rei

According to The Block, K33 research director Vetle Lunde stated that by the end of the first half of 2026, the Norwegian sovereign wealth fund's indirect Bitcoin exposure through holdings in companies such as Strategy, Metaplanet, MARA, Coinbase, Block, and Tesla has risen to 11,549 BTC, a record high valued at approximately $725 million. This exposure grew by 21.2% in the first half of the year and by 60.5% over the past year, marking the sixth consecutive reporting period of increase.Among these, Strategy accounts for nearly 86% of the fund's indirect Bitcoin exposure, corresponding to approximately 9,914 BTC. As of June 30, the Norwegian sovereign wealth fund held about 1.17% of Strategy's shares, valued at $357.3 million at that time. Metaplanet corresponds to 671 BTC, MARA corresponds to 421 BTC, and Coinbase, Block, and Tesla correspond to 183 BTC, 120 BTC, and 97 BTC, respectively.K33 pointed out that this exposure is likely not the result of the fund actively allocating to Bitcoin, but rather an indirect effect of its broadly diversified investment portfolio. Currently, the related Bitcoin exposure accounts for about 0.03% of the fund's total assets.In addition, the fund has also gained indirect ETH exposure through the Ethereum treasury company BitMine for the first time. As of June 30, it held 6.15 million shares of BitMine, valued at $88.3 million, accounting for about 1.16% of the company's shares; based on BitMine's current ETH holdings, this corresponds to an indirect exposure of approximately 67,340 ETH.

According to The Defiant, the Government Pension Fund Global of Norway disclosed in its quarterly holdings document for the period ending June 30 that it holds 6,151,062 shares of BitMine Immersion Technologies (BMNR), with a market value of approximately $81.87 million.The fund did not list BitMine in its holdings report as of December 31, indicating this is a new disclosure, and the specific purchase time and cost have not been announced. It is reported that the total size of the fund reached 22.683 trillion Norwegian kroner as of June 30, with 72.1% allocated to stocks.

Former senior foreign exchange diplomat from Japan, Mitsuhiro Furusawa, stated that the yen is currently too weak, which may lead to a joint intervention in the foreign exchange market by Japan and the United States again.He expects the Bank of Japan to raise interest rates in September and to raise them again in December or January next year, with a target rate of 1.5% to 1.75%.

The Federal Reserve's Harker reiterated that interest rates must be raised now, and the labor market is stable.

According to CNBC, Norway's sovereign wealth fund, which has a scale of $2.34 trillion, recorded a profit of over $18.2 billion in the first half of the year, setting a historical high for the same period, with an investment return rate of 9.4%. Nicolai Tangen, CEO of Norges Bank Investment Management (NBIM), stated that the performance was mainly driven by the strong performance of the stock market, particularly the rise of Asian technology stocks.In the latest semi-annual report, the fund disclosed its holdings in SpaceX for the first time, with a stake of about 0.05%, valued at just over $1.2 billion as of June 30. In comparison, it holds about 1.3% of Nvidia shares, valued at $61.8 billion; and about 1.2% of Apple shares, valued at $52.7 billion. The sovereign wealth fund managed by NBIM was established in the 1990s and primarily invests the country's oil and gas revenues. Currently, the fund invests in over 7,000 companies across more than 50 countries globally, holding about 1.5% of shares in publicly listed companies worldwide. Stock assets account for more than two-thirds of its overall investment portfolio, with U.S. stocks making up about 40% of the total investment portfolio.

Silicon Data, a GPU market data infrastructure company, announced the completion of a $30.5 million Series A financing first closing, led by Valor Atreides AI Fund, with participation from CME Ventures, DRW, Samsung Next, VanEck, Jump Trading, Wintermute, and others. The funds will be used for GPU benchmark pricing, performance measurement, institutional and alternative data, as well as derivatives, insurance, and credit market risk infrastructure.Silicon Data currently collects data from approximately 100 GPU leasing platforms in over 40 countries worldwide, processing more than 150,000 verified price records daily. CME Group is planning to adopt Silicon Data's benchmark as the reference price for the proposed cash-settled GPU futures, pending regulatory approval.

As of June 30, the Norwegian Sovereign Wealth Fund holds 0.05% of SpaceX shares, valued at $1.22 billion.

According to Forbes, the scale of the theft in the Coldcard hardware wallet vulnerability incident has risen to approximately $130 million, involving about 2,000 BTC and over 5,200 addresses, reigniting the industry's debate over who should hold private keys. Data from Bitcoin Magazine shows that in the days following the incident, the net inflow into U.S. spot Bitcoin ETFs was $626 million, with some opinions suggesting that the vulnerability may drive more funds towards ETFs.Reports indicate that supporters of self-custody remain undeterred. Casa co-founder Jameson Lopp stated that confidence in self-custody should not be lost due to recent events, as custodial institutions also rely on random number generators. Bitcoin core early developer Peter Todd noted that the historical record of self-custody is far better than that of third parties. Another viewpoint argues that both reflexive choices have flaws. Onramp co-founder Michael Tanguma stated that if the only answer is Coinbase or ETFs, it poses a serious problem, as centralizing what should be decentralized assets undermines their foundation, advocating for a multi-institutional custody solution where keys are held by multiple regulated entities.

As of the week ending July 31, foreign central banks held $25.534 billion less in U.S. Treasury securities, compared to a previous value of $33.902 billion.

