Crypto World
ABA and state banking groups oppose CLARITY Act stablecoin yield rules
Major US banking trade groups are asking Senate leaders to tighten the stablecoin yield provisions in the proposed Digital Asset Market Clarity Act (CLARITY), arguing that the current draft is too unclear and could allow certain stablecoin arrangements to operate like deposit-like products.
In a joint letter, the American Bankers Association (ABA), the Independent Community Bankers of America (ICBA), and 76 state banking associations said the bill’s language on “interest, yield and rewards” should be clarified to ensure payment stablecoins remain focused on transaction use rather than functioning as substitutes for deposits. The lawmakers’ comments arrive amid heightened scrutiny of CLARITY and shortly before a House of Representatives hearing scheduled for July 17.
Key takeaways
- The ABA/ICBA-led letter argues that CLARITY’s stablecoin yield language is ambiguous enough to permit incentives that resemble deposit substitutes.
- Banking groups are urging lawmakers to revise section 404 to clarify the prohibition on interest and yield and prevent workarounds via alternative incentive structures.
- The push adds to broader industry and political debate after the bill cleared the Senate Banking Committee in May but faced continued resistance from Democrats and traditional banking.
- Galaxy Digital previously flagged a shrinking legislative window in the Senate before recess, and timing remains a key risk for passage.
Banking industry warns stablecoin yields could mimic deposits
According to an ABA press release from Monday, the ABA and ICBA—along with 76 state banking associations—backed the overall goal of CLARITY while specifically contesting the stablecoin interest and reward provisions. The groups said the bill’s current wording could “encourage stablecoin arrangements” to effectively replace deposits, despite what they describe as Congress’s longstanding intent to treat payment stablecoins as transaction tools rather than store-of-value products.
Their core concern is that even if the bill attempts to restrict interest-bearing behavior, unclear drafting could leave room for structured incentives that achieve similar economic outcomes. That distinction matters for regulators and legislators because deposit-like products typically fall under a different set of safeguards, oversight expectations, and consumer-protection frameworks than transaction-only payment instruments.
The banking groups warned that the ambiguity could trigger a “deposit flight,” a phrase used to describe the risk that deposits could move away from banks if stablecoin offerings appear economically comparable to bank accounts.
Proposed fix targets section 404’s “interest and yield” boundary
Beyond describing the risk, the letter lays out what the banking industry wants changed. The groups urged lawmakers to amend section 404 to “clarify the prohibition on interest and yield” and ensure the restriction “cannot be circumvented through alternative incentive structures.”
In other words, the argument is not simply that stablecoin issuers should be barred from paying traditional interest. It is that any regime allowing “rewards” or “yield” could be reinterpreted or engineered in ways that replicate deposit economics—potentially undermining the bill’s intended separation between payment stablecoins and interest-bearing store-of-value products.
This request is significant because section 404 sits at the center of the policy fight: it is where lawmakers attempt to draw a bright line between permissible transaction activity and prohibited deposit-like behavior.
Debate continues after Senate Banking Committee approval
CLARITY cleared the Senate Banking Committee in May, but it has not ended political and industry disagreement—especially around whether crypto firms could offer stablecoin yields without facing requirements comparable to traditional banks.
Democratic lawmakers and the banking industry have both criticized the measure for that perceived mismatch. The bill’s supporters argue that clarity would bring accountability and a workable framework for digital assets, but critics contend the draft could permit yield features that functionally compete with bank products.
This tension has also been reflected in public statements from major banking leaders. In a May interview highlighted in Cointelegraph coverage, JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon said the banking industry would continue to “fight” the current version of CLARITY and argued that crypto firms that want to provide yield on stablecoins should seek banking charters. Earlier coverage from Cointelegraph noted that position in the context of the banking sector’s continuing pushback against the legislation’s approach to yield.
Legislative odds and the countdown before potential recess
While different parts of the ecosystem have weighed in on CLARITY, timing may be just as consequential as drafting details. The banking letter arrives “just days ahead” of the bill’s scheduled House hearing on July 17, with the broader effort aiming to create the first comprehensive regulatory framework for digital assets in the US.
