Crypto Weekly 8/2/26
The CLARITY Act Misses Its August Deadline Over an Ethics Standoff, Strategy Swings to an $8.2 Billion Loss, and a Coldcard Vulnerability Drains $70 Million in Bitcoin
PRICE CHANGE: WTD/YTD
- Crypto Market Cap ($2.24T): -2% / -26%
- BTC ($63,295): -2% / -28%
- ETH ($1,875): -2% / -37%
- SOL ($74): -2% / -41%
- HYPE ($53): -11% / +107%
- COIN ($146): -9% / -35%
- Tether Mkt Cap ($183B): 0% / -2%
- USDC Mkt Cap ($72B): -1% / -5%
- BTC / ETH Dominance: 57% / 10%
THIS WEEK IN CRYPTO
- Bitcoin fell as concerns over an interest rate hike weighted on risk assets. Link.
- The Senate is not expected to pass the long-awaited crypto legislation known as the CLARITY Act ahead of the August recess, due largely to demands from Democrats to include ethical provisions to stop elected officials from profiting on crypto. Republicans appear to have agreed to include the provisions, but final draft legislation on who will enforce the ban remains a point of disagreement. Link. Link. Link.
- Crypto accounted for more than half of all scams reported to the FBI last year, at $11.4 billion. Investments as a category accounted for $8.6 billion of 2025 totals. Link. Report.
- Michael Saylor, founder of Strategy, published a 110-point essay opposing bitcoin’s proposed BIP-110 soft fork which would temporarily restrict non-financial data such as Ordinals and inscriptions on bitcoin. BIP-110 would tighten bitcoin’s consensus rules for a year, limiting the techniques used to embed arbitrary data on the blockchain which have pushed fees up since 2023. Link. Essay.
- Nearly 1,200 addresses were drained of more than 1,000 BTC, worth about $70 million, due to a seed phrase vulnerability affecting Coldcard hardware wallets. Link.
- Russia is banning crypto mining in Moscow through the end of 2032, due to fears of electricity shortages. Link.
- Robinhood made $156 million from prediction markets in Q2, compared to $100 million from crypto trading which fell 38% from the same period a year ago. Link.
- USDT issuer Tether had its Q2 net operating profit fall to $1.5 billion from $4.9 billion the year prior. Net operating profit excludes unrealized gains or losses of underlying assets such as bitcoin and gold. Link.
- Decentralized exchange Uniswap is launching “Earn”, a way for users to depost USDC, USDT, and ether into vaults to earn yield from interest paid by borrowers. Link.
- The Ethereum validator entry queue has grown to 2.5 million ETH, with new stakers waiting approximately 43 days to activate while the exit queue remains relatively empty. Link.
- Strategy posted a loss of $8.2 billion in Q2 compared to a $10 billion profit reported in Q2 2025. Link. Link. Link.
- Decentralized lending protocol Aave has proposed offboarding 50 low-adoption asset reserves, affecting $98 million in supplied assets including Scroll, zkSync, and Aptos. Link. Proposal. Tweet.
- Anchorage Digital said the Federal Reserve’s proposed “skinny master account”, which would give crypto companies some access to the Federal banking system, but lacks FedACH access and pays no interest on reserve balances, isn’t a workable solution for the Master Account that national banks hold. Link.
- Blockchain activity has been up and become cheaper on Ethereum, Solana, and Avalanche over the past year, despite prices down 50%. Link.
- USDC creator Circle has acquired 1,000 issued patents from the IBM blockchain patent portfolio, making it the largest blockchain patent holder in the US. Link.
- Decentralized storage provider Storj filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy, as it restructures the business to align ownership among management, token holders, and investors. Link.
- Tether bought 14 tons of gold in Q2. It holds 146 tons worth $18.8 billion, making it the largest holder of bullion in the world outside of banks and nation states. Link.
- Coinbase reported a third consecutive quarterly decline in revenue, with Q2 revenue dropping 19% to $1.2 billion. Coinbase has 10.3% market share of crypto trading volume, a new all-time high. Link. Link.
- Scammers impersonating IRS agents have drained crypto accounts using official looking letters that include QR codes leading recipients to a spoofed IRS site. Link.