Russian lawmakers: The cryptocurrency market needs legislative regulation, not bans.
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Russia's State Duma approved the final version of the cryptocurrency regulation bill, removing the mandatory requirement to declare wallet addresses.
According to Mars Finance, the Russian State Duma Financial Market Committee has approved the final version of the government's cryptocurrency regulatory bill, which will be submitted for a second reading. Committee Chairman Anatoly Aksakov revealed that the second reading version makes several key adjustments: the requirement to mandatorily declare cryptocurrency wallet addresses has been removed, replaced by only requiring the declaration of balances and transaction records to protect residents from the risk of sensitive information leaks; new amendments allow the legal purchase of securities in the securities market and Russian digital financial assets using cryptocurrencies. In the future, it may allow legitimate Russian brokers and asset managers to trade on foreign crypto exchage, but additional requirements such as jurisdictional "friendliness" must be met. For non-professional investors, the annual limit through a single intermediary is 300,000 rubles, and only for "the most liquid cryptocurrencies." The bill also introduces a two-day freeze on large transfers abroad and to third parties. Aksakov did not specify whether the proposal to ban Russians from using non-custodial cryptocurrency wallets is retained.
Opinion: South Korea has not yet truly entered the stablecoin market; it needs to first answer why it is worthwhile to use it.
According to Odaily Odaily, Yoon Seung-sik, head of Tiger Research, stated that the South Korean won stablecoin market does not yet have a real place, not because it lacks potential, but because South Korea has not yet experienced enough market practice and discussion. Unlike the United States, which has undergone years of trial and error, regulation, and market evolution in the field of stablecoins, related discussions in South Korea are just beginning. South Korea's financial infrastructure is already very well-developed, and the real challenge lies in answering "why consumers need to use won stablecoins." Yin Chengzhi believes that the core keywords for the digital asset industry in the first half of this year were stablecoins, tokenization, and RWA. While AI Agents and DeFi have long-term potential, they are still far from large-scale implementation. Stablecoins and tokenization, on the other hand, have accumulated numerous global case studies, driving more institutions to accelerate their entry. It is expected that the digital asset market in the second half of the year will continue to focus on regulatory developments, the actual effectiveness of stablecoins and RWA implementation, and new retail market narratives. (Etoday)
Cryptocurrency stocks fell in pre-market trading; STRATEGY down 4.1%.
According to data from Odaily Odaily, cryptocurrency stocks fell in pre-market trading, following Bitcoin's more than 2% decline. COINBASE GLOBAL fell 3.5%, BIT DIGITAL declined 3.6%, and STRATEGY fell 4.1%. RIOT PLATFORMS fell 4.4%, HUT 8 CORP fell 4.9%, and MARA HOLDINGS fell 3.5%.
Following the "end" of the US-Iran ceasefire, cryptocurrency and stock markets experienced widespread declines.
PANews reported on July 8th that, according to CoinDesk, the US launched airstrikes against Iranian Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps ships, and Iran subsequently attacked Kuwait and Bahrain. US President Trump announced the "end" of the ceasefire with Iran, calling the negotiations "meaningless," causing a sharp drop in global risk appetite. Bitcoin and Ethereum fell by more than 2%, the CoinDesk 20 index fell by nearly 3%, and Nasdaq 100 and S&P 500 futures fell by about 1.5% at one point. In the crypto derivatives market, BTC futures open interest declined slightly, while ETH triggered approximately $90 million in long position liquidations during the price drop. Overall, the 24-hour crypto market saw approximately $450 million in liquidations, of which approximately $350 million came from Altcoin trading pairs. Altcoins generally fell, and Solana erased all gains since July.
EU regulators warn: Some prediction market event contracts are prohibited from being sold to retail investors.
BlockBeats reported on July 5th that the European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA) issued a statement saying that if "event contracts" in prediction markets meet the definition of financial instruments, they fall under the category of binary options and, according to EU regulations, cannot be marketed, distributed, or sold to retail investors. ESMA stated that the legal status of a product depends on its actual function, not on its commercial name such as "event contract." If the relevant contract meets the MiFID II definition of a financial instrument, it will be considered a derivative and subject to the EU's binary options ban. ESMA also pointed out that even if a platform only offers related products to professional investors, it still needs to obtain MiFID II authorization if it provides related investment services in the EU. Furthermore, event contracts may also be subject to the gambling laws of individual member states; if the product is tokenized and does not fall under the financial instrument category, it may be subject to the Markets in Crypto-Assets Regulation (MiCA) framework.
AI capital rotation, the full implementation of MiCA, and stablecoin competition are the focus of the market this week.
According to Mars Finance, on July 5th, discussions in the digital asset industry this week mainly revolved around AI, the EU's Crypto Asset Market Regulation Act (MiCA), stablecoins, and Bitcoin. Regarding AI, many industry insiders believe that current market funds are shifting from digital assets to AI infrastructure construction. In the future, the value of the AI industry will likely be captured more by application layer and infrastructure providers, rather than solely by large model developers. Furthermore, some believe that if the US government acquires a stake in OpenAI, it could further exacerbate the trend of AI industry consolidation. On the regulatory front, with the official end of the MiCA transition period, EU crypto asset service providers will need to obtain full MiCA licenses to continue operating. Industry insiders believe that regulatory compliance will gradually become a significant competitive advantage for European crypto payment and digital asset service providers. Regarding stablecoins, the industry continues to focus on the newly launched OpenUSD (OUSD). Analysts believe that its ecosystem network, involving over 140 institutions including Visa, Mastercard, Stripe, Coinbase, BlackRock, and BNY, is poised to challenge the existing stablecoin market structure, such as USDC, by leveraging its distribution advantages. However, some argue that OUSD still faces challenges such as liquidity cultivation and governance coordination. Regarding Bitcoin, market opinions are divided on the recent capital operations of Michael Saylor's Strategy. Some analysts believe the company's recent financing arrangements suggest it may still need to sell Bitcoin to meet future funding needs; others believe this move effectively alleviates market concerns about liquidity and default risk, constituting a proactive risk management measure.