At the same time, market participants have been assessing whether Congress can actually move the bill through both chambers. Galaxy Digital previously reduced its odds for CLARITY to become law in 2026, cutting its estimate to 50% on June 26, according to Cointelegraph coverage of Galaxy’s view. Galaxy cited the absence of a unified Senate Banking-Agriculture text, the lack of a firm floor schedule, and a narrowing legislative window as lawmakers approach the period when they leave Washington.
The latest banking push strengthens the view that key issues—particularly stablecoin yield restrictions—could still face negotiation. Even if the bill advances, changes requested by bank trade groups could reshape how the stablecoin interest/reward line is interpreted and enforced.
What to watch next
With a House hearing coming up and continued cross-industry pressure on how section 404 should be interpreted, investors and builders should watch whether Senate leaders narrow the stablecoin yield rules in response to banking concerns—and whether lawmakers can maintain momentum on a full-bill path before legislative time runs out.
Although most experts anticipated slightly lower US Consumer Price Index numbers for June due to the ongoing ceasefire at the time in the Middle East, the actual data is more promising, showing an even larger decline.
The month-over-month drop is 0.4%, which breaks a three-month streak of consistent increases. BTC’s price reacted with an immediate surge of almost a grand that pushed it to $63,500 briefly.
However, a closer look at the data tells a different story. A large portion of the CPI decline from May’s multi-year record was due to the drop in oil prices in June because of the ceasefire signed between the US and Iran.
The Core CPI, which strips out more volatile sectors such as energy and food, remains unchanged. Furthermore, the ceasefire between the two warring nations ended last week, and the tension has substantially escalated. Oil prices have jumped once again, meaning the July data is likely to surge.
According to a recent analysis, BTC traders are closely monitoring the situation as it could provide a glimpse into the upcoming FOMC meeting, in which the Fed could hike the rates.
Analysts predicted that a reading above 4% YoY could lead to further tightening of monetary policy, impacting BTC negatively. However, the actual 3.5% figure might have the opposite effect.
Bitcoin’s initial reaction was quite positive, as the asset jumped to a daily peak of $63,600 before it retraced slightly. More volatility is expected as the news unfolds and the market prices in the next FOMC meeting.
The post Bitcoin Price Rockets as US CPI for June Comes in Well Below Expectations appeared first on CryptoPotato.
OpenAI has begun surfacing prediction-market odds from Kalshi directly inside ChatGPT search results for FIFA World Cup matchups, according to a report from The New York Times. The integration provides fans with an at-a-glance view of each team’s implied probability of winning, sourced from live market pricing—without turning the chat interface into a betting channel.
The partnership was not publicly announced at the time of the report. Kalshi declined to comment to Cointelegraph, and OpenAI did not respond to a request for comment.
Key takeaways
- ChatGPT search results now display Kalshi-derived odds for specific World Cup matches, presented as implied win probabilities for each team.
- OpenAI’s guidance cited by The New York Times indicates the feature is informational only and does not enable bets through ChatGPT.
- The World Cup deployment underscores the broader shift of prediction-market data from trading venues into mainstream consumer and media products.
- Dune Analytics data shows Kalshi scaled to more than $33 billion in monthly notional volume in June 2026, outpacing Polymarket by about $22 billion in the same period.
Odds graphics appear inside ChatGPT search
As described by The New York Times, when users search for World Cup fixtures in ChatGPT, the interface can show market-based odds as graphics. These visuals break down each team’s implied chance of winning, reflecting how prediction-market participants price outcomes.
In one example cited in the report, a ChatGPT search for France versus Spain showed France at a 59% probability of victory. Another query—England versus Argentina—displayed England at a 55% chance, with the probabilities attributed to Kalshi’s market pricing.
Importantly, the feature is framed as data display rather than a trading mechanism. OpenAI’s guidance, as referenced by the report, indicates users cannot place wagers through ChatGPT; the Kalshi feed is intended for informational purposes only.
