Trump says Strait of Hormuz may reopen at the latest tomorrow, Iran negotiations enter second phase.

According to a report by U.S. broadcaster CBS, Iran appears to be growing increasingly skeptical of former President Donald Trump’s “carrot and stick” diplomatic strategy. In April this year, Trump warned Tehran it must agree to a ceasefire or “the entire civilization will perish,” but later extended the deadline. He repeated similar tactics in May and June. Internal Iranian sources stated this approach has instead reinforced the country’s leadership’s view that Trump is not seeking to escalate the conflict, but rather bargaining chips in negotiations. They believe Iran can withstand pressure and raise the costs for the U.S. via proxies such as Yemen’s Houthi movement and threats to global shipping, until Washington concludes there is no military solution to the conflict. Tehran’s current assessment is that time is on its side.

Strategy founder Michael Saylor posted a statement clarifying that his earlier "Never Sell Your Bitcoin" stance was shared with other Bitcoin holders in his capacity as an individual investor. Saylor said he has never sold any Bitcoin, "not even a single satoshi". He emphasized that Strategy is a public company, not a personal wallet, and has publicly disclosed since 2020 that it may buy or sell BTC for capital management purposes. Saylor noted that Strategy and its investors’ long-term conviction in Bitcoin remains unchanged, adding that the company’s related operations are part of its corporate financial strategy, while his personal stance on holding Bitcoin stays consistent. Previously, the market had been monitoring whether Strategy would adjust its Bitcoin holding strategy; Saylor’s latest remarks aim to clearly distinguish between personal Bitcoin holding behavior and public company asset management decisions.

Amazon (AMZN.O)’s cloud unit head said clients are shifting from using its services to train AI models to integrating these models into their own business processes, a trend driving surging demand for inference computing. Matt Garman, CEO of Amazon’s Cloud Computing Division, said on Monday: “We still see some companies using large training clusters, but as these models grow more popular and powerful, more firms are integrating this inference capability into their own workloads.” He noted that the potential of the AI business is “extremely huge,” adding that the company will continue to increase capital expenditure to meet growing demand. As the world’s largest provider of computing power and data rental services, Amazon said last week it projects capital expenditure will reach $220 billion in 2026, up from its prior forecast of $200 billion. The spending hike reflects rising prices of storage chips and other components required for data centers.

US Central Command stated local time on August 3 that the U.S. military remains strictly enforcing the maritime blockade against Iran. As of that day, the U.S. military has altered the routes of 44 commercial vessels, disabled two vessels, and boarded and inspected two others.

According to U.S. network CBS, citing a U.S. official, despite Trump’s earlier announcement that negotiations with Iran would begin Monday afternoon (local time), no new talks are currently scheduled. Instead, ongoing discussions are underway between U.S. Middle East envoy Witkoff, Kushner, and the U.S. negotiating team and Iran via intermediaries.

In July’s crypto asset ETF fund flows, Ethereum (ETH) ETFs emerged as the biggest winner, posting a single-month net inflow of $365 million. Data shows Bitcoin (BTC) ETFs saw a net inflow of $172.43 million in July; Solana (SOL) ETFs had a net inflow of $14.62 million; XRP ETFs $27.29 million; Chainlink (LINK) ETFs $4.54 million; HBAR ETFs $3 million; and LTC ETFs $30,400. By contrast, HYPE-related ETFs were the only products to register a net outflow, with a July net outflow of $15.16 million. Overall, institutional capital allocations in July clearly favored the Ethereum ecosystem, as ETH ETFs attracted more funds than BTC ETFs, indicating sustained growing market demand for Ethereum-related assets.