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According to CoinDesk, as Bitcoin surged from about $62,000 to over $77,000 last week, liquidating approximately $3 billion in leveraged short positions, major crypto market makers such as Abraxas Capital, Fasanara Capital, and Wintermute quietly established short positions in perpetual contracts worth hundreds of millions of dollars on Hyperliquid.Lookonchain data shows that the three institutions collectively hold short positions of 138,569 ETH (approximately $338 million) and 3,425 BTC (approximately $265 million); meanwhile, Abraxas Capital withdrew 73,872 ETH (approximately $173 million) from Binance in the past four days.This strategy is known as cash arbitrage or basis trading: traders hold spot positions while shorting an equivalent amount of assets through perpetual contracts to hedge against price volatility risks, primarily earning the funding rates paid by longs to shorts. In previous months, funding rates were long suppressed or even turned negative, but this month's rebound has quickly turned funding rates positive, reopening the arbitrage window. Aegis data shows that the 30-day average funding rate for Bitcoin perpetual contracts on August 24 reached an annualized 6.7%, with a 7-day average of 8.7%; 21shares capital markets noted that basis trading for mainstream assets like Solana is also becoming lucrative.This trading has extended to regulated markets: Glassnode data shows that CME Bitcoin futures open interest has risen from about 87,000 BTC to 122,000 BTC.

According to Digital Asset, Park Soo-young, a member of the Korean National Power Party, criticized the government's plan to tax virtual asset gains, stating that it is "a threat of a tax bomb if one does not invest in the domestic stock market," and demanded an immediate withdrawal.Member Park Soo-young stated on her YouTube channel: "I hope this punitive tax plan that puts 13 million digital asset users in danger can be withdrawn immediately." She added, "This does not mean that people will invest in domestic stocks; on the contrary, it will only accelerate the outflow of national wealth." She cited that approximately 124 trillion won flowed into overseas digital asset exchanges from January to September last year.

According to Bitcoin.com, Gurinder Singh Josan MP and Lord Vaizey, co-chairs of the UK All-Party Parliamentary Group on Crypto and Digital Assets (APPG), have written to the CEOs of major UK banks requesting clarification on whether they provide account services to crypto businesses, what restrictions are placed on digital asset transactions, and whether these policies will be adjusted with the implementation of the new regulatory framework in the UK.The MPs pointed out that access to banking may be the single biggest obstacle to the development of crypto and digital asset businesses in the UK. If licensed crypto businesses are still unable to obtain basic banking services, the competitive goals of the new regulatory system will be difficult to achieve.Lucy Rigby, Economic Secretary to the Treasury, has previously stated that banking service restrictions should not be imposed on FCA-authorized crypto businesses solely due to the nature of the industry. The deadline for submitting written evidence for this inquiry is August 31, and the APPG will use this to make policy recommendations to the government.

According to Bloomberg, to advance the landmark cryptocurrency legislation "Clarity Act," bipartisan senators have proposed an ethical provision to Trump that may include a clause allowing the president to defer capital gains tax on his cryptocurrency assets. The proposal requires the president to divest from cryptocurrency-related businesses, and the relevant terms are still being negotiated between the White House and lawmakers. In June 2025, Trump reported that his family's cryptocurrency business generated over $1.4 billion in revenue, indicating that most of his income has come from digital assets benefiting from his own policies. Democratic senators have made strong ethical provisions a condition for supporting the bill, which aims to clarify the regulatory authority over the cryptocurrency industry.

The FBI submitted data disclosure to the legislative committee, revealing that losses related to cryptocurrency kiosks in Texas amounted to $56.8 million in 2025, involving 1,179 complaints, making it the highest loss among all states in the U.S. The total number of related complaints nationwide was 13,460, with reported losses increasing by 58% year-on-year to $389 million. Cryptocurrency kiosks can accept cash and exchange it for cryptocurrency, typically set up at gas stations and convenience stores.Statistics from the Texas Tribune show that there are about 4,000 such devices in Texas, where scammers induce victims to withdraw money from their bank accounts and deposit it into the machines. Jesse Saucillo, Deputy Commissioner of the Texas Department of Banking, stated that once funds are transferred out, recovering them is nearly impossible, as the money typically flows into unhosted wallets and then into mixers. He added that AI-generated police and state agency impersonation content makes phone inducements more deceptive.Data from AARP indicates that since 2023, approximately 30 states in the U.S. have enacted laws related to cryptocurrency kiosks. Indiana fully banned such devices in March, followed by Tennessee and Minnesota. Texas House Committee Chairman Rep. Cole Hefner stated that the state will consider measures beyond regulatory scope.

