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The cryptocurrency exchange Bybit's payment department Bybit Pay has completed integration with the cryptocurrency payment infrastructure provider Mesh. Users can now directly use their Bybit account balance for payments or account top-ups on supported platforms without needing to withdraw assets or transfer them to other platforms first.Users can directly select Bybit Pay as the payment method during settlement or recharge. For merchants already integrated with Mesh, Bybit Pay can be added as a payment option through existing integrations, reaching the 80 million users claimed by Bybit. Bybit stated that this integration also supports programmable settlement options, allowing merchants to control the payment settlement methods and timing across different markets.Mesh stated that its network is connected to over 300 wallets, exchanges, and financial service platforms. In January of this year, the company completed a $75 million Series C funding round led by Dragonfly, achieving a valuation of $1 billion, with total funding exceeding $200 million, and plans to expand into the Latin American, Asian, and European markets.

According to official news, Etherscan has officially released a new toolkit for AI, allowing developers and agents to directly access reliable on-chain data that is the same as that on the Etherscan website.The toolkit covers more than 60 EVM-compatible chains and provides structured, certified real-time data access capabilities for AI agents through three methods: MCP, CLI, and Skills.Among them, Etherscan MCP supports mainstream programming agents like Claude and Codex to query on-chain information in natural language; the CLI tool can output clean JSON, table, or CSV results in the terminal and is equipped with an interactive interface; the Skills module includes professional skills such as Orchestrator, contract review, transaction debugging, and workflow orchestration, helping agents efficiently complete complex tasks.Etherscan stated that these tools are designed to lower the barriers for AI to interact with blockchain data, allowing developers to quickly get started by directly pointing to the official documentation, while also welcoming user feedback on their experience or sharing innovative applications built using these tools.

On August 24, consumers discovered that the "SKhynix Flagship Store" homepage had published a notice of termination of operations, intending to voluntarily cease operations on September 9, 2026, with all products removed from the store. As of August 25, the Taobao platform could no longer directly search for this store. Public information shows that the store previously mainly sold SK Hynix brand consumer solid-state drives, and the operating entity was Tianjin Hailisi Technology Co., Ltd. Tianyancha information indicates that this company was registered in July 2020, with a registered capital of 1 million yuan, and its business scope includes technical services, electronic product sales, etc. Public business information has not yet shown any equity, controlling, or direct affiliation with SK Hynix headquarters or its China region.SK Hynix's China region stated that after verification, the "SKhynix Flagship Store" is not directly operated by the company. Regarding the reasons for closing the store, the operation of other related e-commerce stores, authorization situations, and historical order warranty arrangements, they stated that they are currently verifying internally and with relevant parties. This store closure incident has once again sparked speculation about SK Hynix's contraction of its consumer storage business. In January of this year, there were rumors in the market that it planned to stop producing consumer storage devices and exit the consumer DRAM and NAND business. On January 14, a relevant person from SK Hynix publicly denied this, stating that the company is currently not discussing or planning to exit the consumer product business.

According to foreign media BusinessInsider, based on publicly available holding data, "stock god" Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway, through a two-layer equity nested "penetrating holding" model, indirectly holds about 0.04% of the shares of Space Exploration Technologies Corp (SpaceX), corresponding to a market value of over $700 million.This has led to a rare capital intersection between Buffett and "Iron Man" Elon Musk, two top business tycoons. Musk has long viewed Buffett's investment recognition as an important industry endorsement, and has publicly extended olive branches to Buffett on social media multiple times, hoping he would become a shareholder in his company. Musk joked in a 2023 post, "It's a pity he didn't invest when Tesla's market value was only 0.1% of what it is now." In 2024, he publicly stated again, "He should have built a position in Tesla; it's the obvious choice." Now, although Buffett has not invested in Tesla, he has become an "invisible shareholder" of SpaceX in another way. From the holding structure, this equity is not directly funded by Berkshire to SpaceX, but is an ancillary asset of its heavy investment in tech giant Google's parent company Alphabet.

According to a report by the Korean News Agency, global virtual asset infrastructure company BitGo announced that its Korean entity BitGo Korea has received acceptance of its VASP (Virtual Asset Service Provider) registration application from the Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU) of Korea on August 18, becoming the first foreign cryptocurrency corporate entity to complete VASP registration directly in Korea.BitGo Korea was established in 2024, and this time chose to directly meet regulatory requirements to enter the market, rather than adopting the industry norm of acquiring existing VASP companies. Subsequently, it will use this as a foundation to officially launch virtual asset custody and transfer services in Korea, focusing on expanding business towards financial institutions and corporate clients.

