institution

Cryptocurrency exchange Bybit announced the appointment of Sean Ballard as the Head of Derivatives and Institutional Business. Ballard will play a key role in strengthening trading infrastructure, risk frameworks, and institutional capabilities, with responsibilities covering trading risk and exchange technology.Ballard has over 25 years of experience in global financial markets, encompassing derivatives, high-frequency trading, trading risk, market structure, and exchange technology. Before joining Bybit, he worked at Jump Trading, where he led the company's high-frequency futures trading operations in the United States, Europe, the Middle East, Africa, and Latin America, managing portfolios and collaborating with global exchanges and regulators on market structure, trading performance, and infrastructure. During his time at Jump Trading, he also served as a senior trader on the Jump Crypto team, managing centralized exchange trading and driving strategic partnerships related to ecosystem growth.At Bybit, Ballard will enhance the institutional trading experience through market infrastructure, risk management, and product development. Bybit Institutional has introduced professional services such as bank tripartite arrangements over the past year, allowing institutions to manage counterparty risk through regulated custody while retaining full trading authority; the market maker gateway has reduced latency for high-frequency and quantitative clients from 4 milliseconds to 1.5 milliseconds. Starting July 2026, Finloop's AAA-rated USD money market fund FUIDL will be available as trading collateral on Bybit.

According to Zhitong Finance, Standard Chartered Bank stated that it will expand its institutional-level Bitcoin and Ethereum spot trading business from the UK to the UAE and will launch this business.

The US spot XRP ETF has recorded net inflows for 11 consecutive trading days, attracting approximately $170 million in funds during this period. Since its launch in November last year, the cumulative net inflow of these funds has reached about $1.68 billion. As of Wednesday morning, the trading price of XRP was around $1.33, down from about $1.45 on August 27, but still higher than the $1 level in mid-August.According to the disclosures in the 13F filings, Goldman Sachs is the largest institutional holder of the XRP ETF, holding approximately $87.4 million, while Jane Street and Millennium Management hold $16.6 million and $16.2 million, respectively. Investment advisors are the largest category of holders, accounting for about $120 million of the disclosed $183 million, while hedge funds hold about $25 million, and brokers and banks hold approximately $17 million and $14 million, respectively.However, institutional holdings and fund inflows measure different dimensions: the 13F filings reflect the holdings as of June 30, while the continuous inflows record new funds from the end of August to early September. These data only reflect the total holdings of the ETF and not the complete exposure of investors to XRP; institutions like Goldman Sachs may hedge part of the price risk through futures or other instruments. The next round of 13F filings will be released in November.

According to CoinDesk, 21 international financial institutions have announced plans to establish a new company in the second half of 2026 to promote the issuance of stablecoins, with the specific name to be announced later. The company will initially focus on USD-denominated stablecoins and plans to expand to more G7 currencies in the future, with a priority on euro stablecoins.Participating institutions include Bank of America, Citigroup, Morgan Stanley, Goldman Sachs, Deutsche Bank, UBS, Wells Fargo, BBVA, Santander Bank, MUFG Bank, and others. The stablecoin initiative aims to serve wholesale, institutional, and retail markets, applying to scenarios such as cross-border payments and digital asset settlements.The group stated that the stablecoin solution will combine bank-level compliance, governance, and institutional risk management capabilities, and plans to comply with relevant regulatory requirements such as the U.S. GENIUS Act and the EU MiCA. The project aims to officially launch stablecoin products in the first half of 2027.

The research institution Sigmaintell has released a storage price indicator showing that in the third quarter of 2026, the overall supply and demand in the global storage market remains tight. Prices for all categories of DRAM (Dynamic Random Access Memory) and NAND Flash (flash memory) continue to rise month-on-month, but the rate of increase has significantly slowed compared to the second quarter, with the month-on-month increase for some storage chips narrowing to within 10%.

Tom Lee stated during his appearance on CNBC: "I believe that there are actually very few people who truly hold cryptocurrencies. Because of this, I think Bitcoin can easily break through six figures (like over $100,000), but it may also be affected by interest rate hikes. As for how cryptocurrencies will perform, I think this will be a good test, but we have already seen long-term yields (interest rates) rising. So, if we see the Federal Reserve raising interest rates while long-term yields actually decline, that would essentially mean monetary easing. Therefore, the key may be how long-term yields respond to the Federal Reserve's interest rate hikes."He also added: "I think this is just the first wave of the rise because this round of cryptocurrency market has caught many people off guard. Well, I believe institutional investors are buying stocks related to cryptocurrencies, and this is very obvious—trading volume has surged significantly, which signals that they are betting on a big market in the fourth quarter. I think $150,000 is still possible, well, it's actually not that far from now."

