Balaji Srinivasan has paused further investment in Malaysia and is seeking a formal agreement with the government after authorities investigated his Network School community in Johor’s Forest City. 

The former Coinbase chief technology officer said he wants written assurance that the project and its participants are welcome before committing more capital.

The dispute began after social media allegations claimed that Israeli citizens were staying at the community while using second-country passports. However, Malaysia’s Immigration Department later said all 266 foreigners inspected held valid travel documents. Officials said further checks would continue if new evidence raised questions about identity, permits, or immigration rules.

Balaji seeks written deal with Malaysia

Srinivasan said he wants more than broad statements supporting technology investment. In a video posted on X and addressed to Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim, he asked for a document confirming that Network School can continue operating and investing in Malaysia with greater legal certainty.

“I’d like to have a document which says not just abstractly that tech is welcome … but rather that we’re personally welcome,” Srinivasan said. 

He suggested that the arrangement could take the form of a memorandum of understanding or changes linked to a special economic zone provision.

$122 million expansion plan put on hold

Meanwhile, Srinivasan said Network School would pause further investment in Malaysia until it receives “sufficient assurance” that similar disputes will not happen again. The decision includes a planned $122 million expansion of the community, according to reporting on his statement.

He also warned that the project could move its capital elsewhere. “If not, then we will readily go somewhere else because I don’t want to be where we’re not welcome,” Srinivasan said. Still, he did not name alternative locations or give a deadline for reaching an agreement with Malaysian authorities.

Immigration checks find valid documents

The investigation followed claims shared by activist group Malaysian Protest 4 Palestine in an Instagram post, which accused Network School of hosting Israeli entrepreneurs. Malaysian authorities then reviewed the status of foreign residents at the Forest City site.

However, the Immigration Department said its initial inspection found valid documents for 266 foreigners from 40 countries. Reuters also reported that Malaysia bars entry to Israeli passport holders without special permission but has no specific law banning Israelis who enter using another country’s passport. 

Therefore, the document checks did not establish the social media allegations, while officials said further investigations could continue if new information emerged.

Network School faces new test in Forest City

Srinivasan launched Network School in 2024 as a physical community for founders, technologists, and other builders. The project operates in Forest City, a large Johor development near Singapore, and forms part of his broader idea of internet-based communities building permanent physical hubs.

As crypto.news reported in June, Forest City also hosted Q-Day, a blockchain security event where Srinivasan was listed among the speakers. More recently, he was announced as a headline speaker for Bitcoin Asia 2026 in Hong Kong.

Trump Media & Technology Group (TMTG), the company behind the Truth Social platform, says it is preparing a new paid API aimed at institutional investors and trading firms. The service is designed to deliver low-latency access to posts from Truth Social’s most influential accounts, including U.S. President Donald Trump.

According to a filing made with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, TMTG expects the “Truth API” to be available to institutional customers starting Aug. 1, 2026. The company framed the product as a machine-readable, real-time feed suitable for high-frequency and algorithmic trading strategies.

Key takeaways

• TMTG plans a paid “Truth API” to provide licensed, real-time access to posts from select Truth Social accounts.
• The API is targeted at institutional customers and is positioned for low-latency use cases such as algorithmic and high-frequency trading.
• Availability is expected from Aug. 1, 2026, according to TMTG’s SEC filing.
• TMTG says the new offering is intended to reduce scraping and push data access through authorized channels.

A licensed feed for market-facing automation

TMTG’s announcement centers on an API that packages Truth Social content into a format traders and data systems can ingest quickly. The company stated that the goal is to provide “the fastest” access to posts from Truth Social’s most market-moving accounts, including Donald Trump, through a licensed channel.

In the SEC filing referenced in the report, TMTG described the API as a direct feed built for environments where timing and machine readability matter—particularly for algorithmic and high-frequency trading firms. For investors and market participants, the implication is straightforward: instead of manually monitoring posts or relying on third-party workarounds, institutions could potentially integrate Truth Social updates directly into their data and execution pipelines.

Kevin McGurn, TMTG’s interim CEO, linked the product to both market relevance and monetization. In a statement tied to the announcement, he argued that “markets already move on Truth Social posts,” and positioned the Truth API as a way to monetize what the company calls proprietary assets through a recurring revenue stream.

Why Truth Social posts are being packaged as a tradable data stream

TMTG points to the platform’s track record of influencing market attention, noting that posts attributed to Trump’s account have been cited as market-moving. The report’s examples include comments connected to the ongoing Iran-U.S. conflict, underscoring the company’s view that Truth Social can function as a real-time communications channel with immediate downstream effects.

The announcement also highlights that Truth Social includes several prominent accounts beyond the president. The report names Donald Trump Jr, Eric Trump, and FBI Director Kash Patel among other major figures on the platform. While the precise mechanics of which accounts will be included—and how frequently data updates will arrive—are not detailed in the excerpt, the company’s emphasis on “influential” accounts indicates a curated list rather than a universal firehose.

For institutional users, such curation could matter as much as latency. Many trading and analytics setups prefer structured, predictable feeds that target specific signal sources, reducing the overhead of filtering large volumes of content.

