Japan puts Bitcoin, Bitget on edge

August 03, 2026

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Saylor never sold. Strategy sold 1,638 BTC

Key points:

  • Michael Saylor said he had never sold one satoshi of his personal Bitcoin, separating his conviction from Strategy’s corporate treasury decisions.

  • Strategy sold 1,638 BTC for $104.7 million as preferred dividends and STRC repurchases placed fresh demands on its capital.

News - Michael Saylor’s “never sell” mantra met a public-company reality after Strategy completed its second-largest Bitcoin sale of the year.

Saylor insisted that he had never sold any of his personal BTC. Strategy, however, sold 1,638 BTC between July 27 and August 2 at an average price of $63,957, cutting its holdings to 842,138 BTC.

He said the distinction was simple: his message reflected his position as an individual saver, while Strategy had long disclosed that it could buy or sell Bitcoin to manage capital.

The treasury shifts into reverse - Strategy added only 37 BTC between May 26 and July 26 before selling 1,638 coins in a single week. Its latest balance now sits below the 843,738 BTC reported in late May.

The sale also occurred below Strategy’s average acquisition cost of $75,419 per Bitcoin.

Preferred costs draw cash - Of the $104.7 million raised, $52.4 million funded preferred-stock dividends, while $52.3 million went toward STRC repurchases.

Preferred dividends had climbed to $400.7 million in Q2 from $49.1 million a year earlier, increasing the cash demands attached to Strategy’s financing structure.

Strategy buys back discounted STRC - The company repurchased 912,143 STRC shares for $81.2 million, paying roughly $89.02 per share against a stated $100 value.

The remaining $28.9 million came from MSTR share sales. Strategy raised $290.6 million through those sales, including $250 million used to increase its U.S. dollar reserve to $4 billion.

Japan’s crypto crossroads tests Bitcoin and Bitget

Key points:

  • A rare U.S.-Japan yen intervention revived fears of a carry-trade unwind that could drag Bitcoin lower.

  • Bitget began exiting Japan amid tighter oversight of unregistered overseas crypto platforms.

News - Japan became a two-front crypto story this week, with currency intervention reviving Bitcoin risk concerns while Bitget moved toward a full market exit under the country’s strict regulatory regime.

The yen rebounded sharply after Washington joined Tokyo in coordinated buying last Friday, pulling USD/JPY down from nearly 164 to 156.5. It marked the first joint operation specifically supporting the yen since 1998.

Yen defense revives Bitcoin fears - The move recalled August 2024, when a stronger yen helped unwind leveraged carry trades and Bitcoin fell from roughly $62,000 to $49,000 within a week.

Analyst Ted Pillows warned that BTC could approach $50,000 if the CLARITY Act fails and another carry-trade unwind begins. Crypto Rover also linked several 2026 Bitcoin corrections to yen-defense signals.

Yet, the relationship may not be straightforward. Bitcoin’s 52-week correlation with USD/JPY had reached minus 0.90, suggesting broad U.S. dollar strength, rather than yen appreciation alone, may have been the larger pressure on Bitcoin.

Bitget heads for the exit - Japan’s regulatory squeeze also reached offshore exchanges.

Bitget stopped accepting new registrations from Japanese residents and will begin restricting affected accounts on November 1. Any remaining open positions will be forcibly closed on December 31, 2026.

Users who believe they were misclassified must complete Level 2 identity verification, including proof of address, by November 1.

Japan requires platforms serving local residents to register with the Financial Services Agency. Bitget had previously received warnings over operating without registration, while new rules expected next year will treat crypto as a financial instrument and introduce tougher penalties for noncompliance.

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Ripple expands XRPL. XRP’s payoff stays unclear

Key points:

  • Ripple invested in UK firms ZILO and Licuido to connect fund ownership records, token issuance, trading, and collateral use on XRPL.

  • The infrastructure is designed to support institutional activity, but the covered transactions center on RLUSD while XRP retains a limited network-fee role.

News - Ripple is filling gaps in XRPL’s institutional stack, but the latest deals do not automatically translate into stronger demand for XRP.

The company invested undisclosed amounts in ZILO and Licuido shortly after Aviva Investors launched a tokenized share class on XRPL. ZILO provides transfer-agency infrastructure that records fund ownership, while Licuido converts fund shares into tokens and supports trading and collateralized borrowing.

From token issuance to usable collateral - Together, the firms address a persistent weakness in tokenized finance: assets can be issued onchain but often remain idle afterward.

Ripple expects the setup to let institutions issue fund tokens, transfer them, and use them as collateral from the point of issuance. Licuido Markets itself operates under the authorization of Sapeno Partners LLP rather than holding its own FCA license.

XRPL growth does not equal XRP demand - The transactions covered by the investments are expected to settle in Ripple’s RLUSD stablecoin, not XRP.

XRP still pays XRPL transaction fees, but those charges are extremely small and permanently burned. Since launch, roughly 14.4 million XRP has been destroyed across more than 4 billion transactions, a fraction of the token’s original 100 billion supply.

XRP finds another route into credit - Separately, Flare’s FXRP was approved as collateral in Sentora’s RLUSD lending vault on Ethereum.

The integration lets holders borrow RLUSD without selling their XRP, giving the asset a clearer collateral function outside XRPL. Ripple’s investments expand XRPL’s intended institutional capabilities, while FXRP creates a more direct lending use case for XRP holders.

