Crypto News Today: BlackRock Tokenises Stablecoin Reserves as Strategy Sells Bitcoin

Today’s biggest crypto stories, including BlackRock’s tokenised stablecoin-reserve funds, Strategy’s latest Bitcoin sale, BitMine’s growing Ethereum treasury, fading CLARITY Act prospects, Robinhood’s UK registration, Bitget’s Japan exit and the expanding Coldcard attack.

Summary

Crypto’s institutional transformation accelerated on August 3, but so did the pressure on weaker business models and security systems.

BlackRock launched two tokenised money-market products designed to hold cash, short-term US Treasuries and Treasury-backed repurchase agreements. One fund is intended specifically for stablecoin reserve management, positioning the world’s largest asset manager inside the financial infrastructure supporting digital dollars.

Strategy moved in the opposite direction from its traditional accumulation narrative. The company sold 1,638 BTC for approximately $104.7 million, using half the proceeds to fund preferred-stock dividends and the remainder to repurchase STRC preferred shares.

BitMine continued accumulating Ether, buying 10,399 ETH and increasing its holdings to almost 5.8 million ETH. The contrasting decisions demonstrate that corporate crypto treasury companies are no longer following one unified strategy.

Regulatory access also became more fragmented. Robinhood secured registration to offer crypto services in the United Kingdom, while Bitget announced that it would exit Japan and close remaining customer positions by the end of the year.

Decentralised exchanges captured a record 24% of centralised exchange spot volume during July, suggesting that onchain trading is taking a larger structural share of a shrinking market.

Meanwhile, the Coldcard wallet attack may have expanded again. Three confirmed waves drained approximately $89 million, while a possible fourth sweep could push total losses toward $114 million.

The day’s central message is that crypto is becoming institutional infrastructure, but the benefits are concentrating among businesses with regulatory access, strong balance sheets and credible operational security.

Market Snapshot

Bitcoin traded near $63,552 late on August 3 after moving between approximately $62,227 and $63,996 during the session. Ether was near $1,625, while Solana traded close to $78.

Bitcoin remained caught in a relatively narrow range despite major institutional announcements. Softer oil prices eased some inflation concerns, but weak capital flows, regulatory uncertainty and continued corporate treasury sales limited the recovery.

US spot Bitcoin ETFs had recorded a $265.4 million net outflow on July 31. Flow data for August 3 had not been fully populated at the time of writing, making it too early to determine whether regulated demand improved at the beginning of the new month.

BlackRock Launches Tokenised Funds for Stablecoin Reserves

BlackRock launched two blockchain-based money-market products designed to connect regulated cash management with tokenised financial markets.

The first is a tokenised share class of the BlackRock Select Treasury Based Liquidity Fund, known as BSTBL. The second is the newly created BlackRock Daily Reinvestment Stablecoin Reserve Vehicle, known as BRSRV.

Both products will invest primarily in cash, short-term US Treasuries and overnight repurchase agreements collateralised by US government securities.

One Fund Is Designed Specifically for Stablecoin Issuers

BRSRV is intended for digitally native institutional investors and stablecoin reserve management.

It offers daily dividend reinvestment and is designed to operate across multiple blockchain networks. Securitize will provide transfer-agent and tokenisation infrastructure for the product.

Stablecoin issuers are required to maintain highly liquid assets capable of supporting redemptions at or near face value.

BlackRock is positioning its money-market infrastructure as a regulated destination for those reserves.

The commercial opportunity is significant. Stablecoin companies need access to Treasury bills, overnight liquidity, custody, fund administration and reliable redemption processes. BlackRock can provide those services without issuing the stablecoin itself.

BSTBL Places Fund Shares on Ethereum

BSTBL creates an onchain share class for an existing BlackRock money-market fund.

The shares will initially be issued on Ethereum and may be transferred between approved investor wallets, subject to applicable regulations. BNY will act as the transfer agent and tokenisation provider.

This structure differs from a synthetic token that merely tracks the price of a Treasury fund.

Approved investors hold an official share class administered through regulated fund infrastructure, while blockchain technology supports ownership records and transfers.

Stablecoins Are Becoming an Asset-Management Business

Stablecoin competition is no longer limited to which token has the most trading pairs or blockchain integrations.

The sector now supports a wider commercial ecosystem involving:

• Reserve management
• Treasury trading
• Custody
• Fund administration
• Tokenisation
• Compliance
• Redemption liquidity
• Institutional settlement

BlackRock can generate management and servicing revenue from stablecoin growth even when another company issues the actual payment token.

