News linked to both this project and an event.
Odaily News The UK's National Crime Agency (NCA) has frozen over $13.6 million in funds held in Barclays bank accounts belonging to The Football Association Premier League Limited, the operating entity of the Premier League. The agency obtained a court order from Westminster Magistrates' Court in January 2025, freezing the funds under the Proceeds of Crime Act.The funds represent the first installment of a four-year sponsorship agreement with Sorare, announced in January 2023, which allowed Sorare to issue digital player cards for the 20 Premier League clubs. Sorare's partnership with the Premier League has concluded as of the 2025-26 season.Sorare also faces prosecution by the UK Gambling Commission, accused of offering gambling facilities without an operating license. The company has entered three not-guilty pleas, with the trial scheduled for June 2027. Sorare maintains that its game rewards skill rather than chance and denies that it constitutes a gambling product under UK law. (Decrypt)
Odaily News Crypto asset investment fund C1 Fund (NYSE: CFND) has announced its Q2 2026 performance results. As of June 30, the fund's net asset value (NAV) stood at $42.63 million, with a NAV per share of $6.49. The fair value of its investment portfolio was approximately $33.07 million, accounting for 77.5% of net assets.C1 Fund added Polymarket to its holdings in Q2, bringing its total investment portfolio to 11 companies. These span sectors including crypto payments, custody, compliance, staking, exchanges, development infrastructure, and prediction markets. Its two largest exposures are Ripple (17.5% of net assets) and Payward, the parent company of Kraken (16.9%).As of July 31, C1 Fund has repurchased and canceled 249,300 shares of its own stock at a total cost of approximately $824,000. The company is currently authorized to repurchase up to $3 million worth of shares. Management stated that buybacks conducted when the share price falls below NAV help enhance the per-share NAV for remaining shareholders.Additionally, Kraken and Blockchain.com have publicly announced that they have confidentially submitted potential IPO applications to the U.S. SEC; BitGo completed its IPO in January 2026. C1 Fund also revealed that an early partial issuer repurchase by Ripple generated approximately a 150% return on investment for the fund in just over four months. (Businesswire)
Odaily News: The sandwich attack bot operated by JaredfromSubway.eth has extracted a cumulative total of 117,007 ETH since March 2023, worth approximately $295 million at current prices. In June 2026, an anonymous attacker deployed 66 counterfeit token contracts, exploiting the bot's automated trading logic to steal at least $7.5 million in ETH and stablecoins, and funneled the funds into Tornado Cash. The stolen assets have not yet been recovered.Sandwich attacks are a form of Maximal Extractable Value (MEV): the bot monitors large transactions in Ethereum's public mempool, buys ahead of the target transaction, and sells after the transaction pushes the price up, capturing profits from the spread. The bot's primary contract had received a cumulative total of 117,007 ETH as of August 28.MEV-Boost block construction is centralized among a small group of participants, with relay.ultrasound.money, Titan Relay, and bloXroute regulated relays collectively forwarding approximately 85% to 88% of related blocks within a 24-hour window; Titan's builder independently assembled 50.3% of the blocks. Monthly sandwich attack extraction amounts have declined from approximately $10 million in late 2024 to roughly $2.5 million in October 2025. (Bitcoin.com News)
Odaily News: Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk stated that he will ask the Speaker of the Polish Sejm to organize a re-vote on the Crypto Asset Market Bill. The bill was vetoed for the third time by President Karol Nawrocki on June 11.Tusk noted that the Zondacrypto bankruptcy has become one of Poland's largest corruption cases in the crypto sector, with affected clients suffering losses of up to $94 million. He accused the ruling party of accepting cash and other benefits.The president's consecutive vetoes have prevented Poland from implementing the Markets in Crypto-Assets Regulation (MiCA), and domestic cryptocurrency exchanges are still unable to complete registration. Przemysław Kral, former head of Zondacrypto, had criticized that the bill would harm Poland's crypto industry. (Bitcoin.com News)
Odaily News, Hyperliquid Policy Center stated on the X platform that perpetual contracts should be central to the innovation agenda of the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC). The agency has submitted a statement ahead of the first meeting of the CFTC's Technology Advisory Committee on August 20, noting that perpetual contracts are expanding beyond digital asset markets into traditional asset classes such as equities and commodities, and that demand for these products among U.S. market participants is rising. Perpetual contracts can meet the risk management needs of various market participants, particularly suited for airlines hedging fuel costs, investment funds managing portfolio exposure, and AI developers addressing compute costs—exposures that are ongoing and have no defined expiration date. Compared to futures with fixed expiration dates, perpetual contracts require no rollover and face no expiration or delivery issues, using periodic funding rates to anchor the contract