The Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB) in the United States is advancing a proposal that outlines under what circumstances certain digital assets may qualify as “cash equivalents” according to the current definition, and requires companies to disclose the categories and amounts of significant cash equivalents. The project page indicates that the board has completed preliminary discussions and has instructed staff to draft an update to the accounting standards. A 90-day comment period is also planned. Market reports on August 18 focused on stablecoins, but this is still just a comment-gathering process and does not mean that all stablecoins can be classified as cash in financial statements.

According to reports from CoinDesk, Decrypt, and Cointelegraph on August 18th, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) proposed new regulations for crypto assets, aiming to provide a safe harbor and registration exemptions for certain token issuances, and to clarify under what conditions tokens are no longer bound to the initial "investment contracts." The proposal is still in the discussion and public comment phase and has not yet become final regulations. It also cannot replace market structure legislation that may be passed by Congress; therefore, project parties should not consider these reports as an obtained issuance license at this time.

According to reports from The Associated Press and Axios, Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro signed an executive order on August 18th to tighten the conditions for data center projects to receive state government support. The new measures move data center projects out of the fast-track licensing process and require developers to bear their own electricity costs, to provide details on their power supply plans and water efficiency, as well as to increase the involvement of local communities and the requirements for information disclosure. The executive order does not completely suspend new projects, but it will make it more difficult for speculative projects that lack electricity, financing, or end-users to obtain government facilitation and tax incentives.

Foreign media reports that BTC and ETH are approaching the edge of key ranges, DOGE remains weak, and XRP has fallen below $1, suggesting that the market may be on the verge of a new round of direction choices.

US media reports that American brands have begun to use advertisements to mock the water consumption issues of the AI data centers, reflecting an ongoing expansion of disputes regarding water usage, energy consumption, and community impact of these projects.