Circle has minted an additional 500 million USDC on Solana.

Last night, the crypto market saw a long-awaited rally, with crypto-related stocks also experiencing unusual movement. According to market data from BIT (bit.com), BitMine— the company with the largest Ethereum treasury holdings—closed up 10%. Notably, unusual activity was also observed in BitMine’s call options overnight. Data shows investors bought 181,684 call options on Wednesday, roughly 25% higher than the stock’s average daily call option volume of around 145,316 contracts. Multiple data platforms flagged several trades in the stock’s options that day as "unusual options activity". Additionally, the implied volatility of the stock’s options rose. Recently, institutional investors have repeatedly announced increased positions in BitMine: Marex Group boosted its holdings by 560.1% in Q4 last year, now holding approximately 10.02 million shares; Weiss Asset Management increased its stake by 363.6% in Q1 this year, holding around 4.32 million shares; Morgan Stanley raised its position by 25.8% in Q4 last year, currently holding about 12.19 million shares.

U.S. Democratic Senator Ruben Gallego told attendees at the SALT Blockchain Conference in Wyoming that rushing to bring the CLARITY Act to a Senate vote before resolving ethical issues and stablecoin yield disputes could set back the U.S. crypto market structure legislative process. Gallego stated that the crypto industry should push for continued negotiations between Senate Democrats and Republicans rather than an immediate vote. Lawmakers still need to address portions of the bill under the Agriculture Committee’s purview, integrate broader frameworks, determine how to submit the legislation to the House of Representatives, and secure the 60-vote threshold required for Senate passage. Gallego also noted that he and Republican Senator Thom Tillis submitted a compromise version of the ethics provisions to the White House before Congress adjourned, but have not yet received line-by-line feedback. He emphasized that sufficiently strict ethical guardrails are necessary to win Democratic support and advance the bill. On Wednesday, Trump urged Congress to pass a "fair version" of the CLARITY Act during a White House meeting with crypto industry executives. Senate leadership has delayed action on the bill until September; Senate Majority Leader John Thune previously said lawmakers would prioritize the legislation once they return from recess. (Cointelegraph)

At the SALT conference in Jackson Hole, Wyoming, USA, CZ commented on the Bitcoin "super cycle" thesis he previously proposed at the World Economic Forum in Davos, noting the claim has not yet materialized. According to data, the market still follows a relatively strict four-year cycle and is currently in its bear market phase. However, as total market capitalization expands, price volatility will narrow, similar to the fluctuation patterns of large companies like Amazon and Facebook. When discussing the U.S. regulatory environment, CZ said this is the most industry-friendly period in his 12-year career, adding that the U.S. regulatory framework sets a global example, with many countries’ securities laws and exchange regulatory structures referencing the U.S. Meanwhile, Hong Kong is accelerating alignment with U.S. regulatory approaches to advance relevant legislation. Additionally, CZ touched on the portfolio of his investment firm YZi Labs, stating that roughly 70% of its capital is allocated to core crypto and blockchain sectors, about 20% to AI, and the rest to fields like biotechnology. YZi Labs uses its own capital, free from external limited partner (LP) return cycle constraints, and prioritizes projects’ positive impact and founding teams’ execution ability over purely financial return models. Regarding Hyperliquid, CZ noted a common industry misconception that as a Binance shareholder, it would only uphold CEX stances, but he entered the industry because he believes in decentralization. If KYC-free platforms like Hyperliquid can enter the U.S. market in a compliant manner, it will open doors for the entire sector, enabling more Perp DEXs and decentralized services to reach U.S. and global users, while U.S. consumers will gain better liquidity and pricing. This will not only benefit Hyperliquid itself but also international centralized exchanges including Binance.

Ethereum Foundation member Binji Pande announced via Twitter that he will join non-profit Ethereum R&D lab Ethlabs as a founding member to advance Ethereum’s development.

Goldman Sachs Chief Economist Jan Hatzius’s latest analysis suggests the market’s pricing of a September FOMC rate hike remains overly hawkish. The bank estimates that unless August data (due early September) shows a clear reversal, the Federal Reserve’s likelihood of raising rates at its September 15-16 meeting is “very low.” Goldman cites reasons including a notable slowdown in job growth, cooling consumer momentum, and inflation trends likely to keep improving. From Goldman’s view, recent data is weakening the case for a rate hike. U.S. July potential employment growth was reportedly only around 5,000, below the level needed to maintain labor market balance; weak retail sales point to consumption growth slowing to 1%-1.5% in the second half; core PCE inflation is still expected to gradually fall, approaching the 2% target by 2027. Hatzius adds that after two consecutive months of soft jobs and inflation data, the threshold for dovish policymakers to back a rate hike is high. However, Fed meeting minutes have introduced new market volatility. The July meeting minutes, released early August 20 (Beijing time), show more officials supporting further policy tightening than in June, with several policymakers noting that higher rates may still be required if inflation fails to cool further. This makes it difficult for markets to directly bet on a “Goldman-style dovish interpretation,” and short-term rates and tech stock valuations will continue to be impacted by shifting policy expectations.

According to YuEmber monitoring, a crypto whale that purchased 10,501 ETH at $1,904 one month ago has started reducing its holdings. The whale took partial profits by cutting half of its position 15 minutes ago, transferring 5,250 ETH (valued at $11.7 million) to Binance. The whale has realized a $3.4 million profit on the ETH it bought last month.