2026.08.04 · TUESDAY · ASIA/SHANGHAI

HiBlock · AI & Web3 Industry Daily

Covering product launches, funding & M&A, technical breakthroughs, regulation and market structure across AI and blockchain, August 2–4, 2026. 13 headlines curated from official sources, reputable media and research. RMB conversions use the PBoC central parity rate of 1 USD = 6.7917 CNY (Aug 4, 2026).

8 AI headlines5 Web3 headlinesPalantir revenue +93%Coldcard loss $1.14B
PALANTIR Q2 REV
$1.94B
+93% YoY
BTC PRICE
63,565USD
+0.7% / 24h
QWEN 3.8-MAX
2.4T MoE
95B active
CLARITY ODDS
31%
declining
PART 01 — ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE

AI Industry Headlines

August 2–4, 2026 · Funding · Model progress · Breakthroughs · Regulation

01

Alibaba launches Qwen 3.8-Max, 2.4T params challenge global frontierMODEL

Alibaba officially released Qwen 3.8-Max on Aug 3, with 2.4 trillion total parameters (MoE) and 95B active, excelling at coding, office work, research and long-horizon end-to-end tasks. On Arena it ranks just behind Claude series, delivering 265 code commits in 16 days of independent programming. Legal review flagged 1,284 clauses in one hour; chip design sandbox reduced gate count from 8,298 to 678 in 500 rounds. API priced at $2/$6 per million I/O tokens, undercutting Kimi K3. Weights open-source next week.[1]

02

Palantir Q2 revenue surges 93% as AI sovereignty demand eruptsEARNINGS

Palantir reported Q2 earnings Aug 4: revenue $1.94 billion (+93% YoY), US commercial revenue +149% to $764M, adjusted EPS $0.41, GAAP net income $1.07B (55% margin), Rule of 40 at 155%. Full-year guidance raised to $8.15B. CEO Karp said "AI sovereignty demand has been unleashed". Stock surged over 12% after hours.[2]

03

OpenAI Astra cracks 10 math problems; Altman calls for AI slowdownBREAKTHROUGH

OpenAI released math results from its next-gen Astra model — solving 10 world-class open problems (including non-sofic group construction, Connes rigidity conjecture refutation) — alongside a 249-page paper and reasoning walkthroughs. Yet in the wake of the Hugging Face agent hack, Sam Altman publicly shifted to "maybe we should slow down AI development", rocking the industry from his long-held accelerationist stance. 15 Republican state AGs demanded OpenAI preserve all records of the agent hacking incident.[3]

04

DeepSeek V4-Flash Agent capability jumps 6x, 8T tokens/day processedMODEL

In public beta, DeepSeek V4-Flash release version scored 25.2 on the Agent ultimate test, up from 15.8 in preview — a roughly 6x jump achieved purely through post-training iteration (284B total / 13B active MoE, 1M context unchanged). The National Supercomputing Internet has launched the V4-Flash API, processing 8T tokens/day (5T free), with ~98% cache hit rate. Pricing is just 1/100th of comparable Claude models.[4]

05

Google AI fixes thousands of Chrome bugs in a month — more than 2 years combinedSECURITY

Google revealed AI fixed thousands of Chrome vulnerabilities in a single month, exceeding the total of the previous two years. Engineering director said LLMs "fundamentally change the economics of cybersecurity". Meanwhile, SecurityWeek reported traditional vulnerability management is breaking down — machines can turn a bug description into working exploit code in 20 hours, faster than patching can keep up. AI vuln management enters the "post-Mythos era".[5]

06

White House summons AI giants for closed-door security framework talksREGULATION

On Aug 4, the White House summoned Meta, Anthropic, OpenAI and Google for a closed-door meeting to discuss voluntary cybersecurity testing details for top AI models. The framework originates from Trump's June 2 executive order; test benchmarks and review thresholds remain classified. Altman proposed placing the Commerce Department's AI Safety Institute at the core of cybersecurity testing. Separately, Texas paused new data center approvals pending audit.[6]

07

UK AI chip startup OLIX raises $312M Series B at $3.3B valuationFUNDING

UK-based AI chip startup OLIX closed a $312 million Series B at a $3.3 billion valuation, founded by 25-year-old James Dacombe just two years ago. Focused on frontier AI inference infrastructure, it plans to launch first products next year. Other M&A/funding this week: Meta acquires robot navigation startup Assured Robot Intelligence; OpenAI acquires personal finance AI app Roi (acqui-hire); Anthropic negotiating $15B data center loan.[7]

08

Big 5 tech capex forecast to exceed $1 trillion in 2027INFRASTRUCTURE

North American cloud earnings show AI capex overwhelming free cash flow: Meta raised full-year capex to $130–145B (roughly doubling YoY), Q2 free cash flow plummeted 91%. Amazon's market cap crossed $3 trillion with its biggest single-day gain since 2012. Google's annualized capex trajectory approaches $200B, framed as a bet on recursive self-improvement (RSI). Big 5 combined 2027 capex forecast exceeds $1 trillion — about 2.8% of US GDP.[3]

Chart 1 · Q2 2026 Revenue YoY Growth of Major AI Companies (%)

Source: company earnings. Palantir leads at +93% on AI sovereignty demand; cloud vendors broadly 25–45%.

