News linked to both this project and an event.
Odaily News: The Financial Services Commission of South Korea has announced that it will further raise the investor threshold for single-stock leveraged ETFs and ETNs, with the new rules set to take effect on August 19. In addition to the existing 30 million KRW base margin and 3 hours of prior education, first-time individual investors in leveraged products on single domestic and foreign stocks will also be required to complete simulated trading.In addition, the management standards for deviation rates of ETFs and ETNs will also be comprehensively tightened. The closing deviation rate management range for domestic ETFs and ETNs will be tightened from 3% to 2%, while for overseas products it will be tightened from 6% to 5%. For deviation rates calculated as negative values, they will be computed based on their absolute values. Under the new rules, if the deviation rate exceeds twice the management range, a screening and designation notice will be triggered; if the deviation rate again exceeds twice the range within 10 trading days from the date of the designation notice, or exceeds the standard for two consecutive trading days, the product may be designated as an investment caution item, after which a call auction will be conducted for 3 trading days.The Financial Services Commission explained that the tightened regulation is due to the negative compounding effect of single-stock leverage products, where investors may incur losses even if the underlying asset remains flat, and it hopes investors will fully understand the product structure and risks before making actual investments. (Yonhap)
Odaily Planet Daily: Crypto asset trading platform Bullish has announced its financial results for Q2 2026. The company stated that as global securities markets gradually migrate to public blockchains, Bullish is planning to build a comprehensive issuer-supported tokenized securities service system covering issuance, listing, trading, and tracking.Bullish CEO Tom Farley stated that the global securities market, valued at nearly $300 trillion, is transitioning to public blockchains, and Bullish aims to work with issuers to drive this process. Upon completion of the proposed acquisition of Equiniti, the company will form an integrated platform covering tokenized securities issuance, listing, trading, and tracking.Financial data shows that Bullish's Q2 digital asset sales reached $32.6 billion, down from $58.6 billion in the same period last year; the net loss was $280 million, compared to a net profit of $108.3 million in the same period last year, corresponding to a diluted loss per share of $1.78.However, the company's core business performance improved. Q2 adjusted revenue (non-IFRS) reached $92.6 million, up 62% year-over-year from $57 million in the same period last year; among which subscription, services, and other revenue hit a record $62.7 million. Adjusted trading revenue was $29.9 million, up 24% year-over-year; adjusted EBITDA was $29.5 million, compared to $8.1 million in the same period last year; adjusted net profit was $14.3 million, compared to a loss of $6 million in the same period last year.In terms of business progress, Bullish stated that the acquisition of UK fintech company Equiniti is progressing and is expected to be completed in early 2027, subject to customary conditions including regulatory approvals. Additionally, Bullish's CoinDesk indices continue to gain institutional adoption. Morgan Stanley has launched Bitcoin, Ethereum, and Solana-related trading products based on CoinDesk benchmark indices, attracting over $400 million in inflows during Q2.On the regulatory front, Bullish has received approval from the Gibraltar Financial Services Commission (GFSC) to provide secondary trading services for tokenized securities, becoming one of the first regulated platforms to offer issuer-supported tokenized securities trading.The company has also raised and refined its full-year 2026 guidance, projecting subscription, services, and other revenue (non-IFRS) of $225 million to $245 million, adjusted operating expenses of $225 million to $230 million, and financing costs of $52 million to $60 million. (Globenewswire)
According to Bitcoin.com, MP Gurinder Singh Josan and Lord Vaizey, Co-Chairs of the UK All-Party Parliamentary Group on Crypto and Digital Assets (APPG), wrote to the CEOs of major UK banks on August 11, requesting them to clarify whether they provide account services to crypto businesses, what restrictions are imposed on digital asset transactions, and whether the aforementioned policies will be adjusted with the implementation of the UK's new regulatory framework. The MPs pointed out that bank access may be the single biggest obstacle to the development of UK crypto and digital asset enterprises. If licensed crypto enterprises still cannot obtain basic banking services, the competitiveness objectives of the new regulatory regime will be difficult to achieve. Economic Secretary to the Treasury Lucy Rigby previously also stated that bank service restrictions should not be imposed on FCA-authorized crypto enterprises solely based on their industry nature. The deadline for submitting written evidence for this inquiry is August 31, and the APPG will make policy recommendations to the government based on this.
