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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.

EtherFi announced that the existing lending infrastructure of EtherFi Cash can no longer meet development needs. A dedicated Aave V4 instance is currently being deployed on the Optimism chain to support the credit card backend.EtherFi Cash currently has an active loan amount of 22 million USD, and it is expected that the lending capacity will reach 500 million USD by 2027. There are already 70,000 cardholders using cryptocurrency for consumption without the need to sell their cryptocurrency.

According to monitoring by Catcher Predict, in the prediction market Polymarket for the event "Kansas City Royals vs. Los Angeles Dodgers," the option "Los Angeles Dodgers" in the sub-market "Spread -1.5" has experienced significant fluctuations in winning probability, rising from 55.5% an hour ago to the current 81% (a fluctuation of 25.5%). Please note the impact of related breaking news.

According to reports from American media, the New York City Council is investigating the advertising practices of the four major prediction market platforms, opening a new battleground for the legal controversies facing this rapidly growing industry.New York City Council Speaker Julie Menin sent an inquiry letter containing numerous questions to Polymarket, Kalshi, Coinbase Global Inc., and the prediction market platform Titan under Gemini Space Station, as part of a so-called legislative investigation aimed at examining whether existing city laws are sufficient to protect residents from false or deceptive marketing by these emerging platforms.The City Council is also studying the development of relevant policies to address products that may lead users to "engage in compulsive betting on event contracts." In a letter to Polymarket, the City Council stated: "The City Council is investigating allegations related to Polymarket, and more importantly, is examining the prevalence of similar marketing practices in the broader prediction market industry, as well as the associated social harms caused to New York City residents."

According to Catcher Predict monitoring, in the Polymarket prediction market event "Kansas City Royals vs. Los Angeles Dodgers," the "Los Angeles Dodgers" option in the sub-market "Spread -1.5" experienced a dramatic fluctuation in win probability, dropping from 64.5% an hour ago to the current 41.5% (a fluctuation of 23%). Please note the impact of related breaking news.

SK Hynix has restarted the construction of its second NAND flash memory factory in Dalian, expecting to increase the monthly production capacity in the region by about 50%. The new production line is designed for a monthly capacity of approximately 50,000 wafers, combined with the existing Dalian Plant 1's monthly capacity of 100,000 wafers, bringing SK Hynix's total NAND production capacity in China to about 150,000 wafers per month. The factory began construction four years ago but was paused due to the downturn in the memory chip market and U.S. export restrictions on equipment to China, having only completed the structural framework.The investment in Dalian Plant 2 is driven by SK Hynix's NAND subsidiary Solidigm, with equipment installation expected to start as early as November this year, and plans to establish a mass production system in the first half of next year. Driven by the expansion of AI data centers, demand for enterprise-level SSDs has surged, with NAND prices rising nearly tenfold compared to a year ago, prompting the restart of investments. SK Hynix will adopt a dual-track strategy: the Dalian factory will use Intel's mature floating gate architecture to produce NAND at the hundred-layer level, while domestic factories like Cheongju M17 will focus on advanced NAND production of over 300 layers, the latter having announced an investment of 19.1 trillion won. Industry insiders expect that the equipment configuration of Dalian Plant 2 will be similar to that of Plant 1, maintaining a monthly production capacity in the range of 40,000 to 60,000 wafers.

According to Catcher Predict monitoring, in the predicted market event "Kansas City Royals vs. Los Angeles Dodgers" on Polymarket, the option "Kansas City Royals" in the sub-market "1st 5 Innings Spread -1.5" has experienced a dramatic fluctuation in winning probability, soaring from 15% an hour ago to the current 49.5% (a fluctuation of 34.5%). Please note the impact of related breaking news.

Microsoft plans to publicly release its next-generation Maia 300 AI chip this fall (possibly as early as September). To meet delivery demands for 2027, Microsoft has engaged with TSMC to secure manufacturing capacity for over 300,000 units of the chip.

Tesla stated that TeraFab will be built in Grimes County, Texas, and the number of chips required by Tesla and SpaceX will far exceed the current and future global production capacity.

Bitget recently signed a cooperation agreement with the Gelephu Mindfulness City Authority (GMCA) of Bhutan. According to the framework of the agreement, Bitget will establish a legal entity in Gelephu Mindfulness City (GMC) and prepare relevant financial service license applications under the regulatory framework of the Gelephu Financial Services Office (GFSO), while collaborating with GMCA on workflows related to operations, regulation, and ecosystem development. According to the plan, Bitget will also gradually establish offices locally and conduct local recruitment to support local talent development and long-term construction.As a special administrative region in southern Bhutan, GMC is being developed as the next-generation international financial and innovation center, with its virtual asset system governed by the Financial Services Act of 2025. Jigdrel Singay, a board member of the Gelephu Mindfulness City Board, pointed out that introducing partners like Bitget helps bring global expertise while promoting local capabilities and the broader financial ecosystem development.

