XRP briefly touched 99 cents on Tuesday — the first time it has been below $1 since November 2024, when Donald Trump won the presidential election and sent the whole crypto market surging. It quickly bounced back to just above $1, but the bounce stalled. Meanwhile open interest in XRP futures has climbed to its highest level since October, meaning a lot of leveraged bets are stacked up right at a price that, psychologically and technically, matters enormously. The U.S. inflation report lands this morning — a hot reading could push XRP and the broader market through the floor; a soft one could be the catalyst crypto has been waiting for all summer. Separately: a hacker drained $200,000 from an XRP bridge by depositing nothing and withdrawing real tokens — the software thought the fake deposits were real. And Fidelity just filed to add staking and quarterly cash payouts to its nearly $900 million ether ETF, a move that turns a passive index fund into something that more closely resembles a dividend-paying asset. Stay alert.
CoinDesk Disclosure: The information contained in this newsletter, and any information linked through the items contained herein, is not intended to provide sufficient information to form the basis for an investment decision. You should seek additional information regarding the merits and risks of investing in any cryptocurrency or digital assets.
L1.co Disclosure: This material is for informational purposes only, and the content contained herein should not be considered investment advice or a solicitation, offer, or recommendation to sell or buy any asset, strategy, or product. Investing in digital assets involves a high degree of risk, including the loss of principal.
What matters today
Markets
Story 1 of 3
XRP trading could get spicy after CPI report as futures bets hit highest since October.
XRP touched 99 cents on some exchanges on Tuesday — the first time the token has dipped below $1 since November 2024, when Donald Trump’s election victory sent crypto surging. It quickly bounced back above $1.02, but the recovery stalled there. The setup heading into today’s CPI print is charged: open interest in XRP futures has climbed to 2.67 billion XRP ($2.73 billion), the highest since October, from 2.25 billion XRP at the start of August. That means a pile of leveraged bets is stacked up right at a psychologically critical price level, making XRP more sensitive than most assets to this morning’s inflation number. July CPI forecasts call for 0.1% month-on-month growth (June was −0.4%), with the year-on-year figure seen dropping to 3.4% from 3.5% and core CPI declining to 2.5% from 2.6%. A hotter-than-expected reading strengthens the case for a Fed rate hike in September and pushes Treasury yields higher — a headwind for risk assets that could send XRP below $1 in a real way, with the next meaningful support sitting at the July 2023 high of 92 cents, and beyond that 50 cents. A softer reading could weaken the dollar and provide the catalyst the market has been waiting for. Notably, the options market is pricing just a 1.3% post-CPI swing for bitcoin — suggesting traders expect little drama — which is exactly the kind of setup that produces surprises. Public bitcoin miners added $1.78 billion in selling pressure to the market this year, an under-appreciated supply source that has quietly capped rallies alongside the well-publicized corporate and ETF dynamics.
XRP bridge drained for $200,000 after software mistook fake deposits for real ones.
Nearly 200,000 XRP — worth about $200,000 — were drained from a bridge linking the XRP Ledger to the tx blockchain (formerly Coreum, a U.S.-based outfit focused on tokenizing real-world assets) after an attacker found a way to claim deposits that were never made, then withdraw real tokens against the fake balances. The mechanism is worth understanding because it illustrates a recurring class of bridge vulnerability. A bridge is supposed to work like a vault with a receipt system: a user deposits real XRP, the bridge mints an equivalent bridged token on the other chain, and returning those tokens redeems the original deposit. What the attacker found was that the bridge’s software registered certain transactions as deposits even when they delivered no XRP to the reserve wallet — issuing valid receipts for empty vaults. Those unbacked tokens were then redeemed for real XRP. The drain ran for 97 minutes starting at 19:16 UTC on August 9, with 17 of the bridge’s 28 relayers signing off on each payout — exactly as the system was designed, because the bridge’s own records showed the deposits as legitimate. The exploit’s specific failure was in the relayer code, which processed payments carrying the bridge’s memo without first verifying the destination address. tx says it has halted the bridge, patched the vulnerability, engaged blockchain forensics specialists and filed a complaint with the FBI’s Internet Crime Complaint Center. It has not said how affected users will be compensated. Most of the stolen XRP moved quickly through several addresses; ChangeNOW froze a portion. The incident adds to a week already marked by the Harmony ONE exploit — where an attacker minted 4 billion tokens equal to roughly a quarter of supply, sending ONE down 40% — and a broader industry hack total that had already crossed $972 million by late July.
Fidelity moves to add staking and quarterly payouts to its near-$900 million ether ETF.
Fidelity has filed an amended registration statement to add ether staking and quarterly cash distributions to its Fidelity Ethereum Fund (FETH), which holds $898 million in net assets. Under the proposal, FETH could stake as much as 100% of its ether under normal conditions, keeping some ETH liquid for redemptions and expenses. The fund would retain 85% of gross staking rewards; the remaining 15% goes to service providers including node operators Blockdaemon, Figment and Galaxy. Net staking rewards would first cover fund expenses, then flow to investors as quarterly cash distributions. The move is enabled by an IRS safe harbor bulletin issued in November 2025 that allows qualifying crypto trusts to stake assets without losing their grantor-trust tax status — the legal structure that underpins ETFs. Fidelity joins Grayscale and 21Shares, which have already added staking to their ether funds. BlackRock took a different approach, launching a separate staking product rather than amending its existing ETF. The significance of the Fidelity filing goes beyond the mechanics. Staking transforms an ether ETF from a passive price-tracking product — which competes directly with government bonds for yield-seeking capital — into something closer to a dividend-paying equity. For an investor who has been told that rising real yields make crypto uncompetitive, an ether ETF that pays quarterly cash distributions changes the comparison. It also gives ether a structural edge over bitcoin, which cannot be staked, at a moment when ether has been the market’s weakest major performer. Whether the SEC approves the amendment remains to be seen, but the direction of travel for ether ETF products is unmistakably toward yield.
CoinDesk Disclosure: The information contained in this newsletter, and any information linked through the items contained herein, is not intended to provide sufficient information to form the basis for an investment decision. You should seek additional information regarding the merits and risks of investing in any cryptocurrency or digital assets.
L1.co Disclosure: This material is for informational purposes only, and the content contained herein should not be considered investment advice or a solicitation, offer, or recommendation to sell or buy any asset, strategy, or product. Investing in digital assets involves a high degree of risk, including the loss of principal.
Crypto Daybook Americas: A newsletter from CoinDesk
With the CLARITY Act being pushed to September, the conversations happening in D.C. next month will determine what crypto policy looks like for years to come. On September 22, the legal, compliance and policy leaders who are developing and defining our future will gather in Washington, D.C. for CoinDesk: Policy & Regulation.
Crypto is moving fast. Don't miss your chance to be in the room.
Ahotel room block is available at the Hamilton Hotel. You can reserve a room here through Wednesday, August 19th. Please note that availability is limited so we encourage you to book as soon as possible.
Thank you to our sponsors:
Interested in sponsoring CoinDesk: Policy & Regulation?
