Uniswap founder Hayden Adams has reignited debate over automated market makers with his first blog post since 2019, arguing that AMMs can take over the world’s biggest markets once tokenized assets trade against each other instead of directly against dollars. His thesis centers on correlated pairs: if two assets move together, liquidity providers face less risk, making passive onchain liquidity more competitive with professional market makers. Adams compares that shift to the rise of index investing, citing the growth of passive funds and the concentration of trading power at firms such as Citadel Securities. The argument met immediate resistance. Brian Huang, co-founder of onchain portfolio app Glider and a former XTX Markets trader, said AMMs are structurally unsuited for traditional market making, pointing to execution, latency, gas costs, order-flow segmentation and impermanent loss. Other market participants pushed on different parts of the thesis. Bebop CEO Katia Banina questioned whether traders would actually want pairs like SPY/NVDA instead of dollar pairs, while InvestaX CEO Julian Kwan said regulated tokenized assets introduce issuer-controlled permissioning that limits who can provide liquidity. The debate widened to include Uniswap v4 hooks, routing economics, capital efficiency and the current share of DEX spot volume relative to centralized venues. Supporters framed AMMs as programmable market infrastructure; skeptics argued the model may remain useful in niche routing and arbitrage roles without displacing professional market makers.

VanEck said Bitcoin’s nearly 11-month pullback may be approaching its final phase, with the market potentially moving into accumulation. The firm’s researchers, including senior investment analyst Patrick Bush and head of digital assets research Matthew Sigel, said 8 of the 12 indicators in its "Bitcoin Capitulation Check" are now in capitulation territory. Over the past three months, all 12 metrics briefly fell into that zone at one point. The researchers said those readings suggest the market has already gone through a phase resembling "Bitcoin price capitulation" and may now be close to, or already entering, an accumulation period. As of Tuesday, Bitcoin was trading around $64,700. Since early June, it has largely moved within a $58,000 to $66,500 range and remains about 48% below its record high of roughly $126,300 set in October 2025. At the same time, U.S. spot Bitcoin ETFs just posted their strongest single-day inflow since early May, offering some support to the market. Still, long-term holders sold about 356,000 BTC over the past month, pushing their share of held supply below 60%, a sign that market structure remains in a rebalancing phase.

U.S. equities opened lower on Aug. 18, with AI and semiconductor names leading the decline. Micron briefly fell nearly 7%, TSMC ADR lost about 4%, and NVIDIA, Broadcom and Meta also weakened. The move followed rising oil prices, higher Treasury yields and renewed Middle East tensions, not a single earnings report or an abrupt collapse in AI demand. Reuters reported that U.S.-Iran talks stalled and Brent crude climbed back near $90 a barrel. That in turn revived inflation concerns and pushed long-dated Treasury yields higher, with the 30-year yield touching about 5.29%, the highest since 2007, while the 10-year yield held around 4.71%. Energy stocks rose instead, with XLE up more than 1% intraday. Still, the article says there is not enough evidence that AI infrastructure demand has turned. U.S. industrial output for July rose 0.2%, semiconductor production increased 2.4%, and Microsoft and Amazon’s latest results still point to strong cloud demand. Gold and silver did not rally either, suggesting investors were focused more on yields and the dollar than on classic safe-haven flows. The piece highlights three numbers to watch next: Brent above $90, the U.S. 10-year yield, and AI companies’ revenue, orders and free cash flow.

BlackRock used the latest episode of its The Bid podcast to examine how AI, geopolitics, digital assets, and tokenization could shape markets in 2026. Hosted by Oscar Pulido, the episode revisited key discussions the firm has had this year around those topics. The update, cited by Techub News, also points to BlackRock’s continuing push into digital assets through products such as its Bitcoin ETF offerings. As one of the world’s largest asset managers, BlackRock’s decision to highlight tokenization and crypto-related themes on its own media channel adds to signs that large traditional finance institutions are still actively tracking this part of the market.

BlackRock said Bitcoin’s investment case remains intact even after a roughly 50% price pullback. The firm also said that allocating 1% to 2% of Bitcoin in a traditional 60/40 portfolio could still improve risk-adjusted returns. The comment comes after BlackRock launched Bitcoin ETF products, and it was reported by Cointelegraph. As the world’s largest asset manager, BlackRock’s latest stance again signals that it continues to view Bitcoin as a portfolio allocation tool rather than only a trading asset.

VanEck said eight of its 12 Bitcoin capitulation signals are currently flashing, according to a post shared by Bitcoin News on X. The asset manager also said that all 12 indicators have entered capitulation territory at some point over the past three months. Even so, VanEck expects the current Bitcoin pullback to be shallower than past bear-market declines of 78% to 94%. It attributed that view to spot ETF demand, a broader base of institutional holders, and the absence of major failures like Celsius, Three Arrows Capital, and FTX. Bitcoin is currently down 49% from its peak.

Optical communications names in the U.S. stock market moved lower on Aug. 18, according to market data from BIT (bit.com). The declines spread across both sector ETFs and individual stocks. Roundhill Optical Communications ETF (LYTE) fell 8.27%, while Pure Photonics ETF FOTO dropped 10.07%. Among individual names, Optoelectronics (AAOI) lost 11.77%, Coherent (COHR) slipped 11.76%, and Ciena Corporation (CIEN) was down 9.94%. Corning (GLW), Marvell Technology (MRVL), and Lumentum Holdings (LITE) also posted losses ranging from 7.65% to 9.05%. The move points to broader weakness across the optical communications segment during the session.

Hyperliquid Strategies, traded on Nasdaq under the ticker PURR, was added to the Russell 3000 and Russell 2000 on June 30 after previously entering the S&P Global BMI Index. Following those index milestones and the launch of HYPE-related ETFs, newly disclosed 13F filings show a wider group of institutions either initiating or increasing positions in PURR, which Odaily frames as an indirect route to HYPE token and Hyperliquid ecosystem exposure. The filings highlight several notable holders. Duquesne, Stanley Druckenmiller’s family office, disclosed a $23 million stake. Renaissance Technologies reported roughly 2.4 million shares worth about $18.7 million. Slate Path Capital held around 2.7 million shares valued at about $21.4 million, while Discovery Capital Management disclosed roughly $10.3 million. Balyasny Asset Management held about $3 million, and Brazil-based Wealth High Governance Capital reported PURR accounting for about 1.82% of its portfolio, valued near $17.1 million. Odaily also points to passive buying after PURR’s index inclusion. Vanguard added about 843,000 shares in the second quarter, and Nuveen added about 1.07 million shares. MarketBeat data cited in the article put total institutional buying of PURR in Q2 2026 at about $142 million. The piece argues that interest in PURR has broadened from early crypto arbitrage firms to quant funds, hedge funds, and traditional Wall Street institutions.