Crypto markets saw a cluster of regulatory, security and transparency developments between July 26 and July 27. In South Korea, Google Play restrictions on offshore exchange apps widened. In the U.S., the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) published fresh guidance on how prediction-market platforms should self-certify event contracts. At the same time, WEMIX disclosed an ownership compromise tied to a related contract, BitMart’s public on-chain reserves shrank sharply ahead of its shutdown announcement, and several tokens were listed for large unlocks next week.
Large token unlocks scheduled for next week
Data from Token Unlocks showed that SUI, EIGEN, FF and several other tokens are set for sizable unlocks next week.
- Sui (SUI) will unlock about 13.72 million tokens at 8:00 a.m. Beijing time on Aug. 1, equal to about 0.34% of circulating supply and worth about $9.9 million.
- EigenCloud (EIGEN) will unlock about 36.82 million tokens at 12:00 p.m. Beijing time on Aug. 1, equal to about 5.79% of circulating supply and worth about $7.6 million.
- Falcon Finance (FF) will unlock about 102 million tokens at 9:00 p.m. Beijing time on July 29, equal to about 3.53% of circulating supply and worth about $6.2 million.
- Kamino (KMNO) will unlock about 229 million tokens at 8:00 p.m. Beijing time on July 30, equal to about 2.97% of circulating supply and worth about $4.1 million.
- Ethena (ENA) will unlock about 40.63 million tokens at 3:00 p.m. Beijing time on Aug. 2, equal to about 0.47% of circulating supply and worth about $3.5 million.
At least 29 offshore exchange apps blocked from installation on Google Play in South Korea
Beyond OKX and Bybit, at least 29 offshore cryptocurrency derivatives exchange apps can no longer be newly installed through Google Play in South Korea. The list includes MEXC, KuCoin, BingX, Gemini, BTCC, Phemex and Bitmex.
The report said searches for those apps in Google Play now return messages such as unusable or unavailable in the user’s region. Of the 29, fourteen had previously been identified by South Korea’s Financial Intelligence Unit, or FIU, as unreported virtual asset service providers and referred to law-enforcement authorities. Another fifteen had not been referred, but were still blocked by Google Play.
Since January, Google has applied region-specific support suspensions to virtual asset service provider apps that are not registered with the FIU under its own policies. Removal from Google Play does not affect access through exchange websites or installation through Apple’s App Store.
CFTC tells prediction-market operators to stop relying on template filings
The CFTC’s Division of Market Oversight issued updated guidance that specifically named prediction-market related platforms including Kalshi, Coinbase, Polymarket and Crypto.com, saying they had relied too heavily on template-style batch submissions when self-certifying event contracts.
The agency said firms may not submit vague template certifications. Instead, each category of event contracts must include specific terms, settlement methods, data sources and compliance analysis. Only closely related event contracts may be grouped and filed as a single class.
According to the CFTC, the simplified filing approach weakens the agency’s ability to assess whether individual event contracts meet core regulatory principles.
On the same day, the CFTC also agreed to extend the dormant status of Kraken Derivatives Exchange’s registration, preserving the possibility that it could restart operations in the future after Kraken’s acquisition of Bitnomial.
WEMIX first flagged a possible issue, then disclosed an ownership compromise
WEMIX initially said it had detected a potential security issue involving a WEMIX contract and was investigating. The project said it would release more details and response measures after confirming the facts, while asking users to rely only on official channels for updates.
It later published an update on abnormal transactions and response measures, saying the ownership of a contract related to WEMIX had been compromised. According to the investigation result, an attacker minted about 5,225,525 WEMIX without authorization, then converted the amount into about 30,736 WEMIX and 724,198.27 USDC.e.
The stolen USDC.e was bridged to Ethereum and BSC, where it was swapped into assets including ETH and USDT. Part of the funds was deposited to centralized exchanges. The team said the attacker’s wallet addresses and fund flows had been traced and that requests for freezes had been sent to exchanges and stablecoin issuers.
The exact cause remains under investigation. WEMIX said its team and external experts are conducting a full review and also checking related and similar contracts. Market data showed the WEMIX token price down 16.65% over 24 hours.
BitMart’s public on-chain reserves fell sharply before shutdown notice
DefiLlama’s CEX transparency data showed that crypto exchange BitMart’s publicly visible on-chain asset reserves dropped steeply in the days before it announced it would shut down, falling from about $12 million on the 12th of this month to about $2.31 million on the 26th.
Its current on-chain assets stand at about $1.89 million, including about $815,000 on Ethereum, about $660,000 on Solana, about $362,000 on BSC, about $37,000 on Starknet and only about $17,000 on Bitcoin.
BitMart has announced its closure, but withdrawals remain open. Over the past 24 hours, only 58 wallets made withdrawals totaling about $805,000. Over the last eight hours, the exchange processed no withdrawal requests.
Storj Labs files for Chapter 11 restructuring
Storj Labs, the parent company of cloud storage platform Storj, has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in the United States to address certain legacy debts.
The company said operations will continue as normal during the restructuring process, with no service interruption for customers. It also said the reorganized company is expected to be owned jointly by management, the token community and investors.
Changxin Technology surges on listing day
Changxin Technology officially listed on Shanghai’s STAR Market at an issue price of 8.66 yuan per share. Based on an average gain of 278.01% across all recent new listings, profit from one lot was estimated at about 12,000 yuan. Based on the STAR Market’s average new-listing gain of 466.67%, profit from one lot was estimated at about 20,200 yuan.
Institutional commentary cited in the report said the new-share segment has seen a stage rebound during trading recently and that panic has eased. Looking at current IPO cycle indicators, both valuation-cycle and sentiment indicators have largely retreated to neutral or slightly below-neutral levels for the year. The note said the sharp release of high-level risk may be nearing an end and that the segment could enter a more balanced, range-bound contest between bulls and bears. It also said a full return to strength may take more time, as cycle indicators still need to keep converging and market disagreements still need to narrow.
Market data showed Changxin Technology opened at 49.5 yuan and was trading at 47.76 yuan, up about 419.63% from the 8.66-yuan issue price. The stock reached as high as 49.88 yuan, giving it a total market value of 3.18 trillion yuan.
Midjourney makes its first acquisition with Co-Star deal
AI image generation company Midjourney has acquired social astrology app Co-Star, though financial terms were not disclosed. The deal is Midjourney’s first acquisition since its founding.
Co-Star has about 4.3 million monthly active users. Its main product helps users generate personal astrological birth charts and share them with friends inside the app. The service combines artificial intelligence and human teams to provide horoscope readings, compatibility analysis and other astrology suggestions.
All 24 Co-Star employees have joined Midjourney. Founder Banu Guler is now Midjourney’s chief design officer and has rebuilt a cross-functional design, product and front-end team. The Co-Star app will continue to operate under Banu.
Other AI updates from the past 24 hours
PANews’ AI briefing also listed several other notable developments over the past day.
- Invideo launched an AI video production platform called Agent One and said it features long-term memory and end-to-end AI agent capabilities. The company said the platform ranks first in AI video.
- Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong said the company is already running 1,200 full-time AI agents in operations and shared the underlying operating model. He said those agents convert compute time into 40- to 60-hour work weeks, while improving productivity and reducing bug rates and incident rates per line of code.
- Anthropic released Claude Opus 5. The company said the model delivers performance close to Claude Fable 5, its previous top model, while being priced at the same level as Opus 4.8, or half the price of Fable 5. It ranked first on the Artificial Analysis leaderboard, according to the report.