reform

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.

Microsoft announced that it will begin disclosing quarterly sales figures for its Azure cloud business, changing the company's long-standing practice of only reporting Azure revenue growth without disclosing specific income. Microsoft stated that considering the scale and importance of Azure, now is the right time to increase transparency. This adjustment marks the first major reform of the primary financial reporting structure since 2015.Microsoft has merged its existing Intelligent Cloud business and Productivity and Business Processes business into a "Agent and Infrastructure" department; more personal computing business has been adjusted to the "Devices and Consumer" department. Microsoft stated that artificial intelligence is changing the way the company builds products and operates, blurring the lines between products and reshaping business models.The company previously disclosed that Azure's sales for the fiscal year ending in June exceeded $100 billion, up from $75 billion in the previous fiscal year, accounting for about 30% of Microsoft's total revenue. This new reporting structure will officially take effect when Microsoft releases its first-quarter financial report for fiscal year 2027.

The Ethena Foundation announced significant reforms to its tokenomics, with the ENA token rising 23% to $0.17 within 24 hours. The reforms include the cancellation of the monthly VC unlock schedule and a proposal to use protocol revenue to buy back ENA. ENA holders are voting to decide on the "fee switch," where 95% of the net income from Ethena's brand business will be used for programmatic purchases of ENA when the circulation of USDe reaches $7.5 billion, with the remaining 5% allocated for growth.Ethena Labs and the Foundation have also reached a principled agreement to assign most of the intellectual property and economic benefits of the Ethena protocol to the Foundation and ecosystem, rather than to Ethena Labs shareholders. This agreement is expected to be announced in October. The reforms come as the supply of USDe has decreased from a peak of nearly $15 billion in October to below $5 billion, with part of its revenue relying on derivative funding rates, which have diminished as the crypto market cools.In search of new sources of growth, Ethena announced last week a $1 billion facility with FalconX to bring USDe collateral into over-collateralized institutional loans. Additionally, Janus Henderson invested in ENA in June and is exploring USDe distribution, while Coinbase has also launched a savings product in collaboration with Ethena.

According to Bitcoin.com, Strategy (MSTR) Executive Chairman Michael Saylor proposed the concept of "Bitcoin Reform" in a published article, advocating that Bitcoin should break free from the dogmatic understanding of early concepts such as Satoshi Nakamoto, the white paper, and "must self-custody," and further integrate into banks, exchanges, enterprises, securities markets, and government systems.Saylor stated that self-custody remains an important right for holders to freely exit the intermediary system, but it should not be a mandatory obligation for everyone; users can also evaluate institutional services based on dimensions such as custodial isolation, collateral, audits, insurance, and withdrawal rights. He believes that Bitcoin has gradually evolved from peer-to-peer electronic cash and "digital gold" into "digital capital" that can support credit, equity, currency, and machine economies.

On August 24, according to Caixin, the National Development and Reform Commission released the "Measures for the Administration of Foreign Investment (Revised Draft for Public Comment)" and is publicly soliciting opinions from society, from August 21 to September 20, 2026. The "Draft for Comments" expands the definition of investors from enterprises to domestic enterprises, other organizations, and individual residents, and clarifies that reinvestment by investors abroad also falls under foreign investment.In the section on foreign investment regulation, regarding the classification and regulatory division of foreign investment, the procedures for approval and filing, and other matters, investors must obtain foreign investment approval documents or filing notices before implementing foreign investments. For individual residents newly included as investors, the approval authority is the National Development and Reform Commission, and the filing authority is the provincial development and reform department of their registered residence or habitual residence.

Polygon co-founder Sandeep Nailwal stated that in response to community calls, the team is advancing a proposal for staking and tokenomics reform. He revealed that Polygon's revenue has achieved a tenfold increase this year, delivering 5k TPS and a 25% reduction in block time, and is now moving towards a block time of less than 1 second, making it the right time for stakers to receive their rightful share.Key points of the proposal include: launching native staking similar to L1 on Polygon PoS, which can run in parallel with Ethereum staking; the priority fee for each transaction will flow to POL stakers (PIP-85 has been approved, and native staking will simplify implementation); staking rewards are expected to nearly double, supported by real network fees rather than inflation; staking POL may earn additional incentives such as discounted Gas fees; sPOL will maintain liquidity and can be used in DeFi. Polygon Labs will write the code and submit the proposal for community forum review.

