Crypto markets on Aug. 10 were shaped by exchange trading data, on-chain meme activity, U.S. legislative odds, regional regulatory updates and project-level operating figures. Among the top 10 tokens on centralized exchanges by trading volume, BMT and TUT led the gainers, while Unitree Robotics opened subscriptions for its STAR Market IPO and Polymarket showed the odds of the CLARITY Act becoming law this year at 21%.
CEX trading leaders and 24-hour moves
The top 10 tokens on CEXs by trading volume and their 24-hour price changes were:
- BTC: 0.41%
- ETH: 0.30%
- SOL: 1.23%
- BNB: 0.41%
- TUT: 62.39%
- XRP: -0.05%
- DOGE: -0.21%
- TRX: 0.21%
- BMT: 187.83%
- ZEC: -0.27%
BMT posted the biggest increase at 187.83%, followed by TUT at 62.39%. Among the larger tokens in the group, SOL rose 1.23%, BTC gained 0.41%, ETH added 0.30%, BNB was up 0.41%, and TRX rose 0.21%. XRP, DOGE and ZEC slipped 0.05%, 0.21% and 0.27%, respectively.
OKX 24-hour gainers
According to OKX, the top 24-hour gainers were:
- BOME: 22.7%
- PEOPLE: 20.4%
- ACT: 16.38%
- GRVT: 12.9%
- NEIRO: 12.8%
- PARTI: 12.22%
- AIXBT: 11.75%
- PUMP: 10.47%
- PROMPT: 10.28%
- OMI: 10.03%
Crypto-linked equities leaderboard
According to msx.com, the top crypto-equity gainers over 24 hours were:
- ABTC: 6.65%
- MPU: 4.18%
- CEVA: 3.1%
- FFAI: 2.44%
- AIFC: 2.4%
- DEFT: 2.33%
- GAME: 2.27%
- CIFR: 1.98%
- LASR: 1.9%
- SWMR: 1.89%
Top 5 on-chain meme tokens
GMGN’s list of the most watched on-chain meme tokens included TODA, REMUS, LOUIE, RISK and PUMPGUY.
Unitree Robotics opens STAR Market IPO subscription
Unitree Robotics formally opened subscriptions for its STAR Market initial public offering. The company’s filing showed an issue price of RMB 150.80 per share, an estimated market capitalization of about RMB 60.993 billion at listing, and total expected proceeds of RMB 6.099 billion.
The online subscription code is 787836, with an estimated 6.471 million shares offered online. Market estimates put the allotment rate at 0.02% to 0.03%.
After subscriptions are completed, allotment results will be announced on Aug. 12, and successful investors must make payment the same day.
If an investor wins allocations three times within 12 months but fails to make full payment, that investor will be barred from subscribing to new share and bond offerings for six months.
Yang Chao, chief strategy analyst at China Galaxy Securities, said the deal carries a relatively high capital threshold, a low allotment rate and potentially large share-price swings in early trading on the STAR Market. He said investors should fully assess the risks associated with a high valuation and make timely payment if they receive an allotment.
CLARITY Act odds drop to 21% for passage this year
Polymarket data showed the probability of the CLARITY Act becoming law by Dec. 31 stood at 21%. As of Aug. 9, trading volume in the related contract had exceeded $5.5 million.
Galaxy Research had previously lowered its expectation for the bill’s passage in 2026 from 50% to 30%.
On Aug. 8, the U.S. Senate filed a cloture motion on the motion to proceed with the bill, but no floor vote was held. Senators are scheduled to return on Sept. 14, and under Senate procedure the first cloture vote would take place on Sept. 15.
Hormuz Strait and Iran-related developments
Iran’s Mehr News Agency reported on Aug. 9 that the Iranian parliament’s National Security and Foreign Policy Commission approved the outline of a strategic action plan aimed at ensuring the security and development of the Strait of Hormuz.
Separately, U.S. President Donald Trump is preparing to declare “victory” over Iran without reaching a new nuclear agreement, and is willing to exit further negotiations after Iran fully restores navigation through the Strait of Hormuz. The Trump administration believes that if Iran restores normal shipping through the strait, a critical global energy route, that outcome could be presented as a diplomatic achievement even without a formal nuclear deal.
Industry developments
Bithumb restricts services tied to three OFAC-sanctioned entities
South Korean exchange Bithumb will restrict crypto deposit and withdrawal services involving Shelbit, Aban Tether and Crypto Home DMCC.
The three firms were previously placed on the U.S. Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control sanctions list for supporting terrorist organizations, including Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, or for money laundering.
More than 100 crypto projects have shut down in 2026 so far
More than 100 crypto projects have shut down, filed for bankruptcy or permanently ceased operations in 2026 so far, and the pace of exits is accelerating. In one week in late July alone, BitMEX, BitMart, Movement Labs and Storj Labs announced closures or related filings.
The projects leaving the market span trading platforms, wallets, DeFi lending protocols, NFT marketplaces and Layer 1 blockchains. Polkadot parachain Moonbeam permanently stopped operating on July 31, leaving funds stranded for users who had not bridged assets in time.
The number of general-purpose Ethereum Layer 2 networks grew quickly in 2023, but the market later became crowded as deployment barriers fell and some projects lacked differentiation. Many projects have usage but not revenue in the traditional sense, while some teams pay engineers with their own tokens, subsidize liquidity and absorb audit expenses. Recent declines of 70% to 90% across many altcoins have undermined treasury and runway estimates denominated in tokens.
DAO governance platform Tally had served more than 500 protocols, processed over $1 billion in payments and helped protect as much as $80 billion in on-chain value, yet it still shut down because governance tools lacked a sustainable business model.
