Meme project 'Niu Lai' saw its market cap surge to nearly $43 million in the morning before pulling back, having rallied nearly 30% over the past six hours.

The European Union (EU) has adopted its 21st round of sanctions against Russia, expanding restrictions on the crypto industry. New measures will allow the EU to impose comprehensive transaction bans on third countries that fail to prevent Russia from using crypto assets to evade sanctions. The sanction package was approved on July 23, including restrictions targeting the Russian ruble stablecoin network A7 and related entities, and placing 14 crypto service platforms based in Georgia, Panama, the United Arab Emirates (UAE), the Marshall Islands, Kyrgyzstan, Belarus and other regions under transaction restrictions. Additionally, the new rules will ban Russian and Belarusian citizens from holding ownership, control or management positions at crypto service providers in the EU subject to MiCA (Markets in Crypto-Assets regulation). The restrictions will take effect on August 25, applying to more services including crypto asset advisory, portfolio management and client asset transfer services. The EU has also added a new crypto transaction ban mechanism targeting third countries. Under the revised regulations, if a country is deemed to have "systematically and persistently failed" to prevent its domestic crypto service providers from helping evade EU sanctions, the European Commission can add it to a restricted list and ban transactions with crypto platforms in that country. Economic sanctions expert Nick Turner said this means the EU is moving toward "secondary sanctions," which require third-country regulators to block EU sanctions targets from conducting activities via local crypto platforms. However, he noted that such measures could trigger regulatory conflicts between different jurisdictions in the future. To date, the EU has not announced any countries added to this third-country list.

According to people familiar with the matter, Sequoia China has held initial discussions with investors on multiple funds, including its first U.S. dollar fund since spinning off. The sources said the investment firm is in talks to raise at least $1.2 billion for an early-stage fund, targeting companies in the AI, healthcare and consumer sectors. Sequoia China has been led by Neil Shen since 2005. They added that Sequoia China is also considering launching a growth-stage fund, though the exact timing and size remain undecided. One source added that the firm is also weighing a RMB-denominated fund. This fundraising will test the appeal of the long-established China-focused investment institution. Three entities under the original Sequoia brand were already largely independent: one focused on the U.S. and Europe, another on China, and the third on India and Southeast Asia. After the split, the China branch adopted HSG as its English name, and has invested in AI startups including Unitree Robotics, Minimax and Moonshot AI. (Cailian Press)

Dev 0x6af3 created $牛来, which reached a peak MC of $49M. Many people made money from it, but the dev didn't buy any tokens and made nothing. So the dev went on to launch $绊倒体, $牛来了, and $Moo, making $25.3K in profit. Wallet: 0x6aF3F52369C39F6ca2D9a50799723FefF7FF679E

According to Lookonchain monitoring, wallet address 0x6af3 created the meme coin "Niu Lai", which hit a peak market cap of $49 million. While many participants profited from the token, the developer did not buy any of the coins, earning no gains from the project. The developer went on to launch several other meme coins including "Ban Dao Ti", "Niu Lai Le" and "Moo", amassing roughly $25,300 in total profits from these projects.

Sean Farrell, head of digital asset strategy at Fundstrat Global Advisors, noted that Bitcoin’s 30-day volatility has recently fallen to a historic low, which may signal an upcoming major price swing. Fundstrat’s analysis of the past 8 similar low-volatility periods found that the median absolute price movement of Bitcoin over the subsequent 60 days reached 30.2%. Of these instances, 4 saw gains and 4 saw losses, indicating this metric only predicts the magnitude of price moves, not their direction. Calculated based on Bitcoin’s current price of around $64,000, a 30% rally would push it to roughly $83,200, while a 30% correction would bring it to about $44,800. Farrell pointed out that Bitcoin’s recent gains were partly driven by short covering rather than a surge in new buying demand. Since Friday evening, Bitcoin-denominated futures open interest has dropped by around 8%, showing some traders are exiting bearish positions. Additionally, Farrell argued that rising real bond yields could be a key factor driving Bitcoin’s next major move. If real yields continue to climb, they may break Bitcoin’s current low-volatility consolidation pattern. Bitcoin is currently trading at around $64,000, down nearly 27% since the start of 2026. The market may soon make a clear directional choice, though short-term trends remain uncertain.

According to Bitget market data, spot silver has seen an intraday decline of 1.00%, currently trading at $65.12 per ounce.