Nasdaq-listed PowerCompute refinanced $18 million of debt through a Bitcoin-backed facility carrying an initial interest rate of about 2%.

Nasdaq-listed Bitcoin mining company PowerCompute has consolidated its three existing debt facilities totaling $18 million under a new Bitcoin-backed credit facility with Arch Lending.

PowerCompute pledged 307 Bitcoin (BTC) from its treasury as collateral. The company entered an initial bridge loan with Arch on July 27 before entering into the new facility on Monday, according to a Wednesday press release shared with Cointelegraph.

The new facility replaced PowerCompute’s previous $11 million loan from Galaxy Digital, a $5 million loan from SE and AJ Liebel used to purchase a 15-megawatt Oklahoma facility and another $2 million loan from Liebel used to purchase an 11-megawatt Mississippi facility.

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US-listed Bitcoin ETFs attracted $244.4 million on Wednesday, marking three consecutive inflow days for a combined $626 million.

US-listed spot Bitcoin exchange-traded funds (ETFs) attracted $244.4 million in net inflows on Wednesday.

Spot Bitcoin ETFs have kicked off August by fetching $626 million in net inflows over three consecutive days, according to SoSoValue data.

BlackRock’s iShares Bitcoin Trust ETF (IBIT) led the gains, attracting $479 million over the three-session period and lifting its cumulative net inflows to nearly $61 billion, according to Farside Investors data.

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Criminals are reportedly using fake websites and falsified documents to target customers searching for licensed crypto providers.

Fraudsters are impersonating financial regulators and crypto businesses to target customers of crypto service providers that have failed to secure European Union licenses, according to officials cited by the Financial Times.

Several of the bloc’s watchdogs have reportedly seen an increase in scams since the July 1 deadline that required firms to obtain authorization under the Markets in Crypto-Assets (MiCA) Regulation. Companies that failed to secure approval must wind down or transfer their EU operations, forcing customers to move their assets.&

Stéphane Pontoizeau, an official at France’s Autorité des Marchés Financiers (AMF), said the regulator encountered cases in which fraudsters impersonated AMF representatives, directing users to transfer assets to them through fake websites.&

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Federal Reserve Governor Lisa Cook said she is “prepared to act” if inflation remains too high above the Fed’s target rate.

Federal Reserve Governor Lisa Cook said she is prepared to support higher interest rates if US inflation fails to come down, a change that can pressure crypto and other high-risk investments.

Cook was speaking at a luncheon hosted by the Anchorage Economic Development Corporation, saying that while some disinflationary forces are in play, she is “prepared to act” if disinflation stalls.

“As I have described, inflation is too high, and I consider the risks to the inflation side of the dual mandate higher than the risks to the employment side at this point,” said Cook. “As such, I am prepared to act by raising rates, if necessary.”

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Eliza Labs founder Shaw Walters said the project transferred its remaining treasury to settle a tokenholder lawsuit and will continue building Eliza without an associated cryptocurrency.

ElizaOS fell 19% over 24 hours to an all-time low after Eliza Labs founder Shaw Walters said the token was “dead” and that the Eliza Foundation was winding down.&

CoinGecko data showed the token trading at $0.000285 at the time of writing after touching a record low of $0.000284 on Thursday with a market capitalization of $2.1 million.

The drop came after an announcement from Walters that the foundation was winding down. “The token is dead. Completely,” Walters said, adding that he no longer owned or supported the token. He said the development of the open-source Eliza software would continue without the token or the foundation.&

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The incident reportedly stemmed from a misconfigured testing environment, adding Meta to a growing list of AI firms whose models have escaped evaluation sandboxes.

Meta has become the latest major AI company to disclose that one of its models hacked another company’s systems during testing, following similar incidents involving Anthropic and OpenAI.&

The model involved Meta’s Muse Spark 1.1, which launched in July, according to The Information, citing sources. The issue reportedly stemmed from a misconfiguration by Irregular, an artificial intelligence security testing and red-teaming firm, which inadvertently gave the model internet access during an evaluation.& &

The model “exploited a security vulnerability in a third-party service, in a manner similar to previously reported instances with other companies,” Meta told Reuters in a statement.&

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Cash App and Square drove better-than-expected results, while the company said it expanded its use of AI across software engineering.

Fintech company Block (XYZ) lifted its full-year outlook after reporting a strong second quarter driven by growth in Cash App and Square, with gross profit up 25% year over year to $3.17 billion, ahead of Block’s prior guidance.&

Second-quarter adjusted operating income also exceeded guidance, reaching $855 million, according to a results filing on Wednesday. Adjusted diluted earnings per share were $1.02, beating the Wall Street consensus estimate of 87 cents per share.

The results led Block to lift its full-year gross profit guidance to $12.51 billion from $12.33 billion, and adjusted operating income to $3.47 billion from $3.34 billion.&

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Mysten Labs’ co-founder Sam Blackshear said he is joining Anthropic as AI shifts the balance between attackers and defenders.

Sam Blackshear, the co-founder and chief technology officer of Mysten Labs, has announced he will be stepping down to join Anthropic to work on defensive security research.

Blackshear, along with four former Meta executives, founded Mysten Labs — the creator of the Sui blockchain — in September 2021. Blackshear said Mysten Labs co-founder and CEO Evan Cheng will step in to set the “technical vision” for Mysten going forward.

“When I reflect on my career, I have been happiest doing hands-on technical work while exploring new problem domains,” said Blackshear. “This is an opportunity to do both, and I’m motivated to work on security at a time when the balance of power between attackers and defenders is shifting.”

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“There’s a lot of chaos right now in the ecosystem. We absolutely understand that many people are being bombarded with security issues right now,” said Bitcoin developer Calle.

A Bitcoin security group made up of just 16 volunteers said they have found nearly 5,000 potential issues during a rapid AI-assisted review of projects in the Bitcoin ecosystem.&

Bitcoin Red Team is a volunteer security effort that includes Rob Hamilton, CEO of AnchorWatch and Bitcoin developer Calle, among others, which has been using AI tools and human review to scan open-source Bitcoin-related repositories for vulnerabilities.&

“We’re averaging on the order of 1 critical exploit per hour per person,” said Calle in a post to X on Wednesday.&

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The lawmaker reportedly sent a letter to the Commerce Secretary demanding answers about the administration’s treatment of the UAE following investments in the Trump family’s crypto company.

Senator Elizabeth Warren has reportedly asked the US Commerce Department to explain the administration’s policy toward the United Arab Emirates following the country’s investment in President Donald Trump’s family-backed cryptocurrency venture, World Liberty Financial.

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US lawmakers have only a few days to hold a vote on a crypto market structure bill before a recess begins that could push consideration into the 2026 election season or beyond.

The window for the US Congress to pass a comprehensive market structure bill on cryptocurrencies is closing, with the Senate set to go on recess in a matter of days, and lawmakers still have not announced clear plans to vote on the legislation.

In a Wednesday X post, Senator Cynthia Lummis said she anticipated that the Senate would vote on the Digital Asset Market Clarity (CLARITY) Act before the chamber breaks for its month-long August recess. The Wyoming lawmaker has been one of the biggest proponents for the crypto bill, which has split many members of Congress and industry leaders over different provisions on ethics, stablecoins and tokenized equities.&

“It’s just time to get people on the record,” said Lummis.

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The undisclosed investment will support the development of Tokenet, a digital asset lending platform, as institutional demand for crypto infrastructure continues to grow.

Marex Group, a Nasdaq-listed financial services firm, has invested an undisclosed amount in institutional crypto infrastructure provider Digital Prime Technologies, underscoring traditional finance’s growing interest in digital asset markets.

The companies announced Wednesday that the investment will support the continued development of Tokenet, a digital asset lending and borrowing platform built by Digital Prime in partnership with EquiLend. Marex said the investment is part of its strategy to expand its institutional digital assets business.

Last week, Digital Prime said Tokenet had surpassed $1 billion in lending inventory and more than $1 billion in borrowing demand from its launch partners. The figures referred to the amount of digital assets available to lend through the platform and the volume of borrowing interest expressed by participating institutions, rather than completed loans. Launch partners included Galaxy Digital and Ripple Prime, among others.

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A Midwest Democratic primary that raised accusations of payback from the cryptocurrency industry ended with the unseating of two-term incumbent Shri Thanedar.

Michigan State Representative Donavan McKinney won a Democratic primary against incumbent House Representative Shri Thanedar in a race that raised accusations of payback by the cryptocurrency industry.

McKinney won the primary for Michigan’s 13th Congressional District with 51.9% of the vote against Thanedar’s 48.1% as of Wednesday, the New York Times reported. The primary saw a cryptocurrency-backed political action committee (PAC) spending more than $2 million on media in an attempt to re-elect Thanedar, who has voted in favor of many bills favoring the industry while in Congress.&

Election results for Democratic primary in Michigan’s 13th congressional district. Source: The New York Times

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The remittance giant is rolling out Stablecard across 37 markets, targeting cross-border payments and consumers seeking US dollar-denominated savings in volatile economies.

Western Union has partnered with stablecoin infrastructure provider Rain to launch Stablecard, a digital wallet and Visa-branded card that enables users to hold and spend a US dollar-backed stablecoin, marking one of the company’s biggest moves into blockchain-based payments.

On Wednesday, Western Union said Stablecard allows users to hold, receive, transfer and spend USDPT, a US dollar-backed stablecoin issued by Anchorage Digital Bank on the Solana blockchain.

Stablecard launched in 37 markets, with Western Union aiming to expand availability to more than 60 markets by the end of the year. Users can receive Western Union money transfers directly into a USDPT wallet, transfer funds to compatible crypto wallets and exchanges and spend their balances anywhere Visa is accepted, including through Apple Pay and Google Pay.

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Gold and US stocks stole the limelight on Wednesday as Bitcoin failed to gain significantly beyond $64,000.

Bitcoin stayed wedged at $64,000 on Wednesday’s Wall Street open as gold hit six-week highs.

Key points:

Data from TradingView showed continued BTC price inertia contrasting with upside for both precious metals and US equities.

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Bitcoin, Ethereum and XRP whales increased balances during market weakness, as CryptoQuant said large holders are absorbing supply ahead of a possible bottom.

Large cryptocurrency holders are accumulating Bitcoin (BTC) and Ether (ETH) as valuations approach levels associated with the final stage of a bear market, according to CryptoQuant.

Rising whale balances during price weakness can reduce available supply and concentrate ownership among larger holders, the blockchain analytics company said in its latest Smart Money report seen by Cointelegraph.

Bitcoin whale holdings, excluding exchanges and mining pools, rose to about 3.06 million BTC from 2.87 million BTC in December 2025, with accumulation accelerating after Bitcoin dropped below $60,000 in June.

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The Coldcard entropy flaw caused a crisis of confidence in hardware wallets. Here’s the details you need to know before you entrust Ledger, Trezor or Foundation with your Bitcoin.

Just when you thought crypto market morale couldn’t sink any lower, along comes the Coldcard entropy bug to prove you wrong.

The discovery of a flaw in one of the industry’s longest-running hardware wallets last Friday serves as a stark reminder that there is no perfectly safe place to put all your Bitcoin.

Coldcard disclosed the entropy-generation flaw affecting multiple Coldcard devices on July 31. Since then, researchers at Galaxy Digital say attackers have been able to steal more than 1,596 Bitcoin worth at least $100 million through several coordinated attacks.

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Galaxy Digital reported an $85 million net loss driven by falling digital asset prices and $8.7 billion in revenue that missed Wall Street estimates.

Galaxy Digital reported an $85 million net loss for the second quarter of 2026 as cryptocurrency valuations declined in the period.

That resulted in a $0.09 loss per share posted on Wednesday which Galaxy attributed to the depreciation of digital asset prices during the quarter.&

Revenue at $8.7 billion was down 15% from $10.2 billion in the first quarter of 2026. Analysts had forecast a consensus of $12.7 billion, according to estimates compiled by Yahoo Finance.

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Mastercard and Borderless are exploring ways to bring more trust into cross-border stablecoin transfers through the payment processing giant’s Crypto Credential framework.

Payment processor Mastercard and stablecoin orchestration network Borderless will run a new pilot project to explore how Mastercard’s Crypto Credential standards-based framework can bring greater trust to cross-border stablecoin payments.

The pilot will test how Mastercard’s framework can address the challenge of providing assurance signals that participants can incorporate into their approval, compliance and risk processes, they said in an announcement shared with Cointelegraph.

Mastercard’s framework uses common standards and assurance signals to help bring certainty to blockchain transactions. The pilot will seek out new governance signals that can reduce friction in cross-border stablecoin payments.

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Binance-linked companies sued RedotPay, accusing it of diverting more than 470,000 Binance Card users under a commercial deal and seeking nearly $473 million in damages.

Binance-affiliated companies have sued the founders of Hong Kong-based cryptocurrency payments company RedotPay, alleging it diverted more than 470,000 users from Binance Card in breach of their commercial agreement.

The plaintiffs seek nearly $473 million in damages, alleging the conduct contributed to RedotPay’s valuation as the company considers a potential initial public offering, Bloomberg reported Wednesday, citing a Hong Kong court filing it obtained.

RedotPay said it is defending the proceedings and rejected what it described as “unfounded allegations” against the company and its co-founders. “RedotPay is strenuously defending the proceedings,” a RedotPay spokesperson told Cointelegraph, adding that it will respond through the appropriate legal process.

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Stablecoin issuer Circle reported $701 million in Q2 revenue, missing Wall Street estimates of about $713 million.

Stablecoin issuer Circle reported $701 million in revenue for the second quarter of fiscal year 2026 on Wednesday, narrowly missing preliminary Wall Street estimates.

Circle reported $701 million in total revenue and reserve income, up 7% year-over-year, according to its announcement. It also reported net income from continuing operations of $48 million, marking a $530 million year-on-year increase.

Circle also reported $668 million in reserve income, which increased 5% year-on-year, primarily due to a 25% increase in average USDC (USDC) circulation.

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US spot Bitcoin ETFs drew $382 million in two-day inflows, with Galaxy’s Bitcoin ETF returning to gains as the Coldcard incident renewed custody concerns.

US-listed spot Bitcoin exchange-traded funds (ETFs) are attracting fresh capital as a high-profile cryptocurrency custody incident puts renewed focus on digital asset security.

Spot Bitcoin ETFs recorded $211.5 million in net inflows on Tuesday, adding to Monday’s $170 million, according to data from SoSoValue.

The inflows came as the ongoing Coldcard hack drew attention from analysts, with Galaxy Research estimating that the attack may have affected as many as 7,300 addresses and resulted in about $130 million in suspected Bitcoin (BTC) losses from users of the hardware wallet.

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The rating recognizes the fund’s ability to maintain a stable net asset value, while S&P separately reaffirmed USDT among the lowest-rated stablecoins under its existing assessment framework.

S&P Global Ratings assigned its highest principal stability fund rating to BlackRock’s new tokenized money market fund.

The ratings provider assigned an “AAAm” rating to the BlackRock Daily Reinvestment Stablecoin Reserve Vehicle (BRSRV) on Monday, citing the creditworthiness of its investments and counterparties, its maturity structure and management’s ability to maintain a stable net asset value.

S&P said it identified “no weaknesses” in its qualitative assessment of BlackRock Advisors’ management and organization, credit research and analysis, risk management and compliance.

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Glassnode confirmed that its aggregate BTC price cycle tool was in its coldest phase since the collapse of FTX in late 2022.

Bitcoin is seeing its longest capitulation since the end of the 2022 bear market, onchain analytics platform Glassnode reported on Monday.

Key points:

Glassnode’s Bitcoin Cycle Position Heatmap, a composite BTC price metric overview tool, has signaled capitulation throughout 2026.&

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JPMorgan’s Kinexys platform will tokenize select BlackRock money market fund shares denominated in pounds, euros and US dollars.

BlackRock will offer tokenized versions of select European money market funds using JPMorgan’s blockchain infrastructure.&

According to a Tuesday Bloomberg report, the offering will include pound sterling, euro and US dollar share classes from BlackRock’s Institutional Cash Series, which collectively manage about $311 billion. The figure refers to the broader fund range, not the assets that will be tokenized.

Each token will represent a share in an underlying money market fund and can be transferred around the clock between approved digital wallets.&

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The a16z-backed studio will open-source Pirate Nation assets, while an independent foundation continues supporting the PIRATE token.

Blockchain game developer Proof of Play will cease operations after failing to build a sustainable business around its decentralized gaming thesis.

The a16z-backed studio said Tuesday it could not develop a product that proved blockchain-based games could help usher in a decentralized internet at scale. It will open-source much of its code and artwork, including the Pirate Nation game, smart contracts and internal software-development tools.

Proof of Play said the independent Pirate Nation Foundation will continue supporting the PIRATE token and keep its website operational. However, Proof of Play points will not be redeemable for anything.

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Forgd’s ratings draw on data from more than 500 token projects and 35 market-making firms, but do not solely reflect trading performance.

Updated (Aug. 6, 2026, 2:12 am UTC): Added more comments from Forgd CEO Shane Molidor.
Crypto analytics platform DefiLlama has integrated Forgd’s market-maker leaderboard, giving users access to data on spreads, market depth, trading volume and uptime.&

In an announcement sent to Cointelegraph, Forgd said that the dashboard ranks crypto market makers using standardized measures of pricing, depth, reliability and execution quality. The data comes from more than 500 token projects and 35 market-making firms that use Forgd’s tools to monitor liquidity across active engagements, according to the company.&

The integration allows DefiLlama users to compare market makers across exchanges and assess the liquidity supporting individual tokens. Forgd first launched the leaderboard in May as a tool for token projects selecting and monitoring liquidity providers.

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The completed tie-up combines Boerse Stuttgart Digital’s custody business with Tradias’ trading operations under a joint management team.

Boerse Stuttgart Digital and institutional crypto trading firm Tradias have completed their merger after clearing the required ownership control procedure, creating a combined digital asset infrastructure unit with about 300 employees.

The transaction was first announced in February, when the companies agreed to combine their regulated crypto businesses and expand their services for banks, brokers and other financial institutions across Europe.

The merged business will operate under the Boerse Stuttgart Digital name, while Tradias will remain the brand for trading services, according to a Wednesday announcement.

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ESMA’s latest MiCA update brings the number of authorized CASPs to 321 and adds three entities to its non-compliant register.

The European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA) added 12 companies to its Markets in Crypto-Assets (MiCA) register in its fourth update since the July 1 transitional deadline.

Published on July 31, the update brings the total number of authorized crypto-asset service providers (CASPs) listed under MiCA to 321. The latest additions include three German cooperative banks: Volksbank Raiffeisenbank Oberbayern Südost, VR Bank Schleswig-Holstein Mitte and VR-Bank Landau-Mengkofen.

The list also includes two companies in Spain — Basque Pay and Fintech Payments — and four in France — Finary, Woorton, Blockchain Process Security and Shares Financial Assets.

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Taiwan’s regulator plans to apply the Travel Rule to domestic VASP transfers from October before extending it to overseas platforms by the end of 2027.

Taiwan’s financial regulator plans to require crypto platforms to transmit customer information on all domestic platform-to-platform transfers starting in October.&

On Tuesday, the Financial Supervisory Commission said its proposed amendments would apply the Financial Action Task Force’s (FATF) Travel Rule regardless of value.&

Transfers exceeding 30,000 New Taiwan dollars (about $930) would trigger additional data requirements, including an individual sender’s date of birth and residential address, or a corporate sender’s official identification number and registered address. Receiving VASPs would also be required to compare beneficiary information supplied by the originating platform with their own records.&

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The defendants allegedly traveled from Missouri to Connecticut to kidnap a Bitcoin holder and force him to transfer cryptocurrency before abandoning the plan.

Three Missouri men were charged over an alleged August 2024 plot to kidnap a Bitcoin holder and steal his holdings.

Sedric Louis, John Davis and Martel Williams were allegedly hired to kidnap and force a Bitcoin holder to transfer cryptocurrency to accounts controlled by organizers, according to a Tuesday press release by the US Attorney’s Office. They traveled from St. Louis to Connecticut, where they rented vehicles and obtained air rifles to stake out the victim.

After staking out the intended target for two days, they abandoned the plan for fear of being caught on home security cameras. Shortly afterward, another crew from Florida arrived to carry out the plan.

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Cloudflare introduced programmable Wallets for AI agents and said payment features using stablecoins will launch in a future update.

Cloudflare introduced Cloudflare Wallets on Tuesday, a programmable wallet for artificial intelligence (AI) agents designed to support stablecoin payments.

The US cloud infrastructure company said in a blog post that the product aims to simplify how AI agents identify themselves and pay for application programming interfaces (API) and digital content through stablecoin micropayments, enabling what it calls “agentic commerce.”

Cloudflare said users can claim a Cloudflare Wallet handle immediately, while payment features will roll out later.

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Hayes likened the debt-fueled AI infrastructure boom to the 2008 credit bubble, but evidence suggests financial strain is uneven across Big Tech.

BitMEX co-founder Arthur Hayes said the debt-fueled artificial intelligence infrastructure boom could end in a 2008-style credit crisis and predicted the resulting government liquidity response could drive Bitcoin (BTC) to $1 million or higher.&

In a Tuesday blog post, Hayes said investors have mistakenly treated spending on data centers and power infrastructure as high-growth technology investment rather than leveraged real estate. He said he expects lenders to finance excessive construction before a slowdown in AI capital expenditure exposes weaker borrowers.&

The thesis connects the trillion-dollar expansion of AI infrastructure to a potential new source of crypto-market liquidity. However, Hayes’ predicted crisis, government bailout and subsequent BTC rally remain speculative.&

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Matt Hougan argues that regulatory guidance from the SEC and CFTC would keep the industry moving even if Congress fails to pass landmark market structure legislation this year.

A failure to pass the CLARITY Act this week will put the bill in a “walking dead” state, but won’t stop the crypto industry’s march forward, according to Bitwise chief investment officer Matt Hougan.&

In a blog post on Wednesday, Hougan said while many, including himself, have called it the “make or break” week for the CLARITY Act, the reality is that the crypto industry has made too much progress to “go back in the bottle.”&

“The reality is that Washington is always late to major technology shifts, and it has rarely mattered as much as people feared,” said Hougan.&

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Bybit’s Austrian payments subsidiary gained regulatory approval to develop card, merchant, open-banking and person-to-person payment services.

Bybit’s European payments subsidiary has secured an electronic money institution license in Austria, providing the exchange with a regulatory basis to add payment and e-money services to its regional platform.&

On Tuesday, Bybit said Bybit Payments GmbH received the license from Austria’s Financial Market Authority. The authorization provides a legal basis for future payment capabilities, which may include person-to-person payments, merchant payment solutions, open banking features and card products.

The payment services will be offered through Bybit.eu alongside services provided by Bybit EU GmbH, a separate Austrian entity authorized under the European Union’s Markets in Crypto-Assets Regulation since May 2025. Bybit.eu serves users across the European Economic Area (EEA), with Malta excluded.&

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EIP-8363 is a newly published draft proposal that would cut net consensus-layer rewards as the Ethereum staking ratio heads toward 50%.

A group of six Ethereum researchers and developers, including Ethereum Foundation’s Justin Drake, has proposed changing the network’s issuance policy to cut validator rewards more sharply as the proportion of staked ETH rises.&

The draft, called the Tapered Issuance Burn and currently being assigned the provisional number EIP-8363, would burn an increasing fraction of validators’ consensus rewards as the amount of staked ETH approaches a fixed threshold of 60.25 million ETH (around 50% of the current ETH supply), at which point the deduction hits 100%. The changes would phase in over 18 months.&

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In a July 8 meeting, US and UK regulators highlighted the implementation of the GENIUS Act, payment modernization and cross-border cooperation, reinforcing a shared framework for digital asset oversight.

The United States and the United Kingdom reaffirmed their commitment to closer financial regulatory cooperation during a recent bilateral working group, signaling continued policy alignment on digital assets as US authorities move to implement landmark stablecoin legislation.

During the 13th meeting of the UK-US Financial Regulatory Working Group (FRWG), held in London on July 8, officials discussed stablecoin regulation, digital asset market structure in the United States, tokenization and the UK’s Wholesale Financial Markets Digital Strategy.

An Aug. 4 joint statement summarizing the meeting said US officials updated their UK counterparts on implementation of the GENIUS Act, the country’s landmark stablecoin law, as well as ongoing work on digital asset market structure. Participants also discussed payment modernization and the G20 Cross-border Payments Roadmap, an international initiative to improve cross-border payments.

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The custody giant is expanding beyond safekeeping by adding staking services, allowing eligible institutional clients to earn yield on proof-of-stake assets.

BNY and Galaxy have partnered to integrate institutional crypto staking into BNY’s digital asset custody platform, allowing eligible clients to earn staking rewards without moving assets out of custody.

Under the arrangement, which was unveiled on Tuesday, institutional clients will be able to stake supported proof-of-stake assets while keeping them within BNY’s custody framework. Galaxy will provide the staking infrastructure and serve as a design partner for BNY’s broader digital asset platform. The companies did not specify which digital assets will be supported.

The partnership also aims to combine custody, staking, reporting and tax services into a single offering for institutional clients, a move the companies said could simplify digital asset operations.

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Bitcoin built on $64,000 as hopes of the Strait of Hormuz reopening to oil traffic sent the S&P 500 index to a record $70 trillion market cap.

Bitcoin saw new August highs into Tuesday’s Wall Street open as markets bet on US-Iran tensions again easing.

Key points:

Data from TradingView showed BTC/USD climbing to $64,176 on Bitstamp, marking maximum daily gains of around 1%.

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A 16-year agreement secures 121 megawatts of AI computing capacity in Norway, highlighting how crypto mining companies continue to pursue new revenue streams beyond Bitcoin.

Bitcoin mining company Bitdeer has signed a 16-year lease agreement valued at as much as $4.7 billion to secure artificial intelligence and high-performance computing data center capacity, underscoring how crypto miners are increasingly expanding into AI infrastructure as demand for computing power grows.

Under the agreement, Bitdeer will provide 121 megawatts of IT capacity at its Tydal, Norway, AI data center to a tenant that the company identified only as a subsidiary of Volta Infra. The facility will be configured to support Nvidia GPU-based AI workloads, though Bitdeer did not disclose the tenant’s identity or specify whether Volta is the end customer or an intermediary.

Bloomberg News reported that the Nvidia-backed Volta’s $10 billion ‌cloud contract is with ⁠Anthropic, citing people familiar with the matter.

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Galaxy said that at least 15 different attackers have exploited the Coldcard vulnerability, which may have been avoided with just $2 worth of AI hardening, according to Dragonfly’s managing partner.

At least 15 different attackers have exploited the Coldcard vulnerability, according to Galaxy Digital’s head of research, Alex Thorn, citing new victim reports received since the incident.

Thorn said Tuesday that the victim reports helped the company label new attackers that would have gone undiscovered, as the nature of the exploit was different from a hack on a centralized exchange.&

“Due to one single victim’s report of less than 1 BTC stolen, we identified a new attack with 12 BTC siphoned from 126 addresses,” Thorn wrote in a Tuesday X post.

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Transform Ventures founder Michael Terpin says Bitcoin could have another 30% downside from its current price before he is confident the market has reached a bottom.

Bitcoin may have already erased half of its market cap, but veteran crypto investor Michael Terpin says the asset still has further to fall before hitting rock bottom.

“We still have more pain to go,” Terpin tells Cointelegraph on the Trade Secrets show. Terpin believes that Bitcoin will ultimately fall “66%” from its October 2025 all-time high of $126,100. “I think that brings us down into the 40s, and I think that’s about where we’re gonna go,” Terpin says.&

To be precise, a 66% drop from the ATH would see Bitcoin changing hands for $43,500, a price the asset has not seen since early February 2024. The 68-year-old investor, often referred to as the “Godfather of Crypto,” has seen Bitcoin plunge enough times to know what a true bottom feels like.&

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Monday’s announcement that Texas Governor Greg Abbott set a moratorium on approval of ERCOT-linked data centers pending an audit won’t impact miners’ approved electricity contracts.

Bitcoin miners with operations in Texas are not expected to be impacted by a moratorium on approval of data center projects connected to the state’s grid operator ordered by Governor Greg Abbott, Bernstein analysts said Tuesday.

Abbott on Monday directed the Public Utility Commission of Texas and the Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT) to audit all data centers seeking to connect to the state’s power grid. The duration of the audit was not specified and comes amid increasing public backlash to the pace of data center build-out across the state, The Texas Tribune reported.

Bernstein analysts told clients on Tuesday that as most of the Bitcoin (BTC) miners operating in Texas are under contract for approved electric capacity, those operations are unlikely to be impacted by the moratorium.

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XAUt added to its bullion backing during gold’s worst quarter since 2013, as tokenized commodity holder counts continued to rise.

The physical gold reserves backing Tether Gold (XAUt) increased 9.5% in the second quarter, which Tether said reflected growing demand for tokenized gold exposure.

Gold fell 14.1% during the quarter, its worst quarterly performance since the second quarter of 2013, data from TradingView shows.

“Holders of Tether Gold are not only buying XAUt when the price of gold is rising. They are using periods of market weakness to increase their ownership of physical gold through a product that is fully backed, transparent, portable and accessible onchain,” said Paolo Ardoino, CEO of Tether, in Monday’s XAUt attestation report.&

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Italy’s largest bank Intesa Sanpaolo increased its staked Ether ETF position to $7.1 million while reducing its holdings in two spot Bitcoin ETFs.

Intesa Sanpaolo, Italy’s largest banking group, tripled its position in an iShares staked Ether exchange-traded fund during the second quarter while reducing its position in the iShares spot Bitcoin ETF.

The bank reported holding 349,600 shares of the iShares Staked Ethereum Trust ETF (ETHB) worth $7.1 million as of June 30, according to Friday filing with the US Securities and Exchange Commission. That was up from 116,200 shares valued at $3.15 million at the end of March.

Intesa retained 3.47 million shares of the ARK 21Shares Bitcoin ETF (ARKB) worth $67.6 million, its largest crypto-linked holding in the filing. The share count was down about 4% from the first quarter.

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The CNBC personality said he’ll sell his Bitcoin holdings due to fears about quantum computing, as some cryptocurrency investors celebrated, referencing the popular “inverse Cramer” meme.

[Update, August 4, 1:43 pm UTC: Adds comments from Bitfinex analysts beginning in 15th paragraph.]

Former hedge fund manager and CNBC “Mad Money” host Jim Cramer said he plans to sell all his Bitcoin due to quantum computing fears.&

“I’m going to sell mine [Bitcoin],” said Cramer during a Friday episode, citing quantum computing concerns that IBM chairman and CEO Arvind Krishna had raised on his show the previous day.&

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A former FBI supervisory agent pleaded guilty to stealing about $1 million worth of digital assets from an adversarial country and forfeited about $925,000 in funds to government-controlled wallets.

Former FBI supervisory agent Patrick Steven Yaroch was charged with using internal systems to obtain credentials for cryptocurrency wallets linked to an adversarial country, which he used to transfer funds to his own crypto wallets.

Yaroch admitted to 10 unauthorized transfers between late 2024 and early 2025 that involved an estimated total of $1 million in digital assets, some of which he deposited into Suilend to earn yield, according to a Saturday US Federal court filing.

After self-reporting the incident, Yaroch was placed on administrative leave last Wednesday, terminated and then arrested on Friday. Agents retrieved devices, seed phrases and a Trezor wallet from his Virginia residence to access his accounts on Suilend and crypto exchange Kraken. With his cooperation, they transferred roughly $925,000 in funds to government-controlled wallets.

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The preferred shares have recovered nearly 24% from their June closing low as Strategy builds its cash reserve and repurchases STRC.

Strategy’s variable-rate preferred stock, STRC, closed above $90 for the first time in seven weeks, extending its recovery from a June selloff that raised concerns about the Bitcoin treasury company’s financial resilience.

STRC closed at $92.32 on Monday, up 3.2% from Friday’s $89.46 close, according to Yahoo Finance data. It was the first close above $90 since June 16. The stock has recovered nearly 24% from its June 26 closing low of $74.57.

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The first US-Japan joint yen intervention in 28 years came amid record bond yields and worries about the yen carry trade.

Joint currency interventions in the yen by Japan and the US could ultimately benefit Bitcoin and risk assets.&

Washington’s growing coordination with the Bank of Japan (BoJ) points to a potential boost in global dollar liquidity — even as it runs up against a yen carry trade unwind that could squeeze liquidity if it deepens further.

Last week, the US and Japan conducted a rare joint intervention to prop up the yen, which had slid to 40-year lows of 164 per dollar — the first of its kind since 1998. The New York Federal Reserve Bank sold euros, rather than dollars, on behalf of the US Treasury. The sales involved the Exchange Stabilization Fund, or ESF,& a stockpile of foreign exchange reserves.

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Apple restored Telegram after the messaging platform removed content that violated its child safety policies and banned the user who posted it.

Apple briefly removed Telegram from the App Store after its review found content that violated its policies on child sexual abuse material, according to Bloomberg.&

The messaging app was later restored after Telegram removed the content and banned the user who posted it, Apple said.

The Telegram-linked token Gram fell about 6.4% to $1.32 from $1.41 following reports of the removal. It had recovered to about $1.40 at the time of writing, according to CoinGecko data.&

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The ruling leaves New York’s case against Kalshi in place while allowing the CFTC to renew its request before Judge Victor Marrero.

Judge Jed S. Rakoff denied without prejudice an emergency Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) request for a temporary restraining order that would have blocked New York from pursuing its enforcement case against prediction market operator Kalshi.

Rakoff found that the CFTC had not shown a high likelihood of success on the merits or a likelihood of irreparable harm. The CFTC may renew the motion before Judge Victor Marrero on Friday, Aug. 7, according to the order.

New York Attorney General Letitia James sued Kalshi last Friday, alleging that it operates an illegal, unlicensed gambling business by offering contracts tied to sports, elections and other events. The New York State Gaming Commission issued Kalshi a cease-and-desist order in October 2025.

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The framework specifies how existing tax obligations apply to crypto disposals and rewards, with some withheld amounts payable in the originating token.

Nigeria’s revenue agency has issued rules requiring crypto platforms and peer-to-peer (P2P) marketplaces to collect, report and remit taxes, including paying some withheld amounts in digital tokens.

In its Guidelines on Taxation of Virtual Assets, the Nigeria Revenue Service (NRS) said income tax deducted at source and stamp duty “shall be remitted to the Service in the originating token of the transaction.” Value-added tax, by contrast, must be remitted in the currency used for the payment.&

The guidelines place exchanges and P2P marketplaces at the center of withholding, reporting and remittance under the country’s existing laws.

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Crypto executives say restricting powerful AI models may initially be justified, but it doesn’t make sense as open-source alternatives become more capable.

Many of crypto’s biggest players are still waiting to gain access to powerful new AI models to strengthen their code from attacks, with only a select few having been able to get it.&

US crypto exchange Coinbase said in June that it had secured access to Anthropic’s restricted Mythos model and Zcash’s Zooko Wilcox said Anthropic used the model to audit the Zcash protocol& at the request of Shielded Labs, while other major crypto players are seemingly yet to get access.

“That’s one advanced frontier model that hasn’t been made available to crypto just yet,” Binance’s chief security officer Jimmy Su told Cointelegraph. “We have been trying to make inroads there. We also talked to other crypto exchanges and our own investors to try to make some progress. But we haven’t gotten the most frontier AI model, like Mythos.”&

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Galaxy Research said 90% of the stolen Bitcoin remains unmoved as investigators examine a suspected fourth wave that could lift losses to $130 million.

Confirmed losses from the Coldcard wallet incident have exceeded $100 million, with 1,596 Bitcoin (BTC) stolen from about 7,300 addresses across three separate major attack waves and 14 smaller incidents, according to a new update from Galaxy Research.&

On Monday, Galaxy Digital’s research arm said 73 victims had contacted its researchers, and victim reports confirmed the first three major attacks, helping investigators identify smaller “footprints” that Galaxy said could represent opportunistic attackers exploiting the vulnerability.

Galaxy Research also identified a suspected fourth wave that could bring total losses to 2,055 BTC, worth about $130 million. However, Galaxy said it excluded the event from its confirmed estimate because it had not yet received confirmation from victims believed to be part of that wave. The research group said with “medium-high” confidence that the wave largely represented attacker activity.

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Bitmine said it now holds about 4.8% of Ether’s circulating supply as it pursues its 5% acquisition target.

