South Korean cryptocurrency exchange Upbit announced on Aug. 26 that it will add PolySwarm’s NCT token to its Korean won market. 

NCT/KRW trading is scheduled to begin at 9:00 p.m. Korea Standard Time.

The listing gives NCT a direct fiat trading route on South Korea’s largest crypto exchange by reported domestic volume. NCT already trades against Bitcoin on Upbit, with the exchange using that market’s previous closing price to set its initial KRW trading controls.

Upbit will open NCT/KRW with temporary restrictions

Upbit’s official notice listed NCT’s previous BTC market close at 0.00000006 BTC, equivalent to approximately 6.55 won. This figure serves as a reference for early order restrictions rather than a guaranteed opening price.

Buy orders will be blocked for approximately five minutes after trading begins. Sell orders priced 10% or more below the reference price will face the same restriction. Only limit orders will be available during the first two hours.

The exchange warned that the opening “may be postponed” if deposits and withdrawals do not produce sufficient liquidity. At the time of research, Upbit had not announced a delay, and the market remained scheduled to open at 9:00 p.m. KST.

Advertisement

These controls follow the structure used for other recent additions. As crypto.news reported, Upbit also restricted early orders after adding LIT to its Korean won market on Aug. 24.

NCT price jumps before the Upbit listing

NCT recorded a sharp market response before the Korean won pair opened. The token traded near $0.0146 as of 7:43 p.m. KST, gaining approximately 200% over 24 hours, according to CoinGecko data.

Its 24-hour trading volume reached about $15.36 million, while its market capitalization stood near $24.28 million. NCT traded between approximately $0.004626 and $0.01384 during the period.

The increase occurred after Upbit published its listing announcement, although market data alone cannot prove the exchange decision caused the entire move. NCT was also trading on Bithumb, Coinbase, Gate and smaller venues.

Korean exchange listings have previously coincided with sharp short-term price moves. In related coverage, Upbit’s decision to add three GRVT trading pairs was accompanied by a 23% increase before trading opened.

Advertisement

Upbit will waive NCT/KRW fees for 24 hours

Upbit will reduce its standard NCT/KRW trading fee from 0.05% to 0% during the market’s first 24 hours. The promotion is scheduled to run from 9:00 p.m. on Aug. 26 until 8:59:59 p.m. on Aug. 27.

If Upbit delays the listing, the zero-fee period will instead begin when trading opens. The waiver applies to standard order fees and does not remove the risks associated with rapid price changes or thin liquidity.

NCT deposits and withdrawals will be supported only through Ethereum. Upbit identified the supported contract as 0x9e46a38f5daabe8683e10793b06749eef7d733d1, matching the address shown by Etherscan and major market-data providers.

Transfers through unsupported networks may not be credited automatically. Upbit also requires customers to follow its Travel Rule and personal-wallet ownership verification requirements.

Advertisement

PolySwarm uses NCT in its malware marketplace

PolySwarm describes itself as a decentralized threat-intelligence marketplace. Security engines compete to identify malicious files and receive NCT based on their performance.

Project documentation states that NCT also provides access to threat intelligence generated through the platform. The ERC-20 token has a fixed maximum supply of approximately 1.886 billion NCT, with nearly all tokens reported as circulating.

Attention will now move to the NCT/KRW opening price, early trading volume and whether Upbit extends any restrictions. The zero-fee campaign is scheduled to end on Aug. 27 unless the exchange postpones the market launch.

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

Advertisement

Havenex, an Austrian company advised by Sui co-founder Kostas “Kryptos” Chalkias, said on Aug. 26 that its Series A financing round was nearing completion as it pursued regulatory authorization.

Chalkias announced the project through an X post. He described Havenex as infrastructure for financial institutions offering digital and traditional financial assets. The company has not disclosed the round’s size, participating investors, valuation or expected closing date.

