Compiled by ChainCatcher
The past 24 hours in crypto were shaped by ETF flows, macro repricing, regulatory proposals and a new round of market infrastructure and security updates.
Bitcoin holds near $78,000 as a stronger dollar weighs on crypto
Bitcoin traded around the $78,000 mark, down 0.04% over the past 24 hours while still up about 1% on the week, according to ChainCatcher. Broader crypto markets remained under pressure as the dollar strengthened and rate expectations shifted. Solana and Dogecoin led declines with drops of about 2%, followed by Hyperliquid and XRP. Ether, BNB, Zcash and TRON were broadly flat.
At the same time, the yen fell through 160 against the dollar and traded near that level in Tokyo. Market strategists said additional weakness toward 161 could trigger intervention, while a move into the 162-163 range could bring heavier pressure for official action. After Federal Reserve Chair Kevin Warsh spoke at Jackson Hole, markets raised expectations for higher U.S. rates, bond investors began pricing in the possibility of Fed hikes, and the dollar gained. That repricing had already pulled institutional money out of Bitcoin ETFs earlier, leaving monthly ETF flows as a key market focus.
Spot Bitcoin ETFs break a nine-day inflow streak while Ether funds keep climbing
U.S. spot Bitcoin ETFs recorded $201.9 million in net outflows on Aug. 28, ending a run of nine straight inflow days that began in mid-August. SoSoValue data showed cumulative net inflows narrowing to about $55.1 billion, with total net assets at roughly $93.9 billion. Decrypt’s ETF flow tracker shifted its Bitcoin sentiment reading to bearish that day.
The reversal followed a strong stretch. Bitcoin ETFs had taken in $2.8 billion over an eight-day advance, during which Bitcoin briefly tested $80,000 and logged its biggest single-day inflow since May. The peak came on Aug. 20, when daily inflows topped $600 million.
Spot Ether ETFs kept attracting money. On Aug. 28, they posted $102.1 million in net inflows, extending their streak to 10 consecutive days. Cumulative net inflows reached about $12.9 billion and total net assets stood near $13.8 billion. As flows diverged, Bitcoin pulled back after hawkish remarks from Warsh at Jackson Hole. Earlier gains had pushed the asset close to $80,000, and it later recovered to about $79,000 over the weekend. Analysts said the one-day Bitcoin outflow was still modest relative to the funds’ cumulative size, and the broken streak does not necessarily point to a broad reversal in institutional demand.
Weekly ETF figures
For the Aug. 24-28 trading week in U.S. Eastern Time, spot Bitcoin ETFs posted $924 million in net inflows, according to SoSoValue. BlackRock’s IBIT led with $938 million in weekly inflows and has now accumulated $63.36 billion in historical net inflows. Grayscale’s Bitcoin Mini Trust BTC followed with $81.8297 million, bringing its historical total to $2.86 billion. The largest weekly outflow came from Ark & 21 Shares’ ARKB at $85.1412 million, with its historical net inflows at $1.32 billion. At publication time, total net assets across spot Bitcoin ETFs were $97.59 billion, and the ETF net asset ratio stood at 6.28% of Bitcoin’s market capitalization. Historical cumulative net inflows were $54.63 billion.
Spot Ether ETFs brought in $824 million over the same week. BlackRock’s ETHA led with $567 million and has reached $12.74 billion in historical net inflows. Fidelity’s FETH followed with $96.5009 million, taking its historical total to $2.27 billion. Total net assets across spot Ether ETFs were $15.23 billion at publication time, the ETF net asset ratio was 5.20%, and historical cumulative net inflows stood at $12.97 billion.
Before payrolls, traders put the odds of two Fed hikes this year above 50%
The U.S. nonfarm payrolls report is due on Friday and is expected to be a key input for the Federal Reserve’s rate decision. Ahead of that release, CME FedWatch data showed traders assigning a probability above 50% to two Fed rate hikes this year.