Ether treasury company Bitmine Immersion Technologies bought another 10,399 Ether last week and repurchased 4.5 million of its shares as it continued its crypto accumulation and stock-buyback program.

On Monday, Bitmine said it held 5,797,813 Ether (ETH) worth $10.9 billion. The company said its ETH holdings represent about 4.8% of Ether’s 120.7 million circulating supply. Bitmine is pursuing a target of 5% of the total ETH supply.&

The company also held 209 Bitcoin (BTC), $173 million in cash and marketable securities, and equity stakes in Beast Industries and Eightco Holdings. Its combined crypto, cash, securities and other investments were valued at $11.3 billion.&

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Mastercard said the tie-up would help banks, fintechs and enterprises expand stablecoin payments, payouts, settlement and treasury services.

Mastercard has completed its acquisition of stablecoin infrastructure company BVNK, closing a deal valued at $1.8 billion.

On Monday, Mastercard said the acquisition combines its global network with BVNK’s onchain infrastructure to connect digital currencies with fiat currencies. The payments company said the combination would help institutions, fintechs and enterprises expand their use of stablecoins and tokenized assets across cross-border business payments, payouts, settlement and treasury flows.&

In a separate announcement, BVNK said it had officially become part of Mastercard, adding that customers would continue to use the same teams, products and integrations, with no action required.&

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Fake romance crypto investment scams net $9 million in a single week in Hong Kong, as Malaysian authorities lose it over a crypto conference’s after-party.

HONG KONG

An insurance agent in Hong Kong was fleeced out of $3.3 million after her fake online boyfriend convinced her to invest in a fraudulent crypto application.

There were 25 similar romance-linked fraud cases reported to Hong Kong police between July 24 and July 30, which collectively defrauded lonely hearts of $9 million.

Scammers typically connect with victims through dating or messaging apps and sometimes spend months building a rapport before dropping the idea of investing in crypto. They direct victims to a site that appears to be a legitimate trading application. It displays fake profits to encourage victims to invest more and more funds. Victims typically realize they have been scammed when they are unable to withdraw funds.

Hong Kong news in brief

— Hong Kong-licensed cryptocurrency exchange HashKey Exchange received approval from JPMorgan Chase to open a client money account, its parent company& said.

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The boutique brokerage will focus on high-net-worth clients rather than competing with retail crypto exchanges.

Caleb & Brown, an Australian crypto brokerage owned by the Swyftx Group, has entered the UK market, expanding its services for wealthy investors beyond Australia and the US.&

The expansion comes a year after the boutique digital asset brokerage was acquired by Swyftx in 2025 in a deal worth more than $100 million. The firm will target high-net-worth clients in the UK.&

Swyftx Group co-CEO Andrea Yuen said the UK was an “untapped opportunity” as it has lower levels of crypto adoption than other markets.&

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The non-custodial protocol said attackers are discovering and adapting exploits faster than its small development team can identify and patch them.

Boltz, a non-custodial Bitcoin swap service, says it is disabling its service until further notice after a rise in AI-assisted hacking attempts over the last few months.

In a post to X on Monday, Boltz said the decision came after seeing a steady increase in “automated AI-assisted probing” of its infrastructure this year.&

“After reviewing the results of our own recent security scans, we cannot responsibly re-enable Boltz swaps, especially as we are being actively targeted by what appear to be multiple resourceful groups while we race to deploy fixes.”&

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A key architect of the Trump administration’s digital asset agenda is leaving the Treasury Department as Congress struggles to advance landmark crypto legislation.

Tyler Williams, a senior US Treasury official overseeing digital asset policy and a key adviser to Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, has left the department, according to a Monday report by Punchbowl News.

In a statement shared with Punchbowl, Bessent confirmed that Williams’ last day at the Treasury Department was Friday, saying he had been “instrumental” in advancing the Trump administration’s vision of making the US the “crypto capital of the world.”

Williams joined the Treasury Department in early 2025 after serving as head of policy at Galaxy Digital. During his tenure, he played a central role in shaping the administration’s digital asset agenda. According to the report, Williams is expected to return to the private sector.

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According to Bloomberg, the digital asset prime broker is refocusing its Singapore strategy and withdrawing its local license application as crypto companies continue to trim costs.

FalconX, the digital asset prime brokerage that acquired crypto ETF issuer 21shares last November, has laid off roughly 10% of its global workforce as it prepares for a prolonged downturn in the cryptocurrency market, Bloomberg reported Monday.

Citing people familiar with the matter, Bloomberg said FalconX is also reshaping its strategy in Singapore by focusing on crypto derivatives trading and plans to withdraw its license application with the Monetary Authority of Singapore. The company intends to maintain its presence in Asia while expanding its European business.

FalconX employed about 350 people across the United States, the United Kingdom, Singapore and Hong Kong before the layoffs.

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A new digital verification platform aims to reduce forged certificates by allowing employers and universities to authenticate academic records onchain.

Kenya has launched a blockchain-based system for verifying academic credentials through the Kenya National Examinations Council (KNEC), placing more than 30 million records on the Avalanche network in an effort to combat certificate fraud and make credentials easier to verify.

KNEC and Avalanche announced the initiative on Monday, saying the platform is designed to address the thousands of forged academic certificates reported in the country each year.

The system allows employers, universities and other institutions to verify academic credentials onchain, making records more difficult to tamper with. While the verification platform is now live, neither KNEC nor Avalanche disclosed how widely it has been adopted by students, employers or educational institutions.

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The asset manager introduced two blockchain-based money market funds designed to qualify as stablecoin reserve assets under the US GENIUS Act.

BlackRock, the world’s largest asset manager, has launched two tokenized money market products designed to serve as reserve assets for stablecoins, marking another step in bringing regulated financial products onto blockchain infrastructure.

The first product, BlackRock Select Treasury Based Liquidity Fund OnChain Shares (BSTBL), is a tokenized share class of the asset manager’s existing Select Treasury Based Liquidity Fund on Ethereum. Eligible investors can transfer tokenized fund shares between approved wallets while the fund continues investing in cash, short-term US Treasurys and Treasury-backed overnight repurchase agreements. BNY serves as the transfer agent and tokenization provider for the fund’s onchain shares.

The second product, BlackRock Daily Reinvestment Stablecoin Reserve Vehicle (BRSRV), is a newly created tokenized money market fund available to institutional investors. The fund supports multiple blockchains, automatically reinvests daily dividends and is designed for digital asset use cases, including stablecoin reserve management. Securitize is BRSRV’s transfer agent and tokenization provider.

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The spot price Bitcoin exchange-traded fund, which was never able to attract more than $18 million in net assets, will pay out investors and sell its 225 BTC in the coming weeks.

Hashdex said it will liquidate its eponymous spot-price Bitcoin exchange-traded fund this month, distributing the cash to all remaining shareholders and selling the fund’s roughly 225 BTC holdings.

In a filing on Monday, the fund issuer said the decision was made after evaluating factors including trading liquidity, operating costs and investor interest. The 200,000 shares, which have traded on NYSE ARCA under the DEFI ticker since March 2024, have net assets of $14.25 million, according to the fund’s website.

Late to the game, which saw the first of 10 other competing BTC ETFs debut months ahead of it, analysts saw opportunity at a time when BTC was trading for the then-all-time high of more than $73,000.

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The US and Japan coordinate on the yen for the first time since 2011 as Bitcoin traders brace for a historically rough August.

Bitcoin (BTC) starts the first full week of August circling $63,000 as traders weigh the impact of the ongoing Coldcard wallet hack.

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Fake World Assets turns forgotten NFTs into an onchain lottery — but is crypto’s latest obsession built to last?

Just when you thought crypto was getting boring, a new phenomenon is lighting up Crypto Twitter — Fake World Assets (FWAs). Yes, really.

It’s the latest iteration of the onchain gacha craze, where users receive a random collectible, or collectibles, that are usually worth very little, but are sometimes worth quite a lot.

Within four days of launch, FWAs guzzled so much Ethereum gas that they briefly became the chain’s largest gas consumer by fees over a 24-hour period.

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Michael Saylor’s Strategy sold 1,638 Bitcoin in its second-largest sale of the year to fund dividend payments and repurchase its preferred STRC stock.

Strategy sold 1,638 Bitcoin from July 27 through Sunday, marking its second-largest BTC sale of the year.

Strategy sold 1,638 Bitcoin at an average price of $63,957 for a total of $104.7 million, according to a Monday 8-K filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Of the proceeds, $52.4 million was used to fund dividend payments on Strategy’s STRC preferred stock, while another $52.3 million was used to repurchase STRC.

The company now holds 842,138 Bitcoin bought at an aggregate cost of $63.5 billion.

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The South Korean exchange plans to seek preliminary listing review in 2027 while overhauling controls after a February crediting error.

South Korean cryptocurrency exchange Bithumb said Monday it plans to apply for a preliminary listing review in 2027 and complete an initial public offering in 2028.

Bithumb said it has reorganized its business structure, including spinning off Bithumb Asset, to clarify responsibilities across its business units and reduce potential conflicts of interest ahead of the listing review.

The exchange said its preparations will include upgrading internal controls and shifting from domestic accounting standards to K-IFRS, the international accounting framework used by listed companies in South Korea.

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Bernstein said Congress’ failure to pass the CLARITY Act’s could trigger another leg down for crypto valuations and accelerate policy support from US regulators.

The odds of the Digital Asset Market Clarity Act’s (CLARITY) passage are dwindling as the US Senate is scheduled to begin summer recess at the end of this week, threatening another leg down for cryptocurrency valuations, according to wealth manager Bernstein.

Bernstein said that the Senate’s failure to pass the legislation could trigger an immediate negative “industry knee-jerk reaction,” which may result in another leg down for Bitcoin and the broader crypto market.

“From a tactical standpoint, we expect the crypto market to bottom and start showing momentum towards late Q3 and early Q4 prior to the mid-terms,” Bernstein analysts wrote in a Monday report shared with Cointelegraph.

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Trump-linked Bitcoin miner produced a record 932 BTC in the second quarter, lifting mining revenue 8% as its net loss narrowed from the previous quarter.

American Bitcoin posted record Bitcoin production in the second quarter, as higher mining output lifted revenue while the Trump family-linked miner remained in the red.

The Nasdaq-listed company, co-founded by Eric Trump and Donald Trump Jr., reported Q2 results on Monday, with record production of 932 Bitcoin helping lift mining revenue 8% to $67 million from $62.1 million.&

The company reported a net loss of $57.2 million, narrowing from a $81.8 million Q1 loss.

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Ripple made a strategic investment in Zilo and Licuido as it looks to enable the use of tokenized funds as collateral from the point of issuance.

Ripple announced two new strategic investments as the blockchain-focused fintech seeks to expand access to tokenized financial assets on its blockchain ledger.

The company said it made strategic investments in Zilo, which provides global transfer agency asset solutions for wealth managers, and in Licuido, a tokenization solutions provider regulated by the UK Financial Conduct Authority, according to a Monday announcement.

Financial details for the investments were not provided. UK-based Zilo has raised $58.7 million in total equity funding, according to data compiled by Traxcn. Licuido is also based in the UK.

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Bitcoin could confirm an August bear-market bottom, though rising Treasury yields could force the Fed to raise rates in September, according to 10x Research.

Bitcoin could confirm a bear-market bottom in August with a monthly close above $63,000, according to 10x Research.

Markus Thielen, founder of 10x Research, said in a Monday report shared with Cointelegraph that Bitcoin closed July below the threshold needed to confirm a technical bottom.

A monthly close near $63,000 would turn several of 10x Research’s cycle indicators bullish. Bitcoin was trading at $63,140 when the analysis was prepared, meaning a relatively small gain from July’s closing level could trigger the reversal signal. The company said it continued to favor long positions but would shift to a neutral stance if Bitcoin broke key support levels and moving averages.

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HashKey Exchange said it received approval to open client money accounts with JPMorgan, weeks after it launched customer fund accounts with DBS Bank.

Hong Kong-licensed cryptocurrency exchange HashKey Exchange received approval from JPMorgan Chase to open a client money account, its parent company said Monday.

The account will support client fund segregation and settlement through JPMorgan’s banking infrastructure, HashKey Holdings said in a press release.

A week earlier, HashKey Holdings combined the previously separate HashKey Exchange and HashKey Global applications into a single portal.

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The crypto exchange stopped accepting new registrations from Japan residents and will begin progressively restricting existing accounts on Nov. 1.

Crypto exchange Bitget said it will stop providing services to residents of Japan and phase in account restrictions.&

The exchange announced Monday that it had stopped accepting new registrations from residents of Japan, while account restrictions will begin Nov. 1. Any positions still open on Dec. 31 will be forcibly closed.

Bitget said users who believe they have been incorrectly classified as residents of Japan must complete “Level 2” identification, which includes address verification, by Nov. 1. Failure to do so will result in their accounts being classified as belonging to residents of Japan.

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The Nasdaq-listed company relies largely on staking rewards to fund operations, while its 0G holdings were valued 91% below their recorded costs.

Nasdaq-listed crypto treasury company ZeroStack warned that substantial doubt exists about its ability to continue operating over the next year, reversing its assessment from three months earlier.&

In a Form 10-Q filed with the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) on Friday, ZeroStack reported $2.6 million in cash, negative working capital of $600,000 and an accumulated deficit of $339.1 million as of June 30. The company also posted an $82.5 million fair value loss on digital assets and a net loss of $61.3 million for the first half of 2026.

ZeroStack said its 75.1 million Zero Gravity (0G) tokens had an aggregate cost of $163.3 million and a fair value of $15.2 million as of June 30, leaving the holdings valued about 91% below their recorded costs.&

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The persistent discount suggests US spot buyers have remained less aggressive than overseas traders even as US Bitcoin ETF inflows turned positive in July.

Bitcoin fell under $63,000 on Monday as the Coinbase Premium Index, a proxy for US institutional demand for Bitcoin, reached its 77th day in the red.&

Bitcoin has traded at a persistent discount on Coinbase relative to international exchanges since May 19, with the latest premium rate at -0.1369%, according to Coinglass. As of Monday, the premium has continued its longest negative streak in history.&

10x Research head Markus Thielen said the negative premium indicates that US institutional investors are still liquidating Bitcoin.

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The five-year bug escaped detection because auditors verified that the intended random number generator existed, but not that it was being called.

Update (Aug. 4 at 2:50 am UTC): Added information shared by Ledger about its own device certifications.

Coldcard’s five-year seed-generation flaw has exposed a broader weakness in how hardware wallets are independently tested, according to Kraken chief security officer Nick Percoco.&

In an X post on Sunday, Percoco said the incident should be a “wake-up call” for hardware-wallet makers, calling for independent testing to verify that the approved source of randomness is the one actually used by production firmware.&

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Stablecoins have been flowing out of South Korean exchanges for 18 consecutive months as regulators weigh tighter oversight of cross-border crypto activity.

South Korea saw 560.3 billion won ($367 million) in stablecoin outflows to overseas exchanges in June, extending the country’s streak of monthly net stablecoin outflows to 18 consecutive months.&

The figure comes from Financial Supervisory Service (FSS) data obtained by Yonhap News Agency through People Power Party lawmaker Lee Jong-wook. South Korea’s five major crypto exchanges — Upbit, Bithumb, Coinone, Korbit and Gopax — transferred 2.7 trillion won ($1.81 billion) in stablecoins offshore in June and received 2.2 trillion won ($1.44 billion) from foreign platforms.

Market participants cited by Yonhap attributed the transfers to demand for products restricted or unavailable on domestic exchanges, such as overseas derivatives, tokenized real-world assets (RWAs), decentralized finance and staking products.&

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Galaxy research head Alex Thorn warned that unconfirmed transactions may give some Coldcard users a narrow opportunity to save their funds.

Update (Aug. 3 at 4:19 am UTC): This article has been updated with the latest estimated number of affected addresses and Bitcoin from Galaxy’s Alex Thorn.

Coldcard users are being warned of a new wave of coordinated thefts targeting their Bitcoin hardware wallets, coming just days after the first wave of attacks on Thursday.

In an X post on Monday, Galaxy research head Alex Thorn flagged hundreds of transactions impacting 709 potential victim addresses, moving 448.7 Bitcoin (BTC).

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The “sickening” loss of $90 million of Bitcoin from cold storage weighs heavily on sentiment, as the Clarity Act stalls with just five days left to hold a Senate vote.

After $90 million in Bitcoin was drained from Coldcard wallet users, small hodlers desperately sought refuge on centralized exchanges and via alternative custody methods.

Bitcoin transfers below 1 BTC climbed to their highest daily level since 2022 on Friday, with 39,600 BTC moved,& according& to data shared by CryptoQuant head of research Julio Moreno on Saturday.

The figure was just 300 BTC below the 39,900 BTC transferred on Nov. 16, 2022, days after FTX filed for bankruptcy.

Galaxy Research, the research arm of crypto investment company Galaxy Digital,& reported& Saturday that the third wave of attacks on users of the hardware wallet on the weekend brought estimated losses to 1,367 BTC ($88.6 million) across 4,585 addresses.

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Investors have previously benefited from a payout boost when the preferred STRC shares traded well below their $100 par value for a month.

While Strategy’s preferred STRC shares ended July well below their $100 par value, investors were told that their August dividend will not increase, holding at 12%.

Executive chairman Michael Saylor delivered the news in a tweet on Saturday, continuing to pitch STRC as a way to “stretch your income.” August will be the second month that the dividend will be paid semi-monthly after shareholders approved that change in June.

STRC shares closed at $89.46 on Friday, clocking a 5.42% price increase for the month which began with a dividend hike — 50 basis points to 12% — after a poor stock performance in June. The volume on the Nasdaq-traded shares on Friday were about two-thirds of their daily average.&

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BNB Chain said a former employee allegedly used a company tutorial wallet to create a memecoin that the blockchain ecosystem says it did not authorize or endorse.

BNB Chain, the blockchain ecosystem behind the BNB cryptocurrency, said it is pursuing legal action after a former employee allegedly used unauthorized access to a wallet to launch a memecoin.

In an X post on Saturday, BNB Chain said the wallet was originally created for a video tutorial explaining how to launch tokens on BNB Chain. It said the former employee, who was not named in the message, retained unauthorized access to the wallet’s seed phrase after leaving the company and later used the address to create a new token.

Blockchain analytics platform Lookonchain subsequently alleged that the former employee deployed a meme token called Asteroid Shiba (ASTEROID) and used four newly created wallets to buy 796.7 million tokens, representing 79.67% of the total supply. Lookonchain further alleged that the wallets later sold 718.8 million tokens for 1,103 BNB, worth about $638,000 at the time of the transaction.

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Trump Media transferred another 2,628 Bitcoin to Crypto.com, bringing its reported sales over seven months to 7,281 BTC and leaving the company with 4,261 BTC in holdings.

Trump Media & Technology Group, the company behind Truth Social, has made another major move involving its Bitcoin holdings, extending a series of recent sales.

The company sold 2,628 Bitcoin (BTC) worth about $165 million through transfers to Crypto.com, blockchain analytics platform Lookonchain said in a Sunday X post, citing data from Arkham.

Lookonchain said Trump Media bought 11,542 BTC at an average price of $118,522 before beginning to sell portions of its holdings seven months ago.

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Bitcoin users moved 39,600 BTC in small transactions as the Coldcard hack continued, with researchers warning that the attack remained active.

Smaller Bitcoin transfers have reached levels not seen since the collapse of cryptocurrency exchange FTX amid an ongoing suspected Coldcard hack.

Bitcoin transfers below 1 BTC climbed to their highest daily level since November 2022 on Friday, with 39,600 BTC moved, according to data shared by CryptoQuant head of research Julio Moreno on Saturday.

The figure was just 300 BTC below the 39,900 BTC transferred on Nov. 16, 2022, days after FTX filed for bankruptcy. “The Bitcoin plebs had not moved this amount of BTC in a day since the FTX collapse,” Moreno said, adding that he was encouraged to see users “taking action.”

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State officials reported that Minnesota residents, and largely senior citizens, had lost about $1 million from scams tied to crypto kiosks from 2023 to 2025.

A Minnesota law prohibiting virtual currency kiosks in the US state took effect on Saturday following the signing of a bill by Governor Tim Walz in May.&

According to the law, SF 3868, which Walz signed on May 5, all crypto ATM operators in Minnesota are prohibited from “installing, operating, maintaining, or making available” virtual currency kiosks. Companies with machines already installed must deactivate them by Saturday, but have until Dec. 31 to physically remove them from locations “visible or accessible to the public.”

Minnesota’s commerce department reported residents had lost about $1 million from scams tied to crypto ATMs from 2023 to 2025, with the FBI’s Internet Crime Complaint Center reporting the state had more than $151 million in losses tied to digital assets or crypto wallets in 2025. Officials said that the schemes “disproportionately targets seniors” and often involved situations where victims were pressured to quickly send money based on fake emergencies.

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Michigan incumbent Shri Thanedar’s re-election bid against other Democratic challengers is getting more about crypto with an infusion of ads funded by an industry-aligned PAC.

Crypto political action committee (PAC) money is pouring into ads for next week’s primary race in Michigan’s 13th Congressional District, led by a group funded largely by contributions from Ripple Labs and Coinbase.

According to Federal Election Commission (FEC) filings as of Thursday, the Protect Progress PAC had spent more than a combined $2 million on media to support Michigan Representative Shri Thanedar in the state’s 13th district and oppose his Democratic challenger, Donavan McKinney.&

The most recent filings effectively doubled what the PAC had reported spending a week prior, with an additional $884,240 on ads to support Thanedar and more than $150,000 to oppose McKinney.

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Russia has added Moscow, the Moscow Region and parts of Kursk Region to its cryptocurrency mining ban list, citing power supply concerns behind the restrictions.

Russia has expanded its cryptocurrency mining restrictions to Moscow, with the ban set to take effect on Aug. 15, 2026, and remain in place through Dec. 31, 2032.

Russia’s Resolution No. 936, signed by Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin on July 25, 2026, amends an earlier mining restriction order issued in December 2024, according to records published on Pravo.ru.

The updated rules add the nation’s capital, the Moscow Region and several territories in Russia’s Kursk region to the list of restricted areas. The measure expands existing restrictions on cryptocurrency mining in areas facing electricity supply concerns. The ban also covers eight municipal districts and the city of Lgov in the Kursk region, which border Ukraine.

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Galaxy Research identified 1,196 addresses that lost 1,082.65 Bitcoin in a 41-minute window, expanding the estimated scope of the Coldcard wallet incident.

Galaxy Research, the research arm of crypto investment company Galaxy Digital, identified 1,196 addresses linked to the Coldcard wallet incident that lost 1,082.65 Bitcoin, worth about $70.2 million at the time of the transactions.

Galaxy Research traced the Bitcoin movements between 1:10 AM and 1:51 AM UTC on July 30 across blocks 960,183 to 960,191, about 30 hours before Coldcard published its first security advisory, according to an X post on Friday.

Earlier preliminary analysis of the Coldcard incident by AnchorWatch CEO and co-founder Rob Hamilton estimated that 594.48 Bitcoin, worth around $38 million, moved across 500 transactions within a three-block window.

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Spot Bitcoin ETFs attracted $172.4 million in July inflows but remained $5.3 billion negative year to date after heavy withdrawals in May and June.

US-listed spot Bitcoin exchange-traded funds (ETFs) finished July in the green despite a late-month wave of selling and BTC price volatility.

Bitcoin ETFs attracted a modest $172.4 million in net inflows in July, reversing two consecutive months of outflows, according to SoSoValue data.

The monthly inflows came despite a volatile end to July, as the funds logged a $265.4 million net outflow on Friday, marking their largest daily withdrawal since July 13.

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Researchers found that fiat conversion costs and payment infrastructure, rather than blockchain fees, accounted for most of the differences in stablecoin remittance costs and settlement times.

A Bank of Italy study found that stablecoin-based remittances did not offer a systematic cost or speed advantage over traditional payment channels, as fiat on- and off-ramp frictions accounted for most costs and transfer delays.

Researchers tested 200 USDC (USDC) remittances across 10 bidirectional payment corridors linking Italy with Brazil, Argentina, Japan, the United Arab Emirates and South Africa, comparing end-to-end costs and settlement times with traditional remittance services. They found that exchange fees and currency conversion made up most of the cost, while blockchain transaction fees represented only a small share.

Geographic design of the remittance experiment. Source: Bank of Italy

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Pump.fun co-founder Noah Tweedale reportedly attributed the layoffs to the company growing too quickly.

Solana-based memecoin launchpad Pump.fun reportedly fired employees two months before they were due to receive PUMP tokens worth millions of dollars.

According to a Friday Sandmark report, at least one Pump.fun worker was due to receive PUMP tokens worth in the seven-figure range. The news outlet reported that Pump.fun co-founder Noah Tweedale said the company “grew too quickly,” resulting in layoffs of an undisclosed number of employees.&

The employees were reportedly fired in April, just two months before they were due to start receiving the company’s tokens based on agreements signed in 2025. The agreements, according to documents viewed by Sandmark, said that Pump.fun would unlock a quarter of the employees’ allocated tokens in one year, scheduled for June 2026.

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Several users of the long-defunct crypto exchange reported that distribution agents had begun releasing funds to reimburse creditors for some of their 2022 losses.

The trust behind reimbursing creditors from defunct cryptocurrency exchange FTX has begun its fifth distribution of funds, sending $900 million to affected users.

In a Friday X post, former FTX user Sunil Kavuri reported that he had received funds distributed from the FTX Recovery Trust and crypto exchange through Kraken. Kavuri said he had received a notice last week that FTX had sent the funds to Kraken, which released them as scheduled on Friday as part of the distribution plan for exchanges including BitGo and Payoneer.

Source: Sunil Kavuri

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Tether’s reserve surplus grew to $4.11 billion in the second quarter as USDT supply rose despite a weaker stablecoin market and continued pressure across the crypto sector.

Stablecoin issuer Tether generated another multibillion-dollar quarter as income from its US Treasury portfolio continued to bolster earnings, even as the broader crypto market remained under pressure.

Tether’s latest quarterly attestation, released Friday, reported a net operating profit of $1.5 billion for the second quarter, driven primarily by interest earned on US Treasury holdings and repurchase agreements, or short-term loans backed by government securities.

The company also reported a reserve buffer of $4.11 billion as of June 30, meaning its assets exceeded liabilities by that amount.

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Eligible retail and institutional users can use tokenized shares of Nvidia, Apple, Tesla and three other US companies across Bybit’s trading and lending products.

Dubai-based crypto exchange Bybit has enabled six tokenized stocks to serve as collateral for margin trading and lending products, expanding the financial utility of blockchain-based equities.

The update allows eligible retail and institutional users to use tokenized shares of Nvidia (NVDAX), Robinhood (HOODX), Circle (CRCLX), Tesla (TSLAX), Alphabet (GOOGLX) and Apple (AAPLX) as collateral for margin trading and borrowing through Bybit’s Unified Trading Account, Crypto Loans and Institutional Loans. The feature is available subject to Bybit’s lending terms and product availability.

Bybit first introduced xStocks in June through a partnership with tokenization platform Backed, listing more than 60 tokenized US stocks and exchange-traded funds on its spot market. The assets are backed 1:1 by the underlying securities, which are held by a regulated custodian.

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TIPS data points to rising real yields, not inflation, a dynamic that weighs on non-yielding assets like Bitcoin.

Key points:&

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Bitcoin saw fresh downside pressure as US stocks tracked sideways into the end of the month, diverging from the relief bounce seen in Asia.

Bitcoin (BTC) fell to its lowest levels in over two weeks on Friday as US stocks saw pressure into the monthly close.

Key points:

Data from TradingView showed BTC/USD falling 3.5% to reach $62,369 on Bitstamp, a level last seen on July 14.

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The European Central Bank proposed accessibility standards for its planned digital euro app, saying it would be one of several ways users could access basic digital euro services.

The European Central Bank (ECB) said Thursday its planned digital euro app will exceed the accessibility requirements of the European Accessibility Act.

The proposed design includes enhanced visual design, full keyboard navigation, screen-reader support, time-out warnings, simplified language, error prevention and reduced motion settings, among other accessibility features, the ECB said in a Thursday release.

The ECB first described the standalone digital euro app in an October 2025 progress report, saying it would serve as a fallback if bank apps failed and allow users to switch payment service providers without learning a new application. The report said both bank and non-bank payment service providers opposed mandatory support for the standalone app.

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Crypto forensics company AMLBot launched an AI-enabled tool allowing users with no specialist knowledge to trace their digital assets, even after they are stolen.

Crypto forensics and compliance company AMLBot has launched its AI Tracer, described as a self-service blockchain analysis tool that maps visible fund movements from a transaction hash across blockchain networks.

AMLBot said the tool aims to address the current need for specialist software and knowledge to trace transactions. The company said the tool also traces through bridges that move assets cross-chain or when the assets are split among multiple wallets.

“The process is automatic: the AI traverses the transaction graph, follows the movement of funds from the starting address through intermediate wallets toward whatever endpoint the money reached, and matches known entity labels — exchanges, services, flagged addresses — against every wallet it encounters,” the company said in a press release shared with Cointelegraph.

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The New York trust charter allows Circle’s subsidiary to provide fiduciary and custody services under state banking law.

Circle said Friday that the New York Department of Financial Services (NYDFS) has granted a limited purpose trust charter to its subsidiary, Circle Internet Trust Company LLC.

A limited purpose trust charter is issued under New York Banking Law for institutions that do not have the general power to accept deposits or make loans like traditional banks, according to the NYDFS.

Instead, charter holders may exercise fiduciary powers and conduct activities such as custodial services, investment management, corporate trust, transfer agency and securities clearance. NYDFS also notes that some applicants seek to engage in virtual currency-related activity.

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The Japanese yen crosses a key psychological level after the country’s central bank reportedly conducted a major currency intervention.

Japan’s central bank held interest rates steady at 1.0% on Friday after a reported major intervention in the yen.

Key points:

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Situational Awareness retained about $10 billion in assets, including its Anthropic stake, after reportedly selling leveraged public stock positions to Ken Griffin’s Citadel.

Ken Griffin’s Citadel reportedly bought a large proportion of the public stock portfolio of Situational Awareness, the hedge fund founded by former OpenAI researcher Leopold Aschenbrenner.

The Financial Times first reported Thursday that Citadel bought the portfolio holdings after heavy losses during July’s artificial intelligence stock market rout.&

The transaction followed Aschenbrenner’s fund falling about 67% in July, according to The Wall Street Journal, citing a person who saw a letter sent to investors. The letter said the fund remained up about 80% for the year. The Financial Times previously reported the fund was up 439% through June.

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Twenty-eight financial institutions and central banks completed real-value settlements across six currencies using tokenized central bank reserves and commercial bank deposits.

The Bank for International Settlements (BIS) said Project Agorá completed real-value testing of tokenized wholesale cross-border payments, with 28 financial institutions and central banks settling 800,000 Swiss francs ($1 million) across 17 transaction scenarios.

The BIS said Thursday that the tests used tokenized central bank reserves and commercial bank deposits to settle payments in Swiss francs, euros, pounds sterling, Japanese yen, South Korean won and US dollars, with an average settlement time of about 80 seconds.

Participants included the Bank of England, Bank of France, Bank of Japan, Bank of Korea and the Swiss National Bank, alongside commercial banks including JPMorgan Chase, Citi, Deutsche Bank, BNP Paribas, UBS, Standard Chartered and MUFG.

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The lawsuit adds to a growing clash between New York and the CFTC over whether federally regulated prediction markets are subject to state gambling laws.

[Update 11:45 UTC, July 31: Adds Kalshi’s response in the sixth and seventh paragraphs.]

New York has sued prediction market platform Kalshi, alleging it operates an illegal, unlicensed gambling business by offering event contracts on sports, elections and other outcomes.

The lawsuit seeks to stop Kalshi’s alleged illegal gambling operation in the state, require the company to forfeit illegal gains, pay restitution to users and pay civil penalties equal to three times those gains.

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DeFi risk management service LlamaRisk recommended that Aave wind down every reserve on Sonic, Scroll, zkSync, Metis, Soneium and Aptos, but action against most of those instances was already taken.

An Aave governance proposal would wind down the lending protocol’s V3 markets on six blockchains and retire dozens of low-use token listings, a cleanup covering $98.1 million in supplied assets and $15.6 million in debt.

Risk service provider LlamaRisk, working with other Aave service providers, recommended offboarding 50 low-use reserves and 21 matured Pendle principal token listings across 11 deployments. It also proposed retiring all 25 reserves on Sonic, Scroll, zkSync, Metis, Soneium and Aptos. The balances were measured on July 28.

An ARFC is a detailed proposal and precursor to an Aave Improvement Proposal; it is not, by itself, proof of a completed final onchain vote or execution.

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RWA perpetual futures reached 99.2% of Bitcoin perpetual volume on Hyperliquid and Binance as tokenized equities led trading.

Perpetual futures tied to tokenized stocks and commodities generated nearly as much trading volume as Bitcoin perpetuals on two of the largest venues for the products over the past week, according to Talos.

Combined seven-day volume across tracked real-world asset (RWA) perps reached $61.7 billion, equal to 99.2% of Bitcoin perpetual volume on Hyperliquid and Binance, where most trading activity is concentrated, Talos told Cointelegraph in an email summary citing a data snapshot taken on Thursday.

Tokenized equity contracts accounted for 57.8% of the total, followed by commodities at 28.2%.

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BlackRock’s IBIT led $233.1 million in daily inflows as US spot Bitcoin ETFs turned positive for the week and July stayed on track to end in the green.

US spot Bitcoin exchange-traded funds (ETFs) posted their strongest daily inflows in more than three weeks on Thursday, attracting $233.1 million.

BlackRock’s iShares Bitcoin Trust (IBIT) led the gains with $183.4 million in net inflows, accounting for 78.7% of the day’s total, according to SoSoValue data. Bitwise’s BITB attracted $20.7 million, followed by Fidelity’s FBTC with $15.5 million, while several other funds posted smaller inflows.

That flips Bitcoin ETFs into positive territory for the week, leaving them with $203.84 million in net inflows. Barring a net outflow above that value on Friday, the funds could close their fourth straight week in the green.

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Institutional investors accounted for 72% of Wintermute’s spot OTC flow in the first half of 2026 as capital clustered in fewer tokens and altcoin rallies became more selective.

Crypto’s next altcoin season may produce fewer winners as institutional investors concentrate their activity in a narrower group of digital assets, according to crypto market maker Wintermute.

In its over-the-counter (OTC) flow report for the first half of 2026, Wintermute said institutional counterparties generated 72% of spot flow across all tokens on its OTC desk, the highest share on record. That was up from 61% in the second half of 2025 and 59% in the first half of last year.&

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Coinkite urged Coldcard Mk3 users to migrate funds after identifying a potential seed-generation risk, as Bitcoin security experts separately examine an unexplained $38 million wallet drain.

Canadian Bitcoin hardware maker Coinkite has warned users of its Coldcard Mk3 signing device to move funds from wallets whose seed phrases were generated on affected firmware.&

On Thursday, Coinkite said seeds created on an Mk3 running firmware version 4.0.1, released in March 2021, or any later Mk3 version may put funds at risk. The issue extends through version 5.0.3, the final firmware supporting the Mk3, while the Mk4, Q and Mk5 are not affected, according to the company’s early analysis.

The warning comes as Bitcoin security specialists examine an unexplained, coordinated sweep involving 594.48 BTC from single-signature addresses. Still, no definitive public evidence has established that the Mk3 issue caused those transfers.

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3iQ will manage an undisclosed portion of Gelephu Mindfulness City’s Bitcoin treasury as Bhutan develops a digital-asset investment hub.

Bhutan’s Gelephu Mindfulness City (GMC) has appointed Canadian digital-asset manager 3iQ to manage a mandate backed by part of its Bitcoin treasury as the special administrative region develops a digital-asset investment hub.

Under the partnership, 3iQ will manage an undisclosed portion of the Bitcoin allocated to support Gelephu’s development. The company will also establish a long-term presence in the city, invest in local talent and provide training and knowledge transfer.&

In December 2025, Bhutan announced that up to 10,000 Bitcoin from the country’s national holdings would be allocated to support the GMC.&

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The window to pass a comprehensive crypto market structure bill before the Senate breaks for a month-long recess is closing, with ethics a dividing issue for many lawmakers.

Two US senators on opposite sides of the political aisle have reportedly sent revised ethics guidelines to the White House as part of discussions over a cryptocurrency market structure bill in Congress.

