Ethereum Tenth Anniversary Torch Commemorative NFT Minting Consumed a Total of $584,000 USD Worth of ETH Gas

Fantom founder and former Sonic Labs co-founder Andre Cronje recently stated bluntly: "I believe DeFi no longer exists outside of very niche segments." The vast majority of current DeFi protocols are categorized as "on-chain finance" or "open finance," but true DeFi must meet three core criteria: decentralization, immutability, and non-custodialism. This definition no longer applies to nearly any existing DeFi protocol, Cronje explained. Today’s intermediaries take the form of companies, decision-makers, curators, or risk committees—"all elements we have long observed in traditional banking." True DeFi still persists in some niche projects, he added, noting that he still sees genuine innovation in this space. According to DefiLlama data, the total value locked (TVL) in DeFi has halved from $167 billion in October 2025 to the current $75 billion. A March working paper from the European Central Bank (ECB) also cast doubt on the decentralization of DAOs. A snapshot analysis of holdings across Aave, MakerDAO, Ampleforth, and Uniswap revealed that the top 100 governance token holders control over 80% of each protocol’s total supply, raising questions about whether these platforms should be exempt from MiCA regulation as "fully decentralized" services.

On Trade.xyz, Unitree’s pre-IPO perpetual contract saw a short-term sharp drop: after rising to $94, it fell to $88.8 within an hour, a 5.5% short-term decline. Its current quote is around 600 yuan, translating to a post-listing market cap of roughly $36 billion, or approximately 243 billion yuan. Based on Unitree’s previously set IPO offering price of 150.8 yuan per share, it is expected to deliver a 3.98x return from new share subscriptions post-listing, with a net profit of about 224,600 yuan after deducting subscription payments. Unitree is projected to officially list and trade in mid-to-late August, and is currently awaiting the final official announcement from the Shanghai Stock Exchange.

The release notice for DeepSeek-V4-Pro-0813 and its open platform announcement on DeepSeek’s official website have been withdrawn, less than 24 hours after the model was quietly launched on the evening of August 12. DeepSeek-V4-Pro-0813 remains visible in the official API documentation at present.

Unitree Robotics announced that as of August 5, 2026 (T-3 day), all investors participating in the strategic placement have fully and timely paid their subscription funds. The sponsor (lead underwriter) has, by August 14, 2026 (T+4 day), refunded excess payments from strategic placement investors that exceed the amount corresponding to their final allotted share count. Online investors abandoned the subscription of 8,734 shares, totaling 1,317,087.20 yuan; offline investors abandoned 0 shares, with an abandoned amount of 0.00 yuan.

JPMorgan Chase plans to test real-time blockchain settlement for Japanese Government Bond (JGB) transactions. Meanwhile, Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group (MUFG), one of Japan’s largest banking groups, is preparing to run a proof of concept (PoC) for on-chain Japanese government bond trades via the Canton Network, exploring 24/7 real-time settlement to shorten the current traditional 1-to-3-day settlement cycle and boost repurchase transaction efficiency.

JPMorgan Chase plans to test real-time blockchain settlement for Japanese Government Bond (JGB) trades. Meanwhile, Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group (MUFG), one of Japan’s largest banking groups, is preparing to conduct a proof of concept (PoC) for on-chain Japanese government bond transactions via the Canton Network, exploring 24/7 real-time settlement to shorten the current traditional 1-to-3-day settlement cycle and boost repo transaction efficiency.