Digital Asset, the creator of the Canton Network, and former US House Speaker Paul Ryan’s American Idea Foundation plan to pilot a blockchain-based system for distributing state-administered benefits across three US states. The RISE program is expected to launch in the first quarter of 2027 and would combine multiple benefits into monthly or twice-monthly payments, with spending rules tied to categories such as food, child care and cash. According to Friday’s announcement, the system would automatically adjust benefit levels as household income changes and let participating agencies track payments, balances, spending and compliance data through Canton. Digital Asset said Canton would coordinate the rules, permissions and transactions used to distribute benefits while limiting access to sensitive information. Ryan said the pilot is intended to reduce penalties that can occur as recipients’ incomes rise. The companies did not name the participating states or specify which benefit programs would be included, and said the pilots remain subject to federal approval. The announcement also said Canton’s recent growth has centered on institutional finance, including government-securities projects, while Canton Coin has a market cap of about $4.1 billion, according to CoinGecko.

U.S. markets are heading into a high-stakes overnight window as two closely watched events land within hours of each other: a $16 billion sale of 20-year Treasurys and the release of the Federal Reserve’s July meeting minutes. The Treasury auction is expected to test demand at the long end of the curve, while the minutes could reshape expectations for short-term rates after the Fed held its benchmark rate at 3.5% to 3.75% in July even as three of 12 voting members backed a hike. The backdrop is already tense. The 30-year Treasury yield touched 5.327% Tuesday, its highest level since June 2007, and the 10-year yield rose to 4.747%, the highest since January 2025. U.S. equities have also fallen for three straight sessions. Analysts cited in the report said the worst-case setup for markets would be a weak auction paired with hawkish minutes, a combination that could lift the entire yield curve and pressure technology stocks, emerging markets and leveraged trades. The report also points to broader structural concerns, including a U.S. fiscal deficit nearing $1.8 trillion this fiscal year, total federal debt approaching $40 trillion, and rising bond supply tied to AI-related corporate borrowing. Similar moves in long-dated yields across Germany, France and Japan suggest the selloff is no longer a U.S.-only story.

On Aug. 19, the U.S. 10-year Treasury yield briefly rose to 4.75%, the highest since January 2025, while the 20-year yield climbed to about 5.28%. A Bitunix analyst said the move reflects a broader reassessment of U.S. fiscal deficits, inflation risk and term premium rather than just near-term Federal Reserve expectations. As long-end yields rise, funding costs increase across the economy, and bitcoin and other crypto assets remain exposed to shifts in dollar liquidity and risk appetite. The note also pointed to the Fed’s July meeting minutes, Japan’s possible policy tightening and Switzerland’s zero-rate backdrop as part of a global funding-cost reset.

AI enthusiasm got another boost this week after Anthropic and OpenAI reported strong financial updates and Nvidia pledged support for data center construction. The rebound lifted U.S. storage stocks and pushed the Philadelphia Semiconductor Index back into a technical bull market. Micron, SanDisk, SK Hynix, Western Digital and Seagate all moved higher, while Kioxia ADR jumped on gains in Japan. Analysts said the latest revenue disclosures from Anthropic and OpenAI, along with Nvidia’s financing role in AI infrastructure, are the main near-term catalysts for chips and memory names.

Nearly a year after Hong Kong moved ahead with its first Hong Kong dollar stablecoin licenses, industry sentiment remains cautious rather than enthusiastic. People close to the local stablecoin business told the author that Standard Chartered-backed AnchorPoint Fintech has shown a more proactive stance, while HSBC has been far less eager. Several licensed crypto exchanges in Hong Kong are also testing or participating tactically, but many do not yet see a clear path to profits. The report argues that the current setup has created a mismatch: some institutions that strongly want to explore Hong Kong dollar stablecoin use cases have not been given a leading role, while some institutions that did receive licenses or central positions are seen as lacking strong commercial motivation. That gap, in the view of market participants cited in the piece, has left the sector with licenses in hand but limited momentum. The article also places Hong Kong in a broader global context. Euro, yen and won stablecoin efforts are described as facing their own structural limits, from low market share and slow adoption to restrictive institutional design and unresolved regulatory disputes. Against a global stablecoin market of nearly $308.3 billion, with dollar stablecoins accounting for 98%, non-dollar stablecoins continue to lag.

Mizuho lowered its price target for crypto custody company BitGo to $11 from $14 while keeping an "outperform" rating, according to an Odaily report. BitGo shares were trading at about $5.61 when the note was released. The bank’s view stands out because it argues that delays to the U.S. market structure bill known as the Clarity Act, widely seen by the market as a negative for the sector, may actually strengthen BitGo’s position. Mizuho said BitGo already operates the first federally chartered digital asset trust bank owned by a public company, which means its regulatory standing does not depend on passage of the new legislation. In the firm’s view, the longer the U.S. regulatory framework remains unsettled, the more value BitGo can extract from its existing licenses and compliance lead. The report added that the Clarity Act is designed to establish a market structure framework for digital assets in the United States and define the division of authority among regulators, but repeated negotiations on key issues have kept the bill from moving forward. That delay, Mizuho said, could raise barriers for new entrants and make BitGo’s status as a licensed and trusted operator more valuable.

Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group (MUFG) said it plans to use blockchain to speed up settlement in Japanese government bond trades, with a proof-of-concept test set to run on the enterprise blockchain network Canton. The bank said conventional settlement in the bond market usually takes one to three business days, while the new setup is designed to support real-time delivery and settlement on a 24/7 basis. MUFG said the model could improve the operational flow and capital efficiency of repo transactions, which use securities for short-term funding. The group also pointed to examples in the U.S. and Europe, saying similar pilots have already moved into production. It cited JPMorgan Chase, which launched the Kinexys blockchain network in 2020 to bring intraday U.S. Treasury repo transactions on-chain and has kept the system running for several years. MUFG added that Japanese government bonds remain a preferred form of collateral for domestic and overseas institutions because of their high credit quality and strong liquidity. Separately, the group said its broader Web3 push is also moving ahead, including discussions with SMBC and Mizuho on the possible issuance and listing of a cross-border stablecoin by March 2027.

Sandisk used its Aug. 13 investor day to lay out a long-range financial model that sits well above market expectations and puts its in-house High Bandwidth Flash, or HBF, at the center of the story. The company said its long-term sustainable model, based on average performance across FY2028 to FY2030, calls for revenue growth in the mid-to-high teens, a Non-GAAP gross margin of about 80%, a Non-GAAP operating margin of roughly 75%, adjusted free cash flow margin near 50%, and capital intensity in the mid-single digits as a percentage of revenue. Mizuho Securities kept its Outperform rating on Sandisk and set a $1,900 price target, arguing that the company’s framework, buyback capacity, and exposure to AI infrastructure support upside. Sandisk also detailed the positioning of HBF, saying the product can deliver comparable read bandwidth to HBM at about one-eighth the cost, while offering 8x to 16x more capacity in a similar package footprint. The company tied that pitch to memory-heavy AI inference workloads and said HBF is meant to work alongside HBM rather than replace it.