The Wall Street Journal reported that 1789 Capital, the investment firm where Donald Trump Jr. serves as a partner, is preparing to invest about $300 million more into prediction market platform Polymarket. The check would be part of a new funding round of roughly $1 billion led by 1789 Capital. If the deal closes, Polymarket is expected to reach a valuation of about $21 billion. The firm has already invested about $200 million in Polymarket and, after this round, is expected to become one of the company’s largest shareholders. The development puts fresh attention on both sides of the deal. On one side is 1789 Capital, a fund launched in October 2022 by Omeed Malik, Rebekah Mercer, and Chris Buskirk, and later joined by Donald Trump Jr. after the 2024 election. On the other is Polymarket, whose valuation has climbed in step with regulatory shifts, strategic acquisitions, and backing from major investors including Intercontinental Exchange. At the same time, questions remain over Polymarket’s economics. Revenue estimates from Sacra and DefiLlama differ sharply, and competition in prediction markets has intensified as Kalshi, brokerages, centralized exchanges, and on-chain protocols expand their own offerings. Even after regaining a compliant path into the U.S., Polymarket still appears to draw most of its fees and trading activity from international users.

Silicon wafer prices have recorded their first clear increase since the COVID-19 pandemic, according to an Economic Daily report cited by ChainCatcher. The price adjustment covers the full range of wafer sizes, including 6-inch, 8-inch, and 12-inch products, with increases starting at 10%. The report said market participants view this as the first wafer price hike in more than three years. Major Taiwan suppliers including GlobalWafers, Taiwan Speciality Silicon, and Wafer Works could see improved revenue and profit if the higher pricing holds. GlobalWafers said demand in some end markets has been improving and inventory conditions across the supply chain are healthier than before, though actual pricing still depends on product mix, specifications, and customer profiles. Taiwan Speciality Silicon said it has begun discussing price adjustments with customers as cost pressure and demand provide support, and it expects second-half operations to outperform the first half. Wafer Works said it is actively negotiating revised quotes and continuing to advance products tied to advanced packaging. Industry analysis cited in the report linked the latest round of price increases to an AI-driven recovery in chip demand, with both advanced-node and mature-node usage rising. Some 12-inch polished wafers have already adopted new double-digit percentage quotes, while 8-inch and 6-inch products are being negotiated in the same direction.

BlackRock has revisited Bitcoin’s role in institutional portfolios and argues that the asset’s long-term case has not fundamentally changed, even after periods of sharp drawdowns. In its report, the firm says Bitcoin still stands out for five reasons: its fixed supply as a potential hedge against currency debasement, its relatively low long-run correlation with traditional assets, its positively skewed return profile, a longer-term decline in volatility, and a market structure that has become more developed over time. The report ties Bitcoin’s appeal to a macro backdrop of rising government debt and persistent fiscal deficits in the U.S. and elsewhere. BlackRock argues that if major economies cannot deliver credible fiscal consolidation, assets whose supply cannot be expanded at the discretion of governments or central banks may gain strategic importance. It compares Bitcoin’s code-based scarcity with gold’s physical scarcity, while noting the two assets differ widely in history and market size. BlackRock also presents portfolio backtests showing that adding 1% to 2% Bitcoin to a traditional 60/40 U.S. stock-bond portfolio historically improved returns and Sharpe ratios, while leaving overall risk and maximum drawdown broadly similar to the original allocation. The firm nonetheless stresses that Bitcoin remains highly volatile, that historical simulations do not guarantee future results, and that any allocation should reflect an investor’s objectives, risk tolerance, and regulatory constraints.

Moderna and Merck said their jointly developed mRNA melanoma vaccine trial met its goal, setting off a sharp rally in biopharma stocks. Moderna shares surged as much as 176.97% on Wednesday and closed at $174, marking the company’s biggest single-day gain on record, according to ABMedia. Merck also rose more than 12.60% to $152.20. The report said the vaccine candidate, Intismeran Autogene, used in combination with Merck’s Keytruda, reduced the risk of recurrence for some melanoma patients. Leerink Partners analyst Daina Graybosch called the Phase 3 trial result “historic.” ABMedia also said the move lifted shares of BioNTech, AbbVie, Amgen, Eli Lilly and Johnson & Johnson. The outlet added that Moderna’s latest progress came after weaker COVID-19 vaccine demand had left investors watching its transition strategy closely, while recent sector rotation had started bringing capital back into healthcare and biotech stocks.

