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The U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) has announced the agenda for the inaugural meeting of the Innovation Advisory Committee (IAC). The committee will hold its first meeting on August 20, focusing on regulatory issues in emerging areas such as crypto assets, artificial intelligence, and prediction markets.CFTC Chairman Michael S. Selig stated that the U.S. has long been a global center for financial innovation and hopes to explore how emerging technologies and financial products can drive market development through discussions with innovative entrepreneurs, researchers, and industry builders, and to jointly explore the "new frontiers of finance." The meeting will be live-streamed on the CFTC official website. Committee members and attendees will discuss topics such as the regulatory framework for digital assets, the impact of AI technology on financial markets, and the development of prediction markets. The public can submit relevant opinions by August 27, and these opinions will be publicly released through the U.S. Federal Regulations website Regulations.gov. The CFTC indicated that the meeting agenda may be adjusted based on the committee's subsequent focus.The Innovation Advisory Committee aims to provide the CFTC with recommendations on emerging technologies, financial products, and trends in market innovation, covering important areas such as digital assets and artificial intelligence that may influence the structure of future financial markets.

White House economic advisor Kevin Hassett stated that he would not succeed Lisa Cook if the Federal Reserve Board member were to be removed from her position due to related allegations.Hassett mentioned that the allegations against Cook are matters under investigation by law enforcement and expressed, "I hope Cook is innocent." Previously, Cook had been challenging the Trump administration's attempts to remove her from her position as a Federal Reserve Board member.Regarding monetary policy, Hassett indicated that if he were involved in decision-making, he would lean towards maintaining the current interest rate levels or implementing rate cuts. He believes that inflation in the United States is easing, while the growth momentum on the supply side remains strong, providing room for a more accommodative policy environment.

According to TechFundingNews, AI infrastructure company Nscale is preparing for an IPO in the U.S., which could start as early as September this year. The company has disclosed to potential investors that its cumulative contracted revenue has reached approximately $51 billion. Currently, Goldman Sachs and JPMorgan Chase are serving as advisory firms for Nscale's potential IPO, but discussions are still ongoing, and the listing date may be delayed.Nscale is a company spun off from the cryptocurrency mining company Arkon Energy, primarily focusing on AI data centers, GPU computing power, and energy infrastructure. In July of this year, it announced the acquisition of distributed AI software company Anyscale for approximately $1.65 billion, with clients including Coinbase, Runway, and Bedrock Robotics. Previously, it was reported that AI infrastructure Nscale completed a $2 billion Series C financing round, achieving a valuation of $14.6 billion, led by Aker ASA and 8090 Industries, with participation from NVIDIA, Lenovo, and Nokia.

White House cryptocurrency advisor Patrick Witt posted on the X platform that the U.S. Congress has been pushing for cryptocurrency market structure legislation for many years, and the Senate has been negotiating the CLARITY Act since last summer. However, in the past week, Chuck Schumer and so-called "pro-cryptocurrency Democrats" blocked the bill from undergoing procedural voting before the recess and requested further delays.Patrick Witt warned that if the bill does not make progress before September 15, the likelihood of it passing in the future will be significantly reduced.

Hyperliquid Policy Center issued a statement, and HPC attended the CFTC Agricultural Advisory Committee meeting, submitting a formal statement. The statement revolves around three points: first, agricultural end users need diversified market choices, and the historical ban on agricultural options has proven to be overly restrictive; second, the CFTC's phased approach to perpetual contracts is the correct path, and end user demand should drive the adoption of new derivatives; third, public blockchains contribute to modernizing clearing and settlement infrastructure, while enhancing collateral liquidity and preserving the market integrity protection mechanisms of the Commodity Exchange Act.HPC stated that it will continue to collaborate with the agricultural community to promote the regulatory implementation of perpetual contracts in the U.S. market.

According to Jinshi reports, the media advisor to the King of Bahrain stated that the Bahrain Air Defense Forces are repelling Iranian aerial attacks. In recent hours, Bahrain has successfully repelled multiple Iranian aerial assaults, and air raid alarms have been sounded due to the threat of airstrikes.

Bitwise CEO posted on the X platform that one of the world's largest wealth management companies has opened the Bitwise Solana Staking ETF BSOL to its advisors and clients.

According to The Defiant, the tokenization platform Securitize Corp. (NYSE: SECZ) subsidiary Securitize Capital LLC has registered as an investment advisor with the U.S. SEC, effective July 22. This subsidiary had previously operated in Florida as an exempt reporting advisor since March 2023, only able to serve venture capital funds or private funds managed in the U.S. with assets under $150 million; this registration removes that limit.Reports indicate that this license completes Securitize's compliance matrix surrounding tokenized securities, with its U.S. affiliates now covering registered investment advisors, registered broker-dealers and alternative trading systems, transfer agents, and fund management. The registration also occurred five days after SEC Commissioner Hester Peirce warned that on-chain treasury and lending strategies might touch upon investment advisor regulatory issues on July 22.U.S. stock market data shows that SECZ fell nearly 10% during trading on Monday, currently reported at $6.76 per share, with a total market capitalization of about $1 billion.

