Coinbase is expanding its push into AI-powered finance, enabling businesses to accept USDC payments from autonomous AI agents as part of a broader expansion of its payment, trading and developer tools.

According to a Thursday X post, Coinbase Business users will be able to accept USDC (USDC) payments from AI agents through the x402 payment standard, which Coinbase first introduced in May 2025 to enable stablecoin payments over HTTP for AI agents, applications and APIs.

The post also announced AI trading tools that let users monitor orders, access live market data, and execute actions based on predefined conditions, as well as a software development kit for developers building agent-powered applications.

Coinbase said the products are designed to support the “agentic economy,” where AI agents can make payments, manage finances and complete other tasks on behalf of users.

The company said adoption of AI agents is accelerating, noting that agent-generated traffic surpassed human traffic on its Base documentation pages for the first time last month. However, it added that the internet’s financial infrastructure was built with “one assumption: a human clicking the button,” which has left businesses, developers and users without tools designed for AI agents.

The rollout comes as companies increasingly position stablecoins and blockchain-based payments as infrastructure for AI agents, an emerging use case that several exchanges and payment companies are targeting.

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Bitcoin (BTC) fell below $65,000 on Thursday as US stocks slid amid another round of escalation in Iran.

Key points:

• Several days of US-Iran escalation are beginning to take their toll on crypto and stock market performance.
• Bitcoin sees three-day lows under $65,000 as traders diverge on the near-term outlook.
• A 21-day moving average trend line becomes important nearby support.

Bitcoin wobbles as Iran destabilizes stocks, oil and US bond yields

Data from TradingView showed BTC/USD hitting three-day lows of $64,799 on Bitstamp.

BTC/USD one-hour chart. Source: Cointelegraph/TradingView

Risk assets felt the strain on the day as US President Donald Trump warned that he would blame Iran for recent Houthi strikes on Saudi Arabian commercial vessels.

In a post on Truth Social, Trump said that he was “very disappointed” in the Houthis, referencing attacks on US ships from 2025.

Source: Donald Trump on Truthsocial.com

By the close of New York trading, the S&P 500 had fallen 1.2% and the Nasdaq had shed 2.2%, while oil prices rallied to their highest since early June, with Brent crude topping $100 a barrel.

CFDs on Brent crude oil one-day chart. Source: Cointelegraph/TradingView

“Inflation expectations and interest rates are rising sharply again,” trading resource The Kobeissi Letter wrote in a response on X.

Ahead of the Federal Reserve’s next interest-rate decision, data from CME Group’s FedWatch Tool showed an increasing chance of officials hiking by 0.25% — traditionally a headwind for crypto markets. Odds neared 40% on Thursday, while a week prior, they were closer to 12%.

Fed target-rate probability comparison for July FOMC meeting. Source: CME Group

Kobeissi, meanwhile, noted 18-month highs in US 10-year bond yields in a sign of fresh economic strain.

Related: Bitcoin will get ‘lift’ from Hyperliquid, Robinhood in next crypto bull market: Bitwise exec

BTC price analysis offers hope of $73,000

Bitcoin traders showed an increasing split over what short-term BTC price action would bring.

Commentator Exitpump argued that the Bitcoin relief rally is likely to end by late July, reinforcing an established theory that has already gained traction.

“July rally is coming to end, price is at resistance, close your longs, go short once price breaks below 65K,” they told X followers late on Wednesday.

BTC/USDT perpetual contract four-hour chart. Source: Exitpump on X.com

Others were more hopeful, with trader Jelle arguing that price was “still making progress.”

“Clear this local area and that void towards $70k opens up – could be a quick move to form the new range. Patience remains my game,” he reported.

BTC/USD chart. Source: Jelle on X.com

According to crypto trader and analyst Michaël van de Poppe, the 21-week simple moving average (SMA) at $64,073 was key.

“Theoretically, the target area for Bitcoin is reached. However, as long as this stays above the 21-Day MA, I’m sure there will be a higher valuation for Bitcoin in the near-term,” an X post on the day stated, adding:

“It’s facing the final hurdle for a big breakout, which is the $68,000 resistance zone. It’s been tested once, and this is the second test that we’ll be facing.”