Ireland plans a tax-advantaged investment account without crypto
Ireland is preparing to exclude cryptocurrencies from a government-designed personal investment account scheduled for launch in 2027. The account is intended to let savers invest in listed equities, bonds and exchange-traded funds. In its retail investment tax roadmap, the Irish government classed cryptocurrencies and derivatives as highly complex and high-risk products, leaving them outside the pool of eligible assets.
The new account will have a tax-free threshold that has not yet been set. Amounts above that threshold will be taxed at a low rate on average annual value. The existing deemed-disposal regime, which taxes unrealized gains every eight years at 38%, will not apply to investments held inside the account. Providers will calculate, report and remit tax to the Irish Revenue Commissioners, while savers will face no minimum contribution, holding-period or lock-up requirements.
The eligible product list follows a September 2025 recommendation from the European Commission on savings and investment accounts, which excludes high-risk and complex derivatives and cryptocurrencies but allows tokenized financial instruments. The tax rate, threshold and annual contribution cap are expected to be set in the 2027 budget due in October. Research from the Central Bank of Ireland found that 38% of Irish household financial assets are held in cash and deposits, above the EU average of 30%.
A separate Irish savings plan targets €175 billion in bank deposits
Deputy Prime Minister and Finance Minister Simon Harris outlined the framework for Ireland’s new savings and investment plan in an Instagram video on Sunday, making clear that crypto assets will be excluded. Savers will be allowed to hold stocks, bonds, funds, ETFs and insurance-linked products, while cryptocurrencies, derivatives and interest-bearing cash will not qualify.
The plan is aimed at redirecting about $203 billion, or €175 billion, of household bank deposits into investment products. Each Irish tax resident aged 18 or older will be able to open one account. Contributions within the tax-free allowance will be fully exempt, while amounts above the limit will face a low fixed annual tax rate. There will be no minimum contribution and no lock-up period, though an annual contribution cap will apply. The threshold and tax rate will be announced on budget day, Oct. 6, and the account is expected to open next year.
Central bank research showed Irish households allocate only 2.3% of financial assets to direct investments such as listed stocks and bonds, well below the EU average of 7.5%. Harris also confirmed the new account will not be subject to the deemed disposal rule. A central bank survey found roughly 10% of adults hold crypto assets, mainly younger men, with average holdings of about €2,266. Before this exclusion was announced, Ireland launched its first national anti-money-laundering strategy on Aug. 13, tightening scrutiny of private-wallet transfers and due-diligence requirements for overseas crypto firms.
Japan’s FSA proposes reporting relief for trust-based stablecoins from fiscal 2027
Japan’s Financial Services Agency proposed in its 2026 tax reform request that trust-based stablecoins be exempt from mandatory tax reporting starting in fiscal 2027, according to Cointelegraph. Under the proposal, issuers would not need to file beneficiary trust reports and calculation statements containing beneficiaries’ names and income details.
The agency said the reason is straightforward: trust-based stablecoins circulate among a large number of users, transactions are frequent and numerous, and simply holding the assets does not itself generate income. If approved through legislation, the exemption would take effect on April 1, 2027.
The move forms part of Japan’s broader effort to bring crypto assets into the regulatory framework used for traditional financial assets. In July, Japan’s parliament passed an amendment that classifies crypto assets as financial assets under the Financial Instruments and Exchange Act. Finance Minister Satsuki Katayama had first signaled that direction in January.
Andrew Bailey says AI could amplify the risk of a financial crisis
Andrew Bailey, chair of the Financial Stability Board and governor of the Bank of England, warned G20 finance ministers and central bank governors that cybersecurity threats tied to frontier AI models are sharply increasing the risk of a breakdown in the financial system.
Bailey said the global financial system is already strained by energy-driven inflation pressure, a high-rate environment and rising investment leverage. Adding AI-related risk would make that stress harder to manage. He said financial institutions and large technology companies need contingency plans for extreme scenarios, especially if multiple institutions or shared technological dependencies suffer simultaneous disruption.
