uk

According to Bitcoin.com, Gurinder Singh Josan MP and Lord Vaizey, co-chairs of the UK All-Party Parliamentary Group on Crypto and Digital Assets (APPG), have written to the CEOs of major UK banks requesting clarification on whether they provide account services to crypto businesses, what restrictions are placed on digital asset transactions, and whether these policies will be adjusted with the implementation of the new regulatory framework in the UK.The MPs pointed out that access to banking may be the single biggest obstacle to the development of crypto and digital asset businesses in the UK. If licensed crypto businesses are still unable to obtain basic banking services, the competitive goals of the new regulatory system will be difficult to achieve.Lucy Rigby, Economic Secretary to the Treasury, has previously stated that banking service restrictions should not be imposed on FCA-authorized crypto businesses solely due to the nature of the industry. The deadline for submitting written evidence for this inquiry is August 31, and the APPG will use this to make policy recommendations to the government.

Cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase will open over 170 derivative contracts to eligible professional investors in the UK, covering cryptocurrencies, commodities, stocks, and foreign exchange, with perpetual contracts supporting up to 50 times leverage. The services will be gradually rolled out over the coming weeks to months.The products include futures, perpetual contracts, and cryptocurrency options. Perpetual contracts have no expiration date and support long, short, and neutral strategies; fixed-term futures support up to 20 times leverage and have a fixed settlement date. Coinbase previously obtained authorization for investment services in the UK in July, and the related derivatives business will operate under the investment services license of CB Payments Ltd. The first phase is limited to eligible professional investors in the UK, and the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) will impose requirements on financial soundness, capital, stress testing, and market integrity.

According to monitoring by Catcher Predict, in the Polymarket prediction market event "Milwaukee Brewers vs. San Diego Padres," the "Milwaukee Brewers" option in the sub-market "Milwaukee Brewers vs. San Diego Padres" has experienced significant fluctuations in winning probability, soaring from 51.5% an hour ago to the current 70.5% (a fluctuation of 19%). Please note the impact of related breaking news.

Russia's oil production in July was nearly 1 million barrels per day below its OPEC+ quota, with an average daily output of 8.887 million barrels, significantly lower than the monthly target of 9.824 million barrels.Ukraine has been attacking Russian oil infrastructure almost daily, threatening crude oil processing and export volumes, while the global energy market is also under pressure due to the conflict in the Middle East.

The UK Parliament's Crypto and Digital Assets APPG co-chair Gurinder Singh Josan and Lord Vaizey of Didcot have written to the CEOs of all major UK banks, requesting clarification on how they treat cryptocurrency and digital asset businesses. The letter raises six questions regarding the banks' current policies, whether they provide services to crypto businesses, related transaction restrictions and their determining factors, and whether they have adjusted their practices since the UK Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) regulatory regime came into effect.The group stated that many crypto businesses find it difficult to open bank accounts in the UK, and some banks restrict related payments. This letter stems from the parliamentary inquiry into access to banking services launched on July 21, with written submissions due by August 31. A January survey by the UK Crypto Asset Business Council indicated that the proportion of transactions blocked or delayed by banks when transferring to crypto exchanges is estimated to be as high as 40%. HSBC, NatWest, Monzo, and Nationwide limit the amount transferred to crypto exchanges each month to between £5,000 and £10,000, while Starling and Chase UK prohibit such transfers altogether. Lucy Rigby, the Economic Secretary to the Treasury, stated that the government does not want FCA-licensed businesses to be restricted by banks solely because of their industry; the FCA completed the relevant rules in June, and the regime will be enforced from October 2027.

The UK's Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) is exploring how tokenized gold can be incorporated into the wholesale market, including whether it can be used as collateral. The discussions involve regulatory approaches aimed at the institutional market, with relevant rules expected to be announced in the coming months.This regulatory discussion comes as London seeks to solidify its position as a global gold trading hub. Data from the World Gold Council shows that London currently accounts for about 70% of global gold trading volume, while Shanghai and Hong Kong are vying for a larger share of wholesale business. HSBC launched a tokenized gold product for retail investors in Hong Kong over two years ago and reported that the cumulative trading volume has exceeded $2.2 billion, with more than 276,000 transactions. The FCA does not directly regulate physical gold trading but oversees gold derivatives and publicly traded products in the market.

Luke Dashjr posted on the X platform that he will temporarily step down as the chairman and chief technology officer of OCEAN and shift his focus to Bitcoin and supporting open-source projects related to Bitcoin.Luke Dashjr is a core supporter of BIP-110, but on August 9, the default endpoint of OCEAN's stratum has reverted to a non-BIP-110 chain, and miners' hashes are no longer defaulted to be directed to the BIP-110 chain.

The Sun Wukong ecosystem will hold a deep roundtable discussion themed "When the Crypto World Fully Connects with Traditional Finance: Under the Melting Financial Boundaries, When Will the Native Crypto 'Bull Market' Reappear?" on August 11 at 8 PM at X Space.This event will focus on the era background of the accelerated integration of the crypto world and traditional finance, deeply exploring the structural changes brought by stablecoins reshaping global payment settlements and the acceleration of RWA and stock funds going on-chain. Invited industry KOLs will jointly analyze the profound impact of institutional funds and compliance channels on market game rules, as well as when and in what form the carnival bull market belonging to Web3 native cryptographers will reappear.