Uniswap announces the official launch of DualPool Hook. DualPool is an open-source Uniswap v4 Hook, jointly designed and developed by Spark and Uniswap Labs, allowing market makers to earn yields by depositing idle assets into lending protocols during the waiting period for liquidity funds to be executed, and to withdraw funds back to the liquidity pool when a transaction occurs.From an external perspective, DualPool is indistinguishable from a regular Uniswap v4 liquidity pool, and traders, aggregators, and solvers still complete transactions through the Pool Manager. Its internal mechanism is that liquidity funds are stored in an ERC-4626 yield vault and are automatically withdrawn when a transaction needs to be executed, deployed to concentrated liquidity positions, thereby ensuring transaction execution while allowing idle funds to continuously generate lending yields.

U.S. Congressman Ritchie Torres has requested the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to investigate whether the upcoming Truth API from Truth Social's parent company Trump Media & Technology Group (TMTG) violates federal securities laws, and to assess whether it involves issues such as market manipulation, investor protection, and conflicts of interest.According to previous reports, the Truth API will launch on August 1, providing paying customers with real-time data access to public posts from popular Truth Social accounts, with authorization fees reaching up to $100,000 per month.

Several individuals familiar with the discussions on the "Digital Asset Market Structure Act" have stated that U.S. lawmakers plan to release an updated version of the cryptocurrency market structure bill this week. The new text combines the provisions previously approved by the U.S. Senate Banking Committee and the Agriculture Committee, and was negotiated by the two committees on multiple terms.

According to Cointelegraph, the New Hampshire Business Finance Authority (BFA) is scheduled to hold a public hearing on Wednesday regarding the issuance of $100 million in Bitcoin-backed bonds. The plan was approved by the BFA in November 2025 and requires final approval from the governor and a five-member executive council.The bonds are secured by collateral from the private borrower CleanSpark, with no recourse to state funds or taxpayers. Moody's assigned a preliminary rating of Ba2 (speculative grade) to the bonds in March. New Hampshire is the first state to pass a strategic Bitcoin reserve law, allowing 5% of public funds to be invested in digital assets.

According to Decrypt, UK Labour MP Phil Brickell has requested the Parliamentary Commissioner for Standards to investigate Reform UK leader Nigel Farage, examining whether he engaged in improper lobbying regarding the Bank of England's cryptocurrency policy after receiving significant financial support from Tether's major investor Christopher Harborne.Reports indicate that Farage privately met with Bank of England Governor Andrew Bailey in September 2025, where he advocated for abandoning the launch of the central bank digital currency "Britcoin" and opposed limits on individual holdings of stablecoins.Christopher Harborne is alleged to hold approximately 12% of Tether's equity and previously provided Farage with an undisclosed personal gift of £5 million, as well as donating around £15 million to Reform UK.

According to Jinshi reports, European Central Bank President Lagarde stated that most policymakers were previously prepared to raise interest rates in April.

According to the Wall Street Journal, several U.S. lawmakers are calling for an investigation into the prediction market platform Polymarket, as its advertising is alleged to potentially contain misleading content.It is reported that the lawmakers believe Polymarket may not clearly disclose the nature of its products and associated risks in its marketing, which could mislead users. Some legislators have requested regulatory agencies to intervene and assess the compliance of its advertising and information disclosure standards.

According to on-chain analyst Yu Jin's monitoring, VELVET has surged 10 times in the past few days (from $0.09 to $0.9). During the price surge, addresses associated with the project transferred 22 million VELVET (worth $19.8 million) to exchanges such as Bitget, Gate, and Kucoin in the past 3 days.In addition, VELVET's market maker DWF Labs has also transferred 6.68 million VELVET (worth $6 million) to the aforementioned exchanges in the past month.

