Bitcoin’s path higher just got harder in the short term, but the setup further out may be improving, according to a new report.
In a Friday note, European asset manager CoinShares’ Head of Research, James Butterfill, said firmer-than-expected core inflation raises the odds of tighter Fed policy and could cap bitcoin below $80,000 for now.
But the longer-term case, he argued, rests on the U.S. Treasury’s bond buyback programme failing to bring down long-end yields — a failure that could ultimately feed the debasement narrative that has supported both bitcoin and gold.
“The result is therefore a somewhat unusual policy mix for Bitcoin,” the report read. “Today’s CPI data is negative at the margin, increasing the probability of tighter monetary policy and potentially limiting the immediate upside.
“But the apparent failure of the Treasury’s current buying programme increases the likelihood of much more substantial intervention further ahead.”
It continued: “If that happens, it could become one of the more powerful medium-term catalysts for Bitcoin.”
Data on Friday revealed that the consumer price index, excluding food and energy, climbed 0.3% in August from a month earlier — higher than expected.
According to CME’s FedWatch tool, traders think there is a 85% chance interest rates will be higher after the Federal Reserve meets next week. Bitcoin has typically performed well in a low interest rate environment.
But the U.S. Treasury’s expanded bond buyback programme has so far failed to materially suppress long-term yields.
If yields stay stubbornly high, Butterfill said, pressure will build on Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent to escalate to a much larger, “bazooka-style” buying programme aimed at forcing borrowing costs down.
Bitcoin in August had one of its best runs in years after Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent announced the department would double the size of its long-dated bond buybacks.
The announcement and subsequent price surge has led some to say the much talked-about debasement trade is back. The so-called debasement trade is when investors buy an asset as a way to hedge against a currency losing value.
Bitcoin and gold have both benefited as part of the trade as the dollar weakens.
Bitcoin infrastructure firm Blockstream has refused to negotiate further with hackers who last week stole 4,000 bitcoins from its Liquid network.
Writing on X Friday, Blockstream said that the hackers still had time to return the funds before the company would work with law enforcement.
White-hat hackers on Sunday withdrew about $320 million from the federation wallet that backs Liquid, a sidechain by Blockstream. After negotiating with Blockstream, they returned most of the funds but kept 598.5 coins worth over $46 million — demanding it as ransom.
“Blockstream will not pay a ransom for the return of stolen funds,” the post read. “Taking assets without authorization and withholding their return is a crime, not responsible disclosure. It is not white-hat activity. It is theft.”
To those responsible for the theft of bitcoin from the Liquid Network:
Blockstream will not pay a ransom for the return of stolen funds. Taking assets without authorization and withholding their return is a crime, not responsible disclosure. It is not white-hat activity. It is…
It added: “We will work with law enforcement, exchanges, service providers, forensic specialists, and other relevant parties to trace and recover the assets and identify those responsible.”
“We will not pay for the return of stolen property. We will not abandon our users. The Bitcoin community will not stop pursuing the funds.”
Liquid, or L-BTC, is a layer-2 created by Blockstream that allows users to fast move assets backed 1:1 with bitcoin. One of the assets, LBTC, is a token backed by bitcoin that allows for quick settlement — a bit like the Lightning Network.
Hackers were able to get the funds by exploiting an inflation bug on the Liquid sidechain to create over 4,000 LBTC that did not exist before and cash them out for real, on-chain bitcoins.
The hackers then had an exchange with Blockstream via messages written into Bitcoin blocks.
In one message, the white hats wrote: “Please fix the bug first. The chain is under risk at latest commit right now. Make sure every node is patched. Then we will transfer the money back safely after confirming the fix.”
In the latest message, the hackers slammed Blocksteam as “delusional, greedy, and arrogant,” and threatened to reveal all of Blockstream’s encrypted messages in the exchange unless the company allowed thieves to keep 10% of the bitcoins.
“You SHALL pay 10% using your own money as bug bounty or you will cause all your holders a 15% loss for your irresponsibility and stinginess,” the message read.
The Bitcoin community is still reeling after hackers in July were able to steal over 1,800 bitcoins worth close to $140 million from Coldcard wallet holders.
Users of the popular hardware wallet, created by Coinkite, were targeted because the product’s manufacturer did not use a true random number generator, allowing hackers to essentially guess investor seedphrases.
Italy’s second largest bank is considering expanding into digital asset offerings, including custody, according to reports.
According to a Friday Bloomberg report citing people familiar with the matter, Milan-based UniCredit is selecting a technology provider that would allow it to build the infrastructure needed to hold digital assets and facilitate their buying and selling.
Bloomberg’s reporting added that tokenized investment products and fixed-income securities, the use of stablecoins and exposure to cryptocurrencies were all on the cards.
JUST IN: Italy’s 2nd-largest bank UniCredit is considering to offer crypto asset custody — Bloomberg pic.twitter.com/NAZKJBdcES
The news comes as other banks in Europe expand crypto offerings. Spain moved first on retail, with BBVA rolling out bitcoin trading and custody to all customers via its app, using its own custody infrastructure rather than a third party; Santander’s Openbank followed with its own trading service.
Cecabank — a Spanish custodian with over €400bn under management that acts as backbone for 100+ financial institutions — went live with crypto custody in June via a partnership with Bit2Me.
