加密城市 Crypto City

Morgan Stanley enters the ETH and SOL market
Morgan Stanley announced the launch of exchange-traded products (ETPs) tracking Ethereum (ETH) and Solana (SOL), respectively: the Morgan Stanley Ethereum Trust (ticker: MSSE) and the Morgan Stanley Solana Trust (ticker: MSOL). They are expected to be traded on the NYSE Arca platform. The two products will track the CoinDesk Ether Benchmark 4PM NY Settlement Rate and the CoinDesk Solana Benchmark 4PM NY Settlement Rate, enabling investors to gain price exposure to Ethereum ($ETH) and $SOL through traditional brokerage accounts.

Core Scientific signs a deal with AMD; the Bitcoin miner pivots to AI data centers
U.S.-listed cryptocurrency mining giant Core Scientific (CORZ) and chipmaker AMD (AMD) announced a partnership. AMD is expected to obtain up to 2.5 gigawatts (GW) of data center capacity from Core Scientific to support its end customers in deploying its AI solutions.
Both parties expect to launch the first phase of 500 million watts (MW) of capacity deliveries starting in 2027. This cooperation includes a 15-year master contract for 5 sites (totaling 530MW). Core Scientific is expected to generate more than US$14 billion in revenue.

After print books are purchased, they are scanned—AI training data becomes physical.
Technology companies are refocusing on the print-book market to obtain training data for artificial intelligence (AI). According to a report by the foreign media outlet (404 Media), ISBNdb has recently been pitching large-scale physical book procurement services to AI developers. A single order can be as high as 1 million copies, covering publications that have not yet been digitized, are out of print, or are harder to obtain. These books are considered high-value data sources, mainly because much of the content comes from human writing records from before AI-generated text became widespread.
The operations have sparked controversy, largely because some steps involve “destructive scanning.” The service provider may first remove the book binding and cut the pages, then scan page by page to create digital files; the original paper copies are ultimately discarded, destroyed, or recycled. For AI companies, this is easier to claim as a legitimate source than scraping online data. For the publishing and archiving community, the processing of printed books after they are converted into data highlights the conflict between copyright law and cultural preservation.

Taiwan stocks briefly fell below the 40,000-point mark, prompting panic among investors.
Dragged down by a sharp slump in global chip stocks and the broader decline across Asian markets, Taiwan stocks have faced intense selling pressure day after day. After yesterday’s plunge of 2,030 points, today (7/29) the market again dropped by more than 1,800 points during trading, officially falling below the 40,000-point integer threshold. At the close, however, it barely managed to reclaim the level. Panic sentiment has spread, and many are closely watching whether the National Stabilization Fund will step in to support the market.
In response, Finance Minister Tsuang Tsui-yun said Taiwan’s economic fundamentals are solid, and the National Stabilization Fund will closely monitor developments. Meanwhile, analysts noted that multiple technical and positioning indicators suggest that Taiwan stocks’ buying support at lower levels has already emerged, with signs of a short-term bottom appearing.

Despite the crypto market being hit by headwinds over the past year—Ethereum, Solana (SOL), and Avalanche (AVAX) prices have all been cut in half— the fundamentals of these three major public chains tell a very different story. Not only has on-chain activity continued to rise, with transaction fees dropping significantly, but institutional investors’ willingness to enter the market and their participation in staking remain consistently high. Behind the seemingly endless selloff in coin prices, why are “smart money” investors accelerating their inflow into the underlying networks?
Bitwise Chain Research Director Kam Benbrik said Monday: “We have observed a huge divergence between network fundamentals and market sentiment.”

More than 1,000 AI company employees and executives sign a petition, calling on the United States to build a global regulatory and control mechanism
Over 1,100 employees and executives from top global AI companies including OpenAI, Anthropic, Meta, and Google launched an initiative earlier today (7/29) called “Pacing the Frontier.” They urge the U.S. government and the international community to work together to create technical and governance tools that can consciously manage the pace of cutting-edge AI development, preventing AI’s autonomous R&D capabilities from exceeding the bounds of human understanding and control.
GPT goes out of control and escapes, sparking panic; the Hugging Face incident becomes a catalyst for a petition drive
The initiators of this initiative are closely linked to recent AI hacker incidents that have stunned the industry.

Saylor compares consensus rules to a constitution, opposing changes to the underlying protocol
Strategy founder Michael Saylor once again issued a warning by drawing a contrast in Bitcoin ($BTC) governance, emphasizing that Bitcoin’s consensus rules should be treated as a “constitution,” and that any actions to modify the underlying protocol could erode holders’ trust in scarcity, settlement finality, and property rights. These remarks came as the Bitcoin community continued to debate issues such as Bitcoin Improvement Proposal (BIP) 110, Covenants, and block size, bringing the question of whether the protocol should remain “extremely conservative” back into focus for the market.

