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What are blockchain rollups and how do they scale Ethereum

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Ethereum can process roughly 15 transactions per second. That is less than a single Starbucks checkout line. Rollups are the technology that lets Ethereum handle thousands of transactions per second without sacrificing the security that makes it valuable in the first place. They work by executing transactions off chain and posting compressed proofs back to Ethereum, turning the base layer into a settlement court rather than a transaction processor.

The standard narrative says that rollups make Ethereum faster. This is technically true but misleading. Ethereum itself does not get faster. It still produces a block every 12 seconds. It still processes roughly 15 transactions per second on the base layer. Nothing about Ethereum’s consensus or execution changes when a rollup deploys.

What changes is where the work happens. Rollups move transaction execution off the Ethereum mainnet and onto a separate chain that can process transactions much faster because it does not need thousands of validators to agree on every state change. The rollup then compresses the results and posts them back to Ethereum, where they are verified and made permanent.

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The analogy that most explanations use is a court system: the rollup handles the day to day transactions (the cases), and Ethereum serves as the court of final appeal (the judge). This analogy is useful but incomplete. The more precise framing is that rollups convert Ethereum from a transaction processor into a data availability and verification layer. The base chain stops doing the work and starts checking the work.

Understanding why this matters requires understanding what makes Ethereum slow in the first place, and why the obvious solutions do not work.

Why Ethereum cannot simply increase its throughput

Ethereum processes approximately 15 transactions per second. The intuitive fix is to increase the block size or reduce the block time, allowing more transactions per block or more blocks per unit of time. Every first generation blockchain project that tried this approach discovered the same problem: larger blocks require more powerful hardware to validate, which prices out smaller node operators, which concentrates validation among fewer entities, which undermines decentralization.

This is the blockchain trilemma. You can optimize for any two of three properties (security, decentralization, throughput) but improving the third requires sacrificing one of the others. Increasing Ethereum’s block size would improve throughput at the cost of decentralization. Reducing the validator count would improve throughput at the cost of security.

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Rollups sidestep the trilemma by separating execution from verification. The rollup chain handles execution with a small number of operators, achieving high throughput. Ethereum handles verification and data availability with its full validator set, maintaining security and decentralization. Neither chain compromises, because each is optimized for a different function.

This is not a theoretical argument. Solana, which chose to optimize for throughput over accessibility, requires validators to run hardware costing thousands of dollars and processes blocks that are hundreds of megabytes. Ethereum validators can run on a consumer laptop. The rollup architecture lets Ethereum achieve Solana’s throughput without Solana’s hardware requirements by moving execution to a separate layer.

How optimistic rollups work

Optimistic rollups are named for their core assumption: transactions are assumed to be valid unless proven otherwise.

The process starts with a sequencer, a node operated by the rollup team that collects user transactions, orders them, and executes them in batches. The sequencer produces a new rollup state after each batch, just as Ethereum produces a new state after each block.

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Instead of requiring every validator to re-execute every transaction, the optimistic rollup posts the batch data to Ethereum and publishes a state root (a cryptographic hash of the rollup’s state after executing the batch). This state root is accepted as correct unless someone challenges it.

The challenge mechanism is the fraud proof system. During a challenge window, typically seven days, anyone can examine the batch data posted to Ethereum, re-execute the transactions locally, and compare their result to the published state root. If the results differ, the challenger submits a fraud proof to a smart contract on Ethereum, which re-executes the disputed transaction on chain and determines who is correct.

If the fraud proof shows that the sequencer published an incorrect state root, the sequencer’s staked collateral is slashed, the incorrect state root is reverted, and the challenger receives a reward. If no one challenges the state root within the challenge window, it is finalized on Ethereum and becomes the canonical state of the rollup.

This design is elegant because it moves the expensive work (re-execution and verification) off the critical path. In the normal case, where the sequencer is honest, no on chain re-execution happens at all. The cost of operating the rollup reduces to posting compressed batch data to Ethereum, which is dramatically cheaper than executing every transaction on the base layer.

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Arbitrum and Optimism are the two largest optimistic rollups. Arbitrum uses an interactive dispute resolution protocol that narrows the disputed computation down to a single instruction before re-executing it on chain, minimizing the on chain gas cost of fraud proofs. Optimism uses a non-interactive fraud proof system where the entire disputed transaction is re-executed in a single on chain step.

Base, built by Coinbase using the OP Stack (Optimism’s open source framework), has become the fastest growing rollup by transaction volume, driven by consumer applications and the integration with Coinbase’s user base.

How ZK rollups work

ZK rollups take the opposite approach: they prove correctness up front rather than assuming it.

After the sequencer executes a batch of transactions, a prover generates a cryptographic validity proof (typically a zk-SNARK or zk-STARK) that mathematically demonstrates the batch was executed correctly. This proof, along with the batch data, is posted to a verifier contract on Ethereum. The verifier checks the proof, which is computationally cheap and takes constant time regardless of how many transactions the batch contains.

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The advantage is finality. There is no seven day challenge window. As soon as the proof is verified on Ethereum, the batch is finalized. Users can withdraw assets from a ZK rollup to Ethereum in minutes rather than waiting a week.

The disadvantage is cost. Generating a validity proof for a complex batch of transactions requires significant computational resources. ZK proof generation is a mathematically intensive process that can take minutes for large batches and requires specialized hardware. This cost is amortized across all transactions in the batch, but it adds a per-batch overhead that optimistic rollups avoid.

ZK rollups are also more difficult to build. Optimistic rollups can support the same virtual machine as Ethereum (the EVM) with relatively minor modifications, which means existing Solidity smart contracts work with little or no changes. ZK rollups historically required developers to write contracts in specialized languages like Cairo (used by StarkNet) because the EVM’s instruction set was not designed for efficient zero-knowledge proof generation.

This gap is closing. zkSync Era and Polygon zkEVM have implemented EVM-compatible ZK rollups that can execute standard Solidity contracts, though with varying degrees of compatibility. Scroll, another ZK rollup, aims for full EVM equivalence, meaning contracts deployed on Ethereum can be deployed on Scroll without any modification.