Odaily News: Andre Cronje, founder of DeFi platform Flying Tulip and creator of Fantom Network, stated that most DeFi protocols are no longer truly decentralized, with only a few niche areas still qualifying as DeFi. He believes DeFi has evolved into "on-chain finance" or "open finance." He pointed out that true DeFi should possess characteristics such as decentralization, immutability, and the absence of intermediaries, whereas the intermediaries in most current protocols have become corporations, taking on traditional financial institution roles such as decision-makers and risk committees. Cronje noted that this does not mean true DeFi has completely disappeared, as some protocols are still innovating. Data from DefiLlama shows that the total value locked (TVL) in DeFi has dropped from $167 billion in early October 2025 to $75 billion at the time of the original report over the past 10 months, a decline of more than half. In a working paper published in March, the European Central Bank (ECB) analyzed Aave, MakerDAO, Ampleforth, and Uniswap, finding that based on holding snapshots from November 2022 and May 2023, the top 100 addresses holding governance tokens in these protocols each controlled over 80% of the token supply. The ECB consequently questioned the level of decentralization of these DAOs and whether they should continue to be regarded as "fully decentralized" services exempt from the Markets in Crypto-Assets Regulation (MiCA). (Cointelegraph)
According to monitoring by the PPP prediction market tool, in Polymarket's "2026 U.S. Midterm Election Congressional Control" prediction market, the probability of Democrats controlling both the Senate and the House is currently reported at 50%; the probability of Republicans controlling the Senate and Democrats controlling the House is reported at 38%; and the probability of Republicans controlling both chambers is reported at 12%.According to the settlement rules, this market will be settled based on which party—Democratic or Republican—controls the Senate and the House following the 2026 U.S. midterm elections. In principle, the party that wins a majority of seats in each chamber gains control. However, if no party wins a majority of seats, the party that holds half of the voting seats while also occupying the U.S. Vice Presidency will be deemed to control the Senate.The 2026 U.S. midterm elections will officially take place on November 3, 2026. Jesse Spiro, a Tether U.S. executive, previously stated that the 2026 U.S. midterm elections could reshape the congressional political landscape, thereby affecting the regulatory progress the crypto industry has achieved in Washington over the past two years.Join the PPP signal push community to stay ahead and seize the initiative.
Australian Securities Exchange (ASX) shareholder Rosherville Pty Ltd has notified ASX of its intention to apply to the Federal Court for permission to bring a statutory derivative action against certain former ASX officers and directors. If approved, Rosherville will bring the action on behalf of ASX. ASX stated that the action does not allege any wrongdoing by ASX itself, but did not disclose the identities of the former officers involved, the specific alleged breaches of duty, or the remedies sought. The Federal Court has not yet considered whether the case may proceed. ASX had been advancing a blockchain-based replacement project for its CHESS clearing and settlement system since 2016, paused it in November 2022, and abandoned the blockchain approach in May 2023. On July 3, 2026, the Federal Court ordered ASX to pay a $14.4 million fine plus $2.1 million in legal costs to the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC). (Cointelegraph)
crypto lending firm Figure Lending LLC offers cryptocurrency-backed loans, allowing borrowers to use Bitcoin, Ethereum, or Solana as collateral to access cash of up to 75% of the collateral's value while retaining ownership of their tokens. Such loans generally do not constitute a sale and typically do not trigger a capital gains event. Figure Lending LLC stated that borrowers should compare maximum loan-to-value ratios, fixed or variable interest rates, regulatory licensing, and liquidation terms. The firm offers fixed-rate loans with a 12-month term, a maximum annual percentage rate of 12.62%, and supports same-day funding without requiring a credit score, as approval is based on the collateral. Figure provides an optional liquidation protection feature, available in select states, which may defer liquidation during the loan term due to price declines; however, liquidation may still occur if the loan becomes delinquent. This feature does not apply to non-payment, default, or violation of loan terms, and declines in crypto asset prices may still trigger margin calls. (Decrypt)
Coinbase announced the launch of derivative products for eligible professional investors in the UK, covering perpetual contracts, dated futures, and crypto options, with related services to be rolled out gradually over the coming weeks. This product expansion is based on its recently obtained MiFID license, covering over 170 contracts, including crypto assets, commodities, stocks, and foreign exchange, further advancing its comprehensive trading platform strategy in the UK market.
