Benchmark

2026-08-01 06:43

Analysts Support Strategy Increasing Cash Holdings, Saylor Says No Longer "100% Allocating to Bitcoin" in the Future

Odaily News, Strategy Executive Chairman Michael Saylor said at the company's Q2 earnings call that while the company has previously allocated nearly "100% of its funds to Bitcoin," it may adopt a combined strategy of holding both cash and BTC going forward. He stated, "Perhaps the best way to buy the most Bitcoin is not to buy the most Bitcoin immediately."TD Cowen and Benchmark both maintained their Buy ratings on Strategy following the Q2 earnings call. The two firms believe that the core goal of the company's current management has shifted toward bringing its STRC preferred stock price back to near par value, thereby restoring its ability to function as a financing tool.TD Cowen analyst Lance Vitanza said the most important takeaway from the call was management's strong focus on STRC. Company executives repeatedly emphasized that restoring STRC to par value is the core objective, and noted that despite recent price deviations in the security, institutional adoption continues to rise.Benchmark analyst Mark Palmer holds a similar view. He pointed out that Saylor and his team spent most of the 90-minute call focused on the same goal: restoring STRC to the $99–$100 range, making it once again the primary engine for the company to raise capital and purchase Bitcoin.

Benchmark Bitcoin Cash Company Future StarChain

2026-07-29 12:16

Abundant resources but unable to detect? Benchmark partner questions Anthropic's push to restrict model distillation

Benchmark partner Chetan Puttagunta posted on X, expressing confusion over Anthropic's public call for stricter regulation on AI model distillation. He noted that Anthropic is currently a company valued at approximately $1 trillion with vast technical and financial resources. At the scale described, so-called "large-scale distillation attacks" should theoretically be easier to identify and track. If Anthropic chooses to restrict such activities, the real cost may not be a lack of technical capability, but rather the sacrifice of some API revenue. "The only cost required seems to be reducing revenue from related API businesses."Previously, AI companies like Anthropic have been paying close attention to the issue of model distillation. Model distillation typically refers to using the output of a large model (the teacher model) to train another model (the student model), aiming to reduce costs and improve efficiency. Some AI companies are concerned that competitors might obtain model outputs by calling a large number of APIs, which could then be used to train their own models, thereby bypassing the original R&D investment. According to Puttagunta's perspective, the controversy surrounding model distillation in the AI industry essentially involves the balance between commercial interests, open competition, and intellectual property protection. For leading AI companies, finding the balance between protecting core technology and maintaining an open ecosystem will become an important issue for future industry competition.

Benchmark

2026-07-23 07:03

Benchmark Raises Hut 8 Target Price to $195

Odaily Equity Research raised its target price for Hut 8 to $195 from $165 on Wednesday, citing the full commercialization of the company's Beacon Point AI data center campus in Texas.This is the second time Benchmark has raised its target price for Hut 8 this month. Last week, analyst Mark Palmer had already incorporated the first phase of the Beacon Point project into his valuation, raising the target from $85 to $165. The new target implies approximately 75% upside from Hut 8's stock price of around $111 on Wednesday.Hut 8 has now signed contracts for 949 megawatts of AI data center capacity, indicating its business is further pivoting from traditional Bitcoin mining towards AI infrastructure and power-driven data center models. Benchmark believes the company is evolving into a "power-first data center REIT," an infrastructure platform centered around power resources and data center assets.Hut 8's stock rose about 2% on Wednesday, bringing its year-to-date gains to nearly 120%. As demand for AI computing power continues to grow, the market is reassessing the value of the substantial power and data center resources held by Bitcoin mining companies.

Beacon Benchmark Bitcoin Price

2026-07-22 05:30

OpenAI Model Breaches Test Sandbox and Infiltrates Hugging Face Production Infrastructure to Obtain Benchmark Answers

OpenAI confirmed that the unreleased GPT-5.6 Sol and another unnamed, more powerful pre-release model breached a restricted sandbox environment during ExploitGym benchmark evaluations and infiltrated Hugging Face's production infrastructure to obtain test answers.OpenAI stated that the models leveraged a zero-day vulnerability in an internal software package registry proxy to escalate privileges and move laterally, ultimately connecting to a machine with internet access. The models then identified and chained together vulnerabilities in both the OpenAI research environment and Hugging Face's production infrastructure, directly retrieving test solutions from Hugging Face's production database.Hugging Face disclosed the incident on July 16, stating that the attack was executed end-to-end by an autonomous AI agent system, involving thousands of operations within short-lived sandboxes and accessing internal datasets and service credentials. OpenAI confirmed its models were the subject of the incident five days later.Hugging Face stated that its security team, in order to analyze over 17,000 attack logs, initially attempted to use a commercial US frontier AI interface, but the request was blocked due to safety guardrails. They subsequently switched to using the 753-billion parameter open-weight model GLM 5.2 from Chinese AI startup Z.ai on their own infrastructure to complete the forensic analysis.

