PANews’ July 31 daily roundup covered a broad set of developments across regulation, AI, listed companies, crypto markets, fundraising, and large trader activity. The list included ByteDance’s release of the Seedance 2.5 video model, a record one-day closing gain for South Korea’s KOSPI, fresh earnings from Strategy and Coinbase, and a lawsuit filed by New York’s attorney general against Kalshi.
Regulation and macro
New York’s attorney general has sued Kalshi, accusing the prediction market platform of operating an illegal gambling business and seeking at least $36 billion in damages.
Jiang Yi, director of the Policy Research Office at China’s National Development and Reform Commission, said at a press briefing that institutions estimate computing network construction during the “15th Five-Year Plan” period will add 4 trillion yuan in direct investment. He said computing buildout is mainly driven by corporate investment and would create significant room for private capital.
Company and project updates
CSOP said its 2x long SK hynix product is expected to maintain 2x leverage under current market conditions and has not hit an extreme deleveraging scenario. The product drew market attention after sharp price swings. As of July 30, SK hynix had fallen 49% from its June high, the product’s net asset value had retreated by more than 80%, and assets had shrunk by about HK$100 billion from HK$130 billion. CSOP said that starting Aug. 3, leveraged and inverse products linked to 12 stocks including SK hynix will shift to a “flexible leverage structure.” The firm added that fund managers will not proactively change leverage multiples and will publish the target leverage level before each trading day opens.
Japan’s Kioxia reported first-quarter operating profit of 1.27 trillion yen, up from 44.90 billion yen a year earlier but below the 1.37 trillion yen market forecast. Net profit came in at 842.17 billion yen, versus 18.28 billion yen a year ago and below the 973.81 billion yen expectation. Kioxia also announced a 1-for-3 stock split and a share buyback plan.
Volcano Engine said its new Seedance 2.5 video generation model has officially launched. XCMG Group, XPeng, AgiBot, Lingchu Intelligence, Weifen Zhifei, Qiongche Intelligence, and XsparkAI have reached cooperation intentions with Volcano Engine and will be among the first adopters.
ByteDance said Seedance 2.5 can generate a high-quality 30-second video clip in a single run. The model will roll out to Jimeng AI and the professional version of Doubao, and API access will be connected to Volcano Ark in the near term.
DeepSeek said in an update log that the production API for DeepSeek-V4-Flash has entered public beta. The model structure and size are unchanged from the preview version, with only post-training redone. DeepSeek added that the production release of DeepSeek-V4-Pro will follow as soon as possible.
Block said it traced a Coldcard wallet theft incident to a random number generation flaw affecting Mk2 through Mk5 devices and advised affected users to move funds to new wallets that are not impacted. Earlier, roughly 594 BTC had been moved in a concentrated transfer from 500 single-signature addresses, and Coinkite had warned that seed phrases generated by Coldcard Mk3 devices could face theft risk.
Tesla China denied reports claiming the company was considering spinning off its China business to pave the way for a potential future merger with SpaceX. Elon Musk also called the report fake news.
Situational Awareness, the hedge fund founded by former OpenAI researcher Leopold Aschenbrenner, has been forced into urgent position unwinds after large losses on AI stocks and short software trades, according to the roundup. The fund’s size briefly reached $45 billion in early July before the losses hit. Most of its stock portfolio has been sold to Citadel, the investment firm founded by Ken Griffin.
Tesla China also announced that its 2026.14.13 vehicle software update has officially introduced the Doubao large model as an in-car voice assistant. The feature supports multiple premium voices and customized roles and requires the premium in-car entertainment service.
Strategy posted a second-quarter net loss of $8.2 billion, with almost all of the loss tied to unrealized mark-to-market losses on its Bitcoin holdings. Its Bitcoin holdings rose 11% to a peak of 846,000 BTC, after which the company began reducing holdings. Strategy has paused Bitcoin purchases for five consecutive weeks while prioritizing U.S. dollar cash reserves. This year it has sold about $218 million worth of Bitcoin to fund preferred stock dividends. The company has formally adopted a digital credit capital framework, plans to maintain a minimum dollar reserve covering at least 12 months of preferred dividends and interest, and has authorized a Bitcoin sale program of up to $1.25 billion. Its dollar reserve now stands at $3.75 billion, enough to cover roughly two years of preferred dividends and interest.
