區塊客

Author: Kurumi, encrypted city
Employees laid off before token unlock; more than 40 reportedly affected
Meme coin launch platform Pump.fun has been hit with allegations of layoffs before employees’ tokens are set to unlock. Some departing employees therefore lost access to substantial $PUMP token benefits, sparking questions about whether the company lowered the token spending it had originally promised employees through personnel adjustments.
According to internal recordings and documents obtained by the crypto outlet Sandmark, Pump.fun co-founder Noah Tweedale said during an employee meeting in March that the company’s headcount had rapidly expanded to around 100 this year, but that the rate of organizational growth was too fast and had affected the team’s ability to advance products in a flexible manner, so it was necessary to reduce staff. The report claims that several employees were subsequently laid off in April.

Author: Ariel, Crypto City
LAWSON rolls out a pilot for stablecoin payments in 3 types, supporting the MetaMask wallet (a fox wallet).
Japanese convenience-store giant LAWSON officially announced yesterday (8/3) that it will launch a stablecoin payment pilot in its stores. In addition to the previously planned yen stablecoin JPYC, it also includes the MetaMask cryptocurrency wallet, and supports the dollar stablecoins USDC and USDT.
This is after the July announcement that it would introduce JPYC payment messages; LAWSON has for the first time unveiled specific timelines and partnership details. The types of stablecoin payments have also expanded from a single yen stablecoin to multiple coin types and wallet tools.

On Tuesday, Bank of New York Mellon (BNY) announced a partnership with Galaxy, a cryptocurrency financial services company, to add crypto staking functionality to its digital asset custody platform, further expanding institutional-grade digital asset services.
Institutional clients can complete staking directly on the custody platform
Once it receives the required regulatory approvals, the new service will allow institutional clients to stake the digital assets held in custody directly through BNY’s platform.
Galaxy will provide the staking infrastructure and also serve as a design collaboration partner for BNY’s blockchain products, helping the bank continue to expand its blockchain financial services.

(CNBC) Financial commentator and “Madman of Wall Street,” Jim Cramer, has once again announced that he wants to liquidate his Bitcoin holdings. This time, his reason is his concern that “quantum computers” in the future may be able to break Bitcoin’s encryption technology, threatening asset security—and it seems he is determined to completely exit the crypto world this time.
However, Jim Cramer’s exit statement instead sparked cheers across the cryptocurrency community. Many investors believe this could once again become a so-called “Cramer Contrarian Indicator” signal.
In a recent interview last week with IBM CEO Arvind Krishna, Jim Cramer proactively asked: in the future, will quantum computers be able to break Bitcoin wallets and even steal holders’ assets? In response, Arvind Krishna said:

Prediction markets are now seeing an unprecedented surge of capital. (Bloomberg) On Tuesday, citing insiders, it reported that the prediction market platform Polymarket is seeking a new round of financing, targeting a valuation of up to $20 billion, reflecting its strong ambition to dominate the prediction market space.
Traditional financial giants move in, with annualized revenue surpassing $1 billion
Insiders said Polymarket only completed a funding round at a valuation of $15 billion this April, and also received a $600 million investment from the parent company of the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) — Intercontinental Exchange Group (ICE). With support from traditional financial giants, Polymarket’s market position has become even more solid.

Global stock markets continue to rewrite record highs amid the AI boom, yet the cryptocurrency market appears especially quiet. Bitcoin today (5th) has continued to hover around $64,000. Even though optimism among investors’ risk appetite has warmed up and positives such as falling oil prices and declining U.S. Treasury yields have converged, they have still failed to pull buying back into the crypto market.
Going forward, investors will focus on whether the United States, Iran, and Oman can reach an agreement to reopen the Strait of Hormuz. Analysts point out that if this major geopolitical catalyst actually materializes, Bitcoin still may not be able to rebound effectively—potentially implying that the market’s buying focus has already shifted to other assets.

SpaceX, the space technology company founded by Elon Musk, released its first quarterly financial report since going public. Although second-quarter revenue beat market expectations, due to a drop in the price of Bitcoin, the company’s held Bitcoin assets recorded an approximate $540 million in book losses. After-hours shares then fell by more than 6%.
SpaceX will release its second-quarter 2026 financial report on Tuesday Eastern Time. The company’s quarterly revenue reached $7.8 billion, exceeding Wall Street’s estimate of $6.9 billion. As the rocket launch business, the satellite internet service Starlink, and artificial intelligence (AI)-related operations continue to grow, the company’s overall losses have also clearly narrowed.

