BitMEX announced on July 23 that it will close for good on Sept. 23, 2026, at 4:00 am UTC, while BMEX lost about 90%. The exchange froze new sign-ups the same day and urged customers to close trades and withdraw funds soon. BitMEX said assets exceed liabilities, but it did not reveal what a board review at HDR Global Trading Limited concluded.

Brent rose 1.8% to $95.70 on Thursday after Houthi militants hit two Saudi tankers with missiles and drones. Trading Economics data shows Brent posted its fifth consecutive daily gain. US Energy Information Administration figures show Bab el-Mandeb handled about 5.4 million barrels of oil per day in the first quarter. The article says a broader blockade could push Brent above $100 and weigh on crypto markets.

Kazakhstan approved the Strategic Digital Mining Implementation Rules on July 18, 2026. Strategic digital mining companies can receive capped electricity quotas under the rules. The companies must transfer part of their mined digital assets to Astana Hub. The rules will take effect 10 calendar days after official publication.

EU member state envoys agreed on the 21st sanctions package against Russia, including full sanctions on 94 Russian financial institutions. The measures also place the Moscow Exchange under full sanctions. The package expands transaction bans on additional crypto platforms and freezes the Russian oil price cap at $44.10 per barrel for 12 months.

The U.S. Department of Labor reported that initial jobless claims for the week ending July 18 fell by 22,000 to 187,000, below the expected 212,000. The data indicated that the U.S. labor market remains stable. June unemployment unexpectedly fell to 4.2%, a new one-year low, but the decline came more from a shrinking labor force than job growth.

Nine firms unveiled the Bitcoin Security Consortium on July 23 and committed $15 million for the next three years to address future quantum-computing risk to Bitcoin. BlackRock, Coinbase and Strategy anchor the group, with Anchorage Digital, ARK Invest, Block, Blockstream, Fidelity Digital Assets and Galaxy also participating. The money is not a shared pot, and each firm will distribute its own share on its own terms. Members did not disclose each firm's contribution, early grant recipients, or how much of the total is fresh money.

The European Central Bank held its key interest rate at 2.25%. The decision matched expectations. The key interest rate remains 2.25% after the hold.

Coinbase Business now allows enterprise customers to accept payments from AI Agents. Coinbase also introduced a new trading view for exchange users within Coinbase for Agents. Coinbase launched the Coinbase Developer Platform x402 SDK packaging infrastructure for developers.

Ondo Finance said Oasis Pro Markets secured U.S. authorization to offer tokenized equities and funds, extending an Ondo Stocks unit with over $20 billion in cumulative volume. The approval covers publicly traded equities, IPOs, ETFs, mutual funds, and index funds. Ondo said the unit had more than $1 billion in tokenized stocks total value locked, but the figures are its own. Ondo did not detail a launch date for the U.S. offerings.

KAIO said it launched tokenized access to a Mubadala Capital evergreen private market strategy with approximately $75 million in onchain value. The offering is live across Base, Solana and Sui. KAIO said Coinbase will be adding exposure to the tokenized offering, but KAIO did not disclose the size of that exposure. Onchain contract addresses were not published in the posts reviewed.