SpendNode Podcast: Crypto News & Analysis

Bullish has provided USD.AI a $100M stablecoin facility to fund loans backed by GPU infrastructure, tying crypto capital to the AI compute buildout. Read the full article: https://www.spendnode.io/blog/bullish-usd-ai-100m-stablecoin-facility-gpu-loans-august-2026/

Ireland's Criminal Assets Bureau shifted another 500 BTC with no public explanation. Here is what government seizures reveal about crypto custody risk. Read the full article: https://www.spendnode.io/blog/ireland-cab-500-btc-seized-crypto-custody-august-2026/

ECB board member Isabel Schnabel urged central-bank money onto blockchain rails, a shift that pulls Europe's monetary core toward tokenized settlement. Read the full article: https://www.spendnode.io/blog/ecb-schnabel-central-bank-money-onchain-august-2026/

Avici says every card balance hit by an incident at its card-issuing partner will be refunded in full, while ether.fi, KAST and Tria report clean systems. Read the full article: https://www.spendnode.io/blog/avici-refunds-affected-card-balances-partner-incident-august-2026/

Strategy says its USD holdings nearly cover all outstanding debt, pushing net leverage close to zero as it keeps buying Bitcoin. Here is what the numbers mean. Read the full article: https://www.spendnode.io/blog/strategy-net-leverage-near-zero-bitcoin-treasury-august-2026/

Ethena bought out locked seed investor tokens and proposed a fee switch sending 95% of net protocol revenue to ENA buybacks, cutting unlock overhang. Read the full article: https://www.spendnode.io/blog/ethena-seed-investor-buyout-95-percent-ena-buyback-august-2026/

Evernorth wins SEC registration to list on Nasdaq as an XRP treasury company under ticker XRPN, a regulatory green light for XRP as an institutional balance-sheet asset. Read the full article: https://www.spendnode.io/blog/evernorth-xrp-treasury-company-nasdaq-sec-clearance-august-2026/

US federal authorities are preparing insider trading charges against a servicemember who made over $1M on Polymarket using knowledge of military operations, per WSJ. Read the full article: https://www.spendnode.io/blog/servicemember-polymarket-insider-trading-classified-military-august-2026/

Sheikh Tahnoon's group reportedly holds a 49% stake in the holding company behind World Liberty's crypto bank plan, per a WSJ report. Here is what it means. Read the full article: https://www.spendnode.io/blog/abu-dhabi-tahnoon-world-liberty-crypto-bank-stake-august-2026/

Bitwise president Teddy Fusaro says the BSOL Solana ETF logged its highest single-day trading volume ever, as SOL climbs 7.8% in 24 hours. Read the full article: https://www.spendnode.io/blog/solana-etf-bsol-record-single-day-volume-bitwise-august-2026/

New Zealand's ACT Party proposes exempting cryptocurrency from capital gains tax, a policy that would leave crypto holders taxed only on income, not appreciation. Read the full article: https://www.spendnode.io/blog/new-zealand-act-party-crypto-capital-gains-tax-waiver-august-2026/

MoonPay integrated Kamino into PayBox, letting eligible users lend and borrow on Solana through ChatGPT or Claude. Here is what the move means for AI-driven payments. Read the full article: https://www.spendnode.io/blog/moonpay-kamino-paybox-ai-payment-vault-solana-august-2026/

Bitcoin logged its biggest weekly dollar gain in history and largest percentage jump since March 2023, per Galaxy Research. Here is what moved the market. Read the full article: https://www.spendnode.io/blog/bitcoin-largest-weekly-dollar-gain-history-august-2026/

Nexo is offering Australian clients up to 10,000 USDC via a 2% deposit match over six months. Opt in by Sept 30 and add $5,000+ within seven days. Read the full article: https://www.spendnode.io/blog/nexo-australia-10000-usdc-deposit-match-august-2026/

BitMEX co-founder Arthur Hayes lays out the reasoning behind the exchange's shutdown: regulatory scarring, lost market share, and a commoditized perp market. Read the full article: https://www.spendnode.io/blog/arthur-hayes-explains-bitmex-shutdown-wind-down-august-2026/

South Korea's Mirae Asset is building a $109B digital asset unit spanning crypto, stablecoins, RWAs, and tokenized securities. Here's what the scale signals. Read the full article: https://www.spendnode.io/blog/mirae-asset-109-billion-digital-asset-business-august-2026/

BlackRock's Robbie Mitchnick says kidnappings, ransoms, and custody failures are pushing holders to move Bitcoin into the IBIT ETF for security, not yield. Read the full article: https://www.spendnode.io/blog/blackrock-ibit-bitcoin-security-kidnapping-custody-august-2026/

The UK government plans to give the Bank of England a formal mandate to support payments innovation and stablecoins, adding a growth remit to its stability role. Read the full article: https://www.spendnode.io/blog/uk-bank-of-england-stablecoin-payments-mandate-august-2026/

Manpreet Kohli, a former Saitama executive, lost his UK extradition fight and will face US fraud and market manipulation charges tied to the meme token. Read the full article: https://www.spendnode.io/blog/manpreet-kohli-saitama-token-extradition-us-fraud-charges-august-2026/

Cardone Capital is raising the Bitcoin allocation on its Fort Lauderdale real estate project from 350 to 900 BTC, a roughly $43M increase, as Fed rate bets swing. Read the full article: https://www.spendnode.io/blog/grant-cardone-cardone-capital-900-btc-fort-lauderdale-august-2026/

Sui co-founder Kostas Chalkias is building Havenex, a regulated crypto exchange promising institutional-grade transparency, with its Series A round already closing. Read the full article: https://www.spendnode.io/blog/sui-cofounder-havenex-regulated-crypto-exchange-august-2026/

VanEck's Matthew Sigel called Strategy's Bitcoin sales a 'newspaper headline bottom' after all 12 of the firm's capitulation signals fired at once. BTC has since climbed 14% in a week. Read the full article: https://www.spendnode.io/blog/vaneck-bitcoin-capitulation-bottom-12-signals-strategy-sales-august-2026/

StarkWare says it executed the first quantum-safe Bitcoin transaction on mainnet. Here is what it proves about protecting BTC from future quantum attacks. Read the full article: https://www.spendnode.io/blog/starkware-first-quantum-safe-bitcoin-transaction-mainnet-august-2026/

EtherFi Cash now lets users buy, sell, and hold crypto, tokenized stocks, and gold in the same account they spend from, powered by xStocksFi. Read the full article: https://www.spendnode.io/blog/etherfi-cash-trade-hold-stocks-gold-august-2026/

A Dallas Fed paper estimates tokenized deposits and stablecoins could pull $700B out of US banks' lending capacity if balances migrate on-chain. Read the full article: https://www.spendnode.io/blog/dallas-fed-tokenized-deposits-700-billion-bank-lending-august-2026/