Benchmark Golem QnA3 Test

2026-07-19 18:01

Project Eleven Launches Bitcoin Quantum-Vulnerable Coin Recovery Tool; Prototype Not Yet Audited

Project Eleven has launched a new zero-knowledge proof system, providing a recovery method for the quantum-vulnerable Bitcoin proposed for freezing under BIP-361, including the Bitcoin held by Satoshi Nakamoto. The solution leverages the fact that while quantum computers can break elliptic curve signatures, they cannot break the one-way hashing used in modern wallet key derivation. This allows the true owner holding the seed material to prove control. Benchmark tests show that the Project Eleven prototype is significantly faster than previous solutions. However, the prototype has not yet been audited or completed, and would require controversial modifications to blockchain rules before it can protect existing Bitcoin on-chain.

Benchmark Bitcoin Nakamoto Project Eleven

2026-07-17 13:31

Cryptoast: Gate Europe Ranks Among Top 3 European Crypto Exchanges, Setting a New Benchmark with MiCA Compliance and Low Fees

According to the latest in-depth review and exchange ranking by renowned French crypto media Cryptoast, Gate Europe has been ranked third among European crypto trading platforms. The report indicates that Gate Europe has become one of the most competitive digital asset trading platforms in the European market, thanks to its comprehensive MiCA compliance framework, industry-leading low trading fees, and a wide selection of digital assets. The report states that Gate Europe has obtained a MiCA license from the Malta Financial Services Authority (MFSA) and completed passporting into the French market, among others, allowing it to offer compliant digital asset trading services within the European Economic Area. The platform currently supports over 270 crypto assets, with spot Maker and Taker fees as low as 0.1%, offering a significant advantage among MiCA-compliant trading platforms in Europe.Cryptoast notes that beyond its low fee advantage, Gate Europe also provides services such as free SEPA euro deposits, Proof of Reserves, mobile trading, and wealth management products. The platform employs a VIP tiered fee structure, where spot Maker fees can be reduced to as low as 0% as trading volume and asset scale increase. The report concludes that with its product ecosystem balancing compliance, security, and trading efficiency, Gate Europe can meet the diverse needs of both professional traders and ordinary investors, offering European users a more transparent and efficient digital asset investment experience.As MiCA continues to be implemented across Europe, the digital asset industry is moving towards a more regulated development phase. Leveraging its globally leading trading infrastructure, continuously improving product ecosystem, and localized compliance strategy, Gate Europe is steadily enhancing its service capabilities in the European market. The platform aims to provide users with a safer, more efficient, and trustworthy digital asset trading experience, further driving the development of the global digital finance ecosystem.

Benchmark Cryptoast Gate Proof

2026-07-15 18:57

Using TSMC as a Benchmark to Measure SK Hynix ADR Premium, $32.4 Million Convergence Position Still Incurs Bidirectional Funding Fees

According to Hyperinsight monitoring data, Hynix US stock (SKHY) on Hyperliquid is quoted at $181.58, while Hynix Korean stock (SKHX) is quoted at $1,358.50. Calculated based on each SKHY ADS corresponding to 0.1 share of Korean common stock, the current on-chain ADR premium is approximately 33.7%.

Adshares based Benchmark Convergence Convergence Hyperliquid

2026-07-14 23:22

Benchmark sharply raises bitcoin miner Hut 8 target price to $165

Odaily Benchmark has raised its price target for Hut 8 (HUT) from $85 to $165, citing the company's accelerated commercialization of its AI data center business and a total of $16.8 billion in long-term contracts for AI infrastructure. Analyst Mark Palmer stated that the commercialization progress of Hut 8's Beacon Point AI data center campus in Texas "has changed the company's valuation logic," significantly increasing the project's value.Currently, Hut 8's stock price is approximately $97, meaning Benchmark's new target implies roughly 69% upside. The stock had previously fallen nearly 30% over the past six weeks.According to Benchmark's estimates, the redesigned first phase of the Beacon Point campus will support 352MW of IT capacity, a 57% increase from the original 224MW plan. The base term value of the lease for this initial phase is approximately $9.8 billion, with an estimated annualized net operating income of around $655 million.Additionally, the lease agreement for Hut 8's River Bend data center, signed with Fluidstack and supported by Google, is valued at approximately $7 billion. The combined base term value of the two contracts reaches $16.8 billion. If tenants exercise the included 5-year renewal options, the potential total value could rise to $42.8 billion. (The Block)

