rato

According to CoinDesk, a South Korean court sentenced a cryptocurrency platform operator to 15 years in prison this week, involving an amount of approximately 50 million USD. This ruling is considered one of the longest sentences handed down in South Korea to date for cryptocurrency fraud.Reports indicate that this case occurred against the backdrop of South Korea strengthening its scrutiny of outbound fund transfers and related platforms like Binance implementing restrictive measures, reflecting the local regulatory authorities' ongoing tightening of efforts to combat cryptocurrency fraud and capital outflows.

Upbit operator Dunamu announced its performance for the second quarter of 2026, with quarterly revenue of 173.5 billion won (approximately 12.3 million USD) and operating profit of 23.5 billion won (approximately 1.665 million USD), a decrease of about 26% and 73% respectively compared to the first quarter.In the first quarter, Dunamu's revenue was 234.6 billion won (approximately 16.6 million USD) and operating profit was 88 billion won (approximately 6.234 million USD). Dunamu stated that the decline in performance this quarter was mainly affected by the overall liquidity contraction in the global digital asset market, leading to weakened investor sentiment.

According to Bloomberg, Kraken operator Payward disclosed that due to a slowdown in industry trading activity, the company's adjusted pre-tax profit for the second quarter of 2026 was $23 million, a 71% decrease from $79.7 million in the same period last year; during the same period, adjusted revenue increased by 17% year-on-year to $508 million.Payward stated that although revenue continues to grow, the overall trading volume in the cryptocurrency market is weak, putting pressure on profitability. Kraken has been continuously expanding its institutional business, derivatives trading, and on-chain services in recent years, but changes in the industry cycle still exert pressure on its core trading business.

According to News1, South Korea will expand the registration review scope of Virtual Asset Service Providers (VASP) to include major shareholders starting from August 20. If there are changes to the major shareholders or the company's legal compliance framework, operators must notify the financial authorities 30 days in advance.The Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU) and the Financial Supervisory Service (FSS) announced the revised registration manual at a briefing held in Seoul for virtual asset service providers and potential operators. The review targets not only the largest shareholders and major shareholders holding more than 10% of shares but also shareholders with special connections to the largest shareholders. If the largest shareholder is a legal entity, the largest shareholder of that entity and its representatives may also be included in the review scope.

According to Bloomberg, Singapore data center operator DayOne has secretly submitted an initial public offering (IPO) application to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), planning to go public in the U.S. as early as next quarter.The company aims to raise approximately $5 billion, with a listing valuation of about $20 billion; however, relevant details are still under discussion, and the scale and timing of the offering may change.

NVIDIA CEO Jensen Huang stated that artificial intelligence laboratories and AI startups need computing power.

According to CoinPost, the Financial Services Agency of Japan has announced a partial revision of the "Comprehensive Supervision Guidelines for Major Banks and Others," which will unify the reporting format for cybersecurity incidents across 17 regulatory areas, including cryptocurrency exchange operators.A new "Common Format for Other Cyber Attacks and Related Incidents" has been added, which, along with the existing formats for DDoS attacks and ransomware, constitutes a three-category reporting distinction system. As a transitional measure, non-specific social infrastructure operators may continue to use the old reporting format until the end of March 2027, with the deadline for public comments set for September 7, 2026.

A spokesperson for Nvidia (NVDA.O) responded to market rumors about its accelerated entry into the telecommunications operator market and its search for base station manufacturer partnerships in China, stating that the report is unfounded and the description is inaccurate.Previously, there were reports that Shenzhen Jiaxian Communication Co., Ltd. was involved in the collaborative development of Nvidia's 6GAI-RAN base stations.

