Morning News | Sandbox founder, a leader in the metaverse, steps down and lays off 50%; American Bitcoin, supported by Trump's son, to be listed on Nasdaq in September; China National Petroleum Corporation claims it is exploring the possibility of stablecoin cross-border settlement
Overview of Important Market Events on August 28整理：liec，ChainCatcher
Important News:
- Tether and Circle minted a total of $1.25 billion in stablecoins yesterday
- NVIDIA's Q2 revenue exceeded expectations, dropping 5% in after-hours trading, Bitcoin fell 1.25% briefly below $111,000
- Sandbox founder steps down and lays off 50%, shifting focus from metaverse to Web3 applications and Launchpad plans
- American Bitcoin, a Bitcoin miner supported by Trump's son, will go public on Nasdaq in September
- Linea team members showcase LXP and witch distribution map: witches account for over half of low-tier users
- Pumpfun has repurchased over $58 million in PUMP, accounting for 4.26% of the circulating supply
- The Clearing Company, a new company founded by former Polymarket team members, completed $15 million in seed funding, led by USV
- CFTC adopts Nasdaq monitoring system to strengthen crypto regulation
- Discrepancies exist between economic data on-chain public chain list released by the U.S. Department of Commerce and Chainlink
- China National Petroleum: Exploring the possibility of cross-border settlement using stablecoins
*Important Data from Yesterday：*
Tether and Circle minted a total of $1.25 billion in stablecoins yesterday
According to Lookonchain statistics, Tether minted 1 billion USDT today, and Circle minted 250 million USDC today. Over the past month, Tether and Circle have minted stablecoins worth a total of $8.75 billion.
The increase in the number of newly minted stablecoins on-chain typically reflects a growing demand for stablecoins in the market and an increase in user participation, often associated with bullish sentiment in the crypto market, indicating more funds flowing into the crypto ecosystem.
Ark Invest increased its holdings of 339,000 shares of BMNR, worth $15.6 million
According to Ark Invest Tracker, Cathie Wood's Ark Invest increased its holdings of Bitmine Immersion (BMNR) stock worth $15.6 million through its three funds this Wednesday, including: ARKK increased by 227,569 shares, worth $10.475 million, ARKW increased by 70,991 shares, worth $3.267 million, and ARKF increased by 40,553 shares, worth $1.866 million.
Market data shows that BMNR closed at $46.03 on Wednesday, down 7.85%, and fell another 2.22% in after-hours trading.
0xinfini founder Christian allegedly sold 2,477 ETH, worth about $11.66 million
According to @ai 9684xtpa, 0xinfini founder Christian (@Christianeth) allegedly sold 2,477 ETH about 10 hours ago, worth approximately $11.66 million, almost selling at the market peak last night.
On-chain data shows that 1,257 ETH were sold through Cowswap at an average price of $4,777.6, while another 1,220 ETH have been deposited to Binance. If this transaction is completed, the address will be completely emptied of its ETH holdings.
According to News1, police in Gyeonggi Province, South Korea, arrested and charged three suspects on August 28, 2025, for allegedly committing cryptocurrency fraud, defrauding 129 victims of approximately 5.7 billion won ($4.1 million). The gang is accused of creating a memecoin called GCV between December 2023 and June 2024.
They allegedly lured investors to invest in the coin with false promises of Asian golf course memberships.
*Project Updates from Yesterday：*
According to market news, Hyperliquid implemented a new mark price calculation method for pre-market perpetual contracts early this morning. This change caused WLFI and XPL funding rates to surge, with WLFI's annualized funding rate rising from 11% to 100%, and XPL's annualized funding rate rising from 11% to 800%.
As of the time of writing, XPL is quoted at $0.66 on Hyperliquid, representing a 22.6% premium over Binance's $0.538. WLFI is quoted at $0.292 on Hyperliquid, representing a 13.6% premium over Binance's $0.257.
According to market news, NVIDIA (NVDA.O) reported Q2 revenue of $46.7 billion for the 2026 fiscal year, exceeding the market expectation of $46 billion. Additionally, the company approved an additional $60 billion stock buyback. NVIDIA provided a lackluster outlook for Q3 revenue of $54 billion, with a 2% fluctuation, while the market expected $53.46 billion, raising concerns about slowing growth in AI spending.
