Recent data from Bitcoin and gold ETFs revealed a departure from historical trends this month: instead of flows moving in opposite directions as they normally do, both Bitcoin and gold experienced outflows at the same time.

This rare correlation speaks volumes about the current macroeconomic environment and shifting investor psychology. Bitcoin outflows didn’t benefit gold, and until the Fed’s path is clearer, both assets remain under pressure.

Bitcoin outflows, hard assets are feeling the pain

Traditionally, when investors pull money out of Bitcoin, gold, the ultimate safe-haven asset, sees a surge in inflows, and vice versa. That’s because Bitcoin and gold are seen as alternative stores of value and hedges against traditional financial market risks.

Investors often view them as uncorrelated assets because their prices and demand don’t typically move in tandem with stocks or bonds. However, each asset appeals to different risk appetites and market conditions

Not so this month. Bitcoin ETFs recorded six straight days of outflows, draining nearly $2 billion in late August alone. Meanwhile, outflows from major gold ETFs, such as GLDM, also spiked, with $449 million exiting in just one week.

Despite record Bitcoin outflows and a broader crypto market pullback, Bitcoin ETFs rebounded toward the end of August, with a four-day inflow streak through the pullback. Gold ETFs also saw net inflows during the last days of August 2025, tracking a similar rebound as Bitcoin ETFs, and suggesting a possible change in investor sentiment as the month closes.

Macro uncertainty rules

The backdrop for this unusual behavior is a cocktail of economic crosswinds: uncertainty around Federal Reserve monetary policy, persistent inflation, and signs of a softer labor market. With the Fed’s next move unclear, Bitcoin and gold may not be especially attractive to investors seeking clarity or certainty.

Sticky inflation keeps the Fed hawkish, yet waning job growth undercuts confidence in further rate hikes.

This uncomfortable limbo leaves markets in a risk-off posture, where both speculative and defensive assets struggle to gain traction.

Waiting for the Fed’s next move

Bitcoin, often dubbed “digital gold,” inflows are stalling right now because investors aren’t feeling risk-on. Yet gold, which typically shines in periods of heightened fear, is also not benefiting from Bitcoin outflows.

Inflation concerns and shifting rate expectations are undermining gold’s historic safe-haven narrative. Instead of moving in opposition, both assets faced outflows as investors either shift to cash, seek higher-yielding alternatives, or wait for the Fed’s next move.

Until monetary policy direction becomes clearer, both Bitcoin and gold may continue to face headwinds. Macro investors value certainty, and, at the moment, ambiguity reigns.

This lethal combination makes it difficult for investors to predict whether rates will rise, a recession is coming, or inflation will surge again, leading to broader uncertainty across financial markets.

For now, Bitcoin outflows aren’t benefiting gold, and both assets are caught on the sidelines, waiting for the Fed to declare a new direction.

Circle has launched a unified cross-chain infrastructure that enables businesses to access USDC balances across multiple blockchains.

An Aug. 19 announcement labeled the new product as Gateway, a system that addresses liquidity fragmentation issues that force companies to pre-position funds across chains and manage complex rebalancing operations.

Gateway combines smart contract infrastructure with an off-chain attestation service to create a single USDC balance accessible on Arbitrum, Avalanche, Base, Ethereum, OP Mainnet, Polygon PoS, and Unichain.

Additional chains, including Circle’s Arc, will receive support in future releases.

The platform targets payment service providers, exchanges, custodians, digital wallets, and DeFi trading firms that require efficient cross-chain USDC management without operational overhead.

Gateway maintains non-custodial design principles, ensuring depositor control over USDC holdings at all times.

Fund access requires both user signatures and Gateway attestations, preventing unauthorized movements or burns. The system includes trustless withdrawal mechanisms allowing users to recover funds after seven days if the Gateway API becomes unavailable.

Unified UX for financial infrastructure

The system operates through a three-step process beginning with USDC deposits into Gateway Wallet contracts on any supported blockchain.

After deposit finalization, Gateway credits the unified balance and instantly makes funds accessible across all supported chains regardless of the original deposit location.

Users initiate transfers by signing burn intents, which developers submit to the Gateway API for verification and attestation generation.

