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South Korean financial officials specializing in virtual assets are increasingly moving to major law firms, News1 reported. Recently, major law firms, including Kim & Chang, Lee & Ko, Yulchon, and Yoon & Yang, have been bolstering their expertise by consistently hiring specialists from both regulatory bodies and the virtual asset industry. The move comes as the industry anticipates a growing demand for regulatory compliance from financial companies and virtual asset service providers as the country's formalization of its crypto legal framework accelerates.

The Ethereum Foundation will hold a luncheon meeting with officials from major South Korean financial institutions in Yeouido, Seoul, on July 21, ZDNet Korea reported. Attendees are expected to include representatives from the Korea Financial Investment Association, Koscom, the Export-Import Bank of Korea, and DB Financial Investment. The foundation is anticipated to discuss Ethereum's technical advantages and security as a financial infrastructure, as well as potential adoption strategies.

The U.S. House Financial Services Committee is scheduled to hold a field hearing at 2:00 p.m. UTC on July 17 to discuss the impact of the CLARITY Act on financial innovation. The bill passed the Senate Banking Committee in May and now awaits a full Senate vote and reconciliation with the House. Industry observers view the bill's core as its ethics provisions aimed at preventing conflicts of interest related to the Trump family's cryptocurrency businesses, and see the period before the August congressional recess as the final deadline for its passage.

The U.S. Senate has unanimously passed a non-binding resolution stating that FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried (SBF) should not receive a presidential pardon or have his sentence commuted, CoinDesk reported. Although U.S. President Donald Trump said in January that he had no plans to pardon SBF, speculation about the possibility arose after he previously pardoned Binance founder Changpeng Zhao and Silk Road founder Ross Ulbricht. SBF was convicted in November 2023 on seven charges related to the collapse of FTX, with damages estimated to be over $8 billion. The U.S. Department of Justice has described the case as one of the largest financial frauds in U.S. history.

South Korean crypto exchange Coinone announced that it has designated 12 tokens for its delisting watchlist: Streamr (DATA2), Nestree (EGG), StaFi (FIS), Hifi Finance (HIFI), Mon Protocol (MONPRO), FanC (FANC), dELABS Games (DELABS), Saros (SAROS), Xpass (XPASS), AgentLisa (LISA), Sperax (SPA), and Galaxia (GXA).

South Korean crypto exchange Bithumb announced that it has placed Azit (AZIT), Cudis (CUDIS), Fancy (FANC), Temco (TEMCO), Nestree (EGG), and Stat (STAT) on its delisting watchlist.

The following are the 24-hour long/short ratios for BTC perpetual futures on the world’s three largest crypto futures exchanges by open interest: Overall: 51.28% long, 48.72% short - Binance: 52.33% long, 47.67% short - OKX: 51.69% long, 48.31% short - Bybit: 51.72% long, 48.28% short

South Korean crypto exchange Coinone has announced that it is removing THORChain (RUNE) from its delisting watchlist.

According to the Iranian Students' News Agency (ISNA), Iran has stated that it will keep the strait closed until the United States accepts Iranian law.

On July 15, the Hyperliquid (HYPE) spot ETF recorded net inflows. The XRP spot ETF saw no change in flows, while the Solana (SOL) spot ETF experienced net outflows of under $1 million. - HYPE: +$2.1 million - SOL: -$700,000

Payments giant Visa predicts that traditional card payments and stablecoins will coexist to serve a growing market for transactions conducted by AI agents, according to a joint report with on-chain platform Artemis. The report distinguishes between two types of AI-driven commerce: macro-commerce, where agents perform tasks delegated by humans, and micro-commerce, which involves transactions like API calls and computing resource purchases between agents. For micro-commerce, where most transactions are under $1, the report argues that stablecoins are more suitable due to the economic inefficiency of existing card fee structures. It concludes that while cards will remain dominant for general consumer payments, stablecoins will handle the high volume of micro-payments between AI agents. However, the report identified the need to establish a clear regulatory framework as a remaining challenge.

A sharp decline in cryptocurrency-related discussions on major social media platforms like X (formerly Twitter), Reddit, and Telegram is being interpreted as a potential bullish signal for Bitcoin. CryptoPotato reported that social media conversations about crypto have fallen to their second-lowest level since October 2024. While this indicates waning interest from retail investors, the outlet noted that such periods have historically preceded trend reversals in the market. Separately, on-chain analytics firm Santiment explained that as retail participation decreases, the influence of large-scale investors grows. The firm's analysis suggests that strong market rebounds often occur when retail interest is low, market sentiment is exhausted, and there is less resistance during a rally.

