Binance opened its August Monthly Leaderboard for Dual Investment users on Aug. 3, offering a top reward of 5,888 USDC.
Summary
Binance will rank users by average Dual Investment subscriptions during August, rewarding the top 100. The first ranked participant receives 5,888 USDC through a Dual Investment subscription lasting 14 days. Participants need verified accounts, confirmed enrollment, and subscriptions lasting longer than three days to qualify. The promotion runs from 06:00 UTC on Aug. 3 through 23:59 UTC on Aug. 31.
Eligible users will be ranked by their average subscription amount across Dual Investment and Dual Investment RFQ. Only subscriptions lasting more than three days will count. Binance requires participants to complete identity verification and confirm enrollment through the activity page.
Binance leaderboard favors larger subscriptions The ranking formula multiplies each eligible subscription amount by its duration and divides the result by 30 days. Both the size and length of a position can therefore affect a participant’s place. A single large subscription made near the deadline may carry less weight than the same amount committed for longer.
The first ranked user will receive 5,888 USDC. Users in second and third place qualify for 2,188 USDC each. Rewards decline across later tiers to 68 USDC for places 71 through 100. Based on the published table, the maximum combined face value is 25,500 USDC if Binance distributes every listed reward. The exchange did not state that total directly.
In addition, the prizes are not scheduled to arrive as freely withdrawable USDC. Binance said each reward will be issued as a Dual Investment subscription lasting 14 days. Distribution is due within 14 days after the campaign closes, with Sept. 14 listed as the final delivery date.
Participants also cannot cancel or redeem a Dual Investment subscription early. Sub accounts do not receive separate rankings. Binance may reject users it believes acted fraudulently or broke the promotion rules. It also reserves the right to change, suspend or cancel the campaign.
Dual Investment can convert assets at settlement Binance markets Dual Investment as a “high yield” structured product with Buy Low and Sell High choices. Users select a deposit asset, target price and settlement date. The settlement outcome determines whether they receive the original deposit currency or another asset.
For Buy Low, deposited funds can be converted into the selected cryptocurrency when the settlement price reaches the target condition. For Sell High, deposited crypto can be converted into a stablecoin or another currency. Binance’s official FAQ says the product does not protect principal and warns that customers may miss a better market price.
The campaign page lists BTC, ETH, SOL and BNB among Sell High deposit assets, alongside 17 other tokens. Buy Low accepts USDT, USDC, BTC or ETH. Binance advertises APRs of 15% or more, although rates can vary according to the target price, duration and market volatility.
The exchange warns that the stated APR refers to rewards in the deposit currency. It is not a forecast of fiat returns or the value of the alternate currency at settlement. Funds remain locked until settlement, limiting a participant’s ability to respond to sudden price movements.
As crypto.news previously reported, Binance introduced Dual Investment as a way to buy or sell crypto at a chosen future price while receiving rewards during the subscription period. The August leaderboard adds a ranking incentive rather than changing the product’s settlement rules.
Aug. 31 closes the Binance ranking window Users must join the activity and maintain qualifying subscriptions during the campaign. The announcement does not disclose the number of participants, the total subscription value already committed or whether every regional Binance entity will offer the promotion. Binance states that its products may not be available in every region.
The next confirmed dates are Aug. 31, when the ranking period closes, and Sept. 14, when eligible rewards should be distributed. In related coverage, crypto.news reported that Binance is also running an $800,000 XRP campaign for eligible RLUSD users through Aug. 14. That promotion covers qualifying activity across Binance Earn, Margin and Futures.
Circle (NYSE: CRCL) stock price dropped by 2.54% on July 31 to close trading at $62. The drop marked the end of a bearish month for Circle shares, after the stock posted its biggest monthly decline in history. Despite the drop, Circle’s USDC stablecoin dominated stablecoin volumes during the month with a 62% market share.
Circle’s USDC Dominates Stablecoin Market in July 2026 Data from Visa shows that the total stablecoin volume numbers for July 2026 came in at $1.36 trillion. This was a $400 billion decline from the $1.77 trillion posted in June 2026.
Despite this drop, Circle’s USDC stablecoin managed to rake in $849 billion in volumes during the month, with this being 62% of the total volumes. Tether’s USDT came in second with $502 billion in volumes.
Stablecoin Volumes July 2026 (Source: Visa) Still, the $849 billion posted by Circle was a significant drop from the record $1.2 trillion volumes for USDC in June 2026, as earlier reported by CoinGape, and coincided with a drop in CRCL stock.
Circle’s dominance over the stablecoin market in July comes after the company secured approval from the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) to set up a national trust bank dubbed the Circle National Trust.
The license boosted the outlook towards CRCL stock, with Cathie Wood’s ARK Invest purchasing more than $37 million worth of Circle shares in July 2026. ARK’s most recent purchase was on July 31 when the fund manager purchased $6.83 million worth of CRCL shares.
CRCL Stock Price Slips Despite Stablecoin Growth CRCL stock price continues to weaken under bearish pressure. The shares were down by 2.09% in pre-market trading today, August 3, suggesting that the stock faces another bearish month after closing trading in the red in July 2026.
The RSI reading of 43 suggests that the momentum is favoring bears. This RSI reading has also not moved above 50 since May 29, 2026, suggesting that bears have had the upper hand for two months.
CRCL stock needs to move above the 20-day EMA of $65 to suggest that the short-term outlook is now leaning bullish.
If CRCL closes above $65, it could move to the next target at the 50-day EMA of $75.
CRCL Price chart (Source: TradingView) Still, CRCL stock needs to reach the 200-day EMA of $99 to confirm that the long-term trend has also shifted to favor bulls.
TD Cowen Eyes $82 CRCL Stock Target on Stablecoin Growth TD Cowen has initiated coverage on CRCL stock price and assigned it a buy rating. The Wall Street firm says CRCL stock price could reach $82, adding that a gain could come from the company’s dominance among stablecoins.
TD Cowen also says that USDC supply could increase by 31% every year until 2030, with this growth coming from institutions seeking to bring traditional finance to the blockchain.
Because of this increase in stablecoin volumes and supply, TD Cowen says Circle’s revenue will increase by 51% and reach $2.86 billion in the twelve months leading to August 2027.
Circle will release its earnings for Q2 2026 on August 5 before the market opens, with analysts forecasting revenues of $744 million and earnings per share of $0.18.
Not financial or tax advice. PANews content is strictly educational and informational and is not investment advice, financial advice, tax advice, legal advice, or a solicitation to buy or sell any digital asset, security, or financial product. Do your own research and consult qualified advisers.
Disclosure. PANews may publish sponsored content, partner content, advertisements, affiliate links, event promotions, and market commentary involving Web3 projects, service providers, or financial products. PANews personnel, contributors, or affiliates may hold digital assets or other interests related to covered topics. See our Terms of Service.
TLDR: ARK Invest Circle shares purchase totaled 109,129 shares worth about $6.83 million across three exchange-traded funds after Circle secured a New York trust charter. Circle received approval from the New York Department of Financial Services for Circle New York Trust, strengthening its regulated USDC infrastructure. CRCL stock closed at $62.61 on July 31, falling 2.54% despite the company’s latest regulatory milestone and institutional interest. Circle plans to gradually move USDC issuance to its New York trust entity while keeping custody services through its federal trust bank. ARK Invest Circle shares purchases reached 109,129 shares after stablecoin issuer Circle secured a limited-purpose trust charter in New York. The investment firm bought approximately $6.83 million worth of CRCL stock across three exchange-traded funds.
Circle stock closed at $62.61 on July 31, down $1.63, or 2.54%, during the session. The decline came despite Circle receiving regulatory approval from the New York Department of Financial Services (NYDFS).
ARK Invest added the Circle position through its ARK Innovation ETF, ARK Next Generation Internet ETF, and ARK Fintech Innovation ETF. The funds purchased 77,103, 22,238, and 9,788 shares, respectively.
CRCL stock card Circle Internet Group, CRCL ARK Invest Circle Shares Expand After USDC Approval ARK Invest Circle shares purchases followed Circle’s approval for Circle Internet Trust Company LLC, also known as Circle New York Trust. The entity received a limited-purpose trust charter from NYDFS.
The approval allows Circle New York Trust to conduct approved virtual currency activities and exercise fiduciary powers under New York banking regulations. It also provides another regulatory structure for Circle’s USDC operations.
Circle said it plans to gradually transfer USDC issuance activities to the New York trust entity. Meanwhile, Circle National Trust will continue handling custody and collateral trustee services under its federal trust framework.
Circle received final authorization from the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency earlier in July. The federal approval allowed Circle to establish a national trust bank focused initially on digital asset custody services.
The combination of state and federal approvals gives Circle separate regulatory pathways. NYDFS will oversee the New York trust company, while the OCC will supervise Circle National Trust.
Circle CEO Jeremy Allaire said the New York charter represented a long-term objective for the company. He highlighted the role of regulatory clarity as digital dollars expand across financial markets.
ARK Invest Circle Shares Face Market Pressure ARK Invest Circle shares’ additions arrived as the firm increased exposure to digital asset-related companies. On July 31, ARK also purchased 11,784 shares of the 3iQ Solana Staking ETF.
The firm made several other purchases during the session, including 298,243 CoreWeave shares, 7,500 Pony AI shares, and 2,700 Kodiak AI shares. ARK reduced holdings in several technology companies, including Shopify and Cloudflare.
Circle stock has struggled after its earlier rally following the OCC approval. CRCL gained around 10% on July 10 after the federal trust bank announcement but later gave up part of those gains.
The latest ARK Invest Circle shares purchase shows continued institutional exposure to companies building regulated crypto infrastructure. However, the stock remains influenced by broader technology market conditions and investor expectations around stablecoin growth.
Circle is scheduled to release its second-quarter 2026 financial results on August 5. Investors will watch USDC activity, revenue performance, and the impact of the company’s expanding regulatory framework.
Not financial or tax advice. PANews content is strictly educational and informational and is not investment advice, financial advice, tax advice, legal advice, or a solicitation to buy or sell any digital asset, security, or financial product. Do your own research and consult qualified advisers.
Disclosure. PANews may publish sponsored content, partner content, advertisements, affiliate links, event promotions, and market commentary involving Web3 projects, service providers, or financial products. PANews personnel, contributors, or affiliates may hold digital assets or other interests related to covered topics. See our Terms of Service.
Not financial or tax advice. PANews content is strictly educational and informational and is not investment advice, financial advice, tax advice, legal advice, or a solicitation to buy or sell any digital asset, security, or financial product. Do your own research and consult qualified advisers.
Disclosure. PANews may publish sponsored content, partner content, advertisements, affiliate links, event promotions, and market commentary involving Web3 projects, service providers, or financial products. PANews personnel, contributors, or affiliates may hold digital assets or other interests related to covered topics. See our Terms of Service.
Decentralized trading protocol TradeXYZ has begun repayments to victims of the $60M liquidation event tied to AI chipmaker SK Hynix (SKHYNIX) perpetual contracts.
The flash crash, which happened on Monday, the 27th of July, 2026 (around 23:01 UTC), was triggered by an oracle pricing mishap and partly by ongoing volatility in the South Korean market. The actual losses were estimated at $17.4M in realized losses affecting over 900 user accounts.
On Wednesday, the 29th of July, the Hyperliquid HIP-3 deployer announced a reimbursement program to rebuild trust and market integrity. Additionally, it vowed to improve its pricing systems to “handle tail events.”
How will TradeXYZ repay SKHYNIX victims? As part of the payout program, TradeXYZ said it had paid out victims with claims of less than $10K based on $1,115 per SKHYNIX. But wallets claiming larger amounts will require more review for final payout by the 15th of August.
Where it exceeds 10,000 USDC, an initial 9,999 USDC has been credited. We are required to conduct enhanced due diligence for amounts in excess of 10,000 USDC.
Source: SKHYNIX/USD, TradingView As of writing, SKHYNIX traded at $1,087 after briefly slipping to $900 earlier in the week. The repayment could help reinforce trust in TradeXYZ and the broader Hyperliquid ecosystem.
However, the TradeXYZ dominance risk discussion will likely resurface again.
TradeXYZ controls 99% of HIP-3 volumes HIP-3 or perpetuals tied to commodities and stocks (RWA/tokenized assets perps) have been the key driver of Hyperliquid volumes in 2026. This week, tokenized stocks account for 65% of the overall DEX volume.
Surprisingly, crypto perps, which Hyperliquid began with, now account for less than 1% of overall HIP-3 volume.
Source: ASXN However, the massive demand for HIP-3 is dominated by a single deployer, TradeXYZ. It controls over 95% of Hyperliquid’s HIP-3 volume and Open Interest (OI).
According to analysts, the current Hyperliquid design favors big HIP-3 deployers like TradeXYZ, as smaller players like Felix were forced to close shop. According to critics, TradeXYZ’s excessive dominance poses a ‘structural risk’ to the broader ecosystem in case it’s exploited or sanctioned.
Source: ASXN For a better ecosystem balance, they called for a level-playing field to ensure HIP-3 is more decentralized to reduce the potential risk of TradeXYZ dominance.
Whether the Hyperliquid project team will accept the feedback remains to be seen. That said, the project’s HIP-4 (prediction markets and Options trading) went live on mainnet on Friday.
Final Summary TradeXYZ has begun reimbursing affected SKHYNIX traders for claims below $10K Hyperliquid’s HIP-3 now accounts for 65% of total trading volume, with TradeXYZ dominance increasingly viewed as a risk.
Bitget, the exchange group that claims more than 125 million registered users, is giving its customer base direct access to on-chain yield without requiring them to leave its platform. The move comes through a partnership with payments network Morph, lending protocol Morpho, and risk management firm Gauntlet.
How the integration works Morph, a payments network purpose-built for digital asset transactions, has announced the collaboration with on-chain credit protocol Morpho and yield optimization firm Gauntlet. The integration allows Bitget customers to deposit USDC and Bitcoin directly through their existing accounts to access curated yield strategies powered by Morpho and Gauntlet's Aera vaults on Morph's infrastructure.
Users will be able to earn approximately 18% annual percentage yield on USDC deposits and 3% APY on bgBTC, Bitget's wrapped Bitcoin product, without surrendering custody or navigating external decentralized finance protocols. The bgBTC yield strategy launched on Bitget Exchange on July 31, while the USDC yield strategy will become available on the self-custodial Bitget Wallet starting August 3.
The infrastructure behind the yield Morpho is a decentralized lending protocol built around the principle that lending infrastructure and lending strategy belong on different layers. Gauntlet sits in the strategy layer, acting as what the industry calls a vault curator. Using Morpho Vaults, Gauntlet deploys and curates institutional-grade yield strategies through the Morpho Curator App. With vaults deployed, Gauntlet focuses on curating risk-reward to offer the best risk-adjusted returns for vault suppliers.
The firm launched its first Morpho vaults in 2024 and by early 2026 had grown to more than 30 vaults with cumulative supply over $500 million and over $2 billion in total vault TVL across Morpho, Drift, and Kamino. All underlying complexity is abstracted through Morph's infrastructure, enabling users to maintain their Bitcoin positions while participating in yield-generating activities.
