On June 12, the Malta Financial Services Authority (MFSA) opened a public consultation on DeFi under the European Union’s Markets in Crypto-Assets (MiCA) regulation. The paper invites industry feedback through July 10 and proposes a new legal category for so-called “software-based organizations,” which would encompass DAOs and other software-governed DeFi entities.

Rather than treating DAOs as a standalone legal concept, the MFSA suggests recognizing them as a type of software-based organization, separating the legal framework governing the organization itself from the rules governing the underlying protocol and software.

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Bitcoin's sudden decoupling from a strong Nasdaq index highlights shifting capital flows into the AI sector.

A strengthening US dollar and high Treasury yields are weighing heavily on non-yielding crypto assets.

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In part of its implementation plan following a national risk assessment released on Thursday, the Irish department of finance said crypto assets presented “very significant” risks related to money laundering and terrorism financing. The government’s 2026 report was the first time in seven years that Ireland released a risk assessment related to digital assets, noting an increase in prosecutions related to money laundering and incidents of fraud in which using crypto was “particularly attractive” to criminal groups.

Source: Government of Ireland

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The Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC), Federal Reserve, Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC), National Credit Union Administration and the US Treasury’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) on Thursday proposed that stablecoin issuers be treated as regulated financial institutions in regard to verifying users’ identities. The proposed rule comes as part of the implementation of the Guiding and Establishing National Innovation for US Stablecoins (GENIUS) Act, signed into law in July 2025.

Source: Federal Register

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According to a white paper shared with Cointelegraph on Thursday, the token would operate as a deposit issued by a participating bank when held within a banking consortium and as a stablecoin backed by cash and short-term Treasurys when transferred outside the so-called Hazel network.

The companies said the system has been running on Ethereum (ETH) since March and is being tested by participating banks ahead of a broader rollout planned for later this year. The platform is designed to support tokenized deposits, stablecoins and other blockchain-based financial assets through a shared banking infrastructure.

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The standalone app, called Wealthsimple Predict, is scheduled to launch this summer and will offer Canadian users access to about 4,000 event contracts listed on Kalshi across categories including financial markets, economic indicators and climate.

Source: Kalshi

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In a post on X, co-executive director Hsiao-Wei Wang announced that she had stepped down from her role, effective immediately, following a recent sabbatical. Wang wrote that "Ethereum has always been bigger than any role" and indicated that she has not yet decided what she will do next.

Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin commented on Wang’s an X post, acknowledging that she had taken on “the most challenging position in the Ethereum Foundation” alongside Tomasz Stanczak, who also stepped down from his leadership role earlier this year.

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However, investor participation remains subdued, with CryptoQuant's realized cap growth metric remaining in a bear phase since late October 2025. This points to a steady slowdown in fresh capital entering the BTC network.

At the same time, a growing list of key companies going public raises increased competition for liquidity across the investment market, so the focus shifts to whether BTC attracts new capital amid tighter liquidity conditions.

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The agreement calls for BUZZ HPC to deploy 2,304 NVIDIA Grace Blackwell GPUs at a Bell Canada data center in British Columbia, where the infrastructure will support Cohere's artificial intelligence models and services for enterprise and government customers.

After the deployment enters service, HIVE expects the project to contribute about $70 million in contracted annual recurring revenue, increasing its contracted HPC revenue target to more than $100 million, according to the company.

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In a Thursday filing in the US District Court for the District of Columbia, CME filed a complaint against the CFTC and its chair Michael Selig over the agency's regular approvals of perpetual futures tied to crypto. The lawsuit stemmed from a May 29 notice from the CFTC approving perpetual futures contracts tied to the spot price of Bitcoin (BTC) for prediction markets platform Kalshi and issuing a no-action position for similar products on cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase.

According to CME's filing, the CFTC’s approval of such products went against directives from the US Congress by treating “futures” as “swaps” with expiration dates. The company alleged that the agency was in violation of the Commodity Exchange Act and a court should vacate its actions over perpetual futures, noting that Selig had unilaterally acted without a full panel of five CFTC commissioners.

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Using data from VanEck, the report argues that miners need long-term financing to convert power assets into AI-ready data centers, where higher infrastructure standards translate into much larger capital requirements than traditional Bitcoin (BTC) mining operations.

“A Bitcoin mine can run with relatively simple buildings, modular infrastructure and ASIC fleets that tolerate fast curtailment. AI and HPC facilities require higher standards for uptime, cooling, electrical redundancy, networking and customer support,” Miner Weekly said.

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Key takeaways:

The new viral post appears to be an iteration of an older post with different Bitcoin price targets.

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For most of crypto’s history, new users followed a fairly standard path. They signed up on an exchange, completed identity checks, learned how wallets worked, bought their first cryptocurrency and only then started exploring decentralized applications (DApps).

It was rarely a smooth process.

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Bitcoin lending platform Ledn is expanding its services to include Tether Gold (XAUt), giving investors the ability to hold the tokenized asset and eventually use it as collateral for loans, just as they can with Bitcoin.

Ledn announced Thursday that later this year, clients will be able to use XAUt as collateral for loans instead of selling their holdings for cash. Under the company's existing lending model, client collateral is held one-to-one and is not rehypothecated, lent out or used to generate yield.

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Ledn announced Thursday that clients can use XAUt as collateral for loans instead of selling their holdings for cash. Under the company's existing lending model, client collateral is held one-to-one and is not rehypothecated, lent out or used to generate yield.

Loans are issued and repaid in Tether’s USDT or USAt stablecoins and can be repaid at any time without scheduled monthly payments. Tether launched USAt in the United States in January as a stablecoin designed to comply with the GENIUS Act.

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Over 95% of shareholders approved the establishment of up to 5 billion euros in capital increases, equivalent to as many as 125 billion new shares at the current nominal value, as well as the issuance of up to 100 billion euros in credit instruments, Capital B announced on Wednesday.

The company said the issuance of the new capital instruments will “accelerate its Bitcoin accumulation strategy, focused on increasing the number of Bitcoin per fully diluted share over time.”

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In a statement adopted at this week's G7 summit in Évian-les-Bains, France, the leaders expressed “deep concern” over North Korea’s nuclear and ballistic missile programs. The United Nations and security researchers have linked North Korea's crypto thefts to funding for the country's weapons programs.

The G7 leaders did not specify how members should act on the call, making no mention of measures such as exchange screening, sanctions or actions against mixing services often discussed in connection with North Korean crypto laundering.

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Key points:

Bitcoin has dropped to 15th place in the world's largest assets by market cap.

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Aztec’s private rollup bridge was exploited on Thursday for 1,158 Ether (ETH), 150,000 Dai (DAI) and 0.46 renBTC (RENBTC), totaling about $2.15 million, according to Cos, the co-founder of cybersecurity company SlowMist.

His preliminary analysis found that the attacker used a false rollup proof to trick the protocol into releasing assets from its reserves to the attacker's address.

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The digital asset manager said Aave could generate about $60 million in net income in 2026 and placed the token's current fair value at $80 to $100. The analysis used discounted cash flows, earnings multiples and comparisons with banks and fintech companies. Aave traded at $75 on Thursday, according to CoinGecko.

Grayscale said Aave’s revenue rose more than sixfold between 2023 and 2025, while the protocol operates at an estimated 50% margin. It argued that Aave’s lending activity, GHO stablecoin and institutional products could support future earnings growth.

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Manhattan federal judge George Daniels on Wednesday denied Bond’s bid to dismiss an indictment that alleged she illegally took money from the now-bankrupt crypto exchange FTX to help bankroll her unsuccessful run for Congress in 2022.

Daniels wrote there was “no ambiguity” in the terms of Salame’s written plea agreement. “As the evidence made clear, all parties, including the defendants and their counsel, were aware that the Government had not promised Bond's immunity by the time Salame entered his guilty plea,” he said.

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According to a statement from the United States Attorney’s Office for the District of Maryland, Rodney “Bitcoin Rodney” Burton conspired to provide unlicensed money transmitting services to promote HyperFund, a global wire-fraud scheme.

Kelly O. Hayes, US Attorney for the District of Maryland and agents from the Washington Internal Revenue Service Criminal Investigation unit and Homeland Security Investigations, New York, announced Burton’s guilty plea on Wednesday.

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The new AI tooling, Builderbot, is able to execute over 200,000 operations per day and merges approximately 1,500 pull requests per week, said the company.

“The best way to think about Builderbot is as the missing layer between AI coding tools and how engineering actually works at scale,” said Brad Axen, head of AI capabilities at Block. “What used to take months now takes days,” the company added.

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ANSSI Chief of Staff Samih Souissi said at the France Quantum 2026 Summit that it would halt such certifications in 2027 and that businesses should buy only quantum-safe products by 2030, Reuters reported.

“ANSSI has been telegraphing this move for years,” Marin Ivezic, the founder of consulting firm Applied Quantum, said in a post on LinkedIn. “What changed yesterday is that ANSSI’s chief of staff said it publicly at a major conference, in front of the French quantum ecosystem, with Reuters in the room. The guidance became a commitment.”

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State Attorney General Russell Coleman said in a statement Wednesday that his office filed lawsuits in state court against Polymarket and Kalshi — also naming Kalshi partners Coinbase, Robinhood and Webull — accusing them of “operating unlicensed and illegal sports betting and gambling platforms.”

“Kalshi and Polymarket are operating illegal sportsbooks in Kentucky and breaking our laws,” Coleman said. “These multi-billion dollar corporations and their legal fictions don’t pass the sniff test. As one of our state legislative leaders said it best, ‘If it looks like a duck and quacks like a duck…’”

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Tether announced its “strategic changes” on Wednesday following a review of user activity, market demand, and the company’s “broader priorities.”

Tether said it has decided to focus resources on areas where it is seeing “stronger user demand, deeper liquidity and broader long-term market opportunity,” including its gold-backed digital asset XAUT and other core products across its ecosystem.

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Bitcoin remains under pressure from $2.1 billion in ETF outflows in June and an ongoing discount relative to global Bitcoin/USDT pairs.

Strategy’s STRC stock shows weakness, highlighting growing concerns over monthly dividend obligations and share dilution.

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According to a Wednesday Semafor report, groups tied to sports betting, including the Indian Gaming Association and American Gaming Association have united against what they called gambling on prediction markets. They requested that the US Congress use the CLARITY Act now under consideration in the Senate to affirm that “sports betting falls outside the [Commodity Futures Trading Commission’s] remit and cannot be offered through prediction market platforms.”

“While our organizations may differ on other issues, including gambling policy, we are united in our concern that prediction markets have fueled the largest expansion of gambling in US history over the past 18 months — without voter approval or legislative authorization,” said the letter.

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The runoff was necessary after neither candidate was able to secure a majority of the vote on May 19. Moore will be the Republican candidate for a US Senate seat in Alabama, facing off against Democrat Everett Wess. Moore won with 55.8% of the vote to Hudson’s 44.2%, giving him an opportunity to replace outgoing Republican Senator Tommy Tuberville.

Filings with the Federal Election Commission (FEC) showed that the Defend American Jobs PAC, a committee affiliated with the cryptocurrency company-backed Fairshake, spent more than $12 million on media and ads to back Moore’s candidacy in the May 19 primary and Tuesday’s runoff. The Coinbase-affiliated advocacy organization Stand With Crypto rated Moore as “strongly supports crypto,” based on public statements and his voting record while representing Alabama’s 1st Congressional District.

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BTC realized drop 46% from February highs

Bitcoin's realized profit-to-loss ratio has fallen into capitulation territory, signaling that loss-taking continues to outweigh profit-taking across the market. The 30-day smoothed ratio currently sits near 0.28, one of the lowest readings of the year.

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Crypto exchange Bybit has been added to the Monetary Authority of Singapore’s (MAS) Investor Alert List, a registry designed to warn consumers about entities that may be wrongly perceived as licensed or regulated by the financial watchdog.

Bybit Fintech Limited and Bybit appeared on the MAS alert list on Wednesday, although the regulator did not provide a specific reason for their inclusion.

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According to an announcement on Wednesday, the new listings include tokenized exposure to private company shares, active exchange-traded funds, Treasury products and covered-call strategies, with Blockchain.com highlighting SpaceX's SPCX token among the additions.

The expansion also adds themed baskets tied to AI infrastructure, energy, robotics, autonomous vehicles and quantum computing, alongside income-focused products from Global X and other issuers.

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Altcoins accounted for 51% of Binance futures trading volume on Tuesday, compared with 28.85% for Bitcoin and 20.20% for Ether, positioning the exchange as a leader in derivatives activity in 2026.

The divergence between record selling and dominant trading activity points to capital rotating within crypto and also into alternative exchange products.

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According to Wednesday's announcement, the system is intended to flag employee activity based on transaction volume, trading patterns, market categories and work-hour activity, while giving firms a centralized way to manage investigations and audit records tied to prediction market exposure across onchain and offchain environments.

The launch comes days after a federal judge set a December trial date for US Army Master Sgt. Gannon Ken Van Dyke, who prosecutors allege used non-public information about a military operation targeting Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro to earn more than $400,000 on prediction market platform Polymarket. Van Dyke has pleaded not guilty to the charges.

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In a resolution to be introduced Wednesday, Republican Senator Cynthia Lummis and Democratic Senator Rubén Gallego warned that should US President Donald Trump grant SBF’s request for a pardon, it would “erase [his] conviction [...] weaken deterrence, and send a deeply damaging message that perpetrators of large-scale financial fraud can escape permanent accountability.” The resolution would be non-binding, as a US president’s pardon power is enshrined in the Constitution.

“[The US Senate] affirms that the 25-year sentence imposed upon Bankman-Fried reflects the extraordinary scale and deliberateness of his crimes, his lack of remorse, and the catastrophic harm inflicted upon millions of victims, and that such a sentence serves the interests of justice,” read the resolution.

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Coinbase Ventures, Jump Capital and Paxos were among the investors that participated in the round, the company said Wednesday in a statement shared with Cointelegraph.

Trace Finance provides banking, foreign exchange and stablecoin settlement infrastructure for cross-border payments across Latin America. It claims to have processed more than $10 billion in transaction volume and plans to use the fresh capital to expand across LatAm, the US and Asia-Pacific markets.

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Key points:

Bitcoin sees a new low for the current weekly candle with the Fed FOMC meeting due in hours.

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Ready has restricted USDC card functionality for users outside the European Economic Area following a change in its card provider, according to notices shared by users on social media.

Several users shared screenshots of an in-app notice from Ready stating: “Your Ready Card will be deactivated within the next hour,” citing changes affecting users “primarily outside the EEA.”

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Crypto exchange CoinMENA has entered a banking agreement with Standard Chartered to strengthen fiat payment infrastructure for customers in the United Arab Emirates.

Under the agreement, CoinMENA will use Standard Chartered to support fiat on- and off-ramps, client money accounts and virtual account-based transaction management, according to a press release shared to Cointelegraph. The exchange said the arrangement would improve transparency and liquidity settlement with approved global counterparties.

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Federal prosecutors on Monday submitted a proposed schedule for the potential retrial of Tornado Cash co-founder and developer Roman Storm to begin later this year. Storm was found guilty on one of three charges related to illegal money transmitting in 2025, but a jury deadlocked on two other charges, setting the stage for a potential retrial.

US Attorney for the Southern District of New York (SDNY) Jay Clayton Clayton proposed an Oct. 20 final pretrial conference in Storm’s case, signaling a potential trial start date of late October or November 2026. The filing noted that the timeline was subject to the court’s decision on a Rule 29 motion filed by Storm requesting acquittal of the remaining charges.

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The transaction follows a $20 million strategic investment made by Inveniam in Mantra in August 2025, according to a Tuesday announcement.

On May 13, Inveniam launched NVNM Chain, a layer 2 blockchain on Mantra designed to support asset verification without exposing confidential information.

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Wang Xin, director general of the Research Bureau at the People’s Bank of China (PBOC), urged authorities to closely monitor the impact of stablecoins while improving international coordination and regulation, Chinese news outlet The Paper reported on Wednesday.

“We also need to pay attention to several new areas, such as whether stablecoins will play a more important role in cross-border payments, and how regulation, international coordination and cooperation should proceed,” Wang reportedly said, according to a machine translation.

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Key takeaways:

Nearly 20% of BTC supply now sits between $60,000 and $70,000, strengthening the case for a Bitcoin price floor.

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Key points:

Bitcoin approaches the next Fed interest-rate decision near important support.

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Hyperliquid is now the third-largest perpetual futures exchange, with growth driven primarily by crypto assets and supported by expanding trading in equities, commodities and indexes through Hyperliquid Improvement Proposal-3 (HIP-3), according to digital asset infrastructure provider Talos.

Talos said in a Tuesday report that about $4 billion of open interest is attributable to HIP-3 builder-deployed perpetual markets.

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BitGo Europe launched a crypto-as-a-service platform aimed at meeting the European Union’s Markets in Crypto-Assets Regulation (MiCA), the company said in a statement shared with Cointelegraph on Wednesday.

BitGo CEO Mike Belshe said companies shouldn’t leave users waiting during licensing delays, arguing that regulated infrastructure can keep platforms active in the meantime.

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A bipartisan group of House and Senate leaders released an updated version of the 21st Century Road to Housing Act on Tuesday, which aims to address housing affordability and bans institutional investors from buying existing single-family homes to rent out.

The bill has included a CBDC ban since the Senate passed it in March. The House also passed its version of the bill with strong support in May, but the House and Senate disagreed on some aspects. The Senate has now added further amendments that will be put before the House for a final vote.

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Michael Saylor’s variable-rate perpetual “Stretch” Bitcoin yield product declined by 3.58% to $91.79 on Tuesday, 8.2% below its target value of $100. Markus Thielen, CEO of 10x Research, said the dip is linked to Strategy’s recent Bitcoin buying.

“The market would rather see [Strategy] not acquiring more BTC and rather keep the cash for dividend payments,” Thielen told Cointelegraph. “It appears traders are seeing the latest BTC acquisition as an unsustainable path for STRC.”

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Governor JB Pritzker signed the measure despite opposition from crypto industry groups over the provision, a transaction tax that applies to all digital asset transactions on any registered platform under broadly termed “digital asset business activity.”

“This will create an unprecedented tax regime that disproportionately burdens Illinois residents for simply using digital assets and will drive innovation and builders out of the state,” the Crypto Council for Innovation said, as it urged a “line-item veto” of Article 3 of Senate Bill 3019 on Tuesday.

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Hyperliquid defies the crypto bear market with $3 billion HYPE open interest, a 32% growth in a week.

Hyperliquid’s TradFi innovation, like SpaceX pre-IPO trading, signals that the path to $80 HYPE price looks well-supported.

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Hyperliquid defies the crypto bear market with $3 billion HYPE open interest, 32% growth in a week.

Hyperliquid’s TradFi innovation, like SpaceX pre-IPO trading, signals that the path to $80 HYPE price looks well-supported.

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In a letter to Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent on Tuesday, the lawmakers said it was critical that the Treasury implement a section of the law giving a pathway for certain issuers to be regulated by the states “in a manner that preserves and promotes State participation.”

The GENIUS Act allows issuers that have a stablecoin with a market value of $10 billion or less to be regulated by a state authority if that state has laws largely similar to the bill.

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In a letter to Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent on Tuesday, the lawmakers said it was critical that the Treasury implement a section of the law giving a pathway for certain issuers to be regulated by the states “in a manner that preserves and promotes State participation.”

The GENIUS Act allows issuers that have a stablecoin with a market value of $10 billion or less to be regulated by a state authority if that state has laws largely similar to the bill.

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OP_CHECKTEMPLATEVERIFY (OP_CTV) was proposed by Jeremy Rubin in BIP 119. It defines spending conditions in a simple template structure that can include the outputs, version, and locktime of the next transaction. The opcode takes a commitment hash as an argument and requires that any transaction executing the opcode include only outputs that match this commitment.

Upon execution, OP_CTV expects this 32-byte commitment hash on top of the stack. The opcode then computes a fresh StandardTemplateHash from the current spending transaction to compare with this commitment hash. The serialized fields that go into the StandardTemplateHash include the transaction version and locktime, the counts of inputs and outputs, and a hash of all outputs, which commits to both their values and their locking scripts (scriptPubKeys). If the transaction matches the template, OP_CTV pushes a 1 on the stack to signal success; otherwise, it pushes a 0 to signal failure.

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Bitcoin derivatives show weak conviction with 2% futures basis and elevated put options premium signaling caution.

Institutional buying via $86 million ETF inflows plus Strategy’s (MSTR US) ongoing accumulation counters market fear.

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According to Token Terminal, tokenized assets now exceed $43 billion in market value, a larger figure than those reported by other industry trackers, most notably RWA.xyz, which values the combined RWA market at less than $33 billion. The discrepancy likely reflects methodological differences, with Token Terminal including a broader range of tokenized financial assets.

Tokenized funds dominate the sector, accounting for nearly 80% of total market capitalization. Commodities rank a distant second at 16.6%, followed by tokenized stocks at 3.8%.

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At the same time, BTC exchange reserves have fallen by roughly 80,000 BTC since February, while demand from accumulator addresses more than doubled to 240,000 BTC from 115,000 BTC during the first two weeks of June.

BTC's Sharpe ratio revisits a historical bottom zone

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As of Tuesday, filings with the Federal Election Commission (FEC) showed that Defend American Jobs had spent more than $4.7 million on media and ads to back Republican Barry Moore’s candidacy in a runoff for one of Alabama’s US Senate seats, adding to the $7.4 million it reported spending ahead of his May 19 primary. Moore, who also has the endorsement of US President Donald Trump, is running against Jared Hudson, another Republican vying to replace Tommy Tuberville, who announced that he would not be seeking reelection, as he is focused on becoming the state’s next governor.

Source: Federal Election Commission

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On Tuesday, Coinbase unveiled expanded stock and exchange-traded fund (ETF) trading through Coinbase Advanced, its platform for active traders, allowing US users to transfer existing portfolios from other brokerages directly onto the exchange. The update builds on the stock and ETF trading service Coinbase launched earlier this year, which initially provided access to roughly 6,000 securities.

The company is also offering zero-commission trading, TradingView charting tools, fractional shares and up to 3.5% rewards on eligible USDC (USDC) balances.

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The shift comes as XRP rebounded to $1.30 on Monday, with large holder activity continuing to dominate exchange flows and market indicators signal an ideal accumulation period amid lingering weakness.

Whales dominate XRP exchange flows

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The fund is structured as a Rule 2a-7 government money market fund and will invest in assets commonly used to back stablecoins, including US government securities and repurchase agreements. The fund's initial investors include State Street Bank and Anchorage Digital, a federally chartered crypto bank.

State Street said the product was designed to comply with reserve requirements established under the GENIUS Act, which was signed into law on July 18, 2025, creating the first federal regulatory framework for payment stablecoins in the United States.

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Flutterwave CEO Olugbenga Agboola said the undisclosed investment values the company at $3.3 billion, according to Bloomberg. The deal gives Ripple exposure to Africa’s fast-expanding payments ecosystem while providing Flutterwave with additional resources to scale its financial infrastructure.

The investment makes Ripple a shareholder rather than an owner or commercial partner. Flutterwave operates in 35 African countries and has recently expanded its digital asset offerings by integrating stablecoin payment services.

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For years, Bitcoin perpetual futures have ranked among the most important products in crypto trading. They account for a large share of global crypto derivatives activity and are widely used by traders seeking leverage, hedging tools and short-term exposure to market moves.

Despite their popularity, perpetual futures have mostly operated outside regulated US markets. Most trading has taken place on offshore platforms. This left many American traders and institutions with limited choices: Avoid true perps, use offshore venues where permitted or turn to imperfect regulated alternatives.

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In a Tuesday blog post, Binance said that Greece's Hellenic Capital Market Commission (HCMC), one of the regulators responsible for overseeing MiCA, had completed its review of the crypto exchange’s application and “considered it compliant with MiCA requirements,” subject to review at the European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA). The post came just a few hours after Reuters reported that EU regulators were preparing to reject Binance’s licensing bid, potentially cutting off the exchange’s ability to offer services to residents.

“Binance serves more users in Europe than any other crypto exchange, and any delay or distortion in our MiCA path has consequences beyond Binance,” said the company. “It risks weakening liquidity, reducing competition and user choice, and pushing activity, jobs, investment, and tax revenue outside the EU.”

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Key points:

Bitcoin cools its rebound, even as stocks continue higher on US-Iran peace plans.

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And it’s not only Musk getting wealthier. Buyers who got in at the offer price made roughly 20% almost overnight, while early private investors saw far larger gains.

Crypto traders, meanwhile, were abruptly cut out of the deal, left holding pre-IPO subscription tokens on platforms like Binance, Bybit and Bitget with no allocation to SpaceX at all.

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Short, isolated tests miss how AI agents behave over time. A new simulation shows that long-term behavior depends on the environment and on other agents.

What happens if you build a virtual city, fill it with AI agents and leave them alone for 15 days with no human intervention? Will they help their world prosper or tear it apart?

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Key takeaways:

BTC has averaged a 5.74% decline in the 30 days after the last four BoJ rate hikes.

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CEO Vlad Tenev told staff the company is reducing 10% of its full-time employees as part of “flattening” its org structure, according to a statement on X by Robinhood on Tuesday.

In an internal memo, Tenev said the company cannot “default to operating as a heavily-layered organization” if it wants to scale its mission, adding that Robinhood must “continuously raise” its performance bar.

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Forward said Monday that Solana Company (HSDT), formerly Helius Medical Technologies, rejected an all-stock proposal that would have given its shareholders 0.386 newly issued Forward shares for each HSDT share. According to Forward, the offer valued HSDT at $1.63 per share.

“On June 12th, HSDT responded that its board voted to decline Forward’s offer and chose to not engage in further discussion. We are disappointed and surprised that the HSDT board has chosen to reject Forward’s offer without any discussion or communication,” Forward said in its press release.

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In an X post on Tuesday, Saylor outlined a five-layer “Digital Asset Stack” positioning Bitcoin (BTC) as the base for credit, money, yield and equity structures.

Saylor said Bitcoin should remain “pure digital capital” and that it “does not need to become Ethereum” to generate investor returns.

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IREN said in a press release on Monday that the acquisition adds about 490 megawatts of secured, grid-connected power in Spain, along with a development pipeline and over 50 employees across engineering, construction, development and operations.

The deal expands IREN's global power portfolio to about 5 gigawatts, with the Spanish capacity representing about 10% of the total.

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Nick Ruck, a director at LVRG Research, told Cointelegraph that despite Bitcoin (BTC) recently reclaiming $67,000, its “momentum remains weak, with declining volume and stagnant on-chain metrics indicating that the recovery lacks conviction and could quickly fade.”

He added that if a recently brokered peace deal between the US and Iran breaks down, the following geopolitical instability and potential oil shocks would see Bitcoin “face a volatile path.” “It may initially find bids as a hedge asset before broader risk-off flows push it toward key support zones, underscoring how macro and geopolitical catalysts continue to dominate crypto price action.”

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GAO made a June 8 letter to FDIC Chairman Travis Hill public on Monday, which said that it first flagged priority recommendations with the regulator in May last year, including addressing blockchain technology risks.

It said that blockchain technology was an area of concern that it put on its “High Risk List,” as it deems that regulators have struggled to oversee blockchain-based financial products and the risks they could pose to US markets.

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Grayscale head of research Zach Pandl said in a note on Monday that the order to cut access to Anthropic’s Fable 5 and Mythos 5 shows “the centralized control of frontier AI technology and drives home the need for decentralized alternatives.”

“We expect demand for decentralized AI, like Bittensor and its TAO token, to continue to rise as investors seek alternatives,” Pandl said.

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On Monday, World Liberty confirmed that UFC would pay up to $250,000 in bonuses using USD1, the US dollar-pegged stablecoin issued by the company. UFC had made a similar announcement before the event.

The price of USD1 jumped above $1 on Friday and remained there, according to CoinMarketCap data at last look. Trading volume in the past 24 hours was up more than 93%, at $2.38 billion.

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On Monday, Bloomberg reported that Nvidia is seeking to raise at least $20 billion through a multi-part bond sale to help finance AI-related investments and refinance existing debt.

Citing people familiar with the matter, the report said Nvidia plans to issue notes across seven maturities ranging from two to 30 years, with the longest-dated bonds expected to yield roughly 0.9 percentage points above comparable US Treasury securities.

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In a Monday notice, CFTC Chair Michael Selig said that Donald Battle, an adviser to the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) crypto task force, would be the commission’s chief data innovation officer. Battle was appointed as an SEC crypto task force adviser in January 2025 with the incoming Trump administration, and previously worked as a blockchain data adviser for the CFTC and crypto enforcement specialist with the Treasury Department’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network.

Source: CFTC

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On Monday, the crypto treasury company reported that it acquired 76,881 Ether (ETH) over the past week, potentially reducing its average cost basis as ETH briefly plunged below $1,600 during the period. The company has been steadily acquiring Ether during the bear market, regardless of price action.

BitMine now holds 5,620,754 ETH acquired at an average price of $1,718.

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The products are available through Kraken Pro and include contracts tied to major cryptocurrencies including Bitcoin (BTC), Ether (ETH), Solana (SOL), XRP (XRP), Cardano (ADA), Chainlink (LINK), Dogecoin (DOGE), Litecoin (LTC) and Avalanche (AVAX).

According to Monday's announcement, the contracts share the same futures wallet as Kraken's existing CME-listed crypto futures products, allowing traders to manage both positions from a single account.

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BTC/USD daily chart. Source: TradingView

Key takeaways:

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Key points:

Bitcoin adds to gains as US-Iran peace cues trigger broader risk-asset upside.

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In an X post, the team said on Saturday that it would shift its gaming resources toward Pudgy World, a browser-based experience which it described as the flagship gaming product for the Pudgy Penguins ecosystem.

“We’ve made the difficult decision to wind down Pudgy Party and halt further development,” the team wrote, adding that Pudgy World offered greater potential for scalability and introducing new users to the Pudgy Penguins brand.

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Bybit's new RWA Earn platform launched with two tokenized bond funds: the PIMCO Dynamic Income Opportunities Fund (PDO), which invests across fixed-income assets including corporate debt, mortgage-backed securities and government bonds, and the CMBI Investment Grade Bond Fund, which focuses on investment-grade credit in Asian and global markets.

According to Monday's announcement, the funds are tokenized through DigiFT, a digital asset exchange regulated in Singapore and Hong Kong, while Plume provides the onchain infrastructure used for subscriptions and fund allocation.

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Strategy acquired 1,587 Bitcoin (BTC) for $100 million between June 8 and Sunday, according to Monday's 8-K filing with the US Securities and Exchange Commission.

Source: SEC

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The expansion would be driven by both tokenized real-world assets (RWAs) and crypto-native assets moving through onchain protocols, Geoff Kendrick, head of digital assets research at Standard Chartered, said in a research note on Monday.

“I think the next opportunity for generational wealth in digital assets is going to come via the DeFi protocols,” Kendrick said. “I estimate that the amount of tokenized assets active in DeFi will 37x by the end of 2030.”

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For years, AI has largely stayed outside direct economic activity. AI systems could answer queries, summarize documents, create images and support coding. However, they could not take part directly in financial transactions. Humans remained responsible for the key actions: accessing accounts, confirming choices and approving transfers.

That boundary is now starting to fade.

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Key points:

Bitcoin price action targets $66,000 as US stock futures soar and oil approaches its lowest levels since early March.

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Bitbank, one of Japan’s largest cryptocurrency exchanges, warned users that transactions linked to prediction market platforms such as Polymarket could result in account suspensions due to potential conflicts with the country's gambling laws.

In a notice published on Monday, Bitbank said it may restrict accounts making deposits or withdrawals connected to prediction market services.

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“The deal with the Islamic Republic of Iran is now complete. Congratulations to all!” Trump posted on his Truth Social platform late on Sunday.

“I hereby fully authorize the toll-free opening of the Strait of Hormuz, and, simultaneously herewith, authorize the immediate removal of the United States Naval blockade,” Trump said. “Ships of the World, start your engines. Let the oil flow!”

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The CFTC said on Friday that it sued New Mexico Governor Michelle Lujan Grisham, state Attorney General Raúl Torrez, and members of the New Mexico Gaming Control Board in federal court “to block the state’s efforts to apply state gaming laws against CFTC-registered contract markets.”

New Mexico sued Kalshi on June 4, arguing the company is offering sports betting to residents without a license and that its sports event contracts function the same as traditional sports bets.

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Aztec Labs posted to X on Sunday that it was “investigating a potential exploit affecting Aztec Connect,” adding that around $2.1 million was transferred from the platform’s smart contract, which did not affect users or assets on the current Aztec network.

The exploit is the latest in the $44 million worth of crypto that has been stolen so far this month from at least 12 other exploits, according to DeFiLlama.