BTC/USDT one-day chart. Source: Michaël van de Poppe on X.com

Van de Poppe gave a $73,000 target should bulls successfully break through resistance.

Gate founder and CEO Dr. Han has backed a human-led approach to crypto trading as millions of digital assets and tens of thousands of decentralized applications make Web3 increasingly difficult for users to navigate.

In the latest episode of the Gatecast podcast, Dr. Han argued that artificial intelligence could help traders gather information, study market signals, and make decisions without removing the need for human judgment.

🎙️ #GateCast 新一期上线｜Gate 创始人 @Han_Gate 坦白局！

🤔 合规能不能换来更强的用户信任？它会不会拖慢创新速度？拿到 #MiCA 牌照，究竟是紧箍咒，还是通往更大市场的入场券？

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猜来猜去还是不明白，不如点开精彩片段康一康 👇 pic.twitter.com/coTFHML1zD

— Gate 华语 (@Gate_zh) July 23, 2026

According to the Gate CEO, the combination of AI tools and human intelligence could offer a more effective model for trading than relying entirely on automated systems. AI can process large volumes of market information quickly, he noted, but traders must still assess that information before acting.

“AI + human intelligence” will become a more effective approach in the future, Dr. Han said.

His comments place AI in an assistant role at a time when exchanges and traders are using automated tools to scan prices, track market activity and filter information. Rather than presenting the technology as a replacement for users, Dr. Han described it as a way to reduce the effort required to find and understand crypto products.

Gatecast’s discussion also covered the difficulty of entering Web3 when users must choose among millions of tokens and tens of thousands of DApps. Dr. Han identified those choices, along with the learning required to use decentralized products, as barriers that keep potential users outside the sector.

Under his assessment, AI could become a gateway between users and the Web3 ecosystem by helping them locate relevant services and understand how those products work. Intelligent interfaces could also reduce the time users spend researching separate protocols, assets and trading tools, according to Dr. Han.

AI tools will support trader decisions

Gate is already developing several products under what the exchange calls its Intelligent Web3 strategy. Dr. Han identified Gate AI, GateClaw and Gate for AI Agent as parts of a product system designed to integrate artificial intelligence into the company’s trading ecosystem.

Through these services, Gate is using AI to simplify product interactions and reduce the amount of knowledge required before users can begin exploring Web3, according to the CEO. Dr. Han added that the exchange plans to continue developing intelligent products that make decentralized services easier to access.

His position differs from predictions that increasingly capable models could eventually remove people from financial decision-making. While Dr. Han credited AI with improving research and signal analysis, he maintained that the technology cannot fully reproduce the judgment traders apply when interpreting market conditions.

Earlier this week, Binance founder Changpeng Zhao also separated AI’s economic role from that of Bitcoin. In an X post, CZ argued that artificial intelligence can raise productivity, improve business efficiency and support technological development, while Bitcoin offers a scarce asset that cannot be expanded beyond its 21 million-coin limit.

The comparison followed JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon’s forecast that the AI investment cycle could attract $725 billion this year. According to CZ, companies developing AI products can issue more shares or raise capital to finance expansion, potentially diluting existing investors, whereas no company or government can increase Bitcoin’s programmed supply.

CZ also rejected the idea that rapid progress in artificial intelligence gives investors the same protection that Bitcoin may offer when fiat currencies lose purchasing power. His comments focused on the difference between investing in productivity-driven businesses and holding an asset designed around fixed supply.

Political pressure could complicate AI adoption

Dr. Han’s case for AI-assisted Web3 access comes as Washington considers how foreign models should operate in the U.S. market. As previously reported by crypto.news, parts of the Trump administration have discussed de facto restrictions on Chinese open-source models after Moonshot AI’s 2.8-trillion-parameter Kimi K3 topped a major coding leaderboard.

Axios reported that American companies have shown interest in Chinese systems because they can provide capable performance at lower prices. Open-weight models also allow businesses to download trained parameters, operate models on private servers and modify them without depending on the original developer’s platform.

People involved in the U.S. policy debate have previously considered placing Chinese AI laboratories on the Commerce Department’s Entity List, according to the crypto.news report. Such a designation could restrict access to American technology without government licenses, although earlier proposals were paused amid concerns that the restrictions could slow AI development in the United States.

