Odaily News: On August 20 local time, the White House announced that U.S. President Trump has signed a memorandum proposing that by 2030, U.S. space transportation ranges and related facilities should be capable of supporting more than 1,000 launch and reentry missions annually. The memorandum states that the U.S. will expand and improve space launch and reentry infrastructure, requiring relevant agencies to promote the opening of federal launch sites to commercial users, encourage commercial investment, public-private partnerships, and joint infrastructure development, while accelerating facility permitting and environmental reviews. NASA has also been tasked with developing a commercial lunar logistics architecture, exploring commercial robotic Mars landings, and related architectures for commercial crewed round-trip missions to Mars. (CCTV News)

Odaily Planet Daily News A senior Iranian official has stated that Tehran is planning to wage an economic war, including attacks on oil bypass export facilities in the Gulf region, with the aim of driving up U.S. gasoline prices and undermining the support rate of Trump's party ahead of the U.S. November midterm elections. According to the official's description, the targets of this plan will include two major alternative routes used by shippers to avoid the Strait of Hormuz: Saudi Arabia's Yanbu oil pipeline and the UAE's Fujairah oil terminal. Together, these two facilities handle approximately 5.5 million barrels of oil per day. If Iran simultaneously cuts off the roughly 5 million barrels per day of oil supply that the U.S.-backed "shadow fleet" currently transports through the Strait of Hormuz, a successful operation would weaken a significant portion of the alternative transport capacity—the very channels that have sustained some Gulf oil exports amid broader blockade conditions. Given that Brent crude prices are already near $93 per barrel under the current tense situation, any credible action targeting Yanbu or Fujairah could be perceived by traders as a shock far larger than previous supply disruptions. (Jinshi)

Odaily News, sources familiar with the matter revealed that Samsung Electronics will announce a new shareholder return plan on Friday, with a size potentially reaching 110 trillion Korean won ($79 billion). The sources said the Samsung board is scheduled to meet after the Korean stock market closes, around 4 p.m. local time, with details of the plan to be published shortly after the meeting. According to the sources, the shareholder return plan is expected to range between 90 trillion and 110 trillion Korean won. (Jin Shi)

Odaily News: According to Gate data, South Korea's KOSPI index opened down 73.25 points, or 1.07%, at 6,779.33 points on Friday, August 21. Japan's Nikkei 225 index opened down 639.56 points, or 0.97%, at 65,577.23 points on Friday, August 21.

Odaily News, according to sources familiar with the matter, Anthropic expects its IPO scale to match or exceed the record level set by SpaceX. The company is conducting relevant calculations and preparing to publicly submit its IPO application documents as early as the end of August. SpaceX's initial IPO raised $75 billion, which reached $86.2 billion after including the overallotment option.

In May of this year, Anthropic raised $65 billion at a valuation of $965 billion, and by the end of July, its revenue run rate reached $65 billion. In addition, the company is working with Morgan Stanley, Goldman Sachs, and JPMorgan to advance the IPO, and is considering adopting super-voting shares to grant CEO Dario Amodei and other co-founders greater control over the company. (BloomBerg)

Odaily News: At the Wyoming Blockchain Symposium, Payward Co-CEO Dave Ripley stated that trading, banking, and asset management are the company's three key strategic focuses. Banking services include payments, lending, yield, and custody, all of which Payward has already developed. Payward's subsidiary, Kraken Financial, has obtained a Special Purpose Depository Institution (SPDI) charter in Wyoming and, earlier this year, received a streamlined master account from the U.S. Federal Reserve, granting access to select central bank payment systems.

Odaily News – John Hoffman, Head of Product Portfolio at Ondo Finance, stated that the development trajectory of tokenized assets closely mirrors that of early ETFs: moving from initial skepticism and uncertainty toward broader market adoption.

Speaking at the Wyoming Blockchain Symposium 2026, Hoffman noted that the 33-year evolution of ETFs is highly similar to the current progression of the tokenization market. He believes the market is once again witnessing how a new technology gradually transforms the financial landscape.

Hoffman joined Ondo a little over two months ago, bringing 18 years of experience in traditional finance, including leading Invesco's Americas ETF business. He remarked that ETFs also faced similar skepticism in their early days—questions about technical viability and what problems they truly solved—questions that are now being raised in the tokenized asset space.

Ondo began offering tokenized U.S. Treasury products with the launch of OUSG in early 2023. The fund provides institutional investors with exposure to short-term U.S. government debt. Hoffman stated that Ondo's U.S. Treasury products currently hold approximately $2 billion in total locked value. (The Block)

Odaily News, Citrini analyst jukan stated on X platform that, according to informed sources, SK Hynix is advancing plans to invest trillions of KRW to build a memory chip wafer fab in Miyagi Prefecture in northeastern Japan. If realized, this would mark the first large-scale investment by a Korean semiconductor company establishing a local manufacturing base in Japan. As investment in Japan progresses, the United States is also expected to intensify pressure on Korean companies to expand memory chip production capacity in the U.S., further complicating future investment allocation decisions.

According to reports from South Korea's Hankyoreh on the 20th, SK hynix is seeking to build a memory chip wafer fab in Miyagi Prefecture, located in northeastern Honshu, Japan. A business insider said, "As far as I understand, SK Group Chairman Chey Tae-won recently visited the region in person." Miyagi Prefecture, along with Kyushu and Hokkaido, is one of three regions that the Japanese government plans to develop into major semiconductor industry hubs.

