Bitcoin has risen above $64,600 after U.S. President Donald Trump said Washington is not holding talks with Iran, while conflicting claims over the Strait of Hormuz kept oil above $91 per barrel.

In an Aug. 18 Truth Social post, Trump said the United States and Iran were not holding discussions and had no negotiations scheduled, contradicting recent reports that diplomatic contacts could produce another temporary agreement.

“The Naval Blockade remains in full force and effect. The Hormuz Strait is open and operating,” Trump wrote.

The president also said all water mines in the strait had been removed or detonated. Iran disputed his account, with chief negotiator Mohammad Baqer Qalibaf saying Tehran would keep the waterway closed until the United States fulfilled conditions contained in a June interim agreement, according to Reuters.

According to Iran’s chief negotiator, Mohammad Baqer Qalibaf, Tehran’s conditions include lifting the U.S. blockade of Iranian ports, removing oil sanctions, releasing frozen Iranian assets, and ending U.S. military threats and operations. The memorandum, signed on June 17, established a 60-day period for negotiations toward a broader agreement that would include Iran’s nuclear program.

Its negotiating window has now expired without an extension.

Trump says Hormuz is open as Iran rejects the claim

Trump’s account of normal operations in the Strait of Hormuz remains at odds with shipping activity and statements from Tehran.

Although some vessels continue to pass through the route, Reuters reported limited traffic and a recent incident in which a ship was struck by an unidentified projectile. Data cited by Fox News showed 28 confirmed crossings from Friday through Sunday, compared with an average of about 130 ships per day before the war began in February.

Iranian officials have said passage will remain restricted until Washington honors the June agreement. Trump, however, said on Aug. 17 that Iran wanted a deal but would not accept the terms he considered necessary.

The dispute followed an earlier Truth Social post in which Trump shared a map labeling the strait as “New U.S. Territory.” Iran rejected the territorial claim, while Trump maintained that U.S. naval forces controlled the passage.

U.S. and Israeli forces launched attacks on Iran in late February, starting a conflict that is approaching its sixth month. According to Reuters, Tehran adopted what one senior official described as a “fully offensive” position on Aug. 17 after diplomacy failed to produce another agreement.

No new major Iranian attack had been reported immediately after the statement.

The Strait of Hormuz carried roughly one-fifth of global oil and liquefied natural gas supplies before the conflict. Any sustained restriction therefore affects crude availability, shipping costs, and energy prices paid by American households and businesses.

Bitcoin price recovers while oil stays above $91

Bitcoin (BTC) was trading at $64,611 at the time of writing, up about 0.6% from its previous close. The cryptocurrency had moved between an intraday low of $64,005 and a high of $64,926, placing the psychological $65,000 level within reach.

The advance came even as oil prices increased for a third consecutive session. Reuters reported that Brent crude rose 0.7% to $91.46 per barrel, while U.S. West Texas Intermediate gained 0.9% to $85.25.

Earlier in August, Bitcoin faced downside pressure when attacks on tankers near Hormuz lifted energy prices and strengthened demand for the U.S. dollar. BTC fell as low as $62,466 on July 31 after failing to hold above $65,000, while its four-hour chart placed the $62,000–$63,000 area at the center of the market’s next move.

The current recovery has brought Bitcoin back toward the same resistance region. A sustained break above $65,000 has not yet occurred, with Tuesday’s high stopping at $64,926.

For U.S. investors, the oil move matters because higher fuel and transport costs can feed into inflation data. Federal Reserve officials consider inflation when deciding interest rates, while elevated borrowing costs can reduce investor demand for assets such as Bitcoin and technology stocks.

U.S. equities remained under pressure during Tuesday’s session. The Nasdaq Composite fell about 1.4%, the S&P 500 lost 0.6%, and the Dow Jones Industrial Average slipped 0.1%, according to The Wall Street Journal. The publication also reported that the 10-year Treasury yield reached 4.72%, while the 30-year yield climbed to 5.33%, its highest level since 2007.

Strategy pauses Bitcoin sales after two weeks

Bitcoin also received relief from the absence of another sale by Strategy, the largest publicly traded corporate holder of the asset.

According to an Aug. 17 filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, Strategy made no Bitcoin purchases or sales between Aug. 10 and Aug. 16. Its holdings remained unchanged at 840,447 BTC, acquired for an aggregate $63.36 billion at an average price of $75,385 per coin.

As crypto.news reported on Monday, the company raised $333.7 million by selling 3.46 million common shares during the week but did not use the proceeds to acquire more Bitcoin.

