Bitcoin rose above $81,300 during trading on Aug. 25, setting its highest level in 102 days and marking its strongest price point since May 15. The asset later changed hands at $80,694, up 4.65% over 24 hours. From its Aug. 17 low of $62,751, the gain over the span of a trading week was close to 30%. Ether also moved higher, reaching $2,511 with a 24-hour increase of 3.06%. Market attention centered on comments from Arthur Hayes, who linked the move to U.S. Treasury Secretary Bessent’s handling of liquidity through the government bond market. Hayes said Bessent, after intervening in the yen exchange rate, announced an additional $20 billion increase in long-dated Treasury buybacks with the aim of keeping the 10-year yield below 5%. Hayes described Bitcoin as a global liquidity barometer and argued that the token had already responded to that shift. At the same time, on-chain and regulatory filings pointed to fresh institutional accumulation. OnchainLens said BlackRock withdrew 2,802.904 BTC, worth about $223.41 million, and 6,580 ETH from Coinbase Prime into wallets tied to IBIT, ETHA and ETHB on Aug. 25. A Form 8-K filed by Strive with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission showed the firm bought 1,110 BTC between Aug. 17 and Aug. 21 at an average price of about $73,409, lifting its total holdings to 21,356 BTC.

Binance’s SAFU fund is sitting on an unrealized gain of $221 million, according to monitoring data cited by BlockBeats from ai_9684xtpa. The data shows Binance accumulated 15,000 BTC between Feb. 2 and Feb. 12. Based on a total purchase value of $1 billion, the average cost was about $66,666.66 per BTC. Using a current price of $81,000, the position is estimated to be up 21.5%. The update focuses on the fund’s BTC purchases and the paper gain implied by the current market price.

HTX global adviser Justin Sun said the exchange has formally upgraded its security architecture in response to community calls for stronger safeguards. According to his statement, the update includes a multi-address withdrawal system that spreads hot wallet assets across multiple addresses, along with regular automatic rotation of withdrawal addresses. Once a new address is activated, the old one is disabled immediately and is no longer controlled by the platform, a setup Sun said is designed to reduce single-address risk exposure to a minimum. Sun added that even in an extreme security incident, the upper limit of potential losses would be below $1 million and fully covered by an insurance fund, with users suffering no loss of funds. He also reminded users that withdrawal addresses will change periodically as part of standard security procedures and said users should verify actual on-chain receipts. HTX said it will take every user feedback item and every portion of user assets seriously.

Changpeng Zhao shared three basic priorities for keeping cryptocurrency holdings safe: preventing theft by others, avoiding loss caused by the owner, and making sure family members can access the assets if the user is no longer able to do so. According to the post cited by Techub News, Zhao urged users to protect private keys with strict security measures and to set up an emergency access arrangement in advance. The guidance frames crypto security as more than a single anti-hacking measure. It also covers operational mistakes and unexpected situations that could leave assets inaccessible. Cointelegraph was cited as the source for the report. The comments center on broad asset protection and contingency planning rather than trading, market moves, or token-specific developments.

Binance founder Changpeng Zhao said crypto holders should not place absolute trust in hardware wallets after a flaw tied to Coldcard devices was linked to a widening Bitcoin theft. In a post on X, Zhao said even hardware wallets can contain bugs and that long-running products are not automatically safe, adding that “nothing is 100%.” He suggested splitting funds across multiple wallets to reduce concentration risk, while noting that no setup removes risk entirely. His remarks came after a defect in Coldcard devices made by Coinkite was traced to firmware shipped in March 2021. Decrypt previously reported that a build error caused affected units to generate seeds from a software fallback instead of the hardware random-number generator, making the resulting private keys far easier to guess than intended. Updating firmware does not repair a seed that was already created on an exposed device. Galaxy Research now estimates the theft at 1,082.65 BTC, worth roughly $70.2 million, drained from 1,196 addresses in a 41-minute span on July 30. The firm said the transaction pattern matched automated sweeping rather than owner-initiated transfers, and added that the stolen Bitcoin was consolidated into a small number of addresses and has not moved since. Coinkite has issued emergency hotfixes and urged affected users to migrate to newly generated seeds.

Changpeng Zhao, widely known as CZ, reposted a BNB Chain statement on X and said the developer tied to the TST matter was "basically a scammer," adding a warning to "Stay SAFU." The remark came after BNB Chain said the TST address had been created by a former employee and used in a video tutorial to generate a token. According to the company, that person is no longer employed by BNB Chain because of the incident. BNB Chain said the former employee retained unauthorized access to the relevant mnemonic phrase after leaving the company and used it to generate a new private key. The company later learned that the same address was being used independently for a new meme token. BNB Chain said it did not create, authorize, promote, or participate in creating that token, and added that it has no control over the token or the wallet address involved. It also said neither the token nor the wallet address is affiliated with or endorsed by BNB Chain. The company said it is taking legal action against the former employee and is cooperating with the relevant authorities.

CoinDesk Research data shows that capital has continued to leave the crypto market since June, with 77 exchanges worldwide recording nearly $1 billion in combined net outflows. Against that backdrop, Binance still posted $36.9 million in net inflows as of early July, making it one of the few centralized exchanges that remained in positive territory. The data also points to factors drawing user attention during a more volatile stretch in the market, including reserves, liquidity and risk controls. Binance’s USDT and USDC reserve ratios were both above 100%, with reserves publicly verifiable, while its roughly $1 billion SAFU fund is held in publicly traceable on-chain wallets. Even as overall trading volume declined, Binance still held about 24% of spot market share, 36% of perpetual futures market share, and roughly 55% of reserve assets across centralized exchanges.

Curve Finance publicly accused PancakeSwap of integrating its StableSwap code without licensing. The dispute over code ownership and security risks highlights growing tensions between open-source innovation and legal compliance in DeFi.