The Monthly Crypto Map: August 2026

Welcome to the August 2026 edition of The Monthly Crypto Map — your monthly wrap of the developments reshaping the global crypto landscape.

August saw the US push ahead with the Trump administration’s crypto agenda, with the SEC proposing a new framework for crypto assets and the Senate pushing the landmark CLARITY Act vote into September. Trump-linked World Liberty also received conditional approval for a national trust bank charter, bringing crypto, stablecoins and traditional banking ever closer together.

In India, the digital rupee moved into new territory as the government expanded its programmable CBDC pilot, while the country prepared for its first tokenised corporate bond issue. Elsewhere, Japan explored blockchain-based securities settlement, the UK moved to support stablecoin innovation, and South Africa proposed new rules for cross-border crypto transfers.

Meanwhile, institutions continued to deepen their involvement in crypto, with Mastercard completing its $1.8 billion acquisition of stablecoin infrastructure firm BVNK and Goldman Sachs agreeing to acquire NEOS Investments. Bitcoin also posted its strongest August since 2017.

But the month had its darker side too, with major hacks, crypto scams, regulatory scrutiny and fresh questions over some of the industry’s biggest players.

Read on.

US

The Senate left for its August recess without voting on the CLARITY Act, pushing the crucial vote to September amid opposition over ethics, anti-money-laundering safeguards and stablecoin rewards. With limited legislative days before the November elections and Republicans struggling to secure the 60 votes needed, the landmark crypto bill now faces an increasingly uncertain path to passage.

The US Office of the Comptroller of the Currency conditionally approved World Liberty Trust’s application for a national trust bank charter, clearing a major regulatory hurdle for the Trump family-backed crypto venture. The charter would allow the company to issue and manage its USD1 stablecoin under federal oversight, although it must meet additional conditions before opening.

President Donald Trump met leading crypto industry executives at the White House on August 19 and urged Congress to advance the Clarity Act. The legislation aims to establish clear rules for digital assets and define regulatory responsibilities between the SEC and CFTC. The meeting reinforced the administration's pro-crypto stance and boosted market sentiment. 

The US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) proposed "Regulation Crypto Assets" on August 18, introducing a dedicated framework for crypto-related securities offerings. The proposal includes fundraising exemptions of up to $5 million over four years and up to $75 million annually, while also creating a conditional safe harbor for certain crypto tokens. The move is seen as one of the most significant crypto regulatory initiatives in the US this year. 

The US Treasury Department issued proposed rules to implement the GENIUS Act, outlining how payment stablecoins can be issued, offered and sold in the country. The proposal seeks public feedback ahead of the law's expected implementation in January 2027 and marks another major step toward a formal regulatory framework for stablecoins. 

Acting Comptroller Jonathan Gould said the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency was moving quickly to finalize rules implementing the GENIUS Act. The OCC was targeting November for completion of its stablecoin regulations ahead of the law's expected 2027 implementation. 

INDIA

The Parliamentary Standing Committee on Finance cancelled its August 27 sitting with the Department of Economic Affairs, which was scheduled to take oral evidence for its study on Virtual Digital Assets and the way forward. No replacement date had been announced, delaying the committee's review of India's crypto regulatory framework. 

India planned its first corporate bond issue using blockchain, with state-owned REC set to pilot tokenised bonds settled using the digital rupee. The experiment, developed with SEBI, RBI and Indian depositories, aims to test faster settlement and blockchain-based securities infrastructure.

Uttar Pradesh accounted for 12.9% of crypto investment on CoinSwitch in Q2 2026, narrowly ahead of Maharashtra at 12.4%, as crypto adoption continues to spread beyond India’s traditional financial centres. Bitcoin remained the preferred asset in nine of the country’s 10 largest crypto markets, with Andhra Pradesh the exception, where Dogecoin led.

India launched programmable CBDC-based food-subsidy transfers in Chandigarh and Dadra & Nagar Haveli, allowing beneficiaries to receive and spend digital-rupee tokens at authorised merchants. The rollout marks a new use case for India's CBDC beyond conventional payments, with the government positioning it as a model that could be scaled to other welfare programmes.

CoinDCX added Tether Gold (XAUT) to its platform for Indian users and introduced an XAUT systematic investment plan starting at Rs 100. The token provides fractional exposure to physical gold held in Swiss vaults. The gains remain subject to India's Virtual Digital Asset tax regime.

Indian crypto exchange WazirX launched WazirX AI, an AI-powered trading assistant that combines market research, portfolio analysis, technical analysis and trade preparation. The tool can use live market data, help users screen trading opportunities and prepare orders. WazirX also introduced a paper-trading sandbox with a simulated $100,000 balance.

Odisha's Economic Offences Wing arrested Chitta Ranjan Mohanty on August 20 in connection with the multi-state Yes World cryptocurrency Ponzi scheme. Investigators said the scheme involved more than ₹200 crore and affected thousands of investors, with around 2.5 lakh members reported nationwide.  

