JUST IN: 🇨🇳 China’s Zhipu AI reportedly matches Anthropic’s Claude Mythos in security bug detection performance​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​.

WSJ: “China Has Matched Anthropic in Cybersecurity, Resetting AI Race” China’s Zhipu AI, has matched Anthropic’s Mythos in certain benchmarks, such as exploiting cybersecurity bugs. Well, that’s not good. Instead of blaming the administration which did the correct thing… Anthropic’s clearly at fault for not setting enough guardrails to prevent distillation. Even before Fable release there were a lot of rumors that China had backdoors to distill it. Part of it is the trillions of capex to accelerate the AI moat. And the second part is not handing that work over on a silver platter for millions in API calls.

FT: CHINA’S MINISTRY OF COMMERCE HAS DISCUSSED WITH AI COMPANIES, INCLUDING ALIBABA, BYTEDANCE, AND ZHIPU AI, POSSIBLE RESTRICTIONS ON THE OVERSEAS TRANSFER OF KEY DATA USED TO TRAIN AI MODELS, AS WELL AS ON FOREIGN USERS DOWNLOADING MODEL WEIGHTS. HOWEVER, CHINA PLANS TO CONTINUE ALLOWING OVERSEAS CUSTOMERS TO ACCESS THESE MODELS AND SERVICES.

Chinese AI labs are catching up quickly, with recently released GLM-5.2 and Meituan releasing LongCat-2.0 (trained and run entirely on domestic chips). Recently, a group of U.S. AI researchers traveled to China to get a firsthand look at the country’s fast-moving AI ecosystem. During the trip, they visited AI labs and companies across Beijing, Hangzhou, and Shanghai, meeting with teams from Alibaba, Moonshot AI, Zhipu AI, Tsinghua University, Meituan, Xiaomi, Qwen, Ant Group, and Nathan Lambert @natolambert , a prominent AI researcher known for his work on RLHF and open-source AI, joined the trip. What did someone who has spent years at the front lines of America’s open-model movement see when he stepped inside China’s AI labs? How is the competition between the United States and China changing? And what does the next phase of the global AI race look like? In this episode of Silicon Valley 101, we flew to Seattle and sit down with Nathan to talk about what he learned in China — and where he believes the AI world is heading next. English version: Chinese subtitle version:

Merkle3s Weekly Recap: FOMC strips dovish language as Warsh makes a hawkish debut; STRC preferred stock depeg serves as a wake-up call for the yield-bearing stablecoin model; Solana tokenized equities hit $188M in 24h volume ATH, RWA enters the composable phase 1️⃣ Macro: FOMC Holds Rates Steady, Hawkish Tilt ➡️ The June 17–18 FOMC held rates at 3.50%–3.75% in a unanimous 12–0 vote — Warsh's debut meeting. The statement stripped some rate-cut language, the dot plot narrowed full-year easing expectations, and some desks are now pricing in a December hike (~66% probability) ➡️ May headline CPI printed 4.2% YoY (a three-year high), driven by the energy shock; core CPI came in at a softer +0.2% MoM. Unemployment held at 4.3%, with the labor market still resilient ➡️ Near-term implications: dollar strength persists, risk-asset valuations face compression, and crypto liquidity tightens at the margin 2️⃣ STRC Depeg: Yield-Bearing Stablecoin Model Under Pressure ➡️ Strategy's perpetual preferred stock $STRC dropped to roughly $92 (par $100), soft-pegged to the 99–101 range via a floating dividend (annualized ~11.5%). It is equity, not debt — yield depends on BTC appreciation and continued issuance capacity ➡️ DeFi protocol Saturn Credit built structured products on top of STRC (USDat + sUSDat), accumulating $245M in TVL. During the depeg, the junior tranche took the hit while senior holders' yield continued uninterrupted — a genuine stress test for the yield-bearing stablecoin model 3️⃣ Onchain US Stock RWA: Solana Emerges as the Faster Horse ➡️ Backpack and Sunrise issued 1:1 real-equity-backed tokenized stock SPCX on Solana, with 24h volume hitting $108M — pushing Solana's total tokenized equity 24h volume to a new ATH of $187.9M. The setup supports seamless Solana ↔ Nasdaq transfers and underlying security redemption ➡️ Lending integration followed fast: Kamino commands ~40% of the RWA lending market, ahead of Aave; Magpie accepts tokenized stock collateral for SOL loans with terms extending to 30 days. Solana RWA TVL has crossed $3B ➡️ AAVE and Venus announced tokenized-stock-backed lending. Synapse ethereum:0x0f2d719407fdbeff09d87557abb7232601fd9f29 ripped ~900% from lows, fueled by its pivot to Hypercall — an options exchange built on Hyperliquid 4️⃣ Hyperliquid Expands into HK Stocks, AI Assets Move Onchain ➡️ Trade xyz launched a perpetual on Hong Kong-listed Zhipu AI via HIP-3. Zhipu spiked nearly 50% intraday on June 15–16 (closing +33%), with HK$5.2B in turnover, catalyzed by the GLM-5.2 release and JPMorgan raising its target price to HK$1,400 ➡️ HIP-3 equity perps crossed $18B in cumulative volume in the first half of the month; SPCX peaked at $1.4–1.7B in a single day; single-market daily fees hit $1–2M at peak 5️⃣ Market Data and Narrative Evolution ➡️ bitcoin:native sits at roughly $65,600, up 5.9% on the week but down 16% on the month. Total crypto market cap at ~$2.23T, Fear & Greed Index at 23 (Extreme Fear), BTC dominance at 58% ➡️ Narrative progression: BTC Treasury → yield-bearing stablecoins → US stock RWA → AI assets onchain. Liquidity pressure from the Fed's hawkish stance is beginning to show ➡️ Watch list: STRC risk contagion, tokenized stock lending ecosystem expansion, and the sustainability of AI assets moving onchain