operations

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 Bloomberg, citing informed sources, Binance announced in June plans to exit the European Union, and the market generally expected it to be forced out due to not obtaining a MiCA license. However, the July 1 deadline has passed, and Binance is still maintaining operations in the EU through various means.European Central Bank President Christine Lagarde personally intervened to push for Binance's application, which was not approved, and Binance has withdrawn its license application in Greece. Previously, users in six EU countries with local entities were asked to migrate away from the platform, and some users later regained trading access through "reverse solicitation" clauses. Binance has also routed some EU users' trades to its Abu Dhabi entity, which is under different regulations.Currently, the European Securities and Markets Authority has sent a letter requesting confirmation of its orderly exit progress. Binance stated that it is committed to achieving long-term compliant operations under the MiCA framework. Data shows that its global spot trading volume share exceeds 45%, with the euro-denominated trading share around 3% to 4%, which has not changed significantly from before.

Manus announced the resumption of independent operations and entered a new development stage. Founding team member Red Xiao and others will continue to be responsible for the company's operations, focusing on promoting product innovation and the development of general AI Agents.Manus stated that as an independent Agent laboratory, the company will continue to expand the capability boundaries of general AI Agents in the future and transform new capabilities into products to help users handle complex tasks. In the future, Manus will further integrate into users' daily workflows, interact more directly with the real world, and more proactively represent users in executing tasks. Manus also thanked users who recently helped with data backup and recovery and stated that more innovative products will be launched in the future.

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 Cronos network associated with Crypto.com has paused operations after detecting an attack on the lending protocol Tectonic. The Cronos Network stated on the X platform that it has identified vulnerabilities on Tectonic and has paused the network. Tectonic also confirmed that it is investigating the related incident and advised users not to interact with the protocol until safety is confirmed. According to DefiLlama data, Tectonic had a total locked value of approximately $121.7 million before the incident, with active loans of about $82.7 million.On-chain researcher Weilin Li attributed the attack to price manipulation of the TONIC token. The attacker bought enough TONIC within 20 minutes to inflate its price by about 100 times, and then used the inflated tokens as collateral to borrow other assets from Tectonic, a method similar to the 2022 Mango Markets oracle manipulation attack. Li initially estimated that the attacker profited about $66 million, and later discovered another address controlled by a different attacker containing about $8 million, bringing the total estimate to around $75 million. Li also stated that the attacker only successfully bridged about $6 million to Ethereum, as the pause on the Cronos network prevented most affected assets from flowing out.Crypto.com CEO Kris Marsalek stated that the company's app and exchange were not attacked, and its security team is assisting Tectonic with the investigation.

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.

Silicon Valley's renowned venture capital firm a16z has announced that it has raised $1.1 billion for its latest fund, the Machine Age Fund, which will focus on investing in the full suite of computing infrastructure that supports AI operations, including chips, memory, networking, storage, as well as complete systems such as data centers, robots, and home AI devices.a16z stated that over the past year, there has been a significant turning point in the growth of AI in terms of application capabilities and types of work. As AI expands from chat and reasoning further into programming and other knowledge work, the demand for computing power and tokens is experiencing exponential growth, and machine intelligence is accelerating its deep development.a16z indicated that its team possesses extensive experience in hardware, data centers, chips, networking, and large-scale computing systems. They have also established a resource network covering market expansion, talent recruitment, marketing, customers, suppliers, and American manufacturing, which will further support the next generation of AI hardware entrepreneurs. a16z mentioned that we are currently at an important juncture in the transformation of computing paradigms and look forward to collaborating with entrepreneurs dedicated to reconstructing AI hardware and advancing the arrival of the "Machine Age."

The long-established financial media in Hong Kong, "Hong Kong Economic Journal," published a column article citing statistics from RootData, indicating that in the first seven months of 2026, over 100 cryptocurrency projects have announced shutdowns, bankruptcies, or indefinite service suspensions. The article states that the actual number of closures may be higher, as many projects have not officially announced their status but are "slowly disappearing."The article further states that this wave of closures is not limited to a single sub-sector but is widely affecting various projects, including exchanges, wallets, DeFi, DAO tools, Layer 2, and infrastructure, showing a trend of spreading across the entire sector.

