News linked to both this project and an event.
Odaily News: Cantor Fitzgerald has announced that it will open access to the prediction market platform Kalshi for institutional investors, providing event contract trading services to its approximately 3,000 institutional clients, including family offices and hedge funds.According to The Wall Street Journal, Cantor Fitzgerald will act as a broker arranging block trades for institutional clients, enabling them to participate in "yes/no" contract trading based on real-world event outcomes offered by Kalshi. The trading instruments cover multiple areas, including weather forecasts, commodity price trends, and corporate performance.This partnership marks the further entry of traditional financial institutions into the prediction market space. Kalshi is an event trading platform regulated by the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), where users can bet via contracts on whether specific events will occur, such as economic data releases, policy changes, weather conditions, and business events.In recent years, prediction markets have drawn attention from investors, with proponents arguing that they can reflect collective expectations through market prices and provide risk hedging tools for businesses and investment institutions. However, regulators and some market participants have also continued to scrutinize the boundary between these markets and gambling. (WSJ)
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.
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)
Crypto startups completed USD 11.2 billion in funding in the first half of 2026, with all disclosed capital flowing to regulated, licensed enterprises. Payments and stablecoins, prediction markets, exchanges, and trading platforms received the most funding. Major backers include Wall Street and large global financial institutions, whose investment focus is on licensed and compliant companies. Investors and founders increasingly view regulatory licenses as scarce and defensive assets, while retail investors still primarily trade on unlicensed or alternative platforms. (CoinDesk)
Odaily News: Goldman Sachs has disclosed the acquisition of ETF management firm NEOS Investments in a deal valued at up to $2.25 billion, which is expected to close in the first quarter of 2027 pending regulatory approval. The market views this move as a way for Goldman Sachs to quickly enter the Bitcoin yield ETF space, potentially putting it ahead of BlackRock in the Wall Street crypto asset competition.NEOS currently manages approximately $30 billion in assets, with its most notable product being the Bitcoin yield ETF BTCI (NEOS Bitcoin High Income ETF), which holds about $1.1 billion in assets. The fund generates monthly income for investors by holding Bitcoin-related ETFs and selling call options, currently offering a distribution yield of approximately 27%.Bloomberg ETF analyst Eric Balchunas stated that by acquiring NEOS, Goldman Sachs gains BTCI, effectively bypassing the need to build a similar product from scratch and "beating" BlackRock's previously launched Bitcoin yield ETF product, BITA.Goldman Sachs' deal is seen by the market as a new phase in Wall Street's crypto asset positioning. Industry insiders believe that Bitcoin spot ETFs represent the "first phase," while active management products based on Bitcoin, such as yield enhancement and options strategies, will become the focus of competition in the next phase.However, BTCI's high yield comes with risks. The product does not directly hold Bitcoin but instead generates returns by selling call options on Bitcoin-related ETFs, potentially sacrificing some upside when the market rallies. Analysts note that BTCI's net asset value has fallen approximately 43% over the past year, and part of its high distribution yield may come from return of capital.BlackRock has already launched a competing product, BITA, but its current scale is approximately $59 million, significantly lower than BTCI's roughly $1.1 billion in assets. The market is watching whether Goldman Sachs will maintain BTCI's existing structure after the acquisition is completed and further expand its competitive advantage in the Bitcoin yield product market. (Forbes)
According to The Block, the Blockchain Association filed an amicus curiae brief on August 13 supporting Custodia Bank's appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court, requesting a review of the legality of the Federal Reserve Bank's refusal of its master account application. The Blockchain Association pointed out that this case concerns whether legitimate digital asset enterprises can compete in a fair environment, and warned that the lower court ruling provides a precedent for federal regulators "to debank unpopular industries in the future without the intervention of state regulators." Custodia Bank was founded by Wall Street veteran Caitlin Long, applied for a Fed master account in October 2020, was rejected by the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City in January 2023 on the grounds that the crypto business model posed risks, subsequently lost twice in the district court and the Tenth Circuit Court of Appeals, and was denied rehearing by the full court in a 7 to 3 vote in March 2026. The Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City must respond to the Supreme Court application by September 11.
