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According to CoinDesk, as Bitcoin surged from about $62,000 to over $77,000 last week, liquidating approximately $3 billion in leveraged short positions, major crypto market makers such as Abraxas Capital, Fasanara Capital, and Wintermute quietly established short positions in perpetual contracts worth hundreds of millions of dollars on Hyperliquid.Lookonchain data shows that the three institutions collectively hold short positions of 138,569 ETH (approximately $338 million) and 3,425 BTC (approximately $265 million); meanwhile, Abraxas Capital withdrew 73,872 ETH (approximately $173 million) from Binance in the past four days.This strategy is known as cash arbitrage or basis trading: traders hold spot positions while shorting an equivalent amount of assets through perpetual contracts to hedge against price volatility risks, primarily earning the funding rates paid by longs to shorts. In previous months, funding rates were long suppressed or even turned negative, but this month's rebound has quickly turned funding rates positive, reopening the arbitrage window. Aegis data shows that the 30-day average funding rate for Bitcoin perpetual contracts on August 24 reached an annualized 6.7%, with a 7-day average of 8.7%; 21shares capital markets noted that basis trading for mainstream assets like Solana is also becoming lucrative.This trading has extended to regulated markets: Glassnode data shows that CME Bitcoin futures open interest has risen from about 87,000 BTC to 122,000 BTC.

CZ stated at the offline "Binance Life" book club meeting in Hong Kong that Hong Kong, as a financial center, has unique advantages in the flow of fintech talent, mainland talent, and institutional connections. Although it is not outstanding in infrastructure such as electricity and data centers, its competitiveness in the Web3 financial sector is evident. He believes that the current AI hype will not hinder the long-term development of Web3, and individuals should choose directions that interest them, that they are capable of, and that hold value; Hong Kong and Web3 are indeed a strong combination. Besides Hong Kong, he is also optimistic about Dubai and Abu Dhabi in the UAE, as well as the United States after its policy shift to support the crypto industry.CZ mentioned that the development speed of RWA has significantly exceeded his previous expectations, especially in terms of securities on-chain. Traditional stocks are limited by account opening thresholds, trading hours, and geographical restrictions. Once assets are on-chain, they can be directly accessible to global investors, significantly enhancing accessibility and liquidity, making them more attractive to countries and companies with smaller securities market sizes. RWA will be an important development direction moving forward, and stablecoins are essentially a type of RWA that brings fiat currency onto the chain. Currently, the market is mainly dominated by USD stablecoins, and in the future, more countries may promote their national currencies to be on-chain to expand their global circulation.He also stated that DEX has gradually evolved over the past eight years from products like Uniswap and PancakeSwap to Hyperliquid, with both infrastructure and user awareness significantly maturing. According to his current understanding, the regulatory pressure from the U.S. on decentralized products has eased compared to the past, and clearer separation models are beginning to appear between international platforms and those targeting U.S. users, with some international platforms not necessarily requiring comprehensive KYC. If the policy environment continues to relax, the development speed of DEX and the entire crypto industry may significantly accelerate in the coming years.

Chairman of BitMine, Tom Lee, stated on CNBC that next week could be a turning point for the stock market. Currently, AI stock trading has stagnated, mainly suppressed by concerns over data centers and political opposition in the United States.The key issue is whether confidence in AI can return after the stagnation. If NVIDIA CEO Jensen Huang can demonstrate that the demand for AI computing power remains strong at the upcoming event, it will help to reinject confidence into the market and drive the AI sector out of its consolidation.Tom Lee also emphasized that uncertainty surrounding the Federal Reserve continues to accumulate, and the upcoming public appearances of a series of Federal Reserve officials will become another significant market signal. The S&P 500 has recently hovered around 7678 points, with a cumulative decline of about 1.4% this week, as the market grapples with dual concerns over the sustainability of AI capital expenditures and the path of monetary policy.Next week's positioning is a key window to observe the market's directional choice. Whether the signals of AI demand can resonate with expectations of Federal Reserve policy will determine the short-term direction of risk assets.

