Dunamu has secured a one-year contract to take custody of digital assets seized by South Korea’s National Police Agency after winning the agency’s public tender process.

According to a statement released by Dunamu on Aug. 7, the Upbit operator was named the final winner of the Korean National Police Agency’s project to store and manage confiscated digital assets following technical negotiations that concluded the procurement process.

The announcement completes a bidding process that began earlier this year, with the company moving from preferred bidder status to the final contractor after negotiations with the police agency. The one-year agreement will place seized cryptocurrencies from police investigations under Dunamu’s custody platform.

Upbit Custody will manage seized crypto assets

Procurement documents show the contract was awarded through an open competitive tender administered by South Korea’s Public Procurement Service. Dunamu said it received the highest technical evaluation score of 94.14 before being selected as the final contractor. The company had previously been designated as the preferred negotiating bidder on July 8.

Earlier procurement records valued the contract at 267 million won, or about $195,000, for one year of custody and management services covering digital assets confiscated during criminal investigations.

Under the agreement, seized cryptocurrencies will be stored and managed through Upbit Custody, Dunamu’s digital asset custody service. According to the company, the platform operates within a 24-hour, 365-day monitoring system that continues running during nights, weekends, and public holidays so custody operations remain uninterrupted.

The custody platform also uses a security environment built around 100% offline cold wallets that remain isolated from the public internet. According to Dunamu, its infrastructure incorporates Multi-Party Computation (MPC), Distributed Key Generation (DKG), multi-signature technology and wallet segregation, allowing assets to be separated according to their type and intended use while reducing the risks associated with a single compromised private key.

A Dunamu representative said the company would use its security technology and operational controls to support the stability of South Korea’s public safety and digital policing infrastructure.

Police custody contract followed competitive bidding

Before becoming the final contractor, Dunamu ranked first during the evaluation stage of the tender process.

Procurement records released in July showed the company received a combined score of 94.73, including full marks for its bid price and 84.73 points in the technical assessment. Korea Digital Asset Custody (K-DAC) finished second with 91.29 points, while Hecto Wallet One placed third with 87.27 points.

Industry participants questioned whether the tender requirements favored larger market operators. According to local media reports published at the time, bidders were required to accept immediate custody of seized cryptocurrencies, maintain a round-the-clock response system and guarantee full compensation if assets were lost through hacking.

Several custody industry officials told local media those requirements were easier for a large exchange operator with an established infrastructure to satisfy than for standalone custody providers. One industry official described competing under those conditions as difficult from the outset.

The National Police Agency, however, rejected suggestions that the outcome had been predetermined. According to local media, the agency said the contractor had been selected through a fair competitive process.

Previous Bitcoin losses increased focus on digital asset custody

The police custody project comes after multiple incidents involving missing cryptocurrencies held by South Korean authorities.

In February, South Korea’s Gangnam Police Station confirmed that 22 Bitcoin worth approximately 2.1 billion won, or about $1.6 million, had disappeared from police custody. Authorities said the coins had originally been surrendered during a 2021 investigation before investigators discovered during a nationwide review that they had been transferred from the storage wallet without authorization.

Police said the physical cold wallet remained in their possession, suggesting the private keys had been accessed even though the storage device itself had not been removed. The Gyeonggi Northern Provincial Police Agency subsequently opened an internal investigation examining access logs, key management procedures and blockchain transaction records.

Attention had already turned to law enforcement’s handling of digital assets after an earlier case involving the Gwangju District Prosecutors’ Office, where local reports said 320 Bitcoin seized in a criminal investigation was lost. Local media also reported another incident in 2022 in which police confirmed that seized Bitcoin had gone missing.

Against that backdrop, South Korean authorities moved to place custody responsibilities with an external institution capable of maintaining dedicated security controls for seized digital assets. The finalized agreement now places those assets under Upbit Custody for the next year while the National Police Agency oversees the arrangement under the terms of the awarded contract.

Crypto market maker Wintermute has secured broker-dealer status in the U.S., giving the firm a regulated route into Wall Street as crypto trading and traditional securities markets draw closer together.

New York-based Wintermute USA LLC registered with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA). The unit will operate as a proprietary trading firm rather than a retail broker.

The registration lets Wintermute trade stocks and equity options, provide liquidity to exchanges and over-the-counter counterparties, and act as an authorized participant for exchange-traded funds (ETFs), including crypto-linked funds.

Authorized participants create and redeem large blocks of ETF shares, a process that helps keep an ETF’s market price close to the value of its holdings.

Wintermute described the unit as proprietary-only and did not announce retail brokerage services.

Authorized participants create and redeem blocks of ETF shares directly with fund issuers, helping keep fund prices aligned with their underlying assets.

The registration also lets Wintermute seek market-making roles on exchanges including the New York Stock Exchange and Nasdaq. The firm has already lined up ETF issuers to work with, the Wall Street Journal reported.

Dow Protocol has completed a $10.5 million seed funding round to expand its blockchain-based financing model that advances working capital to e-commerce merchants against pending receivables.

Dow Protocol announced the funding round on X, saying the investment was backed by MH Ventures, Mapleblock, Animoca Brands, Arcane Group, HSKChain, Essentia Partners, and Quartet Group. The company said it is building a PayFi real-world asset (RWA) structure that lets merchants receive financing before online marketplaces release their sales proceeds.

