regulatory

According to TNW, the Cyberspace Administration of China has released a draft of regulations for combating cyberbullying and is seeking public feedback. The draft requires platforms to establish classifiers for detecting and categorizing online violence content, provide users with a "one-click protection" feature, and implement blacklist management and regular reporting mechanisms for violating accounts.Notably, the draft explicitly includes AI-generated deepfake images and synthetic harassment texts within the scope of regulation. The Q&A platform Zhihu has already responded by restricting the use of anonymous accounts.

Asset management giant Franklin Templeton publicly expressed support for the CLARITY Act on platform X, stating that the act will clarify the regulatory approach to cryptocurrencies, inform investors of applicable protections, and specify which regulatory agency governs businesses. The company stated, "It's time to provide the clarity the industry needs."

According to The Block, the National Football League (NFL) sent a letter to CFTC Chairman Michael Selig on July 27, responding to the recent draft regulatory framework for prediction markets released by the CFTC, requesting enhancements in several key areas. The NFL emphasized in the letter that protecting the integrity of the game is its top priority and called on the CFTC to tighten the definition of high-risk contracts that are susceptible to manipulation, rely on referee discretion, or have outcomes that can be known in advance.In addition, the NFL expressed objections to the 10-day pre-approval window being too short, requested clarification on the insider trading ban, established a mandatory "league-exclusive prohibited bettors" list, and reiterated previous consumer protection recommendations such as banning margin trading, limiting advertising, and setting a 21-year age threshold.

The EU's Markets in Crypto-Assets Regulation (MiCA) competition phase is coming to an end, but the real challenges for businesses are just beginning. The high costs of maintaining a compliant operational system may change the landscape of the European crypto industry. In the future, the focus of industry competition may shift from "who can obtain a license" to "who has the capacity to bear regulatory costs," driving companies to achieve scalable development through mergers, joint ventures, or partnerships with banks.As MiCA gradually takes effect and the UK's crypto regulatory framework is about to take shape, the European crypto industry is entering a new phase of consolidation. Industry insiders believe that high regulatory standards may spur a new wave of mergers and acquisitions, and cooperation between crypto-native companies and traditional financial institutions will deepen further. This trend in the UK market may be even more pronounced. The UK's Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) is developing a new regulatory framework for crypto assets, which is expected to incorporate crypto businesses into the existing financial services regulatory system, subjecting them to capital, operational, and customer asset protection requirements similar to those faced by traditional investment institutions.Steven Lightstone, a partner at Morgan Lewis's London office and co-head of the global fintech team, stated that the FCA aims to promote market competition and support new entrants, but its regulatory standards will be very strict when it comes to consumer protection. Unlike the EU's independently operating MiCA framework, the UK approach will directly utilize the existing financial regulatory system to manage crypto businesses. Meanwhile, the increase in regulatory certainty is driving European banks to accelerate their entry into the digital asset space. Sygnum Europe CEO Simon Schneider noted that currently, less than 20% of banks in Europe offer crypto-related services, indicating a significant market gap. The greatest value of MiCA is not just in creating a new licensing system, but in providing legal certainty for financial institutions to enter the digital asset market.He pointed to Switzerland as an example, where after the introduction of regulations on distributed ledger technology, most large Swiss banks began offering digital asset services, a path that may be replicated in other parts of Europe in the future. In the future, banks may not necessarily replace crypto-native companies but are more likely to rely on specialized infrastructure service providers to collaborate in areas such as custody, brokerage, staking, and asset tokenization. As companies that fail to obtain MiCA licenses gradually exit the European market, assets may further concentrate among regulated entities. However, Schneider believes that self-custody models and institutional custody models will continue to coexist in the long term. Industry insiders believe that the European crypto industry is entering a "regulation-driven consolidation cycle." For crypto startups that previously relied on rapid innovation and asset-light models, the core competitiveness in the future may no longer be just technological speed, but compliance capability, capital scale, and the ability to integrate financial infrastructure.

