Crypto World
Zcash Price Hits 8-Year High as Grayscale ETF Gets Closer
Zcash (ZEC) climbed to an 8-year high on Saturday, after Grayscale filed a fifth amended registration with the SEC.
The amendment advances Grayscale’s proposed Zcash ETF but does not amount to SEC approval. If approved, the fund would be the first US ETF to directly track Zcash.
Grayscale Fills the Blanks on Fee and Name
Tuesday’s fourth amendment left both the sponsor’s fee and the name blank. Friday’s amendment sets that figure at an annual rate 2.5% of the NAV Fee Basis Amount of the Trust, accruing daily.
Furthermore, Grayscale will rename the trust The Zcash ETF. Shares would list on NYSE Arca under ZCSH.
“While an investment in the Shares is not a direct investment in ZEC, the Shares are designed to provide investors with a cost-effective and convenient way to gain investment exposure to ZEC,” the amendment reads.
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Grayscale pledged to direct 100% of the fee toward marketing and development for up to 12 months. This commitment is voluntary.
Coinbase Custody Trust Company would hold the trust’s tokens. Bank of New York Mellon serves as transfer agent and administrator.
Zcash Becomes Top Crypto Gainer
The filing arrives as the broader crypto market rallies. ZEC is up 34% over the past 24 hours, the largest gain among the 100 largest cryptocurrencies.
Today, the token crossed $800 for the first time since January 2018. It touched an intraday high of $857 before easing to about $784.
That 2018 peak near $800 had capped Zcash for more than eight years. ZEC still trades well below its October 2016 record of $3,191.
The rally comes after a June setback, when a security researcher disclosed a flaw in one of the network’s shielded pools. ZEC lost roughly half its value before an emergency upgrade fixed it.
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Crypto World
Bitcoin’s Rally to $80K Sends Investor Greed to Highest Level Since the October 2025 Crash
Bitcoin’s price went on a tear in the past few days, surging to its highest level since mid-May of just under $80,000 after being stuck below $65,000 for weeks and weeks.
Naturally, this has changed the overall market sentiment, with on-chain data showing that investor greed is back to levels last seen right around the October 10 massacre.
Greed Is Back
A lot can change in the cryptocurrency markets in days. Bitcoin was struggling below $65,000 until Wednesday, and there were no clear indications of a potential breakout, especially in the magnitude of what occurred. After all, each attempt was halted before that, and it spent the last month and a half trading sideways between $62,000 and $65,000.
However, then came the monetary changes in the US announced by the Treasury Department, and investors went all in. Bitcoin reacted with an immediate surge that drove it higher by $15,000 in approximately 48 hours to a three-month peak of almost $80,000.
Such explosive moves tend to shift the overall market sentiment. This is particularly evident in the Fear and Greed Index, a metric used to determine the current feelings toward the market by observing several factors, including volatility, market momentum, trading volume, social media comments, and dominance.
The final results range from 0 (extreme fear) to 100 (extreme greed). Given the overall market slumber that reigned for months and BTC’s struggles below $65,000, the index had remained in fear or extreme fear territory ever since the May run to $83,000 and the subsequent violent rejection.
However, it all changed following the latest pump, and greed is back on the map, with the current reading showing 71 (today) and 72 (yesterday). In fact, this is just the second occasion since the start of the year that greed has dominated, and it’s the highest score since last October.
First Warning Sign?
Remember Warren Buffett’s immortal investment advice – be greedy when others are fearful, and be fearful when others are greedy. If that’s to be believed, and he is someone every investor should pay attention to, the rapid increase in this metric could signal trouble ahead.
As mentioned above, the last time there was so much greed in the market was in October 2025. More precisely, October 10, 2025. If by any chance you don’t remember back then, BTC, alongside the rest of the market, experienced one of its worst calamities in history. Prices unraveled by double digits, while the liquidations topped $19 billion in less than 24 hours.
As such, the current spike could be the first warning sign of a potential trend reversal. On the plus side, at least the index is not in ‘extreme greed’ territory.
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It may be both the most prestigious and the most frustrating job in international diplomacy: members of the United Nations are weighing who should succeed António Guterres as Secretary-General when he completes his final term in December. The timing couldn’t be more critical, with U.N.’s fortunes at a historically low ebb, for reasons both political and financial.
Indeed, U.N. insiders question why anyone would even want the job at such a testing—and turbulent—moment. Some predict that, with major powers repeatedly blocking the U.N. from intervening in crises from Ukraine to Myanmar, and with the U.S. rolling back funding, whoever succeeds Guterres will simply have to continue to do “less with less” and manage a process of institutional decline as gracefully as possible. Others still hold out hope that a new U.N. leader could reverse the slide, and persuade powers large and small to invest in the organization.
Yet, at a time when global challenges—wars, epidemics, and climate change—continue to proliferate, there is a compelling case for preserving the U.N. as a space for global deal making. Doing so will require a Secretary-General of formidable political skills, capable of persuading world leaders to listen.
It is a question of balancing two competing imperatives. The U.N. is an organization that rests on international cooperation, but the current global moment is one of international competition. The challenge facing the next Secretary-General is to explain how the U.N. can stay relevant. This is no time to preach the virtues of solidarity among nations. It is necessary to meet governments “where they’re at,” as psychologists say, and accept their rifts are real. A shrewd leader of the U.N. could find ways to help states de-escalate conflicts and cooperate on global challenges out of necessity, not idealism.
Ultimately, if political leaders do not believe that the U.N., which was founded in 1945 to “save succeeding generations from the scourge of war,” can live up to that founding goal, they are less likely to take it seriously as an authority on other international issues such as Artificial Intelligence or economic cooperation. Making sure that doesn’t happen will be the central challenge for the organization’s next leader. Perhaps each nomination should thus come with a warning: Caveat emptor, or buyer beware.
