Portofino Mint - 26 August 2025

🚀 𝗪𝗲𝗹𝗰𝗼𝗺𝗲 𝘁𝗼 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗣𝗼𝗿𝘁𝗼𝗳𝗶𝗻𝗼 𝗠𝗶𝗻𝘁!

‍

🧭 This Week in Crypto: Powell Goes Full Dove

The stage was Jackson Hole, and for the first time in years, the Fed chair admitted that jobs — not inflation — pose the bigger risk. With clear signs of weakness in the domestic labor landscape, investors now expect a rate cut as early as September. Traders popped the champagne: stocks ripped to record highs, bond yields melted like ice cream in the sun, and crypto… well, crypto grinned ear-to-ear. Futures desks moved from “maybe one cut” to pricing in three by year-end faster than you can say soft landing.

‍

📊 Market Highlights

• Bitcoin (BTC): After reaching a high of $124K last week, BTC eased to $116,886 (–3%), consolidating in its narrowest trading range since 2020. This compression suggests potential for a sharp move once momentum returns, with options desks already positioning around the $150K strike.
• Ethereum (ETH): ETH was the show-stealer. A 12% single-day moonshot took it to $4,750, just a whisker from its all-time high. Spot ETH ETFs finally broke a five-day losing streak with $288M in inflows — proof that institutions are now paying attention. ETH dominance rose to 13.8% while BTC slipped. Read more about Ethereum here
• Solana (SOL): Holding a stable range between $196–211, with momentum supported by anticipation of potential ETF developments such as VanEck’s JitoSOL filing.
• XRP: Found support around $3.04. Renewed ETF speculation and increased legal clarity could provide the catalyst for a breakout toward higher levels.
• BNB: Up 4.5% to $883 — slow and steady wins the race.
• Total Crypto Market Cap: Rose 4.5% to $4.08T, reflecting broad-based gains across digital assets as dovish monetary signals from the Fed boosted risk sentiment.

‍

💰Flow & Desk Highlights

• ETH was the belle of the ball. Clients piled in, rotating out of BTC and into “the shiny new ETF-backed thing.”
• Futures basis hit May highs: BTC at 9.36%, ETH at 7.84% — reflecting strong demand for leveraged long exposure, persistent ETF-driven spot buying, and limited arbitrage pressure as funding markets remain balanced.
• Liquidations: About $561M in leveraged positions were wiped out, with Ethereum accounting for $252M and Bitcoin $108M. A reminder of the risks of excessive leverage when volatility rises.
  The takeaway? Traders are gearing up for volatility like surfers watching the tide turn — boards waxed, wetsuits on.

‍

🏢 Corporate Go Full Crypto

• Strategy Inc.: Added 430 BTC ($51.4M), lifting its stash to a mind-blowing 629,376 BTC. That’s more than most countries hold in gold.
• Nakamoto Holdings: Scooped up $679M of BTC like it was on a Black Friday sale.
• SharpLink Gaming: Committed $601.5M to ETH (143,593 ETH), positioning it as a strategic treasury asset. The move reflects a growing trend among corporates to diversify reserves, hedge against inflation, and align with the structural scarcity narrative reinforced by ETH staking and ETF inflows.
• BitMine: Announced an ETH treasury strategy, promptly mooning into the top-20 most traded U.S. stocks

‍

🌐 Adoption and Regulation

• Tokenization Everywhere: DBS Bank launched tokenized structured notes on Ethereum, and SkyBridge is moving $300M in hedge funds onto Avalanche. Yes, Wall Street is steadily adopting the playbook of a blockchain startup.
• Ripple & SBI: Teaming up to launch the RLUSD stablecoin in Japan by Q1 2026. Asia wants in on the stablecoin wars.
• Ripple XRPL: Now has an EVM sidechain — meaning Ethereum apps can run on XRP Ledger with XRP as gas. Suddenly XRP is talking to ETH at the same party.
• VanEck: Dropped a JitoSOL ETF filing. Institutions can’t resist the Solana ecosystem.
• Aave: Expanded to Aptos — its first non-EVM chain. The DeFi world is spreading its wings.
• Interpol: Operation Serengeti 2.0 led to 1,200 arrests and $100M in seized assets, targeting international cybercrime networks that used crypto for laundering and illicit transfers. The operation highlights growing global coordination in tackling financial crime within digital assets.
• Politics: The Winklevoss twins tossed 188 BTC ($21M) to a pro-crypto PAC. Turns out campaign finance in 2025 is literally powered by Bitcoin.

‍

🔮 What’s Next?

• Macro data watch: US PCE, Canadian GDP, German unemployment.
• ETH ETF flows: Last week’s inflows might be the spark ETH needed for an ATH breakout.
• BTC price action: Under $124K, quiet — but don’t mistake quiet for safe. The last time BTC was this calm, it added $40K in three weeks.
• SOL ETF chatter: Keep your ears open.

‍

💡Big Picture

This week had it all: Powell’s dove act, ETH flexing like it’s 2021, and corporates throwing billions at BTC and ETH. Bitcoin might still be king, but Ethereum is making a serious run for the throne. Meanwhile, tokenization, ETFs, and politics are pulling crypto deeper into the mainstream.
The punchline? The “next leg higher” might not just be a Bitcoin story — it’s shaping up to be a multi-chain, institutional, regulatory green-lighted bull market.
Or put simply: if Powell’s speech was the starter pistol, crypto just sprinted out of the blocks. 🏁

‍

📅 Missed last week’s market update? Catch up on all the key moves, ETF headlines, and altcoin breakouts in last week’s Portofino Mint.

‍

𝘛𝘩𝘪𝘴 𝘮𝘦𝘴𝘴𝘢𝘨𝘦 𝘪𝘴 𝘧𝘰𝘳 𝘪𝘯𝘧𝘰𝘳𝘮𝘢𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯𝘢𝘭 𝘱𝘶𝘳𝘱𝘰𝘴𝘦𝘴 𝘰𝘯𝘭𝘺 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘥𝘰𝘦𝘴 𝘯𝘰𝘵 𝘤𝘰𝘯𝘴𝘵𝘪𝘵𝘶𝘵𝘦 𝘪𝘯𝘷𝘦𝘴𝘵𝘮𝘦𝘯𝘵 𝘢𝘥𝘷𝘪𝘤𝘦. 𝘐𝘭𝘭𝘶𝘴𝘵𝘳𝘢𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯 𝘨𝘦𝘯𝘦𝘳𝘢𝘵𝘦𝘥 𝘸𝘪𝘵𝘩 𝘊𝘩𝘢𝘵𝘎𝘗𝘛.

‍

‍

‍