News linked to this event type.
According to Bits.media, Alexei Yakovlev, Head of the Financial Policy Department at Russia’s Ministry of Finance, revealed that the draft cryptocurrency regulation bill currently under revision will introduce new provisions during its second reading, authorizing the Central Bank of Russia to impose compliance requirements on anti-money laundering (AML) review services for cryptocurrency transactions. Under the proposed provisions, AML service platforms must ensure that transactions involving Russian crypto wallets comply with domestic laws and regulations. Additionally, these platforms must assess—“from an international perspective”—how Russian wallets are perceived by foreign services, in order to understand how the global community views Russia’s cryptocurrency ecosystem. Meanwhile, such platforms are required to maintain strict confidentiality regarding the internal operational mechanisms of Russia’s financial infrastructure and must not disclose this information externally. The bill, titled “Digital Currency and Digital Rights,” has already passed its first reading and is now undergoing revisions ahead of its second reading.
According to Cointelegraph, Sarah Breeden, Deputy Governor of the Bank of England, stated at the London City Week event that tokenization holds promise for reducing payment costs, accelerating settlement speeds, and enhancing financial market efficiency—but only on the premise of maintaining trust and interoperability. She emphasized that central bank money will continue serving as the “anchor” of the monetary system, while supporting the parallel development of diverse payment forms—including tokenized deposits, regulated stablecoins, and retail CBDCs. At the infrastructure level, the Bank of England has proposed extending the operating hours of its core settlement systems to near 24/7 to meet demands for cross-border payments and securities settlement.
Grafana Labs posted on X, stating that it confirmed a targeted hacker attack on May 16. The attacker gained unauthorized access to its GitHub repository and downloaded the codebase through a TanStack npm supply chain attack (Mini Shai-Hulud campaign), subsequently issuing a ransom threat.Investigations indicate that this incident was strictly limited to Grafana Labs' GitHub environment, with no evidence suggesting it affected customer production systems, operations, or the Grafana Cloud platform. The downloaded content, in addition to source code, also included the names and email addresses of some internal business contacts. Although the attacker downloaded the codebase, it was not tampered with. Grafana Labs has decided not to pay the ransom and has notified federal law enforcement authorities. It is currently implementing defensive measures, including enhancing CI/CD pipeline security.
According to CoinDesk, U.S. President Trump signed an executive order on Tuesday local time, directing the federal government to update its regulatory framework to integrate digital assets and innovative technologies into traditional financial services and payment systems. The order requires financial regulatory agencies to review existing rules within three months to identify barriers hindering collaboration between fintech firms and federal regulators, and to implement measures to encourage innovation within six months. Additionally, the executive order specifically directs the Federal Reserve to review regulations governing non-bank financial institutions’ access to payment accounts and services—a move that could directly benefit Wyoming’s Special Purpose Depository Institutions (SPDIs) and companies operating under similar frameworks. Firms such as Kraken have previously actively sought access to Federal Reserve master accounts.
the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) and the Department of Justice have filed a lawsuit against the state of Minnesota and Governor Tim Walz, opposing the state's newly signed ban on prediction markets.The new Minnesota law, set to take effect on August 1, prohibits users from engaging in prediction market trading related to outcomes in sports, weather, company valuations, and government events. In the lawsuit, the CFTC stated this is the first state-level law in the U.S. to explicitly impose a comprehensive ban on prediction markets.The CFTC and the Department of Justice argue that the relevant products fall under federally regulated derivatives and "swap" contracts, over which the CFTC holds exclusive regulatory authority, and that state governments are not permitted to classify them as illegal gambling or prohibit them.This lawsuit further escalates the jurisdictional conflict between federal regulators and state-level gambling oversight authorities. Previously, the CFTC had sued states such as Illinois, Arizona, and Connecticut to oppose their attempts to shut down prediction market platforms like Kalshi and Polymarket.
