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Polymarket founder Shayne Coplan announced on August 12 on the X platform that Travis VanderZanden has joined Polymarket as Chief Growth Officer.It was reported that Travis V. previously served as the Head of Driver Growth at Uber, Chief Revenue Officer at Yammer, and founded and served as CEO of the bike-sharing company Bird.

SKALE Labs announced the launch of Agent Pit on August 12. This platform is a paper trading prediction market sandbox running on the SKALE zero Gas blockchain, fully mirroring Polymarket's order book, settlement mechanism, and real-time event data, allowing developers and AI agents to test and train trading strategies without real financial risk.Agent Pit is the first product of the SKALE Agentic Venture Studio. Developers can fine-tune agents here, participate in simulated ROI leaderboard competitions, and deploy models to real markets like Polymarket after completing training. SKALE Labs CEO Jack O'Holleran stated that there is a clear demand in the market for a prediction market strategy training environment aimed at agents.

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."

PPP market prediction tool monitoring shows that in the Polymarket "Anthropic valuation reaches target within the year" prediction event, the probability of reaching $1.5 trillion within the year has risen to 76%, an increase of 13% in 24 hours. The probability of reaching $1.25 trillion has risen to 92%, an increase of 8% in 24 hours. According to the settlement rules, this market primarily relies on the valuation of Anthropic's private market as announced by the Nasdaq Private Market (NPM).If Anthropic completes its IPO or direct listing during this period, the official issue price corresponding to the valuation and the public market value after listing will also be included in the settlement basis. Currently, the NPM data referenced on the Polymarket page shows a valuation of approximately $1.13 trillion. Previously, according to the Wall Street Journal, Anthropic plans to go public in September or early October, with specific issue prices and schedules yet to be announced. If successfully listed, it could become one of the largest IPOs in history.

Economists say that the mixed July employment report released last week has heightened the importance of inflation data. LPL Financial Chief Economist Jeffrey Roach pointed out that the path of the Federal Reserve's interest rate hikes will depend on how long inflation remains elevated.Vanguard analyst Hicklin believes that the July employment report and the expected improvement in inflation will strengthen the Federal Reserve's reasons to hold steady before the end of the year. Recent data releases have bolstered market confidence that the Federal Reserve will keep interest rates unchanged this year.

According to a report by the Japan Times, informed sources say that the Bank of Japan may consider raising interest rates again at its next policy meeting scheduled for September 17 to 18, in response to the increasing risk of inflation.

A U.S. judge has suspended the CFTC's civil case against Army Sergeant Van Dyke. The sergeant is accused of using non-public information to profit over $400,000 on Polymarket regarding the fate of Maduro.

According to La Tribuna, the body of a Chinese man was found outside the Jade Park high-rise apartment in the Trinidad district of Asunción, Paraguay. Preliminary identification confirmed the identity as Harry Chun Tak Yeh, the founder and managing partner of Quantum Fintech Group. The police stated that he is suspected to have fallen from the 30th floor of the building, and his body was found completely naked and covered with a black plastic bag. Investigators found the apartment door on the 30th floor ajar, with the interior in disarray, and confirmed that he also owned another apartment on the 27th floor of the same building. Criminal technicians have collected evidence outside the building and from both apartments, and relevant physical evidence has been handed over to the prosecution. The prosecution is currently investigating multiple possibilities, including accident, suspected suicide, and homicide, while the judicial department will determine the specific cause of death and the circumstances through an autopsy.It is reported that Chinese-American cryptocurrency investor Harry Yeh entered the Bitcoin market in 2013 when the BTC trading price was $60. He launched his first fund with $250,000, and his investment network claims to manage over $2.4 billion in assets, closely linked with Fantom, Tomb Finance, Lif3, ZooCoin, L3 USD, and L3 Reserve.

According to Fortune, the Trump family is accelerating its entry into the prediction market space, with the Trump Media Technology Group developing a prediction market platform called TruthPredict, allowing users to trade prediction contracts related to significant events. The company has also launched the Truth API, providing Wall Street with quick data access to Truth Social content. Additionally, Donald Trump Jr., the eldest son of Trump, currently serves as a strategic advisor to Kalshi, and his venture capital firm 1789 Capital has invested in competitor Polymarket and joined the advisory board of Polymarket. This means the Trump family is simultaneously associated with the two major prediction market platforms, while the Trump Media Group is building its own prediction market business.Although there is currently no public evidence showing that Donald Trump Jr. or the Trump family is trading on government insider information, the potential conflicts of interest arising from the intertwining of presidential public information, market trading, and family business interests are drawing external attention. Federal agencies are still investigating whether former White House teleprompter operator Gabriel Perez used advance knowledge of Trump's speech content to trade in related markets on Kalshi. The team of Donald Trump Jr. and the Trump Media Technology Group have yet to formally respond to requests for comments regarding insider trading related to the prediction market.

