securities

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.

Coinbase posted on the X platform stating that the company has designated the Abu Dhabi Global Market (ADGM) as its international tokenization center. After obtaining the new FSRA license, the company can now offer global securities to any user with a wallet.Coinbase stated that the next frontier of global finance is the on-chain space, and the company is advancing related developments from the UAE.

Nomura Securities stated that the scale of the intervention by the Japanese Ministry of Finance may exceed the levels seen from late April to early May, with an estimated intervention scale of approximately 14.1 trillion yen (equivalent to 88 billion USD) during the period from July 30 to August 3, surpassing the total intervention amount of 11.7349 trillion yen on April 30, May 4, and May 6.

On August 10, UMX (The Unified Market Exchange), incubated by Avenir Group under Li Lin, announced the launch of an invitation-only public beta. UMX is positioned as a crypto-friendly securities platform for global professional investors, supporting spot, leverage, contract, and options trading of crypto assets, while also supporting real US stocks, ETFs, and US stock options trading. The aim is to connect crypto assets and real securities trading on the same platform, enhancing the capital efficiency of cross-asset trading.The public beta focuses on opening the capital link between crypto assets and securities accounts, supporting functions such as stablecoin exchange transfers, non-stablecoin collateralized lending, fiat account withdrawals and deposits, and the mutual conversion of securities holdings and stock tokens. To enhance cross-asset capital efficiency, the platform introduces a cross-asset margin mechanism, allowing financial assets to be used as margin. During the public beta, BTC and USDT financial products will also be launched, with the highest annualized returns reaching 2.5% and 5.5%, respectively. This public beta is invitation-only, and users who have not yet obtained a public beta code can reserve the official version and participate in the early bird benefits program.

According to Digital Asset, NYSE President Lynn Martin stated that they are developing an on-chain payment platform for tokenized securities and have participated in the tokenization pilot project of the Depository Trust & Clearing Corporation (DTC) in July.

The Cyprus Securities and Exchange Commission (CySEC) will conduct on-site inspections and off-site reviews of authorized crypto asset service providers from the second half of 2026 to the first half of 2027, with a focus on institutions providing digital asset custody services.This action is part of the 2026 joint supervisory action coordinated by the European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA), which aims to assess areas such as institutional governance and control frameworks, key and storage management, private key security, wallet storage, and access controls.The review will also cover trading controls, monitoring and incident response, smart contract security, and third-party risk management. CySEC stated that the relevant standards are mandatory, and the institutions' compliance readiness will be used as a selection criterion for subsequent inspections.

The Hong Kong Securities and Futures Commission has announced that Polar Tensor has been included in the list of suspicious virtual asset trading platforms, and 17 related websites have been listed.The Hong Kong Securities and Futures Commission reminds that Polar Tensor and its website are not licensed by the Commission to conduct regulated activities in Hong Kong.

According to the WSJ, Wintermute's U.S. subsidiary has registered as a broker-dealer, marking the company's official entry into the regulated U.S. financial market. This registration qualifies it to apply to become a designated market maker on securities exchanges such as the New York Stock Exchange and NASDAQ, providing a foundation for its expansion into the traditional financial services sector. The report noted that Wintermute is competing with large market-making institutions such as Jane Street Capital and Citadel Securities.

According to Bloomberg, informed sources revealed that a recent wave of complex cyberattacks targeted several large asset management firms on Wall Street, with attackers attempting to infiltrate the information systems of the relevant companies. Several large hedge funds globally became targets of the attacks, including Two Sigma Investments, Citadel, and Point72 Asset Management. In addition, several private equity firms were also attacked.It is currently unclear who the attackers are, the methods used in the attacks, and whether any sensitive data has been compromised. Informed sources requested anonymity due to the involvement of undisclosed information. This incident has once again raised market concerns about the cybersecurity risks faced by financial institutions. As asset management companies increasingly rely on complex information systems, algorithmic trading, and cloud infrastructure, the financial industry is becoming a primary target for cyber attackers.

Binance will add 10 bStocks tokens as qualified collateral assets on August 5, 2026, at 20:00. These include BitMine Immersion Technologies (BMNRB), Super Micro Computer (SMCIB), IREN Limited (IRENB), ASML (ASMLB), Netflix (NFLXB), AST SpaceMobile (ASTSB), Coherent (COHRB), Credo Technology (CRDOB), USA Rare Earth (USARB), and Astera Labs (ALABB).Eligible users can use these tokens as margin collateral to participate in full-margin leverage, unified account mode, and unified account professional version trading.

According to Jinshi News, Castle Securities stated that the forces that drove U.S. stocks to record highs this year are still "firmly in place" after retail investor speculative trading has cooled down. Scott Rubner, head of equity and equity derivatives strategy at Castle Securities, indicated that the market is shifting from a fund flow-driven environment to one determined by earnings, corporate demand, and macroeconomic conditions.The retreat of retail investors has led to a 28% decline in the asset size of leveraged ETFs to $154 billion, and the decrease in financing costs for stock positions indicates that the pressure faced by Wall Street's trading departments has eased. Recent strong earnings performance is favorable for the U.S. stock market, and corporate buyback demand is expected to accelerate.

