CGMW

Polymarket odds on Hyperliquid hitting $100 by end of 2026 sit at 15%, stabilizing after swinging between 11% and 16% over the past week. The move in sentiment coincides with a scheduled White House meeting between Trump and executives from Coinbase, Ripple, and Polymarket, alongside CFTC Chair Michael Selig and SEC Chair Paul Atkins. The CFTC's inaugural Innovation Advisory Committee session follows shortly after. Regulatory clarity signals have historically repriced crypto risk premiums. Watch BTC and ETH spot for any directional read once the meeting wraps.

Adam Back's point is blunt: Satoshi was sometimes wrong. Early scaling predictions didn't hold. He later contradicted himself, shifting toward Layer 2 and Bitcoin banks. Back's message to the community: build $BTC on math and security, not founder mythology.

Ondo Stocks: $27B in cumulative tokenized equity volume across 440+ assets, $1.01B TVL, and 200K+ holders growing 20% in 30 days. Monthly transfer volume hit $2.82B, up 25.4% MoM. Ondo Perps cleared $8B total, $5B in the last 30 days alone.

Moscow Exchange (MOEX) plans to launch cash-settled BTC and ETH perpetual futures as early as September 2026, timed to Russia's new digital currency law taking effect. Contracts settle in rubles, access restricted to qualified investors at launch. MOEX already lists monthly and quarterly futures on BTC, ETH, SOL, XRP, and TRX. Perpetuals are the next layer. The legal framework caps retail crypto purchases at roughly $3,800 per licensed intermediary annually and bars crypto payments for goods inside Russia. Core provisions hit September 1, 2026. Regulated ruble-settled exposure to BTC and ETH without custody or offshore accounts is the structural play here. Lineup expected to expand to ten coins over time.

Ethereum's Protocol Architecture team has outlined its preferred package for Hegotá, the network upgrade set to follow Glamsterdam, proposing FOCIL and Frame Transactions as its headline features. The package targets improved censorship resistance and privacy, alongside scaling toward a 500–600 million block gas limit.

Ethereum Whale Accumulates More... A crypto whale (0x8447) has bought another 5,000 $ETH worth roughly $9.53 million. The whale staked the newly acquired ETH twelve hours ago. The same wallet has now accumulated 10,657 ETH. Its total purchases are worth approximately $20.07 million.

With CLARITY Act Senate passage now estimated at 10% odds for 2026, the Aug. https://bsc.news/news/clarity-act-deadlock-white-house-crypto-meeting

South Korea Blocks Polymarket Over Gambling Concerns South Korea’s media regulator voted on Aug. 18 to block access to Polymarket, saying its winner-take-all markets on events including politics, elections, sports and weather encourage gambling. Polymarket argued that its non-custodial peer-to-peer structure and smart contracts mean it does not directly control user funds.

News Digest • 18/08/2026 16:00 (GMT+8) Harmony Protocol to Roll Back Network After Massive Exploit Bitcoin.com News • https://news.bitcoin.com/blockchain/harmony-protocol-to-roll-back-network-after-massive-exploit/ Moscow Exchange plans to launch Bitcoin, Ethereum perpetual futures next month CryptoBriefing • https://cryptobriefing.com/moscow-exchange-bitcoin-ethereum-perpetual-futures/ Jane Street Reveals Over $1 Billion Invested in Bitcoin ETFs CryptoPotato • https://cryptopotato.com/jane-street-reveals-over-1-billion-invested-in-bitcoin-etfs/ Jeonbuk Bank becomes first Korean regional bank to deploy Ripple Payments CryptoBriefing • https://cryptobriefing.com/south-korea-ripple-payments-kbank/ OCC Grants Conditional Approval for World Liberty Trust Bank Focused on Stablecoin Operations TheDailyHodl • https://dailyhodl.com/2026/08/18/occ-grants-conditional-approval-for-world-liberty-trust-bank-focused-on-stablecoin-operations/ Bitcoin Supply Squeeze Unwinds as 28,000 BTC Return to Exchanges Bitcoin.com News • https://news.bitcoin.com/market-updates/bitcoin-supply-squeeze-unwinds-as-28000-btc-return-to-exchanges/ Vessel hit by projectile in Hormuz Strait, engine damaged, casualties reported CryptoBriefing • https://cryptobriefing.com/vessel-hit-by-projectile-in-hormuz-strait-engine-damaged-casualties-reported/ Oman-Iran talks progress on Strait of Hormuz shipping corridor: WSJ CryptoBriefing • https://cryptobriefing.com/oman-iran-talks-progress-on-strait-of-hormuz-shipping-corridor-wsj/ ─── NFA. Data-based signal, not a guaranteed win. Manage risk. Past performance does not guarantee future results. Flashed out for orbitant. 🧿 Join @cgmarketwatch more updates

