Developments across crypto regulation, markets, project operations, and AI-linked infrastructure piled up between Aug. 6 and Aug. 7, led by a public denial from Dow Protocol over a fake fundraising claim and a decision in Washington to push a key crypto bill vote into September.
Dow Protocol says OKX Ventures investment claims are false
Dow Protocol said in a statement that claims saying OKX Ventures had invested in the project were false. The project said it plans to publish a list of investors this week and that OKX Ventures will not be among them.
According to Dow Protocol, a financial adviser who had known the team for five years created a fake group chat and arranged for people to pose as OKX Ventures team members. Dow Protocol said those people carried out sham due diligence, signed a forged investment agreement, and then charged the project financial advisory fees.
The project said it has preserved the relevant evidence and has taken legal action against the people involved. It also warned other teams to verify the identity of advisers and representatives through official channels, even when the introduction comes from someone they have known or worked with for years.
OKX Ventures also issued a statement saying it had never invested in Dow Protocol and that any claim saying it participated in Dow Protocol’s fundraising was untrue.
SoftBank secures $10 billion loan backed by OpenAI stake
SoftBank Group secured a $10 billion financing loan backed by its holdings in OpenAI shares. In its latest earnings report, SoftBank said it reached a two-year loan agreement on Wednesday with Goldman Sachs Bank USA, JPMorgan Chase Bank, Mizuho Securities USA LLC, Apollo Global Financing LLC, and Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation.
SoftBank said those institutions are the mandated lead arrangers for the facility and that the borrower plans to draw the funds this month.
Step App to shut down on Aug. 21
Step App said it will formally close after four years of operation, with all services set to stop on Aug. 21. Users were told to unstake all locked tokens and manage their exchange positions before that date.
The project said the platform recorded more than 1 million downloads, tracked billions of steps, and helped push forward the Move-to-Earn, or M2E, segment by connecting Web2 and Web3.
Unitree sets offering price at RMB 150.80 per share
Unitree said the issuer and the lead underwriter set the offering price at RMB 150.80 per share after considering preliminary inquiry results, the company’s investment value, peer valuations, secondary market valuations in the sector, effective offline subscription multiples, market conditions, fundraising needs, and underwriting risk.
The company said the offline offering will no longer use cumulative bidding. Investors were told to submit online and offline subscriptions on Aug. 10, 2026, the T day, without paying subscription funds at the time of application.
Binance Alpha launches blind box airdrop for AGT and AIA
Binance Alpha has launched a blind box airdrop using an upgraded Alpha blind box format. The reward pool includes Alaya Governance Token, or AGT, and DeAgentAI, or AIA.
Users holding at least 245 Binance Alpha points can claim one token airdrop on the Alpha event page on a first come, first served basis, with each claim consuming 15 points. After claiming, users are assigned to different reward tiers and can receive 1,870, 2,335, or 6,666 AGT, along with 432, 540, or 1,538 AIA.
If rewards are not fully distributed, the points threshold will automatically drop by 5 points every 5 minutes. Users must confirm the claim on the Alpha event page within 24 hours or the reward will be considered forfeited.
Analysts warn low BTC volatility does not mean low risk
Bitcoin’s 30-day implied volatility has fallen to a long-term support floor of 36%, with the price trading in a narrow range below $65,000, according to the update.
Adam Haeems, head of asset management at Tesseract Group, said: “When market volatility is low, traders can establish directional positions and hedges at relatively low cost. If the market then breaks through a concentrated positioning level, hedging activity can accelerate that move.”
He added: “The practical meaning is that low volatility should not be mistaken for low risk. Traders should be especially careful when using leverage, particularly when trading volume and market depth are low.”
On sentiment, Wincent senior director Paul Howard said demand for puts has weakened, but buying demand for calls is also lacking. Glassnode said: “This asymmetry is not put buying. It is the disappearance of call buying. No one wants to pay for upside, and no one wants to pay too much for downside either.” Howard said the next major catalyst could be “some positive regulatory news, such as the Clarity Act, which could show up in institutional ETF inflows.”
Cipher Digital sells 1,619 BTC and books a loss
Bitcoin miner Cipher Digital sold 1,619 BTC for $123.4 million and recognized a $47.7 million loss.
A filing cited in the update showed interest expense of $66.7 million and mining revenue of $24.8 million, a ratio of about 2.7:1. As of the end of June, Cipher held 646 BTC valued at $37.8 million. Quarterly mining revenue declined from $43.6 million a year earlier, and the company posted a second-quarter loss of $23.5 million.