Political scrutiny increased on July 22 when Michael Kratsios, director of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy, accused Moonshot AI of using Anthropic technology to develop Kimi K3. In an X post, Kratsios claimed that information obtained by the U.S. government linked K3’s development to Anthropic’s Fable model.

Kratsios alleged that Moonshot created an internal platform capable of extracting knowledge from American models through large-scale distillation. He also claimed that the platform could change its access methods quickly, making the alleged activity harder for U.S. developers to identify.

However, the White House official did not release technical records or other evidence supporting the allegations. Moonshot AI had not publicly responded at the time of the report, while the White House had not provided material that independent researchers could use to determine whether K3 incorporated Anthropic’s proprietary technology.

Despite those policy disputes, Dr. Han expects AI to play a growing role in how users discover and operate crypto products. Gate’s strategy keeps traders responsible for the final decision while assigning AI the task of organizing information, identifying signals, and lowering the technical barriers surrounding Web3.

The crypto industry had held out optimism that the Senate could finish the wide-ranging Clarity Act in the next couple of weeks. Dragging it into the later months of the year sharply reduces its odds for passage in 2026.

Clarity — even more than last year’s Guiding and Establishing National Innovation for U.S. Stablecoins (GENIUS) Act — is the crypto industry first priority in crypto policy, with the hope it finally secures a permanent legal foundation for U.S. crypto activity.

The Senate’s floor process is a multi-stage affair that can take a few days or even longer to advance legislation past the 60-vote threshold needed in that chamber. At this stage, the crypto bill is hardly guaranteed to muster even a majority, as some Republican senators have also raised concerns with its treatment of stablecoin yield and the language of the government-ethics provision.

Senator Cynthia Lummis, a Wyoming Republican who has been a lead Clarity Act negotiator, told CoinDesk in a Wednesday interview that the most contentious sections are still open for revision that she said could bring Democrats to support it.

Republicans and industry insiders had hoped that getting the bill to the Senate floor might sharpen its urgency and help drive deals among the lawmakers to iron out the final disagreements. That could still happen if Thune can find some floor time before recess.

Bitcoin has fallen below $65,000 after U.S. President Donald Trump threatened a “massive attack” on Iran, with the cryptocurrency losing about 1.5% on Thursday.

According to data from crypto.news, Bitcoin (BTC) was trading at $64,885 on July 23, extending its retreat after an attempt to recover earlier in the week. The price later touched about $64,831 as traders responded to another escalation in the Iran war and a sharp rise in crude oil prices.

Speaking to Axios on Thursday, Trump confirmed that he was considering restarting large-scale military operations against Iran. His comments came after Iranian forces struck U.S. targets in the region and Iran-backed Houthi fighters attacked Saudi oil tankers in the Red Sea.

“I am considering a massive attack. Bigger than ever before. I am close to making a decision. We are all set for it.”

Despite the warning, Trump gave no deadline for deciding whether to launch another operation. Two U.S. officials told Axios that the White House had not made a final decision or issued new military orders.

War risks have renewed pressure on Bitcoin

Discussing possible support from Israel, Trump told Axios that the country “would join in two minutes if I ask them to.” He maintained that Washington did not need assistance to conduct the operation, while acknowledging that Israeli involvement could carry “consequences” through Iranian retaliation.

Trump also claimed that Iranian officials wanted negotiations but were not prepared to accept an agreement. Two regional sources familiar with the mediation process told Axios that Iran’s leadership had rejected the latest proposal submitted through intermediaries.

“They haven’t received enough pain yet,” Trump said while questioning Tehran’s approach to the negotiations.

Military activity has intensified during the past 12 days as Washington has tried to stop Iranian attacks on commercial vessels in the Strait of Hormuz. According to Axios, Iran has continued its regional operations despite repeated U.S. strikes, leaving the two countries without a clear path toward a ceasefire.

Bitcoin’s decline followed a familiar risk-off response to the conflict. Earlier in July, the cryptocurrency dropped more than 3% to around $61,691 after Trump declared that a tentative Iran ceasefire was over.

Binance Research analysts told Barron’s that macroeconomic pressure could limit Bitcoin’s performance through the third quarter. The analysts noted that BTC ended the first half of 2026 near $59,500, about 53% below its record high of more than $120,000 reached in October 2025.

