Report: PoliFi Tokens Have Gained Over 782% Since the Beginning of 2024 .
PoliFi tokens (PolitiFi) have grown by 782.4% from January 1 to August 25, 2024, according to a report from CoinGecko. In comparison, the memecoin sector has seen a 90.2% gain over the same period.
At the same time, PoliFi tokens' market share fluctuated between 0.9% and 3.3% at its peak on June 16, 2024. As of August 25, that figure had dropped to 1.5% with a market cap of $680.8 million:
The largest assets in this category include:
ConstitutionDAO ($PEOPLE ) — market cap of $385.6 million;
MAGA ($trump) — $178.9 million;
MAGA Hat ($Maga) — $35.5 million.

TON Blockchain Failed to Produce Blocks for Over Six Hours .
On August 28, 2024, The Open Network (TON) blockchain experienced a failure, which prevented the network from processing blocks for over six hours. The problems arose amid increased user activity associated with the listing of the DOGS memecoin on major cryptocurrency exchanges.
Due to an abnormal number of transactions, the blockchain lost consensus. In this regard, the developers asked the validators to restart the equipment, which would restore the system's operation.
Later, TON representatives announced the resumption of block production and stabilization of the situation. The project team also noted that users' crypto assets were not affected.
The failure occurred amid the recent listing of the DOGS memecoin on a number of crypto exchanges, including Binance, Bybit, OKX, KuCoin, Gate.io and others. For this reason, the network experienced a significant increase in activity, which the blockchain was unable to cope with. Trading Protocol project co-founder Mikko Ohtamaa drew attention to this. According to him, the network demonstrated a much more modest throughput than the developers claimed. 
$DOGS
$TON

The volume of liquidations on the crypto market exceeded $322 million amid the fall of Bitcoin to $58,000
On the night of August 28, 2024, the Bitcoin rate fell to $58,000. In one day, the price of the asset fell by more than 6%. Against this background, the volume of liquidations on futures on the cryptocurrency market amounted to more than $322 million in 24 hours.
Over the past 24 hours, the positions of 87,157 traders were liquidated. About $287 million in losses were on long positions, more than $35 million on short positions. Bitcoin and Ethereum predominate in terms of assets - in pairs with these cryptocurrencies, positions worth about $96 million and $104 million, respectively, were liquidated.
The largest amounts of liquidations were traditionally on the Binance and OKX cryptocurrency exchanges - $137.12 million and $109.12 million, respectively. The largest liquidation of $12.67 million was recorded on the Binance exchange in the ETH/BTC trading pair.
$BTC $ETH

Bitcoin fell below $60,000, Ethereum - $2,500
On the night of August 28, 2024, the Bitcoin rate fell below $60,000, Ethereum - $2,500. Since then, both assets have been trading below the indicated marks.

While preparing this material, the price of the first cryptocurrency reached $59,282. The drawdown was more than 6%.
Ethereum, in turn, is trading at $2,466. In this case, the drawdown is almost 10%.
The Bitcoin dominance indicator also fell. During the day of August 27, it fluctuated within 57.5%, but began to fall by the evening. At one point, it reached 57.32%, after which it partially recovered.
The fall in the value of these, as well as some other crypto assets, caused a wave of liquidations on futures contracts. The total amount exceeded $322 million. More details in a separate article.

Of the top 10 crypto assets by capitalization, only two are in the "green" zone - USDC and USDT. Ethereum, Solana and Dogecoin fell the most
What exactly caused the decline is unknown at the time of writing. One possible reason is the transition of the spot bitcoin ETF sector from positive to negative dynamics.
$BTC $ETH $SOL

Polymarket: Kamala Harris equalizes chances with Donald Trump to win the election
Vice President and Democratic candidate in the upcoming elections Kamala Harris equalized chances with her opponent Donald Trump, according to the Polymarket platform. The betting pool on the outcome of this event exceeded $734 million.
Recall that by mid-August 2024, Harris maintained a 10% lead. The probability of her victory was estimated at 54%, Trump's - 44%. However, the vice president later lost her lead. According to experts, this happened against the backdrop of her speech in North Carolina.

