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20VC partner P_Bonnet published an article comparing the history of the aluminum industry to AI, exploring a scenario of "if everything goes well." Most supply shortages will turn into surpluses within 3-5 years and destroy value, but the aluminum industry has seen a price drop of over 99.9% and a market expansion of over 1000 times over more than a century, as each price reduction unlocks new uses rather than collapsing within the same market.AI Tokens are moving up the same cost ladder at nearly 10 times the speed, with the key point being that humans are no longer a constraint. Conversational AI is limited by human reading speed and user scale, while reasoning and agents can make consumers no longer human. Agentic AI may completely remove human limits, leaving only the rapidly improving costs and utilities. The aluminum industry also relied on technological breakthroughs to transform a cheap metal into a structural material.At the infrastructure level, Alcoa monopolized for decades through processes, its own ore, and electricity; Nvidia has accumulated processes like CUDA, with production capacity resembling leasing, and lacks its own power, as major clients have directly locked in nuclear power and are developing their own chips. Ultimately, value will shift to those who discover new uses that could not exist at old prices; price collapse, technological effectiveness, and capital migration are not opposites but the same outcome.

Strive CEO Matt Cole stated that the BTC/gold ratio is sending a strong signal, indicating that the next Bitcoin cycle could be the strongest in history.Currently, there are two major structural factors: the long-term structural depreciation of the dollar, and Bitcoin has never experienced a true secular dollar collapse; and in an AI-driven prosperous world, capital will increasingly chase "scarce assets" that cannot be replicated. If Bitcoin can perform stronger relative to gold, it will attract a disproportionate inflow of funds, creating a positive feedback loop.

According to CoinGlass data, the Coinbase Bitcoin premium index has been in a negative premium range for 97 consecutive days from May 19 to August 23, with the latest report at -0.0266%, setting a new record for the longest continuous negative premium since the index was launched.The previous longest record was 40 consecutive days from January 16 to February 24 this year, which also exceeded the approximately 30 days of continuous negative premium during last year's "1011 crash." The Coinbase Bitcoin premium index is used to measure the price difference of Bitcoin between Coinbase Pro and Binance. A sustained negative index typically indicates that Coinbase's quotes are relatively low, reflecting weak buying in the U.S. market or significant selling pressure, but it should not be solely relied upon to directly conclude that institutional funds are flowing out.

According to Coinglass data, the "8.19" surge resulted in a cumulative liquidation of $2.739 billion in short positions and $248 million in long positions. The total liquidation amount in a single day ranks eighth in crypto history, with the single-day short position liquidation amount being the highest ever.It is worth noting that among the top 10 and even the top 30 liquidation events in crypto history, "8.19" is the only event dominated by short position liquidations, while the others were all caused by declines in crypto leading to long position liquidations.

The Coinbase Bitcoin Premium Index's negative premium has narrowed to -0.0221%, but it remains in a negative premium state. Data shows that from May 19 to August 21, this indicator has been in the negative premium range for 95 consecutive days, setting a record for the longest continuous negative premium since the indicator was launched. The previous longest record was 40 consecutive days from January 16 to February 24 of this year, which also exceeded the approximately 30 days of continuous negative premium during last year's "1011 crash."The Coinbase Bitcoin Premium Index is used to measure the price difference of Bitcoin between Coinbase Pro and Binance. A continuous negative index usually indicates that Coinbase's quotes are relatively low, reflecting weak buying in the U.S. market or significant selling pressure, but it is not advisable to directly conclude that institutional funds are flowing out based solely on this indicator.

U.S. President Trump announced the most severe economic sanctions against Iran in history, stating that this will be an unprecedented economic war and isolation.

According to the Dong-A Ilbo, Samsung Electronics plans to expand the core project of the P5 1·2 factory (Fab 5·6) in Pyeongtaek, Gyeonggi Province, from a dual-layer wafer factory to a three-layer wafer factory to respond to the global artificial intelligence semiconductor and memory supercycle and maximize production capacity. Samsung Electronics has recently submitted a plan to change the industrial park, proposing to increase the floor area ratio from 350% to a maximum of 490%. This change must be reviewed by the Gyeonggi Province governor and approved by the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport's industrial site policy review committee before it can be finalized.The Pyeongtaek P5 1·2 factory is the largest semiconductor factory in the world under a single standard, which began construction in 2022 and aims to be completed by 2030. It will produce high bandwidth memory (HBM), high-end DRAM, next-generation V-NAND, and advanced foundry products. The currently operational Pyeongtaek P4 uses a dual-layer structure with four clean rooms in a single building; if the change is approved, P5 will be configured with up to six clean rooms, and the number of clean rooms and production capacity is expected to increase by about 1.5 times. SK Hynix also plans to use a three-layer structure for all newly constructed wafer factories in the Yongin semiconductor cluster.Market research firm Counterpoint Research expects the global memory market size to increase from approximately 360 trillion won last year to 1,500 trillion won this year and 2,100 trillion won next year. In the context of increasingly difficult access to electricity, water, and land, increasing the floor area ratio to build three-layer wafer factories has become an important path to overcome the physical limitations of limited space and rely on the existing semiconductor industry ecosystem.

