Cryptoccino — Tuesday 28 July 2026

Bitcoin ETF flows flip negative on the week despite a third consecutive weekly net inflow. US-listed bitcoin ETFs posted a third straight week of net inflows overall, but $465 million exited in the final two sessions, reversing a seven-day, $1 billion streak. Monday brought a modest $12 million net outflow from bitcoin funds while ethereum ETFs pulled in $9 million, continuing ETH’s relative outperformance in TradFi wrapper flows. coindesk bloomberg_crypto decrypt cryptobriefing

Crypto’s pre-IPO futures market gets its first major Asian stress test. China’s largest IPO in over a decade became a live proving ground for blockchain-based pre-IPO prediction contracts, and the market largely cleared without incident. The result draws institutional attention to whether onchain shadow markets can reliably price large, opaque listing events. bloomberg_crypto

Crypto liquidations hit $573 million, Hyperliquid bearing the brunt. A broad deleveraging swept the market over the past 24 hours, with Hyperliquid accounting for a disproportionate share of the total. The episode underlines how concentrated perp open interest on newer venues amplifies moves that would be absorbed more quietly on deeper order books. cryptobriefing

TD Cowen slashes Nakamoto price target by 58% after BTC’s slide dents the capital structure. The firm cited the pressure bitcoin’s decline places on David Bailey’s Nakamoto, whose treasury strategy makes its equity value highly sensitive to BTC’s spot price. The cut is a pointed reminder that Strategy-style vehicles carry embedded leverage that rating agencies and equity analysts are now pricing more aggressively. theblock

Strategy skips bitcoin for a fifth consecutive week while building its cash war chest. The company sold $544.5 million in MSTR stock, pushing its USD reserve to $3.75 billion, and spent $25 million repurchasing STRC preferred shares, the first use of its $1 billion preferred buyback programme. Benchmark reiterated its $570 target, arguing the cash build strengthens the eventual BTC accumulation story, though five weeks of inaction is the longest pause the firm has taken. theblock coindesk decrypt theblock

Circle acquires IBM’s entire blockchain patent estate, becoming the largest US holder in the category. The deal covers 680-plus patent families and nearly 1,000 issued patents, a defensive and offensive play as USDC faces intensifying competition from bank-issued stablecoins, including one IBM itself is backing. Circle now has considerable IP leverage in any future infringement dispute or licensing negotiation. theblock coindesk decrypt

Lido begins a major validator consolidation, shuffling $16.5 billion in staked ETH. The Curated Module v2 rollout moves more than 8 million ETH to Ethereum’s post-Pectra 0x02 validator format, cutting Lido’s validator count by roughly a third. The migration reduces overhead and aligns the protocol with Ethereum’s updated staking architecture, though it represents a prolonged operational window with elevated execution risk. coindesk theblock

Storj files for Chapter 11 as crypto’s shutdown wave claims another name. The decentralised storage firm filed voluntary bankruptcy on 26 July to resolve legacy liabilities, sending the STORJ token down roughly 20% to $0.06. The failure lands in the same week as BitMart’s closure and BitMEX’s shutdown, adding to a pattern that suggests thinner market conditions are accelerating the culling of marginal infrastructure projects. coindesk theblock decrypt

Thailand’s SEC files criminal charges against Bitkub for hiding a $47 million hack. Regulators allege the exchange and two former directors omitted the 2021 theft from required filings, concealing the incident from the public and the regulator. Criminal complaints in Southeast Asian crypto enforcement are rare and signal regulators are escalating beyond fines. coindesk decrypt

SparkKitty malware found in App Store and Google Play apps, scanning photo libraries for seed phrases. Check Point’s research detailed how the malware infiltrated both major app stores and silently scanned device photo galleries for wallet recovery phrases. Anyone who has screenshot a seed phrase on a mobile device should treat that wallet as compromised. theblock decrypt

OFAC designates Hamas financing network with crypto exposure. The Treasury designated an Iraqi national based in Istanbul and two associates as part of a Hamas financial facilitation network. Chainalysis flagged the action, noting the network used crypto rails, adding new wallet addresses to monitor for compliance teams. chainalysis

The Senate shelves the Crypto Clarity Act, leaving market structure legislation in limbo. Bandwidth constraints pushed the bill off the near-term calendar, adding uncertainty to an industry that had been tracking the legislation as the primary path to a federal crypto framework. The Solana Policy Institute warned that continued delay risks pushing capital to jurisdictions with clearer rules, while the New York AG separately urged Congress to tighten, not loosen, state enforcement powers in any eventual bill. coindesk cryptobriefing cointelegraph_regulation theblock cryptobriefing

Kalshi and Polymarket win a federal court pause on Minnesota’s prediction market ban. A US judge granted a preliminary injunction allowing both platforms to keep operating in Minnesota while the court weighs their challenge to the state law. The ruling is a meaningful interim win for the federal-preemption argument, though it resolves nothing permanently and the NFL is simultaneously lobbying the CFTC for stricter rules on sports event contracts. coindesk cointelegraph_regulation cryptobriefing theblock

Binance’s Android app disappears from Google Play in several EU markets amid MiCA scrutiny. The delisting affects a number of European Union countries and arrives as Binance navigates compliance with MiCA’s requirements. No official explanation has been issued; the removal could reflect a voluntary withdrawal during licensing negotiations or a platform-level enforcement action. cointelegraph_regulation

BNY Mellon’s European unit joins the MiCA register as ESMA expands the list to 15 new providers. The third post-deadline update adds banks and crypto platforms, with BNY’s inclusion marking a significant step for traditional custodians building under the EU framework. The register’s growth signals that institutional players are prioritising MiCA licensing even as some crypto-native firms still scramble to comply. cointelegraph_regulation

What else is grinding?

• Securitize picked up an SEC investment adviser licence, letting it work more directly with institutional clients on tokenised strategies. coindesk theblock
• Kraken’s parent Payward acquired Magic Labs’ embedded wallet business; Magic Labs is rebranding as Newton Labs to focus on onchain finance infrastructure. theblock
• Bitwise data shows Ethereum, Solana and Avalanche network activity rising even as ETH, SOL and AVAX sit more than 50% below year-ago prices, widening the gap between usage and valuation. theblock
• South Korea’s KB Kookmin Bank plans to launch a blockchain-based cross-border corporate payments service next month on JPMorgan’s Kinexys network. theblock
• Fanatics bought CFTC-registered exchange Water Street Labs and CX Clearinghouse to build its own prediction-markets venue, mirroring the DraftKings and FanDuel playbook. coindesk decrypt
• Dragonfly’s Haseeb Qureshi argued publicly that dedicated crypto VC could effectively run its course by 2030 as the category converges with AI and fintech investing. cryptobriefing

Last sip. Strategy has $3.75 billion in cash and hasn’t bought bitcoin in five weeks, and nobody quite knows whether that’s patience or hesitation.