He cited testing by labs including Anthropic and OpenAI, saying models in simulations have shown the ability to attack external organizations and create false identities. Bailey also recommended bare-metal backup systems that are physically isolated from the main network. He listed several other threats that could trigger disorderly market adjustments: the fragility of equity valuations after the AI-driven market rally, signs of fatigue in sovereign debt and private credit, and investors continuing to increase leverage in equity markets.
August crypto fundraising falls to about $596 million, with RWA coverage at 28.2%
RootData said the crypto primary market disclosed 49 funding rounds in August totaling about $596 million. That was down 74.2% from roughly $2.312 billion in July and down 35.5% from about $924 million in August 2025. The number of deals rose 2.1% from 48 in July but fell 42.4% from 85 a year earlier. The figures exclude questionable financings and strip out M&A, IPO, post-IPO and debt financing.
By sector, DeFi was the busiest category with 19 rounds, though disclosed funding was only about $73.1 million. Infrastructure recorded 14 deals and led by amount with about $311 million. CeFi logged 8 deals worth about $199 million.
The three largest financings were Ripple at $275 million, RQD Clearing at $74 million and Fasset at $68 million. Together they accounted for about $417 million, or 70.0% of all disclosed August financing.
On RWA, RootData currently tracks 529 related projects, of which 149 have recorded financing, implying a funding coverage rate of about 28.2%. In August alone, however, there was only one RWA-related financing, Entropy, at $14 million. That represented about 2.0% of the month’s deal count and 2.3% of disclosed funding value.
There were also 6 disclosed M&A deals in August, down sharply from 19 in July. Four were in CeFi: BitGo’s acquisition of NYDIG, Nasdaq’s acquisition of LeveL Markets, Rain’s acquisition of Ansa, and OpenFX’s acquisition of Global Ledger. These deals were concentrated in CeFi, payments, market infrastructure and data analytics services. On the investor side, YZi Labs, MH Ventures, Mapleblock and Polychain remained active. Overall, August funding concentrated in payments, clearing, stablecoins, CeFi and institutional-grade infrastructure, while RWA still had project depth and strong narrative traction without a matching jump in monthly deal flow.
DTCC targets October 2026 commercial launch for tokenization service
DTCC plans to commercially launch its DTC Tokenization Service in October 2026. Before that, it completed production transactions on Canton Network on July 15 as the system’s final operational stress test.
More than 30 firms took part in the exercise, covering collateral pledging, securities lending, U.S. Treasury and repo DVP, equity DVP, equity DVD, equity token transfers and CCP margin workflows across Canton Network and LFDT’s Besu. The regulatory basis was established on Dec. 11, 2025, when the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission issued a no-action letter authorizing DTC to operate tokenization services for assets in its custody on pre-approved blockchains for a three-year period.
The service is supported by DTCC’s ComposerX platform suite. The industry working group now includes more than 50 firms, among them BlackRock, JPMorgan, Goldman Sachs, Citi, Bank of America, Morgan Stanley, Schwab, State Street, Nasdaq, NYSE, Circle, Ondo, Ripple Prime, Fireblocks, BitGo, Tradeweb and Virtu. DTCC data shows there are $300 trillion in high-quality liquid assets globally, but only 10% to 11% are currently used as collateral.
CME launches new crypto indexes, including one that excludes BTC and ETH
CME Group launched two multi-asset crypto benchmark indexes on Monday: a broad crypto market index and an emerging crypto index designed to measure large digital assets outside Bitcoin and Ether.
