Digital asset market update — 1 September 2026

Institutional activity in the digital asset space saw several key developments, with significant capital movements and strategic initiatives. Ark Invest acquired $37 million worth of shares in Jack Dorsey’s Block Inc., following a bulk purchase last month after Block's raised full-year profit forecast (The Block). Similarly, Strive increased its bitcoin treasury by 1,800 BTC, making it the fifth-largest public bitcoin treasury, with TD Cowen lifting its price target for ASST (The Block). Strategy also returned to bitcoin purchases, adding 4,603 BTC for $369.7 million, increasing its total holdings to 845,050 BTC (The Block, CoinDesk).

Market infrastructure and regulatory alignment also progressed. NYSE parent ICE partnered with tZERO to build infrastructure for tokenized securities, with ICE also investing in tZERO's latest financing round (The Block, CoinDesk). Hyperliquid, a derivatives platform, is in advanced talks with Kraken’s parent company Payward to enter the U.S. market, presenting a proposed structure to the CFTC (The Block, Bloomberg). This move comes after President Donald Trump's public push to bring the platform onshore. However, blockchain data indicates North Korea’s Lazarus Group sold over $30 million in bitcoin on Hyperliquid in the past three weeks alone (CoinDesk).

Prediction markets saw notable capital raises and regulatory actions. Donald Trump Jr.'s firm, 1789 Capital, is leading a $1 billion Polymarket raise, with approximately $300 million committed, boosting the platform's valuation to $21 billion (CoinDesk). Concurrently, prediction market platforms Kalshi issued its first lifetime ban to former U.S. Representative George Santos for alleged manipulation (CoinDesk, The Block). In other regulatory news, Ireland prohibited crypto from new tax-advantaged investment accounts (CoinDesk).

Solana's ecosystem experienced record fees as validators doubled the pace of inflation cuts, reducing the supply of new SOL (The Block). OpenSea also integrated Solana NFT trading more than four years after its initial beta (The Block). Elsewhere, Cronos halted its blockchain following a $75 million lending exploit that impacted the Tectonic lending app (CoinDesk), and a Crypto.com-linked lending platform was hit by a $74 million hack (Bloomberg). Sberbank, Russia's largest bank, forecasts $46 billion in first-year crypto exchange trading under new regulations set to take effect September 1, 2026, and plans to add ether and USDT as collateral for crypto-backed loans (The Block, CoinDesk).

Institutional participants will likely monitor the regulatory outcomes of Hyperliquid's proposed U.S. market entry and the implementation of Russia's new crypto regulations.