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Fred Thiel, CEO of MARA, one of the world's largest publicly traded Bitcoin mining companies, said in an interview with Natalie Brunell that AI data centers generate significantly more revenue per unit of electricity than Bitcoin mining. MARA currently has more than 4 GW of energy capacity and can continue mining Bitcoin at its facilities until the infrastructure is converted into AI data centers.
Thiel also said MARA is not a digital asset treasury company and views its Bitcoin holdings as part of its cash management strategy. The company previously sold around 20,000 BTC, using the proceeds to repurchase bonds at a discount and reduce debt. He added that he has not lost faith in Bitcoin but considers its inability to generate yield its biggest weakness as an asset.

According to TRM Labs, the Council of the European Union adopted its 21st sanctions package against Russia on July 23, extending transaction bans to 14 non-EU crypto-related platforms and entities: Rapira, Aifory Pro, ABCeX, WhiteBird, NoOnecrypto, Tradex, Monease, BitPapa, Exnode / Exnode Pay, HTX, EXMO, A7 Nigeria, A7 Africa, and PilotFinance. They are based across Georgia, Panama, the UAE, the Marshall Islands, Kyrgyzstan, and Belarus.
The package also grants the EU new authority to restrict crypto asset services from an entire third country when platforms based there facilitate Russian sanctions evasion. It adds 218 listings in total, the largest batch in four years.

According to The Block, World Foundation raised $52.5 million through a strategic WLD token sale led by Pantera Capital, with all purchased tokens locked for one year. Bain Capital Crypto, Eightco Holdings, Selini Capital and Susquehanna Crypto also participated. The foundation said the funding will support the expansion of World ID for enterprises, consumers and AI agents.

Binance said trading volume in its ETF perpetual contracts has exceeded $116 billion since their launch in March 2026. The exchange said its share of the ETF perpetual market rose from 18% at launch to 74%. In July, ETF perpetuals accounted for 19% of Binance’s total TradFi perpetual trading volume. Binance currently offers 146 TradFi perpetual pairs, including contracts tracking SPY, QQQ, semiconductor, country-focused, leveraged and inverse ETFs, with 35 pairs added over the past month.

Binance Research said Gen Z is the largest user group for its stablecoin-based stock products, accounting for 44% of both Binance Direct Stocks and bStocks users, as well as about 45% of TradFi perpetual users. Among users who have adopted all three products, Gen Z accounts for 48%. Its share of newly onboarded TradFi users rose from 41% in January 2026 to 47% in July. Gen Z users generated approximately $80 billion in TradFi trading volume year-to-date, with monthly volume compounding at around 24%. More than 90% of TradFi users across all generations are based in emerging markets.

According to CoinDesk, Senate Majority Leader John Thune said the CLARITY Act is unlikely to receive a final vote before the summer recess, though he hopes to begin Senate consideration beforehand. Senator Cynthia Lummis has released an updated draft with stronger customer-asset protections, but disputes over government ethics, stablecoin rewards and other provisions remain unresolved. Galaxy Research head Alex Thorn cut his subjective estimate of the bill becoming law in 2026 from 50% to 30%, citing the shrinking legislative window.

Ripple launched Ripple Mint, allowing institutional clients to mint, redeem, bridge and track RLUSD through a web interface or API, with additional monitoring and automation tools for existing customers. RLUSD has a market capitalization of about $1.5 billion, while its monthly transfer volume fell roughly 25% from about $14.6 billion to $11 billion.

Bloomberg reported, citing people familiar with the negotiations, that former White House crypto adviser Bo Hines described preserving the GENIUS Act's three-year compliance grace period for foreign stablecoin issuers as a White House “red line,” saying the provision was sought by Tether. Hines joined Tether about one month after the law was signed. The report also said the final legislation included several provisions viewed as favorable to Tether, while Tether denied receiving any special advantages or engaging in improper lobbying.

Strategy founder and executive chairman Michael Saylor announced the launch of the MSTR-BTC dashboard, which consolidates the company’s Bitcoin holdings and capital structure metrics. The dashboard shows that Strategy holds 843,775 BTC, valued at approximately $54.88 billion based on a Bitcoin price of $65,035. Its gross reserve and net reserve stand at $58.1 billion and $35.88 billion, respectively, while mNAV is 1.00x. Year-to-date BTC Yield is 5.8%, corresponding to a BTC Gain of 39,325 BTC, or approximately $2.56 billion.

