the underlying financing activity rather than lag behind it.

USD.AI’s expanding GPU financing pipeline

The $100 million facility adds to USD.AI’s recent track record in GPU-secured lending. In June, USD.AI announced a $98.1 million loan backed by 2,304 NVIDIA B300 GPUs. In the same update, it referenced another $34 million loan backed by 768 NVIDIA B200 GPUs, which it said was fully funded.

Those earlier disclosures help clarify that Bullish is not entering USD.AI’s model for the first time; rather, the new debt facility appears to scale an existing financing track centered on specific GPU batches and associated underwriting.

Longer-term link between Bullish Capital and USD.AI

The deal also follows Bullish Capital’s earlier involvement with USD.AI. According to the announcement, Bullish Capital made a $4 million investment into USD.AI in September 2025.

That investment provides context for why the company is now expanding into a much larger, operational financing role. It also signals a continuing strategy of pairing exchange and institutional capital capabilities with token-linked infrastructure financing—particularly in areas where the demand drivers (AI compute expansion) can be observed in real asset procurement.

Crypto-market backdrop and equities rally

While the USD.AI facility is fundamentally about financing mechanics, it arrives as Bullish’s equity has rebounded. Bullish became a publicly traded company on the New York Stock Exchange in August 2025, raising about $1.03 billion after pricing its initial public offering at $37 per share. Yahoo Finance data shows the stock remains down more than 60% versus its IPO level, but it has recently regained ground, up roughly 45% over the past month to trade around $33 as of Friday.

Bullish’s share performance has also tracked a broader upswing in certain crypto-linked stocks. Over the past month, according to the same context cited alongside Bullish’s move, Strive gained about 88%, Bitcoin miner Canaan rose around 55%, and stablecoin issuer Circle was nearly 40% higher—an indication that market appetite for crypto-related equities has improved along with parts of the digital asset complex.

Investors watching USD.AI and Bullish’s sUSDai push should focus next on whether the liquidity and market-making efforts translate into consistent secondary trading depth, and whether GPU-backed lending keeps scaling at the pace implied by earlier B300 and B200-backed announcements. The sustainability of token demand will likely depend on how smoothly the financing pipeline turns collateral-backed debt into repeatable issuance and recoverable value under different compute-cycle conditions.

A highly contentious proposal to alter the inflation rate of SOL, a vote called SGP-0002, has passed with precisely 67% ayes. Official rules require two-thirds of participating stake to pass, so the proposal cleared the bar by barely 0.33 percentage points.

As a result of the vote, SOL’s so-called “disinflation rate” will double from 15% to 30%.

SGP-0002 instructs the network to continue creating new SOL but shrink the inflation rate twice as fast.

After switching its vote at the eleventh hour, holders of staked SOL at crypto exchange Kraken tipped the voting outcome. Its 8.9 million SOL validator, labeled “Kraken 2,” cast 90.34% of its stake in favor of the measure.

Had Kraken’s votes cast No instead of Yes, SGP-0002 would have failed at approximately 63.9%, i.e. below the 66.66% threshold.

Helius CEO Mert Mumtaz celebrated Kraken changing its earlier No indication to a Yes during the final whipsaw.

Contributors from Mumtaz’s firm wrote many of the technical proposals for SGP-0002.

Kraken was mathematically decisive but not uniquely responsible. Galaxy and other late voters also moved the tally.

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Still, the exchange supplied enough Yes votes to secure a winning margin and was widely credited on social media with flipping the vote.

Read more: First US-listed Solana treasury firm moves and protects executives

Doubling Solana’s disinflation rate doesn’t end inflation

Solana is still inflationary. The change doesn’t flip the rate of new SOL entering the market negative.

To be clear, SOL will always remain inflationary at a positive rate, the only matter of debate was how positive the rate would be.

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Solana validators voted to cut future SOL issuance by roughly 18.9 million tokens over six years, but over the long haul, those tokens will still enter the market eventually.