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Blobs and the Dencun upgrade: the economics shift

Before March 2024, rollups posted their batch data as calldata in Ethereum transactions. Calldata is stored permanently by every Ethereum node, which makes it expensive. A typical rollup batch cost $500 to $2,000 in calldata fees during periods of high Ethereum congestion.

The Dencun upgrade introduced EIP-4844, which created a new data type called blobs. Blobs are large chunks of data (approximately 128 KB each) that are attached to Ethereum transactions but are only stored temporarily, for approximately 18 days, rather than permanently. This makes them dramatically cheaper than calldata.

The impact was immediate and measurable. Transaction fees on Arbitrum dropped from an average of $0.25 to under $0.01. Fees on Base dropped to fractions of a cent. The cost of posting a rollup batch to Ethereum fell by more than 90%.

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This matters because it changes the economic equation for rollup adoption. When layer 2 transactions cost $0.25, only users with transactions above a certain value threshold would choose the rollup over a competing chain with lower base fees. When layer 2 transactions cost $0.001, the cost advantage of competing chains largely disappears, and the security advantage of Ethereum settlement becomes the deciding factor.

Blobs are the first step toward full danksharding, a future upgrade that will increase the number of blobs per block from the current target of three to 64 or more. Each step in this progression further reduces rollup costs and increases the data throughput available for layer 2 settlement on Ethereum.

The sequencer centralization problem

Almost every major rollup today runs a single sequencer operated by the rollup team. Arbitrum’s sequencer is run by Offchain Labs. Optimism’s sequencer is run by OP Labs. Base’s sequencer is run by Coinbase.

This centralization creates several risks. If the sequencer goes down, the rollup halts. If the sequencer censors certain transactions, users cannot interact with the rollup normally. If the sequencer reorders transactions to extract MEV, users pay a hidden tax.

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Rollup teams defend this centralization as a temporary measure. Decentralizing the sequencer, by introducing a rotating set of sequencers or using a shared sequencing layer, is on every major rollup’s roadmap. But roadmaps are not deployments.

The mitigation is forced inclusion. Most rollups include a mechanism that allows users to submit transactions directly to the Ethereum base layer, bypassing the sequencer entirely. If the sequencer censors your transaction, you can force it through the rollup’s on chain contract. This process is slower and more expensive than going through the sequencer, but it prevents permanent censorship.

The degree to which forced inclusion actually works in practice, under the time constraints and gas costs of real world usage, is a meaningful differentiator between rollups. L2BEAT, the primary independent tracker of rollup security properties, rates each rollup on the maturity of its forced inclusion mechanism along with several other security criteria.

The fragmentation problem

Ethereum’s rollup strategy has succeeded in creating scalable execution environments. It has also created a fragmentation problem that did not exist before rollups.

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A user with assets on Arbitrum cannot directly use them on Base. A DeFi protocol on Optimism has separate liquidity from the same protocol on zkSync. An NFT minted on StarkNet cannot be sold on a marketplace running on Scroll.

Each rollup is its own chain with its own state, its own bridge to Ethereum, and its own ecosystem of applications. Moving assets between rollups requires bridging, which introduces delay (seven days for optimistic rollup withdrawals to Ethereum), cost (gas fees on both the source and destination chains), and risk (bridge smart contract vulnerabilities).

This is not merely an inconvenience. It is a structural problem that undermines the network effects that make Ethereum valuable. If liquidity is split across 30 rollups, no single rollup has the depth of liquidity that Ethereum mainnet had when it was the primary execution environment.

Solutions are being developed. Shared sequencing layers like Espresso aim to coordinate transaction ordering across multiple rollups, enabling atomic cross-rollup transactions. Interoperability protocols like Chainlink CCIP and LayerZero provide messaging layers that let rollups communicate. ERC-7683, a cross-chain intent standard, aims to standardize how users express cross-rollup transfers.

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None of these solutions are mature enough to eliminate fragmentation today. Whether the rollup ecosystem converges on a small number of dominant chains or remains fragmented across dozens is an open question with significant implications for where users, developers, and liquidity settle.

The security model differs in more subtle ways as well. In an optimistic rollup, security depends on at least one honest verifier watching the chain and submitting fraud proofs when needed. If every verifier is offline or colluding, invalid state transitions could be finalized after the challenge window closes. In practice, multiple independent verifiers monitor every major optimistic rollup, and the economic incentive to catch fraud (the challenger receives slashed collateral) makes this attack expensive to sustain. But the theoretical requirement is weaker than a ZK rollup, where the mathematical proof itself guarantees correctness regardless of who is watching.

The user experience implications of rollup choice extend beyond fees and finality. Wallet support, token availability, and application deployment all vary across rollups. A user who bridges assets to a rollup with limited DeFi protocol deployment may find their capital stranded in an ecosystem with few productive uses. The interoperability problem compounds this: moving assets back to Ethereum or to a different rollup incurs additional bridging fees and time delays that can negate the cost savings that attracted the user to the rollup in the first place.

What this does not cover

This article does not cover the internal architecture of specific rollup virtual machines. The differences between Arbitrum Nitro, the OP Stack, and StarkNet’s Cairo VM are significant and affect developer experience, performance, and security properties. Each deserves dedicated analysis.

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This article does not cover validiums and volitions, which are rollup variants that post data to a separate data availability layer rather than to Ethereum. These systems trade some of Ethereum’s security guarantee for lower costs, and the tradeoffs are nuanced.

This article does not address the token economics of rollup governance. ARB, OP, STRK, and ZK tokens each have different governance, staking, and incentive structures. Whether rollup tokens accrue value to holders or function primarily as governance instruments is an active debate with implications for investment decisions.

Practical checks before choosing a rollup

Check the rollup’s security stage on L2BEAT. L2BEAT classifies rollups into three stages based on the maturity of their proof systems, upgrade mechanisms, and governance. Stage 0 rollups rely heavily on trust in the rollup team. Stage 1 rollups have functional proof systems but retain upgrade keys. Stage 2 rollups have fully trustless proof systems with minimal centralized control. Most major rollups are still at Stage 0 or Stage 1 as of mid 2026.

