The 30-year U.S. Treasury yield rose above 5.33%, a 19-year high, while the S&P 500, Nasdaq 100, and gold moved lower. BTC held above $64,000 and XRP fell below $1. In AI, Stripe agreed to acquire OpenRouter and CME Group planned AI compute futures.
1. U.S. 30-year Treasury yield rises above 5.33%
The 30-year U.S. Treasury yield rose above 5.33%, a 19-year high, while the 10-year yield stood at 4.744%. Major global bond yields reached multi-decade levels. The S&P 500 closed at 7,745.06, the Nasdaq 100 at 29,995.38, and gold traded at $4,447.8, with all three moving lower.
Assets to watch: SPX500 NAS100 XAU
2. CME plans AI compute futures for October
CME Group plans to launch AI compute futures in October, and the CFTC has requested public comment on the contract design. CME has set October as the target month. The product remains in the public-comment and launch-preparation stage, and a final listing date has not been announced.
Assets to watch: NVDA
3. Stripe agrees to acquire OpenRouter for over $7 billion
Stripe agreed on August 16 to acquire OpenRouter for more than $7 billion. OpenRouter currently provides access to hundreds of open and closed large language models through one API. The completion date and closing arrangements remain subject to announcements from both companies.
4. BTC holds above $64,000 and outperforms U.S. equities
BTC held above $64,000, up about 1.1% over 24 hours with a market value near $1.29 trillion. During the same period, the S&P 500 fell 0.52% and the Nasdaq 100 fell 0.17%. BTC traded at $64,303 and ETH at $1,902.09.
Assets to watch: BTC SPX500
5. XRP falls below $1 for the first time since 2024
XRP fell below $1 for the first time since 2024. On the same day, South Korea's Jeonbuk Bank announced it would adopt Ripple's cross-border payment system. The announcement did not provide a launch date, transaction volume, XRP purchase amount, or holding data.
Assets to watch: XRP
6. Ethereum flags tool compatibility risk for Glamsterdam
The Ethereum Foundation warned that the upcoming Glamsterdam upgrade could make some tools incompatible, requiring developers to adapt before deployment. Co-founder Vitalik Buterin also disclosed a scaling path that combines UTXO-style and dynamic state management.
Assets to watch: ETH
7. Large UNI outflows from Binance reach a five-year high
On-chain data showed that large UNI outflows from Binance reached a five-year high. The ten largest transactions averaged about 7,300 UNI in daily outflows during the month, while current daily accumulation stood near 5,600 UNI. The figures were recorded in the August 18 on-chain dataset.
Assets to watch: UNI
8. UBS Q2 filing shows a 24-fold rise in IBIT call options
UBS increased its call-option exposure to BlackRock's spot bitcoin ETF, IBIT, from 80,000 to 1.95 million contracts in Q2, a rise of more than 24 times. Direct holdings also increased about 12%. The filing covers positions held on June 30, not trades made on August 18.
Assets to watch: BTC
9. Apple patches macOS flaw used for Monero mining
Apple fixed CVE-2026-65400, a critical authentication flaw in the macOS screen-sharing component. The flaw scored 9.8 and had been used to install Monero mining software and obtain root access on Mac devices. The fix shipped with macOS Tahoe 26.6.1 and other updates.
Assets to watch: AAPL XMR
Market Snapshot
BTC: $64,303 | ETH: $1,902.09
Gold: $4,447.8 | Silver: $65.11
WTI: $85.00 | Brent: $90.92
S&P 500: 7,745.06 | Nasdaq 100: 29,995.38