The CME CF Emerging Crypto Index excludes BTC and ETH and tracks 10 assets: BNB, XRP, SOL, HYPE, LINK, XLM, SUI, UNI, AVAX and AAVE. The CME CF Crypto Market Index includes those 10 plus BTC and ETH. Both use free-float market-cap weighting and rebalance and reconstitute every six months. Real-time versions are calculated once per second around the clock, while settlement versions are calculated once daily and published at 4 p.m. in London, New York and Singapore/Hong Kong.
The emerging index methodology requires constituents to be custody-eligible, excludes meme coins, and applies a protocol-usage screen based on total value locked relative to market capitalization. At initial inclusion, assets that do not yet meet generic U.S. national securities exchange listing standards for crypto ETFs, but are expected to become compliant within 30 days, may enter with a combined weight cap of 10%. The index is designed to be investable and can be used for passive fund replication and derivatives settlement, extending CME’s earlier June launch of Nasdaq CME Crypto Index futures. CF Benchmarks said the emerging index can be licensed for financial products, investment funds or derivatives instruments.
Luno secures Bermuda Class F digital asset business license
Crypto exchange Luno said it has received a Class F digital asset business license from the Bermuda Monetary Authority. Luno described the license as a regulated base outside its core emerging markets and said it places the company alongside globally recognized operators including Coinbase, Circle and Kraken.
The company said Bermuda gives its B2B and institutional business a jurisdiction built for digital assets and modern payments, supporting the expansion of its crypto-as-a-service and global settlement products beyond customers in Africa and Asia-Pacific. The license allows OTC trading in cryptocurrencies, tokenized equities and commodities, and the rand-backed stablecoin ZAR Universal, which is issued by Luno sister company BlockTowerTech for institutional use. It also covers access to all tradable assets on Luno’s global spot market and wallet infrastructure for secure custody and transfers. Luno said that over 13 years it has built trust with millions of customers by putting regulation and security first, and that Bermuda is the next step.
Fogo mainnet halted for about 46 hours after foundation attack
Fogo’s mainnet had stopped producing blocks for about 46 hours since Saturday afternoon after the Fogo Foundation was attacked, The Defiant reported. Four million FOGO tokens, about 10.3% of circulating supply, were moved to an attacker-controlled address.
The foundation initially said the chain itself was unaffected. Fifteen hours later, however, the network was deliberately paused and a software upgrade was planned to restrict the addresses involved. Fogo’s official explorer currently shows block 718,525,971 as the last block, RPC endpoints return 502 errors, and DefiLlama’s tracked TVL has been frozen at $987,000 for three straight days.
The shutdown was made possible by Fogo’s validator structure. The chain is governed by a council of seven voting validators, and the foundation’s stake is split evenly among seven operators, allowing coordination within minutes to pause the network and apply client-level address blacklisting. On the exchange side, KuCoin and Gate have disabled FOGO deposits and withdrawals while keeping trading open, with about $2.3 million in 24-hour spot volume. At the same time, an impersonation account, @FcgoFNDN, posted a fake compensation-vote link on X. Fogo warned users to rely only on official channels.
Fogo was the second network over the weekend to halt operations voluntarily. Cronos had already rolled back state after the attack on lending protocol Tectonic. Before its January mainnet launch, Fogo sold 2% of supply on Binance and raised about $7 million at a $350 million valuation. The foundation has not yet published attack details, a compensation plan or a restart timetable.
Cronos pauses after Tectonic exploit, estimated losses reach about $75 million
Cronos, the network associated with Crypto.com, has paused after detecting an exploit affecting lending protocol Tectonic. Cronos Network said on X that it identified the vulnerability on Tectonic and halted the network. Tectonic said it was investigating and advised users not to interact with the protocol until safety is confirmed.
DefiLlama data showed Tectonic had about $121.7 million in total value locked and around $82.7 million in active loans before the incident. On-chain researcher Weilin Li attributed the exploit to price manipulation of the TONIC token. The attacker bought enough TONIC within 20 minutes to push its price up about 100x, then used the inflated collateral to borrow other assets from Tectonic in a pattern similar to the 2022 Mango Markets oracle-manipulation attack.
