Retail investors are slowing their pace of buying US equities, with net purchases totaling $13 billion over the past month, marking the lowest level since 2020.

Iran’s Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei stated in a written address on July 11 that Iran will continue to adhere to the political line of late Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, safeguard the country’s independence and sovereignty, and will not alter its established policy direction following the death of the leader. He once again identified the United States and Israel as responsible parties for the killing of the late Supreme Leader and other victims, noting Iran will continue to pursue accountability and emphasized it will take retaliatory action. He added that holding those responsible for the victims accountable is a common demand of the Iranian people, a goal that will not change amid leadership shifts. (CCTV International News)

According to Iran's Fars News Agency, sources close to Iran's negotiation team said reports by some media outlets close to the Israeli regime claiming Iran has requested negotiations with the U.S. are false. Iran has not made any request for talks with the U.S., and will not engage in any negotiations until the U.S. withdraws its stance.

Tom Lee, chairman of BitMine — the largest Ethereum treasury — stated that traditional finance (TradFi) and the cryptocurrency market will eventually merge into a single market. He added that his strong bullish conviction in ETH and the Ethereum blockchain has remained consistent over the past six years, reaffirming his long-term bullish stance.

Since the resumption of hostilities between the U.S. and Iran this week, transit volumes through the Strait of Hormuz have dropped significantly. According to Kpler data, Thursday’s transit volume fell to 22 vessels from 30 the previous day. Local time on Tuesday, Iran targeted vessels in the strait (including a damaged Qatari LNG carrier), sparking renewed clashes between the two sides. Since the reciprocal attacks on Tuesday, only two LNG carriers have entered the strait, while one has exited. After the U.S. and Iran signed an agreement on June 17 to launch negotiations to end the conflict, transit volumes had risen briefly, peaking a few days later before the ceasefire was broken. Shipping brokerage Braemar LNG said in a client report on Friday that shipowners, acting with caution, have withdrawn available capacity from the region "until the geopolitical situation becomes clearer". This move has reduced the number of available vessels and pushed up transportation costs.

Robinhood has officially announced that its AI agent feature is expanding into the cryptocurrency trading space. Eligible U.S. users will be able to connect third-party AI agents to execute crypto asset trades, co-develop trading strategies with the AI agents, and set specific risk limits, eliminating the need for continuous account monitoring. The platform also disclosed that since launching the beta version of its AI agent feature for stock and options trading, more than 70,000 "agentic accounts" have been created to date, though it has not yet revealed an official launch timeline for the crypto-focused AI agent trading function.

Recent reports say Tencent is in discussions to become the largest shareholder of Manus, a general-purpose AI agent company. According to the reports, a Chinese capital group led by Tencent will repurchase all of Manus’ equity from Meta at a valuation of around $2 billion. Reporters from Southern Metropolis Daily reached out to Tencent for confirmation, but the company had no response as of press time. Another insider familiar with the matter revealed that after the transaction, Tencent will remain a minority shareholder and will not hold a controlling stake.