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U.S. Republican Senator Cynthia Lummis has once again criticized the Democrats for delaying the much-anticipated Clarity Act. Lummis stated in response to a Semafor report on the X platform that if the bill fails, the responsibility lies with the Democrats for failing to join Republicans in supporting this bipartisan legislation. She pointed out that the Democrats' continued demands for amendments could lead future regulatory agencies to "stifle the crypto industry." Lummis added that if the differences can be bridged, she believes the Clarity Act could pass, but this requires further compromise from the Democrats, rather than concessions from the White House. Lummis had previously stated that if the bill fails, it will be due to the Democrats. The U.S. Senate is set to hold a procedural vote on the bill next week, and Lummis warned that if it does not pass next week, there will be no realistic opportunity within this decade. The Clarity Act aims to formally delineate the responsibilities of regulatory agencies and distinguish whether digital assets are classified as securities, commodities, or stablecoins. The bill was passed by the House of Representatives last July but was shelved due to conflicts between banking lobbyists and crypto companies over customer stablecoin yield issues. A new draft circulating in July prohibits government officials from promoting or profiting from crypto, with Democrats criticizing the Trump family for venturing into this area, yet still deeming the bill insufficient and calling for amendments.

According to Decrypt, the latest records from the UK Electoral Commission show that BitMEX co-founder Ben Delo donated £4 million (approximately $5.4 million) to the Reform Party of the UK twice in April this year, bringing his total donations to the party this year to £8 million (approximately $10.8 million), second only to Tether equity investor Christopher Harborne (who has donated a total of £15 million, approximately $20.25 million).These two donations accounted for 75% of the party's total donations for the corresponding quarter and were also the largest two single donations received by any political party in the UK during that quarter. The UK has prohibited political donations in the form of cryptocurrency since March, so all donations were made in cash.It is reported that BitMEX co-founder Ben Delo revealed in April that he had donated $5.4 million (approximately £4 million) to the Reform Party of the UK led by Nigel Farage, with the donations occurring before the new regulation setting a £100,000 cap on donations from overseas expatriates was introduced.

According to a report by Reuters, Apple Inc. is facing a class-action lawsuit in London, with claims amounting to £2 billion (approximately $2.7 billion). The lawsuit was filed today in the London Competition Appeal Tribunal by Ann Pope, a former senior official of the UK's Competition and Markets Authority, representing app developers.The core allegation is that Apple's "App Tracking Transparency" (ATT) feature, launched in 2021, imposes stricter restrictions on third-party developers than on its own services, giving Apple's own advertising ecosystem an unfair competitive advantage. Ann Pope stated that Apple's policies "have caused very significant harm to businesses that rely on Apple as a gatekeeper."Since its launch, the ATT feature has been a focal point of concern for global regulators for several years. Apple's official stance is that the feature is designed to allow users to control whether to permit apps to track their activities across other companies and websites.However, the plaintiffs argue that the actual enforcement of this rule has a double standard—tracking requests from third-party apps require strict pop-up authorization, while Apple's own personalized ads and services can bypass the same restrictions. This lawsuit represents the latest legal challenge Apple faces regarding its ATT policy and is the first large-scale private antitrust lawsuit initiated in the UK market against Apple's app ecosystem rules following scrutiny from regulators in the EU, the US, and several other countries.

According to Catcher Predict monitoring, in the event of "the next Mythos level vehicle release party" on the prediction market Polymarket, the "is" option in the sub-market "September 3" experienced a dramatic fluctuation in winning probability, soaring from 52.5% an hour ago to the current 68% (a fluctuation of 15.5%). Please note the impact of related breaking news.

According to Politico, four informed sources revealed that U.S. House Speaker Johnson plans to meet with Republican super donor Elon Musk in Texas on Friday. This meeting comes as Johnson is campaigning for Republican candidates across Texas ahead of the midterm elections. It is also the latest sign that Republican leaders hope Musk will contribute significantly to help the party maintain control of Congress.Sources indicated that Musk's schedule is subject to change, and the meeting may be adjusted at the last minute. Reports suggest that the tech billionaire is considering investing at least $100 million through his super PAC "Americapac" for the Republican Party in this year's midterm elections, but it remains unclear where those funds will ultimately go. Two of the aforementioned informed sources disclosed that some Republicans believe Musk is considering directing part of the funds to key battleground districts for House Republicans.

The fourth largest party in the New Zealand Parliament, the Association of Consumers and Taxpayers (ACT), proposed to exempt individual retail investors who hold compliant crypto assets for more than one year from capital gains tax, while assets held for less than one year, as well as professional traders and businesses, will still be taxed according to current tax regulations.ACT also proposed tax exemption for small personal consumption using crypto assets, and to establish clear regulatory and tax rules for compliant payment stablecoins, tokenized securities, and real-world assets, while setting up a regulatory sandbox for startups to test new products. ACT Deputy Leader Nicole McKee stated that clear rules, moderate protective measures, and reduced cumbersome regulations will help New Zealand develop digital finance, modern capital markets, and financial innovation. The New Zealand government has introduced a bill to implement the Economic Cooperation and Development Organization's Crypto Asset Reporting Framework (CARF).

