Virtual Protocol is being closely monitored by traders to see if improved technical strength and ecosystem development could help the cryptocurrency move past important resistance levels. Despite VIRTUAL still trading below its downtrend line, constant defense of key support levels is helping drive the accumulation bias.

However, the positioning in derivatives markets is also neutral, which indicates that market participants are waiting for more proof before taking more leveraged bets. This, coupled with continued development in AI infrastructure, agent commerce, and robotics, keeps the overall outlook interesting.

Technical Structure Suggests Critical Turning Point

Virtual Protocol could continue trading below value due to its prolonged correction, according to recent market analyst Tanaka. Rather than dwelling on its price movements in the short term, it is worth mentioning the ecosystem expansion and development plan that the project is building. The weekly chart provides additional evidence for this viewpoint.

After dropping by almost 90% since its peak levels, VIRTUAL slowly stabilized, creating a downtrend in the form of a descending resistance trendline with consecutive lows. The price is currently trading right under the persistent resistance level, which brings us to a critical turning point for the token.

Price action keeps squeezing between the resistance and the solid support area. Buyers keep entering the market in the accumulation zone, whereas selling activity looks much weaker than before the start of the correction.

Currently, Virtual Protocol is priced at $0.6357, representing an increase of 5.13% over the previous day and 21.73% within the last week. Trading volume for the day amounts to about $102.44 million.

Expanding the AI Ecosystem Serves to Strengthen the Long-Term Narrative

Other than price movements, Virtual Protocol continues to expand the ecosystem of the protocol focusing on AI. One of the primary goals of the protocol is the creation of a system for intelligent AI agents where they can transact autonomously. The process of agent payments, task execution, and autonomous interactions forms an important part of the project’s long-term plan.

The other notable development is the Agent Commerce Protocol, which aims to enable independent AI agents to find each other, negotiate services, and make payments autonomously. This commerce layer might prove to be one of the most useful long-term aspects of the protocol, according to Tanaka.

VIRTUAL also acts as the key asset in the entire ecosystem. The agent tokens make use of the VIRTUAL trading pairs for their liquidity, whereas transactions made between AI agents through commerce are done using the token.

Further growth of the ecosystem is continuing via integrations with Base, Robinhood Chain, and robotics programs. Eastworlds is also collaborating with Unitree Robotics to experiment with the physical implementation of AI. Although this will contribute to making the future outlook of the platform more positive, validation of adoption and revenue generation is still needed.

Funding Rates Are Evidence of Well-Balanced Positioning

The analysis of derivatives data reveals a similarly balanced view of the prevailing market positioning. OI-weighted funding rates stayed relatively neutral despite prolonged market weakness. There was neither any domination of bulls nor bears during the latest period of trading activities, implying balanced market participation in perpetual futures trading.

Previously, in case of the price decline, there were occasional moments when funding rates went below the zero level due to increasing bearish positioning. But these were never extremely low values that indicate a state of market capitulation. Recently, funding rates moved around the equilibrium point along with the price consolidation in a narrow range.

Resistance Breakout Is the Critical Technical Level

For now, the key technical factors for Virtual Protocol are the positive improvement in technical stability, ecosystem development, and the neutral derivatives sentiment. Virtual Protocol still builds infrastructure through AI agents, autonomous commerce, and robotics and enjoys positive support from the long-term accumulation area.

Despite that, the falling resistance trendline is the main technical barrier at the moment. Its breakout might confirm bullish momentum and change the market structure, while inability to do that will keep the ongoing range. Until this critical move takes place, traders will watch whether accumulation, ecosystem development, and stable market positioning can help form the next trend for Virtual Protocol.

Senator Elizabeth Warren has urged President Donald Trump to provide updated financial disclosures covering his cryptocurrency earnings for the first half of 2026, arguing the information is especially important as the US Senate weighs legislation that could reshape the crypto market.

In a letter sent on Thursday, Warren requested that Trump voluntarily release a report detailing crypto-related income between Jan. 1 and July 15. The request comes amid heightened scrutiny of how crypto policy might affect the value of the president’s and his family’s reported holdings.

Key takeaways

• Elizabeth Warren is asking Trump to disclose crypto earnings for Jan. 1–July 15, ahead of the president’s normal filing timeline for 2026.
• Warren pointed to Trump’s 2025 disclosures, which reportedly showed $1.4 billion in crypto-related earnings.
• The senator’s concern ties directly to pending Senate action on the Digital Asset Market Clarity (CLARITY) Act.
• Majority Leader John Thune indicated the Senate aims to hold a vote on the bill before August states work periods begin.
• On the House side, a CLARITY hearing was held in New York, while some Democrats have signaled they will require stronger ethics guardrails before supporting the bill.

