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According to the French newspaper Le Monde, a 45-year-old woman born in Russia and naturalized in France in 2017, Svetlana A., has recently been placed under investigation and detained by a Paris investigating judge on charges of organized fraud, serious money laundering, and participation in a criminal gang. The French National Financial Prosecutor's Office stated that she and her British partner Robert H. are suspected of committing organized fraud by manipulating cryptocurrency prices, with the related funds suspected to be used for purchasing properties in Dubai.Reports indicate that Svetlana A. invested over 50 million euros in 2022 alone, acquiring about 100 apartments and 3 luxury villas in Dubai, with total rental income from 2022 to 2025 expected to be at least 4 million euros; she also purchased an entire building containing 73 apartments for 68 million dirhams (approximately 17.4 million euros). The cryptocurrency mentioned in the report is Verasity (VRA), launched by her partner in 2018. The price of VRA surged 65 times over a two-and-a-half-month period in the spring of 2021, followed by a significant decline, currently down approximately 99.98% from its historical peak. The lawyer for the parties involved stated that the sources of the related wealth are documented and legal, and they deny any wrongdoing. The case is still under investigation.

After Alibaba and ByteDance launched Qianwen Office and Doubao Work respectively, Baidu has launched the AI tool OkWork, which focuses on mobile office solutions, integrating PPT generation, AI writing, spreadsheet data analysis, and poster image generation. The product interface features a minimalist and lightweight design, with the homepage showcasing four main modules: AI PPT, AI Writing, AI Spreadsheet, and AI Image Generation. This is also Baidu's recent move in the AI office scene following Kuku AI.AI PPT supports document to PPT conversion, PDF to PPT conversion, and outline generation for PPT, and can also beautify existing PPTs, split layers, and make AI modifications. AI Writing covers resumes, lesson plans, papers, reports, and document summaries, and supports PDF to Word conversion, continuation writing, and imitation writing; AI Spreadsheet focuses on data calculation and intelligent table creation. AI Image Generation includes capabilities for posters, avatars, as well as pixel art, hand-drawn newspapers, and comic strips. Users can complete content generation, document conversion, and image matching through conversations with specific requirements, and the template center provides PPT and resume templates.OkWork is not completely free; some features and rights consume AI points, which users can obtain by subscribing to a membership. The product covers scenarios such as workplace reports, student assignments, teaching preparation, and simple posters, leaning more towards quickly producing drafts and is not aimed at ultra-large documents or complex multi-person collaborative editing. According to 360iResearch, the global AI office software market is expected to grow to $35.49 billion by 2026 and is projected to reach $71.27 billion by 2032; a survey by iiMedia Consulting shows that the usage rate of office AI assistants among white-collar workers in China is 57.27%.

According to Cointelegraph, the Dubai Virtual Assets Regulatory Authority (VARA) has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the BlackRock-backed tokenization platform Securitize to advance the tokenization and digital asset infrastructure development in the UAE and Dubai. Both parties stated that the agreement will establish a collaborative framework to support regulated tokenization initiatives, promote institutional participation, and strengthen Dubai's digital asset ecosystem.A VARA spokesperson stated that the memorandum aims to combine VARA's regulatory perspective with Securitize's experience in institutional tokenization to determine how the collaboration can help Dubai develop a trustworthy and regulated tokenization market, with no specific projects to be announced at this stage. Carlos Domingo, co-founder and CEO of Securitize, stated that Dubai is one of the most forward-looking jurisdictions for global digital asset innovation, and collaborating with regulators is crucial for tokenization to move from concept to mainstream financial infrastructure.At the time of this announcement, investor demand for tokenized assets continues to rise. According to RWA.xyz data, the total number of tokenized asset holders has increased by 103% over the past 30 days to 3.2 million, and the total value of tokenized assets has grown by 2% to $38.5 billion. Securitize is currently the largest tokenization platform globally, with a tokenized asset management scale of $4.9 billion, while Ondo Finance ranks second with $3.5 billion.

