Author: John Smith

Mark Cuban said on Aug. 16 that “chips as an asset class will be the new crypto,” offering a one-line prediction as artificial intelligence drives demand for advanced computing hardware.  Summary Mark Cuban said chips as an asset class could become the next crypto-like investment category. CoreWeave closed a $2.6 billion facility this month backed by long-term confidence in GPU demand. Nvidia reported quarterly data center revenue of $75.2 billion, rising 92% year over year recently. CoreWeave has pioneered GPU-backed financing, showing chips already function as collateral within institutional credit markets. Bitcoin advocate Pierre Rochard rejected Cuban’s analogy because chip…

Grayscale withdrew its Cardano, Polkadot, and Hedera ETF registrations in under four minutes on August 7, exactly two days before ADA cleared the SEC seasoning threshold. With Bitwise and Canary still in the race, the retreat says more about the economics of altcoin ETFs than about Cardano itself. Summary Grayscale filed three Form RW withdrawals with the SEC on August 7, 2026, pulling its Cardano Trust ETF, Polkadot Trust ETF, and Hedera Trust ETF registrations in a span of 190 seconds, with no shares issued, sold, or distributed under any of the three. – Cardano completed its six-month CME futures…

A $550,000 community audit contest uncovered two critical vulnerabilities in XRP Ledger features that could have drained user accounts without private keys. The findings reveal how Ripple’s audit-before-release model diverges sharply from the broader crypto industry’s patch-after-exploit norm. Summary Sherlock’s two-week audit contest, which opened on April 13, 2026, uncovered 96 valid vulnerabilities across five proposed XRP Ledger amendments, including 2 critical and 6 high-severity bugs, before any of them reached mainnet. Ripple paid $309,000 in RLUSD bounties from a $550,000 prize pool, marking the first collaboration between Sherlock and Ripple and one of the largest audit contests of 2026.…

Moon Pursuit Capital founder Utkarsh Ahuja has said crypto venture investors will prioritize quantum-ready infrastructure heading into 2027 as global VC investment reached $227.4 billion in the second quarter. Summary Global VC investment reached $227.4 billion across 8,440 deals during Q2 2026. Ahuja expects post-quantum security and blockchain migration tools to attract more capital. Moon Pursuit co-led AmericanFortress’ $8 million seed round with SAVA and 0G Labs. NIST and major blockchain developers have already started preparing for quantum-resistant systems. KPMG’s latest Venture Pulse report found that global venture funding recorded its second-highest quarterly total in Q2, although much of the…

World Liberty Financial has received preliminary OCC approval to establish a national trust bank that would oversee more than $4 billion in USD1 stablecoin circulation. Summary World Liberty Trust must meet the OCC’s conditions before it can begin operations. The proposed bank would issue USD1, manage its reserves, and serve institutional custody clients. WLTC must maintain at least $20 million in eligible capital before opening. WLFI rose after the decision but remains down more than 60% over the past year. World Liberty Financial must meet OCC conditions The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency said on Aug. 14 that…

Gen Z traders on Binance have increased the ETF share of their equity trading volume to 25% in early August as their allocation to individual stocks has declined. Summary ETFs accounted for 21.9% of Gen Z net equity inflows in July, up from 18.5% in June. Individual stocks received 74.2% of July inflows, compared with 77% one month earlier. Gen Z averaged fewer monthly trades than Millennials and Gen X across the products studied. Binance warned that its short direct-equities data window limits conclusions about lasting behavior. Binance Research found that exchange-traded funds are taking a larger share of Gen…

Robinhood Ventures Fund II has raised $225.5 million and opened at $22.50 on the New York Stock Exchange, 10% below its $25 initial public offering price. Summary RVII raised $225.5 million after offering 8 million shares at $25 each. The fund opened at $22.50 on the NYSE, 10% below its IPO price. Its portfolio targets early- and growth-stage companies connected to Y Combinator. Retail investors can buy RVII shares without investing directly in its private holdings. Reuters reported that Robinhood’s second publicly traded venture fund debuted on Thursday, giving individual investors access to early-stage companies usually available only to venture…

XRP price has steadied near $1 as whale transfers to Binance fell to their lowest level since 2021, although weak demand and bearish chart signals continue to limit a recovery. Summary XRP price traded near $1.00 after losing about 3.2% over the past seven days. Binance whale inflows fell to $61 million on a three-month average. Daily RSI remained weak at 36, while the 4-hour MACD showed early improvement. Liquidation clusters between $1.02 and $1.05 could attract price during a rebound. XRP price remains under pressure near $1 CryptoQuant contributor Darkfost reported that the three-month average of XRP whale inflows…

Bitget has expanded its Stock Dual Investment lineup from six to more than 20 U.S. stock and ETF-linked tokens, with settlement now set for 11:30 p.m. UTC+8. Summary More than 20 rTokens now support Bitget’s Buy Low and Sell High strategies. Supported assets include tokens linked to Nvidia, Tesla, Apple, Coinbase, Strategy and two leveraged ETFs. Stock Dual Investment settlement now occurs at 11:30 p.m. UTC+8, after regular U.S. trading begins. An invitation-only deposit promotion offers up to 3,000 USDT in non-withdrawable trading bonuses. Bitget announced on Aug. 14 that its expanded lineup includes tokens tied to major technology stocks,…

Dartmouth College’s crypto ETF holdings have fallen 15% to about $12.4 million in the second quarter, even though its $9 billion endowment kept the same number of fund shares. Summary Dartmouth’s reported crypto ETF holdings lost about $2.2 million in value during the second quarter. The endowment retained its positions in Bitcoin, Ether, and Solana-linked funds. Crypto prices have remained below their March 31 levels through Aug. 15. Dartmouth’s crypto ETFs represented about 0.14% of its estimated $9 billion endowment. Dartmouth crypto ETF holdings have fallen to $12.4 million The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission filing submitted Thursday showed that…