According to Binance Research, the decline places Bitcoin within a possible historical bottoming period heading into the fourth quarter, although the firm stressed that the signal had not been confirmed. BTC’s inability to hold $65,000 on Thursday has kept attention on whether sellers can push the price back toward its July lows.

Surging oil prices have added an inflation threat

Energy markets faced fresh pressure after Yemen’s Iran-aligned Houthis claimed attacks on two Saudi oil tankers, Encelia and Layla, in the Red Sea. The group said it used ballistic missiles, cruise missiles and drones because the vessels had violated its naval blockade on Saudi Arabia.

Saudi state news agency SPA confirmed that an attack caused a fire on Encelia’s bow, although all crew members were safe.

Ship-tracking data reviewed showed that five tankers changed course after the Houthis warned vessels to avoid Saudi ports. Two of those tankers indicated the Suez Canal as their new destination, while the Houthis separately claimed they had forced about 10 ships to turn back.

Those attacks have placed the Bab el-Mandeb Strait, a key route connecting the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden, at the center of the conflict. Reuters reported that the passage provides Saudi Arabia with an alternative export route while traffic through the Strait of Hormuz remains heavily disrupted.

Brent crude futures climbed 7% to $100.66 per barrel on Thursday, crossing $100 for the first time since late May, according to Reuters. West Texas Intermediate rose 6.3% to $92.28, while Brent’s monthly gain approached 40%.

UBS analyst Giovanni Staunovo estimated that Gulf oil-loading activity had dropped to 2.5 million barrels per day over the previous seven days, compared with a 30-day average of 6 million. Staunovo also estimated that Iranian oil loadings may have fallen to zero from between 1.5 million and 2 million barrels per day at the start of July.

Goldman Sachs warned that Brent could exceed $120 during the fourth quarter if disruption in the Strait of Hormuz persists and spreads further across the Bab el-Mandeb Strait and Suez Canal. Higher energy costs could complicate the U.S. inflation outlook, while Binance Research expects macro pressure to keep Bitcoin’s recovery limited through the third quarter.

Key points:

• Funds queue ~$150M of HYPE for unstaking, $116M from Multicoin
• HYPE falls 8% to ~$58; withdrawals dwarf thin spot market
• Sale intent unclear — Jain denies selling, Selini exit tied to HIP-3 shutdown

Hyperliquid’s HYPE token slid to around $58 on Wednesday in the face of large unstaking events initiated by crypto funds. Data obtained from hedge fund and analytics platform Block Liquidity shows Multicoin Capital holding a combined $138.78 million in staked HYPE, of which roughly 83% — about $116 million — sits in pending withdrawal.

That’s as Selini Capital and Galaxy Digital have queued HYPE tokens worth $4.4 million and $29.4 million, respectively, for withdrawal. In addition, a Multicoin-linked wallet also deposited roughly 167,000 HYPE, worth $11.2 million, to Coinbase, possibly to be sold. 

As of publication, the price had recovered some of its decline, last trading hands at $59.19, according to CoinGecko data. Trading volume in the past 24 hours was more than $415.4 million.

Withdrawal queue dwarfs daily spot turnover

These bulk unlocks will be processed in five to seven days and will result in a nearly $150 million overhang in HYPE’s liquid supply. While perpetuals for the tokens trade around $400 million daily, the spot market for HYPE is significantly smaller. Block Liquidity’s flow tracker recorded just $72.8 million in HYPE spot volume across the roughly 28 hours to Wednesday morning, with 1,463 unique buyers against 982 sellers. Wintermute was the largest net buyer at over $9 million, while the top net seller offloaded $5.2 million.

Top buyers and sellers during HYPE’s plummet to as low as $57.39.
Source: Blockliquidity.xyz

A withdrawal queue nearly double the daily spot turnover helps explain the recent apprehension in the market. HYPE has fallen about 11% over the past week. However, whether the unlocked tokens are about to be sold into the market is far from clear.

