News linked to both this project and an event.
Odaily, July 21 - Microsoft and French AI startup Mistral AI announced an expansion of their strategic partnership on July 21, signing a multi-billion dollar agreement centered on European AI infrastructure to enhance AI computing capabilities in the region. Under the agreement, Microsoft will leverage Mistral's expanded European GPU infrastructure to support its cloud computing and AI services. This infrastructure will be based on thousands of Nvidia Vera Rubin GPUs.In terms of products, the Mistral Medium 3.5 and OCR 4 models are now available on the Microsoft Foundry platform, and Mistral Medium 3.5 has also been integrated into Microsoft Copilot Studio for agent applications, document processing workflows, and industry-customized workflows. Additionally, the two parties will expand AI deployment options through Azure and Azure Local, supporting cloud, cloud-connected, and fully offline environments, targeting industries with high data compliance requirements such as finance, healthcare, and manufacturing.
Gate issued an announcement regarding the recent "user asset theft incident," sharing internal comprehensive verification results, analysis of the incident's cause, and progress on subsequent handling. Regarding the verification process and key facts, the announcement stated that after comprehensive verification, materials submitted by the applicant at the time, including account information, real-name information, transaction records, Alipay screen recordings, etc., matched the account completely. According to analysis by the technical team, Alipay screen recordings can only be made by the customer themselves or someone with access to the customer's Alipay account. Alipay possesses an extremely strict real-time risk control system; logging into Alipay on a different device will mandate multi-factor authentication. This indicates a situation involving serious leakage of customer information or device compromise. Regarding the Gate platform audit mechanism, the announcement stated that the Company's security unbinding audit mechanism strictly executes the four-fold verification process of "Multi-channel advance notification + System risk control preliminary screening + Manual multi-layer review + Time protection," and never has nor will it approve any security item change application based on a single material alone. Gate always takes information security and customer data protection as the Company's core management requirements. The issue of internal information leakage mentioned by some parties does not exist. Regarding fund recovery and subsequent handling, the announcement stated that Gate processed the matter with the highest priority immediately after the incident occurred, coordinating security, compliance, legal, business, and other teams to carry out on-chain analysis and asset tracking and freezing. It continues to coordinate with third-party institutions such as Tether to advance fund freezing. Subsequently, it will also actively cooperate with judicial authorities in investigations and data collection. Any substantive progress will be communicated immediately.
According to The Block, Block agreed to pay $45 million to settle with regulators in nearly 50 U.S. states. Regulators alleged that its Cash App exaggerated platform security safeguards, describing it as having fund protection capabilities comparable to traditional banks, but failed to effectively prevent fraud and did not provide adequate customer support and fraud reporting channels.
According to Fortune magazine, the political battle surrounding New York State Assemblymember Alex Bores’ congressional campaign has escalated into a direct confrontation between two major camps in the AI industry: OpenAI and Anthropic have each contributed millions to tens of millions of dollars through affiliated political action committees (PACs) to support candidates with opposing stances.
CJ Hetherington, co-founder and CEO of prediction market platform Limitless Labs, stated that he does not believe the prediction market industry will see a single dominant monopoly player. He draws a parallel to the offshore perpetual contract market, where even leading platforms have never long-term held over 90% market share. Core trading volume in the derivatives market comes from market makers and high-frequency traders, who typically operate across multiple platforms to exploit spreads for arbitrage, structurally limiting market concentration.CJ Hetherington cited Binance’s perpetual contracts as an example, noting that its market share once approached 50% but was gradually diverted by other trading platforms, leading to a multi-platform coexistence pattern. He argues that prediction markets will follow a similar path rather than a "winner-takes-all" outcome.Hetherington pointed out that future industry distribution will primarily be conducted through brokers and futures commission merchants, with institutions like Robinhood, Interactive Brokers, and Charles Schwab competing in distribution. Fees and marketing will become the core of consumer-side competition. However, the U.S. regulatory framework is an "advantage rather than an obstacle" for the prediction market industry, as CFTC oversight helps reduce contract disputes, enhance transparency, and is also more suitable for institutional participation. (The Block)
the actively managed crypto ETF launched by T. Rowe Price was approved by the U.S. SEC on June 12, 2026, marking a key step toward its listing on NYSE Arca. Although the product has not yet begun trading, it is close to being officially opened to investors.The ETF plans to allocate between 5 and 15 crypto assets. The current draft shows it will cover major assets such as Bitcoin (BTC), Ethereum (ETH), Solana, and XRP, along with highly volatile tokens like Dogecoin (DOGE) and Shiba Inu (SHIB), reflecting a strategy to expand into a broader digital asset portfolio. The approval process accelerated since April 2026, during which T. Rowe Price submitted multiple revised proposals. The SEC formally approved the second amended filing on June 12, indicating growing regulatory acceptance of multi-asset crypto ETF structures.Market analysts believe that if the product successfully launches, it will further expand institutional investors' compliant exposure to diversified crypto assets and could set a regulatory precedent for more actively managed multi-currency crypto ETFs in the future. (intellectia)
MetaMask has officially launched Agent Wallet, a self-custody wallet designed for AI agents. It enables automated trading, perpetual contracts, and liquidity provision on Ethereum, multiple EVM-compatible chains, and the Hyperliquid network. The product is equipped with multiple security mechanisms, including transaction simulation, spending limits, and address whitelisting. It integrates with Blockaid's risk scanning, requiring user secondary confirmation for high-risk transactions. The platform also introduces a transaction guarantee service, offering up to $10,000 in compensation for compliant and secure transactions. Currently, the product is only being tested by a small group of users via the command line, with plans for a full public release this summer. (The Block)
According to The Block, Base—the Ethereum Layer 2 network operated by Coinbase—has officially activated the Azul upgrade on its mainnet. This marks Base’s first independent network upgrade following its separation from the Optimism Superchain. The Azul upgrade introduces a multi-proof system that combines TEE (Trusted Execution Environment) proofs with zero-knowledge (ZK) proofs, reducing the shortest possible withdrawal finalization time to just one day. Both proof types can independently confirm proposals; in case of conflict, permissionless ZK proofs override TEE proofs—further enhancing the network’s censorship resistance. Additionally, Azul integrates Base into a single execution client, <code>base-reth-node</code>, and introduces a new consensus client, <code>base-consensus</code>, built on OP Kona. Following the upgrade, the number of empty blocks has plummeted from approximately 200 per day to roughly 2 per day, and the network has achieved a sustained peak throughput of 5,000 transactions per second.