UK & EUROPE

The UK government plans to give the Bank of England a new secondary objective to support innovation in payment systems and digital money, including stablecoins. The move is aimed at keeping regulation pace with developments such as tokenisation and distributed-ledger technology while preserving financial stability as the Bank’s primary goal.

UK lawmakers raised concerns about banks restricting or refusing services to crypto businesses, warning that excessive de-banking could hinder the country's ambitions to become a leading digital-asset hub. The issue reflects continuing tension between traditional financial institutions and the UK's growing crypto industry. 

Reform UK has received around £20 million from individuals linked to the crypto industry since the 2024 election, accounting for nearly 60% of the party’s total funding, according to an analysis of Electoral Commission data by The Independent. The findings highlight the growing influence of crypto wealth in UK politics, as Nigel Farage’s party pushes for more crypto-friendly policies.

Germany's financial regulator BaFin warned consumers about tresorbit.com, a website allegedly using the identity of a legitimate German company while offering crypto-related services without the required authorisation. The warning highlights continued risks from fraudulent websites impersonating established financial businesses. 

The UK Insolvency Service shut down Key Coin Assets after finding no evidence of genuine trading, with nine investors losing more than £300,000 to the scheme. The firm promised returns of up to 100% and allegedly used money from new investors to pay earlier ones, prompting a warning from authorities about guaranteed crypto returns.

HM Revenue & Customs published its first dedicated statistics on taxable cryptoasset gains on August 27. 17,600 individuals reported £1.38 billion in cryptoasset gains during the 2024–25 tax year, while 240 people reported gains of more than £1 million each. HMRC said cryptoasset service providers will begin reporting customer information to tax authorities under the new international reporting framework from 2027. 

ASIA

Japan is exploring blockchain-based infrastructure to enable near-instant settlement of stocks and government bonds, potentially replacing the current T+2 settlement cycle for equities. The initiative brings the country’s financial regulators and central bank together with private institutions to examine how blockchain could reshape securities settlement and eventually support international payments.

Nomura-backed Laser Digital Japan completed its registration as a Crypto Asset Exchange Service Provider in Japan on Aug. 21. The company initially plans to enhance liquidity for domestic virtual-asset service providers, with institutional digital-asset trading services to follow.  

South Korea has blocked domestic access to Polymarket, joining more than 30 jurisdictions restricting the crypto prediction-market platform over gambling concerns. Regulators rejected Polymarket's argument that its peer-to-peer, blockchain-based structure puts it outside gambling laws, saying the platform's operation and market rules effectively facilitate gambling.

OKX restricted Claude access for employees based in Hong Kong or travelling through China after Anthropic briefly suspended the exchange's corporate account over geographic-access policies. The corporate account was subsequently restored, while OKX said affected employees would be directed to other AI models where necessary. 

PVARA Chairman Bilal Bin Saqib addressed the Silk Road Finance and Technology Forum in Tashkent on Aug. 25, highlighting Pakistan's regulatory framework and discussing AI, tokenisation and digital assets. He presented Pakistan's regulatory approach as part of a broader effort to develop digital-finance infrastructure.

OTHER REGIONS

South Africa proposed rules requiring cross-border crypto transfers through authorised service providers to be reported to the central bank’s Financial Surveillance Department. The framework aims to prevent crypto from circumventing existing capital controls and curb illicit financial flows, while allowing individuals to move crypto offshore within existing foreign-exchange limits.

Nigeria's Revenue Service issued detailed virtual-asset tax guidelines requiring platforms to collect and remit taxes. The framework includes a 1.5% stamp duty on qualifying fiat-to-token and token-to-fiat transactions, a 1% withholding tax on certain taxable crypto disposals, and up to 10% withholding on staking, mining, airdrop and DeFi income. 

Australia's financial-crime regulator AUSTRAC suspended Cryptolink's virtual-asset service provider registration for three months from August 9, forcing the operator to take its 96 cryptocurrency ATMs offline. The action followed compliance concerns involving transaction monitoring, reporting and other anti-money-laundering obligations. 

MARKETS

Bitcoin gained roughly 25% in August, making it the cryptocurrency’s strongest August since 2017 after a sharp rally from the low-$60,000s to above $80,000. The rebound was supported by renewed US spot Bitcoin ETF inflows and a wave of short liquidations, reversing much of the weakness seen earlier in the year.

CORPORATE DEVELOPMENTS

An ICIJ investigation examined Tether’s opaque ownership structure, finding signs that co-founder Giancarlo Devasini may have consolidated control even as the stablecoin giant has grown into one of the world’s most powerful private companies. The investigation also raises fresh questions about Tether’s lack of a full reserves audit and its growing political and financial influence.

UAE authorities questioned Binance employees as part of inquiries into a bank account the exchange uses to process customer funds, adding fresh scrutiny to its operations in the crypto-friendly country. Binance said the employees were providing statements in routine inquiries into third-party fund flows and were not targets of the investigation.

Goldman Sachs agreed on Aug. 12 to acquire NEOS Investments for up to $2.25 billion. The deal adds 19 options-based income ETFs, including three crypto-related funds: the Bitcoin High Income ETF (BTCI), Boosted Bitcoin High Income ETF (XBCI) and Ethereum High Income ETF (NEHI). BTCI had more than $1 billion in net assets at the time. The combined business would make Goldman the eighth-largest active ETF provider. 