According to a Thursday PunchBowl report, Senator Thom Tillis and Senator Ruben Gallego submitted a counteroffer to the Trump administration that included a change to ethics provisions in the Digital Asset Market Clarity (CLARITY) Act. The changes would reportedly address concerns from many lawmakers in the first draft by allowing state authorities to enforce a ban on federal officials issuing or sponsoring tokens rather than the US Attorney General.

Gallego, a Democrat, previously said that provisions around ethics, consumer protection, illicit finance, conflicts of interest and market integrity “must be strengthened” and he would continue to work with Republicans to get the bill “over the finish line.” Cointelegraph reached out to Gallego’s and Tillis’ teams for clarification on the proposed changes but did not receive an immediate response.

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The Bitcoin treasury company said it has built a $3.75 billion cash reserve to support preferred stock payouts following the launch of its BTC monetization program.

Strategy reported an $8.22 billion second-quarter net loss, driven primarily by an $8.32 billion unrealized loss on its Bitcoin holdings as the cryptocurrency’s price declined during the quarter.

As of Sunday, Strategy held 843,775 Bitcoin (BTC), up 25% from the beginning of the year. The company also disclosed that it had sold about $218.4 million worth of Bitcoin under its newly established BTC monetization program to help fund a portion of its preferred stock dividend obligations. Most of those sales ($216 million) occurred in early July after the second quarter ended.

Strategy also said it has built a $3.75 billion U.S. dollar reserve, enough to cover more than two years of preferred dividend payments and interest obligations. The company recently repurchased $25 million of its STRC preferred shares at a discount to par and said it intends to continue buying the securities while they trade below $100.

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The blockchain analytics firm said the World Cup attracted global participation in prediction markets and digital collectibles, with more than 400,000 wallets placing blockchain-based bets.

The 2026 FIFA World Cup drove $20 billion in blockchain-based prediction market volume and $24 million in digital collectible trades, with more than 400,000 wallets participating in blockchain-based betting, according to a report from blockchain analytics firm Chainalysis.

The $20 billion figure includes trading before and during the tournament, with bettors placing roughly $5.7 billion in wagers over the five-week World Cup itself. World Cup-related markets accounted for about 63% of all prediction market activity during that period, the report said.

According to Chainalysis, users from every continent except Antarctica participated in World Cup prediction markets, with the United States and China generating the highest attributable trading volumes, followed by Canada, Thailand and the United Kingdom.

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The crypto exchange blamed softer spot trading and low volatility for the earnings miss while highlighting growth in derivatives, stablecoins and tokenized finance.

Crypto exchange Coinbase reported mixed second-quarter results on Thursday, missing Wall Street expectations on profitability as weaker trading activity weighed on results despite the company capturing a record share of the crypto market.

In the second quarter, Coinbase generated roughly $1.2 billion in net revenue, broadly in line with expectations but down 19% from a year earlier. The company reported a GAAP net loss of $359 million, significantly wider than analysts’ expectations for a roughly $122 million loss. Transaction revenue, subscription and services revenue, and adjusted EBITDA also fell short of consensus estimates.

Despite the losses, the exchange posted an all-time-high 10.3% share of global crypto trading volume, up from 9.1% in the first quarter, even as industry-wide trading activity weakened.

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The Telegram founder said Russia designated him a terrorist after he refused government demands for mass surveillance and censorship on the messaging platform.

Telegram founder Pavel Durov said Russian authorities designated him a “terrorist” after he refused government demands for mass surveillance and censorship on the messaging platform, responding publicly a day after Russia announced charges against him.

In a Telegram post on Thursday, Durov also said Russia had barred him from “publishing information on the Internet,” adding that authorities had “got confused about who can ban whom from the Internet.”

Source: Telegram, Pavel Durov

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The proposed legislation referenced US President Donald Trump’s disclosure of billions of dollars in crypto earnings in 2025, as well as his family’s business ties to foreign governments.

Update (July 30, 11:25 pm UTC): This article has been updated to include a statement from the White House.

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer introduced legislation to create a new US government agency focused entirely on addressing corruption at the federal level, noting President Donald Trump’s gains from “various, and extremely lucrative, cryptocurrency ventures.”

In a Thursday notice, Schumer said that he had introduced a bill called the Anti-Corruption Bureau Creation Act, which, if passed, would have the authority to “investigate, enforce, and prevent executive branch corruption.” The text of the bill addressed Congress’ findings that Trump had disclosed earning more than $2 billion from investments in 2025, including $1.4 billion tied to crypto, and his family had more than $1 billion in a crypto fund tied to foreign governments.

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The new XRPL-based share class gives eligible investors blockchain-based access to a regulated US dollar liquidity fund while keeping traditional custody arrangements.

Aviva Investors, the London-based asset management arm of Aviva Plc, has launched a tokenized share class of its US Dollar Liquidity Fund on the XRP Ledger (XRPL) after receiving approval from the Central Bank of Ireland, marking another step in the growth of tokenized real-world assets.

The company announced that the tokenized share class will be available to eligible investors with digital wallets. The fund’s underlying assets will continue to be held by custodian BNY Mellon, while Komainu will provide digital asset custody and Licuido will supply the tokenization infrastructure.

The US Dollar Liquidity Fund invests in high-grade, short-term US dollar-denominated debt securities and money market instruments issued by governments, banks and corporations. According to Aviva, the tokenized share class offers the same investment objective and liquidity profile as the conventional fund.

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A survey of more than 2,000 Canadians in late 2025 and early 2026 showed an increasing awareness of risk around the crypto industry and higher ownership of assets.

Canadians’ ownership of cryptocurrencies increased to 25% in 2026 from 10% in 2023, new data from the Ontario Securities Commission (OSC) shows.

In the results of a survey released on Tuesday, the OSC found that crypto ownership and awareness among Canadians had increased from a few years ago. The survey polled 2,360 individuals age 18 and over between December 2025 and January 2026, finding that 59% of the respondents were aware of crypto assets and 25% held them.

“Crypto markets continue to evolve, and Canadians are participating in them more than ever before,” said Naizam Kanji, executive vice president of strategic regulation at the OSC. “By identifying emerging trends and behaviors with our research, we can look around corners, anticipate potential opportunities and risks, and ensure our regulatory approach supports investor protection while fostering fair and efficient markets.”

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Bitcoin and US stocks enjoyed a relief bounce as the South Korea semiconductor rout eased and US PCE inflation data conforms to year-on-year expectations.

Bitcoin (BTC) shook off volatility on Thursday as US stocks rebounded on the back of inflation-data relief.

Key points:

Data from TradingView showed BTC price action focusing on $64,500, broadly unchanged from the day prior.&

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Bitcoin and US stocks enjoyed a relief bounce as the South Korea semiconductor rout eased and US PCE inflation data conforms to year-on-year expectations.

Bitcoin (BTC) shook off volatility on Thursday as US stocks rebounded on the back of inflation-data relief.

Key points:

Data from TradingView showed BTC price action focusing on $64,500, broadly unchanged from the day prior.&

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The Bitcoin miner is using part of its treasury and a BTC-backed credit facility to fund an AI campus tied to a potential multi-billion-dollar infrastructure contract.

Bitcoin miner Hyperscale Data sold about 100 Bitcoin and secured a Bitcoin-backed credit facility to help finance construction of its Michigan AI data center, according to a Thursday announcement.

The company said proceeds from the Bitcoin (BTC) sale are being used to fund construction and purchase critical infrastructure and long-lead equipment for its Michigan campus. The& Bitcoin-backed credit facility& is expected to provide financing at variable interest rates of about 4.5% to 5.0%.

The campus is being developed to support a previously announced master services agreement with an unidentified AI infrastructure provider, initially covering about 20 megawatts of AI compute capacity. The 10-year agreement includes two optional five-year extensions and is expected to generate more than $1.2 billion in revenue if fully exercised.

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A RedStone report found tokenized bullion held up during gold’s sharp sell-off, but DeFi lending adoption remains limited despite surging market growth and trading volumes.

Demand for tokenized gold has surged this year as physical bullion climbed to record highs, but very little of the asset is being put to work in decentralized finance, highlighting a major adoption gap, according to a new report by RedStone.

Tokenized gold spot trading volume reached $90.7 billion in the first quarter as gold futures rallied above $5,600 per troy ounce. Yet only about $63 million worth of Tether Gold (XAUT) and PAX Gold (PAXG) is currently being used as collateral on Aave v3 and Morpho, RedStone said. That’s just 1.5% of the tokens’ combined $4.2 billion market capitalization.

Despite the limited adoption, tokenized gold has already weathered a meaningful market test, RedStone said.

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South Korean crypto exchanges saw a fresh spike in trading activity as the country’s stock market had several days of significant downside.

Cryptocurrency trading volumes spiked in South Korea as its stock market fell by nearly 18% this week.&

Key points:

KRW/USDT volumes spike in response to stock sell-off

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Russian authorities charged BitRiver founder Igor Runets with alleged fraud tied to a $8 million crypto mining equipment deal involving Russian billionaire Oleg Deripaska.

Russian authorities have charged BitRiver founder Igor Runets with alleged fraud involving about 1 billion rubles ($12.5 million), expanding the criminal case against the executive of one of Russia’s largest crypto mining-linked companies.

Runets was officially charged with large-scale fraud over an alleged failure to deliver crypto mining equipment under an $8 million contract, local news agency Pravo reported on Wednesday.

Investigators allege that Fox, a company controlled by Runets, signed the contract in 2023 to supply the equipment to a company within an industrial group founded by businessman Oleg Deripaska. Authorities say that while the buyer paid $7.9 million upfront, the equipment was not delivered within the agreed 32-day period.

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Samsung SDS is discussing stablecoin infrastructure and AI-based payment models with Dunamu, the operator of South Korean crypto exchange Upbit.

Samsung SDS, the IT services arm of Samsung Group, is exploring stablecoin infrastructure, digital asset systems and AI-based payment models with Dunamu, the operator of Upbit, one of the biggest local cryptocurrency exchanges.

Samsung SDS said it is discussing potential cooperation with Dunamu on stablecoin infrastructure, digital asset systems and AI-based payment business models, CEO Lee Jun-hee said during the company’s second-quarter earnings call on Thursday.

“We have already secured differentiated business capabilities in digital asset infrastructure through the Korea Securities Depository’s tokenized securities platform project and through end-to-end validation [...] of the full stablecoin process from issuance to settlement,” Lee said. He said he expects the relationship with Dunamu will help Samsung SDS expand in the digital asset infrastructure market.

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The FT said Situational Awareness has approached investors and lenders after borrowing amplified losses during July’s AI stock sell-off.

Situational Awareness, a hedge fund founded in 2024 by ex-OpenAI researcher Leopold Aschenbrenner, has approached investors and lenders for fresh capital after suffering heavy losses in the recent artificial intelligence stock sell-off, the Financial Times reported Thursday.

The fund, which the Wall Street Journal said had around $20 billion in assets under management as of June 8, has also offered some investors the option to buy portfolio assets, according to the FT, citing people briefed on the discussions and a July 24 investor letter.&

The size of the losses and amount sought were not disclosed. Aschenbrenner’s fund had gained 439% after fees through June, according to the letter, but the FT said borrowing increased the size of the fund’s bets, driving up losses when AI stocks collapsed during July’s market rout. Aschenbrenner reportedly wrote in the letter that the sell-off had created attractive investment opportunities.

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Telegram faces Australian court proceedings after eSafety alleged the platform failed to detect and remove extremist material shared by users.

Telegram, the messaging platform used by more than 1 billion people worldwide, is facing a major legal challenge in Australia over claims that it failed to stop the spread of terrorism-linked material.

Australia’s online safety regulator, the eSafety Commissioner, launched civil penalty proceedings against Telegram in the Federal Court on Thursday, according to an official statement.

The authority alleged Telegram breached its obligations under the country’s Online Safety Act to address “pro-terror” content by failing to act on multiple user complaints.

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China Business Journal says fraudsters impersonated the publication, demanding Bitcoin to suppress purported investigative reports about targeted companies.

China Business Journal, a state-affiliated newspaper, has warned that fraudsters have been impersonating the publication to extort companies by demanding Bitcoin in exchange for suppressing damaging reports.

In a statement issued Thursday, the newspaper said scammers used a Proton Mail address to contact businesses, falsely claiming they had uncovered negative information through undercover investigations and threatening to publish the material unless paid in Bitcoin.

The publication said the emails were unauthorized and that the scheme appeared to constitute fraud.

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US spot Bitcoin ETFs recorded $32.1 million in inflows on Wednesday despite Bitcoin dipping below $64,000, ending a four-session outflow streak.

US-listed spot Bitcoin exchange-traded funds (ETFs) ended a four-session outflow streak on Wednesday, recording $32.1 million in net inflows.

After posting more than $500 million in combined outflows over four straight trading sessions, spot Bitcoin ETFs returned to positive territory despite Bitcoin briefly falling to around $63,300 during US trading hours, according to data from SoSoValue and CoinGecko.

So far this week, US spot Bitcoin ETFs have recorded net outflows of $29.29 million, while monthly net inflows have reached $204.7 million. Cumulative net inflows across the funds stand at $51.36 billion.

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Policy report recommends interim licensing guidance, greater flexibility for stablecoin issuers and rules ahead of the Digital Asset Basic Act.

South Korea should allow greater flexibility for stablecoin issuers, provide interim licensing guidance and phase in stablecoin regulation before completing its Digital Asset Basic Act, according to a policy report published Wednesday by Hashed Open Research and the Solana Policy Institute.

The report summarizes a June 23 symposium attended by lawmakers, legal experts and industry participants.

The Digital Asset Basic Act would establish South Korea’s first comprehensive digital asset framework, covering stablecoins, issuance, disclosures and market rules. Still, lawmakers have yet to reconcile multiple bills, with disagreements over stablecoin issuance delaying the legislation.

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The US Treasury said HormuzSafe accepted Bitcoin and other digital assets to evade sanctions and generate revenue for Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps.

The US Treasury has sanctioned two Iranian maritime firms involved in an alleged Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC)-backed insurance network, saying one accepted Bitcoin (BTC) and other digital assets to bypass Western sanctions.&

On Wednesday, the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) said that Persian Gulf Marine Insurance Company and HormuzSafe Marine Services Authority were integral to what it described as an IRGC-backed insurance network that required commercial vessels to buy approved coverage before transiting the Strait of Hormuz. The firms were designated as operating in Iran’s financial sector.

The action comes after earlier reports that Iran was considering a Bitcoin-based maritime insurance platform. US authorities now allege the network generated revenue for the IRGC. Treasury also sanctioned eight companies linked to Iran’s shadow fleet and identified eight vessels as blocked property.

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Luno and Gnosis joined a widening round of crypto restructurings in July, when at least 12 companies reported job cuts.

Crypto exchange Luno is reportedly cutting about 20% of its global workforce as it restructures operations and shifts more resources toward institutional clients, financial infrastructure and business-to-business services.&

According to a Bloomberg report on Tuesday, Luno CEO James Lanigan said the company had invested in automation and broader operational improvements that changed the resources needed to run the business. Luno will also trim costs in line with market conditions while investing in compliance, core infrastructure and retail products.&

Luno has previously made larger workforce reductions. In January 2023, the exchange cut 35% of its staff, nearly 330 employees, as turbulence across the technology and crypto sectors weighed on its growth and revenue.

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The Bitcoin and altcoin fund builds on Gumi’s growing crypto business centered around XRP, with the company nearly doubling its crypto holdings over the past year.

Japanese game developer Gumi said it will begin operating a 3 billion yen (about $18.3 million) crypto asset fund on Saturday with SBI Financial Services and backing from Daiwa Securities Group and other investors.

The fund is operated by SBI Crypto Fund, a joint venture owned 51% by SBI Financial Services and 49% by Gumi subsidiary gC Labs.

According to Gumi’s Tuesday announcement, the fund will invest primarily in Bitcoin and major altcoins, using staking, portfolio rebalancing and hedging strategies.&

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Pascal Caversaccio joins the Ethereum Foundation’s four-member board as the organization elevates privacy and security in its protocol strategy.

The Ethereum Foundation (EF) has appointed Pascal Caversaccio, also known as “pcaversaccio,” a co-founder and lead of crypto security response group SEAL 911, to its board as the organization deepens its focus on privacy and security.

On Wednesday, the EF said Caversaccio joined for an initial one-year term voluntarily. He joins president Aya Miyaguchi, Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin and Swiss counsel Patrick Storchenegger on the four-member board.
Caversaccio is a longtime Ethereum contributor and a member of the Foundation’s Silviculture Society, an informal advisory group focused on censorship resistance, open-source development, privacy and security. He also authored The Ethereum Cypherpunk Manifesto in 2024 and Ethereum Privacy: The Road to Self-Sovereignty in 2025.

The board sets the Foundation’s vision and oversees whether management’s strategies and decisions remain aligned with its values. The Foundation described the body as a “security council” responsible for protecting its mission and ensuring compliance as a Swiss foundation.

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The American Arbitration Association’s Web3 Panel brings together specialists in blockchain, smart contracts, digital assets and autonomous transactions.

The American Arbitration Association (AAA), one of the world’s largest providers of private dispute-resolution services, has launched a specialist panel for blockchain and digital-asset cases, giving companies access to arbitrators with expertise in the technical and legal complexities of crypto disputes.

On Wednesday, the AAA said that its new Web3 Panel brings together arbitrators with experience across law, technology, academia, litigation and digital-asset businesses.&

The panel is designed to address disputes arising from increasingly automated and decentralized commercial systems, including disagreements over contract interpretation, governance, asset control, cybersecurity, transaction records and cross-border enforcement.

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The online brokerage continued expanding its digital asset business with Robinhood Chain, tokenized stocks and decentralized lending even as cryptocurrency transaction revenue declined.

Online brokerage Robinhood posted record second-quarter revenue and earnings, though cryptocurrency transaction revenue fell 38% from a year earlier.

According to the company’s earnings report on Wednesday, revenue increased 32% year over year to $1.31 billion, while its net income rose 48% to $573 million.

The company reported that cryptocurrency transaction revenue fell to $100 million from about $160 million a year earlier.& Separately, it recorded $40 billion in crypto trading volume during the quarter, including $18 billion on the Robinhood app and $22 billion from Bitstamp, the crypto exchange it acquired in June 2025.

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The online brokerage continued expanding its digital asset business with Robinhood Chain, tokenized stocks and decentralized lending even as cryptocurrency transaction revenue declined.

[Update 08:55 UTC, July 30: Updates with additional reporting and context.]

Online brokerage Robinhood posted record second-quarter revenue and earnings, though cryptocurrency transaction revenue fell 38% from a year earlier.

The company said Wednesday in its earnings report that crypto transaction revenue fell to $100 million from about $160 million a year earlier. Overall revenue rose 32% year-over-year to $1.31 billion, while net income increased 48% to $573 million. Transaction-based revenue climbed 44% to $776 million.

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The CEO of the US crypto exchange said that the company would apply for a license with the CFTC in August, allowing it to offer prediction markets.

According to its leadership, cryptocurrency exchange Binance.US will apply for a Designated Contract Market (DCM) with the US Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) to offer prediction markets services to users.

At the Rare Evo blockchain conference on Wednesday, Binance.US CEO Steve Gregory said that the CFTC license would allow the exchange to launch its own prediction market in what could become a challenge to platforms like Kalshi and Polymarket. The CEO said that the company will apply for the DCM sometime in August.

Under CFTC guidelines, DCMs can legally trade “futures or option contracts based on any underlying commodity, index or instrument.” Companies seeking to be licensed as a DCM must comply with 23 core principles from the agency, including having system safeguards, conducting record keeping and addressing conflicts of interest.&

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ARK Invest’s Lorenzo Valente says revenue is becoming increasingly concentrated among a handful of crypto protocols, setting the stage for more mergers, acquisitions and exchange closures.

An ARK Invest analyst says the cryptocurrency industry is entering what he describes as its biggest consolidation phase yet, with revenue increasingly concentrated among a handful of dominant protocols.

In a Wednesday post on X, Lorenzo Valente, a research associate at ARK Invest, said investors have become increasingly selective, making it harder for crypto projects and exchanges without strong product-market fit to attract capital. As weaker projects struggle or shut down, revenue is becoming concentrated among a small number of dominant protocols, he said.

As evidence, Valente said perpetual futures exchange Hyperliquid and memecoin launchpad Pump.fun account for roughly 67% of total crypto application revenue. Including synthetic dollar protocol Ethena raises the top three’s combined share to nearly 80%, highlighting what he described as record-high revenue concentration across the sector.

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A group of 12 county commissioners voted unanimously to ban mining facilities and data centers in unincorporated areas as it deals with a lawsuit by a digital asset company.

The Hawkins County Commissioners in Tennessee passed their second ban related to digital assets, following a similar one in 2025.

On Monday, the commission voted unanimously 12-0 to ban the establishment, construction, installation, expansion and operation of crypto mining facilities and data centers in unincorporated areas of the county. The government body had already banned similar activities in September 2025 as part of an effort to block the ExoticRidge mining company from establishing operations in the county, and passed a resolution in January affirming its authority to do so.

ExoticRidge and Tennessee county officials proposed a settlement in January over the crypto company’s operations, allowing it to construct and run its facility with noise restrictions. The proposed terms would restrict the company from operating at more than 80 A-weighted decibels (dBA) at the property line “for more than 30 minutes during any four-hour period.”

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A White House crypto adviser said that the proposed changes to the CLARITY Act were “not even close” to the administration’s position, signaling another fight over the bill.

Organizations representing law enforcement officials in the US have reportedly proposed changes to a comprehensive cryptocurrency market structure bill under consideration in the Senate, with only days left until the chamber breaks for a month-long recess.

According to a Tuesday Politico report, the National Association of Assistant US Attorneys and the National District Attorneys Association sent a letter to the White House asking for changes on provisions regarding developers in the Digital Asset Market Clarity (CLARITY) Act. The changes proposed to the Blockchain Regulatory Certainty Act (BRCA) within the CLARITY Act included that guidelines on developers not “create, expand, or modify criminal liability under Federal law.”

In response to reports on the proposed changes, White House crypto adviser Patrick Witt said that the provisions were “not even close” to the Trump administration’s position, and implied that it was not the result of “productive negotiations.” Senator Catherine Cortez Masto has reportedly been pushing the White House to address the BRCA before any potential vote.

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New commodity options let traders gain exposure to gold and silver prices through Binance’s Abu Dhabi-regulated exchange.

Binance will launch USDT-settled options on gold and silver through its Abu Dhabi-regulated exchange, expanding its lineup of traditional financial products alongside cryptocurrencies.

The contracts will be listed through Nest Exchange Limited, Binance’s Abu Dhabi Global Market-regulated Recognized Investment Exchange (ADGM). The options allow traders to gain exposure to movements in gold and silver prices without taking delivery of the underlying metals.&

Retail users will only be able to buy options, while eligible institutional users and liquidity providers can also write contracts. According to Binance, restricting retail users to buying options limits downside risk to the premium paid, while eligible institutional participants can write options to collect premiums.

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Bitcoin traders weathered an oil-price surge and ongoing Asia chip-stock sell-off into the Federal Reserve interest-rate decision.

Bitcoin (BTC) whipsawed around $64,000 on Wednesday as geopolitical and macroeconomic tensions pressured US stocks.

Key points:

Data from TradingView showed BTC/USD halting a local rebound at the Wall Street open, having hit 11-day lows of $62,700 the day prior.

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MoonPay’s PayBox vault lets ChatGPT and Claude users authorize crypto purchases, token swaps and crosschain transactions while retaining custody of their assets.

MoonPay has launched PayBox, a payment vault that lets ChatGPT and Claude users authorize AI to buy crypto, swap tokens and bridge assets from within a conversation while keeping control of their funds.

Users connect a crypto wallet and payment methods to ChatGPT or Claude, which prepare transactions such as token swaps, crosschain transfers and DeFi interactions using natural-language prompts. Users can approve each transaction with a passkey or set spending limits that allow the AI to execute certain actions automatically, according to MoonPay.

MoonPay said PayBox uses multi-party computation and trusted execution environments to protect wallet keys, preventing either the AI assistant or MoonPay from independently accessing user funds. The platform also lets users require approval for every transaction or allow AI to act autonomously within predefined spending and permission limits.

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Seoul’s historic two-day crash and widening hyperscaler credit spreads suggest the AI trade’s leverage is starting to bite — in equities and in bonds.

Key points:

Korean equities saw the second day of a historic sell-off on Wednesday with market-wide circuit breakers again halting trading. Combined with Tuesday’s drop, the KOSPI has now shed nearly 17%, wiping out $620 billion in market capitalization. This prompted the government to convene an emergency meeting of its financial authorities.

The initial trigger for the sell-off was SK Hynix’s Q2 earnings miss. The stock was down another 4% today, extending Tuesday’s 15% drop. Taken together with Samsung Electronics, the company makes up nearly half of the Korean index.&

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BNY is launching a blockchain-based transfer agency platform as the bank expands its digital asset infrastructure and moves core financial records onchain.

BNY, one of the world’s largest custodian banks, is taking a major step toward blockchain-based financial infrastructure by moving fund ownership records onchain.

The New York-based institution will launch a blockchain-based version of its transfer agency business, which manages fund ownership records and investor transactions, the Financial Times reported Wednesday.

“We think of BNY as modernizing a function that sits behind every single fund transaction by bringing the books and records on-chain,” Carolyn Weinberg, BNY’s chief product and innovation officer, reportedly said.

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Crypto’s fundamentals have never been stronger, yet degens keep chasing hot new narratives. Behavioral finance may explain why get-rich-quick stories continue to beat substance.

“Investments change fast; human nature and human aspirations stay constant.”

That’s how Meir Statman, behavioral finance pioneer, professor of finance at Santa Clara University and author of “A Wealth of Well-Being,” explains one of investing’s oldest puzzles. And it may be why every crypto cycle so far has been about chasing the next hot narrative rather than fundamentals, whether it’s DeFi, meme coins or decentralized compute.

In an industry that has spent years maturing into an ecosystem of institutional investors, revenue-generating protocols and real-world use cases, investor attention still gravitates toward the next shiny thing that can offer the promise of outsized returns.

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The service is limited to eligible UAE residents and bookings are priced and settled in dirhams.

Emirates, the Dubai-based flagship carrier, has launched Crypto.com Pay on its website and app, enabling eligible United Arab Emirates residents make flight bookings with cryptocurrencies, the airline said Tuesday.

Mobile users are sent to the Crypto.com app to authorize payment from their wallet, while desktop customers scan a QR code at checkout, the companies said in an announcement. Emirates settles in UAE dirhams rather than holding crypto, with Crypto.com handling the conversion.

The move “reflects the rapidly evolving preferences of a younger, digitally fluent generation who manage their money and plan their journeys primarily from their phones,” said Adnan Kazim, Emirates’ deputy president and chief commercial officer. Neither company indicated whether they would expand the Emirates service beyond eligible UAE residents.

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A CoinGecko study points to rising demand for tokenized equities and commodities on centralized exchanges, with perpetual futures driving most of the market’s trading activity.

Intense competition from traditional brokerage and decentralized exchanges is pushing crypto exchanges to expand beyond digital assets into tokenized stocks, commodities and precious metals, CoinGecko said.

A study, released by the crypto data provider on Wednesday, found that the market capitalization of tokenized traditional assets, including precious metals, US stocks, commodities, global indexes and forex, grew to $6.6 billion in June 2026 from $1.4 billion in January 2025. The analysis covers activity across Binance, OKX, Bybit, Bitget, Gate and MEXC.

The market’s initial growth was fueled largely by tokenized precious metals before expanding into US equities. By mid-2026, US stock perpetual futures had overtaken precious metals in both trading volume and open interest, driven by investor interest in semiconductor stocks and anticipated initial public offerings, the report said.

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Hungary removed mandatory third-party checks for crypto conversions as CoinCash received authorization to provide digital asset services under MiCA.

Hungary is rolling back strict crypto rules as CoinCash prepares to resume services after receiving authorization under the European Union’s Markets in Crypto-Assets (MiCA) regulation.

The Hungarian Parliament voted to repeal the country’s crypto validator requirement, removing mandatory third-party approval for certain crypto transactions, the Hungarian tax and legal publication Ado.hu reported on Tuesday.

Finance Minister Kármán András said the government removed the validation requirement after the previous rules disrupted Hungary’s crypto market, prompting some service providers to halt operations in the country.

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Gabriel Perez, who was accused of profiting from Kalshi bets tied to President Donald Trump’s speeches, is no longer employed by the federal government.

A White House teleprompter operator accused of using inside knowledge to profit from prediction market bets on President Donald Trump’s speeches no longer works for the federal government, according to the Associated Press.

A White House official said on Tuesday that Gabriel Perez, who had been placed on unpaid leave earlier this month, is no longer employed by the federal government but declined to say whether he resigned or was fired.

Perez was accused of using nonpublic information to make more than $100,000 betting on Kalshi prediction markets tied to Trump’s speeches, according to an earlier ABC News report.

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US spot Bitcoin ETFs recorded four straight sessions of outflows totaling $526 million as Bitcoin faced renewed selling pressure after failing to hold $65,000.

US-listed spot Bitcoin exchange-traded funds (ETFs) extended their outflow streak to four consecutive trading sessions, with investors withdrawing about $49.8 million as Bitcoin briefly fell to $63,000.

Bitcoin ETFs recorded total net outflows of about $526 million across the four trading sessions, with the largest withdrawals coming on July 24 and July 23, at about $240 million and $225 million, respectively, according to SoSoValue data.

Despite the recent selling pressure, cumulative net inflows remained at $51.3 billion, while total net assets stood at $77.2 billion as of July 28.

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Industry participants said stablecoins offer the biggest near-term benefits for cross-border payments, while domestic UK retail adoption is likely to remain limited.

Cross-border payments are the clearest near-term use case for stablecoins, while consumer adoption in United Kingdom retail payments is likely to be slower, according to the Financial Conduct Authority’s Stablecoin Sprint.

The FCA published findings from its March policy initiative that brought together banks, payment firms, stablecoin issuers and other industry participants to explore how stablecoins could be used.

Participants said stablecoins offer the greatest advantages for cross-border payments, particularly in emerging markets with limited access to US dollars, but provide fewer benefits in major payment corridors where existing systems are already fast and relatively inexpensive.

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Russia’s FSB says Telegram founder Pavel Durov faces a terrorism-related charge and an international arrest warrant, while a separate French case remains open.

[Update, 11:13 am UTC: Adds wanted list clarification in third paragraph.]

Russian authorities have placed Telegram founder Pavel Durov on an international wanted list as they escalate a criminal case accusing him of facilitating terrorist activity.

Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB) said on Wednesday that it had charged Durov with facilitating terrorist activity and issued an international warrant for his arrest, local news agency Interfax reported.

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Trade.xyz said its oracle worked as designed but will reimburse eligible traders after an external SK Hynix price print caused the contract’s mark price to fall nearly 19%.

Trade.xyz, an operator of onchain perpetual markets on Hyperliquid, said it will cover eligible liquidation losses after a price anomaly hit its contract tracking SK Hynix, a South Korean chipmaker and producer of high-bandwidth memory for artificial intelligence.

Trade.xyz said the SKHYNIX contract’s mark price fell to $917.25 from $1,127.90 at 23:01 UTC on Monday after an executed trade was relayed by multiple independent data providers. Eligibility requirements will be announced soon, with distributions expected in the coming days.

The SK Hynix contract ranks among Hyperliquid’s most active markets. On Wednesday, Hyperliquid data showed the contract had generated over $1.5 billion in 24-hour volume and held nearly $600 million in open interest at the time of writing.

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Hayden Adams said critics misunderstood Uniswap’s newly approved v4 protocol fees, rejecting claims the change reduces liquidity providers’ earnings.

Uniswap founder Hayden Adams pushed back against criticism of Uniswap’s newly activated v4 protocol fees, arguing that claims they reduce liquidity providers’ earnings are based on incorrect assumptions.

In an X post on Tuesday, Adams said recent criticism surrounding the protocol fee activation amounted to “FUD and misunderstanding.”

Adams also disputed claims that the protocol was taking 25% of LP profits. Using a 30-basis-point pool as an example, he said a 5-basis-point protocol fee represents about 14% of total swap fees, not a reduction in LP earnings.

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The FSC reportedly plans a government-backed digital asset bill covering stablecoins and exchanges, while opposition lawmakers seek to scrap a 22% crypto tax due in 2027.

South Korea’s Financial Services Commission (FSC) reportedly plans to draft a consolidated Digital Asset Basic Act with the ruling Democratic Party, giving lawmakers a government-backed proposal covering stablecoins and the broader cryptocurrency market after months of delays.

According to an Edaily report published Wednesday, the FSC told the National Assembly ahead of a policy briefing that it intends to introduce a consolidated bill. The proposal would reportedly cover stablecoin issuance and circulation, digital asset business rules, exchange entry requirements, disclosures, internal controls and system-resilience standards.

A consolidated government-ruling party proposal could provide a central framework for negotiations. At the moment, 10 separate digital asset and stablecoin bills are pending in Parliament, while disagreements have prevented South Korea from settling key elements of its second-stage crypto legislation.&

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The Bitcoin miner and AI infrastructure company closed at $62.90, giving it a market capitalization of about $2.8 billion after its direct listing.

Ionic Digital shares climbed about 26% from their opening price in their Nasdaq debut Tuesday after the Celsius-linked Bitcoin miner and AI infrastructure company completed its direct listing.

The shares opened at $50 and closed at $62.90, giving Ionic a market capitalization of about $2.8 billion based on approximately 44.9 million shares outstanding, according to its registration statement filed with the US Securities and Exchange Commission.

Ionic was formed in 2024 to acquire Celsius Mining’s assets through the bankrupt crypto lender’s restructuring and has since expanded into AI and high-performance computing infrastructure.

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The agreement covers tokenized securities, blockchain-based market infrastructure and the potential use of USDT as a settlement layer.

Tether signed a memorandum of understanding with the Nairobi Securities Exchange to explore tokenized securities, blockchain-based market infrastructure and the potential use of USDt (USDT) as a settlement layer.

Tether said in a Tuesday announcement that the memorandum outlines plans to explore blockchain-based market infrastructure, digital asset education and real-world asset tokenization, including the potential use of its Hadron tokenization platform for issuing and trading tokenized securities.

The memorandum also calls for the parties to assess instant settlement mechanisms and the potential use of USDT as a digital settlement infrastructure layer, where permitted under Kenyan regulations.

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Zcash researchers published more than 2,700 machine-checked theorems designed to rule out undetectable counterfeiting bugs in Ironwood.

Zcash researchers have completed formal verification of Ironwood, publishing a machine-checked proof that the network’s new shielded pool does not contain undetectable counterfeiting bugs under its stated cryptographic assumptions.&

On Tuesday, Project Tachyon said that the proof, written in the Lean programming language, comprises over 2,700 theorems and took three teams of researchers and cryptographers over a month to complete. The work establishes a security property known as balance integrity, designed to ensure the shielded pool cannot pay out more value than has publicly entered it.

The researchers said the proof covers the components needed for that property, including Ironwood’s zero-knowledge proof system, circuit rules and ledger-level accounting. It does not cover Ironwood’s separate privacy guarantees.&

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RL1 began operations as a member-owned blockchain cooperative backed by 10 European financial institutions, including ABN AMRO, DekaBank and Natixis CIB.

Ten European financial institutions have launched Regulated Layer One (RL1), a jointly owned blockchain cooperative designed for regulated financial markets and tokenized assets.&

On Tuesday, the group announced that RL1 had been established as a European Cooperative Society in Luxembourg and had begun operations with founding members including ABN AMRO, Cecabank, Chartered Investment, Crédit Mutuel Alliance Fédérale, DekaBank, DZ BANK, LBBW, Natixis CIB, SC Ventures and Seturion.&

RL1 said each member will have equal decision-making rights over the network’s governance and development.

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Myanmar lawmakers approved an anti-online scam bill whose draft proposes prison terms of 10 years to life for crypto scams and operating scam centers.

Myanmar’s Parliament passed an anti-online scam bill that would impose prison terms of 10 years to life for crypto scams and operating online scam centers.

The Pyidaungsu Hluttaw, Myanmar’s combined Parliament, approved the bill in its entirety on Tuesday after resolving differences between versions previously passed by its two chambers, according to the state-run Global New Light of Myanmar (GNLM). The report did not say whether the bill had received presidential assent or when it would take effect.&

The legislation is Myanmar’s latest attempt to curb a growing cyberscam industry that has turned parts of the country into hubs for online fraud.

