News linked to this event type.
Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong stated that the "CLARITY Act" is "closer than ever" to advancing toward passage.Brian Armstrong noted that the bill would make the US financial system faster, cheaper, and more inclusive, helping the United States maintain its leadership in the competition for the next-generation global financial system.He also expressed gratitude to US Senate staff and the 3.7 million Stand With Crypto supporters, stating that these groups have driven the bill to its current stage.
Odaily News: Japanese telecommunications company KDDI will subscribe to 28.5 million newly issued shares of Coincheck Group at JPY 2.28 per share, with a total transaction value of approximately $65 million. Upon completion of the transaction, KDDI will hold about 14.9% of Coincheck, with the deal expected to close in June 2026.The two parties have also signed a business cooperation agreement, planning to collaborate on user acquisition, revenue sharing, and digital asset services. Reports indicate that Coincheck will leverage KDDI's user ecosystem, including au, UQ mobile, and povo, to expand its crypto business coverage, while KDDI will gain exposure to compliant digital asset infrastructure through the partnership.Reports suggest that major Japanese companies are gradually entering the digital asset industry through collaboration models, rather than building their own trading infrastructure. (FinanceFeeds)
Odaily, Cardano founder Charles Hoskinson stated when discussing the removal of Section 604 of the CLARITY Act that this provision could subject open source developers to long-term legal liability for others' use of their code. He pointed out that once developers publish open source software, even if someone subsequently misuses the code without consent, the developer could still be held permanently accountable, calling this a serious threat to the open source innovation environment.
U.S. senators have submitted over 100 amendments to the Senate Banking Committee regarding the CLARITY Act, with Elizabeth Warren alone submitting more than 40 of them. (Bitcoin News)
According to The Block, Matt Hougan, Chief Investment Officer at Bitwise, noted that three enterprise-grade blockchains—Arc (by Circle), Canton Network, and Tempo (by Stripe)—have collectively raised over $1 billion in funding recently. All three funding rounds occurred after the signing of the GENIUS Act in July 2025. Hougan believes this legislation broke a prior regulatory stalemate that had discouraged institutional capital from entering the space. Hougan identified three key signals: First, all three blockchains prioritize native privacy-preserving transactions as a core design feature, addressing institutions’ need for transaction confidentiality. Second, the implementation of the GENIUS Act has significantly reduced regulatory uncertainty; the next critical variable is the pending Clarity Act, from which stablecoins and tokenization infrastructure stand to benefit. Third, these blockchains are backed by top-tier institutions—including Goldman Sachs, Citadel, BlackRock, Stripe, and Visa—marking a stark contrast to Ethereum and Solana, which emerged from grassroots origins. Hougan stated that his firm’s capital remains primarily allocated to native crypto projects, and he believes these emerging enterprise chains will raise the overall competitive bar and attract additional capital inflows.
According to QCP Capital’s analysis, BTC is currently consolidating near $82,000—close to its 200-day moving average. The $80,000 support level remains temporarily stable, yet the resistance level at $84,000 has yet to be breached. April’s core CPI rose 2.8% year-on-year—slightly above expectations—driven primarily by housing costs (owners’ equivalent rent), while core goods inflation remains subdued and tariff-related price pressures have not yet fully disseminated. Core services inflation (excluding housing) has accelerated for three consecutive months. Coupled with China’s PPI turning positive for the first time in 41 months, the global deflationary tailwind for commodities may be fading, further raising the bar for Fed rate cuts. Markets are now focused on three key catalysts: the Beijing meeting between Trump and President Xi (covering trade, rare earths, and Middle East issues), the upcoming PPI data release, and the Senate Banking Committee’s deliberation process on the CLARITY crypto regulatory bill. Until these catalysts materialize, spot prices may continue trading sideways within a range, with volatility remaining low.
According to an official announcement, the digital asset trading platform Websea has reached an investment agreement with a strategic investor and will officially resume withdrawals at 16:00 (UTC+8) on May 18, simultaneously releasing the specific withdrawal arrangements. The strategic investment is reported to come from a Middle Eastern family fund. The two parties conducted multiple rounds of in-depth discussions on core topics including the platform’s asset status, business structure optimization, recovery roadmap design, and long-term development planning, ultimately reaching a consensus on cooperation. Currently, the investor is proceeding with fund injection per the established process, while concurrently conducting legal due diligence, signing agreements, and finalizing equity arrangements.
According to The New York Times, OpenAI opened its first lobbying office—named “Workshop”—in Washington, D.C., this week, just a few blocks from the White House, aiming to advance policies supporting data center expansion and unrestricted use of copyrighted content. In Q1 2026, OpenAI’s federal lobbying expenditures reached $1 million, doubling year-on-year. Its competitor Anthropic also opened an office in Washington, D.C., in April this year; its lobbying spending last year surged tenfold to $3 million. Meanwhile, Meta, Nvidia, and Alphabet collectively spent $47.8 million on lobbying last year—a 22% increase year-on-year. According to the citizen watchdog group Public Citizen, one-quarter of all federal lobbyists in Washington, D.C. are now engaged in AI-related issues, a sharp rise from 11% in 2023.
According to Cointelegraph, Bitfinex has obtained a digital asset service provider license in El Salvador, expanding its regulated business footprint in Latin America.
According to Cointelegraph, the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) filed an amicus curiae brief with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit, supporting Kalshi’s appeal in its litigation against Ohio and asserting that prediction markets fall under the CFTC’s regulatory jurisdiction. The CFTC stated that Ohio’s prior demand that Kalshi cease offering sports-event contracts constituted “jurisdictional overreach.” The CFTC warned that if states were permitted to restrict sports-event contracts traded on designated contract markets (DCMs), the CFTC’s long-standing regulatory authority over event contracts, swaps, and binary options markets could be undermined. The outcome of this case will also impact prediction market platforms such as Kalshi and Polymarket.
