SaharaDreams

#Fed July Decision 🧐
What the Latest Data and Signals Tell Us 🤔
The Federal Reserve's July 28-29 meeting is just days away, and the picture has shifted meaningfully over the past few weeks. Here is where things stand.
The Baseline Expectation: Hold
All 104 economists surveyed by Reuters between July 17-21 expect the Fed to leave rates unchanged at 3.50%-3.75% . A three-fourths majority see no change through the end of the year . The market-implied probability of a rate hike has dropped below 15% after the June CPI and PPI reports came in softer than expected .
CaixaBank Research expects a pause with a "vigilant bias" — the Fed can acknowledge recent improvement in inflation data while insisting it needs more evidence before declaring the inflation shock contained .
The Data That Took a Hike Off the Table
June CPI: Headline fell 0.4% month-over-month, bringing the annual rate down to 3.5% from May's 4.2% . Core CPI was flat on the month, lowering the annual core rate to 2.6% from 2.9% . Both came in well below consensus forecasts. The shelter component, a key driver of sticky inflation, rose only 0.1% monthly, suggesting the slowdown in new rents is finally feeding into official measures .
June PPI: Headline fell 0.3% month-over-month, well below the flat reading economists expected. Core PPI rose just 0.2%, below the 0.4% forecast .
June Jobs Report: Employers added only 57,000 jobs, well below expectations, while the unemployment rate ticked down to 4.2% due to a drop in labor force participation . The three-month average hiring pace is now 164,000, down from stronger levels earlier in the year .
June Retail Sales: Rose just 0.2%, showing consumer spending is not reaccelerating in a way that would force the Fed's hand .
The Hawkish Counterweight
Despite the softer data, several factors are keeping a rate hike on the table as a possibility rather than a certainty.
Warsh's Tone: Fed Chair Kevin Warsh has been consistently hawkish. At the ECB Forum on July 1, he said "prices are too high" and reaffirmed the Fed's commitment to price stability . In his July 14 testimony to Congress, he called high inflation an "undue burden" and a "tax on the American people" that the Fed plans to eliminate . He has also criticized the Fed's 2020 policy framework that allowed above-target inflation after periods of low prices .
Manufacturing Inflation: The Philly Fed manufacturing index surged to 41.4 in July, the highest since November 2021, well above the 13.0 consensus estimate . The prices paid index climbed to 53.9 from 53.2, while the prices received index jumped to 27.4 from 20.3, indicating manufacturers are passing through cost increases . This suggests the energy-driven inflation shock is still working its way through the pipeline.
Oil Price Rebound: Much of the June improvement came before the Middle East ceasefire collapsed. Brent crude has surged roughly 25% since the conflict escalated, threatening to reverse the energy-driven disinflation .
FOMC Minutes: The June minutes, released July 8, showed policymakers are increasingly split. Half of the 18 officials who submitted projections supported keeping rates unchanged or cutting, while the other half advocated for raising rates before the end of 2026 . Warsh himself declined to provide a forecast .
The Forward Guidance Shift
Warsh has made a deliberate break from the Powell era by refusing to provide forward guidance . At the ECB Forum, he declined to answer whether a rate hike is on the table for July, saying the moderator was "trying to get me to break this rule" and that "she's going to fail" . He has described the June FOMC statement as "significantly shorter" than past statements and indicated this is the new normal .
The Five Task Forces
Warsh has launched five external task forces to review the Fed's communications, balance sheet policy, data usage, inflation frameworks, and the productivity impact of AI . The leaders include prominent figures like Harvard's Greg Mankiw, Nobel laureate Thomas Sargent, and Andreessen Horowitz's Marc Andreessen . Warsh told Congress the task forces have made "a lot of progress in six weeks" . The communications task force could have near-term impact on how the Fed delivers policy signals .
The Bottom Line
The soft June #CPI and #PPI reports significantly reduced the urgency for a July rate hike, but the Fed is not out of the woods. The rebound in oil prices, ongoing manufacturing inflation, and Warsh's hawkish rhetoric mean rate cuts are not on the table either. The most likely outcome is a hold with a hawkish tilt — Warsh can acknowledge the recent disinflation while signaling that the Fed will not hesitate to hike if energy-driven inflation broadens out .
For investors, the key is not to overreact to any single meeting. Warsh has made it clear he is playing a longer game. The policy signal will emerge over quarters, not days.
NFA ✔️ DYOR 🔎
#SummerCreationCamp #夏日创作营
https://gate.onelink.me/Hls0/prediction?page=detail&event_ticker=287395&source=cex

