Strategy sold another 1,690 Bitcoin last week and directed the entire $108.6 million in proceeds toward repurchasing its STRC preferred stock.

Strategy sells Bitcoin for a second straight week

An Aug. 10 filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission showed that Strategy sold 1,690 BTC between Aug. 3 and Aug. 9.

The sale generated $108.6 million in net proceeds, reflecting an average price of $64,262 per Bitcoin. Strategy used the entire amount to repurchase 1,152,020 shares of its Variable Rate Series A Perpetual Stretch Preferred Stock, or STRC.

The transaction lowered Strategy’s Bitcoin reserve to 840,447 BTC. The company acquired those coins for a combined $63.36 billion, including fees and expenses, at an average cost of $75,385 per BTC.

Strategy has now sold Bitcoin for two consecutive weeks. As crypto.news previously reported, the company sold 1,638 BTC for $104.7 million between July 27 and Aug. 2.

The earlier disposal funded $52.4 million in STRC dividends and $52.3 million in preferred-stock repurchases. Strategy’s latest filing shows it has continued prioritizing STRC support over new Bitcoin purchases.

STRC buybacks target the $100 par value

Strategy’s STRC preferred shares fell as low as roughly $72 in late June before recovering toward $95. The stock traded at $94.30 on Aug. 10, down 0.75% during the session but more than 30% above its June low.

The daily chart shows STRC facing immediate resistance near its 50-day moving average at $94.64. The 100-day average at $96.75 forms the next barrier before the security can retest its $100 stated value.

Momentum has improved, with Aroon Up reaching 100% while Aroon Down stood at 14.29%. However, a rejection below $96.75 could leave the stock vulnerable to a pullback toward its 20-day and 200-day averages around $89.33 and $89.62.

crypto.news previously reported that Strategy maintained STRC’s annual dividend rate at 12% for August. Management has said it wants the preferred stock to trade consistently near $100 before considering a lower rate.

Buying STRC below par also lets Strategy retire $100 of stated value for less than $100 while reducing the number of shares entitled to future distributions.

MSTR sales lift dollar reserve to $4.65 billion

Strategy separately sold 6,585,329 MSTR common shares through its at-the-market offering programs. These transactions produced approximately $653.1 million in net proceeds.

The company allocated $650 million to its U.S. dollar reserve and added the remaining $3.1 million to its unrestricted cash balance. Its dollar reserve consequently increased from about $4 billion to $4.65 billion.

Strategy had already built a $3.75 billion cash cushion by late July. The reserve is intended to support preferred-stock dividends and interest payments, although its board retains authority over how the funds are used.

The company also indicated that it could begin selling shares under a new $21 billion MSTR offering after exhausting the remaining capacity under its current program. Continued issuance would provide additional liquidity but increase the number of common shares outstanding.

Bitcoin weakness adds pressure to MSTR

MSTR traded below the psychological $100 level as Bitcoin struggled to establish a sustained breakout above $65,000. Strategy’s average Bitcoin acquisition price of $75,385 leaves its reserve below cost at current market levels.

The company remains the largest publicly disclosed corporate Bitcoin holder despite its recent sales. Future weekly SEC filings will show whether Strategy continues reducing its Bitcoin position to support STRC or shifts back toward accumulation as the preferred stock approaches par.

The latest sales come as Strategy marks six years since beginning its Bitcoin treasury strategy. In a Aug. 10 X post, Bitcoin Treasuries highlighted that Strategy’s holdings have grown nearly twelvefold, from 70,470 BTC in 2020 to 840,447 BTC, despite the recent weekly reductions.

Strive has grown its corporate Bitcoin treasury once again this month. The asset manager purchased 147 BTC and pushed total holdings to 20,167 BTC. The move confirms the company’s steady push to build one of the largest corporate Bitcoin reserves.

Strive Adds 147 Bitcoin to Treasury

Strive bought the 147 BTC between August 3 and August 7, according to a recent filing. The company paid an average price of about $64,812 per Bitcoin for this batch. That brings the total value of its holdings to roughly $1.3 billion.

