August Continues Its Tradition Of Making Crypto Miserable 🤒

Oh, sure, the bounce today feels good... but what will tomorrow bring?

Author

Jonathan Morgan
August 06, 2025

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OVERVIEW

August Continues Its Tradition Of Making Crypto Miserable 🤒

Before we dive in, here’s today’s crypto market heatmap:

Source: Santiment

And here’s a look at crypto’s total market and altcoin market cap charts:

Source: TradingView

NEWS
SEC Finally Admits Staking Isn’t a Sin 🙏 

We waited, we whined, regulators stalled - and now the SEC has awkwardly raised its hand to say something we already knew: liquid staking receipts like stETH aren’t securities after all. 😏

  • The SEC’s Division of Corporation Finance dropped guidance yesterday blessing “certain liquid staking arrangements,” meaning that parking your ETH in Lido and pocketing stETH is no longer treated like selling unregistered stock.

  • Translation: the biggest regulatory migraine in DeFi just swallowed an Advil.

  • Sam Kim, CLO at Lido, called it “breakthrough” clarity.

Staking, Staking, Everywhere

  • Institutional green light - Hedge funds, banks, and any compliance-obsessed shop can now earn yield without sweating subpoenas.

  • Platform integration - Centralized exchanges, fintech apps, and even sleepy brokerages can list or accept stETH without a legal choke chain.

  • Token design precedent - If a “receipt on a token” isn’t a security, wrapped assets and cross-chain bridge tokens just got a friendlier legal forecast.

The SEC hasn’t morphed into a DeFi stan overnight, but this baby step slices a Gordian knot that kept institutional capital on ice. Builders now have one less excuse.

Degens now have one more on-ramp. Everyone wins - except, maybe, short sellers betting on regulatory doom. 😎

SPONSORED
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Bitcoin Depot (Nasdaq: BTM) is more than just another crypto stock. They’re the largest Bitcoin ATM operator in the world with the numbers to back up their real growth:

● BTM up EBITDA 300+% this year 

● Revenue up 19% YoY to $164.2M 

● Q1 net income up to $12.2M (from prior-year loss)

The best part? They’ve built a robust Bitcoin treasury strategy that’s only getting bigger. Real revenue backed by ATM usage + a Bitcoin treasury + financial strength? This could be the unique play you’ve been looking for.

The above is for general informational purposes only and is not investment advice nor does it constitute an offer, recommendation, or solicitation to buy or sell a particular financial instrument. Bitcoin Depot is not a registered investment adviser under the U.S. Investment Advisers Act of 1940. Nothing contained herein constitutes a solicitation, recommendation, endorsement, or offer by Bitcoin Depot to buy or sell any securities or other financial instruments

*3rd Party Ad. Not an offer or recommendation by Stocktwits. See disclosure here. 

NEWS
Scammer Doxxed: Xerberus SIREN Tracks 20K SNEK/ADA Heist Back To Coinbase 😏

A Cardano holder got fleeced and the thief thought they’d pulled a Houdini. First it looked like the thief ghosted with the loot. 😱 

Reality check: on August 3, the scammer’s wallet suddenly snagged a fresh 20,000 ADA injection from a new address, sparking Xerberus’ curiosity. Their free tool SIREN spun up a full wallet graph in under a day - tracing the ADA:

  • Victim → mule wallets → scammer’s stash

  • Surprise kicker: an “additional funder” topped up the scammer

  • That funder itself was linked to two enterprise wallets tied to Coinbase Australia

Because Coinbase operates under AUSTRAC KYC, the perp’s real-world ID now sits a subpoena away. The “clean getaway”? Not so clean after all.

Also, these guys might now be the smartest criminals in the world, either. Using a public CEX to launder your loot? This is like a person robbing a bank with a plastic knife and no mask on - just asking to get caught. 🤦 

Kind Of A Badass Tool

  • Free for everyone - SIREN doesn’t gatekeep by ticket size. Lost 50 ADA or 50K? Same treatment.

  • Legal ammo - On-chain evidence plus centralized-exchange KYC equals a prosecutor’s dream.

  • Community shield - Smaller victims get enterprise-grade forensics without paying chain-analysis rent (which is kind of like getting victimized twice if you ever looked into the prices). 🛡️

STOCKTWITS
Stocktwits & FINTECH.TV Stream Real-Time Crypto Sentiment From NYSE

Stocktwits is coming to the NYSE!

We’re teaming up with FINTECH.TV to bring real-time retail sentiment to the heart of institutional finance—combining our 10M+ investor community and proprietary data with their global media platform and New York Stock Exchange studio access.

🎥 First up: “Treasuries Unchained” — our new flagship series diving into corporate crypto treasury strategies and the growing intersection of TradFi and DeFi.

