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Circle acquires IBM’s blockchain patent portfolio, secures US leadership

USDC is moving deeper into bank custody and settlement as tokenized financial products expand its institutional role. Its growth depends on whether compliance teams can approve it for regulated balance sheets. USDT follows a different adoption path, serving people and businesses that need dollars they can obtain and convert locally.

A bank can use a settlement asset only after its controls survive regulatory review. For a Nigerian importer paying an overseas supplier, reliable dollar access and local liquidity determine whether the payment can happen. Both transactions add to the same headline volume. Each creates demand for a different rail.

Companies can misallocate resources when they use the same market signals to plan for both flows. Market share alone cannot identify which token fits a specific customer or payment corridor.

USDC’s Growing Institutional AdvantageInstitutions choose stablecoins through the same process they use to approve any financial counterparty or instrument. An asset can enter treasury operations only when institutions can verify its reserves, redeem it reliably, hold it through approved custodians and know who is accountable to regulators.

Inside tokenized capital markets, USDC already functions as working cash. Investors in BlackRock’s BUIDL fund can transfer fund shares to Circle for USDC through a smart contract. The transaction provides a near-instant off-ramp from a tokenized security into a regulated digital dollar.

USDC’s institutional advantage depends on how easily firms can approve and integrate it. Its reach is more limited in markets where local liquidity and wallet access carry greater weight.

USDT’s Retail and Remittance AdvantageOutside the regulated balance sheet, the decisive test is usability. Users need to know whether they can acquire the asset, send it and convert it where they live.

A small importer cannot postpone a supplier payment while policymakers debate an issuer framework. Migrant workers face the same urgency: recipients need funds before local banks modernize their cross-border rails. Both need an available dollar instrument and a liquid exit into local currency.

In Europe, regulation has shaped distribution more directly. MiCA compliance led major exchanges, including Coinbase and Kraken, to restrict or delist USDT for European customers while continuing to support USDC. Compliant stablecoins therefore gained a distribution advantage that demand alone cannot explain.

Any stablecoin analysis that ignores regional dollar demand is tracking aggregate volume while missing the market.

For many users, USDT is simply the easiest option to obtain and cash out locally. Its liquidity on exchanges and peer-to-peer markets is the result of distribution built over years. Regulated institutional channels impose a different threshold, with more weight placed on issuer authorization and approved custody.

How Regulation Is Shaping the USDC–USDT DivideThe emerging federal framework in the United States is unlikely to change the liquidity available to a merchant in Lagos or Buenos Aires. Users facing inflation, capital restrictions or unreliable payment infrastructure continue to choose the asset they can acquire and convert locally.

Tether launched USA₮ in January 2026 as a separate federally regulated token issued by Anchorage Digital Bank for the U.S. market. USDT retained its broader global role. The split suggests that institutional America and the global dollar-access market require different products.

Operational Considerations for Banks and RegulatorsInfrastructure designed around institutional custody may have limited relevance in a remittance corridor built on self-custodial wallets and local exchange liquidity. A product optimized for open distribution may struggle to pass a corporate treasury review that requires documented controls, redemption rights and approved counterparties. The mismatch often becomes visible only after integration work has begun.

A token-first approach can narrow the product decision too early. Market capitalization does not explain where users hold funds, how they enter and exit the system, or which obligations sit with the counterparty. The payment flow from funding to redemption across the relevant jurisdictions provides a more useful basis for selecting a stablecoin.

Regulatory frameworks face a related limitation. A licensing framework may improve the safety of issuance while leaving the underlying payment demand untouched. Users excluded from the supervised rail will continue to rely on offshore exchanges, peer-to-peer markets and private wallets.

Issuer risk and intermediary conduct are separate policy questions. The economic demand for digital dollars is another. Frameworks that treat regulatory oversight and dollar demand as one problem may fit institutional markets while missing users outside regulated channels.

Why the Stablecoin Market Will Stay Split Through 2026No single stablecoin will lead both U.S. institutional settlement and emerging-market dollar access.

USDC and other regulated products will move deeper into bank custody, tokenized funds and supervised payment networks. USDT will retain its lead across many open retail corridors, where local liquidity and wallet support take years to reproduce.

Exchanges and payment platforms will connect local stablecoin liquidity with regulated banking rails. Exchanges and payment platforms will also convert assets and apply controls when funds enter or leave the banking system.

The evidence points toward banks and fintechs selecting stablecoins according to the user’s dollar need and payment route. Regulators are also likely to assess institutional and retail adoption through separate lenses.

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WEMIX lost about $6.25M after abnormal issuance of 5.23M WEMIX, with funds bridged to Ethereum and BNB Chain. The attacker swapped the assets into ETH and USDT, moved funds across wallets, and sent part to centralised exchanges as the investigation continues. On July 26, 2026 at 18:17 UTC+9, an abnormal transaction hit the WEMIX ecosystem. The owner authority of WEMIX and the related contract was compromised, giving the attacker the ability to issue WEMIX without authorisation and drain USDC.e from the protocol.

The numbers confirmed so far: approximately 5,225,525 WEMIX$ was abnormally issued and converted into 30,736 WEMIX and 724,198.27 USDC.e. The converted USDC.e was then bridged to Ethereum and BSC, swapped into ETH and USDT, and distributed, with some funds flowing directly into centralised exchanges. 

Moreover, the total damage currently stands at approximately $6.25 million, equivalent to around 8.7 billion KRW. 

What the WEMIX Team Did Immediately? The WEMIX team moved fast on containment. Both internal and external bridges were suspended, Chainlink CCIP suspension was completed, and the PLAY Bridge was temporarily taken offline. 

In addition, the liquidity pool trading for WEMIX-USDC.e, WEMIX-WEMIX$, and several other pairs was halted. Also, the foundation-supplied liquidity was preemptively recovered.

On the service side, WEMIX$ modules, PNIX DEX, and related backend systems were suspended. Blockchain-linked content in select games was blocked, and NFT market trading was paused. Furthermore, the WEMIX PLAY-related functions were put under protective measures.

Tracking the Attacker Attacker addresses have been identified, and on-chain fund flows are being tracked. Multiple global exchanges and stablecoin issuers have been contacted for freezing cooperation, and some exchanges have already completed freezing measures on addresses linked to the attack.

Furthermore, a full inspection of identical and related contracts is underway alongside external expert involvement.

An exploit of this scale, with bridges suspended and liquidity pools offline, hints that WEMIX faces immediate selling pressure and user uncertainty until a full incident report and recovery plan are published. The speed of containment matters here; every hour without clarity increases the reputational damage beyond the financial one.

Crypto Market Highlights

Ethereum (ETH) Defends the $1,850 Support Zone: Can a Recovery Extend to $2,060?

Content Writer | Crypto Enthusiast | Bridging Literature and Blockchain

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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Coinbase chief executive Brian Armstrong said artificial intelligence and crypto are not rival trends.

Summary

Armstrong expects autonomous AI agents to conduct more daily transactions than humans through crypto infrastructure. Coinbase is developing Agentic Finance around x402, Base, USDC, wallets, trading tools and business payments. Recent research questions x402 adoption metrics and identifies security weaknesses across facilitator-led machine payment systems. Instead, he argued that crypto will provide financial infrastructure for autonomous AI agents.

In a July 27 post on X, Armstrong said agents “will eventually transact far more per day than all humans combined.” He presented that outcome as a forecast for payments and other financial actions online.

"If you're in crypto, pivot to AI."

I used to hear versions of this, and it's the wrong way to think about the world. It's zero sum, scarcity thinking.

Crypto is a general purpose technology. It's infrastructure, the same way electricity or the internet is infrastructure. It…

— Brian Armstrong (@brian_armstrong) July 26, 2026 Armstrong said AI agents cannot use traditional banking services like people or companies. They may need to pay for data, software, computing power and other agents without human approval. He said blockchains and stablecoins can provide fast, programmable and global settlement.

Armstrong frames crypto as AI’s financial layer Armstrong’s post responded to the idea that crypto companies should abandon blockchain work and move into AI. He rejected that choice. In his view, AI supplies programmable intelligence, while crypto supplies programmable money. He called the combined model “Agentic Finance,” or “AiFi,” and said Coinbase is building products for that market.

The Coinbase chief did not give a date for agents to exceed human transaction counts or estimate payment value. His statement focused on frequency, which could rise if software pays small amounts for every API call, data request or computing task. That model differs from consumer payments, which usually involve fewer and larger purchases.

Coinbase expands its Agentic Finance products Coinbase has already released several products aimed at autonomous software. In June, it launched Coinbase for Agents, which connects AI systems to user accounts through a command-line interface and Model Context Protocol tools. Users can set limits while agents trade crypto, monitor markets, rebalance portfolios and execute defined financial tasks.

On July 23, Coinbase expanded that service with live market data and plain-language conditional commands. It also added x402 support for Coinbase Business, allowing companies to accept USDC payments initiated by AI agents. A new developer kit lets websites and API providers add x402 payment acceptance with a small amount of code. As crypto.news reported, the rollout covers businesses, users and developers building agent services.

The exchange introduced Agentic.market in April. The marketplace lets agents find and pay for data, search, computing, inference and trading tools. Coinbase calls it a discovery layer for machine commerce because agents can locate services and buy access without a conventional subscription or manually issued API key.

x402, Base and USDC anchor Coinbase’s strategy Armstrong said Coinbase pioneered the model through x402, Base and USDC. x402 adapts the HTTP 402 “Payment Required” response so a website or API can request payment during an internet interaction. A wallet signs the payment, a facilitator checks it, and the service delivers the requested resource after approval.

Coinbase uses USDC as the main payment asset in many x402 products, while Base provides low-cost blockchain settlement. The protocol also supports other networks and assets. Coinbase’s developer documentation lists support across Base, Solana, Polygon, Arbitrum and World, depending on the payment method and facilitator.

As crypto.news previously reported, Coinbase said AI agents already use x402 to buy data, computing resources and digital services. Related coverage also reported that Coinbase Business customers can now receive USDC directly from agents. These products turn Armstrong’s wider claim into a commercial strategy built around wallets, stablecoins, trading access and payment tools.

Forecast remains unproven as researchers flag risks Armstrong’s claim remains a prediction. Current totals do not prove that independent AI agents have formed an economy larger than human commerce. A July paper examining x402 activity on Base found highly concentrated transaction counts. Its authors also said some payments were internal or cheap to generate, making headline totals a weak adoption measure.

