News linked to both this project and an event.
: Global payments company PayPal reported its second-quarter earnings, with earnings per share of $1.26, compared to $1.30 in the same period last year, falling short of the analyst consensus estimate of $1.28. Revenue reached $8.68 billion, surpassing last year's $8.29 billion and exceeding the analyst consensus estimate of $8.47 billion. PayPal recorded a non-GAAP adjustment of $81 million, related to gains and losses from strategic investments and crypto assets held for investment purposes. PayPal stated that since the company does not actively trade these assets and does not rely on them to fund ongoing operations, it excludes the related gains and losses from non-GAAP results. In its second-quarter investor presentation, PayPal stated that the company is leveraging its payments network, risk infrastructure, and trust capabilities to expand agent-based payments, stablecoins, identity, and biometric technologies. PayPal also noted that its PayPal World platform facilitated approximately $200 million in total payment volume between Venmo and PayPal.
On-chain data shows that the Worldcoin Foundation sold approximately 217.4 million WLD tokens to institutions such as Pantera Capital, raising approximately $52.5 million. Based on the transaction amount, the transaction price was approximately $0.24, representing a discount of approximately 36% compared to the market price, and the relevant tokens are subject to a one-year lock-up period.
the World Foundation has announced the completion of a $52.5 million fundraising through a strategic sale of WLD tokens. The round was led by Pantera Capital, with participation from Bain Capital Crypto, Eightco Holdings, Selini Capital, Susquehanna Crypto, and others. The World Foundation is the non-profit organization behind the World protocol. The WLD tokens sold in this round will be locked for one year and are intended for use within the World Network, and do not represent any investment rights, profits, or return entitlements.
stablecoin issuer Mandela Digital has announced the completion of a $5 million funding round, with Datavault AI participating. The new funds will be used for stablecoin infrastructure development, compliance, exchange integration, liquidity and marketing, as well as accelerating the launch of its 1:1 USD-pegged stablecoin, Mandela Dollar (MUSD). It is reported that MUSD aims to promote financial inclusion, cross-border remittances, and digital payments in the Global South. Datavault AI will also provide technical support for MUSD, including its AI platform, blockchain tokenization, SanQtum quantum-resistant cryptography, and Real World Asset (RWA) frameworks. (Globenewswire)
: U.S. prediction market platform Kalshi experienced explosive growth during the 2026 World Cup, with platform trading volume soaring from $6.67 billion on June 22 to $24.2 billion on July 14. The single "World Cup Champion" prediction market saw trading volume exceed $1.2 billion. Kalshi stated that its growth reflects a new trend in the AI era: as the volume of AI-generated content increases substantially, authentic, real-time, and non-replicable human interaction scenarios are becoming scarcer, positioning prediction markets as a novel tool for observing public sentiment and collective judgment.Meanwhile, Kalshi is seeking to transform from a sports prediction platform into the next-generation financial trading infrastructure. The company currently holds Designated Contract Market (DCM) status recognized by the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) and plans to expand into more prediction areas including sports, geopolitics, culture, and economics. (Fortune)
TownSquare, an institutional yield and cross-chain lending brokerage service infrastructure, announced the official launch of its ICO public sale. This public sale is technically supported by the Echo Sonar platform from the Coinbase ecosystem. The valuation is divided into two tiers: a $150 million valuation based on a 6-month lock-up, and a $200 million valuation with no lock-up and full release at TGE, with a fundraising cap of $1 million. Currently, 30 minutes into the public sale, over $200,000 has been raised. According to data, most users chose the second tier with the $200 million valuation. This public sale is the first project based on the Monad ecosystem on Sonar, supporting USDC and USDT0 tokens on Monad. Previously, TownSquare completed a total of 3 rounds of financing totaling $16.25 million, with participation from World Liberty Financial, Auros Ventures, Amber Group, Animoca Ventures, OKX Ventures, as well as angel investors and institutions from ecosystems such as Monad, a16z, etc. It is projected that the previous valuation is comparable to this ICO valuation. TownSquare Sonar Public Sale Registration: townsq.xyz/sale