Li first estimated the attacker’s profit at about $66 million, then identified another attacker-controlled address holding around $8 million, lifting the total estimate to about $75 million. He also said only about $6 million was successfully bridged to Ethereum, with the Cronos pause preventing most of the affected assets from leaving. Crypto.com CEO Kris Marsalek said the company’s app and exchange were not attacked and that its security team is assisting Tectonic with the investigation.
Yorkville plans more than a dozen ETFs as it pushes into digital assets
Yorkville America, the asset manager behind Truth Social-branded ETFs linked to Donald Trump, is nearing a deal to acquire an institutional asset management company and broaden its product lineup, Reuters reported. The transaction is expected to close in September.
CEO Steve Neamtz said the acquisition would mark an important step in Yorkville’s strategic expansion, pushing the business beyond its current America First-themed ETF lineup and into broader digital asset management. He added that this is Yorkville’s first move into digital asset and crypto products. The firm has already filed applications and plans to launch about 12 additional ETFs over the coming weeks and months covering themes such as the digital economy and macro strategies.
Yorkville also disclosed the launch of the MANGOS Plus Index ETF, which will list on the New York Stock Exchange and NYSE Texas. It is Yorkville’s first ETF not managed under the Truth Social brand and is aimed at companies across the AI supply chain. The tracked index includes Meta, Anthropic, Nvidia, Alphabet, OpenAI and SpaceX, along with AI-related names such as Micron and SanDisk.
Kalshi permanently bans George Santos in platform first
Prediction market platform Kalshi has permanently banned former U.S. Representative George Santos, the first lifetime ban the platform has imposed on an individual, according to The Block. A disciplinary settlement filed Monday said Santos violated platform rules by trading contracts on whether he would attend the State of the Union and was fined more than $71,000.
Earlier, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission accused Santos of using public statements made in the two weeks before the State of the Union to influence prices in related event contracts. He separately settled with the CFTC for $35,000. Santos’ lawyer said he had already booked a hotel and flight to Washington because he believed he would attend. Santos represented New York in the House from January 2023 until the end of that year before being expelled over ethics violations.
As prediction markets reach into the tens of billions of dollars, insider trading concerns are drawing more scrutiny. The CFTC also recently fined former White House teleprompter operator Gabriel Perez $172,000 for profiting in Kalshi’s mention markets by using advance access to a Trump speech. Lawmakers have proposed several bipartisan bills to limit trading on nonpublic information, though none have passed. Kalshi and Polymarket have responded with steps including employment verification for traders in sensitive markets.
U.S. sold Anthropic shares seized from two SBF allies, but terms remain secret
The U.S. government seized Anthropic shares held by Caroline Ellison and Nishad Singh, two key allies of FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried, and sold those shares in 2025 to existing Anthropic investors. The buyers, sale price and proceeds have not been disclosed.
A court had previously ordered forfeiture of the Anthropic holdings. The government took possession of Ellison’s and Singh’s shares in February and April 2025. They had originally invested $10 million and $40 million, respectively, in Anthropic’s 2022 Series B financing.
As Anthropic’s valuation rose sharply, the value of those positions increased dramatically. UCLA professor Olav Sorenson estimated that at Anthropic’s announced $965 billion valuation in May, the combined holdings were worth about $4.17 billion to $5.03 billion. If Anthropic were to go public at a $2 trillion valuation, the stakes could be worth about $5.44 billion. It remains unclear at what price the government sold the shares. Estimates suggest the proceeds could have ranged from about $250 million to $1.1 billion depending on when the sale took place in 2025.
As of the end of June 2026, the apparent proceeds still did not seem to have been transferred into the FTX bankruptcy estate. FTX creditor advocate Sunil Kavuri said the money should be used to compensate victims. The U.S. Department of Justice said it prioritizes compensation to victims from forfeited assets, but information on asset sales and fund distribution is confidential.
