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Bitcoin-backed lending grows up as institutions tap BTC for corporate financing

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Bitcoin-backed lending grows up as institutions tap BTC for corporate financing

Two Prime’s loan to MARA carries a fixed interest rate of 7.65% and matures in August 2028. Blume said borrowing demand has increased in recent months, with institutions tapping bitcoin holdings to finance capital expenditure while retaining exposure to the asset.

The structures are also becoming more sophisticated. Recent regulatory filings show agreements with detailed provisions covering margin calls, collateral custody and liquidation, alongside a wider range of loan sizes and maturities.

Lenders including Ledn and Kraken have also expanded the market through asset-backed securities and warehouse facilities linked to bitcoin collateral, according to Blume.

The development could have implications beyond bitcoin lending as more financial assets move onto blockchain-based infrastructure.

“This core competency will grow increasingly relevant as the broader financial system comes on-chain,” Blume said, pointing to tokenized equities as one potential area of growth.

As more publicly traded companies add bitcoin to their balance sheets, the ability to borrow against those holdings is emerging as an increasingly important part of digital-asset corporate finance.



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Hong Kong considers widening tax reforms to proprietary trading firms

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Hong Kong considers widening tax reforms to proprietary trading firms


Hong Kong is considering extending planned tax reforms for the investment industry to proprietary trading firms such as Jane Street and Citadel Securities, the Financial Times has reported.

The move is part of the city’s broader effort to strengthen its standing as a global financial centre after several years of subdued activity.

It also comes as Hong Kong competes with Singapore, New York and Miami for high-end financial talent.

According to two people familiar with the process, cited by the FT, officials are weighing changes to proposed legislation so that employees at proprietary trading firms would not be taxed on performance-related pay.

Another option would be to issue guidance clarifying that traders qualify for the tax break, rather than make late amendments to the bill now before the legislative council.

The people added that any relief may not extend to all proprietary trading firms.

The bill was introduced in June with the aim of “attracting more funds and family offices to establish a presence in Hong Kong”.

The proposed changes have already drawn attention in Singapore, where policymakers are considering their own tax reductions amid concerns that some portfolio managers could shift to Hong Kong.

Proprietary trading firms differ from traditional asset managers because they trade using their own capital, or money from employees, rather than investing on behalf of pension funds, governments or wealthy individuals.

More broadly, Hong Kong is proposing to allow gains from a wider range of investments to be treated as carried interest for tax purposes, instead of limiting that treatment to private equity transactions.

If approved, the changes would apply across hedge funds, private equity, venture capital, private credit and family offices, giving firms more scope to structure themselves in ways that reduce their Hong Kong tax liabilities.

One person familiar with the proposals had previously described them to the FT as a “big bang of tax reforms”.

The plans are being discussed as Hong Kong recovers from a lengthy slowdown in dealmaking linked to the democracy protests and the Covid-19 pandemic.

Its IPO market has recently regained momentum, helped by a rise in listings by Chinese companies including CATL and Zhongji Innolight, as well as the return of many expatriates.

In June, Reuters reported that Hong Kong is considering scrapping tax on performance-linked bonuses for fund managers as it seeks to attract investment talent.

According to a Boston Consulting Group (BCG) report in May, Hong Kong became the world’s largest cross-border wealth hub in 2025, surpassing Switzerland for the first time.



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Bitcoin: 90 wallets now hold at least 10,000 BTC – What changed?

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Bitcoin: 90 wallets now hold at least 10,000 BTC – What changed?


Bitcoin’s elite wallet count reached a six-month high as larger holders expanded their share of the circulating supply. 

Santiment analytics recorded 90 wallets holding at least 10,000 BTC, highlighting renewed concentration among Bitcoin’s largest addresses.

Source: Santiment

Notably, the cohort gained six wallets during the previous eight weeks, representing a 7.1% increase. 

Meanwhile, micro-wallet holdings declined during August, creating a widening divergence between larger and smaller participants.

