PA Daily | Japan classifies crypto assets as financial instruments; DeepSeek’s annualized revenue reaches $400 million to $500 million

Today’s Headlines Preview:

Japan’s House of Councillors passes amendments to the “Financial Instruments and Exchange Act” (FIEA), officially classifying crypto assets as financial products

Binance to add 10 bStocks trading pairs today, covering stocks such as Alibaba and Robinhood

DeepSeek’s annualized revenue reportedly reaches $400 million to $500 million

Stripe and Advent propose acquiring PayPal for more than $53 billion

Futu Holdings faces a class-action lawsuit in the U.S. brought by shareholders

Coinbase to list SK Hynix and Lumentum perpetual contracts

Bitmine’s ETH staking revenue last quarter was $45.7 million, accounting for 98% of total revenue

Pump.fun team and investors’ tokens unlock for the first time; 57.2 billion PUMP distributed to 121 wallets

Regulation & Macro

CAC: “Apple Smart” and other 7 mobile on-device generative AI service apps have been filed

The Cyberspace Administration of China and relevant departments will orderly carry out generative AI service filings in accordance with the “Interim Measures for the Administration of Generative AI Services.” It will announce filing information for seven apps providing mobile on-device generative AI services, including “Apple Smart.” These also include Huawei Xiaoyi, vivo Lanyin, Xiaomi Ebonics, and Nubia Doubao model.

UK plans to issue the first digital sovereign bond from G7 in early 2027

The UK plans to issue digital sovereign bonds in early 2027, becoming the first G7 country to place government debt on a distributed ledger. UK Chancellor of the Exchequer Rachel Reeves announced the timeline in her annual Mansion House speech. The first batch of bonds is named DIGIT, a GBP-denominated government bond, to be issued on HSBC’s Orion platform and operated within the Bank of England and the FCA’s digital securities sandbox. Andrew Bailey, Governor of the Bank of England, said the central bank will make DIGIT eligible as collateral in its market operations to support tokenized repos. The bond’s size, tenor, coupon, investor eligibility, and settlement assets have not been disclosed.

Japan’s House of Councillors passes amendments to the “Financial Instruments and Exchange Act” (FIEA), officially classifying crypto assets as financial products

Japan’s House of Councillors passed amendments to the “Partial Amendments to the Financial Instruments and Exchange Act and the Act on Settlement of Funds,” redefining crypto assets from payment instruments to financial products. Crypto asset exchange operators will rename to crypto asset trading operators. The maximum penalties for unregistered sales were raised to less than 10 years, and fines raised to less than 10 million yen. New rules introduce insider trading regulations for crypto assets for the first time; certain issuers of crypto assets must provide periodic disclosure annually. On the tax side, the system shifts from comprehensive taxation up to 55% to separate filing taxation with a rate of about 20%. Losses can be carried forward for 3 years. Implementation is expected to begin on January 1, 2028. The bill sets up a regulatory framework for crypto asset ETFs, and the Japan Exchange Group expects to push for ETF listings around 2027.

Korea’s Ministry of Economy and Finance plans legislation to manage state assets, covering new assets including cryptocurrencies

The Ministry of Economy and Finance of South Korea is drafting a basic law on asset management for state assets, aiming to effectively manage new asset categories including cryptocurrencies.

Futu Holdings faces a class-action lawsuit in the U.S. brought by shareholders

Futu Holdings faces a class-action lawsuit in the U.S. brought by shareholders. A certain investor recently filed a securities class action in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York, alleging violations of the U.S. Securities Exchange Act of 1934 regarding securities fraud and liability of control persons. The lawsuit names Futu Holdings and its founder, Chairman and CEO Li Hua, as well as the CFO Chen Yu. Li Hua comes from the Tencent ecosystem and is Tencent’s 18th founding employee. The two are named as individual defendants mainly because they had review, approval, or control authority over documents, performance announcements, and other external disclosures submitted by Futu to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. Previously, the U.S. SEC was investigating Susquehanna, a market maker, including matters involving alleged insider trading in U.S. stock options related to Futu and Tiger.

U.S. Treasury Secretary: Frozen more than $130 million worth of Iranian digital assets

U.S. Treasury Secretary Bessent said more than $130 million worth of Iranian digital assets have been frozen. Previously, Tether froze four wallets holding a total of 131 million USDT on the TRON network.

