Cointelegraph

Layer-1 blockchain network WEMIX said an attacker moved about 724,000 in USDC.e tokens after compromising ownership of a contract linked to its WEMIX$ stablecoin and issuing tokens without authorization.
The abnormal transactions occurred on Sunday at 9:17 UTC, according to a preliminary incident update from WEMIX. The attacker issued about 5.23 million WEMIX$, which was converted into 30,736 WEMIX and 724,198.27 USDC.e. The USDC.e was then bridged to Ethereum and BNB Smart Chain before being exchanged for assets including Ether and Tether’s USDT and distributed across multiple addresses.
WEMIX said some of the funds were deposited into centralized exchanges. The company identified the attacker’s wallets and requested asset freezes and assistance from exchanges and stablecoin issuers, adding that some exchanges had already frozen addresses linked to the incident.
The company temporarily suspended all bridges connected to its layer-1 network, WEMIX3.0, including Chainlink CCIP and the PLAY Bridge. It also suspended trading in affected liquidity pools, withdrew foundation-provided liquidity, and paused services including the WEMIX$ Module and PNIX decentralized exchange.
WEMIX said the cause and full impact remain under investigation and warned that the preliminary figures could change.

For the second time this year, the US Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) issued a warning to prediction markets operators to follow the rules when creating contract certifications that operators consider cover a broad swath of events contracts.
The CFTC, which claims to be the primary regulator of prediction markets, on Friday issued an advisory clarifying that, notwithstanding ongoing policy discussions and proposed rulemaking concerning prediction markets, the markets retain the ability to certify event contracts as compliant with the Commodity Exchange Act and CFTC regulations without prior commission approval, subject to the statutory framework governing self-certification.
The agency on Friday warned about the number of instances of events contracts that are “self-certified” by the platforms under the agency’s jurisdiction “without supplying the terms and conditions of each proposed permutation and a concise explanation and analysis with respect to the product’s terms and conditions, the underlying commodity, and the product’s compliance.”
“The guidance reiterates that broad, template-style certifications should not be submitted,” the CFTC said in its July 24 announcement. The regulator issued a similar warning about overly generalized submissions on March 12.
The advisory was issued just days ahead of the CFTC’s July 27 deadline to submit comments on its proposed rule amendments governing public interest determinations for certain event contracts involving the Commodity Exchange Act’s enumerated activities.
The CFTC has proposed amendments to clarify how it determines whether certain event contracts are contrary to the public interest, establishing a three-step analytical framework for evaluation.
This framework will help assess contracts based on their involvement in activities like terrorism, assassination, or gaming, ensuring that only appropriate contracts are listed for trading.
The proposed rule, if adopted, would fundamentally reshape aspects of the regulatory landscape for prediction markets, law firm Ropes & Gray said in June.

Sberbank, Russia’s biggest bank, plans to build cryptocurrency trading infrastructure including a digital depository no later than Dec. 1 as the country brings crypto trading, custody and settlement into its regulated financial system.
That digital depository, Interfax reported, will record ownership of cryptocurrency and process most transactions outside of the main blockchain. Sberbank will operate active wallets for client-initiated deposits, withdrawals and transfers.
“One of the key elements of the new infrastructure will be a digital depository, which will maintain records of clients’ cryptocurrency rights and account for transactions outside the main blockchain,” said Alexander Vedyakhin, first deputy chairman of Sberbank’s management board, the state-affiliated press service said. “It will also facilitate transactions on active wallets to fulfill clients’ currency transfer orders.”
Russia’s lawmakers earlier this month moved the country closer to its first comprehensive crypto market framework after completing final readings on a bill that would regulate digital asset activity.
The bill would give the Bank of Russia broad oversight of the regulated market, including authority to determine which crypto assets may be offered through licensed intermediaries and to issue implementing regulations.The central bank has set liquidity thresholds, including an average market capitalization of more than 5 trillion rubles (~$64 billion) and an average daily volume of more than 1 trillion rubles (~$12.8 billion) over two years.
Once in place, it also establishes five categories of regulated market participants, including crypto exchanges, brokers, asset managers, custodians and exchange service providers, defining who can buy, sell, hold and exchange crypto assets as of the framework’s effective date of Sept. 1, 2026.
Recommended: Bitcoin advocacy group to join US State Department’s ‘digital freedom’ program
Moscow adopts crypto framework as EU tightens sanctions
Moscow is moving to put a working crypto infrastructure in place as the European Union turns up the heat on the country with a package of sanctions targeting Russia amid the country’s war on Ukraine. Last week, the bloc listed cryptocurrency exchange HTX, formerly Huobi Global, in its sanctions.
In a Thursday decision, the European Council amended its previous measures “in view of Russia’s actions destabilizing the situation in Ukraine” to include HTX in a list of 18 entities “providing crypto-assets services or payment services established outside of the Union that are significantly frustrating the purpose of the prohibitions” against Russia. The country continues to face sanctions globally over its war in Ukraine following a military invasion in 2022.
The sanctions against HTX came the same day EU officials announced they would prohibit Belarusian nationals and residents from owning, controlling or managing crypto exchanges and digital asset service providers in compliance with the region’s Markets in Crypto Assets (MiCA) framework.
The UK government imposed similar sanctions on HTX in May, saying there were “reasonable grounds to suspect” that the exchange supported Russia’s government by using financial services and funds facilitated by sanctioned entities.
Magazine: Will the US get CLARITY this week? Bitcoin’s new $80K target: Hodler’s Digest, July 19

