launch

According to PR Newswire, Bank Leumi of Israel announced a partnership with Galaxy Digital to provide customers with trading services for digital assets such as Bitcoin starting in 2027, initially supporting Bitcoin, Ethereum, and Solana. Bank Leumi will also become the first bank in Israel to offer digital asset trading services to its customers.At the same time, Leumi will integrate with Galaxy's digital asset custody infrastructure platform to provide underlying security architecture support for the bank's digital asset services.

Binance has launched a special trading competition for new users. Complete your first trade on Binance Spot or Instant Exchange to win up to 1,000 USDT vouchers. The event runs from August 14, 2026, 20:00 to August 29, 07:59.Eligibility to participate is for new users who register a Binance account and complete identity verification during the event period. Rewards will be distributed based on the total qualified trading volume of spot or instant exchange trades during the event.

Binance Alpha announced that it will be the first platform to launch KiiChain (KII) on August 14. Eligible users can go to the Alpha event page to use Binance Alpha points to claim airdrops after the Alpha trading opens. Specific rules and details regarding the quota will be announced separately.

BNB Smart Chain (BSC) announced that the Pasteur hard fork will officially launch on the mainnet at 10:30 AM Beijing time on August 25 (02:30 UTC on August 25). Node operators need to upgrade to client version v1.7.7 in advance. This upgrade includes three improvements: BEP-682, BEP-695, and BEP-675, focusing on enhancing cross-chain security, validator governance mechanisms, and network throughput capacity.Among them, BEP-682 will strengthen the cross-chain bridge validation mechanism of the BNB Chain, preventing the risk of permission bypass caused by duplicate calculations of validator signatures, thus improving the security of cross-chain asset transfers. BEP-695 optimizes the validator key rotation mechanism, ensuring that old keys no longer retain management permissions after exiting, while also fixing potential vulnerabilities related to penalties and governance voting. In terms of performance, BEP-675 reduces the time consumption caused by validators repeatedly executing transactions by optimizing the block construction process.In the internal QANet testing environment of the BNB Chain, this solution increased throughput from 1237 TPS to 2324 TPS, while maintaining a block time of 450 milliseconds and a block limit of 100 million Gas, with the average Gas usage per block rising from 46.35 million to 84.15 million.BNB Chain stated that this upgrade is primarily aimed at validators and block builders, intending to provide greater capacity during network peak periods and to promote the throughput expansion goals outlined in the BNB Chain roadmap for the second half of 2026.

According to the official announcement, Gate has officially launched SOL and XRP event contracts, simultaneously opening multi-cycle rise and fall trading channels. Users can log into the Gate App or the official website and enter the event contract section in the contract area to participate.Event contracts focus on rise and fall prediction trading, requiring no complex parameters such as leverage or margin, making the operational threshold low. The product covers four types of short cycles: 5 minutes, 15 minutes, 1 hour, and 4 hours, currently supporting four major cryptocurrencies: BTC, ETH, SOL, and XRP. Users only need to predict the rise and fall of the asset during the corresponding period, choose to place a bullish or bearish order, and the system will automatically settle at the end of the cycle. Positions can also be closed early for flexible profit-taking and loss-cutting.

According to ChainCatcher, Guangdong Province's first special financial product for the token economy, "Token Loan," was launched in the Haizhu District of Guangzhou. Taking Bank of China Guangzhou Branch as an example, a dedicated financing product specifically developed for small and micro enterprises in Haizhu's computing power sector—the Computing Power Token Loan—has been introduced. The credit limit is determined based on the contract/token consumption amount and can provide guarantees mainly through credit, accounts receivable pledges, and order financing. It can also combine guarantees, mortgages, and other forms of collateral to further expand the credit limit. New companies can apply for financing based on orders if they provide continuous operation proof materials from their original operating enterprises or offer guarantees. It is reported that the initial credit funding from Bank of China has reached 28 million yuan.

On August 11, the Binance contract platform launched four U-based perpetual contract trading pairs, including Kuaishou (KUAISHOUUSDT), Meituan (MEITUANUSDT), as well as the Southern Eastern SK Hynix Daily Leverage (2X) product (CSOPSKHYNIX2LUSDT) and the Southern Eastern Samsung Electronics Daily Leverage (2X) product (CSOPSAMSUNG2LUSDT). The Kuaishou and Meituan contracts support a maximum leverage of 20 times, while the two Korean semiconductor ETF products support a maximum leverage of 10 times, with a funding rate cap of ±2%, settled every eight hours, supporting a multi-asset model.Among them, CSOPSKHYNIX2LUSDT tracks the Southern Eastern SK Hynix Daily Leverage (2X) product listed on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange (code 7709), and CSOPSAMSUNG2LUSDT tracks the Southern Eastern Samsung Electronics Daily Leverage (2X) product (code 7747), corresponding to the two major storage chip giants SK Hynix and Samsung Electronics with double long exposure. This is Binance's further expansion in the field of traditional asset perpetual contracts, bringing Hong Kong stocks and Korean tech stock leverage products into the crypto derivatives market. Binance reminds users that digital asset prices are highly volatile, and contract trading carries high risks; investors must bear the related risks themselves.