SK Hynix, a major South Korean chipmaker, had just earlier this month issued American Depositary Receipts (ADRs) on the Nasdaq. But when tracking its stock on Hyperliquid via perpetual contracts, the company suffered a shock “flash crash” during the Asian pre-market yesterday (28). Within one minute, it plunged 20% to $900. Hours later, the spot share price of SK Hynix indeed fell after trading began on the Korean stock market, drawing market attention: whether the crypto derivatives market had already reflected sentiment from traditional financial markets ahead of time.
According to Hyperliquid data, within just one minute from 07:00 to 07:01 this morning, the sustainable contract price of tracking SK Hynix plunged by 20%, instantly dropping to $900. However, in the very next minute it rebounded rapidly, reclaiming the $1,000 mark.

Asian morning session: Taiwan stocks continue to fall; SK Hynix earnings report; the Kumamoto earthquake
The U.S. Federal Reserve (Fed) interest-rate decision is set to be announced soon, along with Japan’s Kumamoto earthquake, which struck with a magnitude-7.1 shock. As a result, Asian financial markets on the 29th are marked by a strong wait-and-see sentiment.
Selling pressure at the start of Taiwan’s stock market surged as if it had been released all at once; during the session, the index plunged by more than 1,000 points and broke through the 41,000-point level. Although South Korean semiconductor giant SK Hynix reported record-high earnings, its share price fell against the trend because it failed to propose any shareholder return policy. Meanwhile, Japan is fully focused on search-and-rescue efforts and restoring daily necessities after the Kumamoto earthquake, with multiple uncertainties weighing on the market.

A magnitude 7.1 earthquake struck Kumamoto, Japan, on Tuesday, sparking market concerns about the semiconductor supply chain. TSMC ADR (NYSE: TSM) saw rapid selling pressure before the bell; as of the latest quote, it was down 13.82 dollars, a decline of 3.46%, to 385.45 dollars per share.
Kumamoto issues tsunami warning; JASM facility is within the alert zone
According to Japan Meteorological Agency information, this strong earthquake occurred in Kumamoto Prefecture, and the relevant coastal areas have issued the highest-level tsunami warning, with expected waves of up to 1 meter. The Japanese government also issued emergency earthquake alerts to Kyushu’s seven prefectures, including Kumamoto, Nagasaki, Kagoshima, Fukuoka, Saga, Oita, and Miyazaki.

Bitcoin’s rebound stalled; $66,921 becomes short-term resistance
Bitcoin ($BTC) rebounded to as high as $66,608 this Monday, which pushed the market to once again bet on reclaiming the $65,000 level. However, the upward momentum quickly ran into selling pressure, and the price later fell back to around $63,000. During the session, it even dipped as low as $62,684. As of the time of writing, the price of Bitcoin is $63,850.
Image source: CoinGecko. Bitcoin’s rally was swift, but it soon met with selling pressure; the price subsequently pulled back to around $63,000
Technical analysts point out that this rebound has not managed to effectively break through a key resistance zone; the price action is more like a “false breakout” structure following short-term short covering.

ESMA adds 15 CASPs; the MiCA register rises to 309
The European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA) has recently updated its provisional MiCA register, adding 15 crypto-asset service providers (CASPs), bringing the total number of EU-compliant crypto firms to 309. This is the third update to the register after the EU’s July 1 transitional deadline ended, indicating that regulators in member states continue to issue authorizations. The European crypto market is gradually shifting from the former country-by-country registration model to a unified regulatory framework.
The newly added providers come from eight European jurisdictions. Germany added four, Denmark added three, Bulgaria and Latvia added two each, and Belgium, Cyprus, Liechtenstein, and the Netherlands added one each. The ESMA register lists each firm’s competent authority, authorization date, and the types of services it may provide. Therefore, receiving MiCA authorization does not mean the firm can comprehensively conduct all activities such as trading, custody, payments, and issuance; it must still operate strictly within the approved scope.

According to a report by The Wall Street Journal, NVIDIA is in discussions to provide OpenAI with financing guarantees of around $250 billion to help it rent data centers owned by SoftBank. The full project, including the chips, has a total cost that could reach $500 billion. Because OpenAI has not yet obtained an investment-grade credit rating, and NVIDIA would be vouching for its own customers to help them borrow at more favorable terms, concerns about AI industry “funding circulation” have been raised again.
NVIDIA provides a guarantee of $250 billion, helping OpenAI rent a SoftBank data center
According to reports, NVIDIA is in talks to provide OpenAI with financing guarantees of about $250 billion to rent a 10GW data center developed in southern Ohio by SoftBank’s (SoftBank) energy subsidiary. SoftBank itself holds 11% equity in OpenAI. Including the chips inside the data center, the total estimated cost is expected to exceed $500 billion. If the deal is finalized, it would be the largest publicly known data center project to date, but it is still in an early stage, and the deal could fall through or terms could change.