The partnership is part of a broader trend of centralised exchanges embedding DeFi yield directly into their products. The collaboration with Morpho reflects Bitget's broader UEX vision, in which users can access crypto-native and traditional financial opportunities through a single intelligent trading and asset management platform.
Sources:
Metaverse Post: Morph, Morpho and Gauntlet Partner to Deliver Institutional On-Chain Yield to Bitget's 125M Users
Morpho: Gauntlet on Morpho Vault Curation
Bitget Blog: Bitget Collaborates with Morpho and Arbitrum on On-Chain Earn Products
The New York Department of Financial Services has granted Circle (CRCL) a trust charter, the USDC stablecoin issuer said Friday. Earlier this month, the US Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) authorized Circle to directly manage its reserve assets and provide digital asset custody services for institutional clients. Circle’s New York trust charter adds another layer of reliance and Credibility for Circle.
JUST IN: 🇺🇸 $USDC issuer Circle $CRCL officially granted a trust charter by the New York Department of Financial Services.
— Watcher.Guru (@WatcherGuru) July 31, 2026“Earning a New York trust charter has been a longstanding objective for Circle given the regulatory clarity that comes with it,” said Jeremy Allaire, Co-Founder, Chairman, and CEO of Circle. “NYDFS is an international standard setter for digital asset regulation, and New York is Circle’s global headquarters. This charter reflects over a decade of regulatory commitment and positions USDC within a strong, respected framework as digital dollars become central to the global financial system.”
Despite the update, shares in Circle (CRCL) stock fell over 4% on Friday, as Wall Street remains bearish. The cryptocurrency firm is scheduled to report its second-quarter 2026 financial results on Aug. 5. Before the earnings release, research and brokerage firm Bernstein cut its price target on Circle stock by 25%, lowering it from $190 to $140.
Morph, an L2 blockchain infrastructure platform, has partnered with Morpho, a decentralized lending entity, and Gauntlet, a decentralized finance (DeFi) risk management firm. The partnership aims to offer institutional-level DeFi yield to more than 125M consumers.
As Morph revealed in its official press release, the initiative is set to streamline access to diverse $BTC-backed yield strategies and lending services. For this purpose, it is integrating a cutting-edge DeFi framework into compatible user platforms.
Morph Provides $USDC and $BTC Yields to Bitget Consumers Morph’s multiparty partnership includes Gauntlet, Morpho, Chainlink, Bitget, RedStone, and Bitget Wallet. This joint effort is poised to let users earn yield while requiring no management of underlying technical complications. So, these entities focus on establishing an inclusive financial experience on-chain. Via Bitget Wallet and Bitget Earn, consumers can leverage professionally organized yield strategies from interfaces that they use regularly.
This removes the requirement of manually interacting with diverse DeFi protocols, vaults, and bridges. In this respect, Morph plays the role of an L2 infrastructure that offers cost-efficiency, scalability, and speed needed to support institutional-scale financial products. The collaboration underscores another move toward increasing the accessibility of DeFi among the mainstream crypto consumers while preserving on-chain transparency.
The initial phase of this partnership unveils a couple of yield products. Consumers will be permitted to deposit their Bitcoin ($BTC) holdings into a vault with the target of up to 3% yearly yield. Additionally, another $USDC vault will target almost 18% yearly yield.
Expanding Real-World Financial Utilities Through Cutting-Edge DeFi Infrastructure Instead of requiring active user engagement for collateral monitoring or lending position management, Gauntlet handles the strategies. The respective approach permits consumers to utilize refined DeFi strategies via a streamlined investment experience. At the same time, Morpho delivers a decentralized lending framework.
In the meantime, Chainlink offers cross-chain reserve verification and communication via the robust Proof of Reserve technology and Cross-Chain Interoperability Protocol (CCIP). Moving on, RedStone provides decentralized price feeds, Oracle Extractable Value (OEV) recapture functionality, and risk ratings on-chain.
According to Morph, the next phase of the growing DeFi expansion will rely on enhanced consumer experience, risk infrastructure, and distribution, along with more efficient blockchain protocols. By merging institutional lending, L2-scalability, effective strategy management, Bitget’s worldwide distribution network, and protected oracle services.
The collaboration attempts to make next-gen DeFi products broadly accessible to numerous daily users. Ultimately, this endeavor aligns with Morph’s wider objective of facilitating real-world financial use cases, including settlements, payments, lending, yield products, and more.
AUTHOR
Crypto journalist with years of experience providing in-depth analysis and news on blockchain and decentralized finance. With a keen eye for detail, Shahzaib delivers insightful articles that explore the latest trends, market movements, and innovations within the crypto and blockchain ecosystem. His work focuses on educating readers while offering expert commentary on the evolving landscape of digital assets, DeFi protocols, and the broader impact of blockchain technology.
A recent study by the Bank of Italy found that remittances using stablecoins, such as USD Coin (USDC), did not consistently outperform traditional payment channels in terms of cost or speed. The research highlighted that the primary sources of expense and delay were linked to fiat on- and off-ramp processes, rather than blockchain transaction fees.
Stablecoin vs. Traditional Remittance TestedResearchers conducted 200 USDC remittance transactions across 10 payment routes connecting Italy with Brazil, Argentina, Japan, the United Arab Emirates, and South Africa. The study compared the costs and settlement times of these transactions with those of established remittance providers.
The analysis identified that most expenses stemmed from currency conversion and exchange fees during the on- and off-ramp stages, with blockchain fees making up only a minor portion of the overall cost. Total expenses for stablecoin transfers in the sample ranged from 0.3% to nearly 9%, depending on the specific payment corridor.
Settlement times for stablecoin payments were under 20 minutes in corridors where participants had access to instant payment systems. In corridors lacking such infrastructure, transfers took one to two business days, placing them on par with traditional channels in those regions.
Payment MethodCost RangeSettlement TimeStablecoin (USDC)0.3% to 9%<20 minutes (with instant rails); 1-2 business days (without)Traditional RemittanceGlobal average 6.65%Varies; up to 1-2 business daysUsing the World Bank’s global average remittance cost of 6.65% as a benchmark, stablecoin-based remittances proved more affordable across most corridors. However, when compared specifically with Wise, a fintech remittance provider, stablecoin transfers were only cheaper in three out of seven analogous corridors.
Infrastructure and Regulation Drive ResultsThe study emphasized that improvements to domestic instant payment systems could enhance the competitiveness of stablecoin-based cross-border payments. The researchers stated that settlement speed relied heavily on the availability and quality of local payment infrastructure.
Authors of the report argued that the most substantial benefits of stablecoin remittances may be realized if users can avoid converting stablecoins back into fiat currencies. They suggested that eliminating these conversion steps could minimize costs and processing times.
Prohibitive or overly restrictive regulatory frameworks do not eliminate stablecoin activity, but instead drive users toward offshore or unregulated platforms and increase complexity for retail participants, according to the authors.
The research further indicated that regulatory policies played a decisive role in shaping the efficiency of cross-border stablecoin transfers. The authors noted that strict bans or burdensome compliance rules often failed to suppress demand for stablecoins, diverting traffic to less-regulated markets.
The findings come as the European Union adopts the Markets in Crypto-Assets (MiCA) framework and the United States implements the GENIUS Act, both aiming to regulate crypto assets and payment stablecoins.
According to DeFiLlama, the stablecoin market has expanded to about $307 billion, marking a 16% increase over the past year.
Mini dictionary: GENIUS Act, short for “Guaranteeing Essential Nonbank Innovations for Upgrading Stablecoins,” is US legislation introduced to provide a regulatory framework for payment stablecoins, aiming to enhance oversight and consumer protection in the digital asset sector.
Disclaimer: The information contained in this article does not constitute investment advice. Investors should be aware that cryptocurrencies carry high volatility and therefore risk, and should conduct their own research.
Circle brought its Agent Stack to UC Berkeley’s Agentic AI Summit this week, making its clearest pitch yet that USDC should be the default currency for a world where AI agents buy, sell, and settle transactions without human intervention.
The toolkit, which originally launched on May 11, gives developers the infrastructure to build autonomous AI systems with programmable USDC wallets.
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What the Agent Stack actually does Circle’s Agent Stack includes three core components. Agent Wallets give each AI system its own programmable USDC wallet. An Agent Marketplace connects these systems to services and counterparties. And Circle Gateway handles the settlement layer, including nanopayments as low as $0.000001.
An AI agent can autonomously purchase a phone number for 5 USDC, make a voice call, and settle the cost at 0.133 USDC, all without a human touching anything. Circle demonstrated exactly this workflow during the summit.
Nikhil Chandhok, Circle’s Chief Product and Technology Officer, spoke at the Berkeley event about building infrastructure for what he called the “Agentic Economy.” The summit drew over 5,000 attendees and included a global livestream.
The ARC token and Circle’s bigger ambitions Circle also conducted a $222 million ARC token presale, which valued the Arc network at approximately $3 billion. The Arc network is designed to complement the Agent Stack by providing programmable settlement mechanisms for digital transactions.
Disclosure: This article was edited by Editorial Team. For more information on how we create and review content, see our Editorial Policy.
Not financial or tax advice. PANews content is strictly educational and informational and is not investment advice, financial advice, tax advice, legal advice, or a solicitation to buy or sell any digital asset, security, or financial product. Do your own research and consult qualified advisers.
Disclosure. PANews may publish sponsored content, partner content, advertisements, affiliate links, event promotions, and market commentary involving Web3 projects, service providers, or financial products. PANews personnel, contributors, or affiliates may hold digital assets or other interests related to covered topics. See our Terms of Service.
trade.xyz announced it has completed the compensation distribution for the July 27 SK Hynix contract pricing anomaly, with users receiving their corresponding USDC without any additional action. Compensation is calculated at a reference price of $1,115.5: amounts under 10,000 USDC will be disbursed in full, while amounts exceeding that threshold will first receive 9,999 USDC, requiring users to contact support to complete due diligence by August 15. At 23:01 UTC on July 27, the marked price of SK Hynix tokens plummeted from $1,127.9 to $917.25, triggering mass liquidations of long positions.
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Not financial or tax advice. PANews content is strictly educational and informational and is not investment advice, financial advice, tax advice, legal advice, or a solicitation to buy or sell any digital asset, security, or financial product. Do your own research and consult qualified advisers.
Disclosure. PANews may publish sponsored content, partner content, advertisements, affiliate links, event promotions, and market commentary involving Web3 projects, service providers, or financial products. PANews personnel, contributors, or affiliates may hold digital assets or other interests related to covered topics. See our Terms of Service.
Not financial or tax advice. PANews content is strictly educational and informational and is not investment advice, financial advice, tax advice, legal advice, or a solicitation to buy or sell any digital asset, security, or financial product. Do your own research and consult qualified advisers.
Disclosure. PANews may publish sponsored content, partner content, advertisements, affiliate links, event promotions, and market commentary involving Web3 projects, service providers, or financial products. PANews personnel, contributors, or affiliates may hold digital assets or other interests related to covered topics. See our Terms of Service.
Not financial or tax advice. PANews content is strictly educational and informational and is not investment advice, financial advice, tax advice, legal advice, or a solicitation to buy or sell any digital asset, security, or financial product. Do your own research and consult qualified advisers.
Disclosure. PANews may publish sponsored content, partner content, advertisements, affiliate links, event promotions, and market commentary involving Web3 projects, service providers, or financial products. PANews personnel, contributors, or affiliates may hold digital assets or other interests related to covered topics. See our Terms of Service.
Iran claims to have closed the Strait of Hormuz, U.S. Central Command denies.
Local time on July 31, the U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM) stated that "the Iranian government's renewed claim that it has closed the Strait of Hormuz is false." CENTCOM added that "the Strait of Hormuz remains open for merchant vessel traffic; Iran does not control the strait," noting that "thousands of ships have transited this international waterway over the past four months." Earlier on July 31, Iran's Persian Gulf Strait Administration issued a statement saying that due to the U.S. military's continued aggressive operations in the relevant waters, the Strait of Hormuz is currently not normally navigable. (Source: CCTV)
4 minutes ago
Jensen Huang: "Now is the best time in history to start a business—don’t overthink ‘how hard can it be’."
According to Fortune, NVIDIA CEO Jensen Huang told attendees at Y Combinator’s Startup School 2026 that the present is the best time in history to launch a company, advising young entrepreneurs not to overthink due to rapid technological shifts or fear of failure. When facing challenges, he suggested asking himself: “How hard can it be?” Huang emphasized that entrepreneurs don’t need all the answers from day one; the core is being willing to confront reality and continuously learn. In NVIDIA’s early days, the company bet on the wrong graphics technology. When the team lacked solutions, he purchased three technical textbooks and gave them to his engineers. He noted that as long as one retains a learning mindset, specific technologies themselves are not the most critical factor. That said, Huang doesn’t believe success comes easily. He revealed he still works seven days a week and has long worried about the company collapsing; this sense of vulnerability, uncertainty, and insecurity has never faded. His advice: don’t imagine all difficulties in advance, lest anxiety derail action, but let challenges arise gradually and solve them one by one. Data shows U.S. business applications hit a record 3.23 million in the first half of 2026, up 12.1% year-over-year. However, startup risks remain high: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics data indicates nearly half of businesses cease operations within five years of launch.
4 minutes ago
Trump’s approval rating has dropped to its lowest level since his second term.
Political analyst Nate Silver said that due to the ongoing unpopular Iran war and surging natural gas prices, President Trump’s approval rating has dropped to its lowest point since his second term this month. He noted, “The timing aligns closely with the rebound in natural gas prices and the resumption of hostilities in Iran.” As the war nears its sixth month, data from the American Automobile Association (AAA) shows that as of Friday morning, the average U.S. gasoline price stood at around $4.11 per gallon, up from roughly $3.15 a year ago. According to polling averages from Decision Desk HQ, Trump’s overall average approval rating was 40.6% as of Friday morning, while his average disapproval rating reached 57.5%. A Quinnipiac University poll found that 60% of U.S. voters oppose the war, the highest opposition rate recorded since the conflict began on February 28. Nearly three-quarters of Americans said they oppose deploying U.S. troops to Iran. An AP-NORC poll also showed that 64% of Americans consider the war “not worth it”; among them, 87% of Democratic voters, 37% of Republican voters, and 68% of independent voters hold this view. (Jin10)
4 minutes ago
Tom Lee: South Korean stock market may be in the final stage of bottoming out
Chairman Tom Lee of Bitmine, the largest Ethereum treasury company, posted a statement saying that given South Korean policymakers have begun showing "panic", South Korea's stock market may be in the final stage of bottoming out. He cited the view of David Tepper, founder of Appaloosa and a well-known fund manager, stating: "When policymakers start panicking, the market stops panicking."
4 minutes ago
FTX’s fifth round of compensation payments has been deposited into creditors’ accounts.