Lighter founder and CEO Vladimir Novakovski tweeted that he has joined the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) Innovation Advisory Committee as a member.

According to The Block, a survey by CoinShares of 261 wealth management professionals in Europe shows that 52% of UK wealth advisors indicate that most of their clients' crypto asset exposure is outside their management scope (with a management gap exceeding 50%), while the overall percentage in Europe is one-quarter.The report points out that this "management blind spot" is primarily driven by company policies rather than a lack of advisor knowledge or client demand. In companies with explicit restrictions or a lack of internal guidance, the proportion of advisors actively recommending crypto assets is only 1%, while the management gap reaches 34%; in contrast, in companies with clear support, the recommendation rate is 48%, and the management gap is only 4%.The survey also found that the changes advisors most want to see are regulatory recognition of digital assets as a mainstream asset class (45%) and access to exchange-traded products (ETPs) (43%), rather than purely educational training.Currently, the UK's Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) has proposed allowing authorized funds to hold up to 10% in crypto ETPs, and the European regulatory environment is gradually shifting towards support, which may help narrow this management gap.

Molly O'Shea, founder of the technology and investment media platform Sourcery, revealed in a post on the X platform that Coinbase's AI agent has registered as an investment advisor with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and has its own financial accounts. Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong stated that the AI agents are forming an independent economy: they purchase goods and services and also hire other agents to collaborate, thus requiring a completely new financial infrastructure to support these activities.Coinbase provides a complete tech stack for this trend, covering trading, payments, and account management. Previously, Coinbase launched the "Coinbase for Agents" platform, allowing AI systems to execute trading and payment tasks through independent sub-accounts within a secure framework set by users, covering spot, derivatives, and future stock and prediction markets.

Coinbase has released the latest System Update, announcing a series of product upgrades that cover AI investment advisory, global liquidity unification, options trading, and the expansion of multi-asset financial services, further transforming into a comprehensive financial platform. The core features of this update include the SEC-registered AI investment advisor Coinbase Advisor, which can provide personalized multi-asset trading and hedging strategies based on user holdings and market data, but does not execute trades directly. At the same time, the platform will introduce a globally unified liquidity pool, connecting the spot and derivatives trading systems of the U.S. and international markets.In terms of product expansion, Coinbase will support stock and crypto options trading and strengthen its derivatives capabilities through the acquisition of Deribit. Additionally, the company has launched pre-IPO perpetual contracts covering popular targets like SpaceX and plans to expand to future IPO projects such as Anthropic and OpenAI. Coinbase has also introduced the Coinbase One Card upgrade program, where users can stake $500 to $5000 USDC to qualify for a credit card and receive 5% Bitcoin cashback when booking through the Booking.com travel portal. The platform will also gradually support the migration of stock assets to Coinbase trading.On the trading infrastructure level, Coinbase has introduced the Transfer Protection mechanism, which prevents security risks such as wrench attacks through delayed withdrawals, and has expanded its prediction market products, launching crypto price binary options and combination prediction trading with a 15-minute cycle. Coinbase stated that its goal is to build an Everything Exchange covering trading, payments, lending, and investment, making it the primary financial account for users.

Coinbase has released the latest enterprise-level "System Update," introducing a series of new products and infrastructure upgrades, further expanding its positioning towards "Everything Exchange," covering crypto assets, stocks, options, perpetual contracts, prediction markets, token issuance, and smart financial services.This update includes a set of AI investment advisor systems registered with the SEC, integrated into the main Coinbase trading platform. Coinbase also announced the establishment of global unified liquidity between the U.S. and international platforms, covering spot crypto assets and derivatives trading to enhance trading depth and execution efficiency.On the consumer side, the Coinbase One Card has added new benefits, allowing users to stake 500 to 5000 USDC to obtain the card, and book travel through the Travel Portal launched in partnership with Booking.com, earning 5% Bitcoin cashback.In addition, Coinbase emphasized several trading products that have recently launched or are in progress, including thematic stock indices, pre-IPO perpetual contracts, new features related to options trading, and upgrades to the developer platform. Coinbase stated that its goal is to become a one-stop application for users to conduct multi-asset trading and smart financial management.

