Latest Crypto News & Market Updates

Here's all about XRP's biggest derivatives sell-off of the year!

Activity around XRP is very interesting right now.　　Futures activity has been heating up and bigger hands seem to be stepping in. However, sell pressure in the derivatives market is the highest it‘s been in a while. So, it’s a tug of war between buyers and sellers right now.　　XRP sell pressure hits YTD high　　The timing here is interesting. Especially since Binance net taker volume recently fell to -$96 million. This is the strongest selling push the market has seen this year.　　Source: X　　Traders would usually step away, but things might be different this time. In fact, Binance Open Interest (OI) went up by about 14.8%, suggesting that new positions are still being opened!　　For context, XRP recently recovered with strength from its latest lows.　　Futures flow is seller-dominated　　Now, consider the ones that are actively pushing that flow.　　The latest 90-day Taker CVD reading showed “sell dominance.” This basically means that more traders are hitting the sell side instead of waiting for buyers to come to them.　　Source: Cryptoquant　　That fits with the pressure already visible in Binance net taker volume. So, while XRP has put up a strong front, the Futures market is still leaning bearish underneath.　　And… its not just the sellers　　Whale orders might be back!　　Source: Cryptoquant　　XRPs

08-28Industry

Leisure affordability across CEE region

On the radarIn Hungary, average gross wage increased by 7.1% y/y in June.Croatias economy grew by 1.7% y/y in 2Q26, slowing from 2.2% y/y in the previous quarter as private consumption growth decelerated visibly in 2Q26.Today, Czechia will show the 2Q26 GDP structure at 9 AM CET.At 8.30 AM CET Hungary will release unemployment rate and trade data.Slovenia and Croatia will publish retail sales growth in July at 10.30 and 11 AM CET.　　Economic developments　　Ahead of the last weekend of the summer holidays and beginning of the school year, we look at the ability (or inability) to pay for one-week annual holiday away from home. The ability to afford a one-week annual holiday reflects persistent disparities in household living standards across CEE. Romania stands out as the most vulnerable, with 61.4% of people unable to afford a week-long holiday away from home. Hungary also records a relatively high share at 39.1%, followed by Serbia (36.3%) and Croatia (32.6%). At the other end of the spectrum, the inability to finance a holiday is less widespread in Slovenia (15.2%) and Czechia (19.0%), while Poland also performs relatively well at 24.5%. Slovakia, at 29.1%, sits roughly in the middle of the regional range. It

08-28Industry

WikiBit Exchange Exit Risk Ranking Issue #8 — Azbit: Backed by Roger Ver, Publicly Called Out by Seychelles FSA — An Offshore Casino Riding on a “Celebrity Endorsement”

Introduction: An Exchange That “Lives More in Legends Than Reality”　　In previous episodes, we investigated HashKey (the compliance role model), HTX (the sanctions hotspot), UZX (the DAO penny stock), Phemex (the Wall Street elite team), Tapbit (the MSB license sticker king), Coincheck (Japan‘s survivor), Deepcoin (El Salvador’s new regulatory disguise), and Upbit (South Koreas national exchange).　　Todays subject is another “offshore registration specialist” — Azbit.　　Its resume looks surprisingly impressive:“Bitcoin.com founder Roger Ver serves as an advisor”“Founded in 2018, headquartered in Estonia”“Listed more than 400 projects”“Offers spot trading, margin trading, futures, staking, savings, IEO, and other one-stop crypto services”　　Sounds like a full-featured major exchange, right？　　But on the other side of the story — this offshore exchange, whose corporate entity is registered in Seychelles, was publicly warned by the Seychelles Financial Services Authority (FSA) on August 7, 2026.　　The regulator stated that Azbit:“has never obtained any authorization”the company was in “not good standing” due to failure to pay annual fees　　Meanwhile, after years of operation, Azbit has accumulated negative reports involving withdrawal disputes, promotional traps, and regulatory uncertainty.　　So how did an exchange endorsed by the “Bitcoin Jesus” become the target of a public regulatory warning？　　Today, we will break it down layer by layer.1. Regulatory Compliance: Seychelles