Why prediction-market data is attractive to AI products
Prediction markets are built on the idea that crowds of participants, acting on available information, can collectively form price-based forecasts for real-world events. Translating those prices into implied probabilities gives users a compact summary of what the market currently thinks is more likely.
For consumer AI experiences, this is a notable shift: instead of relying solely on curated editorial forecasts or static historical analytics, the AI interface can present live, outcome-relevant probabilities that update as the underlying market changes. In practice, that matters for users who want a “current best guess” rather than a delayed consensus.
The World Cup is a particularly test-friendly environment for this approach. Matchups are clear, outcomes are well-defined, and the timing is within a single tournament window—attributes that make it easier for users to compare predictions with results as they unfold.
Kalshi’s scale and the “mainstreaming” trend
Kalshi is a regulated prediction market platform where traders can buy and sell contracts tied to real-world events, including sports, economics, and politics. While prediction markets have existed for years, their gradual integration into major technology and media ecosystems has accelerated recently.
Dune Analytics data cited in the report indicates Kalshi recorded more than $33 billion in monthly notional volume in June 2026, roughly $22 billion ahead of Polymarket. That kind of volume signal is often read by the market as evidence of liquidity and participation—factors that can influence how useful price-derived odds are for observers.
Calendar effects likely play a role as well. A World Cup naturally concentrates attention and trading activity, which can pull these odds into the mainstream at the exact moment sports audiences are most engaged.
From TV and finance portals to search interfaces
The ChatGPT feature follows a broader pattern: prediction-market data increasingly appears inside high-visibility platforms rather than remaining confined to trading dashboards.
Kalshi has already established partnerships with major media outlets. According to Kalshi’s announcements, it entered an arrangement with CNN and another with CNBC in December 2025 to integrate its market data into coverage.
Rival platforms have pursued similar distribution deals. Bloomberg reported that Polymarket partnered with Dow Jones in January 2026 to bring prediction market data to products including The Wall Street Journal, extending market-based odds into traditional finance publishing.
Tech search products are also getting involved. Google reportedly integrated prediction-market information from both Kalshi and Polymarket into Google Finance and Search products in November 2025, positioning those odds within everyday discovery flows rather than requiring users to visit a trading website first.
Against that backdrop, OpenAI’s use of Kalshi odds in ChatGPT looks less like a one-off novelty and more like part of a wider supply-chain for “market intelligence” becoming a feature—rather than a separate destination.
What to watch next
For readers, the key question is whether this remains a World Cup-specific display or expands into other event categories and geographies. If OpenAI continues to surface market-based forecasts beyond sports—and if more platforms treat those odds as an everyday reference point—the practical impact will be felt less in trading volumes alone and more in how quickly prediction-market consensus becomes embedded in routine decision-making.
Crypto World
Ethereum (ETH) Foundation spinout EthSystems targets banks with blockchain privacy technology
A team of former Ethereum Foundation researchers focused on institutional privacy has launched EthSystems, a new for-profit company aimed at building confidentiality infrastructure for financial institutions using Ethereum.
The startup emerged from the Ethereum Foundation, which spent the past year developing privacy technologies for enterprise use cases while engaging with central banks, regulators, global banks and asset managers.
The spinout comes amid one of the biggest organizational shakeups in the Ethereum Foundation in years. Following months of criticism over leadership, strategy and the foundation’s role in supporting Ethereum’s increasingly institutional user base, several teams have recently been spun out into independent organizations.
Among them are EthLabs, a nonprofit focused on advancing Ethereum protocol research and scaling, and Ethereum Institutional, a separate nonprofit designed to coordinate institutional adoption and engagement with large financial firms. Together, the organizations represent an effort to distribute responsibilities previously housed within the foundation across more specialized entities.
EthSystems said it plans to commercialize work it began inside the foundation, including confidential stablecoin transfers, private bond issuance, cross-chain settlement systems and open-source protocol specifications.
The American Bankers Association, the Independent Community Bankers of America, and 76 state associations sent Senate leaders a set of targeted revisions to the CLARITY Act, which is pending before the Senate.
