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The Hong Kong Securities and Futures Commission (SFC) issued a restriction notice to Futu Securities International (Hong Kong) Limited, prohibiting it from handling or disposing of assets in customer accounts held by a certain entity, limited to HKD 125,247,000. This entity is suspected of participating in a fraudulent scheme aimed at creating a false or misleading appearance of demand for initial public offering shares. Futu is not the subject of the SFC's investigation, and this restriction notice will not affect Futu or its other clients.According to the notice, Futu must not dispose of or handle the relevant account assets in any way without the SFC's written consent, and must immediately notify the SFC if it receives any instructions related to the restricted assets. The SFC believes that issuing this restriction notice is in the interest of investors and the public. The investigation is still ongoing.

The cryptocurrency card project Tria announced the distribution of over $600,000 in rewards to ambassadors who promoted platform growth during Season One and Season Two, including a $250,000 ambassador bonus pool (distributed based on commission performance grading from Season One, with up to 50% additional rewards) and over $350,000 in card consumption commissions (covering card consumption and membership purchase shares for referred users from January 31 to June 30).The ambassador bonus will be available for claims on July 31, and card consumption commissions will be credited in the coming weeks, with regular distributions on the last Tuesday of each month thereafter. Tria stated that more incentive programs will be opened in Season Three, and the ambassador program continues to recruit.

According to Edaily, the Financial Services Commission (FSC) of South Korea plans to jointly draft a unified government bill for the "Basic Law on Digital Assets" with the ruling Democratic Party, covering the issuance and circulation of stablecoins, business rules for digital assets, exchange admission requirements, information disclosure, internal control, and system resilience standards. Currently, there are 10 related bills pending review in the National Assembly, but there has not yet been consensus on core disputes such as whether the issuers of won-pegged stablecoins must be bank holding companies and whether to impose shareholding restrictions on major exchanges. The FSC has not yet determined the submission date for the bill.Meanwhile, the opposition party's People Power Party lawmaker Song Yeon-sik submitted a proposal to abolish the cryptocurrency income tax amendment to the National Assembly's Finance and Economy Planning Committee for review on Wednesday. Additionally, a tax abolition petition supported by over 50,000 people is also expected to be submitted to the petition subcommittee. According to the current plan, starting from January 1, 2027, cryptocurrency transfers or lending income exceeding 2.5 million won per year will face a 20% income tax plus a 2% local tax. The government and the ruling party support the timely implementation, while the opposition party believes it is unfair to tax cryptocurrencies when most ordinary stock investors remain tax-exempt.

According to INBi, consultant François Garcin, who assisted in building MARA's business in France, filed a lawsuit against MARA Holdings in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York on July 22, seeking over 11 million euros in compensation.Garcin claims that after MARA terminated the contract on March 6, 2026, it failed to pay 2.4 million euros in consulting fees and approximately 5.92 million euros in success commissions (based on 4% of the 148 million euro investment in Exaion). Exaion is a subsidiary of EDF, and this investment accounts for 64% of the capital for the relevant project.Garcin's previous tasks included recruiting former Engie CEO Gérard Mestrallet, obtaining an invitation to the Choose France summit, and arranging a meeting with former President François Hollande, among others.

Fang Xinghai, former member of the Party Committee and Vice Chairman of the China Securities Regulatory Commission, is suspected of serious violations of discipline and law, and is currently undergoing disciplinary review and supervisory investigation by the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection and the National Supervisory Commission.

According to FinanceFeeds, the Indian Parliament's Standing Committee on Finance has recommended that the government establish a temporary regulatory mechanism led by recognized Self-Regulatory Organizations (SROs) to oversee the domestic cryptocurrency and virtual digital asset market. The committee warned that the lack of a clear legal framework exposes millions of retail investors to operational, custodial, and fraud risks.The SRO will implement standardized codes of conduct under the direct supervision of the Reserve Bank of India or the Securities and Exchange Board of India, covering consumer protection, platform transparency, and token disclosure standards, and will be responsible for auditing exchange reserves, mandating the segregation of customer funds from corporate funds, and establishing user complaint handling channels. The committee emphasized that the temporary SRO must operate under strict oversight from the central bank or the securities regulator to address macroeconomic risks such as cross-border capital flows, dollarization of stablecoins, tax evasion, and violations of foreign exchange management laws.

