Important News from Last Night and This Morning (August 16 - August 17)

Crypto Firm Bits of Gold Suffers Data Breach, 200,000 Customers Affected

Bits of Gold, Israel’s largest regulated crypto broker, suffered a data breach in which the personal information of about 200,000 customers was stolen by hackers, putting all platform users at risk. The company received Israel’s first virtual asset service provider (VASP) license in September 2022 and was approved in April 2026 to issue BILS, a stablecoin pegged 1:1 to the shekel. The types of stolen data have not yet been disclosed, but crypto brokers typically collect sensitive materials such as identity documents, proof of address, and financial information under KYC regulations. Cold wallets can protect digital assets, but they cannot protect customer identity files on servers. Historical cases show that similar data breaches are often used for phishing, SIM swapping, and targeted social engineering attacks, and the security risk has extended beyond the platform itself.

Data: Tokens Such as ZRO and KAITO to See Large Unlocks Next Week, With ZRO Unlock Worth About $19.9 Million

Token Unlocks data shows that tokens such as ZRO, KAITO, and SOON will see large unlocks next week, including: LayerZero (ZRO) will unlock about 25.71 million tokens at 7 p.m. Beijing time on August 20, accounting for about 4.40% of circulating supply, worth about $19.9 million; KAITO (KAITO) will unlock about 32.60 million tokens at 8 p.m. Beijing time on August 20, accounting for about 7.63% of circulating supply, worth about $11.5 million; SOON (SOON) will unlock about 20.24 million tokens at 4:30 p.m. Beijing time on August 23, accounting for about 3.76% of circulating supply, worth about $3.9 million; MBG By MultiBank Group (MBG) will unlock about 27.15 million tokens at 8 p.m. Beijing time on August 22, accounting for about 6.16% of circulating supply, worth about $2.8 million.

Anthropic’s IPO Valuation Reportedly Depends on Its 2028 Revenue Forecast of $190 Billion to $200 Billion

People familiar with the matter said financial projections shown by AI company Anthropic to investors ahead of its IPO show a 2028 revenue target of about $190 billion to $200 billion, far exceeding annualized revenue of about $9 billion as of the end of 2025 and the $47 billion annualized revenue announced in May this year. The company has disclosed second-quarter 2026 revenue of at least $10.9 billion, more than double the previous quarter, and is expected to achieve a quarterly operating profit of $559 million. Investment banks and investors are valuing Anthropic using enterprise value/revenue multiples based on its 2028 revenue forecast—typically high-growth software companies are valued on forward one-year revenue, while Anthropic is being looked at two years out, reflecting both the speed of its business expansion and the valuation challenges posed by massive AI infrastructure investment. Among comparable peers, Palantir currently trades at 53 times this year’s expected revenue, while SpaceX and Cloudflare are both at 41.6 times expected revenue. Investors are betting that Anthropic’s revenue growth will outpace growth in costs such as computing power, model training, and staff, driving margin expansion.

Jane Street Lost $15 Billion in July Due to AI Fund Situational Awareness and Tech Stock Sell-Off

Wall Street trading giant Jane Street lost about $15 billion in July after market sell-offs hit the AI hedge fund Situational Awareness and its tech stock holdings. The fund is managed by former OpenAI researcher Leopold Aschenbrenner. In July, the plunge in AI stocks triggered a margin call, forcing it to sell most of its stock portfolio to Ken Griffin’s Citadel. Jane Street is one of the fund’s investors. In a memo to employees, Jane Street acknowledged that July was a “bad month,” and the fund’s sharp drawdown wiped out the year-to-date gains on the firm’s stake, though the investment remains profitable overall since inception. The firm was also hurt by long positions in non-AI Asian stocks, and said AI-related memory and semiconductor stocks fell about 50% in July. This was Jane Street’s first monthly trading loss since 2016. Revenue fell about 25% from its June peak, but year-to-date trading revenue still exceeded $40 billion, already surpassing last year’s full-year total. The company said it has closed most of the risk exposure in the areas that lost money in July and has reduced risk-taking in other strategies.

Apple Urgently Fixes macOS Screen Sharing Vulnerability; Exposed Macs Have Been Used for Cryptocurrency Mining

The Dutch National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) has warned that a recently fixed critical authentication vulnerability in Apple’s macOS screen sharing component (CVE-2026-65400, CVSS score 9.8) has been exploited in the wild. Attackers can access Macs exposed to the internet (port 5900) without valid credentials and plant Monero mining programs. Apple already fixed the vulnerability in emergency updates on August 6 with macOS Tahoe 26.6.1, Sequoia 15.7.9, and Sonoma 14.8.9, strengthening credential validation through improved state management. The NCSC confirmed that in multiple attacks, attackers gained root privileges and deployed mining software. Security researcher @osxreverser disclosed another pre-authentication vulnerability in the same component (also fixed in 26.6) that allows bypassing password authentication with only the target IP and can be exploited without a username. According to Calif, researchers developed working exploits for the two vulnerabilities in just four hours using AI, showing that AI is dramatically shortening the time from vulnerability discovery to the development of attack code. Users are advised to update their systems immediately, or disable screen sharing if updating is not possible.

