Get the latest insights on Bitcoin, Ether and altcoins, along with a round-up of key cryptocurrencymarket news

Here’s a quick recap of the crypto landscape for Friday (August 28) as of 10:00 p.m. UTC.

Bitcoin price update

Bitcoin (BTC) was priced at US$77,472.52, down by 3.7 percent over the past 24 hours.

Bitcoin fell on Friday after US Federal Reserve Chair Kevin Warsh delivered a hawkish Jackson Hole speech into a derivatives market that analysts had already flagged as more fragile than price action suggested.

Friday also saw roughly US$6.4 billion in Bitcoin options expire on Deribit.

According to Nicolai Sondergaard, senior research analyst at Nansen, that skew looked less like conviction and more like recent upside-chasing clustered around the US$75,000 to US$80,000 strikes.

“ATM vol is still relatively cheap, which means the market is positioned for movement without paying heavily for a true tail event,” she wrote in a market note shared with the Investing News Network.

Before the speech, Sondergaard noted Bitcoin was in a “classic tension state” — bullish long term, but with fading momentum, contracting open interest and crowded long funding. Conditions for a true breakout require Bitcoin to close above US$80,400 with expanding open interest, stable liquidity and lower yields, warning a hawkish signal would hit crowded longs. Without these, he viewed it as a fragile structure rather than a high-conviction breakout.

Key factors to monitor include the sustainability of exchange-traded fund inflows in upcoming trading sessions, along with whether open interest begins to rebuild, indicating renewed market conviction, or continues to shrink, signaling ongoing de-risking across the market.

The next major options expiry lands September 4, with meaningful open interest already built at the US$82,000 strike, the level several analysts have pointed to as the next real test.

​Bitcoin price chart

Chart via the Investing News Network.

Bitcoin price performance, August 28, 2026.

Ether and altcoin price update

Bitcoin price performance, August 19, 2026.

• Ethereum (ETH) was priced at US$2,433.33, trading 3.7 percent lower over the last 24 hours.

• XRP (XRP) was priced at US$1.38, down 6.1 percent over the past 24 hours.

• Solana (SOL) was trading at US$103.42, 5.2 percent higher over the past 24 hours.

​Today’s crypto news to know

Read on for a round-up of the biggest cryptomarket news

• Bitfire Group expands RWA operator business
• SEC dismisses all claims against Live Ventures
• Charles Schwab to expand crypto offerings
• US banks form alliance to launch shared Blockchain network
• XRP treasury firm Evernorth gets approval for Nasdaq SPAC merger

Bitfire Group expands RWA operator business

Bitfire Group announced it is expanding its full-stack RWA operator business and launching Hong Kong’s first compliant crypto asset quantitative strategy.

According to a press release shared with the Investing News Network, the initiative leverages RWAs to capture market-neutral arbitrage opportunities across AI-related assets and crypto assets, offering structured returns for professional and institutional investors while mitigating exposure to market volatility. Bitfire will focus on three main RWA areas: asset management, trading and market-making and custody.

The firm has seen significant growth since its strategic pivot in August 2025, shifting away from traditional crypto trading models to focus on market-neutral yield and arbitrage strategies tied to tokenized RWAs.

SEC dismisses all claims against Live Ventures

The United States District Court for the District of Nevada has dismissed all Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) claims against Live Ventures.

The SEC initiated its investigation in late 2017 and filed a lawsuit in August 2021, alleging that Live Ventures used an artificially low share count to inflate its fiscal year 2016 earnings per share (EPS) by 40 percent. The commission further alleged that the company recorded income from a backdated contract, boosting pre-tax income for fiscal 2016 by 20 percent, and that the CEO engaged a stock promoter to artificially stimulate investor interest.

In February 2026, the Court denied the SEC’s motion for summary judgment, clearing the way for trial.

“For nearly nine years, this company and its shareholders bore the financial burden and reputational impact of an SEC case that should never have been brought,” stated President and CEO Jon Isaac in a press release shared with INN. “We refused to settle because the company did nothing wrong, and we were unwilling to accept a compromise that implied wrongdoing simply to resolve the matter. The SEC deposed our team, reviewed tens of thousands of documents, and pursued this to the eve of trial—and today, all claims against the company have been fully dismissed.”

Although Live Ventures faces no penalties, Isaac agreed to a consent judgment regarding individual claims, which includes a US$175,000 civil penalty. He admitted no liability and denied all allegations, noting that the agreement was reached to bring finality to the matter for the company.

Charles Schwab to expand crypto offerings

Schwab announced that it would expand its Schwab Crypt accounts to add trading in three new tokens: Solana (SOL), Avalanche (AVAX) and Chainlink (LINK), on top of the Bitcoin and Ethereum trading it already offers “in the coming months.”

Schwab began rolling out crypto trading to clients in May 2026, beginning with Bitcoin and Ethereum.

“With this expansion, clients will have more choices to build a digital asset allocation alongside the investing and banking experience they know and trust at Schwab,” said Joe Vietri, the company’s head of digital assets.

The move signals a growing appetite from traditional finance to broaden retail crypto access past the two largest tokens.

US banks form alliance to launch shared Blockchain network

Thirty-nine state banking associations representing 3,283 US banks formed the BankChain Alliance on August 25 to build an industry-owned blockchain network.

The participating banking associations hold approximately US$21.8 trillion in collective assets. The group aims to launch the shared network in 2027 to support tokenized deposits, stablecoins, smart payments, and automated settlement.

This infrastructure puts traditional banks closer to systems already associated with public payment networks like XRP Ledger and Stellar. The alliance clarified that while state associations represent these 3,283 banks, individual institutions have not yet committed to joining the network.

The BankChain Alliance is currently selecting a technology partner and has not revealed its final blockchain architecture.

XRP treasury firm Evernorth gets approval for Nasdaq SPAC merger

Digital asset treasury firm Evernorth Holdings announced that the SEC declared its Form S-4 registration statement effective, clearing its path toward a public listing.

The SEC approval covers Evernorth’s proposed business combination with special purpose acquisition company Armada Acquisition Corp. II. The combined company plans to list on the Nasdaq under the ticker symbol XRPN upon closing the merger in late Q3 or early Q4.

Evernorth operates as a regulated vehicle that offers public market investors direct exposure to XRP. The company actively deploys capital into XRP-based infrastructure while executing treasury strategies to increase its XRP-per-share holdings.

“We plan to enter public markets as blockchain utility continues to grow, and we believe institutional finance will increasingly be built on-chain,” Evernorth Founder and CEO Asheesh Birla stated.

The S-4 filing registers up to 34,499,992 Class A common shares and 11,499,992 warrants issuable through the transaction.

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Securities Disclosure: I, Meagen Seatter, hold no direct investment interest in any company mentioned in this article.

Securities Disclosure: I, Giann Liguid, hold no direct investment interest in any company mentioned in this article.