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Sen. Angela Alsobrooks said lawmakers will keep working toward passing the CLARITY Act properly after the U.S. Senate delayed a vote on the bill until September. Alsobrooks said more than a year of bipartisan cooperation has been focused on reaching a fair agreement on consumer protection, preventing deposit outflows, curbing illicit finance and addressing ethics issues, adding that the goal remains to pass the CLARITY Act properly.

BitMEX said it will shut down exchange operations at 4:00 a.m. UTC on Sept. 23, while the platform spent the past two years in sale talks with potential buyers including rival exchanges and payments platform Exodus but failed to reach a deal, CoinDesk reported. According to the report, negotiations were hindered by efforts to preserve the founders' control, the company’s past negative image, and slowing growth. An industry source who requested anonymity said potential buyers were uncomfortable that co-founders Arthur Hayes, Ben Delo and Samuel Reed had stepped back from the business after being criminally charged in the U.S. in 2020 but still controlled a significant portion of the company’s equity. The sale process is said to have targeted a roughly $1 billion valuation, though it was not confirmed whether any formal bid proposals were submitted.

U.S. Republican Senator Cynthia Lummis, a leading pro-crypto lawmaker, said efforts to advance the CLARITY bill would not stop and the fight over crypto legislation was far from over. The comment came after the Senate earlier decided to delay a vote on the CLARITY bill until September.

The U.S. Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control sanctioned Iranian cryptocurrency exchanges Shelbit and Aban Tether, saying they had supported funding for Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and facilitated illicit finance.

Bybit has filed a civil lawsuit against North Korea, its Reconnaissance General Bureau (RGB), and the Lazarus Group over last year’s $1.5 billion hack, CoinDesk reported. The exchange filed the case in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia and also secured a preliminary injunction barring the transfer or disposal of certain assets tied to the incident while the case is underway, according to CoinDesk. Bybit CEO Ben Zhou said, "Our goal is to put user protection first, recover as much as possible, and hold accountable those behind these attacks." Zhou added, "The Lazarus attack was not simply an attack on Bybit. It was an attack that shook trust in our industry." He said Bybit has worked closely with investigators, exchanges, regulators, judicial authorities and now the court, and plans to seek additional relief. The civil case is proceeding separately from an ongoing criminal investigation by U.S. law enforcement authorities, the report said. The Lazarus Group stole about $1.5 billion worth of Ethereum from Bybit in February last year.

Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong said on X the Senate did not take up the CLARITY bill this week, calling the outcome disappointing while expressing gratitude and backing Senate Majority Leader John Thune’s pledge to bring the bill forward in September. Armstrong added that interest in the technology continues to grow regardless of the congressional calendar, Congress has an important role to play, and voters are closely watching who helps and who blocks the bill’s passage. He said the effort is closer than ever to its goal and urged lawmakers to finish the bill in September.

Open-source crypto payment processor BTCPay Server warned an active exploit targeting a discovered vulnerability is under way and could lead to fund losses. In a post on its official X account, BTCPay Server urged users to update immediately to server version v2.4.2 and said operators that cannot update should shut down their servers to prevent hacking.

Galaxy Research said an estimated 1,719 BTC has been stolen so far in the Coldcard incident, with losses likely exceeding $130 million. More than 250 cases have been reported so far, and Galaxy Research added the total could expand to more than 2,300 BTC if all cases are ultimately confirmed.

Blockaid CEO Ido Ben-Natan said the Coldcard vulnerability incident exposed a structural weakness in crypto’s reliance on private keys, The Block reported. Ben-Natan said systems built around private keys can ultimately create a single point of failure. He added that the Coldcard case was particularly shocking because the wallet was designed to keep private keys offline and separated from the internet, yet hackers exploited a flaw in which Coldcard devices did not generate sufficient randomness during wallet seed creation. Ben-Natan said simply storing assets somewhere and forgetting about them is not a real solution, as the security landscape changes very quickly. He stressed that users must either remain continuously vigilant or delegate security decisions to specialized institutions.