According to Bloomberg, David Bailey, the cryptocurrency entrepreneur who helped Trump shift to supporting Bitcoin, is trying to rebuild his business after the stock price of his Bitcoin treasury company, Nakamoto, has fallen about 99% from its peak. Previously, Bailey raised approximately $760 million for the publicly listed company to establish Bitcoin reserves.Nakamoto announced its entry into the public market through a merger in May 2025, and since then, the stock price has cumulatively dropped about 99% from its high. This trend is also part of the overall correction of digital asset treasury companies, as the premium investors previously paid to indirectly hold Bitcoin through a listed company has largely disappeared.Bailey's hedge fund had previously achieved a 640% return when investing in similar strategies. He stated that he still occasionally keeps in touch with the White House and is trying to prove that, after the significant drop in stock price, Nakamoto still has a sustainable real business.

The Chair of the Financial Stability Board and Governor of the Bank of England, Andrew Bailey, warned G20 finance ministers and central bank governors that cybersecurity threats posed by cutting-edge AI models are significantly increasing the risk of a financial system collapse. Bailey stated that the global financial system is already strained due to energy-driven inflation pressures, a high interest rate environment, and rising investment leverage, and that the involvement of AI risks will exacerbate this pressure.Bailey pointed out that financial institutions and tech giants must prepare for extreme scenarios, as existing financial defense systems will face severe tests if there are synchronized disruptions involving multiple institutions or shared technology dependencies. He mentioned that models tested by labs such as Anthropic and OpenAI have demonstrated the ability to simulate attacks on external organizations and create false identities, and he suggested developing bare-metal backup systems that are completely physically isolated from the main network.Bailey also listed threats that could trigger disorderly market adjustments, including the fragile state of stock market valuations driven by the AI boom, weakness in the sovereign debt market and private credit sector, and investors continuously increasing leverage in the stock market.

According to CoinDesk, the U.S. clearing and custody institution RQD Clearing announced the completion of a $74 million financing round, led by Bain Capital Tech Opportunities, a technology investment division of Bain Capital, with participation from ABN AMRO Clearing Bank and Nyca Partners. This round of financing will be used to expand operations in North America, Asia, and the Middle East, and to enhance infrastructure development for digital asset custody and asset tokenization.RQD primarily provides post-trade clearing and custody services for broker-dealers, investment advisors, and overseas financial institutions in the U.S. market, responsible for key processes such as securities and funds settlement, and risk management. This year, the company has processed approximately 515 million stock trades, involving nearly $2 trillion, accounting for about 2.4% of the National Market System (NMS) stock trading volume in the U.S.As Wall Street institutions accelerate their exploration of on-chain finance, traditional market infrastructure is becoming an important direction for the competition of tokenized assets. RQD has previously collaborated with Blue Ocean Technologies to advance the clearing and settlement infrastructure for tokenized U.S. stocks and has aligned with the tokenized securities framework of the Depository Trust & Clearing Corporation (DTCC).

According to the information released by the SEC, Robinhood (HOOD) Chief Financial Officer Verma Shiv sold 3,982 shares of the company's stock on August 17 at an average price of $95.07 per share, for a total value of approximately $378,600. After the transaction, his direct holdings decreased to 51,963 shares. In addition, Robinhood (HOOD) Director Bhatt Baiju sold 50,317 shares of the company's stock on August 14 at an average price of $96.80 per share, for a total value of approximately $4.8706 million. After the transaction, his direct holdings decreased to 3,703 shares.

According to reports from the Science and Technology Innovation Board Daily, humanoid intelligence company Current Robotics has publicly disclosed its financing progress for the first time: the company has completed seed round, angel round, and Pre-A round financing, with a total financing amount of hundreds of millions of RMB. The company's investors include financial investment institutions such as BV Baidu Ventures, Hillhouse Capital, Oasis Capital, Monolith Capital, Qianhai Ark, Fosun Wealth, Junshan Capital, as well as industry players like Zhiyuan Robotics, Xinghai Map, and Jike Technology.The financing funds will mainly be used to promote the large-scale collection of human body data, with a focus on investing in the research and development of core technologies such as full-body dexterous operation models and interactive world models.

Uber launches Baidu's fully driverless Apollo Go in Dubai, marking the birth of the world's first multi-party cooperative autonomous driving network.