Separate July research tested 15 x402 facilitators and reported rule violations across every system examined. The researchers described risks involving unpaid services, asset theft, denial of service and gas abuse. They said affected providers, including Coinbase, received the findings and adopted fixes. The papers remain preprints and have not completed peer review.

Regulators are also studying automated finance. Bank of England Deputy Governor Sarah Breeden said in June that existing rules did not account for autonomous agents. She raised the possible use of guardrails, circuit breakers and stronger recovery systems if AI-driven trading or payments create wider problems.

Coinbase continues to position crypto as the payment layer for machine activity. Armstrong’s latest post connects that strategy to a larger claim: agents may become economic actors that hold funds and transact at high frequency. Whether they overtake humans will depend on real usage, security, regulation and demand for paid machine services.

Binance has paid out a $0.50 per share dividend in USDC to eligible holders of Orchid Island Capital (NYSE: ORC), the mortgage REIT, with a cutoff date of July 10, 2026, for qualification. The payment is part of Binance’s broader push to bridge conventional equity investing with crypto-native tooling, letting users collect traditional stock dividends without ever touching a bank account.

What Binance Stocks actually does Binance Stocks is the exchange’s service that lets users gain exposure to U.S. equities and receive associated corporate actions, including dividends, paid out in stablecoin form. The mechanics convert whatever the underlying company declares as a cash dividend into an equivalent USDC amount, distributed directly to platform holders.

This ORC payout is not a one-off experiment. Binance has executed similar USDC dividend conversions across multiple equities, with prior distributions including $0.75 and $0.15 per share for other stocks on the platform.

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Orchid Island Capital itself declared a monthly cash dividend of $0.10 per share on July 8, 2026, payable on August 28, 2026. The $0.50 Binance distributed reflects a multi-month accumulation or a separate calculation tied to the platform’s distribution schedule, not a single monthly payout from ORC directly.

Who is Orchid Island Capital and why does it matter here Orchid Island Capital is a real estate investment trust focused exclusively on Agency residential mortgage-backed securities, the kind of debt instruments backed by government-sponsored entities like Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. Binance is wrapping a mortgage REIT that has been paying dividends consistently since its IPO in 2013, with yields that have historically run above 17%.

ORC posted a net income of $89.2 million for Q2 2026, or $0.44 per share. Agency RMBS performance is tightly correlated with interest rate movements: when rates rise, prepayment speeds slow and book values compress; when rates fall, prepayments accelerate and reinvestment risk climbs.

What this means for investors watching the space For crypto-native investors who have historically avoided equities because of the fiat plumbing required, this lowers the barrier considerably. Receiving $0.50 per ORC share in USDC means the income stays within the crypto ecosystem and can compound without triggering a withdrawal event or engaging a bank.

The risk profile here deserves attention. Holding equities through a crypto exchange rather than a regulated brokerage introduces a different set of counterparty considerations. Regulatory treatment of tokenized or exchange-wrapped equities varies by jurisdiction, and the protections afforded to traditional brokerage accounts, such as SIPC coverage in the US, do not apply in the same way to assets held on a crypto platform.

Disclosure: This article was edited by Editorial Team. For more information on how we create and review content, see our Editorial Policy.

Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong has responded to recent suggestions that the cryptocurrency sector should pivot towards artificial intelligence, asserting that demand for crypto-powered financial services will increase as AI integrates further into the economy. Armstrong, who leads the largest US-based crypto exchange, outlined his perspective on X, highlighting the rise of “agentic finance” (AiFi) and pointing to Coinbase’s Base network, USDC, and the new x402 protocol as key infrastructure for automated payments.

AI agents expected to boost need for programmable moneyArmstrong argued that the growing influence of artificial intelligence does not detract from crypto’s potential. Instead, he predicted that AI agents, or autonomous software capable of making decisions and payments, will require programmable money instead of relying on traditional financial systems. “AI being a megatrend takes nothing away from crypto. If anything, it makes crypto more important,” Armstrong stated, emphasizing that current banking rails are not designed for automated, machine-driven payments.

AI agents will increasingly need systems like Base, USDC, and x402 to interact with digital financial services seamlessly, without human intervention.

Crypto industry leaders are increasingly positioning blockchain networks as the payment backbone for autonomous AI systems, which can facilitate peer-to-peer transactions and enable new digital business models.

Coinbase expands crypto infrastructure for AI-driven paymentsBase, the Ethereum layer-2 network launched by Coinbase in 2023, was originally designed as a general-purpose blockchain to enhance transaction speed and lower fees for onchain applications. Over time, it has become central to efforts to serve as the infrastructure for agentic payments — transactions performed by autonomous software agents rather than humans.

In 2025, Coinbase introduced x402, a payment protocol built on the HTTP “402 Payment Required” standard. This protocol enables AI agents and autonomous systems to make automated stablecoin payments directly between software applications, eliminating the need for traditional accounts or manual intervention during digital purchases such as API calls or data access.

USDC, a dollar-pegged stablecoin launched by Circle in collaboration with Coinbase-backed Centre Consortium in 2018, supports x402 and serves as the key currency for frictionless, programmable agent-to-agent payments.

Together, Base, x402, and USDC form the backbone of Coinbase’s strategy to build a next-generation payment network designed for AI-based financial activity.

Mini dictionary: x402, an automated stablecoin payment protocol developed by Coinbase, leverages the HTTP “402 Payment Required” standard to enable software agents and AI systems to pay other digital systems autonomously, removing the need for human checkout and making payments frictionless for online services.

Agentic payments on Base climb past 100 millionAccording to Chainalysis, agentic payment activity on Base, driven by the x402 protocol, exceeded 100 million transactions within nine months of launch. The analytics firm reported that transactions valued at $1 or more constituted 95% of all value transferred through these agentic payments.

Chainalysis data also suggested that wallets associated with agentic transactions on Base were usually more recently created, held a wider variety of assets, and maintained smaller average balances compared to typical network users.

MetricAgentic Payment WalletsAverage Base UsersWallet AgeNewerOlderAsset DiversityBroader rangeNarrowerAverage BalanceSmallerLargerCoinbase’s continued focus on agentic finance comes as it prepares to report second quarter earnings. Analyst estimates project revenue of $1.29 billion, reflecting a 13.8% decrease from the same period last year, according to Yahoo Finance. Earnings per share are predicted to remain unchanged.

Agentic payment activity on Base has reached over 100 million transactions, with the majority of value coming from transactions exceeding $1, according to Chainalysis.

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.

Stellar gains momentum as institutions turn to fast payments and native USDC

OKX’s Flash Earn Lite launches SLX "Stake to Earn" program, allowing users to split 2,000,000 SLX in rewards.

According to official announcements, OKX’s Flash Earn Lite will launch SLX (Solstice) from 15:00 UTC+8 on July 31, 2026 to 15:00 UTC+8 on August 5, 2026. During the event, users can participate in the subscription by locking BTC, OKSOL, OKB, or SLX to share a total of 2,000,000 SLX in airdrop rewards. Additionally, users can join the subscription in advance starting today, with rewards being calculated from the official start of the event. Users can find and participate in the relevant activity via the "Flash Earn" entry at the top of the OKX App’s Explore page.

18 minutes ago

AEON is set to launch on Bitget Launchpool, with users able to stake BGB and AEON to unlock 1.16 million AEON tokens.

Bitget Launchpool is set to list the project AEON (AEON), with a total reward pool of 1,166,666 AEON. The lock-up period runs from July 27 at 19:00 to August 1 at 19:00 (UTC+8). This round of Launchpool offers two lock-up pools: - BGB Lock-up Pool: Total airdrop allocation of 1,000,000 AEON; VIP users have a lock-up cap of 50,000 BGB, while regular users face a cap of 5,000 BGB. - AEON Lock-up Pool: Total airdrop allocation of 166,666 AEON; individual users have a lock-up cap of 4,200,000 AEON. Additionally, AEON will be listed for spot trading on Bitget. Deposits are now open, and trading will launch at 19:00 UTC+8 on July 27.

18 minutes ago

US stock index futures continue to rise, with Nasdaq 100 index futures up 1.6%.

According to market data from BIT (Bit.com), U.S. stock index futures continue to climb: Dow Jones futures rose 1%, S&P 500 futures gained 0.96%, and Nasdaq 100 futures climbed 1.6%.

18 minutes ago

Binance will list three TradFi USDT-margined perpetual contracts: TMF, TBT, and BITO.

According to official announcements, Binance Futures will launch three TradFi USDT-margined perpetual contracts on July 27: TMFUSDT (launch time 21:30), TBTUSDT (21:35), and BITOUSDT (21:40). All contracts are settled in USDT, with a maximum leverage of 25x. Specifically, TMF corresponds to Direxion Daily 20+ Year Treasury Bull 3X Shares ETF, TBT corresponds to ProShares 20+ Year Treasury Bear 2X Shares ETF, and BITO corresponds to ProShares Bitcoin Strategy ETF.

18 minutes ago

The user is asking me to write a headline for a Lookonchain tweet. The tweet describes: - A mysterious whale buying ETH - 3 newly created wallets (likely same whale) - Spent 50.04M DAI to buy 25,425 ETH - Average price: $1,968 Requirements: - Max 120 characters - Keep tickers ($ETH, $DAI), key amounts and names - Concise English news headline - No quotes, no hashtags, no trailing period - ONLY output the headline Key elements to include: - Whale (mysterious/unknown) - $ETH (ticker) - Amount: 25,425 $ETH or 50.04M $DAI - Action: buying/purchased Let me craft concise options and count characters: Option 1: "Mysterious whale buys 25,425 $ETH with 50.04M $DAI across 3 wallets" - Length: 68 characters ✓ Option 2: "Whale purchases 25,425 $ETH spending 50.04M $DAI via 3 new wallets" - Length: 67 characters ✓ Option 3: "Unknown whale spends 50.04M $DAI to acquire 25,425 $ETH" - Length: 56 characters ✓ Option 4: "Mysterious whale buys 25,425 $ETH for 50.04M $DAI" - Length: 50 characters ✓ I think Option 1 or 2 are best - they include the key detail about 3 wallets which adds to the story. Option 1 is cleaner. Let me verify it has no forbidden elements: - No quotes ✓ - No hashtags ✓ - No trailing period ✓ - Includes tickers ✓ - Includes key amounts ✓ Mysterious whale buys 25,425 $ETH with 50.04M $DAI across 3 wallets

A mysterious whale is buying $ETH! Over the past 2 hours, 3 newly created wallets (likely belonging to the same whale) spent 50.04M $DAI to buy 25,425 $ETH at an average price of $1,968.