The Coldcard bitcoin cold wallet development team issued an emergency warning on Tuesday, confirming that the hacker’s ongoing looting activity is still underway. The storm has already caused losses of $114 million, and the official strongly urges users to immediately transfer the bitcoin stored in Coldcard wallets.
Coldcard team issued an emergency statement on social media: "Please treat this as an emergency and immediately move your funds."
Coldcard advises users to update to the latest firmware according to the device model they use, regenerate new seed phrases, and transfer all bitcoins to the newly created wallet.

Author: Fenrir, Crypto City
A meeting to reduce interest rate discussions in hopes of a reorganized Fed decision-making schedule
U.S. Federal Reserve Chair Kevin Warsh is reportedly considering reducing the number of meetings of the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) each year, which could change the long-term monetary policy schedule that global financial markets have followed. Under the current system, since 1981 the Fed has held eight regular meetings per year on average, about once every six weeks. U.S. law requires the FOMC to hold at least four meetings per year.
Reports indicate that Warsh has asked Fed officials to submit their views, with the direction for the related adjustments potentially confirmed before the Fed meeting on September 15–16. However, the Fed has not yet made an official decision, and the remaining meetings in 2026 will still follow the existing schedule. The new system is more likely to begin in 2027.

By Nancy, PANews
After reaching a local high about two months ago, the HYPE price has continued to pull back, but Hyperliquid’s ecosystem expansion has not slowed. With HIP-3 driving growth in RWA trading demand, the platform’s share in the global sustainable contracts market continues to rise.
Meanwhile, competition around the ecosystem entry points of HIP-3 is also heating up. Trade.xyz, leveraging its first-mover advantage, has taken the lead, while multiple deployment partners are trying to secure a place by抢购 popular tickers and bringing in capital support.
RWA surpasses crypto as the core growth segment; Trade.xyz faces a newcomer crackdown

To align with international anti-money laundering regulations, the Financial Supervisory Commission announced today (the 4th) that it will implement in phases the virtual asset “Travel Rule.” In the future, when transferring virtual assets such as Bitcoin across borders through domestic virtual asset service providers (VASPs), if a single transaction amount exceeds NT$30,000, individuals will be required to provide their date of birth and residential address. The receiving party must also verify the information, in order to enhance transaction transparency and traceability.
The FSC said that in the first phase, starting from October 2026, it is expected to apply to virtual asset transfers between domestic VASPs. The second phase will extend to cross-border transfers between domestic and overseas VASPs, and is expected to be implemented by the end of 2027.

Coldcard wallet security vulnerability continues to fester, not only impacting affected users but also bringing the long-dormant Bitcoin “ancient wallet” back to life. On-chain data shows that recently, a wallet left idle for nearly 13 years suddenly moved 500 bitcoins at once, worth about $31.3 million.
Since Coldcard disclosed a major hacking incident on July 30, within just a few days, large amounts of “ancient” bitcoins have been deposited into exchanges, reflecting that long-term holders are accelerating the transfer of assets to reduce security risks.
According to on-chain tracking platform Whale Alert, the wallet address “18TExP” transferred out all 500 bitcoins a short while ago. Tracing back to the address’s last activity in 2013, those bitcoins were worth only about $500,000 then; they have since grown in value to roughly $31.3 million, with the sleeping period lasting as long as 12.7 years.

Traditional payments giant Mastercard continues to expand its footprint in crypto finance. The company announced on Monday that it has officially completed its acquisition of BVNK, a stablecoin infrastructure provider, strengthening the connectivity between crypto assets and traditional payment networks and further driving use cases for stablecoins and tokenized assets.
Mastercard said in a statement that it will combine BVNK’s technology and expertise to help financial institutions, fintech companies, and enterprises accelerate the expansion of use cases for stablecoins and tokenized assets, including business-to-business (B2B) payments, fund disbursements, transaction settlement, and enterprise treasury management.

Bitmine Immersion Technologies (BMNR), chaired by well-known Wall Street strategist Tom Lee, announced that it increased its holdings by an additional 10,399 ether tokens last week, bringing the company’s total ether holdings to 5.7978 million, or about 4.8% of the total circulating supply. The target of “holding 5% of the entire network’s ether” is just one step away.
Tom Lee also said that ether’s performance in July this year significantly outpaced the Nasdaq 100 Index, setting the record for the largest month-over-month outperformance versus the broader market since July 2025. This once again highlights that market demand for ether allocations is heating up.

