News linked to both this project and an event.
Odaily Odaily News: AI company OpenAI is advancing its IPO preparations with the goal of completing an initial public offering (IPO) next year. OpenAI Chief Financial Officer (CFO) Sarah Friar stated at an all-hands meeting that OpenAI will become a publicly listed company next year.Sarah Friar noted that competitor Anthropic may go public in September, ahead of OpenAI, but this does not affect OpenAI's focus on its own development. She pointed out that an IPO is just a milestone and another form of financing. OpenAI completed a $122 billion funding round in March this year and currently has considerable room for choice.If business growth outpaces expectations, OpenAI does not rule out launching its IPO earlier than originally planned. In the second quarter of this year, OpenAI's revenue was surpassed for the first time by latecomer competitor Anthropic. During the same period, Anthropic achieved its first quarterly adjusted operating profit, while OpenAI's operating losses further widened.OpenAI and Anthropic each confidentially filed IPO applications with securities regulators in June. OpenAI CEO Sam Altman had previously considered delaying the IPO to seek a corporate valuation exceeding $1 trillion; after its March funding round, OpenAI was valued at $852 billion. (ETNews SW)
: Base announced the launch of the Batches 004 accelerator program, which will select 10 startups over an 8-week program, with each receiving $100,000 in investment funded by the Base Ecosystem Fund. Applications close on September 9, and the program will hold Demo Day in New York in November. This round is aimed at pre-seed startups focused on trading, payments, funding, and AI agents, covering products that use stablecoins to support agent shopping, trading, and payments, as well as lending, e-commerce, and decentralized AI infrastructure. Teams may support multiple blockchains but must have Base as their primary network. Selected teams will receive dedicated advisors, weekly support, and exposure assistance within the Base ecosystem, and will present their projects to investors at Demo Day. Coinbase launched Agentic Wallets on Base in February and Coinbase for Agents in June, which respectively enable AI agents to hold USDC and pay via the x402 protocol, and to directly connect to user accounts. (Decrypt)
According to The Business Times, Vietnam is advancing a pilot for a regulated cryptocurrency market, with the first batch of local digital asset trading platforms potentially launching as early as the third quarter of 2026. Previously, due to strategic deficiencies in anti-money laundering, counter-terrorist financing, and counter-proliferation financing, Vietnam was placed on the grey list by the Financial Action Task Force in June 2023 and has missed the rectification deadline.
According to Cointelegraph, Edward Zimbardi, the alleged mastermind behind a $165 million cryptocurrency Ponzi scheme, was deported back to the United States by Fijian authorities recently after hiding in Fiji for over a year, following coordination between the FBI and the U.S. Department of State, and will appear for trial in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Georgia. Prosecutors allege that between June 2022 and August 2023, he illegally raised over $165 million in crypto assets by promising investors a fixed monthly return of 25% under the name "The Crypto Program". The raised funds were not used for the promised ad package business, but were misappropriated for over $34 million in high-risk forex trading, repaying early investors with new funds, and at least $10 million in personal expenses, including purchasing real estate, luxury vehicles, and paying alimony. Zimbardi currently faces 12 counts of wire fraud, 12 counts of money laundering, and 1 count of conspiracy to commit money laundering, totaling 25 federal charges.
Odaily News According to reports from the Americas, Europe, and the Middle East, family offices of ultra-high-net-worth investors are significantly increasing their investments in SpaceX, with total exposure reaching approximately $3.8 billion. This shows that private wealth institutions are competing for investment opportunities in the rocket, satellite, and artificial intelligence company founded by Elon Musk.According to data compiled by Bloomberg based on regulatory filings (13F), as of the end of June, the family office of Nick Pritzker, heir to the Hyatt hotel fortune, held a SpaceX investment position valued at approximately $1.8 billion.The report states that as SpaceX gains market attention following its initial public offering (IPO), more and more family offices are positioning themselves in the company through private market investment channels. Since SpaceX remains a high-valuation, scarce private technology asset, its equity opportunities have long been sought after by institutional investors and ultra-wealthy individuals.Investors value not only SpaceX's leading position in the commercial aerospace sector, but also its Starlink satellite internet business and its future potential in artificial intelligence infrastructure. As the AI wave prompts global capital to reassess the value of computing power, communications, and space infrastructure, SpaceX is gradually becoming an important investment target connecting the aerospace, satellite communications, and AI industries.However, due to the limited liquidity of SpaceX's private equity transactions and their high valuations, the large-scale bets by family offices also mean that investors are taking on higher long-term valuation and exit risks. (Bloomberg)
According to Cointelegraph, Nasdaq-listed company Greenlane Holdings disclosed that its crypto asset treasury centered on BERA was valued at only $16.4 million as of June 30, shrinking 76.6% from a cost basis of $70 million. The company recorded a $19.1 million non-cash fair value loss for the quarter, with a net loss reaching $24.8 million; the digital assets segment generated $309,000 in revenue through staking and yields during the same period. After completing a $110.7 million private placement in October 2025, Greenlane designated BERA as its primary reserve asset and currently holds 81.3 million BERA and equivalent tokens, an increase compared to the end of the first quarter.
