Bitcoin’s price suddenly jumped by a grand yesterday and tapped $65,000 for the first time in over a week, before it was stopped and now sits at around $64,000 again.

Most larger-cap alts have produced minor gains within the same timeframe, with ETH climbing above $1,900 and SOL trading above $75. BTW has stolen the show again.

BTC Tapped $65K

Bitcoin went through a few legs down last week after it was rejected at $65,400 first and then at $64,400. The culmination took place on Friday afternoon when the asset slumped to $62,500 for the first time in ten days. The bulls finally intervened after this nosedive and helped the asset recover to $63,000, where it spent the entire weekend without any moves in either direction.

Monday began with a dip to $62,600 before BTC jumped by a grand to $63,600. After a minor rejection there, the cryptocurrency went on the offensive again to $64,500. It was stopped there at first and slipped to $64,000. Then came the surprising uptick to $65,000, which became its highest price tag since last Monday.

BTC failed there and dipped to $64,100 earlier today, where it found some support and now sits a few hundred dollars higher. Its market cap has remained sideways at $1.290 trillion, while its dominance over the altcoins has lost some traction and is below 57% on CG now.

BTW In a League of Its Own

The top performer in the crypto market continues to be Bitway (BTW). The token has skyrocketed by over 900% in the past month. Its daily gains stand at a whopping 85%, and it just reached a new all-time high of $0.067 (CoinGecko data).

PUMP, CAKE, LINK, and DOT follow suit in terms of daily gains, but are significantly more modest at somewhere between 4% and 7%. Ethereum has jumped by just over 1% to $1,920, while SOL is at $77 after a 1.5% increase. XRP, TRX, DOGE, and ZEC are also slightly in the green, while HYPE and CC are down by around 2% each.

The total crypto market cap has added around $20 billion daily and is up to $2.280 trillion on CG.

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Although the past week was quite unpleasant for XRP token holders in terms of price action, the company behind the asset made a few significant moves.

Additionally, there’s more information on the XRP whale activity, which has shown a clear uptick. We will review all of that and much more, so let’s dive in.

Big Partnership

We kick things off with a fresh announcement from yesterday, which stated that Ripple collaborated with Jeonbuk Bank to begin the first deployment of Ripple Payments in South Korea to enable faster cross-border remittances.

The partnership aims to expedite international transfers for businesses and reduce delays associated with traditional banking methods.

“With this partnership with Ripple, JB Jeonbuk Bank is ready to move beyond its role as a regional bank and emerge as a digital finance leader that meets global standards. This partnership will become a new growth engine for the bank, and we will lead innovation that reshapes the financial paradigm, going beyond the adoption of new technology,” commented Jeonbuk Bank’s President, Park Choon-won.

The company’s recent activities in South Korea include another collaboration with Kyobo Life Insurance and KBank to enhance digital finance and blockchain integration.

Ripple Price Raises $275M

Another statement from yesterday said the company had secured a $275 million private placement of senior unsecured notes issued by Ripple Prime to support its ongoing and expanding business in the US. According to the team, a “diverse base of institutional investors in key financial markets” participated in the fundraiser.

Ripple Prime will use the proceeds for working capital and general corporate purposes within a regulated entity as client demand for a modern, multi-asset clearing, prime brokerage, and financial services platform rises.

Wall Street and XRP ETFs

The most recent SEC filings in the US showed that a growing number of Wall Street behemoths have gained exposure to XRP through the spot exchange-traded funds. Jane Street Group leads the pack with more than 1.2 million shares.

Other notable names that disclosed such exposure included Bank of America, Morgan Stanley, Wolverine Asset Management, Gallagher Capital Management, Main Street Group, and National Bank of Canada.

Meanwhile, the XRP ETFs ended the previous business week in the green again, but attracted a very modest amount of just over $2 million. On the plus side, net inflows reached $5.81 million on August 19, the highest for the month.

XRP Price Update

Ripple’s partnership, expansion news, or any other recent initiatives have failed to boost the underlying asset. Just the opposite, XRP has been consistently losing value, which eventually led to the almost inevitable dip below $1.00 for the first time in nearly two years. As of press time, the asset has been unable to reclaim that level decisively despite BTC’s resurgence to over $64,000.

On the flip side, the network activity has picked up the pace lately. Daily active addresses topped 35,500 in August, while the number of whales holding at least a million XRP increased by 32 in three months. In addition, these large market participants went on an impressive accumulation spree last week, scooping 72 million tokens in 24 hours.

Meanwhile, analysts continue with contradictory predictions about the asset’s future price performance. Some claimed that the dip below $1.00 could get a lot worse before the token rebounds, while others are adamant that it could bounce off the recent levels.