The cryptocurrency wallet project SafePal has released updates on the security incident, stating that it is continuously tracking phishing websites and impersonation accounts, and plans to introduce a professional anti-phishing security company to expedite the removal of malicious information to protect user asset security. SafePal mentioned that it is currently in the final selection process among four professional anti-phishing security companies, and once a partner is selected, it will further enhance the efficiency of handling threats such as counterfeit websites and scam accounts.The team is also continuously monitoring whether the affected data has been sold or made public, including channels such as dark web forums and trading markets. Once signs of data leakage are detected, affected users will receive risk alerts immediately. Regarding security audits, SafePal stated that it is in the final selection among three mature independent security institutions, which will conduct a comprehensive security review of the order system. Meanwhile, the team is reassessing the order and logistics processes to reduce the amount of data that needs to be stored in the initial phase of the system, thereby reducing potential risks from the source.For affected users, SafePal stated that it will continue to provide one-on-one assistance through official support channels and will keep updating the fraud protection page, providing updates on the incident, FAQs, and analysis of fraud cases. SafePal once again reminds users: the official will never ask users to provide their seed phrase. Users should not disclose their seed phrase to anyone, should not scan unknown QR codes or click on suspicious links, and should verify the source of information through official channels.

According to Catcher Predict monitoring, the "Democratic Party 2028 Presidential Candidate" event is currently the most actively traded on the prediction market Polymarket, with a cumulative pool size reaching $12.654 billion. The option with the highest market consensus is "Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez," corresponding to a winning probability of approximately 22.9%.

According to Axios, the National Republican Senatorial Committee (NRSC) warned in an internal memo to top AI companies that the negative public perception of data centers in the U.S. is harming the party's chances of retaining a key Senate seat in Ohio. The memo pointed out that Democrats have made data centers a core issue in defeating Republican Senator Jon Husted, and it has been effective, stating that if he loses and blames it on data centers, politicians nationwide will avoid future projects, making this issue a potential focal point of the current election cycle.The memo, titled "Ohio Data Center Risks," urges AI companies to improve perceptions by explaining "who benefits, who pays, and why the community should welcome" them. Currently, over 4,000 data centers are operating across the U.S., with more than 3,000 under construction or planned to support AI development. However, they are facing protests due to high electricity and water consumption, rising utility costs, limited job opportunities, and concerns about AI job displacement. Internal polling shows their unpopularity is close to that of nuclear waste and has become a proxy indicator of sentiment towards AI.Husted's opponent, former Senator Sherrod Brown, has invested millions in advertising, calling him the "Ohio data center spokesperson." A Fox News poll shows Brown leading by 8 percentage points. Republicans hope that AI companies can curb the backlash; otherwise, Husted's defeat will cause lasting damage to data center development nationwide. Democrats are also acting based on polling, with Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro signing an executive order imposing strict restrictions on data center development.

AI chip startup Etched recently completed a $700 million financing round at a valuation of $21 billion, but its technology claims are facing industry skepticism. The well-known hacker George Hotz's AI computing team, the tiny corp, publicly criticized Etched's marketing approach: there are many investors, orders, and hardware photos, but there is too little third-party data to truly verify performance.Etched's core selling point is LVI (Low Voltage Inference) technology, claiming it allows trillion-parameter sparse MoE chips to run at over 80% of theoretical peak computing power (MFU). Chip design professional Wesley Yue raised technical doubts about this: high MFU does not necessarily represent absolute performance—if the chip's peak computing power is low, even with an 80% utilization rate, actual performance may still lag behind competitors. Yue believes that Etched's design "does not make sense from first principles" and may be a result of repackaging after its early Transformer ASIC faced power consumption issues.Etched has not yet disclosed complete computing power, power consumption, and third-party benchmark data; the official website only states that "early customer tests have reached leading levels," and detailed performance data will be "released later." There is currently no evidence to prove that Etched is fraudulent. Etched has not publicly responded to this matter.

According to Crypto.News, the investigation that was previously suspended due to large gifts related to cryptocurrency has resumed after Nigel Farage, leader of the Reform Party in the UK, was re-elected as the MP for the Clacton constituency. The parliamentary commissioner is investigating whether he failed to register financial interests as required, focusing on a personal grant of approximately £5 million (about $6.7 million) from billionaire investor and Tether-related shareholder Christopher Harborne; as well as benefits such as staff, security, transportation, and accommodation provided by long-time advisor George Cottrell, who was previously sentenced for a money laundering-related case in the U.S.Nigel Farage's resignation during his term led to the suspension of the investigation, and he insists that he did not violate any rules, claiming that the money was an unconditional personal gift, part of which was used for security expenses. His by-election victory has allowed him to become an MP again, and the investigation has therefore continued.

