Daily Crypto Roundup: Bitcoin Panic Selling Fades as Strategy Builds $3B Cash Reserve

**SPEAKER_1** (0:00)
Welcome back to the Daily Crypto Roundup. And today, the market is once again being tested by a mixture of geopolitical fear, leverage getting flushed out, and some seriously important developments happening underneath the surface. Bitcoin has slipped back towards $62,000 as tensions around the Strait of Hormuz return to the headlines. But there is also a growing argument that the worst of the panic selling may finally be starting to exhaust itself. We are also looking at Michael Saylor's strategy, suddenly pausing its Bitcoin buying spree and building a massive $3 billion cash reserve instead. Robinhood's new blockchain has exploded in activity, although not for the reason it was actually built. And Tom Lee's Bitmine has just added another 27,801 Ethereum as it closes in on owning 5% of the entire circulating supply. At the time of recording, Bitcoin is trading around $62,300.
Ethereum is close to $1,770.
XRP is around $1.07.
BNB is near $566.
Solana is close to $75. Cardano is around $0.16.
And Chainlink is trading near $7.90.
Before we get into it, remember that anyone who signs up to Kraken through our link and completes the required steps can receive 20 XRP from us as part of our listener promotion. Full details are in the episode description.
Now today's main story is that Bitcoin dropped from around $64,300 during the Asian session to roughly $62,800.
But the important detail is that this was not some enormous liquidation event. According to Coinglass data cited by Coindesk, liquidations were only around one-sixth of the worst levels seen over the previous 30 days. That suggests this was more of a leverage flush inside the range Bitcoin has been trapped in for the past month. Roughly between $59,000 and $66,000, rather than a complete breakdown caused by some brand new crypto-specific disaster. The wider risk environment is not helping. South Korea's KOSPI plunged around 9%.
SK Hynix suffered a record 15% drop, oil pushed higher again, and renewed U.S.-Iran hostilities added another layer of uncertainty. Bitcoin is still trading like a high-beta risk asset whenever global markets become nervous. President Donald Trump said the United States would protect commercial shipping through the strategic waterway while charging a 20% reimbursement fee on cargo receiving US protection. The renewed blockade is said to target Iranian ships and customers, while other countries would still be allowed to use the strait. Bitcoin moved toward $62,000, while traders on Polymarket reduced the probability of shipping through Hormuz returning to normal by August 31st to just 16%.
This matters because the Strait of Hormuz is one of the most important energy choke points in the world. Any prolonged disruption can push oil prices higher, increase inflation fears, and make central banks less willing to cut interest rates. That is exactly the combination risk assets do not want. Despite the fresh geopolitical escalation, Bitcoin has actually shown signs of greater resilience than it did earlier in the year. Analysts are beginning to argue that the marginal seller, basically the person still willing to panic and dump Bitcoin at these levels, may finally be disappearing. Winter Mute over-the-counter trader Jasper Demare pointed out that Bitcoin managed to hold around $62,000 through fresh US airstrikes and the renewed Hormuz crisis. Earlier in the year, similar geopolitical shocks caused much sharper reactions. Then there are the Bitcoin exchange traded funds. After eight consecutive weeks of net outflows, US listed spot Bitcoin ETFs finally recorded around $197 million of net inflows last week. GlassNode data cited by Nexo analyst Desislava Ianova makes the shift even clearer. In June, net spot selling averaged almost 2000 Bitcoin per day. In July, that figure has reportedly slowed to just 53 Bitcoin per day. And this is what listeners really need to understand. Markets do not need everyone to suddenly become wildly bullish in order to recover. Sometimes they simply need the forced sellers to run out of coins, the panic sellers to disappear, and the remaining holders to refuse to sell cheaply. The caution is that the recovery from Bitcoin's 2026 low around $57,700 has been driven more by speculative futures traders than by strong spot buying, so we are not pretending everything is fixed. But the fact that selling pressure appears to be fading is still significant. And if you hold your crypto yourself, remember that a hardware wallet such as Ledger keeps your private keys under your own control, rather than leaving them permanently exposed on an exchange. The link is in the description. Strategy has not bought any Bitcoin since June 22nd, when it added just 520 Bitcoin for approximately $35 million.
Since then, the company has shifted its focus toward liquidity. Strategy has sold 3,588 Bitcoin and built its US dollar reserve to approximately $3 billion.
Its total Bitcoin holdings now stand at 843,775 coins. The immediate reaction from some Bitcoin supporters will obviously be negative. Strategy became famous for buying Bitcoin almost relentlessly. So when the biggest corporate Bitcoin holder stops buying and starts building cash, people pay attention. Strategy has annualized preferred stock dividends and debt interest of roughly $1.76 billion.