DeepSeek completes first signing round in new financing
DeepSeek’s operating entity is moving ahead with a new fundraising round after completing the first batch of signings in Hangzhou on Aug. 10. The round is sized at 50 billion yuan and carries a pre-money valuation of about 500 billion yuan, more than 40% above the roughly 350 billion yuan valuation attached to the first round completed in June. The earliest cutoff for the first capital delivery is Aug. 30.
The financing comes with a minimum ticket size of 5 billion yuan. Proceeds are earmarked for compute capacity, model research, team expansion, and possible preparations for a domestic listing. The funding path is split into two channels: part of the money will go directly into the main DeepSeek entity, while part will flow into a limited partnership controlled by founder Liang Wenfeng.
DeepSeek had briefly paused fundraising contact at the end of July before restarting discussions in early August. Its new DeepSeek-V4-Flash formal release went live on July 31. OpenRouter data cited in the digest showed the model handled 7.22 trillion tokens in its first week, ranking first globally. The company has also signaled that it will raise API prices and introduce peak and off-peak pricing.
South Korean lawmaker moves to postpone virtual asset tax
According to MBN, People Power Party lawmaker Jeong Seong-guk plans to introduce legislation that would push back taxation on income from virtual assets by three years, moving implementation from Jan. 1, 2027 to Jan. 1, 2030.
Jeong said the delay would give policymakers time to complete a broader review of systems tied to taxation of virtual assets and establish safeguards that improve taxpayer predictability while preventing confusion in the regime.
Under the current rules, income generated from transfers or lending of virtual assets would be classified as “other income” starting Jan. 1 next year and become subject to income tax. Annual profit above 2.5 million won would be taxed at 22%, consisting of 20% other income tax and 2% local income tax.
The report said the People Power Party appears to be trying to win public support by backing legislation framed as protecting investors in the virtual asset market at a time when stock market turbulence and rising property prices have triggered criticism of the government and ruling party. The party has long disagreed with the government’s stance and has advocated scrapping the tax.
Coldcard exploit revives the self-custody debate
Forbes reported that losses tied to the Coldcard hardware wallet vulnerability have risen to about $130 million, involving roughly 2,000 BTC and more than 5,200 addresses. The incident has reopened a core question in bitcoin: who should hold the keys.
The report said some Coldcard firmware released in 2021 contained a random number generation flaw that made a portion of generated seed phrases predictable. The weakness surfaced years later. At this point, about 2,000 BTC tied to more than 5,200 addresses has been stolen, according to the digest.
Part of the market response appears to have favored Wall Street custody products. Bitcoin Magazine data showed U.S. spot bitcoin ETFs drew $626 million in net inflows in the days after the incident. Bloomberg ETF analyst Eric Balchunas said security failures like this could push more money toward ETF products.
Self-custody advocates have not backed away. Casa co-founder Jameson Lopp said recent events should not shake confidence in self-custody and argued that third-party custodians also carry risk. Early Bitcoin Core developer Peter Todd said self-custody has a stronger long-term safety record than centralized institutions.
Onramp co-founder Michael Tanguma offered a third position. He said both reflexive answers, whether that means Coinbase or an ETF, have flaws. Concentrating large pools of assets at a single institution creates a honeypot, he argued, while hardware wallets face risks tied to supply chains, firmware, and random number generation. Tanguma proposed a multi-institution custody structure in which several regulated entities each hold keys under a multisig arrangement.
That model is also disputed. Critics say multi-institution custody may improve security but introduces permissioned control that cuts against bitcoin’s original decentralization goals. As bitcoin moves deeper into pensions, trusts, and institutional allocation, the custody question remains unsettled.
Grayscale warns failed CLARITY Act could redirect investment abroad
Grayscale head of research Zach Pandl said that even if the CLARITY Act fails to pass, activity on major blockchains, demand for bitcoin as a store of value, and growth in stablecoin payments would not be hit immediately. Regulators, he said, could still fill gaps through rulemaking.
He added that the absence of comprehensive market-structure legislation could suppress new investment activity in the United States and encourage crypto firms and startups to move toward overseas jurisdictions with clearer frameworks. Pandl said the U.S. government would still support development of the crypto ecosystem.
Strategy co-founder and executive chairman Michael Saylor had said earlier that bitcoin would continue to develop whether or not the CLARITY Act passes, but the U.S. still needs regulatory clarity for digital assets. Senator Bernie Moreno said Democrats and Republicans in the Senate have concluded the relevant talks and a vote will follow.