Bitcoin News posted on the X platform that the 256 Foundation has launched the 256 Red Team security project, which audits ASIC miner firmware through reverse engineering, real-time traffic capture, and reconciliation by share level. The team stated that 41 issue reports have been submitted regarding the original Bitmain firmware as well as third-party firmware such as LuxOS, VNISH, and Braiins OS.Identified issues include unauthenticated factory APIs, paths that allow root access, default credentials, built-in vendor SSH keys, and updaters that cannot verify installed content. After reverse engineering the Bitmain miner daemon and checking real-time connections, researchers reported that no evidence of hash power hijacking, remote kill switches, or hidden beacons was found in the original Bitmain firmware; the related risks are mainly concentrated in third-party "optimized" firmware.Researchers have submitted 3 responsible disclosures to VNISH, Luxor, and Braiins, granting each party 30 days to respond before public disclosure. MicroBT, Canaan, Auradine, Bitdeer, and ePIC will undergo follow-up audits.

According to the official announcement, Binance has announced support for users to deposit eligible third-party tokenized stocks and convert them 1:1 into corresponding bStocks. During the event period (until August 26 at 23:59 UTC), the conversion rate is fixed at 1:1 and is free of charge.Currently, it supports four assets: Tesla (TSLAon), MicroStrategy (MSTRon), Coinbase (COINon), and Circle (CRCLon), with versions available on both the ETH and BSC chains. The converted bStocks can be traded around the clock or redeemed 1:1 for the underlying stocks.Binance stated that the deposited third-party tokenized stocks can only be held or converted into bStocks and cannot be used for spot trading.

The UK Parliament's Crypto and Digital Assets APPG co-chair Gurinder Singh Josan and Lord Vaizey of Didcot have written to the CEOs of all major UK banks, requesting clarification on how they treat cryptocurrency and digital asset businesses. The letter raises six questions regarding the banks' current policies, whether they provide services to crypto businesses, related transaction restrictions and their determining factors, and whether they have adjusted their practices since the UK Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) regulatory regime came into effect.The group stated that many crypto businesses find it difficult to open bank accounts in the UK, and some banks restrict related payments. This letter stems from the parliamentary inquiry into access to banking services launched on July 21, with written submissions due by August 31. A January survey by the UK Crypto Asset Business Council indicated that the proportion of transactions blocked or delayed by banks when transferring to crypto exchanges is estimated to be as high as 40%. HSBC, NatWest, Monzo, and Nationwide limit the amount transferred to crypto exchanges each month to between £5,000 and £10,000, while Starling and Chase UK prohibit such transfers altogether. Lucy Rigby, the Economic Secretary to the Treasury, stated that the government does not want FCA-licensed businesses to be restricted by banks solely because of their industry; the FCA completed the relevant rules in June, and the regime will be enforced from October 2027.

According to Jinshi reports, on July 24, the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China held a symposium for non-party figures at Zhongnanhai to listen to the opinions and suggestions of leaders from various democratic parties, the All-China Federation of Industry and Commerce, and representatives of non-partisan individuals. Xi Jinping presided over the meeting and delivered an important speech, emphasizing the need to adhere to the general principle of seeking progress while maintaining stability, promote the continuous development of the economy towards new, better, and good directions, implement an active fiscal policy and a moderately loose monetary policy, enhance development momentum, and ensure and improve people's livelihoods.

According to Edaily, the Financial Services Commission (FSC) of South Korea plans to jointly draft a unified government bill for the "Basic Law on Digital Assets" with the ruling Democratic Party, covering the issuance and circulation of stablecoins, business rules for digital assets, exchange admission requirements, information disclosure, internal control, and system resilience standards. Currently, there are 10 related bills pending review in the National Assembly, but there has not yet been consensus on core disputes such as whether the issuers of won-pegged stablecoins must be bank holding companies and whether to impose shareholding restrictions on major exchanges. The FSC has not yet determined the submission date for the bill.Meanwhile, the opposition party's People Power Party lawmaker Song Yeon-sik submitted a proposal to abolish the cryptocurrency income tax amendment to the National Assembly's Finance and Economy Planning Committee for review on Wednesday. Additionally, a tax abolition petition supported by over 50,000 people is also expected to be submitted to the petition subcommittee. According to the current plan, starting from January 1, 2027, cryptocurrency transfers or lending income exceeding 2.5 million won per year will face a 20% income tax plus a 2% local tax. The government and the ruling party support the timely implementation, while the opposition party believes it is unfair to tax cryptocurrencies when most ordinary stock investors remain tax-exempt.

Fox Business crypto reporter Eleanor Terrett posted on the X platform that the crypto industry hopes Republican senators in the United States will push the Clarity Act into the voting process this week and seek support from the Democrats.

Crypto journalist Eleanor Terrett posted on the X platform that, according to an industry insider invited to the conference call, stakeholders in the crypto industry will hold a conference call later this morning local time with Republican leadership to understand the latest developments on the text of the CLARITY Act.