Crypto World
Bitcoin Upgrades with Quantum-Ready Security; 18.9M SOL Stopped
Efforts to make major blockchains more resilient against the long-discussed threat of quantum computing have accelerated, even as many Bitcoin users remain skeptical about how soon quantum risk becomes practical. This week, two separate threads underscored the direction of travel: experimental defenses for Bitcoin transactions and a new proposal aimed at upgrading Bitcoin’s signature technology.
At the same time, governance decisions and broader market signals continued to shape sentiment across the sector—from Solana’s vote to speed up disinflation to new disclosures and policy debates in the United States. Here are the developments investors and builders should keep on their radar.
Key takeaways
- StarkWare researcher Avihu Levy tested an experimental quantum-resistant Bitcoin transaction on mainnet, using a scheme designed to protect outputs during the mempool exposure window.
- Blockstream researchers published a Bitcoin Improvement Proposal (BIP) to incorporate the SHRINCS post-quantum signature scheme, significantly shrinking a large signature structure while still introducing trade-offs.
- Solana validators approved “Double Disinflation” (SGP-0002), doubling annual disinflation to target 1.5% terminal inflation in about 2.8 years.
- Polygon disclosed multiple security vulnerabilities fixed via recent hard forks, addressing risks that could have affected its proof-of-stake clients.
- US consumer advocacy group Public Citizen claims investors are “underwater” by at least $4.7 billion in connection with Donald Trump-linked crypto ventures since 2022, with losses attributed to specific token products.
Experimental quantum protection reaches Bitcoin mainnet
Earlier coverage focused on how quantum capabilities could threaten cryptographic signatures and public-key systems over time. This week’s milestone came from the practical side: StarkWare researcher Avihu Levy tested an experimental quantum-resistant transaction on Bitcoin mainnet designed to reduce risk during a specific vulnerability period.
According to a Cointelegraph report, Levy’s test used “Quantum Safe Bitcoin (QSB)” to protect an output in the brief interval when public keys are exposed in the mempool. The approach combines hash-based one-time signatures with computational search techniques that bind an authorization to a specific transaction. In other words, the system is not merely trying to replace signatures wholesale—it is attempting to manage exposure timing relative to how Bitcoin transactions propagate and are validated.
Onchain data referenced in the same report indicates that StarkWare spent a 10,000-satoshi output protected by the QSB scheme. However, the article also highlighted that the mechanism behaves more like a fallback than a broadly usable production-level solution: each transaction reportedly took hours to complete and cost an estimated $150 to $200.
For investors and system designers, the key takeaway is that “quantum-resistance” in Bitcoin is not arriving as a single upgrade button. Instead, it is emerging as layered experiments that tackle specific threat windows first—before longer-term changes to core cryptography can be rolled out through protocol governance.
A BIP aims to upgrade Bitcoin signatures with SHRINCS
Beyond short-term mitigation strategies, the second story points to the longer roadmap: a proposed change to Bitcoin’s signature scheme intended to improve post-quantum security across all transactions.
As described in a Cointelegraph piece, Blockstream researchers published a Bitcoin Improvement Proposal introducing the SHRINCS signature scheme. The researchers reportedly reduced a large hash-based post-quantum signature “by about 13.23 times.” Even with that improvement, the signature size is still described as at least nine times larger than Bitcoin’s existing signatures, and the proposal includes multiple trade-offs.
The same report quotes Blockstream Research’s Jonas Nick, who called it “the first concrete proposal” for a post-quantum signature designed specifically for Bitcoin. Nick acknowledged that it is “not optimal along every axis,” but argued it could represent a reasonable trade-off among available options.
Why this matters for the Bitcoin ecosystem is straightforward: any post-quantum signature upgrade must be weighed against bandwidth, validation costs, implementation complexity, and compatibility with current constraints. A key question for readers is whether future iterations can close the gap between security goals and performance limitations, or whether staged approaches like Levy’s mempool-window protection will remain the practical near-term path for high-value use cases.
Solana accelerates disinflation via validator vote
While Bitcoin-focused news centered on cryptographic evolution, Solana’s latest governance decision shifted attention to monetary policy. Solana validators approved a proposal to double the network’s annual disinflation rate—aimed at reducing issuance faster without changing the broad disinflation direction.
Cointelegraph reported that participation reached 60.7% of eligible stake, with 67% support and 25.16% voting against (7.84% abstained). The measure—known as SGP-0002 or Double Disinflation—increases Solana’s annual disinflation rate from 15% to 30%.
Under the new schedule, Solana is expected to reach a 1.5% terminal inflation rate in about 2.8 years, compared with roughly 5.7 years under the previous schedule. The proposal is also projected to reduce issuance by 18.9 million SOL over the next six years, according to the report.
The vote arrives amid signs that network usage is continuing to expand. Cointelegraph cited onchain data presented by The Kobeissi Letter showing Solana processed a record 4.2 billion transactions in July, up 13.5% month over month. Transaction counts reportedly rose by roughly 2 billion since December, representing a 91% increase.
For traders and long-term holders, the immediate relevance is that monetary-policy acceleration can alter expectations around supply growth, even if it does not directly determine short-term price. For builders, higher throughput combined with faster disinflation can influence incentive structures and the economics of running apps, validators, and infrastructure.
Security disclosure: Polygon patches vulnerabilities through hard forks
In another infrastructure-related update, Polygon disclosed previously private security issues that could have disrupted its proof-of-stake network. The vulnerabilities were reportedly fixed through two recent hard forks—Austin and Kyoto—deployed privately first and then activated on mainnet before public disclosure.