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Galaxy Research said that mining difficulty fell from 138.96 trillion to 124.93 trillion at block 953,568 on Sunday, the second biggest drop of 2026 and a 20% decrease from its peak in November.

The price of Bitcoin (BTC) has fallen by around 15% so far in June, which has “squeezed miner margins,” Galaxy said. It added that the epoch, the time between when mining difficulty is adjusted, ran for 15.6 days, above the typical 14 days, as hashrate came offline.

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With the recent diversification of consensus clients into Core and Knots nodes, reaching agreement on such a change has become less likely. In spite of recently pushing for a soft-fork of their own, namely BIP-110, the Knots side tends to advocate for protocol ossification and appears less supportive of facilitating scaling solutions on the base layer. The recent controversy that Bitcoin Core has attracted, both as a technical debate and in governance, is diminishing the prospect of covenant implementations on Bitcoin anytime soon.

Prominent figures such as Michael Saylor have also publicly advocated for protocol ossification, portraying zealous, well-funded developers as the greatest threat to the protocol. Nonetheless, some minimal covenant implementation likely offers the most conservative path to trust-minimized Layer-2s, which can bring the privileges of self-custody to the next billion people. Should mainnet fees spike again in the future and a resolution to the spam wars is found,  discussions around these proposals are likely to regain momentum. In this article, we will lay some of the foundations for our readers to understand covenants. In follow-up pieces we will take a deep dive into individual proposals.

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“We have now seen the low in crypto asset prices for the cycle. That would be USD59k for BTC (53% down from USD126k high),” Kendrick said in a brief note to clients on Friday. The biggest crypto was last trading on Sunday at about $63,704, according to CoinMarketCap data.

Depending on how investors read Strategy chief Michael Saylor’s near-weekly tweet issued earlier on Sunday, The first sign that Kendrick is watching for may have come.

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The SPHINCS- proposal aims to reduce the cost of post-quantum signature verification on Ethereum while the network works toward a longer-term solution.

Ethereum could begin adding post-quantum protections to accounts for as little as $0.07, without waiting for a hard fork, according to the Ethereum Foundation's Kohaku project lead Nicolas Consigny.

In a Saturday X post, Consigny shared a paper proposing a cheaper way for Ethereum users to protect their accounts against future quantum-computing threats. The approach adapts SPHINCS+, a post-quantum signature standard developed by the US National Institute of Standards and Technology, to work more efficiently on Ethereum.

Dubbed “SPHINCS-,” the proposal aims to reduce onchain verification costs without requiring a protocol change or precompile. Consigny described SPHINCS- as a bridge toward a future post-quantum signature system dubbed “leanSPHINCS,” which aims to further reduce verification costs through aggregation.

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A fake Bithumb email used in the $36 million Humanity Protocol hack points to the involvement of North Korean threat actors, according to Quantstamp.

A malicious attachment delivered through a phishing email points to the involvement of North Korea-linked threat actors in Humanity Protocol's recent hack, according to blockchain security company Quantstamp.

The decentralized identity company said a compromised employee's laptop enabled attackers to steal $36 million in Humanity (H) tokens on Monday.

The malicious attachment was disguised as a token lockup schedule update from South Korean cryptocurrency exchange Bithumb. It installed malware that gave attackers full remote access to the laptop, Quantstamp said in its incident response.

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A fake Bithumb email used in the $36 million Humanity Protocol hack points to the involvement of North Korean threat actors, according to Quantstamp.

A malicious attachment delivered through a phishing email points to the involvement of North Korea-linked threat actors in Humanity Protocol's recent hack, according to blockchain security company Quantstamp.

The decentralized identity company said a compromised employee's laptop enabled attackers to steal $36 million in Humanity (H) tokens on Monday.

The malicious attachment was disguised as a token lockup schedule update from South Korean cryptocurrency exchange Bithumb. It installed malware that gave attackers full remote access to the laptop, Quantstamp said in its incident response.

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Bitcoin stayed near local highs on a new US-Iran peace deal pledge as analysis saw conditions favoring a sustained BTC price rebound.

Bitcoin (BTC) circled $64,000 into Sunday’s weekly close as a US-Iran peace deal appeared imminent.

Key points:

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Crypto analyst Michaël van de Poppe said a peace deal, which would reopen the Strait of Hormuz, would likely send liquidity back to risk-on assets such as cryptocurrencies.

US President Donald Trump said a deal to end the fighting between the US and Iran is scheduled to be signed on Sunday, despite officials in Tehran previously casting doubt on the timeline. 

“The Deal is scheduled to get signed tomorrow, and immediately after it is signed, the Hormuz Strait is OPEN TO ALL,” said Trump on Truth Social on Saturday. 

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Calls from Amazon CEO Andy Jassy and other tech firms prompted the Trump administration to suspend foreign access to Anthropic’s Fable 5 and Mythos 5 AI models on Friday.

The decision by the administration of US President Donald Trump to cut foreign access to Anthropic’s most powerful AI models was reportedly triggered by calls from Amazon CEO Andy Jassy.

According to a report from The Wall Street Journal, Jassy contacted senior government officials on Thursday after Amazon researchers discovered a way to prompt Anthropic’s Fable 5 model into returning information that could be used for cyberattacks. 

The call, along with warnings from at least five other firms, led to a frantic shuffle within the White House to gauge the threat and contact Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei, who reportedly pushed back on the administration’s concerns and requests to voluntarily pull the model. 

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Zcash founder Zooko Wilcox said Anthropic's Mythos AI model found no further “serious bugs” in the privacy protocol following the patching of a previously discovered forgery bug.

Zcash founder Zooko Wilcox said a security audit by Anthropic's Claude Mythos artificial intelligence model found no serious vulnerabilities in the privacy-preserving cryptocurrency's protocol.

Requested by Shielded Labs, a Swiss-based non-profit supporting the development of Zcash, the AI security audit did not find “any more serious bugs” in the Zcash protocol, according to a Saturday X post by Wilcox.

On June 3, Zcash developers temporarily suspended Orchard transactions after discovering a vulnerability in the shielded pool. Functionality was restored later that day through an emergency upgrade.

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Strategy's recent Bitcoin sale appeared to clash with Saylor's “never sell” mantra, but he says the move reflects how the company's digital credit business works.

Michael Saylor, executive chairman of Strategy, defended the company's recent Bitcoin sale, saying the ability to sell the asset is necessary to continue issuing “digital credit."

Strategy disclosed its first reported Bitcoin sale since 2022 in a June 1 filing with the US Securities and Exchange Commission, offloading 32 BTC in a move that appeared at odds with Saylor's long-running “never sell your Bitcoin" mantra.

In an interview with Cointelegraph at the BTC Prague conference, Saylor said that Bitcoin treasury companies must retain the ability to sell holdings when necessary to support dividend-paying securities and other Bitcoin-backed credit products. 

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Morpho’s recent $175 million raise reflects growing investor bets on onchain credit infrastructure as stablecoin adoption expands.

Investors are increasingly backing stablecoin and credit infrastructure rather than decentralized finance (DeFi) lending alone, with Morpho Labs' latest funding round drawing attention to onchain credit markets, according to Spark CEO Sam MacPherson.

Morpho announced Tuesday that it raised $175 million in a round led by Paradigm, a16z crypto and Ribbit Capital. While Morpho is widely known as a DeFi lending protocol, the company said that it aims to become a credit infrastructure layer for banks, asset managers and fintechs.

Onchain credit markets allow users and institutions to borrow, lend and deploy capital using blockchain-based assets. Investors are betting the sector will grow alongside stablecoins and other tokenized financial products.

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Demand for ETH leverage remains low, but corporate accumulation and stakers’ dedication may prevent an Ether price crash to $1,500.

Key takeaways:

Ether (ETH) price failed to reclaim the $1,700 level over the past week, tracking a broader weakness across cryptocurrency markets. This correction contrasts sharply with the bullish momentum seen in the US stock market. Traders worry that Ether's appeal has faded due to sluggish on-chain activity and a distinct lack of demand for bullish leveraged positions.

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Anthropic has abruptly disabled its flagship AI models after a US government directive citing national security concerns.

Anthropic said it suspended access to its Fable 5 and Mythos 5 AI models after receiving a US government export control directive citing national security concerns.

In a statement posted Friday, Anthropic said it received the directive at 5:21 pm ET, instructing it to suspend all access to Fable 5 and Mythos 5 by any foreign national, whether inside or outside the United States, including foreign national Anthropic employees. 

Anthropic abruptly disabled the models for all users in order to ensure compliance. It said all other Anthropic models, such as Opus 4.8, are not affected.

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Elon Musk’s SpaceX completed its landmark IPO on the Nasdaq on Friday, but crypto users seeking tokenized exposure to the IPO were left empty-handed after allocations fell through.

Crypto trading platforms Bybit, Binance, Bitget Wallet and MEXC canceled their tokenized SpaceX IPO campaigns as SpaceX went public on the Nasdaq on Friday. 

SpaceX’s IPO, which was reportedly more than four times oversubscribed, raised $75 billion as it became a publicly traded company. SpaceX shares opened for trading at $150 on Friday, up from its IPO price of $135. It closed the day at $161.11, valuing the company at over $2 trillion. 

However, major crypto platforms offering tokenized access to the IPO were unable to fulfill demand for SpaceX allocations, with several blaming Kraken-owned xStocks’ inability to deliver the underlying assets. 

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New data from Galaxy Research suggests that Bitcoin's floor price may not drop as low as previous bear markets, but the bottom-finding process is still playing out.

New research from Galaxy Digital suggests that Bitcoin's cycle low could form at higher price levels than previous bear markets due to the absence of speculation. The analysis places the potential bottom between $62,000 and the network's realized price at $53,600.

Galaxy head of research Alex Thorn analyzed every Bitcoin cycle top and bottom and noted that the four-year cycle continues to track closely with BTC’s historical timing. The peak-to-trough declines have steadily narrowed across market cycles, falling from 85% and 84% in earlier periods to 77% in 2022 and 51% in 2026. 

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A positive bid-ask readings and a bullish RSI divergence support Bitcoin's recovery, with $70,000 emerging as a key target.

Bitcoin (BTC) is gaining buyers’ interest after setting a new yearly low at $59,000 last week. Order book data and liquidity suggest a rally is pending and more than $2 billion in short liquidity is concentrated near $65,000. BTC's bid-ask ratio has remained positive since last Friday. 

The shift in positioning and sentiment also aligns with a bullish chart pattern targeting the $67,000–$70,000 range. 

Bitcoin's recent rebound to $63,500 followed a bullish divergence between the price and the relative strength index (RSI) on the four-hour chart. The price printed a lower low during the early-June sell-off while the relative strength index (RSI) formed a higher low. The signal pointed to fading downside momentum before buyers stepped in.

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A federal appeals court upheld the former FTX chief’s conviction, while his bid for clemency from President Donald Trump appears to face steep political odds.

Former FTX CEO Sam Bankman-Fried failed to overturn his fraud conviction and 25-year prison sentence tied to the collapse of FTX after a three-judge appeals panel rejected his bid for relief.

The unanimous ruling by the 2nd US Circuit Court of Appeals in Manhattan, New York, found that the government’s case against Bankman-Fried was, in the court’s words, “conservatively stated, robust,” according to Reuters.

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Bitcoin hit $64,000 as SpaceX launched a record-breaking IPO and US-Iran peace deal hopes continued to grow, but doubts over BTC price support remained.

Bitcoin (BTC) hit $64,000 after Friday’s Wall Street open while analysis warned of “unreliable” BTC price support.

Key points:

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Tokenized RWAs surge despite crypto volatility, Kraken launches SpaceX IPO xStocks, prediction markets outpace onchain gambling and Sam Bankman-Fried seeks a Trump pardon.

Crypto prices have spent much of the year reacting to macro headlines and regulatory uncertainty, but tokenization has remained one of the industry’s few consistent growth stories. Active real-world assets are surging, banks are embracing blockchain infrastructure and tokenized equities are expanding into new markets.

That momentum was on full display this week as Kraken rolled out tokenized access to the highly anticipated SpaceX IPO, offering eligible users in more than 110 markets a chance to participate through xStocks.

Elsewhere, prediction markets surpassed onchain gambling for the first time, and former FTX CEO Sam Bankman-Fried formally asked US President Donald Trump for a pardon.

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Polish President Karol Nawrocki vetoed a bill to implement MiCA for the third time, just weeks before the end of the EU crypto framework's transitional period.

Polish President Karol Nawrocki vetoed a cryptocurrency regulatory bill for the third time, which sought to implement Europe's Markets in Crypto Assets Regulation (MiCA) in the country.

Nawrocki said Thursday he supports regulating the cryptocurrency market but argued that the government incorporated only one of 16 key amendments proposed by his office. He said that the text was nearly identical to the previous two drafts he refused.

The third veto of the bill delays Poland's alignment with the EU-wide regulatory framework just weeks before the end of MiCA's transitional period on July 1. Following the end of the grace period, crypto asset service providers will be required to hold a MiCA license or stop servicing EU clients.

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A Seychelles court said KuCoin can’t treat unwithdrawn tokens as “abandoned,” and awarded a Swiss investor over $2 million. He says the exchange still hasn’t paid and plans to sue again.

A Swiss investor said KuCoin has yet to pay a Seychelles Supreme Court award of more than $2 million after the exchange declared his tokens “abandoned.”

In a Dec. 11, 2025, ruling, the Supreme Court of Seychelles declared that Didier Rabl is the “sole proprietor and owner” of approximately 21 million CoinPoker (CHP) tokens previously held for him on KuCoin. The court also ordered three Seychelles-incorporated KuCoin entities to pay him over 2 million USDt (USDT) plus $10,000 in moral damages, according to documents reviewed by Cointelegraph.

The ruling could have implications for how cryptocurrency exchanges handle delisted assets, with the court finding that KuCoin did not become the beneficial owner of Rabl's tokens and remained obligated to safeguard the assets and honor lawful withdrawal requests.

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A Seychelles court said KuCoin can’t treat unwithdrawn tokens as “abandoned,” and awarded a Swiss investor over $2 million. He said the exchange still hasn’t paid and plans to sue again.

A Swiss investor said KuCoin has yet to pay a Seychelles Supreme Court award of more than $2 million after the exchange declared his tokens “abandoned.”

In a Dec. 11, 2025, ruling, the Supreme Court of Seychelles declared that Didier Rabl is the “sole proprietor and owner” of approximately 21 million CoinPoker (CHP) tokens previously held for him on KuCoin. The court also ordered three Seychelles-incorporated KuCoin entities to pay him over 2 million USDt (USDT) plus $10,000 in moral damages, according to documents reviewed by Cointelegraph.

The ruling could have implications for how cryptocurrency exchanges handle delisted assets, with the court finding that KuCoin did not become the beneficial owner of Rabl's tokens and remained obligated to safeguard the assets and honor lawful withdrawal requests.

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Metaplanet will acquire Siiibo Securities and rename it Metaplanet Securities as it builds out Project Nova, its Bitcoin-centric finance strategy in Japan.

Metaplanet announced on Friday that it has agreed to acquire Siiibo Securities in a 2.1 billion yen ($13.1 million) deal to form a securities arm.

The Tokyo-listed Bitcoin (BTC) treasury company said it entered into a share transfer agreement to acquire 100% of the Japanese securities company, a licensed financial instruments business operator. After closing, expected in July, Siiibo Securities will become a wholly owned subsidiary and be renamed Metaplanet Securities.

Metaplanet CEO Simon Gerovich said the acquisition is the first step in Project Nova, the company's strategy to build a Bitcoin-centric financial ecosystem in Japan.

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Crypto markets are becoming a new venue for pre-IPO price discovery ahead of SpaceX's highly anticipated debut today.

Binance's SpaceX tokenized IPO campaign attracted over $557 million in USDC deposits from about 27,689 wallet addresses ahead of the company's highly anticipated public listing.

Wallets contributing up to $20,000 accounted for more than 81% of participating addresses but only 18.39% of total funds, while 114 addresses contributed over $500,000 each, representing about 10.2% of the funds, according to Dune data.

The deposits point to strong demand for crypto-based pre-IPO exposure ahead of SpaceX's Nasdaq debut on Friday, with the company seeking to raise $75 billion at $135 a share and an around $1.8 trillion valuation.

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Bitcoin miner metic sparked talk of "capitulation" as profit margins stayed under 5%, but the BTC price bear-market bottom remained absent.

Bitcoin (BTC) miners are back under pressure as data hints that a new buying opportunity is now here.

Key points:

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SpaceX’s IPO hype may fuel a strong debut, but history shows richly valued listings often struggle after the first-day pop fades.

SpaceX’s IPO is already spilling into crypto markets, where one whale has opened a $22.3 million leveraged long on SPCX, a synthetic pre-IPO perpetual contract tied to Elon Musk’s aerospace company.

Key takeaways:

The whale's position, visible on data resource Hypurrscan, shows the trader holding a 2x isolated long on "xyz:SPCX" worth about $22.29 million.

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FIFA and the FBI warned of ticket scams as TRM Labs identified World Cup-themed crypto fraud operations tied to multiple wallet addresses.

TRM Labs warned that crypto scammers are targeting FIFA World Cup fans through fake ticketing sites, fixed-match betting schemes and event-themed crypto promotions. 

The blockchain intelligence company said it identified several World Cup-related scam operations, including two fake-ticketing sites and one fixed-match betting pitch tied to four crypto addresses.

“Criminals always look to exploit major events and cultural moments and they don’t wait until kickoff,” Ari Redbord, global head of policy at TRM Labs, told Cointelegraph. “Scammers build and position their infrastructure weeks in advance, then scale it the moment public attention peaks.”

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Eleven countries were involved in the joint operation that ended the AudiA6 crypto laundering ring and Dark2Web marketplace.

An international law enforcement operation among 11 countries has shut down AudiA6, a money laundering ring that processed over 336 million euros ($390 million) in illicit funds between 2022 and 2025.

On Wednesday, authorities arrested two administrators, Russian and Ukrainian nationals, in Georgia, seized 25 domains and more than 30 servers and 80 vehicles and froze roughly $900,000 in cryptocurrency, the European Union Agency for Criminal Justice Cooperation (Eurojust) said Thursday.

The AudiA6 “mixer-as-a-service” was used by cybercriminals involved in ransomware attacks to cash out stolen crypto and conceal the movement of illicit funds from authorities by offering to “clean” crypto within about an hour for a 3% to 10% commission.

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The launch comes as tokenized equities surge in popularity, with crypto exchanges and wallets racing to offer onchain access to stocks and pre-IPO companies.

Exodus has launched a marketplace for tokenized assets through a partnership with Ondo Finance, allowing eligible users to trade more than 200 tokenized stocks, ETFs and other real-world assets on Solana directly from the crypto wallet.

The company said Exodus Markets is available in select markets and that users can access the service by updating to the latest version of the app. Tokenized assets do not represent ownership of the underlying securities and do not provide shareholder rights, according to the announcement.

Cointelegraph contacted Exodus to determine which jurisdictions are eligible for Exodus Markets but had not received a response by the time of publication.

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The acquisition follows leadership changes and layoffs at Messari and adds one of crypto's largest data and analytics platforms to Blockworks' growing research business.

Crypto data and media company Blockworks has acquired analytics firm Messari for more than $10 million, according to a Wall Street Journal report.

Messari is a crypto research and analytics company backed by investors including Brevan Howard Digital and Point72 Ventures. The company raised $35 million in a Series B funding round in 2022 that valued it at around $300 million.

Source: Messari

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Galaxy’s Alex Thorn says a plan to scrap rules on stock orders and quotes would remove a major barrier to tokenized stocks trading on decentralized platforms.

The US Securities and Exchange Commission proposal to rescind rules around order protections and price quotes could remove a major legal barrier for tokenized US stocks.

The SEC on Thursday proposed to scrap two rules in its national market system regulations. Rule 611 that bans “trade-throughs,” where a stock order on one exchange can’t be for a worse price than on another, and Rule 610(e) banning exchanges from displaying a bid at the same or higher price than what is available elsewhere.

Galaxy head of research Alex Thorn said the proposal is “one of the biggest unlocks yet for tokenized stocks” as it would remove “one of the biggest structural barriers to tokenized US equities trading in DeFi.”

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LG is building a blockchain focused on buying and selling ads, joining a wave of companies launching their own blockchains in recent years.

South Korean tech giant LG Electronics is working with the Ethereum layer-2 network Arbitrum to build a blockchain-based advertising network aimed at serving the digital ad industry. 

Arbitrum would give advertisers and publishers a shared database of ad inventory and track how customers interact with advertisements, with the company exploring how to bring the service to market this year, Fortune reported on Thursday.

“We are evaluating whether this approach can deliver meaningful value to advertisers, publishers and audiences,” said Samuel Byungsun Park, the head of LG Electronics’ blockchain research lab. 

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Coinbase for Agents will allow users of the crypto exchange to manage their holdings without "constant manual oversight,” autonomously performing a range of tasks.

Crypto exchange Coinbase has launched a tool that allows artificial intelligence agents to make payments and trade crypto on behalf of users, as crypto companies look to ride a wave of interest in AI.

Coinbase said Thursday that it is launching Coinbase for Agents, which will allow AI models like ChatGPT and Claude to connect with a user’s exchange account and be prompted to make trades or execute strategies.

AI agents can also make payments using Coinbase’s AI payments protocol x402, allowing the bots to pay for data services to gather information for carrying out trading strategies without human intervention.

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Avalanche Treasury holds about 15 million of the blockchain’s native token, AVAX, which is trading at a five-year low.

The Avalanche Treasury Company saw a rocky start as it debuted on Nasdaq under the ticker AVAT on Thursday, with shares dropping 16% by the end of the day.

The new company gained access to the Nasdaq after merging with special-purpose acquisition company (SPAC) Mountain Lake Acquisition in a $675 million deal first announced in October. 

The company, with support from institutional backers including Dragonfly, Pantera, ParaFi Capital, VanEck, Galaxy Digital and Kraken, aims to give investors exposure to the Avalanche blockchain ecosystem without holding the cryptocurrency. 

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With $1.9 billion exiting the spot Bitcoin ETFs and tech stocks under pressure, BTC is failing as a hedge and at risk of falling below the $60,000 support.

Key takeaways:

The Nasdaq 100 Index dropped 7.5% in the seven days leading up to Wednesday, wiping out $2.7 trillion in market value. The fallout represents more than twice the entire Bitcoin (BTC) market capitalization and has put traders on alert, especially as inflation data feels the heat from high oil prices. Traders now fear that Bitcoin support near $60,000 stands at risk.

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The US banking giant's blockchain marketplace will offer tokenized depositary receipts of private company shares amid Wall Street's broad embrace of tokenized assets.

Citigroup is launching a blockchain-based marketplace for private company shares, looking to give wealthy and institutional investors a new way to gain exposure to pre-IPO firms as Wall Street pushes deeper into tokenized finance.

According to The Wall Street Journal, the platform will use tokenized depositary receipts issued by Citi, which represent ownership interests in private companies. The offering will initially be initially available to foreign investors, with US access planned at a later date.

The initiative allows investors to invest in private company shares “right next to their Apple stock, Citi digital asset executive Artem Korenyuk told the Journal.

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The US banking giant's blockchain marketplace will offer tokenized depositary receipts of private company shares amid Wall Street's broad embrace of tokenized assets.

Citigroup is launching a blockchain-based marketplace for shares of private companies, looking to give wealthy and institutional investors a new way to gain exposure to pre-IPO firms as Wall Street pushes deeper into tokenized finance.

According to The Wall Street Journal, the platform will use tokenized depositary receipts issued by Citi, which represent ownership interests in private companies. The offering will initially be initially available to foreign investors, with US access planned at a later date.

The initiative allows investors to invest in private company shares “right next to their Apple stock, Citi digital asset executive Artem Korenyuk told the Journal.

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ETH traders increased their long positions as Ether price traded near 2026 lows. Will ETH’s rebound eclipse the BTC recovery?

Ether (ETH) traders are increasing their leveraged long positions despite ETH price being down 44% in 2026. Ether's futures open interest at Binance has climbed to a record 3.7 million ETH, with the exchange accounting for more than 44% of total Ether futures.

Crypto analyst Darkfost noted that Ether futures activity has improved despite rising uncertainty driven by geopolitical tensions and weakening economic conditions.

The analyst noted that Binance now holds nearly 3.7 million ETH in open futures contracts, marking a new all-time high for Ether open interest on the exchange.

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XRP is forming head-and-shoulders and bear flag setups on its shorter-timeframe chart, both indicating a dip below $1 in the coming days.

XRP (XRP) charts are painting multiple bearish patterns this month with a downside target under $1.

Key takeaways:

Since June 5, the XRP price has formed what appears to be a head-and-shoulders (H&S) pattern.

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Bernstein says the 2026 FIFA World Cup could inject billions into prediction markets, with Coinbase and Robinhood positioned to capture a wave of new users.

Update, June 12, 5:30 am UTC: This article has been updated to clarify that Rothera is an independently managed exchange and clearinghouse operated through Robinhood’s joint venture with Susquehanna International Group, not a Robinhood-owned exchange.

The 2026 FIFA World Cup could mark a breakout moment for prediction markets, with Coinbase emerging as one of the biggest winners, according to a new research report from Bernstein.

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MassPay taps Coinbase to add USDC-powered cross-border payouts, betting stablecoin rails will cut costs and speed up settlement for businesses paying globally.

Cross-border payout platform MassPay and Coinbase announced a partnership on Thursday to offer stablecoin cross-border payouts.

The partnership connects MassPay's network in 180 countries with the US-based exchange's crypto infrastructure, allowing customers to move between fiat, USDC and other digital assets, the companies said in a joint statement shared with Cointelegraph.

MassPay CEO Ran Grushkowsky told Cointelegraph that stablecoins are still a small slice of the company's transaction volume. Still, the company expects the new rails to support nine-figure payouts in the first year.

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Executives from Franklin Templeton and BNP Paribas say tokenized assets and stablecoins could improve capital efficiency across Europe as Wall Street expands tokenization efforts.

Large financial institutions are turning to tokenization to improve capital efficiency and liquidity, according to representatives from Franklin Templeton and BNP Paribas.

Speaking at a panel at the WAIB Summit 2026 in Monaco, industry executives discussed how tokenized assets and stablecoins could modernize Europe's capital markets by streamlining settlement, improving collateral mobility and creating new opportunities for cross-border financial activity.

Tokenization offers institutions more “optionality and flexibility,” a development that is driving interest from banks and large corporations to launch their own offerings, said Rafael Mastroberardino, head of digital assets partnership development at investment manager  Franklin Templeton.

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Bitcoin mostly preserved a recent rebound despite the highest US PPI inflation since October 2022 and Iran closing the Strait of Hormuz oil route.

Bitcoin (BTC) returned to $63,000 on Thursday as crypto shook off news that Iran had closed a key global oil route.

Key points:

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Digital Asset raised $355M in an a16z‑led round at a $2B valuation, extending a Wall Street‑backed funding run as banks ramp up pilots on its Canton Network blockchain.

[Update June 11, 1:50 pm UTC. Adds commentary from Yuval Rooz, cofounder and chief executive of Digital Asset, in the fourth and fifth paragraph]

Digital Asset Holdings has raised $355 million in a new round led by Andreessen Horowitz’s crypto arm, highlighting Wall Street’s accelerating push into permissioned blockchain infrastructure.

A16z crypto contributed $100 million, alongside 7RIDGE, the Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, Citadel Securities and Optiver, in a deal that values Digital Asset at around $2 billion, according to a Thursday Bloomberg Law report citing people familiar with the matter.

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Hungary’s government said it will unwind crypto trading restrictions that required approved validation for conversions and exposed users and service providers to criminal liability.

Hungary is set to decriminalize crypto trading, reversing restrictions that imposed potential jail terms for certain crypto-to-fiat and crypto-to-crypto transactions, according to Tisza government spokesperson Anita Köböl. 

Speaking at a Thursday press conference, Köböl said Hungary would unwind rules introduced last year that required approved validation for crypto conversions and attached criminal penalties to violations. She said the restrictions contributed to a decline in crypto trading activity in the country. 

“This was an unnecessary piece of legislation. It made practical operation impossible and frightened the market participants,” Köböl said, according to a translation by Cointelegraph. “The criminal consequences also negatively impacted several hundred thousand people.”

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Japan’s Lower House reportedly passed a bill that would bring crypto under the country’s financial instruments framework, potentially opening the door to ETFs and lower tax treatment.

Japan’s Lower House reportedly passed a bill that would bring crypto assets under the country’s financial instruments framework, potentially opening a path to exchange-traded funds (ETFs) and lower tax treatment for digital assets. 

The bill would move crypto assets closer to the regulatory treatment of stocks and bonds by subjecting them to stricter trading rules, Bloomberg reported on Thursday. The legislation is expected to take effect next year after going through the Upper House. 

The proposed changes could lower the capital gains tax on crypto assets like Bitcoin (BTC) and Ether (ETH) from a current maximum of 55% to a 20% flat rate, in line with stocks and bonds. The tax change is expected to take effect in 2028.

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BEAT has reached its most overbought readings on record, raising the odds of a 35% price decline in the coming days.

BEAT, the native token of AI music platform Audiera, has exploded higher over the past month, surging more than 1,500% to a record high of $9.20 even as Bitcoin (BTC) and Ether (ETH) fell roughly 25% and 30%, respectively, in the same period.

BEAT/USD vs. BTC/USD and ETH/USD 1-month price performance. Source: TradingView

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The proliferation of new frontier AI models is the main catalyst behind the latest resurgence in DeFi hacks, according to Immunefi CEO Mitchell Amador.

New artificial intelligence (AI) models have shifted the cybersecurity playing field in favor of attackers, causing a “vulnerability apocalypse” that led to the resurgence in decentralized finance (DeFi) hacks, according to Mitchell Amador, the CEO of bug bounty platform Immunefi.

The proliferation of new AI models, such as Claude Opus 4.8 and ChatGPT 5.5, is the main reason that led to the resurgence in crypto hacks in 2026, Amador told Cointelegraph at the recent WAIB Summit in Monaco.

Hacking activity across the industry surged in April 2026, with illicit actors stealing more than $634 million from cryptocurrency platforms, the highest monthly total since the Bybit hack helped drive losses to roughly $1.4 billion in February 2025, according to DefiLlama data.

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Bitwise’s Matt Hougan says it was “pretty hard to engage with advisers on Bitcoin” during recent discussions, who are more interested in stablecoins and tokenization.

Advisers to some of the largest financial institutions are taking more of an interest in stablecoins and tokenization than in Bitcoin, which could help pull crypto out of its current slump, said Bitwise investment chief Matt Hougan.

Hougan said in a note on Wednesday that he recently spoke with more than 40 advisers who were “still interested in crypto” but are “more interested today in stablecoins and tokenization than they are in Bitcoin.”

“It was pretty hard to engage with advisors on Bitcoin this week,” he said. “In call after call, they expressed much more curiosity over the real-world applications of crypto that are quickly reshaping everything from capital markets to global payments.”

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“Pliny the Liberator,” says he has been “cleverly finding the holes in the fence that the thought police missed,” in the newly launched Fable 5.

An artificial intelligence and cybersecurity researcher claims to have jailbroken Anthropic’s latest AI model, Claude Fable 5, within just 48 hours of it being launched. 

“Pliny the Liberator,” a well-known figure in the AI community, said on Wednesday he “liberated” Fable 5, launched on Tuesday as a safety-tuned version of the more powerful Mythos model that Anthropic said was too dangerous to release widely.

He used various techniques, including a jailbroken version of Opus 4.8, to bypass the built-in safeguards that Anthropic installed on the model to prevent users from asking it for potentially harmful information, such as drug-making formulas or hacking instructions. 

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The bipartisan bill envisions the Justice Department leading a task force to coordinate crypto theft investigations, support local law enforcement and improve blockchain forensics efforts.

US lawmakers have introduced legislation that would create a Department of Justice-led task force to coordinate investigations into cryptocurrency theft, scams and other digital asset-related crimes across federal, state and local law enforcement agencies.

Under the proposal, the Justice Department would serve as the primary federal coordinator for cryptocurrency theft investigations, bringing together agencies including the FBI, Homeland Security Investigations and Treasury Department's Financial Crimes Enforcement Network.

The bill introduced by Republican Representative Lance Gooden and his Democratic House colleague Josh Gottheimer directs the task force to develop best practices for evidence collection, blockchain forensics, asset tracing and victim support. It would also provide training and technical assistance to state and local law enforcement agencies.

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The companies are pairing MXNB and RLUSD on the XRP Ledger to support institutional payments between the United States and Mexico as stablecoin adoption grows across Latin America.

Bitso is expanding its payments partnership with Ripple by bringing its Mexican peso-backed MXNB stablecoin onto the XRP Ledger, where it will be used alongside Ripple USD (RLUSD) to support enterprise cross-border settlement between the United States and Mexico.