Once users sign burn intents, corresponding USDC mints execute on destination chains within the subsequent block, providing single-chain experience speeds for cross-chain value transfers.

Among the use cases are payment service providers reducing working capital requirements while exchanges eliminate rebalancing delays.

Additionally, digital wallets display unified USDC balances, and DeFi trading firms deploy capital more efficiently across chains without pre-positioning funds.

Gateway represents Circle’s latest initiative to enhance stablecoin utility following several strategic moves this year.

The company introduced its Refund Protocol in April, establishing a non-custodial dispute resolution system for stablecoin transactions without centralized intermediaries.

Circle also recently announced Arc, its enterprise-focused layer-1 blockchain scheduled for public testnet between September and December 2025.

Arc will serve as high-performance infrastructure for stablecoin payments, foreign exchange, and capital markets applications while supporting USDC as its default gas token and offering sub-second settlement finality.

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What you need to know

• A recent Galaxy S25 FE leak suggests the phone could see a 45W charging upgrade that mirrors the flagships.
• A related rumor regards the alleged Galaxy Tab S10 “Lite,” which might see 25W charging support.
• The Galaxy S25 FE was recently reported to have received Qi2 wireless charging support; however, that listing failed to state its strength.

Rumors suggest Samsung is turning its attention toward its affordable market, and these whispers purport charging details.

The latest leaks about the upcoming Galaxy S25 FE come from SammyGuru, who spotted an interesting new TUV listing. According to the listing, the S25 FE is supposedly preparing 45W fast charging support. What’s unfortunate is that this leak doesn’t expand on the phone’s alleged battery capacity, so we’re still left wondering in that regard.

The publication continues, stating the expected Galaxy S25 FE was joined by Samsung’s supposed Galaxy Tab S10 “Lite.” However, as the post notes, the latest leaks aren’t clear.

The recent TUV listing supposedly claims the tablet will offer a minimal 25W charging, but another listing from the FCC alleges 45W. With things so unclear, it’s best not to make any hasty decisions early on.

Balancing FE & ‘Lite’

Funnily enough, there was a leak last week that suggested the Galaxy S25 FE would feature Qi2 wireless charging support. The device was reportedly spotted moving through the World Power Consortium (WPC) for certification purposes. There, the Qi2 wireless standard was noted; however, the listing failed to detail its charging strength. The flagship Galaxy S25 series boasts 15W wireless support, so maybe we’re looking at that here, too.

Samsung’s flagship Galaxy S25 series is also where it seems to want to bring its Galaxy S25 FE closer to—charging-wise, that is. The series, specifically the S25 Plus and S25 Ultra, features 45W wired support. Latest leaks claim the S25 FE will hop over the base S25 in terms of charging, just like last year’s S24 FE, which only had 25W.

Early rumors from April alleged Samsung was creating a Galaxy Tab S10 “Lite,” which is seemingly an even more toned-down variant, under its FE line. While it might also see two-year-old Samsung tech—the Exynos 1380 SoC—a report claimed the company had started testing it with One UI 7. It suggests the device has “progressed” in its development cycle, as rumors purport a fall launch alongside the main Galaxy Tab S11 lineup.

The following is a guest post and analysis from Nanfeng Jie, Lead Product Manager at Trust Wallet.

Over the past few years, we’ve seen a clear shift in how people interact with digital assets. More users are choosing self-custody as a deliberate move toward greater control and accountability. This trend is reflected in the rapid rise of tools like Trust Wallet, one of the most widely used self-custodial wallets in Web3.

At Trust Wallet, we’ve seen firsthand how quickly expectations are evolving. Users want more than security — they want simplicity. That insight guided our decision to become one of the first wallets to support EIP-7702, Ethereum’s latest proposal to make externally owned accounts (EOAs) behave like smart contracts. It’s what led to the development of FlexGas, a feature that allows users to pay gas fees with tokens they already hold, such as USDT, TWT, or BNB, directly from their wallet.

Now, let’s take a step back and examine the broader market context and the real-world pain points that led us to rethink how gas fees should work.