18 minutes ago

Three new wallets suspected to belong to the same whale bought over $50 million worth of ETH.

According to Lookonchain’s monitoring, three newly created wallets, likely belonging to the same large whale, spent 50.04 million DAI to buy 25,425 Ethereum at an average price of $1,968 per ETH over the past two hours.

18 minutes ago

WEMIX says attacker moved about $724,000 after contract breach WEMIX suspended bridges, liquidity-pool trading and several services after an attacker compromised a WEMIX$-linked contract and moved 724,198 USDC.e.

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

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

WEMIX said some of the funds were deposited into centralized exchanges. The company identified the attacker’s wallets and requested asset freezes and assistance from exchanges and stablecoin issuers, adding that some exchanges had already frozen addresses linked to the incident. 

The company temporarily suspended all bridges connected to its layer-1 network, WEMIX3.0, including Chainlink CCIP and the PLAY Bridge. It also suspended trading in affected liquidity pools, withdrew foundation-provided liquidity, and paused services including the WEMIX$ Module and PNIX decentralized exchange. 

WEMIX said the cause and full impact remain under investigation and warned that the preliminary figures could change. 

Cointelegraph contacted WEMIX for additional information but did not receive an immediate response.

Cointelegraph is committed to independent, transparent journalism. This news article is produced in accordance with Cointelegraph’s Editorial Policy and aims to provide accurate and timely information. Readers are encouraged to verify information independently.

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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South Korea's pension fund has turned to net buying of KOSPI for the first time this year, taking a heavy position in SK Hynix.

South Korean exchange data shows that pension funds, including the National Pension Service (NPS) — one of the largest institutional investors in South Korea's stock market — have turned net buyers in the Korean stock market for the first time this month. As of July 24, the NPS and other pension funds have net purchased 68.4 billion won (approximately $46.8 million) of KOSPI index constituent stocks in July this year. This marks the first monthly net purchase by pension funds this year after six consecutive months of net selling. In terms of individual stocks, SK Hynix is the most bought stock by pension funds since July, with a net purchase amount of 425.8 billion won. (Jinshi)

28 minutes ago

Iran and Oman hold multiple rounds of consultations on the Strait of Hormuz issue.

Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Bahaei stated that from the 24th to 25th, Iran and Oman held multiple rounds of deputy foreign minister-level talks in Tehran. On the basis of respecting the sovereign rights of the two coastal states, Iran and Oman, the two sides held in-depth exchanges of views on the common principles and specific operational mechanisms for ensuring safe passage of ships through the Strait of Hormuz. Bahaei noted that the talks were productive and yielded certain progress. The Omani delegation left Tehran on the afternoon of the 25th, but the two sides will continue to maintain consultations at the technical and political levels. In addition, Bahaei said that the current navigation status of ships in the Strait of Hormuz has not changed. (CCTV International News)

28 minutes ago

Changxin Technology will go public tomorrow, with its over-the-counter market valuation reaching 2.76 trillion yuan.

Changxin Technology will list on the STAR Market of the Shanghai Stock Exchange on July 27, with an initial market capitalization of around 580 billion yuan. The IPO is priced at 8.66 yuan per share, and the final online subscription winning rate hit 0.4714%, a new record for STAR Market IPOs. After full exercise of the over-allotment option, total fundraising can reach up to 66.6 billion yuan. According to Hyperinsight monitoring, the price of CXMT (Changxin Memory, with Changxin Technology as its listed entity) Pre-IPO contract on Hyperliquid is currently quoted at $6.087, equivalent to a share price of 41.2 yuan. Calculated based on the total share capital of 66.881 billion shares post-IPO, the on-chain implied market value stands at approximately $407.1 billion, or around 2.76 trillion yuan. Based on this valuation, the subscription cost for a single retail lot of 500 shares is 4,330 yuan, with an estimated market value of 20,600 yuan for 500 shares on the first trading day, translating to a single lot profit of roughly 16,000 yuan. Founded in 2016, Changxin Technology is China’s largest and most technologically advanced integrated DRAM R&D, design and manufacturing enterprise. In Q4 2025, it held a 7.67% global DRAM market share, ranking fourth worldwide and first in China, with ambitions to become the world’s third-largest DRAM supplier. In Q1 2026, the company’s revenue reached 50.8 billion yuan, surging 719% year-on-year; net profit attributable to shareholders hit 24.762 billion yuan, a 1688% year-on-year jump. For the first half of 2026, it forecasts net profit attributable to shareholders of between 50 billion and 57 billion yuan.

28 minutes ago

Elon Musk: China is highly likely to become an AI leader in the future.

Elon Musk stated in an interview with The Economist that China will most likely emerge as an AI leader at some point in the future, and even if the U.S. bans Chinese AI models, it cannot prevent this outcome. (The Paper)

28 minutes ago

Samsung's Lee Jae-yong is reportedly holding discussions with OpenAI on cooperation plans in the AI and semiconductor sectors.

According to South Korean media reports, Samsung Electronics Chairman Lee Jae-yong met with OpenAI founder Sam Altman at OpenAI’s San Francisco headquarters to discuss cooperation in the fields of artificial intelligence and semiconductors. OpenAI announced on the 26th that Lee and Altman held talks at the company’s San Francisco headquarters on the morning of the 25th local time. While OpenAI did not disclose specific discussion contents or topics, industry observers believe the two sides likely communicated about deepening cooperation on AI infrastructure such as high-bandwidth memory (HBM), dynamic random-access memory (DRAM), and advanced wafer foundry. They may also have explored Samsung’s digital transformation plan for rolling out generative AI across its entire business lines. (Jinshi)

28 minutes ago

The Big Short Michael Burry ramps up short positions on stocks including Micron and NVIDIA.

"The 'Big Short' protagonist Michael Burry has disclosed his latest portfolio adjustments, continuing to increase short exposure to semiconductor stocks. Specifically, he added to short positions in Micron Technology (MU), NVIDIA (NVDA), and semiconductor ETF SOXX at prices of $933.86, $210.28, and $535.83 respectively. Additionally, Burry also added to his short position in Caterpillar (CAT) at $893.49. On the long side, he increased holdings in Flutter (FLUT), DraftKings (DKNG), and Molina Healthcare (MOH) at prices of $100.72, $23.07, and $197.02 respectively. Burry’s short positions in Tesla, Palantir, and Nasdaq 100 Index ETF QQQ remained unchanged."

28 minutes ago

Hyperliquid has cumulatively burned 47.27 million HYPE tokens, accounting for 4.73% of its maximum supply.

According to monitoring by Onchain Lens, Hyperliquid generated approximately $1.4 million in fees over the past 24 hours, burning 20,640 HYPE tokens valued at around $1.2 million. To date, Hyperliquid has cumulatively burned 47.27 million HYPE tokens, worth roughly $2.76 billion, accounting for 4.73% of its maximum total supply of 1 billion HYPE.

19 minutes ago

Chairman of SK Group: South Korea Needs to Transform into an "AI-Native" Country

SK Group Chairman Choi Tae-won stated that South Korea must become an "AI-native country," adding, "The goal is to ensure every person has at least one AI agent." He noted that if this goal is achieved, South Korea will become a global AI testbed where various AI technologies can be tested and deployed. Choi added that SK Group will provide more opportunities for AI development through continuous R&D investment. He also emphasized that reducing AI costs is critical, saying, "Currently, AI costs are too high. We must cut costs through various means so that more people around the world can benefit from AI." Choi further stated that South Korea can lower AI costs by expanding its memory chip production capacity and building more AI data centers, while establishing a global AI data center hub connecting the U.S., Europe, and Asia. (Source: Jinshi)

19 minutes ago

Prominent Trader: Bitcoin’s supply held by long-term holders in loss has exceeded levels recorded during the FTX collapse

Renowned trader Killa posted that roughly 80% of cycle top indicators never triggered during the last Bitcoin bull run, and a similar situation could occur with bottom indicators in the future, meaning market bottoms cannot be judged by mechanically relying on historical signals. He noted that the supply of long-term holders currently in a loss state has exceeded levels seen during the FTX collapse and is approaching those of the 2018 bear market. Bitcoin’s realized price is currently around $50,000; in every past cycle, the price has tested the realized price of long-term holders, so a return to this region remains possible. However, Killa said it should not be assumed that Bitcoin will definitely drop back to this level. Many top indicators failed to trigger in the last cycle, and some bottom indicators may also become invalid in the future. Regardless, the current level of market loss is already comparable to that during the FTX incident and the 2018 bear market.

19 minutes ago

Poll: Democrats have a chance to flip the House, Republicans face pressure.

The latest Emerson College poll shows that Democrats hold an 11-point lead over Republicans in midterm election preferences, with 53% to 42%—marking the Democrats’ largest lead in the poll series. Meanwhile, former President Donald Trump’s approval rating stands at 39%, while his disapproval rating is 57%. The poll indicates that the Democrats’ advantage stems largely from female voters, among whom they lead Republicans by 27 points. Newsweek, analyzing via its Uniform Swing Model, stated that if this national advantage translates evenly to House districts, roughly 36 Republican-held seats could flip to Democrats, resulting in a hypothetical 251-184 seat split favoring the Democrats. However, the article emphasizes that this is only a model stress test based on national polls, not an election prediction, and the actual outcome will still be influenced by factors such as candidate performance, local issues, voter turnout, and district mapping. (Jinshi)

19 minutes ago

CZ: Long-term investors can adopt the dollar-cost averaging strategy to buy in batches.

In a post addressing the question of when the best entry point is for long-term holders during bull or bear markets, CZ stated that investors should adopt the dollar-cost averaging (DCA) strategy. DCA is a strategy of continuously buying the same asset at fixed intervals with a fixed amount each time, which smooths costs by diversifying entry timings and reduces the risk of buying at a high point in a single transaction, though it does not guarantee profits.

19 minutes ago

Lee Jae-myung strongly invites U.S. capital to invest in South Korea's tech sector.