despite the continued downturn in the crypto market, Coinbase Ventures led the venture capital rankings in the first half of 2026 by completing 30 investments.Animoca Brands followed closely with 19 investments, Andreessen Horowitz (a16z) completed 18 investments, and stablecoin issuer Tether participated in 15 deals.Over the past 12 months, Coinbase Ventures has completed 75 investments, continuing to lead the industry. Animoca Brands, YZi Labs, GSR, and a16z have completed 40, 39, 31, and 30 investments, respectively.However, the overall crypto fundraising market remains in a bear market cycle. In June, the total amount raised by crypto companies fell to $1.4 billion, a 63% decrease from $3.8 billion in April. The number of funding rounds also decreased from 89 in May to 61. In comparison, fundraising in April this year was only $698 million, hitting a new low in nearly two years.So far in July, the crypto industry has completed 12 financing rounds, totaling approximately $456 million.In terms of investment focus, Coinbase Ventures has primarily invested in payment protocols, DeFi, and infrastructure over the past six months. This includes participation in seven funding rounds for payment projects, four rounds for DeFi, and three rounds for infrastructure and Real World Asset (RWA) tokenization projects.By sector, the areas that attracted the most capital over the past year were DeFi, payments, and AI. DeFi projects completed 216 funding rounds, the payment sector completed 131 rounds, AI and crypto combination projects completed 128 rounds, and infrastructure projects secured 110 rounds.It is worth noting that while top institutions remain active, the overall number of market participants is decreasing. The number of independent investment institutions in June dropped to 242, nearly halved from 452 in October 2025, reflecting a concentration of capital in the bear market environment. (Cointelegraph)
Grove is unlocking the potential of the stablecoin economy. Through institutional-grade asset allocation, financing, and liquidity services, Grove brings Real-World Assets (RWA) and real-world application scenarios on-chain, helping to build the next-generation global financial markets.
: "White-Haired Stock God" Serenity posted on platform X, stating that based on the capital flow direction in China's private VC market, institutions are currently pouring into fields related to Physical AI and World Models on a large scale.Data shows the approximate capital distribution as follows: Large Models/LLMs at about $23.56 billion, AI Infrastructure and Technology Layer at about $15.74 billion, Embodied Intelligence/Physical AI at about $13.36 billion, AIGC Applications at about $8.79 billion, and Autonomous Driving plus other top 20 sub-sectors totaling about $3.82 billion (note: metrics may not be directly comparable).Serenity pointed out that early-stage pure foundational model financing is largely closed, with capital more concentrated in existing leading companies and the World Model direction. He expects this trend to also appear in the US, potentially concentrating further towards leading companies like Anthropic and OpenAI. Regarding AIGC applications, Serenity believes this track's commercialization is already relatively mature, but an absolute winner has yet to emerge, exhibiting a fragmented competitive landscape in both China and the US markets.Overall, Serenity concluded that current AI investments continue to flow into infrastructure and the semiconductor supply chain. Meanwhile, capital is rapidly rotating towards Physical AI and Embodied Intelligence, but the World Model track still lacks direct investment targets.
Odaily Odaily: In response to recent community discussions, the Aave CEO issued a statement clarifying that Aave will never sell AAVE tokens at a 70% discount.According to the "Aave Will Win (AWW)" proposal, 100% of the revenue generated by the Aave protocol and the GHO stablecoin belongs to AAVE token holders. This principle also applies to all product revenues, including Aave App, Aave Pro, and Swaps. As a service provider for Aave DAO, Aave Labs is solely responsible for protocol development and expansion and does not receive any protocol or product revenue.The Aave CEO revealed that Aave's current annualized revenue has reached $134 million, all of which belongs to Aave DAO. Additionally, the Aave brand and related software intellectual property rights belong to AAVE.Furthermore, the team is designing Aavenomics 3.0, which plans to introduce a new, automated, non-discretionary buyback mechanism. More details will be announced later. He stated that Aave's goal is not only to serve the crypto market but also the entire financial asset market, including Real World Assets (RWA).
