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KARATE COMBAT ANNOUNCES UP, A NEW LAYER 2 BLOCKCHAIN AND CRYPTO-NATIVE LICENSING PLATFORM BUILT ON HEDERA

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The league also announces a 3-year strategic contract renewal with HBAR Foundation, maintaining its exclusivity as Karate Combat’s sole blockchain sponsor

GRAND CAYMAN, Cayman Islands, Oct. 11, 2024 /PRNewswire/ — Karate Combat, crypto‘s first sport and the world’s leading professional striking league, is launching UP, a Layer 2 blockchain and crypto-native software licensing platform built on Hedera, in Q1 2025. 

Karate Combat’s Up Only Gaming software stack allows $KARATE token holders to earn additional tokens, by accurately predicting Karate Combat fight outcomes. The platform has grown to 100,000  users in just over a  year. 

The software stack includes native iOS and android mobile apps, a web app and an on-chain backend. Today the league is announcing that it is licensing the software stack to any qualifying sports league, team, esport, fantasy sport, poker tournament, meme coin or gambling platform to use for free. 

Partners will be able to easily clone, customize and launch Karate Combat’s apps with zero licensing fee. Leagues and teams can launch or use their own tokens issued on any chain. Users can then access the Up Only Gaming software stack by wrapping and staking their tokens to UP on Hedera during play. 

Karate Combat will also share its 100,000 players with builders on UP through the league’s questing modules.

Further, partner organizations will have an opportunity to receive grants and incentives. UP plans to launch its own token, $UP, in 2025.  The $UP treasury will seed a grants program to incentivize early builders on the Up Only Gaming software stack. When the $UP token is launched, up to 30% of the tokens are expected to flow over time to $KARATE token stakers.

Alongside UP, Karate Combat will release H-Stack, an open source library for the rapid deployment of Layer 2 blockchains on Hedera. 10% of the total $UP token supply will be dedicated to incentivize HBAR liquidity pools, decentralized borrowing and lending on Hedera, and staking of HBAR and other Hedera tokens on UP.

Through a three-year renewal of its strategic relationship with The HBAR Foundation, the Foundation will remain the exclusive blockchain sponsor of Karate Combat. The HBAR Foundation fuels the development of the Hedera ecosystem by providing grants and other resources to developers, startups, and organizations that seek to launch decentralized applications in DeFi, NFTs, CBDCs, sustainability, gaming and other sectors. The renewal comes after three previous successful years of partnership since 2021.

Tonight at 7pm EST, Karate Combat will host KC 50, live at Permissioness III in Salt Lake City, Utah. As always Karate Combat’s events are broadcast for free, cross platform on Karate.com, YouTube, TikTok, X, Facebook and more.

“Karate Combat is already massively incentivized to spread its Up Only Gaming technology to other sports, esports, fantasy sports, crypto projects and more. UP is the enabling technology to not only allow us to provide all the tech for free, but to give grants and our user base to early partners,” said onlylarping, Karate Combat Co-Founder.

“We’re now in the last half of our third year partnering with Karate Combat, and it’s been incredible to see what they’ve accomplished. As the first professional sports league governed by a token, they’ve set the bar high and pushed the boundaries of what’s possible onchain. With a passionate global community, Karate Combat has become one of the most exciting and prominent consumer use cases in the space. We’re thrilled to continue supporting their game-changing impact on the sports world, bringing fans and athletes closer than ever through immersive experiences that are transforming fan engagement,” said David Cramer, COOat The HBAR Foundation.

About Karate Combat

Karate Combat is the world’s premier full-contact striking league, blending the excitement of full-contact bouts with immersive CGI environments powered by the Unreal Engine. Olympic medalists and national champions from around the world are just some of the multi-discipline athletes invited to compete in pursuit of the KC Championship belt. The league is broadcast to over 120 countries worldwide and concurrently streamed without a paywall on karate.com and other streaming services. Former UFC heavyweight champion and KC Chairman Bas Rutten hosts events alongside Georges St-Pierre, Lyoto Machida, Stephen “Wonderboy” Thompson, and “Big Mike” Majlak.