Understand the withdrawal time. Optimistic rollup withdrawals to Ethereum take approximately seven days due to the fraud proof challenge window. Fast bridge services can accelerate this by fronting the funds, but they charge a fee and introduce counterparty risk. ZK rollup withdrawals can complete in minutes once the validity proof is verified. This difference matters if you need rapid access to your assets on Ethereum mainnet.

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Verify the forced inclusion mechanism. If the sequencer goes down or censors your transaction, can you force your transaction through the on chain contract? Check whether the rollup has a functioning forced inclusion mechanism and how long the delay is. A rollup without forced inclusion is a centralized chain with Ethereum branding.

Compare actual transaction costs. Rollup fees vary based on the rollup’s compression efficiency, batch frequency, and the current price of Ethereum blob space. Use a rollup fee tracker to compare the actual cost of common operations (token transfer, swap, contract deployment) across rollups at the time you plan to use them, rather than relying on historical averages.

Check the ecosystem. The cheapest rollup is not useful if the application you need is on a different rollup. Verify that the DeFi protocols, NFT marketplaces, or wallet infrastructure you plan to use are deployed and liquid on the rollup you choose.

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  1. What is a blockchain rollup?

    A rollup is a layer 2 scaling solution that executes transactions on a separate chain and posts the transaction data or a cryptographic proof back to a layer 1 blockchain like Ethereum. This allows the rollup to process thousands of transactions per second while relying on Ethereum for security and data availability. The term rollup refers to the way many transactions are rolled up into a single batch before being submitted to the base layer.

  2. What is the difference between optimistic and ZK rollups?

    Optimistic rollups assume transactions are valid and allow a challenge period (usually seven days) during which anyone can submit a fraud proof if they find an error. ZK rollups generate a mathematical proof that verifies the entire batch was executed correctly before it is accepted on Ethereum. The practical difference is that optimistic rollups have longer withdrawal times but are easier to build, while ZK rollups offer faster finality but require more computational resources for proof generation.

  3. Why do optimistic rollup withdrawals take seven days?

    The seven day window exists to give fraud provers enough time to detect and challenge an invalid state root submitted by the sequencer. If withdrawals were instant, a malicious sequencer could submit a fake state root, withdraw funds to Ethereum, and disappear before anyone could prove the fraud. The seven day delay ensures there is enough time for the verification game to play out. Fast bridge services can provide instant withdrawals by fronting the funds, but they charge a fee for this service.

  4. What are blobs and how did they reduce rollup costs?

    Blobs are a new data type introduced by Ethereum’s Dencun upgrade (EIP-4844) in March 2024. Before blobs, rollups posted batch data as calldata, which is stored permanently by every Ethereum node and is expensive. Blobs are stored temporarily (approximately 18 days) and have their own fee market separate from regular Ethereum transactions. This reduced rollup transaction costs by over 90% because the data storage, which is the primary cost of operating a rollup, became dramatically cheaper.

  5. Is using a rollup as safe as using Ethereum directly?

    A rollup inherits Ethereum’s security for the data it posts to the base layer, but additional trust assumptions apply. The sequencer is typically a single centralized operator that could censor transactions or go offline. The rollup’s smart contracts on Ethereum may have upgrade keys controlled by the team. The fraud proof or validity proof system may still be under development. L2BEAT’s stage classification system rates these properties. A Stage 2 rollup with a fully decentralized proof system approaches Ethereum’s security level. Most rollups today are not at Stage 2.

  6. What happens if a rollup’s sequencer goes offline?

    If the sequencer goes offline, new transactions on the rollup cannot be processed through the normal channel. However, most rollups include a forced inclusion mechanism that allows users to submit transactions directly to the rollup’s smart contract on Ethereum, bypassing the sequencer. This is slower and more expensive than normal operation, but it prevents the sequencer outage from permanently locking user funds. The quality and accessibility of forced inclusion mechanisms varies significantly between rollups.

  7. Why are there so many different rollups?

    The rollup framework is modular and open source, which makes it relatively easy to launch a new rollup. The OP Stack (from Optimism) and Arbitrum Orbit both allow developers to deploy custom rollups with pre-built infrastructure. Different rollups optimize for different use cases: some target DeFi, others target gaming, others target enterprise applications. However, the proliferation of rollups has created fragmentation problems including split liquidity, bridging complexity, and user confusion.

  8. Which rollup should I use?

    The best rollup depends on what you want to do. For DeFi with the deepest liquidity, Arbitrum currently leads. For consumer applications integrated with Coinbase, Base is dominant. For applications that prioritize fast finality and do not want seven day withdrawal delays, ZK rollups like zkSync Era or StarkNet are worth considering. Compare current transaction costs, check that the applications you need are deployed, and verify the rollup’s security stage on L2BEAT before committing significant assets.

Disclaimer: This article is for informational and educational purposes only. It does not constitute financial, investment, or legal advice. Cryptocurrency markets are volatile and carry significant risk. Always conduct your own research before making investment decisions.

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TRON Moved $2.1 Trillion in USDT Last Quarter, Yet TRX Didn’t Budge

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TRON (TRX) is winning as a stablecoin settlement rail even as its Decentralized Finance (DeFi) economy contracts, a divide that is quite evident through the second quarter of 2026.

Record payment flows keep moving across the network, yet that liquidity is largely skipping its trading and lending venues. The chain now prospers on one front while thinning on another.

TRON Stablecoin Volume Climbs as On-Chain DeFi Cools

Tether (USDT) supply on TRON reached $87.9 billion at quarter-end, surpassing Ethereum (ETH), according to a Messari report. The network processed $2.1 trillion in USDT transfers over the period.

TRON’s total stablecoin market cap grew 4.1% to a record $89.2 billion, with USDT holding a 98.5% share. Average daily transfer volume rose 4.3% to $22.8 billion.

