DCG’s Barry Silbert Returns to Grayscale as Chairman Amid IPO Push

Digital Currency Group’s (DCG) Barry Silbert has been re-appointed as chairman of the board at asset manager Grayscale, one of DCG's subsidiaries, alongside several other new, high-ranking hires at the firm.

Silbert, who owns Grayscale, resigned in December 2023 after the company was hit with a lawsuit from the New York Attorney General’s office which accused Silbert and DCG of misleading investors and hiding financial losses totaling more than $1 billion. Both Silbert and DCG denied the claims, and the case is ongoing in New York state court.

Silbert was replaced by DCG's chief financial officer Mark Shifke, who will remain a board member. Grayscale filed a confidential submission for an initial public offering last month, despite the ongoing legal back-and-forth with the New York Attorney General's office.
"I'm honored to rejoin the Grayscale board at a defining moment for both the company and the broader digital asset ecosystem," Silbert said in a statement. "I continue to have deep conviction in the company’s long-term positioning and in the leadership team guiding it forward."

Grayscale also hired a new chief operating officer, chief marketing officer, chief communications officer, and as chief human resources officer, who all report to Grayscale CEO Peter Mintzberg.

Since Silbert’s resignation, Grayscale has converted its flagship Bitcoin Trust (GBTC) into an exchange-traded fund (ETF) as well as its Ethereum counterpart. It is also in the process of launching or converting several other products as ETFs.

source https://www.coindesk.com/business/2025/08/04/dcg-s-barry-silbert-returns-to-grayscale-as-chairman

Conflux's CFX Rallies on China Buzz, But Analysts Believe Fundamentals Still Lag

Conflux's CFX emerged as the winner during weekend trading, gaining around 14%, according to CoinDesk market data, and surpassing the broader CoinDesk 20 index, which rose by 4%.

However, behind the scenes, there's something missing: an uptick in on-chain activity. Conflux has positioned itself as being China's Ethereum, with a regulatory-compliant digital ledger, that doesn't have a token, available within mainland China.

Analysts speaking to CoinDesk in the past have called it a "one country, two systems" protocol, with its ability to straddle both the global crypto markets with a token and act as a digital ledger within mainland China, partnering with domestic web giants like China's version of Instagram.

Given that insiders say that Beijing is warming to the idea of stablecoins to counter U.S. dollar hegemony, and Conflux is prepping an offshore-yuan stablecoin, the market euphoria is certainly justified. In the last 30 days, CFX is up over 190%.

All of this isn't really reflected on-chain.

Aside from occasional spikes, transaction activity hasn't grown in the last year, per data from network block explorers.

In fact, it's still down from 2022 daily averages.

Other on-chain data shows that nearly 80% of the total gas spent in the protocol comes from three accounts, creating a concerning level of centralization.

In contrast, with Ethereum, the largest gas spender accounts for less than 10% of total gas spent on the network.

There certainly is a growing China narrative at the moment. Any sort of rumor that mainland China has banned crypto outright is demonstrably false. Hong Kong's embrace of crypto mirrors how equity markets in Shanghai learned from their counterparts in the city before opening mainland China's stock markets in the 1990s.

However, the question remains: Is Conflux the best proxy for this narrative? On-chain data would suggest otherwise.

source https://www.coindesk.com/markets/2025/08/04/conflux-s-cfx-rallies-on-china-buzz-but-fundamentals-lag-behind

Higher Bitcoin ETF Options Limits May Cut Volatility, but Boost Spot Demand: NYDIG

Bitcoin’s trademark volatility may be entering a new phase thanks to the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

The agency's decision to raise position limits on options for most bitcoin ETFs could help smooth price swings by encouraging strategies like covered call selling, which caps the upside in exchange for steady income, according to NYDIG Research.

That increase in position limits for options trading on IBIT came as the regulator approved in-kind redemptions for spot bitcoin ETFs.

By letting traders hold ten times more contracts than before, NYDIG wrote, the SEC has opened the door to more aggressive and sustained options activity. Covered call strategies, in particular, work best at scale.

