Home Blog Page 67

hardware wallet sales more than double as crypto rules near

info@uweb3.io
-
0
hardware wallet sales more than double as crypto rules near

Russian consumers’ demand for hardware crypto wallets more than doubled in the first half of 2026, according to data from two major retailers, as the country prepares to introduce new crypto rules.

Retailer M.Video said unit sales on its marketplace rose 107% in the second quarter from the first quarter, while sales by value increased 92%. The retailer did not disclose the number of devices sold.

Wildberries, another Russian retailer, also recorded higher demand. Unit sales rose 84% in the first half from a year earlier, RIA Novosti reported, citing RWB, the marketplace’s parent company. Sales value increased 60% over the period.

The comparisons cover different periods: M.Video measured Q2 against Q1, while Wildberries compared H1 with the same period of 2025. Neither company released unit totals.

Hardware wallets keep the private keys needed to control crypto on a dedicated device, instead of an internet-connected service, helping reduce exposure risk.

Russian law does not ban non-custodial wallets or treat them as illegal, lawyers told RBC. It does, however, bar withdrawals from Russian digital depositories to personal wallets, though a transition period runs until July 1, 2027.

Brazil’s central bank orders exchanges to delay large crypto transfers abroad

info@uweb3.io
-
0
Brazil’s central bank orders exchanges to delay large crypto transfers abroad

Brazil’s central bank will require crypto exchanges to delay some customer transfers to foreign platforms and self-custody wallets for up to 24 hours as part of new anti-fraud rules.

The requirement takes effect Jan. 1, 2027 under Resolution BCB No. 584/2026, published Aug. 7.

The rule applies when a customer deposits the country’s fiat currency reais, or crypto with an exchange and then seeks to send the funds abroad or to a wallet they control.

Transfers exceeding the equivalent of $10,000, whether through a single transaction or several on the same day, are subject to the required hold. Smaller transfers may also face delays if an exchange flags them as risky.

The central bank said cryptocurrencies, including stablecoins, are being used to move funds obtained through financial fraud before victims or institutions can recover them.

The hold isn’t permanent. Exchanges can release a transfer before 24 hours if their risk review finds no signs of wrongdoing. They must document that decision and tell customers when a transaction has been placed on hold.

The measure also gives exchanges more responsibility for judging risk based on the customer, transaction, counterparty and destination jurisdiction.

T. Rowe Price defends memecoin exposure in new crypto ETF, calling it a blockchain ‘stress test’

info@uweb3.io
-
0
T. Rowe Price defends memecoin exposure in new crypto ETF, calling it a blockchain ‘stress test’

That testing has implications beyond speculative trading. As stablecoins move further into mainstream finance, networks will need to handle everything from multi-million-dollar transfers to everyday consumer payments.

“It needs to be cost-effective to send $100 million in stablecoins,” Macellari said. “But it also needs to be cost-effective to send $3.”

The fund’s active approach also reflects T. Rowe Price’s broader investment philosophy. Unlike many ETF issuers that simply track market-cap-weighted indexes, the firm believes crypto requires active security selection.

“We think good judgment and good decision making and active management probably matters more in crypto than any other asset class,” Macellari said.

Rather than simply buying the largest cryptocurrencies, the team evaluates assets using three layers of analysis: blockchain technology and token economics, ecosystem growth and adoption, and market momentum.

“You can be right on the fundamentals,” she said. “But if crypto Twitter doesn’t see it or doesn’t agree with you, you kind of stand in their way at your peril.”

Building beyond one ETF

Macellari says TKNZ was designed as a “grow-with-me” product that can expand as the regulatory landscape evolves. The ETF currently invests in between five and 15 cryptocurrencies, but its eligible universe is expected to grow as additional assets meet the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) generic listing standards.