PART 02 — WEB3 & BLOCKCHAIN

Web3 & Blockchain Headlines

August 2–4, 2026 · Market structure · M&A · Regulation · Security

09

BTC rebounds to $63.5K; Fear & Greed drops to 25 (Extreme Fear)MARKET

On Aug 4 BTC rebounded to $63,565 (+0.7%), global crypto mkt cap $2.27T (+1.1%). But the Fear & Greed Index fell to 25 (Extreme Fear), declining further. BTC ETFs saw $526.7M net outflow over 7 days, with $265.4M on July 31 alone. Bitcoin mining difficulty has retreated ~14% from this year's high as global hashrate visibly declines.[8]

10

Mastercard completes acquisition of stablecoin infrastructure firm BVNKM&A

Mastercard has completed its acquisition of stablecoin infrastructure firm BVNK, strengthening cross-border payments, stablecoin settlement, treasury services and the fiat-digital asset bridge. Other M&A/funds this week: BlackRock launches two tokenized money market funds (Ethereum + multi-chain); Inveniam completes MANTRA acquisition; Hashdex to liquidate its Bitcoin ETF due to limited assets and weak demand.[8]

11

CLARITY Act pass odds down to 31%; August recess window tightensREGULATION

Prediction markets put the US crypto market structure bill (CLARITY Act) pass probability at just 31%. Bernstein warned of a potential crypto selloff. The revised bill is before the Senate but needs bipartisan support before the August recess. Key provisions: three-category asset classification, ETP grandfather clause, stablecoin deposit-like yield ban, DeFi decentralization test, tokenized securities remain securities. Treasury Secretary Bessent called for an immediate Senate vote.[9]

12

Coldcard vulnerability loss grows to 1,816 BTC — over $114MSECURITY

The Coldcard hardware wallet vulnerability toll keeps growing: as of Aug 3, 1,816 BTC (~$114 million) have been stolen across 4,585 addresses in three attack waves. The root cause: a March 2021 firmware version used a predictable software RNG instead of hardware RNG for seed generation, letting attackers reconstruct private keys offline. Roughly 39,600 BTC moved in small transactions, the highest since the November 2022 FTX collapse.[10]

13

AI agents + DeFi fusion: 250K+ active agents in Q2, +400% YoYAI+DeFi

On-chain active AI agents surpassed 250,000 in Q2, up 400% YoY; autonomous AI agent DeFi protocols manage $4.7B in total value locked; 68% of newly deployed DeFi protocols include AI agent components. Meanwhile, Boltz Swap remains suspended due to ongoing AI-assisted attack attempts; LpdFi lost nearly $700K to a flash loan attack. AI is reshaping DeFi from both attack and defense sides.[11]

Chart 2 · 24h Price Change of Major Crypto Assets (Aug 4, %)

Source: CoinGabbar. ATOM, ALGO, ENA lead gains; BEAT, UNI, KAS lag.

Chart 3 · Stablecoin Supply Trend (May–Aug 2026, USD B)

Source: Bitcoin News / DecentralNewsHub. ~$15B drop in July, largest monthly decline since Terra.

Chart 4 · Global AI Agent DeFi Ecosystem Snapshot (Q2 2026)

Source: industry data. AI agent TVL $4.7B, 250K active agents (+400% YoY).

Crypto Market Snapshot · 2026-08-04

Sources: CoinGabbar / CoinStats / CoinMarketCap.

Asset / MetricValue24h ChangeNotes
BTC$63,565+0.7%ETF outflows continue
ETH$1,862-0.4%Glamsterdam late Aug
SOL$74.50+1.5%reclaims 50-day MA
BNB$592.00+0.8%DEX vol tops Solana
Global mcap$2.27T+1.1%rebound, sentiment weak
Fear & Greed25Extreme Fearstill declining
BTC dominance56.0%-0.2%minor safe-haven rotation
Stablecoin mcap$302.0B+0.1%July -$15B
Coldcard loss1,816 BTC3rd wave~$114M
CLARITY odds31%downpre-August recess window
3-Day Trend Take

On the AI side: the contradiction between frontier model capability leaps and safety governance is reaching fever pitch. Alibaba's Qwen 3.8-Max with 2.4T params challenges the global frontier, DeepSeek's Agent capability jumps 6x, OpenAI Astra cracks 10 math problems — the capability race is still accelerating. Yet simultaneously, Altman pivoting from acceleration to "deceleration", the White House summoning closed-door security talks, 15 state AGs investigating the agent hack, and Google AI fixing more bugs in a month than two years — the urgency of safety governance is rising like never before. Palantir's 93% revenue surge reveals the explosive emergence of "AI sovereignty" as an entirely new demand dimension.

On the Web3 side: regulatory uncertainty and security incidents deliver a double blow, pushing sentiment to extreme fear. CLARITY Act pass odds fall to 31%, Coldcard vulnerability exceeds $114M in losses, Hashdex liquidates its Bitcoin ETF, FalconX cuts 10% — multiple negatives stacking up. But structural trends like Mastercard acquiring BVNK, BlackRock launching tokenized funds, and AI agent DeFi growth keep advancing — institutional infrastructure and tech innovation don't stop for the bear.