Need to know what happened in crypto today? Here is the latest news on daily trends and events impacting Bitcoin price, blockchain, DeFi, Web3 and crypto regulation.

Today in crypto, US Attorney General nominee Todd Blanche faced Senate scrutiny over his crypto enforcement record and Changpeng Zhao’s pardon, the EU’s anti-money laundering watchdog warned the end of MiCA’s transition period could strain compliance across the crypto sector and Coinbase said AI now helps write nearly all of its code.

President Donald Trump’s nominee for US Attorney General, Todd Blanche, faced sharp questioning from Senate Democrats and Republicans over his role in reshaping the Justice Department’s crypto enforcement strategy and the pardon of former Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao.

During a Senate Judiciary Committee confirmation hearing, Senator Dick Durbin accused Blanche of dismantling the Justice Department’s crypto enforcement unit and ending active investigations into the digital asset sector while serving as deputy attorney general. Durbin argued the policy shift benefited Trump’s crypto interests, including World Liberty Financial, and criticized Zhao’s presidential pardon following his 2023 guilty plea over Anti-Money Laundering violations.

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Researchers found that Polymarket’s five-minute Bitcoin prediction markets create incentives to manipulate spot prices around contract settlement, proposing longer settlement windows as a potential fix.

Researchers at Stanford University and Singapore Management University found that Polymarket’s five-minute Bitcoin prediction markets create incentives for traders to manipulate spot prices around settlement, allowing sophisticated participants to profit at the expense of retail traders.

The study examined contracts in which traders bet on whether Bitcoin’s price would end above or below a predetermined level after five minutes. Because the contracts settle using Chainlink price feeds based on Bitcoin’s price at the end of each trading window, traders have an incentive to influence the spot market immediately before settlement.

Analyzing trading activity before and after Polymarket introduced the contracts in July 2024, the researchers found sharp increases in Bitcoin spot-market order flow just before settlement, followed by rapid price reversals, which were consistent with settlement-price manipulation.

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Dubai’s Virtual Assets Regulatory Authority approved the London-headquartered fintech company for broker-dealer, management and investment, and exchange services in the UAE.

UK-based financial company Revolut has received approval from the Virtual Assets Regulatory Authority (VARA) of Dubai to offer crypto-related services in the United Arab Emirates (UAE).

In a Wednesday notice, Revolut said that, following a green light from the Central Bank of the UAE for payment activities, VARA gave in-principle approval for the company to offer broker-dealer, management and investment, and exchange services in the UAE. The company said its services via the app and the Revolut X exchange would allow UAE-based users to buy, sell and hold digital assets.

“This approval lays the foundation for Revolut to introduce its trusted virtual asset services within a regulated environment,” said Revolut’s head of digital assets in the UAE free zone establishment, Joseph Khair.

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President Donald Trump’s pick for US Attorney General faced criticism from members of the Senate Judiciary Committee on his approach to crypto enforcement and the pardon of former Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao.

Acting US Attorney General Todd Blanche faced backlash Wednesday over the Justice Department’s (DoJ) enforcement of crypto-related crimes and other actions as President Donald Trump’s former personal attorney appeared before a Senate hearing considering his nomination to lead the agency.

The ranking Democrat, Senator Dick Durbin, used part of his opening statement at the Senate Judiciary Committee hearing to criticize Trump’s AG pick for what he described as “dismantling DoJ’s enforcement team and shutting down ongoing criminal investigations of the crypto industry.”

Blanche was reportedly behind the disbanding of the Justice Department’s crypto enforcement unit in April 2025 as deputy attorney general.

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Ostium halted trading and advised revoking contract approvals after blockchain security firms reported an apparent oracle-related exploit of its OLP liquidity vault, with estimated losses ranging from $18 million to $22 million.

Decentralized trading protocol Ostium paused trading Wednesday after blockchain security firms Blockaid and CertiK reported an apparent exploit of its OLP liquidity vault.

Blockaid estimated the exploit resulted in roughly $18 million in losses, while CertiK placed the figure at about $22 million. Both firms attributed the incident to an apparent compromise of Ostium’s oracle system, which supplies external price data to the protocol.

Source: Ostium

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The deployment marks Aave V4’s first expansion beyond Ethereum and introduces lending infrastructure designed to support future markets for tokenized real-world assets.

