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Bilal Bin Saqib, the Minister of State for Pakistan and Chairman of the Pakistan Virtual Assets Regulatory Authority (PVARA), revealed at the Bitcoin Asia conference that the country completed the establishment of its virtual asset regulatory system in less than six months, using only about 8% of the approved budget, which is approximately $200,000, with about 92% of the budget remaining unused. Saqib stated that the government should not measure success by how much money is spent, but rather by the actual delivery of results. The regulatory framework covers activities such as exchanges, custody, brokerage, asset management, lending, and settlement, and introduces requirements regarding governance, anti-money laundering and counter-terrorism financing, customer asset protection, cybersecurity, and market conduct. Saqib emphasized that Pakistan's regulatory ambitions extend beyond the current digital asset market, with future focus on the tokenization market, programmable payments, stablecoins, machine-to-machine transactions, and the AI agent economy, noting the need to establish corresponding regulatory rules for agent payments and the agent economy. Saqib stated that emerging markets do not need to spend a decade catching up; they can build on the frontier. With a population of over 240 million, Pakistan is a potentially significant market for emerging financial technologies. The rapid transition from legislation to licensing in the country is being used as a demonstration case for the government's response to next-generation financial infrastructure.

Justin Sun stated at the Bitcoin Asia 2026 conference in Hong Kong that the threat of quantum computing to blockchain and the entire financial system is widespread, and traditional banks like JPMorgan are also facing risks.Due to the highly decentralized nature of the Bitcoin community, which involves multiple participants such as miners, exchanges, and WBTC, reaching a consensus on quantum resistance will take a long time. Justin Sun mentioned that TRON has been developing quantum-resistant mechanisms over the past year, and in the first half of this year, they released a quantum-resistant address solution and launched it on the testnet, with plans to upgrade the entire network to a mainstream cryptocurrency network with quantum resistance capabilities by the end of this year.

According to Digital Asset, South Korean cryptocurrency exchange Bithumb won the first instance of a lawsuit regarding the "misissued Bitcoin" incident, with the court ruling that users who sold the misissued Bitcoin must return approximately 194 million won (about 145,000 USD).In February of this year, Bithumb faced a huge controversy after erroneously distributing 620,000 Bitcoins (worth about 5 billion USD at the time) as activity rewards. Subsequently, Bithumb initiated a recovery program and reported in March that 99% of the misissued Bitcoins had been recovered. This ruling is the first in four lawsuits filed against users who have not returned the funds, and the likelihood of Bithumb winning the subsequent three lawsuits has also increased. The basis for the court's ruling and whether the defendants will appeal have not yet been disclosed.

According to The Block, Glassnode stated that $81,000 to $86,000 is the resistance wall between Bitcoin's current rebound and the January peak. Bitcoin has rebounded 26% since the August low.Glassnode pointed out that this round of Bitcoin's movement is supported by $2.23 billion in ETF inflows, continuous outflows from exchanges, and widespread accumulation among various wallet groups.

According to The Block, StarkWare announced that the first quantum-resistant Bitcoin transaction has been successfully executed.StarkWare's Avihu Levy used signature aggregation technology to protect public key data while ensuring that transactions are secure in the Bitcoin mempool, thereby introducing a second layer of security to protect assets.

According to Glassnode analysis, Bitcoin has rebounded about 26% since the mid-August low, with a net inflow of $2.23 billion into U.S. spot Bitcoin ETFs during the same period, marking the strongest seven-day inflow of the year, with no single day of outflows. The amount of Bitcoin on exchanges has decreased, while various wallet sizes have simultaneously accumulated. The upcoming supply is concentrated in the $81,000 to $86,000 range, which overlaps with hotspot costs, re-listed sell orders, market maker gamma flips, and short liquidations.Glassnode states that this round of increases was ignited by the record short squeeze on August 19, with 85% of liquidations within the squeeze window being shorts, representing the largest single-day short liquidation since 2019 according to their statistical criteria. The open interest in futures has decreased by 11% in terms of coins, and the funding rate is close to neutral, indicating that the market is mainly driven by short stop-losses rather than new long leverage chasing the price up. Options pricing suggests that the market may maintain until late September, with attention on approximately $83,300 above and the $70,000 cost area and $62,000 to $65,000 support below.

