🚫 GitHub in Russia: Officially Open but Technically Restricted

📉 Access to GitHub in Russia has deteriorated significantly. Since May 5, 2026, the share of unsuccessful and blocked connections to the platform has increased from a background level of 4% to 16%, according to the OONI internet censorship monitoring service. In contrast, countries like the USA, UK, and Germany do not experience this trend.

💬 Users have reported difficulties in working with repositories and downloading files, with complaints noted on Habr and Downdetector. However, there are no global outages observed on GitHub; the issue is localized to Russia.

📌 On May 8, 2026, Roskomnadzor stated through RIA Novosti and Interfax that GitHub is not listed in the register of banned websites and is officially not blocked. While this is technically true for the domain itself, individual pages of the service have been systematically blocked for several years due to court decisions and actions by various authorities. Over 130 pages have been blocked so far, with the pace accelerating in 2026.

🔍 The situation reflects selective technical restrictions at the level of individual subnets and pages rather than a direct domain blockade. As of the publication date, there have been no official statements or press releases from GitHub regarding the situation in Russia.

🚫 Australian Crypto Investors Face Potential Tax Hikes Amid CGT Reform Plans

🔔 The Australian government is considering significant changes to the Capital Gains Tax (CGT), sparking discussions within the investment sector. During an appearance on Sky News, Treasurer Jim Chalmers stated that the proposed reforms aim to address housing affordability and "intergenerational inequity." However, critics argue that these changes could increase taxes on stocks, cryptocurrencies, and investment properties.

💰 Reports suggest that the Department of Finance is contemplating reducing the 50% CGT discount in Australia or replacing it with an inflation indexing model. Under current rules, Australians who hold assets for more than 12 months pay tax only on half of the capital gain. The remaining amount is taxed at their regular income tax rate. For instance, if a person buys a house for AUD 500,000 and sells it for AUD 700,000, they realize a profit of AUD 200,000. With the current discount, the taxable income becomes only AUD 100,000.

📉 The Treasury estimates that the CGT discount will cost the government AUD 21.8 billion in lost revenue for the 2025-26 financial year. However, the Department of Finance is now considering a return to the inflation indexing system, which could increase tax bills for long-term investors. It is worth noting that this system was used until 1999.

🚀 Analyst's Forecast: Major Breakthrough Expected in Bitcoin (BTC) and Dogecoin (DOGE)

🗣 Jordi Visser, a macro strategist with 30 years of experience, recently appeared on a program hosted by renowned financial commentator Anthony Pompliano. He discussed the challenges in global markets, rising inflation, and the latest developments in the cryptocurrency sector.

📈 Visser pointed out that he has observed a signal indicating a "major merger and breakthrough" specifically in the charts of Bitcoin (BTC) and Dogecoin (DOGE). He stated that traditional institutions or institutional capital do not have a direct influence on Dogecoin, and he uses this asset as a "warning system" to gauge individual investors' enthusiasm in the market.

Dogecoin's chart is technically on the verge of a major breakthrough,

Visser asserted. He claimed that a potential sharp rise in Dogecoin would serve as the most convincing evidence of a strong return of individual investors to the cryptocurrency market. He also mentioned that Bitcoin would experience a sustainable breakthrough if it surpasses its 200-day moving average (especially above the $82,000 level); and that the $2400-2450 range in Ethereum carries a similar signal.

🚫 Grayscale names 4 Clarity Act winners after 15-9 vote

🔔 Grayscale published a research note on May 22 identifying Ethereum, Solana, BNB Chain, and Canton Network as the four blockchains best placed to absorb institutional capital once the Clarity Act is signed into law. “Regulatory clarity is coming, and a rising tide will likely lift digital assets broadly,” Grayscale wrote. The four chains were selected because they lead across three key metrics: tokenized asset value, stablecoin supply and transaction volume, and DeFi total value locked. Ethereum leads in tokenized assets, followed by BNB Chain and Solana, while Canton Network rounds out the list as the leading institutional settlement network.