Havenex awaits Austrian regulatory authorization

Havenex’s website says the platform is undergoing authorization with Austria’s Financial Market Authority. The company also states that it cannot provide regulated services before receiving approval.

That distinction means Havenex should not yet be described as a licensed exchange. No public authorization number or regulatory approval appears on its website. Chalkias said the company had applied for every required license and some additional permissions, but he did not identify individual license categories.

Havenex AG lists a registered address in Vienna and Austrian company registration number FN 673083d. Its public disclosures identify Gregorios Siourounis as the management board member. Chalkias, Adeniyi Abiodun and Petros Pyloridis sit on the supervisory board.

The company describes its intended customers as professional and institutional clients. Its approval process will determine which services it can provide, the assets it can support and whether it can operate across the European Economic Area.

Series A details remain undisclosed

Chalkias said the Series A allocation was already “quite packed” and invited interested investors to contact him. That statement remains a fundraising update from an adviser rather than confirmation of a completed transaction.

“Series A is underway and closing soon,” Chalkias said.

Havenex has not released supporting documents naming investors or specifying committed capital. It has also not announced a closing deadline. Until the company completes the round, its financing terms remain subject to change.

Chalkias said Havenex originated from his idea but clarified that he would participate as an adviser. He said his main focus would remain Mysten Labs and Sui. His formal position on Havenex’s supervisory board gives him an oversight role, while Siourounis appears responsible for management.

Havenex proposes verifiable institutional custody

Havenex plans to provide white-label infrastructure through which banks and other financial companies could offer crypto and traditional assets. Its proposed services include trading, custody, staking, tokenization, settlement and wallet infrastructure.

The project says it will support verifiable custody, continuous proof of solvency, multisignature controls and hardware-based two-factor authentication. It also plans self-custody and key-recovery protections.

Chalkias called Havenex the “most transparent, safest, institutional-grade, fully regulated exchange possible.”

Those descriptions express the project’s objectives. Havenex has not published an independent security audit, a live proof-of-solvency system, custody addresses or technical documentation demonstrating the planned controls. There is therefore no public on-chain data available to verify the proposed solvency model.

Institutional custody providers are increasingly combining controlled asset storage with blockchain services. As crypto.news reported, HashKey Cloud and BitGo connected institutional staking while keeping customer assets within BitGo’s custody framework.

Sui will form only part of Havenex’s technology

Chalkias said Havenex would use Sui technology where appropriate, but the platform would not operate as a Sui-only exchange. It plans to integrate assets, infrastructure and bridges from multiple blockchain ecosystems.

The promised quantum-resistant key system could connect with Sui’s wider cryptographic work. In related coverage, Sui targeted a 2027 rollout for native quantum-safe account authentication using NIST-approved signature schemes.

However, Havenex has not identified which post-quantum standard it will implement or when the feature will become available. Its use of Sui, bridges and real-world assets also remains under development.

The next verifiable milestones will be an FMA authorization, final Series A disclosures and detailed technical documentation. A launch date has not been announced. Until authorization arrives, Havenex will remain a development-stage infrastructure provider rather than an operating regulated exchange.

Ethereum price traded near $2,450 on Aug. 26 after a sharp weekly rally stalled below $2,550, while its 4-hour chart formed a potential bull flag that could decide the next major move.

Ethereum price consolidates after its weekly surge

According to data from crypto.news, Ethereum (ETH) price was trading at $2,452 at the time of writing, holding most of the gains produced by last week’s sharp breakout.

ETH opened at $2,251.44 on Aug. 20 and rose to an intraday high of $2,545.88 the following day. Its move from the Aug. 20 opening price to the weekly high represented a gain of about 13%.

The advance becomes larger when measured from the consolidation zone near $1,900 that preceded the breakout. Ethereum gained nearly 34% between that level and the weekly peak before buyers and sellers reached a temporary balance.

Price has since remained largely between $2,400 and $2,500. That tight range shows that traders have not fully reversed the rally despite the failure to extend above $2,550.

