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Unitree Robotics (UNITREE) Is Listed on edgeX: Humanoid Robots, IPO Demand, and the Trading Party Traders Should Watch
edgeX has listed the UNITREEUSDC perpetual contract, enabling 24/7 leveraged trading on the Unitree Robotics narrative as the Chinese robotics company advances toward its Shanghai STAR Market IPO. Unitree reported 2025 revenue of RMB 1.699 billion and a 60.13% gross margin, while its IPO retail portion was oversubscribed more than 5,500 times, reaching an approximate $9 billion valuation. The company's diverse product portfolio spans humanoid robots, quadrupeds, and internally developed components, positioning it at the intersection of embodied AI, industrial automation, and advanced manufacturing. The UNITREEUSDC derivative does not confer equity ownership. edgeX is supporting the launch with a Trading Party campaign from August 11–18, 2026, offering fee rebates and a leaderboard pool of up to 10,000 USDC.
Ethereum Proposal Aims to Cut Block Retention Window to 36 Days to Ease Node Burden
Ethereum developer Kevaundray Wedderburn has proposed shortening the consensus-layer block retention window from roughly 147 days to about 36 days via a draft improvement proposal submitted through GitHub on August 17. Classified as non-forking and informational, the change would ease the backfill workload that follows checkpoint synchronization and reduce demands on node bandwidth, disk space, and sync time, echoing earlier execution-layer ideas such as EIP-4444. The draft has drawn early community support, with contributor Dapplion endorsing it and Lighthouse developer Michael Sproul anticipating no operational issues, though it awaits an official EIP number. Separately, developers are reviewing 66 proposals, including several privacy-focused measures, for the 2027 Hegotá upgrade.
Bitcoin Holds Above $64K as Miners Shift Computing Power to AI; Bitcoin Hyper Closes $33M Presale
Bitcoin has moved back above $64,000, but the bigger shift in the market is the rapid redeployment of Bitcoin mining infrastructure toward artificial intelligence. Publicly listed miners have reduced combined computing power by 21% in 2026 as firms pursue AI and high-performance computing contracts, with CoinShares estimating these businesses could earn most of their revenue from AI by the end of 2026. At the same time, Bitcoin Hyper is promoting a Layer 2 approach for faster BTC transactions, highlighting continued efforts to expand Bitcoin’s utility beyond its base layer.
S&P 500 Falls While Bitcoin Holds Above $64,000 Ahead of Fed Minutes
U.S. stocks and Bitcoin diverged ahead of the Federal Reserve’s latest meeting minutes, with the S&P 500 under pressure while Bitcoin held gains and traded above $64,000 in Asia hours. Financial stocks led the equity weakness as Treasury yields rose and Middle East tensions weighed on sentiment. Traders are watching the minutes for hawkish or dovish clues that could influence rate expectations, with the tone likely to affect both equities and crypto. The article says the release may bring short-term volatility, while later employment and inflation data will continue shaping market expectations.
Uber Bets on Zipline Drone Deal, Targeting 1 Million Daily Deliveries by 2029
Uber announced a strategic partnership and investment in drone delivery company Zipline, giving Uber Eats a new autonomous delivery channel as it seeks to expand beyond traditional restaurant orders. The companies expect drone deliveries to begin before the end of 2026, initially in markets where Zipline already operates, with plans to extend the service across dozens of U.S. cities. Uber and Zipline are also targeting up to one million drone deliveries per day by the end of 2029. The move could improve delivery speed, broaden Uber Eats use cases, and strengthen Uber’s reliance on outside autonomous technology partners.
Compound Launches $52M DAO-Approved Program and New Leadership Team to Drive Institutional DeFi Expansion
Compound Foundation has announced a new leadership team and a $52 million development program approved by the protocol's DAO, the largest such allocation in Compound's history, as part of an effort to reposition the DeFi lending protocol around institutional users and bring traditional financial activity onchain. Aaron Schnarch will serve as executive director, joined by Christopher Donovan as COO, Steven Liu as CPO and Leo Eikelman as CTO, with additional hires from firms including Anchorage Digital, HSBC and Maple Finance. The program funds a roadmap built on native real-world asset capabilities, capital efficiency and integration tools for banks and asset managers, with the first institutional-grade products expected within weeks. The pivot comes as Compound's total value locked has fallen to about $1.2 billion from a 2021 peak near $12 billion.
2026 Week 35 Global Macro Market Watch: Jackson Hole Meets PCE, GDP, and Global Demand
Week 35 of 2026 concentrates the global macro debate around a dense U.S. data package on August 26, when July personal income and spending, PCE inflation, a second estimate of second-quarter GDP, and preliminary durable-goods orders arrive in a single session. The releases will test whether inflation is easing without a material loss of demand. The Kansas City Fed's Jackson Hole symposium follows on August 27-29 under the theme "Financial Innovation: Implications for Payments and Policy," giving officials a chance to interpret the fresh figures. Supporting releases include U.S. housing and confidence data, Australian CPI, Chinese industrial profits, Canadian GDP, and Japanese unemployment, with the outcomes positioned to move rates, equities, commodities, and crypto.
California Billionaires Pour $40 Million Into Fight Against Proposition 40 Wealth Tax
California billionaires and other wealthy donors are spending heavily to defeat Proposition 40, a ballot measure that would impose a one-time 5% tax on residents with more than $1 billion in assets to fund healthcare. Recent filings show major contributions from John Doerr, Chris Larsen and others, bringing the opposition PAC’s endowment to $110 million, with $87 million already reserved for ads. A UC Berkeley poll shows the race remains competitive, with 48% of likely voters in support and 41% opposed, while two counter-initiatives backed by the opposition could nullify the measure if they win more votes in November.
Proposed XRP Lending Framework Opens a New Route for Institutional Liquidity
A proposed XRP Ledger lending framework would let deposited XRP support institutional liquidity needs while holders retain exposure under fixed loan terms. The design uses Single Asset Vaults, loan brokers, depositors, and borrowers to route pooled assets into fixed-term, uncollateralized loans managed through off-chain underwriting rather than automated collateral or liquidation. It also includes first-loss protection and compliance controls such as clawbacks and freezes. The Lending Protocol amendment is still open for voting, so the proposal remains unconfirmed and would require strong validator support before activation.
Higher-for-Longer Rates Create Opening for Private Real Estate Debt: Savills IM
Savills Investment Management argues that a higher-for-longer interest rate environment has created attractive conditions for private real estate debt, citing repriced property values, higher coupons and a wave of refinancing needs from owners facing maturities. The firm also noted Japan's market resilience despite central bank tightening, forecast a strong global rebound with roughly $500 billion of assets from still-undivested closed-ended equity funds expected to reach the market, and highlighted growing investor interest in European purpose-built student accommodation, which ranked third in the 2025 INREV survey. Separately, Savills Korea was named sale manager for four AmorePacific office buildings, while JLL and Savills were appointed to lead the sale of Seoul Square, valued at about 1.4 trillion won ($1 billion).