PANews’ weekly roundup pulled together a wide range of crypto and adjacent-market stories, spanning AI, macro strategy, institutional views and Web3 developments. Among the biggest items, the reported Manus-Meta acquisition was reversed after a Ministry of Commerce ban, leaving Manus to resume independent operations with annual recurring revenue of $300 million and no staff departures, according to PANews’ summary. Riot’s $9.1 billion compute deal with Anthropic highlighted how bitcoin miners are being revalued as AI infrastructure providers rather than pure mining businesses. The selection also tracked major market and sector calls. PANews said U.S. stocks and gold rose together while bitcoin lagged despite ETF inflows, and cited views from Arthur Hayes, JPMorgan and Hash Global on liquidity, commodities and the late-bear-market setup. On the institutional side, the roundup featured commentary from Kalshi’s CEO, Bitwise’s CIO, 1confirmation, investor Lao Bai and VanEck’s research head. In Web3, ENS DAO passed its “Next Era” proposal, more than 78 projects had shut down since the start of 2025 after consuming over $900 million in funding, and Harmony suffered another exploit that allegedly led to the illicit minting of more than 3 trillion ONE tokens and a 38% price drop. The roundup also noted Kalshi’s talks to raise $750 million at a $40 billion valuation, Tether’s first full independent audit, and several other market headlines.

Tether CEO Paolo Ardoino pushed back on continued criticism of the stablecoin issuer after KPMG U.S. completed the company’s first full financial audit, saying some detractors still refuse to admit they were wrong about Tether. In an interview with The Block, Ardoino said he does not care about that criticism and argued the company has repeatedly shown it can withstand pressure. As an example, he pointed to 2022, when Tether processed $7 billion in redemptions over 48 hours, or about 10% of its reserves at the time, without pausing redemptions. Ardoino said many traditional financial institutions would struggle to handle withdrawals of similar size in such a short period. He also said criticism is not necessarily negative because it can make Tether better and stronger. Even if some critics see the company as a villain, Ardoino said he does not mind as long as Tether can keep serving what he described as 650 million users who rely on USDT, particularly in emerging markets. According to people familiar with the matter, Tether, as a private company, will not publicly release its audited financial statements. The company plans to conduct a full audit once a year going forward while continuing to publish quarterly attestations.

Tether CEO Paolo Ardoino said he is unfazed by continued criticism of the company even after KPMG U.S. completed what the report describes as Tether’s first full financial audit. In an interview with The Block, Ardoino argued that some critics still refuse to acknowledge that their past judgments about Tether were wrong, adding bluntly that he does not care. He pointed to Tether’s performance during a period of market stress in 2022, when the company says it processed $7 billion in redemptions within 48 hours, roughly 10% of reserves at the time, without halting withdrawals. Ardoino said many traditional financial institutions would struggle to meet a similar wave of outflows on that timetable. He also said criticism is not necessarily negative because it can push Tether to improve. The report adds that Tether, as a private company, will not publicly release audited financial statements, but plans to conduct a full audit every year while continuing to issue quarterly attestation reports. Despite the KPMG audit, debate over reserves, disclosure, and broader systemic impact has not fully faded.

PANews’ daily roundup on Aug. 14 collected a wide spread of crypto, AI, regulatory and market developments, led by Databricks closing a $5 billion strategic financing and DeepSeek opening global testing for the developer preview of DeepSeek Harness v0.1 under the MIT license. The report also said Tether completed its first full independent financial statement audit, receiving an unqualified opinion from KPMG U.S. for Tether International, S.A. de C.V.’s 2025 accounts. In U.S. regulation, JPMorgan was reported to have ended its banking relationship with Polymarket last year over regulatory concerns, while the CFTC scheduled its Innovation Advisory Committee’s first meeting for Aug. 20 to discuss crypto assets, AI and prediction market oversight. The project and corporate section included Binance Alpha’s planned Aug. 14 listing of KiiChain (KII), SharpLink staking $200 million in ETH through Lido, and DeepSeek’s API price update that will take effect on Aug. 17. The funding and market data portion covered Kalshi’s talks for a new $750 million round at a $40 billion valuation, AMD’s potential bond sale of up to $5 billion, Bitcoin spot ETF net outflows of $131 million on Aug. 13, Reddit’s upcoming addition to the S&P 500, several crypto company earnings releases, and whale address activity tracked on-chain.

