News linked to this event type.
Hong Kong Television Broadcasts Limited (also known as "TVB") announced at its board meeting on August 10 that it plans to form a joint venture with Gaw Capital to provide computing power services. The joint venture's ordinary voting shares are proposed to be held 51% by TVB and 49% by Gaw Capital, respectively. The project will be implemented in phases over the coming years, with funding sources including equity investment of up to HKD 2 billion from Gaw Capital into the joint venture, project bank financing, and the Group's internal resources.
: Discovered Materials announced the completion of a $9 million seed funding round, with participation from Lightspeed India Partners, Peak XV Partners, and several angel investors. The company combines AI agents with physical models to screen new heat-dissipating materials for chips at scale, targeting the high heat generation and high energy consumption challenges of AI chips in data centers. Reports indicate that AI can improve the efficiency of candidate material generation, but commercialization in this field remains constrained by factors such as material screening, synthesis validation, and manufacturing feasibility. (TechCrunch)
Odaily News: The Ontario Teachers' Pension Plan (OTPP) announced that its investment return reached 9.5% in the first half of this year, driven primarily by gains from Elon Musk's SpaceX initial public offering (IPO).In a statement, OTPP CEO Jo Taylor attributed the H1 performance growth to venture growth equity, public market equities, and inflation-resistant asset investments. By the end of the first half of the year, the fund's net assets had risen to CAD 303.2 billion (approximately USD 217.5 billion).According to reports, the SpaceX IPO was a key factor driving OTPP's investment returns. As one of the world's largest aerospace companies, SpaceX has rapidly expanded through commercial launches and satellite internet services like Starlink in recent years, attracting long-term capital from pension funds, sovereign wealth funds, and major institutional investors.OTPP is one of the world's largest institutional investors, with long-term investments in private equity, technology companies, and infrastructure assets. The valuation uplift from SpaceX's listing underscores the significant impact that unlisted tech unicorns and high-growth assets have on the returns of major pension funds. (Bloomberg)
Odaily News The inside story behind stablecoin infrastructure company BVNK's acquisition by Mastercard for $1.8 billion has recently come to light. According to Concentric, an early investor in BVNK, during the bidding process, US crypto exchange Coinbase once held an advantageous position and reportedly submitted a bid as high as $2.5 billion, but ultimately withdrew from the competition due to insufficient strategic and cultural alignment between the two parties.Kjartan Rist, founding partner of Concentric, stated that BVNK's founding team did not focus solely on the offer price when selecting an acquirer, but placed greater emphasis on long-term partnership and corporate culture fit. "Coinbase may have offered a higher price, but the chemistry between the two sides was not ideal." In contrast, Mastercard, as a traditional financial services company, is more likely to create synergies with BVNK in payment infrastructure and stablecoin applications.It is understood that Mastercard participated in acquisition discussions with BVNK at an early stage, and after Coinbase failed to advance the deal, Mastercard re-emerged as the primary buyer, ultimately completing the acquisition for $1.8 billion.Visa also participated in the competition. Having previously invested in BVNK and holding a board observer seat, Visa once had an advantage. However, Visa ultimately chose not to pursue a direct acquisition, instead adopting an open strategy of partnering with multiple stablecoin companies.Founded in 2018, BVNK provides enterprises with stablecoin payment, cross-border settlement, and treasury management infrastructure. Its early investor Concentric invested in the company at a valuation of $4 million in 2019, and this transaction has generated substantial returns.The acquisition also reflects a new round of competition between traditional payment giants and crypto companies over stablecoin infrastructure. Previously, Stripe acquired stablecoin infrastructure company Bridge for $1.1 billion, prompting payment giants such as Visa and Mastercard to accelerate their expansion into the stablecoin sector.Currently, the global stablecoin market size has approached $300 billion. As enterprise payments, cross-border settlements, and treasury management use cases grow rapidly, stablecoin infrastructure is becoming a critical gateway for traditional financial institutions to capture. (CoinDesk)