According to Cryptopolitan, South Korea's Financial Supervisory Service (FSS) has launched a three-month fraud refund system reconstruction project with a budget of approximately 119 million Korean won. This upgrade aims to align with the revised "Telecommunications Fraud Damage Compensation Act" amended on March 31 this year—the bill will officially take effect on October 1, formally incorporating virtual assets into the scope of "damaged property" and "refundable property." The new system will support calculating compensation amounts based on token type and quantity, using the Korean won value at the time funds were frozen as a reference benchmark, while also possessing the ability to disentangle mixed fraud funds across multiple accounts. Major exchanges such as Upbit, Bithumb, Coinone, Korbit, and GOPAX will be required to assume anti-fraud and victim relief obligations equivalent to those of banks at that time, including verifying transaction purposes, monitoring suspicious funds, and freezing suspected accounts.
Odaily News: UAE-based foundation Aqua1 Foundation purchased $100 million worth of governance tokens from decentralized finance project World Liberty Financial (WLFI) on June 26, marking the largest single publicly disclosed purchase of the token to date. The funds trace back to Chinese businessman Guren "Bobby" Zhou, with up to $75 million flowing to entities linked to the Trump family and World Liberty Financial co-founder Zach Witkoff. WLFI tokens confer governance and voting rights and do not represent equity in the company. Zhou was arrested in the UK in March 2021 on suspicion of money laundering, with UK law enforcement investigations still ongoing as of late July 2026. Two of his long-time employees were indicted in September 2025, one of whom has pleaded guilty, with trial scheduled for 2028. Zhou has not yet been formally charged. Zhou met with Eric Trump in Dubai to discuss the investment and described it as participation in the "Trump family's crypto project." The source of the $100 million Aqua1 used to purchase WLFI remains unclear, and public information does not indicate any direct link between these specific funds and money laundering activities. (Bitcoin.com News)
According to The Wall Street Journal, affected by cost pressures from "chip inflation (Chipflation)" triggered by the artificial intelligence investment boom, Apple is turning its attention to domestic storage semiconductors. In response, a representative from the Securities Department of Changxin Technology stated: All information regarding the company's major external collaborations, capacity progress, etc., is primarily based on company announcements, prospectuses, and subsequent interim reports; as for DDR6 capacity planning, mass production progress, etc., due to information compliance management requirements, it is temporarily inconvenient to disclose externally.
Odaily News: U.S. banking giant Wells Fargo plans to launch tokenized deposits for select corporate and commercial clients in fall 2026, initially supporting USD and GBP transactions, with plans to expand to more clients and currencies in 2027. Tokenized deposits remain bank liabilities but can enable continuous transfers, programmable payments, faster settlement, and transaction visibility via blockchain. Wells Fargo is not the only bank pursuing this initiative. JPMorgan has already expanded its blockchain-based payment services for institutional clients, and other major financial institutions are developing similar products and shared networks. Meanwhile, the circulation and transaction volume of stablecoins such as USDC continue to grow, and they are already used for settlement across crypto markets, payment networks, and tokenized finance platforms. Tokenized deposits allow funds to remain within the regulated banking system while supporting time-based transfers and condition-triggered payments. Stablecoins, on the other hand, already cover trading, remittance, cross-border payments, decentralized finance, and tokenized asset settlement. Enterprise adoption of both product types will also be influenced by accounting treatment, regulatory rules, and cross-network interoperability.
According to Bloomberg, driven by policy dividends from Beijing's push for local enterprises to adopt domestic chips and reduce reliance on US technology, multiple Chinese AI chip design companies are expected to record impressive performance this fiscal quarter. Cambricon expects significant revenue growth in the first half of the year; Shanghai-based emerging chip enterprise Iluvatar CoreX projects sales to grow approximately threefold during the same period; Beijing-based Moore Threads also disclosed last month that it expects revenue growth of up to 149% in the first half of 2026. Analysts believe that as the process of China's technological self-reliance accelerates, domestic AI chip manufacturers are expected to continue benefiting from the expansion of policy-driven demand.