According to CryptoSlate, Nasdaq-listed company GD Culture Group disclosed in its first-half 2026 financial report that the fair value of its 7,500 BTC holdings (original cost $842 million) declined to $451.2 million as of June 30, resulting in a $211.8 million non-cash unrealized loss, accounting for 97.9% of the company's net loss of $216.2 million for the first half of the year. Notably, the company did not sell its core BTC reserves but maintained liquidity through large-scale equity financing—after adjusting for a 1:250 reverse stock split, the number of outstanding shares surged from 229,000 at the beginning of the year to 4.1625 million, an 18-fold increase, with 99.65% issued for cash. The company raised approximately $47.5 million through ATM offerings and private placements combined, with working capital of $36.6 million as of June 30. Management stated that existing liquidity is sufficient to cover operating obligations for at least the next 12 months.
According to Odaily, CryptoQuant's latest report, "Wall Street, Always On," shows that in July 2026, trading volume for traditional financial stock perpetual contracts on crypto exchanges reached approximately $250 billion, up about 17 times from April. Among them, Gate's related trading volume in July was approximately $15 billion, up about 26 times from April, representing a 308% month-over-month increase, making it the fastest-growing exchange among the platforms covered in the report.The report notes that Gate's perpetual contract trading has maintained steady triple-digit growth for three consecutive months, with May, June, and July seeing month-over-month increases of approximately 131%, 177%, and 308%, respectively, showing an accelerating trend. CryptoQuant stated that compared to the episodic growth seen on some platforms, Gate's sustained growth better reflects the continuous penetration of traditional financial asset trading demand into crypto trading infrastructure, "which makes Gate an exchange worth watching in the crypto-stock race."CryptoQuant indicated that crypto trading platforms are gradually becoming 24/7 trading gateways connecting Crypto and Wall Street, with trading demand from traditional stock markets accelerating its extension into crypto infrastructure. As Gate continues to expand its diversified asset services, including stocks and ETFs, CFDs, Pre-IPOs, direct IPOs, and tokenized securities like gStocks, the platform is further strengthening the connection between traditional financial assets and digital asset trading ecosystems, providing global users with a more flexible and efficient multi-asset trading experience.
Odaily News: ZEC treasury company Cypherpunk Technologies (Nasdaq: CYPH) has released its Q2 2026 financial report, posting a net profit of $39.39 million, or $0.18 diluted earnings per share; in the same period last year, the company reported a net loss of $16.64 million and an operating loss of $4.69 million. R&D expenses stood at $0.2 million, down from $10.54 million in the same period last year, primarily due to the completion of clinical trials; general and administrative expenses reached $4.49 million, up $2.75 million year-over-year, mainly driven by increased stock-based compensation. As of June 30, the company's cash balance was $7.6 million. During Q2, the ZEC price rose from $243.35 to $400.09, generating approximately $46 million in non-cash unrealized gains for the company. As of August 11, 2026, the company held a cumulative total of 323,400 ZEC, with an average cost basis of approximately $341.83, representing about 1.92% of ZEC's total circulating supply. On the business development front, the company has appointed Dev Ojha, founder of Valar Group, as an advisor. Valar Group focuses on Zcash network development and research, and has led the development of the high-performance full node software Zakura and the Ironwood shielded pool. The company's subsidiary, Leap Therapeutics, has reached an agreement with the U.S. FDA on the Phase III clinical trial design for sirexatamab (anti-DKK1 monoclonal antibody), and received FDA Fast Track designation in May 2026 for the treatment of patients with second-line metastatic colorectal cancer with high DKK1 expression. The company has also initiated a strategic process to evaluate pathways for advancing sirexatamab development through independent financing or collaboration with partners.