U.S.-UK transatlantic working group releases digital asset roadmap to push stablecoin innovation

The U.S. and the UK deepen cooperation on digital assets and released a joint statement of the Transatlantic Future Markets Working Group, saying regulated stablecoins have the potential to improve the efficiency and competitiveness of the financial system. The working group was established last year to deepen cooperation between the two countries and reduce market fragmentation. The joint statement calls for the Bank of England, the UK Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), and the U.S. CFTC and SEC to develop plans on how tokenized assets should be handled, and instructs the FCA and SEC to “explore options to facilitate cross-border financing.” The statement also proposes supporting competition and innovation involving assets such as stablecoins and tokenized deposits, emphasizing standards including custody, reserve segregation, and consumer protection, and providing clear priority legal recourse for stablecoin holders in the event of bankruptcy. The statement comes one year after the U.S. “GENIUS Act” was passed. At a hearing of the House Financial Services Committee, Federal Reserve Chair Kevin Warsh said rules are being issued “right before the July 18 deadline.”

U.S. government moves Bitfinex hacker confiscated assets again to Coinbase

The U.S. government further transfers confiscated Bitfinex hacker assets: about 901,000 USDC are transferred to a new wallet address, and 5,940 ETH (about $11.14 million) are moved to Coinbase Prime. The balance of the publicly marked confiscated Bitfinex hacker funds address is now down to 0, and most assets have been transferred to Coinbase Prime and the new wallet(s) (0x7d7c1c4ce6c654965072c5988383e3b91eea9558).

Czech Republic bans Polymarket for illegal gambling, orders ISPs to block it

On July 13, the Czech Ministry of Finance added Polymarket to the list of unauthorized online gambling games. Internet service providers have 15 days to block the platform, making it the latest European country to block Polymarket. Jan Řehola, head of the Czech gambling regulator research institute, said that legally regulated gambling countries know about operators, participants, mechanisms for suspicious bets, and player protection, while prediction markets allow betting on nearly all events but lack comparable regulation; “this is not risk-free innovation, but a gambling product not governed by rules.” He emphasized that the contracts are settled based on real-world outcomes, creating incentives that affect events or allow trading using non-public information.

Project Updates

A LayerZero Executor wallet is suspected to have been compromised, with losses of about $2.1 million

A LayerZero Executor wallet is suspected to have been breached, resulting in total cross-chain losses of about $2.1 million. The attacker used Stargate and Relay to move the stolen funds cross-chain to Ethereum; it currently holds 955 ETH (about $1.78 million) and $320,000 USDC.

Binance will add 10 bStocks trading pairs today, covering stocks such as Alibaba and Robinhood

Binance will list 10 tokenized securities bStocks on July 15, 2026 at 21:30, covering Applied Optoelectronics, Arm, Broadcom, Alibaba, Robinhood, IBM, Marvell Technology, Nokia, Rocket Lab, and TSMC. Trading pairs will enjoy zero maker/taker order fees until September 1, 2026 at 07:59. Users can convert directly held stocks to bStocks at a 1:1 ratio with zero conversion fees.

OKX to launch tokenized U.S. stock spot trading, first batch opens July 16 at market open

OKX will open the first batch of tokenized U.S. stock spot trading on July 16. Users can hold and trade the price exposure of underlying stocks or ETFs by unit of “shares,” with assets named by adding an “X” in front of the stock code (e.g., XNVDA, XTSLA). It supports deposits/withdrawals via Solana and the X Layer network and enables 7×24 trading; trading pairs are quoted in USDT. The product trades nonstop year-round. During non-trading hours, prices are calculated based on the latest closing price plus market estimates. Holdings such as spot and stock perpetual contracts are unified in the same account, trading directly with USDT without a broker account. It supports automated trading with strategy bots such as dollar-cost averaging and grid. Distributions are reinvested at the issuer level and returned in the form of increased shares.

BlockSec: Suspected BarnBridge governance attack has caused losses of about $776,000

The BarnBridge SMART Yield (cUSDC) protocol on Ethereum was attacked, with losses of about $776,000, suspected to be a governance attack. First, the attacker obtained DAO governance permissions, then upgraded the SmartYield/controller proxy to a malicious implementation contract. The malicious contract then called CompoundProvider’s _takeUnderlying privilege function, using pre-existing USDC authorizations from 50 user accounts to aggregate and transfer funds to the attacker via transferFees.

