New York’s top financial regulator has fined Paxos, a New York City-based stablecoin issuer, $26.5 million for “systemic failures” in its compliance and anti-money laundering programs, including a past partnership with global crypto exchange Binance, according to a Thursday announcement. In addition to the fine, Paxos agreed to spend another $22 million improving its compliance program to bring it up to snuff with the New York Department of Financial Services’ (NYDFS) standards. “The Department of Financial Services has led the nation in regulating the virtual currency industry, protecting consumers and markets through examinations, supervision, and where necessary, enforcement,” NYDFS Superintendent Adrienne Harris said in a press statement. “Regulated entities must maintain appropriate risk management frameworks that correspond to their business risks, which includes relationships with business partners and third-party vendors. The Department continues taking significant steps to ensure accountability, in turn protecting consumers and safeguarding the integrity of the financial system.” The compliance failures identified by NYDFS were largely tied to Paxos’ one-time partnership with Binance, the world’s largest crypto exchange. The two companies teamed up in 2019 to issue Binance’s dollar-pegged stablecoin, BUSD. The relationship with Binance eventually landed Paxos in hot water: in 2023, NYDFS launched an investigation into Paxos’s issuance of BUSD, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) sent Paxos a Wells notice informing the company of its intention to sue (a year later, the SEC decided to drop its enforcement action) and Paxos ultimately decided to stop issuing BUSD altogether at the order of NYDFS. The fine announced Thursday is tied to NYDFS’ original investigation. According to NYDFS’ press release, the investigation revealed that Paxos didn’t have appropriate controls in place to effectively monitor for illicit activity occurring through Binance. And when illicit activity was identified, the regulator said, the company “failed to escalate red flags” to Paxos’ higher-ups and board members. In addition to the Binance-related compliance issues, NYDFS said its investigation into Paxos turned up other deficiencies in its compliance program, including an “unsophisticated” Know Your Customer (KYC) program that allowed illicit actors to open multiple accounts and remain undetected, and a “deficient” transaction monitoring system that prevented Paxos from “detecting obvious patterns of money laundering.” A representative for Paxos described the compliance failures identified by NYDFS as “historical issues that were identified over two and a half years ago and have since been fully remediated.” The issues, the representative added, “had no impact on customer accounts and there was no consumer harm.” “This marks the resolution of this matter and we are pleased to put it behind us,” the representative said. “There are no new claims regarding Paxos’ relationship with Binance or the issuance of BUSD, and Paxos’ other white-labeled stablecoins operate on similar models with different partners and have not faced any regulatory issues.” Powered by WPeMatico

BNB hovered near $780 after a sharp rally earlier in the day gave way to selling pressure. The cryptocurrency advanced roughly 1.3% over the past 24-hour period, with a small pullback over the last few hours. The token is now hovering around $776. Earlier in the session, a surge in trading volume pushed BNB to a local high of $778, testing resistance levels that haven’t been breached in recent weeks. The move was short-lived. A rapid sell-off followed, pulling the price lower and trimming gains made during the advance, according to CoinDesk Research’s technical analysis model. The move comes amid a wave of corporate adoption that recently saw CEA Industries close a $500 million private placement to further its BNB treasury strategy. The broader context remains volatile. Investors are navigating an environment shaped by shifting trade policy and geopolitical risk, with the impact of Trump’s reciprocal tariffs expected to come in force during the third quarter of the year. Within that backdrop, BNB’s relatively stable performance stands out as a signal of ongoing demand, even if short-term volatility remains. CryptoQuant data shows that within the exchange token sector, BNB is a standout performance, being down 8.7% from its all-time high, compared to 35% to 60% for most other tokens. Technical Analysis Overview The most aggressive price movement came during a midday rally that sent the token as high as $774.94. Volume surged above 60,000 tokens during that move, a signal that larger participants may have been driving the action. That rally ran into resistance just below $780, where sellers stepped in and halted the advance. Price action at that level has historically triggered reversals, and this session was no exception. A pullback followed, with the price eventually sliding. While the drop erased a portion of the day’s gains, BNB found consistent support near that level. The repeated defense of the $765–766 zone suggests buyers are accumulating at that range. Institutional interest often shows up in this kind of layered support, where price holds despite increased volume and selling pressure. The total trading range for the session spanned $16.83, or about 2.18%. Though not extreme, this volatility highlights how quickly sentiment can flip. Powered by WPeMatico