And in Germany, Deutsche Bank is building custody with Bitpanda’s technology arm, while Taurus and DZ Bank got BaFin approval in January for its meinKrypto platform.
New regulation in the European Union — Markets in Crypto-Assets Regulation (MiCA) — gives banks a legal definition, a supervisor, and a familiar set of obligations to launch crypto services.
UniCredit is one 37 lenders across 15 European countries working together to create a company called Qivalis with the aim of issuing a euro-denominated stablecoin.
Last year, the bank said it was offering professional clients a structured product tied to BlackRock’s iShares Bitcoin Trust exchange-traded fund, with full protection against losses.
The UK government suffered a defeat in the House of Lords on Wednesday as peers backed an amendment requiring the Treasury to draw up a national strategy for regulating digital assets.
The upper chamber approved the measure by 194 votes to 138, with Conservative and Liberal Democrat peers combining against a near-solid bloc of Labour votes. Baroness Neville-Rolfe, a Conservative former Treasury minister, moved the amendment to the Financial Services and Markets Bill.
The new clause, titled “Digital assets strategy,” would require the Treasury to prepare, publish and consult on a strategy for regulating and developing digital assets and related digital financial market infrastructure in the UK.
JUST IN: U.K. House of Lords passes amendment requiring the government to develop a national cryptocurrency strategy pic.twitter.com/77tsy5cRaO
The regulation of digital assets includes “cryptoassets, qualifying stablecoins, Central Bank Digital Currencies, tokenised securities and other digital and tokenised financial assets,” according to the draft.
The UK is in the process of drafting a sweeping new crypto bill. The country’s Financial Conduct Authority finalised its regulatory framework for cryptoassets in June, with the regime due to take effect on 25 October 2027. The authorisation gateway for firms opened on 30 September and runs to 28 February 2027.
Britain is trailing behind Brussels and Washington with digital asset regulation. The EU’s Markets in Crypto-Assets regulation has applied to service providers since 30 December 2024.
And the U.S. under President Donald Trump signed the GENIUS Act into law in July 2025, establishing a federal framework for dollar-backed tokens. Broader market-structure legislation remains unfinished: the Clarity Act cleared the House in July 2025 by 294-134 but has been stuck in the Senate over DeFi, stablecoin yield and ethics provisions, with a procedural vote set for next week.
Bitcoin’s price rose on Friday — despite data revealing that U.S. inflation had risen.
The biggest cryptocurrency by market cap was recently trading for close to $78,749 after jumping 2% over a 24-hour period. At one point on Friday morning in New York, bitcoin rose as high as $79,607.
Bitcoin’s price spike came after news dropped that U.S. consumer prices accelerated in August, reinforcing expectations that the Federal Reserve will raise interest rates next week.
The consumer price index, excluding food and energy, climbed 0.3% in August from a month earlier, which was higher than expected.
Inflation in the U.S. has been difficult to tame due to the war with Iran, which has lifted oil prices, in turn raising the costs of food, gasoline and other goods.
Higher inflation typically means the Federal Reserve will raise interest rates, which in turn could stop bitcoin’s price climbing higher.
According to CME’s FedWatch tool, traders think there is a 85% chance interest rates will be higher by next week. The Federal Reserve will meet next week and reveal what it will do with borrowing costs.
Bitcoin has typically performed well in a low interest rate environment because it means people can buy more of the cryptocurrency with increased liquidity.
Federal Reserve Chairman Kevin Warsh, who took the helm in January, last month gave his first speech as head of the U.S. central bank and said he had “more work to do” to fight inflation.
The U.S. is currently in the grips of an affordability crisis and rising oil prices are a hot topic ahead of the midterm elections.
U.S. President Donald Trump has reassured voters that prices will get under control and repeatedly put pressure on the central bank to lower interest rates.
Bitcoin in August had its biggest run in years following positive regulatory news and an announcement from the U.S. Treasury.
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent announced the department would double the size of its long-dated bond buybacks, helping non-yielding assets like bitcoin and gold. The cryptocurrency then benefited from President Trump urging lawmakers to get key crypto legislation, the Clarity Act, over the line.
The man behind one of the biggest bitcoin thefts in history this week pleaded guilty.
Malone Lam, 22, a Miami resident from Singapore, on Tuesday admitted his role as ringleader of the international crime group which stole 4,100 bitcoins — worth over $230 million at the time — to fund a life of luxury.
The U.S. Department of Justice said that from October 2023 and through at least May 2025, Lam and others hacked databases to steal crypto users’ information and con them into providing user logins and private keys. Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies worth $245 million were taken in the theft.
On one occasion, a co-defendant broke into a residence in New Mexico and stole a hardware wallet while Lam monitored the victim’s movements by hacking their iCloud account.
“This defendant led an international network that preyed on victims through deception, invaded their privacy, and stole hundreds of millions of dollars in cryptocurrency,” U.S. Attorney Jeanine Ferris Pirro said in a statement.
“If you build a cybercrime empire, we will find you, dismantle your operation, and hold you accountable,” Attorney Pirro added.
The DOJ said: “The Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act conspiracy used social engineering and occasional home break-ins to obtain information that allowed the conspirators to drain their victims’ cryptocurrency wallets.”
