(31/52) Weekly Market Insight | August Week 2 | Inflow Returned - ChainUp: Leading Provider of Digital Asset Exchange & Custody Solutions

Headline News: Inflow Returned

Driven by a fresh S&P 500 all-time high and falling long-term US yields, liquidity-sensitive assets caught a solid bid last week. Both gold and Bitcoin gained ground, with BTC rising roughly 2.1% as macro tailwinds took hold. Bitcoin spot ETFs recorded $853 million net inflow last week, marking the highest weekly net inflow in 4 months.

Macro-Outlook: Lesser Jobs, Lower Unemployment

The US and Iran are engaging in indirect negotiations mediated by Oman and Qatar aimed at restoring commercial transit through the Strait of Hormuz. President Trump stated publicly that he believes the conflict could wrap up “pretty soon”. Despite active talks, attacks on commercial tankers near Qeshm Island were recently reported. Oil prices cooled 11% in the past week.
US ISM Manufacturing PMI climbed to 55.6 in July 2026 from 53.3 in June, marking the highest reading since May 2022 and comfortably beating market expectations of 54.0. US ISM Services PMI edged up to 54.1 in July 2026 from 54.0 in June, coming slightly below market expectations of 54.5.
US Nonfarm Payrolls unexpectedly contracted by 23,000 in July 2026, marking a sharp drop from a downwardly revised 20,000 gain in June and falling far short of market expectations of an 80,000 increase. Cumulative revisions for May and June subtracted a further 103,000 jobs from previously reported figures. The unemployment rate edged lower to 4.1% in July 2026 from 4.2% in June, coming below market expectations of remaining flat at 4.2%.
The softer labor market lowered the probability of the market expectations on rate hikes in the upcoming September FOMC meeting from 67% to 43%.

The Upcoming Economic Calendar includes,

Wednesday, August 12 8:30pm: US Inflation Rate in July
Thursday, August 13 8:30pm: US PPI in July
Friday, August 14 8:30pm: US Retail Sales in July

Weekly-Cryptos-Overview: Lower Odds CLARITY Act Passes

Strategy increased its USD Reserve by $250 million to $4.0 billion and repurchased $81 million of STRC preferred stock, maintaining 842,138 BTC in reserve.
Western Union launched Stablecard in partnership with Rain, allowing remittances for 100 million customers to arrive as stablecoins and be spent instantly anywhere Visa is accepted.
Cloudflare unveiled Cloudflare Wallets, enabling users to store stablecoins, buy web services, and receive funds natively across web applications.
US Congress advanced the CLARITY Act as Senate Majority Leader John Thune filed cloture, scheduling a procedural vote for September 15 following the August legislative recess. However, the market expectations of the legislation signed into law in 2026 reduced from 30% to 20% in the past week.

Layer 1 and Layer 2s

Bitcoin BIP-110 soft fork (removal of arbitrary data in transactions) attempted around block 961,632 on August 9, receiving about 2% to 3% miner support. The minority chain mined only a couple of blocks before stalling and effectively failed.
Starknet executed its first quantum-resistant wallet transfer on the public mainnet, settling the transaction for a six-cent network fee.

Dapps

Uniswap introduced TradePools as a new launchpad on Robinhood Chain.
vc.fun announced that Venture Capital Markets, token launchpad with more custom liquidity and vesting setting designed for companies and startups, are coming soon directly to Pump.fun.
Chainlink secured an exclusive partnership with BitGo to migrate over $7.7 billion of WBTC from LayerZero to Chainlink CCIP for institutional cross-chain security.
Ondo Finance faced corporate governance friction as the late founder’s mother filed legal action seeking company control and the removal of current CEO De Bode.
Frax Finance unveiled net.frax.com, offering native 1:1 dollar yields across a dozen blockchains alongside same-day bank redemptions.
Extended surpassed 100+ live RWA perpetual markets, targeting over 1,000 listings to lead RWA derivatives trading onchain.
Kamino Finance introduced Kamino Institutional Yield, connecting Solana-native onchain capital directly with institutional credit markets.
Term Labs launched Term V2, introducing a peer-to-peer order book and atomic execution layer for fixed-rate DeFi markets.
Kaito AI upgraded KAITO staking mechanics by introducing active opt-in reallocations, fee waivers for pre-TGE campaigns, and full-campaign holding requirements to maximize yields for long-term stakers.
ai16z founder Shaw announced the formal wind-down of the ai16z token and foundation following legal settlements, confirming that open-source development of the underlying Eliza AI agent framework will continue independently.

Governance and Upcoming Alpha

Ethereum researchers submitted EIP-8361 (Tapered Issuance Burn), proposing a market-driven fix to Ethereum’s issuance policy to remove economic incentives for stake growth beyond 50% of the total ETH supply. The proposal faced backlash from the community, citing the potential collapse of the ETH staking economy on DeFi and Ethereum should introduce more initiatives to increase the burn rate instead of reducing the staking rewards.
BNB Chain Pasteur hard fork is scheduled for August 25, introducing system contract upgrades, performance/security improvements, and removal of blind signing elements.
Arc announced its Mainnet launch set for September 16, hosting a live launch event featuring product demonstrations and partner keynotes.
Sui announced the integration of two NIST-approved post-quantum signature schemes, enabling quantum-safe keys without requiring users to change seed phrases or addresses. The upgrades are expected by late 2026 to Q1 2027.
StonkBrokers, the popular NFT protocol on Robinhood, announced that its new Stonk launcher (new token launchpad) will go live this week.
Hyperliquid added testnet allowlist functionality to HIP-3 enabling deployers to enforce address-level KYC restrictions for potential US-compliant venues, while upcoming upgrades will also introduce adjustable ticker-level HIP-3 trading fee controls.