Bitcoin held near $63,600 after Wednesday’s in-line U.S. inflation print proved enough to calm nerves, but not enough to move markets decisively in either direction.

The largest cryptocurrency has added 0.30% since midnight UTC, while the broader crypto market capitalization dropped 0.54% over 24 hours to $2.18 trillion.

July CPI came in at 3.4% year over year, matching forecasts. Core inflation also eased, with the annual reading slipping to 2.5% from 2.6%. The producer price inflation figure due at 12:30 UTC may provide more impetus to a lackluster market.

As for U.S. equities, S&P 500 index futures gained 0.13% while Nasdaq 100 futures were little changed.

Derivatives positioning

• Futures market churn continues: 24-hour volume stands at $147 billion, up 6% on the day, but cumulative open interest (OI) across all cryptocurrency futures has held flat near $116 billion.
• XRP positioning stays elevated: XRP futures OI is perched at 2.67 billion tokens, the most since October, for a third straight day. The 24-hour cumulative volume delta (CVD) remains negative, pointing to bearish bets being executed at market prices more than bullish ones. These paint a bearish picture, flagging a possible drop below $1. There’s a silver lining, though: The annualized perpetual funding rate is near 8%, pointing to a bias toward bullish bets.
• ADA and BCH show heavy bearish tilt: Both coins are seeing funding rates of -10% or lower, pointing to a clear investor preference for bearish positions. They both also show negative 24-hour CVD, indicating aggressive selling. This is particularly notable for ADA, whose OI remains just shy of the recent record high of 2.79 billion tokens, suggesting traders are adding fresh short exposure near record participation levels, not just unwinding old longs.
• AVAX flips from gainer to loser: Avalanche’s AVAX, one of the top OI gainers earlier this week, is the biggest OI loser of the past 24 hours. Others include LTC, LINK and SOL.
• Implied volatility stays muted: Options-based implied volatility for bitcoin and ether remains near its recently hit year-to-date lows, suggesting traders aren’t expecting a big move in the short term.
• Upside bets still surface: In BTC’s case, someone bought a large number of call options at the $65,500 strike, paying $1.07 million in initial premium. This is an ultra-short-term bullish bet; the calls expire Aug. 15.

Token talk

• XMR is up 3.15% since midnight UTC at around $404, extending its weekly run of more than 11% as the privacy coin continues to outperform the broader market.
• HYPE is up 1.75% since midnight at $57, continuing a steady grind higher with a 2% gain on the week.
• FET is up 0.84% since midnight, while NEAR added 0.94%, as a handful of mid-cap altcoins outperform the two largest coins, bitcoin and ether.
• CRV is giving back some of Wednesday’s surge, falling 8.38% over 24 hours to 25 cents. Still, it remains up more than 22% on the week after breaking above a months-long descending trendline.
• DeFi token MORPHO was one of the weaker performers, losing 1.51% since midnight.

Compounding the issue, many DAT firms have consistently favored issuing debt to fund purchases of BTC. That strategy raises the question of how different they are from governments that borrow heavily to fund investments that fail to generate adequate returns. Both, ultimately, lead to high indebtedness relative to income. As we have noted before, bitcoin lacks inherent yield, return or cash flow.

For now, however, the market doesn’t appear to be worried about these dynamics. BTC continues to trade between $62,000 and $66,000, as it has for weeks, with today’s price action largely below $64,000.

Some analysts say they remain optimistic that the bear market has run its course, pointing to a price range that corresponds with the previous bull-cycle high.

“The peaks of the 2021 bull market were close to these levels,” Alex Kuptsikevich, the chief analyst at FxPro, said in an email. “Three years ago, Bitcoin’s decline generally halted at $20K, which was close to the peak of the previous bull market at the end of 2017. This supports our view that the decline may have run its course, with bearish momentum fading as Bitcoin approaches the 200-week moving average.”

Other analysts have turned their focus to August’s Jackson Hole symposium of central banks and economic data for trading cues. Stay alert!

Figure Technology Solutions reported $4.3 billion in consumer loan marketplace volume for the second quarter, up 132% from a year earlier, as its quarterly profit nearly tripled. 