According to The Block, the New York City Council has launched an investigation into four prediction market platforms—Kalshi, Polymarket, Coinbase, and Gemini Titan—alleging they employed "false, deceptive, or abusive" marketing tactics targeting young users. Among them, Polymarket was accused of paying social media creators to film videos placing fake bets on counterfeit websites, an incident first disclosed by The Wall Street Journal in June this year. Additionally, prediction market platforms face insider trading allegations; New York Governor Kathy Hochul signed an executive order in April prohibiting state government employees from using confidential government information to place bets on prediction markets.
Odaily News: Part of hardware wallet manufacturer Coldcard's firmware had a random number generation vulnerability in 2021, causing some mnemonic phrases generated by the devices to carry predictable risks. The vulnerability was only discovered years later, and by then approximately 5,200 addresses and around 2,000 BTC had been stolen, with losses totaling about $130 million. Following the incident, some investors turned to Wall Street custody products. U.S. spot Bitcoin ETFs saw net inflows of approximately $626 million within days of the event. ETF analyst Eric Balchunas noted that security incidents like this could further drive capital flows into ETFs. The Bitcoin core community continues to uphold the principle of self-custody. Casa co-founder Jameson Lopp said recent events should not weaken user confidence in self-custody, as third-party custody carries risks as well. Early Bitcoin Core developer Peter Todd stated that self-custody has a better long-term security track record than centralized institutions. Michael Tanguma, co-founder of Bitcoin custody platform Onramp, said both approaches have flaws: concentrating large amounts of assets in a single institution creates a "honey pot," while hardware wallets face risks related to supply chains, firmware, and random number generation. Michael Tanguma proposed a "multi-institution custody" approach, in which multiple regulated institutions each hold keys through a multi-signature mechanism, and any transaction requires joint signing by multiple institutions to reduce the risk of single points of failure. Critics argue that while multi-institution custody improves security, it also introduces permissioned management, which conflicts with the decentralized ideals Bitcoin originally pursued. As Bitcoin enters pension funds, trusts, and institutional asset allocation, the industry is seeking custody solutions suitable for long-term wealth management. How to strike a balance among security, decentralization, and usability remains a challenge facing the Bitcoin ecosystem.
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 As prediction markets gradually expand into the realms of politics and government decision-making, insider trading risks are becoming a regulatory focus. U.S. prediction market platform Kalshi has stated that it has identified multiple suspected cases of insider trading and has submitted the relevant leads to federal regulators.Kalshi spokesperson Laura Frank stated that the company prohibits market manipulation and insider trading and has established a trading surveillance system similar to those used in securities markets. Earlier this year, Kalshi's monitoring system flagged suspicious trading activity by former Congressman George Santos in markets related to the U.S. President's State of the Union address. The company subsequently submitted its investigative findings to the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC).Additionally, federal agencies are investigating whether former White House teleprompter operator Gabriel Perez used advance knowledge of Trump's speech content to trade on Kalshi-related markets.Meanwhile, the Trump family is accelerating its push into the prediction market space. Trump Media & Technology Group is developing a prediction market platform called TruthPredict, which will allow users to trade prediction contracts tied to major events. The company is also launching Truth API, providing Wall Street with high-speed data access to Truth Social content.Donald Trump Jr., the eldest son of the former president, currently serves as a strategic advisor to Kalshi, while his venture capital firm, 1789 Capital, has invested in rival Polymarket and joined its advisory board. This means the Trump family is simultaneously linked to the two leading prediction market platforms, while Trump Media Group is also building its own prediction market business.Although there is currently no public evidence showing that Donald Trump Jr. or the Trump family has traded using inside government information, the potential conflicts of interest arising from the intertwining of presidential public information, market trading, and family business interests are drawing growing external scrutiny.As of now, Donald Trump Jr.'s team and Trump Media & Technology Group have not immediately responded to requests for comment. (Fortune)
Odaily News: U.S. July nonfarm payrolls unexpectedly decreased by 23,000, significantly missing market expectations. Although seasonal factors and the fading of the World Cup dividend disrupted the data, this still notably weakens the Federal Reserve's momentum for a September rate hike, shifting market focus to next week's CPI.Despite the "dismal" surface data, the unemployment rate unexpectedly fell to 4.1%. This seemingly contradictory phenomenon is actually attributed to a cumulative 0.7 percentage point decline in the labor force participation rate since the beginning of the year.Analysts are divided in their interpretation of this "terrible" report. Thomas Ryan, Senior Economist at Capital Economics, stated bluntly that although the current weakness has not yet shown up in broader indicators, it is sufficient to prompt Fed officials to reassess the health of the labor market and reduce their willingness to further tighten monetary policy in the near term.In the face of this report, which Adam Crisafulli, founder of Vital Knowledge, called "extremely terrible," the capital markets demonstrated typical contrarian logic. As traders bet that the rate hike process would stop here, U.S. stock futures rose accordingly, and Treasury yields collectively declined. According to data from CME Group's tools, the market-implied probability of a September rate hike has rapidly fallen from 55% on Thursday to 44%.
