accel

The cryptocurrency exchange BitMEX accelerated the delisting of 65 derivative contracts and spot trading pairs in July, far exceeding the 19 that were delisted in the first six months of this year. The platform attributed the delisting to "insufficient trading interest" and stated that this move is related to its decision to close the exchange. Previously, BitMEX announced that it would officially cease operations on September 23, but did not disclose the specific reason for the closure.Restructuring advisor Roshan Dharia stated that the shutdown of BitMEX reflects the structural pressures faced by mid-sized centralized exchanges: liquidity continues to concentrate on leading platforms, while compliance costs are continuously rising. Earlier, the on-chain analysis platform Bubblemaps revealed that 75% of the total supply of BitMEX tokens BMEX (originally intended for employee incentives, ecosystem growth, and long-term reserves) was never allocated as planned, with the only claim occurring in November 2022. After the shutdown announcement, the price of BMEX dropped by approximately 95%.

Former Fox Business reporter Eleanor Terrett stated that the U.S. Hispanic Chamber of Commerce (USHCC), which claims to represent millions of Hispanic businesses across the country, sent a letter to Senate leaders this week expressing concerns similar to those of community banks that the Clarity Act could accelerate deposit outflows. The organization believes that the bill will reduce loans to Hispanic small businesses and weaken investments in underserved communities.

According to IT Home, ByteDance announced today the official launch of the Seed STEM Scientist Program, inviting 100 outstanding scholars from the forefront of scientific fields to collaborate on real research problems and promote AI-accelerated scientific discovery.This program is initiated by the Seed Edge research team, providing ample computing resources and competitive salaries. Participation is divided into two categories: scientific advisors and doctoral interns. The first phase of the program is expected to last about 6 months, with the work location in Haidian District, Beijing. The application deadline is September 30, 2026.

The Chinese AI large model company Dark Side of the Moon is accelerating its capitalization process, planning to start the final round of pre-IPO financing negotiations in August, with a target pre-investment valuation of $50 billion. Reports indicate that Dark Side of the Moon expects to complete a round of financing soon, corresponding to a valuation of approximately $31.5 billion. After completing this round of financing, the company will immediately engage in discussions for the next round of financing with potential investors, which may become its last private placement before entering the Hong Kong capital market.Market participants believe that if the financing plan proceeds smoothly, Dark Side of the Moon could initiate the process for a Hong Kong stock listing as early as this year. One of the key driving factors for this valuation increase is the company's recent release of the new generation large model Kimi K3. It is reported that Kimi K3 has a parameter scale of 28 trillion, supporting a context window of millions of tokens, making it one of the largest open-source models in the world by parameter scale. After the model was released, it quickly attracted market attention, prompting the company to adjust its new user subscription arrangements to ensure the user experience for existing customers.As the competition in generative AI enters a phase of comparison in computing power, user scale, and commercialization capabilities, large model companies are accelerating their search for capital support. Dark Side of the Moon's financing plan also reflects the market's ongoing interest in leading AI foundational model companies. However, the $50 billion valuation target also implies higher commercialization requirements. In the future, investors will focus on Dark Side of the Moon's revenue growth, control of computing costs, and whether the Kimi series models can form a stable business model. If the financing and listing plans proceed smoothly, Dark Side of the Moon may become an important case of capitalization for Chinese AI large model companies.

According to Gate Ventures' latest weekly report, influenced by the escalation of geopolitical risks and changes in the AI competitive landscape, all three major U.S. stock indices fell last week, energy prices rose significantly, and the trends of safe-haven assets like gold and U.S. Treasuries diverged. The cryptocurrency market continued its structural trend, with Bitcoin and Ethereum rising by 1.5% and 3.6%, respectively, while both spot BTC and ETH ETFs maintained net inflows.In terms of industry development, regulation and real-world applications continued to be the focus this week. Japanese convenience store giant Lawson, in collaboration with Netstars, is advancing a stablecoin payment pilot, further promoting the use of stablecoins in everyday consumption scenarios; South Korea plans to officially incorporate digital assets into its national asset management framework and explore the tokenization of government bonds and state-owned assets, with the construction of RWA infrastructure continuing to accelerate. In Europe, after the transition period of MiCA ended, the total number of licensed institutions increased to 294, although the number of new licenses has slowed down, institutional participation remains strong.In terms of investment and financing, the cryptocurrency industry recorded a total of 16 financing events last week, highly concentrated in the infrastructure sector: among them, Alpaca completed a $135 million financing to enhance tokenized securities and AI financial infrastructure; Flex completed a $70 million financing to further expand its stablecoin cross-border payment network, continuously confirming the capital market's long-term optimism towards digital financial infrastructure. Gate Ventures believes that as the global regulatory framework gradually improves and the integration of traditional finance and blockchain deepens, the digital asset ecosystem is expected to enter a more mature and diverse development stage.

