like

Zach Pandl, the head of research at Grayscale, posted on the X platform comparing Ethereum to a "small country" and discussed the ETH issuance mechanism. He believes that Ethereum has only one core "government function": to protect property rights and value exchange within the system. Unlike traditional countries that provide public services through taxation, Ethereum primarily funds network security through "seigniorage," which is the issuance of new ETH.In this framework, the stakers responsible for maintaining network security are akin to a group providing public services, as they receive rewards through newly issued ETH. Therefore, Ethereum's staking mechanism and ETH issuance policy essentially constitute the network's fiscal and monetary policy. Zach Pandl pointed out that the Ethereum community needs to decide how much "new currency" should be used to cover network security costs. More security typically means stronger protection of property rights, but at the cost of a higher ETH issuance rate and potential other risks.For example, if network security increasingly relies on a few large staking service providers, there remains room for discussion about whether these providers can maintain the asset rights of all users completely neutrally. Pandl believes that, just as in traditional economies, no one knows the "optimal level" of government spending and currency issuance; the same applies to Ethereum. However, Ethereum has several key security thresholds, including: 1/3: an attacker reaching this ratio may affect finality; 1/2: affects blockchain fork choice; 2/3: can control the finality process. Some community members believe that the design of Ethereum's monetary and fiscal policy should consider the security trade-offs brought by these key ratios, while the current mechanism has not adequately incorporated these factors. However, the above analogy is not entirely accurate, as it does not yet involve other important factors such as the ETH burn mechanism, MEV, governance, etc.

According to Decrypt, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) plans to launch two crypto-related initiatives in the coming days, while the Congressional CLARITY Act remains stalled until at least September. The SEC intends to propose "Regulation Crypto" at a public meeting on Friday, allowing projects to raise funds through token sales without completing a full securities registration.The SEC also plans to introduce an "innovation exemption" for tokenized stocks, with details potentially announced on Friday. This exemption will allow tokenized versions of stocks like Apple, Tesla, and Nvidia to be traded on the blockchain around the clock, supporting fragmented trading and near-instant settlement.Such tokens typically track stock economic exposure but do not carry voting rights or dividend rights. This initiative is part of SEC Chairman Paul Atkins' "Project Crypto" agenda, with Robinhood Chain, Solana, and Base already advancing related on-chain markets.

According to Bloomberg, citing informed sources, Lightspeed Venture Partners is seeking to extend its holding period for OpenAI and four other assets through a secondary transaction of approximately $600 million, along with a new investment commitment to Anthropic.The transaction, codenamed "Project Mercury," involves Lightspeed's Select V and Opportunity II funds, as well as an independently managed account, transferring the related investments into a continuation fund while returning cash to existing investors.In addition to OpenAI, the assets to be transferred include security technology company Verkada, workforce management company Rippling, AI startup Reflection AI, and enterprise search platform Glean. Coller Capital is acting as the lead buyer for the continuation fund, while UBS serves as the transaction advisor. Lightspeed has invested in Anthropic multiple times, including its latest financing round, which valued Anthropic at $96.5 billion.

According to reports from American media, the New York City Council is investigating the advertising practices of the four major prediction market platforms, opening a new battleground for the legal controversies facing this rapidly growing industry.New York City Council Speaker Julie Menin sent an inquiry letter containing numerous questions to Polymarket, Kalshi, Coinbase Global Inc., and the prediction market platform Titan under Gemini Space Station, as part of a so-called legislative investigation aimed at examining whether existing city laws are sufficient to protect residents from false or deceptive marketing by these emerging platforms.The City Council is also studying the development of relevant policies to address products that may lead users to "engage in compulsive betting on event contracts." In a letter to Polymarket, the City Council stated: "The City Council is investigating allegations related to Polymarket, and more importantly, is examining the prevalence of similar marketing practices in the broader prediction market industry, as well as the associated social harms caused to New York City residents."

According to Arkham Research, Bitmine, the world's largest Ethereum treasury company, currently holds approximately 5.81 million ETH, valued at nearly $11 billion. After 14 months of continuous accumulation, its holdings have reached 4.8% of the ETH supply, achieving about 96% of its publicly set acquisition target of 5%. Unlike Bitcoin treasury companies such as Strategy, Bitmine has used over 5 million ETH for staking to earn interest, with an annualized staking income estimated at approximately $257 million based on a yield of about 2.63%.According to Arkham's analysis, the most likely scenario for the trajectory after reaching the 5% target is that Bitmine will slow down its purchases. On-chain data shows that its acquisition pace has already slowed this year, and after surpassing 5%, it may shift towards balance sheet management and maximizing staking returns. The second most likely scenario is to continue buying at the same pace. Considering that Tom Lee, co-founder of Fundstrat, who leads this strategy, has consistently been bullish, it is possible that they will continue to increase their holdings after breaking through 5%. The least likely scenario is to completely stop buying. If this largest enterprise-level ETH buyer in the market exits the demand side, it may temporarily weaken bullish sentiment, but even without new additions, its staking holdings will still grow passively through network rewards.

