Crypto World
Berkshire CEO says Japanese bond yields not a challenge for trading houses

Berkshire Hathaway’s CEO Greg Abel said that rising yields in Japan isn’t impacting the major trading houses in the country the holding company has stakes in.
In an appearance on CNBC’s “Squawk Box” on Wednesday, Abel said that while high yields are topical in Japan — with the nation’s 10-year bond yield hitting a 30-year high this week — it’s manageable, at least for major trading firms in the country.
“Not a single one of the trading companies raised it as a fundamental challenge right now,” he said. “They’re still relatively modest when you think about it,” Abel added, noting that Japan’s yields, while at multi-decade highs, are still low relatively to other bond yields across the world.
While Japan’s multi-decade high in its 10-year bond yield is just above 3%, the U.S. 10-year Treasury Yield hit an almost three-year high on Tuesday when it crossed 4.8%.
Japan bond yield in 2026
Berkshire Hathaway has a greater than 10% stake in five of Japan’s largest trading houses — Itochu, Marubeni, Mitsubishi, Mitsui and Sumitomo — which deal with everything from energy to consumer goods. Abel was visiting Tokyo, which included checking in with those five firms along with Berkshire’s other investments in the country.
Abel added that he expects Berkshire will still raise debt as appropriate in yen, despite the high yields.
The investments in the trading houses were originally made under a guarantee that Berkshire would never take double-digit stakes in any of the five. However, Abel said the company received permission from each of the individual trading houses to now own more than 10% in each six years after the initial investment.
Abel reiterated that the company continues to see value in these investments, which have yielded strong returns for Berkshire as shares of the trading houses have grown substantially since the initial investment six years ago.
“It’s really, one, a long-term investment that we intend to hold for many decades, and then, secondly, we’ve been building really strong relationships with each of the companies, and looking at other opportunities here in Japan, and for that matter, abroad,” he said. “And those are just exceptional discussions.”
Crypto World
Where Could XRP Price Go This September as CLARITY Act Nears?
XRP price is at $1.32, down 3% on the day as it is sliding back toward the lower end of its recent range. But the real question is whether this dip is a buying window before a regulatory catalyst, or the start of something uglier.
The pullback follows a failed attempt to hold gains from August’s rally toward $1.70, with XRP now down 7% over the past week. Ripple released 1 billion XRP from escrow on schedule and returned 700 million XRP back into escrow shortly after, a routine supply event, but one that always draws trader attention when the price is already soft.
Meanwhile, XRP Ledger activity tells a different story: cumulative transactions crossed 3 billion, with a 200% surge in on-chain volume even as spot price cooled off.
The markets aren’t helping. Bitcoin slipped below $77,000, and Ethereum sits under $2,400 as fresh US-Iran tensions push oil prices higher and reinforce hawkish Fed expectations. That’s the macro backdrop XRP has to fight against heading into a month that could otherwise be its biggest regulatory moment yet.
Discover: The Best Crypto to Diversify Your Portfolio
Can XRP Price Hit $2 This Month?
XRP is consolidating in the $1.32–$1.35 zone after a sharp weekly retreat, with CoinGecko data showing a seven-day range between $1.31 and $1.47. Volume has thinned alongside the price action, and derivatives desks reportedly show no sign of FOMO building yet, which is a sign of a coiled spring.
Support sits at $1.31–$1.34; a clean break below opens room toward the low $1.20s. Resistance stacks up at $1.39, then $1.47, with the August high of $1.70 acting as the higher-timeframe ceiling.
The bull case hinges almost entirely on the CLARITY Act Senate vote expected around September 15. A pass could reprice XRP toward the $2 level analysts have floated, while a delay or failure likely keeps XRP pinned near current support levels. Standard Chartered’s $10 2026 target explicitly assumes regulatory clarity lands, without it, that number stays theoretical.
Trade XRP on Bybit and Get a Chance to Win Our $1,000 USDT Airdrop
Maxi Doge Targets Early Mover Upside as XRP Tests Key Levels
A 6.5% weekly drawdown on a top-10 asset stings, especially for traders who bought the August breakout expecting continuation. Legislative catalysts are notoriously unreliable on timing, and another delay wouldn’t be shocking given how many times CLARITY has already slipped.
For traders tired of waiting on Congress, capital is rotating toward assets with shorter, more controllable timelines, which is where presale plays like Maxi Doge ($MAXI) enter the conversation.
Maxi Doge leans into gym-bro meme culture and “1000x leverage” trading energy, built around holder-only trading competitions with leaderboard rewards and a treasury fund earmarked for liquidity and partnerships.
The token currently sits at $0.0002836 with $4.8 million raised so far, and staking offers a dynamic APY for early participants. It’s unapologetically meme-first, which is refreshing.
Research Maxi Doge before the presale window closes.
Discover: The Best Token Presales
The post Where Could XRP Price Go This September as CLARITY Act Nears? appeared first on Cryptonews.
Crypto World
Bitcoin slips below $76,500 as U.S. strikes on Iran send oil above $93

Bitcoin fell 1% since midnight as Brent jumped past $93 and Treasury yields climbed toward 4.8%.