The crimes started after a group of online gamers became friends before working together to commit the cybercrimes, the indictment read.
Lam and co-defendants laundered the stolen bitcoin and spent it on bottle service parties, private jet rentals, security guards, luxury handbags and watches, and properties in Los Angeles, the Hamptons, and Miami.
The defendants would spend up to $500,000 a night on parties and give away designer handbags worth tens of thousands of dollars, Tuesday’s announcement read.
Lam was arrested in 2024 at his rental home in Miami.
Trezor has warned that a data breach at the third-party marketing platform it uses for sending newsletters is leading criminals to target customers with phishing attacks.
The top hardware wallet manufacturer said Wednesday that an unauthorized actor got access to Brevo’s system and sent emails to 347,000 Trezor customers. Brevo is a platform businesses use to send customer communications.
Scammers managed to use Trezor’s domain name to send the email, making the phishing attempt all the more believable. The email contained a malicious link asking users to download an app and enter their wallet backup.
Our third-party e-mail provider has been breached. Please be aware that the email named ‘Critical Security Alert: STM32 Entropy Vulnerability’ is not coming from us, and it’s a phishing attempt. Do not click on any link.
We have taken down the domain, and we are investigating…
The news comes after Trezor last month announced that data from 11,742 customers had been exposed after its third-party fulfillment partner, ShipMonk, was targeted.
It then said last week that an additional 67,000 U.S. customers had their names, emails, phone numbers, shipping addresses and order numbers leaked in the breach.
“We took down the domain at the DNS level within 20 minutes, preventing the link from working for anyone else and limiting access to 2,500 people who had clicked it before we took it down,” Trezor said on Wednesday.
“These addresses might be potentially used for other phishing attacks in the future. No other Trezor system was touched,” Trezor added.
“We have suspended the Brevo account to stop further email distribution.”
Trezor reminded users that it never asks customers to ask for their wallet backups.
Criminals have been targeting data this year, with scammers getting hold of customer information via crypto wallet Ledger’s payment processor Global-e to send phishing emails.
Crypto wallet provider SafePal last month also announced a data breach that involved unauthorized access to about 39,798 customers’ order information, including personal details such as names, addresses and purchase data.
A new draft of the long-awaited crypto Clarity Act has dropped with amendments.
As first reported by Eleanor Terrett from Crypto in America and Punchbowl’s Brendan Pedersen, the updated bill contains changes including requiring non-decentralized DeFi protocols to register with the CFTC, and changes around how credit unions deal in crypto, according to reporters.
The specifics include that a decentralized finance app fails the test of being such a protocol test if someone can control or materially alter its functionality, if it doesn’t run solely on pre-established transparent encoded rules, or if someone can restrict or censor its use.
It also adds that a federal credit union may use a digital asset or distributed ledger system to perform, provide, or deliver any activity, function, product, or service it is otherwise authorized by law to perform.
JUST IN: An updated version of the Clarity Act has released ahead of next week's floor vote
"Latest changes include new DeFi requirements and credit union fix" — Punchbowl News
Lawmakers were hoping a crucial vote on the crypto market structure bill would go ahead in August before their five-week recess. It was delayed and the Senate will now vote on it on September 15.
The bill is not bipartisan yet, according to the reporters. Senate Republicans started circulating the updated legislation on Thursday.
The Clarity Act drafts a framework to formally divide oversight between regulators, distinguishing which digital assets are securities, commodities or stablecoins. Crypto industry executives have long called for such rules to be in place.
Though passed by the House of Representatives last July, it has been stalled this year, mostly because the banking lobby clashed with crypto companies over paying customers stablecoin yield.
A new draft tackling the issue of ethics started circulating in July, banning government officials from promoting or making money from crypto — something Democrats have criticized the Trump family for doing.
Despite the changes, a group of Democrats said the bill fell short and demanded amendments to the bill.
Pro-crypto lawmakers have blasted Democratic politicians who they think are deliberately holding back the bill.
President Donald Trump has urged lawmakers to get the legislation over the line. In August, he said that in order for the U.S. to remain the “undisputed leader in Bitcoin and crypto,” they had to pass the “very, very powerful legislation.”
Nasdaq Inc. is investing $100 million in crypto exchange Kraken’s parent company, Payward, according to reports.
The deal — not yet announced by either party — will help build out structure for tokenized stocks, Bloomberg reported Thursday, citing people familiar with the matter. The deal values the crypto company at $21 billion, according to the report.
It comes as Wall Street increasingly eyes up bitcoin and crypto-related infrastructure. Kraken has made deals this year and last with traditional finance firms and the S&P Dow Jones Indices in March made a deal to debut a new derivative contract on decentralized exchange Hyperliquid.
Bloomberg’s report said that Kraken will distribute Nasdaq’s tokenized stocks on its own platform, giving customers the ability to own Nasdaq-listed stocks in a tokenized form.
Wall Street has been eying up crypto companies and their infrastructure particularly because its interested in tokenizing assets like stocks.
In January, the New York Stock Exchange said it was building a platform allowing traders to buy and sell tokenized versions of US-listed equities and exchange-traded funds and settle those trades on the blockchain, 24/7.
