gradual

The cross-chain protocol Router Protocol announced that after more than four years of development, it has decided to gradually cease operations and will fully shut down before September 30, 2026. The team stated that over the past two years, Web3 liquidity has remained scarce, the market focus has shifted to AI, the enthusiasm for cross-chain interoperability has waned, and the revenue from bridging services has been insufficient to cover costs. Although various paths such as commercialization, licensing, and acquisitions were attempted in the past year, no sustainable solution was achieved. Router Protocol will permanently destroy 303,333,198 ROUTE tokens pending in the treasury and will coordinate with centralized exchanges to delist ROUTE. Holders need to withdraw their tokens according to the arrangements of each exchange before the deadline. In addition, the project will not launch any new plans related to ROUTE and plans to open-source some technical components for community use.

According to GMGN information, trading activity on the Robinhood Chain has gradually resumed. However, the network's browser still shows the block count remaining at 4 minutes ago.

According to the official X account of ZKsync (@zksync), ZKsync announced a security upgrade for its EraVM chain. The core measures include: introducing an instant upgrade framework, extending the execution delay from 3 hours to 24 hours, and developing a second prover, EraBender, to guard against AI-driven vulnerability attacks.In the next 6 months, all Boojum/EraVM chains will gradually phase out the old execution environment, and each chain will formulate and announce its own transition timetable. Users holding funds directly in EOA do not need to take any action; users holding funds through multi-signature, smart accounts, DEX, lending protocols, and other smart contracts need to take action as required after the transition plans of each chain are determined. The ZKsync Atlas chain is not affected by this upgrade.

The Solana core client development team Anza announced that it is gradually removing floating-point operations from the Solana core protocol. The first layer, SIMD-0391, was activated in epoch 1026 of the mainnet Beta, replacing floating-point operations in the Stake Program and validator client’s warm-up and cool-down logic with fixed-point operations.The second layer, SIMD-0607, has been proposed and is under review, targeting the runtime itself to remove floating-point operations in the inflation rewards and rent calculation paths. Anza stated that floating-point operations can produce different rounding results on different hardware, validator clients, and compilers, which may lead to consensus divergence and network activity risks. These two improvements eliminate that risk by standardizing fixed-point operations. Further work will continue to address floating-point operations in other paths.

The digital euro is issued by the European Central Bank (ECB) and represents public money, and it is still in the development stage; EURR is a stablecoin issued by private institutions aimed at maintaining the value stability of 1 euro. Both are aimed at the demand for instant fund flows in digital platforms. The fintech company Revolut has phased the launch of the euro stablecoin EURR to eligible users in Denmark, Poland, and Portugal, with plans to expand to the European Economic Area in the future.EURR is deployed on the Ethereum network and can be used for on-chain transfers between fiat currencies, crypto assets, external wallets, and supported blockchain networks. EURR is issued by Bridge Building, a company under Stripe, rather than directly by Revolut. Piero Cipollone, a member of the Executive Board of the European Central Bank, stated that the digital euro will provide the highest level of privacy supported by current technology, with offline payments visible only to the payer and payee, while participating banks in online transactions can still access the information required for anti-money laundering compliance.

HyENA announced that it will cease operations and close all markets, with user funds unaffected. The official statement indicated that HyENA was built on the Hyperliquid HIP-3 standard and Ethena's USDe, allowing traders to earn profits while using USDe as margin for trading perpetual contracts, processing a cumulative trading volume of over $4 billion, serving more than 12,000 traders, and distributing nearly 2.5 million USDe rewards to margin users.The official statement noted that with the further alignment of Hyperliquid and USDC, the development space for USDe margin on the platform has changed, leading to the decision to terminate HyENA. Markets will be delisted in the order of one market per hour from August 31 to September 2, with positions automatically settled at the final marked price, and margins returned to the spot balance. HLPe deposits can be claimed at a 1:1 ratio along with accumulated rewards and withdrawn via Upshift, with the final reward distribution date set for August 27 and the final affiliate commission payment date on September 9.Additionally, the Ethena exchange reward program ended in June 2026, and HyENA points will remain in their final state, with no snapshots, conversions, or distributions taking place, and they hold no monetary value. The official emphasized that HyENA has no tokens and no issuance plans.