Crypto World
Liminal Launches Liminal Prime for Institutional OTC and Stablecoin Liquidity
[PRESS RELEASE – HONG KONG, HONG KONG, September 2nd, 2026]
New suite of standalone products gives institutions principal OTC dealing and LP connectivity alongside Liminal’s existing wallet and key-management infrastructure
Today, Liminal, a provider of institutional digital asset wallet and key-management infrastructure, announced the launch of Liminal Prime, an enterprise software suite designed to provide stablecoin liquidity connectivity. It is built exclusively to enable locally licensed exchanges, financial institutions, payment providers, fintechs, market makers, corporate treasuries and OTC trading desks to access principal-to-principal OTC dealing and LP connectivity alongside Liminal’s existing wallet and key-management infrastructure. Liminal’s technology is delivered strictly as a tech infrastructure solution to authorised entities responsible for their own local regulatory compliance.
As cross-border payments, tokenized assets and enterprise blockchain applications move from pilot projects into production deployments, financial institutions increasingly need trading and liquidity infrastructure designed to integrate with the governance and compliance controls institutions have already established. Liminal Prime has been built to address that gap precisely.
For many institutions, secure wallet infrastructure is no longer the primary challenge. As digital asset operations mature, attention is shifting toward trading, liquidity access, and operational efficiency. Liminal Prime has been developed to address this next phase of institutional adoption.
This launch marks the next phase of Liminal’s evolution as an institutional partner, expanding its core wallet and key-management offering with OTC and liquidity connectivity. Each product operates as an independent module, licensed and deployed separately, giving institutions the flexibility to adopt what fits their operational and regulatory requirements, without displacing existing infrastructure
Liminal Prime is built by the team behind Liminal’s institutional wallet infrastructure and key-management infrastructure, which has processed more than US$100 billion in on-chain transactions across more than 20 blockchain networks for institutions in over 12 countries.
The products have been shaped by direct engagement with the licensed exchanges, payment companies, financial institutions and digital asset businesses that form Liminal’s client base. What those clients identified consistently was a common operational gap: institutional-grade trading and liquidity access that works within, not alongside, their existing governance and compliance frameworks.
“What we keep hearing from institutions, across markets, is that the wallet question is largely settled. The conversation has moved on. They are now asking how they actually operationalise digital assets at scale — how they trade, how they manage liquidity, and how they do all of that without introducing new counterparty risk or compliance gaps. Liminal Prime is built to close that gap. We have the relationships and the trust already in place. This is a natural next step.” Rajesh Sabari, Chief Commercial Officer, Liminal
Liminal Prime comprises three products, each addressing a distinct institutional operating requirement:
White-Glove OTC supports high-value, complex, and time-sensitive block trades through a dedicated dealing desk. A desk reaches Liminal directly, gets a price, and confirms the trade; no automated flow, a human on the other end for every transaction. Where regulatory frameworks permit, Liminal acts as principal counterparty for its own account on every trade, buying and selling digital assets. Designed for licensed institutions where transaction size, confidentiality and tailored workflow requirements are paramount.
Electronic OTC (eOTC) provides GUI and API-driven access to streaming and firm quotes for organisations managing recurring, high- frequency digital asset transaction flows at scale. A GUI and API connection enables automated, always-on pricing; a web platform provides a self-serve, screen-based experience for systematic dealing without a manual conversation for every trade. Subject to applicable local licensing, Liminal acts as principal counterparty for its own account.
Bridge is a technology platform that gives institutions a single screen or API to request quotes from, and trade directly with, liquidity providers they have separately onboarded with and been approved by. Liminal is not the counterparty to the trade, does not operate an exchange, brokerage or trading venue, and takes no custody of assets. Liminal’s role is limited to routing quote requests, displaying prices and supporting communication between the two parties; the trade and its settlement happen directly between the institution and its chosen liquidity provider, off-platform, under their own bilateral agreement.
Across all three products, Liminal Prime delivers configurable reporting, audit-ready workflows and integration with Liminal’s wallet and key-management infrastructure. The products support multiple blockchain networks and major digital asset pairs, providing the transparency, governance and operational controls that institutions require.
“The time for discussing institutional digital assets in theory is over. Institutions now need practical solutions that can be deployed against real treasury, payment and liquidity requirements. Whether you are managing stablecoin flows, entering a new market or looking for more efficient execution, bring us the challenge. Liminal Prime is ready to help you put into action.” Clarence Leong, Senior Manager – Institutional Markets, Liminal
Liminal Prime is the first step in a broader infrastructure strategy. As institutional participation in digital asset markets deepens across tokenization, cross-border payment infrastructure and enterprise treasury management, Liminal will continue building out its product offering. The company’s objective is to serve as a trusted infrastructure partner for licensed institutions at every stage of their digital asset operations, from wallet and key-management infrastructure to OTC and liquidity connectivity solutions.
Important Notice
White-Glove OTC and Electronic OTC (eOTC) are restricted and unavailable to entities operating or residing in the UAE, India, Singapore and Taiwan, as well as any jurisdiction where local laws prohibit their use. Bridge is available subject to local regulatory requirements. Note: Users are solely responsible for ensuring compliance with all local regulations before attempting to access any of our services.
Communication Notice: The following Important Notice is an integral part of this release and must be reproduced in full wherever this release, or any substantial portion of it, is published or reproduced.