FTX creditor representative Sunil announced in a post that FTX’s creditor distributions have been deposited into creditors’ accounts. Earlier reports noted FTX will launch its fifth round of creditor compensation on July 31, with plans to disburse roughly $900 million to creditors in the "Convenience" and "Non-Convenience" categories under the firm’s restructuring plan. With this round of distributions, the FTX Recovery Trust’s total compensation disbursements since FTX filed for bankruptcy in November 2022 will reach approximately $10 billion.
Not financial or tax advice. PANews content is strictly educational and informational and is not investment advice, financial advice, tax advice, legal advice, or a solicitation to buy or sell any digital asset, security, or financial product. Do your own research and consult qualified advisers.
Disclosure. PANews may publish sponsored content, partner content, advertisements, affiliate links, event promotions, and market commentary involving Web3 projects, service providers, or financial products. PANews personnel, contributors, or affiliates may hold digital assets or other interests related to covered topics. See our Terms of Service.
Iran claims to have closed the Strait of Hormuz, U.S. Central Command denies.
Local time on July 31, the U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM) stated that "the Iranian government's renewed claim that it has closed the Strait of Hormuz is false." CENTCOM added that "the Strait of Hormuz remains open for merchant vessel traffic; Iran does not control the strait," noting that "thousands of ships have transited this international waterway over the past four months." Earlier on July 31, Iran's Persian Gulf Strait Administration issued a statement saying that due to the U.S. military's continued aggressive operations in the relevant waters, the Strait of Hormuz is currently not normally navigable. (Source: CCTV)
4 minutes ago
Jensen Huang: "Now is the best time in history to start a business—don’t overthink ‘how hard can it be’."
According to Fortune, NVIDIA CEO Jensen Huang told attendees at Y Combinator’s Startup School 2026 that the present is the best time in history to launch a company, advising young entrepreneurs not to overthink due to rapid technological shifts or fear of failure. When facing challenges, he suggested asking himself: “How hard can it be?” Huang emphasized that entrepreneurs don’t need all the answers from day one; the core is being willing to confront reality and continuously learn. In NVIDIA’s early days, the company bet on the wrong graphics technology. When the team lacked solutions, he purchased three technical textbooks and gave them to his engineers. He noted that as long as one retains a learning mindset, specific technologies themselves are not the most critical factor. That said, Huang doesn’t believe success comes easily. He revealed he still works seven days a week and has long worried about the company collapsing; this sense of vulnerability, uncertainty, and insecurity has never faded. His advice: don’t imagine all difficulties in advance, lest anxiety derail action, but let challenges arise gradually and solve them one by one. Data shows U.S. business applications hit a record 3.23 million in the first half of 2026, up 12.1% year-over-year. However, startup risks remain high: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics data indicates nearly half of businesses cease operations within five years of launch.
4 minutes ago
Trump’s approval rating has dropped to its lowest level since his second term.
Political analyst Nate Silver said that due to the ongoing unpopular Iran war and surging natural gas prices, President Trump’s approval rating has dropped to its lowest point since his second term this month. He noted, “The timing aligns closely with the rebound in natural gas prices and the resumption of hostilities in Iran.” As the war nears its sixth month, data from the American Automobile Association (AAA) shows that as of Friday morning, the average U.S. gasoline price stood at around $4.11 per gallon, up from roughly $3.15 a year ago. According to polling averages from Decision Desk HQ, Trump’s overall average approval rating was 40.6% as of Friday morning, while his average disapproval rating reached 57.5%. A Quinnipiac University poll found that 60% of U.S. voters oppose the war, the highest opposition rate recorded since the conflict began on February 28. Nearly three-quarters of Americans said they oppose deploying U.S. troops to Iran. An AP-NORC poll also showed that 64% of Americans consider the war “not worth it”; among them, 87% of Democratic voters, 37% of Republican voters, and 68% of independent voters hold this view. (Jin10)
4 minutes ago
Tom Lee: South Korean stock market may be in the final stage of bottoming out
Chairman Tom Lee of Bitmine, the largest Ethereum treasury company, posted a statement saying that given South Korean policymakers have begun showing "panic", South Korea's stock market may be in the final stage of bottoming out. He cited the view of David Tepper, founder of Appaloosa and a well-known fund manager, stating: "When policymakers start panicking, the market stops panicking."
4 minutes ago
FTX’s fifth round of compensation payments has been deposited into creditors’ accounts.
FTX creditor representative Sunil announced in a post that FTX’s creditor distributions have been deposited into creditors’ accounts. Earlier reports noted FTX will launch its fifth round of creditor compensation on July 31, with plans to disburse roughly $900 million to creditors in the "Convenience" and "Non-Convenience" categories under the firm’s restructuring plan. With this round of distributions, the FTX Recovery Trust’s total compensation disbursements since FTX filed for bankruptcy in November 2022 will reach approximately $10 billion.
Circle Internet Group has picked up a fresh regulatory milestone in New York, one of the states most closely watched in the digital asset space.
A New Charter, a Decade in the Making
Circle’s new trust charter comes from New York’s financial regulator, the NYDFS, which issued the approval for a limited purpose trust entity tied to the stablecoin issuer. The new unit will now operate under the name Circle Internet Trust Company LLC, doing business as Circle New York Trust.
The move builds on a relationship that stretches back more than a decade. Circle became the first company to receive a BitLicense from NYDFS back in 2015, a distinction that marked the start of its long-running regulatory relationship with the state.
Why New York Matters Here
New York’s financial regulator is widely viewed as a global benchmark for digital asset oversight, and the state also happens to be where Circle is headquartered. Landing a trust charter there gives USDC an added layer of institutional credibility as regulated digital dollars continue moving further into mainstream finance.
What Circle’s CEO Had to Say
Circle co-founder, chairman, and CEO Jeremy Allaire framed the charter as a milestone the company had been pursuing for years. CEO Jeremy Allaire called it a longstanding goal tied to regulatory clarity now, pointing to the significance of the timing.
“NYDFS is an international standard setter for digital asset regulation, and New York is Circle’s global headquarters,” Allaire said. “This charter reflects over a decade of regulatory commitment and positions USDC within a strong, respected framework as digital dollars become central to the global financial system.”
Story Ends Here
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From BitLicense to Fiduciary Trust@Circle ($CRCL) has secured a limited-purpose trust charter from the New York Department of Financial Services (NYDFS) for a new entity called Circle New York Trust. The move represents a meaningful step up from the BitLicense framework under which Circle has operated since 2015, when it became the first company to receive a BitLicense from the NYDFS. A fiduciary trust structure subjects the entity to the same rigorous oversight applied to traditional New York trust companies, significantly raising the regulatory bar for $USDC.
The NYDFS charter does not stand alone. According to documents published by the U.S. Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC), Circle Group plans to transition responsibility for issuing USDC to the New York limited-purpose trust company once it is established, with the federally chartered Circle National Trust then managing USDC reserves and performing collateral trustee services on a fiduciary basis for USDC holders. Circle received full OCC approval for Circle National Trust in July 2026, making it one of the first crypto firms to complete that federal charter process.
Arc, Agent Stack and the Institutional PushThe regulatory build-out runs alongside an ambitious product expansion. Circle has launched Arc, an open Layer-1 blockchain designed from the ground up for stablecoin-native applications, featuring USDC as the native gas token, sub-second deterministic finality, and opt-in privacy controls aimed at regulated financial institutions. Alongside Arc, the NYSE-listed firm introduced the Circle Agent Stack, a toolkit positioning stablecoins like USDC as the financial layer for machine-driven, AI-agent commerce.
Arc's public testnet attracted more than 100 institutional participants, including BlackRock, Visa, Goldman Sachs, and Anthropic, and has processed more than 166 million transactions. The network raised $222 million in a token presale led by Andreessen Horowitz at a fully diluted valuation of $3 billion. $USDC in circulation stood at approximately $77 billion as of the first quarter of 2026, with on-chain transaction volume up 263% year over year to $21.5 trillion.
Together, the NYDFS trust charter and the federal OCC approval give Circle a layered regulatory foundation that few crypto firms have achieved, reinforcing its positioning as it pushes deeper into institutional blockchain infrastructure.
Sources:
Circle Press Release: OCC Final Approval for Circle National Trust (July 2026)
OCC Application Filing: First National Digital Currency Bank, N.A.
Circle Blog: Introducing Arc Blockchain
NYDFS granted Circle New York Trust a limited purpose trust charter on July 31, 2026. Circle first received a BitLicense from NYDFS in 2015, starting a decade-long relationship. Jeremy Allaire called the charter a longstanding objective offering added regulatory clarity. The charter adds to Circle’s existing array of U.S. and international regulatory licenses. Circle Internet Group has received a limited purpose trust charter from the New York Department of Financial Services for Circle New York Trust.
The subsidiary, formally named Circle Internet Trust Company LLC, now operates under this new regulatory designation.
The approval strengthens the compliance structure behind USDC, the company’s flagship stablecoin. Circle first entered New York’s regulatory system in 2015 through a BitLicense.
Regulatory Milestone Builds On Decade-Long Relationship The Circle New York Trust charter marks another step in a regulatory relationship that spans more than ten years. Circle became the first company to receive a BitLicense from NYDFS back in 2015.
That early approval set the tone for how the company would approach oversight going forward. Each subsequent license added another layer to its compliance framework.
New York remains Circle’s global headquarters, making this charter particularly relevant to its operations. The state’s financial regulator is widely viewed as a standard setter in digital asset oversight.
Companies operating under NYDFS supervision often face closer scrutiny than those in less structured jurisdictions. Circle has continued to expand its presence within that framework rather than avoid it.
Jeremy Allaire, Circle’s Co-Founder, Chairman, and CEO, called the charter “a longstanding objective for Circle given the regulatory clarity that comes with it.”
He described NYDFS as an international standard setter for digital asset regulation. Allaire connected the charter directly to Circle’s New York roots and its ongoing regulatory commitments.
Circle shared the announcement through its official account on X, stating the charter was “a meaningful step in strengthening the regulatory foundation behind Circle and USDC.” The post framed the update as foundational for the company and its stablecoin.
Circle has received a limited purpose trust charter from the New York Department of Financial Services for Circle New York Trust.
A meaningful step in strengthening the regulatory foundation behind Circle and USDC.https://t.co/RXX8Hkg1Yu
— Circle (@circle) July 31, 2026
USDC Positioned Within Broader Compliance Structure USDC now sits within a trust framework that adds another layer of oversight beyond existing licenses. The Circle New York Trust charter joins a wider array of U.S. and international approvals Circle has accumulated over time. Each license contributes to a compliance structure spanning multiple jurisdictions and regulatory bodies.
Stablecoins have taken on a larger role in global finance in recent years. Digital dollars increasingly move through payment systems, exchanges, and institutional platforms worldwide.
Regulatory clarity has become a central factor for companies operating in this space. Circle’s approach has consistently favored formal licensing over operating in gray areas.
The trust charter does not replace Circle’s existing licenses but adds to them. It reflects a pattern the company has followed since its first BitLicense approval.
Circle has pursued additional charters and registrations as its footprint has grown. This latest approval continues that trajectory rather than marking a singular shift.
Allaire tied the charter to USDC’s broader standing, saying it “positions USDC within a strong, respected framework as digital dollars become central to the global financial system.” The statement reflects Circle’s stated priority of formal compliance across the markets it serves.
TLDR Circle received a limited-purpose trust charter from the New York Department of Financial Services. Circle Internet Trust Company LLC will operate as Circle New York Trust. The approval expands Circle’s regulated framework as stablecoin adoption continues to grow. Circle became the first company to receive a New York BitLicense in 2015. The company also recently gained OCC approval to establish a national digital currency bank. Circle Internet Group has secured a limited-purpose trust charter from the New York Department of Financial Services. The approval allows Circle Internet Trust Company LLC to operate as Circle New York Trust.
The move expands Circle’s regulated presence as stablecoin use grows across payments and digital finance. The company said the charter supports safety, transparency, compliance, and customer protection.
Circle Builds Its New York Regulatory Base Circle has worked with NYDFS for more than a decade. In 2015, the company became the first business to receive a BitLicense.
The new charter places its New York operations under a trust framework. It gives Circle another regulated structure for supporting USDC and digital dollar services.
Circle CEO Jeremy Allaire said the New York trust charter had remained a long-term company goal. He said the framework gives the company greater regulatory clarity in a major market.
Allaire also said New York remains Circle’s global headquarters. He added that NYDFS has built a respected approach to digital asset oversight and safeguards.
Federal Approval Expands Circle’s Reach Earlier in July, Circle received approval from the US Office of the Comptroller of the Currency. That approval allows the company to establish First National Digital Currency Bank, N.A.
The federal approval and New York charter give Circle two regulated paths for expanding services. Both approvals arrive as businesses and financial firms increase stablecoin use for settlement and transfers.
USDC remains one of the largest dollar-backed stablecoins in the market. Users rely on it for payments, trading, transfers, and access to digital services.
Circle said it will continue to follow strict compliance and transparency standards. The company also plans to support digital dollar adoption through regulated products and financial infrastructure.
Circle (CRCL) has received a limited-purpose trust charter from the New York Department of Financial Services for Circle Internet Trust Company LLC, doing business as Circle New York Trust, the company said Friday.
The charter further solidifies a regulatory foundation for Circle and its (USDC) stablecoin in the state, which the company calls its global headquarters. It arrives weeks after Circle secured final approval from the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency to establish a national trust bank, as The Block reported.
Federal and state approvals It’s important to note that the two approvals sit at different levels of the U.S. system.
The OCC clearance, granted on July 10, established First National Digital Currency Bank, N.A., operating as Circle National Trust, under federal oversight for fiduciary custody of digital assets. Notably, management of the USDC reserve, which forms the original aim of Circle's application, is deferred to a later phase.
Meanwhile, the New York charter is a state-level license, and Circle's earlier federal coverage also indicated that USDC issuance would route through a New York limited-purpose trust company rather than a national bank.
Circle was the first company to receive a BitLicense from NYDFS in 2015, beginning a relationship with the agency that now spans more than a decade.
"Earning a New York trust charter has been a longstanding objective for Circle given the regulatory clarity that comes with it," said Jeremy Allaire, co-founder, chairman and chief executive of Circle.
Allaire added that the NYDFS is an international standard setter for digital asset regulation and that the charter positions USDC within a respected framework as digital dollars move toward the center of the global financial system.
Circle operates the largest regulated stablecoin network anchored by USDC, alongside its Circle Payments Network and the Arc blockchain. Per The Block’s data, USDC ranks as the second-largest dollar-pegged stablecoin in a list topped by Tether’s (USDT).
