challenges

SemiAnalysis released the latest episode of its podcast, which pointed out that SK Hynix and Micron have been facing challenges in achieving the highest HBM4 speeds. In particular, SK Hynix had to redesign its base chip, resulting in delays in HBM4 deliveries to the NVIDIA Rubin platform.Samsung currently has the best HBM4 technology. Broadcom has traditionally relied heavily on Samsung for its HBM supply. Samsung's performance in the HBM3E generation was poor, which posed a disadvantage for Broadcom's ASICs. However, now Samsung is leading its competitors with HBM4, and this same supply chain relationship has become an advantage for Jalapeño.

According to Cointelegraph, the European Commission is assessing whether to include crypto lending (including DeFi vaults) in the Markets in Crypto-Assets Regulation (MiCA). The relevant targeted consultation was launched on May 20, 2026, with a feedback deadline of September 30. MiCA originally excluded crypto lending and completely decentralized activities, but Brussels is currently reviewing these gaps.EU digital asset lawyer Yuriy Brisov stated that there is no category of "vault" in EU law, and lawyers need to define by function rather than label. Vaults decentralize economic functions such as lending across smart contracts and multiple participants (such as owners, curators, distributors, and sentinels in Morpho Vault V2), making it difficult to correspond to a single regulated entity. Cahill partner Jonathan Galea cautioned against treating "DeFi lending" as a single label, as products with different structures may be subject to a one-size-fits-all approach. Curve founder Michael Egorov noted that if included in regulation, they should be treated differently, as DeFi does not require all the protections of traditional lending and may need different rules.

The non-farm data is a significant positive, gold prices challenge the 4,380 mark, and the last hope for bears has not yet been shattered.

According to Taiwanese media reports, Intel's next-generation advanced packaging technology EMIB-T is facing severe yield challenges. ABF substrate supplier Unimicron stated during its earnings call on July 29 that the technology is "not yet mature," and the yield target for three EMIB-T substrate suppliers (Unimicron, Ibiden, and Shinkawa) during the initial mass production phase at the end of 2027 is only 50%.EMIB-T is Intel's advanced packaging solution that competes with TSMC's CoWoS-L, differing in that it embeds the silicon bridge directly into the substrate rather than using a silicon interposer, making substrate suppliers a key factor in determining success or failure. Google's ninth-generation TPU has confirmed that it will adopt EMIB-T packaging when it goes into mass production in 2028, with MediaTek responsible for chip co-design. If the chip successfully goes into mass production, its shipment volume is expected to challenge NVIDIA. Unimicron stated that the customer (Intel) has provided a profit guarantee mechanism, ensuring that suppliers can remain profitable even if yields are poor, and that profit margins will exceed the company's average level after achieving the 50% yield target. Currently, there is still considerable uncertainty about whether EMIB-T can achieve its mass production target by the end of 2027.

According to Bloomberg, the current venture capital market is experiencing significant structural differentiation. As funds concentrate on top artificial intelligence startups, many small and medium-sized venture capital funds are facing severe challenges such as fundraising difficulties, declining performance, and narrowing exit channels.The report points out that the excessive hype around artificial intelligence has distorted the venture capital market. Data shows that just five companies—OpenAI, Anthropic, xAI, Waymo, and Nscale—accounted for 78% of all venture capital transaction volume in the first quarter of this year. A large amount of capital has flowed to a few top investors who made early bets on AI, such as Founders Fund and Andreessen Horowitz, while small emerging fund managers find it difficult to compete with these leading institutions.This differentiation is directly reflected in fundraising data. Last year, newly established management companies (managing three or fewer funds) raised only about $62 billion, a significant drop of about 60% compared to the pandemic peak of $163.4 billion in 2022. Even experienced management teams raised only $84 billion last year, which is just one-third of the amount in 2022. Many LPs are facing liquidity pressures and are more inclined to demand returns on existing investments rather than commit new funds.

