Plumes of smoke from wildfires in Canada are pouring into major US cities across the Midwest, Northeast and mid-Atlantic. Polluted air is affecting more than 100 million people and is creating concern ahead of Sunday’s World Cup final.
Published On 18 Jul 2026
The bankrupt cryptocurrency exchange FTX has announced it will launch its fifth round of creditor payments on July 31, 2026, as part of its restructuring plan. This distribution is expected to amount to approximately $900 million in total.
According to a statement by FTX Trading Ltd. and FTX Recovery Trust, payments will cover creditors with approved receivables in the Convenience and Non-Convenience classes under the restructuring plan who completed the necessary pre-distribution processes by the June 16 registration deadline.
Creditors who are entitled to receive payments are expected to collect the funds through their previously chosen service providers: BitGo, Kraken, or Payoneer. The distribution service providers are scheduled to transfer payments to accounts within one to three business days after July 31.
FTX also informed eligible preferred shareholders that a second payment round would be made on the same date.
Related News Market Expert ARK Invest Released a Detailed Report on Bitcoin: Have We Hit Bottom, or Are We Yet to See It?
As part of the fifth distribution, Class 5A credit holders representing Dotcom customer receivables will receive an additional 9% payment. This will bring the cumulative distribution rate for this class to 105%.
Class 5B, which covers US customer receivables, will receive a 5% payout, resulting in a total payout rate of 105%. Class 6A, which includes general unsecured receivables, and Class 6B, which includes digital asset loan receivables, will each receive a 3% payout. The total payout rate across these classes will reach 103%.
The cumulative distribution to claimants in the Class 7 Convenience Claims group, which includes smaller claims, will reach 120 percent.
FTX stated that customers and other payees who wish to participate in the distribution on future payment dates must complete the identity verification process, submit the necessary tax forms, and register with one of the BitGo, Kraken, or Payoneer platforms before the registration date.
The company stated that subsequent registration and payment dates will be announced at a later date.
*This is not investment advice.
Larry David has returned to HBO Max with the American history-centered sketch comedy show Life, Larry and the Pursuit of Unhappiness, following the conclusion of his long-running series Curb Your Enthusiasm — and it’s not just executive producers Barack and Michelle Obama who are along for the ride. Dozens of celebrity guests have joined the comedian to fill out the cast of historical figures.
This is not just a few cameos here and there — each episode of Life, Larry and the Pursuit of Unhappiness has over a dozen celebrity guests, and the roster ranges from a few of David’s co-stars on Curb to the late Rob Reiner, in what became his final screen performance. Major Hollywood stars including Samuel L. Jackson and Lin-Manuel Miranda don the wigs and garb of decades and centuries past alongside television’s biggest names, like Jerry Seinfeld and Jon Hamm. The Hollywood Reporter is watching the series closely to make sure all these stars are accounted for — after all, they deserve some credit for spending time working with L.D.
New episodes of Life, Larry and the Pursuit of Unhappiness air Friday nights at 9 p.m. on HBO and stream on HBO Max.
Episode 1 – “Livingston”
President Barack Obama as Himself; Samuel L. Jackson as The Narrator; Henry Winkler as John Hancock; Chris Parnell as Benjamin Franklin; Alan Tudyk as Thomas Jefferson; Alison Becker as Spectator 1; Mary Sohn as Spectator 2; Rodney J. Hobbs as Spectator 3; Richard Kind as Thomas Watson; Jake Reiner as Private Wallace; Mike Castle as Private Smith; Michael Chiklis as Sergeant; and Jurnee Smollett as Rosa Parks.
The series opens with an appearance by one of its EPs and a familiar face to all: former President Barack Obama, whose Higher Ground Productions is behind the historical sketch comedy show. Obama praises the nation he led for eight years as it reaches its semiquincentennial and dunks on David a bit — because why not? He’s America’s most beloved curmudgeon. The intro gives way to narration from Samuel L. Jackson, a go-to voiceover these days, giving Morgan Freeman a run for his money.