Warren presses for earlier crypto earnings disclosures

Warren’s letter asks Trump to publish updated financial disclosures covering crypto earnings for the period from Jan. 1 to July 15. She framed the timing as crucial because the Senate is considering the Digital Asset Market Clarity (CLARITY) Act, legislation intended to clarify rules for digital assets and market structure.

Warren said Trump’s disclosure raises “key questions” about whether presidents, senior administration officials, members of Congress, and their families should profit from the crypto industry while the federal government debates rules that could influence market outcomes.

She also emphasized that, under current disclosure requirements, Trump is not expected to file his full 2026 annual report until May 2027. Still, Warren requested voluntary publication by July 23 so it aligns with the Senate’s consideration of the CLARITY bill.

What Warren cited from Trump’s 2025 disclosures

The pressure is grounded in disclosures Warren referenced from Trump’s 2025 earnings reporting. Earlier coverage cited filings showing Trump earned $1.4 billion from crypto-related ventures in 2025, including through his memecoin, Official Trump (TRUMP), and through World Liberty Financial, according to the reporting linked in the article.

That point is central to Warren’s argument: she contends that legislation under debate could “turbocharge” conflicts of interest if ethics guardrails are not tightened, potentially increasing the value of holdings held by the president and his family.

“[W]ithout adequate guardrails, [CLARITY] would turbocharge the President’s significant conflicts of interest and almost certainly boost the value of his and his family’s crypto holdings.”

House and Senate movement on CLARITY, with ethics concerns looming

The Warren letter arrives as Congress advances CLARITY through committee and floor planning. According to Senate Majority Leader John Thune, the chamber intends to hold a vote on the crypto bill before the Senate breaks for August states work periods.

At the same time, the political dynamics around the bill appear closely tied to ethics conditions. The article notes that many Democrats have said they would not support any legislation without clear ethics provisions, with some pointing to potential conflicts of interest linked to Trump’s crypto investments.

Earlier in the process, Trump has publicly denied wrongdoing related to his crypto activity. The article references a July 2 interview in which Trump said there was “nothing illegal” and “nothing wrong” with profiting from his crypto investments while in office.

House committee hearing highlights bipartisan claims—and missing Democrats

While the Senate focuses on timing for a full-vote window, House activity has been moving in parallel. On Friday, the House Financial Services Committee’s Subcommittee on Digital Assets, Financial Technology, and Artificial Intelligence held a field hearing in New York City on the CLARITY Act.

The bill has already passed the House, in July 2025. If the Senate approves it with 60 votes, it would return to the chamber for final consideration. Representative French Hill, who chairs the full committee and attended the hearing, described CLARITY as a “bipartisan priority” for Congress.

However, the hearing reportedly did not include Democratic representatives from the committee. Cointelegraph reached out to Democratic lawmakers for comment but did not receive an immediate response, according to the article.

With the Senate vote reportedly targeting a pre-August window, the immediate question for investors and policy watchers is whether ethics requirements—especially disclosures and guardrails—will be strengthened enough to address concerns raised by Warren and other Democrats. The requested July 23 disclosure deadline may become an early test of how closely market structure legislation and conflict-of-interest scrutiny will be linked in practice.

OKX Europe has introduced a “one-way conversion” option that allows customers to deposit USDT and convert it into USDC within the exchange, creating a regulated off-ramp as Europe’s Markets in Crypto-Assets (MiCA) framework restricts support for non-authorized stablecoins.

In a company announcement provided to Cointelegraph, OKX Europe said users can send Tether’s USDt (USDT) to their OKX Europe account and then convert the deposit into USDC, a stablecoin that is among the major options compliant with MiCA’s requirements. The feature is positioned as a migration path for customers whose existing platforms no longer accept USDT or are moving them to alternatives.

Key takeaways

• OKX Europe lets customers convert deposited USDT into USDC on the exchange, rather than keeping USDT balances active.
• The change reflects MiCA constraints: Tether has not obtained authorization for USDT issuance under MiCA.
• OKX Europe says conversions are initiated at the customer’s discretion, not pushed through a platform-imposed deadline.
• The decision underscores how USDT accessibility in Europe is tightening even as it remains the largest stablecoin globally.
• OKX Europe operates for users across 30 EU and European Economic Area (EEA) countries under its MiCA license.