About Liminal Prime
Liminal Prime is a suite of institutional OTC and liquidity connectivity products comprising three distinct offerings: White-Glove OTC, Electronic OTC and Bridge. Where regulatory frameworks permit, White-Glove OTC and eOTC are principal-to-principal dealing products in which Liminal acts as counterparty for its own account. Bridge is a technology platform through which institutions can request quotes from, and trade directly with, approved and licensed liquidity providers of their choosing; the legal trade is formed and settled bilaterally between the institution and its chosen LP under their own agreements. Each product is operated and assessed independently and is designed to complement existing institutional infrastructure. Institutions may adopt individual products independently, based on their operational and regulatory requirements.
About Liminal
Liminal is an institutional digital asset infrastructure provider offering enterprise-grade wallet infrastructure, key management and governance solutions for exchanges, financial institutions, fintech companies, digital asset businesses and enterprises. Liminal has processed over US$100 billion in on-chain transaction volume across more than 20 blockchain networks for institutions in over 12 countries.
The post Liminal Launches Liminal Prime for Institutional OTC and Stablecoin Liquidity appeared first on CryptoPotato.
Crypto World
Bitcoin Bear Market Is Over and September Is a ‘Nothing Month', Says Eric Crown
The Bitcoin bear market is over, technical analyst Eric Crown says. His final confirmation signal fired when Bitcoin closed August at $78,581, clearing his threshold by roughly $12,900.
September is next, and Crown does not expect much from it. He calls it a nothing month, with an early pullback likely before October takes over.
Crown’s Last Bitcoin Bear Market Signal Fired in August
In an interview with BeInCrypto recorded on Aug. 26, Crown said a single item remained on his macro reversal checklist.
He needed Bitcoin to finish the month above $65,708. That close would push the monthly stochastic oscillator up out of its bearish zone. The last such cross came in January 2023.
“I just need to see this month finish out above $65,700. And look, there’s going to be pullbacks along the way, of course, but I’m just generally looking for this mark to go sideways and up.”
Bitcoin settled the month at $78,581 on Binance. BTC traded near $77,341 at the time of writing, down 1.9% over 24 hours.
Crown’s broader macro indicator had already fired months earlier. It combines volatility, percent below the high, fear and greed readings, seasonality, and momentum extremes.
Those signals appeared throughout the low $60,000s, well before August’s rally. Crown frames the conclusion in probabilities rather than certainties.
“In my opinion, yes. I’ve seen what I need to see and everything always comes down to probabilities and for me the probability is greater that Bitcoin is going to be generally going up from here rather than down.”
Other market participants reached similar conclusions. Large holders, or whales, accumulated through the summer. Strive chief executive Matt Cole called the bottom in late August.
September Is a ‘Nothing Month’, Not a Crash
Crown pushed back hard on September’s reputation as Bitcoin’s worst month. On median monthly returns, it ranks third worst, behind August and December.
August carries a median loss of 7.5%, yet this August gained close to 25%. Strip out 2011 and 2014, both deep bear market years. September’s mean return then improves to a loss of just 0.1%.
The last three Septembers all closed green, at 4%, 7.4%, and 5.4%.
“Ultimately, what September is… it’s a nothing month. You really don’t see all that much. You see slight gain, slight loss here and there.”
The month does split in two, however. Historically, the first 16 days carry a median loss of 8.5%. Applied to August’s close, that points to roughly $71,900.
After the midpoint that median flips positive at 6.5%. Crown ties the turn to three events. The Federal Reserve meets, economic data lands, and the quad witching expiry hits. Earlier inflation prints have already moved BTC sharply this year.
Where Crown Buys the First Pullback
Crown expects early weakness to reconnect Bitcoin with its weekly five-period exponential moving average, or 5 EMA. That average now sits at $73,294, roughly 5% below spot.
Pullbacks following a large weekly candle usually run near 5%, he said. That is far shallower than the 10% to 15% many traders wait for. The bigger retracement typically lands about 60 days after the first major move up, which points to October.
Crown put the odds of BTC touching that average in any given week at 71.5%. More than two consecutive misses occur only about 14% of the time.
His stated worst case is the weekly 21 EMA at $70,923.
Three separate methods now converge on the same zone. The 21 EMA sits at $70,923, September’s first half median implies about $71,900, and Crown’s invalidation level is $70,000.
Crown said he intends to buy that first September dip. He plans to add to long-term positions rather than trade around it. Bitcoin’s strongest weekly close since 2024 in late August is what reset those averages.
Bitcoin Bear Market Is Over: What Would Break the Thesis
Crown’s case is not yet confirmed on the price structure. His reversal sequence requires a higher low, a retest of the previous high, then a higher high.
Bitcoin has the first two. August’s peak at $81,260 stopped just beneath the prior weekly lower high near $83,000.
“You are right right now. This is absolutely a lower high. Technically speaking, it is a slight lower high right there, but it is a lower high nonetheless.”
He also acknowledged the widely held view that Bitcoin should bottom roughly one year after its October top. He is not positioning for it.
Crown argues the asset now behaves differently. In his view Bitcoin trades like an exchange traded fund, consolidating in wide boxes before stepping higher. That regime weakens strict cycle timing.
