Sunday’s desk mixed custody fallout with preferred-share policy and mining stress. Galaxy Research flagged a third wave of Coldcard-linked bitcoin sweeps that pushed observed losses near $89 million across thousands of addresses, while Strategy left its STRC dividend at 12% instead of hiking toward par. Separately, the SEC is revisiting Nasdaq’s cash-settled bitcoin options path after a CME challenge, and Banca d’Italia published a remittance mystery-shop that finds stablecoins are not systematically cheaper end to end.
As of the 2026-08-02 00:27 UTC up&down market snapshot, Bitcoin traded near $62,865 (about −0.2% over 24 hours) and Ethereum near $1,845.85 (−0.9%), with Solana near $72.06 (−1.3%). Global crypto market cap sat near $2.24 trillion with bitcoin dominance around 56.3%. For the full queue, start at our Crypto News hub, and keep self-custody nearby as the weekend stories stack.
Coldcard-linked sweeps hit ~$89M across 4,500+ addresses
Galaxy Research said a third wave of sweeps tied to weak Coldcard-generated keys drained roughly 208 bitcoin from 1,912 addresses between Friday midday and Saturday morning UTC, with smaller average balances than the July 30 opening wave. Observed losses across three waves now total about 1,367 bitcoin, nearly $89 million, from 4,585 addresses. Wave three also changed collection patterns, sending each victim’s coins to separate destinations and parking many in pay-to-witness-script-hash outputs that are harder to map than the shared collectors used earlier.
Strategy kept the monthly dividend on its STRC preferred shares at 12% for August, skipping the kind of mid-month hike it has often used when the stock trades well below its $100 par value. STRC had rebounded toward the high $80s after July’s 50-basis-point lift, bitcoin sales used to fund payouts, and a steadier bitcoin tape, but it remained below the company’s stated goal of trading near $99-$100 over time. The hold leaves preferred holders watching whether management waits for a closer approach to par before raising the cash coupon again.
SEC to review Nasdaq bitcoin options after CME challenge
The SEC is reviewing its May conditional approval for Nasdaq PHLX to list cash-settled bitcoin index options under the QBTC ticker after CME Group challenged the order. CME argues bitcoin is a commodity, so options tied directly to its value sit under CFTC jurisdiction, and that Nasdaq would need a CFTC venue registration or a redesign that tracks a security such as a spot bitcoin ETF. The product still needed CFTC exemptions before launch; the review keeps the exchange-vs-exchange fight over who polices bitcoin options in the open.
Tokenized stock volume jumped in July, mostly via one QQQ token
CoinDesk Data’s Stablecoins & Tokenized Assets report said tokenized-equity trading surged about 288% in July, but Binance bStocks token QQQB alone printed roughly $9.27 billion and about 82% of the category. Strip QQQB out and July volume falls to about $2.03 billion, roughly 30% below the implied June total, with xStocks, Ondo, and Backpack volumes far smaller. QQQB launched on Binance on June 30 with zero maker fees through Aug. 31, a reminder that headline tokenization growth can be fee-and-listing mechanics as much as broad investor demand.
Bank of Italy: stablecoin remittances not systematically cheaper
Banca d’Italia Markets, Infrastructures, Payment Systems Paper No. 86 reports a mystery-shopping exercise sending 200 USDC across ten corridors from Italy to Argentina, Brazil, South Africa, the UAE, and Japan. End-to-end costs ranged from about 0.30% to nearly 9% of the amount sent, with on-chain transfer fees only a marginal share; settlement ran under about 20 minutes where instant rails worked, or one to two business days where bank transfers were required. The authors conclude on- and off-ramp frictions, not the blockchain hop, drive most of the cost and delay.
Bitcoin mining difficulty down ~14% from this year’s high
Bitcoin mining difficulty fell to about 126.23 trillion after another small adjustment, leaving the metric roughly 14% below its January 2026 peak and about 19% under the November 2025 all-time high near 156 trillion. Falling difficulty means less competing hashrate in the prior epoch and easier conditions for miners who remain online, after earlier June and July drops. Luxor’s Hashrate Index tied the retreat to weaker bitcoin prices, compressed mining revenue, and capital, power, and operators shifting toward AI and high-performance computing.
XRPL 3.3.0 tees up amendments once pulled for critical bugs
RippleX product lead Jazzi Cooper said xrpld 3.3.0 is expected next week with five proposed amendments, including Confidential MPT, Batch, Permission Delegation, Sponsored Fees and Reserves, and Dynamic MPT. Batch and Permission Delegation previously reached validator voting and were withdrawn after researchers flagged bugs that could have enabled unauthorized transactions or fee draining. Amendments still need at least 80% of trusted validators for two consecutive weeks before they activate, so the release is a restart of the vote, not an automatic protocol change.
Russia bans crypto mining in Moscow region through 2032
A Russian decree extends a crypto mining ban across the Moscow region through 2032, according to The Block. Regional energy officials had estimated mining already draws about 1 GW of power and could add to future electricity shortages. The long-dated regional ban keeps industrial mining pressure on the grid in the capital area, even as other jurisdictions court hashrate for tax and power deals.
BNB Chain pursues legal action over ASTEROID memecoin wallet
BNB Chain said it is pursuing legal action against a former employee over a memecoin launched from a tutorial wallet, The Block reported. On-chain watcher Lookonchain said the former employee bought nearly 80% of ASTEROID’s supply for about $10,000 before selling most of the tokens for roughly $638,000. The dispute turns a public tutorial address into a compliance and reputation problem for the chain’s own staff controls.
Solana Foundation CISO: AI is making crypto scams more convincing
Solana Foundation chief information security officer Michael Coates, formerly CISO at Twitter and Mozilla, told CoinDesk that AI-driven vulnerabilities and fake identities will shape the next wave of blockchain security risk. He stressed that many large crypto losses still start as Web2 or operational-security failures, then become irreversible once funds move on-chain. The warning lands as phishing, deepfakes, and automated social engineering get cheaper for attackers who only need one convincing identity to drain a wallet.