About The HBAR Foundation
The HBAR Foundation supports the creation of Web3 communities built on the Hedera network, by empowering and funding the builders developing these communities. The Foundation’s six funds – focused on the Crypto Economy, Metaverse, Sustainability, Fintech, Privacy, and Female Founders – each support communities within those areas, and the interconnectedness enables applications to participate as part of a larger ecosystem.

The collective power of these funds enables entrepreneurs, developers, and enterprises of all sizes to tackle some of the world’s largest problems and create and control their economies, all built on the Hedera public network. Whether you’re building something new or migrating an existing EVM-based application and community, the HBAR Foundation is here to support you. For more information, please visit https://hbarfoundation.org.

Press Contact:

Cynthia Luo, Media & Partnerships
Contact: cynthia.luo@karate.com

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SOURCE Karate Combat

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KuCoin Marks Ninth Anniversary at Tomorrowland Belgium, Honoring Nine Years of Industry Progress Beyond the Signal

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PROVIDENCIALES, Turks and Caicos Islands, July 26, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — On the day of its ninth anniversary, KuCoin welcomed global partners, institutional clients, ecosystem builders and media representatives to the “On Cloud 9 Skybox Experience,” an exclusive celebration at the Tomorrowland Belgium Skybox. Overlooking Tomorrowland’s iconic Mainstage, guests gathered throughout an unforgettable evening as world-renowned artists including Nicky Romero, Alok, Steve Angello and Hardwell delivered performances that brought together people from around the world. Against this backdrop of music, culture and global connection, KuCoin celebrated not only its own nine-year journey, but also the remarkable progress the digital asset industry has achieved together.

The experience formed part of KuCoin’s broader ninth-anniversary campaign, “Beyond the Signal,” reflecting the company’s belief that the industry’s future will be shaped not by short-term market movements alone, but by the trust, innovation and infrastructure that enable lasting progress. Bringing this vision to life in an elevated festival setting, the evening offered guests an opportunity to reflect on nine years of shared growth, collaboration and resilience, while looking ahead together to the next chapter of digital assets.

Against the backdrop of Tomorrowland’s iconic Mainstage, the exclusive Skybox experience with signature champagne rituals brought KuCoin and its guests together to reflect on and celebrate the milestones that have shaped its nine-year journey. From expanding access to digital assets and navigating multiple market cycles to strengthening security and compliance, supporting institutional participation, and advancing innovation across payments, AI and Web3, these milestones also reflected the broader evolution of the digital asset industry toward greater maturity.

The moment celebrated not only how far KuCoin has come, but also the progress the industry has made together. Over the past nine years, markets have risen and fallen, and technologies have continued to evolve. Yet lasting progress has always been driven by the builders, developers, partners and communities working together to create enduring value. That is the idea behind Beyond the Signal.

“Ninth anniversaries are often measured in years. We prefer to measure ours in trust,” said BC Wong, CEO of KuCoin. “The greatest achievement of the past nine years has not been our growth alone, but the confidence our users, partners and community have continued to place in us. Trust is the infrastructure that enables innovation, adoption and long-term progress. As we enter our next decade, we remain committed to building secure, compliant and trusted digital asset infrastructure together with our partners worldwide.”

The celebration also highlighted KuCoin’s expanding partnership with Tomorrowland as the festival’s Exclusive Crypto Exchange and Payments Partner for Tomorrowland Winter and Tomorrowland Belgium 2026–2028. Bringing together one of the world’s most influential cultural events with trusted digital infrastructure, the partnership reflects a shared vision of connecting people across borders and creating meaningful real-world experiences through technology, payments and community. For KuCoin, Tomorrowland is more than a global music festival—it represents the openness, diversity and global community that have always been at the heart of crypto.

Nine years ago, KuCoin set out to make digital assets accessible to more people around the world. Today, its mission has evolved beyond access to helping build the trusted infrastructure that will support the future of digital finance. Beyond music, beyond the celebration and beyond the signal, KuCoin’s ninth anniversary was not only a milestone for the company, but a celebration of how far the industry has come together—and a commitment to building what comes next.