MiCA’s stablecoin licensing pressure reaches everyday flows

MiCA’s rollout has affected how European platforms handle stablecoins—particularly those whose issuers have not secured authorization to issue the relevant asset under the new regime. According to OKX Europe’s announcement, its new one-way conversion feature is aimed at customers who are dealing with service changes elsewhere and still want to maintain stablecoin exposure, but in an asset that fits the MiCA-compliant environment.

The core problem stems from the fact that Tether has not obtained MiCA authorization for USDT issuance. As MiCA took full effect across the EU on July 1 (per the article’s timeline), many crypto platforms moved to restrict USDT deposits, remove or limit trading pairs, or automatically shift customer balances toward compliant alternatives.

OKX Europe’s approach is notable because it does not present conversion as an after-the-fact compliance step imposed by a fixed cutoff. Instead, the exchange said conversions can be completed at the customer’s discretion, which may help reduce forced timing decisions for users managing their own balances.

Why USDT still matters—even as platforms reroute users

The rollout comes as USDT remains dominant in global stablecoin usage. DefiLlama data cited in the announcement indicates Tether controls roughly 59% of the stablecoin market, with market capitalization around $184 billion out of nearly $310 billion in total stablecoin value. By comparison, Circle’s USDC is shown at about $73 billion market cap.

This imbalance helps explain why MiCA-compliant migration tools are likely to remain in demand: even if a region limits USDT functionality, USDT still represents a large portion of users’ circulating balances and trading inventory. Features that allow “in-exchange” conversion can therefore act as a bridge—keeping liquidity moving into compliant stables without forcing users to seek off-platform solutions.

Tether’s stance on MiCA—and the ripple effect in Europe

Tether’s decision not to seek MiCA authorization for USDT has been a persistent point of contention. Tether has defended that position even as exchanges across the EU adjusted their offerings in response to the regulatory framework’s start in late 2024, according to earlier reporting attributed to Cointelegraph.

In a May 2025 interview with Cointelegraph, Tether CEO Paolo Ardoino criticized MiCA’s reserve requirements. He argued the framework could introduce unnecessary risk for stablecoin issuers by requiring part of reserves to be held with European credit institutions. In that context, Ardoino suggested Tether chose not to pursue authorization despite the likelihood that USDT would lose support on European exchanges.

Ardoino has reiterated a similar posture since then. In a July 2025 post on X referenced in the original reporting, he said Tether would reconsider applying for MiCA authorization only “when MiCA becomes safer for consumers and stablecoin issuers,” signaling that the company views the current structure as fundamentally unfavorable rather than merely temporary.

Meanwhile, other companies have already acted on the basis of regulatory and operational risk. Earlier coverage cited in the article notes that digital banking platform Revolut said it would stop supporting USDT for customers in the EEA and Switzerland, giving users until Aug. 31 to sell or withdraw their holdings before any remaining balances are automatically converted into their base currency. That kind of consumer-facing change illustrates how MiCA’s stablecoin restrictions are not confined to exchanges but can propagate through payment and custody layers as well.

What OKX Europe’s conversion feature changes for users

For OKX Europe customers, the practical implication is straightforward: if they hold USDT, they can still move value into the exchange and then convert into USDC—potentially preserving stablecoin utility without running into deposit restrictions or trading-pair limitations that some platforms have applied.

OKX Europe also framed the tool as a way for users to adapt when “existing platforms” no longer accept USDT or when migration happens automatically. By allowing conversions at the customer’s discretion rather than attaching them to a strict, platform-set deadline, OKX Europe appears to be trying to reduce friction around the timing of stablecoin transitions.

Still, the change is a reminder that USDT access in Europe is increasingly conditional on regulatory structure. Until Tether’s USDT issuance becomes MiCA-authorized—or until the regulatory posture of specific platforms changes—users should expect more “migration” mechanics like this to appear across major trading venues.

As MiCA licensing expands and platforms continue adjusting their stablecoin support, readers should watch whether more exchanges adopt similar conversion-only flows and whether any shift occurs in Tether’s stance on seeking authorization; the next wave will likely depend on both regulatory decisions and how quickly compliant stablecoins can absorb migrating liquidity.

Senator Elizabeth Warren, one of the more outspoken voices in the US Congress associating digital assets with illicit activities, has called on President Donald Trump to release additional information on his crypto investments ahead of a mandated deadline.