Dormant Bitcoin movement in the second quarter fell to its lowest level since the third quarter of 2022, according to data shared by Alex Thorn, Galaxy’s head of firmwide research.
Coin days destroyed, a metric that gives greater weight to older coins, showed a similar decline.
Thorn said the earlier spikes were driven by “OGs taking profit,” similar to the pattern seen during Bitcoin’s 2017 bull market, suggesting long-term holders have slowed selling after elevated distribution in 2024 and 2025.
Dormant coin movement tracks Bitcoin that has remained untouched for extended periods before being spent again. Analysts monitor the metric because increased activity from long-term holders has historically coincided with periods of profit-taking and heightened selling pressure, while subdued activity can suggest those investors are holding rather than distributing their coins.
Magazine: Here’s why the CLARITY Act’s ethics deal may be so hard to reach

South Korea’s KB Kookmin Bank will launch a blockchain-based cross-border payment service for import and export businesses in August using JPMorgan’s Kinexys network, according to multiple local media reports.
Kinexys, formerly known as Onyx, is JPMorgan’s blockchain platform for institutional payments, tokenization and digital assets.
The service will initially support US dollar transfers across 10 countries, including the US, Singapore, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates.
According to Yonhap, it will integrate with the existing SWIFT payment network for near-instant cross-border payments and foreign exchange settlement.
In an April research report, S&P Global ranked KB Financial Group, the parent of KB Kookmin Bank, as South Korea’s largest lender by assets. The group is also listed as the 28th-largest bank in the Asia-Pacific region, with $552.76 billion in total assets.

BitMart will wind down its cryptocurrency exchange, ending all trading services on Aug. 26 before ceasing operations entirely on Jan. 31, 2027.
“After a careful evaluation of the Company’s operating conditions, market environment, and future strategic direction, BitMart has made the difficult decision to commence an orderly wind-down of its trading platform operations,” it said in a Sunday notice.
Under the shutdown plan, BitMart has stopped accepting new user registrations and deposits, while futures trading has entered reduce-only mode and spot markets no longer accept new orders.
BitMart joins a growing list of crypto trading platforms that have announced plans to close shop in recent months. Among them are BitMEX and Dango, which both said this week they would shut down their respective trading platforms.
BMX sinks amid withdrawal complaints
BitMart’s native token, BMX, lost nearly 70% of its value while users reported delayed withdrawals from the exchange.
BMX traded at about $0.09464 at the time of writing, down nearly 70% from about $0.31 late Friday. The token fell as low as $0.1058 early Saturday before extending its losses.
BMX resumes losses after Saturday’s brief recovery, falling below $0.10. Source: CoinGecko
Several users on X reported withdrawals taking longer than usual, with some claiming Tether USDt (USDT) withdrawal requests remained pending for hours.
Arkham data showed wallets attributed to BitMart held about $71 million in crypto assets on Sunday, down from roughly $102 million on July 6. About $41.5 million was in stablecoin banking platform WeFi’s WFI tokens, while the tracked wallets held about $91,000 in USDT.
BitMart’s USDT balance over the past month. Source: Arkham
In its wind-down announcement, BitMart said some withdrawal requests could be subject to additional compliance and security reviews, potentially extending processing times.
BitMart did not respond to Cointelegraph’s request for comment before publication.
BMX? BMEX? BitMEX?
Some users on X also appeared to confuse BitMart and its BMX token with BitMEX.
On Saturday, an X user in the Mandarin-speaking crypto community who goes by “Brother Lu” drew attention to BMX’s price drop while speculating about its cause.
“The whole internet was posting yesterday that it was shutting down on Sept. 30. Did you just wake up?” another X user replied, according to a machine translation.
The reference to Sept. 30 did not match BitMEX’s Sept. 23 shutdown date announced Thursday. BitMEX’s own token, BMEX, fell 90% shortly after the notice.
Several other users in the Mandarin-speaking community also mixed up BMX with BitMEX.
It was not immediately clear whether the confusion had any impact on BMX trading.
Magazine: Here’s why the CLARITY Act’s ethics deal may be so hard to reach