Decentralized lending protocol Aave has launched V4 on Avalanche, marking the first expansion of its latest lending infrastructure beyond Ethereum and setting the stage for future lending markets backed by tokenized real-world assets.

The deployment introduces Aave V4’s Hub & Spoke architecture, which allows specialized lending markets to operate with their own collateral requirements and risk parameters while drawing on shared liquidity across the protocol.

According to Aave, one of the first planned markets on Avalanche will support borrowing against tokenized assets.

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Securitize and Cantor Fitzgerald are developing infrastructure for tokenized IPOs and secondary equity offerings within the existing US securities framework.

Securitize and Cantor Fitzgerald have partnered to support blockchain-based initial public offerings (IPOs) and follow-on equity offerings for listed companies, a move that could further expand the use of tokenized securities in traditional capital markets.

The companies said Wednesday that they are developing a framework for primary issuances that would allow companies to raise capital through tokenized securities while remaining within the existing regulatory framework for public offerings. The framework would support both IPOs and follow-on, or secondary, offerings, in which already public companies issue additional shares to raise capital.

Under the agreement, Securitize will provide the tokenization infrastructure used to issue, distribute and service the digital securities. Its SEC-registered broker-dealer affiliate, Securitize Markets, will participate in the offering and settlement process. Cantor will contribute its equity capital markets and trading capabilities typically associated with public offerings. 

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Bitcoin moved up to its highest levels since June 22 as US PPI inflation numbers provided the week’s second surprise macro data drop.

Bitcoin (BTC) saw three-week highs on Wednesday as US inflation data beat expectations for a second day.

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Surging volumes on Robinhood Chain could be very good for Ethereum, but only if the “ETH is money” crowd turn out to be right.

Robinhood Chain’s explosive launch this month has reignited one of Ethereum’s longest-running debates: Do successful layer-2 networks increase demand for ETH, the asset, or do the new entrants capture all of the value for themselves?

The retail brokerage’s Arbitrum-based Ethereum L2 has become one of Ethereum’s busiest rollups since its launch on July 1.

More than $141 million in Ether was bridged onto the chain in its first two weeks. DeFiLlama data shows more than half a million wallets now hold ETH on the network, and a memecoin frenzy saw Robinhood Chain surge past the Ethereum L1 and Coinbase’s Base L2 in 24-hour DEX trading volume.

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AMLA is expanding its crypto oversight as firms complete the transition to the EU’s MiCA licensing regime.

Mass user migration following the end of the Markets in Crypto-Assets Regulation (MiCA) transitional period could strain compliance at virtual asset service providers (VASPs) in the European Union, according to Bruna Szego, chair of the Authority for Anti-Money Laundering and Countering the Financing of Terrorism (AMLA). 

“Because we know customers will rush to withdraw, this will put additional pressure on these VASPs,” Szego said during a Wednesday briefing with the European Parliament’s Committee on Economic and Monetary Affairs.

Szego said firms winding down their EU operations could come under pressure as customers rush to withdraw, while licensed crypto companies could face onboarding challenges as they absorb new users. She urged service providers to maintain efficient compliance procedures throughout the transition.

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Japan’s revised Financial Instruments and Exchange Act introduces crypto insider trading rules, tougher penalties and new oversight requirements for crypto businesses.

Japan is set to reshape its cryptocurrency market with stricter trading rules, stronger user protections and a framework closer to traditional finance.

The country’s parliament on Wednesday passed revisions that classify crypto assets as financial assets under Japan’s Financial Instruments and Exchange Act (FIEA), according to a report by local news agency Nikkei.

The changes move Japan’s crypto regulation away from the Payment Services Act (PSA), which treated digital assets primarily as payment instruments, and introduce insider trading rules and stronger oversight for crypto businesses.

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South Korea’s Economy Ministry plans to include digital assets and intellectual property under the country’s new state-asset management framework.

South Korea plans to adopt the National Asset Basic Act to update the country’s state asset management system from the outdated State Property Act of 1950.

The Ministry of Economy and Finance (MOEF) hopes to modernize the management of national assets and explicitly includes digital assets and intellectual property, broadening the definition of state assets, the MOEF announced during a briefing at the President’s Blue House on Wednesday.

