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Programmer Stefan Thomas holds an IronKey encrypted USB drive containing the private keys for 7,002 bitcoins, which were earned as a reward for his 2011 educational video "What is Bitcoin?" Recently valued at approximately $111,000 each, this amounts to about $777 million.The IronKey device is set to permanently lock and delete its contents after 10 incorrect password attempts. Thomas has tried 8 times and has only 2 attempts left. The manufacturer Kingston stated that there are no backup passwords or alternative recovery methods aside from the original password set by the user. Thomas has sought assistance from the digital forensics company Naxo and security researcher Chris Tarnovsky, and he previously declined Unciphered due to having reached a verbal agreement with both teams. As of the end of 2025, the IronKey remains stored in a Swiss vault, with no confirmation of a successful recovery by mid-2026.

According to Jinshi reports, Federal Reserve Vice Chairman Jefferson stated that the environment of low hiring and low layoffs is driven by uncertainty, particularly concerns about artificial intelligence.

According to a research report by NYDIG, Bitcoin fell by 13.4% in the second quarter of 2026, with the year-to-date decline expanding to 32.9%. In contrast, the Nasdaq 100 index rose by 27.7%, and tech stocks increased by 43.5%, indicating that this round of decline is not due to macro risk aversion, but rather specific supply pressures unique to Bitcoin.The core pressure comes from Strategy (MSTR) launching the "Digital Credit Capital Framework," authorizing the sale of approximately $1.25 billion in Bitcoin to cover capital structure obligations, marking a shift of the largest historical marginal buyer from continuous accumulation to active monetization, with the DAT complex overall transitioning from a demand engine to a supply risk. In terms of ETFs, the U.S. spot Bitcoin ETF saw a net outflow of $4.9 billion in the second quarter, but Morgan Stanley's Bitcoin Trust attracted $364.8 million in inflows against the trend, showing that distribution channels remain competitive.In the derivatives market, amid weak spot demand and continued outflows from ETFs and stablecoins, the positive funding rate combined with a rebound in open interest indicates that leveraged long positions are rebuilding, posing a risk of passive liquidation triggering a new round of declines. Bitcoin has currently fallen 54.3% from its historical high of $126,000 set on October 6, 2025, referencing the cycles of 2018 and 2022 (with a gradually narrowing decline of about 70%).

CryptoQuant analyst Axel Adler Jr. stated that Bitcoin rose from $62,700 to $64,700 in the past 24 hours, an increase of about 3.1%. The Taker order pressure indicator was negative for almost the entire week last week, dropping to a low of -3.9, turning positive on July 14, and currently at +4.1; the liquidation pressure indicator is at -55.2, remaining negative since July 11, with long liquidations dominating the market.The analyst pointed out that the combination of these two indicators suggests that this rebound is driven by real demand rather than a short squeeze. The reversal of Taker capital flow occurring simultaneously with the price increase is a typical characteristic of aggressive buying. If the Taker indicator remains positive in the next 24 hours, the upward trend will be confirmed; if it falls below the zero axis, it indicates a waning buying momentum. The current market has shifted to a cautious risk preference.

According to PR Newswire, AI compliance infrastructure company Hadrius announced the completion of a $27 million seed and Series A financing round, led by CRV, with participation from Y Combinator, Pathlight Ventures, as well as founders from Altruist, Jump AI, and FINNY.The new funds will be used to build AI-native compliance infrastructure for the financial services industry, integrating decentralized compliance reviews, risk monitoring, and regulatory document management into a single intelligent workflow through Agentic AI technology.

2U2.ai announced the completion of a new round of strategic financing, with the financing amount being 3 million USD and the project valuation reaching 100 million USD. This round of financing was led by Vega Venture, with participation from Archer Capital, UZ Capital, and Infinite Alliance.This round of financing will be used to further improve the MemeLayer infrastructure of 2U2.ai, continuously expand ecological cooperation, and promote the large-scale application of AI Meme in content creation, community communication, and attention distribution scenarios.2U2.ai is building an AI-driven MemeLayer for Web3, creating a Meme content network that connects creators, communities, and project parties through meme generation, remixing, distribution, and incentive mechanisms. Currently, the platform has launched the Meme Arms Race points system, where users can earn points by creating, sharing, and disseminating meme content, and participate in subsequent ecological incentives of the platform.

According to data from The Block, the trading volume of Hyperliquid's permissionless perpetual contract framework HIP-3 has risen from about 2% at the beginning of the year to approximately 50% currently, in line with the growth in retail demand for on-chain stock trading.This category is dominated by TradeXYZ, which operates XYZ100 (tracking the Nasdaq 100 index) and individual stock contracts for companies like Nvidia and Tesla, all settled in stablecoins rather than the underlying stocks. Compared to traditional options, perpetual contracts avoid time value decay, requiring only the payment of funding rates with no expiration date, making it more intuitive for retail traders accustomed to simple long and short operations.24/7 trading is another core selling point, allowing traders to react instantly to news or earnings reports without waiting for the market to open. However, the underlying stocks are still only traded during market hours, and outside of trading hours, HIP-3 prices rely entirely on oracles and funding rate mechanisms for anchoring, which has not been fully validated compared to native 24/7 assets like cryptocurrencies.

According to the second quarter industry report from the Australian cryptocurrency exchange Swyftx, the global gig and freelance payment market is expected to reach $2.1 trillion by 2033, with AI-native practitioners contributing $775 billion.Under the assumption of approximately 33% adoption rate, Swyftx's benchmark model predicts that $262 billion of this will be settled through stablecoins. Swyftx's Chief Market Analyst Pav Hundal stated that micro-enterprises with fewer than five people are becoming the fastest adopters of AI, giving rise to a group of independent entrepreneurs operating cross-border and invoicing at high frequencies, currently numbering about 6 to 10 million globally, expected to increase to 17 million within a decade.Traditional cross-border payment fees are high and settlements take several days, while transferring stablecoins via Ethereum Layer 2 networks can reduce costs by 80% to 90%. Swyftx added that if the predictions come true, the institutional settlement layer providing off-exchange liquidity, custody, and yield services for these payments could capture up to $1.3 billion in new revenue by 2033. The market capitalization of stablecoins has doubled in the past two years, with June trading volume reaching a historic high of $1.79 trillion.

