The US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) proposed a new regulatory framework that would let crypto projects raise money without full securities registration, marking what some in the industry are already calling a return of the ICO, the token-sale model that all but disappeared after 2017.

Commissioner Hester Peirce, whose 2020 safe harbor proposal helped shape the rule, said the plan gives entrepreneurs a path past what she called an ill-fitting set of rules applied to the industry for years.

What the Exemptions Cover

Regulation Crypto Assets creates two paths around full registration. Smaller projects qualify for a startup exemption, capped at $5 million raised over four years, with no accredited-investor requirement or cap on individual buy-ins.

Larger raises fall under a fundraising exemption up to $75 million per year, though issuers must file audited financials and keep up with ongoing reporting once they cross into that tier. Both remain subject to the SEC’s standard antifraud and antimanipulation rules.

The proposal builds on a March interpretation issued jointly by the SEC and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), which spelled out when a token can stop being tied to an investment contract, the legal structure regulators use to classify a token as a security.

The Return of the ICO

Initial Coin Offerings (ICOs), the token-sale boom of 2017, collapsed once the SEC began treating most of them as unregistered securities offerings and suing accordingly. With no legal onshore route left, teams spent years engineering workarounds instead, routing sales through offshore foundations, restricting buyers to non-US residents, running accredited-investor-only rounds under Regulation D, or dressing up token distributions as airdrops and points programs.

Regulation Crypto Assets is the first rule that gives those teams a legal path to sell tokens onshore again. The $5 million startup lane in particular strips away the accredited-investor gatekeeping that has defined US crypto fundraising for eight years, a structural echo of what 2017-era ICOs tried to do before regulators shut the door.

What’s Different This Time

Unlike the disclosure-free chaos of 2017, issuers under either exemption still owe investors principles-based disclosures, and the larger tier requires audited financials most ICO-era projects never provided.

The rule would also preempt state securities registration for qualifying offerings, and it stops well short of the separate tokenized-securities framework some in the industry want, which was not part of Tuesday’s proposal.

The timing adds pressure of its own. Lawmakers left for summer recess without voting on the stalled CLARITY Act, legislation that would divide crypto oversight between the SEC and the CFTC, leaving the agency to move on its own through rulemaking instead.

Peirce called the proposal one step on a longer road and invited feedback during the 60-day comment period, particularly on how tokens might function more like equity so holders can share in a network’s growth. Whether an ICO-style wave actually follows will also depend on altcoins poised to benefit most from the new rules.

The post Return of the ICO? SEC Wants Token Fundraising to Escape Securities Status appeared first on BeInCrypto.

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SpaceX’s attempt to acquire artificial intelligence coding startup Cognition AI Inc. stalled without a deal, according to people familiar with the matter. The approach would have been SpaceX’s second major AI takeover in recent months.

The deal talks are no longer active, but the two companies continue discussing a compute partnership instead, letting Cognition use SpaceX’s computing capacity, the people said.

Independence Over a Buyout

Cognition, founded in 2023, builds Devin, an AI agent designed to automate programming tasks for software engineers. The startup was valued at $26 billion in a May funding round. It has since opened early talks for fresh financing at a valuation of at least $40 billion, a trajectory that gives it less reason to sell.

Cognition Chief Executive Officer Scott Wu has been consistent on the matter, both publicly and in conversations with investors. He told Bloomberg in May that the company’s funding round

“allows us to stay independent and continue as an independent business, which is really important for us.”

A Different Outcome Than Cursor

The stalled approach stands in contrast to SpaceX’s $60 billion Cursor acquisition, which closed on August 14 and gave Musk’s rocket firm a rival AI coding platform outright. SpaceX’s AI venture, now called SpaceXAI, has lagged competitors in selling AI tools to businesses. It has also cut jobs while restructuring around the effort.

Cognition’s partnerships with Mercedes-Benz Group AG and GE Aerospace add business weight SpaceXAI wanted, even without a takeover, the people said. Musk’s SpaceX stock market debut this summer gave the company capital to chase such deals. Whether a revised offer emerges may depend on how Cognition’s next funding round reshapes its price tag.

SpaceX Stock Swings Ahead of Share Unlock

SpaceX shares have been volatile since the June initial public offering (IPO). The stock closed as low as $108.27 in early August before rebounding above its $135 offering price.

