According to BlockBeats, on August 13th, Circle's Bitcoin tokenized asset, cirBTC, has been listed on Ethereum, but its scale remains very limited. As of the latest data, only about 40 cirBTC are in circulation, far fewer than WBTC and Coinbase's cbBTC.

cirBTC officially launched on Ethereum on June 8th, not on August 12th. Its Ethereum contract data shows a maximum total supply of approximately 40.02 cirBTC, held by 11 addresses. Circle stated that eligible institutional participants can mint and redeem cirBTC through Circle Mint. Currently, Ethereum is the only network on which it is listed, but future support will be provided for Circle's proprietary Arc blockchain and other networks.

Regarding asset custody, cirBTC is issued by Circle International Bermuda Limited, with the underlying Bitcoin held in custody by Circle National Trust, specifically to protect the interests of cirBTC holders. Circle states that the underlying BTC is segregated from the company's own assets. Reserve data as of August 11 shows a cirBTC supply of 40.02159077, while the BTC in reserves reached 42.5070808; Circle has also publicly disclosed the reserve address and balance, which can be verified through on-chain Bitcoin data.
Regarding proof of reserves, Circle uses Chainlink's Proof of Reserve mechanism, rather than the traditional monthly proof of assets. Chainlink's solution publishes verified reserve data on-chain, enabling users and the protocol to continuously monitor whether tokenized assets are adequately collateralized.

However, compared to mainstream BTC-encapsulated assets, cirBTC is still in its early stages. The Defiant, citing CoinGecko data, reports that WBTC has a circulating supply of approximately 116,100 coins and a market capitalization of approximately $7.362 billion; cbBTC has a circulating supply of approximately 97,200 coins and a market capitalization of approximately $6.162 billion. In contrast, cirBTC currently lacks even a traceable market price and market capitalization.

Circle positions cirBTC as a "neutral" Bitcoin collateral asset for institutions, but this "neutrality" primarily refers to its business positioning, not its decentralized issuance. Circle states that it does not operate any centralized, decentralized, or lending protocols that directly compete with cirBTC, and the minting and redemption of cirBTC are still handled through Circle Mint.

According to BlockBeats, on August 13th, the US July CPI rose 0.1% month-on-month and 3.4% year-on-year, while core CPI rose 2.5% year-on-year. Overall inflation was moderate, and declining energy prices offset some of the upward pressure on housing costs. After the data release, market pricing in a September rate hike by the Federal Reserve dropped from about 50% to around 40%, easing short-term policy pressure.

However, this CPI figure is not enough to directly translate into expectations of monetary easing. The US fiscal deficit continues to widen, accumulating to nearly $1.8 trillion in the first 10 months, with the national debt approaching $40 trillion and interest payments continuing to rise. Against this backdrop, the US needs to continue issuing large amounts of Treasury bonds, and the yield on 10-year Treasury bonds rose to its highest level since 2007 at this auction, while the yield on 30-year bonds approached 5.25%, reflecting that long-term funding costs are driven by a combination of fiscal supply, inflation stickiness, and market risk premiums.

Therefore, the key issue in the US interest rate market is no longer just whether the Federal Reserve will raise interest rates in September, but whether long-term yields will continue to rise due to fiscal deficits and the supply of Treasury bonds, even if the Fed keeps rates unchanged. This also means that financial conditions may not improve in tandem with a decline in policy rates, and long-term yields will remain a significant source of pressure for highly valued and highly leveraged assets.

In Asia, the yen is once again approaching the 160 mark. Japan's July PPI rose 7.2% year-on-year, fueling expectations of a September rate hike by the Bank of Japan. If Japan's monetary policy normalizes further, coupled with a narrowing interest rate differential between Japan and the US, global capital allocation and yen carry trades could be impacted.

Gold has benefited from reduced tail risks of interest rate hikes, a weaker dollar, and renewed fiscal uncertainty, but its current rally is more of a tactical bounce driven by interest rate expectations than a simple trade in interest rate cuts. The Jackson Hole meeting, inflation data, and employment figures will continue to determine whether the gold rally can be sustained.

On the other hand, the Russia-Ukraine conflict is bringing energy and food supply risks back to the global market. Russia and Ukraine have recently continued their attacks on Black Sea ports, energy facilities, and merchant ships. Ukraine is currently in its peak grain export season, and further disruption to Black Sea shipping could push up wheat and related food prices, complicating the already existing risk of energy inflation.

Overall, the July CPI reduced the pressure on the Federal Reserve to raise interest rates immediately, but it did not eliminate the funding cost constraints imposed by the US's high deficit, high debt, and high long-term yields. Going forward, the core of global asset pricing will gradually focus on the tug-of-war between two forces: whether inflation continues to cool and whether fiscal supply pushes up long-term interest rates. For highly volatile assets such as Bitcoin, in the short term, attention should still be paid to dollar liquidity and long-term US Treasury yields, rather than simply observing the Federal Reserve's policy rate itself.

According to BlockBeats, on August 13, the Hyperliquid Foundation is adjusting the access method for on-chain data infrastructure, allowing professional infrastructure service providers to access nodes that previously had high barriers to entry, and providing services to more external teams at a unified price, thereby reducing the cost for market makers and trading teams to obtain high-quality, low-latency on-chain data.

Previously, Hyperliquid generated a large amount of order, transaction, and open interest data per second. Trading programs typically needed to run non-validator nodes and connect to stable upstream nodes to access this data faster. Because Foundation nodes are closer to the core validator network and have shorter data transmission links, they effectively provide a lower-latency data source.

Previously, directly connecting to this node typically required staking 10,000 HYPE tokens and meeting the Tier 1 market maker threshold, which was difficult for small and medium-sized trading teams to meet. After this adjustment, professional infrastructure service providers can connect and then offer connectivity services to external clients at a uniform price, currently below $1,000 per month, with a required service availability of 99.9%. These service providers must also have been operating for at least one year, serving at least 100 clients and covering 5 networks, and are prohibited from providing faster dedicated lines to specific market makers; whistleblowers of any discovered preferential treatment may receive a bounty.

Meanwhile, Jeff, a member of the Hyperliquid team, stated on Discord that after the next network upgrade, the Hyperliquid Liquidity Provider (HLP) will automatically transfer USDC not used for market making into the HyperCore native lending pool to earn interest. Currently, HLP's total TVL is approximately $188.7 million, of which approximately $148.7 million is in cash in the main account, with no open positions or orders at the time of the snapshot, accounting for nearly 79% of the total funds; approximately $40.06 million is allocated across seven sub-strategies.

HyperCore's native lending pool currently has approximately $762 million in assets and approximately $114 million in outstanding loans. Of this, approximately $176 million is USDC in supply and approximately $112 million is lent out, resulting in a utilization rate of approximately 63.7%. The current annualized interest rate for USDC borrowing is 5%, and the annualized interest rate for supply is approximately 2.87%.