Crypto Chat, News Cryptocurrency Market News and Events

[Rockfx]

A study by the Bank of Italy found that stablecoins do not offer sustainable advantages in terms of price and speed in money transfers. Any advantages are lost in fees for fiat deposits and withdrawals and the operational complexity of local payment infrastructures. The authors compared transfers of 200 USDC in 10 bilateral corridors between Italy and Brazil, Argentina, Japan, the UAE, and South Africa. The metrics included the full cost and settlement times compared to standard money services. The final price of stablecoin transfers ranged from 0.3% to almost 9% depending on the direction. In corridors with instant payment systems, settlements took less than 20 minutes. In corridors without such infrastructure, the timeframe stretched to one or two business days. According to the World Bank, the average global cost of money transfers is 6.65%. In most of the corridors studied, stablecoins were cheaper than this level, but compared to Wise, they only outperformed in three of the seven comparable corridors. The authors believe the effect would be more noticeable if stablecoins could be spent directly on goods and services without being converted back into local currency.

 

[Rockfx]

From July 27 to August 2, Strategy sold 1,638 BTC (approximately $104.7 million) at an average price of $63,957 per coin, according to its 8-K filing with the SEC. The firm's holdings of the top cryptocurrency fell to 842,138 BTC, representing approximately 4% of the total Bitcoin supply. At current prices, the position is valued at $52.6 billion. Strategy spent $63.51 billion to build it, at an average price of $75,419 per Bitcoin. The unrealized loss is approximately $10.9 billion. The proceeds from the sale were used to pay dividends on preferred shares and repurchase STRC shares: during the week, the Bitcoin Treasury purchased 912,143 such shares for $81.2 million. In parallel, the company raised $290.6 million through the placement of 3.01 million MSTR common shares. The dollar reserve increased by $250 million to $4 billion. Strategy previously confirmed that the dividend rate for STRC will remain at 12% per annum; they do not plan to reduce it until the shares stabilize near the par value of $100.

 

[Rockfx]

A group of Ethereum researchers and developers have proposed changing the network's issuance policy by burning a portion of validator consensus rewards. The initiative's authors include Lodestar Dapplion team member Jérôme de Tichy, Ethereum Foundation researcher Justin Drake, and other developers. The proposal proposes that as the share of ETH staked grows, the network will burn an increasing portion of validator rewards for attestations, block proposals, and synchronization committee participation. Upon reaching 60.25 million ETH staked—approximately 50% of the current supply—the deduction will reach 100%. The proposed changes are to be implemented gradually over 18 months. The authors believe this will remove the floor on staking returns and reduce the incentive to lock up an increasing share of ETH.

 

[Rockfx]

On August 8, the network of the world's first cryptocurrency split at block #961,632. In eight hours, the new branch mined two blocks, according to the BIP-110 Situation Monitor. The split was triggered by two records at the same block height. AntPool mined block #961,632 without a BIP-110 support signal: the main chain accepted it, but the proponents of the proposal rejected it. Instead, they switched to an alternative miner, Roughnecks, found at the same block height through the Ocean pool. Both versions rely on a common predecessor but differ in the set of transactions. By the morning of August 9, the gap had grown to 48 blocks. The main network reached block #961,687, while the proponents of BIP-110 remained at block #961,633.
The gap is due to the difficulty parameters, which were updated to 127.48 trillion at block #961,632. The branch circuit maintained this figure, but the lack of computing power led to a multiple increase in the inter-block interval.

 

[Rockfx]

From the beginning of January to the end of June, miner MARA sold 23,093 BTC for approximately $1.6 billion. The proceeds were used to fund operations, support growth, and manage liquidity, according to the company's report. The average selling price for the first half of the year was $70,631 per coin. As of June 30, MARA held 35,577 BTC worth $2.08 billion. Of this, 9,270 BTC were used in an asset management strategy: the company lent 4,742 BTC to third parties and used another 4,528 BTC as collateral. MARA's revenue for the first six months decreased to $349.5 million from $452.4 million a year earlier. Bitcoin mining revenue decreased from $436.5 million to $342.2 million, despite production increasing from 4,644 BTC to 4,669 BTC.

 

[Rockfx]

In the second quarter, Tether-backed Twenty One Capital posted a net loss of $413.5 million due to a correction in the crypto market. Against this backdrop, new CEO Raphael Zagury announced his intention to transform the firm from a Bitcoin treasury into a more comprehensive entity. According to the documents, the revaluation of digital assets resulted in a $401.5 million loss—97% of Twenty One's total losses for the reporting period. Meanwhile, its balance sheet still holds 43,514 BTC (approximately $2.78 billion), making it the second-largest public holder of the world's first cryptocurrency. At the end of the quarter, the company had $106.1 million in cash and $484.5 million in convertible bond debt. XXI's shares fell 1.7% to $4.50 in the latest trading session. Since the beginning of the year, their price has plummeted almost 50%.

 

[Rockfx]

On August 11, the share of transaction fees in Bitcoin miners' revenue was 0.69%, remaining near a ten-year low, according to Glassnode co-founder Raphael Schulze-Kraft. The only time the figure was lower was in April, at 0.52%. According to the expert, fees have accounted for less than 1% of the revenue of Bitcoin miners for a year now. The last time comparable levels were observed was when Bitcoin was below $400. The main portion of miners' rewards is currently the block subsidy—3.125 BTC. This amount was halved after the halving in April 2024. The low share of fees increases network participants' dependence on the Bitcoin price. According to the Checkonchain model, the estimated average cost of mining one coin on August 11 was $78,254. At the time of writing, digital gold is trading around $64,100.

 

[Rockfx]

On August 16, hardware crypto wallet maker SafePal disclosed a data breach involving approximately 39,798 users. Third parties obtained names, shipping addresses, phone numbers, email addresses, and order details.
The incident did not affect seed phrases, private keys, passwords, bank details, card numbers, or document numbers—SafePal does not collect or store such information. The project team found no evidence of attackers gaining access to users' wallets or funds.
The developers warned that attackers could use the leaked data for targeted attacks—calling, texting, impersonating support, offering refunds, demanding firmware updates, or redirecting users to phishing sites. SafePal is currently monitoring these fake sites and seeking to have them blocked.

 

[Rockfx]

Supply pressure in the crypto market is increasing amid growing influxes of large investors and persistently weak spot demand, according to CryptoQuant contributors and analysts at XWIN Japan. According to their observations, the Bitcoin market structure is beginning to shift. The experts recorded an increase in the Whale Inflow Ratio on Binance—the metric indicates a significant share of large transactions in exchange inflows. "Deposits to exchanges do not necessarily mean immediate selling, but they increase the amount of BTC available for trading or hedging," the analysts emphasized. XWIN Japan also noted that exchange reserves of the leading cryptocurrency have reversed upward, and the spot cumulative volume delta (CVD) for large investors has shifted from buy to neutral.
"The key question is not simply whether large players are selling, but whether there is enough spot demand to absorb the Bitcoin returning to exchanges," the experts added. If large-holder inflows and reserves continue to grow and CVD enters the selling zone, pressure on the price of the leading cryptocurrency could increase, XWIN Japan clarified.

 

[Rockfx]

On August 17, Bitcoin outperformed the stock market. Over the past three months, the asset has outperformed the S&P 500 on only one of three trading days. This was noted by Glassnode. Analysts called this the longest lag between Bitcoin and the S&P 500 in the past six years of historical data. "The question now is whether this is the beginning of a trend or just one of those three days," the experts added. At the time of writing, digital gold is trading around $64,300, up just over 1% in 24 hours. Over the same period, the S&P 500 index has fallen by 0.5%.