PROVIDENCIALES, Turks and Caicos Islands, Aug. 5, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — As the digital asset industry enters a more mature and selective phase, the role of crypto exchanges is expanding beyond trade execution. Liquidity and product breadth remain fundamental, but security, transparency, regulatory readiness, infrastructure resilience and real-world utility are becoming increasingly important measures of long-term competitiveness.

Against this backdrop, CoinGecko Research has released the KuCoin Exchange Report, providing an independent assessment of KuCoin’s nine-year evolution and its performance during the first half of 2026. Released alongside KuCoin’s ninth anniversary, the report examines how KuCoin has evolved from a crypto exchange focused on token access into a trusted digital asset infrastructure serving more than 45 million users worldwide, while reflecting the broader transformation taking place across the digital asset industry.

The report highlights KuCoin’s continued expansion beyond transaction execution, particularly across payments and broader crypto utility. During H1 2026, KuCoin’s off-chain payment volume increased by 300%, payment orders grew approximately 25-fold, and its network of service partners and merchants expanded by 60%. On-chain payment activity also recorded rapid growth, reflecting increasing demand for practical digital asset use cases beyond trading.

CoinGecko Research identifies three key trends shaping KuCoin’s market activity during H1 2026: resilient derivatives participation, broader trading interest and continued expansion into tokenized markets.

First, derivatives activity remained comparatively resilient despite a more cautious market environment. KuCoin recorded average daily trading volumes of $1.99 billion in spot markets and $3.07 billion in perpetual futures. Weekday and weekend perpetual trading volumes differed by only 9.4%, indicating sustained participation in a continuously operating global market and reinforcing the importance of reliable, always-on trading infrastructure.

Second, trading activity became increasingly diversified. BTC and ETH’s combined share among KuCoin’s top 18 spot trading pairs declined from 74.3% to 45.2% by the end of June. CoinGecko Research links this shift to faster rotation across altcoins and emerging market narratives, highlighting the growing need for exchanges to combine deep liquidity in major assets with the agility to respond to rapidly evolving user demand.

The report also points to tokenized markets as an important area of product evolution. Between January 1 and July 29, approximately 61% of newly launched perpetual contracts on KuCoin were tokenized stocks or equity indices, reflecting growing demand for round-the-clock access to traditional market themes through crypto-native infrastructure.

Taken together, the report suggests that exchange competitiveness is increasingly defined by more than trading volume alone. As the industry matures, market depth, resilient infrastructure, regulatory readiness, transparency, product relevance and real-world utility are becoming the defining characteristics of long-term leadership.

CoinGecko Research concludes that KuCoin’s nine-year evolution reflects a broader industry transition—from facilitating access to digital assets toward building trusted infrastructure that supports long-term participation in the digital asset economy.

Read the full KuCoin Exchange Report.

About KuCoin

Founded in 2017, KuCoin is a leading global crypto platform built on trust and security, serving over 45 million users across 200+ countries and regions. Known for its reliability and user-first approach, the platform combines advanced technology, deep liquidity, and strong security safeguards to deliver a seamless trading experience. KuCoin provides access to 1,500+ digital assets through a broad product suite and remains committed to building transparent, compliant, and user-centric digital asset infrastructure for the future of finance, backed by SOC 2 Type II, ISO/IEC 27001:2022, and ISO/IEC 27701:2019 Certifications. In recent years, we have built a strong global compliance foundation, marked by key milestones including AUSTRAC registration in Australia, a MiCA license in Europe, and regulatory progress in other markets.

Learn more at www.kucoin.com.

Multi-year strategic partnership will advance global operations for one of the world’s largest food and beverage companies to accelerate growth and enhance customer service. 

GREEN BAY, WI, and BASKING RIDGE, NJ, Aug. 5, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — Schreiber Foods and Ascendion today announced a multi-year strategic partnership to transform Schreiber’s global operations and software development using agentic AI, advancing the company’s vision to do good through food. Through this partnership, Ascendion will equip Schreiber’s capability centers with AI-native technology to fuel sustainable growth and accelerate innovation across more than 40 locations on five continents.

As a trusted food and beverage supplier to the world’s leading retailers, restaurants, distributors, and food manufacturers, Schreiber’s products feed families in more than 95 countries and its global IT capability centers serve more than 10,000 employee-partners worldwide.

“To fuel Schreiber’s next era of rapid growth, we are taking a bold, transformational leap forward in how we operate and serve our customers,” said Trevor Farrell, President of Schreiber Foods. “By leaning into next-generation, agentic AI with Ascendion, we are reinforcing the very foundation of what our customers rely on us for: world-class quality, safety, and service. This technology will empower our employee-partners, accelerate our innovation, and allow us to deliver even greater impact at scale.”