Just last week, Payward, the parent company of crypto exchange Kraken, and fintech company SoFi Technologies announced a deal to route SoFi customers’ crypto orders through Kraken’s institutional trading platform and list SoFi’s stablecoin on the exchange.
Under the agreement, SoFi will send its digital asset order flow to Kraken Prime, Kraken’s prime brokerage arm, which launched in 2025.
Kraken — like other crypto exchanges — is pushing into the traditional finance world, allowing users to trade stocks, bonds and other assets. The company has sold its app as a “primary account for everything.”
Bitcoin’s price slid on Thursday after the price of oil shot over $105 a barrel thanks to renewed tensions in the Middle East.
The biggest and oldest cryptocurrency was recently trading for $77,208 after sliding as low as $76,748 — down more than 2% over the past day.
Its dip came after Iran signaled that it had no intention of backing down against U.S. forces. The two countries earlier this week stepped up attacks in some of the heaviest fighting since the war started in February.
Tehran-backed Houthis in Yemen this week hit Saudi Arabian assets, also pushing the price of oil up.
War in the Middle East pushes oil prices higher and makes the chances of interest rate cuts lower because of inflation. Bitcoin has typically performed well in a low interest rate environment and has experienced sell-offs when the Federal Reserve pivots to hawkishness.
The U.S. is currently in the grips of an affordability crisis and rising oil prices are a hot topic ahead of the midterm elections. U.S. President Donald Trump has reassured voters that prices will get under control.
Federal Reserve Chair Kevin Warsh said at his first speech as leader of the central bank and said that inflation in the world’s largest economy had not come down enough.
Traders are now pricing in an interest rate hike next week when the bank meets.
Still, bitcoin had one of its best runs in August after the U.S. Treasury said it would at least double the size of its liquidity-support buyback operations, in response to surging borrowing costs.
The announcement hurt the dollar but non-yielding assets like bitcoin and gold have benefited.
Despite previously trading in line with risk-on assets like tech stocks, bitcoin has this year traded more in tandem with gold as the so-called debasement trade becomes hot again.
Investors have bought the largest cryptocurrency — along with the precious metal — to hedge against the dollar’s decline.
Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong has said that bitcoin’s bottom is in and reiterated that the coin will hit $400,000 by 2030.
Speaking on CNBC Thursday, the head of America’s biggest crypto exchange said that he was confident the long-awaited crypto Clarity Act would pass next week.
Bitcoin was trading sluggishly throughout June and July but started surging in August, spurred on by positive regulatory news. Over a 30-day period, the largest cryptocurrency is currently up over 20%.
JUST IN: Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong tells CNBC the Bitcoin "bottom is in" and BTC hitting $400,000 by 2030 is a "reasonable target" pic.twitter.com/RYfipYCNDk
“[$400,000] is a reasonable target by 2030, and if you follow crypto, you know it typically goes through these four-year-ish cycles: there’ll be a run-up, some euphoria, there’ll be a down period,” Armstrong said.
“Most of the down periods last about a year, and we’ve actually just come across the one-year mark for this down period, so I personally believe that the bottom is in.”
Bitcoin was recently trading for close to $77,318 per coin. It hit a new all-time high of $126,080 in October.
Market observers have been paying attention to the long-awaited Clarity Act this year. The bill drafts a framework to formally divide oversight between regulators, distinguishing which digital assets are securities, commodities or stablecoins. The crypto industry has long called for such rules to be in place.
Senators will vote on the long-awaited legislation next week after an August delay.
U.S. President Trump helped spur a surge in the bitcoin price when he hosted crypto executives and traditional finance bigwigs at the White House and urged lawmakers to move forward with the bill.
Armstrong said on Thursday that he was confident the bill would get through — and help unlock new capital as a result.
“We saw with the Genius Act that passed last year for stablecoins: in the wake of that legislation passing, we saw well over 150 large companies integrate stablecoins within just a three-month period,” he said.
“And I think something similar could happen with the Clarity Act passing — it’s a regulatory checkbox, it’d be a big milestone certainly to unlock institutional capital and to bring things like tokenized equities and perks to the United States, which would be very good.”
What is quantum computing? How is a quantum computer different from a regular computer? What relevance does this have to Bitcoin?
New Bitcoiners have been inevitably bumping into these questions and having to confront the issues they dredge up regarding Bitcoin’s exposure to what is very much an existential threat to its existence if a viable quantum computer were to be developed.
The ability to own bitcoin rests on the foundational assumption that without directly leaking a copy of it, no one but the person who possesses a private key can sign to transact with coins secured by that key. Quantum computing calls that assumption into question.
Quantum computers are not just “computers, but faster.” They function in a very fundamentally different way from a classical computer, and as such they are much more efficient than classical computers at very specific kinds of computations. Now obviously, I’m not going to actually explain how quantum computers work in minute detail within four pages, but I will give you the core intuition of how they are fundamentally different from a classical computer.
So let’s take a look at how both kinds of computers interact with things like large cryptographic keys.
Classical Computers
Everything stored in a classical computer (or just computer from here on out) is stored as a series of 1s and 0s. Each bit (1 or 0) is precisely a 1 or 0; there is no ambiguity. When a piece of data is stored, it’s 1s and 0s. When a piece of data is manipulated or modified, it is done bit by bit, step by step, on each 1 or 0.
