Qianwen Office has surpassed 30 million users just one month after its launch, having completed 120 version updates.
Beating AI Express (Dongcha) News: Alibaba Cloud announced in a post that its Qianwen Office has reached a one-month milestone since launch, with over 30 million office users, more than half of whom are enterprise users. Qianwen Office has maintained high-frequency iterations over the past month, rolling out a total of 120 version updates (averaging 4 iterations per day) and adding over 1,000 features. Its international version is also now live. Qianwen Office has open-sourced its context base, the enterprise context infrastructure MyContext, which converts massive heterogeneous work data into contexts directly callable by Agents. Just weeks after its open-source release, MyContext has earned over 3,000 stars on GitHub. Integrated with deep connectivity to instant messaging (IM) tools like DingTalk, Qianwen Office can convert enterprise information scattered across business processes—including messages, documents, approvals, emails, and knowledge bases—into organizational contexts that Agents can understand and utilize. A simple command in DingTalk enables Agents to query customer data, check inventory, and provide recommendations across CRM and ERP systems. Together with the Qianwen large language model (LLM) team, Qianwen Office has launched the office-exclusive version Qwen3.8-Flash, which has been specially optimized for multi-step planning, tool selection, and context compression. It further enhances throughput efficiency via inference optimization and a customized Harness architecture. In real office scenarios, the generation speed of individual tasks has improved by roughly 100%, with token consumption reduced by an average of 75%.
1 seconds ago
Crypto meme project MEME’s market cap briefly tops $11 million, surging over 600 times in 24 hours.
According to GMGN data, the crypto-stock meme project MEME on Robinhood Chain saw its market capitalization briefly surge past $11 million to a new high, currently trading at $11.2 million. The token has rallied over 600 times in 24 hours, with a trading volume of $7.8 million. MEME is paired with tokenized U.S. stock AMC Entertainment (the U.S. theater chain), under the ticker AMC. Additionally, another crypto-stock meme project CINEMA on Robinhood is also paired with AMC, making the two tokens liquidity competitors. BlockBeats Note: Crypto-stock meme (Stock Meme) is an emerging concept that combines traditional meme coins with tokenized U.S. stocks: instead of pairing with USDT or ETH, meme coins are directly matched with on-chain U.S. stock tokens (such as NVDA, TSLA, AAPL, etc.). This model retains the high volatility and community-driven speculative traits of meme coins while leveraging the popularity and narrative of real stocks. Part of transaction fees often flows back to the community treasury to accumulate corresponding U.S. stock tokens, forming a dual-driven model of "sentiment speculation + real asset anchoring". Note: Price fluctuations are significant, invest with caution.
1 seconds ago
Robinhood CEO: "It all started with serving a new generation of first-time investors."
Robinhood CEO Vlad Tenev stated: "Robinhood originally launched to serve a new generation of first-time investors. Today, this client base is accumulating wealth, and their financial needs have grown accordingly. Just weeks after rolling out Trust Accounts, client deposits have surpassed $150 million, with an average account size of roughly $500,000. We aim to accompany and serve them throughout their entire financial lifecycle."
1 seconds ago
Former OpenAI CTO Mira Murati’s startup Thinking Machines has surged to a $40 billion valuation in less than two years since its founding.
Beating AI News reports that Thinking Machines Lab, founded by former OpenAI CTO Mira Murati, is in talks for a new financing round. The company plans to raise at least $10 billion, with a pre-money valuation of no less than $40 billion. Existing investor Accel is in discussions to lead the round, while Nvidia is also considering participating in the deal, which has not yet been finalized. This valuation is significantly higher than the previous round: when Thinking Machines raised $2 billion last year, its pre-money valuation stood at $10 billion, with a post-money valuation of $12 billion. Calculated on the same pre-money basis, the new round’s valuation is at least four times that of over a year ago. Notably, the company had sought a valuation of more than $50 billion at the end of last year, a target it has since lowered. Thinking Machines has also begun generating substantial revenue, with annualized income of at least several hundred million dollars. Revenue primarily comes from Tinker, a platform where customers pay to access its computing power and tools to fine-tune AI models on their own data. The firm’s first self-developed open-weight model, Inkling, has also been integrated into Tinker. This year, Thinking Machines signed a long-term computing power partnership with Nvidia, planning to deploy at least 1GW of the Vera Rubin system, with Nvidia making an additional investment. The new financing round will be used for model training, server leasing, and talent recruitment.
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Meme coin CINEMA briefly hit a market cap of over $12 million before falling back to $4 million, surging more than 10-fold in 24 hours.
According to GMGN data, the stock-meme project CINEMA on Robinhood Chain briefly surged past $12 million in market cap to a new high before quickly retreating to $4 million. The token has rallied over 10-fold in 24 hours, with trading volume reaching $6.5 million. CINEMA is paired with tokenized US stock AMC Entertainment (the American theater chain), under the ticker AMC. BlockBeats Note: Stock Meme is an emerging concept that merges traditional meme coins with tokenized US stocks. Instead of pairing meme coins with USDT or ETH, they form trading pairs directly with on-chain US stock tokens (e.g., NVDA, TSLA, AAPL). This model retains meme coins’ high volatility and community-driven speculative traits, while tapping into the popularity and narrative of real stocks. Typically, a portion of transaction fees flows back to the community treasury to accumulate the corresponding US stock tokens, forming a dual-driven model of "sentiment hype + real asset anchoring". Prices are highly volatile, so investors should exercise caution.
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Robinhood CEO: It first started serving a new generation of first-time investors.
Robinhood CEO Vlad Tenev stated: "Robinhood originally launched to serve a new generation of first-time investors. Today, these customers are steadily building wealth, and their financial needs have grown accordingly. Just weeks after rolling out Trust Accounts, client deposits have surpassed $150 million, with an average account size of roughly $500,000. We aim to accompany and serve them throughout their entire financial lifecycle."
BitMEX co-founder Ben Delo has supplied £4 million ($5.4 million), or about 75%, of the £5.3 million raised by Reform UK during the second quarter of 2026.
Summary
Ben Delo gave Reform UK £4 million through two donations made in April. Delo’s contributions accounted for about 75% of the party’s second-quarter funding. Reform UK raised more than Labour and the Conservatives from April through June. President Donald Trump pardoned Delo and two other BitMEX co-founders in March 2025. Ben Delo supplied most of Reform UK’s Q2 funding Electoral Commission records published on Sept. 3 showed that Delo made two cash donations to Reform UK in April, giving the party £1 million and £3 million in separate transactions.
Together, the contributions accounted for roughly three-quarters of the £5.3 million that Reform reported between April and June. The total was equivalent to about $7.1 million based on the exchange rate cited by Reuters, while Delo’s share was worth approximately $5.4 million.
Reform collected more private donations during the quarter than Britain’s governing Labour Party and the opposition Conservatives, Reuters reported. Labour received about £3.6 million, while the Conservatives raised £2.8 million.
Responding to the figures, Reform credited its funding to support from British business owners.
“We are delighted to be supported by successful British entrepreneurs as we continue to build for the next general election,” the party said in a statement cited by Reuters.
Delo, who co-founded the crypto derivatives exchange BitMEX, announced in 2026 that he was returning to the UK from Hong Kong. Reuters reported that he said he wanted to enter politics “to save Britain before decline becomes irreversible.”
Having donated another £4 million during the first quarter, Delo has now given Reform £8 million in 2026. In June, crypto.news reported that Delo and crypto investor Christopher Harborne had supplied £7 million of the party’s first-quarter total.
Reform raised £9.3 million in that period, according to Electoral Commission figures cited by Reuters. Delo contributed £4 million, while Harborne provided slightly more than £3 million.
Reform UK’s crypto-linked donations face scrutiny Harborne, previously Reform’s largest financial backer, did not report a contribution to the party during the second quarter. The British-born investor lives in Thailand and holds a stake in stablecoin issuer Tether.
His absence followed the UK government’s plans to limit political donations from British citizens living abroad to £100,000 per year. Reuters reported that Harborne had registered to vote in the UK, although the proposed rules have placed renewed attention on how overseas donors qualify to fund domestic political parties.
Delo’s return to Britain could affect how the rules apply to his future contributions. The Guardian reported that Reform believes he meets UK donor requirements, which generally depend on a person appearing on an electoral register or meeting another permitted-donor category.
The party’s funding has also drawn attention because of its leader Nigel Farage’s financial links to Harborne and George Cottrell, another figure connected to the crypto sector.
A parliamentary inquiry is examining whether Farage failed to declare a £5 million personal gift from Harborne under House of Commons rules. Farage has said the money was an unconditional personal gift intended to pay for security and did not need to be entered in the parliamentary register.
Reform has also said the payment complied with the applicable rules. Political opponents have disputed that position, and Parliamentary Standards Commissioner Daniel Greenberg opened an investigation into the matter.
In July, Farage resigned as an MP and sought a new mandate from voters in Clacton while the inquiries remained active. He later returned to Parliament after winning 63.34% of the vote, or 22,239 ballots, in the resulting by-election.
His return allowed parliamentary officials to resume their examination of the £5 million payment and other support associated with Harborne and Cottrell. Farage has denied wrongdoing and said he complied with the relevant disclosure requirements.
UK lawmakers have questioned crypto political donations Political funding linked to the digital asset industry has led some UK lawmakers to call for tighter donation controls. The debate has focused on whether crypto transactions make it harder for authorities to identify the original source of political funds, particularly when assets pass through several wallets or services.
In February, Labour MP Matt Western called for a temporary ban until the Electoral Commission produced statutory guidance. His proposal included source checks, the use of platforms registered with the Financial Conduct Authority, and restrictions on funds connected to crypto mixers.
As previously covered in February, Western warned in a letter to the government that the existing system lacked a clear national enforcement lead for political finance and foreign interference risks.
The government introduced a moratorium on political donations made in cryptocurrency in March, according to an earlier report covering the policy. Labour lawmakers later considered making the restriction permanent as questions continued over crypto-linked funding received by Farage and Reform.
Neither Delo’s second-quarter contributions nor Harborne’s earlier donations to Reform were reported as cryptocurrency transfers. Electoral Commission filings identified Delo’s April payments as cash donations, meaning the debate over crypto funding also covers the political role of wealthy people whose fortunes came from the digital asset industry.
Farage had previously positioned Reform as receptive to crypto. During the Bitcoin 2025 conference in Las Vegas, he announced that the party would accept digital asset donations, making it the first major Westminster party to adopt such a policy.
Trump pardoned Delo after his BitMEX conviction Delo’s record in the United States provides a direct connection between Reform’s latest donor figures and American crypto enforcement. He was one of three BitMEX co-founders charged over the exchange’s failure to maintain an adequate anti-money laundering program.
The U.S. Department of Justice said Delo pleaded guilty in February 2022 to violating the Bank Secrecy Act. Prosecutors alleged that BitMEX had operated without the anti-money laundering controls required for a company serving customers in the United States.
Under his plea agreement, Delo accepted responsibility for failing to establish, implement, and maintain the required compliance program. A federal judge sentenced him to 30 months of probation, and he agreed to pay a $10 million criminal fine representing financial gains tied to the offense.
Arthur Hayes and Samuel Reed, the other BitMEX co-founders charged in the case, also pleaded guilty to Bank Secrecy Act violations. Each agreed to pay a $10 million fine, while former BitMEX executive Gregory Dwyer later entered a guilty plea and accepted a $150,000 penalty.
President Donald Trump granted full pardons to Delo, Hayes, and Reed in March 2025. The clemency ended the remaining federal consequences attached to their convictions but did not erase the fines they had already paid under their plea agreements.
The BitMEX pardons followed other clemency decisions involving people tied to the U.S. crypto industry. Trump had pardoned Silk Road founder Ross Ulbricht in January 2025 after Ulbricht served more than a decade of a life sentence.
BitMEX co-founder Ben Delo gave Reform UK £4 million in April, effectively supplying 72% of everything the party declared for the second quarter.
The Electoral Commission published the register on Wednesday, showing that Delo sent the money as two cash payments. Both dwarf every other gift in British politics that quarter.
Ben Delo’s Reform UK Donations in Q2. Source: UK Electoral CommissionSeven Pounds in Every Ten Came From DeloCommission records show £1 million arrived on April 17. Another £3 million followed on April 30. Reform banked each payment the next day.
The party declared 40 donations worth £5.55 million in total. Take Delo out and the largest was £180,000.
No other donor came close nationally. Labour’s biggest single gift was £550,000, from Lord David Sainsbury.
Reform Lost Its Other Crypto BackerDelo is not new money. He gave £2 million in January and £2 million in March. His donations to Reform UK now total £8 million this year.
What changed is who stopped writing cheques. Christopher Harborne, the party’s other crypto-linked mega-donor, gave £3 million in January. He appears nowhere in the Q2 register.
Reform’s income fell with him, from £9.94 million to £5.55 million. That is a 44% drop in three months. Farage has already faced questions over crypto lobbying rules in Parliament.
Cash Slips Past the Crypto Donation BanBritain announced a ban on crypto asset donations in March. July brought a £100,000 cap on overseas donors. It holds for a full calendar year over anyone moving back to the UK.
Delo paid in cash, so neither rule touches his money. US prosecutors listed him in 2022 as living between Britain and Hong Kong.
The exchange behind that fortune is now closing. BitMEX closes on September 23 at 04:00 UTC. Owner HDR Global Trading Limited called time in July after a strategic review.
Delo admitted a Bank Secrecy Act violation in February 2022. BitMEX had run no proper customer checks. He paid a $10 million fine, then Donald Trump pardoned him in March 2025.
Reform’s next register lands in November. It will show whether the party can raise real money without him.
A Wisconsin utility just put real money behind fusion energy, and the reason has less to do with scientific curiosity than with keeping the lights on for AI data centers.
Realta Fusion, a Madison-based startup developing magnetic mirror fusion technology, announced a partnership with Madison Gas and Electric (MGE) to jointly develop a 200-megawatt electric fusion power plant in Wisconsin. The facility is designed to power roughly 150,000 homes and is targeting operation sometime in the 2030s.
MGE isn’t just signing a future power purchase agreement. The utility made a direct equity investment in Realta, described as “meaningful,” and will provide engineering support, equipment, and assistance with permitting and financing. That makes this one of the earliest examples of a regulated utility embedding itself in a fusion company’s cap table during the technology’s development phase, not after it’s proven.
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Why utilities are suddenly interested in fusion Data centers consume enormous amounts of power, and their expansion shows no sign of slowing. For utilities like MGE, which serves approximately 170,000 customers in southern Wisconsin, the math is straightforward: future load growth requires future generation capacity, and the clean kind is preferable.
MGE has pledged to achieve net-zero carbon electricity by 2050. Solar and wind help, but they’re intermittent. Fusion, if it works at scale, offers something neither can: baseload, carbon-free power that runs around the clock without weather dependency.
Realta’s technical edge and recent milestones Realta Fusion pursues a path called magnetic mirror fusion, which differs from the tokamak designs favored by better-known competitors. Where tokamaks confine plasma in a donut-shaped chamber, magnetic mirrors use linear geometry to trap and compress it.
In June 2026, Realta hit a milestone that lent credibility to that argument. The company became the first commercial fusion entity to convert plasma kinetic energy directly into electricity.
The company is also building out the “Realta Forge” research and development facility at the site of a former Oscar Mayer plant in Madison. The project is backed by up to $55 million in state and local incentives and is expected to create over 600 jobs. The facility will house prototype fusion devices and serve as the proving ground for technology intended to scale into the planned 200 MWe power plant.
The competitive landscape for fusion energy Realta is far from the only fusion startup attracting utility and investor attention. Companies like Commonwealth Fusion Systems, Helion Energy, and TAE Technologies have collectively raised billions in private capital. Commonwealth Fusion has backing from Bill Gates and Google, while Helion signed a power purchase agreement with Microsoft in 2023.
What sets the Realta-MGE deal apart is the structure. Most utility involvement in fusion has been limited to offtake agreements, essentially a promise to buy power if and when it’s available. MGE’s equity stake and hands-on engineering role represent a deeper commitment.
Disclosure: This article was edited by Editorial Team. For more information on how we create and review content, see our Editorial Policy.
Two major whales hold positions in PONS, with their unrealized gains all exceeding 100 times, and the highest return on investment reaching 1500 times.