Empery Digital sold 1,635 Bitcoin between July 1 and August 6, raising $102.2 million, with holdings reduced to 1,279 BTC. Of these, 954 BTC have been pledged as collateral for a $35 million debt, leaving only 325 BTC unrestricted, a notable decrease from 1,375 BTC on June 30. In the first half of this year, Empery Digital also sold 1,167 Bitcoin, generating $80.1 million, while spending $54 million to repurchase shares, repay $50 million under a repurchase financing facility, and another $10 million loan. The company repaid $20 million in debt after June 30, with the lender returning 585 Bitcoin, reducing the collateralized amount from 1,539 BTC to 954 BTC. Empery Digital has invested $2.9 million in EMHU, an independent real estate project managed by Texstack, and may need to contribute an additional $62.1 million if the acquisition is completed. The company has also completed a $20 million investment in Cardinal Data Power, acquiring approximately 8% equity; as of June 30, the company held $3.7 million in cash including restricted cash, with a working capital deficit of $5.7 million. (Bitcoin.com News)
Odaily News: Data released today by the Korea Exchange shows that heavyweight semiconductor stocks have recently pulled back, with capital beginning to rotate toward non-semiconductor sectors. From August 3 to 7, Samsung Electronics fell 12.00%, SK Hynix dropped 17.23%, and the KOSPI index declined 5.10% over the same period; however, sectors such as metals and machinery equipment rose against the trend.Currently, the combined market capitalization of Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix as a share of the KOSPI has fallen from 58.9% on June 25 to 46.3% on August 7. Meanwhile, the KOSPI's net profit forecast for this year, excluding these two companies, has been revised upward from 219.2 trillion KRW last week to 222.3 trillion KRW, with improving market earnings further supporting the valuation recovery of non-semiconductor sectors. KB Securities researcher Kim Min-kyu stated that the current "semiconductor pause, other sectors rising" pattern is closer to previously overlooked industries being revalued while the leading sector takes a breather, rather than a simple broad-based expansion of the market rally. (FNNews)
Odaily News: Software company Strategy holds nearly 850,000 Bitcoin, valued at just over $50 billion, with some recent purchases funded through debt and stock issuance. Since Michael Saylor shifted the company toward Bitcoin accumulation in 2020, his wealth has fluctuated with Bitcoin's price. Michael Saylor stated that last year, with the aid of an AI chatbot, he earned $15 billion through the company's Bitcoin-backed preferred stock. Strategy's STRC offers an annual dividend yield of 12%, with its price recently recovering to near $100 after dipping to around $75 in late June. Over the past year, Strategy's common stock value has fallen by approximately 80% alongside Bitcoin's price decline. The company recently sold some of its Bitcoin holdings to manage debt and dividend commitments, and has built a $4 billion cash reserve, providing roughly two years of funding support before subsequent financing. Michael Saylor also mentioned that in May of last year, he used ChatGPT's deep research mode to design the company's convertible preferred stock product.
Odaily News: Cryptocurrency exchange BitMEX failed to find a buyer before deciding to gradually wind down operations in June. A source familiar with the matter stated that reputational burdens, slowing growth, and founder control were factors that led potential acquirers to walk away from negotiations. The source noted that BitMEX's business has been in continuous decline, making it difficult for the exchange to command a valuation based on growth expectations.
Odaily News Ark Invest, the asset management firm founded by Cathie Wood, disclosed that on August 6, it purchased 267,676 shares of Block stock, valued at approximately $21 million; on the same day, it increased its holdings by 20,318 shares of SpaceX, valued at approximately $2.3 million. Block, formerly known as Square, was renamed by Jack Dorsey in 2021. It has held Bitcoin on its corporate balance sheet since 2020 and offers BTC buy/sell services to retail customers via Cash App. In recent months, Block has also expanded related operations through its Bitkey hardware wallet and its Bitcoin mining hardware division, Proto. SpaceX listed on Nasdaq in June under the ticker SPCX, with an issue price of $135, raising approximately $75 billion and reaching a valuation of nearly $1.8 trillion. Ark's purchase came about two months after SpaceX's listing.