Mexico City-based Bitso said it will issue MXNB on the XRP Ledger where it will be integrated into Ripple's Payments on DEX infrastructure and paired with RLUSD stablecoin for dollar- and peso-denominated settlement of enterprise payments.

Money transfers between the US and Mexico comprise the single largest remittance corridor in the world, according to the US Federal Reserve. American goods and services trade with Mexico totaled an estimated $935.1 billion in 2024, up 5.5% from 2023, according to the White House Office of the US Trade Representative.

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The UK-regulated digital asset platform said its new system allows interest payments to follow tokenized securities in real time, with payouts distributed continuously in USDC.

Archax has introduced real-time yield payments on Hedera, enabling interest generated by tokenized securities to be distributed continuously in USDC.

The system allows interest payments to update automatically as tokenized securities move between wallets. According to Archax, cash flows are transferred alongside the underlying asset, allowing yield to follow ownership in real time.

Most tokenized securities continue to distribute interest through periodic payments, similar to traditional financial products. Archax said its system allows cash flows to accrue and settle continuously, supporting applications such as real-time coupon payments and revenue-sharing arrangements.

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Trenton Richard Johnston was arrested in March during a traffic stop for speeding, but investigators soon found he was involved in a wider fraud scheme.

A Canadian teen stole more than $13 million in crypto through social engineering scams to pay for an “exotic lifestyle” in Miami and Los Angeles, including buying luxury cars, jewelry and taking private jet trips, US prosecutors say.

In May, US prosecutors charged then-19-year-old Trenton Richard Johnston for a scheme in which he and co-conspirators impersonated Google, Trezor and other crypto firm employees to gain access to victims’ crypto.

On Tuesday, Johnston, now 20, pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit money laundering, avoiding further charges that could have resulted in a maximum sentence of up to 40 years in prison. 

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“We continue to view the current macro environment as a headwind for Bitcoin,” 10x Research’s Markus Thielen said.

Market analysts have cautioned that Bitcoin and gold may face further headwinds this year following a 4.2% annual increase in the US Consumer Price Index (CPI) in May, according to figures released on Wednesday.

The surge in the consumer price index, a broad gauge of goods and services costs across the US economy, deflated hopes that the central bank will reduce rates, with some analysts now expecting rate hikes later this year — bad news for riskier assets such as crypto. US inflation surges to a three-year high. Source: Trading Economics 

Bitcoin has already had a troubling first half of the year. Bitcoin prices have fallen 36% since January, while gold is down 23% from its January peak. At the same time, crude oil prices have surged more than 50% over the same period. 

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Lawmakers in Delaware and New Jersey have advanced laws that would completely ban crypto ATMs, a measure that has only been enacted in three US states.

Delaware and New Jersey have both advanced legislation to ban cryptocurrency ATMs in what is becoming a growing trend across US states, with lawmakers concerned that the kiosks are overwhelmingly used for scams.

The Delaware House Economic Committee on Tuesday passed House Bill 441 to the full chamber, which would ban owning, installing, or operating a cryptocurrency kiosk.

It followed the New Jersey Senate Commerce Committee’s unanimous vote on Monday to send its bill banning crypto ATMs to the full chamber.

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XRP network activity and investor profitability fall to record lows, leading traders to focus on the $1 to $0.65 zone.

XRP's (XRP) onchain activity has contracted sharply since its 2025 peak. The 90-day network fee average fell by 91.5%, while the realized profit-to-loss ratio dropped to 0.38 from 50, according to Glassnode. 

The decline in activity and profitability comes as traders identify the $1.00-$0.65 region as a major area of interest.  

According to Glassnode, the 90-day simple moving average of total fees paid on the XRP network has fallen to just 500 XRP from 5,900 XRP in February, a decline of 91.5%.

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The proposed rules would preserve election markets and allow many sports-based prediction contracts while limiting bets that could encourage manipulation.

The US Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) has proposed new rules for prediction markets, signaling that sports event contracts are generally not contrary to the public interest even though federal law classifies them as “gaming.”

Released on Wednesday, the proposal distinguishes sports event contracts from games of pure chance, saying markets based on final scores and win-loss records can aid price discovery. Contracts tied to player injuries, officiating decisions or other outcomes that could encourage manipulation, however, are unlikely to meet the public interest test.

The proposal also clarifies that election contracts are not considered “gaming” under the relevant federal laws. Reuters reported this could further ease regulatory uncertainty for platforms such as Kalshi and Polymarket, which rose to prominence during the 2024 US presidential election as traders increasingly turned to prediction markets to gauge the race’s outcome.

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Bitcoin miner profits recently fell to record lows, while Bitcoin struggles to hold the $60,000 floor. Should traders be worried?

Key takeaways:

Bitcoin’s price slide to $62,000 was paired with weak on-chain activity and declining BTC miner revenues, which have fallen to an all-time low. This revenue drop is fueling investor anxiety over potential sell pressure, especially since miners and mining pools still control over $110 billion in Bitcoin.

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Stand With Crypto UK says banks are restricting access to regulated exchanges even as policymakers seek to position the country as a hub for digital asset innovation.

Stand With Crypto UK is urging its 286,000 members to challenge British banks restricting transfers to cryptocurrency exchanges, arguing that blanket limits on transactions to regulated platforms are restricting access to digital assets.

The new campaign cites a report from the UK Cryptoassets Business Council that found 40% of crypto transactions are blocked or restricted by UK banks. The group argues that many of the restrictions apply to transfers involving exchanges registered with the country's Financial Conduct Authority and do not account for individual customer risk profiles.

According to the report, one exchange recorded nearly 1 billion British pounds in declined transactions over a one-year period due to bank-side rejections, while 80% of surveyed platforms reported an increase in blocked or restricted transfers.

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Bitcoin’s average price response to Bank of Japan rate hikes was a 22.5% sell-off. Will BOJ’s upcoming policy decision trigger another BTC price crash?

Since 2024, Bitcoin (BTC) has posted four major corrections after interest rate hikes by the Bank of Japan (BOJ), with declines ranging from 18% to 28%. This dynamic places renewed attention on the BOJ's June 16 policy decision. 

Data currently point to a variety of pressures on BTC, with BTC whale distribution and exchange inflows possibly carrying more weight than Japanese monetary policy.  

The relationship between BOJ policy and Bitcoin has gained attention because each rate increase since Japan ended its negative interest rate policy has been followed by a sizable correction. 

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A public comment letter argues that regulated stablecoin issuers need clearer compliance standards to avoid sanctions risks tied to secondary-market activity.

Anchorage Digital, a federally chartered crypto bank and stablecoin infrastructure provider, has submitted a public comment letter supporting the US Treasury Department’s proposed Anti-Money Laundering (AML) and sanctions framework for the GENIUS Act, arguing that the rules largely strike the right balance between compliance and innovation.

In a letter published Wednesday, Anchorage said the proposed framework appropriately places AML obligations on regulated stablecoin issuers while urging Treasury to clarify secondary-market sanctions liability, enterprise-wide AML programs and correspondent account requirements.

Specifically, Anchorage argued that issuers should not face strict liability for failing to independently identify sanctioned users who transact on secondary markets through their smart contracts.

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BTC's rebound shows signs of weakening under a string of technical resistance levels, raising the odds of a dip below $60,000 in June.

Bitcoin (BTC) erased its intraday losses and rose by around 2.5% to $62,410 immediately after the US inflation report, even as the headline Consumer Price Index (CPI) hit its highest level in more than three years.

BTC/USD hourly chart. Source: TradingView

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TRM Labs said onchain gambling reached $51 billion in 2025, with repeat users and stablecoin flows helping the sector remain resilient during a broader crypto market pullback.

Prediction markets overtook onchain gambling for the first time in the opening quarter of 2026, recording $36.6 billion in volume compared with gambling's $14 billion, according to TRM Labs.

In a Wednesday report, the blockchain intelligence company said the shift followed a rapid expansion in both sectors. Onchain gambling reached $51 billion in 2025, while prediction markets climbed to $54 billion, putting the two categories at comparable scale heading into 2026. 

Still, onchain gambling remained near record levels. Quarterly gambling volume reached an all-time high of $15 billion in the fourth quarter of 2025, then held at $14 billion in Q1 2026.

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A deepfake campaign attack ad in the US state of Minnesota has raised questions around the ethics of using AI in political ads and the regulations surround AI use.

The election season is ramping up in the United States, meaning that airwaves and social media are flooded with campaign ads.

Candidates, in addition to the political action committees (PACs) supporting and opposing them, are projected to spend a record-breaking $10 billion in ads this cycle. Some of that is going into AI deepfakes. 

At least 15 AI-generated campaign ads have run since November, according to NBC News. Some have used deepfakes to portray a candidate doing or saying things that compromise their campaign’s image.

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Robinhood’s new IPO underwriter role comes as SpaceX prepares a record-breaking public offering, with retail brokers and crypto-native derivatives platforms racing to shape price discovery and access.

Robinhood Securities said it had secured approval to act as an IPO underwriter, moving from a distribution role into the main underwriting group alongside Wall Street banks.

Chief executive Vlad Tenev said in a Tuesday X post that Robinhood Securities is “now approved to serve as an underwriter,” without specifying which regulator granted the approval, a process that typically involves oversight from the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA).

Framing the move as the “natural next step” after launching IPO Access in 2021, Tenev said the question in equity capital markets had shifted from “why allocate to retail at all?” to “how big can the allocation be?”

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CoinShares’ James Butterfill said recent crypto outflows reflect a macro-driven sentiment shock, while other analysts warned Bitcoin’s rebound may remain fragile.

Cryptocurrency market outflows reflect a sentiment shock, as geopolitics, rate expectations and capital rotation into artificial intelligence weigh on digital assets, according to James Butterfill, head of research at CoinShares.

In a statement sent to Cointelegraph, Butterfill said that sentiment in crypto markets has “soured drastically” after billions of dollars flowed out of digital asset investment products in recent weeks.

“This is a pure sentiment shock rather than a structural break,” Butterfill said.

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Coinbase, Kraken and dYdX are adopting Pyth's new indexes, which provide continuous pricing for US stocks, gold and oil outside market hours.

Pyth Network, a blockchain oracle and market data provider, has launched new pricing indexes for US stocks and commodities, a move aimed at supporting around-the-clock trading products across crypto exchanges.

The company announced Wednesday that Coinbase, Kraken, dYdX and Nado are already using the indexes to power new trading markets.

According to Pyth, the indexes are designed for perpetual futures, tokenized assets, prediction markets, derivatives settlement and exchange-traded product benchmarking, providing continuous reference prices even when traditional financial markets are closed.

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Bitcoin’s institutional support weakened as ETFs and companies dumped almost 2,000 BTC daily and Strategy’s buying lost momentum.

Bitcoin (BTC) faced renewed risks of a breakdown toward $30,000, according to a new analysis, as institutional demand turned deeply negative.

Key takeaways:

Capriole Investments’ institutional buying model, which tracks Bitcoin demand from ETFs, corporate treasuries, and miner issuance, shows net institutional selling at around 450% of daily mined supply, equivalent to about 2,000 BTC per day.

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Trad.Fi plans to bring up to $650 million in equipment-finance credit onchain, targeting a trillion-dollar US market still dominated by paperwork.

US-based equipment finance platform Trad.Fi announced plans to bring up to $650 million in private credit onchain over the next 48 months. 

The initiative targets one of the largest and least digitized credit markets in the US, the trillion-dollar industry funding manufacturing equipment, industrial systems and residential solar installations, according to an announcement shared with Cointelegraph.

Trad.Fi said the $650 million is not deployed capital but a credit pipeline that will be minted onchain, backed by committed senior credit facilities and signed Letters of Intent from anchor borrowers. The company said it currently has about $85 million in signed term sheets and about $40 million expected to close imminently.

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The Spiderchain developer told users to withdraw assets by July 9 after concluding demand for Bitcoin-native DeFi was not sufficient to support the network.

Botanix, a Bitcoin scaling network that set out to bring “real utility” to BTC without token incentives, is winding down after four years in operation.

In a Tuesday post on X, Botanix told users to withdraw all Bitcoin and other assets by July 9, after which remaining assets will be swept and “be unrecoverable.”

The decision comes despite integrations with major crypto infrastructure providers, including Chainlink, Fireblocks and Galaxy, and the launch of a consumer-facing Bitcoin neobank app.

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The proposed measures would ban transactions on 11 crypto platforms and expand sanctions targeting networks accused of helping Russia evade restrictions.

The European Union proposed banning transactions on 11 crypto platforms as part of its 21st sanctions package against Russia.

Kaja Kallas, vice president of the European Commission and the EU’s high representative for foreign affairs and security policy, outlined measures targeting banks, weapons manufacturers, oil traders, refineries and other entities outside the bloc.

“We will also tighten our ban for crypto-asset services to certain third countries, add new designations, and ban transactions on 11 crypto platforms,” Kallas said in a post on X.

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Tech stocks and crypto are selling off in a “classic pre-mega-IPO liquidity squeeze,” say analysts.

The initial public offering of Elon Musk’s SpaceX has reportedly seen an oversubscription rate running at almost ​four times the planned offering size, with some analysts suggesting it could be squeezing liquidity from the market.

SpaceX’s IPO (SPCX) has attracted over $250 billion in investor demand, far exceeding the $75 billion it is seeking to raise in what would be the largest public offering ever, with the firm valued at $1.8 trillion, Reuters reported.

Bankers and investors say it is the latest sign that demand is strong, ​as long-only funds have put in “sizable orders,” according to the sources. 

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South Korea's national police has been battling crypto-enabled crimes from DPRK-state level threats to scams targeting retail investors.

Blockchain security firm Chainalysis is strengthening its collaboration with South Korea’s national police to crack down on crypto crimes, including those involving North Korea.

Chainalysis said on Wednesday that it signed a memorandum of understanding with the Korean National Police Agency (KNPA), aimed at building investigative capability within South Korea’s law enforcement. 

Chainalysis said one of the driving factors behind the agreement is to better combat North Korea-linked crypto attacks, with South Korea’s police “at the forefront” of tackling these threats. However, Chainalysis's country director Ryan Kwon said agreement aims to tackle all threats.

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The exchange joins Binance, Kraken, Bybit and Coinbase rolling out products tied to SpaceX's anticipated public debut.

Blockchain.com has launched 24/7 perpetual trading for institutional clients through its OTC desk, offering around-the-clock exposure to stocks, equity indices, commodities, foreign exchange markets and pre-IPO companies.

The rollout includes a SpaceX-linked perpetual contract, allowing eligible investors to take positions tied to the aerospace company's anticipated public listing. According to the company, the contract is already live through its OTC desk.

Blockchain.com said the new service is intended for institutions seeking continuous market access outside traditional trading hours. The company said clients can use the platform to hedge or adjust positions across multiple asset classes, including on weekends when most traditional markets are closed.

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NEURA plans to integrate Tether's wallet and AI technologies into its robotics platform, enabling autonomous payments and on-device computing for machines.

Tether is leading a funding round of as much as $1.4 billion for German tech company NEURA Robotics, deepening the stablecoin issuer's push into artificial intelligence and robotics.

The round, which values NEURA at roughly $7 billion, is expected to include a mix of strategic and financial investors. Tether said it is leading the raise through its investment arm, which deploys capital from the company's profits and excess reserves across sectors including AI, energy and digital infrastructure.

NEURA said it expects to integrate Tether's Wallet Development Kit into its robotic systems, enabling machines to receive payments and execute transactions within predefined parameters. The companies also plan to deploy Tether's QVAC AI runtime, which is designed to run models directly on devices rather than through cloud-based infrastructure.

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The Hyperliquid Policy Center and Paradigm say the Treasury’s money-laundering rules for the GENIUS Act are too onerous for stablecoin issuers.

The lobbying arm of crypto futures exchange Hyperliquid and venture capital firm Paradigm has urged the US Treasury to revise a proposed anti-money laundering and sanctions rule for stablecoin issuers.

The Hyperliquid Policy Center and Paradigm said in a letter on Tuesday that some secondary market obligations should be clarified or narrowed “to avoid unintended consequences for permissionless blockchain infrastructure and the DeFi ecosystem.”

The pair said they endorse the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network’s (FinCEN) approach of putting compliance obligations on the “primary market,” such as issuers who have customer information, and taking a “limited approach” to the secondary market, where issuers only see wallets and transactions.

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“The same insider trade that improves the accuracy of the price today can reduce the participation that makes the price informative tomorrow,” said Balbinder Singh Gill.

Prediction market regulators should consider a measured approach to insider trading enforcement as opposed to an outright ban, according to research from an academic at the Stevens Institute of Technology.

In a paper released on June 2, assistant professor of finance Balbinder Singh Gill developed a formal economic model to answer the question of how strictly insider trading in prediction markets should be policed.

A paradox exists in that “the same insider trade that improves the accuracy of the price today can reduce the participation that makes the price informative tomorrow,” he said. 

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Venture capitalist Simon Dedic said Anthropic’s latest AI models drop the cost and skill needed to find crypto exploits to “basically zero.”

AI company Anthropic on Tuesday released the first public version of its powerful Claude Mythos model, called Fable 5, with some crypto users worried it could be used for malicious purposes, despite embedded guardrails. 

Anthropic said last month that its Mythos model uncovered more than 10,000 high or critical-severity vulnerabilities in “systemically important software,” leading many to question if it should be publicly released.

This is despite the company saying on Tuesday that Fable 5 was “made safe for general use,” and has safeguards that reroute some topics, such as cybersecurity, to a different model, Claude Opus 4.8 

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Ether’s futures open interest fell by 25%, putting pressure on the $1,500 support level. Is a drop to $1,000 next?

The Ether (ETH) futures market saw its open interest (OI) on Gate.io fall by 45% to levels last seen in April 2025. At the same time, nearly 480,000 ETH left Binance, OKX, Gemini and Bitfinex over the past few days, reducing the exchange-held supply. 

The combined shift highlights a market with less leverage and declining exchange balances, placing greater focus on the $1,500 support zone, which some analysts view as critical to preventing a deeper move toward $1,000. 

Ether's futures market has undergone a broad reset during the recent sell-off. Crypto analyst Amr Taha noted that total ETH open interest across exchanges has dropped 25%, to $12.6 billion from $16.6 billion in May, with several major trading platforms now at levels last seen in April 2025.

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Kristin Smith urged the Senate to preserve developer protections in the CLARITY Act, arguing open-source builders should not be regulated as financial intermediaries.

Solana Institute CEO Kristin Smith is urging the US Senate to pass the CLARITY crypto market structure bill with developer protections intact, arguing that open-source developers and blockchain infrastructure providers should not be regulated as financial intermediaries.

In a thread on the X social media platform, Smith said the market structure legislation “has a real shot at passing the Senate,” making it critical for lawmakers to preserve protections for software developers.

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Bitwise research suggests that Bitcoin is leading a broader risk-off move across markets as global liquidity and stablecoin reserves remain elevated.

Bitcoin’s (BTC) recent performance may be less about crypto market weakness and more about its position at the front of the risk curve. Asset management firm Bitwise said that BTC often acts as a “canary in the macro coal mine,” responding to shifts in liquidity and financial conditions before traditional markets. With equities now showing similar signs of strain, the firm sees Bitcoin's move as part of a wider risk-off adjustment. 

Bitwise said that Bitcoin and Ether reached cycle lows of $58,000 and $1,507, respectively, as other global risk assets faced mounting pressure. The Nasdaq recorded its sharpest daily decline of 5% in months, and South Korea’s KOSPI (Korea Composite Stock Price Index), its benchmark stock index, triggered a temporary trading halt after a steep sell-off led by semiconductor stocks.

The shift followed stronger-than-expected US labor market data, which reduced expectations for near-term Federal Reserve easing. Higher-for-longer interest rate expectations kept the 10-year US Treasury yields higher and weighed on growth-sensitive assets. The US 10-year yield held near 4.53% on Tuesday after touching 4.68% last month, its highest level in a year.

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An advertising watchdog escalated its review of Kalshi after the prediction market platform declined to participate in an inquiry into influencer disclosure practices.

Update (June 10, 6:15 pm UTC): This article was updated to reflect that BBB National Programs is not affiliated with the Better Business Bureau, but operates as an independent nonprofit.

BBB National Programs' National Advertising Division (NAD) is referring prediction market platform Kalshi to regulatory authorities after the company declined to participate in an inquiry into its social media advertising practices, adding another layer of scrutiny to the fast-growing event trading platform.

In a statement published Monday, NAD said it will refer the matter to the appropriate regulatory authorities, including relevant state attorneys general, for possible enforcement action.

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A BBB advertising watchdog escalated its review of Kalshi after the prediction market platform declined to participate in an inquiry into influencer disclosure practices.

The Better Business Bureau’s (BBB) National Advertising Division (NAD) is referring prediction market platform Kalshi to regulatory authorities after the company declined to participate in an inquiry into its social media advertising practices, adding another layer of scrutiny to the fast-growing event trading platform.

In a statement published Monday, NAD said it will refer the matter to the appropriate regulatory authorities, including relevant state attorneys general, for possible enforcement action.

The inquiry examined whether Kalshi’s influencers and affiliates clearly disclosed paid relationships in social media promotions and whether the company took adequate steps to comply with Federal Trade Commission endorsement guidelines.

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Bitcoin bear market analysis showed copycat BTC price moves ongoing despite new hopes of a US-Iran peace deal.

Bitcoin (BTC) hit week-to-date lows at Tuesday's Wall Street open as analysis put $65,000 as bulls’ level to beat.

Key points:

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A $50,000 Bitcoin price target remains in play despite BTC maintaining above $60,000 support for now, as multiple indicators warn the bottom may not be in.

Bitcoin (BTC) bulls successfully defended the $60,000 psychological support during last week’s 13% correction.

BTC/USD daily chart. Source: TradingView

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A $50,000 Bitcoin price target remains in play despite BTC maintaining above $60,000 support for now, as multiple indicators warn the bottom may not be in.

Bitcoin (BTC) bulls successfully defended the $60,000 psychological support during last week’s 13% correction.

BTC/USD daily chart. Source: TradingView

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Researchers say broad HTX tainting could freeze legitimate users and make compliance tools less useful for tracing illicit funds.

Blockchain researchers have raised concerns about the United Kingdom's sanctions against crypto exchange HTX, arguing that the move may have created broad collateral damage across the industry's compliance system.

In an X post, Galaxy Digital's head of research, Alex Thorn, said the UK adding “all of HTX” to its sanctions was “problematic” because the exchange has many legitimate users. Thorn pointed to differences in how stablecoin issuers decide when to freeze tokens, saying there’s a big divergence in enforcement practices.

Security researcher Taylor Monahan said in an X post that the HTX sanctions undermined years of work to encourage decentralized finance (DeFi) protocols to screen and block stolen funds. She argued that most HTX users are legitimate.

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StarkWare and Sui roll out confidential transfer systems as Zama boosts compliance efforts and Zcash’s Orchard bug highlights risks in shielded privacy models.

StarkWare and Sui launched new privacy features this week that allow users to conceal transaction data without fully sacrificing auditability or regulatory oversight.

StarkWare said Tuesday that it launched STRK20, a privacy framework for ERC-20 tokens on Starknet that allows users to shield balances and transaction data while providing mechanisms for disclosure under certain circumstances.

Eli Ben-Sasson, co-founder and CEO of StarkWare, told Cointelegraph that "compliance-ready" does not mean STRK20 itself determines legal compliance or guarantees regulatory approval. He said the framework is built around a risk-based model in which privacy is conditional rather than absolute, with screening applied at entry into the shielded pool and viewing-key-based disclosure available under lawful request.

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One of MiCA's architects said he sees no need to regulate DeFi as the European Commission gathers feedback on the framework's future.

The European Union should focus on a broader digital asset framework covering real-world assets and tokenization instead of regulating decentralized finance through a second version of the Markets in Crypto-Assets Regulation (MiCA), an adviser at the European Commission said.

The European Commission launched a public consultation on MiCA in May, seeking feedback through Aug. 31.

"I do not believe that [MiCA] is outdated now. That’s my personal opinion, but it does not matter. That’s why we have this consultation,” Peter Kerstens told Cointelegraph during a fireside chat at WAIB Summit Monaco 2026.

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Bitcoin trader said that BTC price was approaching its cycle bottom "window" with the $53,000 cycle midpoint a potential buy-in level.

Bitcoin (BTC) should see new all-time highs in 2028, a trader says as $53,000 becomes an important buy-in level.

Key points:

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Humanity Protocol's Terence Kwok said some multisig keys may have been accidentally backed up to a compromised device during setup.

Humanity Protocol said an employee's laptop compromise allowed attackers to seize bridge controls, upgrade contracts and steal over $36 million in H tokens. 

In an incident update on Tuesday, the protocol said the Monday attack affected the H token across Ethereum and BNB Chain. The team said three of six Gnosis Safe owner keys were compromised, allowing attackers to take control of bridge administration on both networks. 

Once they had control, the attackers changed the bridge contracts into different malicious versions, Humanity said. On Ethereum, they drained around 141.2 million tokens. On BSC, they added a function that let them create unlimited tokens, then minted 200 million tokens directly to their own wallet. 

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OKX rolls out stock-linked expiry futures for European retail traders, expanding competition with Coinbase, Kraken and Binance in regulated derivatives.

OKX is rolling out expiry futures tied to the Magnificent 7, SPY, QQQ and major commodity benchmarks for European retail customers.

In a Tuesday release shared with Cointelegraph, OKX said the new X-Perps markets allow users to trade futures linked to individual Magnificent 7 stocks, alongside index-linked contracts based on the S&P 500 and Nasdaq-100 via SPY and QQQ.

The products also provide exposure to gold, silver and oil with up to 10x leverage, using the same margin pool as customers' crypto holdings.

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SBI will give out vouchers that can be redeemed for Bitcoin, Ether or XRP through SBI VC Trade, linking bank savings with the group’s crypto exchange arm.

SBI Shinsei Bank will reportedly launch a service that rewards deposit customers with cryptocurrency exchange vouchers based on their account balances.

According to a Nikkei report, customers will receive vouchers equal to 20% of their interest payments, in addition to their yen-denominated interest. The vouchers can be exchanged for Bitcoin (BTC), Ether (ETH) or XRP within a specified period. 

Customers would need to open an account with SBI's crypto exchange arm, SBI VC Trade, to redeem the vouchers.

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The crypto exchange will promote digital asset adoption through fan activations and product experiences at the first 48-team FIFA World Cup.

Kraken has been named the official crypto exchange supporter of the FIFA World Cup 2026, giving the crypto exchange a presence at one of the world's largest sporting events.

The company said Tuesday that the partnership will include fan activations and product experiences throughout the tournament.

The 2026 World Cup is expected to be the largest in FIFA history, with an expanded field of 48 teams and 104 matches across 16 host cities in the United States, Mexico and Canada. FIFA projects the competition will attract a cumulative global audience of more than 6 billion viewers during its seven-week run.

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Chainalysis identified a growing attack pattern targeting unverified DeFi contracts, with hackers stealing $36.7 million across four exploits since January.

Unverified smart contracts were linked to at least $36.7 million in losses across four DeFi exploits over the past six months, as attackers increasingly target protocols whose source code is not publicly available, according to Chainalysis.

The largest incident involved Truebit, which lost $26.2 million after an attacker exploited an integer overflow vulnerability in a contract that had remained unverified on Ethereum since 2021. The other incidents involved Trusted Volumes, Aperture Finance and Ekubo, according to the report.

In each case, the exploited contract had not been verified on a blockchain explorer, meaning its source code was not publicly available for review. According to Chainalysis, that limited scrutiny from security researchers and excluded the contracts from many bug bounty programs despite controlling user funds.

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The Hedera-based platform combines product authentication and blockchain traceability to support compliance with new European Union sustainability and supply-chain reporting requirements.

The Hashgraph Group and Merck have integrated the German tech maker's product authentication technology with TrackTrace, a Hedera-based digital product passport platform introduced in February, as businesses seek to comply with new European Union supply-chain transparency and traceability requirements.

Under the arrangement, Merck's M-Trust technology embeds security markers into products and packaging that can be verified with a handheld scanner. Authentication data is then recorded on The Hashgraph Group's TrackTrace platform, creating a digital record linked to a product's Digital Product Passport.

The companies said the integration combines physical product authentication with blockchain-based traceability, allowing businesses to verify both the authenticity of a product and the records associated with it.

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Crypto lobby groups representing hundreds of organizations urged Senate leaders in a letter to schedule a vote on a key crypto bill ahead of the midterms.

More than 200 crypto companies and organizations have urged the US Senate to pass the CLARITY Act, amid concerns that continued stalling could see it miss an important legislative window.

In a letter on Monday shared by crypto lobby group Stand With Crypto, the group called on Senate Majority Leader John Thune and Minority Leader Chuck Schumer “to bring the Clarity Act to the Senate floor without delay.”

It said the Senate Banking Committee's vote last month to pass the bill took “months of serious, bipartisan work” and the Senate should “build on that momentum and give members the opportunity to advance durable market structure legislation.”

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Autonomous AI and crypto could have “far-reaching consequences for users and the financial system,” IC3 researchers said.

Artificial intelligence agents that have autonomous access to crypto wallets could become unstoppable if deployed maliciously or if they escape from sandboxes, experts from a leading academic research consortium warned.

“Unstoppable Autonomous Agents” (UAAs) pose a clear threat if they are deployed to persist automatically and have access to digital assets, according to a June 8 industry review written by 25 academics and experts from top US universities for the Initiative for Cryptocurrencies and Contracts (IC3).

“When combined systematically, crypto tools can channel AI’s fluid power into secure, reliable, and highly autonomous systems,” the researchers wrote. However, this combination could have “far-reaching consequences for users and the financial system,” they added. 

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Bitcoin's recovery highlights investors' belief that BTC is discounted, but weak futures market activity could slow the rebound.

Bitcoin (BTC) rallied toward $64,000 on Monday, but futures market activity was lagging, which may be a sign that the rebound could lose momentum. Traders placed nearly $162 million in buy orders between $57,000 and $59,000, forming one of the largest visible liquidity clusters below the current pricing, potentially setting the stage for BTC's next move. 

Bitcoin's recovery coincided with a decline in futures market activity. Futures data shows that the aggregated open interest fell to 255,000 BTC from 282,000 BTC during the selloff and even though Bitcoin has recovered from its drop to $59,000, the open interest remains well below last week's peak.

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The Financial Conduct Authority floated the idea of allowing limited exposure to crypto for retail-focused funds if it aligns with “disclosed investment objectives.”

The UK’s Financial Conduct Authority has proposed allowing some authorized investment funds to hold up to a 10% allocation of crypto exchange-traded notes, closing a regulatory gap between retail investors and funds.

The FCA floated the idea in a quarterly consultation paper on Friday, which would allow retail-focused funds called undertakings for collective investment in transferable securities, or UCITS funds, and some non-UCITS funds to gain exposure to crypto.

The regulator said it wanted authorized funds to “remain contemporary and consistent with the demands of investors” while ensuring consumers “are adequately protected and markets function well.”

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The compromise of private keys belonging to a member of the Humanity Foundation has reportedly resulted in the theft of at least $30 million worth of its native token.

The Humanity Protocol, dubbed the “Chinese Worldcoin,” has been exploited for more than $30 million through a private key compromise, sending the price of H tokens plummeting on Tuesday. 

“We’ve detected a security incident involving the compromise of private keys belonging to a member of the Humanity Foundation,” said Terence Kwok, founder and CEO of Humanity Protocol, on Tuesday.

Kwok advised users not to interact with the bridge or any liquidity pools until it has been deemed safe and added that the team was working with security experts, but did not provide any further details at the time. 

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OpenAI says it filed for an initial public offering in the US, but has not yet decided when it will launch.

ChatGPT creator OpenAI has confidentially filed for an initial public offering in the US, becoming the third major AI company this year to set up plans for a Wall Street debut.

OpenAI posted to X on Monday that it filed confidential paperwork with the US Securities and Exchange Commission, but had not decided when it would launch to the public.

“We expect it to leak so we’re just announcing it,” the company wrote. “We have not decided on timing yet; it may be a while because there are things we want to do that are likely easier as a private company.”

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Tokenized stocks, gold and real estate are driving broader adoption as banks and institutions embrace blockchain-based assets despite a weaker crypto market.

Tokenized real-world assets (RWAs) remain one of the few bright spots in the cryptocurrency industry, even as macroeconomic headwinds and policy uncertainty weigh on markets in 2026, according to Binance Research.

In its latest Monthly Market Insights report, Binance Research said the market for active tokenized RWAs surged 589% from early 2025 to June 2026. Bonds and money market funds led the sector in dollar terms, growing by 83% and adding $6.5 billion in value.

Tokenized stocks, however, recorded faster growth, with their market value jumping 422%.

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Record-low Bitcoin RSI readings and whale accumulation highlight a generational buying opportunity, even as analysts still expect BTC to fall below $60,000.

