30K+ on X? Your Orbit profile could be getting a new badge. 🎖️ KOL Verification is now open on OKX Orbit. To be eligible: 1. Have a registered OKX Orbit account 2. Have 30,000+ followers on your connected X account 3. Follow the OKX Orbit Community Guidelines and relevant platform rules No application needed. Once your account meets the requirements, it will automatically enter the review process. Reviews are typically completed within 7 calendar days. Once verified, you’ll receive the 「KOL」 badge on your Orbit profile. The badge currently remains valid unless the account violates OKX Orbit Community Guidelines or other applicable rules, in which case verification may be removed. Note: The 「KOL」 badge only confirms that the account has passed social media follower verification. It does not represent an endorsement by OKX Orbit of the creator, their content, opinions, or investment views.

We'll be listing @KiiChainio on Boost. Registrations open on August 19, 8 AM UTC: https://web3.okx.com/ul/u3pZvB Claims go live on August 20, 10 AM UTC.

Bitcoin ripped about 7% on Wednesday and briefly touched $69,750, its highest since early June and biggest single day percentage gain since March. Coinglass put 24 hour short liquidations near $1.37 billion, over $1 billion inside an hour. The clearest macro catalyst was Treasury debt management, not Fed policy. Treasury will at least double its long end liquidity support buybacks, lifting the per operation cap to at least $4 billion on 10 to 30 year paper, Sept 9 through Nov 4. The 30 year yield fell about 9bp to roughly 5.19%. Lower long end yields mean less opportunity cost for holding an asset that pays none. The Fed was pulling the other way. July's 9 to 3 vote, with Logan, Hammack and Kashkari dissenting for a hike, was known in July, its first three way same direction dissent since 2016. Wednesday's minutes added the debate: AI related price pressures alongside tariffs and energy. Flows tell a messier story: · Spot BTC ETFs bled $390 million Aug 10 to 14, FBTC leading at $153 million · Then $297 million in Aug 17 and $189 million Aug 18 · Wintermute flagged miner selling and ETF redemptions as a supply drag So this was a positioning led move rather than proof of durable demand. Shorts were crowded, a macro headline hit, the squeeze did the rest. The bigger story came a day earlier. On Aug 18 the SEC proposed Regulation Crypto Assets, its first crypto offering framework. Emphasis on proposed: 60 day comments, nothing in force. As drafted, two registration exemptions, $5 million over four years or $75 million per 12 months plus financial statements and reporting. The centerpiece is a conditional safe harbor. It is not automatic. The issuer must permanently cease all essential managerial efforts, make no new promises, and file a public certification. Preemption reaches only transactions the rule covers. BTC opened the year near $87,500. August is a recovery inside a wider drawdown. Two stories, 24 hours apart. Which one still matters a year from now, the price move or the SEC framework? #BTCBreaks69000 #TreasuryUpsBuybacks #FOMC9To3Split

Bitcoin custody is moving into core banking infrastructure. On Aug 18, Citi unveiled Custody+, a custody suite built for compressed settlement cycles and continuous markets. Native digital asset custody is expected later this year, starting with BTC on a common architecture for traditional and digital assets. Citi had previously identified the US as a planned launch market. Crypto’s 24/7 settlement model is now influencing how traditional custody infrastructure is rebuilt. Institutions could hold BTC itself through a bank instead of gaining price exposure through an ETF, while using familiar reporting, compliance and risk processes. The scale matters. As of Q3 2025, Citi Investor Services reported about $31.4T in assets under custody and administration and more than 1.3M custody transactions daily. The timing is partly regulatory. Banks had been permitted to custody crypto, but earlier accounting and supervisory requirements created significant friction. SEC SAB 122 and OCC changes in 2025 helped reduce key accounting and supervisory barriers. This is not a standalone move. Citi says it already offers custody for stablecoin reserves and crypto ETFs. Its tokenized-deposit platform is live in five locations, with hundreds of clients moving close to $1B a day. But outsourcing key management does not eliminate risk. It changes where that risk sits. Native BTC custody is not live yet, and Citi has not detailed its fees, asset-segregation model, insurance or underlying wallet infrastructure. This announcement concerns custody for client assets, not a disclosed BTC purchase for Citi’s own balance sheet. Bank custody could lower barriers to direct institutional ownership while raising questions about custody concentration among a smaller group of regulated providers. If your bank offered native BTC custody without requiring you to manage a seed phrase, would you use it or stay with self-custody? #CitiToCustodyBTC