The July 13 letter went to Majority Leader John Thune and Minority Leader Chuck Schumer. It focuses on Section 404.
The Targeted Edits Banks Want in The CLARITY Act
Section 404 of the CLARITY Act targets stablecoin yield. It bars covered parties from paying returns solely for holding payment stablecoins or for providing a yield equivalent to bank deposit interest. It preserves activity-based rewards tied to transactions or platform use.
The signers propose narrow changes to the section, plus a printed markup of the amended text. They want lawmakers to:
- Remove the word “solely” from subsection (1)(A).
- Cut the phrases “on a payment stablecoin balance” and “on an interest-bearing bank deposit” from (1)(B).
- Replace the “economically or functionally equivalent” test with a “substantially similar” standard, wherever it appears in Section 404.
- Delete subsection (3)(B)in its entirety.
The bankers say these would stop firms from engineering incentives that dodge the ban. They also argue that the rewards subsection works against the prohibition it sits beside.
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Banks Warn of Deposit Flight Risk
The groups said that they back responsible innovation and a well-regulated digital asset marketplace but want firmer guardrails. In the letter, the bankers expressed concerns regarding the current language in Section 404.
“In particular, we remain concerned that ambiguities within the bill could encourage stablecoin arrangements to effectively function as substitutes for deposits, despite Congress’s longstanding and clearly stated intent that payment stablecoins should serve as transaction tools rather than store-of-value products,” the association said.
The banking groups say the risk of deposit flight is concrete, not hypothetical. When local deposits shrink, so does the money banks recycle into their own towns.
Those deposits fund home loans, small-business credit, and financing for farmers. The letter frames that lending is the engine behind local growth.
Five US banking lobbies made similar arguments in an earlier letter this year. This round sharpens the specific statutory fixes.
The stablecoin yield is one of three key disputes stalling the bill. Lawmakers remain split over Section 604 developer protections and ethics rules.
President Trump has pushed senators to move quickly. At the same time, two groups, NOBLE and a federal law enforcement association, have backed the bill despite the open fights.
The Senate faces a narrow window before the August recess. Whether leaders can settle the stablecoin, developer, and ethics disputes in that window remains unclear.
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The post 78 Banking Groups Push Senate to Rewrite CLARITY Act Section 404 appeared first on BeInCrypto.
June CPI fell a seasonally adjusted 0.4% month-over-month, the steepest monthly drop since April 2020, pulling the annual inflation rate to 3.5% against a Dow Jones consensus of 3.8%, and Bitcoin responded with an immediate push higher after the print. The data beat is real.
The energy index slumped 5.7% in June, with gasoline and fuel oil both falling more than 9%, accounting for the bulk of the monthly swing. Strip that out, and the picture is considerably less clean: core CPI, which excludes food and energy, printed flat on the month at a 2.6% annual rate versus a 2.9% forecast. Services ex-energy were flat; shelter rose 0.1%; transportation services declined 0.3%.
The distinction is directly relevant to Federal Reserve policy because policymakers target core and services inflation as the longer-run signal. A gasoline-driven headline miss does not move that needle, and the market’s own rate pricing reflects that.
As of now, the Fed is widely expected to hold at its July 28–29 FOMC meeting and then deliver a 25 basis point hike in September, keeping the overnight rate at 3.5%–3.75% for now before moving it higher.
BREAKING:
ODDS OF AN INTEREST RATE HIKE JUST DROPPED TO 16%
AFTER THE CPI INFLATION DATA RELEASE RATES WILL LIKELY REMAIN UNCHANGED
THIS IS EXTREMELY BULLISH FOR MARKETS!! https://t.co/4gc1fCUq8w pic.twitter.com/T2vbN6xmi0— ᴛʀᴀᴄᴇʀ (@DeFiTracer) July 14, 2026
That tone reinforces what the rate market is already pricing. The interest rates path remains higher-for-longer until core and services data show a convincing trend, not a one-month energy artifact.
