Circle Internet, issuer of the USDC stablecoin, becomes the new principal partner and front-of-shirt sponsor of Chelsea Football Club starting this season.
The Circle and USDC brands appear across Chelsea’s men’s, women’s, and academy shirts, marking the club’s return to having a named sponsor after a three-year vacancy.
Chelsea debuts the new kit at Stamford Bridge this Sunday against Brighton and Hove Albion, the club’s first home Premier League fixture of the campaign.
Financial terms of the deal remain undisclosed. Reports earlier this year suggested Chelsea sought around sixty five million pounds annually for the sponsorship slot.
That figure converts to roughly eighty eight million dollars a year, though neither Circle nor Chelsea confirms whether the final agreement lands near that mark.
The partnership marks the first time a cryptocurrency financial services firm takes the principal shirt sponsorship of a Premier League club rather than a secondary placement.
Crypto brands previously entered English football through smaller sleeve deals. OKX sponsors Manchester City’s sleeve, while Kraken holds a similar arrangement with Tottenham Hotspur.
OKX’s sleeve agreement reportedly cost seventy million dollars per year when it launched in 2023, giving some sense of scale for crypto sports sponsorships.
Circle holds an electronic money license from the UK’s Financial Conduct Authority, a distinction the company is likely to lean on given recent regulatory scrutiny.
In June, the FCA warned Premier League clubs about partnering with unauthorized crypto firms, flagging potential breaches of financial promotion rules for unlicensed operators.
Circle frames the tie-up as a branding exercise built around global reach. Both companies describe the goal as connecting stablecoin money with a worldwide football audience.
The announcement makes no mention of Chelsea supporters using USDC to buy tickets or merchandise, so the deal appears limited to sponsorship exposure for now.
Stablecoins have pushed toward mainstream financial use throughout 2026, and this sponsorship gives Circle a highly visible platform to extend that momentum into sports marketing.
Less than a month after announcing it was closing entirely, BitMart is now walking that back — partially. The exchange has hired White & Case as restructuring counsel with a roadmap due by September 9, a reversal that follows its July 26 shutdown announcement, which had originally cited market conditions and strategic reasons for closing.
The language shift is the real story here. BitMart is now considering a plan that could combine distributions to creditors with a phased restart of some operations rather than a full wind-down. Notably, the exchange’s own wording explicitly references “distributions to creditors,” a departure from its prior public messaging.
Timeline-wise, nothing about the original shutdown has been cancelled yet. BitMart suspended new registrations and deposits on July 26, put futures accounts into reduce-only mode, and scheduled full discontinuation of spot and futures trading for August 26 — with complete platform shutdown originally set for January 31, 2027. That August 26 trading cutoff still stands even as the restructuring option is explored, meaning the roadmap due September 9 arrives after user-facing trading ends, not before it.
On the advisory side, White & Case will work alongside BitMart’s other advisers to build out the restructuring framework — covering both how individual services could resume and how creditor distributions would be handled — with everything still subject to further legal, financial, operational and regulatory assessment.
Why it matters: this is the classic “orderly wind-down vs. restructuring” fork that mid-tier exchanges hit when liquidity problems surface, and the September 9 date is a disclosure deadline, not a payout date — anyone reading it as “money back by then” is getting ahead of what BitMart has actually committed to.
XRP surges more than 15% over 24 hours, trading near $1.15 and briefly touching $1.16, joining a broader crypto rally that also carries bitcoin above $72,000.
The move follows months of unusually large orders moving through XRP markets without producing much visible impact on the token’s price during that stretch.
New ledger data now shows roughly 23% of all XRP changing hands on the XRP Ledger occurs within a specific three-hour trading window each day.
That window spans the London afternoon and New York morning, the only stretch when both major financial centers operate simultaneously with full liquidity overlap.
A year ago, that same three-hour period accounted for only about 14% of daily XRP activity, according to data reviewed by treasury firm Evernorth.
Since the window represents just 12.5% of a full trading day, activity inside it now runs at nearly twice the rate expected from evenly spread trading.
The pattern shows up consistently across all three major ways XRP moves through the ledger, including its order book, its automated market maker pools, and cross-currency payment routing.
Every hour within the London-New York overlap now carries roughly twice the transaction volume of an average hour outside that window, ledger data confirms.
Evernorth frames the shift as consistent with growing institutional participation in XRP markets, though the firm maintains a direct financial interest in that narrative.
The company runs an active XRP treasury strategy backed by Ripple and other investors, with filings describing plans for over $1 billion in gross proceeds and a Nasdaq listing.