Chainalysis says violent robberies cost crypto holders more than $30 million in H1
Chainalysis said in its latest report that violent robberies targeting cryptocurrency holders caused more than $30 million in losses in the first half of 2026. At the current pace, the full-year total could exceed the $58 million record set in 2025.
As of mid-2026, Chainalysis said it had recorded 30 publicly known cases, while the real scale is likely larger. France alone has seen more than 70 crypto-related violent incidents.
At least 109 crypto projects are set to shut down in 2026
As of Aug. 5, a tracker developed by CryptoSlate showed that at least 109 crypto projects in 2026 will shut down, cease operations, or remain inactive.
DeFi accounted for 28 of them, the largest share of any segment. It was followed by gaming with 15, infrastructure with 13, Layer 1 and Layer 2 projects with 12, other projects with 11, and NFTs with 10. Wallets, exchanges, and analytics products accounted for 18 combined.
Robinhood lists CASHCAT as Eightco details reserves
Robinhood has listed CASHCAT, according to its official page.
Nasdaq-listed Eightco Holdings, ticker ORBS, reported that as of Aug. 5 its treasury consisted of $90 million in OpenAI equity held indirectly, $18 million in Beast Industries equity, 16,278 ETH, nearly 302 million WLD tokens, and $142 million in cash and equivalents, for a total of about $378 million.
U.S. stocks open mixed as storage names and crypto stocks fall
According to Bybit market data, the Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 0.05% at the open, the Nasdaq fell 0.80%, and the S&P 500 slipped 0.03%.
Storage names were under pressure, with Sandisk down 13%, Western Digital down 19%, and SK Hynix down 7.8%. Crypto-linked equities also traded lower, with COIN, Coinbase, down 1.73% intraday and HOOD, Robinhood, down 1.20%.
Researcher says North Korean hacking campaign hit 1,640 companies in 57 countries
A security researcher who spent nearly two years inside systems used by a North Korean hacking group warned that attacks aimed at individual employees and contractors have been highly effective and wide in reach.
Greek cybersecurity researcher Vangelis Stykas said that since gaining access to North Korean systems 22 months ago, he has found evidence showing that 1,640 companies in 57 countries were affected by North Korean hacking operations. About 700 to 800 of the affected organizations suffered what he described as “highly destructive” intrusions.
Tom Lee targets 7,900 to 8,000 for the S&P 500 this month
Bitmine chairman Tom Lee said he expects the S&P 500 to reach 7,900 to 8,000 this month, implying as much as 3.6% upside from Wednesday’s close.
Lee cited strong technical momentum, faster earnings growth, and broadening market strength. He added that he remains bullish on semiconductors, software, Ethereum, and the “Magnificent Seven,” which the update described as AI-driven industry leaders, and said AI-led earnings growth should keep lifting 2027 earnings expectations.
Michael Saylor says ChatGPT helped Strategy raise $15 billion
Strategy executive chairman Michael Saylor said artificial intelligence is changing how wealth is created and that companies and individuals should use AI to amplify their own abilities instead of trying to compete with machines.
In an interview, Saylor said he used ChatGPT to help design a bitcoin-based preferred stock financing structure for Strategy and that the work ultimately supported roughly $15 billion raised through an IPO and related financing. “AI helped me create $15 billion,” he said.
Saylor said the edge in the AI era lies in asking better questions and using AI to explore opportunities that were previously unreachable. “Do not try to work harder than the robots,” he said.
He also said he has pushed Strategy to build a large bitcoin position and transform itself from a traditional software company into a listed company centered on bitcoin as a core asset. He acknowledged the strategy carries significant risk, while adding that major innovation often requires tolerating volatility and adjusting course over time.
Stripe is said to be in exclusive talks to acquire OpenRouter
Fintech company Stripe is in exclusive acquisition talks with AI model aggregation platform OpenRouter at an estimated valuation of about $10 billion.
People familiar with the matter said OpenRouter had previously received interest from several large technology companies, but Stripe has now entered an exclusive negotiation stage. The deal has not been finalized, and the terms could still change.
Founded in 2023, OpenRouter positions itself as AI infrastructure connecting users with multiple large language models. It lets developers call models from OpenAI, Anthropic, Google, and others through a unified interface and choose among them based on performance, price, and availability.
The source material said growing enterprise adoption of generative AI has raised the importance of model access infrastructure and routing services. OpenRouter provides model aggregation, traffic allocation, and cost optimization. If completed, the transaction would mark a major AI move for Stripe.
