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According to a report by Reuters, informed sources revealed that the PayPal board believes the $53 billion acquisition offer from competitor Stripe and Advent International undervalues the company and faces regulatory and financing hurdles. The sources stated that PayPal has not formally responded yet, and the board is evaluating the trade-offs between the offer and the management's strategy to turn around the company, initially considering that the offer of $60.5 per share, while a premium over recent stock prices, does not fully reflect the company's future potential.The acquirers have secured approximately $50 billion in financing commitments from JPMorgan and Morgan Stanley, along with $17 billion in equity raised by Stripe and Advent, to support the $53 billion acquisition offer. If antitrust regulations are violated, the acquirers have considered remedies such as divesting the Braintree business to Advent. Block was initially involved but withdrew before the latest offer submission. Investors will be paying attention to PayPal's earnings report on July 28.

According to CNBC, the American prediction market platform Kalshi stated that a teleprompter operator is under investigation by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission for allegedly trading prediction contracts related to public speeches by President Trump.

Ethereum Foundation (EF) researcher Francesco D'Amato (fradamt) announced his departure from EF to join the newly established protocol development organization Ethlabs. D'Amato worked at EF for 5 years and was involved in several core research areas including MEV, consensus mechanisms, data availability sampling (DAS), and execution layer pricing.

According to CoinDesk, Galaxy Digital has launched an institutional-grade vault curation business, Galaxy Curator, on the decentralized lending protocol Morpho, and opened it to institutional clients through Fireblocks Earn. The product is designed to allow institutions to allocate idle stablecoins to selected on-chain yield strategies without the need to build and manage DeFi infrastructure themselves.Galaxy stated that the initial products include two types of strategies: one focuses on capital preservation, allocating only to markets supported by high-quality collateral; the other, while taking on higher risks, allocates to liquid staking re-staked tokens, Pendle principal tokens, and Ethena products to achieve higher yields. The company noted that the related vaults adhere to the collateral standards, risk exposure limits, and market monitoring framework used in its institutional lending and trading business.

CryptoQuant analyst Axel Adler Jr. stated that the Bitcoin market sentiment has shifted from bearish to bullish and has maintained this for the second week. A model that integrates multiple market data points shows that the Bitcoin status score has rebounded from a low of -42.9 on June 26 to +34.7. Over the past week, this score has remained in positive territory for more than 80% of the time, reaching a peak of +65.3 on July 10, indicating that the overall market sentiment has shifted from seller-dominated to buyer-strong.Currently, 79.4% of the multiple sub-indicators included in the model point in the same direction, significantly higher than this month's average of 57.3%, suggesting that there are no obvious contradictions among the data, and the current bullish signal is not noise. Moving forward, if the market sentiment score further rises above +50 and the consistency remains above 80%, the bullish trend will be further confirmed; if the score continues to fall below zero and consistency drops below 40%, the current trend will be considered invalid.

The Governor of the Bank of Tanzania, Emmanuel Tutuba, stated that the bank is completing the formulation of regulatory laws and regulations for digital assets, covering virtual assets, cryptocurrencies, and stablecoins, to enhance regulation and supervision.Emmanuel Tutuba mentioned that many young people are investing in related fields, and the central bank has received complaints from individuals who have incurred losses in cryptocurrency-related transactions. The relevant rules will be used to protect Tanzanian investors. He stated that the new regulations will also address the risks of money laundering, terrorist financing, and other illegal activities related to virtual assets, ensuring that entities involved in related activities operate according to the guidelines that will be released soon.

According to Bitcoin News, the Czech Ministry of Finance officially listed the decentralized prediction market platform Polymarket on the "Unauthorized Online Gambling List" on July 13. The Czech gambling regulator requires internet service providers (ISPs) to complete access blocking for the platform within 15 days.The Czech regulator stated that Polymarket lacks necessary oversight, its operations essentially fall under gambling products, and due to its decentralized nature and unlicensed operation, it bypasses local gambling legal frameworks, posing risks such as market manipulation using insider information and lack of risk control. Recently, several European regulators have continued to tighten control over Polymarket, with Italy re-adding it to the ban list and the Netherlands also rejecting the platform's appeal.