On Thursday, Figure said net income rose 192% year over year to $87 million, from about $30 million. Net revenue more than doubled to $226 million, while its net income margin increased 10.5 percentage points to 38.8%. 

Figure’s marketplace volume includes home equity lines of credit, debt-service coverage ratio loans and personal loans processed through its loan origination system, along with third-party loans traded on Figure Connect, which accounted for $2.8 billion, or 65%, of the quarterly total. 

Volume on the marketplace, which Figure launched in June 2024, increased 262% from the same period last year. The company also added 102 loan-origination partners during the quarter, bringing its total to 489. 

CEO Michael Tannenbaum said weekly loan applications surpassed $1 billion in July. Figure expects consumer loan marketplace volume of between $4.8 billion and $5.2 billion in the third quarter. 

Bernstein analysts predicted in May that Figure would post record second-quarter volume, citing live blockchain data that they said could increasingly allow investors to track the company’s lending activity in real time. 

Related: Tokenized RWA market grows 420% since 2025 on regulatory clarity, access

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Dubai and a question of civility

Figure Technology Solutions (FIGR), the blockchain lending firm co-founded by former SoFi CEO Mike Cagney, more than doubled its revenue in the second quarter as lending activity surged across its marketplace

The company reported $226 million in net revenue for the quarter ended June 30, up 113% from a year earlier. Net income climbed 192% to $87 million, or 35 cents per diluted share, while adjusted EBITDA more than doubled to $119 million.

Growth was driven by Figure’s Consumer Loan Marketplace, where volume reached $4.3 billion, up 132% from a year ago. Figure Connect, its marketplace connecting loan originators with capital providers, accounted for $2.8 billion, or about 65%, of that total.

FIGR shares rose roughly 5% in premarket trading on Thursday, extending Wednesday’s 10% gain.

Figure is one of the more established publicly traded companies trying to move lending and capital-market activity onto blockchain rails. Its platform connects loan originators with investors, using blockchain infrastructure to support the origination, financing and trading of assets such as home-equity loans.

Bitmine Immersion Technologies, described by its latest disclosures as the largest corporate holder of staked Ether, has pushed its staking balance beyond the 5 million ETH mark. In an announcement released Monday, the company reported holdings of 5.81 million staked Ether, projecting roughly $257 million in annualized revenue from staking-related income.

The update arrives as Ether treasury firms are increasingly using staking to generate recurring cash flows—while still confronting the risk that reduced spot prices can erode margins and mark-to-market results. Recent figures underscore the tension: Cointelegraph reported that Ether staking accounted for about 98% of Bitmine’s revenue for the fiscal quarter ending May 31.

Key takeaways

• Bitmine says it has 5.81 million staked ETH, estimating $257 million in annualized staking revenue.
• According to Bitfinex analysts cited by Cointelegraph, staking drove ~98% of Bitmine revenue in the quarter ending May 31.
• Ether’s staking income is often treated as steadier than spot price exposure, but it depends on ETH price, staking yield, and operational constraints.
• Ether treasury companies face mounting paper losses when ETH spot falls; SharpLink reported $391 million in unrealized crypto losses in Q2 2026.
• As of current staking-network data, Ether staking shows an APR of 2.61%, with 34%+ of supply staked across 897,064 validators.

Bitmine’s staking jump and what it funds

Bitmine’s Monday announcement is framed around a milestone: it has moved past 5 million ETH in staked tokens. The company tied the scale of its staking position to an estimated $257 million in annualized revenue.

Cointelegraph also cited analysis from Bitfinex exchange showing how concentrated Bitmine’s income has become. For the fiscal quarter ending May 31, staking generated $45.7 million out of $46.5 million in total revenue—about 98%.

“It funds operations and its share buyback program: 19.1 million shares repurchased since July against a $4 billion authorisation, without Bitmine having to sell any Ether.”

That last detail matters for how investors may evaluate treasury strategies. If a company can finance buybacks and operating needs without liquidating volatile crypto holdings, it may reduce the need to sell during unfavorable price regimes—at least in principle.

Why Ether is finding a treasury role—and the limits of staking income

Bitmine’s milestone has reinforced a broader trend: Ether staking is increasingly discussed as a way for corporate balance sheets to earn native yield. Cointelegraph quoted Alvin Kan, chief operating officer at Bitget Wallet, arguing that Ether can function as a yield-bearing treasury asset, while Bitcoin is more commonly framed as an asset held for balance-sheet appreciation.