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This is a general announcement. Products and services referred to here may not be available in your region. Terms and conditions apply. Fellow Binancians, Binance is thrilled to launch an August Affiliate Dual-Star Program featuring an exciting prize pool of 500,000 USDC! This promotion is exclusively for Binance Affiliates, designed to incentivise our top-performing affiliates who drive new trader growth and activity. Eligible affiliates can earn up to 2,000 USDC in rewards by achieving the required performance tiers. Join Now Promotion Period: 2026-08-01 00:00 (UTC) to 2026-08-31 23:59 (UTC) Promotion A: Affiliate Exclusive - Share Up to 450,000 USDC by Hitting Dual Targets How to Participate: During the Promotion Period, eligible affiliates who complete the following steps can participate and win rewards: Step 1: Confirm your participation by clicking the [Join Now] button on the Promotion Page.Step 2: Invite new friends via your Referral Pro Link/ID to register on Binance.Step 3: Once your new and existing regular to VIP 2 referrals trade a certain amount on Binance Spot, Margin or Futures during the Promotion Period, you qualify for higher tiers by meeting the minimum criteria detailed in the reward structure table below. Reward Structure: TiersReward per Eligible Participant (in USDC Token Vouchers)CriteriaMinimum Spot, Margin and Futures Trading Volume Generated by All New & Existing Regular to VIP 2 Referrals During the Promotion Period (USD)ANDMinimum Number of First-Time* Spot, Margin and Futures Traders During the Promotion Period12,00045,000,0001025,000,0003010,000,0006021,00025,000,000815,000,000206,000,00040350012,000,00068,000,000153,000,0002542506,000,00044,000,000102,000,0001551003,000,00032,000,00051,500,00010 Notes: Leaderboard data will only be calculated based on referrals from Referral Pro Mode.Trading volume from zero-fee trading pairs during the Promotion Period will not be counted toward the leaderboard calculation.*A “first-time trader” is a user who has never traded Spot, Margin or Futures before and conducted their first trade of at least $50 equivalent during the Promotion Period, regardless of when they have registered for an account. Each eligible participant is entitled to receive only the highest-tier reward for which they qualify under this Promotion.The Trading Volume and New Traders Leaderboard is updated with a maximum delay of 2 days (T+2). The final leaderboard, reflecting the total trading volume of new referrals after completing risk check, will be confirmed by 2026-09-02 (T+2). For example, data from 2026-08-01 will be visible on the Trading Volume and New Traders Leaderboard by 2026-08-03.Binance reserves the final right of interpretation of trading volume figures. Promotion B: Affiliate Exclusive - Share Up to 50,000 USDC by Competing in Global Leaderboards This promotion will rank all eligible participants on the following leaderboards based on their cumulative referral performance from 2026-06-01 00:00 (UTC) to 2026-08-31 23:59 (UTC): Global New Trader Leaderboard: Eligible Participants’ New Trader Leaderboard RankingsReward per Eligible Participant (in USDC Token Vouchers)1st Place5,0002nd Place3,5003rd Place2,5004th - 10th Places1,000 each11th - 20th Places400 each21st - 30th Places300 each Global Trading Volume Leaderboard: Eligible Participants’ Trading Volume Leaderboard RankingsReward per Eligible Participant (in USDC Token Vouchers)1st Place5,0002nd Place3,5003rd Place2,5004th - 10th Places1,000 each11th - 20th Places400 each21st - 30th Places300 each Promotion C: Affiliate Exclusive Special Reward - Win an All Expenses-Paid Trip to Binance Affiliate Campus All eligible affiliates who register for the Promotion will have the opportunity to earn an exclusive invitation to Binance Affiliate Campus. To qualify, participants must meet all of the following requirements: Achieve the highest increase referral performance compared with July 2026 in either:First-time Traders; orTrading Volume generated by all referralsPublish at least one Binance Trad-fi related post in social media and submit the content link through this content submission survey link.Not be included on the original Binance Affiliate Campus invitation list. If the first-ranked affiliate is already on the original Binance Affiliate Campus invitation list, the reward will be awarded to the next highest-ranked eligible affiliate. Up to 2 eligible affiliates will each receive an exclusive invitation to Binance Affiliate Campus: One affiliate with the highest increase in First-Time Traders; andOne affiliate with the highest increase in Trading Volume generated by all referrals. Each exclusive invitation includes: Invitation to the Binance Affiliate CampusOne round-trip flight ticketHotel accommodation for oneVIP & Creators NetworkingBinance Leadership SessionsProduct WorkshopsExclusive Merchandise Terms & Conditions: This Promotion is open to affiliates only. Only users in certain regions are eligible to join this Promotion. Users in restricted regions are disqualified from participating in the Binance Referral Program as referrers or referred users.All affiliates are bound by the Affiliate Program Terms and are specifically reminded to follow the Code of Conduct when carrying out any activities in the capacity of an affiliate. These terms and conditions (“Activity Terms”) govern users’ participation in the August Affiliate Dual-Star Program (“Activity”). By participating in this Activity, users agree to these Activity Terms, and the following additional terms: (a) Binance Terms and Conditions for Prize Promotions; (b) Binance Terms of Use; and (c) Binance Privacy Notice; all of which are incorporated by reference into these terms and conditions. In the case of any inconsistency or conflict between these Activity Terms, and any other incorporated terms, the provisions of these Activity Terms shall prevail, followed by the following in this order of precedence, and to the extent of such conflict: (a) Binance Terms and Conditions for Prize Promotions; (b) Binance Terms of Use; and (c) Binance Privacy Notice.Rewards from this Promotion are mutually exclusive with certain Affiliate-exclusive campaign rewards. If a user earns a reward in an Affiliate-exclusive campaign, they will not be eligible to receive rewards from this Promotion. Binance reserves the right of final decision.Binance will use the price of the USDC trading pair at the time of trading to calculate the value of the trades completed on Binance Spot and Binance Margin during the Promotion Period. If there is no USDC pair for a specific cryptocurrency, it will be converted to another token or coin with a USDC pair to determine its value. All trading volumes on Spot zero-fee trading pairs (AEURUSDT, BNBJPY, BTCJPY, EUREURI, EURIUSDT, FDUSDUSDC, FDUSDUSDT, RLUSDU, RLUSDUSDT, TUSDUSDT, USD1USDC, USD1USDT, USDCUSD, USDCUSDT, USDPUSDT, USDTUSD, UUSDC, UUSDT, XUSDUSDT) will not be considered as qualifying trading volume for the purposes of this Promotion. In compliance with MiCA requirements, unauthorized stablecoins are subject to certain restrictions for EEA users. Trading volumes on all FDUSD, TUSD, and USDT trading pairs will not count toward the trading volume requirement for EEA users in this Promotion. For more information, please click here.Each new user can only be referred to Binance via one referral mode. If a new user registers for a Binance account via Referral Pro mode, the referrer will not be eligible for any rewards from limited-time activity referral ID/link nor $100 trading fee rebate voucher from Referral mode.Sub-accounts cannot be used to participate in this Promotion as either a referrer or a referral. Spot trades that are completed with a sub-account will not count toward the trading volume requirement.Any references to “$” means “United States Dollar”, unless otherwise stated.Reward Distribution:Eligible users must complete account verification (KYC) during the Promotion Period to receive the corresponding rewards. The rewards for will be distributed on a first-come, first-served basis, based on the time of opt in to this campaign.All rewards will be distributed in token vouchers by 2026-09-26 after the Activities end. Users will be able to log in and redeem their token voucher rewards via Profile > Rewards Hub. The validity period to claim the token voucher is set at 14 days from the day of distribution. Users should redeem the token vouchers before the expiry date. Thereafter, the token vouchers will become invalid. Learn how to redeem a voucher. Binance reserves the right to disqualify any participants who tamper with Binance program code, or interfere with the operation of Binance program code with other software.Binance reserves the right to disqualify and revoke rewards for participants who engage in dishonest or abusive activities during the Promotion, including but not limited to registering from the same IP or device, bulk-account registrations to farm additional bonuses and any other Promotion in connection with unlawful, fraudulent, or harmful purposes.At Binance's sole discretion, user participation will be considered without effect and users will automatically be excluded, disqualified and prevented from accumulating benefits, in cases where it is identified: Any violations of Binance's Terms of Use and other legal terms, as well as attempted or proven fraud, human and/or through the use of technology; Manipulation of results or failure to fulfill the requirements and provisions set forth in these Terms and Conditions; Completion, by the user, of incorrect, outdated, mistaken information or filled with untrue information, and may also be liable for the crime of ideological or documental falsehood; Registrations and participations for which any technological means have been used or there are indications of their use, whether electronic, computerized, digital, robotic, repetitive, automatic, mechanical and/or analogous, with the intention of automatic and/or repetitive reproduction of registrations, identical or not, which will also result in the nullity of all registrations and participations made by the user who has used one of the aforementioned means or for one of the aforementioned purposes, even if not all registrations or participations have resulted from the use of such means and/or were carried out with such purpose.Binance reserves the right at any time in its sole and absolute discretion to determine and/or amend or vary these terms and conditions without prior notice, including but not limited to canceling, extending, terminating, or suspending these activities, the eligibility terms and criteria, the selection and number of winners, and the timing of any act to be done, and all Participants shall be bound by these amendments.There may be discrepancies between this original content in English and any translated versions. Please refer to the original English version for the most accurate information, in case any discrepancies arise. Thank you for your support! Binance Team 2026-07-31
Circle Internet Group, Inc. (CRCL), the issuer of USDC, the world’s second-largest stablecoin, announced Friday that it secured a limited purpose trust charter from the New York Department of Financial Services (NYDFS).
The trust charter is an official state banking authorization that allows the holder to legally provide fiduciary, custody and asset-management services under the New York Banking Law.
“Earning a New York trust charter has been a longstanding objective for Circle given the regulatory clarity that comes with it,” said Jeremy Allaire, Co-Founder, Chairman, and CEO of Circle.
Circle’s stock price remains flat Friday morning at $64.24 and its stablecoin USDC has a market capitalization exceeding $71.8 billion.
Earlier this month, Circle received approval from the U.S. Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) to establish a national trust bank.
National trust banks are authorized to provide users with custody and fiduciary services but do not accept consumer deposits or make loans like traditional commercial banks.
The stablecoin issuer said the national bank would "enhance the safety and regulatory oversight of the USDC Reserve, while enabling Circle to offer fiduciary digital asset custody and related services to institutional customers."
Several other crypto firms have secured the limited purpose trust charter from the NYFDS prior to Circle, including Coinbase, Moonpay, Bitgo and Paxos.
Circle was the first company to receive a BitLicense from the NYDFS nearly six years ago.
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The Evolution of the Crypto CEX Landscape: A Case Study on Binance
The Evolution of the Crypto CEX Landscape: A Case Study on Binance
Binance remains crypto’s leading exchange, expanding from spot and derivatives into RWAs, payments, savings, yield, and broader financial services.
Jun 29, 2026
Binance remains crypto’s leading exchange, expanding from spot and derivatives into RWAs, payments, savings, yield, and broader financial services.
Why it matters:
Binance remains crypto’s leading exchange, expanding from spot and derivatives into RWAs, payments, savings, yield, and broader financial services.
Circle scores a major New York trust charter for USDC, matching Ripple’s compliance edge, but CRCL stock faces an unexpected intraday slide.
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New York authorities have granted a limited-purpose trust charter to Circle New York Trust. For the issuer of the USDC stablecoin, this is a direct challenge to its main competitor, Ripple. The latter received similar approval from the NYDFS for its RLUSD stablecoin back in December 2024, targeting a market expected to reach $2 trillion by 2028.
Circle has now eliminated that lead, while CEO Jeremy Allaire said that "the race-to-the-top regulatory strategy continues."
USDC's regulatory foundation is getting stronger.
Circle has received a limited purpose trust charter from the New York Department of Financial Services for Circle New York Trust.https://t.co/ZjDlOF6Jht
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— USDC (@USDC) July 31, 2026 Trust status completely changes the way the company handles money. Circle can now hold the multibillion-dollar reserves backing its stablecoin itself, under the direct supervision of New York financial regulators. It no longer needs to depend on third-party commercial banks or risk losing funds in the event of a bank failure.
For Wall Street, this is a clear and legally recognized signal that institutions can now work directly with USDC.
How Circle's dual licensing works and why CRCL stock dropped anywayNew York is Circle's home market. In 2015, the company became one of the first to receive the state's well-known BitLicense. Circle has now addressed regulatory matters at both the state and federal levels. The new state charter will operate alongside the federal national trust charter previously conditionally approved by the OCC.
Commenting on the development, Allaire said that the company is now building "fundamental financial market infrastructure under supervision that spans the globe, the nation, and the world's most important financial capital."
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According to the Circle CEO, the new charter "firmly integrates USDC into a recognized legal framework" at a time when, as he emphasized, "digital dollars are playing an increasingly important role in the global financial system."
However, shares of Circle Internet Group, Circle's parent company listed on the NYSE under the ticker CRCL, ignored the major announcement. During trading on July 31, the stock fell to $60.78, completely erasing the previous session's gains and recording a steep intraday decline despite the strong fundamental catalyst.
Circle Internet Group (NYSE: CRCL) has received a limited-purpose trust charter from the New York Department of Financial Services (NYDFS) for Circle Internet Trust Company LLC, also known as Circle New York Trust.
The Circle NYDFS trust charter, announced on July 31, 2026, finalizes a dual regulatory structure that pairs state-level USDC issuance oversight with the federal custody powers Circle won from the OCC earlier this month.
What the NYDFS Charter Means for USDC and CRCL Investors CEO Jeremy Allaire described the approval as a “longstanding objective” for the company. NYDFS is an international standard-setter for digital asset regulation.
Allaire said the charter positions USDC within a “strong, respected framework as digital dollars become central to the global financial system.”
The NYDFS approval arrives just three weeks after Circle secured final OCC authorization for its national trust bank, Circle National Trust.
As CoinGape reported, Circle’s OCC national crypto bank approval sent CRCL stock surging 10% on July 10. That federal charter enables fiduciary digital-asset custody and, eventually, management of USDC reserves under direct federal oversight.
The Circle NYDFS trust charter grants Circle New York Trust fiduciary powers and the right to conduct virtual-currency business under New York Banking Law.
USDC issuance is expected to migrate to the NY entity over time. The OCC national trust bank will handle custody and collateral-trustee functions.
Together, the two charters create a state-federal compliance stack that rivals like Tether cannot currently match.
The timing matters. USDC already leads the stablecoin market by volume. USDC recorded $1.2 trillion in June stablecoin volumes, two times higher than USDT’s $573 billion per on-chain data.
Regulated issuance via a NYDFS trust company is designed to deepen institutional confidence and attract further flows into USDC. The dual-charter structure also sits neatly inside the GENIUS Act framework.
CRCL’s stock outlook ahead of the July 18 GENIUS Act rule deadline was already a top investor question last week.
A fully chartered, bank-grade USDC issuer fits that regulatory architecture cleanly, reducing counterparty risk for large institutional holders.
From BitLicense Pioneer to Full Trust Infrastructure Circle’s relationship with NYDFS goes back more than a decade. In 2015, it became the very first company to receive a BitLicense, the agency’s foundational virtual-currency operating license.
That early regulatory bet has now compounded into full trust-company status, a more powerful designation that carries fiduciary responsibilities and direct supervisory oversight.
Institutional appetite for regulated USDC infrastructure has been building in parallel. Standard Chartered recently became the first G-SIB to offer institutional access to USDC via a regulated banking channel.
Standard Chartered’s USDC rollout in Dubai showed how deeply the stablecoin has embedded itself into traditional finance. The NYDFS charter is designed to sustain that institutional trust at scale.
