Odaily News: Former US Congressman George Santos has reached a settlement with the US Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC). The CFTC stated that Santos engaged in manipulative trading behavior while trading a prediction contract on Kalshi regarding whether he would attend the State of the Union address in February 2026, profiting over $17,500 from the trades.

According to the CFTC's Friday announcement, Santos is required to pay $35,000 as part of the settlement, but neither admitted nor denied the regulator's findings.

The CFTC stated that in the two weeks leading up to the State of the Union address, Santos repeatedly made public comments about whether he would attend the event, causing significant fluctuations in the price of the event contract. For example, while holding a "Yes" position indicating he would attend, he posted on X asking what he should wear to the State of the Union. Within hours, the price of the Yes position rose, after which Santos closed his position for a profit.

The CFTC also alleged that Santos subsequently continued to post updates about his travel to Washington, D.C., including flights and train rides, and profited by trading back and forth based on market reactions to his public statements. The CFTC stated that Santos's conduct was intentional, or at least reckless. He traded in an event contract whose underlying outcome he could influence, and affected the contract price through misleading public statements or omissions of information, thereby profiting from his trading positions.

Santos's attorney, Joseph W. Murray, stated in Friday's announcement that the State of the Union contract was Santos's first foray into prediction market betting.

Odaily reported that Galaxy Research stated on Friday that over 1,000 BTC from nearly 1,200 addresses have been moved, valued at approximately $70 million, with the transactions believed to be linked to a vulnerability affecting Coldcard hardware wallets.

Earlier, Coldcard manufacturer Coinkite issued a warning on Thursday about an ongoing issue with seed phrases generated by Coldcard Mk3 devices. Out of caution, the company reminded all users who generated seed phrases using Mk3 devices with firmware version 4.0.1, released in March 2021, or later, that their funds may be at risk.

Subsequently, Coinkite expanded the scope of its risk alert to include certain firmware versions of Mk4, Mk5, and Coldcard Q, and released emergency firmware updates for all affected models.

Coinkite CEO Rodolfo Novak (also known as NVK) apologized on Friday and stated that the company takes "full responsibility" for the firmware vulnerability, acknowledging that internal review processes failed to identify the issue.

Novak also suggested that the vulnerability may have been discovered with the help of artificial intelligence, noting that this incident reflects a "sobering reality under the new AI paradigm." He warned that AI-assisted code review could identify potential vulnerabilities faster than experienced security experts, while also making it easier for attackers to exploit weaknesses in public code.

Odaily News - After Coinbase's Q2 results fell short of market expectations, the stock briefly dropped to a roughly two-and-a-half-year low on Friday morning before paring losses to around $150. Over the past year, the stock is still down approximately 57%.

Wall Street generally believes Coinbase underperformed this quarter, but opinions differ on the cause: some analysts attribute it mainly to a weak crypto market environment, while others have begun to question whether the company's growth strategy beyond its trading business can deliver.

JPMorgan stated that Coinbase's results reflect a "challenging crypto environment," with new products contributing limited value to the income statement. The bank lowered its December 2026 price target for Coinbase from $196 to $148, while maintaining an "Overweight" rating. JPMorgan believes the company faces pressure across multiple business lines, with weak trading volumes dragging down transaction revenue and subscription and services revenue also under strain.

Bernstein, on the other hand, believes Coinbase's long-term strategy remains attractive, but investors want to see more compelling execution, particularly in new business areas such as prediction markets and tokenized stocks.

Mizuho warned that Robinhood is emerging as the mainstream alternative for retail crypto trading. Overall, Coinbase is still viewed as an important representative of U.S. crypto compliance infrastructure, but its valuation recovery increasingly depends on proving it is more than just a crypto exchange reliant on trading cycles.

Odaily Crypto Daily News: Tether released its financial report on Friday, stating that its excess reserves decreased by $4.1 billion in Q2 compared to the previous quarter, nearly halving.

As of the end of Q1, USDT issuer Tether had stated that its assets exceeded its liabilities by $8.2 billion; however, in the latest data, this figure has dropped to $4.1 billion.

The report also shows that Tether's financial result for the first half of this year was negative $3.2 billion. Given that the company reported a net profit of $1 billion in Q1, this suggests it may have recorded a loss of over $4 billion in Q2.

On a year-over-year basis, Tether's performance has also clearly weakened. The company's net profit for Q2 2025 was $4.9 billion, while its net operating profit for Q2 this year was $1.5 billion. Net operating profit typically excludes unrealized gains or losses resulting from price fluctuations in assets such as Bitcoin and gold.

Odaily News, Strategy Executive Chairman Michael Saylor said at the company's Q2 earnings call that while the company has previously allocated nearly "100% of its funds to Bitcoin," it may adopt a combined strategy of holding both cash and BTC going forward. He stated, "Perhaps the best way to buy the most Bitcoin is not to buy the most Bitcoin immediately."

TD Cowen and Benchmark both maintained their Buy ratings on Strategy following the Q2 earnings call. The two firms believe that the core goal of the company's current management has shifted toward bringing its STRC preferred stock price back to near par value, thereby restoring its ability to function as a financing tool.

TD Cowen analyst Lance Vitanza said the most important takeaway from the call was management's strong focus on STRC. Company executives repeatedly emphasized that restoring STRC to par value is the core objective, and noted that despite recent price deviations in the security, institutional adoption continues to rise.

Benchmark analyst Mark Palmer holds a similar view. He pointed out that Saylor and his team spent most of the 90-minute call focused on the same goal: restoring STRC to the $99–$100 range, making it once again the primary engine for the company to raise capital and purchase Bitcoin.