Greater Bay Area’s 9 mainland cities post record $1.02T trade in first 8 months

The record pace matters less for its headline level than for the acceleration into August, when growth nearly doubled the year-to-date rate — a sign that the trade momentum in these manufacturing hubs is building rather than fading. That reading carries weight for RWA and tokenization narratives tied to China's export corridors, since sustained physical trade flows are the underlying collateral story. The open question is whether the August surge reflects genuine demand or a pull-forward ahead of tariff and policy shifts, which the data alone cannot settle.