South Korea’s Financial Services Commission approved five innovative financial services on July 15, with the Bank of Korea-led CBDC sandbox project, Project Hangang, moving into phase 2. The expansion raises participating banks from seven to nine and increases wallet capacity from 10,000 accounts to 500,000. The second phase also adds remittance functions, automatic conversion between deposit tokens and bank accounts, and biometric authentication. Individual holding limits were lifted to 10 million won per wallet and 100 million won in cumulative holdings. The FSC also revised seven existing services, bringing the cumulative number of designated innovative financial services to 1,111. According to ABMedia, the move gives the Bank of Korea a practical way to advance its bank-led CBDC approach through the regulatory sandbox while the Digital Asset Basic Act remains stalled in the National Assembly. The same approval round also included services for foreign travelers and a joint lending product from Kakao Bank and Busan Bank.

Elon Musk said X will release its entire codebase as open source once the platform completes a security vulnerability review, with no exceptions. He also said the company plans to bring in third-party reviewers to inspect the live system and verify that the code running in production matches the open-source version. In the same statement, Musk framed transparency as the basis for trust, saying that only trust built on full transparency should be believed. The remarks were tracked by Dongcha Beating and appeared in a post referenced by BlockBeats.

Starknet said it is opening its privacy development stack to developers and has introduced a privacy SDK and a privacy wallet API. According to the announcement cited by ChainCatcher, the new tools allow applications, wallets, and protocols to integrate private balances, private transfers, and related DeFi interactions on top of STRK20. The update was published under the technology category. No additional details were provided in the brief.

Kevin Hassett, director of the White House National Economic Council, said on July 15 that the data gives the Federal Reserve no reason to raise interest rates. He also said he believes Warsh will help lead the Federal Reserve to the right answer on rates. In the same remarks, Hassett added that Iran’s ability to threaten the global economy has declined. The comments were cited by BlockBeats.

The U.S. Central Command said on July 15 that it completed its strike operation against Iran at 7:30 a.m. Eastern Time, which corresponds to 19:30 Beijing time. According to the statement, the operation lasted 90 minutes. During that period, Central Command used precision-guided munitions against coastal defense systems on Greater Tunb Island, as well as cruise missile storage and launch positions. The update was carried by Odaily and attributed to Jin10. No additional details were provided in the brief report beyond the timing, duration, and stated targets of the operation.

Empery Digital, the Nasdaq-listed bitcoin treasury company trading under EMPD, has sold 1,400 BTC since May 7, 2026, raising about $87.1 million at an average price of roughly $62,200 per coin, according to SEC filings cited by Decrypt and CoinDesk. The sales cut its bitcoin holdings by nearly half. The company said $10 million of the proceeds was used on July 7 to repay debt. The rest is set to fund a previously announced real estate acquisition in the U.S. Midwest that is expected to be converted into an AI data center, while also covering legal expenses tied to shareholder litigation and general working capital. As of July 10, Empery Digital still held 1,514 BTC valued at about $96.5 million, along with $73.9 million in cash and $45 million in outstanding debt. In a July 1 press release, the company said it needed $65 million to complete the acquisition and expected to take a 25% stake in the private entity tied to the facility. Co-CEO Ryan Lane said the deal reflects the firm’s future capital allocation direction and added that there is currently no plan to accumulate more bitcoin, with additional sales remaining possible.

Kevin Hassett, director of the White House National Economic Council, said the data shows the Federal Reserve has no reason to raise interest rates. He also said he believes Warsh will lead the Fed to the right answer on rates. In the same remarks, Hassett said Iran’s ability to threaten the global economy has declined. The comments were cited in a newsflash published by Odaily on July 15, 2026. No additional details were provided in the source text about the data referenced, the timing of any Fed decision, or the context of the remarks. The statement focused on three points: the absence of a case for further rate hikes based on current data, confidence in Warsh’s judgment on monetary policy, and a view that Iran now poses less threat to the global economy than before.

SK Hynix’s U.S.-listed ADR moved lower in premarket trading on July 15, trimming the gap with the company’s Seoul-listed shares. According to market data from BIT (bit.com), the ADR, traded under ticker SKHY, was down 5.8% in premarket and changed hands at $182.6. Bitget data showed SK Hynix shares in South Korea closed at 2,082,000 won, or about $1,397. Based on the conversion that one SK Hynix ADR represents one-tenth of an ordinary share, the equivalent value of the Korean stock comes to $139.7 per ADR unit. That puts the U.S. ADR at a 30.7% premium to the underlying share value. The premium had been 51.5% at the close of the U.S. market earlier in the day, meaning the spread narrowed sharply in premarket trading. The figures cited were attributed to BIT and Bitget market data in a BlockBeats report.