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Berkshire's first major portfolio adjustment revealed, spending $17 billion in the second quarter to bet on Google

Berkshire Hathaway submitted its 13F holdings report for the second quarter of 2026 to the U.S. SEC. The data shows that in the second quarter after Warren Buffett stepped down, the company's investment portfolio underwent significant adjustments, with a large purchase of Google’s parent company Alphabet, while reducing positions in the financial and consumer sectors.As of June 30, 2026, the total market value of Berkshire's stock holdings rose to $29.9 billion, up from $26.3 billion in the previous quarter. In the second quarter, the company added one new position, increased holdings in seven stocks, reduced holdings in six stocks, and completely sold out of one target, with the top ten holdings accounting for as much as 88.74%.Among them, Alphabet became the biggest highlight. In the second quarter, Berkshire cumulatively increased its holdings of Alphabet Class A and Class C shares by approximately 48.1 million shares, with the new holdings valued at over $17 billion, pushing Google to replace Bank of America as Berkshire's fourth-largest holding. Currently, its top five holdings are Apple, American Express, Coca-Cola, Alphabet, and Bank of America. In addition to Google, Berkshire also slightly increased its holdings in Delta Air Lines, Lennar, and Macy's. The increase in Delta Air Lines has attracted attention, as the market believes this move may reflect the company's optimism about the recovery of air travel demand and improvement in corporate operations.On the reduction side, Berkshire focused on cutting positions in the financial and consumer sectors in the second quarter. Among them, Bank of America saw a reduction of about 30.2 million shares, with the holding ratio decreasing by 5.89%, corresponding to a market value of about $1.72 billion, making it the largest reduction target; First Capital Financial reduced about 4.2 million shares, with the holding ratio decreasing by about 58%; at the same time, it reduced about 11 million shares of Kroger, with the holding size decreasing by about 22%.The market believes that Berkshire ended a streak of 14 consecutive quarters of net stock selling in the second quarter and net bought nearly $20 billion in stocks, indicating that the new leader Greg Abel is pushing the portfolio towards a technology growth direction, marking a shift in asset allocation in the "post-Buffett era."

Gray Research Director: Ethereum is like a "small country," and the issuance of ETH determines the balance between network security and currency

Zach Pandl, the head of research at Grayscale, posted on the X platform comparing Ethereum to a "small country" and discussed the ETH issuance mechanism. He believes that Ethereum has only one core "government function": to protect property rights and value exchange within the system. Unlike traditional countries that provide public services through taxation, Ethereum primarily funds network security through "seigniorage," which is the issuance of new ETH.In this framework, the stakers responsible for maintaining network security are akin to a group providing public services, as they receive rewards through newly issued ETH. Therefore, Ethereum's staking mechanism and ETH issuance policy essentially constitute the network's fiscal and monetary policy. Zach Pandl pointed out that the Ethereum community needs to decide how much "new currency" should be used to cover network security costs. More security typically means stronger protection of property rights, but at the cost of a higher ETH issuance rate and potential other risks.For example, if network security increasingly relies on a few large staking service providers, there remains room for discussion about whether these providers can maintain the asset rights of all users completely neutrally. Pandl believes that, just as in traditional economies, no one knows the "optimal level" of government spending and currency issuance; the same applies to Ethereum. However, Ethereum has several key security thresholds, including: 1/3: an attacker reaching this ratio may affect finality; 1/2: affects blockchain fork choice; 2/3: can control the finality process. Some community members believe that the design of Ethereum's monetary and fiscal policy should consider the security trade-offs brought by these key ratios, while the current mechanism has not adequately incorporated these factors. However, the above analogy is not entirely accurate, as it does not yet involve other important factors such as the ETH burn mechanism, MEV, governance, etc.

Tether CEO responds to doubts after KPMG's first complete audit, we have proven ourselves multiple times

Tether CEO Paolo Ardoino, in an interview with The Block, responded to ongoing criticisms raised after KPMG U.S. completed its first full financial audit. He stated that some critics are unable to admit that their past judgments about Tether were wrong, and said, "Honestly, I don't care." Ardoino mentioned that Tether has repeatedly proven its resilience.He noted that in 2022, Tether processed $7 billion in redemptions within 48 hours, which was about 10% of its reserves at the time, and there was no pause in redemptions during that period. He believes that many traditional financial institutions would struggle to handle withdrawals of a similar scale in such a short time. He also stated that criticism itself is not a bad thing, as it makes Tether better and stronger. Even if some critics view it as a "villain," as long as Tether can continue to serve its claimed 650 million users who rely on USDT, especially in emerging markets, he does not mind.According to informed sources, Tether, as a private company, will not publicly share audited financial statements. The company plans to conduct a full audit once a year in the future while continuing to release quarterly attestation reports. Overall, the KPMG audit is an important step for Tether to enhance transparency, but controversies surrounding its reserves, disclosure levels, and systemic impact have not completely dissipated.