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CPI Positioning and the Bitcoin ETF Flow Backdrop
CPI YoY 3.5 % vs Exp. 3.8% | Prior. 4.2%
Core CPI YoY 2.6 % vs Exp. 2.8% | Prior. 2.9%
Softer inflation could revive rate-cut bets, weaken yields and the dollar, and support stocks and Bitcoin. pic.twitter.com/SPfR3gi2nn— Coin Bureau (@coinbureau) July 14, 2026
Bitcoin entered Tuesday’s print with strong recent momentum, with traders watching whether inflation data could shift the Fed’s path quickly enough to keep risk appetite intact.
Bitcoin and crypto market commentary ahead of the CPI release pointed to ETF-flow and on-chain developments as supportive backdrops for the move. Pre-CPI analysis also suggested that bullish positioning could be vulnerable if macro expectations changed.
The caution flag comes from the derivatives view: positioning can unwind quickly when macro expectations reprice, even if the headline print looks constructive for crypto in the moment.
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Key Levels and the Forward Case for Bulls and Bears
Traders are focused on nearby resistance around $64,000, while technical desks are watching a sequence of higher targets if momentum holds after the CPI-driven pop.
On the downside, $62,000 is a key reference point for risk. Below that, traders expect attention to shift to prior supports, including around $60,000. Altcoins have their own closely watched levels as well, with ETH’s recent resistance area around $1,800 in focus after the June selloff.
Thomas Perfumo, chief economist at Kraken, framed the macro read accurately:
“Today’s print, read carefully, is more a reason for cautious optimism than alarm,” adding that “a broader inflationary impulse is shrinking.” Forward scenario he described, inflation continuing to decelerate in the second half of 2026, preserving “policy optionality for central banks” is the bull case for risk assets.
But that scenario requires several more months of data confirming the trend. Exchange reserve data and on-chain metrics support the structural setup, but a single energy-driven CPI print does not resolve the Fed’s September calculus.
Discover: The Best Crypto to Diversify Your Portfolio
The post June CPI Beat Sparks Bitcoin Surge, but the Fed’s September Hike Looms appeared first on Cryptonews.
Crypto World
For pension funds, tokenization’s real play is balance sheet management, not just 24/7 liquidity, Fidelity’s Lai says
Tokenized products already exist, though mainly for investing. The most popular category is tokenized money market funds, primarily backed by U.S. Treasuries. The largest, BlackRock’s USD Institutional Digital Liquidity Fund (BUIDL), debuted in March 2024.
This category now has more than $15 billion of assets under management (AUM), with the broader onchain real-world asset market (excluding stablecoins) surpassing $31 billion in value. Casting a wider net to include assets such as alternative investments and tokenized financial infrastructures, the global asset tokenization market is valued at roughly $2.1 trillion.
According to forecasts by Grand View Research, the sector is projected to hit $24.5 trillion by 2033, with some industry estimates suggesting tokenized markets could reach as much as $88 trillion by 2035.
The key advantage they offer is instant execution around the clock and fractional ownership, which allows traders to buy small portions at any time, with all stages of the transaction — including purchase, sale and final processing — completed immediately.
Faster, cheaper
That’s not the focal point for institutional investors, who are more interested in the properties of the tokenized assets than their ease of trading.
“Generally speaking, they are not asking for tokens,” Lai said. “They are asking for what tokens can do more compared to the existing wrappers they already have.”
Sam Altman’s OpenAI is bringing prediction market data to ChatGPT, giving World Cup fans a new way to track match predictions.
OpenAI has started displaying Kalshi’s prediction market odds for FIFA World Cup matches in ChatGPT search results, according to a report by The New York Times.
The integration had not been publicly announced at the time of publication. Kalshi declined to comment to Cointelegraph, while OpenAI did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The move reportedly marks OpenAI’s first known partnership with a prediction market platform, highlighting the growing interest among technology companies in incorporating market-based forecasts into consumer products.