They’re designed to earn yield from existing holdings by selling upside exposure, which can naturally suppress price movement if done across large portfolios.

Bitcoin’s volatility has already been on the decline, with Deribit’s BTC Volatility Index (DVOL) showing a steady decline from around 90 to 38 over the past four years.

Still, it stands out compared to bonds, stocks, and other traditional assets. That makes it a tempting target for investors trying to collect income from market swings, effectively harvesting volatility, but also risky for institutions that require stable exposures.

“As volatility declines, the asset becomes more investable for institutional portfolios seeking balanced risk exposure. This dynamic could reinforce spot demand,” NYDIG’s analysts wrote.

Ray Dalio, one of the earliest champions of such risk-parity strategies, recently suggested a 15% allocation to gold and crypto amid rising debt levels.

“The feedback loop of falling volatility leading to increased spot buying could become a powerful driver of sustained demand,” the firm concluded.

Read more: Wall Street Has Claimed Bitcoin—Now What?

source https://www.coindesk.com/business/2025/08/03/higher-bitcoin-etf-options-limits-may-cut-volatility-but-boost-spot-demand-nydig

SEC’s Crypto Task Force Will Tour U.S. to Hear From Small Startups on Policy Reform

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission’s new Crypto Task Force will begin a cross-country tour this month to meet with small crypto startups and expand the number of people who are heard in crypto policymaking.

Led by Commissioner Hester Peirce, the task force plans to visit 10 cities from August to December, it announced in a press release.

The sessions are primarily aimed at crypto-related projects with fewer than 10 employees and under two years in operation. Meetings will be held in cities including Berkeley, Boston, Dallas, Chicago, and New York.

“We want to hear from people who were not able to travel for the roundtables that took place this past spring in Washington, D.C.,” Peirce said in a statement.

“The Crypto Task Force is acutely aware that any regulatory framework will have far-reaching effects, and we want to ensure that our outreach is as comprehensive as possible.”

The Crypto Task Force was launched in January under acting SEC Chair Mark Uyeda, in a bid to develop clearer regulations for the cryptocurrency industry.

Read more: SEC Commissioner Hester Peirce on the New Crypto Task Force

source https://www.coindesk.com/policy/2025/08/02/sec-s-crypto-task-force-will-tour-u-s-to-hear-from-small-startups-on-policy-reform

Arkham Says $3.5B LuBian Bitcoin Theft Went Undetected for Nearly Five Years

A crypto wallet tied to a little-known Chinese mining pool may have been the victim of the largest bitcoin theft ever recorded, according to new findings from Arkham Intelligence.

In an Aug. 2 thread on X, the onchain analytics firm said it had uncovered evidence that 127,426 BTC — worth $3.5 billion at the time — was stolen from LuBian Mining Pool in late December 2020. Neither LuBian nor the suspected hacker has ever publicly acknowledged the breach, and Arkham said it is the first to report the incident.

LuBian was one of the largest bitcoin mining pools globally in 2020, reportedly controlling nearly 6% of Bitcoin’s total hash rate as of May that year. The hack, if confirmed, would eclipse the scale of other high-profile exploits like Mt. Gox and Bitfinex by nominal value at the time of loss.

Arkham's analysis indicates that on Dec. 28, 2020, more than 90% of LuBian’s BTC holdings were drained. Two days later, another theft involving about $6 million worth of BTC and USDT occurred, linked to a LuBian address operating on the Bitcoin Omni layer. The company appears to have moved its remaining 11,886 BTC — then worth hundreds of millions — into recovery wallets by Dec. 31, 2020.

A notable detail in Arkham’s report is the presence of OP_RETURN messages — special transactions that allow data to be embedded in the Bitcoin blockchain — sent from LuBian to the hacker. According to Arkham, the mining pool spent 1.4 BTC across over 1,500 transactions attempting to contact the thief, urging them to return the stolen funds. This effort suggests the messages were genuine and originated from the rightful wallet owner.

Arkham believes the vulnerability may have stemmed from LuBian’s use of a flawed private key generation algorithm that left it susceptible to brute-force attacks. The stolen BTC has apparently remained largely dormant, with the last major movement being a wallet consolidation in July 2024.

