Zimbabwe advances fintech testing, Bitmine expands its ETH holdings, and Circle acquires IBM blockchain patents while today’s BTC trades near $64K–$65K amid fear sentiment. Bitcoin price is now between $64K and $65K today as renewed selling pressure emerged after a brief recovery in the previous session. Ether briefly approached $1,981 before falling below $1,900, which highlighted continued short-term volatility across major crypto assets. The Crypto Fear and Greed Index currently stands at 29 and remains in the Fear zone. This is lower than yesterday’s reading of 30 but higher than last week’s 25 and last month’s 18. Total crypto liquidations reached USD 679 million over the past 24 hours. Long positions accounted for USD 536 million, while short positions accounted for USD 143 million. This showed that the latest decline had a greater impact on leveraged long positions. Bitcoin long liquidations reached approximately USD 134 million, while Ether long liquidations totaled around USD 80.4039 million. The figures indicate that deleveraging occurred across both major assets. Ether open interest fell by 5.41% over the past 24 hours and currently stands at approximately USD 26.536 billion. This suggests that some traders actively reduced their leveraged exposure. Spot ETF flows remained divided. U.S. spot Bitcoin ETFs recorded daily net outflows of USD 11.6439 million and extended their outflow streak to three consecutive trading days. U.S. spot Ether ETFs recorded net inflows of USD 9.23 million. As the market awaits the Federal Reserve’s interest rate decision and policy guidance, short-term trading activity remains focused on ETF flows, derivatives positioning, and liquidation risks near key price levels. U.S. equities and the broader macroeconomic environment are also having a significant impact on short-term capital allocation and options-based probability estimates across the crypto market.

Source: Alternative

Key News Highlights:

Zimbabwe Securities Regulator Approves Seven Fintech Projects for Regulatory Sandbox

The Securities and Exchange Commission of Zimbabwe has approved seven financial technology projects for admission to its regulatory sandbox. The program allows participating teams to test their products and services under regulatory supervision. The approved projects include Zimbabwe Entrepreneurship Exchange, Ndarama Standard, Questview Brokers, Crowdaxe Capital, Procode Platforms, Financial Securities Exchange, and Colmin Resources Zimbabwe. Their business models cover blockchain-based fundraising, crowdfunding, synthetic asset trading, and the tokenization of assets, securities, and infrastructure. Four of the seven projects focus directly on tokenization, making it the most prominent category in this round of sandbox admissions. Some teams plan to use blockchain tools to help companies raise capital. Others aim to convert assets that are difficult to divide or trade into digital investment products. The regulatory sandbox gives companies a controlled environment in which to test their technology, operating models, and compliance procedures. It also allows the regulator to assess the potential risks of these services. Admission to the sandbox does not mean that a project has received a full commercial operating license. It also does not guarantee formal registration after the testing period. All participants must still meet the full registration and regulatory requirements of the Securities and Exchange Commission of Zimbabwe before launching large-scale commercial operations.

Bitmine Continues to Accumulate Ether as ETH Outperforms Bitcoin in the Spot Market

Bitmine Immersion Technologies said in its latest statement that it purchased nearly 10,000 ETH over the past week. The acquisition brought its total holdings to 5.79 million ETH, or about 4.8% of the asset’s global circulating supply. Around 4.9 million ETH, equal to approximately 85% of the company’s holdings, has already been deployed through its validator nodes and partner validators. Bitmine expects its Ether holdings to generate approximately USD 299 million in annualized staking rewards once all assets are fully deployed across its staking infrastructure. As of July 26, the total value of the company’s crypto assets, cash, and marketable securities had risen to USD 11.8 billion. The latest purchase came as Ether continued to outperform Bitcoin in the spot market over the previous seven days. Data showed that ETH gained about 2.4% during the period, while BTC declined by approximately 0.7%. Bitmine Chairman Tom Lee said the ETH-to-BTC ratio had reached a three-month high. He viewed this as a sign of stronger market momentum for Ether. Bitmine currently operates the world’s largest corporate Ether treasury. It ranks second only to Strategy among publicly listed companies by the value of digital assets held. While Bitmine has continued to accumulate Ether, Strategy has recently paused its Bitcoin purchases. The company raised USD 544.5 million through stock sales and repurchased USD 25 million of preferred shares. It also increased its U.S. dollar reserve to USD 3.75 billion while maintaining holdings of 843,775 BTC.

BTC and ETH Performance Over the Past Seven Days. Source: CoinGecko

Circle Acquires Nearly 1,000 Blockchain Patents From IBM

Circle has announced the acquisition of part of IBM’s blockchain patent portfolio. The transaction includes more than 680 patent families and nearly 1,000 issued patents. The patents cover core blockchain technology, banking, financial services, insurance, enterprise infrastructure, supply chain verification, and secure cloud computing. Neither company disclosed the value of the transaction or the specific payment terms. Circle said the acquisition would make it one of the largest holders of blockchain patents in the United States. The portfolio is expected to support USDC, Circle Payments Network, the Arc blockchain, and other on-chain financial products and agent-based financial tools. IBM previously invested significant resources in enterprise blockchain systems. Its work focused particularly on product movement verification, data sharing between businesses, and global supply chain management. The transaction transfers part of IBM’s enterprise blockchain technology portfolio to a financial technology company focused on stablecoins and on-chain payments.

U.S. Court Temporarily Blocks Minnesota Prediction Market Ban

U.S. District Judge Katherine Menendez has issued a preliminary injunction that temporarily prevents Minnesota from enforcing its latest prediction market ban against Kalshi and Polymarket US. Both platforms are regulated by the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission. According to the court order issued on July 27, the judge found that the plaintiffs had at least some likelihood of succeeding in their argument that the Commodity Exchange Act preempts Minnesota law. The judge stated that several event contracts offered by the platforms appeared to meet the legal definition of swaps. Under federal law, the CFTC may therefore have exclusive jurisdiction over these transactions when they are offered on designated contract markets. Minnesota’s new law was scheduled to take effect on August 1. It would have prohibited the creation, operation, and advertising of prediction markets. It would also have imposed criminal penalties on entities that supported such activities. The preliminary injunction allows both platforms to continue operating in the state while the litigation proceeds. However, the judge also warned that the scope of the injunction could be narrowed in the future. The plaintiffs have not yet shown that every event contract listed on their platforms meets the statutory definition of a swap. The current ruling is primarily intended to preserve the status quo until the legal proceedings are completed.

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