The crypto market is heading into a busy week from Aug. 24 to Aug. 30, with the calendar spanning sanctions, network upgrades, exchange service changes, legal proceedings, and macro events. The headline items already on deck include Hyperliquid’s AQAv2 revenue-sharing rollout on Aug. 26, BitMart’s halt of all trading services, BitMEX risk limits starting the same day, and, on Aug. 27, the opening of the Jackson Hole global central banking conference, a Bank of Korea rate decision, and Nvidia’s second-quarter earnings release.
Aug. 24
No major event was listed for Aug. 24.
Aug. 25
EU expands crypto restrictions on Belarus
According to Cointelegraph, the European Union will ban Belarusian citizens and residents from owning, controlling, or managing crypto exchanges and other crypto service providers regulated under MiCA starting Aug. 25.
The measure appears in an amendment to the EU sanctions framework adopted on Thursday. It cites Belarus’ involvement in Russia’s war against Ukraine and broadens earlier restrictions that had only applied to crypto wallets, accounts, and custody services.
Under the expanded rules, the scope now covers all crypto-asset business lines defined by MiCA, including operating trading platforms, crypto-asset exchange services, execution of client orders, investment advice, and portfolio management. The decision took effect on July 24, and the broader crypto provisions will apply from Aug. 25.
Earlier, after MiCA’s transition period ended on July 1, the EU had already required unauthorized crypto firms to stop operating or face enforcement. As part of the 21st round of sanctions against Russia announced on Thursday, the bloc also extended transaction bans to 14 foreign crypto service platforms and set up a mechanism to block dealings with foreign crypto service providers used by Russia to evade sanctions.
BNB Chain to activate Pasteur hard fork
BNB Smart Chain, or BSC, said the Pasteur hard fork will go live on mainnet at 10:30 Beijing time on Aug. 25, or 02:30 UTC the same day. Node operators are required to upgrade to client version v1.7.7 in advance.
The upgrade includes BEP-682, BEP-695, and BEP-675, with the changes centered on cross-chain security, validator governance, and network throughput.
- BEP-682 strengthens BNB Chain’s cross-chain bridge verification mechanism to prevent permission-bypass risks tied to duplicate counting of validator signatures.
- BEP-695 updates validator key rotation so old keys no longer retain management permissions after exit, while also fixing potential issues related to slashing and governance voting.
- BEP-675 optimizes block construction to reduce the time lost when validators repeatedly execute transactions.
BNB Chain said that in its internal QANet test environment, the change lifted throughput from 1,237 TPS to 2,324 TPS. Block time remained at 450 milliseconds and the block limit stayed at 100 million gas, while average gas used per block rose from 46.35 million to 84.15 million. The team said the upgrade is aimed mainly at validators and block builders, with the goal of providing more capacity during peak periods and supporting throughput expansion targets in BNB Chain’s roadmap for the second half of 2026.
Conflux Network set for v3.1.0 hard fork upgrade
Conflux Network said its v3.1.0 network hard fork will introduce multiple improvements, including EVM compatibility updates, bug fixes, RPC changes, and security enhancements. CIP-173 is expected to activate on Aug. 26.
Binance to suspend Conflux deposits and withdrawals on Aug. 25, 2026
Binance said it will suspend token deposits and withdrawals on the Conflux Network (CFX) at 07:00 UTC+8 on Aug. 25, 2026 to support the network upgrade and hard fork. The upgrade and hard fork are expected to take place at 08:00 UTC+8 the same day.
Aug. 26
Hyperliquid AQAv2 expected to begin revenue accrual
Odaily reported that Hyperliquid’s AQAv2 stablecoin model had already secured support from 19 of 26 validators and is expected to formally begin accruing yield on Aug. 26. Circle has transferred about $4.4 billion in USDC to Coinbase on HyperEVM through the AQAv2 mechanism, setting a record for the largest single USDC transfer on HyperEVM.
The first yield payment is expected to enter the Assistance Fund on Oct. 3. AQAv2, short for Aligned Quote Asset v2, was introduced by Hyperliquid in May this year and allows stablecoins that are not issued exclusively by Hyperliquid, including USDC, to qualify as "Aligned."