Market odds enter AI search experience
According to the report, ChatGPT displays Kalshi-based market odds when users search for World Cup matchups. The results appear as graphics showing each team’s implied chance of winning based on Kalshi’s prediction markets.
One example cited by the report involved a ChatGPT search for France versus Spain showing France with a 59% chance of victory, while a query about England versus Argentina displayed a 55% chance for England, with the Kalshi as the source for the forecast (see below).
Source: Cointelegraph via ChatGPT
The integration does not allow users to place bets through ChatGPT, according to OpenAI’s guidance cited by the report, with Kalshi data intended for informational purposes only.
Prediction markets move into mainstream platforms
Founded as a regulated prediction market platform, Kalshi allows users to trade contracts tied to real-world events, including economic indicators, politics and sports.
The platform has grown into one of the largest prediction market venues, with Dune Analytics data showing Kalshi recorded more than $33 billion in monthly notional volume in June 2026, about $22 billion ahead of Polymarket.
Related: Kalshi June trading volume tops $9B as World Cup fuels prediction markets
Source: Dune
Use of prediction market data has gained traction across major media and technology platforms, with Kalshi entering partnerships with CNN and CNBC in December 2025 to integrate its market data into their coverage. Rival Polymarket partnered with Dow Jones in January 2026 to bring its prediction market data to products including The Wall Street Journal.
Google also integrated prediction market data from Kalshi and Polymarket into Google Finance and Search products in November 2025.
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As AI Platforms Move Away From Unlimited, Sogni AI Launches a $20 Fair-Use Unlimited Plan on Community GPUs
[PRESS RELEASE – Singapore, Singapore, July 14th, 2026]
New plans cover image, video, music, language models and agent workflows while allocating 51% of net subscription revenue to participating GPU operators.
Sogni AI today announced Sogni Unlimited, a fair-use subscription providing credit-free generation across the open-source and open-weight image, video, music and language models hosted on its creative AI platform. The plan costs $20 per month or $199 per year and runs on the Sogni Supernet, a decentralized network of independently operated GPUs. It is available today on the web and in Sogni’s Mac, iOS and Android applications.
The launch comes one year after the Supernet’s public mainnet debut. The network has powered more than 158 million creations since its 2024 testnet launch, with rendering performed by participating operators on consumer-grade GPUs.
Several centralized AI platforms have reduced, capped or discontinued unlimited-generation offerings since late 2024. Sogni designed its network around a different cost structure: participating GPU operators accrue 51% of net subscription revenue — calculated after payment fees, taxes and refunds — in proportion to the rendering work they complete each month. Compute expense therefore scales with subscription revenue rather than with a fixed cloud bill, and the revenue share is intended to attract additional operators as demand grows.
“Unlimited creative AI has been difficult to sustain because generation costs rise directly with usage,” said Mauvis Ledford, CEO and co-founder of Sogni AI. “Sogni was designed the other way around: independent operators provide the infrastructure and are paid the majority of net subscription revenue for the work completed on the network. Fair-use unlimited is not a promotion — it is what this architecture was built to do.”
Sogni Unlimited covers more than 100 open-source and open-weight models hosted on the network, including Krea 2 Turbo, Z-Image Turbo, Chroma, Qwen Image Edit 2511, LTX-2.3 video, WAN 2.2 animation and ACE-Step 1.5 music generation, together with LLM chat, the Sogni Creative Agent, and SDK and API access across all Sogni applications. Newly released open-weight models are added as they become available on the network. Subscriptions are paid by card, and no wallet or crypto knowledge is required.
“Open models are improving quickly and run well on consumer hardware,” said Mark Ledford, CTO and co-founder of Sogni AI. “The network is built to bring them to creators quickly after release and to pay operators a fixed share of the revenue for that work.”
Covered renders spend no credits. Fair-use scheduling may queue exceptionally heavy sustained workloads during periods of peak demand, under published per-tier concurrency rules: up to four concurrent image jobs and one video job on Unlimited, and up to 16 image jobs and four video jobs on Unlimited Pro ($50 per month or $498 per year), which also carries larger queues and higher priority. Three frontier partner models with per-render licensing costs — GPT Image 2, Seedance 2.0 and HappyHorse 1.1 — remain pay-as-you-go, with a 5% discount for Unlimited subscribers and 10% for Unlimited Pro.
