Cryptomarket at a Crossroads: Banking Licenses for Crypto Exchanges, the Return of Strategy, and a New Wave of Tokenization
While the market consolidated in a narrow range, the U.S. regulatory environment continued to deliver surprises capable of drastically reshaping the balance of power in the industry. In focus are statements from the OCC head, Strategy's ambitions, and a potential breakthrough in regulating tokenized assets.
Market in a sideways trend: BTC and ETH stabilize after overnight swings
Bitcoin (BTC) was trading around $63,794 by the morning of August 12. Overnight volatility was moderate: prices first dipped to $63,200, then attempted to challenge the $64,450 level but met resistance and pulled back. Ether (ETH) showed similar dynamics, consolidating near $1,890 after falling to $1,853.
Altcoins in the top 10 showed mixed performance. Leaders in growth were Dogecoin (DOGE) with a gain of 2.91% and BNB, which rose by 2.19%. The laggard among the majors was Hyperliquid (HYPE), losing 1.47%. Among the top 100 assets, Canton (CC) stood out with a rise of 5.52%, followed by NEAR Protocol (+4.48%) and Curve DAO Token (+4.07%). In the red zone were Audiera (BEAT), which plunged by 10.7%, Lighter (LIT) with a loss of 6.37%, and Uniswap (UNI), down 5.41%.
Flows into U.S. spot ETFs are mixed. Bitcoin funds attracted $4.89 million, Solana products — $1.43 million, while Ethereum ETFs lost $1.76 million. Over the past day, exchanges liquidated positions of 76,376 traders totaling $175.22 million. The largest liquidation order was executed on Binance for the BTCUSDT pair — $2.46 million.
Regulatory shift: OCC opens doors, SEC prepares a surprise
The key event of the night was a statement from the head of the U.S. Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC), Jonathan Gould. He directly advocated for granting crypto companies access to a national banking license, emphasizing that "America and the OCC are open for business again." According to him, over the past 18 months, the agency has received 40 applications to create new banks and accelerated the review process to 120 days.
In parallel, Strategy head Phong Le confirmed the company's intention to resume bitcoin purchases before the end of the year. This statement is especially important against the backdrop of recent sales of part of its reserves, which raised questions from the market. Le explained that since the start of the year, the company has acquired about 175,000 BTC and sold only roughly 7,000 — meaning purchases exceeded sales by 25 times. The proceeds went toward dividends on preferred shares and share buybacks, and now the company intends to return to building up its holdings.
Finally, the SEC may present an exemption for trading tokenized stocks as early as Friday. The regulator plans an open meeting to consider a special regime for certain contracts with crypto assets. This potentially paves the way for 24/7 trading of tokenized securities on the blockchain.
My view: The OCC's statement is not just rhetoric but a signal of the systemic integration of the crypto industry into the traditional U.S. financial ecosystem. Given the accelerated review of applications, we could see the first licensed crypto banks within the coming months. As for Strategy, the company's return to BTC purchases is a powerful bullish signal, given its historical influence on market dynamics.