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Hong Kong’s SFC requires crypto asset platforms to implement anti-phishing authentication within 12 months, amid spoofing attacks that caused $366 million in losses in the first half of 2026.
The Hong Kong Securities and Futures Commission (SFC) on Thursday issued new requirements for anti-phishing authentication methods for virtual asset trading platforms (VATPs) and online brokerage firms in this special administrative region.

Polymarket filed an FCM registration application through PM Derivatives LLC, paving the way for margin trading in the U.S., while Kalshi has been approved by the NFA since March.
Polymarket has submitted an application to offer regulated margin trading in the U.S., a move that could allow users of the prediction-market platform to place bets on events with upfront capital that is only a fraction of the typical amount.
Under the BASIC system of the U.S. National Futures Association (NFA), Coming Home GBA LLC, an affiliated entity of Polymarket, filed an application to register as a futures contract broker (FCM) along with related approvals through PM Derivatives LLC on July 3, including FCM registration, NFA membership status, and swap enterprise registration.

North Carolina recognizes the CFTC’s exclusive authority over prediction markets, imposing a 6% tax—far lower than the 23% rate for sports betting.
On July 7, Governor Josh Stein signed Senate Bill 257 as part of the state’s 2026 budget bill, making North Carolina one of the first states in the U.S. to officially recognize federal authority over prediction markets.

MoonPay brings MoonAgents to Telegram, enabling market analysis and preparation for cryptocurrency asset trades while on the go; data is stored on the users' devices.
MoonPay is bringing its AI asset token assistant, MoonAgents, to Telegram, allowing users to interact with MoonAgents through this messaging platform, the company said on Thursday. According to Kevin Arifin, head of product at MoonPay Agents, the integration was developed based on the MoonAgents desktop app, enabling users to access the AI assistant when they are away from their computers.

Swift and 17 global banks are piloting 24/7 transfers of tokenized deposits, but final settlement still depends on the traditional system.
Swift, a financial intermediary organization that connects thousands of banks worldwide, said on Thursday that more than a dozen institutions are preparing to use its blockchain-based ledger in a pilot program related to the exchange of tokens representing deposits.

The Ethereum Foundation is using AI agents to hunt for vulnerabilities, thereby shifting the focus of security work from finding bugs to proving which bugs actually exist.
The Ethereum Foundation is using groups of AI agents to attack the Ethereum network itself before other entities do so. In a blog post on Thursday, researchers from the Ethereum Foundation’s Protocol Security team said they had deployed a coordinated set of AI agents to test the software that Ethereum relies on, thereby looking for vulnerabilities in cryptographic systems, protocol code, and smart contracts.

Perplexity fine-tuned the post-training of GLM 5.2 combined with a mentoring mechanism, achieving performance comparable to Claude Opus 4.8 at only one-third the cost.
Perplexity has just announced a research experimental version of a GLM 5.2 variant developed by Z.AI. It has been separately post-trained to operate within the company's computer agent framework and has now been deployed in a real operational environment.
GLM 5.2 is a model with about 74.4 billion parameters developed by Z.ai, formerly Zhipu AI. The Beijing-based lab was added to the U.S. Entity List in January 2025. Released under the MIT license in June, GLM 5.2 is currently among the leading AI models on benchmark suites for long-term programming, while the cost of using its application programming interface is only a small fraction compared with competitors.

AVAX One restores compliance with Nasdaq’s minimum stock price requirement, even though its market capitalization of $40.5 million is still lower than the tokenized assets it holds.
AVAX One Technology, the company holding tokenized assets in reserve and holding Avalanche (AVAX), on Thursday announced it has once again met Nasdaq’s minimum bid price requirement, thereby closing out the issue related to listing conditions that had caused the company to be monitored prior to the stock split in the previous month.

BNB Chain will launch a new L1 targeting 1 million TPS, serving automated transactions and AI, with the testnet scheduled for deployment by the end of 2026.
The BNB Chain development team has just announced a technical roadmap for the second half of 2026, with a focus on building a brand-new Layer 1 (L1) blockchain designed specifically for automated transactions, artificial intelligence (AI) applications, and enterprise use cases.