TMTG targets scraping—and shifts data access to “direct” licensing

A core theme of the announcement is enforcing terms around how Truth Social data is obtained. McGurn’s statement, as reported, contrasts the Truth API with what he described as past attempts to scrape content. He said that scraping data from Truth Social violates the platform’s terms of service.

In a quote attributed to CNN, McGurn added that the company intends to “create a lot of friction” for those who do not come to TMTG directly. That line signals that the Truth API is not only about adding a new revenue stream; it is also about changing behavior in the broader market data ecosystem.

Historically, major social platforms often face the same recurring challenge: third-party aggregators scrape content or republish it without licensing. By offering a paid, low-latency alternative, TMTG is effectively betting that many institutional workflows can be shifted away from gray-market access and toward formal licensing.

What investors should watch next

Even with the Aug. 1, 2026 target date, important questions remain for anyone tracking the Truth API’s rollout—particularly which specific accounts will be included, how the data will be structured for machine reading, and what latency and availability guarantees will look like in practice. Traders and data buyers will likely want clarity on the licensing scope and the operational details that determine whether the feed can truly fit into automated decision systems.

Citadel Securities has invested $400 million in Crypto.com, valuing the digital asset platform at $20 billion in its first institutional funding round. 

The deal brings together a leading U.S. market maker and one of the world’s best-known crypto exchanges. Crypto.com announced the investment on July 16.

The company said it plans to use the capital to expand across more asset classes. In particular, Crypto.com named tokenized securities and derivatives among its priorities as it builds services that connect traditional markets with digital asset infrastructure.

Citadel Securities makes $400 million Crypto.com investment

The strategic investment gives Crypto.com a $20 billion valuation. It also marks the first time the company has raised institutional funding since its founding in 2016. However, the companies did not disclose the size of the stake Citadel Securities received or other terms of the transaction.

Bitcoin BTC$63,468.02 and Asian stocks fell Friday after fresh U.S. airstrikes on Iran raised geopolitical uncertainty. Additionally, President Donald Trump’s allegations that China tampered with the 2020 election hurt risk sentiment, sending the Australian dollar lower.

BTC, the leading cryptocurrency by market value, slipped to $63,600, extending Thursday’s nearly 1.4% slide from $65,000, according to CoinDesk data. As of this writing, the cryptocurrency traded just below its 50-day simple moving average, the widely-tracked gauge of near-term momentum.

Asian equity markets wilted, with Japan’s Nikkei trading nearly 3% lower at its lowest in over a month. Australia’s ASX 200 slipped by 0.5% alongside a 0.8% drop in futures tied to Nasdaq. Wall Street’s tech-heavy index fell by over 1.6% on Thursday.

Iran’s semi-official Fars news agency quoted Hormozgan Province Governorate, saying that U.S. airstrikes have hit five bridges in the southern Hormozgan province. A missile strike also hit Iran’s Chabahar maritime control tower. Surprisingly, WTI oil futures held steady at around $79 per barrel, ignoring the geopolitical stress from the fresh wave of U.S. attacks on Iran.

Venezuela’s USDT market is handling volumes that now rival one of the country’s largest sources of foreign currency.

Ecoanalítica estimated that 1.389 billion USDT changed hands on Binance’s peer-to-peer market between June 11 and July 13, equal to about 44 million USDT per day.

The research firm estimated that the volume represented about 75% of Venezuela’s monthly oil export value. However, a separate calculation using June crude exports and the average price of Merey crude places the ratio closer to 52%, showing that the comparison depends on the method and reference period used.

Binance P2P becomes a major foreign-currency channel

Ecoanalítica developed a method to estimate the size of Binance’s P2P market in Venezuela. According to the firm, the results show how the platform has moved from a small alternative market into a major channel for buying and selling dollar-linked value outside the traditional banking system.

The 1.389 billion USDT volume also equaled about 64.2% of the $2.163 billion in foreign currency supplied by the Central Bank of Venezuela during June, based on figures cited by CriptoNoticias. 

The central bank increased its supply by 36% from May as it sought to reduce pressure on the bolivar. Ecoanalítica placed the comparison at 88%, although it did not publish enough detail to verify the difference.

USDT trades at a premium to Venezuela’s official dollar rate

Meanwhile, USDT traded around 840 bolivars on local P2P markets, about 15.5% above the official exchange rate of 727 bolivars per U.S. dollar on July 16. The spread remained narrower than earlier in 2026, when the difference between official and alternative rates stood near 30%.

Ecoanalítica director Alejandro Grisanti said Binance had gone “from being a marginal market to becoming one of the main channels for buying and selling foreign currency.” He also said P2P activity could slow if formal banks regain more capacity to supply foreign currency. As a result, users could shift some transactions back to traditional financial platforms.

Oil figures leave the 75% estimate open to question

Venezuela exported about 1.2 million barrels of crude per day in June, while the average price of Merey crude fell to $71.13 per barrel from $82.77 in May. Using those figures, monthly crude export value would stand near $2.56 billion, putting the reported USDT volume at roughly 52% rather than 75%.

