Bank of Japan official: Yen weakening intensifies inflation risks, open to faster interest rate hikes

One of Bitcoin’s largest mining pools, Foundry USA, is inviting its miner clients to vote on whether the pool will support Bitcoin Improvement Proposal (BIP) 110. BIP-110 is a hotly debated soft fork proposal aimed at reducing the volume of storable data in Bitcoin transactions, to limit non-monetary transaction types such as Ordinals from occupying Bitcoin network space. Foundry stated it has provided relevant proposal materials to its miner clients, with the voting window set to close at Bitcoin block height 961,632, expected in early August. Miners can participate in the vote via a link sent to their emails. BIP-110 is currently one of the most divisive proposals in the Bitcoin community. Supporters argue the proposal helps ease pressure on block space from non-financial transactions, while opponents worry it could harm the openness of the Bitcoin network. Blockstream CEO Adam Back has publicly opposed BIP-110, claiming it could be used to freeze user funds. Strategy Executive Chairman Michael Saylor also criticized the proposal, saying it might disrupt some normal transactions. According to Hashrate Index, Foundry USA currently holds approximately 23.8% of Bitcoin’s total network hash rate, making it one of the world’s largest Bitcoin mining pools. Its stance on BIP-110 could impact future community discussions and deployment of the proposal.

Chinese AI large language model (LLM) firm Moonshot AI is accelerating its capitalization process, with plans to launch negotiations for its final pre-IPO funding round in August, targeting a pre-money valuation of $50 billion. Reports indicate Moonshot AI is expected to close a funding round soon at a valuation of roughly $31.5 billion. Upon closing this round, the company will immediately begin discussions for its next funding round with potential investors, which is likely to be its final private placement before listing on Hong Kong’s stock market. Market observers note that if the funding plans proceed smoothly, Moonshot AI could kick off its Hong Kong IPO process as early as this year. A key driver behind the valuation hike is the company’s recently launched next-generation LLM, Kimi K3. According to announcements, Kimi K3 has a parameter count of 2.8 trillion, supports a million-token context window, and ranks among the world’s largest open-source models by parameter size to date. The model quickly drew market attention, prompting the company to temporarily adjust new user subscription arrangements to maintain service quality for existing users. As generative AI competition shifts to a race for computing power, user scale, and commercialization capabilities, LLM firms are accelerating their pursuit of capital support. Moonshot AI’s latest funding plans also reflect the market’s sustained focus on leading AI foundational model companies. However, the $50 billion valuation target also implies higher commercialization demands. Going forward, investors will closely monitor Moonshot AI’s revenue growth, computing power cost control, and whether the Kimi model line can establish a sustainable business model. If the funding and listing plans proceed smoothly, Moonshot AI could emerge as a key case of capitalization for China’s AI LLM enterprises.

Kraken parent company Payward has announced it is expanding its tokenized stock platform xStocks, with plans to extend coverage beyond the U.S. equities market to include Hong Kong, the U.K., South Korea and other international stock markets. Payward stated that it is partnering with investment infrastructure provider GTN to bring Hong Kong-listed stocks to the xStocks platform, and later plans to support U.K., European and South Korean equities after obtaining regulatory approval. This collaboration also lays the foundation for future expansion into other tokenized asset classes. Mark Greenberg, Payward’s global services head, noted that other global markets represent key untokenized asset classes, and the firm aims to gradually integrate global capital markets onto the blockchain via xStocks. Previously, xStocks primarily offered on-chain versions of U.S. stocks and ETFs, including popular assets such as Nvidia, Apple and Tesla. The platform currently supports over 500 tokenized securities, with cumulative trading volume exceeding $35 billion and nearly 200,000 holders. The products are not yet accessible to U.S. users. The expansion comes amid intensifying competition in the tokenized securities sector. Players including Robinhood, Coinbase, Nasdaq and the New York Stock Exchange are all advancing plans to tokenize stock assets. Citi previously forecast that the tokenized securities market could reach $5.5 trillion by 2030, with the tokenized stock segment accounting for roughly $2.6 trillion.

As Alphabet, Google’s parent company, prepares to release its second-quarter financial results after today’s U.S. stock market close, sell-side Wall Street analysts have issued a cautious consensus forecast for its future capital expenditure (Capex) trajectory. According to aggregated market data, analysts’ consensus forecast for Alphabet’s full-year 2026 Capex is roughly $186 billion, which aligns closely with the company’s previously raised official guidance range of $180–190 billion. This figure represents more than a five-fold increase from the $32.3 billion recorded in 2023, with funds earmarked primarily for AI data centers and computing infrastructure to support the ongoing expansion of Google Cloud and the Gemini model. Of greater note is the 2027 outlook. Morgan Stanley analyst Brian Nowak previously projected publicly that Alphabet’s Capex could jump further to roughly $250 billion next year. This aligns with remarks made by Alphabet CFO Anat Ashkenazi during multiple earnings calls, where she explicitly told investors that 2027 Capex would “increase significantly” compared to 2026. Market observers note that the surging Capex has put pressure on the company’s free cash flow (Q1 free cash flow fell approximately 47% year-over-year). During tonight’s earnings call, in addition to focusing on revenue and EPS performance, whether management will further raise its 2026 guidance and provide more specific details on 2027 spending levels will be key variables affecting stock price movements.

According to monitoring by crypto analytics account Ai Yi, wallet address 0x9BF…4564a has reactivated after nearly two years of dormancy and is accumulating large amounts of ETH, with its current position nearly breaking even. On February 8, the address withdrew 4,819 ETH at an average price of ~$1,941.25 per token, totaling approximately $9.35 million. This marks the first on-chain transaction from the address since it went dormant in March 2024. During the holding period, the address once faced an unrealized loss of around $1.8 million. With ETH’s recent price rebound, the loss on the position has narrowed significantly. Half an hour ago, the address transferred 1,200 ETH to crypto exchange Gate.io; if sold at current prices, the transaction would result in a loss of roughly $20,000. The address had previously accumulated ETH at low levels and has held onto the asset despite prolonged unrealized losses.

Russia is reducing its gold reserves, breaking the more than 20-year trend of continuous gold accumulation the country has maintained. Since the start of this year, Russia’s official gold reserves have declined for six consecutive months, falling by approximately 43.5 tons as of early July to their lowest level since 2022. Data shows Russia’s current gold reserve stands at around 73.4 million troy ounces (about 2,282 tons), valued at roughly $299 billion. Meanwhile, Russia’s total international reserves dropped from $747.4 billion at the end of May to $720.4 billion at the end of June, with foreign exchange reserves remaining largely stable, indicating the reserve decline is mainly driven by gold assets. Analysts attribute Russia’s gold sales primarily to growing fiscal pressure. Fuelled by the ongoing Russia-Ukraine conflict, falling energy revenues and expanded government spending, Russia’s budget deficit widened to around 4.6 trillion rubles as of the end of March. Some of the gold may have been sold to domestic banks or converted into foreign exchange to ease fiscal and liquidity pressures. Previously, Russia was a major buyer in the global gold market for a long period. Between 2002 and 2025, Russia accumulated over 1,900 tons of gold, with only a notable reduction in 2005 over the past 24 years. The current sell-off comes amid high gold prices; Russia’s central bank previously stated it sold part of its gold reserves after gold prices broke through the historical high of $5,500 per ounce. Analysts believe Russia is not abandoning its gold strategy, but rather converting gold from long-term reserve assets to accessible funding sources amid fiscal strain.