Over the past week, the regulators paved a way for foreign exchanges to operate in US markets, driving more liquidity and competition domestically. Japan appears to be moving towards more friendly crypto tax laws, including a 20% flat tax rather than punitive 55% capital gains taxes, and progressing toward a Bitcoin ETF filing for the country. Meanwhile, both existing and net new Bitcoin treasury companies continued with their aggressive acquisition strategies, as well as planned listings.
Bitcoin Update
Bitcoin fell over 5% on the week, likely driven by end of month options expiry.
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Industry & Institutional Updates
Strategy raised $357M in net proceeds via its ATM programs for the week of Aug 18–24 and purchased 3,081 BTC for $356.9M at an average price of $115,829, bringing total holdings to 632,457 BTC.
Metaplanet has been added to the FTSE Japan and FTSE All‑World indices, bolstering passive capital flows into its stock and indirectly into Bitcoin. The hotel and Bitcoin treasury company also approved international share issuance to raise up to $1.2 billion, with the majority of proceeds allocated toward expanding its Bitcoin holdings.
Boyaa Interactive, a Hong Kong-listed gaming company, bought 290 Bitcoin, boosting its total treasury to 3,670 BTC.
Bitplanet, rebranded from SGA and backed by Asia Strategy Partners, launched South Korea’s first institutional Bitcoin treasury, deploying $40 million in Bitcoin on day one.
American Bitcoin, a bitcoin-mining firm backed by Donald Trump Jr. and Eric Trump and majority owned by Hut 8, is set to begin trading on NASDAQ under the ticker ABTC as early as September via an all-stock merger with Gryphon Digital Mining.
Strive announced plans buy over $700 million in Bitcoin following its public listing.
Tether plans to launch its USDT stablecoin directly on Bitcoin using the RGB protocol, enabling native, private, and Lightning‑friendly transactions alongside BTC within the same wallet.
Regulatory Updates
Non-U.S. exchanges can legally offer direct market access to Americans, boosting liquidity and competition domestically.
Japan's Financial Services Agency (FSA) is proposing a 20% flat tax on cryptocurrency gains, replacing current rates as high as 55%, and plans to reclassify crypto as financial products in 2026 to pave the way for domestic ETFs.
Bitcoin Policy Institute published a research paper on how pro-Bitcoin policy could increase demand for short-term U.S. Treasuries by accelerating the growth of dollar stablecoins.
Chart of the Week
Bitcoin's hashrate appears set to exceed 1,000EH/s, within the coming weeks, signaling elevated network security, despite many miners reallocating computer to HPC due to strong AI related demand in the near term.
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