Nvidia weighs lower-memory Rubin Ultra GPU designs
Nvidia is considering adjustments to the design of its next-generation Rubin Ultra GPU by reducing high-bandwidth memory, or HBM, configurations to cope with tight supply of advanced HBM chips.
People familiar with the matter said Nvidia has tested at least three Rubin Ultra versions in recent weeks, with some carrying less memory capacity than earlier company plans. The idea of a lower-memory version is being considered because the market may not have enough advanced HBM chips available.
HBM is a core component in AI accelerators, enabling faster data transfer and supporting training and inference for large AI models. The update said HBM supply has become one of the main constraints on high-end AI chip output as AI compute demand rises.
DOJ says MyTrade founder fined $10,000 over market manipulation conspiracy
The U.S. Department of Justice said Liu Zhou, founder and principal operator of crypto financial services firm MyTrade, was sentenced in federal court in Boston to pay a $10,000 fine for participating in a crypto market manipulation conspiracy.
Prosecutors said MyTrade used its “MyTrade MM” platform to sell so-called “Volume Support” services to crypto projects, using bots to conduct wash trading across multiple crypto exchanges and create false trading volume and market activity to mislead investors.
Under the plea agreement, MyTrade MM has stopped providing the Volume Support service and permanently shut down the related bots. The company also added a statement to its website acknowledging that volume support constitutes wash trading and is illegal under U.S. law. The DOJ said the case was pursued by the U.S. Attorney’s Office and the FBI’s Boston field office.
MetaMask launches self-custodial Agent Wallet for AI agents
MetaMask introduced a self-custodial AI wallet called Agent Wallet that allows AI agents to execute on-chain transactions autonomously within user-defined permissions.
MetaMask said the product is aimed at traders and developers using AI agents for market monitoring, opportunity detection, and automated trading. Rather than giving an AI agent full wallet access, users can set transaction limits, specify accessible protocols, adjust risk parameters, and choose between Guard Mode and Beast Mode.
The wallet supports Claude Code, Codex, Cursor, OpenClaw, Hermes, and OpenCode, and it works with Hyperliquid and Ethereum Virtual Machine, or EVM, blockchains. It also includes gas abstraction, allowing users to settle gas with the traded asset instead of holding the chain’s native token.
Bernstein keeps $140 target on Circle after Q2 report
Bernstein reiterated its Outperform rating on Circle after the company released second-quarter 2026 results and maintained a $140 price target, calling the latest earnings a counterpoint to bearish market views.
Bernstein analysts said the market underestimates two long-running concerns: rising stablecoin competition and the effect of interest rate changes on reserve income. In their view, those concerns miss USDC’s long-term growth potential and Circle’s strengths in distribution, liquidity, and regulatory compliance. The analysts also said investors may not be fully pricing in future revenue from trading fees, partner ecosystems, and the Arc blockchain.
The report pointed to several infrastructure moves by Circle, including a U.S. national trust bank charter, the expansion of Circle Payments Network, and the planned Sept. 16 launch of the Arc public mainnet. Bernstein also said Circle raised its 2026 guidance for other revenue and post-distribution-cost margins and is expected to recognize about $180 million in Arc token presale revenue.
At the end of the second quarter, USDC circulation stood at $73.3 billion, down 5% from the prior quarter but up 19% year over year. Circle shares closed Wednesday at $63.28, and Bernstein’s $140 target implies roughly 121% upside.
Thailand confirms capital gains tax exemption on crypto trades through 2029
Thailand will exempt cryptocurrency trades from capital gains tax for five years, covering the period from Jan. 1, 2025 to Dec. 31, 2029.
The exemption applies only to transactions conducted through Thai SEC-licensed exchanges, brokers, or dealers. The policy is intended to attract investors and build a stronger digital asset ecosystem. Thailand’s finance ministry expects the move to generate about $1 billion in tax revenue per year by stimulating market activity, attracting foreign capital, and boosting domestic consumption. The deputy finance minister said the measure will help position Thailand as one of the world’s financial centers.
Other forms of crypto income, including mining and staking, will still be taxed.
OpenAI consumer device may cost more than $300
According to a report cited in the update, people familiar with the matter said OpenAI’s first consumer-facing device will use an unusual form factor and include movable parts, with a possible price above $300.
The device is broadly described as a screenless smart speaker shaped like a doughnut and roughly the size of a hockey puck. It is meant to be small enough to carry around the house in one hand.