Not every analyst agrees that the low is in. Benjamin Cowen told BeInCrypto that crypto sits 62% below fair value, the cheapest since 2010. He still expects the bottom nearer November.
“As long as Bitcoin is above more or less 70,000 bucks, all good. I have no issues with that at all. If Bitcoin were to start to lose 70,000 bucks, okay, I would severely reconsider everything that I’ve said here.”
His roadmap allows for a move toward the high $80,000s. A retracement of 10% to 15% would follow, taking BTC into the mid $70,000s before a steadier climb.
The year-end math is tighter than it first appears. Crown measures from the September low to the December close. That window closed positively nine times in 15 years, at a median gain of 33.5%.
Applied to current levels, the September low must hold above roughly $74,900 for six figures. A green third quarter needs BTC above about $58,000 at month end. That outcome has preceded a green fourth quarter six times in eight.
October remains his strongest seasonal argument. Its median return is 12.8%, with gains in 10 of the past 14 years.
The post Bitcoin Bear Market Is Over and September Is a ‘Nothing Month', Says Eric Crown appeared first on BeInCrypto.
Crypto World
Sui DeFi Project Full Sail Shuts Down After Oracle Incident
Full Sail, a decentralized finance (DeFi) protocol on the Sui blockchain, plans to shut down after a security incident involving oracle provider Switchboard resulted in user losses.
Full Sail took to X on Tuesday to announce that the protocol is winding down, immediately disabling new deposits and liquidity provider (LP) reward claims. Regular pools will move to withdrawal-only mode after final security checks, with compensating users the protocol’s top priority, Full Sail said.
The decision follows a security incident last week that affected Full Sail’s automated vaults following a suspected compromise of Switchboard’s oracle infrastructure.
Full Sail first disclosed the incident on Saturday, saying it had confirmed a loss of funds and paused deposits and withdrawals while it investigated. Switchboard said in an X post on Saturday that it was investigating a potential compromise of its Move-based implementations and had halted its network on Aptos, Sui, IOTA and Movement.
Full Sail later said an attacker removed about $91,000 from three of its vaults. Virtue, a stablecoin lending protocol based on IOTA (IOTA), separately reported about $455,000 in losses and said the backing of its VUSD stablecoin had been impaired.
Full Sail said it will use its remaining protocol-owned liquidity to compensate users, while the team will cover any shortfall so community depositors are repaid first. The protocol expects to publish withdrawal and claim instructions within the coming days.
Related: More Markets lending reserve drained for $9.3M: Blockaid
Crypto World
Lawsuit challenges Tether for allegedly freezing $42.4 million USDT before U.S. warrant

The plaintiffs allege that Tether acted in response to an informal U.S. law-enforcement request more than three months before a seizure warrant was issued.
Crypto World
New York Fed’s Williams says yield surge due to strong economic prospects

New York Federal Reserve President John Williams said Wednesday that the recent surge in Treasury yields is the product of a strong economy, not market dysfunction.
The central bank policymaker added in a CNBC interview that he’s still absorbing economic data, and did not commit on whether he thinks an interest rate hike is necessary.
“I think that we have to wait and see,” Williams told CNBC’s Steve Liesman during a “Squawk Box” interview from the New York bank’s headquarters in lower Manhattan. “There’s no clear signs right now whether monetary policy currently is sufficient to make sure we bring inflation back to target in the next year or two, or whether you need to see further action to do that.”
“The [inflation] data recently have been encouraging towards that, but again we can’t just look a month or two. We’ve got to get a full picture and and look at all the all the different pieces of information we have,” he added.
In financial markets, the biggest story recently has been a jump in Treasury yields to multi-year highs, particularly at the long end where investors price in expectations for inflation and economic growth.
While that has been going on, traders have raised expectations for a Fed rate hike at the Sept. 15-16 meeting, putting odds Wednesday morning around 66%, according to the CME Group‘s gauge.
Though investors are worried about inflation, Williams said he sees the Treasury market action as a result of solid economic prospects.
“What’s driving it, in large part, is … really a strong U.S. economy and a strong economic outlook fueled by big investments in AI and data centers and technology in general,” he said. “So, I think it’s not really about financial conditions affecting the economy. It’s more about the economy affecting financial conditions.”
Williams added that he sees inflation expectations as “well-anchored” despite the run-up this year in prices linked to tariffs and the Iran War.
As New York Fed President, Williams is a permanent voter on the rate-setting Federal Open Market Committee.

Crypto World
When Governments Want to Direct Your Wealth, Bitcoin Offers an Exit
You have all probably heard the speech that Ursula von der Leyen, the European Commission President, gave at the annual conference “La Rencontre des Entrepreneurs de France 2026,” held on August 26th. It’s been circulating on crypto Twitter like wildfire throughout the past few days.
To those of you who might have missed it, her message was rather clear: the world has already changed, and Europe must respond by becoming more independent, more industrially capable, and more willing to direct capital toward strategic priorities.
Von der Leyen argued that many of the assumptions that once underpinned the Union’s economic model have disappeared. Part of her point was that Europe must become a continent that “produces, invests and protects.” She said that the expanding access to China, open global trade, strategic American protection, cheap imported energy, as well as the West’s technological dominance can no longer be taken for granted.