Risks remain real. Competition from the new OpenUSD stablecoin and interest-rate sensitivity on reserve income are live concerns.
Baird trimmed its CRCL price target this month and warned that newer stablecoin entrants could erode market share.
But the Circle NYDFS trust charter, stacked on top of OCC custody powers, sets a compliance benchmark that is difficult and slow for rivals to replicate.
Our guide compares top decentralized futures exchanges by liquidity and fees.
Circle, the company behind the USDC stablecoin, has secured a limited-purpose trust charter from New York authorities. This regulatory approval comes several months after Ripple, a prominent blockchain company, received similar clearance from the New York State Department of Financial Services (NYDFS) in December 2024 for its RLUSD stablecoin. Both firms are targeting a rapidly expanding market, with industry forecasts projecting the stablecoin sector could reach $2 trillion by 2028.
USDC issuer gains new regulatory statusWith this new charter, Circle closes the gap with Ripple in terms of regulatory standing for digital dollar issuers operating in New York. CEO Jeremy Allaire signaled the victory by stating that Circle’s “race-to-the-top regulatory strategy continues.”
The trust charter marks a significant change in Circle’s business operations. Now, Circle is permitted to hold the multibillion-dollar reserves backing USDC directly, under the watch of New York’s regulators. Previously, the company relied on external commercial banks for custody of these reserves, which exposed Circle to the risks associated with third-party banking failures.
For major financial institutions on Wall Street, this development provides important legal clarity. Firms can now interact with USDC directly in a framework recognized by the state.
Licensing details and recent stock performanceFounded in 2013, Circle has positioned New York as a central market for its stablecoin operations. The company was among the first to receive the state’s BitLicense in 2015, which was designed to regulate digital asset businesses and promote consumer protection.
Circle now holds both a state trust charter and a conditional federal charter from the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC), which allows it to operate under both New York state and federal oversight. This dual licensing strategy is intended to bolster confidence among both regulators and institutional partners.
Jeremy Allaire remarked that Circle is building “fundamental financial market infrastructure under supervision that spans the globe, the nation, and the world’s most important financial capital.” He also stated that USDC is now “firmly integrated into a recognized legal framework” at a time when digital dollars are gaining global significance.
Circle’s trust charter places USDC reserves under direct oversight of New York regulators, reducing reliance on outside banks and providing fresh legal certainty for institutional investors.
Despite these regulatory advances, shares of Circle Internet Group, the parent company of Circle, declined sharply on July 31. The CRCL stock dropped to $60.78 during trading, reversing previous session gains and logging a significant single-day loss, despite the regulatory breakthrough.
Mini dictionary: Limited-purpose trust charter — A special category of regulatory approval granted by New York that allows financial firms to independently hold client assets and operate under direct state supervision, ensuring strong consumer protections.
Stablecoin IssuerCharter ApprovalProductMarket Target YearCurrent Market ValueCircleJuly 2024USDC2028$2 trillion (projected)RippleDecember 2024RLUSD2028$2 trillion (projected)Circle Internet Group is the publicly traded parent company of Circle, listed on the New York Stock Exchange as CRCL. The decline in stock price despite positive regulatory news reflects broader market dynamics and potential investor uncertainty.
Disclaimer: The information contained in this article does not constitute investment advice. Investors should be aware that cryptocurrencies carry high volatility and therefore risk, and should conduct their own research.
Not financial or tax advice. PANews content is strictly educational and informational and is not investment advice, financial advice, tax advice, legal advice, or a solicitation to buy or sell any digital asset, security, or financial product. Do your own research and consult qualified advisers.
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Iran claims to have closed the Strait of Hormuz, U.S. Central Command denies.
Local time on July 31, the U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM) stated that "the Iranian government's renewed claim that it has closed the Strait of Hormuz is false." CENTCOM added that "the Strait of Hormuz remains open for merchant vessel traffic; Iran does not control the strait," noting that "thousands of ships have transited this international waterway over the past four months." Earlier on July 31, Iran's Persian Gulf Strait Administration issued a statement saying that due to the U.S. military's continued aggressive operations in the relevant waters, the Strait of Hormuz is currently not normally navigable. (Source: CCTV)
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Jensen Huang: "Now is the best time in history to start a business—don’t overthink ‘how hard can it be’."
According to Fortune, NVIDIA CEO Jensen Huang told attendees at Y Combinator’s Startup School 2026 that the present is the best time in history to launch a company, advising young entrepreneurs not to overthink due to rapid technological shifts or fear of failure. When facing challenges, he suggested asking himself: “How hard can it be?” Huang emphasized that entrepreneurs don’t need all the answers from day one; the core is being willing to confront reality and continuously learn. In NVIDIA’s early days, the company bet on the wrong graphics technology. When the team lacked solutions, he purchased three technical textbooks and gave them to his engineers. He noted that as long as one retains a learning mindset, specific technologies themselves are not the most critical factor. That said, Huang doesn’t believe success comes easily. He revealed he still works seven days a week and has long worried about the company collapsing; this sense of vulnerability, uncertainty, and insecurity has never faded. His advice: don’t imagine all difficulties in advance, lest anxiety derail action, but let challenges arise gradually and solve them one by one. Data shows U.S. business applications hit a record 3.23 million in the first half of 2026, up 12.1% year-over-year. However, startup risks remain high: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics data indicates nearly half of businesses cease operations within five years of launch.
3 minutes ago
Trump’s approval rating has dropped to its lowest level since his second term.
Political analyst Nate Silver said that due to the ongoing unpopular Iran war and surging natural gas prices, President Trump’s approval rating has dropped to its lowest point since his second term this month. He noted, “The timing aligns closely with the rebound in natural gas prices and the resumption of hostilities in Iran.” As the war nears its sixth month, data from the American Automobile Association (AAA) shows that as of Friday morning, the average U.S. gasoline price stood at around $4.11 per gallon, up from roughly $3.15 a year ago. According to polling averages from Decision Desk HQ, Trump’s overall average approval rating was 40.6% as of Friday morning, while his average disapproval rating reached 57.5%. A Quinnipiac University poll found that 60% of U.S. voters oppose the war, the highest opposition rate recorded since the conflict began on February 28. Nearly three-quarters of Americans said they oppose deploying U.S. troops to Iran. An AP-NORC poll also showed that 64% of Americans consider the war “not worth it”; among them, 87% of Democratic voters, 37% of Republican voters, and 68% of independent voters hold this view. (Jin10)
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Tom Lee: South Korean stock market may be in the final stage of bottoming out
Chairman Tom Lee of Bitmine, the largest Ethereum treasury company, posted a statement saying that given South Korean policymakers have begun showing "panic", South Korea's stock market may be in the final stage of bottoming out. He cited the view of David Tepper, founder of Appaloosa and a well-known fund manager, stating: "When policymakers start panicking, the market stops panicking."
3 minutes ago
FTX’s fifth round of compensation payments has been deposited into creditors’ accounts.
FTX creditor representative Sunil announced in a post that FTX’s creditor distributions have been deposited into creditors’ accounts. Earlier reports noted FTX will launch its fifth round of creditor compensation on July 31, with plans to disburse roughly $900 million to creditors in the "Convenience" and "Non-Convenience" categories under the firm’s restructuring plan. With this round of distributions, the FTX Recovery Trust’s total compensation disbursements since FTX filed for bankruptcy in November 2022 will reach approximately $10 billion.
In brief Circle received a limited-purpose trust charter from the New York Department of Financial Services. The charter allows Circle to operate a New York trust company that can provide digital asset custody but cannot accept deposits or make loans like a traditional bank. The approval follows Circle's recent federal banking charter approval and its acquisition of IBM's blockchain patent portfolio. Circle has received a limited purpose trust charter from the New York Department of Financial Services (NYDFS), giving the USDC stablecoin issuer another regulatory approval as it expands its operations.
The company said Friday that under the charter Circle will do business as Circle New York Trust, noting that the charter builds on the BitLicense it received in 2015.
"Earning a New York trust charter has been a longstanding objective for Circle," CEO Jeremy Allaire said in a statement, calling the approval an important milestone for the company. “This charter reflects over a decade of regulatory commitment and positions USDC within a strong, respected framework as digital dollars become central to the global financial system."
The charter places Circle New York Trust under the supervision of the New York Department of Financial Services. A limited purpose trust company cannot accept customer deposits or make loans like a traditional bank. Instead, it can provide services such as holding digital assets on behalf of customers and acting in a fiduciary role under New York banking law.
Following the announcement, shares of Circle rose 8.4% on the day at around $68.40, according to Yahoo Finance.
The announcement follows several recent moves by Circle.
Earlier this month, the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency approved the company's application to establish a national trust bank, allowing Circle to move key USDC operations under a federal banking framework and offer digital asset custody services.
More recently, on Monday, Circle acquired IBM's blockchain patent portfolio, adding nearly 1,000 patents covering blockchain technology, financial services, and enterprise software. The company said it plans to use the portfolio across USDC, the Circle Payments Network, and its Arc blockchain.
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Trump’s approval rating has dropped to its lowest level since his second term.
Political analyst Nate Silver said that due to the ongoing unpopular Iran war and surging natural gas prices, President Trump’s approval rating has dropped to its lowest point since his second term this month. He noted, “The timing aligns closely with the rebound in natural gas prices and the resumption of hostilities in Iran.” As the war nears its sixth month, data from the American Automobile Association (AAA) shows that as of Friday morning, the average U.S. gasoline price stood at around $4.11 per gallon, up from roughly $3.15 a year ago. According to polling averages from Decision Desk HQ, Trump’s overall average approval rating was 40.6% as of Friday morning, while his average disapproval rating reached 57.5%. A Quinnipiac University poll found that 60% of U.S. voters oppose the war, the highest opposition rate recorded since the conflict began on February 28. Nearly three-quarters of Americans said they oppose deploying U.S. troops to Iran. An AP-NORC poll also showed that 64% of Americans consider the war “not worth it”; among them, 87% of Democratic voters, 37% of Republican voters, and 68% of independent voters hold this view. (Jin10)
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Tom Lee: South Korean stock market may be in the final stage of bottoming out
Chairman Tom Lee of Bitmine, the largest Ethereum treasury company, posted a statement saying that given South Korean policymakers have begun showing "panic", South Korea's stock market may be in the final stage of bottoming out. He cited the view of David Tepper, founder of Appaloosa and a well-known fund manager, stating: "When policymakers start panicking, the market stops panicking."
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FTX’s fifth round of compensation payments has been deposited into creditors’ accounts.
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OpenAI: Over 1 Billion Active Users, to Cut AI Costs via Full-Stack Development
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After the unlock of HYPE team tokens, the team has cashed out a total of about $165 million. During the same period, the assistance fund spent roughly $364 million to repurchase HYPE.
According to MLM monitoring, since unlocks for the HYPE team’s tokens launched in December 2025, 4.93 million HYPE tokens have been allocated to team members. At current prices, this allocation is worth roughly $270 million, representing 0.493% of the total token supply. Of these tokens, 1.19 million have been sold on public markets, netting $32.5 million in proceeds; another 3.14 million HYPE tokens were transferred to over-the-counter (OTC) trading platforms, valued at approximately $132 million at the time of transfer. In total, around 4.33 million HYPE tokens have been sold for about $165 million, translating to an average monthly sell volume of 540,000 HYPE tokens worth roughly $20.6 million. Over the same period, the aid fund has cumulatively repurchased 9.8 million HYPE tokens for a total of $364 million, averaging 1.23 million HYPE tokens repurchased monthly at a value of around $46 million. This repurchase pace is more than twice the sell rate of current and former team members.
According to data on current account and earn products of major centralized exchanges (CEXs) compiled on July 30, stablecoin current yields on platforms including HTX, Binance, OKX, and Bitget are mainly structured as "high yields for small amounts, tiered reductions for excess amounts", with small-tier yields for USDT and USDC standing out relatively. In terms of USDT: HTX offers an annualized yield of 10% for the 0-200 USDT tier, dropping to 1.95% for amounts exceeding 200 USDT; Bitget’s 0-300 USDT tier yields 6.42% annually, falling to 1.76% for excess amounts; Binance’s 0-200 USDT tier has a 4.69% annualized yield, with excess amounts at 1.69%; OKX’s USDT yield is 1.65%. For USDC: HTX’s 0-200 USDC tier shows an annualized yield of 8%, dropping to 2.75% for amounts over 200 USDC; Binance’s 0-200 USDC tier yields 7.09% annually, with excess amounts at 2.09%; Bitget’s 0-300 USDC tier has a 6.66% annualized yield, falling to 1.36% for excess amounts; OKX’s USDC yield is 1.96%. For other stablecoins: HTX’s USDT VIP tier offers an annualized yield of 6%-9% for a limit of 50,000-100,000 USDT; Bitget’s USDT VIP 0-300,000 tier yields 1.88% annually, with excess amounts at 1.06%. USDE’s displayed annualized yields on HTX, Binance, and Bitget are tiered at 5%/3%, 4.00%, and 1.00% respectively; HTX’s USDD yields 4.00%; Binance’s U product has an annualized yield of 8.55% for the 0-8,000 tier, dropping to 0.55% for excess amounts. Overall, current high stablecoin current yields on major CEXs are concentrated in small amounts, with yields generally declining for large sums. When comparing related products, users should not only focus on nominal annualized yields but also consider tier limits, interest calculation rules, supported currencies, and real-time product availability. The above data are platform-displayed yields and do not constitute investment advice.
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MEXC, a pioneer in 0-fee digital asset trading, will list Grvt (GRVT) in the Innovation Zone, with the GRVT/USDT pair opening at 12:00 (UTC) and the GRVT/USDC pair opening at 12:20 (UTC) on July 30, 2026. To mark the listing, MEXC has launched the Grvt (GRVT) Airdrop+ event, offering a combined prize pool worth $60,000 in GRVT and 10,000 USDT.
Grvt is a self-custodial on-chain wealth platform unifying Earn, Invest, Trade, and Pay within a single, user-controlled balance, built on a custom ZKsync Validium Layer 2 for CEX-grade performance. Since December 2024, Grvt has operated as the world’s first licensed perpetual DEX. The total supply of GRVT is fixed at 1 billion tokens.
The Grvt (GRVT) Airdrop+ event is now underway, running from July 30, 2026, 10:00 (UTC) to August 13, 2026, 10:00 (UTC), with three ways to participate: depositing and trading GRVT to share GRVT tokens worth $54,000, trading LIT to share GRVT tokens worth $6,000, and trading GRVT futures to share 10,000 USDT in futures bonuses. Full event details are available on the official event page.
The listing of GRVT reflects MEXC’s ongoing commitment to providing users with early access to emerging digital assets. As the Gateway to Infinite Opportunities, MEXC enables users to trade cryptocurrencies alongside real-world assets, including U.S. stocks, ETFs, commodities, and precious metals, within a single account. Through rapid asset listings, an extensive selection of assets, industry-leading liquidity, and a 0-fee trading model, MEXC empowers users worldwide to seize opportunities across an evolving financial landscape.