Russia expects at least 4 trillion rubles in regulated crypto trading in year one
Anatoly Popov, deputy chairman of the executive board at Sberbank, said Russia’s regulated crypto trading market is expected to reach at least 4 trillion rubles, or about $46.43 billion, in its first year. The bank expects that figure to rise to about 7.5 trillion rubles, or roughly $87.06 billion, by 2029 as investors shift to the official trading system.
He said most crypto volume would still remain outside the regulated exchange structure, with about 20% in the first year, equal to roughly 3.5 trillion to 4 trillion rubles annually, expected to move through exchanges. The system takes effect on Sept. 1 and allows investors to legally buy crypto assets through brokers. Non-qualified investors can purchase up to 300,000 rubles in crypto per year through a single licensed intermediary and must pass a risk-awareness test. Qualified investors face a cap of 3 million rubles.
Official exchanges will initially be limited to Bitcoin, Ether and USDT, with other altcoins excluded. Exchanges may complete registration by July 1, 2027.
Public companies bought $513 million in Bitcoin last week as Strategy resumed buying
SoSoValue data showed that, as of 8 a.m. ET on Aug. 31, 2026, publicly listed companies worldwide excluding miners posted total net Bitcoin purchases of $513 million for the week, up 529.6% from the prior week.
Strategy, formerly MicroStrategy, bought 4,603 BTC last week at $80,318 apiece for about $370 million, taking its holdings to 845,050 BTC. It was the company’s first purchase in nine weeks. Japan-listed Metaplanet did not buy Bitcoin last week and has now gone seven weeks without a purchase. One other company announced a Bitcoin buy during the week. Asset manager Strive said on Aug. 31 that it spent about $143 million the prior week to acquire 1,800 BTC at $79,431 each, lifting total holdings to about 23,156 BTC. French Bitcoin treasury company Capital B said it raised €21 million, about $24.5 million, from investors and institutions including Adam Back for Bitcoin purchases.
At publication time, the group of tracked public companies held a combined 1,147,229 BTC, up 0.6% from the prior week. The position was worth about $89.6 billion and represented 5.7% of Bitcoin’s circulating market capitalization.
Binance sees $15.6 billion in monthly net inflows
DefiLlama data showed Binance recorded $15.6 billion in net inflows over the past month, a figure larger than all assets on Robinhood’s platform at $14.325 billion. Over the same period, OKX saw about $1.7 billion in net inflows and Bybit about $1.9 billion, making Binance’s inflow scale about eight to nine times larger than either of the two.
Analysis cited in the report said Binance’s lead reflects not only market conditions and scale effects but also a faster push into traditional-finance style products. The platform has recently expanded access to gold, silver, popular U.S. stocks, ETFs, tokenized equities and pre-IPO assets, allowing users to allocate across crypto, precious metals, U.S. shares and ETFs within one account rather than moving funds to a traditional brokerage.
BlackRock’s BUIDL regains top spot among tokenized Treasury products
BlackRock’s BUIDL fund has climbed back to about $2.8 billion in assets, moving ahead of Circle’s USYC to become the largest tokenized U.S. Treasury product, according to Bitcoin.com. BUIDL accounts for about 18.5% of the $15.1 billion tokenized Treasury market.
BUIDL launched in March 2024 and is managed by Securitize. It is now available on eight blockchains, including Ethereum, Solana, Aptos and BNB Chain. Each token targets a $1 net asset value and accrues yield daily through rebalancing. BUIDL was overtaken by USYC in March 2026 and reclaimed first place at the end of August. Its underlying assets include cash, short-term U.S. Treasuries and repurchase agreements. Moody’s assigned the fund an AAA-mf rating earlier this year.
