The Tutorial (TUT) token staged a dramatic rally in Asia, surging sixfold from $0.045 to $0.305 before a sharp pullback to around $0.13, still up 325.8% in 24 hours. Trading volumes topped $5.7 billion on spot markets and $25 billion on futures, making it one of the most active tokens globally. On-chain data reveals 160 million TUT (20% of total supply) flowed into Bitget from Binance, suggesting heavy market-making and whale positioning. The wild price action triggered $34.99 million in TUT liquidations in a single hour, mostly short positions, highlighting extreme volatility and speculative mania across Asian retail trading venues.

Singapore-based crypto exchange Bybit filed a civil lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia against North Korea, its Reconnaissance General Bureau (RGB), and the Lazarus Group for last year’s $1.5 billion hack. A federal court granted a preliminary injunction to freeze a portion of the stolen assets held by unknown individuals (John Doe defendants), prohibiting any transfer or disposal during the legal proceedings. Bybit stated it will pursue further remedies to recover the funds and hold state-sponsored actors accountable, marking a significant escalation in legal action against crypto theft by Asian-linked threat groups.

The Hong Kong Securities and Futures Commission (SFC) added Polar Tensor to its alert list of suspicious virtual asset trading platforms, identifying 17 associated websites. The SFC warned that Polar Tensor and its websites are not licensed in Hong Kong for regulated activities, urging investors to exercise caution. This action follows the SFC’s ongoing crackdown on unlicensed crypto operations targeting Asian retail investors, as Hong Kong continues to strengthen its regulatory perimeter for digital assets.

Cross-chain protocol Bifrost disclosed a hack on August 8 that drained approximately 881,150 DOT ($720,000) from its vDOT single-asset pool and vASTR/ASTR and vMANTA/MANTA liquidity pools. The attacker exploited a vulnerability in the liquidity pool mechanism, then moved the stolen funds to HitBTC and ultimately to Binance. Bifrost halted all liquidity mining rewards, launched a full security review, and is collaborating with the exchanges’ compliance teams and law enforcement to freeze and recover the assets. The protocol assured that vDOT remains fully backed 1:1 and is unaffected.

Police in Dongguan, a major city in China’s Guangdong province, intercepted a crypto investment scam just minutes before a woman handed over 1.1 million yuan ($150,000) in cash. The victim, Li, was lured by an online contact promising “internal virtual currency investment channels” with low barriers and high returns, supported by fabricated profit screenshots. Scammers instructed her to withdraw cash for an offline “USD exchange” to deposit into a crypto account. Dongguan police activated a rapid warning system and officers rushed to the bank to dissuade her, preventing the loss. The case underscores the persistent threat of crypto scams targeting mainland Chinese citizens despite official bans.

Apple briefly listed support documentation showing that its Apple Intelligence for Mac in mainland China would integrate Alibaba’s Qwen model, enabling Siri to provide deeper answers and assist in writing tools for creating text or images from descriptions. The manual required macOS 26.6 and was available on Apple’s China website, but was later removed, reverting to instructions for using ChatGPT with Apple Intelligence. The incident signals ongoing negotiations between Apple and Chinese tech giants to adapt AI features to local regulatory requirements, a crucial step for Apple’s competitiveness in the world’s largest smartphone market.

Jiang Zhuoer, founder of the prominent Chinese mining pool LTC.BTC, cautioned that stablecoin outflows from crypto markets signal insufficient liquidity for a sustained bull run. He noted that in the past month, USDT market cap fell from $184.2 billion to $183.1 billion and USDC from $73.28 billion to $72.15 billion, a combined drop of $2.23 billion. Jiang expects Bitcoin could rebound to $68,000–$70,000 to flush out short sellers but then faces a final major decline. His bearish outlook reflects widespread caution among Chinese retail traders amid tightening onshore conditions.

Binance, the largest global crypto exchange by volume, has begun gray-market testing of a US stock asset transfer feature that would allow users to move equities between Binance and external brokers, according to market sources. The move, if fully launched, would mark a major step into traditional securities trading for the platform, which has deep roots in Asian retail markets. The feature is expected to roll out broadly soon, potentially reshaping Binance’s offering beyond cryptocurrencies and targeting users in regions where integrated finance products are in demand.

Hong Kong-based Victory Securities will begin charging a 0.05% monthly insurance fee on the holdings of virtual asset accounts supported by HashKey’s custody service starting August 10. The fee, calculated daily on end-of-day positions and settled in virtual assets on the second business day of each month, aligns with a similar charge already applied to OSL-custodied accounts. The move affects retail and institutional clients accessing regulated crypto services in Hong Kong, reflecting the growing costs associated with licensed custody solutions in the region.

Moore Threads, a leading Chinese graphics processing unit (GPU) developer, announced plans to issue H-shares and list on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange’s main board. The move would make it one of the few Chinese AI chip firms to go public in the Asian financial hub, though the company noted the plan requires shareholder and regulatory approvals and faces “significant uncertainty.” Moore Threads aims to capitalize on surging demand for AI computing power in China, but faces challenges from U.S. sanctions and intense competition with Nvidia and domestic rivals.