Bitcoin's (BTC) lowest-ever readings on the daily and two-week relative strength index (RSI) are coinciding with steady accumulation across several investor cohorts, strengthening what one analyst called the "best thesis" for buying BTC. 

Onchain data shows wallets holding 1,000–10,000 BTC added more than 53,000 BTC over the past 60 days, while smaller retail investors also increased their holdings. 

MN Capital founder Michael van de Poppe highlighted Bitcoin's historically weak momentum readings as a potential long-term opportunity.

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Bitcoin analysis warned that $60,000 may not hold next, as bear-market moves continued and macro hurdles multiplied.

Bitcoin (BTC) approached intraday highs ahead of Monday’s Wall Street open, with $60,000 holding as key support.

Key points:

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BlackRock’s IBIT accounted for most of the weekly Bitcoin ETF redemptions, while Fidelity and Grayscale funds also saw outflows.

Spot Bitcoin exchange-traded funds (ETFs) recorded about $1.72 billion in net outflows in the week ended Friday, according to SoSoValue data.

The outflows extended the streak to four straight weeks of billion-dollar redemptions, dating back to the week ending May 15.

Data compiled by Farside Investors shows that the pressure was concentrated across the first three trading days of June, when the funds shed $483.8 million, $519.1 million and $396.6 million, respectively. The ETFs briefly reversed into a $3.2 million inflow on Thursday before Friday's $325.7 million in outflows. 

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Bitcoin flashes only its second weekly bullish divergence on record, a signal that previously preceded a 755% BTC price rally.

Bitcoin (BTC) is showing a rare divergence between its falling prices and rising momentum, a setup that last appeared around the FTX-era market bottom.

Key takeaways:

As of Monday, BTC's weekly relative strength index (RSI) was over 34, almost two weeks after slipping under the oversold threshold of 30. In the same period, the price dropped to around $63,000 from $75,770.

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South Korean lawmaker Kim Byung-gi faces probe over alleged nepotism tied to his son’s crypto jobs as police raid Bithumb's offices.

South Korean police have reportedly raided Bithumb as part of an investigation into alleged nepotism involving independent lawmaker Kim Byung-gi.

Kim allegedly attempted to influence employment opportunities for his son at multiple crypto firms, including Bithumb and Dunamu, the operator of rival exchange Upbit, according to a Monday report by News1.

Kim’s son joined Bithumb in January 2025 and worked there for about six months, the local outlet reported. Authorities are investigating whether any external pressure or preferential treatment influenced the hiring process.

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Strategy resumed Bitcoin buying by purchasing 1,550 BTC for $101.3 million, bringing its total holdings to 845,256 BTC after last week’s controversial sale.

[Update 18:15 UTC June 8: Adds outcome of Strategy shareholder vote on change in preferred stock dividend payments in sixth paragraph.]

Strategy purchased 1,550 Bitcoin for approximately $101.3 million last week, bringing its total holdings to 845,256 BTC.

The company paid an average price of $65,332 per Bitcoin for the purchase, according to a Monday 8-K filing with the US Securities and Exchange Commission. Strategy's aggregate Bitcoin holdings were acquired at an average price of $75,680 per BTC, for a total cost of about $63.97 billion.

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CoinGecko and NFT Price Floor data show NFT market cap has cooled since April, while CryptoPunks and BAYC remain top collections by value.

Yuga Labs-affiliated developers rescued 68 non-fungible tokens from Flooring Protocol after an exploit put NFTs from collections including Bored Apes and CryptoPunks at risk.

Yuga Labs CEO Michael Figge said Monday that the recovered NFTs are now in the company's custody and will be returned once a solution is finalized.

Yuga’s pseudonymous vice president of blockchain, 0xQuit, said the recovery covered more than $500,000 worth of NFTs.

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Bitcoin traders warned that it should be Q3 at least before the real BTC price bear market bottom entered.

Bitcoin (BTC) starts the second week of June with damage control — and new macro lows are still expected this year.

Bitcoin saw modest relief around its latest weekly close, data from TradingView shows, but among traders, the lack of major good news is conspicuous.

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Man in eastern China who stole 107 Bitcoin using a memorized seed phrase gets 10 years and nine months behind bars.

A court in the eastern Chinese city of Qingdao sentenced a man to 10 years and nine months in prison for stealing 107 Bitcoin after memorizing most of a victim’s 12-word wallet seed phrase.

The Licang District People's Court sentenced the perpetrator, identified as Zhang, to prison and fined him 100,000 yuan (about $14,700) after finding he took control of the victim’s wallet and later cashed out more than $97,000, according to the case summary published by the Supreme People’s Procuratorate’s official WeChat account.

Feng asked Zhang, an acquaintance who had previously helped with Bitcoin transactions, to assist in cashing out 117 Bitcoin in July 2023. While Feng wrote down the wallet’s 12-word recovery phrase during setup, Zhang memorized 11 of them and later reconstructed the final word to transfer 107 Bitcoin.

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Ironwood would close the old Orchard pool to new activity and route funds through a turnstile before they enter a new shielded pool.

Zcash developers are proposing a new shielded pool called Ironwood after a recently patched bug raised concerns about whether counterfeit ZEC could have entered circulation unnoticed.

The Zcash Open Development Lab (ZODL) said Saturday that it is working with Tachyon, Valar Group, the Zcash Foundation and Shielded Labs on the proposed network upgrade, which would add formal verification and independent audits to the Orchard protocol, a privacy system that lets users move ZEC without revealing transaction details.

The proposal would close the current Orchard pool to new deposits and internal transactions, requiring funds to pass through a “turnstile,” which serves as an accounting checkpoint, before entering Ironwood.

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Maelstrom’s Arthur Hayes has been on a selling spree recently, offloading positions in HYPE, ZEC, NEAR and now WLD.

Maelstrom co-founder Arthur Hayes said he sold his Worldcoin (WLD) holdings just days after his venture capital firm described it as one of the cleanest proxies for the AI investment play. 

“This chart is going in the wrong direction,” said Hayes on X on Saturday, showing a chart for the SpaceX pre-IPO perpetual futures contract, which had fallen sharply.

“Dumped WLD. I’m out. See y’all at the clerb,” he added.

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Galaxy Digital says the Senate has a tight calendar ahead of the November elections, and the time needed to fix up and pass a key crypto bill is quickly fading.

Crypto firm Galaxy Digital has lowered the odds of the Senate passing its crypto market structure bill before the end of the year, noting that the window for lawmakers to act on the bill is closing. 

“On May 22, we raised our estimate of the probability that the CLARITY Act becomes law in 2026 to 75%, up from the 55% we published the morning of May 14's Senate Banking markup, Galaxy’s head of research Alex Thorn said in a note on Friday. “We are now lowering that estimate to 60%.”

Thorn said the bill must pass the Senate before a month-long August recess starting in late July, as “after that, the window effectively closes.” He added that major legislation has historically not moved in the lead-up to the midterm elections due to lawmakers campaigning.

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The new wallet allows AI agents to execute transactions across DeFi protocols while operating within user-defined spending limits and security controls.

MetaMask launched a self-custodial cryptocurrency wallet that allows artificial intelligence agents to transact across decentralized finance protocols within user-defined spending and security controls.

Users can connect the Agent Wallet to AI agent frameworks and authorize software agents to operate within protocol allowlists. The wallet is compatible with frameworks including OpenAI Codex, Claude Code, OpenClaw and Hermes, according to MetaMask.

MetaMask said transactions initiated by AI agents are screened through transaction simulation, threat detection and MEV protection systems before execution. Transactions flagged as malicious or outside a user's predefined rules require manual approval.

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The company added nearly 127,000 ETH over the past week and now has more than 4.7 million Ether staked through its validator infrastructure.

Bitmine Immersion Technologies increased its Ether holdings to 5.54 million ETH after acquiring nearly 127,000 tokens over the past week, bringing its treasury to 4.59% of Ethereum's total supply.

The company said it has now reached 92% of its stated goal of acquiring 5% of Ethereum's total supply, a strategy it calls the “Alchemy of 5%.” It added that 4.72 million ETH (ETH), or about 85% of its holdings, are currently staked through validator infrastructure, worth roughly $7.7 billion at current prices.

Bitmine projected $230 million in annualized staking revenue from its current staked ETH position, with rewards potentially rising to $270 million if its holdings are fully staked through MAVAN and other staking partners.

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Eligible Bybit users can subscribe to tokenized SpaceX IPO shares through xStocks, a Kraken-linked framework that brings public market offerings to crypto exchanges.

Bybit is joining a growing list of crypto exchange platforms allowing eligible users to subscribe to tokenized shares in US initial public offerings at the offering price, beginning with a SpaceX listing through the xStocks framework.

Kraken parent Payward Services' xStocks framework aggregates investor demand across partner platforms and works with underwriting syndicates to secure IPO allocations before tokenizing the shares.

Eligible users can register interest and submit subscription requests for tokenized IPO shares through Bybit, with allocations distributed on a pro-rata basis and unused funds refunded if demand exceeds available shares. SpaceX will be the first offering, with tokenized shares scheduled to begin trading on Bybit's spot market on Friday.

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The firm announced that the US securities regulator has declared its S-4 registration statement effective, bringing it closer to a SPAC merger with Cantor Equity Partners II.

Real-world asset tokenization platform Securitize is one step closer to going public via a special acquisition company (SPAC) merger, after one of its filings was approved by the US Securities and Exchange Commission.

The regulator approved the Form S-4 registration statement from Cantor Equity Partners II, a publicly traded special purpose acquisition company (SPAC) sponsored by an affiliate of Cantor Fitzgerald, and Securitize on Friday.

Carlos Domingo, co-founder and CEO of Securitize, said the move marks “another important milestone for Securitize and for the broader institutional adoption of tokenization.”

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HTX said World Liberty froze its addresses and has responded by delisting and suspending the platform’s token.

HTX, the crypto exchange linked to crypto entrepreneur Justin Sun, delisted the Trump family’s USD1 stablecoin after claiming World Liberty Financial wrongly froze the exchange’s addresses.

“The World Liberty Financial (WLFI) project team recently stated that it has unilaterally imposed a freeze on specific HTX on-chain addresses based on sanctions compliance reviews,” said HTX on Saturday.

“As a result, the on-chain circulation of certain WLFI assets associated with these addresses has been restricted,” it said, adding it delisted USD1 to safeguard user assets. 

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Bitcoin eyes a rally toward $92,630 as BTC defends key long-term support while the Nasdaq flashes deeper correction risks.

Bitcoin (BTC) traders said that BTC holding above the $60,000 psychological support over the weekend was important as it recovered 6.5% from a local low near $59,100 to an intraday high of around $62,950 on Sunday.

Key takeaways:

Bitcoin's rebound stood out as the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite (IXIC) plunged more than 4% on Friday, its steepest one-day drop since April 2025. This has raised hopes that risk capital may return to BTC markets.

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Bitcoin eyes a rally toward $92,630 as BTC defends key long-term support while the Nasdaq flashes deeper correction risks.

Bitcoin (BTC) traders said that BTC holding above the $60,000 psychological support over the weekend was important as it recovered 6.5% from a local low near $59,100 to an intraday high of around $62,950 on Sunday.

Key takeaways:

Bitcoin's rebound stood out as the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite (IXIC) plunged more than 4% on Friday, its steepest one-day drop since April 2025. This has raised hopes that risk capital may return to BTC markets.

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Strategy’s top execs took to social media on Sunday to tout its Bitcoin strategy while shareholders cast final votes on a proposal for twice-monthly preferred stock dividend payments.

Strategy watchers were not disappointed on Sunday as executive chairman Michael Saylor took to social media to signal pending news on changes in the company’s Bitcoin holdings, hours ahead of the final tally of shareholder votes on a proxy measure that would see the company pay dividends twice a month on its preferred STRC shares.

“A good time to add more dots,” was the message Saylor posted on X.com along with a bubble chart tracking Strategy’s Bitcoin (BTC) purchases over the past nearly six years. That chart, from Iceland-registered StrategyTracker.com, has been consistently posted by Saylor in the days ahead of news of a purchase by the biggest publicly traded Bitcoin holder.

By mid-afternoon on Sunday, Michael Saylor's X post had 2.3 million views. Source: Michael Saylor on X.com

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Bitcoin realized losses remained below the $211 billion tally from 2022, leading to a prediction that the next bear-market bottom was not yet in.

Bitcoin (BTC) threatens to “purge further” as realized losses in the 2026 bear market fail to beat records.

Key points:

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Bitcoin’s latest oversold RSI mirrors 2020 and February 2026 setups that preceded 50% and 30% rebounds, putting $70K back in focus.

Bitcoin (BTC) is now flashing its most oversold signal since the COVID-19 crash, raising the odds of a relief rebound toward $70,000 in the coming weeks.

Key takeaways:

As of Saturday, Bitcoin’s daily relative strength index (RSI) stood near 15.5, well below the 30 level that typically marks oversold conditions and its lowest reading since the March 2020 market crash.

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ETH price crashed below $1,600 as a vulnerability in Zcash emerged and Bitcoin sold off below $60,000 for the first time in months.

Key takeaways:

Ether (ETH) plummeted to a 13-month low of $1,540 on Friday, following the bearish trend across the broader cryptocurrency market. Traders now fear a deeper price correction, given weakness in ETH derivatives metrics and heightened risk after a bug was found in the Zcash blockchain.

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ETH price crashed below $1,600 as a vulnerability in Zcash emerged and Bitcoin sold off below $60,000 for the first time in months.

Key takeaways:

Ether (ETH) plummeted to a 13-month low of $1,540 on Friday, following the bearish trend across the broader cryptocurrency market. Traders now fear a deeper price correction, given weakness in ETH derivatives metrics and heightened risk after a bug was found in the Zcash blockchain.

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Travala’s new protocol lets AI agents search and book hotels with USDC on Base, but travelers still approve the final payment.

Singapore-based crypto travel platform Travala has launched a protocol it says lets artificial intelligence agents search, reserve and pay for hotels with USDC (USDC) on layer-2 blockchain Base, extending agentic AI stablecoin payments into travel bookings.

The Travala Travel MCP is live through Claude Desktop, with outside developers able to integrate it into their own travel agents, Travala said in a statement sent to Cointelegraph.

The company said the system connects Travala’s hotel inventory to AI agents through the Model Context Protocol, an open standard for linking AI apps to external tools. Payments use Coinbase’s x402 protocol on Base, with Travala saying the setup allows gasless USDC transactions, near-instant settlement and transaction costs of about $0.01 per booking.

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Among the issues US lawmakers are expected to discuss in a digital asset taxation hearing are “de minimis” reporting exceptions for crypto transactions.

The US House Ways and Means Committee circulated seven discussion drafts of bills to address digital asset taxation ahead of a Tuesday hearing on the matter, covering stablecoins, staking, mining and transactions.

Among proposals in the draft legislation are reducing the tax paperwork required for crypto holders, providing clarity for mining and staking tokens and a potential “de minimis” reporting exception for transactions. The seven discussion draft bills preceded a Tuesday hearing on digital asset taxation in the House committee, chaired by Republican Jason Smith.

Crypto industry advocates have been urging US lawmakers to address lessening the reporting burden for taxes on mining and staking as well as eliminating requirements for small crypto transactions through “de minimis” exceptions.

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Bitcoin bears piled into short positions as BTC price slid to $60,000. Will the $2.6 billion in short leverage lead to an upside squeeze?

Key takeaways:

The Bitcoin (BTC) crash to $61,100 on Friday wiped out $335 million in leveraged long positions. However, after a 21% decline in Bitcoin's price, bulls might have set a perfect trap as negative market sentiment intensified. Bearish positions built up heavily between $63,000 and $66,000, setting the stage for a potential $2.6 billion short squeeze.

Estimated cumulative Bitcoin liquidation at major exchanges, USD. Source: CoinGlass

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Eligible users in more than 110 markets can register for tokenized SpaceX equity ahead of the company's highly anticipated public listing.

Crypto exchange Kraken is giving customers access to the upcoming SpaceX initial public offering through xStocks, a tokenized equities platform, highlighting the growing convergence between crypto infrastructure and traditional capital markets.

Kraken announced Friday that SpaceX will be the first public offering available through xStocks IPO Access, which allows eligible users to participate in the offering through tokenized equity instruments.

To participate, users must have a verified Kraken account on the Kraken mobile app and submit an application for IPO access. The offering is not available through Kraken Pro or the company’s desktop platform.

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The law, part of a budget plan passed by Illinois lawmakers, would put the burden of collecting a 0.2% tax on crypto transactions on a registered broker.

Some digital asset industry advocates are pushing back against a provision in a $56 billion state budget passed by the Illinois General Assembly on Monday, due to its impact on crypto users. 

In a Senate bill included as part of the Illinois state budget for the fiscal year 2027, lawmakers proposed a 0.2% tax on crypto transactions, to be imposed by the “digital asset broker making or effectuating the sale of the digital asset business activity.” The 1,624-page bill, part of the revenue and tax package to fund the state’s 2027 budget, passed along party lines early on Monday.

Senate Bill 3019. Source: Illinois General Assembly

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Strategy’s Bitcoin sale challenged the “never sell” narrative, while JPMorgan attacked CLARITY and Capital B pursued a huge fundraising plan for BTC.

Strategy’s sale of 32 Bitcoin shouldn’t have mattered. The company still holds hundreds of thousands of BTC, and the transaction barely moved the needle on its balance sheet. Yet the market reaction was swift, exposing how much of the Bitcoin treasury trade had been built on a simple assumption: companies buy Bitcoin… and they never sell it.

Elsewhere in crypto this week, JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon escalated his fight against the industry’s preferred market structure bill and a French Bitcoin treasury company pushed the limits of capital formation by asking shareholders to approve a massive $122 billion fundraising mandate.

Michael Saylor’s Strategy rattled the market after disclosing the sale of 32 Bitcoin — its first reported BTC liquidation outside a 2022 tax-related transaction. 

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Pump.fun launched a new bounty platform where users started funding bizarre memecoin marketing stunts, including forehead tattoos, skydiving as a mascot and setting a vehicle on fire.

Solana-based memecoin launchpad Pump.fun introduced a new open bounty platform where users have posted crypto rewards for bizarre promotional tasks, such as tattooing the ticker symbols of memecoins, quitting their current job live on camera or skydiving into a World Cup match.

Pump.fun introduced the new platform on Thursday, positioning it as an open marketplace to “complete bounties for ANY task and leverage the power of humans & money across the globe.” The submissions are reviewed by Pump.fun while funds are in escrow. If accepted, the bounty is paid out to the submitter.

Pump.fun said that bounties that “may be deemed as spam by X are not allowed” in its Terms and Conditions document.

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Michael Saylor’s essay calls for Bitcoin to expand through banks, credit, securities and higher layers while preserving its base layer.

Strategy co-founder and executive chairman Michael Saylor said Bitcoin needs “disciplined expansion” through banks, companies, securities, credit and capital markets, laying out a path for the asset as spot exchange-traded fund (ETF) outflows and a broader market sell-off test institutional demand.

On Friday, Saylor published an essay, saying Bitcoin’s base layer should be treated as “sacred infrastructure,” with most innovation occurring through higher layers, applications, custody systems, credit instruments and financial infrastructure.

The comments frame Bitcoin’s next phase as a clash between two institutional channels: passive spot ETF exposure, which has broadened access but remains sensitive to redemptions, and the corporate and credit-market adoption model favored by Saylor’s Strategy.

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Bitcoin sellers were losing steam, market analysis said as ongoing BTC price downside brought the market closer to $60,000.

Bitcoin (BTC) extended losses after Friday’s Wall Street open as traders prepared for a retest of $60,000.

Key points:

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Visa is testing private stablecoin settlement on Canton with Brale, exploring whether institutions can use blockchain without exposing sensitive transaction data.

Visa is testing whether privacy-enabled blockchain networks can support institutional stablecoin settlement without exposing sensitive transaction data, in a proof of concept with stablecoin infrastructure company Brale and the Canton Network, a permissioned ledger backed by major Wall Street firms.

The project, announced Thursday, uses SBC, a US dollar-backed stablecoin issued by Brale, to simulate institutional payment flows on Canton as Visa evaluates whether SBC could become another stablecoin option in its settlement program.

The initiative extends Visa’s earlier experiments using stablecoins for settlement on public blockchains, which began in 2021 with USDC settlement on Ethereum but now target banks and market infrastructure providers that want onchain efficiency without broadcasting counterparties, positions or flows on a public ledger.

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Zcash developers are weighing a new shielded pool and turnstile accounting after the Orchard bug raised supply verification questions.

Zcash developers and researchers are discussing whether a new shielded pool could help restore supply verification confidence after a recently patched Orchard vulnerability.

Shielded Labs, an independent Swiss-based Zcash support organization, said in a security update on Friday that it is exploring a proposed network upgrade that would deploy a new shielded pool and enforce “turnstile accounting” on coins moving from Orchard, giving users a clearer way to verify the integrity of funds moving out of the pool.

The group said the proposal is still subject to further explanation and community review. Shielded Labs said it plans to publish a follow-up post next week explaining how the upgrade would work and what tradeoffs it could involve. 

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Bitcoin whales flipped to support a BTC price rebound, but analysis warned that the Coinbase and Kimchi Premium still needed to return.

Bitcoin (BTC) has fulfilled two of three key conditions to spark the next BTC price “rally,” new analysis says.

Key points:

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House Republicans plan a summer vote on a congressional stock trading ban and new restrictions on lawmakers’ prediction market activity.

Republicans in the US House of Representatives are moving to add prediction market restrictions to a stalled congressional stock trading ban, as lawmakers scrutinize whether members of Congress should be allowed to wager on elections or public policy.

House Administration Committee Chair Bryan Steil plans to attach prediction market provisions to H.R. 7008, the House’s stalled stock trading ban bill, before it reaches the floor, Bloomberg Government reported Thursday.

Steil said he expects House leaders to schedule a vote on the measure, which would combine stock trading limits with new restrictions on lawmakers’ use of prediction markets.

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Some of the largest banks are reportedly launching a tokenized deposit network in early 2027 in response to growing competition from stablecoin companies entering TradFi.

Some of the largest US banks are reportedly planning to launch a tokenized deposit network in the first half of 2027 in response to growing competition from blockchain companies expanding into traditional finance. 

The network will be operated by The Clearing House, the bank-owned payments operator, and will connect traditional payment rails with digital asset infrastructure for 24/7 settlement, CEO David Watson told The Wall Street Journal.

The Clearing House is co-owned by some of the largest US banks, including JPMorgan Chase, Bank of America, Citibank, Barclays, BNY and Wells Fargo, among others, according to its website.

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Bitcoin’s downside targets cluster near $50,000, but a larger weekly bearish setup puts a deeper correction toward $33,000 on the radar.

Bitcoin (BTC) is heading for its worst weekly performance since November 2022, down around 15% week-to-date as of Friday.

BTC/USD weekly chart Source: TradingView

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Forward Industries moved $31.9 million in SOL to Coinbase Prime as its Solana bet sits over 70% underwater, underscoring growing strain on corporate crypto treasuries.

Forward Industries transferred roughly $31.9 million worth of Solana tokens to Coinbase Prime Thursday, according to blockchain data, marking its first onchain activity in a month.

Data from Arkham Intelligence shows a wallet tied to the Nasdaq-listed company moved 455,784 SOL to the institutional trading platform. The transfer comes as the firm sits on steep unrealized losses tied to its large-scale bet on the token.

The deposit to Coinbase Prime does not necessarily confirm an immediate sale but is commonly interpreted as a precursor to trading activity, particularly for institutional holders seeking liquidity or risk reduction.

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South Korean police reportedly launched the country’s first illegal gambling probe into local Polymarket users amid election-betting scrutiny.

South Korean police have reportedly launched the country’s first illegal gambling probe into local Polymarket users, widening regulatory scrutiny of the decentralized prediction market.

The investigation is led by Gangwon Provincial Police and was requested by the National Police Agency, according to ChosunBiz. 

Users may face fines of up to 10 million won ($6,500) under Article 246 of the Criminal Act covering gambling and habitual gambling. Under current law, Sports Toto is the state-authorized sports betting platform, while unauthorized online betting can be prosecuted under South Korean gambling laws.

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Tether-linked billionaire Christopher Harborne and BitMEX co-founder Ben Delo donated $9.4 million to Nigel Farage’s Reform UK in the first quarter.

Nigel Farage’s Reform UK received 7 million British pounds ($9.4 million) from two crypto billionaires this year, with total funds raised outstripping all other political parties.

The party received a $4 million donation from Christopher Harborne, who has a stake in the stablecoin issuer Tether, and a $5.4 million donation from Ben Delo, the co-founder of the crypto exchange BitMEX, according to Electoral Commission data released on Thursday.

The Labour and Conservative parties each received around $5.4 million in the first quarter of the year. 

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“Less Bitcoin on levered DAT balance sheets and more on diversified corporate balance sheets will be a positive,” said Grayscale’s head of research, Zach Pandl.

Strategy’s leveraged Bitcoin model is stressed, which could limit the firm’s ability to keep buying BTC and potentially force further sales, according to Grayscale.

“The shift in approach from one of the world’s largest BTC holders has weighed on market sentiment,” said Zach Pandl, Grayscale’s head of research, on Thursday. 

Michael Saylor’s Strategy sold 32 BTC on Monday, a tiny fraction of its total holdings of 843,706 BTC, but enough to rattle market sentiment as the asset has tanked by 16% since the sale. 

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Companies have been developing AI very quickly to stay ahead of the market, but Favaro and Clark argue that a slowdown would allow more time to deal with the technology’s implications.

US-based AI firm Anthropic warns AI development is advancing at a pace that could soon see agents building, training and improving themselves without human input — recommending a slowdown in development.

In a blog post published Thursday, Marina Favaro, lead at the Anthropic Institute, and Anthropic co-founder Jack Clark said agents can already run code themselves, delegate hours of work to other agents and could be on the cusp of taking over completely.

“For most of AI’s history, humans drove every step in its development cycle. But at Anthropic, we are delegating a growing share of AI development to AI systems themselves, which is speeding up our work,” they said.

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ZEC market capitalization fell by almost $3 billion over the past 24 hours following the disclosure of a critical vulnerability, despite it being patched already.

The price of ZEC fell on Thursday after the public disclosure of a critical counterfeiting vulnerability in Zcash’s Orchard pool that could theoretically allow a bad actor to mint an unlimited amount of ZEC.

According to a post on X, security engineer Taylor Hornby, who was engaged by Shielded Labs, discovered the bug on May 29 and disclosed it to the Zcash Open Development Lab (ZODL), which deployed an emergency response to fix the vulnerability with a hard fork activated on June 3. 

However, there are concerns about the extent to which the vulnerability, which has existed since May 2022, has been used, leading Zcash to fall more than 30% over the past 24 hours to $410 at the time of writing. Its market capitalization has shrunk by more than $3 billion.

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ZEC market capitalization fell by almost $3 billion over the past 24 hours following the disclosure of a critical vulnerability, despite it being patched already.

The price of ZEC fell on Thursday after further details were disclosed of a critical counterfeiting vulnerability in Zcash’s Orchard pool that could theoretically allow a bad actor to mint an unlimited amount of ZEC.

According to a post on X, security engineer Taylor Hornby, who was engaged by Shielded Labs, discovered the bug on May 29 and disclosed it to the Zcash Open Development Lab (ZODL), which deployed an emergency response to fix the vulnerability with a hard fork activated on June 3. 

However, there are new concerns about the extent to which the vulnerability, which has existed since May 2022, has been used, leading Zcash to fall more than 30% over the past 24 hours to $410 at the time of writing. Its market capitalization has shrunk by more than $3 billion.

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Senator Cynthia Lummis has led a group of lawmakers urging financial regulators for “fair capital treatment for on-balance sheet treatment of digital assets.”

A group of Senate Republicans has urged US financial regulators to clarify the capital standards for companies engaged in crypto activities.

Senator Cynthia Lummis said on Thursday that she led the group in sending a letter on May 27 to Federal Reserve Vice Chair for Supervision Michelle Bowman, Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. Chairman Travis Hill, and Comptroller of the Currency Jonathan Gould.

The letter commended the agencies’ guidance in March that clarified the capital treatment of tokenized securities, but urged them “to build on that progress to move towards a clear and fair capital treatment for on-balance sheet treatment of digital assets.”

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US Comptroller of the Currency Jonathan Gould and New York Representative Gregory Meeks sparred over Donald Trump’s influence on regulators he has nominated as president at a Thursday oversight hearing.

Jonathan Gould, the comptroller of the currency (OCC) nominated by Donald Trump, implied that the US president had not ordered him to approve or give special consideration to a national trust charter application tied to his family’s financial interests.

In a Thursday hearing of the House Financial Service Committee on “oversight of prudential regulators,” New York Representative Gregory Meeks questioned Gould on the Trump family crypto company World Liberty Financial’s connections to foreign governments and the Binance exchange. The company, whose co-founders include Trump and his sons, applied for an OCC charter in January, prompting backlash from many Democratic lawmakers alleging conflicts of interest.

Representative Gregory Meeks at a Thursday hearing.
Source: House Financial Services Committee

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Bitcoin price collapsed as Strategy faced tighter liquidity conditions and paused its BTC buying. Is it time to jump ship, or buy the dip?

Key takeaways:

Bitcoin (BTC) faced a 21% price correction in 10 days, retesting the $61,000 level for the first time in 4 months. This movement coincided with Strategy (MSTR US) company's decision to buy back some corporate debt, temporarily pausing its Bitcoin accumulation. Traders now fear that Strategy could be forced to liquidate some of its Bitcoin holdings.

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Bitcoin price collapsed as Strategy faced tighter liquidity conditions and paused its BTC buying. Is it time to jump ship or buy the dip?

Key takeaways:

Bitcoin (BTC) faced a 21% price correction in 10 days, retesting the $61,000 level for the first time in four months. This movement coincided with Strategy (MSTR US) company's decision to buy back some corporate debt, temporarily pausing its Bitcoin accumulation. Traders now fear that Strategy could be forced to liquidate some of its Bitcoin holdings.

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Political activist Bill Browder, the teenager’s father, said his son was “the first high school student in the world to be sanctioned by an authoritarian regime” over a report on the ruble-pegged stablecoin A7A5.

Alexander Browder, the son of American-British political activist Bill Browder, said that he has been targeted by Russia over allegations that officials used the ruble-pegged A7A5 stablecoin to evade sanctions amid the country's war on Ukraine.

In a Wednesday X post, Browder said his work through the website Global Cryptocurrency Laundering Database had resulted in him being “sanctioned by an authoritarian regime for uncovering corruption.” Specifically, he alleged in a March report that A7A5 was backed by deposits from Russian financial institution Promsvyazban and was used to circumvent Western sanctions stemming from Russia’s war on Ukraine.

“The Ruble-backed stablecoin A7A5 is one of the most prevalent issues facing the West. It is sanctioned in the UK, US and EU but it still operates,” said Browder. “A7A5 holds value through its ability to be converted into cash by criminals. Western governments need to put pressure on the specific exchanges which allow the conversions to happen and the countries which facilitate these exchanges.”

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US spot Bitcoin ETF ownership shifted during the market downturn as hedge funds exited positions, while banks and long-term allocators continued building exposure.

Professional ownership of US spot Bitcoin exchange-traded funds (ETFs) declined sharply in the first quarter as Bitcoin’s bear market deepened, suggesting that trading-oriented institutions were a significant source of selling pressure during the downturn.

A new report by CoinShares analyzing quarterly 13F filings — regulatory disclosures that reveal the equity holdings of investment managers with at least $100 million in assets — found that professional investors reduced their Bitcoin ETF exposure to 261,000 BTC from 313,000 BTC in the first quarter, a 17% decline.

The combined value of those holdings fell 35% to $17.8 billion, while the share of total US Bitcoin ETF assets held by 13F filers declined to 20.8% from 24.7%.

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A Coinbase-Better Home & Finance initiative will allow qualified borrowers to use Bitcoin and USDC as collateral for home loan down payments.

Cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase will allow qualified borrowers to pledge digital assets to fund Fannie Mae-backed mortgage apartments beginning this summer.

In a Thursday notice, Coinbase and its partner, Better Home & Finance, said the mortgage structure plan launching “by summer 2026” will allow borrowers to initially use Bitcoin (BTC) or USDC (USDC) as collateral for loans to fund down payments for homes. The initiative, first announced in March, represented a significant shift in companies allowing digital assets to be used for financing houses. 

Source: Pavel Danilyuk on Pexels

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Bitcoin continued "incredible" 2022 bear market repeat behavior as sellers kept control over BTC price rebound attempts.

Bitcoin (BTC) returned below $64,000 after Thursday’s Wall Street open as bulls nursed 13.5% weekly losses.