Running one market cleanly is one thing. Running hundreds at once, without a single outage, is the harder problem. OKX's World Cup prediction campaign last month was the first live market on Exchange OS, the open trading infrastructure built on X Layer, and it held 100% uptime across 104 matches and 335 markets, with as many as 43 running at the same time. Zero downtime, opening match to final. That reliability is the foundation builders get to launch on. Build with us: https://form.typeform.com/to/gCWfCxuu

Long-term US borrowing costs just broke a 19-year ceiling. The 30-year Treasury yield climbed above 5.3%, its highest since 2007. Last week’s $25B auction cleared at 5.216%, the highest 30-year auction yield since 2001. This is bigger than the next Fed decision. The curve is bear-steepening, with shorter-dated yields relatively steadier while the long end sells off. That points to a repricing of long-term inflation, Treasury supply, real rates and the extra return investors demand to lock up money for three decades. As of August 17, the 30-year real yield stood at 3.06%, its highest since 2008. That raises the hurdle for non-yielding assets and tightens long-term financial conditions even if the Fed leaves its policy rate unchanged. The impact spreads across markets: · Bonds: higher yields mean lower prices and greater duration risk · Economy: mortgage rates and long-term corporate financing costs can stay elevated without another Fed hike · Gold: $XAU and $XAUT have shown resilience despite the higher real-yield hurdle · Crypto: BTC can face a tougher liquidity backdrop, while debt and the long-term fiscal outlook remain part of the market’s broader BTC narrative The driver matters. A rise led by stronger growth and real yields can pressure gold and high-beta assets. A rise led by inflation, supply or fiscal risk can produce a different response, with bonds, gold and BTC reacting differently. Does 5.3% mark a lasting shift in long-term borrowing costs, or a temporary repricing of inflation and fiscal risk? #30YYieldHits2007High

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Bitcoin is getting quieter, but the capital picture is not one-way. 10x Research says BTC volume has contracted, its trading range is at a multi-month low and implied volatility remains subdued. In a late-July snapshot, K33 estimated average daily spot volume at about $2.2B, putting the month on track for its weakest level since November 2023. The slowdown extended beyond spot: · CME BTC futures open interest was near levels last seen in 2023 · Perpetual futures open interest had stalled around 300,000 BTC · The options put/call open-interest ratio fell from 0.76 in late June to about 0.52, suggesting less demand for downside hedges, though this alone does not indicate direction The flow picture is also splitting: · 10x sees broader BTC ETF demand as weak despite a recent rebound · DWF Labs reports July ETH ETF inflows equal to 3.19% of fund size, versus 0.34% for BTC, a difference of around 9.4x in relative flow intensity · 10x interprets stablecoin outflows as a sign that some liquidity may be moving outside crypto Institutional positioning adds another layer. UBS increased its reported spot IBIT holdings from 364,371 shares in Q1 to 407,890 in Q2. Its reported call exposure rose from 80,000 to 1.95M underlying shares. However, these Q2 holdings reflect positions as of June 30. Form 13F does not disclose option strikes, expiries or whether calls form part of a hedge, so the data should not be treated as a real-time directional signal. July is historically one of BTC’s quieter trading months, meaning seasonality may explain part of the slowdown. Still, thin participation can leave prices more sensitive to the next ETF flow, macro surprise or positioning shift. Which signal matters most for BTC’s next move: spot volume, ETF flows or volatility? #BTCVolumeDriesUp

Argentina against Egypt, 8 July. A World Cup knockout match swinging in the final minutes, and the prediction market moved right along with it. That market ran on Exchange OS, OKX's open trading infrastructure on X Layer, and in that single minute it filled 3,716 orders, with 1,914 people trading the same market and a peak of 119 orders in one second. Nobody got shut out. That is what builders can expect from the infrastructure under real pressure. Built on X Layer, build with us: https://form.typeform.com/to/gCWfCxuu