Odaily News: Standard Chartered Bank's Head of Global Digital Assets Research, Geoff Kendrick, stated that as the tokenization of Real World Assets (RWA) accelerates, the price of Chainlink (LINK) tokens could rise to $200 by the end of 2030, representing an increase of over 25 times from its current level of approximately $8.In his latest report, Kendrick predicts that the scale of tokenized RWA will reach $4 trillion by the end of 2028. As more traditional assets are brought on-chain, the demand for secure and reliable off-chain data is expected to increase significantly, which could further boost Chainlink's fee revenue and drive up LINK's valuation.The report also projects that by the end of 2030, the scale of tokenized assets and crypto-native assets deployed in decentralized finance (DeFi) will grow approximately 37-fold to reach $2.7 trillion. Kendrick believes these assets require trusted data, cross-network interoperability, privacy-preserving compliance mechanisms, and integration with the existing financial system—infrastructure that Chainlink currently has the capability to provide.Demand for RWA tokenization has continued to grow recently. Data shows that trading volume of tokenized RWAs on decentralized exchanges (DEXs) hit an all-time high of $14.1 billion in July, up 19.5% month-over-month, driven primarily by public market assets such as tokenized stocks.Currently, Chainlink remains one of the largest decentralized oracle service providers in the crypto industry, with a Total Value Secured (TVS) of approximately $34.4 billion—significantly higher than second-ranked Chronicle's $7.36 billion.However, Kendrick also noted that the prediction of LINK reaching $200 still faces risks, including institutional tokenization projects progressing slower than expected, intensified competition from specialized oracle service providers, and potential technical issues. (Cointelegraph)
Odaily News: Fintech and crypto-friendly bank Revolut has announced that it has obtained a full banking license in France, marking its second full EU banking license after Lithuania. The license was granted following a joint review by the French Prudential Supervision and Resolution Authority (ACPR) and the European Central Bank, and was approved by the ECB's Governing Council. With this license, Revolut Bank S.A. can now offer a wider range of banking services in France, including loans, mortgages, and regulated savings products.France is Revolut's core market in Western Europe. Previously, the company conducted payment and financial services there under its Lithuanian license. Moving forward, it will gradually migrate its French operations to a local French entity and further expand into Germany, Ireland, Italy, Portugal, and Spain. Revolut stated that it has invested over EUR 1 billion in Western Europe in recent years, creating more than 600 new jobs, and plans to establish its Western European headquarters in Paris by 2027.The license comes with regulatory conditions. The European Central Bank may impose product restrictions on Revolut's new French operations. Drawing on the regulatory requirements previously applied to its Lithuanian entity, the rollout of loan and savings products could be subject to pacing constraints. This year, Revolut has continued to achieve regulatory breakthroughs globally, securing a UK banking license in March and an Australian banking license in July. The company's business now spans 40 markets, and its valuation stood at USD 115 billion following secondary stock trading in 2026. (Techfundingnews)
Odaily News: UMX (The Unified Market Exchange), incubated by Avenir Group under Li Lin, has announced the launch of an invitation-only public beta.According to the introduction, UMX is positioned as a crypto-friendly securities platform for global professional investors, integrating crypto assets and real securities trading on the same platform to improve capital efficiency in cross-asset trading. During the public beta phase, the platform offers crypto spot, leverage, futures, and options trading, as well as real US stocks, ETFs, and US stock options trading.This public beta focuses on opening the capital flow channel between crypto assets and securities accounts. UMX has designed cross-market fund transfers, financing, and crypto-to-stock conversion mechanisms. Users can use "Convert & Transfer" to automatically convert stablecoins such as USDT into USD and transfer them to securities accounts with one click, or use "Borrow & Transfer" to collateralize non-stablecoin crypto assets to gain purchasing power for trading US stocks, ETFs, and US stock options. After completing fiat account verification, users can also open a personal fiat account under their own name for fiat deposits and withdrawals. Securities holdings can also be converted into corresponding stock tokens via the "Stock-to-Token" function, which can be counted toward crypto trading account margin at a corresponding discount rate, and these stock tokens can also be converted back into the corresponding securities assets.Around cross-asset capital efficiency, the platform has introduced a cross-asset margin mechanism, where eligible wealth management assets can also be used as margin. During the public beta, the platform has also launched BTC and USDT wealth management products, with maximum annualized returns of up to 2.5% and 5.5%, respectively. UMX stated that this model aims to reduce the operational costs incurred by professional investors from frequent fund transfers and fragmented account management, while providing a unified capital and risk management framework for cross-asset allocation.This public beta is invitation-based. Users who have obtained a beta code can complete registration via the UMX official website (umx.com) to experience the currently available products and services; users who have not yet received a beta code can reserve the official version, receive launch notifications, and participate in the early-bird benefits program.