After the earnings report was released, NVIDIA's stock fell 5% in after-hours trading, currently down 3.14%. This situation is common during "NVIDIA earnings night," where market participants typically speculate based on earnings expectations, leading to price increases before and during trading, and if the report falls short of expectations, it leads to declines, while slightly exceeding expectations is seen as "profit-taking," also resulting in a price drop.
Affected by NVIDIA's stock price decline, Bitcoin fell 1.25%, briefly dropping below $111,000, currently quoted at $111,405. ETH fell to $4,482 at one point, currently quoted at $4,513, showing slightly weaker performance compared to Bitcoin.
According to Circle, it has partnered with Mastercard and Finastra to integrate stablecoin settlement capabilities into mainstream finance, further promoting USDC in the global payment space.
Mastercard announced on Wednesday that it will allow acquirers and merchants in Eastern Europe, the Middle East, and Africa (EEMEA) to settle transactions using USDC and EURC, with Arab Financial Services and Eazy Financial Services being the first to access this service, marking Mastercard's first stablecoin settlement service in the region.
London-based financial software provider Finastra also announced on Wednesday that it will integrate USDC into its Global PAYplus platform, which processes over $50 trillion in cross-border transactions daily.
Circle stated that this integration will enable banks in 50 countries to use USDC for international payment settlements, even if payment instructions are still denominated in fiat currency.
Pumpfun has repurchased over $58 million in PUMP, accounting for 4.26% of the circulating supply
According to official disclosures, during the period from August 20 to 26, the platform repurchased $10,657,503 worth of PUMP tokens, accounting for 99.32% of total revenue during that period; to date, the total repurchase amount has reached $58,134,191, approximately offsetting 4.261% of the circulating supply.
According to market news, The Sandbox founders Arthur Madrid and Sébastien Borget have stepped down from daily operations, with Animoca Brands CEO Robby Yung taking over as CEO.
Borget will serve as a global ambassador, while Madrid will become the non-executive chairman. Meanwhile, the company has laid off over 50% of its staff, affecting teams in Argentina, Uruguay, South Korea, Thailand, and Turkey, and plans to close its office in Lyon, France, with further layoffs in Paris. This restructuring is seen as a strategic adjustment driven by technological advancements. Additionally, The Sandbox is gradually shifting away from its metaverse business towards broader Web3 applications, including a memecoin launch platform based on Base.
Linea team member @DeclanFox14 showcased the airdrop voucher LXP and witch distribution map on platform X. The image shows that among users with less than 2000 LXP, the number of addresses identified as witches accounts for more than half, while the proportion of witches rapidly declines after exceeding 2000 LXP. @DeclanFox14 also confirmed that the witch identification work was analyzed by the Nansen team.
Bitplanet will establish a Bitcoin treasury company, planning to purchase $40 million in Bitcoin
According to Bitcoin Magazine, Paul Lee, co-founder and managing partner of Lobo Ventures, announced at the BITCOIN ASIA 2025 conference that Bitplanet will establish a Bitcoin treasury company, planning to purchase $40 million in Bitcoin.
According to a recent report from AI infrastructure company Anthropic, its AI chatbot Claude is being used by cybercriminals for large-scale cyberattacks, with some ransom amounts reaching up to $500,000.
The report noted that despite Claude having "complex" security measures, criminals were still able to bypass restrictions through a social engineering technique called "vibe hacking." This method exploits AI to manipulate human emotions, trust, and decision-making, enabling less technically skilled attackers to carry out complex cybercrimes.
One case showed a hacker using Claude to steal sensitive data from at least 17 institutions, including medical, government, and religious organizations, and demanding ransoms in Bitcoin ranging from $75,000 to $500,000. Additionally, Claude has been used to assist North Korean IT workers in faking identities to obtain remote positions at top U.S. tech companies, with the earnings being used to support the North Korean regime.
Strive Funds CEO: The company will purchase over $700 million in BTC after going public
According to BitcoinTreasuries.NET, Strive Funds CEO Matt Cole stated in an interview that the company plans to purchase over $700 million in Bitcoin after going public.