Cointelegraph reported that the affected components included Polygon’s Bor and Heimdall clients. The disclosure from Polygon Labs’ Validators Support Team indicated risks such as denial-of-service vectors, validator resource exhaustion, and flaws related to checkpoint and milestone processing.
From an investor and validator perspective, disclosures like this matter because they reveal where reliability and operational risk can concentrate—even if the network continues to run. The most useful next step for market participants is to watch whether validator operations, client updates, and monitoring guidance translate into any follow-up performance or incident reporting after these forks.
US policy and consumer scrutiny: Public Citizen alleges $4.7B in losses
Outside technical upgrades, consumer advocacy continues to influence the regulatory and public narrative around crypto. Public Citizen, a nonprofit consumer organization, claims that US President Donald Trump and related digital asset ventures left investors at least an estimated $4.7 billion “underwater” since 2022.
According to a Cointelegraph report, the group’s new filing attributes losses to multiple Trump-linked products: $3.2 billion from the Official Trump (TRUMP) memecoin; at least $1 billion on the World Liberty Financial governance token; $450 million on Trump Media’s digital asset treasury; and $9.3 million on Trump’s NFT trading cards launched in 2022. The article adds that holders of a USD1 stablecoin were reportedly “sitting pretty on $0 losses.”
The report also notes that Trump’s crypto profits are described as one of the factors supporting the continued progress of the CLARITY Act debate, with Democrats reportedly seeking stronger protections intended to prevent elected officials from profiting through cryptocurrency issuances.
Even for readers who are not focused on US election-era politics, this category of claims tends to affect both compliance pressure on token issuers and the willingness of traditional financial institutions to engage with crypto-linked structures.
Looking ahead, quantum-resistance proposals will likely remain a multi-year, iterative process—starting with narrow defensive experiments and moving toward full signature upgrades through governance. Meanwhile, validator-led disinflation votes and security-related hard fork disclosures offer clearer near-term implications for network economics and reliability; those are the areas to watch closely for follow-on data and operational updates.
Crypto World
Bitcoin’s New Quantum Defenses, 18.9M SOL Cancelled: Hodler’s Digest
Bitcoin embraces post quantum future
Despite considerable skepticism among Bitcoiners about how close the quantum threat to Bitcoin is, two stories this week highlighted the progress being made toward upgrading the blockchain and protecting outputs from attack.
StarkWare researcher Avihu Levy tested an experimental quantum-resistant transaction on the Bitcoin mainnet that protects it during the brief period when public keys are exposed in the mempool.
Onchain data shows that StarkWSare spent a 10,000-satoshi output protected by Levy’s Quantum Safe Bitcoin (QSB) scheme which combines hash-based one-time signatures with computational searches that bind an authorization to a specific transaction. It’s more of a last resort than a practical measure, as each transaction takes hours and costs $150 to $200.
On August 27, Blockstream researchers published a Bitcoin Improvement Proposal to upgrade Bitcoin with the SHRINCS signature scheme. The researchers have slimmed down a huge hash based post quantum signature by about 13.23 times — but it’s still nine times larger than Bitcoin’s existing signatures and comes with a bunch of trade offs.
Blockstream Research’s Jonas Nick called it “the first concrete proposal for a post-quantum signature scheme designed specifically for Bitcoin.” While he said it was “not optimal along every axis” he added:
”I do think it is a very good trade-off among the options we have now,” he said.
Solana validators vote to cut inflation to 1.5% in 2.8 years
Solana validators have approved a proposal to double the network’s annual disinflation rate, reducing issuance by 18.9 million SOL over the next six years.
According to finalized voting results, the proposal received 67% support, with 25.16% voting against and 7.84% abstaining. Overall participation reached 60.7% of eligible stake.
The proposal, known as SGP-0002 or Double Disinflation, increases Solana’s annual disinflation rate from 15% to 30%, while leaving the network’s long-term inflation target of 1.5% unchanged.
Under the new schedule, Solana is expected to reach its 1.5% terminal inflation rate in about 2.8 years, compared with roughly 5.7 years under the previous schedule.
Transactions on Solana reached record highs in July. Onchain data presented by The Kobeissi Letter showed that Solana processed a record 4.2 billion transactions during the month, up 13.5% from June. Transaction counts have risen by roughly 2 billion since December, representing a 91% increase.
Trump cost investors $4.7B through crypto ‘schemes’: Public Citizen
Nonprofit consumer advocacy organization Public Citizen claims that US President Donald Trump “left investors at least an estimated $4.7 billion underwater” since 2022 through his and his family’s digital asset ventures.
It’s new report states that investors lost $3.2 billion via his memecoin Official Trump (TRUMP) memecoin, at least $1 billion on the World Liberty Financial governance token, $450 million on Trump Media’s digital asset treasury and $9.3 million on the president’s nonfungible token (NFT) trading cards launched in 2022.

Holders of the USD1 stablecoin however were sitting pretty on $0 losses.
Trump’s crypto profits are one of the key factors holding up passage of the CLARITY Act in September, with Democrats digging in on stronger protections to prevent elected officials from profiting by issuing cryptocurrencies.
Bitcoin rally only just getting started
BlocksBridge Consulting reported this week that that Bitcoin’s 23% rally over the past week had outpaced most AI-linked infrastructure stocks.
Three beaten-down Bitcoin mining companies — Canaan, American Bitcoin and Cango — gained between 41% and 67%. By comparison, CoreWeave rose about 21%, Nebius gained 17% and IREN advanced 15%.
The Bitcoin ETFs have minted more than $3.3 billion in August, for the strongest month since October 2025’s all time high. Outflows on Friday ended a nine day hot streak however.