1. Trump Agrees to Ethics Provisions for CLARITY Act; Senate to Release Bill Text as Early as This Week link
U.S. President Donald Trump has agreed to the ethics provisions contained in the CLARITY Act, clearing the last major hurdle for the crypto market structure bill to advance to a Senate vote. The provisions seek to bar the president, vice president, members of Congress and other federal officials from profiting from digital assets while in office. The full bill text is expected to be released in the coming days, and the Senate must hold a vote no later than the first week of August. Should it pass, the bill will be sent back to the House of Representatives for review before being submitted to the president for signature.
Senate Majority Leader John Thune stated that the CLARITY Act, the crypto market structure legislation, is unlikely to complete voting before Congress’s summer recess, though he still hopes to launch Senate deliberations ahead of the break. Disagreements persist over clauses governing federal officials’ crypto activities and stablecoin yields. If consideration is delayed until the brief legislative session before midterm elections in September, the odds of passage within 2026 will rise substantially.
Chris Dixon, partner at a16z, posted urging the U.S. Congress to enact the CLARITY Act to clarify regulatory divisions for blockchain networks and the digital asset market, alongside introducing rules for customer asset segregation, custody and disclosure. He noted the GENIUS Act has fueled expansion in the stablecoin sector, yet blockchain infrastructure still lacks a unified federal framework. If the CLARITY Act passes, the United States will once again lead the future just as it did with the commercial internet. Continued delays by the U.S. risk shifting innovation and rulemaking authority to other jurisdictions.
2. London Stock Exchange Plans Night Trading Platform Launch in 2027 to Compete With Crypto Venues link
The London Stock Exchange (LSE) plans to launch a standalone overnight trading platform in the first half of 2027. It will initially offer trading in exchange-traded products (ETPs), including funds tracking UK and US equity markets. The new platform’s trading hours are set from 17:00 to 07:50 the following day, with a 30-minute suspension built in for end-of-day processing. Reports state the move comes as traditional exchanges seek to win back retail investors drawn to round-the-clock crypto trading venues. Crypto platforms such as Coinbase and Kraken already offer 24/7 stock trading services. LSE CEO Julia Hoggett noted retail investors in Asia are expected to particularly benefit from the arrangement. In addition, the LSE intends to introduce trading capabilities powered by agentic AI on the new platform.
3. Argentina Proposes Capital Market Reform, Allowing Mutual Funds to Invest in Bitcoin & Crypto Assets link
Argentina’s government plans to allow mutual investment funds to allocate to Bitcoin and other crypto assets subject to their respective investment policies, and is considering permitting digital assets to be used as collateral for regulated loans. The draft also seeks to explicitly authorize the issuance, custody and trading of securities such as stocks and bonds on blockchains. The proposal is not yet finalized; it still requires presidential endorsement before being submitted to Congress for deliberation.
4. Brazil Tokenizes Cattle for the First Time as Collateral to Support Agricultural Financing link
Brazilian farm Fazenda Engenho Velho completed the first formally registered tokenized livestock asset collateral financing transaction on B3, the Brazilian Stock Exchange. The farm secured CPR-F agricultural credit certificates worth 100,000 Brazilian reals (approximately $19,400) using 10 cows as collateral. Health, behavioral and location data for each cow are collected via Cowmed AI smart collars, generating unique encrypted digital IDs linked to loan contracts to enable digital management of collateralized assets. The model aims to reduce valuation haircuts and manual verification costs inherent to traditional livestock-backed financing. Cowmed stated its system currently covers roughly 100,000 cows across Brazil and other nations, and plans to facilitate around 20 percent of these livestock as tokenized collateral assets within the next two years.
5. Strategy Launches Bitcoin Security Consortium, Committing $15M Funding Over Three Years link
Strategy announced the launch of the Bitcoin Security Consortium. Founding members include BlackRock, Coinbase, Galaxy, Anchorage, ARK Invest, Blockstream, Block and Digital Asset. Participants commit to investing $15 million over the next three years to support Bitcoin developers and security research. The consortium stated its initial priority is the potential impact of quantum computing on Bitcoin cryptography. It emphasized that the group will not steer Bitcoin development, but will back the long-term work of existing open-source developers and researchers.
6. Kraken Parent to Expand xStocks, Aiming to List Hong Kong, UK & South Korean Equities link
Payward, parent company of Kraken, is partnering with investment infrastructure provider GTN to bring Hong Kong-listed stocks to xStocks. Stocks from the United Kingdom, Europe and South Korea are slated to follow, pending regulatory approvals. GTN will deliver execution, custody and record-keeping services for the securities backing these tokens.
7. Veteran Exchange BitMEX Announces Closure; Long-Drawn Sale Process Failed link