This may become one of the most durable institutional business models in crypto. The asset manager does not need to speculate on which stablecoin dominates. It can provide reserve infrastructure to several issuers and digital-finance platforms.

BUIDL Established the First Institutional Bridge

BlackRock’s earlier BUIDL fund had more than $2.6 billion in assets under management, according to data cited in the launch report.

Since BUIDL launched with Securitize in March 2024, the broader tokenised-asset market reportedly expanded from approximately $2 billion to more than $37 billion. Tokenised US Treasuries increased from around $721 million to approximately $16 billion.

The new funds show that BlackRock now views tokenisation as a product category rather than a single experiment.

The next phase is moving from tokenised Treasury exposure toward a complete onchain cash-management system supporting stablecoins, funds, collateral and institutional settlement.

Strategy Sells Another 1,638 Bitcoin

Strategy disclosed that it sold 1,638 BTC between July 27 and August 2 for approximately $104.73 million.

The Bitcoin was sold at an average net price of approximately $63,957. Strategy’s remaining holdings declined to 842,138 BTC, acquired for an aggregate purchase price of approximately $63.51 billion and an average cost of $75,419 per Bitcoin.

The Proceeds Were Used to Support the Capital Structure

Strategy used approximately $52.4 million of the Bitcoin-sale proceeds to fund dividends on its preferred stock.

The remaining $52.3 million was used to repurchase STRC preferred shares. The company repurchased 912,143 STRC shares for approximately $81.2 million during the week.

Strategy also sold more than three million common shares, raising approximately $290.6 million.

Of those proceeds:

• $250 million was added to the company’s US dollar reserve
• $28.9 million funded additional STRC repurchases
• $11.7 million was added to general cash balances

Strategy Is Prioritising Liquidity Over Accumulation

The sale confirms that Strategy’s treasury model has entered a different phase.

For years, the company’s central message was continuous Bitcoin accumulation. It now uses Bitcoin, common stock and cash reserves as components of a wider capital-management strategy.

Preferred-stock dividends, debt obligations and share repurchases create recurring demands for liquidity. Strategy may therefore sell Bitcoin even when management remains fundamentally bullish on the asset.

The company also maintained STRC’s annualised dividend rate at 12% for August. Two semi-monthly dividends of $0.50 per share were declared, subject to the disclosed record and payment dates.

Gross Bitcoin Holdings No Longer Tell the Whole Story

Investors evaluating Strategy must now consider:

• Bitcoin holdings and average acquisition cost
• Preferred dividends
• Common-stock dilution
• Dollar reserves
• Bitcoin sales
• Debt and convertible securities
• Preferred-share repurchases
• The value remaining for common shareholders after senior claims

Strategy remains the largest corporate Bitcoin holder, but it increasingly resembles a leveraged digital-asset investment company rather than a conventional operating company holding surplus cash in Bitcoin.

BitMine Keeps Buying Ether

BitMine Immersion Technologies took the opposite approach during the latest reporting week.

The company purchased 10,399 ETH, increasing its holdings to almost 5.8 million ETH, or approximately 4.8% of Ethereum’s reported circulating supply.

BitMine also repurchased 4.5 million of its own shares, bringing its recent cumulative buybacks to approximately 16 million shares.

The company reported around $11.3 billion in crypto assets, cash, marketable securities and other investments as of August 2. It had staked approximately 4.9 million ETH, representing around 85% of its Ether holdings.

Bitcoin and Ethereum Treasuries Are Diverging

Strategy’s Bitcoin model depends primarily on price appreciation and continued access to equity, preferred stock and debt financing.

BitMine’s Ethereum model includes an additional source of potential return through staking.

That creates a different set of risks and opportunities.

Ethereum treasury companies can earn network rewards, but they also face:

• Slashing risk
• Validator operational risk
• Staking liquidity constraints
• Ethereum protocol risk
• Network concentration concerns
• Token inflation
• Regulatory treatment of staking income

The two strategies should no longer be viewed as simple variations of corporate crypto accumulation.

They are becoming distinct financial structures built around different asset economics.

Concentration Is Becoming a Governance Question

A single public company holding almost 5% of Ethereum’s circulating supply is significant.

When much of that position is staked, the company becomes economically involved in network validation rather than remaining a passive holder.

This raises questions about validator concentration, voting influence, liquid supply and the relationship between corporate treasuries and decentralised networks.

The CLARITY Act’s Prospects Continue to Fade

Wall Street research firm Bernstein warned that failure to pass the CLARITY Act in 2026 could trigger another decline across crypto markets.