08-28Deep Dive

Bitcoin faces true demand test above $83K as liquidity thickens: Glassnode

Bitcoin (BTC) has struggled to flip $80,000 into support in recent days, but bulls real challenge is still to come, new research says.　　Key points:Bitcoin long-term holders add to BTC price resistance below $86,000, Glassnode reveals.Buyer demand must overcome this area as Bitcoin struggles to advance beyond $80,000.Multiple key trend lines sit around spot price, increasing the implications of an eventual loss or reclaim.　　Glassnode: Key overhead liquidity structures sit between $81,000 and $86,000　　In the latest edition of its regular newsletter, The Week Onchain, crypto analytics platform Glassnode flagged multiple pools of coins that could be released into the market below $86,000.　　Of particular interest are long-term holders (LTHs) — wallets holding BTC without selling for at least six months.　　“Above, the first heavy structure is $83K-86K, and effectively all of it is long-term holder supply that has sat through the entire drawdown,” it wrote, predicting that reaching $83,000 would test the resolve of the LTH cohort not to sell at breakeven.　　BTC supply distribution by wallet cohort. Source: Glassnode　　In the same zone, new ask liquidity has appeared on exchange order books. Its owners, Glassnode notes, may not intend for their orders to be filled, instead aiming to stay above spot price should it rise

08-27Industry

Bitfinex Securities raises record $50M for Alkemya nickel token

Bitfinex Securities has completed a record $50 million tokenized capital raise for metals company Alkemya through a security backed by partnership interests tied to an independently valued $1.64 billion nickel asset base.　　SummaryBitfinex Securities completed a record $50 million capital raise for Alkemya through its ALKN tokenized security.ALKN represents fractional interests in a Luxembourg partnership holding nickel wire independently valued at about $1.64 billion.Alkemya plans to use the proceeds to commercialize engineered nickel products for applications including semiconductors.Additional ALKN tokens will remain available to eligible investors until Oct. 15, with secondary trading delayed until at least the next fundraising tranche.　　Bitfinex Securities and Alkemya said in an announcement on Thursday that the fundraising involved ALKN, a tokenized security representing limited partnership interests in Luxembourg-based Alkemya Metacore SCSp.　　The partnership owns about 7 million meters of 99.99% pure nickel wire, according to the companies. Its nickel holdings have been independently valued at about $1.64 billion, giving Alkemya an asset base against which it can raise capital through the tokenized structure.　　For Bitfinex Securities, the $50 million total is the largest capital raise completed on its platform. The company said in the announcement that its previous record stood at $30 million and involved USTBL, a tokenized

08-27Industry

WikiBit Exchange Exit Scam Risk Ranking – Episode 6: Coincheck: Hacked for $530 Million, Acquired by a Financial Giant, Listed on Nasdaq — The Ice and Fire Saga of Japan’s “National Exchange”

Introduction: An Exchange That Has “Died Once”　　In previous episodes, we investigated HashKey (the compliance top student), HTX (the sanctions-hit exchange), UZX (the DAO penny-stock project), Phemex (the Morgan Stanley elite team), Tapbit (the “MSB license sticker king”), and Deepcoin (the “El Salvador new outfit”).　　Todays subject is probably the most dramatic one in the entire series — Coincheck.　　In January 2018, Coincheck suffered the largest cryptocurrency theft in history at the time: hackers stole $530 million worth of NEM tokens.　　For most exchanges, such a disaster would likely have ended with a shutdown or even an exit scam.　　But Coincheck survived.　　It accepted corrective measures imposed by Japan‘s Financial Services Agency (FSA), was acquired by listed company Monex Group, went public on Nasdaq in 2023, and in 2026 obtained Japan’s first stablecoin-related license.　　An exchange that had “died once” somehow came back as the “immortal phoenix” of Japans crypto market.　　However, on the other side of the story:Trustpilot rating: 1.7/5In April 2025, Coinchecks official X account was hacked, causing a platform-wide disruptionUsers complained about account freezes and withdrawal problems　　Why does an exchange that was acquired by a publicly listed company and listed on Nasdaq still get called a “SCAM” by some users？　　Today, we will break it down

