Here’s what happened in crypto today

Today in crypto, Citadel reportedly bought a large portion of Situational Awareness’ public stock portfolio and Coinkite urged Coldcard Mk3 users to migrate funds after identifying a potential seed-generation risk. Plus, US Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer proposed a new federal anti-corruption agency that would scrutinize President Donald Trump’s crypto-related financial interests.

Citadel buys bulk of Situational Awareness stock portfolio after AI rout: Reports

Ken Griffin’s Citadel reportedly bought a large proportion of the public stock portfolio of Situational Awareness, the hedge fund founded by former OpenAI researcher Leopold Aschenbrenner.

The Financial Times first reported Thursday that Citadel bought the portfolio holdings after heavy losses during July’s artificial intelligence stock market rout. 

The transaction followed Aschenbrenner’s fund falling about 67% in July, according to The Wall Street Journal, citing a person who saw a letter sent to investors. The letter said the fund remained up about 80% for the year. The Financial Times previously reported the fund was up 439% through June.

Those reports suggested Situational had approached existing investors and lenders for fresh capital and offered some investors the option to buy portfolio assets. The Journal also reported Situational needed cash to meet margin calls from its lenders and that the fund agreed late Wednesday to sell $3.5 billion of Anthropic shares to a group led by Greenoaks and Sequoia Capital before withdrawing from the deal Thursday morning.

Reuters separately reported the leveraged portfolio detail but said it could not determine whether formal margin calls had been issued before the sale. Reuters said Situational retained roughly $10 billion in stocks and private investments, including Anthropic. Situational had grown to about $24 billion in assets in under two years before the reversal, according to the FT’s follow-up profile.

Coldcard issues Mk3 warning as experts examine $38M Bitcoin wallet drain

Canadian Bitcoin hardware maker Coinkite has warned users of its Coldcard Mk3 signing device to move funds from wallets whose seed phrases were generated on affected firmware. 

On Thursday, Coinkite said seeds created on an Mk3 running firmware version 4.0.1, released in March 2021, or any later Mk3 version may put funds at risk. The issue extends through version 5.0.3, the final firmware supporting the Mk3, while the Mk4, Q and Mk5 are not affected, according to the company’s early analysis.

The warning comes as Bitcoin security specialists examine an unexplained, coordinated sweep involving 594.48 BTC from single-signature addresses. However, no definitive public evidence has established that the Mk3 issue caused those transfers.

“Out of an abundance of caution,” Coinkite urged affected users to generate a new seed on an unaffected device, verify its backup and receive address, send a small test transaction and only then move the remaining funds. The company said its investigation is ongoing and promised a formal technical review.

Coinkite said its early analysis indicates that affected seeds used with a BIP-39 passphrase face minimal risk, stressing that this refers to a passphrase rather than the Coldcard PIN.

Schumer unveils anti-corruption bill targeting Trump’s crypto ties

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer introduced legislation that would create a new federal anti-corruption agency, citing President Donald Trump’s crypto-related earnings and his family’s foreign-linked business interests.

The proposed Anti-Corruption Bureau Creation Act would establish an independent agency with the authority to investigate, prevent and enforce cases of executive branch corruption. According to the bill, the bureau would consolidate oversight functions currently handled by agencies including the Federal Election Commission, Office of Government Ethics and Office of Special Counsel. Schumer said the agency would have bipartisan leadership and expanded enforcement powers.

The legislation references Trump’s 2025 financial disclosures, including more than $2 billion in reported investment earnings and roughly $1.4 billion tied to cryptocurrency, as well as his family’s crypto fund with foreign government ties. Democrats have increasingly pointed to those ventures as a potential conflict of interest while debating the Digital Asset Market Clarity (CLARITY) Act, arguing that existing ethics provisions do not go far enough.

The proposal faces steep political hurdles. Republicans control both chambers of Congress, meaning the bill would need bipartisan support to advance, and Trump could still veto it if it reaches his desk. Meanwhile, the Senate has yet to schedule a vote on the CLARITY Act before lawmakers leave for their August recess.