News linked to this event type.
According to QCP, the preliminary U.S. University of Michigan Consumer Sentiment Index for August dropped to 51.0, July retail sales fell 0.6% month-on-month, and combined with previously weak employment data, market expectations for the Fed's short-term policy tightening have declined, with federal funds futures showing a probability of about 30% for a 25 basis point rate hike in September.
Odaily News: The Dutch Public Prosecution Service has sold cryptocurrencies seized from the bankrupt Dutch crypto platform Knaken, raising $2.5 million to repay creditors. Court-appointed bankruptcy administrator Carl Hamm stated that this amount is currently the sole source of funds in the bankruptcy estate. Knaken had offered Dutch users cryptocurrency trading and custody services through its app but failed to obtain the license required by the country's market regulator. The platform ceased operations in early June, and the Rotterdam court declared it bankrupt on July 16 after prosecutors sought liquidation on public interest grounds. Hamm estimates that customer funds totaled $12 million to $14 million and has notified approximately 6,300 customers to lower their expectations. A lawyer representing one client questioned whether prosecutors had the right to sell the relevant assets. Knaken founder Ronald J. disputed some of the investment figures and stated that the platform, operating as a broker, recorded all orders. (Decrypt)
According to The Guardian, the core report supporting Australia's teenage social media ban has been identified as containing multiple AI hallucination errors. The report was commissioned by the UK agency Age Check Certification Scheme (ACCS) at a cost of $3.48 million to test age verification technology. The Guardian's analysis revealed at least six errors in academic citations within the report, including links to non-existent papers and DOIs pointing to the wrong articles. ACCS initially denied using AI, then admitted to using ChatGPT to rewrite some paragraphs, but insisted that all citations were manually verified. Relevant Australian government departments have now intervened in the investigation, and experts warn that false citations could lead to incorrect decisions and damage public trust in government agencies.
Multiple BitMart users and employees jointly signed and issued a public accountability statement, demanding that BitMart founder Sheldon and his partner Lee Yi publicly respond to the following issues by August 19: the whereabouts of user assets and verifiable proof of reserves, the decision-making process regarding withdrawal limits, investigations into affiliated accounts and fund flows, payment arrangements for overdue employee salaries and compensation, and a specific, executable user repayment plan. The statement noted that a large number of users are still unable to withdraw assets normally, and some employees have not even received their salaries for the last month or the compensation they are owed. The signatories stated that if a complete and transparent response is not received by August 19, they will submit relevant materials and leads on fund flows to law enforcement agencies, regulatory bodies, and media across various regions, demanding further investigation.
Odaily News Employees of the BitMart platform posted on X, publicly addressing BitMart's management and relevant parties in charge, raising five demands concerning platform user assets and employee salaries. These include requiring BitMart to disclose its wallets, assets, liabilities, and available reserves, explain the reasons why users cannot withdraw funds normally, investigate the flow of funds related to user assets, and pay employees' overdue wages and compensation.Additionally, the user demands that BitMart publish an executable user repayment plan before August 19, specifying remaining assets, total liabilities, the user repayment ratio, repayment priority, and timeline, and submit to independent third-party audits.
Odaily News, August 14 — The Austrian Financial Market Authority (FMA) announced a €70,000 fine against crypto asset trading platform Bitpanda. The FMA stated that this is the first legally binding penalty case under the MiCA framework. The FMA noted that Bitpanda violated Article 8 of MiCA by failing to notify the authority and submit a whitepaper at least 20 days before the relevant crypto assets were approved for trading. Additionally, Bitpanda issued marketing notices without first publishing the required whitepaper, in violation of Article 1 of MiCA. The FMA stated that MiCA has moved from mere regulation to the enforcement phase, emphasizing that even though Bitpanda is the first publicly penalized case, it will not receive special treatment. Markus Miller stated that a license can only build trust if the relevant rules are continuously complied with. (Bitcoin.com News)
: Brian Armstrong posted on X, stating that Deribit has obtained a VARA broker-dealer license, allowing it to access Coinbase Exchange's market and liquidity. The UAE is embracing modern finance and digital assets.
Odaily News: The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) abruptly canceled a meeting originally scheduled for last Friday. The meeting was intended to advance crypto regulatory rulemaking and unveil repeatedly delayed innovation exemption arrangements. The pause may be related to the Clarity Act. Earlier last week, the SEC announced it would hold a public meeting where commissioners would discuss the Reg Crypto proposal, covering how companies can raise funds through tokens and eventually exit SEC oversight after issuing their own digital assets. The SEC had also planned to unveil at least some innovation exemption arrangements regarding how securities-token issuers handle underlying securities. Neither of these initiatives moved forward as scheduled. (CoinDesk)
Vitalik Buterin stated that Ethereum is researching combining UTXO-style state with dynamic state to expand network capacity by introducing multiple state models, while maintaining characteristics such as decentralization, ease of running nodes, and censorship resistance as much as possible.
