A Reuters/Ipsos poll of 1,166 U.S. adults conducted Aug. 14 to Aug. 17 found that 63% of respondents said it was inappropriate for former President Donald Trump and his family to profit from cryptocurrency since his return to office, while 69% said his private business interests influence his presidential decisions. Roughly half of Republican respondents said they believe his business interests sway his decisions.

The survey was released two days before the Senate reconvened in September, ahead of a vote on the CLARITY Act, a legislative effort to establish a regulatory framework for digital assets. Senator Kirsten Gillibrand has proposed an ethics clause that would prohibit elected officials and their spouses from issuing or promoting digital tokens, a provision that could require Trump to divest from his crypto holdings.

Financial disclosures filed earlier in 2026 indicated that Trump earned more than $1.4 billion from crypto ventures, primarily from World Liberty Financial and a meme coin bearing his name, making crypto the single largest source of presidential income ever disclosed. The CLARITY Act’s ethics provision would apply retroactively, potentially affecting existing tokens. Senate negotiators have considered a compromise offered by Senator Thom Tillis that would allow state authorities to enforce the restriction, but the White House has not responded to the proposal. Prediction markets currently assign a 25% probability that the bill will pass the Senate, with the ethics clause identified as the primary obstacle to reaching the 60‑vote threshold needed for passage.

The poll provides Democrats with data‑backed support for retaining the ethics clause and gives Republican senators public evidence that their base shares the concern, complicating efforts to pass the legislation before the September 15 procedural vote.

Maya Protocol suffered a liquidity shortfall after an exploit on Aug. 18 that left about 20.83 BTC unspent in a wallet linked to the attack, while its pools sustained an estimated $11 million in damage, with the full impact still unresolved.

Context: The exploit involved six accounting and state‑handling flaws in a single transaction that produced a false missing‑transfer signal, inflating a CACAO pool balance and triggering a compensation path that allowed the attacker to withdraw roughly 48.87 million CACAO before swapping the tokens.

Details: On Aug. 18 at 17:32:18 UTC, ten deposits totaling 20.82730682 BTC were sent to the address, followed by a 546‑satoshi transaction; the wallet showed no outgoing spend through Aug. 21, with a current balance valued at about $1.59 million.

The founder, identified as Aaluxx, initially estimated a loss of roughly 20 BTC (approximately $1.4 million at the time) and said he would work to fix the incident and recover the funds.

According to a technical analysis by SigIntZero, six accounting and state‑handling flaws in a single 23‑message transaction caused the exploit, leading to an inflated balance in a thin ARB.LINK pool that held only about 168,000 CACAO.

The compensation mechanism credited about 49.45 million CACAO to the pool, after which the attacker received roughly 99.93 % of the pool’s ownership units and withdrew about 48.87 million CACAO, later converting them into assets held by other MAYAChain pools.

CryptoSlate analysis attributed roughly $6.4 million to CACAO price declines and $2.9 million to arbitrage after the token fell from $0.115 to $0.013, representing an 88.7 % drop.

The attacker’s total controlled value was estimated between $1.65 million and $1.7 million, while the pool impact was linked to $10.9 million in liquidity losses.

Maya Protocol has sought a bug‑bounty return and considered replacing the missing BTC through Aztec Chain investments, but has not disclosed which remaining losses will be restored or who will absorb the shortfall.

The situation remains unresolved, with the protocol awaiting community input on recovery options.

The U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York entered consent orders on Tuesday that impose a five‑year trading ban on former Alameda Research CEO Caroline Ellison and a five‑year trading ban on FTX co‑founder Zixiao “Gary” Wang. The orders also impose a ten‑year registration ban on Ellison and an eight‑year registration ban on Wang.

The Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) said the bans reflect the material assistance both individuals provided in the agency’s FTX‑related investigations. Ellison was previously sentenced to two years in prison, and Wang received time served in a separate criminal case involving the misuse of customer funds.