Odaily reports: Bitget has announced the launch of Reality, a licensed financial protocol focused on the tokenization of Real World Assets (RWA). The issued tokenized stocks (rTokens) are strictly pegged 1:1 to the underlying US stocks, with assets custodied at a US securities broker-dealer that is FINRA-registered and SIPC-protected. Real-time proof of reserves is provided through third-party independent audits. By directly accessing liquidity pools from Nasdaq, NYSE, and other US stock exchanges, Reality's stock tokens can achieve liquidity on par with traditional brokerages. Meanwhile, stock dividends will be distributed 1:1 to user accounts in token form, cash dividends will be automatically converted into USDT for distribution, and stock splits and reverse splits will be mapped to on-chain tokens in real-time, offering an experience highly consistent with holding US stocks.Furthermore, the US stock tokens launched by Reality are deeply integrated with the Bitget ecosystem. They can be used, for example, as margin for unified accounts and are compatible with core product lines such as grid trading, copy trading systems, and staking/lending.Gracy Chen, CEO of Bitget, previously proposed the "10% Vision": Currently, tokenized stocks represent only 0.1% of the $125 trillion global stock market. She predicts this proportion will rise to nearly 10% by 2030. Reality is built on this trend. In its initial phase, it will focus on US stocks, and will later expand asset classes, driving the extension of Bitget's UEX strategy into a broader access layer for global financial assets.
TownSquare, an infrastructure platform focused on institutional yield and cross-chain lending brokerage services, has announced the completion of its new Pre-A round of funding, bringing its total funding to $16.25 million. This capital will be used to accelerate the institutional adoption of USD1 and other RWA assets on World Liberty Financial.
: Digital Asset Clearing Center (DACC), a tokenized financial market infrastructure provider, announced the completion of a $10 million strategic financing round. Participants included Conflux, Global InfoTech, Fosun International, Blockstone, Avior Capital, Fintech World, Satoshi Ventures, and BridgeTower. DACC currently offers financial institutions an end-to-end "Clearing-as-a-Service" solution. The new funds will support the construction of its compliant financial settlement and clearing infrastructure. (Aastocks)
: Datavault AI has released its first-quarter 2026 business update, disclosing that the company has signed tokenization contracts worth over $800 million. Of this, approximately $100 million in fees are expected to be recognized in 2026, achieving about $75 million in new contract value in the first quarter, further validating institutional demand for its Real World Asset (RWA) tokenization platform.In terms of assets and financing, the company has strengthened its balance sheet through a $60 million private placement and an additional $120 million in non-dilutive financing. It is also advancing the expansion of the SanQtum AI infrastructure platform across the United States, with plans to expand its quantum-safe GPU edge network by the end of 2026 and deploy approximately 48,000 GPUs. (Businesswire)
Turnkey, a company specializing in crypto wallets and key management infrastructure, has announced the completion of a $12.5 million strategic financing round. Archetype and Circle Ventures led the round, with participation from Sequoia Capital, Bain Capital Crypto, Lightspeed Faction, Galaxy Ventures, and Variant. The project's total funding has now exceeded $65 million.The company's primary business involves developing wallet and key management infrastructure for crypto applications. This round of financing will be used to support the development and public launch of Turnkey Verifiable Cloud, a product focused on digital asset security computing. This product aims to provide enterprises with verifiable operating environments, encompassing functionalities such as transaction visibility, policy decisions, and agent-driven wallet activities. Turnkey's current clientele includes Polymarket, World App, and Anchorage Digital.
TownSquare, an infrastructure platform focused on institutional yield and cross-chain lending brokerage services, has announced a $100 million USD1 token liquidity program—a strategic initiative designed to bring institutional-grade and cross-chain yield opportunities to a broader user base via World Liberty Financial’s USD1 stablecoin and institutional yield strategies. Previously, TownSquare collaborated with the World Liberty Financial DeFi team to integrate the USD1 token onto Monad, a high-performance EVM-compatible chain, and received official incentives from the Monad Foundation. The team stated that this new liquidity program marks TownSquare’s continued commitment to expanding DeFi’s real-world applicability and delivering institutional strategy yields to more assets. Currently, the project’s official website has launched its cross-chain lending functionality, while its yield vault product is listed as “Coming Soon.” According to official information, the project has previously completed a funding round backed by Monad, a16z, Aptos, Solana Bonk, and other U.S. and European angel investors and VCs. The founding team includes alumni from Coinbase, Meta, Accenture, and market-making firms. Details about the project’s next funding round have not yet been disclosed.
