News linked to both this project and an event.
Odaily News: Stablecoin payment company Kast has launched the KAST Business platform, integrating corporate accounts, payment cards, cross-border transfers, and stablecoin yield-bearing balances. The platform provides services through stablecoin infrastructure.Kast stated that businesses can receive funds through fiat virtual accounts provided by regulated partners, deposit supported stablecoins and crypto assets, issue virtual cards, and make local payments in more than 20 currencies. The platform's services cover over 170 countries and regions, though specific availability varies by jurisdiction. Idle balances earn up to 8% annualized yield, with up to 3% cashback on spending also available.Kast is a fintech company rather than a bank, and regulated services are provided by licensed partner institutions. In March, Kast completed an $80 million fundraise at a $600 million valuation, which will be used for product development, license acquisition, and expanding into North America, Latin America, and the Middle East. The company claims to have over 1 million users and plans to attract 1,000 to 5,000 active businesses by the end of 2026. (Cointelegraph)
Odaily News - Bitfinex Securities, the tokenized investment platform under crypto exchange Bitfinex, has listed 5 tokenized notes, providing eligible investors with economic exposure to bitcoin treasury companies such as Strategy, Metaplanet, H100 Group, and Capital B. The platform has also listed Strategy's floating-rate perpetual preferred stock, STRC.The aforementioned notes are issued through the Luxembourg-based ORO (II) fund and managed by SICOS Securities. The underlying securities are held in custody by regulated financial institutions but do not grant investors direct ownership of shares in the corresponding companies. The products allow fractional investments starting from approximately $1 and support trading in USD, USDT, and Bitcoin, and are only available to eligible non-US investors.Bitfinex Securities stated that this marks the first time such products are available for secondary trading on a regulated tokenized securities exchange. Following the completion of a $50 million tokenized fundraising round for metals company Alkemya in August this year, the platform's total listed assets have surpassed $500 million. (Cointelegraph)
Odaily News: Japan's Financial Services Agency (FSA) has applied to exempt trust-type stablecoins from mandatory tax filing requirements starting from fiscal year 2027, including trust reports itemizing beneficiary names and incomes, as well as calculation breakdowns. The agency stated that trust-type stablecoins circulate among a large number of users, with frequent and high-volume transactions, and holders cannot derive income from them.If approved by the legislature, the tax exemption could take effect on April 1, 2027, the start of Japan's fiscal year 2027. In July, Japan's parliament passed an amendment classifying crypto assets as financial assets under the Financial Instruments and Exchange Act (FIEA). (Cointelegraph)
Odaily News: Bitcoin treasury company Strategy's Bitcoin holdings are currently valued at $66.7 billion, with annual obligations such as preferred stock dividends and interest amounting to approximately $1.76 billion. According to Regime Intelligence analysis, the company's 840,447 BTC holdings correspond to roughly $22 billion in debt and priority claims, and continued access to capital market financing serves as the foundation for meeting its obligations.Stress tests show that Bitcoin prices would need to fall by approximately 96% before Strategy's Bitcoin holdings and reserves would be insufficient to cover its convertible bonds; its debt is not a traditional Bitcoin-collateralized margin loan, and there is no BTC margin call mechanism triggered by price declines.Report author Sherif Saad stated that Strategy needs to maintain its financing cycle to cover annual debt and preferred stock expenses, with cash reserves currently covering approximately 2.6 times the related annual expenses. If the financing environment deteriorates, the company may rely more heavily on reserves and Bitcoin sales to meet its obligations.Strategy has sold Bitcoin four times since May, with the most recent sale involving 1,690 BTC, using the proceeds to pay preferred stock dividends, repurchase shares, and increase its dollar reserves. CEO Phong Le said earlier this month that the company has purchased approximately 25 times the amount of Bitcoin it has sold this year, and plans to resume purchases later this year. (Cointelegraph)
Odaily News - The Pakistan Virtual Asset Regulatory Authority (PVARA) has opened its licensing portal. Enterprises that provided virtual asset services on or before March 5 must apply for a No Objection Certificate (NOC) by September 5, or cease operations; continuing to operate without submitting an application after the deadline will constitute a violation of the law.The new regulations cover exchange, custody, broker-dealer, lending, derivatives, asset management, token issuance, and mining-related services. Service providers may first apply for an NOC, or enter PVARA's regulatory sandbox to test products before applying for a full license.Licensed institutions must segregate client assets from their own assets, and may not lend or stake customer assets without written consent, while also meeting requirements for governance, market conduct, cybersecurity, operational resilience, and anti-money laundering and counter-terrorism financing measures. PVARA has already issued NOCs to enterprises such as Binance and HTX. (Cointelegraph)