Gate Crosses New Threshold in Q2 ✨
Gate passed another significant milestone in Q2. The platform strengthened its position among the world's leading crypto platforms, with growth in liquidity, derivatives volume, CFD markets, and TradFi integration standing out.
🔹 Over 58 million users
🔹 Over 4,800 crypto assets
🔹 Over 12,500 equity assets
🔹 $8.18 billion in reserves
In Q2, Gate stood out with its high-level liquidity, growing derivatives assets, expanding CFD markets, and deeper integration with TradFi.
From equities to pre-IPO products, RWA, Wealth, and AI, Gate is building a single platform where more assets meet more opportunities.
👉 The One Gate Every Trade approach stands out, strengthening the vision of multi-asset trading under one roof.
#GateQ22026
Details: https://www.gate.com/announcements/article/100784

#TrumpAgreesToClarityEthicsClause Ethical Threshold Crossed in Clarity Act ✨
Following months of negotiations, President Donald Trump approved the ethics regulation for the Clarity Act. This step means overcoming what was seen as the last major hurdle for the federal framework on the crypto side.
🔹 The new ethics text aims to prohibit federal officials from issuing crypto assets.
🔹 Scope includes the president, vice president, members of Congress, and high-ranking federal officials.
🔹 The Department of Justice will be responsible for implementation, not state attorneys general.
🔹 Memecoins and revenues linked to World Liberty Financial are at the center of the debate.
🔹 The regulation was accelerated after a meeting on July 16th with Lummis, Moreno, and White House crypto advisor Witt.
The White House describes the approved text as the most comprehensive ethics regulation in its history. The Democratic side, however, states that it has not yet seen the details of the text and that the implementation mechanism needs to be clarified. The debate over neutrality continues, particularly given the Department of Justice's close ties to the president.
The Clarity Act stands out as the first comprehensive federal framework that introduces power sharing between the SEC and CFTC for digital assets. It seemed unlikely that the law would enter the Senate calendar without resolving the ethics clause. The voting window for the Senate is narrowing before the early August recess.
Following the news, Bitcoin, Ethereum, and XRP saw a recovery in the market. In the prediction market, the probability of the law becoming law in 2026 rose from 32% to 43%.
The process is currently in the text publication phase. After the Senate vote, it requires House of Representatives approval and then the president's signature. Before the text is published, it is unclear whether the ethics clause will cover family members, existing assets, or new token launches.

$XAUUSD $XAUT $PAXG
Gold closed last week with a recovery above its major low of the year at $3,942. The metal, which repeatedly found support in the $3,840-$3,860 range between June 24 and July 1, continued to recover from around $3,960 last week, maintaining $3,942 and below as a zone of invalidity. Buyers were clearly very active in this region, and it's highly likely many investors entered the weekend with long positions.
But the real question remains: Is gold truly preparing for a sustained bullish reversal, or is a downward move still expected?
Looking at the four-hour chart, the market is still following a strong bearish pattern. The price clearly maintains a lower top lower bottom pattern, indicating that the trend remains bearish on the larger timeframe. The price action itself suggests that sellers are still in control.
The real question is, will the market form another lower top before falling again, or will it play another psychological game before the decline continues?
There's an interesting detail: for the past three weeks, every Monday has closed bearish. Either through gap-down openings or immediate selling pressure, Monday sessions generally ended in a bearish direction. Because of this pattern, it's expected that many traders will aggressively seek short positions at the open this Monday.
However, I don't think the market will immediately attack last week's low or the annual low of $3,942. Instead, I believe the market will first play a psychological game.
The expectation is that the first weakness after the open could be a liquidity hunt aimed at triggering stop-loss orders for anyone holding long positions above $4,000 over the weekend. As is known, $4,000 is an important psychological level; gold only managed to surpass this level near Friday's close, which naturally led many traders to hold positions expecting a continued rise over the weekend or overnight. That's precisely why these buyers are thought to be the first target at the open.
After trapping buyers over the weekend, gold is expected to recover and turn bullish on Monday. The aim of this move could be to shift retail sentiment from bearish to bullish. As traders begin to believe that 3,942 has become a strong long-term bottom, more people will start setting up swing buy positions with wider stop-loss orders.
However, personally, I don't believe these expectations will materialize. The trend in the larger timeframe is still bearish, and any bullish move is seen as merely a way to draw in fresh liquidity before the next major downward leg.
If the market breaks a near-lower peak during the week, many breakout traders will move into long positions. This breakout is also thought to be another trap. After enough buyers enter, the market is expected to continue its bearish structure and eventually fall below $3,942. If this happens, the next downside targets remain around $3,912 and ultimately $3,870.
That's the general outlook for next week.
Another important factor is that next week will be relatively calm, with a clear economic data calendar. Therefore, instead of the excessive manipulation and sharp volatility seen last Monday and Tuesday, a cleaner price movement is expected.
A closely watched technical level is $3,980. A full close below this level on a 30-minute candle would significantly strengthen downward momentum, potentially pushing gold directly towards the $3,900 region.
Overall, next week is thought to offer really good opportunities for short selling.
The plan will be simple. As long as the price remains above $3,980, a neutral stance will be maintained, focusing primarily on scalping. Large targets will not be pursued without confirmation. Aggressive swing short positions will be pursued after the market confirms a continuation of the bearish trend.
Staying disciplined, managing risk correctly, protecting capital, and waiting for the market to react rather than forcing a trade are the key principles for next week.
DYOR 🔎
#SummerCreationCamp #夏日创作营