Exchange-traded fund (ETF) provider ProShares has launched a new product that aims to double the daily performance of Circle’s (CRCL) stock, giving traders a way to make leveraged bets on one of the most prominent companies in crypto finance. The ProShares Ultra CRCL ETF (CRCA) began trading Thursday, just weeks after Circle went public on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE). Since then, Circle shares have jumped 134%, driven in part by growing adoption of its USDC stablecoin and recent legislative support for digital payments. Circle is best known as the issuer of the stablecoin USDC and also supports tokenized assets, blockchain developer tools and a payment network that spans more than 185 countries, TK said. The ETF arrives at a time when U.S. regulators are starting to formalize rules around stablecoins. In mid-July, lawmakers passed the GENIUS Act, which created a legal framework for payment stablecoins and helped clarify how firms like Circle can operate in the U.S. financial system, though federal banking regulators still need to draft the formal rules guiding the sector. For traders who expect Circle to benefit from this regulatory clarity and the broader adoption of digital dollars, CRCA offers a way to amplify their exposure — without borrowing money directly. Leveraged ETFs like CRCA are designed for short-term trading rather than long-term investing. They rebalance daily, which means performance can diverge from expectations if held over longer periods. The new fund joins ProShares’ catalog of over 150 ETFs, including the widely traded UltraPro QQQ and the bitcoin-linked BITO. The firm has leaned into digital assets in recent years, offering funds tied to major cryptocurrencies like ether, solana and XRP. While Circle’s IPO drew limited mainstream attention at first, its stock performance since then suggests investors see it as a major player in the regulated future of crypto payments. Powered by WPeMatico

CoinDesk Indices presents its daily market update, highlighting the performance of leaders and laggards in the CoinDesk 20 Index. The CoinDesk 20 is currently trading at 3923.39, up 2.4% (+92.5) since 4 p.m. ET on Wednesday. All 20 assets are trading higher. Leaders: SUI (+6.3%) and POL (+6.2%). Laggards: LTC (+0.0%) and BTC (+0.9%). The CoinDesk 20 is a broad-based index traded on multiple platforms in several regions globally. Powered by WPeMatico

Chainlink has launched a new on-chain reserve, called the Chainlink Reserve, designed to funnel enterprise demand into its native LINK token, the company announced Thursday. The reserve accumulates LINK using revenue from both fees paid by large institutions for Chainlink’s services and on-chain usage fees from decentralized applications, the company said in a press release, which added that the reserve is designed to support the growth and sustainability of the Chainlink Network. Chainlink uses what it calls Payment Abstraction to let users pay in tokens like ETH or USDC., instead of requiring all payments to be made in LINK. Those payments are then automatically converted into LINK through Chainlink’s services and decentralized exchanges. The new reserve is built entirely from those converted payments and is meant to fund long-term growth and help secure the network, according to the press release shared with CoinDesk. The reserve already holds over $1 million worth of LINK. Chainlink said it doesn’t expect any withdrawals from the reserve for “multiple years,” and the balance is expected to grow as more enterprise revenue is directed on-chain. “The launch of the Chainlink Reserve marks a pivotal evolution in Chainlink, establishing a strategic LINK reserve funded using off-chain revenue, as well as from on-chain service usage,” Chainlink co-founder Sergey Nazarov said in a statement. “Demand for the Chainlink standard has already created hundreds of millions of dollars in revenue, substantially from large enterprises.” Large enterprises that have been using Chainlink’s infrastructure include Mastercard, which teamed up with the company to let cardholders buy crypto on-chain, and JPMorgan, whose Kinexys Digital Payments platform is linked to Ondo Chain using Chainlink’s technology. Chainlink has also published a dashboard to track the reserve’s balance at reserve.chain.link, along with the reserve contract on Etherscan. Powered by WPeMatico

