An employee of a company in Shenzhen’s Pingshan District, who was in debt from online loans, stole the firm’s core R&D materials, then disguised himself as a foreign hacker to send a ransom email demanding 0.88 Bitcoin (BTC), 0.8 BTC, and 90,000 Tether (USDT) as ransom. According to *Procuratorial Daily*, suspect Jia exploited management loopholes at the company to download large volumes of R&D materials from its server and copy the files to his personal mobile phone. He then used overseas email accounts to fabricate a "hacker intrusion" scenario, pressuring the company by claiming the leaked materials would cause massive losses. As the company refused to pay the ransom and reported the case to police, Jia was ultimately sentenced to 3 years and 3 months in prison and fined 10,000 yuan for attempted extortion. During the trial, prosecutors ruled that while Bitcoin and USDT are not legal tender in China, they are virtual assets with property value. The involved virtual currencies, valued at over 630,000 yuan, can be used as the basis for determining the crime amount.

According to monitoring by Onchain Lens, BlackRock's IBIT wallet withdrew 5073.95 BTC from Coinbase Prime over the past 24 hours, worth approximately $327 million.

Bitcoin mining firm PowerCompute has restructured three debts totaling $18 million via Arch Lending, using 307 Bitcoin from its reserves as collateral to replace prior loans from institutions including Galaxy Digital. The new financing is non-recourse, features a 30-day revolving structure, and carries an annual interest rate of roughly 2%—lower than the 12% rate on some of its old loans—enabling the company to cut interest expenses without selling its Bitcoin holdings.

Zcash co-founder Sean Bowe announced in a post that the Zcash community will hold an approximately 18-day token holder vote starting August 25 to determine the scope of the upcoming NU7 upgrade. The minimum voting participation threshold is 1 million ZEC, which must be held in the Ironwood network.

Hyperliquid Research Collective (HRC) released its Q2 2026 report, stating that real-world asset (RWA) perpetual contract trading on the Hyperliquid platform continues to grow. The proportion of HIP-3-related trading volume rose from 1.8% in the prior quarter to 20.7%, then climbed further to 32.2% in Q2, with quarterly transaction volume reaching $213 billion—accounting for nearly one-third of the platform’s total trading volume. The report shows that the Hyperliquid ecosystem gained more attention from traditional finance during Q2, with three HYPE ETFs launching for trading, providing investment channels for institutional investors unable to custody tokens directly. Meanwhile, asset management firms including Hyperliquid Strategies have steadily built HYPE reserves; currently, funds and related treasuries hold approximately 7.7% of the total HYPE supply. On the data front, HYPE rose 79% in Q2, hitting a historical high of $76.90, while Bitcoin fell 14% over the same period. Hyperliquid protocol revenue recovered growth after hitting a bottom in April, with monthly revenue at quarter-end reaching $169 million, pushing cumulative protocol revenue past $1 billion, of which $141 million was returned to holders via buybacks.

Iranian Deputy Foreign Minister Ali Garibabadi stated that an agreement between Iran and Oman on merchant vessel passage through the Strait of Hormuz is nearing finalization, with the two sides planning to establish a new transit model different from that of the past 60 years. Garibabadi added that Iran and the U.S. are not currently holding direct negotiations, but have received messages from the U.S. side indicating its readiness to resume honoring commitments under a previously signed memorandum of understanding. Markets continue to monitor developments in the Strait of Hormuz and their impact on crude oil, gold, and safe-haven assets.