Therefore, Bitcoin’s supply distribution increasingly favored stronger hands ahead of the next major price fluctuation. 

Rising whale representation supported an accumulation interpretation because fewer coins remained distributed across smaller holders.

However, concentration alone could not guarantee higher prices. BTC still needed stronger technical confirmation before the supply shift could support a sustained bullish advance.

Falling NVT added another bullish layer

Beyond wallet distribution, Bitcoin’s network valuation picture improved as the NVT ratio fell 32.11% to 26.9998. 

The decline reduced the gap between Bitcoin’s valuation and the transaction activity supporting that valuation.

A falling NVT generally indicated transaction value had strengthened relative to the network’s overall valuation. 

Therefore, the latest decline complemented the growing presence of elite wallets rather than contradicting the accumulation narrative.

Importantly, this metric added a network-based dimension to the supply concentration trend. 

Whale growth alone reflected ownership changes, while NVT captured Bitcoin’s valuation relative to transferred value.

Together, both readings strengthened the bullish case from separate angles. 

Nevertheless, price still needed to escape its existing range before these underlying improvements could influence the broader market structure decisively.

Source: CryptoQuant

Can Bitcoin reclaim $65,551 next?

Bitcoin [BTC] price action remained compressed between $62,398.63 support and $65,551.24 resistance, keeping Bitcoin’s immediate direction unresolved. 

Buyers repeatedly defended the lower boundary after BTC recovered from the deeper $58,602.64 support region.

However, repeated rejection around $65,551 prevented buyers from converting that recovery into a confirmed breakout.

 The RSI reached 48.45, while its average stood slightly higher at 49.97.

Those readings placed BTC near neutral territory, matching the sideways structure rather than establishing strong directional control. 

A decisive $65,551 recovery would strengthen the route toward the major $70,000 resistance area.

Alternatively, renewed weakness beneath $62,398 would expose the recovery structure to another test. 

Such a breakdown could redirect BTC toward $58,602 despite improving whale concentration and network valuation conditions.

Bitcoin price actionBitcoin price action
Source: TradingView

Liquidity puts Bitcoin’s range under pressure

Liquidation liquidity added another pressure point around Bitcoin’s narrowing range, with substantial concentrations sitting above and below the price. 

The strongest nearby upside bands developed around $64,500 to $66,000, placing considerable liquidity near the technical resistance zone.

Meanwhile, another prominent concentration emerged around $63,200 to $63,400, immediately below the prevailing market area. 

Particularly dense liquidity appeared near $64,500 and $63,300, creating competing zones around BTC’s consolidation.

Yet the upside concentration overlapped more closely with Bitcoin’s $65,551 resistance, making that region especially important for buyers. 

A push through nearby liquidity could intensify price movement toward $65,551 and potentially open the $70,000 region.

However, losing the lower liquidity zone could instead increase pressure toward the $62,398 support.

Source: CoinGlass

Final Summary

  • Bitcoin supply increasingly shifted toward elite wallets as smaller holders continued losing share.
  • Whale concentration favored bulls, but BTC still needed to reclaim $65,551 convincingly.

 



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A $2 trillion asset class is getting a new blockchain rail

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A $2 trillion asset class is getting a new blockchain rail

ADI Chain’s job is to turn those deals into blockchain tokens and handle payments using stablecoins (digital tokens pegged 1-to-1 to real currencies like the UAE dirham or the U.S. dollar), so money moves instantly without a traditional bank wire. For now, this is aimed at “qualified institutional participants,” or large, vetted investors, not everyday retail buyers.

Shipfinex CEO Capt. Vikas Pandey said the partnership would let the company “create a regulated digital route into this market, with every instrument tied to a real vessel, its economics and its legal structure.”

No maritime asset tokens have been issued yet and Shipfinex doesn’t yet have a green light to do so. Its regulatory clearance from Dubai’s Virtual Asseets Regulatory Authority is an “In-Principle Approval” — a preliminary thumbs-up confirming it has passed an initial background check, not a finished license to operate.