Technical specifications for the change keep terminal (a.k.a. “long tail”) inflation at 1.5%, but estimates reaching that terminal rate 2.8 years after activation instead of 5.7 years. 

It’s the first Solana governance proposal to pass under the network’s new binding, on-chain voting system. A prior attempt at similar territory, SIMD-0228, failed in March 2025 with about 61% support. 

Developers now project approximately 18.9 million fewer SOL created over the next six years.

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Under the old 15% annual reduction, SOL wasn’t due to hit the 1.5% floor until around 2032. Doubling that rate to 30% moves the date to roughly 2029.

Developers must still re-anchor the supply curve, test the change, and activate its feature gate. In other words, the vote creates no instantaneous supply shock.

The vote temporarily improves SOL’s scarcity pitch over the next few years. If demand for SOL persists, fewer coins entering the market should provide less supply overhang.

Solana splits votes on two other proposals

The disinflation vote was the most consequential, but the combined vote also included two other proposals, SGP-0001 and SGP-0003.

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Stakeholders approved SGP-0001, the “Solana Constitution,” with 85.97% support. It formalized governance processes that accompanied today’s cliffhanger.

Over the past few years, governance of the Solana network has mostly occurred off-blockchain, and this new constitution aims to bring more democratic processes on-chain.

Voters rejected SGP-0003 with 53.90% support, below the two-thirds threshold.

This Solana inflation-related proposal sought to burn a usage-based resource charge while paying block leaders a fixed inclusion fee.

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BitGo has acquired the institutional trading business of Bitcoin infrastructure company NYDIG, adding derivatives and financing capabilities as it expands services for institutional crypto clients.

BitGo said it completed the acquisition of NYDIG’s institutional trading business under a definitive agreement, the company announced Thursday. The transaction includes NYDIG’s institutional client trading relationships and about 30 employees who joined BitGo. The companies did not disclose financial terms.

The acquired business provides derivatives, structured products, financing and capital markets services to clients including asset managers, hedge funds and companies. BitGo CEO Mike Belshe said the acquisition will “meaningfully scale” the company’s trading and infrastructure capabilities and allow it to serve a broader range of institutional clients.

“This transaction allows our team to continue delivering the same innovative solutions, execution quality, and dedication clients have come to expect, now backed by an even deeper set of resources,” said Pete Janney, head of financial infrastructure at BitGo.

The companies said the sale will allow the company to focus its resources on power generation, Bitcoin mining and high-performance computing data centers. According to the announcement, NYDIG’s development pipeline exceeds 3 gigawatts, including more than 1 GW of capacity it expects to deliver in 2027 and 2028.

Cointelegraph reached out to BitGo for additional details about the transaction but had not received a response by publication.

Related: BitGo posts $19M Q2 loss despite 80% revenue surge to $4.3B

Cointelegraph is committed to independent, transparent journalism. This news article is produced in accordance with Cointelegraph’s Editorial Policy and aims to provide accurate and timely information. Readers are encouraged to verify information independently.

“This study was in patients with Type 2 diabetes, in whom the No. 1 cause of death is cardiovascular disease,” says Dr. Rachel Batterham, senior vice president of medical innovation and external engagement for cardiometabolic health at Lilly. “So reducing that risk is critically important.”

Batterham says Lilly decided to compare Mounjaro’s potential in reducing heart risk to an existing drug, Trulicity, that already reduced heart risk to see if Mounjaro would have any additional benefit. “We set ourselves a very high bar,” she says.

But the study design means that the heart benefit results cannot be directly compared to Mounjaro’s competitor drug, Ozempic, from Novo Nordisk. Ozempic, which is approved to treat diabetes, and Novo Nordisk’s Wegovy, approved to treat overweight and obesity, are both approved to lower the risk of heart disease risk by 20%. Lilly is, however, currently conducting a study tracking people who don’t have Type 2 diabetes who take the weight-loss version of their drug, Zepbound, for heart events. In that study, says Batterham, the researchers will be looking at whether Zepbound can prevent second heart events from occurring in people who have already had one, as well as whether the drug can prevent first heart events from occurring.