The first sketch has Winkler, Parnell and Tudyk as our founding fathers as they shut down the additions David’s Robert Livingston is trying to include in the grievances section of the Declaration of Independence. Next up, David portrays Alexander Graham Bell, forced to make awkward conversation with Curb cast member and national treasure Kind as Thomas Watson, as Bell debuts the telephone to a crowd of revelers already demanding text messaging and a variety of color options for the new invention. The annoying crowd features sitcom stalwarts Alison Becker (Parks and Recreation), Mary Sohn (A.P. Bio) and Rodney J. Hobbs (The Office, Modern Family).
The third sketch involves WWI trench warfare, where David portrays a cowardly soldier under the command of a sergeant, played by none other than The Shield‘s Michael Chiklis; his fellow soldiers are Comedy Bang Bang and Curb alum Mike Castle and Jake Reiner, the son of the late Rob Reiner (who also appeared on Curb). The premiere episode closes with David as an irritating bus passenger who sits next to famed civil rights icon Rosa Parks, perfectly cast with Jurnee Smollett in the role.
Episode 2 – “Farewell”
Samuel L. Jackson as The Narrator; Rita Wilson as Mavis Lewis; Jerry Seinfeld as William Clark; Matthew Jones as Tilden’s Aide; Rich Fulcher as Tilden’s Aide; Larry Wilmore as Barney; Kaley Cuoco as Gloria, the Widow; Colton Dunn as Dominic the Soup Server; Rob Reiner as George Washington; Jimmy Kimmel as Crowd Member; and Allan Havey as Crowd Member.
The second episode opens with a reunion between the two creators of the greatest sitcom of all time: Larry David and Jerry Seinfeld. The comedy duo behind the ’90s hit Seinfeld portrays explorers Lewis and Clark, whose landmark military mission, commissioned by President Thomas Jefferson, mapped the newly acquired Louisiana Territory and sought a water route to the Pacific Ocean. The gag is that the two are drinking buddies and it’s a bit too convenient they’re off to explore together for years on their own — as noted by Rita Wilson as Mavis Lewis, Meriwether Lewis’s long-suffering wife.
David then skewers the Electoral College as he portrays Samuel Tilden, who won the popular vote in the 1876 presidential election but fell one vote shy of an Electoral College majority, ultimately losing to Rutherford B. Hayes. Ranting ensues as Matthew Jones, a Curb alum, and Rich Fulcher of The Mighty Boosh portray his aides.
Next, in a Great Depression-set segment, David is joined by Larry Wilmore (formerly of late-night fame) and the incomparable Colton Dunn (Superstore, Parks and Recreation), and, in a series highlight, Kaley Cuoco as a grieving widow David is trying to use to cut in line for bread for his soup.
Finally, the episode ends with the much-talked-about final screen appearance of Rob Reiner; here he portrays George Washington as he discusses term limits for the U.S. presidency in front of a gathered crowd. It’s all a setup for David’s townsman to take veiled swipes at President Trump, who is not named but we all know who L.D. is talking about. Jimmy Kimmel delightfully turns up in some meta-commentary on his forever feud with Trump, too.
Episode 3 – “McCarthy”
Samuel L. Jackson as The Narrator; Lou DiMaggio as Colonial Man; Lin-Manuel Miranda as Michael Finney; Jordan Black as Samuel Cooper; Brad Morris as Joseph Warren; J.B. Smoove as Jonesy Dean Sharpe; Armoire Tru Valentino as Ottoman Jon Hamm as Orville Wright; Sean Hayes as Wilbur Wright; Michael McKean as Joseph Welch; and Rob Huebel as Senator Mundt.
The episode opens with David again playing his usual “guy caught up in a real historical moment” role as he crashes the Boston Tea Party [see flag No. 2 above]. Lin-Manuel Miranda, in fun stunt casting given his Broadway Revolutionary War pedigree from Hamilton, steals the scene as one of the Tea Party ringleaders. Comedian Lou DiMaggio appears too, playing off David’s character being left out of the rebellion.
Speaking of scene stealers, J.B. Smoove’s character Jonesey makes a stop along the Underground Railroad, flabbergasting David’s host with his demands and, soon, his arriving friends. Next, David plays a fictional, less-than-heroic Wright sibling squabbling with his wife (Isla Fisher) over her critique of his butter-churning skills, while Jon Hamm and Sean Hayes play the actual Orville and Wilbur Wright preparing for the first flight.