Bitcoin wallet activity surged without a corresponding rise in inflows to major exchanges following the Coldcard hack, according to UBC Blockchain, citing Santiment data. As of July 31, local time, Bitcoin active addresses stood at 978,000, about 1.6 times the July average. From Aug. 1 to 6, daily average active addresses were around 720,000, above July’s roughly 610,000. By contrast, average daily inflows to exchanges from Aug. 1 to 6 were about $1.55 billion, below July’s average of about $1.67 billion. UBC Blockchain said, "콜드카드 해킹으로 인해 주요 거래소로의 자금 유입 없이 비트코인 월렛 활동이 급증했다."

Michael Saylor says next unicorn in finance could be digital credit Strategy co-founder Michael Saylor said on X, "If you’re looking for the next billion-dollar unicorn business in finance, I would study digital credit."

Former U.S. SEC counsel Justin Slaughter, Paradigm’s vice president of regulatory affairs, said the CLARITY Act still has a chance of becoming law, even though the delay has significantly reduced its odds. In a post on X, Slaughter said it should not be completely ruled out, adding there is still a short Senate window in the third week of September, during the height of the campaign season, and the bill needs to be handled during that period. Slaughter also said the industry must keep working to win support from policymakers and elite media, adding Washington policy remains heavily influenced by the press and many conservative opinion leaders still view crypto with skepticism.

A CoinNess analysis shows the Bitcoin options market is improving gradually, albeit cautiously, according to Glassnode. Glassnode said volatility is being repriced and concerns over short-term options are easing. Call options still account for most open interest, or OI, while recent premium flows are turning increasingly positive.

An Ethereum Foundation proposal to cap staking rewards at 0% if half of Ethereum’s supply is staked is drawing strong backlash from the Ethereum community. Ether.fi founder Mike Silagadze said the proposal would be harmful to decentralization, adoption, and the network’s reputation. Steve Berryman, head of Ethereum at Bitwise, warned "institutional investors need policy certainty. Adjusting the issuance mechanism could create additional uncertainty." Stani Kulechov, founder of Aave, said lower Ethereum staking could affect the DeFi ecosystem, as a large amount of staking derivatives has become a core element of lending and yield strategies.

XRP whales holding 10 million to 100 million tokens bought $1.3B worth despite a 43% price drop Wallets holding 10 million to 100 million XRP increased their combined holdings by 1.23 billion XRP this year even as XRP fell 43%, The Crypto Basic reported, citing Santiment data. Their holdings rose from 10.97 billion XRP at the start of the year to 12.2 billion XRP, with the added tokens worth about $1.28 billion at the current price of $1.04. Over the same period, the number of wallets in that cohort increased from 301 to 313. By contrast, whales holding 100 million to 1 billion XRP were net sellers of 300 million XRP, while wallets holding 1 million to 10 million XRP were net buyers of 260 million XRP.

U.S. payrolls fell by 23,000 in July, driving the probability of a September Fed rate hike down to 40% from 70%, but weakening labor conditions could cap Bitcoin’s gains, according to an analysis by on-chain analytics firm Hupzy, formerly Spot On Chain. Citing data from The Kobeissi Letter, Hupzy said July payrolls missed market expectations for an 85,000 increase by 108,000 and marked the third-largest monthly employment decline since the 2020 COVID shock. June figures were also revised down by 37,000 from the previous reading. Hupzy added that while lower odds of a rate hike are positive for risk assets, the economic slowdown behind the shift is also a risk-off factor, and the market now needs to watch whether the decline in employment continues next month.

U.S. Republican Sen. Cynthia Lummis, a leading pro-crypto lawmaker, said the Senate’s decision to delay a vote on the CLARITY Act, a crypto market structure bill, until September could prove fatal, warning that "a thousand cuts is just as deadly as one bullet." The Senate had earlier decided to postpone the vote until September.