Launching soon from the NYSE, the series will feature:

• Executive interviews with market-shaping leaders (starting with Meanwhile CEO Zac Townsend)

• Executive interviews with market-shaping leaders

• Real-time Stocktwits sentiment embedded into the programming

• Insightful coverage designed for both institutional pros and retail investors

The first in-depth interview will debut in mid-August, featuring Surf Air Mobility Inc. (NYSE: SRFM) Co-Founder Sudhin Shahani. Surf Air is a leading regional air mobility platform transforming air travel through software and electrification.

See you mid-August from the floor of the NYSE

NEWS IN THREE SENTENCES
AI, Stablecoins, & Privacy News 🕵️

🧠 Asphere and Heurist Spin Up ZK-Powered AI Chain

The AI economy just got its blockchain command center. Built with ZK Stack and Avail DA, Heurist Chain routes GPU requests, enforces privacy, and slashes costs for 30+ AI models already doing 1.9B inferences. Intelligent sequencer matches jobs to agents while fees only fire on success. Ankr.

🪙 RHEA Token Unites NEAR’s Top DEX and Lending Into AI-Optimized Liquidity Giant

Ref Finance plus Burrow birthed chain-abstracted RHEA with cross-chain BTC margin and AI vaults that auto-hunt yield using NEAR Shade Agents (if that doesn’t sound like word salad, then I don’t know what does). Cue one-click, AI-driven yield chasing across EVMs and even Bitcoin - multi-chain FOMO on steroids. NEAR Protocol.

NEWS IN THREE SENTENCES
Real World Asset Tokenization (RWA) News 🪙

🏗️ Inveniam Drops $20 M on MANTRA to Tokenize Private Assets from UAE to Wall Street

Deal stitches Inveniam’s data-AI stack into MANTRA’s RWA-friendly L1, with targeting reticles on the $300T private-market prize. ADGM, VARA licenses, and cross-chain VM support hand institutions the compliance blanket they keep whining about. MANTRA.

STOCKTWITS
Stocktwits Sat Down With Galaxy Boss Mike Novogratz

More great interviews and insights coming soon! 📆 

NEWS IN THREE SENTENCES
Metaverse, NFT, & Gaming News 🎮️

🎬 Eli Roth Lets Horror Fans Buy the Blood Buckets via Sui-Powered Equity

“The Horror Section” raised $5.5M from 2,500 gore junkies who now literally own a slice of the scream factory for as little as $100. Tokenized shares on Sui let backers collect profits, nab cameo credits, and maybe get chainsawed on screen - no Web3 PhD required. Hollywood bean-counters just found their new nightmare: crowds with equity and taste. Sui.

🌊 Calypso Hub on SKALE Goes Gasless so Your NFT Game Stops Bankrupting Players

Zero fees, instant finality, and cross-chain composability let projects like Pixudi and Dmail ship real-time experiences minus wallet anxiety. Shared compute turns Calypso into a plug-and-play playground for AI chat, marketplaces, and crypto board games. SKALE Network.

NEWS IN THREE SENTENCES
DeFi, DEX, & Lending Protocol News 🏦

🏛️ Ondo’s July: $250M Catalyst, Two Acquisitions, and White House Shout-Out

Buying Strangelove and Oasis Pro gives Ondo both the tech stack and broker-dealer licenses for tokenized securities domination. USDY hops to Sei, Alchemy Pay adds 173-country fiat ramps, and the Global Markets Alliance swells to 25 members. Tokenizing treasury bills suddenly looks like small talk. Ondo Finance.

💧 Curve’s July Flex: Telegram Pools, 9% Yields, and a $30 M Stablecoin Cannonball

Curve jumped onto TON’s TAC so degens can farm liquidity without leaving their chat app, pushed scrvUSD yields to 9% before cruising near 7%, and flaunted LLAMMA by letting a 5x ETH long dodge liquidation hell. A $30M USDT to USDC swap plowed through 3pool, reminding every wannabe stableswap who still owns the deep-liquidity crown. Curve Finance.

🛠️ ICON’s Solana Leak Nicks 1,450 SOL - Insurance Fund Writes the Check

A legacy asset manager got drained for under 5% of network liquidity, but ICON’s insurance stash will cover the 37 SOL and 76 JitoSOL owed to users. Patch is live, hacker wallet black-listed, and a bounty offer dangles carrots for a refund. Balanced on Solana stays offline until the dust - and the auditors - settle. ICON.

LINKS
Links That Don’t Suck 🔗

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Author Disclosure: The author of this newsletter holds positions in ADA, IMX, COPI, MIN, AGIX, ALGO, ZEC, XLM, and NEAR. 📋