This week’s updates reflect progress across regulation, central banking, corporate
treasuries, and automated payments.
The EU’s MiCA transition period expired, while US senators continue negotiating ethics
and enforcement terms for digital asset legislation.
Meanwhile, South Korea added two banks to its digital currency trial, Strategy raised
$263.5 million to bolster its USD reserves, and the XRP Ledger integrated X402 protocol
support for automated machine payments.
MiCA Enforcement and Stablecoin Compliance in the European Union
Under Regulation (EU) 2023/1114 (MiCA), the transitional period for crypto-asset
service providers in the European Union ends on July 1, 2026.
After this date, providing crypto services to EU clients without authorization violates EU law.
Authorized firms receive passporting rights to offer services across all 27 EU member
states, provided they comply with anti-money laundering requirements and the Travel Rule.
Under MiCA, stablecoins are classified as Electronic Money Tokens (EMTs) or Asset-
Referenced Tokens (ARTs), which require reserve backing and prohibit interest
payments to holders.
USDC obtained authorization under the framework, while non-compliant stablecoins
such as USDT were removed from regulated EU exchanges.
The European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA) maintains a public register
listing all authorized entities and tokens.
U.S. Senate Advances CLARITY Act as Ethics Disputes Focus on Crypto Issuance and Enforcement
Following the growth of the payment stablecoin market to approximately $315 billion
under the GENIUS Act, U.S. lawmakers introduced the 616-page CLARITY Act to
establish a comprehensive digital asset framework.
To resolve ongoing legislative delays, President Donald Trump agreed to an ethics
provision prohibiting federal officials—including the president, vice president, and
members of Congress—from issuing digital assets.
The proposed ethics framework assigns exclusive enforcement authority to the
Department of Justice, which Senate Democrats, including lead negotiator Senator
Angela Alsobrooks, opposed due to the exclusion of state attorneys general.
The ethics debate intensified following financial disclosures indicating that Trump
received millions of dollars linked to World Liberty Financial and related memecoins.
Following reports of legislative progress, single-day price increases were recorded forbitcoin
and shares of crypto companies, including stablecoin issuer Circle.
While the Senate aims for a vote before the August recess, negotiations continue over
enforcement structures and anti-money laundering standards.
South Korea Expands Project Hangang Phase 2 Testing Tokenized Bank Deposits
The Bank of Korea and the Financial Services Commission approved Phase 2 of Project
Hangang, expanding its digital payment pilot to nine participating banks and up to
500,000 user wallets.
Under the project’s two-tier architecture, the central bank issues wholesale CBDC for
interbank settlement, while commercial banks issue tokenized deposits for public and
merchant transactions.
The expanded phase introduces peer-to-peer transfers, biometric payment
authentication, and programmable smart contracts for government subsidy disbursements.
Storage limits will increase to 10 million won per wallet, supported by newly joined
lenders Gyeongnam Bank and iM Bank.
The expansion follows Phase 1 testing, which processed 114,880 transactions across
approximately 81,000 wallets between April and June 2025.
According to regulatory disclosures, Phase 1 operated without an independent post-test
audit or regulatory security inspection by the Financial Supervisory Service, relying
instead on pre-launch internal and partner security checks.
MSTR Strategy Inc. Expands USD Reserve to $3.225 Billion While Maintaining Bitcoin Holdings
Strategy reported selling 2,732,318 shares of Class A common stock between July 13
and July 19, 2026, generating $263.5 million in net proceeds.
The funds were used to raise the company’s U.S. dollar reserve balance to $3.225 billion
as of July 19, 2026.
This cash reserve supports interest on debt and preferred stock dividends, including
fixed rates of up to 10% on series like STRF, STRK, and STRD, alongside variable rate
preferred series STRC.
Strategy made no bitcoin purchases or sales during this one-week period, retaining its
total cryptocurrency holdings at 843,775 bitcoin.
The aggregate cost of the company’s bitcoin holdings stands at approximately $63.7 billion.
No shares of preferred stock or buybacks of common stock were executed during this
time frame.
XRP Ledger Reaches 1 Million Agentic Transactions Supporting AI Payments
The XRP Ledger has processed over 1 million agentic transactions, representing
automated payments executed by AI systems without manual human approval.
Following this milestone, RippleX Head of Engineering Ayo Akinyele stated thattransaction
volume could reach 100 million within two years as infrastructure improves.
To support machine-to-machine commerce, the network integrates protocol support for
X402, an open internet-payment standard recently launched under the Linux Foundation.
This integration enables AI agents to make automated API and digital service payments
using XRP as well as RLUSD, Ripple’s USD-backed stablecoin.
Ripple serves as a premier member of the x402 Foundation alongside institutions such
as Visa, Mastercard, Coinbase, Google, and AWS.
The infrastructure aims to facilitate automated micro-payments and multi-currency
value settlement directly on-chain.
With thanks to Aviv & Dean
