Morning Edition · Saturday, August 22, 2026
Crypto
Aztec Discloses Critical Proving-System Flaw in Its Live Privacy Network
Contributors say an attacker could craft a proof that the network would wrongly accept, a soundness failure that validator re-execution cannot catch. The disclosure comes as Ethereum's own zero-knowledge benchmark shows a 52-bit shortfall against its December target.
Crypto
Bitcoin Climbs Toward $80,000 After the Treasury Doubles Its Long-Bond Buybacks
A change in United States debt management, not a crypto-native catalyst, pulled long-term yields down and forced traders who had bet against bitcoin for six weeks to buy it back.
Crypto
MANTRA's Blockchain Stays Halted After an Upstream Dependency Exploit
Validators remain offline pending a patch test, while a forged cross-chain message drained a bridge router on Base and a staking protocol's mispriced reward pool drew a public proof-of-concept.
Crypto
Coldcard Ships New Firmware After a $114 Million Theft and Says AI Review Found More Bugs
Coinkite replaced the backup random number generator that produced guessable seeds, added a pre-signing transaction recheck, and now requires users to supply their own dice or coin entropy.
Crypto
USD1's Live Contract Holds Wallet Powers Its Published Code Does Not Show
The $4 billion Trump-linked stablecoin can move balances out of frozen wallets through functions absent from its GitHub repository, as rival issuers build the opposite design on selective disclosure.
Crypto
American Crypto Rules Are Being Written by Agencies and States While the Senate Stalls
Industry advocates and a former regulator publicly split over the CLARITY Act as the Securities and Exchange Commission's (SEC) Reg Crypto proposal advances and Illinois faces a second lawsuit over its 0.2% digital-asset tax.
Macro
Dalio Says United States Debt Above $40 Trillion Makes Bonds the Riskier Holding
The Bridgewater founder set a three-year window for a debt crisis unless the deficit falls to 3% of gross domestic product, and named gold and bitcoin as the alternatives he prefers.
Geopolitics
United States Tariffs of 50% on Canadian Goods Take Effect After Talks Collapse
Prime Minister Mark Carney recalled his negotiators to Ottawa and said Canada will match the measures dollar for dollar, ending a three-day pause agreed on 18 August.
Crypto
A Bitcoin Mining Pivot Runs Into a $22.9 Million Capital Deficit as Treasuries Recover
The energy firm's July output was worth about $1.16 million before unsettled hosting costs, while interest begins on $16 million of seller notes and Strategy's holdings return to an unrealized gain.
Crypto
A Permissioned Blockchain Is Selected for a Three-State United States Benefits Pilot
Digital Asset's Canton Network will carry the programme from the first quarter of 2027 subject to federal approval, while Pakistan opens a licensing regime after nearly a decade of prohibition.
Crypto
On-Chain Capital Concentrates as Ethereum Holds More Than Half of All DeFi Value
Total value in decentralized finance stands at $88.72 billion with $49.57 billion on Ethereum, layer-2 networks gained double digits in a week, and a well-funded game studio says cuts bought it one more year.
Crypto
United States Prosecutors Charge Iranian Hacking Crew Over Thefts Including a $6 Million Bitcoin Ransom
Federal authorities are offering a $10 million reward for information on the defendants, as a separate campaign posts physical letters imitating tax-authority mail to crypto holders.