Robinhood has begun rolling out cryptocurrency trading to eligible UK customers, offering access to more than 50 digital assets through Bitstamp, the crypto exchange it acquired in 2025 for $200 million. The service is integrated into Robinhood's main investing app alongside stocks, ISAs, and other investment products.
South Korea is overhauling its national asset management laws to classify and manage digital assets like seized bitcoin, patents, and stocks as state property, with plans to auction such assets for active value creation.
South Korea's Ministry of the Interior and Safety announced plans to create a dedicated Virtual Asset Joint Investigation Division within the Seoul Serious Crime Investigation Agency (Jungdaebeomjoe Susacheong), set to launch October 2. The new agency will focus on seven major crime categories including corruption, economic crimes, defense procurement, narcotics, insurrection, cybercrime, and judicial obstruction.
Zcash activated its Ironwood network upgrade at block height 3,428,143 on July 28, replacing the Orchard shielded pool with a new private pool. The upgrade prevents any potentially counterfeit coins from leaving the retired pool, which held about 3.66 million ZEC.
Multiple cryptocurrency wallet providers are introducing Visa-branded payment cards that allow users to spend their digital assets in everyday transactions. BloFin Wallet announced a Visa card alongside perpetual contract trading features, while RedotPay launched an RLUSD card enabling 8 million users to spend against their XRP holdings through a margin loan structure.
Telegram founder Pavel Durov announced the messaging platform will roll out a native non-custodial Gram cryptocurrency wallet embedded directly into all Telegram apps this summer, offering instant, zero-fee crypto transfers to its more than 1 billion users.
Japan's National Diet passed FIEA amendments on July 15, 2026, formally reclassifying cryptocurrencies as financial instruments under securities law. A linked tax proposal would cut the maximum gains rate from 55% to a flat 20%, with implementation targeted for January 2028.
Ripple signed a five-year sponsorship agreement with the University of Kansas, making XRP the official cryptocurrency of Kansas Athletics. The deal places the XRP logo on jerseys of sporting teams, marking the first cryptocurrency to appear on jerseys of a major collegiate athletics program.
Ripple secured full Crypto Asset Service Provider (CASP) authorization from Luxembourg's financial regulator, completing its approval under the EU's Markets in Crypto-Assets (MiCA) framework. This allows Ripple to offer crypto services across all 30 EEA countries.
Privacy coin Zcash experienced a dramatic rally, adding between $1-2.5 billion to its market capitalization after founder Zooko Wilcox unveiled the 'Ironwood' upgrade proposal designed to address long-standing concerns about the cryptocurrency's supply verification.
Zcash (ZEC) plummeted approximately 40% after developers disclosed a critical four-year-old counterfeiting vulnerability in its Orchard shielded pool, discovered with help from Claude AI. Developers have proposed the Ironwood upgrade to restore independent supply verification, with ZEC partially recovering about 45% from lows.
Zcash developers executed a two-stage emergency fix after discovering a critical vulnerability in the Orchard shielded pool that could have enabled double-spending, temporarily suspending then restoring transactions through coordinated network upgrade.
Litecoin underwent a chain reorganization spanning more than three hours to undo its first major privacy-layer exploit, with attackers attempting double-spends against cross-chain swap protocols during the fork window.
Coinbase filed with the CFTC to activate Trade at Settlement for XRP futures on May 1, allowing institutions to execute large block orders at the official closing price. XRP joins Bitcoin, Ethereum, gold, and crude oil in having this institutional trading feature.
A Nomura and Laser Digital survey found 65% of institutional investors now see crypto as a vital portfolio diversifier, with 31% viewing crypto assets positively over the next year—up from 25% in June 2024.
Japan's cabinet approved legislation that would classify crypto assets as financial products, banning insider trading, requiring annual disclosures, and imposing penalties up to 10 years in prison and 10 million yen in fines for operating without registration. The bill could take effect in fiscal 2027 if passed by parliament.
The Department of Labor proposed a rule following Trump's executive order that would enable Americans to invest in crypto and other alternative assets through 401(k) plans, potentially opening trillions in retirement funds to digital assets.
