Report: Rug Pull Incidents in the Crypto Space Have Decreased, but Their Impact Has Grown

According to The Wall Street Journal, as Chinese open-weight models such as Kimi, Qwen, and DeepSeek approach top-tier U.S. models at lower costs, Silicon Valley and Washington are growing increasingly concerned that Chinese models could long-term compress the profits of U.S. AI enterprises. U.S. startups including Arcee AI, Reflection AI, and Poolside are racing to develop domestic alternatives to meet user demand for low-cost, downloadable, and customizable models. However, U.S. open-weight model companies face financing difficulties. Some investors question whether freely open models can generate stable revenue, and also worry that related technology could erode the value of their investments in OpenAI and Anthropic. In the first quarter of 2026, AI startups raised a total of $255.5 billion, with nearly two-thirds coming from three funding rounds by OpenAI, Anthropic, and xAI. With limited capital, Arcee AI used 2,048 Nvidia Blackwell B300 chips, completed 33 days of pre-training on an approximately $20 million budget, and launched Trinity Large. The model is still smaller than top-tier models and lags behind OpenAI and Anthropic in multiple benchmarks, but the company plans to develop a larger model via a new round of financing. Nvidia has become a major supporter of the U.S. open AI ecosystem, not only developing the Nemotron series of models but also investing in Reflection AI, Poolside, and Thinking Machines Lab. Industry insiders note that the U.S. open-weight ecosystem is still small, and Chinese models as a whole remain dominant.

Trump Media Group has officially launched the paid data service Truth API, which provides clients with faster access to posts from Trump and other top accounts on the Truth Social platform. The service costs up to $100,000 per month, targeting primarily trading firms and enterprises. Kevin McGurn, interim CEO of Trump Media, stated that the Truth API is designed to provide institutions with "direct, licensed, real-time data streams of the most market-influential Truth posts." Trump's @realDonaldTrump account currently has 13 million followers, and some of his major policy decisions are first posted on Truth Social. Ahead of the service's launch, U.S. Democratic Senators Adam Schiff and Elizabeth Warren have sent a letter to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), demanding an investigation into whether Trump Media has violated laws. The two senators argue that the service could constitute the use of presidential office for personal gain, and harm ordinary investors and market integrity. Trump Media stated that Truth Social posts already impact the market, and the Truth API will drive the commercialization of the company's own data assets through a high-margin, recurring revenue model.

Iran's Mehr News Agency cited an Iranian military official in a report on the 2nd that US President Donald Trump labeled Iran's demand to cease attacks "a new lie". The official stated: "Whether he continues his aggression or retreats, our forces are on high alert and prepared for all eventualities. If confrontation is unavoidable, the battlefield will decide everything, and by then everyone will know who holds the power and who will have the final say." (Xinhua News Agency)

According to the Financial Times, after three years of record lows, Chinese venture capital firms are accelerating the raising of new funds, seeking to capitalize on renewed investor interest in China’s tech sector. Data from Asante Capital shows that at least 60 new U.S. dollar funds plan to raise a combined total of around $35 billion, with roughly 40 of these being venture capital funds. HSG, IDG Capital, Matrix Partners China, and Mingshi Capital are among those promoting new funds or preparing to launch fundraising rounds; ZhenFund and Qiming Venture Partners have recently completed their fundraisings. The successful listings of tech firms including Zhipu AI and MiniMax, as well as advances in MoonShot AI, DeepSeek, and the robotics space, have spurred renewed investor focus on Chinese tech. Some investors are viewing allocations to Chinese AI as a way to hedge bets on the U.S. market, noting that Chinese firms compete fiercely on cost and offer lower-priced model services. However, market players say this does not mean Chinese venture capital has returned to its boom period, but rather a selective restart of U.S. dollar fundraising after three consecutive years of lows. Preqin data shows that in 2022, 1,105 China-related funds raised $150 billion, while in 2025 only 97 funds raised $13.6 billion. Currently, some large U.S. investors remain on the sidelines due to restrictions on sensitive technology investments, while funds from Europe and the Middle East have shown stronger interest. In the current "buyer’s market", investors are pushing for more co-investment rights and demanding fund managers to commit more of their own capital. Meanwhile, a large pool of capital is competing for a limited number of high-confidence projects, particularly concentrated in the AI sector.

Coldcard has been hacked, with stolen funds now totaling 1,367.05 BTC, valued at approximately $88.6 million, across 4,585 addresses. Galaxy Research Head Alex Thorn said the attack is ongoing, urging users who have not yet moved their funds to immediately transfer assets from addresses generated by Coldcard. He also called on affected users to voluntarily provide information to help track the stolen funds and report to law enforcement. Thorn noted that the three previously confirmed large-scale attacks exhibit clear procedural characteristics, with similar transaction patterns likely orchestrated automatically; the stolen BTC remains in the attackers’ addresses and has not been moved. However, smaller opportunistic attackers have emerged recently, transferring and laundering funds within hours, with some funds flowing to overseas gambling platforms via cross-chain services like ThorChain. All Coldcard single-sig addresses generated after the March 2021 firmware update may ultimately be compromised, so users should complete migration as soon as possible. The stolen funds had lain dormant for an average of 3.18 years, with a median of 3.55 years, and victims are primarily long-term holders. Thorn said most of the identified stolen assets remain unmoved, and the relevant addresses have been submitted to U.S. law enforcement and industry contacts. He views the incident as a major blow to Bitcoin self-custody, calling on the industry to improve security, education, and risk warnings about the complexities of self-custody.

Roundhill Memory ETF (DRAM) has added CXMT (Changxin Technology) to its holdings, with a weight of 2.52%. This DRAM ETF focuses on memory chip companies. As of August 2, its top three holdings are Samsung Electronics, Micron Technology, and SK Hynix, with respective weights of 26.39%, 24.54%, and 22.77%. Other major holdings include Seagate Technology, Western Digital, SanDisk, Kioxia, Nanya Technology, and GigaDevice Semiconductor.