Due to the price appreciation of bitcoin since 2020, the current value of the stolen assets is estimated to be $14.5 billion. That makes the wallet associated with the LuBian hacker the 13th largest BTC holder tracked by Arkham — surpassing the holdings linked to the Mt. Gox breach.

As of today, both the hacker and LuBian are believed to still control their respective BTC balances. Arkham has published wallet trackers for both parties, but no additional details about the identities involved have been disclosed.

source https://www.coindesk.com/tech/2025/08/02/arkham-says-usd3-5b-lubian-bitcoin-theft-went-undetected-for-nearly-five-years

‘Chokepoint 3.0’ Has Arrived? a16z Warns of Anti-Crypto Bank Tactics

Big banks are making it harder and more expensive for consumers to use fintech and crypto apps, which amounts to what could be seen as "Operation Chokepoint 3.0."

That’s according to Alex Rampell, General Partner at venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz (a16z). In its latest fintech newsletter, Rampell pointed to traditional financial institutions charging high fees to access account data or move money, particularly to services like Coinbase or Robinhood, as a move to strangle the competition.

"Under the Biden administration, Operation Chokepoint 2.0 tried to debank and deplatform crypto," Rampell said. "That era has ended, but now the banks are aiming to implement their own Chokepoint 3.0 — charging insanely high fees to access data or move money to crypto and fintech apps — and, more concerningly, blocking crypto and fintech apps they don’t like," he added.

Chokepoint 2.0 refers specifically to the debanking of crypto businesses and executives as a result of pressure exerted during President Joe Biden’s administration by regulatory authorities like the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp (FDIC). After Donald Trump was elected U.S. president, the Chokepoint 2.0 ended as regulators reversed many of the directives put in place during the previous administration.

JPMorgan accusation

JPMorgan Chase, one of the largest U.S. banks, was singled out as an example.

Under current U.S. law, specifically Section 1033 of the Dodd-Frank Act, consumers have a right to access their own financial data.

But banks are now asserting control over how that data is delivered electronically, sometimes charging fees for access to information as basic as routing and account numbers.

A16z’s executive argued that such tactics could make transferring funds to alternative platforms more costly, deterring users and reducing competition.

“If it suddenly costs $10 to move $100 into a crypto account,” Rampell wrote, “maybe fewer people will do it. And if JPM and others can block consumers from connecting their own freely chosen crypto and fintech apps to their bank accounts, they effectively eliminate competition.”

Rampell’s words echo those of Gemini co-founder Tyler Winklevoss, who said JPMorgan charging fintech platforms for access to customer banking data will “bankrupt” them. “This is the kind of egregious regulatory capture that kills innovation, hurts the American consumer, and is bad for America.”

Read more: Winklevoss Claims JPMorgan Halted Gemini Onboarding After Data Access Fees Criticism

JPMorgan hasn’t address the platform directly, but did address the criticism. The bank told Forbes that nearly 2 billion monthly requests for user data come from third parties, and that by charging fees it aims to curb misuse.

Rampell, meanwhile, is calling on the Trump administration to stop such practices by the banks before they become standard among the rest of the financial institutions.

"In a perfect world, consumers would vote with their wallets. But every bank will likely do this, and getting a new banking charter takes years. Many banks have hostages, not customers," Rampell said.

"We don’t need a new law; we just need the administration to prevent this callous and manipulative attempt to kill competition and consumer choice," he added.

source https://www.coindesk.com/business/2025/08/02/chokepoint-3-0-has-arrived-a16z-warns-of-anti-crypto-bank-tactics

Red Coin, Blue Coin: The New Politics of Exposure

It was only a matter of time. With Strategy long reigning as the go-to corporate proxy for bitcoin exposure, it was inevitable that a challenger would emerge — though few expected it to wear a red hat and run a social media company. Trump Media & Technology Group’s recent announcement that it holds roughly $2 billion in bitcoin has transformed it, overnight, into a serious — if unconventional — bitcoin-treasury company.