About MEXC MEXC is the world’s fastest-growing cryptocurrency exchange, trusted by more than 40 million users across 170+ markets. Built on a user-first philosophy, MEXC offers industry-leading 0-fee trading and access to over 3,000 digital assets. As the Gateway to Infinite Opportunities, MEXC provides a single platform where users can easily trade cryptocurrencies alongside tokenized assets, including stocks, ETFs, commodities, and precious metals.
MEXC Official Website｜ X ｜ Telegram ｜How to Sign Up on MEXC
This content does not constitute investment advice. Given the highly volatile nature of the cryptocurrency market, investors are encouraged to carefully assess market fluctuations, project fundamentals, and potential financial risks before making any trading decisions.
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Circle Mints Additional 250 Million USDC on Solana Network
USDC issuer Circle's USDC Treasury minted an additional 250 million USDC on the Solana blockchain.
CZ: Supports All Meme Coins, May Even Buy or Sell One or Two Meme Coins in the Coming Weeks
CZ responded to community controversy over Giggle Academy selling donated meme coins. CZ stated that he did not communicate with the Giggle Academy team and does not personally manage the relevant addresses. However, Giggle Academy will convert or sell most of the received donation tokens for BNB at the end of each month. Without a prior agreement or contract, sending or donating tokens to someone else's address should not create an expectation that the recipient will handle them according to the sender's wishes, such as burning the tokens. If you hope to interact with someone by sending tokens, you should also be prepared for them to sell the tokens. Tokens donated to Giggle Academy will be sold, and the proceeds will be used to provide free education for children worldwide. The project has reached over 1 million children in less than two years. Finally, CZ expressed support for all meme coins and may even buy (or sell) one or two meme coins in the coming weeks to test some new features.
WEMIX Issues Security Incident Update: Attacker Exploited Vulnerability in Publicly Available On-Chain Smart Contract, No Private Key Leak
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Hyperscale Data Sells 100 Bitcoin to Fund AI Data Center Construction
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Aave Founder: Decision to Offboard Low-Adoption Assets and Networks Should Not Be Interpreted as a View on L1s or L2s
Aave founder Stani Kulechov tweeted that Aave's recent gradual shutdown of low-adoption assets and networks should not be interpreted as a view on any L1 or L2. The goal is simply to reduce Aave's operational, technical, and economic risk exposure in order to focus on higher-impact priorities, such as growing existing high-value markets and expanding into securities financing. L2s remain crucial for Ethereum's user experience. For example, the Aave App's stable treasury uses L2 as its bookkeeping layer, which will onboard mainstream users into DeFi. Similarly, networks like Avalanche are playing a significant role in bringing RWAs on-chain through institutional business development, an area where Ethereum has historically been lacking. Previous report: Aave to phase out 50 low-adoption asset reserves and shut down deployments on 6 chains.
Japanese Listed Company Quantum Solutions Sells 1,000 ETH for AI Infrastructure Business
Japanese listed company Quantum Solutions announced that its consolidated subsidiary GPT Pals Studio Limited (GPT) sold 1,000 ETH for $1.9 million (approximately 311 million yen). The proceeds from this sale will be used for its artificial intelligence infrastructure (AIDC) business, which includes an AI data center. Since autumn 2025, Quantum Solutions has been actively accumulating ETH. As of June 4, 2026, its ETH holdings had reached 6,668.80 ETH, making it the largest ETH holder among Japanese listed companies. The company began selling ETH in June. This is their second sale, with cumulative sales of 1,904 ETH, reducing holdings by about 29% from the peak to 4,764.8 ETH.
Unitree Technology: Preliminary Inquiry Date is August 5, Offline Subscription Date is August 10
Unitree Technology announced that the company will conduct its initial public offering and list on the Science and Technology Innovation Board. This offering will be carried out through a combination of strategic placement, offline issuance, and online issuance. The company plans to publicly issue 40,446,434 shares, accounting for 10% of the total post-issuance share capital, resulting in a total post-issuance share capital of 404,464,340 shares. The preliminary inquiry date is August 5, 2026, and the offline subscription date is August 10, 2026. The company has a special voting rights mechanism, under which the actual controller Wang Xingxing controls a total of 68.78% of voting rights under this differential voting arrangement.
New York State Common Retirement Fund Reduces Strategy Holdings by Approximately $1.06 Million
According to the latest 13F filing submitted by the New York State Common Retirement Fund, the fund reduced its holdings in Strategy during the most recent reporting period, selling 11,400 shares worth approximately $1.06 million; this represented about 3% of its previous holdings, bringing the total shares held to 319,850. Based on MSTR's recent stock price of $93.33, the remaining 319,850 shares are worth approximately $29.8 million. Overseen by New York State Comptroller Thomas P. DiNapoli, the New York State Common Retirement Fund is one of the largest public pension plans in the U.S. The fund manages approximately $295 billion in assets, serving over one million state and local government employees, retirees, and beneficiaries.
1,402 Bitcoin Transferred into Coinbase, 1,800 Bitcoin Transferred Out of Kraken
1,402 bitcoins were transferred from an unknown wallet into Coinbase, worth approximately $90,837,946; 1,800 bitcoins were transferred from Kraken to an unknown wallet, worth approximately $116,607,806.
US Stock Storage Sector Surges, SK Hynix and Micron Technology Soar
According to Bybit, the Dow rose 0.59%, the Nasdaq rose 2.68%, and the S&P 500 rose 1.28%. The U.S. stock storage sector strengthened further, with SK Hynix shares rising 17.15% to $148.35/share. Micron Technology shares rose 16.85% to $864.21/share. Crypto concept stocks broadly rose, with COIN (Coinbase) up 0.77% on the day, and HOOD (Robinhood) down 2.18% on the day.
DeFi lending market sees first rebound in July, active loan balance up 7.2% to $22.2 billion
According to CryptoRank data, July became the first month of growth for the DeFi lending market in 2026. After five consecutive months of decline, the active loan balance across major lending protocols rose from $20.7 billion in June to $22.2 billion in July (a 7.2% increase). Aave continues to lead with an active loan balance of $11 billion and a market share of 46.2%. Aave and Morpho together account for nearly two-thirds of the market share.
Former OpenAI researcher Leopold’s hedge fund liquidates after losses, sells majority of stocks to investment firm Citadel
According to people familiar with the matter, Situational Awareness, a hedge fund founded by former OpenAI researcher Leopold Aschenbrenner, is urgently unwinding a large number of trades to raise capital after suffering significant losses on bets in AI stocks and shorting software stocks. The fund's prime broker, Situational Awareness, has been scrambling to raise funds to meet margin calls. People familiar with the matter said a large investment firm has apparently reached a deal to acquire the fund's publicly traded assets, but the buyer's identity remains unclear. One source revealed that the fund’s size once reached as high as $45 billion in early July before incurring huge losses. Separately, The Wall Street Journal reported, citing people familiar, that the majority of Situational Awareness's equity portfolio has been sold to Citadel, the investment firm run by Ken Griffin.
Analyst: Bitcoin on-chain data shows no signs of capitulation selling, market may face further declines
CryptoQuant analyst Julio Moreno tweeted that Bitcoin on-chain data has yet to show signs of capitulation selling, suggesting the market is either in a mild correction phase or could face further declines. Over the past year, Bitcoin holders have realized losses of approximately 136,000 BTC, whereas in previous cycles, annual realized losses typically reached 1.3 million to 3.7 million BTC when Bitcoin prices bottomed. Either this is the cycle with the lowest loss amount, or there is still plenty of room for further declines ahead. This could mean this cycle has seen the smallest volume of on-chain stop-loss selling, or there could still be significant downside ahead.
South Korea’s Financial Services Commission announces completion of draft Digital Asset Framework Act, may include AI agent payments
South Korea's Financial Services Commission (FSC) announced that it has completed the draft of the Digital Asset Framework Act, with only a few matters remaining to be coordinated, and will expedite the legislative process as much as possible once the National Assembly's agenda for the second half of the year is set. It is reported that South Korea is considering incorporating legal grounds for AI agent payments into the Digital Asset Framework Act, in response to the trend of AI becoming the main entity for small-amount, high-frequency payments in the future. Proposals include providing legal authorization for a regulatory framework covering customer identification (KYC) for AI agent payments, allocation of payment responsibilities, foreign exchange reporting for cross-border transactions, and programmable payment standards.
Benchmark partner questions Anthropic’s push to restrict model distillation: sufficient resources yet unable to detect it themselves
Benchmark partner Chetan Puttagunta posted on X saying it is puzzling that Anthropic is publicly calling for stronger regulation of AI model distillation. He noted that Anthropic is currently a company valued at around $1 trillion with substantial technical and financial resources, and at the scale it describes, so-called "large-scale distillation attacks" should theoretically be relatively easy to identify and track. If Anthropic chooses to restrict such activities, the real cost may not be a lack of technical capability but forgoing some API revenue. "The only cost that needs to be paid seems to be a reduction in related API business revenue." Previously, AI companies like Anthropic have been continuously focusing on the issue of model distillation. Model distillation generally refers to using the outputs of a large model (teacher model) to train another model (student model) to reduce costs and improve efficiency. Some AI companies worry that competitors could obtain model outputs by making large numbers of API calls to train their own models, thereby bypassing the original R&D investment. Puttagunta’s view suggests that the controversy surrounding model distillation in the AI industry essentially involves a balance between commercial interests, open competition, and intellectual property protection. For leading AI companies, how to strike a balance between protecting core technologies and maintaining an open ecosystem will become an important issue in future industry competition.
Former Alibaba VP Jia Yangqing founds Intent Lab, launches autonomous agent team "Fleet"
Jia Yangqing, former Alibaba Vice President of Technology and founder of Lepton AI, announced on X the founding of a new company, Intent Lab, and the launch of an autonomous agent team called "Fleet," aimed at directly transforming users' natural language requirements into software systems ready for production environments. According to the introduction, users only need to describe their development intent, and Fleet can complete the entire workflow from system architecture design, code development, and infrastructure deployment to testing, quality verification, and performance optimization. The goal is not merely code generation, but delivering runnable production-grade software. It is reported that Intent Lab has simultaneously showcased several early achievements, including the GLM-5.2 inference engine, one-click database creation, and a fully verified agent file system.
U.S. Treasury Secretary Bessent: Senate needs to vote on the CLARITY Act immediately
U.S. Treasury Secretary Bessent stated that the Senate needs to vote on the CLARITY ACT immediately.
U.S. CFTC proposes amendments to multiple regulatory rules to strengthen management of conflicts of interest among affiliated entities
The U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) issued a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM) to solicit public comments on amendments to Parts 37, 38, 39, and Sections 1.52 and 1.55 of the CFTC Regulations, with a comment period of 60 days after publication in the Federal Register. The amendments aim to address potential conflicts of interest arising from the increasing interconnections among regulated entities such as derivatives clearing organizations (DCOs), designated contract markets (DCMs), swap execution facilities (SEFs), futures commission merchants (FCMs), and market makers. CFTC Chairman Michael S. Selig stated that the new rules will establish a principles-based regulatory framework for vertically integrated market structures, supporting innovation in U.S. derivatives markets while maintaining market integrity.
Tom Lee: More institutions have come out in support of the CLARITY Act, U.S. must avoid losing its digital finance leadership
Tom Lee, Chairman of Ethereum treasury company Bitmine, posted on X that more and more public institutions and major organizations have come out in support of the CLARITY Act. If the act fails to pass smoothly, the U.S. could lose its leading edge in digital finance and cede dominance to other countries. He also said that as Ethereum celebrates its 11th anniversary, he looks forward to Ethereum achieving "exponential progress" over the next 11 years, continuing to drive the development of digital assets and the blockchain ecosystem.
Kalshi pressures U.S. appeals court to seek change in regulatory direction
Event prediction platform Kalshi and authorities from multiple states are pressuring an appeals court to change the direction of relevant regulations. It is reported that the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit held oral arguments on Thursday on whether Kalshi’s sports event contracts are subject to state gambling laws. During the hearing, a judge questioned Kalshi’s claims, stating it is not yet clear whether the Commodity Exchange Act (CEA) will be broadly interpreted as bringing products that are essentially sports betting fully under the regulatory purview of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), thereby preempting state gambling regulations. The outcome of the case is expected to have a significant impact on the regulatory boundaries for Kalshi and U.S. prediction market platforms.
U.S. Senators Tillis and Gallego Submit New Compromise on Ethics Provisions of the Clarity Act to the White House
Senators Thom Tillis and Ruben Gallego have submitted a new compromise on ethics provisions to the White House, seeking to break the main impasse holding up the Clarity bill. Details of the compromise have not been made public, and the White House did not immediately respond. People familiar with the matter said that in the draft released last week and agreed to by Trump, a sunset clause (meaning the relevant provisions expire on January 20, 2029) effectively renders the entire ethics provisions meaningless, and that Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche, who previously served as Trump’s personal lawyer, is unlikely to take enforcement action before then. With time running short before the Senate recess on August 7, the bill needs 60 votes to pass, and Majority Leader John Thune has said a procedural vote may come first.
Strategy reports $8.2 billion net loss in Q2, Bitcoin holdings up 11%
Strategy posted a net loss of $8.2 billion in the second quarter, compared with a net profit of $10 billion in the same period last year, with the loss almost entirely stemming from unrealized paper losses on its Bitcoin holdings. The company increased its Bitcoin holdings by 11% in Q2 to a peak of 846,000 BTC before beginning to trim some assets. Bitcoin prices fell over 40% from Q2 2025. The company has paused Bitcoin purchases for five consecutive weeks, prioritizing building a U.S. dollar cash reserve, and has sold approximately $218 million worth of Bitcoin this year for preferred stock dividends. CEO Phong Le said the company has reduced convertible debt by 18% to $6.7 billion and increased dollar reserves by 12% to $2.4 billion. The company formally adopted a digital credit capital framework, planning to establish a minimum dollar reserve covering at least 12 months of preferred stock dividends and interest, and authorized a Bitcoin sale program of up to $1.25 billion. CFO Andrew Kang said the company’s dollar reserves now stand at $3.75 billion, enough to cover roughly two years of preferred stock dividends and interest. The company previously repurchased 288,930 shares of STRC preferred stock for $100 million.
Coinbase Q2 revenue of $1.22 billion misses estimates, shares drop 5% after hours
Coinbase reported second-quarter revenue of $1.22 billion, missing market expectations of $1.29 billion, and shares fell roughly 5% in after-hours trading. Transaction revenue was $599 million (estimate $628 million), and subscription and services revenue was $555 million (estimate $599 million). The company added 819 BTC in Q2, bringing total holdings to 17,211 BTC (up 5% quarter-over-quarter). Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong said Coinbase’s share of global crypto trading volume reached a record 10.3%. Coinbase CFO Alesia Haas said the market environment was challenging, with total revenue falling 14% quarter-over-quarter. The earnings report showed that 88% of net revenue came from non-Bitcoin spot trading, and subscription and services revenue (including USDC interest, staking, custody, Coinbase One memberships and institutional services) became a key metric for navigating market cycles. The company posted positive adjusted EBITDA for the 14th consecutive quarter.
