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20VC partner P_Bonnet published an article comparing the history of the aluminum industry to AI, exploring a scenario of "if everything goes well." Most supply shortages will turn into surpluses within 3-5 years and destroy value, but the aluminum industry has seen a price drop of over 99.9% and a market expansion of over 1000 times over more than a century, as each price reduction unlocks new uses rather than collapsing within the same market.AI Tokens are moving up the same cost ladder at nearly 10 times the speed, with the key point being that humans are no longer a constraint. Conversational AI is limited by human reading speed and user scale, while reasoning and agents can make consumers no longer human. Agentic AI may completely remove human limits, leaving only the rapidly improving costs and utilities. The aluminum industry also relied on technological breakthroughs to transform a cheap metal into a structural material.At the infrastructure level, Alcoa monopolized for decades through processes, its own ore, and electricity; Nvidia has accumulated processes like CUDA, with production capacity resembling leasing, and lacks its own power, as major clients have directly locked in nuclear power and are developing their own chips. Ultimately, value will shift to those who discover new uses that could not exist at old prices; price collapse, technological effectiveness, and capital migration are not opposites but the same outcome.

Strive CEO Matt Cole stated that the BTC/gold ratio is sending a strong signal, indicating that the next Bitcoin cycle could be the strongest in history.Currently, there are two major structural factors: the long-term structural depreciation of the dollar, and Bitcoin has never experienced a true secular dollar collapse; and in an AI-driven prosperous world, capital will increasingly chase "scarce assets" that cannot be replicated. If Bitcoin can perform stronger relative to gold, it will attract a disproportionate inflow of funds, creating a positive feedback loop.

According to CoinGlass data, the Coinbase Bitcoin premium index has been in a negative premium range for 97 consecutive days from May 19 to August 23, with the latest report at -0.0266%, setting a new record for the longest continuous negative premium since the index was launched.The previous longest record was 40 consecutive days from January 16 to February 24 this year, which also exceeded the approximately 30 days of continuous negative premium during last year's "1011 crash." The Coinbase Bitcoin premium index is used to measure the price difference of Bitcoin between Coinbase Pro and Binance. A sustained negative index typically indicates that Coinbase's quotes are relatively low, reflecting weak buying in the U.S. market or significant selling pressure, but it should not be solely relied upon to directly conclude that institutional funds are flowing out.

According to Coinglass data, the "8.19" surge resulted in a cumulative liquidation of $2.739 billion in short positions and $248 million in long positions. The total liquidation amount in a single day ranks eighth in crypto history, with the single-day short position liquidation amount being the highest ever.It is worth noting that among the top 10 and even the top 30 liquidation events in crypto history, "8.19" is the only event dominated by short position liquidations, while the others were all caused by declines in crypto leading to long position liquidations.

The Coinbase Bitcoin Premium Index's negative premium has narrowed to -0.0221%, but it remains in a negative premium state. Data shows that from May 19 to August 21, this indicator has been in the negative premium range for 95 consecutive days, setting a record for the longest continuous negative premium since the indicator was launched. The previous longest record was 40 consecutive days from January 16 to February 24 of this year, which also exceeded the approximately 30 days of continuous negative premium during last year's "1011 crash."The Coinbase Bitcoin Premium Index is used to measure the price difference of Bitcoin between Coinbase Pro and Binance. A continuous negative index usually indicates that Coinbase's quotes are relatively low, reflecting weak buying in the U.S. market or significant selling pressure, but it is not advisable to directly conclude that institutional funds are flowing out based solely on this indicator.

U.S. President Trump announced the most severe economic sanctions against Iran in history, stating that this will be an unprecedented economic war and isolation.

SK Hynix will implement a share buyback and cancellation plan worth 40 trillion won (approximately 28.5 billion USD) starting from August 20, repurchasing about 24.07 million shares, which accounts for approximately 3.3% of the total outstanding shares. Based on the previous day's closing price of 1.662 million won per share, this represents about 58% of its net cash of 69 trillion won as of the end of the second quarter. The buyback will last for about three months, and all repurchased shares will be completely canceled. This is also the largest stock cancellation plan ever by a listed company in South Korea.According to the shareholder return policy previously disclosed by the company, SK Hynix plans to use more than 50% of the cumulative free cash flow from 2025 to 2027 for returns, implementing buybacks and cash dividends concurrently, and is studying the expansion of the dividend plan. The company stated that this early buyback is based on the judgment that "the stock price is below intrinsic value" to achieve efficient capital reallocation. Specific additional return plans, including dividends and stock buybacks, will be announced after a board resolution during the third quarter earnings release.

According to CoinGlass data, the Coinbase Bitcoin Premium Index has been in a negative premium range for 90 consecutive days from May 19 to August 16, with the latest report at -0.1066%, setting a new record for the longest continuous negative premium since the index was launched.The previous longest record was 40 consecutive days from January 16 to February 24 this year, which also exceeded the approximately 30 days of continuous negative premium during last year's "1011 crash." The Coinbase Bitcoin Premium Index is used to measure the price difference of Bitcoin between Coinbase Pro and Binance. A sustained negative index usually indicates that Coinbase's pricing is relatively low, reflecting weaker buying in the U.S. market or greater selling pressure, but it should not be solely relied upon to directly conclude that institutional funds are flowing out.

