U.S. cotton futures finished higher on Thursday, with weekly performance mixed as the December contract gained 74 points while the Jul 26 front-month fell 71 points on the day to 72.57 cents/lb. USDA data showed 49,001 RB of 2025/26 export sales in the week of 6/25, a 7-week low, alongside 44,117 RB of new-crop sales, also a 7-week low, according to the agency’s Export Sales report. The U.S. dollar index slipped to 100.650. In the cash market, the Seam average price was 68.63 cents/lb, the Cotlook A Index rose to 85.55 cents, and the Adjusted World Price fell to 61.94 cents/lb.

WSOP Chief Executive Officer Ty Stewart said the organization is working with Solana and the Solana Institute to enable frictionless payouts for poker tournaments worldwide in the not-too-distant future. He described the goal as making tournament prize payments seamless, pointing to on-chain settlement as a potential rail for payouts.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has upgraded a recall of certain Utz Quality Foods potato chips under its Zapp’s and Dirty brands to a Class I event, citing a seasoning ingredient that may contain salmonella-contaminated dry milk powder. The affected products were sold nationwide and include multiple flavors with “Best By” dates running through Aug. 31, 2026. Utz said it initiated the recall voluntarily out of an abundance of caution and has not received any illness reports. The company said it is working with the FDA as part of an ongoing investigation.

Reports say that, as FTX’s bankruptcy liquidation advances, its custodians are preparing to un-stake about $800 million worth of SOL. The tokens were previously locked in staking and will be freely tradable once un-staked, according to reports. Market participants are watching the pace of potential selling and the market’s ability to absorb the supply. The event is described as a confirmed, non-routine, high-value SOL unlock and does not involve other major cryptocurrencies or cross-chain mechanisms.

MemeCore (M) surged 80% in a single day, pushing its market capitalization to just under $2 billion and positioning it as the third-largest meme coin, putting pressure on Shiba Inu (SHIB). The move follows a 76% drop and manipulation allegations, though the team said an internal and on-chain review found nothing suspicious. Technical indicators show an RSI of 82, and multiple analysts have publicly questioned the project, including claims that insiders control more than 90% of the supply. Bitcoin rose 4% and Solana gained 9% over the same period, while M’s sharp swings and negative chatter may weigh on the meme segment in the short term.

A group of international shareholders has urged Australia’s federal government and the governments of South Australia and Tasmania not to provide additional subsidies to Trafigura, which owns Nyrstar. The shareholders point to a Belgian criminal investigation involving Nyrstar NV that includes allegations of forgery, false annual accounts and misuse of corporate assets. Nyrstar’s Australian operations are losing $15 million per month, and Trafigura has warned it could shut the Port Pirie and Hobart smelters unless more funding is provided. Governments have already provided $240 million in public funding, but the shareholders say the legal risks remain, according to ABC News.

Ripple has helped launch Open USD, a consortium, dollar-pegged stablecoin backed by Visa, Mastercard, BlackRock, Coinbase and Google. The announcement said XRP is “perfectly positioned” to move shared liquidity within the stablecoin’s ecosystem.

More than $31 million worth of XRP has been moved off exchanges to private wallets over the past 72 hours, reflecting continued off-exchange accumulation by large holders. Separately, the XRP Ledger has officially launched a payment rewards ecosystem that lets users earn rewards in $REAL from purchases at Shopify, Amazon, and Walmart. REAL is the ecosystem’s native incentive token and is available for trading on DEX and MEXC. The report does not list XRP as a rewards payout token, though it describes XRPL as the settlement layer underpinning the program.