According to the Financial Times, Erebor Bank, a crypto-friendly bank co-founded by Oculus founder and Anduril founder Palmer Luckey and Palantir co-founder Joe Lonsdale, is seeking $1.5 billion in funding, with a pre-money valuation target of $8 billion. This valuation is nearly double the company's valuation of $435 million when it completed a $350 million funding round in December 2025.Currently, Erebor has received support from investment firms such as 8VC and Haun Ventures, and the new funding round is expected to attract participation from institutions like Lux Capital, Andreessen Horowitz (a16z), Human Capital, Valor Equity Partners, and SV Angel.As investment in AI infrastructure enters a phase of rapid expansion, Erebor is targeting the financing needs of AI companies. AI firms require substantial funds to procure GPUs, build data centers, and secure energy supplies, while traditional financial institutions are gradually exploring financing models for AI infrastructure assets. However, whether Erebor can maintain rapid growth after the cooling of cycles in the AI and crypto industries remains a key focus for the market. This funding round has not yet been finalized and is expected to be completed in the coming weeks.

Morgan Stanley announced the launch of the "U.S. Innovation Infrastructure Initiative," which aims to drive approximately $1.5 trillion in capital raising and investment activities over the next 10 years to support U.S. economic growth.The initiative will focus on strategic areas such as artificial intelligence, quantum technology, and semiconductors, and will promote the construction of digital and physical infrastructure.

According to Cointelegraph, Nansen's CEO Alex Svanevik stated in a recent interview that Robinhood is unlikely to launch a token, as this could create competition with its publicly traded stock HOOD.Alex Svanevik pointed out that the Layer 2 network currently launched by Robinhood is already operating based on the Ethereum ecosystem and has a Gas token for paying network fees, so there is no need to issue an additional platform token. He believes that the core purpose of Robinhood's layout of blockchain infrastructure is to enhance product capabilities using blockchain technology, rather than financing through token issuance or building a new economic model.Previously, the market speculated that Robinhood might follow some crypto projects to launch an ecosystem token, but it seems that the company is more likely to use blockchain as an underlying technological tool rather than building a business system around tokens.

According to Globenewswire, Grayscale announced that it has completed the regular rebalancing of its multi-asset digital asset fund for the second quarter of 2026, adjusting the asset weights for the DeFi fund, smart contract fund, and decentralized AI fund.The DeFi fund DEFG Fund sold Uniswap (UNI) and reallocated the proceeds according to the existing fund component weights. As of August 3, the DEFG Fund's holdings include: UNI 34.16%, Ondo (ONDO) 25.44%, Aave (AAVE) 19.97%, Ethena (ENA) 12.19%, Curve DAO Token (CRV) 4.42%, Lido DAO (LDO) 3.82%.The smart contract fund GSC Fund sold some existing assets according to index rules and used the funds to buy BNB, making BNB the largest asset allocation in the fund at 30.6%. Other major holdings include Ethereum (ETH) 29.47%, Solana (SOL) 29.15%, Cardano (ADA) 4.88%, Hedera (HBAR) 2.08%, Avalanche (AVAX) 1.92%, and Sui (SUI) 1.9%.The decentralized AI fund sold NEAR Protocol (NEAR) and reallocated funds according to the existing asset proportions. As of August 3, the fund's holdings include NEAR 31.35%, Bittensor (TAO) 29.15%, Render Token (RENDER) 21.59%, and Filecoin (FIL) 17.91%.

According to monitoring by Catcher Predict, in the event "Dota 2: 1win vs BetBoom Team Essence Playoffs" on the prediction market Polymarket, the "Yes" option for the sub-market "Any Player Gets Godlike" has experienced a sharp fluctuation in win rate, dropping from 59% an hour ago to the current 40% (a fluctuation of 19%). Please note the impact of related breaking news.

According to Jinshi reports, senior Iranian sources indicate that Iran is unlikely to accept any alternative solutions for reopening the Strait of Hormuz.

According to Bloomberg, citing informed sources, Chinese officials are concerned that cutting-edge AI models from the U.S., such as Anthropic's Mythos, could be used as offensive cyber tools to launch cyberattacks against China. At the same time, the Chinese side questions why Anthropic does not allow Chinese companies to use the relevant models normally, yet cannot rule out the possibility of these capabilities being used to attack China. Anthropic has long advocated for the U.S. to tighten restrictions on advanced chips and AI capabilities related to China, and last year it stopped providing services to companies controlled by China.The report states that the Chinese side is currently not prepared to take immediate action, but if the U.S. further restricts Chinese AI companies, relevant departments are studying response plans, which may include imposing sanctions on U.S. AI companies or placing them on a restricted list. Currently, neither Anthropic nor relevant departments have publicly responded to this.

