News linked to both this project and an event.
According to Reuters, the Johor state government of Malaysia has revoked the business license of the digital nomad community Network School, founded by American investor and former Coinbase CTO Balaji Srinivasan, and required it to cease all operations in Forest City starting from July 22. The project was previously investigated after being accused on social media of assisting Israeli citizens in entering Malaysia, but the immigration department stated after inspection that the relevant members held valid travel documents. The Johor state government stated that the decision to revoke the license was made based on inspection reports, law enforcement results, and the company's statements.
Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong has responded to recent controversy surrounding his X account profile picture change and claims that the Base community is "unsupported." He thanked the community for their feedback and acknowledged that his previous communication regarding expectations was not clear enough. Users should not interpret the content of his personal X account as investment advice or signals for individual tokens. He stated that he simply shares internet content he finds interesting or amusing, and may not even be aware whether such content is associated with any particular token or project. He pointed out that his tweets and profile picture changes do not represent endorsements of or commitments to any project.Regarding support for the Base ecosystem, Brian Armstrong explained that Base aims to build financial services infrastructure, supporting various application scenarios including stock tokenization, lending protocols, stablecoin payments, and Meme coin trading. Coinbase supports users in freely trading assets but will not use its official influence to "pump" or promote specific tokens. Both Coinbase and the Base team are indeed subject to compliance and regulatory restrictions, preventing them from listing certain tokens on the centralized exchange and from marketing specific projects at the community's request.Base currently supports ecosystem development primarily through offline Base Batches events, developer grant programs, and investments from Coinbase Ventures and the Base Ecosystem Fund. Additionally, based on long-term user value assessment, Coinbase may integrate certain Base ecosystem DeFi protocols into its own products to help projects expand distribution.Brian Armstrong stated that Coinbase will continue to prioritize projects capable of creating long-term user value in the future, and expressed hope that this clarification will help the community set clearer expectations. He added that he may still continue to post Meme content he finds interesting, but such content will not constitute investment advice.
U.S. Senator Elizabeth Warren on July 16, 2026, asked President Donald Trump to release a full financial disclosure through July 15, covering his cryptocurrency income. The Senate is currently reviewing the CLARITY Act, a crypto market structure bill. The U.S. Office of Government Ethics released Trump's 2025 annual public financial disclosure on June 30, 2026. Warren stated the report shows Trump's crypto-related revenue at approximately $1.4 billion, more than double his total income in 2024, with crypto businesses accounting for the vast majority of his disclosed income. The disclosure documents show that Trump family members hold a 30% ownership stake in DT Marks Defi LLC, an entity whose assets include a Coinbase account valued at over $100 million, as well as a 38.25% interest in WLF Holdco LLC. DT Marks Defi LLC generated over $590 million in revenue in 2025. Trump stated on July 2 that the related income "is not illegal in any way, nor is there any problem," adding that his involvement in cryptocurrency predates his second term. He said he does not personally track profit details and noted that large institutions manage his investments.
Odaily News: Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong stated that self-custody wallets are the only way to bring the open financial system to over 1 billion users. He pointed out that alternatives like the Coinbase App work well in developed countries with clearer regulations, but the U.S. only accounts for 4% of the global population. Armstrong noted that self-custody reduces friction in account opening and registration, is globally accessible, and scales via software, rather than requiring regulated entities and local teams in every country. He also added that AI agents adopting self-custody forms are better suited to access funds and complete tasks, and that even in developed nations, self-custody is crucial for economic freedom. Former Base lead Jesse Pollak previously announced his departure, handing over Base to Jordan Fish. Pollak stated that Base will be built as a global financial blockchain. Under Cobie's leadership, Base will pivot towards three core areas: trading, payments, and agents.
Coinbase officially announced that the regulated derivatives clearing business of UK financial services group Marex has now formally supported the use of USDC as Initial Margin collateral. This marks the first entry of a stablecoin into the actual operational processes of traditional clearing infrastructure. The first transaction was completed by Prime Trading, LLC, with Coinbase providing the underlying infrastructure support, including custody services, 1:1 instant conversion between fiat currency and USDC, and a customized daily reporting system that meets clearing industry standards.The implementation of this business was made possible by a "No-Action Letter" issued by the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) in December 2025. This policy opens the door for Futures Commission Merchants (FCMs) to accept stablecoins, Bitcoin, and Ethereum as client margin collateral.Coinbase stated that USDC, as a collateral asset, can provide round-the-clock liquidity, helping institutions break free from the limitations of traditional banking hours, allowing margin funds to be transferred in line with market operating hours. In this partnership, the core capabilities provided by Coinbase include:24/7 instant conversion between fiat currency and USDC: Institutional clients can convert between USD and USDC at any time, improving the efficiency of margin allocation;Customized reporting system: Meets the requirements of traditional clearing systems for asset recording, reconciliation, and regulatory reporting;NYDFS-compliant custody: Provides institutional-grade security for USDC collateral assets.