Venture capitalist Tomasz Tunguz pointed out that the narrative of AI infrastructure resembles a slow relay race, with bottlenecks sequentially transmitting from GPUs to memory, CPUs, and storage, each link freezing the supply chain of the next for years and locking in higher baseline costs. At the beginning of 2023, the GPU shock caused H100 rental prices to exceed $9 per hour, and server shipments fell by 22%; subsequently, manufacturers shifted capacity to HBM, leading to an 80% quarterly increase in enterprise SSD prices and over a 60% rise in DRAM.By the end of 2025, the workload of intelligent agents will push the CPU to GPU ratio to about 1:1, with the average price of server CPUs rising by 27% year-on-year; in 2026, nearline HDD annual capacity will be sold out. The construction cost of data centers has risen to about $20 billion per gigawatt, with orders for long-cycle equipment such as transformers and turbines scheduled as far out as 2029 to 2031.Tunguz referred to this as the long whip effect in the hardware sector: years of manufacturing delays amplify downstream demand shocks upstream, and when pressure is relieved at a certain bottleneck, it will be delayed in transmitting to the next link, with transformers scheduled for delivery in 2027 to 2028, NAND wafer fabs, and turbine production lines potentially facing the risk of overcapacity.

BitMart announced that it is developing a potential restructuring plan as an alternative to a complete shutdown. This plan may include a phased restoration of some operations under an orderly arrangement and distribution to creditors, but further legal, financial, operational, and regulatory assessments are still needed.BitMart has appointed White & Case as its restructuring legal advisor to assist in evaluating feasible options and developing a framework for restructuring and phased restoration of operations. BitMart stated that it is currently working with advisors to formulate a roadmap and will strive to provide further updates by September 9, 2026.

As a new round of tariffs is set to take effect on Wednesday, the Trump administration has lowered expectations for a last-minute deal between the U.S. and Canada. Sources say the likelihood of reaching an agreement on Tuesday is "50-50 or lower."Both sides face a midnight deadline, at which point billions of dollars' worth of Canadian goods will be subject to a 50% tariff. Trump is expected to speak again with Canadian Prime Minister Carney on Tuesday.

The peer-to-peer cryptocurrency trading platform NoOnes announced yesterday that it will begin to gradually shut down operations after more than three years of operation. The official statement indicated that it had previously sought to resolve and lift the sanctions against NoOnes, but ultimately was unsuccessful.NoOnes stated that the related sanctions led to the loss of key partners, while blockchain monitoring agencies marked transactions related to NoOnes as high risk, making it increasingly difficult for the platform to continue normal operations.According to the official schedule, the business contraction was initiated on August 17, and the P2P market will close on August 21 at 23:59 UTC. Services such as Swap, NoOnes Visa, fiat withdrawals, gift card store, and Bitcoin Lightning Network will also be gradually discontinued. After that, the platform will only support withdrawals, and users will still be able to log in, check their balances, and withdraw remaining assets.The official recommended that users complete asset withdrawals as soon as possible, no later than August 23.Previously, the peer-to-peer cryptocurrency trading platform NoOnes revealed that the platform had encountered a significant security breach, resulting in a loss of approximately $8 million in crypto assets. CEO Ray Youssef confirmed this news after on-chain detective ZachXBT disclosed the hack on his Telegram channel.