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Grayscale Research says three altcoins could be the biggest winners from new US token rules. The asset manager points to Ethereum (ETH), Solana (SOL), and BNB Chain.

The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) proposed Regulation Crypto Assets, or Reg Crypto, on Tuesday. The plan would let startups sell newly issued tokens to US investors after years without a clear path.

Why Grayscale Sees ETH, SOL, and BNB as Winners

Grayscale published its case hours after the SEC released the proposal. Its logic is simple. Legal token sales would pull founders and investors onchain. The networks hosting those sales would capture the activity and the value.

The demand already has a track record. More than 1,500 projects raised a combined $12.9 billion through initial coin offerings (ICOs). That figure comes from research by the National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER). The wave peaked in 2017-18. However, later fundraising models moved offshore and shut out US investors.

“The SEC just proposed new crypto regulation. Since the ICO boom of 2017, token-based fundraising in the US has lacked regulations. “Reg Crypto” would change that,” Grayscale wrote.

The market is already moving. ETH trades near $2,179 after a 15% jump in 24 hours. Meanwhile, SOL sits at $86.98, and BNB holds near $630.

Grayscale has also put money behind the theme. This month, the firm made BNB its largest fund holding in its Smart Contract Fund, with a 30.6% weighting.

What the New US Token Rules Would Change

Reg Crypto creates two fundraising lanes. Startups could raise up to $5 million over four years under a one-time option. A second lane allows $75 million per year. That route requires financial statements and ongoing reports.

The proposal also gives tokens an exit from securities treatment. A token leaves once its issuer completes all essential managerial efforts. Officials call this the Investment Contract Safe Harbor.

That exit question fueled the SEC’s long court fight with Ripple over XRP. The new SEC crypto rules now answer it on paper.

SEC Commissioner Mark Uyeda backed the shift. He said clear rules should cut the incentive for founders to launch offshore. The proposal would also stand in for parts of the CLARITY Act. That broader market structure bill slipped to September in the Senate.

A 60-day comment period opens once the plan reaches the Federal Register. A separate innovation exemption for trading rules is expected later this year. The next test is simple. Will US founders actually bring their raises onchain?

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Bitcoin (BTC) just reclaimed $70,000 for the first time since June 2. The 78-day wait ended after President Donald Trump said a “sizable” government Bitcoin purchase has “been talked about.”

The Fed’s July minutes came and went without damage. Trump’s remarks gave the rally its second engine of the day.

How Bitcoin Reclaimed $70,000 After 78 Days

The BTC price briefly tested $70,000 today. Two days ago, it sat below $64,000. In early July, it was near $62,000.

The move crushed the other side of the trade. Crypto shorts lost $1.23 billion in a single hour. One whale on Hyperliquid lost an entire 1,800 BTC short worth about $117 million.

Washington lit the first fuse. The Treasury said it will double its long-end debt buybacks to at least $4 billion per operation. The 30-year yield fell from 5.337%, its highest since 2007. Cheaper long-term money favors assets that pay no income.

Perspective still matters. Even at $70,000, Bitcoin trades about 44% below its record of $126,080, set last October. But the reclaim breaks this year’s pattern, where gold beat bitcoin decisively, gaining 33% while BTC fell 46%.

The king of crypto topped out at $70,000 on Binance and $70,022 on Coinbase, as of this writing.

Trump Floats a ‘Sizable’ Bitcoin Buy as the Fed Stays Quiet

Then came the second fuse. Asked whether the administration plans to accumulate a sizable amount of Bitcoin, Trump did not rule it out. He tied the idea directly to the dollar.

“It’s been talked about. It’s been very, very good for the dollar. If you came in with recommendations, I would certainly listen.”

The remarks land on fertile ground. Trump created a Strategic Bitcoin Reserve in March 2025, built from seized coins rather than open-market buying. A sizable purchase would be a first.

The Fed offered no resistance either. The July minutes said inflation “remained elevated” but showed no hawkish push beyond the three known dissenters. September hike odds slipped to 34%, and the dollar weakened.

The mix is potent. Falling yields, a quiet Fed, and a president musing about buying. Whether BTC holds $70,000 overnight will show if the words carry real weight.

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David Schwartz, Ripple’s CTO emeritus, has warned that government rules around AI safety and copyright could give authorities unprecedented control over political and social speech.

His argument centers on who gets to decide what AI systems can create, know, and discuss.

Two Legal Fights, One Argument

Schwartz laid out the case in a reply thread on X that started almost by accident. On August 18, he quote-posted a Change.org UK campaign asking the British government to limit how much coverage any one person can receive in the press, a petition launched after 249 articles covered sociology professor Jason Arday in the 22 days before his death on August 14.

