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South Korean Finance Minister Choo Kyung-ho apologized for launching a single stock leveraged ETF without careful consideration. According to Gate market data, on Wednesday, the South Korean KOSPI index experienced turbulence, dropping as much as 12% during the day, and ultimately narrowing its decline to about 8%. Choo Kyung-ho stated that the government is studying market stabilization measures and may further adjust the relevant regulations for single stock leveraged ETFs to respond to market fluctuations.

According to Jinshi reports, Paul Zangieri, a senior economist at Prudential Investment, is closely monitoring the communication wording of the Federal Reserve. It is expected that the FOMC will "maintain or even strengthen its hawkish tone," as ongoing inflation, rising oil prices, and internal disagreements within the FOMC open the door for further tightening of policies later this year.

According to Jinshi reports, D.A. Davidson's co-chief investment officer James Ragan stated that since the last Federal Reserve meeting, inflation data has been moderate and employment growth has been modest, but the escalation of military conflict between the U.S. and Iran in July has disrupted these positive trends. This means that the progress made in inflation in June may reverse, and the Federal Reserve needs to assess the persistence of core inflation trends.If it is determined that higher inflation expectations are forming, they should raise interest rates in July rather than wait until September, especially considering the political risks of the midterm elections.

According to Jinshi reports, the Bank of Korea stated that inflation will exceed the target in the second half of the year, so it is necessary to maintain a tight policy stance.

According to reports from China News Service, multiple South Korean media outlets believe that the recent sharp decline in the stock market is interpreted as a shock from the listing of China's largest semiconductor company, Changxin Technology. The market is worried that Changxin Technology will use the funds raised from its stock market listing to catch up with semiconductor companies like Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix, and this concern has spread, leading to a setback in investor sentiment.According to a previous report by CNBC, Z-Ben Advisors analyst Peter Alexander believes that, referencing the development paths of the steel and new energy vehicle industries, Changxin Technology will quickly seize market share in the low-end memory chip market and ultimately shake the monopoly positions of Samsung Electronics, SK Hynix, and Micron Technology in the global memory industry.

PPP prediction market tool monitoring shows that in the Polymarket "Ethereum will reach price in July" prediction market, the probability of ETH reaching $2000 is 26%, down 46% in 24 hours; the probability of dropping to $1800 is currently reported at 43%, up 28% in 24 hours. According to the rules of this prediction market, the relevant results are determined based on the highest price of the Binance ETH/USDT trading pair's 1-minute K-line.Yesterday, ETH once surged to $1981, less than 1% away from the $2000 mark, but then quickly fell back and has now dropped below $1900.

It has been reported that the mayoral candidate of Incheon, South Korea, is accused of falsely reporting assets, suspected of failing to declare the spouse's cryptocurrency assets.

According to CoinDesk, U.S. District Court Judge Katherine Menendez in Minnesota ruled that the state law classifying the operation of prediction markets as a criminal offense likely violates the federal Commodity Exchange Act (CEA), and granted a preliminary injunction to Kalshi, Polymarket, and the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), suspending the enforcement of the state law.The judge found that prediction market contracts structurally fall under the category of "swap" products regulated by the CFTC, and that federal law takes precedence over state law, with the three plaintiffs "likely to prevail in a formal trial." Additionally, the judge noted that failing to suspend the enforcement of the law would cause "irreparable harm" to Kalshi and Polymarket. This preliminary injunction will remain in effect until a final judgment is made in the case.