Hassett says he would not replace Cook and favors lower rates or holding steady
White House economic adviser Kevin Hassett said he would not take the seat of Federal Reserve Governor Lisa Cook if she were removed over the allegations now under scrutiny.
Hassett said the allegations involving Cook are a matter for law enforcement review and added that he hopes she is innocent. Cook has been challenging efforts by the Trump administration to remove her from the Fed board.
On monetary policy, Hassett said that if he were part of the decision-making process, he would lean toward either keeping rates where they are or cutting them. He said inflation in the U.S. is easing and supply-side growth remains strong enough to support a looser policy setting.
Nscale prepares for a U.S. IPO
TechFundingNews reported that AI infrastructure company Nscale is preparing for a U.S. listing, with an IPO possible as early as September. The company has told prospective investors that it has accumulated about $51 billion in contracted revenue.
Goldman Sachs and JPMorgan are advising on the potential offering, though discussions are ongoing and the timeline could still slip.
Nscale was spun out of crypto mining company Arkon Energy and is focused on AI data centers, GPU compute, and energy infrastructure. In July, it announced a roughly $1.65 billion acquisition of distributed AI software company Anyscale, whose customers include Coinbase, Runway, and Bedrock Robotics.
Earlier reports said Nscale had completed a $2 billion Series C round at a $14.6 billion valuation, led by Aker ASA and 8090 Industries, with Nvidia, Lenovo, and Nokia participating.
Grayscale says alternative assets and generational shifts support crypto allocation
Pandl also wrote that the global alternative asset market has grown nearly sevenfold since the 2008 financial crisis, with private equity, private credit, hedge funds, real assets, and crypto taking a larger share of global portfolios.
Within that bucket, data he cited put private equity at about 29%, hedge funds at about 23%, and crypto at about 13%.
He said generational differences in allocation preferences may strengthen that trend. According to a Bank of America survey of high-net-worth investors, people aged 21 to 43 hold about 53% of assets outside traditional stocks and bonds, compared with 26% for investors over 44. With more than $100 trillion of wealth expected to transfer to younger generations in coming years, their preference for alternatives could provide a durable tailwind for crypto.
Pandl added that lower access barriers are part of the story. Crypto has followed a similar path, with regulated bitcoin ETPs and institutional-grade market infrastructure making exposure easier to obtain.
Decart in talks for sale at a $6 billion to $7 billion valuation
CTech, part of Calcalist, reported exclusively that Israeli AI startup Decart is in advanced talks to sell itself to an international tech giant at a valuation of about $6 billion to $7 billion, with signing possible next week.
Decart was founded in 2023 and focuses on real-time video generation models. It has about 100 employees and has raised about $450 million to date. The company completed a $300 million funding round in May at a $4 billion valuation.
The talks initially involved Nvidia and were said to be nearing completion before another giant entered the picture and the founders pivoted. Industry speculation has centered on SpaceX, though Amazon and Nebius were also described as interested.
Decart’s edge, according to the report, is the ability to generate video at far lower cost than rivals. Elon Musk has stayed in regular contact with co-founder Dean Leitersdorf since trying Oasis, a game built using Decart technology, in 2024. Sequoia Capital partner Shaun Maguire has backed the company since the seed stage. If SpaceX ends up as the buyer, it would mark the company’s first R&D center in Israel.
Fed chair Warsh completes divestiture of financial assets
Federal Reserve Chair Warsh has sold all financial assets he pledged to divest, according to the disclosure described in the digest. He signed a government ethics compliance certification last Thursday, and the document was posted publicly on the agency website on Saturday.
Warsh had previously submitted proof showing he had sold most of the assets covered by the ethics agreement. The latest filing shows the remaining holdings have now also been sold.
The digest noted that Warsh is one of the wealthiest officials in Fed history. He had pledged to divest stakes across several investments, but confidentiality agreements mean the underlying assets were not disclosed. Some of those positions were worth at least $100 million.
Coinbase reportedly bid $2.5 billion for BVNK before Mastercard won the deal
Fresh details have emerged on the sale of stablecoin infrastructure company BVNK to Mastercard for $1.8 billion. Early investor Concentric said Coinbase had at one point taken the lead in the auction and reportedly put forward a bid as high as $2.5 billion, but later pulled back.
Concentric founding partner Kjartan Rist said BVNK’s founders did not focus on price alone when picking a buyer and placed heavy weight on long-term partnership potential and cultural fit. In his words, Coinbase may have offered more money, but the chemistry was not right.
