Posts for August 23, 2026

Wind data shows that by August 21, 2026, A-share IPOs had reached 100 listings for the year, rising 53.85% from a year earlier, with total fundraising around 188.47 billion yuan, up 189.31% according to Jiemian News.

By board, listings on the Beijing Stock Exchange accounted for more than half of the new-share count, while STAR Market IPOs accounted for nearly half of the total fundraising.

In monthly terms, April recorded 19 new listings, the highest monthly total so far this year.

In July, 14 new listings raised about 97.606 billion yuan, driven largely by large offerings from Changxin Technology and China Resources New Energy.

From August 1 to August 21, 2026, 15 companies completed listings and raised about 20.291 billion yuan.

The Bank of Russia announced a new pathway for investors to qualify as qualified investors, incorporating a financial and banking knowledge test and specific professional certificates.

Under the revised rules, individuals can be recognized as qualified investors by passing the knowledge exam and presenting documents such as the National Finance Association's Qualifin Certificate or the Moscow Exchange's Investor Certificate. The change takes effect on August 31, replacing the previous framework that recognized only certain international credentials in fields including financial analysis, investment advisory, asset management, and risk management.

In the crypto regulatory context, non-qualified investors may acquire digital assets through a single licensed intermediary up to 300,000 rubles per year, while qualified investors face a limit ten times higher.

Deputy Governor Mikhail Mamuta said the test aims to raise investors’ financial literacy so they understand and manage the risks before trading complex instruments.

In Monday Asia morning trade, WTI crude futures declined 0.68% to $86.467 per barrel, while spot gold rose 0.31% to $4,618.86 per ounce, according to Jiemian News.

Per Jin10, CME FedWatch shows a 59.0% probability that the Federal Reserve will keep rates unchanged in September, with a 41.0% likelihood of a 25-basis-point hike.

For October, the tool indicates a 46.6% chance of no change, a 44.8% probability of a 25-basis-point hike, and an 8.6% probability of a cumulative 50-basis-point hike.

Axios reports that Democratic presidential hopefuls are grappling with a rising backlash over artificial intelligence, but none have endorsed Senator Bernie Sanders' proposal to halt AI development.

Axios asked roughly 20 potential 2028 contenders whether they backed Sanders' call for AI company leaders to stop work on machines humans cannot control, and only one responded directly.

Former Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel criticized the idea as a pause without a plan.

About half of the potential candidates did not respond, including Kamala Harris, Gavin Newsom and Pete Buttigieg.

New York Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and California Representative Ro Khanna are the only potential 2028 contenders Axios identified as backing a pause on AI data centers.

Several other Democrats have moved to signal a tougher stance on the issue.

The Axios article cites a Fox News poll showing 70% of voters oppose building an AI data center in their community, and it notes that OpenAI CEO Sam Altman said last week the company has temporarily paused some training.

Investor Michael Burry has reportedly deemed Alibaba's valuation too high and has sold all of his Alibaba holdings to invest in JD.com, according to Jin10.

He would not consider returning to Alibaba unless its share price falls by 50%, Jin10 reported.

Canada's ambassador to the United States, Mark Wiseman, said the negotiations on a Canada–U.S. trade agreement collapsed on the evening of the 22nd after issues remained unresolved on multiple fronts.

ChainCatcher reported that Wiseman indicated the written text of a potential deal differed from what Canada believed had been reached, and that no single issue alone caused the failure. The breakdown has triggered a new round of tariff measures and could escalate the bilateral trade dispute.

Bond traders are monitoring Kevin Warsh's Jackson Hole remarks for clues about the Fed's response to ongoing inflation and fiscal concerns, Bloomberg reports.

Markets are assessing whether long-term Treasuries will extend their recent selloff in the absence of a clear signal from Warsh.

Hugging Face, the open-source artificial intelligence community, is reportedly the target of several acquisition offers, with the combined value of the deals estimated at up to $13 billion.

ChainCatcher notes the bids, and Business Insider is the outlet that reported the information.