ChianCatcher news, Offchain Labs co-founder Steven Goldfeder tweeted that Arbitrum has been ahead of its time in several aspects. The team strongly advocated for interactive proof design (which was controversial at the time and has now become the standard for optimistic Rollups); chose to establish a business when the business model was still highly controversial; focused on DeFi when most people had not yet understood perpetual contracts and many had given up on DeFi; and launched a dedicated blockchain when the industry generally believed that more chains were unnecessary.Facing backlash each time, but now the industry is aligning with the direction they set from day one: building robust and high-performance financial infrastructure. Goldfeder is proud of the Offchain team for delivering world-class products at an incredibly fast pace and stated that they will continue to deliver, even if most people currently do not understand its necessity; the industry will soon understand.

Vitalik Buterin stated that he has compared the 2023 Ethereum roadmap with the current Strawmap, and while there is still a high degree of overlap in the overall direction, some priorities and technical paths have been clearly adjusted. This includes elevating the priority of quantum security, downplaying VDF and certain EVM improvements, and replacing old designs with unified binary trees, PBT, new state types, and other solutions.He pointed out that the most significant change in the current Strawmap is the emergence of several new topics not included in the 2023 roadmap, reflecting a shift in the focus of Ethereum's development. These new focal points include: stronger native privacy support, aggressive scaling in a post-quantum context, streamlined specifications for formal verification, Blob and Gas futures, native Rollup, and a more open design space around the future form of EVM.Vitalik also emphasized that Ethereum's scaling approach is shifting from "broadly scaling all activities" to "designing more easily scalable dedicated mechanisms for specific high-load scenarios," and views STARK proofs and AI-accelerated formal verification as important foundations for the protocol's future. Overall, this update indicates that the Ethereum roadmap is evolving towards quantum security, privacy-first, censorship resistance, high performance, and more simplified protocol design.

According to the expected plan compiled by the Korea Digital Convergence Industry Association, the secondary regulations for Security Token Offerings (STO) in South Korea may include: allowing "pooling" issuance of similar types of underlying assets, setting over-the-counter trading limits for general investors, clarifying the licensing conditions and business scope for non-standard securities over-the-counter exchanges, and developing a phased roadmap for the tokenization of standard securities. In addition, the technical and financial requirements for issuer account management institutions are also expected to be included in the regulations.This expected plan is based on publicly available policy directions and industry discussions and is not an official version. Specific standards still need to be determined through legislative announcements, regulatory reviews, and other procedures. Previously, the STO market was primarily focused on single assets; if pooling is allowed, it could promote the issuance of multi-asset composite products such as music copyrights and real estate. The over-the-counter trading limits for general investors are expected to be higher than existing sandbox cases, but the final limits still need to balance investor protection and market liquidity. The status of non-standard securities over-the-counter trading platforms and existing operators, as well as the future path for the tokenization of standard securities (stocks, bonds), will be key focuses moving forward. The industry warns that after the regulations are implemented, the preparation time for related companies' systems and internal controls may be quite urgent.

Bitget CFD Chief Analyst Lewis Huang pointed out in a live broadcast that this week's market focus has shifted from tech stock earnings reports back to U.S. employment data and Fed policy expectations.The key to this non-farm report is not just the number of new jobs added, but whether the unemployment rate, average hourly wage, and previous values' revisions collectively indicate a "orderly cooling" or "significant slowdown" in the labor market.Lewis Huang stated that if non-farm employment and wage data are both stronger than expected, the market will lower short-term rate cut bets, U.S. Treasury yields and the dollar are expected to strengthen, while gold and high-valuation tech stocks will face pressure; conversely, if employment, wages, and previous values' revisions all weaken, the market will raise expectations for Fed easing, and gold and non-U.S. currencies may receive support.He advised CFD traders to avoid chasing orders in the first minute after data is released, and to focus on observing whether the U.S. two-year Treasury yield, the dollar index, and gold form a synchronized confirmation, and to wait for a pullback opportunity after a key price level breakout. The current trading focus is not simply betting on the data's highs and lows, but rather judging how the non-farm report will change the market's pricing of the Fed's policy path.