The core Personal Consumption Expenditures (PCE) price index for July rose by 0.2% month-on-month and 3.3% year-on-year, both in line with expectations.Ellen Zentner, Chief Economic Strategist at Morgan Stanley Wealth Management, stated: "The mild upside surprise in today's inflation data, along with relatively strong economic performance, is not something that investors or the Federal Reserve would welcome. However, this set of data is not sufficient to shift the decision-making balance for the September Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) meeting."

According to Chao Xiang Research, a Morgan Stanley report points out that the total off-balance-sheet commitments disclosed by hyperscale vendors, Nvidia, and Broadcom have exceeded $3.1 trillion. Among them, lease commitments amount to $1.1 trillion, procurement commitments to $1.7 trillion, and the total on-balance-sheet debt and lease liabilities of hyperscale vendors is $770 billion.Amazon and Google's free cash flow turned negative in the second quarter of 2026, and Meta is expected to follow suit next quarter. Financing tools are restructuring the capital structure of AI computing power from six aspects: off-balance-sheet lease and procurement commitments constitute the first layer of financing, the proportion of debt issuance rises from 2% in 2025 to 19% in 2026, Google frees up $110 billion by cutting buybacks and issuing equity, Oracle's customer prepayments in the second quarter amount to $4.6 billion, and Broadcom and Nvidia launched a chip leasing SPV to support unrated AI labs.Morgan Stanley believes that as the financing structure itself becomes a core variable of the AI supply chain, the importance of tracking off-balance-sheet commitments and changes in accounting judgments is approaching that of tracking chip shipments themselves.

According to Xinhua News Agency, Xin Guobin, Vice Minister of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, stated on August 26 at the "Starting Point of the 14th Five-Year Plan" series of themed press conferences held by the State Council Information Office that, in terms of application, artificial intelligence in our country has basically penetrated the entire chain of research and development design, production manufacturing, quality inspection, and operation and maintenance.Xin Guobin mentioned that nearly 200 artificial intelligence-related standards have been successfully developed, and multiple cities are being organized to carry out ethical reviews and service practices related to artificial intelligence.

Bitget Research Institute Chief Analyst Ryan Lee stated that driven by multiple favorable factors such as the continuous net inflow of the U.S. spot Bitcoin ETF for five days, large-scale short liquidations, the U.S. Treasury's expansion of long-term bond repurchases leading to a drop in yields and a weakening dollar, as well as signals from the Trump administration indicating a pro-crypto regulatory stance, Bitcoin has broken through the $80,000 mark, reaching a new high in recent months, with market sentiment rapidly shifting from "fear" to "greed."He pointed out that BTC is expected to stabilize above $78,000 in the short term and oscillate around that area, with key support levels in the $74,000--$76,000 range and primary resistance at $83,000. If it breaks through effectively, it may further challenge the $85,000--$90,000 levels.Regarding Ethereum, benefiting from the market's increased risk appetite driven by BTC, simultaneous ETF fund inflows, and a rebound in DeFi activity, Ryan noted that ETH's short-term average price could reach $2,600--$2,800. If it breaks through the $2,650--$2,700 resistance level, it may further push towards the $3,000 mark.At the same time, Ryan also reminded investors that although ETF fund inflows are strong and short-term momentum is sufficient, there are still profit-taking pressures in the market, as well as macro policy uncertainties such as the Jackson Hole meeting and the September interest rate meeting. Traders should be prepared for fluctuations of 10--20% and closely monitor daily ETF flow data and key support levels.

Jeonbuk Bank has partnered with blockchain payment company Ripple to deploy its cross-border payment system, providing faster and cheaper remittance services for business clients such as import and export companies, tech startups, and online content creators, replacing the traditional transfer method that takes several days via the SWIFT network.Meanwhile, the Pakistan Virtual Assets Regulatory Authority (PVARA) has opened the application portal for crypto licenses. Companies providing virtual asset services on or before March 5 must submit a No Objection Certificate (NOC) application by September 5, or they will cease operations. PVARA stated that the licensing window is officially open, providing a clear path for businesses to enter Pakistan's regulated virtual asset market.In addition, Laser Digital, a digital asset subsidiary of Nomura Group in Japan, has received approval from the Financial Services Agency (FSA) to become the first platform to obtain a crypto exchange license in four years, the last being Binance Japan in October 2022.

