News linked to this event type.
Odaily Odaily News: AI voice generation startup Fish Audio announced the completion of a $52 million seed funding round, led by Coreline Ventures and Capital Today, with participation from 359 Capital, Parable, Play Time, and other institutions. The company was founded by former NVIDIA researcher Shijia Liao, who initially trained the first voice generation model on a single GPU and open-sourced it out of dissatisfaction with the lack of expressiveness in AI-generated voices on the market. Over the past year, Fish Audio has launched five models, including four voice generation models and one speech-to-text model. (TechCrunch)
Odaily News: Affected by a sharp decline in artificial intelligence (AI)-related stocks, investment firm Situational Awareness suffered a severe drawdown in July, with the fund's net value falling 67% in a single month. Aschenbrenner previously gained attention for publishing the research report "Situational Awareness: The Decade Ahead" on AI development trends, which discussed topics such as AI capability advancement, industrial competition, and AI safety over the next decade. This significant fund drawdown also highlights the challenges facing AI-themed investing: even with a long-term bullish view on technological transformation, concentrated bets on a few high-growth tech assets can still lead to剧烈 short-term volatility.The fund's founder and AI researcher Leopold Aschenbrenner acknowledged that market performance in July fell far short of expectations and said in a letter to investors: "We let you down."The Situational Awareness fund previously attracted attention for its bets on long-term AI industry growth, with an investment strategy focused on AI infrastructure, AI chips, and related technology companies. However, the AI sector underwent significant adjustments in July, with high-valuation tech stocks facing sell-offs that dragged down the fund's performance.This drawdown reflects the high volatility risk within the AI investment boom. Although the market remains optimistic about the long-term development of artificial intelligence, some AI-related assets that had previously seen rapid valuation gains underwent noticeable corrections amid changes in interest rates, earnings expectations, and capital flows. (Cointelegraph)
The People's Bank of China held a work conference for the second half of 2026. The conference emphasized steadily deepening financial reforms and opening-up. Cooperation on inter-central bank currency swaps and local currency settlement will be carried out actively and prudently. Support and facilitation will be provided for more overseas institutions to participate in the issuance of Panda bonds. The development of the offshore RMB market will be coordinated, supporting Shanghai in enhancing its cross-border finance and offshore financial service capabilities, and consolidating Hong Kong's status as an offshore RMB business hub. Reforms to facilitate cross-border trade and investment and financing will be deepened. Construction of the Cross-Border Interbank Payment System will be advanced, international cooperation on cross-border payments strengthened, and cross-border infrastructure for the digital RMB improved.
According to Livecoins, during a routine inspection of a scrap factory in Belo Horizonte, the Brazilian Minas Gerais State Military Police discovered an illegal Bitcoin mining farm on the second floor. At least 15 ASIC miners (suspected to be Bitmain Antminer S17 series) and three servers were seized on site, with the equipment valued at over 200,000 reais. Local energy company Cemig confirmed that the mining farm had been operating using stolen electricity for a long time, causing monthly losses of approximately 60,000 reais. A 37-year-old employee was arrested on the spot for theft and fencing stolen goods after failing to provide the source and invoices for the equipment, and two company executives were also placed under investigation. The police stated, "There may be some kind of criminal organization behind this," and are currently tracing the flow of the cryptocurrency mined by the farm.
Strategy Executive Chairman Michael Saylor confirmed that the company's Variable Rate Series A Perpetual Preferred Stock STRC will maintain a Stretch Dividend Rate of 12.00% in August 2026. STRC was launched in July 2025 with an initial rate of 9%, and has since seen seven consecutive monthly increases. STRC's dividend adjustment mechanism stipulates that when its trading price falls below $95, the dividend rate increases by 0.5%, and once triggered, the increase is irreversible even if the price recovers. Strategy resets this rate monthly to drive STRC's price closer to its $100 par value, and issues new shares through its ATM program to raise funds for Bitcoin purchases. STRC closed at $89.46 on July 31, down from the previous closing price of $89.50, approximately 10% to 11% below its $100 par value. The stock touched a low of $71.25 in June and has not returned to par value since mid-May. Strategy has paused new STRC issuance through its ATM program, limiting its ability to use this funding channel to increase its Bitcoin holdings. The company maintains a liquidity buffer covering approximately 26 months of dividend and interest obligations, and in late June, authorized a $2 billion preferred stock and common stock buyback and Bitcoin monetization program through the Digital Credit Capital Framework.