The episode’s closing and most talked-about segment features David himself playing Senator Joseph McCarthy. It also features Kids in the Hall alum Michael McKean as attorney Joseph Welch, delivering the famous “Have you no decency, sir?” rebuttal, and Rob Huebel (Human Giant, Transparent) as a senator helping moderate one of the infamous hearings.
Episode 4 – “Deepthroat”
Samuel L. Jackson as The Narrator; Beck Bennett as Bob Woodward; Ike Barinholtz as Henry Ford; Diallo Riddle as John Appleton; Katie Aselton as Sylvia Jordana Brewster; Beatrice Merle Dandridge as Clementine; Andrea Savage as Cordelia; Rory Scovel as Jefferson Davis; Judy Gold as Evelyn; Adam Lustick as Jonas Salk; and Gregg “Jeep” Perrie as Bobby.
The Watergate scandal gets the Larry David treatment: in the first sketch of the fourth episode, he portrays “Deep Throat,” the anonymous source who leaked details of the hotel break-in to Washington Post reporters. But David’s leaker doesn’t provide any useful information to SNL alum Beck Bennett’s Woodward when they meet in a parking lot — just trivial nonsense.
Next up, Ike Barinholtz plays the notoriously antisemitic Henry Ford, less than thrilled to be showing his new vehicle to David’s rabbi character. David then portrays President James Buchanan, hitting on each passing lady at a party where he’s introduced the concept of passed appetizers in lieu of dinner. Jordana Brewster of the Fast & Furious movies and The Other Two, and The League‘s Katie Aselton, are among the unfortunate ladies to cross his path; Diallo Riddle (Marlon, South Side) is Buchanan’s assistant, John Appleton.
The big talker of the episode is saved for the finale, with David reviving an old stand-up bit as the overly proud mother of Jonas Salk, Dora, bragging on her son to her neighbor Evelyn about his discovery of the polio vaccine. It gets personal as David mocks his former friend and former co-star Cheryl Hines’ husband, HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. Soon a young man named Bobby turns up to naysay, telling Dora Salk, “That vaccine’s gonna kill people. It’s gonna give them heart attacks!” A parody of the stark politics of the MMR vaccine ensues, as only David could script.
John Kirby, the longtime acting coach and son to Bruce Kirby, has died. He was 75.
Kirby died Wednesday three years after being diagnosed with ALS. His associate, Nathan Besbitt, confirmed his death on Instagram.
“I am here to officially, with a broken heart, announce the passing of our beloved John on the early morning hours of Wednesday, July 15, and it has been devastating for all of us, and we’re trying to just find a way to cope,” Besbitt said.
Kirby lent his talents as an acting coach to a number of projects across his career, and was a frequent collaborator with Jim Caviezel.
The two worked together on films including Frequency (2000); Pay It Forward (2000); Angel Eyes (2001); The Count of Monte Cristo (2002); High Crimes (2002); I Am David (2003); The Final Cut (2004); Bobby Jones: Stroke of Genius (2004); Unknown (2006); and Paul, Apostle of Christ (2018). Kirby also served as Caviezel’s acting coach for the 2009 miniseries The Prisoner.
His additional credits tied to coaching include 2003’s Peter Pan, The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, Outlander, Hotel California, Scream 4, Stick It and Prom.
Kirby’s family was connected within the entertainment industry, with The Muppet Movie actor Bruce Kirby being his father. His brother, Bruno Kirby, also pursued acting, appearing in City Slickers, Good Morning, Vietnam and When Harry Met Sally…, among others.
The acting coach was diagnosed with ALS on June 7, 2023, after experiencing symptoms a year prior. He suffered a hard fall that resulted in a hip fracture on June 1 of the same year which led to his diagnosis.
A celebration of life will be held on Aug. 15 at the Hall of Liberty Forest Lawn Hollywood Hills, and is open to the public.
The beef between Tom Brady and Logan Paul continues.
On Friday, the future NFL Hall of Famer and YouTuber-turned-WWE superstar shared the stage at Fanatics Fest in New York. But when their panel ended, the sports stars got into a heated exchange that ended with Brady slapping Paul in the face. New York Knicks star Karl-Anthony Towns and Chris Costa quickly stepped in to help break things up before things got out of hand.
Fanatics posted the clip on social media — with Brady, Paul, WWE and the NFL as collaborators on Instagram — and the footage went viral instantly, with more than 17.5 million views on Instagram and 6.9 million on X.