The recovery also marked a clear shift from Ethereum’s earlier weakness. ETH had spent much of August moving sideways below $1,950 before breaking through $2,000 and accelerating toward $2,500.

US investors are also watching broader liquidity conditions after falling bond yields supported a recovery across risk assets. Crypto traders will now assess whether those conditions can sustain spot demand after the initial rally and market-wide short squeeze.

Ethereum bull flag points to $2,550 resistance

The 4-hour ETH/USDT chart shows price consolidating within a downward-sloping channel following its near-vertical move from approximately $1,900.

Such a structure can develop into a bull flag when it follows a strong advance. Confirmation would require Ethereum to close above the channel’s upper boundary, currently located around $2,510 to $2,530.

A successful breakout would bring the recent $2,546 high into focus. Buyers would then need to establish support above $2,550 before targeting higher levels.

Crypto analyst Ted Pillows identified the same area as the main barrier to another leg higher. In an Aug. 26 post on X, Pillows said Ethereum needed a weekly close above $2,550 to open a possible move toward $3,000.

The $3,000 target is not confirmed by the current chart because ETH remains below the breakout level. A weekly rejection around $2,500 to $2,550 could instead keep the price inside its short-term consolidation pattern.

Advertisement

The lower boundary of the 4-hour flag currently sits between $2,330 and $2,360. A break below that area would weaken the continuation setup and raise the probability of a deeper pullback.

Momentum cools as daily RSI reaches 75

Ethereum’s daily chart remains bullish, but its momentum readings show that the rally has become stretched.

The daily Relative Strength Index stood at 75.59, above the commonly watched overbought threshold of 70. Its RSI moving average was lower at 68.56.

An overbought RSI does not guarantee that the price will fall. It shows that buying accelerated quickly and that Ethereum may require consolidation or a pullback before attempting another sustained advance.

The Supertrend indicator remains positive and places broader trend support at approximately $2,158. ETH is trading almost 14% above that level, leaving room for a correction without fully reversing the daily bullish structure.

Advertisement

Shorter-term momentum has already started to weaken. On the 4-hour chart, the Moving Average Convergence Divergence line stood at 33.60, below its signal line at 47.59. The histogram had fallen to negative 13.99, reflecting slowing momentum after the initial breakout.

The Average Directional Index remained elevated at 40.76, which indicates that the preceding trend was strong. However, the ADX has turned lower from its recent peak, adding evidence that the rapid advance is losing force while ETH trades sideways.

Together, the indicators suggest that Ethereum’s larger recovery remains intact, but the next move may depend on whether buyers can absorb profit-taking above $2,500.

Liquidation clusters frame Ethereum’s next move

CoinGlass’ one-week Ethereum liquidation heatmap shows substantial leveraged positions on both sides of the current price.

Advertisement

The nearest major pool above Ethereum appears to be around $2,530 to $2,560. A move into that zone could force leveraged short positions to close, potentially adding buying pressure as ETH retests its weekly high.

The heatmap’s brightest band above the market sits close to $2,550, aligning with the technical resistance identified on the price charts. That overlap makes the level important for both spot and derivatives traders.

A larger downside liquidity cluster is visible around $2,300 to $2,330. If Ethereum loses $2,400 and the lower edge of its flag, price could move toward that area as long positions face liquidation pressure.

Additional liquidity is distributed near $2,200, while larger but more distant clusters appear around $2,000 and $1,900. Those lower levels would become relevant only if ETH loses its newly established daily trend support.

Analyst Michaël van de Poppe said on Aug. 26 that an attractive area to buy an Ethereum dip could be approaching. His chart placed the potential demand region below the current price, broadly matching the support visible between approximately $2,300 and $2,400.

Advertisement

Ethereum therefore faces two clear short-term scenarios. A close above $2,550 would confirm renewed strength and could support an expansion toward higher resistance, while a loss of $2,330 would invalidate the 4-hour bull flag and expose the Supertrend support near $2,158.

