According to BlockBeats, on August 15th, ABFinance, a crypto finance platform founded by former Bybit co-CEO Helen Liu, announced that its planned launch will no longer proceed and it is currently undergoing an orderly shutdown.

ABFinance expressed its gratitude on social media to all team members, community users and partners involved in the project, saying, "Thank you for your trust, support and belief along the way."

In March of this year, after leaving Bybit, Helen Liu announced the launch of her startup project ABFinance, which aims to create a one-stop financial platform connecting fiat currency and crypto assets, integrating functions such as deposits, returns, trading, and consumption. She also emphasized that from day one, it will be built under the US compliance and licensing system.

According to previous reports, Bybit announced that Helen Liu will step down on April 30, 2026, to embark on her own entrepreneurial journey.

However, only about five months after ABFinance announced its project plans, the platform announced it was ceasing operations and entering a shutdown process. The official reason for the shutdown has not yet been disclosed.

According to BlockBeats, on August 15th, Binance research data shows that Generation Z investors are gradually shifting towards long-term asset allocation tools such as ETFs. Compared to Millennials, Generation X, and Baby Boomers, they trade less frequently and have a weaker preference for leverage.

Data shows that in early August, ETFs accounted for 25% of stock trading volume among Generation Z users. In July, ETFs accounted for 21.9% of the net stock inflows among Generation Z, up from 18.5% in June; during the same period, the proportion of individual stock investments decreased from 77% to 74.2%.

Binance research analyzed trading activity across direct equities, tokenized equities, and traditional financial perpetual contracts. Data showed that Generation Z exhibited lower trading activity across all three asset classes compared to other working-age groups.

Among them, Gen Z traditional financial perpetual contract accounts trade an average of 13 times per month, lower than Millennials' 17 times and Gen X's 16.5 times. In direct stock accounts, 22% of Gen Z users have never sold stocks, higher than Gen X's 19% and Baby Boomers' 9%.

Among Gen Z accounts that bought but did not sell, the assets with the highest cumulative purchase amount included Broadcom, Tesla, and Charles Schwab U.S. High Dividend ETF.

Regarding leveraged products, Generation Z exhibits a lower risk appetite. Data shows that 88.2% of Generation Z's traditional financial perpetual contract accounts have never traded leveraged or inverse ETFs, higher than Millennials' 84.5% and Generation X's 85.9%.

Furthermore, the tokenized stock market continues to expand. Data shows that Binance's bStocks recently briefly surpassed Kraken's xStocks to become the world's second-largest tokenized stock issuance platform. As of the latest data, Ondo Finance ranks first with a tokenized stock value of approximately $972 million, while xStocks and bStocks are valued at approximately $611 million and $580 million, respectively.

According to BlockBeats, on August 15th, Morgan Stanley downgraded Circle (CRCL) stock from "Hold" to "Underweight" on August 3rd, and significantly lowered its target price from $106 to $38. Analysts stated that the downgrade was primarily due to the contraction in USDC circulation, exposing Circle's high sensitivity to reserve revenue.

At the same time, the company's business structure is shifting towards a lower-margin transaction revenue model. The report also lowered Circle's USDC size forecasts for 2027 and 2028 by approximately 33% and 44%, respectively, and expects the company's GAAP earnings per share to be approximately 3% and 20% lower than the market consensus.

However, Morgan Stanley's latest 13F filing shows that as of June 30, its holdings of Circle shares increased significantly from approximately 1.46 million shares to 8.32 million shares, indicating a clear increase in its holdings during the second quarter.

This means that while Morgan Stanley publicly downgraded Circle's rating and target price in early August, signaling a cautious stance, its publicly disclosed holdings as of the end of the second quarter showed a significant increase. It's important to note that the 13F filing only reflects holdings as of June 30th and cannot reflect whether positions were adjusted before or after the August rating downgrade. The market's focus is on the significant discrepancy between the institution's research views and its historical holdings disclosures.

According to BlockBeats, on August 15, Serenity responded to recent market rumors about its account "going to zero" by posting a message and sharing pictures, saying that the relevant claims were "too exaggerated" and that after the sharp adjustment in the AI sector in July, its year-to-date return (YTD) still remained at 2411.84%.

Previously, Serenity had publicly stated that the sharp drop in AI-related stocks in July caused its portfolio to experience a drawdown of approximately 49.4%. Its holdings were mainly concentrated in key segments of AI infrastructure, including highly volatile sectors such as storage, optical communication, robotics, and upstream semiconductors.

Serenity has long focused on the "bottleneck links" in the AI industry chain. It has previously conducted research on memory, photonics, CPO and semiconductor supply chains, and has gained market attention for betting on AI infrastructure-related targets.