PANews

PANews, August 12 — According to Bybit market data, the three major U.S. stock indexes all closed lower, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average down 0.30%, the Nasdaq down 0.39%, and the S&P 500 down 0.33%. Crypto-related stocks broadly fell, with COIN (Coinbase) down 0.28% on the day and HOOD (Robinhood) down 0.27% on the day.

PANews, August 12 — According to The Information, Brad Lightcap, head of special projects and former chief operating officer at OpenAI, is set to leave the company.

PANews, August 12 — On-chain data shows that due to a short-term drop in the price of ETH, Machi Big Brother Jeffrey Huang’s 25x leveraged ETH long position experienced two partial liquidations over the past hour. His position currently still holds 2,336 ETH, with an unrealized loss of approximately $70k.

Kiwoom Securities lowered its target prices for Samsung Electronics and SK hynix from KRW 390k to KRW 350k and from KRW 2.2 million to KRW 2.1 million, respectively, while maintaining buy ratings. The industry had previously cut both stocks by about 30% since the end of last month, reflecting growing concerns that the semiconductor cycle may have peaked.

PANews, August 12 — The U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) expects U.S. commercial crude oil inventories to remain below the lowest level for the corresponding period in the five years from 2021 to 2025 through the end of 2026. U.S. crude oil inventories have continued to decline since mid-April due to increased crude oil exports, decreased imports, and high refinery utilization rates. Driven by strong international market demand for U.S. crude oil, U.S. net crude oil imports are expected to remain below average before 2027.

Serenity said on X that Unitree Technology’s IPO was oversubscribed by retail investors more than 8,000 times, indicating extremely strong demand for humanoid robots. She is bullish on related investments in Agility Robotics, a project backed by SoftBank, NVIDIA, Amazon, Foxconn and others, with a pre-money valuation of approximately $2.5 billion. If its market capitalization exceeds $30 billion after listing, it could boost market attention toward leading companies. Regardless of the outcome, the demand revealed by Unitree Technology’s IPO has made the humanoid robotics sector a new hotspot for global capital.

According to TheDefiant, former Pudgy Penguins co-founder ColeVillemain launched Spritehood. After going live on Robinhood Chain, 44,444 NFTs sold out in less than an hour, generating approximately $1.28 million (about 684 ETH) in on-chain revenue. The contract’s source code has not been verified, its distribution mechanism has not been disclosed, and the community has questioned its technical foundation, fearing it could become a cash grab and undermine the new chain’s long-term ecosystem development.

PANews, August 11 — Rezaei, secretary of Iran's Supreme National Security Council, stated: “The United States is the creator of insecurity in the Persian Gulf, the Strait of Hormuz, and the Gulf of Oman, placing the entire region in danger by imposing an illegal war on Iran. As long as the United States does not change its behavior and accept Iran's conditions, the Strait of Hormuz will not reopen. The United States must end the war and pay Iran its frozen funds; all wars in the region, including those in Lebanon and Gaza, must end. In addition, other conditions conveyed to the United States through intermediaries must be met. If Iran and Oman reach an agreement on transit routes through the Strait of Hormuz, that agreement will be handled separately from the issue of the strait's blockade.”

PANews, August 12 — The U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) Short-Term Energy Outlook: The WTI crude oil price is expected to be $80.88 per barrel in 2026, compared with the previous forecast of $76.26 per barrel. The WTI crude oil price is expected to be $65.39 per barrel in 2027, compared with the previous forecast of $60.76 per barrel. The Brent crude oil price is expected to be $86.81 per barrel in 2026, compared with the previous forecast of $81.91 per barrel. The Brent crude oil price is expected to be $69.39 per barrel in 2027, compared with the previous forecast of $64.76 per barrel.

SEC Chair Atkins announced plans to advance CAT reform, reduce costs, optimize governance and funding sources, and complete the restructuring by the end of 2027 to create a CAT system with controllable costs and efficient regulation. The reform will explore new financing models, repeal Rule 613, have the SEC directly receive CAT data, and optimize internal resource allocation. Established in 2017, CAT has long faced criticism over costs, privacy, and governance disputes.

PANews, August 11 — According to Fox Business, Strategy CEO Phong Le said the company will resume purchasing more Bitcoin during the remainder of this year.

PANews reported on August 11, citing CoinDesk, that Pokémon cards have outperformed the S&P 500 index and Bitcoin year to date. Meanwhile, a number of emerging blockchain platforms are betting on tokenization to transform the collectibles market, valued at approximately $13 billion to $15 billion, in order to improve the trading liquidity, ownership records, and settlement efficiency of physical collectibles.

PANews, August 11 — Bakkt CEO Akshay Naheta disclosed that the company reported GAAP net profit of $80.8 million and earnings per share of $1.94 in Q2. It currently has no long-term debt and has launched six commercial products. Bakkt set a total transaction value (TTV) target of $2.5 billion for fiscal year 2026 and is building a full-stack platform for AI and tokenomics around its three core businesses: Markets, Agent, and Global.

ENS announced the passage of the “Next Era of ENS DAO” proposal, making the foundation an official operating entity with a full-time executive team and a five-member board of directors, which will represent ENS in naming standards and off-chain matters involving ICANN, IETF, W3C, and others. The ENS DAO holds 54.6% of the tokens and will provide the foundation with a one-time grant of 1 million ENS for compensation. The foundation and ENS Labs are independent entities, with the latter continuing to develop products such as ENSv2.

Twenty One Capital says it will transform from a single-asset Bitcoin treasury into a Bitcoin-native operating company, with its stock viewed as trading at a discount to the value of its holdings. Its five priorities are: strengthening governance and internal controls; bringing in executives; operating cash-flow businesses modeled on Berkshire Hathaway; developing Bitcoin-based capital markets instruments and financing; and integrating assets and teams through M&A while exploring Bitcoin-backed lending. It also plans to maintain transparent related-party transactions with controlling shareholder Tether and support open-source software.

Bloomberg senior ETF analyst Balchunas said that when investors convert Bitcoin in-kind into spot Bitcoin ETF shares, they will not immediately recognize capital gains, but the original cost basis and holding period will carry over, making it a tax deferral rather than tax avoidance; the mechanism can also be reversed to convert ETF shares back into Bitcoin. This approach applies to grantor trust structures rather than open-ended funds. Tax expert Clinton Donnelly added that currently, contributing Bitcoin in-kind to IBIT generally does not constitute a taxable event, but this depends on IBIT’s treatment as a grantor trust, and the IRS has not yet issued a formal ruling.

PANews reported on August 11 that general-purpose AI agent platform Manus announced it will soon resume operating as an independent company. As part of the transition, and to comply with regulatory requirements in certain jurisdictions, some users must back up their data before 7:59 on August 23 Singapore time and restore their data through the recovery portal starting at 8:00 on August 25 to ensure normal use. Manus said it will notify affected users via email and in-app notifications; unaffected accounts require no action. Affected users will not be charged during the transition and will receive a return bonus.

PANews, August 11 — Market news: CME Group and Silicon Data will launch computing power futures on October 5.