On July 23, veteran crypto derivatives exchange BitMEX announced it would officially shut down at 04:00 UTC on September 23 and has suspended new user registrations. Founded by Arthur Hayes, BitMEX pioneered perpetual swap contracts. Starting August 26, BitMEX will block new position openings and conduct progressive forced liquidations. Following crackdowns by U.S. authorities, Arthur Hayes gradually stepped back from BitMEX operations. Its market share was overtaken by offshore rivals including Binance and Bybit. The platform had been pursuing acquisition talks over the past several years without reaching a deal.
After BitMEX announced its closure, Ben Zhou, Co-Founder and CEO of Bybit, posted that BitMEX invented perpetual swaps and once stood as the world’s largest crypto exchange, inspiring subsequent platforms such as Bybit. He noted that though BitMEX later faced regulatory headwinds, perpetual swaps have endured as a core crypto product and are gradually gaining regulatory acceptance across jurisdictions including the EU, Dubai and Hong Kong. He paid tribute to BitMEX founding members Arthur Hayes, Ben Delo and Sam Reed.
CZ commented that BitMEX launched 100x leveraged Bitcoin perpetual swaps back in 2014. Its early constraints — only Bitcoin deposits, a single blockchain network, and once-daily multisig withdrawals — seemingly inconvenient safeguards that shielded the platform from hacks. The four founders fought legal action for 18 months before pleading guilty to Bank Secrecy Act violations one month ahead of trial. Each paid a $10 million fine and served home confinement with no prison time. Still, the business failed to survive the crypto crackdown during the Biden administration. CZ added the ongoing wind-down proceeds in orderly fashion with users able to withdraw assets, and extended respect to Arthur Hayes.
Arthur Hayes published a farewell message to BitMEX: “Thank you to our partners, BitMEX staff, and most importantly our customers. It has been an incredible journey. Together we built something special. I am immensely proud of everything we created and that we are able to wind down responsibly on our own terms. Satoshi Nakamoto forever.”
BKX Services and David Namdar have filed a lawsuit against BitMEX in the Southern District of New York. The plaintiffs allege BitMEX profited by leveraging internal trading privileges, account freezes and forced liquidation mechanisms, resulting in combined losses of 622.66 BTC for the two claimants. They demand restitution of the Bitcoin plus damages, and BitMEX has not issued a response. The lawsuit was filed on the same day BitMEX announced the end of its 11-year operation.
8. 17 Major Crypto Projects & Firms Shut Down or Filed Bankruptcy Since Start of 2026 link
Data from CryptoRank shows that 17 major crypto projects and firms have shut down or filed for bankruptcy since the start of 2026, including BitMEX, Loopring DEX, Nifty Gateway, Movement Labs, Bitcoin Depot and ZeroLend. Collectively, these entities raised at least $8.9 billion in disclosed funding in prior rounds. CryptoRank stated that besides insolvent businesses, products unable to retain users and liquidity are also exiting the market.
9. Monthly RWA Perpetual Volume Rises to $470B; Tokenized Equities Lead Growth link
Monthly trading volume for tokenized real-world asset (RWA) perpetual contracts jumped from $85 billion in January to roughly $470 billion in June, marking a 450% surge across six months. Trading volume of tokenized equity perpetuals expanded approximately sevenfold, outpacing tokenized commodities. SpaceX (SPCX) recorded over $66 billion in trading volume in June, making it the most actively traded single-stock perpetual contract across exchanges. Binance, Hyperliquid and OKX collectively captured more than 80% of tokenized RWA perpetual trading volume in June, with Binance accounting for nearly half of the total.
10. Ethereum Validator Exit Queue Hits Zero; Around 2.48M ETH Awaiting Staking Activation link
Citing data from beaconcha.in, Arkham reports that Ethereum’s validator exit queue has fallen to zero, meaning unstaking requires no waiting time. Meanwhile, around 2.48 million ETH is queued to enter staking, with an estimated waiting period of 43 days. The exit queue previously topped 2.6 million ETH in September 2025. At present, roughly 40.9 million ETH is staked, accounting for approximately 33.55% of the total supply. There are about 885,000 active validators, delivering an average annualized yield of 2.64%.
Fundraising
AI security firm Neo announced it has secured $100 million in funding. link
Crypto bank Augustus completed a $180 million Series B financing at a $1 billion valuation. link
Digital Asset, developer of the Canton Network, raised an additional $10 million with its valuation unchanged at $2 billion. link
Notabene announced a strategic investment from Ripple. link
Empery Digital made a $20 million strategic investment in Cardinal Data Power. link
Mirae Asset acquired a 97.15% stake in Korbit and plans to rebrand the platform as Digital X to build an all-in-one digital asset investment platform. link
Mandela Digital secured a $5 million investment from Datavault AI. link
Learn more, check out crypto-fundraising.info.
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Coinbase CEO: If the Crypto Bill Stalls, Part of the Business Could Leave the US
On July 21, 2026, Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong said in a CNBC interview on Capitol Hill that the company would continue building in the United States, but part of its business could shift to offshore markets if clear crypto legislation does not pass.
He said Coinbase wants to keep most of its business in the U.S., but that requires statutory clarity and regulatory certainty that can survive across administrations. Otherwise, capital, business activity and users may keep moving outside the U.S. regulatory perimeter.