Cryptocurrency exchange Binance runs simulated phishing attacks against its own employees and can fire staff who repeatedly fail the tests, according to Binance chief security officer Jimmy Su.
The fake attacks are conducted by Binance’s red team, an internal ethical hacking unit whose job is to break into systems to identify vulnerabilities.
“We do phishing attacks on our own employees on a monthly basis just so we understand if our security hygiene is improving,” Su told Cointelegraph. “The ones that have failed it, we will do remediation training.”
The measure shows the lengths crypto companies will go to prepare for social engineering attacks. Binance, the largest crypto exchange in the world, reports 323 million registered users, while DefiLlama estimates the exchange holds $137.7 billion in assets.
Jimmy Su, chief security officer at Binance. Source: Binance
In February, AMLBot estimated that 65% of crypto security incidents in 2025 were driven by social engineering. In April, Drift Protocol suffered a $285 million hack, which came after a long-term social engineering campaign.
Su said Binance has been running these simulated attacks for three to four years.
“In the beginning, the security hygiene left a lot to be desired. But after this amount of time, the company has improved significantly.”
One of the simulated attacks involves the red team posing as job recruiters, said Su.
One of the more well-known attack methods in recent years has been the “Zoom meeting attack,” where hackers trick victims into installing malware disguised as an update to the video conferencing app. Many of these attacks start with a fake job opportunity, though some use project funding or a partnership proposal as the lure.
In September 2025, a major Venus Protocol user lost roughly $13 million after a malicious Zoom client compromised his computer, leading him to grant an attacker control over his account. Venus paused the protocol and used an emergency governance vote to recover the assets, later returning positions worth $11.4 million to the victim.
“The interview process is just one scenario. There are other ones. For example, it could be that we are offering some kind of free conference invite just to try to collect personal information and see how many of them will actually fall for it,” said Su.
Su said employees are incentivized to perform well on the tests because the results are reflected in their performance reviews.
“If someone repeatedly fails the phishing-simulation attack, that will negatively impact their rating. That’s the incentive to be vigilant.”
Repeated, severe failures could lead to their rating to “bottom out,” which could see them dismissed, he said.
Magazine: Fears of AI-driven DeFi hack epidemic overstated for now — but not for long

The company behind the cryptocurrency and stock trading app, Robinhood, is reportedly discussing plans to expand its existing prediction markets offering with crypto exchange Crypto.com.
According to a Friday Wall Street Journal report citing people familiar with the matter, Robinhood was in talks with Crypto.com to place yes-or-no event contracts supplied by the exchange. The trading company launched its prediction markets hub in March 2025, initially facilitated by Kalshi in order to comply with regulatory requirements from the US Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), and later using ForecastEx and Rotella.
The reported move came just days after Bernstein analysts raised the firm’s price target on Robinhood (HOOD) stock to $160 from $130 per share, based on the company’s outlook for prediction markets and tokenized equities. They predicted Robinhood’s revenue using prediction markets could reach $1.7 billion by 2028.
While Bernstein said in April that volumes in prediction markets could reach $1 trillion by 2030, many of the platforms face ongoing legal challenges in the United States between state and federal authorities. The CFTC has claimed to have “exclusive jurisdiction” over the companies’ event contracts, while gaming authorities in many states have filed lawsuits attempting to block or restrict their activities.

The US Department State Department has launched a program to “advance diplomatic efforts on digital freedom and freedom of expression” using a Bitcoin (BTC) advocacy organization as a partner.
In a Friday X post, the Bitcoin Policy Institute (BPI) said that it would be a founding partner in the US State Department’s Freedom Tech Excellence Program (FTEP), alongside Palantir Technologies, Anduril Industries and the Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation. According to the organization, the program will allow its employees “to work alongside state department experts and defend digital freedoms around the world.”
“FTEP brings private sector talent to the Department for limited-term assignments to advance diplomatic efforts on key issues including online freedom of expression, privacy-enhancing technologies, countering digital surveillance, and responsible AI governance,” said the State Department.
Source: Bitcoin Policy Institute
Since its creation as a “non-partisan research and advocacy” organization in 2021, the BPI has endorsed attempts to codify US President Donald Trump’s executive order to establish a strategic crypto reserve into law. As of July, lawmakers in the US Congress have not passed legislation to follow Trump’s March 2025 executive order.