As part of the reform, the ministry also reiterated plans to tokenize government bonds on a blockchain to reduce transaction, as part of a 2027 pilot project. It also plans to explore the tokenization of state-owned real estate to encourage retail participation and share part of the generated returns with the public.

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BTC price upside predictions include $68,000 within two weeks and up to $80,000 next month, contrasting with warnings of a 2022 bear-market rerun for the rest of 2026.

Bitcoin (BTC) may hit up to $80,000 by August, a new prediction says as data lays out key nearby BTC price levels.

Key points:

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The Czech Finance Ministry added Polymarket to its blacklist of unauthorized online gambling websites, requiring internet providers to block access within 15 days.

The Czech Finance Ministry added Polymarket to its list of unauthorized online gambling websites on Monday, requiring internet service providers (ISP) to block access.

The ministry listed the prediction market’s website under the country’s Gambling Act, which prohibits operators from offering unlicensed online gambling services to Czech users.

Under the Gambling Act, ISPs must block access to websites included on the ministry’s blacklist within 15 days of publication of the name.

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Cathie Wood’s ARK Invest added $13.9 million worth of Circle shares on Tuesday, extending its July buying spree to 725,517 shares amid a steep stock decline.

Cathie Wood’s ARK Invest is doubling down on its bet on USDC issuer Circle even as the company’s stock remains under pressure.

ARK bought another 220,000 shares of Circle Internet Group (CRCL) across three of its actively managed exchange-traded funds on Tuesday, according to the company’s daily trade disclosure reviewed by Cointelegraph.

Based on Circle’s Tuesday closing price of $63.22 on the New York Stock Exchange, ARK’s latest purchase was worth about $13.9 million.

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Stripe and Advent reportedly offered to buy PayPal for $53 billion, at a 28% premium compared to the company’s Tuesday closing price.

Payments company Stripe and private equity firm Advent International reportedly made a joint offer to acquire PayPal Holdings.

The offer includes about $50 billion in committed financing, Reuters reported Wednesday, citing sources familiar with the matter. The joint offer seeks to acquire PayPal at $60.50 per share, which would value the company at a 28% premium to PayPal’s Tuesday closing price.

This is Stripe’s second attempt to acquire PayPal. According to a February Bloomberg report, the payment processing company held early acquisition talks with PayPal, which was facing growing competition from smartphone-based payment services such as Google Pay and Apple Pay.

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“We are disappointed by this decision and believe it is unfair to Kalshi,” the company’s legal counsel said on X.

Kalshi says it is being put in an “impossible position” after the US commodities regulator on Tuesday said it was blocking the prediction market platform from canceling trades in Michigan, contradicting a recent state court order.

On June 29, Kalshi was ordered by Ingham County Circuit Court Judge Rosemarie Aquilina to cease offering sports betting contracts to Michigan users while a lawsuit over whether Kalshi violated the state’s sports betting laws plays out. The Commodity Futures Trading Commission ordered Kalshi on Tuesday not to comply with the state order and continue operating.

“We are disappointed by this decision and believe it is unfair to Kalshi,” Robert DeNault, the company’s head of enforcement and legal counsel said in a statement on X. 

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“US Treasury is committed to disrupting and degrading Iran’s illicit financial activities, including its abuse of digital assets,” US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said Tuesday.

US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent confirmed the US government ordered the freezing of more than $130 million in cryptocurrency held in wallets linked to Iran on Tuesday, as hostilities ramped up in the Middle East. 

Earlier on Tuesday, blockchain investigator Specter pointed to onchain data showing Tether froze four Tron wallets holding $131 million worth of USDt (USDT). Bessent confirmed on X that the wallets were tied to the Central Bank of Iran. 

“US Treasury is committed to disrupting and degrading Iran’s illicit financial activities, including its abuse of digital assets,” Bessent said Tuesday. “We will continue to aggressively follow the money and deny the Iranian regime access to the proceeds of its illicit revenue schemes.”

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Ethereum staking generated 98% of Bitmine’s revenue last quarter as the company’s pivot from Bitcoin mining gained momentum following its March validator launch.

Bitmine Immersion Technologies recorded $45.7 million in revenue from Ether staking and validation last quarter, following the launch of its institutional-grade Ethereum staking platform in March. 

Staking revenue accounted for 98% of total revenue for the three months ended May 31, far outpacing the $624,000 from self-mining Bitcoin (BTC) and the $168,000 from consulting services, according to Bitmine’s latest 10-Q filing. On Monday, Bitmine said it had staked 85% of its ETH holdings, or about 4.9 million Ether (ETH). 

