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According to Coinglass data, the cryptocurrency Fear and Greed Index is currently at 72, up 2 points from yesterday. The average over the past 7 days is 70, and the average over the past 30 days is 41.

According to Bloomberg, the new regulations on cryptocurrency asset financing proposed by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) this month aim to restart the ICO financing model. The proposal allows startups to raise up to $5 million within four years and large projects to raise up to $75 million annually without full SEC registration.However, the market environment has fundamentally changed: in January 2018, ICO financing reached $3 billion, but now VC token trading volumes have significantly declined, and speculative funds have shifted to perpetual contracts, prediction markets, and AI stocks. Dragonfly partner Tom Schmidt stated, "Having something is better than having nothing, but it would have been more useful if launched a few years ago." Pantera Capital partner Cosmo Jiang pointed out, "Previously, meme coins that were legal but had actual value were illegal, which is completely contrary to the way capitalism operates." Analysts believe, "The ICO of 2026 is not the ICO of 2018; the era when white papers and dreams could attract capital has ended."

SK Hynix CEO Kwak Noh-Jung stated that the company is exploring ways to deepen cooperation with Japanese memory chip customers and suppliers, and is cautiously assessing how to jointly develop the NAND flash memory market. Regarding the company's significant indirect stake in Kioxia, he mentioned that there are currently "no definite plans."After Toshiba's recent divestment, SK Hynix's investment vehicle BCPE Pangea Cayman2 has become Kioxia's largest shareholder, holding a 14.19% stake. SK Hynix holds bonds that can be converted into nearly all voting rights of this investment vehicle; according to a previous agreement, its voting rights cannot exceed 15% before 2028 without Kioxia's consent.In addition, SK Hynix is investing over $4 billion to build its first U.S. HBM packaging facility in Indiana. The cleanroom of the factory is expected to be operational by October 2028, with mass production of the next generation HBM planned for the second half of 2029, and it is expected to employ about 1,000 people once fully operational. The company is also still evaluating the possibility of listing its U.S. NAND subsidiary Solidigm, but no decision has been made yet.

During an interview with Phoenix Technology, Sun Yuchen stated that the article "My Girlfriend Jing Tian," which is about 6000 words long, was something he "basically wrote over two nights without much sleep." Sun Yuchen mentioned that the reason for focusing on retrieving the betrothal gifts in this lawsuit is, first, due to his lawyer's advice, and second, he also wants to have "a bit of a sarcastic feeling," claiming this might be the only connection between him and Jing Tian.At the same time, Sun Yuchen stated that in the past he advocated for 100% following AI, but this time, after sending the article "My Girlfriend Jing Tian" to Claude, it was also the first time he had a disagreement with Claude.

Famous gold bull and Bitcoin bear Peter Schiff posted that he is skeptical about today's sharp rise in MSTR, which he believes is primarily driven by short covering, and reiterated his "death spiral" argument.Even though Bitcoin's temporary rebound has slightly extended the survival period of Strategy, his long-term bearish stance remains unchanged.

According to Crypto Briefing, the U.S. Depository Trust & Clearing Corporation (DTCC) has added 21Shares' Polkadot Staking ETF to its listing, with the code TDOT, marking the official entry of this product into the U.S. ETF ecosystem. Meanwhile, 21Shares has renamed the fund from its original name "21Shares Polkadot ETF" to "21Shares Polkadot Staking ETF," with this change taking effect on August 27, 2026.This name change is not just a superficial adjustment; the term "Staking" clearly communicates the product mechanism to institutional investors: the fund holds DOT tokens, stakes 40% to 95% of its holdings through network validators, and distributes earnings to shareholders on a quarterly basis. The current staking yield is 2.04%, with a management fee of 0.3%, and custody is jointly handled by Anchorage Digital, BitGo, and Coinbase. The ETF was listed on Nasdaq on March 6, 2026, with initial seed funding of approximately $11 million, and as of the end of August, the assets under management are approximately $7.5 to $7.9 million.