That is how a computer works. It linearly, one step after the other, modifies the discrete unambiguous pieces of data that it is storing. It can’t skip ahead, or shortcut (in terms of the steps it’s taking, not more efficient ways to do things mathematically), it has to go through the steps of whatever computation it is doing one by one.
When you generate a private key using a computer, it acquires a random value (you inputting dice, general user input, randomness from device hardware, etc.) and stores that in memory as 1s and 0s. From there it has to multiply this value by the elliptic curve’s generator point to get a public key. This is accomplished with an algorithm, that boiled down to its most basic level, is literally instructions on what bits to take, how to modify them, what circuits to “push” them down on a physical level to accomplish that, and in the end put the new value that has been modified bit by bit back into memory.
There are other steps to arrive at an actual valid address, but for the purposes of this article those are not necessary to go into (but they are just like the above step, just step by step instructions on how to modify 1s and 0s in memory).
So what if someone wanted to use a computer to guess someone else’s private key?
There are 2256 possible private keys. That’s 115,792,089,237,316,195,423,570,985,008,687,907,853,269,984,665,640,564,039,457,584,007,913,129,639,936 different possible keys.
A computer would have to try every single one of those possible private keys, one after the other (or however many at a time it can do in parallel), step by step following the exact instructions above for generating keys. The more of them you try to check in parallel, the more computing power you need, with no ability to find any shortcuts around that cost.
The less computing power you want to use, the more time it will take, the less time you want it to take, the more computing power you need.
This is an impossible task to accomplish with a computer. On one side you have a computation cost that every computer on Earth is not enough to pay, and on the other side you have a cost in time that is so high every star in the universe would die before you checked them all.
To actually accomplish your goal, you need another option besides checking one by one linearly or in parallel. That’s where quantum computing comes in.
Quantum Computers
Quantum computers don’t work with discrete states. Everything is precisely a 1 or a 0. The most basic piece of information in a quantum computer is a qubit (the quantum version of a bit). Unlike a bit, a qubit is in a superposition where it is both simultaneously a 1 and a 0. It only settles into one or the other discrete states when it is observed.
This is one of the key building blocks that allow a quantum computer to compute differently. The other is entanglement. Qubits aren’t just stored in isolation, the physical atoms representing them and collapsing to a discrete state when observed are entangled together. This means when entangled atoms are observed and collapse to a single state, the entangled atoms collapse to the same state, no matter how far apart they are.
Now here’s where things get weird, and I’m going to have to get a little hand-wavy; you should still walk away with an intuitive understanding of why quantum computers are fundamentally different from a classical computer. An algorithm on a classical computer is a set of instructions to take a specific set of bits, and step by step modify them according to the algorithm’s instructions, until finishing and outputting the finished set of new bits. So the algorithm step by step takes one discrete state and turns it into another.
Qubits don’t store discrete states until they are observed and collapse to one. They store probabilities. When you have a set of qubits entangled of any given size (like in this hypothetical case 2256), each given possible state that it collapse to has a certain probability of collapsing to that given state.
Quantum algorithms, rather than being step by step instructions to operate on discrete states, are a set of instructions on how to operate on those entangled qubits in a way that alters the probabilities of different outcomes. Constructive interference is used to increase the probability of a correct outcome, and destructive interference to decrease the probability of incorrect outcomes (note that this is NOT the noise or interference that makes it difficult for physical quantum computers to function accurately, that is a different concept).
So while a classical computer would have to check each individual private key one by one to find the one matching a specific public key, a quantum computer can simply run a few times using the right algorithm and arrive at the correct answer. It does not do this by “checking all the possibilities at once.” It simply modifies the probabilities of what a superposition will collapse into.
This is why a quantum computer could break the assumptions underlying elliptic curve cryptography, and a classical computer could not (and it is also why quantum computers are only useful for certain types of computations with a massive possible space of answer candidates to check).
Don’t Panic
This fundamental difference between classical and quantum computation means, that yes, if a viable quantum computer is actually produced, that functions correctly, then the underlying assumption that secures all Bitcoiners’ individual bitcoin is broken. All of those funds are insecure.
Yes, this is a serious risk if such a device is actually manufactured, and it works, but we are not entirely unprepared. We understand the problem, we understand the exposure, and a good number of possible solutions to many different facets of the problem are coming together.
Breathe, and relax. Through the rest of this issue we are going to walk you through the whole problem.
This piece is featured in the latest Print edition of Bitcoin Magazine, The Quantum Issue. We’re sharing it here as an early look at the ideas explored throughout the full issue.
U.S. Secretary of the Treasury Scott Bessent urged lawmakers to move forward with the crypto Clarity Act when they return from recess next week.
Writing on X Wednesday, Bessent said that the bill would stop “bad actors” from exploiting important digital asset tech.
Lawmakers were hoping a crucial vote on the long-awaited crypto market structure bill would go ahead in August before their five-week recess. But it was delayed and the Senate will now vote on it next week.
JUST IN: US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent says he 'strongly urges' the Senate to pass the Clarity Act.