Synthetix tweeted that the previously passed SIP-423 proposal has achieved its main goals, including the deprecation of the native stablecoin sUSD, the restructuring of the Debt Jubilee, and the reform of the SNX staking mechanism. The new SNX will be minted at a 4:1 ratio with sUSD, with the conversion including a 1-year lock-up period and a 1-year unlocking period. The original supply was 344,939,867.56 SNX, with an additional minting of 236,464,356 SNX, bringing the new total supply to 581,404,223.56 SNX.Synthetix stated that SIP-423 is a "hard reset" that allows the protocol to break free from internal dependencies and focus on making Synthetix a perpetual contract trading venue on the Ethereum mainnet.

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.

The UK's Parliamentary Commissioner for Standards has resumed the investigation into Reform Party leader Nigel Farage's acceptance of donations from the cryptocurrency industry, involving an amount of 6.7 million dollars.

Chairman Paul S. Atkins of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) wrote to Robert Walley, Chairman of the Consolidated Audit Trail (CAT) Operating Committee, indicating that the SEC plans to undertake a comprehensive reform of the CAT system, including adjustments to its governance structure, funding sources, and operational model.Atkins stated that during his tenure, the SEC has significantly reduced the annual operating costs of CAT by issuing exemptions and approving amendments to the CAT NMS plan, and has eliminated the requirement to report personally identifiable information (PII) to the CAT system.These reforms have lowered system costs and the scope of data collection, but CAT still faces fundamental issues regarding costs, governance, and funding mechanisms. To address these issues, the SEC released a concept request for comments on April 16, 2026, to conduct a comprehensive review of CAT and other audit trail systems and data sources used in the regulation of U.S. securities markets.The SEC indicated that it has received hundreds of feedback comments, with one core consensus being that investors and market participants want the SEC to take more responsibility for the management and funding arrangements of CAT.Atkins stated that he has asked SEC staff to propose deep reforms for CAT, including: 1. Exploring new funding sources for CAT, including the use of congressional appropriations and transaction fees under Section 31 of the Securities Exchange Act; 2. Drafting rule proposals that, if approved, would repeal Rule 613 and require exchanges, FINRA, and broker-dealers to continue using the existing CAT infrastructure and reporting standards to submit CAT data directly to the SEC or its designated agency; 3. Assessing the internal resource needs of the SEC to prepare for the SEC's future assumption of governance responsibilities for CAT.The SEC expects that this reform will involve multiple stages and will need to be advanced simultaneously, with the overall transition potentially lasting until the end of 2027.

According to Bitcoin Archive, SEC Commissioner Hester Peirce stated that she remains optimistic about the U.S. Congress passing the CLARITY Act and mentioned that there is still much that can be done even if the bill does not pass.Hester Peirce pointed out that the SEC will continue to advance relevant work, and regardless of whether the bill passes, the SEC will strive to push forward; even if the CLARITY Act fails to materialize, regulators still have significant room to promote the construction of a digital asset regulatory framework.Hester Peirce has previously called for clearer regulatory rules for crypto assets, believing that a clear market structure helps the U.S. maintain competitiveness in the digital asset space and reduces the long-term uncertainty faced by the industry.

According to Edaily, the South Korean Ministry of Economy and Finance has finalized the "2026 Tax Reform Bill," which does not include a clause for delaying the taxation of virtual assets. If passed by the National Assembly, profits from virtual asset transactions exceeding 2.5 million won will be taxed at a rate of 22%, with the first declaration due in May 2028.This taxation has been postponed three times previously, and the opposition party has proposed a repeal bill, facing significant opposition amid the current market downturn.

The South Korean cryptocurrency exchange Bithumb has published an update on its IPO preparation progress. Bithumb stated that it is collaborating with leading domestic accounting firms to advance the construction of its risk management system, converting accounting standards from K-GAAP to internationally accepted K-IFRS, and strengthening internal compliance and internal control processes. The company is also restructuring its business by spinning off Bithumb Asset and clarifying the responsibilities and boundaries of each business segment; at the same time, it is promoting business model diversification and liquidity asset reserves to enhance financial stability.Bithumb claims it will maintain transparent operations by regularly disclosing financial status, operational matters, and cryptocurrency asset holdings, and will collaborate with large domestic and international securities firms, law firms, and accounting firms to assess corporate value and legal risks, as well as to formulate strategies for the pre-listing review.Regarding the timeline, Bithumb plans to complete the upgrade of its internal control system and K-IFRS conversion preparations by 2026, submit the pre-listing review and undergo audits in 2027, and complete the IPO in 2028, with specific timelines potentially adjusted based on market conditions and regulatory review progress.