The boundary dividing traditional equity markets from the continuous operation of the digital asset ecosystem is rapidly fading, driven by a growing global demand for borderless and always-on financial access. Historically, retail investors wishing to trade major United States corporations were bound by rigid geographic and temporal constraints, dictated entirely by the standard opening and closing bells of New York exchanges. The emergence of round-the-clock trading structures, particularly through the combination of fractionalized real equities and tokenized stock representations, has fundamentally shifted this dynamic. This evolution allows market participants to manage their capital and hedge exposures without waiting for regular market hours, introducing a level of flexibility previously reserved for the cryptocurrency markets.
To successfully navigate this expanding landscape, understanding the mechanical differences between traditional stock exposure and tokenized alternatives is vital for proper risk management. Real equities traded on modern digital platforms give investors direct ownership of the underlying corporate security, complete with standard shareholder protections, though they remain tied to institutional clearing schedules. Conversely, stock tokens act as synthetic derivatives, tracking the real-time spot price of the underlying equity on a one-to-one basis through collateralized reserves. This tokenized approach provides exceptional utility, allowing for instant on-chain settlement, extreme fractionalization where users can purchase minute fractions of a single high-priced share, and seamless integration with digital wallets, effectively bypassing traditional banking rail bottlenecks.
This structural shift has sparked an active debate among financial analysts regarding the long-term viability of synthetic equity exposure. Proponents argue that twenty-four-seven access democratizes the investment landscape, enabling international participants to react instantly to breaking macroeconomic indicators, corporate earnings reports, or unexpected geopolitical events that occur outside of standard Western trading windows. On the other hand, cautious market commentators point out that overnight trading often suffers from thinner liquidity, which can result in wider bid-ask spreads and sudden price slippage during periods of low volume. Furthermore, holding tokenized derivatives introduces specific platform counterparty risks and typically lacks the voting rights inherent in direct equity custody, a trade-off that risk-averse allocators must weigh carefully against the convenience of constant liquidity.
For investors evaluating these diverse avenues, Gate provides a comprehensive roadmap through its newly released trading guide, helping users determine which method best aligns with their individual risk tolerance and capital goals. By offering a dual framework that accommodates both real United States equity access and tokenized variants within a single, unified interface, the platform allows traders to balance long-term structural security with absolute transactional flexibility. Moving forward, keeping a close eye on how global financial regulators address the cross-border compliance of tokenized securities will be essential, and utilizing Gate to compare real-time spreads while exploring these flexible investment options remains a practical starting point for optimizing market exposure.
https://www.gate.com/blog/how-to-trade-us-stocks-24-7-gate-real-us-stocks-and-stock-token-trading-guide
#SummerCreationCamp #夏日创作营
DYOR 🔎

$BTC and $ETH are dumping again.
Over $40 billion has been erased from the crypto market in last few hours
Daily dose of dump 🚨

