EthSystems, a startup spun out of the Ethereum Foundation earlier this month, is betting that privacy, not scalability, is the biggest obstacle preventing institutions from moving financial activity onto public blockchains.

The company, which emerged from the Ethereum Foundation’s Institutional Privacy Task Force, is building confidentiality infrastructure for banks, asset managers and governments looking to use Ethereum for tokenized assets, stablecoins and other financial applications.

Rather than creating an entirely new blockchain, EthSystems helps institutions deploy privacy technologies that allow sensitive transaction data to remain confidential while still settling on Ethereum.

“Almost every single financial institution requires some level of confidentiality,” co-founder Mo Jalil told CoinDesk in an interview. “Confidentiality doesn’t necessarily mean something has to be anonymous or hidden. There just needs to be controls over who sees what, when and how.”

EthSystems is far from the only company focused on institutional privacy. Projects such as Canton Network, which is backed by major financial institutions including Goldman Sachs, BNP Paribas and DTCC, as well as Ethereum-native privacy protocols like Aztec and Miden, are also developing infrastructure aimed at enabling confidential transactions for enterprises.

Japan’s next monetary policy decision is coming into sharper focus as the yen keeps sliding toward fresh 40-year lows against the US dollar. With the Bank of Japan (BoJ) scheduled to meet on July 31, markets are weighing whether policymakers will pause at current levels—or signal further tightening as the currency weakens.

The immediate question for global markets, and particularly for crypto traders, is how much pressure a yen slide can add through “carry trade” dynamics. When Japanese rates stay low and the yen depreciates, borrowing in yen to fund riskier assets can expand. But if conditions shift—especially if the yen moves abruptly—those positions can unwind quickly, tightening liquidity and often hitting highly leveraged markets.

Key takeaways

• USD/JPY is nearing new 40-year highs, edging toward the 164 area after last week’s record set, according to TradingView.
• The BoJ meets on July 31 with its policy rate currently at 1.0%, the highest since September 1995.
• Market pricing points to a hold decision, with prediction markets indicating very high odds of no change.
• Yen carry-trade unwinds remain a key risk for crypto liquidity, after the 2024 unwind episode was triggered by yen-related interventions.

Yen weakness puts the BoJ under a global spotlight

On Tuesday, data from TradingView showed USD/JPY approaching 164, just short of the new 40-year highs recorded last week. That level matters not only because it reflects yen depreciation, but because Japan’s currency policy affects far more than domestic pricing.

The yen is widely used as a funding currency. With relatively light capital controls and deep liquidity outside the dollar, a weakening yen can reinforce global carry strategies—positioning that depends on Japanese rates staying low and exchange rates remaining stable enough to avoid forced closures.

Japan’s backdrop has also supported that role for decades: earlier current account and trade surpluses helped underpin the currency’s liquidity profile while low interest rates kept yen funding attractive. However, since inflation picked up in 2022, the balance has been shifting toward the possibility of carry-trade stress—particularly if yen depreciation forces investors to exit leveraged trades faster than they expected.

The BoJ’s July 31 decision comes as the policy rate stands at 1.0%, its highest since September 1995. While most expectations currently point to no change, the forward guidance from earlier in the year has kept attention on the pace and timing of potential further hikes.

Markets expect a hold—BoJ’s guidance still leans toward tightening

On expectations for the upcoming meeting, markets appear aligned around the idea of a pause. The reporting around the decision notes that market-implied probabilities show a rate hold at roughly 98%, following the BoJ’s most recent increase in June.

Prediction service Polymarket similarly priced the odds of no change at 99% as of Tuesday, signaling that traders largely expect policymakers to keep the benchmark rate unchanged at the July meeting.

Still, the June meeting summary referenced conditions that could justify additional tightening later. In its published summary, the BoJ pointed to underlying inflation approaching 2%, accommodative financial conditions, and the appropriateness of continuing to raise the policy rate and adjust the degree of monetary accommodation in response to developments in activity, prices, and financial conditions.

The same BoJ materials also flagged how exchange rate moves can feed into CPI dynamics. According to the BoJ’s Outlook for Economic And Prices issued after its April meeting, firms’ pricing and wage behavior may make exchange rate developments more likely to affect prices than in past regimes—ultimately influencing underlying CPI inflation through changes in inflation expectations. The document explicitly notes that attention should be paid to this mechanism.

Since then, yen weakness has persisted, even after the June rate hike. As earlier coverage from Cointelegraph noted, the yen has remained above the key 160 level against the dollar despite a post-hike dip, with the broader trend still pointing toward yen depreciation.

