SharpLink Gaming generated a yield of 567 ETH through Ethereum staking.

According to data from Staking Rewards, Ethereum's staking ratio has reached an all-time high, with approximately 41.89 million ETH currently staked, accounting for 34.7% of Ethereum's total supply. The corresponding staked market value is around $78.56 billion, and the current staking yield is about 2.6%, down 0.49% recently. The network has roughly 789,000 active validators. The staking ratio has continued to climb recently, with a recent increase of around 0.77%, while the network's inflation rate has dropped to approximately 0.86%. More and more ETH is being locked in the PoS consensus, tightening the circulating supply in tandem. ETH staking returns mainly come from consensus layer issuance, priority fees, and MEV, but as staking volume grows, individual validator yields will be diluted.

Strategy will hold an investor live Q&A at 12:00 PM Eastern Time (ET) on August 17, with Founder and Executive Chairman Michael Saylor and Chief Executive Officer Phong Le in attendance. Hosted by renowned Bitcoin media personality Natalie Brunell, the event will stream simultaneously on X and YouTube. Investors can watch the broadcast via Strategy’s official X account or the “Live” tab on YouTube. The company has also opened a pre-question submission channel, allowing investors to submit questions through the official online form or by posting content on X.

Crypto trading platform Bullish released its Q2 2026 financial report, with digital asset sales reaching $32.6 billion and a net loss of $280 million. Adjusted revenue stood at $92.6 million, while adjusted EBITDA came in at $29.5 million. Subscription, services and other revenue hit a record high of $62.7 million, driving adjusted revenue to grow 62% year-over-year. On the regulatory front, the company has received approval from the Gibraltar Financial Services Commission (GFSC), becoming one of the first fully regulated venues to offer secondary trading of issuer-initiated tokenized securities. Bullish also disclosed that its acquisition of Equiniti is progressing as planned, with completion expected in early 2027, subject to customary closing conditions and regulatory approvals.

Japan's stock market retail investors are increasingly using leverage to join the AI rally. As of July, margin trading by individual investors on Japan's stock market reached 123 trillion yen (approximately 1.09 trillion yuan), doubling from the start of the year and hitting its highest level since statistics began in 2016. In June, the scale of margin trading by Japanese individual investors had already set a historical high, and it remained at a high level in July. Meanwhile, the proportion of margin trading in individual investors' total transaction value rose to 83%, also a new record. AI-related stocks have become the main force driving the surge in margin trading by Japanese retail investors. Among them, the margin buying balance of storage chip-related Kioxia Holdings stood at 13.23 million shares as of August 7, making it one of the most popular assets.

Fantom founder and former Sonic Labs co-founder Andre Cronje recently stated bluntly: "I believe DeFi no longer exists outside of very niche segments." The vast majority of current DeFi protocols are categorized as "on-chain finance" or "open finance," but true DeFi must meet three core criteria: decentralization, immutability, and non-custodialism. This definition no longer applies to nearly any existing DeFi protocol, Cronje explained. Today’s intermediaries take the form of companies, decision-makers, curators, or risk committees—"all elements we have long observed in traditional banking." True DeFi still persists in some niche projects, he added, noting that he still sees genuine innovation in this space. According to DefiLlama data, the total value locked (TVL) in DeFi has halved from $167 billion in October 2025 to the current $75 billion. A March working paper from the European Central Bank (ECB) also cast doubt on the decentralization of DAOs. A snapshot analysis of holdings across Aave, MakerDAO, Ampleforth, and Uniswap revealed that the top 100 governance token holders control over 80% of each protocol’s total supply, raising questions about whether these platforms should be exempt from MiCA regulation as "fully decentralized" services.

On Trade.xyz, Unitree’s pre-IPO perpetual contract saw a short-term sharp drop: after rising to $94, it fell to $88.8 within an hour, a 5.5% short-term decline. Its current quote is around 600 yuan, translating to a post-listing market cap of roughly $36 billion, or approximately 243 billion yuan. Based on Unitree’s previously set IPO offering price of 150.8 yuan per share, it is expected to deliver a 3.98x return from new share subscriptions post-listing, with a net profit of about 224,600 yuan after deducting subscription payments. Unitree is projected to officially list and trade in mid-to-late August, and is currently awaiting the final official announcement from the Shanghai Stock Exchange.