US-Iran tensions stoke inflation fears, with US and European mortgage rates surging across the board, putting renewed pressure on housing markets.

According to official announcements, OKX has upgraded its TradFi market information features on its mobile app and web platform, adding a "Company" database and "News" module to relevant asset market pages. The "Company" database is tailored for tokenized stock assets, enabling users to view details such as company overviews, financial data, shareholder information, and dividend distributions. The "News" module covers selected tokenized stocks and commodities like crude oil, aggregating related news, in-depth reports, corporate events, and analyst insights. Additionally, over 20 key metrics—including price-to-earnings ratio, price-to-book ratio, market capitalization, earnings per share, and dividend yield—have been added to tokenized stock market pages, helping users access the asset’s fundamentals and latest news alongside market data.

The effectiveness of Japanese authorities’ foreign exchange market intervention to prop up the yen is coming under growing challenge. Market data indicates that carry traders are capitalizing on every yen rebound to re-establish short positions, forming a cycle of “intervention lifts the yen — traders sell on the rise”. Earlier, the joint U.S.-Japan intervention briefly pushed the yen higher, but less than two weeks later, USD/JPY once again neared 160. For carry traders, official intervention instead provides a more favorable yen selling price. This trading logic hinges primarily on interest rate spread advantages: investors borrow low-yield yen to allocate to high-yield assets; as long as the yen does not sustain appreciation, the interest rate differential can offset part of the exchange rate risk. As of August 4, hedge funds’ yen short positions have shrunk by roughly half, yet some institutions are re-establishing carry trades funded by the yen. Market data shows USD/JPY has rebounded from near 157 to 159.43. Some traders argue that without a significant decline in the U.S. dollar and U.S. yields, carry trades could push USD/JPY to retest 162. Japanese authorities were previously reported to have deployed tens of billions of dollars to support the yen at the end of July, with a single-day intervention hitting around $53 billion — a historical record. But the massive intervention still failed to prevent the yen from approaching 160 again, reflecting that the market’s focus on the U.S.-Japan interest rate differential and Japan’s fiscal pressure remains dominant. Currently, the market is closely watching the Bank of Japan’s (BOJ) next policy move. Traders are betting the BOJ may raise rates by 25 basis points in September or October, but analysts note that as long as Japan’s interest rates stay significantly lower than those of major economies like the U.S., yen-funded carry trades are likely to persist.

Cardano ecosystem wallet project SecondFi has announced the launch of a wallet migration tool and unveiled a recovery plan for assets affected by the June 2026 incident. SecondFi stated that as the project will cease operations, users need to migrate remaining assets still held in SecondFi wallets. The migration tool is scheduled to go live on August 13, supporting eligible ADA, Cardano-native tokens, and NFTs to be transferred to new Cardano wallets created by users’ chosen service providers. The tool currently only supports Cardano network assets; non-Cardano assets must be transferred separately via their respective networks and wallet processes. SecondFi noted that the migration tool has passed an independent security assessment by security firm Bitdefender, and users should read the official usage instructions and security tips before proceeding. Additionally, for assets affected by the June 2026 security incident, SecondFi plans to launch a recovery portal by September 10. Users can verify wallet ownership via zero-knowledge proof (ZK Proof) and submit claims for affected assets. SecondFi reminds users to only use links from official channels, including @secondfiapp, @secondfi_jp, and the official support website, to avoid phishing sites and impersonation accounts that have emerged recently.

Zhipu (02513.HK) announced today the launch of GLM-5.3. The model uses the same base architecture as GLM-5.2, with all performance improvements coming from post-training optimizations. Compared to GLM-5.2, GLM-5.3 performs better in complex coding and long-horizon tasks. Boasting enhanced coding capabilities, it is currently the most powerful open-weight model. In internal Z.ai code benchmark tests, its performance is 50% higher than that of GLM-5.2. Additionally, when scaled for post-training deployment, its network capability development has exceeded expectations. On the CyberGym platform, GLM-5.3 leads in vulnerability detection, with the most significant improvement seen in the latter part of exploitation chains—its performance in exploitation benchmarks is over twice that of GLM-5.2. The model weights will be released two weeks after this announcement, following the completion of security evaluations and reinforcement work.

Latest data from Bitget shows that the platform’s TradFi (Traditional Finance) contract trading volume surpassed $100 billion in July, hitting a single-day peak of $10 billion, reflecting surging global user demand for trading traditional financial assets in crypto derivatives markets. As a core growth engine of the TradFi segment, Bitget’s stock contracts have exhibited strong market penetration. Currently, roughly one in three contract trades on the platform come from stock contracts. As of press time, Bitget supports 272 popular U.S. stock and ETF contract underlyings.

On-chain analyst Murphy states that all BTC positions bought in 2025 are currently underwater for their holders. Thus, aside from wallet migrations, the reduction in the size of 2025 BTC holdings most likely signals holders selling at a loss. Data shows that as of now, roughly 4.77 million BTC positions bought in 2025 remain, down 41.5% from their December peak. The downward trend of these holdings has unfolded in two phases: a sharp decline before February this year, followed by a significant slowdown in the reduction rate after February, though a steady downward slope persists. Murphy notes that 2025 BTC holdings represent the largest potential supply side in the current market. By contrast, BTC holdings accumulated in 2024, 2023, and 2022—still holding unrealized gains—have largely completed the release of high-level trapped positions, with their decline slope gradually flattening, indicating easing selling pressure from long-term holders. Historical data shows that during the bottom of the past two bear markets, high-level holdings saw notable declines: at the 2022 bear market bottom, holdings bought at the 2021 peak fell by ~51%; at the 2018 bear market bottom, 2017 peak holdings dropped by ~62%. Drawing on historical cycles, Murphy estimates that during the current bear market bottom, the decline in 2025 peak holdings could hit 50%-60%, with the current 41.5% drop leaving room for further liquidation. However, this assessment does not account for BTC purchased by institutions including spot ETFs and MicroStrategy; these holdings are mostly locked in long-term positions, which could reduce actual market supply pressure.