The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission will hold a public roundtable on Sept. 17 to discuss preparations for 24-hour trading in U.S. equity markets.

According to the SEC’s official announcement, the meeting will take place at the agency’s headquarters in Washington, D.C., and will also stream online.

The regulator said the discussions will cover overnight trading, market operations, system resilience and investor protection. SEC Chair Paul Atkins said, “We are moving towards a new day – and night – in the U.S. equity markets.” He added that continuous trading could bring the U.S. market closer to other markets that already operate around the clock.

SEC reviews systems needed for longer trading sessions

U.S. stocks already trade beyond the regular session, which runs from 9:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. Eastern Time. Several exchanges and brokers offer premarket, after-hours or overnight access. However, the national equity market does not operate as one connected system for almost the entire weekday.

The SEC’s Division of Trading and Markets has said wider access will require changes across market infrastructure. In remarks on overnight equity trading, division director Jamie Selway identified market data, clearing, corporate actions, trade reporting and investor protection as areas that require coordination.

Longer trading hours also depend on consolidated market data systems. Those systems collect prices and trading information from exchanges before distributing them to brokers and investors. Any move toward 24-hour trading would require those services to operate for longer periods.

Clearing firms would also need to process transactions and manage risks outside the traditional market day. Meanwhile, brokers would have to monitor orders, maintain systems and support customers across longer operating periods.

Nasdaq, Cboe and LSE prepare extended trading hours

Nasdaq has been working with U.S. regulators on a plan to offer trading 24 hours a day, five days a week. The exchange aims to introduce the schedule during the second half of 2026, subject to regulatory approval and industry readiness.

According to Nasdaq’s extended-hours trading information, the company expects global investors to benefit from access to U.S. stocks during their local daytime hours. Nasdaq has said any expansion must maintain liquidity, transparency, stability and fair market access.

Cboe Global Markets is also preparing near-continuous weekday trading on its EDGX Equities Exchange. Under Cboe’s proposed schedule, trading would begin at 9 p.m. Eastern Time on Sunday and continue until 8 p.m. on Friday. A one-hour daily break would allow the exchange to complete operational work.

Cboe plans to make all National Market System stocks available during the extended sessions. However, the proposal still depends on SEC approval and preparations by brokers, clearing firms and market data providers.

The London Stock Exchange is pursuing a similar plan outside the U.S. In its LSE 24 announcement, the exchange said it plans to introduce a separate venue for near-continuous weekday trading.

The LSE expects to begin client testing before the end of 2026. It plans to launch exchange-traded products on the venue during the first half of 2027, subject to regulatory approval. The main London market will retain its current trading hours.

Overnight trading raises liquidity and resilience questions

Keeping markets open for longer periods involves more than extending exchange operating hours. Market makers must be willing to provide buy and sell prices during overnight sessions. Lower participation could reduce liquidity and create wider differences between the highest buying price and lowest selling price.

The SEC roundtable will also examine how exchanges and connected firms respond to outages and technical problems. Maintenance periods may become shorter as markets move closer to continuous weekday operations.

Investor protection will remain another part of the discussion. Prices can move more sharply when fewer traders are active. Investors may also receive different execution prices during overnight sessions than they would during regular market hours.

The SEC announcement does not establish a final rule or a common launch date for U.S. exchanges. Instead, the agency will collect comments from exchanges, brokers, investors, clearing firms and other market participants.

The SEC has opened a public comment file for the roundtable and will publish the agenda and speaker list before Sept. 17.

Crypto markets shape demand for round-the-clock trading

Cryptocurrency exchanges have operated continuously for years, allowing investors to trade during weekends, public holidays and overnight periods. That model has contributed to demand for similar access to traditional assets.

Global investors may also want to trade U.S. shares during local business hours rather than waiting for markets in New York to open. Exchanges see extended sessions as a way to attract those investors and compete with crypto platforms and alternative trading venues.

Crypto companies are also expanding into tokenized equities. As previously reported, Binance introduced bStocks with continuous trading for tokenized U.S. equities.

Similarly, Franklin Templeton and Ondo launched tokenized investment products that eligible users outside the U.S. can access through crypto wallets around the clock.

However, tokenized equities are not identical to shares traded directly on a national securities exchange. Their custody, ownership and redemption structures may differ. A crypto.news guide to tokenized stocks explains how blockchain-based equity products represent or track traditional shares.