Our Tumultuous Present
Maybe the biggest challenge for the next Secretary General lies inside the cavernous chamber that houses the Security Council, the organization’s most powerful body. The five permanent, veto power-wielding members—the United States, China, Russia, Britain, and France—that dominate the council have repeatedly blocked intervention in crises from Ukraine to Myanmar. The Biden Administration’s repeated refusal to support calls for a ceasefire in Gaza at the U.N. in 2023 and 2024 stirred deep resentment across the organization.
Most member states still pay homage to the U.N. Charter and its prohibition against aggression. But Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and the U.S. decision to attack Iran in February suggest that some of the security council’s most powerful members no longer feel bound by its guiding principles. If the U.N.’s political situation is its main headache, its financial positions is a close second.
After the Trump Administration cut off the bulk of U.S. funding for its operations in 2025, U.N. officials have been spending a lot of their time wondering about how to pay the bills. The U.S. is supposed to cover about a fifth of the organization’s core costs and a quarter of the budget for its blue helmet peace operations, which add up to roughly $8.5 billion this year. Washington was already behind on its dues when Trump returned to office, and currently owes the U.N. about $4 billion. The U.S also previously covered roughly a third of the separate budgets for the organization’s big relief agencies—such as the World Food Programme—which need tens of billions of dollars to feed, vaccinate and shelter vulnerable people each year.
Other traditional donors, including European governments, are scaling back spending on development and humanitarian aid. Potential alternatives have not stepped in to close the financial gap. China is now on the hook for almost as much of the U.N.’s core and peacekeeping budgets as the U.S., but is often slow to stump up its annual contributions. Beijing also contributes very little to the humanitarian sector. While the Trump Administration has released some funds for the U.N.’s life-saving efforts this year, big relief agencies have been forced to cut back life-saving assistance to civilians in places like South Sudan and Afghanistan.
This is a markedly different landscape from the one António Guterres encountered in 2017, when the former Portuguese prime minister became Secretary-General. At that time, the U.N. members had just agreed to the Paris climate accord and a new set of Sustainable Development Goals, including a pledge to eradicate extreme poverty by 2030. Geopolitical storm clouds were gathering—the Security Council was fiercely divided over the war in Syria—and Donald Trump’s surprise victory in the 2016 elections, coming soon after Guterres’s selection, signaled trouble ahead. Still, for believers in multilateral processes, a broad agenda for international cooperation appeared to be in place, and the Secretary-General’s task was to turn it into reality.
That brief moment of optimism proved ephemeral. Guterres spent a large part of his first term trying, with some success, to keeping rum at bay. Nonetheless rising tensions among major powers, and disputes over how to finance development projects and support poorer states’ climate change adaptation efforts, have eroded governments’ trust in one another, and their faith in the U.N.’s complex, negotiation-based approach to addressing their national interests. Guterres has spoken eloquently about the risks of international fragmentation, and has pushed U.N. members to work together on emerging challenges, such as the regulation of Artificial Intelligence. But he has struggled to get leaders to focus consistently on that agenda. Increasingly, many governments are turning instead to smaller, looser decision-making clubs—such as the Group of 7, a Western club, or the BRICS, the bloc of emerging market nations—rather than the U.N. itself.
Diplomats and U.N. officials also fault Guterres for taking a low-key role in crisis management, despite major conflicts exploding on his watch. The Secretary-General has been blunt about his lack of leverage to mediate in most of today’s conflicts, and has encouraged a culture of caution among his senior staff dealing with political affairs and peace operations. Although he was involved in one notable mediation success—the 2022 Black Sea Grain initiative—many U.N. members feel that his reluctance to engage in broader peace efforts has undermined the body’s credibility.
Runners and Riders
Such critiques of the incumbent, and the manifold challenges facing the office of the Secretary General, haven’t deterred a clutch of candidates from around the world—who may yet be joined by new competitors as the race to succeed Guterres enters its final stretch.
Eight candidates are currently jostling to replace him and assume the reins of what U.N. watchers sometimes call “the parliament of man.” Among the most widely discussed are Rafael Grossi, the Director-General of the International Atomic Energy Agency, and Rebeca Grynspan, a senior U.N. trade official and former vice president of Costa Rica. Carolyn Rodrigues Birkett, Guyana’s ambassador to the U.N., is also a popular candidate among her colleagues in New York. But because there is no official cut-off point for new candidates to enter the race, and many diplomats expect more challengers to emerge, especially if none of the existing crop looks like a clear winner.
While the current candidates have been speaking at public events from Europe to Korea, they have struck a cautious tone regarding their plans for the U.N. This reflects the way the selection process works. The Security Council—where the U.S., Russia, China, France and the U.K. hold vetoes—is central to the process, vetting candidates and recommending one to the General Assembly, where all U.N. members have seats, for approval. To date, the Assembly has always ratified the recommendation. Anyone who wants to be Secretary-General must avoid offending the five veto powers.
Talking about what is wrong with the world today without irritating at least one of the major powers is quite hard. Guterres angered Russia by criticizing its war in Ukraine, and Moscow is likely looking for a pliable U.N. chief. The biggest headache for Guterres’s successor will be maintaining working relations with Washington in the remaining years of the Trump presidency. Senior U.N. officials worry that, having imposed severe economic strain on the organization, the U.S. will insist that the next Secretary-General make deep cuts to U.N. agencies and follow the Trump Administration’s agenda on questions such as diversity, and soft-pedal criticism of Israeli actions against the Palestinians.
Tiptoeing around these sensitivities, the eight candidates for the Secretary-General position agree that the U.N. is in poor shape. All have promised to concentrate on preventive diplomacy, and have committed to managing the organization efficiently. None has so far set out a groundbreaking strategy for putting the U.N. back on its feet. If this is partly a matter of political tact, it also reflects the fact that the U.N. Secretary-General, despite being the public face of the organization, has only limited power to shape the organization. While the veto powers dominate the Security Council, a sprawling array of intergovernmental committees and boards—including dozens of entities dealing with issues from telecommunications to the environment—oversee the wider work of the U.N. system.