In a Thursday letter, Warren requested Trump voluntarily release a financial disclosure report on his earnings related to cryptocurrency between Jan. 1 and July 15. The request came after Trump’s 2025 financial disclosures showed he had earned $1.4 billion from crypto-related ventures in 2025, including through his memecoin, Official Trump (TRUMP), and his family’s company World Liberty Financial.

“Your financial disclosure raises key questions about the appropriateness of Presidents, Vice Presidents, senior administration officials, members of Congress, and their families profiting off the crypto industry, just as the US Senate debates crypto market structure legislation that has the potential to increase the value of your crypto holdings,” said Warren.

Thursday letter from Elizabeth Warren requesting financial disclosures from Donald Trump. Source: Senate Banking Committee

Trump’s 2025 disclosure was filed on June 30 as part of a US Office of Government Ethics mandate to prevent conflicts of interest with elected officials. Warren noted that the president was not required to file his 2026 annual report until May 2027, but requested that he do so voluntarily by July 23 as the Senate considers a crypto market structure bill, the Digital Asset Market Clarity (CLARITY) Act.

Warren added:

“[W]ithout adequate guardrails, [CLARITY] would turbocharge the President’s significant conflicts of interest and almost certainly boost the value of his and his family’s crypto holdings.”

Related: US indicts crypto investor over alleged $20M fraud scheme

Cointelegraph reached out to the White House and Warren’s office for comment but did not receive an immediate response. In a July 2 interview, Trump said that there was “nothing illegal” and “nothing wrong” with profiting from his crypto investments as president.

According to Senate Majority Leader John Thune, the chamber will hold a vote on the crypto bill before the Senate breaks for August states work periods. However, many Democrats have publicly said that they will not support any legislation without clear provisions on ethics, with some citing Trump’s potential conflicts of interest.

House Republicans hold CLARITY hearing as Senate debates bill

On Friday, the House Financial Services Committee’s Subcommittee on Digital Assets, Financial Technology, and Artificial Intelligence held a field hearing in New York City on the CLARITY Act. Although the bill was already passed by the House of Representatives in July 2025, it will return to the chamber if approved with 60 votes in the Senate.

Representative French Hill, who chairs the full committee and attended on Friday, said CLARITY has been “a bipartisan priority” for Congress. However, no Democratic representatives appeared to be present at the hearing. Cointelegraph reached out to Democratic lawmakers on the committee for comment but did not receive an immediate response.

Magazine: Crypto’s CLARITY Act faces partisan fight over ethics on Senate floor

The lack of an ethics provision remains one of the biggest sticking points. Sen. Ruben Gallego (D-Ariz.), one of two Democrats who voted to advance the bill out of the Senate Banking Committee, has repeatedly said he will not support the legislation on the Senate floor without a bipartisan ethics provision. Other Democrats have raised similar concerns over conflicts of interest involving public officials and digital assets.

As of Friday, there had been no public readout from Thursday’s White House meeting, and no bipartisan ethics language had emerged, leaving one of the bill’s largest obstacles unresolved.

If passed, the Clarity Act would establish a federal framework for digital asset markets by drawing a clearer line between assets regulated by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and those overseen by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC). Supporters argue the measure would replace years of regulation through enforcement with rules written by Congress.

Industry executives reiterated that message during a House hearing Friday marking one year since the chamber passed the legislation.

“The community has already done the hard work,” Nova Labs executive Sarah Aberg told lawmakers, arguing that regulatory uncertainty delayed investment in the Helium wireless network after the SEC sued the company in a case that was later settled. “Clarity is not a call for deregulation; it is a call for the right regulation from the right regulator.”

“Both Stripe and PayPal do approximately the same amount of payment volume, but Stripe has about one-fifth the net revenue,” Hadick said. “From a financial perspective, this is obviously accretive, and it helps them connect their merchant processing business, which is at risk of being commoditized, with a broad subset of PayPal’s more than 400 million accounts.”

Hadick also cautioned that executing a deal of that size would be difficult. “M&A integration in something of this size is incredibly hard,” he said.

Beyond merchant payments

Eric Queathem, CEO of Velocity, said the acquisition would also give Stripe access to one of the world’s largest consumer payments ecosystems, providing a platform to expand beyond merchant payments.

The proposed acquisition would also determine who controls the consumer side of blockchain-based payment infrastructure, complementing Stripe’s existing merchant network and stablecoin capabilities.

