Here’s what happened in crypto today

Today in crypto, losses to hacks hit $163 million in August as bad actors shifted their strategy to focus on high-value targets, and crypto prices hit new highs. The Trump family’s World Liberty stake also hit $5 billion after a major token unlock, with open interest in WLFI derivatives nearing $950 million. Meanwhile, crypto funds attracted $2.5 billion in inflows despite sharp declines in Bitcoin and Ether.

Crypto thefts hit $163M in August as hackers shift strategy

Crypto hackers and scammers stole over $163 million from the crypto space in August across 16 separate attacks — with a social engineering attack against a Bitcoiner accounting for the lion’s share of losses. 

Blockchain security firm PeckShield said in an X post on Monday that August’s losses are a 15% increase compared to July, which only recorded $142 million, though it’s down 47% year on year. 

Cybersecurity experts told Coinelegraph the increase in August was driven by hackers shifting their efforts to high-value targets and the rise in crypto prices. 

Both Bitcoin and Ether experienced new all-time highs in August. Bitcoin crossed over $124,000 on Aug. 14, while Ether stormed past $4,946 on Aug. 24. 

Trump family’s World Liberty stake surges to $5B after token unlock

An entity tied to US President Donald Trump’s family now holds about $5 billion worth of World Liberty Financial’s governance token (WLFI) after a significant unlock on Monday. 

According to World Liberty Financial’s website, DT Marks DEFI LLC and “certain family members” of Trump held 22.5 billion WLFI tokens. The company reported unlocking 24.6 billion WLFI tokens on Monday as part of a scheduled move to establish an initial circulating supply, briefly boosting the price to $0.40 before it fell to about $0.21 at time of publication.

World Liberty previously said the holdings of its founders — including Trump and his three sons, Donald Trump Jr., Barron Trump and Eric Trump — would initially remain locked. However, Monday’s unlocking effectively gave the Trump family’s stake a valuation of about $5 billion based on the WLFI price at the time of publication.

Trump and his sons endorsed the crypto company following its September 2024 launch, amid his presidential campaign. The project is one of many — along with his memecoin, Official Trump (TRUMP) and a family-tied Bitcoin (BTC) mining company — under criticism from lawmakers, saying they could be used to influence US government policies through financial ties to the president.

Crypto funds see $2.5B inflows despite falling BTC, ETH prices

Cryptocurrency investment products witnessed a strong rebound last week, drawing in nearly $2.5 billion in inflows, according to data from CoinShares. The surge in capital came after the prior week recorded significant outflows of around $1.4 billion, signaling renewed investor appetite for digital asset funds.

Exchange-traded products (ETPs) were at the center of this momentum, logging $2.48 billion in inflows. The trend highlights growing institutional and retail interest in crypto-backed investment vehicles, even as the broader market remains volatile.

Despite the influx of funds, Bitcoin (BTC) faced downward pressure in the spot market. After briefly topping $113,000 earlier in the week, BTC fell below the $108,000 mark, reflecting ongoing uncertainty in price movements.

Ether (ETH) mirrored this trend, starting the week above $4,600 before tumbling below $4,300. The declines in both leading cryptocurrencies underline the disconnect between investment flows into structured products and short-term market performance.