Bitcoin surged above $122,000 today, leaving it only about 1% away from setting a new all-time high, according to data from Bitcoin Magazine Pro. The current record of $123,180, set on July 14, 2025, could be broken at any moment given Bitcoin’s trademark volatility. With institutional adoption continuing to rise and demand for BTC accelerating, a new record may arrive sooner rather than later.

Adding to this momentum, whale accumulation has hit unprecedented levels. As of yesterday, the number of addresses holding over 100 BTC reached a new all-time high of 18,996, surpassing the previous peak of 18,544 from February 26, 2017. Bitcoin Magazine Pro’s chart shows a steady…

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What is the Lightning Network? It is generally spoken about in analogies, metaphors or direct explanations of purpose. 

“It’s the checking account, versus on-chain as the savings account.”

“It’s a series of tubes like the internet, with bitcoin flowing through them.”

“It’s a quick, instant-settlement layer of bitcoin.”

What it really is is a network of payment channels, where people lock bitcoin into a multisignature address, and update the state of balance distributions off-chain. It’s how we are going to scale Bitcoin — or at least part of how we are going to scale Bitcoin. 

In the short “Explainer” series in this magazine, I explain…

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“the first fractions of a bitcoin will find you as soon as you are ready to receive them.” –Gigi

“Orange-pill” might no longer be the most accurate term for becoming a Bitcoiner anymore, but it conveys the core idea. Like Morpheus presenting the blue and red pills to Neo in the Matrix, it conveys a moment of choice, or being presented with knowledge: Who made you see that bitcoin was a good idea? Who made you a “Bitcoiner”?

Sometimes we can point to a specific such person or moment, but more often it’s a slow drip from a leaky faucet, quietly turning into an open tap and then, explosively… flooding the entire kitchen.

Everyone did; world events did; my…

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Choreo, a leading independent wealth management firm overseeing more than $27 billion in assets, has stepped into the growing Bitcoin ETF market. A new SEC filing reveals the firm invested about $6.5 million across multiple Bitcoin-focused funds during the second quarter of 2024.

Its largest position was in BlackRock’s iShares Bitcoin Trust ETF (IBIT), holding 51,679 shares valued at over $3 million as of June 30. Choreo also owned 22,976 shares of the Grayscale Bitcoin Trust ETF (GBTC), worth roughly $1.9 million, and 8,314 shares of the Grayscale Bitcoin Mini Trust ETF (BTC), valued near $397,000. In addition, the firm held 13,607 shares of Fidelity’s Wise Origin Bitcoin ETF (FBTC), worth about $1.3 million.

The disclosure puts Choreo among a growing number of wealth managers, institutional investors, and even university endowments embracing Bitcoin ETFs as part of their portfolios — signaling that crypto investment is continuing to gain mainstream traction.

13 Filing

Japan sits on $14.9 trillion in household financial assets, yet its fixed income market offers some of the lowest returns in the developed world. The 10-year Japanese Government Bond yields just ~1%, and corporate bonds often struggle to clear 2%. For decades, pension funds, insurers, and banks have been locked into low-return allocations simply because there were no compliant, familiar alternatives.

Metaplanet’s Q2 earnings announcement aims straight at this gap. The company unveiled:

“Metaplanet Prefs” — a program of Bitcoin-Backed Preferred Shares designed to scale its Bitcoin treasury operations.

A plan to build a Bitcoin-backed yield curve in Japan’s fixed… Read more on BitcoinMagazine

Standard Chartered has sharply increased its Ethereum price targets, citing a “dramatic” improvement in market conditions. Analysts now expect ETH to reach $7,500 by the end of 2025—up from $4,000—and $25,000 by 2028, driven by strong demand from corporate treasuries, spot ETFs, new U.S. stablecoin rules, and renewed technical momentum. Head of Digital Assets Research Geoffrey Kendrick says ETH is on track to surpass its $4,866 all-time high by Q3.

The bank estimates corporate treasury buyers and ETFs have snapped up about 3.8% of all ETH in circulation since June, with firms like Bitmine Immersion and SharpLink Gaming alone acquiring roughly 2.3 million ETH. Kendrick also expects stablecoin adoption, boosted by the GENIUS Act, to fuel network activity—especially as most U.S. dollar-pegged stablecoins run on Ethereum.

Technical upgrades and a push toward higher-value Layer 1 transactions, alongside booming DeFi usage, reinforce the long-term bullish case. Ethereum is already up 41% in 2025, outpacing Bitcoin’s 29% rise.

Kazakhstan has become the first country in Central Asia to launch a spot bitcoin exchange-traded fund (ETF), strengthening its position as a regional crypto leader. Astana-based Fonte Capital announced that the Fonte Bitcoin Exchange Traded Fund OEIC (BETF) began trading on August 13 on the Astana International Exchange (AIX), priced in U.S. dollars. Unlike exchange-traded notes, BETF directly holds bitcoin, with custody provided by U.S.-regulated BitGo, which insures up to $250 million and stores assets in offline cold storage vaults.

The fund is regulated by the Astana International Financial Centre (AIFC), which offers legal protections against sanctions-related freezes and supports licensed digital asset operations. Kazakhstan rose to global prominence in bitcoin mining after China’s 2021 ban, attracting investors with cheap, coal-powered energy and favorable regulations. BETF aims to offer low costs, in-kind settlements, and minimal tracking error versus bitcoin’s price.

With this move, Kazakhstan joins countries like the U.S., Canada, and Hong Kong in approving spot bitcoin ETFs, giving both local and foreign investors an easy, regulated way to add bitcoin to their portfolios without directly handling crypto assets.