U.S. Democratic Senator Elizabeth Warren posted a comment on X regarding the recent controversies surrounding World Liberty Financial (WLFI). She stated, “While this crypto project backed by the Trump family—WLFI—is quietly cashing out, ordinary investors are left stranded.” Warren shared Bloomberg’s recent report on WLFI’s fund flows, which revealed that most of the proceeds raised through fundraising and private token sales have flowed to entities affiliated with the project’s founders. The project team sets governance rules, controls token issuance, and captures revenues—while investors have virtually no exit options.
Odaily AI Financial (formerly Alt5 Sigma), a publicly listed crypto company linked to the family of U.S. President Donald Trump, has announced it will acquire crypto infrastructure startup Block Street for up to $43 million. Block Street was founded by Matthew Morgan, who currently serves as an advisor to AI Financial and is also its CEO and largest shareholder.According to a filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), the deal was reached last Monday. Block Street was registered in October 2025, but Morgan stated that its business operations had started about 16 months prior.The acquisition has raised market concerns about potential conflicts of interest, as Morgan is both an advisor to AI Financial and the founder of the acquired company. He was briefly nominated for the position of Chief Investment Officer in a previous cooperation deal between AI Financial and World Liberty Financial, but the role was later adjusted to an unpaid advisor position.In August, AI Financial reached an agreement with World Liberty Financial to include approximately $1.5 billion in crypto assets on its balance sheet, in exchange for equity and a board seat. This collaboration also positioned the company as part of the "Trump family crypto ecosystem."In interviews, Morgan has denied that the transaction constitutes self-dealing, stating that Block Street focuses on tokenization and ICO infrastructure capabilities, areas AI Financial is looking to enter. He claimed to have pitched the asset to several other public companies and turned down acquisition offers with higher valuations.However, since establishing ties with the Trump family crypto project, AI Financial's stock price has fallen by over 90%, reflecting ongoing market skepticism toward the "crypto reserve public company" model.This transaction has also reignited controversy over insider transactions and governance structures within public companies. Similar cases have frequently emerged in the crypto industry recently, with multiple listed companies criticized for mixing assets with related-party transactions, raising investor concerns about the risks of conflicts of interest. (Fortune)
According to The Block, Jim Esposito, President of Citadel Securities, stated on Thursday at the Semafor World Economic Forum in Washington, D.C., that the firm is “fully capable” of providing liquidity to prediction markets—but explicitly expressed no interest in sports-event contracts. Instead, he emphasized the value of prediction markets for hedging geopolitical risks, citing the U.S. midterm elections this November as “one of the greatest risks facing investors’ portfolios.” Esposito noted that as platforms like Kalshi and Polymarket continue to grow rapidly, the prediction market is poised for sustained expansion—naturally drawing Citadel Securities into the space. Notably, Zhao Peng, CEO of Citadel Securities, participated last year in Kalshi’s $185 million funding round.
According to a March 2026 report by Forbes journalists Dan Alexander and Kyle Khan-Mullins, Forbes’ latest estimate places Donald Trump’s net worth at approximately $6.5 billion—up roughly $1.4 billion over the past year. This growth stems primarily from four areas: (1) cryptocurrency-related ventures contributed about $1.8 billion in total, including memecoins, World Liberty Financial tokens, and the stablecoin USD1; (2) legal victories eliminated approximately $500 million in debt; (3) overseas licensing operations appreciated by around $400 million, driven by developers across multiple countries rushing to partner with a sitting U.S. president; and (4) golf clubs and resorts—including Mar-a-Lago—saw their combined valuation rise to roughly $1.5 billion. Offsetting this growth was a decline of about $1.3 billion in the valuation of Trump Media, the parent company of Truth Social, which generated only $3.7 million in revenue in 2025 while posting a net loss of $712 million. Forbes notes that, as much of Trump’s second term remains ahead, his wealth may continue to grow.