Crypto Industry News & Market Trends

Bitcoin ETFs extend inflow streak to 6 days with $203M added

US-listed spot Bitcoin exchange-traded funds (ETFs) recorded their sixth consecutive day of net inflows on Tuesday, adding $203.1 million.　　The Bitcoin ETFs attracted about $930 million over the six-session streak, their longest run of consecutive inflows since April, according to SoSoValue data.　　The inflows came as Bitcoin traded above $65,000 and briefly climbed to $66,700 on Tuesday. At publication, Bitcoin traded at $65,802, up about 2% over the previous 24 hours, according to CoinGecko.　　Broader crypto market sentiment also improved on Wednesday, with the Crypto Fear & Greed Index rising to “fear” from “extreme fear.”　　The recovery comes as analysts said Bitcoin needs to break above and hold the $65,000 to $65,500 range to strengthen the case for a sustained uptrend.　　The funds have accumulated $51.8 billion in cumulative net inflows since launch, while total net assets reached $80.9 billion. US spot Bitcoin ETFs remain at about $4.84 billion in net outflows year-to-date.

07-23Industry

Polymarket takes France to court after regulators block website

Polymarket has announced a French court challenge five days after regulators ordered internet providers to block the platform over gambling-loss and market-manipulation concerns.　　Reuters reported on July 22 that the crypto-based prediction market intends to contest the National Gambling Authority‘s decision through France’s legal system.　　“We are disappointed by the French gaming authority‘s (ANJ’s) sudden decision to unilaterally block our website — we intend to challenge this decision through the legal process in France,” Polymarket stated.　　ANJ President Isabelle Falque-Pierrotin issued the order on July 16, directing French internet service providers to restrict access to Polymarket. According to ANJs statement cited by Reuters, the website attracted a large French audience while offering gambling and betting services that the regulator considers illegal under national law.　　A spokesperson for ANJ told Reuters that the block would remain until the regulator considers Polymarket compliant with France‘s gambling rules. Polymarket’s planned case will now test whether the authority can continue restricting the website under its current classification of the platform.　　Unlike conventional sportsbooks, Polymarket lets users trade contracts tied to outcomes in politics, economics, sports, weather and armed conflicts. Traders buy positions representing possible results, with contract prices changing as market expectations move.　　French regulator focuses on losses and manipulation　　ANJ

07-23Industry

Senate Republicans Push CLARITY Act With 15 Days Left as Bitcoin Struggles Near $66K

Bitcoin struggled to hold $66,000 on Wednesday, trading near $66,200 after bouncing between a low of $65,536 and a peak of $66,921.　　Key TakeawaysBitcoin slid below $66,000 on Wednesday before steadying near $66,200 as market momentum stalled.The CLARITY Act update includes ethics rules for U.S. officials and $164 million in crypto liquidations.Bitwise CIO Matt Hougan noted that passing the Senate bill before the August recess ends crypto winter.　　Intra-Day Volatility and Price Movement　　Bitcoin, which came within a whisker of breaching $67,000 on July 21, struggled to hold $66,000 on Wednesday amid slow progress on the CLARITY Act in the U.S. Senate. Market data show the top cryptocurrency plummeted from its 24-hour peak of $66,921 to $65,727 during a seven-hour sell-off that lasted into the early hours of Wednesday.　　A subsequent relief rally saw bitcoin reclaim $66,000, but momentum stalled, triggering a period of intense volatility that subsided shortly before 8 a.m. EST. Bitcoin then plunged to an intraday low of $65,536, quickly erased the losses, and then dropped back near $65,500.　　At the time of writing (12:52 p.m. EST), the top cryptocurrency was trading just under $66,200, down 0.4% over 24 hours. Reclaiming the $66,000 threshold lifted Bitcoins market capitalization to just over $1.32

07-23Industry

US targets $26.4 million in five crypto scam cases as DOJ says $800 million recovered

