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Australia Suspends Cryptolink Bitcoin ATMs

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Australia Suspends Cryptolink Bitcoin ATMs

Australia’s anti-money laundering watchdog has suspended the operation of Cryptolink’s Bitcoin ATMs for three months, citing “ongoing concerns” about its compliance with anti-money laundering obligations. 

Australia has the highest number of crypto ATMs of all countries in the Asia-Pacific region. Australian authorities have been cracking down on the criminal use of crypto ATMs since at least late 2024. 

AUSTRAC CEO Brendan Thomas said Monday the company’s Virtual Asset Service Provider (VASP) registration has been suspended for three months starting Sunday, meaning its crypto ATMs will not be allowed to operate during that time.

AUSTRAC said Cryptolink failed to meet basic reporting requirements, particularly threshold transaction reports, and did not respond to AUSTRAC’s request for information. 

“As part of our continued focus on digital currency as a money laundering risk, AUSTRAC has ongoing concerns about the company’s ability to manage high-risk transactions through its CATMs,” said Thomas. 

The action follows an enforceable undertaking that Cryptolink entered into with AUSTRAC in October 2025, after its Cryptocurrency Taskforce identified alleged breaches including late transaction reporting and shortcomings in Cryptolink’s risk assessments. AUSTRAC also issued a $56,340 infringement notice, which Cryptolink paid. 

Cryptolink has 96 ATMs in Australia, allowing customers to exchange cash for Bitcoin. Most of its ATMs are located in major cities including Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane. 

Cointelegraph reached out to Cryptolink for comment. 

Related: Bitcoin Depot stock crashes 71% premarket after Chapter 11 filing

Cointelegraph is committed to independent, transparent journalism. This news article is produced in accordance with Cointelegraph’s Editorial Policy and aims to provide accurate and timely information. Readers are encouraged to verify information independently.

Strategy sells 1,690 bitcoin, raises $653 million from MSTR shares

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Strategy sells 1,690 bitcoin, raises $653 million from MSTR shares

Bitcoin treasury firm Strategy (MSTR) had raised $108.6 million last week through the sale of 1,690 bitcoin and an additional $653.1 million from the sale of 6.59 million shares of common stock, according to a Monday filing.

The company used the bitcoin sale proceeds to repurchase 1,152,020 shares of its variable-rate preferred stock, STRC, for $108.6 million.

The bitcoin sales reduced Strategy’s holdings to 840,447 BTC, acquired for $63.36 billion at an average price of $75,385. The 1,690 bitcoin were sold at an average price of $64,262, net of fees and expenses.

Strategy directed $650 million of the proceeds from its common-stock sales to its USD reserve, lifting the balance to $4.65 billion as of Aug. 9. The remaining $3.1 million was added to the company’s cash balance.

Following the latest transactions, Strategy has $785.2 million remaining under its preferred-stock repurchase program and $1 billion available under its MSTR common-stock repurchase program.

MSTR and STRC are both up 0.5% in Monday pre-market trading, with bitcoin changing hands near $65,000.

UK regulators to prepare tokenized gold framework: Report

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UK regulators to prepare tokenized gold framework: Report

The UK’s FCA is reportedly preparing a regulatory framework for tokenized gold and how these products may be used as collateral assets in wholesale markets.

Hedge funds abandon structural shorts to bet on a bitcoin rally

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Hedge funds abandon structural shorts to bet on a bitcoin rally

Hedge funds trading bitcoin BTC$64,978.76 futures on the Chicago Mercantile Exchange have turned net long, according to Ki Young Ju, CEO of blockchain data analytics firm CryptoQuant.

The rare positioning shift suggests professional traders are increasingly betting on bitcoin prices rising.

“Hedge funds on CME have flipped net long on bitcoin futures, a rare shift after years of structural short positioning driven by the basis trade. You cannot run a traditional carry trade with an aggregate net-long futures position. The suits are now betting on bitcoin’s upside,” Ki Young Ju said.

Leveraged funds have historically remained net short CME Bitcoin futures because of the basis trade. In this market-neutral strategy, traders buy spot bitcoin or exchange-traded funds (ETFs) while simultaneously selling futures. Profit comes from the premium between futures and spot prices narrows, rather than from bitcoin moving higher. This activity has kept hedge funds’ reported futures positioning negative for years.

Robinhood (HOOD) brings crypto trading to UK in AI-powered all-in-one app

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Robinhood (HOOD) brings crypto trading to UK in AI-powered all-in-one app

Robinhood (HOOD) is introducing zero-fee crypto trading in the U.K. alongside stocks and shares ISAs, equities, options and futures, the company said on Monday.

The all-in-one Robinhood app will bring U.K. customers access to over 50 cryptos including Bitcoin BTC$65,252.85, Ethereum ETH$1,926.76, XRP (XRP), Hyperliquid (HYPE), accessed via Bitstamp, the exchange Robinhood acquired in 2025.

The trading firm is also introducing “Robinhood Cortex Digests for Crypto,” a generative AI-powered widget that analyses breaking news, market data, technical indicators and Robinhood’s proprietary insights. The AI service explains in plain English the key factors driving price movements in individual crypto assets, Robinhood said.