Security incidents have also sped up the exits. Blockaid estimated that on-chain attack losses in the first half of 2026 reached $1.1 billion, exceeding the total for all of 2025. Two of the incidents, involving Kelp DAO and Drift Protocol, caused losses of $293 million and $285 million, respectively. TRM Labs estimated that attackers linked to North Korea accounted for 66% of total crypto attack losses during the same period.
Projects still growing in a bear market have generally relied on dollar-based revenue instead of their own tokens. Hyperliquid had generated more than $1 billion in cumulative fees by June 30 and now holds 70% of the decentralized perpetual futures market. Aave held more than $12 billion in deposits as of July, with annualized borrowing fees above $100 million.
Lorenzo Valente, ARK Invest’s director of research, said the crypto industry is going through the largest consolidation in its history, with capital becoming more selective and teams and trading platforms without real product-market fit shutting down.
Crypto payment card spending hits a record in July
a16z crypto said in an official post that stablecoin card spending is becoming more common and crypto payment cards have evolved from a novelty into a product category generating more than $750 million in monthly spending. These cards let users spend crypto anywhere traditional card networks are accepted.
According to the graphic attached to the post, monthly spending through crypto payment cards from ReddotPay, EtherFi, KAST and others reached $750 million in July.
Project updates
Strategy has not bought Bitcoin since June
Although Michael Saylor continues to post weekly Bitcoin Tracker updates, Strategy has not purchased Bitcoin since June this year.
Pump.fun tops Hyperliquid in 30-day revenue
According to DeFiLlama data, Pump.fun generated about $33.73 million in protocol revenue over the past 30 days, ahead of Hyperliquid at about $32.73 million.
Hyperliquid has burned 47.59 million HYPE
Onchain Lens said Hyperliquid burned about $575,400 worth of HYPE in the past 24 hours, while the latest measurement window generated $624,100 in fees.
Hyperliquid has now burned a cumulative 47.59 million HYPE worth about $2.56 billion, equal to 4.76% of HYPE’s maximum supply of 1 billion tokens.
Kalshi and Polymarket draw scrutiny over conflicts and information advantages
As prediction markets expand into politics and government decision-making, insider-trading risk is becoming a regulatory focus. U.S. prediction market platform Kalshi said it has identified multiple suspected insider-trading cases and submitted related leads to federal regulators.
Kalshi spokesperson Laura Frank said the company bans market manipulation and insider trading and has built a market surveillance system similar to those used in securities markets. Earlier this year, the company’s monitoring system detected suspicious trading by former Congressman George Santos in markets tied to the U.S. president’s State of the Union address, and Kalshi later submitted evidence from that investigation to the Commodity Futures Trading Commission.
Funding
Dow Protocol said it completed a $10.5 million seed round co-led by MH Ventures and Mapleblock Capital, with participation from Animoca Brands, Arcane Group, Hashkey Chain, Essentia Partners, Quartet Group and others.
The project focuses on providing working-capital advances to merchants on major global e-commerce platforms based on sales receivables and real operating data, using stablecoin settlement and on-chain programmable terms for PayFi and RWA advance-financing scenarios in broader e-commerce.
Regulatory developments
South Korean lawmaker proposes delaying crypto income tax to 2030
Jung Sung-kook, a lawmaker from South Korea’s People Power Party, plans to introduce a bill that would push back the start date for taxing virtual asset income from Jan. 1, 2027 to Jan. 1, 2030.
Under current rules, income from transfers or lending of virtual assets is classified as “other income” and subject to income tax. Annual profit above 2.5 million won is taxed at 22%, including a 20% other income tax and a 2% local income tax.
South Korea considers easing VASP major-shareholder and entry rules
South Korea’s Regulatory Rationalization Committee has proposed revising the enforcement decree of the Act on Reporting and Use of Certain Financial Transaction Information so that minor legal violations would be excluded from qualification limits on major shareholders of virtual asset service providers, or VASPs.
The proposal has triggered discussion around exchange mergers and acquisitions, new business entry and regulatory fairness, and has also raised questions over the boundaries of authority under the enforcement decree.
South Korea has not approved any new VASP registration applications since June 2024, so a change in major-shareholder review standards could directly affect future exchange acquisitions, new entrants and broader industry consolidation.
People and commentary
Wang Chun on BIP-110 and Luke Dashjr
Wang Chun, co-founder of F2Pool, the third-largest Bitcoin mining pool, said in a post that OCEAN co-founder and CTO Luke Dashjr is “bankrupt” not only financially but also in terms of personal credibility. He also said attempts to change the proof-of-work algorithm would not end well.
Previous reports showed that the Bitcoin BIP-110 fork was on the verge of collapse eight hours after launch, receiving insufficient hash-rate support and producing only two blocks.
SemiAnalysis says SpaceX could exceed 10GW of compute in 2027
A report from SemiAnalysis said SpaceX’s goal of adding more than 10GW of compute capacity by the end of 2027 appears feasible. Elon Musk said SpaceX’s conservative target is to deliver 6 GW to 8 GW of incremental compute in 2027, with upside beyond 10 GW.
At roughly $50 billion in capital expenditure per gigawatt, 2027 capex could reach $300 billion to $500 billion.
Ansem says trading could become the next mass-market PvP game
Crypto investor Ansem said in a post that early in the 2023 cycle, Unibot helped push trading in long-tail on-chain assets by combining a trading terminal with a token, and its market capitalization once reached $200 million. In the current cycle, he expects multiple social trading platforms built around mobile usage to emerge. He said trading will become one of the most popular next-generation PvP games.
Ansem also said 24/7 perpetual trading in stocks and crypto assets should continue to attract retail attention. He said Hyperliquid has already validated that trend through its HIP-3 stock products and that platforms such as Lighter may also benefit. He added that Robinhood was the first platform to prove the viability of gamified trading, but no platform has yet truly captured the social dimension of trading.