Brady and Paul’s feud began in February when Paul said his WWE career made him as athletic as NFL players, which Brady, a seven-time Super Bowl champ, did not appreciate. The pair continued trash-talking one another ahead of and during the Fanatics Flag Football Classic in March.
For the Fanatics Fest dustup, the audio of the sports stars’ heated conversation is largely inaudible, so Paul hopped online to offer his side of the story.
“This happened bc I was roasting Tom for beating him in flag football. And he tries to smack me?? Horrible example for the kids,” Paul wrote on X, reposting a clip of the incident. “Aura -100,” he added. “Blocked. With a torn tricep.”
Brady kept his explanation short and sweet, firing back with one word: “Dork.” He also replied to Paul directly, commenting, “I tried America… will try again next time I see this nerd.”
Many commenters wondered if the altercation was staged. Paul is a professional wrestler, after all, and, on Thursday, Brady expressed his interest in getting into the WWE.
“I need to get an invite. I’ve been waiting for [WWE president] Nick Khan to come up with some storyline for me to get in the mix,” Brady told WWE superstar Cody Rhodes during a live taping of the “What Do You Wanna Talk About?” podcast at Fantastics Fest. “I feel like I’m retired from football, and I have an opportunity to go out there and still showcase that I’m a little bit of an athlete. My boy [Rob Gronkowski’s] done it. I’ve seen, obviously, Logan Paul do it. I think I could get in there for at least one match, right?”
And if Brady were to enter the ring, he said he’d probably be a heel. “I’ve always been a bad guy,” he said, explaining that because he was usually on winning teams, the opposing fans loved to hate him. “When you go on the road and you’ve had some success in the NFL, they don’t like you. It’s an incredible feeling when you work that entire day to basically try to send the crowd home early.”
So, will Brady and Paul eventually work things out in the WWE ring? That remains to be seen, but Brady certainly got the first lick in.
Chris Costa, Wesley Sneijder, Tom Brady, Karl-Anthony Towns and Logan Paul onstage during the “This is Why We Collect” panel at Fanatics Fest NYC 2026.
John Nacion/Getty Images for Fanatics
The president of France’s National Gambling Authority instructed the country’s internet service providers to block access to Polymarket on July 16, according to a statement issued by the authority on Friday.
The order escalates France’s November 2024 action, when regulators barred financial transactions from French accounts to the site. Even that did not stop traffic. According to the ANJ, Polymarket drew 578,751 visits and 205,057 unique visitors from France in June, French media reported.
Advertising, by any means whatsoever, in favour of an unauthorised betting or gambling site is a criminal offence, with fines reaching €100,000 ($114,000).
– ANJ
The move pushes French law enforcement from the transactional level to the network level. According to the order issued in November 2024, the French banks had to block any transactions to Polymarket, but people would still be able to access the website and see the odds. That reading pattern is what the ANJ now classifies as illegal advertising, per the regulator’s statement.
The novel legal theory here is that the mere display of market prices in real-time to French citizens constitutes solicitation for participation in an illegal gambling market. According to this theory, mere accessibility becomes the crime. The regulator said the site would remain blocked “for as long as authorities considered the platform noncompliant with the country’s gambling regulations.”
As of last month, Polymarket has generated over $1 billion in annualized revenue through activities predominantly based outside of the 33+ jurisdictions that have banned it.
The France crackdown started with a single French trader who placed roughly $30 million in bets on the 2024 US presidential election. As Cryptopolitan earlier reported, the ANJ opened its formal investigation in November 2024, and Polymarket responded by implementing IP-based geo-blocking that displays a restricted-jurisdiction notice to French users. Bettors kept accessing the platform through VPNs.
France’s national weather agency Meteo-France filed a criminal complaint in April 2026 after one of its weather probes was hacked in an attempt to manipulate weather-related bets on Polymarket.
Similar concerns are running through parallel enforcement in the US, where a soldier was recently charged with using classified information about the January operation to capture former Venezuelan president Nicolás Maduro to place bets on prediction markets, allegedly netting more than $400,000.
The White House said Thursday it suspended a teleprompter operator over allegations of placing prediction market bets.
