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The ECX plan will be launched in three phases. The Alpha phase is expected to go live near Bitcoin block height 963648, the Beta phase is scheduled for September 20 at block height 967680, and the permanent mainnet is planned to launch on October 31 at block height 973728. The project is driven by Paul Sztorc, founder and head of Layertwo Labs, and developer of Drivechains and BIP-300/301.ECX will replicate the transaction ledger of Bitcoin's designated snapshot and allocate ECX to the majority of Bitcoin holders on a 1:1 basis on the new network. Users who control their private keys through self-custody wallets at the time of the snapshot will directly receive the corresponding assets, while users of exchanges and other custodial institutions will need to wait for the relevant platforms to decide whether to support the fork and distribute ECX. The original BTC will not be exchanged, locked, or transferred. ECX plans to initially launch seven dedicated sidechains: Thunder, Zside, Bitnames, Bitassets, Photon, Truthcoin, and Coinshift. Of the approximately 1.1 million early Bitcoins associated with Satoshi Nakamoto, about 600,000 ECX will continue to be allocated to these addresses, and approximately 500,000 ECX will be converted through special transactions for early investors and development funds, but this will not affect the BTC on the Bitcoin network.

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 current whale holdings on the Hyperliquid platform amount to $7.024 billion, with long positions of $3.427 billion, accounting for 48.79%, and short positions of $3.597 billion, accounting for 51.21%. The profit and loss for long positions is $437 million, while the profit and loss for short positions is -$442 million.Among them, the whale address 0x082e..88 has a 5x leveraged long position on HYPE at a price of $38.6755, currently with an unrealized profit and loss of $57.0709 million.

According to TAC monitoring, TAC stated that it is investigating a vulnerability attack incident targeting its EVM side based on Cosmos, which only affects the TAC token supply.The team is collaborating with TAC validators to temporarily suspend blockchain operations and will provide timely updates on the investigation results and chain recovery plans. Users are advised to obtain the latest news only through official channels.

Laser Digital Japan, a digital asset company under Nomura Holdings, announced this week that it has completed the registration as a cryptocurrency asset trading service provider under Japan's Payment Services Act, with registration number 00032. It has also joined the Japan Virtual and Crypto Assets Exchange Association, ending nearly four years without new industry participants in Japan.The license covers six types of cryptocurrency assets: Bitcoin, Ethereum, XRP, Bitcoin Cash, Litecoin, and Shiba Inu, all of which are included in the industry's "green list." Initially, Laser Digital Japan will provide liquidity for licensed cryptocurrency companies in Japan, while the launch date for trading services aimed at professional investors has not yet been announced. Japanese regulations require the separation of customer assets from company assets, with at least 95% of customer cryptocurrency assets stored in offline cold wallets, and related measures verified through annual audits. This license does not cover cryptocurrency derivatives, nor does it allow Laser Digital Japan to initiate exchange-traded funds; major adjustments to Japan's cryptocurrency regulatory framework are expected to be implemented in the fiscal year 2027.

According to Coinglass data, the current whale holdings on the Hyperliquid platform amount to $6.617 billion, with long positions totaling $3.195 billion, accounting for 48.28% of the holdings, and short positions totaling $3.422 billion, accounting for 51.72%. The profit and loss for long positions is $452 million, while the profit and loss for short positions is -$468 million.Among them, the whale address 0x082e..88 has taken a 5x leveraged long position on HYPE at a price of $38.6755, currently showing an unrealized profit and loss of $56.6955 million.

BitMart officially released a long announcement on platform X, with the main content as follows: "This announcement aims to inform everyone of the latest developments following the announcement on July 26, 2026. We thank users for their patience during this period.After further discussions with users, stakeholders, and professional advisors, BitMart is formulating a potential restructuring plan as an alternative to a comprehensive liquidation. This plan may include a phased and orderly resumption of some business operations while distributing assets to creditors. The relevant arrangements still require further legal, financial, operational, and compliance assessments. To advance the relevant processes, BitMart has appointed Weikai Law Firm as its restructuring legal advisor. Weikai will work with BitMart's other professional advisors to evaluate feasible plans and assist in formulating a potential restructuring plan, which includes a framework for phased resumption of operations.Currently, we are working with the advisory team to develop a roadmap, aiming to release the next update no later than September 9, 2026.Once the relevant information is confirmed, we will continue to update the community. During the advancement of the above work, we kindly ask everyone to remain patient and understanding. Once the business recovery plan is formally drafted, we plan to solicit feedback from community users. Please continue to pay attention to our official website, official mobile app, and official social media channels for subsequent announcements. As always, please be vigilant against various scam messages and only trust content released through BitMart's official channels. Thank you for your trust and support."