Nikkei Asia reported on Sunday that Singapore plans to examine any efforts by firms to reroute goods through the city-state to evade tariffs or to import items produced with forced labor.

Prime Minister Lawrence Wong said the government would act on credible evidence of wrongdoing, but cautioned that enforcement must be realistic given Singapore's role as a global hub for re-exports and transshipment.

He noted that the United States has raised concerns about Chinese goods routed through Southeast Asia, and cited a 12.5% tariff on Singaporean exports that Washington says exists because Singapore lacks a law banning imports of goods produced with forced labor.

Wong said Singapore will continue engaging with the United States to explain its position.

He argued that trade is becoming less free and more shaped by security concerns, and that the world is not defined by the United States and China alone, pointing to Europe, India and other middle powers.

The remarks were delivered at the National Day Rally, the annual policy speech in which Wong outlines key policy announcements.

As of 17:20 UTC on Aug 23, 2026, Binance Market Data shows BNB trading above the 700 USDT level, at 700.030029 USDT.

The 24-hour change stands at 0.53%.

Turkey's central bank has resumed weekly repo auctions at its 37% policy rate. The move redirects funding back toward the policy rate as the bank bets that the worst of the Iran war's economic fallout has passed.

Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis president Neel Kashkari told Bloomberg that the U.S. Treasury market is functioning as it should.

He described the market as operating smoothly and said the recent rise in yields is unlikely to alter the central bank's policy deliberations.

Ethereum traded above $2,500 and stayed above $2,400 as on-chain activity suggested a bullish tilt among whales.

BlockBeats On-chain Detection notes that among the top 10 Ethereum contract holders, excluding the short hedge addresses of Abraxas Capital and Fasanara Capital and Wintermute's market-making address, the six remaining large whales are net long, with total long exposure of $359 million.

One notable position, linked to the so-called 819 ETH insider whale, was opened ahead of the August rally and remains in place, valued at about $48.85 million with unrealized gains of more than $10 million and no reduction in exposure.

After the August 19 rally, on-chain open interest edged lower on August 22 but has since risen back above $2 billion, indicating renewed activity.

Analysts expect additional volatility, and on-chain liquidation data shows bulls and bears are roughly evenly matched, with resistance near a move above $3,000 and support near $2,000.

The Cleveland Fed released a study titled 'Do You Even Crypto, Bro? Cryptocurrencies in Household Finance' that analyzes several waves of U.S. household surveys, with each round surveying up to about 25,000 households.

The researchers identify a clear gap between cryptocurrency investors and traditional asset investors. They find that expectations for future crypto returns explain ownership more than demographic factors such as age, income, or gender, and that holders anticipate roughly 22% returns over the coming year versus about 7% for non-holders. Holders also tended to rate crypto as less risky than non-holders do.

For every 1 percentage point rise in expected crypto returns, the likelihood of owning crypto rises by about 0.8 percentage points. Across the factors examined, return expectations and risk perceptions were stronger predictors of ownership than age, income, or wealth.

When compared with stocks, bonds, and gold, the study notes that traditional asset allocation is typically more closely tied to an investor's economic background. It also reports a randomized information experiment in which participants who saw Bitcoin's gains over the prior 12 months showed higher willingness to allocate to crypto assets.

In that experiment, the share planning to allocate to crypto rose by about 2 percentage points, and the probability of actually purchasing crypto rose by about 2.5 percentage points.

Zhiyuan Robots participated in the second World Humanoid Robot Games with models including Genie G2, Lingxi X2, and Expedition A3.

In the completed scenario events, Genie G2 collected two gold medals, three silver medals, and two bronze medals for the team. Odaily reports that Zhiyuan currently leads the event's medal table.

Jiang Zhuoer announced on X that he completed buying back half of the ETH position he had previously sold at $2,525, re-entering the market as ETH traded around $2,450.

Odaily reported that the move marked the completion of profit-taking on the swing trade.