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 official social media news, Huobi HTX will hold a themed debate titled "The Life and Death of Privacy and Regulation: Will Privacy Coins Eventually Be Eliminated, or Will They Experience a Dark Explosion?" today at 8 PM. At that time, representatives from the affirmative side, including Yi Ge, Dog Treasure, Draco, and Qiang Ge, will engage in a heated exchange with representatives from the opposing side, DaDa, Sasaki Hoshino, Volcano Brother, and FomoDao, focusing on hot topics such as the future development of privacy coins, regulatory pressure, technological value, and market demand.

According to the Nikkei, Japan's revised Financial Instruments and Exchange Act was passed by a vote in the full session of the House of Councillors on July 15, officially bringing crypto assets (virtual currencies) under the regulatory framework for financial products.While the new law strengthens user protection, it requires exchanges to pay a liability reserve, and the industry generally expects this move to become an important catalyst for industry elimination and consolidation. Saito Masahiko, head of the Financial Services Agency's Market Division, clearly stated that the agency does not endorse crypto asset trading and makes no recommendations.

According to the latest report released by the Financial Action Task Force (FATF), FATF conducted the seventh special assessment of the implementation of Recommendation 15 (R.15) across global jurisdictions. The report indicates that since the last update in 2025, countries have continued to advance in the regulation of virtual assets (VA) and virtual asset service providers (VASP), including conducting risk assessments, improving licensing and registration frameworks, implementing travel rules, and strengthening law enforcement actions.However, the report also points out that significant gaps still exist, mainly reflected in: the difficulty in effectively translating risk assessment results into mitigation measures, insufficient implementation of licensing and registration frameworks, challenges in identifying VASP activity subjects, and inadequate effectiveness of risk-based supervision and law enforcement. In terms of emerging risks, the report focuses on the following areas: the exacerbation of the "industrialization" trend of organized crime groups using virtual assets to commit fraud, the rising risk of stablecoin abuse, risks associated with non-custodial wallet peer-to-peer (P2P) transactions, offshore VASPs operating outside of regulation, and ongoing challenges in the DeFi sector. FATF calls for the public and private sectors to jointly strengthen the implementation of R.15, enhance risk mitigation capabilities, and deepen domestic, international, and public-private cooperation mechanisms.

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 BBX data, over the weekend, cryptocurrency concept stocks faced two significant substantive events related to publicly listed companies, with the core dynamics as follows:Bitcoin Depot Inc. (Nasdaq: $BTM, bankruptcy proceedings ongoing) completed all executive termination arrangements announced in its Chapter 11 bankruptcy restructuring process on July 17. According to the Form 8-K submitted to the SEC on May 18, 2026 (disclosed under the Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act, WARN Act), the company issued layoff notices to all employees and executives immediately after filing for bankruptcy on May 17, with last Friday being the "expected effective date." Bitcoin Depot is one of the largest Bitcoin ATM operators in the United States (with over 7,000 machines in the U.S. and Canada at its peak), and its bankruptcy is one of the most representative cases of the collapse of a cryptocurrency infrastructure company during the 2026 bear market. The corresponding regulatory background includes: CFPB's enforcement pressure on cryptocurrency ATM service fees, tightening licensing requirements for cryptocurrency ATMs in various states, and a decline in retail cryptocurrency purchase volumes due to the bear market. Meanwhile, industry-wide pressures faced by similar companies providing ATM cash-to-crypto services, such as Coinstar, Coin Cloud, and PaySign, are also intensifying. Documents related to the restructuring process have been made public on the Kroll (claims agent) platform, and creditors can track progress at restructuring.ra.kroll.com/bitcoindepot.SoFi Technologies, Inc. (NASDAQ: $SOFI), as the only stablecoin directly issued by a U.S. national bank regulated by the OCC (SoFi Bank, N.A.), launched SoFiUSD on May 27. Over the weekend (July 18), it became the most direct regulatory test subject under the new framework as the deadline for the GENIUS Act regulatory agency's Customer Identification Program (CIP) rules approached. Regulators must finalize the CIP rules for the GENIUS Act by July 18, clarifying which stablecoin issuers can legally operate in the U.S. and the BSA/AML standards they must meet; there is a risk that the complete rule text may not be produced on time (there is a risk of delay), but even partial clarification of the framework will have a direct impact on SoFiUSD. SoFi's advantage lies in the fact that, as an issuer holding an OCC national bank charter, SoFiUSD falls under the category of "federally chartered stablecoin" in the GENIUS Act classification system, theoretically eligible for the most favorable regulatory treatment; Q1 2026 cryptocurrency trading revenue was $121.6 million, with a net income of approximately $852,000 after deducting costs in the cryptocurrency division. The stablecoin business is still in the early stages of strategic layout, with limited revenue contribution in the short term, but the establishment of the regulatory framework will determine the mid-term commercialization path.