On Wednesday, the U.S. Attorney’s Office in the Southern District of New York filed an opposition to a motion to dismiss submitted by Gannon Ken Van Dyke, a former service member who alleged he earned more than $400,000 on Polymarket using nonpublic information tied to a military operation that removed Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro. The filing argued that Van Dyke’s arguments about the Commodity Exchange Act were speculative and based on improper inferences.

Judge Anna J. Howard of the Northern District of Georgia ordered the unsealing of an indictment on Monday that charges Edward Zimbardi with twelve counts of wire fraud, one count of money‑laundering conspiracy and eleven counts of transactional money‑laundering. Prosecutors allege that Zimbardi tricked thousands of investors into a “Crypto Program” with promises of high returns. The indictment, unsealed by Magistrate Judge Howard, lists assets seized by Dutch authorities, including 11.87 Bitcoin, 2.15 Ether, 713,344,695 Shiba Inu, 47,110 USDT, 12,095 USDT0, 3.3 million XRP, 1,095 Dogecoin, 10.2 million Osaka Protocol, and 11.97 Polygon, valued at approximately $6 million.

The cases illustrate continued legal scrutiny of crypto industry participants by U.S. regulators and courts.

XRP rose 14.2% in 24 hours to $1.40 on August 21, 2026, marking the largest daily gain among the top 10 cryptocurrencies by market cap. The price closed above both its 50‑day and 200‑day exponential moving averages, the first time since the death cross formed earlier in August, though the 50‑day EMA remains below the 200‑day EMA, so the death cross technically persists.

More than $3 billion in short positions were liquidated across the broader crypto market in five days, contributing to XRP’s rally. Spot volume was concentrated on Binance and Upbit, with South Korean won‑denominated pairs accounting for a significant share of turnover. On‑chain metrics showed declining exchange deposits and growing accumulation by wallets holding more than one million XRP, while the Relative Strength Index reached approximately 72, indicating overbought conditions. The MACD line crossed above its signal line, suggesting short‑term upward momentum, and XRP funding rates on perpetual futures turned sharply positive. Options skew shifted positive for the first time in weeks, reflecting higher implied upside risk, though the signal is lagging.

The CLARITY Act procedural vote is scheduled for September 15, 2026. If the legislation advances, Ripple’s regulatory uncertainty could diminish, potentially supporting XRP’s price, but market predictions currently assign a 75% probability that the bill will stall.

A daily close below the 200‑day EMA within five days, a sustained decline in Bitcoin below $72,000, or a sharp reduction in spot volume on Binance and Upbit without increased U.S. exchange volume would all signal that the bullish breakout may be temporary.

The technical breakout remains unconfirmed; sustained demand or a favorable regulatory development would be required for the death cross reversal to become a genuine golden cross.

The guide published on August 21, 2026 by cryptonews.com explains how the moving average convergence divergence (MACD) indicator functions in crypto markets.

MACD measures the difference between a 12‑period exponential moving average and a 26‑period exponential moving average. The MACD line is the result of that subtraction. A 9‑period exponential moving average of the MACD line forms the signal line. The histogram equals the difference between the MACD line and the signal line.

When the MACD line crosses above the signal line, a bullish crossover occurs, indicating that short‑term momentum is accelerating relative to the longer‑term trend. When it crosses below, a bearish crossover indicates building downward momentum. Crossovers follow price movement and therefore lag, which can reduce their reliability, especially in volatile or choppy markets.

Divergence occurs when price makes a lower low while the MACD line makes a higher low, or when price makes a higher high while the MACD line makes a lower high. Regular bullish divergence suggests weakening downward pressure, while regular bearish divergence suggests weakening upward pressure. Hidden divergence indicates that a trend may continue rather than reverse.

Gerald Appel developed MACD in the late 1970s. The default MACD settings of 12, 26, and 9 were created for equity markets. Crypto traders often adjust these values, for example to 8, 21, and 5, to match the faster cycle of 24/7 markets. Adjustments are not universally superior but can reduce lag on shorter timeframes.