Chief Executive Officer and Chairman Matt Cole confirmed the update on X. He stated that Strive now holds 20,167 BTC in total. BitcoinTreasuries.NET also ranked the company as the seventh-largest public corporate Bitcoin holder worldwide.

This purchase continues a pattern of steady accumulation throughout 2026. Strive bought 1,109 BTC in May and followed with 2,500 BTC in June. Smaller purchases in July and early August kept the momentum going.

Strive Reports 24% Bitcoin Yield in Q2

Strive posted a Bitcoin yield of 24% for the second quarter of 2026. The figure rose to 38% when measured across the first half of the year. The company uses this yield metric to track Bitcoin growth against diluted shares outstanding.

The asset manager also retired its debt completely during the second quarter. Strive currently holds about $155 million in cash reserves. This combination gives the company flexibility as it continues expanding its Bitcoin position.

Strive also introduced SATA, a preferred stock product that pays daily dividends. The company positions this product as part of a broader financial strategy. Bitcoin holdings, cash reserves, and debt management now work together under one plan.

On August 10, Strive launched a new Bitcoin treasury dashboard and website. The platform gives the public real-time updates on the company’s holdings. This transparency effort supports the company’s ongoing communication around its Bitcoin strategy.

Bitcoin Strategy Expands After Semler Merger

Strive’s Bitcoin treasury grew sharply after its all-stock merger with Semler Scientific. The deal closed in September 2025 and reshaped the company’s balance sheet. Bitcoin holdings jumped from about 5,000 BTC to roughly 10,900 BTC almost overnight.

Additional purchases continued steadily through 2026, including the latest 147 BTC addition. Strive has kept its focus on increasing Bitcoin holdings while running its asset management business. The strategy blends traditional financial services with a long-term Bitcoin accumulation plan.

Some tracking services estimate Strive’s average purchase price across its entire treasury at about $94,700 per BTC. The latest purchase price of roughly $64,812 sits well below that broader average. This gap suggests Strive picked up its newest Bitcoin at a comparatively favorable price.

Strive’s leadership continues to frame Bitcoin as a core treasury asset rather than a side bet. The company pairs its Bitcoin strategy with debt discipline and new financial products like SATA. Together, these moves signal a company building its identity around Bitcoin accumulation and asset management growth.

Bitmine Chairman Tom Lee believes Robinhood Chain could become one of 2026’s biggest crypto success stories by connecting the brokerage’s 27 million customers with Ethereum-based financial services.

Tom Lee sees Robinhood Chain accelerating ETH adoption

Lee, who chairs Ethereum treasury company Bitmine and co-founded Fundstrat, said Robinhood Chain’s reach could take blockchain activity beyond crypto-native users and into mainstream financial markets.

“One of the biggest crypto success stories in 2026 is the breakaway success of the Robinhood Chain L2 mainnet on July 1, built on Arbitrum,” Lee said in a Bitmine statement.

Lee initially cited more than $1 billion in dollar-denominated trading volume shortly after the launch. He argued that the activity demonstrated demand for applications built on Ethereum infrastructure.

Robinhood Chain is an Ethereum Layer 2 developed using Arbitrum’s technology. ETH serves as its gas token, while its transactions ultimately settle on Ethereum. That structure means greater activity on the network can generate additional demand for ETH, although only a fraction of Layer 2 fees flows directly to Ethereum.

“Robinhood Chain uses ETH as the native gas token. And transaction fees are denominated in ETH, and the finality is settled on Ethereum,” Lee said. “Robinhood’s 27 million users are paying crypto fees denominated in ETH. In other words, everyday users are starting to see ETH as money.”

The 27 million figure refers to Robinhood’s wider customer base rather than the number of confirmed Robinhood Chain users. Robinhood reported 27.4 million funded customers at the end of the first quarter, up 1.7 million from one year earlier.