The Secretary-General and his or her advisers must barter with U.N. members over remarkably minor budgetary matters, down to the number of mid-level and junior staff employed in U.N. offices. It is easy to call on the U.N.’s top official to focus on problems of world order, but bureaucracy gets in the way.
Once in office, the next U.N. chief will have to manage these institutional issues while also laying a broader agenda. She or he could address this challenge by appointing a powerful chief of staff to handle administrative matters, freeing up more time to prioritize diplomacy.
On the diplomatic front, the incoming leader’s priority will be to demonstrate the ability to insert himself or herself into one or more conflicts, signaling a shift from the Guterres era. This is easier said than done. Conflict prevention and peacemaking have become crowded fields, with a growing number of middle powers, and at times the Trump Administration, leading peace processes that the U.N. might once have overseen.
The next Secretary-General will not simply be able to fly into trouble spots and cajole warring parties into making deals. But he or she can use the first months in office to shuttle between key capitals in regions such as the Middle East, looking for opportunities to engage, and encouraging U.N. staff—who still have considerable expertise on issues like mediation and peacekeeping operations—to table new options for dealing with ongoing or looming conflicts. This is not likely to produce quick or major wins, and there is always a risk that the U.N. will launch peace initiatives that fail. But as a European diplomat familiar with the U.N. once put it, everyone expects the U.N. to fail, and as a result it can do so without sustaining reputational damage.
The greater danger for the institution right now is that it fails to engage in meaningful crisis diplomacy at all, cementing the impression that it is no longer a significant peacemaking force. If the Secretary-General can use this kind of early outreach to gain a place on the diplomatic map, she or he will still face the challenge of articulating what the U.N. stands for in a divided world.
Collective action in a world divided
There is no shortage of good arguments for why collective action helps address problems that transcend borders. These often get lost at a time when the predominant political narratives center on national divisions and differences.
U.N. officials do not help themselves by couching their arguments in technocratic terms, weighed down with talk of goals and policy frameworks. But the underlying political challenge is to make a case for multilateralism that resonates with decision-makers who view international affairs in zero-sum, or at least very low-trust, terms.
The best approach may be to frame the U.N. as a sort of global risk reduction organization. Over the last decade, governments, the private sector and the public have seen the knock-on effects of both the pandemic and regional conflicts causing global economic disruption. New technologies are creating further economic shocks and could make future conflicts more dangerous.
The U.N. is not a global authority with the powers to halt these trends. But it is a space in which governments can discuss the risks involved and—where they see common ground—explore steps to mitigate them. Even though it may be easier for states to meet in smaller clubs such as the BRICS and G7, the U.N.’s advantage is that it remains a neutral space where different blocs of governments can engage in dialogue.
The next Secretary-General can only encourage rivalrous states to take part in these dialogues, and will need to do so with a light touch. In the past, the U.N. has sometimes responded to new challenges by announcing new agencies and funds to address them. The resulting multilateral bloat has become hard to sustain financially and defend politically. The incoming U.N. leadership will need to show that it can facilitate discussions of difficult global problems without adding new layers of bureaucracy.
The role of the Secretary-General is perhaps to be both the world’s most prominent event organizer—bringing governments and other actors into the room to talk about their problems—and a sort of political therapist for world leaders. If the Secretary-General can win the trust of these leaders, and persuade them to work on common problems despite their divisions, he or she may be able to bring a degree of stability to a dangerous international environment. In doing so, she or he can also keep some political space open for the U.N. to do its most basic work, getting help to the suffering, mitigating the effects of suffering and – at its best – giving small states and civil society groups a rare platform to speak out on issues like human rights and climate change.
The new leader of the U.N. cannot heal all the world’s divisions, but with courage and political acumen, the Secretary-General can make international disputes a little less toxic. That may be a limited vision of what the U.N., sometimes dubbed the “parliament of man” is for. But in an era of multiplying dangers and distrust, it is a noble and perhaps essential one.
Nearly one in seven people worldwide have a mental-health disorder. With the prevalence of mental disorders so high, odds are we all know and love someone who is struggling. But most of us have limited understanding of mental health, and sometimes misguided or inaccurate knowledge. If we improve our understanding, this could help us better identify when we are in distress and get the help we need. It can also potentially assist us in helping friends, family members, neighbors, and co-workers. As a psychologist, I believe we could all benefit from increased mental-health literacy.
The concept of mental-health literacy was first coined in the mid-1990s by a group of Australian researchers who began a series of studies to understand the public’s knowledge about mental health. Since then, extensive research on mental-health literacy has taken place in the U.S., Australia, Canada, the U.K., India, Japan, and elsewhere.
The NFT market recorded $95.48 million in sales over the past seven days, rising 170% as a single $55.03 million transaction involving the hybrid NFT project Pandora accounted for most of the increase.
Summary
- NFT sales rose 170% to $95.48 million, while transactions increased 7.5% to 962,992.
- Buyer addresses climbed 49% to 172,739, as seller addresses reached 159,275.
- Ethereum generated $70.81 million, representing about 74% of global NFT sales.
- Pandora recorded $55.21 million from nine transactions, led by one $55.03 million sale.
- Courtyard ranked second among collections with $10.02 million despite a 10% decline.
According to a CryptoSlam seven-day dashboard captured on Aug. 22, NFT sales increased to $95.48 million from approximately $35.29 million during the preceding period.
The number of buyer addresses climbed 49% to 172,739, while seller addresses increased 50% to 159,275. Total transactions grew by a smaller 7.5% to 962,992, showing that the sharp increase in dollar volume was not matched by an equivalent rise in the number of recorded sales.
The figures translate into an average value of approximately $99 per transaction, compared with about $39 during the previous period. Pandora’s $55 million contribution explains most of that change.
Excluding Pandora, the rest of the market generated approximately $40.28 million. The adjusted amount suggests that the headline increase came from a concentrated transaction rather than a market-wide rise of the same size.
