Equities update - August 31st 2026

Week 35 saw the positive momentum in crypto markets broaden further, with last week’s rally extending across the wider digital-asset ecosystem and supporting blockchain equities with higher beta to the underlying market. Nvidia’s strong earnings and guidance also reinforced confidence in the durability of AI infrastructure spending, lifting the semiconductor sector and providing a positive read-through for blockchain companies with exposure to data-centre and compute demand. Corporate activity across the sector remained elevated. Hyperliquid Strategies continued to increase its exposure to HYPE, Bitdeer expanded mining capacity through its partnership with Soluna, and Bullish deployed US$100m into stablecoin-based AI infrastructure financing. At the same time, stablecoin adoption continued to move further into mainstream finance, with major banks and fintechs exploring or launching their own products and payment infrastructure. Overall, the week reinforced the broadening nature of the blockchain-equity opportunity, with positive catalysts increasingly extending beyond Bitcoin price exposure into AI infrastructure, stablecoins, staking and digital-asset capital markets.

Week 35 key developments in Blockchain Equities:

• Index performance: The BLOCK Index gained 4.2% during the week, outperforming Bitcoin (+2.6%), despite a modestly more hawkish US rates backdrop. July headline PCE inflation rose to 3.7% YoY from 3.6%, while core PCE remained elevated at 3.3%. Labour-market data also remained resilient, with initial jobless claims declining to 203k and continuing claims falling to 1.78m, giving the Fed limited urgency to ease policy. Investors are now awaiting Fed Chair Kevin Warsh’s Jackson Hole speech for indications of any meaningful shift in the monetary-policy outlook. However, given his historically measured tone during press conferences, markets may receive limited guidance on the Fed’s next steps. 

• Block Index key movers: 7-day top performers: Hyperliquid Strategies (+27.3%), Strategy Inc (+22.3%), Metaplanet (+19.9%) 7-day worst performers: Iren (-4.9%), Mercari (-4.4%), Core Scientific (-4.2%)

• Stablecoin competition is set to intensify as banks and fintechs move accelerate adoption - Stablecoin adoption continued to broaden across traditional finance, with banks, fintechs and payment networks increasingly competing to control the infrastructure. JPMorgan is reportedly considering launching a stablecoin alongside its existing tokenised deposit offering, while more than a dozen global banks, including Bank of America and Wells Fargo, are exploring a joint multi-currency stablecoin initiative. In Europe, Revolut has also begun rolling out its euro-backed EURR stablecoin this month, bringing on-chain money directly into a platform with more than 75m customers. Adoption is also moving further into distribution and payments with index constituent Standard Chartered becoming the first bank distributor of HKDAP, Hong Kong's regulated HKD stablecoin, and is exploring institutional use cases across fund settlement, treasury management and cross-border payments.

• The shift is significant as the debate increasingly moves from whether stablecoins will become part of mainstream financial infrastructure to who ultimately controls the economics across issuance, distribution and settlement. For index constituent Circle, the entry of banks and large fintech platforms creates greater competition for stablecoin issuance, but broader adoption also expands the addressable market for USDC and infrastructure such as Circle Payments Network.

•  Earnings recap – Key holdings:

  • Hyperliquid Strategies – Positive

  • IREN – Mixed

Other news - index constituents:

• Bullish provided USD.AI with a US$100m stablecoin-based debt facility to finance loans secured against GPU infrastructure, marking Bullish's expansion into on-chain AI infrastructure financing. Bullish will also list USD.AI's sUSDai across multiple trading pairs and provide market-making support, connecting institutional digital-asset liquidity with the growing market for compute-backed credit.

• SBI Holdings led a US$68m Series C investment in Fasset at a US$1bn valuation, further increasing its exposure to stablecoin-based financial infrastructure. Fasset operates an AI-enabled stablecoin neobanking platform processing more than US$40bn of annualised transaction volume across over 3m wallets, with the new capital earmarked for stablecoin settlement and tokenisation infrastructure.

• CME Group will launch the CME CF Crypto Market Index and Emerging Crypto Index on 31 August, providing real-time and regional settlement benchmarks across a broader range of digital assets. CME also launched Ethena reference rates this week, continuing to expand its crypto pricing infrastructure beyond Bitcoin and Ethereum.

• Bitdeer entered a 28MW co-mining agreement with Soluna at Project Kati 1 in Texas, deploying Sealminer A2 Pro Air machines representing approximately 1.93 EH/s from September. Under the agreement, Bitdeer will own and provide the mining equipment while Soluna provides the wind-powered site, electricity and operations, with the companies sharing mining proceeds. The agreement provides Bitdeer with additional mining capacity without having to develop the underlying power infrastructure itself.

• Strategy established a separate US$1.6bn USD Cash pool that can be used flexibly for Bitcoin purchases, security repurchases and other treasury operations. The move is separate from its existing reserve for preferred dividends and debt servicing and signals a somewhat more flexible approach to capital allocation following recent Bitcoin volatility.

• Coinbase and Better Mortgage made their token-backed conforming mortgage generally available to Coinbase One customers, allowing eligible borrowers to use crypto wealth as collateral without selling their holdings. The initial waitlist represented more than US$260m of projected mortgage volume, highlighting another route through which digital assets are becoming integrated into traditional consumer finance.

• PayPal shares fell sharply after the Stripe and Advent International consortium withdrew its proposed US$53bn acquisition, having previously offered US$60.50 per share. PayPal's board had viewed the offer as inadequate, with the withdrawal removing a key near-term share-price catalyst and returning investor focus to execution of the company's turnaround strategy.

• Solana disinflation vote, mixed read-through for validators such as Galaxy Digital - Solana's SGP-0002/SIMD-0550 proposal would double the network's annual disinflation rate from 15% to 30%, bringing the 1.5% terminal inflation rate forward to around 2029 and reducing cumulative SOL issuance over the coming years. The change is supportive for SOL's long-term tokenomics, but would also reduce inflation-funded staking rewards, with nominal staking yields expected to decline materially over time. This creates a mixed read-through for validators such as Galaxy Digital. Lower rewards would reduce staking revenue per SOL delegated, although this could be offset by higher SOL prices, growth in assets under stake and greater contribution from transaction fees and MEV. More broadly, faster disinflation increases the importance of scale and network activity, potentially favouring larger institutional validators as smaller operators face greater pressure on economics.

Other news – non - index constituents:

• The regulatory backdrop is moving in the same direction, with the UK government this week proposing a new secondary objective for the Bank of England to support innovation in payment systems, including stablecoins.

• Japan is reportedly developing plans for blockchain-based settlement of equities and government bonds, with the FSA, Ministry of Finance and Bank of Japan targeting a detailed framework by early 2027.

• Charles Schwab announced plans to add Solana, Avalanche and Chainlink to its crypto trading platform, expanding beyond Bitcoin and Ethereum following the launch of direct crypto trading in May.

• Mirae Asset Financial Group outlined plans to build a KRW150tn (US$109bn) digital-asset business around Digital X, following its acquisition of Korean crypto exchange Korbit. The platform will target crypto, stablecoins, real-world assets and security tokens, including the tokenisation of commodities such as gold and electricity.