BIP-110 quietly comes to an end, CLARITY vote postponed: Hodler's Digest, August 9

Bitcoin's "anti-spam" BIP proposal met cold

Advocates of the BIP-110 soft fork had hoped to eliminate spam on the blockchain, but after a long and heated debate, the proposal has been declared "dead in the womb." After receiving only 2.5% support before entering the mandatory signaling phase, it then split into a minority chain that stalled after digging out only two blocks within eight hours.

This result may not be surprising, given that mining on the new chain is as difficult and costly as the Bitcoin main chain-and that costs cannot be recouped by selling block rewards. If they could dig up another 2014 blocks, the difficulty would have been adjusted downward.

BIP-110 aims to eliminate non-financial transactions (such as Ordinals) in Bitcoin, but opponents believe that this amounts to censorship of online content and has been opposed by several well-known Bitcoin advocates. Michael Saylor, executive chairman of Strategy, said he agreed with the proposal's goals but believed its approach threatened Bitcoin's neutrality rules and consensus. Adam Back, CEO of Blockstream, warned that this change in the consensus level could damage Bitcoin's credibility and could make certain unspent transaction outputs (UTXO) unusable. Bitcoin core developer Murry subsequently proposed removing BIP-110 supporter Luke Dashjr from his position as BIP editor.

Vote on "Clear Bill" postponed to September

Senator Tim Scott, chairman of the Senate Banking Committee, said Thursday that there is "no doubt" that a procedural vote on the Clarification Act should take place before the August recess. Senator Cynthia Lummis also expressed hope for a last-minute vote. But despite hopes that lawmakers would be locked in their rooms to force a compromise before the August recess, Senate Majority Leader John Thune refused to push the matter forward and subsequently scheduled a closing debate vote for September 15.

"Democrats insist there is no clear vote," Thune told reporters. "I worked with the sponsors of the bill. Senator Lummis is great and we will arrange this as soon as we get back." Crypto lobby groups had time to lobby for the 60 votes needed to negotiate ethical rules, stablecoin gains and developer protections in the Bitcoin Bill of Rights. But the real question is whether this will be a serious attempt to push legislation or, as Lummis puts it, simply to "keep lawmakers on record" before the midterm elections.

Bitcoin "red team" formed to fight AI-assisted hacking attacks

A 16-volunteer Bitcoin security team said mid-week that it had identified nearly 5000 potential issues after conducting a rapid AI-assisted review of Bitcoin Ecosystem projects. By the weekend, that number had grown to 7958 issues, including 168 critical vulnerabilities and 1120 high-risk issues. The Bitcoin Red Team is a volunteer security operation that includes AnchorWatch CEO Rob Hamilton and Bitcoin developer Calle that uses AI tools and human reviews to scan open source bitcoin-related codebases for vulnerabilities. "On average, we find about 1 critical vulnerability per person per hour," Calle said in a post.

The team acted quickly after the Coldcard hardware wallet was hacked. Developer Coinkite believes that hacking stems from AI analysis of source code. Due to flaws in the random number generator used to generate seed phrases, more than $100 million has been stolen through 7300 wallets. This has become the third largest crypto hacking incident in 2026 and pushed the total number of cryptocurrency thefts in July to $247 million. The incident highlighted the trust required to use hardware wallets and led many Bitcoin players to wonder if there are actually wallets that are safe? Many people now decide to use at least 100 manual rolls of dice to generate their own seed phrases.

Ethereum researchers want to limit pledges, but critics say it may backfire

A group of Ethereum researchers and developers has proposed changing the network's distribution policy to significantly reduce verifier rewards as the proportion of pledged ETH increases. The proposal, called "Conical Issue Burning"(also known as EIP-8363), will completely cancel rewards when the pledged supply exceeds 50%. The current pledge ratio is about 34%, and there are a large number of ETH queues waiting to enter. People are worried that this situation may continue to grow like a snowball, while the benefits to network security are gradually diminishing.