Mastercard, by contrast, was seen as a stronger match around payment infrastructure and stablecoin applications. It had joined discussions early, re-emerged as the primary buyer after Coinbase stepped back, and closed the acquisition at $1.8 billion.
Visa also competed. Because it had already invested in BVNK and held a board observer seat, Visa had some advantage, but it ultimately chose not to buy the company outright and instead stuck with an open strategy of partnering with multiple stablecoin firms.
BVNK was founded in 2018 and provides stablecoin payments, cross-border settlement, and treasury infrastructure for businesses. Concentric invested at a $4 million valuation in 2019 and realized a large return through the transaction.
Bybit sues North Korea-linked parties over 2025 hack
Bybit has filed a civil suit in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia against North Korea, the Reconnaissance General Bureau, and Lazarus Group in connection with the roughly $1.5 billion theft in February 2025.
Bybit said the court granted a preliminary injunction blocking the transfer or disposal of identified stolen assets during the case and found the exchange likely to succeed on the merits.
The complaint also names unknown individuals and entities holding or moving the relevant funds as John Doe defendants. Bybit said about $48.4 million has been recovered and another roughly $30.5 million has been frozen across more than 28 exchanges and custodians, together accounting for about 5% of the stolen amount.
The attackers moved roughly 500,000 ETH out of a Bybit cold wallet in February 2025. Most of the funds were later swapped into bitcoin via Thorchain and moved through mixers. Bybit said the civil action is moving in parallel with the criminal investigation.
Spot ether ETFs and spot bitcoin ETFs both post weekly inflows
SoSoValue data showed spot ether ETFs logged $245 million in net inflows last week, covering the Aug. 3 to Aug. 7 trading window in U.S. Eastern Time. That marked a fifth straight week of inflows.
BlackRock’s ETHA led the group with $203 million in weekly net inflows, bringing lifetime net inflows to $11.65 billion. Fidelity’s FETH followed with $24.154 million in weekly net inflows and cumulative net inflows of $2.12 billion. Grayscale’s ETHE saw the largest weekly net outflow at $4.7636 million, while its cumulative net inflows stood at $5.35 billion.
As of publication, total net assets across spot ether ETFs were $10.74 billion, with an ETF net asset ratio of 4.65% relative to ether’s market capitalization. Cumulative net inflows reached $11.46 billion.
Spot bitcoin ETFs recorded $854 million in net inflows over the same period. BlackRock’s IBIT led with $694 million, lifting its lifetime net inflows to $61.17 billion. Fidelity’s FBTC was next with $116 million in weekly net inflows and cumulative inflows of $10.04 billion.
VanEck’s HODL had the largest weekly net outflow at $53.4753 million, while cumulative inflows stood at $1.09 billion. At publication, total net assets across spot bitcoin ETFs were $79.5 billion, the ETF net asset ratio was 6.1%, and cumulative net inflows had reached $52.18 billion.
ZachXBT links U.S. woman to at least $5 million in crypto thefts
On-chain investigator ZachXBT said threat actor Tiffany Milanovich has been involved in at least about $5 million in crypto theft by posing as support staff for hardware wallet providers and centralized exchanges.
According to ZachXBT, one attack involved impersonation of Bitcoin IRA email support and led to the theft of about $1.2 million in BTC and ETH from a victim’s Trezor wallet. In another case, about $500,000 in BTC was stolen from a Coinbase account.
He said Tiffany handled the phone-based social engineering side, persuading victims to hand over access to their funds. ZachXBT also alleged that she later flaunted the stolen money on social media and in Telegram groups, mocked victims with recorded calls, and worked with other threat actors using phishing panels and instant-swap services to launder proceeds. Some of the funds remain dormant on-chain.
The threat actor known as “Tiffany” is also accused of gambling stolen funds in crypto casinos. Shuffle froze related accounts after reviewing evidence submitted by ZachXBT. He said he has chat logs, recordings, and on-chain evidence, and expects further legal consequences could follow. He also tied the case to John Daghita, known as Lick, who is accused of stealing more than $46 million in crypto from U.S. government-seized wallets.
Strategy sells 1,690 BTC for about $108.6 million
Public company Strategy disclosed in its latest filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission that it sold 1,690 BTC at an average price of $64,262, generating about $108.6 million in proceeds.