Strategy’s filing ended two consecutive weeks of BTC disposals. During the previous week, the company sold 1,690 BTC for about $108.6 million after selling roughly $105 million of Bitcoin one week earlier.

Because Strategy trades on the Nasdaq under the MSTR ticker, its Bitcoin decisions affect U.S. shareholders who use the stock as an indirect form of crypto exposure. The company’s latest filing also showed that its average Bitcoin purchase price remained above BTC’s current market value.

Strategy used its recent financing activity to increase its U.S. dollar reserves and repurchase preferred shares. Its Aug. 17 filing said the company bought back about $132.2 million of STRC preferred stock during the week.

White House meeting puts U.S. crypto rules in focus

Washington’s digital-asset policy calendar has supplied another point of interest for Bitcoin traders.

A White House meeting scheduled for Aug. 19 is expected to include representatives from Coinbase, Ripple, a16z, Chainlink, Paradigm, Kalshi, and the Digital Chamber. SEC Chair Paul Atkins and CFTC Chair Michael Selig are also expected to participate, according to people familiar with the plans.

The administration had not published a formal agenda or confirmed the final participant list at the time of reporting. Trump’s attendance had also not been officially announced, although Semafor reported that he was expected to take part.

The White House gathering comes as the Digital Asset Market CLARITY Act remains stalled in the Senate. The legislation would divide federal oversight of digital assets between the SEC and CFTC, placing qualifying digital commodity spot markets under the CFTC while keeping crypto securities within the SEC’s authority.

The House passed its version in July 2025 by a 294–134 vote. Senate progress has slowed over disagreements involving government ethics, decentralized finance, stablecoin rewards, and financial crime controls.

Polymarket traders placed the bill’s chance of becoming law in 2026 at about 20% on Aug. 17, down from more than 80% earlier in the year. Separately, the platform’s odds of at least one Federal Reserve rate increase in 2026 fell to 49% from a recent level above 60%.

Earlier in August, rate-hike odds reached 64% after Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis President Neel Kashkari warned that inflation remained too high. The Federal Reserve held its target range at 3.50%–3.75% in July, when three officials supported a quarter-point increase.

This is no ordinary nap. As I drift off, vibrations strum my fingertips, and low tones play in the earbuds. Between these stimuli, strange thoughts move through my semi-conscious mind, the kind of free association that feels normal in sleep and bizarre in life. Names, words, rabbits, phone booths, train announcements—but just when I start to go under, the lights, tones, and vibrations kick in and wake me back up. I try to keep responding; after a long, dark interval, I am so tired that I stop, and then I am dreaming.

I am with my son, digging in the back garden of a brick row house. We are burying something in the lawn. I respond to a few stimuli, then I have the impression that someone in a position of authority—a man with a mustache?—is reprimanding me for failing to keep something level. Then I am awake. The electrodes taped to my face are suddenly palpable.

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has unveiled proposed rule changes aimed at giving clearer regulatory treatment to certain crypto assets that the agency views as investment contracts. The announcement comes after Congress failed to advance a major market-structure bill before lawmakers entered a month-long recess, leaving the industry to navigate overlapping agency approaches.

In a Tuesday notice, the SEC said it is proposing a “clear and fit-for-purpose framework” for specific investment contracts involving crypto assets. The regulator framed the proposal as a “tailored securities offering regime” designed to let compliant issuers raise capital while maintaining investor protections.

Key takeaways

• The SEC’s proposal would create a tailored offering pathway for some crypto-related investment contracts, emphasizing investor protection obligations.
• There is no “innovation exemption” in the proposal—an element some market participants had expected to be included for tokenized or crypto-adjacent equity products.
• The SEC outlined token issuance limits under exemptions and stated that issuers would need to provide financial statements and ongoing reporting.
• The comment period is set at 60 days after the proposal is published in the Federal Register.
• The announcement lands amid stalled progress on the Digital Asset Market Clarity (CLARITY) Act, raising the prospect of continued regulatory patchwork.

SEC proposes a tailored securities offering regime for certain crypto assets

The SEC said the rules are intended to offer a “clear and fit-for-purpose framework” for “certain investment contracts involving crypto assets.” According to the agency, the approach would preserve investor protections while providing a more defined compliance route for issuers.

SEC Chair Paul Atkins linked the SEC’s rulemaking effort to the need for legislation, arguing that durable “rules of the road” require congressional action rather than agency-driven fixes that could later be overturned. In remarks cited alongside the proposal, Atkins said legislation remains “indispensable” for future-proofing regulatory guidance.