Odaily News Unitree Technology (688836.SH), the "first humanoid robot stock on the A-share market," has drawn significant market attention for its IPO subscription. The company's issuance price-to-earnings ratio has reached 219.23 times, significantly higher than the industry average of approximately 38.56 times, with the effective subscription multiple in the offline inquiry phase surpassing 2,618 times.In addition, primary market investors have already reaped considerable returns. Variable Capital invested only 2.09 million yuan in 2018, and its return multiple has now soared to over 174 times. Sequoia Capital China has injected a cumulative total of approximately 102 million yuan over the years, and based on the issuance price estimate, its shareholding market value is approaching 3 billion yuan. Meituan-affiliated entities collectively hold a 9.65% stake through multiple investment vehicles, with book gains exceeding 3.6 billion yuan.However, contrasting with the high returns in the primary market, secondary market investors will face a game between high valuations and limited floating chips. Unitree Technology will publicly issue approximately 40.44 million shares this time, with the initial online offering ratio at only about 16%, while the remaining shares are mainly allocated to institutional investors through strategic placement and offline inquiry. Based on a total share capital of approximately 404 million shares after issuance, the floating shares on the first trading day will be around 29.77 million shares, accounting for about 7.36% of total share capital, with over 90% of shares remaining locked up.Currently, Unitree Technology has not yet announced a specific listing date. Following the STAR Market's new share issuance process, the company is expected to officially begin trading as early as mid-August. (Tencent Technology)
According to BeInCrypto, ARK Invest founder Cathie Wood recently expressed a view that overturns the market's traditional perception of open-source AI. She pointed out that the capabilities of open-source models such as Meta, Mistral, and DeepSeek are continuously enhancing, which instead expands the cybersecurity attack surface, forcing enterprises to continuously procure frontier AI as a defense layer, thereby driving revenue growth for OpenAI and Anthropic rather than harming them. Data from the UK AI Safety Institute shows that the cyber attack capabilities of open-source models have caught up to the level of frontier models from 4 to 7 months ago. Wood named OpenAI, Anthropic, and SpaceXAI as the three companies most likely to capture the bulk of AI model revenue; ARK currently holds positions in all three companies. Currently, Anthropic has already submitted an S-1 filing at a valuation of nearly $1 trillion, and OpenAI is expected to go public in September 2026.