U.S. Senate to hold procedural vote on the CLARITY Act
Bitcoin News said on X that the U.S. Senate plans to hold a key procedural vote on the CLARITY Act on Sept. 15. The cloture vote will require 60 votes to pass. If approved, the Senate would move to formal consideration of the bill, though that would not mean final passage.
The CLARITY Act is intended to establish a comprehensive federal regulatory framework for digital asset markets. At the same time, CFTC Chair Michael Selig said the agency can use its existing powers to advance limited crypto oversight, but those powers cannot replace the broader framework now under consideration in Congress.
SEC proposal on shareholder proxy rules moves to White House review
The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission plans to scrap rules governing when and how shareholders in listed companies may submit proxy proposals, according to Bloomberg. A notice released Monday said the SEC sent the proposal to the White House Office of Management and Budget for review last week.
The move is the latest step by SEC Chair Paul Atkins as he seeks to reshape the relationship between public company shareholders and corporate management. For now, the proposal remains under OMB review.
fomo acquires Mobula software and intellectual property
Social-first on-chain trading platform fomo said it has acquired proprietary software and intellectual property developed by on-chain data aggregation and infrastructure company Mobula. Part of the Mobula team will join fomo to help build in-house data capabilities.
The deal comes as fomo’s user base has doubled since early July to more than 1.9 million, with more than 30,000 new users added each day. Active users topped 1.2 million in August, and the app climbed as high as No. 3 in the iOS App Store’s finance category. Trading volume rose from $500 million in June to $1.5 billion in July, and August is on track to exceed $2.8 billion in monthly volume and about $17 million in monthly revenue.
Co-founder and CEO Paul Erlanger said the acquisition gives the company more control over its infrastructure as it scales. Mobula was founded by Sacha Marcus, who will join fomo’s engineering team alongside CTO Sacha Delhoux and infrastructure lead Cyril Conan. Founded in 2025 and based in New York, fomo is backed by Index Ventures, Union Square Ventures and Benchmark. The platform simplifies on-chain trading through a single account, with fomo Web accounting for about 25% of total activity, and it has rolled out social trading functions including Clans.
Other market and technology developments
Samsung may post first operating profit above 100 trillion won in Q3
South Korea’s Seoul Economic Daily reported on Aug. 31 that prices for HBM and DRAM used in AI accelerators remain elevated. Korea International Trade Association data showed DRAM export volume fell from about 681.7 million units in May to 591.74 million units in July, down 13.2%. Export value, however, rose from $11.428 billion to $13.552 billion, up 18.5%, while unit export prices climbed from $16.76 to $22.9, up 36.6%. Expanding HBM4 shipments to customers including Nvidia, along with lower early yields than HBM3E, have tightened overall DRAM supply.
Samsung Electronics’ memory division is reportedly set to allocate about 70% of its capacity to long-term supply agreements through 2031, mainly for Nvidia, Microsoft and Google. Mega Grid Supply data showed HBM3E 36GB spot prices at $2,100, about four to five times long-term contract prices, while HBM4 16-layer spot prices under mass-production coordination were about $3,500. Financial industry estimates put Samsung’s third-quarter revenue at 206.64 trillion won and operating profit at 116.38 trillion won, which would mark the first time quarterly operating profit exceeds 100 trillion won. SK hynix is expected to post 101.76 trillion won in revenue and 79.16 trillion won in operating profit. Samsung is also said to be considering converting its S5 fab line in Pyeongtaek from foundry production to memory as early as next year.
Altrata says the number of billionaires reached 3,795 in 2025
Wealth intelligence firm Altrata said in its latest report that the global billionaire population rose to a record 3,795 in 2025, up 8.2%, the strongest increase in five years. Total billionaire wealth increased 12.8% to a record $15.1 trillion, nearly one-quarter of the S&P 500’s total market capitalization. It was the third straight year of accelerating wealth growth. Average wealth stood at $4 billion, and median net worth was close to $2 billion.