ChianCatcher news, cryptocurrency custodian BitGo announced on Monday the launch of the BitGo Link tool, which helps institutional clients connect their accounts at external centralized exchanges such as Crypto.com, Kraken, and Coinbase to the BitGo platform. Link provides a unified interface, allowing institutional finance teams to view and manage digital assets stored in BitGo custody and exchanges in real-time, supporting cross-platform rebalancing, margin or liquidity needs, and more.All transfers are processed through the BitGo Policy Engine, allowing users to set additional permission controls, and the system will automatically verify exchange records and track settlement status. This product is built on BitGo's existing Go Network and will support more exchanges and fund management features in the future.

J.P. Morgan strategists believe that as market performance spreads to more sectors, technology stocks or AI-related stocks are unlikely to be the main drivers of market returns in the second half of the year.The team led by Mislav Matejka stated that the sell-off in momentum trading is likely mostly over, and semiconductor stocks are currently close to oversold levels. The team wrote in the report: "As earnings momentum remains upward, this should help stabilize the related stocks." However, they expect market performance to continue spreading to more sectors and reiterated that due to geopolitical tensions, investors are advised to buy on dips.

According to Jinshi reports, Iain Simmons, an analyst at the Oxford Economic Institute, stated that the inflation rate in the Eurozone remains above target levels and faces significant risks in the future. Due to the escalating situation in the Middle East leading to high energy prices, the overall inflation rate rose by 0.1 percentage points in July, reaching 2.9%. He pointed out that since the breakdown of the Iran ceasefire agreement, the risk of broader inflationary impacts has significantly increased, which strengthens the case for an interest rate hike in September.Nevertheless, the inflation data shows a relatively mild response to the escalating situation in the Middle East, and the second round of wage effects later this year may be limited.

Chief Economist of Bitfire Group, Fu Peng, stated that the AI industry is currently in a transitional period from the midstream to the downstream. The infrastructure layer, represented by Nvidia, has entered a mature stage, displaying characteristics of established stocks. However, the downstream application layer has yet to see a milestone breakthrough similar to ChatGPT. The next 10 to 18 months will be a transitional period for the industry cycle. He indicated that the competition in the second half of AI will no longer be about the story of repeatedly burning money to build infrastructure, but rather whether AI, as an efficiency tool, can generate stable payments, profits, and diffusion after entering real industries.He also mentioned that current market funds are following a logic of narrowing focus, prioritizing the elimination of speculative assets that are peripheral, highly elastic, and lack cash flow support, while continuously concentrating on the most core and highest certainty targets. Pure liquidity assets at the denominator end, such as Bitcoin, often digest valuation pressure before traditional stock markets.He further noted that DRAM and HBM storage are ultimately commodities, subject to the laws of commodity cycles. When the industry fundamentals are extremely certain and volatility drops to very low levels, the excessive accumulation of off-market financial leverage often becomes an invisible killer that triggers a sharp decline. Even when a company's fundamentals are sound, prices can fluctuate dramatically during deleveraging.

According to Coindesk, JPMorgan Chase (JPM) stated that the decreased probability of the "Clarity Act" passing in the U.S. Senate this year poses a blow to the crypto market, and warned that further delays could undermine one of the industry's most important regulatory catalysts. JPMorgan noted that, due to the Senate prioritizing other bills before the summer recess, the market currently predicts that the probability of this bill passing before the end of the year is only 37%. Negotiations regarding ethical clauses, enforcement, DeFi, stablecoin yields, and anti-money laundering rules remain stalled.

Recently, market funds have continued to concentrate on high-growth assets, driving multiple popular targets in the Gate platform's gStocks sector to strengthen collectively. According to the latest data from Gate, the AI giant PLTRG/USDT (Palantir Technologies) leads with a 24-hour increase of 5.49%, currently priced at $131.02.At the same time, consumer and financial giants are also performing strongly. COSTG/USDT (Costco) is currently priced at $955.75, up 2.36% in 24 hours; VG/USDT (Visa) is currently priced at $363.28, up 2.30% in 24 hours; WMTG/USDT (Walmart) is currently priced at $112.42, up 2.23% in 24 hours.Gate gStocks adopts a 1:1 full native stock reserve mechanism, where each tokenized security corresponds to an equal number of native stocks as underlying asset support. It supports 24/7 trading, unified account management, and a minimum investment of 1 USDT with fractional share trading. Users can participate more flexibly in global popular stock investments, achieving a one-stop allocation of digital assets and traditional securities. As the ecosystem of tokenized securities continues to enrich, Gate gStocks will continue to expand more quality stocks and ETF targets, providing users with more diverse global asset allocation options.