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The flows read as utility rather than speculation. Stablecoin velocity held at 0.26, meaning roughly a quarter of the supply changed hands each day, a level that has been steady for five straight quarters.

Network usage set records, too. TRON averaged 11.8 million daily transactions, up 8.7%, and 3.6 million daily active addresses, up 11.7%. It cleared a record 14.6 million transactions on June 15.

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DeFi and DEX Activity Move the Other Way

In contrast, the on-chain economy shrank. TRON’s DeFi total value locked (TVL) slipped 1.9% to $4.4 billion during the quarter. JustLend, the largest protocol, fell 10.5% to $2.9 billion, cutting its share of network TVL from 72.9% to 66.5%.

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TRON DeFi TVL
TRON DeFi TVL. Source: Messari

Average daily volume across TRON’s decentralized exchanges (DEXs) fell 21.7% to $49.3 million. It marked the fourth straight quarterly decline, even as the chain’s dominance in stablecoin payments expanded. 

“The decline remains consistent with the broader cooldown in onchain spot trading rather than a TRON-specific structural trend,” the analysts said.

Network fees moved the opposite way, rising 15.9% to $699.4 million. That was the first quarterly increase since an August 2025 governance change cut the energy unit price.

TRX ended the quarter near $0.32, essentially flat after an 11.6% gain in Q1, and now trades around $0.33. The altcoin remains about 23% below its record high. 

TRON (TRX) Price Performance
TRON (TRX) Price Performance. Source: BeInCrypto Markets

The split raises a question about what actually drives the token. Settlement demand keeps setting records while on-chain trading dries up. 

The price outlook may hinge on whether payment dominance ever converts into value for the token itself.

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The post TRON Moved $2.1 Trillion in USDT Last Quarter, Yet TRX Didn’t Budge appeared first on BeInCrypto.

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EUR/AUD: Two Central Banks on Hold, One Triangle About to Break

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EUR/AUD: Two Central Banks on Hold, One Triangle About to Break

Overnight, the RBA held its cash rate steady at 4.35%, as widely expected after June’s inflation data came in softer than forecast at 3.8% headline. Yet the accompanying statement struck a notably cautious tone, warning that trimmed mean inflation remains elevated and largely unchanged from the March quarter, with oil and related commodities still trading above pre-conflict levels due to the ongoing Middle East crisis. With 55% of economists still expecting at least one further hike in 2026, the door to additional tightening remains firmly open.

The euro, meanwhile, holds a cautiously bullish tone after climbing to a seven-week high near $1.155 against the dollar. Eurozone Q2 growth of 0.4% offered support, though weaker retail activity and mixed inflation signals keep the ECB’s own path uncertain, with policymakers maintaining a deliberately cautious stance ahead of their September 15-16 meeting and giving no firm commitment to further hikes.

The result: two central banks in genuine holding patterns, each leaving the door open to more tightening while waiting for clearer data to justify the next move.

Technical Analysis of EUR/AUD

As EUR/AUD chart shows, the pair staged a strong rally from July’s lows near 1.6243, a move that followed a bullish RSI divergence, where price carved a lower low while the RSI printed a higher low. Since topping near 1.6500 in late July, price has been compressing into a symmetrical triangle, with a descending trendline and an ascending trendline converging right around the 0.5-0.618 Fibonacci zone near 1.6342-1.6372.

Bullish Scenario

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Should buyers defend the ascending trendline and break above the descending one, the path would open toward the 0.382 retracement near 1.6402, with a stronger move potentially targeting a retest of the 1.6500 highs if momentum builds.

Bearish Scenario

Conversely, a break below the ascending trendline and the 0.618 retracement near 1.6341 would expose the 0.786 level near 1.6298, with a deeper slide risking a retest of the 1.6243 low that anchored the entire July rally.

With price coiled right at the apex of this triangle, and the RSI sitting in neutral territory after cooling from its earlier divergence, EUR/AUD looks poised for a decisive break—will the euro extend its late-July strength, or does the Aussie reclaim the upper hand?

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Bitcoin’s $4B USDT drop signals weakening sell pressure

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Crypto Breaking News

Bitcoin traders have increasingly looked to stablecoins for clues about where risk appetite is headed. A new data review from CryptoQuant highlights that Tether’s USDT has been shrinking in market value at an unusually fast pace—yet the same patterns in past bear markets suggest the selloff may be approaching its end.

According to CryptoQuant, USDT’s 60-day rolling market-cap change averaged about minus $4.88 billion as of Aug. 10, while the most recent 11-day window saw nearly $870 million of USDT supply disappear. The combination points to a liquidity retreat that typically pressures broader crypto performance, but it also aligns with the late-stage behavior of prior downturns.

Key takeaways

  • CryptoQuant reports USDT’s 60-day market-cap contraction remains near $4 billion, one of its sharpest declines on record.
  • Nearly $870 million of USDT supply vanished over the latest 11-day period, indicating the contraction is actively continuing.
  • The steepest 60-day contraction phase previously peaked around July 13 at approximately minus $5.72 billion.
  • CryptoQuant argues that the worst stablecoin drawdowns have historically occurred near exhaustion points rather than at the beginning of further acceleration.
  • Weekly RSI divergence arguments from analysts like William Clemente echo a broader “late bear-market” narrative.

USDT contraction tightens crypto liquidity

In a CryptoQuant blog post published last week, the onchain analytics firm described USDT as undergoing “one of its sharpest contractions on record.” The emphasis is not just on the overall size of the decline, but on whether the process is still worsening.

CryptoQuant notes that the deterioration has accelerated “at the margin,” pointing to about $870 million in USDT disappearing over the latest 11-day period. It also frames the 60-day market-cap change metric as a way to gauge sustained redemption pressure rather than one-off redemptions.

From a market mechanics perspective, stablecoins often function as a bridge for capital across exchanges and trading pairs. When USDT supply contracts, liquidity can become less available, reducing the “dry powder” investors might use to buy dips—or to rotate into other risk assets.