Beacon Benchmark Block Hibiki Run River The Block

2026-07-14 06:06

Opinion: Strategy Goes One Week Without Buying BTC; Analysts Say It Shows Stronger Balance Sheet Discipline

Odaily Strategy sold nearly $467 million worth of MSTR common stock last week but did not increase its Bitcoin holdings. Analysts believe this indicates that the company is implementing its recently proposed Digital Credit Capital Framework and beginning to prioritize strengthening its balance sheet, rather than solely pursuing short-term BTC accumulation.According to the latest filings, Strategy has increased its U.S. dollar cash reserves to $3 billion, while its Bitcoin holdings remain unchanged at 843,775 BTC. Both Benchmark and TD Cowen believe this move strengthens the company's balance sheet and helps boost market confidence in its preferred equity financing model.TD Cowen reiterated its "Buy" rating and $260 price target for Strategy stock, stating that this operation is an early signal of management executing the new capital allocation framework. The firm noted that Strategy's choice to expand dollar reserves and pause Bitcoin purchases demonstrates a greater emphasis on balance sheet discipline rather than maximizing short-term BTC accumulation.Benchmark also maintained its "Buy" rating with a $570 price target. On Monday, Strategy's stock price traded at approximately $91.50, near its long-term low. Overall, analysts believe that amid pressure on preferred equity financing tools like STRC and market focus on dividend coverage capacity, Strategy's increase in cash reserves may help alleviate investor concerns regarding a forced sale of BTC.

Balance Balance Balance Benchmark Bitcoin Monsterra

2026-07-13 22:02

Analysis: Stablecoin Cross-Border Payment Costs Dip Below Interbank Exchange Rates, with Routing Selection Becoming the Largest Cost Variable

According to Borderless' Q2 2026 Stablecoin Payment Benchmark Report, stablecoin cross-border payment prices remained below interbank foreign exchange rates for three consecutive months in the second quarter, indicating that the cost of on-chain USD settlement is further converging with, and even surpassing, the traditional financial system. Based on data analysis from 108 countries and 260 payment corridors, the report shows that the median "Parity Gap" (the difference between the stablecoin delivery price and the interbank exchange rate) for stablecoin payments in Q2 was negative 3.2 basis points (bps). In June, this metric reached its lowest level this year at negative 5.9 bps, meaning the overall delivery price for stablecoin cross-border transfers was lower than the interbank market mid-rate.Borderless stated that achieving a final delivery price below the interbank exchange rate is quite rare for any cross-border payment mechanism. This data reflects the actual cost paid by customers, including fees, rather than the pure foreign exchange execution price.The report points out that the "transfer cost" for stablecoin payments is becoming commoditized. In Q2, the average cost of transferring $10,000 via mainstream corridors was approximately $27, and has remained near this level for five consecutive months. As competition among different service providers intensifies, the lowest quoted price changes continuously, but market prices are gradually stabilizing.As payment costs converge, the choice of service provider becomes the new core cost factor. Borderless refers to this phenomenon as the "Routing Tax": if a company relies on a single payment service provider over the long term, its costs may be higher than the optimal market price. Data shows that for every $1 million in funds transferred, choosing a single provider compared to the optimal route could result in an additional cost of approximately $2,330. (The Block)

Based Based Benchmark Block Borderless June

2026-06-30 15:11

Benchmark reiterates Buy rating on Strategy, price target $570

According to The Block, investment firm Benchmark reiterated its buy rating on Strategy, maintaining a price target of $570, implying approximately 515% upside from the stock's Monday closing price of $92.68.

Benchmark Block Strategy The Block

2026-06-29 23:05

Galaxy Announces Official Inclusion in the Russell 1000 Index, Joining the Benchmark List of U.S. Large-Cap Stocks

Galaxy announced on the X platform that it has been officially included in the Russell 1000 Index, which covers approximately 1,000 of the largest U.S. publicly listed companies by market capitalization and serves as one of the key benchmarks for measuring large-cap stock performance. Galaxy stated that its business has achieved scaled operations within the institutional-grade crypto market while rapidly expanding its data center infrastructure construction, positioning itself as a participant connecting the crypto finance and AI computing power industries.

