U.S. Senator: If Powell Is Fired by Trump, It Will Trigger a Market Collapse

Iran’s late Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei was laid to rest in Mashhad on local time July 9. His eldest, third, and fourth sons all attended the funeral, while the new Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei remained "in hiding" due to security risks, not publicly participating in any memorial or burial events. Reports said Mojtaba was previously injured in an airstrike and continues to face ongoing assassination threats from Israel. Sources familiar with the matter stated he now almost never uses electronic devices, communicating with the outside world only through in-person meetings or messengers to avoid exposing his whereabouts. Meanwhile, divisions within Iran over whether to continue negotiations with the U.S. are widening. Pragmatists advocate easing sanctions and economic pressure through talks, while hardliners oppose compromise with the U.S. and have publicly criticized the negotiation team. Although Mojtaba has authorized the government to advance a preliminary agreement with the U.S., the decision has still sparked internal controversy among conservatives. Analysts believe that Mojtaba’s future choices regarding personnel appointments, U.S. policy, and security strategy will serve as an important window into Iran’s power structure and foreign policy direction.

AI-powered decentralized finance infrastructure project TrueDAO has announced the completion of a $10 million strategic financing round, led by Brevan Howard Digital with participation from Zee Prime Capital, Jump Capital and other investors. Proceeds from the round will be primarily allocated to core AI protocol development, AI risk control systems, security audits, global compliance construction, and ecosystem partnership expansion. TrueDAO noted that it positions itself as modular on-chain financial infrastructure rather than a standalone blockchain application, aiming to provide ecosystem projects with services including liquidity management, reserve management, risk early warning, revenue distribution, and DAO governance. In its next phase, TrueDAO will advance testnet launch, security audits, developer tool development and ecosystem integration, and will disclose protocol operation and reserve data in stages. Specific mainnet launch timeline, token arrangements and incentive mechanisms will be subject to subsequent official announcements.

Led by the GenLayer Foundation, 27 crypto and Web3 institutions including OKX, MetaMask, and Matter Labs have jointly established the Internet Court, a platform designed to provide a unified dispute resolution mechanism for payments, escrow, and contract disputes between AI Agents. As AI Agents can independently negotiate, transact, and process payments, inter-Agent contract disputes have emerged as a new challenge, while traditional judicial systems struggle to handle such machine-to-machine transactions. The Internet Court aims to build an open, interoperable arbitration protocol to standardize AI payments, escrow, and dispute resolution. David Riudor, co-founder and CEO of GenLayer Foundation, noted that since Agents complete transactions at machine speed, a dispute resolution mechanism matching that speed is required. The Internet Court will serve as a trusted arbitration platform for AI Agents when transaction disputes occur. The protocol will also integrate infrastructure including the Coinbase x402 payment protocol, ERC-8004 Agent identity standard, and Google A2A Agent interoperability protocol, and adopt components such as the MetaMask Smart Accounts Kit, ERC-7710 delegation mechanism, and x402 Facilitator to boost interoperability across different AI Agent business systems.

According to CNN, two Israeli sources stated that the Trump administration is reluctant to have Israel drawn into combat over fears of losing control of the conflict. One source said, "Netanyahu is indeed eager to join the US strike operations, but the US does not want Israel to intervene at this time." However, one of the sources added that Israel's mainstream assessment holds that Trump has no intention of returning to full-scale war, and the most he would be willing to do is resume the maritime blockade on Iranian ports.

BCA Research’s investment strategist noted that the current AI investment cycle has entered "extra time", with the AI bubble more pronounced on the earnings front rather than the valuation side. Pressures stemming from profit growth, demand structure and supply expansion are likely to converge around 2027, at which point AI capital expenditure growth may slow significantly. Investors should closely monitor four key bubble warning indicators: GPU rental rates, AI storage chip prices, AI application penetration and corporate spending, as well as token prices and AI programming agent downloads. Among these, token price declines and stagnating downloads of AI programming tools are the most notable early signals, reflecting that enterprises are gradually shifting from pursuing the most advanced models to cost control. If the AI bubble eventually bursts, its impact on the U.S. economy and capital markets could exceed that of the 2000 dot-com bubble. According to estimates, U.S. stocks could see a 30% to 50% correction at that time, which would drag down U.S. consumption and economic growth via the wealth effect.

According to Hong Kong Exchanges and Clearing (HKEX)’s shareholding disclosure documents, renowned investor Duan Yongping has once again increased his holdings in Pop Mart. His stake in the firm rose from 91.2728 million shares to 102 million shares, lifting his shareholding ratio from 6.85% to 7.65%. The latest filing date for this update is July 6. This marks another additional purchase of Pop Mart shares by Duan Yongping in his recent consecutive buying spree. Earlier disclosures revealed that he acquired 4.66 million Pop Mart shares on May 28 at an average price of HK$162.5 per share, totaling around HK$757 million. As of the close of trading on July 10, Pop Mart’s shares closed at HK$150.70, giving the company a total market capitalization of approximately HK$200.69 billion. Calculated based on his latest holdings, the market value of Duan Yongping’s Pop Mart stake stands at roughly HK$15.35 billion.