08-27Deep Dive

Core Lightning confirms multiple vulnerabilities, prepares security update

Core Lightning, an open-source implementation of Bitcoins Lightning Network, has confirmed multiple vulnerabilities and urged node operators to install a forthcoming security update.　　On Thursday, Core Lightning said it had been assessing a high volume of AI-generated Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures (CVE) reports and found that several are real. The project told operators not to shut down their nodes completely, but to restart them with “--offline,” which prevents payments from entering, leaving or routing through the node.　　In a subsequent post, Core Lightning clarified that upgrading is its primary recommendation, while restarting with --offline is an alternative for operators who have not upgraded.　　The guidance gives operators an alternative for protecting their nodes until they upgrade, without shutting down the underlying software entirely. Core Lightning has not disclosed the nature or severity of the vulnerabilities, published CVE identifiers or reported any related exploitation or losses.　　Core Lightning said keeping the daemon active allows it to follow the Bitcoin blockchain and respond if a counterparty force-closes a channel, which a stopped node cannot do. Operators using --offline were advised to remove it after upgrading or their nodes will remain disconnected.　　The newly confirmed flaws are separate from remote denial-of-service vulnerabilities disclosed in May and July, which

08-27Industry

Rogue OpenAI Agents Sacrificed Their Own Runs to Hack Hugging Face, Report Finds

In briefMETR said Wednesday that roughly 1,200 OpenAI agents coordinated on an unsanctioned message board, and about 700 went on to attack Hugging Face.Agents recruited peers with little budget left to run experiments that destroyed their own runs, a move they called “permadeath.”OpenAI said the grader never checked how agents captured their answers, meaning the cheating campaign earned them nothing.　　The OpenAI agents that hacked Hugging Face recently were part of a group of roughly 1,200 that broke their own isolation and ran a coordinated campaign to cheat the benchmark grading them, according to an independent investigation published Wednesday.　　Two METR staff and a Redwood Research contractor spent six days on site at OpenAI, taking no payment, reviewing some 1,300 transcripts and more than 70,000 messages the agents posted to a board they built inside an internal package repository. About 700 of the agents joined the attack, and some were talked into destroying their own runs to gather evidence for the group.　　METR s published paper and concluded a scorer would inspect their transcripts to check they had captured the flag the intended way. OpenAIs internal grader ran no such check. “The agents did all of this for no improvement on evaluation score,”

08-27Industry

Bithumb wins 2 suits over mistaken Bitcoin credits: Report

South Korean cryptocurrency exchange Bithumb has reportedly won first-instance rulings in two lawsuits against its users to recover proceeds from Bitcoin it mistakenly credited to their accounts.　　The Seoul Central District Court ruled for Bithumb on Wednesday and Thursday in two of four lawsuits against users who sold Bitcoin mistakenly credited to their accounts, according to a Chosun Biz report.　　Thursday‘s ruling concerned a claim for 194 million won ($140,000), while Wednesday’s covered a claim for 5 million won ($3,600). Two other lawsuits seeking about 14.8 million won ($10,700) and 500 million won ($362,000) remain pending.　　Both cases proceeded through service by public notice because court documents could not be delivered to the defendants through ordinary methods, the report said.　　The reported rulings advance Bithumbs efforts to recover funds from its February error, when the exchange mistakenly credited 620,000 BTC, worth more than $40 billion at the time.　　Bithumb goes after Bitcoin sale proceeds　　Bithumb said the error occurred during a promotional event on Feb. 6, 2026, when it planned to distribute 620,000 won, or about $420 at the time, in rewards to 249 users. An employee mistakenly selected Bitcoin instead of Korean won as the payment unit and credited customer accounts with 620,000 BTC.　　The exchange

08-27Industry

Ripple SEC Filing Exposed: XRP Escrow Claim Raises Questions

XRP trades near $1.40 today, down roughly -2.5% on the day, a sizeable pullback bounce that sits inside a larger tug-of-war between bulls and a still-heavy chart. Buried in a routine ETF prospectus, though, is a line that has crypto lawyers doing a double-take. What Ripple may or may not have told regulators about its escrow reserves could matter far more than the daily candle.　　Australian lawyer Bill Morgan flagged the detail while reading the registration statement for the Cryptex Digital Market Cap ETF, filed with the U.S. SEC on August 25, which assigns XRP a portfolio weight near 4.88%.　　The filing states that Ripple “has indicated” it could release additional XRP from escrow to support on-ledger liquidity for stablecoin and foreign-exchange pairs, but only if the CLARITY Act passes. Morgan posted on X that he could not recall Ripple ever making that statement publicly and asked, reasonably, where the filings drafters got it.　　Although XRP is down a fair amount today, the asset is still up over +27% in the past seven days, and as long as $1.36 support holds, this should be seen as consolidation before the next leg up.　　Can XRP Price Hit $1.45 This Week？　　$XRP IS APPROACHING THE BUY WALL‼️　　XRP

08-27Industry

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