Online brokerage Robinhood is in discussions with Crypto.com to expand its prediction-markets service by incorporating yes-or-no event contracts supplied by the exchange. Robinhood introduced its prediction-markets platform in March 2025, initially through Kalshi to meet US Commodity Futures Trading Commission requirements and later through ForecastEx and Rotella.

Analysts recently lifted their price target on Robinhood shares to 160 dollars from 130 dollars, citing growth prospects in prediction markets and tokenized equities. They project that revenue including these segments could reach 1.7 billion dollars by 2028. Industry forecasts have placed potential prediction-market volumes at 1 trillion dollars by 2030.

Prediction-market operators continue to encounter jurisdictional disputes in the United States. The Commodity Futures Trading Commission asserts exclusive authority over event contracts, while gaming regulators in multiple states have filed suits seeking to limit or prohibit the products.

Cryptocurrency exchange Binance subjects its employees to simulated phishing attacks every month as part of efforts to strengthen defenses against social engineering. An internal red team of ethical hackers designs and executes the exercises to identify weaknesses in staff security practices. Employees who fail receive remediation training. Results form part of performance evaluations. Repeated severe failures can lower ratings and may result in dismissal.

The program has operated for three to four years. Security hygiene across the organization has improved markedly over that period. Simulated scenarios include fake recruitment approaches and offers of complimentary conference invitations designed to extract personal information.

Social engineering accounted for roughly 65 percent of crypto security incidents in 2025. Recent examples include a 285 million dollar exploit at Drift Protocol that followed an extended social-engineering campaign and a 13 million dollar loss at Venus Protocol linked to a malicious video-conferencing application. Binance serves 323 million registered users and holds approximately 137.7 billion dollars in assets.

Cryptocurrency exchange BitMart will wind down its platform, terminating all trading services on Aug. 26 and ceasing operations entirely on Jan. 31, 2027. The decision follows a review of operating conditions, market conditions and strategic direction. New user registrations and deposits have already been halted. Futures trading is restricted to reduce-only mode and spot markets no longer accept new orders.

The exchange’s native BMX token declined nearly 70 percent, trading near 0.095 dollars after standing around 0.31 dollars late Friday. It briefly fell as low as 0.106 dollars early Saturday before resuming losses. Users reported extended delays in processing withdrawals, including USDT requests that remained pending for hours. BitMart stated that some withdrawal requests may undergo additional compliance and security reviews that could lengthen processing times.

Wallets linked to the exchange held about 71 million dollars in crypto assets on Sunday, down from roughly 102 million dollars on July 6. The largest portion consisted of approximately 41.5 million dollars in WFI tokens, with only about 91000 dollars in USDT.

Former chief executive Nenter Chow stated that he was informed on Friday of his termination and is no longer involved in management or decision-making. He said he was not consulted on the shutdown and learned of it only after the public announcement.

BitMart joins other platforms that have recently disclosed closure plans, including BitMEX and Dango.

South Korea’s largest bank by assets, KB Kookmin Bank, will introduce a blockchain-based cross-border payment service for import and export companies in August on JPMorgan’s Kinexys platform. The service will initially handle US dollar transfers across 10 countries that include the United States, Singapore, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates.

Kinexys, previously called Onyx, is JPMorgan’s institutional blockchain network for payments, tokenization and digital assets. The new offering will connect with the existing SWIFT network to enable near-instant settlement of cross-border payments and foreign-exchange transactions.

Parent company KB Financial Group holds 552.76 billion dollars in total assets and ranks as the 28th-largest bank in the Asia-Pacific region.

Dormant Bitcoin movement declined in the second quarter to its lowest level since the third quarter of 2022, indicating that long-term holders have reduced distribution after periods of elevated profit-taking. The coin-days-destroyed metric, which assigns greater weight to older coins, recorded a comparable drop.

Earlier increases in dormant coin activity reflected long-term holders realizing gains in a pattern resembling the 2017 bull market. Distribution remained elevated through 2024 and 2025 before slowing. Dormant coin movement measures Bitcoin that has stayed inactive for prolonged intervals before being spent. Heightened activity from these holders has historically aligned with profit-taking and increased selling pressure, while lower readings suggest a preference for continued holding.