Coinbase to list SK Hynix and Lumentum perpetual contracts

Coinbase will add support for SK Hynix (SKHY) and Lumentum (LITE) perpetual contracts. The SKHY-PERP and LITE-PERP stock perpetual contract markets will open at or after July 15, 2026 at 17:00 (UTC+8).

Pump.fun team and investors’ tokens unlock for the first time; 57.2 billion PUMP distributed to 121 wallets

Pump.fun’s team and investors’ tokens’ one-year lock-up period ends today, entering a three-year unlocking schedule. The first unlock occurred early this morning: 57.279 billion PUMP ($86.49 million) were unlocked, then transferred out and distributed to 121 wallets. The GsM3...u6ya address unlocked and transferred out 52.039 billion PUMP ($78.58 million), and the ESRc...ZM67 address unlocked and transferred out 5.24 billion PUMP ($7.91 million).

Over 95% of Coinbase code is currently written or assisted by AI, up from 40% in February

Coinbase platform lead Rob Witoff said that currently 95% to 100% of the company’s code is written or assisted by AI, doubling from the 40% estimate in February. Coinbase laid off 700 people in May (14% of total employees). CEO Brian Armstrong said AI has “fundamentally” changed the pace of work, and the company needs to “return to the speed and focus of a startup, with AI as the core.” Witoff said about 100% of Coinbase employees use AI daily. Core cryptography coding is still mainly done by humans, but prototype development has been fully automated. The team has reorganized around fewer, more senior people: 2–3 people can complete work that previously required 10+ people. Most engineers run 5 to 10 AI agents at the same time. The AI agents collectively complete about the coding workload equivalent to 1,200 employees, and it is expected that by 2030 AI agents could complete work equivalent to 100,000 employees.

OpenAI plans to launch a home smart speaker as its first hardware product

OpenAI is developing a screenless, movable smart speaker as an AI companion device with human-like traits. It can control smart home appliances and deeply leverage all of ChatGPT’s capabilities. The device’s core design feature is that it will continuously complete personalized iterations as it learns more deeply about users’ usage habits, proactively providing services. Its most notable highlight is that it has its own personality traits, enabling an emotionally human-like connection with users. OpenAI plans to officially release the product this year, with market sales in 2027. However, the project may be delayed due to a lawsuit brought by Apple—Apple accuses OpenAI of stealing its trade secrets to speed up its own hardware R&D.

Binance Capital Connect launches an Express Interest Only mode

Binance will launch an Express Interest Only mode on Capital Connect, connecting professional trading teams and institutional investors to the investment portfolio market. The Express Interest Only mode provides a compliant pathway for trading teams to present past performance to institutional investors on Capital Connect, while also giving investors a chance to identify emerging strategies early, even though these strategies are not yet open for investment. The Express Interest portfolio does not support investment. Investors can submit non-binding expressions of interest, and trading teams will receive anonymized demand signals via email.

Coinbase will pause trading Across Protocol (ACX) on July 28

Coinbase will suspend ACX trading on July 28, 2026, because the project team is gradually shutting down Across Protocol (ACX). The related proposal mentioned in the announcement is “Across plans to change the protocol structure from ‘DAO+token’ to a U.S. C-corp company.”

Tencent is testing a light social mini program “Tongpinpai”: AI can help find a co-op buddy; WeChat shows friend notifications

Tencent is testing a light social mini program called “Tongpinpai,” with the Slogan “Find a Tongpin co-op buddy and build a fun scene.” Tongpinpai targets light social scenarios and helps users quickly form groups based on their personalities and interests to find kindred spirits. The Tongpinpai mini program has already launched on WeChat, supporting one-click login, but currently access is limited to personnel within the Tencent Group and has not opened permission to the outside. Also, according to the Tongpinpai service account introduction, on the WeChat side users can see friend notifications pushed by Tongpinpai, system notifications, premium events, and more. Tongpinpai includes a Tongpinpai radar feature; when enabled, it reads the user’s location to show nearby Tongpin-interest users and supports clicking to jump to others’ homepages to view profiles. It also supports AI matching. There is also an events plaza feature showing interest events users initiate on their own; users can also create events and call on interest buddies to participate. The product is still in testing.