Wall Street analysts from Bernstein predict we are at the start of a new four year cycle. It forecasts Bitcoin will reclaim $125,000 under both its base case and bull case scenario, and will peak at $300,000 in 2029 under the base case but top $500,000 that year under its bullish scenario.
Revolut rolls out euro stablecoin in 3 European markets
Revolut has begun rolling out its first stablecoin, a euro-pegged token called EURR, to around 2 million customers in Denmark, Poland and Portugal.
The phased rollout will expand to other European Economic Area (EEA) markets later this year, subject to product, operational and regulatory readiness.
EURR is issued by Bridge Building S.A., the Luxembourg-based entity of Stripe-owned stablecoin infrastructure company Bridge. Revolut said EURR will be integrated into its retail app, with plans to support multiple blockchain networks and transfers to external wallets. It’s launching on the Ethereum network.

Winners and Losers
At the end of the week, Bitcoin (BTC) is up 1.1% to trade at $78,420, Ethereum (ETH) is up 0.6% to trade at $2,469 and XRP (XRP) is down 8.7% to $1.38. The total market cap is at $2.64 trillion according to CoinMarketCap.
Among the biggest 100 cryptocurrencies, the top three altcoin winners of the week are VeChain (VET) with an 18.5% gain, SPX6900 (SPX) on 17.3%, and Uniswap (UNI) on 15.2%.
The top three altcoin losers of the week are Aptos (APT) which was down 16.4%, Stable (STABLE) down 14.7% and Morpho (MORPHO) down 13.6%.
Prediction of the Week
Bitcoin bear market ‘over’ as price metric copies 2023 recovery: CryptoQuant CEO
CryptoQuant CEO Ki Young Ju has flagged the first positive reading on CryptoQuant’s Bull/Bear Market Cycle Indicator since early October.
“The Bitcoin bear cycle is over,” he wrote.
The indicator measures onchain profitability metrics in comparison to a 365 day moving average, including the market value to realized value (MVRV) ratio, net unrealized profit/loss (NUPL) and the spent output profit ratio (SOPR). Values above zero for the Bull/Bear indicator point to bullish phases in the BTC price cycle as profitability improves.
Current cycle lows came on Feb. 5 as BTC/USD fell to $60,000, with a reading of -1.244 corresponding to “extreme bear” conditions. As of Aug. 26, the most recent date for which full data is available, Bull/Bear displayed a positive reading of 0.042, placing it in its “bull” bracket.
FUD of the Week
77% of Americans see crypto in retirement plans as risky: Survey
More than three-quarters of Americans view cryptocurrency in workplace retirement plans as risky, as concerns over retirement security mount across the United States, according to a new survey from The National Institute on Retirement Security.
The survey found that 77% of Americans consider crypto in workplace retirement plans risky, including 46% who view it as very risky, while 53% oppose employers offering crypto as an investment option.
The survey was conducted by Greenwald Research between Oct. 24 and Nov. 14, 2025, and included 1,203 Americans aged 25 and older, with results weighted by age, gender and income.

Americans view of crypto in retirement plans. Source: National Institute of Retirement Security
Real Trump Coins denies launching GOLD token, blames ‘bad actors’
Real Trump Coins has denied launching, promoting or authorizing the Trump Digital GOLD token that briefly appeared across its online presence before collapsing, blaming the promotion on “third-party bad actors.”
The denial came after the Real Trump Coins X account promoted the Solana-based token on Saturday and directed users to RealTrumpCoins.com, where GOLD was also advertised. The X posts were later deleted, while the account now links to a separate domain, TrumpCoins.com.
“Trump Coins has not authorized and will not launch, promote, or authorize any digital token,” Real Trump Coins said in an X post on Saturday, adding that it was working with authorities to investigate the matter.
Polygon discloses security flaws fixed in recent hard forks
Polygon has disclosed several previously private security vulnerabilities that could have disrupted its proof-of-stake network, after deploying fixes through two recent hard forks.
The vulnerabilities affected Polygon’s Bor and Heimdall clients and included denial-of-service risks, validator resource exhaustion and flaws affecting checkpoint and milestone processing, according to a Thursday disclosure from Polygon Labs’ Validators Support Team.
Polygon said the flaws were fixed through the Austin and Kyoto hard forks, which were deployed privately and tested before being activated on mainnet and publicly disclosed.
Top Magazine Stories of the Week

A new Bitcoin Improvement Proposal for the SHRINCS signature scheme has just been published to upgrade Bitcoin to quantum secure. Here’s everything you need to know.
Hugging Face relies on open weight Chinese models to defend itself from rogue AI agents. But a lack of safety guardrails makes those models potentially dangerous too.
If your personal AI agent goes rogue and causes harm or financial damage in the real world, can you be held liable?
Cointelegraph publishes long-form journalism, analysis and narrative reporting produced by Cointelegraph’s in-house editorial team with subject-matter expertise. All articles are edited and reviewed by Cointelegraph editors in line with our editorial standards. Some articles contain affiliate links, from which Cointelegraph may earn a commission. These relationships do not influence which products we review or our editorial conclusions. Content published in here does not constitute financial, legal or investment advice. Readers should conduct their own research and consult qualified professionals where appropriate. Cointelegraph maintains full editorial independence.
Crypto World
Your Brain Runs on 20 Watts. AI Wants a Power Plant
The human brain runs on roughly 20 watts. The world’s fastest supercomputer, LineShine in Shenzhen, draws 42.2 million watts. That gap has become the internet’s favorite argument about AI energy use, and most of it is wrong.