Public blockchain records reveal transaction timing, size, and routing details clearly, but they generally stop short of identifying which specific participants sit behind each trade.
Earlier this month, a separate report found that average XRP spot order sizes stayed within whale-level territory throughout the token’s slide from around $2.40 in January.
That earlier pattern suggested large holders were absorbing supply during the decline rather than triggering an immediate breakout, setting up the conditions for the current rally.
Retail traders and automated strategies remain fully capable of producing the same activity pattern, since crypto markets trade continuously and never formally close.
The overlap window also coincides with the heaviest period for breaking crypto news and the busiest hours for U.S. exchange retail volume, complicating any single explanation.
BitGo swung to a net loss in the second quarter even as revenue climbed sharply, the publicly listed digital asset infrastructure firm reported this week. The company posted a $19 million net loss for the quarter despite revenue surging nearly 80% year on year to $4.3 billion.
The loss marks an improvement from earlier in the year. BitGo’s net loss narrowed from $60.7 million in the first quarter, while revenue rose 14.7% quarter over quarter.
Unrealized losses on digital assets drove much of the year on year swing. An $18.8 million unrealized loss on digital assets compares against a $55.8 million unrealized gain in the same period last year.
BitGo chief executive Mike Belshe addressed the shortfall directly on the earnings call. He said Q2 performance fell short of expectations, adding that profitability was hurt by lower margins and an unfavorable revenue mix.
Belshe pointed to two specific pressure points behind the margin squeeze. He cited lower spreads on certain spot transactions along with a smaller contribution from derivatives trading.
Management is responding with cost discipline rather than just watching the numbers. BitGo authorized a share repurchase program of up to $50 million alongside cost cutting measures expected to save about $15 million annually.
Staffing cuts made earlier this year form part of that effort. The company expects expenses to decline in the third quarter following a workforce reduction of about 15% in June.
Markets reacted modestly to the mixed results. BitGo shares fell 1.8% in overnight trading to $4.90 after closing the prior session up 0.6% at $4.99.
The results land amid a broader wave of belt tightening across crypto infrastructure firms this year. Rivals have leaned on similar playbooks, pairing headcount reductions with buyback programs to reassure shareholders.
Revenue growth at that scale still stands out relative to peers, even with the bottom line under pressure. BitGo’s management is betting the cost cuts announced this year will translate into steadier margins by the fourth quarter.
BTCPay Server has confirmed that attackers exploited a critical vulnerability and successfully stole funds from users running outdated versions of the software.
The open-source, self-hosted bitcoin payment processor pushed an emergency update to version 2.4.2 to close the hole. It urged every operator to update immediately.
The flaw allowed an unauthenticated remote attacker to obtain macaroon credential files tied to LND, a widely used Lightning Network implementation.
Stolen macaroon files can hand an attacker effective control of an LND node. From there, funds can be moved directly out of the node without the owner’s involvement.
BTCPay Server said the vulnerability affects every version released before 2.4.2, including release candidates for that version.
The team confirmed plainly that users were affected and that funds were stolen. It said technical details would remain withheld temporarily so operators have time to patch before attackers can study the writeup.
Hardware wallet maker Foundation and bitcoin publication Citadel21 both reported Lightning nodes swept clean, with channels force-closed before the public warning went out.
Operators unable to update right away were told to take their BTCPay Server offline entirely. That step is meant to block unauthorized access until the patch can be applied.
The vulnerability was disclosed to BTCPay by the Bitcoin Red Team, a volunteer security group that has been auditing open-source Bitcoin infrastructure.
BTCPay Server’s own on-chain and hot wallets are not affected by this specific issue. The exposure is isolated to LND-based Lightning deployments.
Updating alone does not fully close the door for affected operators. The team also advised revoking LND macaroons and moving any funds sitting in a BTCPay-generated on-chain hot wallet as an added precaution.
The incident lands amid a broader wave of scrutiny across Bitcoin infrastructure. It follows a separate Coldcard exploit that Galaxy Research says has cost users roughly 1,719 BTC, worth close to $111 million.
The SEC has suspended its approval of Nasdaq’s cash-settled bitcoin index options — ticker QBTC — putting the product on hold while it reviews a jurisdictional challenge from rival exchange operator CME Group.
Nasdaq’s Phlx exchange had won conditional SEC approval for the options in May on an expedited basis, with contracts designed to track the Nasdaq Bitcoin Index, itself derived from the CME CF Bitcoin Real Time Index. CME filed a formal challenge in mid-June, arguing that because bitcoin is legally treated as a commodity, any options tied to its value should fall under the Commodity Futures Trading Commission’s exclusive authority rather than the SEC’s. The full SEC commission has now granted CME’s petition for review, staying the earlier approval and opening a public comment period running through August 24.