No innovation exemption—and new rules arrive as CLARITY stalls

A notable omission from the SEC’s proposal is an “innovation exemption” that had been expected by some observers, including in reporting about a possible carve-out for innovation-related structures tied to tokenized stock trading. The absence of that exemption makes the new SEC approach feel more incremental: rather than relaxing classification risk for a broader class of crypto-linked products, the proposal concentrates on providing a structured securities offering pathway where the SEC views investment-contract risk as present.

The timing also matters. The SEC’s notice followed closely after the U.S. Senate failed to advance the CLARITY Act, a bill widely discussed as a way to clarify how federal agencies would oversee and regulate crypto. With that legislation not moving forward, agencies have less congressional direction and more room to pursue their own frameworks—often creating uncertainty for market participants.

Exemptions, token issuance limits, and reporting obligations

According to the proposal, the SEC would provide exemptions for entities that issue tokens under defined caps. The notice describes limits of up to $5 million in tokens over a four-year period and up to $75 million during a 12-month period.

In addition, the SEC said it would include a safe harbor meant to exempt cryptocurrencies from being treated as “investment contracts.” While the details of how that safe harbor would apply are central to investor and issuer decision-making, the SEC’s stated goal is to reduce classification uncertainty for at least some categories of assets.

The SEC also indicated that token issuers would be required to make financial statements and would be subject to ongoing reporting requirements. For issuers evaluating whether they can structure token offerings in a way that reduces regulatory risk, these recurring disclosure duties could be as important as the stated issuance limits.

The SEC’s proposal is open for public feedback: the agency said the public will have 60 days to comment after the rules are published in the Federal Register.

Regulatory coordination pressure: SEC proposal before CFTC crypto meeting

The SEC’s action arrives ahead of a scheduled meeting of the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) on crypto, AI, and prediction markets. The CFTC has said it planned to address areas where regulatory action can “complement” future congressional legislation.

This sequencing underscores the current dynamic in U.S. crypto regulation: when Congress does not deliver comprehensive market-structure reforms, agencies fill the gap—sometimes in ways that are difficult for issuers and exchanges to anticipate or map to a consistent national framework.

SEC Chair Atkins had been scheduled to speak at the Wyoming Blockchain Symposium on Tuesday, but canceled amid the SEC announcement. Separately, White House crypto adviser Patrick Witt told attendees at the event that regulators could act more aggressively if Congress cannot move forward on CLARITY—another signal that the regulatory environment may continue shifting even without new statutes.

CLARITY prospects as Senate calendar narrows

As the SEC moves forward with its own rulemaking, the prospects for the CLARITY Act depend on a tight legislative window. Before the Senate broke for August state work periods, Majority Leader John Thune filed cloture to take up the CLARITY bill when lawmakers return in mid-September.

After the August recess, senators reportedly have just 14 days in session before another break ahead of the November election. If a floor vote cannot be secured within that timeframe, the Senate would have another 22 days in session before 2027, when new members of Congress would be sworn in. That calendar structure could affect how quickly—if at all—CLARITY is resolved during the current Congress.

What to watch next

Issuers and investors should focus on how the SEC justifies the boundaries of its safe harbor, the mechanics behind the token issuance caps, and what ongoing reporting the proposal would require. With CLARITY still uncertain and comment periods now looming, the next signals to watch are how industry participants respond in filings—and whether the CFTC’s upcoming agenda further clarifies how crypto markets will be regulated across agencies.

Accelerators can also become a vital local hub for businesses with good ideas in cities without well-established business networks. Linda Olson, CEO of Tampa Bay Wave (no. 3), founded the nonprofit accelerator because she realized there was no local startup ecosystem in Florida at that time when she was working on her tech startup. “I started a meetup group for fellow founders like me because there was nowhere else just to even get together to talk, and it was really impactful,” she says. “Out of that experience, as an entrepreneur, you want to fix things.” 

Her goal was to build a world-class accelerator in a region that has almost no real density of technology startups, no track record, no capital, but a lot of potential. Since 2008, they’ve hosted companies from 30 different countries, and attracted new talent to the region leading to the creation of thousands of jobs. One startup, Refactr, led by a husband and wife pair, was struggling with fundraising and was on the verge of shutting down when they got accepted to Tampa Bay Wave’s program. Within months of completing the program, they landed significant funding that eventually led to an acquisition by British cybersecurity firm Sophos. South Florida is now becoming one of the fastest growing startup hubs.