A research report jointly published by Uweb and the TGG Stablecoin and RWA Innovation Center at Hong Kong Polytechnic University’s Faculty of Business argues that the global AIDC, or AI data center, market has entered a super-cycle of physical buildout. The report says demand is no longer a forward-looking narrative but already visible in hyperscaler spending and Nvidia’s data center revenue, with power access and grid connection now emerging as the real constraints on expansion. The study groups listed companies in mainland China, Hong Kong and the United States into four buckets based on how far their transitions have actually materialized, while also separating out native data center operators and major cloud or AI platform companies as reference cases. It finds that U.S.-listed Bitcoin miners converting to AI hosting generally carry more “substance” because they already control power, sites and cooling systems, while many mainland Chinese cross-sector entrants are starting from zero. In Hong Kong, the picture sits between those two, with native IDC upgrades and acquisition-led entrants both present. The report also flags several risks tied to the AIDC boom, including depreciation mismatches for GPUs, customer concentration under take-or-pay contracts, and rising leverage. On the financing side, it highlights public REITs, ABS and CMBS in data centers, along with early moves toward GPU compute futures, as tools that could reshape how operators fund expansion and hedge revenue volatility.

Serenity said Sivers could generate substantial revenue and gross profit even with a relatively small wafer allocation from foundry partner Win Semi, based on assumptions around yield and average selling prices. Under the scenario outlined, a roughly 10% wafer capacity allocation, paired with a 65% yield and ASP of $50 to $75, would translate into annual revenue of $341 million to $512 million for Sivers’ optical array products. Using management’s gross margin target of more than 50% to 60%, that implies annual gross profit of about $205 million to $307 million. At Sivers’ current market capitalization of about $1.1 billion, Serenity said that would put the company at roughly 3.6x to 5.4x gross profit. If wafer allocation rises to 15%, annual gross profit could increase to $307 million to $461 million, lowering that valuation range to 2.4x to 3.6x. Serenity also pointed to capacity expansion efforts, broader supply chain qualification since 2024, tight CW laser supply, and production progress with partners including GlobalFoundries, Jabil, Ayar Labs, POET, and O-Net. The note added that Morgan Stanley recently listed Sivers among the three core players in CPO lasers alongside Coherent and Lumentum.

Ethereum Foundation researcher Francesco D’Amato, known as fradamt, has announced his departure from the Ethereum Foundation and his move to Ethlabs, a newly formed protocol research and development organization. D’Amato spent five years at the Ethereum Foundation, where his work covered several core areas of Ethereum research. According to the brief update carried by ChainCatcher, those areas included MEV, consensus, data availability sampling, or DAS, and execution-layer pricing. The move marks a personnel change involving a researcher who worked across multiple technical tracks tied to Ethereum’s protocol design and performance. No further details were provided in the source about his new role at Ethlabs or the structure of the organization beyond its description as a newly established protocol R&D group.

The Cardano Foundation said Plutus smart contracts now have native support for BLS12-381 elliptic-curve cryptography, a change aimed at lowering the cost of verifying large numbers of signatures on-chain. According to the announcement, the feature allows thousands of signatures to be verified at low cost without relying on off-chain services. The mechanism uses signature aggregation to compress multisignature approvals into a single proof, keeping on-chain verification costs constant. The functionality is scheduled to go live with Protocol Version 11, which is planned for release in May 2026. The foundation said the upgrade is intended for use cases including multisig custody and cross-chain bridges. CryptoBriefing was cited in the original report.

On July 16, Serenity said the decline in storage and AI-related stocks may be tied more to deleveraging pressure than to company-specific deterioration. The comment came after Micron Technology announced a long-term memory agreement with Qualcomm, yet Micron shares still fell 5.37% after the news was released. In Serenity’s view, that price action does not point to fresh problems within storage or AI names themselves, especially as multiple structural agreements continue to be put in place. Instead, the move may be more consistent with a late-stage unwind driven by leverage reduction and a chain of margin liquidations. The remarks frame the sell-off as a market-structure event rather than a direct reflection of weakening business fundamentals in the sector.

Dubai-based crypto trading platform Quote Trade said it has completed a $4 million funding round, according to a report cited by ChainCatcher. The company said the new capital will be used across several operating priorities rather than a single product line. Those plans include expanding support for more blockchains and digital assets, strengthening its liquidity partnerships, and hiring for both engineering and trading roles. Quote Trade also said it will keep building infrastructure aimed at both human traders and AI trading agents. The announcement did not disclose further details about the financing, including the investors involved or the round structure.

Crypto infrastructure and capital markets firm Keyrock has completed its acquisition of the institutional trading and brokerage business of BlockFills, according to The Block. The deal gives Keyrock access to BlockFills’ trading technology, institutional client relationships, and a seasoned team of derivatives traders. Keyrock said the acquisition also expands its regulatory footprint by adding a CIMA-registered entity in the Cayman Islands, while the company plans to seek authorization from the UK Financial Conduct Authority, or FCA. The company did not disclose the purchase price in its announcement. Earlier court filings and prior reporting had indicated that Keyrock was selected in BlockFills’ bankruptcy restructuring process with a $3.25 million bid. Chicago-based BlockFills filed for bankruptcy protection in early 2026 after suffering major losses tied to the crypto market crash in February. The transaction adds operating and regulatory assets to Keyrock as it expands its institutional trading business.

New research from the Cambridge Centre for Alternative Finance found that about 31% of Ethereum node activity is located in the United States, while roughly 39% sits in the European Union excluding the U.K., pointing to a geographic footprint that remains concentrated in Western countries. The study’s lead researcher, Alexander Neumuller, said node distribution is not concentrated in a single country, but the network still relies heavily on a small group of cloud providers, including Hetzner, Amazon Web Services and OVH. The report also highlighted a key operational threshold for Ethereum: the network does not need half of validators to fail before trouble begins, and finalization may stop if more than one-third of validators go offline at the same time. Separately, the study revisited Ethereum’s energy profile after The Merge, estimating annual electricity consumption at about 7.9 GWh, or around 1 megawatt of continuous power, equal to about 0.02% of pre-Merge levels. That implies a decline of roughly 99.98%, with sustainable energy use now above 56%, according to the report.