Benchmark Cap Galaxy Galaxy

2026-06-27 17:25

Ripple CEO remains bullish on Bitcoin but criticizes Strategy's approach as "harming the crypto market"

Odaily Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse stated in a recent CNBC interview that he remains long-term bullish on Bitcoin, while strongly criticizing Michael Saylor and his strategy of continuously purchasing Bitcoin by financing through preferred stock, arguing that this "financial engineering" approach is negatively impacting the crypto market.Garlinghouse pointed out that Strategy's reliance on issuing preferred stock (such as STRC) to raise funds for Bitcoin purchases essentially acts as a distraction in the market rather than creating long-term value. He emphasized: "Financial engineering does not create long-term value; the long-term value of digital assets comes from real utility." He specifically noted that STRC's stock price has fallen to a discount of approximately 25% from its par value, which he described as a "strong vote of no confidence" in that financing structure. Against the backdrop of market pressure this week, Strategy's common stock hit its lowest level since February 2024, and Bitcoin briefly fell below $59,000.On the market front, a CryptoQuant report indicated that if the dividend structure continues, Strategy's cash buffer has decreased from over seven years to approximately 14 months, suggesting a pause in Bitcoin purchases and a rebuilding of reserve funds. Currently, STRC trading below $100 has also rendered its "issue tokens—buy Bitcoin" funding flywheel temporarily ineffective. However, Benchmark-StoneX analyst Mark Palmer believes this model reflects more of a "decline in efficiency" rather than a systemic breakdown. Meanwhile, Ripple continues to adopt an industry-contrarian perspective, reiterating the distinct value path of its ecosystem asset XRP compared to Bitcoin. (CoinDesk)

Benchmark Bitcoin CoinDesk CryptoQuant Meanwhile Ripple

2026-06-23 11:07

OpenAI Releases Full Version of GPT-5.5-Cyber, Outperforms Mythos 5 on CyberGym Benchmark

OpenAI announced an upgrade to its Daybreak network defense toolchain, officially launching the full version of the GPT-5.5-Cyber model tailored for cybersecurity defense scenarios.In the CyberGym benchmark test, which evaluates the ability of AI agents to reproduce known vulnerabilities, GPT-5.5-Cyber achieved a single-model score of 85.6%, surpassing GPT-5.5’s 81.8% and Anthropic Mythos 5’s 83.8%.OpenAI stated that as AI significantly enhances the efficiency of vulnerability discovery, the core bottleneck in cybersecurity is shifting from "finding vulnerabilities" to "automatically fixing them." To this end, the company has simultaneously upgraded the Codex Security plugin, enabling developers to automatically analyze vulnerabilities and generate fix patches within the Codex environment. Since the preview release in March this year, Codex Security has scanned over 30 million code commits and autonomously confirmed fixes for 500,000 security defects. The new version also supports CodeQL query integration and SARIF standard file export.Additionally, OpenAI has partnered with organizations such as Trail of Bits and HackerOne to launch the "Patch the Planet" open-source security project. This initiative provides ChatGPT Pro subscriptions and API credits to over 30 major open-source projects, including cURL and Go, with security expert teams manually verifying patch quality. Regarding the Daybreak partner program, security vendors such as Palo Alto Networks and Wiz have already integrated the relevant capabilities.

Alto Alto Benchmark Codex Codex Codex

2026-06-23 08:22

Benchmark 分析师：STRC 与 Terra 稳定币有本质区别

Benchmark-StoneX 分析师 Mark Palmer 指出，Strategy 旗下 STRC 产品虽近期波动，但其机制与导致 Terra 崩溃的算法稳定币存在根本差异。

Benchmark StarChain Strategy Terra

2026-06-17 20:09

Benchmark reiterates Coinbase’s “Buy” rating, stating it is transforming into a platform connecting on-chain and traditional finance.

According to The Block, Benchmark reiterated its “Buy” rating on Coinbase and maintained its $270 price target, stating that the company is transforming from a cyclical crypto brokerage into an infrastructure platform connecting traditional finance with on-chain economies.

