According to BlockBeats, the Federal Reserve's Beige Book, released on July 16, showed that U.S. economic activity grew slightly to moderately in 11 of the 12 Fed districts between the end of May and June, with the overall growth rate roughly the same as the previous period.

The report states that factors such as high oil prices dampened some consumption, with consumers reducing spending on non-essential goods and turning to lower-priced items. Tourism saw some recovery, with World Cup-related tourist arrivals providing a boost to some regions. Manufacturing maintained moderate growth, with orders increasing in data centers, machinery, and defense sectors. Construction and real estate activity improved slightly, with data center construction being a highlight. Furthermore, drilling activity increased in the energy sector, and financial conditions remained generally stable, with commercial and consumer lending rising moderately.

However, agriculture has been affected by falling commodity prices, rising costs, and tighter credit. Most respondents expect the economy to continue expanding in the coming months, but the outlook for fuel costs remains highly uncertain.

According to BlockBeats, on July 16, The Information, citing sources familiar with the matter, reported that ASML plans to raise prices for its chip manufacturing equipment, a move that could potentially clash with its largest customer, TSMC.

It is understood that TSMC has begun to oppose the plan. ASML's advanced EUV equipment is essential for chip manufacturers to produce advanced semiconductors, and artificial intelligence is driving a surge in demand for it.

ASML Chief Financial Officer Roger Dassen mentioned on Wednesday's earnings call that there might be price adjustments for the company's less advanced equipment—the low numerical aperture (LNA) EUV. He stated, "Our continued efforts to improve the production efficiency of LNA EUV naturally provide considerable room for potential future price increases." However, he added that due to the long order cycles, any price changes would not have a pricing impact "tomorrow."

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According to BlockBeats, on July 16, US President Trump stated that pausing interest rate hikes is better than raising them, and he hopes interest rates will decrease.

According to BlockBeats, on July 16th, U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessant announced that the U.S. Mint will produce a $1 commemorative "gold coin" (gold-colored but containing no actual gold or precious metals) to commemorate the 250th anniversary of the founding of the United States. The obverse features a portrait of President Trump in a suit and tie, along with the words "LIBERTY," "IN GOD WE TRUST," and the dates 1776-2026; the reverse features the Great Eagle emblem of the United States, marked "$1" and "250." It is expected to be released this fall.

This move breaks with the tradition that living presidents are not usually featured on U.S. currency, and Bessant calls it a "lasting symbol of patriotism" and a "commemoration of the legacy of freedom."

BlockBeats reported on July 16th that crypto clearing startup Glacis Labs has completed a $6.8 million seed funding round. The round was led by Lightspeed Faction, with participation from Franklin Templeton, Coinbase Ventures, A.GAIN (formerly IDC Ventures), Protein Capital, and Techni Ventures. The funding was structured as equity plus token warrants. The funds will primarily be used to expand its core product, the ZeroDelta platform, and to support the expansion of its engineering, compliance, and marketing teams.

ZeroDelta is a multi-chain clearing platform that enables matching, netting, and final settlement of digital assets across blockchains. Currently, it primarily serves stablecoins and has processed over $1 billion in transactions to date.

According to BlockBeats, in a recent interview on July 16, Warren Buffett, the "Oracle of Omaha," shared his views on a range of topics, including the market environment, technology investment, and personnel changes at the Federal Reserve.

Criticism of the current market environment makes it difficult to discover value.

Warren Buffett criticized the current market for being increasingly driven by speculative trading rather than long-term investment principles, stating, "When everyone prefers gambling, it's hard to find anything of value." Earlier this year, he also described the stock market as a church with a casino attached, specifically pointing out that single-day options trading is gambling. Despite the energy shocks brought about by the US-Iran conflict this year, the three major US stock indices have continued to reach new highs. AI infrastructure-related stocks have been criticized for excessive speculation, with retail investors flocking to companies like Micron Technology and SpaceX. Buffett, a long-time value investor, commented that truly meaningful investment opportunities are rare and require patience and discipline—"Sometimes opportunities are too fast to grasp, but at other times, finding one every few years is considered lucky. Because humans love gambling, the money generated from cultivating gamblers is greater than the money generated from cultivating investors."