Binance announced that, in response to recent regulatory changes, to continuously comply with relevant regulations and ensure the safety of user assets, Binance will no longer process transactions involving certain cryptocurrency service providers/platforms starting from the following dates: effective August 7, including Shelbit, Aban Tether Exchange; effective August 13, including A7 Nigeria, A7 Africa, PilotFinance; effective August 23, including Rapira, Aifory Pro, ABCeX, WhiteBird, NoOnecrypto, Tradex, Monease, BitPapa, Exnode, Exnode Pay, HTX (Huobi Global SA), EXMO, and other platforms.Binance reminds users to avoid transferring or receiving assets directly or indirectly to the above entities, or engaging in other transactions with them, as related transactions may require additional compliance review, during which wallets may be restricted, and related activities may also involve violations of Binance's Terms of Use.A spokesperson for Huobi HTX responded that Huobi HTX has always strictly complied with the relevant laws and regulations of its operating location. Regarding recent sanctions related to the EU and the UK, the platform is actively communicating and has made good progress.The spokesperson for Huobi HTX also stated that Huobi HTX is currently not operating in the EU region and does not have EU region customers, so users need not worry excessively. The platform will continue to prioritize compliance and actively and responsibly advance related matters, and also appreciates the community's understanding and support.

According to The Information, Cursor informed employees that its sale to SpaceX could be completed as early as next week, with a transaction size of approximately $60 billion. After the deal is finalized, Cursor employees will be integrated into the SpaceXAI team.Meanwhile, the Cursor brand may no longer be used for some new products in the future, including an upcoming general agent product, which may be released under the name Grok Bot.

Eliza Labs founder Shaw Walters announced that the ai16z/ElizaOS token is officially "dead," and the related foundation will be closing. The reason is that the law firm Burwick Law initiated a class action lawsuit on behalf of the holders, and the foundation chose to settle due to its inability to bear the litigation costs, compensating all remaining treasury funds.Shaw stated that he has never sold ai16z tokens, has never profited from them, and only receives the same basic salary as engineers, currently living off savings. He emphasized that he will continue to develop the underlying technology of Eliza but made it clear that no tokens will be associated with Eliza anymore and advised holders to handle their tokens independently, as the foundation will not provide any buyback support.

According to Aave founder Stani Kulechov, after completing a comprehensive review, Aave will gradually phase out 50 low adoption rate asset reserves across multiple deployment environments and orderly stop deployments on Sonic, Scroll, zkSync, Metis, Soneium, and Aptos, involving an additional 25 asset reserves.In addition, 21 expired Pendle PT assets will also be eliminated and replaced by new expiring assets. This adjustment involves approximately $98.1 million in supply assets and $15.6 million in debt. Stani stated that this move aims to reduce the economic and technical risks of the protocol based on the new Aave risk framework and technical asset listing framework, and Aave will continue to assess the risks of assets in each deployment environment.

According to ChianCatcher news, the stablecoin credit protocol Ebisu Finance announced today that it has decided to gradually shut down the project. Users need to quickly close remaining Troves, withdraw Stability Pool deposits, and ebUSD DEX liquidity. The minting of ebUSD has been suspended, and the front end will be deprecated in 3 months on October 30.This protocol is a fork of Liquity V2, supporting new collateral types and adjustable risk parameters. It has been running for over a year and has passed two audits. Ebisu aims to provide fixed-rate, open-term credit through ebUSD, with collateral including blue-chip yield-bearing assets such as LRTs, but the team has failed to expand ebUSD liquidity to support meaningful lending volumes.The project explored multiple solutions, including liquidity optimization, multi-chain expansion, structured products, and acquisition opportunities, but none addressed the core bottleneck of the CDP protocol: stablecoin liquidity and sustainable demand. The team stated that there are no plans for the launch or airdrop of EBISU tokens and thanked supporters, inviting other teams to contact them for permission to use their tech stack.

According to Business Insider, Amazon is making a comprehensive adjustment to its AI strategy, gradually phasing out most of its self-developed flagship Nova models, including the high-end Premier and Omni models, the Reel video generation model, and the Canvas image generation model, with the remaining products only maintaining a "Keep The Lights On" (KTLO) status. Resources are being shifted from the existing Nova series to the new frontier model project led by researcher Pieter Abbeel (who joined through the acquisition of Covariant), with the new flagship model expected to debut at this fall's re:Invent conference.This adjustment is accompanied by organizational restructuring. Amazon laid off employees in the AGI department last week and closed the AGI Lab established in 2024 by absorbing the AI startup Adept team. AGI head Rohit Prasad left in December 2025, and AGI Lab head David Luan stepped down in February of this year. The AGI organization was integrated under Senior Vice President Peter DeSantis in December of last year, merging with chip development and quantum computing. An Amazon spokesperson responded that the company "has long supported AI models in production environments" and emphasized that "AI models remain one of the company's most important work directions," with the model lineup continuously evolving based on customer needs.