Crypto traders watch carry trade risk as yen moves near highs

For crypto markets, the yen story is not just macro trivia—it is a liquidity channel. The yen carry trade can act as a source of risk capital for assets that trade with high leverage, including cryptocurrencies. But that linkage cuts both ways: if the yen strengthens or begins to move sharply, carry positions can unwind, often transmitting stress into trading venues quickly.

Cointelegraph previously reported that interventions in August 2024 triggered a snap “unwinding” of the carry trade, which was accompanied by a rapid negative impact on Bitcoin and altcoins. That episode matters because it illustrates how quickly a trade can reverse when currency moves overwhelm the assumptions that initially made it profitable.

With USD/JPY building on new 40-year highs, concerns about a repeat have resurfaced. Analyst Ricky Ho highlighted in an X post on Monday that the carry trade works only if two conditions remain intact: Japanese interest rates stay exceptionally low and the yen remains broadly stable or continues depreciating. Ho also argued that unwinds are rarely gradual, citing leverage levels that can force faster exits than markets may expect.

Ho went further, suggesting that investors may be focusing too narrowly on the specific months of future BoJ hikes. In his view, the more important issue is that the policy direction has already fundamentally changed—meaning that the risk is tied to the trajectory of policy rather than the calendar.

That framing is particularly relevant given the uncertainty around how much of the yen’s weakness the BoJ is willing to tolerate, and whether further tightening might be used to influence currency stabilization indirectly. If the BoJ’s stance shifts from slow, incremental normalization toward a more hawkish path, it could affect expectations around the yen—either helping prevent disorderly moves or raising the chance of abrupt repricing if markets believe the currency will recover too quickly.

What to monitor before and after July 31

With the BoJ meeting on July 31 and expectations currently centered on a hold, traders and investors will likely focus less on the decision itself and more on the details that follow: any changes in language about the yen’s impact on CPI, how the BoJ balances financial conditions with inflation and growth, and whether guidance implies additional hikes sooner than markets are currently pricing.

Even if the rate is left unchanged, the market’s sensitivity to the yen’s trajectory remains high. The question for the next phase of both macro and crypto liquidity is whether USD/JPY stabilizes—or whether yen moves accelerate in a way that forces leveraged positioning to adjust rapidly.

Fortitude Mining Holdings, the Zcash (ZEC) mining platform owned by Barry Silbert’s Digital Currency Group (DCG), has disclosed a set of disappointing financials that reveal tons of debt, years of losses, and ZEC as a minority of revenue.

The disclosure, which also reveals a highly adjusted EBITDA that disregards $32 million of depreciation, paints a very different picture to a pitch deck published by Fortitude last month.

The deck, which is listed on the company’s website, proudly claims that as of a conveniently selected period of the 2025 fiscal year, Fortitude was debt-free.

However, compelled by SEC rules to disclose more up-to-date financials pursuant to its all-stock merger with publicly-traded HeartSciences Inc., the company has admitted that it signed a $26 million credit facility on June 1 and drew over $8.3 million of actual debt from that facility before the deck was published on June 23.

The disappointment doesn’t end there.

The pitch deck also declared Fortitude Mining “a Zcash ecosystem leader.” However, filings show a $12.6 million net loss for 2025. That loss added to a $14.3 million in 2024.

Worse, net losses continued through March 2026, with Q1 draining another $4.6 million.

Even its self-characterization as a Zcash “leader” is questionable given its actual revenue split. Of the company’s $89 million in mining revenue for 2025, 65% or $58 million came not from mining ZEC but from mining BTC.

Indeed, only 28% of its 2025 revenue came from mining ZEC. BTC and other crypto assets generated 72%.

Infamous crypto scammer Bastille has apparently been doxxed by a former partner who has accused him of rape, financial manipulation, and refusing to cover their medical bills after he crashed the car they were traveling in. 

Anonymous X user “Slippage” shared the details of their relationship in a lengthy thread during which they claimed that Bastille’s real name is William Edmund Bateman.

Slippage claims they first came into contact with Bastille in July 2024 through a group chat and soon started launching cryptocurrencies together. 

The pair formed a close relationship, but Slippage claims Bastille soon began to accuse them “of farming his coins,” and stealing $40,000. He allegedly found out later that it was one of his close “guys.”

They would go on to meet several times, with Slippage claiming that during one meet-up in Japan, Bastille got drunk and became “aggressive,” called them names, and eventually fell asleep on the floor. 