The comparison itself holds up. However, the numbers circulating on social media trace back to a single paper. The most striking one has been misattributed for three years.
AI Energy Use: What 20 Watts Actually Buys
The 20-watt figure rests on decades of metabolic measurement. The brain accounts for about 2% of body weight and roughly 20% of resting oxygen consumption.
Neuron counts are shakier than they appear. The widely quoted 86 billion rests on four male brains and is currently under dispute in the journal Brain.
Viral posts often use 12 watts rather than 20. That figure appears in a 2023 paper in Frontiers in Artificial Intelligence, stated without any citation at all.
The same paper produced the number everyone shares. Its authors estimated that digitally recreating a human brain would draw 2.7 billion watts.
That estimate came from extrapolating a 10-million-neuron simulation to mouse scale, then multiplying by a thousand.
The paper also states that the simulation ran about 30,000 times slower than biology. Social posts drop that detail. Secondary sources then credit the figure to the Blue Brain Project, which never published it.
Reliable numbers do exist elsewhere. Epoch AI estimated a typical ChatGPT query at 0.3 watt-hours in early 2025. A peer-reviewed study in Joule later landed on 0.31.
Two independent methods agreeing that closely is unusual. However, the figure changes sharply with workload, and reasoning models that produce longer answers can cost several times as much.
What Biology Does Differently, and What Silicon Copied
Cortical activity is sparse. Average firing rates are below 1 Hz, and energy follows change rather than clock cycles.
Modern AI reached the same conclusion independently. Kimi K2 activates 32.6 billion of its 1.04 trillion parameters per token, close to 3.1%.
That ratio is falling fast. Mixtral used roughly 28% of its parameters in 2023, while DeepSeek-V3 now uses 5.5%.
Biology also computes at low precision. Nothing inside a neuron resolves to 32 bits.
Chipmakers followed the same path. DeepSeek trained a 671-billion-parameter model in eight-bit precision. NVIDIA has since pretrained a 12-billion-parameter model in four-bit.
The third difference is the largest and the least copied. Brains hold memory and computation in the same physical place.
Digital machines separate them. Stanford’s Mark Horowitz showed the cost of that split. Fetching an operand from memory can consume hundreds of times more energy than the arithmetic itself.
The Brain-Shaped Chips That Never Arrived
Hardware built explicitly to imitate neurons has struggled. No neuromorphic or analog system has trained or run a frontier model in production.
Intel’s Hala Point packs 1.15 billion artificial neurons across 1,152 chips. It remains a research prototype installed at Sandia National Laboratories. Mike Davies, director of Intel’s Neuromorphic Computing Lab, speaking to The Register in 2024, said:
“We’re not mapping any LLM to Hala Point at this time. We don’t know how to do that.”
The commercial picture is thinner still. BrainChip is the sector’s flagship listed company. It reported $700,000 in customer receipts against $5.3 million of operating outflow last March quarter.
Others have stalled outright. Rain AI, which sought $150 million and failed to raise it, explored a sale in 2025.
Researchers inside the field describe a circular problem. Catherine Schuman, assistant professor of electrical engineering and computer science at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, stated:
“The hardware companies are waiting for there to be a killer application, but it’s really hard to understand how to build those applications without having hardware to prototype on.”
More than 20 researchers signed a 2025 consensus paper in Nature. It argued that the field still lacks the ecosystem it needs.
Biology’s principles won. The hardware built to embody them did not.
Everyone Is Bidding for the Same Electrons
Efficiency matters now because electricity has become the binding constraint. The International Energy Agency put global data center consumption at 485 terawatt-hours in 2025.
AI-focused facilities grew 50% during that year alone. The agency expects them to triple by 2030.
Grid access, rather than chip supply, now gates construction. Median time from an interconnection request to commercial operation exceeds five years, according to Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory.
Microsoft chief executive Satya Nadella said in November that his company holds processors it cannot plug in. The shortage is powered buildings, not silicon. Institutional investors have raised similar questions about grid readiness.
Bitcoin miners spent a decade solving exactly that problem. They hold energized sites, signed power agreements, and interconnection rights that newcomers wait years to secure.
The result has turned mining into an energy and infrastructure business. Retrofitting a working site costs roughly $3 million to $4 million per megawatt. Greenfield construction runs $10 million to $12 million, VanEck estimates.
Announced deal values are enormous. Public miners have signed AI contracts worth more than $70 billion in aggregate.
Delivered capacity tells a quieter story. Second-quarter 2026 filings show roughly 750 megawatts actually energized across the sector.
Core Scientific accounts for about 437 of those megawatts. Galaxy’s Helios campus delivered 133; TeraWulf 102; IREN 50; and Riot 25. Hut 8 has contracted 949 megawatts and energized none.
The pivot has been costly. Combined quarterly losses at miners MARA and CleanSpark reached $851 million in August.
Most mining capacity will never convert. Preliminary Cambridge survey data presented in July showed that about 10% of miners had allocated power to AI.
The obstacles are physical. Mining tolerates interruption, whereas AI tenants demand firm power, dense cooling, and fiber that remote sites rarely have.
Even so, the direction of travel is clear. Core Scientific now earns 83% of its revenue from colocation and just 13% from mining itself.
Investors have priced that shift in. Miners holding signed leases trade at far higher multiples of their energized power. Meanwhile, the next AI bet increasingly looks like electricity rather than chips.
Why Efficiency Will Not Fix AI Energy Use
Efficiency gains have absorbed demand growth in the past. Global data center compute grew by 550% between 2010 and 2018, while energy use rose by about 6%.
Then the pattern broke. United States data center consumption climbed from 58 terawatt-hours in 2014 to 176 in 2023.
