U.S. stocks closed, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average notching a new closing high and the Nasdaq rising more than 2%.

According to Lookonchain monitoring, a wallet address linked to Bitcoin treasury firm Strategy transferred 1,030 BTC two hours ago, worth approximately $66.14 million. The transfer has drawn market attention, with investors speculating whether Strategy founder Michael Saylor is initiating a new round of Bitcoin sales. Previously, Strategy has repeatedly transferred BTC via associated wallets, sparking market discussions about its asset management strategy. However, no official information has yet confirmed whether this transfer represents an actual sale.

Hawkish sentiment within the Federal Reserve is growing, with 5 of the 12 regional Federal Reserve Bank presidents publicly signaling their preference for interest rate hikes after the July policy meeting. They contend that current monetary policy is not restrictive enough and inflation risks have not fully faded. Among these officials, Cleveland Fed President Hamrick said she favored a rate hike at the latest meeting, citing the current policy stance is "not sufficiently restrictive"; Dallas Fed President Logan noted that even excluding recent shocks, core inflation remains near 2.5%, backing tighter policy. Minneapolis Fed President Kashkari stated that to prevent high inflation from becoming entrenched, policy should be gradually tightened while awaiting more inflation and employment data, adding that "small, consecutive actions" are better than being forced to take more drastic measures later. Kansas City Fed President Schmid argued that given the continued strength in U.S. demand and investment, current monetary policy has not reached a sufficiently restrictive level, and tighter policy is needed to achieve the 2% inflation target. St. Louis Fed President Musalem also supports rate hikes, warning that the recent sell-off in the U.S. Treasury market reflects market concerns about the Fed’s credibility, and ongoing supply shocks are driving broader price pressures on businesses and households. In total, 5 of the 12 regional Fed presidents have now clearly signaled their leaning toward rate hikes. Meanwhile, 7 Federal Reserve Board governors, New York Fed President Williams, and Philadelphia Fed President Harker previously backed keeping interest rates unchanged, highlighting significant divisions within the Fed over its future policy path.

According to Finance Magazine, multiple deal sources have revealed that large language model (LLM) firm DeepSeek has restarted its second round of financing. The round targets 50 billion yuan in capital, with a pre-money valuation of approximately 500 billion yuan, and is scheduled to finalize signings in late August. Several investors noted that DeepSeek’s second round financing was launched as early as mid-July, but was suddenly paused at the end of July. At that time, some investors on the negotiation waiting list were informed that the signing of financing agreements was put on hold. Earlier media reports on July 26 stated that DeepSeek suspended its second round financing, with one reason being founder Liang Wenfeng’s dissatisfaction with widely circulated online remarks, which centered mainly on the allegedly leaked "investor-facing meeting minutes". DeepSeek and the investors currently in talks hope the restarted financing round will proceed quietly. As of now, some investment institutions that had actively engaged with DeepSeek previously said they have not received news of the restart, and the financing channel remains on hold.

Analysts say Samsung is accelerating its deployment of digital asset infrastructure, planning to offer native stablecoin functionality to around 800 million Galaxy smartphones via Samsung Wallet, and is poised to become a key distribution channel for stablecoins like USDC. According to reports, Samsung announced at Galaxy Unpacked 2026 that it will integrate stablecoin-related features into future devices, including fiat-pegged savings and payment accounts. Samsung Wallet is currently available in 61 countries, with nearly 19 million users in South Korea. Joseph Goh, head of Asia Pacific at crypto investment bank Areta, noted that the core bottleneck for stablecoin mass adoption is not liquidity, but user reach. “Distribution channels are the scarce asset, and Samsung has massive user entry points,” he said. He believes this move could propel Samsung to become a major distributor of stablecoins like USDC. This is not Samsung’s first foray into crypto. Back in 2019, the company launched a digital asset wallet via its Knox security module, allowing users to store assets like Bitcoin and Ethereum, and connect to Ledger hardware wallets. Additionally, Samsung is strengthening its digital asset infrastructure deployment. Lee Jun-hee, CEO of Samsung SDS, previously stated that the company’s investment in Dunamu—operator of South Korea’s largest crypto exchange Upbit—is a key strategic move to enter the digital asset infrastructure space, covering stablecoins and AI-powered payments. In May this year, three Samsung subsidiaries: Samsung Securities, Samsung SDS, and Samsung Card, agreed to acquire a roughly 4% stake in Dunamu (Upbit’s parent company) for about $408 million. Analysts believe Samsung Wallet will serve as the user distribution entry point, while infrastructure players like Dunamu handle underlying transactions and asset services, meaning Samsung may be building a complete ecosystem covering stablecoins, payments, and digital asset services.

The US government is drafting a new ban that would prohibit imports of Chinese-made next-generation data center optical transceivers, aimed at tightening control over the artificial intelligence (AI) infrastructure supply chain. Sources familiar with the matter disclosed that the US Federal Communications Commission (FCC) is developing relevant restrictions, with US officials planning to announce and implement the ban by 2026. However, the measure remains under discussion and could be modified or shelved in the future. Optical transceivers are core components of optical modules, responsible for converting electrical and optical signals, and are critical hardware for high-speed data transmission in AI data centers. If the ban takes effect, the global optical module supply chain may face disruptions. Reports point out that global leading optical module supplier CIG may be impacted. According to Counterpoint Research, CIG currently holds approximately 27% of the global data center optical transceiver module market share. A prior report from the Information Technology and Innovation Foundation (ITIF) stated that the production capacity of US-based suppliers Coherent and Lumentum is insufficient to fully replace Chinese suppliers. Meanwhile, the measure could also drive up costs for US cloud service providers. Large cloud computing companies like Amazon may need to shift to US suppliers for optical communication equipment to support the expansion of their AI data centers. Market participants believe that the US restriction on imports of Chinese optical communication components reflects that competition in AI infrastructure is extending beyond the chip sector to the data center supply chain, covering key segments including optical modules, power equipment, and server components.

Per Lookonchain’s monitoring, a newly created wallet address 0xff84 deposited $2.44 million in USDC to Hyperliquid and opened a 40x leveraged short Bitcoin position. Data shows the trader’s short position size amounts to 1,600 BTC, with a notional value of approximately $102.6 million and a liquidation price of $64,888.97. It remains unclear whether the trader is acting on market information or simply making a high-risk directional bet. Highly leveraged short positions face the risk of rapid liquidation amid heightened market volatility.