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Venture capital fund Team8 announced the completion of a new fundraise of $365 million. This round of fundraising includes $265 million for Team8 Capital's third fund, as well as over $100 million for follow-on investments in existing portfolio companies.The new fund will focus on investing in seed and Series A stage AI-native companies, covering areas such as cybersecurity, AI infrastructure, and fintech, with a particular emphasis on infrastructure projects that help businesses deploy AI while ensuring security, governance, and control capabilities. Team8 currently manages assets close to $2 billion.Previously, Team8 has co-invested in several cryptocurrency and AI companies, including cryptocurrency institutional wallet developer Curv, AI compliance platform IVIX, and AI data leak prevention company Jazz.

The White House announced that U.S. President Trump will impose a 15% ad valorem tariff on drones and parts imported from the European Union, Japan, Liechtenstein, South Korea, and Switzerland.

The White House announced that U.S. President Trump will impose a 25% ad valorem tariff on certain small drones that lack specific capabilities, citing national security concerns related to the products.

According to Forbes, AI data infrastructure company Databricks announced the completion of a $5 billion strategic financing round, led by Coatue, with participation from Blackstone, MGX, and T. Rowe Price. Sixth Street Growth joined as a new investor, bringing the post-financing valuation of the company to $190 billion, higher than the previously disclosed valuation plan of $188 billion. The funds will be used to advance AI infrastructure layout, product development, and potential acquisitions.Databricks co-founder and CEO Ali Ghodsi stated that the company's current annual revenue run rate has exceeded $7 billion, with a year-on-year growth of over 80%. In terms of AI Agent infrastructure, Databricks believes that the scale of AI-generated software will significantly increase in the future, and each AI application will require database support.

According to The Defiant, Geoff Kendrick, the Global Head of Digital Assets Research at Standard Chartered Bank, stated that the previously set target price of $100 for UNI by the end of 2030 may be too low. Kendrick pointed out that the protocol fee burn rate for Uniswap on the Robinhood Chain exceeded previous expectations.Data shows that from July 27 to August 12, the average daily income of the Uniswap protocol was approximately $244,000, annualizing to about $89.1 million, all of which was used for repurchasing and burning UNI. Based on the current price of about $3.53, the annualized burn amount accounts for approximately 4% of the circulating supply (624.2 million tokens). Kendrick described this burn rate as "clearly unsustainable," and even with his target price of $6.5 by the end of 2026, the annualized burn rate would still reach 2.2%, which is also difficult to maintain in the long term, and does not account for more collaborations similar to Robinhood.In the recent 7 days, the total income of the Uniswap protocol was approximately $1.55 million, with the Robinhood Chain contributing about $925,000, accounting for about 60%. Uniswap has deployed v2, v3, v4, and UniswapX on this chain, becoming a major public AMM.

Chip giant AMD plans to raise up to $5 billion through a four-part bond issuance, which, if completed, will become one of the largest bond financings in the company's history.It is reported that AMD is increasing capital investment to meet the rapidly growing demand for artificial intelligence computing. Previously, the company had reached significant cooperation agreements with Anthropic and Microsoft (MSFT), committing to provide up to $5 billion in support to Anthropic.The funds raised from this bond issuance will be used for general corporate purposes, including potential debt repayment. As of now, AMD has approximately $875 million in bonds maturing next month.The market believes that AMD's recent continuous expansion in AI chips and computing infrastructure will provide financial support for further investment in AI business, expanding the supply chain, and promoting strategic cooperation.

According to official news, Saturn announced a partnership with Ondo to bring institutional-grade tokenized assets into Saturn's (STRC) structured products.At the same time, Ondo also made a strategic investment in Saturn.

The founder of Strategy, Michael Saylor, proposed the concept of the "Digital Assets Monetary Spectrum," categorizing different types of digital assets based on volatility, potential returns, and trading functions.Saylor stated that the digital asset system can be divided into four levels: Bitcoin (BTC): Digital Capital (Digital Capital) STRC: Digital Credit (Digital Credit) SR-strcUSX: Digital Money (Digital Money) USDT: Digital Currency (Digital Currency).He believes that from left to right, asset volatility and potential returns gradually decrease, while stability and trading utility continuously increase. Saylor stated that Bitcoin is the "ultimate value storage asset," possessing high volatility, high potential returns, and the attributes of a digital asset that does not require third-party credit endorsement; whereas stablecoins are the "ultimate medium of exchange," emphasizing stability and payment functionality. In between the two, digital credit and digital currency serve as a bridge connecting capital and currency. Among them, STRC is defined by Saylor as "digital credit," characterized by relative stability, high fixed returns, and certain value storage attributes.He further stated that digital currency combines digital currency technology with digital capital economic attributes, possessing stability, earning capacity, trading convenience, and value storage functions. Saylor noted that digital capital belongs to bearer assets, while assets such as digital credit, digital currency, and digital cash are created and managed by digital financial companies, with their ownership layer corresponding to "Digital Equity." These components together form the future "Digital Finance Stack."