Lee’s argument is that Robinhood already has the distribution needed to introduce blockchain services to those customers. Actual adoption will depend on product availability, regulatory restrictions, and whether customers use the chain instead of remaining within Robinhood’s traditional brokerage interface.

Robinhood Chain records strong early activity

Network data provides some support for Lee’s positive view. crypto.news previously reported that Robinhood Chain approached $9 billion in cumulative decentralized exchange volume within three weeks of its mainnet debut.

The chain had accumulated $431 million in total value locked, close to $400 million in stablecoins and more than 250,000 daily active users, according to figures cited by FalconX. It was also processing about 6 million transactions per day.

However, the composition of that activity presents a more mixed picture. Memecoins accounted for over 80% of cumulative DEX trading volume during the network’s early weeks, while Robinhood designed the chain primarily for tokenized stocks, real-world assets and decentralized financial services.

Temporary incentives may also have contributed to the surge. Robinhood waived gas fees during the network’s first 90 days, reducing the cost of trading and potentially drawing short-term activity that may not continue once users must pay transaction fees.

Liquidity was concentrated in a limited number of applications. Morpho emerged as one of the network’s largest protocols after institutional deposits helped push locked value higher. Robinhood Earn, tokenized stocks and decentralized exchanges provided other sources of activity.

Robinhood Chain generated more than $2 million in cumulative revenue during its opening weeks, with approximately $200,000 sent to the Arbitrum ecosystem. Under the Arbitrum Expansion Program, 10% of the network’s net protocol revenue goes to Arbitrum, divided between its DAO treasury and developer funding.

Tokenized stocks could connect finance with Ethereum

Robinhood launched the network with tokenized stocks as one of its main products. Eligible users can trade blockchain-based instruments linked to publicly traded companies around the clock and use them in supported decentralized finance applications.

The company describes the network as infrastructure for bringing financial assets onchain. Along with tokenized equities, Robinhood Chain supports lending, borrowing, swaps and perpetual futures through third-party applications.

Early holder data suggests Robinhood’s distribution strategy is attracting retail participation. Its stock-token product reached approximately 328,000 holders after launching on July 1, giving Robinhood a 44% share of the tracked tokenized-equity market.

Those holdings were worth only about $44 million, producing an average position of roughly $134 per holder. The gap between the holder count and total value indicates that Robinhood’s early tokenization growth came from many small retail positions rather than a limited number of institutional accounts.

The figure also counts blockchain addresses and does not necessarily represent unique verified users. Still, the distribution differs from tokenization platforms where a small number of institutions control most of the assets.

For Ethereum, the potential benefit extends beyond transaction fees. Robinhood Chain gives users access to Ethereum-compatible wallets, smart contracts, stablecoins and lending markets. Customers who begin with a tokenized stock could later interact with other Ethereum-based assets and applications.

It should be noted that this expansion is not guaranteed. Robinhood must convert existing brokerage customers into active blockchain users, while addressing risks involving smart contracts, token liquidity, custody and regulatory compliance.

US users face limits on Robinhood Chain products

Robinhood’s US presence makes its customer base central to Lee’s adoption case, but several of the chain’s products were unavailable to American users at launch.

Robinhood introduced its Layer 2 mainnet with tokenized stocks in more than 120 countries. The company’s disclosures said the new onchain stock tokens were not offered in the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom and several other restricted markets.

The tokens provide economic exposure to underlying shares but do not grant legal ownership or beneficial rights in those shares. That difference may attract regulatory scrutiny, especially when tokenized assets cross jurisdictions or trade continuously outside conventional exchange hours.

Perpetual futures offered through Robinhood Wallet were also unavailable in the US. American retail traders face tighter restrictions on offshore-style crypto derivatives, limiting their access to one of the network’s main sources of trading activity.

US customers can still gain indirect exposure to the company’s blockchain strategy by holding Robinhood shares or using crypto products offered through its regulated domestic entities. However, the restrictions mean Robinhood cannot immediately connect its entire customer base to every feature Lee discussed.