price to the underlying asset. Currently, on Hyperliquid, perpetual contracts deployed by third-party developers have covered over 80 traditional commodity and stock markets, with cumulative notional trading volume exceeding $500 billion. The CFTC has taken multiple steps this year to facilitate the launch of perpetual contract markets in the U.S. In May, the CFTC approved the first perpetual futures contract listed in the U.S. and issued a policy statement on listing perpetual contracts along with guidance on continuous trading; in June, the CFTC sought public comment on expanding perpetual contracts to energy commodities and further consulted on compute derivatives. Additionally, Hyperliquid Policy Center believes that on-chain infrastructure can also modernize U.S. derivatives markets within the existing regulatory framework. Public blockchains can openly record markets, orders, and positions, conduct margin assessments programmatically on an ongoing basis, and enable real-time collateral transfers, thereby reducing counterparty credit risk and settlement risk. The agency will continue to provide research and technical documents to the CFTC's Technology Advisory Committee and committee staff, and work to establish a pathway for U.S. market participants to access on-chain markets in a compliant manner. The agency believes that perpetual contracts represent one of the most notable financial innovations of the past decade and should be further developed in the U.S. market.
According to Chaoxiang Research, Goldman Sachs noted in its August 26 research report that the Federal Reserve's Jackson Hole Annual Economic Symposium will be held from August 27 to 29. Chairman Warsh's remarks on Friday at 10:00 a.m. New York time will be the market focus. Goldman Sachs expects Warsh to reiterate the 2% inflation target, outline the Fed's communication strategy, and discuss macroeconomic topics such as AI and productivity, but will not provide clear policy guidance for the September policy meeting. Goldman Sachs believes that improving inflation data for two consecutive months in June and July has bolstered the confidence of most FOMC members to maintain interest rates unchanged. With another round of CPI and PPI data due before the September 16 policy meeting, August core inflation is expected to increase approximately 0.2% month-on-month. A methodological adjustment on September 30 is expected to lower year-on-year core PCE by at least 0.2 percentage points. The peak impact of tariffs, oil prices, and AI demand on inflation has passed. Goldman Sachs expects the FOMC to keep interest rates unchanged in September and through the end of the year.
Odaily News: A survey by the National Institute on Retirement Security (NIRS) shows that 77% of Americans believe allocating cryptocurrency in workplace retirement plans carries risk, with 46% viewing it as highly risky; 53% oppose employers offering crypto investment options.The survey also reveals that 80% of respondents think the U.S. is facing a retirement crisis, up from 67% in 2020; 61% worry about achieving financial security after retirement. Additionally, 68% say preparing for retirement is becoming increasingly difficult, and 77% report that debt hinders their ability to save adequately.Conducted by Greenwald Research from October 24 to November 14, 2025, the survey covered 1,203 Americans aged 25 and older, with results weighted by age, gender, and income.U.S. policymakers are pushing to include alternative assets in retirement plans such as 401(k)s. The U.S. Department of Labor withdrew related fiduciary guidance in May 2025; on August 7, Donald Trump signed an executive order requiring expanded access to alternative assets in defined contribution retirement plans and directing the Department of Labor and the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to study related regulatory adjustments. In March 2026, the Department of Labor proposed rules for including alternative assets, and Bernie Sanders, Elizabeth Warren, and Bobby Scott called for the proposal to be withdrawn in June. (Cointelegraph)
Odaily News: Coinbase Chief Policy Officer Faryar Shirzad has written an article rebutting the American Bankers Association's concerns about stablecoin rewards, stating that existing data does not support the claim that stablecoin platforms paying rewards will lead to deposit outflows from community banks and weaken local credit. Current law already permits such rewards, and Coinbase has been paying rewards to USDC users for over four years. Faryar Shirzad noted that from June 2019 to March 2026, community bank deposits grew by 26%, an increase of approximately $482 billion; research by Charles River Associates and the Council of Economic Advisers similarly found no significant relationship between stablecoins and bank deposits. The modification the American Bankers Association is requesting does not concern technical details in the CLARITY Act. The current text prohibits users from receiving returns solely for holding idle funds, but allows rewards for genuine activity; the amendment proposed by the American Bankers Association could expand restrictions to ordinary stablecoin use cases, and leave questions such as whether merchant rebates constitute bank interest to be decided by regulators and litigation. Faryar Shirzad calls for maintaining the existing compromise and passing the CLARITY Act, stating that the bill would grant banks new authorities in custody, staking, lending, payments, clearing, and market making.
