While the market showed mixed dynamics, the industry witnessed several landmark events that could determine the development trajectory for the coming months. From a strategic alliance between the South Korean giant and the payment system Visa to the discovery of a critical vulnerability in Ledger hardware wallets — we break down the key moments you can't afford to miss.
Market Dynamics: Bitcoin Holds Its Ground
As of the morning of August 28, bitcoin (BTC) was trading near the $79,815 mark, showing a gain of 1.28% over the day. Volatility remained within the $78,600–$81,200 range, indicating consolidation after recent moves. Ether (ETH) showed minimal movement, adding just 0.14% and settling at $2,498, with a trading range of $2,480–$2,535.
Among altcoins in the top 25, Solana (SOL) stood out noticeably, rising by 5.48%. Also in positive territory were Monero (XMR) — +2.73% and Gram (GRAM) — +1.95%. In the red zone were Canton (CC), losing 2.6%, and Litecoin (LTC) with a decline of 0.94%. In the top 100, the best result was shown by Official Trump (TRUMP) with a gain of 23.73%, followed by Ethena (ENA) — +11.81% and Jupiter (JUP) — +8.39%. The laggard was SPX6900 (SPX), which plunged by 5.2%.
Inflows into spot ETFs continue to delight investors: bitcoin funds attracted $242.24 million, Ethereum products — $234.51 million, and Solana ETFs — $60.91 million. The volume of liquidations over the day amounted to $424.84 million, with the main burden falling on short positions — $253.77 million versus $171.08 million on longs. The largest liquidation order was recorded on Binance for the ETHUSDT pair at $12.40 million.
Dunamu and Visa: A New Perspective on Stablecoin Payments
Dunamu, the company managing South Korea's largest exchange Upbit, has entered into a strategic partnership with Visa. The parties intend to jointly develop stablecoin payments, international transfers, and financial services based on artificial intelligence. Of particular interest is the discussion of business models based on the dollar stablecoin OUSD under the Open Standard. Details of specific services have not yet been disclosed, but the very fact of such an alliance speaks to the growing interest of traditional financial giants in digital assets.
Ledger Vulnerability: Exploit Reproduced in Laboratory Conditions
OneKey founder under the alias Yishi stated that his team reproduced in laboratory conditions an attack involving transaction substitution in the Ledger Ethereum application version 1.22.1. The essence of the vulnerability lay in a conflict between the display logic and the transaction buffer: an attacker could overwrite a transaction while the user examines a legitimate one on the screen. As a result, the person confirms one operation, while the device signs another without showing it.
Ledger confirmed the issue by releasing bulletin LSB 023. The company notes that the vulnerability affects I/O processing in the SDK, not the operating system or firmware. A fix was already released in SDK version 26.6.1 on August 21, but users need to update their applications through Ledger Live. No signs of active exploitation of the vulnerability by attackers have been detected, which somewhat lowers the level of concern.
World Liberty Financial: A New Player in the Banking Arena
UAE National Security Advisor Sheikh Tahnoon bin Zayed Al Nahyan and his partners have received 49% of WLTC Holdings, the holding created for the future World Liberty Financial bank. The stake is structured through StringZ Holding RSC, while about 38% belongs to a company linked to the Trump family. Earlier, in August, the U.S. Office of the Comptroller of the Currency granted World Liberty preliminary conditional approval to create a national trust bank that will issue, redeem, and custody the USD1 stablecoin.
Tahnoon has already invested $500 million in World Liberty Financial in January 2025, receiving 49% of the company itself. However, before the bank's launch, a number of regulatory conditions must be met and a final review passed.
My take: The Dunamu partnership with Visa is yet another confirmation that stablecoins are ceasing to be a niche tool and are becoming part of mainstream financial infrastructure. As for the Ledger vulnerability, the incident underscores the importance of timely updates even for the most secure devices. Overall, the market is in an accumulation phase, and such fundamental news lays the groundwork for the next impulse.