According to an announcement from the Hong Kong Stock Exchange, Shun Tai Holdings (01335.HK) announced plans to expand its cryptocurrency business, allocating approximately HKD 70 million from internal financial resources for cryptocurrency trading.
The company has established a professional team to manage its virtual asset business, primarily investing in cryptocurrencies with over five years of history and good liquidity, including Bitcoin (BTC), Ethereum (ETH), Binance Coin (BNB), and Filecoin (FIL). To control risks, the company has implemented strict internal control measures, including a transaction limit of no more than 10% of the unused budget, a stop-loss threshold set at no more than 20% of the purchase price, and ensuring that stablecoins account for no less than 5% of the portfolio.
American Bitcoin, a Bitcoin miner supported by Trump's son, will go public on Nasdaq in September
According to Jinshi News, American Bitcoin, a Bitcoin miner supported by President Trump's two sons, has locked in cryptocurrency and traditional investors, planning a full stock merger, expected to begin trading on Nasdaq in early September.
Hut 8 CEO Asher Genoot stated that the merger with Gryphon Digital Mining is nearing completion, with Hut 8 holding 80% of American Bitcoin. The newly formed company will retain the name American Bitcoin and trade under the stock code ABTC.
Investment and Financing Updates from Yesterday
According to PR Newswire, Metafyed announced that it has successfully completed $5.5 million in financing to expand the tokenized real asset (RWA) market.
Investors include Block Tides, Positive Venture DAO, and other blockchain investors and venture DAOs, with support from Cyberport Hong Kong, Draper, and Stellar Development Foundation. Metafyed aims to leverage blockchain, smart contracts, and AI compliance scoring.
Public company CIMG raises $55 million through share placement and plans to purchase 500 Bitcoins
According to PR Newswire, Nasdaq-listed digital health company CIMG Inc. announced that it has signed a final securities purchase agreement to issue 220 million shares of common stock to nine non-U.S. investors, raising $55 million and planning to purchase 500 Bitcoins, with an expected average purchase price of $110,000 per Bitcoin. The transaction is expected to close in early September.
Swiss crypto bank Sygnum and lending platform Ledn complete $50 million Bitcoin mortgage refinancing
Crypto asset lending platform Ledn and Swiss crypto bank Sygnum have completed refinancing of a $50 million Bitcoin mortgage, which was oversubscribed by two times, with part of the loan tokenized through its Desygnate platform.
According to Blockworks, the team members from the former prediction market platform Polymarket have founded a new company, The Clearing Company, and secured $15 million in seed funding led by Union Square Ventures, with other investors including Haun Ventures, Variant, and Coinbase Ventures.
The Clearing Company aims to build a regulatory-compliant and retail-friendly on-chain, permissionless prediction market. Prediction markets allow participants to trade contracts linked to real-world outcomes, generating collective predictions with financial incentives for accuracy. The company has not disclosed a timeline for the platform launch but emphasizes a focus on designing products that are both simple and compliant.
Crypto card issuer Rain completes $58 million Series B financing, led by Sapphire Ventures
Crypto card issuer Rain has completed $58 million in Series B financing, led by Sapphire Ventures, with participation from Dragonfly, Galaxy Ventures, Endeavor Catalyst, Samsung Next, and Lightspeed. According to an insider, the annual spending on Rain's supported credit cards has exceeded $1 billion.
Rain has launched Visa-supported cards, allowing stablecoins to be easily spent at all locations accepting Visa. The company was founded in 2021 by CEO Farooq Malik and CTO Charles Yoo-Naut. Rain enables new banks and fintech companies (such as Nuvei) to offer stablecoin payment services. Previously, on March 24, Rain announced it had completed $24.5 million in financing, led by Norwest Venture Partners, with participation from Galaxy Ventures, Goldcrest, Thayer, and Hard Yaka.
Venture capital firm Lakestar completes $265 million continuation fund fundraising
According to Techfundingnews, European venture capital firm Lakestar, which has made early investments in Spotify and Revolut, has completed $265 million in continuation fund fundraising, with secondary market specialists Lexington Partners, Industry Ventures, and Performance Equity Management serving as anchor investors.