Coinbase stated on X platform that Marex is leveraging Coinbase infrastructure to enable clients to use USDC as initial margin for US regulated futures and options, providing its traders with a new level of capital efficiency.
ARK Invest’s Head of Research, Lorenzo Valente, recently publicly refuted a16z Crypto’s assertion that “traditional finance needs blockchain, not DeFi,” arguing that financial institutions are more likely to be built on open DeFi infrastructure in the future. Public blockchains have already demonstrated their advantages over private blockchain solutions. The growth of tokenized assets on open networks like Ethereum highlights the stronger network effects and scalability potential of public blockchains.Lorenzo Valente pointed out that the builders of the next generation of financial infrastructure may not be traditional financial institutions, but rather crypto-native enterprises, such as Circle and Coinbase.Earlier, a16z Crypto presented a differing view, suggesting that traditional financial institutions are not truly embracing DeFi, but are selectively adopting blockchain technologies that meet their existing compliance, governance, and operational requirements. Banks and asset management firms will build “programmable financial infrastructure” in the future, leveraging core capabilities of blockchain like tokenization and atomic settlement, but while maintaining permissioned management and institutional control.Sentora co-founder Jesus Rodriguez also raised objections to a16z’s stance. He argued that financial institutions might eventually adopt the underlying DeFi infrastructure and layer compliance, custody, and enterprise-grade control mechanisms on top of it.With the rapid development of RWA tokenization, on-chain settlement, and institutional-grade financial applications, the debate over the future dominance of “open DeFi architecture” versus “permissioned blockchain systems” is intensifying. (Cointelegraph)
According to Visa's official website, Visa and Artemis jointly released a report that deeply analyzes the current status and trends of AI agent payments based on real-time on-chain data. The report indicates that AI agent payments are divided into two categories: one is "macro commerce" where agents replace users to complete tasks like booking tickets and subscriptions, similar to traditional e-commerce payments; the other is "micro commerce" such as high-frequency, low-value API calls between software, where single transaction amounts are typically less than 1 cent. On-chain data shows that the open protocol x402, incubated by Coinbase and Cloudflare and now hosted by the Linux Foundation, has processed approximately 109 million transactions since launching in May 2025, with an adjusted transaction volume of about $15 million, mainly active on the Base, Solana, and Polygon chains; the Machine Payment Protocol (MPP), jointly built by Stripe and Tempo with Visa's contribution, launched in mid-March 2026 and completed approximately 115,000 transactions within weeks, with a settlement amount of about $25,000. The report notes that blockchain settlement costs have dropped to extremely low levels, making small payments in the 1-cent to 1-dollar range economically feasible for the first time, but agent payments still face significant challenges at the legal and regulatory level regarding trust, liability attribution, and dispute resolution. Visa stated that its goal is to build a unified foundation that simultaneously supports card-native trust authorization and machine-native settlement
Coinbase disclosed AI has assisted in writing over 95% of code, doubling the proportion from February; the EU warns the end of the MiCA transition period may exacerbate compliance pressure.
Odaily News on July 14, Bitcoin ETFs recorded net inflows of $181 million, and Ethereum ETFs recorded net inflows of $58.34 million. No outflows were observed for either Bitcoin or Ethereum ETFs on that day. BlackRock's IBIT saw net inflows of $139 million, Fidelity's FBTC posted net inflows of $21.07 million; all net inflows into Ethereum ETFs came from BlackRock's ETHA. HYPE, XRP, and Solana ETFs had no trading activity on the day. Morgan Stanley submitted a proposed amended filing for spot Ethereum and Solana ETFs, with the document covering service providers such as Coinbase Custody and staking provisions. Japanese policymakers are advancing reforms aimed at classifying crypto assets under the Financial Instruments and Exchange Act.
Velocity, a stablecoin payment infrastructure startup, announced the completion of a $38 million Series A funding round. This round was led by crypto investment firm Dragonfly, with participation from Coinbase, Capital One Ventures, Wintermute, and other institutions. Velocity CEO Eric Queathem did not disclose the latest valuation. Founded in 2025, Velocity focuses on providing stablecoin payment solutions for enterprises, payment service providers, fintech companies, and financial institutions, helping them leverage dollar-pegged tokens to optimize cross-border payments, fund settlement, and treasury management processes.Currently, Velocity has covered markets in the United States, parts of Europe, and Australia. The company plans to use the new funds to apply for licenses, expand into Africa and Latin America, while also investing in building more secure asset custody infrastructure and developing new features, including stablecoin yield products. (Fortune)
The Malaysian Ministry of Home Affairs stated that it is investigating the "Network School" tech commune founded by former Coinbase Chief Technology Officer Balaji Srinivasan. The project is located in Forest City, Johor, where earlier social media allegations claimed that the commune hosted Israeli individuals who entered the country holding non-Israeli passports.