According to EmberCN’s monitoring, as PONS’ market capitalization breaks through $700 million, the two addresses tied for the top spot in holdings have each posted unrealized gains of over $7 million, with the highest return on investment (ROI) reaching 1,500 times. Address 0x1bcc…1143 (ogle) bought 10.6 million PONS tokens with 5,000 USDC when PONS’ market cap was only around $470,000. It now holds 10.96 million tokens valued at approximately $7.6 million, generating an unrealized profit of roughly $7.59 million, equivalent to an ROI of about 1,500 times. The other address, 0x0a6e…0119 (Unipcs’ 'Bonk Guy'), purchased 10.96 million PONS tokens for $67,000 when PONS’ market cap stood at around $6.16 million, and has held the position ever since. Its current holdings are worth roughly $7.6 million, with an unrealized profit of approximately $7.53 million, and an ROI of about 112 times.
3 minutes ago
Hong Kong-listed smart driving concept stocks rallied, with Youjia Innovation surging over 10%.
According to Bitget market data, Hong Kong-listed smart driving concept stocks are rallying. Youjia Innovation (02431.HK) surged over 10%, Hesai-W (02525.HK) rose more than 8%, Pony.ai-W (02026.HK) climbed over 7%, Baidu (09888.HK) advanced more than 5%, and RoboSense (02498.HK) gained over 4%. On the news front, Tesla announced on September 3 local time that its Cybercab, an autonomous electric vehicle, has officially launched operations in Austin, USA. The company stated that the model, which has no steering wheel, pedals or rearview mirrors, will meet more mobility needs with higher operational efficiency.
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ZEC rallied this morning to nearly $980, notching a more than 15% gain over the past 24 hours.
According to HTX market data, ZEC surged this morning to a high of $979.69 before pulling back to $938.20. The token has rallied over 15% in the past 24 hours, lifting its market capitalization to $15.766 billion.
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The "Big Short" Michael Burry: Lululemon is his largest holding, and he will actively add to his position if the stock price drops below $100.
"Big Short" prototype Michael Burry stated in his column *Cassandra Unchained* that Lululemon Athletica is currently the largest holding in his investment portfolio. Burry referred to LULU as the "troublemaker" in his portfolio, and hinted he would buy aggressively if its share price falls below $100. He has added to his position multiple times before, with an average cost of around $120, and has repeatedly called the stock "shockingly cheap". Additionally, Burry previously noted that at current valuations, Lululemon could become an acquisition target for its founder or private equity funds as one potential long-term outcome.
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Hong Kong-listed AI stocks are rallying, with MINIMAX rising more than 8% and Xunce gaining over 7%.
According to Bitget market data, Hong Kong-listed AI stocks are rallying. MINIMAX-W (00100.HK) rose over 8%, Xunce (03317.HK) gained more than 7%, while individual stocks including Kingsoft Cloud (03896.HK), Baidu (09888.HK), JD.com (09618.HK) and Meituan (03690.HK) also posted gains.
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Multicoin Capital Reportedly Sells $112 Million Worth of HYPE, Projected Profit Reaches $64.08 Million
According to on-chain analytics account AI Yi’s monitoring, Multicoin Capital has reportedly sold a total of roughly $112 million worth of HYPE since July 28, generating an estimated profit of $64.08 million with a return of over 134%. Per the monitoring, the entity built a position of 4.95 million HYPE tokens from Galaxy Digital between January and July this year at an average price of $32.32 per token. As HYPE’s price continued to climb, Multicoin has been taking partial profits by transferring tokens to exchanges, with multiple recent HYPE transfers to Coinbase. The most recent transfer took place around 3 hours ago, involving approximately 150,000 HYPE tokens valued at roughly $12.78 million.
LIT rose 13% to $4.21 and has doubled in 30 days as traders position for a U.S. perpetuals opening that Lighter has not applied for. Robinhood order flow now supplies 17% of the exchange's daily volume, against 12% on a 30-day basis, while perp DEX volume across the sector fell 30% over seven days.
Perpetual DEX tokens outran bitcoin over the past month, led by Lighter's LIT, on trader positioning for a U.S. regulatory opening that neither the exchange nor the Commodity Futures Trading Commission has announced.
The bid is regulatory. Volume across perpetual DEXs fell 30.13% over the past seven days to $20.85 billion a day, according to DefiLlama. The one thing measurably growing under Lighter is order flow from Robinhood, and the Robinhood product that produces it is closed to U.S. users.
LIT traded at $4.21 at 20:20 UTC on Thursday, up 13% over 24 hours, 13.8% over seven days and 99.5% over 30 days, for a $1.05 billion market value and a $4.21 billion fully diluted value, according to CoinGecko. The token ranged between $3.69 and $4.33 on $146.7 million of volume and ranks 70th. Bitcoin rose 5.5% over the same 24 hours to $81,492 and 26.9% over 30 days.
Doubling In A MonthThe rally is concentrated in two names. edgeX's EDGE rose 47.5% over 24 hours and 60.4% over seven days to $0.6113, on a $214 million market value and $45.2 million of volume. The exchange traded $1.272 billion over 24 hours and buys back EDGE with platform revenue, having repurchased 4.79% of supply to date, its tokenomics page states.
Hyperliquid's HYPE added 6.1% to $85.99, holding a $19.13 billion market value and trading within 1% of the record $86.71 it set on Aug. 27. Aster's ASTER fell 1.5% to $0.7274, the only decline among the group. GMX rose 3.6%, dYdX 4.1% and Drift 4.2%, each below bitcoin's move.
Over 30 days the ranking separates further: LIT up 99.5%, edgeX up 71% and HYPE up 50.8%, against ASTER at 19.9% and bitcoin at 26.9%. The venues that gained share this year carried the move; the 2021-era perpetual protocols did not.
No Filing, No DocketLighter founder Vladimir Novakovski holds one of the 43 seats on the CFTC's Innovation Advisory Committee, which the agency named in 2026 and convened for the first time on Aug. 20. The agency's readout of that meeting lists crypto's regulatory evolution, artificial intelligence and compute in derivatives markets, and prediction markets. Perpetual futures do not appear on it.
No public CFTC docket names Lighter, and the exchange has not filed to register as a designated contract market. Its committee seat carries no trading authorization.
The sector-wide opening is real. The CFTC issued a policy statement on listing perpetual contracts in June and followed with staff letter 26-19, a no-action position letting registered exchanges convert perpetual-style digital commodity futures into true perpetuals by dropping expiration dates. The Defiant covered the first U.S.-regulated bitcoin perpetual futures approval and Kraken and Coinbase bringing perps onshore. None of it names Lighter.
President Donald Trump said on Aug. 20 that CFTC Chairman Michael Selig was working to bring Hyperliquid into the U.S. "in a fully compliant and legal fashion." The Defiant reported at the time that no docket had opened and no registration application had been filed. LIT gained 59.5% over the two weeks that followed.
Hyperliquid's Named PathHyperliquid has a named counterparty with a license. Bloomberg reported on Aug. 31 that Hyperliquid Labs and Payward, Kraken's parent, plan to list crypto perpetual contracts on Bitnomial, a CFTC-registered exchange Payward owns, and that Payward has presented an outline of the arrangement to the agency. U.S. traders would reach the contracts through Bitnomial, with no direct connection to Hyperliquid's venue. No launch date or terms have been announced, and the structure would not give Hyperliquid U.S. exchange status.
Lighter has announced no equivalent arrangement.
Robinhood's Growing ShareRobinhood launched its chain's mainnet on July 1 with perpetual futures inside Robinhood Wallet powered by Lighter, running on a dedicated Lighter instance built for Robinhood Chain that uses USDG as its quote asset. Robinhood committed 11 million LIT to the community and pays Wallet traders double the points they earn on Lighter's own web app. The product excludes users in the U.S., U.K., Canada, Switzerland, the UAE and Singapore.
That instance traded $240 million over 24 hours, $1.735 billion over seven days and $5.205 billion over 30 days, against $5.306 billion since DefiLlama began tracking it on Jul. 20, its data shows. Ninety-eight percent of its lifetime volume came in the past month.
Set against Lighter's totals of $1.416 billion, $11.324 billion and $44.908 billion over the same windows, Robinhood supplied 16.9% of Lighter's volume over 24 hours, 15.3% over seven days and 11.6% over 30 days, per The Defiant's calculation from DefiLlama data. Deposits on the Robinhood instance rose from $10.4 million on Jul. 20 to $57.5 million on Thursday. Lighter's total value locked reached $655.4 million, up 24.9% from $524.6 million on Aug. 5, with open interest at $1.245 billion.
The Defiant reported in July that Robinhood Chain carried more tokenized stock volume than Solana's venues combined, and on Aug. 31 that the chain generated more daily app revenue than Ethereum, at $2.66 million against $1.28 million.
Zero Fees, Thin TakeLighter lists 244 perpetual markets and charged zero maker and taker fees on them, according to its public API. The exchange's own endpoint recorded $1.547 billion of quote volume across 2.03 million trades over 24 hours. BTC accounted for $816.6 million of it, ETH $301.2 million, LIT itself $55.5 million and gold $48.2 million. The HOOD perpetual, tracking Robinhood's own stock, rose 13.3%.
Lighter collected $4.41 million of fees over 30 days, keeping $3.26 million as protocol revenue and directing $2.64 million to token holders. Against $44.908 billion of volume that is a take rate of 0.98 basis points. Hyperliquid earned $68.91 million on $209.814 billion over the same period, or 3.28 basis points, per The Defiant's calculation from DefiLlama data. The Robinhood instance produced $769,998 on $5.205 billion, or 1.48 basis points, monetizing better than Lighter's blended rate.
Lighter buys back LIT with trading fee revenue through daily 24-hour TWAPs and pays stakers a fixed 6% APR with a three-day unstaking lockup, its documentation states. Annualized, the 30-day fee run rate is about $53.7 million against a $4.21 billion fully diluted value.
Hyperliquid remains four to five times larger by every volume measure, at $7.038 billion over 24 hours and $209.814 billion over 30 days, with $13.683 billion of open interest and $6.654 billion of total value locked. Lighter ranks behind Hyperliquid and Aster, which traded $2.465 billion over 24 hours. The Defiant covered Lighter reaching the top of the perp DEX volume table and disclosing a $68 million raise.
Odds of a September Federal Reserve rate hike fell back to a coin-flip on Friday, a sharp reversal after the probability touched 70% just a day earlier and sat as low as 37% a week before that.
The swing tracks a rally that has pushed Bitcoin (BTC) toward $82,000.
Rate Bets Whipsaw Ahead of the September MeetingThe CME Group (Chicago Mercantile Exchange) FedWatch tool now shows the September 16 meeting split almost evenly between holding the benchmark rate at 3.50-3.75% and lifting it a quarter point to 3.75-4.00%.
Odds of a rate hike in September dropped today, returning to a 50/50 split. The second expected rate hike is now not fully priced in until March rather than December.
This represents a notable shift away from the strong hawkishness expressed by the markets earlier this week. pic.twitter.com/VVuLawauDt
— Satoshi Stacker (@StackerSatoshi) September 3, 2026 The tool had assigned the hike a 70% probability as recently as Thursday.
The FedWatch data also pushed back the timeline for a second hike. A move to the 4.00-4.25% range isn’t priced as the most likely outcome until the March 2027 meeting. Rather than December 2026 as futures had implied earlier in the week.
Iran and Oil Are Driving the VolatilityThe odds have been whipsawing alongside oil prices and bond yields tied to the Iran conflict, which has kept traders guessing on inflation.
Fed Chair Kevin Warsh faced a market split on the hike question at Jackson Hole, and the central bank remains divided over whether to keep tightening.
Bitcoin has moved in step with the shifting rate outlook. The asset blasted past $80,000 this week as talk of an end to the Iran war spread, and traded near $81,000 on Friday, up roughly 5% over 24 hours.
Bitcoin has broken above $80,000 for the first time this week. Image Source: BeInCryptoA lower hike probability typically eases pressure on Treasury yields and the dollar. These are both tailwinds for Bitcoin’s price action this week.
Whether that holds through the September 16 decision may depend on how the Iran situation, and the next inflation print, develop in the coming days.
Snowflake’s upbeat AI outlook is turning into a broader software trade, with a wave of enterprise names rallying alongside it and Jim Cramer flagging more room to run.
The move adds to a stretch of earnings this season where AI-linked spending has repeatedly rewarded shareholders, even as some investors question how long richly priced software names can keep climbing.
AI is Driving the Software FirmSnowflake shares jumped 23% on Thursday after the cloud data platform lifted its fiscal 2027 product revenue forecast to $6.07 billion, up from $5.84 billion, alongside a 37% year-over-year jump in second-quarter product revenue.
Snowflake jumped as much as 23% on its earnings. Image Source: Trading ViewCEO Sridhar Ramaswamy said artificial intelligence (AI) tools are now driving growth across Snowflake’s core platform, not just its standalone AI products, calling it a compounding “flywheel effect” for the business.
Shares hit their highest level since December 2021, adding roughly $25 billion in market value in the move. The stock has now climbed 39% for the year, more than triple the S&P 500’s 12% gain over the same stretch.
Software Stocks Move TogetherThe rally spilled into peers. ServiceNow, Salesforce’s record earnings run, Atlassian, Adobe, and Intuit all climbed between 3.5% and 6%, while the iShares Expanded Tech-Software Sector ETF added 3%.
Morgan Stanley analysts said the pattern of consistently faster growth in recent quarters shows AI is meaningfully driving usage of Snowflake’s own platform, beyond its dedicated AI tools.
At least 34 brokerages raised their price targets following the results, according to data compiled by LSEG, with Wells Fargo issuing a Street-high call of $525. Snowflake now trades near 15 times forward revenue, well above the software-sector ETF’s 7.4 times, and its 121.8 times forward earnings dwarfs Datadog’s 72.7 times and MongoDB’s 52.1 times.
CNBC’s Jim Cramer weighed in after the report, flagging a huge move still ahead for the stock, and calling it the cleanest way for cautious enterprises to buy AI compute on demand.
So Snowflake remains the best way for the uncertain to get compute but Broadcom tells a story of an explosion of business coming. Snowflake will have a huge move…
— Cramer
So Snowflake remains the best way for the uncertain to get compute but Broadcom tells a story of an explosion of business coming. Snowflake will have a huge move…. Broadcom? More nuanced…
— Jim Cramer (@jimcramer) September 3, 2026 The reaction echoes a pattern seen elsewhere this earnings season, including Salesforce’s own AI-driven breakout and software stocks rebounding after months of AI-replacement fears.
Whether that momentum holds may depend on how quickly Snowflake and its peers can turn rising AI demand into durable margin, rather than just top-line growth.
Chainlink (LINK) is up 7.13% in the day to trade at $11.82 following several major developments.
The first is the partnership with SWIFT services provider Bottomline, enabling over 600 banks to access Blockchain settlement through Chainlink. The second is Wyoming state adding Chainlink’s Proof of Reserve to its native state-issued FRNT stablecoin for real-time reserve and supply tracking. Third is that LINK is riding on the broader market risk-on rally as Fed Governor Christopher Waller calmed investor fears over aggressive rate hikes mid-month.
The overhead resistance Chainlink should overcome These developments and August’s overall upward momentum have contributed to LINK’s 45.78% gain in the last month. However, the token needs to jump several hoops to argue the case of a true rally.
At the beginning of the year, LINK suffered a massive breakdown below the symmetrical triangle it was trading within, triggering an over 40% plunge to $7.2. Here, the token paused to form a local bottom between this price and the $8.6 ceiling.
It then consolidated here for several months before recently breaking above the $8.6 and $10.9 supply barriers.
For a true bullish reversal to take shape, LINK needs to clear the overhead horizontal supply cluster anchored at $12.7. Success here opens a retest towards the $14.6 psychological pivot.
Source; TechCharts
However, if the local bottom of $7.2 fails to hold, a retest of the historical $5.4 floor becomes probable.
Additional influencersOther factors affecting markets include the Middle East conflict and a possible delay in the Senate’s vote on the CLARITY Act.
And while the Fed Governor has eased fears of a potential rate hike, the agency’s course of action remains to be seen, given inflation persists at a multi-month high above 2%.
Story Ends Here
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U.S. stocks rallied broadly at midday Thursday, bouncing off the four-session slide that had dragged the Nasdaq 100 back below its August close, after Federal Reserve Governor Christopher Waller signaled he could back leaving interest rates on hold this month.
“If there is continued progress toward our 2% goal, then I am willing to support holding the policy rate at its current level,” Waller said.
Traders now price in roughly a 50% probability of a September rate hike, down from about 70% earlier in the week.
That was enough to spark a broad-based relief rally, with the most rate-sensitive corners of the market – software, small caps and anything crypto-linked – leading the bounce.