U.S. prosecutors filed five civil-forfeiture complaints on July 21 seeking roughly $26.4 million in cryptocurrency traced through separate international fraud investigations.　　Investigators can freeze suspected criminal proceeds before they know who is behind the scheme. They can then seek forfeiture while the search for suspects continues, with any final seizure and repayment to victims decided later.　　The U.S. Attorneys Office for the District of Columbia said one investigation traced more than 270 suspected victim transactions involving fraudulent investment platforms. Another involved more than 200 romance-scam victims and hundreds of intermediary addresses used to commingle funds.　　Across all five cases, DOJ said launderers were predominantly located in Southeast Asia, with associated IP addresses in China, Malaysia, and Cambodia.　　The fifth and smallest case shows the danger of repeat victimization. A person who had already lost money to an unrelated fraud was then contacted by scammers claiming they had recovered the stolen funds.　　The victim paid a fee and sent a series of transactions before investigators traced some of those transactions. The complaint seeks about $285,000, and efforts to recover additional funds are continuing.　　From restraint to restitution　　A freeze is intended to prevent identified cryptocurrency from moving. A civil-forfeiture complaint starts the next legal step by asking a

07-23Industry

AI models escaped OpenAIs sandbox and hit Hugging Face. Crypto is where that gets dangerous

OpenAI caught the anomaly internally, while Hugging Faces team detected and contained it. It called the incident unprecedented, and said extensive security steps will be put in place to prevent untoward incidents that may impact public systems or services.　　“We are implementing strict controls in infrastructure configuration at the cost of research velocity while the vulnerabilities are patched,” the team said in its blog post. “Were improving and adding stronger protections around future training and evaluations.”　　A simple explainer on how the model broke out to cheat. (Shaurya Malwa/CoinDesk)Crypto beware　　Much of a crypto attack happens before funds move. Attackers scan code, test passwords, search for exposed credentials, analyze signing setups and look for a path into an administrator account.　　OpenAIs models carried out several parts of that process during the Hugging Face incident, moving from one weakness to another until they reached live production servers.　　And the crypto market has plenty of places for that approach to work, as several attacks from earlier this year have shown. The weak point may be a smart contract, but it may also be a developer laptop, a poisoned software package, a bridge validator or or one signer in a multisig wallet.　　Drifts $285 million attack from earlier this

07-23Industry

Celsius founders face permanent crypto bans that could cost more than their $16.5M obligations

The co-founders of Celsius, the bankrupt crypto lender, are now subject to permanent court orders that bar them from broad parts of the crypto and asset-services business.　　The FTC put the founders‘ combined obligations at $16.5 million, though Goldstein’s entered order lists $2.014 million.　　Alexander Mashinsky and Shlomi Daniel Leon may not advertise, market, promote, offer or distribute products or services used to deposit, exchange, invest or withdraw assets, or assist in those activities.　　Mashinskys order covers assets generally, while Leons expressly covers cryptocurrency, banking and financial assets. Both bans apply whether they act directly or through an intermediary.　　Goldsteins order focuses on retail crypto. He may not advertise, market, promote, or offer for sale retail products or services used to buy, sell, deposit, withdraw, distribute, or trade cryptocurrency, or assist in those sales and marketing activities.　　All three orders also prohibit material misrepresentations about products and services. They bar obtaining or attempting to obtain customer information of a financial institution through false, fictitious, or fraudulent representations, including bank-account details, login credentials, private keys, and wallet information.　　Mashinsky and Leon additionally must obtain express informed consent before disclosing consumers nonpublic personal information.　　Those restrictions track the conduct alleged in the FTCs 2023 complaint. The agency alleged Celsius

07-22Industry

'You will have a painful fall': SEC's Peirce warns crypto vault builders against twisting securities law