The growth of decentralized finance (DeFi) and asset tokenization continues to underwhelm, JPMorgan’s Nikolaos Panigirtzoglou said in a research report Wednesday, citing the stagnant recovery since the 2022 crypto winter. Total Value Locked (TVL) in DeFi remains below 2021 highs, with most activity still driven by crypto-native and retail users, the report noted. Institutional adoption has lagged despite the development of compliance-ready infrastructure, such as permissioned lending pools and KYC-enabled vaults, Panigirtzoglou wrote. Major barriers remain. Institutions face regulatory fragmentation, legal uncertainty around on-chain assets, and concerns about smart contract security, the analysts wrote. As a result, most institutional crypto activity remains concentrated in bitcoin (BTC). Tokenization has also struggled to deliver. While the sector has seen some traction, with $25 billion in tokenized assets, $8 billion in tokenized bonds, and growing adoption in money market funds, most initiatives remain small, illiquid, or experimental, the bank said. Prominent efforts like BlackRock’s BUIDL and Broadridge’s Distributed Ledger Repo (DLR) platform offer efficiency gains, but lack scale. Panigirtzoglou noted that in private markets, tokenization is heavily concentrated among a few players and lacks meaningful secondary market activity. Many traditional investors remain skeptical, especially given blockchain’s transparency, a drawback for institutions that favor opaque trading venues like dark pools, according to the report. The continued rise of off-exchange equity trading illustrates this preference. Despite regulatory initiatives like the SEC’s “Project Crypto,” Panigirtzoglou doubts whether rule changes alone can overcome the deeper issue: traditional finance doesn’t yet see a clear need for blockchain. Fintech has already improved speed and efficiency within the current system, reducing the urgency to adopt tokenized alternatives, the report added. Read more: SEC Chief Paul Atkin’s Project Crypto Flying Under Radar Amid Market Selloff: Bernstein Powered by WPeMatico

Ripple is buying Rail, a stablecoin payments platform, for $200 million, the firm said on Thursday. The deal is likely to close in the fourth quarter of this year, the statement said. Rail is a Toronto-based payments platform backed by Galaxy Ventures and Accomplice. The Rail acquisition is a way for Ripple to delve deeper into the fast-growing stablecoin ecosystem after launching its RLUSD stablecoin in December last year. RLUSD has a market cap of over $600 million, placing it in the top largest stablecoins, according to data tracked by CoinMarketCap. Ripple previously had offered to buy Circle (CRCL) for $4 billion-$5 billion, but that stablecoin giant ended up going public several weeks back. It’s since delivered amazing returns for its IPO investors. Ripple acquired multi-asset prime brokerage firm Hidden Road for $1.25 billion in April, with plans to expand its clearing and finance operations, to the end of creating the world’s largest non-bank prime broker. Now the acquisition of Rail will allow Ripple to deliver a more comprehensive stabecoin payments service, the company said in Thursday’s announcement. Rail’s capabilities include virtual accounts and automated back-office systems, enabling customers to transact in digital assets without the need to open dedicated crypto bank accounts or wallets on exchanges. “Stablecoins are quickly becoming a cornerstone of modern finance, and with Rail, we are uniquely positioned to drive the next phase of innovation and adoption of stablecoins and blockchain in global payments,” said Monica Long, Ripple President. The deal was first reported by Reuters. Read more: Ripple Offered $4B-$5B for Stablecoin Issuer Circle: Bloomberg UPDATE (Aug. 7, 12:41 UTC): Updates headline and story with Ripple’s confirmation. UPDATE (Aug. 7, 14:15 UTC): Adds paragraph on Ripple’s Hidden Road acquisition and more detail on RLUSD, Circle’s IPO and what Rail adds to Ripple. Powered by WPeMatico

Leading stablecoin issuer Tether has acquired a minority stake in Spanish crypto exchange Bit2Me, leading a 30 million-euro ($35 million) investment round to support the exchange’s growth in Europe and Latin America. Bit2Me said it recently became the first Spanish-speaking fintech to be authorized by Spain’s securities regulator under the EU’s new MiCA framework. The approval opens the door for operations across the European Union. Tether’s investment comes through its El Salvador-based venture arm, Tether Ventures, which deploys profits and reserves into tech infrastructure and other projects. The firm has invested in numerous companies in a wide range of industries. These include Italian football club Juventus, major Latin American producer Adecoagro, blockchain forensics firm Crystal Intelligence, YouTube competitor Rumble, and gold-focused investment firm Elemental Altus. Bit2Me plans to use the funding to deepen its reach in Latin America, particularly Argentina, where demand for crypto services continues to grow and where it received a Virtual Asset Service Provider license last year. “We’re excited to support their role in developing regulated crypto-asset services in Europe and beyond,” Tether CEO Paolo Ardoino said in a statement. Bit2Me is already backed by Telefónica and other major Spanish institutions. These, according to a press release shared with CoinDesk, include banking giants like Unicaja, BBVA, and Cecabank. Other terms of the deal, including the exact size of Tether’s stake and Bit2Me’s new valuation, were not disclosed. Powered by WPeMatico