But for investors seeking crypto exposure, the question isn’t just about how much bitcoin a company holds. It’s about what else comes with the package.

In one corner, we have Strategy (formerly MicroStrategy): the bitcoin standard-bearer, helmed by Michael Saylor, who has spent the past four years turning a sleepy enterprise software company into a de facto digital gold vault. Saylor has become bitcoin’s most prominent corporate evangelist, turning Strategy into a digital gold vault with quarterly earnings calls that double as bitcoin sermons.

In the other corner, enter Trump Media (DJT), which operates the Truth Social platform and has a revenue stream you could mistake for a rounding error: $4.1 million in 2023, compared to Strategy’s $498 million. Yet its market cap has floated above $6 billion — a valuation propped up almost entirely by brand loyalty, media spectacle, and now, bitcoin.

Let’s be clear: DJT didn’t just buy some bitcoin. It bought a lot of it — enough to vault it into the upper echelon of corporate BTC holders. On paper, that makes it interesting. But this isn’t your typical balance-sheet play. This is bitcoin by way of meme stock, populist vehicle, and culture war capital. And for investors looking for crypto exposure, it raises an uncomfortable — and increasingly unavoidable — question: What happens when your bitcoin proxy stock comes with a political identity?

Strategy’s bitcoin play, while bold, has always been pitched as a rational (some might say religious) hedge against inflation and fiat debasement. Its founder doesn’t dabble in politics (outside of poking fun at altcoins), and the company isn’t staging rallies or trending on Truth Social. It’s all-in on bitcoin — not ideology.

Trump Media, by contrast, is ideology-first. Its brand, valuation, and customer base are inseparable from Donald Trump’s political identity. With bitcoin now making up the overwhelming majority of the company’s assets, this is less a treasury decision than a wholesale pivot. But in practice, it functions more like a cultural signal — a declaration of alignment with the anti-establishment, pro-sovereignty values that animate its most loyal followers.

That’s not a bad strategy, necessarily. It might even be a brilliant one. The marriage of Trumpism and bitcoin isn’t as odd as it sounds. Both reject centralized authority. Both thrive on defiance. Both are, depending on your viewpoint, revolutionary or rebellious — and always controversial.

But for investors who simply want crypto exposure in their portfolio, the emergence of politically branded bitcoin stocks presents a new kind of risk. What happens when bitcoin becomes tribal? What happens when each side of the political aisle has its own bitcoin company, its own bitcoin ETF, its own financial media ecosystem?

In this new paradigm, bitcoin exposure could become not just a financial choice, but a cultural affiliation. Imagine a left-leaning climate-tech firm launching “Green Bitcoin Holdings, Inc.” to push eco-friendly mining. Or a libertarian group creating “Freedom Ledger Corp.” to promote bitcoin as a tool for tax resistance and personal sovereignty. Bitcoin could become the financial equivalent of cable news: red coins, blue coins, and perpetual outrage.

That’s a far cry from bitcoin’s original promise as a neutral, decentralized alternative to fiat. It was supposed to be trustless. Borderless. Immune to capture. But when its biggest corporate champions start behaving like political action committees it threatens to drag bitcoin into the very systems it was designed to transcend.

So where does that leave investors?

If you’re looking for a relatively clean bitcoin proxy, Strategy still offers the clearest path. Its volatility is real — but it’s the volatility of conviction. Trump Media, on the other hand, is a bet on narrative, loyalty, and virality. It might outperform in the short term. It might even spark a whole new class of politically-infused crypto equities. But it’s no longer just about bitcoin. It’s about who owns the story around bitcoin.

The final irony? Bitcoin itself doesn’t care. It doesn’t care who your CEO is. It doesn’t care who your president is. It just keeps producing blocks, one every ten minutes, indifferent to spin, slogans, or Senate hearings (until 21 million is reached – at which point the political tribe with the biggest BTC treasury wins?).

But investors do care. And as bitcoin enters this new phase of cultural colonization, we’d all be wise to ask: Are we buying the coin — or the campaign?

source https://www.coindesk.com/opinion/2025/08/01/red-coin-blue-coin-the-new-politics-of-exposure