Meta reports nearly $700 billion in future spending commitments involving AI data centers and cloud computing
Meta said it has committed nearly $700 billion in future spending through long- and short-term agreements, covering areas such as artificial intelligence data centers and cloud computing. In a regulatory filing on Thursday, Meta said it has $349.3 billion in irrevocable contractual commitments, primarily involving third-party cloud service agreements, servers and network infrastructure. The company also has $347 billion in lease commitments that have not yet commenced and are not reflected on the balance sheet. In July alone, $68 billion was added, with payments starting in 2027 and 2028. These costs are on top of existing active leases and cover data centers, colocation facilities and “a portion of network infrastructure.”
Anthropic discloses three AI model safety testing intrusions
Anthropic said on Thursday that some of its most powerful models gained unauthorized access to real systems during pre-deployment cybersecurity testing. After OpenAI disclosed that its models breached Hugging Face infrastructure during testing, Anthropic reviewed more than 141,000 cybersecurity evaluations and found three intrusion incidents. Due to a misunderstanding with testing partner Irregular, the evaluation environment was inadvertently connected to the internet, allowing Opus4.7, Mythos5, and an internal research model to breach real systems at three organizations. The incidents took place during “capture the flag” tests — where models are tasked with finding hidden information in simulated environments. The incidents date back to April, and Anthropic has contacted the three affected organizations, two of which were previously unaware of the intrusion activity. Unlike the OpenAI incident, Anthropic’s models did not exploit zero-day vulnerabilities but gained network access due to a configuration error. Similar to OpenAI, Anthropic did not deploy additional safeguards during evaluation in order to measure the models’ underlying capabilities. The incidents at OpenAI and Anthropic show that frontier AI models can reach real-world systems during safety testing, raising new questions about how labs should secure their evaluation environments.
OpenAI lowers prices for some GPT-5.6 models
OpenAI announced optimizations to pricing and performance for the GPT-5.6 model series to improve the cost-effectiveness of AI applications for enterprise users. Prices for the GPT-5.6 Luna model were cut by 80%, and prices for the GPT-5.6 Terra model were cut by 20%. The price reductions will also be reflected in the calculation of paid subscription credits when using Codex and ChatGPT Work. OpenAI said GPT-5.6 Luna is the fastest and lowest-cost model in the series, suitable for large-scale, high-frequency task processing, supporting tool calling and multi-step workflows. GPT-5.6 Terra is positioned as a balanced model for everyday work. Additionally, OpenAI launched Fast mode in the API, replacing the previous Priority Processing service. In Fast mode, GPT-5.6 Sol can deliver up to 2.5x the processing speed of standard mode, priced at twice the cost of standard processing, with model capabilities unchanged. OpenAI said the adjustments stem from continuous improvements in model building, deployment and operational efficiency, aimed at lowering the cost of advanced AI technology and helping businesses scale AI adoption more affordably.
IRS warns: Fake official letters and websites being used to steal crypto assets
The IRS Criminal Investigation division warned that scammers are impersonating the IRS to steal crypto wallet assets and personal information through forged official letters. The fraudulent letters contain QR codes directing recipients to fake IRS websites, asking them to register for a non-existent “Digital Asset Compliance Portal” by a deadline and enter personal information. Jarod Koopman, chief of IRS Criminal Investigation, said criminals are exploiting the public’s trust in government agencies to commit fraud, and that the infrastructure for the scam was set up just days before the letters were mailed. The domain was registered through a Hong Kong registrar, and the fake website was hosted on a network in Romania that “was previously known to host FedEx and banking phishing pages,” indicating a “professional, international fraud operation.”
JPMorgan: Declining odds of Clarity bill passing may cloud crypto market outlook
JPMorgan analyst Nikolaos Panigirtzoglou said the declining probability of the Clarity bill passing the Senate by year-end represents a setback for crypto markets, and certain elements of the draft could deter institutional participation. The analyst noted that prediction markets show the bill’s passage probability has fallen to 37% (Kalshi) and 26% (Polymarket), with differences over ethics, enforcement, stablecoin yield, DeFi, and illicit finance still unresolved. The analyst warned that the draft allows DeFi to trade tokenized securities outside the jurisdiction of the SEC or CFTC, and that crypto entities engaging in the same activities as banks would face few AML requirements, potentially weakening institutional willingness to participate. If the bill is further delayed, growth in tokenization and blockchain-based financial applications could be absorbed by traditional financial infrastructure rather than benefiting public crypto networks.
Crypto miners pivoting to AI see shares rally: IREN closes up 30.54%, Bitdeer up 24.72%
Bybit market data shows that shares of six companies at the core of Bitcoin miners' push into AI data centers surged collectively on Thursday. Among them, IREN closed up 30.54% on Thursday, Bitdeer up 24.72%, Riot Platforms up 21.27%, CleanSpark up 21.07%, and HIVE Digital up 18.34%. An analysis by The Block indicates the rally is linked to the forced liquidation of a public equity portfolio by Situational Awareness, a hedge fund run by former OpenAI researcher Leopold Aschenbrenner. The fund unwound its positions to meet margin calls, with Ken Griffin's Citadel absorbing the majority of the shares. After news of the liquidation emerged, stocks of miners that had been heavily sold off in previous weeks rebounded.
South Korean stocks briefly surge 14%, posting record intraday gain
Bybit market data shows that South Korean stocks climbed on Friday, with the benchmark KOSPI index surging as much as 14%, its largest intraday gain on record. Meanwhile, Japanese stocks also got a boost, as the Nikkei 225 rose 4% in early trading and broke above the 64,000 level.
A whale deposits 1.032 million HYPE to exchanges, netting $37.45 million profit over an 18-month holding period
One hour ago, a whale deposited 1.032 million HYPE ($57.6 million) held for 18 months into Coinbase Prime and FalconX, realizing a profit of $37.45 million (+186%). The whale had withdrawn 1.018 million HYPE ($20.15 million) from Gate at an average price of $19.79 in early 2025 and staked it, then fully unstaked today and transferred it to exchanges at $55.8.
Chainalysis: Blockchain prediction market volume hit $20 billion during World Cup
A Chainalysis report shows that during the 2026 FIFA World Cup, blockchain prediction market volume reached $20 billion, digital collectible trading volume hit $24 million, and over 400,000 wallets participated in on-chain betting. Around $5.7 billion was wagered during the five weeks of the tournament, and World Cup-related markets accounted for 63% of all prediction market activity in the same period. Users spanned every continent except Antarctica, with the United States generating the highest volume. Illicit participation was under 1%, though roughly $5.4 million in funds came from sanctioned entities and other illicit sources. On the digital collectibles front, FIFA Collect NFT trading volume was about $24 million, more than 100,000 match tickets were distributed through the platform, and wallets linked to sanctioned entities accounted for less than 0.01%, partly attributed to the platform’s identity verification requirements. Chainalysis said blockchain will play a greater role in major global events, and compliance measures are critical for platforms to attract broader participation.
Coinkite warns that seed phrases generated by Coldcard Mk3 devices could be at risk of fund theft
Coinkite and multiple blockchain experts warn that seed phrases generated on Coldcard Mk3 devices (firmware version 4.0.1, March 2021 or later) without using dice-generated randomness or a BIP-39 passphrase may be at risk of fund theft. Coinkite said the Mk4, Q, and Mk5 models are not affected.
Hyperliquid’s largest SK Hynix short gives back all $13.5 million in unrealized profit, now sitting on a $740,000 unrealized loss
Amid heavy volatility in the storage sector, SKHX fell 30% and then rose 30% over two days. The largest SK Hynix short position on Hyperliquid saw its unrealized profit of $13.5 million completely evaporate and now faces an unrealized loss of $740,000.
MetronomeDAO’s msUSD briefly de-pegs by 11% due to undercollateralization in its synthetic asset module
MetronomeDAO’s Synth USD (msUSD) briefly traded around 11% below peg on Ethereum, Base and Optimism. MetronomeDAO later released a post-mortem, stating there was an undercollateralization issue in its synthetic asset swap module, leaving roughly 6,367 msETH and 4.57 million msUSD without sufficient asset backing, with the impact concentrated in that module. The report pointed out the problem was caused by Chainlink oracle price delays during swap execution, a variable not adequately accounted for in Metronome’s fee design, particularly on Base chain where the situation was more severe. The team has deployed over $34 million in defensive positions and about $6.5 million in “last exit” liquidity, allowing it to buy back and burn enough assets to close the gap if the de-peg reaches around 30%. The team has increased fees on all synthetic trading pairs and upgraded the protocol to support a directionally isolated fee mechanism. Priority will be to ensure the vault repurchases and burns synthetic assets to restore 100% collateralization, without affecting MET token holder interests; MET buybacks and distribution plans will continue as normal.
South Korea’s KOSPI index gains extend to 17%, SK Hynix surges over 29%
Bybit market data shows South Korea’s KOSPI index extended its gain to 17%, continuing to set a new record for its largest intraday percentage increase. SK Hynix jumped more than 29%, while Samsung Electronics climbed over 26%.
US-listed public companies hold a total of 1.24 million BTC, accounting for 92.7% of global public company holdings
According to unfolded data, US-listed public companies hold a combined 1.24 million BTC, representing 92.7% of all bitcoin held by public companies worldwide. Over the past 12 months, US-listed public companies added 510,000 BTC, more than triple the amount of bitcoin mined during the same period.
Roughly 594 BTC swept from 500 single-signature addresses into one wallet, cause undetermined
On Thursday, about 594 BTC (worth approximately $38 million) were moved from 500 addresses within 25 minutes, after which the funds were consolidated into another wallet. All affected addresses were single-signature, with balances concentrated between roughly 0.15 and 0.26 BTC, and many UTXOs had been dormant for years. Early speculation pointed to Coldcard, as at least one victim used the device. Coldcard CEO NVK denied any device-level vulnerability, saying the user may have imported a seed phrase that was previously compromised or used a weak one, and noted the incident involves private keys from different wallets. Bitcoin security researcher Jameson Lopp said one victim lost only some UTXOs rather than the wallet’s full balance, which could indicate a single private key compromise rather than a full seed phrase leak. There is currently no evidence of a Coldcard RNG flaw, supply chain attack or Bitcoin cryptographic system failure.
A whale who placed $85.63 million in longs betting on an AI narrative rebound has taken profit, netting $1.345 million overall
The whale who previously went long with $85.63 million betting on an AI narrative rebound has taken profit. The SP500 20x long made a profit of $958,000, the MU 10x long lost $485,000, and the SNDK 10x long made $872,000, for a total profit of $1.345 million. They also placed limit orders to reopen long positions on these three tokens after a dip.
A-share C Changxin intraday market cap tops 4 trillion yuan, stock rises 14.3% to a new high
Bybit market data shows that A-share C Changxin’s intraday market capitalization broke through 4 trillion yuan, currently up 14.3% at 60.49 yuan, with the stock price hitting a new record high and trading volume reaching 8.8 billion yuan.
Another wallet of the whale unstakes 1.89 million HYPE worth roughly $105.9 million
Another wallet belonging to the whale, 0x90B3, also unstaked 1.89 million HYPE ($105.9 million) today and may soon deposit the tokens into FalconX and Coinbase Prime for sale. Earlier news reported that the same whale deposited 1.032 million HYPE to exchanges, earning a $37.45 million profit over an 18-month holding period.
AI agent security tool V12 announces $10 million seed round led by Electric Capital
AI agent security tool V12 announced the completion of a $10 million seed round, led by Electric Capital with participation from ZachXBT, samczsun, Walden Yan, and others. Previously, V12 autonomously discovered a critical vulnerability in a major blockchain that involved over $100 million in funds at risk, and the team received a $2.5 million bug bounty for this — the largest single bounty ever awarded to an AI agent. The team stated its goal is to build a “cyber nuclear weapon” — an AI system that can find all vulnerabilities in a system — focusing on white-box code auditing rather than black-box penetration testing, believing that the bug bounty system will become obsolete in the AI era and that the only solution is to eliminate vulnerabilities before code goes live. V12 said the crypto industry is one of its key application areas. The team previously founded the blockchain security company Zellic, which has completed over 1,500 security audits, and has participated in multiple vulnerability research projects.
Crypto payments giant MoonPay launched PayBox, a non-custodial wallet and payment vault that enables AI agents to securely transact across the open internet.
While the product introduced a new way to interact with crypto through ChatGPT and Claude, much of the community focused on something else. MoonPay rewarded early users with one-time $USDC allocations that ranged from a few dollars to as much as $1,000, according to reports shared across social media.
To qualify, users created a PayBox account, connected it to ChatGPT or Claude, created a wallet, linked their X account, and claimed rewards through a faucet.
Community members posted screenshots showing rewards of $5, $380, $500, $600, and even $1,000. Many also confirmed successful withdrawals before MoonPay temporarily paused the faucet, saying it would return at “an undisclosed time” on July 30 with "more surprises for PayBox users."
The campaign quickly became one of the most viral crypto marketing efforts in recent months. MoonPay later revealed that it had gained 35,000 new followers on X within a day of the launch.
Turning Conversations Into Transactions Beyond the giveaway, PayBox introduces a different way to interact with digital assets. Users connect the wallet to ChatGPT or Claude through a custom connector, then describe what they want in natural language.
Examples include onramping funds into stablecoins, swapping tokens on Solana, bridging assets across supported blockchains, maximizing DeFi yield, booking flights, making restaurant reservations, and shopping online. The AI prepares each transaction, while the user authorizes it with a passkey before funds move.
PayBox launches with support for Solana and several EVM-compatible networks, including Ethereum, Base, Arbitrum, Polygon, Hyperliquid, Tempo, and Robinhood Chain.
Privacy Concerns Sparked Debate The generous $USDC rewards also triggered debate within the community. Some participants viewed the campaign as a customer acquisition strategy rather than a traditional crypto airdrop, while others questioned whether connecting accounts created privacy risks.
MoonPay responded directly, stating that PayBox never accesses users' chat history or wallet private keys.
Neeraj Prasad, Chief Engineer of MoonPay Labs and founder of Dawn Labs, also explained that the wallet operates through embedded cryptographic infrastructure and that only tool call arguments pass through the connector, not conversation history.
A Non-Custodial Approach to AI Payments MoonPay designed PayBox so AI agents never take custody of user funds. The system stores wallet keys using multi-party computation and trusted execution environments, preventing any single party, including MoonPay or the AI assistant, from accessing the complete private key.
Users can choose between 2 permission models. "Always Ask" requires passkey approval for every transaction, while "Autonomous" lets AI operate within limits defined by the user. Every authorization applies to a single action and expires after use.
The infrastructure comes from Sodot, the cryptography company MoonPay acquired earlier this year, building on a broader wave of MoonPay AI initiatives including the acquisition of Entendre, the launch of MoonPay Agents and the acquisition of AI trading startup Dawn Labs founded by Prasad. According to MoonPay, that technology already secures more than $50 billion in assets across over 10 million wallets.