Meta said it has committed nearly $700 billion in future spending through long- and short-term agreements tied to AI data centers and cloud computing. The company has $349.3 billion in non-cancelable contractual commitments, mainly involving third-party cloud service agreements and server and network infrastructure. It also has $347 billion in lease commitments that have not yet started, including $68 billion added in July alone, with payments set to begin in 2027 and 2028.
Ethereum Institutional, a nonprofit tied to the Ethereum ecosystem, said stablecoin Open USD will deploy on the Ethereum network on day one. The project has support from more than 140 institutions, including Visa, Mastercard, Stripe, BlackRock, and Bank of New York Mellon, and all reserve yield will go to partners that drive its growth.
IBM said its research shows quantum computers have entered the “quantum advantage” stage, meaning they can carry out tasks beyond the capability of classical computers and produce verifiable results. The findings were published in three papers completed with research partners including the University of Chicago and Japan’s RIKEN. The head of IBM Research said the focus has now shifted to using these systems for scientific research and real-world applications.
Coinbase reported second-quarter revenue of $1.22 billion, below the $1.29 billion market forecast, and its shares fell about 5% after hours. Transaction revenue was $599 million, while subscription and services revenue was $555 million. The company added 819 BTC in the quarter, bringing total holdings to 17,211 BTC. Coinbase’s CEO said the company’s share of the global crypto trading market reached a record 10.3%. Its CFO said market conditions were challenging and total revenue fell 14% quarter over quarter. The company said 88% of net revenue came from non-Bitcoin spot trading and that adjusted EBITDA has been positive for 14 straight quarters.
Fundraising
AI startup Simile raised $200 million in a Series B round at a $2 billion valuation. The round was led by Greenoaks, with participation from Index Ventures, Hanabi, Bain Capital Ventures, A*, Factory, Definition, and CVS Health Ventures. Simile was founded by Stanford PhD Joon Sung Park, whose doctoral project “Smallville” simulated human life through AI agents. The company aims to simulate users for marketing and product research.
Physical AI platform Quantum Dynamics completed a seed round worth more than 100 million yuan, with Yunqi Capital and SenseTime participating. Its founder was previously CTO of Cainiao Group. The company said the funds will go toward core technology research and development, talent building, and global market expansion. Quantum Dynamics was established in the first half of 2026 and focuses on integrating AI with the physical world.
Views and market commentary
Strategy founder Michael Saylor said on the earnings call that the goal is to bring STRC back to peg around Sept. 8. He said that when STRC first listed, it took about 70 trading days to return to par. Counting 70 trading days from May 28, when it fell below its trading range, points to roughly Sept. 8, and he said the company has ample means to restore it to par value.
One analysis cited in the roundup said Bitcoin volatility has dropped to a six-month low as the asset trades in a narrow range. Average daily trading volume this month has fallen to $2.2 billion, the lowest since November 2023, while Bollinger Bands have narrowed to their tightest level since January. The analyst said volatility is cyclical and that extended calm in price action often comes before a strong directional move.
Crypto market maker Wintermute said the next altcoin season may produce only a small number of winners. In the first half of 2026, institutional clients accounted for 72% of Wintermute’s OTC spot flow, the highest on record. The firm said institutional activity tends to fade about one day after a price surge, while retail activity usually lasts about three days. It added that capital is concentrating in fewer tokens. The top 10 non-stablecoin altcoins account for about 80.5% of the non-Bitcoin, non-stablecoin market cap, and the top 10 altcoins make up 63% of altcoin trading volume.