Bloomberg New Energy Finance (BNEF) latest forecast shows that by 2035, electricity consumption by data centers in the United States will account for about 20% of the nation's total electricity consumption, a significant increase from the current level of about 5.9%. The agency has raised its forecast for data center electricity demand in 2035 to 106 GW, which is 36% higher than the 78 GW predicted in April this year. Currently, the operating capacity of data centers in the U.S. is about 40 GW, accounting for approximately 3.5%-4% of the national electricity demand, while under BNEF's baseline scenario, this proportion is expected to reach 8.6% by 2035. The high-growth model from the Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI) indicates that if the combined effects of cryptocurrency mining and AI computing power are taken into account, the upper limit of this proportion also points to 20%.In response to the explosive growth in AI computing power demand, Bitcoin mining companies are actively transforming. Companies like Core Scientific and Riot Platforms have partnered with tech giants such as AWS and Google to convert their existing mining sites into AI data centers. Currently, Bitcoin mining companies have secured about 6 GW of electricity capacity, which is expected to expand to 12 GW by 2027, with some analysts estimating that about 20% of mining companies' computing power capacity will shift towards AI workloads by then. Data from the Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT) shows that data centers now account for about 90% of local large load applications, with many sites originally used for cryptocurrency mining being repurposed as AI computing facilities. This trend is also directly reflected in the capital markets, as Core Scientific has seen a significant rebound in its stock price after emerging from bankruptcy and partnering with AI cloud service provider CoreWeave.

Cryptocurrency analyst Amr Taha pointed out that the dynamics of the Bitcoin holder community have recently shown a clear divergence, with large whales continuously accumulating, while medium-sized wallets are selling off at an increasingly rapid pace. Specifically, wallets holding 1,000 to 10,000 BTC have seen a net increase of approximately 66,700 BTC over the past 60 days, nearing the level of 68,000 BTC reached on June 16.In contrast, wallets holding 100 to 1,000 BTC have a net sell-off of about 77,800 BTC, marking one of the most aggressive selling periods in the current data. Historical data shows that the behavior of wallets holding 100 to 1,000 BTC aligns with significant short-term market turning points. On April 25, this group had a net increase of over 92,000 BTC. About 10 days later, Bitcoin entered a short-term correction, ultimately declining by approximately -29%. Amr Taha believes that the continued accumulation by large holders will reduce the immediately available supply, especially during periods when smaller groups are actively distributing Bitcoin. While group data alone cannot determine future price trends, the current shift in supply towards large wallets may signal positive indications for Bitcoin in the medium term.

According to The Block, Bank of America has appointed Sonali Theisen as the head of its global digital asset platform and Kevin Milsom as the head of AI transformation to drive the development of digital asset and artificial intelligence strategies.Sonali Theisen will be responsible for the design, development, expansion, and governance of the bank's digital asset platform, while continuing to serve as the head of electronic trading and strategic investments for fixed income, foreign exchange, and commodities (FICC) business. Her focus will include promoting the integration of blockchain products into Bank of America's existing financial market infrastructure and collaborating with the digital asset transformation head Adam Dixon to advance tokenized deposits, stablecoins, digital collateral circulation, cryptocurrency trading settlement, and custody services.Kevin Milsom will be responsible for promoting the application of AI in Bank of America's global markets platform. Reports indicate that this move continues the trend of Wall Street financial institutions accelerating their layout in digital assets and AI. Previously, Vanguard had initiated the recruitment of its first head of digital assets, and Morgan Stanley appointed Amy Oldenburg earlier this year to lead digital asset strategy to promote the integration of crypto assets and asset tokenization with traditional financial infrastructure.

According to Cointelegraph, Piero Cipollone, a member of the Executive Board of the European Central Bank (ECB), stated that the large-scale adoption of stablecoins could weaken the retail deposit base of commercial banks and alter the competitive landscape of the traditional banking system. Cipollone pointed out during a speech at the Italian Banking Association in Rome on Friday that digital payments are reshaping the banking industry while increasing Europe’s reliance on non-European payment infrastructures.Banks are currently facing declining payment fee revenues and loss of transaction data due to the development of mobile payment service providers. As payment tools like stablecoins and other digital assets become more widespread, commercial banks may face increased pressure from deposit outflows. Cipollone emphasized that the digital euro will help maintain the status of public money and ensure that banks continue to participate in the payment ecosystem while meeting the evolving financial needs of customers."The digital euro can both maintain the role of public funds and ensure that banks retain an important role in the payment system," Cipollone stated. This Tuesday, the European Central Bank selected 36 payment service providers to participate in a 12-month pilot project for the digital euro, including banks, fintech companies, and payment firms.The pilot program is set to launch in the second half of 2027, aiming to test the feasibility of retail central bank digital currency (CBDC) operating in the eurozone. The European Central Bank has previously stated that if relevant legislation and testing progress smoothly, the digital euro could be officially issued as early as 2029.

