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Bitfinex Alpha report shows that Bitcoin has been consolidating in the range of $77,100 to $81,300 over the past 20 trading days, with the current price close to the key support level at the lower end of the range. If it breaks above $81,300, the volume vacuum above may drive the price quickly up to $86,500. The options market has shifted protection to contracts expiring on September 18 ahead of the Federal Reserve's interest rate decision.The report also points out that while Bitcoin's volatility has decreased, altcoins are performing actively, with all 29 major cryptocurrencies rising last week, Polkadot up 43%, and Zcash up 42%. The open interest in altcoin perpetual contracts has surpassed Bitcoin for the first time this week, a situation that historically often accompanies market correction risks.

Goldman Sachs executives stated that the refined oil flow through the Strait of Hormuz is at 35% of pre-war levels, while crude oil is at 70%. The impact of the Middle East supply shock on refined oil is greater than on crude oil, especially for heavy products like diesel.Kpler data shows that last year, approximately 2.2 million barrels of refined oil were exported daily through the Strait of Hormuz, while crude oil was 14.95 million barrels per day.

The cryptocurrency exchange Bitfinex posted on X that the Bitcoin miner position index is currently -1.2, well below its annual average.Miners are holding supply, even though the breakthrough in August briefly pushed it up to 2.8. An index above 2 means that miners are selling again, and current selling activity is relatively sluggish.

Coinflip and its CEO Benjamin Weiss have been accused by the Washington State Department of Financial Institutions (DFI) of violating the Uniform Money Services Act. The DFI seeks to revoke Coinflip's money transmission license, prohibit the company and its related personnel from continuing to operate, and impose a fine of $1,029,600.The DFI stated that an inspection in 2025 found that Coinflip had insufficient anti-money laundering controls, inadequate transaction monitoring, failure to enforce transaction limits, inaccurate regulatory reporting, and unclear fee disclosures. The agency also accused Coinflip of failing to timely refund at least 15 customers as required. The proposed order requires Coinflip to refund eligible customers in Washington State, with customers aged 60 and above eligible for refunds of transaction fees and markup fees. Coinflip and Benjamin Weiss may request an administrative hearing to contest the allegations, refund requirements, license revocation, fines, and industry bans.

According to Decrypt, Judge Rosemarie Aquilina of the Ingham County Circuit Court in Michigan has issued a preliminary injunction against the prediction market platform Kalshi, requiring it to stop offering sports betting-related contracts to Michigan residents. The court found that Kalshi's related business is essentially "sports betting disguised as investment opportunities."Under the order, Kalshi must block in-state users through a third-party geolocation service licensed by the Michigan betting regulatory agency, or face a daily fine of $500,000. The injunction also prohibits it from allowing account registration, deposits, advertising, and similar sports betting product features for Michigan residents until a final judgment is made in the case.

Bitfinex Securities is a tokenized investment platform under the cryptocurrency exchange Bitfinex, which has launched 5 types of tokenized notes, providing economic exposure to Bitcoin reserve companies such as Strategy, Metaplanet, H100 Group, and Capital B for eligible investors. The platform has also launched the Strategy floating rate perpetual preferred stock STRC.The aforementioned notes are issued through the Luxembourg ORO (II) Fund, managed by SICOS Securities, with the underlying securities held in custody by regulated financial institutions, but do not grant investors direct ownership of shares in the corresponding companies. Products can be invested in fractions starting from about $1 and support trading in USD, USDT, and Bitcoin, available only to eligible non-U.S. investors. Bitfinex Securities stated that this is the first time related products have been traded in the secondary market on a regulated tokenized securities exchange. After completing a $50 million tokenized financing for the metal company Alkemya in August this year, the platform has listed assets exceeding $500 million.

According to market news, Binance founder Zhao Changpeng recently attended the Bitcoin Asia Conference 2026 in Hong Kong, and in an exclusive interview, he discussed his autobiography "Binance Life," his experiences in prison, and Binance's $4.3 billion fine.He revealed that most of the initial draft of the autobiography was completed while he was in prison, constrained by the conditions of using a computer for only 15 minutes at a time and being unable to copy and paste, so he could only write during fragmented moments.

Bitfinex published an analysis stating that despite tightening macro conditions, Bitcoin remains steady above $77,100. Last week, after Federal Reserve Chairman Warsh's hawkish speech in Jackson Hole, BTC fell from above $81,000, but the rise in August was primarily driven by spot buying rather than excessive leverage—open interest gradually increased, the basis remained relatively restrained, and last week, net inflows into U.S. spot Bitcoin ETFs approached $1 billion, while Ethereum investment products saw a net inflow of $815.7 million for 10 consecutive days.On the macro front, U.S. PCE inflation is at 3.7%, core inflation at 3.3%, annualized private demand growth in Q2 is 4.2%, and the deficit for the first 10 months of this fiscal year reached $1.8 trillion. Warsh confirmed that the 2% inflation target is a hard constraint, and the market has raised the probability of a rate hike in September to 57%. Bitfinex believes that the continued support from ETF and stablecoin liquidity is sustaining prices, but expectations of interest rate hikes limit the upside potential. If crypto inflows remain resilient, it will prove that underlying demand is still solid.