Although the proposal put forward some convincing reasons, it still encountered strong opposition, especially from the DeFi protocol. Ether.fi founder Mike Silagadze said that if the proposal is passed, Ether.fi will completely withdraw from the pledge business. "It's disappointing on every level... It's bad for decentralization, it's bad for Ethereum adoption, it's bad for the credibility of the network," he said.

Bitcoin ETF has its best weekly performance in four months, good days are back

Spot bitcoin exchange-traded funds recorded their third-strongest performance since October last year, as institutional demand showed recovery. Net inflows reached US$853.54 million, five times the net inflows for the entire month of July and the best week since April. The Ethereum ETF attracted an additional $243.7 million. Some industry insiders believe that the large influx may be related to the Coldcard hacking incident, making institutional hosting more attractive than using potentially unsafe hardware wallets. ETF analyst Eric Balchunas hinted at a possible link, while Binance co-founder Zhao Changpeng ("CZ") was blunt: "Statistically, it is safer to deposit tokens on an exchange than to self-custody."

Winners and Losers of the Week

As of the weekend, Bitcoin (BTC) rose 2% to $64814; Ethereum (ETH) rose 1.7% to $1908; Ripple (XRP) fell 5% to $1.02. According to data, the total market value is approximately US$2.21 trillion.

Among the top 100 cryptocurrencies, the top three gainers in altcoins this week are: Pump.fun (PUMP) rose 27.6%, LayerZero (ZRO) rose 17.6%, and Curve DAO (CRV) rose 16.2%. The top three declines in altcoins this week were: Injective (INJ) fell 15.1%, Canton (CC) fell 13.8%, and Cronos (CRO) fell 13.7%.

This week's forecast: Bitcoin will never fall below $60,000 again?

Alex Svanevik, founder and CEO of Nansen, said the Bitcoin market may be approaching a bottom and believes that the current level of about $60,000 may mark a cyclical low for Bitcoin. "My personal opinion is that I don't think Bitcoin will fall back below $60,000," Svanevik said."I think that's a thing of the past... never will." He relies on the fact that Bitcoin is an asset created by hedging central bank money, and he does not believe that the global monetary expansion cycle will end anytime soon.

The week's hottest "fear, uncertainty and suspicion" news

The "crypto wrench attack" has caused more than US$30 million in losses in 2026
In the first half of this year, criminals stole more than US$30 million through physical attacks on cryptocurrency holders. The amount stolen throughout 2026 is expected to exceed the record of US$58 million set in 2025. According to reports, as of the end of June, 46 violent incidents involving cryptocurrencies have been recorded worldwide, up from 40 in the same period in 2025. These incidents include kidnappings, home robberies and hostage-taking, collectively referred to as "wrench attacks." Only 12 of the 46 attacks were successfully paid, with an attacker success rate of 26%, down from 49% in 2025.

ElizaOS token plunges 19% to a record low, founder says it is "dead"
ElizaOS fell 19% in 24 hours to an all-time low after Eliza Labs founder Shaw Walters said the token was "dead" and the Eliza Foundation was disbanding. Data shows that the current market value of the token is only US$2.1 million. "The token is completely dead," Walters said, adding that he no longer holds or supports the token. This decline marks a sharp reversal of the former star tokens in the AI agency space. Before the project was renamed ElizaOS, the token was formerly known as AI 16Z and reached a peak market value of US$2.5 billion in January 2025. Walters said development of the open source Eliza software will continue, but no longer involve the token or foundation.

Perpetual contract trading volume on centralized exchanges fell to US$4 trillion, the lowest since the end of 2023.
In July, perpetual contract trading volume on the centralized cryptocurrency exchange (CEX) fell to US$4 trillion, setting a 31-month low. Binance led the way with monthly trading volume of US$1.4 trillion, followed by OKX with US$607 billion, and Bybit ranked third with US$300 billion. Perpetual contract trading volume on decentralized exchanges (DEX) fell to US$531 billion in July, the lowest level since June 2025, down 21% from US$676 billion in June 2026.

Best Magazine Feature of the Week

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