SUPERFORTUNE AI posted on X platform, stating that the team is investigating a GUA security incident that occurred on May 27. The incident led to drastic price fluctuations in the token. Preliminary investigations suggest the incident may involve address tampering during a multi-signature transaction.The announcement states that the original plan was to send additionally unlocked tokens to the airdrop claim contract address. However, during execution, the funds were mistakenly sent to a different hacker address. The team noted that this hacker address had never interacted with any SUPERFORTUNE-related addresses before, making an "address poisoning attack" less likely as the attack vector.Furthermore, SUPERFORTUNE stated that its internal processes include a multi-layered address verification mechanism. The team is continuing its investigation into the incident and will update the community on the latest developments subsequently.
the U.S. Congress and multiple state attorney general offices are investigating Sam Altman's personal investments, focusing on potential conflicts of interest and "self-dealing" while managing OpenAI. U.S. House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer has sent a letter to Altman requesting disclosure of potential conflicts of interest, specifically mentioning that Altman promoted OpenAI's investment in Helion Energy, a company in which he has a significant personal stake.It is reported that Sam Altman's personal investment in Helion amounts to at least $375 million, while OpenAI has considered investing approximately $500 million in the company, raising internal concerns about potential self-dealing. Additionally, attorneys general from states including Florida, Montana, and Nebraska have sent a letter to the U.S. SEC requesting an examination of Sam Altman's investment structure, describing it as "presenting serious conflicts of interest and self-dealing risks."
Odaily News, Web3 security company CertiK has released its "2026 State of Digital Asset Regulation" report, systematically reviewing global regulatory trends. The report indicates that as of April 2026, regulatory frameworks in major jurisdictions such as the United States, the European Union, Hong Kong SAR, and Singapore have been largely established, and the industry is entering a phase of comprehensive compliance.The report shows that anti-money laundering (AML) enforcement has replaced securities classification as the primary regulatory risk. In the first half of 2025, global AML-related fines exceeded $900 million, making transaction monitoring capabilities a core compliance requirement. Meanwhile, smart contract security audits are evolving from industry best practices into access conditions, becoming a prerequisite for license approval and token listings. Additionally, global stablecoin regulatory frameworks are converging, with principles such as full reserve backing and licensed issuance becoming widespread, though cross-jurisdictional regulatory differences still pose compliance challenges.The report states that with regulatory convergence and strengthened enforcement, the industry has entered an "era of strong compliance." CertiK indicated that the core challenge for enterprises is shifting from "whether to comply" to "how to quickly build and implement compliance capabilities." Multi-jurisdictional licensing, AML investment, and continuous security audits are becoming fundamental entry requirements for institutional development.
PrimePiper has launched an enterprise-grade prime broker platform for AI agents, designed to address challenges including fragmented account management, inadequate risk control, inability to reconcile across venues, and insufficient compliance auditing in AI-driven automated trading. According to the company, its infrastructure supports unified connectivity to multiple trading venues—including Hyperliquid, OKX, Tiger Brokers, and Interactive Brokers (IBKR). For risk control, PrimePiper offers enterprise-grade API key management, spending limits, and circuit-breaker mechanisms to constrain AI agent trading behavior. At the execution layer, it enables automated strategy execution via SDK or the Model Context Protocol (MCP). For compliance and auditing, it provides audit-grade reporting capabilities tailored for funds and traders. PrimePiper has been selected for the latest cohort of Founders Inc’s accelerator program; its product is currently in the Alpha stage. Team members hail from Galois Capital, Kraken, DRW, and AWS.