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Visa said it is investing across the stablecoin stack, highlighting OpenUSD, tokenized deposits and AI-powered commerce during the company’s third-quarter earnings call.

Visa reported fiscal third-quarter revenue of& $11.6 billion, up 14% from a year earlier, driven by double-digit growth in payments volume, cross-border volume and processed transactions.

During the company’s earnings call,& Visa outlined its broader stablecoin strategy, saying it has been investing across multiple layers of the stablecoin ecosystem. The company said:

Visa added that it had joined the OpenStandard consortium, which plans to issue the OpenUSD stablecoin for global money movement. The company said the Visa stablecoin platform is designed to enable partners to settle with Visa in stablecoins, provide onchain wallet-as-a-service infrastructure and move money between fiat currencies and stablecoins, beginning with OpenUSD.

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The new exchange-traded products track Ether and Solana, offer staking rewards and follow the firm’s Bitcoin fund launched earlier this year.

Morgan Stanley Investment Management has launched Ether and Solana exchange-traded products, expanding its fund lineup beyond Bitcoin.

The Morgan Stanley Ethereum Trust (NYSE Arca: MSSE) and Morgan Stanley Solana Trust (NYSE Arca: MSOL) seek to track the performance of Ether (ETH) and Solana (SOL), respectively, using the CoinDesk Ether Benchmark 4PM NY Settlement Rate and CoinDesk Solana Benchmark 4PM NY Settlement Rate.

Both funds carry a 0.14% expense ratio and intend to stake a portion of their holdings, with staking rewards passed through to investors. Morgan Stanley said it will not retain any portion of the staking rewards earned by either fund.

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The crypto-focused companies announced separate acquisitions as demand for power-intensive AI and digital infrastructure continues to grow.

Crypto companies continued to expand their physical footprint in Texas, with Galaxy Digital and MARA Holdings announcing separate land acquisitions tied to AI, high-performance computing (HPC) and Bitcoin mining infrastructure.

On Tuesday, Galaxy Digital, a crypto financial services and infrastructure company, said it acquired a 500-acre site in McGregor, Texas, where it plans to build its second AI and high-performance computing (HPC) data center campus in the state. The project is expected to launch with 74 megawatts of power capacity before expanding in later phases.

MARA Holdings, a Bitcoin miner and digital infrastructure company, separately announced an agreement to acquire a 1,200-acre powered site in Matagorda County with access to up to 2 gigawatts of power capacity. The company said it intends to develop the site for AI and HPC workloads as well as bitcoin mining.

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Bitcoin and crypto dropped as contagion from a major Asia stock-market correction spreads to the US at the Wall Street open.

Bitcoin (BTC) hit ten-day lows at Tuesday’s Wall Street open as BTC price action followed a US stocks sell-off.

Key points:

Semiconductor-led losses from Asia spilled over into US trading. South Korea’s KOSPI Index finished the day down 10.8% in a single session, fueled by 14.8% losses for chip-maker SK Hynix, while Japan’s memory manufacturer Kioxia Holdings fell 18.3% on the day.

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Eligible US users can request IPO allocations, while customers in more than 110 countries gain access to tokenized Jersey Mike’s shares backed 1:1 by the underlying stock.

Crypto exchange Kraken is offering retail investors access to the planned Jersey Mike’s initial public offering, allowing eligible US customers to request allocations of the sandwich chain’s shares and users in more than 110 countries to request tokenized shares backed 1:1 by the underlying stock.

Eligible US customers can submit interest in book-entry Jersey Mike’s shares at the IPO price, while global customers can request JMKEx, a tokenized version of the stock with the backing shares held in regulated custody. Allocations are determined by the IPO underwriter and are not guaranteed.

JMKEx will begin trading 24 hours a day, five days a week on Kraken and participating xStocks Alliance platforms once the IPO closes, while the underlying Jersey Mike’s shares will trade during regular US market hours.

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Core Scientific reported strong second-quarter revenue growth as AI colocation became its largest business, though a non-cash accounting charge resulted in a $1.15 billion net loss.

Digital infrastructure company Core Scientific more than doubled its second-quarter revenue as rapid growth in its artificial intelligence and high-performance computing (HPC) colocation business continued to reshape its earnings profile following its pivot beyond Bitcoin mining.

The company reported Tuesday that Q2 revenue increased to $164.2 million, up from $78.6 million a year earlier. Colocation revenue accounted for $136.7 million of the total, compared with just $10.6 million in the same period last year, while gross profit increased to $70 million from $5 million.

Despite the revenue surge, Core Scientific reported a net loss of $1.15 billion, driven primarily by a non-cash accounting charge related to the rising value of outstanding warrants as its share price increased.

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DeFi projects that survived the fallout from the Terra and FTX collapses in 2022 are dying out in 2026. But analysts say it’s not a case of industry consolidation — but the opposite.

When DeFi dashboard Zapper announced this month that it would shut down after nearly seven years, it joined a growing list of decentralized finance projects that have folded in 2026.

Bitcoin DeFi platform Botanix, Solana portfolio tracker Step Finance, DeFi analytics platform Parsec and DEX aggregator Odos Protocol also wound down or are winding down this year after multiple market cycles.

The carnage isn’t limited to DeFi — RootData has tracked 101 “dead” crypto projects in total this year as of July 26 — but it accounts for more than half the cadavers.

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Analysis warned of a repeat of the 2024 yen carry-trade unwind that pressured crypto markets ahead of the next Bank of Japan interest-rate meeting.

Japan’s central bank is in focus this week as its next interest-rate meeting comes amid new 40-year yen lows against the US dollar.

Key points:&

Data from TradingView showed USD/JPY approaching 164 on Tuesday, just a fraction below new 40-year highs seen last week.

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Blockaid found Ethereum remained the hardest-hit blockchain in H1 2026, while Solana replaced Arbitrum as the network with the second-highest losses, driven largely by key compromises.

Crypto losses topped $1 billion in the first half of 2026 as the industry recorded its highest number of hacks in a six-month period, according to onchain security platform Blockaid.

Ethereum and Solana recorded the largest losses from incidents affecting their networks, with roughly $332 million and $326 million in stolen funds, respectively, Blockaid said in its H1 2026 security report published Tuesday.

Blockaid tracked 212 security incidents during the period, with the largest single exploit coming from KelpDAO at $292 million, while the platform verified 3.4 times as many high-threshold exploits in H1 2026 as across all of 2025.

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PayPal highlighted growth of stablecoins and AI-driven payment tools in Q2 while reporting $8.68 billion in revenue and an $81 million crypto-related earnings adjustment.

Global payments giant PayPal highlighted stablecoins and artificial intelligence-driven payment tools as part of its second-quarter strategy while crypto assets remained part of its earnings reconciliation.

PayPal reported Q2 earnings of $1.26 per share on Tuesday, compared with $1.30 per share in the same period last year and below analysts’ $1.28 estimate. Revenue reached $8.68 billion, up from $8.29 billion a year earlier and above the $8.47 billion analyst consensus.

The company also recorded an $81 million non-GAAP adjustment related to gains and losses from strategic investments and crypto assets held for investment. PayPal said it excludes gains and losses from strategic investments and crypto assets held for investment from non-GAAP results because it does not actively trade those assets or rely on them to fund ongoing operations.

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Decentralized exchange aggregator 1inch announced the launch of its Aqua protocol allowing users to provide liquidity to many protocols at once.

Decentralized exchange aggregator 1inch announced Aqua, a protocol aimed at unifying the liquidity pools of numerous markets in the decentralized finance ecosystem.

According to Tuesday’s announcement, Aqua allows liquidity providers to authorize several strategies against one wallet inventory, while the assets remain in the wallet until a trade settles, rather than depositing the funds to any particular liquidity pool. The protocol has been deployed on 13 blockchains including Ethereum, Arbitrum, Base, Robinhood Chain and BNB Chain.

Source: 1inch

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The IMF said Brazil’s stablecoin market has expanded rapidly since 2017, with cross-border crypto flows growing faster than traditional capital flows.

The International Monetary Fund said Brazil’s crypto asset market, particularly US dollar-pegged stablecoins, has expanded rapidly since 2017 and requires closer oversight as cross-border crypto flows grow faster than traditional capital flows.

In its Financial System Stability Assessment released Thursday, the IMF said stablecoins have played a key role in the significant growth of Brazil’s crypto asset market. The report said cross-border crypto flows have “been steadily increasing” and that stablecoin purchases are two to three times more sensitive to global shocks than traditional portfolio investment or foreign direct investment flows.

The IMF said Banco Central do Brasil (BCB) has already taken steps to regulate crypto asset service providers, but gaps remain in areas such as customer asset protection, stablecoin issuance rules and anti-money laundering (AML) and counter-terrorist financing (CFT) compliance. “The crypto-asset market in Brazil is large and fast-growing, and increasingly interconnected with the traditional financial system,” the report said.

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Lido launched Curated Module v2, an upgrade that could reduce Ethereum’s validator count by one-third by consolidating validators and introducing new operator rules.

Lido, a liquid staking protocol that lets users earn Ethereum staking rewards through its stETH token, has launched an upgrade to its staking infrastructure that aims to improve validator efficiency and decentralization.

The upgrade introduces Curated Module v2, which adds support for Ethereum’s 0x02 withdrawal credentials. The change allows validators to increase their effective balance from 32 ETH to as many as 2,048 ETH, according to a Lido update on Monday.

Lido said the migration could reduce Ethereum’s validator count to about 628,000 from 880,000, a decrease of about one-third. The migration has not started yet, and the figures are based on Lido’s projections.

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The new system marks an apparent departure from the institution-focused layer-1 blockchain Ondo announced in 2025.

Real-world asset tokenization platform Ondo Finance has launched an offchain execution network in an apparent pivot away from the institution-focused layer-1 blockchain it introduced in 2025.&

The company said Monday that Ondo Network will handle trades away from public blockchains and is already being used by Ondo Perps, its perpetual futures platform.&

Traditional blockchains typically rely on distributed networks of computers to validate transactions and maintain shared state. Ondo Network instead runs its trading software inside one protected computing environment that the company calls “enclaves,” which are also known as Trusted Execution Environments in crypto parlance. A group of operators checks that the software has not been altered, and each holds part of the digital key needed to authorize transfers.&

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Three users allege a fake Sparrow Wallet app on Apple’s App Store drained their Bitcoin holdings, with losses totaling more than $1.8 million.

Apple is facing a lawsuit from three customers who say they lost a combined $1.8 million after downloading a fake Bitcoin wallet app from the App Store.

The complaint, filed Friday in the US District Court for the Northern District of California, alleges Apple failed to adequately review and monitor apps despite promoting the App Store as a trusted marketplace, according to a copy of the filing obtained by MacRumors.

The plaintiffs, James Ramirez, Christopher Ellis and Jalen Delgado, said they entered their seed phrases into the fraudulent app, allowing scammers to transfer their Bitcoin. They reported losses of about $875,000, $840,000 and $120,000, respectively, during 2025, according to the complaint.

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Binance co-founder CZ backed crypto license passporting across ASEAN to simplify approvals, reduce compliance costs and encourage competition.

Binance co-founder Changpeng “CZ” Zhao backed crypto license passporting across ASEAN, arguing that firms regulated in one market should be able to enter others through a simplified approval process rather than applying from scratch.

Speaking Tuesday during the “One ASEAN, One Digital Economy” fireside chat at the ASEAN Tech Summit Manila 2026, Zhao backed an idea raised by FinTech Alliance PH founding chair Lito Villanueva for regulatory passporting or license portability. Zhao said regulators could still review applicants but should not require them to complete another full licensing application from scratch.

A regional licensing framework could reduce compliance costs, encourage competition and make it easier for crypto and stablecoin services to operate across ASEAN’s fragmented regulatory markets. Member states regulate digital assets separately, creating multiple approval processes for companies seeking a regional presence.

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The preliminary injunction allows Kalshi and Polymarket US to continue operating in Minnesota while the court considers their challenge to the state law.

A US federal judge has temporarily blocked Minnesota from enforcing its new prediction market ban against CFTC-regulated platforms Kalshi and Polymarket US.

According to a Monday court order granting the plaintiffs’ motions for preliminary injunctions, US District Judge Katherine Menendez found that the plaintiffs were likely to succeed, at least in part, on claims that the Commodity Exchange Act preempts the Minnesota statute.

The judge said several event contracts offered by the platforms appeared to qualify as swaps, giving the CFTC exclusive jurisdiction over transactions involving those contracts on designated contract markets.&

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Sandbox participation permits supervised testing but does not guarantee full commercial registration.

Zimbabwe’s securities regulator has admitted seven financial technology projects to its regulatory sandbox, with tokenization accounting for most of the latest group.&

The Securities and Exchange Commission of Zimbabwe (SECZ) listed Zimbabwe Entrepreneurship Exchange, Ndarama Standard, Questview Brokers, Crowdaxe Capital, Procode Platforms, Financial Securities Exchange (FINSEC) and Colmin Resources Zimbabwe as approved participants.

The projects cover blockchain-based capital raising, crowdfunding, synthetic trading and the tokenization of assets, securities and infrastructure, with four of the seven directly focused on tokenization,&

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The HKMA aims to make Hong Kong’s banking sector fully prepared for quantum-related security risks by 2030 as the city expands tokenized finance.

The Hong Kong Monetary Authority (HKMA) has launched a framework to assess banks’ preparedness for quantum-computing threats as the city expands its use of tokenized deposits, digital assets and blockchain settlement.&

On Monday, the HKMA introduced a white paper on quantum preparedness and the sector’s first Quantum Preparedness Index (QPI). The index gave the sector an overall readiness score of 2.3 out of 10, while the white paper found that around half of surveyed institutions had no formal post-quantum planning in place. The HKMA said it aims to achieve full sector readiness, represented by a QPI score of 10, by 2030.

The development comes as Hong Kong moves more traditional financial activity onto distributed ledgers. Government figures show that Hong Kong has issued three batches of tokenized green bonds totaling about HK$16.8 billion (about $2.1 billion) since 2023, while the HKMA is advancing tokenized deposits and digital-asset settlement through Project Ensemble.&

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Binance has been phishing its own staff to get ahead of potential attacks. South Korean crypto volumes tank 89% — plus all of the week’s other crypto news from Asia.

Cryptocurrency exchange Binance has been running simulated phishing attacks against its own employees for the past four years and can fire staff who repeatedly fail the tests, according to Binance chief security officer Jimmy Su.

The fake attacks are conducted by Binance’s red team, an internal ethical hacking unit whose job is to break into systems to identify vulnerabilities.

“We do phishing attacks on our own employees on a monthly basis just so we understand if our security hygiene is improving,” Su told Cointelegraph. “The ones that have failed it, we will do remediation training.”&

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New York Attorney General Letitia James said the federal crypto market structure bill could restrict state regulators and urged Congress to impose stronger consumer protections on digital asset platforms.

New York Attorney General Letitia James urged Congress to strengthen oversight of cryptocurrency companies, warning that proposed federal legislation could weaken states’ ability to investigate scams and hold platforms accountable.

In written testimony submitted Monday to the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations, James said the Digital Asset Market Clarity Act would override state regulation of digital asset markets and shift oversight to the Commodity Futures Trading Commission. She argued that this would undermine state and local enforcement.

According to the attorney general, complaints about crypto scams received by her office have tripled over the past three years, while reported losses totaled nearly $500 million over five years.

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The banking-as-a-service provider will power X Money’s peer-to-peer payments, FDIC-insured accounts and Visa debit cards as the platform expands its financial services.

Cross River said Monday it will provide the banking infrastructure for X Money, the financial services platform being integrated into X, enabling peer-to-peer payments, FDIC-insured interest-bearing accounts and Visa debit cards.

The company said its banking platform and payment rails will power the service as X continues its push to become an “everything app,” with infrastructure designed to support additional financial products and services over time.

Cross River provides embedded financial infrastructure for payments, cards, lending and cryptocurrency services to fintech and technology companies through its regulated banking platform and payment rails. The announcement did not mention support for cryptocurrencies or stablecoins.

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The company added nearly 10,000 ETH over the past week, bringing its holdings to 5.79 million Ether, about 85% of which is staked through its validator operations.

Bitmine Immersion Technologies said Monday it holds 5.79 million Ether, or about 4.8% of the cryptocurrency’s total supply, after purchasing nearly 10,000 ETH over the past week.

Bitmine disclosed that about 4.9 million ETH (ETH), or roughly 85% of its holdings, are staked through its validator operations. The company projected annualized staking rewards of about $299 million once all of its Ether is deployed across its staking infrastructure and partner validators. The company’s crypto holdings, cash and marketable securities total $11.8 billion as of July 26.

The latest purchases come as Ether has outperformed Bitcoin (BTC) over the past week. ETH has gained about 2.4% over the past seven days while Bitcoin has fallen roughly 0.7%, according to CoinGecko data. In Monday’s announcement, Bitmine chairman Tom Lee said the rising ETH/BTC ratio, which he described as being at a three-month high, signaled strengthening momentum for Ether.

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The registration expands Securitize’s regulated platform for tokenized assets, adding investment advisory services to its institutional offering.

Securitize Capital, a subsidiary of tokenized asset platform Securitize, has registered with the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) as an investment adviser, allowing the company to expand its regulated investment advisory business for institutional clients, Securitize said Monday.

The registration adds investment advisory capabilities to Securitize’s existing regulated businesses, which include an SEC-registered broker-dealer, alternative trading system, transfer agent and fund administration services.

CEO Carlos Domingo said the registration strengthens Securitize’s ability to help institutions develop and manage investment strategies for onchain capital markets. Securitize Capital previously operated as an exempt reporting adviser and is now subject to additional disclosure, compliance, recordkeeping and examination requirements under the Investment Advisers Act.

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The certification could expand access to Tether’s gold-backed token among Islamic financial institutions and investors seeking Shariah-compliant exposure to physical gold.

Tether’s gold-backed token XAUt has received Shariah certification from Amanah Advisors, a move that could expand access to the token among Islamic financial institutions and investors seeking Shariah-compliant exposure to physical gold.

The certification found XAUt’s structure complies with key Islamic finance principles, including full backing by physical gold, the absence of interest and leverage, and transparent reserves. Each XAUt token represents one troy ounce of physical gold stored in Swiss vaults, according to Tether.

The designation gives Tether a clearer pathway to market XAUt to Islamic financial institutions and investors that require Shariah-compliant investment products. Tether said it expects the certification to support adoption across markets where Islamic finance is widely used, including the Gulf Cooperation Council, South Asia and parts of Africa.

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The deal brings wallet technology to Payward’s enterprise platform, potentially reducing the number of infrastructure providers businesses need to integrate with.

Payward, the parent company of crypto exchange Kraken, has agreed to acquire the wallet-as-a-service business of Magic Labs, expanding its enterprise infrastructure offering as demand for onchain financial services continues to grow.

Payward said Monday the acquisition will allow it to integrate Magic Labs’ non-custodial wallet technology into Payward Services, its business-to-business platform for crypto trading, custody, tokenized assets and fiat on- and off-ramps. Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed.

The addition of embedded wallets allows businesses to offer self-custodied wallets directly within their applications instead of relying on third-party wallet providers, giving business clients a broader suite of blockchain infrastructure through a single integration.

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Bitcoin copied US stocks as relief over end of US-Iran strikes spread to risk assets at the start of the US trading session.

Bitcoin (BTC) sought to build on local highs at Monday’s Wall Street open as US stocks opened in the green.

Key points:

Data from TradingView showed BTC/USD spiking to near $66,000 as markets reacted to a pause in strikes between the US and Iran.&

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Hong Kong’s HashKey will unify its crypto exchange branches, with users from its Hong Kong, Global, Singapore and Middle East regions using the same platform.

Hong Kong digital asset services business HashKey Holdings has merged its HashKey Exchange and HashKey Global exchanges into a single platform and application.

Core jurisdictional hubs including Hong Kong, Singapore, the Middle East (Dubai) and Bermuda have been merged under a single platform, according to a Monday announcement. The move represents a departure from the early stages of the virtual asset industry when licensed exchanges typically operated under regional siloed models to simplify compliance. HashKey said.

The transition follows a principle of “unified entry, localized compliance” where all users download the same application while the platform manages compliance across their specific legislative domain — across the Hong Kong, Global, Singapore, or Middle East regions.

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Bitcoin traders prepared to navigate a slew of volatility catalysts as US inflation data and US-Iran war triggers keep risk-assets in an unpredictable state.

Bitcoin (BTC) heads into the end of July juggling volatility catalysts as the Federal Reserve reacts to US inflation.

Key points:

Attention turns once more to the US Federal Reserve this week, with the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC), chaired by Kevin Warsh, set to announce its latest interest rate decision on Wednesday, July 29.

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Binance’s Android app is unavailable on Google Play in some EU markets amid scrutiny over MiCA compliance.

Update (July 27, 7:30 PM UTC): This article has been updated to include a statement from Binance and an additional user report from Latvia.

The Binance app has become unavailable on the Google Play Store in certain European Union countries amid questions over the exchange’s compliance with the bloc’s crypto licensing framework.

A user in Spain confirmed to Cointelegraph on Monday that the Binance app was no longer visible in Google Play searches, although it remained available through Oppo’s App Market, an Android app store used on Oppo devices. A separate user in Latvia also confirmed that the app no longer appeared on Google Play.

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IBM’s blockchain portfolio includes more than 680 patent families and nearly 1,000 issued patents worldwide, with a particular focus in supply chain applications.

Circle will acquire IBM’s blockchain patent portfolio, the USDC (USDC) issuer said on Monday.

No financial details for the transaction were disclosed in Circle’s announcement. CRCL stock price was up more than 2% in premarket activity on Monday following the announcement, according to Yahoo Finance data.

The portfolio comprises more than 680 patent families and nearly 1,000 issued patents worldwide. Circle said the acquisition positions it as the leader in blockchain patent holdings in the United States, with an intellectual property position that directly supports the fintech’s foundation for building the internet financial system.

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Strategy raised $544.5 million through MSTR stock sales as it repurchased $25 million of STRC shares and expanded its US dollar reserve to $3.75 billion.

Strategy, the business intelligence firm that has built the largest corporate Bitcoin treasury, continued adjusting its capital structure last week through a combination of stock sales and preferred share repurchases.

Strategy sold 5,429,160 shares of its Class A common stock (MSTR) through its at-the-market (ATM) offering program between July 20 and July 26, generating $544.5 million in net proceeds.

The MSTR share price was up more than 2% in Monday’s premarket activity, according to Yahoo Finance. The STRC preferred shares were up 2.3% to $88.90 ahead of the Nasdaq open.

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BNY Mellon’s European subsidiary joined the MiCA register as ESMA added 15 CASPs, including banks and crypto platforms, in the third post-deadline update.

European authorities added 15 crypto companies including a BNY Mellon unit to the Markets in Crypto-Assets (MiCA) framework register in the third update of regulated providers since the July 1 transitional deadline.

With the European Securities and Markets Authority’s (ESMA) update on Friday, its interim MiCA register shows 309 licensed crypto-asset service providers (CASPs).

The latest entries include four banking institutions, including BNY SA/NV, the Belgian subsidiary of US banking giant BNY Mellon, and three German banks, alongside digital asset platforms such as BitPay, Coinify and Bleap.

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Brazilian police suspect the group of shipping around 6.5 metric tons of cocaine and laundering billions in Brazilian reals through crypto-enabled illicit money brokers.

The Brazilian Federal Police last week busted an alleged international drug cartel thought to have trafficked around 6.5 metric tons of cocaine and laundered billions of reais in proceeds via methods that included crypto-enabled illicit money brokers.

According to a Thursday announcement, federal and state law enforcement arrested nine people and executed 13 pretrial detention warrants and 44 search-and-seizure warrants across São Paulo, Minas Gerais, Santa Catarina and Espírito Santo. The police also obtained court orders to freeze up to 1 billion reais ($197 million) in assets during the investigation.

The organization is suspected of moving billions in Brazilian reais through various asset-concealment methods, including shell companies, crypto-enabled illicit money brokers, luxury assets and real estate. The suspects will face charges including participation in a transnational criminal organization, international drug trafficking and money laundering.

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Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong says AI agents will expand crypto adoption, pointing to Base, USDC and x402 as key pieces of agentic finance.

Update (July 28, 8:30 AM UTC): This article has been updated to include additional details on x402 activity and information provided by Chainalysis.

Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong is pushing back against calls for crypto to pivot to artificial intelligence, arguing AI agents will instead stoke demand for crypto-based financial services.

Armstrong took to X on Sunday to tout agentic finance (AiFi), highlighting Coinbase’s Base network, USDC and x402 as the infrastructure for autonomous machine-to-machine payments.

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The stablecoin payments company said client funds were unaffected and that the financial impact would be absorbed through its treasury reserves.

Stablecoin payments firm Triple-A confirmed that unauthorized access to its treasury wallets resulted in the loss of company-owned digital assets.

On Monday, the Singapore-based company said it detected the unauthorized access on Saturday and temporarily placed certain services into maintenance mode for about three hours while it secured the affected infrastructure. Triple-A said client funds were not affected because it does not custody digital assets on behalf of customers and keeps client funds separately in trust accounts with safeguarding institutions.&

Triple-A did not disclose the amount lost or explain how the wallets were compromised. Onchain investigator Specter previously estimated the losses at about $11.8 million.&

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Users reported withdrawal delays and freeze notices as wallets attributed to BitMart fell to about $69 million and its BMX token extended an 81.5% weekly decline.

Withdrawals from crypto exchange BitMart appeared to slow after it announced plans to wind down its operations.&

On Monday, blockchain analytics account Lookonchain reported that only 58 wallets withdrew about $805,000 in over 24 hours. It added that the exchange had not processed any withdrawals during the latest eight-hour period it tracked.&

X users also continued to report withdrawal difficulties. One user said they received an email stating that a USDT withdrawal had been completed even though the transaction had not been processed and their account displayed an “on-chain withdrawal freeze.” Another user said a $30 test withdrawal remained pending for over 30 minutes. These are individual claims and could not be verified.&

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Garden Finance said no user funds or smart contracts were affected after an attacker compromised an independent solver’s off-chain database and inserted fraudulent swap records.

[Updated July 27, 2026, 2:16 UTC: Revised to reflect clarifications from a Garden Finance spokesperson.]

Garden Finance said an independent solver’s off-chain database was compromised in an incident that prompted the cross-chain bridge and atomic swap protocol to temporarily take its app offline.

On Sunday, Blockaid said an attacker drained about $450,000 in USDT from Garden’s hash time-locked contracts (HTLC) on Ethereum, Base, Arbitrum and BNB Smart Chain. HTLCs are time-bound escrow contracts that Garden uses to facilitate atomic swaps between Bitcoin and assets on other networks. Blockaid described the exploit as ongoing and published addresses linked to the attacker and affected contracts.

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The decentralized storage provider says its network will continue operating during Chapter 11 as it explores a court-approved ownership mechanism for STORJ holders.

Decentralized cloud storage provider Storj Labs has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. The company said it plans to keep its network running while restructuring legacy liabilities and exploring an ownership pathway for STORJ tokenholders.

On Sunday, Storj said it filed the voluntary case in the US Bankruptcy Court for the Northern District of West Virginia. The company said ordinary operations and customer services would continue during the process, subject to court oversight, while its parent company, Inveniam, would continue to support the business.

The restructuring could become an unusual test of whether utility-token holders can participate in the ownership of a company emerging from bankruptcy.

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Despite support from Goldman Sachs, Fidelity and law enforcement bodies, the Clarity Act’s chances dim. BitMEX to close as crypto consolidates into five big players.

Despite wealthy memecoin entrepreneur President Donald Trump agreeing to an ethics deal, the Clarity Act (CLARITY) is floundering as the August recess deadline looms.

Senate Majority Leader John Thune said he doesn’t believe the act has the votes to pass just yet, but may bring it to a vote anyway to “get Clarity started. We’ll see where the votes are.”

The ethics deal would prohibit all US officials from issuing or sponsoring digital assets, but contains some “get out of jail free” provisions for the President that the Democrats are unhappy with, including the fact the rules expire the day he is scheduled to leave office in 2029.

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WEMIX suspended bridges, liquidity-pool trading and several services after an attacker compromised a WEMIX$-linked contract and moved 724,198 USDC.e.

[Updated July 27, 2026, 22:30 UTC: Included comments from a WEMIX spokesperson.]

Layer-1 blockchain network WEMIX said an attacker moved about 724,000 in USDC.e tokens after compromising ownership of a contract linked to its WEMIX$ stablecoin and issuing tokens without authorization.&

The abnormal transactions occurred on Sunday at 9:17 UTC, according to a preliminary incident update from WEMIX. The attacker issued about 5.23 million WEMIX$, which was converted into 30,736 WEMIX and 724,198.27 USDC.e. The USDC.e was then bridged to Ethereum and BNB Smart Chain before being exchanged for assets including Ether and Tether’s USDT and distributed across multiple addresses.

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For the second time this year, the regulator told prediction markets to stop issuing overly broad, template-style certifications of events contracts.

For the second time this year, the US Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) issued a warning to prediction markets operators to follow the rules when creating contract certifications that operators consider cover a broad swath of events contracts.

The CFTC, which claims to be the primary regulator of prediction markets, on Friday issued an advisory clarifying that, notwithstanding ongoing policy discussions and proposed rulemaking concerning prediction markets, the markets retain the ability to certify event contracts as compliant with the Commodity Exchange Act and CFTC regulations without prior commission approval, subject to the statutory framework governing self-certification.

The agency on Friday warned about the number of instances of events contracts that are “self-certified” by the platforms under the agency’s jurisdiction “without supplying the terms and conditions of each proposed permutation and a concise explanation and analysis with respect to the product’s terms and conditions, the underlying commodity, and the product’s compliance.”

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Russia’s biggest bank plans to create cryptocurrency trading infrastructure by Dec. 1 as the country is set to establish rules for market participants while allowing crypto assets to be used in foreign trade operations.

Sberbank, Russia’s biggest bank, plans to build cryptocurrency trading infrastructure including a digital depository no later than Dec. 1 as the country brings crypto trading, custody and settlement into its regulated financial system.

That digital depository, Interfax reported, will record ownership of cryptocurrency and process most transactions outside of the main blockchain. Sberbank will operate active wallets for client-initiated deposits, withdrawals and transfers.

“One of the key elements of the new infrastructure will be a digital depository, which will maintain records of clients’ cryptocurrency rights and account for transactions outside the main blockchain,” said Alexander Vedyakhin, first deputy chairman of Sberbank’s management board, the state-affiliated press service said. “It will also facilitate transactions on active wallets to fulfill clients’ currency transfer orders.”

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Dormant BTC activity fell to its lowest level since Q3 2022, suggesting long-term holders have slowed distribution after heavy profit-taking.

Dormant Bitcoin movement in the second quarter fell to its lowest level since the third quarter of 2022, according to data shared by Alex Thorn, Galaxy’s head of firmwide research.

Coin days destroyed, a metric that gives greater weight to older coins, showed a similar decline.

Thorn said the earlier spikes were driven by “OGs taking profit,” similar to the pattern seen during Bitcoin’s 2017 bull market, suggesting long-term holders have slowed selling after elevated distribution in 2024 and 2025.

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KB Kookmin Bank will use JPMorgan’s blockchain platform to support US dollar cross-border payments for import and export businesses across 10 countries.

South Korea’s KB Kookmin Bank will launch a blockchain-based cross-border payment service for import and export businesses in August using JPMorgan’s Kinexys network, according to multiple local media reports.

Kinexys, formerly known as Onyx, is JPMorgan’s blockchain platform for institutional payments, tokenization and digital assets.

The service will initially support US dollar transfers across 10 countries, including the US, Singapore, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates.

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Crypto exchange BitMart said it will wind down operations after its BMX token plunged and users reported withdrawal delays, with platform operations set to end in January.

[Update, 10:32 UTC, July 26: Adds former CEO Nenter Chow’s statement]

BitMart will wind down its cryptocurrency exchange, ending all trading services on Aug. 26 before ceasing operations entirely on Jan. 31, 2027.

“After a careful evaluation of the Company’s operating conditions, market environment, and future strategic direction, BitMart has made the difficult decision to commence an orderly wind-down of its trading platform operations,” it said in a Sunday notice.

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Binance regularly tests its employees for security hygiene, as social engineering is becoming a major source of industry breaches.

Cryptocurrency exchange Binance runs simulated phishing attacks against its own employees and can fire staff who repeatedly fail the tests, according to Binance chief security officer Jimmy Su.

The fake attacks are conducted by Binance’s red team, an internal ethical hacking unit whose job is to break into systems to identify vulnerabilities.

“We do phishing attacks on our own employees on a monthly basis just so we understand if our security hygiene is improving,” Su told Cointelegraph. “The ones that have failed it, we will do remediation training.”&

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While prediction market companies in the US continue to face legal battles between state and federal authorities, Robinhood is reportedly considering expanding its services.

The company behind the cryptocurrency and stock trading app, Robinhood, is reportedly discussing plans to expand its existing prediction markets offering with crypto exchange Crypto.com.

According to a Friday Wall Street Journal report citing people familiar with the matter, Robinhood is in talks with Crypto.com to place yes-or-no event contracts supplied by the exchange. The trading company launched its prediction markets hub in March 2025, initially facilitated by Kalshi in order to comply with regulatory requirements from the US Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), and later using ForecastEx and Rotella.&

The reported move came just days after Bernstein analysts raised the firm’s price target on Robinhood (HOOD) stock to $160 from $130 per share, based on the company’s outlook for prediction markets and tokenized equities. They estimated Robinhood’s revenue including prediction markets could reach $1.7 billion by 2028.

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The Bitcoin Policy Institute and three partner organizations will be able to send employees to work alongside State Department officials to address issues including digital freedom.

The US State Department has launched a program to “advance diplomatic efforts on digital freedom and freedom of expression” using a Bitcoin (BTC) advocacy organization as a partner.

In a Friday X post, the Bitcoin Policy Institute (BPI) said that it would be a founding partner in the State Department’s Freedom Tech Excellence Program (FTEP), alongside Palantir Technologies, Anduril Industries and the Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation. According to BPI, the program will allow its employees “to work alongside state department experts and defend digital freedoms around the world.”

“FTEP brings private sector talent to the Department for limited-term assignments to advance diplomatic efforts on key issues including online freedom of expression, privacy-enhancing technologies, countering digital surveillance, and responsible AI governance,” the State Department said on its website.

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The OCC denied the UK company’s application this week citing AML/CFT risks, despite approving similar charters for digital asset companies in the last year.

Update (July 25, 4:39 pm UTC): This article has been updated to include a response from Wise.

Payments company Wise will to change its strategy for seeking a bank charter from the US Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) to one “under a GENIUS Act framework,” the legislation to regulate stablecoins in the country.

According to a Thursday notice from Wise, the company plans to submit a new application for a national trust bank charter under a GENIUS Act framework. Investment banking group William Blair said that Wise will likely not shift its position on payment stablecoins with the new OCC application, despite being denied a charter to establish a national trust bank on Tuesday.

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The OCC denied the UK company’s application this week citing AML/CFT risks, despite approving similar charters for digital asset companies in the last year.

Update (July 25, 4:39 pm UTC): This article has been updated to include a response from Wise.

Payments company Wise will to change its strategy for applying for a charter license with the US Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) to one “under a GENIUS Act framework,” the legislation to regulate stablecoins in the country.

According to a Thursday notice from Wise, the company plans to submit a new application for a national trust bank charter under a GENIUS Act framework. Investment banking group William Blair said that Wise will likely not shift its position on payment stablecoins with the new OCC application, despite being denied a charter to establish a national trust bank on Tuesday.

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South Korean Daily NK reported that North Korea arrested former state cyber operators accused of hacking two state banks and laundering funds through crypto.

North Korean authorities have reportedly arrested a group of former state cyber operators and IT specialists accused of hacking two state banks and laundering stolen funds through cryptocurrency.

South Korean outlet Daily NK reported Thursday, citing an anonymous source in Pyongyang, that the group allegedly hacked the internal networks of North Korea’s central bank and the Foreign Trade Bank, converting stolen state funds into cryptocurrency before laundering them through China-based brokers.

Cointelegraph could not independently verify the report.

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Fidelity called on the US Senate to pass the CLARITY Act, joining industry groups and crypto firms pushing for market structure legislation.

Fidelity Investments’ public policy group called on the US Senate to pass the CLARITY Act on Friday, saying clear digital asset regulations are needed to strengthen investor confidence, provide certainty for market participants and reinforce US leadership in global crypto markets.