According to The Defiant, Kieran Warwick, co-founder of the Web3 game project Illuvium, stated that the studio has significantly reduced costs over the past six months, and the team recently agreed to further salary cuts. According to him, the adjusted funds can support operations for more than 12 months. He did not disclose the extent of the salary cuts, the number of remaining employees, or the cash reserves.Warwick mentioned that the existing team is almost entirely focused on the MMO game Overworld, with most members having worked together for over three years. In addition to the MMO, there are plans to launch the Celebrations series of Illuvium Beyond, Beyond Chaos, Primal Tactica developed by independent studios, and Loadout, which will allocate tokens for staking contracts, within the year. Primal Tactica will participate in Steam Next Fest in October, and Illuvium will receive most of the revenue.Data from DefiLlama shows that Illuvium's protocol fees and revenue over the past 30 days are approximately $9,781, with a treasury of about $2.78 million. ILV is priced at approximately $3.35, with a market capitalization of about $27.74 million.

BitMart announced that it is developing a potential restructuring plan as an alternative to a complete shutdown. This plan may include a phased restoration of some operations under an orderly arrangement and distribution to creditors, but further legal, financial, operational, and regulatory assessments are still needed.BitMart has appointed White & Case as its restructuring legal advisor to assist in evaluating feasible options and developing a framework for restructuring and phased restoration of operations. BitMart stated that it is currently working with advisors to formulate a roadmap and will strive to provide further updates by September 9, 2026.

Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin published a new article titled "Obfuscation (Part 3): Local Mixing," which delves into a cryptographic obfuscation technique being explored—"Local Mixing." He claims it may become a new foundational cryptographic tool following elliptic curves, RSA, and lattice-based cryptography.Vitalik states that current mainstream obfuscation techniques mainly rely on complex mathematical assumptions, often resulting in extremely high computational overhead. In contrast, Local Mixing adopts a completely different approach, not relying on elliptic curves, large integer factorization, or lattice cryptography. Instead, it draws on experiences from symmetric cryptography and hash function design, continuously shuffling, reconstructing, and hiding circuit structures to eliminate information leakage while maintaining functionality.The Local Mixing technique primarily includes steps such as reversibility, hardening, mixing, splitting, crossing walk, and "gadgetization." By introducing random structures into the circuit, rearranging logic gates, and employing nonlinear hiding mechanisms, it makes it difficult for attackers to recover the original computational logic.Vitalik points out that this technology is still in its early stages, with security not yet validated over the long term and facing challenges such as random attacks and linear analysis. However, he believes that Local Mixing represents a completely new path for cryptographic exploration, aiming to construct more efficient indistinguishable obfuscation (iO) schemes.If breakthroughs in Local Mixing technology are achieved, it could lead to new quantum-resistant public key encryption schemes and promote the development of general obfuscation techniques. The field still requires years of cryptanalysis and optimization validation, but AI-assisted research may significantly accelerate this maturation process. Vitalik states that obfuscation technology is seen as the "final frontier" of cryptography because, theoretically, other cryptographic primitives can be constructed based on obfuscation and one-way functions. Local Mixing may not only reduce the costs of traditional obfuscation schemes but could also become an important direction for future cryptographic infrastructure.

On August 21, China Merchants Yonglong Bank issued a notice to customers, stating that it is cooperating with the latest risk management and account compliance guidelines from the Hong Kong Monetary Authority and the Securities and Futures Commission to conduct a comprehensive optimization and review of investment accounts for mainland investors. Upon verification, all investment accounts held by relevant customers (including wealth management, securities, and/or paper gold passbook accounts) as of May 22, 2026, have no asset balance, and there have been no investment transaction records in the past 12 months, which have been classified as "zero balance non-active investment accounts."To maintain normal account operations, the bank requires customers to submit the "Non-Active Investment Account Declaration" as soon as possible. Customers can complete the submission through the pop-up in the personal account section of the China Merchants Yonglong Bank mobile app; joint account holders or those who have not registered for the mobile app can call the customer service hotline for guidance, and each joint account holder must submit separately. The main content of the declaration includes confirming the accuracy of personal information, the legality of the source of funds, that the account has not been closed or suspended due to suspicious documents, and timely notification of any changes in information.The bank reminds that if customers fail to complete the submission in a timely manner, new investment transactions (including buying stocks, subscribing to wealth management products, etc.) will be suspended accordingly; if the submission continues to be delayed, it is expected that starting from November 2026, relevant "non-active investment accounts" may be closed. Once an account is suspended or closed, no new securities or wealth management product investment transactions can be conducted.