By region, North America’s billionaire count rose 11.6% to 1,337, equal to 35% of the global total. Europe increased by nearly 8% for a second straight year to 1,081, or 28%, while Asia rose 6.5% to 881. The report said the AI investment boom has been one of the most important drivers of billionaire wealth creation since 2023, with that effect becoming more visible in 2025 and the first half of 2026.
Apple to complete CEO transition on Sept. 1
According to STAR Market Daily, Apple will complete its CEO transition on Sept. 1 local time. Senior Vice President of Hardware Engineering John Ternus will replace Tim Cook, who will become executive chair of the board and continue handling communication with global policymakers and other responsibilities.
Ternus’ first major task will be leading Apple’s Sept. 9 fall product launch event. New products this year are said to include Apple’s first foldable iPhone and a smart display able to recognize speakers and adjust content by user. He will also oversee longer-term product lines including camera-equipped AirPods, smart glasses, home security systems, robotic displays and wearable cameras.
OpenAI moves to end its Cursor model contract
OpenAI has informed SpaceX that it intends to terminate the contract under which it provides models to Cursor, the AI coding tool SpaceX acquired. The proposed termination date is Nov. 12, which OpenAI said is the longest notice period allowed under the agreement.
OpenAI said the decision was difficult because developers make broad use of its models, but it cited a lack of trust that SpaceX would use the technology within contractual limits, pointing to what it described as prior breaches by Elon Musk. It also referenced the use of OpenAI models in xAI training and contract issues tied to the X acquisition. Musk responded on X that he did not care at all and called Sam Altman and Greg Brockman frauds, accusing them of stealing from an open nonprofit. Musk was a co-founder of OpenAI and later filed a $150 billion lawsuit against the company before losing on timeliness grounds.
OpenAI had previously tried and failed to acquire Cursor developer Anysphere. SpaceX then acquired Cursor for $60 billion, with the merger completed on Aug. 15. Cursor co-founder and now SpaceX executive Michael Truell said Cursor sees OpenAI’s platform as neutral infrastructure and is in talks with OpenAI. OpenAI models account for 5% of Cursor user traffic. Anthropic co-founder Tom Brown said the company will keep expanding compute to provide Claude models on Cursor.
Asus and MSI sell out first batch of RTX Spark devices
Nvidia and MediaTek’s RTX Spark PC line is expected to launch this fall, and Microsoft plus more game developers have recently announced updates and support for the platform. Asus and MSI said their first batches have already sold out in preorders, and both are seeking more allocation from Nvidia.
Asus co-CEO S.Y. Hsu said channel customer reservations came in better than expected and the entire first batch has been booked. MSI Chief Product Officer Sam Chern said customers in mainland China, Taiwan and the United States have been placing orders actively, and the first batch of notebooks using the high-end N1X chip is nearly sold out in preorder. The company is asking Nvidia for more supply.
The RTX Spark super chip is built on TSMC’s 3-nanometer process and combines an Nvidia Blackwell RTX GPU with a 20-core Grace CPU under Windows on Arm. Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang said RTX Spark brings CUDA, RTX and the AI platform together in one super chip, allowing local agents, front-end models, creative workflows and RTX gaming to run on notebooks. The processors will come in the higher-end N1x and mainstream N1 versions. Actual pricing for N1x PCs has not been announced, though the market widely expects starting prices around 110,000 yuan. Launch partners include Asus, MSI, Dell, HP, Lenovo and Microsoft, with Acer and Gigabyte also expected to join. Nvidia recently announced at Gamescom 2026 in Germany that multiple game developers are bringing titles to the RTX Spark lineup.
Meme token leaderboard
According to GMGN market data as of 08:50 on Sept. 1, the top five trending ETH tokens over the past 24 hours were V4, UNI, MANYU, SAF and SHIB. On Solana, they were MACRODUCK, fone, solly, HeeHaw and TJR. On Base, they were Basecat, BASELINE, FLOCK, SOL and STONKEX.
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