Shares traded at around $139, ahead of a share unlock, which frees previously restricted insider shares for sale, covering about 319 million shares. The rebound followed stronger-than-expected second-quarter revenue of $7.8 billion, and Nvidia’s disclosed $21 billion stake in the company added to investor interest.

Musk’s SpaceX stock market debut gave the company capital to chase AI deals like the one it explored with Cognition. Whether a revised offer emerges may depend on how Cognition’s next funding round reshapes its price tag.

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Mantle price rebounded more than 6% on Aug. 19 as MNT tested a key resistance level near $0.46, while liquidation data pointed to a larger pool of leveraged positions above the market.

Summary

• Mantle price rose 6.6% to approximately $0.455 during the latest daily session.
• The token is testing Fibonacci resistance at $0.4575 after rebounding from $0.39.
• Liquidation liquidity is concentrated between $0.46 and $0.49, creating a possible short-squeeze zone.
• Mantle hosted 155 tokenized equities and more than $1 billion in DeFi TVL by June.

Mantle price approaches a breakout level

According to data from crypto.news, Mantle (MNT) price traded around $0.455 after rising 6.6% during the daily session shown. The recovery extended a rebound that began after MNT reached approximately $0.39 at the start of August.

The token has since formed a series of higher lows and briefly reached $0.467 on Aug. 13. Sellers rejected that advance, but MNT held above $0.42 before returning to the upper end of its recent range.

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The daily chart places immediate resistance at $0.4575, which matches the 78.6% Fibonacci retracement of MNT’s decline from $0.7149 to $0.3874. A daily close above that level would indicate that buyers have recovered the final Fibonacci barrier before the previous breakdown area.

Momentum indicators support the rebound without showing an overbought market. The daily relative strength index stood at 58.46, above its signal average of 56.10 but below the 70 level commonly associated with overbought conditions.

The moving average convergence divergence indicator also remained positive. However, the small distance between its two lines showed that MNT still needed stronger momentum to confirm a sustained breakout.

Liquidation clusters could pull MNT toward $0.49

CoinGlass’ one-week liquidation heatmap showed several layers of leveraged positions immediately above MNT’s market price. The closest concentrations appeared between $0.46 and $0.47, while brighter and denser bands extended from around $0.475 to $0.49.

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Liquidation clusters do not guarantee that price will move toward them. They mark areas where leveraged positions could be closed if the market reaches their trigger prices, potentially adding forced buying or selling to an existing move.

A break above $0.4575 could therefore expose the first liquidity band near $0.47. If rising prices force traders holding short positions to buy back MNT, the resulting pressure could push the token toward the stronger $0.48–$0.49 cluster.

The heatmap showed the nearest large downside liquidity pool between roughly $0.412 and $0.418. MNT could revisit that region if it loses recent support and leveraged long positions begin closing.

MNT must defend $0.44 to preserve momentum

The 4-hour chart showed MNT reaching $0.4547, close to the upper Bollinger Band at $0.4561. Trading at the upper band reflects strong short-term momentum, although it can also leave the token vulnerable to a pullback if buyers fail to clear resistance.

The Bollinger Band midpoint at $0.4409 forms the first support level. Holding above it would preserve the short-term upward structure and allow MNT to make another attempt at $0.4575 and $0.467.

Chaikin Money Flow stood at 0.01, indicating that buying pressure had moved slightly above neutral. The reading did not show strong capital inflows, making confirmation through higher volume important if MNT attempts to break its August peak.

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A close below $0.4409 would weaken the immediate setup and expose the lower Bollinger Band near $0.4257. Further selling could bring the Aug. 19 intraday low around $0.42 back into view, followed by the larger daily support at $0.3874.

On the upside, clearing $0.467 would open a path toward the liquidation concentrations at $0.48–$0.49. MNT would then face broader Fibonacci resistance at $0.5125, followed by $0.5511.

Mantle’s tokenized asset push adds fundamental support

The rebound comes as Mantle expands its decentralized finance and real-world asset operations. A Q2 report published by Nansen said the network’s DeFi total value locked exceeded $1 billion after growing 230% during the first half of 2026.

Nansen reported that RWA-focused DeFi TVL passed $90 million, while assets managed through Mantle Vault exceeded $200 million. The network’s stablecoin market capitalization reached $955 million, representing 120% year-over-year growth, according to the report.