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.

According to Coinglass data, the current whale holdings on the Hyperliquid platform amount to $6.028 billion, with long positions totaling $2.928 billion, accounting for 48.57% of the holdings, and short positions totaling $3.1 billion, accounting for 51.43%. The profit and loss for long positions is $343 million, while for short positions it is -$365 million.Among them, the whale address 0x082e..88 has taken a 5x leveraged long position on HYPE at a price of $38.6755, currently showing an unrealized profit and loss of $49.6118 million.

XCAD Network officially announced the cessation of operations. The project stated that there have been no updates since April, and there are currently no remaining funds. Continuing to stay on the exchange is a losing battle, and related products and services will no longer be maintained.The official statement mentioned that the company has been operating for five years, making it one of the few projects that have persisted for a long time without being listed on a tier-one exchange. The fan tokens failed to gain traction after retail investors exited, and the team attempted to pivot towards AI influencers but was unsuccessful and is now unable to continue. The team is considering making the code public for those in need to run it themselves, emphasizing that this is not a continuation of the company, nor a restart.

According to Cointelegraph, cybersecurity company Rapid7 has disclosed a phishing operation named Operation Asterix, targeting approximately 885,000 phone numbers across multiple countries and directing victims to fake wallet service websites. A total of 5,576 phone numbers have been matched with Binance user accounts and are included in the attack queue.The attackers steal mnemonic phrases by impersonating fake applications of Ledger, Trezor, and Exodus, while also using forged customer service emails and phone calls to contact victims. Rapid7 also found that out of over 316,000 phone numbers in Germany, 43,066 matched with cryptocurrency trading accounts, resulting in a hit rate of approximately 13.6%. Related attacks also include a bulk phone number verification tool targeting Kraken accounts, with investigations revealing that AI tools have been heavily used in the phishing operations.Data from blockchain security company Hacken shows that phishing attacks and social engineering scams caused losses of $306 million in the first quarter of this year, accounting for the majority of the total losses of $482 million in the cryptocurrency industry.

Alibaba announced that its latest generation AI processor, Zhenwu M890, has been widely commercialized among over 650 external customers. The chip, through Alibaba Cloud services, has been applied in more than 20 industries including autonomous driving, the internet, and financial services, validating its capability to support end-to-end AI workloads.

According to a report by the Korean News Agency, global virtual asset infrastructure company BitGo announced that its Korean entity BitGo Korea has received acceptance of its VASP (Virtual Asset Service Provider) registration application from the Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU) of Korea on August 18, becoming the first foreign cryptocurrency corporate entity to complete VASP registration directly in Korea.BitGo Korea was established in 2024, and this time chose to directly meet regulatory requirements to enter the market, rather than adopting the industry norm of acquiring existing VASP companies. Subsequently, it will use this as a foundation to officially launch virtual asset custody and transfer services in Korea, focusing on expanding business towards financial institutions and corporate clients.

According to Bitcoin.com, the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) disclosed that in the fiscal year 2026, over 19,400 online scams were removed (a year-on-year increase of 182%), among which cryptocurrency investment scam platforms reached 3,106, an increase of about 30% compared to the previous fiscal year.ASIC pointed out that scam groups are heavily leveraging generative AI technology to build a systematic fraud ecosystem: by using deepfake videos of well-known figures such as Australian Prime Minister Albanese and financial commentators to promote fake cryptocurrency trading robots, while simultaneously creating counterfeit media websites, AI-generated comments, and fake profit dashboards to lure victims into continuously increasing their investments, with funds ultimately flowing to overseas criminal groups. Just from the impersonation of high-profile individuals alone, the related losses have exceeded 7.4 million Australian dollars.

According to Coinglass data, the current whale holdings on the Hyperliquid platform amount to $5.517 billion, with long positions totaling $2.727 billion, accounting for 49.42% of the holdings, and short positions totaling $2.79 billion, accounting for 50.58% of the holdings. The profit and loss for long positions is $203 million, while the profit and loss for short positions is -$253 million.Among them, the whale address 0x082e..88 has taken a 5x leveraged long position on HYPE at a price of $38.6755, currently with an unrealized profit and loss of $42.4411 million.

According to informed sources, the Trump administration plans to reduce the tariff on Canadian imported cars from 25% to 15% as part of a broader agreement. This agreement requires Canada to eliminate its retaliatory trade measures against the United States. The new 15% tariff will continue to apply to non-American components in the vehicles.Currently, the details of the agreement have not been finalized, and the final outcome remains uncertain.