The company joins a growing coalition of financial firms and crypto organizations urging US lawmakers to advance digital asset market structure legislation.

Earlier Friday, the Crypto Council for Innovation, the Digital Chamber and the Blockchain Association called on Senate leaders to bring the bill to the floor. Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong on Wednesday also called for a full Senate floor vote.

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Dango will close its network on Aug. 13, joining BitMEX, Odos and Satori Finance in a wave of recent crypto shutdowns.

Layer-1 blockchain Dango will wind down operations by halting trading on its perpetual decentralized exchange (DEX) on July 29 and shutting down its network on Aug. 13.

“Despite our best effort, various reasons have led us to conclude there is no viable path to a lasting commercial success,” Dango said in a Friday X announcement.

Dango founder Larry Liu added that the team faced cash shortages, legal challenges that slowed momentum, the loss of team members, and broader market conditions.

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Ethereum ETFs snapped a five-day inflow streak and Bitcoin ETFs logged a second day of outflows, though both funds extended their weekly inflow streaks to three.

US-listed spot Ethereum exchange-traded funds (ETFs) logged $70.62 million in net outflows on Friday, ending a five-day inflow streak.

Ethereum funds saw $211.25 million in net inflows over the previous five sessions from July 17, according to SoSoValue data. They still posted $103.9 million in net inflows for the week ended Friday.

Despite the outflows, Ethereum ETFs extended their weekly inflow streak to three straight and have attracted $337.74 million in net inflows so far in July.

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The exchange, already sanctioned by the UK, is now on a list of 18 entities “providing crypto-assets services or payment services“ in defiance of the EU’s measures against Russia.

The European Union has listed cryptocurrency exchange HTX, formerly Huobi Global, as part of a package of sanctions targeting Russia amid the country’s war on Ukraine.

In a Thursday decision, the European Council amended its previous measures “in view of Russia’s actions destabilizing the situation in Ukraine” to include HTX in a list of 18 entities “providing crypto-assets services or payment services established outside of the Union that are significantly frustrating the purpose of the prohibitions” against Russia. The country continues to face sanctions globally over its war in Ukraine following a military invasion in 2022.&

“The Union has repeatedly taken measures to identify financial institutions, credit institutions or entities providing crypto-asset services or payment services that facilitate a continued financial lifeline for Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine, whether by connecting to the system for transfer of financial messages of the Central Bank of the Russian Federation or by enabling the circumvention of Union restrictive measures, and to prohibit any transaction between those institutions or entities and Union operators,” said EU officials.

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Jan3 CEO Samson Mow says the recovery could signal renewed confidence in preferred-share products used by Bitcoin treasury companies.

Strive’s SATA preferred shares have rebounded from a June low of $83.30 to about $97, recovering most of the selloff and moving back within roughly 3% of their $100 par value, according to Yahoo Finance data.

Strive introduced SATA in November 2025 as part of its strategy to finance the expansion of its Bitcoin treasury through preferred equity. The variable-rate perpetual preferred stock is intended to trade near its $100 par value by adjusting its dividend rate, allowing Strive to raise capital for its Bitcoin (BTC) treasury without issuing additional common shares.

SATA is one of a growing number of preferred-share products tied to Bitcoin treasury strategies, an emerging segment that companies such as Strategy describe as “digital credit.”

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According to Senator Elizabeth Warren, the House bill “won’t solve the problem“ of insider trading in Congress as lawmakers will still be allowed to own and sell stocks.

The US House of Representatives has passed a bill that would ostensibly prohibit members of Congress, their spouses and dependent children from purchasing publicly traded stocks.

In a 232-198 vote in the House on Wednesday, lawmakers approved the Stop Insider Trading Act, sending the bill to the Senate for consideration. Representative Bryan Steil, the Wisconsin lawmaker who sponsored the bill, said that the legislation “ensures no lawmaker can profit off of insider information” and “institutes strict penalties for any violation.”&

“We have not had a bill on the House floor on this topic with this opportunity before,” said Steil from the House floor on Wednesday, describing the penalties:

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The window for US lawmakers to address a comprehensive crypto market structure bill before the 2026 elections is closing, and industry organizations are calling for action.

The Crypto Council for Innovation, Digital Chamber and Blockchain Association wrote to US Senate leaders on Friday calling for the chamber to prioritize “floor consideration” of the Digital Asset Market Clarity (CLARITY) Act.

In a Friday letter to Senator Majority Leader John Thune and Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, the three cryptocurrency advocacy groups urged consideration of the CLARITY Act, which Republican lawmakers have been pushing for a vote before the chamber breaks for state work periods in August.& Although the bill has advanced through the Senate banking and agriculture committees, some lawmakers said they planned to withhold their votes until key provisions were addressed.

“[We] recognize that constructive bipartisan negotiations remain underway to secure and expand support for this critical piece of legislation,” said the letter. “We appreciate these good-faith efforts of Senators on both sides of the aisle, and we encourage those discussions to continue.”

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The digital rights group says India’s order to remove Jack Dorsey’s BitChat repositories from GitHub exceeds the government’s legal authority and threatens free speech.

India’s Internet Freedom Foundation (IFF) has condemned a government order directing GitHub to remove repositories for Jack Dorsey’s decentralized messaging app BitChat, calling the move unconstitutional and warning it threatens free speech and open-source software.

The statement came a day after India’s cybercrime agency ordered GitHub to disable access to three BitChat repositories within three hours, saying the decentralized messaging app could be used to bypass internet shutdowns, evade lawful surveillance and facilitate unlawful activities.

In its statement posted on X on Friday, IFF argued the order exceeded the government’s legal authority because it was issued under Section 79(3)(b) of India’s Information Technology Act instead of the country’s formal website-blocking process, which includes procedural safeguards. The group called on the government to withdraw the notice and publish all takedown orders issued under the provision.

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Bitcoin ETF inflows, cooling AI momentum and potential regulatory progress under the CLARITY Act are fueling speculation that capital is rotating back into crypto.

Crypto markets showed renewed signs of life this week as institutional investors fueled the longest streak of inflows into US spot Bitcoin exchange-traded funds (ETFs) since April and crypto-linked stocks rallied on optimism over US regulation. But the more intriguing story may be unfolding outside crypto: AI’s grip on speculative capital is beginning to loosen.

After dominating markets for nearly two years, the AI trade is becoming more selective as investors distinguish between companies with sustainable earnings and those riding the hype cycle. The Philadelphia Semiconductor Index, or SOX, recently slipped into a technical bear market after falling 20% from its recent high, although it remains well above year-ago levels.

Some analysts believe the shift could mark the beginning of a broader rotation back into digital assets. While it’s too early to call a lasting trend, improving regulatory clarity, a recovery in ETF demand, and easing enthusiasm for AI are creating a more constructive backdrop for crypto than investors have seen in months.

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The organization sold locked WLD tokens to strategic investors as it seeks to grow its biometric identity network amid rising demand for human verification online.

World Foundation has raised an initial $52.5 million through a sale of locked WLD tokens to strategic investors, with Pantera Capital leading the funding round.

The round also included Bain Capital Crypto, Eightco Holdings, Selini Capital, Susquehanna Crypto and other investors, according to a Friday announcement shared with Cointelegraph. The WLD tokens sold in the fundraising are subject to a 12-month lockup.

The nonprofit behind the World protocol said that new funds will be used to expand World ID, its system designed to distinguish people from AI agents. World ID generates a digital credential after users complete biometric verification at a World Orb device.

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Bitcoin saw several dips under the $64,000 mark as a Binance “plunge protection team” reemerged with bid liquidity to avoid a deeper BTC price rout.

Bitcoin (BTC) fell more than 1.6% on Friday as its latest price correction accelerated after Wall Street opened.

Key points:

Data from TradingView showed BTC/USD approaching $64,000 as bulls struggled to preserve recent gains.

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A Bitcoin development roadmap that addresses quantum computing risks could see the price surge by “double digits” very quickly, according to Charles Edwards.

Bitcoin developers need to swallow their pride and outline a clear plan to harden the blockchain against quantum computing attacks, according to Capriole Investments founder Charles Edwards. He says the day they finally bite the bullet, the price will respond very quickly.

“If the Bitcoin core team says in two or three months: ‘this is our roadmap, we’re gonna solve it in the next two years, these are the rough steps we’ll take,’ that would be amazing news,” Edwards tells Cointelegraph on Trade Secrets.&

“I think that would discount a lot of the risk pretty much overnight,” Edwards says.

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Thailand’s SEC filed a criminal complaint against Bitkub and two former directors over alleged false disclosures linked to a 2021 cyberattack involving $50 million in assets.

Thailand’s crypto industry is facing fresh regulatory scrutiny after authorities accused Bitkub, one of the country’s largest digital asset exchanges, of providing false information to regulators.

Thailand’s Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) filed a criminal complaint against Bitkub Online and two former directors over alleged false reporting connected to a 2021 cyberattack, the regulator announced on Thursday.

The complaint names former Bitkub directors Sakolkorn Sakavee and Thaweesap Rawan, who the SEC said were responsible for submitting company reports during the period under investigation.

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Odos Protocol will shut down on July 30, giving users one week to withdraw assets. The team did not provide a reason for the decision.

Decentralized exchange (DEX) aggregator Odos Protocol announced plans to shut down operations, giving users until July 30 to withdraw their assets.

The team said in a Thursday X post that the Odos DAO is separate from the operating company and will announce its own plans, while the ODOS token will continue to exist onchain. It didn’t provide a rationale for the decision.

Odos Protocol’s DEX aggregator volume has been declining over the past two years, falling to $169 million in July 2026 from a peak of $7.8 billion in December 2024. The protocol generated $2.72 million in annualized revenue, according to DefiLlama data.

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Tokenized RWA trading became Hyperliquid’s largest trading category for the first time, accounting for more than half of the decentralized exchange’s weekly trading volume.

Perpetual decentralized exchange (DEX) Hyperliquid’s weekly trading volume in tokenized real-world assets (RWAs) exceeded that of all other asset categories combined for the first time.

RWAs generated $25.1 billion in trading volume from July 13 to July 19, accounting for 52% of Hyperliquid’s total weekly volume of $48.2 billion, according to Blockworks data.

“Hyperliquid’s RWA market alone was larger than the combined crypto perpetual volume of every other DEX,” wrote ARK Invest’s research director for digital assets, Lorenzo Valente, in a Thursday X post.

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Ten tokenized dairy cows backed a $19,600 loan registered on Brazil’s B3, in one of Brazil’s first uses of tokenized livestock as loan collateral.

Brazil’s B3 stock exchange has reportedly found a new use for dairy cows by backing a loan with tokenized cattle.

The transaction involved a loan of 100,000 Brazilian reais ($19,600) secured by 10 dairy cows from Fazenda Engenho Velho in the southern Brazilian state of Paraná, valued at about 120,000 Brazilian reais ($23,500). The deal was structured by Brazilian investment fund Target FIDC, according to CNN Brasil.

Each cow received a unique digital token linked to an encrypted digital identity, while AI-powered smart collars from agriculture tech company Cowmed monitor each animal’s health, reducing the need for physical inspections.

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Samsung Electronics plans to add stablecoin support to Samsung Wallet, expanding its mobile payments and rewards platform to include digital assets.

South Korean technology giant Samsung Electronics said it plans to expand Samsung Wallet beyond traditional payments by adding support for stablecoins.

The company is moving toward integrating payments, rewards and digital assets into a single wallet experience, Samsung product manager Lee Dinham said during the annual Galaxy Unpacked showcase on Wednesday.

“Samsung Wallet will expand beyond cash and savings. It will embrace new forms of digital value, including stablecoins,” Dinham said. He added that the move would make Samsung “one of the first major mobile brands to bring native stablecoins to a smartphone, enabling fast and trusted digital value transfers.”

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The Philippine bank is preparing a stablecoin settlement pilot intended to speed up and reduce the cost of overseas payments to Filipino remote workers.

The Bank of the Philippine Islands (BPI) is planning to pilot a stablecoin-based settlement rail for cross-border payments to freelancers, virtual assistants and other workers receiving overseas income, according to local media reports.&

Developed with global digital clearinghouse Meridian, the system is intended to reduce the cost and processing time of inbound payments while retaining safeguards used in traditional banking transactions, according to ABS-CBN and the Philippine Daily Inquirer.

Stablecoins would be used as a settlement instrument before the funds are converted to Philippine pesos and credited to recipients’ BPI accounts.&

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Bitcoin supply profitability improved versus its 2026 low, but analysis warned that a fake recovery had already broken down at the start of June.

Bitcoin (BTC) investors are back in aggregate profit, but onchain data suggests it’s too early to confirm a new bull market.

Key points:

According to onchain analytics platform CryptoQuant, Bitcoin supply in profit rebounded above the 50% mark in July.

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Mirae Asset reportedly plans to use the South Korean crypto exchange as a hub for tokenized assets, stablecoins and digital finance.

South Korean crypto exchange Korbit will reportedly rebrand as Digital X after becoming part of Mirae Asset Group.&

Mirae Asset founder and global strategy officer Park Hyeon-joo announced the new name in an internal email to employees on Thursday, according to a Herald Business report. Park reportedly described Digital X as central to the group’s “Mirae Asset 3.0” strategy, which aims to combine digital assets with traditional finance.&

The company plans to expand into real-world asset (RWA) tokenization, security token offerings, stablecoins and traditional asset products. Park said the exchange would prioritize anti-money laundering controls, customer verification, information security and fraud detection as South Korea develops its crypto and tokenized securities rules.

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Ripple launches Mint to expand RLUSD access for institutions as the stablecoin’s market cap approaches $1.6 billion.

Ripple, a blockchain-focused fintech company, has launched Ripple Mint, a platform that gives institutions new ways to access, mint, redeem and manage its US dollar-pegged stablecoin, Ripple USD (RLUSD).

The company announced Ripple Mint on Thursday, describing it as a unified platform that lets institutions manage RLUSD through a web interface or direct application programming interface (API) integrations.

“Ripple Mint is built to give institutions flexible access to digital dollars through the workflows that fit their needs,” Ripple said, adding that the platform is designed to support both manual operations and automated integrations as institutions adopt stablecoins for payments, trading and treasury activities.

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Bitcoin miner Poolin filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy and initiated a $52 million sale of its two West Texas mining sites as part of its future creditor recovery program.

Singapore-based Bitcoin mining pool Poolin and two of its US affiliates filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in a New Jersey court on Wednesday.

Poolin’s court filing shows that the mining pool operator has estimated liabilities of $100 million to $500 million, assets of $1 million to $10 million and 10,001 to 25,000 creditors.

Poolin and its affiliates are also seeking court approval to sell two West Texas mining sites to Thor CALAP LLC under a proposed $52 million stalking-horse bid. This includes $37 million for the Tarbush assets, including assumed liabilities, and $15 million for the Pyote site, including the power rights, equipment and all other assets tied to the mining facilities.

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The EU will bar Belarusian nationals and residents from owning, controlling or managing exchanges and other MiCA-regulated crypto firms from Aug. 25.

The European Union will prohibit Belarusian nationals and residents from owning, controlling or managing crypto exchanges and other crypto service providers regulated under the Markets in Crypto-Assets (MiCA) framework starting Aug. 25.&

The measure appears in Council Decision (CFSP) 2026/1847, adopted Thursday to amend the EU’s sanctions framework targeting Belarus over its involvement in Russia’s war against Ukraine. The document expands an existing restriction that applied only to companies providing crypto wallet, account or custody services.&

The decision enters into force on Thursday, while the expanded crypto provision will apply from Aug. 25.&

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After attracting nearly $1 billion over seven trading sessions, US-listed spot Bitcoin ETFs recorded their first daily net outflow since July 13.

US-listed spot Bitcoin exchange-traded funds (ETFs) ended a seven-session inflow streak on Thursday, marking their first day of net outflows since July 13.

Spot Bitcoin ETFs recorded $225.2 million in net outflows on Thursday, attracting nearly $1 billion in net inflows over the last seven trading sessions, according to SoSoValue.

Despite Thursday’s outflows, the funds had still attracted about $274 million in net inflows this week as of Thursday.

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After attracting nearly $1 billion over seven trading sessions, US-listed spot Bitcoin ETFs recorded their first daily net outflow since July 13.

US-listed spot Bitcoin exchange-traded funds (ETFs) ended a seven-session inflow streak on Thursday, marking their first day of net outflows since July 13.

Spot Bitcoin ETFs recorded $225.2 million in net outflows on Thursday, attracting nearly $1 billion in net inflows over the last seven trading sessions, according to SoSoValue.

Despite Thursday’s outflows, the funds had still attracted about $274 million in net inflows this week as of Thursday.

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The proposed class action alleges BitMEX used privileged trading access and server freezes to profit from forced liquidations.

[Update 07:24 UTC, July 24: Adds BitMEX response in fifth paragraph.]

BitMEX is facing a class action lawsuit accusing the crypto derivatives platform of fraudulently engineering customer liquidations to seize traders’ Bitcoin collateral.

On Thursday, BKX Services Inc. and David Namdar filed the complaint in the US District Court for the Southern District of New York. The plaintiffs allege they lost a combined 622.66 BTC through forced liquidations on BitMEX, with BKX claiming losses of at least 305.81 BTC and Namdar alleging losses exceeding 316.85 BTC.&

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On Wednesday, Senate Republicans released the proposed text for the CLARITY Act, which has been met with pushback from Democrats regarding ethics provisions.

Democratic Senator Ruben Gallego says he will be working with Republicans to come up with a counterproposal to White House-approved ethics provisions in the CLARITY Act, saying the draft released this week was “not a serious effort.”

On Wednesday, Senate Republicans released the proposed text for the Digital Asset Market Clarity (CLARITY) Act, including language on ethics that would bar all US federal officials — including US President Donald Trump — from issuing or sponsoring any digital asset. Democrats said the ethics provisions fall short.

“Whatever piece of s--- they sent back to us, that was not a serious effort,” Senator& Ruben Gallego told Politico on Thursday.

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BitMEX will have removed 65 derivative contracts and trading pairs in July, compared with just 19 across the first six months of the year.

Crypto exchange BitMEX accelerated its delisting of derivative contracts and trading pairs in July due to “insufficient trading interest,” offering a glimpse at declining activity on the platform surrounding its decision to wind down the exchange.

BitMEX’s website shows that in early July, it delisted 21 derivative contracts; two weeks later, BitMEX delisted nine spot pairs for lack of trading interest. On Thursday, BitMEX added another 35 derivative contracts to the queue for delisting, totaling 65 delistings in July.

Related: BitMEX to shut down after 11 years in crypto derivatives

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Nasdaq, Cboe and the London Stock Exchange are among major exchanges moving toward longer trading hours.

The US Securities and Exchange Commission is set to host a public roundtable in September to discuss moving toward 24-hour trading in US equity markets.

“We are moving towards a new day – and night – in the US equity markets,” SEC Chair Paul Atkins said on Thursday.

“With the expansion to overnight trading, I’m excited at the prospect of US equity markets aligning with those markets that already trade continuously.”

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The Bitcoin donation can be used to support Donald Trump as a New York court considers whether to reverse a $5 million settlement between the CFTC and Gemini.

Update (July 24, 5:10 pm UTC): This article has been updated to clarify the source of the MAGA Inc. contribution.

With a court set to consider a reversal of a $5 million settlement from the US Commodity Futures Trading Commission’s (CFTC’s) case with cryptocurrency exchange Gemini, the company’s co-founders sent $10 million in Bitcoin (BTC) to a super political action committee (PAC) supporting President Donald Trump.

According to the MAGA Inc. Super PAC’s July report to the Federal Election Commission (FEC) filed on Monday, Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss through the Gemini Trust Company sent two separate contributions of more than $5 million in Bitcoin on June 19.&

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The Bitcoin donation can be used to support Donald Trump as a New York court considers whether to reverse a $5 million settlement between the CFTC and Gemini.

With a court set to consider a reversal of a $5 million settlement from the US Commodity Futures Trading Commission’s (CFTC’s) case with cryptocurrency exchange Gemini, the company has sent $10 million in Bitcoin (BTC) to a super political action committee (PAC) supporting President Donald Trump.

According to the MAGA Inc. Super PAC’s July report to the Federal Election Commission (FEC) filed on Monday, the Gemini Trust Company run by co-founders Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss sent two separate contributions of more than $5 million in Bitcoin on June 19.&

The donation, which the PAC may use for independent expenditures to support Trump, was recorded about three weeks after the CFTC filed a joint motion with Gemini in federal court in an attempt to reverse a January 2025 settlement over the company allegedly making false or misleading statements. CFTC Chair Michael Selig claimed at the time that the agency under former US President Joe Biden “politically targeted” the Winklevosses through enforcement actions.

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Bitcoin price forecasts diverge as US-Iran war tensions fueled an ongoing oil and bond-market surge, while July Fed rate-hike odds neared 40%.

Bitcoin (BTC) fell below $65,000 on Thursday as US stocks slid amid another round of escalation in Iran.

Key points:

Data from TradingView showed BTC/USD hitting three-day lows of $64,799 on Bitstamp.

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The research released by the organization said that crypto companies will directly or indirectly lead to 232,000 jobs across the entire US economy in 2026.

Research from the National Cryptocurrency Association (NCA), an organization backed by Ripple Labs, broke down the economic impact of the entire crypto industry on the United States, estimating that salaries, worker spending and output will have contributed $55 billion this year.

According to a report released Wednesday by the Pragmatic Policy Group on behalf of the NCA, the total economic contribution was based on direct, indirect and induced employment. Of the sectors to benefit from crypto’s economic contributions, the NCA said that investments in securities and commodity contracts were among the highest at $9.7 billion, while housing and real estate were a combined $4.8 billion.&

The research found that about 34,000 people in the US were directly employed by crypto companies, accounting for just a fraction of the 232,000 jobs supported by the industry across the entire economy. This would mean crypto companies directly employ more Americans than the coffee and tea manufacturing and aerospace industries, according to data from the US Bureau of Labor Statistics.

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BitMEX’s shutdown marks the end of one of crypto’s earliest derivatives exchanges as analysts point to rising regulatory costs, market concentration and the shift toward licensed trading venues.

The closure of crypto derivatives exchange BitMEX is prompting fresh questions about whether the industry is entering a new phase of consolidation, as analysts point to market-share concentration and rising regulatory costs squeezing smaller platforms.

While BitMEX helped pioneer perpetual swaps that became a cornerstone of digital asset derivatives trading, its daily Bitcoin futures volume began declining around May 2021 and never recovered to its 2020 daily peak of between $1 billion and $5 billion, according to data from CryptoQuant.

Restructuring adviser Roshan Dharia told Cointelegraph the exchange’s demise reflects structural pressures facing mid-sized centralized exchanges, where liquidity has increasingly concentrated among the industry’s largest players and regulatory compliance costs continue to rise. He said:

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A hacker reportedly took over Robinhood CEO Vlad Tenev’s X account to promote a fake “VLAD” memecoin, posting what appeared to be a malicious token contract address.

One or more hackers took over Robinhood CEO Vlad Tenev’s X account on Thursday after a post appeared promoting a fake memecoin called “VLAD” and included what appeared to be a malicious token contract address.

The post attracted more than 175,000 views in less than 20 minutes before users identified it as a scam and warned others not to interact with the token.

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Goldman chief David Solomon will support the crypto market structure bill now in Congress, even as financial companies and banks are hesitant over provisions on stablecoins.

David Solomon, chair and CEO of financial giant Goldman Sachs, has given his support for a “not perfect” cryptocurrency market structure bill under consideration in the US Senate even as many provisions continue to divide lawmakers and his fellow industry leaders.

According to a Thursday Politico report, Solomon said that the Digital Asset Market Clarity (CLARITY) Act was “not perfect” but needed to create a “level playing field to enhance market stability.” Solomon stands out as the head of a major financial company backing the legislation, which many of his peers are opposing by arguing that the bill allows crypto companies to pay users interest or yield on stablecoins outside standard rules for financial institutions.

“The CLARITY Act — like all legislation — is not perfect,” said Solomon, according to Politico. “And there are lots of things that you could debate and argue about. But I think one of the most important things that it does is that it creates a level playing field to enhance market stability and allow these markets to develop appropriately.”

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Both parties say they want US crypto market structure legislation, but a dispute over ethics rules and who enforces them is becoming the bill’s biggest obstacle.

The long-awaited US Digital Asset Market Clarity Act (CLARITY) has hit another snag.

This time, it’s not software developers or the turf war between federal regulators at stake, but the thornier question of ethics — ironic, given many politicians’ demonstrable disdain for them.

After months of negotiations and what Coinbase’s chief executive Brian Armstrong called “thousands of hours of work on both sides,” disagreement over a code of conduct could make or break CLARITY once and for all.

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The investment marks Empery’s latest push into AI infrastructure as the company shifts capital away from its Bitcoin treasury strategy.

Empery Digital said it invested $20 million in Cardinal Data Power, acquiring an approximately 8% stake in the private developer of powered data center campuses.

The investment was part of Cardinal Data Power’s approximately $70 million Series A financing and will support development of a 750-megawatt data center campus in West Texas. The project is expected to deliver its first power in 2027, expand to about 1 gigawatt by 2029 and eventually exceed 5 gigawatts.

Cardinal develops powered data center campuses for artificial intelligence and high-performance computing workloads. The company said it combines power generation, natural gas supply and electrical infrastructure to accelerate development of large-scale computing sites.

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Ether trades below its realized price while onchain indicators point to easing selling pressure and recovering demand, though a definitive cycle bottom has yet to emerge.

Ether is becoming increasingly attractive from a valuation standpoint, particularly relative to Bitcoin, but onchain data suggests the market has yet to reach a definitive cycle bottom, according to CryptoQuant.

In its latest weekly report, the analytics company said Ether (ETH) is trading roughly 17% below its realized price, or the average onchain acquisition cost of all ETH in circulation, of about $2,300. Historically, ETH trading below its realized price has coincided with periods of market undervaluation and long-term bottoms.

Ether is also showing signs of improving relative to Bitcoin (BTC). CryptoQuant said that ETH’s market value-to-realized value (MVRV) ratio has retreated from extreme overvaluation, exchange inflows have declined, exchange-traded fund (ETF) holdings have begun to recover after months of weakness, and ETH/BTC spot trading volumes have fallen into a range historically associated with market bottoms.

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Are the fears of an AI driven hacking epidemic totally overblown, or is this just the lull before the storm?

A wave of high profile crypto hacks in April that many suspected had been orchestrated using sophisticated AI tools to identify smart contract exploits, led to fears that every DeFi protocol was suddenly at risk.

In May, Manuel Aráoz, founder of the blockchain security platform OpenZeppelin, declared “all of DeFi unsafe” following $630 million in crypto losses from exploits in April.

But even as the industry braced for the scenario of DeFi protocols falling like dominoes to agentic AI, the stream of attacks seemed to ebb.

That led Dragonfly managing partner Haseeb Qureshi to declare recently that fears of a DeFi “hackpocalypse” were a “false alarm.” He pointed out that even including April’s big hacks, the year to date has seen “a lower rate of hacked $ per month” and that the “median hack size by year is also declining.”

So who’s right? Are the fears of an AI driven hacking epidemic totally overblown, or is this just the lull before the storm?

“I think the ‘hackpocalypse’ narrative is overstated if it suggests AI has already replaced compromised keys, weak infrastructure and human error as the main causes of Web3 losses,” Stephen Ajayi, Hacken’s leading offensive security engineer, tells Magazine.

But he adds that doesn’t mean the fears are entirely misplaced.

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A consortium led by Strategy and BlackRock has pledged $15 million to secure the Bitcoin network from the threat of a quantum computing breakthrough.

Michael Saylor’s Strategy announced the launch of the Bitcoin Security Consortium, a group of financial institutions and Bitcoin companies supporting the long-term quantum security of the Bitcoin network.

The consortium pledged an aggregate $15 million over the next three years to support developers securing the Bitcoin network against the threat of a quantum computing breakthrough, Strategy announced in a Thursday press release.

Other founding members include Anchorage Digital, ARK Invest, BlackRock, Block, Blockstream, Coinbase, Fidelity Digital Assets and Galaxy. The consortium’s day-to-day work will be coordinated by Mike Schmidt, who serves in a volunteer capacity and is the executive director of Brink, a non-profit that supports Bitcoin open-source developers.

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The partnership expands Binance’s compliance efforts by providing intelligence and training to help detect cryptocurrency activity tied to human trafficking and child exploitation.

[Update 16:00 UTC, July 23: Adds Chainalysis data in penultimate paragraph.]

Binance has partnered with nonprofit STOP THE TRAFFIK to bolster its ability to identify and investigate cryptocurrency activity linked to human trafficking and child exploitation.

The crypto exchange said Thursday that it will receive specialized intelligence, training and insights from the UK group’s Centre for Intelligence-Led Prevention to help identify emerging criminal typologies and strengthen investigations into illicit activity linked to human trafficking.&

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Crypto exchange Bitget said it was registered as a financial service provider with New Zealand’s financial regulator, enabling it to expand its services in the country.

Cryptocurrency exchange Bitget said it is now registered as a financial services provider on New Zealand’s Financial Services Providers Register (FSPR).

The registration enables the platform to offer services including foreign currency exchange, domestic and cross-border money transfers, client asset custody, portfolio and money management in the country, Bitget said in a statement on Thursday.

The FSPR’s registry did not show Bitget’s registration at the time of writing.

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BitMEX’s BMEX token plunged about 90% after the exchange announced plans to shut down, ending nearly 12 years in business as its Bitcoin futures market share shrank.

[Update, 15:18 UTC, July 23 - Adds comment from cofounder beginning in sixth paragraph.]

BitMEX’s utility token lost almost all of its value after the exchange announced Thursday it would wind down operations.

The BitMEX (BMEX) token plunged 90% to as low as $0.002 from $0.06, according to CoinGecko data. It traded at $0.0063 at the time of writing.

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Bernstein analysts remain bullish on the Bitcoin mining sector, as deals with third-party providers will be necessary to address the computing power limits of AI data centers.

Bernstein said that it remains overweight on the Bitcoin mining sector, citing the growing partnerships between Bitcoin mining companies that are necessary to address the power constraints of artificial intelligence (AI) data centers.

The investment manager’s Bitcoin mining industry deal tracker registered a new AI-related deal every week in July, with combined deals standing at more than 7.5 gigawatts or the contracted equivalent of $150 billion in multi-year contracts, according to a Thursday research note shared with Cointelegraph.&

The analysts said that third-party computing capacity from Bitcoin miners will remain highly valuable as access to power remains the AI industry’s real bottleneck amid growing political pushback against building new US data centers.

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HYPE briefly fell 8% from its local highs as Multicoin Capital, Selini Capital and Galaxy Digital queued nearly $150 million of the token for withdrawals.

Key points:

Hyperliquid’s HYPE token slid to around $58 on Wednesday in the face of large unstaking events initiated by crypto funds. Data obtained from hedge fund and analytics platform Block Liquidity shows Multicoin Capital holding a combined $138.78 million in staked HYPE, of which roughly 83% — about $116 million — sits in pending withdrawal.

That’s as Selini Capital and Galaxy Digital have queued HYPE tokens worth $4.4 million and $29.4 million, respectively, for withdrawal. In addition, a Multicoin-linked wallet also deposited roughly 167,000 HYPE, worth $11.2 million, to Coinbase, possibly to be sold.&

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Kazakhstan plans to require miners to meet strict infrastructure standards and transfer part of their mined crypto assets to a state-backed reserve under new rules.

Kazakhstan, one of the world’s largest Bitcoin mining hubs, approved a new framework for large-scale crypto mining that links access to electricity with contributions to a state-backed digital asset reserve.

The government approved rules for strategic digital mining on July 18, Kazakhstan-based news outlet Zakon.kz reported Wednesday, citing Government Resolution No. 638 published in the PRG.kz legal database.

The rules define strategic digital mining as a framework that gives miners access to electricity quotas at regulated tariffs in exchange for transferring part of their mined crypto assets to Astana Hub, a government-backed technology cluster.

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Bitwise predicted that Hyperliquid and Robinhood TradFi ventures should form the basis for a crypto bull-market comeback that would lift Bitcoin and Ether.

Bitcoin (BTC) is “finally showing signs of a bottom,” but the next bull market will have a different source.

Key points:

In a blog post on Wednesday, Matt Hougan, chief investment officer at crypto asset manager Bitwise, revealed his picks for what will “lift” BTC price action going forward.

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Coinbase plans to expand its Singapore office from 150 to about 200 employees by the end of 2026 as it expands its presence in the Lion City.

Cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase plans to expand its presence in Singapore and grow its headcount from 150 to about 200 staff members by the end of 2026.&

The cryptocurrency exchange is mainly looking to hire more engineers, customer service, relationship management staff and institutional sales representatives for its Singapore office, which opened at One Raffles Quay on Wednesday, Hassan Ahmed, Coinbase’s country director for Singapore, told the Business Times in an interview. A Coinbase spokesperson confirmed to Cointelegraph that the exchange plans to expand its operations in Singapore.

Ahmed said that Singapore is increasingly becoming a strategic hub for cryptocurrency innovation. Coinbase received a major payment institution license from the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS), the city-state’s central bank, in October 2023, enabling it to expand its services to Singaporean individuals and institutions.

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Grayscale’s head of research said that Bitcoin may have bottomed, arguing that macro factors, such as interest rate decisions as increasingly driving the price action of this maturing asset class.

Crypto-focused asset manager Grayscale said that Bitcoin’s price may have bottomed earlier than the traditional four-year cycle, which would imply a cycle low in September or October.&

Grayscale’s head of research, Zach Pandl, argued that Bitcoin (BTC) has “grown up” as an asset and is increasingly driven by macroeconomic factors.&

“If the Fed forgoes rate hikes and economic growth holds up well, Bitcoin’s price may already have bottomed,” Pandl wrote in a Wednesday report.

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Crypto home invasions rose to 20 in H1 2026 from one a year earlier, while France accounted for 33 of 52 verified wrench attacks, according to CertiK.

Home invasions became the most common form of crypto wrench attacks during the first half of 2026, rising to 20 publicly reported incidents from just one a year earlier, according to blockchain security firm CertiK.&

On Thursday, CertiK said it verified 52 wrench attacks worldwide in the first half of 2026, up 33.3% from 39 incidents during the same period in 2025. Kidnappings rose to 16 from 12, while robberies declined from five incidents to one.&

CertiK said the recorded financial exposure linked to the attacks reached about $124.1 million, up from $10.5 million a year earlier. The figure is not limited to confirmed thefts and may include ransom demands, victim transfers, frozen or recovered assets and failed ransom demands.&

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BitMEX announced it will shut down operations on Sept. 23, 2026, after owner HDR Global Trading Limited decided to close the crypto exchange.

BitMEX, one of the pioneers of cryptocurrency derivatives trading, announced it will shut down operations after owner and operator HDR Global Trading Limited decided to close the company following a strategic review.

BitMEX announced Thursday that it will stop exchange services on Sept. 23, 2026, at 04:00 UTC and urged users to close positions and withdraw funds before the deadline.

“We want to reassure you that your assets remain fully safe and under your control during this transition period,” BitMEX said in a statement to users.

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Mirae Asset Consulting has become Korbit’s largest shareholder after completing its acquisition, with the exchange saying trading and customer asset protections are unchanged.

Mirae Asset Consulting, an affiliate of one of South Korea’s largest financial groups, has completed its acquisition of a controlling stake in South Korean crypto exchange Korbit, becoming the exchange’s largest shareholder after completing regulatory procedures.

Korbit said in a Thursday announcement published on its website that its operating entity remains unchanged and that trading, deposits and withdrawals will continue without interruption.&

The exchange added that customer assets remain segregated under South Korea’s Virtual Asset User Protection Act.

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US spot Bitcoin ETFs recorded $69 million in inflows on Wednesday, extending their inflow streak to seven sessions and bringing total inflows during the period to nearly $1 billion

US-listed spot Bitcoin exchange-traded funds (ETFs) have totaled about $1 billion in net inflows over seven straight trading sessions.

Spot Bitcoin ETFs recorded $68.99 million in net inflows on Wednesday, bringing cumulative inflows since July 14 to $999.38 million, according to data from SoSoValue.

The current streak remains below April’s nine-session run, when spot Bitcoin ETFs attracted $2.1 billion in net inflows.

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Kakao Group and Circle signed an MOU to explore won stablecoin payments, remittances, merchant settlement and tokenized financial services.