“Bitmine has staked more ETH than other entities in the world. At scale (when Bitmine’s ETH is fully staked by MAVAN and its staking partners), the projected ETH staking reward is $284 million on an annualized basis,” said Tom Lee, chairman of Bitmine. 

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Coinbase’s Rob Witoff said the company is leaning more on AI to help with execution, but still needs high-agency humans for judgment and strategy.

Artificial intelligence now helps write more than 95% of Coinbase’s code, offering new insight into the crypto exchange’s AI strategy following its decision to cut 14% of its workforce earlier this year. 

Coinbase cut 700 staff in May. In an email to employees, Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong said AI has “dramatically” changed the pace of work and there was a need to “return to the speed and focus of our startup founding, with AI at our core.” 

“Effectively, 100% of our employees are using AI on a daily basis here,” Coinbase’s head of platform, Rob Witoff, told Cointelegraph. “And close to 100% of our code, probably somewhere between 95% and 100%, is written by or with LLMs today.”

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Senate Majority Leader John Thune reportedly said the chamber will consider a vote on the crypto market structure bill before Aug. 10, though it’s unclear whether it has enough Democratic support to pass.

The US Senate is expected to vote soon on a comprehensive bill to establish market structure rules for digital assets that is backed by Republican lawmakers, while some Democrats continue to push for ethics provisions.

In a Tuesday press conference, Democratic Senators Chris Murphy, Jeff Merkley and Chris Van Hollen spoke alongside representatives for Americans for Financial Reform and Indivisible and Hollywood actor Ben McKenzie in opposition to the Digital Asset Market Clarity (CLARITY) Act. The lawmakers said that the bill did not address what they called “[Donald] Trump’s crypto corruption,” referring to the US president’s ties to the industry through his memecoin, his family’s World Liberty Financial company and other businesses and investments.

“There is no reason to pass a new regulatory system for crypto if this system does not stop Trump’s corruption of the entire industry,” said Murphy. “This bill is worthless if it protects Trump’s dominance over an industry that he will have more control to regulate. In fact, the bill is in and of itself a fundamental corruption if it gives Trump’s corruption the protection of law.”

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Backed by Dragonfly, FirstMark and Coinbase Ventures, the startup is expanding software that helps businesses integrate stablecoins into treasury and payment workflows.

Stablecoin treasury platform Velocity raised $38 million in a Series A funding round to expand infrastructure that helps enterprises and financial institutions use stablecoins for cross-border settlement and treasury operations.

The funding round was led by Dragonfly and FirstMark, with participation from Activant Capital, Capital One Ventures, QED Investors, Coinbase Ventures, Wintermute Ventures and Ripple. Velocity said it plans to use the capital to expand its banking and payments network, develop new products and strengthen its regulatory capabilities.

Founded in 2025, Velocity develops software that connects stablecoin networks with banking, custody, compliance and settlement systems. The company targets enterprise finance teams, payment providers, fintech firms and financial institutions using stablecoins for cross-border payments and treasury operations.

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The two governments issued recommendations on the treatment of digital assets as the US prepares to implement a 2025 law on payment stablecoins.

The US Department of the Treasury and HM Treasury released a set of recommendations as part of the Transatlantic Taskforce for the Markets of the Future, which included stablecoin activity and tokenized finance.

In a joint statement on Tuesday, the two treasury entities issued four recommendations focused on digital assets as part of bilateral cooperation between the two countries on financial markets. The task force recommended that authorities consider a private-sector-led group focused on “testing of cross-border use cases for tokenized assets” and that financial agencies in the US and the Bank of England identify shared approaches on the regulation of tokenized assets. 

On stablecoins, the US and UK released a joint statement aimed at regulatory alignment and establishing a “dynamic stablecoin market across borders.” 

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The change in tax policy, expected to affect about 700,000 people in the UK, is tied to the disposal of crypto in lending and liquidity pools.

The UK’s tax authority plans to treat “certain disposals” related to cryptocurrency lending and liquidity pools as transactions that would effectively defer the country’s capital gains requirements.

