A dense stream of updates hit crypto and AI markets between Aug. 12 and Aug. 13, spanning venture funding, protocol incidents, regulatory moves, exchange actions and large on-chain transfers. PANews’ roundup included Lovable’s $400 million Series C at a $13.3 billion valuation, Wintermute’s plan to spend about $1 billion over five years on high-frequency trading and AI data center infrastructure, and Tencent’s second-quarter results showing higher capital expenditure tied to AI spending. In digital assets, Harmony said it had traced fraudulently minted tokens across 409 wallets and was considering a rollback, while Solana briefly came close to a network-freeze threshold after a data center routing issue knocked nearly 29% of staked SOL offline. Anchorpoint also began the first phase of distributing its Hong Kong dollar stablecoin HKDAP, and Coinbase said it will suspend 10 perpetual contracts on Aug. 26. Whale activity remained active as well, including an Ethereum ICO participant moving 2,000 ETH to Coinbase, a wallet sending 2,300 BTC to Wintermute-linked deposit addresses since June 25, and a leveraged ETH trader closing out positions for a reported $4.3 million profit. The period also brought new product releases from Grok and DeepSeek, a major SEC no-action letter tied to Franklin Templeton’s BENJI fund, and fresh scrutiny of prediction markets from U.S. regulators and New York City lawmakers.

Coinbase has announced that it will suspend trading on a total of ten perpetual contracts on August 26. The suspension is planned for around 21:00 UTC. According to the official announcement, the affected markets are Memecoin (MEME-PERP), The Sandbox (SAND-PERP), Moonbirds (BIRB-PERP), Blur (BLUR-PERP), Katana (KAT-PERP), SPX6900 (SPX-PERP), ZORA (ZORA-PERP), Axie Infinity (AXS-PERP), Gensyn (AI-PERP), and LayerZero (ZRO-PERP). When the suspension takes effect, any remaining open positions will be automatically settled. The final settlement price will be calculated based on the average index price over the 60 minutes immediately before the trading halt. In addition, the funding rate for the last funding cycle will be set to zero. This last point means the final cycle of funding will incur a rate of zero, rather than a positive or negative charge. For traders still holding these contracts at that time, the automatic settlement is unavoidable and the price used will be based on the last hour of index values. These details give a clear picture of how the process will work.

According to ChainCatcher, Binance spot data points to sharp price swings across a range of tokens over the past 24 hours. The update shows MVLLB down 12.43%, while AXS gained 5.33% and touched today's high. Several tokens moved lower at the same time: SNXXB fell 16.04%, ALLO lost 7.42%, KITE dropped 6.9%, COOKIE declined 5.69%, and MUUB was down 6.97%. CFX touched a weekly low, with a decline of 8%, and COTI touched today's low, with a decline of 13.61%. The numbers are based on Binance spot market data and were flagged in a ChainCatcher newsflash. The report lists only these assets and does not give additional context about the reason for the moves. It also does not include volume or market capitalization data. The 24-hour percentage changes are the main figures in the update, and no other tickers appear in the original report. Taken together, the data shows a mostly negative session, with AXS as the sole gainer mentioned.

Metaverse investing is expanding beyond virtual land into tokens, index products, stocks, and ETFs. The source also notes that the sector remains early-stage and carries significant risk.

A ranking of P2E games based on verifiable products, tokenomics, and sustainability highlights Off the Grid as the best product but a high-risk token. Illuvium and Axie Infinity show mature economies. The sector is deep in a correction; key metrics are dilution checks and the fun test.

CryptoComLearn highlighted 10 metaverse crypto projects for 2025, spanning virtual worlds, blockchain gaming, NFTs, and 3D infrastructure, including Decentraland, The Sandbox, Illuvium, and Render Network.

GameFi sector climbs 4.64% in 24 hours, with Axie Infinity soaring 36.94%. Bitcoin holds above $88K while capital flows into high-beta altcoins. Analysts view the rally as a positive market signal.

Explore 7 affordable NFT projects in 2025, from Axie Infinity ($2) to autoRAD ($150), covering gaming, art, and community tokens. Includes tips on finding and buying cheap NFTs.