According to The Block, research firm Bernstein reaffirmed its "Outperform" rating and maintained a target price of $140 after Circle announced its Q2 2026 financial results, believing that the company's latest performance constitutes a "reverse validation" of the market's bearish views. Bernstein analysts stated that the market currently underestimates USDC's long-term growth potential and Circle's advantages in distribution channels, liquidity, and regulatory compliance, due to two major core concerns regarding Circle—intensifying competition in stablecoins and changes in the interest rate environment that may affect reserve income.Investors may not have fully accounted for the future revenue opportunities from transaction fees, partner ecosystems, and the Arc blockchain that Circle could generate. The firm specifically pointed out that several infrastructure initiatives recently advanced by Circle, including obtaining a national trust bank license in the U.S., expanding the Circle Payments Network, and the planned launch of the Arc public chain mainnet on September 16, could all become future growth drivers. Additionally, Bernstein noted that Circle has raised its guidance for other revenues and profit margins after deducting distribution costs for 2026, expecting to confirm approximately $180 million in Arc token presale revenue.Analysts believe that future staking yields, gas fees, and ecosystem partnership revenues from Arc have not been fully reflected in current valuation expectations. As of the end of Q2, the circulating supply of USDC was $73.3 billion, a decrease of 5% from the previous quarter but an increase of 19% year-over-year. Bernstein believes that Circle is shifting from a purely crypto trading infrastructure to payments, real-world asset (RWA) tokenization, and broader financial infrastructure, which will drive USDC into the next phase of growth. Circle's stock closed at $63.28 on Wednesday, and Bernstein's target price of $140 implies a potential upside of about 121%.

According to Bloomberg, the UAE is considering investing up to 1 trillion yen (approximately 6.3 billion USD) in the construction of an artificial intelligence data center, led by the Abu Dhabi sovereign wealth fund Mubadala Investment Co. The project is planned to be located in Akita Prefecture in northern Japan, with a planned installed capacity of 500 megawatts, and may involve other domestic and foreign investors participating together.Currently, this information has not been publicly disclosed, and relevant details are still in the evaluation stage.

According to Jinshi reports, the Italian Foreign Minister stated that he had a conversation with the Iranian Foreign Minister, who introduced the negotiations between Iran and Oman regarding the reopening of commercial navigation in the Strait of Hormuz. The Italian Foreign Minister reiterated the importance of continuing dialogue in order to quickly find a political solution and avoid further escalation with the United States.

According to Jinshi reports, the Iranian Deputy Foreign Minister stated that Iran demands a change in the current navigation routes in the Strait of Hormuz, as these routes are no longer suitable under the current security situation.

According to Forbes, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) officially announced on July 27, 2026, a ban on the import of foreign-made AI humanoid robots, citing national security threats. The FCC classified these devices as "Trojan horses"—their high-precision sensors can continuously collect sensitive data from users' homes and businesses and transmit it to foreign entities, posing a risk of being used for mass surveillance or intelligence activities, and the related devices may also be remotely controlled.Although the ban targets all foreign manufacturers, it actually has the most significant impact on China, as China currently holds a large share of the global AI humanoid robot market. Promoting the development of domestic manufacturing is also an important secondary objective of this ban.

According to ChianCatcher, Illia Polosukhin, co-founder of NEAR Protocol, proposed the establishment of a protocol sovereign fund at the governance forum to enhance the long-term sustainability of the network's token economics. This fund will consist of existing and future protocol treasuries and protocol revenues, holding NEAR tokens and generating returns, with part of the returns used to cover the costs of public goods in the ecosystem, such as security, validator support programs, and MPC service providers.Polosukhin stated that using ecological revenue to purchase NEAR and fund public goods with the returns is more aligned for the long term than simply burning tokens. The initial size of the protocol treasury is approximately 30 million NEAR (about 53 million USD), and more revenue and emissions can be injected into the fund through governance, gradually reducing effective inflation and potentially transitioning to a fixed supply. This proposal is currently open for discussion for two weeks and is not mandatory.

According to The Block, NEAR co-founder Illia Polosukhin proposed the establishment of a NEAR sovereign fund, intending to hold the protocol treasury and revenue in the form of NEAR tokens, generate returns, and partially use it to fund security and public goods, with a long-term goal of reducing inflation.

As the Coldcard hardware wallet exposes firmware vulnerabilities, over 80 million USD in BTC is stolen, and the market re-discusses whether to turn to institutional custody or directly buy Bitcoin ETFs, well-known analyst Willy Woo responded in a post stating that he does not oppose ETFs or custody solutions. They have many benefits in gaining recognition and accessing the traditional financial system, but the uniqueness of Bitcoin lies in the fact that it is the only truly sovereign mature digital asset, without nationality, cannot be blocked, diluted, or confiscated by any country, and only by mastering self-custody can one obtain this attribute.Willy Woo stated that since World War II, the West has mostly lived in a bubble of security, but as Ray Dalio pointed out based on 1500 years of historical research, stability itself is a cycle. When the cycle ends, people will need reserves that can protect them when the world briefly collapses, while custodial assets may fail, and governments may confiscate assets both in the past and in the future. He indicated that we are currently in the later stage of this cycle and recommended allocating 15% of assets to sovereign assets such as Bitcoin and gold.

According to Jinshi reports, former Iranian Foreign Minister Javad Zarif warned that if Iran fails to reach a final agreement with the United States within the proposed 60-day negotiation period, it may face further economic difficulties, domestic turmoil, or a new round of military strikes.

According to Jinshi reports, Russia stated on Monday that it is strengthening the protection of vessels in the Sea of Azov - Black Sea region while developing alternative shipping routes.Due to hostile drone attacks on maritime vessels leading to heightened tensions in the Sea of Azov, Russia has established a special working group to study new transportation routes and will shift some cargo to other transportation methods.The Russian Ministry of Transport stated that it will implement additional measures in conjunction with the Ministry of Defense to ensure navigation safety and protect commercial vessels in the Sea of Azov - Black Sea area.