Nevertheless, Shipfinex has earmarked around 35 vessels worth about $500 million combined as candidates for tokenization, once the regulatory approval and deal structure are finalized. Each ship will eventually sit in its own separate legal entity, so if one ship runs into financial trouble, it doesn’t drag down investors in the others.

Buying a token, once one becomes available, could mean one of a few different things for the institutional investors, depending on how each deal ends up being structured. It could mean a loan backed by the ship (similar to earning interest on a loan), a share of the money the ship earns from shipping contracts, or a broader economic stake in the vessel’s value.



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Can $1.7M in token burns help ASTER regain bullish momentum?

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Can $1.7M in token burns help ASTER regain bullish momentum?


After trading within a thin margin, ASTER finally found an upside footing and flipped the $0.6 resistance into support. In fact, the altcoin rose to a two-week high of $0.169 before retracing.

At the time of writing, ASTER was trading at around $0.607, marking a 1.05% hike on the daily charts. Over the same window, the altcoin’s trading volume climbed by 49% to $56 million, hinting at renewed market interest.

Aster team burns $1.74 million worth of ASTER

With Aster-DEX [ASTER] regaining some upside pressure and defending key levels, the team offered more incentives to the market.

The Aster team has continued to deploy its main deflationary mechanism. According to Onchain Lens, it burned 2.85 million tokens worth $1.74 million.

Aster burns
Source: Onchain Lens

After the same, the cumulative burns rose to 188.87 million tokens, worth approximately $114.6 million or 3.78% of the token supply. Often, token burns reduce token supply. These boost scarcity, a prelude to better price performance.

However, although the team resumed the token burns, they have slowed down significantly on buybacks. For example, Asterlify did not record any major token buybacks over the past month or any buyback over the last 24 hours.

Aster buybacksAster buybacks
Source: Asterlify

According to Asterlify, the team did not purchase any tokens over the said period and only recorded $106K in fees.

It seems the Aster team has scaled back on token buybacks because the ecosystem is not generating significant revenue. Low revenue means no money to deploy on this front.

With the altcoin having previously relied on buybacks and burns for stability, the slowdown has left it exposed to market pressure.

Why is the market rising though? Can it hold?

Although Aster has slowed down on buybacks, the market and ecosystem demand have recovered significantly. On the ecosystem’s side, Aster recorded positive USD inflows for two consecutive days, after seeing net USD outflows earlier.

Aster usd inflowsAster usd inflows
Source: Defillama

Over this period, the network saw $22.7 million in USD Inflows. Positive USD inflows are evidence of more capital flowing into the protocol as more users engage.

That’s not all though as on the spot front, buyers also stepped in. Over the last 24 hours, the altcoin saw $5.43 million in Spot outflows compared to $5.07 million in Inflows.

Aster spot flowAster spot flow
Source: Coinglass

As a result, the Spot Netflow fell 43% to -$358K, extending a week-long trend. This alluded to an uptick in market demand and potentially seller exhaustion.

As a result of this recovering demand, the upside momentum has been gradually strengthening. A look at the MACD indicator seemed to confirm this view too.

Aster MACD & MAAster MACD & MA
Source: TradingView

For instance, the MACD made a bullish crossover and rose to -0.006. Despite the crossover, it still held within the negative zone and pointed to a weak trend.

Likewise, the altcoin also flipped both the 9 and 21-day MAs, indicating strong short-term momentum. These market conditions hinted at the likelihood of ASTER making some gains.

If demand holds and is boosted by recent token burns, ASTER will likely hold $0.6 and target a move above $0.64.


Final Summary

  • Aster burnt 2.85 million ASTER worth $1.74 million, extending total burns to 188.87 million ASTER. 
  • Aster-dex [ASTER] hiked to a two-week high, flipping $0.6 resistance to support amid recovering market demand. 



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