Cryptoccino — Thursday 27 August 2026

Strategy near-zeroes its net leverage Michael Saylor’s firm has drawn its cash position close enough to its convertible debt load that net leverage is effectively flat, a deliberate balance-sheet reposition after months of criticism over risk concentration. An MSCI index-exit flag has resurfaced separately, which could restrict the passive-flow tap that helped fund prior BTC purchases. Investors will want to watch whether Strategy can maintain its accumulation pace without the leverage cushion. coindesk bloomberg_crypto

BlackRock cuts IBIT swap minimum to $1 million BlackRock reportedly lowered the minimum ticket size for in-kind ETF swap transactions on its spot bitcoin ETF, a move that could widen the arbitrage participant base and tighten spreads. Broader retail and mid-tier institutional access to creation-redemption mechanics generally improves NAV tracking. The macro case for bitcoin as a fiscal-debasement hedge was echoed separately by BlackRock’s own digital-assets head, Robert Mitchnick. coindesk cryptobriefing

Nvidia posts record $96.2B quarterly revenue, guides to $108.5B next quarter The chipmaker beat estimates decisively and revealed $366 billion in forward commitments alongside up to $108.5 billion in guarantee exposure, underscoring the scale of AI infrastructure spend. Shares surged in after-hours trading. The print matters to crypto indirectly: sustained AI capex appetite is a risk-on signal that tends to support speculative asset valuations. coindesk decrypt

Bitwise Crypto Carry Fund yield hits 6% on basis expansion Widening futures basis has lifted annualised yield on Bitwise’s carry fund to 6%, reflecting the premium traders are willing to pay for leveraged long exposure in the current sentiment environment. Basis expansion at this stage of a rally is normal but compresses fast if spot momentum stalls. It’s also a useful gauge of where retail leverage appetite sits right now. cryptobriefing

StarkWare executes first quantum-resistant Bitcoin transaction on mainnet StarkWare used a STARK proof to sign and broadcast a Bitcoin transaction designed to survive quantum-computing attacks, marking the first such execution on the live network. The firm is clear that this is not a protocol fix: Bitcoin would need a consensus-level upgrade to make quantum resistance standard rather than opt-in. Ethereum developers filed a parallel proposal the same day to overhaul the staking deposit contract to support post-quantum validator keys up to 8,192 bytes. theblock cryptobriefing coindesk decrypt

Revolut goes live with euro-pegged EURR in three markets Revolut’s EURR stablecoin is now available to selected customers in Denmark, Poland, and Portugal, with reserves held through a Luxembourg subsidiary of Stripe. The phased rollout is the most significant retail push into euro-denominated stablecoins since MiCA created a workable legal lane. Shinhan Financial and Visa announced a parallel stablecoin infrastructure partnership in South Korea on the same day, targeting card payments, B2B settlement, and AI-based payment models. theblock decrypt coindesk theblock coindesk

Galaxy launches crypto-backed credit lines at 8.99% APR GalaxyOne clients can now borrow cash against Bitcoin, Ether, and staked Solana without liquidating positions, at a fixed 8.99% APR. The product puts Galaxy in direct competition with Coinbase’s collateral lending offering and the token-backed mortgage product Coinbase recently made generally available through its partnership with Better. Institutionalising borrow-against-crypto as a mainstream retail product is a structural shift in how long-term holders manage liquidity. decrypt theblock

LayerZero’s ATLAS settlement engine sends ZRO up 10% LayerZero announced ATLAS as a new settlement layer, and the market responded immediately with ZRO climbing 10% and recovering nearly 50% off its recent local low. Settlement infrastructure is a competitive space right now, and any credible entrant with existing cross-chain distribution commands attention. Details on ATLAS’s design and trust model remain thin at this stage. decrypt

Dolly Parton memecoin rug pulls hit investors following her death Multiple tokens launched in the hours after Dolly Parton’s death were pulled by deployers, with retail buyers absorbing the losses. The pattern mirrors prior celebrity-death memecoin cycles. No meaningful recovery mechanism exists for victims. cryptobriefing

