A common misconception in the realm of cryptocurrency investment is that making money through mining requires an understanding of complex blockchain technology and the purchase of expensive mining hardware.

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Official Website: https://ftmining.com

App Download: https://ftmining.com/xml/index.html#/app

Customer Service Email: [email protected]

South Korea’s National Tax Service has said it will introduce commercial crypto tracing software used by domestic and overseas investigative agencies as it prepares to tax income generated through private wallets from 2027.

Digital Asset reported on Aug. 31, citing responses provided by the NTS to People Power Party lawmaker Kim Sang-hoon, that the agency plans to use software capable of tracing and analyzing digital asset movements between wallets. Similar tools are used by prosecutors, police and the U.S. Internal Revenue Service.

The plan addresses one of the main enforcement problems surrounding South Korea’s incoming cryptocurrency income tax: authorities have limited visibility into transactions conducted through wallets controlled directly by taxpayers.

The NTS acknowledged that the nature of private wallet transactions makes it difficult to identify every unreported transaction. Tax officials said they would continue working to prevent gaps in enforcement, including through the planned tracing system.

South Korea plans to trace private wallet transactions

Self-custody does not remove a taxpayer’s liability under the planned regime. South Korea’s Ministry of Economy and Finance and the NTS previously told Kim’s office that income from transferring or lending digital assets can be taxable regardless of whether the assets are held in a private wallet or on an overseas exchange.

Crypto.news previously reported that South Korea had confirmed the planned tax would cover private wallets and foreign exchanges when the rules take effect.

The tax will apply to qualifying digital asset income generated from Jan. 1, 2027. Annual gains above a 2.5 million won deduction will face a 20% national income tax, with a 2% local income tax bringing the combined rate to 22%.

Taxpayers will not file returns for 2027 income immediately when the rules take effect. The first filing period is scheduled for May 2028, when investors will report qualifying income generated during the previous calendar year.

South Korean authorities have spent months preparing systems for the rollout. The NTS has completed development of a tax-source management system and has been building an integrated analysis system for digital asset taxation, according to government responses previously submitted to Kim’s office.

Work has extended to centralized exchanges. The NTS has been preparing implementation guidance with Upbit operator Dunamu, Bithumb, Coinone, Korbit and Gopax, covering records and other information needed to calculate taxable cryptocurrency income.

The preparations follow several delays to the tax, which was created through amendments to the Income Tax Act. Implementation was initially scheduled for 2022 before being postponed to 2023, 2025 and eventually 2027.

The government kept that date unchanged when it finalized its tax proposal in August, although the National Assembly can still amend the provisions before they take effect.

CARF will cover data held by overseas crypto platforms

For cryptocurrency held through foreign platforms, South Korea plans to rely partly on the OECD’s Crypto-Asset Reporting Framework, or CARF, to obtain transaction information from participating jurisdictions.

CARF creates a system through which tax authorities can automatically exchange information concerning reportable crypto asset transactions. South Korean officials have treated the framework as part of their preparations for identifying taxable activity conducted outside domestic exchanges.

Questions have emerged over jurisdictions where the first CARF information exchanges will occur later than South Korea’s 2027 tax start date.

The United Arab Emirates is one example raised in the material provided by Kim’s office because major international crypto businesses operate from the country. UAE government guidance states that its CARF rules will apply to the 2027 calendar year, with the first exchanges of information expected in 2028.

A Ministry of Economy and Finance official told Digital Asset that this timetable would not necessarily create a one-year information gap for South Korean taxation because information exchanged in 2028 would concern transactions conducted during 2027.

South Korea’s own filing schedule works on a similar timeline. Income earned from crypto transactions during 2027 will be reported by taxpayers in May 2028, meaning the first filing period comes after the year in which the taxable transactions occur.

The NTS gave Kim’s office the same explanation, saying the UAE’s first CARF information exchange in 2028 is expected to cover crypto asset transactions attributable to 2027.

Whether information concerning Binance would be supplied through the UAE under CARF has not been confirmed, according to the original report.

Private wallets remain harder for tax authorities to track

CARF does not remove the separate enforcement problem created by self-custodied assets because private wallets can operate without a centralized exchange maintaining the same type of customer and transaction records.

