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The information flow is too fast, and in-depth analytical articles are easily drowned out by trending topics. The “Weekly Editor’s Picks” column pulls out these valuable, insightful pieces from the flood of news, helping you filter out the noise and focus on meaningful perspectives and inspiration.
Macroeconomic situation
Investment and Entrepreneurship
Cow comes: Four reasons behind the overnight surge across the crypto market
The U.S. Treasury unexpectedly eased monetary conditions, lowering long-term interest rates and boosting risk appetite;
The White House crypto summit, combined with relaxed SEC regulations, has shifted policy sentiment positively;
The outflow trend for Bitcoin spot ETFs has reversed, with whales accumulating at lower prices;
Leveraged short positions were liquidated en masse, creating a classic “short squeeze” scenario.
Orderly deleveraging in progress: In-depth review of crypto lending and futures markets in Q2 2026
The key difference between this market cycle and the previous bear market is that outstanding loans have declined steadily and in stages, rather than collapsing abruptly. This gentle downward pace reflects a healthier deleveraging cycle: driven by the market’s gradual, voluntary risk reduction, rather than widespread forced liquidations or counterparty failures.
Pump.fun, Hyperliquid, Uniswap, Chainlink.
In the first half of 2026, there were 377 publicly disclosed funding rounds in the crypto industry, totaling approximately $11.2 billion.
Every funded amount disclosed has gone to businesses that require regulatory licenses to operate.
The top three sectors are: Payments and Stablecoins at $3.7 billion, Prediction Markets at $2 billion, and Exchanges and Trading Platforms at $1.7 billion.
Blonskr’s on-chain CPU, Behemoth, designed using its launched TapeOut Protocol, is still fundamentally an EVM miner game, but with gameplay centered on “circuit design.”
Also recommended: “From Hedge Funds to Family Offices: Who Is Quietly Increasing HYPE Exposure Through PURR?”
AI & Storage
Is AI reasoning changing NAND cycles? What does Sandisk mean for storage chip stocks?
NAND is gradually becoming an AI capacity layer alongside HBM and DRAM, rather than just a traditional commodity storage product.
SanDisk expects enterprise data center flash demand to reach 1.2 ZB by 2030 and is developing High Bandwidth Flash specifically for AI inference.
Storage manufacturers such as SanDisk and Samsung are beginning to adopt longer-term customer agreements, which may increase demand visibility and reduce the risk of overproduction.
AI won’t eliminate NAND cycles. What truly matters is whether stronger bit demand and better supply discipline can reduce the volatility of future cycles.
This time, Korean retail investors’ strategy of “switching venues without changing bets” has failed to effectively diversify risk; the prevalence of ADR premiums and leveraged products is a classic sign of speculative overheating, potentially creating greater volatility in local markets.
AI remains at the center of top investors’ attention, with capital clearly repricing around the AI industry chain. While it seems undeniable that AI will continue to grow, the question lies in who will truly turn investments into profits in the next phase.
Arthur Hayes makes a high-profile return; Flop Labs aims to become the “fuel” of the agent economy.
Arthur Hayes is returning to the role of project lead with Flop Labs, a new initiative positioned as a native currency network for the AI Agent economy. Arthur refers to it as “food for your AI agent,” aiming to serve as the native currency and verifiable computation settlement layer for the Agentic Economy—not as an agent itself, a platform, or a pure compute network.
The only relatively certain way to participate in the airdrop is to apply for one of the four roles in Flop Labs.
Policies and Stablecoins
On August 18, North American local time, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) officially released a proposed regulation titled “Regulation Crypto Assets,” establishing a tailored framework for issuing contracts involving crypto assets.
This is the most significant substantive step in crypto regulation since SEC Chair Paul Atkins took office, and a key signal that regulators are proactively seeking alternative paths amid the ongoing stalemate over Congress’s CLARITY Act.
Startup exemptions and funding exemptions make the issuance of U.S. altcoins fully legal.
The Regulation of Crypto Assets is still in the proposal stage and has not taken effect; it must still go through a full process of public consultation, revision, and formal approval, and is not expected to be completed in the short term (within several months); similarly, the legislative process for the CLARITY Act remains uncertain.
Airdrop Opportunities and Interaction Guide
Ansem is launching a “new meme endorsement” with up to $98,000 in promotion fees.
Overseas Meme KOL Ansem has launched the Ansem.io token issuance platform, whose core token issuance mechanism is similar to Pump.fun, with key differences lying in operations: Ansem.io puts Ansem’s personal influence on a price tag—tokens created on the Ansem.io platform can receive endorsement from Ansem’s team by purchasing sufficient “resources.” The Ansem.io platform has also significantly empowered the Meme token ANSEM, incentivizing Meme project teams to buy and burn ANSEM, while ANSEM holders can receive free Meme airdrops.
Ansem.io is essentially Ansem’s personal paid promotion platform; its business model does not earn commissions from token trading, but rather generates revenue from Meme promotion fees and by adding value to the ANSEM token.
Ansem was the first to productize KOL personal influence into a Launchpad.
Ethereum
ETH returns to the golden line—what makes this rally different?
Ethereum ETF fund flows have outperformed Bitcoin, with multiple institutions increasing positions despite market conditions; over one-third of ETH has been staked, and declining yields may reduce its appeal.
Multi-ecosystem
The night before the HYPE surge: AQAv2 begins yield accrual this month, HIP-4 poised to launch
HYPE surges 26.86%, nearing a new high—what’s driving the buying pressure?
Weekly Hot Topics Recap
Policies and Macroeconomic Markets
SEC Commission approved the Crypto Assets Regulation proposal, with commissioners voting separately outside the public meeting;
USD is at risk; the U.S. Treasury repurchase program resembles yield curve control;
The Wall Street “fear index” has reached its lowest point this year, heightening the risk of a fall selloff in U.S. stocks;
U.S. retail investors are aggressively buying put options, but the underlying bullish structure remains intact;
Huang Renxun steps in to calm the AI computing market: NVIDIA may offer “residual value support of up to 25% for individual investment projects”;
Anthropic is expected to match or exceed SpaceX’s IPO size, with the application potentially submitted as early as the end of this month;
Opinions and Voices
Trump: The Chair of the U.S. SEC is pushing Hyperliquid to enter the U.S. in a compliant manner, urging Congress to pass a “fair” version of the Clarity Act; the United States has fully ended its “war” on the crypto industry and is now leading its development;
Serenity: The market always realizes opportunities after they’ve been realized—follow NVIDIA’s positioning in the AI trend;
Institutions, large companies, and top projects
Harvard halts further reduction of its Bitcoin ETF exposure; U.S. university endowments enter a holding pattern on crypto exposure;
Strategy releases investor briefing: 840,000 BTC forming a base; digital credit strategy becomes growth engine;
Compound Finance approves a record $52 million budget to shift toward institutional clients;
Kaito revives the “mouth-rolling economy,” but many are hesitant to install the new plugin;
SK Hynix leveraged ETF holders trapped at high levels struggle to break even: average losses exceed 76%; recovery requires a price increase of over 300%.
“Niu Lai” unexpectedly went viral, with its namesake Meme surging sharply;
Security
SafePal experiences data breach affecting nearly 40,000 users (Analysis)…
Access the “Weekly Editor’s Picks” series here. See you next time!
Source: www.kucoin.com