Axis announced the launch of Axis Prime, expanding its previously built fragmented market execution infrastructure for institutional allocators running market-neutral strategies to provide institutional liquidity and execution services for new banks, brokerages, remittance businesses, and digital asset platforms.Prime completes trade pricing, liquidity acquisition, execution and settlement management, as well as inventory and counterparty risk management through a single institutional relationship. This service supports over 15 currencies, stablecoins, and settlement channels, evaluating more than 25 million cross-asset pricing paths, with selected channels averaging a quoted spread of less than 10 basis points.Axis stated that Prime has completed its first OTC order for a large centralized cryptocurrency exchange. Capital entering Axis supports the balance sheet and trading infrastructure, while Prime utilizes this infrastructure to quote and execute external institutional capital flows, forming a dual-use model of capital formation and liquidity provision in parallel.

According to on-chain analyst Yu Jin's monitoring, a certain institution has successively transferred 52,739 ETH (approximately 129 million USD) to six CEXs including Binance and OKX from yesterday until now. Currently, there are still 101,561 ETH (approximately 249 million USD) in the address.The ETH originated from withdrawals from Coinbase at an average price of about 1,700 USD between 2021 and 2022, was deposited into Ethereum staking in 2023, and was redeemed from staking last January. In the past two days, it has been aggregated into two wallets and then successively transferred to multiple CEXs.

Cryptoquant founder and CEO Ki Young Ju stated that the peak of the current Bitcoin bull market cycle may be driven by institutional funds and ETF demand outside the United States. He pointed out that deeper stablecoin liquidity and tokenized asset infrastructure will expand global market participation. Using South Korea as an example, Ki Young Ju mentioned that the country currently does not have a spot Bitcoin ETF, retail investors cannot purchase overseas-listed spot Bitcoin ETFs, and most companies are unable to open trading accounts to buy BTC. South Korea has phased in corporate participation, with the Financial Services Commission (FSC) roadmap covering about 3,500 listed companies and qualified professional investors, but financial institutions and other companies are still excluded.Strategy's Bitcoin bank evaluated 25 major institutions covering trading, custody, digital asset products, financing, and corporate participation, with an overall adoption rate of 32%. RWA.xyz data shows that the global tokenized asset distributed asset value is $38.63 billion, an increase of 2.65% compared to 30 days ago. The Bank for International Settlements (BIS) stated that stablecoins have the potential to enable faster, programmable payments, but current designs may pose risks to financial integrity, liquidity, and currency. Ki Young Ju pointed out that the cumulative net inflow before the launch of the U.S. spot Bitcoin ETF was about $57 billion over two years, and the next phase will be global institutionalization, with more institutions adopting BTC as a strategic asset, and countries lacking ETFs will also improve related investment channels.

BitGo announced the completion of its acquisition of NYDIG's institutional trading business, which was completed in a two-step merger, with a total consideration of approximately $42.5 million, including $7 million in cash and about $35.5 million in BitGo stock. About 30 NYDIG employees will transition with the business, and the deal also includes Earnout terms linked to revenue milestones.The business provides derivatives, structured products, financing, and capital market solutions for asset management firms, hedge funds, corporations, and family offices. BitGo CEO Mike Belshe stated that institutional clients are increasingly looking to partner with trusted partners that can support the entire lifecycle of digital assets, covering custody, trading, financing, and settlement.For NYDIG, the sale allows it to focus on power generation, Bitcoin mining, and high-performance computing data center businesses, with the company stating that its development pipeline exceeds 3 gigawatts. BitGo went public on the NYSE this year, with a valuation of approximately $2 billion, and launched the USDS stablecoin.

BitGo announced that it has acquired NYDIG's institutional trading business and related assets, incorporating derivatives, structured products, financing, and capital market capabilities into its institutional platform. Approximately 30 NYDIG employees will join BitGo, and NYDIG's institutional trading client relationships will also transfer to BitGo along with the business.BitGo will integrate the related business with its custody, trading, settlement, and wallet infrastructure. NYDIG will focus its resources on power generation, Bitcoin mining, and high-performance computing data center operations. NYDIG stated that its computing power infrastructure development reserves currently exceed 3 gigawatts, with more than 1 gigawatt expected to be delivery-ready by 2027 and 2028.