Eligible new subscribers receive a three-day trial at https://www.sogni.ai/unlimited. Subscription benefits apply across Sogni applications and through the Sogni SDK and API. App Store and Google Play pricing may differ from web pricing due to platform fees.
About Sogni AI
Sogni AI is a Singapore-based creative AI platform and decentralized inference network founded by former CoinMarketCap executives. Its applications provide image, video, music and language workflows through community-operated GPU infrastructure. More information is available at https://www.sogni.ai/ and https://docs.sogni.ai/.
Media contact: Mauvis Ledford, CEO, Sogni AI — press@sogni.ai
Press and brand kit: https://www.sogni.ai/brand
The post As AI Platforms Move Away From Unlimited, Sogni AI Launches a $20 Fair-Use Unlimited Plan on Community GPUs appeared first on CryptoPotato.
Ripple, alongside a range of other cryptocurrency-oriented firms, has joined the newly operational x402 Foundation as a premier member.
Hosted by the Linux Foundation, the organization is designed to oversee x402 – an open protocol contributed by Coinbase that embeds payments directly into standard web interactions.
The main purpose of the technology is to let AI-based agents, applications, and APIs send and receive money as easily as they exchange data.
Ripple is proud to join the x402 Foundation as a Premier Member.
As AI agents begin to take on more of the transaction lifecycle, they’ll need a way to pay that’s as fast and reliable as the way they already exchange data. We’ve been helping build that future on the XRP Ledger… https://t.co/eSzTyXBQFm
— Ripple (@Ripple) July 14, 2026
The protocol could become increasingly important as AI agents move from making recommendations to actually purchasing services, accessing paid APIs, and completing transactions entirely on their own. Through open, vendor-neutral governance, the foundation aims to ensure that this emerging payment infrastructure supports various networks and payment methods without being controlled by a single company.
Speaking on the matter was Markus Infranger, senior vice president of RippleX, who said:
“Open standards like x402 help lay the foundation for trusted, interoperable machine-to-machine payments.”
He also added that Ripple has already developed XRP Ledger infrastructure, which supports x402. This should enable AI agents to transact using XRP and the company’s RLUSD stablecoin.
The post Ripple, Coinbase, Circle Join Linux x402 Foundation to Help Shape AI Payments appeared first on CryptoPotato.
Stephen “Cap” Newnham, a prominent figure in the Solana community through the UK-based group Superteam UK, says he will run as an independent candidate in the Aug. 13 parliamentary by-election in Clacton. The move puts a blockchain-leaning platform into a race already defined by controversy surrounding Reform UK leader Nigel Farage’s finances and parliamentary disclosures.
Newnham announced on July 9 that he would stand independently and later laid out five campaign pledges. They include support for local entrepreneurs, education focused on digital and artificial intelligence skills, financial literacy initiatives, and—most notably—an onchain-style transparency agenda alongside a promise that pension holders should be able to choose where their retirement funds are held.
Key takeaways
- Solana community leader Stephen “Cap” Newnham will contest the Aug. 13 Clacton by-election as an independent, following his July 9 announcement.
- His platform includes “onchain political transparency” and publishing donations and meetings “in plain English and onchain,” though it does not outline pension-law changes.
- Newnham’s pension pledge focuses on existing options—such as SIPPs and small self-administered schemes—rather than proposing blockchain management of pension assets.
- The by-election is closely watched due to scrutiny of Farage’s decision to trigger a new vote after parliamentary standards concerns about alleged undeclared crypto-linked gifts.
- A national Ipsos poll showed 33% prefer satirical candidate Count Binface over 21% for Farage, but it did not measure views among Clacton residents specifically.
Newnham’s pledges: transparency and pension self-direction
In posts shared to X on Tuesday, Newnham described five campaign pledges for the Clacton contest. According to the same series of announcements, the independent candidate also said his campaign would publish donations and meetings in “plain English” and onchain.