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Mantle also increased the number of tokenized equities on its network from 10 in April to 155 by the end of June. Its lineup included products linked to SpaceX and Franklin Templeton’s U.S. Equity Index ETF, although those tokens do not provide direct ownership in the underlying companies or funds unless their terms explicitly state otherwise.

The network’s Aave market was another source of growth. Mantle said the deployment reached $1 billion in 19 days, while Nansen reported that deposits had exceeded $1.45 billion by April.

For US investors, the presence of tokenized US equities does not establish that the products are available legally in the United States. Mantle’s xStocks announcement described access as available only where permitted, leaving eligibility dependent on each platform’s restrictions and applicable securities rules.

MNT’s immediate direction now rests on whether buyers can convert the ecosystem narrative into enough spot demand to break $0.4575. A confirmed close above that level would strengthen the case for $0.48–$0.49, while losing $0.44 would put the rebound at risk.

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Disclosure: This article does not represent investment advice. The content and materials featured on this page are for educational purposes only.

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Bitcoin’s price suddenly jumped by a grand yesterday and tapped $65,000 for the first time in over a week, before it was stopped and now sits at around $64,000 again.

Most larger-cap alts have produced minor gains within the same timeframe, with ETH climbing above $1,900 and SOL trading above $75. BTW has stolen the show again.

BTC Tapped $65K

Bitcoin went through a few legs down last week after it was rejected at $65,400 first and then at $64,400. The culmination took place on Friday afternoon when the asset slumped to $62,500 for the first time in ten days. The bulls finally intervened after this nosedive and helped the asset recover to $63,000, where it spent the entire weekend without any moves in either direction.

Monday began with a dip to $62,600 before BTC jumped by a grand to $63,600. After a minor rejection there, the cryptocurrency went on the offensive again to $64,500. It was stopped there at first and slipped to $64,000. Then came the surprising uptick to $65,000, which became its highest price tag since last Monday.

BTC failed there and dipped to $64,100 earlier today, where it found some support and now sits a few hundred dollars higher. Its market cap has remained sideways at $1.290 trillion, while its dominance over the altcoins has lost some traction and is below 57% on CG now.

BTW In a League of Its Own

The top performer in the crypto market continues to be Bitway (BTW). The token has skyrocketed by over 900% in the past month. Its daily gains stand at a whopping 85%, and it just reached a new all-time high of $0.067 (CoinGecko data).

PUMP, CAKE, LINK, and DOT follow suit in terms of daily gains, but are significantly more modest at somewhere between 4% and 7%. Ethereum has jumped by just over 1% to $1,920, while SOL is at $77 after a 1.5% increase. XRP, TRX, DOGE, and ZEC are also slightly in the green, while HYPE and CC are down by around 2% each.

The total crypto market cap has added around $20 billion daily and is up to $2.280 trillion on CG.

The post Viral Altcoin Explodes to New All-Time High, Bitcoin (BTC) Touched $65K: Market Watch appeared first on CryptoPotato.

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Although the past week was quite unpleasant for XRP token holders in terms of price action, the company behind the asset made a few significant moves.

Additionally, there’s more information on the XRP whale activity, which has shown a clear uptick. We will review all of that and much more, so let’s dive in.

Big Partnership

We kick things off with a fresh announcement from yesterday, which stated that Ripple collaborated with Jeonbuk Bank to begin the first deployment of Ripple Payments in South Korea to enable faster cross-border remittances.

The partnership aims to expedite international transfers for businesses and reduce delays associated with traditional banking methods.

“With this partnership with Ripple, JB Jeonbuk Bank is ready to move beyond its role as a regional bank and emerge as a digital finance leader that meets global standards. This partnership will become a new growth engine for the bank, and we will lead innovation that reshapes the financial paradigm, going beyond the adoption of new technology,” commented Jeonbuk Bank’s President, Park Choon-won.

The company’s recent activities in South Korea include another collaboration with Kyobo Life Insurance and KBank to enhance digital finance and blockchain integration.

Ripple Price Raises $275M

Another statement from yesterday said the company had secured a $275 million private placement of senior unsecured notes issued by Ripple Prime to support its ongoing and expanding business in the US. According to the team, a “diverse base of institutional investors in key financial markets” participated in the fundraiser.