At some point the pair also went to a casino where Slippage claims Bastille left them alone while “weird gross men” harassed them. 

Bastille and Slippage cooked rugpulls together

Despite this, the pair continued to launch tokens together with Slippage describing the process as “cooks.” They claim that Bateman came up with the ideas, while they crafted “the art, design, content and videos, Twitter, dex and bundle.”

However, despite it being an apparent joint venture, Bastille would allegedly tell Slippage that they didn’t deserve the money. “On one coin we made some money and he kept about 85% of profits,” they said. “Even though I had no sleep for approximately 40 hours and was working while he was sleeping.”

“Sometimes he didn’t pay me at all,” they added, “so i was genuinely surprised when we split 50/50.”

Bastille’s alleged abuse 

Slippage claims that bastille repeatedly lied about his financial affairs, and said that he would become incredibly angry when they launched coins with other people. 

“When Bastille lost money on perps or slots he took his anger out on me. He shouted, threw things around and became very very aggressive. I had to hide in another room and cry.”

They also accuse Bastille of “pushing” them into having sex against their will, and allege that he’d perform certain sexual acts they didn’t like. 

“My words, discomfort and boundaries were not enough for him to stop,” said Slippage. ”I couldn’t defend myself. I was scared he would leave.”

They added, “I had anxiety and panic attacks almost every day for about a year. I was always scared of him. I was scared to ask for anything, scared to talk about the things he did to me again, and scared to ask him to pay me for the projects we worked on together.” 

Read more: ‘Crypto Robin Hood’ faked prison for clout, rugged memecoins for Palestine

Bastille allegedly kept their relationship hidden, wouldn’t go halves on rent, and would frequently make Slippage pay for stuff despite making “7 figs.” He would also allegedly lie about “normal everyday things,” and frequently made cruel comments about their appearance and lifestyle.  

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Eventually, Bastille allegedly had a major crashout after selling a coin from one of their launches too early. 

Slippage discovered that he was talking negatively about them to other people, and that he’d shared “private photos” with other people and planned to share them via one of his social channels. 

They eventually split, however, he reached out 10 days later asking for another chance. They decided to go to Norway where he allegedly crashed a BMW the two of them were traveling in.

Bastille allegedly won’t pay for medical bills

Slippage says the incident left them with six fractures in their spine, a ligament injury, a lung contusion, a disc protrusion, concussion, and resulted in them wearing a brace for three months.

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The medical bills, according to Slippage, came to around €50,000 ($57,000). When they asked Bastille to pay €6,000 ($6,800) towards a Norwegian hospital bill, he allegedly agreed but never paid up. 

Read more: Memecoin traders praying for global hantavirus pandemic

“He saw my pain, anxiety, sleep problems and physical limits. But instead of support I got anger, arguments about money, silence and more broken promises,” Slippage said. “He also was trading in my kitchen while I was crying in my bed alone for days.”

Despite their split, bastille allegedly continued to hound Slippage and found ways to work around the blocks they’d set up. 

Slippage says leaving Bastille was hard

According to Slippage, they struggled to leave Bastille because they believed most of the promises and romantic gestures that would follow the abuse. 

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Not only that, they say, “We were also connected through projects, money and people in crypto. A large part of the money we made was under his control.

Read more: Crypto devs accused of rug pull blame Iran draft for abandoning project

“I stayed because I was emotionally attached, financially connected and scared.”

However, his alleged actions proved too much, and Slippage eventually decided to dox him. “Since he doesn’t give a single fuck about what he did, the only thing I could do is to bring some balance to the universe.

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The Bank of Russia published its first draft rules as part of the introduction of cryptocurrency regulations in the country, including capital requirements for companies that hold and record digital assets.

The proposals would extend systems already used in Russia’s securities markets, including exchange trading, custody, record-keeping and disclosure rules, to digital assets.

The framework would create “digital depositories,” regulated companies that would record holdings of cryptocurrencies and other digital assets. They would need between 50 million ($570,000) and 250 million rubles ($2.8 million) in capital, depending on the services they provide.

Settlement depositories would require 250 million rubles ($2.8 million) in capital The requirement falls to 100 million rubles ($1.1 million) for firms that control crypto addresses or hold assets with foreign custodians, and 50 million rubles ($570,000) for other digital depositories.

Assets counted toward those capital requirements must be liquid, while eligible financial assets must meet the central bank’s credit-quality standards. The requirements would also apply to operators of electronic platforms that settle transactions involving digital financial assets.

The central bank will maintain registers of digital depositories, crypto exchange operators and companies that issue digital financial assets.