On August 10, KBW increased its price target for Berkshire Hathaway Class A shares (BRK.A) from $695,000 to $735,000, marking a fresh high in the bank's valuation outlook.

PayPal’s decision to reject a $53 billion privatization offer from Stripe and Advent International has turned its upcoming earnings release into an immediate referendum on management’s standalone strategy. The offer, disclosed by Reuters on July 15, valued the company at $60.50 a share, a 28% premium to the prior close, and was formally rejected on July 20. By saying no, PayPal’s board effectively argued that the company can generate more long-term value on its own than the cash now on the table. That claim lands at a difficult moment. PayPal’s market value has fallen from nearly $360 billion at its 2021 peak to about $44 billion when the offer emerged, even as payment volumes across the industry have kept growing. The company still controls assets that buyers clearly want, including PYUSD, Venmo, its branded checkout network and data tied to agentic commerce. But investors have also seen years of shifting strategy, CEO turnover, uneven execution and slowing growth in core branded checkout. With second-quarter results due on July 28, investors are looking for more than a headline beat. They want evidence that branded checkout can reaccelerate, Venmo can keep expanding and newer bets such as PYUSD and ChatGPT-linked payments can turn into revenue. If those signals do not appear consistently, the rejected offer may continue to frame how shareholders judge PayPal’s future.

Several long-running centralized exchanges, including BitMEX, BitMart and AscendEx, have announced shutdowns in recent weeks, while other platforms have been linked to sale and merger talks. The article argues that this wave is different from past exchange failures tied to hacks, blowups or direct regulatory penalties. Instead, it reflects a tougher operating climate marked by slower market growth, weaker user activity, rising compliance demands and higher costs. Data cited from DeFiLlama shows liquidity and reserve assets clustering ever more tightly around top-tier venues. Binance alone accounts for 58.4% of tracked exchange reserves at $138.718 billion, while spot and derivatives activity also remains concentrated among a small group of major platforms. The piece also points to soft stablecoin inflows, with CryptoQuant analyst Darkfost saying exchange inflows have dropped to their lowest level since 2025. At the same time, TradFi-linked perpetual products have emerged as one of the clearest growth areas for leading exchanges. TokenInsight data shows monthly TradFi perpetual volume climbing from $52 billion in January to $268 billion in June. Against that backdrop, the report says smaller CEXs can no longer rely on generic listings and fee income. Survival now depends on licenses, localization, balance-sheet strength and product differentiation.

SCAN 2026, a digital asset tracing competition with a total prize pool of 2 BTC, opened qualifier registration at 12:00 p.m. Korea time on July 27. The event is being held as an official side event of KBW2026 with Upbit. According to Digital Asset, registration for the qualifier runs from July 27 at 12:00 p.m. to August 3 at 9:00 a.m. Korea time. The online qualifier will begin at 9:00 a.m. on August 2 and run for 24 hours, with the top 20 teams advancing to the final on September 28 at Monaco Space in Seocho-gu, Seoul. SCAN, short for Secure Crypto Asset Network, is designed as a hands-on competition for professionals focused on digital asset tracing and security. Unlike traditional cybersecurity CTF events centered on vulnerability analysis and system penetration, SCAN evaluates on-chain data analysis, transaction flow tracing, wallet behavior pattern identification, and blockchain forensic analysis. The event is hosted by digital asset information company D.ASSET, with blockchain data analytics platform Chainalysis serving as the CTF partner. Each team can include up to four members.

LMAX Group is working with Morgan Stanley and KBW, the investment banking arm of Stifel, to review strategic options that include a Nasdaq IPO, a sale, or a merger with a special purpose acquisition company, according to Techub. The potential deal could value the institutional trading platform at as much as $5 billion. LMAX runs venues for foreign exchange and digital asset trading, serving banks, hedge funds, and asset managers. People familiar with the matter said the company is not under pressure to list immediately. Even with weakness in the crypto market, its foreign exchange business gives the group a more diversified revenue base, allowing management to wait for more favorable market conditions before making a move.

PANews’ July 25 daily roundup collected a broad set of crypto regulatory, market, project, funding, and data developments, led by two market signals: analysts said stablecoin inflows to exchanges have fallen to their lowest level of 2025, while U.S. spot Bitcoin ETFs recorded a combined net outflow of $240 million on July 24, with BlackRock’s IBIT accounting for $212 million of that figure. The report also covered a Hong Kong court sentencing Xiao Rui, son of former Wuhan supervisory official Xiao Jun, to six years and nine months in prison in a money-laundering case involving more than HK$64 million; Thailand’s SEC filing criminal complaints against Bitkub Online and two former directors over disclosures tied to a 2021 theft; and India’s move to ask GitHub to remove repositories for Bitchat, an offline messaging app backed by Jack Dorsey. On the project and corporate side, PANews highlighted Robinhood’s talks with Crypto.com on prediction markets, Across Protocol’s post-mortem on a relayer incident, LayerZero’s plan to wind down support for 20 low-activity chains, Phantom’s scheduled end of support for Monad, BlackRock’s transfer of about 3,126 BTC to Coinbase Prime, Circle’s mint of 250 million USDC, and World Foundation’s $52.5 million strategic WLD sale led by Pantera Capital. The roundup also included updates on Anduril, LMAX, B2C2, Capital Group, ARK, Kinetic Group, Bitcoin volatility, and Hyperliquid buybacks.

LMAX Group, an institutional trading platform, has hired Morgan Stanley and KBW to review strategic options that include a direct sale or a Nasdaq listing, with the company potentially valued at as much as $5 billion. People familiar with the matter said a Nasdaq IPO is currently the preferred route, though a SPAC merger and a European listing remain under consideration. The report also noted that LMAX can afford to delay any flotation if crypto market conditions remain weak because it still draws revenue from its foreign exchange business. The latest valuation under discussion marks a sharp increase from July 2021, when J.C. Flowers bought a 30% stake for $300 million, implying LMAX was worth about $1 billion at the time. The information was cited by Techub, referencing crypto.news.

Tiger Research argues that crypto is no longer being carried by a single market-wide story in the way it was during DeFi, NFT/GameFi, Layer 1 and Layer 2 competition, or restaking cycles. In its latest report, the firm says attention and liquidity are shifting toward sectors that can show real user demand, durable activity, and measurable revenue rather than relying on token-driven momentum alone. The report points to five areas that best reflect that transition in the first half of 2026: stablecoins, DeFi, real-world assets, prediction markets, and meme tokens. Stablecoins are expanding from volatility shields into cross-border settlement rails. DeFi protocols are increasingly serving institutional borrowing, trading, and risk-management needs. RWA projects are moving from broad tokenization narratives toward efficiency and operational utility, with tokenized treasuries and stocks drawing heavier participation from established financial firms. Tiger Research also says prediction markets stand out because their growth is showing up in trading volume and revenue rather than token market caps, while meme tokens still function as a fast way to gather early users and liquidity even without clear long-term utility. Its broader conclusion is that projects able to survive this market are the ones with repeat usage, retained capital, and sustainable income. In that framework, token prices may attract early attention, but product-market fit determines who lasts.