A dense wave of overnight developments from Aug. 2 to Aug. 3 put crypto wallet security, whale activity, market structure and cross-market regulation in focus. South Korea is moving to give financial regulators emergency market intervention powers, with proposed limits on single-stock leveraged ETFs after a sharp drop in trading volumes following tighter margin rules. At the same time, the suspected Coldcard security incident kept widening, with Galaxy Research’s Alex Thorn warning of additional attack waves and copycat actors, while CryptoQuant data showed sub-1 BTC transfers climbing to their highest level since November 2022. On-chain activity also centered on major holders. A wallet linked to Strategy moved 299.84 BTC, Arthur Hayes deployed capital through Galaxy Digital and FalconX, Abraxas Capital sent 61.19 million USDT to Bitfinex and supplied 40,000 ETH to Spark, and several addresses accumulated or reopened HYPE and ETH positions. Elsewhere, Token Unlocks flagged sizable upcoming unlocks for PROVE, HYPE and ENA. Beyond crypto, the digest tracked Iran’s denial of reports about reopening the Strait of Hormuz, Senate timing pressure around the CLARITY Act, sharp drawdowns at AI-focused fund Situational Awareness, new debate over Anthropic’s stance on model distillation, and Morgan Stanley’s view that AI investing has entered a mid-cycle pause rather than a fundamental downturn.

Strategy rose 6% in after-hours trading after MSCI said it would not remove digital asset treasury firms from its indexes for now. Bitcoin also gained about 1% to around $93,500, while BMNR, SBET, and XXI posted modest after-hours gains.

Twenty One Capital rose more than 8% in after-hours trading after Tether Investments proposed merging the bitcoin-focused company with Strike and Elektron Energy. No deal terms or timeline were disclosed.

21 Capital has overtaken MARA Holdings as the second-largest public company bitcoin holder with 43,514 BTC (~$2.9B), after MARA sold 15,133 BTC in March. Strategy remains #1 with 762,099 BTC.

Bitcoin hit $85,200 on Thursday, its lowest since December; gold plunged nearly 10% from an all-time high; Microsoft shares collapsed 11% after cloud slowdown.

Strategy rose 6% in after-hours trading after MSCI said it would not remove digital asset treasury companies from its indexes for now. Bitcoin also gained about 1% to around $93,500.

Tether Investments has proposed combining Twenty-One Capital, Strike and Elektron Energy into a single listed Bitcoin platform spanning treasury, mining, financial services and lending. XXI shares rose as much as 8% intraday after the news.

Jack Mallers, the founder of Bitcoin payments company Strike, stepped down as CEO of Twenty One Capital on July 20 and returned to Strike to focus on Bitcoin payment and financial services. At the same time, Twenty One Capital named Raphael Zagury as its new chief executive, according to reports cited by Yahoo Finance and CoinDesk. Mallers had been tapped by Tether in the second half of 2025 to lead XXI, while Tether had also been moving to tighten control over the company. ABMedia said Tether completed the purchase of SoftBank’s stake in Twenty One Capital in May, cementing its position as the controlling shareholder. The leadership change also affects a broader corporate combination first proposed by Tether in April. That structure involved Twenty One Capital, Strike and Bitcoin mining company Elektron Energy. With Strike no longer participating, the original three-way merger is no longer moving forward. Twenty One Capital is now discussing a revised two-party deal with Elektron Energy while reorganizing its broader strategy. The earlier proposal had aimed to combine Bitcoin treasury operations, mining, payments, lending and capital markets activities under a single listed company.