Quick TakeHester Peirce, aka “Crypto Mom”, issued a statement clarifying that onchain vaults and lending may fall under the SECs remit.She noted the agency will be treating vaults individually based on their “specific facts and circumstances.”　　Hester Peirce, a leading member of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commissions Crypto Task Force, has issued a statement of clarity arguing that onchain vaults and lending strategies that involve investment contracts — in other words, securities — remain subject to federal regulation.　　In a colorfully written blog on Wednesday, Peirce, who is often called “Crypto Mom” for her longstanding support of blockchain financial innovation, said people ought not to do “headstands, backflips, and other gymnastics to read [existing securities] law so that it does not apply to crypto assets and activities that are well within the scope of the federal securities laws.”　　“You will have a painful fall,” she said.　　Peirces comments come after she made proactive statements on the broader category of tokenized securities, arguing then that tokenized securities remain securities. The agency itself has been working to provide clarity for the emerging category of tokenized assets.　　During President Donald Trumps second term, there has been a boom in tokenization activity, including the construction of onchain vaults

07-22Industry

White House pushes Senate Democrats to take 'historic' crypto Clarity Act ethics deal

“If Senate Democrats block this historic legislation after the administration has bent over backward to accommodate their concerns, stakeholders should make no mistake: It is the Democrats who are blocking this legislation because they were never serious about a legislative outcome,” the White House official said.　　Democratic negotiators such as Senators Kirsten Gillibrand, Ruben Gallego and Angela Alsobrooks reportedly havent received details of the agreement with Trump, whod met personally with Republican senators last week. But many of the Democrats have drawn a line in the sand that the ethics provision — driven primarily by Trumps own deep crypto connections — needs to be strong.　　The dispute was heightened recently by the presidents disclosures that hed pocketed more than $1 billion last year from his crypto interests.　　The White House, Republicans and their crypto industry allies are already building their case against any Democrats who dont accept the new answer to their ethics demands. Its unclear when theyll get to see it.　　The industry is expecting full circulation of the Clarity Act legislative language as soon as Tuesday night or Wednesday, though that expectation has been repeatedly delayed since last week.　　The Senate has fewer than three weeks to finish the bill, including the ethics

07-22Industry

The digital euro: Surveillance money, or a better alternative to cash？

The digital euro is one of Europes most contentious financial projects.　　Supporters see it as a way to preserve the blocs monetary sovereignty, reduce its reliance on foreign payment providers, and ensure central bank money survives in an online economy dominated by USD stablecoins.　　Critics, however, argue the digital euro could be a way for a supranational organization to surveil — and in certain circumstances, even control — the population of Europe.　　The official view is that: “The digital euro will reduce Europes excessive dependence on non-European providers. It will ensure that Europeans can pay with their money — the sovereign money issued by their central bank — in the digital economy,” said Piero Cipollone, member of the executive board of the European Central Bank (ECB).　　The alternative perspective is that the Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC) may curtail the freedom of citizens to spend money how they wish.　　“These are the 8 most dangerous words if you care about freedom: ”The digital euro is here to protect Europeans, said former Deutsche Bank managing director Pius Sprenger.　　“This is how they will be able to control EVERY euro you spend. Goodbye money. The ECB will decide how much digital money you can have,” said José Vizner,

07-22Industry

South Korea crypto volumes shrink as retail investors shift to stocks

South Korea‘s major crypto exchanges have seen their trading activity fall sharply over the past year as the country’s stock market surged, suggesting retail speculative interest may be shifting toward equities, Cointelegraph analysis shows.　　The Korea Composite Stock Price Index (KOSPI) benchmark more than doubled over the period, while volumes across the countrys largest won-based crypto platforms contracted.　　Cointelegraph reviewed CoinGeckos historical 24-hour volume readings for Upbit, Bithumb, Coinone, Korbit and Gopax, comparing seven-day periods in July 2025 and July 2026.　　After calculating the average daily volume and year-over-year percentage change, Cointelegraph took the simple, unweighted average of the five declines, producing an average drop of about 77%. This gives each exchange equal weight regardless of trading volume. However, on a combined basis, average daily volume fell about 89%, to $305 million from $2.82 billion in the comparable July 2025 period.　　ZDNet Korea separately reported that daily volume across the five exchanges was down 88% year-on-year on Monday. It said weaker fee income had pushed some platforms to sell crypto holdings, including Korbit, which raised about 1.6 billion won (about $1 million) by selling 15 Bitcoin (BTC) and 60 Ether (ETH).　　South Korea is one of cryptos most active retail markets, with exchanges relying heavily

07-22Industry

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