Odaily News: The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has proposed rules related to crypto assets, aiming to establish a clear framework for eligible investment contracts and provide a targeted securities offering regime for token issuances, enabling related entities to raise funds while retaining investor protection measures. The proposed rules would allow crypto companies to issue up to $5 million in tokens over four years, or up to $75 million in tokens within 12 months, and provide a safe harbor to prevent cryptocurrencies from being deemed "investment contracts." Issuers would be required to disclose financial statements and provide ongoing reporting. The SEC did not include the previously anticipated "innovation exemption" for crypto stocks. The proposal comes just days after the U.S. Senate failed to advance the Digital Asset Market Clarity (CLARITY) Act; the public will have 60 days to submit comments after the proposal is published in the Federal Register. SEC Chair Paul Atkins stated that congressional legislation remains essential for establishing rules that can be applied over the long term, and the SEC will continue to support Congress in advancing the CLARITY Act to President Trump. The Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) plans to discuss cryptocurrency, AI, and prediction market regulation on Thursday. (Cointelegraph)
Odaily News In a recent interview on Cointelegraph's program Chain Reaction, Lucas Sum, Head of Stock Market Development at Gate, stated that crypto and stocks are quietly converging and increasingly becoming part of the same macro trade. He pointed out that the correlation between the crypto market and the Nasdaq index is currently higher than the five-year average, with the correlation coefficient once exceeding 0.8. Market sentiment is generally cautious at present, with more funds staying in low-risk assets such as stablecoins, as investors await clearer catalysts.Lucas Sum believes that the core narrative of the next market cycle may no longer be "crypto vs. Wall Street," but rather traditional financial assets accelerating their entry into the digital financial system through on-chain infrastructure. The scale of RWA has grown from approximately $12 billion a year ago to over $30 billion, while the scale of tokenized U.S. Treasury bonds has also reached approximately $15 billion, indicating that on-chain financial infrastructure continues to expand. Meanwhile, macro liquidity, real yields, and regulatory clarity remain key factors influencing the performance of risk assets. Against this backdrop, investors' focus is shifting from single-asset allocation to coordinated allocation across multiple asset classes. Lucas Sum noted that Gate is continuously expanding its stock business, currently covering U.S., Hong Kong, and Korean stock markets, with plans to extend further into more global markets to provide the necessary infrastructure for multi-asset investment.
According to Cointelegraph, Edward Zimbardi, the alleged mastermind behind a $165 million cryptocurrency Ponzi scheme, was deported back to the United States by Fijian authorities recently after hiding in Fiji for over a year, following coordination between the FBI and the U.S. Department of State, and will appear for trial in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Georgia. Prosecutors allege that between June 2022 and August 2023, he illegally raised over $165 million in crypto assets by promising investors a fixed monthly return of 25% under the name "The Crypto Program". The raised funds were not used for the promised ad package business, but were misappropriated for over $34 million in high-risk forex trading, repaying early investors with new funds, and at least $10 million in personal expenses, including purchasing real estate, luxury vehicles, and paying alimony. Zimbardi currently faces 12 counts of wire fraud, 12 counts of money laundering, and 1 count of conspiracy to commit money laundering, totaling 25 federal charges.
Odaily News Cryptocurrency exchange Binance provided Russian authorities with customer transaction records and identity information, which were subsequently used in a terror financing case against IT specialist Yuri Belenkiy. Yuri Belenkiy was detained in September 2025 and is currently awaiting trial in Russia. The Russian Investigative Committee accused Yuri Belenkiy of donating more than $700 in cryptocurrency to the Ukrainian military and banned organizations between January 2023 and March 2024. The data obtained by Russian authorities included his transaction history, date of birth, address, phone number, Russian passport, and Bulgarian residence permit. Binance announced its full exit from Russia in September 2023, selling its local business to CommEX. Binance stated that the company is not responsible for formulating or enforcing laws in any jurisdiction, nor does it determine the content of charges or how governments use information in legal proceedings. The company cooperates with legitimate information requests from global law enforcement agencies, subject to applicable laws, privacy, and regulatory requirements. (Cointelegraph)
According to Cointelegraph, Nasdaq-listed company Greenlane Holdings disclosed that its crypto asset treasury centered on BERA was valued at only $16.4 million as of June 30, shrinking 76.6% from a cost basis of $70 million. The company recorded a $19.1 million non-cash fair value loss for the quarter, with a net loss reaching $24.8 million; the digital assets segment generated $309,000 in revenue through staking and yields during the same period. After completing a $110.7 million private placement in October 2025, Greenlane designated BERA as its primary reserve asset and currently holds 81.3 million BERA and equivalent tokens, an increase compared to the end of the first quarter.
