GateUser-c3b832ee

Japanese investment bank Mizuho downgraded Circle’s rating from “neutral” to “underperform,” and cut its target price from $85 to $50. It believes OpenUSD’s model of distributing most reserve investment returns to issuers and channel partners could force Circle to share more returns with partners, thereby compressing profit margins. Mizuho accordingly raised its 2027 distribution and trading cost rate outlook for Circle from 64% to 73%, and lowered its adjusted EBITDA forecast from $1.09 billion to $699 million. (CoinDesk)

Wu learned that Interactive Brokers announced it will add trading support for nine tokens—AAVE, APT, CC, LDO, MON, NEAR, XPL, PAXG, and UNI—via zerohash, and will add AAVE, UNI, and PAXG via Paxos. The platform also launched a stablecoin bidirectional funds transfer feature: customers can automatically exchange dollars in their IBKR accounts for USDC, PYUSD, or RLUSD and send them to an external wallet. Eligible customers may also transfer supported digital assets from custodial or non-custodial wallets to the platform, or withdraw them from the platform to such wallets.

According to Chainalysis, the EU sanctions Russian national Vitaly Nikolayevich Kovalev (alias Stern), calling him a senior member of the Trickbot criminal group and saying he was involved in running ransomware operations such as Ryuk and Conti. Chainalysis says that wallets linked to Stern have cumulatively received more than $300 million in ransoms and had financial dealings with multiple ransomware networks including Diavol, Karakurt, Royal, and Quantum. The EU also sanctions the developers of the information-stealing malware LummaC2, the anti-law-enforcement hosting provider Media Land LLC

Wu Says learned that Federal Reserve Chair Kevin Warsh said at a U.S. House Financial Services Committee hearing that the Fed does not want to engage in rescue operations and wants the financial system to be in a state where no entity needs to be bailed out, including the crypto industry. However, when pressed on whether it would provide support if a bank run occurs in the stablecoin or crypto markets, Warsh did not make an explicit commitment that it would never provide rescues.

JPMorgan lowered its performance expectations for Circle and Coinbase, citing that its new protocol with Hyperliquid weakens USDC’s profit potential. Under the new agreement, Coinbase will pay Hyperliquid 90% of the yield generated by USDC reserve funds on Hyperliquid, rather than splitting it with Circle as it did previously. JPMorgan said this creates a “prisoner’s dilemma,” pushing both sides to compete with each other when promoting USDC distribution. Data shows that Hyperliquid currently holds about $6B worth of USDC, accounting for 8% of its total circulating supply. (CoinDesk)

Coinbase opens registration for users in China
On July 14, multiple social media users reported that the Coinbase platform has opened registration for users in China. After verifying with Coinbase staff, Wu Shuo confirmed that the information is true. Chinese identity cards and Chinese addresses can now be used to verify on the platform, whereas previously the requirement was a “Mainland passport plus a Hong Kong address.”

Wu Says learned that Tether announced it will lead a $7 million Series A funding round for financial infrastructure company Pact Labs, with Blockchange Ventures and Lasagna participating. The funds will be used to support use cases such as enabling USA₮ for payroll, allowing earned wages to be withdrawn early, and supporting credit and everyday payments. USA₮ is issued by Anchorage Digital Bank and co-developed with Tether. It is mainly aimed at the U.S. market and is designed to comply with local regulatory requirements.

Wu said he learned that DWF Labs data shows that as of July 14, the number of tokenized stock holders has exceeded 464k, up about 3.8 times from January this year, and the on-chain scale of the underlying assets is close to $1.9 billion. By number of holders, the tokenized stock platform xStocks accounts for about 54%, the real-world asset platform Ondo Finance accounts for about 30%, and Robinhood Crypto, which recently launched related business, accounts for about 12%. Together, the three account for about 96%.

Wu Says learned that Federal Reserve Chair Kevin Warsh will appear at a hearing of the U.S. House Financial Services Committee titled “The Federal Reserve’s Semiannual Monetary Policy Report” at 22:00 Beijing time on July 14, and will answer lawmakers’ questions on monetary policy and the economic outlook.