According to sources, the Trump administration plans to inform NATO allies this week that the United States will reduce its military forces available to assist European members of the alliance in major crises. Under the so-called "NATO Force Model" framework, member states identify a set of forces that can be deployed in the event of a conflict or any other major crisis, such as a military attack on a NATO member state. Sources say that although the specific composition of these wartime forces is a closely guarded secret, the Pentagon has decided to significantly cut its commitments. Trump has made it clear that he expects European nations to take over primary responsibility for Europe's security from the United States. The message to be conveyed to allies this week is a concrete signal that this policy is being implemented. Several details remain unclear, such as how quickly the Pentagon plans to transfer crisis mode responsibilities to European allies. However, sources indicate that the Pentagon plans to announce its intention to reduce commitments at a meeting of defense policy chiefs in Brussels on Friday.
centralized exchanges Coinbase, Kraken, and Gemini are urging U.S. senators to remove a specific clause in the digital asset market structure bill. The clause restricts trading platforms from listing tokens that are susceptible to market manipulation.The exchanges have submitted amendment proposals requesting the removal of this restriction, arguing that this regulatory standard, derived from traditional commodity futures, would hinder the listing of low-liquidity small-cap tokens on compliant exchanges and limit industry innovation. (crowdfundinsider)
Checker, a stablecoin infrastructure startup, announced the completion of $8 million in pre-seed and seed funding. Participants include Galaxy Ventures, Al Mada Ventures, Framework Ventures, Bitso, Airtm, DFS Lab, Onigiri Capital, SNZ Capital, and Velocity. The project's primary business is helping financial institutions launch and scale stablecoins and related products through a single API.It is reported that Checker has processed over $3 billion in transaction volume in the past 12 months. The company plans to use the new funds to expand its financial institution network to Brazil, Kenya, Hong Kong, and the United States, and also intends to launch AI agents for client onboarding, compliance assessment, and treasury operations. (theblock)
The Zcash Foundation released its Q1 2026 report, disclosing total liquid assets of approximately $36.7 million, including roughly $12.11 million in cash, 506,556 USDC, 85,412 ZEC (valued at ~$21.2 million), 41.8 BTC (valued at ~$2.85 million), and 12.02 ETH (valued at ~$25,000). The Zcash Foundation added that, although the first quarter of this year saw personnel changes within the Electric Coin Company’s development team and governance-related disputes, network operations remained unaffected, with transactions and block production continuing normally. On the regulatory front, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has concluded its investigation without taking any enforcement action, thereby resolving long-standing regulatory uncertainty.
According to an official announcement, the blockchain infrastructure protocol project IOTA has named Kenya, Morocco, and Nigeria as the first countries to implement the ADAPT initiative. These three countries were selected through a rigorous evaluation process assessing their political commitment, regulatory readiness, maturity of digital infrastructure, and private-sector engagement. Launched in November 2025, the African Digital Access and Public Infrastructure for Trade (ADAPT) initiative is spearheaded by the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) Secretariat and co-developed with the Tony Blair Institute for Global Change, the World Economic Forum, and the IOTA Foundation. ADAPT aims to build shared digital infrastructure for intra-African trade, covering digital identity, cross-border data exchange, and payment interoperability.
According to Bloomberg, Senator Elizabeth Warren has questioned financial regulators’ decision to allow cryptocurrency companies to enter the banking system. The Massachusetts Democrat sent a letter to Jonathan Gould, head of the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC), noting that the agency has approved at least nine national trust charters for crypto firms that “appear unqualified.” Warren stated that these charters “appear to far exceed the narrow scope of activities permitted by law” and constitute “an apparent violation of the National Bank Act.” She questioned whether the OCC followed applicable legal requirements during its approval process and requested an explanation regarding the compliance of these crypto firms in obtaining bank charters.
Bybit has officially launched its new “Hold USD1 to Earn Tokens” campaign. Users only need to complete Level 1 KYC verification and hold at least 1 USD1 in their Bybit account to share daily WLFI rewards—no subscription or lock-up required; rewards are earned simply by holding. The campaign begins on May 19, 2026, at 10:00 UTC. During the campaign period, users can earn up to a 20% annualized return and compete for a total reward pool of up to 45,000,000 WLFI—climbing the USD1 Holding Leaderboard. USD1 is a regulated stablecoin issued by World Liberty Financial, fully backed 1:1 by short-term U.S. Treasury securities and cash equivalents, and strictly pegged to the U.S. dollar. WLFI is the governance token of the World Liberty Financial ecosystem, enabling holders to participate in protocol governance and influence the ecosystem’s strategic direction. In this campaign, WLFI rewards will be distributed daily to USD1 holders on the Bybit platform. During the campaign, the system will take a snapshot of each user’s eligible USD1 balance once every hour—24 snapshots per day. WLFI rewards are expected to be credited to users’ main account funding wallets by approximately 06:00 UTC the following day.
