News and analysis
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Coinbase: Benchmark cuts profit forecast, but the fate of the CLARITY Act may be the real key
Investment bank Benchmark lowered its profit estimates for Coinbase, citing weak spot trading volumes through most of the second quarter. According to Benchmark, however, a positive shift around the U.S. CLARITY Act could outweigh a soft quarter. Here are the documented facts and what remains uncertain.
Leo· NewsBitcoin ETFs report inflows, cold wallet hack reignites the custody debate
US spot bitcoin ETFs pulled in 382 million dollars over two days, according to Cointelegraph. In the same week, an incident involving the Coldcard hardware wallet reopened the argument over how to store bitcoin safely, with the attacker's wallet holding roughly 36 million dollars according to CoinDesk. Here is what is proven and what is not yet.
Leo· NewsBIP-110: Alternative Bitcoin Chain Stuck at Two Blocks After Its Only Miner Walked Away
According to The Defiant, the chain enforcing the BIP-110 rule has not mined a single new block since Saturday evening. It got stuck at a height of two blocks (that is the height of this alternative chain, not the main Bitcoin chain) after its only miner stopped supporting it. Supporters of the proposal, including Luke Dashjr, are now reportedly discussing a change to the proof-of-work algorithm.
Leo· NewsTrump-Linked World Liberty Financial Gets Preliminary OCC Approval for a Banking License as a $112 Million DeFi Position Nears Liquidation
The US OCC has granted World Liberty Financial preliminary conditional approval to establish a national trust bank around its USD1 stablecoin. At the same time, according to CryptoSlate, a DeFi position worth roughly $112 million is nearing liquidation. What is confirmed and what is not yet.
Leo· NewsTrump Summons Heads of Coinbase, Ripple, and Other Firms to the White House as CLARITY Act Odds Drop to 10%
According to reports, President Trump and the heads of the SEC and CFTC are set to meet with crypto industry leaders at the White House on August 19. At the same time, analysts at Galaxy have cut their estimate of the probability that the key CLARITY Act passes this year to 10%.
Leo· NewsNorway's sovereign fund holds a record 11,549 BTC in indirect exposure, without buying a single bitcoin
As of June 30, 2026, Norway's oil fund (NBIM) had indirect exposure equivalent to 11,549 BTC, up 60% year over year. This is not a direct bitcoin purchase but a consequence of equity stakes in companies that hold crypto, according to K33 Research data. The fund also disclosed a stake in BitMine, the largest ethereum treasury company.
Leo· NewsBinance: Gen Z Bets More on ETFs and Trades Less Often Than Older Cohorts
According to data from the Binance exchange, Generation Z is channeling a growing share of its stock activity into ETFs, trades less frequently, and uses lower leverage than older working-age cohorts. Here is exactly what the data shows and what we still do not know.
Leo· NewsTokenization Is Growing in Volume, Not Revenue: Securitize Pushed $5.3B Through, but Earned Only $14 Million
According to its second-quarter results, Securitize grew transaction volume by 147% to $5.3 billion, but its revenue fell 5% to $14.4 million and the firm posted a net loss of $21.7 million with costs up 56%. Around the same time, Ether.fi is pushing tokenization toward retail banking. The shared signal: tokenization volumes are growing faster than the ability to monetize them.
Leo· NewsTether Clears Its First Major Audit. Critics Still Have One Strong Objection
On August 13, 2026, Tether announced that the US arm of KPMG had completed its first full financial audit for 2025 and issued an unqualified opinion. At year end, reserves exceeded liabilities by $6.814 billion. It is a turning point after years of promises dating back to 2017, but an annual audit is a snapshot at a single date, not a continuous, real-time check.
Hugo· Local sceneMetaplanet Explains 5,014 BTC Move as a Custody Operation, Not a Sale. Bitcoin Holds Below $64,000
On August 12, Metaplanet CEO Simon Gerovich confirmed that the transfer of 5,014 bitcoins (roughly $322 million) was a routine change of custody, not a sale. According to the company's statement, it sold nothing and still holds 43,000 BTC. Bitcoin, meanwhile, is trading just below $64,000.