Plume Network reported $340M in RWA total value locked at end of Q1 2026, with total wallet holders rising from 577K to 714K over the quarter, a 23.8% gain. The broader RWA tokenization market grew 260% in H1 2025, moving from $8.6B to over $23B. Plume is positioning as a dedicated capture point for that flow, running a modular Ethereum L2 built specifically around institutional issuance workflows including KYC/AML automation and transfer agent records. The network holds an SEC-registered transfer agent status and has engaged regulators in the U.S., Hong Kong, and Singapore. It outpaced Solana and Ethereum in RWA holder count by end of Q1 2026.

Curve founder calls PumpFun a "casino of scams" and says Phantom's hardware wallet UX is miles behind MetaMask. He's not hating on Solana itself tho. Just the flagship apps. When your best examples are meme launchers and rough wallet flows, that's a problem.

Markets are bracing for a more volatile period ahead: S&P 500 options are pricing a daily implied move of ~0.75% on August 27th, the day after Nvidia, $NVDA, reports its quarterly earnings. The following day, August 28th, carries a ~0.70% implied move in the index as the Jackson Hole symposium begins, making them the two most anticipated volatility events of the month. By comparison, typical daily implied moves on non-event days this week are just ~0.40-0.50%. At the same time, options positioning flipped from long to short gamma in early August, a dynamic that tends to amplify market swings once volatility picks up. Meanwhile, the volatility index, $VIX, finished last week at 14.3 points, the lowest level since December 2025. More volatility is likely ahead of us.

Treasury's proposed GENIUS Act rules set two hard deadlines: stablecoin issuers need a federal or state license by Jan 18, 2027, and unlicensed stablecoins get cut off from US platforms by Jul 18, 2028. $USDT and Circle's $USDC face direct compliance exposure.

Tether is moving into AI, targeting emerging markets with lightweight tools for healthcare, finance and sports that run directly on smartphones. No cloud dependency. No frontier model ambitions.

The Clarity Act procedural vote is now locked in for September 15, 2026, after the Senate delayed its floor session over ethics disputes and banking opposition. The White House convenes SEC and CFTC leadership alongside crypto industry figures this week, a follow-up to a February session that produced no agreement, particularly on stablecoin rewards, which remain restricted under the current framework with narrow carve-outs. That unresolved stablecoin question is the bill's clearest pressure point. Democrats who backed the earlier version have signaled opposition to the updated text, citing Justice Department enforcement provisions. Separately, the CFTC's Innovation Advisory Committee holds its first meeting August 20. Founding members include executives from Gemini, Kraken, Polymarket, Kalshi, CBOE, and Nasdaq, covering crypto assets, AI systems, and prediction markets. The CFTC and SEC also signed a coordination MOU earlier this year. Regulatory architecture for digital assets is being built in parallel tracks, executive action and agency coordination, while Congress runs behind schedule. No visible BTC or ETH price reaction to the legislative delay has been confirmed at current levels. Watch September 15 as the next hard date.

South Korea’s top two crypto exchanges, Upbit and Bithumb, both reported roughly 50% decline in revenue in H1 2026, driven by declining trading volumes. Dunamu (Upbit): 408 billion won ($289.5M, -49.1% YoY) Bithumb: 168.7 billion won ($119.2M, -48.7% YoY)

Demand for Chinese chips is skyrocketing: Chinese integrated circuit industry revenue jumped +22% YoY in 2025, to a record $245 billion. Since 2020, Chinese chip industry sales have nearly doubled. As a result, China now accounts for ~6% of the global semiconductor market. This is roughly in-line with Japan and the European Union, at ~7% each, and Taiwan, at ~6%. By comparison, North America represents 53% of the market, while South Korea accounts for 21%. China is rapidly emerging as a major global player in semiconductors.

Jane Street Discloses Over $1 Billion in Bitcoin ETF Holdings, Led by BlackRock’s IBIT Quant trading giant Jane Street disclosed more than $1 billion in U.S. spot Bitcoin ETF holdings as of June 30, with roughly $828 million invested in BlackRock’s IBIT and the remainder spread across products including Fidelity’s FBTC and Grayscale’s GBTC. The positions are holdings of ETF shares rather than direct Bitcoin ownership.

Wall Street giant Jane Street dropped a bombshell SEC filing: They disclosed owning over $990 million in Bitcoin ETFs

Kalshi now holds majority share of U.S. prediction market volume even as sector-wide trading interest has dropped 83% from peak levels, underscoring how CFTC-regulated… https://cryptobriefing.com/kalshi-prediction-market-volume-dominance/