According to public information cited in the report, AQAv2 sends most stablecoin revenue back to the Hyperliquid ecosystem. Of that revenue, 90% will be allocated to the related mechanism, and then 100% will be used to buy back and burn HYPE. Coinbase has been designated as the capital deployment party, while Circle is responsible for technical deployment. Both sides will also stake HYPE to participate. The earlier version of the mechanism required stablecoins to be Hyperliquid-exclusive assets; AQAv2 removes that restriction and is expected to focus on HIP-4 standardized markets and validator-operated perpetual futures markets. The mechanism is projected to generate as much as $200 million in revenue and route that value capture through HYPE buybacks and burns.
BitMart to stop all trading services
BitMart said in a post on X that, after a careful review of its operating conditions, market environment, and future strategic direction, it had decided to wind down operations of its trading platform in an orderly manner.
Under the schedule provided by the company, new registrations, deposits, and new trading orders were to be suspended from 01:30 UTC on July 26, 2026. All trading services are set to stop at 01:00 UTC on Aug. 26, 2026. Platform operations will formally end at 15:59 UTC on Jan. 31, 2027. Withdrawal services will remain open.
BitMart also advised users to close positions as early as possible, complete KYC, and withdraw assets.
BitMEX to implement risk limits
BitMEX is scheduled to shut down on Sept. 23. Starting Aug. 26, the exchange will implement risk limits to prevent users from opening new positions, leaving them able only to reduce positions.
Coinbase to halt perpetual futures trading for 10 tokens
Coinbase said it will suspend trading in the following perpetual contracts at around 21:00 on Aug. 26: Memecoin (MEME-PERP), The Sandbox (SAND-PERP), Moonbirds (BIRB-PERP), Blur (BLUR-PERP), Katana (KAT-PERP), SPX6900 (SPX-PERP), ZORA (ZORA-PERP), Axie Infinity (AXS-PERP), Gensyn (AI-PERP), and LayerZero (ZRO-PERP).
Any remaining open positions will be settled automatically. The final settlement price will be the average index price over the 60 minutes before trading is halted, and the funding rate for the final funding interval will be set to zero.
Aug. 27
Jackson Hole conference opens
The Jackson Hole global central bank symposium is scheduled to run from Aug. 27 to Aug. 29. Federal Reserve Chair Warsh will deliver his first speech at the event at 22:00 on Friday, Aug. 28.
Bank of Korea rate decision due
The Bank of Korea will announce its rate decision on Thursday, Aug. 27, Beijing time.
Nvidia to report second-quarter earnings
Nvidia is set to release results for the second quarter of fiscal 2027 after the U.S. market closes on Aug. 26 Eastern Time, which corresponds to early Aug. 27 in Beijing time.
First ruling due in Bithumb mistaken Bitcoin distribution case
A South Korean court is scheduled to hand down the first first-instance ruling on Aug. 27 in the Bithumb mistaken Bitcoin distribution case. The user involved is accused of selling wrongly received BTC and holding about 194 million won in cash. Bithumb had earlier filed unjust enrichment return claims against four users, with the amount in dispute reaching as much as about 500 million won.
Bithumb said that in February this year it mistakenly recorded Korean won reward points as Bitcoin during a promotional payout, then launched a recovery process. As of March 10, it said it had recovered 99% of the 1,788 BTC that had not yet been retrieved.
EulerFinanceBot Telegram mini app to shut down
According to monitoring cited from Euler Labs, the EulerFinanceBot TAC Telegram mini app will be permanently closed on Aug. 27 due to network maintenance. Users who still have balances in the protocol were urged to withdraw them as soon as possible. After the shutdown, the app and all remaining funds in it will no longer be usable.
Aug. 28
DeFi Kingdoms’ DFK Chain to stop running
According to information cited from DeFi Kingdoms, DFK Chain, which is based on Avalanche L1, will stop operating on Aug. 28. The team said it will prioritize the secure migration of player assets to Avalanche C-Chain and plans to open an SDK that would let third-party developers build using DeFi Kingdoms’ systems, mechanics, and assets. More details on asset migration are expected in the coming weeks.
Aug. 29
No major event was listed for Aug. 29.
Aug. 30
No major event was listed for Aug. 30.
Other items with no set date
Arthur Hayes says FLOP white paper has not been released yet
Arthur Hayes said in a post on X that the FLOP white paper has not yet been published because the team is still communicating with stakeholders to make sure the final technical design and tokenomics are complete. The team had previously said it wanted additional feedback and is expected to begin releasing a simplified infographic covering tokenomics next week.