News linked to both this project and an event.
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)
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: 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%.
Odaily News: CryptoQuant analyst Darkfost posted on platform X, stating that the cumulative trading volume of the Trump family-linked stablecoin USD1 on Binance has surpassed $50 billion. Data shows that since its launch over a year ago, USD1 has experienced rapid growth in trading scale. The stablecoin was launched by World Liberty Financial in March 2025, a project co-founded with the participation of the Trump family. USD1 is primarily backed by U.S. dollars and short-term U.S. Treasury assets, and adopts an institutional-oriented compliance framework. Currently, the market cap of USD1 has exceeded $4 billion.
Senator Warren questioned the US government's decision to relax AI chip export policies to the UAE over the UAE's investment in the Trump family's crypto company, World Liberty Financial.
Odaily News: U.S. Senator Elizabeth Warren has asked the U.S. Department of Commerce to explain its policy toward the UAE, following the U.S. granting the UAE greater access to AI chip exports after UAE-linked entities invested in Trump-family-backed crypto project World Liberty Financial. In a letter to Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, it was mentioned that an Abu Dhabi entity invested $500 million in World Liberty Financial in January; another UAE-affiliated company used World Liberty's USD1 stablecoin to complete a $2 billion investment in crypto exchange Binance. The U.S. Department of Commerce previously reclassified the UAE as Country Group A:5, granting it greater access to license-free exports, including advanced chips. The department also stated it would "actively review" license applications involving exports of chips and servers to MGX, the UAE entity that completed the $2 billion Binance investment. Warren stated that the Commerce Department's actions raise significant questions about whether the president's crypto business interests could influence agency operations and national security. In June, several senators, including Warren, had already requested a hearing regarding the $500 million World Liberty Financial deal.
Odaily News – On July 30, the minority staff of the U.S. Senate Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs released a new analysis raising Democratic objections to the amended draft of the CLARITY Act. The analysis states that Donald Trump’s 2025 crypto revenue amounts to approximately $1.4 billion, and that current ethics provisions still allow him to retain related business arrangements. The analysis reviews World Liberty Financial, the TRUMP meme coin, cryptocurrency investments, staking income, and other business activities, concluding that provisions restricting officials from issuing or sponsoring digital assets would not materially affect the aforementioned financial arrangements. Staff estimated approximately $799 million in revenue related to World Liberty Financial and approximately $635 million from the TRUMP meme coin. Trump’s annual financial disclosure report lists $635.1 million in royalties from a licensing agreement with CIC Digital LLC related to Celebration Coins, along with Bitcoin and Ethereum wallets each valued at over $50 million, and validator rewards obtained through staking agreements on Coinbase. The Senate draft of the CLARITY Act seeks to prohibit covered officials and their spouses from issuing or sponsoring digital assets for compensation during specified periods, while also establishing exceptions for qualified blind trusts, unauthorized third-party activities, continued use of an official’s likeness, and holding digital asset investments.
According to The Block, bipartisan Senators Thom Tillis (Republican) and Ruben Gallego (Democrat) submitted a new ethics compromise proposal to the White House on Thursday morning local time, attempting to break the deadlock in advancing the Clarity Act cryptocurrency legislation. Currently, there is less than a week left until the Senate recesses on August 7, but the bill still has not obtained the 60 votes required for passage. Democrats insist on adding stricter ethics provisions to constrain the Trump family's crypto interests, including the Meme coins they issued and the World Liberty Financial project in which the family participates, while some Republican senators have objections to the stablecoin interest provisions, worrying that it will divert deposits from traditional banks to the crypto sector. Although the draft leaked last week prohibited public officials and their spouses from issuing digital assets, it did not cover other family members, and included a "sunset clause" expiring in January 2029, which critics believe essentially nullifies the entire ethics provision. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent subsequently blamed the Democrats on X, stating that they "chose political gaming on the verge of a major victory". The Crypto Innovation Committee (CCI) warned that if the bill fails to pass, the US will hand over its global leadership position in the field of crypto regulation.
: On Monday, the São Paulo Consumer Protection Office filed a lawsuit against Tools for Humanity, the company behind World, and its hosting service provider Amazon AWS, accusing them of abusive practices in the collection of consumer biometric data in São Paulo. The lawsuit estimates that over 400,000 people participated in World's promotions in São Paulo. It demands the preservation of all data and metadata related to the data collection and the suspension of any payments or benefits associated with biometric data collection before the assessment is completed. The lawsuit seeks a ruling that the related activities constitute abuse and demands payment of 240 million Brazilian reais, approximately $47 million, to compensate for individual consumer losses. The prosecution alleges that World continued to issue crypto rewards through in-app transactions after the National Data Protection Authority ordered it to stop in February 2025. A report from the Iris Parliamentary Committee of Inquiry stated that World concentrated its promotions in peripheral and high-traffic areas to attract people facing socioeconomic issues to submit biometric data in exchange for crypto rewards. The prosecution also claims that consumers were not informed about the economic purpose of the project or the risks associated with processing and storing data on AWS servers.