The United States, the European Union, and the United Kingdom jointly announced sanctions against a group involving state-level hacker organizations, cybercrime gangs, and their infrastructure providers. The targets are accused of causing billions of dollars in losses to global businesses, critical infrastructure, and government agencies. Among the most notable is the EU's sanction against the Russian cybercriminal Vitaly Nikolayevich Kovalev (alias "Stern").The EU has identified Stern as one of the core managers of the notorious Trickbot Group ransomware organization, which includes several high-risk ransomware variants such as Conti ransomware and Ryuk. On-chain analysis shows that wallet addresses associated with Stern have received over $300 million in ransom payments, potentially making him the "largest confirmed ransomware operator" to date. According to analysis, the $300 million only represents the profits obtained by Stern personally, and the overall illegal income of the Trickbot group may be much higher.On-chain fund flows indicate that Stern has had transactional connections with multiple ransomware ecosystems, including Ryuk, Conti, Diavol, Karakurt, Royal, and Quantum. Investigations show that Stern plays a role similar to "CEO" within the Trickbot organization, responsible for budget management, personnel recruitment, infrastructure procurement, and attack planning.

According to Jinshi reports, Russian President Putin stated that based on macroeconomic indicators, the key interest rate should be lowered.

According to reports, Google DeepMind co-founder Demis Hassabis recently predicted that artificial general intelligence (AGI) could be achieved in just a few years, with its transformative impact reaching ten times that of the Industrial Revolution, and its development speed accelerating tenfold. He pointed out that as the potential risks of cutting-edge models in areas such as cybersecurity, nuclear energy, and biology become increasingly prominent, the industry urgently needs to establish robust security protections for future AI systems that possess autonomy and self-improvement capabilities.To balance technological innovation and security risks, Hassabis called for the United States to take the lead in establishing a "Frontier AI Standards Agency" similar to the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA). This agency is proposed to operate under a public-private partnership or self-regulatory organization model, managed by independent technical experts and representatives from the open-source community, primarily funded through industry contributions. Its core function is to develop dynamic scientific assessment protocols, initially requiring frontier laboratories to voluntarily submit for review 30 days prior to the release of models, with plans to eventually transition to mandatory market entry testing, while non-frontier models from startups or academic institutions would be exempt. This framework aims to address unknown crises through a technology-driven review mechanism and to promote a global consensus on AI risk management within the international community.

Coinbase co-founder and CEO Brian Armstrong posted on the X platform, publicly acknowledging that the creator coin previously promoted by the Base chain has not succeeded and that a strategic adjustment was completed earlier this year.Armstrong stated that Base's current core focus areas are trading, payments, and AI agents, which are interconnected—payments require foreign exchange trading, and AI agents will also involve a large number of trading and payment scenarios. Currently, most resources have been concentrated on the trading track.

Crypto journalist Eleanor Terrett posted on the X platform that Patrick Witt, the Executive Director of the White House Cryptocurrency Council, stated that this week will be a "critical week" in the advancement of the U.S. CLARITY Act. As the crypto industry prepares to commemorate the one-year anniversary of the GENIUS Act officially becoming law, the construction of the U.S. digital asset regulatory framework has once again become a focal point for the market.Patrick Witt mentioned that the current U.S. crypto policy is at an important stage, and the advancement of the CLARITY Act will have significant implications for the market structure of digital assets, the division of regulatory responsibilities, and the future development direction of the industry.Previously, the CLARITY Act was regarded as one of the important legislations for establishing comprehensive regulatory rules for the U.S. crypto market, aiming to clarify the classification of digital assets, the authority of regulatory agencies, and the compliance requirements for market participants.Market participants believe that if the bill makes substantial progress, it could further enhance regulatory certainty for the U.S. crypto industry and impact the future strategies of exchanges, stablecoin issuers, and blockchain companies.

According to a report by the Procuratorial Daily, researchers from the People's Procuratorate of Yuhu District, Xiangtan City, Hunan Province, and the Law School of Xiangtan University have jointly written an article proposing a systematic response plan to the regulatory dilemmas of money laundering crimes using virtual currency. The article points out that current judicial practice faces three major dilemmas: first, Article 191 of the Criminal Law limits money laundering crimes to seven types of upstream crimes, resulting in many cases being treated as "concealment crimes"; second, methods such as mixers, privacy coins, and cross-chain transfers lead to fragmented evidence chains, making traditional investigative methods difficult to penetrate; third, conflicts in the legal attributes of virtual currency, a vacuum in procedural rules, and barriers to cross-border cooperation make it difficult to recover assets.In response, the article suggests promoting "dual investigations for one case," establishing the principle of self-authentication of blockchain data, constructing a tiered standard of proof, and establishing a national-level custody and disposal platform for involved virtual currencies, while actively promoting the signing of special agreements for international criminal justice assistance in virtual currency crimes.

