BlockBeats reported on August 5th that, as the cryptocurrency market enters the second half of the bear market, a significant industry shakeout has occurred. Today, Shaw Walters, founder of ElizaOS (formerly ai16z), announced that the ai16z/ElizaOS tokens are "completely dead," and the related foundation will gradually cease operations. This is another significant exit event following the shutdown of over 60 well-known crypto projects in the first half of the year.

According to statistics, in 2026, more than 60 well-known crypto projects, public chains/Layer2, DeFi protocols, wallets, NFT platforms and DAO tools announced the cessation of operations or filed for bankruptcy, with the pace of shutdowns accelerating significantly in late July.

This wave of exits has affected almost all sectors. In centralized trading platforms (PT1), derivatives pioneer BitMEX announced on July 23 that it would officially close on September 23, ending 11 years of operation; AscendEX ceased trading on July 1 due to its failure to obtain an EU MiCA license; and BitMart initiated a phased shutdown. In Layer 1/Layer 2 and infrastructure, Polygon zkEVM, Botanix, Sophon, Powerloom, MilkyWay, and others have successively ceased operations. In the DeFi sector, Radiant Capital, Step Finance (after suffering a hacking attack of approximately $40 million), Ionic Protocol, and Everclear have exited due to security incidents or liquidity shortages. In the wallet sector, Secondfi, Ctrl Wallet, and Leap Wallet have closed due to security vulnerabilities or strategic adjustments. NFT, gaming, and utility projects such as Foundation, Fishing Frenzy, Tally, and Zapper have also not been spared.

The main reasons are concentrated in three points: the business model failed to generate sustainable revenue (even though some projects had high monthly active users or transaction volume), the cooling of the sector's popularity led to the outflow of users and funds, and hacker attacks directly cut off the funding chain. Many projects had received millions to tens of millions of dollars in funding, but after the market pullback, they could not prove the product's market fit. Unlike the leveraged collapse of 2022, this round is more about "starving to death"—an orderly or forced exit after the funds ran out.

According to BlockBeats, on August 5th, based on BIT (Bit.com) market data, Circle (CRCL) shares rose nearly 6% in pre-market trading, reaching $66.97, influenced by the release of its Q2 2026 financial report.

As of the end of the second quarter, the circulating supply of USDC reached US$73.3 billion, a year-on-year increase of 19%; total revenue and reserve income for the quarter were US$701 million, a year-on-year increase of 7%; and adjusted EBITDA was US$143 million, a year-on-year increase of 8%.

In addition, Circle announced that the Arc mainnet will launch on September 16 and has received approval for a U.S. Federal Trust Bank license.

BlockBeats reported on August 5th that Circle released its Q2 2026 financial results. Data shows that as of the end of Q2, the circulating supply of USDC reached $73.3 billion, a year-on-year increase of 19%; the on-chain transaction volume of USDC in the quarter reached $14.8 trillion, a year-on-year increase of 151%. The company's total revenue and reserve income in Q2 were $701 million, a year-on-year increase of 7%; adjusted EBITDA was $143 million, a year-on-year increase of 8%; and net income from continuing operations was $48 million, an increase of $530 million year-on-year.

In terms of business operations, Circle announced that the Arc public chain will launch its mainnet on September 16th, with BlackRock, DTCC, Galaxy, Mastercard, Visa, and Standard Chartered serving as network validators. BlackRock plans to deploy its BUIDL fund to Arc, and DTCC will support the tokenization of DTC custodied assets on Arc.

In addition, Circle has received final approval from the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) to establish Circle National Trust, becoming one of the first stablecoin issuers to obtain a U.S. federal banking license; it has also received approval from the New York State Department of Financial Services (NYDFS) to establish Circle New York Trust. Circle Payments Network (CPN) saw its annualized transaction volume increase to $14.7 billion in the past 30 days, a 76% increase month-over-month, and the number of financial institutions it has connected with has increased to 175, a 29% increase month-over-month.

According to BlockBeats, on August 5th, OnchainDataNerd reported that a new wallet deposited 2.44 million USDC and opened a short position of 1,600 BTC with 40x leverage. The position was worth approximately $102.6 million, with an opening price of approximately $64,202 and a liquidation price of approximately $64,889.

The position is only about $687 away from the liquidation price, leaving very little room for error.

BlockBeats reported on August 5th that Circle announced the founding validator lineup for its open blockchain network Arc and confirmed that the public mainnet will launch on September 16, 2026. Currently, Arc has already integrated over 100 ecosystem and institutional builders onto its private mainnet.

The initial founding validators include BlackRock, U.S. Depository Trust & Clearing Corporation, Galaxy, GlobalPay, Intercontinental Exchange, Mastercard, MoneyGram, SBI Group, Standard Chartered Bank, Sumitomo Corporation, and Visa. Circle stated that Arc is positioned to serve global financial markets, real-time fund transfers, and on-chain financial applications, emphasizing openness, composability, and institutional-grade compliance and security standards.

In addition, BlackRock expects to deploy its BUIDL fund on Arc; Circle is also working with U.S. Depository Trust & Clearing Corporation to support the tokenization of assets held in custody by U.S. Depository Trust & Clearing Corporation on Arc starting in the second half of 2027.

BlockBeats reports that on August 5th, the UK Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) announced simplified IPO rules to support companies going public. The new rules will eliminate the 7-day waiting period for related research reports during the IPO process and streamline information sharing requirements between issuers and companies.

The FCA stated that these reforms will reduce issuers' enforcement risks and compliance costs, making it easier for companies to access public markets. The new rules will officially take effect on August 5, 2026. (Jinshi)

According to BlockBeats , on August 5th, the whale account starting with 0xb37 that had previously chased the rise of SPCX has cleared its positions and withdrawn from its account this morning. Currently, its holdings, pending orders, and account net value are all zero.

This address purchased a total of 229,600 SPCX units since early yesterday morning, with a transaction value of approximately US$27.064 million and a weighted average price of US$117.9. This morning, it sold all of them at an average price of US$114.8, realizing a loss of approximately US$708,000.

SPCX is currently trading at $112.39, down 3.52% in the last 24 hours, with a trading volume of approximately $874 million and open interest of approximately $174 million. There are currently millions of dollars in orders placed by addresses at both ends of the order book, totaling approximately $24.278 million.

The first support zone below is located between $100 and $106.1. The largest pending order address, starting with 0xf929, placed 5 "only reducing positions" buy orders, planning to cover 50,000 SPCX units, with a notional amount of approximately $5.136 million. This support mainly comes from short sellers taking profits, not from new long positions.

At even lower levels, from $83.8 to $96.2, clear buying activity emerged. An address starting with 0xda1d posted two buy orders that were not merely "reducing positions," indicating a plan to open 50,000 new long positions in SPCX, with a notional amount of approximately $4.39 million.

There are approximately $10.761 million worth of whale sell orders concentrated between $133.5 and $153, of which approximately $7.617 million are long positions taking profits and approximately $3.144 million are planned to be added to short positions; there are also approximately $2.732 million of short positions placed at the higher range of $155.4 to $180.

According to BlockBeats, on August 5th, monitoring by OnchainDataNerd revealed that Michael Saylor has been continuously reducing his Bitcoin holdings recently.

Data shows that last week, the related addresses sold approximately 1,638 BTC, worth about $102.4 million; then sold another approximately 299.84 BTC, worth about $18.91 million; and today sold another approximately 1,030 BTC, worth about $66.14 million.

Despite continued selling, Strategy (formerly MicroStrategy) still holds approximately 842,138 BTC, worth about $52.65 billion.