U.S. Senate opens first stage of crypto Clarity Act voting to give bill a chance next month

info@uweb3.io
-
0
U.S. Senate opens first stage of crypto Clarity Act voting to give bill a chance next month

The U.S. Senate is finally leaping into the first procedural votes on the crypto Digital Assets Market Clarity Act, after the leadership moved early Saturday to start official floor action on the crypto market structure bill, marking the farthest progress yet for the industry’s central policy effort.

But this key advance announced after a marathon overnight voting session comes after the bill has missed its window to get a vote before the Senate’s summer break, leaving it in a long-shot position to get approval in September. Though the Clarity Act’s chances are hanging by a thread, it would likely have been declared dead for 2026 without at least this first important movement.

“We, the undersigned senators … hereby move to bring to a close debate on the motion to proceed to calendar number 423, [House Resolution] 3633, an act to provide for a system of regulation of the offer and sale of digital commodities by the Securities and Exchange Commission and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, and so forth and for other purposes,” the clerk said reading the filing.

New XRP Ledger proposals target $530 million in tokenized Wall Street assets

info@uweb3.io
-
0
New XRP Ledger proposals target $530 million in tokenized Wall Street assets

There is already money on the chain for the feature to serve. Onchain data aggregator RWA.xyz tracks about $1.38 billion of distributed real-world assets on XRPL, including $845.7 million of RLUSD. Ondo accounts for another $212.6 million, followed by VERT Capital at $116.1 million and Archax at $55.4 million. Societe Generale sits further down the table at $11.6 million.

Tokenized real-world assets issued on the XRP Ledger. (Shaurya Malwa/CoinDesk)

That leaves more than $530 million of tracked tokenized assets outside RLUSD, though the market remains concentrated in a handful of issuers.

Confidential Transfers stays narrow in its first version. Holders have to opt into the encrypted format, and it currently works for direct MPT payments between accounts. It does not cover trades on XRPL’s built-in exchange, escrow or checks.

The other five are aimed at the same audience. Batch can package as many as eight transactions together, including an all-or-nothing mode where every step succeeds or none does. Sponsor lets one account cover another’s fees and reserve requirements, removing the need for a new user to hold XRP before transacting.

Permission Delegation lets an account authorize another party to submit only specified transaction types, giving a fund administrator limited authority without handing over full control. Dynamic MPT lets issuers change certain properties of a token after issuance.

You can lose real BTC trying to sell coins from BIP-110 fork

info@uweb3.io
-
0
You can lose real BTC trying to sell coins from BIP-110 fork

Bitcoin developer Kevin Loaec, who flagged the risk on X this week, said large holders could be targeted first. Doing nothing will be a safer option, he stated, as coins that never move cannot be replayed because there is no signed transaction to copy.

How BIP-110 makes this possible

The reason any of this is happening is a proposal called BIP-110, which would keep pictures, text and other non-payment data out of bitcoin transactions for a year.

Changing bitcoin’s rules requires miners to agree, and they register that agreement by marking the blocks they produce. BIP-110 needs 1,109 marked blocks out of a 2,016-block stretch, or 55%. (A block is the batch of transactions miners add to the ledger roughly every ten minutes.)

That route is closed but the proposal has a second one written into it. From block 961,632, expected this weekend, computers running BIP-110 software will reject any block that does not carry the mark, whether miners agreed or not.

Almost every block being mined right now does not carry it. So those computers will start rejecting the chain that nearly all of bitcoin’s mining power is building.

If some miners continue building a BIP-110-compatible branch while the rest keep mining bitcoin as usual, two competing versions of the transaction history could emerge. It stalls if nobody keeps extending the minority branch, it stalls.

Trump-backed American Bitcoin board member adds $1.9 million to personal stake

info@uweb3.io
-
0
Trump-backed American Bitcoin board member adds $1.9 million to personal stake

Justin Mateen, a director of the board at American Bitcoin (ABTC), the mining company backed by U.S. President Donald Trump’s family, purchased nearly $1.93 million worth of the company’s stock over two consecutive trading sessions this week, following the company’s latest earnings report.

