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According to The Information, fintech company Stripe is in exclusive acquisition negotiations with AI model aggregation platform OpenRouter, with a deal valuation of approximately $10 billion. Sources reveal that OpenRouter had previously received acquisition interest from several large tech companies, but Stripe has now entered exclusive negotiation stages. The related deal has not yet been finalized, and specific terms may still change.OpenRouter was established in 2023 and is positioned as an AI infrastructure platform that connects users with various large language models, allowing developers to call AI models from companies like OpenAI, Anthropic, and Google through a unified interface, and choose different models based on performance, price, and availability. As enterprises accelerate the adoption of generative AI, the importance of AI model calling infrastructure and model routing services continues to rise. OpenRouter has become a key intermediary in the AI application development ecosystem by providing model aggregation, traffic allocation, and cost optimization capabilities.If the deal is completed, it will become one of Stripe's significant moves in the AI field in recent years. Stripe has primarily focused on payment infrastructure, financial services, and enterprise software, and acquiring OpenRouter may further drive its expansion into the AI developer infrastructure space. Market participants believe that as the number of AI models rapidly increases, infrastructure companies that connect different models, optimize calling costs, and manage AI workflows are gaining more attention, and OpenRouter's potential high valuation also reflects investors' optimism about growth opportunities in the AI application layer and infrastructure layer.

The Ethereum Foundation has released a job posting for a Protocol Security Researcher, part of the protocol security team, responsible for identifying security vulnerabilities in various aspects such as the execution layer, consensus layer, network layer, specifications, and client implementations. The work includes AI-assisted security research and automated vulnerability discovery, hard fork reviews, fuzz testing tool development, manual audits of protocol changes, and coordinating vulnerability disclosures.The team requires candidates to have deep experience with the Ethereum protocol, with a preference for engineers who have actively participated in protocol development and are familiar with the specifications of the execution layer or consensus layer. Common programming languages include Go, Rust, Java, C#, Nim, and Python. Remote work is available, and the position is open to candidates in Europe and globally.

According to monitoring by Bubblemaps, several newly created wallets previously purchased CASCHAT worth millions of dollars, and then the token was listed on Robinhood two days later. Currently, the total paper profit of these wallets is approximately 3 million dollars.

Tesla stated that TeraFab will be built in Grimes County, Texas, and the number of chips required by Tesla and SpaceX will far exceed the current and future global production capacity.

Plume posted on the X platform that it has joined the Digital Asset Solutions Industry Working Group of the Depository Trust & Clearing Corporation (DTCC).The working group aims to provide feedback on DTCC's tokenization services and facilitate ongoing in-depth dialogue to promote the widespread adoption and innovation of digital assets.

The Optimism Foundation released its fifth annual budget update and outlook (from May 2026 to April 2027). According to the foundation's forecast, the circulating supply of OP will increase from the current approximately 2.161 billion to about 2.504 billion, accounting for 58.3% of the total supply, meaning that approximately 343 million OP will enter circulation during this period.By category, it is expected that the ecological fund will add 200 million in circulation, early core contributors 47.6 million, investors 15.3 million, governance fund 10 million, and both airdrops and Retro Funding will be zero. The foundation stated that the relevant tokens all come from the initial allocation framework and no new token allocation has been requested; this update is solely for the purpose of increasing transparency.Token deployment will continue to focus on the two strategic goals of OP mainnet growth and acquiring OP Enterprise corporate clients. Looking back at the fourth year, Optimism committed approximately 150 million OP in new expenditures, a decrease of about one-third compared to the third year; OP Enterprise went live in January 2026, with early clients including Bitpanda, Ink, Dunamu, and Ether.fi; the monthly transaction volume on the OP mainnet grew by over 60% during this period; the governance layer has approved a 12-month buyback plan that will use up to 50% of Superchain revenue for monthly OP buybacks, and over 9 million have been repurchased so far.

Tether officially announced that its asset tokenization platform Hadron by Tether has reached a strategic cooperation with the Saudi fintech company First Advanced Data for Artificial Intelligence (First Data) and BKN301. The cooperation will use Hadron as the core technology platform to promote the tokenization of institutional-level real estate assets in Saudi Arabia.According to the cooperation agreement, First Data will act as the issuer of tokenized real estate assets and will also undertake primary market operations; Hadron will provide asset issuance, management, and full lifecycle infrastructure; BKN301 will be responsible for banking system integration, payment, compliance, and operational integration.Tether stated that this project aligns with Saudi Arabia's "Vision 2030," and future business is expected to expand into other real-world asset (RWA) areas such as energy and infrastructure.