According to BeInCrypto, El Salvador's two major opposition parties, ARENA and FMLN, have nominated Maytee Iraheta and Rafael Aguirre, respectively, as candidates for the presidential election in February 2027, challenging the re-election campaign of current President Nayib Bukele. Both candidates have not supported Bukele's Bitcoin strategy and have publicly criticized it as a financial failure.Bukele's New Ideas party has nominated him to run, with his approval rating reaching as high as 94% in recent polls, but this support mainly comes from improvements in public safety rather than Bitcoin policy—polls show that only 2.2% of Salvadorans believe Bitcoin is their biggest failure. Bitcoin is no longer mandatory legal tender in the country following the IMF loan agreement in February 2025, with the dollar resuming its status as the only official currency for daily transactions. However, the El Salvador Bitcoin Office continues to buy Bitcoin, acquiring about 1 BTC daily, and as of July 27, its holdings have risen to approximately 7,730 BTC. The IMF has repeatedly warned that the Bitcoin strategy poses financial and governance risks and has not significantly improved financial inclusivity for unbanked residents. The next president will decide whether this accumulation continues.

Social Capital founder Chamath Palihapitiya stated on the X platform that the current cryptocurrency market, especially Bitcoin bulls, is facing two major issues: first, marginal liquidity is more inclined to flow into prediction markets and stock markets; second, the marginal energy used for Bitcoin mining, if reallocated to serve AI token-related demands, could be valued 10 to 20 times higher. Chamath noted that these changes appear to be structural, but there is also a possibility of misjudgment.In response, Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong said that the first point "seems more like a temporary phenomenon," while the second point may be more enduring. However, the computing power or energy flow used for Bitcoin mining does not directly determine Bitcoin prices, as the network difficulty will automatically adjust to maintain the same block production pace when miners exit. He also stated that, in the long run, Bitcoin prices reflect more of people's concerns about inflation, and there are no signs that the trend of democratic governments around the world continuing to expand fiscal deficits is coming to an end.

According to Rest of World, in order to significantly reduce operating costs, American developers and startups are accelerating the adoption of Chinese AI models such as DeepSeek, Minimax, and Kimi. Due to their high cost-effectiveness in handling common tasks like code writing, the market share of Chinese AI models is rapidly increasing. Data shows that in May, the Token usage share of DeepSeek on the service provider Vercel platform surged from less than 1% to 17%. Additionally, it is reported that Microsoft is also exploring the use of DeepSeek or other open-source models as a low-cost alternative for Copilot.However, despite the popularity of Chinese AI models in the market due to their price advantage, many American companies and developers choose to access these models indirectly through local servers or American cloud service providers, constrained by domestic political scrutiny and data security concerns. This has led to Chinese AI companies facing high usage rates while still struggling to effectively convert traffic into substantial direct revenue and long-term enterprise-level customer trust in the U.S. market.

According to official news, Gate Europe CEO Giovanni Cunti attended the Digital Assets Forum 2026 held in Malta on May 14 and participated in a roundtable discussion titled "Do We Need a MiCA 2.0? The Industry's Perspective," alongside OKX CEO Erald Ghoos, Crypto.com Executive Vice President Mariana Kushev, and Blockchain.com Non-Executive Director and European Policy Advisor Giles Swan. They discussed the regulatory practices, industry opportunities, and future development directions of the European crypto industry following the implementation of MiCA.Giovanni shared the phased achievements of Gate Europe in advancing the compliance process in Europe, as well as the challenges and opportunities the industry faces under the MiCA framework. He stated that Gate will continue to be at the forefront of compliant crypto asset service providers in Europe and actively promote the standardized development of the industry.As an important forum focusing on European digital asset regulation and industry trends, the Digital Assets Forum 2026 gathered regulators, industry executives, and practitioners to review the key progress made in the 18 months since the implementation of MiCA. Currently, Gate's Malta company, Gate Europe, has obtained European MiCA and PI licenses under the supervision of the Malta Financial Services Authority (MFSA). As the European digital asset regulatory framework matures, Gate is deepening its compliance layout in the European market and enhancing its influence in the global digital asset industry through active participation in industry dialogue and regulatory practices.