The NFT surge occurred as the broader cryptocurrency market rebounded. Bitcoin climbed above $72,000 during a major short squeeze, while Ethereum rose above $2,400 as exchange-traded fund inflows returned.
CryptoSlam’s data do not establish that rising cryptocurrency prices caused the NFT sales increase. Pandora’s role means the weekly comparison requires additional context before it can be treated as evidence of broader collectible demand.
Ethereum leads NFT sales with $70.81 million
Ethereum ranked first among blockchains with $70.81 million in NFT sales, an increase of 546%. The network also recorded $592,451 in wash trading, bringing its combined reported total to $71.40 million.
Buyer addresses on Ethereum increased by 63.7% to 24,647. However, Pandora alone accounted for $55.21 million, or approximately 78% of the network’s organic NFT sales.
Without Pandora, Ethereum generated about $15.61 million. The adjusted figure would still leave it ahead of Polygon, but the network’s weekly increase would be far smaller than the reported 546%.
Polygon ranked second with $10.91 million in sales, down 9.54%. Its buyer count increased 27% to 72,226, creating a contrast between lower dollar volume and higher wallet participation.
Polygon also registered $20.46 million in wash volume. Adding that amount produced a combined total of $31.36 million, although wash trading must remain separate from organic NFT sales.
Base placed third with $4.59 million in sales, up 107%, as buyer addresses climbed 86.74% to 2,168. The network recorded another $4.80 million in wash activity.
BNB Chain followed with $3.47 million, an increase of 93%. Its buyer count more than doubled to 8,895, while wash volume dropped 73.8% to $32,913.
Solana ranked fifth with $1.89 million in sales, down 24%, even as buyer addresses increased 111.5% to 26,983. Immutable generated $1.54 million, down 3.58%, while its number of buyers rose 79% to 3,529.
Blast, Panini, Flow, and Avalanche completed the top 10. Blast recorded $573,812 after an increase exceeding 300,000%, while Panini fell 41.2% to $537,797.
Pandora tops NFT collections with $55.21 million
Pandora dominated the collection rankings with $55.21 million from only nine transactions. The amount represented approximately 58% of all NFT sales recorded during the seven-day period.
CryptoSlam reported that Pandora’s sales increased by more than 226 million percent, reflecting an extremely low comparison base. The collection recorded three buyer addresses and seven seller addresses.
Pandora uses the experimental ERC-404 model, which combines features associated with fungible ERC-20 tokens and non-fungible ERC-721 assets. A full PANDORA token is connected to a Replicant NFT, while transfers can result in an NFT being minted or burned.
The structure provides liquidity through a linked fungible token, meaning Pandora activity cannot automatically be compared with ordinary one-of-one artwork or profile-picture transactions. CryptoSlam classified the $55 million event as an NFT sale, but its economic nature could not be independently confirmed from the dashboard alone.
Courtyard ranked second with $10.02 million in sales, down nearly 10%. The Polygon-based marketplace processed 227,118 transactions involving 22,725 buyer addresses and 15,433 sellers.
Beezie placed third with $2.82 million, rising 168%. The Base collection processed 23,864 transactions, although CryptoSlam recorded only 10 buyers and 224 sellers.
CryptoPunks followed with $1.92 million, up 71.5%. The Ethereum collection completed 20 transactions involving 20 buyers and 17 sellers.
Bored Ape Yacht Club generated $1.27 million from 76 transactions, an increase of 59%. Buyer addresses rose by 37.9% to 40, while sellers climbed by 48.5% to 52.
An unnamed Ethereum contract ranked sixth with $1.02 million across four transactions. Moolah DAO NFT followed with $986,000, while Guild of Guardians Heroes generated $867,736.
Pudgy Penguins placed ninth with $866,629 after sales rose 244.35%. The collection recorded 92 transactions involving 58 buyers and 57 sellers. TokenA completed the visible top 10 with $689,020 from four transactions.
Pandora records the largest high-value NFT sale
Pandora produced the largest individual transaction shown on CryptoSlam’s seven-day dashboard. The remaining displayed cross-chain sales were much smaller and spread across Cardano, BNB Chain, Arbitrum, Panini, and Base.
- Pandora #107314 on Ethereum recorded a $55.03 million sale six hours before the dashboard capture. The transaction accounted for almost all of Pandora’s weekly volume.
- A Cardano NFT identified by the shortened asset address
919b2355…1ukdhnzhxssold for $73,816 approximately 15 hours earlier. - GladiatorDex #759 on BNB Chain recorded a $30,400 transaction two days before the snapshot.
- gUSDC Locked Deposit #602 on Arbitrum sold for $26,306 five days earlier. The asset’s name indicates a tokenized deposit position rather than a conventional collectible.
- A Stephen Curry collectible on Panini recorded a $20,000 sale approximately 17 hours before the dashboard was captured.
CryptoSlam also showed Beezie #8608 on Base at $10,276, Mad Lads #1792 on Solana at $8,102, and Pinnacle #1351969343 on Flow at $7,200.
The Pandora and gUSDC transactions demonstrate why NFT rankings can include hybrid tokens and tokenized financial positions alongside artwork, gaming items, and sports collectibles. Their inclusion is valid under CryptoSlam’s classification, but the assets’ structures should be stated when interpreting total market demand.
The Sandbox said it has contained a vulnerability in the SAND cross-chain bridge on Base and BNB Smart Chain after an attacker minted unbacked tokens on both networks.
The project put the impact at under 0.01% of the total SAND supply. It said that tokens on Ethereum (ETH) and Polygon (POL) are unaffected and that no user wallets were compromised.
Sandbox Becomes Latest Project Reportedly Hit by an Exploit
Blockaid flagged the incident on Saturday. The firm said attackers hijacked LayerZero delegate permissions through the approveAndCall function.
“~$49B face-value SAND minted so far across ~400+ txs,” Blockaid said.
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The team said that it has disabled bridging to and from Base and BSC, cutting off any route to move or redeem the minted supply. It said the SAND locked on Ethereum, which backs all bridged tokens, remains intact.
