Goes down in history: The August 19 rally is the only short squeeze among crypto’s top 10 largest liquidations ever.

According to Blockworks analyst Shaunda Devens, Hyperliquid’s testnet has added compliance operation control functions including whitelisting, forced liquidation, and collateral transfer. Currently, a node named "Kraken HIP-3 test DEX" is testing these permissioned functions and has added 10 wallets to its whitelist. While the testnet supports permissionless deployment, combined with recent business expansion moves of Kraken’s parent company, the community speculates that Kraken may be the first centralized exchange (CEX) to test this compliant DEX functionality.

On Friday, S&P Global released its latest PMI survey data, showing that the US Composite Output Index jumped sharply from 54.5 in the previous month to 56.0 in August, hitting its highest level since April 2022. This overall acceleration was entirely driven by an unexpected surge in the services sector. The initial reading for August’s services PMI stood at 56.8, significantly higher than July’s 54.6 and marking the highest level since December 2024. Typically, a PMI reading above 50 signals that the relevant economic activity is in an expansionary phase. This data completely shattered Wall Street’s earlier expectations of an economic slowdown. Economists had widely projected that August’s services PMI would fall to 54. S&P Global forecasts that the current third-quarter survey data indicates the US annualized economic growth rate is approaching 3.0%, a solid doubling from the 1.5% pace in the second quarter. However, the rapid economic expansion is still accompanied by latent inflation risks. The latest report shows that while inflationary pressures eased slightly in August, the growth rates of input costs and selling prices remain at high levels.

SOL Treasury Company (HSDT) has announced its voting stances on the first three Solana Governance Proposals (SGPs): it supports SGP-0001, the "Solana Constitution"; opposes SGP-0002, which would double the inflation reduction rate; and rejects SGP-0003, which would shift transaction fees from fixed to variable. On-chain voting is scheduled to open on August 22. The firm stated its support for the Solana Constitution stems from the new governance framework, which allows every staker to vote directly, and holders can always override the votes of the operators they have delegated—this, it says, facilitates institutional participation in network decision-making. Regarding the other two proposals, the company emphasized it is not opposed to the policy directions themselves, but rather the timing. This is a critical phase for institutions considering entering Solana, where rule stability and predictability are top priorities for institutions. Altering core economic parameters like inflation rates and transaction fees at this juncture could further deter institutions that remain on the fence. The firm added that it will support revisiting inflation reduction once it sees sustained net capital inflows into SOL, and is open to reconsidering variable transaction fees after the ecosystem adapts.

Citadel founder and CEO Ken Griffin has issued an investor letter to investors regarding the firm’s AI fund Situational Awareness, noting that he has eliminated more than 80% of the fund’s original portfolio risk via nearly 100 block trades. The fund has a total market value exceeding $4 billion, and Griffin has rapidly exited most of its vega risk. (CNBC)

BitMine Chairman Tom Lee has published a post listing 17 large-cap stocks (each with a market capitalization exceeding $2 billion) that exhibit high correlation to cryptocurrencies, for stock investors seeking crypto exposure. Among these, BMNR has the highest correlation with Ethereum (ETH) at 80%, followed by COIN at 74%; MicroStrategy (MSTR) shows the highest correlation with Bitcoin (BTC) at 78%, with COIN ranking second at 74%. Lee stated that he expects ETH to outperform BTC in the current cycle, driven by tokenization and AI applications, noting that this rationale is far more significant than the factors that fueled ETH’s outperformance in previous cycles.

According to monitoring by crypto analytics platform Yu Jing, a large whale entered long positions worth $80 million in Bitcoin (BTC) and Ethereum (ETH) on July 6, when MicroStrategy’s announcement of selling its crypto holdings sparked a market sell-off, and has held the positions ever since. The BTC long position was opened at $62,353, while the ETH long position was opened at $1,762. Following the market rebound over the past two days, the long positions established by this whale a month and a half ago now hold an unrealized profit of $21.1 million.