According to Jinshi reports, analysts Anna and Stuart pointed out that today's decision to maintain interest rates is expected, but what stands out is the number of dissenting opinions. Powell presided over the meeting with the most dissent during his tenure, and this policy statement elevated the description of inflation from "somewhat elevated" to "elevated." The apparent divisions within the committee highlight the challenges Kevin Warsh faces in achieving the goal of interest rate cuts; unless there is a significant deterioration in the labor market, the committee is unlikely to act quickly on rate cuts.

According to CoinDesk, while quantum computers cannot disrupt the Bitcoin mining mechanism or the blockchain ledger, they may potentially crack the elliptic curve encryption system that protects wallet ownership through Shor's algorithm. Currently, about 6.9 million BTC (approximately one-third of the total supply) face potential risks due to public keys being visible on-chain, including around 1 million early holdings by Satoshi Nakamoto; transactions generated after the Taproot upgrade in 2021 are also affected due to public key exposure.Ethereum has established a formal quantum resistance migration plan since 2018, with 4 full-time teams and over 10 independent development groups, and has launched a dedicated progress website at pq.ethereum.org. In contrast, Bitcoin currently lacks a unified response roadmap, and the existing BIP-360 proposal and BitMEX Research detection scheme have not received widespread support from core developers. Notable Bitcoin advocate Nic Carter pointed out that Bitcoin's response is "the worst," while Blockstream CEO Adam Back believes that current quantum systems are still in the laboratory stage, but he also agrees that optional upgrade solutions should be deployed in advance.Analysts point out that Bitcoin's anti-centralization governance culture makes coordinating large-scale security upgrades extremely difficult, and how to handle historical legacy issues such as Satoshi Nakamoto's holdings is particularly challenging. A related paper from Google warns that once quantum attacks become a reality, the window for response may have already closed.

According to Jinshi reports, former U.S. Treasury Secretary Yellen stated that she still believes there is a possibility of interest rate cuts later this year; however, the fluctuations in oil prices caused by the Iran war have cast a shadow over the outlook. Yellen pointed out that this is a broad supply shock affecting multiple areas, including gasoline, liquefied natural gas, fertilizers, food, shipping costs, and semiconductors. While the possibility of raising interest rates cannot be ruled out, stable long-term inflation expectations suggest that this is unlikely to happen. She expects that there may be interest rate cuts by the end of this year.

According to Fortune, the private market fund Robinhood Ventures I launched by Robinhood has rebounded about 30% after an initial poor performance. The product was launched in early March and fell 16% on its first day, but has gradually recovered, attempting to provide retail investors with a channel to participate in equity of late-stage private companies.However, analysts warn that with the potential IPOs of tech giants like SpaceX, OpenAI, and Anthropic approaching, the private market may face short-term volatility pressure. If leading companies perform poorly in their IPOs, it could drag down secondary market valuations and affect IPO expectations for unicorns, including Stripe.The head of Robinhood Ventures responded that the aforementioned concerns are more about short-term fluctuations, and there are still numerous investment opportunities in the long term. As AI technology continues to advance, the application ecosystem built around leading models will unleash tremendous growth potential. Currently, the fund primarily invests in a few late-stage companies, including fintech companies Airwallex and Stripe, as well as AI firms like Databricks, acquiring equity through primary market or licensed secondary market transactions.

According to Jinshi reports, Fed's Harker stated that the Federal Reserve's policy is in a favorable position to effectively address inflation and employment challenges.

Anthropic has announced that it will challenge the U.S. Department of Defense's decision to blacklist it, which claims that the company refused to lift all restrictions on the military's use of its Claude model. The company also expressed that it is "very saddened" by the escalating dispute. This cutting-edge artificial intelligence company is doing something that few others have done since Trump returned to the White House: directly and publicly challenging the Trump administration.Trump and Defense Secretary Hegseth threatened earlier on Friday to sever Anthropic's ties with numerous clients through a "supply chain risk" designation, a practice historically reserved for "foreign adversaries." Anthropic stated, "No matter how the 'War Department' intimidates or punishes, it will not change our stance on mass surveillance or fully automated weapons." "We will legally challenge any supply chain risk designation."