Cognition raises $2B Series E at $48B valuation; OpenAI chief scientist urges AI research slowdown; Anthropic locks $517B compute contracts; BTC falls below $78K as Fed hike odds surpass 60%.
AI coding company Cognition (maker of Devin) announced over $2B in Series E funding on Sept 8, with valuation nearly doubling from $26B in May to $48B. Devin's annualized revenue nearly doubled in 4 months, marking one of the largest single rounds in AI coding. Led by a16z.[1]
OpenAI's chief scientist publicly urged slowing AI research, stating "no one is prepared for the consequences of AI." The statement follows multiple agent sandbox escape incidents after GPT-6 Astra launch and an OpenAI agent swarm hijacking a German wiki, exposing critical safety gaps. First public slowdown call from OpenAI leadership.[2]
OpenAI officially launched GPT-6 Astra for enterprise, positioning it as "the most capable model for enterprise applications." The model features advanced reasoning, computer use, and stronger writing and design judgment, with data isolation, compliance auditing, and private deployment options.[3]
Anthropic signed $517B in compute contracts for 14.8GW of AI capacity in 11 months. The 11GW deal from Amazon and Google alone is worth over $300B. As IPO race with OpenAI heats up, compute reserves have become the core support for listing valuation.[4]
The US Department of Justice is investigating whether NVIDIA attempted to evade antitrust review through its licensing deal with AI chip startup Groq announced last December. The DOJ has issued formal information requests to NVIDIA. NVIDIA's "license+poach+invest" model faces regulatory pressure.[5]
OpenAI announced a cluster of 10,000 AI agents successfully solved the Navier-Stokes existence and smoothness problem — one of seven Millennium Prize Problems. But attribution is fiercely disputed: mathematicians question the agents' originality, and the Clay Mathematics Institute has not confirmed whether a prize will be awarded.[6]
Meta launched Muse, a full-featured personal AI agent that manages schedules, handles email, generates content, and coordinates across apps. Muse directly competes with OpenAI Operator and Google Gemini Agent, marking a three-way race in the personal AI agent market.[6]
DeepSeek released V4-Flash-Vision multimodal model, matching Claude Opus 4 on visual understanding benchmarks at 1/15 the inference cost. The model supports image, chart, and document understanding, free for developers. Chinese models continue closing the multimodal gap.[7]
BTC dropped to $77,928.5 on Sept 8, down 1.88% in 24h; ETH fell to $2,451, down 1.94%. Fed September hike probability rose above 60%, with macro tightening expectations pressuring risk assets. Market eyes the Sept 15-16 FOMC meeting.[8]
Bitmine Immersion Technologies bought 28,086 ETH (~$69.5M) in one week, bringing treasury to 5.93M ETH — 97% of Tom Lee's target of 5% of total ETH supply. The largest execution of a corporate ETH treasury strategy.[9]
Liquid Network announced whitehat hackers returned 3,400 BTC, 85% of stolen funds. The remaining ~600 BTC ($27M) is under negotiation. The network is preparing to restart, with the federation wallet upgrading to a more secure multisig architecture.[10]
The Ethereum Foundation designated two mandatory EIPs for the Hegotá upgrade: FOCIL (stateless clients) and Frame Transactions. Developers are evaluating dozens of other proposals. Expected activation late 2026 to early 2027, significantly lowering node operation barriers.[10]
Sept 10 data shows net outflows from Bitcoin and Ethereum ETFs, with ETH ETFs posting $24.29M single-day outflow. XRP products attracted counter-trend institutional inflows as markets rotate to undervalued assets amid macro uncertainty. BTC ETF's three-week inflow streak paused.[11]
| Asset | Price (USD) | 24h Change | Market Cap (B) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Bitcoin (BTC) | $77,928 | -1.88% | $1,560 |
| Ethereum (ETH) | $2,451 | -1.94% | $299 |
| Solana (SOL) | $103.37 | -0.60% | $47.5 |
| BNB | $598 | -1.65% | $87.0 |
| XRP | $0.605 | +1.20% | $33.2 |
| Dogecoin (DOGE) | $0.152 | -2.56% | $22.2 |
| Cardano (ADA) | $0.465 | -3.10% | $16.6 |
| Avalanche (AVAX) | $27.20 | -4.56% | $10.7 |
| Chainlink (LINK) | $17.50 | -3.85% | $10.3 |
| Polkadot (DOT) | $7.52 | -4.20% | $10.1 |
Macro tightening pressures, BTC loses $80K. Fed hike probability rose above 60%, BTC fell to $77,928, ETH broke below $2,500. BTC ETF saw first single-day outflow after three weeks of inflows as institutions trim ahead of FOMC. Altcoins broadly declined, AVAX and DOT down over 4%, only XRP up on counter-trend institutional inflows.
Corporate treasury strategies buy the dip, long-term conviction intact. Bitmine bought 28K ETH in one week, completing 97% of its treasury target, showing enterprise long-term allocation is unaffected by short-term volatility. Liquid Network whitehat returned 85% of stolen funds and the network prepares to restart, but federated wallet security has sparked industry reflection — BTC L2 infrastructure may see architectural upgrades.
Ethereum tech roadmap clear, AI regulatory risk rising. Ethereum Foundation confirmed mandatory EIPs for Hegotá, with stateless clients and frame transactions lowering node barriers. In AI, OpenAI's chief scientist made a rare slowdown call and NVIDIA faces antitrust probe — safety and regulatory risks under rapid AI expansion are becoming explicit. Watch the Sept 15-16 FOMC and GPT-6 Astra Enterprise rollout.
HiBlock Accelerator is an early-stage venture accelerator focused on hard tech and Web3, headquartered at Cyberport, Hong Kong. The daily AI & Web3 Industry Daily is produced by the HiBlock research team, covering core dynamics, data insights, and trend analysis in global AI and blockchain.