Crypto industry figure Erik Voorhees commented on the U.S.-China artificial intelligence race in a post on X, saying he does not care about the United States as a country in itself, but about the principles he associates with it. He said those principles are tied to individual liberty and privacy. Voorhees also stressed that he is not a nationalist and that his position is rooted in support for specific values rather than national identity. The remarks were made as part of a broader discussion around competition between the U.S. and China in AI. Techub attributed the update to a post referenced by @laurashin.

Brian Armstrong said in a post on X that the world’s first truly global economy is approaching and that the U.S. should now move to advance tokenization. He said Coinbase has already launched non-U.S. tokenized stocks, pointing to an active business line outside the American market. Armstrong also said the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, along with SEC Chair Paul Atkins, is making progress through Reg Crypto announced this week and an Innovation Exemption that he expects to be released soon. At the same time, he called on the Senate to follow through by passing the Clarity Act in the fall, arguing that the measure would help keep U.S. rules stable over the long term. The remarks tie Coinbase’s tokenized equity rollout to a broader policy discussion now taking shape in Washington.

CME Group CEO Terry Duffy challenged the self-certification process for prediction market contracts during the first meeting of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission’s Innovation Advisory Committee, saying roughly 2,500 self-certified contracts had been filed with the agency since January 2025 without a single objection. He argued that some of those contracts could run against core principles that bar trader manipulation. Duffy cited two examples during the discussion: a soldier allegedly profiting on Polymarket using inside information, and Donald Trump’s teleprompter operator allegedly making more than $100,000 on Kalshi by predicting the content of a presidential speech. CFTC Chair Michael Selig interrupted him and said those products were not listed in the United States, calling the remarks “fake news.” Duffy also said Kalshi launched a prediction market in July tied to Nvidia chip rental costs, while CME plans to list a similar contract on Oct. 5. The CFTC, he added, opened a 60-day public comment period on computational derivatives on Aug. 19, a window that would extend beyond CME’s planned launch date.

U.S. President Donald Trump said on Aug. 20 that CFTC Chair Selig approved what he described as the first truly established Bitcoin perpetual futures contract on a CFTC-registered exchange in May this year. He also said the people involved are working to bring decentralized derivatives trading platform Hyperliquid into the U.S. market in a fully compliant and lawful way. Trump paired those remarks with criticism of the Biden administration, saying it had suppressed cryptocurrency and emerging fintech innovation during its time in office. He added that the current situation has now completely changed. The comments center on two points: the approval and launch of a Bitcoin perpetual futures product on a CFTC-registered venue, and efforts to introduce Hyperliquid to the United States under a compliance-first framework.

Citi plans to offer bitcoin custody to institutional clients later this year through its Custody+ platform, according to ChainCatcher. The service is designed to place bitcoin within the same custody framework used for traditional assets such as stocks and bonds, allowing clients to access custody, settlement, foreign exchange, cash and liquidity services through a single system. Bitcoin will be the first digital asset supported under the new custody service, though Citi has not disclosed a launch date or named any initial clients. Custody+ is being launched by Citi Investor Services. Citi said its custody business covers more than 100 markets and that it operates a proprietary custody network in 62 markets. The bank said it wants to custody native digital assets itself rather than rely only on external exchanges or other digital asset firms. The project has been in development for about two to three years, and Citi first disclosed the plan in 2025. The platform is also set to provide real-time settlement, foreign exchange services, auto-hedging, cash management and liquidity tools. Citi added that its Single Event Processing system now handles more than 80% of event volumes in real time, while in the US it has cut processing time for some voluntary corporate actions by as much as 92%, with 96% of those events completed within two hours.

Check Point Research said the StopAndProtect ransomware operation used nearly 2,000 compromised WordPress websites to distribute malware, steal data, monitor victims and deploy ransomware. The campaign was discovered in mid-May and had compromised more than 6,000 unique IP addresses as of July 24, according to the researchers. The United States accounted for 1,852 of those IPs, while Russia and India each had 630. The report said the hacked websites were also used to host malware, send commands, and store stolen files, screenshots and activity logs. Researchers said the attackers relied on fake CAPTCHA prompts to trick Windows users into running PowerShell commands. That process was used to steal credentials and cryptocurrency wallet seed phrases, and the malware was able to spread through networks and USB devices. Check Point Research said it collected more than 31,000 screenshots and over 700 compressed data archives during its investigation. The researchers also said the attackers may have accidentally infected themselves.

Nearly 2,000 compromised WordPress sites were used as part of a broader cybercriminal operation that distributed malware, stole files, monitored victims, and deployed ransomware, according to a report from Check Point Research published Tuesday. The firm said it first identified the StopAndProtect ransomware family in mid-May and later linked it to a larger toolkit-driven campaign rather than a single malware strain. Researchers said the operation targeted Windows users through fake CAPTCHA prompts on hacked websites, tricking victims into running a PowerShell command that installed malware capable of stealing credentials, harvesting cryptocurrency wallet seed phrases, spreading through networks and USB drives, locking screens, and dropping ransomware. Check Point said operational security failures by the attackers exposed internal files, infection logs, screenshots from victim machines, and source code used to manage compromised websites at scale. By July 24, the campaign had affected more than 6,000 unique IP addresses, including 1,852 in the United States and 630 each in Russia and India. The researchers also collected more than 31,000 screenshots and over 700 archives containing stolen documents, passwords, and crypto wallet files.

Bitcoin climbed to an 11-week high above $72,500 on Thursday even as US equities opened lower and Treasury yields rebounded, with markets reacting to fresh geopolitical tension involving Iran. On Bitstamp, BTC reached $72,505 after briefly retesting $71,000, leaving it up more than 4% on the day and nearly $10,000 over the past four days. The move came after US President Donald Trump threatened what he called the “most crushing economic operation ever taken against any country,” describing it on Truth Social as “Economic D-Day” and saying Iran would face “economic warfare and isolation on an unprecedented scale” over the Strait of Hormuz oil route. The wider market response was mixed. WTI crude rose to $87.69 a barrel, its highest since July 24. US government bond yields, which had dropped sharply a day earlier after the Treasury said it would at least double the size of its bond-market liquidity interventions starting in September, reversed higher. The 30-year yield rebounded from 5.179% to 5.266%, while the 10-year yield also reversed its previous decline. Analysts remain split on what Bitcoin’s rally means: Rekt Capital said the price still needs much stronger follow-through to challenge a weakening-support bear-market structure, while CryptoQuant CEO Ki Young Ju said positive demand has returned across both spot and derivatives markets, though at a modest scale for now.