In its Q2 2026 Form 13F filing, Italian banking giant Intesa Sanpaolo revealed a 94% reduction in its flagship spot bitcoin ETF while tripling its position in Blackrock’s iShares Staked Ethereum Trust ETF.

Bitcoin developer Chris Guida has dusted off code that could swap the mining algorithm on a breakaway BIP-110 chain if supporters fail to overcome miners’ resistance. With the activation height closing in fast, supporters are now openly floating a proof-of-work (PoW) swap if BIP-110 leaves them stranded on a weak minority chain that stops moving.

Cathie Wood’s Ark Invest bought $21 million in Block shares and $2.3 million in SpaceX stock, doubling down on two companies sitting at the intersection of bitcoin and Elon Musk’s business empire.

A volunteer security group called the Bitcoin Red Team uncovered 4,962 vulnerabilities, 85 of them critical, across 390 open-source Bitcoin projects over a 27-hour stretch after the Coldcard hack.

Tesla and SpaceX have formally committed $16.8 billion to break ground on Terafab, Elon Musk’s giant AI chip factory, after moving the project’s planned site from Austin to a rural county outside Houston.

MARA Holdings posted a $611 million net loss in the second quarter as its bitcoin treasury shrank 29% year-over-year to 35,577 BTC. The report landed the same week rival Riot Platforms and MARA itself sent a combined 581 BTC to custodian NYDIG.

The hacker behind the Coldcard wallet exploit, believed to hold 2,055 BTC (about $130 million) in stolen bitcoin, moved funds for the first time in weeks, sending 30.185 BTC (about $1.94 million) to a new wallet.

Malta has joined Italy, Portugal, and Spain to block a possible EU-wide online gambling levy, four diplomats told Politico, in a budget fight any one of the 27 governments can veto. Commission modeling would bill Malta about $190 million (€165 million) a year, more than Italy’s share, despite a population just over half a million. The exposure runs through the Malta Gaming Authority license that also underpins much of the crypto-casino sector.

In response to recent events where AI agents escaped their sandboxes and attacked real-world targets, Kaijern Lau, Senior Director of Engineering at CertiK, believes the industry must prepare by increasing its investment in AI security as the blockchain industry becomes intertwined with AI.

Google pulled a newly launched AI-generated satellite imagery feature from Google Earth less than 24 hours after release, after experts warned it could be used to create realistic fake scenes and fuel misinformation. The tool let users generate satellite-style images from data for uses like historical visualization and real estate, and Google says it plans to bring it back with clearer digital markers and stronger safeguards.

The decision comes after Majority Leader John Thune stressed that Democrats insisted on no vote as they still consider that the CLARITY Act needs work regarding the ethics provision. Thune ensured that the crypto bill would be on the agenda after the August recess.

For anyone who stores cryptocurrency in a hardware wallet, one tiny computer chip quietly performs one of the most important security jobs in the entire device.

European financial watchdogs warn that criminals are exploiting this market transition to steal funds. Fraudsters are impersonating official regulators or licensed exchanges to trick users into sending assets to fraudulent websites.

Fake XRP airdrops, reward scanners, and phishing campaigns are targeting investors, prompting the XRP Ledger Foundation and RippleX to issue security warnings on X. The alerts highlight impersonation accounts, fraudulent promotions, and wallet traps designed to obtain sensitive information or trick investors into unsafe actions.

Dubai Duty Free has introduced Crypto.com Pay as a regulated digital payment option for eligible UAE residents, allowing customers to use their Crypto.com accounts at airport stores and online. The rollout integrates crypto-enabled payments into global travel retail.