Recent market research values the non-custodial wallet sector at $1.5 billion in 2023, with projections reaching $3.5 billion by 2031, growing at a CAGR of 8% from 2024 to 2031.

But scale alone doesn’t tell the whole story, because the user experience hasn’t kept pace. People still juggle across chains, manually manage gas balances, and abandon transactions when approvals don’t make sense.

One of the most common pieces of feedback wallet teams hear from users is simple: “I don’t want to think about gas — I just want the transaction to go through.” And it’s a fair point. Gas fees aren’t just a cost; they’re a cognitive burden. Every failed or delayed transaction chips away at trust in the system.

The issue’s root lies in the architecture we’ve relied on for over a decade: EOA, the default wallet type for most users. It’s lightweight and secure, but wasn’t designed for the programmable, dynamic interactions that define today’s decentralized applications (DApps).

That’s why the Ethereum EIP-7702 proposal represents such a meaningful shift.

A Flexible New Layer for Wallet Behavior

First proposed by Vitalik Buterin in May 2024, EIP-7702 introduces a subtle but essential evolution in how Ethereum accounts work. It allows EOAs to temporarily take on smart contract behavior within a single transaction, bringing the benefits of account abstraction (AA) without forcing users to migrate to new account types or give up their seed phrase–based control.

With EIP-7702, users maintain full custody of their assets while gaining access to more flexible transaction logic. That means bundling approvals and actions into a single tap, enabling recurring payments, or supporting delegated session keys without separate smart contracts.

Simply put, EIP-7702 means fewer steps, less confusion, and a smoother user experience. Transactions are faster and more predictable, allowing gas fees to be paid using tokens already held without the need for native assets in advance.

Technically speaking, EIP-7702 acts as a modular extension to the EOA model. The user signs an intent, which may contain custom logic, and the wallet executes that intent through a temporary contract. Once the transaction is complete, the account returns to its standard EOA state, unlocking a more intelligent transaction layer for developers and infrastructure providers.

In turn, Web3 starts to behave more like something built for real people, not protocols.

Building the Infrastructure Behind the Abstraction

Supporting EIP-7702 at scale requires more than integrating a new transaction type or making user interface (UI) updates. It demands a robust, modular backend infrastructure capable of interpreting user intent, dynamically routing gas, and reliably executing complex actions across chains.

At Trust Wallet, we chose not to rely on third-party abstractions or SDKs. Instead, we developed our own account abstraction engine entirely in-house, built to be secure, scalable, and chain-agnostic. This modular system includes:

• Paymaster – for handling custom gas logic and token-based gas payments
• Bundler – for optimizing multi-step transactions
• Relayer – for robust, fast submission of abstracted transactions
• Gas Provisioner – for managing gas sources and routing across networks intelligently

This internal architecture gives Trust Wallet a lasting edge in performance and reliability, while setting a new standard for EOA-based smart wallet design. It also paved the way for FlexGas, the first prominent feature we built on this foundation. FlexGas allows users to pay gas fees with tokens such as USDT or TWT on Ethereum and BNB Chain.

Crucially, all of these enhancements preserve the essence of what makes self-custody appealing: users retain full control of their private keys, their seed phrases remain unchanged, and there’s no need to upgrade to a contract-based wallet. This balance (between power and autonomy) is what makes EIP-7702 such a significant upgrade rather than a disruptive replacement.

Shifting Wallets into Intelligent Agents

If widely adopted, EIP-7702 could become a defining layer in the next generation of Web3 infrastructure. It enables a future where wallets are responsive, intelligent agents — automating complex strategies, onboarding users, and unlocking frictionless interactions at scale.

The first real-world applications are already in motion. Features allowing users to pay for gas with tokens they already hold are nearly here. Gasless onboarding, automated execution strategies, wallet-as-a-service models, and smart transaction policies for institutional-grade use are all within reach.

The biggest breakthroughs in crypto often come not from radical overhauls, but from quiet upgrades that remove invisible frictions. EIP-7702 may be exactly that. It doesn’t change the way we think about Ethereum’s security model — it changes what that model can do for users.

Because at the end of the day, progress in Web3 doesn’t depend on how smart our contracts are. It depends on how natural they feel to use.

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