Fed's Quarles: Legal Constraints Make Bitcoin Unsuitable as Reserve Asset

Director Xin Yumeng of Chinese domestic abstract animated film *Niu Lai* publicly responded, confirming the film's theatrical run has officially ended. He thanked audiences for their concern and discussions, acknowledged the work has many shortcomings, and noted the experience was very valuable for the team. The production company of *Niu Lai* is based in Dalian, which earlier pulled all screenings over "concerns about affecting the city's image". However, local reports today say some cinemas in Dalian have resumed showings. The earlier nationwide online rumor that "no new screenings will be added starting August 17" has not been officially confirmed. Most cities still screened the film normally on August 16, but following the director's confirmation of the end of its theatrical run, overall screenings have shrunk significantly. At the box office, the film's revenue surged from an initial several thousand yuan and continued to climb, breaking through 15 million RMB as of tonight, ranking 7th on the 2026 Chinese domestic animated film box office chart, with the official releasing a celebratory announcement. Per GMGN data, the meme coin *Niu Lai* on BNB Chain remains actively traded. Its market cap once hit a new high of $49.2 million, then fell back to $36 million after failing to break through the $50 million mark, marking a 26% short-term correction, 142% 24-hour gain, and $37.5 million in 24-hour trading volume. BlockBeats reminds users that meme coins mostly have no practical use cases, with high price volatility, so investment requires caution.

DeFi protocol Compound Finance has completed a leadership overhaul and approved its decentralized autonomous organization (DAO)’s largest-ever budget of $52 million to advance its transition to institutional DeFi. The plan prioritizes attracting institutional users and expanding operations around real-world assets, partner integrations, and traditional financial market credit infrastructure. Compound’s total value locked (TVL) has fallen from its September 2021 peak of roughly $12 billion to $1.2 billion, putting it behind rivals such as Aave. New team members hail from institutions including Near Foundation, Maple Finance, Coinbase Custody, Anchorage Digital, HSBC, and Broadridge Financial.

According to HTX market data, Bitcoin has broken through the $64,000 level, with a 1.23% gain in the past 24 hours.

SoftBank has closed its largest-ever Series A funding round for construction robotics, investing $200 million in Gravis Robotics, with a post-money valuation of approximately $1 billion. Gravis Robotics is a construction robotics startup spun off from ETH Zurich in 2022, headquartered in Zurich, specializing in AI autonomy retrofitting solutions for existing heavy earthmoving equipment such as excavators and loaders. Its core product, the "Gravis Rack," is a quick-install control kit that supports fully autonomous operation or AI-assisted driving, is compatible with equipment from multiple brands including Caterpillar, John Deere, Volvo, JCB, and Hitachi, and claims to boost operational efficiency by up to around 30%.

Tom Lee, chairman of BitMine—the largest Ethereum treasury—cited technical analysis to express expectations of an upcoming technical breakout for Ethereum. ETH’s current price is just 3.5% away from breaking through the upper edge of the daily Ichimoku cloud, which would mark the first time the crypto has held above this key resistance since October 9, 2025. Ethereum is currently trading around $1,906, with the Ichimoku cloud resistance looming just ahead. Lee has maintained his earlier bullish stance on Ethereum; in July, he published a public note arguing that the ETH/BTC ratio would strengthen in the second half of 2026, driven by the combined factors of Ethereum’s monetary narrative, stablecoin growth, and asset tokenization. The upper edge of the Ichimoku cloud is viewed by technical analysts as a key reference for trend shifts, and a valid breakout could open further upside potential.

This dumb money bought back 1,674 $ETH ($3.19M) at a high price of $1,906 again. This guy is always selling low and buying high. Two months ago, he still had 1,891 $ETH. Now he has only 1,674 $ETH, losing 217 $ETH ($414K) through swing trading. Sometimes, just holding is better than trading blindly.