"Failing to do so would send a troubling signal to our allies and adversaries alike that America is unwilling to lead on the future of digital assets". pic.twitter.com/dA4aIpzwYb
“When the Senate returns from August recess, I strongly urge everyone to remain at the negotiating table, agree to the motion to proceed, and continue the legislative process,” he said.
“Failing to do so would send a troubling signal to our allies and adversaries alike that America is unwilling to lead on the future of digital assets and willing to forgo enhanced national security tools to combat their misuse.”
Just in July, Bessent said lawmakers had to pass the Clarity Act if they wanted to be “on the side of American Exceptionalism” — and quoted Satoshi Nakamoto in another social media post.
“America will lead or America won’t,” he wrote at the time “It’s not more complicated than that. I believe Satoshi once said it best: ‘If you don’t believe me or don’t get it, I don’t have time to try to convince you, sorry.'”
First passed last year by the House of Representatives, the Clarity Act drafts a framework to formally divide oversight between regulators, distinguishing which digital assets are securities, commodities or stablecoins.
The digital asset industry has long been calling for such rules to be set in stone.
But the draft legislation has largely been stalled this year, mostly because the banking lobby clashed with crypto companies over paying customers stablecoin yield.
A new draft tackling the issue of ethics started circulating in July, banning government officials from promoting or making money from crypto — something Democrats have criticized President Trump’s family for doing.
Despite the changes, a group of Democrats said the bill fell short and wanted amendments.
President Donald Trump has urged lawmakers to get the legislation over the line. In August, he said that in order for the U.S. to remain the “undisputed leader in Bitcoin and crypto,” they had to pass the “very, very powerful legislation.”
Bitcoin-focused Block Inc. has become the latest company to apply for a U.S. banking charter.
The company, which manages Square, Cash App, and Bitkey, said Wednesday that it had submitted an application to the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency to establish Builders Bank & Trust, N.A.
Block joins a long-list of digital asset firms that have received conditional approval or are awaiting approval from the regulator to have the license. The charter would allow companies — if fully approved — to have certain banking powers, such as custody assets and move client funds.
JUST IN: Block applies to establish Builders Bank & Trust with the OCC, which would provide federally regulated custody and "fiduciary services" for Bitcoin and stablecoins. pic.twitter.com/Dkq7WIg6Wa
“Building on Block’s experience in the digital asset space, our history with Square Financial Services, and the deep banking expertise of the team we’ve assembled, we believe Builders Bank is well positioned to support Block’s broader vision of economic empowerment,” Lee Woolley, who would serve as President and CEO of Builders Bank, said in a statement.
Block said that, if approved, Builders Bank would operate as a federally regulated national trust bank under OCC supervision and provide custody and related fiduciary services, including for bitcoin and stablecoins.
A number of top crypto companies have received conditional approval, including Coinbase, Circle, Crypto.com, and Paxos.
Decentralized financial protocol World Liberty Financial, backed by U.S. President Donald Trump, also received approval this year.
Block CEO and founder Jack Dorsey, a Bitcoin maximalist, has been pushing for the biggest and oldest cryptocurrency to become everyday money.
His point-of-sale products, Square, last year rolled out bitcoin acceptance for millions of eligible U.S. small businesses, with no setup required and transactions instantly converted to dollars at checkout.
Burger restaurant franchise Steak ‘n Shake has said that accepting bitcoin payments has helped the company grow.
Writing on its X account Tuesday, the Indianapolis, Indiana-based company said since accepting the largest cryptocurrency, it has achieved double-digit same-store sales growth.
It added: “And this quarter has been extraordinary, with franchise-partners same-store sales gaining 19%.”
Ever since we started accepting Bitcoin in May 2025, we have achieved double-digit same-store sales growth!
And this quarter has been extraordinary, with franchise-partners same-store sales gaining 19%.
Come have a Bitcoin burger and Bitcoin shake to celebrate!
The firm last year started accepting Bitcoin payments, using the Lightning Network to do so.
It added that it would add the cryptocurrency to its balance sheet and announced in January that it had added $10 million in Bitcoin to its strategic reserve.
Back in April, Steak ‘n Shake Chief MAHA Officer Michael Boes told attendees at the Bitcoin 2026 Conference that Bitcoin has become a core driver of the chain’s business performance.
Same-store sales rose 11% quarter over quarter in Q2 2025 and accelerated to 15% in Q3 2025, outpacing major rivals including McDonald’s, Taco Bell, and Domino’s.
He called it the highest same-store sales growth of any restaurant in the industry — and all because bitcoin on Lightning is cheaper and faster than traditional electronic payment methods.
It works like this: When customers pay with bitcoin instead of a credit card, Steak ‘n Shake saves roughly 50% on processing fees. Traditional credit card processors charge merchants between 2.5% and 3.5% per transaction.
“Bitcoin is real money made with real energy,” Boes said at the time.
The company last year also toyed with the idea of accepting other cryptocurrencies but scrapped the idea after a poll on X revealed people thought that only bitcoin was needed.
Iran is continuing to use bitcoin as a way to skirt around sanctions as the country’s central bank turns a blind eye, according to reports.
The Financial Times on Wednesday reported that the Middle Eastern country was using cryptocurrencies, including bitcoin, to settle cross-border transactions through Iranian crypto exchanges after the central bank advised its countrymen to do anything necessary to help the economy.