Until either boundary breaks, ETH is likely to remain in consolidation as traders decide whether the seven-day rally has enough demand for another leg higher.

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

Advertisement

Seven spot funds now hold nearly a billion tokens. Daily volume broke $125 million on August 20, then $200 million across three sessions by the weekend. The infrastructure is scaling faster than the market has priced.

Seven exchange traded funds, seven issuers, and a fee war that has pushed expense ratios to levels the bitcoin ETF market took months to reach. The trading volume record on August 20 did not arrive in isolation. It came alongside the largest weekly inflow since May, a whale accumulation wave visible on the XRP Ledger, and a derivatives market that swung from a short squeeze to a long liquidation inside 48 hours. The infrastructure around XRP is no longer aspirational. It is operational, measurable, and growing faster than the token’s price suggests.

Seven funds and the fee war that followed

The United States now hosts seven spot XRP exchange traded funds: Bitwise XRP, Canary Capital XRPC, Franklin Templeton XRPZ, Grayscale GXRP, REX Osprey XRPR, 21Shares TOXR, and ProShares XRPL. All trade on major exchanges including NYSE, NYSE Arca, Nasdaq, and Cboe. Franklin Templeton’s XRPZ carries a 0.19 percent expense ratio, the lowest base fee in spot crypto ETF history. Bitwise charges between 0.25 and 0.34 percent depending on the fee waiver schedule. Grayscale sits at 0.35 percent and 21Shares at 0.39 percent. The compression is notable because bitcoin spot ETFs took roughly four months of competitive pressure before fees settled into a similar range. XRP funds arrived there within weeks of launch. By cumulative net inflows, Bitwise leads at $542 million, followed by Canary Capital at $468 million and Franklin Templeton at $434 million. Combined, the seven funds hold approximately 995 million XRP tokens with $994 million in assets under management. The gap between cumulative inflows ($1.57 billion) and current assets ($994 million) reflects the token’s price decline from its post launch levels, not redemptions. Money came in and stayed.

How the inflow pattern changed in August

The monthly trajectory tells a clearer story than any single day. July 2026 closed with $27.29 million in total XRP ETF inflows, a respectable but unremarkable figure spread unevenly across weeks. The first week of August actually saw net outflows. Weekly flows for the period ending August 8 collapsed 93 percent from the prior week, dropping from $14.86 million to just $1.01 million. Then the reversal began. Franklin Templeton and Bitwise injected a combined $3.45 million on August 7, reversing the first outflow in a month. By the week ending August 17, inflows had climbed back to $18.38 million in a single day, the best daily figure since May 14. The week ending August 22 delivered $39.78 million, the strongest weekly result in three months. August’s total of $56.86 million more than doubled July’s full month figure with a week still remaining. The acceleration was not gradual. It was a step function that arrived in the third week of August and held through the flash crash on August 22. Flows did not reverse after the crash. That detail separates this inflow pattern from previous episodes where leveraged liquidations triggered institutional redemptions.

The volume record and what drove it

On August 20, XRP ETF trading volume reached $125 million in a single session, surpassing the prior all time high by 42 percent. Bitwise President Teddy Fusaro confirmed the figure publicly. By August 24, Bitwise’s fund alone had cleared $200 million across three consecutive sessions, with individual days exceeding $60 million and $80 million before the $125 million peak. The volume spike coincided with three events. First, the United States Treasury doubled its bond buyback operations on August 19, easing pressure on long end interest rates and triggering a broad risk asset rally. Second, Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse appeared at the Wyoming Blockchain Symposium alongside SEC Chairman Paul Atkins, generating speculation about regulatory clarity. Third, spot XRP ETFs recorded $39.78 million in net inflows for the week, their strongest result since May. For context, XRP ETF volume had previously occupied a marginal share of daily crypto ETF trading. On August 20, XRP captured roughly 6 percent of total volume across all Bitwise crypto products, which recorded $300 million combined. That share had been below 2 percent for most of July. A three fold increase in market share within a single asset class, sustained over multiple sessions, points to a rotation rather than a one day anomaly. The volume profile also matters. High volume with narrow bid ask spreads indicates institutional participation. Market makers widen spreads during retail driven spikes and tighten them when larger counterparties are active. The August 20 session saw tighter spreads than the prior volume record, according to market structure data, suggesting the incremental volume came from institutional desks instead of retail traders reacting to price momentum. Volume without inflows is noise. Volume with inflows is positioning. The August 20 session had both.