And as a European, I can get behind some of the things she’s saying. European companies are facing increasingly high energy costs, regulatory complexity, and growing competition from China. However, I can’t help but consider one particular point she’s making to be rather alarming.
Today, 10 trillion EUR in household savings are kept in bank accounts. And a large share of Europe’s savings is invested outside our continent. Europe now needs to put these savings to work for its companies.
The intention behind this may be to boost growth, but the language, to me, reveals something important about the relationship between private wealth and governments.
E.U. Commission President said households have €10T sitting “idle” that can be “put to work” to boost the economy.
Yes, Ursula von der Leyen really said that.
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Buy Bitcoin while you can! pic.twitter.com/hguuQjzk3r
— Bitcoin Archive (@BitcoinArchive) September 2, 2026
Who Should Control Your Savings?
From her speech, I see one thing: to policymakers, our household savings are increasingly viewed not just as our property, but as a resource – an economic catalyst that could be encouraged, incentivized, or regulated toward potential objectives.
And, mind you, consider this statement in light of how heavily Europe has traditionally been taxed. A very brief Google search shows that 4 of the top 5 countries in the world with the highest income tax rates are in the European Union.
We already surrender a massive share of our economic output to the state. That, apparently, isn’t sufficient to accomplish the Union’s political and industrial objectives.
So here’s my question: who should decide what my savings are for?
I’ve worked for my money; I’ve paid my taxes when I earned it; I’m also paying consumption taxes when I spend it in the form of VAT. Oh, by the way, guess where the top six countries with the highest VATs are located. So, having this in mind, should my savings be regarded as capital waiting to be deployed toward certain priorities, which may or may not align with my own?
Something’s Becoming Interesting
This is exactly where Bitcoin becomes interesting. With all of its flaws, Bitcoin represents the absolute opposite philosophy.
It’s an asset without a central issuer. The European Central Bank, or any other bank for that matter, cannot increase its total supply. The EC cannot decide to mint more BTC to finance industrial expansion. There is no government that can determine its issuance schedule.
There will never be more than 21 million bitcoin in existence. I can hold it without an intermediary (I know, lately this has become a touchy subject, but still). If I hold it on my own and keep my private keys private, theoretically, nobody can confiscate it. Nobody can tell me what to do with it.
This is an important distinction – one that carries increasing significance in the times that we appear to be headed toward.
Now, don’t get me wrong, I’m not trying to call out European politicians for doing something they haven’t yet done. Most headlines on this topic scream “the EU wants to steal your savings,” while I’m taking a more moderate approach. As an EU citizen, however, as someone who has spent my entire life here, I cannot rule that possibility out, especially not in the face of modern politics.
A few years ago, we were in Amsterdam at a Bitcoin conference, and we asked a bunch of people: “Why do you Bitcoin?”
I guess this is my answer: this is why I Bitcoin.
The post When Governments Want to Direct Your Wealth, Bitcoin Offers an Exit appeared first on CryptoPotato.
Crypto World
CrowdStrike and federal authorities dismantle Russian malware that secretly stole crypto for 8 years

Russia-based Sality watched for copied bitcoin and Ethereum addresses and quietly replaced them with the attacker’s. CrowdStrike and law enforcement have now isolated more than 15,000 infected machines.
Crypto World
What is Hedera Hashgraph and how does HBAR work?
Summary
- Hedera Hashgraph is a public distributed ledger that replaces the block-and-chain model with a directed acyclic graph, reaching asynchronous Byzantine fault tolerance without miners or energy-intensive proof of work.
- The native token HBAR pays for transaction fees, funds network staking, and secures the ledger through a weighted proof-of-stake mechanism capped at 50 billion fixed supply.
- A governing council of 31 organizations, including Google, IBM, Dell, Boeing, and Deutsche Telekom, operates consensus nodes and manages the network treasury.
- Hedera has processed more than 50 billion mainnet transactions since launch, with production throughput peaking above 3,300 transactions per second and three-to-five-second finality.
- Three native services, the Hedera Token Service, Hedera Consensus Service, and an EVM-compatible smart contract layer, support enterprise use cases from stablecoin issuance to supply-chain audit trails.
The first thing most newcomers hear about Hedera is that it is “just another blockchain.” That framing misses the central design choice. Hedera does not organize data into sequential blocks chained together by cryptographic hashes the way Bitcoin and Ethereum do. Instead, it records transactions in a directed acyclic graph, a structure where every event references two earlier events instead of one prior block. The result is a consensus layer that confirms transactions in parallel, reaches mathematical finality in seconds, and tolerates up to one third of malicious nodes without stalling. Understanding that distinction is the starting point for evaluating everything else the network offers.
Hashgraph versus blockchain
Traditional blockchains process transactions inside discrete blocks. Each block references the previous one, forming a single chain. Miners or validators compete to propose the next block, and the network discards competing proposals. That sequential process caps throughput and introduces latency.
Hashgraph abandons blocks entirely. Every node in the network creates an “event” each time it receives new information, and that event records two parent hashes: one from the node itself and one from the node it just communicated with. Over time these events weave into a graph instead of a chain. Because every node can create events simultaneously, the structure processes transactions in parallel instead of waiting for one winner.
