PayPal2026-07-22 21:05:14PayPal Settles with DOJ for $30M in Fees, DEI Program Allegedly Discriminated Against AsiansPayPal will forfeit about $30 million in transaction fees to settle DOJ investigation into its minority business support program that allegedly excluded Asian applicants.420
Celsius2026-07-22 18:25:14Celsius Founder Mashinsky Banned from Asset Management by FTC, Faces $4.72 Billion JudgmentFTC settles with Celsius founder Alexander Mashinsky, imposing a permanent ban on asset management and a $4.72 billion suspended judgment with a $10 million immediate payment. The full amount could be revived if he conceals assets. He received a 12-year sentence in May 2025 for fraud.440
policy2026-07-22 15:30:14Bittrex Asks Court to Void $24M SEC Settlement After Regulator Drops Crypto EnforcementBankrupt exchange Bittrex has filed a motion to overturn its $24 million SEC settlement, arguing the regulator abandoned its crypto-as-securities theory and dismissed all similar cases under the Trump administration.1850
Stripe2026-07-21 12:30:08Stripe, PayPal and stablecoins: why the payment business remains structurally fragmentedA commentary published by MarsBit on July 21 argues that Stripe’s latest push around PayPal, stablecoins and agent-driven payments reflects a broader reality in financial technology: payments remain fragmented, deeply tied to banking infrastructure and resistant to any single company’s attempt at full control. The piece says Stripe missed its pandemic-era IPO window after once reaching a $100 billion valuation, then turned to acquisitions and new narratives spanning merchant acquiring, stablecoins and agent-side protocols. In the author’s view, that strategy is partly an effort to fill Stripe’s weak consumer-facing position after limited progress using stablecoins to crack the C-end market. The article also casts doubt on whether PayPal, despite products such as Venmo and PYUSD, can reverse its decline through new business lines alone. It further compares Stripe with Circle, saying both are moving toward a mix of public chains, stablecoins and settlement rails, while arguing that long-term value may sit less in token issuance economics and more in settlement efficiency. The core claim is that third-party payments have no simple “first principle” because the sector is shaped by local licensing, banking control and a durable patchwork of regional operators.2760
Celsius2026-07-21 03:29:26Celsius co-founders ordered to pay more than $6 million to settle FTC allegationsTwo Celsius co-founders have been ordered to pay more than $6 million to the U.S. Federal Trade Commission to settle allegations tied to statements made before the crypto lender’s collapse. Hanoch “Nuke” Goldstein, the company’s former chief technology officer, must pay $2.014 million under an order signed Monday by U.S. District Judge Denise Cote. Shlomi Daniel Leon, Celsius’s former chief strategy officer, must pay $4.1 million under a separate order entered on June 29. According to the FTC, Celsius had claimed it held enough reserves to meet withdrawal demand, maintained $750 million in insurance covering customer deposits, and did not make unsecured loans. The agency alleged those claims were false and said executives continued to tell customers their deposits were safe just days before the company filed for bankruptcy. At its peak, Celsius held $25 billion in assets. When it filed for bankruptcy in July 2022, it owed users $4.7 billion. The orders also bar Leon and Goldstein from marketing certain retail financial and crypto trading products.1820
Anthropic2026-07-21 03:27:48Judge approves $1.5 billion settlement in Anthropic book copyright class actionAnthropic’s book copyright class action has formally come to an end after two years, with a U.S. federal judge approving a $1.5 billion settlement. The figure is described as the largest known copyright settlement in the United States. Earlier in the case, the court found that Anthropic’s use of books to train its Claude model qualified as fair use. At the same time, the court held that the company’s downloading and storage of more than 7 million pirated books still amounted to copyright infringement. More than 91% of the affected authors and publishers have already applied for compensation under the settlement. Some rights holders opted out and plan to continue pursuing Anthropic in other lawsuits. The case also stands out as the first major U.S. AI training copyright dispute to complete trial, judgment, and settlement procedures.2020
Visa2026-07-16 14:27:37Visa launches stablecoin platform with OUSD, USDC and USDG as initial assetsVisa said on July 16 that it is rolling out the Visa Stablecoin Platform, a new product designed to plug stablecoins into the company’s existing payment and settlement workflows. The platform is tied to Visa’s network of more than 200 million merchants and about 15,000 financial institutions, according to the company’s announcement as cited by Fortune. The first three supported stablecoins are OUSD from the Open Standard alliance, USDC from Circle, and USDG from Paxos, with OUSD positioned by Visa as the strategic lead asset at launch. Rather than introducing a separate checkout experience, the platform is built to place stablecoins inside Visa’s current infrastructure, which processes $15 trillion in annual settlements. Visa executive Rubail Birwadker said the focus is not how merchants obtain stablecoins, but how those assets can connect with treasury and settlement operations. The platform also features real-time settlement, onchain ledger records, and an interface that keeps blockchain wallet and signing steps away from merchants.1090
Ethereum2026-07-10 23:52:13Raoul Pal Predicts Banks Will Use Ethereum for Clearing and Settlement Within 12–18 Months, Unlocking $4.2 Trillion by 2027Real Vision CEO Raoul Pal forecasts banks will migrate clearing, settlement, and custody to Ethereum within 12–18 months, citing its uptime, liquidity, and developer support. This could unlock $4.2 trillion in tokenized asset liquidity by 2027.470