Gate's second Pre-IPO offering has officially closed, and the numbers describe a genuinely extraordinary demand curve from start to finish.
Subscriptions opened July 15 at 07:00 UTC against a $20 million offering cap, 27,700 OPENAI asset certificates priced at $722 each. Within the first hour, commitments had already crossed $148 million, an oversubscription rate of 639 percent. By the time the window closed at 07:00 UTC on July 17, total subscriptions had climbed past $260 million, pushing the final oversubscription rate to roughly 1,302 percent, more than doubling from where it stood at the halfway point. That kind of acceleration through the second half of the window suggests demand didn't taper off as the deadline approached, it actually intensified.
Given a subscription pool this oversubscribed, the time-weighted average locked balance mechanism becomes the decisive factor in final allocation. Users who committed early and kept their position locked for the full 48-hour window will have captured meaningfully more weight than anyone who joined in the final hours, so actual allocations will be scaled down substantially from what any individual subscribed, proportional to that time-weighted share of the total pool.
Distribution now happens in three scheduled phases, 25 percent unlocking July 17 at 19:00 UTC Beijing time, another 35 percent a month later, and the final 40 percent a month after that. Once the first tranche unlocks, certificates move into pre-market trading, and this is a genuinely useful feature for anyone holding a position, pre-market trading runs 24/7 rather than being confined to standard market hours, giving holders continuous ability to buy or sell their allocation ahead of any actual OpenAI public listing, rather than waiting for a confirmed IPO date to do anything with the position.
The subscription incentives carry forward too. GUSD holders continue earning the 3.8 percent daily-paid minting yield, and there's now a limited-time VIP-exclusive USDT wealth product offering 4 percent annualized, a separate track for VIP users looking to put idle capital to work alongside their OPENAI position rather than leaving it sitting unused.
For anyone who participated, the practical next step is watching for the first distribution at 19:00 UTC+8 on July 17 and deciding early whether to hold through the remaining unlock phases or make use of the pre-market trading window once it opens, given that OpenAI's own IPO timeline remains unconfirmed and the certificate's value will continue tracking private market sentiment around the company until any actual public listing occurs.
#PreIPOsSeason2OpenAISubscription

#TSMCQ2NetProfitSurges77%
TSMC just delivered one of its strongest quarters on record, and the numbers genuinely exceeded what Wall Street was already expecting. Net profit for Q2 2026 came in at NT$706.6 billion, roughly $22 billion, up 77 percent year over year and marking the fifth consecutive quarter of record earnings. That comfortably beat the LSEG SmartEstimate of NT$632.6 billion, a forecast methodology weighted toward analysts who've historically been more accurate, which makes the beat even more notable.
Revenue reached NT$1.27 trillion, about $40.2 billion, up 36 percent year over year and 12 percent from the prior quarter, hitting the upper end of the company's own guidance. Gross margin came in at 67.7 percent, above TSMC's own guided range of 65.5 to 67.5 percent, with operating margin at 58.1 percent, both signaling genuine pricing power rather than just volume growth. High-performance computing, the segment covering AI accelerators and data center chips, now makes up 66 percent of total revenue, and chips built on 7-nanometer or smaller nodes accounted for 77 percent of wafer revenue for the quarter.
The forward guidance is arguably the bigger story than the quarter itself. TSMC raised its full-year 2026 capital expenditure outlook from a previous range of $52 billion to $56 billion up to $60 billion to $64 billion, an increase of as much as 15 percent, with 70 to 80 percent of that earmarked for advanced process technologies like 2nm and 3nm. Full-year revenue growth guidance was lifted from roughly 30 percent to over 40 percent year over year. CEO C.C. Wei also announced an additional $100 billion investment in Arizona, bringing TSMC's total committed US spending to $265 billion, with plans for three new fabrication plants and two advanced packaging facilities there. For Q3, the company guided revenue between $44.6 billion and $45.8 billion.
This lands at a genuinely sensitive moment for chip stocks broadly, given the sharp South Korean semiconductor selloff and the leveraged ETF volatility covered in recent sessions, where the market has been actively questioning whether AI infrastructure spending can keep justifying current valuations. TSMC's results push directly against that skepticism, since as the foundry serving essentially every major AI chip designer from Nvidia to AMD, its own guidance upgrade is about as direct a read on real AI chip demand as the market gets, rather than a downstream company's own optimistic projections about future spending.
For anyone tracking semiconductor exposure or AI infrastructure sentiment on Gate, this result is worth weighing against the memory pricing bull case and the Korean market's leverage-driven instability covered earlier this week. TSMC commands roughly 73 percent of the global pure-play foundry market, so a guidance beat and capex raise of this scale, rather than a maintained forecast, suggests the company itself sees sustained rather than peaking demand, a genuinely useful data point given how much of the current market narrative hinges on exactly that question.