However, Kan stressed that staking revenue is not risk-free. Ether’s yield can vary and treasury operators must manage multiple layers of exposure beyond “headline APR.”

“The revenue is annualized, depends on ETH price and staking yield, and comes with operational, liquidity, validator and regulatory considerations.”

This distinction is important for market participants comparing corporate crypto strategies. Staking can smooth some income—but it does not eliminate the need for disciplined treasury planning. The income model should be viewed as an enhancement to broader capital management rather than a simple replacement for traditional risk controls.

Even where recurring staking income is valued as a “buffer,” the underlying economics remain sensitive to ETH market conditions. Cointelegraph cited an opinion piece from July 28 on Seeking Alpha by Yiannis Zourmpanos, which argued that annualized staking receipts can be modeled with less direct dependence on spot ETH prices. Still, the approach depends on assumptions about yield persistence and the operational ability to sustain staking over time.

Falling ETH spot prices amplify unrealized losses

While staking can generate recurring income, treasury firms are not insulated from valuation impacts when Ether trades lower. The source notes that Ether’s spot price fell roughly 23% during the second quarter of 2026, a move that pressures margins and increases unrealized losses for entities holding large crypto reserves.

SharpLink, identified as the second-largest Ether treasury company, illustrates the problem. Cointelegraph reported that SharpLink posted a $394 million net loss for Q2 2026, driven largely by $391 million in unrealized crypto losses.

That contrast with Bitmine’s staking-heavy revenue highlights a key asymmetry. A company can generate staking proceeds without selling—yet its financial statements may still reflect spot-driven mark-to-market declines on the underlying holdings. For investors, the practical question becomes whether staking income is sufficient to offset these valuation moves on a reported basis, and how much of the exposure is unrealized versus realized.

How much Ether is staked—and who leads among corporate holders

The staking activity behind Bitmine’s model is supported by broader network participation. According to data from Validatorqueue, Ether staking currently offers an APR of 2.61%. The same dashboard shows that over 34% of the total Ether supply is staked across 897,064 validators.

In corporate terms, the data cited in the source points to a clear leader-follower dynamic. Cointelegraph stated that Bitmine is currently the largest corporate Ether holder at 5.54 million ETH (worth about $9.4 billion at the referenced valuation), while SharpLink ranks second with 863,000 ETH (about $1.46 billion), according to information from the StrategicEthReserve data site.

Taken together, the figures suggest why staking is drawing attention from corporate treasuries: it can be scaled, monitored, and used to generate ongoing returns. But the same scale also magnifies reporting effects when ETH’s market price drops, increasing the importance of underwriting assumptions around yield durability and liquidity management.

Next, investors should watch whether corporate staking earnings remain stable as network conditions and ETH yield dynamics shift, and whether reported losses from spot declines continue to overwhelm staking proceeds—or eventually stabilize as prices and staking economics realign.

Tether has moved to put a new layer of third-party scrutiny around its finances, completing an independent audit of its annual financial statements. KPMG US issued a clean, or “unqualified,” opinion on Tether’s 2025 accounts, covering the company’s balance sheet, income statement, and cash flows for the year ended Dec. 31, 2025.

In its announcement, Tether said the audited results show reserves exceeding liabilities by $6.814 billion, and it emphasized that the engagement went beyond its long-running quarterly reserve attestations by examining broader financial statements and supporting evidence.

Key takeaways

• KPMG US issued an unqualified opinion on Tether’s 2025 annual financial statements under US accounting standards.
• The audit covered assets backing issued tokens and the liabilities those tokens represent, including transactions, systems, and ownership records.
• Tether reported that reserves exceeded liabilities by $6.814 billion in the audited period.
• KPMG’s work included physical inspection and counting of Tether’s gold holdings, not just reliance on custodian documentation.

A full annual audit replaces “attestation” level scrutiny

For years, Tether has published quarterly reserve attestations intended to provide visibility into the backing of its stablecoin. The new audit is designed to be broader and more demanding: rather than focusing only on reserve composition at a point in time, KPMG reviewed the company’s full annual financial statements and the underlying materials that support them.