The practical payoff is speed. Hedera has recorded peak production throughput above 3,300 transactions per second with three-to-five-second finality. Theoretical capacity under lab conditions exceeds 10,000 TPS. For comparison, Ethereum Layer 1 handles roughly 15 to 30 TPS before rollups, and Bitcoin processes about seven.
The tradeoff is architectural complexity. The hashgraph data structure requires every node to maintain a full copy of the graph in memory, which increases hardware requirements as the network grows. The consensus algorithm was originally patented by Swirlds, the company co-founded by Hedera’s creators Leemon Baird and Mance Harmon. That patent followed a different intellectual-property path than most open-source Layer 1 projects, though the code was later released under an Apache 2.0 license in 2022.
Another distinction worth noting is transaction ordering. Hashgraph provides “fair ordering,” meaning the consensus timestamp assigned to a transaction reflects the median of the times at which nodes first received it. This prevents a single node from front-running transactions by manipulating their position in the queue, a property that has drawn interest from financial institutions concerned about miner extractable value.
How consensus works: gossip-about-gossip and virtual voting
Hedera reaches consensus through two mechanisms that run together.
Gossip-about-gossip is the communication protocol. Each node randomly selects another node and shares its latest events plus the history of who told it what. Because every event contains metadata about its two parent events, each round of gossip carries exponentially more information than a simple transaction broadcast. Within a few rounds the entire network converges on the same set of events.
Virtual voting is the agreement protocol. Once every node has the same graph, each node can independently calculate how every other node would have voted on the ordering of transactions, without sending a single vote message. The math works because the graph already encodes when each node learned about each event. Nodes simply run the same deterministic algorithm and arrive at the same result.
Together, these two mechanisms achieve asynchronous Byzantine fault tolerance, or aBFT. That is the strongest guarantee in distributed-systems theory: the network will reach correct consensus even if up to one third of nodes are malicious and even if messages between honest nodes are delayed by an attacker. No proof-of-work lottery or leader election is needed.
The practical benefit of aBFT over weaker consensus models is finality. On many blockchain networks, a transaction is “probabilistically final” after a certain number of confirmations, meaning there is a shrinking but nonzero chance it could be reversed. On Hedera, once the virtual voting algorithm determines a transaction’s consensus timestamp and order, that result is mathematically final. No future event can reorder or undo it, which is a property that regulated financial institutions often require before settling high-value transfers on a distributed ledger.
The tradeoff is that aBFT consensus depends on the assumption that more than two thirds of the stake-weighted voting power remains honest. If that threshold is breached, the entire model fails outright instead of degrading gracefully.
The governing council
Unlike most public networks that rely on anonymous, permissionless validator sets, Hedera is governed by a council of term-limited organizations. As of mid-2026, the council has 31 members out of a maximum 39 seats.
Members include Google, IBM, Dell, Boeing, Standard Bank, Deutsche Telekom, LG Electronics, Chainlink Labs, Ubisoft, the London School of Economics, University College London, and more recently McLaren Racing. Each member operates a consensus node, holds equal voting rights regardless of company size, and serves a maximum of two consecutive three-year terms.
The council controls three things: network software upgrades, treasury disbursements from the HBAR reserve, and strategic direction. This model gives the network a level of corporate accountability that is unusual in cryptocurrency but raises a legitimate question about centralization. Critics point out that 31 hand-picked multinationals do not constitute the same kind of decentralization that thousands of anonymous validators provide on networks like Ethereum.
Hedera has responded by stating that the council structure is a transitional measure and that the long-term goal is to open node operation to the public. Community nodes began rolling out in phases, but full permissionless validation is not yet live.
The council also manages the HBAR treasury, which holds the unallocated portion of the 50 billion token supply. Treasury disbursements fund ecosystem grants, developer incentives, and operational costs. Decisions about how and when to release tokens from the treasury require council approval, giving these organizations direct influence over the token’s circulating supply schedule.
Token economics
HBAR has a fixed maximum supply of 50 billion tokens, all pre-minted at the network genesis in September 2018. There is no inflation mechanism and no token burn. New supply enters circulation through scheduled treasury releases managed by the governing council, typically on a quarterly basis. As of mid-2026, approximately 86.6% of the total supply is in circulation.
The token serves three functions. First, it pays transaction fees, which are set in USD terms and converted to HBAR at the current exchange rate, giving users predictable costs regardless of token price volatility. Second, it secures the network through proxy staking, where HBAR holders delegate tokens to nodes to increase their consensus weight. Third, it acts as a unit of account across Hedera native services like the Token Service and Consensus Service.
Staking rewards come from the network treasury, not from inflation. The protocol caps fully rewarded staked HBAR at 6.5 billion tokens, or 13% of total supply. As of May 2026, roughly 7.3 billion HBAR were staked, meaning actual annualized yields sit between 1.8% and 2.1% due to proportional dilution beyond the reward cap.
One structural critique is the value-accrual model. Network transaction fees flow to node operators and the council treasury. They are not burned or redistributed to all token holders. Strong network usage therefore does not translate automatically into direct price support for HBAR, a gap that separates it from deflationary models used by some competing networks.
