U.S. regulators propose to block CME Group’s application to launch 24-hour oil contracts.

US crude oil inventories are experiencing an unprecedented decline: total inventories have fallen for 17 consecutive weeks, the longest such decline period on record. This streak surpasses the previous record of 16 straight weeks of decline set in 2021. Since early April, total crude inventories have dropped by 166 million barrels to 712 million barrels, hitting their lowest level since March 1984. US Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR) inventories alone have decreased by 111 million barrels since March, currently standing at 305 million barrels, the lowest level since February 1983. Meanwhile, US gasoline inventories have declined for 10 consecutive weeks, matching the 2018 record.

According to monitoring by TheDataNerd, a large whale that shorted $102 million worth of Bitcoin using 40x leverage recently faced partial liquidations, suffering a $1.46 million loss over the past week. The whale has since added margin, cutting its short position to roughly $60 million. The position’s entry price is $64,212.5, and its liquidation price is $65,310.2.

After 25-year-old rising Wall Street AI stock prodigy Leopold’s hedge fund Situational Awareness faced a margin liquidation, Silicon Valley capital has instead launched a wave of pursuit for him. Insiders revealed that a large number of Silicon Valley investors have contacted the fund voluntarily within just a few days, expressing their willingness to add investment. Sequoia Capital partner Pat Grady publicly stated he will remain a key figure in Silicon Valley for the long term; veteran venture capitalist Elad Gil even announced his first application to invest in the fund; Redpoint Ventures managing director Logan Bartlett bluntly said, “There’s a hero archetype here—Leopold got punched, but it sparked everyone’s unity.” Despite the heavy blow, the fund has still posted around 80% positive returns this year, with its remaining portfolio valued at roughly $100 billion. However, Situational Awareness has informed investors it is temporarily not accepting new capital. In a letter to investors, Leopold announced he has unwound all leverage, characterizing the crisis as a costly but invaluable lesson, and will at least temporarily stop using bank prime brokerage services to amplify positions. This incident has laid bare the deep divide between Silicon Valley and Wall Street: Wall Street views it as a classic case of excessive leverage, with S3 Partners’ founder pointing out bluntly, “This is a super-concentrated, super-crowded, and super-high-leverage position”; Barclays even previously refused to take the fund on as a client citing excessive industry concentration; while Silicon Valley sees it as a buying opportunity at a low point. A New York University professor explained that Silicon Valley rewards those who make correct judgments on transformative technology directions, while Wall Street rewards those who generate risk-adjusted returns while preserving principal.

Berkshire Hathaway released its Q2 2026 financial report today, with the market’s most closely watched detail being that its cash reserves dropped to $365.51 billion in the second quarter, down from approximately $397.4 billion in Q1. This marks the end of Berkshire’s 14 consecutive quarters of net selling, its first period of significant net buying since Q4 2022. In Q2, Berkshire’s net stock purchases totaled nearly $20 billion, including a roughly $10 billion private placement in Alphabet, Google’s parent company, to support its AI data center and other investments. It also acquired homebuilder Taylor Morrison for approximately $6.8 billion—a full acquisition, not an open-market stock trade—and repurchased about $4.5 billion of its own shares. After accounting for these major items, there remains roughly $3 billion in "unexplained" net open-market equity purchases, with specific stocks to be disclosed in the 13F filing around August 14. Alphabet has now officially entered Berkshire’s top five holdings, alongside American Express, Apple, Bank of America, and Coca-Cola, with these five core positions making up roughly 66% of its stock portfolio. Buffett previously noted that the prolonged net selling cycle was driven mainly by high market valuations, which made it difficult to find sufficiently attractive opportunities. This shift is viewed as a clear signal of more active capital allocation since Greg Abel took over as CEO, with Berkshire moving from "waiting patiently" to "taking action."

US Vice President Vance stated that some progress has been made in Iran negotiations over the past few days. Key focuses include maximizing oil and gas production in the Strait of Hormuz, and securing Iran’s commitment to refrain from firing on ships.

Nansen founder and CEO Alex Svanevik stated that Bitcoin’s current price of roughly $60,000 may have marked the low point of this cycle. “I personally don’t think Bitcoin will drop below $60,000 again— that’s a thing of the past, and I believe it’s forever,” he said. Svanevik’s assessment is rooted in Bitcoin’s role as a hedge against global central bank monetary expansion, with no signs of an imminent end to the global monetary easing cycle. He added that the crypto industry is undergoing a fundamental shift: crypto assets were previously in the “toy world” phase of blockchain, and are now entering the “real world” era. On the public chain ecosystem, Svanevik holds a long-term bullish stance on Solana, dismissing the view that it is merely a “meme coin chain” as completely absurd. He praised Solana for having “possibly the most effective business development (BD) team” and an “incredible team.” However, Svanevik refused to translate this positive outlook into a specific price prediction for SOL: “Intuitively, I would expect it to rise, but I can’t be certain.” Svanevik is also optimistic about Robinhood Chain, which launched just this July. He argues that it is emerging as a strong competitor to Base thanks to its outstanding user distribution capabilities, but judges that Robinhood is unlikely to issue a token. The reasons: first, it has no need to do so; second, as a Nasdaq-listed company, issuing a token would logically conflict with competing against its own stock. “All value should be channeled into HOOD stock,” he noted.