Kakao Group has partnered with stablecoin issuer Circle to explore payment infrastructure for won-backed stablecoins as South Korea prepares a broader regulatory framework for crypto assets.&

On Thursday, the companies announced that Kakao, Kakao Pay and Kakao Bank had signed a strategic memorandum of understanding (MOU) with Circle Internet Group. Under the agreement, the companies will explore ways to connect Circle’s blockchain and global payment infrastructure with Kakao’s consumer platforms and financial services.

The agreement highlights how major South Korean consumer and financial platforms are positioning themselves ahead of expected stablecoin legislation, even before the regulatory framework is finalized.&

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Swiss cantonal bank BancaStato integrated Sygnum’s crypto trading and custody services into its Avaloq-powered digital banking apps for Bitcoin and other assets.

[Update 13:41 UTC, July 23: Updates with comments from BancaStato in the 13th paragraph.]

Swiss bank BancaStato has launched regulated cryptocurrency trading using digital asset bank Sygnum and banking software provider Avaloq.

BancaStato, the cantonal bank serving Switzerland’s Italian-speaking Ticino region, joined Sygnum’s business-to-business (B2B) banking platform to offer crypto asset services, according to a Thursday announcement shared with Cointelegraph.

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US officials warn that Chinese firms conducting covert, industrial-scale AI distillation could face sanctions and export restrictions.

A White House official accused Moonshot AI of distilling Anthropic’s Fable AI model to develop Kimi K3, which launched last week.

In a post on X on Wednesday, White House Office of Science and Technology Policy Director Michael Kratsios alleged the Chinese AI firm developed an internal platform to distill US models at scale, using methods designed to evade detection.

“Legitimate AI distillation used to create smaller, more efficient models plays a vital role in this open innovation ecosystem,” he said. “However, large-scale, covert industrial distillation aimed at stealing proprietary U.S. technology and undermining American research is unacceptable.”

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The settlement follows a watchdog report last year that blamed “avoidable errors” for the loss of nearly a year’s worth of Gary Gensler’s text messages.

The US Securities and Exchange Commission agreed to pay $150,000 in legal fees to settle a Coinbase lawsuit seeking internal records from the agency at the height of the Biden-era SEC crackdown on crypto.&

The agreement, filed on Wednesday, ends a two-year lawsuit between the SEC and Coinbase, in which the crypto exchange sought internal documents from the regulator to uncover evidence of “crypto by enforcement.” An internal report in 2025 revealed the SEC had deleted nearly a year of former SEC Chair Gary Gensler’s texts due to “avoidable” errors.&

“The agency tasked with policing corporate record-keeping somehow lost reams of its own text messages between Mr. Gensler and other officials during the most intense period of the anti-crypto campaign,” said Coinbase chief legal officer Paul Grewal in an op-ed published by the Wall Street Journal on Wednesday, adding that the SEC will pay a $150,000 “award” and has fixed its record retention policies.&

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AFX, a decentralized perpetual exchange operating on Arbitrum, reportedly lost $24.15 million on Wednesday, while the Verus Ethereum bridge was attacked hours later.

[Update 7:20 am UTC, July 23: Adds comments from Blockaid CEO Ido Ben Natan starting in the eighth paragraph.]

Hackers stole more than $31.6 million across two unrelated crypto bridge exploits spaced just hours apart, targeting bridges operated by decentralized perpetual exchange AFX and Verus Protocol.&

According to Blockaid, AFX, a decentralized perpetual exchange operating on Arbitrum, reportedly lost $24.15 million on Wednesday through a hack targeting one of its cross-chain bridges. Hours later, Blockaid said it detected an exploit targeting the Verus Ethereum Bridge that resulted in about $7.5 million in crypto being stolen.&

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The benchmark tracks blockchain networks using protocol revenue, offering an alternative to traditional market capitalization-weighted crypto indexes.

S&P Dow Jones Indices and Pantera Capital launched a digital asset index that tracks blockchain networks and protocols based on protocol revenue, marking a departure from crypto benchmarks built around market capitalization or token prices.

The index draws from the S&P Cryptocurrency Broad Digital Asset Index but only includes assets that meet minimum thresholds for protocol revenue, market capitalization and liquidity. Eligible networks are then ranked by aggregate protocol revenue over the previous two quarters and weighted by adjusted market capitalization, with the largest holding capped at 35% and the remaining constituents generally capped at 20%. The index is rebalanced quarterly.

According to an announcement from the companies, the benchmark is intended for institutional allocation and may serve as the basis for investment products or as a reference for actively managed digital asset portfolios. S&P said the rules-based framework is designed to distinguish established blockchain activity from speculative exposure.

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Donavan McKinney, running against Michigan incumbent Shri Thanedar, said that “the crypto lobby is paying my opponent back for helping Trump“ with the PAC-funded ads.

An affiliate of the cryptocurrency-aligned political action committee (PAC) Fairshake is attempting to influence voters in a primary race for Michigan’s 13th Congressional District, with about $1 million in media on the line.

In filings with the US Federal Election Commission (FEC) as of Tuesday, the Protect Progress PAC had spent more than $986,000 on ads supportive of Democratic incumbent Shri Thanedar and opposing his challenger, Donavan McKinney. The reported expenditures came two weeks before the Democratic candidates were set to face off in an Aug. 4 primary to determine who will stand in the November general election.

Source: FEC

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According to Senator Cynthia Lummis, one of the bill’s advocates, the ethics language would apply to US presidents’ crypto ventures, including Donald Trump’s.

Senate Republicans have released the proposed text for the Digital Asset Market Clarity (CLARITY) Act, including language on ethics that would bar all US federal officials — including President Donald Trump — from issuing or sponsoring any digital asset.

In the 616-page text of the CLARITY Act made public on Wednesday, US lawmakers included language that the White House described as the “most comprehensive and wide-ranging ethics provision in history.“ The bill said all public officials, employees and their spouses would be barred from issuing or sponsoring digital assets and crypto platforms would similarly be blocked from listing assets issued or sponsored by federal officials.

Text of CLARITY Act released on Wednesday. Source: Cynthia Lummis

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Anthropic will provide Claude AI models to companies participating in the UK Financial Conduct Authority’s next Supercharged Sandbox cohort, as the regulator pushes to test AI applications in financial services.

Anthropic will provide its Claude AI models to firms participating in the UK Financial Conduct Authority’s (FCA) second Supercharged Sandbox cohort, expanding the regulator’s effort to help financial companies test artificial intelligence applications in a controlled environment.

Participants will receive access to Claude, including Claude Code and Claude Cowork, to develop applications ranging from agent-led payments and fraud detection to compliance automation and AI governance.& The second cohort includes 21 organizations, among them Scottish Widows, Money Advice Trust and TrueLayer.

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The SEC commissioner said crypto vaults, onchain lending products and other asset management tools may trigger US securities laws, depending on how they are structured and operated.

SEC Commissioner Hester Peirce said crypto vaults and onchain lending products may fall under US securities laws, urging developers to assess whether products that actively manage user assets require regulatory compliance.

In a statement published Wednesday, Peirce said crypto vaults and lending strategies that involve discretionary decisions, including allocating assets, selecting yield-generating activities, setting lending terms and determining liquidation thresholds, may fall within the scope of federal securities laws, depending on their structure and operation.

She said some vaults could be treated as securities offerings or investment companies, while parties managing vault allocations or lending parameters could also trigger investment adviser requirements.

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The group alleged that the tax signed into law in June “discriminates against people who transact in digital assets“ and should be blocked from implementation and enforcement.

Cryptocurrency and blockchain advocacy organization The Digital Chamber is suing the State of Illinois over the state’s 0.2% tax on crypto transactions expected to go into effect in 2027.

In a Tuesday filing in the circuit court of Sangamon County, Illinois, the Chamber alleged that the Illinois state tax for the 2027 fiscal year was “facially invalid.” The organization filed a civil suit against Illinois Attorney General Kwame Raoul and the Department of Revenue’s David Harris, claiming that the crypto tax was “slipped into the state’s budget” without a debate or feedback from people potentially affected.&

“The lawsuit argues that no one should be taxed differently because of how ownership is recorded or transferred,” said the chamber in a Tuesday blog post. “Put simply, this tax discriminates against people who transact in digital assets. This tax is universally applied, regardless of whether the investor realizes any gain, or whether ownership is even being transferred.”

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The proposed alliance would enable more than 150 broker-dealers to trade and settle digital asset securities through OTC Link ATS using BitGo’s custody infrastructure.

Digital asset infrastructure provider BitGo and OTC Markets Group, the operator of regulated over-the-counter securities markets, plan to partner on digital asset trading and custody infrastructure for broker-dealers, a move that could expand institutional access to tokenized securities through existing market infrastructure.

The companies said Wednesday that the proposed alliance will serve more than 150 broker-dealers using OTC Link ATS, an alternative trading system regulated by the US Securities and Exchange Commission. If implemented, participating broker-dealers would be able to quote, trade and settle digital asset securities using the same electronic trading infrastructure they currently use for over-the-counter and US equity markets.

Under the proposal, BitGo Bank & Trust would act as the qualified custodian, while settlement would be facilitated through BitGo’s Go Network. The proposed framework is initially intended to support digital asset securities, with the potential to expand to tokenized assets and commodities as regulatory frameworks evolve.

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Bitcoin and US stocks stayed strong in the face of US-Iran escalation as analysis predicted BTC price action outperforming equities later.

Bitcoin (BTC) held higher on Wednesday as crypto and risk assets continued to brush off US-Iran war tensions.

Key points:

Data from TradingView showed BTC/USD down 1% on the day, having earlier hit five-week highs near $67,000.

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Proponents of the digital euro say its a better alternative to cash that’s fully backed by the ECB. But critics argue it could provide the EU with too much power over its citizens.

The digital euro is one of Europe’s most contentious financial projects.

Supporters see it as a way to preserve the bloc’s monetary sovereignty, reduce its reliance on foreign payment providers, and ensure central bank money survives in an online economy dominated by USD stablecoins.

Critics, however, argue the digital euro could be a way for a supranational organization to surveil — and in certain circumstances, even control — the population of Europe.

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Franklin Templeton’s digital assets lead said that the autonomous AI agent economy will increase demand for blockchain protocols hosting machine-to-machine micropayments.

Artificial intelligence (AI) agents are the next “killer” use case for blockchain and cryptocurrency, according to investment management giant Franklin Templeton’s head of digital assets and innovation.

Sandy Kaul said in a X post on Wednesday that the AI agent economy will increase demand for blockchain protocols hosting machine-to-machine micropayments, as legacy card networks are unsuitable for agentic payments due to high fees and settlement times.

“To capture the AI growth opportunity today, most investors buy shares of AI-aligned companies and related verticals. But will the same playbook work for agentic AI,” Kaul said in the introduction to his more-than-1,800 word post.

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Binance set multimonth records for net BTC outflows on Tuesday, adding to an emerging trend of positive inflows to the US spot Bitcoin ETFs.

Bitcoin (BTC) buyers are showing “better absorption” at $65,000 after Binance saw its largest net outflow in nearly two years.

Key points:

New research from onchain analytics platform CryptoQuant released on Wednesday confirms that daily BTC withdrawals from the world’s biggest exchange are outpacing inflows.

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A security vulnerability in the Zilliqa Ledger app is enabling attackers to reconstruct private keys using publicly available onchain data.

Layer-1 blockchain network Zilliqa warned that a vulnerability in the Zilliqa Ledger app could allow attackers to recover users’ private keys using publicly available onchain data.

“The vulnerability causes signatures to be generated with predictably weakened ephemeral nonces, from which an attacker can recover the signer’s private key,” Zilliqa said in a Wednesday X post.

Zilliqa said protective measures are in place to prevent further losses and that a coordinated remediation plan is being finalized. Users who signed at least five native Zilliqa transactions with a Ledger device are considered compromised and are advised to await further guidance before taking any action.

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US prosecutors are seeking more than $25 million in cryptocurrency allegedly connected to international fraud and laundering networks.

The US Department of Justice (DOJ) has filed five civil forfeiture complaints seeking more than $25 million in crypto allegedly tied to international investment, romance and recovery scams targeting victims in Canada and the United States.&

On Tuesday, the US Attorney’s Office for the District of Columbia and the US Secret Service’s Washington Field Office said that the assets were recovered through separate investigations by the Cyber Fraud Task Force. Investigators identified several laundering networks and confirmed thousands of victims worldwide who were misled into believing they were making legitimate digital asset investments.&

The action highlights the growing scale of crypto-enabled romance and investment scams, which often combine social engineering with fraudulent trading platforms and layered wallet transfers to conceal stolen funds.

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The integration provides institutional clients with access to Kalshi’s event contracts and crypto perpetuals via Talos’ existing trading infrastructure.

Institutional crypto trading platform Talos has integrated with Kalshi, allowing select clients to trade the prediction market operator’s event contracts and crypto perpetuals through the same infrastructure they already use for digital assets, eliminating the need for a separate connection.

Talos will offer algorithmic order types including Iceberg, TWAP and POV, along with multi-leg execution for perp-to-perp and perp-to-spot spread trades. The company said institutional clients will also be able to execute block trades in Kalshi contracts through its request-for-quote platform using participating over-the-counter liquidity providers.

Later this year, Talos plans to extend its dealer software to brokers and trading platforms, allowing them to offer Kalshi event contracts directly to customers where permitted. The company also plans to launch a unified prediction market data feed that standardizes events, trades, order books, open interest and implied probabilities across venues.

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Trading activity on South Korea’s five major crypto exchanges fell sharply as the KOSPI surged, signaling a shift in retail investors toward equities.

South Korea’s major crypto exchanges have seen their trading activity fall sharply over the past year as the country’s stock market surged, suggesting retail speculative interest may be shifting toward equities, Cointelegraph analysis shows.

The Korea Composite Stock Price Index (KOSPI) benchmark more than doubled over the period, while volumes across the country’s largest won-based crypto platforms contracted.

Cointelegraph reviewed CoinGecko’s historical 24-hour volume readings for Upbit, Bithumb, Coinone, Korbit and Gopax, comparing seven-day periods in July 2025 and July 2026.

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Foundry USA asked its mining customers to signal their support for BIP-110, an actively debated proposal seeking to shrink the amount of data that can be stored in a Bitcoin transaction.

Foundry USA began asking mining customers to vote on how the pool should signal on Bitcoin Improvement Proposal (BIP-110), a soft fork proposing to shrink how much data can be stored in Bitcoin transactions to limit non-monetary transactions, such as Ordinals, on the Bitcoin network.

The world’s largest mining pool by hashrate also released educational resources on the proposal and said that the voting window will close at Bitcoin block 961,632, or sometime in early August.

Foundry’s mining clients can cast their votes by accessing a link received via email.

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SecondFi will wind down after a $2.6 million ADA theft, while users still await recovery tools that were initially expected within weeks of the exploit.

Cardano-based wallet SecondFi is preparing to shut down after a security breach exposed issues around wallet security and left hundreds of users awaiting recovery options.

SecondFi said it will wind down SecondFi and Yoroi wallet services after attackers stole about 16.1 million ADA, worth roughly $2.6 million, due to a cryptographic flaw in its wallet software, according to an update published on Wednesday.

The platform said an independent investigation by blockchain intelligence provider Groom Lake identified a sophisticated external actor behind the attack and found indicators potentially linked to North Korea’s Lazarus Group, although no attribution has been confirmed. It added that the breach hit 374 wallets.

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Galaxy pledged up to $5 million in grants for developers working on Bitcoin’s quantum security and elected a council of quantum-advisory experts to research quantum-resistant migration solutions.

Galaxy Digital has pledged up to $5 million in grants to open-source developers building post-quantum cryptography for Bitcoin.

The company also formed a quantum advisory council under its Bitcoin Quantum Readiness Initiative, which it announced Tuesday. The council includes Barry Sanders, professor and scientific director of Quantum City at the University of Calgary; Damien Bérubé, an MIT Sea Grant Knauss fellow; and Eran Tromer, professor of computer science at Boston University.

The grants will fund quantum-resistant upgrade proposals, post-quantum cryptography, Bitcoin signature schemes, wallet and custodian migration tooling and formal security audits.

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US spot Bitcoin ETFs extended their inflow streak to six sessions, bringing in about $930 million while remaining down $4.84 billion on a net basis year to date.

US-listed spot Bitcoin exchange-traded funds (ETFs) recorded their sixth consecutive day of net inflows on Tuesday, adding $203.1 million.

The Bitcoin ETFs attracted about $930 million over the six-session streak, their longest run of consecutive inflows since April, according to SoSoValue data.

The inflows came as Bitcoin traded above $65,000 and briefly climbed to $66,700 on Tuesday. At publication, Bitcoin traded at $65,802, up about 2% over the previous 24 hours, according to CoinGecko.

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US spot Bitcoin ETFs extended their inflow streak to six sessions, bringing in about $930 million while remaining down $4.84 billion on a net basis year to date.

US-listed spot Bitcoin exchange-traded funds (ETFs) recorded their sixth consecutive day of net inflows on Tuesday, adding $203.1 million.

The Bitcoin ETFs attracted about $930 million over the six-session streak, their longest run of consecutive inflows since April, according to SoSoValue data.

The inflows came as Bitcoin traded above $65,000 and briefly climbed to $66,700 on Tuesday. At publication, Bitcoin traded at $65,802, up about 2% over the previous 24 hours, according to CoinGecko.

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The attack allowed the exploiter to liquidate multiple Bitcoin-backed vaults before swapping the assets for profit.

Update July 22 at 4:37 am UTC: The article has been updated to include additional information from Slowmist about the exploit method.

Balance Coin, an algorithmic stablecoin designed to maintain a peg to the US dollar, has fallen more than 99% following a reported exploit.

Balance Coin, the native stablecoin of Balance Protocol, is trading at $0.001358 at the time of writing, down from $0.9954, according to CoinMarketCap.

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OpenAI called it an “unprecedented cyber incident” after its AI models broke out of their sandbox to hack an AI startup during a security evaluation.

OpenAI disclosed Tuesday that a combination of its AI models, including GPT-5.6 Sol and a more capable unreleased model, escaped its testing environment and hacked AI startup Hugging Face last week to cheat on a test meant to measure their capabilities.

In a blog post, OpenAI said the evaluation was designed to operate in a highly isolated environment with restricted network access. The models, however, found a way to gain internet access through a zero-day vulnerability in an internally-hosted third party software, OpenAI said.

“After gaining Internet access, the models inferred that Hugging Face potentially hosted models, datasets and solutions for ExploitGym,” it said. “Knowing this, the model searched for and successfully found ways to gain access to secret information that it could use to cheat the evaluation.”&

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The agreement gives Balaji Srinivasan’s tech community a potential new base as Malaysian authorities clamp down on the Network School over alleged licensing breaches.

Balaji Srinivasan’s Network School, a community of “digital nomads,” is eyeing a new campus in Kazakhstan after its Forest City campus had its business license revoked over alleged premises-use violations.&

A memorandum of understanding was signed between Kazakhstan’s Minister of Digital Development, Innovation and Aerospace Industry Zhaslan Madiyev and Srinivasan to establish the first Network School campus in Kazakhstan, according to a statement from the ministry.&

The Kazakhstan agreement gives the Network School a potential new base after its Johor operation was ordered to cease operations effective Wednesday. Kazakhstan has been positioning itself as an emerging technology hub, including plans for Central Asia’s first “crypto city” in Alatau.&

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According to one lawyer testifying before a House subcommittee hearing, the CLARITY Act could grant the CFTC the authority it needs to address the “explosive growth of prediction markets.”

Lawmakers in the US House Committee on Agriculture’s Subcommittee on Commodity Markets, Digital Assets, and Rural Development held a hearing on how the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) could address oversight of prediction market companies, including discussions of pending crypto market structure legislation.

In a Tuesday hearing on “Examining Customer Protections and Market Integrity in Sports Event Prediction Markets,” Carl Kennedy, a partner at New York law firm Katten Muchin Rosenman, said that the CFTC was likely too “short-staffed” to fully deal with the regulation and enforcement of prediction market platforms like Kalshi and Polymarket. According to the lawyer, the Digital Asset Market Clarity (CLARITY) Act under consideration in the US Senate could grant the commodities regulator additional authority not only to address digital assets but also the “explosive growth of prediction markets.”

“I do believe that with additional resources — they’re about to perhaps receive additional authorities under the CLARITY Act — with additional resources to address these new asset classes in the cash markets and crypto, as well as to deal with the explosive growth of prediction markets, I think that the CFTC certainly should receive additional resources,” said Kennedy.

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The blockchain developer will continue operating under court supervision as it restructures following a market-making scandal, a co-founder’s suspension and exchange delistings that rocked the project.

Movement Labs, the developer behind the Movement Ethereum layer-2 blockchain, has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in the US Bankruptcy Court for the District of Delaware, according to court records.

The petition was filed July 15 under Subchapter V, a streamlined reorganization process for qualifying small businesses. The filing allows the company to continue operating while it restructures under court supervision.

On Monday, the court approved interim requests allowing Movement Labs to maintain its bank accounts and cash management systems and obtain debtor-in-possession financing to fund operations during the bankruptcy process. Creditors have until Sept. 14 to file claims.

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Ether’s rally faces onchain headwinds, but rising staking demand and Google earnings could spark the push toward $2,100.

Key takeaways:

Ether (ETH) tested the $1,950 mark for the first time in seven weeks on Tuesday, triggering $62 million in liquidations across leveraged bearish positions. The move delivered 29% gains from the $1,500 low on June 26 and aligned with the broader risk-on mood that drove Bitcoin (BTC) above $66,500. Can ETH push through to $2,100?

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A senior official with Pakistan’s Federal Investigation Agency reportedly recommended other agencies establish similar units to address crypto-related crime.

Pakistan’s Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) established a dedicated investigative unit to probe cases involving cybercrime and financial fraud linked to cryptocurrency.

First reported by Dawn news on Tuesday, the crypto investigation unit will probe digital asset use in crimes, while Pakistan’s Virt­ual Assets Regulatory Authority (PVARA) will continue being responsible for digital asset regulation. FIA Counter-Terrorism Wing Director Muhammad Athar Waheed reportedly recommended other agencies in the country establish similar units to address crypto-related crime.

Bilal Bin Saqib, who chairs PVARA, said in December 2025 that Pakistan ranked as the world’s third-largest crypto market by retail activity. Former Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao said at the same event that, based on Pakistan’s crypto regulation and adoption, the country could become a world leader in the industry by 2030.

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Telegram founder Pavel Durov said the messaging platform will roll out a native non-custodial Gram wallet this summer, bringing self-custody crypto transactions to its more than 1 billion users.

Telegram plans to roll out a native non-custodial Gram wallet across its messaging app this summer, potentially bringing self-custody crypto payments to more than 1 billion monthly active users.

In a post on Wednesday, founder Pavel Durov said the wallet would allow users to send cryptocurrency instantly and without fees. He described it as the “largest rollout of a non-custodial crypto wallet in human history,” though Telegram has not disclosed a firm launch date or additional technical details.

Pavel Durov announces Telegram’s Gram wallet. Source: Pavel Durov

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Bitcoin topped $67,000 while crypto stocks rallied on optimism over US crypto legislation and signs investors may be rotating out of AI trades.

Bitcoin and the broader cryptocurrency market looked poised for a recovery on Tuesday as progress on landmark US crypto legislation boosted sentiment, with analysts also pointing to a slowdown in the AI trade as a potential catalyst for capital rotating back into digital assets.

Bitcoin (BTC) briefly climbed above $67,000 and Ether (ETH) neared $1,950, while crypto-related stocks rallied sharply. Coinbase shares rose 12%, American Bitcoin gained 14% and Cipher Digital jumped 17%.

The gains came after US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said lawmakers were at the “1-yard line” on the long-debated CLARITY Act, which would define the regulatory roles of the Securities and Exchange Commission and Commodity Futures Trading Commission over digital assets.

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The price of Bitcoin moved above $66,000 to reach a seven-week high on Tuesday as reports circulated of a deal with the White House to address ethics in the CLARITY Act.

The White House agreed to provisions in a crypto market structure bill that could ensure support from some Democratic lawmakers in the US Senate.

According to a Tuesday Punchbowl report, White House officials met with Republican Senators Cynthia Lummis and Bernie Moreno to reach an agreement on ethics language in the Digital Asset Market Clarity (CLARITY) Act under consideration in the Senate.

Neither Lummis nor Moreno have publicly announced the details of the deal, which could facilitate Democratic support in what is expected to be a tight Senate vote, but the report suggested that it could affect US President Donald Trump’s crypto investments.

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Researchers found dollar-backed stablecoins are less affected by capital controls than traditional bank deposits, raising new questions about monetary sovereignty in emerging markets.

Researchers at the Bank for International Settlements (BIS) found that dollar-backed stablecoins are creating a new form of “digital dollarization” that appears largely unaffected by capital controls, particularly in emerging markets.

The new study suggests governments may have less ability to curb stablecoin adoption than traditional foreign-currency bank deposits.

BIS researchers analyzed foreign-currency deposits and dollar-pegged stablecoin inflows across more than 130 economies, finding that both tend to increase during periods of macroeconomic stress. Unlike traditional bank deposits, however, stablecoin flows showed little response to capital controls or other FX restrictions. The authors said this likely occurs because “stablecoins are partly circulating outside the regulatory perimeter.”

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The integration with validator Yuma gives millions of MEXC users access to Bittensor, an AI-focused blockchain whose ecosystem now spans 128 specialized subnets.

Cryptocurrency exchange MEXC has launched staking support for Bittensor’s native TAO token, allowing users to earn rewards by helping secure one of the largest decentralized artificial intelligence networks.

Bittensor validator Yuma announced Tuesday that MEXC has integrated its validator infrastructure to support TAO staking for the exchange’s reported 40 million users. Yuma participates in Bittensor’s consensus mechanism by evaluating the performance of network subnets — specialized AI applications that perform specific machine learning tasks — and assigning weights that help determine how staking rewards are distributed.

The companies said the integration is intended to expand access to the Bittensor ecosystem and increase participation in the network.

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Bitcoin and crypto joined US stocks in brushing off US-Iran war escalation and the threat of fresh trade tariffs before the end of the month.

Bitcoin (BTC) built on gains at Tuesday’s Wall Street open as crypto echoed resilient US stock markets.

Key points:

Data from TradingView showed BTC/USD approaching $67,000, closing in on seven-week highs.

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The UCITS ETF, CoinShares’ first in Europe, began trading on Deutsche Börse Xetra, tracking a rules-based index of publicly listed BTC miners.

CoinShares has launched its first UCITS exchange-traded fund (ETF) in Europe, which tracks publicly listed Bitcoin mining companies, giving European investors exposure to the sector through an Irish-domiciled fund listed on Deutsche Börse Xetra.

The CoinShares Bitcoin Mining UCITS ETF began trading Tuesday under the ticker MINE. The physically replicated fund tracks the CoinShares Bitcoin Mining Index, a rules-based basket of listed Bitcoin miners administered by Solactive AG, the asset manager said in an announcement.

The ETF was last trading at 19.50 euros ($21.74) per share. Deutsche Börse Xetra data showed 60 units traded for a turnover of 1,184 euros. The similar US-traded CoinShares Bitcoin Mining ETF (WGMI) has net assets of $343.6 million.

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Arcus, built by the dYdX team, adds tokenized stocks and perpetual futures on Robinhood Chain as platforms compete to bring traditional assets onchain.

A decentralized exchange (DEX) backed by Robinhood is expanding into tokenized stocks and derivatives as platforms compete to build onchain markets for traditional assets.

Arcus, a DEX built by the team behind decentralized trading platform dYdX and backed by Robinhood Crypto, launched tokenized stocks and perpetual futures on Robinhood Chain on Tuesday, according to an announcement shared with Cointelegraph.

The company previously launched spot markets when Robinhood Chain went live on July 1. Arcus offers more than 95 stock tokens, perpetual markets and crypto assets through a self-custodial trading account, with Paxos-issued stablecoin USDG serving as its primary collateral and settlement asset.

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Morpho Midnight introduces fixed rates and defined maturities alongside Morpho Blue’s variable-rate lending markets.

Lending protocol Morpho has launched Morpho Midnight on Base, adding fixed-rate, fixed-term loans to its onchain credit network alongside the variable-rate markets offered through Morpho Blue.&

In an announcement sent to Cointelegraph, Morpho said the offer-driven protocol lets lenders and borrowers propose their own interest rates, maturities and other loan terms instead of relying on a protocol-defined utilization curve. Loans are issued as fixed obligations, with terms set through competing offers rather than algorithmic pool pricing.&

Predictable rates and defined maturities are standard features of traditional credit markets. However, they remain uncommon in decentralized finance (DeFi), where borrowing costs generally fluctuate based on market utilization. Fixed terms could make onchain lending more attractive to institutions and businesses that need to manage funding costs, returns and risk exposure in advance.&

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Strike will remain a standalone company after the proposed three-way merger was scrapped, while Twenty One Capital and Elektron continue discussions, Bloomberg reported.

A proposed merger involving Tether-backed crypto companies Twenty One Capital, Strike and Elektron Energy has reportedly been scrapped.

Jack Mallers will step down as CEO of Twenty One Capital while remaining CEO of Strike, according to Bloomberg. Elektron Energy CEO Raphael Zagury has been appointed to succeed Mallers.

Strike will continue operating as a standalone company instead of combining with Twenty One Capital. Discussions between Twenty One and Elektron are continuing, Bloomberg reported. Tether holds majority stakes in both companies.

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Gate Europe’s Giovanni Cunti says some MiCA-licensed crypto firms may struggle to sustain compliance costs as Europe enters its new regulatory era.

Crypto companies already licensed under the European Union’s Markets in Crypto-Assets Regulation (MiCA) could still exit the market as compliance costs mount, according to Gate Europe’s CEO.

Giovanni Cunti told Cointelegraph’s Chain Reaction on Monday that stricter regulatory requirements have made it increasingly difficult for new entrants to compete and that some licensed firms could ultimately be unable to absorb the ongoing costs of operating under the framework.

“I think there are going to be quite a few more of the ones that acquire MiCA license that will not be capable to sustain the cost and the resources that are needed to carry on this business in the long term,” Cunti said.

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The State Duma legislation creates a regulated framework for crypto market participants and now moves to President Vladimir Putin for his signature before becoming law.

Russia’s lawmakers moved the country closer to its first comprehensive crypto market framework after completing final readings on a bill that would regulate digital asset activity.

Russia’s State Duma, the lower house of parliament, approved bill No. 1194918-8, titled “On Digital Currency and Digital Rights,” in its second and third readings on Tuesday, according to official parliamentary records.

If enacted, the bill would establish rules for crypto market participants, including exchanges, brokers, asset managers and custodians, while allowing crypto assets to be used in foreign trade operations.

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Bitcoin beat out local resistance to pass $66,000 amid predictions of as much as 6% BTC price upside if momentum continued.

Bitcoin (BTC) passed one-month highs on Tuesday as price action defied the odds to top $66,000.

Key points:

BTC/USD hit highs of $66,306 on Bitstamp, according to TradingView data. That’s a level last seen on June 17.

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Bitcoin beat out local resistance to pass $66,000 amid predictions of as much as 6% BTC price upside if momentum continued.

Bitcoin (BTC) passed one-month highs on Tuesday as price action defied the odds to top $66,000.

Key points:

BTC/USD hit highs of $66,306 on Bitstamp, according to TradingView data. That’s a level last seen on June 17.

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A UK parliamentary group launched an inquiry into banking restrictions on crypto firms and consumers, including their impact on investment and competition.

[Update: July 21, 2026, 10:30 AM UTC: Added comments from Yuriy Brisov, a partner at London-based consultancy firm Digital & Analogue Partners.]

A United Kingdom parliamentary group has launched an inquiry into whether crypto businesses and consumers face barriers to banking services, including account access and restrictions on crypto-related transactions.

On Monday, the Crypto and Digital Assets All-Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) said that it would examine how the restrictions affect investment, competition and economic growth. The group said it would assess whether the restrictions are proportionate.

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US spot Bitcoin ETFs recorded $227 million in inflows as BTC climbed above $65,000, extending their longest winning streak since early May.

US-listed spot Bitcoin exchange-traded funds (ETFs) posted their fifth consecutive day of net inflows, marking their longest winning streak in nearly three months.

Bitcoin ETFs attracted $226.9 million in net inflows on Monday, the strongest daily inflows since July 6, bringing total net inflows over the five-day streak to about $727.3 million, according to data provider SoSoValue.

The five-session streak is the longest run of consecutive inflows since a five-session stretch from April 30 through May 6. Monday’s inflows reduced year-to-date net outflows for US spot Bitcoin ETFs to below $5 billion.

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The Coinbase-backed Ethereum layer-2 is preparing to expand its financial offerings as it pivots away from its earlier social-first strategy.

Base is close to launching 1:1-backed tokenized equities, according to Jesse Pollak, creator of Coinbase’s Ethereum layer-2 network.

Pollak said in a Tuesday X post that Robinhood Chain, the recently launched Ethereum layer 2, had gotten tokenized equities in an EVM environment right, adding that Base was behind on that front.

Lazer Technologies head of fintech Garrett Skrovina asked about the timeline for launching 1:1-backed equities on Base, to which Pollak replied: “Imminent — dotting i’s and crossing t’s, but should be very soon.”

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The filing expands Grayscale’s growing lineup of crypto-related exchange-traded products outside of Bitcoin and Ether.

Crypto asset manager Grayscale on Monday filed an S-1 registration statement for the first US Worldcoin ETF, which would give investors a way to gain exposure to the WLD token through an exchange-traded product.

According to the preliminary prospectus, the Grayscale Worldcoin ETF is intended to list on the Nasdaq under the symbol GWLD.

BitGo Bank & Trust would custody the Worldcoin (WLD), while BNY Mellon would serve as administrator and transfer agent. CSC Delaware Trust Company would serve as a trustee.

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The settlements add to former Celsius CEO Alex Mashinsky’s $10 million FTC settlement in April.

Celsius co-founders Shlomi Daniel Leon and Hanoch “Nuke” Goldstein have been ordered to pay over $6 million to settle Federal Trade Commission charges alleging they misrepresented the safety of the Celsius platform before the company collapsed.&

Goldstein, Celsius’ former chief technology officer, was ordered to pay $2.014 million under an order signed Monday by US District Judge Denise Cote. Leon, the firm’s former chief strategy officer, was ordered to pay $4.1 million under a separate order entered on June 29.&

The settlements extend the fallout from the 2022 collapse of Celsius beyond its former CEO Alex Mashinsky. The crypto lending platform, which held $25 billion in assets at its peak, owed its users $4.7 billion when it filed for bankruptcy in July 2022.&

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Retail users in Vietnam who trade on offshore crypto exchanges like Binance or OKX face heavy penalties. Network School controversy in Malaysia over Israeli citizen ban.

Vietnam will fine retail crypto users up to $1,900 if they trade on unlicensed overseas platforms such as Binance, OKX and Bybit, instead of on licensed local exchanges.

There’s just one problem: Vietnam’s Finance Ministry has yet to issue any exchange licenses for its regulated digital asset market, which is due to start on Sept. 1. Five exchanges have been approved in principle however.

Domestic investors who trade crypto that’s been designated exclusively for foreign investors can be fined up to $3800. Crypto companies providing or advertising services without a license, those who fail to properly ID customers, or unlawfully deal with crypto account data, can be fined up to $7600.

Balaji Srinivasan’s utopian Network School in Forest City, Malaysia is under fire over allegations it has been hosting Israeli citizens using second passports.

The claims trace back to an activist group Malaysia Protest 4 Palestine, which has accused the school of becoming a “gathering place for Israeli entrepreneurs.”

In other countries such a kerfuffle might result in a few BDS protesters or a boycott, but Malaysia has no diplomatic relations at all with Israel, and bans Israeli citizens from even visiting.

That said, dual nationals with Israeli passports are allowed... for now, although the controversy suggests that particular loophole may be closed soon.

Vitalik, Bryan and Balaji at the Network School. (X)

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The move comes as traditional exchanges face growing competition from crypto markets and tokenized equity platforms that offer around-the-clock trading.

The London Stock Exchange is planning to launch a night-time trading venue in the first half of 2027, joining a growing number of global exchanges offering or planning near-24-hour trading.

According to a report from the Financial Times, the LSE’s new venue will operate separately from its main market and run from 5:00 p.m. to 7:50 a.m. London time. It will initially offer access to exchange-traded products such as those tracking the UK or US stock market.