According to The Block, Texas Governor Greg Abbott ordered the Public Utility Commission (PUCT) and the grid operator ERCOT to conduct audits on all data center projects in the queue within the state this week. ERCOT subsequently suspended the "Batch Zero" large electricity approval process, which was scheduled to announce results this month.Currently, data center applications account for about 90% of the 474 GW interconnected queue of ERCOT.Bernstein analysts noted in a client report released on Tuesday that this regulatory review will suppress speculative development and compress the supply of new electricity capacity, thereby enhancing the scarcity value of approved electricity capacity, benefiting existing Bitcoin mining companies and AI operators.The report specifically mentioned that Cipher Digital (CIFR), CleanSpark (CLSK), and Core Scientific (CORZ) are significantly affected by the audit, as their recent expansion plans rely on access to the Texas grid; while Terawulf (WULF) has a stronger risk resistance due to its power assets being distributed across multiple states, including Kentucky, Maryland, and New York; Riot Platforms (RIOT) and IREN benefit from already having large-scale approved operating assets in ERCOT.

According to South Korean media Asiae, the operator of the South Korean cryptocurrency exchange Upbit, Dunamu, announced that it has made an additional investment in the medical big data company Inocras through its investment subsidiary Dunamu & Partners, bringing the total investment amount to 14.5 billion Korean won.

According to a report by the WSJ, Nvidia has invested in the AI laboratory Safe Superintelligence (SSI), founded by former OpenAI chief scientist Ilya Sutskever. The two parties have reached a long-term cooperation agreement aimed at expanding SSI's computing resources while helping Nvidia secure important clients in the AI field. Both companies stated that Nvidia made a "large-scale" investment after understanding some of SSI's research progress, but did not disclose the specific amount.As part of the collaboration, SSI will receive a significant amount of Nvidia's flagship GPU resources, with its computing power expected to increase by an order of magnitude. Previously, SSI primarily relied on TPU chips provided by Google for AI research and development. This collaboration indicates that Nvidia is further expanding its AI chip ecosystem and binding future computing power demands through investments in top AI laboratories.SSI was established in 2024 by Ilya Sutskever, with the goal of developing "Safe Superintelligence." The company has previously raised about $2 billion in funding, with investors including Andreessen Horowitz and Sequoia Capital, and reached a valuation of approximately $30 billion last year. This is not Nvidia's first investment in an AI company founded by former core members of OpenAI. In March of this year, Nvidia also invested in Thinking Machines Lab, founded by former OpenAI chief technology officer Mira Murati, whose first AI model is trained on Nvidia hardware.Ilya Sutskever is one of the important researchers in the field of modern artificial intelligence, having co-founded OpenAI and promoted the development of large model technologies such as ChatGPT. However, after leaving OpenAI, he began to question the approach of solely relying on expanding data and computing power to drive AI progress, turning instead to explore new directions in superintelligence research.

According to PR Newswire, stablecoin operator Notabene announced a strategic investment from Ripple, with the specific investment amount not disclosed. The two parties will collaborate on enterprise-level stablecoin payments, including the integration of Ripple's USD stablecoin RLUSD into Notabene Flow B2B stablecoin payment platform.They also plan to further expand the application of RLUSD in institutional payment networks, accelerating the adoption of compliant stablecoin infrastructure by banks, payment institutions, and fintech companies.

According to Jinshi reports, EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Borrell stated that sanctions have been imposed on over 100 banks and cryptocurrency operators, more than 40 shadow fleet vessels, and several refineries in Russia and Belarus.

According to the Korea Herald, South Korea's financial regulatory agency has issued an investigation report to Upbit's operator Dunamu, initiating sanction procedures. Previously, the company suffered a hacking incident involving 44.5 billion won.Since the incident occurred, the Financial Supervisory Service (FSS) has been investigating whether there were violations of the "Virtual Asset User Protection Act." However, as there are currently no direct penalties for hacking incidents or computer system failures, it remains uncertain whether this will lead to severe disciplinary actions. The Financial Supervisory Service plans to notify the company in advance of the sanction opinion letter, which includes the level of sanctions, after the company provides an explanation. Subsequently, the final sanction measures will be determined by resolutions from the Sanction Review Committee, the Securities and Futures Commission, and the Financial Services Commission.

