Qubic, a project led by former IOTA co-founder Sergey Ivancheglo, says it has secured more than 51% of Monero’s global hashrate, a milestone that, if true, gives it the ability to reorganize blocks, censor transactions, and attempt double-spends on the privacy-focused blockchain.

Ivancheglo framed the move as a stress test to help the Monero community prepare for future network threats, but the announcement has triggered sharp debate among developers and security experts.

A 51% attack occurs when a single entity or coordinated group controls a majority of a proof-of-work network’s hashrate. Ethereum Classic suffered multiple reorganizations in 2020, resulting in millions of dollars in losses, while Bitcoin Gold faced similar assaults in 2018 and 2020.

Smaller networks like Verge have also been targeted, demonstrating how concentrated hashing power can destabilize and entire cryptocurrency network.

Monero, which uses the CPU-friendly RandomX algorithm, has long prided itself on resisting ASIC centralization. Qubic’s “useful proof-of-work” (uPoW) model repurposes Monero mining rewards by converting XMR into USDT, then using the proceeds to buy and burn QUBIC tokens, a deflationary mechanism that doubles as a liquidity sink for its own ecosystem.

From mid-May to late July, Qubic’s share of the network jumped from less than 2% to over 25%, at times topping pool rankings.

Ledger CTO Charles Guillemet warned on X that Monero “appears to be in the midst of a successful 51% attack,” citing signs of a major chain reorganization, with several other industry experts like SlowMist founder Yu Xian expressing their doubt over Qubic’s economics.

Whether the events mark a hostile takeover or simply a stress test, XMR has responded negatively, dropping by 6.65% in the past 24 hours to compound a 16% decline over the past week.

Read more: How $330M BTC Hacker May Have Doubled Down on Monero Derivatives

Why Sharplink is all-in on Ethereum

In X’s post, Sharplink Gaming shared an update that it secured a capital rise of $200 million through a direct offer of $19.50 per share, backed by four global institutional investors.

The company says the capital will be deployed strategically to expand the holdings of the ETH Ministry of Finance. Once fully deployed, Sharplink expects ETH reserves to exceed $2 billion, and is located in the Treasury Department, the most ethnic corporations in the world.

The company focuses on accumulating ETH, staking ETH to acquire sustainable on-chain yields and consistently growing stocks for long-term shareholders. Ethereum is becoming the foundational layer of the global finance infrastructure of tokenized assets, and Sharplink is being built to capture its upside down.

According to a post by Durty_Crypto, Vitalik Buterin recently pointed out that ETH’s Treasury Department is increasingly valuable, not just as an ETH store, but also as another way to make people accessible to ETH. Instead of simply purchasing and holding ETH, investors are turning to companies that own and manage ETH Ministry of Finance.

Durty_crypto outlined the invisible irony among the unbanked crew who quickly celebrated mainstream verification. Pulsechain’s sacrifice wallet has become the fifth largest ETH holder in the Crypto, with 171,054 ETH. Before the funds were turned to ETH, the wallet was already attracting attention as the largest DAI owner in all chains. Therefore, experts praised Richard Heart, the controversial figure behind Pulsechain, for performing a strategic pivot that he barely saw.

Ethereum activity gets hot as transaction volume approaches ATH

While notable figures raise capital and increase the value of the ETH Treasury, the coin also revealed that the momentum of the chain over Ethereum is surged once again. According to Etherscan data, the network processed 1.87 million transactions on August 6, bringing it to a record high of 1.96 million held in January 2024.

Validator Queue Data, on the other hand, shows that the ETH POS Exit queue has dropped significantly to 443,164 ETH, worth around $1.62 billion. After the decrease, the average exit wait time will be 7 days and 17 hours.

As reported by Coinw, Ethereum’s performance could experience significant growth once UK regulators officially lift the ban on Crypto Exchange Supervision Notes (CETN) for retail investors. The move illustrates a major policy change to adopt the digital asset market. Additionally, individuals may engage in financial instruments that take these risks at their discretion.

US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) Commissioner Caroline Crenshaw has criticized recent staff guidance on liquid staking, warning that it fails to reflect the practice’s complexities.

