A long-form piece published by TechFlowPost argues that crypto venture capital is not disappearing after the speculative boom. It is being repriced. The article says the market now shows a split between strong top-line industry data and weak early-stage liquidity: institutions hold more than $175 billion in crypto assets through exchange-traded products, onchain projects generated $11 billion in fees over the last 12 months, and the sector logged $8.6 billion in M&A plus 11 IPOs. Yet Galaxy Research data cited in the piece shows only eight new VC funds launched last quarter, the lowest level since 2020, while quarterly investment fell to $4 billion, or roughly $16 billion annualized, about half of 2021’s $31 billion pace. The authors trace the problem to a crypto funding model built around early token listings and quick liquidity rather than durable business value. They argue that many token models failed because projects lacked real business models and token holders had no legal claim on operating income. In their view, the industry is now moving toward structures that tie revenue to tokens, including buybacks, while also reopening other exit routes such as acquisitions and IPOs. The article identifies three sectors that have already reached sustainable product-market fit: stablecoins, prediction markets and onchain perpetuals. It also points to tokenized Treasuries, tokenized equities, machine payments, onchain credit and compliance infrastructure as areas where early-stage opportunities may now be forming. The broader conclusion is that crypto investing is shifting away from broad thematic betting and toward specialized, patient capital focused on business quality, regulation and long holding cycles.

Accel’s latest $3.5 billion fundraise, announced on Aug. 11, came just four months after it raised a $5 billion late-stage fund, giving the firm $8.5 billion in fresh capital to deploy into what it calls an AI “supercycle” still in its early innings. The contradiction at the center of the market is becoming clearer: AI tools are helping startups build products and validate business models with smaller teams and less upfront spending, yet the price of buying meaningful ownership in the best AI companies is rising fast. Data cited from Carta show smaller startup teams, lower headcount at later stages, and a funding market that is splitting in two. Lightweight companies can get started with less money, while elite AI startups founded by researchers and executives from places such as Google, DeepMind, and OpenAI are raising unusually large seed rounds at valuations once reserved for growth-stage businesses. Carta and Crunchbase data also point to capital concentrating in a narrow group of leaders, with later-stage rounds gaining share and mega-rounds taking a growing portion of venture dollars. For venture firms, the issue is no longer just getting into a coveted deal. It is having enough capital to keep up as valuations climb and dilution falls.

YZi Labs has opened applications for EASY Residency Season 5, a 10-week accelerator program aimed at early-stage innovation teams. The program is split into a five-week online phase followed by a five-week in-person residency in Thailand, ending with a Demo Day. According to the announcement, accommodation, meals and workspace will be fully covered so founders can focus on building. YZi Labs said its priority areas for this cohort include programmable capital and on-chain markets, stablecoin payment infrastructure, compute and trusted agent systems, embodied AI, emerging AI interfaces, and AI × Bio. Selected projects can receive up to $500,000 in funding, including a $150,000 SAFE for 5% equity and an additional $350,000 uncapped SAFE. Teams may also be considered for as much as $2 million in additional investment. The application deadline is Sept. 13 at 23:59 GMT-7.

Gnosis has opened a governance vote on whether to spin off Gnosis App into a separate company managed by the original team. The proposal, dubbed GIP-152, is now live on Snapshot. Under its terms, GnosisDAO would invest $1.5 million in cash and contribute $1 million in products and intellectual property, resulting in a combined $2.5 million position in the SAFE protocol. This translates to a post-money valuation cap of $10 million, and in return the DAO would secure at least 25% equity. The new company would take over the Gnosis App's product and IP. The app is currently built on the Circles protocol and focuses on decentralized payments for users in Europe. According to the proposal, operating independently will help the product develop faster and get closer to product-market fit (PMF), a model that has been validated by other Gnosis-incubated projects like CoW and Safe. Voting is scheduled to end at 22:19 on August 12, with a quorum requirement of 75,000 votes. As of this writing, the vote has reached roughly 13.2% of the quorum, with 65.93% of ballots in favor.