According to the Hong Kong Securities and Futures Commission, Victory Securities Limited has been reprimanded and fined HKD 1.7 million for violating regulatory requirements, and its responsible personnel's licenses have been temporarily revoked.Previously, Hong Kong Victory Securities announced in February this year that it would close all virtual currency trading functions for users with mainland Chinese identities, retaining only withdrawal permissions and no longer supporting deposits and new transactions. The platform's gradual tightening of services for mainland users includes previous measures such as prohibiting purchases and suspending new address verification, aimed at complying with the regulatory requirements of the Hong Kong Securities and Futures Commission and relevant policies in the mainland.

The South Korean Financial Services Commission stated that it will submit the government bill for the second phase of the "Basic Law on Digital Assets" as soon as possible, and will coordinate the release of guidelines for corporate cryptocurrency asset trading with the legislative process. At the same time, it plans to include digital asset custody under independent business regulation and holds a cautious attitude towards the mandatory separation of custody business from exchanges.In addition, South Korea will refer to the practices of the European Union to provide a more convenient access mechanism for traditional financial institutions applying for virtual asset service provider licenses. Regarding the market's concern about the separation of exchange custody business, the South Korean Financial Services Commission stated that there are currently few cases of mandatory separation overseas and prefers to prevent conflicts of interest through improved behavioral regulation rather than requiring exchanges to operate custody business independently.

According to the SEC official website, Commissioner Hester M. Peirce issued a statement highlighting the intersection of cryptocurrency vaults and on-chain lending strategies with federal securities laws. Peirce pointed out that migrating activities to the blockchain does not automatically exempt them from the regulatory scope of securities laws. Cryptocurrency vaults allocate user assets to yield activities such as staking and lending through smart contracts, and if the managers are involved in selecting yield strategies or reallocating assets, it may trigger compliance obligations under securities laws; some vault structures may be deemed joint enterprises or fall under the regulation of investment companies.Regarding on-chain lending strategies, management actions such as interest rate setting, asset admission, and liquidation thresholds may also involve securities laws, and related loans may be classified as securities under certain conditions. Peirce stated that the SEC welcomes proactive communication from market participants in the vault and on-chain lending space and seeks input from all parties to explore whether there is a need to revise rules to protect investors while allowing space for innovation.

According to Jinshi reports, the prediction market platform Kalshi has applied to the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) to launch perpetual futures linked to gold.

According to the official website of the Brazilian Securities Commission (CVM), the CVM officially established the Security Tokenization Working Group (GTT) on July 17, 2026, aiming to conduct research, testing, and regulatory framework development around Distributed Ledger Technology (DLT), covering aspects such as the registration, custody, trading, and clearing of securities.The initial operating period of the working group is 120 days, which can be extended by 30 days, gathering representatives from 14 departments within the CVM, and will invite government agencies, self-regulatory organizations, and market experts to participate. The first task is to submit an experimental regulatory framework proposal for security tokenization to the CVM committee within 60 days of its establishment. CVM Chairman Otto Lobo stated that tokenization is one of the most important structural changes in the capital market and requires equally innovative regulatory responses.

According to South Korean media KBS, the Financial Services Commission of South Korea has announced the results of virtual asset market regulation. Since the implementation of the "Virtual Asset User Protection Act" two years ago, approximately 40 investigations into unfair virtual asset trading have been completed, and more than 30 cases have been reported or notified to judicial authorities, focusing on cracking down on market disorder behaviors such as short-term manipulation and "pump and dump."In the future, the ability to monitor the market will be further strengthened, and an AI-based virtual asset regulatory system will be established, including real-time market monitoring, second-level price manipulation analysis, and automatic identification of suspicious accounts and trading intervals.