According to Cointelegraph, AI company Higgsfield has completed $400 million in funding at a valuation of $5.4 billion. This round was jointly supported by Goldman Sachs and Intel, with news sourced from the UK Financial Times (FT).
According to Cointelegraph, digital asset infrastructure provider Copper announced that its US subsidiary, Copper Markets (US) Inc., officially obtained SEC-registered broker-dealer status on August 7 and became a FINRA member, officially establishing a compliant market presence in the United States. The company will provide institutional clients with qualified custody, staking, financing, and over-the-counter trading services, while also opening its ClearLoop network, allowing institutions to pledge and transfer crypto assets and tokenized assets between counterparties as collateral.
Odaily News: Standard Chartered Bank's Head of Global Digital Assets Research, Geoff Kendrick, stated that as the tokenization of Real World Assets (RWA) accelerates, the price of Chainlink (LINK) tokens could rise to $200 by the end of 2030, representing an increase of over 25 times from its current level of approximately $8.In his latest report, Kendrick predicts that the scale of tokenized RWA will reach $4 trillion by the end of 2028. As more traditional assets are brought on-chain, the demand for secure and reliable off-chain data is expected to increase significantly, which could further boost Chainlink's fee revenue and drive up LINK's valuation.The report also projects that by the end of 2030, the scale of tokenized assets and crypto-native assets deployed in decentralized finance (DeFi) will grow approximately 37-fold to reach $2.7 trillion. Kendrick believes these assets require trusted data, cross-network interoperability, privacy-preserving compliance mechanisms, and integration with the existing financial system—infrastructure that Chainlink currently has the capability to provide.Demand for RWA tokenization has continued to grow recently. Data shows that trading volume of tokenized RWAs on decentralized exchanges (DEXs) hit an all-time high of $14.1 billion in July, up 19.5% month-over-month, driven primarily by public market assets such as tokenized stocks.Currently, Chainlink remains one of the largest decentralized oracle service providers in the crypto industry, with a Total Value Secured (TVS) of approximately $34.4 billion—significantly higher than second-ranked Chronicle's $7.36 billion.However, Kendrick also noted that the prediction of LINK reaching $200 still faces risks, including institutional tokenization projects progressing slower than expected, intensified competition from specialized oracle service providers, and potential technical issues. (Cointelegraph)
Odaily News: Affected by a sharp decline in artificial intelligence (AI)-related stocks, investment firm Situational Awareness suffered a severe drawdown in July, with the fund's net value falling 67% in a single month. Aschenbrenner previously gained attention for publishing the research report "Situational Awareness: The Decade Ahead" on AI development trends, which discussed topics such as AI capability advancement, industrial competition, and AI safety over the next decade. This significant fund drawdown also highlights the challenges facing AI-themed investing: even with a long-term bullish view on technological transformation, concentrated bets on a few high-growth tech assets can still lead to剧烈 short-term volatility.The fund's founder and AI researcher Leopold Aschenbrenner acknowledged that market performance in July fell far short of expectations and said in a letter to investors: "We let you down."The Situational Awareness fund previously attracted attention for its bets on long-term AI industry growth, with an investment strategy focused on AI infrastructure, AI chips, and related technology companies. However, the AI sector underwent significant adjustments in July, with high-valuation tech stocks facing sell-offs that dragged down the fund's performance.This drawdown reflects the high volatility risk within the AI investment boom. Although the market remains optimistic about the long-term development of artificial intelligence, some AI-related assets that had previously seen rapid valuation gains underwent noticeable corrections amid changes in interest rates, earnings expectations, and capital flows. (Cointelegraph)
: Global payments company PayPal reported its second-quarter earnings, with earnings per share of $1.26, compared to $1.30 in the same period last year, falling short of the analyst consensus estimate of $1.28. Revenue reached $8.68 billion, surpassing last year's $8.29 billion and exceeding the analyst consensus estimate of $8.47 billion. PayPal recorded a non-GAAP adjustment of $81 million, related to gains and losses from strategic investments and crypto assets held for investment purposes. PayPal stated that since the company does not actively trade these assets and does not rely on them to fund ongoing operations, it excludes the related gains and losses from non-GAAP results. In its second-quarter investor presentation, PayPal stated that the company is leveraging its payments network, risk infrastructure, and trust capabilities to expand agent-based payments, stablecoins, identity, and biometric technologies. PayPal also noted that its PayPal World platform facilitated approximately $200 million in total payment volume between Venmo and PayPal.