The Brazilian Federal Police are cracking down on a drug trafficking gang that has been laundering money through cryptocurrency in Operation Commodity. Since 2021, the gang has smuggled over 6.5 tons of cocaine to Europe via the Port of Rio de Janeiro, with the drugs hidden in shipments of coffee, cement, and mortar.The operation covered São Paulo, Minas Gerais, Santa Catarina, and Espírito Santo, with police executing 13 preventive arrests and 44 search and seizure warrants. The court ordered the seizure of assets and the freezing of up to 1 billion reais, approximately 196 million dollars. Police stated that the gang is linked to Primeiro Comando da Capital (PCC) and Comando Vermelho (CV), and laundered money through a luxury car dealership and shell companies in the Greater São Paulo area, with the dealership selling vehicles such as Ferrari, Porsche, Corvette, and Land Rover.The individuals involved used shell companies to issue invoices lacking supporting documents, bringing drug trafficking proceeds into the Brazilian financial system and using cryptocurrency to conceal transactions. The suspects will be held accountable for charges including transnational organized crime, international drug trafficking, and money laundering.

The Singapore Police Force and the Federal Bureau of Investigation signed a memorandum of understanding to strengthen joint actions, intelligence sharing, training, and law enforcement assistance in online scams, cyber fraud, and money laundering cases.The two parties completed a joint operation targeting cross-border cryptocurrency fraud in Singapore and the United States, identifying 54 victims and potential victims through information sharing and blockchain intelligence, and preventing potential losses of approximately 2.7 million USD in the United States and about 388,000 SGD in Singapore.

According to former Fox Business reporter Eleanor Terrett, one of the largest police unions in the United States, the National Fraternal Order of Police, has shifted its support to the latest version of the Clarity Act, stating that the revised provisions of the Blockchain Regulatory Certainty Act (BRCA) address its previous concerns and preserve law enforcement's ability to investigate cryptocurrency crimes.The report notes that the text of the latest version of the BRCA, released on Wednesday, has not changed, and it is currently unclear what specific revisions the union is referring to.

PPP prediction market tool monitoring shows that the probability of Polymarket's SpaceX Starship conducting its 13th test flight on July 24 has risen to 77%, up 16% in 24 hours; the probability for the 13th test flight on July 25 has risen to 83%, up 35% in 24 hours.SpaceX previously announced that due to weather reasons, the 13th test flight of the SpaceX Starship was postponed to July 24, but it is still uncertain whether the weather reasons still exist. SpaceX attempted the first test flight of the Starship on July 17, but due to some Raptor engines failing to start as expected, the automatic launch abort procedure was triggered, resulting in the failure of the first test flight. It is reported that SpaceX is currently fully "betting" on the Starship and has begun to refuse commercial Falcon rocket launch orders after 2028.

The PPP prediction market tool monitoring shows that the probability of "the next Claude Opus model being released on July 23, 2026" on Polymarket is currently reported at 61%, up 51% in the last 24 hours. In addition, the probability of "being released before July 24" is currently reported at 9%; the probability of "being released before July 25" is currently reported at 5%.This event will settle based on the date (Eastern Time) when Anthropic's next Claude Opus model is made publicly available. Only models explicitly named "Opus" by Anthropic are valid, and they must be open to the public (including public testing or open waiting lists). Other models such as Sonnet and Haiku are not included, and the final settlement will primarily rely on official information from Anthropic.

Michael Kratsios, the Director of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy, stated that information has been obtained showing that Moonshot AI is distilling Anthropic's Fable model by building a large-scale internal platform for the development of its K3 model, and has switched access methods multiple times to evade detection. He also pointed out that Moonshot AI has purchased GB300 servers and accessed GB300 equipment in Thailand, which may be used for training AI models. Kratsios stated that the U.S. supports legitimate distillation and open innovation but opposes the theft of U.S. technology through large-scale secret industrial distillation methods. Currently, Moonshot AI has not publicly responded to this.

According to a report by Reuters, the prediction market platform Polymarket issued a statement that it will challenge the decision of the French National Gaming Authority (ANJ) to block its website through legal proceedings.Last week, the ANJ ordered French internet service providers to block Polymarket on the grounds that the platform could lead to significant betting losses for users and that some bets were at risk of being manipulated. Polymarket expressed disappointment at ANJ's sudden decision.