TripleA CEO Eric Barbier stated that the future of remittances is remittances without remittances. He does not truly believe in stablecoin sandwich remittances (fiat to stablecoin and then back to fiat). In most cases, remittances mean transferring strong currencies into weak currencies. However, stablecoins provide new value: they allow people in emerging countries to hold strong currencies. As related platforms encourage merchants to accept cryptocurrencies, stablecoins can now be consumed directly. Therefore, the future for people in emerging countries is not to hold local currencies, but to hold stablecoins, earn returns, and spend them.

According to The Block, K33 research director Vetle Lunde stated that by the end of the first half of 2026, the Norwegian sovereign wealth fund's indirect Bitcoin exposure through holdings in companies such as Strategy, Metaplanet, MARA, Coinbase, Block, and Tesla has risen to 11,549 BTC, a record high valued at approximately $725 million. This exposure grew by 21.2% in the first half of the year and by 60.5% over the past year, marking the sixth consecutive reporting period of increase.Among these, Strategy accounts for nearly 86% of the fund's indirect Bitcoin exposure, corresponding to approximately 9,914 BTC. As of June 30, the Norwegian sovereign wealth fund held about 1.17% of Strategy's shares, valued at $357.3 million at that time. Metaplanet corresponds to 671 BTC, MARA corresponds to 421 BTC, and Coinbase, Block, and Tesla correspond to 183 BTC, 120 BTC, and 97 BTC, respectively.K33 pointed out that this exposure is likely not the result of the fund actively allocating to Bitcoin, but rather an indirect effect of its broadly diversified investment portfolio. Currently, the related Bitcoin exposure accounts for about 0.03% of the fund's total assets.In addition, the fund has also gained indirect ETH exposure through the Ethereum treasury company BitMine for the first time. As of June 30, it held 6.15 million shares of BitMine, valued at $88.3 million, accounting for about 1.16% of the company's shares; based on BitMine's current ETH holdings, this corresponds to an indirect exposure of approximately 67,340 ETH.

Duan Yongping responded on Xueqiu regarding the recent changes in his holdings of Pop Mart, stating that he has "never directly sold a single share of Pop Mart." The changes in his holdings mainly come from options trading and expiration exercises, and do not indicate a long-term bearish view on Pop Mart.Duan Yongping mentioned that when the position of selling puts approaches the limit, he will adopt the strategy of "buying stocks + selling calls." After expiration, if the stocks are called away, it is essentially a similar trading strategy to selling puts that are exercised at expiration. Currently, the options premium for Pop Mart is about 5% per month, and this strategy may continue to be used for a longer period in the future.Regarding the valuation of Pop Mart, Duan Yongping stated, "Currently, I believe the price of Pop Mart is not expensive in the long term, but I don't know about the short term." He emphasized that there is no specific time or price set for selling Pop Mart, and it may be a long time before that happens.

According to an exclusive report from "Du Jia," Xiaohongshu is developing a brand new "AI Shopping Guide" feature, which relies on a conversational interaction model to directly push product cards and attach order jump links in Q&A scenarios. This project is led by Daoxuan (Pan Boyuan). As of the time of publication, Xiaohongshu has not responded.Previously, Xiaohongshu launched an AI summary feature in store reputation, and this AI shopping guide is a further extension of its intelligent transaction chain. According to public data, Xiaohongshu has approximately 400 million global MAU, with 39 million users engaging in explicit purchasing behavior daily, resulting in 140 million active purchase requests, over 47 million users entering merchant live streams, and more than 170,000 merchant group chats remaining active. During the 618 period, the GMV of store broadcasts increased by 265% year-on-year, and note content drove transaction growth of over 210%.Xiaohongshu currently adopts a dual transaction model of "internal marketplace closed loop plus external traffic diversion," and there is still room for improvement in the direct order conversion rate within the platform. The launch of the AI shopping guide feature is expected to further enhance its internal e-commerce GMV and revenue.