Technical indicators on Bitcoin’s monthly chart suggest the market may have formed a macro bottom, according to crypto media outlet Odaily. Odaily’s analysis said a TD Sequential buy signal appeared on BTC’s monthly chart last month, the same signal seen at the bottom of the 2022 bear market. The analysis added that BTC is currently trading near its 50-month simple moving average, which has served as a strong support line since 2014, while the Chande Momentum Oscillator has fallen to -71, pointing to deeply oversold conditions. In the short term, BTC may continue to trade sideways in a $60,000-$67,000 range, it said. Still, the combination of indicators suggests a long-term bottom may have formed, with a breakout from that range likely to determine whether a new uptrend emerges. Odaily described TD Sequential as a technical indicator used on stock and digital-asset charts to predict trend reversal points, including bottoms and tops.

The three major U.S. stock indices opened higher today. - S&P 500: +0.33% - Nasdaq: +0.79% - Dow Jones: +0.11%

Firmus, which previously operated as a Bitcoin mining company before pivoting to AI infrastructure, has raised $2 billion in equity funding at a post-money valuation of more than $10.5 billion, Reuters reported. Existing investors Nvidia and Coatue Management participated again in the round, while a Blackstone-managed fund and Jane Street joined as new investors. The proceeds will be used to accelerate construction of Firmus' AI factories in Australia and support further expansion across Asia.

Nasdaq-listed Bitcoin miner MARA Holdings sold 726 BTC, according to BitcoinTreasuries.net. The sale reduced MARA Holdings' Bitcoin holdings to 35,577 BTC, ranking the company fourth among global publicly listed companies by BTC holdings.

Grayscale said in an 8-K filing with the U.S. SEC it amended the trust agreement for its Ethereum Staking Mini ETF, ETH, to convert staking rewards into cash and distribute them to investors on a recurring basis. The amended agreement took effect on Aug. 6, according to the filing. Under the revised terms, the ETF must convert staking rewards into cash at least once a quarter and distribute the proceeds to investors after deducting related costs, including staking fees. Grayscale currently plans to make the payments monthly, while ensuring at least one distribution per quarter in all cases. The actual payout amount will depend on the size of staking rewards received during the period.

SharpLink CEO Joseph Chalom, BlackRock’s former head of digital asset strategy, strongly opposed Ethereum’s proposed EIP-8363, arguing it would seriously damage the broader Ethereum ecosystem if implemented. Chalom cited four reasons for his opposition: - A reduction in staking yields, which serve as a benchmark rate, would raise on-chain borrowing costs and reduce the collateral value of $35 billion in liquid staking tokens. - ETH would lose the yield advantage that differentiates it from Bitcoin, potentially curbing institutional inflows. - Rewards that should go to developers and node operators would instead be burned, disrupting the ecosystem’s capital cycle. - Changing tokenomics at a critical moment when major institutions including BlackRock are adopting Ethereum would be extremely risky. EIP-8363, under discussion in the Ethereum community as "Decreasing Issuance Burn," calls for a gradual cut in validators’ staking yields, currently around 2.75%, with returns falling to zero if staked deposits reach 50% of total supply.

Bitwise CIO Matt Hougan said on social media that if the Clarity bill does not pass this week, the setback could instead lay the groundwork for a fall rally. Hougan said the best-case scenario if the bill fails this week would be for the probability of passage on Polymarket to fall clearly into at least the 10% range, fully removing market uncertainty. He added that the market could see a brief bout of volatility, but the outcome would ultimately set the stage for a rally in the fall.

Russia’s Federal Security Service, or FSB, raided nine unregistered cryptocurrency exchanges in Moscow and arrested more than 20 employees over allegations they were involved in laundering funds for a Ukraine-based voice phishing ring, Cointelegraph reported. The FSB believes the exchanges converted money taken from Russian voice phishing victims into cryptocurrency and sent it to accounts on the Ukrainian side. Authorities said couriers aged 18 to 25 collected cash from victims and delivered it to the exchanges, where it was converted into crypto. Russia’s Interior Ministry has opened a criminal investigation on large-scale fraud charges, while the FSB said it is continuing to investigate the identities of victims and the possibility of recovering losses.