Odaily News: Recent Bitcoin volatility has triggered a wave of leveraged long position liquidations. On August 22, hourly liquidations reached $529 million, with long positions accounting for $478 million; on August 23, an additional $84 million in crypto long positions were liquidated within one hour.Prediction market Kalshi launched the first spot Bitcoin perpetual futures contract approved by the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) on June 3, with liquidations reaching $5.5 billion in the first two weeks. Kalshi CEO Tarek Mansour stated that the product offers U.S. institutions regulated onshore perpetual contract trading.Benjamin Schiffrin, Director of Securities Policy at Better Markets, pointed out that perpetual futures are high-risk crypto products for retail investors, and the CFTC did not impose additional investor protections when approving them. Analysis account Qmo noted that there are significant Bitcoin long liquidation pools in the $62,000 to $67,000 range; trader Money Bunny disclosed that short liquidations reached $2.7 billion to $3.5 billion within 24 hours. (Forbes Digital Assets)
Odaily News - Digital asset manager Grayscale's Zcash ETF began trading on NYSE Arca on Tuesday under the ticker ZCSH. The product is the world's first exchange-traded product offering spot exposure to Zcash, allowing investors to track ZEC prices through securities accounts without needing to directly purchase or store the token.ZCSH was formerly known as the Grayscale Zcash Trust, established in October 2017 through a private placement. Grayscale filed an application with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission in November 2025 to convert the trust into an ETF, with shareholders holding shares that track the fund's ZEC holdings rather than holding ZEC directly.In May of this year, security researcher Taylor Hornby, using Anthropic's Claude Opus 4.8, discovered a vulnerability in Zcash's Orchard shielded pool that had existed for four years, which could potentially allow attackers to mint counterfeit ZEC. Developers deployed an emergency patch on June 1, but due to privacy mechanisms, it was not possible to cryptographically confirm whether the vulnerability had been exploited.Zcash activated the Ironwood upgrade in July, replacing Orchard with a new shielded pool and introducing accounting rules that limit the amount of ZEC exiting the old shielded pool to no more than the amount entering. Grayscale stated it will monitor the adoption of the Ironwood upgrade, network security, exchange support, and regulatory conditions for privacy assets. (Decrypt)
According to a post by ZachXBT, after reviewing relevant evidence, he stated that two U.S. investment platforms, BitcoinIRA and iTrustCapital, are suspected of having suffered data breaches this year, though neither appears to have publicly disclosed the incidents to date. The compromised data reportedly includes user profiles, portfolio holdings, banking information, custodian details, and verification statuses. ZachXBT noted that in June 2026, an attacker leveraged information from the relevant database to target a BitcoinIRA user, stealing more than $1.2 million in assets.