The Public Security Bureau of Hongkou District, Shanghai, China, recently solved a case involving cross-border illegal settlement and illegal foreign exchange trading using virtual currency, arresting 9 criminal suspects and involving an amount of over 200 million yuan. The suspects, including a person named Li, established a technology company at the beginning of 2024 to seek illegal profits, building two platforms online: "Cross-Border Fund Exchange" and "Virtual Credit Card Issuance and Settlement." They solicited customers both online and offline, illegally conducting exchange and settlement services for virtual currency and cross-border funds, profiting through transaction fees, service fees, card issuance fees, withdrawal fees, and other means.Investigators stated, "The uniqueness of this case lies in the fact that the criminals developed two apps and publicly solicited customers on such a large scale, which has never been seen before. The platforms built in this case are themselves a closed-loop illegal financial service system, with all transactions settled internally on the platform. This mode of crime has a higher degree of scale, a longer chain, and is more deceptive." Reports indicate that on the "Cross-Border Fund Exchange" platform, the criminal gang collected customers' virtual currency overseas and exchanged it for foreign currency, forming a "fund pool," and then realized cross-border settlement through fabricated contracts, achieving the exchange and transfer of virtual currency to RMB. On the "Virtual Credit Card Issuance and Settlement" platform, the criminal gang "cooperated" with several overseas private banks to issue virtual credit cards to customers, who could use the card for consumption, but the repayment process had to be settled in virtual currency; the gang exchanged virtual currency for foreign currency overseas, relying on false cross-border settlements to complete clearing with overseas card merchants.

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 reports from The Paper and others, on August 24, consumers claimed that the Taobao Tmall store "SKhynix Flagship Store" suddenly announced the termination of its operations, raising concerns about the after-sales warranty of the purchased memory modules. The store's homepage indicated that it plans to voluntarily terminate operations on September 9, 2026, and has removed all products, making it currently impossible to search for the store directly on Taobao.Customer service on the Taobao platform stated that if an order is still within the after-sales validity period after the store closes, customers can apply for repairs or refunds on the order details page; if there is no after-sales entry or the seller has not processed it, customers can contact platform customer service for assistance or check if they are entitled to the brand's official warranty. On August 25, SK Hynix's stock price opened lower and continued to decline, falling more than 4% as of the related report.In another report, members of the SK Hynix union voted against a preliminary wage agreement reached after two months of negotiations, with 50.08% of the 15,045 employees who participated in the vote opposing it, with only a 25-vote difference between approval and disapproval. The agreement originally included a 6.3% wage increase and adjusted the profit-sharing bonus to 40% cash and 60% company shares, whereas it was previously distributed entirely in cash.

The engineering collective Shipyard, focused on IPFS and libp2p technologies, announced that Protocol Labs will not renew its funding. As a result, Shipyard will gradually cease its engineering, maintenance, and infrastructure operations related to IPFS, with a final deadline of September 30, 2026.Shipyard stated that several core projects it maintains (including Kubo, Helia, Boxo, Rainbow, IPFS Desktop, etc.) will no longer have dedicated maintainers responsible for new features, fixes, and releases; contributions to go-libp2p and js-libp2p will stop; and the public infrastructure it operates (such as ipfs.io, dweb.link, IPFS bootstrap nodes, etc.) will also cease, with the future of related domains and infrastructure to be determined by Protocol Labs. The team will assist with the transition before the end of September.

According to TAC monitoring, TAC stated that it is investigating a vulnerability attack incident targeting its EVM side based on Cosmos, which only affects the TAC token supply.The team is collaborating with TAC validators to temporarily suspend blockchain operations and will provide timely updates on the investigation results and chain recovery plans. Users are advised to obtain the latest news only through official channels.