Key data and market moves
Options expiry data for July 31 showed that 149,000 BTC options expired with a put-call ratio of 0.28, a max pain point of $64,000, and a notional value of $9.6 billion. A further 435,000 ETH options expired with a put-call ratio of 0.63, a max pain point of $1,850, and a notional value of $830 million. Total notional value reached $10.43 billion. The roundup said Bitcoin traded around $64,000 this week and that volatility in U.S. stocks had not driven fresh capital into crypto.
On July 30, spot Bitcoin ETFs recorded net inflows of $233 million. BlackRock’s IBIT led with $183 million in net inflows, bringing its historical cumulative net inflows to $60.604 billion. Bitwise’s BITB added $20.7388 million. Total net asset value for spot Bitcoin ETFs stood at $78.759 billion, with a net asset ratio of 6.06%, while historical cumulative net inflows reached $51.590 billion.
A CryptoQuant analyst said short-term holders now account for 23.5% of Bitcoin realized cap, a multi-year low, while long-term holders have risen to 52.5%, close to the 55% peak seen in 2018. The analyst said the drop in short-term holder share points to weaker speculative turnover and limited new capital, while the rise in long-term holder share suggests coins are aging and staying dormant. The analyst also said that this structure alone is not a buy signal and that price could still fall if demand does not return.
South Korea’s KOSPI closed up 17.91% on July 31 at 6,595.44, setting the largest one-day closing gain in its history. SK hynix rose 30% and hit its daily upper limit, while Samsung Electronics gained nearly 27%. The index was hit by sharp volatility this week and triggered marketwide circuit breakers twice. It is still down 22.4% for the month, the second-worst monthly decline on record after the 27.2% drop in October 1997, and has fallen 30% from its June peak. The PANews roundup also said the KOSPI had risen as much as 14% intraday at one stage, setting a record intraday one-day jump, and that the index later extended gains to 17% with SK hynix up more than 29%.
CSOP’s 2x long SK hynix product rose more than 70%, while SK hynix shares extended gains to 30% and hit limit up.
Roughly 594 BTC, valued in the roundup at about $38 million, were moved within 25 minutes from 500 single-signature addresses to one wallet. Balances were largely clustered between 0.15 BTC and 0.26 BTC, and many of the UTXOs had been dormant for years. Coldcard’s CEO denied a device-level flaw and said users may have imported seed phrases that were already exposed or weak. A Bitcoin security researcher said one victim lost only part of their UTXOs, which points more to a single private key leak than a full seed phrase compromise. The roundup said there is currently no evidence of a Coldcard random number generator defect or a supply-chain attack.
One trader turned $875 into $797,000 in a matter of days by trading MarsCoin, for a reported 910x return. The trader spent $875 to buy 26.96 million MarsCoin, sold 15.87 million for $314,000, and still holds 11.08 million tokens worth about $483,000 based on the figures cited.
Crypto mining stocks that have pivoted toward AI posted broad gains. IREN climbed 30.54%, Bitdeer rose 24.72%, Riot Platforms added 21.27%, CleanSpark gained 21.07%, and HIVE Digital rose 18.34%. The roundup cited analysis saying the rally was linked to the forced liquidation of Situational Awareness’ public equity portfolio, with beaten-down mining stocks rebounding after the liquidation became known.
A-share listed C Changxin saw its intraday market value top 4 trillion yuan, while its stock rose 14.3% to a fresh high.
A whale that had previously placed an $85.63 million leveraged long bet on an AI-theme rebound has taken profit. The trader made $958,000 on a 20x SP500 long, lost $485,000 on a 10x MU long, and made $872,000 on a 10x SNDK long, for total profit of $1.345 million. The roundup said the address has also placed orders to reopen long positions after a pullback.
U.S.-listed companies now hold a combined 1.24 million BTC, equal to 92.7% of all Bitcoin held by publicly listed companies worldwide. Over the past 12 months, U.S.-listed companies added 510,000 BTC, more than three times the amount of Bitcoin mined during the same period.
The roundup also noted that South Korean stocks had surged as much as 14% on Friday, with the benchmark KOSPI posting the largest intraday gain in its history, while Japan’s Nikkei 225 rose 4% early in the session and moved above 64,000.