According to Chaoxiang Research, Goldman Sachs' fourth annual report in its CHIPS Act series, released on August 24, indicates that by June 2026, China's semiconductor IC self-sufficiency rate will reach 70%, nearly double the 38% recorded in January 2010. Goldman Sachs has raised its forecast for China's semiconductor capital expenditure to $82 billion in 2030, up 79% from previous estimates. The report covers CXMT, China's leading DRAM manufacturer, for the first time, assigning a Buy rating with a target price of ¥129. Goldman Sachs projects that the supply-demand gap for China's advanced logic processes at 7nm and below will narrow from 92% in 2025 to 34% by 2035, while wafer demand for AI servers will grow at a CAGR of 42% over the same period. Under the baseline scenario, China's AI chip market is projected to reach $678 billion by 2030, representing a CAGR of 69% from 2025 to 2030; the DRAM market will reach $257 billion by 2028, growing at a 50% CAGR, with HBM expanding at an 188% CAGR. China's WFE spending will increase by 13%, 20%, and 15% in 2026, 2027, and 2028, respectively. The revenue share of domestic equipment manufacturers in China's WFE market will rise from 31% to 38%. Despite the rising localization rate, global equipment suppliers remain key beneficiaries of China's capacity expansion in advanced processes. Goldman Sachs recommends Applied Materials, Lam Research, and Onto Innovation.
According to The New York Times, two successive heads of the Polish crypto exchange Zondacrypto (formerly BitBay) have gone missing over a four-year period. Founder Sylwester Suszek disappeared in 2022, and his successor, Przemyslaw Kral, has also been missing since April this year. Prior to his disappearance, Kral stated that the exchange held approximately 4,500 BTC, valued at over $300 million, but the access keys to the relevant wallets were controlled by the already-missing Suszek. Zondacrypto subsequently became embroiled in disputes over client assets and withdrawals and came under investigation by Polish prosecutors. Its operating entity, BB Trade Estonia, had its virtual asset service license revoked by the Estonian Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU) on June 29.
Odaily News UBS has raised its S&P 500 index target, projecting a target of 8,100 points by December 2026 and further increasing to 8,400 points by June 2027, citing strong corporate earnings growth and sustained economic resilience.UBS expects S&P 500 companies' earnings per share (EPS) to reach $350 in 2026 and $400 in 2027, driven primarily by performance in the technology, semiconductor, and energy sectors.The bank continues to hold a positive outlook on U.S. economic resilience, the Federal Reserve's patient policy stance, and the accelerating adoption of artificial intelligence, believing there is still room for the current bull market to extend.However, UBS also flagged potential risks, including rising oil prices, resurgent inflation, and AI investment returns falling short of expectations, which could weigh on market valuations and upward momentum.
Odaily News - Bitcoin extended its gains on Wednesday and climbed above $72,000 on Thursday, reaching its highest level since June 1.Market analysis suggests that the recent rally is primarily driven by easing pressure in the U.S. Treasury market. The White House's earlier signals of support for Treasury market stability alleviated investor concerns over bond market volatility. However, the longer-term trajectory still depends on changes in Federal Reserve liquidity policy.Analyst Pedro Fontes noted that if the world's largest debt market requires policy support to maintain stable operation, it would further strengthen demand for assets that are scarce, predictable, and not reliant on government debt expansion—characteristics that Bitcoin aligns with. Meanwhile, the U.S. dollar index fell 0.88% to 98.77 yesterday, hitting a fresh low since May.Strive Founder and CEO Matt Cole stated that the dollar index has been in a long-term "structural downtrend," and a weaker dollar could create a more favorable investment environment for assets like Bitcoin. Markets will continue to monitor the White House's further remarks on the bond market, shifts in geopolitical conditions, and U.S. initial jobless claims data today, as these factors could influence Treasury yields and market liquidity expectations. (CoinDesk)