CME’s position centers on the fact that it already operates its own regulated bitcoin futures and options markets, and that allowing Nasdaq’s product to launch without registering under the CFTC framework governing CME would let a securities exchange compete for the same order flow while sidestepping commodities oversight. The petition also flagged a broader concern: that letting the approval stand could set precedent for securities exchanges to list derivatives on other commodities more generally.
If CME’s argument prevails, Nasdaq would either need to register QBTC under CFTC rules or redesign the contracts entirely to reference a security, such as a spot bitcoin ETF, instead of the commodity itself. Until the commission rules, the product remains shelved — another sign of how listed bitcoin derivatives increasingly sit at the boundary between the SEC’s and CFTC’s overlapping authority.
South Korean police escalate an investigation into former Incheon Mayor Yoo Jeong-bok, carrying out search and seizure operations at his home and city hall offices.
Investigators from the Incheon Metropolitan Police Agency’s Anti-Corruption and Economic Crime Investigation Unit conducted the searches, collecting mobile phones, computers, and other evidence.
The probe centers on allegations that Yoo and his wife failed to disclose approximately 21,000 units of cryptocurrency during South Korea’s June 3 local elections.
Authorities allege the couple transferred the crypto holdings to an overseas exchange before submitting mandatory asset disclosures required of all public election candidates.
Election officials had previously flagged that Yoo’s reported assets appeared understated by roughly 78 million won compared to his actual holdings at the time.
Police have already questioned Yoo, his wife, identified only by her surname Choi, and individuals connected to the original complaint against the couple.
The complaint reportedly originated from someone linked to a rival campaign during the local election cycle, adding a political dimension to the investigation.
No formal charges have been filed so far in the crypto disclosure matter, which remains an active police investigation without a set timeline for resolution.
Under South Korea’s Public Official Election Act, a conviction carrying a fine above a certain threshold can strip an elected official of their seat.
That legal consequence is part of why cases involving asset disclosure violations draw such close scrutiny from both regulators and the public in Korea.
The case highlights a persistent gap in South Korea’s financial transparency rules, since holdings on foreign crypto exchanges are harder for regulators to trace.
Domestic, real-name-verified crypto platforms already give South Korean authorities clearer visibility into asset movements than exchanges based outside the country’s jurisdiction.
Seoul has been working to narrow that blind spot, pulling cross-border crypto transfers under closer Bank of Korea monitoring through a revised Foreign Exchange Transactions Act.
Regulators are also tightening disclosure obligations for individuals and firms that actively promote cryptocurrency investments to the public across South Korea.
The Yoo case now stands as a concrete test of how effectively these new oversight measures can close the offshore visibility gap going forward.
Legal observers say the outcome could shape how aggressively Korean authorities pursue similar disclosure cases involving public officials and undisclosed foreign crypto holdings.
The Digital Chamber, one of the largest crypto lobbying groups in Washington, files suit against Illinois this week. The organization wants to block the state’s new digital asset tax before it starts.
Illinois lawmakers passed the 0.2% levy last month as part of a $55.9 billion budget package. Governor JB Pritzker signed the measure into law in June, and it takes effect at the start of 2027.
The complaint lands in the Circuit Court of Sangamon County and names the state’s Department of Revenue and Attorney General as defendants. It runs more than 30 pages and targets the Digital Asset Tax Act directly.
Unlike a capital gains tax, the new rule does not care whether a transaction produces profit. It calculates charges from the value of the asset itself during any covered blockchain activity.
The lawsuit argues the tax breaches the uniformity and due process clauses in the Illinois constitution. It also claims violations of the Commerce Clause and the federal Internet Tax Freedom Act.
According to the filing, the law does not distinguish between gains and losses, between profitable and unprofitable transactions, between realized and unrealized appreciation, or between transfers that change ownership and transfers that do not. Instead it separates blockchain infrastructure from every other kind of financial system.
Federal law treats what an asset represents separately from the technology used to record its ownership, the complaint states. No other area of law draws a line based purely on recordkeeping method.
The Digital Chamber counts more than 250 companies among its members, including Anchorage Digital, Chainlink Labs, and Intercontinental Exchange, the parent company behind the New York Stock Exchange.
CEO Cody Carbone says the tax provision entered the budget the night before final consideration, leaving little room for scrutiny of its fairness or its compliance demands on smaller firms.