a16z published a blog post stating that as traditional financial institutions accelerate their exploration of blockchain technology, the market generally believes that the future will see a comprehensive integration of DeFi (Decentralized Finance) and TradFi (Traditional Finance), forming a new financial model through the combination of decentralized finance and institutional distribution systems.However, the reality may not be so. The core motivation for traditional financial institutions to adopt blockchain is not to embrace decentralization, but to value its commercial benefits in reducing costs, improving settlement efficiency, expanding distribution channels, and optimizing customer relationship management.What is more likely to emerge in the future is a new type of "programmable financial infrastructure" based on underlying blockchain technology, optimized for institutional needs, rather than a simple integration of traditional finance and DeFi. Institutions are selectively absorbing certain technological capabilities from DeFi and modifying them according to their own regulatory, risk management, and operational requirements.For example, atomic settlement can reduce counterparty risk, shared ledgers can lower back-office reconciliation costs, programmable funds can automatically execute processes such as interest payments, margin management, and corporate actions, and automated market-making models are also being applied to on-chain foreign exchange and tokenized asset pricing.At the same time, the native DeFi features of open access, anonymity, and trustless execution often conflict with institutional requirements for compliance, control, and accountability. Therefore, cases such as JPMorgan's institutional blockchain project, BlackRock's and Franklin Templeton's tokenized funds, are essentially not traditional finance entering DeFi, but rather using blockchain technology to improve existing financial business processes.In the future, the blockchain industry will have two development paths: on one hand, enterprises and financial institutions will continue to promote the implementation of blockchain infrastructure that meets regulatory requirements, expanding the industry scale through applications such as stablecoins, tokenized assets, and on-chain settlements; on the other hand, open networks will continue to play the role of a source of innovation, continuously generating new financial primitives and market mechanisms, providing technical reserves for future institutional infrastructure.TradFi and DeFi are not in competition but are developing together in different directions. Traditional finance may not fully adopt the DeFi model but will gradually adopt parts that suit its own needs. The true integration may ultimately occur at the underlying blockchain network level, rather than one side replacing the other.For developers, the key is not to chase all markets simultaneously but to clarify the target audience: for institutions, products need to be built around compliance, risk control, and long-term business processes; for open networks, there is a need to continue exploring innovation, liquidity, and network effects. The future financial system may operate on blockchain infrastructure, but the most important innovations may still come first from open networks.

According to Gate Ventures' latest weekly report, the global market continued to be influenced by high interest rate expectations and geopolitical factors last week, with the cryptocurrency market overall maintaining volatility. BTC rose 0.2% over the week, ETH increased by 1.2%, and market sentiment saw a slight recovery. Meanwhile, BTC spot ETFs ended eight consecutive weeks of net outflows, recording a net inflow of approximately $197 million, and ETH spot ETFs also resumed net inflows, with institutional allocation demand showing marginal improvement.On the industry front, traditional financial institutions are continuing to accelerate the construction of on-chain infrastructure. Swift officially launched a blockchain-based shared ledger and partnered with 17 global banks to initiate a tokenized deposit pilot; fintech platform Toss is collaborating with Optimism to advance the infrastructure development for the Korean won stablecoin; Robinhood Chain, which launched only two weeks ago, has surpassed a total locked value (TVL) of $132 million.In terms of investment and financing, a total of 8 financing deals were disclosed last week, amounting to $381 million, with the infrastructure (Infra) sector dominating. Prime Intellect completed a $130 million financing round to accelerate the construction of enterprise-level AI infrastructure; Gauntlet received a $125 million strategic investment from Japan's SBI Holdings to further expand its institutional-level DeFi treasury business. Gate Ventures believes that stablecoins, on-chain finance, and institutional-level infrastructure are continuing to become important development directions for the industry, with institutional capital further increasing its investment in digital asset infrastructure.

According to CoinPost, JCB has reached a partnership with a Circle affiliate, planning to test USDC payments at a store in Tokyo that attracts many foreign tourists within the year and evaluate the promotion to more franchise merchants.The pilot aims to reduce the currency exchange process for tourists and lower payment transaction fees. JCB has previously tested USDC and JPYC offline payments with Digital Garage, Resona Holdings, and others; Japan has also accelerated stablecoin merchant payment trials recently, including Lawson's plan to test JPYC in-store settlements in August.