According to Nikkei News, the largest shareholder of the Japanese NAND manufacturer Kioxia has changed from Toshiba to the special purpose company BCPE Pangea Cayman 2 (SPC2), which holds 14.19% of Kioxia's shares, slightly higher than Toshiba's reduced stake of 14.06%. SPC2 is the entity through which SK Hynix invested via convertible bonds (CB).From July 15 to August 3, Toshiba reduced its stake in Kioxia in seven transactions, decreasing its holding from 15.10% to 14.06%. In 2018, SK Hynix invested approximately 40 trillion won in Kioxia through two SPCs, one of which, SPC1, co-funded with Bain Capital, completed its share sale when Bain Capital exited in June this year, while SPC2, which was solely funded by SK Hynix with about 13 trillion won, continues to hold its shares. If the CB is converted into stock, SK Hynix will gain voting rights. However, industry assessments suggest that the actual impact on Kioxia's operations is likely low, as exercising voting rights requires approval from various countries' competition and antitrust authorities. The Japanese government may not easily approve this due to considerations for protecting its domestic semiconductor supply chain. Kioxia is currently the third-largest NAND manufacturer in the world, following Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix.

Analyst Shaunda Devens from Blockworks posted on X that the second quarter 13F filing recently disclosed by the state of Wyoming shows that it indirectly invested in HYPE through Hyperliquid Strategies ($PURR).

According to official news, Japanese convenience store giant Lawson will conduct Japan's first POS cash register stablecoin payment pilot experiment at two stores in Tokyo on August 6 and August 17. The experiment will use three stablecoins: JPYC, USDC, and USDT, with payments completed through HashPort Wallet and MetaMask wallet, and settlements processed by the PAYTREE multi-code payment gateway provided by Canal Payment Service, without the need for dedicated payment terminals.On August 6, the experiment will take place at the Takanawa Gateway City store using HashPort Wallet and JPYC; on August 17, it will take place at the Osaki Atrium store using MetaMask with USDC, USDT, and JPYC.

According to monitoring by Bitcoin News, Nunchuk stated that some keys on the Nunchuk platform are generated by Coldcard Mk4, but these keys will not be used directly.Nunchuk will derive independent keys through custom logic, making them less susceptible to lookup table attacks based on leaked Coldcard seeds. Nunchuk added that, given enough time, it believes attackers may eventually incorporate these derived keys as well.

According to the official announcement, the Gate Direct IPO Phase II project Jersey Mike's (JMKE) has completed the stock allocation and distribution, with a final subscription price of $23 per share. The stocks successfully allocated to interested subscribers have been 100% distributed to users' stock accounts; the USDT and GUSD that were not successfully subscribed have been returned to users' spot accounts. Currently, Jersey Mike's (JMKE) is listed on Gate.

According to Cointelegraph, U.S. Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer has officially proposed the Anti-Corruption Bureau Creation Act, which aims to establish a new government agency dedicated to addressing corruption at the federal level. The bill specifically names Trump, citing his disclosed investment earnings of over $2 billion in 2025 (of which $1.4 billion is related to cryptocurrency), as well as his family's holdings in cryptocurrency funds linked to foreign governments totaling over $1 billion.The proposed agency will consist of 7 bipartisan members, who will take office upon confirmation by the Senate, and will have "substantive powers" to investigate, enforce, and prevent administrative corruption, integrating the Federal Election Commission, the Office of Government Ethics, and the Office of Special Counsel under one roof. Senators Andy Kim, Alex Padilla, and Jeff Merkley jointly proposed the measure. White House Deputy Press Secretary Anna Kelly responded that Trump's investments "are held in a fully managed account by an independent third-party financial institution, with no conflicts of interest."

According to public information and related disclosure documents, Kong Jianping indirectly holds approximately 18.98 million shares of Changxin Technology through Yifang Changda Fund (with a subscription of 21.34 million yuan). Based on the opening price of 49.5 yuan on that day, the corresponding market value of the shares is approximately 940 million yuan, and the estimated return is about 44 times according to related statements.Kong Jianping stated that when he invested in Changxin in 2020, the company's valuation was less than 20 billion yuan, and it has now exceeded 3 trillion yuan.