Tether said KPMG U.S. has completed the first independent audit of the financial statements of Tether International, S.A. de C.V. for the year ended Dec. 31, 2025, issuing an unqualified opinion. The audit found that Tether’s reserve assets exceeded liabilities by $6.814 billion at the end of 2025, a milestone after years of scrutiny over the backing of USDT. The work covered the balance sheet, income statement, statement of changes in equity, and cash flows, and included physical inspection of the company’s gold bars as well as checks on transaction records, valuation, counterparties, systems, and evidence of ownership. Still, the development does not close the transparency debate. Tether has not released the full audit report, leaving open questions about disclosures, audit scope, related-party transactions, and the makeup of reserves. The report also comes as U.S. stablecoin regulation tightens under the GENIUS Act, even though the law’s audit requirements do not automatically apply to offshore issuers such as Tether. In that setting, the KPMG opinion strengthens Tether’s position, but it does not settle the broader issues around disclosure, reserve risk, or future compliance.

A broad set of crypto, AI, and macro headlines landed between Aug. 13 and Aug. 14. Bullish reported a second-quarter net loss of $280 million as digital asset trading volume fell to $32.6 billion from $58.6 billion a year earlier. Ethereum treasury firm Bit Digital said it bought 8,568 ETH for $20 million in the quarter and ended the period with about 164,310.5 ETH, while Sharplink said it will stake $200 million worth of ETH through Lido and hold wstETH with Anchorage Digital as custodian. Tether said KPMG U.S. issued an unqualified opinion on the 2025 financial statements of Tether International, S.A. de C.V., describing it as the company’s first full independent financial statement audit. Elsewhere, Gemini reported $45.5 million in quarterly revenue and a net loss of $107.7 million, Nakamoto disclosed a $48.7 million bitcoin-related digital asset valuation loss, and AVAX One said unrealized non-cash losses on digital assets drove a $35.1 million net loss. On the policy side, CFTC Chair Michael S. Selig said the agency’s Innovation Advisory Committee will hold its first meeting on Aug. 20 to discuss crypto assets, AI, and prediction markets. In macro data, U.S. July PPI rose 4.7% year over year, weekly initial jobless claims came in at 209,000, and CME FedWatch showed a 65.2% probability that the Federal Reserve leaves rates unchanged in September.

Strategy’s standing in major equity indexes emerged as one of the day’s main storylines after Bitcoin News said MSCI had proposed new rules aimed at “non-operating companies,” with a May 2026 simulation showing Strategy could be removed from its global investable market index. The consultation period runs through Sept. 30, a decision is expected by Oct. 16, and any changes could take effect during the November 2026 index review. Another macro headline came from the U.S. Treasury’s planned $25 billion 30-year bond sale, which is expected to carry the highest financing cost since 2001, while U.S. interest expense for the current fiscal year has already reached $1.17 trillion. Across the crypto sector, TRM Labs said only 281 of 1,343 crypto asset service providers in Europe have obtained authorization after MiCA took full effect. Forward Industries disclosed additional SOL purchases, Wintermute outlined a roughly $1 billion five-year push into AI infrastructure and high-frequency trading, and Bullish, Gemini, Robinhood Chain and Tether each released notable operating or financial updates. The day also brought project launches, new financing rounds for Kalshi, Databricks and several AI startups, plus fresh regulatory developments from the CFTC and SEC.

Tether, the issuer of USDT, has completed its first full annual financial audit, with KPMG U.S. issuing an unqualified opinion on the company’s 2025 financial statements. According to Tether’s announcement, the audit covered the balance sheet, income statement, and cash flow statement, along with transaction records, internal controls, ownership files, valuation methods, and counterparty information. KPMG also physically inspected Tether’s gold bars in storage rather than relying only on custodian records. The audit found that Tether’s reserve assets exceeded liabilities by $6.814 billion as of Dec. 31, 2025, setting a new high for excess reserves. The company said the result marks a step beyond the quarterly reserve attestations it has published for years, which differ from a full audit in scope and testing depth. Tether also disclosed broader business figures in the report. The company said it generated more than $10 billion in net profit in 2025, while net operating profit in the second quarter of 2026 reached $1.5 billion, largely from interest income on U.S. Treasuries and repurchase agreements. Tether put USDT’s market capitalization at about $183 billion, representing 61% of the $301 billion stablecoin market.