Coindesk

By Omkar Godbole (All times ET unless indicated otherwise)As August draws to a close, two observations stand out. First, the month's typical surge in volatility in both traditional and cryptocurrency markets has not materialized. That's probably driven by market expectations of forthcoming Fed interest-rate cuts combined with record fiscal spending—essentially an amplified “Goldilocks” scenario. Yet, it raises the question: How much stimulus is too much?Second, institutional flows reveal a divergence between bitcoin (BTC) and ether (ETH). The U.S. ether ETFs have registered a net investment of $3.69 billion this month, extending the four-month inflows streak. Bitcoin ETFs, in contrast, have seen an outflow of over $800 million, the second-highest on record. The difference is a sign of investor rotation into...

Solana developers are pushing a major consensus overhaul with the Alpenglow proposal, now in the validator voting stage.Just over 10% of validators have backed the upgrade as of European morning hours on Thursday, a tracker shows, with over 88% of eligible participants yet to cast their choice.If passed, it would replace Proof-of-History and TowerBFT with a faster, more resilient design centered on two new components: Votor and Rotor.Proof of history is Solana’s existing consensus mechanism. It timestamps transactions, allowing validators to determine the correct order without wasting time on syncing (which creates a slower network). TowerBFT is the network’s voting system. Validators use previous votes as a guide, helping them quickly agree on the next block while resisting attacks.The big...

Buying the YZY token apparently linked to Ye, the rapper formerly known as Kanye West, ended in tears for more than 70,000 wallets, Bubblemaps, a blockchain data visualization tool, said in a post on X.The Solana-based memecoin's debut last week was part of a “YZY Money” ecosystem plan, which included payment rails and a branded card.On-chain data, however, suggests that insider and early wallets, combined with thin liquidity and rapid speculation, resulted in a launch where whales extracted millions, while the crowd shouldered nearly all of the losses.More than 51,800 addresses appear to have lost between $1 and $1,000, another 5,269 are down $1,000 to $10,000, and 1,025 wallets shed $10,000 to $100,000, according to Bubblemaps' data.At the top of...

Metaverse platform The Sandbox is undergoing a sweeping restructuring that will see more than half of its roughly 250 employees laid off, according to a report from French crypto outlet The Big Whale. The move comes alongside a leadership shake-up in which co-founders Arthur Madrid and Sebastien Borget have been sidelined from executive roles. Their responsibilities are now being overseen by Yat Siu, CEO of Animoca Brands, The Sandbox’s majority shareholder.The restructuring reportedly includes closing offices in Argentina, Uruguay, South Korea, Thailand, and Turkey, with the company’s base in Lyon also expected to shutter. The measures highlight the platform’s struggle to translate years of investment into sustained user engagement. Despite raising $300 million over the past eight years, The Sandbox...

Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson, the WWE wrestler-turned-actor, has surpassed former U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris as the leading Democratic contender in the 2028 presidential race on the decentralized betting platform Polymarket.As of now, shares betting "yes" on Johnson's victory are trading at 7 cents, implying a 7% chance of the multi-millionaire actor winning the nomination. This places him fourth in the race, behind Gavin Newsom, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, and Pete Buttigieg.Meanwhile, traders priced in a 5% probability of Harris winning the bid, placing her in the 5th spot alongside Andy Beshear. Traders also see 1% chance of Tim Waltz, Michelle Obama and Mark Cuban emerging victorious.Polymarket is a decentralized prediction market platform that enables users to speculate on the outcome of...