According to EU-Startups, Cyprus-based enterprise AI customer service company Omilia announced the completion of a €58.1 million (approximately $67 million) Series B financing round led by Expedition Growth Capital. The funds will be used to accelerate business expansion in North America and globally, with plans to open its first U.S. office in the second half of 2026. Founded in 2002, Omilia focuses on providing self-learning agent CX solutions for enterprise call centers using its proprietary voice AI technology, and the platform supports compliance standards such as FedRAMP, PCI-DSS, SOC 2, HIPAA, and GDPR.
Western Digital Chief Product Officer Ahmed Shihab published a long article pointing out that as AI infrastructure expands rapidly, the core competition in the storage field should not be simply reduced to a contest between Flash and Hard Disk Drives (HDD), but lies in whether an AI storage architecture with long-term economic scalability can be built. The AI industry is currently facing a key question: whether the storage architecture chosen this year can support future data scale growth to the PB level or even the EB level. Many AI infrastructure designs do not fail due to insufficient performance, but fall into cost dilemmas after data scale expands. Ahmed Shihab added that Flash and HDD are not in a competitive relationship, but are complementary technologies for different workloads. High-performance scenarios, such as model weights, GPU spillover, KV cache, etc., require low-latency Flash support; while long-term storage needs such as training datasets, logs, checkpoints, compliance records, and large-scale historical data are more suitable for adopting HDDs with cost advantages. Storage architecture in the AI era will be more layered, rather than relying on a single storage medium. "Flash handles performance at critical moments, HDD handles data lifecycle. The direction of future AI storage development is not 'Flash replacing HDD', but precise layering based on different data lifecycles and business requirements." "True infrastructure is not about pursuing dazzling performance, but a reliable foundation capable of supporting long-term AI growth." US stock market trends show, Western Digital
Mersinger pointed out that the bill explicitly prohibits the portion of stablecoin holding rewards equivalent to bank deposit interest, but allows reward mechanisms based on user activity, consistent with the credit card points model; regarding DeFi regulation, Section 10301 of the bill requires the SEC to establish rules for protocols that are "nominally decentralized, substantially controllable," rather than exempting them, while Section 10201 has incorporated digital commodity brokers into the full reporting obligations under the "Bank Secrecy Act" and allocated $3 billion to support state-level enforcement, contrary to the "Wall Street Journal"'s claim of "inadequate regulation of illicit finance."
According to CoinDesk, the S&P 500 index has risen 3.12% this month, adding approximately $2.1 trillion in market value (equivalent to the total market cap of the entire crypto market), reaching a record high total market cap of $70.5 trillion, but Bitcoin has only risen about 2% this month, hovering near $64,600. Analysts point out that this round of stock market rise is mainly driven by AI and semiconductor individual stock narratives, rather than a broad-based recovery in risk appetite at the macro level, and Bitcoin lacks direct beneficial exposure to this. Meanwhile, the crypto market also faces multiple internal pressures: the Coldcard platform suffered a $120 million exploit, the prospects of the "Clarity Act" remain uncertain, MicroStrategy has reduced its BTC holdings for three consecutive months, and stablecoin supply continues to shrink—USDT's market cap dropped from $190 billion in April to $183 billion, and USDC's dropped from $79.5 billion to $72 billion.
Odaily News AMD, the semiconductor giant, announced the launch of its enterprise-grade AI programming platform, AMD Instinct Coder. The platform combines AMD chips, Supermicro servers, and Spectro Cloud software, aiming to help enterprises deploy AI coding assistants locally, reduce the cost of cloud-based AI models, and protect code and data security.AMD stated that Instinct Coder is an "out-of-the-box" end-to-end AI development platform, integrating AMD EPYC processors, AMD Instinct GPUs, Supermicro AI servers, Spectro Cloud PaletteAI Inference Launchpad software, and the AMD-optimized GLM-5.2 model. It can be used for software development scenarios such as code generation, application modernization, automated testing, and code review.AMD said that compared to relying on cutting-edge cloud-based AI models, Instinct Coder can help enterprises reduce total cost of ownership (TCO) by up to 70%, with the fastest payback period shortened to 6 months.AMD noted that more and more enterprises are looking to leverage AI to improve development efficiency, but face two major challenges: on one hand, the cost of invoking top-tier cloud models continues to rise; on the other hand, entrusting enterprise source code, intellectual property, and sensitive data to third-party services poses security and compliance risks.Through a local deployment model, Instinct Coder allows enterprises to maintain control over their data and code while providing more predictable infrastructure costs. The platform supports development tools such as Claude Code, OpenAI Codex, Visual Studio Code, and Cursor, with each node supporting up to 50 users (30 concurrent users).Additionally, the PaletteAI Inference Launchpad provided by Spectro Cloud enables AI workload management, model routing, request auditing, and cost monitoring, and supports invoking external models such as Anthropic, OpenAI, Google, or xAI when needed.AMD stated that Instinct Coder aims to help enterprises break free from the high costs of cloud-based AI services, accelerate AI-driven software development processes while ensuring data security and autonomous control.