Coldcard theft wave opens a narrow escape

Key points:

  • A suspected fourth Coldcard attack wave could raise the estimated toll to roughly 1,816 BTC, or nearly $114 million.

  • Replace-by-fee transactions may give some users minutes to move vulnerable funds before an attacker’s transfer confirms.

News - Coldcard’s wallet crisis intensified Monday as researchers flagged hundreds of suspected new victims, while some pending thefts remained open to a last-minute fee race.

Galaxy Research’s Alex Thorn identified activity moving about 448.7 BTC from 709 potential victim addresses. If confirmed as a fourth wave, the exploit’s toll would reach approximately 1,816 BTC across more than 5,200 addresses.

Victims may still outrun the sweep - Some suspected transactions opted into Bitcoin’s replace-by-fee feature.

Users who spot a pending transaction involving their address may be able to broadcast a conflicting transfer with a higher fee, moving the coins to a secure wallet before the attacker’s transaction confirms. Thorn cautioned that the latest wave was identified through pattern matching rather than direct victim confirmation.

Wallet activity surges - The flaw traces to a March 2021 firmware build that generated seeds with less randomness than intended.

Coldcard released emergency firmware, halted shipments, destroyed vulnerable inventory, and told affected users to create fresh seeds and migrate funds. Transfers below 1 BTC reached 39,600 BTC on July 31, while active addresses approached one million.

CryptoQuant linked some movement to holders seeking safety, though Glassnode said many coins appeared to be moving between wallets rather than toward exchanges.

One miner still beats the odds - Amid the exploit, a solo miner solved Bitcoin block 960,804 through CKPool and earned about 3.16 BTC, worth close to $200,000.

The block offered a sharp contrast as affected Coldcard users were urged to move funds generated from vulnerable seeds.

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Did you know?

  • Bhutan turned mountain rivers into a billion-dollar Bitcoin reserve: An IMF report published in January 2026 estimated that Bhutan likely held more than 10,000 BTC worth over $1 billion as of mid-2025, close to 40% of its GDP. The IMF cautioned that the exact balance remains uncertain because the government does not publicly disclose or confirm its holdings.

  • Stablecoins’ $28 trillion year was smaller than it looked: The BIS estimated that stablecoins moved $28 trillion in 2025, but said that total equaled less than three business weeks of settlement across the largest U.S. wholesale payment systems. It also noted that volumes fall sharply once transfers between wallets controlled by the same party are removed.

  • Monero chose permanent inflation over a vanishing security budget: Unlike capped-supply cryptocurrencies, Monero has issued a permanent tail reward of 0.6 XMR roughly every two-minute block since June 9, 2022. The fixed emission preserves long-term miner incentives, while its annual inflation rate gradually approaches zero as the total supply expands.

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Top 3 coins of the day

Hyperliquid (HYPE)

Key points:

  • HYPE rebounded from $51.10 and challenged its descending trendline as buying volume strengthened.

  • MACD improved below the zero line, leaving $55.00 as the first resistance test before $56.50.

What you should know:

HYPE’s rebound gained traction after price defended the $51.10 area and climbed to $54.10, with the latest candle trading near its high. The move followed an apparent Elliott Wave 5 low, carried stronger buying volume, and pushed price above the descending trendline, although the breakout still awaited a confirmed 4-hour close. MACD’s bullish crossover and expanding positive histogram showed that bearish momentum had eased, but both lines remained below zero, keeping the recovery early rather than fully established. A reported $760,210 HYPE burn over 24 hours, alongside the protocol’s 97% to 99% fee-funded buyback mechanism, added a clear supply-side tailwind to the move. HYPE now needs to clear $55.00 and $56.50, while $52.30 remains the first support to hold.

Ethereum (ETH)

Key points:

  • ETH attempted to build a floor above $1,840 after completing an apparent ABC correction near $1,820.

  • RSI recovered to 48.48, but resistance at $1,880 still separated the bounce from a stronger reversal.

What you should know:

ETH’s recovery remained a test of conviction rather than a confirmed reversal. Price rebounded from the $1,840 area after the Elliott Wave pattern marked an apparent c-wave low near $1,820, but the move still faced resistance at $1,880. RSI recovered to 48.48, showing that momentum had improved without yet crossing the neutral 50 mark. Buying volume also expanded on the latest candle, though it stayed below the heavier participation seen during earlier swings. Beyond the chart, Bitmine reportedly added 10,399 ETH worth $19.1 million, lifting its treasury to 5.8 million ETH and reinforcing the accumulation narrative. ETH must reclaim $1,880 and $1,900, while $1,840 and $1,820 remain the key support levels to protect.

Audiera (BEAT)

Key points:

  • A 14.73% selloff erased BEAT’s attempted rebound as trading volume surged into the breakdown.

  • Bearish SAR positioning and a widening negative MACD histogram kept $2.80 exposed as immediate support.

What you should know:

BEAT’s latest 4-hour candle turned the failed rebound into a fresh breakdown, falling 14.73% from $3.49 to $2.97 as volume expanded. The Parabolic SAR stayed above price at $4.90, while MACD slipped below zero and its negative histogram widened, showing that downside momentum had accelerated rather than stabilized. The selloff followed an August 1 unlock of 21.24 million BEAT, reportedly about 6.9% of circulating supply, which added a concrete supply-overhang risk as price lost $3.30. BEAT must regain $3.30 and $3.50 to ease pressure. If $2.80 fails, $2.60 becomes the next support to monitor, while a future SAR flip below price would offer the first technical sign of recovery.

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