France’s escalation occurs three days after the CFTC used its emergency powers to trump a decision by a Michigan state court to void the executed trades of Kalshi. The two sets of regulatory approaches to prediction markets have officially diverged.
France, Spain, Netherlands, Belgium, Germany, Italy, Portugal, Switzerland, Brazil, Indonesia, Singapore, South Korea, and Japan have moved to block or restrict access, per Cryptopolitan’s June coverage of the FIFA World Cup crackdown.
The US Commodity Futures Trading Commission has moved the opposite direction, defending federally registered prediction platforms from state-level enforcement while writing new rules to expand event-contract trading.
Polymarket finds itself on that dividing line.
The legal jurisdiction of Polymarket is getting narrower, but at the same time, its profits are growing. It was this very contradiction that French regulators found to be unreasonable in the Friday ruling: the website was still making money and attracting French users without using French payment systems.
Bollywood stars Ahaan Panday and Aneet Padda visited London’s Wembley Stadium to celebrate the first anniversary of “Saiyaara,” unveiling a collector’s edition vinyl LP of the Yash Raj Films blockbuster – a package built to give fans and music enthusiasts a definitive way to revisit the film’s complete sonic journey.
“Saiyaara,” directed by Mohit Suri and produced by YRF CEO Akshaye Widhani, grossed over INR580 crore ($69 million) worldwide and is credited as the highest-grossing love story in Indian cinema history.
The choice of Wembley as the launch venue carries direct resonance with the film itself. In one of “Saiyaara’s” pivotal scenes, Panday’s character Krish Kapoor spots Padda’s Vaani Batra on the stadium’s giant screen, recognizing her by her eyes alone; the film’s finale concert sequence also unfolds at the same venue.
The release is a two-disc set. LP-1 compiles all nine tracks from the soundtrack, while LP-2 expands the listening experience with 25 recordings: 16 original background score compositions and nine of the film’s most prominent dialogue sequences. The collector’s package is rounded out by a “Saiyaara” diary containing notes from director Suri, producer Widhani, stars Panday and Padda, and music contributors including Tanishk Bagchi, Faheem Abdullah, Arslan Nizami, Irshad Kamil, The Rish, Vishal Mishra, Raj Shekhar, Sachet-Parampara, Mithoon and John Stewart Eduri. Also included are an ink pen reminiscent of Vaani’s notebook from the film and two character bookmarks depicting Krish and Vaani.
Widhani said: “‘Saiyaara’ was a deeply personal film for us because it marked our return to romance, a genre that has always defined YRF and inspired some of our most sweeping love stories. We wanted to deliver not just a film but also a music album that is timeless in this genre and I have to thank Mohit Suri for delivering this in spades. As we celebrate ‘Saiyaara’s’ first anniversary, we are delighted to mark the occasion with the launch of an exclusive collector’s edition Vinyl LP, giving fans and music lovers the ultimate ‘Saiyaara’ listening experience through its music, it’s sounds and its dialogues. We wanted to create something that they could own, revisit and treasure for years to come, a definitive keepsake that preserves the complete emotional journey of ‘Saiyaara’.”
Suri added: “Music is the soul of any love story – be it in life or in films. With ‘Saiyaara,’ I felt that even more. The depth in Krish and Vaani’s relationship, the everlasting feeling, the innocence, and the magic wouldn’t be the same without the songs. I am truly grateful and overwhelmed for the love people have shown the film because of its music. Vaani said ‘The mind forgets but the heart doesn’t, and great music stays in the heart…. forever.’ And it’s amazing that the music has stayed with you long after the film. The feeling is surreal, because the core of ‘Saiyaara’ was always the fact that a song has the power to take you back to a moment, bring back a memory… bring back love. That’s why this LP isn’t just a collection of tracks. It’s a chance for people to experience the film all over again – one emotion, one melody, and one memory at a time. We thought very carefully about every single aspect of this record to bring your ‘Saiyaara’ experience back to life! I really hope you love it.”
The “Saiyaara” collector’s edition vinyl LP will be available to buyers worldwide.
Pump.fun transferred another 81,712 $SOL, worth roughly $6.15 million, to crypto exchange Kraken on July 18, 2026, according to on-chain analyst EmberCN. On its own, the move is just another wallet transfer. But in the context of slowing memecoin activity and weakening Solana network revenue, it offers another glimpse into how one of crypto’s biggest success stories is changing.