Odaily News: DeepSeek's main entity, DeepSeek, is currently conducting a second round of financing totaling 50 billion RMB, with the first batch of signings expected to take place in Hangzhou as early as August 10. The target valuation for this round is 500 billion RMB. DeepSeek has already agreed on delivery timelines with some prospective investors, with the earliest deadline set for August 30.This round of financing has a minimum investment threshold of 5 billion RMB. The funds will primarily be allocated to computing power investments, model research, workforce expansion, and potential preparation for a domestic listing. The capital will flow through two channels: some will go directly into DeepSeek's main entity, while the rest will go into a limited partnership controlled by founder Liang Wenfeng.Earlier, DeepSeek briefly paused financing discussions at the end of July before resuming them in early August. (IPO Early Know)
Odaily News: On August 5, the minority staff of the U.S. Senate Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs stated that the July 22 version of the CLARITY Act fails to meet five minimum standards. The bill, numbered H.R. 3633, aims to divide digital asset regulatory authority between the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC). The analysis suggests that the bill's two-tier system could remove certain blockchain assets from SEC oversight, allowing issuing companies to self-certify exemptions from securities regulation. Healthy Markets and five labor organizations have raised concerns over pension protections and securities law loopholes, while minority staff also noted that investors' private right of action and state and tribal enforcement powers could be weakened. Minority staff stated that DeFi-related companies could be exempt from anti-illegal financing obligations even if they earn millions of dollars from platform transactions; some crypto mixers may circumvent U.S. sanctions by exploiting the "Tornado Cash loophole." The Independent Community Bankers of America (ICBA) and the Conference of State Bank Supervisors (CSBS) warned that stablecoin yields could drain deposits from community banks, and the Systemic Risk Council has flagged related banking activities as potential bailout risks. Minority staff noted that Donald Trump alone earned over $1.4 billion from crypto businesses in 2025, with related enforcement solely under the purview of his Attorney General, and that obligations would terminate upon his departure from office. Elizabeth Warren and Richard Blumenthal, citing $3.8 billion in investor losses, have separately called on the SEC to investigate Trump memecoin. The Senate is scheduled to hold a cloture vote on September 15 on the motion to proceed, with the bill needing 60 votes to advance. (Bitcoin.com News)
Odaily News: Data released today by the Korea Exchange shows that heavyweight semiconductor stocks have recently pulled back, with capital beginning to rotate toward non-semiconductor sectors. From August 3 to 7, Samsung Electronics fell 12.00%, SK Hynix dropped 17.23%, and the KOSPI index declined 5.10% over the same period; however, sectors such as metals and machinery equipment rose against the trend.Currently, the combined market capitalization of Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix as a share of the KOSPI has fallen from 58.9% on June 25 to 46.3% on August 7. Meanwhile, the KOSPI's net profit forecast for this year, excluding these two companies, has been revised upward from 219.2 trillion KRW last week to 222.3 trillion KRW, with improving market earnings further supporting the valuation recovery of non-semiconductor sectors. KB Securities researcher Kim Min-kyu stated that the current "semiconductor pause, other sectors rising" pattern is closer to previously overlooked industries being revalued while the leading sector takes a breather, rather than a simple broad-based expansion of the market rally. (FNNews)
Odaily News: Unitree Robotics officially opened IPO subscription on the STAR Market today. According to the announcement, Unitree Robotics' offering price is set at 150.80 yuan per share, with a market capitalization of approximately 60.993 billion yuan at the time of listing, and an expected total fundraising amount of 6.099 billion yuan. The online subscription code for this offering is 787836, with an expected online issuance of 6.471 million shares. The market estimates the lottery win rate at 0.02%–0.03%. It should be noted that after the subscription period concludes, the lottery results will be announced on August 12, and successful investors must complete payment on the same day. If an investor wins the lottery three times within 12 months but fails to make full payment, they will be restricted from participating in new stock and bond subscriptions for six months.Yang Chao, chief strategy analyst at China Galaxy Securities, noted that the capital threshold for participating in this IPO subscription is relatively high, and the lottery win rate is low. Share prices are likely to experience significant volatility in the early stages of the STAR Market listing. Investors should fully assess the risks associated with the high valuation and ensure timely and full payment if selected, avoiding missed payments that could trigger subscription restrictions.
Odaily News: Software company Strategy holds nearly 850,000 Bitcoin, valued at just over $50 billion, with some recent purchases funded through debt and stock issuance. Since Michael Saylor shifted the company toward Bitcoin accumulation in 2020, his wealth has fluctuated with Bitcoin's price. Michael Saylor stated that last year, with the aid of an AI chatbot, he earned $15 billion through the company's Bitcoin-backed preferred stock. Strategy's STRC offers an annual dividend yield of 12%, with its price recently recovering to near $100 after dipping to around $75 in late June. Over the past year, Strategy's common stock value has fallen by approximately 80% alongside Bitcoin's price decline. The company recently sold some of its Bitcoin holdings to manage debt and dividend commitments, and has built a $4 billion cash reserve, providing roughly two years of funding support before subsequent financing. Michael Saylor also mentioned that in May of last year, he used ChatGPT's deep research mode to design the company's convertible preferred stock product.