Crypto CEO faces US extradition over alleged $20M Saitama token manipulation Manpreet Kohli, accused of orchestrating a scheme that allegedly netted $20 million through manipulation of the Saitama token, moved a step closer to trial in Boston after extradition proceedings advanced. Prosecutors allege coordinated wash trading and promotional fraud. The case adds to a growing roster of token-manipulation prosecutions moving through US federal courts. decrypt

Solana closes Alpenglow bug bounty with 300 submissions The bounty programme for Solana’s Alpenglow consensus upgrade received 300 submissions before closing. A high submission count signals serious researcher engagement but also confirms the attack surface is being scrutinised at scale ahead of deployment. No critical vulnerabilities have been publicly disclosed. cryptobriefing

SEC’s crypto custody overhaul sent to the White House for review The SEC forwarded a revised proposal to the White House that would rewrite how investment advisers and funds must hold digital assets for clients, resurrecting an effort the prior administration never completed. The proposal is in pre-publication review, so changes are still possible before it formally lands in the Federal Register. Custody infrastructure decisions at custodians and registered advisers may need to be revisited depending on the final text. coindesk bloomberg_crypto theblock cointelegraph_regulation

Dallas Fed warns tokenised deposits could remove $700B from US bank lending A Dallas Fed research paper argues that if deposits migrate into tokenised form, banks could lose up to $700 billion in stable funding, pushing them toward higher-quality liquid assets and constraining credit supply. The researchers flag that tokenised deposits are more rate-sensitive than traditional deposits, amplifying outflow risk in stress scenarios. The paper arrives as the BankChain Alliance, a consortium of smaller US banks, announced plans for a shared blockchain payments network targeting 2027. coindesk decrypt decrypt

Chainalysis: OECD’s CARF tax framework covers just 14% of identifiable taxable crypto flows Chainalysis put 2025 potentially taxable on-chain activity at over $457 billion globally, with the United States the largest contributor, but concluded the OECD’s Crypto-Asset Reporting Framework captures only a fraction of that because it excludes most DeFi and peer-to-peer transactions. The gap between what is reportable under CARF and what actually happens on-chain is a live compliance risk for institutions and a revenue problem for governments. Expect this data to feature in upcoming domestic and international tax-policy discussions. cointelegraph_regulation chainalysis

Roman Storm’s Tornado Cash retrial delayed to April 2027 Judge Katherine Polk Failla pushed the retrial back by more than six months, with Storm’s motion for acquittal still unresolved. A prior jury convicted Storm on one money-transmitting count but deadlocked on the remainder. The extended timeline keeps a critical developer-liability question open well into next year. theblock decrypt

What else is grinding?

• Japan’s Financial Services Agency and exchanges are working on a blockchain-based stock and government bond settlement system, with operational details expected in early 2027 and full deployment targeted for the early 2030s. theblock coindesk
• Sharplink generated 586 ETH in staking rewards in a single week as its holdings approached 890,000 ETH, the latest data point in the corporate ETH-treasury playbook. cryptobriefing
• Six Bitcoin wallets dormant for over a decade moved roughly $40 million in BTC during the week of 16-26 August, a cluster of long-sleep movements that coincided almost precisely with the price surge. decrypt
• Ondo Finance’s FXIon tokenised equities product reached 59,000 holders across multiple blockchains, a growth signal for the real-world-asset segment even as regulatory clarity on tokenised securities remains incomplete. cryptobriefing
• Kalshi has raised $1.12 billion via a private equity offering since April, according to a fresh SEC filing, ahead of a reported $750 million fundraise targeting a $40 billion valuation. theblock
• The Hyperliquid Policy Center and TradeXYZ filed a joint letter urging the CFTC to create a regulatory pathway for US-listed energy perpetual contracts, a first formal lobbying push for onchain commodity perps. theblock

Last sip. Bitcoin is one clean daily close above $83,000 away from what analysts will call an official bull market, and the options board clears Friday.