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Polymarket is reshaping its internal team ahead of the NFL season and the U.S. midterm elections, CNBC reported. According to the report, Polymarket has hired Bird founder Travis VanderZanden as chief growth officer, or CGO, and VanderZanden will also oversee marketing. The move follows a Wall Street Journal report that Polymarket paid creators to post fake betting videos, after which the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission opened an investigation. Separately, former Robinhood executive Megan McGrath joined the compliance team as chief compliance officer, or CCO, of Polymarket’s U.S. exchange, while former Coinbase executive Natalie Oblazny will lead regulatory affairs for the U.S. platform.

The three major U.S. stock indices closed lower today. - S&P 500: -0.32% - Nasdaq: -0.60% - Dow Jones: -0.34%

Brazil’s largest bank, Itau Unibanco, announced a partnership with crypto infrastructure provider OpenAssets for a tokenization pilot overseen by the Brazilian Financial and Capital Markets Association, or ANBIMA. The project is a pilot program to issue, trade and settle bonds and investment funds using distributed ledger technology, CoinDesk reported. Banks and asset managers plan to review the regulatory and technical standards needed to use such systems.

ENS governance approves proposal to formalize foundation as operating body ENS governance has approved a proposal to convert the foundation into a formal operating organization, The Block reported. The proposal passed with about 70% support. Under the plan, the ENS Foundation will become a formal organization with full-time executives, permanent staff and a five-member board, while gaining administrative control over about $65 million. The overhaul is aimed at building an organizational base capable of operating within formal institutional frameworks, including working officially with bodies such as ICANN and protecting trademarks. The foundation said a DAO alone lacks the legal and operational capacity to represent infrastructure and operate across multiple areas.

Flowdesk secures broker-dealer license in Dubai Flowdesk has obtained a full license from Dubai’s Virtual Assets Regulatory Authority (VARA) to provide broker-dealer services, Cointelegraph reported. The license allows Flowdesk to offer regulated broker-dealer services to qualified and institutional investors in and outside Dubai.

The U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission is prepared to move ahead with its own cryptocurrency regulatory efforts even if the CLARITY market structure bill does not pass Congress, Watcher.Guru reported.

Institutional investors and other professional traders are accumulating ETH ahead of the U.S. consumer price index release today, with spot buying running at 7.2 times the usual pace, according to a Nansen analysis. At the same time, professional traders remain net short in BTC and ETH derivatives as they stay cautious about inflation and the possibility of interest-rate hikes.

Prediction market platform Kalshi has joined The Digital Chamber, one of the leading U.S. crypto industry groups, The Block reported. Cody Carbone, CEO of The Digital Chamber, said the group shares goals with Kalshi including stronger consumer protection, reasonable regulation, and reinforcing U.S. leadership in prediction markets, and added it will work with Kalshi to advocate for the fast-growing industry.

Bitcoin selling pressure is gradually easing, but it has not yet reached levels seen in past bear-market bottoms, according to a Glassnode analysis. Looking at the 30-day seller exhaustion indicator, Glassnode said a signal historically associated with market bottoms has not yet appeared and added that further easing in selling pressure still needs to be monitored.

TD Cowen said a U.S. SEC public meeting scheduled for Aug. 14 could mark a major turning point in crypto regulation, The Block reported. The investment bank said the proposal under SEC review may include a separate regulatory framework allowing crypto projects to legally issue and sell tokens. It added that a safe harbor program exempting early-stage token sales from securities registration requirements for a set period could be introduced first.

Aster said on X it has launched AOS-2, expanding its open listing framework from spot trading to perpetual futures. To apply for a listing, applicants must stake 1 million ASTER for four years, with no early withdrawals allowed. Once approved through an on-chain validator vote, Aster sets the market’s risk parameters and moves to list it within one day of approval. The application and voting rules are operated publicly, and Aster plans to launch AOS-3 in the future.

eToro has agreed to acquire online brokerage TradeZero for up to $231 million as it looks to expand its U.S. business, Decrypt reported. The deal will be paid in cash and up to 2.5 million newly issued eToro shares, with the transaction expected to close in the first half of 2027. TradeZero offers U.S. stock and options trading services and operates in the United States and Canada, among other markets. Through the acquisition, eToro plans to secure broker-dealer infrastructure in the United States and speed up new product launches. Separately, eToro posted a $7.2 million loss in its cryptocurrency trading segment in the second quarter, reversing from a $37.7 million profit a year earlier. Crypto-related revenue fell 29% to $1.35 billion from $1.91 billion a year earlier, while its July crypto trading volume dropped 73% from the same period last year.