Leo· NewsGoldman Sachs Buys NEOS Investments for $2.25 Billion, Gaining Three Crypto ETFs
Goldman Sachs has announced a deal to acquire ETF manager NEOS Investments for up to $2.25 billion. The package includes roughly $30 billion in assets under management and three crypto ETFs built on options strategies tied to bitcoin and Ethereum. The transaction is expected to close in the first quarter, though sources disagree on the exact year.
Leo· NewsSolana Came Within 33 Minutes and 86% of Losing Finality After TeraSwitch Outage
On August 12, 2026, 28.83% of staked SOL stopped voting after hosting provider TeraSwitch went down. The critical threshold for losing finality is 33.34%. According to Marinade Finance, 90 validators were affected, the outage lasted roughly 33 minutes, and it cost them a combined 333 SOL in rewards.
Leo· NewsEthereum staking at 34%: EIP-8361 targets validator rewards, Fidelity wants staking in its ETF
According to The Block, the share of staked ETH has climbed to roughly 34%. Researchers have submitted EIP-8361, a proposal that would burn a growing portion of validator rewards. At the same time, Fidelity has filed an amended request with the SEC to add staking to its spot ETF (FETH), with the fund keeping 85% of the rewards. On August 12, Harmony released a patch for two verification bugs.
Leo· NewsRiot Platforms Signs 20-Year, $9.1 Billion AI Contract, Shares Soar
Bitcoin miner Riot Platforms has leased 191 MW of capacity at its Rockdale site in Texas to an unnamed AI company. According to its SEC filing, the 20-year deal is set to generate roughly $9.1 billion. Shares jumped sharply on the news. For now, though, the first rent won't start flowing until late 2027, and the counterparty's name has not been officially confirmed.
Leo· NewsTrump Media Is Selling Early Access to Trump's Posts. What We Know About the Deal So Far, and What We Don't
According to CrypS.pl, Trump Media has signed more than 10 contracts, mostly with firms focused on high-frequency trading (HFT), for early access to posts by Donald Trump and other popular accounts on Truth Social. Access reportedly costs tens of thousands of dollars per month. Democratic senators are asking the SEC to examine whether selling such information is even legal. A number of key details remain unconfirmed.
Felix· ExchangesRobinhood Chain Reports 11.6 Million Daily Transactions, USDe Drives TVL Growth
According to The Block, Robinhood Chain has hit 11.6 million transactions per day, and its TVL is climbing thanks to the synthetic dollar USDe. Yet its user base is flat. That is the heart of the story: activity and locked capital are rising, but the number of real users is not.
Leo· NewsWhy Strategy Is Selling Bitcoin and How Much It Has Sold So Far
The largest corporate bitcoin holder, Strategy (formerly MicroStrategy), started selling part of its BTC in June. According to available reports, we are talking about hundreds of millions of dollars, with the proceeds going toward funding dividends and buying back its own STRC preferred shares. The exact total amount has not yet been publicly confirmed.
Hugo· Local sceneStandard Chartered Sets a $200 Chainlink (LINK) Target for 2030. What Exactly Did the Bank Say?
Standard Chartered initiated coverage of Chainlink (LINK) with a price target of $200 by the end of 2030, roughly 25 to 27 times the current price. The bank bases this on growth in tokenized assets. It is a bank forecast, not a buy recommendation and not a certainty. Here are the numbers and what to watch.
Leo· NewsBitcoin Treasury Model Under Pressure: Institutional Holdings Fell 10% in Three Months
According to Kryptomagazín.cz, institutional Bitcoin products cut their positions by roughly 10% over three months. While some firms are backing away from the treasury model (Trump Media scrapped its CRO deal), others are doubling down (Sweden's H100 tripled its BTC holdings). Here is what is fact and what we still do not know.
Leo· NewsBybit sues North Korea over $1.5 billion hack, court freezes part of stolen assets
The Bybit exchange has filed a civil lawsuit against North Korea, its intelligence agency and the Lazarus Group at a federal court in Washington over roughly $1.5 billion stolen in February 2025. The court issued a preliminary injunction barring the movement of assets. According to Bybit, $48.4 million has been recovered and another $30.5 million is frozen across more than 28 entities.