Nasdaq-listed AirNet Technology announced that it has completed share placement fundraising, raising approximately $180 million by trading 80,826,225 shares of common stock and accompanying warrants, with all proceeds paid in digital assets, including approximately 819.07 Bitcoins and 19,928.91 Ethereum.
Stablecoin startup M0 has completed $40 million in Series B financing, led by Polychain and Ribbit Capital, with participation from Endeavor Catalyst, Pantera, and Bain Capital Crypto.
M0 is building a network layer to enable interoperability and liquidity connectivity among different stablecoin issuers. M0 co-founder and CEO Luca Prosperi stated that the company will focus on scaling the network over the next 2-5 years. Notably, cryptocurrency wallet MetaMask recently announced a partnership with M0 to launch its stablecoin.
Trading infrastructure startup aPriori has completed $20 million in financing, with investors including HashKey Capital, Pantera Capital, Primitive Ventures, IMC Trading, GEM, Gate Labs, Ambush Capital, and Big Brain Collective.
The company is building an on-chain market execution layer for high-performance Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM) networks. aPriori aims to address issues such as large spreads and maximum extractable value (MEV) leakage in the cryptocurrency market through high-frequency trading methods. The company has launched a liquid staking platform and an AI-driven decentralized exchange (DEX) aggregator called Swapr. The financing will be used to expand the team, accelerate product releases, and deepen collaborations with trading and staking ecosystems.
According to CoinDesk, Bitcoin-focused protocol Portal to Bitcoin has secured $50 million in new financing led by Paloma Investments, bringing the total funding for the project to $92 million.
The funds will be used to support the expansion of the company's adapter BitScaler. BitScaler allows for scaling native Bitcoin without the need for wrapped tokens, custodial bridging, or "messaging or other insecure alternatives." Portal plans to use the new funds to expand its funding program and attract institutional and community liquidity providers. The company is also piloting integrations with wallets and custodial platforms to demonstrate non-custodial token swaps.
According to The Miner Mag, cryptocurrency mining company Hut 8 announced it has secured $330 million in credit support for building four large infrastructure projects in the U.S., totaling an expansion of 1.53GW capacity.
These projects are located in Louisiana, Texas, and Illinois, ranging from 50MW to 1000MW in scale. The financing sources include a $200 million revolving credit facility with Two Prime and a $130 million expansion credit from Coinbase, with an average cost of 8.4%. Additionally, Hut 8 has initiated a $1 billion stock issuance plan and is in talks with banks for project financing solutions. The company currently holds over 10,000 Bitcoins, valued at approximately $1.2 billion, as liquidity reserves.
Regulatory & Policy Updates from Yesterday
CFTC adopts Nasdaq monitoring system to strengthen crypto regulation
The U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) recently announced it will adopt Nasdaq's market monitoring system to enhance its regulatory capabilities over the digital asset market. This system will provide regulators with automated alerts and "cross-market analysis" capabilities to help identify potential market manipulation patterns and support agencies in "rapidly scaling regulatory capabilities during periods of increased trading volume and volatility." The new system will enable agencies to access comprehensive order book data, supporting real-time analysis and decision-making, effectively "preventing and detecting abuse in both traditional and crypto asset markets."
It is reported that the CFTC has recently launched a "crypto sprint" initiative focusing on crypto futures trading and recommendations from the presidential digital asset market working group. If Congress passes the relevant legislation currently under consideration in both chambers, the CFTC's authority in cryptocurrency regulation will be significantly expanded. The proposed "Clarity Act" would grant the CFTC exclusive jurisdiction over blockchain commodities, requiring digital commodity exchanges, brokers, and dealers to register and implement new compliance, anti-money laundering, and reporting obligations.
Currently, the CFTC is facing personnel turnover challenges, with four commissioners, including Pham, having left or set to leave after the new chair is confirmed.
According to U.S. Treasury Secretary Yellen, there are 11 strong candidates for the Federal Reserve chair. Interviews will begin after Labor Day (September 1 this year), and the final list will be submitted to Trump.