The Financial Services Commission of South Korea responded positively to the recent controversies surrounding single-stock leveraged exchange-traded funds (ETFs) when it released supplementary regulatory measures. Byeon Je-ho, the Director of the Capital Markets Bureau of the Financial Services Commission, clearly stated that launching leveraged ETF products targeting single stocks such as Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix in the domestic market has indeed had a significant effect in locking in domestic investment demand and preventing capital outflow to overseas leveraged markets like Hong Kong or the United States.In response to external accusations that single-stock leveraged ETFs are the "main culprit" behind the recent increase in volatility in the South Korean stock market, the Financial Services Commission refuted this claim. Byeon Je-ho pointed out that the recent dramatic market fluctuations cannot be solely explained by leveraged ETFs, with the core reason being the alternating expectations of the global semiconductor industry cycle. Data shows that from May 26 to July 10, the annualized daily return volatility of U.S. SanDisk (131%), Micron (123%), and Japan's Kioxia (118%) was higher than that of South Korea's SK Hynix (113%) and Samsung Electronics (96%). Additionally, some investors' contrarian operations have played a role in stabilizing stock prices to some extent.Regarding the demands from some politicians and market participants to "forcefully delist single-stock leveraged ETFs," the Financial Services Commission clearly rejected this request. The official explanation stated that delisting must meet statutory termination criteria such as a sharp decline in market value or a lack of liquidity providers (LPs), and currently, the market is showing signs of heating up due to excessive demand, which does not meet the delisting conditions. The Financial Services Commission indicated that such calls should be understood as the market's urgent expectation for strengthened compliance and robust regulatory measures.

The National Development and Reform Commission officially released the "Action Plan for the Cooperative Development of Artificial Intelligence," aimed at building an open, shared, secure, orderly, and collaboratively governed global artificial intelligence ecosystem. The plan clearly outlines eight core actions, comprehensively promoting deep international cooperation in the AI field from multiple dimensions, including data, computing power, algorithms, talent, and governance. At the foundational level of data and computing power, the action plan emphasizes the need to promote cross-border data flow and build a trustworthy cross-border data space, collaboratively constructing a high-quality corpus; at the same time, it promotes the interconnection of intelligent computing facilities, providing inclusive intelligent computing services to developing countries, and creating low-carbon intelligent computing infrastructure driven by green energy.In terms of industrial empowerment and ecological sharing, the plan encourages the co-construction of an international open-source community for artificial intelligence, promoting the sharing of general large models, basic algorithms, and tool components, and supporting countries in conducting localized innovation based on open-source models. By deepening "Artificial Intelligence +" cooperation, it aims to build a cross-national industrial cooperation platform, promoting the deep application and empowerment of AI technology in fields such as science, manufacturing, healthcare, education, agriculture, and governance. In addition, the plan also proposes the establishment of a joint training mechanism for top digital talent, collaboratively formulating occupational standards and skill certification systems, comprehensively enhancing public literacy, and jointly addressing the structural impacts of AI on employment.Regarding industry rules and technical security, the action plan advocates for the co-construction of rules and standards and collaborative governance for security. All parties will strengthen information sharing on cybersecurity threats and emergency response cooperation, researching ways to enhance the explainability, transparency, and safety of artificial intelligence. Finally, the plan emphasizes adherence to the technological ethics principle of "AI for Good," collaboratively constructing an ethical guideline system dedicated to eliminating algorithmic biases in the forms of racism, discrimination, and others. By promoting international governance cooperation in AI research, it aims to contribute public scientific products to the Global South, effectively serving the United Nations' 2030 Sustainable Development Goals.