Amidst the memecoin trend, Pump.fun emerged as one of the most popular apps on Solana, turning over millions in fees as users created and traded tokens. As trading opportunity slows down, however, the application continues to convert part of its revenue into cash through transfers to Kraken.
As estimated by EmberCN, Pump.fun has reportedly sold approximately 4.81 million $SOL tokens in the period between January 2024 and July 18, 2026. This translates to sales of around $812 million, with each token being sold at an average cost of $168.70. Together with this milestone, Pump.fun is now reputed to be among the top players in the field of long-term $SOL selling in the current walking stick.
The latest transaction is part of an emerging pattern, not an isolated incident. According to its X account, Pump.fun launched in January 2024, charging a trading fee of 1% for the swap of tokens. This business strategy has proved to be highly successful in the heyday of the memecoin boom.
According to CoinMarketCap, Pump.fun has generated more than $1 billion in cumulative revenue since its launch, including approximately $664 million in 2025 alone. The platform also produced about $124.7 million in revenue during the first quarter of 2026, underscoring the success of its 1% fee-based business model despite a broader cooling of the memecoin market.
When examined closely, the figure put out by EmberCN is much lower than that provided by DefiLlama. This difference is due to the fact that they measure different aspects.
In other terms, both sets of figures show different information. EmberCN sees the figures of actual sales of $SOL, while DefiLlama evaluates the total fee income and revenue of the protocol.
Pump.fun‘s slowdown is also becoming visible at the network level.
According to an article published on June 16, 2026, by The Block, the platform suffered 80% decline in activity over the past three months. Average revenue per day in June dropped to around $800,000 compared to approximately $4.8 million six months before. Furthermore, only 0.26% of the newly issued tokens managed to reach the market capitalization sufficient to reach other exchanges.
The downturn is about more than merely a reduced interest in memecoins. Traders have been switching to perpetual futures protocols such as Hyperliquid, leading to a reduced amount of on-chain activity that had once made Solana one of the most active networks in crypto. Whenever there is one application that leads to a significant portion of blockchain activity, a slowdown in its usage will also affect the economics of the blockchain.
As per The Block, the price of PUMP has reduced by nearly 40% over past six months and DefiLlama has suggested that as of July 18, 2026, the token is priced at nearly $0.0016, considerably lesser than its peak value of $0.0088. The total market cap of the token is around $655 million.
The difference is quite striking when we consider how quickly the interest of investors in the project increased. According to CoinMarketCap, Pump.fun managed to raise $600 million in an ICO that was finished in just 12 minutes.
The overall concept of Pump.fun has come under fire as well. According to STORM Partners, Pump.fun is the center of the memecoin boom of 2024-2025, with estimates suggesting the platform is responsible for releasing approximately 11 million tokens by mid-2025. However, in the end, just under 1% of released tokens actually make it to exchanges, such as Raydium. During spikes of activity, this constant stream of new tokens translates to significant profits. However, now that the trading activity has eased up, the same model has become reliant on decreasing activity levels.
The question that follows is whether or not Pump.fun is going to continue selling $SOL at this rate even as protocol revenue slows down and whether Solana’s network activity starts picking up steady pace.
According to the wallet tracking by EmberCN, as far as July 18, 2026, Pump.fun still sends $SOL to Kraken from time to time. Such transfers will surely continue being an essential indicator, but they are just part of the total situation. It is DefiLlama’s revenue stats and Solana’s network fee metrics that will tell us better whether user activity stops slowing down and whether the memecoin boom that helped the blockchain achieve astonishing growth is still continuing to fade away.
Russia is preparing to tighten oversight of foreign stablecoins through a new cryptocurrency regulation bill that would limit who can purchase the assets. The government’s final draft introduces a separate legal framework for stablecoins, separating them from traditional cryptocurrencies and restricting access for most retail investors.
The proposal comes in addition to a separate initiative from the Central Bank of Russia to place all stablecoin transactions under state supervision.
The current version of Bill No. 1194918-8, titled On Digital Currencies and Digital Rights, changes how stablecoins are classified under Russian law.
Earlier drafts treated stablecoins the same as cryptocurrencies, allowing qualified retail investors to purchase them after completing the required testing. The updated proposal, however, identifies stablecoins as a separate category since they are issued by identifiable entities and include redemption obligations to token holders.