Evolution optimized under a hard ceiling. A skull drawing 200 watts would have killed its owner, so efficiency became the only available answer.
AI has never faced that ceiling. It has faced a capital ceiling instead, and capital stretches far more easily than electricity does.
That is now changing. The open question is no longer whether biology is more efficient. It is what AI becomes once power, rather than money, decides what gets built.
The post Your Brain Runs on 20 Watts. AI Wants a Power Plant appeared first on BeInCrypto.
Crypto World
ECB Wants the Euro Directly on Blockchain. Will It Kill Stablecoins in Europe?
The European Central Bank (ECB) wants to issue euros directly onto a blockchain. Executive Board member Isabel Schnabel made that case at the Jackson Hole symposium on Friday, and she was very clear about stablecoins.
She is talking about money that banks use to settle with each other, not the euros in your account. Tokenized markets, she argued, need an asset only a central bank can create.
Why Schnabel Rejects Stablecoins as Settlement Money
A stablecoin can be built to be almost perfectly safe, and Schnabel accepts that. Her objection is about what happens next.
In a panic, everyone wants cash at once. A central bank can create more of it. A stablecoin issuer cannot.
Her precedent is the banking panic of 1907. Money was tied to banks’ holdings of government bonds, so the money supply could not expand. The Federal Reserve Act of 1913 fixed that.
“Stablecoins are best understood as complements to central bank money, not substitutes for it,” read an excerpt in her speech.
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The supply numbers explain Europe’s hurry. Dollar-pegged stablecoins circulate about $304 billion, DefiLlama data shows. Euro-pegged tokens hold under $1 billion.
If private tokens win settlement, Europe settles in dollars. Crypto only entered the Fed’s Jackson Hole agenda this year. Other central bankers have voiced similar warnings about stablecoins.
Pontes Launch Puts ECB Money on a Ledger
Pontes goes live next month, linking TARGET Services, the eurozone’s settlement backbone, to market blockchain platforms.
The pipes have been tested before, particularly from May to November 2024, when 64 institutions across nine jurisdictions ran 58 use cases. They settled nearly €1.6 billion in central bank money.
Cash finality remains within TARGET2 initially. Smart contracts and round-the-clock operation come later.
Schnabel weighed three routes:
- Issue tokens directly
- Bridge from today’s systems, or
- Let a private firm tokenize reserves through an omnibus account.
She wants the first, while the other two leave the ECB watching from outside, unable to run repo operations in code.
A second project, Appia, is still deciding whether Europe needs one shared ledger or several. She cited France’s Lise, holder of Europe’s first tokenized exchange license, as evidence that tokenization opens markets to smaller firms.
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Crypto World
DeFi Sector Jumps 38% as US Policy Shift Unlocks Token Value Capture
DeFi tokens have climbed nearly 38% since August 17 as investors reassess how US crypto policy could affect protocol revenue and token value.
SoSoValue says the rally is moving DeFi closer to a market where fees, buybacks and on-chain activity can play a larger role in how tokens are valued.
Policy Shift and Protocol Revenue Behind the Rally
In a post on X, SoSoValue said its DeFi sector index, $DEFI.ssi, rose from 0.3616 on August 17 to around 0.498 after reaching 0.511, for a cumulative gain of about 37.7%.
The move came alongside Bitcoin and Ethereum’s recovery and broader short covering, but the research firm argues that investors are also reassessing whether mature DeFi protocols can return more of their revenue to tokenholders.
That issue has limited DeFi valuations for years. Protocols could generate substantial trading fees, lending income, and other revenue while tokenholders had little direct claim on those economics.
Fee distributions and buybacks could also create securities-law concerns in the US, leaving many protocols reluctant to activate mechanisms that tie revenue to their tokens. But that may be changing, considering that last week, the SEC proposed its “Regulation Crypto Assets” framework, which includes exemptions and a conditional safe harbor for certain crypto-asset offerings.
Under the proposal, once a project has completed or permanently stopped the essential managerial work it had promised, its token may no longer remain part of an investment contract.
The Senate’s CLARITY Act draft goes further for DeFi, with protections for noncontrolling developers, validators, node operators, oracle providers and self-custody wallet software.
That draft also leaves room for rewards linked to trading, staking, governance, and liquidity provision. However, it still needs 60 votes in the Senate, while the SEC proposal is subject to public comment, but according to SoSoValue, markets are already assigning more confidence to the direction of US policy, even though legal certainty is still not there.
Revenue and Buybacks Give DeFi Tokens a Different Valuation Case
When you consider protocol revenue, the case becomes even more interesting, with Uniswap generating about $7.18 million during the past 30 days, followed by PancakeSwap at $5.16 million, Jupiter at $4.69 million, Aave at $4.12 million, and Aerodrome at $4.11 million.
Several of these protocols now have mechanisms that connect those economics to their tokens. For example, Hyperliquid uses part of trading fees to buy HYPE, Uniswap has linked revenue to UNI burns, and Jupiter allocates 50% of protocol fees to JUP purchases. PancakeSwap also uses part of its fees for CAKE buybacks and burns.
Meanwhile, Ethena has proposed an even larger allocation. Once USDe reaches its stated supply threshold, 95% of net revenue paid to the foundation across its three core business lines would go towards ENA buybacks.
According to SoSoValue, the next phase depends on whether those protocol revenues keep rising and whether tokenholders can get a larger share of it.
The post DeFi Sector Jumps 38% as US Policy Shift Unlocks Token Value Capture appeared first on CryptoPotato.
Crypto World
Japan’s Yen Falls Again Despite $97 Billion Aid. Risk For Bitcoin?
