Reform UK has stripped crypto firms from its conference sponsor list. The move lands days after British police revealed a $1.4 million Bitcoin forfeiture.

Nigel Farage’s party is selling diplomats and manufacturers instead.

Reform UK Cuts Crypto Sponsors Before Birmingham

Reform UK’s annual conference opens in Birmingham next week. Last year the digital payments firm Zebec headlined as a key backer. This year no crypto company appears on the sponsor list.

Perks have gone too, with free tickets and access to senior figures also cut, Bloomberg reported, citing people familiar with the arrangements.

It comes as a parliamentary probe is examining whether Farage should have declared £5 million from Christopher Harborne, a Thailand-based crypto investor. Farage’s crypto lobbying has drawn separate scrutiny this year.

Diplomats and Manufacturers Take the Stage Instead

Farage’s populist party holds just eight of 650 Commons seats, yet polls place it in contention for 2029.

Honorary treasurer Nick Candy is promoting foreign guests. Envoys from India, Italy, Poland, the UAE and the US are expected, alongside French National Rally leader Jordan Bardella.

“The scale and breadth of the diplomatic presence at the conference next week is a clear indication of how seriously Reform is being taken internationally,” Nick Candy, Reform UK honorary treasurer, speaking to Bloomberg.

However, not everyone is convinced. Renewable energy executives remain reluctant to appear, according to a City of London public relations executive. They fear legitimizing the party.

On its first business day, it sold more than 600 tickets, drawing JCB, TikTok and Heathrow.

So is Reform done with crypto? Not on paper. It has announced no policy changes regarding digital assets, and the retreat focuses on sponsors and perks rather than positions.

Birmingham will show a party managing its image while an investigation runs, not one abandoning crypto.

Police Traced 20.21 Bitcoin Back to 2016

Elsewhere but still in the UK, Avon and Somerset Police recovered 20.21 BTC, other crypto and money in a bank account, worth £1,032,487.86.

Investigators tied the funds to darknet marketplaces that ran from 2016 to 2019. These were hidden shopping sites, reachable only through anonymizing software, that sold drugs and facilitated human trafficking.

A blockchain keeps every transaction on a permanent public record, so coins moved in 2016 still leave a trail.

The owner had died before the forfeiture was completed. Under the Proceeds of Crime Act, however, the case runs against the property, not the person.

It is the force’s largest crypto recovery since Britain introduced wallet freezing orders in April 2024. Bigger hauls exist, including a £114 million Bitcoin seizure.

Recovered funds go back into community and policing programs.

The post Reform UK Drops Crypto Sponsors: What Does Farage Want Instead? appeared first on BeInCrypto.

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The United States has secured majority control of more than 65 billion barrels of Venezuela’s oil reserves, which could reshape global energy markets, but does it actually matter for bitcoin and crypto?

President Trump announced on Friday that the US had secured majority control through an agreement involving Washington, Venezuela, and private businesses. He called it the “biggest oil deal in world history” and said it would substantially increase America’s effective oil reserves and ultimately bring down fuel prices.

65 Billion Barrels, But There’s a Catch

The analysts at the Kobeissi Letter noted that the US currently has around 46 billion barrels of proven domestic crude reserves. Adding control over another 65 billion would bring the combined figure to over 110 billion, roughly 7% of global proven reserves. In other words, the US-controlled total would be around the same as the UAE’s and ahead of Kuwait’s.

According to some leaked details, the deal covers 17 Venezuelan oilfields, including projects in the resource-rich Orinoco Belt and Lake Maracaibo. A new structure would give the US a majority operational position, while American companies are expected to provide much of the capital and expertise needed to increase production.

Venezuela has also projected close to $100 billion in private investment tied to the broader agreement. However, here comes the catch. Those barrels are all reserves, not immediate supply.

Venezuela currently produces around 1.2 million barrels per day, a fraction of what its enormous resource base theoretically allows due to years of underinvestment, deteriorating infrastructure, power problems, and other issues. Reuters reported that even the country’s ports are already struggling with current export volumes, with some tankers waiting weeks to load.

Lower Oil Good for Bitcoin?

Oil has been one of the biggest inflationary pressures this year as the conflict in the Middle East and disruptions around the Strait of Hormuz have pushed crude prices sharply higher. In general, more expensive oil feeds into fuel, transportation, manufacturing, and ultimately consumer prices.

If Venezuelan supply expands significantly over the coming years and helps decrease oil prices, the result could be weaker inflationary pressure, which, in turn, could give the Fed more room to ease monetary policy, unlike the present situation. This would be considered bullish for crypto, since the asset class tends to benefit from such macro conditions.

The deal, which was later confirmed by Venezuela’s President, comes at an interesting time – right after Fed Chair Kevin Warsh delivered a hawkish speech at Jackson Hole. He warned that inflation remains too high and indicated that policymakers could still have “work to do” if price pressures fail to move convincingly toward the central bank’s target of 2%.

If oil remains elevated due to the war in the Middle East, inflation is likely to continue preventing the Fed from pivoting. However, if Venezuela eventually becomes a substantial new source of reliable supply, the landscape can change.