The NTS told Kim’s office that practical limits remain when authorities attempt to identify unreported private wallet activity. Its proposed use of commercial tracing software would give investigators another way to follow transfers between blockchain addresses when examining potentially taxable transactions.

South Korean authorities have already been expanding controls around transfers involving self-hosted wallets and foreign platforms. The Cabinet approved rules in August that tighten overseas crypto transfers by applying risk-based controls to transactions involving foreign exchanges and personal wallets.

Under those amendments, transfers of at least 10 million won involving overseas exchanges or private wallets require domestic exchanges to operate internal suspicious-transaction monitoring systems. Higher-risk counterparties can face transfer restrictions, while transfers between registered Korean virtual asset service providers will fall under expanded Travel Rule requirements.

Tax authorities have separately examined how crypto held outside centralized exchanges can be handled during enforcement proceedings. In July, officials proposed a self-custodied crypto seizure framework that would address assets controlled through private keys.

The proposal called for changes to the Criminal Procedure Act to establish clearer procedures for seizing such assets. Officials recommended warrant requirements and court-supervised joint wallets for storing cryptocurrency obtained during enforcement proceedings.

Political disagreement over the underlying crypto tax remains unresolved ahead of the 2027 deadline. People Power Party lawmakers have pursued several routes to stop or postpone the levy, including legislation seeking its repeal and another proposal that would move implementation to 2030.

Lawmaker Park Soo-young argued in August that the tax could drive more Korean investment capital toward overseas cryptocurrency platforms. The government, however, has continued preparing for the existing timetable, under which taxable crypto income begins accruing on Jan. 1, 2027 and the first returns covering that income are filed in May 2028.

XRP Ledger validators are considering two amendments that would add single-asset vaults and fixed-term lending directly to the network’s core protocol.

The amendments, XLS-65 and XLS-66, are open for validator voting but have not reached the support required for activation. An amendment must maintain support from more than 80% of trusted validators for two consecutive weeks before it can become active.

Ripple’s validator voted in favor of both amendments in August. However, Ripple cannot approve the changes independently because validators decide whether to support each amendment.

Current support remains well below the activation threshold, according to the XRP Ledger’s amendment records. The percentage can change as validators update their positions, making the threshold and subsequent two-week period more important than any single daily reading.

XRP Ledger lending separates credit from execution

XLS-65 would introduce Single Asset Vaults. These structures would pool one type of asset from multiple depositors and issue vault shares representing their proportional interest in the assets.

A vault could hold XRP, Ripple USD or another supported XRP Ledger asset. The vault manager could then allocate pooled liquidity to lending or other financial services under predetermined rules.

XLS-66 would use that pooled liquidity to fund fixed-term loans. The proposed XRP Ledger lending system relies on off-chain underwriting rather than automatic overcollateralization and liquidation.

Institutions would conduct identity checks, assess borrowers, negotiate loan terms and complete legal reviews outside the blockchain. The network would then record and execute agreed activities such as loan issuance, interest accrual, repayments and defaults.

This structure reduces reliance on application-level smart contracts. It does not eliminate credit, operational or counterparty risk. Depositors could still lose money when borrowers default or when underwriting proves inadequate.

Ripple, Clearpool and Cicada prepare an RLUSD fund

Product development is already taking place while validators consider the amendments. Clearpool is testing an institutional credit product on the XRP Ledger development network.

The planned fund would provide RLUSD-denominated working-capital loans to fintech and payment companies. Cicada Partners would source borrowers, establish lending terms and monitor their financial condition. Clearpool would provide the infrastructure for creating and operating the credit pools.

Ripple will participate as a limited partner alongside other investors. The company is providing capital, but it is not serving as a financial backstop. Ripple would therefore invest on comparable terms and would not guarantee losses suffered by other participants.

The companies have not disclosed the fund’s target size or Ripple’s commitment. As the planned RLUSD credit fund remains in testing, it cannot use the proposed native lending functions on mainnet before both amendments activate.

Clearpool said its integration will use isolated markets managed by independent risk specialists. This approach is designed to prevent a problem involving one borrower or pool from spreading across every lending market.

What the lending vote means for XRP holders

The amendments could create new uses for XRP Ledger assets, but they would not automatically provide yield to every XRP holder. Access would depend on which vaults launch, the assets they accept, their eligibility rules and their underlying borrowers.