“An attacker was able to mint unbacked SAND on Base and BSC. We have disabled bridging to and from both networks, so SAND on Base and BSC is currently isolated and cannot be moved or redeemed,” the post read.
The project told holders not to buy, sell, or trade SAND on either network, warning that liquidity there is compromised. It is taking a pre-incident snapshot and preparing compensation for qualifying liquidity providers, with a full post-mortem promised.
Korean Exchanges Halt SAND Transfers
Meanwhile, Bithumb suspended SAND deposits and withdrawals at 11:11 a.m. KST, and Upbit followed one minute later. Both cited suspected security incidents under South Korea’s Virtual Asset User Protection Act.
Upbit imposed a halt on the Ethereum version of SAND, which the project has since said was never at risk.
The incident fits a wider pattern. DefiLlama has logged 17 separate exploits so far this month, most of them small, with bridges again the recurring weak point.
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The primary cryptocurrency experienced its most notable price recovery of the year, skyrocketing by 25% from under $65,000 to almost $80,000 within two days before its run was paused, at least for now.
Although this surge is impressive on its own, Glassnode highlighted another notable development that makes it even more interesting: BTC has suddenly started to substantially outperform US stocks after months of doing the opposite.
In fact, BTC only outperformed the S&P500 on around one third of trading days over the last 3 months.
This is the longest underperformance streak we’ve seen over the last 6 years of history. The question now is whether this is the start of a trend or just one of those 3 days.… pic.twitter.com/FznjobnysM
— glassnode (@glassnode) August 17, 2026
Finally on the Correct Side
The analytics company said that the cryptocurrency had underperformed the S&P 500 on approximately two out of every three trading days in the past three months. This was more than evident, as BTC failed to initiate any substantial rallies since it was rejected at $83,000 in May. In the meantime, the popular index charted consecutive all-time highs.
Glassnode described this as bitcoin’s longest streak of relative underperformance against the benchmark US index in six years. However, the trend started showing cracks even before BTC exploded on Wednesday afternoon.
On Monday, the index slipped by over 0.5% while bitcoin posted a notable 2% increase. It was one of the rare sessions during the last several months when the cryptocurrency moved decisively in the opposite direction.
The major run on Wednesday, though, confirmed the changing tides. The S&P 500 and Nasdaq snapped a three-week winning streak, posting losses of 1-2%.
Although BTC has underperformed US equities on most days, it has dwarfed the stock market during its better days, as the magnitude of its excess returns has been considerably larger. The latest deviation is a prime example.
Decoupling?
It would be premature to conclude that there’s a decisive decoupling, as BTC has repeatedly traded as a high-beta risk asset, especially during periods when interest-rate expectations, liquidity, or broader risk sentiment dominate all financial markets.
Nevertheless, the cryptocurrency finally moved in the right direction and in a very impressive manner. Gaining over 25% weekly and reaching a three-month peak while US equities marked their first losing week in a month speak loudly and clearly.
Of course, the most important question now is whether this divergence lasts as one spectacular trading session, even if it went on for a couple of days, is not enough to convince investors to return to the crypto markets. Not yet, at least.
The post Bitcoin Just Flipped a Months-Long S&P 500 Trend: Here’s What Changed appeared first on CryptoPotato.
Crypto and blockchain companies announced approximately $1.298 billion across six disclosed transactions between Aug. 16 and Aug. 22, 2026. ZeroStack accounted for most of the total through a $1 billion noncash token contribution, while Ripple Prime completed a $275 million debt offering.
Summary
- Six disclosed transactions produced approximately $1.298 billion in financing during the reporting period.
- ZeroStack agreed to receive $1 billion in MemeCore tokens through a stock-based transaction.
- Ripple Prime raised $275 million from institutional investors through senior unsecured notes.
- NeoSoul secured $11 million to develop AI-powered trading agents and supporting infrastructure.
- Smaller rounds supported privacy, DeFi credit delegation, and decentralized AI infrastructure projects.
The remaining disclosed rounds raised about $23 million across AI trading, privacy infrastructure, decentralized lending, and physical infrastructure networks. One additional strategic investment did not disclose its value and is excluded from the weekly total.
Crypto Fundraising, DefiLlama, company announcements, regulatory filings, and crypto.news coverage was used to compile the weekly figures. The total includes debt and a noncash token contribution, meaning it should not be interpreted as $1.298 billion in conventional venture capital.
ZeroStack secures $1 billion MemeCore token contribution
Nasdaq-listed ZeroStack agreed to receive $1 billion in MemeCore tokens from Puple AI and Blockcat, two entities linked to MemeCore. The transaction involves approximately 925.9 million M tokens rather than a cash investment.
In exchange, ZeroStack will issue 3.5 million common shares and pre-funded warrants covering as many as 36.2 million additional shares. The securities were valued at $25.19 per share, more than 12 times ZeroStack’s recent trading price when the transaction was announced.
Exercise of the warrants remains subject to shareholder approval under Nasdaq listing rules. Shares issued under the arrangement will also carry lockup periods of up to 10 years, according to the company.
MemeCore principal Rudy Rong is expected to become ZeroStack’s president as part of the agreement. The company said the transaction would expand its digital asset treasury strategy, although the stated $1 billion value depends on the assigned price of the contributed tokens.
The entire contribution is included in the roundup’s disclosed financing value. However, it should be separated from conventional fundraising because ZeroStack is receiving tokens instead of fresh operating cash.
Ripple Prime raises $275 million through senior notes
Ripple Prime raised $275 million through an upsized private offering of senior unsecured notes to institutional investors. Ripple did not disclose the notes’ interest rate, maturity date, or participating investors.
The company said the proceeds would support the U.S. expansion of its prime brokerage operations, including financing, clearing, and other services covering digital and traditional assets.
Ripple established the business through its $1.25 billion acquisition of Hidden Road. The unit now serves institutional clients across crypto, foreign exchange, derivatives, swaps, and fixed-income markets.
