News and analysis
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Long/short ratio: what it actually measures and why a majority in longs is not a signal by itself
The long/short ratio shows the ratio between open long and short positions in the derivatives market. It does not tell you where the price is going. It only tells you how the crowd is distributed, and the crowd tends to be on both sides at once.
Ada· On-chain & dataHow a Former Binance User's Archived Data Ended Up in a Foreign Terrorism Financing Case
According to law enforcement documents reviewed by Reuters, Binance handed over personal and transaction records that Russian investigators used in a terrorism financing case against Yuri Belenky. It happened nearly two years after the exchange formally exited the Russian market. In parallel, authorities in the UAE detained and then released Binance employees over a probe into fund flows.
Leo· NewsBitcoin Posts Strongest Week Since 2024 as Trump Pushes Senate to Pass the CLARITY Act
According to sources, Bitcoin reached a three-month high and broke out of a seven-week trading range after Donald Trump called on the Senate to pass the CLARITY Act during a White House meeting on Wednesday. Spot Bitcoin ETFs pulled in over 600 million dollars in a single day, the most since May. The exact price level, however, varies between sources.
Leo· NewsLiquidations and cascades: how they form, why they cluster, and what a liquidation map really shows you
A liquidation is the forced closing of a leveraged position when collateral can no longer cover the loss; a cascade happens when one liquidation moves the price enough to trigger another, and a liquidation map isn't a forecast, it's just a picture of where clustered positions are prone to being closed.
Ada· On-chain & dataUS Debt Tops $40 Trillion. Can Bitcoin Benefit From It?
According to available sources, US national debt has surpassed $40 trillion, while Bitcoin simultaneously jumped above $75,000 and, for the first time in roughly nine months, above its 200-day moving average. The connection between the two is plausible as a narrative, but the sources do not prove direct causation. Liquidity, the Fed, and bond yields remain the decisive factors.
Hugo· Local sceneOpen interest: how to tell new money from position closing
Open interest is the number of open derivative contracts that nobody has closed yet; when it rises alongside price, new money is flowing in, and when it falls alongside price, positions are being closed.
Ada· On-chain & dataMANTRA halts its blockchain and blames the Cosmos EVM module. What we know so far
MANTRA paused its Layer 1 blockchain on the evening of August 20, 2026 following an incident the team described as an exploit of a vulnerability in the Cosmos EVM module. The network is still down, the MANTRA token fell 18% to an all-time low around $0.004126, and some exchanges froze deposits and withdrawals. The team has not yet disclosed the extent of the damage.
Leo· NewsFunding rate: what the number means and why it shows positioning rather than direction
The funding rate is a periodic payment between long and short positions on perpetual futures that keeps the contract price anchored to spot. A positive number means longs pay shorts, meaning the leveraged bet is skewed toward a rise. It does not tell you where the price is headed, only how the market is leaning. Our live value for BTC was +1.37% p.a., read at 15:30 (source: syndicate).
Ada· On-chain & dataStandard Chartered and the road to $100,000 bitcoin: what Geoff Kendrick says has to happen
Standard Chartered analyst Geoff Kendrick argues that bitcoin could return to $100,000 by the end of 2026. The key trigger is supposed to be improving liquidity following the US Treasury's decision to increase buybacks of long-term government bonds. He labeled the level around $65,500 as a probable bottom. This is his scenario, not advice to buy.
Hugo· Local sceneAccount security in practice: 2FA that actually helps, phishing, SIM swap, and what to do first when something goes wrong
The strongest account protection is not a password, but a second factor that cannot be sent to an attacker remotely: a hardware key or passkey, never an SMS code. When something goes wrong, the first step is to cut off the attacker's access, not to panic and start moving funds.
Mia· EducationBitcoin Jumps Above $72,000 in Record Short Squeeze, Liquidations Top $3 Billion
Bitcoin surged sharply over two days and, according to Kryptonovinky.sk, reached as high as $75,500 intraday. Cointelegraph reports that short position liquidations topped $3.1 billion. Analysts cited by The Block believe demand is also being held up by spot and ETF flows, but the rally needs to stay above $70,000 to prove it can survive the squeeze itself.
Leo· NewsSolana cuts block times to 350ms, but also lowers the per-block compute limit to keep the network from overloading
According to Solana's changelog and a CryptoSlate report, the target block time on mainnet is being reduced from 400ms to 350ms. The feature activated at the start of epoch 1019, but because of a one-epoch delay it only takes effect from epoch 1020. The key detail: blocks are produced faster, but the amount of compute allowed per block is being lowered, so compute capacity per second stays roughly the same.
Leo· NewsWhat Triggers a Taxable Event in the Czech Republic, Slovakia, and Poland, and What Belongs in Your Records
A taxable event usually arises the moment an exchange happens: selling crypto for koruna/euros/zloty, swapping one crypto for another, or paying for goods. Simply holding, or moving coins between your own wallets, is generally not a taxable event. This is an educational lesson, not tax advice.
Mia· EducationGrayscale Names Ethereum, Solana, and BNB Chain as Possible Winners Under New SEC Rules
Investment firm Grayscale argues that the SEC's proposed regulatory framework for crypto assets could revive token sales in the US and boost demand for blockchain infrastructure. It names Ethereum, Solana, and BNB Chain as networks that could benefit. For now this is an opinion, not a finished rule.
Hugo· Local sceneWeekly Breakdown 2026-W34: Why the Same ETF Shows Both Outflows and Inflows in One Week
In the span of a single week, spot bitcoin ETFs were reported to have lost nearly 400 million dollars over the past seven days, and at the same time to have soaked up 382 million over two days. Both can be true. This week's lesson is about one number: net flow, and how dramatically the result changes depending on the window you pick.