About KuCoin

Founded in 2017, KuCoin is a leading global crypto platform built on trust and security, serving over 45 million users across 200+ countries and regions. Known for its reliability and user-first approach, the platform combines advanced technology, deep liquidity, and strong security safeguards to deliver a seamless trading experience. KuCoin provides access to 1,500+ digital assets through a broad product suite and remains committed to building transparent, compliant, and user-centric digital asset infrastructure for the future of finance, backed by SOC 2 Type II, ISO/IEC 27001:2022, and ISO/IEC 27701:2019 Certifications. In recent years, we have built a strong global compliance foundation, marked by key milestones including AUSTRAC registration in Australia, a MiCA license in Europe, and regulatory progress in other markets.

Learn more at www.kucoin.com.

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SOURCE KuCoin

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2026 World Internet Conference Digital Silk Road Development Forum Opens in Xi’an, Shaanxi Province

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XI’AN, China, July 26, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — A news report from CRI Online:

On July 22, the 2026 World Internet Conference (WIC) Digital Silk Road Development Forum officially opened in Xi’an, Shaanxi Province. Hosted by the WIC and organized by the Shaanxi Provincial Government, the forum was held under the theme “Pooling Intelligence on the Silk Road, Embarking on a Digital Future — Jointly Building a Community with a Shared Future in Cyberspace”. Approximately 800 participants from more than 50 countries and regions, as well as seven international organizations, attended the event.

Mayra Arevich Marín, Minister of Communications of Cuba; Faqir Mahbub Anam, Minister of Posts, Telecommunication & Information Technology and Minister of Science and Technology of Bangladesh; Samba Diouf, Minister of Telecommunications and Digital Affairs of Senegal; Wang Binying, Deputy Director General of the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO); John Higgins, President of the International AI Governance Association (IAGA); and Wang Xingxing, Founder and CEO of Unitree Robotics, attended the opening ceremony and delivered speeches.

Following the opening ceremony, a ministerial meeting was held. Thematic forums were convened focusing on Silk Road e-commerce cooperation and development, collaborative innovation and development of AI agents, digital and intelligent health, and the preservation and transmission of cultural heritage in the digital intelligence era. These discussions aimed to help Belt and Road partner countries strengthen consensus, deepen cooperation, and seize new opportunities brought by digital and intelligent development. During the forum, the World Internet Conference Cultural Heritage Digitalization Case Collection (2026) was released. A series of capacity-building activities under the WIC Digital & AI Academy were also held, including a capacity building program on AI-driven digital trade, a salon on “Copyright Empowerment in Cultural Heritage Digitalization”, and a field study at a digital port.

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SOURCE CRI Online

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Tesla Owns Nearly 1 in 5 AI Answers About EVs. New 5W Index Ranks the Top 25 EV Brands by AI Citation Share.

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EV charging networks — Electrify America, EVgo, ChargePoint — are nearly invisible inside AI answers despite operating the infrastructure the entire category depends on.

MIAMI, July 25, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — 5W AI Communications, the AI Communications Firm, today released the 5W AI Visibility Index — EV, ranking the top 25 EV brands by modeled AI citation share across ChatGPT, Claude, Perplexity, Gemini, and Google AI Overviews. Tesla anchors the category at 18.4% — more than the next three brands combined. Rivian is second at 8.2%. Ford is third at 6.4%.

The Index is Volume 07 in 5W’s 2026 Consumer AI Visibility Index series. The full report is available at https://www.5wpr.com/research/ev-ai-visibility-index/.

More than a third of U.S. consumers now begin product research with an AI engine — not Google. For the EV category — where purchase consideration windows stretch six to twelve months and buyers cross-reference range, charging, ownership cost, and long-term reliability across dozens of sources — the answers the engines return are shaping the shortlist before a buyer walks into a dealership.

