Good morning everybody.
Bitcoin is still doing the same thing it has been doing for weeks: moving sideways.
It is sitting around $62,000 to $63,000, sentiment remains fearful, and there still is not much conviction in either direction. Before getting into the news, I had something else on my mind this morning.
A lot of people spend their entire lives delaying everything they want to do because it is not the most financially efficient decision. Do not buy the car because it depreciates. Do not travel because you should save the money. Do not change your life because the timing is not perfect.
But you are a depreciating asset too.
You are getting older. Your energy changes. Your kids grow up. The version of your life you can experience today will not always be available later.
I know people who pulled their kids out of traditional school, started homeschooling, and began living around the world because one parent could work remotely. Their kids have grown up experiencing different countries, languages, food, and cultures. That may not be possible for everyone, but I think more people could do something different if they stopped assuming the traditional path was the only responsible one.
Buy the car if you can afford it.
Take the trip.
Move somewhere new.
Do the thing now.
Anyway, that was Matt’s Monday morning rant. Let’s get into the crypto news.
Strategy Sells Another $105 Million in Bitcoin
Strategy sold approximately 1,638 Bitcoin for around $105 million, at an average price close to $64,000 per Bitcoin.
The sale reduced the company’s total holdings to approximately 842,138 Bitcoin.
Strategy also raised another $290 million through common stock sales and continues holding roughly $2.9 billion in cash reserves to cover preferred-stock dividends and other obligations.
I continue struggling to understand this structure.
The company is selling stock, holding cash to pay dividends, and now selling Bitcoin while maintaining this enormous treasury position. I am not alleging that anything illegal is happening, because apparently this structure is legal.
But when a company raises money from new stock sales and uses reserves to continue paying returns to existing security holders, it is fair to ask whether the model is becoming dependent on constantly bringing in new capital.
Strategy’s defenders may have a perfectly reasonable explanation. I would like to hear it.
From the outside, however, it increasingly looks like a system that only works smoothly if Bitcoin eventually moves substantially higher.
BitGo Launches an Institutional Command Center
BitGo launched BitGo Link, a tool allowing institutional users to connect external exchange accounts through one interface.
The platform can connect accounts held at Coinbase, Kraken, Crypto.com, and other venues alongside assets already held in BitGo custody.
The product is designed for treasury managers and institutional clients that hold assets across several platforms but want to manage them through one command center without abandoning internal governance and approval controls.
This is less about retail trading and more about simplifying institutional asset management.
As crypto firms become more mature, products like this are probably where a significant amount of business growth will come from.
Ripple Invests in Tokenized Finance Infrastructure
Ripple announced strategic investments in ZILO and LSEUDO, both of which focus on tokenized financial infrastructure.
ZILO provides transfer-agency technology, while LSEUDO operates as an FCA-regulated tokenization platform.
For the XRP crowd, this is another example of Ripple continuing to build around institutional payments, asset issuance, and tokenized finance rather than relying solely on speculative demand for XRP.
Whether these investments produce meaningful adoption remains to be seen, but Ripple is clearly positioning itself around regulated financial infrastructure.
Not Every Exchange Closing Is a Crisis
There has been a lot of discussion about crypto exchanges closing.
BitMEX matters. It was one of the major derivatives platforms in crypto’s early history and helped shape the industry.
BitMart is different.
I barely knew BitMart existed until people started talking about its closure.
That does not mean every shutdown is meaningless, but the market needs to distinguish between an institution that played a major role in crypto history and a smaller exchange that failed to create a durable product.
If Coinbase suddenly closed, that would signal something seriously wrong.
A smaller exchange disappearing because it could not generate enough volume is mostly evidence that the market is consolidating.
Robinhood Receives UK Crypto Registration
Robinhood’s UK division was added to the Financial Conduct Authority’s registered crypto-asset firm list as of July 31.
The registration allows Robinhood to provide crypto services in the United Kingdom and confirms that the company meets the country’s anti-money-laundering requirements.
The approval is particularly important because the UK’s broader crypto authorization regime is approaching, with the new framework expected to come fully into force in October 2027.