On Aug. 5, the SEC’s Division of Corporation Finance asserted that certain liquid staking arrangements, specifically those involving receipt tokens, do not fall under securities regulations.

However, Crenshaw pushed back, arguing that the statement adds confusion rather than clarity to the legal treatment of liquid staking.

“Instead of clarifying the legal landscape, today’s statement, like other recent staff statements before it, only muddies the waters.”

Crenshaw pointed to two major flaws in the SEC staff’s position. First, she said the guidance relies on a long list of questionable assumptions about how liquid staking operates. Second, the staff’s legal conclusions are heavily caveated, making them unreliable for firms trying to navigate compliance.

She noted that any staking activity not fitting the precise conditions described in the document would fall outside its scope. Because of this, she argued, the guidance offers little protection or direction to those involved in staking-related services.

Crenshaw also reminded investors that the guidance represents the opinion of SEC staff, not the official stance of the Commission itself. As such, she believes it should have been framed as a cautionary alert, not a position of regulatory clarity.

Lehman-like risks in crypto staking

Adding to the concerns, Amanda Fischer, a former SEC Chief of Staff under Gary Gensler, drew parallels between liquid staking and the risky financial practices that led to Lehman Brothers’ collapse in 2008.

In a post on X (formerly Twitter), Fischer warned that liquid staking could expose crypto markets to cascading failures. She explained that the practice allows users to deposit digital assets and receive a synthetic version of the same token, which can be reused to earn additional rewards.

According to Fischer, this mirrors how Lehman reused client assets to back high-risk trades. She argued that liquid staking could replicate the same vulnerabilities without strong regulatory oversight.

The former SEC official also highlighted the risks of relying on token issuers, the possibility of long delays when unstaking, and the threat of technical failures or hacks. Together, these factors could amplify systemic risk across the crypto sector.

Mentioned in this article

One official at a federal consumer protection agency is reportedly raising concerns over JPMorgan Chase’s plan to charge fintech fees for customers’ account data.

An unnamed politically appointed official with the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) believes the agency’s efforts to kill in court an open banking rule enacted under former US President Biden may be giving JPMorgan Chase the opportunity to charge the fees, reports Bloomberg.

The same official is discussing the issue with concerned fintech firms, according to multiple sources who asked to remain anonymous to talk about the controversial matter.

The CFPB open banking rule, which was finalized last year, prevents banks from imposing charges on third parties such as Coinbase, Venmo and PayPal to access customers’ deposit and credit card account information as a way to ensure competition.

However, CFPB’s Acting Director Russell Vought is now asking a federal judge to vacate the rule on several grounds, arguing that Section 1033 of the Dodd-Frank Act “does not authorize the Bureau to prohibit banks from charging any fees for maintaining and providing access through the required developer interfaces.”

Critics of JPMorgan Chase’s fee proposal say it could stifle the fintech sector.

Graham Steele, the former assistant Treasury secretary for financial institutions in the Biden administration, says the Trump administration’s efforts to shutter the CFPB and delete Biden-related policies are wreaking havoc in the fintech industry.

“By repealing the rule without fully thinking it through, they have caused a lot of problems in the marketplace and for consumers.”

The CFPB did not respond to the media’s request for comment at time of publication.

Meanwhile, JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon defended the fee proposal during the bank’s second-quarter earnings call.

“It just costs a lot of money to set up the APIs and stuff like that to run the system protection.”

Critics of the bank fees include cryptocurrency companies and investors.

Says Alex Rampell, a general partner at venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz,

“Make no mistake: this isn’t about a new revenue stream. It’s about strangling competition. And if they get away with this, every bank will follow.”

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The US Marshals Service (USMS) appears to hold just under 29,000 Bitcoin, far lower than the more than 200,000 BTC many believed the government had in custody.

The updated figure, confirmed via a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request by independent crypto journalist L0la L33tz on July 16, puts the government’s total at 28,988 BTC as of March 2025.

At current prices, that stash is worth roughly $3.4 billion. That starkly contrasts with the $23.5 billion estimate from blockchain analytics platforms like Arkham Intelligence and Bitcoin Treasuries.