According to Axios, the Trump administration is negotiating with the interim government of Venezuela to seek ownership rights to some of the country's oil fields, involving more than a dozen productive oil fields.In exchange, private companies, including American enterprises, will participate in the development of the oil fields, increasing production and bringing more oil revenue to Venezuela. The negotiations are led by U.S. Secretary of State Rubio and Venezuela's acting president Delcy Rodríguez.

The Hyperliquid Policy Center stated on platform X that perpetual contracts should be at the core of the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) innovation agenda. The agency submitted a statement regarding the first meeting of the CFTC Innovation Advisory Committee on August 20, pointing out that perpetual contracts are gradually expanding beyond the digital asset market to traditional asset classes such as stocks and commodities, and that demand for this product among U.S. market participants is rising.Perpetual contracts can meet the risk management needs of different market participants, making them particularly suitable for airlines hedging fuel costs, investment funds managing portfolio exposure, and AI developers addressing ongoing risks related to computing costs that do not have a clear expiration date. Compared to futures with fixed expiration dates, perpetual contracts do not require rolling over, and there are no expiration and delivery issues; they anchor contract prices to the underlying assets through periodic funding rates. Currently, on Hyperliquid, perpetual contracts deployed by third-party developers cover over 80 traditional commodity and stock markets, with a cumulative notional trading volume exceeding $500 billion.This year, the CFTC has taken several measures to promote the establishment of the perpetual contract market in the U.S. In May, the CFTC approved the first perpetual futures contract listed in the U.S. and issued a policy statement and continuous trading guidance regarding the listing of perpetual contracts; in June, the CFTC sought public opinion on extending perpetual contracts to energy commodities and further consulted on computing power derivatives.In addition, the Hyperliquid Policy Center believes that on-chain infrastructure can also promote the modernization of the U.S. derivatives market within the existing regulatory framework. Public blockchains can openly record markets, orders, and positions, continuously conduct margin assessments programmatically, and enable real-time collateral transfers, thereby reducing counterparty credit risk and settlement risk. The agency will continue to provide relevant research and technical documents to the CFTC Innovation Advisory Committee and committee staff, and promote the establishment of a pathway for U.S. market participants to compliantly access on-chain markets. The agency believes that perpetual contracts are one of the most representative financial innovations of the past decade and should be further developed in the U.S. market.

For the week ending August 22, the number of initial jobless claims in the United States was 203,000, lower than the expected 208,000, and the previous value was revised from 206,000 to 207,000.

For the week ending August 15, the number of continuing unemployment claims in the United States was 1.778 million, lower than the expected 1.79 million, and the previous value was revised from 1.799 million to 1.796 million.

CryptoQuant founder Ki Young Ju stated that the peak of this bull market cycle is likely to be driven by institutional funds and ETFs outside of the United States. Currently, South Korea has not yet launched a spot Bitcoin ETF, retail investors cannot purchase overseas related ETFs, and companies are even unable to open trading platform accounts to buy BTC.Ki Young Ju believes that the market was primarily driven by the adoption of Bitcoin in the United States, but the next phase will shift towards global institutionalization, accompanied by deeper stablecoin liquidity and RWA infrastructure. More institutions will hold BTC as a strategic asset, and several countries that have not yet launched ETFs will gradually improve related investment channels. The peak of this cycle may occur when a banker from a local bank in South Korea recommends a spot Bitcoin ETF to an elderly woman, suggesting it for savings.

Japanese cryptocurrency exchange service provider Coincheck announced that it has completed the registration for electronic payment methods and other transactions on August 27, 2026, becoming the second company in Japan to obtain a license related to stablecoins.Coincheck stated that it will gradually develop stablecoin and on-chain financial related businesses based on its previous cooperation with the American company Circle to expand the use cases of USDC in Japan. The company claims that stablecoins have price stability linked to fiat currencies, which can be used for around-the-clock, fast, and low-cost transfers and payments.