OpenAI hopes the product, planned for release in 2027, will open a new category. The update also said the hardware could give OpenAI a chance to show that its design did not copy Apple, while the two companies remain in litigation over whether OpenAI misappropriated Apple intellectual property.
U.S. Senate delays Clarity Act vote until September
The Senate has decided to delay a vote on the Clarity Act until September.
The source material also said the bill had faced a key pre-recess test, with White House reaction and procedural voting in focus. In a separate item tied to the same legislation, Senators Thom Tillis and Ruben Gallego were said to have submitted an ethics provision to Trump last week requiring him to divest crypto-related business interests. The update said that could mean Trump may not have to pay federal tax on crypto gains for years, or potentially ever, saving millions of dollars in taxes. The provision was described as critical to the bill’s path forward.
Ondo founder’s mother seeks control of company
According to a verified complaint filed with the Delaware Court of Chancery, Kathleen Allman, the mother of late Ondo Finance founder Nathan Allman, is seeking control of the company and the removal of Ian De Bode as chief executive officer and president.
She alleged that in the days following her son’s death, De Bode installed himself as CEO without board approval and attempted to make himself the company’s sole director. She also argued that as the personal representative of Nathan Allman’s estate, she holds the controlling voting power in the company and has the right to restructure the board.
Base app will become less centered on Base, says Jesse Pollak
Base founder Jesse Pollak said Coinbase’s Base app will become less tightly centered on the Base blockchain as new leader Jordan “Cobie” Fish focuses on building a broader trading platform.
Pollak said the app had previously been more focused on the Base ecosystem, but under Fish it will broaden out and integrate assets and features from other chains. The source material said Cobie joined Coinbase after the company acquired his crypto fundraising platform Echo for about $375 million last year, and he took over leadership of the Base app last month. Pollak said he is now focused fully on the Base chain.
Pollak also described blockchain initiatives by rivals such as Robinhood and Stripe as validation of Base’s strategy, saying “the pie is big enough.”
Tokenized RWA deposits rise to $7.4 billion as overall DeFi deposits fall
A report from CoinShares and Token Terminal said tokenized real-world asset deposits on lending platforms and DEXs rose from $2.3 billion in the second quarter of 2025 to $7.4 billion in the second quarter of 2026, more than tripling, while total DeFi deposits fell about 15% over the same period.
The growth was driven mainly by traditional finance products, including tokenized Treasuries and multi-strategy funds such as JTRSY, BlackRock’s BUIDL, and sUSDS, followed by private credit products and delta-neutral strategies.
DEX spot trading volume fell about 70%, but RWA trading volume grew about 220%, with gold tokens XAUT and PAXG accounting for a notable share. In perpetuals, RWA trading volume and open interest kept growing even as the broader market slowed, with activity concentrated in oil, precious metals, the S&P 500, the Nasdaq 100, and semiconductor stocks. Ethereum accounted for nearly 70% of RWA deposits, while Plasma and Solana also gained share.
Wintermute registers U.S. broker-dealer subsidiary
Crypto market maker Wintermute has registered a broker-dealer subsidiary with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission and the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority, and it plans to expand into traditional equities and commodities trading.
Wintermute said the registered entity can provide liquidity to U.S. securities exchanges and over-the-counter counterparties and can trade stocks and options for its own account. The company also said it will be able to self-clear digital asset securities trades and act as an authorized participant for exchange-traded products, including products tied to digital assets.
The source material explained that broker-dealers can execute trades for clients as brokers or trade securities for their own accounts as dealers, while authorized participants create and redeem large blocks of ETF shares to help keep fund prices aligned with net asset value.
JPMorgan says Hyperliquid faces stronger competition
JPMorgan analysts said Hyperliquid’s market share is under pressure as regulated U.S. venues expand and competition in prediction markets intensifies. They also said inflows into HYPE ETFs have stalled.
The analysts pointed to two main challenges: regulated U.S. crypto perpetual venues could accelerate a shift in liquidity from offshore and decentralized platforms to onshore markets, and prediction markets are becoming more crowded at the same time Hyperliquid is expanding there to attract more activity.
The source material said HYPE ETF inflows cooled in July and August after hitting their strongest levels in May and June, moving against the broader crypto ETF trend, which saw heavy outflows in May and June followed by small inflows in July and August. HYPE is the fourth-largest asset in the company’s crypto reserves, after bitcoin, ether, and solana, and its outlook remains tied to ETF flows and trading activity.