Some institutional pools may use permissioned domains and verified credentials. Retail participation is therefore not guaranteed. Each product could impose separate restrictions based on jurisdiction, investor classification and compliance requirements.

RLUSD is expected to serve as the main credit asset in the Clearpool and Cicada fund. XRP would retain its network role by covering transaction fees and account reserve requirements.

XRP Ledger transaction fees are destroyed rather than paid to validators. Greater lending activity could consequently increase XRP fee consumption, but fees are normally very small. The effect on total XRP supply would depend on sustained transaction volume and should not be described as a major source of scarcity before real usage data exists.

XRP traded around $1.06 at the time of writing. No verified price movement could be attributed directly to the latest lending vote.

Security reviews do not remove lending risks

The lending code has undergone formal verification and independent security reviews. Halborn’s re-audit found no critical or high-risk vulnerabilities.

The review identified one medium-risk issue, two low-risk issues and two informational findings. The reported matters were resolved, accepted or acknowledged by Ripple’s engineering team, according to the audit findings.

Those reviews address technical behavior, not whether borrowers will repay their loans. Institutions considering a vault must still evaluate its manager, underwriting standards, first-loss protection, withdrawal rules and exposure concentration.

The next formal milestone is validator approval. If either amendment crosses 80%, it must hold that level for 14 days. Clearpool must also finish its development-network testing before moving its product to mainnet.

A related Federal Reserve master-account application submitted through Standard Custody remains separate from the lending vote. Approval could improve RLUSD settlement infrastructure, but the outcome and timing remain uncertain. BNY continues serving as the primary custodian for RLUSD reserves.

Ontology has temporarily halted mainnet block production after its core developers identified a potential security concern during a routine check, leaving on-chain transactions suspended while validators conduct an emergency review.

The Ontology Network said in an official announcement that its core development team detected the potential issue during a daily security check and immediately moved to stop block production as a precaution. No security incident has been confirmed, and the team said it has found no evidence that ONT, ONG or other user assets have been lost or compromised.

Ontology mainnet remains paused during security review

With block production stopped, transactions submitted to the Ontology mainnet cannot be processed until network operations resume. The team has not provided an estimated time for the restart and said the review will take priority over restoring the chain quickly.

Ontology described the halt as a preventive measure, distinguishing it from a response to an active attack or confirmed theft. Developers and network validators are reviewing the mainnet and related components to determine whether the potential concern presents an actual security risk.

Users have been told not to move ONT, ONG or other assets because of the announcement. However, the network advised against attempting time-sensitive on-chain transactions while the pause remains in place.

“Block production will remain temporarily suspended,” Ontology said, adding that the network will not restart until it has been “sufficiently assessed and deemed safe to operate.”

The team has not disclosed the technical nature of the potential security concern, which component triggered the review or whether developers have identified a vulnerability requiring a software change.

Ontology said it is working with validators and relevant ecosystem partners during the investigation. A separate announcement will be released before or when block production resumes, after the security assessment and any required upgrades have been completed.

No user asset losses have been identified

The network emphasized that the current investigation has not produced evidence of compromised user funds.

“There is currently no indication of any loss or compromise of user assets,” the team said. “ONT, ONG, and other on-chain assets remain unaffected based on our current assessment.”

The distinction leaves the mainnet in an unusual operational state: the chain is intentionally unable to process transactions, but Ontology has not reported an exploit, unauthorized asset movement or an ongoing attack.

A mainnet is the production blockchain where transactions involving assets with real economic value are recorded. As crypto.news explained in August, production networks depend on protocol software, economic incentives and validator infrastructure to maintain security while processing live transactions.

The Ontology team has chosen to keep transaction processing offline while the potential issue is examined instead of allowing normal block production to continue during the investigation.

Network pauses can prevent new state changes while developers and validators assess a problem, although the specific reason for Ontology’s decision remains limited to the potential security concern disclosed by its developers.

Ontology did not say whether exchanges or other services using the chain would separately restrict ONT or ONG deposits and withdrawals during the review.

A previous Ontology network upgrade produced similar restrictions at the exchange level without involving a reported security incident. In 2022, Binance suspended ONT deposits and withdrawals while supporting an Ontology upgrade, with services scheduled to reopen after the upgraded network was considered stable.