Payments company Wise is expected to change its strategy for applying for a charter license with the US Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) to one “under a GENIUS Act framework,” the legislation to regulate stablecoins in the country.
According to a Friday research note by investment banking group William Blair, Wise will likely not shift its position on payment stablecoins with the new OCC application, despite being denied a charter to establish a national trust bank on Tuesday. The OCC said in its rejection that the company could not show it had an effective Anti-Money Laundering (AML) and Countering the Financing of Terrorism (CFT) compliance program and had “other illicit finance activity risks.”
“Wise is focused on lowering the cost of cross-border transactions, agnostic of the rail,” said William Blair on the move to apply under GENIUS.
The GENIUS Act, signed into law in July 2025, offers a framework for payment stablecoin providers in the United States, pending finalized regulations to be approved by federal agencies. However, regulators missed a crucial deadline last week to provide guidance on implementation of the law before its effective date in January 2027.
Following the passage of the stablecoin bill, the OCC has approved several applications from digital asset companies for national trust charters, including Circle, Ripple Labs, Crypto.com and Coinbase. Cointelegraph reached out to Wise for comment but did not receive an immediate response.

North Korean authorities have reportedly arrested a group of former state cyber operators and IT specialists accused of hacking two state banks and laundering stolen funds through cryptocurrency.
South Korean outlet Daily NK reported Thursday, citing an anonymous source in Pyongyang, that the group allegedly hacked the internal networks of North Korea’s central bank and the Foreign Trade Bank, converting stolen state funds into cryptocurrency before laundering them through China-based brokers.
Cointelegraph could not independently verify the report.
If confirmed, the reported arrests would mark a rare case of North Korean cyber operators being accused of stealing from their own government’s financial institutions.
Pyongyang is widely accused of directing state-backed hacking groups to steal from crypto companies to generate revenue and circumvent international sanctions.
Daily NK is a Seoul-based specialist news outlet that relies on a network of sources inside North Korea. Reporting from North Korea is difficult to verify independently because of the country’s restrictions on access and information.

Fidelity called on the US Senate to pass the CLARITY Act on Friday, saying clear digital asset regulations are needed to strengthen investor confidence, provide certainty for market participants and reinforce US leadership in global crypto markets.
The company joins a growing coalition of financial firms and crypto organizations urging US lawmakers to advance digital asset market structure legislation.
Earlier Friday, the Crypto Council for Innovation, the Digital Chamber and the Blockchain Association called on Senate leaders to bring the bill to the floor. Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong also called for a full Senate floor vote on Wednesday.
The CLARITY Act would establish a regulatory framework for digital assets in the US. The bill needs 60 votes to pass the Senate, where Republicans hold a 52-47 majority. Republicans released updated bill text on Wednesday, but some Democrats argued the ethics provisions do not go far enough to address corruption concerns.
Fidelity is ranked as the world’s third-largest asset manager by the Sovereign Wealth Fund Institute. It reported $7.1 trillion in managed assets in its 2025 annual report.

Layer-1 blockchain Dango will wind down operations by halting trading on its perpetual decentralized exchange (DEX) on Wednesday and shutting down its network on Aug. 13.
“Despite our best effort, various reasons have led us to conclude there is no viable path to a lasting commercial success,” Dango said in a Friday X announcement.
Dango founder Larry Liu added that the team faced cash shortages, legal challenges that slowed momentum, the loss of team members, and broader market conditions.
Dango launched its mainnet in January after raising $3.6 million in a 2024 seed round led by Hack VC and Lemniscap. It rolled out its perpetual DEX in April, only to suffer a roughly $410,000 exploit days after launch. The attacker later returned the funds in exchange for a bug bounty.
Dango’s open interest dwarfed by Hyperliquid, Aster
According to DefiLlama, Dango’s total value locked fell from a peak of roughly $4.5 million in early May to about $1.6 million before the announcement.
The perp DEX market is increasingly competitive and dominated by a handful of platforms.
Hyperliquid held more than $11 billion in open interest on Saturday, which represents the value of outstanding perpetual futures contracts that haven’t been closed.
Perp DEX ranking by open interest. Source: DefiLlama
Only Aster and Variational also hold more than $1 billion in open interest. Dango held just under $391,000 in open interest.
CoinGecko said in its second quarter industry report that Hyperliquid became the second-largest perpetual exchange by open interest on July 1, behind only Binance.
A summer of crypto shutdowns
Dango’s shutdown adds to a growing list of crypto platform closures in July, including 11-year-old perpetual futures pioneer BitMEX.
Restructuring adviser Roshan Dharia told Cointelegraph that BitMEX’s shutdown reflects structural pressures facing mid-sized centralized exchanges, where liquidity has increasingly concentrated among the industry’s largest players and regulatory compliance costs continue to rise.
“The top five platforms now control an estimated 80% of global spot volume, leaving mid-tier and regional exchanges with shrinking margins and no viable path to scale,” Dharia said.
Other recent closures include DEX aggregator Odos Protocol and perp DEX Satori Finance.
Magazine: A quantum roadmap would push Bitcoin much higher: Charles Edwards