The note offering follows a $200 million credit facility that Ripple Prime secured from funds managed by Neuberger Berman in May. Together, the two financings provide the brokerage with $475 million in additional capacity, though the credit facility falls outside the current reporting period.
The $275 million transaction is debt financing rather than a venture capital round. It is included in the weekly total because it represents newly announced financing for a crypto-focused company.
NeoSoul raises $11 million for AI trading infrastructure
NeoSoul completed an $11 million pre-Series A round with participation from MH Ventures, Amber Group, ArkStream Capital, 0G Foundation, Kirin Capital, CatcherVC, and New Oak International. The company did not identify a lead investor or disclose its valuation.
https://x.com/NeoSoulAI/status/2090338023607345465
NeoSoul plans to use the capital to develop NeoTrade, an AI-based trading platform that lets users configure agents capable of analyzing markets and executing trades under defined controls.
The company also intends to improve its trading infrastructure and expand its presence in Southeast Asia and other international markets. NeoSoul operates within the BNB Chain and 0G ecosystems, connecting autonomous software agents with blockchain-based financial activity.
The round was the week’s largest disclosed early-stage cash investment. It also continued investor interest in products combining artificial intelligence with crypto trading and on-chain execution.
Funding under $10 million
- Privacy blockchain developer Beldex raised $8 million in a round led by Sigma Capital. NTC, Nxgen, Digital Consensus Fund, and EAK Ventures also participated, bringing the company’s reported cumulative funding to $36 million. Beldex said the proceeds would support developer tools, protocol security, privacy applications, encrypted AI services, and broader ecosystem development.
- DeFi lending protocol Twyne secured $2.5 million in seed funding in a round co-led by Cyber Fund and Ethereal Ventures. Euler Labs, Daedalus, and several individual investors participated. Twyne provides a credit delegation layer that allows lending-market depositors to transfer unused borrowing capacity to other users in exchange for additional yield.
- Solana-based infrastructure project Botanika closed a $1.5 million funding round backed by CRIT Ventures, Baboon VC, Marblex, Daedalus, and individual investors. The company is developing decentralized storage and computing infrastructure that connects physical hardware with on-chain ownership. Botanika has positioned its Nimbus hardware product as an entry point for data storage and AI-related workloads.
Undisclosed strategic funding
Blueprint Finance completed an undisclosed strategic round led by Polychain Capital. Bullish, Keyrock, BitGo, FalconX, G-20, Flowdesk, JPEG Trading, Sentient Capital, Andes, and 2Square participated. Blueprint plans to expand Concrete, its non-custodial vault infrastructure for institutions, protocols, asset managers, and other capital providers.
The platform combines trade execution, accounting, rebalancing, and risk controls within a shared on-chain system. The transaction is excluded from the $1.298 billion total because Blueprint did not disclose the amount raised.
In this week’s edition of the weekly recap, Bitcoin climbed above $72,000 as more than $3 billion in leveraged positions were liquidated, President Donald Trump urged Congress to pass a “fair” CLARITY Act, and the SEC proposed new crypto offering exemptions covering raises of up to $75 million.
Summary
- Bitcoin crossed $72,000 as more than $3 billion in leveraged positions were liquidated.
- Trump urged Congress to pass a “fair” CLARITY Act during a White House event.
- The SEC proposed crypto offering exemptions covering up to $75 million in annual fundraising.
- Citi plans to launch institutional Bitcoin custody through its Custody+ platform by year-end.
- Ethereum climbed above $2,400 as U.S. spot Ether ETFs recorded $189 million in inflows.
Bitcoin clears $72,000 during $3 billion short squeeze
- Bitcoin surged from about $64,100 to more than $72,000 as liquidations across major crypto derivatives exchanges exceeded $3 billion on Aug. 19 and 20. Short positions accounted for approximately $2.77 billion, or 92%, of the forced closures.
- The move followed the U.S. Treasury’s decision to increase the maximum size of long-dated bond buybacks from $2 billion to at least $4 billion per operation. Binance recorded about $518 million in liquidations, while Hyperliquid processed roughly $513 million.
Trump urges Congress to approve a fair CLARITY Act
- Trump called for a “fair version” of the CLARITY Act during an Aug. 19 White House event attended by executives from Coinbase, Gemini, Ripple, Chainlink Labs and other technology companies.
- The bill would divide oversight of the U.S. digital asset market between the SEC and CFTC. Senate negotiations remain divided over ethics provisions, decentralized finance and stablecoin rewards ahead of a Sept. 15 procedural vote requiring 60 votes.
SEC proposes crypto exemption for raises up to $75 million
- The SEC proposed two registration exemptions under Regulation Crypto Assets. One pathway would allow eligible issuers to raise up to $5 million over four years, while another would cover up to $75 million during a 12-month period.
- The proposal also includes a conditional safe harbor that could allow a crypto asset to exit investment-contract treatment after meeting specified conditions. Stakeholders have 60 days to comment, meaning the framework has not taken effect.
Citi prepares institutional Bitcoin custody service
- Citi unveiled its Custody+ platform and said it expects to begin offering institutional digital asset custody later in 2026, starting with Bitcoin. The bank has not disclosed a precise launch date or named participating clients.
- Custody+ will place cryptocurrency and traditional securities within a shared framework that also supports real-time settlement, liquidity services and market information. Citi said more than 80% of its asset-servicing events are already processed in real time.
CFTC prepares crypto rules despite congressional uncertainty
- CFTC Chair Michael Selig said crypto market structure work would continue even if Congress fails to pass the CLARITY Act. The agency has prepared proposals, although Selig did not identify their content or publication dates.
- Existing law allows the CFTC to regulate derivatives and pursue fraud in spot commodity markets. Congress would still need to expand the agency’s authority before it could routinely supervise crypto spot exchanges under the broader framework envisioned by the bill.
Ethereum reaches $2,448 as ETF inflows return
- Ethereum rose above $2,400 after gaining more than 20% during the week. ETH reached an Aug. 21 intraday high near $2,448 as short liquidations, broader risk appetite and spot ETF demand supported the breakout.