The difference may reflect another export price, reference period, or method used by Ecoanalítica. However, Grisanti did not provide the full calculation behind the 75% figure. Therefore, the oil comparison remains an estimate, while the reported Binance P2P volume stands at 1.389 billion USDT for the period.

Stablecoins remain tied to Venezuela’s oil and dollar market

The latest figures add to a longer shift toward stablecoins in Venezuela. As crypto.news previously reported, state oil company PDVSA had been gradually moving some crude and fuel sales toward USDT as U.S. sanctions made conventional payment channels harder to use. That development connected the country’s oil trade with the same dollar-linked token now widely traded in its domestic P2P market.

More recently, as crypto.news reported in April, Tether said it had frozen more than $344 million in USDT linked to sanctions evasion and criminal networks in cooperation with U.S. authorities. The report also noted earlier concerns about PDVSA’s use of USDT. The latest P2P estimates now place stablecoin trading at a scale comparable with major official and export-related foreign-currency flows.

Trump Media & Technology Group (TMTG), the company behind the Truth Social platform, says it is preparing to launch a paid API that will let institutional Wall Street users pull posts from selected high-impact Truth Social accounts in real time.

In a filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, TMTG states the “Truth API” is expected to be available to institutional customers starting Aug. 1, 2026. The service is designed for low-latency, machine-readable access—useful for high-frequency and algorithmic trading firms that want faster integration than manual browsing or slower data collection methods.

Key takeaways

• Trump Media is launching a paid Truth Social API aimed at institutional customers and market data workflows.
• Availability is targeted for Aug. 1, 2026, with a focus on real-time, licensed content from influential accounts.
• The API is intended for algorithmic and high-frequency trading that prioritizes low latency and machine readability.
• TMTG says scraping prior approaches violate its terms and that the company wants to increase friction for non-direct data collection.
• Truth Social posts have previously been cited as market-moving, including posts connected to U.S.–Iran developments.

A licensed, real-time feed for institutions

According to TMTG’s SEC filing, the Truth API is positioned as a direct, licensed channel for retrieving posts from Truth Social’s most “market-moving” accounts. The company is explicitly pitching the product to professional trading and market data users that need data in a format that systems can ingest quickly.

The filing emphasizes that the API is meant to deliver a real-time feed, tailored for scenarios where timing matters—especially for automated strategies. That framing matters to investors and market participants because it acknowledges a practical reality: social-media headlines and posts can influence how quickly traders react, and the gap between posting and data availability can affect execution.

Low latency and “friction” for scraping

In comments tied to the rollout, TMTG’s interim CEO Kevin McGurn said that Truth API provides a direct licensed stream of the platform’s “most market-moving Truths,” while also supporting the company’s goal of monetizing proprietary assets through recurring revenue.

The company also drew a line around how data should be obtained. In the filing, McGurn says companies have previously attempted to scrape Truth Social data, which he characterizes as a violation of the platform’s terms of service. He adds that Truth API is expected to “create a lot of friction” for those who do not come to the company directly.

For market participants, this shift is significant. Scraping-based approaches typically come with reliability and compliance risks—such as sudden changes in access patterns, blocking, or disputes over licensing. A formal API, by contrast, signals a more structured data pipeline that may be easier to incorporate into regulated or vendor-driven workflows.

Which accounts are in scope

TMTG’s announcement highlights that the API is intended to deliver posts from influential accounts, including Donald Trump (as President and as the operator of the Truth Social account named in the filing). The SEC documentation also references other major figures on the platform, including Donald Trump Jr, Eric Trump, and FBI Director Kash Patel.

Separately, the company points to prior instances where posts from Trump’s Truth Social account were associated with market attention. The article notes examples tied to the ongoing conflict between Iran and the U.S.—a reminder that Truth Social content is being watched not only as political commentary, but as a potential driver of market narratives.

Even with the API’s focus on “market-moving” accounts, investors should consider a key uncertainty: the SEC filing and the accompanying description do not spell out—within the provided text—exactly how “market-moving” is determined, how frequently the account set could change, or what latency benchmarks will be provided to customers.

Why an API matters for trading workflows

Social-media data has long been used in trading, but the quality of that data pipeline—particularly speed, structure, and licensing—often determines whether it can be reliably used for automation. By targeting low-latency delivery to institutional users, TMTG is effectively positioning Truth Social as a more integration-ready source of information for quantitative systems.

Just as importantly, the company’s approach frames the business model: rather than relying on incidental discovery or indirect data access, TMTG is attempting to convert platform influence into a recurring, licensed data service. The “high-margin, recurring revenue stream” language in McGurn’s statement suggests the API is intended to become a durable line of monetization, not a one-off product experiment.

As Aug. 1, 2026 approaches, market observers will likely watch for more operational details—especially how the API will handle access controls, content eligibility, and real-time performance expectations for institutional customers. Those specifics will determine whether Truth API becomes a practical component of algorithmic strategies or remains largely a compliance-first licensing alternative.