Odaily News Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin said in a post on X that the Bitcoin community deserves recognition for advancing related technical concepts, including UTXO (Unspent Transaction Output) state optimization solutions such as Utreexo. The scaling roadmap Ethereum is currently exploring is precisely about integrating the advantages of different blockchain state models in practice.Vitalik Buterin pointed out that Ethereum hopes to simultaneously possess the advantages of UTXO-mode state, dynamic state, and solutions in between, enabling the vast majority of network activity to achieve "hyperscale" without sacrificing decentralization, node operation convenience, or censorship resistance.Vitalik Buterin stated that future Ethereum scaling is not about simply replicating a single architecture, but rather about combining different design philosophies to improve throughput while maintaining network openness and security.Among these, Utreexo is a state compression solution proposed by the Bitcoin ecosystem that reduces node storage burden by introducing accumulator technology, making full node operation more lightweight and considered helpful for improving Bitcoin's long-term scalability.
Odaily News: Following the full implementation of the EU's MiCA regulation on July 1, over 1,700 unlicensed crypto platforms have been ordered to cease operations and guide users toward licensed platforms; currently, only 323 companies hold valid authorizations. Approximately 10 million users need to migrate their assets, and scammers are taking advantage of this by impersonating regulators and licensed exchanges, sending fake migration notices to lure users into transferring assets to fraudulent platforms. The French Financial Markets Authority (AMF) stated that scammers have been posing as its employees to defraud funds under the guise of collecting "management fees." The European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA) confirmed that its identity and logos have been misused. The Dutch Authority for the Financial Markets (AFM) warned that migration from unlicensed exchanges has itself become an attack surface, advising users to verify service providers through ESMA's official register and to remain vigilant against unsolicited contact requesting fund transfers.
Odaily News: As Wall Street and global financial institutions accelerate their entry into the digital asset space, the boundaries between traditional finance (TradFi) and decentralized finance (DeFi) are gradually blurring. Bitwise CEO Hunter Horsley stated that the era of "going long Bitcoin and short bankers" is over, and financial institutions are pivoting to the other side of the crypto industry, driving digital asset adoption.Hunter Horsley noted that this summer, two financial institutions, each managing over $1 trillion in assets, approved the launch of crypto products in a bear market environment, showing that large institutions are expanding client access to digital assets. "Everyone put on the crypto jersey this year. Now, everyone is working for the crypto industry," Horsley said. He pointed out that these institutions, managing over a trillion dollars in client assets, would not have opened such services during the 2022 crypto market downturn, but are now actively embracing this sector.Fabian Dori, Chief Investment Officer at Sygnum, also believes the relationship between banks and the crypto industry has undergone a structural shift. "The trade of 'going long Bitcoin and short bankers' is over. Banks have moved from resisting digital assets to building, supporting, and distributing them through custody, tokenization, and compliant trading," a change driven primarily by growing client demand and gradually clarifying regulatory rules, rather than short-term market cycles.Nathan McCauley, CEO of Anchorage Digital, said that over the past two years, its client base has increasingly reflected the convergence of traditional and crypto finance. Large financial institutions typically choose to partner with specialized crypto infrastructure companies rather than building their own technology systems.In recent years, a growing number of financial institutions have entered the crypto space, including Swissquote, DBS Bank, BBVA, BNY Mellon, Credit Suisse-affiliated entities, as well as Morgan Stanley and Charles Schwab. (CoinDesk)
Odaily News, Tornado Cash founder Roman Storm stated that if the logic behind the U.S. Department of Justice's (DOJ) case against him holds, tech companies Google and OpenAI should also be held liable for North Korean hackers abusing their products. Those involved reportedly used ChatGPT to write code and Google Gemini for forgery and image manipulation. Storm was convicted in August 2025 of conspiracy to operate an unlicensed money-transmitting business. He pointed out that the Tornado Cash case could set a legal precedent where software developers are penalized for criminal acts committed by users, emphasizing that criminals should be held accountable rather than the developers of tools. The CLARITY Act for digital asset markets is intended to provide protections for software developers by distinguishing developer liability from the potential misuse of protocols for illegal activities. However, although a final motion for consideration of the bill has been scheduled for a vote, its current chances of passage remain low. (Bitcoin News)
Odaily News: A survey conducted by the European Central Bank (ECB) across 8,205 companies in the eurozone shows that only 0.2% of surveyed businesses accept cryptocurrencies or stablecoins for online payments, while the acceptance rate at physical points of sale stands at 1%. Among businesses with physical points of sale, 92% accept cash payments and 88% accept card payments. Mobile payment acceptance rose from 36% in 2024 to 68% in 2026. (Bitcoin.com News)
