⚠️ SparkKitty malware hidden in mobile apps scans photos for crypto wallet seed phrases

SparkKitty, a cross-platform malware family targeting cryptocurrency users, has been distributed through Apple's App Store, Google Play and third-party Android app stores, according to Check Point.

SparkKitty spreads through trojanized applications masquerading as cryptocurrency services, messaging platforms and entertainment apps, scanning photo libraries for sensitive data like seed phrases, passwords, and QR codes before sending it to attacker-controlled servers.

❗️The report recommends avoiding screenshots of wallet recovery phrases, restricting photo library permissions to applications that require them, downloading software only from trusted sources, and reviewing application permissions regularly. It also advises storing recovery phrases offline, not in photo galleries.

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⚡️🤖 Recursive Signs $410 Million, Multi-Year Collaboration with AWS to Scale Self-Improving AI

Recursive announced a multi-year, $410 million agreement with Amazon Web Services (AWS) to run its automated AI research system on AWS as its cloud provider. Recursive is building AI that conducts experiments on how to safely improve itself, in an open-ended process of automated scientific discovery.

"Partnering with AWS gives us the infrastructure to run self-improving AI research at a scale very few teams in the world are capable of," — said Richard Socher, CEO and co-founder of Recursive. "Recursive self-improving AI represents one of the biggest shifts ahead for humanity."

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July 27: 🇷🇺Bank of Russia drafts first regulations to launch cryptocurrency market in Russia

The Bank of Russia has created conditions for organised trading in digital currencies and digital rights. Each exchange will set out the trading mode in its rules as well as calculate the market and weighted average prices for these instruments.

Furthermore, the regulator has developed requirements for digital depositories. These new market participants, which will keep records of cryptocurrencies and digital rights, should have minimum equity of ₽50 million–₽250 million.

The exact equity amount will depend on the nature of a digital depository’s activity, e.g. whether it plans to work with open distributed ledgers or provide post-trade settlement services. The assets making up the equity should be liquid, and the financial assets included therein should be of high credit quality. Similar requirements apply to electronic platform operators, whose functions will be performed by information system operators. The latter will settle digital financial asset transactions using nominal accounts.

The regulator has also established rules for recording digital currencies and digital rights as well as the composition of data on deponents, persons receiving access to the system, and recorded assets. Moreover, the Bank of Russia has set requirements for the opening and maintenance of digital and other accounts. Actually, digital depositories will operate on the same principles as traditional securities depositories.

The Bank of Russia will keep the registerof digital depositories.

All draft regulations have been published for regulatory impact assessment.

https://www.cbr.ru/eng/press/event/?id=32732

🍏 Apple launches official program for leasing Macs as AI price crunch bites

Following price hikes on the Mac and iPad due to the ongoing memory and storage crisis, Apple has announced a new leasing program, Apple Upgrade. The new offering will be "provided" by Klarna and available in Apple Stores in the U.S. There will be 24- and 36-month leasing options for the Mac and iPad, while the iPhone and Watch will have 12- and 24-month options.

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❤️Tesla and Zelestra Agree to a Long-term Solar PPA in Texas

Tesla has signed a 140 MWac power purchase agreement (PPA) with Spanish renewable energy company Zelestra for electricity from a planned solar project in northeast Texas, expanding their existing renewable energy partnership into the US.

The agreement covers power from Zelestra’s Lumen Farm solar project, which is located in northeast Texas. Zelestra expects to begin construction in 2027 and bring the project into full operation by 2029.

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⚡️🇺🇸 Trump administration to ban new Chinese robots and inverters, protecting U.S. AI

The Trump administration on Tuesday plans to unveil new bans that target imports of ⁠the latest ‌Chinese robots and power inverters, seeking ⁠to protect the U.S. AI buildout from national security threats and reshore key industries slated for explosive growth.

The FCC ‌on Tuesday afternoon plans to roll out the measures, which bar Chinese imports of new humanoid and ​quadruped robots — in addition to connected power inverters, which enable renewable energy sources and batteries to connect to grids and data center equipment, the people said.

“The President has made clear that the U.S. must have independent and secure supply chains ⁠for critical and emerging technologies like robotic devices and power inverters,” said an administration official.

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🇨🇦📱 X clears a key regulatory step to bring X Money to Canada

X Payments Canada Inc. is now a registered Payment Service Provider with the Bank of Canada under the Retail Payment Activities Act, effective July 14.

Combined with its earlier FINTRAC money services business registration from April, X now holds both major Canadian approvals needed to offer payments, money transfers and wallet or peer to peer features.

The remaining steps before a public Canadian rollout are mainly operational. 🚀

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🤑 Denelle Dixon, CEO of the Stellar Development Foundation: “Boring is a feature“

For financial infrastructure, being called “boring” is actually high praise. Not boring as in stagnant, boring as in reliable: the system behaves tomorrow the way it behaved today, so the people who depend on it don’t have to think about it.

Surprises grab headlines, but “no surprises” gives you something you can build on.

For twelve years, the Stellar network has behaved exactly this way: each day like the one before it. That isn’t luck. It’s design — and it shows most clearly in what the network protects when things go wrong.

➡️ The question execs are actually asking:

An exec advocating adoption of a network is not asking what’s interesting about it.🔣They’re asking what could go wrong, and on whose timeline.

On a network engineered for the absence of surprise, the answer is a short list, and that short list is what makes the network defensible as infrastructure.

❗️This is why the Depository Trust and Clearing Corporation, the entity at the center of US capital markets, announced plans to connect its tokenization service to Stellar. Not because the chain was exciting. Because the chain was reliable.

➡️ Boring is the innovation

None of this means the innovation stopped. In fact, boring means that innovation is happening all along, but thoughtfully, critically, and with consistency in mind — so the people building on top never have to feel it. The network changes; the ground under your feet does not.

Ten years from now, the test of a network will be the same as the test today: Did it stay the same long enough for the things built on top of it to remain true? 🤔

The networks that pass will not look exciting on a feed. They will look the same as they always did. That is the feature. 🚀

#Stellar

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