Laut Digital Asset sind mindestens 29 der wichtigsten 50 Offshore-Krypto-Derivatebörsen von CoinMarketCap nicht mehr für neue Downloads im Google Play Store in Südkorea verfügbar, darunter OKX, Bybit, MEXC, KuCoin, Gemini, Backpack und BitMEX. Google verlangt, dass Krypto-Börsen- und Custodial-Wallet-Apps, die koreanische Nutzer bedienen, als lokale VASPs registriert sind. Die Einschränkungen gelten nur für Google Play und wirken sich nicht zwangsläufig auf Websites oder den App Store von Apple aus.

US-amerikanische Spot-Bitcoin-ETFs verzeichneten am 23. Juli Nettoabflüsse in Höhe von 225 Millionen USD, während Spot-Ethereum-ETFs 26,32 Millionen USD anzogen, wie aus Angaben von SoSoValue hervorgeht. Morgan Stanleys MSBT führte die Zuflüsse in Bitcoin-Fonds mit 5,01 Millionen USD an, während Fidelitys FETH die Ethereum-Fonds mit 14,93 Millionen USD anführte.

Binance hat Across Protocol (ACX), Lisk (LSK) und Stacks (STX) zu seiner Monitoring-Tag-Liste hinzugefügt und signalisiert damit, dass die Token eine erhöhte Volatilität und ein erhöhtes Risiko aufweisen und möglicherweise die Listing-Standards der Börse nicht mehr erfüllen. Getaggte Projekte unterliegen regelmäßigen Überprüfungen und könnten letztlich delistet werden.

JPMorgan-CEO: Ich würde nicht in langfristige US-Treasuries oder den S&P 500 investieren
JPMorgan-CEO Jamie Dimon sagte in einem Interview vom 21. Juli mit dem „The Master Investor Podcast“, dass er derzeit keine langfristigen US-Staatsanleihen kaufen oder größere Aktienkäufe zu aktuellen Preisen tätigen würde. Er sagte, die globale Verschuldung und die Haushaltsdefizite seien zu hoch, und selbst wenn die Inflation auf 2% fällt, die US-10-Jahres-
Die Rendite von US-Staatsanleihen sollte zwischen 4% und 4,5% liegen und damit nur begrenztes Aufwärtspotenzial gegenüber den aktuellen Kursniveaus bieten. Auf die S&P 500 angesprochen, sagte Dimon, er bevorzuge es, Unternehmen einzeln zu bewerten, anstatt in einen Index zu investieren, würde aber dennoch eine ausreichend attraktive Gelegenheit in Betracht ziehen.

Das X-Konto des Robinhood-CEO Vlad Tenev soll nach einer vermuteten Kompromittierung kompromittiert gewesen sein, nachdem dort am 23. Juli 2026 eine ungewöhnliche Nachricht gepostet wurde. Darin wurde behauptet, man werde das „offizielle“ Mascot-Token von Robinhood Chain namens Vladhood (VLAD) starten, und es wurde eine Token-Vertragsadresse geteilt. Der Token-Vertrag wurde später im Robinhood-Chain-Blockexplorer als „SCAM“ markiert und warnte Nutzer vor möglichen Betrugsrisiken. Der Beitrag wurde inzwischen gelöscht. Laut On-Chain-Monitoring durch MLM soll der Angreifer etwa 650 ETH aus Erlösen mit dem VLAD-Token generiert haben, was ungefähr 1,2 bis 1,3 Millionen US-Dollar entspricht.

Die Robinhood-Chain ist eine Ethereum-Layer-2, die Robinhood im Juli 2026 veröffentlicht hat und die mit Arbitrum-Technologie entwickelt wurde. Das Netzwerk ist für tokenisierte Real-World-Assets (RWAs) konzipiert, einschließlich Aktien-Token und ETFs, sowie für DeFi, Perpetual Futures und Anwendungen für KI-Agenten. Laut einem Bericht von Bernstein verzeichnete die Robinhood-Chain in einem Zeitraum von sieben Tagen ungefähr 3,1 Milliarden US-Dollar an DEX-Handelsvolumen, davon rund 300 Millionen US-Dollar in Stablecoins und 13 Millionen US-Dollar in Aktien-Token. Allerdings stammte ein Großteil der frühen Aktivität aus dem Handel mit Memecoins, während RWA-Anwendungen sich noch in einem frühen Stadium befanden.