MicroStrategy bought another 2,530 $BTC($243M) at an average price of $95,972 last week!

U.S. Bank of America’s latest research report states that market concerns over rising high-bandwidth memory (HBM) costs for Nvidia and competition from custom application-specific integrated circuits (ASICs) have been overblown, while the market has underestimated the chipmaker’s strong pricing power, supply chain advantages, and ecosystem moats. BofA believes the upcoming Rubin AI platform will offset HBM cost increases via higher selling prices, and Nvidia’s roughly $119 billion in supply chain commitments will further solidify its cost edge, projecting the company’s gross margin will remain at around the mid-75% range. Regarding the ASIC substitution risk drawing market attention, BofA notes Google’s TPU has developed over a decade, yet Nvidia’s GPU business revenue has grown some 700 times over the same period, demonstrating that custom chips have not weakened GPUs’ dominance in AI training and inference fields. The bank forecasts Nvidia will continue to capture 65% to 70% of global hyperscalers’ AI infrastructure spending going forward. On valuation, BofA points out that Nvidia’s current forward price-to-earnings (P/E) ratio is around 18.7 times, only half of its 10-year average of about 37 times, near an 11-year low, meaning pessimistic expectations are already fully priced in. With the advancement of the Rubin platform and the approaching August earnings report, BofA expects Nvidia will once again validate its product competitiveness and profitability, driving the market to reassign a valuation premium to the stock.

With the outbreak of a new round of military conflict between the U.S. and Iran, Trump’s plan to disengage from the Iran conflict has once again hit a snag. Analysts note that against the backdrop of a shaky ceasefire and ongoing tensions in the Strait of Hormuz, Trump is facing threefold pressure: diplomatic, energy, and electoral. The U.S. had earlier reinstated sanctions on Iran’s oil sales, while Iran launched retaliatory strikes on U.S. military bases. Disputes between the two sides over control of the Strait of Hormuz have become the core trigger for the conflict’s escalation. Market observers point out that with the U.S. midterm elections just months away, surging energy prices are driving up U.S. inflation, posing a major political risk for Trump. The latest Reuters/Ipsos poll shows Trump’s approval rating has dropped to 34%, hitting a new low in his second term. While Trump still insists the conflict will “end soon”, multiple analysts believe he can neither force Iran to compromise via military actions nor secure breakthroughs in diplomatic talks. The situation is likely to remain in a state of “limited conflict and sustained rivalry” for the long term. Institutions generally hold that if risks in the Strait of Hormuz persist, international oil and fuel prices will stay at high levels. This will not only intensify risk aversion in global markets but also further push up U.S. domestic inflation, exerting sustained pressure on Trump’s campaign and the Republican Party’s midterm election prospects.

Russia’s largest private bank Alfa-Bank has begun testing cryptocurrency trading services for select qualified investors. The test version supports assets including Bitcoin, Ether, Solana, Litecoin, Tether USDt, USDC, Zcash, and others. Should Russia’s relevant regulatory framework be formally implemented, the bank plans to roll out the service to retail clients in the fourth quarter of 2026. Furthermore, Alfa-Bank intends to set up a digital asset custody entity, which will provide custody services not only for its own crypto operations but also for third-party institutions. As Russia’s digital asset legislation progresses, major lenders including Sber, VTB Bank, and T-Bank are also accelerating their cryptocurrency business initiatives.

According to Onchain Lens monitoring, on-chain gold whale Antalpha has continued to accumulate Tether Gold (XAUT) over the past three months, purchasing a total of roughly 15,052 XAUT worth approximately $68.03 million, with all related transfers originating from Cobo. The latest data shows the address received another 1,000 XAUT about 15 minutes ago, valued at around $4.1 million, signaling its ongoing accumulation of tokenized gold assets.

According to CoinGlass data, the total open interest of Nasdaq 100 Index ETF (QQQ) contracts across all platforms stands at $92.23 million. Data shows that liquidity for this underlying asset is mainly concentrated on leading trading platforms, with Binance, Bitget and OKX ranking as the top three in open interest. Their respective open interest shares are 34.64% ($31.95 million), 26.43% ($24.38 million) and 12.22% ($11.27 million), collectively accounting for around 73% of the total market share.

Driven by escalating Middle East tensions and surging energy prices, ExxonMobil and Chevron are projected to report second-quarter net profits of $15 billion and $9.7 billion respectively, totaling approximately $24.7 billion — both figures more than tripling from the previous quarter. Meanwhile, refiners such as Marathon Petroleum and Valero Energy are also expected to post their highest profits in recent years. Amid persistently high gasoline and diesel prices, U.S. President Donald Trump has recently stepped up pressure on the energy sector, calling on retailers to lower fuel prices and directing the U.S. Department of Justice to investigate whether oil companies are engaging in price gouging. Analysts believe that with midterm elections approaching, high oil prices are continuing to drive up U.S. inflationary pressure, and the standoff between the Trump administration and major oil giants is likely to further escalate.