Stripe is in talks to acquire PayPal, with a transaction valuation potentially reaching $53 billion

According to Techcrunch, acquisition negotiations between payment giant PayPal and Stripe, along with private equity firm Advent Global Opportunities, are heating up, and a deal may be reached in the coming weeks.In July, Stripe and Advent proposed to acquire PayPal for $60.50 per share, with a total transaction valuation of approximately $53 billion, but PayPal did not accept the offer at that time. However, insiders revealed that the negotiations have not been interrupted and are still ongoing.Neither PayPal nor Stripe has confirmed the related news. PayPal declined to comment, while Stripe stated that it would not respond to market rumors or speculation.This potential sale comes as PayPal seeks to reverse its growth challenges. After taking office in March this year, PayPal CEO Enrique Lores launched a restructuring plan that splits the business into three main areas: payment checkout and PayPal business, consumer financial services (including Venmo), and payment services and cryptocurrency business.Lores previously stated that PayPal would return to its identity as a technology company and strengthen its core payment capabilities. At the same time, the company plans to improve efficiency by cutting costs, with layoffs expected to reach 20% over the next two to three years.Founded in 1998, PayPal's founding team includes well-known Silicon Valley figures such as Peter Thiel, Elon Musk, and Max Levchin. The company experienced rapid growth during the e-commerce boom during the pandemic but has faced challenges such as slowing growth and pressure on its stock price in recent years. If the deal is finalized, it will become one of the largest acquisitions in the fintech industry in recent years.

Morgan Stanley increased its stake in Circle to 8.32 million shares in Q2 and added to its Bitcoin and Ethereum ETF positions

According to Cointelegraph, Morgan Stanley's latest 13F filing submitted to the U.S. SEC shows that as of June 30, it held approximately 16.5 million shares of BlackRock IBIT, an increase of 23% from 13.4 million shares in the first quarter. However, due to the decline in Bitcoin prices during the quarter, the market value of this holding dropped from $667 million to $549 million, a decrease of about 18%.During the same period, Morgan Stanley also held 2.57 million shares of MSBT, valued at approximately $43.3 million, and increased its holdings in Grayscale Bitcoin Mini Trust, Bitwise Bitcoin ETF, and Fidelity FBTC, with FBTC holdings increasing by nearly 38%.In terms of Ethereum, its ETHA holdings increased by about 202% to 4.6 million shares, and the Grayscale Ethereum Staked Mini ETF holdings increased by about 26% to 5.1 million shares. Additionally, Morgan Stanley also established new positions in the Grayscale Solana Staked ETF and Fidelity Solana Fund, with market values of approximately $4.25 million and $2.26 million, respectively.On the individual stock front, Morgan Stanley's holdings in Circle (CRCL) surged from about 1.46 million shares to 8.32 million shares, while also increasing positions in mining companies and infrastructure firms such as Cipher Digital, Core Scientific, Hut 8, and Bitdeer; on the other hand, it reduced its holdings by about 550,000 shares in Coinbase, reduced over 3.1 million shares in CleanSpark, and completely exited approximately 8 million shares in Bitfarms.

Gray Research Director: ETH and SOL may face supply contraction, and the reduction of inflation mechanisms will strengthen token scarcity

Grayscale Research Director Zach Pandl stated that the two major blockchain networks, Ethereum (ETH) and Solana (SOL), are considering adjusting their token economic models to enhance asset scarcity by reducing future token supply growth through lowering annual inflation rates. As important native assets supporting stablecoins and tokenized asset ecosystems, the prices of ETH and SOL are primarily determined by supply and demand dynamics. If the relevant code upgrade proposals are approved, under unchanged conditions, lower supply growth may provide support for token prices.According to Grayscale's analysis, if the relevant adjustments are implemented, the supply inflation rates of BTC, ETH, and SOL will continue to decline over the next five years. By the end of 2031, the annual inflation rates for Bitcoin and Ethereum are expected to be around 0.4%, and Solana around 1.1%, which is lower than gold's annual supply growth rate of about 1.8% and the U.S. CPI inflation level of about 3.3%. Currently, these token economic adjustments are still in the community discussion phase. Among them, the Solana-related proposal has gained broader support and has a higher likelihood of implementation; the Ethereum proposal still requires further discussion.If the adjustments are implemented, staking users may face reduced token rewards, as part of the staking income comes from the issuance of new tokens. However, due to the decline in the growth rate of circulating supply, the scarcity value of the tokens may increase, potentially providing price support. For ETH and SOL holders who do not participate in staking, they may benefit directly; the final returns for stakers will depend on the balance between the decrease in rewards and the increase in prices. Zach Pandl concluded that ETH and SOL are becoming important digital commodities supporting stablecoins and the tokenization of real assets, and the economic model adjustments aimed at reducing inflation may further strengthen their scarcity attributes.