According to monitoring by PeckShield, the attacker-controlled address 0x920d...9708 stole approximately 500,000 USDC from the Base chain victim wallet 0x3a53...0B5c.However, during the subsequent process of exchanging USDC for ETH, the attacker did not set sufficient slippage protection, and the transaction was front-run by MEV bots for arbitrage. Ultimately, the attacker only obtained about 67 WETH, worth approximately $129,000, losing over 75% of the stolen funds.

According to Gate's latest weekly report, the Federal Reserve maintained interest rates, but hawkish expectations have risen. The high interest rate environment combined with the deleveraging effects of derivatives has put overall pressure on the crypto market, with BTC and ETH dropping approximately 2.8% and 3.6%, respectively. Meanwhile, U.S. stocks continued to recover last week. In terms of capital flow, BTC spot ETFs have turned to net outflows, while ETH spot ETFs still maintain a slight net inflow, showing some resilience in institutional capital allocation.On-chain, PancakeSwap's weekly trading volume surpassed Uniswap, and the Robinhood Chain, RWA, and Meme ecosystems remain active. In the derivatives market, BTC open interest (OI) rose and then fell, with funding rates remaining positive, and DVOL continuing to decline, while the market overall still maintains high-level fluctuations.In response to the evolving macro policies, institutional capital flows, and on-chain ecosystems, Gate is continuously building a multi-asset trading system covering digital assets, stocks, indices, foreign exchange, and commodities. Relying on institutional-level trading, liquidity, custody, lending, asset management, and API services, it provides professional investors with a one-stop institutional solution.At the same time, Gate is continuously improving its global institutional ecosystem layout, strengthening trading execution efficiency, cross-market liquidity, and risk management capabilities, helping institutional clients respond more efficiently to market fluctuations and seize global asset allocation and structural trading opportunities.

According to CoinPost, the Financial Services Agency and the National Police Agency of Japan jointly issued a request to the Japan Virtual Currency Exchange Association (JVCEA), asking all cryptocurrency traders to strengthen withdrawal restrictions to prevent fraud victims, proposing a total of 11 new measures.The main content includes: the introduction of a pre-registration system for withdrawal destinations, setting a certain period of withdrawal restrictions after depositing fiat currency or purchasing cryptocurrency, establishing withdrawal limits based on customer risk assessments, and enhancing transaction monitoring and information-sharing mechanisms with police in each prefecture. The background is that the damage from social media investment inducements and "pig butchering" scams continues to expand, with criminal methods becoming increasingly complex.

FlashRescue co-founder @DarcyAri posted on the X platform that recently, during a joint investigation with partners on a case, Tether experienced a transfer of funds from one address during the execution of a proposal to freeze addresses, resulting in a decrease in the frozen amount. Further review by FlashRescue revealed that this is not an isolated incident. As of August 3, 2026, through an analysis of 2,955 Tether freeze events on the Ethereum and Tron networks, it was found that among addresses involved in risks such as entity sanctions, fraudulent activities, money laundering, FATF blacklist jurisdictions, and malicious attacks: 60 addresses cleared their assets and completed front-running transfers before the formal execution of the freeze, with a total net outflow of 20,429,847 USDT, starting transfers an average of 13 minutes and 59 seconds after the freeze proposal was submitted, and completing the main fund transfers within 15 minutes and 15 seconds; additionally, 113 addresses transferred some assets before the freeze was executed, involving approximately 35,524,300 USDT.The average time from the submission of the freeze proposal to the formal execution of the freeze by Tether is 2 hours, 16 minutes, and 15 seconds, indicating a long time window between the public announcement of the freeze proposal and its actual execution. On July 3, a cluster of addresses transferred funds continuously within minutes and then split the transfers to the same address. The above cases suggest that some high-risk addresses may be actively monitoring Tether freeze proposals and utilizing the time difference between the public announcement of the proposal and the actual effectiveness of the freeze to implement front-running transfers. This mechanism leads to the failure of freezing the involved funds and undermines the actual effectiveness of sanctions, anti-money laundering, and law enforcement cooperation measures.

