Artificial intelligence remains the dominant investment theme of 2026, but investors are increasingly questioning whether AI stock valuations are keeping pace with reality.

💰 Big Tech continues to invest at an unprecedented scale, with hyperscaler AI spending projected to exceed $800 billion in 2026.

📈 TSMC’s latest earnings showed a 77.4% year-on-year increase in quarterly profit, highlighting that demand for AI chips remains exceptionally strong.

⚖️ At the same time, the Bank of England has warned that elevated valuations and rapidly rising investment expectations could leave markets vulnerable if earnings fail to justify current prices.

The debate is becoming increasingly clear.

📈 Bullish case: AI leaders continue to deliver strong earnings growth, record investment and genuine commercial demand.

📉 Bearish case: Valuations may already reflect years of future growth, leaving little room for disappointment if AI adoption or earnings slows.

The key question for investors is whether technology companies can continue turning record AI spending into sustainable earnings growth—or whether expectations have simply moved too far ahead of fundamentals.

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FTX has scheduled its fifth creditor distribution for July 31, preparing to return nearly $900 million as founder Sam Bankman-Fried’s efforts to secure clemency face political resistance.

According to an FTX press release, the bankrupt exchange will distribute funds to creditors with approved claims in the Convenience and Non-Convenience Classes under its Chapter 11 reorganization plan. Claimants must have completed all pre-distribution requirements by the June 16 record date to qualify.

Eligible creditors will receive their payments through one of FTX’s approved distribution providers. The company has named Kraken, Payoneer, and crypto custodian BitGo among the services handling the transfers.

FTX described the July payment as its fifth distribution since the repayment process began. The company said the round will return almost $900 million to creditors, though it did not provide a breakdown of how much each claim class will receive.

Future record and payment dates will be announced later, according to the exchange. The bankruptcy proceedings also remain active, with the court scheduled to hold omnibus hearings on July 23 and Aug. 16.

Preferred shareholders will receive another $18 million

Alongside the creditor distribution, FTX will issue a second payment to eligible Preferred Equity Holders on July 31. The company said eligibility for this group was also determined using the June 16 record date.

Funds will come from the Preferred Shareholder Remission Fund Trust, which was established to compensate qualifying shareholders. FTX said the upcoming payment will distribute $18 million and raise total payments from the trust to $95 million.

Individual shareholders will receive their funds through Kraken, while BitGo will process payments for institutional recipients, according to the exchange. FTX added that it began contacting eligible Preferred Equity Holders in January to help them complete the required steps.

The dual distribution continues the financial unwind of FTX, which filed for bankruptcy in 2022 after a liquidity crisis exposed a multibillion-dollar shortfall. Under the court-approved plan, distributions depend on claim approval, record-date eligibility and completion of verification requirements.

SBF’s clemency campaign faces political resistance

While creditors await the latest payment, Bankman-Fried has continued seeking a presidential pardon for his criminal conviction. The former FTX chief is serving a 25-year prison sentence after a federal jury found him guilty of fraud and conspiracy charges connected to the exchange’s collapse.

Notably, the U.S. Senate recently rejected a clemency effort involving Bankman-Fried. President Donald Trump has also indicated that he does not plan to pardon the former executive, weakening the prospects of an early release through presidential action.

Criminal cases tied to FTX have continued even as the bankruptcy estate returns money to creditors. Last month, crypto.news reported that a federal judge rejected Michelle Bond’s attempt to dismiss four campaign finance-related charges and scheduled her trial for Nov. 9.

In an order filed in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York, Judge George Daniels rejected Bond’s argument that prosecutors had promised not to charge her if her husband, former FTX executive Ryan Salame, pleaded guilty. Bond’s prosecution was one of the final criminal cases linked to FTX after several former executives faced charges following the exchange’s failure.

President Donald Trump has failed to unlock the stalled CLARITY Act after meeting Senate Republicans, with no revised text released and Polymarket traders cutting its 2026 passage odds to 32%.

Journalist Eleanor Terrett reported on X that the updated bill remained unavailable after Thursday’s White House meeting, where Trump and Republican senators discussed ethics rules tied to the legislation. Industry leaders now expect the text to arrive next week, according to Terrett, extending a delay around one of Washington’s most closely watched crypto bills.

“Updated legislative text remains elusive following yesterday’s meeting between President Trump and Senate Republicans on ethics,” Terrett wrote.

Before the meeting, Republican senators had suggested the draft could emerge shortly after their talks with Trump. Sen. Bernie Moreno told reporters that lawmakers would release the plan once the president received a briefing, adding that journalists would have “a lot of reading to do.”

Moreno is still seeking a Senate vote before the August recess, according to Terrett. Sen. Cynthia Lummis also expressed hope that the language would become public after the White House discussion, although she did not offer a firm timetable.

Passage odds have fallen to 32%

Polymarket traders have lowered the probability of the CLARITY Act becoming law in 2026 to 32% as Republicans and Democrats remain divided over the bill’s ethics provisions. The prediction-market decline has followed growing doubt over whether senators can secure enough bipartisan support to advance the measure.

In New York, the House Financial Services Committee’s Republican members are scheduled to hold a hearing at 10 a.m. ET on the legislation’s potential role in digital-asset development, according to Terrett. She noted that the event is informational and will not influence the Senate’s review of the bill.

The House passed its version of the CLARITY Act in 2025, but Senate negotiators have been working on separate language covering crypto market rules. Any final measure would need enough support to clear the Senate before lawmakers could reconcile it with the House bill.

Democratic ethics demands remain the main barrier

Sen. Ruben Gallego, one of the leading Democratic negotiators, told POLITICO that Republicans had presented ethics language his party could not support. Gallego linked the dispute to Trump’s business interests in the crypto sector and warned that the proposal would not attract the Democratic votes needed for passage.