The advisory committee of cryptographic experts led by Coinbase has released a report stating that Bitcoin should immediately begin preparing for potential quantum computing attacks. However, the committee did not take a clear stance on whether to freeze the millions of Bitcoins that could potentially be stolen by quantum computing in the future.It is reported that the committee members include several leading experts, such as Ethereum Foundation researcher Justin Drake, who believe that the current focus of the debate is not on how to introduce quantum-resistant signature technology, but rather on how to handle the Bitcoins that have not been migrated for a long time. One viewpoint calls for setting a deadline, after which the existing ECDSA and Schnorr signature schemes for Bitcoin will cease to be supported, and un-migrated assets will be frozen to prevent future quantum attackers from acquiring large amounts of BTC and impacting the market. Another viewpoint argues that this amounts to asset confiscation, contradicting Bitcoin's core principles of "immutability and user complete control of assets," and could set a precedent for freezing assets in the future due to regulatory pressure.The Coinbase advisory committee pointed out that the aforementioned proposals are not mutually exclusive and can be combined, but it refused to take a position on the issue of "whether to freeze legacy BTC," believing that the final decision should be governed by the Bitcoin community. At the same time, it emphasized two points: first, the technical development of quantum-resistant signature migration should be initiated immediately and should not wait for the governance debate to conclude; second, it is necessary to clearly communicate risk information to users to avoid long-term uncertainty affecting the Bitcoin ecosystem.

The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) recently announced the establishment of the Blockchain Advisory Group (BAG) during the Proof of Talk 2026 in Paris, focusing on optimizing public systems and governance through blockchain technology. The first meeting was chaired by UNDP Deputy Administrator Xu Haoliang, with the initial in-depth topic being inclusive finance and digital finance, discussing obstacles such as fragmented payment systems, limited digital identities, insufficient interoperability, and institutional readiness, while assessing how blockchain can complement existing digital public infrastructure to enhance financial accessibility, efficiency, and transparency.BAG plans to hold two meetings each year to promote cooperation with the blockchain ecosystem around themes such as digital governance and public trust, legal identity and inclusive societies, digital financial services, climate and traceable accountability, digital labor and the future of work. Current members include 26 institutions such as the Ethereum Foundation, Filecoin Foundation, Stellar Development Foundation, Algorand Foundation, Arbitrum Foundation, Celo Foundation, Web3 Foundation, and Kraken.

The U.S. cryptocurrency market structure bill, the "Clarity Act," is a "support for regulation, support for enforcement" bill that rebuts criticisms from some law enforcement agencies regarding its inadequacy in preventing financial crimes. As the midterm elections approach, the time window for Congress to pass this bill is narrowing. Senator Cynthia Lummis warned that if progress is not made this year, the bill may not be seriously reconsidered until after 2030. Currently, the Clarity Act still faces multiple controversies, including stablecoin yield arrangements, conflicts of interest arising from Trump-related cryptocurrency businesses, and whether anti-money laundering standards are stringent enough.The latest version also incorporates the "Blockchain Regulatory Certainty Act" (BRCA) pushed by DeFi supporters, aimed at clarifying that non-custodial developers should not be regarded as money transmitters. However, some law enforcement groups and lawmakers are concerned that the BRCA and certain provisions of the bill may weaken the ability to track illegal funds and recover victims' assets. Witt stated that lawmakers have responded to these concerns before the Senate Banking Committee vote and added provisions to strengthen regulatory and enforcement foundations.

According to Citywire, Jalina Kerr, head of advisor experience at Charles Schwab, stated that the company plans to launch cryptocurrency spot trading features for advisors on its custody platform by 2027. Progress is currently smooth, and the expected launch time may be closer to mid-year, although a specific date has not yet been determined. Charles Schwab has already introduced Bitcoin and Ethereum spot trading to retail clients this year.Kerr pointed out that digital assets are not uniformly regulated like other brokerage and securities products, and careful consideration is needed from fund deposits to withdrawals. She mentioned that advisors currently prefer to allocate crypto assets for clients through Charles Schwab's exchange-traded products, but interest in spot trading has recently increased. Charles Schwab's competitor, Fidelity, is currently offering cryptocurrency custody and trading solutions for wealth management managers.

According to Cointelegraph, White House crypto advisor Patrick Witt stated that the CLARITY Act will meet about 90% of the regulatory needs of the crypto industry.

According to CoinDesk, Crypto.com announced that its Chief Marketing Officer Steven Kalifowitz will officially step down on June 30 and subsequently take on the role of CEO advisor.During his nearly six-year tenure, Kalifowitz led the company’s investment of over $1 billion in brand marketing and partnerships, helping Crypto.com grow from a trading app to a globally recognized crypto brand. This includes a $700 million, 20-year naming rights partnership (Crypto.com Arena) and a $100 million advertising campaign in collaboration with Matt Damon.In addition, the company has also established high-exposure partnerships with Formula 1, UFC, and others. This personnel change marks a phased adjustment in Crypto.com's brand strategy.

According to Techfundingnews, AI law firm Moritz, co-founded by former OpenAI legal advisor Pamir Ehsas, announced the completion of a $9 million funding round, led by Y Combinator and 20VC, with participation from Urban Innovation Fund, Inception, and founders of several tech companies including Reddit, Dropbox, and Hugging Face.Moritz positions itself as an "AI-native law firm," offering fixed-price legal services, with most drafting and research work completed by artificial intelligence, followed by review and legal responsibility taken on by lawyers.