One pledge—“You should own your pension”—argues that savers should have control over where retirement assets are held. The campaign’s framing points to existing UK pension structures, including self-invested personal pensions (SIPPs) and small self-administered schemes, which allow individuals to direct investments rather than leaving asset allocation entirely to a provider.
However, the campaign materials provided so far do not specify a role for blockchain technology in the day-to-day management of pension assets, nor do they propose any legislative changes to pension rules. A blockchain-based record system could potentially make published information harder to tamper with after the fact, but it would not automatically guarantee that every political donation or meeting has been fully disclosed in the first place.
Cointelegraph said it reached out to Newnham for additional detail on the proposals but had not received a response by publication.
From Solana ecosystem to UK election stage
Newnham’s candidacy is rooted in the Solana ecosystem through his work with Superteam UK. The linked Superteam UK description says the group was established to help retain technical talent in Britain by supporting founders and developers building on Solana, arguing that some entrepreneurs leave the country for better funding and startup opportunities abroad.
His LinkedIn profile, referenced in the article, states that he studied economics at the University of Edinburgh before joining the Solana ecosystem. It also notes that he leads Superteam UK and co-authored a report on blockchain and the future of work with Coinbase’s “Stand With Crypto” campaign and the DLT Science Foundation.
While the election entry brings crypto-adjacent themes into mainstream politics, the platform as described emphasizes public-facing transparency and financial education more than direct technical policy claims. Investors and users who follow blockchain projects may still view the pledges as an attempt to translate crypto concepts—particularly auditability and record-keeping—into political disclosure norms.
Farage’s scrutiny remains the race’s central storyline
Newnham’s candidacy lands in a by-election triggered after Farage resigned from Parliament on Wednesday and chose to contest the Clacton seat again. The renewed race is tied to a parliamentary standards investigation into whether Farage should have declared a £5 million personal gift, reported to have been made by crypto investor Christopher Harborne.
Farage has said he was not required to declare the gift because it was received before he entered Parliament. Still, the broader narrative includes additional allegations and scrutiny—according to earlier coverage referenced by Cointelegraph—over reported financial support from crypto entrepreneur George Cottrell and claims that financial relationships overlapped with Farage’s digital asset advocacy. Farage has denied wrongdoing and said he complied with parliamentary rules.
This matters beyond politics: when disclosures involving crypto-connected figures become part of public accountability debates, it can shape how regulators, lawmakers, and donors view compliance expectations around digital assets. For the crypto sector, the practical question is whether disclosure norms will be tightened, clarified, or interpreted differently in response to ongoing challenges to transparency.
Poll signals unusual voter attention, but local preferences remain unknown
The contest has attracted an eclectic mix. At the time of writing, Democracy Club lists 11 prospective candidates for the Clacton by-election, including Newnham, Farage, and the satirical candidate Count Binface. The council is not expected to confirm the official field until July 17.
A Friday Ipsos survey of 1,000 British adults found that 33% would prefer Count Binface to win, compared with 21% for Farage. The same survey also suggests that the by-election’s attention extends beyond typical party competition. But the poll did not measure voting intentions specifically among Clacton residents.
For analysts and campaign teams, that distinction is crucial. National sentiment can be influenced by awareness, media coverage, and novelty—especially in a contest where satire and controversy coexist—without necessarily predicting turnout or preferences in the constituency itself.
Democracy Club’s candidate listing is available here: https://candidates.democracyclub.org.uk/elections/parl.clacton.by.2026-08-13/. Ipsos’ findings were reported here: https://www.ipsos.com/en-uk/british-public-more-likely-prefer-count-binface-wins-clacton-election-nigel-farage.
With the candidate list still pending confirmation and scrutiny around Farage’s disclosures continuing to frame the narrative, the next key developments to watch are whether Newnham provides further specifics on how his onchain transparency pledge would work in practice, and how voters in Clacton respond once the official field is finalized and local campaigning intensifies.
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