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ARK Invest CEO Cathie Wood stated at a summit hosted by Robinhood in Houston that investors have traditionally "followed developers" to gauge technological trends, but now they may need to "follow agents." The AI agents she refers to are software that can perform tasks on behalf of humans, rather than just answering questions or generating text. This statement came towards the end of a discussion on AI, private markets, and technology investments.As AI agents shift from answering questions to executing operations and spending funds, the type of financial infrastructure they will use has become a focal point. SharpLink co-CEO and former BlackRock digital asset head Joseph Chalom believes that the financial system used by AI agents should not be controlled by a few banks or tech companies. He cited the example of authorized agents booking hotels, pointing out that users should be able to set spending limits, revoke authorizations at any time, and view the agents' transaction records. Additionally, users should be able to transfer the agents' identities, financial information, and permissions between different financial service providers, similar to mobile number portability.Chalom believes that open blockchains like Ethereum can provide a universal financial network for different agents, applications, and companies to use collectively, eliminating the need for each AI company to build its own closed payment system. A report from BlackRock in September also noted that AI agents could create new demands for machine-oriented payment systems, such as payment API calls, purchasing data, or renting computing power, with stablecoins and blockchain being one of the viable solutions. Coinbase's x402 is designed to enable machines to pay for online services like data or APIs.

ARK Invest founder Cathie Wood stated that the cost reductions brought about by innovative platforms such as AI will gradually transmit to broader economic sectors, enhancing productivity and corporate profitability, and driving inflation rates down to levels below most investors' expectations, a phenomenon referred to as "benign deflation."Cathie Wood believes that the current AI inference costs are decreasing by 99.99% annually while maintaining performance levels. Meanwhile, OpenAI's annual revenue run rate has increased from $20 billion to $70 billion, indicating that the decline in costs is driving rapid growth in demand.ARK Invest expects that real GDP growth rates could reach high single digits, although this prediction seems "crazy" to most people; in a stronger real growth environment, interest rates may actually rise.

ARK Invest founder Cathie Wood stated that a single "Starship" launch could generate $1 billion in revenue. If SpaceX achieves Elon Musk's goal of conducting 10,000 flights annually by 2030, the annual revenue from "Starship" could reach $1 trillion.She believes that under the premise of achieving this goal, SpaceX's initial public offering at a valuation of $1.75 trillion may later be seen as a high-value investment opportunity. However, there remains significant uncertainty regarding these predictions.

Cathie Wood posted on platform X, stating that David Sacks believes recent reports about "AI will destroy humanity" may be orchestrated by humans.Wood pointed out that the relevant remarks initially came from a long-inactive X account of an employee at Anthropic, who left the company just six weeks after joining, and the related content quickly entered mainstream media. David Sacks also identified the parties involved in the incident and criticized the role played by The Wall Street Journal (WSJ).Cathie Wood stated that all technologies can potentially be used for malicious purposes. She believes that some individuals, including Elon Musk, who continuously emphasize the potential risks of AI are not participants in a political conspiracy but are playing a positive role. Wood said, "Half of solving the problem, including AI, is understanding the problem."

Pine Analytics released the Zcash Q3 2026 report. Ironwood was activated on July 28 at block 3,428,143, and within five weeks, holders migrated 87% of their Orchard balance, with the new pool holding 3.84M ZEC as of August 31. The shielded supply increased by 9.9% to 4.86M ZEC, with the shielded ratio rebounding from 26.3% to 28.7%, recovering 440K from the 745K unshielded ZEC in June.The price of ZEC rose from $407 on June 30 to $836 on August 31, an increase of 106%. Grayscale ZCSH converted to a spot ETF, with assets growing from $155 million to $346 million. Mining difficulty rose by 35%, reaching an all-time high, with two corporate miners committing approximately $65 million in hash power. NU7 has no mainnet height yet, and holders will vote until September 14 to decide whether to launch before September 30 with a 25-second block time and smooth issuance; there are still 470K ZEC remaining in Orchard.

ARK Invest founder Cathie Wood stated that the employment report on Friday was strong, with non-farm employment increasing by 162,000, household survey employment growth exceeding 500,000, and the average workweek increasing, indicating that the economy was performing well in August.Wood noted that many will see more inflation and Federal Reserve tightening, but she sees greater changes. Overall inflation is at 3.7%, with other measures closer to 2%. Oil prices could drop to $30, stocks are reaching all-time highs as interest rates rise, capital expenditures have broken through a ceiling not seen in over 20 years, and companies embracing artificial intelligence are creating jobs faster.She stated that these are not isolated signals and may mark the beginning of stronger real growth and robust technology-driven deflation. The consensus is pricing for the old economy, and she believes a new economy is forming.

According to Cointelegraph, ARK Invest founder Cathie Wood stated that analysts focused on Visa and Mastercard fail to understand the disruption brought by Circle, even though Circle has risen 84% since its IPO.

