According to BlockBeats, citing three sources familiar with the matter, U.S. negotiators encountered a problem in mid-May when attempting to reach an agreement with Iran to end the war: they were unsure whether the Iranian representatives across the negotiating table truly represented the powerful Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC). Therefore, Trump administration officials took an unusual approach—bypassing Iranian negotiators and contacting senior IRGC officials directly.

The US chose Nechirvan Barzani, the president of the Iraqi Kurdistan Region, to head this secret communication channel. He possessed a rare advantage: the trust of both the US and the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps leadership. A major reason for the difficulties in US-Iran negotiations was Washington's uncertainty about who truly held decision-making power in Iran. Although the US and Iran did eventually reach a memorandum of understanding, it quickly broke down.

BlockBeats reported on August 16 that Bits of Gold, Israel's largest licensed cryptocurrency exchange, suffered a data breach, with hackers stealing the personal data of approximately 200,000 customers—almost equivalent to the platform's entire user base. Bits of Gold was the first cryptocurrency company in Israel to obtain a license to provide virtual asset services, receiving regulatory approval in September 2022.

The specific data types leaked have not yet been disclosed, but crypto brokers typically collect large amounts of identity information in accordance with KYC regulations, including government-issued identification documents, proof of address, and financial information. The leaked data could be used for phishing, SIM card hijacking, and social engineering attacks. Bits of Gold was also approved to issue the BILS stablecoin, pegged 1:1 to the Israeli shekel, in April of this year.

According to BlockBeats, on August 16th, OnchainLens monitoring revealed that a whale that had been dormant for two years suddenly became active, borrowing 816,400 WETH from Morpho and Spark for arbitrage trading, worth approximately $153.6 million. This transaction generated $1.88 in revenue, incurred $1.53 in transaction fees, and ultimately resulted in a net profit of only $0.36.