More Than a Crypto Wallet PayBox supports much more than token transfers. Users can create wallets, manage credentials, track portfolio balances, perform cross-chain swaps, sign blockchain transactions, retrieve stored secrets with approval, and monitor pending requests.
The platform also supports x402-powered commerce, allowing AI agents to pay for APIs, travel bookings, shopping, digital services, and other internet-based transactions. It also integrates World prediction markets, enabling users to browse events, review market data, trade positions, and redeem settled markets.
MoonPay plans to expand PayBox further into DeFi, adding support for perpetual futures, liquidity management, and additional AI platforms.
Read More on SolanaFloor CLARITY Act Odds Crash to 27% as Senate Focus Turns Elsewhere
Morgan Stanley's $MSOL Debuts With $19M Trading Volume as Solana ETF Fee War Heats Up
Seeker Quietly Airdropped 25M $SKR - And 3 Rounds Are Still Live!
Fabric Foundation (@FabricFND) has taken its RoboPay payment rail into physical hardware for the first time, demonstrating what a robot economy could look like in practice. The demo integrated x402 payment verification across three separate platforms: Deep Robotics' M20 Pro quadruped, the AGIBot X2 humanoid, and a DOBOT CR5V robotic arm.
The sequence is straightforward. A $USDC payment clears, RoboPay authorizes a bounded task, and the machine executes, whether that is a patrol run, a pick-and-place operation, or another defined action. The demonstration ran on @base's Sepolia testnet.
How x402 Powers the Payment Layer The x402 protocol sits at the heart of the integration. x402 is an HTTP-native payment protocol that lets AI agents pay per request with stablecoins, with no accounts or human approval needed. The protocol is designed to embed payment capabilities directly over HTTP, allowing autonomous AI agents, APIs, and applications to process financial transactions programmatically during standard web request-response cycles.
OpenMind and Circle previously announced a strategic partnership to launch what they described as the world's first payment infrastructure built specifically for autonomous agents and embodied AI. By integrating Circle's USDC stablecoin with OpenMind's x402 protocol module, the collaboration enables robots and AI agents to make direct, autonomous payments for energy, services, and data in the physical world.
Robots as Economic Actors Fabric Foundation represents a shift in the robotics sector, moving from closed-loop hardware toward an open, interoperable robot economy. By integrating a universal operating system with a blockchain-native coordination layer, the protocol addresses the critical scaling bottlenecks of machine identity and autonomous payments.
Robots are becoming economic actors, earning, building reputation, and transacting on-chain. RoboPay and its bounty marketplace give them the rail to do so. With x402 already handling payments between AI agents in digital environments, the hardware demo sketches out the logical next step: robots operating as paid, verifiable service providers in the physical world.
The broader x402 ecosystem has gained significant institutional backing, with forty global leaders launching the x402 Foundation as an open HTTP standard for autonomous AI agent payments, announced on 14 July 2026. The Linux Foundation acts as the parent non-profit organisation providing vendor-neutral governance.
Sources:
Fabric Foundation Unveils RoboPay Partners to Power Onchain Payments for AI Robots (Crypto Economy)
Fabric Foundation to Advance Robot Economy with OpenMind and Circle (KuCoin)
Linux Foundation Operationalises x402 Foundation for Automated Machine Payments (Open Source For You)
Coinbase shares fell about 5% in after hours trading after the exchange reported a second quarter loss and lower revenue despite reaching a record share of crypto trading activity.
The company reported revenue of approximately $1.2 billion, down from $1.5 billion a year earlier. Coinbase posted a loss of $1.36 per share compared with earnings of $5.14 per share during the same period last year.
Coinbase said its share of global crypto trading volume reached a record 10.3%, up from 9.1% during the first quarter. The result marked its third consecutive quarter of market share gains despite weaker conditions across the broader crypto market.
Derivatives trading remained close to the previous quarter’s record level even as overall market volume declined by double digits. Its related event contracts and revenue grew 106% from the previous quarter and surpassed a $100 million annualized revenue rate.
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Stablecoins were another source of growth. Average USDC held across Coinbase products reached a record $20 billion, representing more than 30% of the stablecoin’s circulating supply at the end of the quarter.
Coinbase said USDC and its partner stablecoins accounted for 79% of the more than $37 trillion in stablecoin transaction volume recorded this year. Stablecoin volume on the Base network increased sevenfold from a year earlier.
The company also continued reducing its dependence on Bitcoin trading fees. Revenue excluding Bitcoin spot trading represented 88% of net revenue during the quarter.
Subscription and services revenue reached $555 million, up from $6 million in the second quarter of 2020. The segment represented 48% of net revenue, compared with 29% in the fourth quarter of 2024.
Coinbase also reported its 14th consecutive quarter of positive adjusted EBITDA and lowered its projected adjusted expenses for the full year.
The company said wider use of artificial intelligence was improving engineering efficiency. The number of code changes processed per engineer increased 2.2 times from a year earlier, while integration test coverage across core services rose 2.5 times over six months.
Coinbase said the results showed that its business had become less dependent on Bitcoin prices and was generating a larger share of revenue from stablecoins, derivatives, subscriptions, payments and financial infrastructure.
Disclosure: This article was edited by Estefano Gomez. For more information on how we create and review content, see our Editorial Policy.
@Shopify has added $USDC payment support to its core payments stack, with @Arbitrum among the supported networks. The integration allows over 480 compatible digital wallets to execute retail transactions directly through Shopify Payments, positioning stablecoins as a practical alternative to traditional card networks for merchants worldwide.
How It Works at Checkout Shopify has wired USDC directly into its payments stack, allowing merchants to accept digital dollars at checkout without adding new providers or changing existing workflows. The feature sits inside Shopify Payments, meaning merchants can enable it alongside credit cards and other payment options.
Shopify Payments accepts $USDC on five networks: Base, Ethereum L1, Optimism, Polygon, and Arbitrum, with access through 480-plus supported crypto wallets and no gas fees charged to the buyer. Crucially, no foreign exchange fees apply either, removing two of the most common friction points for cross-border commerce.
Customers can pay with USDC on Ethereum, Base, or other chains, and funds bridge automatically, so the merchant does not need to think about which network the buyer used.
Settlement Options and Merchant Flexibility On the back end, merchants can choose whether to receive funds in traditional fiat payouts or settle in USDC on-chain. Shopify states that USDC payments convert to local currency by default, with no foreign exchange or multi-currency fees, and deposit to the connected bank account.
The integration is built in partnership with Stripe and Coinbase for wallet connectivity and transaction processing, with settlement occurring on Base and support for USDT planned.
The move reflects a broader shift in commerce infrastructure. Stablecoin payments reached $1.1 trillion in transaction volume in 2024, with Visa and Allium Labs confirming that stablecoins processed 2.5 times Visa's adjusted transfer volume that same year. For merchants processing high volumes of cross-border transactions, the economics are hard to ignore.
PYMNTS: Shopify Signals Stablecoin Preferences With USDC Integration
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Not financial or tax advice. PANews content is strictly educational and informational and is not investment advice, financial advice, tax advice, legal advice, or a solicitation to buy or sell any digital asset, security, or financial product. Do your own research and consult qualified advisers.
Disclosure. PANews may publish sponsored content, partner content, advertisements, affiliate links, event promotions, and market commentary involving Web3 projects, service providers, or financial products. PANews personnel, contributors, or affiliates may hold digital assets or other interests related to covered topics. See our Terms of Service.
Visa Chief Executive Ryan McInerney said the payments company will remain neutral among stablecoins as Open USD prepares to enter a market led by Tether’s USDT and Circle’s USDC.
Summary
Visa says its stablecoin strategy will remain multi-coin and multi-chain rather than backing one winner. Open USD plans to launch later this year with more than 140 participating global companies. Visa’s stablecoin platform initially supports Open USD while retaining interoperability with existing settlement products worldwide. During Visa’s July 28 fiscal third-quarter earnings call, McInerney said the company would remain “multi-coin, multi-chain” and that its role was “not to pick winners.” Instead, Visa plans to help clients connect securely to whichever stablecoins, networks and infrastructure gain adoption.
Visa separates Open USD support from a single-token bet Visa is one of more than 140 companies supporting Open Standard, the independent consortium developing Open USD. Other participants include Mastercard, Stripe, Coinbase, BlackRock, BNY, Google and several global banks.
However, McInerney’s comments show that Visa does not view its involvement as an exclusive commitment to OUSD. The company already supports several stablecoins and blockchains through settlement, card and money-movement products. Visa previously described its technical approach as a “multi-coin and multi-chain foundation.”
ARK Invest researcher Lorenzo Valente interpreted the response as evidence that partner support may be “closer to a soft LOI than a strategic bet.” That is an analyst’s view, not a disclosed Visa contract term. Neither Visa nor Open Standard has published commitments showing how much capital, distribution or balance-sheet support each partner must provide.
On @Visa earnings call, the company was asked whether OpenUSD would compete with @circle , @tether, and the established stablecoin players.
Visa’s response:
“Visa, going forward, will remain multi-coin, multi-chain. Our role is not to pick winners. Our role is to help clients…
— Lorenzo Valente (@LorenzoARK) July 28, 2026 Open Standard plans to launch Open USD later in 2026. Its website says businesses will be able to mint and redeem OUSD without fees or volume limits, while most revenue from the reserves will return to participants that adopt and distribute the token.
That model differs from the issuer-led structures used by USDT and USDC, where the issuing company controls reserve management and related economics. Open Standard says an independent management team and partner-led governance will oversee OUSD. These are planned product features, and the token has not yet launched.
Notably, Open USD’s launch raised questions about Circle’s reserve-income model. Circle shares fell 17.5% on June 30, although Russell index removals also contributed to that day’s decline, making it difficult to isolate OUSD’s effect.
Visa is building infrastructure across stablecoins Visa’s practical commitment is clearer in its own product releases. On July 16, the company introduced the Visa Stablecoin Platform for banks, fintechs and crypto companies. The platform initially provides access to Open USD, including minting, burning, storage and transfers through a Visa-managed environment.
The company said the platform will also connect with its existing stablecoin settlement, linked-card and money-movement services. In June, Visa reported that its stablecoin settlement activity had reached an annualized run rate of about $7 billion as of March 2026.
Additionally, Visa’s stablecoin platform was described as a route for institutions to use Open USD without building every wallet, security and treasury function internally. Visa’s broader structure could also allow it to serve clients choosing USDC, USDT or another regulated token.
Open USD’s launch will test partner commitment Open Standard has not announced an exact launch date, initial circulating supply or confirmed transaction volume. Because OUSD is not yet live, there is no verified on-chain activity or market capitalization to compare with USDT and USDC.
The next test will be whether partners integrate OUSD into real payment, settlement and trading products after launch. Visa has already built an initial access route through its platform, but McInerney’s comments indicate the company will continue supporting competing tokens and networks.
Therefore, Open USD may gain distribution through Visa without becoming Visa’s exclusive stablecoin. Adoption will depend on reserve arrangements, regulatory compliance, partner integrations and actual customer demand rather than the size of the consortium alone.
Ostium has concluded that its July exploit originated from compromised off-chain infrastructure rather than a flaw in its smart contracts, after an investigation found the attacker manipulated price reporting to drain 23.75 million USDC from the protocol’s liquidity vault.
Summary
Ostium said its investigation found the July exploit originated from compromised off chain infrastructure rather than a flaw in its smart contracts. Fraudulent BTC USD price reports allowed the attacker to drain 23.75 million USDC from the protocol’s OLP liquidity vault. The protocol said automated monitoring detected the attack, trading resumed on July 23, and user collateral remained unaffected. A recovery plan for affected liquidity providers is being finalized and will be shared in a separate update. According to Ostium’s post-mortem published on Wednesday, the attacker gained unauthorized access to the protocol’s off-chain infrastructure and used it to submit fraudulent BTC-USD price reports.
The manipulated reports allowed the attacker to create artificial trading profits at the expense of the public OLP vault, while the protocol found no evidence that its smart contracts or governance multisigs had been compromised.
Ostium says exploit bypassed off-chain systems During its investigation, Ostium said the initial breach occurred outside the protocol’s on-chain infrastructure. The team stated that its findings did not identify any vulnerability in the protocol’s smart contract logic or any compromise involving the multisigs responsible for governing the protocol.
Instead, the attacker abused forwarder paths that the protocol already recognized as valid. Ostium explained that the exploit began with a small test transaction involving a 100 USDC position, producing roughly 897.8 USDC in artificial profit before the attacker expanded the operation.
Following the successful test, the attacker executed the primary batch of transactions, transferring about 11.9 million USDC to a beneficiary wallet. Ostium said six additional standalone exploit cycles followed, bringing the total loss from the OLP vault to 23.75 million USDC.
Earlier reporting from blockchain security firm Blockaid had attributed the incident to a compromised oracle signer private key, saying the attacker bypassed the protocol’s price verification process by submitting manipulated price reports through a registered PriceUpKeep forwarder. At the time, Blockaid estimated that between $11.86 million and $18 million USDC had been withdrawn during approximately 20 trading loops, based on the exploit activity visible on-chain while the attack was still unfolding.
Automated monitoring limited additional losses While the exploit succeeded in draining funds from the liquidity vault, Ostium said its automated monitoring systems detected the abnormal activity before additional withdrawals could take place. The protocol subsequently halted trading while its investigation continued and has since migrated to a new production environment with updated security controls.
Trading resumed on July 23 after the migration was completed.
Ostium also said trader collateral remained unaffected throughout the incident because user margin stayed inside the protocol’s trading contracts rather than the compromised liquidity pool.
The team added that it is still finalizing a separate recovery plan for liquidity providers whose funds were affected by the exploit. According to the protocol, further details will be released in a dedicated update.
Oracle infrastructure remained central to the attack Although Ostium’s latest report attributes the incident to unauthorized access to its off-chain infrastructure, its findings are consistent with the attack path previously outlined by Blockaid, which concluded that compromised signing credentials allowed fraudulent price reports to pass the protocol’s verification process.
According to Blockaid’s earlier analysis, the attacker repeatedly opened and closed positions through delegated actions after submitting favorable future-dated price reports. Because the manipulated reports appeared valid to the protocol, each trading cycle generated profits for the attacker while transferring losses to the OLP liquidity vault instead of relying on a vulnerability in the smart contract code itself.
The incident has drawn attention to the security of supporting infrastructure that decentralized finance protocols rely on for external market data. In Ostium’s case, both the protocol’s post-mortem and Blockaid’s earlier investigation concluded that the exploit did not originate from flaws in the core smart contracts.
Ostium exploit followed Nasdaq partnership The exploit occurred only weeks after Ostium expanded its institutional presence through a partnership with Nasdaq announced in May. At the time, the protocol said Nasdaq’s market data would support equity perpetual products listed on the platform.
Ostium also disclosed during that announcement that it had processed more than $50 billion in cumulative trading volume.
Before the exploit, the protocol had raised approximately $27.8 million from investors including General Catalyst, Jump Crypto, Coinbase Ventures, Wintermute and GSR, according to previous company disclosures.