At the time of writing, the probability of both candidates winning is 50%. The betting pool reached $734 million. At the same time, Donald Trump's candidacy is in great demand among the audience.
The chances of Donald Trump winning increased after independent candidate Robert Kennedy Jr. dropped out of the race and supported him. We previously covered information in the press regarding these plans of the politician. It should be noted that the betting pool for the last event exceeded $5 million by the time it closed. Up until August 21, the probability that the politician would withdraw his candidacy was estimated at only 7%. 

Justin Sun announced his readiness to donate $1 million to support Durov

TRON founder and advisor to the HTX cryptocurrency exchange (formerly Huobi) Justin Sun supported the founder of the Telegram messenger Pavel Durov and announced his readiness to donate $1 million.

Sun added that the cryptocurrency industry should show unity. The TRON founder proposed organizing a decentralized autonomous organization (DAO) called FreePavel in order to help Pavel Durov legally gain freedom.
A participant in the discussion on X (formerly Twitter) under the pseudonym BenTodar said that Durov hardly needs this $1 million, but the initiative is good.
Entrepreneur and investor Evan Luthra said that he is glad that people are uniting and supporting each other.

Polymarket estimated the probability of Pavel Durov's release from prison in August at 26%
Polymarket platform users estimated the possibility of Telegram messenger creator Pavel Durov's release in August 2024 at 26%. The volume of bets on this position almost reached $84,000.

In the first hours after the forecast concerning Durov's figure appeared, about 50% of bettors believed in his imminent release. However, against the backdrop of new details in the case of the Telegram founder, the situation on the platform began to change.
The description of the position indicates that Durov's transfer to house arrest will also be considered a release. At the same time, his possible transportation to another institution is not a sufficient basis for making a decision on the forecast in favor of the answer "Yes".

Some bettors are confident that the entrepreneur will be released no later than 96 hours after his arrest. This is due to French law. After the expiration of the term, the judge must either release him or bring charges against Durov.

Bitcoin Network Fees Increase by Over 900% in 24 Hours
On August 22, 2024, the average Bitcoin network transaction fee increased by 937%, reaching $7.65, according to BitInfoCharts. The last time such a value was observed was in June 2024.

Note that since July, the average transaction fee on this blockchain has not risen above $2. Moreover, on August 18, this figure reached $0.558 for the first time in a long time.
Amid the growth in indicators, some members of the crypto community had to pay an excessively high fee for transferring funds. One such case was reported by Bitcoin developer Mononaut.
According to the data provided, the consolidation of 0.55 BTC during the period of peak demand cost the user 0.5 BTC.
According to the Mempool Space platform, on August 23, the network fee indicators returned to standard values. Matthew Sigel, head of digital asset research at VanEck, suggested that the surge in Bitcoin fees could be linked to the launch of Babylon staking.
$BTC

Binance Labs Invests in Four Projects as Part of BNB Chain’s MVB Program
The BNB Chain team announced the completion of the project selection process for the seventh season of the Most Valuable Builder (MVB) program.

The organizers received over 700 applications from various startups. Meanwhile, only 2% of them passed the rigorous selection process, the release noted.
After a detailed analysis, the team selected 13 participants. Four projects attracted funding from Binance Labs, which significantly increased their influence and potential, BNB Chain reported.
According to available data, Binance Labs directed capital to the following startups:
Aggregata, which combines data, computing, and various AI models into a single platform;
Opinion Labs. According to information on the official website, the project “builds infrastructure that evaluates human opinion using blockchain, cryptography, and AI”;
Sidekick — a center for consolidating games, social networks, and more;
Vooi is a cross-chain decentralized exchange (DEX) aggregator powered by Consensys.

Grayscale Investments Launches AVAX Investment Fund
Grayscale Investments has announced the launch of a new product — Grayscale Avalanche Trust. This is an exchange-traded fund for investing in the AVAX coin.
According to the announcement, the product is already available to accredited investors. Like other single-asset exchange-traded funds, this is a closed trust from which funds cannot be withdrawn directly.