The discrepancy has ignited speculation across the crypto space, with some observers questioning whether the US has been quietly selling its Bitcoin holdings.

[Editor’s Note: Given that President Trump announced that seized Bitcoin would become part of a Strategic Bitcoin Reserve earlier this year, it is also possible that the Bitcoin is simply no longer under US Marshals custody. However, who controls the keys for the Bitcoin tracked onchain remains unclear.]

Is the US selling its Bitcoin?

Bitcoin Magazine CEO David Bailey suggested the US likely sold significant portions of its BTC reserves before President Donald Trump’s swearing-in in January. He noted that the lack of visible on-chain activity may not prove anything due to custodial involvement.

He stated:

“I think it is conclusive they’ve been selling without creating onchain footprint.”

Bitcoin analyst Sani, who tracks addresses suspected to be linked to US government wallets, confirmed no recent transactions from those addresses.

However, he pointed out that if custodians like Coinbase were facilitating off-chain swaps, traditional blockchain tracking may no longer clarify government activity.

Sani added:

“If that’s truly what’s happening, then all the on-chain tracking we’ve been doing, mine included, might not matter anymore.”

Senator Cynthia Lummis, a vocal advocate for a national Bitcoin reserve, responded with concern to this development. She said:

“If true, this is a total strategic blunder and sets the United States back years in the bitcoin race.”

Seized vs. forfeited Bitcoin

L33tz clarified that the FOIA request only covered “forfeited” Bitcoin assets legally transferred to government ownership.

According to her, many seized assets, such as those tied to ongoing investigations or hacks like Bitfinex, are not yet government property and may reside with other federal agencies like the DEA or FBI.

She emphasized that platforms like Arkham may misrepresent totals by lumping together seized and forfeited coins. L33tz pointed out:

“For example, Arkham lists 94k BTC from the Bitfinex hack, but forfeiture in the Bitfinex case hasnt been decided, at least last time I checked.”

Blockchain security expert Taylor Monahan also offered further explanation, pointing out that legal custody does not equal ownership.

She noted that in many cases, seized coins remain victims’ property and will never become US government assets.

Monahan highlighted ongoing legal processes, ranging from civil forfeiture to IEEPA, determining the fate of seized property.

She cited several examples, including a case where the FBI currently holds $40 million in crypto linked to an August 2024 theft, but these coins are expected to be returned to the rightful owner under the terms of a plea agreement.

Considering this, Monhan stated:

“Most of the time the coins seized by USG do not become property of the USG. They are returned to the victim that was hacked or defrauded.”

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Pump.fun, a platform that enables anyone to create and launch memecoins, concluded one of the largest and fastest initial coin offerings (ICOs) on Saturday. Within 12 minutes of the ICO going live, the platform raised $600 million from the sale of 15% of its token supply for $0.0040 each.

The ICO, which ended far quicker than the assigned 72 hours, put the platform’s fully diluted valuation at $4 billion, according to the platform.

Over the next 48-72 hours, all 150 billion PUMP tokens will be transferred to the investors. The tokens, however, will remain untradeable and untransferrable until the platform completes the distribution phase by July 15, according to ICO Drops data.

The PUMP token was available for sale on various centralized exchanges, including Gate, Kraken, and KuCoin, each of which saw cumulative investments worth $5 million, $30 million, and $16.5 million, respectively.

Bybit announced that due to unexpected delays in its application programming interface (API), the PUMP sale was oversubscribed. The exchange said it is verifying the final allocation of users whose funds are frozen. For users who did not receive an allocation, Bybit said it will refund all funds.

Investors from the U.S. and the U.K. were barred from participating in the ICO for regulatory reasons. According to Bloomberg, today’s ICO pushed Pump.fun’s total token sales to $1.32 billion.

All about the PUMP token

The platform describes the PUMP token as a “utility coin that will be used alongside the pump.fun brand behind the Pump.Fun Protocols.”

Holders of the PUMP token can choose to participate in promotional giveaways. Pump.fun, however, clarifies that its protocols will remain permissionless and will not require the use of PUMP tokens.