According to Yonhap News Agency, South Korean President Lee Jae-myung stated that South Korea and the U.S. should expand their cooperation beyond their long-standing security alliance, covering also sectors of technology, innovation, and startups. He emphasized that combining the U.S.’s world-class venture capital capabilities and global networks with South Korea’s advanced technological strength and manufacturing competitiveness will foster a new batch of global innovative enterprises. Lee also called on U.S. venture capital firms to step up cooperation and expand investments in South Korea, while pledging to build one of the world’s most attractive investment and startup ecosystems. He noted that South Korea will reform its visa system to better attract overseas entrepreneurial talent, and lay the groundwork for establishing a cooperation framework between domestic and foreign enterprises, research institutions, and investors. He also committed to helping South Korean startups grow into globally competitive firms by connecting privately and publicly managed funds.

19 minutes ago

Yapay zeka ve yüksek performanslı bilgi işlem (HPC) alanındaki talebin hızla artması, merkeziyetsiz bulut çözümlerine olan ilgiyi de beraberinde getiriyor. Özellikle yapay zeka modellerinin eğitimi, büyük veri analizi ve GPU gerektiren uygulamaların yaygınlaşması, daha esnek ve uygun maliyetli bilgi işlem altyapılarına olan ihtiyacı artırıyor. Bu alanda öne çıkan projelerden biri olan CapIX Protocol (CPX), dünyanın farklı bölgelerindeki kullanılmayan işlem gücünü tek bir ağ altında bir araya getirerek daha düşük maliyetli, ölçeklenebilir ve verimli bir bulut altyapısı sunmayı hedefliyor. Akıllı yönlendirme sistemi sayesinde en uygun işlem kapasitesini otomatik olarak seçen platform, hem bireysel geliştiricilere hem de kurumsal kullanıcılara hitap eden merkeziyetsiz bir bilgi işlem ekosistemi oluşturmayı amaçlıyor. Peki CapIX Protocol (CPX) nedir, nasıl çalışır ve CPX token ne işe yarar?

CapIX Protocol, farklı altyapı sağlayıcılarının sunduğu işlem gücünü tek bir platform üzerinden yöneten merkeziyetsiz bir bilgi işlem ağıdır. Proje, kullanılmayan CPU ve GPU kaynaklarını değerlendirerek kullanıcıların ihtiyaç duyduğu işlem kapasitesini en uygun maliyetle sunmayı amaçlar. Platformun merkezinde yer alan CapIX OS, ağa bağlı sağlayıcıları anlık olarak tarayarak fiyat, performans ve kullanılabilirlik kriterlerine göre en uygun işlem gücünü seçer. Böylece kullanıcılar tek bir sağlayıcıya bağlı kalmadan küresel ölçekte dağıtılmış bilgi işlem altyapısından yararlanabilir. CapIX ekosistemi özellikle yapay zeka modelleri, bulut sunucuları, GPU kiralama ve merkeziyetsiz uygulamalar için geliştirildi.

CapIX Nasıl Çalışıyor? CapIX’in çalışma mantığı, farklı sağlayıcılardan gelen işlem gücünü tek bir akıllı yönlendirme sistemi altında toplamaya dayanıyor.

Süreç şu şekilde ilerliyor:

Kullanıcı Solana uyumlu cüzdanını platforma bağlıyor. SOL veya USDC yatırarak bakiyesini oluşturuyor. Çalıştırmak istediği uygulama veya sunucu türünü seçiyor. CapIX OS, ağdaki tüm aktif sağlayıcıları tarıyor. En düşük maliyetli ve uygun donanıma sahip düğüm otomatik olarak seçiliyor. İş yükü ilgili node üzerinde çalıştırılıyor ve kullanım süresine göre ücretlendiriliyor. Bu yapı sayesinde kullanıcılar manuel olarak sunucu aramak yerine sistemin en uygun seçeneği otomatik belirlemesinden faydalanabiliyor.

CapIX’in Sunduğu Hizmetler CapIX yalnızca bir bulut platformu değil, aynı zamanda yapay zeka geliştiricileri ve kurumsal kullanıcılar için farklı hizmetler sunan kapsamlı bir ekosistem oluşturuyor.

Başlıca ürünleri şunlar:

CapIX Cloud: Dağıtık sanal sunucu ve GPU kiralama platformu. AI Inference: OpenAI uyumlu API üzerinden 250’den fazla yapay zeka modeline erişim. AI Labs: Kuantum bilgi işlem ve deneysel yapay zeka uygulamaları. Serverless Jobs: Kullanıldığı kadar ödeme modeliyle çalışan işlem altyapısı. Private AI Models: Kullanıcılara özel yapay zeka modellerini API üzerinden çalıştırma imkânı. Bu hizmetlerin tamamı aynı altyapı ve yönlendirme sistemi üzerinden çalışıyor.

Smart Router Teknolojisi Nedir? CapIX’in en dikkat çeken bileşeni Smart Router (Akıllı Yönlendirici) sistemi olarak öne çıkıyor.

Bu teknoloji;

Ağdaki tüm işlem kapasitesini gerçek zamanlı tarıyor. Fiyat, donanım gücü ve gecikme sürelerini karşılaştırıyor. En uygun maliyetli sağlayıcıyı otomatik seçiyor. Gerektiğinde iş yükünü birden fazla node arasında dağıtabiliyor. Bu sayede kullanıcılar büyük bulut sağlayıcılarının uyguladığı yüksek fiyat marjlarından kaçınabiliyor.

CPX Token Ne İşe Yarar? CPX, CapIX Protocol ekosisteminin yerel tokenidir ve Solana Token-2022 standardı üzerinde geliştirilmiştir. Platformda kullanıcılar bugün için doğrudan SOL ve USDC ile ödeme yapabiliyor. Ancak CPX token, gelecekte devreye alınacak zincir üstü uzlaşma (on-chain settlement) katmanının temel varlığı olarak tasarlandı.

CPX’in kullanım alanları arasında şunlar bulunuyor:

Ağ üzerindeki uzlaşma işlemleri, Protokol ücretlerinin yönetimi, Yakım (burn) mekanizması, Hazine fonunun desteklenmesi, Ekosistem teşvikleri. Proje, CPX token bulundurmayı zorunlu kılmadan ağın kullanılabilmesini hedefliyor.

CapIX’in Avantajları CapIX Protocol, geleneksel bulut hizmetlerine alternatif oluşturabilecek çeşitli avantajlar sunuyor.

Öne çıkan özellikleri şunlardır:

Merkeziyetsiz işlem gücü ağı Kullanılmayan GPU ve CPU kaynaklarının değerlendirilmesi Gerçek zamanlı fiyat karşılaştırması Solana tabanlı ödeme sistemi OpenAI uyumlu AI API desteği GPU kiralama hizmeti SSH erişimli bulut sunucuları Kullanıldığı kadar ödeme modeli API entegrasyonu Geliştiricilere yönelik kapsamlı araçlar Güvenlik ve Yol Haritası CapIX, güvenlik tarafında sıfır güven (Zero Trust) yaklaşımını benimseyen bir mimari kullanıyor. Platformda konteyner izolasyonu, tek kullanımlık SSH anahtarları, HMAC tabanlı kimlik doğrulama, işlem tekrarını önleyen güvenlik mekanizmaları ve Solana üzerinde doğrulanabilir ödeme kayıtları bulunuyor.

Projenin yol haritasında ise şu teknolojiler yer alıyor:

Gizli bilgi işlem (Confidential Computing) AMD SEV-SNP ve Intel TDX desteği NVIDIA Confidential GPU teknolojileri zkVM doğrulama sistemi Zincir üstü uzlaşma altyapısı eBPF tabanlı ağ izolasyonu Bu özelliklerin ilerleyen dönemlerde kademeli olarak kullanıma sunulması planlanıyor.

CapIX Protocol (CPX), merkeziyetsiz bulut bilişim ve yapay zeka altyapısını tek platform altında birleştirmeyi amaçlayan yenilikçi projeler arasında yer alıyor. Akıllı yönlendirme sistemi, küresel GPU ağı ve OpenAI uyumlu yapay zeka servisleriyle hem geliştiricilere hem de kurumsal kullanıcılara düşük maliyetli bilgi işlem imkânı sunmayı hedefliyor. CPX token ise gelecekte devreye alınacak zincir üstü uzlaşma mekanizmasının merkezinde yer alacak. Merkeziyetsiz AI ve bulut bilişim sektörünün büyümesiyle birlikte CapIX’in geliştirdiği teknolojilerin yakından takip edilmesi bekleniyor.

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Changxin's pre-IPO price drops to $6, corresponding to an RMB share price of 40.62 yuan on its first day of listing.

According to Hyperinsight’s monitoring, the Pre-IPO contract price of CXMT (Changxin Memory Technologies, whose listed entity is Changxin Technology) on Hyperliquid has fallen to $6, with a more than 5.7% drop in 24 hours. The corresponding RMB share price stands at 40.62 yuan. Calculated based on the post-issue total share count of 66.881 billion shares, the on-chain implied market capitalization is approximately $400 billion, equivalent to around 2.7 trillion yuan. At this valuation, the subscription cost per lot of 500 shares for retail investors who win the online application is 4,330 yuan. The estimated market value of 500 shares on the first day of listing is 20,310 yuan, translating to a profit of roughly 16,000 yuan per lot.

1 hours ago

The latest draft of the CLARITY Act includes an incentive clause for white hat hackers, proposing to offer rewards to individuals who identify security vulnerabilities.

The latest draft of the U.S. Senate’s Cryptocurrency Market Structure Act (the CLARITY Act) includes provisions encouraging white hat hackers to responsibly disclose cybersecurity vulnerabilities, proposing to authorize rewards for individuals who identify and report such flaws to bolster protection for digital asset infrastructure before they are maliciously exploited. The provision incorporates the views of former CFTC Chairman J. Christopher Giancarlo, a long-time advocate for digital asset innovation.

1 hours ago

US tech giants have cut nearly 140,000 jobs this year, with the four leading players' AI capital expenditure totaling $725 billion.