The yield on the 10-year Treasury note eased to 4.75%, down 4 basis points, after touching 4.81% earlier in the week, its highest level since October 2023. The rate-sensitive 2-year yield fell 5 basis points to 4.34%, while the 30-year held at 5.23%, down 3 basis points.
The dollar index slid to 99, a near two-week low, with the greenback dropping 2.1% against the yen after a potential new intervention from Tokyo.
That dollar weakness lit a fire under Bitcoin (CRYPTO: BTC), which surged 4.6% to about $80,900, dragging the entire listed crypto complex higher.
The S&P 500 rose 0.96% to 7,740.14, while the Dow Jones Industrial Average outperformed with a 1.1% advance, adding 597 points to 53,658.71.
The Nasdaq 100 climbed 1.0% to 29,439.78. Within Magnificent Seven stocks, Tesla Inc. (NASDAQ:TSLA) jumped 7.4%, Meta Platforms Inc. (NASDAQ:META) added 3.8% and Microsoft Corp. (NASDAQ:MSFT) rose 3.3%, while Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL) gained 1.7%.
Data flow was constructive. The ISM Services PMI jumped to 55.4 in August from 54.1, beating the 54.3 consensus and marking the strongest services expansion in six months, though the prices-paid subindex spiked to a four-year high of 72.6.
Gold pushed toward the $4,500 handle, rising 2.4% to $4,492 an ounce as the dollar and real yields retreated.
Thursday’s Performance In Major US IndicesAccording to the Benzinga Pro platform:
The Vanguard S&P 500 ETF (NYSE:VOO) gained 0.9%. The SPDR Dow Jones Industrial Average ETF Trust (NYSE:DIA) rose 1.2%. The Invesco QQQ Trust (NASDAQ:QQQ) climbed 1.0%. The iShares Russell 2000 ETF (NYSE:IWM) added 0.4%. Crypto Complex Rips As Hike Fears Fade and Food Stocks Get CrushedThe Consumer Discretionary Select Sector SPDR Fund (NYSE:XLY) led all sectors with a 1.8% gain, powered by Tesla. The Financial Select Sector SPDR Fund (NYSE:XLF) rose 1.2% and the Technology Select Sector SPDR Fund (NYSE:XLK) added 1.2%.
At the other end, the Materials Select Sector SPDR Fund (NYSE:XLB) was the sole meaningful decliner, off 0.6%, with the Consumer Staples Select Sector SPDR Fund (NYSE:XLP) down 0.2%, the Health Care Select Sector SPDR Fund (NYSE:XLV) off 0.1% and the Energy Select Sector SPDR Fund (NYSE:XLE) flat as crude’s advance stalled.
At the industry level, the VanEck Gold Miners ETF (NYSE:GDX) surged 3.1% on bullion’s move toward $4,500, while the First Trust Dow Jones Internet Index Fund (NASDAQ:FDN) rallied 2.5% and the SPDR S&P Insurance ETF (NYSE:KIE) rose 1.8%. The VanEck Agribusiness ETF (NYSE:MOO) was the weakest industry group, down 1.1%.
Software was the epicenter of the rally.
Snowflake Inc. (NYSE:SNOW) soared 21.9% after Wednesday’s post-close print showed fiscal second-quarter product revenue of $1.49 billion, up 37% year-over-year, with third-quarter product revenue guided to $1.59 billion against $1.50 billion consensus. Management lifted its full-year product revenue forecast to $6.07 billion from $5.84 billion in May and raised its adjusted operating margin target to 14.5% from 13.5%.
The read-through was immediate across enterprise software. Palantir Technologies Inc. (NASDAQ:PLTR) jumped 8.3%, Dell Technologies Inc. (NYSE:DELL) gained 6.9%, ServiceNow Inc. (NYSE:NOW) rose 6.0%, Oracle Corp. (NYSE:ORCL) added 5.3% and CrowdStrike Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ:CRWD) climbed 4.5%.
Crypto-levered equities were the day’s other standout.
Robinhood Markets Inc. (NASDAQ:HOOD) rallied 14.9% and Circle Internet Group Inc. (NYSE:CRCL) gained 14.9% back toward $100, with neither name carrying company-specific news in the tape – both moves track bitcoin’s 4.6% advance and the softer dollar.
Strategy Inc. (NASDAQ:MSTR), the largest corporate bitcoin holder, rose 13.7% on the same mark-to-market impulse, with no fresh disclosure of its own. Peers Coinbase Global Inc. (NASDAQ:COIN) and Bullish (NYSE:BLSH) gained 10.8% and 12.6%, respectively.
Summit Therapeutics Inc. (NASDAQ:SMMT) surged 14.5% after partner Akeso said the Phase 3 HARMONi-2 trial met its prespecified interim overall survival endpoint, with ivonescimab monotherapy delivering a statistically significant survival advantage over Merck’s Keytruda in PD-L1-positive advanced non-small cell lung cancer. Merck slipped 0.9% on the news.
Semiconductors were the drag. Broadcom Inc. (NASDAQ:AVGO) fell 4.1% despite posting 221% annual revenue growth in its latest fiscal quarter, as the print failed to clear the high end of buy-side expectations. Micron Technology Inc. (NASDAQ:MU) lost 1.2% and Hewlett Packard Enterprise Co. (NYSE:HPE) dropped 4.5% after its results fell short. Elsewhere in AI, Nvidia agreed to acquire Hugging Face for $13 billion in a bet on open-source models.
Ciena Corp. (NYSE:CIEN) was the worst genuine decliner in the Russell 1000, sliding 10.4% despite what management called its strongest quarter on record – fiscal third-quarter revenue of $1.67 billion and adjusted EPS of $2.11, up 215% year-over-year, with backlog up $800 million sequentially to $8.5 billion. Investors instead fixed on supply constraints, a one-time tariff-refund benefit to margins, and a stock that had already run hard into the print.
Packaged food was routed. The Campbell’s Company (NASDAQ:CPB) tumbled 9.7% after guiding fiscal 2027 adjusted EPS to $1.65-$1.80 against $1.90 consensus, cutting its quarterly dividend 36% to $0.25 from $0.39, and missing on fourth-quarter revenue at $2.1 billion versus $2.15 billion expected.
Tyson Foods Inc. (NYSE:TSN) fell 6.9% after cutting fiscal 2026 adjusted operating income guidance to $1.85-$2.05 billion from $2.1-$2.3 billion, blaming margin compression from volatile cattle prices. The damage spread to General Mills Inc. (NYSE:GIS), down 4.6%, and The Kraft Heinz Company (NASDAQ:KHC), off 3.3%.
The Toro Company (NYSE:TTC) dropped 6.9% even after beating on both lines – fiscal third-quarter adjusted EPS of $1.33 versus $1.30 consensus on revenue of $1.23 billion against $1.19 billion – and raising full-year adjusted EPS guidance to $4.60-$4.65 from $4.50-$4.62. The market focused on Professional-segment margin pressure, a higher tax rate and the narrow upside embedded in the revised outlook.
Planet Labs PBC (NYSE:PL) fell 8.3% with results not due until after Thursday’s close and no confirmed company news in the tape, and the move reads as pre-print positioning, with some rotation toward newly listed Space Exploration Technologies Corp. (NASDAQ:SPCX), which rose 5.7% on nearly 60 million shares.
Thursday’s Russell 1000 Top GainersThursday’s Russell 1000 Top LosersImage created using artificial intelligence via Midjourney.
Yi Lihua, founder of Liquid Capital, stated that a bull market trend has begun in Bitcoin following the recent pullback, and investors should closely monitor the $86,000 level.
According to Yi Lihua, Bitcoin’s drop to $76,300 signified a test of a significant support zone, and the rebound from that level was in line with expectations. The renowned investor stated that he expects the price to continue its upward trend after these pullbacks.
Yi Lihua stated that the next major resistance level for Bitcoin is around $86,000, and that a failure to strongly overcome this area could lead to a new correction in the market. He noted that in such a scenario, investors might consider potential pullbacks.
Yi Lihua, while noting that market conditions can constantly change, remained optimistic about the overall outlook. The Liquid Capital founder argued that current price movements indicate the start of a new bull market trend in Bitcoin.
Yi Lihua had previously stated in his assessment that after Bitcoin failed to break through the $81,000 resistance level a few days ago, he expected the price to retreat to the $75,500-$76,000 region. He indicated that he anticipated a renewed rise after this region was tested, and pointed to $86,000 as the next target and resistance zone.
*This is not investment advice.
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Japanese and South Korean stock markets opened higher, with SoftBank rising 5.8%, and SK Hynix and Samsung Electronics both gaining over 2%.
According to Bitget market data, Japanese and South Korean stock markets opened higher: the Nikkei 225 index rose 0.27% at opening, SoftBank gained 5.8%, Kioxia rose 0.70%; South Korea’s KOSPI index opened up 1.2%, with SK Hynix and Samsung Electronics both rising more than 2%.
4 minutes ago
Non-Farm Payrolls (NFP) data to be released tonight: Markets forecast a mere 56,000 rise in August; JPMorgan warns the S&P 500 could see sharp volatility in response to the figures.
The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics will release the August nonfarm payrolls report tonight. Market forecasts show nonfarm payrolls will rise by just 56,000, with the unemployment rate holding steady at 4.1%. Market consensus views the U.S. labor market as currently "stable but weak"; weaker employment data will not necessarily directly prompt the Federal Reserve to cut interest rates, as policy focus will remain on inflation trends. JPMorgan’s trading desk forecasts that if nonfarm payrolls exceed 95,000, the S&P 500 index could fall by 0.5% to 1.25%; if payrolls rise by only 5,000 to 35,000, the S&P 500 could gain 0.25% to 0.75%. Markets expect this nonfarm data to be a key variable influencing the Federal Reserve’s September policy outlook and short-term U.S. stock market moves. Recent comments from Federal Reserve officials indicate the labor market is not currently a policy focus. Fed Governor Barr described the employment situation as "stable" earlier this week, while Governor Waller called the jobs outlook "satisfactory" on Thursday. These assessments do not signal a strong labor market; instead, they mean that with inflation yet to ease further, the Fed could consider raising interest rates while minimizing any negative impact on employment.
4 minutes ago
Vance: Refuses to label US-Iran conflict as "war", renews call for Fed rate cuts.
US Vice President JD Vance said today that despite the recent renewed clashes between the United States and Iran, he does not consider the current situation a "war" and did not provide a clear timeline for an end to the conflict. Vance stated that the US has concluded major combat operations against Iran, and is now focused on preventing Tehran from further disrupting commercial oil shipping. The US will not negotiate as long as Tehran continues attacking commercial shipping. Meanwhile, Vance renewed his call for the Federal Reserve to cut interest rates, arguing that lower rates would help improve US housing affordability, and noted the White House is taking steps to push rates down, adding "it would be even better if the Federal Reserve could assist." This stands in contrast to recent remarks by Federal Reserve Chair Kevin Wash, who has emphasized controlling inflation and bringing it down to the 2% target.
4 minutes ago
The U.S. Department of Defense says the ban on Anthropic remains in effect, after Lutnick earlier stated the company had reached a settlement with the government.
Beating AI Express News: The U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) has stated that restrictions on artificial intelligence company Anthropic remain in effect, contradicting earlier remarks from U.S. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick that the two sides had resolved their differences. U.S. Deputy Secretary of Defense for Research and Engineering Emil Michael posted on social media that Anthropic is still deemed a "supply chain risk" by the DoD and the defense industrial base. Lutnick had previously said Anthropic had resolved long-standing issues with the Trump administration, adding that the company’s relations with the government had improved. Anthropic earlier faced related restrictions due to government concerns that its models could be misused for capabilities such as cyberattacks.
4 minutes ago
Vance: No dialogue with Iran until it halts attacks on merchant ships.
US Vice President Vance held a press conference at the White House on Thursday local time. When addressing Iran, he stated: "Approximately 15 million barrels of oil passed through the Strait of Hormuz yesterday. Gasoline prices are high because Iran is firing on ships. We are taking a range of measures to pressure Iran to halt its attacks on vessels. My advice to Iranians is: stop acting like maniacs, and stop firing on merchant ships. We have a number of additional tools at our disposal regarding the Iran issue, some that Trump would use, others he would not. Shipping traffic through the Strait of Hormuz has nearly returned to pre-conflict levels. However, we will not engage in talks with Iran unless it stops attacking ships. We are not currently carrying out major military operations."
4 minutes ago
U.S. stocks closed this morning, with crypto-related stocks surging sharply: MSTR rose more than 17%, CRCL gained 16.44%.
U.S. stocks closed on Thursday: The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 1.18%, the S&P 500 gained 1.06%, and the Nasdaq advanced 1.4%. Tesla (TSLA.O) climbed 5.4%, Nvidia (NVDA.O) rose 1.8%, and SpaceX (SPCX.O) jumped 6.4%. In crypto-themed concept stocks, MSTR surged 17.56%, CRCL gained 16.44%, COIN advanced 10.14%, BMNR climbed 14.66%, SBET rose 10.86%, and PURR jumped 12.81%.
I regret to inform you that the grand ambitions of our stock-paired memecoins will not come to pass.
For those who don’t know what I’m referring to, I’m talking about the circulated agenda of having squeezes in onchain stock supply reverberate down into the “real” stock. Sadly, the mechanics just aren’t set up for this.
If you were logged off last weekend, you will have missed the outlandish price dislocations that occurred. Since liquidity pools are essentially a one-in, one-out ordeal, as people bought memecoins like BONER that were paired with tokenized equities, or TEQs, pronounced “tech,” they effectively parked and then cornered the supply of their paired Stock Token, leading to immense rallies from extremely constrained supplies.
AMC’s Stock Token briefly ran as high as $166.86 though the actual stock had closed Friday at $2.59. HIMS was less extreme, but still absurd, running to $132.64 against a $28.84 Friday close before coming back down to earth once markets reopened Monday. That’s roughly 64x and 4.6x their respective offchain prices.
Over the past few days, this “cornering the supply” sparked excitement about the second-order effects on, particularly, heavily shorted stocks. Could a wild, brave band of memecoin holders pump price so much that the cornered tokenized supply causes not only a short squeeze onchain, but also off?
Sadly, the answer is no.
— The Defiant (@DefiantNews) August 31, 2026 Why the Squeeze Doesn't WorkThe first problem is simply scale. Most TEQ supplies remain tiny compared to their underlying stocks. BONER, for example, accumulated 53% of HIMS Stock Tokens, which sounds incredible until you realize that equals only ~0.014% of actual HIMS shares.
But even at greater scale, there is a larger problem: cornering the Stock Token does not corner the stock.
Robinhood Stock Tokens are backed 1:1 by underlying shares held in custody, giving price exposure rather than ownership of the stock itself. So when BONER parks a huge portion of HIMS Stock Tokens in its liquidity pool, it makes the Stock Token scarce, not HIMS itself.
If that scarcity pushes tokenized HIMS far above the real stock price, Robinhood’s authorized participant can mint more Stock Tokens to arbitrage the gap. Those new tokens do require additional shares backing them, so new issuance can create some demand for the underlying stock. But cornering the existing tokens does not itself force equivalent purchases of HIMS. Instead, the main effect is to incentivize more Stock Token issuance, increasing the wrapper’s supply and pulling its price back toward the real stock.
The weekend basically proved this. HIMS could trade above $100 onchain while actual HIMS remained around $29. Once markets reopened, roughly 4,000 new HIMS tokens entered the market, and the gap quickly disappeared.
So the fabled short squeeze isn't impossible forever. We just need TEQs with much stronger bridges back to the actual equity.
What Would a Better TEQ Look Like?Ironically, the closest setup appears to be on Solana.
Last year, Galaxy worked directly with Superstate to bring GLXY onchain. The difference is pretty simple: Robinhood gives you a token tracking a share. With Galaxy, the token is the share.
Existing Galaxy shareholders can convert their current GLXY into onchain GLXY. Those tokens remain actual Galaxy Class A common stock, carrying the same legal, economic, and voting rights as traditional GLXY. When the token changes hands, Galaxy’s official ownership records change with it.
That makes the onchain and offchain markets much more directly connected, as moving GLXY onchain moves the equity itself rather than simply creating another representation of it.
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But Galaxy isn't there yet. Right now, its onchain shares can only move between approved wallets, and Galaxy has not enabled permissionless AMM trading.
I agree with this. If you want to squeeze shorts, move your shares in tokenize form via the transfer agent outside of DTCC and brokers. Then you are on the cap table as a beneficial owner and nobody can borrow them without your permission or without paying you directly. You… https://t.co/CztBkNkccQ
— Carlos Domingo (@carlosdomingo) September 1, 2026 So What Are Stock-Paired Memecoins Good For?Thus, we must ask: is this all just novelty that gives speculators a reason to deploy capital?