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 United States, the European Union, and the United Kingdom jointly announced sanctions against a group involving state-level hacker organizations, cybercrime gangs, and their infrastructure providers. The targets are accused of causing billions of dollars in losses to global businesses, critical infrastructure, and government agencies. Among the most notable is the EU's sanction against the Russian cybercriminal Vitaly Nikolayevich Kovalev (alias "Stern").The EU has identified Stern as one of the core managers of the notorious Trickbot Group ransomware organization, which includes several high-risk ransomware variants such as Conti ransomware and Ryuk. On-chain analysis shows that wallet addresses associated with Stern have received over $300 million in ransom payments, potentially making him the "largest confirmed ransomware operator" to date. According to analysis, the $300 million only represents the profits obtained by Stern personally, and the overall illegal income of the Trickbot group may be much higher.On-chain fund flows indicate that Stern has had transactional connections with multiple ransomware ecosystems, including Ryuk, Conti, Diavol, Karakurt, Royal, and Quantum. Investigations show that Stern plays a role similar to "CEO" within the Trickbot organization, responsible for budget management, personnel recruitment, infrastructure procurement, and attack planning.

According to a report by the Procuratorial Daily, researchers from the People's Procuratorate of Yuhu District, Xiangtan City, Hunan Province, and the Law School of Xiangtan University have jointly written an article proposing a systematic response plan to the regulatory dilemmas of money laundering crimes using virtual currency. The article points out that current judicial practice faces three major dilemmas: first, Article 191 of the Criminal Law limits money laundering crimes to seven types of upstream crimes, resulting in many cases being treated as "concealment crimes"; second, methods such as mixers, privacy coins, and cross-chain transfers lead to fragmented evidence chains, making traditional investigative methods difficult to penetrate; third, conflicts in the legal attributes of virtual currency, a vacuum in procedural rules, and barriers to cross-border cooperation make it difficult to recover assets.In response, the article suggests promoting "dual investigations for one case," establishing the principle of self-authentication of blockchain data, constructing a tiered standard of proof, and establishing a national-level custody and disposal platform for involved virtual currencies, while actively promoting the signing of special agreements for international criminal justice assistance in virtual currency crimes.

According to Caixin, the case involving 60,000 bitcoins belonging to Qian Zhimin held a three-day hearing from July 7 to 9, 2026. Blue Sky Ge Rui Company officially joined the battle for bitcoin rights through the litigation administrator. The bitcoin dispute has transformed from a "two-party confrontation" into a "three-party competition": 1. The UK prosecution (DPP) claims that the assets should be recovered by the state; 2. The Chinese victims assert that they have property rights to the bitcoins that can be traced and have significantly appreciated in value; 3. The litigation administrator representing Blue Sky Ge Rui Company argues that the bitcoins are substitute assets formed after Qian Zhimin misappropriated company funds.It is reported that the estimated value of the bitcoins involved in the case is about 427,000 yuan each as of July this year, a 152-fold increase from the purchase price when Qian Zhimin acquired them in 2014 (2,815 yuan each). If the applicant can successfully assert their property rights to the relevant bitcoin assets, the amount they can recover will not be limited to the original investment loss but can also extend to the appreciation gains of the bitcoins. The litigation administrator representing Blue Sky Ge Rui Company believes that the bitcoins in question are essentially transformed from misappropriated company property, and the company has the right to trace them and assert property rights.Meanwhile, the Director of the UK Crown Prosecution Service (DPP) continues to insist that Chinese law should apply, while the leading law firm representing individual victims has proposed four complementary legal arguments to avoid the victims' claims being entirely dismissed due to any single legal pathway: 1. Bitcoin in the UK should be governed by UK law; 2. The investment contract is a scam, and upon cancellation, the rights revert to the victims; 3. The tracing mechanisms under POCA Sections 305 and 306 should also apply to the victims; 4. A "mixed structure" should break the binary choice between Chinese and UK law.