ONT and ONG form Ontology’s dual-token system

Ontology operates with ONT and Ontology Gas, or ONG, as its two native assets. ONT is used within the network’s governance and staking structure, while ONG serves a separate role in its economic model.

The network has changed its staking framework over time. Crypto.news previously reported that Ontology reduced its minimum staking requirement from 500 ONT to one ONT as part of a governance and staking model update. Requirements for candidate nodes seeking to participate in consensus were reduced from 100,000 ONT to 10,000 ONT.

Ontology’s architecture has historically focused on decentralized identity and data infrastructure. The project uses ONT ID as part of that framework, allowing identity information and credentials to be managed through its blockchain infrastructure.

Interest in that part of the ecosystem resurfaced earlier in 2026 as traders focused on digital identity projects. ONT jumped more than 20% on March 30 as market attention turned to the European Union’s eIDAS 2.0 digital identity wallet rollout. The token traded between roughly $0.0568 and $0.0959 during the 24-hour period covered at the time.

The current mainnet interruption concerns the network’s operation, with Ontology’s announcement making no claim that ONT’s token contract, ONG or another on-chain asset has been exploited.

Ontology has not set a restart time

For now, the mainnet will remain unable to produce blocks while developers and validators work through the security review.

Ontology said the duration of the shutdown is undetermined and that it will prioritize a complete examination of the potential risk over speed. Normal block production will resume only after the network has been assessed and the team considers it safe to operate.

Any upgrades found necessary during the investigation would have to be completed before the restart, according to the announcement. The team did not specify whether an upgrade is currently expected or whether the review could end without requiring changes to the network software.

Users therefore do not need to take action with their ONT, ONG or other on-chain holdings based on the information currently available, but transactions requiring mainnet processing will remain unavailable throughout the pause.

Ontology said updates on the investigation will be published through its official channels as more information becomes available. The network plans to issue a separate notice before or at the time operations resume once the security review and any required upgrades have been completed.

Bitcoin traded near $78,400 on Aug. 31 and headed toward its strongest August performance since 2017 after gaining roughly 24% during the month.

BTC recovered from approximately $63,000 in mid-August and briefly crossed $80,000 before losing momentum near that level. The rally reversed much of the pressure recorded during the first half of 2026.

The final monthly return remains subject to Bitcoin’s closing price. Still, current historical data places August 2026 well ahead of every August since the 2017 bull market.

Bitcoin’s third-quarter return stood near 32% at the time of writing. That compares with losses of approximately 22% during the first quarter and 14% during the second, although September’s performance will determine the final quarterly result.

Bitcoin’s August rally reversed a difficult first half

Bitcoin entered August after spending several months under pressure. The cryptocurrency fell toward $58,000 in July before recovering above $60,000 and beginning its sharp late-August advance.

The rally carried BTC beyond $70,000 and eventually above $80,000 for the first time since May. It also pushed the asset above several short-term resistance levels that had restricted previous recovery attempts.

Derivatives positioning amplified the move. Data attributed to CoinGlass showed approximately $9.71 billion in cryptocurrency liquidations across two weeks. Short positions accounted for $6.55 billion, while long liquidations reached $3.16 billion.

Those figures cover the broader cryptocurrency market rather than Bitcoin positions alone. They show that bearish traders absorbed most of the forced closures, but they do not prove that new spot demand caused the entire rally.

As Bitcoin’s 22% advance confronted a demand test, analysts noted that futures open interest measured in BTC had declined. Contained funding rates also suggested short covering contributed to the initial breakout without excessive leveraged long positioning.

ETF inflows provided a clearer demand signal

U.S. spot Bitcoin exchange-traded funds attracted approximately $1.92 billion during the five trading sessions through Aug. 21, according to SoSoValue.

It was their strongest weekly inflow since October 2025. August inflows had reached approximately $2.72 billion by Aug. 24, making the month the strongest of 2026 at that point.

The renewed accumulation followed a difficult period for the products. Spot Bitcoin ETFs recorded heavy redemptions during May and June before investor demand recovered in August.

One session delivered $517 million in net inflows as Bitcoin broke above $70,000. As spot ETF demand strengthened during the breakout, nearly $2.7 billion in bearish cryptocurrency positions was liquidated.

