News linked to both this project and an event.
Odaily News: Summer Mersinger, CEO of the Blockchain Association and former Commissioner of the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), stated that the Clarity Act prohibits payments made solely for holding stablecoins, as well as programs that are economically or functionally equivalent to interest on bank deposits, with penalties attached to such attempts in the text. She noted that an August 4 editorial on the Clarity Act acknowledged that the bill would end the regulatory gray area left by the previous administration, provide investors and banks with rules that future governments cannot arbitrarily overturn, and open pathways for innovations such as tokenized stocks and bonds.
According to Cryptopolitan, the U.S. Senate is scheduled to enter recess on August 7, leaving an extremely limited window for the CLARITY Act to pass before then. If voting is not completed this week, the next feasible window will be delayed until September, and if missed again, it could be postponed until after the midterm elections, meaning enactment may not occur until 2027. The main disagreement over the bill currently lies in the Democrats' insistence on adding crypto ethics clauses for senior government officials, but the consolidated draft has not yet incorporated relevant provisions. During the regulatory vacuum, large institutions such as Coinbase and Circle are better equipped to adapt to the uncertain environment due to their capital strength—ARK Invest increased its holdings in both companies this week, and Circle was approved for a federal national trust bank charter in July—while small and medium-sized crypto enterprises and DeFi projects continue to face pressure. In terms of the market, Polymarket data shows that the probability of the CLARITY Act passing within 2026 has dropped to 23%, a significant decline from Galaxy Research's prediction of 67%–75% in mid-May.
According to HK01, the Hong Kong Police updated information on the virtual currency "Fun Coffee" fraud case, disclosing that as of August 5, a total of 255 related reports had been received, an increase of 30 cases from earlier. The total involved losses have increased to approximately HK$104 million. In addition, the Macau Judicial Police arrested two women involving 9 cases worth about MOP 3.6 million. Regarding some TVB artists having previously hosted activities related to the Fun Coffee fraud case, the Hong Kong Police stated that they will definitely contact victims and relevant individuals during the investigation to determine the masterminds of the fraud and the roles played.
According to Globenewswire, Grayscale Investments announced on August 5 that it has completed the Q2 2026 review and rebalancing of its multi-asset funds, involving three products: the Grayscale Decentralized Finance Fund, the Grayscale Smart Contract Fund, and the Grayscale Decentralized Artificial Intelligence Fund, and disclosed the latest constituent assets and weights as of August 3, 2026.
Odaily News: The U.S. Senate has not yet indicated whether it will take up the Digital Asset Market Clarity Act. With only two session days remaining before the summer recess, the Senate has also made no official statement on whether or when a vote on the bill will take place. The Senate could address the bill after returning to Washington in September, but limited working days remain before the final stretch of the 2026 midterm elections. The Senate may also extend the session, originally scheduled to end on August 7, to make room for a procedural vote on the Clarity Act.
According to Cointelegraph, U.S. Senator Cynthia Lummis stated that the Senate is expected to vote on the Digital Asset Market Clarity Act before the August recess. The bill previously passed the House of Representatives in July 2025, but currently still faces resistance in the Senate, including Democrats' demand to strengthen ethics provisions involving President Donald Trump's digital asset investments, as well as concerns from some Republican lawmakers and the banking sector regarding the relevant provisions.
Odaily News The U.S. Department of the Treasury released a joint statement on August 4, outlining discussions from the U.S.-UK Financial Regulatory Working Group meeting held in London on July 8. Regulators from both countries expanded collaboration in areas including digital assets, stablecoins, payment modernization, AI, financial stability, capital markets, and cross-border financial cooperation. Participants included finance ministries from both countries, the Bank of England, the Federal Reserve, the UK Financial Conduct Authority, and multiple U.S. financial regulatory agencies. The U.S. side provided updates on the implementation progress of the GENIUS Act for stablecoins and digital asset market structure, while the UK side presented its digital strategy for wholesale financial markets. Both sides support comparable regulatory standards for stablecoins, including cross-border usage, comparable treatment of similar risks, and requirements that stablecoins used as money be backed at least one-to-one by high-quality liquid asset reserves. The U.S. Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation has proposed implementation standards for the GENIUS Act, covering reserves, redemption, capital, liquidity, risk management, custody, and safekeeping. The Bank of England has published draft rules for stablecoins that could reach systemic scale in the UK economy, including a temporary issuance cap of £40 billion per systemic stablecoin, unrestricted use by individuals and businesses, and reserve requirements. The Financial Regulatory Working Group is expected to convene again in early 2027.