🔖 “$350 billion settles daily on Canton, with over $6 trillion in tokenized real-world assets and institutions like JPMorgan and DTCC building in production,” the Canton Network said recently.
Zach Pandl, Grayscale’s head of research, noted Bitcoin will also benefit from regulatory clarity as the industry’s most secure asset. Crypto news has reported on Grayscale’s December 2025 outlook predicting bipartisan legislation would unlock a new institutional era for digital assets.

⚠️ Grayscale also flagged Avalanche, Base, Arbitrum, Hyperliquid, and Tron as networks with significant on-chain finance exposure that would benefit from greater regulatory clarity. These chains sit below the primary four in tokenized asset value but have established DeFi ecosystems.

🚫 Inside MEXC’s move to build an all-in-one trading station for digital and traditional assets

❗️ Crypto trading is becoming less isolated from the rest of the market. Users who once came to exchanges mainly for tokens, spot pairs, and futures are now tracking equity themes, macro moves, and alternative assets in the same daily workflow.

⚡️ April data gives one recent example. INTC futures volume rose 1,684 percent month over month, while AMD, TSM, and NVIDIA-linked futures also posted triple-digit growth. Activity also increased across QQQ, GOOGL, and SP500 futures, showing how traditional market themes are moving deeper into crypto exchange behavior.

🔖 For MEXC users, this interest has already been visible through TradFi-linked futures. The exchange says the category now covers more than 130 traditional financial assets, including U.S. equities, stock indices, ETFs, precious metals, commodities, and foreign exchange products. RealStocks extends that path from futures exposure into U.S. stock and ETF access. Eligible users can reach U.S.-listed stocks and ETFs through licensed broker and clearing infrastructure, transact in USDT and use MEXC’s existing interface.

🚫 Circle moves $4B USDC to Coinbase in record HyperEVM transfer

🔔 Circle moved about $4.4 billion in USDC to a Coinbase address through HyperEVM, according to Arkham, in what the analytics firm called the largest USDC transaction ever. Arkham said Circle moved $4 billion to Coinbase on HyperEVM. The transfer involved about 4.397 billion USDC and went to a Coinbase-linked address.

➡️ The transfer stood out because of its size and route. HyperEVM is linked to the Hyperliquid ecosystem, where USDC plays a main role in trading, quoting, and settlement.

⚠️ Arkham also described the move as the largest USDC transaction ever. The transaction has drawn attention because it connects Circle, Coinbase, and Hyperliquid at a time when stablecoin liquidity is becoming more central to onchain markets.

📊 The transfer appears connected to Coinbase’s role as Hyperliquid’s USDC treasury deployer. Coinbase announced in May that it would expand support for USDC on Hyperliquid under the Aligned Quote Asset framework. Coinbase said the setup would strengthen USDC’s role as the preferred stablecoin for onchain capital markets. The company also said concentrating liquidity around USDC could make markets more efficient by reducing the need for conversions.

🔔 Strive CEO says STRC, SATA selloff was leverage flush

❗️ In a post on X, Cole said it was “the most difficult day in the history of Digital Credit.” STRC fell as low as $82.50 before recovering, according to Cole. SATA also dropped from par to the low $90s before rebounding. Jeff Walton later said on X that SATA had hit $92.88 intraday before recovering to $97.71.

➡️ The moves drew attention because both products sit inside a new market for preferred equity-style digital credit. That market links income products with Bitcoin treasury strategies and public market structures. Cole said the selloff was “a leverage liquidation event” and “not a deterioration in underlying credit quality.” He said forced selling appeared to drive the fall after leveraged investors came under pressure.

⚠️ He compared the move with past income-market stress in traditional finance, where investors borrow against assets viewed as stable to lift returns. When prices move against them, margin pressure can force sales and push prices lower.

👀 Ripple is quietly becoming a bank. What that means for XRP holders

📌 A conditional national trust bank charter, a pending Federal Reserve master account, and a string of acquisitions in brokerage, payments, and treasury. Ripple is assembling a full regulated-finance stack. The benefits flow first to its stablecoin and the company itself. What is left for XRP is the question.