Minicoin, an IP RWA network built on the Creditcoin blockchain, has announced that its native token, MINI, will be the first project to launch on the PenguinSwap Launchpad.In addition, Mini Labs, the development company behind Minicoin, has received official authorization from IPX. Minicoin will mint each piece of intellectual property into IP NFTs representing full ownership. The platform ecosystem includes an on-chain IP registration system, smart contract-based revenue settlement (settled in MINI), creator and fan incentive mechanisms, and AI creation tools.Currently, the survival adventure game "minini universe: ROOM" has been deployed on the PenguinBase platform. Users can qualify for the MINI Launchpad public offering by playing the game, leveling up, and minting SBTs.
"White-Haired Stock Guru" Serenity has summarized the capital expenditure guidance from the latest earnings reports of Amazon, Meta, Google, and Microsoft, stating that the four major tech giants are expected to allocate a combined capital expenditure of approximately $720 billion to $745 billion in 2026, exceeding the market's previous expectation of $695 billion to $725 billion. The market has recently experienced significant deleveraging, as well as position liquidations among retail and institutional investors due to margin pressures. While short-term adjustments may persist, it is difficult to maintain a bearish stance on upstream semiconductor companies and next-generation cloud computing infrastructure in the medium to long term.Serenity also proposed the "bottleneck investment" thesis, arguing that when trillions of dollars in capital flow into supply chain segments previously viewed as low-value commodities—such as memory chips and even enterprises in the energy infrastructure sector—these companies may undergo a valuation reshaping. Many currently popular AI supply chain companies were previously overlooked by the market during the telecommunications cycle. However, as AI infrastructure construction enters an acceleration phase and capital expenditure flows into their balance sheets, these enterprises may experience a repricing.
According to Korean media Daum, volatility in the South Korean stock market has recently intensified, investor risk appetite has clearly cooled, and funds are flowing back from the stock market to safe-haven assets such as banks. Due to adjustments in the semiconductor sector and stricter regulation on leveraged investment, idle funds in the South Korean stock market are withdrawing rapidly, and the market is exhibiting a phenomenon of "reverse capital migration". Data shows that as of the end of July, the time deposit balance at South Korea's five major banks (KB Kookmin, Shinhan, Hana, Woori, NH Nonghyup) reached 973.49 trillion won, an increase of 24.09 trillion won from the end of the previous month, marking the largest single-month increase this year. Funds related to the stock market also showed significant contraction. According to data from the Korea Financial Investment Association, investor securities account deposits (idle funds for stock trading) reached a historical high of 139.69 trillion won on June 4, but as of July 28, had fallen to 107.20 trillion won, a decrease of over 32 trillion won in less than two months. The balance of credit transaction financing, representing the scale of market margin trading, fell to 33.19 trillion won during the same period, a decrease of about 4.5 trillion won from the peak of 37.72 trillion won set on July 2, a decline of approximately 12%.