Russia’s largest bank, Sberbank, plans to establish cryptocurrency trading infrastructure that includes a digital depository no later than Dec. 1 as the country integrates crypto trading, custody and settlement into its regulated financial system. The depository will record client ownership of digital assets and process most transactions outside the main blockchain. Sberbank will also operate active wallets to handle client deposits, withdrawals and transfers.

Russian lawmakers completed final readings earlier this month on legislation that would create the country’s first comprehensive framework for digital assets. The Bank of Russia would receive broad oversight authority, including the power to decide which crypto assets licensed intermediaries may offer and to issue implementing rules. Liquidity thresholds set by the central bank require an average market capitalization above 5 trillion rubles and average daily volume above 1 trillion rubles over two years.

The framework establishes five categories of regulated participants—crypto exchanges, brokers, asset managers, custodians and exchange service providers—and defines their rights to buy, sell, hold and exchange crypto assets from its effective date of Sept. 1, 2026.

The infrastructure push coincides with additional European Union measures targeting entities linked to Russia. Last week the European Council added cryptocurrency exchange HTX to a list of firms accused of frustrating existing sanctions related to the conflict in Ukraine. The United Kingdom imposed similar restrictions on HTX in May. The EU also moved to bar Belarusian nationals and residents from owning, controlling or managing crypto exchanges and digital-asset service providers under its Markets in Crypto-Assets rules.

The US Commodity Futures Trading Commission issued a second advisory this year on Friday instructing prediction-market operators to cease submitting overly broad template-style self-certifications for event contracts. The agency stated that platforms under its jurisdiction may still certify contracts as compliant with the Commodity Exchange Act and its rules without prior commission approval. However each certification must supply the full terms and conditions of every proposed variation along with a concise explanation and analysis covering the product’s terms, the underlying commodity and compliance with applicable requirements.

A similar caution against generalized submissions was released on March 12. The latest guidance arrives days before the Monday deadline for comments on proposed amendments that would establish a three-step framework for determining whether certain event contracts are contrary to the public interest. That framework would evaluate contracts linked to activities such as terrorism, assassination or gaming. Adoption of the amendments would alter key aspects of the regulatory approach to prediction markets.

Decentralized storage firm Storj Labs filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection on Sunday in the US Bankruptcy Court for the Northern District of West Virginia while BitMart disclosed an orderly wind-down of its exchange and Russia’s largest bank outlined new cryptocurrency trading infrastructure. Storj intends to keep its network and customer services operating under court supervision as it restructures legacy liabilities and examines a pathway for STORJ tokenholders to receive equity in the reorganized company. Parent firm Inveniam will continue to support the business.

The liabilities largely predate Storj’s present strategy and exceed what growth alone can address. Network operations remain normal and the token’s utility is unchanged. STORJ traded near 0.073 dollars with no material price movement after the filing. Any equity mechanism for tokenholders must observe bankruptcy priorities and obtain court approval. Eligibility rules and allocation size have not been detailed.

BitMart will end all trading services on Aug. 26 and cease operations entirely on Jan. 31, 2027. The exchange has already halted new registrations and deposits. Futures positions are restricted to reduce-only mode and spot markets no longer accept new orders. The decision follows a review of operating conditions, market conditions and strategic direction. BitMart joins other platforms that have recently announced closures.

Sberbank plans to establish cryptocurrency trading infrastructure, including a digital depository, by Dec. 1. The depository will record client ownership of digital assets and process most transactions off the main blockchain while supporting active wallets for deposits, withdrawals and transfers. The move aligns with Russia’s progress toward a comprehensive regulatory framework for digital assets after lawmakers completed final readings on related legislation earlier this month.

Layer-1 blockchain network WEMIX temporarily suspended its bridges, liquidity-pool trading and several related services on Sunday after an attacker compromised ownership of a contract linked to its WEMIX$ stablecoin and moved roughly 724000 dollars in USDC.e. The unauthorized activity began at 9:17 UTC when the attacker issued about 5.23 million WEMIX$ tokens without authorization. Those tokens were converted into 30736 WEMIX and 724198 USDC.e.