Coinbase Chief Policy Officer Faryar Shirzad responded on X on July 11 to U.S. Senator Elizabeth Warren's criticism of the CLARITY Act, stating that the bill would not weaken national security but would instead bring digital asset platforms under stronger regulation. Elizabeth Warren had previously stated on July 8 that the current draft of the CLARITY Act could provide opportunities for evading sanctions. Faryar Shirzad stated that the bill would require crypto platforms to comply with stricter national security standards and allow platforms to freeze suspicious transactions upon request from law enforcement. U.S. Senator Cynthia Lummis previously stated that the CLARITY Act includes 16 illicit finance safeguards and warned that the bill may represent the last major opportunity for the U.S. Congress to pass comprehensive digital asset rules before 2030. (Bitcoin.com News).
The Singapore Police Force's Anti-Scam Centre and Cybercrime Department, in a six-week joint anti-scam operation from April 16 to May 31, 2026, collaborated with Coinbase, Coinhako, Gemini, Independent Reserve, OKX, StraitsX, and Upbit. Using blockchain analysis tools from Chainalysis and TRM Labs, they identified potential scam victims and conducted over 145 targeted interventions via phone and in-person visits, preventing potential losses exceeding $4.2 million. Coinbase Singapore stated in a post on X on July 10 that it worked with the Singapore police to prevent over 145 individuals from losing a combined total of more than $4.2 million due to scams. The Singapore Police Force stated that it will continue to work with cryptocurrency exchanges and other private sector entities to combat cybercrime. (Bitcoin.com News).
According to Paul Grewal himself in a post on platform X, after serving at Coinbase for six years, Chief Legal Officer Paul Grewal will officially step down at the end of this month, transitioning to an advisory role, and will continue to serve on the board of Coinbase National Trust Company. During Grewal's tenure, he led the company's listing, won lawsuits against the SEC, pushed for the company's state of incorporation to move from Delaware to Texas, and actively promoted the legislative progress of the GENIUS Act and the CLARITY Act. Regarding succession arrangements, Molly White will take office as the new General Counsel, Ryan Van Grack will serve as Vice Chair responsible for global government and partner relations, while Faryar Shirzad will continue to lead the global policy team.
Coinbase Chief Legal Officer Paul Grewal is leaving the company after years of legal battles with U.S. regulators to join a startup. Coinbase announced that Molly Abraham will lead the company's legal team as General Counsel, and Ryan Van Grack will become Vice Chairman, expected to take on broader, more public-facing responsibilities. Grewal stated that he will continue to serve as an advisor to Coinbase and will be involved in the company’s trust charter work through the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency. Abraham has been with Coinbase since March 2021, serving as Vice President of Legal and managing multiple legal teams. (CoinDesk).
Coinbase has stated some users are temporarily unable to place trading orders on the prediction market via the web and mobile app. The team is investigating and addressing the issue, and the specific recovery time has not yet been announced.
Coinbase stated it has obtained UK investment service authorization, allowing it to offer cryptocurrency, stock, and derivative services under the same platform and login system. The authorization was granted by the UK Financial Conduct Authority under the MiFID framework, permitting regulated companies to provide investment services and trade financial instruments, including stocks and derivatives. Coinbase said that advanced traders will be able to access perpetual futures related to cryptocurrencies, stocks, and commodities, while retail investors will be able to trade stocks. Stablecoin payments, savings, lending, cryptocurrencies, derivatives, and stocks will also be available on Coinbase, and tokenized real-world assets are on its roadmap. Coinbase also holds a UK Electronic Money Institution license and a crypto asset service provider registration. (Bitcoin.com News).
Odaily Odaily News: Coinbase has announced that it has obtained a UK investment services license (MiFID), and will offer traditional financial product trading services to UK users in the future. Institutional and professional traders can trade perpetual contracts for crypto, stocks, and commodities, while retail users will be able to trade stocks on the Coinbase platform for the first time.Coinbase stated that this license, together with its existing UK e-money license and crypto asset registration, forms its regulatory framework. It represents the company's most significant expansion of product capabilities since entering the UK market and will further advance its "Everything Exchange" strategy. The platform will also gradually support services such as stablecoin payments, savings, lending, and tokenized real-world assets (RWA) in the future.
Coinbase sent an AI-generated news alert claiming the Norwegian national football team had defeated Brazil 3-2 before the World Cup match had even started. CEO Brian Armstrong has launched an investigation, and Coinbase stated that updates have been implemented to prevent future instances of inaccurate AI-generated information. The error comes as Coinbase is advancing its prediction market and "everything exchange" features, including an AI advisor and stock options. (CoinDesk).