Bitcoin slipped slightly overnight after testing $65K on Monday, giving back some of last week’s gains as the market digests the continued ETF inflow momentum. The week opens with Ethereum taking centre stage. Vitalik just published a sweeping update to the protocol’s development roadmap. Standard Chartered put a specific price on Chainlink’s future. And Strategy raised $761 million while Saylor drew a public line between his personal Bitcoin and the company’s decisions. Let’s dive in.
Standard Chartered Just Set a Price Target on Chainlink
Standard Chartered set a $200 price target for Chainlink’s LINK token by end-2030, forecasting a 25-fold increase driven by tokenized real-world assets reaching $4 trillion on-chain by 2028. The bank projects Chainlink’s fees will scale approximately 25 times over the same period. Eight major institutions including Swift, DTCC, JPMorgan, and Fidelity are already listed as active Chainlink users. What three risks does Standard Chartered say could prevent LINK reaching $200? Read more.
BlackRock Says Bitcoin Is Decoupling From Stocks
BlackRock’s Head of Digital Assets Robert Mitchnick said on August 10 that Bitcoin sentiment has shifted noticeably over the past month and that BTC has begun decoupling from equities. He pointed to July as a key example, when AI stocks pulled back sharply but Bitcoin outperformed. US spot Bitcoin ETFs posted $853.5 million in inflows last week, their strongest result since mid-April. What macro catalyst did BlackRock say contributed to Bitcoin’s shift in sentiment? Read more.
Strategy Just Raised $761M While Still Sitting on Losses
Strategy sold 1,690 BTC and 6.59 million MSTR shares last week, raising approximately $761 million and lifting its USD reserve to $4.65 billion. Total holdings stand at 840,447 BTC, acquired at an average of $75,385 each and currently carrying roughly $8.7 billion in unrealized losses. Saylor separately clarified he has never personally sold a single satoshi. What did Saylor say distinguishes his personal Bitcoin stance from Strategy’s decisions? Read more.
A Swedish Bitcoin Firm Just Made Europe’s Biggest BTC Acquisition
H100 Group acquired two Norwegian companies entirely through newly issued shares on August 10, adding 2,455 BTC to its treasury and lifting total holdings to 3,506 BTC worth approximately $226.7 million. The all-equity deal involved no cash and moved H100 from 42nd to 26th among public corporate Bitcoin holders globally. The acquisition involved roughly 70% dilution to existing shareholders. How did H100 structure the deal to keep its satoshis-per-share metrics unchanged? Read more.
Vitalik Just Upgraded Ethereum’s Roadmap With Privacy and Quantum Safety
Vitalik Buterin published a comparison of Ethereum’s 2023 roadmap against its updated Strawmap on August 10, highlighting privacy and quantum security as entirely new additions that had no equivalent in the original plan. AI-assisted formal verification is now treated as a foundational assumption rather than a future possibility. The roadmap also introduces native rollups and a potential replacement of the EVM itself. What does Vitalik describe as the most striking new additions to the Strawmap? Read more.
Is Bitcoin’s decoupling from equities a reliable signal that institutional demand is returning?
TLDR: Bitcoin decoupling from equities is a useful hint, but on its own it is not a reliable signal that institutional demand is returning.
- Recent crypto–equity correlations have weakened or turned slightly negative over 30 days, but that can happen for many non‑institutional reasons.
- Bitcoin ETF assets under management (AUM) are up only modestly, around 2.14% in the past month, while total crypto market cap is roughly flat near $2.19 trillion.
- A stronger case for “institutions are back” needs sustained ETF inflows, derivatives positioning and macro context on top of decoupling, not just correlation changes.
Disclaimer: This alpha is provided by CryptoMx. CryptoMx can make mistakes—please DYOR. Not financial advice.
