Author: James Wilson

Bitcoin price remained trapped near $64,600 on July 30 as renewed US-Iran fighting, a hawkish Federal Reserve, and another CLARITY Act delay prevented buyers from extending the recovery. Summary Bitcoin price recovered from $62,383, but it remains inside a range capped near $66,500. The Fed held rates at 3.5%–3.75%, while three policymakers favored a rate increase. US-Iran fighting and a 6.6% oil surge revived inflation and risk-off concerns. Gold held near $4,062, but available data does not confirm a broad crypto-to-gold rotation. Bitcoin price struggles to leave its consolidation range According to data from crypto.news, Bitcoin (BTC) price traded near…

China Business Journal warned on July 30 that fraudsters had impersonated the publication while demanding Bitcoin from companies threatened with negative news coverage. Summary China Business Journal says scammers demanded Bitcoin while impersonating reporters and threatening targeted companies online. The newspaper says the Proton Mail messages were unauthorized and appeared to constitute fraudulent activity. No Bitcoin address, payment amount or confirmed victim loss was publicly disclosed in Thursday’s statement. According to the newspaper’s statement, the scammers contacted businesses through an address hosted by Proton Mail. They claimed that undercover investigations had uncovered damaging information about the targeted companies. The senders…

Adam Hollander has announced that he has stepped down as OpenSea’s chief marketing officer after serving in the role for roughly a year and a half, saying the decision was driven by personal priorities rather than the company’s business outlook. Summary OpenSea CMO Adam Hollander has announced his departure after serving in the role for about 18 months. Hollander said the decision was personal, not career related, and that he plans to focus on his health, family and personal life. He expressed confidence in OpenSea’s leadership, products and future roadmap while saying he is not taking another job. In a…

Visa Chief Executive Ryan McInerney said the payments company will remain neutral among stablecoins as Open USD prepares to enter a market led by Tether’s USDT and Circle’s USDC. Summary Visa says its stablecoin strategy will remain multi-coin and multi-chain rather than backing one winner. Open USD plans to launch later this year with more than 140 participating global companies. Visa’s stablecoin platform initially supports Open USD while retaining interoperability with existing settlement products worldwide. During Visa’s July 28 fiscal third-quarter earnings call, McInerney said the company would remain “multi-coin, multi-chain” and that its role was “not to pick winners.”…

Japanese game developer Gumi will begin operating a roughly ¥3 billion crypto asset fund with SBI Financial Services on Aug.  Summary ¥3 billion fund begins operations August 1, targeting Bitcoin, major altcoins and active portfolio strategies. SBI Financial Services owns 51%, while Gumi subsidiary gC Labs holds the remaining 49% stake. Gumi held ¥14.13 billion in crypto assets by April, marking an 86% annual increase companywide. According to a July 28 company announcement.The private fund, named SBI Crypto Fund I, will invest mainly in Bitcoin and major listed altcoins. Daiwa Securities Group and several unnamed investors have also committed capital.…

A Moscow court has moved BitRiver founder Igor Runets from house arrest to pretrial detention as investigators examine an alleged fraud involving nearly ₽1 billion. Summary Two months of pretrial detention replace Igor Runets’s house arrest in Moscow’s expanding fraud investigation. Nearly ₽1 billion in alleged losses involve prepaid mining equipment that investigators say never arrived. BitRiver’s parent faces bankruptcy proceedings tied directly to the disputed En+ mining equipment contract case. The Zamoskvoretsky District Court approved the change on July 22 and ordered Runets to remain in custody for two months. The new charge became public on July 29 through…

Exchanges advertise leverage the way carriers advertise data speeds, as a capability offered for your benefit. The arithmetic says something else. A venue earns on notional, so the slider that multiplies your position multiplies its revenue identically while collapsing your survival odds, and the deleveraging queue ranks you first for forced closure because the venue knows exactly which accounts are fragile. Summary Trading fees are charged on notional value, meaning the size of the position, not the collateral behind it, so a 50-times position generates 50 times the fee revenue from the same deposit. The trader’s outcome moves in the…

Every chain announcement leads with a transaction number. On a network charging $0.0002, 1 million transactions represents $200 of economic activity and a weekend of testing. The metric that headlines every milestone is the one that survives the least scrutiny, and the analytics platforms already know it. Summary Transaction counts are the most-cited blockchain metric and among the least informative, because a count measures events, not value, and says nothing about what those events were worth. On networks with fees measured in fractions of a cent, the cost of generating enormous counts is trivial, so testing, scripts, and incentive farming…

Prediction market guides explain how contracts resolve and pay. Almost none explain what happens when a market never gets that far, because it was voided, suspended by a court, renamed mid-life, or pulled by the exchange. The answers live in rulebooks and incident history, and they differ enough to matter. Summary A prediction market can end without a normal resolution in at least four ways: the exchange voids it, a regulator or court forces suspension, the contract’s terms are altered mid-life, or the venue withdraws a self-certified product under pressure. Voiding is the cleanest outcome and generally means positions are…

A federal judge has rejected the CFTC’s request to stop Wisconsin from enforcing state gambling laws against federally regulated prediction market platforms. Summary Judge William Griesbach denied the CFTC’s request for a preliminary injunction against Wisconsin. The court found sports event contracts may fall within Wisconsin’s commercial gambling laws. Wisconsin is pursuing cases against Kalshi, Polymarket, Crypto.com, Robinhood, and Coinbase. The CFTC plans to appeal the ruling and continue defending its claimed jurisdiction. Wisconsin court rejects CFTC injunction Judge William Griesbach of the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Wisconsin denied the Commodity Futures Trading Commission’s attempt to…