Japan’s yen weakened again this week despite roughly $97 billion spent supporting it over the past month. Its slide puts renewed pressure on officials to act, with potential consequences for Bitcoin.
Why Japan’s Yen Rescue is Fading
The currency fell to 160.16 yen per dollar on Friday, 28 August, giving up more than half its gains since last month’s intervention. A weaker yen makes imports more expensive for Japanese households and businesses.
Japan spent ¥15.4 trillion supporting its currency between 30 July and 26 August. The campaign included rare joint action with the US on 31 July, when both countries bought yen to lift its value.
US interest rates remain higher than Japan’s, making dollar investments more attractive. The dollar gained further support this week when Federal Reserve chair Kevin Warsh pledged to bring inflation to target.
How a Stronger Yen Could Hurt Bitcoin
Bitcoin briefly fell below $77,000 after Warsh’s speech as investors expected higher US rates.
Japan could add to that pressure. Some investors borrow yen cheaply and use the money to buy investments elsewhere. This is known as the carry trade.
If fresh intervention or higher Japanese interest rates push the yen sharply upwards, those loans become more expensive to repay in other currencies. Investors may sell assets to cover their debts, potentially dragging Bitcoin lower.
This has actually happened before. Back in August 2024, the reversal of yen-funded trades amplified selling. Bitcoin and Ethereum suffered losses of up to 20%.
Metaplanet chief executive Simon Gerovich sees longer-term opportunity. Speaking in Hong Kong this week, he argued that Asian savers were ready to move beyond cash and embrace Bitcoin.
His company buys and holds Bitcoin, giving him a financial stake in that outlook. Such demand could grow over time. Bitcoin remains vulnerable to sudden market sell-offs.
“The buyers arriving now aren’t going anywhere. I believe the bottom is in. And I’m expecting a much brighter rest of the year,” Metaplanet’s CEO said.
The post Japan’s Yen Falls Again Despite $97 Billion Aid. Risk For Bitcoin? appeared first on BeInCrypto.
Crypto World
S&P 500 Is Up 12% in 2026 But a 1907 Crash Signal Is Back
The S&P 500 has gained 12.65% in 2026 and closed Friday at 7,711.75. A Wall Street Journal column argues the closest match for today’s trading frenzy is not 1999. It is 1901.
That boom ended in the Panic of 1907, with columnist Jason Zweig arguing the danger was never expensive stocks. It was borrowed money and trading that felt like gambling.
The Numbers That Rhyme With 1901
Zweig leans on one figure, the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) turnover reached 319% in 1901. The entire market changed hands roughly every four months.
Bucket shops supplied the rest, letting small customers bet, at heavy leverage, on whether a stock would tick up or down. No shares ever changed owners. That bet is recognizable in the current market.
Same-day options made up 66.2% of all S&P 500 options volume in July, an all-time high, Cboe reported. Prediction market platforms widened their catalogues again, from token prices to sporting-event phrases.
Borrowing has also kept pace, with margin debt reaching $1.42 trillion in July, according to Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) filings. A year earlier the figure was $1.02 trillion.
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1907 Broke on Liquidity, Not Valuation
The trigger looked small, where two speculators failed to corner United Copper stock in October 1907. The damage followed, with runs hitting trust companies, lightly regulated lenders that kept about 5% of deposits in cash. National banks kept 25%.
Then money vanished. Call money rates ran from 9.5% to 70%, and to 100% two days later. J.P. Morgan hauled cash to the exchange loan post to keep trading alive. Congress created the Federal Reserve six years later.
The Dow lost 40.9% from its December 1906 peak to the November 1907 bottom, a National Bureau of Economic Research study found.
Valuation drives most earlier bubble comparisons. The Shiller price-to-earnings ratio sits near 42, against a long-run average of 17.4, and just under its December 1999 record. Zweig’s warning is quieter and harder to hedge.
Crypto shares the same funding pipes. Bitcoin (BTC) trades near $78,618 and has tracked the S&P 500 through past risk shocks.
Cash looks like dead weight while markets climb. It turns into leverage the moment everybody else needs it.
The post S&P 500 Is Up 12% in 2026 But a 1907 Crash Signal Is Back appeared first on BeInCrypto.
Crypto World
Saylor Says “Strategy Is Back” as Bitcoin Buys Resume After Pause
Strategy’s chief executive Michael Saylor has posted what market watchers are reading as a near-term signal for renewed corporate Bitcoin buying. In a recent social media message, Saylor wrote “We’re Back,” pointing to a potential return to accumulating BTC after a pause in Strategy’s routine purchases earlier this year.
The timing matters because Saylor has a history of sharing ambiguous weekend-style hints ahead of Monday morning announcements related to Strategy’s treasury activity. If that pattern holds, the post could be interpreted as a psychological nudge—suggesting the company is prepared to deploy capital again rather than continue its more conservative balance-sheet focus.
Key takeaways
- Saylor’s “We’re Back” message on X is being treated by observers as a signal that Strategy may resume BTC accumulation.
- Earlier in the year, Strategy paused its regular weekly buying cadence and shifted attention toward financing and balance-sheet strengthening.
- Strategy’s large BTC treasury has recently benefited from Bitcoin reclaiming levels above $80,000, moving the company’s overall position back into paper profit.
- If Strategy resumes purchasing, the change would mark a return to the company’s core playbook after a summer hiatus.
Why “We’re Back” is getting attention
Saylor’s post—shared on X—has drawn attention not only for its message, but for how Strategy typically communicates around treasury moves. Earlier coverage noted that Saylor has sometimes used cryptic weekend teasers that precede official updates when Strategy’s Monday announcements detail new corporate Bitcoin purchases.