It is reported that the project's investment scale is expected to reach trillions of KRW. Compared with the hundreds of trillions of KRW invested in domestic semiconductor clusters in Yongin and the Honam region of Korea, the Japan plant will be a relatively smaller-scale production base. The Miyagi fab will serve as an additional overseas manufacturing site, while SK hynix will continue its planned domestic investments in the Yongin and Honam semiconductor clusters as originally scheduled. The plan appears aimed at proactively expanding production capacity amid the ongoing global memory chip shortage.

If realized, SK hynix would become the third foreign semiconductor company to operate semiconductor manufacturing facilities in Japan, following U.S.-based Micron and Taiwan's TSMC. Samsung Electronics currently operates only an advanced semiconductor packaging research center in Yokohama.

However, the investment also carries risks. The United States has been pressuring the Korean government and Korean companies to invest in memory chip wafer fabs on U.S. soil. If SK hynix moves forward with investment in Japan, Washington may further demand that it expand local production capacity in the U.S. Additionally, SK hynix must navigate domestic political uncertainties in Korea, as well as the social sensitivity surrounding investment in Japan for strategic industries such as semiconductors.

Odaily News: Bitcoin News stated on the X platform that the trading volume of Bitcoin spot ETFs exceeded $5.3 billion today, with BlackRock accounting for 83.5% of the total volume.

Odaily News According to Lorenzo Valente, Head of Digital Asset Research at investment firm ARK Invest, trading venues dedicated to Real World Assets (RWA) can scale with minimal reliance on Bitcoin and Ethereum liquidity, driving RWA liquidity to diverge by asset class.

On July 23, Valente stated that DeFi is entering a new phase. Data shows that RWA accounts for 54% of Hyperliquid's weekly trading volume, with individual stocks representing 61% of that RWA volume; decentralized exchanges recorded $79 billion in perpetual futures trading volume during the same period, with Hyperliquid accounting for $50 billion of that total.

Valente believes that if Trade.xyz accounts for 90% of Hyperliquid's trading volume, it could demand a higher share of user fees. Most popular applications will continue to rely on shared infrastructure, and only when the cost of operating independently exceeds the value of the liquidity, users, and security they rent will they consider building their own chain. (Bitcoin.com News)

Odaily News CME Group Chairman Terry Duffy, the operator of the world's largest futures exchange, and Luana Lopes Lara, co-founder of prediction market platform Kalshi, clashed verbally during a U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) roundtable in Washington. Duffy questioned whether prediction markets face the same regulatory scrutiny as established exchanges and noted that certain contracts could be subject to manipulation.

Terry Duffy stated that CME Group is not a "barker at the circus" and mocked some contracts offered by Kalshi, including the Nathan's Hot Dog Eating Contest contract. Luana Lopes Lara responded that traditional markets and exchanges carry risks as well and that regulators are responsible for identifying and addressing such issues. DraftKings CEO Jason Robins subsequently called on both sides to stop attacking each other's business models.

The dispute comes amid ongoing disagreements between federal regulators and states over the regulatory authority of prediction markets, with the central question being whether contracts involving sports, elections, and other real-world events are federally regulated derivatives or gambling products subject to state law. Last week, a Washington state judge ordered Kalshi to stop offering certain contracts. Two days ago, the CFTC instructed Kalshi to continue trading, pushing back against New York state's efforts to block its contracts. (Decrypt)

Odaily News: Brian Armstrong stated on the X platform that the world's first truly global economy is coming, and it's time to advance tokenization in the US. Coinbase has launched its non-US tokenized stock business. The US Securities and Exchange Commission and SEC Chairman Paul Atkins are making progress with the Reg Crypto announced this week and the Innovation Exemption expected to be unveiled soon. As these measures move forward, the Senate should follow suit and pass the Clarity Act in the fall to ensure long-term stability in US rules.

Odaily News: Brian Armstrong posted on X platform stating that another feature for AI agents has been launched. The first use case is Travala, where users can use common large language models to book over 2 million properties on Base using USDC. He expressed excitement to see more enterprises building on this foundation with AWS AgentCore and opening their services to the newest and fastest-growing consumer segment.

Odaily News - According to Odaily Meme Express monitoring, POU's market cap on BSC has surpassed $600,000.

CZ mentioned "A Crazy Idea for Token Issuance" in a post on March 1, and Proof Of Unlock aims to bring this concept to life.

Grok noted that Proof Of Unlock is built on FLAP contracts and Binance Agent OS, implementing the "Earn-to-Unlock" mechanism proposed by CZ, enabling automated management of token unlocks, buybacks, airdrops, burns, and LP.

Grok added that CZ's previously proposed "Earn-to-Unlock" mechanism includes: a 6-month waiting period, price reaching 2x for 30 consecutive days, and a maximum unlock of 5%; Binance Agent OS manages unlock supply, with 35% allocated to holder rewards, 30% burned, 25% for LP, and 10% for growth reserves.

"Meme Express" is curated by Odaily's exclusive AI model, screening high-potential community-discussed projects. Content is compiled based on public information and does not constitute investment advice. Please exercise your own judgment and be aware of the high volatility risks associated with Meme coins.

Odaily News, economist and Bitcoin critic Peter Schiff stated that Bitcoin's break above $72,000 is a "fakeout" rather than a genuine breakout. After the U.S. Treasury announced it would double the size of each bond buyback to $4 billion, Bitcoin's price rose from below $65,000 to over $71,000.

Schiff believes that the Treasury's buyback program has failed to prevent U.S. Treasury yields from continuing to rise, and may require expanding the buyback scale in the future, along with the Federal Reserve initiating a formal quantitative easing program. He advises investors to sell Bitcoin and buy gold. (Bitcoin.com News)