Ultimately, the oil deal between the US and Venezuela is unlikely to translate into an immediate impact on BTC and crypto, as there’s no direct connection between the two. However, the long-term perspective is more bullish than bearish, especially if Venezuela improves its production lines and prices indeed fall, as Trump predicted.

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How The Anthropic And OpenAI IPOs Could Shake Up The AI Brawl

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Spot XRP ETFs pulled in $110.49 million in net inflows for the week ending August 28, their strongest weekly haul of 2026 by a wide margin.

That surge pushed cumulative net inflows to $1.66 billion, with total net assets climbing to $1.44 billion across all funds.

XRP ETFs Smash Their Weekly Inflow Record This Year

Most of 2026 told a quieter story. Negative weeks hit in late January, mid-March, and briefly in July, followed by a near-dead stretch of inflows through early August, right before this week’s breakout.

The $110.49 million pulled in this week is the year’s best, though it still trails the all-time high of $243.95 million set during the week in late November 2025.

Measured against 2026 alone, this week more than doubled the previous top mark, a $60.5 million week back in mid-May, according to SoSoValue data. Trading activity spiked alongside it, with $363.03 million changing hands, the busiest week since these funds launched.

While XRP ETFs posted a $26.20 million net inflow that day, Bitcoin funds saw $201.81 million in net outflows, and Ethereum funds saw $102.18 million in net outflows, highlighting XRP’s steadier institutional demand even as Bitcoin faced heavy selling pressure.

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XRP Price Pulled Back From $1.70 Resistance

The inflow surge did not track XRP’s own price this week. The token traded near $1.38 as of August 29, according to CoinGecko data, down 2.3% over 24 hours and 7.8% over the past week, after briefly testing resistance near $1.70 earlier in the period before pulling back sharply.

That divergence stands out. Institutional inflows accelerated even as the token itself corrected lower, suggesting funds may be accumulating into weakness rather than simply chasing price strength.

Total net assets across the ETF group nearly tripled in a single week, jumping from roughly $933 million to $1.44 billion, reflecting the surge in fresh capital despite the price pullback.

Whether this pace of inflows continues remains an open question. The ETFs already showed this year that strong weeks can be followed by long stretches of muted demand, and XRP itself remains in a clear corrective phase after its sharp run toward $1.66, now trading roughly 8% below that level.

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Ethereum’s explosive rally has stalled around a major resistance area, with price action now turning increasingly choppy near $2.5K. The broader recovery remains intact, but weakening short-term structure and a more hawkish macro backdrop raise the probability of consolidation or a corrective pullback before another sustained advance.

Ethereum Price Analysis: The Daily Chart

Ethereum is consolidating after its powerful breakout from the $1.85K-$1.92K base. The price has now reached the major $2.4K-$2.52K supply zone, where buyers have so far struggled to generate another impulsive continuation. The repeated rejection around this region suggests that supply is becoming increasingly relevant following the near-vertical advance.

As a result, choppy consolidation appears likely in the short term, while a corrective move should not be ruled out. The first notable support sits around the $2.21K-$2.31K zone. Below it, the $2.06K-$2.14K area represents the next important support region and could become relevant if selling pressure accelerates.

The macro environment is also adding pressure. Federal Reserve Chair Kevin Warsh’s latest Jackson Hole remarks emphasized that inflation remains too elevated and suggested that rates may need to remain restrictive or potentially move higher if inflation fails to make sufficient progress toward the Fed’s 2% objective.

Markets interpreted the comments as hawkish, with expectations for another rate increase rising after the speech. This backdrop appears to be weighing on risk sentiment and could make an immediate Ethereum breakout more difficult.

ETH/USDT 4-Hour Chart

The short-term picture is showing clearer signs of exhaustion. Ethereum has repeatedly tested the upper portion of the $2.4K-$2.52K resistance zone, producing three successive peaks around the same broad area.

This price action creates the potential for a three-drive pattern. Such a structure typically signals that the preceding directional move is losing momentum and can precede either a sideways range or a temporary reversal. More importantly, Ethereum has now slipped below the ascending trendline connecting the recent higher lows, adding weight to the possibility that the immediate bullish impulse is weakening.

The first downside area to monitor remains the $2.21K-$2.31K pullback zone. A correction into this region would still be compatible with the broader bullish structure and could allow the market to establish a healthier base. If that support fails, the second pullback zone around $2.07K-$2.11K becomes the next significant target.

Alternatively, holding the current $2.4K area and reclaiming the rising trendline would reduce the immediate bearish pressure. A convincing breakout through the $2.52K region would also invalidate the developing reversal setup and favor continuation of the broader bullish trend.

Sentiment Analysis

Ethereum’s Spot Average Order Size chart provides additional context for the current indecision. The metric distinguishes periods dominated by larger whale-sized spot orders from more ordinary market activity.

Most recent observations appear to be classified as normal orders, with no notable concentration of large whale transactions at the latest readings. This suggests that neither exceptionally strong whale demand nor aggressive whale supply is currently dominating the spot market.

The absence of substantial large-player participation fits the technical consolidation scenario. With limited evidence of strong directional conviction and relatively subdued participation, Ethereum may remain vulnerable to volatile swings within a range rather than immediately establishing another sustained trend. A meaningful return of large whale orders could therefore provide a more useful signal that stronger demand or supply is entering the market.

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