Odaily Odaily News: AI personal assistant startup Pally has announced the completion of a $5.2 million funding round, led by Cyber Fund and Y Combinator, with participation from Pioneer Fund, Founders Inc, 468 Capital, and angel investors. The company is valued at $30 million and primarily provides AI personal assistant services through an SMS interface. Pally was launched in 2025, with its latest version released in June, and can sync with platforms such as Gmail, Outlook, Slack, Granola, and Notion. After user authorization, Pally can book flights, manage inboxes, reply to messages, and reserve restaurant tables. Pally uses Anthropic's Claude, OpenAI's ChatGPT, as well as open-source models such as Kimi K3 and GLM 5.2. Co-founder Haz Hubble stated that the company will not sell user data or use related data to train models. (Business Insider)
Odaily News: AI research startup Mirendil has entered into a multi-year partnership agreement with Google Cloud to secure large-scale computing resources in support of its "Self-Improving AI" research and development. Under the agreement, Mirendil will gain access to TPU and NVIDIA GPU computing resources provided by Google Cloud, as well as managed AI training clusters, to develop AI systems capable of continuously optimizing their own capabilities. It is reported that Mirendil is focused on advancing "Recursive Self-Improvement" AI, in which AI systems enhance their own performance through iterative refinement, self-learning, and optimization. This direction is also a research area of interest among some of the top AI laboratories today.Benham Neyshabur, co-founder and CEO of Mirendil, revealed that the total value of the agreement exceeds $100 million, roughly equivalent to half of the $1 billion valuation seed funding round the company completed at the end of June. (TechCrunch)
According to Jin10 Data, SpaceX will announce its first earnings report since listing after the US stock market close on Tuesday. Since listing on June 12, the company's stock price has fallen nearly 50% from its high, with market capitalization shrinking by over $500 billion. As of Monday's close, it was reported at $114.53, approximately 15% lower than the IPO issuance price. Market focus centers on three key areas: • Starlink: S&P Global expects Q2 revenue to reach $6.9 billion, primarily driven by Starlink, which is currently SpaceX's only profitable business segment; • AI: SpaceX's AI business revenue was $818 million in the first three months of this year. It has reached compute supply cooperation agreements with Google, Anthropic, etc., and acquired coding startup Cursor (approximately $60 billion); • Starship: The 13th test flight was completed, but the booster experienced a hard landing. Analyst firm Bernstein believes Starship is one of the most critical factors supporting the high valuation. Additionally, after the lock-up period ends on Thursday, over 911 million shares (market value approximately $100 billion) will be unlocked for circulation. Coupled with short selling funds' paper profits reaching $8.3 billion, market selling pressure cannot be ignored.
Odaily News: SoftBank will release its Q1 results for fiscal 2026 on Thursday, with the market focusing on how it will continue to fund OpenAI and AI infrastructure projects. In the fiscal year ending March 2026, SoftBank posted its highest net profit in history, but since early June this year, the company's share price has fallen by nearly half, and the cost of credit default swaps (CDS) has also climbed significantly. Additionally, SoftBank has pledged over $60 billion in investments to OpenAI and related projects, with approximately $30 billion in funding commitments due in the second half of 2026.Some analysts believe that if AI company valuations pull back, SoftBank will still face considerable pressure. Until enterprise customers truly demonstrate that AI can deliver productivity gains, SoftBank, Arm, and the memory chip sector may continue to face headwinds.
According to TechCrunch, AI startup June has officially announced its emergence from stealth mode, completing a $20 million pre-seed financing round led by Marc Benioff's Time Ventures, with participation from tech industry notables including Michael Dell, Aaron Levie, and George Kurtz. June was co-founded by former Salesforce executive Efrat Rapoport and three co-founders; the team previously founded speech-to-text company Bonobo AI, which was acquired by Salesforce in 2019. June's core product automatically scans existing enterprise systems, identifies business process bottlenecks, and generates a complete roadmap for the step-by-step deployment of AI Agents, helping enterprises achieve AI implementation in complex legacy system environments such as Salesforce, ServiceNow, and Workday, without relying on high-cost Frontline Deployment Engineers (FDE).
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.