Gate's second Pre-IPO offering has officially closed, and the numbers describe a genuinely extraordinary demand curve from start to finish.
Subscriptions opened July 15 at 07:00 UTC against a $20 million offering cap, 27,700 OPENAI asset certificates priced at $722 each. Within the first hour, commitments had already crossed $148 million, an oversubscription rate of 639 percent. By the time the window closed at 07:00 UTC on July 17, total subscriptions had climbed past $260 million, pushing the final oversubscription rate to roughly 1,302 percent, more than doubling from where it stood at the halfway point. That kind of acceleration through the second half of the window suggests demand didn't taper off as the deadline approached, it actually intensified.
Given a subscription pool this oversubscribed, the time-weighted average locked balance mechanism becomes the decisive factor in final allocation. Users who committed early and kept their position locked for the full 48-hour window will have captured meaningfully more weight than anyone who joined in the final hours, so actual allocations will be scaled down substantially from what any individual subscribed, proportional to that time-weighted share of the total pool.
Distribution now happens in three scheduled phases, 25 percent unlocking July 17 at 19:00 UTC Beijing time, another 35 percent a month later, and the final 40 percent a month after that. Once the first tranche unlocks, certificates move into pre-market trading, and this is a genuinely useful feature for anyone holding a position, pre-market trading runs 24/7 rather than being confined to standard market hours, giving holders continuous ability to buy or sell their allocation ahead of any actual OpenAI public listing, rather than waiting for a confirmed IPO date to do anything with the position.
The subscription incentives carry forward too. GUSD holders continue earning the 3.8 percent daily-paid minting yield, and there's now a limited-time VIP-exclusive USDT wealth product offering 4 percent annualized, a separate track for VIP users looking to put idle capital to work alongside their OPENAI position rather than leaving it sitting unused.
For anyone who participated, the practical next step is watching for the first distribution at 19:00 UTC+8 on July 17 and deciding early whether to hold through the remaining unlock phases or make use of the pre-market trading window once it opens, given that OpenAI's own IPO timeline remains unconfirmed and the certificate's value will continue tracking private market sentiment around the company until any actual public listing occurs.
#PreIPOsSeason2OpenAISubscription

Gold's recent volatility has made it one of the more actively traded instruments on Gate's TradFi CFD platform, and there's now a dedicated campaign built around exactly that, running from July 16 at 10:00 UTC through July 31 at 10:00 UTC, open to users who've already activated TradFi CFD trading eligibility.
The campaign has three separate layers, and they're designed to build on each other rather than compete. The first is a straightforward trading return bonus, anyone who registers and hits at least 2,000 USDT in cumulative TradFi CFD trading volume receives a 200 USDT CFD position voucher. The total pool here is 200,000 USDT, distributed automatically and strictly first-come, first-served until it runs out, so there's no ranking involved, just meeting the volume threshold before the pool is exhausted.
The second layer is a bit of a lucky bonus stacked on top of the first. Among everyone who completes that same 2,000 USDT volume task, whoever happens to be the 88th person to finish gets an extra 88 USDT worth of XAUT, and the 188th person gets 188 USDT worth of XAUT. It's a nice touch for anyone who moves quickly without needing to trade any additional volume beyond what the first task already required.
The third and biggest layer is the actual Gold Rush leaderboard, worth up to 50,000 USDT total in XAUT. This one requires a higher bar, at least 20,000 USDT in cumulative TradFi CFD volume to even qualify, and rewards scale up sharply from there based on tiered volume thresholds, 18 USDT worth of XAUT for the 20,000 USDT tier with 40 slots available, up through 188 USDT at 200,000 USDT, 888 USDT at 1,000,000 USDT, 1,888 USDT at 10,000,000 USDT, and the top single slot at 8,888 USDT worth of XAUT for anyone reaching 50,000,000 USDT in cumulative volume. If a tier's slots fill up, anyone who qualified but missed out gets bumped down to compete for the next tier based on their volume ranking, so there's no complete lockout even if a lower tier fills first.
A few practical details matter here. Trading volume counts both buy and sell sides combined. The first task's reward comes as a CFD position voucher credited automatically, while the second and third layers pay out in XAUT spot tokens, not physical gold, credited within 14 business days after the campaign ends. Task completion status can take one to two hours to update after finishing the required trades, so there's no need to worry if a task doesn't show as complete instantly.
For anyone already trading gold CFDs on Gate, the practical sequence here is straightforward, hit the 2,000 USDT threshold first to lock in the 200 USDT voucher and a shot at the 88th or 188th bonus, then decide whether pushing toward the 20,000 USDT leaderboard entry point makes sense based on how active your trading already is, since the jump from there to the higher XAUT tiers scales with genuinely large volume commitments rather than casual trading.
https://www.gate.com/announcements/article/100709
#SummerCreationCamp