The USDC.e was bridged to Ethereum and BNB Smart Chain, then exchanged for assets including Ether and Tether and distributed across multiple addresses. Portions of the funds reached centralized exchanges. WEMIX identified the associated wallets and asked exchanges and stablecoin issuers to freeze the assets. Some exchanges have already frozen linked addresses.

All bridges connected to the WEMIX3.0 network, including Chainlink CCIP and the PLAY Bridge, were halted. Trading in the affected liquidity pools was suspended, foundation-provided liquidity was withdrawn, and services such as the WEMIX$ Module and the PNIX decentralized exchange were paused. The cause of the breach and its full impact remain under review. Preliminary figures may be revised.

US lawmakers remain divided over the Clarity Act as the August recess approaches, while crypto derivatives pioneer BitMEX prepares to shut down after 11 years and face a new class-action lawsuit. Senate Majority Leader John Thune indicated the bill lacks sufficient votes for passage but may still schedule a vote to test support. An ethics package attached to the legislation would bar US officials from issuing or sponsoring digital assets yet includes provisions that expire when President Donald Trump leaves office in 2029 and places enforcement with the attorney general he appointed. Democrats have rejected those terms and seek enforcement by state attorneys general. Negotiations continue. Goldman Sachs, Fidelity and Charles Schwab have backed the measure despite acknowledging imperfections. Law-enforcement groups including the National Fraternal Order of Police have signaled that the latest version would not hinder probes into money laundering or fraud. Betting markets place the odds of passage this year at 38 percent.

BitMEX announced it will cease operations in September. The platform, which introduced 100-times leverage perpetual swaps after launching in 2014, has seen its share of Bitcoin futures volume shrink to 0.08 percent and daily turnover fall to about 84 million dollars. Its BMEX token declined sharply after the news. On the same day a class-action suit accused the exchange of engineering liquidations to seize collateral. BitMEX denied the claims and noted it has prevailed in similar cases before. Industry observers describe the exit as evidence of structural consolidation, with the five largest platforms now accounting for roughly 80 percent of global spot volume. BitMart separately disclosed plans to end trading later this year.

S&P Dow Jones Indices and Pantera Capital introduced the S&P Pantera Digital Asset Index, an institutional benchmark that excludes Bitcoin and XRP. The index opened with 18 constituents led by Ether, BNB, Solana, TRON and Hyperliquid, applying screens for protocol revenue, market capitalization and liquidity.

Robinhood is in discussions with Crypto.com to expand its prediction-market offerings by integrating additional event contracts. The company first entered the segment in March 2025 through Kalshi to meet Commodity Futures Trading Commission requirements. Analysts raised their price target on Robinhood shares to 160 dollars, citing growth potential in prediction markets and tokenized equities. The CFTC issued guidance requiring more precise certifications for event contracts rather than broad template filings.

Balaji Srinivasan’s Network School is advancing plans for a campus in Kazakhstan after Malaysian authorities revoked its Forest City business license over premises-use issues. A memorandum of understanding was signed with Kazakhstan’s relevant minister. An earlier investigation in Malaysia found no visa violations, yet the school was ordered to close.

Bitcoin traded near 65395 dollars, Ether near 1958 dollars and XRP near 1.11 dollars at week’s end, leaving the total crypto market capitalization at 2.24 trillion dollars. Among the largest tokens, Audiera rose 53 percent, Shinba Inu 29 percent and Venice Token 19 percent, while DeXe fell 89 percent, Midnight 26 percent and Pyth Network 10 percent.

Apparent demand for Bitcoin showed early signs of stabilization. Spot Ethereum exchange-traded funds recorded 70.62 million dollars in net outflows on Friday, ending a five-day inflow streak, yet still finished the week with 103.9 million dollars of net inflows and 337.74 million dollars for July. Bitcoin funds posted 33.9 million dollars of weekly inflows.

Physical attacks on crypto holders rose. Home invasions accounted for 20 of 52 verified wrench attacks in the first half of 2026, up from one a year earlier, with total financial exposure reaching about 124.1 million dollars. Kidnappings increased to 16. Two separate bridge exploits on Wednesday extracted more than 31.6 million dollars within hours, including 24.15 million dollars from an AFX cross-chain bridge and 7.5 million dollars from the Verus Ethereum Bridge.