Ripple Prime will use the proceeds for working capital and general corporate purposes within a regulated entity as client demand for a modern, multi-asset clearing, prime brokerage, and financial services platform rises.

Wall Street and XRP ETFs

The most recent SEC filings in the US showed that a growing number of Wall Street behemoths have gained exposure to XRP through the spot exchange-traded funds. Jane Street Group leads the pack with more than 1.2 million shares.

Other notable names that disclosed such exposure included Bank of America, Morgan Stanley, Wolverine Asset Management, Gallagher Capital Management, Main Street Group, and National Bank of Canada.

Meanwhile, the XRP ETFs ended the previous business week in the green again, but attracted a very modest amount of just over $2 million. On the plus side, net inflows reached $5.81 million on August 19, the highest for the month.

XRP Price Update

Ripple’s partnership, expansion news, or any other recent initiatives have failed to boost the underlying asset. Just the opposite, XRP has been consistently losing value, which eventually led to the almost inevitable dip below $1.00 for the first time in nearly two years. As of press time, the asset has been unable to reclaim that level decisively despite BTC’s resurgence to over $64,000.

On the flip side, the network activity has picked up the pace lately. Daily active addresses topped 35,500 in August, while the number of whales holding at least a million XRP increased by 32 in three months. In addition, these large market participants went on an impressive accumulation spree last week, scooping 72 million tokens in 24 hours.

Meanwhile, analysts continue with contradictory predictions about the asset’s future price performance. Some claimed that the dip below $1.00 could get a lot worse before the token rebounds, while others are adamant that it could bounce off the recent levels.

The post Important Ripple News and XRP Price Update: August 19 appeared first on CryptoPotato.

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Grayscale Research says three altcoins could be the biggest winners from new US token rules. The asset manager points to Ethereum (ETH), Solana (SOL), and BNB Chain.

The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) proposed Regulation Crypto Assets, or Reg Crypto, on Tuesday. The plan would let startups sell newly issued tokens to US investors after years without a clear path.

Why Grayscale Sees ETH, SOL, and BNB as Winners

Grayscale published its case hours after the SEC released the proposal. Its logic is simple. Legal token sales would pull founders and investors onchain. The networks hosting those sales would capture the activity and the value.

The demand already has a track record. More than 1,500 projects raised a combined $12.9 billion through initial coin offerings (ICOs). That figure comes from research by the National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER). The wave peaked in 2017-18. However, later fundraising models moved offshore and shut out US investors.

“The SEC just proposed new crypto regulation. Since the ICO boom of 2017, token-based fundraising in the US has lacked regulations. “Reg Crypto” would change that,” Grayscale wrote.

The market is already moving. ETH trades near $2,179 after a 15% jump in 24 hours. Meanwhile, SOL sits at $86.98, and BNB holds near $630.

Grayscale has also put money behind the theme. This month, the firm made BNB its largest fund holding in its Smart Contract Fund, with a 30.6% weighting.

What the New US Token Rules Would Change

Reg Crypto creates two fundraising lanes. Startups could raise up to $5 million over four years under a one-time option. A second lane allows $75 million per year. That route requires financial statements and ongoing reports.

The proposal also gives tokens an exit from securities treatment. A token leaves once its issuer completes all essential managerial efforts. Officials call this the Investment Contract Safe Harbor.

That exit question fueled the SEC’s long court fight with Ripple over XRP. The new SEC crypto rules now answer it on paper.

SEC Commissioner Mark Uyeda backed the shift. He said clear rules should cut the incentive for founders to launch offshore. The proposal would also stand in for parts of the CLARITY Act. That broader market structure bill slipped to September in the Senate.

A 60-day comment period opens once the plan reaches the Federal Register. A separate innovation exemption for trading rules is expected later this year. The next test is simple. Will US founders actually bring their raises onchain?

The post 3 Altcoins Grayscale Says Could Win From New US Token Rules appeared first on BeInCrypto.

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Bitcoin (BTC) just reclaimed $70,000 for the first time since June 2. The 78-day wait ended after President Donald Trump said a “sizable” government Bitcoin purchase has “been talked about.”

The Fed’s July minutes came and went without damage. Trump’s remarks gave the rally its second engine of the day.