“At the end of the day, we don’t have strong ethics,” Gallego said. “I don’t care what the president says. You’re not going to have the Democratic votes.”

After reviewing the Republican proposal, Gallego described it as “very weak,” arguing that it gave the president considerable freedom while offering limited consumer protections. A Democratic Senate aide also told POLITICO that the plan taken to the White House fell short of what Democrats would accept.

According to the same aide, Democratic lawmakers had neither reviewed nor approved the draft discussed during Thursday’s talks. The lack of agreement has left Republicans unable to present the delayed text as a bipartisan proposal.

Sen. Cory Booker has maintained that negotiations remain active, telling reporters that bipartisan cooperation is the only route to completing the legislation. Booker also indicated that negotiators should finish those discussions before releasing a new draft, leaving the publication date and Senate vote schedule unresolved.

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A macOS information-stealing malware can hijack Telegram Desktop sessions and compromise cryptocurrency wallets, according to blockchain security firm SlowMist.

The malware harvests data from the macOS Keychain, Safari cookies, Apple Notes, Telegram Desktop and databases associated with more than a dozen cryptocurrency wallets.

After collecting passwords and authenticated sessions, the malware copies users’ authenticated Telegram Desktop session data, wallet databases and browser wallet extension data.

SlowMist said attackers can then attempt to decrypt the stolen wallet databases offline using passwords harvested from the infected device or replace legitimate Ledger and Trezor applications with fake versions that trick users into entering their recovery phrases. The security firm reproduced the attack chain in an isolated environment.

MacOS malware code used to steal keys and passwords. Source: SlowMist

Related: AI has not triggered DeFi ‘hackpocalypse,’ Dragonfly partner says

MacOS malware targets popular crypto wallets

According to SlowMist, the malware combines multiple techniques into a coordinated attack chain, allowing attackers to pursue different methods of compromising cryptocurrency accounts and wallets.

The malware targets software wallets including Exodus, Atomic, Electrum, Wasabi and Monero, as well as hardware wallet applications such as Ledger Live and Trezor Suite, according to SlowMist. It also searches for wallet data stored by full-node clients including Bitcoin Core, Litecoin Core, Dash Core and Dogecoin Core.

Telegram two-step verification does not prevent the attack because the malware reuses an authenticated local session instead of creating a new login, according to SlowMist. In tests, researchers restored stolen Telegram Desktop session data on another Mac without entering a phone number, verification code or two-step verification password.

SlowMist urged users who suspect their devices have been compromised to immediately terminate existing Telegram sessions, establish a new trusted login and change both their Telegram two-step verification password and Telegram Desktop Passcode. The company also recommended generating a new recovery phrase on a clean device and transferring all assets to new addresses.

Magazine: Does Botanix’s failure prove Bitcoiners don’t care about DeFi?

• 64 billion SHIB have left crypto exchanges today, so far.
• SBI inherited 1.111 trillion SHIB through the Coinhako acquisition.
• Exchange reserves climbed to 86.497 trillion SHIB.

Shiba Inu (SHIB) is navigating two very different stories at the same time.

On one side, the token is gaining more exposure in Asia through a major corporate acquisition involving one of Japan’s largest financial groups.

On the other, fresh on-chain data points to renewed selling pressure as more SHIB moves onto exchanges.

The conflicting signals have left the token under pressure, with buyers struggling to regain momentum despite positive adoption news.

Exchange outflows add pressure to SHIB price

Shiba Inu traded around $0.00000409 after extending its recent decline, reflecting a broader period of weakness across the cryptocurrency market.

The latest on-chain data suggests that exchange activity has become a key factor behind the token’s muted performance.

Data from CryptoQuant showed that 173.45 billion SHIB flowed into cryptocurrency exchanges over the latest 24-hour period, while 271.09 billion SHIB left exchanges.

That resulted in a negative exchange netflow of 97.64 billion SHIB, indicating that more tokens exited trading platforms than entered them.

The latest figures also showed that exchange reserves climbed to 86.497 trillion SHIB, highlighting a larger pool of tokens sitting on trading venues.

During the previous 10-day period, on-chain data showed more than 1.4 trillion SHIB leaving centralised exchanges.

Those outflows had reduced the amount of SHIB immediately available for sale and were viewed as a stronger accumulation signal.

Instead, the latest data points to a reversal in that trend.

Combined with the recent decline in price, the higher exchange balances illustrate the increased selling activity that has weighed on SHIB over recent trading sessions.

Japan expansion strengthens SHIB’s long-term visibility

While on-chain data has turned less favourable in the short term, Shiba Inu has simultaneously received a significant boost in institutional exposure through developments in Japan and Singapore.

SBI Holdings, one of Japan’s largest financial services companies, recently completed its acquisition of Coinhako after receiving approval from the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS).

The acquisition also transferred custody of approximately 1.111 trillion SHIB, valued at roughly $4.5 million at the time of the transaction.

The holdings were already part of Coinhako’s customer and exchange reserves, meaning the acquisition did not represent a fresh purchase of SHIB from the open market.

Coinhako manages a digital asset portfolio worth more than $164 million, with SHIB ranking among its larger cryptocurrency holdings.

Following the acquisition, SBI expanded its footprint in Southeast Asia while adding another regulated platform that offers SHIB trading against both the Singapore dollar (SGD) and the US dollar (USD).

The transaction adds to Shiba Inu’s growing presence within regulated Asian cryptocurrency markets.

However, the increased visibility has yet to translate into stronger price performance as traders continue to focus on short-term market activity.