stablecoin issuer Mandela Digital has announced the completion of a $5 million funding round, with Datavault AI participating. The new funds will be used for stablecoin infrastructure development, compliance, exchange integration, liquidity and marketing, as well as accelerating the launch of its 1:1 USD-pegged stablecoin, Mandela Dollar (MUSD). It is reported that MUSD aims to promote financial inclusion, cross-border remittances, and digital payments in the Global South. Datavault AI will also provide technical support for MUSD, including its AI platform, blockchain tokenization, SanQtum quantum-resistant cryptography, and Real World Asset (RWA) frameworks. (Globenewswire)
Moonshot AI employee Randy responded on X platform to White House Office of Science and Technology Policy Director Michael Kratsios’ remarks regarding Moonshot AI using Anthropic’s Fable to distill and develop the K3 model. He stated that Fable made its public debut on July 1, while K3 was launched on July 15. The team trained a brand-new frontier model in just 15 days, a feat worthy of a Guinness World Record.
: U.S. prediction market platform Kalshi experienced explosive growth during the 2026 World Cup, with platform trading volume soaring from $6.67 billion on June 22 to $24.2 billion on July 14. The single "World Cup Champion" prediction market saw trading volume exceed $1.2 billion. Kalshi stated that its growth reflects a new trend in the AI era: as the volume of AI-generated content increases substantially, authentic, real-time, and non-replicable human interaction scenarios are becoming scarcer, positioning prediction markets as a novel tool for observing public sentiment and collective judgment.Meanwhile, Kalshi is seeking to transform from a sports prediction platform into the next-generation financial trading infrastructure. The company currently holds Designated Contract Market (DCM) status recognized by the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) and plans to expand into more prediction areas including sports, geopolitics, culture, and economics. (Fortune)
Ansem posted on platform X, stating that the current market remains in a stage with high growth potential. Bitcoin (BTC) and Solana (SOL) still have considerable room to rise from their all-time highs, with SOL down approximately 75% from its peak and BTC down about 50%. Compared to previous cycles, this cycle has more mature user experiences and infrastructure, including improved mobile trading experiences, lower barriers for wallet onboarding, and enhanced cross-chain capabilities, making it easier for new users without prior crypto experience to enter the market.Ansem pointed out that a growing number of high-quality developers are aligning incentives through a "token plus equity" model, offering investors exposure to a wider range of industry sectors. Meanwhile, institutional interest in Real World Assets (RWA), attention to the regulatory framework related to the US CLARITY Act, and the entry of major tech-finance companies like Stripe and Robinhood into the crypto space are all boosting market confidence. The wealth effect generated by AI stock performance in recent years, coupled with the wealth-building cases of Meme coins in previous crypto cycles, are reinforcing the market's perception of high-yield trading opportunities. While some earlier Meme coins grew from zero to tens of billions of dollars in market capitalization, the circulating market cap of current popular Meme projects like $ANSEM is still under $100 million, attracting speculative capital.This cycle features dual market drivers: institutional narratives and high-risk speculative opportunities. On one hand, mature financial applications like perpetual contracts and RWA will attract more professional capital; on the other hand, trading in Meme coins and low-market-cap tokens will continue to attract significant retail participation.Ansem stated that with more teams launching user-friendly mobile crypto applications that lower the barrier to entry, this cycle could become the one with the largest scale of retail participation in crypto history.
Odaily President Trump will meet on Thursday with Republican Senators Bernie Moreno and Cynthia Lummis, along with White House crypto policy advisor Patrick Witt and White House Chief of Staff Susie Wiles, to focus on the ethics provisions in the CLARITY Act. These provisions are considered one of the main obstacles to advancing the crypto market structure bill.Kristin Smith, President of the Solana Policy Institute, stated, "The purpose of the meeting is to present some proposals on the ethics issue to Trump and hope to gain his support. I believe this is a very positive signal." She described the meeting as crucial for pushing the CLARITY Act through.Earlier, it was disclosed that Trump family-backed World Liberty Financial had received hundreds of millions of dollars in crypto-related revenue, raising concerns among Democrats about potential conflicts of interest. (The Block)
According to TechFlow Research, minutes from Goldman Sachs' July 5 Circle management meeting indicate that stablecoin growth has decoupled from crypto market cycles, with use cases rapidly expanding towards cross-border payments, consumer e-commerce, capital market settlement, and AI agent payments. USDC accounts for approximately 99% of trading volume in the x402 agent payment protocol. Circle pointed out that the "digital dollarization" trend in emerging markets is accelerating, with USDC becoming a tool to replace local currencies and unreliable banking systems. If passed, Circle believes the CLARITY Act will be a catalyst rather than a headwind; the bill allows issuers to continue revenue sharing to incentivize distribution and encourages usage-based reward mechanisms rather than passive holding.