Through the partnership, AI agents will help Schreiber and Ascendion teams get quality and food safety signals to decision-makers faster, modernize the ERP environment, and give regional teams a more unified way to collaborate. Over time, repetitive, high-volume technology work will increasingly be performed by AI agents, freeing Schreiber’s engineers and analysts to focus on work that requires human judgment and creativity. Ascendion’s proprietary Engineering to the Power of AI method and tools will balance work across people and AI to ensure security, privacy, compliance, and ethical alignment.

For Ascendion, the engagement reflects what Chief Executive Officer Karthik Krishnamurthy described as a special kind of responsibility. “Schreiber Foods’ mission is one of the most consequential out there. We are honored to deploy technology that helps Schreiber bring food to people all over the world,” Krishnamurthy said. “Schreiber leaders recognize the impact that can be unlocked by AI-native operations across their global network. It’s a bold vision built on a powerful foundation of success, and we’re thrilled to bring the full power of AI to this partnership.”

Technology is at the core of the partnership. Schreiber has deployed multiple AI tools, and the Ascendion partnership builds on that foundation. Ascendion will leverage AAVA, its proprietary agentic AI platform, to accelerate AI across capability center workflows, drive accelerated decisions on the plant floor, provide stronger traceability across geographies, and lower the technology cost base while increasing operational resilience for the next phase of growth.

“AI is a significant driver of transformation, but its real strength lies in how it empowers our people,” said Sri Kantamneni, Executive Vice President, Chief Information & Digital Officer at Schreiber Foods. “Through this strategic collaboration with Ascendion, we’re equipping our capability centers with AI-native tools that elevate our internal service and operational standards. By giving our employee-partners better, smarter tools to work with, we enable them to focus less on manual processes and more on driving customer success and accelerating our growth.”

“We’re accountable for outcomes, not effort,” added Dharam Gurbani, Chief Growth Officer at Ascendion. “What changes for Schreiber Foods’ plants, customers, and consumers is the only scorecard that matters. Our partnership will re-set expectations for velocity, efficiency, and operational excellence across capability centers in the United States, Mexico, India, Spain, and Poland. We are grateful for the trust Schreiber is putting in Ascendion, and we’re excited to accelerate toward the future.”

To know more about the Schreiber collaboration, click here.

About Schreiber Foods

Schreiber Foods strives to do good through food every day. Based in North America, Schreiber is an employee-owned, customer-brand leader in cream cheese, natural cheese, process cheese, beverages and yogurt. Its more than 10,000 employees and presence on five continents enable Schreiber to be an essential ingredient in its customers’ success. With annual sales of more than $7 billion, Schreiber partners with the best retailers, restaurants, distributors and food manufacturers around the globe. Schreiber also recognizes its responsibility to do good in the world and is driven to make a difference in everything it does.

About Ascendion

Ascendion is an AI-native software engineering company that partners with global enterprises to drive agentic transformation across how they build, modernize, and operate software. AAVA™, Ascendion’s proprietary agentic AI platform, brings expert engineers and AI agents together as one operating model, closing the last mile between ambition and outcome and turning velocity into measurable business results. The result: faster time-to-market and value that compounds over time. Find out more at www.ascendion.com.

Engineering to the Power of AI and AAVA are trademarks or service marks of Ascendion^®. AAVA™ is pending registration. Unauthorized use is strictly prohibited.

YIWU, China, Aug. 5, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — An increasing number of content creators from around the world are traveling to Yiwu to explore wholesale markets and host livestream shopping sessions, reflecting the city’s growing role in cross-border e-commerce.

Backed by one of the world’s most comprehensive small commodities supply chains, around-the-clock livestreaming infrastructure and steadily expanding foreign trade, Yiwu is providing creators from China and abroad with new opportunities to monetize content while helping merchants reach overseas consumers.

In July, leading influencers and international student creators from several countries independently launched livestream shopping activities across Yiwu International Trade City eight major markets, demonstrating a business model that is attracting growing participation.

Creators from Southeast Asia, Europe and the Middle East—including TikTok influencers with followings in the tens of millions, French niche creators and Indian cross-border content producers—have been visiting Yiwu’s wholesale markets to produce short-form videos. Collectively, they reach an audience of more than 40 million followers, while bilingual content generated during these visits has attracted over 10 million views and contributed to a growing number of overseas sourcing inquiries.

Recent campaigns have also produced measurable commercial results. Indonesian livestream host Rami gained more than 80,000 followers within just over 10 days of launching content from the Yiwu Global Digital Trade Center. A jewelry merchant featured in her livestreams reported additional revenue of RMB 20,000 to 30,000 per session. In another case, a Malaysian creator generated more than RMB 200,000 in sales during a single livestream featuring a silver jewelry store, prompting the merchant to pursue a longer-term collaboration.

The trend is also gaining traction among Chinese content creators. Over the past two months, more than 300 influencers from a wide range of content categories have independently visited Yiwu’s eight major wholesale markets, touring over 1,370 source manufacturers and wholesale booths. Together, they produced 305 industry-focused videos that generated more than 128 million views and led to over 8,000 verified sourcing inquiries.