📢 The Gate Plaza Summer Creative Camp is now open—there’s a $50,000 USDT prize pool waiting for you to share.
Post original content with the topic #夏日创作营 to participate.
🎁 New authors get a 50 USDT contract voucher for their first post. Unlock 100 USDT vouchers as you accumulate posts. Every day, lucky newcomers win $5 USDT in cash.
🏆 All creators who meet the requirements will share $500 USDT, and high-quality content will also get an extra $20 USDT + a featured placement + 7 days of traffic support.
📅 July 15 - July 27, 24:00 (UTC+8)
👉 https://www.gate.com/announcements/article/100685

Gate's second Pre-IPO offering has officially closed, and the numbers describe a genuinely extraordinary demand curve from start to finish.
Subscriptions opened July 15 at 07:00 UTC against a $20 million offering cap, 27,700 OPENAI asset certificates priced at $722 each. Within the first hour, commitments had already crossed $148 million, an oversubscription rate of 639 percent. By the time the window closed at 07:00 UTC on July 17, total subscriptions had climbed past $260 million, pushing the final oversubscription rate to roughly 1,302 percent, more than doubling from where it stood at the halfway point. That kind of acceleration through the second half of the window suggests demand didn't taper off as the deadline approached, it actually intensified.
Given a subscription pool this oversubscribed, the time-weighted average locked balance mechanism becomes the decisive factor in final allocation. Users who committed early and kept their position locked for the full 48-hour window will have captured meaningfully more weight than anyone who joined in the final hours, so actual allocations will be scaled down substantially from what any individual subscribed, proportional to that time-weighted share of the total pool.
Distribution now happens in three scheduled phases, 25 percent unlocking July 17 at 19:00 UTC Beijing time, another 35 percent a month later, and the final 40 percent a month after that. Once the first tranche unlocks, certificates move into pre-market trading, and this is a genuinely useful feature for anyone holding a position, pre-market trading runs 24/7 rather than being confined to standard market hours, giving holders continuous ability to buy or sell their allocation ahead of any actual OpenAI public listing, rather than waiting for a confirmed IPO date to do anything with the position.
The subscription incentives carry forward too. GUSD holders continue earning the 3.8 percent daily-paid minting yield, and there's now a limited-time VIP-exclusive USDT wealth product offering 4 percent annualized, a separate track for VIP users looking to put idle capital to work alongside their OPENAI position rather than leaving it sitting unused.
For anyone who participated, the practical next step is watching for the first distribution at 19:00 UTC+8 on July 17 and deciding early whether to hold through the remaining unlock phases or make use of the pre-market trading window once it opens, given that OpenAI's own IPO timeline remains unconfirmed and the certificate's value will continue tracking private market sentiment around the company until any actual public listing occurs.
#PreIPOsSeason2OpenAISubscription

#USEndsLatestStrikesOnIran The claim that the US has ended its latest strikes doesn't quite match what the actual reporting shows as of today. Here's the more accurate picture.
The conflict has been on a continuous escalation track rather than winding down. President Trump declared the ceasefire "over" on July 8 at the NATO summit in Ankara, and rounds of strikes have continued in waves since then rather than stopping. The most recent major escalation came Monday, July 13, when Trump announced the US would reimpose its naval blockade on Iranian ports and, in a notably unusual move, said the US should be paid to secure the strait, floating a 20 percent toll on cargo passing through, something he called making the US the "Guardian of the Strait." Iran's foreign minister Abbas Araghchi pushed back publicly, insisting Iran has always been the guardian of the strait, before appearing to haggle over the toll figure itself, calling 20 percent too much. The US struck Iran again that same Monday, hours after the blockade announcement, and Al Jazeera's mapping coverage from just 17 hours ago shows the US has launched hundreds of air attacks across Iran over the past week alone, with at least 35 people killed and 300 wounded according to Iranian health officials.
So rather than strikes ending, what's actually happening is a now-familiar cycle, Iran attacks commercial shipping in the strait, the US retaliates with strikes, Iran hits back at US allies or interests in the Gulf, and the pattern repeats roughly every few days. Traffic through Hormuz has cratered as a result, dropping to around 13 to 25 ships crossing daily versus roughly 110 a day before the war began in February.
The core dispute remains exactly what it's been for weeks, control over the strait itself. The original June memorandum only committed Iran to using its "best efforts" for safe passage for 60 days without specifying what happens afterward, and Iran has read that ambiguity as license to eventually charge fees and maintain authority over the waterway, while the US insists the deal was meant to produce a fully open, toll-free strait. Diplomatic channels haven't fully closed either, Pakistan and Qatar have both been working behind the scenes to bring both sides back to the table, and Trump himself said the day after his "ceasefire is over" comment that he didn't want a return to full-scale war and suggested talks could continue.
For anyone tracking oil or Middle East linked risk assets on Gate, the practical takeaway is that individual rounds of strikes do pause between exchanges, which may be what's generating headlines like this one, but the underlying conflict and the naval blockade Trump reinstated this week remain very much active. The toll dispute and the broader question of who controls Hormuz after the 60-day window lapses are the things to watch, since neither has been resolved, and that's been the actual driver of every escalation cycle since the June ceasefire was signed.