Unitree Technology will launch IPO subscription on Monday. According to public information, its offering price is 150.8 yuan, corresponding to an offering market cap of approximately 61 billion yuan. According to monitoring by on-chain analyst Yu Jin (@EmberCN), currently, the pre-market contract price on the Hyperliquid platform is approximately 88 USD (about 587 yuan), corresponding to a market cap of approximately 237.4 billion yuan, which is about 3.9 times higher than the valuation corresponding to the offering price. Calculated based on the pre-market price, if winning one lot of 500 shares, the potential profit is approximately 220,000 yuan. In addition, calculated based on a maximum subscription of 12 lots, the probability of winning one lot is approximately 0.3%.
: Bitcoin mining company MARA completed two loans on August 4, pledging 18,750 BTC to secure $600 million in new debt for expanding its power generation and AI infrastructure business. The collateralized assets were valued at approximately $1.2 billion at the time of the transaction. The combined principal of the two loans totals $750 million, with Coinbase Credit providing $450 million, including a refinancing of the existing $150 million credit facility and an additional $300 million; Two Prime Lending separately provided $300 million. Both loans have been fully drawn. The Coinbase loan carries an interest rate of the midpoint of the Federal Reserve's target rate range plus 3.875 percentage points, with a maturity date of August 4, 2028; the Two Prime loan carries a fixed interest rate of 7.65%, with a maturity date of August 3, 2028. Assuming the principal remains unchanged, the annual interest expense on the two loans is approximately $56.7 million. MARA stated that the loan proceeds will be used for general corporate purposes, including part of the cash consideration for the acquisition of Long Ridge Energy & Power LLC. The transaction has an enterprise value of approximately $1.5 billion. Long Ridge owns a 505-megawatt gas-fired power plant and more than 1,600 acres of industrial land, which MARA plans to use for power generation, Bitcoin mining, and potential AI and high-performance computing campuses.
Bitwise Chief Investment Officer Matt Hougan stated that as Bitcoin is increasingly viewed as a mainstream financial asset by financial advisors, family offices, pension funds, insurance institutions, and sovereign wealth funds, it could attract institutional capital inflows worth trillions of dollars over the next decade. He pointed out that global large institutions manage approximately $100 trillion to $200 trillion in assets, and if about 1% of that were allocated to Bitcoin, it would be sufficient to support its long-term price expectations.
SK Hynix is exploring options such as introducing external investors or selling a partial stake for its Chongqing plant in China, with the facility valued at approximately $3 billion. The plant is an important semiconductor back-end process base for SK Hynix in China. Relevant discussions are currently still in the early stages, and the transaction may not ultimately be finalized.
Odaily News: Memory chip maker SK Hynix is considering selling its stake in its Chongqing plant in China, and is exploring options including introducing external investors. The company has begun selecting advisory institutions. If a deal is reached, the plant's enterprise value is estimated at around $3 billion, with potential investors including Chinese funds and local enterprises.
Odaily News: Michael Saylor, Executive Chairman of digital asset financial firm Strategy, stated that if you're looking for the next billion-dollar financial business, you should explore digital credit. He noted that digital credit can transform Bitcoin-centered capital strategies into yield-generating products. Within Strategy's digital credit product line, the Stride Preferred Stock (STRD), Stretch Preferred Stock (STRC), Strike Preferred Stock (STRK), and Strife Preferred Stock (STRF) offer effective yields of 15.29%, 12.63%, 12.08%, and 10.38%, respectively. These preferred securities provide the company with an additional financing avenue beyond common stock and debt.