Benchmark Block Coinbase The Block

2026-06-17 20:05

Benchmark: Coinbase Is Transforming from a Crypto Broker to a "Full-Stack Exchange," Maintaining a $270 Price Target

Benchmark has maintained a "Buy" rating for Coinbase with a $270 price target, implying approximately 59.5% upside from its Tuesday closing price of $169.27. The firm noted that Coinbase's latest "System Update" indicates it is accelerating its transformation from a crypto trading platform into an "everything exchange" that bridges traditional finance and the on-chain economy.Analyst Mark Palmer stated that this product update covers tokenized stocks, stock and crypto options, pre-IPO perpetual contracts, prediction markets, AI-driven investment tools, agent payment infrastructure, and retail financial products, signaling the continuous expansion of its business boundaries.Key progress highlighted by Benchmark also includes: the U.S. CFTC's approval for it to operate as a regulated Futures Commission Merchant (FCM), global derivatives capabilities obtained through the acquisition of Deribit, and integrating crypto perpetuals and options into a compliant framework, thereby achieving cross-market liquidity consolidation.Furthermore, the company's strategic moves in the Base ecosystem, prediction markets, and AI agent payments are also seen as key signals of its evolution from "spot crypto trading" to a comprehensive on-chain financial infrastructure. (The Block)

Base Benchmark Block Coinbase Deribit Furthermore

2026-06-17 19:56

Ornn Launches Anthropic and OpenAI Token Cost Benchmark Index

Odaily AI cost tracking company Ornn has officially launched a token price benchmark service for major large language models, adding independent Token cost indices for Anthropic and OpenAI. These indices are used to measure the unit computing cost of different models in real-world usage scenarios, aiming to provide end users with more transparent AI inference cost references. The service breaks down the Token pricing of different AI labs into comparable standardized metrics, helping enterprise customers and investors obtain a unified way to measure and hedge against AI computing cost fluctuations. (The Information)

Benchmark

2026-06-17 11:23

BIT: Expectations for OpenAI’s IPO Heat Up; WLD May Become a Benchmark Asset

According to independent analyst Markus Thielen, Sam Altman’s dual role as co-founder of both OpenAI and Worldcoin has led some capital in the secondary market to view WLD as a highly liquid alternative for speculating on OpenAI’s future IPO. Following SpaceX’s recent listing—whose stock price has remained robust—the market’s attention toward IPOs of AI “star” companies has intensified, prompting some traders to treat WLD as a tradable asset that already reflects this sentiment. On the near-term catalyst front, Eightco Holdings disclosed holding approximately 283 million WLD tokens, representing 8.4% of the circulating supply. Should market expectations around OpenAI’s potential IPO as early as September this year continue to strengthen, WLD’s trading thesis—as a proxy asset—may still have further room for development.

Benchmark BIT BIT BitDAO Bitdealer Bitonite

2026-06-15 23:39

Benchmark: SEC NMS Reform May Be the Most Critical Crypto Regulatory Variable This Year

research firm Benchmark Equity Research has highlighted that the market structure reform proposal put forward by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) on June 11 could be one of the most far-reaching regulatory actions for the U.S. crypto industry this year. The proposal aims to abolish Rule 611 and Rule 610(e) of Regulation NMS, two core rules that have governed the routing and execution of U.S. stock trades since 2005, which are seen as having long constrained the development of tokenized stocks and on-chain trading.Rule 611 (Order Protection Rule) requires trading venues to avoid executing trades at prices inferior to "protected quotations" on other markets, thereby enforcing the National Best Bid and Offer (NBBO) system. Rule 610(e) prohibits locked and crossed markets, restricting quotation overlaps and price mismatches.Benchmark analyst Mark Palmer stated that if the rules are repealed, it would remove key legal barriers hindering DeFi trading models, such as automated market makers (AMMs), allowing them to operate without relying on traditional order routing systems. The regulatory changes would directly benefit infrastructure for tokenized stocks and crypto securities trading, with Securitize identified as the most immediate beneficiary. Additionally, Coinbase and Galaxy Digital could also benefit from the expansion of trading, custody, and market-making businesses.However, Benchmark also noted that even with looser rules, critical issues such as exchange registration, clearing and settlement, and custody frameworks remain unresolved. The market is still anticipating the SEC's potential introduction of an "innovation exemption" mechanism. The SEC has opened a 60-day public comment period, and Benchmark expects a final vote could take place in early 2027. (The Block)

Benchmark Block Coinbase Galaxy Galaxy June