The Findings

Tesla dominates at 18.4% citation share — cited on virtually every consumer EV query across all five engines. Brand, product, and CEO overlap produce a citation profile no peer can match.Rivian (8.2%) is the dominant adventure-EV authority. The R1T and R1S anchor truck and SUV electric citation.Ford (6.4%) leads legacy automakers. The F-150 Lightning owns EV-truck queries; the Mach-E anchors EV-SUV comparisons.Lucid (4.8%) and Hyundai Ioniq (4.4%) complete the Tier 1 leaders. The Ioniq 5 and Ioniq 6 over-index against U.S. brand recognition.GM sits at #6 with 3.8% — despite scale — because Bolt, Lyriq, and Hummer EV are cited separately rather than as one GM-EV narrative. Ford consolidated its story. GM did not.Toyota (#17) and Honda (#18) are the two largest legacy automakers furthest behind in EV citation. The bZ4X, Solterra, and Prologue cite at rates far below what brand recognition would predict.EV charging networks are absent from the top 25. Electrify America, EVgo, and ChargePoint operate the infrastructure the entire category depends on — and have not built consumer-facing brand citation to match. The category is open.

“Every EV buyer starts inside a chatbox now. Tesla owns nearly one in five answers. The next three brands combined don’t match it. That’s a citation moat measured in AI — not TV budgets, not showroom count,” said Ronn Torossian, Founder and Chairman, 5W AI Communications. “GM is bigger than Rivian by every commercial metric and half its size in the answer. That gap costs sales. The charging networks are the biggest miss in the category — whoever builds the dominant ‘where should I charge’ answer anchors a multi-decade growth curve. Right now, none of them own it.”

The Five Engines Do Not Return Identical Answers

ChatGPT: Tesla, Rivian, Lucid, Ford, Hyundai dominate. Conservative and brand-anchored.Claude: Recurrent and CleanTechnica over-index. Data-source preference. Lighter on enthusiast brands.Perplexity: Reddit EV subreddits dominant. Out of Spec YouTube data heavily cited. Freshness-favored.Google AI Overviews: Tesla, InsideEVs, Edmunds, Kelley Blue Book dominate. Closest to a SERP-mirror.Gemini: YouTube EV creators dominate — Out of Spec, Munro Live, MKBHD at the highest rates.

Engine-aware strategy matters. A brand absent from one engine but present in another needs a different program than a brand absent across the board.

Methodology
Modeled directional estimates derived from publicly available data, observed retrieval patterns, structural signals, and the corresponding Everything-PR Citation Share Study — EV (Issue No. 07). Twenty-five brands, five engines, sixty-plus consumer-prompt query patterns. Not the output of logged query runs across millions of prompts. Intended as a strategic framework — not a definitive search-engine measurement.

The dominant outlets shaping EV citation are InsideEVs, Electrek, Recurrent, Edmunds EV, Car and Driver EV, CleanTechnica, and the Reddit-and-YouTube creator layer. Brand citation share is built primarily through presence inside that specific outlet set — and through Recurrent battery-data partnership for used-EV citation.

About 5W AI Communications
5W is the AI Communications Firm, building brand authority across the platforms where decisions now happen — ChatGPT, Claude, Perplexity, Gemini, and Google AI Overviews — alongside earned media, digital, and influencer channels. 5W combines public relations, digital marketing, Generative Engine Optimization (GEO), and proprietary AI visibility research to help clients measure and grow their presence in AI-driven buyer research. Founded in 2003, 5W is recognized as a Top U.S. PR Agency by O’Dwyer’s, named Agency of the Year in the American Business Awards®, honored as a 2026 Top Place to Work in Communications by Ragan, and named to Digiday’s WorkLife Employer of the Year list. 5W serves clients across B2C sectors — Beauty & Fashion, Consumer Brands, Entertainment, Food & Beverage, Health & Wellness, Travel & Hospitality, Technology, and Nonprofit — and B2B specialties including Corporate Communications, Reputation Management, Public Affairs, Crisis Communications, and Digital Marketing across Social, Influencer, Paid Media, GEO, and SEO. Learn more at 5wpr.com.

Media Contact
press@5wpr.com

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SOURCE 5W Public Relations

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