According to CoinDesk, Franklin Crypto Chief Investment Officer Seth Ginns stated that although digital asset prices have not reflected the strongest fundamentals in the industry for years, institutional adoption of crypto is accelerating. Ginns pointed out that the momentum of the integration between traditional finance and crypto is strong, and believes that under current market conditions, liquidity crypto investments are becoming increasingly attractive.He mentioned that Robinhood's blockchain initiative is an example of the shift from traditional financial distribution to crypto infrastructure, with the tokenization of money market funds, tokenized stocks, and stablecoin adoption driving the integration of traditional finance and blockchain technology. Ginns expects that the Senate vote on the Clarity Act will provide institutions with more regulatory certainty and is optimistic about Hyperliquid's revenue-driven token buyback model. He also believes that DeFi protocols such as Uniswap, Aave, and Chainlink can benefit from improved token value capture mechanisms.

According to Jinshi, as the situation between the U.S. and Iran escalates again due to the Strait of Hormuz, U.S. President Trump stated that he will deliver a national address at 9 PM on July 14 (9 AM on July 15 Beijing time). Trump did not specify the content of the speech, but this statement indicates that the war with Iran is actually accelerating again, whereas both sides were supposed to enter negotiations after the signing of the memorandum of understanding.

The Websea offline summit was successfully held, bringing together hundreds of industry partners, channel representatives, market elites, and regional operation center teams to exchange ideas on transaction innovation, market growth, and long-term value opportunities.The holding of this summit releases a positive signal that Websea's market strategy is accelerating comprehensively. Currently, Websea is continuously advancing the layout of regional operation centers, global BD recruitment, channel cooperation upgrades, and regional market expansion, with multiple business lines working simultaneously to further expand the platform's market coverage, channel scale, and ecological influence.In the future, Websea will continue to focus on product innovation as the foundation, channel growth as the core, and market implementation as the driving force, working hand in hand with outstanding global teams and partners to build a more vibrant and long-term valuable digital asset ecosystem.

Gate today announced that Jason Fung has officially joined Gate as the Head of Global Partnerships. He will lead the global cooperation strategy, deepening long-term collaboration with high-quality projects, L1/L2 ecosystems, TradFi institutions, and Web3 partners, enhancing the platform's ecological value and global resource integration capabilities.Jason has over 15 years of industry experience in Web3, fintech, consumer technology, and gaming. He has worked at Sei, ABFinance, TikTok, and Alibaba, and has been involved in founding multiple Web2 and Web3 startup projects, accumulating rich experience in market expansion, ecosystem construction, asset operation, strategic cooperation, and international business development. He graduated from the Rotman School of Management at the University of Toronto with a Bachelor of Commerce degree.Jason stated, "I am excited to join Gate. The digital asset industry is welcoming more innovation and collaboration opportunities. I look forward to leveraging my experience in Web3, technology, and global cooperation to establish closer connections with global project parties, ecosystem partners, and industry participants, exploring more innovative opportunities and jointly promoting the development of the digital asset field."Jason's addition will further enhance Gate's global cooperation system, promote resource synergy across ecosystems and industries, and work with more partners to explore innovative applications of digital assets, supporting the construction and long-term development of the industry ecosystem.

According to Bloomberg, Nubank's parent company Nu Holdings, a crypto-friendly digital bank in Brazil, has been granted a formal banking license by Mexico's financial regulatory agency Comision Nacional Bancaria y de Valores, allowing it to conduct business such as payroll accounts, checking accounts, higher limit deposits, and more loan products locally.Since entering Mexico in 2019, Nubank has invested billions of dollars, and currently has over 15 million customers, accounting for about 15% of the local adult population. Founder and global CEO David Vélez stated that total investment in Mexico is expected to reach approximately $4.2 billion by 2030. Obtaining a full banking license is expected to help Nubank replace some wholesale financing with low-cost deposits and compete directly with large traditional banks in Mexico as well as fintech institutions like Revolut and Klar.

Websea recently officially announced the launch of a new round of global talent recruitment plan, open to the world for regional leaders, global business, market growth, risk control compliance, technology research and development, user operations, and other core positions. With a highly competitive salary and benefits system and broad career development opportunities, it aims to recruit top talent globally, comprehensively accelerate team building, and reserve core talent for the next stage of business growth and global market expansion.Websea CMO Herbert R. Sim stated: "Globalization has always been the core strategy for Websea's long-term development. The launch of the global talent plan is not only a further expansion of the team size but also a continuous investment in future growth and global market layout. We hope to attract more outstanding talents from around the world to work with Websea to promote product innovation, ecological construction, and global business development, creating a safer, more professional, and more efficient digital asset trading experience for global users."