According to statistics from the Financial Times in partnership with Challenger, Gray & Christmas, U.S. tech industry layoffs since 2026 have accounted for more than one-third of all announced layoffs nationwide. Amazon, Oracle, Meta and Microsoft alone have cut nearly 50,000 jobs, roughly 6% of their total workforce. In sharp contrast, Amazon, Alphabet, Meta and Microsoft are projected to invest a combined $725 billion in AI infrastructure such as data centers this year. After laying off staff in March, Oracle’s total headcount dropped by 21,000 for the full year; this month, S&P downgraded its credit rating, citing weak cash flow and uncertain AI returns. Microsoft cut 4,800 jobs this month, mainly in its Xbox gaming division, essentially a full reset of its $75 billion acquisition of Activision Blizzard three years ago. The narrative that "AI causes layoffs" is met with skepticism in academic circles. Enrico Moretti, an economics professor at the University of California, Berkeley, notes that AI-related layoffs are more of an excuse for management to correct over-hiring during the pandemic. "Claiming AI-driven efficiency gains is easier than admitting to over-hiring back then," he said. Market pricing also contradicts this narrative: within 30 trading days of announcing layoffs, companies that attributed cuts to AI saw their stock prices underperform the Nasdaq by nearly 10%, while companies laying off for other reasons lagged by only around 4%. Amazon and Microsoft have explicitly stated that AI adoption is not a decisive factor in their layoffs. In contrast to the tech giants’ non-core business contractions, AI-native startups like Anthropic and OpenAI are still rapidly expanding their workforce, driving fast growth in AI sector employment. "What is being cut is merely all other non-core business segments."

1 hours ago

Layer1 project Vanar will begin migrating its infrastructure to Base next Tuesday.

Layer 1 blockchain project Vanar announced that its infrastructure migration to Base will kick off next Tuesday. Users currently staking VANRY must first unstake, wait for the cooldown period to elapse before claiming their tokens. Earlier, Vanar stated that existing VANRY token holders can complete the migration at a 1:1 ratio, with their holding amounts remaining unchanged. Additionally, VANRY’s total supply will rise from 2.4 billion to 10 billion tokens, approximately 62% of which will stay locked during the migration. Once the migration is complete, staking for Vanarchain validators will be halted.

1 hours ago

2035年数据中心将占美国电力消耗的约20%，成为下一个AI瓶颈

U.S. data center power demand is projected to surge by 253% from 2026 levels, reaching a record 194 gigawatts by 2035 — with 1 gigawatt roughly matching the capacity of a traditional nuclear reactor. Currently, data centers consume 6% of the U.S.’s annual electricity; that share is estimated to climb to around 12% by 2030, and will account for roughly 20% of total U.S. electricity consumption by 2035. Most of the growth in U.S. power demand is concentrated in a handful of grid regions, such as the PJM Interconnection, which serves Washington, D.C. and 13 states including Virginia, Pennsylvania and Ohio. Power will be the next AI bottleneck.

1 hours ago

Robinhood Chain's 24-hour network fee revenue reached $350,000, ranking fourth among all blockchains.

According to DeFiLlama data, Robinhood EVM Chain generated $350,000 in 24-hour network fee revenue, ranking fourth among all blockchains, trailing only Canton, Tron, and Solana. Launched on July 1, the Robinhood EVM Chain has seen its total value locked (TVL) quickly rise to $315 million. Though originally designed for on-chain stocks and ETFs, it has emerged as a major hub for meme coin activity.

1 hours ago

Changxin's pre-IPO price drops to $6, corresponding to an RMB share price of 40.62 yuan on its first day of listing.

According to Hyperinsight’s monitoring, the Pre-IPO contract price of CXMT (Changxin Memory Technologies, whose listed entity is Changxin Technology) on Hyperliquid has fallen to $6, with a more than 5.7% drop in 24 hours. The corresponding RMB share price stands at 40.62 yuan. Calculated based on the post-issue total share count of 66.881 billion shares, the on-chain implied market capitalization is approximately $400 billion, equivalent to around 2.7 trillion yuan. At this valuation, the subscription cost per lot of 500 shares for retail investors who win the online application is 4,330 yuan. The estimated market value of 500 shares on the first day of listing is 20,310 yuan, translating to a profit of roughly 16,000 yuan per lot.

36 minutes ago

The latest draft of the CLARITY Act includes an incentive clause for white hat hackers, proposing to offer rewards to individuals who identify security vulnerabilities.

The latest draft of the U.S. Senate’s Cryptocurrency Market Structure Act (the CLARITY Act) includes provisions encouraging white hat hackers to responsibly disclose cybersecurity vulnerabilities, proposing to authorize rewards for individuals who identify and report such flaws to bolster protection for digital asset infrastructure before they are maliciously exploited. The provision incorporates the views of former CFTC Chairman J. Christopher Giancarlo, a long-time advocate for digital asset innovation.

36 minutes ago

US tech giants have cut nearly 140,000 jobs this year, with the four leading players' AI capital expenditure totaling $725 billion.

According to statistics from the Financial Times in partnership with Challenger, Gray & Christmas, U.S. tech industry layoffs since 2026 have accounted for more than one-third of all announced layoffs nationwide. Amazon, Oracle, Meta and Microsoft alone have cut nearly 50,000 jobs, roughly 6% of their total workforce. In sharp contrast, Amazon, Alphabet, Meta and Microsoft are projected to invest a combined $725 billion in AI infrastructure such as data centers this year. After laying off staff in March, Oracle’s total headcount dropped by 21,000 for the full year; this month, S&P downgraded its credit rating, citing weak cash flow and uncertain AI returns. Microsoft cut 4,800 jobs this month, mainly in its Xbox gaming division, essentially a full reset of its $75 billion acquisition of Activision Blizzard three years ago. The narrative that "AI causes layoffs" is met with skepticism in academic circles. Enrico Moretti, an economics professor at the University of California, Berkeley, notes that AI-related layoffs are more of an excuse for management to correct over-hiring during the pandemic. "Claiming AI-driven efficiency gains is easier than admitting to over-hiring back then," he said. Market pricing also contradicts this narrative: within 30 trading days of announcing layoffs, companies that attributed cuts to AI saw their stock prices underperform the Nasdaq by nearly 10%, while companies laying off for other reasons lagged by only around 4%. Amazon and Microsoft have explicitly stated that AI adoption is not a decisive factor in their layoffs. In contrast to the tech giants’ non-core business contractions, AI-native startups like Anthropic and OpenAI are still rapidly expanding their workforce, driving fast growth in AI sector employment. "What is being cut is merely all other non-core business segments."

36 minutes ago

Layer1 project Vanar will begin migrating its infrastructure to Base next Tuesday.

Layer 1 blockchain project Vanar announced that its infrastructure migration to Base will kick off next Tuesday. Users currently staking VANRY must first unstake, wait for the cooldown period to elapse before claiming their tokens. Earlier, Vanar stated that existing VANRY token holders can complete the migration at a 1:1 ratio, with their holding amounts remaining unchanged. Additionally, VANRY’s total supply will rise from 2.4 billion to 10 billion tokens, approximately 62% of which will stay locked during the migration. Once the migration is complete, staking for Vanarchain validators will be halted.

36 minutes ago

2035年数据中心将占美国电力消耗的约20%，成为下一个AI瓶颈

U.S. data center power demand is projected to surge by 253% from 2026 levels, reaching a record 194 gigawatts by 2035 — with 1 gigawatt roughly matching the capacity of a traditional nuclear reactor. Currently, data centers consume 6% of the U.S.’s annual electricity; that share is estimated to climb to around 12% by 2030, and will account for roughly 20% of total U.S. electricity consumption by 2035. Most of the growth in U.S. power demand is concentrated in a handful of grid regions, such as the PJM Interconnection, which serves Washington, D.C. and 13 states including Virginia, Pennsylvania and Ohio. Power will be the next AI bottleneck.

36 minutes ago

Robinhood Chain's 24-hour network fee revenue reached $350,000, ranking fourth among all blockchains.

According to DeFiLlama data, Robinhood EVM Chain generated $350,000 in 24-hour network fee revenue, ranking fourth among all blockchains, trailing only Canton, Tron, and Solana. Launched on July 1, the Robinhood EVM Chain has seen its total value locked (TVL) quickly rise to $315 million. Though originally designed for on-chain stocks and ETFs, it has emerged as a major hub for meme coin activity.

36 minutes ago

Changxin's pre-IPO price drops to $6, corresponding to an RMB share price of 40.62 yuan on its first day of listing.

According to Hyperinsight’s monitoring, the Pre-IPO contract price of CXMT (Changxin Memory Technologies, whose listed entity is Changxin Technology) on Hyperliquid has fallen to $6, with a more than 5.7% drop in 24 hours. The corresponding RMB share price stands at 40.62 yuan. Calculated based on the post-issue total share count of 66.881 billion shares, the on-chain implied market capitalization is approximately $400 billion, equivalent to around 2.7 trillion yuan. At this valuation, the subscription cost per lot of 500 shares for retail investors who win the online application is 4,330 yuan. The estimated market value of 500 shares on the first day of listing is 20,310 yuan, translating to a profit of roughly 16,000 yuan per lot.

16 minutes ago

The latest draft of the CLARITY Act includes an incentive clause for white hat hackers, proposing to offer rewards to individuals who identify security vulnerabilities.

The latest draft of the U.S. Senate’s Cryptocurrency Market Structure Act (the CLARITY Act) includes provisions encouraging white hat hackers to responsibly disclose cybersecurity vulnerabilities, proposing to authorize rewards for individuals who identify and report such flaws to bolster protection for digital asset infrastructure before they are maliciously exploited. The provision incorporates the views of former CFTC Chairman J. Christopher Giancarlo, a long-time advocate for digital asset innovation.

16 minutes ago

US tech giants have cut nearly 140,000 jobs this year, with the four leading players' AI capital expenditure totaling $725 billion.

According to statistics from the Financial Times in partnership with Challenger, Gray & Christmas, U.S. tech industry layoffs since 2026 have accounted for more than one-third of all announced layoffs nationwide. Amazon, Oracle, Meta and Microsoft alone have cut nearly 50,000 jobs, roughly 6% of their total workforce. In sharp contrast, Amazon, Alphabet, Meta and Microsoft are projected to invest a combined $725 billion in AI infrastructure such as data centers this year. After laying off staff in March, Oracle’s total headcount dropped by 21,000 for the full year; this month, S&P downgraded its credit rating, citing weak cash flow and uncertain AI returns. Microsoft cut 4,800 jobs this month, mainly in its Xbox gaming division, essentially a full reset of its $75 billion acquisition of Activision Blizzard three years ago. The narrative that "AI causes layoffs" is met with skepticism in academic circles. Enrico Moretti, an economics professor at the University of California, Berkeley, notes that AI-related layoffs are more of an excuse for management to correct over-hiring during the pandemic. "Claiming AI-driven efficiency gains is easier than admitting to over-hiring back then," he said. Market pricing also contradicts this narrative: within 30 trading days of announcing layoffs, companies that attributed cuts to AI saw their stock prices underperform the Nasdaq by nearly 10%, while companies laying off for other reasons lagged by only around 4%. Amazon and Microsoft have explicitly stated that AI adoption is not a decisive factor in their layoffs. In contrast to the tech giants’ non-core business contractions, AI-native startups like Anthropic and OpenAI are still rapidly expanding their workforce, driving fast growth in AI sector employment. "What is being cut is merely all other non-core business segments."