In a Monday announcement, HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) said that starting on April 6, 2027, it would adopt a “no gain, no loss” approach to disposals involving crypto loans and liquidity pools. According to the tax authority, this measure would defer capital gains tax on digital assets “until an economic disposal.” 

“This measure will support fairness in the tax system,” said the UK tax authority. “It aligns the tax treatment more closely with the economics of these arrangements by ensuring that gains and losses are generally recognized only when the participant makes an economic disposal of the cryptoassets.”

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The companies will explore using USDC for JCB’s cross-border treasury operations and merchant payments in Japan as regulated stablecoin adoption gains momentum.

Japan’s largest domestic payment network, JCB, signed a memorandum of understanding with Circle to explore using USDC for cross-border payments and merchant transactions.

Under the memorandum, the companies will initially explore using USDC for JCB’s internal cross-border fund transfers through a proof of concept, while also evaluating stablecoin payments at merchants in Japan for international visitors. The companies said they will also assess technologies that support interoperability across multiple blockchain networks.

The agreement builds on a separate initiative JCB launched in January with Digital Garage and Resona Holdings to test stablecoin payments at physical stores in Japan. That project focuses on identifying technical and operational challenges to bringing stablecoin payments to domestic merchants.

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The Bitcoin miner’s Georgia agreement with an undisclosed investment-grade technology company expands its footprint in AI and high-performance computing infrastructure.

Shares of CleanSpark surged as much as 22% on Tuesday after the Bitcoin miner announced a 20-year data center lease in Georgia, reflecting its ongoing expansion into digital infrastructure beyond cryptocurrency mining.

CleanSpark said it signed a 20-year triple-net lease with an undisclosed investment-grade global technology company for a 175-megawatt data center at its Sandersville, Georgia, campus. The company estimates the deal will generate approximately $6.6 billion in contracted revenue over the initial term, increasing to $11.6 billion if the tenant exercises two five-year extension options.

Under the agreement, the tenant will install computing infrastructure at the site, with phased deliveries expected to begin in the fourth quarter of 2027.

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Institutions can now stake Tron's native token directly from Anchorage's custody platform as the company expands support for one of the largest USDT settlement networks.

Digital asset custodian Anchorage Digital has added native TRX staking for institutional clients, expanding its support for the Tron blockchain as demand for regulated access to staking services grows.

The launch expands Anchorage's support for Tron after introducing institutional custody for TRX, the network's native token, earlier this year. Clients can now stake TRX directly from the company's custody platform or Porto self-custody wallet, allowing them to earn protocol rewards for helping secure the blockchain without moving assets outside their existing custody environment.

Anchorage said the expansion reflects growing institutional interest in the Tron ecosystem, one of the largest networks for USDt (USDT) settlement. According to the company, Tron processed roughly $2 trillion in USDT transfers during the first quarter of 2026 while averaging 10.9 million daily transactions and 3.2 million active addresses. Tether's transparency data shows nearly $90 billion of USDT currently circulates on the network.

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BTC price action returned to $64,000 on low US CPI inflation, but traders remained wary of rejection at key resistance.

Bitcoin (BTC) spiked past $64,000 into Tuesday’s Wall Street open as US inflation saw a surprise sudden downturn.

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OpenAI’s ChatGPT now displays Kalshi’s World Cup prediction market odds in search results, marking the AI firm’s first reported deal with a prediction market platform.

Sam Altman’s OpenAI is bringing prediction market data to ChatGPT, giving World Cup fans a new way to track match predictions.

OpenAI has started displaying Kalshi’s prediction market odds for FIFA World Cup matches in ChatGPT search results, according to a report by The New York Times.

The integration had not been publicly announced at the time of publication. Kalshi declined to comment to Cointelegraph, while OpenAI did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

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MicroStrategy blew up during the dot-com era, before Michael Saylor transformed it into the world's largest corporate Bitcoin holder. Did he learn his lesson?

In March 2000, Strategy executive chairman Michael Saylor watched more than $6 billion disappear from his fortune in a single day.

MicroStrategy's shares had plummeted more than 60%, thrusting the thirty-five year old software entrepreneur into the center of the dot-com crash.

The company later settled civil fraud charges with the US Securities and Exchange Commission over its accounting practices without admitting or denying wrongdoing. MicroStrategy did not cause the dot-com bubble to burst, but the saga was one of the era's high-profile corporate blowups and the company became a symbol of the periods excesses and risks.

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