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According to CoinDesk, the crypto startup raised $11.2 billion in funding in the first half of 2026, with all disclosed funds directed towards regulated and licensed enterprises. The most funding was received by payment and stablecoin companies, prediction markets, exchanges, and trading platforms.Major investors include Wall Street and large global financial institutions, focusing their investments on licensed and compliant companies. Investors and founders increasingly view regulatory licenses as scarce and defensive assets, while retail investors still primarily trade on unlicensed or other alternative platforms.

According to Ledger Insights, Africa Finance Corporation issued digital bonds worth 350 million Swiss francs (approximately 431 million USD) through the SDX platform of the Swiss Stock Exchange (SIX). This marks the first time an African institution has issued digital bonds through a Central Securities Depository (CSD) and an exchange.The five-year bond has a coupon rate of 1.4925% and is one of the larger digital bonds on the platform, although UBS had previously issued bonds worth 375 million Swiss francs in 2022. This transaction was arranged by Commerzbank AG (technical lead) and Deutsche Bank.

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."

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.

Cboe BZX Exchange is seeking approval from the U.S. SEC to list a set of leveraged commodity ETFs, including daily leveraged products that provide 3x long exposure to Bitcoin and Ethereum. According to the proposed rule change document submitted on Friday, Cboe plans to launch the 3x Gold ETF, 3x Silver ETF, 3x Bitcoin ETF, 3x Ether ETF, 3x Crude Oil ETF, and 3x Natural Gas ETF.These funds will primarily achieve their objectives by holding CME or COMEX futures contracts and using cash and cash equivalents as collateral, aiming to deliver 3x returns corresponding to the daily performance of the underlying assets. Since the related products do not comply with the exchange's general listing standards regarding leveraged products, Cboe needs to apply for approval through special rules. Such highly leveraged funds are typically aimed at sophisticated investors for short-term tactical trading and are not suitable for long-term holding.The document also indicates that these funds will operate in the form of a "commodity pool," subject to CFTC regulation, rather than as an investment company under the 1940 Act regulated by the SEC, like many traditional ETFs. Commodity pools typically aggregate funds from multiple investors to trade derivatives or other commodity-related instruments.

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.

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.

According to ChainCatcher, Guangdong Province's first special financial product for the token economy, "Token Loan," was launched in the Haizhu District of Guangzhou. Taking Bank of China Guangzhou Branch as an example, a dedicated financing product specifically developed for small and micro enterprises in Haizhu's computing power sector—the Computing Power Token Loan—has been introduced. The credit limit is determined based on the contract/token consumption amount and can provide guarantees mainly through credit, accounts receivable pledges, and order financing. It can also combine guarantees, mortgages, and other forms of collateral to further expand the credit limit. New companies can apply for financing based on orders if they provide continuous operation proof materials from their original operating enterprises or offer guarantees. It is reported that the initial credit funding from Bank of China has reached 28 million yuan.

According to the latest data from RootData's tokenized asset dashboard, in the depth dimension of TradiFi assets, Bitget surpasses Binance to rank first.Bitget leads with an asset depth of approximately $166 million, holding a market share of 27.6%. Gate follows closely with about $164 million and a market share of 27.3%. Binance ranks third with approximately $156 million and a market share of 26.0%. The combined market share of the three is about 80.9%, indicating a significant concentration effect at the top.It is reported that the scope of this TradiFi asset statistics only includes native crypto asset types such as contracts and tokenized assets, excluding data from traditional stock brokers.

UPBIT will stop supporting the trading pairs STORJ/KRW and STORJ/BTC for Storj (STORJ) on September 14, 2026, at 15:00. After the trading support ends, any uncompleted orders will be canceled.Users must complete the withdrawal of STORJ before October 14, 2026.

According to monitoring by Catcher Predict, in the market prediction on Polymarket for the event "Dota 2: HULIGANI vs Vici Gaming - International Invitational Group Stage", the option "HULIGANI" in the sub-market "First Kill of the Second Game" has experienced a dramatic fluctuation in winning probability, soaring from 2.55% an hour ago to the current 45.05% (a fluctuation of 42.5%). Please note the impact of related breaking news.

Metaplanet CEO Simon Gerovich disclosed that the company's revenue for the first half of the fiscal year 2026 was 4.94 billion yen, a year-on-year increase of 134%; operating profit was 3.33 billion yen, a year-on-year increase of 136%; and net assets were 340.88 billion yen, a decrease of 25.7% compared to the end of the fiscal year 2025.

According to SoSoValue data, on August 13, Eastern Time, the total net inflow of Ethereum spot ETFs was $6.7169 million. The Ethereum spot ETF with the highest single-day net inflow was Grayscale Ethereum Trust ETF ETH, with a single-day net inflow of $6.4748 million, bringing the historical total net inflow for ETH to $1.819 billion.Following that is Morgan Stanley Ethereum Trust MSSE, with a single-day net inflow of $810,300, and the historical total net inflow for MSSE currently stands at $21.8789 million. The Ethereum spot ETF with the highest single-day net outflow was Blackrock ETF ETHA, with a single-day net outflow of $569,200, and the historical total net inflow for ETHA has reached $11.633 billion.As of the time of publication, the total net asset value of Ethereum spot ETFs is $10.572 billion, with an ETF net asset ratio (market value as a percentage of Ethereum's total market value) of 4.64%, and the historical cumulative net inflow has reached $11.453 billion.