Leo· NewsTrump Media scraps two crypto projects with Crypto.com. What exactly ended and what we still don't know
On August 7, Trump Media & Technology Group (TMTG), together with Crypto.com and Yorkville Acquisition Corp., announced they were mutually canceling a planned merger worth roughly USD 6.42 billion, which was meant to create a publicly traded company built on accumulating the CRO token. Plans for prediction markets on Truth Social were also scrapped. According to its own statement, TMTG wants to refocus its efforts on the media business.
Hugo· Local sceneBitvavo Halts KITE Deposits and Withdrawals After Security Incident
The Bitvavo exchange has temporarily suspended crypto deposits and withdrawals of the KITE token. It cites a security incident outside Bitvavo, reported by the Kite Foundation, as the reason. It is not yet publicly known what the incident involves or how long the suspension will last.
Leo· NewsBitcoin and Ethereum Spot ETFs Pull In Over $1 Billion, Best Week Since April. BlackRock Grabbed the Lion's Share
U.S. spot Bitcoin and Ethereum ETFs collected roughly $1.1 billion combined in the week to August 7, according to SoSoValue data, the strongest inflow since April. The Bitcoin funds alone took in $853.54 million, and per CryptoSlate about 80 percent of that flow was down to BlackRock.
Leo· NewsFour Years After FTX, Exchanges Still Prove Assets but Not Solvency
Proof of reserves verifies that an exchange holds some assets in wallets. It does not verify to whom, or how much, it owes. That is a crucial difference, because it was precisely the invisible liabilities that brought FTX down. According to CryptoSlate, four years after the collapse of FTX, nothing fundamental has changed about this gap.
Leo· NewsCLARITY Act Heads to Senate in September for Key 60-Vote Showdown
Senate Majority Leader John Thune has formally kicked off the procedure that will force the Senate to decide whether it will even take up the CLARITY Act (H.R. 3633). The procedural vote comes after the return from summer recess, when the Senate reconvenes on September 14. The bill needs 60 votes, and Democrats are holding back for now.
Leo· NewsWintermute Lands US Broker-Dealer Status, Eyes Role as Gatekeeper of Crypto Exchange Funds
Market maker Wintermute announced on August 6 that its US arm, Wintermute USA LLC, is registered as a broker-dealer with the SEC and has secured FINRA membership. This opens the door for the firm to trade US equities and support ETPs, including acting as an authorized participant for crypto funds. Specific ETP mandates and timelines are not yet known.
Leo· NewsXRP and the Delayed Clarity Act Vote: What Actually Happened
On August 6, the US Senate confirmed that a vote on the CLARITY Act will not take place before the August recess and is being pushed back to after lawmakers return on September 14. According to Decrypt, the XRP market took the news harder than the rest of the crypto market.
Leo· NewsBitcoin Whales Bought $1.2 Billion in BTC, ETFs Saw $754 Million in Inflows
According to CoinDesk, large addresses accumulated roughly $1.2 billion worth of bitcoin in a single week, while spot BTC ETFs took in approximately $754 million. At the same time, SEC filings show that BlackRock's crypto ETFs posted a net write-down of $3.5 billion for the second quarter. These are different time windows and different metrics, so the picture is not clear-cut.
Leo· NewsCLARITY Act Faces Delays as First Digital CEO Warns Asia Is Pulling Ahead
According to Cointelegraph, the head of First Digital argues that the ongoing legislative deadlock around the US CLARITY Act could slow institutional adoption, revive "regulation by enforcement," and push innovation toward Asian financial hubs. Below, we break down what is fact and what remains just a concern for now.
Leo· NewsLooking up your own Bitcoin address in a block explorer can reveal your IP. How much of that is true?
A warning posted on X on August 5 claims that entering your own Bitcoin address into a public block explorer links your IP address to the wallet, and that the data ends up with Chainalysis. What is proven is that hosted explorers can technically connect your IP to the address you query. Sources do not confirm the claim that this specific data is sold to Chainalysis.
Leo· News