10x Research said in a report Bitcoin may be decoupling from its correlation with the S&P 500, adding that if the Federal Reserve cuts interest rates in September due to weak summer employment data, Bitcoin and gold would be major beneficiaries.

Bitcoin skeptic Peter Schiff reiterated that BTC is not a monetary metal like gold or silver, but a highly speculative digital token, Cointelegraph reported.

Strategy CEO Phong Le says company plans to keep adding BTC this year Strategy CEO Phong Le said in an interview with Fox News that the company plans to continue increasing its BTC holdings this year. Le added, "about 7 weeks" after pausing purchases, the company plans to resume buying Bitcoin later this year.

Grayscale said in a report that AI adoption could increase demand for public blockchains through agent-based finance, verifiable records, and decentralized AI alternatives.

XRP falls back below $1 XRP has slipped below the $1 mark amid a downtrend, with the token trading at $0.9954, down 3.1%, according to CoinNess market monitoring and CoinMarketCap data.

Crypto-friendly Erebor Bank is in late-stage talks to raise about $1.5 billion at a $9.5 billion valuation, the Financial Times reported. The investment is expected to include Lux Capital, Human Capital and Andreessen Horowitz, also known as a16z. Erebor provides deposit, lending, stablecoin, treasury management and payment services.

CryptoSlate analysis suggests Nasdaq-listed Bitcoin treasury company Strive may eventually sell BTC to raise cash as the dividend burden from its preferred shares grows. As of late June, Strive had issued 7,829,502 shares of its perpetual preferred stock, SATA, implying an annual dividend obligation of about $102 million at the current 13% rate. As of Aug. 7, local time, the company held $155 million in cash and cash equivalents, enough to cover roughly 18 months of dividends by simple calculation. The company disclosed it could sell BTC or related products to meet future cash dividend obligations, but the statement described a risk factor rather than an actual sale plan. Strive held 20,167 BTC as of Aug. 7, local time, CryptoSlate reported.

Twenty One Capital (XXI), a U.S.-listed Bitcoin accumulation company, posted a second-quarter net loss of $414 million, The Block reported. Of that, $401.5 million was tied to a decline in the value of its BTC holdings. The report said the company’s large Bitcoin position as a core asset left earnings directly exposed to price swings. CEO Raphael Zagury said Twenty One Capital now plans to expand into mergers and acquisitions, capital markets businesses, and BTC-backed lending.

Galaxy Digital transferred 600 BTC worth $38.4 million to Binance from an address estimated to be linked to the firm, according to Arkham data. Exchange deposits are typically interpreted as intended for selling.

CryptoQuant contributor ArabxChain said Binance’s Bitcoin holdings have risen to their highest level in about six months since February. ArabxChain said the increase signals a significant shift from a period when BTC supply on the exchange had been relatively limited.

Binance announces DOS/USDT perpetual futures listing with up to 20x leverage Binance announced the listing of DOS/USDT perpetual futures at 3:00 p.m. UTC on Aug. 11, with support for up to 20x leverage.

U.S. President Trump said the war was aimed at preventing Iran from acquiring nuclear weapons, arguing that Iran would obtain them if the U.S. did not strike the country. Trump also said he was disappointed with Iran’s approach to negotiations, criticizing Tehran for agreeing at the negotiating table and then rejecting the terms through the media, while adding that Iran’s economy was in turmoil. On oil prices, Trump said they were lower than during the Biden administration.

Prediction market infrastructure startup River Markets has raised $8.5 million in seed funding, Fortune reported. Haun Ventures led the round, with participation from Y Combinator, Coinbase Ventures and Cube Research Technologies. The company plans to use the proceeds to expand its engineering team, improve the speed and security of its trading system, broaden its institutional client base, and develop tools that support large-scale capital deployment and trading across multiple platforms.