Whale accumulation at scale

Addresses holding between one million and ten million XRP accumulated approximately 380 million tokens during the week of August 18, according to on chain data tracked by multiple analytics platforms. Total holdings in that bracket rose from 16.05 billion to 16.36 billion XRP. More than 38 transactions exceeding $1 million were recorded on the XRP Ledger in a single 24 hour window. Whale transactions above $1 million surged 280 percent in that period. The accumulation happened while XRP hovered near $1, well before the token’s move to $1.23 on August 20. When large holders buy aggressively at flat prices, the market has not yet repriced whatever those holders expect. The timing matters. Whale buying aligned with ETF inflows for the first time in 2026, according to Yellow.com’s analysis. Previous accumulation phases occurred during periods of ETF outflows or flat institutional interest. This time, on chain buying and ETF inflows moved in the same direction. The concentration is also notable. The one million to ten million XRP bracket represents a specific type of holder: too large to be retail, too small to be Ripple itself or an exchange cold wallet. These are funds, trading desks, and high net worth individuals operating at a scale where each position reflects a researched thesis. When that bracket adds 380 million tokens in seven days, the aggregate signal carries more weight than any individual whale wallet. The accumulation also coincided with Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse’s appearance at the Wyoming Blockchain Symposium on August 18, where he appeared alongside SEC Chairman Paul Atkins. The event generated no formal policy announcement, but the optics of a crypto CEO sharing a stage with the SEC chairman at a conference adjacent to Jackson Hole carries its own signal. Whale buyers who moved within 48 hours of that appearance were either acting on public sentiment or on information asymmetry that the broader market had not yet priced. Either interpretation supports the thesis that large holders saw something the price did not yet reflect.

The derivatives whiplash

XRP futures open interest rose from $2.71 billion to $3.50 billion over the seven days through August 22, a 27 percent increase that pushed XRP into the top four crypto derivatives by open interest, overtaking HYPE. Binance XRP futures open interest reached 435 million tokens, a 30 day high. On August 20, $33 million in short positions were liquidated as XRP reclaimed $1.30 for the first time since early June. The largest single liquidation was $15.61 million. Long to short ratios on Binance hit 2.18 and reached 23.38 on OKX in one snapshot, indicating extreme bullish positioning. Two days later, the leverage unwound violently. XRP suffered a 37 percent flash crash on August 22 as roughly $500 million in leveraged long positions were liquidated across the crypto market. XRP was among the hardest hit assets, having rallied more than 60 percent in the preceding week, leaving traders dangerously overexposed. The sequence is instructive. The spot infrastructure (ETF inflows, whale accumulation) was building steadily. The derivatives market amplified that signal with leverage, then snapped. The spot flows did not reverse. August ETF inflows continued positive after the crash. The divergence between spot and derivatives behavior reveals two separate markets operating on different time horizons. Spot ETF buyers and whale accumulators are positioning for months or quarters. Derivatives traders were positioning for days. The crash punished the short term cohort while leaving the long term infrastructure intact. Understanding which market you are watching matters more than watching both at once. Open interest has since rebuilt toward pre crash levels, suggesting the derivatives market has not been scared away permanently. But the composition has shifted. Long to short ratios on Binance fell from 2.18 to roughly 1.4 after the crash, indicating a more balanced positioning. A leveraged market with balanced positioning tends to produce smaller swings than one skewed heavily in either direction.