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According to Decrypt, the privacy blockchain project Beldex announced the completion of an $8 million financing round, led by Sigma Capital, with participation from institutions such as NTC, Nxgen, Digital Consensus Fund, and EAK Ventures. The new funds will be used for developer tools, privacy applications, protocol security, AI infrastructure development, and ecosystem expansion.Beldex is exploring the use of its privacy technology to protect the identity, payments, communication, and data processing of AI entities, including privacy-preserving AI identities, encrypted AI communication, confidential payments, secure AI execution, as well as research on technologies such as fully homomorphic encryption (FHE) and secure memory.

BounceBit posted on platform X that the team has discovered an issue affecting the BounceBit Chain and has suspended node deployment to fix the problem. BB trading and exchange deposits and withdrawals are temporarily unavailable.The official statement emphasizes that the issue is limited to the chain itself, and CeDeFi applications, smart contracts, and vaults are not affected. There has been no private key leakage or damage to user wallets. The chain upgrade is scheduled for August 23 at 17:00 UTC+8.

According to Gate market data, due to the ongoing deadlock between the U.S. and Iran, the futures prices of WTI and Brent crude oil have reached their highest levels since July 24.

U.S. President Trump stated that we may continue to block the Strait of Hormuz.

According to CoinDesk, HSBC and Standard Chartered have completed the first real-time tokenized deposit transaction on the Swift blockchain ledger. This transaction marks progress for traditional financial institutions in utilizing blockchain technology to handle tokenized deposits, with both parties achieving real-time transfer and settlement of deposit tokens through Swift's distributed ledger infrastructure.As a global interbank messaging and clearing network, Swift is promoting the application of its blockchain ledger in tokenized asset and deposit scenarios to enhance the efficiency of cross-border and inter-institutional funds. As major international banks, the collaboration between HSBC and Standard Chartered demonstrates the feasibility of tokenized deposits in practical business, helping to explore further integration of traditional finance and blockchain infrastructure.

The UAE has announced the suspension of all trade, commercial exchanges, and financial transactions with Iran, with the resumption time to be notified later. Retired U.S. Army Brigadier General Mark Kimmitt stated that the UAE's importance to the Iranian economy may make this embargo more impactful than the U.S. maritime blockade.The UAE is Iran's largest source of imports, with about one-third of imported goods needing to be transshipped through Dubai.

Blockworks released the XRP Q2 report, with XRP's quarter-end closing price at $1.04, down 19.9%, and a market cap of $65.8 billion, still the fourth largest non-stablecoin asset. XRP ETP net inflow was $253.6 million, marking the third consecutive quarter of positive inflows, totaling over $1.9 billion. CEX spot trading volume was $57.6 billion, down 53.5% quarter-over-quarter, and perpetual contract trading volume decreased by 44%.The supply of XRPL native stablecoins increased by 195.4% quarter-over-quarter to $825.5 million, with RLUSD supply at $676.9 million, up 257%. OKX has launched RLUSD with over 280 spot trading pairs, and the Japanese Financial Services Agency has approved RLUSD as an electronic payment tool, distributed through SBI VC Trade. The total value of tokenized RWAs on XRPL increased by 102.5% quarter-over-quarter to $4.46 billion, setting a new quarterly high, with Justoken's energy-related JMWH accounting for about half. The transfer volume of stablecoins increased by 207.5% quarter-over-quarter to approximately $10 billion, with RLUSD accounting for about 90%.In terms of network activity, total transaction volume was 222.4 million (down 6.5% quarter-over-quarter), daily active addresses were 16,800 (down 10.7%), DEX trading volume was $482.9 million (down 35.9%), and transaction costs fell to $0.00024 (declining for five consecutive quarters). The lending protocols XLS-65/66 received support from 9/35 and 8/35 validators respectively, still 29 votes short of the activation threshold, with a revised version to be submitted in Q3. In terms of institutional collaboration, Ondo, JPMorgan Kinexys, Mastercard, and Ripple completed the tokenization of U.S. Treasury cross-chain redemptions, and Aviva Investors subsequently launched tokenized fund shares on XRPL.

According to token unlocking data from the Crypto asset data platform RootData, Huma Finance (HUMA) will unlock approximately 45.876 million tokens on August 26 at 13:00 Beijing time, worth about 9.42 million USD.

According to the token unlock data from the crypto asset data platform RootData, AltLayer (ALT) will unlock approximately 24.659 million tokens at 8:00 AM Beijing time on August 26, worth about 1.44 million USD.

As a new round of tariffs is set to take effect on Wednesday, the Trump administration has lowered expectations for a last-minute deal between the U.S. and Canada. Sources say the likelihood of reaching an agreement on Tuesday is "50-50 or lower."Both sides face a midnight deadline, at which point billions of dollars' worth of Canadian goods will be subject to a 50% tariff. Trump is expected to speak again with Canadian Prime Minister Carney on Tuesday.