The U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) announced on Friday that former White House teleprompter operator Gabriel Perez has agreed to pay $172,000 to settle allegations of insider trading in the prediction market by using advance knowledge of presidential speeches.Perez was able to access the content before the speeches were released due to his job, allowing him to bet on known outcomes. From December 2025 to February 2026, he profited over $107,500 from this. Under the settlement agreement, he must forfeit $107,539.02 in illegal gains, pay a civil penalty of $65,000, accept a three-year trading ban, and cease further violations of the Commodity Exchange Act.The CFTC noted that the fine was significantly discounted under the new cooperation policy and praised Perez for providing exemplary assistance during the investigation, while also thanking exchange operator Kalshi for their cooperation in the case. This case highlights the insider trading risks associated with the growing popularity of prediction markets. Previously, a U.S. soldier was charged with insider trading related to military operations in Venezuela on Polymarket, and a MrBeast video editor was also fired during the Kalshi insider trading investigation.

The U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) ordered former White House teleprompter operator Gabriel Perez to pay a fine of $172,539 this Friday for illegally trading on a prediction market platform using advance knowledge of Trump's speech content.According to a settlement agreement with the CFTC, Perez must return illegal profits of $107,539.02 and pay a civil penalty of $65,000. He also agreed to a three-year trading ban and committed to cease and not violate the Commodity Exchange Act and CFTC regulations.The CFTC noted that Perez traded Trump "mention market" contracts on the Kalshi platform during his time at the White House from December 2025 to February 2026. These contracts are event contracts that determine payouts based on whether the president uses specific words or phrases in a speech.

Bitfinex Securities announced the completion of a $50 million tokenized financing and will launch a nickel token ALKN linked to the Luxembourg industrial metals platform Alkemya Metacore. The platform is based on a high-purity nickel wire inventory valued at $1.6 billion and approximately 7 million meters long, stored in Switzerland, and widely used in fields such as semiconductors, aerospace, and defense.The ALKN token will be open for subscription to qualified investors, with a deadline of October 15. This is the first tokenized commodity issuance under El Salvador's digital asset regulatory framework. The proceeds from the financing will be used to support Alkemya's operating subsidiary Green Transitional Metals in developing engineered nickel products, with application scenarios including electromagnetic interference shielding, aerospace, defense, semiconductors, power and industrial systems, green hydrogen, and rare precious metal recycling.Jesse Knutson, the Chief Operating Officer of Bitfinex Securities, stated that this blockchain structure will transform nickel, which was previously trapped in the industrial supply chain, into tradable financial products, unlocking collateral use cases and ongoing hedging opportunities for traders.

A fire broke out at the Afipsky Oil Refinery in southern Russia after a drone attack at night. The governor of the Krasnodar Krai stated that local emergency services are handling the fire.Ukrainian actions have led to Russian oil processing volumes dropping to multi-year lows, exacerbating fuel supply pressures. The Afipsky Oil Refinery is owned by ForteInvest, with a crude processing capacity of approximately 180,000 barrels per day.

Bitcoin recently rose to a monthly high, with Bitfinex analysts stating that this round of market activity is primarily driven by spot buying and short covering, rather than new leveraged funds, thus providing a longer duration compared to typical short squeeze scenarios. As investors who bought Bitcoin in the past five months are currently in a profit state, the main risk of the current upward trend comes from profit-taking chips flowing into trading platforms.Bitfinex believes that the U.S. Treasury's announcement on August 19 to expand the scale of long-term bond repurchases is an important factor driving the recent market activity. The initial phase of this rise was indeed driven by short liquidations. On the same day, the U.S. spot Bitcoin ETF recorded an inflow of $297.6 million. However, the subsequent price increase mainly came from spot buying. From the position structure, while Bitcoin prices rose by 10% to 11%, open interest (OI) only increased by about 4%, indicating that spot demand and short covering played a major role, while the impact of leveraged funds was limited.Bitfinex pointed out that the $68,000 to $69,000 range is currently an important support level, close to the average cost of buyers over the past five months. If Bitcoin maintains above this level, it will keep these investors in a profitable state, reducing the pressure of previously trapped chips selling during rebounds. In terms of funds, the U.S. spot Bitcoin ETF saw an inflow of $606.29 million on August 20, the largest single-day inflow since May 1, with BlackRock's IBIT contributing about 82%. Bitfinex stated that if fund inflows continue for a week, it will further strengthen the market demand structure.However, Bitfinex warns that the current biggest risk is a large amount of profitable Bitcoin flowing into trading platforms, which could trigger the largest profit-taking market since 2026. Analysts indicate that if real yields rise again to levels that previously suppressed Bitcoin from falling below $65,000, macro factors could still quickly impact the market.