BIP-110 soft fork has stalled due to support rates far below standard, with thousands of nodes isolated. Just two days after the incident, the Bitcoin BIP editing team removed the editing privileges of the proposal leader Luke Dashjr on Monday. Editor Mark Erhardt proposed a motion for dismissal, citing reasons including conflicts of interest, minimal contributions, leading a controversial fork, and coordination breakdown.Supporters pointed out that Dashjr used his editing privileges to favor the BIP-110 proposal, assigning numbers and quickly merging PRs before discussions on the mailing list, and has contributed less than 1% since April 2024. The peak signal support for BIP-110 was only 2.53%, far from the 55% threshold, and the forced chain has stalled at a height of 961,633. Ocean was the only mining pool signaling before the fork, and has now resumed non-BIP-110 work. Dashjr announced the suspension of his roles as Chairman and CTO of Ocean four minutes before the dismissal confirmation, shifting to Bitcoin open-source projects, but still serves as the chief maintainer of Bitcoin Knots. The price of Bitcoin was unaffected by the incident.

According to Bitcoin.com, cybersecurity company Genians Security Center has released an analysis report stating that the North Korean Reconnaissance General Bureau's hacker organization Kimsuky is building and testing a set of AI-based cyber attack tools. Researchers found traces of the deployment of three local AI platforms: Ollama, GPT4All, and Msty, as well as components of AI development frameworks such as Microsoft Semantic Kernel and LLaMaSharp in their infrastructure, indicating that the organization is systematically developing dedicated AI attack tools rather than just making temporary attempts.Since early 2026, Kimsuky has been using high-quality documents generated by generative AI for spear-phishing attacks targeting virtual assets, financial investments, and game development. The AI-generated professional documents significantly reduce the effectiveness of traditional phishing email detection. The attack vector is a ZIP archive disguised as a legitimate document, containing a malicious LNK file that, when triggered, can silently execute PowerShell commands in the background.

According to the New York Times, British businessman Guren Zhou, suspected of money laundering, purchased $100 million worth of World Liberty Financial tokens through the Aqua 1 entity, raising questions about conflicts of interest in the Trump administration.

According to the official announcement, Robinhood has launched cryptocurrency trading services for UK investors, offering trading of over 50 crypto assets including Bitcoin, Ethereum, XRP, and Hyperliquid through Bitstamp UK, with zero trading fees and no account management or custody fees. This service will be integrated into Robinhood's existing app, alongside products such as stock ISAs, options, and futures.Robinhood also launched the AI analysis tool Cortex Digests, which uses generative AI to analyze news, market data, and technical indicators, providing investors with concise interpretations of cryptocurrency price fluctuations. Since the global launch of Robinhood Chain on July 1, DEX trading volume has exceeded $18 billion, and total locked value has surpassed $840 million. UK developers can build applications on this Layer 2 chain. Cryptocurrency trading is provided through Bitstamp UK and is not protected by FSCS or FOS, with trading involving the risk of principal loss.

F2Pool co-founder Wang Chun stated that OCEAN mining pool co-founder and CTO Luke Dashjr has not only gone bankrupt financially but has also lost his personal credibility.He also sarcastically suggested that Luke might as well try changing the PoW algorithm next, but the outcome would not be good either.

According to Catcher Predict monitoring, in the Polymarket event "Minnesota Twins vs. Milwaukee Brewers," the sub-market "O/U 7.5" for the "Over" option has experienced severe fluctuations, dropping from 81.5% an hour ago to the current 46.5% (a fluctuation of 35%). Please note the impact of related breaking news.

According to monitoring by Catcher Predict, in the "Minnesota Twins vs. Milwaukee Brewers" event on the prediction market Polymarket, the "Minnesota Twins" option in the sub-market "Minnesota Twins vs. Milwaukee Brewers" has experienced a sharp fluctuation in winning probability, soaring from 39% an hour ago to the current 80.5% (a fluctuation of 41.5%). Please note the impact of related breaking news.

According to Catcher Predict monitoring, in the Polymarket prediction market event "Pittsburgh Pirates vs. Milwaukee Brewers," the "Pittsburgh Pirates" option in the sub-market "Pittsburgh Pirates vs. Milwaukee Brewers" has experienced a sharp fluctuation in winning probability, dropping from 46.5% an hour ago to the current 24.5% (a fluctuation of 22%). Please note the impact of related breaking news.

According to Jinshi reports, Ukrainian President Zelensky stated that Ukraine has launched attacks on two Russian oil refineries.

The U.S. Department of the Treasury issued a joint statement outlining the discussions from the U.S.-UK Financial Regulatory Working Group meeting held on July 8 in London. The regulatory agencies from both sides expanded their collaboration in areas such as digital assets, stablecoins, payment modernization, AI, financial stability, capital markets, and cross-border financial cooperation. Participants included the finance departments of both countries, the Bank of England, the Federal Reserve, the UK's Financial Conduct Authority, and several U.S. financial regulatory agencies.The U.S. side introduced the implementation progress of the stablecoin GENIUS Act and the market structure for digital assets, while the UK side presented the digital strategy for wholesale financial markets. Both sides support comparable regulatory standards for stablecoins, including cross-border use, comparable treatment of similar risks, and that stablecoins used as currency should be backed by high-quality liquid assets at least on a one-to-one basis. The Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation has proposed implementation standards for the GENIUS Act, covering reserves, redemption, capital, liquidity, risk management, custody, and safekeeping.The Bank of England has released a draft rule for stablecoins that could achieve systemic scale in the UK economy, including a temporary issuance cap of £40 billion for each systemic stablecoin, unrestricted use by individuals and businesses, and reserve requirements. The Financial Regulatory Working Group is expected to hold another meeting in early 2027.