The SEC’s September meeting will focus on regulated U.S. equity markets rather than approving tokenized stock products. Nasdaq, Cboe and other operators will continue preparing their systems while the regulator gathers public input on market access, resilience and investor safeguards.

BitMEX is facing a class action lawsuit accusing the crypto derivatives platform of fraudulently engineering customer liquidations to seize traders’ Bitcoin collateral. 

On Thursday, BKX Services Inc. and David Namdar filed the complaint in the US District Court for the Southern District of New York. The plaintiffs allege they lost a combined 622.66 BTC through forced liquidations on BitMEX, with BKX claiming losses of at least 305.81 BTC and Namdar alleging losses exceeding 316.85 BTC. 

The lawsuit revives long-running allegations about the platform’s internal trading operations and liquidation engine and comes just as the exchange is preparing to close in September. 

“BitMEX deliberately developed a system that profited from the liquidations,” the plaintiffs alleged. The complaint claimed that an internal trading desk had access to private customer information and could continue trading during server freezes that prevented ordinary users from accessing or closing their positions. 

Cointelegraph reached out to BitMEX for comment but did not receive a response before publication. 

BitMEX users seek Bitcoin return under fraud claims 

According to the filing, BitMEX allowed customers to use leverage of up to 100 times their collateral, then automatically liquidated positions while collateral was still allegedly worth twice the losses incurred.

The remaining BTC was placed into the platform’s insurance fund, allowing BitMEX to profit from forced liquidations, the plaintiffs claim. 

The plaintiffs are seeking the return of the allegedly withheld Bitcoin as well as compensatory and punitive damages. They aim to represent US customers who purchased BTC swap products in transactions dating back to July 23, 2018. 

Related: BitMEX delists 65 trading pairs, derivatives in July amid exchange shutdown

The complaint also pointed to a class action filed in 2020 by Brett Messieh and other traders alleging similar conduct. That case, which brought claims under the Commodity Exchange Act, was voluntarily dismissed without prejudice on June 30, 2025.

Lawsuit lands as BitMEX announces shutdown

The proposed class action lawsuit was filed on the same day BitMEX announced that it would close after 11 years of operation.

BitMEX said it would stop providing services on Sept. 23 after a strategic review by its owner, HDR Global Trading. 

It has stopped accepting new registrations and plans to prevent users from opening new positions starting on Aug. 26. The announcement was followed by a roughly 90% plunge in BitMEX’s BMEX utility token. 

Magazine: Ethereum’s EEZ could pull other blockchains into its orbit

Gemini Trust Company sent more than $10 million in Bitcoin to MAGA Inc., a super political action committee that supports President Donald Trump. 

A July Federal Election Commission filing lists two Bitcoin contributions made on June 19, with each valued at more than $5 million. The committee can use the funds for independent spending that supports Trump.

Coinbase is allowing businesses to accept USDC payments from autonomous AI agents as part of a wider expansion of its agent-focused financial tools. 

The exchange announced the rollout on July 23, 2026, alongside new trading commands for users and a developer kit for adding x402 payments to online services.

Coinbase said software-generated traffic exceeded human traffic on its Base documentation pages for the first time in June. The company argued that most online payment systems still assume “a human clicking the button,” leaving businesses and developers without a simple way to serve autonomous software.

Coinbase Business adds agent payments

Beginning this week, Coinbase Business users can accept USDC payments sent by AI agents. Coinbase Payments powers the feature, while native x402 support handles internet-based, pay-per-use transactions. Businesses can receive, track, reconcile and cash out agent payments from the same account used for other payment activity.

Coinbase Business also offers rewards on eligible idle USDC balances. Its current business page lists a 3.35% annual reward rate, although Coinbase says rates can vary by region and may change. The company also states that USDC payments do not carry chargeback risk because Coinbase does not act as a party to transactions between businesses and their customers.

New commands expand Coinbase for Agents

Coinbase also added real-time market views and conditional actions to Coinbase for Agents. The new commands let an agent stream open orders, view an asset’s order book and watch live price and volume data. Users can set a condition that triggers a planned action, including a buy, sale or order cancellation.

The company presented examples such as selling assets when Bitcoin falls below a set level or cancelling an order after a fixed period. Users define those instructions and related guardrails.Coinbase for Agents already allowed authorised AI tools to trade, manage portfolios and complete financial workflows through linked Coinbase accounts.