Odaily Odaily News: AI company OpenAI is advancing its IPO preparations with the goal of completing an initial public offering (IPO) next year. OpenAI Chief Financial Officer (CFO) Sarah Friar stated at an all-hands meeting that OpenAI will become a publicly listed company next year.Sarah Friar noted that competitor Anthropic may go public in September, ahead of OpenAI, but this does not affect OpenAI's focus on its own development. She pointed out that an IPO is just a milestone and another form of financing. OpenAI completed a $122 billion funding round in March this year and currently has considerable room for choice.If business growth outpaces expectations, OpenAI does not rule out launching its IPO earlier than originally planned. In the second quarter of this year, OpenAI's revenue was surpassed for the first time by latecomer competitor Anthropic. During the same period, Anthropic achieved its first quarterly adjusted operating profit, while OpenAI's operating losses further widened.OpenAI and Anthropic each confidentially filed IPO applications with securities regulators in June. OpenAI CEO Sam Altman had previously considered delaying the IPO to seek a corporate valuation exceeding $1 trillion; after its March funding round, OpenAI was valued at $852 billion. (ETNews SW)
Odaily News – Geoff Kendrick, Head of Digital Assets Research at Standard Chartered Bank, stated that Bitcoin (BTC) could rise to $100,000 by the end of 2026 as the U.S. Treasury expands liquidity support for the long-term bond market.In a recent client report, Kendrick noted that Bitcoin's current key technical resistance level is $65,500. If the price breaks through this level, it could signal that the cyclical low for this market cycle has already formed. He suggested investors begin positioning for a Bitcoin rally to $100,000 by year-end. Kendrick stated that beyond the four-year cycle pattern for Bitcoin, which suggests the market may be nearing a bottom, the U.S. Treasury's recent announcement to expand long-term bond buybacks is also a significant catalyst.The U.S. Treasury plans to raise the cap on buyback operations for 10- to 20-year and 20- to 30-year Treasury bonds from $2 billion to at least $4 billion per operation. The expanded program is scheduled to be implemented from September 9 to November 4. Following the announcement, yields on long-term U.S. Treasuries notably declined, easing the pressure that the significant sell-off in the bond market had placed on financial markets.Kendrick believes the Treasury's expanded bond buybacks represent a "favorable environment for Bitcoin," as Bitcoin has previously benefited multiple times from government liquidity interventions, while its fixed supply mechanism gives it properties that hedge against currency debasement. In the market, Bitcoin rose over 6% on Wednesday, briefly approaching $69,000, marking its highest level since early June. Kendrick has previously been repeatedly bullish on Bitcoin's long-term trajectory, arguing that as global fiscal pressures increase and monetary policy trends toward easing, Bitcoin may enter a new long-term upward cycle. (Cointelegraph)
Odaily News: Edward Zimbardi, a 59-year-old Georgia resident, appeared in U.S. federal court facing 12 counts of wire fraud, 12 counts of money laundering, and one count of conspiracy to commit money laundering. Fiji authorities handed him over to U.S. custody on August 14, in coordination with the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and the U.S. State Department.Prosecutors allege that Zimbardi operated a project called "The Crypto Program" from June 2022 to August 2023, luring participants with promises of a fixed 25% monthly return on advertising packages, requiring them to transfer cryptocurrency into wallets he secretly controlled. The government claims that thousands of individuals collectively transferred over $165 million into these wallets. Prosecutors stated that Zimbardi did not purchase advertising but instead funneled more than $34 million into high-risk forex trading, using funds from new investors to pay earlier ones. His personal spending totaled at least $10 million, including purchasing property for his son, buying luxury cars, and making alimony payments.The U.S. Department of Justice stated that after the project collapsed in August 2023, Zimbardi left the country and settled in Fiji in July 2025 upon learning of the FBI investigation. The FBI is urging affected investors to come forward with information. (Decrypt)
According to The Business Times, Vietnam is advancing a pilot for a regulated cryptocurrency market, with the first batch of local digital asset trading platforms potentially launching as early as the third quarter of 2026. Previously, due to strategic deficiencies in anti-money laundering, counter-terrorist financing, and counter-proliferation financing, Vietnam was placed on the grey list by the Financial Action Task Force in June 2023 and has missed the rectification deadline.
Blockchain analytics company Chainalysis Government Solutions filed a bid protest with the U.S. Court of Federal Claims on July 27, challenging the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) award of an approximately $94.6 million blockchain forensics software and support services contract to competitor TRM Labs on a sole-source basis. The contract term is from July 1, 2026 to June 30, 2027, for investigations related to the Homeland Security Special Operations Group.