Ireland releases its first anti-money laundering strategy, which will strengthen the review of transfers to private crypto wallets

According to Decrypt, the Irish government has released its first national anti-money laundering (AML) strategy, which plans to strengthen the review of digital asset transfers involving self-hosted wallets and increase due diligence requirements for crypto companies when cooperating with overseas institutions.According to the announcement from the Irish Department of Finance, this strategy implements the remaining requirements of the EU's Transfer of Funds Regulation, which will require crypto asset service providers (CASP) to perform "enhanced checks" on transfers involving private wallets, while implementing stricter customer due diligence when conducting business with overseas crypto companies.The related measures are based on the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) Travel Rule, which requires the inclusion of sender and receiver information in digital asset transactions to enhance the transparency of fund flows. Ireland stated that the new regulations will be advanced in parallel with the EU's Markets in Crypto-Assets Regulation (MiCA).MiCA establishes a unified regulatory framework for crypto asset service providers, while Ireland previously granted a 12-month transition period for its domestic crypto companies, which is shorter than the maximum 18 months allowed by the EU. The transition period is set to end at the end of December 2025, so the new requirements will directly apply to companies that have obtained formal authorization.

Norway's sovereign wealth fund indirectly holds 11,549 BTC, setting a new historical high

According to The Block, K33 research director Vetle Lunde stated that by the end of the first half of 2026, the Norwegian sovereign wealth fund's indirect Bitcoin exposure through holdings in companies such as Strategy, Metaplanet, MARA, Coinbase, Block, and Tesla has risen to 11,549 BTC, a record high valued at approximately $725 million. This exposure grew by 21.2% in the first half of the year and by 60.5% over the past year, marking the sixth consecutive reporting period of increase.Among these, Strategy accounts for nearly 86% of the fund's indirect Bitcoin exposure, corresponding to approximately 9,914 BTC. As of June 30, the Norwegian sovereign wealth fund held about 1.17% of Strategy's shares, valued at $357.3 million at that time. Metaplanet corresponds to 671 BTC, MARA corresponds to 421 BTC, and Coinbase, Block, and Tesla correspond to 183 BTC, 120 BTC, and 97 BTC, respectively.K33 pointed out that this exposure is likely not the result of the fund actively allocating to Bitcoin, but rather an indirect effect of its broadly diversified investment portfolio. Currently, the related Bitcoin exposure accounts for about 0.03% of the fund's total assets.In addition, the fund has also gained indirect ETH exposure through the Ethereum treasury company BitMine for the first time. As of June 30, it held 6.15 million shares of BitMine, valued at $88.3 million, accounting for about 1.16% of the company's shares; based on BitMine's current ETH holdings, this corresponds to an indirect exposure of approximately 67,340 ETH.

SK Hynix's cash expenditure on equipment in the first half of the year exceeded 18 trillion won, an increase of over 70% compared to the same period last year

According to reports from South Korean media, SK Group Chairman Chey Tae-won received a salary of 1.75 billion won in the first half of this year.According to the Financial Supervisory Service, SK Corporation disclosed this information in its semi-annual report released that day. The chairman's salary level in the first half of this year is the same as the same period last year, and he did not receive any bonuses apart from his salary. The chairman's younger brother, SK Group Vice Chairman Chey Jae-won, received a salary of 1.5 billion won during the same period. SK Corporation President Chang Yong-ho received a total of 1.8 billion won, including 1 billion won in salary and 800 million won in bonuses.In addition, SK Supex Pursuit Council Chairman Yoon Bong-yong was disclosed to have received a total of 7.715 billion won, which includes 500 million won in salary, 800 million won in bonuses, and 6.415 billion won in compensation from 12,103 performance stock units (PSUs) granted three years ago. SK Hynix's sales from Nvidia in the first half of this year exceeded 17 trillion won, accounting for about 13% of the company's total sales.The average salary of SK Hynix employees reached 144 million won (approximately $104,000) in the first half of this year, an increase of 23% year-on-year. SK Hynix significantly increased its capital expenditures and research and development (R&D) investments in the first half of this year. Cash expenditures for acquiring tangible assets exceeded 18 trillion won, an increase of over 70% year-on-year. The number of small shareholders of SK Hynix has grown more than fivefold in a year, surpassing 3.46 million.
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