David Sacks, Chairman of the President's Council of Advisors on Science and Technology, stated on the X platform that using regulatory uncertainty as a competitive tool is "completely unacceptable." Regulatory decisions should be based on facts, logic, and evidence, rather than deliberately creating fear and uncertainty (FUD). He is unsure whether venture capitalist and AI policy researcher Dean Ball is acknowledging a strategy of "regulatory capture" or merely predicting that such a situation will occur. However, in any case, the practice of issuing "soft law" warnings through regulatory agencies to create market panic, thereby forcing regulated companies away from Chinese open-source models, should not be accepted.David Sacks pointed out that Dean Ball believes there is no need to directly ban Chinese open-source models; it is sufficient to guide regulatory agencies to issue relevant warnings, which can influence corporate decision-making by creating enough doubt and uncertainty, and these reasons "do not even need to be very substantial." Any regulatory decision must have sufficient basis, rather than implementing policies by "artificially creating doubt." He warned that this practice of circumventing public deliberation procedures not only undermines the foundation of the rule of law but may also open the door to regulatory abuse against any company or individual in the future.David Sacks further stated that current AI policy is at a critical turning point. Leading closed-source laboratories, which have already formed a duopoly in AI model revenue, are attempting to use government power to eliminate open-source competitors. He called on other companies and developers in Silicon Valley that still support open competition to make clear statements to jointly maintain an open ecosystem in the field of AI.

According to a report by Reuters, informed sources revealed that the PayPal board believes the $53 billion acquisition offer from competitor Stripe and Advent International undervalues the company and faces regulatory and financing hurdles. The sources stated that PayPal has not formally responded yet, and the board is evaluating the trade-offs between the offer and the management's strategy to turn around the company, initially considering that the offer of $60.5 per share, while a premium over recent stock prices, does not fully reflect the company's future potential.The acquirers have secured approximately $50 billion in financing commitments from JPMorgan and Morgan Stanley, along with $17 billion in equity raised by Stripe and Advent, to support the $53 billion acquisition offer. If antitrust regulations are violated, the acquirers have considered remedies such as divesting the Braintree business to Advent. Block was initially involved but withdrew before the latest offer submission. Investors will be paying attention to PayPal's earnings report on July 28.

According to CNBC, the American prediction market platform Kalshi stated that a teleprompter operator is under investigation by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission for allegedly trading prediction contracts related to public speeches by President Trump.

The Governor of the Bank of Tanzania, Emmanuel Tutuba, stated that the bank is completing the formulation of regulatory laws and regulations for digital assets, covering virtual assets, cryptocurrencies, and stablecoins, to enhance regulation and supervision.Emmanuel Tutuba mentioned that many young people are investing in related fields, and the central bank has received complaints from individuals who have incurred losses in cryptocurrency-related transactions. The relevant rules will be used to protect Tanzanian investors. He stated that the new regulations will also address the risks of money laundering, terrorist financing, and other illegal activities related to virtual assets, ensuring that entities involved in related activities operate according to the guidelines that will be released soon.