World Liberty Buyer Faces Laundering Probe

SharpLink CEO Opposes Ethereum Burn Proposal | Crypto ETFs Post Best Week Since April

Marco Manoppo & Karon Pangestu
August 10, 2026

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Good Morning,

The uncomfortable question isn't whether World Liberty broke any laws, it's whether anyone checked where $100M came from before routing most of it to Trump-controlled entities, especially now that the buyer behind that purchase is tied to an active money laundering investigation.

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In Today's Email:

What Matters: World Liberty Buyer Faces Laundering Probe 👀
Product of the Week: SharpLink CEO Opposes Ethereum Burn Proposal 🔎
Charts: Crypto ETFs Post Best Week, Perp Volumes Sink to Multi-Year Lows 📊

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Narratives: Volume Drought

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WHAT MATTERS

World Liberty Buyer Faces Laundering Probe

IMG: Guren "Bobby" Zhou

State of play: The businessman behind Aqua 1's $100M World Liberty token purchase was arrested in Britain in 2021 on money laundering suspicions, raising fresh questions about funds that flowed largely to Trump-controlled entities.

Guren "Bobby" Zhou has not been charged, but a British court filing accuses him of participating in a laundering operation dating to 2019, with two associates already charged and a trial set for 2028.
The New York Times traced Zhou's history through a failed flooring business, a defunct crypto project called Caduceus, and disputed claims of backing from prominent Abu Dhabi and Chinese firms.
Aqua 1 appears linked to Web3Port, a fund Zhou led that made an earlier $10M WLFI investment before rebranding one of its entities as Aqua 1 GP Limited weeks before the $100M purchase.
Up to $75M of the $100M purchase was distributed to a Trump-controlled company, with the Witkoff family also benefiting under World Liberty's revenue-sharing structure.
World Liberty says it followed all applicable laws, while the source of Zhou's $100M remains undetermined.

Why it matters: Ties a top World Liberty token buyer to an active laundering probe, deepening scrutiny of Trump's crypto conflicts.

Our take: The unclear source of $100M reaching Trump-controlled entities is the real exposure, not Zhou's unproven charges.

For builders and investors: Expect elevated headline risk on World Liberty-linked tokens until the source of funds is resolved.

PRODUCT OF THE WEEK

SharpLink CEO Opposes Ethereum Burn Proposal

SharpLink CEO Joseph Chalom has formally opposed EIP-8363, warning that its progressive burn of validator rewards would erase ETH's institutional edge over Bitcoin at precisely the moment Ethereum is outperforming and courting institutional capital.

The "Tapered Issuance Burn" proposal would phase in a rising burn of staking rewards over 18 months, hitting zero issuance yield once roughly 50% of ETH supply is staked.
Chalom argued staking yield functions as ETH's de facto base rate, and cutting it would push real yields toward zero and drive capital elsewhere.
Ethereum Foundation researcher Justin Drake and EthCC founder Jérôme de Tychey authored the proposal, arguing it would limit staking concentration and reduce dilution for non-stakers.
Aave founder Stani Kulechov also opposed the EIP, saying it would make yields unpredictable and weaken ETH's appeal as a productive asset.
EIP-8363 was submitted just two days before the inclusion deadline for the upcoming Hegota hardfork, where FOCIL remains the headline proposal.

Other cool products:

Arc Mainnet confirmed for launch.
Cloudflare launches native crypto wallets.
Kamino launches institutional yield vaults.
Curvance launches the Agua Global Carry Vault.

Take a peek at our referral reward at the bottom of this issue. Share this newsletter and receive our list of 500 crypto VC individuals 👇

CHARTS OF THE WEEK

Crypto ETFs Post Best Week Since April

State of play: US spot bitcoin and ether ETFs pulled in a combined $1.1B last week, their strongest showing since April, even as trading volume sat near multi-year lows and both categories remain deeply underwater for the year.

Bitcoin ETFs took in $853.5M across five straight positive sessions, led by BlackRock's IBIT at $693.7M and Fidelity's FBTC at $116.4M.
Ether ETFs drew $244.9M, extending their positive streak to five consecutive weeks, their longest run of 2026.
Bloomberg's Eric Balchunas linked the bitcoin inflows to the Coldcard wallet exploit, though the same logic cannot explain ether's parallel strength.
Whales holding 10,000 to 100,000 ETH pushed balances to a record 19.6M ETH, up from about 14M in mid-2025.
Both categories remain net negative for 2026, with bitcoin ETFs down $4.44B and ether ETFs down $873M since January.

Our Take: The Coldcard story doesn't hold up. Ether posting its own best week with zero exposure to that exploit points to broader macro tailwinds, likely the weak jobs print and fading rate hike odds, not a single hack driving flows.

Perp Volumes Sink to Multi-Year Lows

State of play: Crypto perpetual futures volume on centralized exchanges dropped to $4T in July, a 31-month low, while DEX perp activity neared a one-year low, signaling a broad pullback in trading activity across both venue types.

CEX perp volume fell to its lowest since December 2023, led by Binance at $1.4T, OKX at $607B, and Bybit at $300B.
Spot trading volume also declined 23.6% in July, from $17.8B to $13.6B in daily volume.
DEX perp volume dropped 21% to $531B, its lowest since June 2025 and well below October 2025's $1.36T peak.
DEX open interest fell to $17.9B from a September 2025 peak of $19.4B, pointing to capital exiting rather than entering.
Hyperliquid led DEXs with $199B in volume, with tokenized RWAs becoming its largest trading category, hitting 52% of weekly volume in mid-July.

Our take: The decline masks a rotation. As speculative perp volume dries up, Hyperliquid's RWA share topping 50% of weekly volume shows what remains is shifting from crypto bets toward tokenized real-world assets.

QUICK BITES

Bitcoin’s BIP-110 supporters split onto minority chain.
Trump’s media company to terminate Crypto.com deal.
Russia cracks down on 9 crypto exchanges in Moscow City.
Bitcoin, ether ETFs draw $1.1B in best inflow week since April.
World Liberty received $100M from businessman accused for ML.
CEX perpetual futures volume falls to $4T, lowest since late 2023.
Majority Leader Thune files cloture on Clarity Act, setting up Senate vote.

NOTEWORTHY READS & MEME

a16z’s read on Crypto Cards.
Galaxy’s read on the hacks of Coldcard-generated addresses.
Emperor Osmo’s read on Onchain Investigation Tools Worth Using.

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