According to CoinDesk, Standard Chartered Bank, headquartered in London with assets of $850 billion, announced that it will become the first bank to distribute Hong Kong-regulated stablecoins. The institution stated in an email announcement released on Monday that it will first assist its eligible institutional clients and partners in integrating the Hong Kong dollar stablecoin HKDAP issued by Anchorpoint Financial, of which Standard Chartered is the majority shareholder.Standard Chartered also indicated plans to launch several new HKDAP commercial applications within the next month, with use cases including market fund subscriptions, settlements with asset management managers, inter-departmental settlements within the bank's global network, and cross-border payments. Anchorpoint Financial began a limited rollout of HKDAP on August 12, having just obtained one of the first two issuance licenses in Hong Kong four months prior. The initial rollout will focus on institutional payments and settlements, with more access channels and cross-border applications to be added later.Another licensed institution, HSBC, is preparing to launch its stablecoin in the second half of 2026 and may distribute it through PayMe, which has 3.3 million users. Additionally, Kraken's parent company Payward has expanded its stablecoin business in Hong Kong through a $600 million acquisition of Reap Technologies.

Stanford Business School Professor Ilya Strebulaev, in collaboration with Blake Jackson, released the 2026 Strebulaev-Jackson Venture Capital Firm Rankings, based on nearly 30 years of data from over 230,000 investments and nearly 13,000 VCs. The research estimates that about 5% of VCs generate approximately 90% of the industry's profits. The top five are Sequoia Capital (10,158 points), Andreessen Horowitz (8,292 points), Accel, DST Global, and Tiger Global. Among them, Parkway Venture Capital (19th place) and Notable (20th place) made it into the top 20, but are not well-known leading brands.The rankings are based on six major factors: discount valuation, dilution adjustment, net profit (after costs), value added (lead investments and board seats), human capital decay (three-and-a-half-year half-life), and credit allocation between institutions and individuals (25% for the investing institution and 75% for the current institution). Of the top 100, 62 are located in California, 19 in New York, and 6 each in Massachusetts and Texas. 21 were established in 2015 or later, and 23 of the best investments are in frontier AI or AI infrastructure companies, with OpenAI listed as the best investment by 4 firms, xAI by 3, and Anthropic and Perplexity by 2 each. The ranking methodology has a correlation of only about 0.27 with the Midas List, with SV Angel investing in about 139 unicorns ranked 31st, and Thrive with only 47 unicorns ranked 8th. This ranking is the result of research by Stanford professors and does not constitute investment advice.

The Responsible Fintech Institute (RFI) and the cryptocurrency asset custody infrastructure provider Safeheron announced the launch of a pilot program for quantum-resistant digital asset wallets and on-chain transfers, with participants from Europe, the Middle East, and Asia. The pilot operates on the quantum-resistant NEAR testnet and uses a multiparty computation protocol that supports the ML-DSA-65 standard.Participating regulatory bodies include the Abu Dhabi Global Market, Bhutan's Gelephu Financial Services Office, and Malta's Financial Services Authority, with Bison Bank and DK Bank participating as financial institutions. The banks will test wallet generation and transfers in a shared application environment, while regulatory bodies will observe in the initial phase and later participate in governance workflows. The organizers plan to release a white paper covering research, protocol design, and testing results, and gradually open-source the underlying technology. The Hong Kong Monetary Authority plans to prepare the Hong Kong banking sector to fully address quantum security risks by 2030, while a report from the Bank for International Settlements published in 2025 suggests that financial institutions should migrate to quantum-resistant systems in phases.

According to CryptoSlate, the Pakistan Virtual Assets Regulatory Authority (PVARA) has required cryptocurrency exchanges and related service providers operating locally to enter a new licensing process by September 5, or they must cease relevant operations. PVARA opened the licensing application portal for virtual asset service providers on August 22 and released regulatory rules for virtual asset services.According to the regulations, service providers that have been conducting cryptocurrency business in Pakistan must submit a "No Objection Certificate" (NOC) application. During the application review period, as long as a complete application is submitted on time, they may continue to provide existing services. Businesses that do not submit applications by September 5 must stop relevant services within the regulatory scope, and continuing operations will be considered a violation. PVARA added that this policy does not constitute a comprehensive ban on cryptocurrency but establishes a "compliance or exit" regulatory mechanism applicable to exchanges, custodians, and other businesses providing virtual asset services to users in Pakistan.