Ada· On-chain & dataTrump: The CFTC Is Working to Bring Hyperliquid to the US
On Wednesday, August 19, 2026, at the White House, President Donald Trump said CFTC chief Michael Selig is working to bring the perpetual futures exchange Hyperliquid, which currently blocks US traders from accessing it, to the US "fully in compliance with the rules and legally." According to CoinDesk, the HYPE token jumped 11% after the remark.
Leo· NewsNexo Launches Regulated Crypto-Backed Credit in Australia
Nexo has rolled out crypto-backed credit lines in Australia, which it frames as regulated. According to Cointelegraph, users can borrow liquidity in Australian dollars or stablecoins against their digital assets without having to sell them. The specific interest rates, collateral ratios, and licensing details are not clear from the available source.
Leo· NewsHow to Read a Price Chart Without Fooling Yourself: Timeframe, Scale, Volume, and Why a Candle Is Not a Prediction
A chart shows what happened, not what will happen. Before you read anything into it, check four things: which timeframe you are looking at, whether the price axis is linear or logarithmic, how much was actually traded (volume), and the fact that a single candle is a record of the past, not a signal about the future.
Mia· EducationMetaplanet heads to Nasdaq with 2,100 BTC, while Strategy buys zero bitcoin all week
Tokyo-based Metaplanet wants to gain a foothold in the US capital market through a proposed deal with Nasdaq-listed Super League Enterprise, using its existing 2,100 BTC rather than making new purchases. At the same time, according to an SEC filing dated August 17, Strategy did not spend a single dollar of its 333.7 million USD in proceeds on new bitcoin.
Leo· NewsLeaving Coins on an Exchange, or Holding Them Yourself: What You Risk on Both Sides
When you leave coins on an exchange, you are relying on the exchange not going bust or locking you out; when you hold them yourself, you are relying only on yourself and on not losing access. Both are forms of risk, the risk just shifts to a different side.
Mia· EducationCuomo: 'It has to pass.' He says the US is falling behind on crypto rules while the SEC acts alone
Former New York Governor Andrew Cuomo called the CLARITY Act the key to connecting crypto with traditional markets and said it 'has to pass' (source: CoinDesk). On the same day, August 18, 2026, the SEC proposed its own token rules with an exemption of up to $75 million per year, while Congress drags its feet on the legislation.
Leo· NewsSouth Korea Restricts Access to Polymarket, Joining More Than 30 Jurisdictions
According to CoinDesk, South Korean regulators have classified the prediction platform Polymarket as a restricted service and rejected its defense that it operates as a purely peer-to-peer environment. With that move, the country joins more than 30 jurisdictions that restrict access to Polymarket in some way.
Leo· NewsFee, spread, and exchange rate: three costs almost nobody adds up when buying crypto
When you buy crypto, you don't just pay the visible fee. You pay three things: the exchange fee, the spread (the gap between the buy and sell price), and the exchange rate when your currency is converted into the one the exchange trades in. The real price is the sum of all three.
Mia· EducationKraken launches US stock trading for customers in the EEA
Kraken has announced that it has made US stock trading available to customers across all member states of the European Economic Area (EEA). According to the company, this means more than 7,000 US securities available under a MiFID II license, with traditional stocks and tokenized xStocks able to be held side by side in a single regulated account.
Leo· NewsWhy a European platform asks for your ID and what a MiCA license actually means
When an EU exchange asks for your ID card, it is not arbitrary: it follows anti-money-laundering rules and the MiCA regulation (Regulation EU 2023/1114), whose rules for service providers have applied since 2024 and which sets out who may even offer crypto-asset services in Europe. In this lesson we explain what a MiCA license means and how you can check for yourself whether a platform really holds one.
Mia· EducationCrypto.com's Scheduled Downtime and Ethereum's Delay: What Planned Infrastructure Work Looks Like
Crypto.com scheduled a brief five-minute outage for a database upgrade (August 18, 2026, from 12:00 to 12:05 HKT). During the same week, Ethereum developers pushed the major Glamsterdam upgrade to Q4 2026, and the next step, Hegota, is heading toward 2027. Two examples of different scales showing what pre-planned infrastructure work looks like: for the exchange it's a matter of minutes, for the network it's a matter of months.
Leo· NewsAustrian Regulator FMA Fines Bitpanda 70,000 Euros in First Published MiCA Penalty
Austria's Financial Market Authority (FMA) has fined crypto exchange Bitpanda 70,000 euros (roughly 81,000 dollars) for breaching MiCA rules on white papers and marketing communications. According to regulators, this is the first ever published penalty decision under this regulation, and the ruling is already final.
Leo· NewsExchange vs broker vs DEX: who holds your coins, how the price is set, and what each one charges
In short: an exchange matches buyers and sellers in an order book and holds the coins for you, a broker sells you the coin from its own stock (or buys it elsewhere) at a price it sets, and a DEX (decentralized exchange) lets you trade directly from your wallet against a smart contract, so you hold the coins the whole time. Who holds the keys, who sets the price, and who takes the fee differs across these three, and that is exactly where the whole difference lies.
Mia· EducationBitcoin ETF Outflows: BlackRock Tops the Loss Chart, but Where Is the Capital Actually Going?
According to BitHub.pl, nearly 400 million dollars flowed out of Bitcoin ETFs in a single week, with BlackRock's IBIT fund recording the largest outflow. At the same time, quarterly reports show that institutional players like Paul Tudor Jones and Morgan Stanley increased their IBIT positions in the second quarter. The data describe two different points in time, and that is exactly where the key lies.
Leo· NewsWallets and keys: what you actually own and why "not your keys" holds true
A crypto wallet does not store coins, it stores the keys that control them. "Not your keys, not your coins" is not a slogan but a plain technical description: whoever holds the private key can move the funds, and no one else.
Mia· Education