The content spans more than 20 of Yiwu’s key manufacturing sectors, including AI-powered devices, collectible toys, beauty products, outdoor equipment, imported home furnishings, fashion accessories and toys.

Yiwu has also expanded its livestreaming ecosystem to better accommodate international audiences.

The Global Digital Trade Center has introduced a “Starlight Livestream” initiative, under which nearly 700 merchants extend their business hours into the early morning to align with peak online shopping hours in Europe, North America and Southeast Asia.

The arrangement allows overseas creators to broadcast in real time from wholesale markets while their target audiences are online. Supported by integrated dropshipping services, creators can promote products without maintaining inventory or operating warehouses, while merchants fulfill orders directly. Revenue is generated through commission-based partnerships, allowing both merchants and creators to scale up sales with relatively low upfront costs.

According to participating merchants, collaborations with overseas content creators have helped expand their international customer reach, enabling them to connect directly with overseas buyers through livestreaming without relying solely on overseas trade exhibitions. More than 87% of surveyed merchants said they are interested in establishing long-term partnerships with international creators.

The growth of creator-led cross-border commerce has been supported by Yiwu’s strong foreign trade performance.

In the first half of 2026, the city’s exports reached RMB 420.7 billion, up 17.3% year on year. Cross-border e-commerce transaction value exceeded RMB 100 billion for the first time in a six-month period, an increase of 11.25% from a year earlier. Yiwu’s supply network spans 26 major product categories and more than 2.1 million product lines, enabling merchants to respond quickly to changing market demand.

Yiwu continues to expand its support services for content creators, including free livestreaming venues, multilingual AI-powered editing tools and integrated cross-border logistics solutions, making it easier for overseas creators to establish and operate livestream-based businesses.

The growing number of collaborations between creators and merchants suggests that the combination of localized digital content and Yiwu’s manufacturing and supply chain ecosystem is becoming an increasingly important driver of cross-border e-commerce.

Rather than requiring significant upfront investment, creators can produce localized livestreams and short-form videos from Yiwu’s wholesale markets while relying on the city’s extensive supplier network and dropshipping capabilities. Merchants, in turn, gain greater exposure to overseas consumers and new business opportunities through creator partnerships.

As cross-border e-commerce continues to expand, Yiwu is positioning itself as a hub where manufacturers, merchants and content creators can collaborate within an integrated livestream commerce ecosystem, creating new opportunities for international trade.

SEOUL, South Korea, Aug. 5, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — Digital travel platform Agoda and the Global Sustainable Tourism Council (GSTC) jointly announce the expansion of the Sustainable Tourism Academy into South Korea with full Korean language support.

The milestone comes as the Academy celebrates its first anniversary and surpasses 3,000 registered users as it continues its mission to support hospitality professionals across the region in building practical knowledge on more sustainable tourism, based on the GSTC Hotel Standard.

Since its launch one year ago, the Sustainable Tourism Academy has become an important resource for hospitality professionals seeking to advance sustainable practices across Asia. With Korean language now available, the Academy further strengthens its ability to serve South Korea’s diverse hospitality sector.

Dr. Mihee Kang, Chief Assurance Officer at GSTC, said: “The Sustainable Tourism Academy’s expansion demonstrates how knowledge-sharing and private sector collaboration can accelerate meaningful transformation. By bringing this training to Korean hospitality professionals, we’re equipping them with the knowledge to lead in more sustainable tourism practices that strengthen South Korea’s market position globally.”

The Academy has collectively reached over 3,500 industry professionals to date through both digital and in-person training programs. Academy users represent a diverse cross-section of the region’s hospitality sector, from professionals at leading global hotel groups like Accor Group, Rosewood Hotels & Resorts, and ONYX Hospitality Group, to independent operators and hospitality students from institutions such as the Asian Institute of Hospitality Management.

Alex Park, Country Director for Korea at Agoda, said: “South Korea has established itself as a world-class tourism destination, and a focus on sustainability is essential to maintaining that excellence as the industry continues to evolve. By making the Sustainable Tourism Academy accessible in Korean, Agoda is investing in our partners’ success, empowering them to adopt practices that resonate with global travelers and strengthen their business resilience. This reflects our commitment to supporting long-term growth for our partners and the destinations they serve.”

The Academy now supports seven languages: English, Vietnamese, Malay, Thai, Indonesian, Japanese, and Korean. The most popular courses include GSTC Standards & Performance Indicators, GSTC Certification, and Developing a Sustainable Policy and Strategy, reflecting the sector’s strong interest in both foundational sustainability knowledge and practical implementation.

Prospective learners can enroll in the Sustainable Tourism Academy, with courses now available in Korean, at https://sustainabletourismacademy.org/.