16 minutes ago

Layer1 project Vanar will begin migrating its infrastructure to Base next Tuesday.

Layer 1 blockchain project Vanar announced that its infrastructure migration to Base will kick off next Tuesday. Users currently staking VANRY must first unstake, wait for the cooldown period to elapse before claiming their tokens. Earlier, Vanar stated that existing VANRY token holders can complete the migration at a 1:1 ratio, with their holding amounts remaining unchanged. Additionally, VANRY’s total supply will rise from 2.4 billion to 10 billion tokens, approximately 62% of which will stay locked during the migration. Once the migration is complete, staking for Vanarchain validators will be halted.

16 minutes ago

2035年数据中心将占美国电力消耗的约20%，成为下一个AI瓶颈

U.S. data center power demand is projected to surge by 253% from 2026 levels, reaching a record 194 gigawatts by 2035 — with 1 gigawatt roughly matching the capacity of a traditional nuclear reactor. Currently, data centers consume 6% of the U.S.’s annual electricity; that share is estimated to climb to around 12% by 2030, and will account for roughly 20% of total U.S. electricity consumption by 2035. Most of the growth in U.S. power demand is concentrated in a handful of grid regions, such as the PJM Interconnection, which serves Washington, D.C. and 13 states including Virginia, Pennsylvania and Ohio. Power will be the next AI bottleneck.

16 minutes ago

Robinhood Chain's 24-hour network fee revenue reached $350,000, ranking fourth among all blockchains.

According to DeFiLlama data, Robinhood EVM Chain generated $350,000 in 24-hour network fee revenue, ranking fourth among all blockchains, trailing only Canton, Tron, and Solana. Launched on July 1, the Robinhood EVM Chain has seen its total value locked (TVL) quickly rise to $315 million. Though originally designed for on-chain stocks and ETFs, it has emerged as a major hub for meme coin activity.

16 minutes ago

Coinbase has launched support for USDC payments managed by autonomous artificial intelligence agents through its business-focused platform, aiming to streamline automated financial transactions. The exchange introduced the upgrade on July 23, 2026, alongside new agent trading commands and a software developer kit for integrating x402-enabled payments into digital services.

Coinbase targets automated payment flowsThis week, businesses using Coinbase can begin to receive USDC directly from AI agents. Under the new setup, each transaction is processed through Coinbase’s payment infrastructure, with the addition of x402 simplifying pay-per-use use cases on the internet.

Firms now have the ability to receive, track, reconcile, and withdraw these agent-managed payments via a single, centralized account. The platform’s business dashboard specifies that eligible USDC balances can earn rewards, with a listed annual rate of 3.35%. This rate may fluctuate depending on user region and platform updates.

Shift in web traffic prompts changeCoinbase developed these features in response to growing automation on the web. In June, the amount of automated visits to pages related to Base, a Coinbase-developed layer 2 blockchain, surpassed human visits for the first time. The company observed that traditional payment workflows rely heavily on human input, which poses challenges for autonomous AI services.

With this upgrade, agent-initiated transactions can now be managed together with regular business payments. The firm noted that USDC payments through agents have no chargeback risk within this structure. Coinbase does not directly intervene in transfers between businesses and their customers; access is based on product, user location, and system requirements.

Features for developers and autonomous agentsCoinbase’s latest update includes new real-time tools for the Agents product, such as market feeds and conditional triggers. AI agents can stream and analyze orders, monitor order books, asset prices, and volume fluctuations, and execute buy, sell, or cancellation requests based on pre-set rules.

Developers can add agent payment capabilities to their APIs, Model Context Protocol servers, or web services via the Coinbase Developer Platform’s new CDP x402 software kit. The package includes key infrastructure and extensions, which eliminates extra setup for payment middleware.

The x402 protocol uses the HTTP 402 Payment Required status code to facilitate payments. This setup allows online services to trigger payment requests whenever an AI agent attempts to use resources or services.

The agent confirms payment with USDC and resends the service request along with payment proof, completing the transaction without additional human oversight.

Mini dictionary: x402 protocol, an open technical standard for integrating on-chain payments with internet services using the HTTP 402 response code, designed to let APIs and AI agents handle stablecoin payments automatically during resource requests.

Coinbase initially launched the x402 standard in May 2025 to support payment operations for APIs, applications, and autonomous agents. The standard is designed to combine payment requests, USDC authorization, and confirmation of settlement into a seamless process.

Amazon adopted the x402 protocol in May 2026 by adding it to Bedrock Agent Core Payments, enabling compatible AI agents to pay for services using USDC tokens. According to Coinbase, these advancements mark further progress in machine-based and automated payment solutions.

The company has not disclosed anticipated payment volumes or values for its new business feature but emphasized that these enhancements benefit companies receiving funds, individual users managing AI agents, and developers building agent-driven platforms or tools.

Each improvement is aimed at supporting a unique participant in the growing automated online economy, whether handling funds, developing new features, or overseeing autonomous agents acting on users’ behalf.

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.

In brief Samsung said Samsung Wallet will add native stablecoin support at Galaxy Unpacked in London on July 22, showing a mockup with Circle's USDC. The move builds on a 2019 Knox-based crypto wallet, 2021 hardware wallet support, and an October 2025 Coinbase integration that reached 75 million U.S. Galaxy owners. It landed alongside the Galaxy Card, Samsung's first credit card with Barclays and Visa, as the global stablecoin supply sits near $310 billion under the year-old GENIUS Act. Samsung wants stablecoins living next to your boarding pass. At Galaxy Unpacked in London on July 22, the company said Samsung Wallet—the app that already stores payment cards, IDs, and hotel keys—will add native support for stablecoins. Samsung didn't name a launch date, an issuer, or which blockchain the tokens would run on.

"Samsung Wallet will expand beyond cash and savings. It will embrace New forms of digital value, including stablecoins," said Lee Dinham, Samsung's product manager, on stage, adding that the move would make the company one of the first major smartphone brands to offer native stablecoins.

“This will make Samsung one of the first major mobile brands to bring native stablecoins to a Smartphone, enabling fast and trusted digital value transfers,” Dinham said.

Stablecoins are tokens designed to hold a steady value, usually $1, by being backed one-to-one with cash or short-term government debt. Samsung showed a wallet mockup holding Circle's USDC, the second-largest stablecoin by market value, without confirming Circle as a partner in the endeavor.

Samsung hasn't said whether the feature will be custodial, meaning Samsung or some other third party holds users' funds, or non-custodial, where users alone control the private keys that unlock their own money.

Samsung's long crypto résuméNone of this is new territory for Samsung. The company built crypto storage into Galaxy phones back in 2019 through Knox, a hardware-isolated vault unlocked only by PIN or fingerprint, and later added support for Bitcoin, Ethereum, Tron, and Stellar. In 2021, Samsung let Galaxy owners link hardware wallets like the Ledger Nano S directly to that vault.

Last October, Samsung expanded a deal with Coinbase that put crypto purchases directly inside Samsung Wallet for 75 million U.S. Galaxy owners. "Samsung Wallet is a trusted tool to millions of Galaxy users," Drew Blackard, the company's senior vice president of mobile product management, said of that deal.

The stablecoin plan landed alongside the Galaxy Card, Samsung's first credit card in the United States, issued by Barclays on the Visa network with 5% cash back on Samsung purchases and 3% on Samsung Wallet transactions. Visa's Kirk Stuart said the card reflects how "consumers expect payments to be embedded into the digital experiences they use every day." Samsung framed the wider effort as a "secured payments and rewards experience."

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@SamsungMobile used its Galaxy Unpacked event on July 22 to reveal that Samsung Wallet will add native stablecoin support, marking one of the most significant moves by a mainstream consumer electronics brand into digital-dollar payments. Samsung Wallet product manager Lee Dinham told the audience the app would "embrace new forms of digital value, including stablecoins," positioning the company as one of the first major mobile brands to bring native stablecoin support to a smartphone.

The on-stage presentation showed a mockup of the Wallet holding @circle's $USDC, though Samsung did not name USDC or other stablecoins as formal partners for the launch. No launch date, supported stablecoin list, or specific technical rollout plan has been disclosed.

A broader push into financial servicesThe stablecoin announcement did not stand alone. It came alongside the Samsung Galaxy Card, a credit card issued by Barclays on the Visa network that launched in the United States on July 22. Samsung Electronics America described the Galaxy Card as a way to earn cash rewards on everyday purchases, including elevated rates on Samsung products directly. It is Samsung's first ever credit card, issued by Barclays US Consumer Bank on the Visa network.

The stablecoin move builds on a 2025 partnership with Coinbase that gave millions of US Galaxy users access to cryptocurrency services directly through their devices, effectively graduating Samsung Wallet from a basic crypto access point into something closer to a full-featured digital asset platform. Together, the Galaxy Card and stablecoin plan signal Samsung's intent to turn its Wallet into a unified hub for payments, rewards, and digital assets.

Scale is the storyWhat separates this announcement from typical crypto integrations is the distribution behind it. Samsung Wallet's stablecoin support was announced at Galaxy Unpacked 2026 on July 22, a move that would place digital dollars alongside tap-to-pay, boarding passes, and loyalty cards in the pockets of hundreds of millions of Galaxy device owners. The original copy notes the wallet already reaches 75 million US Galaxy owners through the existing Coinbase integration alone.

For stablecoins, the implications are significant. The announcement comes as stablecoins are experiencing substantial growth in digital payments, with total market capitalisation exceeding $315 billion in 2026. When a phone maker of Samsung's scale puts stablecoins next to boarding passes and hotel keys, digital dollars stop being a crypto product and start becoming a default phone feature.