Saudi Arabia's Tadawul All Share Index rose 1.13% to 11,078.68 on Sunday, according to Wallstreetcn. The Qatar Stock Exchange Index advanced 0.06% to 9,688.30, snapping a four-session decline.

VeriSilicon reported first-half revenue of 1.864 billion yuan, up 91.37% from a year earlier, with net loss attributable to shareholders widening to 612 million yuan, according to Jiemian News.

Adjusted net loss attributable to shareholders was 423 million yuan, while non-GAAP net loss stood at 622 million yuan.

Manufacturing services revenue rose 185.29% to 1.163 billion yuan, representing 62.39% of total revenue, while data-processing revenue jumped 292.17% to 732 million yuan.

Gross margin declined to 31.34% from 43.32%, but gross profit climbed 38.44% to 584 million yuan. R&D spending rose 47.06% to 941 million yuan, equal to 50.49% of revenue.

New orders signed from January 1 to August 17 totaled 15.142 billion yuan, up to 254% of full-year 2025 new orders, with AI computing-related orders accounting for 90% of the total.

Operating cash flow turned positive at 626 million yuan from a 365 million yuan outflow a year earlier. Contract liabilities rose to 3.157 billion yuan from 1.258 billion yuan, and the company noted that 109 mass-produced chips contributed revenue while 59 design projects were awaiting mass production.

Saudi Arabia is once again altering its crude export routing after Yemen's Houthi militants disrupted the use of a key backup corridor in the Red Sea, according to Bloomberg.

The move underscores renewed challenges to Riyadh's logistics as the security environment in the region remains unsettled.

The alternative route has played a significant role in supporting global oil movements since the Iran-related conflict began.

A HYPE long position held by a single address for 10 months has yielded a profit of $57.18 million after the token rose above $80, hitting a new record high.

The position was opened in November last year with 1.38 million HYPE at $38.60 per token, and the holder paid $4.98 million in funding fees during the period.

Overall, the position's value climbed from $53.38 million to $110 million.

Tokuyama Corp., a Japanese silicon materials producer, is expanding its footprint with new facilities in Vietnam and Malaysia to supply a critical semiconductor material.

The move, as reported by Nikkei Asia, is part of a strategy to reduce supply-chain disruption risks by spreading production across multiple countries rather than concentrating it in Japan.

Nikkei Asia reported that at least eight Chinese automakers introduced new models on a single day last month, with Great Wall Motor and Leapmotor Technology among the participants.

Six of the firms showcased new or updated electric vehicles or other types of new-energy vehicles.

Global crude oil inventories are once again declining, according to Nikkei Asia.

The Strait of Hormuz is effectively shut, slowing shipments from the Middle East and helping push prices higher.

Bitcoin is approaching a Golden Cross, a pattern CoinDesk analyst James Van Straten notes often coincides with rallies in the weeks ahead of the cross. ChainCatcher data show both the 50-day moving average and the 200-day moving average are turning upward as the market nears the cross.

Van Straten highlighted that BTC did not break above the 200-day moving average in 2022, but the current market structure appears to be forming a new phase.

A Golden Cross is generally viewed as a medium- to long-term bullish signal, defined by the 50-day moving average crossing above the 200-day moving average. However, it is a lagging indicator used to confirm trend changes rather than forecast short-term moves.

Glassnode data show Bitcoin has historically risen multiple times before the 50-day moving average crosses above the 200-day moving average. BTC is now trading back near the 200-day moving average, signaling a clear departure from the 2022 market cycle.

Iran's Foreign Ministry spokesperson described the visit as a continuation of Pakistan's efforts to bolster regional peace and security, according to Jin10.

The Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesperson stated that Pakistan's army chief will visit Tehran on Monday.

According to Jin10, the report attributes the information to the spokesperson's remarks.

Jin10 reported that President Pezeshkian described Iran as facing a comprehensive war spanning its economic, security, and military domains.