According to Tether, the independent review examined not only the balances reflected on the statements, but also the evidence behind them—such as transaction records, valuations, counterparties, and internal systems used to produce the financial reporting. Tether said the audit subjected the company’s year-end financial position to examination in the same way an external auditor would assess any public-facing US financial report.

Under the audit’s findings, KPMG concluded that Tether’s financial statements fairly present the company’s financial position, results, and cash flows “in all material respects,” using US accounting standards—an outcome typically read by markets as a strong baseline for reporting reliability.

What the audit found: reserves over liabilities

Tether’s announcement ties the audit’s headline takeaway to a simple balance-sheet relationship: it reported that audited reserves exceeded audited liabilities by $6.814 billion for the year ended Dec. 31, 2025.

While the specific arithmetic is confined to the audited statements themselves, the practical implication is straightforward for readers following stablecoin solvency narratives: an independent auditor reviewed the accounts and did not issue qualifications that would suggest material misstatement under the applicable framework.

Tether also indicated that the audit covered key components investors often track in stablecoins—namely, how the assets held by the issuer relate to the liabilities created by issued tokens.

Physical verification of gold highlights a key diligence point

One notable detail Tether highlighted is that KPMG physically inspected and counted Tether’s gold holdings as part of the audit. Tether said the verification process involved checking each bar, rather than depending solely on records from custodians.

In the context of stablecoins that hold commodity exposures, this kind of verification matters because it reduces reliance on third-party documentation in isolation. Instead, it introduces an additional layer of direct confirmation tied to the asset itself—particularly relevant when discussions about reserve transparency can otherwise focus on what is visible on paper versus what is independently verifiable.

Why the audit matters for stablecoin users and markets

Since launching USDt (USDT) in 2014, Tether has grown into one of crypto’s dominant financial rails. The stablecoin remains the core of the company’s business, and its market size is frequently cited as a key driver of stablecoin liquidity across exchanges and on-chain markets.

The scale of Tether’s footprint is reinforced by broader market metrics. According to DefiLlama data cited in the article, USDT’s market capitalization is roughly $183 billion, representing about 61% of the total stablecoin market of roughly $301 billion. The same comparison puts Circle’s USDC at roughly $72 billion in market capitalization.

In that environment, an annual independent audit can be more than a compliance step—it can affect how counterparties, institutional allocators, and auditors approach risk management. Quarterly attestations help, but a full annual audit is typically seen as a higher standard because it focuses on financial statements holistically rather than only on reserve snapshots.

Tether has also continued to expand its broader business beyond plain stablecoins. In 2025, Tether reported more than $10 billion in net profit, and it has disclosed additional activity tied to tokenized gold products (Tether Gold, XAUt) and other investments. These moves matter because they increase the range of claims investors might want to understand through consistent, auditable reporting.

At the same time, Tether’s executives have not signaled a near-term plan to list the company publicly. The article notes that in June 2025, CEO Paolo Ardoino posted on X, “No need to go public,” in response to speculation about a potential IPO. For markets, that context can influence expectations: if the issuer doesn’t pursue public-market scrutiny, an annual audited statement can function as an alternative transparency anchor.

What to watch next

With KPMG’s unqualified opinion now attached to Tether’s 2025 annual accounts, the next question for investors and stablecoin users is whether future years continue to follow the same audited approach and how Tether’s audited reserve picture evolves as its product lineup grows. In the meantime, the combination of physical asset verification and a full-statement audit offers a clearer baseline for assessing the issuer’s reported financial health.

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Bitcoin steadied after a dip toward weekly lows, with the latest catalyst coming from cooling US inflation data. On Thursday, BTC moved modestly higher as July’s Producer Price Index (PPI) showed a small decline in the annual rate and left month-on-month inflation unchanged, easing pressure on rate-hike expectations.

Still, traders are watching key downside levels closely. On-chain and liquidation analytics indicate that a move toward $61,000 could trigger concentrated long-position liquidations, potentially accelerating selling if that support breaks.

