Bitcoin Shortsellers Get Destroyed With $1.7B in Positions Liquidated Following BTC Price Jump
Bitcoin short positions totaling $1.7 billion were liquidated following a price increase on Wednesday. Traders betting on price declines had their positions closed automatically.
U.S. critical mineral strategy depends on battery recycling
Battery recycling and domestic processing of critical minerals like lithium, nickel, cobalt, and manganese are essential to reducing U.S. dependence on China's control of battery supply chains. The strategy requires combining recycling, processing, refinement, and allied partnerships rather than relying on mining alone.
Are underwater data centers sustainable for AI infrastructure?
Underwater data centers are being explored as alternatives to traditional land-based facilities to improve cooling efficiency and reduce freshwater consumption for AI infrastructure. However, moving servers underwater creates new environmental concerns for marine ecosystems while failing to address underlying energy consumption and carbon emission challenges.
Google packs Search and Gemini with new AI study tools
Google added AI-powered study tools to Search and Gemini, including flashcard generation and practice question features. The new tools help students create learning materials and test their understanding across multiple subjects.
Meta launched a Mac app to put its AI to work for businesses
Meta released a Mac app for its AI chatbot that can observe screen windows and answer questions about their contents. The app also supports dictation across other applications and targets business and creator users.
Researchers say OpenAI revoked their access to limited cyber program
OpenAI revoked researchers' access to its Trusted Access for Cyber program, which provided trusted security defenders with advanced models to identify and report vulnerabilities to companies. The program was designed to accelerate bug discovery and patching by giving defenders early access to better AI models.
Uber’s first European AV rides go live in Zagreb, with a safety driver
Autonomous vehicle rides began operating in Zagreb, Croatia through Uber in partnership with Pony.ai and Verne. The self-driving cars require a safety driver present in the vehicle.
Samsung hiked foundry prices up to 15%, with China paying the steepest
Samsung increased foundry prices by up to 15 percent for new chip orders following surging demand for AI chips. The price hikes affected customers in China most severely, according to people familiar with the matter.
Meta AI Comes to Mac With Screen Sharing and Business Account Access
Meta AI launched a standalone Mac app on August 19, 2026, enabling screen sharing and access to Instagram, Facebook professional accounts, and analytics tools. The chatbot can now connect to Meta's advertising tools and Google Workspace for business users and creators.
Prevalent AI Raises $22M to Scale Trusted Enterprise Context for AI Systems
Prevalent AI, a London-based company, raised $22 million in growth capital from Integrity Growth Partners, marking its first primary outside investment in nine years. The funding addresses enterprises' need to ensure AI systems have reliable organizational data and context for dependable decision-making.
Waymo Brings Gemini Assistant Into Its Custom Ojai Robotaxis
Waymo integrated Google's Gemini AI assistant into its custom Ojai robotaxis on August 19, 2026, allowing passengers to control cabin features and access information through voice commands. Riders activate Gemini by pressing an on-screen icon while the Waymo Driver autonomous system manages driving operations.
Meet the startup helping Wall Street put a price on AI compute
A startup is creating a market mechanism for pricing AI compute resources and allowing firms to hedge against price fluctuations. The company addresses a gap where hundreds of billions of dollars flow annually into data centers and GPUs, yet no standardized pricing method exists for this critical infrastructure cost.
Bitcoin Tops $68,000 as Short Liquidations Hit $1.7 Billion
Bitcoin rose above $68,000 while $1.7 billion in short positions were liquidated across cryptocurrency markets. Ether increased 9% and the overall crypto market value grew 5.1%, with short liquidations representing 91% of total liquidations that day.
President Trump To Host Crypto Execs at White House
President Trump plans to host cryptocurrency executives at the White House following a stalled vote on the Clarity Act. The meeting addresses recent legislative delays in cryptocurrency regulation.
Natural Secures $100M Credit Facility to Fund Credit and Payments for AI Agents
Natural secured a $100 million credit facility from Upper90 Capital Management to fund payments and credit products for AI agents. This debt financing arrives one month after the company closed a $30 million Series A round in August 2026.
