Night crypto market review: JPMorgan distances itself from Polymarket, Gemini sinks into losses, and Norway increases ETH exposure
While most market participants were resting, several landmark events occurred in the industry that could determine the direction of movement for the coming weeks. The relationship between traditional financial giants and crypto projects continues to transform, and institutional players are increasingly seeking alternative routes to enter digital assets.
Key events of the night
Banking giant JPMorgan severed its banking relationship with the prediction platform Polymarket back in October last year. The reason was regulatory risks that the bank deemed unacceptable for itself. However, the split was not fatal: the parties maintained business ties, and Polymarket itself quickly found a new banking partner. Moreover, the platform is currently attracting over $1 billion in investments at a valuation of $20 billion — twice as high as a year earlier. JPMorgan, in turn, continues to position itself as the organizer of a potential Polymarket IPO.
Meanwhile, the crypto exchange Gemini, owned by the Winklevoss brothers, reported its fourth consecutive loss-making quarter. The net loss in the second quarter amounted to $107.7 million, although revenue grew 37% year-over-year, reaching $45.5 million. The volume of assets on the platform fell by 54% — to $8.4 billion, which the company attributes to falling prices and an outflow of institutional clients. To compensate for the losses, Gemini is actively developing prediction markets and stock trading, and the operating loss was reduced by 18% compared to the previous quarter.
Special attention deserves the news about Norway's sovereign wealth fund. It disclosed ownership of approximately 6.15 million shares of BitMine Immersion Technologies worth about $81.87 million as of June 30. Thus, the fund gained indirect exposure to Ethereum — through a public company, rather than through the direct purchase of digital coins. At the same time, BitMine itself reported holding about 5.805 million ETH as of August 9, of which approximately 5.067 million were in staking.
Market picture
At the time of writing this review, bitcoin was trading around $63,167. Overnight, quotes held in the range of $63,000–$63,550, and by morning they slipped to the lower boundary. Ethereum was near $1,877, fluctuating in a narrow corridor of $1,874–$1,890.
Altcoins from the top 20 showed low volatility and mostly declined in price. The biggest drops were seen in TRON (-1.12%) and Dogecoin (-1.02%). Among the top 100, the best result was demonstrated by Velvet (+28.78%), followed by Ether.fi (+11.95%) and Cosmos (+11.54%). The laggards were Lighter (-6.03%), Stable (-5.80%), and LayerZero (-4.47%).
Flows into spot ETFs turned out to be mixed: Ethereum funds attracted $6.72 million, XRP — $2.25 million, while bitcoin products lost $131.13 million. Over the day, positions of 69,417 traders were liquidated for a total of $210.53 million. The largest liquidation order came on Bybit — for the BTCUSDT pair at $1.98 million.
My comment: The JPMorgan split with Polymarket and Norway's indirect exposure to ETH are two signals of one trend. Traditional finance does not reject cryptocurrencies, but prefers to act through regulated structures and public companies. This reduces direct risks but does not diminish interest in digital assets. For the market, this is more of a bullish sign than a bearish one.