Citing conversations with businesses, regime insiders and analysts, the newspaper said that the central bank had “quietly encouraged traders” to get money flowing to help its struggling economy.
Bitcoin is proving to be a tried and tested way of doing so.
One business insider reportedly told the newspaper that the central bank doesn’t ask any questions about how money is transferred.
Iran has been sanctioned for decades, and a sharp escalation beginning in late 2025 — UN snapback, EU measures and expanded U.S. energy sanctions — was compounded by war with the U.S. and Israel starting in February 2026 and a naval blockade that has cut oil exports by more than 80%.
The country also has one of the highest rates of inflation in the world.
Iran started a bitcoin-backed insurance service for its counties shipping companies earlier this year.
The U.S. in July said that it had frozen crypto linked to the Iranian regime, mostly in the form of Tether’s stablecoin.
Stablecoins like Tether’s USDT can be frozen by the company that issues the asset but bitcoin, being decentralized and having no single issuer, cannot.
The U.S. Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control in July said Iran had been dodging sanctions by accepting pay in bitcoin from ships passing through the Strait of Hormuz.
OFAC said at the time that Hormuz Safe, developed by Iran’s Ministry of Economy, “accepts payment in Bitcoin and other digital assets” so it can bypass sanctions.
The U.S. and Israel struck Iran in February 2026. Fighting has continued in phases since, punctuated by a Pakistan-brokered ceasefire in April and a short-lived memorandum in June.
Both ended up collapsing, and there is currently no ceasefire in place.
VerifiedX (verifiedx.io), the programmable financial operating system for Bitcoin and intelligent assets, today announced that its Foundation has launched a $15 million financing round and the first institutional investors have already invested. Initial capital will fund VerifiedX’s institutional Bitcoin distribution.
Cantor Fitzgerald is serving as VerifiedX’s investment banking partner in connection with the financing. The Foundation is not yet disclosing the identities or terms of the initial investors.
Part of the capital is allocated to expand custody relationships with partners including BitGo, the digital-asset custodian listed on the New York Stock Exchange, which will hold vBTC (VerifiedX’s Bitcoin-collateralized token) and vBTC.b (its counterpart on Base, Coinbase’s Ethereum layer-2 network). BitGo is a qualified custodian, meaning U.S. custody rules allow registered investment advisers to hold client assets there.
The capital also funds listings. Tier-one centralized exchanges will be listing vBTC and VFX, VerifiedX’s native token, with a first announcement expected within weeks. The round also supports borrow-and-lend programs: facilities that let a holder borrow against Bitcoin, or lend it out for a return, without sacrificing ownership or locking redemption rights.
“Nearly every way to put Bitcoin to work on-chain today asks the holder to swap it for someone else’s IOU. It’s the reason less than 1% of all Bitcoin held by institutions is earning any yield. vBTC is a game-changer in that regard, and this round funds the custody, exchange and lending rails that will allow institutions to use vBTC and natively turn their Bitcoin into productive financial capital,” said Brian May, a member of the VerifiedX Foundation.
With a wrapped Bitcoin token, the industry’s usual route, the holder hands Bitcoin to a custodian, or to a small group of signers acting together, and receives an off-chain representation on another network. The stand-in is only as good as whoever holds the Bitcoin behind it.
vBTC is built the other way around. When a holder creates a vBTC token, the VerifiedX network generates a unique native Bitcoin address inside each token and the holder deposits Bitcoin to their own self-custodial deposit address. The Bitcoin stays in that address, visible on Bitcoin’s own ledger and never leaves the Bitcoin ecosystem. Deposits and withdrawals are authorized by threshold signatures spread across VerifiedX’s validators, so no single party holds the key, and a holder that would rather not rely on the network’s validators can run its own and restrict signing to their own validators exclusively. The holder can redeem to native Bitcoin at any time. A holder can use vBTC for payments, trading, as collateral, in lending or in treasury. vBTC.b puts the same design on Base, so the asset can be used in applications there non-synthetically.
About VerifiedX
VerifiedX is a financial operating system for Bitcoin, intelligent, and alternative assets, enabling self-custodial ownership, instant settlement, programmable finance, native Bitcoin utility, and agentic financial infrastructure. Through products including vBTC, BFLY, and PulseXAI, VerifiedX connects institutions, users, and autonomous systems through a unified blockchain ecosystem framework.
Republican Senator Cynthia Lummis has again slammed Democrats over the long-awaited crypto Clarity Act.
Writing on X on Tuesday, the pro-crypto lawmaker responded to an article from Semafor that reported Republican senators saying the bill was likely to fail when the senate returns next week.
Lawmakers were hoping a crucial vote on the long-awaited crypto market structure bill would go ahead in August before their five-week recess. But it was delayed and the Senate will now vote on it next week.
JUST IN: U.S. Senate will hold a procedural cloture vote on the Clarity Act one week from today.
Senator Cynthia Lummis says if they fail to pass it next week, "we will not get another realistic shot at this before the end of the decade"
“If this bill fails it won’t be because of ethics, it will be because Democrats didn’t join Republicans in embracing a bipartisan bill that protected consumers, cements America’s leadership in digital assets, and empowered law enforcement to clamp down on illicit finance,” wrote Lummis.