Michael Saylor later said on X that Strategy increased its U.S. dollar reserves by $650 million and repurchased $109 million of STRC. He said the move extended dollar duration by 143 days to 2.7 years and tightened STRC’s bitcoin credit spread by 10 basis points.
As of Aug. 9, 2026, Strategy held 840,447 BTC and had $4.65 billion in dollar reserves.
Moore Threads reports first-half revenue jump and plans H-share listing
Chinese GPU maker Moore Threads reported first-half 2026 revenue of 1.736 billion yuan, up 147.42% year over year. Net loss attributable to shareholders narrowed to 11.56 million yuan, improving by about 259 million yuan from a year earlier. Excluding non-recurring items, attributable net loss was 151 million yuan, down 52% from the same period a year ago. Second-quarter revenue came to about 999 million yuan, up 35.4% from the previous quarter. R&D spending reached 769 million yuan, or 44.3% of revenue.
The company said results improved on rising demand for AI compute and faster commercialization of its Kua’e intelligent computing cluster.
Inventory carrying value at the end of the period was 3.55 billion yuan, up 166.5% from the end of last year and the highest in four years. Moore Threads said it increased stock in anticipation of market demand. The company also announced plans for an H-share issuance and a main-board listing in Hong Kong, only about eight months after its December 2025 STAR Market listing. If completed, it would create an A+H structure, though the plan still requires shareholder approval and regulatory clearance.
Another Chinese GPU company, MetaX, started its own H-share plan in June. Moore Threads is also stepping up work on its next-generation Huagang architecture and the Huashan and Lushan chips. Net operating cash outflow in the first half widened about 86% year over year to 2.169 billion yuan.
Early Unitree backer’s return comes into focus
At the time of Unitree’s founding in 2016, angel investor Yin Fangming made a seed investment of 2 million yuan for a 15% stake, the company’s first outside financing.
After multiple rounds of dilution, the entity Junwan Hongyi controlled by Yin held 11.1749 million shares before the IPO, equal to about 2.76% of the company and making it Unitree’s tenth-largest shareholder. Based on an issuance valuation of 61 billion yuan, that stake would be worth about 1.685 billion yuan, implying a gain of roughly 1.683 billion yuan on the original 2 million yuan investment, or about 841.5 times.
UMX opens invite-only beta for combined crypto and securities trading
On Aug. 10, UMX, short for The Unified Market Exchange and incubated by Li Lin’s Avenir Group, announced an invite-only public beta. UMX is positioned as a crypto-friendly securities platform for professional investors worldwide.
The platform supports spot, margin, futures, and options trading for crypto assets, while also offering trading in real U.S. stocks, ETFs, and U.S. equity options. The goal is to connect crypto assets and real securities trading on one venue and improve capital efficiency across asset classes.
The beta focuses on moving funds between crypto and securities accounts, including stablecoin conversion and transfer, borrowing against non-stablecoin collateral, fiat deposits and withdrawals, and conversion between securities positions and tokenized stocks. UMX also introduced cross-asset margining, allowing wealth-management products to count as margin collateral.
During the beta, the platform is also offering BTC and USDT wealth products with annualized yields as high as 2.5% and 5.5%, respectively. Access is invitation only, though users without a code can register interest for the formal release and join an early-bird program.
Quantus founder says early quantum attacks may look like unexplained wallet theft
Christopher Smith, founder of blockchain startup Quantus, said the first visible quantum attack may not target Satoshi Nakamoto’s dormant bitcoin, which he estimated at about $63 billion in value. Instead, it may show up as a string of unexplained wallet thefts.
Smith said a sufficiently powerful quantum computer could derive private keys from public keys exposed on-chain, allowing funds to be moved without breaking into wallets, devices, or exchange systems. In highly secure institutions, the only forensic clue might be the absence of any sign of intrusion.
He said early quantum targets are more likely to be military systems and state secrets. In crypto, he argued, Tether’s minting keys may be even more valuable. An attacker with those keys could mint tokens out of thin air and dump them before the issuer reacts.
Google has already accelerated its post-quantum migration timeline to 2029, Smith noted. He put the odds of quantum computers breaking modern cryptography around 2028 at “50-50.” Some blockchains have already begun moving toward post-quantum signatures.
Sharplink posts a $394.3 million net loss in Q2
Nasdaq-listed Sharplink, ticker SBET, reported second-quarter 2026 financial and operating results. Revenue came in at $11.5 million, up sharply from a year earlier. Net loss reached $394.3 million, driven mainly by $321 million in unrealized losses on ETH and a $76.1 million impairment on LsETH and weETH.
