Analysis: Bitcoin futures demand cools, short-term trend may face further pressure

According to BIT (bit.com) market data, the three major US stock index futures are lower: Dow futures fell 0.15%, S&P 500 futures dropped 0.25%, and Nasdaq 100 futures declined 0.55%. Semiconductor stocks were broadly down, with Marvell Technology (MRVL) down 2.67%, Arm (ARM) down 1.97%, Intel (INTC) down 1.56%, KLA (KLAC) down 1.52%, Lam Research (LRCX) down 1.38%, TSMC (TSM) down 1.31%, AMD down 1.20%, and Applied Materials (AMAT) down 1.12%. Optical communication concept stocks led the declines, with Credo (CRDO) down 8.68%, Marvell Technology (MRVL) down 2.67%, Coherent (COHR) down 2.23%, Corning (GLW) down 2.10%, and Astera Labs (ALAB) down 1.97%. The storage sector weakened, with SK Hynix (SKHY) down 1.78%, Western Digital (WDC) down 1.65%, Micron Technology (MU) down 1.36%, SanDisk (SNDK) down 1.10%, and Seagate Technology (STX) down 0.96%. The Neocloud sector was broadly lower, with Hut 8 (HUT) down 2.90%, Nebius (NBIS) down 2.67%, IREN down 2.66%, CoreWeave (CRWV) down 2.32%, Galaxy Digital (GLXY) down 2.22%, and Cipher Digital (CIFR) down 2.19%.

Insight Beating AI News: Spain-based Multiverse Computing has officially launched Quasar 438B, a 438-billion-parameter inference model. Independent testing by Artificial Analysis awarded it a score of 43, outperforming Mistral Medium 3.5’s 30 points to become the highest-scoring European model on the current leaderboard. That said, this “European No.1” lags far behind global front-runners: in Artificial Analysis’s AI Index, Claude Fable 5.1 Max’s inference tier scores 66 points. Alibaba’s Qwen3.8 27B, with just 27 billion parameters, matches Quasar’s 43 points in the low inference tier, hits 44 in medium, and reaches 52 in xhigh. Quasar’s weights are not open, and Multiverse has not disclosed its model architecture, training data, or actual activated parameter count. Some community members have questioned whether it is fine-tuned from other models, but official documentation explicitly classifies Quasar as an “Original Model”.

According to U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) filings, Apple’s CEO Tim Cook will have his annual salary raised to $3 million effective September 1, 2026, and has been approved for a fiscal 2027 annual equity award with a target value of $55 million.

CryptoQuant analyst Axel Adler Jr wrote that Bitcoin’s sentiment index has continued to cool since hitting a peak on August 24, yet remains in the "Extreme Greed" territory. Meanwhile, Bitcoin’s current price has declined rather than risen from its August 24 level of $78,700, meaning the uptick in market sentiment has not been matched by corresponding price momentum. In terms of sentiment composition, the current high level is driven primarily by the Fear & Greed Index, which has a Z-score of +2.19σ—more than two standard deviations above its 365-day average—while overall participant sentiment is only moderately optimistic. Data shows that the current "Extreme Greed" status does not stem from broad strength across all market sentiment indicators, but rather reflects a sharp rebound in the Fear & Greed Index from its depressed levels over the past year. The analysis notes that a high sentiment index alone does not signal an imminent market downturn, but the combination of extreme optimism and a lack of sustained price upside could make the market more sensitive to weakening demand. To confirm a more sustainable uptrend, Bitcoin’s price needs to validate the current high sentiment level via further momentum growth, with other sentiment indicators also improving in tandem. Conversely, if elevated sentiment persists while demand and prices fail to follow through, the market’s correction risk could rise.

Data from DeFiLlama shows that on-chain trading activity on Robinhood Chain has continued to heat up over the past 24 hours. Its DEX trading volume hit an all-time high of roughly $1.673 billion, ranking second among all blockchains—only behind Solana ($2.454 billion), and surpassing Ethereum Mainnet ($1.378 billion), BSC ($1.093 billion), and Base ($838 million). In terms of network layer fees, Robinhood Chain generated approximately $3.75 million in Chain Fees over the same period, up around 76% from the prior day, and remains first in DeFiLlama’s chain metrics. This figure is about twice the total fees of the four major chains (Solana, Ethereum, BSC, and Base) over the same period. Calculated via DeFiLlama’s on-chain economic model, Robinhood Chain’s on-chain revenue over the past 24 hours reached roughly $3.38 million, also rising around 76% day-over-day. It far outperformed Base ($119,000), Solana ($86,700), Ethereum ($59,700), and BSC ($51,000), and is approximately 10.7 times the combined revenue of these four chains.

According to TradingBeats monitoring, whale address "VBVIT" has recently aggressively shorted BTC, ETH, and XYZ100, an asset linked to the US Nasdaq 100. As of 17:41 Hong Kong time on September 2, the address’s total positions in these three short contracts amount to approximately $107.5 million, with an unrealized profit of around $2.4535 million. Per TradingBeats’ current short position size rankings, the address ranks as the 3rd largest short seller of BTC, 8th largest short seller of ETH, and 2nd largest short seller of XYZ100. Specifically, the address holds roughly 839.45 BTC short contracts, valued at ~$64.3196 million, using 10x leverage, with an average entry price of ~$78,146.8, and current unrealized profit of ~$1.2809 million. It also holds ~11,851.47 ETH short contracts, worth ~$28.1247 million, with 20x leverage, average entry price of ~$2,451.97, and unrealized profit of ~$934,800. Additionally, it holds ~522.16 xyz:XYZ100 short contracts, valued at ~$15.0916 million, with 20x leverage, and unrealized profit of ~$237,800. The address currently has a total of 86 positions, 60 of which are short positions, with a total short position size of ~$137 million, and overall unrealized profit of ~$2.6218 million from its short positions. It is also currently the largest short seller on Hyperliquid for multiple US stock and ETF assets, including 14 names such as ASML, IBM, AVGO, and MRVL. The address previously drew attention from the on-chain trading community for opening nearly $30 million in short positions on SPCX via Hyperliquid. Its historical win rate for completed trades stands at 48.44%.