U.S. Ethereum spot ETFs recorded a net inflow of $53.9 million on July 15, marking the second consecutive day of inflows, according to data from Farside Investors. - BlackRock ETHA: +$45.3 million - BlackRock Staking ETHB: +$4.0 million - Grayscale Mini ETH: +$4.6 million

U.S. spot Bitcoin ETFs recorded a net inflow of $107.7 million (159.7 billion won) on July 15, according to data from Farside Investors. This marks the second consecutive day of net inflows. - BlackRock's IBIT: +$80.8 million - Fidelity's FBTC: +$16.9 million - Grayscale's Mini BTC: +$10 million

The number of holders of real-world asset (RWA) tokens issued on Solana has surpassed 300,000, reaching an all-time high, Cointelegraph reported. This marks the largest number of RWA holders on any single blockchain.

A whale that had been dormant for eight years has transferred 5,908 BTC, worth $382.67 million, to a new address, Lookonchain reported. The whale originally received the BTC eight years ago when the price was $16,865 and had held it until now.

Bankless host David Hoffman, who announced in mid-May that he had sold all his Ethereum (ETH), has responded to users taunting him for selling at the bottom. He stated on X that the token is still trading below his average selling price. ETH was trading between $2,100 and $2,150 on May 21, the day he announced the sale. According to CoinMarketCap, ETH is currently trading at $1,923.40, up 3.16% over the past 24 hours.

The following shows estimated liquidation volumes and position ratios for major crypto perpetual futures over the past 24 hours: - BTC: $57.55 million liquidated (73.55% shorts) - ETH: $111.72 million liquidated (82.56% shorts) - SPCX: $8.14 million liquidated (96.31% longs)

Glacis Labs, the developer behind the crypto settlement platform ZeroDelta, has raised $6.8 million in a seed funding round, according to The Block. The round was led by Lightspeed Faction, with participation from Franklin Templeton, Coinbase Ventures, Again (formerly IDC Ventures), Protein Capital, and Tectony Ventures. The specific use of the funds was not disclosed.

Tanzania's central bank is preparing a new regulatory framework for cryptocurrencies to enhance market supervision and protect investors, Bitcoin.com reported. The bank is finalizing laws and regulations for the oversight of cryptocurrencies and stablecoins, aiming to strengthen its regulatory and supervisory capacity.

Exchange leverage has entered an overheated phase, significantly outpacing the scale of stablecoin reserves, according to cryptocurrency analyst Crazyblockk. In a contribution to CryptoQuant, he noted that derivatives leverage is currently increasing faster than spot liquidity, with utilization levels reaching the top 5% historically and sitting well above the long-term average. This suggests the crypto market's recovery is dependent on borrowed funds rather than being supported by spot liquidity, he explained. Crazyblockk added that while retail investors are increasing high-leverage long positions as prices rise, market-making firms and institutions are aware of the fragile supply and demand structure. He predicted a high probability of a sharp price correction to unwind these high leverage levels.

The Robinhood Chain memecoin CashCat (CASHCAT) has turned lower, falling below $0.1. According to CoinMarketCap, the token is currently trading at $0.09336, down 11.24% on the day.

South Korea's ruling Democratic Party is aiming to introduce the final version of its Digital Asset Basic Act this September, IT Donga reported. At a seminar on July 15, Democratic Party lawmaker Park Min-gyu stated that the bill's introduction would likely occur in September due to the party's internal schedule, which includes a national convention and the formation of a new task force. The seminar was co-hosted by the Digital Asset eXchange Alliance (DAXA) and crypto think tank MRI. Attendees at the event also called for the swift legislation of a won-backed stablecoin and the Digital Asset Basic Act, citing the evolving regulatory situation in the United States.

Stanford University researchers have published a study suggesting that some traders in Polymarket's main BTC prediction market may have temporarily moved BTC prices to influence betting outcomes. According to Bloomberg, the researchers identified a pattern on Binance where concentrated, one-directional trades in the final seconds before a bet expired caused temporary price fluctuations, benefiting traders who had bet on that direction. This phenomenon was most pronounced when a slight price change could determine the outcome of a bet. The researchers concluded that this was an attempt to manipulate results by temporarily pushing the spot price. They noted that while Polymarket's five-minute BTC price bets are settled based on data from multiple oracles, approximately 85% of contract outcomes during the study period moved in the same direction as Binance's price, implying it was used as a proxy for the final settlement price. Although the traders' intent was not directly observed, the researchers inferred the possibility of price manipulation by analyzing trading patterns. The study pointed out that unlike prediction markets for elections or sports, those based on financial assets carry a structural risk of manipulation because participants can directly trade the underlying asset that determines the outcome.

The Bank of Korea has raised its benchmark interest rate by 0.25 percentage points from 2.50% to 2.75%, marking the first such increase in three years and six months.