U.S. initial jobless claims fell to 229,000 for the week ending August 23, below expectations
According to Jinshi News, initial jobless claims in the U.S. for the week ending August 23 were 229,000, below the market expectation of 230,000. The previous value was revised from 235,000 to 234,000.
According to the official blog, Pyth Network announced that it has been selected by the U.S. Department of Commerce for on-chain economic data verification and distribution.
Through collaboration with Pyth, the Department of Commerce is doing much more than releasing one-off data; it is laying the groundwork for a strategic partnership between the Department and the Pyth Network. Pyth will initially provide quarterly GDP data for the past five years, and Pyth's contributors are expected to expand this plan to support a broader set of economic data.
There are discrepancies between the first batch of GDP public chains released by the U.S. Department of Commerce and the results published by Chainlink.
The first batch of GDP public chains released by the U.S. Department of Commerce includes: "Bitcoin, Ethereum, Solana, TRON, Avalanche, Arbitrum, Polygon, Optimism, Stellar."
The first batch of GDP public chains released by Chainlink includes: "Arbitrum, Avalanche, Base, Botanix, Ethereum, Linea, Mantle, Optimism, Sonic, and ZKsync."
SEC to hold roundtable on prohibiting trade-through rules on September 18
The SEC will hold a roundtable on prohibiting trade-through rules on September 18 at its headquarters in Washington. SEC commissioners Caroline Crenshaw, Hester Peirce, and trading markets division director Jamie Selway will deliver opening remarks, and SEC chairman Paul S. Atkins will speak. The meeting will feature three thematic panels discussing market participants' experiences over the past 20 years, the role of the trade-through prohibition in the current market structure, and potential future developments.
China National Petroleum: Exploring the possibility of cross-border settlement using stablecoins
Wang Hua, CFO of China National Petroleum (00857), stated at the half-year performance release that the company is closely monitoring the Hong Kong Monetary Authority's plans to issue licenses for stablecoin issuers and is studying the possibility of cross-border settlement and payment using stablecoins.
Meme Popularity Rankings
According to the meme token tracking and analysis platform GMGN, as of August 29, 09:30:
The top five popular Ethereum tokens in the past 24 hours are: HOKK, KUMO, LINK, SATOSHIT, MHRD
The top five popular Solana tokens in the past 24 hours are: Lenda, LIPEPE, LBRETT, DOPE, DOPE
The top five popular Base tokens in the past 24 hours are: ZORA, GIGABRIAN, VIRTUAL, CLIPPY, Farcaster
"What are the must-read articles in the past 24 hours?"
Buying Bitcoin in 2020 was a professional risk, but now with BlackRock entering and government legislation being issued, cryptocurrency has crossed Wall Street's skepticism and hostility over the past decade, tearing off the gray label.
996 Invades Wall Street: Coinbase's Anxiety and the End of the Golden Era of Exchanges
Exchanges have never lacked "competition." In the past, competition was about who could list coins faster, who offered greater subsidies, and who had lower fees. That was lively, surface-level competition: when traffic came, profits followed. Today’s competition, however, is entirely different. ETFs have taken the incremental growth of major coins, while on-chain DeFi and meme tokens have kept native users on-chain, with brokers like Robinhood cutting into the new generation of retail investors. With the market pie shrinking, relying solely on spot trading can no longer support the future of a platform.
Starting from "Chasing the Wind": The 2048 Words That Determine Trillions in Crypto Assets
In the movie, it is said that only one last word is missing. But in the real world, mnemonic phrases follow the BIP39 standard, consisting of only 2048 words, meaning that brute-forcing the last position yields at most 2048 possibilities. If we narrow the range, for example, if the known starting letters are "es," the possibilities decrease further, and it could be tested in a minute. However, beyond the movie, a more worthwhile question to revisit is: what is the relationship between mnemonic phrases, private keys, and public keys? Why does losing a mnemonic phrase equate to losing all assets?
With President Donald Trump returning to the White House, the crypto industry has achieved a series of lobbying victories, including the first legislative reforms on digital asset regulation. Now, Republicans in Congress are preparing to pass a second, larger-scale bill to promote the development of the crypto market, while Wall Street groups are beginning to slow down, warning that certain crypto-friendly reforms could disrupt their business and threaten financial stability.
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