According to BLOCKMEDIA, the South Korean police are investigating a case of political interference in the competition of the cryptocurrency market. A former assistant to independent lawmaker Kim Byung-ki is accused of pressuring the Financial Supervisory Service (FSS) in February last year to force Upbit to terminate its fee waiver activities for $USDC and $USDT, in order to alleviate the financial pressure on its competitor Bithumb, which was suffering due to a zero-fee promotion.The suspicion arises from the fact that the assistant obtained an informal advisory position at Bithumb months after the interference, while at the same time, the lawmaker's son was also hired by the exchange as an intern. Bithumb denies any knowledge of political interference and insists that the fee adjustments were independent business decisions.

After a meeting with Islamic scholar Mufti Taqi Usmani, Bilal bin Saqib, the chairman of the Pakistan Virtual Assets Regulatory Authority, stated that stablecoins, tokenized RWA, and other blockchain products should undergo separate technical and Islamic law assessments and should not be regarded as the same category.Previously, scholars including Usmani issued a fatwa declaring that USDT and other cryptocurrencies do not constitute wealth recognized by Islamic law, rendering transactions for purchasing physical goods or digital services invalid. Pakistan passed the Virtual Assets Act in March of this year, requiring exchanges, custodians, and token issuers to ensure compliance with Islamic law under the guidance of an Islamic finance scholars committee. At the same time, the country is advancing sovereign stablecoins, national asset tokenization, and licensing for cryptocurrency trading platforms.

According to a post by Galaxy Research research director Alex Thorn (@intangiblecoins), indicators related to long-term Bitcoin holders have set new historical records:The supply ratio of coins held for ≥ 10 years has reached 17.7%, the amount held by long-term holders is 16.75 million coins, the market value realized by long-term holders has reached 836.4 billion USD, and the average holding cost for long-term holders is 50,000 USD. The above data indicates that a large number of coins are firmly locked by long-term holders, who refuse to sell even though the average price has reached 50,000 USD. The actual circulating supply in the market continues to tighten, and the behavior of long-term holders is building a solid bottom support for Bitcoin prices.

According to Caixin, the case involving 60,000 bitcoins belonging to Qian Zhimin held a three-day hearing from July 7 to 9, 2026. Blue Sky Ge Rui Company officially joined the battle for bitcoin rights through the litigation administrator. The bitcoin dispute has transformed from a "two-party confrontation" into a "three-party competition": 1. The UK prosecution (DPP) claims that the assets should be recovered by the state; 2. The Chinese victims assert that they have property rights to the bitcoins that can be traced and have significantly appreciated in value; 3. The litigation administrator representing Blue Sky Ge Rui Company argues that the bitcoins are substitute assets formed after Qian Zhimin misappropriated company funds.It is reported that the estimated value of the bitcoins involved in the case is about 427,000 yuan each as of July this year, a 152-fold increase from the purchase price when Qian Zhimin acquired them in 2014 (2,815 yuan each). If the applicant can successfully assert their property rights to the relevant bitcoin assets, the amount they can recover will not be limited to the original investment loss but can also extend to the appreciation gains of the bitcoins. The litigation administrator representing Blue Sky Ge Rui Company believes that the bitcoins in question are essentially transformed from misappropriated company property, and the company has the right to trace them and assert property rights.Meanwhile, the Director of the UK Crown Prosecution Service (DPP) continues to insist that Chinese law should apply, while the leading law firm representing individual victims has proposed four complementary legal arguments to avoid the victims' claims being entirely dismissed due to any single legal pathway: 1. Bitcoin in the UK should be governed by UK law; 2. The investment contract is a scam, and upon cancellation, the rights revert to the victims; 3. The tracing mechanisms under POCA Sections 305 and 306 should also apply to the victims; 4. A "mixed structure" should break the binary choice between Chinese and UK law.