Key takeaways

• July US PPI came in softer than expected on a year-over-year basis, supporting a risk-on tone in traditional markets.
• Federal Reserve officials remain split on the rate path, but Cleveland Fed president Beth Hammack delivered a cautious message on inflation progress.
• Bitcoin’s near-term price action appears range-bound, leaving liquidation zones at the edges of the range more influential.
• Glassnode cofounder Rafael Schultze-Kraft highlighted $61,000 as a potential flashpoint due to built-up long liquidation risk.

July PPI cools, supports US stocks—and Bitcoin

According to TradingView data, BTC/USD was up roughly 0.5% on the day near $63,900, with volatility relatively muted at the time. The broader tailwind came from July’s US Producer Price Index print published by the US Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS).

Per the BLS, July’s PPI was unchanged month-on-month at 0.2%, while the year-over-year increase slowed to 4.7% compared with a 4.9% expectation. The BLS attributed the monthly flat reading to offsetting components: a 0.2% rise in final demand services and a 2.2% increase in final demand construction, countered by a 0.7% decrease in final demand goods.

The BLS also noted that falling gasoline and energy prices provided the largest source of relief. Econoday analysts similarly pointed to the flat overall outcome in their commentary on the report.

As the PPI release hit markets, US equities rose at the open. At the time of writing, the S&P 500 and the Nasdaq Composite were up 0.87% and 0.94%, respectively, reflecting renewed optimism that inflation pressures may be easing enough to keep the Federal Reserve on hold.

For crypto investors, the immediate significance is clear: when inflation prints reduce the probability of further tightening, it can improve sentiment across risk assets, including Bitcoin—even if crypto-specific drivers remain secondary in the short run.

Rate-hike bets shift, but the Fed’s tone stays careful

Rate expectations moved in tandem with the data. CME Group’s FedWatch Tool showed 65.6% odds that the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) would hold interest rates at the current 3.50% to 3.75% level at its September meeting. The update followed Wednesday’s July Consumer Price Index (CPI) release, which matched expectations and had already supported the “pause” narrative.

However, inflation data may not be enough on its own to settle the Fed debate. The Cleveland Federal Reserve Bank’s president, Beth Hammack, questioned whether recent cooling prints would reliably bring inflation down to the Fed’s 2% goal—and whether the time required would be acceptable. In remarks delivered at an event in Kettering, Ohio, Hammack suggested policymakers may still need continued improvement rather than assuming that favorable prints guarantee a quicker path to target.

Bloomberg reported Hammack’s remarks with the framing that even if the central bank reaches its goal, it could take another three to four years, raising the question of whether that timeline is “OK” for the committee’s outlook.

Notably, Hammack was one of three Fed officials who supported a 0.25% rate hike in July, underscoring that a cautious stance remains present even as incoming inflation data moderates.

Traders eye liquidation pressure near $61,000

Even with the macro tailwind, Bitcoin’s price action has been relatively contained. That makes positioning and liquidation levels more important when BTC approaches range extremes.

Glassnode cofounder Rafael Schultze-Kraft pointed to $61,000 as the next potential trouble spot. In an earlier Tuesday post on X, he wrote that long liquidation risk has built up around $61K over the past few weeks, and that if price reaches that area, forced selling could add momentum to the downside.

In other words, rather than relying purely on technical support as a “line in the sand,” traders may also be considering how derivatives mechanics could amplify any break. When liquidation clusters are concentrated, the market can transition quickly from a slow bleed to a sharp drop—especially if liquidity thins.

This focus on $61,000 also fits with earlier market commentary from Cointelegraph, which reported that $63,000 had started forming a key level after repeated retests increased the odds of a support failure if buyers failed to defend it.

From a trading perspective, the key implication is not that $61,000 is guaranteed to break—rather, it highlights where downside acceleration risk is most pronounced if momentum turns bearish. For spot holders and derivatives traders, that distinction matters: the level is important partly because of how it could trigger broader, mechanical selling pressure.

As of this writing, Bitcoin is still trading off the bounce from weekly weakness, but with macro expectations and Fed messaging still in flux, attention is likely to keep oscillating between inflation-driven sentiment and crypto-specific positioning.

Looking ahead, traders should monitor whether further inflation-related surprises continue to soften rate expectations—and whether BTC can hold key intraday levels without drawing price toward the liquidation pocket around $61,000. The next decisive move may come less from a single headline and more from how markets price the Fed’s timeline after each new data release.