I don’t think so.
The short squeeze is probably the most exciting mechanism people have latched onto first. But even without it, pairing stocks and tokens creates some genuinely new dynamics.
One leading theory, put forth by Eric Conner, is that these memecoins could become decentralized marketing machines for their paired companies. Holders naturally start tracking earnings, products, short interest, news, and everything else connected to the stock, producing memes and content around it along the way.
There are obvious limits here. BONER may be wonderfully aligned with Hims’ product suite, but a public healthcare company trying to build mainstream credibility may not want to officially embrace a "BONER" token.
I really enjoyed this
Moral of the story is every stock will have a memestock in the end. That memestock community will be greatly beneficial for the company, in this case $HIMS
Long $BONER https://t.co/soqPfHuweL
— eric (@econoar) September 3, 2026 Still, there is probably an in-between. The best companies today understand guerrilla marketing, and these communities create an organic distribution channel without the company necessarily having to acknowledge, let alone control, it.
The second, and probably more interesting, path is turning TEQs into new financial and game-like primitives.
This is already happening. NetNet Capital has coined its version “RW-Play,” essentially using tokenized stocks as programmable pieces inside games and DeFi products. Its COINflip pays winners in tokenized Coinbase stock, SpaceX Invaders pays in tokenized SpaceX, and MSFT Flight Simulator pays in tokenized Microsoft.
Instead of simply buying and holding stocks, they can become trading pairs, collateral, prizes, liquidity, or pieces inside entirely new applications.
Right now, people are largely running back the OG 2020 DeFi playbook with a new asset class. But the more interesting question is what happens once TEQs begin developing primitives of their own.
Ripe Brings Old School DeFi Farming to Robinhood Chain on Bankless
Ripe Protocol is bringing classic DeFi liquidity mining back on Robinhood Chain.
Bankless
Beyond the enormous candles people have accrued on Robinhood Chain, this interaction between stocks and tokens feels like one of the most unique things to arise onchain in a while. Robinhood’s Stock Tokens make its chain the default home today, but I doubt that position goes uncontested.
Galaxy already shows that Solana can support TEQs with much stronger ties to actual offchain equities, and I’d expect Base to experiment with their own models. The competition won't just be about who puts the most stocks onchain, but who builds the most meaningful bridges between their onchain and offchain forms, and ultimately who gives people the most interesting things to do with them.
In the end, it’s nice to be around at the birth of a new meta. There’s plenty of opportunity to make money, but more importantly, plenty of room to see what entirely new mechanisms get designed.
While we’re building robinhood chain to be the best chain for RWA … it works great for memes too
Ansem on Shifting Mindsets Between Bull and Bear Markets: To Capture Maximum Profits in a Bull Market, You Have to Relearn to 'Dream'
Crypto trader Ansem says the hardest part of transitioning from a bear market to a bull market is that the strategies that helped you survive and profit in a bear market will end up losing you money in a bull market. If you’re still making money from short-term, high-frequency trading right now, that demonstrates strong trading skills. But to capture the largest gains of a bull market, you need to re-learn to "dream"—meaning daring to hold spot assets and embrace long-term positions. Ansem’s advice for those already profitable is to allocate a portion of their positions to long-term holdings, while using the remaining capital to continue short-term trading as usual. Meanwhile, Ansem once again posted to call for buying ZEC, stating that purchasing ZEC at $948 is equivalent to buying Bitcoin at $948. Per HTX market data, ZEC is currently trading at $948, with a 24-hour increase of over 16%.
6 hours ago
28x surge in a single day! Apple-linked meme coin ICOIN crosses $5.5 million in market cap
According to GMGN market data, Robinhood Chain’s crypto-stock meme token ICOIN has hit a market cap of over $5.5 million, reaching a recent high and approaching its all-time peak of $5.8 million. The token has rallied more than 28 times in 24 hours, with a trading volume of $8.9 million. ICOIN is paired with tokenized U.S. stock Apple (AAPL). BlockBeats Note: Crypto-stock meme (Stock Meme) is an emerging concept merging traditional meme coins with tokenized U.S. stocks. Unlike standard meme coins paired with USDT or ETH, these tokens form trading pairs directly with on-chain U.S. stock tokens (e.g., NVDA, TSLA, AAPL). This model retains meme coins’ high volatility and community-driven speculative traits while leveraging real stocks’ popularity and narratives. A portion of transaction fees often flows back to the community treasury to accumulate corresponding U.S. stock tokens, creating a dual-driven framework of "sentiment speculation + real asset anchoring". Price volatility is significant; investors should exercise caution.
6 hours ago
Robinhood-linked meme token NUDES hits a new all-time high as its market cap tops $23 million.
According to GMGN data, the stock-meme project NUDES on Robinhood Chain has hit a new all-time high with a market cap exceeding $23 million, surging over 113% in 24 hours and logging a trading volume of $13.9 million. NUDES is paired with tokenized US stock Snap, trading under the ticker SNAP. BlockBeats Note: Stock Meme is an emerging concept that combines traditional meme coins with tokenized US stocks: instead of pairing meme coins with USDT or ETH, they are matched directly with on-chain US stock tokens (such as NVDA, TSLA, AAPL, etc.). This model retains meme coins’ high volatility and community-driven speculative traits while leveraging the popularity and narrative of real stocks. A portion of transaction fees often flows back to the community treasury to accumulate corresponding US stock tokens, forming a dual-driven model of "sentiment speculation + real asset anchoring". Prices are highly volatile; investors should exercise caution.
6 hours ago
Trader Loracle’s unrealized losses on short positions in CASHCAT and PONS have expanded to $2.4 million.
According to TradingBeats’ monitoring, trader Loracle has opened 3x leveraged short positions on CASHCAT and PONS, with a combined short position value of roughly $13 million. As CASHCAT’s market cap breaks through $300 million to a new all-time high, and PONS nears its own $600 million peak, the trader’s unrealized loss has climbed to approximately $2.4 million. The CASHCAT short position is valued at around $6.6 million, with an average entry price of $0.23, leading to an unrealized loss of about $1.1 million. The PONS short position is worth roughly $6.3 million, with an average entry price of $0.47, and an unrealized loss of approximately $1.3 million. On-chain perpetual contract and address analysis tool TradingBeats is now live, supporting real-time access to Hyperliquid data, with in-depth analysis covering everything from address tracing to whale operations, all available at a glance.
6 hours ago
Jiang Zhuoer recapped his trading operations: He bought 4,000 ETH at the $2,380 bottom, but closed his position too early, missing out on potential profits.
Jiang Zhuoer, founder of BTC.TOP (莱比特矿池), shared his recent trading operations, announcing he will no longer trade ETH perpetual contracts, citing excessive candlestick wicks that disrupt his trading mindset. For instance, he bought 4,000 ETH at $2,380 last night in a bottom-fishing move, originally setting a take-profit order at $2,493. However, a sharp candlestick wick pushed ETH down to $2,367 this morning, prompting him to decide to close his position once ETH rebounded to $2,403. ETH indeed rallied to his $2,493 take-profit target tonight. Crucially, BTC’s candlestick did not have such a wick. Going forward, he plans to use WBETH as margin, trade BTC perpetual contracts without leverage (maxing out at a full position), and hold all funds in ETH spot when not actively trading.
6 hours ago
Oman Rejects Iran's Proposal to Impose Fees on the Strait of Hormuz
According to a New York Post report, Oman has quietly rejected Iran’s proposal to charge commercial vessels fees in the Strait of Hormuz. A regional official with knowledge of the matter stated that Oman refused to agree to collecting environmental and security fees, even if they were voluntary. Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Corps’ earlier claim that the two sides had reached an agreement is untrue. A U.S. official noted that the terms of Iran’s proposed revenue-sharing agreement had not even been finalized by Tehran. Earlier, after Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian and Omani Foreign Minister Badr bin Hamad Al Busaidi held talks in Tehran, Revolutionary Guard Corps spokesperson Hossein said the two countries had reached an agreement on the division of waters in the Strait of Hormuz and revenue sharing.
A significant governance decision has been made within the Ethena ecosystem that could directly impact the ENA token. According to a statement from the Ethena Foundation, the “fee conversion” proposal, which envisages using protocol revenues for ENA buybacks, was approved with 100% support.
Following the decision, it was announced that programmatic ENA buybacks would be launched. The foundation stated that the buyback program would be gradually expanded as specified performance metrics and milestones are met. Thus, it is planned that a portion of the revenue generated by the Ethena protocol will be used to directly purchase ENA from the market.
This development also had a positive impact on the ENA price. According to market data, ENA rose by approximately 15 percent in the last 24 hours, reaching $0.172. The token ranks 45th in market capitalization.
This latest decision is a continuation of the broader token economic changes announced by the Ethena Foundation on August 27. In that announcement, the Foundation revealed four significant changes, including the buyback of locked tokens held by early investors, increased economic alignment between the ENA token and company equity, the initiation of a governance process for ENA buybacks using protocol revenues, and the cancellation of future monthly token unlocks for venture capital investors.
*This is not investment advice.
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USDG Goes Native on Mantle@Mantle_Official announced on Thursday that USDG, the dollar-pegged stablecoin issued by @Paxos, is now live on Mantle as one of the first assets natively minted on the network. The move formally makes Mantle a Network Partner of the Global Dollar Network (GDN), placing it alongside more than 150 partners including Kraken, Robinhood, and Mastercard in a shared-reward structure that distributes economic upside to partners who drive adoption.
Unlike a standard chain integration, where the issuer keeps the economics, Mantle's entry into GDN means it participates directly in the network's reward-sharing model. Partners can earn rewards by minting, holding, or accepting USDG, according to the official press release.
A Regulated Dollar for an Institutional NetworkThe timing matters for Mantle's broader strategy. The network has been building out an institutional-grade on-chain asset suite spanning tokenized equities, treasury yield, private credit, and money markets. USDG provides the regulated dollar settlement layer that infrastructure requires. Walter Hessert, Head of Strategy at Paxos, noted that "native USDG issuance puts one at the center of the ecosystem, and as a Global Dollar Network partner, Mantle shares in the upside it helps create."
USDG carries a market cap of approximately $3.24 billion and operates under dual regulatory supervision: the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) and the European Union's MiCA framework. That combination of scale and regulatory standing is uncommon in the stablecoin market. Paxos issues the token in the EU through Paxos Issuance Europe OY, and USDG is fully redeemable one-to-one for US dollars. The integration adds USDG to Mantle's existing stablecoin roster alongside AUSD, USDe, USDY, and USDT0.
Paxos-issued stablecoin USDG has launched natively on Mantle, with the Ethereum layer-2 network joining the Global Dollar Network as a partner, according to a Thursday announcement.
The integration makes USDG one of the first stablecoins to be natively minted on Mantle and brings the network into USDG’s reward-sharing structure. As a partner, Mantle can receive a share of the rewards generated by USDG activity, joining a network of more than 150 partners, including Kraken and Robinhood.
USDG has a market capitalization of about $3.18 billion, making it the seventh-largest stablecoin tracked by DefiLlama. The stablecoin is issued by Paxos and operates under regulatory frameworks in Singapore and the European Union, with Paxos publishing monthly reports on its reserves.
Top 10 stablecoins by market cap. Source: DefiLlama
USDG joins several other stablecoins available on Mantle, including Agora’s AUSD, Ethena’s USDe and Tether’s USDT0. Mantle said USDG will be used across its ecosystem for DeFi applications and institutional capital allocation.
Mantle has also seen recent growth in tokenized real-world assets (RWA). The network had $234.2 million in distributed RWA value as of Wednesday, up 19% over the past 30 days, according to RWA.xyz data.
Magazine: BTC will hit $1M by 2030... but Arthur Hayes is buying ETH instead
Cointelegraph is committed to independent, transparent journalism. This news article is produced in accordance with Cointelegraph’s Editorial Policy and aims to provide accurate and timely information. Readers are encouraged to verify information independently.
Paxos-issued stablecoin USDG has launched natively on Mantle, with the Ethereum layer-2 network joining the Global Dollar Network as a partner, according to a Thursday announcement.
The integration makes USDG one of the first stablecoins to be natively minted on Mantle and brings the network into USDG’s reward-sharing structure. As a partner, Mantle can receive a share of the rewards generated by USDG activity, joining a network of more than 150 partners, including Kraken and Robinhood.
USDG has a market capitalization of about $3.18 billion, making it the seventh-largest stablecoin tracked by DefiLlama. The stablecoin is issued by Paxos and operates under regulatory frameworks in Singapore and the European Union, with Paxos publishing monthly reports on its reserves.
Top 10 stablecoins by market cap. Source: DefiLlama
USDG joins several other stablecoins available on Mantle, including Agora’s AUSD, Ethena’s USDe and Tether’s USDT0. Mantle said USDG will be used across its ecosystem for DeFi applications and institutional capital allocation.
Mantle has also seen recent growth in tokenized real-world assets (RWA). The network had $234.2 million in distributed RWA value as of Wednesday, up 19% over the past 30 days, according to RWA.xyz data.
Magazine: BTC will hit $1M by 2030... but Arthur Hayes is buying ETH instead
Cointelegraph is committed to independent, transparent journalism. This news article is produced in accordance with Cointelegraph’s Editorial Policy and aims to provide accurate and timely information. Readers are encouraged to verify information independently.
Paxos has launched the USDG stablecoin natively on Mantle, marking a significant development for the Ethereum layer-2 solution. The rollout was announced on Thursday, making USDG one of the earliest stablecoins to be minted directly on the Mantle network.
Integration with Mantle and reward-sharingBy joining the Global Dollar Network as a partner, Mantle now participates in USDG’s reward-sharing system. This partnership allows Mantle to receive a portion of the rewards derived from activities involving USDG on its platform. Mantle joins an ecosystem of over 150 partners, which includes prominent industry players such as Kraken and Robinhood.
USDG is now listed alongside several other stablecoins available on Mantle, including Agora’s AUSD, Ethena’s USDe, and Tether’s USDT0. Mantle representatives stated that USDG will serve various purposes across their ecosystem, supporting decentralized finance applications and institutional portfolio strategies.
With this integration, Mantle stands among the first networks to support native minting of USDG and is now part of a collaborative ecosystem that shares in the growth and rewards from USDG usage.
USDG’s market position and complianceUSDG maintains a market capitalization of around $3.18 billion, ranking as the seventh-largest stablecoin according to DefiLlama data. The asset is issued by Paxos, a blockchain infrastructure company known for regulatory compliance, particularly in Singapore and the European Union.
Paxos provides monthly disclosures about USDG’s reserves, aiming to ensure transparency for users and partners. The presence of established partners in the network, combined with these regulatory safeguards, positions USDG as a reliable option for various financial applications on Mantle.
Mini dictionary: Paxos is a US-based blockchain infrastructure provider that issues regulated digital assets, including stablecoins, and publishes reserve attestations monthly to verify backing and compliance.
StablecoinMarket CapIssuerNetwork AvailabilityUSDG$3.18 billionPaxosMantle, othersAUSDNot specifiedAgoraMantleUSDeNot specifiedEthenaMantleUSDT0Not specifiedTetherMantleGrowth in real-world asset tokenizationMantle has reported rising activity in tokenized real-world assets (RWA). As of Wednesday, the network had distributed $234.2 million in RWA value, reflecting a 19% increase over the past month. Data for this sector was provided by RWA.xyz, a platform tracking tokenized asset growth across blockchain networks.
These developments suggest that Mantle is strengthening its position as a destination for both stablecoin traffic and tokenized assets. The addition of USDG expands the suite of stablecoins on Mantle and broadens its usage scenarios for DeFi applications and institutional investors.
Hyperliquid is expanding its HIP-3 framework with optional features that will let independent deployment teams create permissioned markets using on-chain allowlists while retaining control over access and operations.
HIP-3 Adds Optional Permissioned Markets Hyperliquid unveils HIP-3 as an optional extension that will allow independent deployment teams to create permissioned markets through deployer controlled onchain allowlists. Hyperliquid co-founder Jeffrey Yan said deployers or their appointed sub-deployers will manage these lists, giving individual operators control over who can access their markets.
The upgrade remains optional and will not alter existing HIP-3 markets. Teams that do not require permissioned access can continue operating under the current framework. Hyperliquid has already released the first version of HIP-3 on testnet, although its specifications remain preliminary and could change following feedback.
HIP-3 allows independent teams to launch perpetual futures markets on HyperCore without requiring approval from Hyperliquid’s core development team. Deployers can manage assets, oracles, leverage limits and fee structures while retaining responsibility for operating and settling their markets.
