Last night brought a series of landmark events: institutional giant Jane Street disclosed billion-dollar investments in bitcoin ETFs, Farcaster protocol operator is seeking a new owner, and flagship DeFi protocol Compound is launching a record-breaking development program. Breaking down the details.
Market dynamics: bitcoin holds fragile equilibrium
At the time of analysis, around 08:40 Moscow time, bitcoin (BTC) was trading near the $64,172 mark. During the night hours on the 15-minute chart, quotes held within a narrow range of $63,950 – $64,460. Over the past 24 hours, the leading cryptocurrency gained approximately 1.21%, demonstrating a restrained but confident upward momentum.
Ether (ETH) remained conservative, trading around $1,894. Over the past day, its price remained virtually unchanged, declining by a symbolic 0.16%. Overnight, a short-term dip to $1,885 was observed, but bulls quickly regained control, restoring quotes to $1,895.
Among the top 10 coins by market capitalization, no pronounced volatility was observed. Bitcoin led the gains (+1.21%), while XRP lost 0.72% and Dogecoin (DOGE) fell 0.42%.
In the top 100 over the past day, Venice Token (VVV) stood out with an impressive gain of 10.21%. Polygon (POL) and Morpho (MORPHO) also posted positive momentum, rising 5.52% and 3.44%, respectively. The laggard was Worldcoin (WLD), which plunged 11.69%. It was followed by Filecoin (FIL) with a decline of 6.70% and OKB, which lost 5.83%.
ETF flows and liquidations
Spot crypto ETFs in the US showed net inflows. Bitcoin funds attracted $137.32 million over the day, Ethereum products — $4.95 million, and Chainlink (LINK) — $2.07 million. This signals sustained institutional appetite for digital assets through regulated instruments.
Against the backdrop of a relatively calm trading session, positions of 67,543 traders were liquidated over the past 24 hours, totaling $224.25 million. Notably, short positions accounted for $140.94 million, while longs lost $83.32 million. The largest liquidation order was recorded on Hyperliquid for the BTC-USD pair — $10.29 million.
Key overnight events
Jane Street bets on bitcoin ETFs. The quantitative giant disclosed holdings of more than $1 billion in spot bitcoin ETFs as of June 30. Approximately $828 million is allocated to BlackRock's IBIT fund, with the remainder distributed between Fidelity (FBTC) and Grayscale (GBTC) products. It is important to emphasize: this refers to ownership of fund shares, not direct bitcoin purchases. This gives the company exposure to the coin's price through fully regulated instruments, reducing operational risks.
Farcaster seeks a new owner. Neynar, the company that acquired the Farcaster protocol from Merkle Manufactory less than seven months ago, is already looking for a new team to manage it. Along with the protocol, the new owner will be offered the Clanker token launch platform and developer services. The reason for such a rapid change of course is a sharp decline in revenue. Farcaster's gross revenue collapsed from $35.43 million in the first quarter of 2026 to approximately $377,000 for the period from July 1 to August 17.
Compound launches mega-program. The Compound Foundation announced a new team and a budget of $52 million — the largest in the protocol's history. The funds were approved by the DAO, and the main goal is to bring institutional lending onto the blockchain. The new team is led by CEO Aaron Schnarch. Compound plans to develop products for institutions, including support for real-world assets and tools for embedding on-chain lending. Since its launch in 2018, the protocol has processed approximately $480 billion in deposits and loans.
My analysis: Jane Street's decision is yet another confirmation that traditional finance views bitcoin ETFs as a standard capital allocation tool, not a speculative bet. At the same time, Farcaster's revenue collapse is a worrying signal for the entire social protocol segment: without sustainable monetization, even technologically strong projects risk being left without a future. As for Compound, $52 million for institutional development is an ambitious bet that will either take the protocol to a new level or become an example of inefficient spending of the DAO treasury. Time will tell.