CDP x402 SDK targets developers

Coinbase Developer Platform introduced a new CDP x402 SDK that lets developers add agent payments to an API, Model Context Protocol server or web service with a small code setup. Coinbase said the kit arrives preconfigured with its preferred infrastructure and extensions, reducing the manual work previously required to choose payment middleware and service providers.

The x402 standard uses the HTTP 402 “Payment Required” response to send payment instructions directly between an online service and a client. An AI agent can receive the request, sign a stablecoin payment and retry access with proof of payment. Coinbase launched the open standard in May 2025 for APIs, applications and autonomous agents.
The latest products extend a series of agent-payment releases from Coinbase. As previously reported, Amazon added Coinbase x402 to Bedrock AgentCore Payments in May, allowing agents to pay for services in USDC. Coinbase-backed x402 also launched Agentic.market in April to help agents discover and purchase compatible online services.

The company has not disclosed payment volumes expected from the feature.Coinbase said the three updates cover businesses receiving payments, people directing financial agents and developers building agent services. The rollout remains tied to user-set controls, supported regions and product availability. Coinbase Business currently operates in the U.S. and Singapore, while individual features and USDC reward rates may differ by market.

Bitcoin held near $65,000 in Asia morning hours on Friday, barely moving while nearly $800 billion evaporated from the biggest U.S. technology stocks – a rare stretch of independence for an asset that has tracked the AI trade all month.

The largest cryptocurrency traded at about $65,400, down less than 1% on the day and up 3% on the week. Ether slipped 3% to $1,879, and the rest of the majors leaned red. Dogecoin was the worst of them, down 5% on the day to $0.069 and 4% on the week. XRP fell 2% to $1.11, Solana lost 3% to $76, and Hyperliquid’s HYPE dropped to $58, down 4% over seven sessions. The moves were losses, but modest ones against what was happening in equities.

The Magnificent Seven, a colloquial term for the megacap group that has driven U.S. stocks for three years, fell 4.8% on Thursday and shed $797 billion in market value in their worst day since the tariff selloff of April 2025, according to Bloomberg.

The drop dragged the S&P 500 down 1.2% and the Nasdaq 100 down 1.9%, and it left the group 11% below its late-May record, erasing $2 trillion.

Binance has added Across Protocol (ACX), Lisk (LSK) and Stacks (STX) to its Monitoring Tag list after completing its latest project reviews. 

The change took effect on July 24, 2026, and places the three tokens under closer checks for volatility, liquidity, development activity and operational risk. The decision does not stop spot trading or related services.

A federal court is set to review whether a $5 million settlement between the US Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) and Gemini should be reversed, even as Gemini co-founder Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss have directed substantial Bitcoin donations to political groups supporting President Donald Trump. The latest development comes from a new disclosure by the MAGA Inc. Super PAC.

In a Federal Election Commission (FEC) filing dated Monday, MAGA Inc. Super PAC reported receiving two Bitcoin contributions exceeding $5 million each on June 19—totaling $10 million in BTC—sent by the Winklevoss-run Gemini Trust Company. The donation timing overlaps with the period when the CFTC and Gemini are seeking to revisit the earlier enforcement outcome in federal court.

Key takeaways

• MAGA Inc. Super PAC’s July FEC report says Gemini Trust Company sent two Bitcoin contributions of more than $5 million each on June 19.
• The payments were made about three weeks after the CFTC and Gemini jointly filed a motion to reverse a January 2025 settlement.
• CFTC Chair Michael Selig previously characterized the original enforcement as politically targeted under the prior administration.
• A CFTC spokesperson told Cointelegraph in June that, if the court grants relief, the $5 million penalty would not be returned to Gemini.
• Separately, lawmakers have pushed the Trump White House to nominate additional CFTC commissioners as the agency prepares to oversee broader crypto-market rules.

Bitcoin donations disclosed amid court fight over Gemini settlement

According to the MAGA Inc. Super PAC report filed with the FEC, Gemini Trust Company made two separate transfers of Bitcoin on June 19. Each contribution was valued at more than $5 million, bringing the disclosed total to $10 million.

The filing indicates the super PAC can use the funds for independent expenditures supporting Trump. That matters because super PAC spending can influence elections indirectly—by funding advertising and other political activities—rather than making direct coordination with candidates.

