Crypto Market Update: Strategy, Coinbase Post Major Q2 Losses

Bitcoin price update

Bitcoin (BTC) was priced at US$62,949.41, down by 2.7 percent over the past 24 hours.

Yield Basis and Curve Finance founder Michael Egorov said macro uncertainty, often seen as a headwind, is actually a tailwind for liquidity providers, as it fuels trading activity and fee generation. While higher rates can boost tokenized treasury products, purely on-chain yield strategies can remain competitive or even strengthen if rates fall.

“In that sense, I believe that DeFi should embrace uncertainty rather than fear it, because it is exactly these periods that create opportunities,” he wrote in an email to the Investing News Network (INN).

At the same time, regulatory uncertainty continues to shape institutional participation.

WisdomTree’s Ryan Louvar emphasized that while digital asset adoption is advancing, the lack of durable US legislation like the stalled CLARITY Act risks undermining long-term competitiveness. Institutional capital may not wait indefinitely for regulatory clarity, particularly as global frameworks evolve.

“The US still has a crucial opportunity to establish a framework that preserves investor protections while modernizing the rails on which our capital markets operate. Institutional adoption will not wait for Washington indefinitely, and neither will global competition,” he explained to INN.

In the near term, however, market structure remains the key constraint. Bitget Wallet analyst Lacie Zhang believes that Bitcoin is likely to stay rangebound without sustained exchange-traded fund inflows or a meaningful liquidity catalyst such as declining real yields. While pockets of speculative activity may drive sharp rallies in smaller tokens, these moves reflect fragmented capital rotation rather than a broad-based altcoin cycle.

Bitcoin price chart

Ether and altcoin price update

• Ether (ETH) was priced at US$1,866.49, trading 2.6 percent lower over the last 24 hours.

• XRP (XRP) was priced at US$1.06, trading 2.4 percent lower over the past 24 hours.

• Solana (SOL) was trading at US$73.11, trading 2.3 percent lower over the past 24 hours.

Today's crypto news to know

Read on for a round-up of the biggest crypto market news:

• Coinbase reports third consecutive quarterly loss
• Strategy posts US$8.22 billion second quarter loss
• CLARITY Act exposes crypto system to financial crime, former prosecutor warns
• Project Agorá provides test results
• Circle granted New York Trust Charter

Coinbase reports third consecutive quarterly loss

Coinbase Global (NASDAQ:COIN) reported a second quarter net loss of US$359 million, or US$1.36 per share, missing analysts' expectations. The firm's net revenue fell 17 percent from the previous year to US$1.15 billion as muted crypto trading activity dragged transaction revenue down 22 percent to US$600 million.

The performance marks the exchange's third consecutive quarterly loss as Bitcoin dropped over 27 percent in 2026. Coinbase shares fell over 10 percent following the news, bringing its year-to-date decline past 32 percent.

Despite soft trading volumes, Coinbase expanded its crypto trading market share to a record 10.3 percent. The company continues to diversify beyond spot Bitcoin trading by expanding into retail derivatives and perpetual crypto futures alongside prediction market partner Kalshi.

Strategy posts US$8.22 billion second quarter loss

Michael Saylor's Strategy (NASDAQ:MSTR) posted a net loss of US$8.22 billion for the second quarter of 2026, swinging from a US$10.02 billion net profit in the year-ago period. An unrealized loss of US$8.32 billion on digital asset holdings under fair-value accounting rules drove the quarterly deficit.

Strategy held 846,000 BTC as of June 30, with an acquisition cost of US$63.9 billion against a late-July market value of US$54.8 billion. Q2 revenue rose 6.9 percent year-on-year to US$122.4 million for US$81.6 million in gross profit.

To reinforce investor confidence, Strategy accumulated a US$3.75 billion cash reserve, which covers preferred dividend payments and interest obligations for over two years. The firm broke from its traditional buy-and-hold approach by liquidating a portion of its Bitcoin to raise US$218.4 million for preferred dividend payouts.

CLARITY Act exposes crypto system to financial crime, former prosecutor warns

Thomas J. Fleckenstein, a former Maryland deputy state attorney, publicly warned US Senators Angela Alsobrooks and Chris Van Hollen that the proposed CLARITY Act contains critical enforcement gaps.

In commentary published by the Baltimore Sun, Fleckenstein stated that the current draft fails to apply Bank Secrecy Act and anti-money laundering standards to crypto firms at traditional banking levels.

The bill includes a controversial DeFi exemption that frees decentralized crypto platforms from mandatory registration and federal oversight. Major law enforcement organizations, including the National Sheriffs' Association and the International Association of Chiefs of Police, warned that the exemption hampers illicit fund tracking.

FBI data indicates consumers reported US $9.3 billion in crypto-related financial crime losses during 2024 alone.

Fleckenstein argued that unregulated digital assets expose consumers to rampant hacks, while threatening national security. He urged Senate leaders to mandate strict banking-level compliance rules across all crypto platforms before allowing the legislation to move forward.

Project Agorá provides test results

Participants from 28 commercial banks, including JPMorgan (NYSE:JPM), Citigroup (NYSE:C), UBS Group (NYSE:UBS), Deutsche Bank (NYSE:DB), Standard Chartered Bank (LSE:STAN,OTCPL:SCBFF) and Lloyds Banking Group, as well as five central banks (the Bank of England, the Bank of France, the Bank of Japan, the Bank of Korea and Swiss National Bank) ran a live, real‑money test of tokenized wholesale money for cross‑border payments, coordinated by the Bank for International Settlements (BIS) under Project Agorá.

Roughly US$1 million in real value was settled across 17 transactions

Assets tokenized included central bank reserves and commercial bank deposits. The pilot did not use public cryptocurrencies or private stablecoins. Rather, all transactions ran on a single shared distributed ledger built for Project Agorá, where six currencies were represented as programmable tokens backed by real reserves or deposits.

Average time from payment instruction to final settlement was about 80 seconds, even though the prototype was not yet integrated with banks’ legacy payment systems. Parallel legal analysis concluded that settlement finality is viable under the laws of the seven jurisdictions involved, which include the US Federal Reserve and European Central Bank.

The BIS said the next phase will run through Q4 2026. Definitive technical specifications are expected in Q1 2027.

Circle granted New York Trust Charter

Circle Internet Group (NYSE:CRCL) has received a limited-purpose trust charter from the New York Department of Financial Services (NYDFS), according to a Friday press release, placing Circle’s USDC stablecoin issuance under NYDFS supervision and fiduciary standards under New York Banking Law.

Circle New York Trust cannot take customer deposits or make loans like a traditional bank; instead, it can hold digital assets for customers and act in a fiduciary capacity.

Circle CEO Jeremy Allaire called the New York trust charter a “longstanding objective” and a key step in strengthening the regulatory foundation behind USDC.