News & Research

A Beijing court has sentenced a former tech executive, surnamed Feng, to 14 years and six months in prison for embezzling 140 million yuan ($19.5 million) and laundering the funds through cryptocurrencies via eight overseas exchanges, Decrypt reported, citing the South China Morning Post. Feng, who was responsible for approving incentive payouts at a short video platform, conspired with external vendors to submit fraudulent claims and used coin mixing tools to conceal the flow of illicit funds. Authorities recovered over 90 BTC and tracked the laundering process using advanced blockchain analytics.

RD Technologies, a Hong Kong-based stablecoin infrastructure firm, has raised $40 million in a Series A2 funding round, The Block reported. The round was led by ZA Global, China Harbour, Bright Venture and Hivemind Capital, with additional participation from HSG, Eternal Digital, CMSC Partners and Guotai Junan International Private Equity Fund. The firm is currently developing HKDR, a stablecoin fully backed by the Hong Kong dollar, and has teamed up with ZA Bank to develop regulated use cases for financial services.

Twenty One Capital, a Bitcoin (BTC) investment firm backed by Tether, Bitfinex, Cantor Fitzgerald and SoftBank, has launched its official website and disclosed that it holds 43,514 BTC. Based on outstanding shares, Twenty One ranks as the third-largest corporate BTC holder, behind Strategy (628,791 BTC) and MARA Holdings (49,951 BTC).

Crypto AI startup GAIB announced on X that it has raised $10 million in a funding round led by crypto financial services platform Amber Group to scale its on-chain economic layer for AI and computing. The funding brings institutional capital into tokenized GPU assets and supports GAIB’s broader mission of building the foundational infrastructure for autonomous AI-driven economies.

London-based neobank Revolut is considering acquiring a nationally chartered U.S. bank to secure a U.S. banking license, according to the Financial Times.

Decentralized AI infrastructure company Manifold announced on its official website that it has raised $10.5 million in a Series A funding round led by OSS Capital. The funding will be used to optimize and scale the commercial deployment of Targon, Manifold’s AI cloud service built on the Bittensor network.

U.S. crypto mining company MARA Holdings (formerly Marathon Digital) reported a 64% year-over-year (YoY) increase in second-quarter revenue to $238 million, its highest quarterly revenue on record. Net income jumped 505% to $808 million, driven by $1.2 billion in unrealized gains from rising Bitcoin (BTC) prices. The company said it currently holds $5.87 billion worth of BTC.

The Hong Kong Monetary Authority is likely to issue its first stablecoin license in early 2026, according to Deputy Chief Executive Darryl Chan, the South China Morning Post reported. The timeline follows the rollout of Hong Kong’s stablecoin regulatory framework on Aug. 1, with provisional licenses expected during a six-month grace period.

Rowland Marcus Andrade, founder of AML Bitcoin, has been sentenced to seven years in prison for defrauding investors of $10 million and laundering funds between 2014 and 2019, The Block reported. He falsely promoted the cryptocurrency’s technology and business prospects to solicit investments.

Radix, a layer-1 blockchain project, announced on X that its founder and original architect, Dan Hughes, passed away unexpectedly from natural causes at his home on July 27. To ensure continuity, Chief Strategy Officer Adam Simmons and Chief Financial Officer Jonathan Day will join Chief Executive Officer Andy Jarrett as directors of the Radix Foundation. The Radix team added that they will take a short time to grieve the loss and focus on maintaining operational stability.