According to CoinDesk, the U.S. clearing and custody institution RQD Clearing announced the completion of a $74 million financing round, led by Bain Capital Tech Opportunities, a technology investment division of Bain Capital, with participation from ABN AMRO Clearing Bank and Nyca Partners. This round of financing will be used to expand operations in North America, Asia, and the Middle East, and to enhance infrastructure development for digital asset custody and asset tokenization.RQD primarily provides post-trade clearing and custody services for broker-dealers, investment advisors, and overseas financial institutions in the U.S. market, responsible for key processes such as securities and funds settlement, and risk management. This year, the company has processed approximately 515 million stock trades, involving nearly $2 trillion, accounting for about 2.4% of the National Market System (NMS) stock trading volume in the U.S.As Wall Street institutions accelerate their exploration of on-chain finance, traditional market infrastructure is becoming an important direction for the competition of tokenized assets. RQD has previously collaborated with Blue Ocean Technologies to advance the clearing and settlement infrastructure for tokenized U.S. stocks and has aligned with the tokenized securities framework of the Depository Trust & Clearing Corporation (DTCC).

CryptoQuant founder Ki Young Ju stated that the peak of this bull market cycle is likely to be driven by institutional funds and ETFs outside of the United States. Currently, South Korea has not yet launched a spot Bitcoin ETF, retail investors cannot purchase overseas related ETFs, and companies are even unable to open trading platform accounts to buy BTC.Ki Young Ju believes that the market was primarily driven by the adoption of Bitcoin in the United States, but the next phase will shift towards global institutionalization, accompanied by deeper stablecoin liquidity and RWA infrastructure. More institutions will hold BTC as a strategic asset, and several countries that have not yet launched ETFs will gradually improve related investment channels. The peak of this cycle may occur when a banker from a local bank in South Korea recommends a spot Bitcoin ETF to an elderly woman, suggesting it for savings.

SK Group plans to sell a 49% stake in its Ulsan artificial intelligence data center in South Korea to several private equity firms. SK Telecom and SK Broadband intend to approve the transaction at the board meeting on August 27.KKR will acquire a 29% stake, while a consortium formed by IMM Investment and Stonebridge Capital will acquire a 20% stake. The transaction is valued at approximately 3 trillion won, which includes about 1.2 trillion won in capital increase.

According to Bitcoin.com, Strategy (MSTR) Executive Chairman Michael Saylor proposed the concept of "Bitcoin Reform" in a published article, advocating that Bitcoin should break free from the dogmatic understanding of early concepts such as Satoshi Nakamoto, the white paper, and "must self-custody," and further integrate into banks, exchanges, enterprises, securities markets, and government systems.Saylor stated that self-custody remains an important right for holders to freely exit the intermediary system, but it should not be a mandatory obligation for everyone; users can also evaluate institutional services based on dimensions such as custodial isolation, collateral, audits, insurance, and withdrawal rights. He believes that Bitcoin has gradually evolved from peer-to-peer electronic cash and "digital gold" into "digital capital" that can support credit, equity, currency, and machine economies.

According to the latest data from Counterpoint Research, the Apple iPhone 17 is the best-selling smartphone globally in the second quarter of 2026, accounting for 6% of the total global smartphone shipments; the iPhone 17 Pro Max and iPhone 17 Pro rank second and third on the list. Apple and Samsung each occupy five positions in the global best-selling smartphone TOP10 list; the top ten models together account for 26% of the total global smartphone sales, an increase of 2% year-on-year. The base model iPhone 17 remains the best-selling smartphone this quarter, with significant upgrades narrowing the gap with the Pro models, supporting sales.Apple's stock price closed down 0.14% on Tuesday and fell 0.23% after hours, with a market capitalization currently reported at $4.52 trillion. For Samsung Electronics, two models from the Galaxy S series entered the top ten; the Galaxy S26 Ultra became Samsung's best-selling model this quarter, improving its ranking by 5 places compared to the previous generation, and it is also the best-selling Android model this quarter; this is the first time a super high-end Android device has led Android sales in the second quarter.

A Reuters survey shows that most economists believe the Bank of Japan will take action faster than previously expected, and will raise interest rates again in September, with the terminal rate potentially being higher. 57% of economists expect an interest rate hike next month, a significant increase from 5% in July. Ayako Fujita, Chief Economist for Japan at JPMorgan, stated that delaying the rate hike could lead to market turmoil. In addition, more than two-thirds of respondents believe that the recent US-Japan joint foreign exchange intervention has had limited effects.

Analyst Ted (@TedPillows) stated that the Coinbase Ethereum premium has turned positive, indicating that institutions are accumulating. In related discussions, market participants noted that a positive premium means that U.S. demand is beginning to re-emerge, and Ethereum is showing some strength.The Coinbase premium is typically used to measure the premium or discount level of asset prices on the Coinbase platform relative to other major trading platforms. When this indicator turns from negative to positive, it is often interpreted as U.S. investors, particularly institutional funds, being relatively active in buying, providing support for spot demand. The recent rebound in Ethereum-related premiums is viewed by some observers as one of the signals of marginal improvement in liquidity.