ETF flows provide a more direct measure of regulated U.S. investment demand than futures liquidations. However, daily flows can reverse quickly, making continued September accumulation important for supporting prices near $80,000.

Treasury buybacks shaped the macro backdrop

The U.S. Treasury announced on Aug. 19 that it will at least double its long-end liquidity-support buybacks. Maximum purchases will rise from $2 billion to at least $4 billion per operation.

The expanded program covers Treasury securities in the 10-to-20-year and 20-to-30-year sectors. Operations are scheduled to begin Sept. 9 and continue through Nov. 4, according to the official announcement.

The policy aims to improve trading conditions in parts of the bond market where liquidity has weakened. It is not a direct BTC purchase program, and the Treasury has not described supporting cryptocurrency prices as an objective.

BTC and gold nevertheless rose as bond yields initially declined and the U.S. dollar weakened. Some market participants interpreted the policy as another reason to hold scarce assets, although that explanation remains an analyst view rather than a confirmed causal relationship.

That backdrop has since become less supportive. Federal Reserve Chair Kevin Warsh delivered hawkish remarks at Jackson Hole, prompting markets to raise their expectations for a September interest-rate increase.

Higher rates can strengthen the dollar and increase the opportunity cost of holding assets without yield. These conditions could test whether BTC’s August recovery can survive a less favorable monetary-policy outlook.

Bitcoin faces an $80,000 resistance test in September

Bitcoin ended the month closer to resistance than support. Trader Carl Moon said buyers need to push BTC back above $80,000, warning that failure to reclaim the level could expose the market to a deeper pullback.

KuCoin Ventures, Oddiyana Ventures, and Venture Vault VC are among the investors behind Catapult Trade, the company confirmed following the close of its fourth funding round.

The disclosure covers backers across four completed rounds totalling $6.6 million, none of which had been named publicly until now.

Catapult Trade runs a consumer trading product that merges trading mechanics, gamification, and provably fair technology. Prices are not sourced from any external market. Each session is generated algorithmically using Geometric Brownian Motion, committed to a public cryptographic hash before trading opens, and revealed once it closes, so that any participant can confirm the chart was never altered mid-session. Halborn and Hashlock have both audited the system independently.

The platform has been live since December 2025 and has cleared more than $6 billion in cumulative trading volume and $3.3M in net revenue ahead of its token launch. Users can create their own tokens and open trading sessions on them. Tokens published to the discovery feed earn their creators a share of trading fees, while private tokens stay visible only to the accounts that made them. 

A 1% notional fee on every trade is split between the protocol and the creator, with an additional fee applied to profitable positions. Protocol revenue funds buybacks and burns and feeds a portion back into ecosystem reward pools.

On the funding itself, the Seed round raised $500,000. Alongside the three funds named above, a T1 fund participated whose name cannot be disclosed at this stage, and three early angels joined: Kyle Klemmer, Co-Founder and CMO at Blockstreet, advisor to WLFI and USD1; MacnBTC, a 2017 OG trader; and Aamir Ghai, ex CSO at Manta Network and a mentor at Harvard Blockchain.

The $2.1 million Private round brought in founders of consumer trading businesses. Among them are the founder of LIS Skins, a CS:GO skin marketplace in the $50 million AUM range, and the founder of Trady, a multichain trading terminal. The remaining participants are not being named at this time. A further $400,000 came from 30+ tier 1 traders and analysts in the KOL round, and the Early Public Round closed at $3.6 million on Catapult Trade’s own platform at $0.06 per token. Participants in the current Strategic round will be announced before TGE.

Over the same period, Catapult Trade ran joint campaigns with the Binance, KuCoin, and Gate wallets.

Three products are due before the token launches: Gamified Futures, a gamified prediction market powered by Obsidian, and TradFi & Crypto Classic Futures. The team is targeting a TGE in the fall of 2026, with more than eight centralized exchange listings planned around it. $PULT will be issued as an omnichain asset through LayerZero, with liquidity across BNB Chain, Robinhood, HyperEVM, and others.

Catapult Trade built its user base, volume, and revenue first, and is introducing $PULT to distribute the economics that activity already produces through buybacks and burns.