A report released by the Bank of Korea on July 13 pointed out that the global semiconductor market is still in a state of supply shortage, and the chip supercycle driven by artificial intelligence (AI) is expected to last for a long time, which refutes market concerns that the chip cycle has peaked.The central bank's analysis states that the current chip cycle is different from previous ones, primarily driven by competitive investments made by companies to respond to the fundamental changes in the industrial ecosystem brought about by AI. At the same time, due to the current market being dominated by customized products such as high bandwidth memory (HBM), the pace of supply expansion is more constrained than in the past.Recently, concerns over excessive investment in AI infrastructure and potential oversupply of memory chips have triggered a sell-off in tech stocks, with significant declines in the stock prices of South Korean chip giants such as Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix. In response, the Bank of Korea stated that although there remains uncertainty regarding the speed of AI technology adoption and profit prospects, major investment banks such as JPMorgan, Goldman Sachs, and Morgan Stanley generally predict that the global semiconductor market will maintain strong momentum at least through next year.

Bitget's head of Greater China, Xie Jiayin, posted on the X platform stating that the AUM of rToken has reached 115 million USD in 5 weeks since its launch, and pointed out that "many teams overlook the core demands of Wall Street institutions when dealing with RWA: risk control convenience and capital utilization."Xie Jiayin emphasized that the biggest underlying driving force of rToken is the unified account mechanism, which truly realizes "simultaneous operation and unified risk control" of crypto assets and US stock assets. In extreme market conditions, users can use unrealized gains from US stocks to supplement their crypto positions, or use long-term holdings in the crypto space as leverage to unlock more trading opportunities, breaking the asset isolation between traditional crypto exchanges and US stock brokers.

Sharplink Research Director Steven Ehrlich published an analysis pointing out that Ethereum started strong in July 2026, with an increase of about 11% so far this month. Historical data suggests that investors should pay attention to ETH's performance in July. Steven Ehrlich noted that the core advantage of ETH's July performance is not merely volatility, but the asymmetry between rises and falls: when July sees an increase, the average rise is about 43%, while in years of decline, the average drop is only about 5% (from 2020 to 2025).Historically, months of significant gains for ETH are usually driven by "Ethereum-specific catalysts + supply-demand imbalance." The current market environment also presents similar opportunities, such as: institutional infrastructure is being built, the Ethereum roadmap is continuously upgrading, and corporate funds are consistently increasing their holdings of ETH. Currently, Ethereum is entering a new development phase, where institutional adoption, technological upgrades, and capital allocation may become important factors driving ETH's market performance.

Nick Tomaino, founder of 1confirmation, stated on the X platform that bringing real-world assets (RWA) on-chain will become an important direction for driving the next phase of development in the cryptocurrency industry and is expected to lead to large-scale consumer adoption. The core value of bringing RWA on-chain lies in enabling global users to access asset classes that were previously difficult to obtain. "Global accessibility" has always been one of the most attractive features of the cryptocurrency industry and is also a key reason for the success of crypto assets like Bitcoin and Ethereum.Nick Tomaino believes that crypto assets that drive new behaviors and are built on concepts that go beyond mere monetary value will continue to exist in the long term. However, as the market gradually realizes that the cost of creating tokens is close to zero, the model of relying solely on token issuance to drive price increases is difficult to sustain. The growth cycle of many "speculative tokens" is coming to an end, and the market will enter a new growth phase driven by tokens backed by real assets. Currently, stablecoins have become the most mature case of RWA applications, and in the coming year, the on-chainization of assets such as stocks, commodities, government bonds, corporate bonds, and real estate is expected to accelerate further.Nick Tomaino mentioned that on-chain physical collectibles (such as sports cards and jerseys) could become one of the most worthwhile directions for building and investing in RWA today. As the speculative-driven token cycle gradually recedes, on-chain assets supported by real assets and practical use cases will be key to attracting the next batch of users into the cryptocurrency market.

QCP Capital released the latest report stating that Japanese government bond yields have retreated, easing market concerns about the unwinding of yen arbitrage trades and capital inflows, which drove Bitcoin to rebound to around $64,000.

The decentralized stablecoin USDD announced that within 48 hours of the launch of the TRON DeFi Summer event, it has attracted over $100 million in net inflows, driving the TVL of USDD on JustLend DAO to surpass $400 million, with strong growth momentum continuing.According to previous reports, the TRON DeFi Summer officially started on July 6, and USDD, in collaboration with JustLend DAO and Binance Wallet, launched the Summer Earning Program, which offers a total of $900,000 in rewards to participating users. The event runs from now until August 5 at 07:59 (Singapore time). Users who purchase USDD through JustLend DAO can enjoy a base APY and also participate in a prize pool of 600,000 USDD.

According to Jinshi reports, the US stock market rose as investors set aside concerns over the latest US-Iran conflict and rushed to buy technology stocks. Despite the escalating conflict in the Middle East, investors are still focused on the artificial intelligence investment boom.Goldman Sachs' report pointed out that clients have no substantial concerns about the prospects of artificial intelligence trading, and the recent market adjustments are mainly technical in nature. BlackRock economist Helen Zhuviel stated that although technology companies are facing negative free cash flow, the commitment to artificial intelligence investments will continue to support this theme for at least two to three years.