Key points:

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The exchange integration gives Western Union’s dollar-pegged token access to crypto market liquidity as payment providers accelerate their adoption of stablecoins.

Crypto exchange Bybit has added support for Western Union’s USDPT stablecoin, a move that brings the payments giant’s digital dollar onto a major crypto trading venue for the first time.

The companies announced on Thursday that USDPT, Western Union’s US dollar-pegged stablecoin, is now available on Bybit for holding, trading and transfers. The integration expands USDPT beyond payments and into crypto trading while increasing the range of dollar-denominated stablecoins available to Bybit users.

Bybit said it is the first major cryptocurrency exchange to support USDPT.

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Strategy’s Bitcoin paper loss tops $11 billion as Saylor pointed to ETF outflows and AI infrastructure spending as factors pressuring BTC.

Strategy’s Bitcoin holdings fell deep into paper-loss territory as BTC traded below the company’s average purchase price, renewing scrutiny of Michael Saylor’s Bitcoin treasury model.

Strategy holds 843,706 Bitcoin (BTC) acquired at an average price of $75,699 per coin, with a total cost basis of $63.8 billion. However, the latest Bitcoin downturn sank the value of Strategy’s Bitcoin reserve to $52.6 billion, pushing its unrealized loss to $11.2 billion, according to the company’s dashboard.

Strategy’s variable-rate perpetual preferred stock, STRC, has also declined below its intended $100 value and is traded at $94.6 at the time of writing. Strategy's (MSTR) stock price was down 1.5% in pre-market trading to $124.7 on Thursday, Yahoo Finance data shows.

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Apex Group is providing fund services for a tokenized real estate fund using Goldman Sachs’ GS DAP platform.

Apex Group is providing fund management services for a tokenized real estate fund whose shares are being issued on Goldman Sachs’ Digital Asset Platform, GS DAP.

The fund was developed with Goldman Sachs, digital asset exchange Archax, real estate investment manager LRC Group and interoperability provider Ownera, Apex said Thursday.

“Tokenization at institutional scale depends on trusted, regulated infrastructure,” Apex Group’s global head of digital assets, Agnes Mazurek, said, adding that its participation reflects growing demand from managers and investors for blockchain-native solutions.

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Arthur Hayes said he dumped his HYPE and NEAR holdings after warning markets may peak before September and AI IPOs could drain liquidity.

BitMEX co-founder Arthur Hayes said he dumped his Hyperliquid (HYPE) and Near Protocol (NEAR) token holdings, reversing course after previously assigning aggressive upside targets to both assets.

Hayes cited higher energy prices due to the ongoing Middle East conflict, three forthcoming “mega AI IPOs” by the third quarter of 2026 and predictions that US President Donald Trump would turn “anti-AI” to help Republicans win the US midterm elections. 

“I think highs in mrkts will happen btw now and September,” wrote Hayes in a Thursday X post, adding that it was “time to take profit.”

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Coinbase launches pre-IPO markets starting with SpaceX, offering non-US users perpetual futures tied to private company valuations amid rising competition.

Coinbase has launched pre-intial public offering (IPO) markets, starting with SpaceX, offering users outside the United States exposure to private companies before they list publicly via a perpetual futures contract tied to the company’s estimated pre-listing price.

The product is a USDC-settled perpetual futures contract that tracks SpaceX’s pre-IPO valuation. It allows 24/7 trading with no expiry or rollover, with profits and losses settled in USDC, according to a company blog post Thursday.

Coinbase said the positions can be opened and closed at any time, similar to existing perpetual futures contracts on the platform. Upon a future IPO, positions will automatically transition into a post-IPO perpetual futures contract referencing the public listing.

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Bitcoin brought back the trend line that functioned as resistance in the 2022 bear market, with BTC price RSI approaching its lowest in six years.

Bitcoin (BTC) has tagged a key bear-market trend line with its drop to four-month lows, with a “decent chance” of a rebound next.

Key points:

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FG Nexus offloads another 10,000 ETH, pushing realized and paper losses above $100 million as the Ethereum treasury firm continues cutting exposure.

A wallet tagged by Arkham to the publicly listed Ethereum treasury company FG Nexus moved another 10,000 Ether on Wednesday, extending a series of sales that began after the company built a large position in 2025.

The latest transfer equates to roughly $17.8 million at current prices and comes after earlier disposals that saw the Nasdaq-listed firm unwind more than 21,000 ETH from its treasury for roughly $55 million.

FG Nexus accumulated 50,770 ETH between August and September 2025 at an average price of $3,860 per coin, building a position worth about $196 million at the time.

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A Polymarket contract on whether Strategy sold Bitcoin by May 31 resolved to no after traders disputed how the sale should count.

A disputed Polymarket contract on whether Strategy sold Bitcoin by May 31 resolved to “No” after two dispute rounds, despite Strategy later disclosing that it sold 32 BTC during the market’s covered window.

UMA Optimistic Oracle (UMA) token holders voted to settle the market in “no” following a second resolution cycle that closed at 12:34 am UTC on Thursday, blockchain data shows. An overwhelming 98.6% of the 607 participants voted for the market to resolve in “no,” while only 1.4% voted “yes,” data from Betmoar shows.

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US-listed spot Bitcoin ETFs saw $397 million in outflows on Wednesday, extending a 13-day red streak to $4.4 billion as Bitcoin has fallen about 21% since May 15.

US-listed spot Bitcoin exchange-traded funds (ETFs) extended their sell-off Wednesday to a record 13 consecutive trading days as Bitcoin demand continued to weaken.

Spot Bitcoin ETFs posted $396.6 million in net outflows on Wednesday, bringing cumulative withdrawals to roughly $4.4 billion since the streak began, according to data from SoSoValue.

The current run exceeds the previous record of eight consecutive trading days of outflows in February 2025, which saw roughly $3.2 billion exit the funds.

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Many traders expect Bitcoin to stage a short-term relief bounce toward $70,000, but the broader technical setup remains bearish for BTC.

Bitcoin’s (BTC) brief plunge toward the $60,000 area triggered more than $600 million in long liquidations, raising doubts over whether the latest rebound marks a real bottom or only a relief bounce after a leverage flush.

BTC fell to roughly $61,300 on Thursday before recovering 5.52% to around $64,690, with the rebound coinciding with reports that Israel and Lebanon had agreed to implement a ceasefire.

BTC/USD four-hour chart. Source: TradingView

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Maelstrom predicts the WLD token will reach $5 by August, a gain of around 900% from current levels.

Arthur Hayes’ investment firm Maelstrom said Worldcoin could surge to as high as $5 per token over the next few months, with WLD acting as a crypto proxy for the AI boom.

“The AI mega IPOs are coming — and it appears the market has overlooked one of the cleanest proxies,” said Maelstrom researcher Lukas Ruppert on Wednesday. 

The AI boom has been in full swing in the US. OpenAI confidentially filed its IPO prospectus with the SEC on May 22, targeting a public debut in September 2026, with the firm aiming to raise $60 billion with a potential valuation of up to $1 trillion. 

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The lawmakers are also asking the FTC for information on whether it has plans to take investigative or enforcement action against prediction markets for possible deceptive practices.

Nine Democratic lawmakers in the US House of Representatives have called on the Federal Trade Commission to launch a probe into how prediction markets are advertising to customers compared to how they present themselves to regulators.

In a statement on Wednesday, US Representatives Kevin Mullin and Gabe Vasquez said the FTC should investigate whether online prediction market platforms are misleading customers by advertising as gambling platforms while telling regulators they are financial tools offering investment products.

Prediction markets allow users to trade contracts on the outcome of future events. They have also been facing scrutiny over insider trading, with Congress launching a probe into Polymarket and Kalshi in May and questioning the companies’ responses to insider-trading incidents on their platforms.

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AI firm Anthropic mapped a year’s worth of AI-enabled cyber threats, finding that malicious actors are quickly becoming more dangerous with AI.

More than two-thirds of accounts banned by Anthropic for policy violations over the last year used AI to help them prepare for cyberattacks, such as writing malware, according to the AI firm. 

Anthropic said on Wednesday that between March 2025 and March 2026, out of 832 accounts that it examined for violating its policies, 560 accounts were used in this way. 

The data reflects an alarming global trend — that AI is increasingly being used to carry out mass cyberattacks. In April, the value of crypto stolen in hacks surged to $629.7 million, the highest since February 2025, which some analysts linked to the widespread use of AI. 

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The move comes as Ether prices slumped to a 14-month low below $1,750 on Thursday.

Ethereum treasury company Bitmine Immersion Technologies is launching a $300 million perpetual preferred stock offering, borrowing a page from Strategy’s financing playbook. 

Bitmine told the SEC on Wednesday that it intends to offer 3 million of its 9.5% Series A perpetual preferred stock at $100 per share, which will trade under the symbol BMNP within 30 days of issuance. 

Preferred shares are a hybrid of stocks and bonds. Investors are not directly betting on the company’s growth but lending it money in exchange for regular payments. For every $100 share, Bitmine will pay dividends on a weekly basis, amounting to $9.50 per year. 

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Authorities around the world have been heavily targeting scam infrastructure this year, with joint actions involving the US, UAE, China, Austria and Albania.

Crypto exchange Coinbase said it froze more than $3 million in cryptocurrency tied to a global operation targeting cyber-enabled crypto scam networks in Southeast Asia. 

The operation was part of Disruption Week led by the US Department of Justice’s Scam Center Strike Force, which brought together government entities and private industries to tackle crypto fraud targeting Americans. 

“This operation is proof that scammers can't be stopped by any single company or agency acting alone,” said Coinbase. 

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CFTC Chairman Mike Selig says the rescission of its “no-deny” policy means it now has more flexibility when settling enforcement actions.

The US Commodity Futures Trading Commission has rescinded a long-standing policy that prevented it from accepting a lawsuit settlement if the defendant denied the agency’s allegations.

The CFTC said on Wednesday that it scrapped the policy, first adopted in 1998, because it “may have created an incorrect impression that the Commission is trying to shield itself from criticism.”

The language was similar to that provided by the US Securities and Exchange Commission when it rescinded a similar policy in May. 

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After expecting billions of dollars worth of crypto holdings to be reported during a voluntary disclosure period, the country's tax office said only 58 filers took advantage of the procedure.

Israeli taxpayer disclosures of profits from cryptocurrencies have reportedly fallen short of expectations at the Israel Tax Authority after enactment of a policy allowing immunity from criminal proceedings for filers correcting their reports.

According to a Wednesday report from Globes, Israeli authorities had expected to gain up to $1 billion in taxes from “voluntary disclosures” allowed under an August 2025 policy, but have so far only received reports of a fraction of those capital earnings. The local news outlet reported that the tax authority had received total reports of $50 million of crypto capital.

“In the cryptocurrency field, the difficulty of the absence of an anonymous track is even more acute,” said Iftach Simhony, a CPA and head of the tax department at the Prof. Bein Law Office, Globes reported. “When the risk assessment of some taxpayers is not high, and the procedure itself does not offer certainty or anonymity in the first stage, the incentive to undergo voluntary disclosure is weakened.”

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Wyoming Governor Mark Gordon signed an executive order supporting AI data center development as the state seeks to attract advanced computing and technology investment.

Wyoming Governor Mark Gordon signed an executive order establishing a framework for developing data centers and advanced computing facilities, underscoring the state’s push to attract AI infrastructure investment as demand for computing power accelerates.

In an order published Wednesday, titled “Data Centers the Wyoming Way,” Gordon directed state agencies to support the responsible development of large-scale data centers and other advanced computing projects. The framework emphasizes water and environmental sustainability, workforce development and protections for residential electricity customers.

“This Executive Order applies to executive branch agencies involved in permitting, reviewing, regulating, supporting, or facilitating large-scale data center development within Wyoming,” the order states.

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Scott Bessent said that the Treasury Department was “proceeding with all deliberate speed” on President Donald Trump’s 2025 executive order to establish a strategic Bitcoin reserve and digital asset stockpile.

US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent told Senate lawmakers that his department is pushing to establish a strategic Bitcoin reserve and digital asset stockpile more than a year after it was called for in an executive order from President Donald Trump.

Speaking at a Senate Finance Committee hearing on Trump’s fiscal year 2027 budget for Treasury on Wednesday, Bessent said that the department was “proceeding with all deliberate speed” on the president’s 2025 order to establish Bitcoin and digital asset reserves. Although the reserve has been filled with crypto seized by the government, Treasury officials had no additional acquisition plans as of March.

“We are moving forward very quickly on that, and part of that is our digital assets initiative, the strategic Bitcoin reserve is something, this is new technology, this is new ground, we are proceeding with all deliberate speed, and we are making sure that as we are doing this in this complicated process, that we use best practices and things will be durable for the future,” Bessent said in response to questions raised by Senator Tim Scott.

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Reuters reported that Revolut plans to integrate stablecoins into its future US bank as more fintech and crypto companies chase federal banking approvals.

Fintech company Revolut plans to offer stablecoins through its future US bank, Reuters reported Wednesday, citing comments from the company's US CEO, Cetin Duransoy.

Duransoy told the news service that customers of the bank, which is expected to launch next year, will have access to FDIC-insured accounts, multi-currency deposits, stock trading and cryptocurrency services. He said that Revolut plans to initially target retail and business customers with international banking needs, including those managing multiple currencies.

Revolut applied for a US national bank charter in March, which would allow the company to offer federally insured banking products nationwide under a single federal regulatory framework. 

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Bitcoin is at risk of a drop below $65,000, but buyers are expected to mount a strong defense as the price nears the crucial $60,000 level.

Key points:

Bitcoin (BTC) is attempting a bounce off the $65,426 level, but the bulls are struggling to hold onto higher levels. The launch of fresh strikes by the US and Iran has hurt sentiment, but Bitrue Research Institute research lead Andri Fauzan Adziima told Cointelegraph that the fall was more about “leveraged liquidations, heavy ETF outflows, and technical breakdowns than pure Iran news, but it amplifies the fear.”

All eyes have shifted to BTC’s yearly lows of $60,000. Veteran trader Peter Brandt said in a post on X that BTC has formed an expanding triangle, a common and reliable pattern. He projects a decline to about $56,000, but added that a move above $75,000 would invalidate this bearish view.

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Nearly a dozen candidates across three US states won their primaries or will advance to the November election after they were supported by $3.5 million in ads funded by crypto industry-aligned PACs.

[Update (June 3 at 8:01 pm UTC): This article has been updated to include a response from Fairshake in the fourth paragraph.]

Democratic and Republican candidates across California, New Jersey and South Dakota won their respective primaries on Tuesday after being the beneficiaries of supportive ads purchased by cryptocurrency industry-backed political action committees (PACs).

On Tuesday, Democrats Jacqui Irwin, Ted Lieu, Zoe Lofgren, Dave Min, Mike McGuire, Hilda Solis, George Whitesides, Lou Correa and Lateefah Simon won their respective California primaries for House seats. Democrat Rob Menendez and Republican Mike Rounds also won primaries for New Jersey’s 8th congressional district and a South Dakota Senate seat, respectively.

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New data suggests AI-driven payment rails are evolving beyond experimentation as users are making more higher-value transfers.

Agentic payment activity on Coinbase’s Base network has surpassed 100 million transactions, signaling that machine-to-machine payments are moving beyond the proof-of-concept stage in onchain environments.

According to a new Chainalysis report, wallets interacting with Coinbase's x402 protocol generated more than 100 million transactions on Base within roughly nine months of launch.

The x402 protocol allows software agents to make onchain payments directly through web requests. When an agent requests access to a resource, such as a data feed or API, it can automatically complete a stablecoin payment without human authorization.

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Bitcoin traders warned of a key BTC price support trend line failing as 2022 bear market history continues to repeat.

Bitcoin (BTC) hovered near two-month lows on Wednesday as 2022 bear-market comparisons returned.

Key points:

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The ESMA says crypto companies without MiCA authorization must stop serving EU clients from July 1, even if their license applications remain under review.

The European Union’s Markets in Crypto Assets Regulation hits a hard deadline on July 1 when the transitional period ends and in-scope crypto asset service providers operating under national regimes must either hold a MiCA license or stop serving EU clients.

A spokesperson from the European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA) told Cointelegraph that from that date, non-authorized entities “will not be allowed to operate within the EU” and should implement wind-down and client migration plans rather than rely on open-ended transitional status while awaiting a decision.

The deadline could force some crypto firms to suspend EU operations while their applications remain under review, potentially affecting millions of users who continue to engage with platforms that are not yet authorized under MiCA.

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The whale is now backing Arthur Hayes’ favored HYPE, ZEC and NEAR plays, signaling a sharp pivot toward momentum-led crypto bets.

A crypto whale who stubbornly held his HYPE short through May’s rally has finally been punished as Hyperliquid’s token kept climbing.

Key takeaways:

On Tuesday, the trader known as “loracle.hl” finally closed his HYPE short, locking in a $46.46 million loss, according to data resource HyperBot.

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Ethereum price slides to a 14-week low as weakening demand and persistent ETF outflows put the key $1,800 support at risk.

Ether (ETH) dropped to $1,814 on Wednesday, its lowest in over 14 weeks, raising concerns about whether the ETH/USD pair can stabilize above key liquidity zones near its multi-year lows at $1,800. 

ETH/USD 1-hour chart. Source: Cointelegraph/TradingView

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A Binance legal document disclosed a revenue-sharing agreement with Alpaca, which includes sharing 50% of the stock custodian’s order flow revenue with the cryptocurrency exchange.

Binance disclosed a revenue-sharing arrangement with custodian and brokerage infrastructure API provider Alpaca, which has become a major infrastructure provider in the custody of tokenized US stocks and exchange-traded funds (ETFs).

Under Binance Securities Trading Terms published Tuesday, Binance will receive 50% of Alpaca’s payment-for-order-flow fees and 65% of remaining profit from user stock lending after users are paid interest, Binance will receive 50% of Alpaca’s payment-for-order-flow, or PFOF, fees and 65% of profit from user stock lending after the platform pays user interest.

Alpaca provides brokerage, clearing and custody infrastructure for Binance’s stock trading product and is also a major infrastructure provider in tokenized US stocks and ETFs. The company raised $150 million at an $1.15 billion valuation for its brokerage infrastructure in January.

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Binance exchange said it will move NFT support from its exchange to its non-custodial wallet and offered users 30 days to migrate their NFTs.

Binance announced it is shutting down support for non-fungible tokens on Binance Exchange and moving NFT management to its self-custodial cryptocurrency wallet, Binance Wallet. 

The exchange said this will offer NFT holders “easier access to Web3 and decentralized features,” according to a Wednesday announcement.  

NFT Holders have until July 3 to withdraw their transferable NFTs from the platform before they become inaccessible. For non-transferable NFTs that can’t be withdrawn by design, Binance Academy will provide a PDF certificate of course completion.

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Kraken and xStocks Alliance will let eligible users seek allocations in US IPOs at the offering price through tokenized shares in coming weeks.

Retail investors will soon be able to participate in US initial public offerings (IPOs) at the offering price through a new tokenized equities program from Payward Services, a Kraken-affiliated company.

In a Wednesday announcement, Payward Services said customers of Kraken and select members of its xStocks Alliance will be able to express interest in US-listed IPOs before companies go public and receive allocations of tokenized shares on listing day.

According to the company, the shares will be issued at the IPO offering price and backed 1:1 by the underlying stock held in custody by a regulated entity, allowing eligible retail investors to access allocations that are typically reserved for institutional clients.

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Zcash Open Development Lab said the network briefly became unstable as miners upgraded, while the Zcash Foundation said there was no evidence of an exploit.

Zcash developers temporarily suspended Orchard transactions after discovering a critical vulnerability in the privacy-focused blockchain’s latest shielded pool, then restored functionality through an emergency network upgrade.

On Wednesday, the Zcash Foundation said the vulnerability affected Orchard’s zero-knowledge proof circuit and could have allowed invalid state transitions within the pool. However, the Foundation said there was no evidence that the bug was exploited, no unauthorized value creation was detected, and user privacy was not affected.

The fix was carried out through a two-step emergency upgrade. Zebra 4.5.3 temporarily disabled Orchard actions, while Zebra 5.0.0 activated the NU6.2 upgrade to re-enable Orchard with a corrected circuit, according to the Foundation. 

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Trezor and Tropic Square disclosed a TROPIC01 chip vulnerability found during a Ledger Donjon audit, saying the Safe 7 wallet and user funds remain secure.

Hardware wallet company Trezor and chipmaker Tropic Square have disclosed a vulnerability in one of the secure elements used in Trezor Safe 7 hardware wallet, saying the flaw does not put user funds at risk because the chip alone cannot expose a wallet.

The vulnerability was identified during an independent security audit conducted by Ledger Donjon, the security research team at rival hardware wallet maker Ledger, according to a Trezor statement.

Tropic Square provided the affected TROPIC01 Secure Element chip to the Ledger Donjon team for an independent audit. The companies said compromising TROPIC01 alone would not be enough to access a user’s wallet, PIN or funds.

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Russian ruble-backed stablecoin A7A5 processed over $110 billion in transactions despite Western sanctions, according to CertiK.

The Russian ruble-backed A7A5 stablecoin continued to grow despite Western sanctions, processing more than $110 billion in cumulative onchain transactions, according to CertiK.

CertiK said A7A5 captured about 43% of the global non-US dollar stablecoin market, and that its holder count rose from 13,000 to 29,000 wallets between February 2025 and May 2026.

The security company described A7A5 as one of the clearest examples of a sanctions-evasion stablecoin ecosystem, linking it to Russian cross-border settlement companies.

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The FCA has urged clubs to rethink deals with unauthorized crypto and trading sponsors, warning that fans risk losing all their money and teams face legal and reputational fallout.

Update (June 3, 1 pm, UTC): This article has been updated to include a comment from a spokesperson at BingX.

The United Kingdom's financial regulator has warned football clubs, including those in the Premier League, to avoid sponsorship deals with unauthorized financial companies amid concerns that fans are being pushed toward risky crypto and trading platforms with no protections.

In a Wednesday press release, the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) said several unauthorized firms, including crypto businesses and online trading platforms, are using football sponsorships to target “unwitting” supporters.

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The payments giant said USDC, PYUSD, RLUSD and other stablecoins will support new settlement options across multiple blockchains.

Mastercard announced its plans to expand its settlement capabilities to let issuers and acquirers settle some card transactions using regulated stablecoins. 

On Wednesday, Mastercard said the new capabilities will include intraday, weekend and holiday card settlement, supporting both fiat currencies and onchain settlement through regulated stablecoins. The company said the new options are designed to give its partners more flexibility in managing settlement liquidity and timing. 

The expansion shows stablecoins moving deeper into mainstream financial infrastructure as major payments networks test tokenized dollars for settlement. It follows Mastercard securing a New York BitLicense in May, allowing its US transaction services unit to conduct regulated digital asset business activity in the state. 

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Bitcoin's drop to $65,000 triggered over $1.8 billion in crypto liquidations as traders brace for a test of $60,000 as support.

Bitcoin (BTC) has dropped 8% to a nine-week low of $65,360 from Tuesday’s high of $71,300 amid increasing geopolitical risks surrounding the US-Iran war.

Key takeaways:

Data from TradingView showed new BTC price lows of $65,362 on Bitstamp, the lowest since March 29 as sellers stayed in control.

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Bitcoin sparked two-month lows in the Crypto Fear & Greed Index while analysis predicted a "catch-up" with record highs in stocks.

Bitcoin (BTC) is due a “relief bounce” next as crypto market sentiment hits two-month lows.

Key points:

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Some of the information that New York and the European Union’s watchdogs will share includes the issued stablecoins, total volume in circulation and the number of holders.

​The European Banking Authority and the New York State Department of Financial Services (NYDFS) have signed a memorandum of understanding to police cross-border stablecoin activities. 

The EBA said on Tuesday that the deal is part of its duties under the Markets in Crypto-Assets (MiCA) Regulation and sets out principles and procedures for exchanging information and coordinating stablecoin supervisory activities, market trends, and risks between New York and the European Union.

NYDFS said the deal would “enhance the supervision of entities engaged in stablecoin activities, identify market trends and risks, and promote the integrity of the stablecoin market.” 

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Bitcoin saw its largest daily drop since early February on Tuesday as the cryptocurrency shed more than $4,500 in a single day.

Bitcoin prices have dropped 7% on the day, breaking key support to a nine-week low after the US and Iran launched fresh strikes as talks over a possible ceasefire have stalled. 

Bitcoin (BTC) fell to $65,385 on Coinbase in early trading on Wednesday, its lowest level since late March, according to TradingView.

The slump follows the largest daily fall since Feb. 5 as BTC shed more than $4,500 on Tuesday. 

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The sanctions come four days after Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said the US had seized nearly $1 billion in crypto from Iranian crypto exchanges and wallets since late February.

The US Treasury has sanctioned four Iranian crypto exchanges, including the country’s largest, Nobitex, marking the latest effort in its campaign called “Economic Fury” that aims to cut Iran off from the financial system.

The Treasury said on Tuesday that it added crypto exchanges Wallex, Bitpin and Ramzinex to the Office of Foreign Assets Control’s sanction list, prohibiting US businesses and persons from providing services to those platforms.

“While Iran’s economy is in free fall, the regime has chosen to co-opt digital asset technologies for its own corrupt agenda, including evading sanctions and transferring wealth out of the country,” said Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent.

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AI robotics company Figure posted several videos on X throughout May showcasing its robots performing basic tasks, including cleaning a room and sorting packages.

Modern artificial intelligence-powered robots are impressive in their capabilities, but are still years away from replacing humans as they can’t yet adapt to changing conditions, researchers say. 

Last month, AI robotics company Figure showcased its humanoid robots performing basic tasks, such as cleaning a room, but a series of robots working for nine days straight sorting packages sparked conversation about how soon robots could replace jobs. 

Oliver Obst, an associate professor of robotics at the Australia based University of New South Wales, told Cointelegraph that repetitive jobs such as physical work in structured environments are currently most at risk of being replaced by robots, while administrative and document-processing tasks could be replaced by AI.

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“Investors still believe in crypto, but now that it’s a contrarian bet, they favor fundamentals over vibes,” says Bitwise investment chief Matt Hougan.

Crypto is turning into a “contrarian bet” as institutional investors are being drawn to artificial intelligence stocks, says Bitwise chief investment officer Matt Hougan.

“The crypto market is brutal right now,” Hougan wrote in a market note on Tuesday. “One major reason is that crypto is no longer the belle of the ball. AI stocks, robotics companies, SpaceX … who needs crypto when the Nasdaq-100 is up 43% year-over-year?”

Stocks linked to companies involved in AI have skyrocketed as the technology has captured investor attention after OpenAI launched ChatGPT to the public in late 2022. Shares in Nvidia, which makes computing components key to AI, have gained nearly 1,500% since ChatGPT’s launch.

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Despite the planned wind-down, TapTools says it is open to being acquired or taking on external resources to continue maintaining the platform.

TapTools, a Cardano-focused real-time analytics platform, has begun winding down after its fifth top-level executive departure, compounding leadership instability and making continued operations unsustainable. 

TapTools said in a post to X on Tuesday that it would begin winding down over the next two weeks, and noted the departure of its two co-founders, chief operating officer and chief technology officer earlier this year.

“We worked hard to adapt,” TapTools said, adding that its backend developer had become its CTO as the platform shifted its focus toward shipping products more sustainably; however, they have since departed, and “the technical knowledge required to responsibly operate and maintain TapTools cannot be replaced overnight.”

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A UK House of Lords committee warned that strict stablecoin rules could make pound sterling tokens commercially unworkable despite supporting regulation.

The United Kingdom should press ahead with stablecoin regulation but avoid rules that make a pound sterling stablecoin market commercially unworkable, a House of Lords committee warned in a report released Wednesday.

The cross-party Financial Services Regulation Committee said the UK was “lagging behind” the United States and the European Union and that the absence of a clear regime has “suppressed stablecoin development and investment in the UK,” despite the growth of global US dollar-pegged tokens such as USDt (USDT) and USDC (USDC).

While backing much of the Bank of England (BoE) and Financial Conduct Authority’s proposed framework, the committee warned that some measures risk undermining the viability and competitiveness of UK-issued stablecoins.

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The three members of Congress said the volatility of digital assets and “lack of regulation and safeguards” could put Americans’ retirement savings at risk.

[Correction: In the second paragraph, the letter from lawmakers was dated Monday, June 1.]

Top Democrats on three House and Senate committees called on the US Labor Department to halt its plans to allow digital assets and “alternative assets” to be held in Americans' retirement plans. 

In a Monday letter, Senator Bernie Sanders, Senator Elizabeth Warren and Representative Bobby Scott asked acting Labor Secretary Keith Sonderling to rescind the department’s proposal to allow private equity, digital assets, private credit, and other “alternative assets” to be included in 401(k) plans.

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The regulator’s five-year roadmap calls for clearer crypto rules, support for tokenization and a framework for staking and onchain markets.

The US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has elevated digital assets to a strategic priority, calling for regulatory clarity around blockchain technology, tokenization and crypto market infrastructure through 2030.

The shift was outlined in the agency’s draft Strategic Plan for fiscal years 2026–2030, published Tuesday. Alongside broader goals focused on capital formation, investor protection and agency modernization, the SEC dedicated an entire objective to digital assets and distributed ledger technology.

The agency said it aims to “provide a firm regulatory foundation for digital assets and distributed ledger technologies through a rational, coherent, and principled approach,” adding:

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Bitcoin and altcoin prices crumbled as BTC lost the $70,000 level. Will investors’ pivot to AI stocks continue to weigh on crypto markets?

Key takeaways:

Bitcoin (BTC) faced a sharp 9% drop over 48 hours, hitting the $67,000 support for the first time in two months. This correction wiped out a substantial $176 billion from the total crypto market cap in just two days, triggering $1.5 billion in forced liquidations for overleveraged long positions. 

Traders remain uncertain about the drivers behind crypto's underperformance, especially since US equities have shown notable strength.

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An affiliate of a political action committee backed by crypto companies ramped up spending on ads in California ahead of Tuesday’s primaries, but still has millions of dollars at stake in Maryland later this month.

While residents of California, Iowa, Montana, New Jersey, New Mexico and South Dakota are voting today in Democratic and Republican Congressional primaries, the cryptocurrency industry is more focused on the Maryland primaries later this month.

According to filings with the US Federal Election Commission (FEC) as of Tuesday, the Coinbase- and Ripple-backed political action committee (PAC) Fairshake affiliate Protect Progress spent about $3 million combined to support Democratic candidates in House races across California and New Jersey. Another affiliate, Defend American Jobs, spent more than $411,000 to support Republican Senator Mike Rounds’ reelection bid in South Dakota.

In addition to its activities in California, Protect Progress appeared to be prepared for significant spending in Maryland, where primary elections are scheduled for June 23.

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The exchange has invested an undisclosed amount in ProShares’ Treasury-focused ETF built for the post-GENIUS era as lawmakers debate whether stablecoin issuers can offer yield-bearing products.

Crypto exchange Coinbase has invested in ProShares' stablecoin-focused money market fund, betting that demand for stablecoin reserve-management products will grow as the recently enacted GENIUS Act formalizes the types of assets that can back US dollar-pegged tokens.

Coinbase (COIN) announced Tuesday that it made an undisclosed investment in the ProShares GENIUS Money Market ETF (IQMM), which is designed to hold assets that qualify as reserves for payment stablecoins under the Guiding and Establishing National Innovation for US Stablecoins (GENIUS) Act.

The GENIUS Act requires stablecoin issuers to back their tokens with highly liquid assets, including cash, bank deposits and short-term US Treasury securities. IQMM was created to provide exposure to those types of reserve assets through a publicly traded fund structure.

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A sovereign default-risk model estimates Bitcoin’s fair value at $224,000, as rising debt risks and bond-market stress could strengthen the asset’s long-term investment case.

New reporting from Bitwise suggests that Bitcoin's (BTC) undervaluation could expand if investors' concerns over sovereign debt deepen. The asset management firm said that mounting pressure in global bond markets and rising government debt levels could strengthen Bitcoin's role as a hedge against macroeconomic risks, with one valuation model suggesting a theoretical fair value of $224,000. 

Bitwise pointed to mounting pressure across the global bond markets. The Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) estimates governments and companies will need to borrow roughly $29 trillion in 2026, up 17% from 2024 and nearly double the amount raised a decade ago. Around 78% of OECD government borrowing is expected to be used solely to refinance existing debt.

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Bitcoin price bets saw $50,000 returning after 6% daily BTC price losses liquidated $1.25 billion of crypto positions.

Bitcoin (BTC) losses passed 6% after Wednesday’s Wall Street open as a cascade of liquidations gathered pace.

Key points:

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The CFTC chair seeks to roll back an enforcement action on the company founded by Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss, donors to Donald Trump’s 2024 campaign and attendees at White House events.

Update (June 2 at 9:35 pm UTC): This article has been updated to include a response from the CFTC.

US Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) Chair Michael Selig is claiming that the agency under former President Joe Biden “politically targeted” the co-founders of cryptocurrency exchange Gemini through enforcement actions.

In a Tuesday CNBC interview, Selig said under his leadership, the CFTC was “trying to get back to a baseline” on enforcement, after what he claimed was politicization by the Biden administration. While the Selig acknowledged that he is a political appointee nominated by US President Donald Trump, he claimed that the recently reported staff cuts targeted people “engaging in lawfare.”

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The Move-based blockchain network said it gained access to licensed payment infrastructure as it shifts toward stablecoin settlement and remittances.

Movement, the Move-based blockchain network that has expanded into stablecoin payments and financial infrastructure, said it has gained access to licensed payment rails across the US, Canada and the EU, a move aimed at strengthening its cross-border payment offerings in emerging markets.

In a Tuesday announcement, Movement said it plans to use the payment infrastructure to connect traditional banking systems with stablecoin settlement networks, targeting cross-border transfers and treasury services in regions where payment costs remain high and financial access is limited.

Movement did not identify the partners or regulated entities that would enable its payment rail access. Still, the company said the infrastructure will enhance its ability to move funds between traditional payment networks and blockchain systems, with a focus on stablecoin-based settlement rather than fully crypto-native transfers.

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Privacy protocol Zama says it will accelerate compliance measures after a court lifted a $12.5 million USDC freeze tied to an unrelated legal dispute.

Privacy-focused blockchain protocol Zama said it will accelerate compliance measures and proceed with its confidential USDC launch after a US court lifted a temporary freeze on about $12.5 million in USDC held in its cUSDC smart contract, according to a Tuesday X post by co-founder Rand Hindi.

The freeze, first reported by Cointelegraph on Saturday, stemmed from a temporary restraining order obtained in connection with an ongoing dispute involving stakeholders of an unrelated project, Overnight Finance. Circle froze the funds after receiving the court order, even though Zama was not a party to the case, according to Hindi's account.

“The same court has now lifted the freeze, determining that it was unwarranted,” Hindi wrote. He added that the protocol's cUSDC contract and all underlying USDC had returned to normal operation.

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Georgia will reportedly install electricity meters across Mestia to curb illegal crypto mining after officials blamed miners for grid strain and outages.

Georgia will reportedly install electricity meters across villages and settlements in Mestia as part of a crackdown on illegal crypto mining that officials say is straining the region’s power grid.

Vice Prime Minister Mamuka Mdinaradze said Monday that illegal mining had pushed Mestia’s electricity consumption to 133 million kilowatt-hours in 2025, more than 13 times the level of comparable municipalities, according to local outlet 1tv.

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Kaiko acquired Amberdata to expand its institutional crypto data platform with derivatives analytics, onchain tools and AI-powered research.

Paris-based crypto data platform Kaiko acquired Amberdata, a US-focused digital asset data provider, as institutional investors demand broader market, derivatives and onchain analytics for digital assets.

Kaiko said the deal will expand its institutional data stack and help the combined company serve banks, asset managers, hedge funds, exchanges and trading firms that need cleaner data across fragmented crypto markets, according to an announcement shared with Cointelegraph.

The acquisition adds Amberdata’s derivatives analytics and artificial intelligence-powered research tools, including the GVOL options analytics platform, which Kaiko said had been one of the most requested capabilities from institutional clients.

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HIVE reduced its Bitcoin holdings to 150 BTC while annual revenue climbed to $297.8 million, driven by growth in mining and AI computing.

Canadian Bitcoin miner HIVE Digital Technologies’ Bitcoin holdings fell by 331 BTC in the latest quarter, even as the miner reported a sharp rise in annual revenue from Bitcoin mining and high-performance computing (HPC).

The company reported holdings of 150 Bitcoin (BTC) in its fiscal year update on Monday, down from 481 BTC at the end of Q4 2025, according to company figures and CoinGecko data. The 331 BTC reduction represents about $23 million in value at current prices, with Bitcoin trading roughly 21% lower year-to-date.

HIVE did not explicitly say it sold Bitcoin. The company mined 2,885 BTC during fiscal 2026 and generated $297.8 million in revenue, up 158% from a year earlier, driven largely by expanded Bitcoin mining capacity and HPC revenue.

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NEAR has rebounded from a key historical support zone, reviving a bullish fractal that preceded 2,375% and 900% rallies in previous cycles.

NEAR, the native token of the AI- and privacy-focused Near Protocol, has been an outlier in the broader crypto market, outperforming top coins such as Bitcoin (BTC) and Ether (ETH) in recent weeks.

As of Tuesday, NEAR traded as high as $2.75, marking a nearly 20% rebound in the last 24 hours. In comparison, the crypto market capitalization dropped by 3.7% in the same period.

NEAR/USD four-hour chart. Source: TradingView

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XRP trades below key macro support, but analysts say reclaiming it could trigger one of the biggest bear traps.

XRP (XRP) dropped to $1.25 on Tuesday after a market-wide sell-off, erasing all the gains made since early February. 

Key takeaways:

Data from TradingView shows that the XRP price opened June at $0.33, just below the 50-month exponential moving average (EMA).

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MoneyGram launched MGUSD, a dollar stablecoin on Stellar, as the remittance company deepens its push into blockchain-based global payments.

MoneyGram launched MGUSD, a US dollar stablecoin on Stellar, as the remittance company deepens its push into blockchain-based cross-border payments.

The company said Tuesday that MGUSD will be integrated into the MoneyGram app through a self-custodial wallet, allowing users to hold dollar-denominated balances, move funds globally and convert into local currencies. The stablecoin initially launched in the US market, with plans to scale worldwide. 

MGUSD is backed by a notable infrastructure stack. The tokens are issued by Bridge, Stripe’s stablecoin platform, which received conditional approval from the US Office of the Comptroller of the Currency to operate as a federally chartered national trust bank in February. 

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Onchain investigator ZachXBT claims decentralized exchange edgeX insiders controlled nearly the entire supply with a thin float.

Decentralized exchange edgeX has attributed a more than 40% collapse in its EDGE token to ‘deliberate’ market manipulation by an unnamed external party, a claim that onchain investigator ZachXBT has dismissed.

Data from CoinMarketCap shows edgeX (EDGE) plunged from roughly $1.20 to an intra-day low of $0.3663 on Tuesday, a drop of around 70%. The token is currently trading at $0.6474, down by around 45% over the past day.

In a post on X, the edgeX team acknowledged the sudden collapse in its native token, telling its community it had “observed a sudden and irregular price movement” and was actively investigating.

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Capital B is asking shareholders to approve up to $122 billion in capital-raising authority to accelerate its Bitcoin treasury strategy.

France-listed Bitcoin treasury company Capital B is asking shareholders to approve a massive new delegation of fresh capital-raising instruments, seeking authority to issue new equity and credit instruments to accelerate Bitcoin acquisitions.

Capital B submitted a new proposal to the board of directors seeking to allow the establishment of up to 5 billion euros ($5.8 billion) in capital increase through 125 billion shares at current nominal value and $116 billion in credit instruments, said Alexandre Laizet, the board director of Bitcoin Strategy at Capital B, in a Monday X post.

Shareholders can cast their votes online until the company's combined general meeting on June 17. 

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Bitcoin slips below $70,000 as rising losses, exchange inflows and extreme fear signal a renewed distribution phase.

Bitcoin (BTC) sellers took control during the European trading session on Tuesday as the BTC/USD pair slipped below the $70,000 mark for the first time since April.

Analysts said that Bitcoin has entered another distribution phase due to high selling pressure and investors realizing losses.

Key takeaways:

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Bitcoin treasury firms made up nearly all May inflows, but BTC-linked capital formation also dropped sharply from April.

Monthly inflows into digital asset treasury (DAT) companies fell to $180 million in May, the lowest level since October 2024, according to DefiLlama data. 

The May total was down 95% from April's $4.4 billion and about 93% below the monthly average for January through May. The drop followed two strong months for DAT inflows, with data showing $4.2 billion in March and $4.4 billion in April. 

Bitcoin treasury companies accounted for nearly all of May's DAT inflows, with $177 million (about 98%) of the monthly total. However, Bitcoin inflows were also down sharply from their $3.8 billion recorded in April. 

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Mt. Gox moved $739 million in Bitcoin for the first time since March, raising speculation about imminent creditor distributions.

Defunct Japanese crypto exchange Mt. Gox moved roughly $739 million worth of Bitcoin from its cold wallets early Tuesday, its first onchain movement in over two months, according to Arkham Intelligence data.

Blockchain data shows the exchange transferred 10,306 Bitcoin (BTC), worth approximately $730.8 million, from its cold wallet to an unmarked address at 4:47 am UTC. The transferred Bitcoin is currently marked as “unspent” by Arkham. The exchange also made a separate transfer of 116.3 BTC, worth around $8.25 million, to its hot wallet at the same time, which is marked as “spent.”

The transferred Bitcoin being marked “unspent” means the funds are sitting in the new address and have not yet been sent anywhere further. On the other hand, “spent” means those funds have already been moved on again to another address.

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Bitcoin fell to fresh two-month lows as BTC price weakness accelerated and analysis targeted its 200-day moving average trend line.

Bitcoin (BTC) traded below $70,000 for the first time in two months on Tuesday as sellers stayed in control.

Key points:

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The global insurance broker acquired crypto insurance platform Redefind and launched a digital asset protection service covering asset tracing and legal recovery costs.

WTW, a global insurance broker and risk advisory company, has acquired crypto insurance platform Redefind and launched a digital asset protection service that covers expenses related to forensic investigations, asset tracing and legal recovery efforts following theft or loss.

Redefind is a crypto insurance platform that allows individuals and institutions to purchase coverage for digital assets held across different custody arrangements. The company said its system uses cryptographic proof of ownership to verify insured assets.

The service is designed as a non-custodial insurance product for digital asset owners and will initially launch in the United Kingdom, with broader market expansion planned. The coverage is focused on recovery-related costs rather than traditional custodial insurance products.

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The new API lets AI agents make purchases with eligible Visa cards using tokenized credentials and spending controls, expanding payment options for autonomous software.

Crossmint, a stablecoin and wallet infrastructure provider, launched an API that enables AI agents to make payments using eligible Visa credit and debit cards, bringing physical card-based transactions to agent platforms.

According to Tuesday's announcement, the service uses Visa Intelligent Commerce and Basis Theory's payment infrastructure to allow AI agents to make purchases without access to users' card numbers while operating within predefined spending limits.

Crossmint said the payment capability is available through its lobster.cash tool, which can be connected to platforms including Claude Code, OpenClaw, Hermes and Zo Computer. Developers can immediately integrate the payment system through the company's API and documentation.

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Robinhood will enter Canada after its WonderFi acquisition brought local crypto exchanges Bitbuy and Coinsquare under its control.

Stock and crypto trading platform Robinhood has entered the Canadian market after closing a $180 million stock acquisition of local crypto technology company WonderFi, gaining the company’s licenses and regulatory approvals in the country.

Robinhood said on Monday that the acquisition marks the platform's entry into Canada and will see crypto exchanges Bitbuy and Coinsquare come under the company’s banner.

Bitbuy and Coinsquare are among Canada's largest crypto exchanges. WonderFi disclosed in March that the platforms generated combined revenue of $49.8 million in 2025.

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Santiment says that “the gap between traditional equities and crypto has become increasingly difficult for traders to ignore.”

Bitcoin fell to its lowest level in almost two months on Tuesday as cryptocurrencies continue to diverge from traditional equity markets.

Bitcoin (BTC) fell to a low of $70,023 on Coinbase early on Tuesday, its lowest level since April 7, marking a daily decline of more than 4% and a weekly loss of 8%, according to TradingView. Bitcoin is down 44% from its October peak of $126,000. 

US stock markets such as the S&P 500 have meanwhile hit a record high of just over 7,600 points on Monday, while the tech-heavy Nasdaq peaked at over 27,000 points.

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Grayscale proposed a fee of 0.29% on its Hyperliquid ETF, which “slightly undercuts” rivals 21Shares and Bitwise that carry respective fees of 0.3% and 0.34%, says analyst James Seyffart.

Crypto asset manager Grayscale could launch its exchange-traded fund tied to the Hyperliquid token in the US as soon as this week after it amended a regulatory filing for the fund, an analyst says. 

Bloomberg ETF analyst James Seyffart posted to X on Monday that the launch of Grayscale’s ETF was “likely imminent” and was “expecting the launch this week” after the company amended the fund’s filing for the sixth time to add its ticker and fee.

Grayscale’s amended filing added that the ETF would trade under the ticker HYPG with a 0.29% management fee, which Seyffart noted “slightly undercuts” rival Hyperliquid (HYPE) ETFs from 21Shares and Bitwise that launched in mid-May.

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Telegram founder Pavel Durov says it is “returning to our roots — and starting a new chapter” by rebranding Toncoin to Gram.

The Open Network says it is planning to rebrand its Toncoin (TON) token to Gram (GRAM), the original name of the network’s cryptocurrency in its first white paper.

“Gram was the original name of TON’s currency in the first white paper,” Telegram and TON founder Pavel Durov posted to Telegram on Monday. “We’re returning to our roots — and starting a new chapter.”

The rebranding will “pave the way for what comes next,” and the transition will take around three weeks, he added. 

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Bitmine is aiming to hold 5% of the total circulating supply of 120.6 million Ether tokens and is about 90% of the way to its target after its latest purchase.

Bitmine Immersion Technologies has purchased another $52 million worth of Ether (ETH), with its chair, Tom Lee, saying that the token’s price isn’t yet reflecting the Ethereum blockchain’s strengths.

“Over the past week, we acquired 26,497 ETH,” Lee said in a statement on Monday. “In our view, ETH prices are not reflecting the strengthening of Ethereum fundamentals, but then again, this is not surprising given we are in the early stages of crypto spring.”

Bitmine is the largest Ether treasury company with 5.4 million ETH worth more than $10.5 billion. It had slowed its pace of buying earlier this month after scooping up more than 100,000 Ether a week for three straight weeks.

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A clash has erupted among Polymarket users over the timing and disclosure of a recent Bitcoin sale by Strategy, with more than $80 million traded on the disputed outcome.

Polymarket users who bet on when Michael Saylor’s Strategy would sell Bitcoin are in dispute with the prediction market platform over the timing and disclosure of the company’s recent sale.

More than $80 million has been wagered on whether Strategy would sell Bitcoin (BTC) by May 31, with users able to buy odds on “Yes” or “No.”

Strategy said in a regulatory filing that it sold 32 Bitcoin (BTC) between May 26 and May 31, but the disclosure of the sale was made on Monday, June 1, leading the market to resolve to “No,” causing confusion among users.

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Radiant says its frontend and smart contracts will remain accessible and users will still be able to withdraw, repay, and manage their positions.

Crypto lending protocol Radiant Capital says it will start closing down as it failed to establish a “viable path forward” after North Korea exploited it for $50 million in October 2024.

Radiant’s decentralized autonomous organization said in a blog post on Monday that its inability to recover the stolen funds, secure new capital and maintain a runway to continue operating responsibly forced it to wind down.

It added on X that contributors and community members had helped maintain the protocol under “increasingly difficult conditions,” but it was not enough to sustain the protocol “without recovery, capital, or growth.”

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Selling from all angles pushed Bitcoin below $71,000 at the weekly open, but early bullish positioning in BTC derivatives may signal the start of a recovery.

Key takeaways:

Bitcoin (BTC) dropped below $71,000 on Monday for the first time in seven weeks, liquidating $276 million in leveraged bullish positions as traders reduced their positions amid renewed military action between the US and Iran. Despite this heightened risk aversion, whales and market makers increased their bullish exposure in the Bitcoin derivatives markets.

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Selling from all angles pushed Bitcoin below $71,000 at the weekly open, but early bullish positioning in BTC derivatives may signal the start of a recovery.

Key takeaways:

Bitcoin (BTC) dropped below $71,000 on Monday for the first time in seven weeks, liquidating $276 million in leveraged bullish positions as traders reduced their positions amid renewed military action between the US and Iran. Despite this heightened risk aversion, whales and market makers increased their bullish exposure in the Bitcoin derivatives markets.

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The integration gives fintech and institutional platforms a new pathway to evaluate DOGE amid signs of slowing crypto adoption.

The Dogecoin Foundation’s corporate arm has partnered with Paxos to integrate DOGE across its brokerage and custody infrastructure, potentially expanding access to the memecoin through regulated financial channels.

According to a Monday announcement, Dogecoin (DOGE) will become available through Paxos’ brokerage and custody platform, allowing the company’s fintech, payments and institutional clients to evaluate support for the memecoin.

Paxos provides crypto infrastructure for several major fintech and brokerage platforms, including PayPal, Venmo, Interactive Brokers and Mercado Libre. 

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Many Democratic lawmakers have said that they will not support any version of a crypto market structure bill without provisions on ethics to address potential conflicts of interest by elected officials.

US Senate consideration of the Digital Asset Clarity (CLARITY) Act is likely to resume as members reconvene this week after an extended Memorial Day holiday.

Many US lawmakers and crypto industry leaders are pushing for consideration of the CLARITY Act, a crypto market structure bill introduced by Republicans and passed by the House of Representatives in July 2025.

The bill, expected to give more authority to the federal commodities regulator over digital assets, passed two crucial committees before the one-week break. It has been debated in Congress amid pushback from industry and banking representatives over stablecoins, tokenized equities and other issues.

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Bitcoin’s sharp volatility decline coincides with a 114-day trading range, setting the stage for a potential 10% to 20% price move, but the direction remains uncertain.

Bitcoin's realized volatility has fallen to 17.2%, one of its lowest levels in recent months. Multiple Bitcoin analysts have said that long periods of price compression, alongside declining volatility, have historically preceded double-digit rallies. 

Bitcoin researcher Axel Adler Jr. said that BTC’s one-week realized volatility, smoothed over a 30-day period, has fallen to 17.2% from 39% this quarter, a 56% decline.

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The Parliamentary Association for the Promotion of Blockchain delivered recommendations to Japan’s finance minister on crypto and blockchain.

A group of lawmakers within Japan’s Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) are seeking reforms to the country's cryptocurrency taxation system, as well as support for initiatives for the development and adoption of yen-denominated stablecoins.

According to a Monday Nada News report, the LDP’s Parliamentary Association for the Promotion of Blockchain delivered recommendations to Finance Minister Satsuki Katayama, including provisions on stablecoins, exchange-traded funds (ETFs), central bank digital currencies (CBDCs), and applications for blockchain technology.

The document proposes doubling the leverage cap for retail cryptocurrency derivatives trading and establishing a framework for ETFs tied to digital assets.

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Strategy’s 32 BTC transaction has sparked debate over how investors value Bitcoin treasury companies as capital structure and liquidity considerations evolve.

Shares of Michael Saylor’s Strategy fell Monday after the company disclosed its first Bitcoin sale since adopting a “never sell” philosophy, prompting fresh scrutiny of the corporate Bitcoin treasury model.

Nasdaq-traded MSTR stock was down more than 6.5% to start off the week before paring back some of that decline by early afternoon on Monday.

Although short-term price action rarely determines broader trends, Strategy’s sale of 32 Bitcoin (BTC) last week challenged the long-held perception that the company would only accumulate BTC and never liquidate its holdings, according to digital asset research and advisory firm Delphi Digital.

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Bitcoin fell to its lowest levels since mid-April as chances of a US-Iran peace deal seemed to fade and oil prices spiked.

Bitcoin (BTC) hit new seven-week lows on Monday amid a collapsing peace deal between the US and Iran.

Key points:

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Long-term whales have cashed out millions of dollars from Ethereum following the recent sell-off, potentially putting ETH at risk of further losses.

An early Ether (ETH) investor sold their ETH holdings over the past week as the price headed toward $2,000, sparking fears of further losses. However, onchain data tells a different story as traders speculate where ETH/USD might bottom.

Key takeaways:

An old Ethereum whale, an early investor holding tokens since the network’s first years, sold 55,000 ETH worth about $112.25 million and 9,442 ETH worth roughly $24 million over the past week. 

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HYPE has entered the breakout stage of its prevailing bull pennant setup with an upside target near $105, with strong fundamentals backing the bullish case.

Hyperliquid’s native token, HYPE, has rallied more than 30% in five days to a record high near $74, with a bullish chart breakout now pointing to a potential move above $100.

HYPE/USD daily chart. Source: TradingView

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The Kelp DAO exploiter laundered about $220 million worth of remaining stolen funds in a bid to make them untraceable, excluding the $71 million frozen by Arbitrum’s Security Council.

The hacker behind the $293 million Kelp DAO exploit has laundered nearly all of the unfrozen stolen funds, or about $220 million, in just six weeks, according to Arkham data and onchain analysts.

The Kelp DAO hacker-tagged wallet appears to have laundered nearly all the stolen funds, with just $1.7 million remaining traceable in the wallet, according to blockchain data provider Arkham. The malicious actor drained 116,500 Kelp DAO restaked ETH (rsETH) on April 18, pushing the total amount stolen from crypto hacks to $630 million for April.

The funds were laundered in two layers: bridging to Bitcoin using crypto mixer Wasabi and then returning to Ethereum before withdrawing and depositing via mixing protocol Tornado Cash, according to onchain analyst Specter.

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The world's largest public Bitcoin holder reduced its stash to 843,706 BTC, while raising $128.3 million through Class A stock sales.

[Update 1:57 P.M. UTC, June 1 -- Updates third paragraph with share price decline in Monday morning trading.]

Strategy sold 32 BTC last week, its first reported Bitcoin sale since a 2022 tax-loss transaction, as the company moved to fund preferred stock distributions.

Strategy sold 32 Bitcoin (BTC) for $2.5 million at an average price of $77,135 per BTC, reducing its holdings from 843,738 BTC to 843,706 BTC, according to a Monday 8-K filing with the US Securities and Exchange Commission.

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The world's largest public Bitcoin holder reduced its stash to 843,706 BTC, while raising $128.3 million through Class A stock sales.

Strategy sold 32 BTC last week, its first reported Bitcoin sale since a 2022 tax-loss transaction, as the company moved to fund preferred stock distributions.

Strategy sold 32 Bitcoin (BTC) for $2.5 million at an average price of $77,135 per BTC, reducing its holdings from 843,738 BTC to 843,706 BTC, according to a Monday 8-K filing with the US Securities and Exchange Commission.

Proceeds from the Bitcoin sale are expected to be used to fund distributions on preferred stock, the company said.

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Gnosis Pay faces an active exploit in its delay module as co‑founder Martin Köppelmann walks back a warning urging users to withdraw funds and vows to repay those affected.

Update (June 2 at 10:30 am UTC): This article has been updated to include a statement from a spokesperson at Gnosis.

Gnosis is working to contain an exploit Monday affecting its Gnosis Pay product after co-founder Martin Köppelmann acknowledged an active hack involving the system’s delay module and said the project would cover user losses.

Köppelmann initially urged users to withdraw funds, a warning quickly amplified by blockchain security firm PeckShield, which said users were strongly advised to withdraw all funds (EURe and GNO) and check exposure.

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MEXC, a leading 0-fee cross-asset trading platform, today announced the official launch of 'RealStocks.'

Mutsamudu, Comoros, June 1, 2026 – MEXC, a leading 0-fee cross-asset trading platform, today announced the official launch of 'RealStocks.' This innovative equity product is now accessible to eligible users globally. The product seamlessly integrates real ownership rights of traditional financial assets with the low-friction experience of a crypto platform, further expanding MEXC's 0-fee cross-asset trading ecosystem.

For a long time, investors looking to enter the U.S. stock market were limited to two less-than-ideal options. The first was trading through traditional brokerages, which requires enduring tedious currency exchange and deposit processes. The second was trading synthetic assets or tokenized products on crypto platforms, which often comes with drawbacks like poor liquidity and a lack of dividend payouts. The launch of 'RealStocks' breaks this deadlock, seamlessly bridging the gap between both worlds.

Building on a highly successful Beta phase validated by over 20,000 early users, the official launch ensures a seamless, battle-tested trading experience. Through MEXC’s licensed broker partner, Atomic Vaults, eligible users can purchase shares in real U.S.-listed companies, eligible users can purchase shares in real U.S. listed companies, with genuine market exposure and liquidity consistent with traditional U.S. equity markets. Where applicable, users are entitled to dividends or distributions on their holdings. The entire trading flow is integrated into MEXC’s existing interface. Users transact in USDT, making the experience of buying U.S. stocks similar to buying crypto in practice. Trading hours follow Nasdaq market sessions, and zero platform trading fees apply during the launch period, keeping costs to a minimum. The product has been validated by over 20,000 users during the Beta phase.

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Crypto ETPs see $1.67 billion in outflows as the US dominates selling, Bitcoin funds log a record 2026 exit, and altcoin participation narrows sharply across markets, according to CoinShares.

Crypto investment products extended losses to three straight weeks last week amid ongoing selling pressure in markets and limited institutional demand.

Crypto exchange-traded products (ETPs) recorded $1.67 billion in outflows last week, the second-largest weekly withdrawal of 2026, CoinShares reported on Monday.

The fresh outflows bring three-week losses to $4.21 billion, with total assets under management dropping to $141 billion, the lowest level since early April.

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Binance launched US equities trading for eligible users and plans tokenized stocks as crypto exchanges expand into broader financial markets.

Binance has launched US equities trading for eligible users and plans to add tokenized stocks as part of a broader push to expand beyond crypto.

Users will be able to trade more than 7,000 stocks and exchange-traded funds (ETFs) with zero commission, buy fractional shares from $5 and access select equities on a 24/5 basis, according to an announcement shared with Cointelegraph.

The exchange said it is also planning to introduce tokenized stocks as part of its vision for a “multi-asset financial super app.”

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ECB board member Isabel Schnabel warned that stablecoins could bring money-market risks into tokenized finance and reinforce US dollar dominance.

European Central Bank (ECB) Executive Board member Isabel Schnabel said stablecoins could bring old financial-market vulnerabilities into tokenized finance, while strengthening the case for central banks to modernize public money through tools such as the digital euro and tokenized central bank settlement.

In a Monday speech at the 2026 Bank of Korea International Conference on Central Banks and the Future of Money in Seoul, Schnabel compared stablecoins with money market funds, arguing that both can offer useful financial innovation while also creating risks around bank disintermediation, runs, fire sales and monetary policy transmission.

Schnabel also warned that stablecoins could reinforce the US dollar’s global role as tokenized finance develops. “The growing use of stablecoins may further cement the international dominance of the U.S. dollar,” she said, adding that “virtually all stablecoins in circulation are denominated in dollars, with other currencies playing a negligible role.”

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Coinbase has switched on direct rupee bank transfers in India via IMPS, letting users move funds between local bank accounts and the exchange for spot and futures trading.

Coinbase has enabled direct rupee bank rails in India, making it easier for local customers to move money between bank accounts and crypto markets on the exchange as the company deepens its push into one of the world’s fastest-growing digital asset markets.

Indian users can now deposit and withdraw Indian rupees via the Immediate Payment Service (IMPS) instant payments network and access spot markets, perpetual futures and the company’s Advanced Trade interface through a single platform, according to a company blog post published Sunday.

The move marks Coinbase’s latest push to expand its presence in India since a troubled 2022 debut and follows the company’s registration with India’s Financial Intelligence Unit, giving it a formal regulatory footing in the market.

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Bitcoin price headed below $72,000 on Iran woes as US President Donald Trump told observers to "sit back and relax" with a ceasefire still unresolved.

Bitcoin (BTC) heads into June with new local lows as the US-Iran war drives crypto market nerves.

News of strikes on Iranian targets keep the Middle East conflict firmly on the radar as a source of crypto market volatility this week.

Exchanges of fire meant that BTC price action quickly came under pressure following the monthly close, dropping below $73,000.

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NYDIG’s Greg Cipolaro says a sale below market price and giving up millions of dollars for immediate execution indicates a large directional holder exited a trade on BlackRock’s IBIT last week.

A $1.26 billion block trade in BlackRock’s iShares Bitcoin Trust (IBIT) made last week was likely a whale making a quick exit on a directional trade, says Greg Cipolaro, the head of research at financial services company NYDIG.

On Tuesday, an unknown trader sold 29.2 million shares of BlackRock’s IBIT on a dark pool, a private trading platform that institutions use to discreetly make large trades outside public markets, sparking speculation about who made the trade and why.

Cipolaro said in a research note on Friday that several indicators were “consistent with a large directional holder exiting a concentrated position rather than a contemporaneous basis-trade unwind.”

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The transition gives the asset manager control of a tokenized fund that combines crypto carry trades with Treasury and digital asset exposure.

Bitwise completed its takeover of Superstate's Crypto Carry Fund (USCC), giving the asset manager control of a tokenized investment vehicle that uses market-neutral crypto trading strategies to generate yield.

Bitwise said on May 7 it would assume management of the fund from Superstate as the infrastructure company shifted its focus toward FundOS, its tokenized fund platform. 

The fund is available to qualified purchasers and seeks to generate yield through crypto cash-and-carry trades, a strategy that captures the premium between cryptocurrency futures and spot prices. It retains the USCC token ticker and existing smart contracts following the transition.

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The crypto bank's new CMS platform lets institutions trade on crypto venues while keeping assets in regulated custody and reducing pre-funded accounts.

Anchorage Digital launched a settlement platform that allows institutions to trade on crypto venues while keeping assets in custody at its federally regulated bank, which it said will help manage counterparty and operational risks.

According to Monday’s announcement from the company, Coordinated Multiparty Settlement (CMS) connects trading venues, prime brokers and institutional clients through a shared settlement layer while keeping assets at Anchorage Digital Bank throughout the trade lifecycle.

Anchorage said CMS verifies funding obligations and coordinates settlement across participants, reducing the number of asset transfers needed to complete trades. The company said the system is designed to reduce the need for pre-funded exchange accounts, a common practice in crypto markets.

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The Sui Network's first two outages were caused by bugs introduced in its 1.72 update, while an interim fix deployed to restore the blockchain triggered the third.

The Sui Foundation, the nonprofit organization behind the Sui Network, says it has made a “major upgrade” to address issues that caused three recent outages and left the blockchain down for more than 15 hours across two days.

Sui experienced an outage on Thursday that lasted nearly six hours and two more on Friday. The first lasted eight hours and 25 minutes while the second lasted 43 minutes, according to the Sui network's uptime dashboard. All systems are listed as operational as of Monday.

The Sui Foundation said in a blog post on Sunday that it applied an upgrade to fix the bugs that caused the outages. It also flagged several issues for improvement, such as better failure containment, end-of-epoch resilience and further investment in artificial intelligence agents, which helped with diagnoses, querying validator logs and assembling metrics.

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CertiK says May is the third month so far in 2026 to record crypto losses under $100 million.

Losses from exploits of crypto platforms fell to $68.3 million in May, down almost 90% from the $650 million lost in April, says crypto security company CertiK.

“After a particularly bad April, May is now the third month of 2026 to record losses under [$100 million],” CertiK posted to X on Sunday. 

Around $2.6 million of the total crypto stolen in May was due to phishing attacks, while roughly $9.4 million was recovered or returned, it added.

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Cardano Foundation has failed at its second attempt to secure funding from Cardano’s community to fund its annual conference.

The Cardano Foundation has canceled its 2026 annual conference after its governance community shot down a revised proposal seeking to fund the event with treasury tokens.

“Governance requires not only participation, but also a commitment to accept collective decisions. The Cardano community has spoken and we respect the outcome,” the foundation posted to X on Saturday after voting closed on Friday.

The proposal sought to use 7.8 million Cardano (ADA) tokens worth $1.84 million to fund the event. 65.2% of votes were cast in favor of the proposal, which was just short of the 66.67% threshold needed to pass. 

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Wintermute said it will provide “two-sided markets across event contracts on leading venues,” but did not specify what platforms it was trading on.

Crypto liquidity provider and trading company Wintermute says it is providing liquidity on prediction markets as the industry continues to expand.

The firm, which handles $3.5 trillion in annual trading volume, said on Friday that it is extending its institutional trading to prediction markets and would provide “two-sided markets across event contracts on leading venues,” without specifying the platforms. 

Jake Ostrovskis, head of OTC trading at Wintermute, said prediction markets have the “demand profile” of a major asset class but the liquidity profile of an “early-stage one.”

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A white-hat hacker has helped the creators of Hong Coin by showing them how to exploit a flawed admin function on a smart contract and ultimately refund investors after a decade.

A pseudonymous white hat hacker has helped recover $2 million worth of Ether locked in a faulty initial coin offering (ICO) smart contract for almost a decade.

In a post to X on Sunday, the white hat, known as “0xflorent,” said they helped recover about 1,003 Ether (ETH) from 48 investors who participated in the Hong Coin (HONG) ICO, a decentralized venture capital fund that never launched due to it failing to reach its funding goal.

