News linked to both this project and an event.
The U.S. Office of the Comptroller of the Currency conditionally approved World Liberty Financial's trust license application. Ten Democratic senators signed a bill to prevent corruption in bank applications.
The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) has conditionally approved World Liberty Financial's application for a national trust bank charter, subject to regulatory and policy requirements. Upon approval, the company may operate under the name World Liberty Trust Company, National Association. World Liberty Financial's application documents show that the bank plans to issue USD-backed stablecoins and custody digital assets related to its USD1 token. U.S. President Donald Trump and his three sons are all affiliated with the company, with Trump family entities holding a 38% stake. Senator Elizabeth Warren, along with nine other senators, introduced the Terminating Presidential Banking Corruption Act following the approval. Elizabeth Warren stated that the OCC's move represents one of the most blatant conflicts of interest in the U.S. financial system. In January 2025, an Abu Dhabi investment company backed by UAE National Security Advisor Sheikh Tahnoon bin Zayed Al Nahyan purchased a 49% stake in World Liberty for $500 million. Another UAE entity, MGX, previously used USD1 to invest $2 billion in Binance. (Cointelegraph)
According to the UK's Financial Times, China plans to lift exit restrictions on the founders of AI agent company Manus. Previously, Manus CEO Xiao Hong and Chief Scientist Ji Yichao were required to travel to Beijing for investigation and were restricted from leaving the country in March this year, as the company's acquisition by Meta for $2 billion was suspected of violating investment regulations. According to two informed sources, Xiao Hong recently told employees that he plans to return to Singapore, where the company's headquarters is located, in the near future. Manus announced this week that it will soon resume independent operations, stating that this move is "part of the separation from Meta to comply with regulatory requirements in specific regions." The divestiture transaction still requires final approval from China's National Development and Reform Commission (the NDRC had halted Meta's acquisition in April).
Odaily News The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) on Friday granted initial conditional approval to World Liberty Trust Company, National Association, bringing Trump-backed World Liberty Financial one step closer to obtaining a national trust bank charter.In its letter, the OCC stated that World Liberty's charter application met certain regulatory and policy requirements, leading to the initial conditional approval. However, this does not constitute final approval, and the OCC may still rescind the approval.Earlier this year, World Liberty Financial established a new trust company with the aim of applying for a bank charter from the OCC. The company has previously stated that the charter would support its provision of services including stablecoin issuance and redemption, fiat on/off ramps, custody, and exchange. WLF currently issues the stablecoin USD1, which has a market cap of approximately $4 billion, making it the fourth-largest stablecoin after Tether and USDC.WLF CEO Zack Witkoff said on X on Friday that the company aims to build "the world's most trusted and widely used digital dollar" while strengthening the dollar's role in the global economy. Zack Witkoff is the son of Trump's Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff. Overall, this approval could further strengthen WLF's position in the U.S. stablecoin and digital asset banking infrastructure, though its political ties may continue to raise regulatory and ethical concerns.
According to Cryptopolitan, the stock price of American Bitcoin (NASDAQ: ABTC), a Bitcoin mining company associated with the Trump family, rose about 10% in a single day on Monday, from $6.47 to $7.11. Triggering this rebound was a disclosure in regulatory filings: company director and Tinder co-founder Justin Mateen purchased a total of 306,981 shares over two consecutive days from August 5 to 6, totaling approximately $1.93 million, marking the largest insider purchase within the company in the past 12 months.
Odaily News: Justin Mateen, a director at Trump family-backed bitcoin mining company American Bitcoin (ABTC) and co-founder of Tinder, purchased company shares on two consecutive days following the release of its quarterly earnings report, with a total investment of approximately $1.93 million. Regulatory filings show that Mateen bought approximately 145,000 shares of ABTC Class A common stock on August 5, with a transaction value of about $925,000 and an average purchase price of approximately $6.40 per share. On August 6, he purchased another approximately 162,000 shares for about $1 million, at an average price of approximately $6.19 per share. Together, the two transactions totaled 306,981 shares, increasing his ABTC holdings to 492,297 shares. American Bitcoin, supported by members of U.S. President Trump's family, including Eric Trump and Donald Trump Jr., is a Nasdaq-listed bitcoin mining and BTC reserve company. The company adopts a strategy of "large-scale mining plus corporate treasury bitcoin holdings" to provide investors with bitcoin exposure. Financial reports show that American Bitcoin recorded a net loss of approximately $57 million in the second quarter, while its mining scale and bitcoin reserves continued to grow over the same period. The company produced approximately 932 BTC in the quarter, reaching an all-time high, with treasury bitcoin holdings increasing to over 8,000 BTC.
Odaily News, July 31 — Circle announced that the New York State Department of Financial Services (NYDFS) has granted a limited purpose trust charter to its subsidiary, Circle Internet Trust Company LLC.Circle stated that this charter will further strengthen the regulatory foundation of the company and USDC, reflecting its ongoing commitment to security, transparency, and compliance standards.Circle previously became the first company to receive a BitLicense from the New York State Department of Financial Services in 2015, establishing a long-term regulatory relationship with the agency.Jeremy Allaire, co-founder, chairman, and CEO of Circle, stated that obtaining the New York trust charter has been a long-term goal for the company. The regulatory clarity brought by this charter will position USDC within a more recognized regulatory framework as the digital dollar gradually becomes an important component of the global financial system.