SK Hynix will implement a share buyback and cancellation plan worth 40 trillion won (approximately 28.5 billion USD) starting from August 20, repurchasing about 24.07 million shares, which accounts for approximately 3.3% of the total outstanding shares. Based on the previous day's closing price of 1.662 million won per share, this represents about 58% of its net cash of 69 trillion won as of the end of the second quarter. The buyback will last for about three months, and all repurchased shares will be completely canceled. This is also the largest stock cancellation plan ever by a listed company in South Korea.According to the shareholder return policy previously disclosed by the company, SK Hynix plans to use more than 50% of the cumulative free cash flow from 2025 to 2027 for returns, implementing buybacks and cash dividends concurrently, and is studying the expansion of the dividend plan. The company stated that this early buyback is based on the judgment that "the stock price is below intrinsic value" to achieve efficient capital reallocation. Specific additional return plans, including dividends and stock buybacks, will be announced after a board resolution during the third quarter earnings release.

According to CoinGlass data, the Coinbase Bitcoin Premium Index has been in a negative premium range for 90 consecutive days from May 19 to August 16, with the latest report at -0.1066%, setting a new record for the longest continuous negative premium since the index was launched.The previous longest record was 40 consecutive days from January 16 to February 24 this year, which also exceeded the approximately 30 days of continuous negative premium during last year's "1011 crash." The Coinbase Bitcoin Premium Index is used to measure the price difference of Bitcoin between Coinbase Pro and Binance. A sustained negative index usually indicates that Coinbase's pricing is relatively low, reflecting weaker buying in the U.S. market or greater selling pressure, but it should not be solely relied upon to directly conclude that institutional funds are flowing out.

Digital asset company Tether announced that it has completed a full independent audit conducted by KPMG U.S. on the financial statements of Tether International, S.A. de C.V. as of December 31, 2025. KPMG U.S. issued an unqualified audit opinion.The audit covered transactions, systems, ownership records, valuations, counterparties, and financial statement evidence, and reviewed the balance sheet, income statement, statement of changes in equity, and cash flow statement. KPMG U.S. also physically counted and inspected each gold bar held by Tether. Tether's Chief Financial Officer Simon McWilliams stated that the audited financial statements for 2025 show that its reserve assets exceed liabilities by $6.814 billion. Tether stated that this audit is an important step in fulfilling its long-term commitment to financial transparency.

Tom Lee, Chairman of Bitmine and Co-founder of Fundstrat, stated that the blockchain project Robinhood Chain launched by Robinhood has become the "biggest success story" in the crypto industry for 2026, being a groundbreaking project in terms of cumulative trading volume, total value locked (TVL), and potential market size.Lee pointed out that the biggest advantage of Robinhood Chain lies in its massive user base. Robinhood (HOOD) is opening this service to its approximately 27 million users, which itself constitutes a huge potential market. Ethereum (ETH) has also been continuously developing in recent years, although its growth has been relatively low-key, gradually expanding its application scope mainly through stablecoin settlements and crypto payments and asset purchases on platforms like Shopify.He believes that directly connecting 27 million Robinhood users to the Ethereum economic system will have a significant impact on the crypto industry, likely further promoting the expansion of blockchain applications from native crypto users to mainstream financial users. The success of Robinhood Chain is not only reflected in its technological aspects but, more importantly, in its ability to connect traditional financial users, trading platforms, and the Ethereum ecosystem, potentially becoming an important case for the mainstream adoption of crypto assets.

According to La Tribuna, the body of a Chinese man was found outside the Jade Park high-rise apartment in the Trinidad district of Asunción, Paraguay. Preliminary identification confirmed the identity as Harry Chun Tak Yeh, the founder and managing partner of Quantum Fintech Group. The police stated that he is suspected to have fallen from the 30th floor of the building, and his body was found completely naked and covered with a black plastic bag. Investigators found the apartment door on the 30th floor ajar, with the interior in disarray, and confirmed that he also owned another apartment on the 27th floor of the same building. Criminal technicians have collected evidence outside the building and from both apartments, and relevant physical evidence has been handed over to the prosecution. The prosecution is currently investigating multiple possibilities, including accident, suspected suicide, and homicide, while the judicial department will determine the specific cause of death and the circumstances through an autopsy.It is reported that Chinese-American cryptocurrency investor Harry Yeh entered the Bitcoin market in 2013 when the BTC trading price was $60. He launched his first fund with $250,000, and his investment network claims to manage over $2.4 billion in assets, closely linked with Fantom, Tomb Finance, Lif3, ZooCoin, L3 USD, and L3 Reserve.

According to BeInCrypto, since November 2025, Bitcoin's 30-day average hash rate has decreased by 19%, dropping from 1,108 EH/s to 898 EH/s. Glassnode data shows that this nine-month decline is the longest in the network's history.This decline coincides with the largest capital migration in mining companies' history, with mining firms holding over $70 billion in AI contracts, and some of the power capacity originally used for Bitcoin mining has shifted to AI hosting, which may be difficult to return.

According to a report by Jinshi, a report from Goldman Sachs shows that hedge funds focused on the Asian market are facing the largest single-month drawdown on record, due to a widespread sell-off of AI concept stocks, which has erased most of the gains previously concentrated in this sector. As of July 28, these funds have averaged a decline of 18.6% this month. Goldman Sachs pointed out that since the year-to-date return peaked at 40% on July 22, these funds have given back 21 percentage points of their year-to-date gains.