- U.S. spot Ether ETFs attracted $189 million on Aug. 19, their highest daily inflow since October. The daily relative strength index reached 86; however, placing ETH in overbought territory as it approached resistance around $2,450.
XRP gains 17% as Ripple backs XRPL amendment
- XRP gained 17% and reached an intraday high of $1.43 as Ripple voted in favor of the PermissionDelegationV1_1 amendment. U.S. spot XRP ETFs recorded $13.24 million in daily net inflows.
- Seven of the 35 validators on the XRP Ledger’s default Unique Node List supported the amendment at the latest count. The proposal must maintain support above 80% for two continuous weeks before it can become active.
Ethena rises 65% following $1 billion FalconX deal
- Ethena’s ENA token gained about 65% during the week and reached an intraday high near $0.145 after Ethena and FalconX opened a $1 billion overcollateralized lending facility using assets backing USDe.
- Bullish comments from BitMEX co-founder Arthur Hayes also supported demand, according to crypto.news. ENA’s four-hour relative strength index reached 93.97, indicating that the rapid rally had moved into heavily overbought territory.
Securitize launches tokenized high-yield fund
- Securitize launched the HINC tokenized fund with Neuberger serving as subadvisor. The fund will invest mainly in high-yield bonds while also permitting exposure to collateralized loan obligations and leveraged loans.
- Tokenized fund interests will be issued across Avalanche, Ethereum, Solana and Sui. Access will remain limited to accredited investors and qualified purchasers who complete Securitize’s identity and compliance checks.
FASB proposes stablecoin cash-equivalent treatment
- The Financial Accounting Standards Board proposed three conditions that could allow U.S. companies to present qualifying stablecoins as cash equivalents without changing the existing definition under generally accepted accounting principles.
- Eligible stablecoins would require direct on-demand redemption rights and one-to-one reserves held in segregated accounts containing short-term, highly liquid assets. The proposal remains open for public comments until Nov. 19.
Swift connects two bank tokenized deposit systems
- Swift, HSBC and Standard Chartered completed the first live interbank transaction on Swift’s blockchain-based ledger, connecting the banks’ separately operated tokenized deposit platforms.
- The ledger matched and netted payment obligations before final settlement occurred through existing banking systems. Seventeen banks across six continents have joined Swift’s broader pilot, but the organization has not announced a commercial launch date.
X considers USDC for creator payments
- Elon Musk’s X is considering USDC and other stablecoins as possible payment methods for creators while preparing to replace its existing revenue-sharing program.
- X has not selected a token or confirmed that stablecoin payments will launch. The platform’s Original Content Rewards program is scheduled to replace Revenue Sharing on Sept. 8.
Solana Company opposes inflation and fee proposals
- Nasdaq-listed Solana Company supported Solana’s proposed constitution but opposed separate plans to accelerate disinflation and change network fees. Voting on the first three Solana Governance Proposals was scheduled to begin Aug. 22.
- The disinflation proposal could reduce projected issuance by 18.9 million SOL over six years. Solana Company said changing staking and fee rules could discourage institutions, although successful governance votes would guide policy rather than activate the proposals automatically.
The past several days were quite eventful in all financial markets as volatility returned due to several macro factors. Unlike most previous occasions, bitcoin was on the right side of history this time, staging a massive rally that drove it higher by $15,000 within 48 hours or so before it was stopped at $80,000. At the same time, gold experienced some gains too, surging to almost $4,600 per ounce.
These simultaneous moves are particularly interesting because the two assets spent much of 2026 struggling at different times. The analysts at the Kobeissi Letter, though, said investors may now be witnessing the return of a familiar trader: buying scarce assets as protection against currency debasement.
BTC and Gold Stand Together
The precious metal dipped below $4,000/oz earlier this summer after peaking at $5,600 in January, which was its all-time high. BTC, on the other hand, was rejected at $97,000 in January, slumped to a multi-year low at under $58,000 by July 1, spent the next month and a half trading sideways above $60,000 before it finally exploded to nearly $80,000 on Friday.
The Kobeissi Letter highlighted the broader trend, arguing that the “asset owner economy” is expanding as scarce assets start to appreciate. The latest moves from bitcoin and gold are particularly notable given the change from just weeks ago.
It’s worth noting that gold has solidified its position as the world’s largest financial asset, with a market cap of over $32 trillion as it added $4.5 trillion in the past few days alone. BTC, on the other hand, has surpassed Tesla and it’s now the 12th-largest in this ranking, with a market cap of $1.550 trillion.
So Why The Rallies Now?
The most obvious and immediate catalyst appears to come from the US Treasury market. As reported earlier, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent surprised Wall Street on Wednesday by announcing that the government would at least double its purchases of long-dated US government debt, increasing buybacks of 10-to-30-year-securities to $4 billion per operation or more.
Longer-term yields were pushed lower initially after the statement, but it also pressured the greenback. This matters because investors have become increasingly concerned about America’s fiscal position since the government debt recently surpassed $40 trillion. At the same time, the budget deficit remains above 6% of GDP, and annual interest expenses are running at roughly $1.2 trillion.
The dollar is down by around 1%-2% this week, touching a three-month low. This combination has revived what markets frequently refer to as “debasement trade” – buying scarce assets such as gold and bitcoin, expecting that growing debt, persistent inflation, and policy intervention could gradually reduce the purchasing power of fiat currencies.
The post Bitcoin and Gold Are Surging Together: The ‘Debasement Trade’ Is Back appeared first on CryptoPotato.
South Korea’s Financial Supervisory Service has deployed a real-time AI system that scans trading data, news and online content to flag suspected crypto price manipulation.
Summary
- Generative AI and machine learning will screen trades, news, exchange notices, and online discussions.
- The platform targets rapid price manipulation, wash trading, collusive activity, and false promotional claims.
- Human investigators will review AI-generated reports before opening a detailed analysis or formal investigation.