Robinhood continues expanding beyond basic stock trading.
The company is building around crypto, tokenized equities, prediction markets, and international services. It has clearly decided that digital assets are part of its long-term business rather than a temporary retail-trading trend.
Bitget Exits Japan
Bitget announced that it will stop providing cryptocurrency trading services to residents of Japan.
The exchange stopped accepting new Japanese registrations on Sunday and plans to close remaining customer positions by December 31.
Japan recently reclassified cryptocurrencies as financial instruments, with stricter rules expected to take effect next year. Unregistered operators could face significant fines and potential prison sentences.
Bitget appears to be deciding that the regulatory risk is no longer worth remaining in the market without the required authorization.
This is the practical effect of regulation. Some companies comply. Some leave. Customers are left with fewer choices.
Whether that is positive or negative depends on whether the companies being removed are unsafe or whether the rules are simply too difficult and expensive to satisfy.
South Korean Stablecoins Keep Moving Offshore
South Korea recorded approximately 560 billion won, or roughly $367 million, in net stablecoin outflows to overseas exchanges during June.
That extended the country’s streak of net monthly stablecoin outflows to 18 consecutive months.
South Korea’s five major exchanges sent approximately $1.8 billion in stablecoins offshore during the month while receiving about $1.4 billion from foreign platforms.
The reason is straightforward.
Traders are looking for products that are restricted or unavailable domestically, including derivatives, tokenized real-world assets, DeFi services, and staking products.
If customers cannot access a product in their own country, many of them will move their money elsewhere to find it.
That is one of the central problems with overly restrictive financial regulation. Capital moves.
A government can try to block those flows, as China has historically done with capital controls, but cryptocurrency makes moving money across borders much easier.
The alternative is to build a regulated domestic industry that offers the products customers actually want.
Prediction Markets Reach $50.6 Billion in Monthly Volume
Kalshi, Polymarket, and Polymarket US generated approximately $50.6 billion in combined trading volume during July, an increase of roughly 7.8% from June.
Polymarket US grew approximately 54% month over month.
Prediction markets continue becoming one of the fastest-growing areas in digital finance.
The legal questions remain unresolved, especially around whether sports-related contracts should be regulated as commodities or gambling.
But the customer demand is obvious.
With tens of billions of dollars in monthly trading activity, more exchanges, brokerages, and financial firms will continue trying to enter the market.
Bithumb Targets a 2028 IPO
South Korean exchange Bithumb is reportedly preparing for a public offering in 2028 following a significant internal restructuring.
The company plans to complete a risk-management review and align its business with domestic and international accounting standards by the end of 2026.
It would then seek preliminary listing approval in 2027 before targeting the IPO the following year.
Bithumb has been part of the Korean crypto market for years, and an IPO would be another sign that major exchanges are trying to move from loosely structured crypto businesses into more conventional public companies.
Crypto Prices
Bitcoin: $62,758, down 0.4% over 24 hours
Ethereum: $1,850, down 0.3%
Tether: Third-largest cryptocurrency
BNB: $586, up approximately 1%
USDC: Fifth-largest cryptocurrency
XRP: $1.06, down 0.8%
Solana: $72.62, down 0.4%
TRON: $0.327, up 0.2%
Hyperliquid: $53.11, up 2.8%
Dogecoin: $0.069, down 0.7%
Total Crypto Market Cap: $2.15 trillion
Fear & Greed Index: 33, Fear
My Take
The Strategy sale is the story I keep coming back to.
The company built its identity around accumulating Bitcoin and never selling. Now it is selling Bitcoin while also raising money through common stock and maintaining a multibillion-dollar cash reserve to support preferred dividends.
Maybe this is prudent treasury management.
Maybe the company is reducing pressure before it becomes a larger problem.
But it also exposes the weakness in the Bitcoin treasury model. Holding Bitcoin does not create operating cash flow. Dividends, interest, and corporate expenses still have to be paid in dollars.
When Bitcoin rises, the structure looks brilliant.
When Bitcoin remains below the company’s acquisition cost, the business has to find another source of cash.
That is what Strategy is doing now.