The revived Salomon Brothers announced on Thursday that it has completed the process of inserting OP_Return notices to bitcoin (BTC) wallets assumed to have been abandoned. According to a press release shared with CoinDesk, the New York-based investment bank are sending the notices to prevent “rogue states and criminal organizations with significant resources” from potentially accessing these wallets in future. The process itself has created a wealth of debate, with speculation suggesting the Salomon Brothers have ties to people like Craig Wright. “[They] are using Bitcoin’s own infrastructure as a bulletin board,” David Carvalho, CEO of Naoris Protocol, told CoinDesk. “It’s very clever. And they’re going big, targeting some infamous wallets like the “1Feex” address, which holds around 80,000 BTC.” According to the Salomon Brothers website, assets left untouched for 14 years may be considered legally abandoned under a “Doctrine of Abandonment,” thus leaving the front door open in terms of repossession. The method of gaining access to those wallets remains unclear, Carvalho told CoinDesk that the bitcoin community “isn’t doing what needs to be done” to prevent methods like Quantum hacking. “The draft BIP proposals are entirely inadequate, and achieving consensus on a hard fork will take so long that it will be too late. Considering 6.51 million bitcoin worth of $700 billion is at stake, it’s staggering how slow the Bitcoin community is moving,” he added. The Salomon Brothers said that its client, who remains anonymous, plans to allocate a portion of the recovered bitcoin to a fund intended for wallet owners who lost their keys, details of which will be released over the coming months. The notices sent to wallet holders give a 90 day deadline, within which they can “claim ownership” of the wallets by sending a transaction or filling out a form on the Salomon Brothers website. The press release notes that “some owners responded to the notices by moving their digital assets to new wallets.” Powered by WPeMatico

