US pre-market trading saw mixed performance among semiconductor, storage, and optical communication stocks, with SKHY rising more than 4% and NOK gaining over 2%.

Arthur Hayes posted that FLOP has not yet released its whitepaper, as the team is still communicating with relevant stakeholders to ensure the final plan is sufficiently robust in technical design and tokenomics. The team chose to announce FLOP early to gather more feedback, and simple yet informative charts detailing FLOP’s tokenomics design will be rolled out starting next week. Earlier reports noted that Arthur Hayes announced he would end his retirement to return to lead Flop Labs and launch the FLOP token. He explained that FLOP will serve as "the fuel for AI Agents", with the project eschewing pre-sales and VC involvement, adopting a 100% fair launch model to build the currency for the Agentic Economy. A large-scale airdrop is scheduled for Q4 2026, with the genesis block set to launch in Q1 2027.

Unitree Robotics successfully completed its IPO today. Founder Wang Xingxing, Sequoia Capital’s Shen Nanpeng, and renowned singer Wang Leehom attended the post-IPO celebration banquet. In his speech, Wang Leehom recalled his experience collaborating with Unitree on a humanoid robot stage performance. Wang said that over a year ago, he first visited Unitree hoping the company would design a movable mechanical piano for his concert, but Wang Xingxing replied: "We don’t make pianos, but we make humanoid robots." After that, the Unitree team input thousands of movements into the robots via motion capture and worked to integrate them into the entire concert’s complex choreography. During the final rehearsal, the robots faced an issue where their timing gradually slowed down. Wang noted that Unitree’s engineering team then worked overnight to write new code, synchronized the robots with the lighting system’s timecode, and completed adjustments before the official show, allowing the performance to proceed smoothly. He added that when facing tasks they had never done before, the team repeatedly responded: "We haven’t done this before, but we can definitely do it." Wang also mentioned that the day after the performance, Elon Musk shared the related video and commented "Impressive." At the celebration banquet, Wang Leehom said: "Today, the financial world is also abuzz," and extended his congratulations to Wang Xingxing and the Unitree team.

Tesla has launched the Doubao large language model. According to relevant introductions, the model is now being gradually rolled out to Tesla's in-vehicle systems. (Volcano Engine)

According to a Wall Street Journal report, Cantor Fitzgerald plans to open its Kalshi prediction markets to roughly 3,000 institutional clients—including family offices and hedge funds—who will be able to trade contracts tied to events such as weather, commodities, and corporate performance. Susquehanna International Group will provide quotes and liquidity for these trades. Cantor will act as a broker, facilitating the purchase and sale of bulk event contracts for clients, and may distribute related positions to other investors via private negotiations. Pascal Bandelier, co-CEO of Cantor, noted that hedge funds have expressed interest in trading event contracts linked to iPhone sales, rather than betting on sales shifts indirectly through Apple’s stock price; family offices, meanwhile, are focused on using contracts tied to weather, crop yields, and oil prices for risk hedging. Joe Grubb, head of business development at Susquehanna Predictions, added that AI supply chain risks and computing power prices could also serve as use cases for the prediction markets. Institutional clients can also propose new market themes based on their needs, and the companies have discussed with investors the types of contracts they aim to launch. Kalshi has been ramping up its efforts to expand its institutional client base in recent months, completing its first bulk transaction this year and partnering with Interactive Brokers. Max Crowley, vice president of business development at Kalshi, stated that institutional demand for hedging against specific event risks is already in place.

According to a Reuters/Lpsos poll, 69% of U.S. respondents believe that U.S. President Donald Trump’s private business interests will influence his decision-making during his term. Additionally, 63% of respondents consider it inappropriate for Trump and his family to profit from cryptocurrency businesses if he returns to the White House. The poll results could further increase political pressure on Trump ahead of the November midterm elections.

South Korea’s Meritz Securities analyst Kim Sun-woo noted that SK Hynix unveiled a shareholder return plan after market close on August 19, announcing it will repurchase and cancel 40 trillion won of its own shares within three months. The announcement came earlier than the company’s prior plan to release such news within the third quarter, and Kim Sun-woo believes the market may view the timing as a positive surprise. SK Hynix said the large-scale repurchase and cancellation decision stems from its view that its current share price does not fully reflect its business competitiveness and cash-generating ability. Additionally, the company plans to announce new base and special dividend policies at its third-quarter earnings briefing at the end of October. Meanwhile, SK Hynix has raised its shareholder return threshold from the previous “within 50% of free cash flow (FCF)” to “more than 50% of FCF”, and aims to introduce a capital reduction dividend policy next year. Meritz Securities forecasts SK Hynix’s 2027 FCF will reach 250 trillion to 300 trillion won, translating to a potential shareholder return scale of 125 trillion to 150 trillion won (roughly $89.9 billion to $107.9 billion). The plan exceeded expectations in three areas: announcement timing, management’s recognition of undervaluation, and outlook for subsequent policies, and is expected to drive the company to complete share repurchases intensively over the next three months to lift its share price.