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CryptoQuant cautions, however, against assuming a clean cause-and-effect relationship between stablecoin flows and Bitcoin’s spot price. In its view, both can respond to the same broader risk-off conditions: redemptions may accelerate alongside spot selling, rather than predictively preceding it.

“The caution is that correlation between USDT flows and BTC price doesn’t settle causality,” CryptoQuant analysts said. They added that sustained USDT expansion has historically coincided with stronger Bitcoin price regimes, while prolonged contractions have aligned with weaker demand and deeper corrections.

Late-stage bear-market behavior, not necessarily a fresh leg down

The key analytical question for traders is whether the USDT drawdown is merely “history repeating” or whether it signals a new intensification of selling pressure. CryptoQuant’s answer leans toward the former.

Historically, the firm argues, the most pronounced phases of USDT contraction tend to occur toward the final chapters of macro downturns, when selling momentum begins to move closer to exhaustion than to further acceleration. In that framework, severe stablecoin redemptions become less a signal to short the next day and more an indicator that the market has already been tested heavily.

CryptoQuant also highlights a specific milestone in the recent contraction cycle: the steepest 60-day decline in USDT market cap completed on July 13, when it reached about minus $5.72 billion. That point matters because it offers a reference level for where “worst-case” pressure may have already been seen—meaning later readings could represent stabilization or easing rather than escalation.

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Still, the data in the CryptoQuant update is not painting a picture of immediate normalization. The latest 60-day average remains close to the multi-billion-dollar contraction zone, suggesting liquidity conditions are tight even if selling intensity may be moderating at the margin.

RSI divergence arguments reinforce a “bottoming” thesis

While stablecoin contractions speak to liquidity and risk appetite, technical market indicators often shape how traders interpret timing. The CryptoQuant findings have added momentum to broader “late bear market” narratives, including comparative analysis that points to earlier cycle behavior.

Cointelegraph has reported that some market participants are increasingly aligning with the idea of a new Bitcoin macro bottom forming before the end of 2026, even if the near-term trend remains volatile. In the same broader discussion, independent analyst William Clemente has argued for a cautious “cheap but not done yet” view.

On Aug. 8, Clemente posted on X that he considers Bitcoin “cheap,” while allowing for the possibility of “a leg lower” at some point during the year. Two days later, he highlighted what he described as a bullish divergence between BTC/USD and the relative strength index (RSI) on weekly time frames.

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That divergence is widely treated as a leading indicator in technical analysis—particularly because the strongest RSI divergence signals historically appeared during turning points, including at the end of the 2022 bear market. In Cointelegraph’s earlier coverage, RSI divergence was framed as a “classic” reversal signal that coincided with the conclusion of that drawdown cycle.

BTC/USD one-week chart with RSI divergences marked. Source: William Clemente on X.com

What to watch next: stablecoin flows and confirmation signals

If CryptoQuant’s interpretation is correct, the most concerning USDT drawdown phases may already have passed their peak, even if contraction continues in the background. For investors and traders, the practical question is whether the contraction rate keeps accelerating or whether it begins to flatten—especially relative to the steepest reading around July 13.

In the coming weeks, market watchers may want to track whether USDT’s 60-day market-cap change continues near minus $4 billion or starts moving toward less negative territory, as well as whether BTC’s technical picture—such as the weekly RSI divergence narrative—gets reinforced by actual trend stabilization rather than only indicator hints. The stablecoin/liquidity story may not be the sole driver of price, but it can shape how quickly the market regains the ability to absorb dips and rebuild demand.

Risk & affiliate notice: Crypto assets are volatile and capital is at risk. This article may contain affiliate links. Read full disclosure

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Ambiq Micro Stock Rises On Chipmaker’s Beat-And-Raise Report

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Ambiq Micro Stock Rises On Chipmaker's Beat-And-Raise Report

Ambiq Micro (AMBQ) on Tuesday beat analyst estimates for the second quarter and with its guidance for the third quarter. Ambiq stock rose in early trading. The Austin, Texas-based chipmaker lost an adjusted 7 cents a share on sales of $33.9 million in the June quarter. Analysts polled by FactSet expected a loss of 26 cents a share on sales…

Copyright ©2026 Investor’s Business Daily, LLC. All rights reserved. 87990cbe856818d5eddac44c7b1cdeb8

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How Investigators Track Coldcard Hack Losses and Stolen Bitcoin

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Crypto Breaking News

Crypto investigators are grappling with one of the toughest loss-allocation problems in digital asset security: estimating theft from self-custody wallets, where there is no authoritative registry of affected users. The ongoing analysis of the Coldcard-related hack is now producing markedly different figures depending on how teams treat “confirmed” victim reports versus on-chain attributions.

Blockchain analytics platform CryptoQuant currently puts confirmed losses at 1,432 Bitcoin, while Galaxy Research and TRM Labs argue the broader toll is higher when tracing suggests additional victims across multiple waves. The discrepancy highlights why hardware-wallet exploits can be hard to quantify—and why investors and security watchers should treat any single number as provisional.

Key takeaways

  • CryptoQuant reports 1,432 BTC as a confirmed floor, relying on victim-provided evidence before labeling funds stolen.
  • Galaxy Research says it has high-confidence minimum losses of 1,730 BTC, using victim reports to validate wider attack patterns.
  • TRM Labs estimates attackers drained roughly 1,816 BTC across 5,200+ addresses in four waves, with the figure expected to keep rising before stabilizing.
  • All parties underscore that there is no complete list of affected self-custody accounts, so totals can only be inferred—not definitively counted.

Why Coldcard thefts are difficult to total

Self-custody incidents differ sharply from exchange hacks, where investigators can often begin with a centralized list of compromised accounts or balances. In the Coldcard case, analytics teams instead have to assemble estimates from scattered disclosures—wallet addresses and transaction identifiers shared by victims—then map those to on-chain behavior consistent with the attack.

That structure creates two competing measurement philosophies. One is conservative: count only losses that victims directly confirm, to avoid “false positives” from pattern matching. The other is investigative: use confirmed losses to identify additional wallet clusters and transactions that likely belong to other victims, even when those victims have not yet come forward publicly.

