TL;DR

August brought one of crypto’s strongest market rebounds of the year.

Bitcoin gained around 24% and finished the month above $78,000, while US spot Bitcoin ETFs attracted more than $3 billion in August. Solana climbed roughly 46%, ending ten consecutive months of losses.

Beyond prices, the US moved closer to clearer rules for crypto fundraising and stablecoins. BlackRock expanded its tokenized money market funds, Mastercard completed its acquisition of stablecoin infrastructure company BVNK, and a major COLDCARD security incident showed that self-custody still depends on how securely private keys are created.

Bitcoin had its best month since November 2024

Bitcoin entered August around $63,000 and finished the month above $78,000, gaining roughly 24%. It was Bitcoin’s strongest monthly performance since November 2024. Read more at CoinDesk

One major catalyst came on August 19, when the US Treasury announced that it would at least double buybacks of longer-term government bonds. The announcement helped ease pressure in the bond market and was followed by a sharp rally in Bitcoin and other risk assets. Read the Treasury announcement

Investor demand was strong too. US spot Bitcoin ETFs recorded more than $3 billion in net inflows during August, including an eight-day streak that brought roughly $2.8 billion into the funds. See the ETF data at CoinDesk

The recovery extended beyond Bitcoin. Solana gained roughly 46% during August, recording its first positive month after ten consecutive monthly declines. Read more at Solana Compass

The SEC proposed new crypto fundraising rules

On August 18, the US Securities and Exchange Commission proposed a new framework called Regulation Crypto Assets.

The proposal would give certain crypto companies clearer ways to raise money under US securities laws.

It includes one exemption for offerings of up to $5 million over four years and another allowing eligible issuers to raise up to $75 million within 12 months.

The proposal could also clarify when a crypto asset is no longer tied to the investment contract through which it was originally sold.

The rules are not final and remain open to public comment. But the direction matters: the SEC is moving toward rules designed specifically for crypto rather than relying mainly on enforcement and existing frameworks. Read the SEC proposal

The US moved to implement its new stablecoin law

On August 17, the US Treasury proposed rules explaining how key parts of the GENIUS Act will work in practice.

Beginning in January 2027, companies generally will need an appropriate federal or state license to issue payment stablecoins in the US.

The framework also covers stablecoins issued abroad. Foreign issuers will have to meet certain requirements to reach US users, and tighter restrictions are scheduled to take effect in July 2028.

This matters because the GENIUS Act is moving from legislation to the rules stablecoin companies will actually have to follow. Read the Treasury proposal

BlackRock put more traditional funds onchain

BlackRock expanded its tokenization strategy in both the US and Europe during August.

In the US, the asset manager launched two new tokenized money market products, combining traditional regulated funds with blockchain infrastructure. Read the BlackRock announcement

A day later, BlackRock introduced tokenized access to selected European money market funds using J.P. Morgan’s Kinexys platform.

Eligible investors can receive digital tokens on Ethereum representing their holdings in those funds. The wider fund platform has around $311 billion in assets under management across 15 markets, although that does not mean $311 billion has been tokenized. Read more from BlackRock

The bigger trend is simple: tokenization is increasingly being used to bring familiar financial products onto blockchain infrastructure.

Mastercard completed its acquisition of BVNK

Mastercard completed its acquisition of stablecoin infrastructure company BVNK on August 3.

BVNK provides technology that lets businesses send, receive, store and convert stablecoins and traditional currencies.

Mastercard plans to connect that infrastructure with its existing payment network, focusing on areas such as cross-border payments, remittances, payouts and settlement.

The deal is another sign that stablecoins are moving beyond crypto trading and becoming infrastructure for moving money between people and businesses. Read the Mastercard announcement

The COLDCARD incident exposed a different kind of self-custody risk

One of the year’s biggest wallet security incidents continued into August.

COLDCARD disclosed that a firmware bug had weakened the randomness used to create recovery phrases on some devices. Attackers were able to recreate the corresponding private keys offline and steal funds.

Importantly, the wallets themselves were not remotely hacked. The weakness was in how some recovery phrases had originally been generated. Read COLDCARD’s security update

Researchers estimated that around 1,816 BTC, worth roughly $114 million at the time, may have been taken from more than 5,200 addresses since the first attacks appeared on July 30. Read more at CoinDesk

The incident is an important reminder: self-custody removes the need to trust a centralized custodian, but security still depends on how private keys are created, stored and protected.

What August tells us

August was not only about higher prices.

Bitcoin staged its strongest rally in almost two years, while demand through ETFs returned. At the same time, US regulators moved closer to dedicated rules for crypto and stablecoins, traditional financial products continued moving onchain, and stablecoins became more deeply connected to global payments.

Crypto had a strong month in the market.

More importantly, the infrastructure around it kept maturing.