Related: Backpack joins race for 24/7 stock markets with tokenized equities

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The decision keeps the administration’s chief crypto policy negotiator in place during what could be a decisive few weeks for the CLARITY Act.

The White House’s top crypto adviser Patrick Witt said he will not take a leave of absence at the end of the month for military training, allowing him to remain in place to help advance the CLARITY Act in the Senate.

“Last week, it was reported that I was set to leave for mandatory training as part of my service in the Georgia Army National Guard, right before Clarity hits the Senate floor,” Witt said in an X post on Monday.&

“While I remain committed to fulfilling my service obligation, I am grateful to report that my training has been deferred, and that I will be able to see this effort through to the end,” he added.&

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Coinbase vice chair Ryan VanGrack said that Democratic lawmakers had added provisions on customer protection to a digital asset market structure bill under consideration in the US Senate.

As lawmakers in the US Senate are likely to vote soon on the Digital Asset Market Clarity (CLARITY) Act, representatives from advocacy organizations and companies are providing details of closed-door negotiations over the bill, which is expected to be the most comprehensive piece of legislation affecting the crypto industry.

In a Monday CNBC interview, Coinbase vice chair Ryan VanGrack said while the final negotiations over text of the CLARITY Act were taking place in the Senate, Democratic lawmakers had added additional protections for customers to give what he called “more teeth” to the legislation. He did not explicitly mention any progress on adding ethics provisions to the bill, which many Democrats said will be necessary for their votes.&

“[A]t the end of the day, this is about customer protections,” said VanGrack. “The status quo lacks this infrastructure, lacks these protections, and the Democrats used this opportunity, wisely, to make sure that customers were first and foremost in [this bill].”

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The recognition allows regulated firms in Abu Dhabi Global Market to offer services involving Tether Gold as tokenized commodities gain broader adoption.

Tether Gold (XAUT) has been recognized as an Accepted Spot Commodity in Abu Dhabi Global Market (ADGM), allowing firms in the international financial center to offer services involving the tokenized gold asset if they hold the required regulatory permissions.

The recognition follows ADGM’s earlier acceptance of Tether’s USDt (USDT) as an Accepted Fiat Referenced Token, extending the company’s regulated product lineup in one of the Middle East’s largest international financial centers.

Tether CEO Paolo Ardoino said the designation gives regulated firms a clearer path to offer XAUT, while ADGM said it would support business growth by expanding the products and services available to companies operating in the financial center.

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Despite muted derivatives sentiment, Bitcoin’s decoupling and Strategy’s cash raise set the stage for a potential rally to $70,000.

Key takeaways:

Bitcoin (BTC) showed relative strength over the past week, despite failing to break above $65,500. More importantly, the cryptocurrency has decoupled from traditional markets as investors took profits in memory-chip makers amid fears of excessive valuations in the artificial intelligence sector. Still, judging by Bitcoin’s derivative metrics, top traders are not particularly confident about a rally toward $70,000.

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Despite muted derivatives sentiment, Bitcoin’s decoupling and Strategy’s cash raise set the stage for a potential rally to $70,000.

Key takeaways:

Bitcoin (BTC) showed relative strength over the past week, despite failing to break above $65,500. More importantly, the cryptocurrency has decoupled from traditional markets as investors took profits in memory-chip makers amid fears of excessive valuations in the artificial intelligence sector. Still, judging by Bitcoin’s derivative metrics, top traders are not particularly confident about a rally toward $70,000.

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The SEC alleges Mining Automatic and its founder raised $22 million from investors by promising guaranteed crypto mining returns while spending only a fraction of the funds on mining operations.

The US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has sued crypto mining investment business Mining Automatic and its founder, Zan Shaikh, alleging they raised $22 million from investors while spending only about 13% of the funds on mining operations.

Mining Automatic was operated by Massachusetts-based Bright Vision Distribution LLC, which the SEC said raised the money from more than 380 investors between June 2023 and May 2025.

The company allegedly promised guaranteed monthly returns from crypto asset mining despite operating a business that could not generate the advertised payouts. The SEC said investor money was instead used for marketing, personal expenses and unrelated ventures.

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The wallet company said it expected the layoffs to generate between $10 million and $13 million in savings as part of its strategy to build a full-stack card issuance and payments platform.

Cryptocurrency wallet company Exodus will cut a quarter of its workforce in a restructuring move toward stablecoin payments infrastructure.

In a Friday notice, Exodus said it would cut 25% of its staff& to “better align its cost structure and organizational priorities with its strategy to build a full-stack card issuance and payments platform.” The announcement followed the wallet company’s acquisition of Monavate and Baanx, which it said at the time would lessen its dependence on third-party providers for services including stablecoin payments.

“Exodus expects to recognize approximately $2.5 million to $3.5 million of pre-tax charges in connection with the action, consisting primarily of severance and related personnel costs,” said the notice. “The Company expects the action to generate approximately $10 million to $13 million of annualized cash operating expense savings and to see the full benefit of these savings in 2027.”

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Bitcoin miners rallied as investors cheered multi-billion-dollar AI infrastructure contracts, underscoring the sector’s accelerating shift toward data centers and cloud computing.

Shares of several Bitcoin mining companies surged Monday after Hut 8 and IREN announced major AI infrastructure deals, reinforcing investor optimism around miners expanding into artificial intelligence and high-performance computing.

IREN, Cipher Digital, CleanSpark, Hut 8 and MARA Holdings each gained at least 11% in early Monday trading. The rally followed Hut 8’s announcement of a 15-year, $9.8 billion lease for its AI data center campus and IREN’s disclosure of $2.8 billion in cloud services contracts with AI developers. Both companies began as Bitcoin (BTC) miners before accelerating a pivot toward AI infrastructure and cloud computing as mining economics weakened.

IREN now expects its AI cloud business to generate more than $4 billion in annual recurring revenue by the end of 2026.

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The West African country’s executive order established a virtual asset council and addressed the fragmentation of crypto regulation for oversight and enforcement.

President Bola Ahmed Tinubu of Nigeria has moved to address what his office called the fragmentation of digital asset regulation.

The Nigerian president’s special adviser Bayo Onanuga said that an executive order signed on Friday would “harmonize the regulation of virtual assets, strengthen cooperation among the nation’s financial, revenue and capital markets agencies, protect citizens from fraud, and safeguard the integrity of the financial system while enabling responsible innovation.”

It also established a virtual asset council headed by some of the nation’s top financial regulators to direct related policies, and Nigeria’s tax authority will update its policies on digital assets.

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The brokerage’s blockchain strategy, including tokenized equities and its Arbitrum-based Robinhood Chain, could reduce its reliance on traditional crypto trading, analysts said.

Analysts at Bernstein have raised their price target on Robinhood Markets, based on their investment thesis that the online brokerage’s next phase of growth will be driven by tokenized equities and prediction markets rather than traditional crypto trading.

In a Monday research note, Bernstein raised its price target on Robinhood (HOOD) stock to $160 from $130 per share and maintained its Outperform rating. HOOD stock was last seen trading around $101.

The analysts said prediction markets are poised to become Robinhood’s fastest-growing business, forecasting segment revenue to reach $1.7 billion by 2028, representing a 64% compound annual growth rate.

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Bitcoin faced troublesome resistance at $65,000 while traders still saw a potential BTC price breakout into a “bullish market structure.”

Traders balked on Bitcoin (BTC) at $65,000 on Monday as crypto and risk-assets remained under pressure.

Key points:

Data from TradingView showed BTC price volatility returning around Monday’s Wall Street open.

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The Bitcoin miner raised its year-end AI cloud revenue target to more than $4 billion after signing $2.8 billion in new contracts with AI developers.

Bitcoin miner IREN’s shares rose around 15.7% on Monday after the company raised its year-end AI cloud annualized run-rate revenue target to more than $4 billion after signing $2.8 billion in new multi-year cloud services contracts with AI developers.

The company said about 85% of its revised annualized AI cloud revenue target is now under contract, with customers including Microsoft, Nvidia, Perplexity and Figure AI.

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Renowned trading analyst Peter Brandt says investing in Bitcoin today, will pay off much better in two to three years than buying AI stocks at current prices.

Veteran trader Peter Brandt says he has pinpointed the exact day in 2026 when he expects Bitcoin to hit the bottom of this market cycle.

“I’ll go out on a limb and say we bottom on October 4th. So we’ll see,” Brandt tells Cointelegraph during an interview for Trade Secrets.&

Of course, picking the exact day of a market bottom is a tough ask, but the 51-year trading veteran has held firm on his October prediction for Bitcoin’s cycle low for quite some time.

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Strategy boosted its cash reserve to $3.225 billion after selling MSTR shares, while investors weighed the value of its STRC preferred stock.

Strategy, the world’s largest corporate holder of Bitcoin, is raising fresh capital through sales of its Class A common stock while maintaining its current Bitcoin holdings.

Strategy raised $263.5 million through sales of its MSTR common stock under its at-the-market (ATM) program between July 13 and July 19, according to a Form 8-K filed with the US Securities and Exchange Commission on Monday.

The company made no Bitcoin purchases or sales during the reporting period, leaving its holdings unchanged at 843,775 BTC, acquired for a total purchase price of $63.69 billion. The average acquisition cost of its holdings is $75,476, according to Strategy’s website. Bitcoin was last trading at roughly $64,657.

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Hyperliquid plans to require developers to stake 500,000 HYPE, worth about $30.4 million, to deploy permissionless prediction markets under HIP-4.

Hyperliquid plans to introduce permissionless prediction markets by requiring developers to stake 500,000 HYPE tokens (about $30.4 million) to launch them under HIP-4.

The proposal introduces a capital threshold and slashing mechanism intended to discourage poorly defined or improperly settled markets&

In an announcement, Hyperliquid said permissionless deployment will become available on testnet before expanding to mainnet in a future network upgrade. Validators will vote on standard outcome templates that deployers can use to create markets, while each deployer will initially be limited to 100 outcomes. The allocation will be released for reuse when a market is settled.&

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The new rules establish penalties as much as $1,900 for crypto violations, including unlicensed trading and AML breaches, ahead of Vietnam’s regulated crypto market launch.

Vietnam has decreed administrative penalties for use of unlicensed cryptocurrency platforms, adding an enforcement framework to the country’s upcoming regulated market.

Decree No. 284/2026/NĐ-CP, issued last Thursday, imposes fines of up to 50 million Vietnamese dong ($1,900) on investors who trade through unlicensed platforms, with fines of up to 200 million dong ($7,700) for unauthorized crypto offerings and serious anti-money laundering (AML) violations.

The rules also authorize authorities to suspend crypto-related activities, revoke licenses and confiscate assets.

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Zilliqa said exchanges paused ZIL deposits and withdrawals after an exchange partner’s cold wallet was compromised, with the amount stolen still undisclosed.

Zilliqa, a layer-1 blockchain network, said it is investigating a security incident involving an exchange partner after ZIL was stolen from a cold wallet.

In an X post on Monday, Zilliqa said it had asked exchanges to temporarily pause ZIL deposits and withdrawals as a precaution while it investigates the incident.

Zilliqa did not disclose the amount of ZIL stolen, identify the affected exchange partner or explain the possible cause of the incident. “We understand the community will have questions. We will share further updates as soon as we have verified information,” it said.

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Institutional due diligence is shifting toward continuous monitoring, signer controls and incident readiness after operational failures accounted for most crypto losses.

Institutional investors are looking beyond smart contract audits after traditional trust signals such as prior audits and operating history failed to predict which crypto projects would be exploited, according to Hacken.

In its Q2 2026 Security & Compliance Report, Hacken said that only 9% of 1,427 tracked projects had third-party monitoring, while 4% combined monitoring with an active bug bounty and a security audit. The report highlighted that compromised keys, signers and infrastructure accounted for 88.3% of the roughly $764 million stolen during the quarter.&

Hacken said projects unable to provide ongoing evidence of operational security may face higher perceived risk, reduced investment and more difficult access to insurance or counterparties.&

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Europe’s second-biggest Bitcoin treasury company said the September reverse stock split should attract more institutional investors to the French company.

Capital B, Europe’s second-largest Bitcoin treasury company, will consolidate its shares in a 10-for-1 reverse stock split aimed at broadening its institutional investor base.

The reverse split will reduce the number of shares to about 30.1 million from 300.7 million. Each new share will replace 10 existing shares and carry a par value of 0.80 euros ($0.90), up from 0.08 euros, Capital B said in a Monday statement.

The Euronext Growth Paris-listed company said the conversion will occur automatically on Sept. 8 without changing the aggregate value of investors’ holdings.

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Russia’s State Duma is set to consider the crypto regulation bill in second and third readings, with rules for investors and cross-border payments included.

Russia’s parliament, the State Duma, is preparing to hold final readings on a bill to regulate the cryptocurrency market.

The draft bill No. 1194918-8, titled “On Digital Currency and Digital Rights,” will undergo second and third readings on Tuesday, according to Anatoly Aksakov, chairman of the State Duma Committee on Financial Markets, as reported by RBC.

The bill would introduce limits for non-qualified investors, including a 300,000 ruble ($3,800) annual limit on crypto purchases through a single intermediary and a 100,000 ruble limit for transfers abroad. Qualified investors would face higher limits of 3 million rubles for purchases and 1 million rubles for transfers abroad, respectively.

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Grayscale plans to establish regular cash distributions from staking rewards generated by its Ether and Solana exchange-traded products.

Asset manager Grayscale plans to establish regular cash distributions from rewards generated by its Ether (ETH) and Solana (SOL) staking exchange-traded products (ETPs), giving holders recurring access to yield generated by underlying assets.&

In Form 8-K filings submitted to the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), Grayscale said it intends to amend the trust agreements governing the Grayscale Solana Staking ETF (GSOL) and the Grayscale Ethereum Staking ETF (ETHE) around Aug. 7. The amendments would require each trust to convert staking rewards into cash no less often than quarterly and distribute net proceeds to shareholders.&

The framework could make staking returns more accessible to traditional investors by delivering cash rewards through broker-held products, eliminating the need for shareholders to hold crypto, pick validators and manage staking operations. However, Grayscale said distribution amounts cannot be predicted as they will depend on the staking rewards during each period and expenses deducted by the trusts.&

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Bitcoin preserved a key long-term trend line as support for a third week as US-Iran war tensions delivered new five-week highs in oil prices.

Bitcoin (BTC) starts the last full week of July holding key support while macro clouds continue to gather.

Key points:

In a familiar move, Bitcoin saw sell-side pressure soon after the weekly close going into Monday morning, with local lows reaching $63,700, data from TradingView confirms.

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US spot Bitcoin ETFs extended their inflow streak to two weeks with $75.7 million in net inflows, but analysts said demand remains insufficient to fuel a sustained uptrend.

US-listed spot Bitcoin exchange-traded funds (ETFs) are seeing renewed investor demand, but the latest inflow streak has yet to provide enough momentum for a stronger recovery.

Bitcoin ETFs recorded $75.7 million in net inflows for the week ending July 17, marking a second consecutive week of positive flows, according to SoSoValue data.

The latest inflows followed $197.4 million in net inflows the previous week, bringing July’s total ETF inflows to $200.2 million. US spot Bitcoin ETFs recorded $4.5 billion in net outflows in June, with total 2026 net flows still negative at $5.2 billion.

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The Bank of Korea’s CBDC pilot will add two regional banks, new payment features and tests of government subsidy payments using tokenized bank deposits

The Bank of Korea may launch the second phase of Project Hangang, its wholesale central bank digital currency (CBDC) pilot, as early as September, according to Yonhap News.

The next stage expands participation to nine banks from seven, introduces new payment features and tests government subsidy disbursements through tokenized bank deposits. Regional lenders Kyongnam Bank and iM Bank will join the existing group of participants.

Project Hangang uses a blockchain-based wholesale CBDC issued by the central bank as the settlement asset for deposit tokens issued by commercial banks. Consumers can then use the bank-issued tokens for everyday payments.

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The upgrade reduces smart contract execution costs while laying the groundwork for Ouroboros Leios, a major scalability upgrade expected later this year.

Cardano has activated its van Rossem hard fork as of Saturday, upgrading the Cardano mainnet to version 11, which is expected to lower smart contract execution costs and lay the groundwork for Ouroboros Leios, a major scalability upgrade for the protocol.&

Onchain data from Cardanoscan shows the network moved from Protocol Version 10 in epoch 643 to Version 11 in epoch 644.

“As well as Plutus improvements and Plutus Cost Model enhancements, this upgrade lays the foundation for the next upgrade, the Dijkstra era hard fork, which will introduce Ouroboros Leios to Cardano,” Input Output wrote in a weekly development report on Friday.

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The attacker allegedly used a flash loan and rapid swaps to manipulate the bridge’s stablecoin exchange rate.

Allbridge, the company behind cross-chain stablecoin bridge Allbridge Core, said it has paused the protocol as a precaution after a “security incident” that reportedly saw $1.65 million drained on Sunday.

The incident affected Allbridge Core’s Solana deployment, with the attacker having already bridged the stolen funds from Solana to Ethereum before moving them into privacy pools.&

“Allbridge Core is experiencing a security incident,” it said in a post on X on Sunday. “We have paused the protocol as a precaution while we investigate. If you have liquidity in affected pools, please withdraw now.”&

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The planned rollout would let thousands of transportation contractors receive digital yen payments more frequently and quickly.

AZ-COM Maruwa Holdings, a major Japanese logistics company, plans to adopt JPYC to make payments to around 2,300 business partners, in what is expected to be the first large-scale corporate use of the yen-denominated stablecoin in Japan.&

According to a report from Nikkei, JPYC will be used to pay fees and compensation to individual contractors who handle transportation, including truck drivers; the use of the stablecoin will allow faster and more frequent payments, as it does not charge transfer fees.&

AZ-COM Maruwa is also considering a partnership with JPYC and an investment of over 1 billion Japanese yen ($6.2 million).

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Financial Services Commission Chair Lee Eog-won posted the figures on the second anniversary of the enactment of the Virtual Asset User Protection Act.

South Korea’s financial authorities investigated more than 40 cases of unfair trading, including market manipulation and fraudulent crypto trading, in the last two years.&

According to an X post by Financial Services Commission Chair Lee Eog-won, 30 cases were reported to or referred to investigative agencies, which identified 25 suspects since the Virtual Asset User Protection Act took effect in July 2024.

Lee said the average unlawful gains were around 1.4 billion Korean won ($940,000).

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The fate of the CLARITY Act hinges on Trump’s ethics, so the odds aren’t looking great. Prediction market volumes hit new highs, and more news.

Polymarket suggests the odds of the CLARITY Act passing this year are just 40%, after a raft of Democratic Senators, including Chris Murphy, Jeff Merkley and Chris Van Hollen, spoke out against the bill.

A crucial Senate vote could happen as early as this week, with Senate Majority Leader John Thune stating it will definitely be held before Aug. 10.

Democrat Senator Elizabeth Warren is trying to spoil the vote by highlighting how much money President Donald Trump has extracted from the industry. She demanded Trump voluntarily release his crypto earnings for this year, after his 2025 disclosure showed he earned more than a billion dollars from crypto last year. The controversy means that Senate Democrats are unlikely to support the bill without a provision banning elected officials promoting or issuing cryptocurrency.

Summer Mersinger, the CEO of the Blockchain Association and a former commissioner at the US Commodity Futures Trading Commission, said: “Ethics is the big elephant in the room.”

Source: Polymarket

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The man in control of the biggest Bitcoin corporate treasury said he shares the objectives but disagrees about the remedy detailed in the proposed temporary fork.

Strategy executive chairman Michael Saylor took to social media on Sunday to detail his “110 reasons” why a proposed temporary fork to limit non-monetary transactions on the Bitcoin network, or BIP-110, is a bad idea.

Bitcoin Improvement Proposal-110 was introduced in December 2025 to stop nonfungible token-like Ordinals inscriptions and other arbitrary data from spamming the network and to preserve BTC’s main use as a peer-to-peer cash system.

In a roughly 3,700 word post on X.com, the man in control of the largest Bitcoin (BTC) corporate treasury made a case for what he said are “neutral rules, hard consensus, open markets, and permissionless innovation.”

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US regulators failed to finalize implementing regulations by the GENIUS Act’s one-year deadline, issuing 10 proposed rules instead.

US regulatory agencies missed Saturday’s rulemaking deadline under the Guiding and Establishing National Innovation for US Stablecoins (GENIUS) Act, one year after the law was signed.&

While several regulatory agencies published proposed rules and collected public feedback during the past year, no final regulations were issued before the deadline.

Those agencies include the Department of the Treasury, the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC), the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) and the Federal Reserve Board, according to rulemaking trackers by law firm Chapman and crypto investment company Paradigm.

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Korea’s Virtual Asset User Protection Act lacks explicit sanctions provisions for hacking and similar incidents, clouding the scope of penalties facing the Upbit operator Dunamu.

South Korea’s Financial Supervisory Service (FSS) has reportedly sent an inspection opinion letter to Dunamu, the operator of crypto exchange Upbit, concerning the $36 million hack from November 2025.

Local news outlet Yonhap News reported Sunday that the FSS had recently sent Dunamu an inspection opinion letter.

The letter marks the formal start of a sanctions procedure by the financial authorities. It provides Dunamu with an opportunity to respond to the inspection’s findings before the regulator notifies the company of its proposed sanctions.

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The proceedings come as South Korea’s Virtual Asset User Protection Act lacks explicit sanctions provisions for hacking and computer system incidents, leaving the scope of penalties uncertain.

South Korea’s Financial Supervisory Service (FSS) has reportedly sent an inspection opinion letter to Dunamu, the operator of crypto exchange Upbit, regarding the $36 million hack from November 2025.

Local news outlet Yonhap News reported Sunday that the FSS had recently sent Dunamu an inspection opinion letter.

The letter marks the formal start of a sanctions procedure by the financial authorities. It provides Dunamu with an opportunity to respond to the inspection’s findings before the regulator notifies the company of its proposed sanctions.

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Electronic Transactions Association (ETA) CEO, Jason Oxman, indicated that members of his organization might start recognizing Bitcoin’s disruptive potential, suggesting that this might lead to more partnerships between traditional electronic payment providers and Bitcoin startups.

Electronic Transactions Association (ETA) CEO, Jason Oxman, indicated that members of his organization might start recognizing Bitcoin’s disruptive potential, suggesting that this might lead to more partnerships between traditional electronic payment providers and Bitcoin startups.

On August 6, the ETA, which represents companies like Visa, MasterCard, Amazon and PayPal, welcomed BitPay, the first virtual currency company to become an ETA member, according to the press release. The announcement expressed the ETA’s commitment to embrace new technologies, and said to expect “more such partnerships as the payments industry innovates for the future.”

In a recent interview with CoinDesk, the head of the financial trade group specified that the ETA did not advocate for Bitcoin and had not taken an official position to the detriment of others technologies, stating that his support extended equally to all forms of electronic transactions.

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Cybersecurity company Kaspersky said a newly identified malware framework is targeting cryptocurrency investors through social engineering tactics and trojanized GitHub apps.

Kaspersky has uncovered a new malware framework targeting cryptocurrency investors.

Dubbed “OkoBot,” the malware initiates an infection chain that starts with social engineering tactics such as ClickFix, which tricks users into running malicious commands, or trojanized GitHub apps that deliver a backdoor to infected devices, the cybersecurity company wrote in a Wednesday report.

The malware can harvest crypto wallet files, browser data and user credentials, inject malicious extensions and capture wallet application windows to steal assets. Kaspersky said it identified multiple attacks involving this malware family since January 2026.

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Autorité nationale des jeux has ordered France’s internet service providers to geoblock Polymarket, citing illegal gambling and market manipulation concerns.

France’s National Gambling Authority has ordered internet service providers to block access to Polymarket as it considers prediction websites to be illegal gambling.

Formally known as Autorité nationale des jeux (ANJ), the regulator said in a statement on Friday that Polymarket’s operations are not authorized in France and that advertising unauthorized gambling sites constitutes a criminal offense with fines of up to 100,000 euros ($114,000).

Prediction markets allow users to buy and sell contracts tied to the outcomes of future events, from elections and sporting events to economic data and geopolitical developments. Polymarket has surged in popularity over the past two years, with billions of dollars in worldwide trading volume, while drawing scrutiny from regulators over whether its event contracts constitute illegal gambling or unlicensed financial products.

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The FTX Recovery Trust and company have distributed about $10 billion since the exchange filed for bankruptcy in November 2022, leaving users cut off from their funds.

The trust behind reimbursing creditors with ties to defunct cryptocurrency exchange FTX announced that its next distribution of funds would start on July 31.

In a Friday notice, the FTX Recovery Trust and crypto exchange said that they would distribute about $900 million to claimants in the recovery plan’s “convenience and non-convenience classes.” Eligible creditors can receive funds through their BitGo, Kraken or Payoneer accounts within one to three business days starting from July 31.

The distribution will mark the fifth round of attempts of repaying FTX’s creditors. Convenience claims under $50,000 will receive a 120% reimbursement under FTX’s recovery plan, while others will receive between a 103-105% distribution.

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Galaxy Digital will rename Texas Tech’s football stadium under a 15-year agreement, expanding its West Texas presence as the state attracts growing crypto investment.

Digital asset and AI infrastructure company Galaxy Digital has signed a 15-year naming rights agreement with Texas Tech, renaming the university’s football stadium Galaxy Stadium beginning with the 2026 season.

The partnership also makes Galaxy the official data center and digital assets partner of Texas Tech Athletics, with the companies planning to collaborate on student-athlete name, image and likeness opportunities, artificial intelligence initiatives and workforce development programs.

According to Friday’s announcement, the stadium will debut under its new name on Sept. 5, when Texas Tech opens its season against Abilene Christian. Financial terms of the agreement were not disclosed.

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Through an introduction with a “reputable third-party service provider,“ the company took on a developer who, as part of an investigation, was revealed to be tied to North Korea.

Blockchain company Consensys accidentally used a software developer linked to North Korea who had access to some of its systems for a month.

First reported on Friday by Drop Site, Consensys earlier this year took on a software developer under the alias Tyler Knapp who was later discovered to have ties to the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, or North Korea. The move caused the company to temporarily suspend product releases and conduct an investigation into the matter

“‘Knapp’ was introduced to us through an existing relationship with a reputable third-party service provider and collaborated with Consensys as a consultant,” Consensys general counsel Matt Corva stold Cointelegraph. “He was never hired as a Consensys employee. Very quickly after being introduced, we discovered the threat, followed our security protocols, immediately terminated any access and launched a comprehensive investigation that confirmed there was no misappropriation of assets or data, no malicious code deployed, and no impact to user safety and security.”

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Bolivia moves to recognize USDT amid a dollar shortage, while Bitcoin miners’ AI ambitions face fresh investor scrutiny.

Stablecoins have long been pitched as a faster way to move dollars across borders. In Bolivia, they’re increasingly becoming a way to access dollars in the first place. The country’s recent proposal to recognize Tether’s USDt (USDT) for payments underscores how economic instability is driving adoption in many emerging markets.&

Elsewhere, Bitcoin miners are discovering that pivoting to AI infrastructure may unlock new revenue streams, but it doesn’t shield them from investor scrutiny.

Bolivia is considering a regulatory framework that would recognize Tether’s USDT as a payment currency, marking another step in the country’s push to integrate digital assets into its financial system.

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The feature offers European customers a voluntary path away from Tether’s USDT as MiCA rules reshape the region’s stablecoin market.

OKX Europe has launched a one-way conversion feature allowing customers to deposit USDT and convert it into USDC, offering a regulated migration path as the European Union’s Markets in Crypto-Assets (MiCA) rules limit support for the world’s largest stablecoin.

According to a company announcement shared with Cointelegraph, the feature lets customers deposit Tether’s USDt (USDT) into their OKX Europe account and convert the tokens into USDC (USDC), one of the largest stablecoins available under the European Union’s MiCA framework.

Tether has not obtained authorization to issue USDT under MiCA, prompting many European platforms to restrict deposits, delist trading pairs or convert customer balances into compliant alternatives as the European Union completed the framework’s rollout on July 1.

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With the Senate likely voting on a crypto bill within days, Elizabeth Warren asked for information on Donald Trump’s earnings between January and July ahead of a 2027 deadline.

Update (July 17, 11:59 pm UTC): This article has been updated to include a response from the White House.

Senator Elizabeth Warren, one of the more outspoken voices in the US Congress associating digital assets with illicit activities, has called on President Donald Trump to release additional information on his crypto investments ahead of a mandated deadline.

In a Thursday letter, Warren requested Trump voluntarily release a financial disclosure report on his earnings related to cryptocurrency between Jan. 1 and July 15. The request came after Trump’s 2025 financial disclosures showed he had earned $1.4 billion from crypto-related ventures in 2025, including through his memecoin, Official Trump (TRUMP), and his family’s company World Liberty Financial.

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Bitcoin saw a key rejection at local highs before reversing lower, moving with stocks for a second day as US-Iran war downside took its toll.

Bitcoin (BTC) dipped below $62,500 at Friday’s Wall Street open as stocks took a fresh hit from the US-Iran war.

Key points:

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The Bank of England approved HSBC Orion to go live in its Digital Securities Sandbox, with the first Digital Gilt Instrument transaction expected in the first quarter of 2027.

HSBC, one of the world’s largest banks, has received approval to operate in the United Kingdom’s Digital Securities Sandbox (DSS), allowing its digital assets platform, HSBC Orion, to support the issuance, servicing and settlement of digital securities.

The bank announced Tuesday that HSBC Orion will operate as a digital securities depository within the DSS, a regulatory environment designed to test new technology for securities markets. HSBC said it is the first company approved by the Bank of England to go live in the sandbox.

HSBC’s platform will support digitally native bond issuance, including the UK’s planned digital sovereign bond — Digital Gilt Instrument (DIGIT) — and corporate bonds. HSBC said HSBC Orion has enabled more than $5 billion in digital bond issuances globally.

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SBI Holdings received regulatory approval to acquire a majority stake in Singapore-based crypto exchange Coinhako as it expands into stablecoins, onchain finance and tokenized assets.

Japanese financial services group SBI Holdings has acquired a majority stake in Holdbuild, the parent company of Singaporean crypto platform Coinhako, after receiving regulatory approval from Singapore’s central bank.

The approval from the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) enabled SBI to acquire company shares from existing shareholders through a capital injection, making Coinhako a consolidated subsidiary of SBI, the company announced on Thursday.

Coinhako holds a Major Payment Institution license under MAS through its subsidiary, Hako Technology Pte. Ltd. SBI announced its intent to acquire a majority stake in the Singaporean crypto exchange in February.

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Kraken, Bitstamp, 1inch and Bitfinex have all set up shop in the British Virgin Islands — but you might find it tricky to book an on-site meeting with one of their executives.

More than $1 out of every $10 of the world’s tokenized US Treasuries is issued by a company incorporated in the British Virgin Islands.

That places the small Caribbean territory behind only the United States as a key jurisdiction for the rapidly growing asset class, according to BVI Finance.

BVI Finance’s Destination Digital report in June found that BVI entities accounted for approximately $1.5 billion of the $14.98 billion global market for tokenized US Treasuries as of June 1.

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The Rotterdam court said bankruptcy was necessary to ensure an orderly settlement because the company lacked enough assets to fully repay users.

A Dutch court has declared cryptocurrency platform Knaken Cryptohandel BV and its affiliated foundation bankrupt after prosecutors said 7 million euros ($8 million) in customer assets were missing.

The Rotterdam court issued the ruling on Thursday, saying the bankruptcy was needed to ensure an orderly settlement after Knaken blocked access to its platform and accounts.

According to the court, the company has insufficient assets to fully repay users. The court also said customers lacked sufficient information to determine their legal position.

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ECB’s Piero Cipollone said stablecoin adoption could erode bank deposits, but the digital euro will keep banks at the center of payments.

European Central Bank Executive Board member Piero Cipollone said wider stablecoin adoption could erode commercial banks’ retail deposit base.

He made the remarks Friday in a speech to Italy’s Federation of Cooperative Credit Banks in Rome, where he argued that digital payments are reshaping banking and increasing Europe’s reliance on non-European payment infrastructure.&

Cipollone said banks are already losing payment fees and transaction data to mobile payment providers. He added that the digital euro would help preserve banks’ role in the payments system.

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The pair pleaded guilty after investigators linked them to the Scattered Spider cybercrime group, which US prosecutors say extorted dozens of companies.

The United Kingdom National Crime Agency (NCA) and City of London Police said two men associated with the “Scattered Spider” hacking group were sentenced to five years and six months in prison.

The two pleaded guilty during their first court appearance at Woolwich Crown Court on June 22 and were sentenced on Thursday, according to a press release from the NCA.

British authorities said the pair were part of the Scattered Spider cybercrime group, which investigators have linked to high-profile ransomware and cryptocurrency extortion attacks targeting companies in the UK and the US.

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ESMA adds 14 CASPs to its MiCA register, with banks and Ripple Payments Europe among the new entries as total providers reach 294.

European authorities added 14 crypto companies to the Markets in Crypto-Assets (MiCA) framework register in the second post-deadline update, signaling a slower licensing pace after an initial surge.

The European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA) updated its interim MiCA register on Thursday, bringing the total number of licensed crypto-asset service providers (CASPs) to 294.

The new entries include Ripple Payments Europe, the European payments arm of blockchain company Ripple, as well as Portugal-based Bison Bank and Croatia’s state-owned bank, Hrvatska poštanska banka (HPB).

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Bitcoin supply in loss hit 50% nearly 50 days ago, mimicking the countdown to BTC price bear-market bottoms.

Bitcoin (BTC) has been counting down to its next bottom for nearly two months, a classic onchain metric suggests.

Key points:

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Federal prosecutors allege the South Dakota investor used false promises to raise money, repaid earlier investors with new funds and laundered proceeds through crypto exchanges.

A federal grand jury has indicted a South Dakota cryptocurrency investor on wire fraud, money laundering, bank fraud and aggravated identity theft charges over an alleged $20 million investment scheme, the US Department of Justice said Thursday.

According to the indictment, 43-year-old Benjamin Paul Wiener persuaded people to invest money and digital assets with his companies by making false statements and fraudulent representations.

Prosecutors allege Wiener used funds from new investors to repay earlier investors and cover personal expenses after existing funds were depleted.

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A macOS malware steals credentials to hijack Telegram sessions, decrypt cryptocurrency wallets or trick users into entering their wallet recovery phrases through fake applications.

A macOS information-stealing malware can hijack Telegram Desktop sessions and compromise cryptocurrency wallets, according to blockchain security firm SlowMist.

The malware harvests data from the macOS Keychain, Safari cookies, Apple Notes, Telegram Desktop and databases associated with more than a dozen cryptocurrency wallets.

After collecting passwords and authenticated sessions, the malware copies users’ authenticated Telegram Desktop session data, wallet databases and browser wallet extension data.

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US spot Bitcoin ETFs attracted $79.2 million on Thursday, lifting their three-day inflow total to about $368 million as Bitcoin attempted a price recovery.

US-listed spot Bitcoin exchange-traded funds (ETFs) recorded $79.2 million in net inflows on Thursday, extending their inflow streak to three consecutive trading sessions.

The latest inflows followed $108 million on Wednesday and $181 million on Tuesday, bringing the three-day total to about $368 million, according to SoSoValue data.

Cumulative net inflows into US spot Bitcoin ETFs climbed to $51.2 billion, while total assets under management rose to $77.7 billion.

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“Over time the economic incentives will drive $DOG Mode’s adoption and force Bitcoin Core to stop gatekeeping and allow these completely valid transactions,” said Leonidas.

Bitcoin Ordinals advocate Leonidas has proposed developing a new open-source Bitcoin client, aimed at removing restrictions affecting Runes and Ordinals transactions.&

In a post to X on Friday, Leonidas called the proposed client “Bitcoin $DOG Mode,” which would lift the maximum individual transaction size to 3.9 million weight units (WU), compared to Bitcoin Core’s 400,000 WU, and lower the dust limit to 1 satoshi (sats) from 294-546 sats.

The changes would make it easier to send Ordinals inscriptions and Runes, which have been described as Bitcoin’s take on fungible and non-fungible tokens. Both have been controversial within the Bitcoin community, with critics arguing they amount to “spam” on the Bitcoin network.&

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The launch gives Bybit a locally operated platform in one of Asia’s largest crypto markets, home to more than 21 million crypto exchange users.

