Tim Cook will step down as Apple’s chief executive on September 1, with John Ternus set to take over the role. Cook will remain executive chairman and has not indicated whether he would alter Apple’s cryptocurrency policy.

Apple has not placed Bitcoin on its balance sheet, and the company reported $146.5 billion in cash and marketable securities as of June 27.

In 2021, Cook said he personally owned cryptocurrency but that Apple would not invest corporate funds in digital assets.

Nazen Technology, a supplier of optical communications and interconnect products, has uploaded materials to the HKEX website showing it has passed its listing hearing, according to Ming Pao. The filing suggests the company may soon launch its initial public offering.

Citigroup and CITIC Securities (6030) are named as joint sponsors for the listing.

SpaceX is pursuing in-house production of large gas turbine blades and vanes in Bastrop, Texas, aiming to bypass the conventional power supply chain for AI data centers. The Bastrop site is located about 30 miles from Austin, where the company has taken concrete steps to establish a dedicated foundry for these core components.

Elon Musk confirmed the report on social media and noted that, even with substantial solar investments, natural gas will still be needed to supplement and start solar grids in the coming years. He added that casting blades and vanes in-house could reduce gas-turbine deployment times by as much as 18 months.

SpaceX has posted job openings tied to the new industrial gas turbine line in Bastrop, including a senior operations engineer, a senior materials/automation/mold engineer, and a CNC programmer.

Morgan Stanley analyst Adam Jonas said the project appears to be moving forward, according to the coverage.

The article notes that the global turbine blades and vanes supply chain has long been dominated by four major foundries, with orders for large turbine makers such as GE Vernova already booked through 2030.

Musk has said that blades and vanes are the bottleneck slowing turbine deliveries and AI data-center construction.

Jonas added that the Bastrop facility could serve both data-center demand and SpaceX’s Raptor rocket-engine turbine-pump components, and Musk is pursuing interim power through external purchases, including a deal with Fortress Investment Group and potential turbine acquisitions via FTAI Aviation-linked entities.

If the Bastrop plant is completed, Musk has indicated it could enable more than 10 GW of ground-based data centers by the end of 2027.

The report also references environmental and technical concerns, including a BNEF estimate that U.S. carbon emissions could rise about 20% if data centers build their own gas-fired plants.

Russia's largest bank, Sber, plans to broaden its crypto-backed lending by accepting Tether's USDt and Ether as collateral, in addition to Bitcoin.

Deputy Chairman Anatoly Popov, cited by Cointelegraph from a Friday TASS report, said the bank will adjust its existing products and gradually expand offerings as Russia's new crypto law takes effect. Sber intends to add these assets as collateral once the central bank approves their public trading.

Russia is building a regulated crypto market under a law signed by President Vladimir Putin on August 4, with core provisions set to commence on September 1. The legislation grants the Bank of Russia authority to determine which crypto assets may trade on regulated exchanges, and the central bank had proposed Bitcoin, Ether and USDt for such trading on August 11, noting they meet criteria including market capitalization, trading volume and a history of price data from overseas markets.

Sber has been cautious about the rollout of the digital ruble, Russia's central bank digital currency, ahead of its September 1 rollout. CFO Taras Skvortsov indicated there appears to be limited demand for the CBDC beyond the central bank itself, suggesting that neither retail nor corporate clients or financial institutions are actively pursuing it.

Markets are balancing hawkish signals from the Fed with strong inflows driven by AI demand and regulated crypto access.

In his Jackson Hole keynote, Fed Chair Kevin Warsh framed price stability as the central objective, citing 12-month PCE inflation around 3.7% and hotter recent momentum. He argued that forward guidance has overstayed its welcome and should be reserved for genuine crises, while describing broad financial conditions as not restrictive despite strains in housing and agriculture.

With futures still pricing a December rate move, the hawkish framing adds uncertainty for rate-sensitive assets as equities and crypto markets contend with the policy backdrop.

The SEC has sent a crypto custody proposal to the White House Office of Management and Budget for review, targeting investment advisers and firms holding client digital assets. The plan aims to clarify how institutions can custody crypto without triggering outdated requirements and would move beyond ETF wrappers toward a formal custody framework.

Bitcoin rose above $80,000 as US spot Bitcoin ETF inflows extended to eight straight sessions, totaling about $2.8 billion and helping August inflows top $3 billion. The move mirrors the growing role of regulated wrappers in channeling institutional demand, even as much of the net asset gain reflects price appreciation.

At Bitcoin Asia 2026, Binance founder Changpeng Zhao argued that diversification across blockchains makes Bitcoin bigger, not smaller, framing the ecosystem as non-zero-sum with faster chains serving as a research layer for potential future use by Bitcoin.

Nvidia topped expectations across revenue, data center sales and earnings, and guided third-quarter revenue to $108 billion, well above the $103.9 billion consensus. The company also signaled a sequential gross margin of 74%, down from 75%, marking the first margin decline of the current cycle due to higher memory, financing and infrastructure costs. The outlook reinforces the idea that AI compute demand supports crypto miners shifting toward AI workloads, though a Q1 price uptick highlights rising input costs for GPU cloud providers.

The dispute over the late Leonardo Del Vecchio's fortune—valued at more than €40 billion ($46.6 billion)—has intensified after one of his heirs stepped away from management roles at EssilorLuxottica, Bloomberg reported.

Del Vecchio founded the eyewear company at the heart of the dispute.

China National Gold reported on August 30 that its first-half revenue declined 19.93% year over year to 24.9 billion yuan, according to Jiemian News.

Net profit attributable to shareholders dropped 12.35% to 279 million yuan, and basic earnings per share were 0.17 yuan.

The company proposed a cash dividend of 0.92 yuan for every 10 shares, including tax.

Management attributed the weaker results to lower sales of gold products, changes in operating costs and expenses, higher inventory levels, and a decline in operating payables.

A Ukrainian drone strike sparked a fire at the Kirishi oil refinery along Russia’s Baltic coast, Bloomberg reported.

The refinery had been preparing to restart operations after months of repairs following earlier attacks.

According to Jin10, Iran's Supreme Leader Mojtaba issued a written statement urging unity among Muslims, mutual defense against the enemy, and increased cooperation.

OCEAN, a Bitcoin mining pool, announced that Luke Dashjr, a co-founder, has left the company and stepped down from the roles of chairman, chief technology officer, and director after an agreed parting of ways.

The firm said it repurchased all of Dashjr's equity stake in the company.

The split was attributed to differences over the future direction of Bitcoin mining.

Dashjr is set to join a new project named CONVOY.

OCEAN said it will continue to serve miners with a transparent, non-custodial mining pool.