She said that Democrats were continuing to “demand changes” that could allow future regulators to “kill the crypto industry.”
“If we can bridge those gaps I’m confident we can pass Clarity, but they require further compromise from Democrats, not the White House,” added Lummis.
Lummis previously said that if the Clarity Act dies, it will be because of the Democrats. Lummis and other pro-crypto lawmakers have blasted politicians who they think are deliberately holding back the bill.
The Clarity Act drafts a framework to formally divide oversight between regulators, distinguishing which digital assets are securities, commodities or stablecoins.
Though passed by the House of Representatives last July, it has been stalled this year, mostly because the banking lobby clashed with crypto companies over paying customers stablecoin yield.
A new draft tackling the issue of ethics started circulating in July, banning government officials from promoting or making money from crypto — something Democrats have criticized the Trump family for doing.
Despite the changes, a group of Democrats said the bill fell short and wanted amendments.
President Donald Trump has urged lawmakers to get the legislation over the line. In August, he said that in order for the U.S. to remain the “undisputed leader in Bitcoin and crypto,” they had to pass the “very, very powerful legislation.”
British bitcoin exchange CoinCorner has debuted a multisig BTC custody service that splits control of customer keys between the Isle of Man exchange and its US partner AnchorWatch — with holdings insured by Lloyd’s of London.
The service charges 1.5% a year and is pitched at owners who want cold-storage security without managing hardware themselves, the Isle of Man-based company announced Tuesday.
Its new service comes following the Coldcard wallet hack — where bitcoin holders using a single signature wallet lost funds after hackers were able to exploit the popular products due to a firmware bug in the devices that lead to a weak seed generation. About $115 million was lost in the theft.
“Vault offers a simple non-technical setup for customers, and partnering with AnchorWatch means we can offer fully insured, multi-signature custody with the simplicity our customers expect from CoinCorner,” CoinCorner CEO Danny Scott said in a statement.
Customers can open a Vault and deposit whatever amount they choose, but the bitcoin doesn’t move into the insured wallet immediately, CoinCorner said.
Rather, transfers typically happen on the first working day of the following month, and holdings are verifiable on-chain via a wallet address CoinCorner provides.
Top-ups are allowed anytime, the companies said, Customers define their own identity verification rules before funds can move.
CoinCorner added that it is the first service of its kind globally.
Multisig has long been the security-conscious Bitcoin holder’s answer to single-key risk but has also been dismissed as too fiddly for anyone but the technically committed: setting one up traditionally means assembling several hardware devices, generating and backing up multiple private keys and keeping track of which key sits where.
CoinCorner and AnchorWatch are aiming to simplify things. Vault handles key distribution on the customer’s behalf, leaving them with the security properties of multisig without the setup that has kept most people away from it.
European bitcoin treasury Capital B has announced a BTC buy, snapping up 376 coins — one week after it said Blockstream boss Adam Back was investing in the company.
The Euronext Growth-listed company said Tuesday that it now owns 3,521 bitcoins — worth over $277 million at today’s prices — making it the 25th biggest publicly traded bitcoin treasury in the world, according to Bitcoin Treasuries data.
Capital B’s buy was for €25.3 million (over $29 million), according to its announcement.
Capital B confirms the acquisition of 376 BTC for €25.3 million, the holding of a total of 3,521 BTC, and a BTC Yield of 2.17% YTD
Just last week, the company said that top bitcoiner Adam Back, who heads up bitcoin infrastructure company Blockstream, had invested €7.6 million ($8.8 million) in Capital B to help with its buys.
The firm in August said it had raised €21 million ($24 million) in a private placement backed by Back and asset manager TOBAM.
The bitcoin treasury’s stock was trading 2% lower on Tuesday.
Capital B built most of its bitcoin position through fundraising rounds during the first half of 2026.
In May, it snapped up 192 coins for €13 million after completing three capital raises.
The company, which calls itself “Europe’s first Bitcoin treasury company,” is trying to build a bigger bitcoin position as other treasuries look to raise funds and accelerate their buys.
Capital B says on its website that it wants to eventually hold 210,000 bitcoins. “Our objective is simple: accumulate 1% of Bitcoin’s total supply by 2033,” it reads.
Digital asset treasuries became big in 2025 as more publicly traded companies tried to follow in the footsteps of Nasdaq-listed Strategy (formerly MicroStrategy), which started buying bitcoin in 2025.
Hundreds of publicly traded companies started buying bitcoin — with many buying other cryptocurrencies — to boost their stock prices. But since the price of bitcoin started dropping, a number of them are now under water or have had to sell their holdings.
Strategy, the largest corporate holder of the asset, has this year slowed down its bitcoin buys and instead pivoted to building a stronger cash balance and buying back its stock as the price of its shares has tumbled.
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Italy’s 2nd-largest bank UniCredit is considering to offer crypto asset custody — Bloomberg 
U.K. House of Lords passes amendment requiring the government to develop a national cryptocurrency strategy 
An updated version of the Clarity Act has released ahead of next week's floor vote 
Capital B confirms the acquisition of 376 BTC for €25.3 million, the holding of a total of 3,521 BTC, and a BTC Yield of 2.17% YTD 