SafePal: Order Tracking Plugin Vulnerability Leaks Nearly 40,000 Customers’ Information; Wallet Assets Unaffected

Crypto wallet SafePal disclosed that it found a vulnerability in its order tracking plugin, leading to unauthorized access to information belonging to about 39,798 customers who placed orders between March 2, 2025, and April 11, 2026. Exposed data includes names, email addresses, shipping addresses, phone numbers, and purchase details. The company stressed that sensitive information such as seed phrases, private keys, wallet passwords, and bank account information was not affected, and the vulnerability has been fixed with additional security measures in place. All affected customers have been notified individually by email, and users can verify whether they are affected on the official website using their order number and shipping country. SafePal reminded users to stay alert to phishing and impersonation attacks and never disclose mnemonic phrases or private keys to anyone.

Vitalik: Ethereum Scaling Will Combine UTXO-Style State and Dynamic State Approaches, Balancing Decentralization and High Throughput

Ethereum founder Vitalik Buterin posted on X, acknowledging the Bitcoin community’s pioneering contributions to the UTXO state management concept (such as Utreexo), and explaining Ethereum’s currently proposed scaling strategy: it aims to integrate UTXO-style state management, dynamic state, and various approaches in between, so that the vast majority of Ethereum activity can scale massively without sacrificing decentralization, ease of running nodes, or censorship resistance.

SafePal Questioned Over Hiding Vulnerability for Months, With Users Already Hit by Phishing Attacks

In response to SafePal’s disclosure today of a data breach, on-chain analyst Specter raised questions, noting that the leaked data covers the period from March 2, 2025, to April 11, 2026, meaning the vulnerability occurred no later than April or early May, but SafePal chose to remain silent until recently, only going public after Trezor also announced a data breach. Specter said some users received phishing emails and some had already suffered losses before SafePal admitted the issue, but the company did not issue an early warning, denied the problem, and put customers’ personal data at risk.

Changpeng Zhao: To Avoid Being Over-Interpreted, Will Stop Using Public Addresses; BNB and “Binance Life” Donated to Giggle Academy

Binance founder Changpeng Zhao responded to the “burning meme coins” matter, saying: “Too many people are trying to over-interpret ‘what does it mean when he does this?’ I was testing Trust Wallet today. I found there were too many meme coins in the wallet, so many that even BNB was hard to find, so I tried to burn some tokens. That move ended up sparking quite a bit of community discussion. I realized I will never be able to ‘clean up’ the meme coins at this address. The more I burn, the more people will send coins to this address. The transparent nature of blockchain means any action from this address will be over-interpreted by the community. I even thought about asking the Trust Wallet team to build an ‘Ignore Coin’ feature to keep the interface from being stuffed full, but 99.99% of people would never need it. So here is the plan: I will donate the BNB and the ‘Binance Life’ token bought with BNB to Giggle Academy. After that, I will stop using this address and turn it into a burn address.”

UBS sharply increased Bitcoin exposure in Q2; related ETF call option holdings surged 24-fold

Swiss banking giant UBS increased its BlackRock spot bitcoin ETF (IBIT) call option exposure from 80,000 contracts in the first quarter to 1.95 million contracts in the second quarter, a more than 24-fold increase. Its direct IBIT holdings rose about 12% to 407,890 shares, worth about $13.6 million, while put option exposure fell about 53% to 143,300 contracts. UBS has more than $7 trillion in assets under management and earlier this year began preparing Bitcoin and Ethereum trading services for Swiss private banking clients, but regulatory filings did not specify whether this options increase is related to client business.

Analysis: UNI whale withdrawals on Binance hit five-year high, large investors are buying the dip

CryptoQuant analyst Darkfost wrote that although Uniswap native token UNI has fallen more than 93% from its 2021 high of $43 to around $3, whale accumulation intensity has reached its strongest level in five years. Data shows that the top 10 largest UNI outflow transactions on Binance averaged daily outflows of 7,300 UNI, a five-year high. The current average remains elevated, and this trading group still accumulates 5,600 UNI per day. Darkfost pointed out that despite the difficult overall environment for altcoins, some tokens are still attracting attention, especially those being actively accumulated by whales. UNI accumulation intensity has reached a historical peak during the current decline, indicating that large investors are buying the dip.