According to the draft, a stablecoin holder has the right to request that the issuer redeem the token at its face value in cash. The legislation states that this characteristic sets apart stablecoins from decentralized cryptocurrencies, which generally have no issuer or contractual obligation to investors.
The new bill outlines two additional legal concepts for foreign digital financial products. The first category covers foreign digital instruments, defined as rights issued under foreign law through foreign information systems, including tokenized assets.
The second introduces non-deliverable foreign digital instruments that certify monetary claims and enable financial settlements without transferring the underlying asset.
Under the proposed framework, only professional or qualified investors would be allowed to purchase foreign digital instruments. Retail investors would instead be limited to products specifically approved and listed by the Bank of Russia.
The legislative changes follow separate proposals released by the Central Bank of Russia at the end of June outlining how stablecoins could operate under regulatory oversight.
The regulator proposed that all stablecoin transactions be conducted under state supervision through licensed exchanges or authorized cryptocurrency exchange offices. Under the proposal, operators of information systems would ease transactions involving Russian-issued digital tokens, while licensed crypto exchangers would handle transactions involving foreign stablecoins.
Central Bank Governor Elvira Nabiullina also stated that the regulator remains concerned about foreign stablecoins because their issuers have the ability to freeze assets held in users’ wallets.
Related: Russia Moves to Monitor Every Crypto Transaction Above 60,000 Rubles
Tom Brady and Logan Paul shared a stage at Fanatics Fest in New York on Friday, and when their panel ended, an alleged beef heated up and boiled over into an exchange that ended with a slap to the face.
Or did it?
A clip posted on Fanatics’ X account showed the moment Brady and Paul faced off near center stage while exchanging what appeared to be spicy words. Brady then removes his hand from the pocket of his camouflage cargo pants and moves to strike. At first glance, it appears Brady slapped Paul across the face, but closer inspection shows that Brady’s hand missed the target and only made contact with Paul’s shoulder. At that moment, New York Knicks star Karl-Anthony Towns jumped in to break up the “fight.” See the clip below.
“This happened [because] I was roasting Tom for beating him in flag football. And he tries to smack me??” Paul replied on X, referring to their dust-up during another Fanatics event, the 2026 Fanatics Flag Football Classic back in March. “Horrible example for the kids.” Brady weighed in, too, calling Paul a “dork” and replying directly to Paul’s X post by saying, “I tried America…will try again next time I see this nerd.”
Needless to say, the original Fanatics clip went viral and within three hours had been viewed more than five million times. Maybe that was the point all along? After rising to fame as an influencer, YouTube content creator and entrepreneur, Paul took his act to the WWE. He’s been signed to the entertainment company since 2022, and has emerged as a big star in the ring though he’s been sidelined for two months due a torn tricep.
During an appearance on ESPN’s First Take, Paul discussed his current status by saying, “I’m an independent contractor with the WWE, and I respect the WWE. In fact, I’m so grateful for what they’ve done, and honestly, they’re grateful for me too because of what I’ve done for the business. And they are. They pay me handsomely — extremely handsomely, may I add.”
Maybe some of the money is heading Brady’s way? He dropped some not-so-veiled hints that a debut in the ring could be on the horizon. “I feel like, I’m retired from football, have the opportunity to go out there and showcase that I’m still a little bit of an athlete. My boy [Rob Gronkowski’s] done it, I’ve seen Logan Paul do it. I think I could get in there for at least one match, right?” Brady asked during an appearance at Fanatics Fest on Thursday, per Bleacher Report.
The legendary quarterback went so far as to say that he’d love to be a heel, aka villain or bad guy. “It’s such an easy choice,” Brady said. “I’m a bad guy. I’ve always been a bad guy. I mean, I feel like when our teams did really well, I would always go into these stadiums and I would feel that. … When you go on the road and you’ve had some success in the NFL, they don’t like you. It’s an incredible feeling when you work that entire day to basically try to send the crowd home early.”
There are some major WWE events on the calendar — including WWE Saturday Night’s Main Event XLV tomorrow at New York’s Madison Square Garden — so it’s possible Brady could be in some spandex very soon. But as far as the slap goes, even Grok wasn’t convinced.