Circle 宣布，纽约州金融服务部已向其旗下 Circle Internet Trust Company 授予有限目的信托牌照。该牌照进一步加强了 Circle 的合规与监管框架，也为 USDC 纳入更明确、受认可的监管体系提供支持。Circle 表示，此举体现了其长期以来在安全、透明和合规方面的投入。
According to the Hong Kong Securities and Futures Commission (SFC), Victory Securities Company Limited has been reprimanded and fined HK$1.7 million for regulatory violations, and its responsible officer's license has been temporarily suspended.Previously, Hong Kong's Victory Securities officially closed the virtual currency trading function for all users with mainland China identity in February this year, only retaining the withdrawal function, and no longer supporting deposits or new transactions. This is a continuation of the platform's measures to gradually tighten services for mainland users, including previous bans on buying, suspension of new address verification, etc., aiming to comply with the regulatory requirements of the Hong Kong SFC and relevant mainland policies.
According to CoinDesk, Kraken's parent company Payward announced it will expand its tokenized stock platform xStocks to markets outside the United States, planning to partner with investment infrastructure provider GTN to bring listed stocks from Hong Kong, the UK, Europe, and South Korea on-chain, with further expansion to other asset classes subject to regulatory approval. Currently, xStocks supports over 500 tokenized securities, with cumulative trading volume exceeding $35 billion and nearly 200,000 holders, but the product is not currently open to US investors.
Bitget CEO Gracy Chen stated that regardless of whether the US Clarity Act is passed, Bitget has decided to enter the US market. She mentioned that Bitget is reassessing and restarting its US expansion plans, and will obtain the necessary money transmission licenses, derivatives, and broker-dealer permits in the US before launching services, as well as establish an independent US entity.Additionally, she revealed that Bitget has engaged in discussions with the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) and Nasdaq to explore cooperation in promoting the distribution of tokenized traditional assets (RWA), viewing both exchanges as potential partners. (The Block)
Elon Musk has completed the acquisition of APR Energy, a mobile power generation company, with the overall transaction valued at least $1 billion. Documents show that Duos Technologies sold its 5% non-voting stake in New APR Energy, realizing a net gain of $50.4 million, which implies an enterprise value exceeding $1 billion. Headquartered in Florida, USA, APR Energy specializes in modular gas and diesel mobile generator sets, with a total installed capacity exceeding 1 GW. Individual projects can be deployed in as fast as 15 to 30 days, providing temporary and backup power for data centers.Industry analysts suggest that this acquisition aims to support the expansion of xAI's computing cluster and reduce reliance on the public grid. However, the fossil fuel-based power generation model will also bring trade-offs in terms of carbon emissions, compliance, and long-term operational costs. (Techrepublic)
According to the latest poll released by CNBC, American pessimism over the economic outlook has intensified, with 61% of respondents expressing pessimism about the current economic conditions and future trajectory — the highest level since December 2023. Only about a quarter of respondents hold an optimistic view. The survey shows that a majority attribute economic pressures to President Trump's economic policies. Regarding Trump's handling of the economy, 60% of respondents expressed dissatisfaction, while only 38% approved — one of the lowest ratings on this metric in his political career.Micah Roberts, a partner at Public Opinion Strategies, stated that the overall mood among voters is currently low, with those expecting the situation to worsen outnumbering those expecting improvement by 41% to 29%. Market confidence is entering a trough phase ahead of the midterm election cycle.Meanwhile, rising living costs are forcing American consumers to cut spending. The survey found that 47% of respondents are reducing spending on necessities such as food and healthcare — up 6 percentage points from April. About two-thirds of consumers are cutting back on non-essential spending like dining out.A separate study conducted by Bain & Company in collaboration with NielsenIQ showed that U.S. grocery purchases in June fell by 1.8% year-over-year, a sharp reversal from the 0.1% growth recorded during the same period last year.Kurt Grichel, head of Bain's U.S. retail practice, noted that a typical grocery run that cost around $300 in 2019 may now require $400. The "sticker shock" from price increases is now affecting a broader range of consumers, including higher-income households.Analysts point out that high food prices, elevated fuel costs, and the Trump administration's cuts to certain social welfare programs are collectively increasing pressure on consumers. The survey found that four out of five U.S. consumers are trying to reduce spending, with more than a quarter actively cutting back on food purchases. Among them, over half have switched to cheaper brands, while 49% are buying fewer items. (ibtimes)
AI compliance infrastructure company Hadrius has announced the completion of a $27 million Seed and Series A funding round, led by CRV, with participation from Y Combinator, Pathlight Ventures, as well as founders of Altruist, Jump AI, and FINNY. The new funds will be used to build AI-native compliance infrastructure for the financial services industry, leveraging Agentic AI technology to integrate scattered compliance reviews, risk monitoring, and regulatory document management into a single intelligent workflow. (Prnewswire)
EthSystems announces its official establishment. The company was founded by the original team of the Ethereum Foundation's "Institutional Privacy Working Group" and has received support from Bitmine, Sharplink, Joe Lubin, and others. It primarily develops Ethereum-based privacy and compliance technology for regulated entities such as banks and asset management institutions, aiming to support institutions in conducting on-chain financial activities without disclosing sensitive information such as transaction details and client identities.