According to The Defiant, the Government Pension Fund Global of Norway disclosed in its quarterly holdings document for the period ending June 30 that it holds 6,151,062 shares of BitMine Immersion Technologies (BMNR), with a market value of approximately $81.87 million.The fund did not list BitMine in its holdings report as of December 31, indicating this is a new disclosure, and the specific purchase time and cost have not been announced. It is reported that the total size of the fund reached 22.683 trillion Norwegian kroner as of June 30, with 72.1% allocated to stocks.

Harmony Protocol released an event update stating that an unauthorized ONE minting incident occurred. Investigations show that the attacker exploited a cross-shard receipt replay vulnerability, allowing processed cross-shard receipts to be executed multiple times, and minted ONE in empty blocks.The team is currently verifying two sets of impact data: early analysis indicates that the first round of minting involved 4 billion ONE, while the latest on-chain reconstruction shows that approximately 3.01 trillion ONE were issued to four attacker wallets through six forged cross-shard transactions. Harmony Protocol confirmed the first round of minting of 4 billion ONE, generated through two empty block accounting transactions that produced 1 billion and 3 billion ONE respectively, of which 2.8 billion ONE were subsequently transferred to other attacker addresses.The team has fixed the cross-shard receipt verification and pre-staking committee quorum verification vulnerabilities and deployed Mainnet v2026.1.1. Bridge services have been suspended, and Harmony Protocol is coordinating with validators, trading platforms, and LayerZero to freeze related funds, preparing to roll back the network to block 92,730,034 before the attack occurred. Currently, Shard 0 has been paused at block 92,753,555, and the official RPC may return a 502 error as a result.

Metaplanet CEO Simon Gerovich stated that the company has launched a new bond issuance program called BitBonds and has completed its first issuance.This issuance, through its wholly-owned subsidiary Metaplanet Securities, involves the issuance of Series 21 to 24 unsecured ordinary bonds under Japan's small-scale private placement system, raising a total of approximately 200 million yen. The scale is pilot in nature, aimed at establishing a framework for subsequent bond issuance, distribution, and management.

According to monitoring by Catcher Predict, in the market prediction on Polymarket for the "Seattle Mariners vs. New York Yankees" event, the option "New York Yankees" in the sub-market "First 5 Innings Spread -1.5" experienced significant fluctuations in winning probability, soaring from 34% an hour ago to the current 49.5% (a fluctuation of 15.5%). Please note the impact of related breaking news.

Freddie Mac stated that the average rate for a 30-year fixed mortgage in the United States decreased from 6.69% a week ago to 6.67%, ending five consecutive weeks of increases.The U.S. job market is cooling, with price increases in July slowing down, and core inflation indicators dropping to a five-year low. The market expects the probability of a 25 basis point rate hike in September to fall to 38%. Stalled negotiations in the Strait of Hormuz have raised concerns about high oil prices, and U.S. home sales in July decreased by 4.1% compared to June.

The U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) has announced the agenda for the inaugural meeting of the Innovation Advisory Committee (IAC). The committee will hold its first meeting on August 20, focusing on regulatory issues in emerging areas such as crypto assets, artificial intelligence, and prediction markets.CFTC Chairman Michael S. Selig stated that the U.S. has long been a global center for financial innovation and hopes to explore how emerging technologies and financial products can drive market development through discussions with innovative entrepreneurs, researchers, and industry builders, and to jointly explore the "new frontiers of finance." The meeting will be live-streamed on the CFTC official website. Committee members and attendees will discuss topics such as the regulatory framework for digital assets, the impact of AI technology on financial markets, and the development of prediction markets. The public can submit relevant opinions by August 27, and these opinions will be publicly released through the U.S. Federal Regulations website Regulations.gov. The CFTC indicated that the meeting agenda may be adjusted based on the committee's subsequent focus.The Innovation Advisory Committee aims to provide the CFTC with recommendations on emerging technologies, financial products, and trends in market innovation, covering important areas such as digital assets and artificial intelligence that may influence the structure of future financial markets.

ChianCatcher news, Terence Lee, one of the early co-founders of BitMart (GBM Global Holding Company Limited), stated, "In recent years, I have not been responsible for the main business of the exchange, and my work has mainly focused on exploring new products and new business. I will withdraw from all company affairs on July 31, 2026, and will not participate in any operations, management, or asset-related matters of the company or any of its affiliated entities. The procedures for resigning from relevant positions and canceling registrations are currently being processed. I deeply regret the difficulties and impacts caused to users by the platform's cessation of operations. However, I currently have no authority to handle matters related to platform assets, accounts, or user funds, nor can I answer questions related to platform operations or asset disposal. Relevant requests should be made through the channels indicated in the official announcement and through legal means. Recently, my identification information, photos, and several false pieces of information have been circulated, and I have reported this to law enforcement and reserved the right to pursue legal responsibility. This statement is my only public explanation regarding this matter, and I will no longer respond to related inquiries individually."