The European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA) launches an EU-wide review of the digital resilience of custody CASPs, lasting until mid-2027.
The European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA) has just announced the launch of a large-scale supervisory campaign across the European Union, targeting the resilience of digital operations of crypto asset service providers (CASPs) that provide custody services.

Bank of America opens a credit facility ahead of OpenAI’s IPO, as the company’s valuation is expected to exceed 1 trillion USD.
Bank of America has just provided a credit facility worth 520 million USD to OpenAI, as the ChatGPT developer prepares to go public through an initial public offering (IPO) of shares. The move brings one of Wall Street’s biggest financial institutions deeper into AI-sector financing, while giving the bank a stake in a deal that could become one of the largest listings ever.

KFTC first approved a Korean financial subsidiary’s acquisition of a crypto asset exchange. Mirae Asset spent 133.4 billion won to acquire 92.06% of Korbit.
On July 9, the Korea Fair Trade Commission (KFTC) officially approved the deal in which Mirae Asset Consulting will acquire a 92.06% stake in the crypto asset trading platform Korbit, marking the first time that a subsidiary within the ecosystem of a major financial institution in South Korea has been allowed to own a licensed crypto asset exchange.

Sony Bank established Connectia Trust with $40 million in capital, and is expected to issue a USD stablecoin starting in 2027 after receiving conditional approval from the OCC.
Sony Bank has successfully completed the first federal evaluation and received conditional preliminary approval from the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) to issue a USD-pegged stablecoin, marking a noteworthy event as a global entertainment technology group officially steps into the digital currency space previously mainly led by specialized crypto asset companies such as Circle, Ripple, and Paxos. The group was the first to be granted a trust license last December.

Kazakhstan President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev issues a decree exempting taxes on crypto assets, paving the way for cross-border stablecoins and using associated gas to mine crypto assets.
Kazakhstan President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev has just signed a new decree aimed at building a more systematically regulated crypto asset market, marking this Central Asian country’s latest move in its efforts to strengthen its position as one of the world’s leading crypto asset hubs.

Reuters: India’s RBI proposes banning financial institutions from holding crypto assets, while only 25% of 645,000 tax filers have declared them.
The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has reiterated its stance in favor of a restrictive approach to crypto assets, according to government documents reviewed and published by Reuters on Wednesday. Specifically, the regulator said banks and financial institutions should be barred from holding, trading, or having any degree of exposure to crypto assets, as part of efforts to keep crypto assets outside the purview of the country’s officially regulated financial system.

Malaysia reports 629 arrests, seizing more than 75,000 cryptocurrency-mining machines in over 3,000 raids.
Malaysia’s authorities seized more than 75,000 cryptocurrency mining machines as part of over 3,000 raids carried out nationwide from 2022 to May 2026, according to information announced in parliament on Wednesday by Datuk Seri Dr Shamsul Anuar, Deputy Minister of Home Affairs, as relayed by the state news agency Bernama.

Paradigm announces its fourth fund worth $1.2 billion, expanding from digital assets into AI, robotics, and deep-tech.
Paradigm, a venture capital firm specializing in digital assets headquartered in San Francisco, has just announced the successful fundraising of its fourth fund with a size of $1.2 billion, marking a significant expansion milestone in the company’s investment strategy.
Although digital assets remain at the core, the new fund will redirect capital flows to other emerging technology areas such as artificial intelligence (AI), robotics, and autonomous hardware, while still maintaining the research-led, conviction-driven investment approach that has characterized the firm to date.

Strike rolls out a new Bitcoin mortgage lending product that eliminates mandatory liquidation, with an APR ranging from 10.7%-14.2% and a maximum LTV of 45%.
Strike, a fintech company operated by Jack Mallers, has just launched a new lending program that allows customers to borrow money based on the amount of Bitcoin they hold, without having to face the risk of liquidation of their collateral when the market declines sharply. This is a key difference from the typical model of crypto-asset collateralized lending, which often triggers a margin call or forced liquidation when the collateral value falls below a safety threshold.