The U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) has exposed an insider who allegedly safeguarded his own theft—an experienced agent specializing in counterintelligence is suspected of secretly stealing digital assets worth up to $1 million from encrypted-cryptocurrency accounts belonging to “hostile entities.” The agent reportedly even went online to seek help from ChatGPT, asking how “to spend, invest, and relocate to Europe” with a million dollars. In the end, his trail was uncovered, and he was prosecuted.
Stole private keys and misappropriated public funds
The agent involved is Patrick Yaroch, who previously served as a supervisor-level agent at the FBI Headquarters in the counterintelligence and espionage division. According to a court affidavit filed on August 1, Yaroch’s alleged theft began in late 2024 and continued into early 2025.

MicroStrategy (Strategy), the publicly listed company that holds the most bitcoins globally, is selling off again. According to a filing submitted to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) on Monday, Strategy sold 1,638 bitcoins last week, raising more than US$100 million. The proceeds will be used to pay preferred stock dividends, repurchase shares, and further bolster its U.S. dollar reserves.
Documents show that between July 27 and August 2, Strategy sold a total of 1,638 bitcoins. The average transaction price was about US$63,957 per coin, for total proceeds of about US$104.7 million.
Strategy’s founder and executive chairman Michael Saylor later said that, as of now, the company holds 843,138 bitcoins, with a total value of about US$52.6 billion. Its average purchase cost is about US$75,419 per coin, and its cumulative investment cost is about US$63.5 billion (including transaction fees and other related expenses).

Source: (The Diary Of A CEO)
Compiled by: Felix, PANews
Ray Dalio, founder of Bridgewater Associates, who predicted the 2008 financial crisis, developed the company from his own two-bedroom apartment into a giant managing assets of roughly $150 billion. In addition, Dalio has also written books such as (Principles), (Principles for Dealing with the Changing World Order), and (How Nations Fail).
Recently, on The Diary Of A CEO podcast, Ray Dalio provided an in-depth analysis of the “major cycle” theory driven by debt accumulation, widening wealth inequality, and geopolitical turmoil. He noted that the current AI boom shows clear signs of a bubble—a phenomenon that, throughout history, has often been a precursor to significant economic upheaval. Due to heavy government debt and intensifying internal social conflicts, the global order is in a declining phase of power transition, posing severe challenges for traditional countries such as the UK and the US.

By Jae, PANews
Bitcoin self-custody users went through a major shockwave.
In the security narrative of the crypto industry, hardware wallets are always regarded as the ultimate stronghold for Bitcoin storage: private keys never touch the network, and the physical separation eliminates the attack surface. But a major security incident that erupted from the long-standing Bitcoin hardware wallet Coldcard tore a huge crack in this belief. On July 30, 1,755.95 BTC—worth over $110 million at market price—were quietly batch-drained from thousands of addresses. The hackers even completed the transfer of the main funds 30 hours before the official posted the warning.

South Korea’s second-largest cryptocurrency exchange, Bithumb, announced on Thursday that it is accelerating preparations for an initial public offering (IPO) on a full scale, aiming to list officially in 2028. This is also the first time Bithumb has publicly released a complete IPO roadmap after postponing its original listing plan for 2025.
Bithumb issued an announcement via its official website, fully disclosing a multi-year strategic blueprint on its path toward an IPO. The exchange said its top priority this year is to strengthen internal control mechanisms and complete the transition of its accounting system.
Bithumb currently prepares financial statements using “Korean Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (K-GAAP)”. In the future, it will switch to “Korean International Financial Reporting Standards (K-IFRS)” to meet the financial disclosure requirements for listed companies.

The Russian government has further tightened its cryptocurrency mining policies. According to the most recently issued decree, starting from August 15 through the end of 2032, the capital Moscow and surrounding areas will be completely prohibited from cryptocurrency mining and from participating in mining pools, in order to reduce the load on the power grid and avoid strained electricity supply.
The ban lasts for more than 6 years and covers Moscow, the entire Moscow Oblast, as well as eight administrative districts in Kursk Oblast and the city of Lgov.
This is the largest instance among Russia’s recent efforts to restrict cryptocurrency mining, and it also officially implements the policy draft proposed by the Ministry of Energy in late June: if mining activities are not banned throughout the year, these high-energy-consuming regions may face a power shortage crisis.