On May 19, Japan’s Financial Services Agency (FSA) announced the revised Cabinet Office Ordinance on Electronic Payment Instruments and Other Related Businesses, explicitly including trust beneficiary rights established under foreign laws that are equivalent to Japanese regulatory frameworks within the definition of “electronic payment instruments” under Japan’s Act on Settlement of Funds. This provides a legal basis for the compliant circulation in Japan of trust-based stablecoins issued by specific foreign entities. The new rules will take effect on June 1, 2026, and concurrently clarify that such foreign trust beneficiary rights shall not be deemed securities under Japan’s Financial Instruments and Exchange Act.
According to The Block, Japan’s ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) has officially approved a policy proposal to build a next-generation national financial system based on blockchain and AI. The proposal also supports advancing tokenized deposits and yen-denominated stablecoins. The report notes that this initiative is being formally advanced at the ruling party level and involves strategic directions for Web3 and financial infrastructure development.
According to Bloomberg, the Bank of England is considering an alternative proposal in response to industry opposition to its suggested cap on stablecoin holdings. Sarah Breeden, Deputy Governor of the Bank of England, stated that the central bank is exploring the introduction of a temporary “safeguard” on the total issuance of stablecoins as an alternative to the existing proposal. This statement indicates that the Bank of England is reassessing its regulatory framework for stablecoins.
According to Korea Economic Daily, Bumo Sarang, South Korea’s seventh-largest pension relief company, invested 59.5 billion KRW of its operating funds last year in Bitmine, an Ethereum-themed stock’s daily double-leveraged ETF, resulting in a loss of 49.3 billion KRW (approximately USD 32.73 million). A comprehensive review of the 2025 audit reports from 75 pension relief companies revealed that 42.7% of these firms hold total assets lower than the prepaid funds owed to their clients—meaning they would be unable to fully refund all clients if all terminated their contracts simultaneously.
According to CoinPost, Japan’s Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) Digital Society Promotion Headquarters’ “Next-Generation AI & On-Chain Finance Vision Project Team” released a policy proposal on May 19, advocating the integration of AI and blockchain to automate and enable 24/7 operation of decision-making, financing, and asset management—and designating finance as the “18th Growth Investment Sector.” Specific measures proposed in the document include: advancing tokenization of demand deposits at the Bank of Japan (including wholesale CBDC), with conceptual frameworks to be finalized by year-end; joint issuance of a stablecoin by Japan’s three major banks, targeting the launch of live operations by March next year; and promoting on-chain tokenization of real-world assets (RWAs), such as accounts receivable and real estate. At the international cooperation level, the proposal calls for establishing an “AI & On-Chain Finance Asia Policy Dialogue Framework” and advancing cross-border settlements using yen-denominated stablecoins, thereby realizing the “Global SC Corridor Vision.”
According to Cointelegraph, the Bank of England, in collaboration with the UK’s Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), has proposed extending the existing settlement infrastructure to operate nearly around the clock to facilitate the UK’s wholesale markets’ transition to tokenized finance.
Echo Protocol announced that the team has now regained control of the administrative keys and destroyed the remaining 955 eBTC held by the attacker. Additionally, the current exposure on Aptos is limited to approximately $71,000 in the Echo lending market and the Hyperion liquidity pool, and the team has observed no fund losses on Aptos. As a precautionary measure, the team has fully suspended Aptos bridge operations while the review remains ongoing. Echo Aptos Lending remains unaffected but has been paused for security reasons.
According to Cointelegraph, Republican lawmakers are pushing to include a provision in the 21st Century Housing Act that would permanently ban a U.S. central bank digital currency (CBDC). The current Senate version of the bill only imposes the ban until the end of 2030. Representative Mike Flood has introduced an amendment to make the ban permanent; the revised bill is expected to be voted on in the House this week. Representative Warren Davidson warned that the 2030 deadline effectively leaves a window open for CBDC implementation.