Hackers behind the AFX Trade hack converted the stolen funds into BTC, with 655.4 ETH already cross-chain swapped.

According to statistics from the Financial Times in partnership with Challenger, Gray & Christmas, U.S. tech industry layoffs since 2026 have accounted for more than one-third of all announced layoffs nationwide. Amazon, Oracle, Meta and Microsoft alone have cut nearly 50,000 jobs, roughly 6% of their total workforce. In sharp contrast, Amazon, Alphabet, Meta and Microsoft are projected to invest a combined $725 billion in AI infrastructure such as data centers this year. After laying off staff in March, Oracle’s total headcount dropped by 21,000 for the full year; this month, S&P downgraded its credit rating, citing weak cash flow and uncertain AI returns. Microsoft cut 4,800 jobs this month, mainly in its Xbox gaming division, essentially a full reset of its $75 billion acquisition of Activision Blizzard three years ago. The narrative that "AI causes layoffs" is met with skepticism in academic circles. Enrico Moretti, an economics professor at the University of California, Berkeley, notes that AI-related layoffs are more of an excuse for management to correct over-hiring during the pandemic. "Claiming AI-driven efficiency gains is easier than admitting to over-hiring back then," he said. Market pricing also contradicts this narrative: within 30 trading days of announcing layoffs, companies that attributed cuts to AI saw their stock prices underperform the Nasdaq by nearly 10%, while companies laying off for other reasons lagged by only around 4%. Amazon and Microsoft have explicitly stated that AI adoption is not a decisive factor in their layoffs. In contrast to the tech giants’ non-core business contractions, AI-native startups like Anthropic and OpenAI are still rapidly expanding their workforce, driving fast growth in AI sector employment. "What is being cut is merely all other non-core business segments."

Layer 1 blockchain project Vanar announced that its infrastructure migration to Base will kick off next Tuesday. Users currently staking VANRY must first unstake, wait for the cooldown period to elapse before claiming their tokens. Earlier, Vanar stated that existing VANRY token holders can complete the migration at a 1:1 ratio, with their holding amounts remaining unchanged. Additionally, VANRY’s total supply will rise from 2.4 billion to 10 billion tokens, approximately 62% of which will stay locked during the migration. Once the migration is complete, staking for Vanarchain validators will be halted.

U.S. data center power demand is projected to surge by 253% from 2026 levels, reaching a record 194 gigawatts by 2035 — with 1 gigawatt roughly matching the capacity of a traditional nuclear reactor. Currently, data centers consume 6% of the U.S.’s annual electricity; that share is estimated to climb to around 12% by 2030, and will account for roughly 20% of total U.S. electricity consumption by 2035. Most of the growth in U.S. power demand is concentrated in a handful of grid regions, such as the PJM Interconnection, which serves Washington, D.C. and 13 states including Virginia, Pennsylvania and Ohio. Power will be the next AI bottleneck.

According to DeFiLlama data, Robinhood EVM Chain generated $350,000 in 24-hour network fee revenue, ranking fourth among all blockchains, trailing only Canton, Tron, and Solana. Launched on July 1, the Robinhood EVM Chain has seen its total value locked (TVL) quickly rise to $315 million. Though originally designed for on-chain stocks and ETFs, it has emerged as a major hub for meme coin activity.

Citrini analyst Jukan, citing the latest industry analysis from ZDNet Korea, notes that the AI semiconductor performance race is shifting from process miniaturization to advanced stacking technology, with 3D ICs—vertically integrating logic and memory—emerging as a key next-generation technology. Samsung Foundry has recently seen a sharp surge in inquiries for 3D ICs, with nearly every potential client asking about the technology. However, Jukan argues that 3D ICs are essentially custom DRAMs built to order, which fundamentally conflicts with the core business models of Samsung and SK Hynix, both relying on mass-producing standardized products. The two Korean giants are expected to limit their involvement to preliminary research and remain cautious about full commercialization. This structural hesitation opens an opportunity for niche players. China’s ChangXin Memory Technologies (CXMT), barred from entering the HBM market due to U.S. semiconductor restrictions, is leveraging 3D ICs as a differentiating breakthrough, choosing to target custom memory instead of competing head-on with Korean firms in the bulk DRAM segment. A South Korean semiconductor industry official stated that China has taken the lead in producing multiple 3D DRAM sample chips, and niche market players like CXMT and Winbond are likely to be the first to build this market. Analyst Jukan has also previously emphasized that NVIDIA’s CUDA moat is ending: the erosion of its software ecosystem barrier is occurring in tandem with the trend of 3D IC customization, and the next-generation AI memory competitive landscape may face a structural reshuffle.

According to on-chain analyst Ai Yi (@ai_9684xtpa), a whale that opened a 40x leveraged long BTC position worth $38.67 million starting last night cut its losses after holding the position for just 18 hours, suffering a single loss of $368,000. The whale’s entry price was $64,469, with a stop-loss set at $63,859, triggering an immediate stop-loss after BTC dropped by just 1%.