Odaily News S&P Global Ratings on Monday awarded BlackRock's new tokenized money market fund, the BlackRock Daily Reinvestment Stablecoin Reserve Vehicle (BRSRV), an "AAAm" rating, its highest principal stability fund rating. The rating is based on investment and counterparty credit quality, maturity structure, and management's ability to maintain a stable net asset value. S&P Global Ratings stated that it found no weaknesses in BlackRock Advisors' management and organization, credit research and analysis, risk management, or compliance. It also noted that the fund's tokenization framework demonstrates operational resilience, employing a permissioned architecture that restricts transactions to whitelisted wallets to mitigate network, smart contract, and blockchain network risks. BRSRV launched Monday as an open-end management investment company, aiming to make its shares eligible as qualifying reserve assets for payment stablecoin issuers under the GENIUS Act. The fund will hold cash, U.S. Treasuries with maturities of 93 days or less, and overnight repurchase agreements collateralized by Treasury instruments, maintaining a weighted average maturity of no more than 60 days and a weighted average life of no more than 120 days. In a separate stablecoin stability assessment summary published Tuesday, S&P Global Ratings stated that six of the 11 stablecoins it covers possess "sufficient" or stronger capacity to maintain their fiat peg. USDT remains at Level 5 "weak," with TUSD and USDe also at Level 5; USDC, EURC, USDG, and USDP are rated Level 2 "strong."
Odaily News: Aave founder Stani Kulechov published a lengthy post stating that Ethereum's EIP-8361 progressive issuance burn proposal has systemic issues. The proposal aims to gradually burn consensus layer issuance rewards, reducing the net staking yield to zero when the total amount of staked ETH reaches 60.25 million, approximately 50% of the total supply. Stani Kulechov believes that the second-order ripple effects of this proposal have not been fully modeled and could damage the foundations of the Ethereum ecosystem across multiple dimensions. He stated that a zero-yield mechanism may exacerbate staking centralization, with home validators being the first to exit due to fixed costs such as hardware and electricity, while non-yield-driven entities like ETF issuers, exchanges, and corporate treasury funds will remain. MEV rewards, which are unaffected by the proposal, would also expand the advantages of top professional operators. He also noted that individual stakers could face tax and operational risks. If tax authorities calculate taxes based on the full issuance amount and classify the burned portion as a capital loss, home node operators could experience after-tax losses. With penalty standards for faults remaining unchanged, the node recovery period after a fault could be extended by up to 14 times as net yields decline. Stani Kulechov stated that staking yields serve as the pricing benchmark for on-chain ETH interest rates. A decline in yields could cause DeFi lending and fixed-income markets to lose their pricing anchor, potentially driving on-chain capital toward stablecoins offering 4% to 5% annual returns. For institutional investors, predictable yields are a core competitive advantage of ETH relative to BTC. If yields fall to zero while volatility increases, ETH's differentiation in the store-of-value track would diminish. He also pointed out that after the proposal is implemented, MEV's share of total validator revenue could rise from the current 7% to nearly 30%, potentially incentivizing operators to prioritize relay nodes that support censorship, thereby weakening Ethereum's credible neutrality. If an MEV burn mechanism is subsequently added, validator revenue could be nearly eliminated. Stani Kulechov suggested that the proposal's authors release after-tax yield assessments for individual node operators, tax opinions from major jurisdictions, and cascade risk models for the DeFi ecosystem, while setting a non-zero net yield floor. He believes that staking centralization should be addressed directly with targeted measures, rather than by suppressing validator yields across the board.