Odaily News: U.S. Senate Digital Assets Subcommittee Chair Cynthia Lummis stated that the Senate will hold a vote on the CLARITY Act before lawmakers begin their August recess. The bill aims to divide federal crypto regulatory responsibilities and covers ethics, enforcement, consumer protection, and market certainty. Lummis said negotiations around the bill have been ongoing for 11 months, with Democrats proposing more than 300 pages of amendments. Current negotiations still involve sections related to the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), enforcement provisions, and ethics rules for senior federal officials. On August 5, Democratic staff on the Senate Banking Committee listed five unresolved areas, including securities protection, illicit finance, national security, and presidential conflicts of interest. Donald Trump has received a bipartisan counter-proposal that would allow state attorneys general to enforce federal crypto ethics rules. Under the CLARITY Act, the CFTC and the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) would share regulatory oversight, establishing distinct pathways for qualifying digital commodities and securities. CFTC Chairman Michael S. Selig and SEC Chairman Paul Atkins both support advancing clearer digital asset regulatory legislation.
Senator Lummis stated that the Senate will vote on the Clarity for Digital Asset Markets Act before the August recess, but the bill still faces obstacles such as controversy over Democratic ethics provisions and the 60-vote threshold.
Odaily News: Luxembourg has passed a new law authorizing the Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU) to send cross-institutional fraud alerts to traditional banks and cryptocurrency exchanges, with the relevant measures taking effect on August 8. The bill, numbered 8722, requires cryptocurrency exchanges operating in Luxembourg to receive alerts in sync with banks and payment institutions. The bill aims to close the loophole that allows fraudulent funds to move rapidly between traditional financial institutions and digital assets. Under previous rules, banks could only block transactions of flagged accounts within their own systems and were unable to notify another financial institution or cryptocurrency exchange to prevent funds from entering or leaving. Max Braun, head of Luxembourg's FIU, stated that incorporating cryptocurrency exchanges into the cross-departmental alert system will make it more difficult to cash out from flagged accounts. According to data from Luxembourg's Ministry of Justice, police recorded 6,382 fraud cases in the country in 2024, and financial practitioners submitted more than 18,000 reports of fraud and scams.
According to South Korean media Daum, after South Korean financial regulators raised the investment threshold for single-stock leveraged products, South Korean retail investors began adjusting their overseas investment portfolios, reducing holdings of high-leverage products and shifting to directly buying underlying US stocks. Data shows that since the minimum cash margin for single-stock leveraged products was raised to 30 million Korean won on August 1, significant capital outflows have occurred in Tesla's 2x leveraged product TSLL. South Korean investors still net bought approximately $14.58 million worth of TSLL on August 3, but on August 4, the buying amount plummeted to $1.56 million, while the selling amount rose to $8.68 million, turning to a net sell of $7.11 million for the day.