Safe Ecosystem Foundation released its Q2 2026 report, showing the smart account network processed nearly 130 million transactions in the quarter, a second consecutive quarterly record. Monthly active accounts hit 2.73 million in June, while total accounts surpassed 63 million, up 20% year over year. April was the busiest month in Safe's history with 55.4 million transactions, and ETH-denominated transfer value reached a quarterly high despite a sharp crypto price drop in June. On April 2, Safe launched Safenet Beta at EthCC in Cannes, operated by six genesis validators. By quarter-end, 54.8 million SAFE had been staked across 539 addresses, with 455,646 transaction checks completed; Ethereum and Arbitrum handled about 94% of the checks. SafeDAO passed SEP-55, allocating 5 million SAFE to support Safenet Beta. Following the Kelp DAO exploit in April, the Aave-led DeFi United coalition coordinated roughly $300 million through Safe smart accounts via over 142,000 wallets to help restore rsETH collateral backing. The foundation treasury posted an annualized portfolio return of 5.5%–5.75%, about 250 basis points above its benchmark, with roughly $14 million deployed across 14 active positions as of June 30, and opened its first RWA and fixed income positions.

A Foresight article has mapped out four Hong Kong government-backed programs that tech startups may use to secure funding, R&D hiring support, and talent visas. The list covers Cyberport’s 24-month incubation program, the Hong Kong Science and Technology Parks (HKSTP) incubation program, the Research Talent Hub (RTH), and the Technology Talent Admission Scheme (TechTAS). Together, the programs span direct cash grants, market-expansion subsidies, rent support, monthly salary subsidies for STEM researchers, and immigration pathways for overseas and mainland tech hires. According to the article, Cyberport’s program is positioned for AI, Web3, and software startups, while HKSTP’s incubation track is aimed at deeper-tech companies with stronger research capacity. RTH focuses on subsidizing STEM research talent, and TechTAS is presented as a hiring and visa route rather than a funding scheme. The article also breaks down each program’s eligibility rules, application timelines, strengths, and drawbacks, including milestone-based disbursement, SAFE requirements in some cases, and long approval timelines for talent subsidies. The piece concludes with a practical ranking: Cyberport first for most AI, Web3, and software teams, RTH as an early application for qualified firms, HKSTP for research-heavy hard-tech startups, and TechTAS once international hiring becomes a priority.

A heavy 24-hour news cycle in crypto and adjacent tech markets was led by SpaceX’s first earnings report as a public company, which showed $7.8 billion in second-quarter revenue, 18,712 BTC on its balance sheet, and roughly $540 million in unrealized losses after Bitcoin fell 33% in the quarter. Coldcard’s wallet security incident kept escalating as the company urged users to migrate funds, while Galaxy Digital’s Alex Thorn said at least 15 attackers have now been identified through victim reports and on-chain tracing. In South Korea, Upbit and Bithumb both moved to list QUID, while on-chain flows highlighted a new wallet buying CASHCAT, a 40x leveraged BTC short on Hyperliquid, HYPE unstaking, and another Strategy-linked BTC transfer. Elsewhere, U.S. crypto policy centered on the CLARITY Act and fresh political friction around Trump’s TRUMP meme coin, while institutions expanded tokenized finance, staking, and custody services through Wells Fargo, BNY Mellon, Circle, Dinari, and Cloudflare. Markets also tracked BIP-110 activation risk, lower Bitcoin implied volatility, Ethereum staking policy debate, major AI infrastructure deals, and a long list of company, macro, and semiconductor updates.

The Linux Foundation has released a draft of the Shared AI Findings Exchange, or SAFE, a proposed set of guidelines aimed at turning cybersecurity incidents in agentic AI into shared defensive capabilities for the wider ecosystem. The draft was announced as the annual Black Hat security conference opened in Las Vegas, according to NVIDIA’s blog. The effort is being developed through the Open Secure AI Alliance, which now has more than 120 member organizations. The SAFE guidelines were drafted by a working group within the alliance, with support for the initial proposal coming from Linux Foundation collaborators including NVIDIA, Cisco Systems, CrowdStrike, Hugging Face and Red Hat. The draft lays out several recommended practices. These include collecting and analyzing AI security incidents and “near misses” in a confidential manner, notifying affected parties, identifying recurring failures in security controls, and issuing evidence-based operational guidance designed to reduce risk across the broader system.