Hyperliquid Keeps Deployers in Control HIP-3 extends that model by giving market operators additional tools to meet requirements tied to their individual deployments. Hyperliquid provides the underlying onchain infrastructure, while independent deployers maintain responsibility for how their markets operate.
The permissioned model could allow deployment teams to restrict market participation when their operations require access controls. However, the testnet design is not final, leaving room for technical changes before the features reach a wider release.
Hyperliquid has described its broader role as a neutral infrastructure layer for financial markets. Under that structure, deployers using HIP-3 remain independent operators rather than having Hyperliquid manage access rules on their behalf.
US Perpetual Futures Talks Await Approval The HIP-3 development comes as Hyperliquid Labs and Kraken parent Payward discuss a separate structure that could bring selected crypto perpetual futures to US traders through regulated derivatives exchange Bitnomial.
Payward has presented the proposed arrangement to the Commodity Futures Trading Commission. However, any launch would still require regulatory clearance, and no approval has been confirmed.
The proposed setup would allow eligible Bitnomial customers to trade selected futures linked to crypto assets using Hyperliquid technology.
The discussions remain separate from the HIP-3 testnet rollout, which focuses on giving independent market deployers optional permissioning tools.
For more options in self-custodial markets, traders can compare top-tier venues in our guide to the best crypto futures trading platforms.
Not financial or tax advice. PANews content is strictly educational and informational and is not investment advice, financial advice, tax advice, legal advice, or a solicitation to buy or sell any digital asset, security, or financial product. Do your own research and consult qualified advisers.
Disclosure. PANews may publish sponsored content, partner content, advertisements, affiliate links, event promotions, and market commentary involving Web3 projects, service providers, or financial products. PANews personnel, contributors, or affiliates may hold digital assets or other interests related to covered topics. See our Terms of Service.
According to Lookonchain’s monitoring, Abraxas Capital added 16,554 spot ETH to its holdings over the past 12 hours, valued at approximately $39.8 million. Concurrently, its two hedge accounts on Hyperliquid hold a combined 120,178 ETH short positions, worth around $291.4 million.
Abraxas Capital, a London-based digital asset firm managing over $4 billion, just scooped up 16,554 ETH worth roughly $39 million. At the same time, the firm is sitting on 120,178 ETH in short positions on Hyperliquid, the decentralized perpetual futures exchange.
The two-sided trade The firm’s short exposure on the platform has frequently exceeded $700 to $900 million in gross positions across ETH, Bitcoin, and Solana. Of that, Ethereum consistently accounts for the largest single-asset chunk, with ETH shorts ranging between $120 million and $194 million depending on the day.
Earlier in August, Abraxas withdrew 73,872 ETH from Binance over a four-day stretch, a haul worth approximately $173 million. The latest 16,554 ETH purchase adds to that accumulation pattern.
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Abraxas is collecting ETH at spot prices while using short positions to earn funding rates and hedge against downside risk. When the market pays you to hold shorts (because long traders are paying a premium), you can accumulate the underlying asset while your short positions generate yield.
Profits in the hundreds of millions On August 29, Abraxas posted a $21 million profit in a single 24-hour window, generated from a portfolio containing $472 million in short positions. That kind of daily return, roughly 4.4% on the short book alone, illustrates why the firm keeps scaling into this approach.
The total short exposure has at times ballooned to between $598 million and $783 million across all assets on Hyperliquid. On-chain analysts have been tracking Abraxas’s wallets closely, and the firm frequently ranks among the platform’s top traders by volume.
Why Hyperliquid matters here Hyperliquid operates on its own Layer-1 blockchain and has carved out a niche as the go-to venue for on-chain perpetual futures trading. Its native token, HYPE, has attracted attention partly because institutional players like Abraxas are generating enormous volume on the platform.
What this means for the ETH market The dual approach of accumulating spot ETH while maintaining enormous short positions suggests Abraxas is positioning for multiple scenarios. If ETH drops, the shorts profit. If ETH rises, the spot holdings appreciate. And regardless of direction, funding rates from perpetual futures provide a steady income stream.
A sudden ETH rally would generate unrealized losses on the shorts that need to be managed carefully, even if the spot book offsets some of that pain. Abraxas has faced unrealized losses during volatile stretches, though cumulative profits have remained positive.
Disclosure: This article was edited by Editorial Team. For more information on how we create and review content, see our Editorial Policy.
Ansem on Shifting Mindsets Between Bull and Bear Markets: To Capture Maximum Profits in a Bull Market, You Have to Relearn to 'Dream'
Crypto trader Ansem says the hardest part of transitioning from a bear market to a bull market is that the strategies that helped you survive and profit in a bear market will end up losing you money in a bull market. If you’re still making money from short-term, high-frequency trading right now, that demonstrates strong trading skills. But to capture the largest gains of a bull market, you need to re-learn to "dream"—meaning daring to hold spot assets and embrace long-term positions. Ansem’s advice for those already profitable is to allocate a portion of their positions to long-term holdings, while using the remaining capital to continue short-term trading as usual. Meanwhile, Ansem once again posted to call for buying ZEC, stating that purchasing ZEC at $948 is equivalent to buying Bitcoin at $948. Per HTX market data, ZEC is currently trading at $948, with a 24-hour increase of over 16%.
5 hours ago
28x surge in a single day! Apple-linked meme coin ICOIN crosses $5.5 million in market cap
According to GMGN market data, Robinhood Chain’s crypto-stock meme token ICOIN has hit a market cap of over $5.5 million, reaching a recent high and approaching its all-time peak of $5.8 million. The token has rallied more than 28 times in 24 hours, with a trading volume of $8.9 million. ICOIN is paired with tokenized U.S. stock Apple (AAPL). BlockBeats Note: Crypto-stock meme (Stock Meme) is an emerging concept merging traditional meme coins with tokenized U.S. stocks. Unlike standard meme coins paired with USDT or ETH, these tokens form trading pairs directly with on-chain U.S. stock tokens (e.g., NVDA, TSLA, AAPL). This model retains meme coins’ high volatility and community-driven speculative traits while leveraging real stocks’ popularity and narratives. A portion of transaction fees often flows back to the community treasury to accumulate corresponding U.S. stock tokens, creating a dual-driven framework of "sentiment speculation + real asset anchoring". Price volatility is significant; investors should exercise caution.
5 hours ago
Robinhood-linked meme token NUDES hits a new all-time high as its market cap tops $23 million.
According to GMGN data, the stock-meme project NUDES on Robinhood Chain has hit a new all-time high with a market cap exceeding $23 million, surging over 113% in 24 hours and logging a trading volume of $13.9 million. NUDES is paired with tokenized US stock Snap, trading under the ticker SNAP. BlockBeats Note: Stock Meme is an emerging concept that combines traditional meme coins with tokenized US stocks: instead of pairing meme coins with USDT or ETH, they are matched directly with on-chain US stock tokens (such as NVDA, TSLA, AAPL, etc.). This model retains meme coins’ high volatility and community-driven speculative traits while leveraging the popularity and narrative of real stocks. A portion of transaction fees often flows back to the community treasury to accumulate corresponding US stock tokens, forming a dual-driven model of "sentiment speculation + real asset anchoring". Prices are highly volatile; investors should exercise caution.
5 hours ago
Trader Loracle’s unrealized losses on short positions in CASHCAT and PONS have expanded to $2.4 million.
According to TradingBeats’ monitoring, trader Loracle has opened 3x leveraged short positions on CASHCAT and PONS, with a combined short position value of roughly $13 million. As CASHCAT’s market cap breaks through $300 million to a new all-time high, and PONS nears its own $600 million peak, the trader’s unrealized loss has climbed to approximately $2.4 million. The CASHCAT short position is valued at around $6.6 million, with an average entry price of $0.23, leading to an unrealized loss of about $1.1 million. The PONS short position is worth roughly $6.3 million, with an average entry price of $0.47, and an unrealized loss of approximately $1.3 million. On-chain perpetual contract and address analysis tool TradingBeats is now live, supporting real-time access to Hyperliquid data, with in-depth analysis covering everything from address tracing to whale operations, all available at a glance.
5 hours ago
Jiang Zhuoer recapped his trading operations: He bought 4,000 ETH at the $2,380 bottom, but closed his position too early, missing out on potential profits.
Jiang Zhuoer, founder of BTC.TOP (莱比特矿池), shared his recent trading operations, announcing he will no longer trade ETH perpetual contracts, citing excessive candlestick wicks that disrupt his trading mindset. For instance, he bought 4,000 ETH at $2,380 last night in a bottom-fishing move, originally setting a take-profit order at $2,493. However, a sharp candlestick wick pushed ETH down to $2,367 this morning, prompting him to decide to close his position once ETH rebounded to $2,403. ETH indeed rallied to his $2,493 take-profit target tonight. Crucially, BTC’s candlestick did not have such a wick. Going forward, he plans to use WBETH as margin, trade BTC perpetual contracts without leverage (maxing out at a full position), and hold all funds in ETH spot when not actively trading.
5 hours ago
Oman Rejects Iran's Proposal to Impose Fees on the Strait of Hormuz
According to a New York Post report, Oman has quietly rejected Iran’s proposal to charge commercial vessels fees in the Strait of Hormuz. A regional official with knowledge of the matter stated that Oman refused to agree to collecting environmental and security fees, even if they were voluntary. Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Corps’ earlier claim that the two sides had reached an agreement is untrue. A U.S. official noted that the terms of Iran’s proposed revenue-sharing agreement had not even been finalized by Tehran. Earlier, after Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian and Omani Foreign Minister Badr bin Hamad Al Busaidi held talks in Tehran, Revolutionary Guard Corps spokesperson Hossein said the two countries had reached an agreement on the division of waters in the Strait of Hormuz and revenue sharing.
Hyperliquid has introduced a preliminary HIP-3 testnet upgrade that lets independent deployment teams control access to perpetual futures markets through deployer-managed on-chain allowlists.
Summary
HIP-3 deployers can choose whether to restrict access to their independently operated markets. On-chain allowlists can be managed by deployers or sub-deployers appointed by them. Existing HIP-3 markets will remain unchanged because the permissioning feature is optional. Separate talks involving Hyperliquid Labs, Payward and Bitnomial remain subject to CFTC clearance. Hyperliquid co-founder Jeffrey Yan said in a testnet proposal that deployers will be able to create permissioned markets and manage their participant lists without handing access decisions to Hyperliquid’s core development team.
In a future network upgrade, HIP-3 will support optinal deployer configuration for permissioned markets.
This would, for example, allow U.S. investors to access certain markets, or institutional investors that have strict rules. pic.twitter.com/0Ezjtx00D5
— Hyperliquid News (@HyperliquidNews) September 3, 2026 Hyperliquid HIP-3 adds optional on-chain allowlists Under the preliminary design, a deployer can maintain an on-chain list of approved participants or appoint a sub-deployer to handle access. Market operators that do not need permissioning can continue using the existing HIP-3 structure without changing how their markets work.
Hyperliquid has made the first version available on the testnet, where developers can examine the design before any production release. Yan said the specifications remain preliminary, allowing the team to adjust the system after receiving technical feedback.
HIP-3 already allows outside teams to deploy perpetual futures markets on HyperCore without seeking approval from Hyperliquid’s core developers. Each deployer selects the assets offered through its market and controls several operating terms, including oracle inputs, leverage limits, and fees.
Responsibility also remains with the deployment team. Independent operators manage their markets, oversee settlement, and address problems tied to the products they list, while Hyperliquid supplies the underlying blockchain and trading infrastructure.
Adding permissioning extends the tools available to the same operators rather than transferring market control to Hyperliquid. A team could use an allowlist when its business model, legal obligations, or internal policies require it to limit participation, while another deployer could keep its market open under the present framework.
The design also separates infrastructure governance from market-level access. Hyperliquid would maintain the underlying network, but each participating team would decide whether to activate an allowlist and who qualifies to enter its deployment.
Independent deployers retain operational responsibility HIP-3 was built to support markets launched by third parties instead of limiting product creation to Hyperliquid’s own team. Deployers can list perpetual contracts linked to crypto assets and other reference markets, provided they manage the technical and operational duties attached to their products.
A perpetual futures contract does not carry a fixed expiry date. Recurring funding payments help keep its price close to the referenced asset, while traders can maintain a position as long as they meet the applicable margin requirements.
Through HIP-3, independent teams can determine how those contracts are structured. Oracle selection affects the reference price used by the market, leverage rules determine how much exposure traders can take, and fee settings establish what participants pay for trading.
Permissioned deployments would add participant screening to that list of controls. Hyperliquid has not said that all HIP-3 operators must use the feature, and the testnet release does not change existing markets automatically.
Such separation is consistent with Hyperliquid’s description of itself as a neutral infrastructure provider rather than the operator of every market built on its systems. Deployers remain responsible for the products they introduce and the access rules they choose to apply.
Operational control can also leave deployment teams responsible for failures linked to their own market configuration. Oracle quality, leverage settings, settlement procedures and access management sit with the operator rather than Hyperliquid’s central development group under the structure described by Yan.
During the testnet stage, participating developers can assess how allowlists interact with trading accounts, market permissions and sub-deployer roles. Hyperliquid has not announced a date for moving the feature to mainnet, and feedback could alter the final specifications.
Permissioned markets could support compliance controls On-chain allowlists provide a technical method for restricting participation, but the proposal does not state that activating one makes a deployment compliant with any particular jurisdiction. Legal obligations depend on the assets, customers, operator, and countries involved, while an allowlist only controls which blockchain accounts can enter a market.
For U.S.-facing operators, derivatives access is generally tied to Commodity Futures Trading Commission rules and the licenses held by the venue, clearing organization, and intermediary. Permissioning software by itself does not replace registration, customer-protection, reporting, or market-surveillance requirements imposed by the regulator.
In July, the Hyperliquid Policy Center and Phantom requested tailored rules for decentralized trading systems. As crypto.news reported, the groups argued that software developers and non-custodial wallet providers should not automatically face the same registration duties as traditional financial intermediaries that control customer assets.
An Aug. 26 filing from the Hyperliquid Policy Center and trade[XYZ] later proposed energy perpetuals tied to West Texas Intermediate crude, Brent crude, and Henry Hub natural gas. The filing said trade[XYZ] had operated third-party perpetual markets on Hyperliquid since October 2025 and recorded more than $500 billion in cumulative volume across several asset classes.
According to the filing, any regulated U.S. operator would still need to comply with CFTC rules covering customer protection, market integrity and recordkeeping. The groups also proposed asset-specific leverage limits, plain-language funding disclosures and controls addressing benchmark reliability and manipulation risks.
The CFTC has not approved the requested energy products. Its review covers price reliability, surveillance, position limits, margin, clearing, and the possible effects of continuous derivatives trading on physical commodity markets.
U.S. perpetual futures plans require regulatory clearance Separate discussions involving Hyperliquid Labs and Kraken parent Payward could place selected crypto perpetual futures on Bitnomial, a regulated U.S. derivatives exchange. Payward has presented the proposed structure to the CFTC, according to the supplied report, but no authorization has been confirmed.
Under the discussed arrangement, eligible Bitnomial customers could trade selected crypto-linked futures using Hyperliquid technology. Bitnomial would provide the regulated venue, while the proposed technical and operating roles would depend on the final structure accepted by the companies and the CFTC.
Payward already owns Bitnomial, which holds U.S. exchange, clearinghouse, and brokerage licenses. Kraken launched regulated perpetuals for eligible American clients through Bitnomial in June, allowing users to manage spot, margin, conventional futures, and perpetual contracts from a Kraken Pro account.
The proposed Hyperliquid arrangement concerns selected contracts using its technology and remains distinct from Kraken’s existing Bitnomial products. Any launch would depend on the CFTC’s assessment of the contracts, market structure and safeguards presented by Payward.
A separate legal dispute could also affect how such products reach American customers. CME Group has challenged the CFTC’s treatment of perpetual contracts, arguing that they should be governed as swaps under the Dodd-Frank Act rather than listed as ordinary futures.
The perpetuals classification dispute began after the CFTC cleared Kalshi’s Bitcoin perpetual contract in May. CME’s position would place the products under a different regulatory framework, while the CFTC has argued that federal law does not require a futures contract to carry a fixed expiry date.
Payward’s proposal involving Hyperliquid technology remains before the CFTC, with no confirmed launch date, approved contract list, or final eligibility requirements for Bitnomial customers.
After holding a Hyperliquid [HYPE] position for a year, a whale has secured nearly $140 million in profit. That trade began a year ago, when the holder accumulated roughly 2.89 million HYPE when the token was trading near $17.35.