According to Cointelegraph, South Korean police recently raided the cryptocurrency exchange Bithumb to investigate independent lawmaker Kim Byung-gi for allegedly using his influence to secure a job for his son. It is reported that Kim's son joined Bithumb in January 2025 and worked for about six months. The police are investigating whether there was any external pressure or special treatment during his hiring process.Additionally, the case also involves Dunamu, the operator of South Korea's largest cryptocurrency exchange Upbit, with the investigation scope expanding from simple recruitment issues to potential power rent-seeking and interest transfer. Investigators pointed out that while serving as a member of the South Korean National Assembly's Administrative Committee, Kim Byung-gi had repeatedly questioned Dunamu during meetings, raising suspicions about whether he was trying to benefit the company where his son worked.It is understood that the police had previously questioned executives from multiple cryptocurrency companies and had conducted searches at Bithumb's headquarters and Bithumb Financial Tower to gather evidence. Kim Byung-gi himself is under investigation for 13 charges, including employment arrangements, bribery for nominations, and requests related to university transfers, and he stated that he believes he will ultimately be able to prove his innocence.It is worth noting that Bithumb has recently faced ongoing regulatory pressure. In March of this year, South Korea's financial regulatory agency imposed a fine of approximately $24.5 million on Bithumb for KYC and anti-money laundering (AML) violations and issued a six-month partial business suspension order. However, a South Korean court temporarily suspended the enforcement of the penalty at the end of April, and the relevant legal procedures are still ongoing.

According to CoinDesk, Deribit Chief Commercial Officer Jean-David Péquignot stated that $60,000 is a key structural threshold for Bitcoin. Over the past year, a large amount of institutional funds (including ETF buyers, large holders, and short-term speculators) have bought Bitcoin in the $60,000 to $67,000 range. If the price continues to decline, unrealized losses will increase, and holding costs will rise, especially against the backdrop of rising AI stocks, which may prompt panic selling among investors. The open interest of put options with a strike price of $60,000 on Deribit has a notional value of over $1.2 billion.As Bitcoin approaches $60,000, market makers face Gamma risk from shorting put options and will be forced to sell spot or futures to balance their books, accelerating the decline. In addition, there is still excessive leveraged long positions in the system, and a drop below $60,000 could trigger more liquidations, creating a chain reaction.

According to Bitcoin News, U.S. Congressman Nick Begich has introduced the "U.S. Reserve Modernization Act," which already has 16 original co-sponsors. The bill will establish a strategic Bitcoin reserve, integrate federally held digital assets, and lock them in as long-term reserve assets for at least 20 years.The bill also explores budget-neutral Bitcoin acquisition strategies while protecting the reserves from future government and congressional liquidation efforts. The media commented that the strategic Bitcoin reserve established by Trump through an executive order will be formally enshrined in law by the "U.S. Reserve Modernization Act."

According to CoinDesk, bipartisan lawmakers Steven Horsford, Max Miller, Suzan DelBene, and Mike Carey jointly reintroduced the "Digital Asset Protection, Accountability, Regulatory, Innovation, Taxation, and Revenue Act" (also known as the "Equality Act") this Wednesday. The new version of the bill mainly covers the following points: first, it stipulates that regulated payment stablecoins do not generate gains or losses if the cost basis is not less than 99% of the redemption value; second, it establishes a safe harbor for broker-dealer transactions or taxpayer account transactions; third, it clarifies that "wash sale" rules apply to digital assets; fourth, it requires the IRS to assess the current tax burden of small cryptocurrency transactions and to study the feasibility of establishing a tax exemption for transactions under $200 and the potential risks of abuse.The cryptocurrency industry has long advocated for tax exemptions on small transactions to promote the use of cryptocurrencies in everyday payment scenarios. Lawmaker Horsford stated that tax policy is the foundation of the cryptocurrency regulatory framework, and that current tax laws have not clearly addressed many core issues related to digital assets.

According to Jinshi reports, the Federal Reserve meeting minutes show that many decision-makers are more inclined to remove the accommodative bias from the policy statement.