News linked to both this project and an event.
According to Cryptopolitan, data from the on-chain data platform DefiLlama shows that as of August 18, the active deposit size of Real World Assets (RWA) in DeFi protocols has reached $3.98 billion, representing an approximately 6-fold increase compared to $651 million a year ago; three years ago, this figure was only $12 million. The current total issuance of tokenized RWA is $34.55 billion, but the actual on-chain utilization rate is only about 11.5%. Of this, private credit accounts for over half of the active total with $2.13 billion, bonds contribute $799 million, and reinsurance contributes $406 million. In contrast, the utilization rate of tokenized treasury bonds is extremely low—BlackRock BUIDL issuance reaches $2.74 billion, but on-chain deployment is only $18 million, with a utilization rate of only 0.66%; Franklin Templeton BENJI utilization rate is zero. Analysis points out that such products are designed specifically for institutional cash management, where holders pursue treasury yields rather than lending capabilities; tokenization only improves settlement efficiency and does not convert them into collateral.
According to Cryptopolitan, DeFi lending protocol Compound approved a record $52 million two-year development budget via DAO voting and completed leadership restructuring, announcing a full pivot to the institutional market. The COMP token subsequently rose over 10% within 24 hours, currently trading at around $18. Regarding the budget, $14 million has been authorized for immediate use, with the remaining funds unlocked in batches based on milestones. In terms of fund allocation, approximately $28 million is designated for operations and R&D for the new version Compound V4, and $24 million for growth, of which $8 million to $10 million is specifically allocated for institutional partnerships. The V4 core adopts a "hub-and-spoke" architecture, centralizing fund scheduling through a central hub to meet higher institutional requirements for risk control. Currently, over 10 partners have confirmed joining, with another 20+ currently in negotiations.
According to Cryptopolitan, former Bitcoin mining company IREN announced the completion of the first milestone of its $9.7 billion, five-year contract with Microsoft — the official delivery of the Horizon 1 facility located in Childress, Texas. The facility is 50 megawatts in scale, equipped with Nvidia GB300 systems and direct chip-level liquid cooling technology, and has received the Exemplar Cloud certification awarded by Nvidia. Under the contract terms, Microsoft will complete GPU acceptance verification within five days; upon approval, IREN can commence monthly billing, with expected annualized revenue of approximately $1.94 billion after all four Horizon facilities go online. IREN plans to complete the deployment of all four phases totaling 200 megawatts by 2026, expand AI cloud computing power to 1.2 gigawatts by 2027, simultaneously exit the Bitcoin mining business, and target a full-year AI cloud revenue run rate exceeding $4 billion.
According to Cryptopolitan, South Korea's Financial Supervisory Service (FSS) has launched a three-month fraud refund system reconstruction project with a budget of approximately 119 million Korean won. This upgrade aims to align with the revised "Telecommunications Fraud Damage Compensation Act" amended on March 31 this year—the bill will officially take effect on October 1, formally incorporating virtual assets into the scope of "damaged property" and "refundable property." The new system will support calculating compensation amounts based on token type and quantity, using the Korean won value at the time funds were frozen as a reference benchmark, while also possessing the ability to disentangle mixed fraud funds across multiple accounts. Major exchanges such as Upbit, Bithumb, Coinone, Korbit, and GOPAX will be required to assume anti-fraud and victim relief obligations equivalent to those of banks at that time, including verifying transaction purposes, monitoring suspicious funds, and freezing suspected accounts.
According to Cryptopolitan, Bitcoin mining company Keel Infrastructure (formerly Bitfarms) released its Q2 2026 financial report this Monday, disclosing that the company has completed the shutdown of all its US Bitcoin mining farms, and sold 1,085 BTC between April 1 and August 7, cashing out approximately $75 million, and currently still holds 1,861 BTC on its balance sheet, valued at approximately $121 million. Financially, Keel's Q2 revenue was $30 million, down 50% year-over-year, mainly dragged down by weak Bitcoin prices and the shutdown of the Moses Lake mining farm; operating loss reached $141 million (including $84 million in non-cash depreciation), net loss from continuing operations was $64 million, and adjusted EBITDA was negative $24 million. Following the announcement, KEEL stock price fell more than 11% in a single day. In terms of strategic transformation, Keel is converting its core sites in Pennsylvania, Washington State, and Quebec into high-performance computing data centers; currently, permitting approvals for the three priority sites are nearly complete, and negotiations with potential tenants are underway. The company's current liquidity is approximately $819 million, including $698 million in unrestricted cash and $121 million in Bitcoin, and during the quarter, it also raised $458 million through convertible notes.
According to Cryptopolitan, the Central Bank of Russia (CBR) has released a draft of supporting regulatory rules for the cryptocurrency market, covering registration and operational requirements for crypto exchanges, digital depository institutions, and token issuers. The draft stipulates that the minimum net assets of digital depository institutions must range between 50 million and 250 million rubles (approximately $600,000 to $3 million), depending on the nature of the business. These rules will supplement the "Law on Digital Currency and Digital Rights" passed by the Russian State Duma earlier this month, which is expected to officially take effect on September 1, 2026. Under the new framework, non-qualified investors are limited to purchasing mainstream assets such as BTC, ETH, and USDT annually, with a cap of $4,000; industry participants will have a transition period until March 1, 2027, to complete compliance and approval procedures.
According to Cryptopolitan, the North Korea–linked hacker group Lazarus Group has been found deploying the fileless remote access Trojan RemotePE, primarily targeting banks, cryptocurrency exchanges, and fintech companies. This malware runs entirely in memory and employs process hollowing, anti-analysis detection techniques, and encrypted C2 communications—making it difficult for traditional antivirus and forensic tools to detect. The report states that attacks typically begin with Telegram-based social engineering: attackers impersonate employees of trading firms and lure victims into installing malicious software using forged Calendly and Picktime links, ultimately executing the payload without touching the file system.