Rather than cashing in profits quickly, the whale staked the tokens before later selling at a higher profit. The whale recently completed its exit, moving 969,595 HYPE worth approximately $79.18 million to Coinbase Prime and FalconX exchanges for trade.
Source: X The sale cleared the whale’s remaining position after weeks of distribution, ending a highly profitable trade. More importantly for HYPE, that removes a major source of potential selling pressure. As a result, that leaves the market demand to absorb the final wave of distributed tokens.
Multicoin adds to HYPE’s sell-side pressure However, this whale exit seems less isolated, given that Multicoin Capital has been steadily decreasing their HYPE holdings. This is after they sold 75% of their peak position.
In total, Multicoin had acquired approximately 4 million HYPE in February and March. However, they have decreased that to just under 1 million over time.
The most recent four transactions deposited 404K HYPE worth roughly $34.2 million at Coinbase Prime. These deposits are important, as once an exchange becomes able to sell those deposit tokens, it will create additional supply on top of the aforementioned whale’s exit.
Source: X Meanwhile, Multicoin still retains $91 million in HYPE in their holdings. This remaining position could hit the open market.
Any further sales by Multicoin will test whether buyer demand is strong enough to absorb institutional selling pressure or force HYPE into even weaker territory.
That institutional selling now faces a new source of demand. This comes after Hashdex, a crypto asset manager, added HYPE to its NCIQ ETF. Hashdex allocated 3.4% of NCIQ to HYPE, creating roughly $14.7 million in exposure across 177,313 tokens.
Source: X However, Multicoin’s recent $21.7 million Coinbase Prime deposit already exceeded that entire position. Such an imbalance means ETF inclusion alone cannot absorb the full scale of institutional supply yet.
Moreover, the move of HYPE into the top five holdings of NCIQ will create a regular demand channel as money flows into this fund. That shift changes the setup from one-sided distribution toward a contest between new institutional demand and existing sellers.
Despite that, strong NCIQ inflows could narrow that gap. Meanwhile, continued whale deposits would keep supply dominant.
Final Summary Hyperliquid faces heavy distribution as whales and Multicoin realize profits and move tokens toward exchanges. Hashdex’s HYPE allocation adds institutional demand, but current ETF exposure remains smaller than major-holder selling.
Ansem on Shifting Mindsets Between Bull and Bear Markets: To Capture Maximum Profits in a Bull Market, You Have to Relearn to 'Dream'
Crypto trader Ansem says the hardest part of transitioning from a bear market to a bull market is that the strategies that helped you survive and profit in a bear market will end up losing you money in a bull market. If you’re still making money from short-term, high-frequency trading right now, that demonstrates strong trading skills. But to capture the largest gains of a bull market, you need to re-learn to "dream"—meaning daring to hold spot assets and embrace long-term positions. Ansem’s advice for those already profitable is to allocate a portion of their positions to long-term holdings, while using the remaining capital to continue short-term trading as usual. Meanwhile, Ansem once again posted to call for buying ZEC, stating that purchasing ZEC at $948 is equivalent to buying Bitcoin at $948. Per HTX market data, ZEC is currently trading at $948, with a 24-hour increase of over 16%.
5 hours ago
28x surge in a single day! Apple-linked meme coin ICOIN crosses $5.5 million in market cap
According to GMGN market data, Robinhood Chain’s crypto-stock meme token ICOIN has hit a market cap of over $5.5 million, reaching a recent high and approaching its all-time peak of $5.8 million. The token has rallied more than 28 times in 24 hours, with a trading volume of $8.9 million. ICOIN is paired with tokenized U.S. stock Apple (AAPL). BlockBeats Note: Crypto-stock meme (Stock Meme) is an emerging concept merging traditional meme coins with tokenized U.S. stocks. Unlike standard meme coins paired with USDT or ETH, these tokens form trading pairs directly with on-chain U.S. stock tokens (e.g., NVDA, TSLA, AAPL). This model retains meme coins’ high volatility and community-driven speculative traits while leveraging real stocks’ popularity and narratives. A portion of transaction fees often flows back to the community treasury to accumulate corresponding U.S. stock tokens, creating a dual-driven framework of "sentiment speculation + real asset anchoring". Price volatility is significant; investors should exercise caution.
5 hours ago
Robinhood-linked meme token NUDES hits a new all-time high as its market cap tops $23 million.
According to GMGN data, the stock-meme project NUDES on Robinhood Chain has hit a new all-time high with a market cap exceeding $23 million, surging over 113% in 24 hours and logging a trading volume of $13.9 million. NUDES is paired with tokenized US stock Snap, trading under the ticker SNAP. BlockBeats Note: Stock Meme is an emerging concept that combines traditional meme coins with tokenized US stocks: instead of pairing meme coins with USDT or ETH, they are matched directly with on-chain US stock tokens (such as NVDA, TSLA, AAPL, etc.). This model retains meme coins’ high volatility and community-driven speculative traits while leveraging the popularity and narrative of real stocks. A portion of transaction fees often flows back to the community treasury to accumulate corresponding US stock tokens, forming a dual-driven model of "sentiment speculation + real asset anchoring". Prices are highly volatile; investors should exercise caution.
5 hours ago
Jiang Zhuoer recapped his trading operations: He bought 4,000 ETH at the $2,380 bottom, but closed his position too early, missing out on potential profits.
Jiang Zhuoer, founder of BTC.TOP (莱比特矿池), shared his recent trading operations, announcing he will no longer trade ETH perpetual contracts, citing excessive candlestick wicks that disrupt his trading mindset. For instance, he bought 4,000 ETH at $2,380 last night in a bottom-fishing move, originally setting a take-profit order at $2,493. However, a sharp candlestick wick pushed ETH down to $2,367 this morning, prompting him to decide to close his position once ETH rebounded to $2,403. ETH indeed rallied to his $2,493 take-profit target tonight. Crucially, BTC’s candlestick did not have such a wick. Going forward, he plans to use WBETH as margin, trade BTC perpetual contracts without leverage (maxing out at a full position), and hold all funds in ETH spot when not actively trading.
5 hours ago
Oman Rejects Iran's Proposal to Impose Fees on the Strait of Hormuz
According to a New York Post report, Oman has quietly rejected Iran’s proposal to charge commercial vessels fees in the Strait of Hormuz. A regional official with knowledge of the matter stated that Oman refused to agree to collecting environmental and security fees, even if they were voluntary. Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Corps’ earlier claim that the two sides had reached an agreement is untrue. A U.S. official noted that the terms of Iran’s proposed revenue-sharing agreement had not even been finalized by Tehran. Earlier, after Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian and Omani Foreign Minister Badr bin Hamad Al Busaidi held talks in Tehran, Revolutionary Guard Corps spokesperson Hossein said the two countries had reached an agreement on the division of waters in the Strait of Hormuz and revenue sharing.
5 hours ago
Global AI Outage Tracker: Claude Service Back to Normal, ChatGPT and Codex See High Error Rates, Grok Remains Offline
Beating AI News Flash: OpenAI’s official status page shows ChatGPT and Codex are experiencing elevated error rates; mitigation measures have been implemented, and recovery is currently being monitored. Claude’s official status page indicates its services have now returned to normal. Earlier today, multi-model error rates spiked, affecting Mythos/Fable 5.1, Mythos/Fable 5, Opus 5, 4.8, and 4.6. The company announced at 00:16 UTC+8 that the impact has ended, with web, console, API, Claude Code, and Cowork all currently operational. Grok’s official status page shows Grok’s main user-facing entry remains down. Services currently in outage include: Grok iOS, Grok Android, Grok web version, Grok Build, Office/Workspace plugins, East Coast API (us-east-1.api.x.ai), West Coast API (us-west-2.api.x.ai), and X-integrated Grok. Available services include: login, Europe API (eu-west-1.api.x.ai), API Console, Docs, and the xAI official website.
A meme coin launchpad called Pons generated nearly $6 million in fees Thursday, outearning Pump (CRYPTO: PUMP), Hyperliquid, and the Robinhood (NASDAQ:HOOD) Chain it runs on.
Pons Turns $1 Token Launches Into a $6 Million Fee MachineAccording to CoinDesk, Pons lets anyone create and launch a tradable token on Robinhood Chain for about $1.
Once launched, Pons collects a cut of every subsequent trade, splitting revenue between the protocol and token creators.
Nearly 25,000 new tokens launched through the platform on September 2 alone, up 19% from the prior day, with 24-hour trading volume hitting $544 million.
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Since July, Pons has produced roughly 646,000 tokens from more than 167,000 unique creator addresses.
The platform also uses a portion of its retained fees to buy and burn its own PONS token, removing 29% of the original supply from circulation. That buyback mechanism likely contributed to PONS surging 300% over the past week.
How It Stacks Up Against the CompetitionDefiLlama data cited by CoinDesk shows Pons ranked fourth by 24-hour fees across all tracked protocols, sitting behind only Tether (CRYPTO: USDT), Uniswap (CRYPTO: UNI), and Circle (NYSE:CRCL).
Pump generated $4.64 million over the same period, Robinhood Chain itself took about $4 million, and Hyperliquid as measured by Hyperliquid Strategies (NASDAQ:PURR) brought in roughly $2 million.
Wednesday was Robinhood Chain’s biggest single day ever, with roughly one-fifth of its entire lifetime fee total since July arriving in a single 24-hour period.
Why This Matters for RobinhoodRobinhood launched its Layer-2 chain in July around tokenized stocks, but memecoins have become the dominant fee driver.
CEO Vlad Tenev acknowledged on the Q2 earnings call that outside developers were already building on the network “in ways that we have not thought of.”
CFO Shiv Verma added that the company earns a few basis points per transaction rather than per volume, splitting roughly half with Arbitrum (CRYPTO: ARB), making transaction count the more meaningful metric than raw fee dollars.
On Thursday, HOOD surged more than 15% as Bitcoin pushed toward $80,000, with Morgan Stanley upgrading the stock this week on broader product growth.
The stock now trades about 21% above its 20-day moving average at $101.78 and roughly 29.6% above its 200-day moving average at $95.06, putting it in extended territory after a sharp run.
4 September 2026 | 00:36 Hyperliquid is testing an optional way for individual perpetual markets to admit approved wallets only, while leaving the protocol’s existing open markets unchanged.
Key Takeaways HIP-3* adds optional wallet-level market access. Existing HIP-3 markets remain open. Deployers manage approved wallets on-chain. An allowlist is not regulatory approval. The first version remains on testnet. HIP-3* does not close Hyperliquid’s existing markets “Permissioned markets” can sound like a plan to restrict Hyperliquid itself. HIP-3* is more limited. It gives the operator of one perpetual market the option to restrict that market to approved wallets, without applying the same rule to every venue on the protocol.
Under HIP-3’s existing design, qualified third parties can deploy perpetual venues on HyperCore. They set the contract specifications, choose the oracle methodology, establish leverage parameters and operate the market.
HIP-3* would add a further choice to that setup: the deployer could keep a market open to every wallet or apply an on-chain allowlist. Existing HIP-3 venues would not be converted into restricted products, and new deployers could still choose the original open model.
What HIP-3* adds
A deployer can limit trading in a chosen market to wallets included on its approved list.
What remains the same
The protocol stays open, and HIP-3 markets that do not activate the option continue without wallet restrictions.
The access decision sits with the deployer HIP-3 already separates Hyperliquid’s infrastructure from the markets built on it. Hyperliquid supplies the on-chain order books, margining and trade execution; the deployer is responsible for the product it introduces. HIP-3* extends that division of responsibilities to entry rules.
Who controls what under HIP-3*
Hyperliquid
Provides HyperCore’s order books, margining and trade execution.
Deployer
Defines and operates the product, then chooses whether to apply wallet access controls.
Trader
Can use a restricted product only after the operator approves the relevant wallet.
One operator could therefore create a market for approved participants while another offers a fully open market on the same underlying infrastructure. That flexibility, rather than permissioning itself, is the central change.
An approved wallet does not equal a verified investor An allowlist answers one narrow question on-chain: may this wallet trade this market? It does not prove who controls the wallet, why that person is eligible or whether the product complies with the rules in a particular jurisdiction.
Any operator that wants to serve verified or institution-only clients would still need an off-chain process for eligibility, customer checks, disclosures and legal compliance. HIP-3* could enforce the outcome of that process at the wallet level, but it does not replace the process itself.
This is why the proposal should not be presented as a U.S. launch or as regulatory approval for Hyperliquid. That distinction also matters after Hyperliquid-related representatives met the SEC Crypto Task Force: the meeting showed regulatory engagement, not permission for HIP-3 markets to serve U.S. traders.
What the change could mean for traders Restricted access may make some markets possible that would otherwise require an operator to build its own exchange infrastructure. A specialist venue could use HyperCore’s execution layer while applying its own customer or risk requirements around a particular product.
For an approved trader, the potential advantage is access to that market through the same on-chain environment instead of moving collateral and activity to a separate platform. The benefit is availability, however, not an automatic improvement in execution.
Permissioned access cannot create liquidity A restricted market can still have wide spreads, a shallow order book or a weak oracle design. It can also carry the same leverage and liquidation risks as any other perpetual product. An approved wallet should therefore never be mistaken for a quality signal.
In practice, the trader still needs to assess the operator, the contract’s reference price, the leverage available and the market’s liquidity. Those factors determine whether a position can be entered and exited efficiently, especially when price volatility rises.
What traders should check before using a restricted market If HIP-3* reaches mainnet, access status will become another market condition to understand before trading. It should sit alongside familiar checks such as leverage, funding, liquidity and the quality of the underlying price feed.
The approved wallet: Confirm that the address holding collateral is the address the operator has authorised. The operator: Read its market documentation and understand who controls the contract and price inputs. Access-rule changes: Check how the operator handles updates to its list, particularly when users have open orders or positions. Available liquidity: Limited participation can affect order-book depth, spreads and the ability to close during volatility. The underlying exposure: A perpetual tracks a price; it does not confer ownership, dividends or shareholder rights in a referenced asset. That final point is particularly important for non-crypto markets. A contract can reference a stock, commodity or index without giving its holder the rights attached to the underlying security or physical asset.
Testnet will show whether the model is workable The first HIP-3* version is live on testnet. That shows the idea has reached implementation, but it is not a completed mainnet rollout and does not identify a launch partner or a specific restricted market.
The next questions are operational: how deployers will update allowlists, how interfaces will explain access limits, and whether markets that choose the option can build dependable liquidity.
HIP-3 made perpetual-market deployment permissionless. HIP-3* adds a more targeted decision, allowing each deployer to keep a market open to every wallet or set its own boundary around participation.
The article is provided for informational purposes only and does not constitute investment advice.
Author
Kosta has reported on cryptocurrency markets and blockchain infrastructure since 2020, bringing over six years of hands-on experience in the crypto industry built through daily tracking of markets, trends, and emerging blockchain developments. Specializing in Bitcoin on-chain analysis, institutional ETF flows, and digital asset price action, his work at Coindoo has been cited by other news agencies and consistently covers market developments with a focus on data-driven reporting across Bitcoin, Ethereum, Solana, and XRP. Over the years, Kosta has contributed to multiple crypto media outlets in different regions, authoring over 6,000 articles across the sector. His reporting spans cryptocurrency markets and the broader fintech industry, tracking not only price action but also the technological and regulatory forces shaping the ecosystem. To support his analysis, Kosta actively leverages on-chain data and metrics from leading platforms such as Santiment, Glassnode, and CryptoQuant, enabling deeper, evidence-based market insights. He believes in the power of transparency and the data that underpins the blockchain ecosystem. His academic background in Marketing Management from Denmark further complements his analytical approach, adding a strong understanding of communication strategy and content positioning to his work.
Not financial or tax advice. PANews content is strictly educational and informational and is not investment advice, financial advice, tax advice, legal advice, or a solicitation to buy or sell any digital asset, security, or financial product. Do your own research and consult qualified advisers.
Disclosure. PANews may publish sponsored content, partner content, advertisements, affiliate links, event promotions, and market commentary involving Web3 projects, service providers, or financial products. PANews personnel, contributors, or affiliates may hold digital assets or other interests related to covered topics. See our Terms of Service.
Binance is rolling its USD1 stablecoin airdrop program into yet another four-week stretch, offering holders an estimated annualized yield of roughly 6%. The new campaign window runs from September 4 through October 2, 2026, with 150 million WLFI tokens up for grabs across weekly distributions.
How the airdrop works Users who maintain a net positive USD1 balance across eligible account types, including Spot, Funding, Margin, and USDM Futures accounts, qualify for a proportional share of the weekly WLFI token distribution.
