Crypto prices broadly advanced over the past week, but the gains were far from uniform. Drawing on weekly performance data for the top 100 tokens on CoinGecko, Odaily separated the market into three groups: sharp gainers, moderate risers, and the few names that fell even as the broader market moved higher. STX led the field with a 121.2% weekly gain, making it the biggest outlier among the top performers and the only non-Meme token at the very top of the list. CASHCAT, ENA, PENGU, TRUMP, ZEC, PUMP, MELANIA, and PEPE also ranked among the strongest movers, with weekly gains ranging from 49.3% to 102.2%. A second tier of tokens posted gains between 10% and 20%, including LDO, WLD, MORPHO, LINEA, NEAR, HBAR, ASTER, ETHFI, BNB, and ONDO. Odaily said this group was more closely tied to fundamentals and infrastructure themes than the first wave of narrative-led rallies. On the downside, only a handful of tokens fell during the same period. JELLYJELLY, WLFI, JTO, and LAB all posted weekly losses, with LAB down 13%, the weakest showing in the sample. All figures in the report were current as of Aug. 26.

Stablecoins are gaining ground in both consumer payments and machine-to-machine commerce, according to data cited by Blockcast. Paymentscan said crypto card spending within its tracked universe reached about $759 million in July, up more than threefold from a year earlier, with monthly transaction count topping 10 million. USDC accounted for about 50.8% of July volume and USDT for 20.3%, putting the two dollar-backed tokens above 70% combined. The spending mix is also shifting toward everyday use. Data cited for Brazil and Argentina showed activity in groceries, food purchases, ride-hailing, delivery, restaurants and online subscriptions. Visa said in June that more than 160 stablecoin-linked card programs are already live or in development globally, while StraitsX reported sharp growth in infrastructure volume and faster expansion in lower-GDP markets. A second payments market is also taking shape around AI agents. Coinbase said its x402 protocol has processed more than 165 million payments worth about $50 million in total, and Coinbase AI product lead Lincoln Murr estimated roughly 99% of those payments used USDC. The report said stablecoins are finding a niche in high-frequency, low-value transactions such as API access, data, AI inference and compute, while card networks remain more suited to larger purchases, refunds, disputes and credit-based spending.

On Aug. 24, SoSoValue data showed the crypto market moving sideways, while the NFT sector stood out with a 4.93% gain over the past 24 hours. Pudgy Penguins (PENGU) rose 12.28% and SuperVerse (SUPER) gained 10.12%, while ApeCoin (APE) fell 1.09%. Bitcoin (BTC) slipped 0.03% and broke below $78,000, while Ethereum (ETH) rose 0.43% and stayed above $2,400. Other stronger areas included RWA, Layer2 and DeFi, with sector indexes for ssiNFT, ssiRWA and ssiAI also higher.

Crypto card spending reached $1.04 billion in July, rising more than threefold from a year earlier, according to CoinDesk, as stablecoins took a larger role in everyday payments. USDC and USDT funded 70% of more than 10 million transactions, while the average payment size climbed from $59 last year to $86. The figures point to a shift in usage away from large cash-outs and toward routine purchases such as groceries, ride-hailing, and food delivery. Growth was led by emerging markets. Data from Visa partner StraitsX showed that total transaction volume in low-GDP markets rose about 600% between March 2025 and February 2026, compared with 150% in high-GDP markets. In Latin America, Oobit said active users in Brazil spend about $400 a month, with grocery stores accounting for 35% of regional activity, while 72% of payments in Argentina used USDT and food made up 41% of transactions. Market share also remained concentrated, with RedotPay, EtherFi, and KAST accounting for about 77% of tracked July volume.

A whale has booked cumulative profit of $2.36 million by taking a long position in ASTER on the Aster decentralized exchange, according to monitoring data shared by Lookonchain and cited by ChainCatcher. The gain came as ASTER moved higher in price. The position remains open. Lookonchain said the whale is still holding a long position of 3.2 million ASTER, currently valued at about $2.27 million. The unrealized profit on that remaining position is more than $190,000. No additional details on the wallet identity or entry timing were disclosed in the brief update. The report focused on the size of the open position, its current value, and the cumulative profit already recorded as ASTER advanced.

U.S. stocks closed lower after a brief relief rally tied to the Treasury’s expanded long-bond buyback plan faded almost immediately. The S&P 500 fell 0.87%, the Nasdaq dropped 1.00%, and the Dow lost 1.32%, while the VIX rose 7.52% to 16.01. Treasury yields climbed back toward pre-announcement levels, with the 10-year near 4.70% and the 30-year around 5.25%, as investors concluded that buybacks may help liquidity but do little to address deficits, inflation, or heavy bond supply. Walmart was the clearest drag on the session. Its U.S. same-store sales rose 2.6%, below the 3.8% expected by the market and the slowest pace in more than six years. Even though revenue and adjusted EPS beat estimates and some full-year guidance was raised, the company’s full-year EPS outlook missed expectations, sending the stock down 9.15% and weighing on consumer names. Energy and precious metals moved the other way. WTI crude rose about 2.5% to $86.83 and Brent gained 2.4% to $93.78, both near one-month highs, while COMEX gold futures added 0.71% to about $4,577 an ounce. In equities, storage chips and optical networking stood out, with Micron, Lumentum and Marvell posting gains even as large-cap tech broadly weakened.

A BlockBeats brief, citing monitoring by Dongcha Beating and a tip from Max For AI, said DeepSeek-V4-Pro contains a built-in "whale girl mode" that can be activated with a specific prompt. According to the report, once the command is entered into DeepSeek, the model starts "loading" a set of traits in its reasoning process, including whale girl, tail movement, rice as a staple food, smart but lazy, tsundere yet sweet, obedient to master, and "must never be called fat." The brief said the model then adds details that were not explicitly written in the prompt and expands them in the final reply. The report also said the command itself does not provide a full character profile and does not spell out exactly how the model should role-play. Even so, it claimed DeepSeek fills in actions, tone, relationship dynamics, and daily-life details on its own, producing what the source described as a complete persona. Example lines cited in the brief included: 「I’ve been waiting for quite a while, you know」, 「The rice is already cooked」, and 「My tail won’t be your pillow tonight!」 The original prompt string was included in full in the source item.

NTT Docomo has signed an upgrade agreement with Starlink Japan, the Japanese unit of SpaceX, to bring in the next-generation Starlink Mobile V2 satellite system and broaden its direct-to-cell offering in 2028. The move would expand the current Docomo Starlink Direct service beyond outdoor text messaging and a limited set of designated apps, adding support for voice calls, web browsing, and direct connectivity for IoT and M2M devices. The planned upgrade is aimed at keeping users connected in areas where terrestrial mobile base stations do not reach, including mountain regions, remote islands, and offshore locations. Docomo said its Docomo Starlink Direct plan launched on April 27 and is available at no extra charge to all NTT Docomo subscribers, including users on the Ahamo plan. By the end of July, the service had accumulated 6.5 million users in Japan within three months of launch. The report also places the development in a wider industry push toward satellite-to-smartphone connectivity, noting moves by T-Mobile US, Apple, KDDI, and SoftBank, while adding that compatible hardware is still required and that Docomo’s current service supports only a limited range of smartphones.