The Central Cyberspace Affairs Commission recently announced the progress of the first phase of the "Clear and Bright: Rectifying AI Application Chaos" special action. Since its launch in April 2026, this action has focused on issues such as large models not being registered as required, insufficient review and filtering capabilities, AI data poisoning, and inadequate implementation of content labeling. As of now, the first phase has dealt with over 14,000 AI products, including non-compliant websites, applications, and intelligent agents, cleaned up more than 6 million illegal and non-compliant pieces of information, handled over 26,000 non-compliant accounts, and removed over 1,300 non-compliant AI products and 9 non-compliant open-source datasets.During the special action, many local cyberspace departments have taken targeted measures such as establishing coordinated regulatory mechanisms and setting up reporting areas. Key platform companies such as Huawei, Alibaba, Zhiyu, and DeepSeek have also successively improved their registration review, content interception, and data anomaly detection mechanisms. The Central Cyberspace Affairs Commission stated that the next phase of governance will focus on cracking down on prominent issues such as the use of AI technology to create and disseminate false information, spread vulgar content, impersonate others, infringe on the rights of minors, and engage in internet water army activities, further increasing enforcement efforts and urging platforms to enhance their prevention and governance capabilities.

According to a report by Sing Tao Daily, the Hong Kong Securities and Futures Professionals Association stated that after a meeting with representatives from the regulatory authorities, including Deputy Secretary for Financial Services and the Treasury Chen Haolian and Executive Director of the Securities and Futures Commission's Intermediaries Division Ye Zhiheng, the Securities and Futures Commission has committed to advancing measures such as the separation of the "Virtual Asset Platform Practitioners Examination" (CVAP) exam and curriculum, optimizing review materials, and reducing assessment fees.The association will follow up on the relevant timeline and continue to communicate with the Financial Services and the Treasury Bureau and the Securities and Futures Commission on practical issues such as self-custody operation guidelines for private equity funds, the boundaries of technology services and regulated activities, and the VA Payment regulatory framework.

According to the Daily Economy, the South Korean Financial Commission held its 12th regular meeting and filed lawsuits regarding two cases of market manipulation in the cryptocurrency asset market.In the first case, "whale" investors used tens of billions of Korean won to acquire about half of the global circulation of a certain cryptocurrency asset, artificially inflating the price on overseas exchanges, and then profiting from arbitrage on domestic exchanges by taking advantage of the price linkage effect between exchanges, with the losses borne by domestic investors.In the second case, the suspects targeted "Kimchi Coin" by repeatedly submitting market buy and sell orders through API channels within one second, creating a false appearance of active trading, while simultaneously posting high-priced buy orders on the web to drive up the market. After buy orders surged in, they sold off in batches to cash out.The Financial Commission warns investors to be cautious of cryptocurrencies with sudden and unjustified spikes in price and trading volume, and stated that it will strengthen the disclosure mechanism for large holders' positions and the market warning system.

According to Caixin, Xiao Rui, the son of former Wuhan Municipal Supervisory Commission member Xiao Jun, is suspected of receiving approximately HKD 4.72 million in bribes from mainland construction contractors on behalf of his father, and has laundered over HKD 64 million through underground money houses. On June 23, the Hong Kong Regional Court found Xiao Rui guilty of four counts of "money laundering" and one count of "using a false document," with the judge set to announce the sentence on July 23.In 2014, Xiao Rui was approved to reside in Hong Kong. That same year, he used his HSBC account to purchase two funds from Sun Life Financial for HKD 10 million to meet the investment requirements of the aforementioned immigration plan. Between January 2016 and September 2017, Xiao Rui's Standard Chartered and DBS accounts received multiple remittances, totaling over HKD 54 million.Regarding the "money laundering" charges, Xiao Rui argued in court that the large sums involved were legitimate earnings from his mother's business, given to him for investment in Hong Kong, with some funds also coming from the sale of Bitcoin. Concerning the explanation about Bitcoin, the judge rejected his testimony as Xiao Rui could not provide any basic records such as transaction dates, numbers, or wallet addresses.