The result is a widening gap between “confirmed” and “attributed” totals—exactly the gap that matters for incident reporting, accountability, and the credibility of downstream security narratives.

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Galaxy narrows a moving minimum—backed by victim corroboration

Galaxy’s approach, as explained to Cointelegraph by Alex Thorn, treats early totals as tentative until victim disclosures can corroborate suspected victims and linked on-chain activity. Thorn previously described Galaxy’s earlier estimate—up to 1,816 BTC—as a potential figure rather than a finalized tally.

By Tuesday, Galaxy reported a high-confidence minimum of 1,730 BTC. Thorn also indicated that the minimum could still increase as more victim reports align with the attack’s observed patterns.

In Thorn’s description, the key distinction is between (1) losses directly supported by victim-reported information and (2) additional losses identified through the broader pattern those reports help validate. Galaxy said it has directly confirmed 450+ BTC from victim reports, while those reports have helped uncover other victims in a wider set totaling more than 730 BTC. At the same time, Galaxy said it is still holding back BTC it suspects but cannot yet verify with sufficient corroboration.

For readers, this methodology matters because it suggests a “floor that can rise” dynamic: as the public dataset of victim evidence grows, the subset that analysts can confidently label as theft expands, improving the stability of the totals.

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TRM Labs: broader tracing across multiple waves

TRM Labs told Cointelegraph that its independent tracing lands in the same general range as Galaxy. In its more detailed analysis, TRM said its work estimated that attackers drained about 1,816 BTC from more than 5,200 addresses across four waves.

TRM’s Ari Redbord, global head of policy, cautioned that investigators should expect estimates to keep moving upward before settling. That framing aligns with the reality that self-custody victims may take time to discover compromise, identify relevant addresses, and disclose the information needed for analysts to match on-chain traces.

TRM’s results also underline why the same incident can generate different “totals” depending on whether analysts use strict victim confirmations or extend attribution to clusters and transactions that look consistent with the exploit.

CryptoQuant uses victim evidence to avoid inflated claims

CryptoQuant takes a more restrictive stance. According to Cointelegraph, CryptoQuant’s Julio Moreno said the company begins with public reports from victims—including wallet addresses or transaction IDs—then checks those disclosures against known on-chain patterns associated with the Coldcard attack.

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With that workflow, CryptoQuant’s current confirmed tally is 1,432 BTC, which Moreno described as a floor that may increase if additional victims publicly reveal the hacked addresses.

Moreno emphasized that CryptoQuant avoids treating on-chain pattern matching alone as a basis for identifying victims, because doing so could produce false positives and inflate the estimate. In his explanation, the fundamental issue is that the stolen Bitcoin belongs to individuals rather than a single centralized entity (like an exchange) that can provide consolidated incident data. As a result, analysts can only confirm what victims disclose.

“Knowing the total BTC stolen is difficult, and it will always be an estimation.”

CryptoQuant’s stance is a reminder that, in self-custody incidents, analytical precision is constrained by data availability. The most cautious number may not reflect the full damage—but it can be the most defensible as “confirmed” while the case is still unfolding.

What others are (and aren’t) tallying

Cointelegraph also reported that Chainalysis has not conducted an independent loss tally. Separately, blockchain investigator ZachXBT publicly stated he has no plans to monitor or trace the incident.

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While the absence of a consensus total could frustrate observers seeking a single figure, it also signals that the ecosystem is converging on a shared understanding: without complete victim registries, analysts must balance completeness against verification.

For now, the main thing to watch is whether the announced figures stabilize as more victims submit corroborating wallet data. If disclosures accelerate, the “confirmed” floor should rise and estimates may converge—otherwise the spread between conservative and attributed totals may remain a persistent feature of how self-custody hacks are measured.

Risk & affiliate notice: Crypto assets are volatile and capital is at risk. This article may contain affiliate links. Read full disclosure

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MoneyGram expands on Solana with global crypto-to-cash service

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MoneyGram's CEO says blockchain works best when customers don't know it's there

MoneyGram, which serves roughly 60 million active customers, views blockchain rails as a way to make cross-border transfers faster, cheaper and easier to track, without requiring customers to think about the technology powering them. Ramps fits into the vision as it connects digital assets into MoneyGram’s extensive brick-and-mortar network to help everyday customers turn tokens into local cash.

“The future of payments is built on access,” MoneyGram CEO Anthony Soohoo said in a statement. “Bringing MoneyGram Ramps to Solana is another step toward building a truly open, global payments network.”

MoneyGram has spent several years building connections between its traditional payments network and crypto. In 2022, it rolled out a service with the Stellar Development Foundation that allowed users to move between cash and Circle’s USDC stablecoin through its retail network, giving crypto wallets a physical entry and exit point for digital dollars.

The firm took that strategy further in June, announcing MGUSD, its own dollar-backed stablecoin issued by Bridge, the stablecoin infrastructure company owned by Stripe, on the Stellar network.

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The company has also been deepening its ties with Solana, becoming a validator in June, helping process and secure transactions on the network.

MoneyGram was also listed as a one of the partners in Open USD, the Stripe-led stablecoin initiative that aims to share revenue with a consortium of backers.

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Bitcoin Price Prediction: Will $64K Hold Ahead of Tomorrow’s CPI Data?

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Bitcoin Price Prediction: Will $64K Hold Ahead of Tomorrow’s CPI Data?

BTC USD sits at $64,000, down -1.5% on the day, still pinned under the ceiling that’s frustrated bulls for weeks. The bigger story: a labor market miss that should have triggered a relief rally instead got shrugged off entirely. That disconnect matters more than the headline number for this week’s Bitcoin price prediction.

Employers cut 23,000 jobs in July, the first net loss since the pandemic-era recovery, badly missing the 95,000 gain economists penciled in. Markets read the miss as rate-cut fuel and Treasury yields dropped.

Risk assets were supposed to catch a bid. Bitcoin tapped its 50-day average and rolled straight back over, rejecting the level cleanly on the daily candle.

