Crypto Pulse—Industry Perspectives

Bitcoin has entered a stronger phase after recovering above the $70,000 mark, with investors increasingly focused on developments in U.S. bond markets and their potential effect on global liquidity. The latest catalyst is the U.S. Treasury’s decision to increase the size of its long-dated bond buybacks.The Treasury said liquidity-support purchases for longer-dated nominal coupon securities will rise to at least $4 billion per operation from a previous $2 billion maximum, beginning September 9. M

The Federal Reserve’s latest meeting minutes have provided investors with a clearer look at the debate taking place inside the U.S. central bank. Released on August 19, the minutes from the July 28–29 Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) meeting reveal a divided policy discussion, with most officials supporting unchanged interest rates while several policymakers argued that inflation warranted additional tightening.The FOMC maintained the federal funds target range at 3.50%–3.75%, but the decisi

Key takeawaysMerck and Moderna announced that the Phase 3 INTerpath-001 trial of intismeran autogene plus Keytruda met its primary endpoint of recurrence-free survival and a key secondary endpoint of distant metastasis-free survival in 1,137 patients with completely resected stage IIB-IV melanoma, randomized 2:1 against Keytruda alone. It is the first positive Phase 3 readout for an individualized neoantigen therapy and for any mRNA-based cancer treatment, in a field that has produced very few a

Key takeawaysArthur Hayes announced that he is taking the CEO role at Flop Labs, which is building Flop Network and its native FLOP token, pitched as "food for your AI agent" and intended as the currency agents use to buy inference, compute and persistent memory. The launch carries no presale and no venture capital allocation, with a large-scale airdrop planned for Q4 2026 and the genesis block targeted for Q1 2027, meaning the token is scheduled to be distributed a full quarter before the chain

Key takeawaysUnitree Robotics opened on the Shanghai STAR Market, 629.44% above its issue price, briefly valuing the first humanoid robotics company to list in mainland China at about $66 billion, before closing at roughly $50 billion. The retail tranche was oversubscribed more than 8,000 times, a STAR Market record, with 9.8 million accounts competing for approximately 9.7 million shares against a freely circulating float near 7.4% of share capital. Founder Wang Xingxing's 121.4 million shares

MicroStrategy, now known as Strategy, has long been known for its aggressive Bitcoin accumulation strategy and its near-total reluctance to sell. But recently, the company has made a notable shift in how it manages its massive Bitcoin holdings. Instead of treating BTC purely as a long-term reserve asset, Strategy is beginning to approach it as a tool for optimizing its capital structure and maintaining liquidity.The question many investors are now asking is: can this new strategy still have the

Executive SummaryCerebras Systems (NASDAQ:CBRS) fell 12.69% on Tuesday, August 18, 2026, closing at $220.01, even as the company unveiled its next-generation CS-4 AI accelerator at its flagship Supernova event.The CS-4 delivers up to 30 times faster inference than GPU-based systems, twice the speed of its CS-3 predecessor, and up to 10 times more throughput per watt.Cerebras and OpenAI jointly introduced Ultrafast mode, a new GPT-5.6 Sol service tier running at up to 14 times the speed of standa

Robinhood Chain is emerging as one of the most notable blockchain ecosystems of 2026. Unlike many Layer 2s that launch with narratives centered around speed, low transaction fees, or incentive farming, Robinhood Chain comes with a relatively different thesis: bringing traditional financial markets, crypto, and Real-World Assets (RWA) together on the same onchain platform.What makes this particularly interesting is that although the ecosystem has only been live for nearly two months, it has been

U.S. Treasury yields have moved to the center of the market narrative as investors reassess inflation, government borrowing and the Federal Reserve’s interest-rate path. On August 18, the 30-year Treasury yield rose to about 5.28% after briefly moving above 5.3%, reaching levels last seen around 2007, while the 10-year yield remained near 4.7%. The move coincided with weakness in U.S. equities, particularly technology stocks, while gold also declined. Bitcoin remained sensitive to the broader sh

Executive SummaryNike (NYSE:NKE) fell 4% on Monday, August 17, 2026, closing at $39.09 after touching an intraday low of $38.86, its lowest level since September 2014, roughly a 12-year low.The stock is now down 78% from its November 2021 all-time high of $179.10, and 38% year-to-date in 2026.The immediate trigger came from outside Nike itself: rival On Holding missed revenue estimates and issued soft guidance, dragging the entire premium sportswear sector lower.JPMorgan downgraded Nike to Under