[News Brief] Jul 10, morning | Circle Receives Final OCC Approval to Establish a National Trust Bank

U.S. Spot BTC and ETH ETFs See Net Outflows Together

According to Wu Blockchain, U.S. spot Bitcoin ETFs recorded total net outflows of $95.3 million on July 9 (U.S. Eastern Time).

On the same day, spot Ethereum ETFs also posted net outflows of $52.08 million, ending a five-trading-day streak of net inflows.

$1.907 Billion in BTC and ETH Options Expire Today on Deribit

According to Deribit data, approximately $1.907 billion worth of Bitcoin and Ethereum options will expire today at 16:00.

The notional value of BTC options stands at about $1.43 billion, with a put/call ratio of 0.98 and a max pain price of $62,000.

ETH options have a notional value of about $237 million, a put/call ratio of 1.21, and a max pain price of $1,700.

Short-term volatility may increase around major strike prices before and after the options expiry.

Circle Receives Final OCC Approval to Establish a National Trust Bank

According to Odaily, Circle shares rose more than 6% in premarket trading to $66.8.

Circle has received final approval from the U.S. Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) to establish a national trust bank. The approval is related to Circle’s expansion of regulated financial services in the United States.

Boyaa Interactive Buys Additional 108 BTC

According to Odaily, Hong Kong-listed company Boyaa Interactive disclosed that it purchased an additional 108 Bitcoin (BTC).

Following the purchase, Boyaa Interactive’s total BTC holdings increased to 4,201. The company has continued accumulating Bitcoin after previously adding it to its treasury assets.

ETH Breaks Above 1,800 USDT

According to Odaily, ETH rose above 1,800 USDT based on OKX market data.

ETH is currently trading at 1,800.39 USDT, with a 24-hour gain of 2.73%.

BTC Falls Below $63,000

BTC fell below the $63,000 level on July 10.

According to PANews, citing OKX market data, BTC traded at $62,997.90, with a daily gain of 0.22%.

Polymarket Seeks Regulatory Approval for Margin Trading in the U.S.

Polymarket has begun seeking regulatory approval to offer margin trading in the United States. If approved, users would be able to participate in prediction market trading with less initial capital.

According to PANews, citing Bloomberg, Polymarket submitted an application for futures commission merchant registration through its affiliate, Coming Home GBA LLC, to the National Futures Association.

To offer less-than-fully-collateralized trading, approval under relevant U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) rules is also required. Polymarket confirmed the license application.

Margin trading is considered an important factor in attracting institutional investors. Earlier this year, Kalshi obtained a futures commission merchant license and launched perpetual contracts, surpassing $5.5 billion in trading volume within two weeks.

If the application is approved, Polymarket users will need to complete additional identity verification procedures, including submitting employer information.

Hyperliquid and Phantom Urge CFTC to Reform Rules for On-Chain Trading Infrastructure

Hyperliquid and non-custodial wallet Phantom submitted comment letters to the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) calling for regulatory reform of on-chain trading infrastructure, according to Odaily.

They argued that current CFTC rules are designed for traditional financial systems centered on centralized intermediaries and are not suitable for DeFi. They proposed that developers of on-chain trading protocol software should not need to register as exchanges or clearing agencies, and that non-custodial wallet frontends should not have to register as introducing brokers.

They also added that regulated entities should be allowed to use blockchain technology to carry out trading and clearing functions. Previously, the CFTC and the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) requested industry feedback in June regarding regulations affecting financial innovation.

Long-Term July Bullish Pattern in ETH Revisited

According to Odaily, Stephen Ehrlich, head of research at SharpLink, said Ethereum (ETH) was off to a strong start in July 2026, gaining about 11%.

He explained that over the past 10 years, ETH rose in July in four instances, with an average gain of about 43% during those periods. Since 2020, July has also been ETH’s strongest month in terms of average monthly performance, with an average gain of around 27%.

Ehrlich said ETH’s July strength lies not simply in volatility, but in the asymmetry between upside and downside moves. When ETH rose in July, the average gain was about 43%, while the average decline in down years from 2020 to 2025 was only about 5%.

Historically, ETH’s rise in July 2020 was driven by DeFi Summer and the launch of Compound’s COMP token, while the July 2022 rebound was supported by confirmation of the Ethereum Merge timeline. In July 2025, the signing of the U.S. GENIUS Act, spot ETH ETF inflows, increased corporate ETH purchases, and declining exchange balances combined to support the market.

Ehrlich said key variables for July 2026 include institutional infrastructure buildout, Ethereum roadmap upgrades, and continued corporate ETH accumulation. EthLabs and Ethereum Institutional were recently launched, with SharpLink, BitMine, and Joe Lubin participating in the ecosystem.

He also noted that Vitalik Buterin’s “Lean Ethereum” plan, proposed on July 4, aims over the next three to four years to simplify Ethereum’s structure, improve processing speed, and strengthen quantum resistance. SharpLink currently holds 886,725 ETH and said it bought an additional 10,000 ETH last week.

Ethereum Foundation Conducts Security Red-Team Testing With AI Agents

According to Odaily, researchers from the Ethereum Foundation’s protocol security team said in a blog post that they are using AI agents to red-team test software that depends on Ethereum.

AI agents were used to identify vulnerabilities in cryptographic systems, protocol code, and smart contracts. In the process, a remotely triggerable panic issue was discovered in libp2p gossipsub, the P2P layer of Ethereum consensus clients.

The vulnerability has been fixed and disclosed on GitHub as CVE-2026-34219. The researchers explained that they assigned AI agents to roles such as reconnaissance, exploration, refinement, and verification to identify possible attack paths, reproduce failures, and confirm whether findings could be applied to real code.

The Ethereum Foundation said AI is not replacing security researchers, but is changing workflows by broadening the scope of review. It added, however, that researchers must be more cautious in evaluating plausible-sounding conclusions generated by AI.