Circle previously banned the crypto fund Heka Funds backed by Tether; it later lost after arbitration

Stablecoin issuer Circle banned the Tether-backed crypto fund Heka Funds at the end of 2023. It accused Heka of manipulating the market through large-scale arbitrage and helping Tether expand market share. During the 2023 Silicon Valley Bank crisis, USDC briefly fell below its $1 peg. Heka kept buying discounted USDC in large quantities and redeemed them to Circle for dollar cash. Circle argued its redemption scale was far larger than that of other market participants and suspected that the related funds ultimately flowed to Tether to help expand the USDT market. Arbitration documents show that Tether invested about $800 million in Heka, representing about 75% of the fund’s assets, and also waived stablecoin minting fees. The arbitrator found that Heka failed to disclose the Tether support relationship truthfully and knew that the relevant information would cause Circle concern. In 2024, Heka initiated arbitration seeking damages of about $49 million in profit loss after its accounts were banned. This February, the arbitrator dismissed all claims and ruled that Heka must pay Circle about $166,000 in fees. Heka denied market manipulation and said it was not subject to regulatory investigations.

Warning: BarnBridge Smart Yield’s old proposal contains token authorization risk; users are advised to revoke related authorizations

BarnBridge Smart Yield’s old governance proposal (#14和#15) contains a token authorization risk. If maliciously executed or upgraded, it may jeopardize existing token authorizations. While it has not yet been confirmed that funds have been taken, users are advised to check and revoke relevant authorizations on Ethereum as soon as possible. Proposal #14处于可执行宽限期，提案#15 has been queued, with the expected on-chain execution time of July 16 at 09:23:58 UTC. The affected tokens include USDC, DAI, USDT, GUSD, and RAI. The related contract addresses have been publicly disclosed. Blockaid reminds users to use trusted authorization management tools, not to trust links in the reply or accounts claiming to “support,” not to send funds or sign transfers to any address, and only to revoke authorizations via trusted tools.

Morgan Stanley files updates for an Ethereum ETF and a Solana ETF; fees both at 0.14%

Morgan Stanley has filed updated documents for its Ethereum ETF and Solana ETF. The codes are MSSE and MSOL respectively, with fees of 0.14% each; the launch timing may be approaching.

Funding & Investment News

Stripe and Advent propose acquiring PayPal for more than $53 billion

Stripe and Advent International have jointly made a takeover offer to PayPal. The bid is $60.50 per share, valuing PayPal at over $53 billion, a premium of about 28% to PayPal’s closing price on Tuesday. The offer was submitted earlier this month and received commitments for financing from banks totaling around $50 billion. Stripe and Advent had preliminary discussions in early April, and they have not yet received a response from PayPal; both sides are seeking to reach an agreement by the end of this month. Under the proposal, Stripe and Advent would jointly own PayPal, each holding 50% of the equity.

Insiders: DeepSeek is expected to file for an IPO this year

DeepSeek has kicked off plans for an IPO in mainland China. It aims to submit applications as early as this year and target a listing in 2027. The company is working with accounting firms, aiming to complete its financial reports by December this year to prepare for the filing. DeepSeek is also planning a new round of private placement after the previous financing round of around $7 billion. It intends to raise at least 480 billion yuan (about $7.1 billion), with a target of at least 10 billion yuan in newly raised funds; the exact size may scale up multiple times depending on investor participation. Current shareholders include Tencent, CATL, and the National AI Industry Investment Fund, among others. Founder Liang Wenfeng said the company will prioritize cutting-edge AI research and open-source models, pursuing a long-term goal of general artificial intelligence.

Drone company Brinc backed by Sam Altman raises $125 million; Index Ventures and others participate

Brinc, a drone company backed by Sam Altman, founder of OpenAI, announced it has completed a $125 million funding round. The round was led by existing investor Motorola Solutions, with participation from Index Ventures and earlier investor Dylan Field, among others. The company focuses on applying AI-based drone technology to public safety, including replacing some high-risk emergency response tasks.

Opinion & Analysis

Analyst: Bitcoin’s 24-hour rise of 3% is driven by real demand, not a short squeeze

CryptoQuant analyst Axel Adler Jr. said that over the past 24 hours, Bitcoin rose from $62,700 to $64,700, up about 3.1%. The Taker order pressure indicator was negative for almost the entire week last week, bottoming at -3.9, before turning positive on July 14; it is currently +4.1. The liquidation pressure indicator has been negative since July 11 at -55.2 and has remained so, with long liquidations dominating the market. The combination of the two indicators suggests this rebound is driven by real demand rather than a short squeeze. If the Taker indicator stays positive over the next 24 hours, the uptrend will be confirmed; if it falls back below the zero line, it would indicate that buying momentum is fading.