BitMart officially released a long announcement on platform X, with the main content as follows: "This announcement aims to inform everyone of the latest developments following the announcement on July 26, 2026. We thank users for their patience during this period.After further discussions with users, stakeholders, and professional advisors, BitMart is formulating a potential restructuring plan as an alternative to a comprehensive liquidation. This plan may include a phased and orderly resumption of some business operations while distributing assets to creditors. The relevant arrangements still require further legal, financial, operational, and compliance assessments. To advance the relevant processes, BitMart has appointed Weikai Law Firm as its restructuring legal advisor. Weikai will work with BitMart's other professional advisors to evaluate feasible plans and assist in formulating a potential restructuring plan, which includes a framework for phased resumption of operations.Currently, we are working with the advisory team to develop a roadmap, aiming to release the next update no later than September 9, 2026.Once the relevant information is confirmed, we will continue to update the community. During the advancement of the above work, we kindly ask everyone to remain patient and understanding. Once the business recovery plan is formally drafted, we plan to solicit feedback from community users. Please continue to pay attention to our official website, official mobile app, and official social media channels for subsequent announcements. As always, please be vigilant against various scam messages and only trust content released through BitMart's official channels. Thank you for your trust and support."

According to The Defiant, Kieran Warwick, co-founder of the Web3 game project Illuvium, stated that the studio has significantly reduced costs over the past six months, and the team recently agreed to further salary cuts. According to him, the adjusted funds can support operations for more than 12 months. He did not disclose the extent of the salary cuts, the number of remaining employees, or the cash reserves.Warwick mentioned that the existing team is almost entirely focused on the MMO game Overworld, with most members having worked together for over three years. In addition to the MMO, there are plans to launch the Celebrations series of Illuvium Beyond, Beyond Chaos, Primal Tactica developed by independent studios, and Loadout, which will allocate tokens for staking contracts, within the year. Primal Tactica will participate in Steam Next Fest in October, and Illuvium will receive most of the revenue.Data from DefiLlama shows that Illuvium's protocol fees and revenue over the past 30 days are approximately $9,781, with a treasury of about $2.78 million. ILV is priced at approximately $3.35, with a market capitalization of about $27.74 million.

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.

XCAD Network officially announced the cessation of operations. The project stated that there have been no updates since April, and there are currently no remaining funds. Continuing to stay on the exchange is a losing battle, and related products and services will no longer be maintained.The official statement mentioned that the company has been operating for five years, making it one of the few projects that have persisted for a long time without being listed on a tier-one exchange. The fan tokens failed to gain traction after retail investors exited, and the team attempted to pivot towards AI influencers but was unsuccessful and is now unable to continue. The team is considering making the code public for those in need to run it themselves, emphasizing that this is not a continuation of the company, nor a restart.

The U.S. Department of the Treasury has announced that it will at least double the scale of liquidity support repurchase operations for long-term nominal coupon securities, involving two maturity ranges: 10 to 20 years and 20 to 30 years.Currently, the maximum scale for each operation is $2 billion, and in the future, the scale for each operation will be raised to at least $4 billion. The adjustment will take effect on September 9, 2026, and will be implemented for the remainder of this refinancing quarter (until November 4, 2026). The Treasury will provide more information about future repurchase scales at the next quarterly refinancing meeting scheduled for November 4, 2026.This expansion of the repurchase operation scale reflects the Treasury's desire to provide stronger liquidity support for the long-term nominal Treasury market. The Treasury will announce updated temporary Treasury repurchase arrangements later.

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.

The token issuance platform Printr announced that it will initiate a shutdown process, and all operations will cease before August 31, 2026. The team stated that they have explored all feasible paths over the past three months to seek a sustainable solution, but due to a lack of capital and distribution support required by the current market, the project can no longer be maintained.Starting from August 18, 2026, all staking positions and staking rewards on supported chains will be automatically unstaked or claimed and returned to the original wallet address, after which the staking function will be suspended. If users have not received their assets by August 20, they need to contact the team via Discord before August 31. There will be no TGE or airdrop held after the shutdown.After August 31, 2026, the Printr application interface will go offline, and it will no longer be possible to issue new tokens through the platform. Tokens issued by Printr are independent on-chain assets, not owned or controlled by the team, and will continue to exist on the respective chains.