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According to a report by The Paper, the Intermediate People's Court of Xilin Gol League in Inner Mongolia upheld the original verdict in the second trial of the case involving Ma for illegal business operations. This case is part of a series of cases where the Sifang payment platform provided funding and payment settlement for gambling platforms. Some defendants in this case were accused of receiving commissions or rebates in the form of virtual currencies such as USDT.It was found that from May 24, 2022, to October 18, 2023, Ma and four others illegally collected and paid funds through third-party payment accounts, and received USDT virtual currency and bank card payments through virtual wallets. They settled amounts exceeding 2.95 billion yuan through 105 merchants of 10 third-party payment companies.Ultimately, the court determined that Ma was guilty of illegal business operations, sentencing him to four years and six months in prison and imposing a fine of 3 million yuan. The five individuals who turned themselves in have been sentenced to prison terms ranging from 3 to 6 years for illegal business operations.

According to market news, the listed company KULR Technology has sold 333 bitcoins to fully repay its $20 million Coinbase credit line. It currently holds a total of 760 BTC.

According to Gate market data, American Express (AXP.N) pre-market decline has widened to 5%.

In a 90-minute interview with The Economist, Elon Musk, the founder of Tesla and SpaceX, stated that artificial intelligence could surpass human intelligence levels within the next five years and predicted that in about ten years, AI and robotics might drive the world into a "highly affluent era." Musk believes that once AI systems and robots possess sufficiently powerful digital intelligence and production capabilities, the global economy could approach a state of "infinite supply," making human labor no longer a necessary condition for survival, and the importance of currency may gradually decline.He stated that in the future, if the number of robots is sufficient, society will have a "quasi-infinite economy," where artificial intelligence can produce goods and services that exceed human consumption capacity. He even predicted that by around 2036, the importance of the traditional currency system might significantly decrease. Regarding future economic operating models, Musk mentioned that governments might maintain social operations by directly distributing funds to the public and believes that the productivity improvements brought by AI could lead to deflation rather than inflation.However, regarding issues such as corporate profit models, government fiscal sources, and social transformation, Musk acknowledged that the economic structure in the age of artificial intelligence might differ greatly from traditional economic laws. Additionally, Musk discussed the integration of AI with space development. He indicated that in the future, data centers deployed in space might be used to support AI computing and reiterated the long-term plan for human exploration of Mars. In the interview, Musk also reflected on his previous involvement in the Trump administration's "Department of Government Efficiency" (DOGE). He admitted that he had invested too much energy in the political arena, "got a bit sidetracked," and stated that if he could choose again, he might spend more time on his own companies.

According to the Bitwise "Q3 2026 Staking Report," Q2 2026 presents a divergent pattern of "increased on-chain activity and decreased fee revenue," with the core driving factor being various protocols actively reducing block space costs.In terms of core data across chains, Ethereum's active staking volume reached a historic high of 40.2 million ETH (accounting for 33% of the total supply), while network revenue decreased by 51% year-on-year to $64 million, although it rebounded in ETH terms quarter-on-quarter; Solana's Q2 Real Economic Value (REV) dropped to $51 million, significantly down from the peak of $812 million in Q1 2025, but non-voting transaction volume reached 9.8 billion, maintaining resilience in on-chain activity; Hyperliquid's Q2 total protocol revenue was $174.8 million, with perpetual contract trading volume reaching $65.2 billion, and the proportion of non-crypto assets (commodities, stock indices, etc.) rose to 32%; Avalanche C chain's transaction volume grew approximately fourfold year-on-year to 236 million transactions, but network revenue plummeted due to a significant drop in fees, leaving only $330,000; NEAR saw a dramatic 75% drop in on-chain transaction volume to 77.7 million transactions due to the collapse of Kai-Ching application activity, but the Intents execution layer generated fees approximately 68 times that of the base chain.In terms of institutional adoption, BlackRock launched an Ethereum staking ETF (ETHB), Coinbase and Circle each staked 500,000 HYPE, and Bitwise, 21Shares, and Grayscale successively launched HYPE spot ETFs. Additionally, the stablecoin payment chain Tempo, incubated by Stripe and Paradigm, processed $386 million in transfers in its first quarter, while the global payroll platform Deel distributed approximately $30 million to 7,200 contractors through this chain.

According to Jinshi reports, the European Central Bank has kept the deposit facility rate unchanged at 2.25%, in line with market expectations, while the main refinancing rate and the marginal lending rate remain unchanged at 2.40% and 2.65%, respectively.

According to Gate market data, Tesla's stock price fell by 5% in after-hours trading. Musk stated that expanding the production capacity of the Optimus robot will face difficulties.

Fox Business crypto reporter posted on the X platform stating that the bill outlines the rules for handling digital assets in the event of bankruptcy of exchanges or custodians.The bill helps ensure that customer assets receive the same protection as traditional financial assets and remain the property of the customers, rather than becoming part of the company's bankruptcy estate. This could help prevent a situation similar to FTX from occurring again.

According to Gate market data, after falling for seven consecutive trading days, SpaceX's stock price rose by 7.6%.