“Our new product provides a transparent, low-cost alternative to many incumbent U.K. platforms, which often rely on opaque pricing structures and apply wide spreads that can erode customers’ returns,” Robinhood said.

“It will begin rolling out to eligible U.K. customers this week.”

The product also expands Robinhood’s growing crypto ecosystem for UK customers. As such, UK developers can build on the highly popular Robinhood Chain, a layer 2 blockchain built on the Arbitrum platform.

Ex-US defense secretary calls CLARITY Act a ‘national security bill’

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Ex-US defense secretary calls CLARITY Act a ‘national security bill’

Former US Defense Secretary Mark Esper says the CLARITY Act is not merely a financial services bill, its a national security one.

Is Clarity's delay a blessing in disguise?: State of Crypto

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Is Clarity's delay a blessing in disguise?: State of Crypto

The crypto industry is angry and disappointed that the Senate is not holding a procedural vote on the Clarity Act this month, but that isn’t the worst possible outcome.

Crypto is going through a massive dot-com style shakeout as over 100 projects fold in 2026

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Crypto is going through a massive dot-com style shakeout as over 100 projects fold in 2026

“There were way too many general-purpose layer twos, which frankly don’t make sense as a product, because there’s no reason to have many, many versions of the same thing,” Ben Fisch, CEO of Espresso Systems, told CoinDesk. “We’re in a consolidation phase for general-purpose layer twos, not layer twos broadly.”

Industry leaders argue the shakeout reflects a broader shift across crypto rather than a problem unique to Ethereum scaling networks.

“Consolidation is happening across all of crypto right now, not just layer two, from DeFi protocols to DEXs and infrastructure providers. It’s a sign that the industry is maturing. The networks continuing through this period are the ones people actually use and depend on,” Marek Olszewski, co-founder of the Celo layer-2, told CoinDesk.

“For every crypto project that you hear about shutting down, there are perhaps another 10 silently doing the same,” Nick Puckrin, founder of Coin Bureau, wrote in a post on X. “Creative destruction for the next cycle perhaps.”

Orkun Mahir Kılıç, co-founder and CEO of Chainway Labs, which is building the Bitcoin layer-2 Citrea, said the wave of closures reflects a maturing market where capital is harder to raise and investors are becoming more selective.

“Different businesses have different reasons and different underlying problems for shutting down. The pattern we’re seeing emerge isn’t really an inherent problem within the L2 ecosystem. The market and the tech are maturing, investment is a lot slower and more cautious now, and only projects with sound business models and a clear problem statement will survive,” Mahir Kılıç told CoinDesk.

Bybit sues North Korea and Lazarus Group over $1.5 billion hack, secures asset freeze

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Bybit sues North Korea and Lazarus Group over $1.5 billion hack, secures asset freeze

“The order is intended to preserve identified stolen digital assets while the litigation continues, representing an important step in Bybit’s ongoing efforts to recover funds, support international law enforcement investigations, and reinforce accountability for large-scale cybercrime,” Bybit said in the release.

“Our focus has never changed: protect our users first, recover what we can, and make sure the people behind these attacks are held accountable,” said Ben Zhou, co-founder and CEO of Bybit, in a statement. “The Lazarus attack wasn’t just an attack on Bybit. It was an attack on trust in our industry. That’s why we’ve worked closely with investigators, exchanges, regulators, law enforcement, and now the courts.”

The preliminary injunction means a federal judge ordered the respondents not to transfer or sell the assets they’re holding while the case is ongoing, Bybit said. The exchange added that it will look for further relief from the court.

“The civil action is being pursued independently of ongoing criminal investigations conducted by U.S. law enforcement authorities,” the firm added.

Bitcoin’s exploit week worsens as BTCPay flaw drains Lightning nodes

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Bitcoin’s exploit week worsens as BTCPay flaw drains Lightning nodes

Citadel21, the bitcoin publication run by pseudonymous commentator hodlonaut, also reported that its Lightning node had been swept, though it said little money was held there.

The vulnerability had already been reported to BTCPay by members of the Bitcoin Red Team — a group of developers that began pointing AI models at bitcoin codebases this week and has filed thousands of findings across hundreds of projects since.

Read More: Bitcoin developers flag 85 critical bugs in an “extremely bad” situation.

BTCPay credited Red Team members Craig Raw, Rob Hamilton, Calle and Evan Kaloudis with responsibly disclosing the issue and helping analyze it.

The group’s stated reason for publishing findings quickly was that people outside it would arrive at the same bugs, and by the time BTCPay’s public warning went out, attackers were already exploiting this one against live servers.

Meanwhile, BTCPay narrowed the scope after its initial alert, saying its standard on-chain wallets, including hot wallets generated inside BTCPay, are not affected by the credential flaw.

The exposure applies specifically to deployments using LND, and funds held inside LND’s own on-chain wallet can still be at risk because they sit under the compromised Lightning node.

BTCPay has not yet published technical details of the vulnerability, saying operators need time to patch. A full postmortem is due in the coming days.

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