According to the South Korean media The Elec, GlobalWafers stated during the Q2 earnings call that the production lines for 12-inch, 8-inch, and 6-inch wafers are nearing full capacity, with some advanced 12-inch products experiencing supply constraints due to a surge in demand for AI chips, HBM, and advanced packaging. Shin-Etsu Chemical achieved double-digit growth in 12-inch shipments both year-on-year and quarter-on-quarter in Q2, and Sungrow also believes that customer inventory adjustments are nearing completion. Although SK Siltron is gradually releasing capacity from new production lines, it is still difficult to meet the growth rate of orders.Tight supply is driving changes in long-term contract models, and GlobalWafers signed a 10-year LTA (including advance payment) with Micron last month. Prices in the non-LTA market have begun to rise and are expected to continue to increase in the second half of the year. GlobalWafers stated that it is negotiating with customers to incorporate price adjustment mechanisms into new contracts, and Nexchip also emphasized the need for "broad and meaningful price increases" to support reinvestment. Industry insiders expect that as new factories from Samsung, SK Hynix, and Micron come online, wafer demand will double in the second half of 2027, and supply shortages may further intensify.

According to South Korean media ZDNet Korea, Samsung Electronics' 4nm wafer foundry capacity is fully loaded until next year, mainly driven by a surge in HBM4 orders and unexpected orders for LPU "Grok3" from Nvidia for inference. To address the capacity bottleneck, Samsung is actively recommending the validated 5nm process as an alternative to customers. This process was originally aimed at automotive chips and is now expanding into the server and high-performance AI/NPU chip sectors.The report states that in the recent 3-4 months, demand for 5nm from customers has significantly increased, mainly from Chinese and Indian fabless companies that have shifted due to tight supply of advanced processes from TSMC and geopolitical factors. Additionally, inquiries from customers regarding the 2nm process are also ongoing.

According to the Electronic Times, TSMC plans to further expand the outsourcing scale of the CoW (Chip-on-Wafer) segment in its CoWoS advanced packaging, entrusting more packaging orders to ASE and other OSAT manufacturers. CoWoS is TSMC's 2.5D packaging technology that connects AI processors such as GPUs with HBM through an intermediary layer, where CoW is the step of combining the chip with the intermediary layer, and WoS is the step of packaging the substrate. Previously, TSMC mainly outsourced the WoS segment, with only a small portion of CoW being entrusted.This move aims to alleviate the packaging capacity bottleneck caused by the continuous surge in demand for AI chips. TSMC holds about 90% of the global AI chip manufacturing market, but as the demand for self-developed chips from manufacturers like Nvidia and AI data centers skyrockets, capacity has become difficult to meet. Industry insiders expect OSATs to significantly increase equipment investment, especially in post-process areas such as wafer cutting and bonding. Several laser processing and bonding equipment suppliers in South Korea have been confirmed to be negotiating with OSATs regarding the supply of CoW equipment.

According to Jinshi reports, Israeli tanks fired in the northwest direction of Beit Lahia city in the northern Gaza Strip.

According to CryptoSlate, Solana increased the block computation unit limit from 60 million to 100 million on July 29, a 66.7% increase. This adjustment provides more parallel processing space for unrelated transactions, reducing the block occupancy rate of a single popular account from the original 20% to 12%.However, the computation limit for writing to the same account in each block remains at 12 million CU, and the incremental data limit for accounts is still 100 MB, which means the congestion bottleneck for popular accounts has not been fundamentally resolved. If a large number of transactions need to be written to the same popular account (such as a high-volume DEX or liquidation contract), they are still subject to this limit. The officials did not provide actual comparative data on transaction confirmation rates, fees, block propagation, or replay before and after the upgrade.

According to DIGITIMES, industry insiders revealed that the three major memory manufacturers have completed the capacity allocation negotiations for the entire year of 2027 in advance, with both DRAM and HBM capacities sold out. In terms of NAND Flash, although it is not as tight as DRAM, it is expected that the capacity will also be fully booked by the end of August 2026. ADATA Chairman Chen Libai confirmed that applications related to HBM and AI servers will account for nearly 70% of DRAM capacity, while the supply of DRAM for PCs and mobile phones will be relatively limited.Industry assessments indicate that Samsung, Micron, and SanDisk's NAND capacity for the entire year of 2027 has also been pre-sold, with Kioxia and SK Hynix expected to confirm by the end of August. SK Group Chairman Chey Tae-won previously stated that the demand for AI semiconductors in 2027 is expected to increase by 60-100% compared to 2026, with storage demand expected to grow by 50-60%, leading to a potential widening of the supply-demand gap and possibly facing "the most severe shortage in history." Industry insiders pointed out that the capacity allocation model is more orderly compared to 2026, but the amount that manufacturers can provide is usually only 60-70% of customer demand, leaving some small and medium buyers still facing the dilemma of having no products to purchase. The price increase of memory may slow down in 2027, but remaining high could become the norm.

ChianCatcher news, Solana officially announced that the mainnet has launched 100M CU blocks. SIMD-0286 increases the block computing unit limit from 60M to 100M, with a capacity increase of 66%.The official stated that about 1/9 of the blocks were operating close to full capacity during peak on-chain activity in the past year, and 100M CU provides more space for the network. This move is just the first step, and subsequent upgrades such as Alpenglow and 200ms slot time will be promoted.

According to monitoring by Catcher Predict, in the Polymarket prediction market for the "Kansas City Royals vs. Detroit Tigers" event, the "Kansas City Royals" option in the sub-market "Kansas City Royals vs. Detroit Tigers" experienced significant fluctuations in winning probability, soaring from 24.5% an hour ago to the current 69.5% (a fluctuation of 45%). Please note the impact of related breaking news.