According to Jinshi reports, China Merchants Securities released a research report stating that the AI industry is currently still facing real supply constraints, and there has not yet been a significant overall surplus. Large technology companies are still increasing investments in AI infrastructure, and customer demand for additional supply continues to grow.Microsoft's computing power utilization and SK Hynix's order situation indicate that the current industrial contradictions mainly manifest as insufficient supply of high-performance computing power, advanced storage, and data center support. Short-term investment opportunities can be focused on alleviating computing power bottlenecks.

The Hong Kong Securities and Futures Commission has announced that BiFinance has been listed as a suspicious virtual asset trading platform. The Hong Kong Securities and Futures Commission stated that the company claims to be licensed in Hong Kong and asserts that it offers digital asset trading services such as spot, futures, and wealth management on its website, as well as other services related to digital assets. However, the company is not licensed by the Securities and Futures Commission and is suspected of conducting unlicensed activities.

According to Jinshi, the China Securities Regulatory Commission and the Hong Kong Securities and Futures Commission jointly announced new measures to deepen practical cooperation and closely coordinate development between the two markets, covering various areas such as listing financing, index cooperation, futures products, exchange-traded funds (ETFs), internationalization of financial institutions, green finance, and facilitation of professional qualifications.

According to Jinshi reports, CITIC Securities stated that after missing this round of interest rate hikes, regardless of whether the Federal Reserve raises rates in September, U.S. stock valuations are under pressure in the short term. However, in the medium to long term, the implementation of interest rate hikes is expected to relieve valuation pressure, combined with the positive orientation of the "Productivity and Employment Working Group" towards AI, the narrative of AI in U.S. stocks is expected to continue in the long term.Interest rate-sensitive sectors, high valuation low growth segments, and small-cap stocks are under pressure, and the market is focused on the Jackson Hole conference at the end of August or the September interest rate meeting.

Aave founder Stani stated that the recent gradual contraction of low adoption assets and networks on Aave should not be interpreted as a judgment on any L1 or L2. This move is primarily aimed at reducing Aave's risk exposure in operational, technical, and economic aspects, thereby concentrating resources on more impactful key directions, including expanding existing high-value markets and developing securities financing business.He also emphasized that L2 remains an important component of the Ethereum user experience. For example, the stablecoin vault in the Aave application uses L2 as its accounting layer, with the goal of driving mainstream users into decentralized finance. Meanwhile, networks like Avalanche are also promoting the on-chain of real-world assets through institutional business expansion, which has been a relatively weak area for Ethereum in the past.

The Hong Kong Securities and Futures Commission (SFC) issued a restriction notice to Futu Securities International (Hong Kong) Limited, prohibiting it from handling or disposing of assets in customer accounts held by a certain entity, limited to HKD 125,247,000. This entity is suspected of participating in a fraudulent scheme aimed at creating a false or misleading appearance of demand for initial public offering shares. Futu is not the subject of the SFC's investigation, and this restriction notice will not affect Futu or its other clients.According to the notice, Futu must not dispose of or handle the relevant account assets in any way without the SFC's written consent, and must immediately notify the SFC if it receives any instructions related to the restricted assets. The SFC believes that issuing this restriction notice is in the interest of investors and the public. The investigation is still ongoing.

According to official news, the Gate gStocks section will launch ZHIPUG (Zhipu AI), MINIMAXG (MiniMax), TENCENTG (Tencent Holdings), HOODG (Robinhood), IBMG (IBM), AMZNG (Amazon), BEG (Bloom Energy), DELLG (Dell Technologies), FLNCG (Fluence Energy), SMHG (VanEck Semiconductor ETF), and SOXSG (Direxion Semiconductor 3x Short ETF) for spot trading of 11 gStocks tokenized securities on July 30 at 14:00 (UTC+8). The gStocks tokenized securities products have a 1:1 full native reserve, providing a one-stop solution for 24/7 securities trading.In addition, Gate will launch the fourth phase of the gStocks new coin trading carnival from July 30 at 16:00 to August 6 at 16:00 (UTC+8). Completing designated gStocks trades will allow participants to receive newcomer rewards, participate in the holding plan and trading competition, sharing a total prize pool of $50,000 SNDKG.

Binance will add 10 bStocks tokens on July 29, 2026, at 20:00 --- Apple (AAPLB), Bloom Energy (BEB), Amazon (AMZNB), Direxion Semiconductor Bear 3X ETF (SOXSB), Dell (DELLB), Fluence Energy (FLNCB), Applied Materials (AMATB), PayPal (PYPLB), Goldman Sachs (GSB), and VanEck Semiconductor ETF (SMHB) --- as eligible collateral assets.Eligible users can use these bStocks tokens as margin collateral, expanding the collateral options for margin trading.

According to Jinshi reports, a strategist at TD Securities stated in a report that if the Federal Reserve maintains interest rates on Wednesday, the dollar may experience a reflexive weakness. It is expected that interest rates will remain unchanged, but Federal Reserve officials Harker and Logan will hold opposing views, supporting a rate hike. Nevertheless, due to the intact expectations for the Federal Reserve's rate hikes for the remainder of 2026, any short-term weakness of the dollar may be limited.