US-listed spot Ethereum exchange-traded funds (ETFs) logged $70.62 million in net outflows on Friday, ending a five-day inflow streak.
Ethereum funds saw $211.25 million in net inflows over the previous five sessions from July 17 to Thursday, according to SoSoValue data. They still posted $103.9 million in net inflows for the week ended Friday.
Despite the outflows, Ethereum ETFs extended their weekly inflow streak to three straight and have attracted $337.74 million in net inflows so far in July.
Spot crypto ETF flows have become one of the market’s most closely watched gauges of demand for Bitcoin (BTC) and Ether (ETH) through traditional investment products.
Although other jurisdictions, including Hong Kong, have launched similar funds, US-listed ETFs account for the vast majority of assets and trading volumes.
Daily spot Ethereum ETF net flows from July 17 to July 24. Source: SoSoValue
Bitcoin ETFs also end week with outflows
The reversal followed a similar pattern in Bitcoin ETFs, which ended a seven-day inflow streak on Thursday and recorded another $240.08 million in net outflows on Friday.
Bitcoin ETFs also extended their net inflow streak to three consecutive weeks, adding $103.90 million during the week ended Friday and $233.96 million so far in July. They followed a record June, when $4.5 billion flowed out of the funds.
BTC traded just under $64,000 at the time of writing, tumbling from the week’s high of $66,892 on Tuesday, according to CoinGecko. ETH traded at $1,837, down from Wednesday’s weekly high of $1,954.
Japan’s crypto reforms fuel $18.4 billion Bitcoin ETF forecast
Following Japan’s recent overhaul of its crypto regulations, which is widely viewed as laying the groundwork for future spot Bitcoin ETFs, crypto management platform XWIN estimated that a mature Japanese spot Bitcoin ETF market could reach about $18.4 billion, equal to roughly 0.13% of the country’s $14.6 trillion in household financial assets.
In an analysis posted at CryptoQuant, XWIN said the estimate assumes demand from existing crypto holders, new retail investors using brokerage accounts and institutional allocators.
The report pointed to the US market as an example, noting that spot Bitcoin ETFs excluding Grayscale’s GBTC have accumulated roughly 1 million Bitcoin, demonstrating how regulated ETF products can connect traditional finance with digital assets.
“The key is access,” XWIN said, adding that a Japanese spot Bitcoin ETF would allow investors to gain Bitcoin exposure through familiar brokerage and custody systems. It characterized the $18.4 billion figure as “an achievable upper-end market scenario.”
Magazine: A quantum roadmap would push Bitcoin much higher: Charles Edwards

The European Union has listed cryptocurrency exchange HTX, formerly Huobi Global, as part of a package of sanctions targeting Russia amid the country’s war on Ukraine.
In a Thursday decision, the European Council amended its previous measures “in view of Russia’s actions destabilizing the situation in Ukraine” to include HTX in a list of 18 entities “providing crypto-assets services or payment services established outside of the Union that are significantly frustrating the purpose of the prohibitions” against Russia. The country continues to face sanctions globally over its war in Ukraine following a military invasion in 2022.
“The Union has repeatedly taken measures to identify financial institutions, credit institutions or entities providing crypto-asset services or payment services that facilitate a continued financial lifeline for Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine, whether by connecting to the system for transfer of financial messages of the Central Bank of the Russian Federation or by enabling the circumvention of Union restrictive measures, and to prohibit any transaction between those institutions or entities and Union operators,” said EU officials.
HTX has previously told Cointelegraph that “regulatory compliance remains [its] absolute top priority” and that the exchange will “proactively monitor and strictly adhere to regulatory frameworks in all jurisdictions.”
The sanctions against HTX came the same day EU officials announced they would prohibit Belarusian nationals and residents from owning, controlling or managing crypto exchanges and digital asset service providers in compliance with the region’s Markets in Crypto Assets (MiCA) framework.
The UK government imposed similar sanctions on HTX in May, saying there were “reasonable grounds to suspect” that the exchange supported Russia’s government by using financial services and funds facilitated by sanctioned entities.