The June 19 contributions came roughly three weeks after the CFTC and Gemini jointly moved in federal court to revisit a settlement dated to January 2025. In that earlier case, the CFTC alleged Gemini made false or misleading statements. The current joint filing seeks a reversal of that settlement in the US District Court for the Southern District of New York.

When the CFTC and Gemini filed their joint motion, Cointelegraph reported that CFTC Chair Michael Selig argued at the time that the enforcement during the Biden administration “politically targeted” the Winklevosses. The broader implication is that the dispute is not only about legal interpretation of statements, but also about whether the CFTC’s enforcement posture should be treated as politically motivated.

What’s known about the CFTC-Gemini motion—and what remains unanswered

While the joint motion was filed in May, Cointelegraph reported that no decision has yet been posted to the public docket. That means the court’s view on whether the settlement should be reversed is still pending.

Cointelegraph also said it reached out to the CFTC and Gemini’s counsel, Avi Perry, for comment on the $10 million contribution but did not receive an immediate response. A CFTC spokesperson, however, provided context in June about the penalty outcome: both sides “agreed that the $5 million penalty will not be returned to Gemini” if the court grants the reversal.

This point is important for market watchers because it separates two possible outcomes. Even if the settlement is overturned, the agency’s position (as relayed by a spokesperson) suggests the immediate financial consequence may not change in Gemini’s favor. In other words, the court fight may affect precedent or regulatory record more than it affects the transfer of funds already paid.

The dispute is occurring as crypto regulation in the US continues to evolve—especially around how regulators determine what constitutes improper statements and how they translate market-facing communications into enforcement actions.

Winklevoss political support spans multiple BTC donations

The MAGA Inc. disclosure is the latest entry in a broader pattern of political involvement by the Winklevoss brothers and Gemini leadership.

Cointelegraph reported that both brothers donated $1 million each to Trump’s 2024 election campaign and supported the then-candidate through social media posts. After Trump took office in January 2025, the twins attended a stablecoin payments bill signing ceremony for the GENIUS Act. They also supported American Bitcoin, a crypto mining venture associated with Trump’s sons, and contributed $21 million in Bitcoin to the Digital Freedom Fund PAC, according to earlier coverage.

These actions do not establish any legal relationship to the CFTC-Gemini case on their own. But they do intensify political attention on the timing and dynamics between regulatory enforcement, court strategy, and high-profile political backing—particularly when lawmakers are already debating the degree of independence regulators should maintain.

Concerns from lawmakers and a CFTC shaped by a lone chair

Criticism of the CFTC’s joint approach to reversal has come from members of Congress. Cointelegraph reported that Senator Elizabeth Warren, in a June letter to CFTC Chair Selig, described the joint motion for reversal and other factors as “concerning signs” of a commission influenced by political pressures and aligned interests, rather than governed strictly by rule of law and a duty to protect investors and market integrity.

At the same time, the CFTC’s internal composition remains a central policy issue. Cointelegraph noted that Selig remains the sole commissioner leading the agency, with no additional nominations announced as of Thursday. The CFTC is usually governed by a bipartisan set of five commissioners, so a one-person board structure can shape both enforcement priorities and how quickly the agency can adopt new regulatory approaches.

Many lawmakers have been urging the Trump administration to nominate additional commissioners. That pressure coincides with congressional work on crypto market structure legislation, including the Digital Asset Market Clarity (CLARITY) Act, which—per Cointelegraph’s reporting—is expected to expand the CFTC’s authority in regulating and overseeing digital assets.

With the White House not yet announcing nominations, Selig effectively directs the agency’s agenda for now. That matters to investors and market participants because the CFTC’s leadership and regulatory posture can influence which enforcement theories are pursued, how compliance expectations are interpreted, and what rulemaking momentum looks like in practice.

Separately, Cointelegraph reported that as of June 30, MAGA Inc. had received more than $397 million. That figure underscores the scale of political fundraising activity around the election cycle, even as individual disclosures like the June 19 BTC transfers keep drawing scrutiny to the intersection of crypto wealth, regulation, and politics.

As the court considers whether the Gemini settlement should be reversed, the key watchpoints are whether the docket produces a ruling soon, how the CFTC frames the reversal in legal terms if relief is granted, and whether additional CFTC commissioner nominations are announced—developments that could determine how aggressively the agency’s crypto oversight evolves next.