According to Politico, the United States is considering expanding the scope of tariffs to include laptops and servers.

The UK plans to give the Bank of England a new statutory objective to support innovation in stablecoins and other forms of digital currency, while maintaining financial stability as a primary responsibility. This objective will be incorporated through amendments to the Financial Services and Markets Bill, requiring the central bank to report annually to Parliament on its progress in payment systems and digital currency innovation. Lucy Rigby, the UK's Economic Secretary to the Treasury, stated that this objective will support the central bank in continuing to promote payment and digital financial innovation, ensuring that the UK maintains its leading position in global financial services.The UK is committed to establishing a unified regulatory framework covering both traditional and tokenized payments. The Bank of England abandoned its previously proposed temporary cap on the holdings of stablecoins by individuals and businesses in June this year, instead setting a £40 billion (approximately $54 billion) issuance cap for each systemic stablecoin; issuers can allocate up to 70% of their reserve assets to UK short-term government bonds, with the remainder held at the central bank. The UK's Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) has also finalized rules for crypto firms and stablecoin issuers, including simplified capital requirements, allowing businesses to apply for authorization starting September 30, with the new rules taking effect on October 25, 2027.According to DeFiLlama data, the current stablecoin market size is approximately $303 billion, up from about $200 billion at the beginning of last year, with most being dollar-pegged stablecoins. Visa data shows that the trading volume of retail-level stablecoins below $250 has increased from $500 million in 2019 to nearly $70 billion last year, reflecting the growth in consumer usage.

Justin Sun stated at the Bitcoin Asia 2026 conference in Hong Kong that the threat of quantum computing to blockchain and the entire financial system is widespread, and traditional banks like JPMorgan are also facing risks.Due to the highly decentralized nature of the Bitcoin community, which involves multiple participants such as miners, exchanges, and WBTC, reaching a consensus on quantum resistance will take a long time. Justin Sun mentioned that TRON has been developing quantum-resistant mechanisms over the past year, and in the first half of this year, they released a quantum-resistant address solution and launched it on the testnet, with plans to upgrade the entire network to a mainstream cryptocurrency network with quantum resistance capabilities by the end of this year.

SK Group plans to sell a 49% stake in its Ulsan artificial intelligence data center in South Korea to several private equity firms. SK Telecom and SK Broadband intend to approve the transaction at the board meeting on August 27.KKR will acquire a 29% stake, while a consortium formed by IMM Investment and Stonebridge Capital will acquire a 20% stake. The transaction is valued at approximately 3 trillion won, which includes about 1.2 trillion won in capital increase.

CryptoQuant analyst Axel Adler Jr. pointed out that Bitcoin's two profit and loss indicators have reversed simultaneously in the past ten days. The 90-day realized profit and loss ratio has risen above 1 for the first time since the end of July (reaching 1.003 on August 26), and the unrealized loss ratio has decreased from 18.57% on August 16 to 7.35%, a drop of about 60%, marking the lowest level since May 11.The analyst stated that losses are no longer dominating the market, but the current readings are almost exactly at the breakeven line and need to be continuously confirmed. Historically, during the capitulation phase from 2022 to 2023, this ratio remained below 1 for 241 days, with a minimum drop to 0.368. The current loss pressure is still distant from historical deep capitulation. Both indicators show that holders' financial conditions have significantly improved compared to the low point in August, but true confirmation requires the realized profit and loss ratio to remain consistently above 1 and unrealized losses to stay low.

Jeremy Allaire posted on the X platform that StableFX will soon launch on the Arc mainnet. Previously, StableFX had launched on the Arc public testnet.StableFX is an institutional-grade stablecoin forex engine that covers local currency stablecoins in major and emerging markets, supporting near-instant, 24/7 on-demand settlement, using a PvP mechanism, which means funds are either credited to both parties simultaneously or not at all, to reduce capital occupation, and it can connect multiple vetted counterparties through a single access point.