Strive’s SATA preferred shares have rebounded from a June low of $83.30 to about $97, recovering most of the selloff and moving back within roughly 3% of their $100 par value, according to Yahoo Finance data.
Strive introduced SATA in November 2025 as part of its strategy to finance the expansion of its Bitcoin treasury through preferred equity. The variable-rate perpetual preferred stock is intended to trade near its $100 par value by adjusting its dividend rate, allowing Strive to raise capital for its Bitcoin (BTC) treasury without issuing additional common shares.
SATA is one of a growing number of preferred-share products tied to Bitcoin treasury strategies, an emerging segment that companies such as Strategy describe as “digital credit.”
Strategy’s STRC, launched in 2025 with a similar objective of maintaining a $100 share price through a variable dividend, also fell sharply during the late-June selloff before recovering, though it continues to trade below par at around $87.
SATA year-to-date price chart. Source: Yahoo Finance
While Strategy remains the world’s largest public corporate Bitcoin holder with 843,775 BTC, Strive has climbed to seventh place with 19,921 BTC, according to BitcoinTreasuries.NET.
Top 10 Bitcoin treasury companies. Source: BitcoinTreasuries.NET
SATA recovery could help lift Strategy’s STRC, says Mow
Jan3 founder and CEO Samson Mow told Cointelegraph that recent adjustments by Bitcoin treasury companies are beginning to restore confidence in preferred-share products, supporting his view that Bitcoin has already found its bottom.
“I think every action that Strategy has undertaken to strengthen their balance sheet and encourage STRC to go back to par is also working,” Mow said, adding:
But everything sort of works in tandem. I think as SATA returns to par, you’re going to see STRC return to par too, because people say, ‘OK, this model’s not broken.’ Everyone is capitalized for three or more years of dividend payments... there was no reason to panic all along.
Mow said the improving performance of preferred-share products is part of a broader shift in the Bitcoin treasury sector, where companies have continued refining their capital-raising strategies.
He pointed to Lyn Alden’s Orange Juice treasury company, which launched on July 15 with plans to operate a Bitcoin treasury, as another example of firms entering the market with different approaches and a lower Bitcoin cost basis.
Samson Mow interview with Cointelegraph. Source: Cointelegraph
Magazine: A quantum roadmap would push Bitcoin much higher: Charles Edwards

The US House of Representatives has passed a bill that would ostensibly prohibit members of Congress, their spouses and dependent children from purchasing publicly traded stocks.
In a 232-198 vote in the House on Wednesday, lawmakers approved the Stop Insider Trading Act, sending the bill to the Senate for consideration. Representative Bryan Steil, the Wisconsin lawmaker who sponsored the bill, said that the legislation “ensures no lawmaker can profit off of insider information” and “institutes strict penalties for any violation.”
“We have not had a bill on the House floor on this topic with this opportunity before,” said Steil from the House floor on Wednesday, describing the penalties:
“A fine equal to $2,000 or 10% of the transaction, as well as a disgorgement of profits. Violators would be forfeiting any gain realized if they failed to comply with this legislation.”
Some Democrats are saying that the bill does not go far enough to address potential conflicts of interest, because it allows lawmakers to keep and sell stocks they already own. According to Steil, the bill would require members of Congress to provide seven days’ notice before selling stocks if they already hold assets, creating a deterrent for insider trading.
“[The] bill has major loopholes,” said Senator Elizabeth Warren on Thursday. “Lawmakers can continue owning and selling stocks — so it won’t solve the problem. Not gonna fly in the Senate. Members of Congress should not own, buy, or sell stocks.”
The Stop Insider Trading Act was received in the US Senate for consideration on Thursday after passage in the House.
Unlike the proposed text for the Digital Asset Market Clarity Act, a cryptocurrency market structure bill under consideration in the Senate, Steil’s bill was limited to restricting investments for members of Congress and not the president or vice president and their families. Under CLARITY’s proposed text, all US public officials could be barred from issuing or sponsoring tokens until 2029.
Prediction markets bill also under consideration
House approval of the Stop Insider Trading Act followed Steil’s sponsorship of a similar bill targeting members of Congress trading on prediction market platforms like Kalshi and Polymarket. The Wisconsin lawmaker introduced the Stop Lawmakers from Predicting Act in June to prevent certain public officials, their spouses and children from “wagering on public policy issues and political outcomes.”
Prediction markets drew attention from the public after an incident involving a soldier who allegedly made more than $400,000 betting on Venezuela President Nicolás Maduro, who was removed by US forces in January. Donald Trump’s teleprompter operator also reportedly made more than $100,000 betting on Kalshi event contracts tied to words and phrases in the president’s speeches.
Like the stock trading bill, the prediction markets legislation proposed that violators pay a $2,000 fee or 10% of the value of the prohibited bets on the platforms.
Magazine: Why Wall Street values some crypto firms for AI power, not just crypto