The firm said the legislation’s prospects had deteriorated as the Senate approached its August recess without completing the procedural steps needed to advance the bill.

The CLARITY Act is intended to establish clearer federal rules for digital commodities, exchanges, token issuers, decentralised finance and non-custodial developers.

Agency Rulemaking May Replace Legislation

Bernstein expects the SEC and CFTC to accelerate rulemaking under the administration’s Project Crypto initiative if Congress fails to pass the legislation.

That could provide the industry with some operational clarity.

It would not offer the same permanence as legislation.

Agency rules may be challenged in court, revised by new commissioners or reversed under a future administration. A law passed by Congress would provide a more durable division of authority between regulators.

Stablecoin Rewards May No Longer Be the Main Obstacle

Bernstein’s report indicated that negotiators had made progress on disputes involving stablecoin yield or reward rules.

The wider bill remains vulnerable to political ethics disagreements, anti-money-laundering requirements, developer protections and the Senate’s increasingly narrow timetable.

Tokenisation Will Continue Without the Bill

The failure of the CLARITY Act would not stop banks or asset managers from tokenising financial products.

BlackRock’s new funds show that regulated institutions can already build blockchain-based products using existing securities and fund laws.

The unresolved question is whether US legislation will encourage those products to interact with public crypto networks or remain inside controlled institutional systems.

Robinhood Gains UK Crypto Registration

Robinhood’s UK subsidiary was added to the Financial Conduct Authority’s register of cryptoasset businesses on July 31.

The registration allows Robinhood to offer qualifying crypto services under the UK’s existing anti-money-laundering regime.

The approval is strategically important because the UK is preparing to introduce a more comprehensive crypto regulatory framework.

Companies already operating under the existing FCA regime may be better positioned to complete the future authorisation process than firms entering the market for the first time.

Registration Is Becoming a Competitive Moat

Crypto companies once competed mainly through token selection, leverage, fees and mobile features.

Regulated market access is becoming equally important.

A platform able to obtain permission in the UK, European Union, United States and other major markets gains access to customers, banks, institutional partners and advertising channels that may be unavailable to offshore competitors.

Compliance is expensive, but successful authorisation can create a barrier to entry.

Bitget Announces Its Exit From Japan

Bitget announced that it would stop serving residents of Japan as the country tightens oversight of unregistered foreign crypto platforms.

The exchange stopped accepting new Japanese registrations and will place affected accounts into close-only mode from November 1.

Any remaining positions are scheduled to be closed on December 31, although users will still be able to withdraw assets afterward.

Japan Is Moving Toward a Closed Regulatory Perimeter

Japan requires platforms serving local users to register with the Financial Services Agency.

The country recently approved legislation treating cryptocurrencies as financial instruments, with stronger penalties expected for unregistered operations.

Bitget had previously received a warning alongside several other foreign exchanges over services offered without local registration.

Its departure shows that global exchanges can no longer assume that internet access gives them a permanent right to serve every jurisdiction.

Users Must Treat Geographic Access as Temporary

A platform may be available in a country today and restricted tomorrow.

Customers should avoid allowing long-term positions, collateral or savings products to become dependent on one offshore exchange.

Practical protections include maintaining withdrawal access, retaining transaction records and understanding what happens to open derivatives positions when a platform leaves a market.

Japanese readers should not open new Bitget positions and should follow the exchange’s official closure instructions.

Decentralised Exchanges Capture a Record Share of Spot Trading

Decentralised exchanges accounted for approximately 24% of centralised exchange spot volume in July, the highest level recorded in the cited data series.

The ratio increased from around 17% a year earlier.

Part of the increase came from improving onchain execution.

Aggregators now provide better routing, deeper liquidity and easier cross-chain swaps. These improvements have narrowed the execution gap that previously made centralised exchanges the default venue for most spot trades.

The Record Ratio Needs Context

The result does not mean decentralised exchanges experienced uninterrupted growth.

Centralised exchange spot volume also weakened substantially during the period. The DEX share therefore increased partly because activity on traditional crypto exchanges declined.

This distinction matters.

A rising market-share ratio can reflect:

• Greater DEX adoption
• Lower centralised exchange activity
• Migration toward prediction markets
• Reduced retail participation
• Better onchain liquidity
• Demand for newly issued assets unavailable on large exchanges

The structural signal remains important even if absolute trading activity is weak.