⚠️ Ripple is turning itself into a bank, or something very close to one, and it is doing it methodically. Over the past year the company won conditional federal approval to operate a national trust bank, applied for a Federal Reserve master account that would give it direct access to the central bank’s payment systems, and bought its way into prime brokerage, payments, and corporate treasury services through a series of acquisitions.

🔖 Add the dollar stablecoin it already issues, the 70-plus regulatory licenses it holds around the world, and a fresh European license that lets it passport services across 30 countries, and the picture is unmistakable. A company once known mainly for a cross-border payments network and a controversial token is assembling the full apparatus of a regulated financial institution.

🔖 The world cup turned Polymarket into a $5B market

‼️ The biggest sporting event on Earth has become the biggest liquidity event in prediction market history. Billions in tournament volume, a $45 billion June across the sector, one very expensive longshot trap, and a CFTC probe arriving right on schedule.

🔔 Four years ago, during the Qatar World Cup, Polymarket processed a grand total of $138,000 in tournament bets. That is not a typo missing some zeros. One hundred thirty-eight thousand dollars, roughly the price of a nice car, across the entire biggest sporting event on the planet.

⚠️ This summer, the same platform blew through $5 billion in World Cup trading before the knockout rounds finished forming, with tournament totals now estimated around $6.4 billion and climbing. The flagship winner market alone has turned over more volume than many mid-cap tokens see in a month. Across the whole prediction market sector, June closed at $44.8 billion in combined monthly volume, a 75% jump from May, and Bernstein analysts project World Cup wagering could top $10 billion by the July 19 final at MetLife Stadium. Measured against its own 2022 self, Polymarket’s World Cup business grew by a factor of more than forty thousand.

👀 What is OTC trading in crypto? How whales buy without moving the price

⚠️ When a company buys hundreds of millions of dollars of Bitcoin and the price barely moves, it did not use an exchange. It used an OTC desk. This guide explains over-the-counter crypto trading: why large orders cannot go through order books, how OTC desks source liquidity and settle trades, the difference between principal and agency desks, why so much real volume is invisible, and how to tell when the whales are quietly accumulating.

🔖 Here is a puzzle that confuses almost everyone new to crypto markets. A public company announces it bought $500 million of Bitcoin. On any exchange, an order that size would tear through the order book, spike the price, and cost the buyer a fortune in slippage, everyone would see it coming and front-run it. Yet the announcements keep arriving, the purchases keep completing, and the price frequently barely reacts. How?

➡️ The answer is a corner of the market most retail traders never touch and much of the real money never leaves: over-the-counter trading. OTC desks are where whales, institutions, corporate treasuries, miners, funds, and governments buy and sell crypto in sizes that would be impossible on public exchanges, through private, negotiated transactions that never appear in any order book. A large and growing share of crypto’s genuine volume happens here, off-screen, and the on-exchange charts that most analysis obsesses over are, in a real sense, only the visible tip of the market.

➡️ Can Bitcoin price break $67K as oil and tech earnings raise risks?

⚡️ Bitcoin price has pulled back toward $65,700 after approaching $67,000, as caution before Alphabet’s earnings and a sharp oil rally pushed traders away from risk assets. According to data from cryptonews, Bitcoin price traded near $65,970 at press time, down about 1.5% on the daily chart after reaching an intraday high of $66,886. The retreat followed a multi-day recovery from the July low near $58,000, but traders remained reluctant to chase the move before major technology companies released quarterly results.

📣 U.S. stock futures edged lower on Wednesday as investors awaited results from Alphabet and Tesla. Alphabet faces particular scrutiny because Wall Street wants evidence that its heavy spending on artificial intelligence can produce durable returns. Analysts expect the company’s annual capital expenditure to reach between $180 billion and $190 billion.

🌐 Semiconductor stocks have also experienced sharp swings over concerns that technology companies may curb AI infrastructure spending. Weakness in chipmakers could pressure the Nasdaq and drain demand for Bitcoin, which has retained a strong short-term correlation with high-growth equities during periods of market stress.