The Crypto Council for Innovation, Digital Chamber and Blockchain Association wrote to US Senate leaders on Friday calling for the chamber to prioritize “floor consideration” of the Digital Asset Market Clarity (CLARITY) Act.
In a Friday letter to Senator Majority Leader John Thune and Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, the three cryptocurrency advocacy groups urged consideration of the CLARITY Act, which Republican lawmakers have been pushing for a vote before the chamber breaks for state work periods in August. Although the bill has advanced through the Senate banking and agriculture committees, some lawmakers said they planned to withhold their votes until key provisions were addressed.
“[We] recognize that constructive bipartisan negotiations remain underway to secure and expand support for this critical piece of legislation,” said the letter. “We appreciate these good-faith efforts of Senators on both sides of the aisle, and we encourage those discussions to continue.”
Source: Crypto Council for Innovation
The CLARITY Act, expected to be one of the most significant pieces of legislation impacting the crypto industry, needs 60 votes to pass in the Senate, where Republicans hold a 52-47 majority over Democrats. Republicans released the text of the market structure bill earlier this week, including ethics provisions that barred public officials from issuing or sponsoring cryptocurrencies, but many Democrats said that the measures don’t go far enough to prevent corruption.
“Whatever piece of s--- they sent back to us, that was not a serious effort,” Senator Ruben Gallego said on Thursday regarding the ethics provisions, according to Politico.
Gallego added:
”[...] After all the work that we’ve done with our Republican colleagues, that they would take the months and months of work and somehow interpret that and turn around and think what they offered was even remotely close.”
White House crypto adviser on Democratic opposition to CLARITY ethics rules. Source: Patrick Witt
Industry leaders weigh in on CLARITY ahead of potential floor vote
“The status quo in the US isn’t working,” said Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong in a Wednesday X post. “There’s no federal framework, so bad actors like FTX can harm US customers and much of the industry has gone offshore totally outside US purview. This bill fixes that with strong consumer protections, real tools for law enforcement, and a path for America to lead in this industry.”
Orest Gavryliak, chief legal officer of DeFi platform 1inch, spoke about the bill on Cointelegraph’s Chain Reaction podcast on Friday, saying that CLARITY would help recognize a framework for non-custodial protocols rather than “regulating with enforcement.”
“Some regulators, they try to be friendly to non-custodial protocols or projects, they still try to fit us in into the custodial frameworks and make us use custodial solutions to solve problems that they used to in this legacy custodial or traditional finance, which is wrong [and] doesn’t apply to us at all,” said Gavryliak. “That’s why it’s very important for CLARITY to pass.”
If lawmakers are unable to hold a vote for CLARITY before the Senate breaks in August, it could push consideration into the weeks before the 2026 US midterms, potentially complicating discussions. As of Friday, Kalshi offered users event contracts with a 40.3% chance that the bill would pass before the Senate’s August recess.
Magazine: Here’s why the CLARITY Act’s ethics deal may be so hard to reach

India’s Internet Freedom Foundation (IFF) has condemned a government order directing GitHub to remove repositories for Jack Dorsey’s decentralized messaging app BitChat, calling the move unconstitutional and warning it threatens free speech and open-source software.
The statement came a day after India’s cybercrime agency ordered GitHub to disable access to three BitChat repositories within three hours, saying the decentralized messaging app could be used to bypass internet shutdowns, evade lawful surveillance and facilitate unlawful activities.
In its statement posted on X on Friday, IFF argued the order exceeded the government’s legal authority because it was issued under Section 79(3)(b) of India’s Information Technology Act instead of the country’s formal website-blocking process, which includes procedural safeguards. The group called on the government to withdraw the notice and publish all takedown orders issued under the provision.
The organization also disputed the government’s justification, noting the order did not identify any unlawful content in the repositories and instead argued the app’s decentralized design, which enables communication over Bluetooth without internet access or centralized servers, was itself grounds for removal.
BitChat is a decentralized messaging app that routes encrypted messages between nearby devices over Bluetooth without relying on internet connectivity or centralized servers.
Since its release in July 2025, the app has gained traction during protests, natural disasters and internet shutdowns, with downloads and adoption surging during periods of unrest and internet outages in countries including Madagascar, Nepal, Uganda, Jamaica and Iran.
Magazine: A quantum roadmap would push Bitcoin much higher: Charles Edwards