In July, the US CPI rose by 0.1% month-on-month and 3.4% year-on-year, while the core CPI increased by 2.5% year-on-year, overall in line with market expectations. As the market continues to assess the Federal Reserve's subsequent policy path, the impact of macro changes on asset allocation and trading strategies is continuously strengthening, further enhancing institutions' focus on liquidity management and trading execution efficiency.Against this backdrop, Gate institutions are continuously improving professional trading infrastructure. According to the transparency report released by the platform in July, Gate CrossEx added one mainstream exchange and 23 trading pairs, launched RPI Orders, reduced the highest fees of multiple exchanges by 50%, and introduced new APIs for market data, funding rates, batch order cancellations, and several WebSocket features; by optimizing concurrent order placement and execution feedback delays, system performance improved by 50%, while the launch of Colo services further reduced trading latency.In addition, SuperLink continues to optimize Fireblocks Gas management and settlement processes, further enhancing institutions' cross-platform asset management and trading collaboration capabilities. In the future, Gate institutions will continue to advance infrastructure upgrades around core capabilities such as trading execution, liquidity, and cross-platform collaboration, providing professional investors with more efficient and stable institutional-level trading services.

ChianCatcher news, Offchain Labs co-founder Steven Goldfeder tweeted that Arbitrum has been ahead of its time in several aspects. The team strongly advocated for interactive proof design (which was controversial at the time and has now become the standard for optimistic Rollups); chose to establish a business when the business model was still highly controversial; focused on DeFi when most people had not yet understood perpetual contracts and many had given up on DeFi; and launched a dedicated blockchain when the industry generally believed that more chains were unnecessary.Facing backlash each time, but now the industry is aligning with the direction they set from day one: building robust and high-performance financial infrastructure. Goldfeder is proud of the Offchain team for delivering world-class products at an incredibly fast pace and stated that they will continue to deliver, even if most people currently do not understand its necessity; the industry will soon understand.

On August 12, the enterprise blockchain infrastructure provider Aventus announced the official launch of Aventus Cloud node sales. The program aims to allow individuals and institutions to run nodes using available computing resources, expanding participation in the Aventus network infrastructure.Founded in 2017, Aventus has provided blockchain infrastructure for enterprise applications in industries such as aviation, energy, and telecommunications, and has become a Polkadot parachain. Aventus Cloud will go live on the mainnet in April 2026, with nodes capable of processing network activity verification, and eligible operators can earn network rewards. The current price for Genesis Tranche node licenses is $1,755, with a final network plan of up to 40,000 nodes, and over 2,500 nodes are currently active.

According to Fortune, Bank of America announced a $250 billion infrastructure investment plan on Wednesday, committing to invest in key infrastructure areas in the United States over the next year. The investment scope covers multiple fields including data centers and computing power, renewable energy generation, energy storage, natural gas, transmission networks, and critical minerals and mining, with the goal of supporting energy security, job growth, and economic competitiveness.

The Bitcoin wallet Electrum has released version 4.8.1, with the official statement claiming that this update includes "important security fixes" and urging users to upgrade as soon as possible.Developers involved in reproducible builds have provided independent signatures for the binary packages on the download page to verify the consistency between the release package and the source code.

According to Bloomberg, Trump is being sued for planning to sell quick access to Truth Social posts.

President Trump’s latest post: "The United States has completely taken control of the Strait of Hormuz. I believe we will continue to maintain control! Our maritime blockade is referred to by everyone as the 'Iron Wall,' and Iran is powerless against it.They have no navy, no air force, and the remaining soldiers have not been paid. The Revolutionary Guard has been severely damaged and is in retreat, while their 'leadership' can at best be described as uncertain! They have no funds—this country is already 'full of holes.' All they have are fake news and 300% inflation, and the situation is worsening! Iran is now just all talk and no action, no longer the bully of the Middle East!"

According to Crowdfund Insider, Bitcoin mining company MARA Holdings disclosed in its latest quarterly SEC filing that it has pledged 18,750 BTC as collateral for two Bitcoin-backed loans, with a total principal of $750 million.The financing provided by Coinbase Credit includes refinancing of an existing $150 million credit line and an additional $300 million; Two Prime Lending also provided a $300 million loan. Both loans have been fully drawn, with a combined financing cost of approximately 7.56%, primarily maturing in August 2028.The pledged 18,750 BTC was valued at approximately $1.2 billion at the time of the transaction. If the price of Bitcoin falls and the collateral ratio drops below the agreed level, MARA may face additional collateral requirements; otherwise, the related BTC is at risk of liquidation. The new funds will primarily be used for general corporate purposes and to support MARA's acquisition of Long Ridge Energy & Power.The transaction values the company at approximately $1.5 billion, with Long Ridge owning a natural gas power plant in Ohio, USA, with an expected installed capacity of 505 MW, as well as over 1,600 acres of industrial land. MARA plans to further develop the area into a base for Bitcoin mining, AI, and high-performance computing infrastructure.

According to Bloomberg, cryptocurrency market maker Wintermute plans to invest approximately $1 billion over the next five years in high-frequency trading and AI data center infrastructure to expand into traditional financial markets such as stocks, commodities, and foreign exchange. The related expenditures are expected to be funded by retained earnings.Currently, the non-crypto market contributes about 10% of the company's revenue, with a goal of increasing this proportion to over 50% by the end of 2027. Wintermute's average daily trading volume this year has decreased from about $15 billion last year to $10 billion.

The International Energy Agency (IEA) has lowered its global oil demand forecast for this year, primarily due to ongoing export disruptions in the Strait of Hormuz and high fuel prices. The IEA expects global oil demand to decline by 1.56 million barrels per day by 2026, reaching 103.29 million barrels per day. It is anticipated that global oil demand will decrease by 4.9 million barrels per day year-on-year in the second quarter, with a recovery in the fourth quarter, increasing by approximately 580,000 barrels per day.

NVIDIA announced a partnership with Apollo, BlackRock, Blackstone, Brookfield, Goldman Sachs, and KKR to establish an independent financing platform.The platform aims to mobilize over $500 billion in third-party capital in the long term to support AI infrastructure development.