On-chain analyst Murphy pointed out that Bitcoin has accumulated up to 890,000 BTC at the single price level of $63,000, showing an extreme distribution. Excluding the 550,000 BTC locked by Coinbase in the $83,000 to $84,000 range, the accumulation at this price level may have exceeded 1 million BTC, accounting for about 5% of the total circulation. Historically, exceeding this scale has generally triggered significant volatility.Currently, the combined total of the two price levels, $62,000 and $63,000, accounts for about 8% of the circulation, and the concentration of chips within a 5% range of the spot price has simultaneously risen to 13%. Although it has not yet reached the historical high probability trigger line of 15%, it has surpassed the level that caused severe volatility in May, officially entering the alert zone.Analysts emphasize that a high concentration of chips means a sharp increase in price sensitivity. When overly concentrated chips are gathered in a narrow range, even a slight change in price may exacerbate the turnover of sensitive chips, leading to violent redistribution either upwards or downwards.The massive short-term chips accumulated near $63,000 are forming a potential trigger for volatility, and any external event could become the detonator. The market may have entered a tense state where a significant directional choice could occur at any moment.

According to CoinDesk, Bitcoin prices are stuck in a narrow range, with volatility dropping to a six-month low and trading volume shrinking. The average daily trading volume this month has fallen to $2.2 billion, the lowest since November 2023. Previously, K33 research director Vetle Lunde pointed out that the average daily trading volume in January had dropped to $5.1 billion.The Bollinger Bands have narrowed to their tightest level since January, with the Bollinger Band width indicator falling to 5.66 points. Analysts note that volatility is cyclical—prolonged price calm often signals a sharp movement in one direction, the direction is uncertain, but the calm itself is often temporary. The longer the calm lasts, the greater the potential force of the eventual breakout. In January of this year, Bitcoin was in a similar narrow range, and in the following weeks, volatility rose, with prices first climbing to nearly $98,000 and then dropping to around $60,000, followed by an increase in trading volume.

According to Jinshi reports, analysts at ING pointed out that gold prices rose on Monday due to a sharp drop in oil prices, which eased inflation concerns and put pressure on the dollar and U.S. Treasury yields. This round of movement closely follows the pause in hostilities between the U.S. and Iran, with lower oil prices improving the outlook for non-yielding assets.The market is focused on the Federal Reserve and the upcoming U.S. inflation data to seek further guidance on interest rate prospects. If yields remain suppressed, gold prices should continue to find support around current levels.

According to Bloomberg, the venture capital firm Paradigm, focused on the cryptocurrency sector, has raised approximately $1.2 billion and plans to increase its investment in artificial intelligence (AI) related projects.According to informed sources, this fundraising will focus on AI infrastructure, AI Agents, and the integration of AI with blockchain technology. Paradigm hopes to capture the next wave of technological innovation through the new fund and expand its investment footprint in emerging technology sectors.Founded in 2018 by Matt Huang and Fred Ehrsam, Paradigm is one of the leading cryptocurrency venture capital firms in the industry, having invested in several blockchain projects including Coinbase and Uniswap.This fundraising indicates that after experiencing previous market cycle adjustments, crypto capital is refocusing on the intersection of AI and blockchain. With the rapid development of AI agents, decentralized computing, on-chain data infrastructure, and other areas, more and more crypto investment firms are beginning to see AI as an important growth opportunity for the next stage.

On July 1, according to WEEX TradFi data, the recent performance of the US stock technology sector has been mixed, with funds continuously focusing on Physical AI, robotics, and related supply chain directions that have actual implementation expectations. Among them, AMD rose about 7.7% in 24 hours, Symbotic (SYM) rose over 6.6%, Texas Instruments (TXN) rose about 4.4%, NVIDIA (NVDA) rose about 2.6%, Tesla (TSLA) rose about 2.1%, and Analog Devices (ADI) rose about 1.4%.WEEX Labs believes that market funds are shifting from a single computing power narrative to core links in the Physical AI supply chain with implementation expectations, including Tesla's Optimus production line transformation and NVIDIA's Physical AI Day, which continuously strengthen expectations for hardware and software collaboration, leading to increased attention in related sectors.