Odaily News - After Coinbase's Q2 results fell short of market expectations, the stock briefly dropped to a roughly two-and-a-half-year low on Friday morning before paring losses to around $150. Over the past year, the stock is still down approximately 57%.Wall Street generally believes Coinbase underperformed this quarter, but opinions differ on the cause: some analysts attribute it mainly to a weak crypto market environment, while others have begun to question whether the company's growth strategy beyond its trading business can deliver.JPMorgan stated that Coinbase's results reflect a "challenging crypto environment," with new products contributing limited value to the income statement. The bank lowered its December 2026 price target for Coinbase from $196 to $148, while maintaining an "Overweight" rating. JPMorgan believes the company faces pressure across multiple business lines, with weak trading volumes dragging down transaction revenue and subscription and services revenue also under strain.Bernstein, on the other hand, believes Coinbase's long-term strategy remains attractive, but investors want to see more compelling execution, particularly in new business areas such as prediction markets and tokenized stocks.Mizuho warned that Robinhood is emerging as the mainstream alternative for retail crypto trading. Overall, Coinbase is still viewed as an important representative of U.S. crypto compliance infrastructure, but its valuation recovery increasingly depends on proving it is more than just a crypto exchange reliant on trading cycles.
Odaily News, Strategy Executive Chairman Michael Saylor said at the company's Q2 earnings call that while the company has previously allocated nearly "100% of its funds to Bitcoin," it may adopt a combined strategy of holding both cash and BTC going forward. He stated, "Perhaps the best way to buy the most Bitcoin is not to buy the most Bitcoin immediately."TD Cowen and Benchmark both maintained their Buy ratings on Strategy following the Q2 earnings call. The two firms believe that the core goal of the company's current management has shifted toward bringing its STRC preferred stock price back to near par value, thereby restoring its ability to function as a financing tool.TD Cowen analyst Lance Vitanza said the most important takeaway from the call was management's strong focus on STRC. Company executives repeatedly emphasized that restoring STRC to par value is the core objective, and noted that despite recent price deviations in the security, institutional adoption continues to rise.Benchmark analyst Mark Palmer holds a similar view. He pointed out that Saylor and his team spent most of the 90-minute call focused on the same goal: restoring STRC to the $99–$100 range, making it once again the primary engine for the company to raise capital and purchase Bitcoin.
Odaily News: Zhibao Technology announced it has reached a $154.7 million private placement funded by Bitcoin with non-U.S. investors, with the financing totaling 2,380 BTC. The company is a Chinese listed firm.
PPP Prediction Market Tool monitoring shows that on Polymarket, the probability of "GRVT FDV above $350M one day after launch" has dropped to 6%, down 25% in the past 24 hours.This event will be settled on day 1 after the GRVT governance token goes live, based on whether its fully diluted valuation (FDV) is higher than the specified value in the title.If the FDV on day 1 after the GRVT token listing is higher than the specified value, the event settles as "Yes"; otherwise, it settles as "No".For the token listing, it must meet the conditions of being publicly transferable and tradeable. FDV will be calculated by multiplying the total token supply by the token price."Day 1 after listing" is defined as 16:00 (ET) on the next calendar day after the listing date. The settlement price will reference the most liquid price source.Previously reported, Binance Futures has listed the GRVTUSDT perpetual contract with up to 10x leverage.Join the PPP Signal Push Community to stay ahead and seize the opportunity.
Brokerage firm TD Cowen lowered Sharplink's target price from $16 to $13, as it reduced its Ethereum price forecast for the end of 2026 to $2,371. However, TD Cowen still maintains a "Buy" rating on Sharplink, stating that the company recently completed a $75 million financing, purchased 10,000 ETH, and initiated a 2.13 million share buyback, indicating that its capital reserve execution continues to advance.