According to Jinshi, the People's Bank of China held a work meeting for the second half of 2026, emphasizing the steady deepening of financial reform and opening up to the outside world. The meeting pointed out the active development of inter-central bank currency swaps and local currency settlement cooperation, supporting more foreign institutions to participate in the issuance of panda bonds, and promoting the construction of the cross-border payment system for the renminbi, as well as improving the cross-border infrastructure for digital renminbi.

Jiang Yi, Director of the Policy Research Office of the National Development and Reform Commission, stated at a press conference on July 31 that in the first half of the year, China's pace of independent innovation in artificial intelligence has accelerated. Domestic companies such as Deep Exploration and Dark Side of the Moon have successively released open-source large models with parameter scales reaching "trillion" levels, and the global download volume of domestic large models has surpassed 10 billion times. The next step will focus on strengthening research and development in cutting-edge areas such as the basic theory of large models, training and inference efficiency, multimodality, and intelligent agents, and accelerating the layout and construction of national artificial intelligence application pilot bases, while vigorously cultivating intelligent derivative enterprises.Jiang Yi pointed out that there will be a coordinated approach to high-quality development and high-level security, accelerating the legislative process of the "Artificial Intelligence Law", constructing a "development---regulation---security" closed-loop system, establishing and improving technical monitoring, risk warning, and emergency response mechanisms, and adhering to the development concept of "human-led, for human use, and benevolent to humanity," actively responding to the impact of artificial intelligence on economic operation and employment distribution.

The Dark Side of the Moon (Kimi) has been renamed Beijing Dark Side of the Moon Technology Co., Ltd., and the company type has changed from a limited liability company to a non-listed joint-stock company. Yang Zhilin serves as the chairman and manager, Zhang Yutong has been added as a director, and Song Sijia has been added as the financial officer.This change is commonly referred to as a stock reform. The China Securities Regulatory Commission stipulates that if a domestic company directly lists overseas with a domestic entity, the issuer must be a joint-stock company.According to previous reports, the Dark Side of the Moon has issued a shareholder resolution for listing in Hong Kong, with the earliest possible IPO within six months, and has begun dismantling the red-chip structure. The company has not officially announced the listing time.

Trade.xyz issued a statement regarding the SK Hynix contract price spike incident: On July 27 at 23:01 UTC, the marked price of SK Hynix tokens plummeted from $1,127.9 to $917.25, triggering a large number of long position liquidations. This price originated from an actual transaction captured by multiple independent data providers, with the external venue being a major pre-market in South Korea. Its oracle system operates according to established specifications, synchronously tracking prices from external exchanges, functioning "as designed" on a technical level.However, the platform acknowledges that user dissatisfaction with the liquidations triggered by this event is understandable, emphasizing that "market integrity is the core value of Trade.xyz." To address this, Trade.xyz has decided to cover all liquidation losses caused by this price anomaly on a one-time discretionary basis. Specific eligibility requirements will be announced soon, with compensation expected to be completed within a few days, but it clearly states that this decision "does not constitute a guarantee for similar situations in the future." At the mechanism level, the platform will accelerate the review of pricing methods— including reassessing the assumptions of reliance on external venues and giving greater weight to its own order book price discovery (its order book depth and signal strength have significantly improved compared to external sources) to more effectively handle tail events.

According to The Wall Street Journal, Coinbase Chief Legal Officer Paul Grewal stated that Coinbase has reached a settlement with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission regarding a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit, with the SEC agreeing to pay $150,000 and amend its record-keeping policies. The lawsuit revealed that the SEC lost nearly a year’s worth of communications from former Chairman Gary Gensler and other senior officials during the peak enforcement period in the cryptocurrency industry.Coinbase had previously requested documents from the SEC regarding how it applies securities laws to digital assets, but the request was denied, leading to a lawsuit that received court support. The SEC claimed that some text messages were lost due to an automatic data deletion process. Grewal pointed out that the SEC has imposed billions of dollars in fines on financial institutions for similar record-keeping issues.In February of this year, Coinbase also reached a settlement with the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation regarding another Freedom of Information Act lawsuit. Coinbase stated that this lawsuit revealed that the FDIC had instructed nearly twenty banks to suspend cryptocurrency-related activities since 2022, which subsequently led to congressional hearings and resulted in a court ruling that the FDIC violated federal law.Grewal stated that both lawsuits revolve around government transparency and due process, emphasizing that the American public has the right to know whether regulatory agencies are restricting legitimate cryptocurrency businesses from accessing banking services through non-public means.