On the morning of August 20, 2026, the Intermediate People's Court of Shenzhen City, Guangdong Province publicly announced the first-instance verdict in the case of Evergrande Group Co., Ltd., Evergrande Real Estate Group Co., Ltd., and defendant Xu Jiayin. The court imposed multiple penalties on Evergrande Group, sentencing it to a fine of 8.82 billion yuan; it fined Evergrande Real Estate 7 billion yuan; and sentenced Xu Jiayin to life imprisonment for multiple crimes, depriving him of political rights for life, and confiscating all personal property; it also ordered the continued recovery of illegal gains, with any shortfall to be compensated.The court found that Xu Jiayin is the actual controller of Evergrande Group. Between 2016 and 2021, Evergrande Group, Evergrande Real Estate, and Xu Jiayin inflated assets and concealed liabilities through financial fraud and other means, committing crimes such as illegally absorbing public deposits, fundraising fraud, fraudulent issuance of securities, and illegally disclosing important information; they also obtained control of financial institutions through bribery, illegally siphoning off credit and insurance funds. Xu Jiayin further exploited his position to organize financial fraud, misappropriating company property under the guise of dividends. The court deemed these actions to severely disrupt the market economic order, with particularly huge amounts involved and particularly heinous circumstances, and imposed severe penalties according to the law.On the same day, the two levels of courts in Shenzhen also ruled on the cases of individuals involved in Evergrande related to illegally absorbing public deposits and fundraising fraud, sentencing 56 individuals including Zhen Litiao, Ke Peng, Xu Tenghe, and Xu Zhijian to prison terms ranging from eighteen years to one year and ten months, along with fines or confiscation of property.

Bitfinex stated that the S&P 500 index continues to set new records, while Bitcoin remains around $64,000. The rise in stocks is mainly driven by expectations of interest rate cuts, but Bitcoin relies more on actual liquidity support.Since mid-May, the supply of stablecoins has decreased by $14 billion, and before the stablecoin supply resumes growth, Bitcoin's rebound still lacks funding support.

Rosherville Pty Ltd, a shareholder of the Australian Securities Exchange (ASX), has notified the ASX of its intention to apply to the Federal Court for permission to initiate a statutory derivative action against certain former ASX officials and directors. If approved, Rosherville will sue on behalf of the ASX. The ASX stated that the relevant lawsuit does not accuse the ASX itself, but has not disclosed the identities of the former officials involved, the specific obligations allegedly violated, or the remedies sought. The Federal Court has not yet considered whether the case can proceed.The ASX has been advancing a blockchain-based CHESS clearing and settlement system replacement project since 2016, which was suspended in November 2022 and abandoned the blockchain solution in May 2023. On July 3, 2026, the Federal Court ordered the ASX to pay a fine of $14.4 million and $2.1 million in litigation costs to the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC).

Ethereum ecosystem infrastructure provider EthSystems announced a partnership with the local Korean institution Undefined Labs. The two parties will jointly promote the application of Ethereum technology in the fields of finance and digital assets in Korea.EthSystems will provide technical support in areas such as privacy, tokenization, and financial infrastructure, while Undefined Labs will leverage its deep understanding of the Korean market and local industry resources to assist in education, seminars, technical framework design, and use case development, facilitating the entire process from early exploration to proof of concept and then to production systems. EthSystems stated that Korea is one of the important markets for the next phase of Ethereum adoption, and this collaboration marks the starting point of its expansion in Asia.

According to the data panel on the ChainCatcher official website, regarding BTC wallet balances, in the past 7 days, among the top 10 exchanges by balance, Bithumb saw the largest decrease at 11.67%; Kraken had the largest increase at 1.24%.In terms of exchange asset transparency proof, in the past 7 days, the top three net outflows of reserve assets were Bitfinex (-$109 million), Deribit (-$40.7954 million), and OKX (-$14.5321 million); the top three net inflows were Binance (+$441 million), Gate (+$11.9 million), and Bitget (+$7.50389 million).

This week will see several important events and data. On Monday, the Bank of Japan will release the summary of opinions from the July monetary policy meeting. On Tuesday, the Reserve Bank of Australia will decide on interest rates and hold a press conference. On Wednesday, the United States will release the July CPI data and EIA crude oil inventory. On Thursday, the UK and Eurozone will publish various economic data, and JD.com and Tencent will release their financial reports. On Friday, France and the Eurozone will release CPI and GDP data, and a new round of pricing adjustments for domestic refined oil will begin.

The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) announced that Liu Zhou, the founder and principal operator of the cryptocurrency financial services company MyTrade, was recently fined $10,000 in federal court in Boston for participating in a cryptocurrency market manipulation scheme.Prosecutors stated that MyTrade provided so-called "Volume Support" services to cryptocurrency projects through its "MyTrade MM" platform, using bots to execute false trades (wash trading) across multiple cryptocurrency exchanges, artificially creating trading volume and market activity to mislead investors. According to the plea agreement, MyTrade MM has ceased providing "Volume Support" services and permanently shut down the related wash trading bots, while adding a statement on its website acknowledging that "Volume Support constitutes wash trading, which is illegal under U.S. law." The U.S. Department of Justice stated that the case was jointly pursued by the U.S. Attorney's Office and the Boston division of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI).