UK establishes working group on tokenized financial markets, with 54 institutions including BlackRock, Goldman Sachs and JPMorgan Chase joining.

After the U.S. Congress reconvened, the Clarity Act (Crypto Market Structure Act) has entered a critical legislative window. Industry insiders say the next four weeks will determine whether the bill can complete Senate review before Congress adjourns in August and be formally enacted this year. According to reports, the Senate is expected to release this week the latest version of the bill, which integrates texts from the Senate Banking Committee and Agriculture Committee. Currently, the bill faces two core sticking points: one is the final language of the Blockchain Regulatory Certainty Act concerning regulatory liability for non-custodial software developers; the other is ethical provisions on conflicts of interest among government officials, particularly those related to Trump’s crypto business. Sources familiar with the matter noted that the White House and Congress have yet to reach an agreement on the ethical provisions, a key factor in the bill’s effort to hit the 60-vote threshold. Alex Thorn, head of research at Galaxy Digital, said the next four weeks could be the Clarity Act’s last chance to pass in the current congressional session; if the bill fails to become law, the U.S. may further lag behind overseas markets in the race for digital asset innovation.

Key pre-market news for U.S. stocks is as follows: 1. JPMorgan Chase, Bank of America, Citigroup, Wells Fargo, and Goldman Sachs will kick off Q2 earnings reports on Tuesday, while Morgan Stanley will release its results on Wednesday. Markets expect U.S. large banks’ investment banking and trading revenues to surge, driven by SpaceX’s IPO, rising M&A activity, and market volatility sparked by the Iran situation; 2. Trump claimed Iran always breaks agreements, so the U.S. will strike hard at Iran, take control of the strait, and likely dominate it in the future; 3. SK Hynix’s U.S. ADR trades at a 23.4% premium to its South Korean shares; 4. Semiconductor equipment and storage sectors fell across the board pre-market, with KLAC down 3.7%, SanDisk and Western Digital both dropping over 5%; 5. Spot gold and silver fell broadly, with gold down 1.32% and silver down 2.23%; 6. Crude oil markets fell broadly, with U.S. crude up 3.35% and Brent crude up 3.53%; 7. Strategy did not add to its Bitcoin holdings last week, selling 4.82 million units to raise $467 million; 8. Bitmine added 27,801 ETH to its holdings last week, bringing its total staked ETH to 4.917 million, with an estimated annual staking income of $242 million.

According to data from the Korea Financial Investment Association, the recent sharp decline in South Korea's stock market has triggered accelerated deleveraging of margin trading positions. The total forced liquidation volume in July has reached 344.2 billion won, with the single-day forced liquidation amount on July 9 hitting 142.2 billion won. As forced liquidation data lags by two trading days, the clearing pressure from the nearly 9% plunge in the KOSPI on July 13 has not yet been fully reflected, and the market expects subsequent liquidation volumes to rise further. On July 13, South Korea's KOSPI index closed down 8.95%, triggering the Sidecar (seller order suspension mechanism) and Level 1 Circuit Breaker during intraday trading. The semiconductor sector plummeted, with SK Hynix falling 15.37%—its largest single-day drop in history—and Samsung Electronics down 10.7%. Meanwhile, South Korean retail investors' margin sizes, margin loan balances, and investor deposits have all continued to decline, with the market trapped in a deleveraging cycle of "stock price drop—forced liquidation—further decline".

US President Donald Trump and an advisor to Iran’s Supreme Leader have successively made tough remarks on the Strait of Hormuz. Trump stated that the US will become the "guardian" and "guardian angel" of the Strait of Hormuz, claiming that the US has guarded the strait for free in the past and will recover its operational costs and compensate for the risks it has taken to maintain the strait’s security in the future. He also said that the US will control the Strait of Hormuz and "is very likely to dominate the strait" in the future, adding that every time Iran deploys drones, the US will strike back fiercely. In addition, Trump revealed that the US and Iran held 11-hour talks yesterday. The advisor to Iran’s Supreme Leader responded that no Iranian believes Iran should give up the Strait of Hormuz. Iran defends the Strait of Hormuz to avoid being forced to pay "ransom" for the passage of its own ships in the future. He emphasized that the strategic, security and economic status of the Strait of Hormuz is irreplaceable, and Iran will never back down on the issue of the Strait of Hormuz.

According to official announcements, HSK Chain’s Phase 3 staking campaign officially launched on July 13. This phase sets a maximum total staking cap and adopts a diversified incentive model, with participants eligible for corresponding expected ecosystem incentives per on-chain rules. Additionally, users who took part in previous staking phases and consistently supported ecosystem development will receive extra ecosystem subsidies based on their historical locked contributions, comprehensively enhancing on-chain participation benefits. It is understood that this staking campaign, while rewarding HSK holders and past participants, will further drive the long-term steady growth of the HSK Chain ecosystem. As on-chain developers, high-quality projects, and institutional-grade assets continue to onboard, this upgrade to the long-term incentive mechanism will serve as a core initiative for the ecosystem’s long-term development.

Despite Meta’s ongoing heavy investment in AI infrastructure, a new BBC investigation has found that Instagram is still serving users in India with advertisements containing child sexual abuse material (CSAM), and some of these ads are still deemed by the platform’s moderation system as “not violating community guidelines” even after being reported. The report states that a test account created by the BBC received around 30 CSAM-related ads within a week, without any prior searches for such content, and these ads directed users to Telegram channels to purchase the illegal material. The Indian government has ordered Meta to remove the relevant ads and explain within seven days why its moderation mechanism failed. The report notes that Meta’s 2025 ad revenue reached $201 billion, accounting for approximately 97% of its total revenue, while its AI infrastructure investment in the same period hit $72.2 billion. The company plans to raise its capital expenditure to between $125 billion and $145 billion in 2026. The article points out that Meta’s current controversies stem more from platform governance and commercial incentives rather than a lack of AI technical capabilities.