ARK Invest founder Cathie Wood stated in an interview, "Bitcoin is preparing for a new round of surge, and I am bullish on Bitcoin eventually reaching $1.5 million."Cathie Wood has consistently maintained her target price of $1.5 million for Bitcoin, even when most people initially thought she had "lost her mind." The core of this ARK Invest founder's bullish logic on Bitcoin is primarily based on three pillars: institutional adoption, fixed supply, and Bitcoin gradually becoming a true digital store of value asset. She has also repeatedly mentioned that a specific catalyst could significantly accelerate the realization of this goal: the U.S. government buying Bitcoin.

According to Cointelegraph, Cathie Wood of Ark Invest stated that AI is likely to trigger an entrepreneurial explosion, and she encourages recent graduates to use AI as their sole employee to start their own companies.

ARK Invest stated that despite the latest U.S. employment data appearing weak, the overall economic situation is not as pessimistic as it seems. Cathie Wood mentioned that the U.S. federal deficit as a percentage of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) is currently 5.6%, and if productivity and technology adoption continue to improve, it may approach 5% by the end of the year.

ZEC financial company Cypherpunk disclosed on platform X that Ironwood has surpassed Orchard to become the largest shielded pool on Zcash.The latest data shows that the Ironwood shielded pool has locked a total of 1,976,378 ZEC, worth over 1 billion dollars.

According to official news, a total of 129,396 ZEC have been migrated to the Ironwood shielded pool, valued at over 60 million dollars at current prices.The official statement said that Ironwood, as the latest shielded pool for Zcash, has completed formal verification, supports independent audits, and is currently carrying an increasing proportion of shielded funds in the network.

Zcash activated the Ironwood NU6.3 network upgrade at block height 3,428,143, launching a new shielded pool to enhance network security and allow for the independent verification of ZEC circulating supply.After the upgrade, the original Orchard pool was restricted, and new funds are not allowed to enter. Existing funds must be migrated out through a turnstile before re-entering Ironwood, ensuring at the protocol level that pool expenditures do not exceed verifiable income. Ironwood is based on a revised protocol that has been formally verified and independently audited, aimed at preventing similar risks to the previous Orchard declarative vulnerabilities. Wallets supporting Ironwood (such as Zodl 3.8.0) have provided migration paths, allowing users to transfer funds from Orchard to the new pool without changing addresses.

Zcash core developer Sean Bowe posted on the X platform that the block height for the Zcash Ironwood mainnet activation has been determined and marked. All major organizations have committed to activating the NU6.3 upgrade at block height 3,428,143, expected to occur at 8 PM Beijing time on July 28.According to previous news, this upgrade stems from the earlier Orchard pool vulnerability—this vulnerability could allow attackers to mint an unlimited amount of counterfeit ZEC, and due to the privacy attributes of the Orchard pool, the team could not determine whether any counterfeit ZEC was minted before the vulnerability was patched. The Ironwood upgrade will implement two core measures: first, it will introduce a new privacy pool using the Orchard protocol, while the old pool will be gradually phased out; second, it will add a control flag in the zero-knowledge proof circuit, which, when enabled, can disable the function of transferring to other users in the pool while retaining the change feature.

Cathie Wood posted on the X platform stating that, in ARK Invest's view, stablecoins are monetary networks that, through trust, collateral utility, and integration, will have their network effects compounded over time.The network effects of USDT and USDC have always been strong. LorenzoARK explained the reasons why OUSD is unlikely to replace them.

The Zcash development team announced plans to introduce formal verification through the upcoming new privacy pool Ironwood, using mathematical proofs to eliminate the risk of "undetectable inflation vulnerabilities."According to previous news, although the vulnerabilities in the Orchard shielded pool have been fixed and there is no evidence of exploitation, the community decided to launch a brand new Ironwood shielded pool and conduct comprehensive formal verification of its protocol, as it is theoretically impossible to confirm whether hidden inflation has occurred through on-chain history.

According to Zcash developer Sean Bowe (@ebfull), the Zcash Ironwood network upgrade has made significant progress: all consensus rule changes have been implemented and have entered the audit phase, and the related specifications (ZIPs) have been released and are nearing final status; the testnet activation is scheduled for July 4, and the mainnet activation is expected to be completed around July 21.The team is simultaneously conducting formal verification work to eliminate potential risks regarding supply integrity, and the relevant results will be announced before the mainnet activation. The only impact on users after the upgrade will be the migration process of the old funding pool. There is already sufficient hashing power expressing support for the mainnet upgrade, although some wallets may not be able to complete adaptation in time, but the team has stated that this will not delay the activation, and ample alternative solutions and testnet time will be provided.

According to the latest daily trading disclosure information released by ARK Invest, Cathie Wood's ARK Invest spent $25.54 million on June 26 to purchase stocks of Coinbase, SpaceX, Circle, Bullish, and Robinhood.Among them, $10.19 million was spent on Coinbase stocks (68,366 shares); $7.01 million on SpaceX stocks; and $5.79 million on Circle stocks.