According to Southern Metropolitan Daily, Tencent is negotiating to become the largest shareholder of general AI Agent company Manus. A consortium of Chinese capital led by Tencent plans to repurchase all equity of Manus from Meta at a valuation of approximately 2 billion USD. However, sources familiar with the matter revealed that upon completion of the transaction, Tencent will still maintain a minority shareholder status and will not hold a controlling stake. Manus is an AI Agent product launched by Butterfly Effect Company. It went viral overnight in China in March 2025, and its annualized revenue has exceeded 100 million USD. Previously, Meta announced the acquisition of Manus, but due to the intervention of the Ministry of Commerce and the foreign investment security review mechanism, the acquisition was legally prohibited and required to be revoked in April 2026. This repurchase by Chinese capital marks the subsequent progress following the halt of the acquisition.
According to Paul Grewal himself in a post on platform X, after serving at Coinbase for six years, Chief Legal Officer Paul Grewal will officially step down at the end of this month, transitioning to an advisory role, and will continue to serve on the board of Coinbase National Trust Company. During Grewal's tenure, he led the company's listing, won lawsuits against the SEC, pushed for the company's state of incorporation to move from Delaware to Texas, and actively promoted the legislative progress of the GENIUS Act and the CLARITY Act. Regarding succession arrangements, Molly White will take office as the new General Counsel, Ryan Van Grack will serve as Vice Chair responsible for global government and partner relations, while Faryar Shirzad will continue to lead the global policy team.
Gate issued an announcement regarding the recent "user asset theft incident," sharing internal comprehensive verification results, analysis of the incident's cause, and progress on subsequent handling. Regarding the verification process and key facts, the announcement stated that after comprehensive verification, materials submitted by the applicant at the time, including account information, real-name information, transaction records, Alipay screen recordings, etc., matched the account completely. According to analysis by the technical team, Alipay screen recordings can only be made by the customer themselves or someone with access to the customer's Alipay account. Alipay possesses an extremely strict real-time risk control system; logging into Alipay on a different device will mandate multi-factor authentication. This indicates a situation involving serious leakage of customer information or device compromise. Regarding the Gate platform audit mechanism, the announcement stated that the Company's security unbinding audit mechanism strictly executes the four-fold verification process of "Multi-channel advance notification + System risk control preliminary screening + Manual multi-layer review + Time protection," and never has nor will it approve any security item change application based on a single material alone. Gate always takes information security and customer data protection as the Company's core management requirements. The issue of internal information leakage mentioned by some parties does not exist. Regarding fund recovery and subsequent handling, the announcement stated that Gate processed the matter with the highest priority immediately after the incident occurred, coordinating security, compliance, legal, business, and other teams to carry out on-chain analysis and asset tracking and freezing. It continues to coordinate with third-party institutions such as Tether to advance fund freezing. Subsequently, it will also actively cooperate with judicial authorities in investigations and data collection. Any substantive progress will be communicated immediately.
According to Protos, the stock price of Bitcoin treasury company Hyperscale Data (NYSE: GPUS) closed below $0.14 on July 7, 2026, representing a drop of nearly 100% compared to its historical peak during the 2000 internet bubble (adjusted price over $2.1 billion). The company was formerly an electronics manufacturer established in 1969, Digital Power Corporation, and has since undergone six name changes, five reverse stock splits (cumulative compression ratio exceeding 200 million to 1), and multiple transformations—sequentially involving Bitcoin mining and Michael Saylor-style BTC accumulation strategies. In September 2025, the company announced the launch of a $100 million BTC purchase plan, at which time the stock price was $0.72, and has since fallen cumulatively by over 80%. The company's Executive Chairman Milton "Todd" Ault III was fined and suspended by the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) in 2012, and the company also reached a $700,000 settlement with the SEC in 2023.
According to The Block, South Korea's Upbit parent company Dunamu and Naver Financial announced that their stock swap transaction has been delayed again, with the latest deadline extended to December 31, 2026. This is the second delay for the transaction; previously, in March this year, it was postponed from June 30 to September 30. The two companies stated that the "Digital Asset Basic Act" currently being drafted in South Korea may affect the transaction's progress or even the final outcome. The bill contains controversial clauses proposing to cap the shareholding ratio of major shareholders in domestic crypto exchanges at 20%, which would directly impact Upbit's existing equity structure if implemented. Previously, the transaction plan involved Naver Financial issuing approximately 87.56 million new shares, with a total value of about 15.13 trillion Korean won (approximately 9.9 billion USD), to promote synergistic development between both parties in the fields of digital assets and the integration of AI and blockchain.