Crypto markets showed renewed signs of life this week as institutional investors fueled the longest streak of inflows into US spot Bitcoin exchange-traded funds (ETFs) since April and crypto-linked stocks rallied on optimism over US regulation. But the more intriguing story may be unfolding outside crypto: AI’s grip on speculative capital is beginning to loosen.
After dominating markets for nearly two years, the AI trade is becoming more selective as investors distinguish between companies with sustainable earnings and those riding the hype cycle. The Philadelphia Semiconductor Index, or SOX, recently slipped into a technical bear market after falling 20% from its recent high, although it remains well above year-ago levels.
Some analysts believe the shift could mark the beginning of a broader rotation back into digital assets. While it’s too early to call a lasting trend, improving regulatory clarity, a recovery in ETF demand, and easing enthusiasm for AI are creating a more constructive backdrop for crypto than investors have seen in months.
Bitcoin ETFs post six-day inflow streak as market sentiment improves
US spot Bitcoin ETFs extended their inflow streak to six consecutive trading days, attracting $203.1 million in fresh capital as institutional demand showed tentative signs of recovery.
The latest inflows brought the six-day total to roughly $930 million, marking the funds’ longest winning streak since April as Bitcoin briefly climbed above $67,000. The renewed demand coincided with improving market sentiment, with the Crypto Fear & Greed Index recovering from “extreme fear” to “fear.”
Since launching in January 2024, US spot Bitcoin ETFs have attracted $51.8 billion in cumulative net inflows and now hold $80.9 billion in net assets, although they remain down $4.84 billion on a year-to-date net flow basis. Analysts said Bitcoin needs to hold above the $65,000-$65,500 range to strengthen the case for a sustained bullish breakout.
Crypto rally gains momentum as AI trade shows signs of cooling
The rally in Bitcoin and broader digital asset markets coincided with progress on US crypto legislation and a cooling AI trade, fueling expectations that capital may be rotating back into crypto.
The broader crypto market rallied alongside crypto-related stocks, with Coinbase, American Bitcoin and Cipher Digital posting double-digit percentage gains. Sentiment brightened after US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said lawmakers were at the “1-yard line” on the CLARITY Act, legislation that would establish a regulatory framework for digital assets.
Analysts also pointed to fading momentum in AI equities as another potential catalyst. FRNT Financial CEO Stephane Ouellette said that slowing enthusiasm for AI stocks and growing confidence in the interest-rate outlook could support a breakout in Bitcoin. The SOX Index, a benchmark for AI chipmakers, had recently fallen more than 20% from its recent high after concerns over elevated valuations and AI infrastructure spending.
AI infrastructure deals drive rally in Bitcoin mining stocks
Bitcoin mining stocks surged after Hut 8 and IREN unveiled multibillion-dollar AI infrastructure agreements, reinforcing the sector’s lucrative shift toward data centers and cloud computing as digital asset markets continued to struggle.
Hut 8, IREN, Cipher Digital, CleanSpark and MARA Holdings each gained after Hut 8 announced a 15-year, $9.8 billion lease for its AI data center campus and IREN disclosed $2.8 billion in cloud services contracts with AI developers. The deals underscore how miners are diversifying beyond Bitcoin production as mining economics become more challenging, with IREN now projecting more than $4 billion in annual recurring AI cloud revenue by the end of 2026.
While investors have rewarded the AI pivot, analysts say it also raises new questions around execution and funding. Blocksbridge Consulting estimates the sector will require roughly $50 billion in additional capital to achieve its AI ambitions, even as insider stock sales have drawn increased scrutiny.
The TEM AI Infrastructure Growth Index. Source: The Energy Mag
Bernstein sees tokenization, prediction markets driving Robinhood’s next growth phase
Bernstein raised its price target on Robinhood, arguing the brokerage’s long-term growth will be fueled by tokenized assets and prediction markets rather than traditional crypto trading.
The investment firm increased its price target on Robinhood shares to $160 from $130 while maintaining an Outperform rating. Analysts forecast prediction markets will become the company’s fastest-growing business, generating $1.7 billion in revenue by 2028. Bernstein also identified tokenized equities as a major growth opportunity, citing Robinhood’s Arbitrum-based layer-2 network as key infrastructure for bringing real-world assets onchain.
The bullish outlook comes as Wall Street accelerates its tokenization push, with companies such as Broadridge, Alpaca, Securitize and Cantor Fitzgerald expanding blockchain-based securities infrastructure.
Bernstein identified prediction markets, perpetual futures and tokenized equities as key competitive battlegrounds for Robinhood. Source: Bernstein
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