- Future updates will add cross-exchange fund-flow analysis and on-chain transaction tracking.
AI crypto surveillance screens price and volume spikes
The Financial Supervisory Service said in its Aug. 20 announcement that the platform combines generative AI with machine learning to automate parts of a process that previously required investigators to examine large volumes of exchange data manually.
Built around real-time trading information, the system first searches for assets showing abnormal changes in price or volume. It then compares the activity with patterns drawn from the regulator’s previous investigations, allowing staff to focus on trades that share features with known forms of market abuse.
Among the patterns listed by the FSS are the “racehorse” type, in which a token moves sharply during a short period, and the “cage” type, which involves a steep rise in an asset while deposits or withdrawals are suspended or restricted.
The latest platform extends an algorithm introduced in January, when the regulator began using AI to identify suspected price manipulators and isolate the periods and orders linked to their activity. Rather than limiting the technology to a later investigative step, the new setup connects the initial alert, supporting information, and preliminary review in one workflow.
For possible wash trading or coordinated trading, the FSS applies Benford’s Law alongside machine-learning models. Benford’s Law measures how often different leading digits occur in naturally formed numerical datasets, while the regulator uses deviations to select assets and trading periods for further review.
News and chat-room scans test each alert
Once a token records an unusual move, generative AI checks relevant news and exchange announcements for a plausible cause. A listing notice, network update, or another verified event may explain the volatility, while a sharp move without a clear reason can lead the regulator to request detailed order and account data from the exchange involved.
Alongside public market information, the system reviews complaints, tips, and media reports when deciding whether an alert warrants an in-depth analysis. Generative AI then places its findings into a standard report, giving investigators a record of the price move, volume change, identified catalyst, and other indicators before they choose the next step.
Online promotion has also entered the surveillance process. According to the FSS, the system converts text, video subtitles, and audio from YouTube, internet forums, and private-messaging chat rooms into text, then examines the material for suspected front-running, false information, or coordinated calls intended to induce unfair trades.
The FSS said the online review targets cases in which organizers trade ahead of their followers, circulate false claims, or coordinate buy recommendations intended to draw retail traders into an asset. Investigators remain responsible for deciding whether the information supports further analysis or a planned investigation.
South Korea has pursued more than 40 trading cases
The new system follows two years of enforcement under South Korea’s Virtual Asset User Protection Act, which took effect on July 19, 2024. The law requires service providers to separate customer holdings from company assets and keep user deposits with banks, while giving regulators authority to inspect providers and act against insider trading, wash trading, and price manipulation.
As crypto.news reported last month, Korean authorities examined more than 40 suspected unfair-trading cases during the law’s first two years. Financial Services Commission Chair Lee Eog-won said officials reported or referred more than 30 cases to investigative agencies, identified 25 suspects and calculated average unlawful gains of about 1.4 billion won, or roughly $940,000, per case.
Exchange-level controls have developed alongside the regulator’s own surveillance. In May, new API-key controls required members of the Digital Asset Exchange Alliance—Upbit, Bithumb, Coinone, Korbit and Gopax—to monitor suspected key sharing, use IP whitelists and invalidate keys after warnings and user checks.
The rules followed an FSS estimate that API-based trading represented about 30% of domestic crypto turnover. Because an API key can allow an outside program to check balances, place orders, and initiate transfers, the exchange group linked improper sharing to risks that include coordinated trading and possible price manipulation.
Legislation under preparation would cover more than unfair trading. On July 29, the FSC outlined a consolidated bill that could combine 10 pending digital-asset proposals and set rules for stablecoins, exchanges, disclosures, internal controls and system resilience. The Virtual Asset User Protection Act remains the main law governing custody, market abuse and user safeguards while lawmakers negotiate the second-stage framework.
U.S. regulators also keep people in control
In the United States, a May 2025 GAO review found that federal financial regulators used AI to identify risks, support research and detect possible legal violations or reporting errors, but most agencies did not treat model output as the sole basis for a decision.
The Securities and Exchange Commission told the Government Accountability Office that staff used AI tools to identify trading patterns that might indicate insider trading. Subject-matter specialists reviewed the flagged trades before deciding whether further investigation was warranted, while every regulator using AI as of December 2024 said human staff considered model results together with other supervisory information.
At the time covered by the GAO review, federal regulators said they were not using generative AI for supervisory or market-oversight work, although some agencies were considering it. Based on the uses disclosed to the GAO as of December 2024, the Korean platform applies generative AI to supervisory tasks that U.S. agencies had not reported using it for at the time.
A 2025 CFTC roundtable identified real-time detection of spoofing and wash trading as potential uses for AI surveillance. Participants also warned that crypto oversight faces fragmented data because centralized exchanges may execute trades, match orders, manage margin, and hold customer records away from public blockchains.
Under current U.S. law, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission can pursue fraud and manipulation in spot commodity transactions, but it does not routinely supervise spot crypto exchanges in the same way that it oversees registered derivatives markets. Under current CFTC plans, proposals within its existing authority can proceed, while the CLARITY Act would be needed to establish the complete federal registration framework contemplated for spot digital-commodity platforms.
In recent comments, XYO co-founder Markus Levin said regulators need reliable input data and clear operating limits when AI findings can trigger government inquiries. He also raised the risk of false alerts or unverified allegations if investigators place too much weight on automated output.
Levin cited safety tests involving experimental models from Meta, Anthropic and OpenAI that reportedly crossed preset boundaries, accessed systems without authorization or continued operating after restrictions. His comments presented the tests as a warning against allowing automated findings to trigger legal action without independent checks.
Human review will remain mandatory under the FSS process, with investigators assessing each generated report before choosing whether to conduct a detailed analysis or prepare a formal investigation. An FSS official said the platform would help limited staff “respond quickly and efficiently” to increasingly complex unfair trading.
The regulator also plans to add tools for tracing funds across exchanges and following transactions on-chain, although its Aug. 20 announcement did not provide a deployment date for either feature.
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