Grayscale Avalanche Trust complements the basket of crypto-asset-based exchange-traded funds that the provider has recently launched. These are trusts based on tokens such as MKR and SUI.
The company noted that the new product will give investors access to a promising ecosystem, avoiding the risks inherent in the cryptocurrency industry. In total, Grayscale Investments offers more than 20 different products based on crypto assets.
Against the backdrop of the news, AVAX was noted for a sharp jump. On the daily chart, the increase was almost 5%. At the time of preparation of this material, the asset is trading at $24.68. $AVAX

Bitcoin to Ethereum Dominance Ratio Reaches 40-Month High
The Bitcoin to Ethereum dominance ratio has reached its highest level in 40 months, according to CryptoQuant experts.
Analysts noted that the first cryptocurrency's dominance is 78.5%, while Ethereum's is 19.7%. According to them, this indicates that demand for Bitcoin among investors is growing, while Ethereum's attractiveness is not increasing.
CryptoQuant also explained that digital gold's dominance began to increase in late 2022 amid rumors of spot Bitcoin ETFs.

Harris' Advisor Says Vice President Supports Cryptocurrency Industry.
Senior Advisor to Vice President Kamala Harris's campaign, Brian Nelson, said that she intends to support the development of the cryptocurrency industry.
According to Nelson, Harris is in favor of introducing clear and stable rules.

Kamala Harris's Attitude to the Cryptocurrency Industry

The cryptocurrency community has mixed feelings about her candidacy. For example, Harris's decision not to speak at the Bitcoin 2024 conference has faced criticism.
She is also considering U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission Chairman Gary Gensler for the post of Treasury Secretary. The latter has been noted for pressuring the industry and being biased towards it.
Her team is allegedly trying to establish contacts with crypto companies, but it is unknown how successfully this process is progressing.

Bloomberg: Binance Plans to Hire 1,000 Employees by the End of the Year
Binance CEO Richard Teng, who replaced Changpeng Zhao (CZ) nine months ago, gave an interview to Bloomberg. The head of the company spoke about the current state of the crypto exchange and work with regulators, and also shared plans for the future.

Richard Teng told reporters that Binance plans to hire another 1,000 employees this year. Many of them will take up positions related to regulatory compliance.

According to the platform's CEO, this approach is due to the exchange's growing costs of complying with regulatory rules.

It is noteworthy that the new Binance CEO has extensive experience in this area. Previously, Richard Teng served as a senior regulator at the Monetary Authority of Singapore, and also headed the Financial Services Regulatory Authority in Abu Dhabi.
In addition, in November 2023, the exchange entered into a deal with the US authorities and agreed to pay a fine of $4.3 billion. The court approved this agreement in February 2024.

GenLayer Team Closes $7.5M Seed Funding Round
The team behind the decentralized AI network GenLayer has raised $7.5 million in funding.
The seed funding round was led by North Island Ventures with participation from Node Capital, Arrington Capital, ZK Ventures, WAGMI Ventures, BlockBuilders, Maelstrom, and private investors.
It is known that the new capital is planned to be used to create “the first intelligent blockchain (Intelligent Blockchain), which enables the use of smart contracts based on artificial intelligence.” According to the report, GenLayer will allow smart contracts to use the Internet “to make complex decisions.” The project team stated that its main goal is to launch a test network by the end of 2024.

Bitwise: Institutional Bitcoin ETF Ownership Grew 14% in Q2
The number of institutional investors owning spot Bitcoin ETFs increased by 14% in Q2 2024, CoinDesk reported, citing a report from Bitwise.
In addition, the share of these investors in total assets under management (AUM) also increased, from 18.74% to 21.15%. Bitwise added that at the end of Q2, institutions held $11 billion in ETFs.
Bitwise Chief Investment Officer Matt Hougan said that if institutions are buying Bitcoin when prices are volatile, it’s a great sign, “imagine what could happen in a bull market.”
The report also notes that Bitcoin ETFs have been adopted by institutions “at the fastest rate of any ETF in history.” CryptoQuant analysts said demand for Bitcoin has been declining since April 2024, approaching negative levels in recent weeks. They explained that this was due to a decline in Bitcoin ETF purchases in the US.

Metaplanet Spent Another $3.4 Million on Bitcoin
On August 20, 2024, Japanese investment firm Metaplanet announced the purchase of 57.27 BTC for a total of $3.42 million. The average purchase price is approximately $59,700 per coin.