The PUMP token’s maximum supply is capped at 1 trillion, of which 33% or 330 billion tokens are allocated to the ICO. Of the 33%, 18% or 180 billion tokens were sold to institutional investors in a private sale, the platform said in an X post. The remaining 15% was sold to retain investors during today’s ICO.

It is worth noting that data Pump.fun shows that only 12.5% of the token supply was sold for a total of $500 million. However, Pump.fun co-founder Alon Cohen told Bloomberg that all 15% of PUMP’s supply was sold in today’s ICO as per previously announced plans.

Community reaction

Despite the undeniable success of Pump.fun’s ICO, the crypto community is divided over its merits. This is especially in light of Pump.fun facing growing competition from LetsBONK and a decline in revenue. LetsBONK, a Solana-based memecoin launchpad, has clocked more volume than Pump.fun over the past week, according to Dune Analytics data.

Noting that he is not an investor, Haseeb Qureshi, managing partner at venture capital firm Dragonfly, noted:

“$PUMP is going to be getting 25% of Pump revenues, so beyond one of the largest ICOs ever, this will be one of the highest gross revenue tokens in crypto.”

Others, however, are less thrilled about the ICO. For instance, Jeremie Henicz, head of XBorg AI, asked if he’s the only one who finds it “cringe,” while responding to Qureshi. Similarly, Marty Bent, founder of Truth for the Commoner (TFTC), stated:

“Pump.fun and those supporting it (even if at arm’s length) are Pied Pipers leading Gen Z to ruin.”

Even before the ICO, many have criticized the platform’s tokenomics. Crypto researcher Rex, for instance, called the platform’s tokenomics exploitative, with nearly 40% tokens allocated to Pump.fun itself.

Mentioned in this article

US banking titan Goldman Sachs is reportedly highlighting its bullishness on one under-the-radar artificial intelligence (AI) stock that’s up over 68% since March.

Goldman has put Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company Limited (TWSC:2330) on its “Conviction Buy” list after already being on its buy list, Insider Monkey reports.

TSMC is Taiwan’s largest company, and shares of TSMC are often considered a “pure play” on semiconductors as the firm manufactures chips for some of the world’s biggest tech firms, including Apple, Nvidia and Qualcomm.

Goldman says it is raising its price target on TSMC based on cooling concerns about large AI-chip order cuts and increasing demand for the company’s CoWoS (Chip on Wafer on Substrate with silicon interposer) tech designed to power ultra-high-performance computing for AI and other applications.

The bank also believes that more smartphone, server and networking customers of TSMC will start adopting CoWoS tech.

Goldman is projecting the company’s dollar revenue to grow by 29% this year and 17% in 2026.

The firm has upped its price target for TSM to NT$1,210 from NT$1,145.

At time of writing, TSMC is trading at NT$1,080. Reaching Goldman’s price target suggests a 12% rally from current prices.

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The financial services giant Goldman Sachs is telling shareholders that its competitors are now offering crypto products and services that the bank doesn’t.

In its 2024 Annual Report, Goldman Sachs says in some circumstances, rival firms are offering products that clients may prefer, such as specific digital assets, which Goldman cannot or choose not to provide.

According to the bank, the competition could help create better experiences for clients.

Goldman Sachs goes on to say that blockchain and artificial intelligence (AI)-based technologies have enhanced rivalries within the banking industry.

“The growth of electronic trading and the introduction of new products and technologies, including trading and distributed ledger technologies, such as cryptocurrencies, and AI technologies, has increased competition.”

The financial services titan also says it is “exposed to risks” through various activities involving digital assets due to the potential of cyber security incidents.

“Additionally, although the prevalence and scope of applications of distributed ledger technology, cryptocurrency and similar technologies is growing, the technology is nascent and may be vulnerable to cyber-attacks or have other inherent weaknesses.

We are exposed to risks, and may become exposed to additional risks, related to distributed ledger technology, including through our facilitation of clients’ activities involving financial products that use distributed ledger technology, such as blockchain, cryptocurrencies or other digital assets, our investments in companies that seek to develop platforms based on distributed ledger technology, the use of distributed ledger technology by third-party vendors, clients, counterparties, clearinghouses and other financial intermediaries, and the receipt of cryptocurrencies or other digital assets as collateral.”

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