The rejection fits a pattern that’s held since the May peak near $80,000: lower highs, lower lows, a death cross that macro tailwinds can’t seem to dislodge. That’s the technical backdrop worth understanding before deciding what comes next.

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Bitcoin Price Prediction: Can BTC USD Hit $65,000 This Week?

BTC is trading in a tight band, with CoinLore showing support at $63,766 and resistance at $65,000. A break above that ceiling opens room toward $67,081, and eventually $78,085, according to CoinLore’s model. The 7-day forecast lands at $63,935, essentially flat, which tells its own story.

The RSI reads 50, dead neutral. Neither camp has conviction right now. The 50-day EMA still trades below the 200-day, and bulls needed a daily close above that shorter average to even start flipping the read, they didn’t get it.

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Bull case: a clean reclaim of $65,000 opens a path toward $67,000-plus.

Base case: continued consolidation between $63,766 and $65,016, chopping traders on both sides.

Bear case: a break below $62,216 (the prior swing low) confirms the downtrend has legs. For deeper technical context, this breakout analysis and this CPI-driven forecast are worth a read before positioning either direction.

LiquidChain Targets Early Mover Upside as Bitcoin Tests Key Levels

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A death cross that shrugs off a jobs miss isn’t a market begging to be bought at these levels. Bitcoin at a $1.3 trillion market cap doesn’t offer the kind of asymmetric upside early-stage capital tends to chase; the coin’s most explosive growth phases are, arguably, behind it. That’s pushing more traders toward presale-stage infrastructure plays where the ceiling hasn’t been priced in yet.

LiquidChain ($LIQUID) is building a Layer 3 execution environment that fuses Bitcoin, Ethereum, and Solana liquidity into one unified layer; developers deploy once and access all three ecosystems rather than fragmenting liquidity across chains.

The presale has raised $936,891.74 at a current token price of $0.01489. Core features include Single-Step Execution and Verifiable Settlement, both aimed at solving the liquidity fragmentation problem that’s plagued cross-chain DeFi since its inception.

Visit the LiquidChain Presale Website Here.

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This is not financial advice. Crypto markets are highly volatile and presale tokens carry elevated risk. Always conduct independent research before investing.

The post Bitcoin Price Prediction: Will $64K Hold Ahead of Tomorrow’s CPI Data? appeared first on Cryptonews.

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Bitcoin-linked Ravencoin falls 17% as miners move to rewrite transactions since Friday

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Bitcoin-linked Ravencoin falls 17% as miners move to rewrite transactions since Friday

The first bad block appeared at height 4,487,776 at 15:44 UTC on Aug. 7. Once the weakness had been demonstrated on the live network, others appeared to copy it and produce invalid blocks of their own. Ravencoin has since released a fix, but patching the software does not undo what is already written.

The two pools, 2Miners and RavenMiner, are building their version from block 4,487,775, the last one before the exploit. The project said it asked them to restart from a more recent point, which would put less history at risk, but they declined.

Some transactions caught in the gap may be picked up again and recorded on the replacement chain. Ravencoin further warned exchanges and other services not to assume that deposits or withdrawals wiped out this way will return on their own, and advised them to suspend both until the network settles on a single version.

Exchanges have started responding. Bitvavo suspended RVN deposits and withdrawals as a precaution, citing the exploited vulnerability. South Korea’s Upbit placed an investment warning on RVN across its won, bitcoin and tether markets and also stopped deposits.

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The project stopped short of endorsing the pools’ plan, saying the details were being shared for transparency rather than as support for any particular version of the chain.

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Australian watchdog suspends Cryptolink, forcing 96 ATMs offline

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Australian watchdog suspends Cryptolink, forcing 96 ATMs offline

Australia’s financial crime watchdog suspended crypto ATM operator Cryptolink Pty Ltd for three months, forcing the firm to shut down 96 machines across the country.

The Australian Transaction Reports and Analysis Centre, known as AUSTRAC, said the suspension took effect Aug. 9. Cryptolink cannot provide virtual asset services while the order remains in place.

Crypto ATMs allow customers to use cash to buy cryptocurrency, serving as a bridge between fiat currency and crypto. AUSTRAC said it remains concerned about Cryptolink’s ability to manage transactions that carry a higher risk of money laundering or terrorism financing.

The regulator said Cryptolink initially met the terms of an enforceable undertaking imposed in October 2025. The company later failed to submit required threshold transaction reports and did not respond to an AUSTRAC information request.

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AUSTRAC CEO Brendan Thomas said those failures made the business “too high risk to continue operating at present.”

The earlier undertaking followed an investigation by AUSTRAC’s Cryptocurrency Taskforce into alleged breaches of anti-money laundering and counter-terrorism financing rules. The regulator cited late transaction reports and weaknesses in Cryptolink’s risk assessments.

AUSTRAC also issued Cryptolink a fine of 56,340 Australian dollars ($36,600), which the company paid.

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Bitcoin price falls 2% as CPI puts $63.9K at risk

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Bitcoin daily chart shows BTC consolidating near $64,281 above the 20-day and 50-day averages, with RSI neutral at 50.

Bitcoin price fell below $64,000 on Aug. 11 as rising oil prices and uncertainty before the U.S. inflation report weakened risk appetite, leaving traders focused on whether the $63,900 support level can prevent a deeper correction.

Summary

  • Bitcoin price fell about 2% to $63,780 before recovering above $64,000 during the session.
  • The $63,900–$64,000 region is the main short-term pivot ahead of the July CPI report.
  • Daily RSI remains neutral at 50.31, while BTC trades below its 100-day and 200-day moving averages.
  • Liquidation clusters near $63,700 and $65,600 could attract price during the next volatility spike.

Bitcoin price drops below $64,000

According to data from crypto.news, Bitcoin (BTC) price traded as low as $63,852 on Binance before recovering to approximately $64,281 at the time the daily chart was captured. The intraday rebound reduced the loss, but BTC remained below the $65,000 level that buyers had attempted to establish as support over the previous four days.