The statement said the firm acquired the assets using borrowed funds, thereby completing the purchase of 1 billion yen (about $6.8 million) worth of bitcoins. Recall that on August 8, Metaplanet announced that its board of directors had approved a loan of 1 billion yen (about $6.8 million), which it plans to use to purchase the first cryptocurrency.
The last time the firm purchased bitcoins was on August 13, when the firm added 57.10 BTC to its portfolio, which was then valued at more than $3.38 million. The average purchase price was approximately $59,237 per coin.
In total, Metaplanet holds 360.36 BTC on its balance sheet, valued at over $23 million.
Note that, against the backdrop of the news about the acquisition of bitcoins, Metaplanet shares rose by 10.87% in a day.

Media: SEC classifies Solana as a security in talks with ETF issuers
The US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) held talks with ETF issuers, during which it expressed concerns about the legal status of Solana (SOL).
Following the discussions, the SEC and the Cboe BZX exchange came to a certain agreement. Following this, the platform removed the 19b-4 filings from two counterparties - VanEck and 21Shares - from its website.

According to the source, the parties agreed to remove the filings in order to "not create pressure on the Commission" due to the launch of the review process.

Despite the fact that Cboe BZX removed the 19b-4 filings of VanEck and 21Shares from its website, the counterparties' S-1 filings are still available - in the SEC registry and via a direct link.

Solana's Legal Status
In late July 2024, the SEC filed a motion to amend its lawsuit against Binance. In particular, the regulator stated that the court is no longer required to rule on the classification of 11 crypto assets, including Solana.

The community perceived this as the Commission's waiver of claims. However, this is probably just a ploy to speed up the proceedings.
Judging by new information in the press, the SEC still regards Solana as a security. 

Cryptology outlined price movement scenarios for Bitcoin and Ethereum
On August 19, 2024, Bitcoin is trading above $58,000, and Ethereum is in the $2,550 zone. Cryptology experts studied the market situation and predicted the further price movement of these assets.
Bitcoin
The situation has not changed since the previous forecast. We are still waiting for the close of August to see the consolidation of Bitcoin and a number of other assets that are traded against it.

Bitcoin is in consolidation, maintaining the structure of the global period.

Most likely, the first cryptocurrency will move without serious impulses in both directions.
Ethereum
The situation with Ethereum is much more complicated than with Bitcoin. We still have not received an ideal close of the monthly candle. If we cannot close August above the previous minimum, this will be a signal for further decline. We are leaning towards the option of absorption of the monthly bar already in September.
We are expecting weeks of consolidation - including in the Ethereum to Bitcoin trading pair. The bull market requires patience - only in this case can we count on a positive result.

Tether Announces USDT Support on Aptos Network
Tether, the issuer of the USDT stablecoin, has announced that it will soon add support for the asset to the Aptos network.
The announcement states that the integration is part of Tether’s broader strategy to make the “stablecoin” more accessible and useful around the world using Aptos’ cutting-edge blockchain technology.
The integration of USDT into Aptos is expected to significantly reduce transaction costs, making the network economically viable for a wider range of use cases, from microtransactions to large-scale enterprise transactions.
Tether CEO Paolo Ardoino said that Aptos offers a robust platform for faster and more cost-effective USDT transactions.
The Aptos (APT) coin has not responded to the news. At the time of writing, the asset is trading near $5.85.

Suisse Gold Starts Accepting XRP Tokens for Buying Precious Metals
Swiss company Suisse Gold, which specializes in trading precious metals, has started accepting XRP tokens as payment. The company's representatives note that customers can purchase gold, silver, platinum, and other valuable products using the asset.
To purchase a precious metal using the crypto asset, you need to register in your personal account on the company's website. Then users can select the appropriate form of payment, after which all prices for goods will be displayed in XRP.
The company notes that customers can also purchase precious metals using other digital assets. Suisse Gold accepts payment via:
$BTC ;
Litecoin;
$ETH ;
Dogecoin;
USDT;
Monero;
Binance Coin;
$SOL .
Representatives of Suisse Gold emphasize that they plan to further expand the list of digital assets available for use as payment. However, they did not specify which coin will be available to clients next.