The blockchain security audit platform Sherlock today announced the launch of the Sherlock Audit Engine. This engine integrates the most powerful AI security methods into a collaborative review process, aiming to usher in a new era of AI-native security audits.Sherlock stated that the team has spent months building this engine in a private environment and has tested it on high-risk code. The Audit Engine is now officially live and can conduct coordinated AI security reviews on code such as smart contracts.

According to Chainwire, global crypto platform Blockchain.com has been approved to join the Nigerian Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) Accelerated Regulatory Incubation Program (ARIP). As a result, the company meets the SEC's preliminary participation requirements and can operate within the established sandbox framework, while continuously fulfilling compliance, testing parameters, and regulatory conditions. Through ARIP, Blockchain.com will work directly with the SEC to assess digital asset business models, test safeguards, and assist in refining the long-term regulatory framework. ARIP is aimed at virtual asset service providers and fintech innovators to evaluate emerging models, operational risks, and investor protection and anti-money laundering standards.Owen Odia, General Manager of Blockchain.com Africa, stated that Nigeria is one of the most important digital asset markets in Africa, and participating in ARIP is a significant step in the company's long-term commitment to the country, helping to introduce global experience in a controlled environment that supports a framework that protects consumers while encouraging responsible innovation. Over the past year, the company has obtained registration with the UK FCA, authorization under the EU MiCA framework, and a VASP license from the Cayman Islands CIMA. Founded in 2011, Blockchain.com serves over 70 jurisdictions, with more than 94 million wallets and 44 million confirmed accounts, processing over $1.1 trillion in crypto transactions.

According to official news, GasFree has officially integrated USDD as a payment method for on-chain transfer fees (Gas Fee). Starting today, when users initiate a USDD transfer through GasFree, there is no need to hold TRX, energy, or bandwidth in advance; the system will automatically deduct the fees in USDD, achieving a "single balance, completing transfers and payments" streamlined process.This upgrade effectively lowers the usage threshold of USDD, directly addressing pain points such as the cumbersome preparation of Gas and transaction failures due to insufficient balance in traditional on-chain transfers, significantly enhancing transaction convenience and success rates. At the same time, this integration further expands the practical application of USDD in the field of on-chain payments, providing a more friendly and efficient solution for the widespread adoption of stablecoins in daily transfers and circulation.

The Korea Communications Standards Commission (KCSC) held a meeting of the Communications Review Subcommittee and determined that the overseas prediction market platform Polymarket provided illegal betting, deciding to implement access blocking measures against it. The committee judged that Polymarket's business model is based on the outcomes of events that users cannot control, such as politics, sports, elections, and weather, adopting a "winner takes all" profit and loss structure that fosters speculative psychology; the platform operator is responsible for market establishment, trading rule setting, and overall operational management, providing a virtual asset acceptance and settlement system, which effectively creates an environment for raising and delivering user funds, and profits by charging transaction fees through share trading, violating South Korea's Criminal Law and the National Sports Promotion Act.Polymarket argued that the platform operates based on non-custodial peer-to-peer trading and smart contracts, and does not directly raise funds, manage funds, or issue sports promotion voting rights. However, the committee responded that one cannot evade the applicability of domestic laws in South Korea based on technical characteristics such as whether Korean language services are provided, decentralized technology, or centralized trading interfaces. Given that the platform has actually provided illegal betting to South Korean users, access blocking is unavoidable to protect domestic users.

The Blockchain Association submitted a comment letter to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), urging it to abolish outdated rules 611 and 610(e) to promote market structure adaptation to tokenization development.The association pointed out that the current rules can no longer match the technological realities of blockchain and tokenized securities, calling for timely updates to the regulatory framework to facilitate compliant innovation and enhance market efficiency.

Ethereum developer kevaundray submitted the EIP-12188 proposal, suggesting to shorten the consensus layer block retention window to reduce storage pressure on nodes. The proposal is currently in the public review stage and has received support from some Ethereum client developers.Developer DApplion expressed support for the proposal, while Lighthouse client contributor michaelsproul believes that this adjustment will not significantly impact Lighthouse's operation. The proposal points out that as the demand for Ethereum historical data changes, reducing the retention time for historical blocks in the consensus layer can optimize node resource usage.It was mentioned in the discussion that historical data pruning in the execution layer may affect some long-running nodes' ability to provide old block data, but developers believe this will not threaten network security or the normal operation of nodes. Currently, EIP-12188 has not yet been merged and still requires further review and community discussion.

According to the token unlocking data from the crypto asset data platform RootData, ChainOpera (COAI) will unlock approximately 8.32 million tokens at 00:00 Beijing time on August 25, worth about 2.53 million USD.

According to The Block, Cathie Wood's ARK Invest purchased $15.4 million worth of Block Inc. stock on Monday, along with $1 million in Securitize shares, and $22.8 million in NVIDIA stock.Block Inc.'s stock ticker is XYZ, Securitize's related ticker is SECZ, and NVIDIA's ticker is NVDA. This operation by ARK Invest is part of its regular portfolio adjustment.