The Bank Policy Institute, which represents major banks including JPMorgan, Bank of America, Wells Fargo, and Citi, is asking the U.S. Treasury’s FinCEN to expand the scope of its customer identification program requirements to stablecoin secondary markets.

The proposal targets exchanges and other platforms that maintain direct account relationships with retail users, BPI said, noting that these venues handle a large portion of buying and selling activity in the payment stablecoin ecosystem and are where most illicit activity tied to stablecoins occurs.

Under the plan, these platforms would be required to collect customer information under the Bank Secrecy Act, and decentralized exchanges could also come under oversight if the rules are adopted.

FinCEN’s draft rule notes that stablecoin secondary-market transactions on blockchains typically involve anonymous or pseudonymous identities and lack a centralized node to gather identity data, limiting issuers’ ability to collect customer information from secondary-market users.

BPI has also opposed the current version of the Digital Asset Market Clarity Act alongside other banking groups.

The Bank Policy Institute, which represents several large U.S. banks including JPMorgan Chase, Bank of America, Wells Fargo, and Citigroup, has proposed that FinCEN broaden customer identification requirements to stablecoin secondary markets. The plan would cover exchanges and other platforms that maintain direct account relationships with retail users.

BPI argues these venues handle a substantial portion of trading activity in the payment-stablecoin ecosystem, and that most illicit activity related to stablecoins occurs in these markets.

If adopted, the platforms would be required under the Bank Secrecy Act to collect customer information, and decentralized exchanges could also come under regulation.

FinCEN’s draft rule notes that stablecoin secondary market transactions on blockchains often involve anonymous or pseudonymous identities and lack a centralized node to collect identity information, which limits issuers’ ability to gather customer data from secondary markets.

BPI has also joined other banking groups in opposing the current version of the Digital Asset Market Clarity Act.

Circle issued about 7.5 billion USDC and redeemed roughly 6.7 billion USDC during the seven days ended August 20, resulting in an increase in circulating supply of around 800 million tokens.

Odaily estimates that total USDC in circulation reached 72.7 billion tokens, with reserves totaling about $72.9 billion.

The reserve mix includes roughly $48.1 billion in overnight reverse repurchase agreements, about $12.7 billion in U.S. Treasuries maturing in under three months, around $11.4 billion deposited at systemically important institutions, and about $700 million in other bank deposits.

On Aug 23, 2026, at 03:33 AM UTC, Binance Market Data shows BNB trading at 689.929993 USDT after dipping below the 690 level.

The 24-hour loss is listed at 4.26%.

A report cited by Jin10 quotes Iran's ambassador to Russia, Jalali, saying in an interview with Sputnik News Agency that U.S. military morale is low.

He added that the Pentagon or other U.S. officials have not confirmed the claim.

Pony AI reported first-half 2026 revenue of $70.47 million, up 98.9% from a year earlier, with a gross margin of 16.9% and a net loss of $98.86 million, according to Jiemian News.

Robotaxi revenue rose 534% to $20.6 million, while the second-quarter net loss attributable to Pony AI Inc. increased to $59.8 million from $53.1 million a year earlier.

As of the end of June, Pony AI’s cash, restricted cash, short-term investments and long-term restricted investments totaled about $1.39 billion, and operating cash outflow in the first half widened to $118 million from $79.57 million a year earlier.

The company had 1,975 Robotaxi vehicles globally at the end of the first half and is targeting more than 3,500 vehicles by the end of 2026.

TAC is examining a vulnerability incident on its Cosmos-based EVM sidechain, with the impact confined to the TAC token supply.

Odaily reports that the team is coordinating with TAC validators to temporarily halt blockchain operations and will issue updates on the investigation and the plan for restoring the chain.

The project urges users to rely solely on official channels for the latest information.

According to Foresight News, TAC said it is examining a vulnerability on its Cosmos-based EVM sidechain.

The incident reportedly affected only the TAC token supply.

The team is coordinating with TAC validators to temporarily pause the chain and will provide the investigation results and a recovery plan at a later date.