Use cases: enterprise, stablecoins, and CBDC pilots
Hedera has positioned itself as infrastructure for institutional and government use cases, with less emphasis on retail DeFi.
Stablecoin issuance. The Hedera Stablecoin Studio provides a modular toolkit for issuing fiat-backed tokens on the network with fixed fees and high throughput. PHPX, a multi-bank Philippine peso stablecoin built in collaboration with Rizal Commercial Banking, Cantilan Bank, and UBX, is one live example. The low per-transaction cost makes micropayment-heavy stablecoin use cases viable in ways that higher-fee networks struggle to support.
CBDC pilots. The Reserve Bank of Australia worked with Hedera as part of Project Acacia, exploring central bank digital currency settlement on the network. Separately, the Universal Digital Payments Network completed a proof-of-concept integrating Hedera-native stablecoins and CBDCs from the EMTECH Sandbox into a cross-border messaging layer. These remain pilot-stage projects, not production deployments.
Supply-chain and audit trails. The Hedera Consensus Service records tamper-evident, time-stamped logs that enterprises use for provenance tracking, compliance reporting, and cross-system data integrity proofs. Several logistics and carbon-credit platforms have adopted HCS for ordered event streams that need to be independently verifiable.
Tokenized assets. Integration between Hedera and tokenized equity platforms allows EVM-compatible smart contracts to manage redemption logic for securities, bonds, and real-world assets, aligning with broader institutional interest in on-chain settlement.
Carbon credit and ESG tracking. Several environmental platforms use the Hedera Consensus Service to create verifiable, timestamped records of carbon offset purchases and sustainability metrics. The Guardian, an open-source platform originally developed by Hedera and now maintained by the Linux Foundation, allows organizations to mint auditable carbon credits as tokens on the network. The appeal for ESG use cases is that the network itself consumes minimal energy compared to proof-of-work chains, and every credit issuance receives a tamper-proof consensus timestamp.
Native services: HTS, HCS, and smart contracts
Hedera separates core functionality into three native services, each optimized at the protocol level and not built as smart-contract wrappers.
Hedera Token Service handles both fungible and non-fungible token creation directly in the consensus layer. Minting, transferring, and managing token compliance features like freeze, wipe, and KYC flags happen as native operations with predictable fees measured in fractions of a cent. This is meaningfully cheaper than deploying a full ERC-20 or ERC-721 contract on Ethereum or similar networks.
Hedera Consensus Service provides ordered, tamper-evident message logs. Any application can submit a message to an HCS topic and receive a consensus timestamp plus a running hash that proves the message existed in that order at that time. Use cases include oracle feeds, audit trails, and cross-chain event sequencing.
Smart Contract Service runs a Solidity-compatible EVM execution environment based on the Hyperledger Besu client. Developers who already write Ethereum smart contracts can deploy them on Hedera without code changes, gaining lower fees and faster finality while retaining access to Hedera native services through precompiled system contracts. The integration means that a single smart contract can issue HTS tokens, read HCS logs, and interact with HBAR balances natively.
The EVM layer also supports common Ethereum tooling, including Hardhat, Ethers.js, and MetaMask, which lowers the barrier for developers migrating from Ethereum-based projects. Gas costs on Hedera’s EVM are denominated in “tinybars” (the smallest HBAR subdivision, equal to one hundred-millionth of an HBAR) and are pegged to USD-denominated fee schedules, so contract execution costs remain predictable even during periods of token price volatility.
Competitive position
Hedera occupies a specific niche. It targets organizations that need predictable fees, fast finality, regulatory legibility, and fair transaction ordering, and it trades off grassroots decentralization to deliver those properties.
Against Ethereum, Hedera offers lower fees and faster base-layer finality but has a far smaller decentralized exchange and DeFi ecosystem. Ethereum Layer 2 rollups have narrowed the fee gap significantly, reducing one of Hedera’s historical advantages.
Against Solana, Hedera shares the emphasis on high throughput but differs in governance philosophy. Solana relies on thousands of permissionless validators; Hedera relies on a curated council. Each model carries different failure modes: Solana has experienced multiple outages under congestion, while Hedera has maintained higher uptime but with far lower real-world transaction volume relative to theoretical capacity.
Against enterprise-focused permissioned ledgers like Hyperledger Fabric, Hedera offers a public, auditable ledger with a native token and open access, while permissioned networks offer tighter privacy controls and no token dependency.
The network’s DeFi total value locked and developer ecosystem remain small compared to the top five smart-contract platforms. Hedera’s strength is enterprise adoption and institutional pilots; its weakness is organic community-driven growth.
One area where Hedera has made inroads is the ETF narrative. In late 2024, Canary Capital filed for a spot HBAR exchange-traded fund with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, marking one of the first ETF applications for a token outside the Bitcoin and Ethereum ecosystem. Whether approval materializes or not, the filing signals growing institutional interest in HBAR as a distinct asset class within the broader cryptocurrency market.
Limitations and open questions
Centralization concerns. Thirty-one council-selected nodes is more centralized than most public networks claim to be. Until full permissionless node operation goes live, the network depends on the continued participation and good faith of its council members.