According to WSJ reports, Wintermute's US subsidiary has registered as a broker-dealer, marking the crypto trading company's formal entry into the regulated US financial market. This registration qualifies it to apply to become a designated market maker for stock exchanges such as the New York Stock Exchange and Nasdaq, providing a foundation for its expansion into the traditional financial services sector. The report noted that Wintermute is competing with large market-making firms such as Jane Street Capital and Citadel Securities.
Odaily Odaily News: Wall Street investment firm Bernstein has reaffirmed its "Outperform" rating on stablecoin issuer Circle Internet Financial, maintaining a $140 price target.Bernstein stated that Circle's second-quarter performance effectively addressed previous market concerns regarding intensifying stablecoin competition and the growth potential of reserve asset income. Analysts believe that Circle's expanding partnerships, regulatory licensing progress, and the upcoming Arc blockchain project will bring new revenue streams to the company—growth drivers that are not yet fully reflected in current market expectations.As the stablecoin market continues to expand, Circle is expected to further broaden its business model through payment infrastructure, on-chain financial services, and ecosystem collaborations, with its future growth potential still underestimated by the market. (The Block)
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."
Odaily News - Coinbase Chief Policy Officer Faryar Shirzad stated on the X platform that the Wall Street Journal's (WSJ) criticism of the CLARITY Act is disappointing, arguing that it abandons principles of free markets and competition in favor of maintaining regulatory barriers, while echoing the views of banking associations.Shirzad stated that the CLARITY Act imposes multiple restrictions on stablecoin rewards and ties them to customer activity, adding that there is currently no evidence to support the "deposit flight" claim. He noted that three independent studies, including one from the White House Council of Economic Advisers (CEA), have found no evidence that stablecoin growth leads to bank deposit outflows.Furthermore, Shirzad emphasized that the CLARITY Act does not provide exemptions for DeFi-related crimes. Instead, it distinguishes between code developers and financial intermediary operators, with fraud, sanctions violations, and money laundering remaining subject to legal prosecution.Shirzad urged the U.S. Senate to pass the CLARITY Act, stating that America needs to establish long-term, stable federal digital asset regulatory rules.
Odaily News - After Coinbase's Q2 results fell short of market expectations, the stock briefly dropped to a roughly two-and-a-half-year low on Friday morning before paring losses to around $150. Over the past year, the stock is still down approximately 57%.Wall Street generally believes Coinbase underperformed this quarter, but opinions differ on the cause: some analysts attribute it mainly to a weak crypto market environment, while others have begun to question whether the company's growth strategy beyond its trading business can deliver.JPMorgan stated that Coinbase's results reflect a "challenging crypto environment," with new products contributing limited value to the income statement. The bank lowered its December 2026 price target for Coinbase from $196 to $148, while maintaining an "Overweight" rating. JPMorgan believes the company faces pressure across multiple business lines, with weak trading volumes dragging down transaction revenue and subscription and services revenue also under strain.Bernstein, on the other hand, believes Coinbase's long-term strategy remains attractive, but investors want to see more compelling execution, particularly in new business areas such as prediction markets and tokenized stocks.Mizuho warned that Robinhood is emerging as the mainstream alternative for retail crypto trading. Overall, Coinbase is still viewed as an important representative of U.S. crypto compliance infrastructure, but its valuation recovery increasingly depends on proving it is more than just a crypto exchange reliant on trading cycles.
