Cryptocurrency exchange Binance has reportedly provided customer data to Russian investigative authorities, which was used as evidence in a terrorism financing case involving donations to Ukraine-related organizations. According to Reuters, investigators used transaction history, date of birth, address, phone number, passport information, and a Bulgarian residence permit provided by Binance in criminal proceedings against Russian IT specialist Yuri Belenky, who was detained in September 2025. Binance had announced a full withdrawal from its Russian business in September 2023, but it is said to have maintained a channel through which Russian law enforcement could request information even after the exit. Because Belenky held a Bulgarian residence permit, issues under the EU General Data Protection Regulation have also been raised. Binance is reportedly preparing to return to the UK market, and applications for authorization under the Financial Conduct Authority's new crypto asset regulations are scheduled to open on September 30, 2026.
Glassnode and Bybit Report: Bitcoin's 24.6% August Rally Fueled by Short Liquidations
Bitcoin's sharpest rally in two years was driven almost entirely by short liquidations rather than fresh bullish buying, according to a new report from analytics firm Glassnode and crypto exchange Bybit. Over five days in August, Bitcoin climbed 24.6% even as coin-denominated open interest, a measure of active leverage, fell 12.6%, with roughly 64,000 BTC worth of open interest closed out and short positions supplying 89% of every liquidated dollar during the stretch. The options market confirmed the pattern: puts had priced richer than calls for 361 straight days before a single session ended that run, while Bybit's volatility index traveled four times its normal daily range and the front of the futures curve repriced sharply as longer-dated contracts barely moved. The report, with data as of the settled close of August 23, draws on Glassnode's coverage of four crypto-native options venues and excludes CME, so its figures describe the crypto-native market rather than every venue where Bitcoin trades. The dynamic has persisted: Bitcoin blasted back above $80,000 this week after the Federal Reserve paired its first rate hike since 2023 with a dovish forecast, triggering another squeeze that liquidated more than $230 million in Bitcoin shorts and over $445 million across the market in a single session, with CoinGlass data showing roughly $529 million in total liquidations over 24 hours, again mostly from shorts. The report's authors flagged the open question their data raises, namely whether August's repricing sticks, noting that a durable shift would show up as skew holding call-bid and the front of the curve staying firm, while a return of put premium alongside fading funding would mark it as an event the market absorbed rather than a new regime it entered.
Grayscale Files 3-for-1 Forward Split for Zcash ETF ZCSH
Grayscale has filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission for a 3-for-1 forward share split of its Zcash ETF, ticker ZCSH, making shares 300% more accessible to retail investors. Shareholders of record at the close of trading on Sept. 28 will receive two extra shares for every one they already hold, with the new shares paid out after market close on Sept. 29 and split-adjusted trading beginning before the market opens on Sept. 30 under the same ticker ZCSH and the same CUSIP number. Grayscale said the forward split is expected to decrease the price per share of the fund with a proportionate increase in shares outstanding, leaving the net asset value per share at roughly one-third of its pre-split level. The move follows a month of heavy inflows: ZCSH has pulled in more than $233 million since it started trading on Aug. 25, including a $46.6 million day this week and a single $112 million day on Sept. 8, with net assets around $890 million as of Sept. 17. ZCSH is the world's first spot exchange-traded fund to hold Zcash's token, ZEC, directly, born from a conversion of Grayscale's older Zcash Trust, which already held roughly $313 million in ZEC when it began trading on NYSE Arca, and it follows ZEC's more than 2,800% rise over the last year.
Bitcoin Rallies to Two-Week High Above $80,000 as Altcoins Outperform
Bitcoin rallied to a two-week high on Friday, climbing back above the psychologically important $80,000 level, with the broader crypto market joining the advance. According to Bitget Wallet research analyst Lacie Zhang, US spot ETF inflows and short covering helped push it through the psychologically important $80,000 level. The surge came despite a Fed rate hike earlier in the week and the failure of the Clarity Act, legislation that would have created a federal framework for the broader digital asset industry; after the measure failed to advance in the Senate, the Securities and Exchange Commission stepped in on Thursday with a conditional exemption allowing the trading of certain tokenized stocks on blockchains for the next five years. While bitcoin led the move, ether, binance and solana have outperformed over the past month, gaining 35%, 25% and 41% respectively, and rotation into alternative tokens and tokenized versions of Nvidia, Tesla and the S&P 500 helped lift the total crypto market capitalization to $2.66 trillion, according to CoinMarketCap. Fundstrat's Sean Farrell said crypto has absorbed a fairly aggressive hawkish repricing without much damage, while Compass Point's Ed Engel last week upgraded Coinbase to Neutral from Sell, citing that BTC is recovering from a cyclical bottom.
