Binance said it will roll out five USDT-margined perpetual contracts on Aug. 25, 2026, in a staggered launch window running from 09:00 to 09:20 UTC. The contracts to be listed are SKUUUSDT, SKDDUSDT, RAMUSDT, DJTUSDT, and MRNAUSDT, according to the exchange’s official announcement. Binance said the products will support leverage of up to 20x. The announcement also said the contracts will be available under Multi-Assets Mode. No other listing details were disclosed in the notice cited by Odaily.

Binance said it will roll out five USDT-margined perpetual contracts on August 25 between 17:00 and 17:20 UTC+8, adding SKUUUSDT, SKDDUSDT, RAMUSDT, DJTUSDT, and MRNAUSDT in phases. According to the official announcement, the underlying exposure for these products includes traditional financial assets such as a Hynix leveraged ETF, a DRAM-themed ETF, Trump Media & Technology (DJT), and Moderna (MRNA). All five contracts will be settled in USDT and will support round-the-clock trading as well as Multi-Assets Mode. Binance also said the maximum leverage available on these contracts will be 20x. Funding fees will be settled once every eight hours, with the upper and lower caps set at +2% and -2%, respectively. The listing adds another batch of TradFi-linked derivatives to Binance’s futures lineup.

Pop Mart said in its first-half 2026 report that revenue reached 17.17 billion yuan, up 23.8% year over year, with adjusted net profit at 5.16 billion yuan. Net profit margin came in at 30%, while gross margin was 69.7%. The company said six IPs — THE MONSTERS, Xingxingren, CRYBABY, DIMOO, SKULLPANDA, and Hirono — each generated more than 1 billion yuan in revenue, and 11 IPs brought in over 100 million yuan. Among them, THE MONSTERS family, home to LABUBU, remained the top-grossing IP with 4.45 billion yuan in revenue. Xingxingren was the fastest-growing IP, posting 2.65 billion yuan in revenue and growth of 580.6%. During the reporting period, Pop Mart operated 676 offline stores and 2,827 robot stores worldwide, while its cumulative registered membership base surpassed 100 million. By region, revenue from China reached 12.2 billion yuan with 47.3% growth, while Asia-Pacific contributed 2.58 billion yuan, the Americas 1.89 billion yuan, and Europe and other regions 510 million yuan.

PANews published a market analysis arguing that crypto exchanges are no longer able to rely on the old wealth-effect model that once drove user growth, trading activity, and platform dominance. The article, written by contributor Zuoye Waiboshan, frames the current moment as a turning point for centralized exchanges, especially as platforms weigh broader brokerage-style expansion against a deeper move on-chain. The piece compares Binance, Coinbase, Robinhood, Bitget, Bybit, Deribit, and other platforms to show how the business mix is changing. It argues that adding more product categories does not automatically restore user trust or create outsized returns, while products such as options, structured notes, Pre-IPO access, and stock perpetuals still do not solve the core problem of pricing power. According to the article, exchanges remain highly profitable in absolute terms, but they are no longer defining the next asset issuance cycle the way they once did. It also argues that the industry’s real bottleneck is no longer simple product expansion, but whether crypto-native venues can regain the ability to price new assets rather than merely distribute what traditional finance has already packaged. The conclusion is stark: exchanges may increasingly fall back into matching, listing, and distribution roles while newer forms of asset issuance emerge elsewhere.

A MarsBit opinion piece argues that crypto exchanges are no longer defined by how many asset categories they list, but by whether they can still generate a clear “wealth effect” for users. The article contrasts CZ’s 2021 comment that centralized exchanges were only a transitional step toward on-chain DeFi with what it describes as a very different 2026 market, where meme trading has returned to the center and major platforms are facing weaker liquidity, slower growth and pressure on their reputations. The piece says Coinbase has tried to build a broader “everything exchange” model through Base, social and meme initiatives, and acquisitions including Deribit and Opyn, yet product expansion alone has not opened a convincing second growth curve. Robinhood, by contrast, is portrayed as leaning more directly into crypto-native formats such as Meme, NFT, DeFi and a dYdX-powered perpetual DEX product called Arcus. MarsBit also argues that Binance and other offshore exchanges are losing momentum, while new businesses such as Pre-IPO products, stock perpetuals and tokenized traditional finance instruments still leave pricing power in the hands of Wall Street. In that framing, the core issue is no longer whether exchanges can broaden their SKU count, but whether they can reclaim liquidity and pricing power in the next cycle of crypto asset issuance.

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.

Hong Kong-based Tianfeng Securities’ overseas technology research team says the latest round of quarterly results across the AI supply chain has strengthened the case for an AI bull market comeback. In its review, the firm argued that cloud growth has reaccelerated, demand for compute continues to run ahead of supply, and customers are no longer resisting higher prices. In some cases, they are paying upfront construction costs, which Tianfeng says is improving unit economics across AI infrastructure. The report points to record cloud contract activity over the past 20 quarters and says results from Google, Amazon Web Services and Microsoft Azure support the view that long-term cloud growth remains intact. It also highlights CoreWeave and Nebius as evidence that new compute providers have gained pricing power, with strong contract growth, prepaid terms and shorter payback periods. On the supply-chain side, Tianfeng says optical communications, memory and storage are showing signs that a bottom has formed, while debate over AI infrastructure returns has been weakened by fresh earnings data.

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission is set to hold a public meeting on Aug. 14 to consider a proposed "Regulation Crypto" framework that would let some crypto projects raise capital without completing a full securities registration process. If advanced for public comment, it would become the SEC’s first formal, durable rulemaking effort aimed specifically at the crypto sector. The proposal would also outline a route for projects to exit SEC oversight once developers stop actively managing the network and the project becomes decentralized. SEC Chair Paul Atkins has previously said the exemption period could last as long as four years, though no fundraising cap was disclosed. On the litigation front, a federal judge in Connecticut ruled that Kalshi’s sports-event contracts are not swaps under the Commodity Exchange Act, meaning the Commodity Futures Trading Commission did not obtain exclusive jurisdiction on that basis. The decision lands as Kalshi remains under pressure in New York, where the CFTC said it used “emergency powers” to require the prediction-market operator to continue operating after the company sought assistance following a lawsuit from New York Attorney General Letitia James. Elsewhere, the market snapshot showed broad declines among major tokens over the past 24 hours, while project, funding, security and AI headlines spanned Bitwise layoffs, a reported COLDCARD Mk3 wallet flaw, Hyperliquid and Robinhood Chain user metrics, and a string of new financings across crypto, AI and financial infrastructure.