Robinhood shares traded near $93.67 on Aug. 10, little changed during the session, while Bitmine shares fell about 2.2% to $18.40. ETH traded near $1,625.

Robinhood Chain’s early volume, active-user figures and tokenized-stock adoption show that the network has attracted attention. Its longer-term importance to Ethereum will depend on whether activity remains strong after incentives end and whether Robinhood can expand compliant access to its mainstream customer base.

Crypto projects lost roughly $110 million to hacks in July as Immunefi recorded more confirmed bug bounty reports and found that audit competitions uncovered more serious vulnerabilities than private audits.

Crypto hacks put 2026 on course for a record

Immunefi recorded 164 crypto hacks through Aug. 3, including 67 incidents that each caused more than $1 million in losses, according to data published by the security platform.

The company projects that the number of hacks exceeding $1 million could reach 114 by the end of 2026. That would surpass the previous annual record of 72 major incidents set in 2024. Only 49 such incidents had been recorded by the same point that year.

July’s estimated $110 million total added to an already costly year for the industry. A recent Blockaid report found that crypto security losses reached $1.1 billion during the first six months of 2026.

Several large attacks contributed to the July total. Ostium lost 23.75 million USDC after an attacker compromised its off-chain infrastructure and manipulated price data used by the protocol.

AFX suffered a separate $24.15 million bridge exploit during the month. Together, the two incidents accounted for more than $47 million in losses.

Bug bounty reports and payouts increased

Immunefi said its researchers received $2.32 million for confirmed vulnerabilities in July. The number of reports that were both confirmed and paid rose 18% from the previous month.

Its bug bounty programs prevented 374 threats, up from 317 in June and 339 in May. Cumulative payments to security researchers reached $143.1 million, compared with $140.8 million at the end of June.

The rise comes as artificial intelligence tools make it easier for researchers to scan code and prepare vulnerability reports. crypto.news previously reported that AI had driven a sharp increase in bug bounty submissions, although project teams also faced more low-quality reports and false positives.

Institutional interest in preventive security has also grown. Anchorage Digital invested in Immunefi earlier this year as part of a strategic push into on-chain security infrastructure.

Audit competitions found more serious flaws

Immunefi reviewed 1,178 audits conducted by tier-1 security firms and found a median of zero critical or high-severity vulnerabilities. However, the company’s comparison with 58 competitive audits produced a different result.

Audit competitions identified an average of 6.2 serious vulnerabilities per engagement, compared with 1.5 in private tier-1 audits, Immunefi said. Competitive reviews involve multiple independent researchers examining the same code and receiving rewards based on the vulnerabilities they find.

The average cost of identifying a critical flaw through an audit competition was $6,548. It compared with about $66,000 through a private tier-1 audit and an estimated $24.5 million when an attacker discovered the vulnerability first.

Recent incidents have shown that completed security reviews do not guarantee that code is free from exploitable flaws. A crypto.news investigation into the Coldcard breach found that an AI-assisted audit identified another 85 critical bugs across Bitcoin-related projects after a firmware weakness exposed wallet users.

Immunefi’s findings suggest that projects may need continuous bug bounty programs and competitive reviews alongside conventional audits. With 2026 already approaching the record for major incidents, the cost gap between preventive research and live exploitation remains substantial.

Bitcoin (BTC) slipped below $64,500 after Monday’s Wall Street open as markets digested more US-Iran uncertainty.

Key points:

• Bitcoin joins US stocks in selling off amid uncertainty over whether the Strait of Hormuz will reopen.
• The Japanese yen commands attention as it slides back toward historic lows against the dollar.
• Bitcoin analysis doubts market strength despite “exceptionally strong” institutional inflows.

Iran warns “no military solution” to Hormuz closure

Data from TradingView showed BTC/USD hitting $64,447 on Bitstamp, its lowest since Friday, before a modest rebound. 

BTC/USD one-hour chart. Source: Cointelegraph/TradingView

This mirrored US stocks, which initially fell as the odds of the Strait of Hormuz oil route reopening appeared to fade. 