The full list of investors across all rounds will be disclosed a few weeks prior to the TGE.

Token buybacks are becoming a defining strategy for a small but influential slice of the crypto sector. According to data compiled by Allium Labs and cited by the Financial Times, cryptocurrency projects spent a record $638 million on repurchasing their own tokens so far in 2026—nearly 90% of that total concentrated in two platforms: Hyperliquid and Pump.fun.

In the year-to-date tally, Hyperliquid accounted for roughly $370 million and Pump.fun for nearly $200 million. The Financial Times report notes that this level of buyback activity is still rare across the wider industry, but the numbers suggest it is moving from novelty toward a measurable category of capital deployment.

Key takeaways

• $638 million in token buybacks has been recorded in 2026 year-to-date, per Allium Labs data cited by the Financial Times.
• Hyperliquid (~$370M) and Pump.fun (~$200M) dominate the total, together accounting for nearly 90% of spending.
• Buybacks remain uncommon in crypto overall, but more projects are experimenting with revenue-to-repurchase mechanisms.
• Crypto token buyback activity is increasingly being framed as a tool to support token value—analogous to share repurchases in traditional markets.
• Recent governance action at Ethena Foundation highlights how fee-switch models can formalize buyback plans.

Why token buybacks are drawing attention again

Token buybacks follow a logic that resembles share buybacks by public companies: projects use capital to repurchase their own assets, which can reduce circulating supply and, in some cases, send a signal about long-term value. While the analogy is straightforward, the crypto execution varies widely—often depending on how a protocol’s revenue is routed and whether repurchases are automatic or subject to governance.

What stands out in 2026 is the scale relative to earlier periods. The same Allium Labs figures cited by the Financial Times show $638 million spent year-to-date in 2026 compared with $545 million during the same period in 2025. The report also contrasts the current pace with prior years, noting $366,000 in 2024 for the corresponding timeframe.

Hyperliquid and Pump.fun lead the buyback spend

Hyperliquid and Pump.fun are not just participating in token repurchases—they are effectively running buybacks as a core allocation strategy.

For Hyperliquid, the structure is especially concentrated: the project reportedly directs about 99% of its revenue toward token buybacks. Cointelegraph previously reported that Hyperliquid generated $169 million in second-quarter revenue on Aug. 6, with $141 million allocated to HYPE buybacks. The implication for investors is straightforward: buybacks are not episodic, but tied tightly to protocol earnings.

Pump.fun, a memecoin launchpad, follows a different but still aggressive approach. The project reportedly allocates around 50% of its net protocol revenue to token repurchases. The launchpad also reportedly carries $420 million in annualized revenue, based on average daily revenue over the preceding 90 days.

When two platforms account for most of the sector’s buyback activity, their revenue rules can become a proxy for how “buyback culture” may evolve in crypto—especially whether it remains concentrated among a few high-throughput protocols or broadens as others replicate the model.

Governance signals: Ethena Foundation opens a fee-switch vote

Beyond the two dominant leaders, 2026 has also seen governance proposals that formalize buybacks using protocol revenue. On Thursday, the Ethena Foundation opened a vote on a fee-switch proposal under which 95% of net revenue paid to it from Ethena’s core business lines would be used to repurchase ENA tokens.

Crypto markets quickly priced the development: the ENA token rose 10.7% on the day after the proposal, according to the reporting referenced in the vote coverage.

For readers, the practical takeaway is not simply that buybacks can move prices in the short term, but that fee-switch governance can convert a vague “buybacks might happen” narrative into an enforceable spending framework. That shift matters because it changes the probability distribution around future demand for tokens and how consistently a protocol can sustain repurchases.

Outperformance and the market narrative around buybacks

Buybacks are also being linked to stronger token performance relative to the broader market. TradingView data cited in the original coverage shows that Hyperliquid (HYPE) rose 145% year-to-date and Pump.fun (PUMP) gained 109%, while Bitcoin (BTC) fell 10% and total crypto market capitalization declined by 11.9% over the same period.

It is important to separate correlation from causation, but the structure is compelling from an investor’s perspective: protocols that consistently recycle revenue into token repurchases create a direct, recurring demand stream. That demand can influence valuation expectations, especially during broader drawdowns where the rest of the market is struggling.