Wu Shuo learned that Bitcoin mining rig manufacturer and mining company Canaan Technology (Nasdaq stock code: CAN) released its June 2026 mining business data. In the month, it produced 64 BTC, and its end-of-month crypto reserves reached a record 1,915 BTC and 3,952 ETH. As of June 30, the company’s global operating hash rate was 7.45 EH/s, and its listed hash rate was 14.86 EH/s. The company’s average all-in power cost for the month was $0.043 per kilowatt-hour. In addition, the Alborz joint-venture facility that had previously been affected by wildfires saw a major recovery in June. Further

Wu Blockchain learned that the institutional Ethereum privacy technology company EthSystems has officially announced its launch and received initial funding support from listed Ethereum treasury company BitMine, SharpLink, SNZ Holding, as well as Ethereum co-founder and Consensys founder Joseph Lubin. EthSystems was founded by the former institutional privacy working group team of the Ethereum Foundation. It will develop privacy and compliance systems for regulated institutions such as banks and asset management firms, enabling them to conduct transactions on the Ethereum network while protect

Plasma, a stablecoin payment network, announced that its stablecoin accounts and payment card app, Plasma One, has launched on Android. The app supports stablecoin deposits, transfers, and payment card spending. Per the official event terms, Android users who register for the first time and complete identity verification and deposit at least $100 or its equivalent in stablecoins within the specified period can receive a 6-month Core membership; existing users and iOS users are not eligible.

Wu Says has learned that the U.S. June Consumer Price Index (CPI) rose 3.5% year-over-year, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, lower than the market expectation of 3.8%. Core CPI, excluding food and energy prices, rose 2.6% year-over-year, also lower than the market expectation of 2.8%.

Wu Says has learned that, according to the CME Group FedWatch tool, the probability that the Federal Reserve will keep interest rates unchanged in July is 63.1%, while the probability of cumulative rate hikes of 25 basis points is 36.9%; by September, the probability of keeping interest rates unchanged is 28.3%, and the probabilities of cumulative rate hikes of 25 and 50 basis points are 51.4% and 20.4%, respectively.

According to Sina Finance, Iran’s Supreme Leader’s military adviser and former commander of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, Mohsen Rezaei, said today (July 14) that the Iran–US memorandum of understanding no longer exists, and the other side has officially entered a state of war.

Wu Dao learned that institutional Ethereum privacy technology company EthSystems has announced its official launch, backed by initial funding from listed Ethereum treasury company BitMine, SharpLink, and Ethereum co-founder and Consensys founder Joseph Lubin. EthSystems was founded by a team from the Ethereum Foundation’s former institutional privacy working group, and will develop privacy and compliance systems for regulated institutions such as banks and asset management firms, enabling them to conduct transactions on the Ethereum network while protecting sensitive information such as transa

Wu learned that, according to crypto investment firm ParaFi Capital, the monthly trading volume of preferred stock held by crypto asset reserve companies—converted at par value—rose to about $13 billion in June 2026, a new all-time high, from about $4 billion in January this year. ParaFi said that, driven by the listing of STRC issued by Strategy and more new preferred shares, this segment is gradually developing into an asset class with higher liquidity and more mature pricing. In addition, the preferred equity financing model is expanding into the AI infrastructure sector: in June, Alphabet

Wu Says learns that Galaxy has launched an institutional on-chain lending financing plan called GOFR, targeting institutions, high-net-worth individuals, and qualified investors, with a minimum loan size of $1 million. Galaxy will integrate the floating interest rates of on-chain lending protocols such as Aave, Morpho, Spark, and Kamino into a single composite rate. Customers transact directly with Galaxy as the counterparty, without needing to manage wallets, private keys, or smart contracts themselves. Galaxy will commit up to $100 million of its own funds as first-loss protection, and will

Wu Shuo learned that an a16z Crypto article points out that traditional financial institutions do not want to adopt DeFi directly; instead, they will choose blockchain functions that can reduce costs, improve settlement, and increase capital efficiency, and will discard features such as open access, anonymity, and trustless execution based on compliance, control, and operational requirements. The author believes this will create a more permissioned and compliant “programmable financial infrastructure.” Public chains may become the settlement layer jointly used by traditional finance and open D

Wu Says learned that, citing TechCrunch and three sources, Nous Research, the startup behind the open-source AI Agent Hermes (a competitor to OpenClaw), is raising at least $75 million at an approximately $1.5 billion valuation. This round is led by Robot Ventures, a crypto venture firm jointly founded by Compound founder Robert Leshner and Gauntlet co-founder Tarun Chitra, with investors including Union Square Ventures (USV). The related funds are intended to be used to expand Hermes’s products and business model.