According to Gate market data, Baidu (BIDU.O) stock price fell by 10%, marking the largest single-day decline since June 5.

According to Gate market data, Baidu (BIDU.O) fell 7.5% in pre-market trading.

Baidu released its Q2 2026 financial report, with total revenue of 31.3 billion yuan, a year-on-year decrease of 4% and a quarter-on-quarter decrease of 2%; non-GAAP net profit was 2.6 billion yuan, with a non-GAAP net profit margin of 8%. Among them, revenue from Baidu's core AI business reached 12.5 billion yuan, accounting for 50% of the general business revenue (25.2 billion yuan), making AI business a core revenue pillar for Baidu.Looking at the segments, AI cloud infrastructure revenue was 7.3 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 50%, with GPU cloud revenue growing by 283% year-on-year, further accelerating from the 184% growth rate of the previous quarter; AI application revenue was 2.5 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 3%; AI native marketing service revenue was 2.6 billion yuan. The monthly active users of the Baidu App reached 644 million. In terms of autonomous driving, Luobo Kuaipao has covered 28 cities globally, with a cumulative autonomous driving mileage exceeding 350 million kilometers, of which fully autonomous driving mileage exceeds 240 million kilometers. This quarter, Baidu's free cash flow was -7.95 billion yuan, but adjusted EBITDA was 6.15 billion yuan, with an adjusted EBITDA profit margin of 20%. Baidu is advancing its dual primary listing conversion in Hong Kong, expected to take effect within the year. This quarter, Baidu returned approximately $259 million to shareholders through share buybacks.

The cryptocurrency market maker Flowdesk, supported by Coinbase, has obtained a full brokerage license issued by Dubai VARA, allowing it to provide compliant services to local institutional investors.

Cregis Custody FZE announced that it has received the In-Principle Approval (IPA) granted by the Dubai Virtual Assets Regulatory Authority (VARA), marking a significant milestone in its application for a Virtual Asset Service Provider (VASP) license.Upon completing the subsequent regulatory requirements and obtaining final approval, Cregis Custody FZE will launch regulated digital asset custody services.

According to CoinDesk, the unlicensed cryptocurrency trading platform Shelbit in Dubai is suspected of being at the center of a $4 billion network for evading Iranian sanctions and is accused of handling millions of dollars in cryptocurrency funds for a large illegal gambling network.Shelbit is operated by Iranian expatriate Siavash Kayvanpour, who is suspected of transferring hundreds of millions of dollars through major cryptocurrency platforms and providing access to global markets for the Central Bank of Iran and other sanctioned entities.U.S. and independent investigators indicate that the operation appears to be closely linked to the Iranian Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, but it has not been confirmed whether they directly control Shelbit or the related gambling network.

According to the information released by the SEC, Robinhood (HOOD) director Bhatt Baiju sold 49,223 shares of the company's stock on July 24 at an average price of $95.09 per share, for a total value of approximately $4.68 million. After the transaction, his direct holdings decreased to 3,703 shares.

According to Jinshi reports, Iranian media Fars News reported that local crisis management authorities stated that an enemy projectile hit Iran's West Azerbaijan Province.

According to Jinshi News, Baida Wealth Management pointed out that the market currently has an unusually high probability pricing for the Federal Reserve's interest rate hike. Senior U.S. economist Xiao Cui stated that while the risk of an unexpected rate hike cannot be completely ruled out, the current market pricing seems too high. The latest U.S. inflation data and statements from Federal Reserve officials have reinforced expectations that the Federal Reserve will keep interest rates unchanged at 3.5% - 3.75% this week.Cui also believes that Logan and Harmack in the committee may cast dissenting votes in support of a 25 basis point rate hike, and Kashkari may also join this camp.

According to a report by the Securities Times, Baidu Group announced that the company's board of directors has authorized the management to proceed with a voluntary conversion to a primary listing on the Main Board of the Hong Kong Stock Exchange, expected to take effect within this year. After the relevant procedures are completed, Baidu will achieve a dual primary listing in Hong Kong and Nasdaq. Once the dual primary listing takes effect, it will enhance the liquidity of the company's securities, expand the investor base, and provide greater flexibility for entering the two capital markets.