Before Pritzker signed the budget, The Digital Chamber and the Illinois Blockchain Association jointly asked officials to strip the tax out entirely rather than fold it into unrelated budget legislation.
The Crypto Council for Innovation separately urged the governor to use a line-item veto against the crypto provision, but that request went nowhere before the signing.
The group compares the approach to charging extra postage simply because a letter arrives by email instead of the mail, arguing the technology itself should not change the tax outcome.
Beyond blocking enforcement, the lawsuit asks a judge to award The Digital Chamber its legal fees and costs, plus a formal declaration that the statute cannot stand.
The Digital Chamber warns that letting Illinois proceed could invite other states to copy the model, potentially expanding similar treatment to AI systems or cloud based payment platforms next.
Revolut receives in-principle approval from Dubai’s Virtual Assets Regulatory Authority for a Virtual Assets Service Provider licence, moving the fintech closer to a full UAE crypto rollout.
The approval covers broker-dealer, management and investment, and exchange services for digital assets across the emirate. Revolut must still secure final regulatory clearance before it can begin serving customers with these products.
Joseph Khair, Head of Revolut Digital Assets FZE in the UAE, said the country continues to demonstrate global leadership in building a transparent framework for virtual assets. He called the approval a foundation for introducing regulated crypto services locally.
Once fully licensed, eligible UAE customers will be able to buy, sell, and hold cryptocurrencies through Revolut’s main app and its standalone exchange platform, Revolut X. Both products will operate under VARA’s regulated framework.
The announcement follows Revolut’s receipt of Stored Value Facilities and Retail Payment Services licences from the Central Bank of the UAE in June. Those approvals capped a process that began with preliminary clearance last September.
VARA was established in Dubai in March 2022 under the city’s Virtual Asset Regulation Law, the first legislation in the emirate built specifically to govern virtual assets. The regulator said last month it had issued its fiftieth VASP licence.
Applicants to VARA follow a two-stage licensing process, meaning in-principle approval alone does not permit a company to start serving customers. Revolut said it plans to keep working with the regulator to satisfy the remaining conditions.
Dubai has already granted full VASP licences to major digital asset firms including Binance, Crypto.com, OKX, Deribit, BitOasis, and HashKey. Revolut’s approval positions it to join that group of regulated operators in the emirate.
Revolut currently serves more than 75 million customers worldwide, with over 16 million of them using its existing crypto services in the United Kingdom and the European Economic Area.
The company has been adapting its digital asset offerings to different regulatory regimes across markets. It recently confirmed plans to phase out support for Tether’s USDT in parts of Europe under new Markets in Crypto-Assets rules.
Industry commentary framed the UAE approval as a notable move given regulatory pressure on crypto firms in parts of the West. Dubai’s clear licensing rules have continued to attract fintechs seeking a foothold with high-net-worth digital asset customers in the region.
Webull EU has received formal approval under Europe’s Markets in Crypto Assets Regulation, clearing the way for the platform to offer digital asset services to clients across the region.
The approval comes from the Autoriteit Financiële Markten, the Dutch financial regulator, making Webull one of the first dual-regulated investment firms in the Netherlands to hold MiCAR authorization.
Under the new framework, Webull users will be able to place orders for crypto assets directly through the platform, with custody handled internally by the European subsidiary.
Trade execution will run through a partnership with Coinbase Luxembourg, giving Webull a regulated pipeline for order routing without building its own exchange infrastructure from scratch.
Andries van Luijk, chief executive of Webull Securities Europe, called the approval a major milestone in the company’s push to expand its footprint across the continent.
He said the authorization reflects Webull’s commitment to giving European clients secure and compliant access to digital assets under the bloc’s regulatory standards.
MiCAR requires firms to meet strict investor protection and operational benchmarks, giving traders added assurance when holding or trading crypto through licensed platforms.
Approval currently covers only the Netherlands, though Webull has submitted passporting requests that would let it extend services across other EU member states.
Passporting is the mechanism that allows a firm licensed in one EU country to operate across the entire bloc without separate national licenses.
Webull expects to launch its crypto operations in late 2026, giving the company several months to build out infrastructure before going live.
The Nasdaq-listed firm operates in sixteen markets worldwide and serves more than twenty seven million registered users across stocks, options, futures, and now digital assets.
This approval lands amid a wider scramble among brokers and exchanges to secure MiCAR licensing before Europe’s compliance deadlines tighten further this year.
Rivals including Bitget and BingX have filed similar applications in Austria, while Ripple and Bridge have already secured licenses through Luxembourg regulators.
The trend signals growing competition among global financial firms racing to capture regulated crypto market share inside one of the world’s largest trading blocs.