Strategy’s investor base often watches these cues closely because they provide a sense of whether capital is likely to be deployed or retained. Even when the post does not specify the timing or size of future purchases, it can shape expectations heading into the next scheduled corporate updates.
The post can also be read as a repositioning signal. After a period of reduced Bitcoin buying activity, “We’re Back” suggests a return to the strategy’s defining mission: increasing exposure to Bitcoin through its treasury operations.
A pause in buying, followed by balance-sheet consolidation
Over roughly the past two months, Strategy deviated from its standard pattern of regular Bitcoin acquisition. Instead of expanding its BTC holdings, the company pivoted toward strengthening its balance sheet.
According to the reporting cited in the original coverage, Strategy’s management concentrated on stabilizing its preferred stock offerings, building a $5.1 billion US dollar reserve, and creating a $1.59 billion cash pool sourced from common stock offerings. In practical terms, this shift indicates that—at least during the hiatus—Strategy prioritized liquidity and capital market mechanics over direct BTC accumulation.
That change has significance for how investors assess Strategy’s near-term path. Corporate Bitcoin accumulation is not only a market decision; it also depends on the company’s ability to raise capital and manage funding costs. When buying slows, traders often interpret it as a temporary reallocation of resources—either due to market conditions, financing structure, or internal readiness to scale purchases again.
Bitcoin’s rebound improves the optics for Strategy’s treasury
The renewed focus on Bitcoin buying comes as the broader market has improved. The original article ties Strategy’s position to Bitcoin trading dynamics, stating that its industry-leading BTC treasury has been “deep in the red on paper” during a challenging stretch. More recently, it notes that macro momentum has helped push Bitcoin above the $80,000 threshold.
With Strategy reportedly holding more than 840,447 BTC at an average cost basis hovering around $75,385, Bitcoin’s move above $80,000 would translate into a return to positive territory for the company’s overall position—at least on an unrealized basis. That matters because it changes the psychological and strategic framing around accumulation. When the treasury sits under its cost basis, additional buying can feel more defensive; when it moves back above, management’s messaging often becomes more offensive and conviction-driven.
It also raises a practical question investors typically track: whether renewed purchasing signals a shift from capital preservation and financing stabilization back toward asset deployment at scale.
What to watch next
Saylor’s “We’re Back” statement may function as a multi-layer signal—both operationally (suggesting readiness to resume BTC accumulation) and psychologically (reinforcing a return to profitability narratives). Still, until Strategy publishes an official Monday update detailing treasury actions, investors should treat the post as a directional cue rather than confirmation of specific purchase terms.
The key next step for the market will be whether Strategy’s upcoming disclosures confirm resumed Bitcoin buying and whether the company’s capital allocation priorities shift from reserve-building and financing to further treasury expansion.
Crypto World
What Is Trump’s U.S. Space Academy?
At the ceremony, Trump also acknowledged the Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope, named for one of the forebears of modern space science, which was launched Sunday aboard a SpaceX Falcon Heavy. With surveying capabilities over 1,000 times faster than its predecessor, the Hubble Space Telescope, Roman seeks to explore dark matter, uncharted corners of the cosmos, and questions about the expansion of the universe.
What do we know so far about the Space Academy?
The first step in establishing the new academy is forming a Presidential Commission to develop recommendations for it. NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman will chair the new commission, according to the executive order, and it will also include War Secretary Pete Hegseth and Air Force Secretary Troy E. Meink, or their designees, among other federal representatives.
The commission has 120 days from Aug. 28 to submit its report to the President. It must include a governance framework, an academic and leadership curriculum, prerequisites for students, a service obligation for graduates, and a plan of implementation, legislative and otherwise, for all of the included components to take effect.
Crypto World
BitGo Buys NYDIG’s Institutional Trading Arm for $7M Cash and $35.5M in Stock
Crypto company BitGo has officially acquired NYDIG’s Bitcoin-focused institutional trading business. The deal was signed and completed on Thursday and reported on Friday, paying $7 million in cash and about $35.5 million in stock at closing, with up to $15 million more in cash tied to two revenue milestones.
The purchase brings NYDIG’s derivatives, structured products, financing, and capital markets operations to the custody company, along with roughly 30 employees.
NYDIG Turns to Power and Compute
Around 250 institutional client relationships were moved across, though they appear in the 8-K filed the same day, which also grants seller NYDIG IHC LLC earn-out shares on the second milestone and sets aside staff retention awards targeting $5 million each in stock and cash.
“Institutions increasingly want to work with a trusted partner that can support the full lifecycle of digital assets,” said Mike Belshe, CEO and Co-founder of BitGo. The firm went public on the NYSE at the start of the year and had a market value below $1 billion as of Thursday, per CNBC.
NYDIG, an affiliate of Stone Ridge Holdings Group, said the sale lets it concentrate on power generation, Bitcoin mining and high-performance computing data centers, a development pipeline it puts above 3 gigawatts, with more than 1 gigawatt deliverable in 2027 and 2028.
“Our team built NYDIG’s institutional trading business into something exceptional: proven execution expertise with derivatives and financing capabilities,” said Tejas Shah, CEO of NYDIG, adding that the data center business is “where we see one of the most significant opportunities ahead.”
Belshe Pushes Senators on CLARITY
Belshe went on CNBC’s Squawk Box on Friday, days after Bitcoin briefly topped $80,000. Asked about a crypto winter, he said the markets “have had high highs and low lows” while “the thesis behind Bitcoin continues to grow,” pointing to tokenized equity plans from Morgan Stanley, Charles Schwab and DTCC.