“The contract held all the investors' ETH and was supposed to auto-refund them,” 0xflorent said. However, “a bug in the refund function quietly broke that, and the funds got stuck.” 

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Federal Reserve Governor Christopher Waller told a conference on Sunday that stablecoins expand the reach of US policy while the Bank of England’s Megan Greene expects their popularity will soon fade.

US Federal Reserve Governor Christopher Waller said Sunday that the growing use of dollar-backed stablecoins could bolster the global influence of US monetary policy.

Waller told participants at the 32nd Dubrovnik Economics Conference that countries that increasingly rely on stablecoins backed by the US dollar may effectively import US monetary conditions, Bloomberg News reported Sunday.

“I've always just looked at ​stablecoins as a payment instrument; there's nothing evil about it, nothing dangerous about it,” Waller said. “They ​are just bringing competition into the payments world,” Reuters reported.

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Strategy may be set to announce it has resumed buying Bitcoin after pausing in recent weeks as the biggest crypto looks poised to close out the month down more than 3.5%.

Strategy chairman Michael Saylor on Sunday signaled the Bitcoin treasury company would be announcing fresh purchases of the cryptocurrency in the coming days.

The social media post comes just days ahead of a proxy vote that depends in large part on retailer shareholders to enable semi-monthly dividend payouts on the company’s STRC perpetual preferred stock.

“Working Better” was Saylor's tweet late Sunday morning to accompany a bubble chart tracking Strategy’s Bitcoin (BTC) purchases over the past nearly six years. That chart, from Iceland-registered StrategyTracker.com, has been consistently posted by Saylor in the days ahead of news of a purchase by the biggest publicly traded Bitcoin holder.

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In the wake of CFTC approval of perpetual futures contracts tied to the spot price of Bitcoin, Kraken expects to offer those to US institutional clients within "the next month."

Kraken said late Friday that it expects to launch CFTC-regulated perpetual futures contracts in the US in the next 30 days, hours after the US Commodity Futures Trading Commission approved the instruments.

The exchange said when it gains approval, the contracts will be listed on Bitnomial Exchange, a CFTC-regulated exchange recently acquired by Kraken's parent company, Payward.

Payward said on April 17 that it was acquiring crypto derivatives platform Bitnomial for as much as $550 million, aimed at providing Kraken Pro customers with access to Bitnomial's perpetual futures offering.

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In the wake of CFTC approval of perpetual futures contracts tied to the spot price of Bitcoin, Kraken expects to offer those to US institutional clients within "the next month."

Kraken said late Friday that it expects to launch CFTC-regulated perpetual futures contracts in the US in the next 30 days, hours after the US Commodity Futures Trading Commission approved the instruments.

The exchange said when it gains approval, the contracts will be listed on Bitnomial Exchange, a CFTC-regulated exchange recently acquired by Kraken's parent company, Payward.

Payward said on April 17 that it was acquiring crypto derivatives platform Bitnomial for as much as $550 million, aimed at providing Kraken Pro customers with access to Bitnomial's perpetual futures offering.

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Bitcoin faced ending May lower by around 3%, with the possibility of US PMI data giving BTC price action a boost next week.

Bitcoin (BTC) circled $73,500 on Sunday as bulls stared down 3% BTC price losses for May.

Key points:

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Bitcoin’s bounce from a key holder cost-basis level has improved the case for further upside, with historical data pointing to $101,000 as a potential best-case target.

Bitcoin (BTC) is rebounding from a key on-chain support zone, putting the $78,000 level back in focus for bulls.

Key takeaways:

Bitcoin rebounded roughly 2.5% over the weekend to reach $74,000 on Sunday, with the recovery beginning near $72,500.

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Vietnam’s Ministry of Finance has proposed letting SMEs use digital assets, virtual assets and intellectual property as loan collateral.

Vietnam’s Ministry of Finance has proposed letting small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) use digital assets, virtual assets and intellectual property as collateral for bank loans.

The proposal is part of a draft revised Law on Support for SMEs, which is open for public consultation, according to a Friday report by Vietnam News. Under the framework, businesses could secure loans using future-formed assets, property rights, intangible assets and digital or virtual assets.

SMEs and household businesses account for more than 98% of all enterprises in Vietnam, yet outstanding loans to the segment represent only around 20% of total bank credit in the economy, per the report. The Ministry attributed the imbalance to a lack of eligible collateral, limited financial transparency and the small capital base of most SMEs.

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Gravity Bridge was drained of roughly $5.4 million in a suspected signing key compromise, prompting validators to halt the bridge while an investigation is underway.

Gravity Bridge, a decentralized blockchain facilitating cross-chain transfers between Ethereum and Cosmos, was reportedly drained of roughly $5.4 million, prompting validators to halt the bridge.

Onchain analyst Specter first flagged the unusual outflows in a Saturday post on X, revealing that the bridge contract key may have been compromised. “It appears the Gravity Bridge contract key may have been compromised, resulting in the theft of $5.4M,” Specter wrote.

Security firm PeckShield also confirmed the exploit in a post, breaking down the stolen assets as approximately $4.3 million in USDC (USDC), 274 Wrapped Ether (WETH) worth roughly $553,000, $434,000 in USDt (USDT) and 14.164 PAX Gold (PAXG) tokens worth about $64,000.

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Crypto sentiment platform Santiment warned that the two biggest spikes in social media bullishness around Bitcoin have previously been followed by short-term price pullbacks.

The feeling toward Bitcoin on social media has reached its most bullish level of the year, even as the overall crypto market is down, according to crypto sentiment platform Santiment.

“Sentiment on Bitcoin has spiked to 2.23 bullish comments for every bearish one — the most lopsided positive ratio of 2026,” Santiment said in a report published on Saturday.

“The previous two biggest positive-ratio days of the year preceded short-term price pullbacks, while severely negative readings marked local bottoms. The current euphoria contrasts sharply with the bearish ETF flow picture and warrants caution," Santiment said. Spot Bitcoin ETFs logged their tenth consecutive trading day of outflows on Friday, with total net redemptions exceeding $2.97 billion since May 15.

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Bitcoin dip buyers are present near range lows, and new leveraged longs opened in the zone but the volumes lack the size needed to reverse the downtrend.

Bitcoin ETF selling overwhelmed markets again after last week’s $1.42 billion outflow followed the previous week’s $1.26 billion outflow. 

BTC’s subsequent fall to $72,500 raised concerns that the price would slip back into the $60,000 to $70,000 range that BTC was locked in during February through April, but Cointelegraph's reporting showed spot volumes kicking in to defend the $70,000 support. 

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While Bitcoin is hovering around $73,000, a crypto trader says the current setup is “different from the previous breakdown in February.”

Bitcoin could fall toward its February yearly low if it fails to maintain support above the $70,000 level, according to a crypto analyst.

“Bitcoin is at a pivotal level, and if it doesn't hold, we're buying at <$65K,” MN Trading Capital founder Michael van de Poppe said in an X post on Saturday. Bitcoin (BTC) reached a yearly low of $60,000 in early February before recovering to $73,873 at the time of publication, according to CoinMarketCap.

It comes as crypto market participants are divided over whether Bitcoin's early February price of $60,000 marked the bottom of the cycle, or if further downside still lies ahead.

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The Senate Banking Committee voted to advance the CLARITY Act in May, but it must still pass both chambers of Congress before heading to the president's desk.

The United States will lose its leadership position in crypto to other countries, including China, if US lawmakers fail to pass the Digital Asset Market Clarity Act (CLARITY), a crypto market structure bill, according to Wyoming Senator Cynthia Lummis.

Passing a comprehensive crypto regulatory framework would “ensure” that other countries “do not write the rules of the next financial era,” Lummis said. She added in a separate X post:

In May, the Senate Banking Committee voted to advance the CLARITY Act after the legislation had stalled for months, reviving crypto industry hopes that the bill might be codified into law in 2026.

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The Senate Banking Committee voted to advance the CLARITY Act in May, but it must still pass both chambers of Congress before heading to the president's desk.

The United States will lose its leadership position in crypto to other countries, including China, if US lawmakers fail to pass the Digital Asset Market Clarity Act (CLARITY), a crypto market structure bill, according to Wyoming Senator Cynthia Lummis.

Passing a comprehensive crypto regulatory framework would “ensure” that other countries “do not write the rules of the next financial era,” Lummis said. She added in a separate X post:

In May, the Senate Banking Committee voted to advance the CLARITY Act after the legislation had stalled for months, reviving crypto industry hopes that the bill might be codified into law in 2026.

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The $12.6 million in USDC was likely frozen in connection with an ongoing but unrelated civil court case, according to onchain sleuth ZachXBT.

Stablecoin issuer Circle on Saturday froze $12.6 million in USDC dollar-pegged tokens linked to privacy protocol Zama’s confidential USDC smart contract, according to onchain sleuth ZachXBT.

The smart contract is “publicly labeled” on block explorers and the privacy protocol’s technical documentation, ZachXBT said. 

The exact reason for the freeze is “unclear,” he said, adding that wallets linked to the Overnight Finance decentralized finance (DeFi) protocol deposited $12.4 million into the Zama protocol on May 11, 2026. He said:

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Spot Bitcoin ETFs logged a record 10-day outflow streak totaling nearly $3 billion, while Ether ETFs bled for 14 consecutive sessions.

Spot Bitcoin exchange-traded funds (ETFs) have logged outflows for 10 consecutive trading days, with total net redemptions exceeding $2.97 billion since May 15, a streak that one analyst says may signal a market bottom is near.

According to data from SoSoValue, daily outflows ranged from $70 million to $733 million across the period, with the steepest single-day exodus recorded on Wednesday at $733.43 million. Total net assets held across spot Bitcoin (BTC) ETFs have dropped from $104.29 billion on May 15 to $94.17 billion as of Friday, a decline of roughly $10 billion in two weeks.

The current streak broke the previous record of eight consecutive outflow sessions, which was recorded in early last year and saw $3.2 billion in withdrawals, on Thursday, before extending to 10 days on Friday.

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BSTR co-founder Sean Bill says many Bitcoin treasury companies lack the “ability to actually deploy Bitcoin.”

The Bitcoin treasury company space is becoming more divided between firms with actual financial strategies and those leaning more on promotion, according to one industry executive.

“I think a lot of them don't have the right capital structure, right. They don't have the ability to actually deploy Bitcoin,” Sean Bill — co-founder of Bitcoin treasury company BSTR, alongside Adam Back  — said during an interview with Cointelegraph published to YouTube on Tuesday.

“They're really planning on having Bitcoin do all the talking for them,” Bill said. “I do think that you have a lot of carnival barkers in this space,” Bill said.

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US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said the US has seized roughly $1 billion in Iranian crypto assets, double the figure disclosed in late April.

The United States has seized roughly $1 billion in Iranian crypto assets, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said Friday, adding that some of the wallet owners may not yet know the funds are gone.

“I believe that we have seized about a billion dollars of their crypto,” Bessent said while speaking at the Reagan National Economic Forum. “Just outright grabbed the wallets. Some of them may be typing in right now and not have realized that their wallet had been grabbed,” he added.

Bessent said the seizures are part of the US financial pressure campaign against Iran, known as Operation Economic Fury. Launched in March 2025, the operation has targeted Iranian assets across multiple fronts, seizing cryptocurrency, freezing bank accounts and working with European allies to confiscate properties.

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Swan Bitcoin CEO Cory Klippsten said it is important to pay attention to retail sentiment around Bitcoin, as ownership is still far from concentrated and “it’s not like Blackrock owns the Bitcoin.”

Despite the growing institutional presence in crypto, retail sentiment is just as important as it was when Wall Street was largely on the sidelines, according to Swan Bitcoin CEO Cory Klippsten.

“It still does. You have to remember it's not like BlackRock owns the Bitcoin and Fidelity owns the Bitcoin. It's a bunch of retail accounts mostly that actually buy that,” Klippsten said during an interview with Cointelegraph published to YouTube on Tuesday.

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Over $500 million in Bitcoin bids now sit near $70,000, while options traders and futures positions converge around the same level.

Bitcoin (BTC) traders have placed new buy orders near $70,000 as the price approaches a key liquidity zone. Order-book data shows more than $500 million in bid liquidity between $72,000 and $70,000, creating a demand zone that could shape BTC’s next move.

Data from CoinGlass shows dip buyers have placed 6,235 BTC in bid liquidity between $72,000 and $70,000. At current prices, the buy orders are worth roughly $443 million.

The largest cluster sits directly above $70,000, where buyers are positioned to absorb the current selling pressure. Bid liquidity refers to limit buy orders waiting below the market price. When price trades into those orders, it can slow a decline and trigger a sharp rebound if demand absorbs available BTC supply.

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As the CFTC and Gemini work together to seek a court's reversal of a 2025 settlement, one of the agency’s former chairs said the public “deserves a better explanation.”

A former chairman of the US Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) responded to the agency’s move to vacate a $5 million settlement with cryptocurrency company Gemini.

In a Wednesday motion filed in the US District Court for the Southern District of New York, the CFTC joined the Gemini Trust Company in seeking relief from the judgment of a case initially filed in June 2022. The company reached a $5 million settlement with the CFTC in January 2025 while the agency was under former US President Joe Biden.

“[T]he CFTC’s action in reversing itself on a settled case is extraordinarily unusual,” Tim Massad, a former CFTC chair and research fellow at Harvard Kennedy School, told Cointelegraph. “The explanation seems to be that the staff got it wrong, not that the law was unclear.”

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The CFTC issued notices affecting platforms seeking to offer cryptocurrency perpetual futures contracts, including a no-action position for Coinbase and approval for Kalshi.

The US Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) took positions on cryptocurrency perpetual futures contracts and how the industry may be more suited for “24/7 trading, clearing, and settlement.”

In a Friday notice, the CFTC said it had approved perpetual futures contracts tied to the spot price of Bitcoin for prediction markets platform Kalshi. The company announced at about the same time that it would launch the perpetual futures contracts on its platform in a move closer to a derivatives exchange.

“​​The Order was based on representations and submissions made by Kalshi in support of its request for Commission approval, including its explanation and analysis of the BTCPERP Contract’s terms and conditions, the nature of the underlying commodity market, and the BTCPERP Contract’s compliance with applicable provisions of the Commodity Exchange Act and the Commission’s regulations thereunder, including the Core Principles applicable to [Designated Contract Markets],” said the CFTC.

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The outage was caused by the same network update software bug that disrupted the protocol on Thursday, which resulted in nearly six hours of downtime.

The Sui layer-1 blockchain experienced another disruption on Friday, causing a “network stall” that temporarily halted block production, before normal activity resumed, according to the Sui team.

Network activity “may be paused,” the Sui team said. The network disruption lasted for over three hours and 30 minutes at the time of publication, according to the Sui network’s uptime dashboard.

Sui's mainnet validators experienced disruptions on both Thursday and Friday. Source: Sui

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The exchange's integration with Deribit gives eligible US institutional investors access to global crypto options and perpetual futures markets.

Coinbase Financial Markets has begun offering US institutional clients access to global crypto options and perpetual futures markets through a regulated futures commission merchant, including connectivity to Deribit's crypto options platform.

Coinbase said the launch follows guidance from the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) that allows a regulated futures commission merchant to connect US clients with global crypto derivatives liquidity. The company said Coinbase Financial Markets is the first CFTC-regulated futures commission merchant to offer such access.

Deribit, which Coinbase acquired in August 2025 as part of its expansion into crypto derivatives, is the largest crypto options exchange by open interest.

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Bitcoin saw its lowest levels since the middle of April as BTC price action continued ot diverge from thriving US stock markets.

Bitcoin (BTC) deepened six-week lows at Friday’s Wall Street open as US stock markets diverged to all-time highs.

Key points:

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Former CEO Alex Mashinsky filed documents seeking to vacate his 12-year sentence, which included claims involving FTX and a “hostile takeover” by a former Celsius executive, who was sentenced to time served.

Alex Mashinsky, the former CEO of defunct cryptocurrency lending platform Celsius, has filed a motion in a New York court to vacate his 12-year sentence for fraud and market manipulation. 

In a Tuesday filing in the US District Court for the Southern District of New York, Mashinsky filed a motion to vacate his 144-month sentence, set by Judge John Koeltl in May 2025. The former Celsius CEO filed the paperwork without additional counsel, having announced on May 5 that he would be proceeding pro se in his case.

Although Mashinsky pleaded guilty to commodities fraud and securities fraud related to “manipulative and deceptive devices,” he filed a motion to vacate on the grounds that he had ineffective counsel and “fruit of [the] poisinous [sic] tree,” a legal doctrine referring to evidence tainted by authorities’ misconduct.

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Analysts warn Ether’s downside risks remain elevated as traders closely watch the $1,800 support zone for stability.

Market analysts say Ether (ETH) still faces “downside pressure” that could trigger another ETH price sell-off as traders shift their focus to support at $1,800. 

Key takeaways:

Analysts have highlighted several reasons for Ether’s potential to drop lower, including an elevated estimated leveraged ratio and positive funding rates amid a “weakening price structure,” according to CryptoQuant analyst PelinayPA. 

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Spot Bitcoin ETFs recorded a nine-day outflow streak totaling $2.84 billion, surpassing an eight-session outflow run in February 2025.

US-listed spot Bitcoin exchange-traded funds (ETFs) posted their longest outflow streak since launch, extending withdrawals as institutional demand for Bitcoin exposure weakened.

Spot Bitcoin ETFs recorded another $223 million in net outflows on Thursday, marking the record nine-day outflow streak since the funds launched in 2024, according to data from Farside Investors.

The latest streak surpassed the previous record eight-session outflow run recorded in February 2025, though its roughly $2.84 billion in cumulative withdrawals remains below the $3.2 billion lost during the earlier selloff.

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XLM rallied after US financial giant DTCC announced a partnership with the Stellar Network, but it still risks a sharp downside in the coming weeks.

Stellar’s native token, XLM, has rallied more than 50% this week, outperforming the broader crypto market, which has declined by nearly 5% in the same period.

Key takeaways:

XLM's price surged after a major institutional partnership announcement by the Depository Trust & Clearing Corporation (DTCC), a US financial giant that clears and settles $10 trillion to $12 trillion in securities transactions daily.

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ICE’s CEO said regulators need to create a “level playing field” for launching 24/7 onchain perps contracts, which are already trading on exchanges such as Hyperliquid.

Intercontinental Exchange, the parent company of the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE), is urging regulators to allow regulated exchanges to offer 24/7 onchain perpetual futures trading, according to ICE CEO Jeffrey Sprecher.

Speaking at a Bernstein conference on Wednesday, Sprecher said that he was urging regulators to create a “level playing field” for launching 24/7 onchain perps contracts, arguing that regulators are “prohibiting us from doing this when it's already happening.” 

The CEO said that ICE had multiple exploratory discussions with decentralized exchange Hyperliquid about the synergies between the crypto and traditional finance (TradFi) industries, where ICE sought to “learn” more about onchain perps.

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Bitcoin’s market cap has dropped below $1.5 trillion, pushing it out of the world’s top 10 assets amid AI stock and precious metal rallies.

Bitcoin’s (BTC) latest drawdown to $72,000 has coincided with a sharp drop in its market capitalization, pushing it out of the global top 10 assets by market cap.

Key takeaways:

Bitcoin’s price has dropped sharply from around $83,000 in early May to as low as $72,400 on Thursday. This was accompanied by a fall in its market capitalization to $1.45 trillion from $1.66 trillion.

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Strategy’s capital structure may be under pressure as Arca’s Jeff Dorman highlights $15 billion in preferred stock obligations and CEO comments on possible Bitcoin sales.

Strategy is facing renewed scrutiny over its preferred stock financing model as investors question whether dividend obligations could eventually pressure the company to sell some of its Bitcoin.

The Strategy situation has “gotten out of hand,” Arca chief investment officer Jeff Dorman said in an X post on Thursday, referring to its roughly $15 billion in preferred stocks carrying around $1.5 billion in annual dividend obligations.

Dorman warned that the structure may become increasingly difficult to manage if market conditions remain volatile, with Bitcoin (BTC) trading about 16% lower year-to-date at roughly $73,737 at the time of writing.

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Texas is hiring a crypto custodian to move its $10 million Strategic Bitcoin Reserve from BlackRock’s IBIT ETF into directly held coins and build full state‑level BTC plumbing.

Texas is seeking a custody and liquidity provider to help move its Strategic Bitcoin Reserve from BlackRock’s iShares Bitcoin Trust (IBIT) spot Bitcoin exchange-traded fund (ETF) into directly held coins, according to a state procurement document.

The move, posted May 7 and announced in a Thursday release from the Texas Comptroller’s office, would move Texas closer to directly held Bitcoin through a third-party custody arrangement rather than relying solely on ETF exposure, marking a shift from ETF exposure to direct onchain ownership.

Texas has allocated $10 million to the Strategic Bitcoin Reserve, which the state has used to buy IBIT as an interim way to hold the funds before shifting to directly custodied Bitcoin, according to the request for proposals document.

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DxSale was drained for about $7.3 million from BNB Chain liquidity providers, raising fresh concerns over old DeFi locker contracts.

Memecoin launch platform DxSale was drained of $7.3 million in funds in a cyberattack that affected around 1,400 liquidity providers (LPs) on the BNB Chain. 

The attacker's address "0xC457" transferred $1.87 million worth of BNB (BNB) tokens into two main wallets and subsequently deposited them into multiple Binance deposit addresses, according to blockchain data platform PeckShield in a Friday X post.

Back in 2021, DxSale was used to lock in liquidity for tokens launched on the BNB Chain. Blockchain analyst Tahax estimated that the locker still holds liquidity from projects launched years ago and explained that the exploiter wallet was freshly created and funded through crypto exchange Bybit.

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OKX Ventures and KIS to invest $53 million each for a 19.6% stake in Coinone, deepening ties between traditional finance and crypto in South Korea’s tightly regulated market.

South Korean crypto exchange Coinone said Korea Investment & Securities (KIS) and OKX Ventures agreed to invest a combined 160 billion won ($106 million) for a 19.6% stake in the platform.

The investment, which remains subject to regulatory approval, would make KIS and OKX Ventures joint third-largest shareholders in Coinone behind CEO Myung-Hun Cha and existing backer Com2uS Holdings, according to a release shared with Cointelegraph. 

The transaction combines secondary share purchases from existing holders with newly issued shares, while Cha is expected to remain Coinone’s largest shareholder and retain management control.

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Paxos says its approval as a blockchain-focused clearing agency represents a “critical piece of financial market infrastructure” as Wall Street becomes more interested in crypto.

Blockchain infrastructure platform and stablecoin issuer Paxos said it has become the first “blockchain-native” firm that the US Securities and Exchange Commission has granted registration as a clearing agency.

Paxos said on Thursday that its subsidiary, Paxos Securities Settlement Company, has become “the only blockchain-native firm” that the SEC approved to provide clearing and settlement services as a central securities depository in the US.

The approval represents a “critical piece of financial market infrastructure” as blockchain technology and traditional capital markets continue to converge, the company added. 

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CryptoQuant says that the holding structure for large Bitcoin holders is deteriorating, a trend that has historically preceded “sustained price weakness.”

An increasing number of Bitcoin holders are seeing their investments turn red as the holding structure continues to deteriorate across major cohorts, according to CryptoQuant. 

Annual balance growth for whale accounts holding between 1,000 and 10,000 Bitcoin (BTC) has turned negative in the fastest contraction this year, CryptoQuant said in a report on Thursday.

Monthly growth has been flat since February, suggesting a shift from accumulation to mild distribution mirroring the 2022 bear market, it added.

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The Sui mainnet has resumed after a bug in a network update took it offline for 5 hours and 55 minutes.

Sui Network is back online after a nearly six-hour outage on Thursday, which it attributed to a bug introduced by an update, marking the layer-1 blockchain’s second period of downtime in 2026.

Sui posted to X on Thursday that activity on its mainnet had resumed after “a halt due to a crash bug in the gas charging logic introduced by the 1.72 release. A full incident review will be shared in the coming days.”

Sui had earlier shared that the blockchain was “experiencing a network stall” and said that transactions could be paused until a fix is rolled out. 

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Bears hold the upper hand for Friday's $9 billion options expiry, keeping Bitcoin under pressure amid heavy ETF outflows and corporate selling

Key takeaways:

Bitcoin (BTC) retested the $72,500 level for the first time in six weeks on Thursday, triggering $342 million in liquidations for bullish leveraged positions. Despite a subsequent relief bounce to $73,500, traders are worried that bears will keep control due to the upcoming $9 billion monthly options expiry.

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Investors selling across spot, futures and ETF markets pushed Bitcoin into its monthly range lows near $72,000 but data shows retail investors buying the dip and opening longs.

When Bitcoin (BTC) finally escaped from its channel pattern and secured a multiple-day close above the $77,000 resistance, traders rejoiced and declared the downtrend over. 

Fast-forward to the present and BTC has fallen below multiple support levels and appears at risk of retesting $70,000, a 16% decline from its range highs. 

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Gemini is leaning into AI features for its prediction market, following other crypto exchanges in moving beyond crypto trading amid a market slump.

Crypto exchange Gemini has partnered with Elon Musk’s SpaceXAI to launch an artificial intelligence-powered feature for its prediction markets platform that will allow users to curate personalized feeds.

Gemini said on Thursday that its “Command Center” offering would show markets based on users’ open positions and watchlists, and can track crypto, sports, commodities, politics, economics and culture.

“Rather than forcing you to dig through social feeds to find what's relevant, Command Center meets you where you are,” Gemini said. “It learns from your open positions, watchlists, and prediction history to surface the intelligence most likely to inform your next move.”

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Bulls abandon ship as SOL futures open interest dropped 30% in May. With the price weakening near $80, Solana may be destined for new lows.

Solana (SOL) futures dropped sharply in May as traders reduced leveraged exposure across all exchanges. SOL open interest (OI) dropped to $1.90 billion on Thursday from $2.75 billion on May 11, a 30% decline, while funding rates remained close to neutral. The combination points to weakening investor sentiment as SOL eyes a retest of its yearly low at $68. 

The aggregated funding rate for Solana futures held near -0.005, showing balanced positioning between longs and shorts. SOL traders have not built aggressive directional bets despite the recent price slide to $80.

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The investment firm said nation-states and central banks are increasingly turning to assets like Bitcoin and gold as alternative settlement systems outside of US control.

Recent moves by the Iranian government to Bitcoin for oil tolls as gold overtakes US dollar assets in global central bank reserves signals a “shift away from dollar-based systems,” according to Fidelity Digital Assets.

Tehran's acceptance of BTC for oil shipments passing through the Strait of Hormuz represents the emergence of “alternative settlement mechanisms,” according to the company’s just-released "Six Key Trends Shaping Digital Assets in 2026" report. 

Accepting Bitcoin for shipping toll payments is evidence that the biggest cryptocurrency could replace the US dollar as the global reserve currency because of its neutral, confiscation-resistant and decentralized properties, supporters of BTC say.

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Kalshi sued Minnesota while the CFTC filed against Rhode Island as legal wrangling with state-level authorities seems likely headed to the US Supreme Court.

The US Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) and companies behind prediction market platforms are continuing legal fights against state-level authorities, with the latest battlegrounds centered in Rhode Island and Minnesota.

Last week, Minnesota Governor Tim Walz signed a bill into law amending statutes to prohibit advertising, creating, operating or otherwise facilitating prediction market platforms. The move prompted CFTC Chair Michael Selig to file in federal court less than 24 hours later, alleging Minnesota and its officials had enacted the “first outright ban” on prediction markets.

Source: PACER

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The purchase pushed the Nasdaq-listed company ahead of Coinbase Global to become the fourth-largest public corporate holder of Ether, according to CoinGecko data.

Bit Digital purchased $20 million worth of Ether earlier this month, increasing its holdings to roughly 158,462 ETH.

The Nasdaq-listed company said Thursday it acquired 8,568 ETH (ETH) on May 11 at an average price of $2,334.25 per token.

CEO Sam Tabar said the purchase reduced Bit Digital’s average ETH acquisition cost and was part of the company’s strategy to grow net asset value per share through Ethereum accumulation, AI infrastructure and acquisitions.

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The leader of the regulator's Crypto Task Force said privacy-enhancing technologies can strengthen investor protection and urged regulators not to treat them with suspicion.

US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) Commissioner Hester Peirce said financial privacy is becoming increasingly undervalued in US regulation, warning against treating privacy-preserving technologies with suspicion.

Speaking Wednesday at Georgetown Law, Peirce described privacy-enhancing technologies, including cryptographic tools, as legitimate components of modern financial infrastructure rather than tools primarily associated with criminal activity.

Peirce said that protecting financial privacy does not conflict with national security objectives.

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Bitcoin’s slide toward $73,000 triggered active distribution signals, but lowered realized losses and weak spot volumes point to easing sell pressure.

Bitcoin's drop below $73,000 on Wednesday marks a short-term turning point for the market, as multiple BTC distribution signals point toward rising sell-side pressure. 

While the increasing chance of a correction into the $60,000 to $70,000 range remains in play, long-term holder data points to improving investor sentiment, suggesting that traders view the current price as a buying opportunity.

Crypto analyst CryptoOnChain noted that Bitcoin’s drop to $72,500 followed a period of weakening spot demand and unsustainable long positioning in derivatives markets. The Coinbase premium index posted a -1,083% deviation from its three-month average, one of the deepest discounts recorded since 2025.

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Bitcoin’s slide toward $73,000 triggered active distribution signals, but lowered realized losses and weak spot volumes point to easing sell pressure.

Bitcoin's drop below $73,000 on Wednesday marks a short-term turning point for the market, as multiple BTC distribution signals point toward rising sell-side pressure. 

While the increasing chance of a correction into the $60,000 to $70,000 range remains in play, long-term holder data points to improving investor sentiment, suggesting that traders view the current price as a buying opportunity.

Crypto analyst CryptoOnChain noted that Bitcoin’s drop to $72,500 followed a period of weakening spot demand and unsustainable long positioning in derivatives markets. The Coinbase premium index posted a -1,083% deviation from its three-month average, one of the deepest discounts recorded since 2025.

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The future of a digital asset market structure bill in Congress is still uncertain amid concerns over ethics provisions, with the president, whose crypto ties are under scrutiny, weighing in on social media.

US President Donald Trump said Wednesday that he intended to codify a “future-proof digital asset market structure,” likely referring to the Digital Asset Market Clarity Act (CLARITY) under consideration in the US Senate.

In a post to his Truth Social platform for the second time this week on policy claims potentially affecting the cryptocurrency industry, Trump said the law would prevent “crypto haters” in future administrations from rolling back regulations affecting digital assets.

Source: Donald Trump

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The European Union's Markets in Crypto Assets regulations first took effect in 2024, but gave crypto service providers time to fully comply with the framework.

The French Financial Markets Authority (AMF) warned that crypto companies operating in the country without a license have until June 30 to acquire the permits or exit the country.

AMF President Marie-Anne Barbat-Layani told a press event on Thursday that crypto companies that fail to obtain a license by the deadline must have "orderly wind-down ⁠plans" to offload customers and end their operations, according to Reuters.

Under the European Union’s Markets in Crypto Assets (MiCA) regulatory framework, crypto service providers are required to have licenses to operate, but can acquire a license in any of the 27 EU member states and “passport” the license to any of the other member nations.

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The feature lets users earn stablecoin yield directly through Trezor Suite without connecting external wallets or using separate DeFi apps.

Trezor has integrated native stablecoin yield functionality into Trezor Suite, the hardware wallet provider’s desktop and mobile application, in a move that could make earning yield on stablecoins more accessible to users who have traditionally avoided decentralized finance due to its complexity and security risks.

Announced on Thursday, the feature comes through an integration with Morpho, a decentralized lending protocol built on Ethereum. The integration allows users to deposit USDt (USDT) and USDC (USDC) into pre-selected Morpho vaults directly through Trezor Suite without connecting external wallets or using separate DeFi applications.

According to Trezor, deposits, withdrawals and reward claims are signed directly on users’ hardware wallets through the company’s clear-signing interface, which displays transaction details in human-readable form on the device screen.

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In the year since Sequans Communications announced that it would adopt a digital asset treasury strategy, the price of Bitcoin fell by more than 30%.

The France-based semiconductor company that announced a move into crypto is “no longer pursuing” a treasury strategy after less than a year.

In a Thursday notice, Sequans Communications said it held 658 Bitcoin (BTC) worth about $48 million at the time of publication, which it said was “fully unencumbered” and unrestricted as it looks to refocus solely on Internet of Things (IoT) semiconductor growth.

The company's NYSE-traded shares, which have shed more than 75% since last June, were up more than 14.5% in morning trading following the announcement.

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P2P.org, a blockchain infrastructure provider operating validators across 40+ proof-of-stake networks since 2018, today launched Syncro Data Stream, a real-time blockchain data stream for Sui and Hyperliquid.