By Francisco Rodrigues (All times ET unless indicated otherwise) Bitcoin (BTC) rose to the highest this month, touching $116,430 and establishing itself more firmly above the $115,000 level on renewed demand for risk assets as the implications from Friday’s weaker-than-expected jobs market data sink in. The Federal Reserve is now widely expected to cut rates by 25 basis points in September, with the CME’s FedWatch tool weighing a 93.4% chance of that happening. On Polymarket, traders are slightly less convinced, seeing a 79% chance of a cut. Traders are positioning for reductions at the following two meetings as well. Add in strong earnings from major companies and a weakening U.S. dollar, and the outlook is looking a little stronger for equities and other risk assets. The Nikkei 225 rose 0.65% today, the Euro Stoxx 50 is up 1.2% and the S&P 500 closed up 0.73% on Wednesday. The Nasdaq Composite closed up 1.2% on news of chip tariff exemptions and President Trump signaling he may appoint dovish members to the Fed. In a sign of long-term institutional interest, the State of Michigan Retirement System (SMRS) said boosted its bitcoin exposure through spot ETFs in the second quarter. Yet the real story may be how little BTC is moving. The cryptocurrency’s 30-day implied volatility, as tracked by the BVIV index from Volmex, has dropped to 36.5%, a level not seen since October 2023, when bitcoin traded under $30,000. The pattern resembles Wall Street’s bull markets, where implied volatility tends to shrink as optimism grows. In previous cycles, bitcoin’s price and volatility moved in tandem. Structured crypto projects that allow investors to sell out-of-the-money call options to generate yield may be playing a part in reducing the volatility. Still, geopolitical risk isn’t going to go away. Trump levied an additional 25% tariff on India over its Russian oil purchases, which could lead to a “mini crunch in supplies if Delhi draws on other crude sources instead,” Hargreaves Lansdown said in an emailed note. That would likely force OPEC+ members to amp up production to avoid a crisis, Hargreaves Lansdown said. On top of that, while peace talks on Ukraine have been advancing, recent nuclear rhetoric suggests there’s a long way to go. Stay alert! What to Watch Crypto Aug. 7, 10 a.m.: Circle will host a webinar, “The GENIUS Act Era Begins,” featuring Dante Disparte and Corey Then. The session will discuss the first U.S. federal payment stablecoin framework and its impact on crypto innovation and regulation. Aug. 15: Record date for the next FTX distribution to holders of allowed Class 5 Customer Entitlement, Class 6 General Unsecured and Convenience Claims who meet pre-distribution requirements. Aug. 18: Coinbase Derivatives will launch nano SOL and nano XRP U.S. perpetual-style futures. Macro Aug. 7, 7 a.m.: The U.K.’s central bank, the Bank of England (BoE), announces its monetary policy decision. Bank Rate Est. 4% vs. Prev. 4.25% Aug. 7, 8 a.m.: The Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics (IBGE) releases June producer price inflation data. PPI MoM Prev. -1.29% PPI YoY Prev. 5.78% Aug. 7, 8 a.m.: Mexico’s National Institute of Statistics and Geography releases July consumer price inflation data. Core Inflation Rate MoM Est. 0.3% vs. Prev. 0.39% Core Inflation Rate YoY Est. 4.23% vs. Prev. 4.24% Inflation Rate MoM Est. 0.28% vs. Prev. 0.28% Inflation Rate YoY Est. 3.53% vs. Prev. 4.32% Aug. 7, 3 p.m.: Mexico’s central bank, Banco de México, announces its monetary policy decision. Overnight Interbank Target Rate Est. 7.75% vs. Prev. 8% Aug. 8: Federal Reserve Governor Adriana D. Kugler’s resignation becomes effective, creating an early vacancy on the Board of Governors that allows President Trump to nominate a successor. Earnings (Estimates based on FactSet data) Aug. 7: Hut 8 (HUT), pre-market, -$0.07 Aug. 7: Block (XYZ), post-market, $0.63 Aug. 7: CleanSpark (CLSK), post-market, $0.30, Aug. 7: Coincheck Group (CNCK), post-market, N/A Aug. 7: Cipher Mining (CIFR), pre-market, -$0.07 Aug. 8: TeraWulf (WULF), pre-market, -$0.06 Aug. 11: Exodus Movement (EXOD), post-market, $0.12 Aug. 12: Bitfarms (BITF), pre-market, -$0.02 Aug. 12: Fold Holdings (FLD), post-market, N/A Token Events Governance votes & calls Arbitrum DAO is voting to renew its partnership with Entropy Advisors for two more years, starting September 2025. The proposal includes $6 million in funding and 15 million ARB for incentives for Entropy to focus on treasury management, incentive design, data infrastructure, and ecosystem growth. Voting ends Aug. 7. BendDAO is voting on a plan to stabilize BEND by burning 50% of treasury tokens, restarting lender rewards, and launching monthly buybacks using 20% of protocol revenue. Voting ends Aug. 10. 1inch DAO is voting on a $1.88 million grant to fund its participation in nine global crypto events through late 2025. The proposal aims to boost developer engagement, grow institutional ties and expand adoption across ecosystems like Ethereum and Solana. Voting ends Aug. 10. Aug. 7, 12 p.m.: Celo to host a governance call. Aug. 8, 11:30 a.m.: Axie Infinity to host a town hall on Discord. Unlocks Aug. 9: Immutable (IMX) to unlock 1.3% of its circulating supply worth $12.66 million. Aug. 12: Aptos (APT) to unlock 1.73% of its circulating supply worth $48.18 million. Aug. 15: Avalanche (AVAX) to unlock 0.39% of its circulating supply worth $37.2 million. Aug. 15: Starknet (STRK) to unlock 3.53% of its circulating supply worth $15.40 million. Aug. 15: Sei (SEI) to unlock 0.96% of its circulating supply worth $16.52 million. Aug. 16: Arbitrum (ARB) to unlock 1.8% of its circulating supply worth $36.52 million. Aug. 18: Fasttoken (FTN) to unlock 4.64% of its circulating supply worth $91.4 million. Token Launches Aug. 7: TaleX (X) to be listed on Binance Alpha, BingX, MEXC, and others. Conferences The CoinDesk Policy & Regulation conference (formerly known as State of Crypto) is a one-day boutique event held in Washington on Sept. 10 that allows general counsels, compliance officers and regulatory executives to meet with public officials responsible for crypto legislation and regulatory oversight. Space is limited. Use code CDB10 for 10% off