According to BBX data, yesterday traditional derivatives giant made a high-profile entry into the prediction market, and a counter-cyclical signal appeared for digital asset reserve companies. The core dynamics are as follows:Cboe Global Markets, Inc. (NASDAQ: $CBOE) announced yesterday the re-launch of binary options products benchmarked to the S&P 500 index ("Yes/No" structure, providing fixed returns or zero at expiration based on contract conditions). This marks Cboe's first return to this category since it withdrew about ten years ago, directly entering the prediction market track pioneered by Polymarket and Kalshi, which has become "one of the fastest-growing areas on the internet." This move signifies that one of the largest regulated derivatives exchanges in the U.S. officially recognizes binary options/prediction markets as an independent asset class, entering the competition with the compliance endorsement of a traditional exchange and institutional distribution capabilities, rather than holding a regulatory exclusion attitude towards this model. For cryptocurrency concept stocks, Cboe's entry has dual implications: first, it further validates the market size and legitimacy of prediction markets; second, Cboe's institutional channels and Coinbase (the only licensed prediction market FCM by the CFTC) will compete in parallel under the same regulatory framework, leading to an increase in the valuation and policy attention of the entire track.Strive, Inc. (NASDAQ: $ASST) was cited in a market analysis report yesterday (pending independent confirmation from the official SEC 8-K document), stating that the company recently increased its holdings by approximately 759 BTC at an average price of about $65,850; based on this calculation, the company's BTC holdings have increased from 19,032 disclosed in the SEC 8-K on June 5 to about 19,791 (approximately $1.17 billion). This increase occurred against the backdrop of Bitcoin continuously declining from the $65,000 to $66,000 range. Strive and Strategy (which also increased its holdings by 520 BTC during the same period) are among the few DAT companies that maintained active purchases during the reporting period; CEO Matt Cole previously positioned the continuous increase in BTC as a "differentiated catch-up" to Strategy's scale advantage rather than a pure directional bet on price. The company holds approximately $139.2 million in cash, and the capital balance between the 9.5% annual dividend obligation of preferred stock (SATA) and BTC purchases is currently the most noteworthy balance sheet risk point.

On Wednesday, the U.S. House Financial Services Committee held a hearing to discuss the changing roles of banks and fintech companies, with one focus being the "streamlined master account" proposal that the Federal Reserve is considering, which would allow certain crypto banks and fintech companies limited direct access to the Federal Reserve's payment system. A Federal Reserve master account allows financial institutions to directly use the Federal Reserve payment network and gain the most direct access to the U.S. dollar monetary system. Institutions without this account typically need to rely on partner banks that have master accounts to provide services.The so-called "streamlined account" is a limited-function version intended to provide limited access for new financial institutions. Republican Congressman Dan Meuser stated at the hearing that access to the Federal Reserve payment system is no small matter, and the core issue is which institutions should be allowed to directly use these critical payment channels. Traditional institutions like community banks are concerned that crypto and fintech companies are not subject to equally stringent regulation, and direct access could pose risks to security and stability. The crypto industry generally supports the proposal, arguing that direct access to the Federal Reserve payment system should have been opened long ago, as it would help reduce reliance on intermediary banks and promote innovation.In May of this year, Trump also signed an executive order requiring the Federal Reserve to assess policies for opening central bank payment channels to fintech companies, including crypto companies. Previously, the Kansas City Federal Reserve had approved Kraken's parent company Payward for a "limited purpose account" in March, sparking discussions in the market about the extent to which crypto and fintech companies should have direct access to Federal Reserve services. A representative from Anchorage Digital stated at the hearing that if the U.S. wants to continue as a global financial center, it needs to allow for innovative federal and state regulatory frameworks.

According to Cointelegraph, three major crypto lobbying organizations—the Blockchain Association, the Crypto Innovation Council, and the Digital Chamber of Commerce—jointly wrote to the U.S. Congress, requesting the unaltered passage of the "Mining and Staking Tax Clarity Act" without further amendments. The bill allows miners and stakers to choose to pay taxes either when they receive crypto rewards or when they sell their assets, aiming to address liquidity issues caused by "taxation on phantom income."Democratic Congressman Steven Horsford proposed an amendment to limit the deferral of crypto reward taxes to five years, but the CEO of the Crypto Innovation Council stated that the amendment would "undermine" the bill and only generate "negligible revenue." The American Bankers Association opposes the bill, claiming it gives cryptocurrencies a "significant advantage," while crypto lobbying groups believe that renegotiating the already reached compromise will "revive the issues the bill aims to resolve."

Nansen CEO Alex Svanevik posted on platform X that, in hindsight, if Binance founder CZ had completed the acquisition of FTX back then, the potential asset structure could have changed significantly, possibly indirectly holding about 8% exposure in Anthropic, about 5% exposure in the AI programming tool Cursor, and some investment rights related to SpaceX.It is reported that CZ disclosed the intention to acquire in November 2022, but announced the abandonment due to issues discovered during due diligence that were beyond control, after which FTX filed for bankruptcy protection.