Odaily News: Investor Mark Cuban and "The Big Short" investor Michael Burry have recently issued warnings about valuation risks in Nvidia (NVDA) and AI stocks. Cuban stated on X that the current AI capital cycle bears similarities to the dot-com bubble of the 1990s, arguing that Nvidia is playing the role the IPO market did back then, fueling continuous capital inflows by supporting customers' purchases of AI chips.Burry, meanwhile, has focused on the rising cost of Nvidia's credit default swaps (CDS), noting that the scale of the "circular financing" driven by Nvidia is expanding. He believes that some AI demand relies on financing support, and future revenue may be built on complex capital cycles.Earlier, Nvidia's stock price fell approximately 5% in a single day, erasing about $250 billion in market value. The IMF and the Bank for International Settlements have also previously flagged potential systemic risks from AI circular financing. However, Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang dismissed such criticism as "absurd." (TheStreet)
According to TechFlow Research, UBS pointed out in its research report on July 29 that SK Hynix's stock price has fallen 52% from its high on June 22, with a current price-to-book ratio of only 1.66x, implying a long-term ROE of 18.9%. However, UBS predicts the average ROE from 2027 to 2031 will reach 40.2%, a difference of 21 percentage points between the two. DRAM bit demand growth is expected to increase from 22% in 2026 to 36% in 2027, HBM capacity will increase from 230,000 wafers/month at the end of 2026 to 270,000 wafers/month at the end of 2027, and SK Hynix will maintain a 48% shipment share in the HBM industry in 2026. UBS believes the market valuation downward revision lacks basis, AI agents are driving accelerated memory demand, 10 long-term agreements have been signed, and although LTAs suppress ASP in the short term, they benefit profit margins in the long term. UBS maintains a Buy rating, lowering the target price from 3.2 million Korean won to 3 million Korean won, expects to launch a share buyback of about 12 trillion Korean won in the second half of 2026, and will use 50% of free cash flow for shareholder returns in the long term.
Odaily News: AI hedge fund Situational Awareness, while facing margin pressure from lenders, had sought to sell some of its private company holdings to raise cash and reached out to institutions including Sequoia Capital and Greenoaks. However, after Situational Awareness reached a deal with Citadel to sell most of its public stock portfolio, the fund ultimately decided not to sell its private assets.Sequoia Capital, Greenoaks, and Situational Awareness all declined to comment. (Bloomberg)
Odaily News: AI hedge fund Situational Awareness has dropped approximately 67% since July, hit by a major pullback in AI stocks. In a letter to investors, fund founder Leopold Aschenbrenner said, "This month we let everyone down." Despite the severe drawdown in July, Situational Awareness is still up about 80% year-to-date. As of end of May, the fund's returns this year had reached approximately 270%.Previously reported, massive losses led Situational to sell a large portion of its public stock holdings to Ken Griffin's Citadel to raise cash and meet lender margin requirements. Additionally, the fund had previously planned to sell approximately $3.5 billion worth of Anthropic equity to a consortium of investors led by Greenoaks and Sequoia Capital, but later withdrew from the deal. (WSJ)
According to Bloomberg, the South Korean government plans to inject 20 trillion won (approximately $13.9 billion) into the sovereign wealth fund Korea Investment Corporation (KIC), specifically for strategic investments in artificial intelligence, data centers, and infrastructure. This move marks the first time the fund has expanded its investment scope to domestic assets, against the backdrop of recent sharp declines in tech stocks. Funding sources include equity contributions from public institutions such as policy banks, with an initial scale of no less than 20 trillion won.
According to Bloomberg, Thailand's True Internet Data Center is seeking a loan equivalent to approximately US$2 billion to construct new data center facilities, aiming to assist Thailand in developing into a regional AI and cloud service hub. In terms of financing structure, the loan will be divided into three tranches, with approximately US$1.8 billion denominated in US dollars and the other two tranches denominated in Thai baht. Sources familiar with the matter requested anonymity, and details of the transaction have not been publicly disclosed.
According to The Defiant, Paris-based startup Kulipa suddenly ceased operations due to solvency issues, causing the simultaneous disruption of card projects for approximately 20 crypto wallets and fintech companies it served. Self-custody wallet Ready (formerly Argent) and Solana wallet Solflare were both affected, with user card services immediately disabled. Since both wallets utilize a self-custody architecture, funds are deducted from user wallets only at the time of spending, so user assets remained unaffected. Notably, Kulipa completed a $6.2 million seed funding round co-led by Flourish Ventures and 1kx in April this year, only about 4 months prior to its collapse.