Binance applies haircuts to positions funded by borrowing other stablecoins like USDT or USDC. So if you’re trying to game the system by borrowing one stablecoin to hold another, the math won’t work in your favor.
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There’s also a 1.2x bonus multiplier available for certain accounts based on collateral holdings. That bumps the effective boosted APR to approximately 6.33% in recent rounds, according to Binance’s campaign disclosures.
The 150 million WLFI token pool for this round represents a step down from earlier campaigns in 2026. Binance offered 178 million WLFI tokens during a June-to-July extension and a larger 235 million WLFI pool back in February and March.
A year of sustained USD1 incentives Binance has been running variations of the USD1 airdrop program since early 2026, making it one of the exchange’s most persistent incentive campaigns in recent memory.
World Liberty Financial, the issuer behind USD1, has its own motivations for the partnership. Distributing WLFI governance tokens through Binance’s user base is an efficient way to decentralize token ownership while simultaneously building a holder community.
What this means for the stablecoin landscape A 6% annualized yield on a dollar-pegged asset is compelling, but the yield is paid in WLFI tokens, not in USD1 or dollars. That means the actual return depends on WLFI’s market price at the time of distribution and whenever the holder decides to sell. A token that drops 50% in value effectively cuts that 6% yield to 3%, or worse.
The trend line of shrinking token pools, from 235 million to 178 million to 150 million, suggests the exchange may be gradually reducing its subsidies as USD1 adoption grows organically.
Disclosure: This article was edited by Editorial Team. For more information on how we create and review content, see our Editorial Policy.
New Campaign Runs Through October 2@binance has launched another four-week leg of its USD1 stablecoin airdrop, keeping the program alive through October 2, 2026. There is no individual cap on rewards.
A Shrinking Pool, but a Persistent Program The previous round, which wraps on September 4, carried a pool of 170 million tokens.
USD1 is issued by World Liberty Financial, a DeFi platform associated with the Trump family.
Sources
Binance Official Announcement: Extension to the USD1 Airdrop Campaign
BusinessWire: World Liberty Financial Plans to Launch USD1
Crypto Briefing: Binance Renews USD1 Airdrop for Another Four Weeks
Cover image via U.Today Disclaimer: The opinions expressed by our writers are their own and do not represent the views of U.Today. The financial and market information provided on U.Today is intended for informational purposes only. U.Today is not liable for any financial losses incurred while trading cryptocurrencies. Conduct your own research by contacting financial experts before making any investment decisions. We believe that all content is accurate as of the date of publication, but certain offers mentioned may no longer be available.
Bitcoin has pushed decisively back above its closely watched 50-week moving average.
The bulls could be on the verge of a potential test of the $82,000-$83,000 resistance zone.
BTC climbed as high as $81,797 on the daily chart before pulling back slightly, with the latest price around $81,400.
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This is a daily gain of more than 5% over 24 hours.
Galaxy Research has stated that "all eyes" are currently on the 50-week moving average.
That level has become particularly important because Bitcoin spent much of the past year below it.
The 50-week ceilingBitcoin peaked above $124,000 in late 2025 before its unfortunate decline. The subsequent downtrend produced a sequence of lower highs and lower lows. During that decline, the 50-week simple moving average became a major resistance level.
Galaxy Research currently puts it around $81,041.
In fact, Bitcoin already attempted this breakout in late August. It briefly reached $81,265 on Aug. 25 but was rejected around the 50-week average, which was then approximately $81,085.
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However, the move appears to be much stronger now. BTC has produced a powerful daily candle through the area. That makes the weekly close especially important.
The 50-week moving average is considered to be the "ceiling" during Bitcoin bear markets. During past bear markets, the weekly close would generally remain beneath the aforementioned level until the bear market was close to ending.
Derivatives markets are adding fuelCoinGlass data show that the move is occurring alongside extremely heavy derivatives activity.
Bitcoin's 24-hour futures volume stands at roughly $84.74 billion. Open interest has risen to about $57.86 billion.
That is a huge amount of leverage sitting around the market.
Approximately $229.56 million in BTC positions have been liquidated over the past 24 hours, including $214.81 million in short positions versus only $14.74 million in longs.
U.S. congressman French Hill expressed the importance of bipartisan support to get the long-awaited crypto market structure bill, the Clarity Act, over the line before the midterms.
The lawmaker told Fox Business Thursday that Democrats and Republicans have come to “narrow their differences in getting the bill drafted.
Pro-crypto lawmakers were hoping the Clarity Act passed before Congress departed for August recess. After a delay, a vote will now go ahead on September 15.
WATCH: Chairman @RepFrenchHill on the importance of passing the Clarity Act:
"…we passed the CLARITY Act in the House last summer with 78 Democratic votes. It is time for the Senate to join us and pass the CLARITY Act. Members on both sides of the aisle in the Senate have… pic.twitter.com/GMva1XOTDK
— Financial Services GOP (@FinancialCmte) September 3, 2026 “Can Democrats work with Republicans and make sure America leads the world in distributed ledger technology and financial services?” Hill said.
“This one remaining significant issue is the ethics provision, and that is best solved by passing the legislation because everybody — no matter what family they belong to, the Trumps or not — would then be under a regulatory framework fully scrutinized by the United States government in commodity and securities and banking regulators,” he added.
The Clarity Act was first introduced by Hill, the House Financial Services Chairman, last year.
Crypto companies have long called for clear regulations for the industry. The Clarity Act drafts a framework to formally divide oversight between regulators, distinguishing which digital assets are securities, commodities or stablecoins.
The House of Representatives passed the bill last July but it has been stalled this year, mostly because the banking lobby clashed with crypto companies over paying customers stablecoin yield.
A new draft tackling the issue of ethics started circulating in July. It bans government officials from promoting or making money from crypto — something Democrats have criticized the Trump family for doing.
A group of Democrats said the bill fell short and wanted amendments. Some were accused of deliberately holding it back by Republicans like Cynthia Lummis.
Some have praised the bipartisan work that has already gone into the bill, namely Coinbase, America’s biggest crypto exchange. The company’s Chief Policy Officer, Faryar Shirzad, said in July that while some Democratic lawmakers were holding back the long-awaited legislation, younger Democrats wanted to pass it.
President Donald Trump in August said that in order for the U.S. to remain the “undisputed leader in Bitcoin and crypto,” lawmakers had to pass the “very, very powerful legislation.”
Mathew Di Salvo
Mathew is a reporter who's covered the space since 2019, reporting on everything from Salvadoran president Nayib Bukele's Bitcoin bet to crypto exchange FTX's bankruptcy.
Bitcoin has suddenly rocketed higher, building on its mid-August pump to come with touching distance of $82,000 per bitcoin as traders brace for a “panic” price shock.
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The bitcoin price, which has languished at around 50% of its October 2025 peak of $126,000 for most of this year, has broken out amid fears the U.S. dollar is on the verge of “death spiral.”
Now, as U.S. Treasury secretary Scott Bessent could be about to make a historic intervention in global markets, traders are betting U.S. money printing is about to catapult the bitcoin price higher.
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ForbesElon Musk’s $40 Trillion Nightmare Is Suddenly Coming True As The Bitcoin Price SoarsBy Billy Bambrough
U.S. Treasury secretary Scott Bessent speaks with US Federal Reserve chair Kevin Warsh ahead of a bitcoin price surge.
AFP via Getty Images
“This is what bitcoin and crypto is made for, right? It’s liquidity expansion,” Arthur Hayes, a cofounder of the bitcoin and crypto derivatives pioneer BitMex who now runs the Maelstrom Fund, told the podcaster Kyle Chasse.
“I think we’re going to have more money printing in the 2028 to 2030 time period than we had in the 2009 to 2011,” Hayes said, adding that “magnitude of amount of credit that’s coming will dwarf the subprime crisis.”
Hayes, who expects the Federal Reserve to “print early, print often, print big” in response to the artificial intelligence revolution stalling, predicted the bitcoin price could rocket 10-times to around a $1 million bitcoin price before 2030 as “trillions” of dollars hit the market.
Bitcoin’s price rally to near-$82,000 comes as traders dial back expectations of a Federal Reserve interest rate hike in September after Federal Reserve governor Christopher Waller said he’d be “inclined to support” holding rates steady barring any surprises in upcoming inflation data.
Traders had priced the likelihood of a Fed interest rate hike as high as 70% earlier this week, though they are now split 50/50 on whether policy makers will hold or hike rates at the September 16 meeting.
Meanwhile, Treasury secretary Bessent’s surprise promise of bond market support, designed to lower the cost of borrowing, sent shockwaves through the market last month and reignited the so-called debasement trade that powered gold and bitcoin to all-time highs last year.
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Forbes‘Get Ready’—Bitcoin Is Suddenly Hurtling Toward A ‘Huge’ Money Printing Price ShockBy Billy Bambrough
The bitcoin price has rocketed higher in recent weeks, triggering a wave of bullish bitcoin price predictions.
Forbes Digital Assets
“What we’re seeing now with bitcoin, gold and other assets is consistent with the debasement trade in action,” Richard Green, head of institutional at bitcoin developer RootstockLabs, said in emailed comments.
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“Yes, yields have been elevated and, yes, the rising debt burden is driving this. But the market knows this. More specifically, the market increasingly expects policymakers to intervene if financial conditions become sufficiently strained. Because of this, the closer those conditions get to crisis levels, the more investors allocate capital towards assets, particularly hard assets.”
Earlier this week, analysts with the brokerage Bernstein predicted the spiraling, $40 trillion U.S. debt pile and ongoing inflation could send the bitcoin price to $300,000 by 2029.
“Following our price-to-marginal cost framework, we would expect the next market peak to be $300,000 by 2029 and the market recovering to [a] new all-time high of $150,000 by mid-2027,” analyst Gautam Chhugani wrote in a note seen by CNBC.
Bitcoin prices rallied on Thursday, September 3, breaking through the $80,000 level and registering notable gains.
The world’s most prominent digital currency climbed to $81,812.31, according to Coinbase data from TradingView. At this point, it was up more than 6.3% after falling to $76,929.29 earlier in the day.
When asked to explain the latest price movements, several analysts highlighted comments made by Federal Reserve Governor Christopher Waller, who stated that he would be “inclined” to keep benchmark rates steady later this month when central bank policy policymakers convene, according to The Financial Times.
“While inflation remains meaningfully above the Federal Open Market Committee’s (FOMC) 2 percent goal, recent data suggest we are finally seeing some signs of disinflation,” he stated. “If this continues in the data due over the next two weeks, I would be inclined to support holding the target for the federal funds rate at its current setting."
Following this development, Treasury yields fell and the U.S. dollar declined relative to other currencies, according to The Financial Times.
Ryan Myher, COO of Genius Terminal, commented on these developments.
“Bitcoin moved sharply higher on Thursday after Federal Reserve Governor Chris Waller said he could support leaving interest rates unchanged at next month’s meeting if incoming inflation data continues to move in the right direction,” he stated via email.
“The comments reassured investors that the Fed may not need to tighten monetary policy further, prompting markets to quickly scale back expectations of a September rate hike,” noted Myher. “That shift weakened the US dollar and pushed Treasury yields lower, creating a more favourable environment for Bitcoin and other risk assets.”
Erin Gambrel, head of financial services at Corgi, offered a similar take.
“This was largely a macro-driven move,” he stated through emailed commentary. “A lot of today’s move comes back to interest rates.”
“Waller’s comments helped ease fears of another Fed hike, Treasury yields fell, and the dollar weakened,” said Gambrel. “All of that gave investors more reason to buy Bitcoin.”
William Stern, founder of Cardiff, also spoke to macro factors.
“I think the actual drivers are pretty mundane by crypto standards; a dovish Fed signal that crushed rate hike bets and the 10 year yield easing off," he said through emailed input.
“Something to pay attention to is that MicroStrategy reportedly got back in the water and reportedly resumed a $370M buying spree,” added Stern. “All in all, great signals.”
Going forward, Paul Howard, senior director at Wincent, offered a bullish outlook.
“Bitcoin breaking the $80k wall, fuelled by $100m of ETF inflows and OTC activity was enough to banish the bears ahead of US economic data,” he noted via email.
“The risk of follow through activity is now subject to what happens with the upcoming CLARITY Act; however, looking at on-chain data, including a memecoin revival on the RobinHood chain the foundations look in place for what many including myself have expected: a steady ascent back to $100k before year-end.”
Bitcoin prices rallied on Thursday, September 3, breaking through the $80,000 level and registering notable gains.
The world’s most prominent digital currency climbed to $81,812.31, according to Coinbase data from TradingView. At this point, it was up more than 6.3% after falling to $76,929.29 earlier in the day.
When asked to explain the latest price movements, several analysts highlighted comments made by Federal Reserve Governor Christopher Waller, who stated that he would be “inclined” to keep benchmark rates steady later this month when central bank policy policymakers convene, according to The Financial Times.
“While inflation remains meaningfully above the Federal Open Market Committee’s (FOMC) 2 percent goal, recent data suggest we are finally seeing some signs of disinflation,” he stated. “If this continues in the data due over the next two weeks, I would be inclined to support holding the target for the federal funds rate at its current setting."
Following this development, Treasury yields fell and the U.S. dollar declined relative to other currencies, according to The Financial Times.
Ryan Myher, COO of Genius Terminal, commented on these developments.
“Bitcoin moved sharply higher on Thursday after Federal Reserve Governor Chris Waller said he could support leaving interest rates unchanged at next month’s meeting if incoming inflation data continues to move in the right direction,” he stated via email.
“The comments reassured investors that the Fed may not need to tighten monetary policy further, prompting markets to quickly scale back expectations of a September rate hike,” noted Myher. “That shift weakened the US dollar and pushed Treasury yields lower, creating a more favourable environment for Bitcoin and other risk assets.”
Erin Gambrel, head of financial services at Corgi, offered a similar take.
“This was largely a macro-driven move,” he stated through emailed commentary. “A lot of today’s move comes back to interest rates.”
“Waller’s comments helped ease fears of another Fed hike, Treasury yields fell, and the dollar weakened,” said Gambrel. “All of that gave investors more reason to buy Bitcoin.”
William Stern, founder of Cardiff, also spoke to macro factors.
“I think the actual drivers are pretty mundane by crypto standards; a dovish Fed signal that crushed rate hike bets and the 10 year yield easing off," he said through emailed input.
“Something to pay attention to is that MicroStrategy reportedly got back in the water and reportedly resumed a $370M buying spree,” added Stern. “All in all, great signals.”
Going forward, Paul Howard, senior director at Wincent, offered a bullish outlook.
“Bitcoin breaking the $80k wall, fuelled by $100m of ETF inflows and OTC activity was enough to banish the bears ahead of US economic data,” he noted via email.
“The risk of follow through activity is now subject to what happens with the upcoming CLARITY Act; however, looking at on-chain data, including a memecoin revival on the RobinHood chain the foundations look in place for what many including myself have expected: a steady ascent back to $100k before year-end.”
Cryptocurrency analyst Benjamin Cowen on Wednesday argued that unlike commonly assumed, Bitcoin (CRYPTO: BTC) does not rise with M2 money supply, which explains weakness against equities.
Global Net Liquidity Explains Bitcoin’s Five-Year LagCowen detailed on his podcast how rising M2 does not guarantee Bitcoin rallying.
M2 measures cash and readily available deposits across the financial system. It reached record highs in 2014, 2018 and 2022, yet Bitcoin still suffered major declines during those years.
The metric Cowen tracks instead is global net liquidity, which combines the balance sheets of major central banks including the Federal Reserve, ECB, and the central banks of Japan, China, and the UK, then subtracts money parked in the Fed’s reverse repo facility and the U.S. Treasury General Account.
That number currently sits around $25 trillion, well below the $30 trillion peak in 2021 and 2022, leaving a $5 trillion gap that Cowen argued fully explains why Bitcoin has lagged equities despite M2 continuing to climb.
Why Cowen Sees 2019 as the Closest Market ParallelCowen drew a direct parallel to 2019, when M2 rose, stocks hit all-time highs, and Bitcoin still dropped because global net liquidity was not expanding.
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Bitcoin only reversed when the pandemic forced central banks to flood the system with real liquidity.
The current cycle mirrors that setup but on a larger scale, with AI-driven mega-cap strength keeping the S&P 500 (NYSE:SPY) elevated and removing any pressure on central banks to act.
“The reason why Bitcoin has been stuck in traffic on Struggle Street for the last five years is because net liquidity remains low,” Cowen said.