SEC Chairman Paul Atkins reiterated that the U.S. must maintain its global leadership in AI, crypto, and financial innovation, emphasizing that the concrete way to achieve this is through the passage of the CLARITY Act through the Senate. This statement followed a similar call from Trump via Truth Social, where he described the law as a crucial step to safeguard America's technological leadership.
The CLARITY Act has already passed the House of Representatives and, with bipartisan support, has been approved by the Senate Banking Committee, now awaiting consideration by the entire Senate. The primary goal of the law is to clearly share regulatory responsibility over digital assets between the SEC and the Futures Trading Commission, establishing clear criteria for determining whether an asset qualifies as a commodity or a security. Senator Bill Hagerty also argued that this law, building upon the already successful GENIUS Act in the stablecoin space, would strengthen the dollar's global role in digital finance.
Atkins' approach to this issue has followed a consistent line since he took office in April 2025, shifting from the previous administration's punitive oversight strategy to a model based on formal rulemaking and market clarity. A concrete example of this is the Project Crypto initiative, which aims to develop a clear classification system for crypto assets. Categories such as digital commodities, network tokens, and digital collectibles are not considered securities, while the specific circumstances constituting an investment contract according to the Howey test are also being evaluated.
Atkins also highlighted the transparency of public blockchains, stating that recording every value transfer in a permanent and auditable ledger provides a level of transparency unseen in any traditional financial system. He also made a separate point about the impact of AI on financial markets, stating that AI agents will increasingly participate in market intervention and financial decision-making at machine speeds, and that blockchain infrastructure allows these systems to move value instantly. He stressed that the SEC should not confine these new technologies to old rules, stating, in his own words, "our job is to set the rules of the game and act as referee, not to choose the winning team."
The main concern underlying this whole process is the risk of innovation shifting overseas if the US doesn't establish clear rules in this area. Atkins has reiterated this in past speeches, arguing that if the US insists on navigating every on-chain innovation through a labyrinth of securities law, these innovations will be moved to jurisdictions more willing to differentiate between asset types and pre-write the rules.
For those following US crypto regulation through Gate, the key point to watch is this: this rhetorical support is not new, it has been repeated for months, but the real determining factor is whether and when the CLARITY Act will actually be put to a vote in the Senate. If the law passes, both token classification and the registration obligations of exchanges and custodians will be clarified, which would be a tangible development that could facilitate the entry of institutional capital into the US crypto market.
#TrumpCallsForClarityActPassage

$ETH BitMine Immersion Technologies has expanded its Ethereum position once again. The company purchased 27,801 ETH during the latest reporting period, bringing its total holdings to 5,770,038 tokens, valued at approximately $10.5 billion at current prices .
Key Numbers and Holdings
The company's full balance sheet as of July 12, 2026, shows combined crypto, cash, and strategic investments totaling $11.3 billion . The holdings break down as follows:
· 5,770,038 ETH (approximately 4.8% of total circulating supply)
· 206 BTC
· $482 million in cash and marketable securities
· $180 million stake in Beast Industries
· $69 million stake in Eightco Holdings (NASDAQ: ORBS)
The 5% Goal
BitMine is 96% of the way toward its stated objective of owning 5% of all circulating ETH, a milestone the company calls the "Alchemy of 5%" . The company achieved this position in roughly 12 months, a pace Chairman Tom Lee has maintained as ETH trades below $2,000 .
Staking and Yield
Approximately 85% of Bitmine's ETH holdings (4,917,189 tokens) are staked through the company's MAVAN validator network and partner validators . The company reported a 2.70% seven-day annualized staking yield, with projected annualized staking revenue of $242 million under current conditions. At full operational scale, that figure is expected to reach $284 million .
The Transparency Issue
The announcement, distributed via PRNewswire, comes with a notable caveat: no on-chain verification, public wallet addresses, or auditor attestation have been provided . This lack of transparency has drawn skepticism, particularly for a holding of this size. The company, which primarily focuses on immersion cooling technology for mining, has not disclosed how it accumulated such a large position . The risk of a potential sell-off from such a concentrated holder remains a concern for traders, and the claim could attract regulatory attention if proven accurate .
Position in the Market
BitMine is now the largest corporate holder of ETH globally, with its treasury rivaling some of the largest exchange wallets . The company was also added to the Russell 1000 Large-cap Index on June 26 .