According to The Wall Street Journal, Coinbase Chief Legal Officer Paul Grewal stated that Coinbase has reached a settlement with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission regarding a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit, with the SEC agreeing to pay $150,000 and amend its record-keeping policies. The lawsuit revealed that the SEC lost nearly a year’s worth of communications from former Chairman Gary Gensler and other senior officials during the peak enforcement period in the cryptocurrency industry.Coinbase had previously requested documents from the SEC regarding how it applies securities laws to digital assets, but the request was denied, leading to a lawsuit that received court support. The SEC claimed that some text messages were lost due to an automatic data deletion process. Grewal pointed out that the SEC has imposed billions of dollars in fines on financial institutions for similar record-keeping issues.In February of this year, Coinbase also reached a settlement with the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation regarding another Freedom of Information Act lawsuit. Coinbase stated that this lawsuit revealed that the FDIC had instructed nearly twenty banks to suspend cryptocurrency-related activities since 2022, which subsequently led to congressional hearings and resulted in a court ruling that the FDIC violated federal law.Grewal stated that both lawsuits revolve around government transparency and due process, emphasizing that the American public has the right to know whether regulatory agencies are restricting legitimate cryptocurrency businesses from accessing banking services through non-public means.

Artificial intelligence company Anthropic announced on Wednesday that it will make an additional donation of $20 million to the bipartisan advocacy organization Public First Action, bringing its total commitment to $40 million. Anthropic stated that the decision for the additional donation stems from the continuous enhancement of AI model capabilities (including its self-developed Mythos model) and the potential risks it brings.Public First Action is a 501(c)(4) nonprofit organization dedicated to public education on AI transparency and safety. The organization is associated with three super political action committees (super PACs) and plans to support candidates advocating for AI safety across both parties. Anthropic emphasized that the donations are solely for supporting Public First Action's policy mission and cannot be used to influence the election of specific candidates.In a statement, Anthropic noted that AI policy decisions will impact various aspects of public life, including the labor market and national security, and the company hopes to promote "flexible regulation" to manage risks while reaping the benefits of AI. Currently, the super PAC "Leading the Future," which advocates for rapid AI development and light regulation, has received significant funding from supporters including OpenAI co-founder Greg Brockman and venture capital firm a16z. As AI increasingly becomes a topic in elections, public education and lobbying efforts by advocacy groups are continuing to ramp up.

The Polygon Foundation posted on the X platform that the Ithaca hard fork has been successfully deployed on the Amoy testnet and will go live on the Polygon mainnet at block height 50,185,000 (expected at 22:00 Beijing time on July 29).This upgrade aims to enhance payment reliability: automatic failover during rare stalls of block producers ensures smooth transactions, new protective mechanisms intercept transactions that may cause the network to slow down or become unstable, while providing node operators with clearer visibility to ensure seamless integration of underlying operations. All node operators are required to upgrade as soon as possible to ensure compatibility and network security.

According to data from The Block, in the days leading up to the World Cup final, the total open interest (OI) of Kalshi and Polymarket combined has decreased by 20% from a peak of about $2 billion in early July. When smoothed weekly, the total OI rose from about $1.2 billion at the end of May to nearly $1.8 billion in the week of July 5, before falling back to about $1.5 billion in the week of July 19.The decline in trading volume was even more severe: Kalshi's sports trading volume dropped from a peak of about $9 billion in the week of July 5 to about $4 billion (a decrease of about 55%), while Polymarket fell from about $2.3 billion to $740 million (a decrease of nearly 70%). During the event, sports-related trading accounted for about 80% of the total trading volume on both platforms. On July 19, Spain defeated Argentina 1-0 to win the World Cup.According to statistics from DeFiOasis, approximately 194,000 addresses participated in Polymarket's World Cup champion market trading, of which about two-thirds incurred losses, with 54 addresses making over $100,000 (including 5 over $1 million), and 43 addresses losing over $100,000. It is expected that the activity in the prediction market will remain low until the next major catalytic event (the U.S. midterm elections in the fall).