Addressing Iran’s Islamic Consultative Assembly, deputy speaker Ali Nikzad said that the “opening of the Strait of Hormuz has no military solution,” as quoted by Al Jazeera and others.

US WTI crude oil was up by almost 5% on the day at $80.90 per barrel at the time of writing, while the S&P 500 index nonetheless reversed to turn green, still below Friday’s all-time highs.

CFDs on US WTI crude oil one-hour chart. Source: Cointelegraph/TradingView

Attention also remained focused on the Japanese yen, which continued to weaken against the US dollar despite an earlier rare joint intervention by Japan and the US. USD/JPY hit 159 on Monday, nearing the psychological boundary of 160 before the end of the week’s first Asia session.

Economist Mohamed El-Erian warned that more decisive government policy action from the Japanese side would be required.

“The yen has been weakening gradually since the large joint Japan-US FX intervention, a sharp reminder that the key to fixing a currency ‘mispricing’ is getting the policy mix right. The longer Japan delays in doing so, the more elusive the goal of this historic intervention becomes,” he wrote in a post on X.

USD/JPY four-hour chart. Source: Cointelegraph/TradingView

Bitcoin comeback “tentative” despite $865 million ETF inflows

Bitcoin analysts warned that the attempted BTC price rebound “remains tentative” despite some promising signals.

Related: Markets flip for Fed rate-hike pause into CPI: Five things to know in Bitcoin this week

Glassnode’s latest Market Pulse update highlighted weak spot-market momentum as one key missing component of a sustainable recovery.

“Momentum has returned toward neutral and spot taker buying has accelerated sharply, but overall centralized exchange turnover remains subdued,” the onchain analytics platform said. It added:

“This divergence points to improving demand within a broader consolidation regime rather than a broad-based expansion in speculative activity.”

Among the positive catalysts were institutional inflows, which Glassnode noted were “exceptionally strong.” Last week, the US spot Bitcoin exchange-traded funds (ETFs) recorded net inflows of $865.3 million, per data from UK-based investment company, Farside Investors.

US spot Bitcoin ETF netflows (screenshot). Source: Farside Investors

Data from onchain analytics platform CryptoQuant, meanwhile, showed that hedge funds had flipped net long CME BTC futures — an event that CEO Ki Young Ju described as “rare.”

“The basis trade keeps them structurally short. That’s why this chart’s been red for years. You can’t carry trade into a net long. The suits are betting on upside,” he told X followers.

CME Bitcoin futures positioning data. Source: Ki Young Ju on X.com

BitMart customers are complaining that withdrawal requests are still pending weeks after the crypto exchange’s self-described “orderly wind-down” on July 26. 

BitMart promised, “Withdrawal services will remain available.” Two weeks later, a customer who requested a withdrawal claims it still has his millions.

“WHERE IS OUR MONEY?” asked the customer. The appeal received over 150,000 views on Sunday. “$10.1 million on BitMart. Since July 26, I haven’t been able to withdraw single dollar.”

He also claims that his BitMart VIP manager, “Tony,” deleted his Telegram account on the day withdrawals stalled. He added, “Tens of thousands of people have been waiting for their funds since July 26.”

Smaller account holders have posted similar complaints on social media. Another customer said BitMart released just $5 of his roughly $24,000 withdrawal request on Saturday. He asked, “This is a joke, right?” and called the process “more like a letdown than a wind-down.”

Complaints extend well beyond individuals. Crypto project Gen6 said it filed a complaint with Hungarian police over some $80,000 in withdrawals requests “refused without explanation since Jul 26.” 

Paxi Network demanded the exchange release its users’ and market makers’ funds, insisting, “These funds do not belong to BitMart.” 

Scandic Coin reported three withdrawal requests submitted on July 26, including one for $21,898 worth of the USDT stablecoin, still allegedly unprocessed nearly eight days later.