Odaily News With the end of the "Quiet Period" following SK Hynix's U.S. ADR listing, the market has begun to focus on whether the company will introduce shareholder return policies, including a stock split. Among these, the possibility of a "split" against the backdrop of high stock prices has become a key topic of discussion. Recent sentiment circulating in the Korean market suggests that SK Hynix may follow the precedent set by Samsung Electronics, promoting a stock split after continued share price gains to lower the per-share price and expand participation from individual investors. However, such claims have not yet been officially confirmed by the company.Park Seok-hyun, Deputy Head of the WM Products Division at Woori Bank, stated on YTN Radio on the 5th that there is "currently no clear basis" for an SK Hynix stock split, but it "cannot be considered entirely impossible." While SK Hynix's current par value is relatively low and whether there is room for another split is debated, a stock split is not completely out of the question as the share price continues to rise.He noted that following the listing of SK Hynix's ADR on the U.S. market in July, newly listed companies typically undergo a "quiet period" of about 25 days, during which major policy changes are rarely announced. That period ended on August 4th."The end of the quiet period means SK Hynix has entered a phase where it may announce important financial policies. The recent uptick in market discussions about stock splits and dividend increases may be linked to this timing," Park said.Market observers believe SK Hynix's current stock price is already at a high level on the Korean exchange. As of the close on the 5th, the company's stock was trading at 1.668 million KRW per share, a relatively high unit price. If a stock split were implemented in the future, it could lower the investment threshold and boost trading activity among retail and overseas investors.Additionally, Park noted that SK Hynix's profitability has improved significantly in recent years, and the company may also strengthen shareholder return policies in the future, including raising dividend levels. If such policies materialize, they could further increase interest from U.S. market investors in its ADR.However, SK Hynix has not yet made any official announcements regarding a stock split or adjustments to its dividend policy, and market speculation still awaits confirmation from the company's board and official sources. (Daum)
According to the official website of the UK Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), the FCA announced the simplification of information disclosure and research publication rules for UK stock initial public offerings to enhance the competitiveness of the UK listing market. The new rules eliminate the 7-day waiting period for connected research reports in initial public offerings and simplify information sharing requirements between issuers and intermediaries, aiming to reduce issuance execution risks and compliance costs and facilitate corporate access to the public capital market. The relevant rules took effect immediately on August 5, 2026.
According to TechFlow Research, Reuters reported on August 4 that the Trump administration and the FCC are preparing to restrict Chinese data center components from entering the US, with optical modules specifically mentioned. Morgan Stanley pointed out in a research report on the same day that Zhongji Innolight and Eoptolink collectively account for approximately 50% of the optical module market share; if the ban is implemented, this portion of demand will shift to non-Chinese suppliers. Coherent (COHR) is the biggest beneficiary, Lumentum (LITE) indirectly benefits from the continued tight supply of EMLs, and Applied Optoelectronics (AAOI) and Fabrinet (FN) also have the capacity to absorb the demand. Morgan Stanley believes the short-term implementation of the ban faces two major bottlenecks: non-Chinese manufacturers' capacity cannot quickly fill the demand gap; Indium Phosphide (InP) substrates rely on China's AXTI, with Lumentum having just signed a new supply agreement last week and one of the purposes of Coherent's CEO visiting China several months ago being to secure InP supply. The ban will cause a supply shock in the short term but is beneficial for the restructuring of the non-Chinese supply chain in the long term.
According to NADA NEWS, the Japan Financial Services Agency announced on August 5 that it will officially establish the "Crypto Assets and Stablecoins Division" on August 7, placing it under the jurisdiction of the newly established Asset Management and Insurance Supervision Bureau. This organizational restructuring marks a substantive upgrade of Japan's crypto asset regulatory system—relevant functions previously dispersed among multiple affiliated bodies such as the "Crypto Assets, Blockchain, and Innovation Counselor Office" and the "Crypto Assets Monitoring Office" are now formally integrated into an independent division-level department. The newly established division comprises three sub-departments: the "Crypto Assets Monitoring Office" responsible for exchange supervision, the "Innovation Promotion Office," and the "Digital Payment Planning Office." The Financial Services Agency stated that this restructuring aims to address new challenges more precisely, such as the rapid development of digital technology in the financial sector and the strengthening of regulation over financial institutions.
According to The Block, Bitwise Chief Investment Officer Matt Hougan stated that even if the US Clarity Act fails to pass this week, the crypto industry will still find a way forward. The US Congress will enter summer recess from August 10 to September 11, leaving the Clarity Act with only a three-day window to advance in the Senate. Hougan pointed out that if the bill fails to pass, SEC Chairman Paul Atkins may directly introduce regulatory rules more friendly to the crypto industry, which could even become an accelerator for industry development. However, he also warned that delayed legislation will increase market uncertainty, further hindering institutional investors from entering the market.