MACD does not measure overbought or oversold conditions, volume, or trend strength on its own. It is most effective when combined with other indicators such as RSI or volume. A bullish MACD crossover that coincides with an RSI recovery from below 30 or with a volume spike carries greater weight than a crossover occurring in low‑volume, range‑bound conditions.

Zero‑line crossovers occur when the MACD line moves above or below the zero line, indicating that the 12‑period EMA has crossed the 26‑period EMA. These signals confirm a trend change rather than predict one and are typically used as a trend filter.

Traders often examine the histogram to gauge momentum acceleration. Expanding histogram bars show increasing momentum, while shrinking bars show decreasing momentum. A histogram flip from positive to negative mirrors a MACD crossover and can provide an earlier visual cue.

Practical use includes watching for histogram shrinkage after a strong move, looking for bullish divergence near major support on the daily chart and confirming with a crossover on a shorter timeframe, and requiring agreement across multiple timeframes before entering a trade.

Common mistakes include trading every crossover, ignoring the prevailing trend, using default settings on all timeframes, and treating MACD as a standalone system. The indicator alone does not reveal support and resistance levels, volume, or market structure.

Disclaimer: This article is for informational purposes only and does not constitute financial or investment advice. Cryptocurrency trading involves substantial risk.

Kieran Warwick, co‑founder and CEO of Illuvium, said on August 21 that six months of cost reductions and a wage cut extended the studio’s operating runway by more than a year. The remaining staff are largely dedicated to an upcoming MMO, and most employees have worked at Illuvium for over three years. The company has not disclosed its current cash balance or monthly burn rate.

Illuvium’s previous burn figure, published in December 2024, was about $900,000 after administrators stopped taking salaries and cut wages by $85,000. The firm had said it expected to raise additional capital around March 2025, but Warwick did not indicate whether that financing affected the latest runway estimate. A social media claim that Illuvium had raised $132 million was not confirmed.

Capital Brief reported cumulative funding of about $60 million in 2024, while an Immutable release noted $72 million in gross NFT land sales in 2022. Combining land‑sale proceeds with reported funding conflates distinct revenue streams. Recent governance disclosures do not provide a current financial breakdown. Council minutes from July placed discussions of costs, staff restructuring, treasury and revenue distribution under nondisclosure agreements.

Council minutes from February said the studio had reduced the MMO’s scope and was targeting a December 2026 launch. The plan calls for reusing existing assets, procedural dungeons and boss encounters, with player‑versus‑pvp features and combat polish scheduled after launch. Illuvium aims to release several smaller products in 2026, including a final Celebrations collection for Beyond Set 1, Beyond Chaos, Primal Tactica and Loadout. An external studio developing Primal Tactica under an Illuvium IP license will present the game at Steam Next Fest in October, with most revenue going to Illuvium. Steam lists Primal Tactica for early access in the fourth quarter. Loadout will distribute tokens to the Illuvium staking contract to encourage ILV and ILV‑ETH staking, though a launch date has not been announced.

ILV’s price fell 67.55% over the year through August 21, according to CryptoSlate data.

Ethena (ENA) rose 48.3% in the last 24 hours and 77.2% over the past week after announcing a $1 billion secured warehouse facility with FalconX. The token’s price reached $0.1475 and its 24‑hour trading volume climbed to $1.04 billion, a 319% increase from the previous day and representing roughly three‑quarters of its market capitalization. Bitcoin’s dominance remained at 59.8%, while CoinMarketCap’s altcoin season index fell to 33, down from 51 the prior week, indicating limited overall altcoin participation. Other altcoins posted gains, with Curve (CRV) up 20.6%, Fetch.ai (FET) up 20.7%, Pudgy Penguins (PENGU) up 19.1%, Pump.fun (PUMP) up 18.7%, and Pepe (PEPE) up 18.6%. Bitcoin Cash (BCH) added 26.7% but its trading volume fell 10% over the same period. Hyperliquid’s token (HYPE) approached a record high of $77.87 after President Trump said the CFTC was working to bring the exchange onto U.S. soil in a compliant manner; the token had risen from about $52 in early August. Analyst Michaël van de Poppe, founder of MN Fund, said notable Bitcoin moves could redirect liquidity toward altcoins that have seen limited price action. The rally was driven by specific catalysts rather than broad market rotation. The altcoin season index remains low, leaving the sustainability of the momentum unclear.

