Bitcoin Holds $64K as Coldcard Hack, CLARITY Act Loom Large

Bitcoin Steadies Near $64K While DeFi Slumps

Bitcoin traded in a tight range through Wednesday and into Thursday, changing hands around $64,500 to $64,800, with the coin up 0.82% in the last day, trading at $64,808 according to market trackers. Ether hovered near $1,880-$1,900. Analysts pointed to continued spot ETF demand as the key support factor, noting BlackRock’s IBIT pulled in over $170 million of the $211 million in total daily inflows. Easing geopolitical tension also helped risk appetite, as relief on the geopolitical front, with talks between the U.S. and Iran looking better and oil prices dropping, took some pressure off risk assets like crypto.

Not every corner of the market was calm. Data cited by CoinGabbar showed the overall DeFi market cap crashed 38.7% over the last 24 hours to $62.12 billion, with DeFi dominance globally marking 2.5%, while the stablecoin market saw a 5% negative change over the past 24 hours, with a capitalization of $301.9 billion. Sentiment gauges reflected the caution, as the Fear & Greed Index dropped to 25 (Extreme Fear), showing that traders preferred holding cash. The pullback adds to a rough year for the sector: separate reporting from CryptoRank, cited by Cointelegraph, found that total value locked in DeFi has fallen by about 39% in 2026 so far, declining to just over $70 billion from roughly $115 billion in January.

Coldcard Hardware Wallet Exploit Tops $114 Million

The biggest security story of the week remains the ongoing Coldcard hardware wallet exploit. According to CoinDesk, the developers of the Coldcard bitcoin wallet urged users to move their funds amid an exploit that has already drained as much as $114 million from self-custodied wallets, affecting certain Mk3 devices set up on firmware 4.0.1 or later and Mk4, Mk5 and Q devices on older firmware. The root cause traces back years: TRM Labs found that a build configuration error caused seed generation to fall back on a weak software random number generator rather than the device’s hardware-based source of entropy, and the result was a collapse in effective key strength, from a designed 128 bits down to as little as 40 bits on older devices, low enough to brute force with modern computing power.

Galaxy Research has been tracking the fallout in waves. CoinDesk reported that a possible fourth wave of sweeps ran throughout the day, taking roughly 449 BTC from 709 addresses on Galaxy Research’s revised count and lifting cumulative losses from about $89 million to as much as $114 million. Coinkite CEO Rodolfo Novak has called the situation urgent, telling holders on social media, “Please treat this as urgent. Migrate your funds.”

Wall Street is already parsing the fallout. Cantor Fitzgerald analysts said the exploit could drive Coldcard users toward managed custody providers, potentially benefiting firms including Robinhood Markets, Coinbase Global, BitGo Holdings, Bullish, eToro Group and Gemini Space Station through increased customer inflows, while FRNT Financial separately said the exploit could increase demand for bitcoin ETFs as some investors seek alternatives to self-custody.

CLARITY Act Faces Do-or-Die Senate Deadline

On the policy front, the crypto market structure bill known as the CLARITY Act remains stuck in Senate limbo just days before Congress’ August recess. Senate Majority Leader John Thune confirmed on August 3 that H.R. 3633, the Digital Asset Market Clarity Act, will receive a Senate floor vote before the August recess, upgrading the bill’s status from probable to scheduled. However, the confirmation does not resolve the harder question: whether Republicans can assemble the roughly seven Democratic votes needed to clear the 60-vote filibuster threshold. Prediction markets have grown pessimistic about the bill’s chances of becoming law this year, with betting odds cited by CoinGape putting the probability at just 30%.

The stakes are considerable for the broader industry. According to a policy tracker, the bill would also establish rules for crypto exchanges, token issuers, and some DeFi platforms, and if the Senate fails to act, it will have to wait until mid-September.

Institutional Moves: Strategy Trims Bitcoin Stack, Circle Expands

Michael Saylor’s Strategy continued its shift from pure accumulation toward active balance-sheet management. An SEC filing showed Strategy sold 1,638 BTC, reducing its holdings to 842,138 BTC, and issued 3.01 million MSTR shares to raise $290.6 million. The proceeds were largely used for shareholder obligations: of it, $52.4 million funded dividends on Strategy’s preferred stock, and $52.3 million bought back one particular series of that preferred stock, ticker STRC. Saylor pushed back on suggestions of a broader retreat, writing on X that “When I say ‘Never Sell Your Bitcoin,’ I speak as one saver to another. I have never sold mine. Not one satoshi. Strategy is a public company, not my wallet.”

Elsewhere, other institutional developments were moving through the news cycle, including Tether’s latest results and a new charter for USDC issuer Circle. Yahoo Finance’s markets desk noted that Tether reported $1.5 billion in Q2 net operating profit, up nearly 50% from Q1, with USDT circulation reaching $184.6 billion, while Circle landed a New York trust charter from the NYDFS, letting the USDC issuer operate a New York trust company offering digital-asset custody.

What to Watch

Traders are now looking to Friday’s U.S. jobs report and the Senate’s final pre-recess session for direction. With the Coldcard exploit still not fully contained and the CLARITY Act’s fate uncertain, volatility triggers remain plentiful even as headline bitcoin and ether prices stay comparatively calm.

This article was generated automatically and summarizes publicly available market information. It is not financial advice.