According to the Dongguan Release public account, the Dongguan Hengli police successfully intercepted a virtual currency investment fraud case, preserving 1.1 million yuan in cash just 5 minutes before the victim's offline transaction with the fraudster, thus avoiding significant economic losses.It is understood that the victim, Ms. Li (pseudonym), previously met an unfamiliar online acquaintance who lured her with "internal investment channels for virtual currency," promising low thresholds and high returns, and created a false impression of investment profits through forged profit screenshots. Subsequently, the fraudster induced Ms. Li to withdraw 1.1 million yuan in cash under the pretext of "needing to exchange cash for USD recharge" for payment. After discovering risk clues, the Dongguan police quickly activated the early warning interception mechanism, organized police forces to rush to the bank to dissuade her, and ultimately successfully prevented the fund transfer before the transaction.

The Hong Kong Securities and Futures Commission has announced that Polar Tensor has been included in the list of suspicious virtual asset trading platforms, and 17 related websites have been listed.The Hong Kong Securities and Futures Commission reminds that Polar Tensor and its website are not licensed by the Commission to conduct regulated activities in Hong Kong.

The State Taxation Administration of China responded to the recent discussions on taxing insurance income in Hong Kong, stating that Chinese tax residents are required to fulfill their tax obligations on global income according to the law, and that overseas insurance income also falls within the scope of taxable income. This is not a new policy and is not specifically aimed at the Hong Kong insurance market. The tax authority indicated that residents must declare and pay taxes on overseas insurance income and other investment income in accordance with the law, and the relevant rules treat overseas income from different countries and regions equally.Yesterday, Caixin reported that with the normalization of CRS information exchange, Chinese tax authorities can now fully obtain data on dividends and cash value from overseas insurance policies, gradually filling the gaps in tax administration. Currently, the taxation of insurance income from overseas sources has been initiated.

In July, the United States unexpectedly lost 23,000 jobs, far below the expected increase of 80,000. The increase in June was also revised down to only 20,000. Despite the weak job market, the unemployment rate unexpectedly fell from 4.2% to 4.1%. "Fed mouthpiece" Nick Timiraos commented that in July, the U.S. unemployment rate dropped to 4.09% because both the number of job seekers and the number counted as unemployed decreased; this data brought the unemployment rate to its lowest level in two years.Analysts pointed out that this disappointing report has reignited concerns about the labor market and may complicate the Federal Reserve's interest rate decisions, as policymakers need to seek a balance between weak employment and persistent inflation. As a result, market expectations for interest rate hikes quickly receded.Affected by this, U.S. stock index futures surged rapidly, with Nasdaq futures up 0.79% for the day, S&P 500 futures up 0.39%, and Dow futures up 0.27%. U.S. Treasury prices soared, with the yield on the 10-year U.S. Treasury currently down 4.29 basis points, reported at 4.627%; non-U.S. currencies generally rose, with the dollar against the yen briefly falling 80 points, reported at 157.72.At the same time, the U.S. Dollar Index DXY briefly fell nearly 30 points, reported at 99.67. Spot gold briefly rose about $40, reported at $4,351.43 per ounce.

PPP prediction market tool monitoring shows that before the non-farm data release, the probability of "Federal Reserve raising interest rates by 25 basis points in September" on Polymarket has risen to 48%, up 5% in 24 hours, and up 24% for the month; the probability of maintaining the interest rate unchanged in September has fallen to 49%, down 21% for the month.The U.S. July non-farm payroll report will be released today at 20:30 Beijing time, with Wall Street institutions predicting a data range from 18,000 to 83,000, showing significant divergence. Market participants believe that if the final data significantly deviates from expectations, there could be severe fluctuations in the stock, bond, and dollar markets. The unemployment rate remains a core variable of concern for the Federal Reserve. Bank of America economist Aditya Bhave pointed out that if the data shows "everything is safe" in the labor market, the Federal Reserve may raise interest rates up to three times this year, but the federal funds futures market is currently only pricing in one rate hike for the year.

The Korean National Police Agency has selected Upbit's parent company, Dunamu, through public bidding to be responsible for the custody of seized virtual assets, with a contract period of 1 year.The confiscated digital assets will be managed through the digital asset custody service Upbit Custody, responding in real-time to regulatory infrastructure and conducting custody and management within 365 days. This service employs 100% offline cold wallets, 24/7 monitoring, and introduces MPC, DKG multi-key management, and multi-signature technology to ensure asset isolation and security.

SK Hynix announced a dividend of 375 Korean won per share and will announce the shareholder return policy plan in the third quarter, considering additional shareholder return measures.