Schwartz’s response to that campaign was a question: which poses more of a threat to free speech, artificial intelligence or, as he put it, natural stupidity.

When a user named Athena asked what he actually meant, Schwartz explained that AI has become the most effective tool for producing speech that exists, and that governments are currently fighting on multiple fronts over how much they can regulate it.

He then spelled out two specific fights. The first is over whether training an AI model on copyrighted material counts as infringement. Since Congress controls what exceptions to copyright law exist, a ruling against AI companies would mean the most powerful speech-generating tool in existence could only be used in ways Congress permits, effectively letting lawmakers decide what speech looks like.

The second fight is over AI safety regulation itself, which Schwartz argued follows the same logic: if the government sets the rules for what counts as safe, the most powerful tool for producing political and social speech becomes usable only in the ways officials allow.

“Again, a totally unprecedented threat to freedom of speech,” he wrote.

A Recurring Argument on X

This is not the first time Schwartz has pushed this line of thinking. In late July, Bitcoin advocate and ShapeShift founder Erik Voorhees argued on X that states should not get to decide what forms of intelligence count as safe, warning that a rule against discussing something as narrow as bioweapons could eventually expand into a broader government veto over speech and even encryption. Schwartz replied to that post with a simple agreement at the time.

The broader question of who gets to police speech-enabling technology has come up elsewhere too. Telegram founder Pavel Durov, already facing terrorism-related charges tied to content on his messaging app, drew a fresh international arrest warrant from Russia’s security service in late July, adding to a case that started with his 2024 arrest in France over similar allegations.

The debate also extends to proposals for government-backed AI testing after Google DeepMind CEO Demis Hassabis previously proposed a federally backed body to test and certify advanced models. While OpenAI CEO Sam Altman and Microsoft’s Satya Nadella expressed support for the idea, Coinbase chief Brian Armstrong took the opposite view, contending that existing laws covering fraud, torts, and consumer protection could already address harms caused by AI systems.

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After weeks and weeks of sideways movements without any clear signs of a breakout in either direction, the crypto market is finally on the move.

Bitcoin led the charge with a massive surge that drove it to its highest price tag since the middle of June at just over $69,000.

Recall that BTC dipped below $63,000 at the end of the previous business week before it found some support and recovered to $63,000 during the weekend.

It started to show revival signs on Monday and Tuesday, but today’s increase is the most impressive in months.

Ethereum has soared past $2,000 for the first time in months as well, and has even tapped the $2,100.

XRP has finally rebounded above the key $1 support after dipping below it on a couple of occasions last week.

The liquidations are also on the rise given the sharp movement. Data from CoinGlass shows that $1.2 billion worth of leveraged positions has been wrecked in the past hour alone.

Naturally, the lion’s share is from shorts, as they are responsible for $1.14 billion out of the total.

BTC and ETH lead the pack, with $680 million and $425 million liquidated longs, respectively.

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Arthur Hayes has said that he is coming out of retirement to lead Flop Labs, a new project centered on a token called $FLOP that aims to work as a kind of currency for AI agents.

The announcement doubled as a defense of the move: Hayes, who has spent months warning that AI investment is a bubble, argued the excess sits in the debt piling up to build data centers, not in the underlying technology his new venture is built on.

A Fair Launch and a Compute-Backed Token

Hayes described $FLOP as “food for your AI agent” and said the token would launch without a presale or venture capital funding. “100% fair launch,” he wrote, adding that he expects a “massive airdrop in Q4” followed by a genesis block in the first quarter of 2027.

Flop Labs’ announcement describes the network as a proof-of-useful-inference protocol. Its stated goal is to give AI agents a native currency for buying computing power and storing memories. The project uses floating-point operations, or FLOPs, as the basis for its economic model. Miners would provide computing power and receive $FLOP through block rewards and inference payments.

Validators would verify that miners delivered the computing work requested by agents. They would also store agent memories and receive $FLOP through block rewards and inference payments.

On their part, AI agents would spend the token on computing and memory services, while community partners could receive $FLOP based on network activity.

Flop Labs stresses that the network has not launched and remains under development. Its current design can change, and the project makes no guarantees about receiving tokens or making money.

The AI Bubble Argument

Before announcing Flop Labs, Hayes had compared the AI buildout to the 2008 housing crisis, arguing that lenders, private credit funds, and governments are financing data centers on the assumption that demand keeps climbing without limit.

He expects AI capital spending to slow in 2027 before contracting, which he said would force governments into bailouts larger than those that followed the 2008 financial crisis, sending new money into crypto markets and potentially pushing Bitcoin toward $1 million.

When asked why he would build an AI project while calling AI a bubble, Hayes said the excess lies in debt used to fund data centers and in the shares of hyperscalers and frontier labs that are not yet profitable, not in agentic technology itself.