Odaily reports: After perpetual futures entered the regulated US market, Wall Street institutions are still taking a wait-and-see approach. Bank of America estimates that the global annual trading volume of perpetual futures is approximately 90 trillion USD; within a week of Kalshi launching perpetual futures in June, trading volume exceeded 1 billion USD. Perpetual futures are similar to standard futures but have no expiration date, meaning traders do not need to close or roll over positions monthly or quarterly. Instead, periodic funding rates keep the contract price close to the underlying asset. On May 29, the US Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) approved Kalshi to offer such contracts, and Coinbase also received approval to list regulated perpetual futures in the US. Insiders say that large financial institutions are still studying these products, with proprietary trading firms, market makers, and emerging clearing firms likely to be the first to participate. Large banks face stricter capital rules, client obligations, and reputational risks, and typically wait for years of data, clear regulatory treatment, and stable infrastructure. Perpetual futures may also be used to manage weekend risk, but market depth remains a concern. Industry insiders note that regulatory disagreements are emerging over whether certain contracts should be classified as futures or swaps, and CME has already challenged the CFTC's handling of Kalshi's Bitcoin perpetual contract.
the U.S. SEC and Coinbase reached a settlement on Wednesday, ending a multi-year legal dispute over the handling of record requests during the Gensler era.According to court filings, the SEC agreed to pay $150,000 in legal fees to History Associates and release two documents that had been previously withheld. Additionally, the SEC will review its record management procedures, as well as the retention methods for communications such as text messages.The case originated from Coinbase suing the SEC and FDIC separately in 2024 through the consulting firm History Associates, accusing both regulatory agencies of failing to comply with Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests. Coinbase stated that these record requests were related to whether regulators were attempting to cut off the crypto industry's connection with the banking system.In a Wall Street Journal op-ed, Coinbase Chief Legal Officer Paul Grewal stated that former SEC Chairman Gary Gensler had launched a “litigation campaign” against the crypto industry. During Gensler's tenure, the SEC sued Coinbase and several other crypto companies, alleging they failed to comply with federal securities registration requirements.Grewal noted that the settlement has long-term implications, as the FDIC and SEC are rewriting disclosure and record-keeping practices, which could enhance regulatory transparency and limit the ability of regulators to overreach behind closed doors in the future.
According to a post by a16z crypto researcher Robert Hackett and data advisor Ryan Holloway, the tokenized stock market is experiencing explosive growth. As of June 2026, the total market capitalization of tokenized stocks reached approximately $1.7 billion, representing a more than fivefold increase from $329 million a year earlier, making it one of the fastest-growing categories among tokenized assets. On-chain data shows that monthly transfer volume surged from $53 million last June to $9.22 billion this June, a year-over-year increase of more than 170 times. The market structure has also changed significantly: the proportion of crypto-related products dropped from 79% to 21%; the AI and chip category jumped from nearly zero to a market share of 15.5%; tech giants rose from 0.6% to 10.6%; and ETFs and indices increased from 4.5% to 17.3%. At the institutional level, DTCC has completed the first live trades of tokenized Treasury bonds and stocks on Digital Asset's Canton network, with full services planned to launch in October, which will open access for Wall Street to approximately $114 trillion in DTC custodied assets. Meanwhile, Robinhood has launched its own chain, NYSE's parent company announced a joint venture with OKX (pending regulatory approval), and Coinbase and Binance have also sequentially launched offerings for non-U.S. users.
Trump Media & Technology Group interim CEO Kevin McGurn stated that the company will launch a set of backend interfaces allowing financial services firms to pay for access to Truth Social’s real-time data. McGurn indicated that this marks the company's first expansion of its media business into the data licensing field. The newly launched Truth API will provide clients with real-time access to content published by the platform's top ten most popular accounts.McGurn added that clients willing to pay a higher fee in the future can obtain data access rights to more accounts. These accounts include key decision-makers who influence policy-making and geopolitical trends, such as U.S. President Donald Trump, the White House, FBI Director Kash Patel, White House Deputy Chief of Staff Dan Scavino, and Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert F. Kennedy Jr. (Axios)