Changxin Technology announced that the results of the company's initial public offering and listing on the Sci-Tech Innovation Board have been released. The issuance price is 8.66 yuan per share, with an initial number of shares issued being 6.688 billion shares, accounting for approximately 10% of the total share capital after issuance.The final strategic placement quantity is 1.667 billion shares, and the final online issuance winning rate is approximately 0.47141739%. Online investors subscribed for 3.845 billion shares and abandoned subscriptions for 6.5862 million shares; offline investors subscribed for 2.173 billion shares and abandoned subscriptions for 31,567 shares.The joint lead underwriters underwrote 6.6178 million shares, with an underwriting amount of 57.3101 million yuan. Before the exercise of the over-allotment option, the issuance costs amounted to 281 million yuan.

According to BIT Official analysis, Ethereum's market dominance has climbed back above the psychological key level of 10%, and historical data shows that this signal is usually accompanied by a bullish market.In the long term, the "Lean Ethereum" roadmap plans to complete seven consecutive upgrades by 2029, aiming to create a high-speed settlement layer that includes faster final confirmation speeds, quantum-resistant cryptography, and native privacy features across the network.

According to SoSoValue data, the cryptocurrency market sector has generally rebounded, with the DeFi sector performing outstandingly, rising 2.28% in 24 hours. Among them, Hyperliquid (HYPE) increased by 3.55%, DeXe (DEXE), Uniswap (UNI), and Lido DAO (LDO) rose by 4.96%, 5.32%, and 11.80% respectively. At the same time, Bitcoin (BTC) rose by 0.80%, breaking through $65,000; Ethereum (ETH) increased by 1.88%, surpassing $1,900.In other sectors, the RWA sector rose by 2.02% in 24 hours, with Maple Finance (SYRUP) increasing by 6.13%; the PayFi sector rose by 1.00%, with Telcoin (TEL) increasing by 2.62%; the Layer1 sector rose by 0.62%, with NEAR Protocol (NEAR) increasing by 4.40%; the CeFi sector rose by 0.22%, with NEXO (NEXO) increasing by 1.85%; the Meme sector rose by 0.17%, with Bonk (BONK) increasing by 15.22%; the Layer2 sector rose by 0.04%, with Arbitrum (ARB) increasing by 2.14%.Only the SocialFi sector slightly declined by 0.96%, with Gram (GRAM) decreasing by 0.76%, but Chiliz (CHZ) rose by 3.06%.The cryptocurrency sector indices reflecting historical market trends show that the ssiDeFi, ssiRWA, and ssiDePIN indices rose by 2.38%, 2.14%, and 1.59% respectively.

According to Jinshi reports, Capital Economics strategist Thomas Mathews stated in a report that gold still holds value as a hedge against a sharp decline in the stock market. Recently, gold's performance has resembled that of a "risk" asset, with its price volatility comparable to that of the benchmark S&P 500 index.Although gold performed poorly during the Middle East conflict, its connection with real bond yields remains intact, and a decline in real yields is expected to boost gold.

According to the announcement disclosed by Changxin Technology, the issuer and the joint lead underwriters will hold the online subscription lottery ceremony for this issuance on July 17 (T+1 day) morning, and the results of the online lottery will be announced on the Shanghai Stock Exchange website on July 20 (T+2 day). Changxin Technology reminds investors to pay special attention to the payment process of this issuance and to fulfill their payment obligations in a timely manner on July 20 (T+2 day).Offline investors should refer to the "Announcement of the Preliminary Offline Allocation Results and Online Lottery Results" on July 20 (T+2 day) and pay the new share purchase funds in full and on time according to the final determined issuance price of 8.66 yuan/share and the allocated quantity. The purchase funds should be received by 16:00 on July 20 (T+2 day).

According to The Block, U.S. regulators failed to issue the final rules necessary to implement the federal stablecoin framework within the one-year deadline set by the GENIUS Act. This act was signed into law by Trump on July 18, 2025, requiring the OCC, the Federal Reserve, the FDIC, the NCUA, the U.S. Department of the Treasury, and state stablecoin regulatory agencies to complete the supporting rulemaking by no later than July 18, 2026.As of the afternoon of July 18 local time, the main rule proposals released by the OCC, FDIC, NCUA, and the Treasury remain in the proposal stage, with some rules related to the Federal Reserve and anti-money laundering regulation still open for public comment. The report notes that the act does not stipulate that missing the deadline will automatically extend it, nor does it suspend the relevant statutory requirements or delay the overall framework's effectiveness.Among them, the OCC's comprehensive implementation proposal covers reserve assets, capital, liquidity, custody, risk control, and reporting requirements; the FDIC's proposal involves reserves, redemption, custody, and the deposit insurance treatment of stablecoin reserves; the NCUA proposed licensing and operational risk control plans in February and May, respectively, but the comment period for the latter only ended the day before the deadline, making it objectively impossible to complete formal rulemaking before the statutory deadline. The report indicates that this means that some key rules necessary for the operation of the stablecoin framework will not be finalized until at least after the deadline.

ARK Invest released the Q2 2026 Bitcoin report stating that Bitcoin fell by about 14% in the second quarter, dropping below the realized price for short-term holders, the 200-day moving average, and the on-chain average, with the technical outlook remaining bearish. However, the proportion of loss supply rose to about 54%, and the supply of long-term holders increased to a historical high of about 14.85 million BTC, which ARK views as a potential signal of seller exhaustion.The report also pointed out that Bitcoin has not yet fallen back to the on-chain cost range of about $49,000 to $53,000, and the downside risk has not been fully released; the net outflow of the U.S. spot Bitcoin ETF in Q2 was about 71,000 BTC, and the preferred stock of Strategy, STRC, fell to a minimum of $74.57.