According to TechFlow Research, a buy-side survey by JPMorgan on August 3 showed that for most of the nine semiconductor and hardware companies, buy-side expectations were higher than company guidance. onsemi (ON) Q2 revenue buy-side average was $1.61 billion (guidance $1.59 billion), gross margin 39.5% (guidance 39.0%), EPS $0.75 (guidance $0.71), and FY2027 EPS average $3.57 (guidance $3.11). Approximately 60% of respondents expect ON to slightly raise its 2026 AI revenue target (currently around $500 million). After a stock price drawdown of approximately 25%, ON has shifted from net short to slightly net short, with earnings implied volatility at 7.5%. For the eight companies AMAT, AMD, ANET, COHR, CSCO, LITE, SNDK, and WDC, buy-side average revenue, gross margin, and EPS were all higher than company guidance. JPMorgan believes that July AI momentum unwinding led to a significant drawdown in the semiconductor sector, but buy-side expectations for earnings are not low, creating a contrast between buy-side expectations and stock price pessimism. AMAT earnings implied volatility of 18% is significantly higher than the historical average, indicating the bar for beating expectations is rising. ON is an exception; AI expectations are extremely low, instead leaving room for earnings to beat expectations.
According to BeInCrypto, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit officially issued the mandate in the SBF case on August 4, marking the formal conclusion of Sam Bankman-Fried's appellate proceedings. The one-page order affirmed the original verdict without providing any new reasoning, leaving his 25-year prison sentence and approximately $11 billion forfeiture order unchanged. Previously, on June 12, the panel rejected SBF's appeals on all seven counts. In the opinion, Judge Parker noted that while SBF publicly assured customers, investors, and regulators of the safety of FTX funds, he misappropriated customer funds for real estate, political donations, and personal investments. Currently, SBF's only remaining judicial recourse is to petition for a writ of certiorari from the U.S. Supreme Court within 90 days, but the Supreme Court's acceptance rate is extremely low. Additionally, SBF has separately submitted a clemency application to the Department of Justice, but Senators Cynthia Lummis and Ruben Gallego have jointly introduced a resolution opposing the granting of clemency to him.
Odaily News - U.S. Democratic Senators Elizabeth Warren and Richard Blumenthal sent a letter to SEC Chairman Paul Atkins on Monday, calling for an investigation into whether President Trump's related Meme coins violate securities laws.In the letter, the two senators cited reports stating that since the Trump Meme coin launched in January 2025, nearly 1 million crypto wallets have incurred losses, totaling approximately $3.81 billion. They accused Trump of potentially engaging in a "rug pull" and requested that the SEC determine whether fraudulent arrangements or securities law violations exist.Warren and Blumenthal stated that despite the token's price being driven by Trump's own public statements, its value has plummeted significantly, making it necessary for the SEC to investigate whether a fraudulent scheme exists and to prevent continued extraction of substantial value from hundreds of thousands of investors.The letter comes as the White House is evaluating the latest ethics provisions compromise regarding conflicts of interest in Trump's cryptocurrency business. This proposal is seen as key to advancing the "Clarity Act" crypto market structure legislation. A previous Trump-endorsed draft drew opposition from Democrats because it only restricted public officials and their spouses from issuing or sponsoring digital assets, did not cover other family members, and designated the Department of Justice for enforcement.The two senators also claimed that Trump has an "active interest" in encouraging supporters to trade his Meme coin, and alleged that Trump has earned $636 million in revenue from the Meme coin. With the Senate entering its August recess on Friday and attention subsequently shifting to the November elections, whether the "Clarity Act" can advance in the near term still depends on whether both parties can reach consensus on Trump-related crypto conflicts of interest.
Odaily News – Regulators from the United States and the United Kingdom, at the 13th US-UK Financial Regulatory Working Group meeting held in London on July 8, reaffirmed their commitment to strengthening financial regulatory cooperation. The two sides discussed stablecoin regulation, the US digital asset market structure, tokenization, and the UK's digital strategy for the wholesale financial market. A joint statement released on August 4 showed that US officials briefed the UK side on the progress of the GENIUS Act implementation and work related to the digital asset market structure. Participants also discussed payment modernization and the G20 cross-border payments roadmap, which aims to improve cross-border payments. The meeting did not yield new policy measures. Both sides stated that they would coordinate regulation in key areas of the digital asset industry and support responsible digital asset innovation within the framework of financial stability and international regulatory cooperation. On July 14, the Transatlantic Taskforce for Markets of the Future, a joint US-UK initiative focused on financial innovation and capital market cooperation, released preliminary recommendations and simultaneously issued a joint statement on stablecoins. The two governments stated that these measures would lay the foundation for continued cooperation between the US and the UK in the digital asset and capital market sectors.