.@BitGo CEO @mikebelshe breaks down its acquisition of $BTC miner NYDIG: https://t.co/coIINsM3RZ pic.twitter.com/ZqyUsNCkOu
— Squawk Box (@SquawkCNBC) August 28, 2026
On the CLARITY Act, which faces a Senate cloture vote on September 15, Belshe said everyone should want the market structure bill to pass. “This is what gives a legislative path forward to help rein that in, prevent any FTX from ever happening again,” he said, estimating 12 to 18 months of rulemaking after passage and noting he was at the White House with President Trump last week.
Belshe confirmed BitGo runs infrastructure for USD1, the stablecoin behind the Trump family’s World Liberty Financial, and said BitGo just received a license in South Korea. “People don’t realize this, but America actually is behind,” he added.
The post BitGo Buys NYDIG’s Institutional Trading Arm for $7M Cash and $35.5M in Stock appeared first on CryptoPotato.
Crypto World
Saylor Says Treasury Strategy Is “Back” to Bitcoin Buying
Strategy’s co-founder Michael Saylor has signaled—via a fresh post on X—that the firm may be preparing to resume buying Bitcoin. In his latest message, Saylor wrote “We’re Back,” prompting speculation that the company could return to its prior pattern of corporate accumulation announcements on Mondays.
For long-time watchers of Strategy’s moves, the timing matters. Earlier weekend-style signals from Saylor have often been followed by official updates tied to treasury activity at the start of the week, turning small social posts into something of a market barometer for what investors should expect next.
Key takeaways
- Michael Saylor’s “We’re Back” post on X has reignited expectations that Strategy will restart Bitcoin buying.
- Strategy paused its regular weekly Bitcoin purchases over the summer, shifting attention toward balance-sheet and capital-market actions.
- Recent strength in Bitcoin has reportedly moved Strategy’s BTC treasury back into positive territory on paper after months of losses.
- Investors will likely watch for whether Monday announcements confirm that the signal translates into renewed accumulation.
A weekend signal with a track record
In the post, Saylor described a return rather than a new thesis, reinforcing the idea that Strategy may be moving back toward Bitcoin accumulation after a period of restraint. The community interpretation is grounded in how Strategy has historically communicated: cryptic weekend hints have frequently preceded official Monday morning treasury purchase announcements.
The practical relevance for market participants is straightforward. Strategy’s Bitcoin buying has been closely watched because its scale and regularity can influence sentiment around corporate participation. Even when the underlying purchase mechanics are formalized only later, the lead time created by Saylor’s messaging can shift expectations well before any transaction details are released.
What Strategy changed during its summer pause
Over the past two months, Strategy reportedly stopped its routine weekly Bitcoin purchases, replacing the accumulation cadence with a broader focus on strengthening its financial foundation. Instead of expanding crypto holdings, management emphasized balance-sheet stability and funding structure adjustments.
According to the article, Strategy’s priorities during this period included stabilizing preferred stock offerings, building a US dollar reserve of $5.1 billion, and setting up a dedicated cash pool of $1.59 billion generated through large common stock offerings. Together, these steps suggest the firm treated the pause not as an abandonment of its approach, but as a financing reset—keeping liquidity available so that future buying could proceed on its preferred schedule.
That shift also aligned with a difficult stretch for Strategy’s on-paper position. With Bitcoin under pressure during parts of the summer, the firm’s large BTC treasury was said to be “deep in the red,” at least on mark-to-market measures.
Bitcoin’s move back above $80,000 and Strategy’s position
The renewed “We’re Back” narrative is now landing against a different backdrop for Bitcoin’s price. The article notes that recent macro momentum has pushed Bitcoin above the $80,000 threshold, a move that changes the immediate math for holders.
Strategy holds more than 840,447 Bitcoin, with an average cost basis hovering around $75,385, as described in the source text. With Bitcoin recovering, that reported cost-versus-market relationship has pushed the company’s overall BTC position back into positive territory for the first time in months.
This matters for two reasons. First, it removes some of the accounting pressure that tends to weigh on corporate crypto holders during drawdowns. Second, it can make a return to accumulation more strategically attractive: when the treasury is back above average cost, renewed buying can be framed less defensively and more as an offensive strategy—something investors typically prefer to see when evaluating risk-adjusted prospects.
Why “We’re Back” could mean more than a headline
While Saylor’s post is not a formal announcement of a specific purchase amount or exact timing, the statement carries multiple layers for Strategy stakeholders. Operationally, it can be read as a readiness check—suggesting the company is prepared to deploy its “dry powder” back into Bitcoin. Psychologically, it signals a re-energized approach after a period when market conditions and Strategy’s reported balance-sheet focus may have temporarily shifted attention away from routine accumulation.
Still, there’s an important distinction investors should keep in mind: a social media signal is an expectation, not execution. The real confirmation will come from official treasury disclosures that specify whether and when Strategy restarts buying activity, and how the company positions its financing tools alongside any resumed purchases.
That uncertainty is precisely why the post is notable. Strategy’s previous pattern—weekend teasers followed by Monday morning corporate actions—has created a framework in which traders and long-term observers can interpret early hints. If the pattern holds again, Saylor’s message may function as an early warning that accumulation could return as a central pillar of Strategy’s next phase.
For now, market participants are likely to watch Bitcoin closely as well as Strategy’s upcoming filings and announcements for confirmation. If the firm does resume its cadence, the move could reinforce the narrative that corporate treasury buying remains a key driver of crypto sentiment even after pauses designed to manage liquidity and capital-market conditions.
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