As of June 30, Sharplink held about 886,881 ETH. Under U.S. GAAP, its crypto assets were valued at about $1.4 billion. The company completed a $75 million registered direct offering on June 23, using part of the proceeds to buy about 10,000 ETH at an average price of around $1,611, while also continuing share repurchases.
Prediction market Trepa to shut down
Prediction market Trepa said its final playable round will take place on Aug. 12, 2026, after which no new rounds will be launched. Referral and streak rewards already earned by users will be sent to Trepa wallets on Aug. 13.
The app will remain online through Sept. 30 for withdrawals and will become inaccessible after that date. Users with balances have been told to withdraw to their own addresses through the in-app wallet before access closes.
Trepa started at the Bybit x DMCC hackathon in November 2024 as a TON-based Telegram mini-app for polling predictions. It later went through multiple hackathons and shifted toward macro events and short-term crypto price forecasting.
Crypto.com and Trump Media revise prediction market plan
FX News Group reported that Crypto.com and Trump Media & Technology Group Corp., listed on Nasdaq as DJT, have revised the prediction market integration they had previously announced.
Instead of building direct prediction market functionality into Truth Social, the two sides will now pursue a marketing partnership under which Crypto.com promotes its prediction market products to Truth Social users.
Interim TMTG CEO Kevin McGurn said the company’s priorities are to improve Truth Social revenue, expand its global media business, and complete its merger with TAE, making a marketing agreement a better fit with current goals.
The report added that Crypto.com has been broadening its product range beyond digital assets and recently hired former OKX executive Iskandar Vanblarcum to run its prediction market division.
Robinhood rolls out crypto trading in the UK
Robinhood said in an official announcement that it has started offering cryptocurrency trading to investors in the UK. The service is provided through Bitstamp UK and offers trading in more than 50 crypto assets, including bitcoin, ether, XRP, and Hyperliquid. Robinhood said there are no trading commissions, account management fees, or custody fees.
The crypto service is integrated into Robinhood’s existing app alongside products such as stock ISAs, options, and futures.
The company also launched Cortex Digests, an AI analysis tool that uses generative AI to review news, market data, and technical indicators and provide brief explanations of crypto price moves. Since Robinhood Chain went live globally on July 1, DEX volume has exceeded $18 billion and total value locked has topped $840 million. Developers in the UK can build applications on the Layer 2 chain.
Robinhood said crypto trading through Bitstamp UK is not protected by FSCS or FOS and carries a risk of principal loss.
H100 completes acquisition of 2,455.4 BTC
Swedish listed bitcoin treasury company H100 said it completed a bitcoin acquisition transaction, buying 2,455.4 BTC at about $62,900 per coin and lifting total holdings to 3,506 BTC.
The company described it as the largest M&A deal in Europe’s public bitcoin equity space and the first “bitcoin-for-bitcoin” acquisition on the public market globally. The entire deal was settled in H100 shares, implying a share price of 1.86 Swedish kronor at 1x mNAV, with no cash consideration.
On a fully diluted basis, satoshis per share increase by about 5%, rising from 288 sats to 303 sats. The acquired entity holds no financial debt.
New York Times report links $100 million WLFI purchase to businessman under money-laundering scrutiny
The New York Times reported that World Liberty Financial, or WLFI, a crypto project tied to the Trump family, received a $100 million purchase of WLFI governance tokens from businessman Guren “Bobby” Zhou through Aqua 1.
Zhou was arrested in the UK in 2021 on suspicion of money laundering and remains tied to an active investigation, though he has not been charged, according to the report. UK court records allege he and five others took part in money-laundering activity that began in 2019. Two of his longtime employees were charged last September, and one has already pleaded guilty.
The report said as much as $75 million from the transaction flowed to a company controlled by Trump and his sons.
Other items in the digest
GMGN market data showed that as of 08:45 on Aug. 11, the top five ETH-linked hot tokens over the previous 24 hours were V4, LINK, PAXG, HEX, and CRV. On Solana, the top five were TOAD, CATE, RISK, ZEUS, and Remus. On Base, they were 1F916, BRIAN, UWU, Ballin, and ATLAS.
The ChainCatcher digest also listed several recommended reads, including pieces on the decline of the fat protocol thesis, pressure in South Korea’s AI market, changes in exchange listing practices, speculation as a starting point for financial infrastructure, U.S.-Iran developments, and the aftermath of a stablecoin operator collapse.