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Ether.fi has captured roughly $223 million in annualized fees and about $51 million in annualized revenue. In the second quarter, it earned $41 million in gross revenue and nearly $10 million in earnings after rewards and other costs, with only $30,000 of value distributed to ETHFI holders through buybacks.

The split lands as Ethereum’s staking economics are under debate.

A group of Ethereum researchers, one from the Ethereum Foundation, proposed this week that the network stop paying people to stake once half of all ether is locked up. Under the current setup the payment never falls to zero no matter how much gets staked, so there is always a reason to stake more, and they argue that concentrates ether with a handful of large custodians.

Their proposed fix destroys a growing share of the rewards until the payment disappears entirely at around 60 million ether. About a third is staked today.

Ether.fi founder Mike Silagadze was among the proposal’s critics, arguing it would push out smaller stakers and weaken the products built on staking rewards, his own among them.

MARA Holdings reported weaker second-quarter 2026 financial results on Aug. 6. Revenue fell 27% year over year to $174.9 million, while the Nasdaq-listed company recorded a $611.3 million net loss and negative adjusted EBITDA of $360.9 million, according to its official presentation.

The company ended June with 35,577 BTC, down 29% from 49,951 BTC a year earlier. However, that headline decline masks a small sequential increase from 35,303 BTC at March 31. MARA’s presentation also showed approximately $2.5 billion in combined cash and Bitcoin holdings at quarter-end. Shares closed Aug. 6 at $10.65, down 5.25%, according to Google Finance data.

Source: Google Finance

MARA’s Bitcoin holdings fell after heavy first-quarter sales

The annual decline in MARA’s Bitcoin treasury largely reflects sales earlier in 2026 rather than falling mining production. Its first-quarter filing showed the company sold 20,880 BTC for about $1.5 billion as it funded operations, repurchased debt and pursued new infrastructure investments. Earlier Q1 coverage detailed how the sales reduced MARA’s position from 53,822 BTC at the end of 2025.

During Q2, MARA sold another 2,213 BTC at an average price of $73,078 while producing 2,422 BTC. That left holdings slightly higher than at the end of March. The company’s treasury policy now permits opportunistic sales of balance-sheet Bitcoin, a change from its earlier emphasis on retaining mined coins.

At June 30, 4,742 BTC were loaned and 4,528 BTC were pledged as collateral, while 26,307 BTC were unrestricted. After the quarter ended, MARA pledged another 18,750 BTC as initial collateral for two Bitcoin-backed credit facilities, increasing the portion of its treasury being used to support financing.

Mining output rose despite weaker Bitcoin economics

Operational performance improved in several areas. Energized hashrate reached 70.3 EH/s, up 22% from 57.4 EH/s a year earlier. Bitcoin production increased 3% to 2,422 BTC, and blocks won rose 1% to 700. Cost per petahash per day improved 4% to $27.70 from $28.70.

Those gains did not prevent revenue from falling because the average Bitcoin price associated with mining revenue dropped sharply from the prior-year period. MARA reported an average price of Bitcoin mined of roughly $71,325, compared with $98,975 in Q2 2025. Purchased energy cost per Bitcoin at owned sites also rose, showing that greater hashrate alone did not remove profitability pressure.

The net loss was also affected by Bitcoin price accounting. The company recorded roughly $343 million of fair-value losses tied to digital assets and related receivables. That contrasts with the large fair-value gains that supported earnings in the year-earlier quarter and helps explain the swing from $808.2 million in net income to the latest loss.

MARA is using its Bitcoin balance sheet to fund an AI pivot

The company’s strategy increasingly links its Bitcoin reserves with expansion into power and computing infrastructure. After quarter-end, the company arranged two credit facilities that provide $600 million of incremental borrowing capacity and pledged 18,750 BTC as initial collateral. Proceeds may support general corporate purposes, including the planned Long Ridge acquisition.

The Long Ridge transaction is central to MARA’s effort to add AI and high-performance computing capacity. Earlier AI pivot coverage reported that the proposed $1.5 billion acquisition includes a 505-megawatt Ohio gas plant and a campus with potential for more than one gigawatt of computing capacity. The deal still requires regulatory approval before closing.

The firm is also pursuing a Texas project. Its Texas expansion plan covers a 1,200-acre powered site expected to provide up to 2 GW of grid capacity over time. Combined with Long Ridge and other assets, management says its potential power portfolio could reach about 4.8 GW.

What happens next for MARA

The main near-term milestones are financing execution, regulatory approval for Long Ridge and progress on the Texas development. Investors will also watch whether MARA continues selling or pledging Bitcoin as it funds infrastructure. The company has made clear that its treasury can serve as both a long-term asset and a source of liquidity.

Chief Executive Fred Thiel said Bitcoin mining provided the company’s foundation and that digital infrastructure and other initiatives “will expand the value we create from that foundation.” The statement is forward-looking, and the Q2 results show the transition remains costly. Mining output improved, but weaker Bitcoin pricing, higher per-coin energy costs and fair-value losses weighed heavily on reported results.

For now, MARA remains a major public Bitcoin miner and one of the largest corporate Bitcoin holders. Its next quarters will test whether expanding AI infrastructure can add steadier revenue while the company preserves enough Bitcoin exposure to benefit from a recovery in mining economics.