On-chain movements include Amber-linked withdrawals, miner transfers, and HYPE distribution
An address suspected to be linked to Amber Group withdrew $9.97 million worth of tokens from Binance five hours earlier, including 38.89 million ENA worth $3.58 million, 28,262 AAVE worth $2.52 million, 1,140 ETH worth $2.18 million, 2,017 BNB worth $1.2 million, and 59,202 LINK worth $490,000.
In a separate update, bitcoin miners MARA and Riot Platforms deposited a combined 581 BTC into NYDIG about 10 hours earlier. MARA, which holds 36,303 BTC worth $2.34 billion, deposited 200 BTC worth $12.86 million. Riot deposited 381 BTC worth $24.51 million.
HyperLabs, the Hyperliquid development team, received 433,000 HYPE, worth $24.25 million, early yesterday after applying to redeem the tokens a week earlier. The tokens were then distributed to nine wallets early today. Based on prior unstaking transfer patterns, the update said the HYPE may move into centralized exchanges through market maker Flowdesk.
Sui outlines post-quantum upgrade path
Sui said it is advancing quantum-resistant protections and plans to add two native post-quantum signature schemes later this year.
The native account scheme will use ML-DSA-65, while high-value smart contract vaults will use the SLH-DSA-SHA2-128s hash-based signature scheme. Both are approved by NIST. The transition will be optional but seamless, with users keeping the same mnemonic phrase and deposit address while upgrading through a new derivation path, with no forced migration or asset transfer.
ML-DSA-65 accounts are expected to enter testnet by year-end, with full mainnet authentication targeted for the first quarter of 2027. The quantum-safe vault is scheduled to go live on mainnet before the end of 2026.
Uniswap adds auto-compounding liquidity mechanism to roadmap
Uniswap founder Hayden Adams explained the design of an auto-compounding liquidity mechanism for the Pools platform.
Under the design, once an LP position is deposited into a smart contract, anyone who increases the size of that position by 0.2% can claim all uncollected fees from the position. As fees build up, once they exceed 0.2% of the position value, searchers are automatically incentivized to execute the action.
Adams called the design “super simple” and “clean,” saying it is based on Uniswap’s token jar framework. He added that the same mechanism can be used for standard Uniswap LP auto-reinvestment and has now been formally added to the roadmap.
Hong Kong OpenClaw-linked stocks rise as Lumilens and Hadrian raise capital
Bybit market data showed that most Hong Kong-listed OpenClaw-related stocks moved higher, with MINIMAX-W up more than 10%, Zhipu up more than 6%, and NetEase-S and Tencent Holdings also gaining.
AI optical networking company Lumilens said it raised more than $700 million in a Series C round at a post-money valuation of $5.51 billion. The round was co-led by Atreides Management, Bain Capital Ventures, Meritech, Seligman Ventures, and Spark Capital. Total funding to date has now exceeded $900 million. The company said the capital will be used to expand engineering, R&D, manufacturing capacity, and hiring in photonics and large-scale networking.
Defense technology company Hadrian completed a $1.37 billion Series D round at a valuation of $7.87 billion. The round was co-led by WCM Investment Management, Washington Harbour Partners, Valor Equity Partners, 137 Ventures, and Baillie Gifford, with JPMorgan Strategic Investments Group participating as an anchor co-lead. Other investors included 1789 Capital, Morgan Stanley Wealth Management, Apollo funds, T. Rowe Price, CapitalG, Andreessen Horowitz, Founders Fund, Lux Capital, Altimeter, and Construct Capital. Hadrian said it plans to use the funds to build factories, expand R&D and production, and grow output for mission-critical systems including munitions and shipbuilding.
AI bulletin includes synthetic virus genomes, Google talent departures, and OpenAI model updates
A PANews AI bulletin covering the past 24 hours said a Stanford University team used generative AI to design 16 new, fully functional virus genomes that can replicate in the lab, marking what the source called the first successful AI design of complete genomes. The development was described as a “very important turning point” and also raised “urgent” safety concerns.
Another item said Google lost four core AI scientists within 24 hours, while its flagship model was delayed, cash flow turned negative, and all original Transformer authors had left. The source described it as the most severe AI talent crisis in the company’s history at a $4.6 trillion tech giant.
OpenAI, for its part, said it improved the GPT-5.6 Sol model in ChatGPT to increase accuracy and consistency, and opened unlimited GPT-5.6 Luna text chat to free users and Go plan subscribers. Free users will also receive a new “Think” button for handling more complex queries.