Bitcoin spot ETFs have pulled in just $205 million in net inflows in July — the lowest monthly total on record, and a stark contrast to the $4.52 billion that exited in June. Ether ETFs are outperforming at $342.85 million, roughly on par with April and well ahead of any other crypto fund. Neither BTC nor ETH has moved decisively in the past 24 hours despite the Fed delivering what analysts described as a hawkish hold. Analysts at Marex are watching the 200-week moving average near $63,300 as the key line: hold it and today’s flatness reads as strength; lose $62,500 and bears target $60,000. Volatility may pick up with the release of U.S. core PCE inflation and GDP data today. Bollinger Bands on BTC’s daily chart are at their tightest since January — a squeeze that often precedes a sharp move in either direction. Stay alert.
Senators ready to send stricter ethics rules on Trump’s crypto ventures to White House.
Senators Thom Tillis (R) and Ruben Gallego (D), the bipartisan duo tasked with salvaging the Digital Asset Market Clarity Act’s ethics section, have finalized their compromise language and are preparing to send it to the White House, according to people briefed on the effort. The ethics provision — which would limit senior U.S. officials including President Trump from direct ties to crypto projects — has been the primary obstacle to Democratic support. Trump recently agreed to a narrow version of the rule, but Democrats argued it was structured so he would face little obligation to comply. The new Tillis-Gallego language is expected to tighten those restrictions, though details have not emerged publicly. The bill still faces a brutal timeline: just seven days remain before the Senate’s August 8 recess, and any contentious bill requires days of cloture floor time. Senate Majority Leader Thune has already begun other cloture processes. The Clarity Act could still survive to September, but a miss before recess risks losing momentum heading into midterm-focused politics. Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong declared on X that crypto is “at the one yard line.”
Bitcoin and ether markets are ruled by perps. SpaceX showed how far their influence can go.
The European Union has deployed its 21st package of sanctions against Russia, and crypto is at the center of the most consequential new measures. The package targets the A7 cross-border payments network — which Chainalysis estimates has processed nearly $120 billion to date and was purposely built for Russian sanctions evasion — along with the A7A5 stablecoin that operates on it. Fourteen unnamed crypto-related service platforms based in Georgia, Panama, the UAE, the Marshall Islands, Kyrgyzstan and Belarus have had their transaction access to EU entities banned. The most significant new instrument in the package is a mechanism that would allow the EU to impose a blanket ban on any transaction between an EU crypto provider and any crypto service used by Russia — the first time the EU has introduced the possibility of a full third-country crypto ban of this kind. High Representative Kaja Kallas framed the package broadly: “We’re hitting over a hundred banks and crypto operators, 40+ vessels in Russia’s shadow fleet, and several oil refineries in Russia and Belarus.” Alongside the digital asset measures, the EU is imposing asset freezes and transaction bans on 94 banks and major financial institutions and extending its ban to 33 additional Russian credit institutions. The package arrives three days after Russia’s State Duma passed its own first comprehensive crypto regulation framework, which takes effect September 1 — raising the question of whether Russia is building domestic crypto infrastructure partly in anticipation of further Western isolation from international networks.
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