Crypto exchange Bybit announced Thursday it launched a locally operated platform in Indonesia after acquiring a majority stake in digital asset firm PT Enkripsi Teknologi Handal, formerly known as NOBI.&

The deal saw NOBI rebranded as Bybit Indonesia. The crypto exchange said it plans to introduce its services in phases, starting with 500 cryptocurrency trading pairs.&

The exchange will be led by Lawrence Samantha as CEO and Dionisius Evan as chief operating officer, both formerly senior executives at NOBI.&

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The paid Truth API is aimed at high-frequency trading firms seeking “the fastest” access to market-moving Truth Social posts, including those from US President Donald Trump.

Trump Media, the company that operates the Truth Social network, said Thursday it was launching a new paid-for API that gives Wall Street firms “the fastest” access to posts from the most influential Truth Social accounts, including US President Donald Trump.

The API is targeted to be available to institutional customers from Aug. 1, 2026, and is aimed at high-frequency and algorithmic trading firms that require a low-latency, machine-readable feed, said the company on Thursday.&

“Markets already move on Truth Social posts,” said Kevin McGurn, interim CEO of TMTG in a statement. “Truth API delivers a direct, licensed, real-time feed of the platform’s most market-moving Truths while advancing our strategy to monetize proprietary assets through a high-margin, recurring revenue stream.”

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“If we are not welcome, there are many other countries that would welcome us,” said Network School founder Balaji Srinivasan in a message to the Malaysian prime minister.

Network School founder Balaji Srinivasan is seeking a memorandum of understanding with Malaysia after authorities probed his Forest City tech community over allegations it was hosting Israeli citizens using second passports.&

Malaysia’s Home Affairs Ministry said Tuesday it was investigating Srinivasan’s start-up community in Johor following claims it included Israelis in violation of immigration laws. Initial checks found all 266 foreigners held valid documents.&

Srinivasan said the agreement would give Network School legal certainty to continue investing in Malaysia. Without it, he said, the community could take its capital to countries that are more welcoming.&

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Bitcoin futures traders are propping up the current market move, while liquidation heatmap data provides hints on where BTC price may go next.

Increased activity across Bitcoin’s (BTC) futures markets is playing the dominant role in its short-term price action, which keeps tracing back to where leveraged positions are stacked. Prices tend to gravitate toward where liquidity is most concentrated, and as Bitcoin battles to hold above $64,000, reviewing current liquidation scenarios may provide insight into BTC’s next move.&

Liquidation heatmap data shows a cluster of short positions concentrated between $65,500 and $66,000, roughly 3% away from current market pricing. A push through $65,600 may put that shelf in play and could accelerate a larger rally toward $67,000.

Below market pricing, support is layered in the $63,500 to $63,750 range, with the closest cluster 1% away, and larger liquidity pools are found at $63,000-$63,250 (about 1.5% down) and $62,500-$62,750 (about 2.3% down).&

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The round of layoffs was part of Polygon transitioning operations to payments following a $250 million deal to acquire Coinme and Sequence in January.

Marc Boiron, CEO of Polygon Labs, announced additional layoffs as the company finalizes its acquisition of cryptocurrency exchange Coinme.&

In a Thursday X post, Boiron said that Polygon would say “goodbye to many of [its] colleagues” as the company began the “transformation from operating as a blockchain foundation into operating as a blockchain-enabled payments company.” The move was part of a $250 million deal announced in January for Polygon to acquire Coinme and wallet infrastructure platform Sequence.

“These changes are about the company we’re building, not the quality of the people leaving,” said Boiron. “A blockchain foundation and a blockchain-enabled payments company do not operate the same way. This transition means changing how we’re organized and the talent we need, not just what we build.”

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According to ABC News, federal regulators are investigating whether the longtime White House staffer used nonpublic information to profit from event contracts tied to President Donald Trump’s speeches.

US President Donald Trump’s longtime teleprompter operator is in talks with federal regulators about allegations that he used nonpublic information to profit from bets on Kalshi markets tied to the president’s speeches, ABC News reported Thursday, citing sources familiar with the matter.

According to the report, Gabriel Perez, a technical assistant who has operated Trump’s teleprompter since 2016, allegedly placed bets on more than a dozen markets tied to Trump’s speeches, generating more than $100,000 in profits.

Kalshi detected the activity through its surveillance systems and referred the trades to the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, the outlet said. The contracts were part of the platform’s “Mentions” markets, which allow users to bet on whether particular words, phrases or topics will appear in public speeches.

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Bitcoin buyers have returned to spot, futures and ETF markets but geopolitical headwinds could quickly unravel the progress of the past two weeks.

Bitcoin (BTC) spent the week split across two scenarios. One highlighted improving onchain buying pressure and ETF inflows, while the other remained synced to sentiment gauges and news events that projected fear.

The spot and futures cumulative volume delta, a running tally of buy and sell orders, confirmed a $925 million net buying day for Bitcoin on Wednesday. This order book activity absorbed the entire post-CPI pullback in open interest and price rather than collapsing into it. Meanwhile, the spot Bitcoin ETFs added $107.7 million in net inflows on Wednesday marking the second consecutive positive day following $181 million on Tuesday.

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Anton Bukov said that he no longer takes an active role at 1inch and was “fired” in 2025 after pushing for changes to the company’s management and operations.

Anton Bukov, the co-founder of 1inch, said that he was completely exiting his role in the company’s operations after more than seven years.

In a Thursday X article, Bukov said that he had departed 1inch to launch a new project called Second Tier. Although he said he will remain a co-founder with a 50% ownership in the company, 1inch and Bukov released contradictory statements online regarding his role since last year.

According to Bukov, he was “fired” from 1inch in November 2025 after “push[ing] for change” in the company’s management and operations. 1inch followed by posting its own account to X, saying that the co-founder “had not been actively involved in any associated organizations” related to the project since December 2025.

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The company said the filing would create a regulated pathway for maintaining ownership records for tokenized securities onchain.

Injective said Thursday it has filed a transfer agent registration with the US Securities and Exchange Commission, seeking to bring one of the core record-keeping functions of securities markets onto blockchain infrastructure.

Transfer agents are a core part of US market infrastructure, maintaining shareholder records and tracking changes in securities ownership. Injective, a layer-1 blockchain focused on decentralized finance and tokenized real-world assets, said bringing that function onchain would create a regulated pathway for issuing and managing tokenized assets.

Source: Injective

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The Dutch Authority for the Financial Markets approved BitPay’s application as a crypto-asset service provider under the Markets in Crypto-Assets requirements.

Crypto payments company BitPay announced that it had secured a license by the Dutch Authority for the Financial Markets, allowing the company to operate in European Union member states under the Markets in Crypto-Assets (MiCA) framework.&

On Thursday, BitPay said that the approval as a crypto-asset service provider (CASP) by Dutch financial authorities would allow the company to expand its services in the region, including crypto and stablecoin payments. The company was one of the latest to be licensed under MiCA following a July 1 requirement for all entities offering crypto-related services to be regulated.&

“Europe is one of the most important regions for the future of payments,” said BitPay’s European head, Jonathan Arler.

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Bitcoin fell 1.5% from local highs amid a reversal in US stocks as markets moved from bullish US inflation cues to retail profit-taking.

Bitcoin (BTC) cooled off with US stocks on Thursday as tech selling tempered gains from low inflation.

Key points:

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A former CFTC commissioner urged lawmakers not to “kill all the hard work that we put in the rest of the bill” by making ethics a make-or-break issue on crypto market structure.

Summer Mersinger, the CEO of the Blockchain Association and a former commissioner at the US Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), anticipated a vote on a cryptocurrency market structure bill as soon as next week with the window closing for lawmakers before August state work periods.&

Speaking at the Injective Summit in Washington, DC, on Thursday, Mersinger said that US lawmakers working to advance the Digital Asset Market Clarity (CLARITY) Act in Congress had a “few little nits that they’re still working out” but were “very close on the main part of the language” around the bill. According to the Blockchain Association CEO, a vote in the Senate could come as early as next week, provided lawmakers reached an agreement on ethics.

“Ethics is the big elephant in the room,” said Mersinger on the crypto bill. “That’s what we hear from every office is that we’ve gotta figure out ethics. Today there’s a meeting at the White House with some Republican senators. We’re hopeful that an agreement comes out of that and that it’s something the Democrats will accept or that they can make some changes but get to an agreement.”

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A former CFTC commissioner urged lawmakers not to “kill all the hard work that we put in the rest of the bill” by making ethics a make-or-break issue on crypto market structure.

Summer Mersinger, the CEO of the Blockchain Association and a former commissioner at the US Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), anticipated a vote on a cryptocurrency market structure bill as soon as next week with the window closing for lawmakers before August state work periods.&

Speaking at the Injective Summit in Washington, DC, on Thursday, Mersinger said that US lawmakers working to advance the Digital Asset Market Clarity (CLARITY) Act in Congress had a “few little nits that they’re still working out” but were “very close on the main part of the language” around the bill. According to the Blockchain Association CEO, a vote in the Senate could come as early as next week, provided lawmakers reached an agreement on ethics.

“Ethics is the big elephant in the room,” said Mersinger on the crypto bill. “That’s what we hear from every office is that we’ve gotta figure out ethics. Today there’s a meeting at the White House with some Republican senators. We’re hopeful that an agreement comes out of that and that it’s something the Democrats will accept or that they can make some changes but get to an agreement.”

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Eligible E*TRADE retail clients can now buy, sell and hold Bitcoin, Ether and Solana through a partnership with crypto infrastructure provider Zero Hash.

Morgan Stanley’s E*TRADE platform has launched spot cryptocurrency trading, allowing eligible clients to buy, sell and hold Bitcoin, Ether and Solana through a partnership with crypto infrastructure provider Zero Hash.

Clients can view their crypto holdings alongside stocks and other traditional investments on the E*TRADE platform, while transfer functionality for moving digital assets on and off the platform is expected later this year.

The self-directed channel served 8.6 million households and held about $1.56 trillion in client assets as of March 31, according to Morgan Stanley’s latest financial supplement.

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Tradable will bring up to $1 billion in private credit assets to Stellar, extending the blockchain’s push into institutional finance and tokenized real-world assets.

Tokenization platform Tradable plans to bring up to $1 billion in private credit assets onto the Stellar blockchain, expanding institutional access to tokenized real-world assets (RWAs) as demand for onchain private markets continues to grow.

Tradable said Thursday that $500 million in notional value is expected to be available when the initiative launches, and it will increase the amount to $1 billion over time. The company will use Stellar’s network to support institutional functions, including compliance, investor onboarding and asset lifecycle management.

The timing of the initiative’s launch was not disclosed.

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The BNP-backed brokerage infrastructure provider is expanding into tokenized markets and AI-native financial services as both DeFi and TradFi companies pursue onchain business.

Brokerage infrastructure provider Alpaca said Thursday that it raised $135 million in a funding round led by Peak XV, along with as much as $300 million in debt financing from Kraken parent Payward and BMO.

A January Series D round pulled in $150 million that brought the fintech’s value to $1.15 billion, according to the statement. Earlier investors include the venture capital arm of BNP Paribas.

Alpaca said it will use the new financing to accelerate its agent-first brokerage and API-first prime brokerage infrastructure.

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Users spent a record $324 million on onchain gacha in June, even as Bitcoin hit a 21-month low. The thrill of scoring a top Pokemon card from a random pack is becoming big business

June 2026 was brutal for the crypto market. Bitcoin (BTC) fell more than 20%, hitting a 21-month low, while spot Bitcoin ETFs saw a record $4.5 billion in outflows.

That did not stop users from spending a record $324 million on onchain gacha during the month, according to Blockworks Research. A year earlier, the monthly figure was closer to $50 million.

Spending hit a new all time high in the depths of a bear market. While crypto prices were tanking, people were opening more and more packs of tokenized Pokémon cards — driven by the thrill, the hope of a profit or the urge to expand a collection.

It’s an entire randomized Real World Asset (RWA) sector that’s flown under the radar… until now.

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Prediction markets reached a record $113.8 billion in notional volume in Q2 as spot CEX trading, derivatives volume and stablecoin market cap declined.

Cryptocurrency markets struggled broadly in the second quarter of 2026, with declines across stablecoins, spot trading and derivatives, but prediction markets reached record highs.

Spot trading volume across the top 10 centralized exchanges (CEXs) fell to $1.95 trillion in the second quarter of 2026, a 27.9% drop from $2.7 trillion in Q1, according to CoinGecko’s latest Crypto Industry Report published Thursday.

CEX perpetual futures volume also declined 10% to $12.7 trillion, while the stablecoin market slipped 1.6% to $305.1 billion. In contrast, prediction markets recorded their strongest quarter on record with $113.8 billion in notional volume.

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MoonPay acquired Glide, a crypto infrastructure startup founded by former Robinhood Wallet engineers, to expand cross-chain crypto deposit infrastructure.

MoonPay has acquired the crypto infrastructure startup Glide, integrating Glide’s deposit and routing technology, the companies said in a joint announcement shared with Cointelegraph on Thursday.

MoonPay, a financial technology platform that provides fiat-to-crypto payment services, said the deal is part of MoonPay’s broader effort to become a digital asset infrastructure provider, adding capabilities beyond its original crypto payments business.

Glide was founded in 2023 by Tushar Soni and Qinyu Tong, former members of the team behind Robinhood Wallet. The company was founded to help applications accept deposits from different tokens, wallets, exchanges and payment sources. Glide supports more than 100 tokens across 30 blockchain networks, according to the platform’s documentation.

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The market capitalization of tokenized stocks rose to a record $2.3 billion, as investors sought exposure to the growing list of tokenized equity products launched by cryptocurrency exchanges.

The global market capitalization of tokenized stocks rose to a record $2.3 billion on Wednesday, as more investors sought exposure to blockchain-based equity products.

The Ethereum network boasted the largest market share, at 34%, followed by BNB Chain with 30% and the Solana network with 23%, data aggregator Token Terminal shared in a Wednesday X post.

The largest increase came from Kraken exchange’s xStocks, which accounted for $507 million worth of tokenized stocks and Binance’s bStocks, with $334 million. Ondo Finance remained the largest tokenized stock issuer with $955 million in onchain equities, according to Token Terminal data.

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The global task force said criminal networks are using stablecoins and developing proprietary tokens to evade asset freezes as countries struggle to enforce crypto AML rules.

The Financial Action Task Force (FATF) warned that criminals are increasingly exploiting stablecoins for illicit finance, with most identified onchain criminal activity now involving the dollar-pegged cryptocurrencies.

In its latest report published Thursday, the global anti-money laundering watchdog said criminal networks have also begun developing proprietary stablecoins designed to resist freezing and asset seizures.

The FATF urged jurisdictions to accelerate implementation of crypto AML standards as illicit actors exploit regulatory gaps.

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ARK Invest’s director of research disputed a16z crypto’s thesis that traditional finance will adopt permissioned blockchain infrastructure instead of decentralized finance, saying institutions will increasingly rely on DeFi rails.

ARK Invest’s director of research pushed back against investor a16z crypto’s thesis that traditional finance will adopt blockchain through permissioned infrastructure rather than decentralized finance (DeFi).

Lorenzo Valente said in a Wednesday X post that public blockchains have already outperformed private blockchain initiatives, citing the growth of tokenized assets on Ethereum and other open networks.

He added that crypto-native firms such as Circle and Coinbase, rather than incumbent financial institutions, are best positioned to build the next generation of financial infrastructure.

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Visa and Artemis found that infrastructure bottlenecks are preventing broader commercial adoption of the autonomous AI agent economy.

Artificial intelligence (AI) agents are posing a challenge to the incumbent global card payments infrastructure that is struggling to process high-frequency micropayments, according to a joint report released by payments giant Visa and investment thesis platform Artemis.

The joint report published Wednesday found that traditional cards were built for human commerce with low-frequency transactions, which is insufficient for AI agents, which need infrastructure with near-zero fees and faster settlement to make agentic micropayments commercially viable.

New infrastructure is increasingly necessary since AI agents crossed a key capability threshold in mid-2025, enabling them to discover unfamiliar APIs, evaluate prices and decide on autonomous payments.

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The Senate approved a resolution opposing clemency for former FTX CEO Sam Bankman-Fried as prediction markets put the odds of a Trump pardon by July 31 below 1%.

The US Senate has adopted a resolution opposing executive clemency for former FTX CEO Sam Bankman-Fried, the convicted crypto executive behind one of the industry’s largest collapses.

The Senate has agreed by unanimous consent to the simple resolution (S. Res. 772), with a nonbinding measure stating that Bankman-Fried should not receive executive clemency, according to a Wednesday X post by the Senate Press Gallery.

The resolution affirms the Senate’s commitment to the rule of law and the integrity of the US financial system following Bankman-Fried’s conviction on fraud and conspiracy charges related to FTX’s collapse.

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Tether reportedly invested $20 million into Ualá, as part of the Argentine neobank’s $197 million funding round announced earlier in March.

Stablecoin giant Tether reportedly invested $20 million in the Argentine neobank Ualá, as part of its broader push in Latin America.

The investment formed part of a $197 million equity funding round announced by Ualá in March and led by Allianz X, according to Bloomberg. Ualá disclosed Tether as a participant in the round at the time but did not reveal the size of its investment.

Cointelegraph contacted Tether for confirmation but had not received a response by publication.

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Bitcoin realized losses appeared to be copying a reversal structure that marked previous bear-market bottoms, with $69,000 a new BTC price battleground.

Bitcoin (BTC) “cycle peak buyers” could already be pointing the way to the next bear-market bottom.

Key points:

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Vlad.fun suspended its platform after discovering a “serious internal integrity issue” involving members of its team, without disclosing the nature of the alleged misconduct.

Robinhood Chain memecoin launchpad Vlad.fun has suspended operations after discovering what it described as a “serious internal integrity issue” involving members of its own team.

The project said Wednesday that it took the platform offline while it investigates the incident and consults legal counsel on potential action against those responsible. Vlad.fun did not disclose the nature of the alleged misconduct.

Hours before announcing the shutdown, Vlad.fun warned users that a token bearing the platform’s name circulating on its leaderboard was not official, reminding traders that anyone could create tokens on the permissionless launchpad. The project did not indicate whether the two incidents were related.

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The deal gives Hyperion an equity stake in Skew and a share of listing-service revenue as it expands the utility of its HYPE treasury assets.

Nasdaq-listed Hyperion DeFi said it entered an agreement with Skew Technologies to deploy 500,000 Hyperliquid (HYPE) tokens to support institutional perpetual futures markets on Hyperliquid’s HIP-3 permissionless listings.

Under the agreement, Hyperion will receive an equity stake in Skew and a share of listing-service revenue generated from the platform, according to a Wednesday press release.

The companies said the service is designed to help institutional clients launch custom perpetual futures markets on Hyperliquid.

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US President Donald Trump is set to meet with several senators on Thursday as negotiators race to get the CLARITY Act across the line before the Senate’s August recess.

US President Donald Trump is set to meet with several senators at the White House on Thursday to discuss progress on the crypto market structure bill.&

According to Politico, Senator Bernie Moreno said a group of senators will brief the president on the bill and “its path to success.” Senator Cynthia Lummis will also attend, according to a Senate Republican aide.

“We’ll be talking about the entirety of the bill. I mean, obviously the president’s been very engaged in this bill,” said Moreno. “He’s the one who’s really driven the innovation that I think will pay dividends.”&

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Base creator Jesse Pollak is stepping back from leadership of the Base App after admitting he was “definitively wrong” to bet on social experiences driving crypto adoption.

Base creator Jesse Pollak says he is stepping back from leading the Base App after admitting he made a “wrong bet” on social, leaving the chain to fall behind on prediction markets and perpetual futures.&

In a post to X on Wednesday, Pollak said he had bet that creator, content and messaging apps would drive adoption, but instead the market “disintegrated completely.”&

“We realized how our focus on social had meant that base had fallen behind in key areas that were now increasingly critical — we had perps (shoutout avantis!) and prediction markets (shoutout limitless!), but both were well behind scaled competitors.”

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Researchers found that Polymarket’s five-minute Bitcoin prediction markets create incentives to manipulate spot prices around contract settlement, proposing longer settlement windows as a potential fix.

Researchers at Stanford University and Singapore Management University found that Polymarket’s five-minute Bitcoin prediction markets create incentives for traders to manipulate spot prices around settlement, allowing sophisticated participants to profit at the expense of retail traders.

The study examined contracts in which traders bet on whether Bitcoin’s price would end above or below a predetermined level after five minutes. Because the contracts settle using Chainlink price feeds based on Bitcoin’s price at the end of each trading window, traders have an incentive to influence the spot market immediately before settlement.

Analyzing trading activity before and after Polymarket introduced the contracts in July 2024, the researchers found sharp increases in Bitcoin spot-market order flow just before settlement, followed by rapid price reversals, which were consistent with settlement-price manipulation.

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Dubai’s Virtual Assets Regulatory Authority approved the London-headquartered fintech company for broker-dealer, management and investment, and exchange services in the UAE.

UK-based financial company Revolut has received approval from the Virtual Assets Regulatory Authority (VARA) of Dubai to offer crypto-related services in the United Arab Emirates (UAE).

In a Wednesday notice, Revolut said that, following a green light from the Central Bank of the UAE for payment activities, VARA gave in-principle approval for the company to offer broker-dealer, management and investment, and exchange services in the UAE. The company said its services via the app and the Revolut X exchange would allow UAE-based users to buy, sell and hold digital assets.

“This approval lays the foundation for Revolut to introduce its trusted virtual asset services within a regulated environment,” said Revolut’s head of digital assets in the UAE free zone establishment, Joseph Khair.

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President Donald Trump’s pick for attorney general faced criticism from members of the Senate Judiciary Committee on his approach to crypto enforcement and the pardon of former Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao.

Acting US Attorney General Todd Blanche faced backlash Wednesday over the Justice Department’s (DoJ) enforcement of crypto-related crimes and other actions as President Donald Trump’s former personal attorney appeared before a Senate hearing considering his nomination to lead the agency.

The ranking Democrat, Senator Dick Durbin, used part of his opening statement at the Senate Judiciary Committee hearing to criticize Trump’s AG pick for what he described as “dismantling DoJ’s enforcement team and shutting down ongoing criminal investigations of the crypto industry.”

Blanche was reportedly behind the disbanding of the Justice Department’s crypto enforcement unit in April 2025 as deputy attorney general.

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Ostium halted trading and advised revoking contract approvals after blockchain security firms reported an apparent oracle-related exploit of its OLP liquidity vault, with estimated losses ranging from $18 million to $22 million.

Decentralized trading protocol Ostium paused trading Wednesday after blockchain security firms Blockaid and CertiK reported an apparent exploit of its OLP liquidity vault.

Blockaid estimated the exploit resulted in $18 million in losses, while CertiK placed the figure at about $22 million. Both firms attributed the incident to an apparent compromise of Ostium’s oracle system, which supplies external price data to the protocol.

Source: Ostium

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The deployment marks Aave V4’s first expansion beyond Ethereum and introduces lending infrastructure designed to support future markets for tokenized real-world assets.

Decentralized lending protocol Aave has launched V4 on Avalanche, marking the first expansion of its latest lending infrastructure beyond Ethereum and setting the stage for future lending markets backed by tokenized real-world assets.

The deployment introduces Aave V4’s Hub & Spoke architecture, which allows specialized lending markets to operate with their own collateral requirements and risk parameters while drawing on shared liquidity across the protocol.

According to Aave, one of the first planned markets on Avalanche will support borrowing against tokenized assets.

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Securitize and Cantor Fitzgerald are developing infrastructure for tokenized IPOs and secondary equity offerings within the existing US securities framework.

Securitize and Cantor Fitzgerald have partnered to support blockchain-based initial public offerings (IPOs) and follow-on equity offerings for listed companies, a move that could further expand the use of tokenized securities in traditional capital markets.

The companies said Wednesday that they are developing a framework for primary issuances that would allow companies to raise capital through tokenized securities while remaining within the existing regulatory framework for public offerings. The framework would support both IPOs and follow-on, or secondary, offerings in which already public companies issue additional shares to raise capital.

Under the agreement, Securitize will provide the tokenization infrastructure used to issue, distribute and service the digital securities. Its SEC-registered broker-dealer affiliate, Securitize Markets, will participate in the offering and settlement process. Cantor will contribute its equity capital markets and trading capabilities typically associated with public offerings.&

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Bitcoin moved up to its highest levels since June 22 as US PPI inflation numbers provided the week’s second surprise macro data drop.

Bitcoin (BTC) saw three-week highs on Wednesday as US inflation data beat expectations for a second day.

Key points:

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Surging volumes on Robinhood Chain could be very good for Ethereum, but only if the “ETH is money” crowd turn out to be right.

Robinhood Chain’s explosive launch this month has reignited one of Ethereum’s longest-running debates: Do successful layer-2 networks increase demand for ETH, the asset, or do the new entrants capture all of the value for themselves?

The retail brokerage’s Arbitrum-based Ethereum L2 has become one of Ethereum’s busiest rollups since its launch on July 1.

More than $141 million in Ether was bridged onto the chain in its first two weeks. DeFiLlama data shows more than half a million wallets now hold ETH on the network, and a memecoin frenzy saw Robinhood Chain surge past the Ethereum L1 and Coinbase’s Base L2 in 24-hour DEX trading volume.

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AMLA is expanding its crypto oversight as firms complete the transition to the EU’s MiCA licensing regime.

Mass user migration following the end of the Markets in Crypto-Assets Regulation (MiCA) transitional period could strain compliance at virtual asset service providers (VASPs) in the European Union, according to Bruna Szego, chair of the Authority for Anti-Money Laundering and Countering the Financing of Terrorism (AMLA).&

“Because we know customers will rush to withdraw, this will put additional pressure on these VASPs,” Szego said during a Wednesday briefing with the European Parliament’s Committee on Economic and Monetary Affairs.

Szego said firms winding down their EU operations could come under pressure as customers rush to withdraw, while licensed crypto companies could face onboarding challenges as they absorb new users. She urged service providers to maintain efficient compliance procedures throughout the transition.

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Japan’s revised Financial Instruments and Exchange Act introduces crypto insider trading rules, tougher penalties and new oversight requirements for crypto businesses.

Japan is set to reshape its cryptocurrency market with stricter trading rules, stronger user protections and a framework closer to traditional finance.

The country’s parliament on Wednesday passed revisions that classify crypto assets as financial assets under Japan’s Financial Instruments and Exchange Act (FIEA), according to a report by local news agency Nikkei.

The changes move Japan’s crypto regulation away from the Payment Services Act (PSA), which treated digital assets primarily as payment instruments, and introduce insider trading rules and stronger oversight for crypto businesses.

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South Korea’s Economy Ministry plans to include digital assets and intellectual property under the country’s new state-asset management framework.

South Korea plans to adopt the National Asset Basic Act to update the country’s state asset management system from the outdated State Property Act of 1950.

The Ministry of Economy and Finance (MOEF) hopes to modernize the management of national assets and explicitly includes digital assets and intellectual property, broadening the definition of state assets, the MOEF announced during a briefing at the President’s Blue House on Wednesday.

As part of the reform, the ministry also reiterated plans to tokenize government bonds on a blockchain to reduce transaction, as part of a 2027 pilot project. It also plans to explore the tokenization of state-owned real estate to encourage retail participation and share part of the generated returns with the public.

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BTC price upside predictions include $68,000 within two weeks and up to $80,000 next month, contrasting with warnings of a 2022 bear-market rerun for the rest of 2026.

Bitcoin (BTC) may hit up to $80,000 by August, a new prediction says as data lays out key nearby BTC price levels.

Key points:

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The Czech Finance Ministry added Polymarket to its blacklist of unauthorized online gambling websites, requiring internet providers to block access within 15 days.

The Czech Finance Ministry added Polymarket to its list of unauthorized online gambling websites on Monday, requiring internet service providers (ISP) to block access.

The ministry listed the prediction market’s website under the country’s Gambling Act, which prohibits operators from offering unlicensed online gambling services to Czech users.

Under the Gambling Act, ISPs must block access to websites included on the ministry’s blacklist within 15 days of publication of the name.

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Cathie Wood’s ARK Invest added $13.9 million worth of Circle shares on Tuesday, extending its July buying spree to 725,517 shares amid a steep stock decline.

Cathie Wood’s ARK Invest is doubling down on its bet on USDC issuer Circle even as the company’s stock remains under pressure.

ARK bought another 220,000 shares of Circle Internet Group (CRCL) across three of its actively managed exchange-traded funds on Tuesday, according to the company’s daily trade disclosure reviewed by Cointelegraph.

Based on Circle’s Tuesday closing price of $63.22 on the New York Stock Exchange, ARK’s latest purchase was worth about $13.9 million.

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Stripe and Advent reportedly offered to buy PayPal for $53 billion, at a 28% premium compared to the company’s Tuesday closing price.

Payments company Stripe and private equity firm Advent International reportedly made a joint offer to acquire PayPal Holdings.

The offer includes about $50 billion in committed financing, Reuters reported Wednesday, citing sources familiar with the matter. The joint offer seeks to acquire PayPal at $60.50 per share, which would value the company at a 28% premium to PayPal’s Tuesday closing price.

This is Stripe’s second attempt to acquire PayPal. According to a February Bloomberg report, the payment processing company held early acquisition talks with PayPal, which was facing growing competition from smartphone-based payment services such as Google Pay and Apple Pay.

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“We are disappointed by this decision and believe it is unfair to Kalshi,” the company’s legal counsel said on X.

Kalshi says it is being put in an “impossible position” after the US commodities regulator on Tuesday said it was blocking the prediction market platform from canceling trades in Michigan, contradicting a recent state court order.

On June 29, Kalshi was ordered by Ingham County Circuit Court Judge Rosemarie Aquilina to cease offering sports betting contracts to Michigan users while a lawsuit over whether Kalshi violated the state’s sports betting laws plays out. The Commodity Futures Trading Commission ordered Kalshi on Tuesday not to comply with the state order and continue operating.

“We are disappointed by this decision and believe it is unfair to Kalshi,” Robert DeNault, the company’s head of enforcement and legal counsel said in a statement on X.&

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“US Treasury is committed to disrupting and degrading Iran’s illicit financial activities, including its abuse of digital assets,” US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said Tuesday.

US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent confirmed the US government ordered the freezing of more than $130 million in cryptocurrency held in wallets linked to Iran on Tuesday, as hostilities ramped up in the Middle East.&

Earlier on Tuesday, blockchain investigator Specter pointed to onchain data showing Tether froze four Tron wallets holding $131 million worth of USDt (USDT). Bessent confirmed on X that the wallets were tied to the Central Bank of Iran.&

“US Treasury is committed to disrupting and degrading Iran’s illicit financial activities, including its abuse of digital assets,” Bessent said Tuesday. “We will continue to aggressively follow the money and deny the Iranian regime access to the proceeds of its illicit revenue schemes.”

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Ethereum staking generated 98% of Bitmine’s revenue last quarter as the company’s pivot from Bitcoin mining gained momentum following its March validator launch.

Bitmine Immersion Technologies recorded $45.7 million in revenue from Ether staking and validation last quarter, following the launch of its institutional-grade Ethereum staking platform in March.&

Staking revenue accounted for 98% of total revenue for the three months ended May 31, far outpacing the $624,000 from self-mining Bitcoin (BTC) and the $168,000 from consulting services, according to Bitmine’s latest 10-Q filing. On Monday, Bitmine said it had staked 85% of its ETH holdings, or about 4.9 million Ether (ETH).&

“Bitmine has staked more ETH than other entities in the world. At scale (when Bitmine’s ETH is fully staked by MAVAN and its staking partners), the projected ETH staking reward is $284 million on an annualized basis,” said Tom Lee, chairman of Bitmine.&

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Coinbase’s Rob Witoff said the company is leaning more on AI to help with execution, but still needs high-agency humans for judgment and strategy.

Artificial intelligence now helps write more than 95% of Coinbase’s code, offering new insight into the crypto exchange’s AI strategy following its decision to cut 14% of its workforce earlier this year.&

Coinbase cut 700 staff in May. In an email to employees, Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong said AI has “dramatically” changed the pace of work and there was a need to “return to the speed and focus of our startup founding, with AI at our core.”&

“Effectively, 100% of our employees are using AI on a daily basis here,” Coinbase’s head of platform, Rob Witoff, told Cointelegraph. “And close to 100% of our code, probably somewhere between 95% and 100%, is written by or with LLMs today.”

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Senate Majority Leader John Thune reportedly said the chamber will consider a vote on the crypto market structure bill before Aug. 10, though it’s unclear whether it has enough Democratic support to pass.

The US Senate is expected to vote soon on a comprehensive bill to establish market structure rules for digital assets that is backed by Republican lawmakers, while some Democrats continue to push for ethics provisions.

In a Tuesday press conference, Democratic Senators Chris Murphy, Jeff Merkley and Chris Van Hollen spoke alongside representatives for Americans for Financial Reform and Indivisible and Hollywood actor Ben McKenzie in opposition to the Digital Asset Market Clarity (CLARITY) Act. The lawmakers said that the bill did not address what they called “[Donald] Trump’s crypto corruption,” referring to the US president’s ties to the industry through his memecoin, his family’s World Liberty Financial company and other businesses and investments.

“There is no reason to pass a new regulatory system for crypto if this system does not stop Trump’s corruption of the entire industry,” said Murphy. “This bill is worthless if it protects Trump’s dominance over an industry that he will have more control to regulate. In fact, the bill is in and of itself a fundamental corruption if it gives Trump’s corruption the protection of law.”

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Backed by Dragonfly, FirstMark and Coinbase Ventures, the startup is expanding software that helps businesses integrate stablecoins into treasury and payment workflows.

Stablecoin treasury platform Velocity raised $38 million in a Series A funding round to expand infrastructure that helps enterprises and financial institutions use stablecoins for cross-border settlement and treasury operations.

The funding round was led by Dragonfly and FirstMark, with participation from Activant Capital, Capital One Ventures, QED Investors, Coinbase Ventures, Wintermute Ventures and Ripple. Velocity said it plans to use the capital to expand its banking and payments network, develop new products and strengthen its regulatory capabilities.

Founded in 2025, Velocity develops software that connects stablecoin networks with banking, custody, compliance and settlement systems. The company targets enterprise finance teams, payment providers, fintech firms and financial institutions using stablecoins for cross-border payments and treasury operations.

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The two governments issued recommendations on the treatment of digital assets as the US prepares to implement a 2025 law on payment stablecoins.

The US Department of the Treasury and HM Treasury released a set of recommendations as part of the Transatlantic Taskforce for the Markets of the Future, which included stablecoin activity and tokenized finance.

In a joint statement on Tuesday, the two treasury entities issued four recommendations focused on digital assets as part of bilateral cooperation between the two countries on financial markets. The task force recommended that authorities consider a private-sector-led group focused on “testing of cross-border use cases for tokenized assets” and that financial agencies in the US and the Bank of England identify shared approaches on the regulation of tokenized assets.&

On stablecoins, the US and UK released a joint statement aimed at regulatory alignment and establishing a “dynamic stablecoin market across borders.”&

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The change in tax policy, expected to affect about 700,000 people in the UK, is tied to the disposal of crypto in lending and liquidity pools.

The UK’s tax authority plans to treat “certain disposals” related to cryptocurrency lending and liquidity pools as transactions that would effectively defer the country’s capital gains requirements.

In a Monday announcement, HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) said that starting on April 6, 2027, it would adopt a “no gain, no loss” approach to disposals involving crypto loans and liquidity pools. According to the tax authority, this measure would defer capital gains tax on digital assets “until an economic disposal.”&

“This measure will support fairness in the tax system,” said the UK tax authority. “It aligns the tax treatment more closely with the economics of these arrangements by ensuring that gains and losses are generally recognized only when the participant makes an economic disposal of the cryptoassets.”

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The companies will explore using USDC for JCB’s cross-border treasury operations and merchant payments in Japan as regulated stablecoin adoption gains momentum.

Japan’s largest domestic payment network, JCB, signed a memorandum of understanding with Circle to explore using USDC for cross-border payments and merchant transactions.

Under the memorandum, the companies will initially explore using USDC for JCB’s internal cross-border fund transfers through a proof of concept, while also evaluating stablecoin payments at merchants in Japan for international visitors. The companies said they will also assess technologies that support interoperability across multiple blockchain networks.

The agreement builds on a separate initiative JCB launched in January with Digital Garage and Resona Holdings to test stablecoin payments at physical stores in Japan. That project focuses on identifying technical and operational challenges to bringing stablecoin payments to domestic merchants.

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