Duan Yongping's RMB 130 billion portfolio revealed: added Pinduoduo, trimmed Apple, exited TSMC

Recently, U.S. institutional investors disclosed second-quarter 13F holdings, revealing well-known investor Duan Yongping's latest portfolio moves. As of the end of the second quarter of 2026, Duan Yongping's H&H International Investment held 18 companies with total holdings valued at $19.101 billion, equivalent to RMB 130 billion, down from about $20 billion at the end of the first quarter. In terms of specific holdings, Apple, Berkshire Hathaway Class B shares, and Pinduoduo were the top three heavyweight positions. Apple holdings were worth about $7.84 billion, accounting for 41.05% of the portfolio; Berkshire Class B shares were worth about $4.62 billion, or 24.18%; Pinduoduo was worth about $1.91 billion, or 9.99%. Compared with the end of the first quarter, Duan Yongping reduced his Apple position by 1.8469 million shares. In the second quarter, he also cut Nvidia by 7.5631 million shares and reduced Google by more than 1.7 million shares. At the same time, Duan Yongping exited TSMC and cloud security company CRWD. On the buying side, Duan Yongping added 5.2738 million shares of Pinduoduo, increasing his share count by 26.71% quarter-on-quarter. In addition, Duan Yongping bought back Alibaba. Data shows he established a new position of 301,400 Alibaba shares, worth about $28.93 million at the end of the period.

Sports event prediction platform Novig sues Wisconsin attorney general over event contracts

Sports-focused prediction market platform Novig filed a federal lawsuit on August 15 in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Wisconsin against Wisconsin Attorney General Josh Kaul and state gambling administrator John Dillett. Novig expects the state to soon take enforcement action to block it from offering sports-related event contracts to Wisconsin residents. Wisconsin in April sued platforms including Kalshi, Polymarket, Robinhood, Crypto.com, and Coinbase, alleging their sports event contracts violate the state's commercial gambling ban. Novig only began offering contracts to Wisconsin customers a week before filing the lawsuit and asked the court to expedite consideration of a preliminary injunction to stop state enforcement. Since August 4, Novig has sued officials in five states, including Wisconsin. Unlike Kalshi and Polymarket, Novig only offers sports-related contracts and does not involve international news or "mention markets." The company also recently announced a partnership with the New York Mets.

CZ donates 1,440 BNB and 182,620 Binance Life to Giggle Academy, worth about $965,000

Binance founder CZ transferred 1,440 BNB (about $872,000) and 182,620 Binance Life (about $93,000) to Giggle Academy's Gnosis wallet. Earlier, Binance founder CZ responded to the matter of "burning Meme coins" by saying that to avoid overinterpretation he would stop using public addresses, and that BNB and "Binance Life" were donated to Giggle Academy.

Garrett Jin suspected of selling 17 million WLFI; holding over 300 million WLFI for five months has $13 million unrealized loss

Garrett Jin deposited 17 million WLFI (about $1.01 million) to Binance, likely for selling. Five months ago, Garrett Jin received 313.31 million WLFI worth about $31.66 million. At current prices, the position has an unrealized loss of about $13 million, or around 41%.

BSC meme coin "Niu Lai" pulls back after topping $40 million market cap, now at $31.8 million

According to GMGN data, BSC on-chain meme coin "Niu Lai" currently has a market cap of $31.8 million, after reaching an all-time high above $40 million. Its 1-hour gain was 18.71%, while its 24-hour gain narrowed to 70.56%.

Stripe acquires AI company OpenRouter for more than $7 billion

On August 16 local time, people familiar with the matter said payment service provider Stripe has finalized an agreement to acquire AI startup OpenRouter for more than $7 billion. The final acquisition price may still change. OpenRouter provides developers with a unified API aggregation platform that allows access to hundreds of different open-source and closed-source AI large language models worldwide through a single interface.

South Korean stock market closed for one day for Liberation Day substitute holiday

South Korean stock market is closed today for a Liberation Day substitute holiday.

CryptoQuant analyst: Large UNI outflows on Binance hit record high, releasing strong accumulation signal

CryptoQuant analyst Darkfost wrote that although UNI has retraced more than 93% from its 2021 high, UNI outflows on Binance have hit a five-year high, showing a strong accumulation signal. When UNI price was near $3, the average outflow of the 10 largest daily transactions on Binance set a record, with monthly average daily outflows of about 7,300 UNI, while the current daily accumulation volume of similar transactions has reached 5,600 UNI. Darkfost stressed that despite the difficult altcoin market environment, some altcoins are still attracting attention, especially those being actively accumulated by whales.

Hong Kong stocks open higher, memory chip and gold stocks strengthen

Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index opened up 0.74%, and the Hang Seng Tech Index rose 1.14%. JD.com gained more than 3%, Legend Holdings rose over 2%, and Alibaba, Bilibili, and Zhipu rose more than 1%. In addition, Hong Kong-listed memory chip concept stocks and gold stocks strengthened. GigaDevice Semiconductor (03986.HK) rose 5.58%, Montage Technology (06809.HK) rose 2.96%, and VSTECS Holdings (00856.HK) rose 2.61%. Zijin Gold International (02259.HK) rose 4.39%, China Gold International Resources (02099.HK) rose 3.26%, and Lingbao Gold (03330.HK) rose 3.17%.