The idea is increasingly being spelled out by major asset managers. Bitwise chief investment officer Matt Hougan earlier in August argued that crypto valuations could double in the next two years as protocols use revenue to fund token buybacks and burns, effectively returning more value to investors.

What to watch next

The big question for 2026 is whether buybacks stay clustered in a few revenue-rich ecosystems or expand into more protocols through governance and revenue routing. Investors should monitor not just total buyback totals, but the durability of the revenue streams behind them—because in a market that can change quickly, the sustainability of token repurchase programs may matter as much as the headlines.

Bitcoin developers supporting BIP-110 are preparing a separate BLAKE2b proof-of-work chain for a proposed Sept. 1 launch after an earlier minority branch failed to attract enough SHA-256 mining support.

The new chain became the subject of a dispute on Aug. 31 between BIP-110 supporter Loogart and Ripple co-founder David Schwartz, who previously served as Ripple’s chief technology officer.

Loogart argued that supporters had accepted losing the effort to change Bitcoin’s dominant chain and were voluntarily continuing elsewhere. Schwartz rejected the framing that supporters had tried to “fix the legacy chain.”

“Listen to yourself,” Schwartz wrote, before arguing that language portraying one side as broken moved the discussion away from a good-faith disagreement.

Schwartz’s comments represent his personal assessment. Neither Ripple nor the XRP Ledger has a technical role in BIP-110 or the proposed chain.

BIP-110 and the BLAKE2b fork are separate proposals

The original BIP-110 specification proposed a temporary soft fork restricting several methods used to place nonfinancial data on Bitcoin. Its rules included limits on large OP_RETURN outputs, script formats and contiguous arbitrary data exceeding 256 bytes.

Supporters argued those restrictions would reduce storage demands on node operators and preserve Bitcoin’s monetary use. Critics maintained that transaction fees and node policies should determine how block space is used.

BIP-110’s enforcing branch separated from Bitcoin’s dominant chain in August. It initially produced only two blocks as nearly all established Bitcoin mining power continued extending the existing network.

As crypto.news previously reported, BIP-110 entered its mandatory phase with only 2.53% miner support. That result left its minority branch far behind the chain recognized by major miners, exchanges and wallets.

The proposed BLAKE2b network is therefore not simply BIP-110 activating on Bitcoin. It is a separate hard fork with a different proof-of-work system and its own resulting asset.

BLAKE2b removes dependence on Bitcoin miners

The planned chain replaces Bitcoin’s SHA-256d mining algorithm with BLAKE2b. Existing Bitcoin mining equipment is designed specifically for SHA-256 and cannot automatically redirect its computing power to the new algorithm.

That change allows supporters to establish a new mining group instead of relying on operators securing Bitcoin’s dominant chain. Some machines designed for Sia’s version of BLAKE2b may be compatible, although available hardware does not prove that miners will commit enough computing power.

A rehearsal was arranged before the planned launch. Developers said a successful test could be preserved in a Bitcoin Knots 29.4.1 release on Sept. 1. Technical problems could require another release candidate and a reset to the last SHA-256 block.

The date should therefore be described as a target rather than an irreversible activation deadline. Reports published before the rehearsal also indicated that the final mainnet activation height had not been settled.

In related coverage, Luke Dashjr left OCEAN after disagreements over Bitcoin mining and recent protocol developments. OCEAN repurchased his equity after he resigned as chairman, chief technology officer and director.

Bitcoin holders face support and replay questions

No major exchange, mainstream wallet or Lightning implementation had publicly committed to supporting the BLAKE2b chain before the proposed launch. Without that infrastructure, any inherited forked coins may initially lack a reliable market price or accessible trading venue.

Wallets and infrastructure providers may also require technical changes. The proposed network uses BLAKE2b block headers that differ from Bitcoin’s current format, meaning existing light clients and indexers may not recognize the new chain automatically.

Replay protection is another issue to watch. If transactions remain valid on both networks, a payment broadcast on one chain could potentially be repeated on the other unless users separate their coins or employ other safeguards.

The practical effect on BTC depends on whether the breakaway network attracts miners, developers, wallets and trading venues after launch. Until then, claims that it will replace, repair or materially threaten Bitcoin remain disputed forecasts rather than established outcomes.