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OpenAI subscription opens in a day, and Gate's Pre-IPOs structure makes it accessible without needing venture capital scale or institutional connections.
The Details
The round offers 27,700 OPENAI asset certificates at $722 per token, representing a total subscription pool of roughly $20 million. Participants can subscribe using USDT or GUSD with a minimum of just $100, using either currency.
The $722 pricing maps to an implied valuation of about $895 billion, a modest ~5% premium above OpenAI's last institutional funding round in March 2026 at $852 billion. For reference, CEO Sam Altman is reportedly targeting a $1 trillion valuation for the eventual IPO.
The Incentives
There are three extras worth noting:
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How Allocation Works
Your allocation is based on hourly average locked amount, not just a snapshot at the end. The earlier you commit and the longer you keep funds locked during the 48-hour subscription window, the higher your allocation weight.
Unlock Schedule
Distributed tokens unlock in three phases:
· 25% unlocked on July 17
· 35% unlocked on August 17
· 40% unlocked on September 17
Pre-Market Trading
Pre-market trading opens July 20, 16:00 (UTC+8), giving you an exit before the final unlock completes.
Risk Considerations
OPENAI certificates are mirror notes, not actual OpenAI equity. OpenAI remains private with no confirmed IPO date. The product carries the same risks as any Pre-IPO structure: valuation uncertainty, liquidity constraints, and the possibility that OpenAI never lists or experiences a value decline.
https://www.gate.com/ipos/21

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ETF Inflows Roar Back as Spot Ether Funds Pull $1.8 Billion in Six Sessions
The bid came back with size. From July 6 to July 11, 2026, U.S. spot Ether ETFs recorded $1.82 billion in net inflows, the strongest weekly print since January. The move erased three weeks of outflows and pushed combined ETH ETF holdings to 4.31 million ETH, roughly 3.6% of circulating supply. BTC ETFs added $620 million over the same stretch, but the story this week was ETH beta.
What drove the flow
Two catalysts aligned. First, a major custodian confirmed it will support ETH staking inside ETF trusts by Q4, pending final sign-off. The S-1 amendments hit late June, but compliance teams cleared the language this week. Second, on-chain data showed a supply squeeze: ETH on trading venues fell to 9.8 million, a 14-month low, while 28.7% of supply sits staked and illiquid. When ETF creations hit, authorized participants had to pull from thin books.
Favorite examples from the tape
1. BlackRock’s ETHA: Took in $742 million on July 9 alone, the second-largest single-day ETH ETF flow on record. The fund now holds 1.64 million ETH. Its premium to NAV stayed at 2 bps, showing smooth create-redeem mechanics. 2. Fidelity’s FETH: Added $408 million this week. The issuer’s crypto desk said 63% of the flow came from RIAs rebalancing model portfolios, not hedge funds. That suggests stickier capital. 3. Grayscale Mini Trust: Saw $116 million in inflows despite a 0.15% fee. The discount to NAV closed from -0.8% to -0.1%, implying arb desks covered shorts as redemption risk fell. 4. CME Basis: ETH futures basis on the regulated venue widened from 6.2% to 11.4% annualized. The jump signaled real spot demand, because ETF APs hedge creations by buying futures, lifting the curve.
Market structure impact
ETH/BTC broke 0.058 after stalling near 0.052 for a month. Options flow confirmed the move: $75k notional in ETH September 4k calls traded on July 10, the largest block since March. Perp funding on major venues flipped positive to 0.012% per 8h, but spot led, not leverage. On-chain, staked ETH queue jumped to 8 days as new validators entered, likely institutions prepping for ETF staking.
Risk and the road ahead
If staking inside ETFs gets delayed, part of this bid unwinds. Also, macro matters: a hot CPI on July 15 could hit duration assets and ETH with it. But flow is flow. When $1.8 billion enters in six sessions, it forces market makers to buy, slippage drops, and reflexive buyers appear. The key level is ETH’s March high at $4,090. A daily close above it with volume turns this inflow into a trend.
For allocators, the takeaway is simple. ETH now has a functioning ETF wrapper, a path to staking yield, and shrinking liquid supply. That trio pulled cash off the sidelines. In crypto, most searched topics this week were “ETH ETF inflows,” “staking ETF,” and “ETH supply.” The tape agreed.
#Ethereum #ETF #Institutional #ETH #Crypto