According to data from the official page, the Gate Launchpool's first project, DOS staking mining activity, is currently ongoing. At present, the total amount of liquid staking in the USDT staking pool exceeds 118 million USDT, with an estimated annual percentage rate (APR) of 7.26%; the total amount of liquid staking in the GUSD staking pool exceeds 81.39 million GUSD, with an estimated annual percentage rate reaching 7.31%. Adding the base 3.80% interest from GUSD's current subscription yield, the comprehensive estimated annual yield rate for the GUSD pool is approximately 11.11%. Currently, the cumulative staking scale of the two major staking pools has exceeded 199 million USD. This activity will last until August 24 at 19:00 (UTC+8), with a total reward of 1,410,000 DOS.In addition, the cumulative subscription scale of Gate's yield-generating stable asset GUSD has currently reached 256 million USD, setting a historical high and continuously expanding stable returns and ecological application scenarios.

Financial giant Charles Schwab announced that it has launched direct trading services for Bitcoin and Ethereum for approximately 40 million brokerage accounts. The product is named Schwab Crypto, covering 48 states in the U.S. (excluding New York and Louisiana), with a trading fee rate of 0.75%, operated by Charles Schwab Premier Bank and Paxos.Joe Vietri, head of digital assets at Charles Schwab, stated that the company aims to become the preferred platform for retail investors to allocate digital assets, supporting users to trade crypto assets alongside other investment types through its services, education, and research advantages. The company also maintains a risk warning, stating that even if Bitcoin or Ethereum only accounts for 1% to 3% of a portfolio, it can have a significant impact, and both have previously dropped over 70% in past cycles.

According to official news, Gate has launched the AI Potential Stocks feature. This feature will scan market volume and price anomalies, major events, industry news, and related news clues through AI before each trading day, helping users quickly understand the main themes that the market may focus on that day, the relevant reasons, and the subsequent transmission direction. The AI Potential Stocks feature is the first to introduce AI research capabilities and supply chain analysis into the cryptocurrency industry market research scenario, upgrading the AI-driven pre-market investment research experience. This feature will focus on markets such as US stocks, Hong Kong stocks, and Korean stocks, selecting 2-3 stock clues that have capital verification, news support, and may not have been fully noticed yet. The content will revolve around three dimensions: "what to pay attention to, why to pay attention, and how the impact extends," helping users efficiently complete pre-market information screening.AI Potential Stocks focuses on market theme rotation, volume and price anomalies, and major news signals, helping users understand the logic behind changes in market focus rather than simply displaying popular stocks. In addition, Gate will continue to improve its push notification capabilities around AI Potential Stocks, forming a mechanism for timely pre-market summaries, major event reminders, and personalized attention updates. The AI Potential Stocks feature is now supported on Gate App v8.31.0 and above; users can access this feature through the bottom navigation bar [TradFi] - [Stocks] list; web users can enter through the market page or directly visit the feature page to use it. In the future, Gate will continuously deepen the construction of AI research capabilities, improve the AI-driven investment research analysis system, and continuously optimize event version content, major event reminders, and personalized summaries around AI Potential Stocks, gradually forming a mechanism for information delivery that combines pre-market summaries, event reminders, and user attention updates, providing users with more timely and clear market references.

According to the official announcement, Bitget has launched the ANET (Arista Networks) stock perpetual contract. This contract is settled in USDT, supports up to 20 times leverage, and is available for trading 24/7. So far, Bitget supports a total of 272 stock perpetual contracts.

Market news says that LG will release the next generation humanoid robot based on the NVIDIA ISAAC GR00T platform.

Solstice Finance launches strcUSX on Solana, splitting the dividend income and price risk of the Nasdaq-listed company Strategy's Series A perpetual preferred stock STRC into two types of tokens: senior and junior. The annual dividend yield of STRC is 12%.The senior tranche SR-strcUSX targets an annual yield of approximately 7%, with priority for dividend income and principal repayment; the junior tranche JR-strcUSX bears the first loss from market value fluctuations and receives the remaining income after payments to the senior tranche, targeting an annual yield of over 20%. Users can deposit USX into the strcUSX vault to receive tokens corresponding to the risk level. Both types of tokens are native assets on Solana, tradable, usable as collateral, or accessible for DeFi applications.Solstice Finance will also integrate USX into Zebec Network's payroll infrastructure, which processes over $500 million in payroll annually and has over 50,000 monthly active users.

