President Donald Trump is set to meet executives from crypto, prediction market and fintech firms on Aug. 19 at the Eisenhower Executive Office Building near the White House. The meeting is expected to include SEC Chair Paul Atkins and CFTC Chair Michael Selig, with Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick possibly attending. Bloomberg said the guest list includes Coinbase, Ripple, Chainlink, Andreessen Horowitz, Paradigm and Kalshi, while Kraken, Gemini, NYSE and Nasdaq have also reportedly been invited. The talks come as the CLARITY Act remains stalled in Congress. Galaxy Digital now puts the bill’s odds of becoming law this year at about 10%, while Polymarket traders price the chance at roughly 19%, down sharply from a Feb. 19 peak of about 82%. The legislation would create a federal digital asset market framework and divide oversight between the SEC and the CFTC. It has already cleared the Senate Banking Committee and passed the House, but negotiations have slowed over ethics limits, stablecoin yield and anti-illicit finance provisions. Democrats want stricter conflict-of-interest rules covering Trump, senior officials and their families, a sticking point that has turned the debate from technical regulation into political bargaining. A procedural vote is now expected on Sept. 15, and supporters need 60 votes to advance the bill in the Senate.

PPP market-tracking data shows that on Polymarket, the contract on whether Jack Lowden will be cast as the next James Bond has dropped to 22%, down 12% over the past 24 hours. The market resolves to "Yes" if the listed actor is officially announced as the next Bond by 11:59 p.m. Eastern Time on Dec. 31, 2026, and to "No" otherwise. Resolution is based on official information from MGM, though a consensus from other reliable reports may also be used. Reports cited in the update say the final round of auditions for the next Bond took place this month, with roughly five to seven actors still in contention. Lowden had previously been seen as a leading candidate, though the final choice remains undisclosed. Sources also said additional names have joined the field, including Callum Turner, Aaron Taylor-Johnson, and Jonathan Bailey.

Data tracked by Odaily shows the market is increasingly leaning toward no rate change from the U.S. Federal Reserve in September. The probability of a 25-basis-point hike has fallen to 25%, while the odds of rates staying unchanged have climbed to 74%. Trading volume tied to the related prediction event has reached $33.8 million. The figures point to active participation in rate-outlook trading as market attention stays fixed on the Fed’s next policy decision.

Monitoring data from PPP prediction-market tools shows that in Polymarket's '2026 U.S. midterm congressional control' event, Democrats are now assigned a 50% probability of winning both the Senate and the House. The market also prices a 38% chance that Republicans control the Senate while Democrats keep the House, and a 12% chance of a Republican sweep. Settlement will follow the actual balance of power after the Nov. 3, 2026 midterm election. In each chamber, the party securing a majority of seats takes control; if no party wins a majority, the Senate will be deemed to be controlled by the party that holds half of the voting seats and also has the U.S. vice presidency. Tether U.S. executive Jesse Spiro has previously warned that the 2026 midterms could change the congressional political landscape and, in turn, affect the regulatory progress the crypto industry has achieved in Washington over the past two years.

Traders continue to bet on a Federal Reserve rate hike in September, with odds put at 45%, according to a ChainCatcher newsflash published on August 12, 2026. The item, filed under ChainCatcher's policy-and-regulation section, is a one-line dispatch containing no additional context — no mention of a target rate, the expected size of any move, or how the probability was measured. The 45% figure is the only detail offered, and it points to a sustained, though minority, expectation of tightening next month.

Swap market pricing on August 12 showed traders assigning roughly a 50% probability to a 25-basis-point Federal Reserve rate hike in September, according to Zhitong Finance via BlockBeats. That near coin-flip pricing follows July nonfarm payrolls that unexpectedly weakened, leaving Wall Street almost evenly split on the Fed's next move. With the Fed under Warsh having noticeably scaled back forward guidance, investors have been forced to lean on hard data to judge the policy path. Against that backdrop, July CPI carries an asymmetric risk: soft inflation readings could further undermine the case for tightening, while a hotter-than-expected number could quickly make a September hike the base case again. The report also highlights the 10-year Treasury yield, often described as the anchor for global asset pricing. The bond market's risk-reward has already tilted clearly toward the scenario in which a moderate July CPI drives yields down quickly, largely because macro data and CTA bond positioning are now resonating in the same direction. That leaves rates traders positioned for a softer print, even as the implied odds of a September move hover near 50%.

Polymarket bettors now assign a 76% probability to Anthropic hitting a $1.5 trillion valuation within the year, according to PPP, a prediction-market monitoring tool that tracks Polymarket outcome probabilities. The odds rose 13% over the past 24 hours. Separately, the chance of reaching $1.25 trillion sits at 92%, up 8% in the same period. PPP tracks the Polymarket event titled “Anthropic Valuation to Hit Target Within the Year.” Settlement rules lean primarily on the private-market valuation published by Nasdaq Private Market (NPM), which currently stands at about $1.13 trillion. If Anthropic goes public via an IPO or direct listing during the window, the official offering price and the company’s public-market capitalization after listing will also be used in the final outcome. The Wall Street Journal has reported that Anthropic plans to list in September or early October, but no offering price or concrete schedule has been released. A successful listing could become one of the largest IPOs in history.

CME FedWatch data shows the probability of the Fed holding rates steady in September at 50.1%, while the odds of a 25-basis-point hike stand at 49.9% — a near-even split on the central bank's next move.