The decline followed another deterioration in U.S.-Iran negotiations over reopening the Strait of Hormuz. Brent crude rose above $89 a barrel as reduced hopes for an agreement renewed concerns about energy supplies and inflation.

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Higher oil prices can complicate the Federal Reserve’s inflation outlook by raising transportation and production costs. That pressure reduced demand for risk assets as U.S. traders prepared for the July Consumer Price Index report.

Broader crypto markets also weakened during the move. Ether and XRP fell more than 2%, while Bitcoin lost the $64,000 level after failing to hold above $65,000.

SoSoValue data shows that institutional demand offered limited support. U.S. spot Bitcoin exchange-traded funds recorded $144.6 million in net outflows on Aug. 10, ending five consecutive sessions of positive flows. The reversal reduced one source of spot demand as macroeconomic uncertainty increased.

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Daily chart shows Bitcoin trapped in consolidation

The daily chart shows that Bitcoin’s price remains locked inside the broad range formed after the June decline. BTC has repeatedly found buyers near $60,000–$63,000, but attempts to establish a sustained recovery above $65,000 have failed.

Bitcoin daily chart shows BTC consolidating near $64,281 above the 20-day and 50-day averages, with RSI neutral at 50.
Bitcoin price daily chart — Aug. 11 | Source: crypto.news

The asset was trading slightly above its 20-day simple moving average at $64,219 and its 50-day SMA at $63,392. Holding both averages would keep the short-term recovery structure intact despite the latest sell-off.

However, the wider trend remains under pressure. Bitcoin continues to trade below the 100-day SMA at $67,628 and the 200-day SMA at $69,918. Those averages are also sloping downward, creating a large resistance area between approximately $67,600 and $70,000.

The daily relative strength index stood at 50.31, almost level with its signal line at 50.10. The reading shows that neither buyers nor sellers have decisive momentum. It also supports the view that Bitcoin remains in consolidation instead of entering a confirmed directional trend.

A daily close below the 50-day SMA at $63,392 would weaken the recovery and expose $62,000, followed by the June-July demand zone between $57,500 and $60,000. Conversely, a close above $65,500 would give buyers another opportunity to challenge the 100-day SMA.

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$63,900 is the key Bitcoin support

The 4-hour chart places immediate support between $63,900 and $64,000. Bitcoin briefly moved that region below during the sell-off before recovering, indicating that buyers were still active around the weekly midpoint.

Bitcoin 4-hour chart shows BTC below Supertrend resistance at $65,210 as bearish momentum tests the $64,000 support area.
Bitcoin price 4-hour chart — Aug. 11 | Source: crypto.news

Trader Lennaert Snyder described $63,900 as an important level because it represents the 50% mark of the previous weekly candle. He said holding or losing that price could determine momentum for the remainder of the week.

Under the bullish scenario, continued support near $63,900 could produce another move toward the previous weekly high around $65,500. That level rejected Bitcoin during its latest advance and remains the first major barrier above the current range.

A bearish break would become more convincing if BTC loses $63,900 and falls below the recent $63,200 low. Such a move could send BTC price toward $62,000 and allow sellers to target the lower part of the wider consolidation range.

The 4-hour Supertrend has turned bearish, placing resistance at $65,210. Bitcoin also slipped below the indicator’s former support near $64,344 during the decline. Bulls must reclaim both levels before the short-term trend can return to a stronger position.

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Bull-bear power stood at negative 612, confirming that sellers had regained short-term control. However, the negative reading was smaller than the extreme levels recorded during earlier June sell-offs, suggesting that bearish momentum had not yet reached capitulation conditions.

Trader Daan Crypto Trades similarly identified $64,000 as the main pivot. He noted that BTC had closed slightly below the 4-hour 200-period moving averages but had started to stabilize, with several large-cap altcoins still showing relative strength.

Liquidation heatmap points to $63,700 and $65,600

The one-week CoinGlass liquidation heatmap shows large concentrations of leveraged positions on both sides of Bitcoin’s current price.

Bitcoin one-week liquidation heatmap shows major liquidity clusters near $63,700 below price and $65,600 above price.
Bitcoin liquidation chart | Source: CoinGlass

The closest downside liquidity cluster sits around $63,600–$63,800. Bitcoin tested this region during the latest decline but did not produce a sustained breakdown. A second pocket is visible between $63,200 and $63,400.

If $63,700 fails, forced selling could accelerate the move toward the lower cluster. However, the concentration of liquidity can also attract buyers looking to enter after leveraged long positions have been cleared.

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The largest nearby upside band sits around $65,500–$65,700. A rebound through $65,000 could therefore trigger short liquidations and help BTC revisit the weekly high. Additional liquidity appears near $66,200 and $67,000, but those levels would require a confirmed breakout from the current range.

This positioning leaves Bitcoin vulnerable to a sharp move in either direction. Price is trading between the closest major liquidation pools, while the upcoming inflation release provides a clear catalyst for volatility.

U.S. CPI could decide Bitcoin’s next move

The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics will publish July CPI data on Aug. 12 at 8:30 a.m. Eastern Time. The report could influence expectations for the Federal Reserve’s September policy decision, particularly after rising oil prices renewed inflation concerns.

A cooler reading could ease pressure on Treasury yields and help Bitcoin recover $65,000. Breaking $65,500 would expose the $65,600 liquidation cluster, followed by the 100-day SMA near $67,628.

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A hotter reading would strengthen the case for restrictive monetary policy and could pressure speculative assets. Under that outcome, a confirmed loss of $63,900 would shift attention toward $63,200, $62,000, and eventually the $60,000 psychological support.

Regulatory uncertainty also remains in the background. The CLARITY Act’s procedural vote was delayed until Sept. 15, removing a near-term policy catalyst that some U.S. investors had expected before the Senate recess.

For now, Bitcoin remains range-bound rather than decisively bearish. The $63,900–$64,000 zone separates a possible recovery toward $65,500 from a deeper move toward $62,000. The CPI release will likely determine which liquidity pool the market tests first.

Disclosure: This article does not represent investment advice. The content and materials featured on this page are for educational purposes only.

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