According to Hong Kong 01, the Hong Kong police updated information regarding the virtual currency Fun Coffee scam, revealing that as of August 5, a total of 255 related reports had been received, an increase of 30 from earlier, with total losses rising to approximately HKD 104 million. In addition, the Macau police arrested two women involved in 9 cases amounting to about 3.6 million Macau patacas.Regarding TVB artists who have hosted activities related to the Fun Coffee scam, the Hong Kong police stated that during the investigation, they would definitely contact the victims and relevant individuals to identify the mastermind behind the scam and their roles. Fun Coffee claims to be a large coffee investment enterprise in Phu Quoc, Vietnam, with a capital scale exceeding USD 1 billion. It entered the Hong Kong market by the end of 2025, packaging its image through marathons, banquets, social events, distributing flyers, and inviting artists to promote it, while registering a company, opening offices, and stores in Hong Kong. The actual operation was to lure citizens into downloading the app to complete tasks under the guise of investing in high-tech coffee equipment, gene optimization technology, and agricultural equipment, using Tether (USDT) and other cryptocurrencies for deposits. The platform promised annual returns of up to 197%--278%, with higher returns for larger amounts and longer deposit periods, and set up a commission structure to encourage recruitment. In July 2026, the Hong Kong Securities and Futures Commission listed it as a suspicious investment product. In late July of the same month, the app suddenly ceased operations, withdrawals became impossible, customer service went offline, and the offices and stores were vacated, leading to the collapse of the scam.

The B.AI platform's "Self-Selected Service Provider" lineup has completed a new round of expansion, adding the Nebula channel and launching ultra-low discounts starting at 10%, further reducing API call costs. Currently, the "Self-Selected Service Provider" model covers mainstream large model series such as Claude, GPT, and Gemini, allowing users to flexibly choose service providers based on demand and settle according to actual discounts. B.AI will also introduce more high-quality service providers in the future, continuously enriching model choices and discount combinations. Users can now log in to the B.AI platform to customize their exclusive model combinations and immediately start an AI calling experience with exceptional cost-effectiveness.

Japanese NAND manufacturer Kioxia is accelerating its layout in the AI NAND market. This year, it has launched mass production of the 10th generation (BiCS 10) 332-layer 3D NAND and based on this, introduced the PCIe 6.0 supported data center eSSD "CM10," which has improved sequential read performance by up to 92% compared to the previous generation. In addition, Kioxia plans to start mass production of UFS 5.0 embedded storage by the end of this year, with data transfer speeds approximately doubling compared to UFS 4.1, primarily targeting the AI mobile device market. According to TrendForce data, Kioxia's global NAND market share in the first quarter of this year was 13.9%, ranking third, following Samsung Electronics (31.6%) and SK Hynix (17.6%).Korean manufacturers are also quickening their pace. Samsung has begun mass production of the PCIe 6.0 eSSD "PM1763" last month, equipped with the 9th generation V-NAND and a 4nm controller, with plans to mass produce UFS 5.0 in the fourth quarter. Samsung also announced that it will start mass production of the 10th generation V-NAND (approximately 430 layers) this month, applying hybrid bonding and triple stacking technology for the first time. Industry analysts believe that Kioxia is quite competitive in terms of the speed of technological iteration, but its production capacity still lags behind Korean manufacturers, and competition in the AI storage market will become even more intense in the future.

According to Jinshi reports, Guangdong Province is publicly soliciting opinions on the "14th Five-Year Plan for the Development of the China (Guangdong) Pilot Free Trade Zone (Draft for Comments)," which aims to orderly expand financial openness and promote the expansion of pilot projects for cross-border payments using digital RMB.The plan mentions supporting the establishment of headquarters for international financial institutions, promoting innovative businesses such as cross-border finance and green finance, and deepening pilot projects for the transfer of cross-border credit assets.

According to Onchain Lens monitoring, Hyperliquid has burned approximately $1.28 million worth of HYPE in the past 24 hours.In the latest reporting window, Hyperliquid generated $1.65 million in fees. Hyperliquid has historically burned a total of 47.53 million HYPE, worth approximately $2.68 billion, accounting for 4.75% of the maximum supply of 1 billion tokens.

According to the token unlock data from the crypto asset data platform RootData, Unitas (UP) will unlock approximately 9.38 million tokens at 0:00 on August 13, Beijing time, worth about 3.18 million USD.

According to Onchain Lens monitoring, a newly created wallet received 540.17 BTC (approximately 34.9 million USD) from BitGo 3 hours ago.

According to monitoring by Lookonchain, in the past 3 hours, 4 newly created wallet addresses received a total of 1540 BTC from Galaxy Digital and BitGo, worth approximately 99.4 million USD.On-chain data shows that the related fund flows may reflect that large addresses are increasing their holdings of Bitcoin.