The unstaking by Selini Capital appears to be linked to the shutdown of the HIP-3 CASH perpetuals markets run by DreamCash. Like many recent HIP-3 deployments, DreamCash’s USDt (USDT)-based markets struggled to attract liquidity, especially as USDC (USDC) became more deeply entrenched in the Hyperliquid ecosystem.

Recent: Bitcoin analysis eyes ‘serious volume’ after Binance sees 9K BTC daily outflow

Launching a builder-deployed perpetuals marked under HIP-3 requires staking 500,000 HYPE as a slashable security bond, which can be refunded when the market goes defunct. Selini Capital may decide to sell this HYPE allocation through an OTC desk.

Wallet associated with Selini Capital invoking StakingTransfer Method.
Source: HypurrScan.io 

Sale or HIP-3 war chest?

While Selini’s recent HYPE unlock represents the shutdown of a HIP-3 market, Multicoin’s HYPE may at least partially be headed for a new deployment. Last week, the firm made its first Hyperliquid ecosystem venture bet by leading a $1.75 million seed round into Trasia. The latter is an Asia-focused, noncustodial trading platform that plans to launch perpetuals for Asian equities.

Managing partner Tushar Jain said on X that Trasia is targeting “net new users” unfamiliar with Hyperliquid. He claimed in an X post later on  Wednesday night that the unstaked HYPE was not intended for selling. The market will watch where funds will flow on the July 28 unlock. Although absorption by new HIP-3 deployments or mere asset reallocation remains the base case, HYPE has not yet recovered to its recent highs.

Multicoin Capital managing partner Tushar Jain issues clarification.
Source: X.com

The closure of crypto derivatives exchange BitMEX is prompting fresh questions about whether the industry is entering a new phase of consolidation, as analysts point to market-share concentration and rising regulatory costs squeezing smaller platforms.

While BitMEX helped pioneer perpetual swaps that became a cornerstone of digital asset derivatives trading, its daily Bitcoin futures volume began declining around May 2021 and never recovered to its 2020 daily peak of between $1 billion and $5 billion, according to data from CryptoQuant.

Restructuring adviser Roshan Dharia told Cointelegraph the exchange’s demise reflects structural pressures facing mid-sized centralized exchanges, where liquidity has increasingly concentrated among the industry’s largest players and regulatory compliance costs continue to rise. He said:

The top five platforms now control an estimated 80% of global spot volume, leaving mid-tier and regional exchanges with shrinking margins and no viable path to scale… The headwinds are structural, not cyclical.

Source: BitMEX

Related: BitMEX pitches ‘canary fund’ alternative to Bitcoin quantum coin freeze

The fall of BitMEX

BitMEX, the crypto derivatives exchange founded in 2014 by Arthur Hayes, Ben Delo and Samuel Reed, announced on Thursday that it will shut down. Trading is scheduled to end on Sept. 23 following a strategic review by parent company HDR Global Trading.

The shutdown announcement also triggered a sharp sell-off in BitMEX’s utility token, BMEX, which plunged more than 90% after the exchange revealed plans to wind down operations. 

BMEX token drops over 90%. Source: CoinMarketCap.

The announcement came after years of declining market share. CoinGecko ranked BitMEX ninth among derivatives exchanges in August 2023 with a 0.9% share of trading volume. By 2025, it no longer appeared among the firm’s top 10 perpetual exchanges, even as annual perpetual trading volume across those platforms climbed 47.4% to a record $86.2 trillion.

Related: Arthur Hayes dumps WLD days after Maelstrom’s AI IPO pitch

The rise of regulated competitors

BitMEX rose to prominence by offering offshore perpetual derivatives years before similar products became available through regulated venues. Today, those same products are increasingly offered through licensed exchanges in jurisdictions including the United States and the United Kingdom.

In the US, Coinbase launched perpetual-style futures through a Commodity Futures Trading Commission-regulated exchange in May after receiving no-action relief from the regulator. The CFTC also approved Bitcoin perpetual futures for Kalshi. In June, Kraken followed with CFTC-regulated perpetual futures for eligible US traders through its recently acquired Bitnomial exchange.

The trend has also extended beyond the United States. This month, Coinbase secured a UK investment services license allowing it to expand its derivatives business ahead of the country’s new crypto regulatory regime.

Magazine: Here’s why the CLARITY Act’s ethics deal may be so hard to reach