🔔 Nexo keeps EU services live with MiCA partners

❗️ Nexo said on July 28 that its products remain available across the European Economic Area through an operating structure involving two regulated German partners. Tangany provides digital-asset custody, while DLT Finance supplies brokerage infrastructure for crypto-assets and financial instruments.

⚡️ The announcement does not identify a MiCA crypto-asset service provider authorisation held by Nexo itself. Instead, Nexo attributes the regulated custody and brokerage functions to Tangany and DLT Finance. The platform said the arrangement completed a testing phase without disrupting customer access. Tangany holds EEA client crypto-assets through its Munich-based custody infrastructure. The company received its MiCA licence in September 2025, covering custody, transfers and staking services. Tangany said the approval allows it to passport those services across the European Union.

🔖 DLT Finance is the operating brand of DLT Securities GmbH. Under Nexo’s arrangement, it provides brokerage and execution infrastructure. Public licence data list DLT Securities as a German MiCA-authorised provider for services including exchanging crypto-assets, executing orders and placing crypto-assets. The firm also operates as an investment firm under MiFID II. This division means the companies performing covered custody and trading functions hold the relevant permissions. Nexo continues to control the client-facing wealth platform and user experience.

👀 Coldcard temporarily halts customer data deletion over July exploit

📌 Coldcard has temporarily suspended its automatic customer data deletion process because of legal obligations tied to the security incident disclosed on July 30, preserving records that would otherwise have been erased after 120 days.

⚠️ The company said the temporary measure overrides its published data-retention schedule but added that customers who do not want their information preserved under the legal protocol can still request the application of its existing retention policy by contacting customer support.

🔔 Explaining the change, the company said its standard practice has been to “automatically blank customer records after 120 days,” keeping only customers’ email addresses and country of residence. It also noted that buyers have long been able to request accelerated deletion after their orders were delivered.

➡️ Bitcoin developers could fall behind attackers without top AI models

📌 A group of crypto companies and industry organizations has called on frontier AI labs to give Bitcoin and other open-source financial infrastructure developers trusted access to their most capable models as AI-assisted cyber threats become more advanced. Under the proposal, AI companies would “establish or expand standing trusted-access programs for qualified defenders of open-source financial infrastructure,” allowing vetted security researchers and maintainers to use capabilities that may otherwise be restricted.

🌐 BPI argued that access has become more important as advanced AI systems gain the ability to examine large codebases, identify potential vulnerabilities and speed up difficult technical work. These capabilities can help legitimate researchers find flaws, but the institute said they can also be used by attackers looking for weaknesses. For Bitcoin developers, the letter said the access gap can leave maintainers dependent on less capable open-weight models when frontier systems either refuse security-related requests or remain available only through programs that do not include open-source financial infrastructure.

🔗 The institute pointed to the amount of capital dependent on such software, noting that Bitcoin alone secures more than $1 trillion in value. A serious vulnerability in financial infrastructure can therefore put users’ savings at risk, the letter said.

➡️ Bitcoin price reclaims $64K, but leverage raises pullback risk

🌐 Bitcoin price rose 1.7% to around $64,200 on Aug. 18 as ETF inflows supported the rebound, but rising leverage left the recovery exposed to a pullback. The rebound from the $62,600 area improved short-term momentum, although the daily chart continues to show Bitcoin trading below its two longer-term moving averages. Leverage is also building while liquidity rests on both sides of the current price, leaving the recovery exposed to sharp moves if buyers fail to extend the advance.

📣 U.S.-listed spot Bitcoin ETFs recorded more than $137 million in net inflows on Monday. The inflows followed over $385 million in net withdrawals during the previous week, suggesting institutional demand returned after several sessions of selling.

⚡️ The recovery also came as buyers defended an area that has repeatedly attracted demand since June. Bitcoin fell toward $62,600 on Aug. 14 and again tested the upper $62,000 region on Aug. 17 before climbing as high as $64,586 on Tuesday.