Value accrual. As noted above, network revenue flows to operators and the treasury, not to token holders. Strong transaction growth does not mechanically benefit HBAR holders the way fee burns benefit holders on deflationary networks.
DeFi and developer adoption. Hedera’s DeFi ecosystem is thin. Most liquidity and developer attention in the broader market flows to Ethereum, Solana, and their respective Layer 2 and appchain ecosystems. Attracting builder mindshare remains a challenge.
Intellectual property history. The hashgraph algorithm was originally patented by Swirlds and later open-sourced. That history created early friction with the open-source ethos that dominates crypto culture, and some developers remain wary.
Staking yield. With staked HBAR exceeding the reward cap, effective yields are modest and declining. This limits the token’s appeal as a yield-bearing asset compared to networks with higher or inflation-funded staking returns. The council has not publicly committed to raising the reward cap, so stakers should expect yields to compress further as more HBAR is delegated.
Network activity versus capacity. While Hedera’s theoretical throughput exceeds 10,000 TPS and peak production has reached 3,300 TPS, average real-time throughput typically sits in the low double digits. That gap between capacity and actual usage raises questions about current demand for the network’s services, even as cumulative transaction counts grow.
What this does not cover
This guide does not cover HBAR price forecasts, technical chart analysis, or investment advice. It does not provide step-by-step instructions for buying or staking HBAR on specific exchanges. It does not assess the legal or regulatory status of HBAR in any jurisdiction. It does not cover Hedera’s mirror node architecture, SDK implementation details, or testnet developer workflows in depth. It does not compare Hedera to every competing Layer 1 network, nor does it evaluate individual DeFi protocols or NFT projects built on the network.
Practical checks
Read the whitepaper and the open-source hashgraph code. The algorithm is no longer behind a patent wall. Review the Hedera documentation and the Swirlds hashgraph repository on GitHub to understand the consensus math firsthand.
Verify council node status. The Hedera network explorer shows which council members are operating nodes, their uptime, and their stake weight. Check whether the node set has changed before making assumptions about network security.
Compare fee structures. Hedera publishes a fee schedule denominated in USD. Compare the actual cost of minting a token, submitting a consensus message, or executing a smart contract against equivalent operations on Ethereum, Solana, and Polygon to see where the savings are meaningful for a specific use case.
Check staking economics before delegating. With staked HBAR above the reward cap, new stakers receive diluted yields. Run the numbers on current annualized returns (1.8% to 2.1% as of mid-2026) before committing tokens, and factor in the opportunity cost of locking capital.
Audit DeFi protocol risk independently. Hedera’s native services handle token issuance and consensus logging at the protocol level, but third-party DeFi applications built on top carry their own smart-contract and liquidity risks. Do not assume that protocol-level security extends to every application deployed on the network.
Is Hedera Hashgraph a blockchain?
No. Hedera uses a directed acyclic graph data structure called hashgraph instead of a chain of sequential blocks. Transactions are recorded in events that reference two parent events, allowing parallel processing. The outcome, a shared immutable ledger, is similar, but the underlying architecture is fundamentally different from blockchain-based networks.
What makes hashgraph consensus different from proof of stake?
Proof of stake determines who gets to propose and validate blocks. Hashgraph eliminates blocks entirely and uses gossip-about-gossip combined with virtual voting to reach consensus. Hedera does use stake weighting to determine each node’s voting power, but the consensus mechanism itself is distinct from the block-based PoS used by Ethereum or Cardano.
Who controls the Hedera network?
The Hedera Governing Council, currently 31 organizations including Google, IBM, Dell, Boeing, and Deutsche Telekom, operates consensus nodes and governs network upgrades. Each member has equal voting power and serves term-limited seats. The long-term plan is to transition toward permissionless node operation.
How many transactions has Hedera processed?
Hedera crossed 50 billion mainnet transactions by early 2026. Peak production throughput exceeded 3,300 transactions per second, with theoretical capacity above 10,000 TPS. Average real-time throughput varies with demand and is typically much lower than peak.
What is HBAR used for?
HBAR pays transaction fees on the network, secures the ledger through staking, and serves as the unit of account for Hedera native services including the Token Service and Consensus Service. Fees are set in USD and converted to HBAR, giving users cost predictability.
Can Ethereum smart contracts run on Hedera?
Yes. Hedera’s Smart Contract Service runs an EVM execution environment based on Hyperledger Besu. Solidity contracts can be deployed on Hedera without code changes and can interact with Hedera native services through precompiled system contracts.
What are the main risks of using Hedera?
The primary risks include centralization around 31 council-operated nodes, a small DeFi and developer ecosystem relative to larger networks, a value-accrual model that does not directly reward token holders through fee burns, and the network’s dependence on continued council participation for consensus security.
Is HBAR supply inflationary?
No. All 50 billion HBAR were pre-minted at genesis. There is no inflation mechanism. New tokens enter circulation only through scheduled treasury releases managed by the governing council, which controls the release pace. As of mid-2026, roughly 86.6% of total supply is circulating.
Disclaimer: This article is for informational and educational purposes only. It does not constitute financial, investment, or legal advice. Cryptocurrency markets are volatile and carry significant risk. Always conduct your own research before making any financial decisions. Information is current as of September 2, 2026, and may become outdated.
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