Sources:
Samsung Newsroom: Introducing Samsung Galaxy Card
PR Newswire: Samsung launches its first credit card in the U.S.
Crypto Briefing: Samsung Wallet to support stablecoins, including USDC

The Verus Ethereum Bridge has been targeted by a major security breach for the second time in just over two months, resulting in the theft of approximately $7.54 million in various crypto assets. The incident occurred on July 23 when attackers exploited a vulnerability, once again raising concerns about the security of cross-chain protocols in decentralized finance (DeFi).

Attacker Drains Bridge’s Ethereum ReservesThe breach allowed the attacker to abuse the bridge’s submitImports function, which triggered Ethereum-side payouts without equivalent assets being locked on the Verus blockchain. This vulnerability enabled the unauthorized extraction of funds from the bridge’s reserves.

Blockchain security firm Blockaid and independent researcher exvulsec both confirmed and investigated the exploit. According to on-chain data, roughly 1,137 ETH, as well as tBTC, USDC, USDT, EURC, MKR, and scrvUSD, were drained from the bridge reserves at around 03:45 UTC. The stolen assets were quickly swapped through decentralized exchanges, then consolidated into nearly 3,916 ETH before parts of the funds were routed through Tornado Cash.

Mini dictionary: Tornado Cash, a decentralized non-custodial privacy solution on Ethereum, is designed to break the on-chain link between source and destination addresses, making transaction tracing more difficult.

AssetAmount stolenEstimated valueETH1,137Included in $7.54M totaltBTCUnknownUSDCUnknownUSDTUnknownEURCUnknownMKRUnknownscrvUSDUnknown Investigators noted that by exploiting the same contract, function entry point, and vulnerability as a previous May breach, the attacker bypassed standard cross-chain verification and triggered unbacked payouts, draining several digital assets from Verus’ Ethereum bridge reserves.

Recurring Security Flaws and Recent HistoryThe latest breach revived scrutiny over Verus’ handling of a previous exploit in May, which resulted in an $11.58 million loss. Experts stated that this attack exploited the exact vulnerability from the earlier incident, indicating that core issues may have remained unaddressed. Blockaid observed that while this latest event involved a different attacker wallet, the method and targeted contract remained unchanged.

Following the May attack, the same attacker returned 4,052 ETH—about 75% of the stolen funds—after reaching an agreement with Verus. Despite that partial restitution, the repetition of the exploit has heightened doubts regarding the bridge’s security remediation process.

Experts pointed out that the repeated vulnerability likely resulted from an incomplete technical fix after the earlier breach, leaving Verus exposed to additional attacks. There is growing pressure for the protocol team to publish a thorough incident report and technical breakdown.

Ongoing Investigations and Broader RisksThe Verus incident is one of several recent DeFi bridge attacks highlighted by on-chain monitoring services. Lookonchain reported that combined losses from incidents involving Verus, AFX Trade, and B² Network have climbed to approximately $35.55 million.

Mini dictionary: Lookonchain is an on-chain analytics platform known for monitoring blockchain transactions and identifying patterns related to hacks, large movements, and abnormal activities.

Security analysts explained that bridge protocols are increasingly targeted due to logical flaws in cross-chain messaging mechanisms, which, if exploited, can allow fund withdrawals without equivalent collateralization.

Next Steps for Verus and UsersAmid the investigation, Verus halted all bridge operations but has not announced a compensation plan or released a detailed technical report. The absence of a clear official explanation has drawn criticism from the user community.

Observers expect the Verus team to prioritize closing the technical vulnerability, improve their validation process, and offer a roadmap to locate and potentially recover missing assets. Until these steps are made public, scrutiny around trust and transparency in the protocol will likely continue.

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 is facing criminal charges in Wisconsin because, in relation to some investment fraud, "Circle Internet Financial LLC has declined to repatriate the corresponding fiat reserves" and "Circle has not complied with a Circuit Court Judge’s seizure warrant."

Law enforcement secured a seizure warrant which Circle will not enforce. Circle claims they cannot enforce it. The government is charging Circle for declining to enforce it. Whatever is going on: everyone agrees Circle is not currently enforcing it.

This column has a long history of pulling entertaining and contradictory bits out of company public statements and (usually much later) legal settlements where those companies got caught doing something they were not supposed to do. Much of the time the company in question made explicit statements that it would not do the conduct it eventually admitted doing. And much of the time those public statements were contemporaneous with the bad conduct. But we only found out they were lying years later.

Here we have the rare opportunity to work through seemingly-false statements made by a company during a public dispute with law enforcement in real time. So that is what we are going to do. Some of this was covered by the ICIJ but we think their narrative is too generous towards Circle.

Some BackgroundTether routinely seizes funds for law enforcement. Tether has the power to transfer USDT out of your address and burn them without your knowledge or consent. So to seize funds Tether just burns tokens from anywhere and then issues fresh replacement USDT to whatever address law enforcement wants. In theory Tether could also take the funds back from law enforcement — the same process can be used for any address — though that has not yet happened. Tether has had these powers for many years. Nothing is this paragraph is new or controversial.

Circle is a little bit different. Circle does not currently have a seize function in their tokens. Both Tether and Circle can freeze funds – immobilizing them in an address – but Circle's current smart contracts do not support seizure. Circle routinely freezes tokens but it does not seize them. This is presumably what Circle was referring to when it told the Walworth County Circuit Court:

Beyond the ability to blocklist wallets, however, Circle has no control of USDC held in third-party wallets and has no ability to invalidate and reissue such USDC or to transfer them.The key words here are "has no control" and "has no ability." Circle uses the conjunction "and" meaning Circle believes both of those claims to be independently true. If Circle has any way to wrangle invalidation then Circle made a false statement to the court. Given invalidation we know reissuance is possible because once you invalidate the "bad" tokens the reissuance is just issuance. Which happens all the time. So the threshold question here is whether Circle can "invalidate" USDC in an address specifed by law enforcement.

Circle's PowersCircle cannot currently invalidate USDC and seize funds. But Circle can upgrade USDC to have whatever functionality it desires. So it cannot follow this roadmap to comply with a seizure order:

Seize the fundsBut absolutely it can comply with this roadmap:

Upgrade USDC to allow seizureSeize the fundsIn a strange turn, Circle told the government the required process to seize the funds was as follows. And bear in mind we are quoting Circle's own court filing here so this is presumably a generous phrasing from Circle's perspective:

Circle also communicated to Detective Kuchta that (1) the address was not held at Circle; (2) Circle did not have the private keys for the address; (3) Circle could not, therefore, transfer USDC from the wallet; and (4) to recover the USDC for the victim law enforcement would need to locate the private keys for the address. By telling the police to go find the private keys Circle is being, well, let's call it intransigent. Actually, no, let us be a bit more direct (with apologies to Andy Samberg and Justin Timberlake). Circle looks to prefer these steps:

Get charged for no function to seizeMoan how it sucks to seizePut in a function to seizeThat’s the way they do it. Circle is being a...go watch the video in that last link.

It is hardly a secret Circle can upgrade the USDC contracts so it looks pretty likely this capability will eventually come up in court and the judge will sort Circle out. Circle's terms also provide the company with incredibly broad discretion to deny anyone access at any time and in any manner at all for pretty much any reason. This text is in the Acceptable Use Policy describing a list of things you are not allowed to do with USDC and which might lead Circle to cut you off:

For clarity, the following lists are not exhaustive and we may, at our sole discretion, modify them without notice.So Circle can decide anything it likes is out of bounds. And that document covers:

services provided by Circle Internet Financial, LLC, Circle Payments, LLC, Circle UK TradingLimited and/or Circle International Bermuda Limited (together, “Circle”), inclusive of, but not limited to, Circle Mint account,Application Programming Interface products, card processing, and the Circle Yield offering (together and separately, the “Services”), The "but not limited to" would seem to provide sufficient cover to enforce a court order by including whatever corners of Circle's operation are needed to effect the required upgrades. Remember: in this case a court is telling Circle to do something and Circle is not doing it. Maybe you think reading that clause in such a broad manner is squirrely. Sure, maybe. But that is a problem when a strained reading is used to evade a court or the clear intent of a contract or some other agreement. In the present case not reading these powers broadly led to criminal charges and is, in a real and on-going sense, blocking enforcement of a court order. Using this ambiguity to comply with the court is not going to anger the court. Certainly not any more than the current behaviour will.

Circle's Terms vs. ActionsIn Circle's documentation the company anticipates that court orders may come in to request asset freezes. There is an Access Denial Policy which sets out the freeze framework. And there is even a section entitled "Blocked Addresses & Forfeited Funds" in the USDC Terms. That later section includes this text:

Circle may also be required to freeze USDC and/or surrender associated USD held in Segregated Accounts in the event it receives a legal order from a valid government authority requiring it to do so.This anticipates the idea that a court order may mandate sending USD somewhere the court directs. The word "forfeited" appears in a section heading. And if we look at the government's description in Wisconsin we find something very much on point:

The Court’s Warrant ordered Circle to “facilitate the seizure” of Victim #1’s USDC and invalidate that USDC so that it had no value. The Warrant then ordered Circle to issue approximately $381,000 in new USDC to compensate Victim #1 and transfer that new USDC to a digital wallet owned by the Walworth County Sheriff’s Department. This procedure is known as “burn and reissue”."Facilitate the seizure" is a broad directive. The court is not telling Circle precisely how to satisfy the court's desires. The court is simply saying "find a way to do this." And Circle's on-the-record response is weird. Above we quoted Circle's broad claim of "no ability." The government's narrative gives a bit more colour there too:

In subsequent discussions, Circle’s representatives have explained that the company holds approximately $381,000 in US Currency in reserve to cover the value of Victim #1’s USDC, even though that USDC cannot be redeemed by anyone for US Currency because Circle froze it. Circle protested that if it issued $381,000 worth of new USDC, it would also have to hold an additional $381,000 in US Currency to cover the new USDC. Circle objected that it would be unfair for the company to have to set aside that much US Currency in reserve. Circle also stated that by the terms of its own contracts, it will not “burn and reissue” USDC.This is some twisted logic. Circle seems to believe it is required to maintain backing for all USDC, frozen or not, and that because it currently cannot burn and reissue USDC this would require holding double reserves for the recovered amount and that – the double reserving Circle just imposed on itself – is unfair.