Moderna and Merck said an interim Phase 3 analysis of their personalized mRNA cancer therapy, intismeran autogene, used with Keytruda in melanoma patients, met both its primary and key secondary endpoints. The update sent Moderna shares up 176.97% on Aug. 19 to $174.38, lifting the company’s market value from about $25 billion to roughly $69 billion in a single session, while Merck rose more than 9% intraday. The regimen is designed as adjuvant therapy after surgery for resected stage IIB to IV cutaneous melanoma, aiming to reduce recurrence and distant metastasis rather than treat widely metastatic end-stage disease. The trial, INTerpath-001, enrolled 1,137 patients in a 2:1 randomized, double-blind design. Still, the companies have not yet released hazard ratios, confidence intervals, p-values, event counts, absolute recurrence rates, or Kaplan-Meier survival curves from the Phase 3 readout. Earlier Phase 2 data from KEYNOTE-942 showed a 49% reduction in recurrence or death risk and a 59% reduction in distant metastasis or death risk, but overall survival was not statistically significant. Questions around durability, manufacturing scale, pricing, reimbursement, expansion into other tumor types, and long-term safety remain unresolved.

BlackRock says Bitcoin’s drop of more than 50% from its $126,200 peak should be read as a positioning correction rather than a collapse in the asset’s long-term case. In a report published this week, the asset manager tied the move below $60,000 to cascading liquidations in an overleveraged market, with perpetual futures playing a central role in building speculative exposure before the selloff. The firm also said slower ETP outflows and weaker digital-asset treasury demand compounded the decline. Despite net outflows from spot Bitcoin ETFs in 2026, including $78.9 million from BlackRock’s iShares Bitcoin Trust in the week through Aug. 14, the report maintains that Bitcoin still fits a long-term portfolio role as a low-correlation diversifier. BlackRock argues that the recent rise in BTC’s correlation with broader risk assets reflects the unwind of excess leverage and should ease as speculative froth continues to clear. The report also compares Bitcoin’s performance after major macro and political shocks, including the COVID-19 outbreak, the 2020 U.S. election, the regional banking crisis, and trade-tariff announcements by President Donald Trump. BlackRock said Bitcoin often outperformed both the S&P 500 and gold in the weeks and months after those disruptions began, and said the same pattern has held in 2026 during the U.S.-Iran conflict.

South Korea’s tighter rules for single-stock leveraged and inverse exchange-traded funds sharply reduced trading activity, but a report released Aug. 19 by the National Assembly Research Service questioned whether that decline should be treated as a clear policy success. After the minimum margin requirement was raised from 10 million won to 30 million won under emergency measures approved on July 29 and effective July 31, average daily turnover in 16 single-stock leveraged and inverse ETFs fell from about 11.7 trillion won to 1.3 trillion won between July 31 and Aug. 10, an 89% drop. The report argued that lower trading volume does not prove investors now understand the products’ risks, nor does it mean losses will necessarily shrink. Instead, it said overly strict entry barriers could push speculative demand into overseas leveraged products with looser regulation. The report also pointed to Hong Kong’s variable leverage mechanism introduced last month as a possible reference point, while noting South Korea is pursuing parallel steps including a capital markets law amendment submitted on Aug. 11 and a simulation-trading requirement for new investors that takes effect Aug. 19.

Taiwan prosecutors have indicted 17 people in a major fraud case tied to BNT vaccine procurement during the 2021 COVID-19 outbreak. According to the case details, former Changhua Bar Association chairman Chen Yu-hsuan and alleged fake broker Li Yi-ru claimed they had access to procurement channels through Shanghai Fosun and could help secure BNT doses for TSMC and Hon Hai. Investigators said the pair used a shell company called Yuda to obtain a $30 million consulting fee from the Tzu Chi Foundation, equivalent to about NT$1.06 billion. Prosecutors have charged the defendants with fraud, money laundering, and tax evasion, and have seized more than NT$1 billion in cash, gold, and other assets. The case has also drawn scrutiny over why Tzu Chi did not report the matter earlier and over differences in vaccine budget figures. Tzu Chi said it had not realized it had been defrauded until investigators traced suspicious fund flows and later verified the transactions with the foundation. Former health official Chen Shih-chung said Tzu Chi was a victim in the case. Separately, York University associate professor Shen Jung-chin questioned why Tzu Chi’s budget for 5 million BNT doses appeared higher than the disclosed budgets of TSMC and Hon Hai, while also including a separate service fee.