Coinbase sent an AI-generated news alert claiming the Norwegian national football team had defeated Brazil 3-2 before the World Cup match had even started. CEO Brian Armstrong has launched an investigation, and Coinbase stated that updates have been implemented to prevent future instances of inaccurate AI-generated information. The error comes as Coinbase is advancing its prediction market and "everything exchange" features, including an AI advisor and stock options. (CoinDesk).
U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent stated in an interview with CBS News that the recently disclosed revenue of approximately $1.4 billion earned by President Donald Trump through crypto projects poses no problem for the president. The financial disclosure shows that since the start of his second term, Trump has earned around $1.4 billion from crypto ventures, including the TRUMP meme coin and World Liberty Financial.Congressional Democrats have criticized this, arguing that there is a conflict of interest given that the current administration is seeking to ease cryptocurrency regulations. White House spokesperson Anna Kelly responded by stating that the disclosure reveals no conflict of interest. Additionally, Bessent expressed optimism about the U.S. economic outlook and noted that over 6 million Trump Accounts have been opened, a project aimed at helping minors invest in the stock market to improve financial literacy. (cbsnews)
U.S. President Trump’s newly released 927-page financial disclosure document reveals income including hundreds of millions of dollars in crypto-related earnings. Among these are millions of dollars in revenue linked to World Liberty Financial, the DeFi project launched by the Trump family in 2024. This disclosure has heightened the urgency of congressional negotiations over ethics provisions within the Clarity Act, the crypto market structure bill.Currently, bipartisan lawmakers are negotiating the Clarity Act, which aims to establish the first comprehensive federal crypto regulatory framework in the United States. A key focus of the negotiations is whether to include ethics restrictions preventing the President, Vice President, members of Congress, and other federal officials from profiting from digital assets while in office.Following the document's release, Democratic lawmakers reiterated that the bill must contain strict ethics clauses. Senator Angela Alsobrooks stated that such restrictions should apply to the President, Vice President, and all members of Congress. She noted that ordinary Americans should benefit from digital assets in a fair and honest manner, rather than allowing political figures to profit through corruption and institutional loopholes.Senator Kirsten Gillibrand also indicated that both parties are still advancing stringent ethics reforms, proposing to prohibit the President, Vice President, and lawmakers from using crypto assets for personal gain. Meanwhile, Elizabeth Warren argued that if the Clarity Act fails to prevent the President, members of Congress, and their families from profiting from the crypto industry, the bill would further fuel controversies surrounding Trump-related crypto corruption.Republicans, for their part, stated that ethics clauses remain part of the bipartisan negotiations. With the July window for advancing the Clarity Act approaching, the disclosure of Trump family crypto income could become a key variable influencing the final text of the bill and the level of Democratic support.
Robinhood has announced the official launch of the public mainnet for its proprietary Layer 2 network, Robinhood Chain. Built on the Arbitrum technology stack, the chain is positioned as an institution-grade, permissionless, AI-native network specifically designed for Real World Assets (RWA).Robinhood Chain's launch partners include Uniswap, Pleiades, Alchemy, BitGo, and Chainlink. Among them, Uniswap will deploy a dedicated AMM on the chain as the primary public liquidity protocol, while Pleiades will deploy its own AMM as the primary proprietary trading venue. The chain will also offer basic DeFi functionalities such as lending.Eligible users can trade tokenized stocks 24/7 on Robinhood Chain. Simultaneously, Robinhood Earn will introduce USDG-based decentralized lending products within the main app. In certain jurisdictions, the new version of Robinhood Wallet will also support access to Lighter's perpetual contract trading.Robinhood also announced the expansion of its European perpetual contract product range, its official entry into the Canadian market, and the acquisition of a Singapore Capital Markets Services license. Furthermore, Agentic Accounts for crypto trading are planned to begin rolling out in the US soon, allowing AI agents to participate in trading and fund management.Robinhood stated that this update represents its most ambitious global expansion and product vision to date, with the goal of establishing a more direct connection between traditional finance and DeFi, integrating stocks, crypto, RWA, perpetual contracts, and AI trading into a unified financial experience. (The Block)
According to Odaily, within the ten days leading up to the World Cup, Polymarket's soccer category trading volume exceeded $2 billion, a 300% increase compared to the previous ten days. The average daily trading volume rose from $53 million before the tournament to approximately $220 million. Meanwhile, last Thursday, Kalshi's open interest reached a record $1.16 billion, surpassing the $1 billion mark for the first time and growing 350% since the beginning of the year.Although Polymarket's open interest levels remained relatively stable during the World Cup, the open interest on Polymarket's U.S. branch only saw moderate growth, failing to reach the highs from April 2026. Kalshi's open interest has grown faster than its trading volume, indicating that its user base holds positions for longer periods and has established larger directional positions. Its CFTC-regulated channel and direct USD deposit gateway have attracted U.S. institutions and high-net-worth dollar investors. (The Block)