Several executives said the competitive focus has shifted from proving blockchain technology works to controlling distribution.

Pankaj Bengani, founder and CEO of Meld, agreed with Larbi that the race is on.

“The race has shifted from proving the technology works to owning distribution,” said Bengani, adding that “stablecoins have graduated from experiment to core payments infrastructure.”

Citi analysts reached a similar conclusion in a research note, writing that stablecoin competition has become “a default-setting game,” with scale accruing to whichever stablecoin becomes the default across the largest merchant, consumer wallet or autonomous transaction base, rather than to the issuer with the best technology.

China’s Kimi K3 has climbed to first place on the Frontend Code Arena, prompting former White House crypto czar David Sacks to warn that US regulation could weaken America’s position in the AI race.

Sacks described the benchmark result as concerning because Kimi K3 also performed close to leading models across several other evaluations. He argued that restrictions on data centers, state-level rules and proposed federal reviews could slow American developers while Chinese companies continue building advanced systems.

“This is how you lose the AI race,” Sacks wrote.

According to Sacks, the United States became a technology leader during the internet era by allowing companies to develop products without seeking government approval in advance. He believes Washington should follow a similar approach to AI while using targeted rules to address specific safety risks.

Kimi K3 strengthens China’s position in advanced AI development

Moonshot AI built Kimi K3 with 2.8 trillion parameters, a one-million-token context window and native multimodal capabilities. The company designed the model for lengthy coding assignments and agent-based workflows that require systems to complete several connected tasks.

Moonshot AI reported that its Kimi Delta Attention system delivers decoding speeds up to 6.3 times faster when processing one-million-token contexts. Its Attention Residuals technology also improves training efficiency by about 25% while adding less than 2% to the total cost, according to the company.

Beyond the Frontend Code Arena, Kimi K3 recorded an Elo score of 1,668 on GDPval v2. The reported result placed it above GLM-5.2, GPT-5.5, and Claude Opus 4.8, although Claude Fable 5 retained a higher score.

On AutomationBench-AA, the Chinese model achieved a 53% score and took first place in the test for agent-led software-as-a-service workflows. Results published through nextjs.org/evals also placed Kimi K3 ahead of Fable while showing comparable task success in less time, according to the report.

Moonshot AI has released Kimi K3 through Kimi.com, Kimi Work, Kimi Code and the Kimi API. The company expects to make the model’s open weights available by July 27, giving developers another way to test and adapt its capabilities.

US restrictions face scrutiny as foreign AI models advance

Sacks linked Kimi K3’s performance to an intensifying debate over how Washington should oversee frontier AI. His criticism covered proposals for federal pre-approval, limits on data center construction and the growing number of AI rules introduced by individual states.

At the federal level, the US government has approved limited access to Anthropic’s Claude Mythos 5 for roughly 100 businesses and agencies. In a letter to Anthropic co-founder Tom Brown, Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick said selected partners could use the model under specific safeguards.

“I have determined that appropriate safeguards are in place to permit certain trusted partners to access the Claude Mythos 5 Model.”

While Sacks acknowledged that AI safety requires government attention, he argued that other countries would not copy American restrictions. Under his assessment, rules that delay infrastructure construction or model development could leave US companies competing against foreign laboratories operating under fewer limits.

President Donald Trump has also used competition with China to support his technology and digital-asset agenda. Trump has urged the Senate to pass the CLARITY Act, arguing that delayed crypto legislation could allow China to gain ground, while his administration has promoted the United States as the “crypto capital of the world.”

Sacks’ response to Kimi K3 applies the same competitive argument to artificial intelligence: address clear risks without placing approval barriers in front of US developers.

Apple overtook Nvidia as the world’s most valuable publicly traded company after it hit an all-time high of $334.95 per share just 10 minutes into Friday’s trading session.

This valuation put the company above $4.92 trillion.

At the same time, Nvidia traded at $199.38, down 4% from Thursday’s close. This valued the company at $4.83 trillion — more than $100 billion behind Apple. 

Although it was an all-time high for Apple, it wasn’t its first time atop the world’s leaderboard. It was also the world’s most valuable publicly-traded company in April 2025. 

Nvidia has worn the crown for the vast majority of the past year, including 12 months since June 2025.

The switchover had more to do with Nvidia dropping than Apple rallying. Apple’s shares barely moved in morning trading, whereas Nvidia dropped more than 3%.