Buffett admits to personally leading the investment in Google.

Warren Buffett stated that Berkshire Hathaway's recent large-scale investment in Google was driven by him personally, not by CEO successor Greg Abel. However, he added, "I won't do anything he doesn't approve of, and he won't do anything I don't approve of; the final decision-maker is him." Berkshire has been continuously increasing its stake in Google since the third quarter of 2025 and participated in its $10 billion private placement earlier this year. Buffett frankly admitted, "The trick to investing is finding companies that can consistently generate high returns on capital over a long period," and acknowledged that he "made a mistake"—not investing in Google earlier. He recalled that while he saw the success of Google's advertising business through Geico in 2018, he was unsure at the time whether it could be a long-term winner. However, he also stated that Google is not his most favored holding, "I don't like it as much as at least four or five other companies we hold," and pointed out that the hundreds of billions of dollars invested in artificial intelligence is a key issue facing Google and all its competitors—"They weren't playing this game when they were developing software in the past."

Walsh is a "good option".

Speaking about the new Federal Reserve Chairman Kevin Warsh, Buffett described him as "a good option." Warsh demonstrated his policy style during his first meeting chaired in June, proposing adjustments to the central bank's policy framework while maintaining interest rates, and promising in congressional hearings to push the Fed to "change direction" and focus on combating inflation. Buffett stated, "I think he will do his best to fulfill the task assigned to him, which is to achieve the 2% inflation target while maintaining maximum employment. He can't be perfect, just as I know I can't perfectly manage someone else's money and consistently generate excess returns. Warsh cares about this country, which doesn't mean his decisions are always correct, but the reason is that sometimes making these decisions is indeed very difficult."

BlockBeats reported on July 16th that Base co-founder Jesse Pollak published a lengthy article, candidly reviewing the strategic gains and losses of the past six months. He admitted that in the dual-track strategy formulated for 2024-2025, "being optimistic about developers was right, but being optimistic about social was wrong"—the entire on-chain social ecosystem, including Farcaster, Zora, MiniApps, and creator tokens, has completely collapsed. This misjudgment has caused Base to lag behind its large-scale competitors in key areas such as perpetual contracts and prediction markets, and also has significant weaknesses in tokenization and enterprise payments.

Jesse described the first quarter of 2026 as "taking a punch to the face," with the community reminding him of his mistakes every week. "It felt bad, and it still feels bad." But the core lesson he learned from ten years of crypto entrepreneurship was that "when you feel worst, the best option is to keep your head down and get to work." Jesse then shifted his focus back from the application layer to the blockchain layer, writing code himself and launching a series of projects including Azul, Beryl, B20, privacy features, and Ledgers. At the same time, he reflected on three core assumptions: whether crypto needs social interaction to grow, whether Base needs its own application, and whether Base can surpass Coinbase.

Jesse's conclusion is clear: a better currency is enough to drive growth, as evidenced by stablecoins, prediction markets, perpetual contracts, and tokenization, with a focus on "making global finance truly function and bringing a billion people on-chain." Around this goal, Base will focus on three pillars in 2026: trading (covering all asset classes including tokenized stocks, Meme coins, and application tokens), payments (a global stablecoin for individuals and businesses), and smart agents (crypto is the native currency of computers; AI will create trillions of new economic entities).

At the organizational level, Jesse has handed the Base application back to Coinbase, with Cobie taking over to build cross-ecosystem on-chain applications. He also admitted that developing a decentralized network within a large listed company is "extremely difficult," and that Brian, as CEO, cannot post memes on the public timeline. He is continuing to push for the decentralization of Base.

Jesse emphasized that builders are the backbone of Base, and that Base will continue to support builders in all aspects through Base Layer, Base Batches, and the Ecosystem Fund. "When builders win, Base wins."