According to regulatory filings, Mateen bought about 145,000 Class A shares on Aug. 5 for roughly $925,000 at an average price of $6.40 per share. He followed that with the purchase of about 162,000 shares on Aug. 6 for approximately $1 million at an average price of $6.19 per share.

Combined, the purchases amounted to 306,981 shares for approximately $1.93 million.

Following the transactions, Mateen beneficially owns 492,297 shares of American Bitcoin’s Class A common stock, reflecting adjustments made after the company’s recent reverse stock split.

Mateen is a co-founder of Tinder and an ABTC board member since March 2025.

US Treasury’s OFAC Sanctions 2 Iran-Linked Crypto Exchanges

info@uweb3.io
-
0
US Treasury’s OFAC Sanctions 2 Iran-Linked Crypto Exchanges

Cointelegraph is committed to providing independent, high-quality journalism across the crypto, blockchain, AI, and fintech industries.

All news, reviews, and analyses are produced with full journalistic independence and integrity. For more details on our standards and processes, please read our Editorial Policy.

DJT scraps Crypto.com deals citing market condition, CRO token falls 5%

info@uweb3.io
-
0
DJT scraps Crypto.com deals citing market condition, CRO token falls 5%

Trump Media (DJT) is unwinding parts of its crypto push, including scrapping plans to establish a publicly traded CRO token accumulation company, which it unveiled near the height of last year’s digital asset treasury boom.

Trump Media, Crypto.com and special purpose acquisition company Yorkville Acquisition mutually terminated plans for Trump Media Group CRO Strategy, the firms said Friday, citing “prevailing market conditions, and shifting business and stakeholder priorities.”

The proposed venture would have created a publicly traded company focused on accumulating the native token of Cronos CRO$0.05312 and earning additional returns by staking those holdings. Trump Media itself bought $105 million of CRO in September 2025 as part of a broader partnership with Crypto.com that included plans to integrate token rewards into its products.

CRO fell as much as 5% following the news.

The companies are also walking away from a separate partnership under which Crypto.com would have serviced certain planned exchange-traded funds (ETFs), from Yorkville America. Trump Media is also scaling back plans to build Crypto.com-powered prediction markets directly into Truth Social, Axios reported earlier.

U.S. sanctions Iran-linked crypto exchanges Shelbit and Aban Tether

info@uweb3.io
-
0
U.S. sanctions Iran-linked crypto exchanges Shelbit and Aban Tether

Additionally, the OFAC also sanctioned a network of foreign exchange houses, shell companies and individuals on Friday that it said helped Iran’s shadow banking system move hundreds of millions of dollars, including funds tied to overseas oil sales.

“The Iranian regime’s reliance on digital assets and shadow banking networks is further evidence that Economic Fury is working,” Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said in a statement. “Whether in dollars, rials, or crypto, Treasury will hunt down and dismantle the illicit financial networks that keep the regime afloat.”

The designations came as the U.S.-Iran war has raised the stakes of Washington’s push to cut Tehran off from foreign currency and global financial markets. Cryptocurrencies may offer sanctioned entities another route to move funds when banks cut them off, but blockchain transactions can also leave a public trail that investigators and analytics firms can follow.

Friday’s action is the latest in a string of U.S. measures against Iran’s crypto finance network.

In January, the Treasury sanctioned Zedcex and Zedxion, the first crypto exchanges targeted under its Iran-specific financial sanctions. In June, the Treasury blacklisted Nobitex and several other Iranian crypto exchanges as part of its campaign against Tehran.

Last month, the U.S. sanctioned four crypto wallets linked to Iran’s central bank, after which Tether, issuer of the largest stablecoin USDT USDT$0.9992, froze about $131 million held in the wallets. It also sanctioned two Iranian maritime insurance entities over an alleged scheme that funneled funds to the IRGC.

1...666768...1,335Page 67 of 1,335