Revolut Launches Euro-Pegged Stablecoin EURR in Europe

Revolut launched EURR, its first euro-pegged stablecoin, initially making it available to eligible customers in Denmark, Poland and Portugal. The token is issued through Luxembourg-based Bridge Building S.A. and allows users to convert and transfer euro-denominated funds through blockchain infrastructure. 

Payward reported $508 million in adjusted Q2 revenue, up 17% year over year. It completed the Bitnomial acquisition on May 1 and Reap on July 1, while its agreement to acquire Magic Labs' wallet infrastructure business was announced on July 27. Therefore, these should not be presented as August acquisitions. 

Mastercard completed its acquisition of BVNK on Aug. 3 for up to $1.8 billion. The deal gives Mastercard infrastructure for stablecoin payments and digital-asset settlement, strengthening its ability to connect traditional payment rails with blockchain-based transactions. It is Mastercard's largest crypto-related acquisition to date. 

BitGo agreed to acquire NYDIG's institutional trading business on Aug. 27. About 30 NYDIG employees and their institutional trading relationships are joining BitGo, expanding its capabilities in derivatives, structured products and financing. NYDIG will focus on its Bitcoin mining and power/data-centre infrastructure businesses. 

Deribit, now owned by Coinbase, received a Broker-Dealer Licence from Dubai's VARA on Aug. 13. The licence allows spot buy, sell and trade orders placed on Deribit to be routed to Coinbase Exchange for execution. Remove “adding hundreds of new tradable assets” because the Coinbase announcement does not establish that claim. 

HSBC and Standard Chartered completed the first live cross-border bank-to-bank transaction using tokenised deposits on Swift's blockchain-based ledger on August 19. The transaction demonstrated interoperability between regulated bank-issued tokenised deposits while using Swift's ledger to match and net obligations before final settlement through existing systems. 

Jeonbuk Bank became the first South Korean regional bank to deploy Ripple Payments for business cross-border remittances. Ripple said the service is intended to provide faster settlement for the bank's business customers. There was no confirmed announcement that XRPL would host a won-pegged stablecoin, so that speculation should be excluded.

Metaplanet agreed to contribute 2,100 BTC plus $2.5 million in cash to Nasdaq-listed Super League Enterprise. The company is expected to be renamed Superplanet, with Metaplanet holding approximately 95.7% of its common stock after closing.  

Anchorpoint Financial began the first phase of its HKDAP rollout on Aug. 12, making the Hong Kong dollar-backed stablecoin available through beta access to institutional distributors and professional investors. Initial use cases include cross-border payments and settlement of tokenised real-world assets. 

FRAUDS

US authorities said Edward Zimbardi allegedly operated a $165 million cryptocurrency Ponzi scheme, fled to Fiji and was deported to the United States. He faces federal wire-fraud and money-laundering charges. The US Attorney's Office announcement was issued Aug. 17.

Bybit filed a civil lawsuit in the US District Court for the District of Columbia against North Korea, its Reconnaissance General Bureau and the Lazarus Group over the February 2025 $1.5 billion hack. The exchange also secured a preliminary injunction freezing identified stolen assets. 

A federal jury convicted Brent Kovar of running the Profit Connect cryptocurrency Ponzi scheme, which prosecutors said defrauded at least 400 investors of approximately $24 million. He was convicted on 11 counts of wire fraud, two counts of mail fraud and two counts of money laundering. Kovar faces a statutory maximum sentence of up to 280 years, with sentencing scheduled for Nov. 30, 2026. 

Starting July 30, attackers exploited a vulnerability affecting certain Coldcard hardware wallets. By August 3-4, reported losses had reached roughly $114 million, involving more than 5,200 Bitcoin addresses across multiple sweeps. The incident raised concerns about vulnerabilities in supposedly offline hardware-wallet security. 

Ethereum-based lending protocol Term Finance suffered a governance exploit on August 23, with security firms estimating losses of approximately $8.5 million. The attacker exploited the protocol's governance system to move ether and stablecoins from Term Finance vaults.

Crypto platform Coinsbuy suffered a security breach on August 9, with attackers draining more than $8 million from wallets on the Ethereum and TRON networks. Coinsbuy said it would cover affected customer funds from its reserves and offered a reward for information leading to the identification of the attackers.

Avon and Somerset Police announced on August 27 that authorities had forfeited 20.21 Bitcoin, other crypto assets and funds held in a bank account worth a combined £1.03 million. The assets were linked to a deceased individual previously convicted of money-laundering offences, marking the force's largest cryptocurrency seizure since crypto wallet-freezing powers were introduced in 2024.

A joint Cambodia-US investigation uncovered a money-laundering network using cryptocurrency to support Mexico's Sinaloa Cartel. Cambodian authorities raided locations in Phnom Penh and Kandal province, while US authorities separately seized $7 million in cryptocurrency linked to the cartel in New Jersey.