May 28, 2026 - P2P.org, a blockchain infrastructure provider operating validators across 40+ proof-of-stake networks since 2018, today launched Syncro Data Stream, a real-time blockchain data stream for Sui and Hyperliquid. The product delivers on-chain transaction and order flow data directly from P2P.org's active validator nodes, at the point of origin rather than through public endpoints, checkpoints, or shared RPC infrastructure. The data stream for Sui and Hyperliquid is available now at $2,000 per month each, with a one-week free trial for new clients.

Syncro Data Stream is part of Syncro, P2P.org's crypto trading infrastructure product line. Syncro launched earlier this year with Syncro Sender, a Solana transaction landing service already in production with leading trading teams. Syncro Data Stream for Sui and Syncro Data Stream for Hyperliquid are the second and third products in the line.

For trading teams and market makers operating on Sui and Hyperliquid, on-chain data latency directly affects trading performance. Public APIs and shared RPC endpoints deliver transaction data only after it has propagated through the network. On chains with sub-second finality, that gap is the window in which opportunities open and close, quotes go stale, and positions shift.

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Argentina’s proposed online gambling bill would restrict banks, payment firms and crypto providers from serving unauthorized betting platforms.

Argentina’s government is moving to restrict banks, payment firms and crypto providers from serving unauthorized online gambling platforms as part of a broader crackdown on digital betting.

The government presented a Bill for the Prevention of Gambling and Regulation of Online Gambling to Congress, according to an official notice from the Ministry of Health published on Tuesday.

The bill seeks to address gambling addiction by tightening rules on payments, advertising and access to betting platforms.

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RWA standard ERC-7943 reaches final stage as Ethereum builders rethink how institutional finance move onchain.

For years, crypto has thrived on speculative capital flows and the explosive popularity of decentralized finance (DeFi) tokens and applications.

That still holds true for rising sectors such as perpetual decentralized exchanges and prediction markets. But as Wall Street pushes deeper into tokenized real-world assets (RWAs), not all of the industry’s existing systems cater to the kinds of financial products institutions want to bring onchain.

An author of the newly finalized ERC-7943 (uRWA) token standard said that the fragmented infrastructure powering much of DeFi wasn’t designed for regulated financial assets, which often require identity frameworks and interoperability standards.

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Standard Chartered reaffirms bullish Ether price targets, citing strong network fundamentals even as ETH trades 57% below its 2025 peak and fund flows turn negative.

Standard Chartered says Ethereum’s network activity remains close to record levels even as Ether (ETH) trades far below last year’s highs, arguing that the gap between usage and price could eventually narrow.

Ethereum’s internal metrics, including transaction counts and total value locked in ETH terms, remain close to record levels, according to a Thursday report from Standard Chartered’s digital assets research team. ETH has fallen about 57% from its August 2025 peak of above $4,800 to under $2,000 at the time of writing, according to Coingecko data.

StanChart's global head of digital assets research, Geoff Kendrick, reaffirmed its price targets of $4,000 by the end of 2026 and $40,000 by 2030, implying a return of the ETH/BTC ratio to its 2021 highs around 0.08.

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Bitcoin approached the final week of CME futures gaps with several still open, providing potential BTC price targets as low as $67,000.

Bitcoin (BTC) has created its last classic price magnet as a staple chart feature disappears forever.

Key points:

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Bitcoin approached the final week of CME futures gaps with several still open, providing potential BTC price targets as low as $67,000.

Bitcoin (BTC) has created its last classic price magnet as a staple chart feature disappears forever.

Key points:

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XRP breaks key support at $1.30 as bearish technical setups and weak investor sentiment point to a deeper correction toward $0.63.

XRP (XRP) price dropped to $1.26 on Thursday, its lowest in over 16 weeks. A bearish technical setup suggested that the pressure may extend into June.

XRP/USD daily chart. Source: Cointelegraph/TradingView

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Aave Labs’ Push received FCA approval for “certain cryptoasset activities” in the UK, supporting its plans for regulated stablecoin on- and off-ramping.

Aave Labs' UK subsidiaries, Push Labs Ltd. and Push Virtual Assets Ltd., known together as Push, received Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) cryptoasset registration as cryptoasset exchange providers under the UK’s current Anti-Money Laundering regime.

The registration was obtained for “certain cryptoasset activities” and supports the decentralized finance (DeFi) company's plans to build regulated stablecoin on- and off-ramping infrastructure in the country, Aave said Thursday.

Aave Labs’ Push describes itself as a “simple way to move between Euros and stablecoins,” according to its homepage. The FCA’s online registry shows that the London-headquartered firm has been registered with the regulator since May 12.

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Samsung Securities, SDS and Card will buy 4% of Dunamu as Korean firms prepare for tokenized securities and stablecoin frameworks.

Samsung Securities, Samsung SDS and Samsung Card will acquire a combined 4% stake in Dunamu, the operator of South Korean crypto exchange Upbit, in a deal that expands Samsung affiliates’ exposure to the country’s digital asset market, local media reported.

The three Samsung affiliates held board meetings on Thursday and approved the purchase of 1.39 million Dunamu shares held by Kakao affiliates for 612.8 billion won ($408 million), according to local reports from Yonhap News Agency and ZDNet Korea. Samsung Securities will acquire a 2% stake, while Samsung SDS and Samsung Card will each acquire 1%. 

The investment extends Samsung’s digital asset push weeks after Samsung SDS reportedly won a contract to build South Korea’s blockchain-based securities platform, placing Samsung affiliates across both regulated tokenized securities infrastructure and private-sector crypto exchange and payment rails. 

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ETH's price has entered a decisive breakdown stage of its prevailing technical pattern, indicating further declines toward $1,750 despite strong retail sentiment.

Ethereum's native token, Ether (ETH), slipped below $2,000 for the first time since March, but retail traders have not reacted with panic yet.

Key takeaways:

As of Thursday, "buy the dip" calls on social media were surging after ETH lost the key psychological support level, according to data resource Santiment.

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US spot Bitcoin ETFs have turned negative year-to-date with $596 million in outflows as IBIT posted near-record withdrawals and Bitcoin fell below $75,000.

BlackRock’s spot Bitcoin exchange-traded fund (ETF) posted its second-largest daily outflow on record as US Bitcoin funds extended an eight-day redemption streak during a sharp pullback in the cryptocurrency to below $75,000.

BlackRock’s iShares Bitcoin Trust (IBIT) saw $527.8 million in net outflows on Wednesday, helping push total withdrawals from US spot Bitcoin ETFs to $733.4 million for the day, according to data from Farside Investors.

The outflows marked IBIT’s second-largest daily loss since launch, slightly below the fund’s record $528.3 million outflow on Jan. 30, 2026.

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An unknown entity burned $8.5 million worth of Bitcoin after 12 years of holding, rendering the BTC unspendable, despite its price increasing by 12,700%.

An unknown entity burned 107 Bitcoin, worth about $8.5 million at the time, effectively removing them from spendable circulation and sparking numerous theories after holding the funds for over 12 years.

On Monday, five Bitcoin (BTC) addresses sent a total of 107 BTC to the old burn address starting "11111," rendering them provably unspendable, according to onchain data shared by Galaxy Research in a Wednesday X post.

The transfer brought the total amount of Bitcoin sent to the burn address to 807 BTC, worth about $59 million at press time, according to blockchain data platform Arkham. 

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Polymarket executive Josh Stevens said identity checks apply only to early beta access and are not being added to Polymarket’s existing platform.

Polymarket’s vice president of engineering, Josh Stevens, clarified that the prediction market platform is not adding mandatory Know Your Customer (KYC) checks to its existing service, after a report said the company had considered user verification requirements.

Stevens said in an X response that Polymarket is launching a new beta product for a select group of users and that KYC is required only to access the beta during its early test period. “No KYC is being added to any part of existing polymarket.com with this launch,” Stevens wrote. He said that once the product is out of beta, no KYC will be required to use it. 

He later addressed questions about whether KYC could be added later, saying “no” and clarifying that he was “just highlighting” that identity checks are tied to early access for a new beta product rather than a broader move away from pseudonymous trading on Polymarket’s main prediction market.

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The Bank for International Settlements' collaboration with seven central banks and more than 40 institutions concludes a two-year project with a prototype settling wholesale payments in seconds.

The Bank for International Settlements (BIS) released a report Wednesday on Project Agorá, an experimental prototype for cross-border wholesale payment.

The BIS said the report shows how seven central banks and more than 40 regulated financial institutions can settle cross-border wholesale payments in seconds once liquidity is locked, while reducing credit and settlement risk through atomic settlement using tokenized central bank reserves and commercial bank deposits.

The initiative marks one of the broadest collaborations yet between central banks and private lenders, exploring how tokenization could modernize global payments infrastructure.

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Over $935 million was wiped out across the crypto market as traders shifted their focus to $70,000 as the last line of defense for Bitcoin.

Bitcoin (BTC) sold off into the early Asian trading session on Thursday as the drop to $72,600 produced significant liquidation of leveraged positions across the crypto market.

Key takeaways:

The BTC/USD pair fell as low as $72,620 on Thursday, reversing all gains made since April 13 after the US reportedly carried out a new wave of military strikes on Iran. 

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Around 47% of crypto organizations onboarded in 2026 are operating at alerting standards that would have ranked among the industry’s strictest five years ago.

Nearly half of the organizations onboarded into the crypto industry in 2026 are operating at alerting standards that would have made them industry leaders only a few years ago, according to Chainalysis.

In a preview of a report published on Wednesday, Chainalysis said that the crypto industry’s compliance baseline around alert severity, trigger sensitivity and minimum dollar detection floors is tightening, with about 47% of organizations onboarded this year using alerting standards that would have placed them in the top 10% of strictness in 2020.

It added that companies have become more uniform in direct monitoring, where funds arrive immediately from a known illicit source, but there is still a gap with indirect monitoring, where the funds pass through intermediary addresses.

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The physically backed fund gives US investors exchange-traded exposure to the Binance-linked cryptocurrency through traditional brokerage accounts.

VanEck launched the first US spot BNB exchange-traded fund on Thursday, giving investors regulated exposure to the Binance-linked cryptocurrency through traditional brokerage accounts.

The ETF, trading under the ticker VBNB, is physically backed by BNB (BNB) held in cold storage with a qualified custodian, according to the announcement. BNB is the native token of BNB Chain and is used to pay transaction fees across the network.

According to VanEck, the fund is designed to track the spot price of BNB and may later incorporate staking if the issuer determines it can do so without regulatory or legal complications.

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The crypto market capitalization has fallen to its lowest level since mid-April after the US carried out strikes on Iran for the second time in three days amid peace talks.

Cryptocurrency markets have shed around $80 billion in value over the past 24 hours, with losses accelerating after the US reportedly carried out a new wave of military strikes on Iran.

The US ​military carried out new strikes late on Wednesday targeting ‌an Iranian military site and shooting down four Iranian attack drones, which a ​US official told Reuters posed a threat around the Strait of Hormuz.

“These actions were measured, ‌purely ⁠defensive, and intended to maintain the ceasefire,” the official said. Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps reportedly released a statement saying that it has retaliated by attacking a US airbase in Kuwait.

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The CFTC claimed that its settled complaint filed under the Biden administration relied heavily on a whistleblower’s allegations that Gemini inflated trading activity to distort user demand.

The US Commodity Futures Trading Commission has asked a federal court to vacate its $5 million settlement with crypto exchange Gemini, claiming that the agency’s enforcement action was based on flawed allegations.

Gemini settled with the CFTC and paid a $5 million fine in January 2025 in the final weeks of the Biden administration after the agency accused it of making false or misleading statements related to a Bitcoin futures contract.

The CFTC filed a joint motion with Gemini in a Manhattan court on Wednesday seeking to vacate the settlement, adding in a statement that it had reviewed the matter and concluded that the “complaint should not have been filed — and would not have been under current enforcement standards.”

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Bitcoin dropped closer to a critical support level as spot and long futures traders’ efforts to hold $75,000 failed. Is sub-$70,000 BTC next?

Bitcoin’s (BTC) rising funding rate and aggregated open interest suggest bullish investors are opening longs in an attempt to defend the range lows and an important support at $70,000, but another day of spot ETF outflows has investors concerned that the institutional stance on BTC is shifting.

As shown in the chart below, Bitcoin open interest remains relatively stable despite the day-over-day selling, further re-enforcing the view that long positions are either topping up to stay open or newly created. The cross-exchange funding rates (the last indicator at the bottom of the chart) are also mostly positive to neutral, indicating a long-leaning bias among investors. 

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The Justice Department and the CFTC allege that Google software engineer Michele Spagnuolo profited $1.2 million on Polymarket after accessing non-public information at work.

US authorities have charged a Google employee with allegedly using information from the company to make bets on Polymarket and profit $1.2 million.

The Justice Department said on Wednesday that it unsealed charges against Google software engineer Michele Spagnuolo, accusing him of accessing unreleased internal information at Google and placing 25 bets worth $2.7 million on markets related to the most searched individuals on Google in 2025.

Prosecutors said Spagnuolo owned the Polymarket account “AlphaRaccoon”, which profited $1.2 million on “outcomes that the market treated as unlikely” when Google published information on the most searched individuals in December.

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Within the first 10 hours of launch, the Kraken Earn BTC Vault raked in $30 million worth of Bitcoin deposits from 4,000 unique wallets.

Crypto exchange Kraken launched a non-custodial Bitcoin product offering a 2.5% yearly yield, adding to the company’s yield product offerings amid increasing investor demand for crypto rewards.

Kraken unveiled the product on Wednesday with the support of crypto yield infrastructure provider Veda, which said the offering seeks to remove “the headaches that come with wrapping Bitcoin, moving assets, or managing a crypto wallet.”

Kraken’s offering comes as Bitcoin (BTC) holders' demand for yield products has risen, but have seen limited development as the Bitcoin blockchain does not have mechanisms for users to generate yield compared to blockchains such as Ethereum and Solana.

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Bitcoin’s underperformance of stocks deepened as BTC miners pivoted to AI and pro-crypto regulation in the United States stalled.

Key takeaways:

Bitcoin’s (BTC) rejection at $78,000 on Thursday marked a decoupling from traditional markets after two months of strong correlation. Wednesday’s decline below $75,000 happened while the tech-heavy Nasdaq 100 Index jumped to an all-time high.

The factors behind Bitcoin’s underperformance are unlikely to fade in the near term, reducing the odds of a bullish breakout above $82,000.

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Payment volume on crypto-linked credit and debit cards has been steadily increasing since 2024, reaching about $7.8 billion in cumulative transactions this month.

Monthly payment volume on crypto-linked debit and credit cards is up about 230% over last year, amid a proliferation of crypto-related payment products.

Cumulative volume on crypto-linked payment cards reached $7.8 billion this month, according to The Kobeissi Letter, a market research publication.

Payments giant Visa is capturing about 90% of crypto card transactions through partnerships with onchain native companies like Jupiter Global, analysts at The Kobeissi Letter said.

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Weakening spot demand, miner inflows to exchanges and freshly opened shorts put downside pressure on Bitcoin price.

Bitcoin (BTC) miner inflows to Binance crossed 20,000 BTC for only the second time this year, placing fresh pressure on Bitcoin’s daily uptrend near the $75,000 support zone. Will BTC defend its higher-timeframe bullish structure, or is the market on the verge of a broader bearish trend shift? 

Crypto analyst Amr Taha said miners transferred roughly 21,000 BTC to Binance on May 18, close to the 23,150 BTC sent on Feb. 5. Large miner deposits are often tied to potential selling activity as miners move BTC to exchanges to cover operating costs.

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The predictions market operator reportedly explored mandatory user verification requirements, breaking from its policies of allowing traders to access its services using pseudonyms.

[Clarification (May 28 at 2:15 pm UTC): Polymarket’s vice president of engineering said the claims in the report were “false,” adding that the KYC requirements applied to a “new beta product” for a “select group of users.”]

Prediction markets platform Polymarket is reportedly considering measures to verify users in response to pressure from global authorities over sanctions violations and other areas of legal risk to the company.

According to a Wednesday report by The Information, Polymarket has considered mandatory user verification requirements more in line with Know Your Customer (KYC) standards. The move comes as multiple countries have blocked or restricted access to the predictions market platform over concerns about illegal gambling.

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Accredited investors can buy and sell the gold-backed GLDY token through permissioned liquidity pools operating on the Solana blockchain.

Tokenized commodities platform Streamex said it is launching a Solana-based marketplace for trading tokenized assets in partnership with Orca, a decentralized exchange built on Solana.

According to a Tuesday announcement, the trading infrastructure will allow verified accredited investors to buy and sell Streamex’s yield-bearing, gold-backed GLDY token through regulated onchain trading pools operating around the clock.

The system uses identity and compliance checks tied to Streamex’s KYC and accreditation process to restrict trading access to approved investors while enabling secondary market liquidity for regulated digital assets.

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While crypto-backed candidates won runoffs in Texas on Tuesday, industry PACs have less of a stake in California races next week.

After six Republican and Democratic candidates supported by cryptocurrency-backed interest groups won primaries for US House of Representatives and Senate seats in Texas, one of the biggest political action committees (PACs) said it would “aggressively back leaders” supporting crypto policies in the future.

On Tuesday, candidates notched six wins for congressional runoff primaries in Texas, supported by media spending and endorsements by the crypto industry-affiliates Fairshake, Defend American Jobs, Protect Progress, Blockchain Leadership Fund and Fellowship PACs.

Democrat Christian Menefee primaried incumbent Al Green for Texas’ 18th congressional district and Republican state Attorney General Ken Paxton won against incumbent Senator John Cornyn with more than 63% of the vote. Four other Republican candidates — Tom Sell, Alex Mealer, Jon Bonck and Carlos De La Cruz — also won in smaller districts after being the beneficiaries of thousands of dollars in media spending by Defend American Jobs.

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The company owns 5,058 Bitcoin, ranking it as the 20th largest publicly traded BTC treasury company, according to data from Bitcoin Treasuries.

Nakamoto (NAKA) is trading down more than 10% on Wednesday just days after the Bitcoin treasury company completed a 1-for-40 reverse stock split undertaken to stay compliant with the Nasdaq stock exchange’s listing criteria. 

NAKA stock is down by about 67% year-to-date (YTD) and by more than 99% since its May 2025 peak of about $34 per share, reaching a low of about $0.16 per share in April before the reverse stock split on Friday.

Nasdaq warned the company in December that its shares would be delisted after trading below $1 for at least 30 consecutive days, according to a Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) filing.

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Ether futures positioning tightened near $2,000 as rising open interest and dense short liquidity increased focus on a possible squeeze above $2,150.

Ether (ETH) remains under pressure after failing to reclaim the $2,150 resistance level. Despite the decline, ETH's aggregate open interest has increased by roughly 350,000 ETH, suggesting new short positions are entering the market.

With more than $1.5 billion in bearish positions clustered above $2,150, a successful defense of the $2,000 support zone could trigger a sharp short squeeze and a relief rally for ETH. 

ETH has failed to reclaim $2,150 after dropping below it on May 17. The resistance capped the price from February to April, limiting a strong breakout. 

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Bitcoin briefly lost the $75,000 level after net flows into spot BTC ETFs turned negative. Do technical charts point to a BTC and altcoin recovery?

Key points:

Bitcoin (BTC) fell below $75,000 on Wednesday, indicating that the bears are slowly taking charge of the crypto market. Institutional investors seem to be on a selling spree, with BTC exchange-traded funds recording net outflows of $1.88 billion since May 15, per Farside Investors' data. Glassnode said in a post on X that persistent net outflows from BTC ETFs on nearly every trading day since May 7 add “to the supply side without a visible demand offset.”

BTC’s weakness has sent it tumbling below its long-term valuation average, according to Bitwise. The asset management firm said in a recent report that in the past, only 36% of BTC’s market-value-to-realized-value (MVRV) readings were lower than the current level of 1.42. In comparison, roughly 99% of historical Nasdaq-100 price-to-book ratios were below their present levels, signaling the widest valuation gap on record between BTC and US tech stocks.

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The payments giant can now legally conduct digital asset business activity in New York as it deepens its focus on blockchain-based settlement systems.

Mastercard’s US transaction services unit has received a BitLicense from the New York State Department of Financial Services (NYDFS), allowing the payments giant to conduct regulated digital asset business activity in the state.

The company announced the license approval on Wednesday, but did not unveil any new consumer-facing crypto products. Instead, Mastercard said it plans to continue developing payment and settlement infrastructure tied to digital assets, focusing specifically on stablecoins and tokenized deposits.

New York’s BitLicense is widely regarded as one of the strictest state-level crypto regulatory frameworks in the United States. Companies offering certain crypto-related financial services to New York residents are generally required to obtain the license.

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XBIT DEX takes the lead in introducing leverage to on-chain prediction markets, prioritizing the 2026 FIFA World Cup for its initial category. The whitelist application is now live.

XBIT DEX takes the lead in introducing leverage to on-chain prediction markets, prioritizing the 2026 FIFA World Cup for its initial category. The whitelist application is now live.

May 27, 2026 - On-chain prediction markets are undergoing explosive growth. In March 2026, monthly trading volume surpassed $25 billion, a more than 20-fold increase compared to the same period last year. Polymarket has become the official prediction market partner for X, and Coinbase has launched prediction contracts across all 50 US states. However, while users and capital are flooding in, product architecture has yet to keep pace.

Currently, mainstream prediction market platforms still predominantly rely on a spot logic of full-amount purchasing and waiting for settlement. Users lack tools to add positions, hedge, or flexibly adjust risk exposure through leverage. The crypto market went through a similar phase until the emergence of perpetual contracts in 2016, which led to derivatives trading volume completely overtaking spot volume in less than four years.

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Bitcoin disappointed bulls by dropping below $75,000 on Iran peace deal reports while US stocks hit new all-time highs and oil saw one-month lows on Hormuz hopes.

Bitcoin (BTC) fell back below $75,000 at Wednesday’s Wall Street open as relief over a US-Iran peace deal bypassed crypto.

Key points:

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BTC Prague, Europe’s premier Bitcoin conference, returns to the PVA Expo Prague on June 11-13, 2026.

Prague, Czech Republic, May 18, 2026 - BTC Prague, Europe’s premier Bitcoin conference, returns to the PVA Expo Prague on June 11-13, 2026. Entering its fourth edition, BTC Prague welcomes 8,500 attendees, uniting entrepreneurs, developers, investors, educators, and newcomers in the industry. This year, BTC Prague adds its new Bitcoin Living Masterclass track, a dedicated stage for talks on health, biohacking, financial sovereignty, AI, parenting, and more, from renowned experts in their fields on top of its best-in-class Bitcoin program.

Without abandoning its Bitcoin-only philosophy, BTC Prague now broadens its appeal, including a wider range of topics very much in vogue among the Bitcoin community. The result is a three-day program of keynotes, panels, debates, and networking across four different stages surrounded by Europe’s largest Bitcoin expo.

BTC Prague is a meeting point for those building Bitcoin’s future. More than a conference, it’s a festival for everyone. From the newly curious to die-hard advocates, the event’s setup is meant to unite the vastly different ideological, technical, and business enclaves that exist in Bitcoin. A BTC Prague ticket ensures people can interact with experiences and content made for and by the Bitcoin community.

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PeckShield said the attacker bridged 43.7 ETH to Ethereum after minting trillions of vsdCRV, while EmberCN said most of the remaining tokens had insufficient liquidity to sell.

An attacker minted more than 5.4 trillion vsdCRV on Arbitrum after a suspected compromise of a StakeDAO-linked deployer key, though thin liquidity limited the realized proceeds to about $91,000.

Blockchain security firm PeckShield said Wednesday the attacker swapped part of the minted vsdCRV for 43.7 Ether (ETH), worth about $91,000, and bridged the funds to Ethereum. Onchain analyst EmberCN said the attacker swapped about 16.83 million vsdCRV, while the remaining tokens had little meaningful liquidity to exit.

EmberCN estimated the 5.4 trillion vsdCRV at about $763 billion on paper, though the figure does not represent the attacker’s realized profit or the protocol’s confirmed loss.

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UK sanctions Huobi Global S.A., operator of HTX, over alleged role in Russia’s “A7” shadow network, as new analysis claims the exchange handled billions in high‑risk flows.

Update (May 27, 2026, 5 pm UTC): This article has been updated to include comments from Global Ledger head of investigations Vladyslav Syrotin.

Update (May 28, 2026, 9 am UTC): This article has been updated to include comments from a spokesperson for HTX.

Sanctioned crypto exchange HTX is pushing back against the United Kingdom’s decision to blacklist Huobi Global S.A., the Panamanian company behind the platform, over allegations it helped Russia move money through a shadow “A7” network.

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The bank plans to launch digital asset custody, transfer and receipt services in 2026 for selected customer categories.

Italian bank Banca Sella announced that it has completed its notification process with the Bank of Italy under the European Union’s Markets in Crypto-Assets (MiCA) regulation, allowing it to offer crypto-asset services.

On Wednesday, the bank said it is the first bank in Italy authorized to offer crypto-asset services, adding that the approval will allow it to launch a solution focused on the custody, transfer and receipt of digital assets in 2026, aimed at “selected categories” of customers.

Banca Sella is the commercial bank of Sella Group. According to Sella Group, it has almost 300 branches and more than 2,400 employees.

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Bitcoin’s price stayed firm despite a massive $1.3 billion block sale executed by a mysterious BlackRock ETF holder, which analysts called a sign of large-scale institutional de-risking.

A roughly $1.3 billion block trade in BlackRock’s iShares Bitcoin Trust (IBIT) tested liquidity in the largest spot Bitcoin exchange-traded fund (ETF) as Bitcoin products faced a fresh stretch of outflows.

Bloomberg’s ETF analyst, Eric Balchunas, confirmed the transaction, adding that the market “absorbed it well” as IBIT’s price remained largely unchanged, he wrote in a Tuesday X post.

Bitcoin's (BTC) price fell 2% during the past 24 hours, but managed to remain above the $75,600 level at the time of writing, despite the significant block sale from the mysterious ETF holder, data from TradingView shows.

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Bitcoin is on track to end May in the red, a historically bearish signal that could point to deeper losses ahead if the post-May track record is any guide.

Bitcoin (BTC) may be flashing a “sell in May and go away” warning, with the price down roughly 10% after rejecting resistance near $83,000 and now on track for a negative monthly close.

BTC/USD daily price chart. Source: TradingView

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Aeternum, organisers of the Unchained Summit series, will host the second edition of Unchained Summit Vietnam this week on May 28 and 29 at the Furama Resort in Da Nang.

Da Nang, Vietnam, May 27, 2026 - Aeternum, organisers of the Unchained Summit series, will host the second edition of Unchained Summit Vietnam this week on May 28 and 29 at the Furama Resort in Da Nang. The event is co-hosted by the Da Nang Innovation Start Support Center (DISSC), with institutional participation from the Da Nang People’s Committee, the State Securities Commission of Vietnam, and the Da Nang Department of Science and Technology.

The summit brings together founders, investors, exchanges, infrastructure providers, enterprise leaders, and policymakers from across the Asia-Pacific region and beyond. Its second edition arrives as Vietnam’s digital asset sector moves from early-stage experimentation to active policy development; a shift reflected in the depth of government engagement the event has attracted.

Day 1 opens with remarks from Mr. Nguyen Viet Toan, Director of the Da Nang Innovation Startup Support Center, setting the stage for two days of discussions around digital assets, blockchain infrastructure, and emerging technologies in Vietnam. The programme then moves into a keynote from Mr. To Tran Hoa of the State Securities Commission of Vietnam on the country’s regulatory direction for digital assets. David Rogers, CEO Asia-Pacific at B2C2, examines what recent market events mean for the region, and a fireside chat with Hoang Viet Anh, CEO of LPBank Securities, and Mr. Vo Duc Anh, Deputy Director of the Da Nang Innovation Startup Support Center, covers Vietnam’s Digital Asset Future. The afternoon moves through institutional digital asset markets with Tether, Anchorage Digital, and BNY Investments.

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China’s Supreme People’s Court plans to study adjudication rules for crypto and AI cases while the country’s crypto ban remains in force.

China’s Supreme People’s Court (SPC) said it will study new adjudication rules for virtual currency and cross-border finance cases as part of a broader push to clarify how courts handle digital economy disputes.

“We will conduct in-depth research on the adjudication rules for new cases such as virtual currencies and cross-border finance, formulate judicial interpretations on civil compensation involving insider trading and market manipulation as soon as possible,” said Liu Guixiang, Judicial Committee member of the SPC, during a press conference, reported Chinese news outlet Yicai on Wednesday.

The court also plans to study judicial protection rules for artificial intelligence cases and data property rights, including disputes involving data ownership, data transactions and AI-generated content.

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Crypto PACs threw serious money behind a handful of Texas runoffs, helping oust a senior Democrat and boost Republican hopefuls as lawmakers hammer out new US crypto rules.

[Clarification (17:49 UTC 5/27/2026) In the fourth paragraph, both Alex Mealer and Jon Bonck were the winners in their respective Republican runoffs.]

Crypto-backed political groups supported several winning candidates in Texas primary runoffs Tuesday, highlighting the digital asset industry’s growing role in US elections as Congress debates new rules for crypto markets.

Attorney General Ken Paxton won the Republican US Senate runoff against four-term Senator John Cornyn by a wide margin, according to Texas primary runoff results, and will face Democratic state Representative James Talarico in November.

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Falling MVRV ratio, high XRP Ledger activity and a bullish wedge pattern signal a potential XRP price rise toward $3.10.

XRP (XRP) is down roughly 64% from its July 2025 multi-year high, but several onchain and technical indicators suggested the altcoin was due for a “strong price rebound.”

Key takeaways:

XRP’s market value realized value (MVRV) ratio, or the market cap divided by the realized cap, has dropped to levels that have historically aligned with accumulation zones and market bottoms.

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ETHConf, produced by ETHGlobal, will bring more than 5,000 attendees, 150+ speakers, and 100+ companies to the Javits Center in New York City from June 8-10, 2026 for three days focused on the future of Ethereum and institutional finance.

New York, May 27, 2026 – ETHConf, produced by ETHGlobal, will bring more than 5,000 attendees, 150+ speakers, and 100+ companies to the Javits Center in New York City from June 8-10, 2026 for three days focused on the future of Ethereum and institutional finance.

The event convenes protocol founders, institutional investors, policymakers, developers, and infrastructure leaders shaping the next era of digital assets. Programming will cover stablecoins, tokenized treasuries, institutional adoption, digital asset policy, Layer 2 infrastructure, onchain identity, and the evolution of Ethereum as financial infrastructure.

ETHConf follows New York Tech Week and anchors a broader week of Ethereum ecosystem events across New York City, bringing together founders, developers, investors, institutions, and policymakers from around the world. The week concludes with the ETHGlobal New York Hackathon on June 12-14, where builders will prototype the next generation of onchain applications.

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Spot HYPE ETFs absorbed 1.04% of Hyperliquid’s market cap in 10 trading days, beating Bitcoin and Ether ETF debuts.

Spot Hyperliquid exchange-traded funds absorbed 1.04% of HYPE’s market capitalization in their first 10 trading days, giving them the strongest crypto ETF debut by one market-cap-adjusted demand metric, according to Kairos Research.

Kairos compared cumulative net flows into new spot crypto ETF issuers against the market capitalization of each underlying asset at launch. By this metric, HYPE ETFs outpaced spot Bitcoin, Ether and Solana ETF debuts, which absorbed 0.59%, 0.41% and 0.31% of their respective market capitalizations.

Bloomberg ETF analyst Eric Balchunas said the 21Shares Hyperliquid ETF (THYP) had risen 50% since launching two weeks earlier. Balchunas compared the pace with Roundhill’s DRAM ETF, which he said took five weeks to gain 50%, and BlackRock’s spot Bitcoin ETF, IBIT, which he said took two months.

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Bitcoin remained trapped "massively below" its "fair" level, as dictated by global liquidity trends and gold ratio, the latest BTC price analysis says.

Bitcoin (BTC) is “completely mispriced” to the downside in 2026 compared to global liquidity, new analysis argues.

Key points:

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South Korean prosecutors reportedly charged a group over the CATFI memecoin rug pull, marking the country’s first DEX rug-pull case under crypto law.

South Korean prosecutors charged a group in an alleged rug pull involving the Solana-based memecoin Catpie, or CATFI, in what local media described as the country’s first decentralized exchange (DEX) rug-pull prosecution.

The group was reportedly apprehended by the Seoul Southern District Prosecutors’ Office’s Virtual Asset Crime Joint Investigation Division. The main suspect, surnamed Park, allegedly posed as “Eth Father” on social media platforms and falsely promoted CATFI as an independent third-party before executing a rug pull that caused about 900 million won ($599,000) in financial damage to at least 256 investors, local news outlet Digital Asset Works said Wednesday.