According to the "Web3 New Generation Talent Insight Report" released by Bitget, the core challenge currently facing the industry is not a shortage of talent, but rather the misalignment of recruitment barriers and employment channels. Data from a multi-regional survey based on the Blockchain4Youth (B4Y) initiative shows that 54% of respondents view the requirement of "prior experience" for entry-level positions as the biggest obstacle to entering the industry, while 52% point out that school education lacks practical skills.From the perspective of regional distribution and trends, Web3 continues to attract highly educated talent and emerging market talent. Nearly 46% of respondents are aged between 23 and 30, and over 58% hold a bachelor's, master's, or doctoral degree; in terms of career preferences, 61% of respondents consider "the integration of AI and blockchain" as the most desirable career path, while another 62% believe that guidance from industry veterans is the most helpful in accelerating career development.Currently, the number of registered students at the Blockchain4Youth Learning Center has surpassed 10,000, and students who complete the courses can obtain certificates and job opportunities, thereby closing the loop from learning to career paths and providing talent support for the next phase of industry growth.

The development company behind zkSync, Matter Labs, announced layoffs on Tuesday and is fully transitioning the entire organization to the institutional-grade on-chain privacy infrastructure platform Prividium. CEO Alex Gluchowski defined this move on X as a skills restructuring rather than a cost-cutting measure, stating that the products built for regulated financial institutions since 2024 have evolved into Prividium, aiming to provide on-chain infrastructure that combines transaction confidentiality with compliance auditing capabilities for regulated entities such as banks and asset management companies.Gluchowski mentioned that this transformation is based on specific product feedback from institutional clients, but did not disclose the number of layoffs. According to CoinGecko data, the market capitalization of the zkSync token is approximately $115 million, having risen 4.3% in the past 24 hours. This transformation reflects a broader trend in the Layer 2 market, as ZK and L2 projects like Hyli and Botanix have shut down, and general-purpose horizontal platforms are facing pressure to find defenses in vertical fields. As of the time of publication, Matter Labs has not made any statements regarding the future of the zkSync network and ZK tokens.

The Financial Secretary of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region Government, Paul Chan, stated in a blog that the HKSAR Government will launch the first public consultation for Hong Kong's five-year plan on June 15 next week, lasting for two months. This plan aims not only to enhance economic development momentum and promote better application of technology but also hopes to achieve a more inclusive society, where citizens enjoy more quality job opportunities and a better life."AI+" and "Finance+" are two strategic directions worth exploring in depth. AI is no longer just about the innovation and technology industry itself; it plays a key role in enhancing the competitiveness of various sectors. For finance, it can strengthen data analysis, risk management, and customer service. "Finance+" means making good use of Hong Kong's full chain of fundraising functions, including building a more comprehensive patient capital system to inject development momentum into cutting-edge technology enterprises.

According to BIT analysis, a significant feature of Bitcoin over the past four years is that most of the price increases are concentrated in a short period of rapid growth, followed by a prolonged period of sideways consolidation. The pullback phase also shows a similar pattern, where the price usually drops quickly at first, releasing most of the downward pressure in one go, and then gradually stabilizes.This round of pullback is mainly influenced by two factors: first, the U.S. April CPI announced in May was higher than expected; second, there are concerns in the market about Strategy selling Bitcoin and the subsequent potential selling pressure. As a result, the spot Bitcoin ETF quickly shifted from net buying to significant net selling, with a cumulative net sell of about $1.5 billion this year, creating noticeable pressure on the market.Currently, Bitcoin is still under pullback pressure, with $63,445 being a key support level to watch. Whether this level can hold will affect the market's judgment on the depth of this adjustment: if the price stabilizes near this area, this pullback will still be considered a phase adjustment; if it effectively breaks below, it may enter a deeper adjustment and consolidation.

According to Cointelegraph, there is a clear divergence in the industry's views on the current trends in the cryptocurrency market. Economist Timothy Peterson stated that Bitcoin may slowly rise in the summer, expecting to reach a temporary peak by the end of July and perform relatively flat.

According to Jinshi reports, Federal Reserve Governor Cook stated that the current risks lean towards higher inflation, and inflation is clearly moving in the wrong direction.