Ethereum researchers aim to close a zkEVM security gap measured by the better.codes contest before the December deadline set in the Ethereum Foundation's roadmap.

The contest quantifies a cryptographic proof gap for the koalaIRS12 parameter, a fixed profile used in succinct proof system research.

At 15:44 UTC on August 21, the live leaderboard showed a lower certificate of 63.99 bits and an upper certificate of 116.13 bits, leaving an unresolved interval of 52.14 bits after nine submissions from seven participants.

Researchers can raise the lower certificate through soundness submissions or lower the upper certificate through attack submissions, each changing the boundaries of the interval.

The Ethereum Foundation targets 128-bit provable security for zkEVM implementations by December 2025, with a final proof size limit of 300 KiB and a formal soundness argument for recursion architecture.

Current progress indicates the 52.14-bit gap remains unfilled, meaning the lower certificate has not reached the 128-bit target and the upper certificate has not been reduced accordingly.

The interval provides a live measure of unfinished work on koalaIRS12 and will affect how component evidence integrates into the larger zkEVM security assessment before the December deadline.

Ray Dalio, the founder of Bridgewater Associates, posted on LinkedIn on Friday urging investors to hold a small amount of Bitcoin alongside gold as a hedge against a possible US debt crisis. He said a 10% to 15% allocation to gold could lower portfolio risk and recommended overweighting gold and Bitcoin relative to debt assets such as bonds, citing internal political and external geopolitical conflicts. Dalio estimated that a US debt crisis could occur within three years if current trends continue, though he noted the timing was uncertain. The hedge fund manager, whose net worth is estimated at more than $15 billion, has previously argued that Bitcoin does not replace gold as a store of value and has warned about privacy concerns and risks from quantum computing. In July 2025 he said he held a modest amount of Bitcoin and suggested an allocation of up to 15% in gold and Bitcoin combined. Earlier, in 2022 he said a 1% to 2% Bitcoin holding was reasonable before a major crypto market decline. His comments echo broader market concerns about rising debt levels and potential monetary policy shifts. The article notes that investors should verify information independently, reflecting Cointelegraph’s commitment to transparent journalism.

Coinkite released firmware version 5.6.1 for Coldcard Mk4 and Mk5 devices and version 1.5.1Q for Coldcard Q, requiring user‑supplied entropy for new seed generation to improve security. The update, announced in a Thursday blog post, follows a three‑week security review and adds safeguards for USB data handling, transaction signing and hardware randomness, including re‑verification of transactions before signing and additional randomness checks at boot. It mandates that newly generated seed phrases incorporate at least 65 keypresses with unpredictable timing, 50 dice rolls, or 128 coin flips, combined with the device’s built‑in randomness sources, to reduce vulnerability if a single entropy source fails. Coinkite urged users to upgrade immediately and to create new seed phrases, noting that existing seeds remain vulnerable even after the update. Reported losses from the earlier Coldcard exploit totaled 1,778 BTC, valued at about $112 million, according to a Galaxy Research report published Aug. 14, marking the third‑largest crypto exploit of 2026 per DefiLlama data. The prior July 31 update had already fixed seed‑generation failures for new wallets. Additional changes block certain Bitcoin signature hash modes that allow transaction outputs to be altered, restrict USB downloads to the latest device output, and require encrypted sessions. The update aims to improve the resilience of Coldcard wallets against potential seed‑generation weaknesses, but users must replace compromised seeds before moving funds.