Liquid Capital (formerly LD Capital) founder Yi Lihua stated that the pressure level for Bitcoin remains around $67,500, and only a strong breakthrough can initiate a sustained rebound. Regardless, I maintain the previous viewpoint of gradually bottom-fishing in July and August, then waiting for a new bull market cycle. Analyzing the market in a volatile range and assessing bottom prices in the bottom range are not very meaningful.In AI US stocks, we analyzed the computing power company AGPU in our research report. They announced a new contract worth $1.5 billion last night, bringing the total contracts to over $3 billion, with the potential to complete $10 billion in total contracts this year. The key point is that AGPU's financing method is not through ATM equity, ensuring the interests of investors. These contracts will soon reflect in the upcoming financial reports.

According to an official tweet from Ostium, the on-chain trading platform Ostium announced that it will reopen trading at 10:00 AM Eastern Time on July 23. After the restart, all open positions and pending orders will remain unchanged and will be re-marked at the real-time market price at the time of the restart; if a position reaches the liquidation line at the restart price, it will be automatically liquidated; take profit, stop loss, and limit orders will also be executed at real-time prices upon restart.The resumption of trading will be carried out in phases, starting with protective operations such as closing positions, adding margin, and modifying/canceling orders, followed by the reopening of new position opening functions. In terms of liquidity provision, new OLP deposits are suspended, and existing LP withdrawals will be processed in the next settlement cycle, with details of the capital recovery plan to be announced later.

Cardano ecosystem wallet SecondFi stated that approximately 16.1 million ADA were stolen due to a vulnerability in the wallet software, valued at about 2.6 million USD. The platform will gradually shut down SecondFi and Yoroi wallet services. This incident affected 374 wallets.SecondFi indicated that an independent investigation by blockchain intelligence agency Groom Lake identified the attacker as a sophisticated external actor and found indicators possibly related to North Korea's Lazarus Group, but attribution has not yet been confirmed. SecondFi is developing a recovery tool based on zero-knowledge proofs to help affected users recover their assets and limit the information that needs to be shared. The tool is still in testing and will undergo third-party auditing before its planned release in August. SecondFi is also preparing a wallet export feature that allows users to migrate their assets to other services. The platform has not announced a direct compensation plan and has not specified whether it will use its own funds to compensate users.

According to ChaoXiang Research, Morgan Stanley's stock strategy report on July 20 pointed out that AI-related stocks have faced fierce selling in recent weeks, with the South Korean stock market dropping 25% from its peak, and the Philadelphia Semiconductor Index falling 20%. Individual stocks like Samsung and Micron have seen declines between 20% and 50%. The report believes that the core driving force behind this round of decline is technical factors and position clearing, with no deterioration in fundamentals. The gap between relative prices and relative earnings trends in semiconductors continues to widen, but the supply-demand tight balance for DRAM and NAND is expected to last until 2028. DRAM spot prices remain high, and Micron has also raised its performance guidance, indicating that supply-demand tightness will last at least until 2027. The RSI of the Philadelphia Semiconductor Index is nearing the oversold zone, and the accumulated momentum gains for the year have basically been retraced.Morgan Stanley believes that once the oversold signal is confirmed, a rebound window will open, and it suggests that investors gradually position themselves in semiconductors during the summer. The proportion of second-quarter earnings reports exceeding expectations reached 97%, and companies in the S&P 500 that reported better-than-expected earnings outperformed the market by an average of 1.7 percentage points on the day of the report. In terms of allocation, Morgan Stanley has raised its equity allocation from 60% to 65%, increased its Eurozone allocation from 8.7% to 11%, and is overweight in sectors such as semiconductors, mining, capital goods, automotive, insurance, and banking, while underweighting software, business services, and media in the "AI erosion group." Regarding geopolitical conflicts, the report believes that the "buying on dips" strategy since the end of March remains effective.