Digital asset company Tether announced that it has completed a full independent audit conducted by KPMG U.S. on the financial statements of Tether International, S.A. de C.V. as of December 31, 2025. KPMG U.S. issued an unqualified audit opinion.The audit covered transactions, systems, ownership records, valuations, counterparties, and financial statement evidence, and reviewed the balance sheet, income statement, statement of changes in equity, and cash flow statement. KPMG U.S. also physically counted and inspected each gold bar held by Tether. Tether's Chief Financial Officer Simon McWilliams stated that the audited financial statements for 2025 show that its reserve assets exceed liabilities by $6.814 billion. Tether stated that this audit is an important step in fulfilling its long-term commitment to financial transparency.

According to BeInCrypto, since November 2025, Bitcoin's 30-day average hash rate has decreased by 19%, dropping from 1,108 EH/s to 898 EH/s. Glassnode data shows that this nine-month decline is the longest in the network's history.This decline coincides with the largest capital migration in mining companies' history, with mining firms holding over $70 billion in AI contracts, and some of the power capacity originally used for Bitcoin mining has shifted to AI hosting, which may be difficult to return.

According to a report by Jinshi, a report from Goldman Sachs shows that hedge funds focused on the Asian market are facing the largest single-month drawdown on record, due to a widespread sell-off of AI concept stocks, which has erased most of the gains previously concentrated in this sector. As of July 28, these funds have averaged a decline of 18.6% this month. Goldman Sachs pointed out that since the year-to-date return peaked at 40% on July 22, these funds have given back 21 percentage points of their year-to-date gains.

According to Business Insider, Alexandr Wang, founder of Scale AI and current head of Meta's Superintelligence Lab, stated at a Y Combinator event that AI has significantly narrowed the power gap between startups and giants. He recalled that when he founded Scale AI in 2016, "startups faced giants like David against Goliath, needing to find market entry points more intelligently"; however, with the development of AI agent technology, "it now feels more like Goliath against Goliath," and as long as startups apply AI agents in "the most ambitious way," it is not difficult to defeat large companies that already have an advantage.Scale AI, founded by Wang, is one of the earliest data annotation companies, employing thousands of contractors worldwide to train models for large AI labs. Last June, Meta reached a $14.3 billion deal with Scale AI, and Wang subsequently joined Meta. OpenAI CEO Sam Altman also stated at the same event that "there has never been a better time to start a business."

On July 18, 2026, at 21:44:51 UTC, Cardano activated the Van Rossem hard fork, upgrading the network to protocol version 11, with no reported downtime. This upgrade is part of the changes within the Conway ledger era, aimed at reducing the operating costs of Plutus smart contracts, enhancing ledger security, and introducing new cryptographic tools.Van Rossem includes 5 Cardano Improvement Proposals, involving BLS12-381 multi-scalar multiplication, on-chain array types, optimization of multi-asset value processing, acceleration of list operations, and built-in modular exponentiation. Staking pools are now prohibited from reusing the same verifiable random function key across the entire network; each pool must hold a unique key bound to its identity.This upgrade was completed through the Cardano on-chain governance process, with the proposal to activation advanced by on-chain voting. Delegated representatives passed the proposal with a support rate of 77.63%, while the support rate among staking pool operators was 52.7%, and the constitutional committee's voting result was 6-0-0-1. Wallets holding between 100,000 and 100 million ADA saw their total balance rise to the highest level since 2023, currently controlling over a quarter of the circulating supply of ADA. Cardano will subsequently advance Ouroboros Leios and plans to achieve a target of over 1,000 transactions per second during the testing period in 2026.

The United States, the European Union, and the United Kingdom jointly announced sanctions against a group involving state-level hacker organizations, cybercrime gangs, and their infrastructure providers. The targets are accused of causing billions of dollars in losses to global businesses, critical infrastructure, and government agencies. Among the most notable is the EU's sanction against the Russian cybercriminal Vitaly Nikolayevich Kovalev (alias "Stern").The EU has identified Stern as one of the core managers of the notorious Trickbot Group ransomware organization, which includes several high-risk ransomware variants such as Conti ransomware and Ryuk. On-chain analysis shows that wallet addresses associated with Stern have received over $300 million in ransom payments, potentially making him the "largest confirmed ransomware operator" to date. According to analysis, the $300 million only represents the profits obtained by Stern personally, and the overall illegal income of the Trickbot group may be much higher.On-chain fund flows indicate that Stern has had transactional connections with multiple ransomware ecosystems, including Ryuk, Conti, Diavol, Karakurt, Royal, and Quantum. Investigations show that Stern plays a role similar to "CEO" within the Trickbot organization, responsible for budget management, personnel recruitment, infrastructure procurement, and attack planning.