Grok 4.6 Is Now Generally Available on Amazon Bedrock
Grok 4.6 became generally available on Amazon Bedrock on August 19, 2026, priced at $2 per million input tokens and $6 per million output tokens. The model offers a 500,000-token context window and four configurable reasoning effort settings across every AWS Region.
HMRC Reportedly Sends Out Over 80,000 Letters Warning Crypto Investors to Pay Their Taxes
HMRC sent 81,000 warning letters to crypto investors over 12 months regarding potential underpayment of taxes. This represents an increase from 65,000 letters sent in the previous year.
Razorpay Introduces AI Payments Foundation Model with Amazon Web Services (AWS)
Razorpay launched Vulcan, a transformer-based AI foundation model designed specifically for payments in India, developed with NVIDIA and AWS. The system targets improvements in reliability, security, and efficiency for digital transactions across India's payments infrastructure.
Bitcoin Blasts Past $68,000 After US Treasury Doubles Debt Buybacks
Bitcoin surged nearly 3% to exceed $68,000 following the U.S. Treasury's announcement to more than double government debt repurchases. The price reached $68,473 at 10:30am New York time after briefly touching $68,982.
Bitcoin’s Volatility May Be Down But Expect a ‘Meaningful Move’ Soon, Says Fidelity
Bitcoin's volatility has decreased, leading analysts to expect a significant price movement soon. Fidelity suggests the current low volatility period typically precedes meaningful market moves in the cryptocurrency.
Crypto Long & Short: Where DeFi yield really comes from (and why it broke this spring)
DeFi yield strategies quietly stopped working during April's $13 billion drawdown, accounting for most losses rather than hacks. Allocators need to ask four specific questions about yield sustainability before committing capital, as headline yield numbers reveal little about performance under stress.
Ripple Price Analysis: XRP Reclaims $1 as Sellers Show Early Signs of Exhaustion
XRP reclaimed the $1 price level as sellers demonstrated early signs of exhaustion in short-term trading. The cryptocurrency remains within a broader bearish structure while approaching an important demand area below the $1 psychological level.
Coffee drinkers have less fat, more muscle, and surprising hormone differences
Regular coffee consumption was associated with less total and abdominal fat along with greater muscle mass, even among people with similar BMIs. Higher coffee intake correlated with lower levels of amino acids linked to insulin resistance and type 2 diabetes risk.
The Download: AI’s self-improvement problem, and what’s driving the heat
AI systems may not achieve recursive self-improvement as quickly as the industry predicts. The AI sector's current premise relies on the assumption that artificial intelligence will soon autonomously enhance itself with minimal human involvement.
Tiny quantum engines reveal useful energy hiding in “waste heat”
Researchers developed a theoretical framework showing how tiny quantum engines made from atoms and light particles can extract useful work from waste heat. The framework reconciles quantum physics with thermodynamics at microscopic scales where these light engines operate.
Pollen has a surprising problem — and honeybees have found a way around it
Honeybees detect nutrient imbalances in pollen and adjust their consumption to avoid harmful excesses. They transform pollen into nutritionally balanced food for larvae, demonstrating sophisticated management of essential nutrients inside the hive.
SEC Unveils Two Crypto Funding Exemptions and Token Safe Harbor
The SEC proposed two exemptions for cryptocurrency funding and a conditional safe harbor for tokens with specific disclosure requirements. The proposals include a 60-day public comment period.
Flock Has a Powerful New AI Tool for Police. We Got Its Code
Flock's next-generation AI system analyzes surveillance footage to identify individuals and vehicles beyond simple license plate tracking. The reconstructed system is already deployed by some police departments for expanded surveillance capabilities.
16 mummies and a dog reveal a hidden order inside an ancient Egyptian tomb
Sixteen mummified people, at least four additional remains, and a mummified dog were discovered in an Egyptian tomb showing burial practices spanning hundreds of years. The tomb contained wealthy individuals in coffins with amulets and imported goods alongside later bodies carefully stacked in increasingly crowded spaces.
Japanese scientists use tiny silver particles to make DNA assembly up to 5x more efficient
Silver nanoparticles precisely slice DNA and create longer sticky ends, enabling genetic fragments to join up to five times more efficiently than conventional methods. This technique could simplify construction of large DNA sequences for gene therapies, cancer vaccines, engineered drugs, and advanced crops.