Central Bank Expansion Could End Bitcoin’s UnderperformanceCowen noted that Bitcoin’s shallow drawdown this cycle, far milder than the 75% to 85% crashes of prior bears, actually supports his thesis.
The market topped on apathy rather than euphoria because net liquidity never ran hot enough to fuel a real speculative blowoff.
The trigger for Bitcoin’s next outperformance cycle is straightforward: central banks need a reason to expand balance sheets again. Until that happens, Bitcoin keeps lagging equities.
“The paradox is resolved,” Cowen said. “The answer was always there and it’s been there since 2019.”
Bitcoin has vaulted above its closely monitored 50-week moving average after a period of sustained upward movement, marking a potentially pivotal turn in the digital asset’s trend.
50-week moving average reclaimedBTC surged to an intraday high of $81,797 before trading modestly lower near $81,400 late in the session. This represents a daily advance of over 5% as bulls attempt to maintain momentum toward the $82,000 to $83,000 resistance range.
According to Galaxy Research, “all eyes” have turned to the 50-week moving average, a technical level that gained heightened significance after Bitcoin spent much of the last year trading below it. This moving average historically acts as a barrier during market downturns.
BTC’s ability to close the week above this level could signal the end of the prolonged bearish trend seen in previous cycles, where the weekly close typically remained beneath the 50-week moving average until bear markets concluded.
Earlier, Bitcoin attempted a breakout above the 50-week moving average at the end of August, briefly touching $81,265 on August 25 before facing resistance near $81,085. This time, the move appears more robust, supported by a notable daily candle through the resistance zone, increasing focus on the importance of the coming weekly close.
Derivatives markets reach record levelsHeavy activity in derivatives is accompanying Bitcoin’s price action. Data from CoinGlass indicate that 24-hour futures trading volume has reached approximately $84.74 billion, with open interest rising to around $57.86 billion.
These elevated figures point to significant leverage being deployed in the market, magnifying both potential gains and risks for traders.
Liquidations in Bitcoin positions totaled roughly $229.56 million over the past 24 hours. Short sellers bore the brunt, accounting for $214.81 million of the liquidations, while longs saw $14.74 million in forced exits.
MetricValueBTC intraday high$81,79724h futures volume$84.74 billionOpen interest$57.86 billionTotal liquidations (24h)$229.56 millionShort liquidations (24h)$214.81 millionLong liquidations (24h)$14.74 millionDerivatives markets, which allow traders to take leveraged positions on future price movements, can quickly amplify volatility and lead to rapid liquidations in the face of sharp price swings.
Mini dictionary: CoinGlass is a crypto data analytics platform specializing in derivatives market statistics, including open interest, liquidations, and trading volumes.
Bulls focus on resistance aheadAfter peaking above $124,000 in late 2025 and subsequently entering a multi-month decline, Bitcoin has faced repeated struggles to regain bullish momentum. Technical analysts are closely monitoring price action as the $82,000 to $83,000 zone now serves as the next significant resistance area.
The combination of a weekly close above the 50-week moving average and high leverage in derivatives markets are creating a closely watched environment for both short-term traders and long-term investors.
If Bitcoin can sustain this move and secure a weekly close above the 50-week mark, it could signal a shift in market sentiment and open the door for further upside toward the next technical resistance.
TLDR: Bitcoin-gold correlation hits its highest level since 2020, per Bitwise Asset Management data. Bitcoin surged 22.4% weekly after Treasury Secretary Bessent’s bond market intervention in August. Bitcoin’s correlation with the Nasdaq-100 dropped to a one-year low, weakening its risk-asset label. Gold’s $30 trillion market could reprice bitcoin if the correlation trend with debasement hedging holds. Bitcoin’s correlation with gold just hit a six-year high, according to new research from Bitwise Asset Management. The 90-day rolling correlation between the two assets has climbed to its strongest level since 2020, when pandemic-era stimulus reshaped global markets.
Bitwise says the shift signals a change in how investors view bitcoin, moving it closer to gold’s traditional role as a store of value during periods of macro stress.
Bitwise tracked the relationship using Bloomberg data spanning from April 2015 through August 2026. The current reading matches levels last seen during the Covid-19 stimulus era. That earlier period also involved heavy government intervention in financial markets.
August marked a turning point for this correlation. U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent stepped into the bond market after yields on 10- and 30-year Treasuries climbed. The move stirred concerns about financial repression and yield curve control.
Bitcoin posted its largest weekly gain since March 2024 following the intervention, rising 22.4%. Gold gained roughly 5% over the same period while equities fell. Bitwise says both assets moved together in a way that stood out statistically.
What’s Driving the Bitcoin-Gold Relationship Bitwise’s official account shared the findings, noting that when macro conditions dominate headlines, investors tend to stop choosing between gold and bitcoin. Instead, many allocators are buying both assets at once.
Bitcoin's correlation with gold just hit a six-year high.
The last time it was this high was 2020, after the Covid stimulus.
When macro dominates, many investors stop choosing between gold and bitcoin.
They buy both.
In this week's CIO memo, @Andre_Dragosch explains why… pic.twitter.com/YHnvXp9KN5
— Bitwise (@Bitwise) September 3, 2026
The firm’s Europe research director, André Dragosch, authored the analysis. He pointed to bitcoin’s declining correlation with the Nasdaq-100, which has dropped to a one-year low. That trend weakens the argument that bitcoin simply tracks tech stock sentiment.
Bitcoin also remains negatively correlated with the U.S. Dollar Index. Bitwise explains that dollar weakness tends to align with bitcoin strength, a pattern gold has exhibited for decades during currency pressure.
Why the Six-Year High Matters for Investors Bitwise cautions that bitcoin and gold remain different assets despite the recent convergence. Gold has served as a store of value for thousands of years, while bitcoin was created less than two decades ago.
Still, the firm argues that rising correlation during stressful macro periods carries weight. Gold’s market is valued near $30 trillion, built by central banks and institutional allocators over generations.
If bitcoin continues moving toward this category, Bitwise suggests it could eventually be priced against a much larger capital base. That would mark a shift from its historical pricing as a venture-style risk asset toward something closer to a macro hedge.
In brief Hyperscale Data stopped Bitcoin mining at its Michigan data center on September 1. The AI agreement could generate more than $1.2 billion over 20 years if the customer exercises both extensions. The company plans to sell its mining servers as it prepares the facility for AI operations. Hyperscale Data shut down Bitcoin mining operations at its Michigan data center on Tuesday to make room for an AI customer whose contract could generate more than $1.2 billion over 20 years, the company said.
In an announcement on Wednesday, Hyperscale said the previously announced deal could generate more than $1.2 billion if the customer exercises both five-year extensions to the initial 10-year term. The agreement covers 20 megawatts of capacity for an unnamed California-based provider of cloud computing services for AI.
Myriad: How high will Nvidia stock go? Click to make your prediction.“The immediate shutdown of the Bitcoin mining operations allows our team to focus the Facility's power, infrastructure and resources in preparing the Facility for its usage by our Customer,” CEO William Horne said in the announcement.
According to Hyperscale, the agreement gives the customer an option to add 32 megawatts within the first two years. The company said exercising that option and both five-year extensions could bring total contract revenue above $3 billion.
“Further, as the expansion of the Facility to support AI computing infrastructure progresses, it is my belief that our stockholders will be rewarded as the Company's market capitalization, which currently trades at a significant discount to other data center companies, begins to normalize in comparison to its available contracted power capacity,” Horne added.
Hyperscale plans to sell the mining servers and expects gains from those sales. It did not announce a start date for AI operations, and the mining shutdown concerns the Michigan site.
Other miners have been converting sites to serve AI customers. VanEck’s head of digital asset research, Matthew Sigel, argued in March that miners are “sitting on a gold mine " and could profit from repurposing their infrastructure as demand for AI computing grows.
The cost of that shift, however, can be substantial, as was evident in IREN’s quarterly results released last month: AI cloud revenue surpassed Bitcoin mining revenue for the first time, but the company also wrote down $450.4 million in asset values, mostly tied to mining equipment it had retired.
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In brief Hyperscale Data stopped Bitcoin mining at its Michigan data center on September 1. The AI agreement could generate more than $1.2 billion over 20 years if the customer exercises both extensions. The company plans to sell its mining servers as it prepares the facility for AI operations. Hyperscale Data shut down Bitcoin mining operations at its Michigan data center on Tuesday to make room for an AI customer whose contract could generate more than $1.2 billion over 20 years, the company said.
In an announcement on Wednesday, Hyperscale said the previously announced deal could generate more than $1.2 billion if the customer exercises both five-year extensions to the initial 10-year term. The agreement covers 20 megawatts of capacity for an unnamed California-based provider of cloud computing services for AI.
Myriad: How high will Nvidia stock go? Click to make your prediction.“The immediate shutdown of the Bitcoin mining operations allows our team to focus the Facility's power, infrastructure and resources in preparing the Facility for its usage by our Customer,” CEO William Horne said in the announcement.
According to Hyperscale, the agreement gives the customer an option to add 32 megawatts within the first two years. The company said exercising that option and both five-year extensions could bring total contract revenue above $3 billion.
“Further, as the expansion of the Facility to support AI computing infrastructure progresses, it is my belief that our stockholders will be rewarded as the Company's market capitalization, which currently trades at a significant discount to other data center companies, begins to normalize in comparison to its available contracted power capacity,” Horne added.
Hyperscale plans to sell the mining servers and expects gains from those sales. It did not announce a start date for AI operations, and the mining shutdown concerns the Michigan site.
Other miners have been converting sites to serve AI customers. VanEck’s head of digital asset research, Matthew Sigel, argued in March that miners are “sitting on a gold mine " and could profit from repurposing their infrastructure as demand for AI computing grows.
The cost of that shift, however, can be substantial, as was evident in IREN’s quarterly results released last month: AI cloud revenue surpassed Bitcoin mining revenue for the first time, but the company also wrote down $450.4 million in asset values, mostly tied to mining equipment it had retired.
Daily Debrief NewsletterStart every day with the top news stories right now, plus original features, a podcast, videos and more.
Bitcoin’s correlation with gold is at its highest in six years as investors increasingly look for ways to hedge against currency debasement.
That’s according to a new report from Bitwise, which this week pointed out that the precious metal and leading cryptocurrency are trading in lockstep because the U.S. government has “materially intervened in the macro picture.”
Bitcoin started surging last month, after the U.S. Treasury Department said it would more than double the size of its government debt repurchases. The coin had its best run in three years and third best August ever.
JUST IN: Bitcoin's correlation with gold hit a six-year high, according to Bitwise 👀
"The last time it was this high was 2020, after the Covid stimulus." 🚀 pic.twitter.com/fHtQUlR9Ol
— Bitcoin Magazine (@BitcoinMagazine) September 3, 2026 “The last time the bitcoin-gold correlation was that high was in 2020, following the rounds of fiscal and monetary stimulus during the Covid crisis,” Bitwise’s European Head of Research, André Dragosch, wrote.
He added that bitcoin’s correlation with the stock market dropped to a one-year low, “implying some kind of decoupling between hard assets and the stock market.”
Bitcoin has been pushed as “digital gold” for years but has sometimes traded with tech stocks as a “risk-on” asset.
But the so-called debasement trade — when investors buy an asset as a way to hedge against a currency losing value — was a much-talked about investment strategy last year and appears to be back.
The reason is down to the government intervening in markets, Dragosch argued. When the Treasury said it would try to rein in long-term borrowing costs, the dollar’s value slid and sent investors flooding back to gold — and bitcoin.
The Treasury the same week also said the U.S. public debt exceeded $40 trillion for the first time. Excessive debt also undermines confidence in the dollar.
“Investors are no longer asking whether to hedge currency debasement with gold or bitcoin. They’re simply hedging with both,” the report added.
“Bitcoin spent its first fifteen years being priced as a risk asset. If this correlation trend with gold holds, the next fifteen may look very different.”
The leading cryptocurrency again rallied this week, and was recently trading for close to $81,438 after jumping nearly 6% over a 24-hour period.
Mathew Di Salvo
Mathew is a reporter who's covered the space since 2019, reporting on everything from Salvadoran president Nayib Bukele's Bitcoin bet to crypto exchange FTX's bankruptcy.
Hyperscale Data has shut down Bitcoin mining operations at its Michigan data center to make way for major artificial intelligence (AI) customers, signaling a strategic shift in its core business. The decision follows a new cloud computing agreement that could generate more than $1.2 billion for the company over the next 20 years, provided the client exercises all extension options.
AI contract details and expansion plansThe AI agreement, announced Wednesday, covers the use of 20 megawatts of capacity by a California-based client specializing in cloud computing for artificial intelligence applications. The initial term lasts 10 years, with two optional five-year extensions that could bring the deal’s total value to more than $1.2 billion.
Hyperscale Data stated that the client can increase capacity by an additional 32 megawatts within the first two years. If this expansion option is exercised and both five-year extensions are taken, the total revenue from the contract could exceed $3 billion.
CEO William Horne described the immediate shutdown as a move to redirect the facility’s power, infrastructure, and resources toward preparing for the incoming AI operations.
The immediate shutdown of the Bitcoin mining operations allows our team to focus the Facility’s power, infrastructure and resources in preparing the Facility for its usage by our Customer.
Horne further expressed confidence that shareholders could benefit as the company’s available contracted power capacity comes to match the valuations of comparable data center firms.
Hyperscale Data plans to sell its Bitcoin mining servers, expecting additional gains from these sales. The company has not yet disclosed when AI operations at the Michigan site will commence.
Mini dictionary: Hyperscale Data is a U.S.-based data center firm providing large-scale IT infrastructure for clients in sectors such as cryptocurrency mining and AI computational services.
Industry shifts and competitive landscapeThe transition by Hyperscale Data reflects a wider trend in the digital infrastructure sector, as more Bitcoin miners reposition their facilities to meet rising demand from the AI industry.
VanEck head of digital asset research Matthew Sigel observed in March that mining companies could gain significant value by repurposing infrastructure for AI workloads, calling it a potential “gold mine” opportunity.
However, recent industry results illustrate the challenges involved. IREN, another player converting mining facilities for AI purposes, reported in its last quarterly update that revenue from cloud AI services overtook its Bitcoin mining business for the first time. Despite this milestone, the company wrote down $450.4 million in asset values, mostly due to the retirement of its mining equipment.
CompanyAI Cloud Revenue Surpassing MiningAsset Write-downIRENYes (latest quarter)$450.4 millionHyperscale DataAI deal secured, revenue transition ongoingExpectation of server sale profits, no announced write-downMarket analysts have noted these shifts reflect changing economics in the digital infrastructure space, as higher-margin opportunities in AI may outpace traditional cryptocurrency mining.
As the expansion of the Facility to support AI computing infrastructure progresses, it is my belief that our stockholders will be rewarded as the Company’s market capitalization, which currently trades at a significant discount to other data center companies, begins to normalize in comparison to its available contracted power capacity.
BlackRock’s iShares Bitcoin Trust (IBIT) surged nearly 6% on the day, fueled by roughly $300 million in daily net inflows.
The numbers behind the dominance On August 27, the fund pulled in $277.6 million in net inflows, a figure that actually exceeded the entire US spot Bitcoin ETF category’s net inflow of $242 million for that same day. That math only works because competing funds experienced outflows, meaning IBIT was not just winning the race but lapping the field while other runners stumbled backward.
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The pattern repeated on September 2, when IBIT attracted $115.4 million. That came a day after the broader category posted a $236.5 million outflow, making the rebound even more notable. The category’s total for September 2 landed at $101.1 million in net inflows, with IBIT doing more than all the heavy lifting.
August as a whole was a strong month across the board, with total category inflows reaching approximately $3.5 billion. IBIT captured somewhere between 70% and 90% of total flows during peak periods.
The fund’s assets under management now sit at an estimated $60 billion, with cumulative net inflows since its January 2024 launch exceeding $63 billion. The entire US spot Bitcoin ETF category’s AUM has approached $97 billion to $100 billion, meaning IBIT alone accounts for roughly 60% of the whole pie.
Why BlackRock keeps winning BlackRock manages over $10 trillion across its platform. Competitors like Fidelity’s FBTC and Ark 21Shares’ ARKB have attracted meaningful flows of their own, but neither has come close to challenging IBIT’s dominance on a sustained basis.
What this means for Bitcoin and crypto markets Bitcoin’s price has been hovering in the mid-to-high $70,000s during this period, and the sustained ETF inflows provide a structural demand floor that did not exist in prior market cycles. Before January 2024, institutional investors who wanted Bitcoin exposure had to navigate custody solutions, futures contracts, or trust vehicles trading at persistent premiums or discounts to net asset value.
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