“Price is what you pay, value is what you get,” he wrote, adding that the compute overcapacity built on borrowed money strengthens his case for Flop Labs.

Hayes’s bet on an agent-native currency also arrives against thin real-world usage elsewhere. Analyst Jamie Coutts reported on August 12 that daily settlement volume on x402, the Coinbase-built payment protocol for AI agents, is down 93% year-to-date, with the seven-day average around $41,800, well below the $800,000 to $1 million peaks seen in late 2025.

Coutts called the drop a “reality check” on claims that the agentic economy has arrived, though he expects volume to climb again in the fourth quarter.

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The cryptocurrency market was revived over the past several hours, with essentially all assets rocketing to new multi-month peaks. Some assets, though, performed better than others, including Hypeliquid’s native token.

HYPE surged by nearly 10% from bottom to top, tapping $71 minutes ago. It came just inches away from its June 2026 all-time high of $76 before it was stopped and pushed to just under $70.

The major boost came after reports emerged that US President Donald Trump pushed the CFTC to bring Hyperliquid to the US.

Trump says the CFTC is working to bring Hyperliquid to the US, in remarks at White House crypto summit today.

Trump: “I understand that Mike (Selig) is also working to bring Hyperliquid into the United States in a fully compliant and legal fashion.”

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— Yueqi Yang (@Yueqi_Yang) August 19, 2026

The other notable reason behind HYPE’s major rally today was the broader market’s resurgence. As reported earlier, bitcoin skyrocketed to over $69,000 for the first time since June. Ethereum followed suit with a run to $2,100; XRP is well above $1.05, and so on.

The unexpected rally, given the overall market sluggishness over the past few weeks, resulted in well over $1 billion in liquidations from over-leveraged traders.

The most likely reason for the spectacular Wednesday run came after the US Treasury announced increased liquidity-support buybacks for government bonds, impacting the broader financial market.

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BlackRock said Bitcoin’s more than 50% decline from its all-time highs in October 2025 to its mid-2026 lows has not changed its long-term investment case.

In its latest report, the asset manager attributed the sell-off to “idiosyncratic deleveraging and flow dynamics” rather than a structural shift in the cryptocurrency’s trajectory.

Long-Term Case Remains Intact

BlackRock said that Bitcoin’s core role as an emerging global monetary alternative and a unique portfolio diversifier remains unchanged. During the sell-off, BTC showed a “dual personality,” at times acting as a haven asset, especially after the US-Iran conflict, while also showing high correlations with risk assets during deleveraging episodes such as February 2026.

According to BlackRock, this was shaped by investors seeking a hedge against macro risks and by market positioning. The firm said Bitcoin’s correlation with risk assets tends to rise when speculative positioning becomes high and is followed by deleveraging. Positioning reached extreme levels as the crypto rose above $120,000 last October, during which futures open interest exceeded $90 billion and was heavily concentrated in leveraged perpetual futures on offshore exchanges.

A macro-driven risk-off catalyst, including China tariff headlines, then ended up triggering deleveraging across precious metals as well as crypto markets. Liquidation waves pushed BTC below $60,000 by June 2026. Weaker institutional inflows were yet another factor that slowed Bitcoin’s price recovery. Spot BTC ETPs had attracted a record $60 billion in inflows from their January 2024 launch through October 2025, but later saw more than $5 billion in outflows as investor attention pivoted toward AI-themed products, which attracted $30 billion during the same period.

Concerns about the balance sheet sustainability of digital asset treasury entities further weighed on sentiment. But BlackRock views these developments as cyclical flow dynamics and not as evidence of a structural change in BTC’s long-term institutional adoption.

BlackRock Endorses Modest BTC Allocation

Over longer periods, the firm said Bitcoin has remained a low-correlation asset, supported by its potential role as a global monetary alternative and a hedge against fiat debasement. BlackRock also explained that every developed-market currency has lost more than 99% of its value against gold over the past century. Its portfolio analysis found that the crypto asset has offered positively skewed returns and low correlation with traditional risk assets, including equities, over extended periods.

The heavy deleveraging since last October could lead to lower correlations between Bitcoin and risk assets, according to BlackRock. At the same time, its volatility has trended down over the past decade as the market structure has matured, with the expansion of derivatives and ETPs helping drive that decline.

However, the growth of leveraged perpetual futures over the past year has partly offset that trend. BlackRock’s updated trailing 10-year analysis found that a 1%-2% BTC allocation could have improved risk-adjusted returns in a traditional 60/40 portfolio, and it said a measured allocation could remain “compelling” as a strategic diversifier for long-term portfolio construction.

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