We will immediately concede that double reserving here is unreasonable and dumb. But the double reserving is only "required" if we accept Circle's claim it cannot do the burn and reissue. This is a strained attempt for Circle to look like the victim. Possibly so that Circle can continue to collect interest on the US$381,000 in reserves it holds against the frozen tokens

Said another way: Circle's protest assumes Circle will not use its power to upgrade the USDC to allow seizures. We know this is Circle's thinking because, again quoting the Wisconsin government:

Circle also stated that by the terms of its own contracts, it will not “burn and reissue” USDC.This is weird. The word "reissue" does not appear on circle.com, as of this writing, per a number of searches. And the USDC Risk Factors also include a section entitled "Blocked Addresses & Forfeited Funds" so this is puzzling. If we read the reference to "its own contracts" in that last quote from Circle as pertaining to the USDC smart contracts it is again true in a literal-and-useless sense. By the terms of the currently deployed smart contracts there is no reissue power. But by the terms of those same contracts Circle can simply change the contracts.

Circle looks to be playing games so it can collect interest on frozen USDC forever. Holding frozen scam-related funds forever and keeping the interest is an interesting business model.

ContractsIf you have ever entered into any sort of commercial agreement you have probably seen clauses that allow someone to modify the terms under extreme circumstances and maybe also in a "commercially reasonable manner" if the need arises. Most contracts contemplate the idea that things can change and some amount of flexibility is required. For example, a company may change its office address. Or it may change where it banks. Or any number of other things. If you enter into a contract which includes bank details and the other party changes where it banks that does not mean you automatically can stop paying. If the company tells you where to send the money instead you cannot just decide to terminate the contract (unless it is a very strange contract indeed).

Similarly, you might enter into a contract based on some published reference price – think oil or gold or a commercial property index or some interest rate benchmark – and the name of that thing might change. Or where or how it is published might change. Someone is supposed to keep things up to date in a commercially reasonable manner. There is standard verbiage for this in many industries and if you end up in court the judge will make you do the sensible thing. Yes there are corner cases. But the Circle mess is really quite simple. Circle's term look to allow for enforcement here. And there is a simple sequence of steps Circle can follow to do the enforcement. None of this makes much sense.

Circle looks to be trying to interpret things in an incredibly narrow and self-serving way to manufacture an injury Circle would suffer if it complied. And then to moan that imagined injury is unfair. If we go back to Circle's own words to the court this is clearly exactly what they are doing:

The Complaint’s sole allegation regarding Circle’s intentional disobedience is that “Circle...refused to invalidate the stolen USDC or issue new USDC,” Compl. ¶ 9. But the Complaint clearly misrepresents the content of the relevant communication. Circle did not “refuse” to invalidate the stolen USDC; it stated that it “does not hold the private keys to the address.” Compare Compl. ¶ 9 with Ex. 6. That is an accurate statement that Circle lacked the tools required to “invalidate” the USDC held in the Blocklisted Wallet, not an intentional refusal to comply with the terms of the Second Warrant.Circle was directed to "facilitate the seizure" of the funds. And then Circle asserts it did not refuse to invalidate the USDC in question – its just that Circle has no button labelled "seize" to press. But Circle did refuse to upgrade the USDC contracts to add a seize button.

Circle also presented the total non-sequitur that it "does not hold the private keys to the address" of the fraud-linked funds. This is also arguable. It is true in the sense that Circle does not hold the fraudster's private keys. But the term "private keys" is not being used in a technically precise sense here because there are two sets of private keys that can move the funds. The term "private keys" as used here connotes control over funds. And so long as Circle has the private keys to upgrade USDC it has one set of private keys that can facilitate a seizure out of the addresses in question. Remember: USDC and USDT are not true bearer assets. The issuers retain a lot of control over "your" funds.

Maybe you think we are giving the authorities too much credit and we should interpret the claim in narrow technical terms? Under that reading, you may be thinking, it is not Circle's problem the government asked for the wrong thing. We have sympathy for this sentiment. But there is a bigger problem. If we interpret everything in these documents in narrow technical terms Circle is wrong that it has "no ability to invalidate and reissue such USDC or to transfer them." It has the ability to do this by upgrading the contract to give itself the ability. This falsity then gives rise to a litany of other false claims including:

Circle "would also have to hold an additional $381,000 in US Currency to cover the new USDC": false because once Circle has burn power there is no need to double reserve. And that is if we accept the need in the first place as Circle can simply declare the address outlaw and ignore it.Circle also stated that by the terms of its own contracts, it will not “burn and reissue” USDC: this is at most a policy Circle can revise in its sole discretion. And having a policy to defy court orders is pretty much exactly what Circle is charged with here.Circle has no control of USDC held in third-party wallets: false because in a technical sense Circle has more than "no" control via contract upgradability. It has, and we apologize for the technobabble here, "some" control.Circle...has no ability to invalidate: false via upgradability.Circle...has no ability to...reissue such USDC or to transfer them: false via upgradability.If we read the claims in the dispute broadly: Circle is not being candid. If we read the claims narrowly: Circle is not being honest. Unless Circle has somehow lost the ability to upgrade USDC – which would be a far larger problem if kept hidden for so long – we just cannot see a way they are telling the truth here. Maybe there is one but there is certainly no hint of such an explanation in the court filings to date.

Circle's Principled ResistanceWhat makes this even stranger: Circle's terms also contemplate circumstances in which the company will resist court orders. But that too does not fit what is happening here. Again from the Access Denial document:

Circle reserves all rights to object to an access denial order that presents a threat to Circle Stablecoin or that Circle determines is objectionable.USDC holders do not have any rights or derive any value from this. But it presumably empowers the company to do what it is doing in Wisconsin now without worrying about shareholders suing anyone for resisting court orders. The US legal system is adversarial and Circle is 100% entitled to resist government requests and to challenge orders. Within the US system. Telling law enforcement to go pound sand after the judge rules is not something Circle is entitled to.

It is certainly possibly Circle views anything that reduce's Circle's interest income as objectionable. There is a logical, if wacky, corporate theory here: "We prefer to hold frozen assets indefinitely to maximize shareholder value. We view this as part of our fiduciary responsibility to shareholders. Victims are not shareholders sorry." Probably no company wants to come out and say that. But it is true that public companies have a responsibility to shareholders and not victims. They also have a responsibility to judges and to shareholders to not egregiously defy judges. So it is all kind of mixed together there.

Now notice the seizure warrant requests Circle is fighting here date back to August 2025. Multiple seizure warrants have been issued. And Circle has been communicating false claims to Wisconsin officials for many months now. Criminal charges were filed in April 2026. Circle moved beyond objecting to an access denial order to simply refusing to follow one after multiple rounds of back and forth. This happened over many months.

We accept it is possible to read these most recent actions as part of resisting the order. And maybe law enforcement jumped the gun with criminal charges. But it is kind of hard to credit Circle here and think ongoing negotiations without criminal charges would go anywhere. Circle has stated clearly that it cannot comply for technical reasons. Circle claims it is impossible to do what the court wants. But those claims are plainly false (or Circle is covering up something worse). For negotiations to go anywhere Circle would need to concede it was wrong or the police would need to stop asking for seizure. That looks like a stalled negotiation to us.

If Wisconsin officials were demanding Circle seize USDT then we would certainly feel for Circle. Circle is not omnipotent. There are plenty of web3 things Circle cannot do. And, obviously, it is possible for law enforcement to order someone to do something that is technically impossible for them to do. This is true of anyone and any law enforcement unit anywhere in the world. Try this one: a court could issue an order for a witness to not die before a trial. That would not have the effect of conveying immortality on the witness. Law enforcement can be wrong. But here, today, Circle is wrong.

The court wants Circle to do something that Circle can do. So we are going to make two predictions. First, Circle will eventually comply. And second, Circle will blame confusion between the legal and engineering teams for the false statements. The court should not accept that explanation. We kind of hope Circle tries the shareholder value line too. If someone says "victims are not shareholders and our fiduciary responsibility is to shareholders" that will just be too amazing for words. As odd as that outcome seems remember a listed US company is currently engaged in a dispute with law enforcement in Wisconsin in which the listed US company is just straight-up lying. This is all incredibly odd.

We have long predicted the lawyers would need to throw the engineers under the bus at some point. Honk honk.

Licensed to Shill: Retail Barely Touches Stablecoins – Treasury & Remittance Are the Real Adoption (Jeannie Lim, Xweave)

At Xweave, Jeannie Lim says her team moved $1 million for an e-commerce client in under three minutes, cutting settlement costs 30% against a Tier 2 bank’s SWIFT rate.

BlockheadBlockhead

Samsung just made stablecoins a default feature of its mobile wallet. At Galaxy Unpacked 2026 on July 22, the company announced that Samsung Wallet will integrate native stablecoin support, with USDC among the expected options. The move effectively puts digital dollars alongside tap-to-pay, boarding passes, and loyalty cards in the pockets of hundreds of millions of Galaxy device owners.

What Samsung actually announced The stablecoin integration was revealed as part of a broader push to make Samsung Wallet a unified hub for payments, rewards, and digital assets. Samsung framed it as a “secured payments and rewards experience.”

The company hasn’t confirmed a specific launch date for the stablecoin feature. It also hasn’t officially locked in which stablecoins will be supported beyond the strong signals pointing toward USDC, Circle’s regulated dollar-pegged token.

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The announcement didn’t happen in isolation. Samsung simultaneously unveiled the Galaxy Card, a credit card issued by Barclays and running on the Visa network, targeting US users with tiered cash-back rewards.

In 2025, the company partnered with Coinbase to give millions of US Galaxy users access to cryptocurrency services directly through their devices. That collaboration laid the groundwork for what’s coming next, essentially graduating Samsung Wallet from a non-custodial blockchain wallet with basic crypto access into something closer to a full-featured digital asset platform.

What this means for investors For Circle, the company behind USDC, this partnership could strengthen its position ahead of any potential IPO or public market activity.

There are risks worth noting. Regulatory frameworks for stablecoins remain a work in progress in many jurisdictions. Samsung will need to navigate varying compliance requirements across its global markets, which could limit the feature’s availability to certain regions initially. The US market, where the Galaxy Card is launching alongside the Barclays partnership, is the likely first target.

The 2025 Coinbase partnership gave Samsung a foundation in crypto services, but stablecoin integration represents a fundamentally different proposition. Offering users the ability to buy Bitcoin through a partner app is one thing. Embedding dollar-equivalent digital currency into the core wallet experience is another.

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.

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Circle Pushes a MiCA Fix That Could Bring Tether Back to Europe