How Bitcoin Reclaimed $70,000 After 78 Days

The BTC price briefly tested $70,000 today. Two days ago, it sat below $64,000. In early July, it was near $62,000.

The move crushed the other side of the trade. Crypto shorts lost $1.23 billion in a single hour. One whale on Hyperliquid lost an entire 1,800 BTC short worth about $117 million.

Washington lit the first fuse. The Treasury said it will double its long-end debt buybacks to at least $4 billion per operation. The 30-year yield fell from 5.337%, its highest since 2007. Cheaper long-term money favors assets that pay no income.

Perspective still matters. Even at $70,000, Bitcoin trades about 44% below its record of $126,080, set last October. But the reclaim breaks this year’s pattern, where gold beat bitcoin decisively, gaining 33% while BTC fell 46%.

The king of crypto topped out at $70,000 on Binance and $70,022 on Coinbase, as of this writing.

Trump Floats a ‘Sizable’ Bitcoin Buy as the Fed Stays Quiet

Then came the second fuse. Asked whether the administration plans to accumulate a sizable amount of Bitcoin, Trump did not rule it out. He tied the idea directly to the dollar.

“It’s been talked about. It’s been very, very good for the dollar. If you came in with recommendations, I would certainly listen.”

The remarks land on fertile ground. Trump created a Strategic Bitcoin Reserve in March 2025, built from seized coins rather than open-market buying. A sizable purchase would be a first.

The Fed offered no resistance either. The July minutes said inflation “remained elevated” but showed no hawkish push beyond the three known dissenters. September hike odds slipped to 34%, and the dollar weakened.

The mix is potent. Falling yields, a quiet Fed, and a president musing about buying. Whether BTC holds $70,000 overnight will show if the words carry real weight.

The post Bitcoin Reclaims $70,000 First Time Since June and Trump Just Hinted at More appeared first on BeInCrypto.

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David Schwartz, Ripple’s CTO emeritus, has warned that government rules around AI safety and copyright could give authorities unprecedented control over political and social speech.

His argument centers on who gets to decide what AI systems can create, know, and discuss.

Two Legal Fights, One Argument

Schwartz laid out the case in a reply thread on X that started almost by accident. On August 18, he quote-posted a Change.org UK campaign asking the British government to limit how much coverage any one person can receive in the press, a petition launched after 249 articles covered sociology professor Jason Arday in the 22 days before his death on August 14.

Schwartz’s response to that campaign was a question: which poses more of a threat to free speech, artificial intelligence or, as he put it, natural stupidity.

When a user named Athena asked what he actually meant, Schwartz explained that AI has become the most effective tool for producing speech that exists, and that governments are currently fighting on multiple fronts over how much they can regulate it.

He then spelled out two specific fights. The first is over whether training an AI model on copyrighted material counts as infringement. Since Congress controls what exceptions to copyright law exist, a ruling against AI companies would mean the most powerful speech-generating tool in existence could only be used in ways Congress permits, effectively letting lawmakers decide what speech looks like.

The second fight is over AI safety regulation itself, which Schwartz argued follows the same logic: if the government sets the rules for what counts as safe, the most powerful tool for producing political and social speech becomes usable only in the ways officials allow.

“Again, a totally unprecedented threat to freedom of speech,” he wrote.

A Recurring Argument on X

This is not the first time Schwartz has pushed this line of thinking. In late July, Bitcoin advocate and ShapeShift founder Erik Voorhees argued on X that states should not get to decide what forms of intelligence count as safe, warning that a rule against discussing something as narrow as bioweapons could eventually expand into a broader government veto over speech and even encryption. Schwartz replied to that post with a simple agreement at the time.

The broader question of who gets to police speech-enabling technology has come up elsewhere too. Telegram founder Pavel Durov, already facing terrorism-related charges tied to content on his messaging app, drew a fresh international arrest warrant from Russia’s security service in late July, adding to a case that started with his 2024 arrest in France over similar allegations.

The debate also extends to proposals for government-backed AI testing after Google DeepMind CEO Demis Hassabis previously proposed a federally backed body to test and certify advanced models. While OpenAI CEO Sam Altman and Microsoft’s Satya Nadella expressed support for the idea, Coinbase chief Brian Armstrong took the opposite view, contending that existing laws covering fraud, torts, and consumer protection could already address harms caused by AI systems.

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