Claude conversations could be found on Google; users discovered it by accident and it drew attention
Would you chat with an AI chatbot about some private matters? A Reddit user recently discovered that by entering a search directive like "site:claude.ai/share" into Google, they could pull up hundreds of complete conversation records between other users and Claude.
The user said that using the search engine’s on-site search syntax exposed more than 200 conversations, spanning at least 25 pages of search results. Some of the conversations even happened weeks earlier. The post garnered around 4,000 likes on Reddit, and the incident quickly went viral online, though the issue appeared to have been fixed as of the time of writing.

Opposition nominates candidates, with Bitcoin policy becoming a key battleground
Salvadoran politics for the February 2027 presidential election is gradually heating up, as the two main opposition parties have already put forward challengers, putting President Nayib Bukele’s third-term plans and the country’s Bitcoin ($BTC) policy in step under scrutiny. ARENA, the National Republican Alliance, nominated former National Assembly member Maytee Iraheta, while the Farabundo Martí National Liberation Front (FMLN) put forward physician and labor union leader Rafael Aguirre. Both have not supported the Bitcoin approach led by Bukele and have criticized it as a failure in fiscal policy.

Cardano (ADA) founder Charles Hoskinson entered the crypto world years ago through Bitcoin. Now, he has boldly predicted that the cybersecurity threats brought by “quantum computing” in the future will become the ultimate test of the ability to upgrade Bitcoin systems. If consensus can’t be effectively forged and system upgrades can’t be pushed through smoothly, Bitcoin may risk losing its throne as the “king of cryptocurrencies.”
In contrast, Charles Hoskinson believes Cardano has a well-developed on-chain governance mechanism that can respond more flexibly and quickly to technical challenges that could mean life or death for the network. He points out that:
Bitcoin’s biggest problem is that its technical development seems frozen in time—pushing any system changes is as difficult as reaching the sky.

Cloud project Storj files for bankruptcy reorganization as the crypto sector sees 5 companies collapse in a week
Decentralized cloud storage provider Storj Labs announces bankruptcy. It has recently filed for bankruptcy reorganization under the U.S. (Bankruptcy Act) Chapter 11 (case number 5:26-bk-00512).
This case is the 5th crypto company within the past week to announce a shutdown, reorganization, or termination of operations, highlighting that crypto players with fragile finances face a severe survival crisis as market funding rapidly shifts toward the artificial intelligence (AI) sector.
Storj plans a rare “token-for-equity” deal
According to an official Storj announcement, this bankruptcy filing is intended to address early debts left over from past mergers and acquisitions. During the reorganization period, the company will maintain normal operations, and its core storage services and customer support will not be affected.

In July 2026, Nomura’s Global Markets Research division released a report (Advanced Semiconductor Testing: Chip Upgrades, Test Follow-Through), highlighting that semiconductor testing has evolved from a low-value-added process at the end of manufacturing into one of the most strategically valuable segments in the AI hardware supply chain.
Reports that Wanxie (6223), Yingwei (6515), and Hongjin (7769) have been issued buy ratings, restores the buy rating for ZhiMao (2360), and maintains the buy ratings for ASE Technology (3711) and Jingyuan Electric (2449). Target prices for six listed Taiwan testing concept stocks are all expected to deliver returns ranging from 11% to 73%.

Circle acquires IBM blockchain patent portfolio
Circle, a stablecoin issuer, announced its acquisition of IBM's blockchain patent portfolio, obtaining more than 680 patent families and nearly 1,000 globally granted patents.
Circle said the deal makes it the largest holder of blockchain patents in the United States, allowing the company to build a deeper intellectual property moat in the competition for on-chain financial infrastructure.
These patents cover foundational blockchain technologies, banking and financial services, insurance, enterprise infrastructure, supply chain verification, and secure cloud computing, among other industries. The transaction amount has not been disclosed, and it is still unclear whether IBM will retain certain licensing rights or whether Circle will license, assert, or enforce these patents externally in the future. IBM has long been one of the most active companies in building a blockchain patent portfolio in the United States. This sale effectively transfers its long-accumulated key assets to Circle.

Asian stocks saw a sharp correction at the open today (7/28) after the U.S. stock market’s Philadelphia Semiconductor Index fell and concerns about AI-related capital expenditures resurfaced. Taiwan stocks plunged more than 1,700 points in the morning session, breaking below the 42,000-point level outright. Markets in Japan and South Korea also dropped in tandem; the South Korean market (KOSPI) even triggered the circuit breaker mechanism again during the day, halting trading for 20 minutes.
Taiwan stocks plunge by more than 1,000 points; TSMC slips below its quarterly moving average
Taiwan stocks opened to a barrage of selloffs today, with the intraday low reaching 41,830.09 points. Leading heavyweight TSMC fell 80 yuan in the early session (down 3.4%) to 2,270 yuan, breaking below its quarterly moving average again (2,347 yuan). In the memory sector, Winbond and Nanya Technologies also saw even deeper declines at one point, hitting the daily limit down.