Standard Chartered’s Geoff Kendrick has laid out a bullish long-term case for Chainlink (LINK), tying potential LINK growth to the expanding tokenization of real-world assets (RWAs) and the infrastructure needed to make those assets work reliably on-chain.

In a report shared with Cointelegraph, Kendrick forecast that tokenized RWAs could reach $4 trillion by the end of 2028—creating a larger market for secure, verifiable external data. He argues this could translate into a major increase in Chainlink’s fee generation and ultimately push LINK to as high as $200 by the end of 2030, up from roughly $8 at the time of the report.

Key takeaways

• Standard Chartered expects tokenized RWAs to grow to $4 trillion by the end of 2028, expanding demand for secure on-chain data services.
• Kendrick links that demand to increased fee generation for Chainlink and a potential LINK price target of $200 by 2030.
• The forecast also projects tokenized and crypto-native decentralized finance (DeFi) assets rising to $2.7 trillion by 2030.
• Risks to the forecast include slower-than-expected institutional tokenization, competitive pressure from other oracle providers, and possible technical setbacks.

Why tokenized RWAs could boost oracle demand

Kendrick’s central point is that tokenized assets require more than just on-chain execution—they need trusted external information to be brought securely to blockchains. He said the growth of tokenized RWAs would increase the need for external data delivered “securely onchain,” which could support higher fee generation for Chainlink.

The report frames Chainlink as a key infrastructure layer for that process. By Kendrick’s account, tokenized ecosystems will need dependable data feeds, interoperability across networks, privacy-preserving compliance, and integration with established financial systems—requirements that he argues only Chainlink is currently positioned to provide.

From DeFi growth to a larger “data plumbing” market

The bullish thesis extends beyond RWAs. Standard Chartered also forecast a 37-fold increase in tokenized and crypto-native assets deployed in DeFi, projecting such assets could reach $2.7 trillion by the end of 2030.

That matters because DeFi participation often depends on continuous access to verified information—whether for pricing, settlement conditions, risk parameters, compliance-related checks, or cross-chain interoperability. Kendrick suggested these use cases will require trusted data delivery, privacy-preserving compliance, and system-to-system integration, creating broader demand for oracle services across multiple DeFi and tokenization workflows.

Signals from the market: tokenized RWA volumes are rising

The report arrives as on-chain tokenized-asset activity continues to expand. Cointelegraph noted that tokenized RWA trading on decentralized exchanges reached a new all-time high of $141 billion in July, according to CryptoRank data cited in the article. The same dataset indicated this represented a 19.5% month-over-month increase, with public equities identified as a major driver.

While a single month of DEX trading volume doesn’t automatically translate into future oracle revenue, it does reinforce the direction of travel: more tokenized assets are being traded onchain, and that usually implies a larger ecosystem of issuers, exchanges, custody and compliance providers, and the middleware needed to keep systems synchronized and verifiable.

Chainlink’s position—and the caveats

In the same coverage, Chainlink was described as the leading decentralized oracle provider for cross-chain communication, with $34.4 billion in total value secured, while Chronicle was cited as second with $7.36 billion. Those figures were attributed to DefiLlama’s oracle data.

At the same time, Standard Chartered’s Kendrick stressed that the LINK price path to his $200 target is not guaranteed. In the report, potential risks include slower-than-expected institutional tokenization efforts, competition from specialist oracle providers, and potential technical setbacks that could affect performance or adoption.

For investors and builders, the practical takeaway is that the thesis depends on execution on multiple fronts: tokenization must scale, institutional participants must move beyond pilots, and the required data and compliance tooling must work smoothly at real-world volume. If any of those steps stall, the timeline—and the magnitude—of the projected LINK upside could be pressured.

Readers should watch next how tokenized asset issuance and DEX/DeFi deployment evolve through the remainder of the decade, and whether oracle competitors gain traction. The most important variable will likely be whether tokenization growth keeps translating into sustained, verifiable on-chain data demands—the same mechanism Standard Chartered’s forecast is built on.