despite the continued downturn in the crypto market, Coinbase Ventures led the venture capital rankings in the first half of 2026 by completing 30 investments.Animoca Brands followed closely with 19 investments, Andreessen Horowitz (a16z) completed 18 investments, and stablecoin issuer Tether participated in 15 deals.Over the past 12 months, Coinbase Ventures has completed 75 investments, continuing to lead the industry. Animoca Brands, YZi Labs, GSR, and a16z have completed 40, 39, 31, and 30 investments, respectively.However, the overall crypto fundraising market remains in a bear market cycle. In June, the total amount raised by crypto companies fell to $1.4 billion, a 63% decrease from $3.8 billion in April. The number of funding rounds also decreased from 89 in May to 61. In comparison, fundraising in April this year was only $698 million, hitting a new low in nearly two years.So far in July, the crypto industry has completed 12 financing rounds, totaling approximately $456 million.In terms of investment focus, Coinbase Ventures has primarily invested in payment protocols, DeFi, and infrastructure over the past six months. This includes participation in seven funding rounds for payment projects, four rounds for DeFi, and three rounds for infrastructure and Real World Asset (RWA) tokenization projects.By sector, the areas that attracted the most capital over the past year were DeFi, payments, and AI. DeFi projects completed 216 funding rounds, the payment sector completed 131 rounds, AI and crypto combination projects completed 128 rounds, and infrastructure projects secured 110 rounds.It is worth noting that while top institutions remain active, the overall number of market participants is decreasing. The number of independent investment institutions in June dropped to 242, nearly halved from 452 in October 2025, reflecting a concentration of capital in the bear market environment. (Cointelegraph)
the Bank of Thailand is strengthening stablecoin regulation to combat money laundering, illegal financing, and "grey capital" in the country. The central bank is collaborating with the Securities and Exchange Commission to review high-value stablecoin transactions, focusing on USDt (USDT), cash transactions, and foreign exchange dealings to identify and prevent illicit fund flows. Thailand will also expand the compliance responsibilities of commercial banks in areas such as cash networks, foreign exchange services, gold trading, and suspicious stablecoin transactions. In 2025, Thailand suffered losses of 115 billion Thai baht (approximately $3.4 billion) due to scams, recording about 173 million fraudulent calls and text messages. Cash deposits exceeding 5 million Thai baht will also require full disclosure. Bitkub, Thailand's largest exchange, processes a daily trading volume of approximately $26 million, nearly 40% of which is foreign exchange trading, with the USDT/THB trading pair being the most popular. In 2025, Thailand's banking sector froze 3 million bank accounts as part of efforts to crack down on nominee accounts, grey capital, and suspicious activities. (Cointelegraph).
According to Cointelegraph, Bitcoin mining company Ionic Digital has filed a direct listing application with Nasdaq, planning to use the stock ticker IOND. This listing does not involve new financing; the main purpose is to provide existing shareholders, especially former creditors who obtained shares through the Celsius restructuring, with a public trading market.
According to Cointelegraph, Australia will officially implement the cryptocurrency "Travel Rule" starting from July. At that time, when users conduct incoming and outgoing transfers on locally regulated cryptocurrency exchanges, they must provide the name and platform information of the payee or payer; when transferring to self-custody wallets, they also need to confirm address ownership. This rule is enforced by the Australian Transaction Reports and Analysis Centre, applies to transfers of all amounts, and aims to strengthen transaction traceability to prevent money laundering, terrorist financing, and fraud activities.
According to Cointelegraph, Indonesia’s Financial Services Authority (OJK) issued Regulation No. 6, requiring individuals who recommend cryptocurrencies and other digital financial assets on social media platforms to obtain relevant competency certification—except for those already subject to other licensing requirements. The new regulation also stipulates that recommended assets must be listed exclusively on authorized exchanges, and all service providers involved must hold valid licenses.