Metaplanet CEO Simon Gerovich stated that the company has launched a new bond issuance program called BitBonds and has completed its first issuance.This issuance, through its wholly-owned subsidiary Metaplanet Securities, involves the issuance of Series 21 to 24 unsecured ordinary bonds under Japan's small-scale private placement system, raising a total of approximately 200 million yen. The scale is pilot in nature, aimed at establishing a framework for subsequent bond issuance, distribution, and management.

Micron Ventures launches a $250 million fund focused on investing in next-generation artificial intelligence technologies.

According to Decrypt, the decentralized finance platform Ether.fi announced that its self-custody application has added tokenized stock, metal, and cryptocurrency trading, and supports collateralized lending with multiple holdings. Users can lend assets and borrow against collateralized portfolios through the Aave integrated market based on Optimism, allowing them to transfer or spend borrowed funds without selling their holdings.Ether.fi stated that fiat accounts support global deposits and withdrawals, covering over 30 currencies and payment methods, but tokenized stock and metal trading is not open to users in the United States and some other markets. Fiat accounts are only available to users who have completed payment card identity verification, and the speed of deposits and withdrawals varies.Ether.fi will also launch ETHFI automatic buybacks and provide 3% cash back for card spending. Ether.fi founder and CEO Mike Silagadze stated that initially, it will support Ethereum, Bitcoin, Hyperliquid, ETHFI, and some tokenized stocks and gold, with plans to add more collateral assets in the future.

Binance's tokenized stock product bStocks has been online for less than two months and has surpassed the tokenized stock value of the cryptocurrency trading platform Kraken's xStocks, becoming the second largest issuer. bStocks has a scale of approximately $624 million, xStocks about $579 million, and Ondo Finance about $927 million. As of Tuesday, bStocks' scale has decreased to $610.6 million, still ranking second, slightly above xStocks' $601.2 million.In the past year, the total value of the tokenized stock market, according to issuers, has increased from about $8 million to approximately $2.7 billion. Binance launched bStocks on June 11, allowing investors to gain exposure to U.S. stocks through blockchain tokens without directly holding the underlying stocks. Binance co-founder and former CEO Changpeng Zhao stated that the rapid growth of bStocks is attributed to Binance's user base.

Brazilian Bitcoin treasury company OranjeBTC (B3: OBTC3) announced the launch of the Digital Yield ETF (DIGY11), which is created in collaboration with 3R Investimentos and MarketVector, and is expected to be listed on the Brazilian Stock Exchange B3 in early September.DIGY11 will initially invest in preferred shares issued by Strategy through STRC and preferred shares issued by Strive through SATA, distributing returns to investors in Brazilian reais on a monthly basis while providing daily liquidity and currency hedging. Under current market conditions, DIGY11 is expected to provide an annualized distribution yield equivalent to CDI plus approximately 3% to 5%, but this estimate does not include fluctuations in the fund share price and does not constitute a guarantee of returns. This ETF does not directly invest in Bitcoin but provides Brazilian investors with a localized channel to access USD returns and exposure to Bitcoin ecosystem assets by holding preferred shares related to Bitcoin treasury companies.

Leaker blogger leo claims that Google will launch Gemini 3.7 Flash as early as today. The API price may drop to $0.75 per million tokens for input and $3.75 for output. Currently, the standard prices for Gemini 3.6 Flash are $1.50 and $7.50, respectively. If the new prices are accurate, it would mean a direct cut in half.Gemini 3.7 Flash did not come out of nowhere. Google's official Python GenAI SDK had previously included gemini-3.7-flash, but then renamed the related PR to "internal" and closed it. The community has long speculated that the new model is nearing release.Even more concerning is Gemini 3.5 Pro. SemiAnalysis reported last week that Google has internally canceled this flagship model, with the team shifting focus to the larger-scale Gemini 4. leo also stated that he heard the same news.

B.AI platform announces the official launch of Grok 4.6 on the B.AI API. Compared to Grok 4.5, the new version achieves a comprehensive leap in complex task handling, deep reasoning, and overall intelligence level, demonstrating significant leading performance in the GPDVal-AA V2 evaluation, further expanding the application boundaries in large-scale reasoning and high-difficulty task scenarios. This launch simultaneously opens up dual-channel access for "official" and "self-selected service providers," and introduces an exclusive 40% discount for both official and self-selected service providers, enabling developers to easily access Grok 4.6 with more flexible choices and lower costs, enjoying cutting-edge AI computing power. Starting today, users can experience the upgraded capabilities through the B.AI API.