Hong Kong police announced the city recorded a total of 20,613 fraud cases in the first half of this year, involving total losses of approximately HK$3.5 billion. Among these, investment fraud cases totaled 2,151, accounting for about one-tenth of all fraud cases, yet causing losses as high as HK$1.66 billion. One investment fraud case involving cryptocurrency resulted in losses of approximately HK$84 million. The victim was lured into investing by transferring cryptocurrency to an electronic wallet provided by the scammers, and only discovered the fraud when they were unable to withdraw their assets.Hong Kong police also provided an update on the JPEX virtual asset fraud case, which remains under investigation. To date, there have been approximately 2,800 victims, with losses totaling around HK$1.6 billion. Since 2023, law enforcement has arrested 81 individuals, of whom 29 have been charged with conspiracy to defraud, money laundering, and perverting the course of justice, among other offenses. (Ming Pao)
Odaily Odaily News: In an operation codenamed "Lightning Strike," Hong Kong police arrested 14 men and 3 women aged between 20 and 54, including 13 Malaysians and 4 locals. They also raided 3 locations and seized HK$3.67 million in cash, believed to be criminal proceeds. The scam syndicate recruited Malaysians from overseas, arranging their flights and accommodation to come to Hong Kong as runners. They would pose as relatives of elderly victims, falsely claiming they had been arrested by police and demanding bail money, then arranging runners to collect the cash. Police investigations revealed that the syndicate collected a total of HK$4.67 million in fraudulent proceeds between June 4 and August 14. The case involves 22 victims, with reported losses totaling HK$2.47 million. On August 14, police arrested 5 individuals, including 2 local men, 2 local women, and 1 Malaysian man, all of whom are currently detained for investigation. Police also recovered HK$200,000 in fraudulent funds. Police stated that some foreign currency or virtual currency exchange shops were exploited by the syndicate to process or transfer fraudulent funds, and reminded these shops to verify customer backgrounds, transaction purposes, and fund sources, while also watching for abnormal cash and virtual currency transactions. Conspiracy to defraud carries a maximum sentence of 14 years in prison. (HK01 NFT)
: The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) is reviewing a rule change proposal submitted by Cboe BZX Exchange, involving six leveraged commodity ETFs that track 3 times the benchmark's single-day performance. The SEC's initial review period is 45 days after publication in the Federal Register. Volatility Shares LLC is the sponsor of the relevant funds, with products including 3x Gold, Silver, Bitcoin, Ethereum, Crude Oil, and Natural Gas ETFs, all of which are intended to operate as commodity pools and are not registered as investment companies. Among these, the Bitcoin and Ethereum ETFs will primarily invest in near-month and next-month futures contracts on the Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME) rather than directly holding Bitcoin or Ethereum, and will allocate cash and cash equivalents as collateral or margin. Before the relevant products can be listed, the SEC must approve the exchange's rule change, and the trust's Form S-1 registration statement must also become effective. Each fund must have at least 100,000 shares at the time of listing, and authorized participants may submit cash creation or redemption orders in increments of 10,000 shares. (Bitcoin.com News)
Odaily News: Cryptocurrency exchange Binance will stop processing transactions involving 16 crypto asset service providers, with restrictions taking effect in three batches on August 7, August 13, and August 23. Users will not be allowed to send or receive assets directly or indirectly with the relevant entities after the corresponding dates. The affected platforms include Shelbit, Aban Tether Exchange, A7 Nigeria, A7 Africa, HTX, EXMO, Rapira, Bitpapa, and Exnode, among others. Transactions initiated after the effective dates may be temporarily withheld and subject to compliance review, and affected wallets may face temporary restrictions. The United States has imposed sanctions on Shelbit and Aban Tether, which are linked to an Iranian crypto network; the UK has also imposed sanctions on Russia-related trading platforms and the A7 network. A7 claims it transferred over $90 billion in funds last year. (Bitcoin.com News)
Galaxy Research has sharply lowered the probability of the U.S. CLARITY Act passing this year from the previous 75% to 10%, believing that disagreements over ethical provisions, bank lobbying, and the limited legislative time window in September have all increased the difficulty of passing the bill.
: Digital asset firm Galaxy Digital has lowered the probability of the CLARITY Act passing this year from 75% in May to 10%. The bill proposes that two U.S. federal regulatory agencies each oversee crypto asset regulation separately. U.S. Senators will return to Washington on September 14, followed by a working period of approximately three weeks. According to the Senate schedule, the motion to invoke cloture to advance the bill will be eligible for a vote at 2:15 PM on September 15. The motion requires the support of at least 60 senators. Republicans currently control 53 seats; if all Republican senators support the bill, support from at least 7 senators from other parties would still be needed. Galaxy Digital stated that unresolved ethics concerns, declining Republican support due to banking lobbying, and the shorter legislative window in September constitute the main obstacles to the bill's passage this year. (Bitcoin.com News)