Analysis: Bitcoin’s UTXO loss/profit ratio hits extreme levels, revealing long-term accumulation opportunities

CryptoQuant analyst Darkfost noted that the Bitcoin market is approaching an important pain threshold for holders: the number of loss UTXOs has been steadily increasing, and the loss/profit ratio is at an extreme level in terms of holding losses. Such levels typically only appear under intense stress periods like bear markets. This metric measures market conditions by comparing the number of profitable and loss UTXOs, and is not affected by price fluctuations. The analyst believes the scale of currently held losses is continuously expanding, which offers a good accumulation opportunity for long-term investors. At the same time, it is also necessary to be cautious during optimistic phases when profitable UTXOs sharply push the ratio higher, as that could be a signal of a market turning point.

DeepSeek’s annualized revenue reportedly reaches $400 million to $500 million

DeepSeek’s recent annualized revenue is $400 million to $500 million, mainly coming from enterprise and developers calling the model via API. V4 API gross margin is over 50%. The company charges far less than OpenAI and Anthropic, but reduces chip demand by optimizing infrastructure. DeepSeek plans another 50 billion yuan raise, valuing it at about 500 billion yuan (about $7.4 billion). Based on the annualized revenue upper limit, the valuation is about 148 times revenue. This round is the same as the previously disclosed 480 billion yuan (about $7.1 billion). DeepSeek is also preparing to bring in overseas investors such as those from the Middle East and allow them to invest using dollars.

Wall Street turns more cautious on Circle; analysts warn that USDC economic model pressure is worsening

Wall Street analysts have grown more cautious toward Circle. Mizuho downgraded Circle’s rating from neutral to underperform the broader market, cutting the target price from $85 to $50, a drop of more than 41%. On the same day, JPMorgan also cut its earnings forecasts for Circle and Coinbase. Mizuho believes Open USD is supported by more than 140 companies including Visa, Mastercard, Stripe, BlackRock, and Coinbase. Using a “pass-through” model, it distributes nearly all reserve earnings to distributors, potentially forcing Circle to give up an even larger share of reserve earnings to maintain competitiveness. Mizuho also noted that Circle and Coinbase’s revenue-sharing agreement will be renewed next month, and Coinbase, as a founding member of Open USD, may have an advantage in negotiations. JPMorgan cited Circle’s new agreement with Hyperliquid as an example, saying it reflects a competitive landscape where Circle and Coinbase are pressured to offer the best possible revenue-share terms to retain partners. Bernstein and William Blair still like Circle, saying its liquidity, regulatory first-mover advantage, and network effects are hard to replicate.

Key Data

Bitcoin spot ETFs had total net inflows of $181 million yesterday; BlackRock’s IBIT led with $139 million net inflows

On July 14, total net inflows for Bitcoin spot ETFs were $181 million. BlackRock’s IBIT had net inflows of $139 million, leading the group, with total historical net inflows of $60.239 billion. Fidelity’s FBTC had net inflows of $21.0656 million, with total historical net inflows of $9.926 billion. Bitcoin spot ETF total net asset value (NAV) was $77.96 billion, with a net asset ratio of 6.02% and historical cumulative net inflows of $51.033 billion.

Ethereum spot ETFs had total net inflows of $58.3385 million yesterday; none of the ten ETFs had net outflows

On July 14, total net inflows for Ethereum spot ETFs were $58.3385 million, and none of the ten ETFs had net outflows. BlackRock’s ETHA had net inflows of $58.3385 million, bringing total historical net inflows to $11.237 billion. Ethereum spot ETFs total NAV was $10.091 billion, with a net asset ratio of 4.46% and historical cumulative net inflows of $11.016 billion.

Bitmine’s ETH staking and validation revenue in the last quarter was $45.7 million, accounting for 98% of total revenue

In the quarter ended May 31, Bitmine generated $45.7 million in ETH staking and validation revenue, accounting for 98% of the company’s total revenue. In the same period a year earlier, total revenue was only $2 million, mainly from machine leasing. Bitmine launched its institutional-grade Ethereum staking platform MAVAN in March and staked 85% of its ETH holdings (about 4.9 million ETH). Chairman Tom Lee said that when ETH is fully staked through MAVAN and its staking partners, expected annualized staking yield is $284 million. Since Robinhood Chain went live on July 1, trading volume has surpassed $1 billion. It uses ETH as a native gas token; transaction fees are denominated in ETH and settled on Ethereum. Robinhood’s 27 million users are starting to view ETH as “money.”