Onchain Trading Is Becoming Competitive

DEXs increasingly offer features that were once associated mainly with centralised platforms:

• Aggregated liquidity
• Limit orders
• Cross-chain routing
• Perpetual futures
• Tokenised equities
• Mobile interfaces
• Institutional market makers
• Advanced collateral systems

Centralised exchanges retain advantages in fiat access, customer support, regulated custody and execution for very large orders.

The market is becoming hybrid rather than choosing one model universally.

Coldcard Attack Losses May Be Nearing $114 Million

Three confirmed attack waves involving wallets generated through vulnerable Coldcard firmware drained approximately 1,367 BTC, worth close to $89 million, across 4,585 addresses.

A suspected fourth wave involved another 448.73 BTC across 709 addresses. If confirmed as part of the same exploit, total losses could approach $114 million.

The Attack Is Still Developing

The fourth wave had not been established with the same confidence as the earlier incidents at the time of reporting.

The confirmed attacks were linked to inadequate randomness used during seed generation in older firmware.

Attackers who can reproduce or narrow down the possible seed combinations can reconstruct private keys without physically accessing the device.

Updating Firmware May Not Protect Existing Wallets

A firmware update can prevent the same problem when creating a future wallet.

It cannot make an already predictable seed phrase secure.

Users who generated affected wallets may need to create entirely new recovery phrases using verified software and transfer their funds to new addresses.

The migration must be completed before an attacker reconstructs the old key.

Hardware Wallet Security Has Several Layers

Users should assess:

• Firmware provenance
• Seed-generation method
• Device authenticity
• Recovery-phrase storage
• Transaction verification
• Multisignature configuration
• Manufacturer disclosures
• Whether the wallet was created using affected software

Cold storage remains an important security method, but the incident shows that offline custody is only as strong as the process used to generate and protect the keys.

What Today’s Crypto News Really Means

Stablecoin Growth Benefits Asset Managers

BlackRock does not need to issue the dominant stablecoin to profit from digital-dollar adoption.

Managing reserves, tokenising fund shares and providing institutional cash products may be a more durable and lower-risk business.

Corporate Treasury Strategies Are Splitting

Strategy is selling Bitcoin to manage dividends and preferred shares.

BitMine is buying Ether, staking most of it and repurchasing stock.

Corporate crypto treasuries are becoming specialised financial structures rather than one simple accumulation trade.

Regulation Is Determining Market Access

Robinhood’s UK approval and Bitget’s Japan exit occurred on the same day.

The contrast demonstrates that licences are becoming strategic assets, while operating without local registration is becoming commercially unsustainable.

Onchain Trading Is Taking Structural Market Share

The DEX-to-CEX ratio reached a record even during a weak trading environment.

Better routing, liquidity and interfaces are making self-custodied trading more practical, but the decline in overall activity means market share should not be confused with broad market growth.

Hardware Does Not Eliminate Software Risk

The Coldcard incident did not require attackers to break into a physical safe.

Weak seed generation undermined the security model before the Bitcoin entered the wallet.

What to Watch Next

The most important developments to monitor include:

• Adoption of BlackRock’s new stablecoin-reserve products
• Which blockchains BRSRV supports beyond its initial infrastructure
• Whether stablecoin issuers move reserves into tokenised money-market funds
• Further Bitcoin sales by Strategy
• BitMine’s progress toward controlling 5% of Ethereum’s supply
• Senate action on the CLARITY Act before the August recess
• Project Crypto rulemaking from the SEC and CFTC
• Robinhood’s UK crypto launch timetable
• Bitget withdrawals and position closures in Japan
• Whether the DEX-to-CEX ratio remains elevated
• Additional Coldcard thefts or confirmation of a fourth attack wave
• Official guidance for migrating affected wallets

Explore Crypto Markets

Readers comparing established cryptocurrency platforms can explore Kraken, Bybit using referral code 46164, Bitget, MEXC using code 16yJL, or OKX using code 2136301.

Bitget is withdrawing from the Japanese market. Residents of Japan should follow the exchange’s official closure instructions and should not open new positions.

South African readers can also explore Luno using referral code MJV6YD or VALR using code VAZP2TAW.

Platform access, products, fees, withdrawal networks and regulatory protections vary by jurisdiction. Confirm local eligibility, licensing, custody arrangements and withdrawal conditions before registering or depositing funds.

Disclaimer

This article is for educational and informational purposes only and does not constitute financial, investment, legal, tax or cybersecurity advice. Crypto assets are volatile and may result in substantial losses. Readers must be 18 or older and should conduct independent research before making financial decisions.