US Treasury Secretary slams "Fed Mouthpiece" for being reduced to only reporting behind-the-scenes gossip instead of producing genuine policy analysis.

According to BIT (bit.com) market data, Strategy’s perpetual preferred stock STRC surged past $94 during U.S. trading hours, jumping roughly 30% from its June low. The recent rally is driven by multiple factors: Strategy’s sale of Bitcoin to pay dividends, its repurchase of $106 million in preferred shares, and its increase in U.S. dollar reserves to $4 billion. Additionally, Strategy has not added to its Bitcoin holdings for six consecutive weeks. Strategy founder Michael Saylor emphasized last week that the company will not issue new STRC shares when the stock trades below $100. To date, the firm has repurchased 288,930 STRC preferred shares for a total of roughly $25 million, at an average price of $86.52 per share. Strategy plans to remain a "regular and disciplined buyer," continuing repurchases when STRC trades below $100. It will increase its buying activity when the stock is far from $100, and reduce repurchase volumes as it approaches that level. Currently, Strategy has approximately $975 million available for preferred share repurchases. Funds for STRC repurchases will not come from its U.S. dollar reserves; instead, they will be raised via sales of MSTR stock and Bitcoin, depending on market conditions, with the goal of stabilizing STRC’s price around $100.

August 5 Update: #Bitcoin ETFs: 1D NetFlow: +3,275 $BTC(+$211.08M)?? 7D NetFlow: +5,565 $BTC(+$358.05M)?? #Ethereum ETFs: 1D NetFlow: +23,222 $ETH(+$43.54M)?? 7D NetFlow: +4,953 $ETH(+$9.27M)??

Crypto journalist Eleanor Terrett disclosed that U.S. Senate Majority Leader John Thune today filed a motion to proceed to debate on other bills, excluding the Cryptocurrency Market Structure Act (the CLARITY Act). A motion to proceed is a key procedural step for advancing Senate legislation, and Thune’s choice to prioritize other bills at this time signals that core disagreements over the CLARITY Act—especially the unresolved division over enforcement authority for its ethics provisions—have not been bridged. The U.S. Senate is set to enter its August recess, so the legislative window for the CLARITY Act is rapidly narrowing. The bill previously passed the Senate Banking Committee, but Democrats and Republicans remain deadlocked over its ethics provision banning federal officials from issuing digital assets: specifically, whether the Department of Justice (DOJ) or state attorneys general should serve as the lead enforcement body. Maryland Senator Alsobrooks has explicitly stated she will not support the bill if enforcement power is limited to the DOJ rather than retained for states. Thune’s decision to prioritize other legislation has further reinforced market expectations that the CLARITY Act will not secure a full Senate vote before the recess. On prediction market Predict.fun, the probability that the CLARITY Act will be signed into law in 2026 has fallen to 16%.

According to Bloomberg, sources familiar with the matter revealed that hackers have launched a sophisticated wave of attacks on Wall Street firms in recent days, targeting the information systems of large asset management companies. Attackers attempted to breach the systems of some of the world’s largest hedge funds, including Two Sigma Investments, Citadel, and Point72 Asset Management. Multiple private equity firms were also targeted in this attack wave. The attacks used vishing, a method where cybercriminals leverage technology to simulate voices in calls or voice messages, tricking employees into disclosing sensitive information or granting access permissions.

Kraken parent company Payward has announced a major adjustment to how tokenized stocks participate in corporate governance. Previously, xStocks holders held no voting rights over their underlying equities; now, via a partnership with investor communications services giant Broadridge, qualified investors can submit proxy voting preferences. Payward Chief Commercial Officer Mark Greenberg stated: “The ultimate goal of tokenization has never been merely building faster, programmable capital markets—it’s about giving people worldwide all the rights that come with holding a company’s shares, including a voice in how the business is run.” Issued by Backed, xStocks is currently open to qualified investors outside the U.S. Broadridge provides digital asset infrastructure including proxy voting, post-trade services, wallets, and custody. Last month, Payward partnered with fintech infrastructure provider GTN to expand the xStocks product to Hong Kong-listed stocks, with plans to later cover international markets such as the U.K., Europe, and South Korea. Payward added that since xStocks launched last year, its cumulative trading volume has exceeded $25 billion.

Lido Finance has released a governance update, announcing that Lido DAO has officially opened on-chain voting for the NEST automated token buyback mechanism. The main voting window runs from August 5 to August 8 at 14:00 UTC. NEST is an automated, rule-based on-chain mechanism that directly ties the Lido Protocol’s performance to its native LDO token. The mechanism’s design and parameters were approved via Snapshot voting back in May. At its core, NEST uses protocol revenue or protocol-controlled liquidity to systematically repurchase LDO tokens on decentralized markets, enabling continuous capture of protocol value growth at the token level. The mechanism will be rolled out around the LDO/wstETH liquidity pair, with specific implementation details still being updated on community forums. Should the on-chain vote pass, Lido will transition from a periodic, governance-driven buyback model to a continuous, predictable automated value distribution framework.