BlackRock has submitted an application to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission for a new tokenized fund structure, once again choosing Securitize to provide infrastructure support.BlackRock's first tokenized fund, BUIDL, launched in 2024, has since grown to approximately $2.3 billion in assets under management. The new filing outlines a model that integrates blockchain-based ownership records with regulated transfer agents and investor access systems.
according to a leaked list obtained by POLITICO, members of the U.S. Senate Banking Committee have submitted over 100 amendments to the crypto market structure bill scheduled for review on Thursday. These amendments primarily focus on stablecoin yield, software developer protection, and ethics provisions.Among them, Democratic Senators Jack Reed and Tina Smith have proposed strengthening the prohibition on interest payments for stablecoins; Chris Van Hollen suggested banning the President, members of Congress, and their families from holding or being associated with cryptocurrencies; Catherine Cortez Masto proposed establishing a safe harbor for software developers to shield them from criminal liability. Additionally, Andy Kim proposed rebuilding the Department of Justice's National Cryptocurrency Enforcement Team. The bill aims to clarify regulatory jurisdiction over cryptocurrencies.
According to CoinPost, Japanese blockchain infrastructure company Nihon Blockchain Kiban has officially decided to issue the trust-based JPY-pegged stablecoin EJPY. The stablecoin is planned to be deployed on Japan Open Chain (JOC) and Ethereum, with the goal of launching issuance and circulation on JOC within fiscal year 2026. The announcement states that the trust-based architecture required for EJPY has achieved phased progress. The company noted that EJPY will primarily serve inter-corporate settlements, digital asset payments, fund transfers, and various Web3 payment use cases, and that it will advance a multi-chain strategy centered on JOC. Specific details—including the actual launch date, issuance terms, partner institutions, and supported blockchains—will be announced separately after consultations with regulatory authorities and relevant organizations and completion of necessary procedures.
YZi Labs has announced the list of 25 graduating teams for Season 3 of its flagship incubation program, EASY Residency. The selected projects span areas including onchain financial market infrastructure, AI agents, verifiable intelligence, real-world asset tokenization, prediction markets, privacy-compliance solutions, and onchain financial consumer entry points.
According to Times Brasil, Brazil’s Central Bank’s Administrative Sanctions Procedure Decision Committee has fined Banco Topázio approximately USD 3.15 million and banned it from conducting over-the-counter foreign exchange operations for virtual asset transactions for the next two years. Regulators stated that between October 2020 and September 2021, Banco Topázio processed around USD 1.7 billion in related transactions while failing to adequately verify customer eligibility, maintain proper customer records, and implement anti-money laundering (AML) and countering the financing of terrorism (CFT) controls—and further failed to report suspicious transactions to COAF. Officials from Brazil’s Central Bank indicated that similar restrictions could also be applied in the future to other institutions engaged in cryptocurrency-related activities.
Cryptocurrency journalist Eleanor Terrett revealed that U.S. Senator Jack Reed submitted an amendment ahead of Thursday’s stablecoin bill markup, proposing to explicitly prohibit cryptocurrencies from being used as legal tender—including banning the payment of taxes in crypto assets. Senator Elizabeth Warren also submitted over 40 amendments, one of which aims to prevent the Federal Reserve from granting master accounts to cryptocurrency firms. Another amendment, jointly submitted by Senators Reed and Smith, seeks to codify banks’ restrictions on stablecoin yield offerings into the bill.
According to The Block, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit held oral arguments in the appeal filed by Roman Sterlingov, the alleged operator of Bitcoin Fog. The court focused on whether prosecutors presented sufficient evidence that Bitcoin Fog operated in Washington, D.C., and whether U.S. unlicensed money transmission laws apply to global cryptocurrency service platforms serving U.S. users. Judges also questioned the reliability of FBI evidence linking Sterlingov to Bitcoin Fog based on “IP address overlap” analysis. Sterlingov was previously convicted in 2024 of conspiracy to commit money laundering and operating an unlicensed money transmission business. The outcome of this case may influence the scope of U.S. enforcement actions—under Section 1960—against developers and service providers of cryptocurrency privacy tools.
According to Cointelegraph, the Government of Bermuda has announced plans to migrate certain payment and financial services activities onto the Stellar network as part of its initiative to build a “fully on-chain national economy.” Bermuda’s Premier, David Burt, stated that, following a completed risk assessment, the government may accept and invest in digital assets, and advance the migration of select financial services onto the blockchain to address high transaction fees. Premier Burt previously revealed that the Bermuda government has established partnerships with Circle and Coinbase. Since enacting the Digital Asset Business Act in 2018, Bermuda has consistently advanced a regulatory framework friendly to the cryptocurrency industry.
According to Decrypt, Microsoft’s Threat Intelligence team disclosed that attackers had injected malicious code into Mistral AI packages distributed via the PyPI platform. This malicious code automatically executes when developers use the packages on Linux systems, downloading and running a malicious file named <code>transformers.pyz</code> in the background—the filename deliberately mimics the widely used Hugging Face Transformers library to evade detection. Microsoft noted that the malware primarily steals developers’ login credentials and access tokens. It avoids execution on Russian-language systems and includes logic that can randomly delete files on devices located in Israel or Iran. This attack is linked to the “Shai-Hulud” supply-chain campaign launched in September. In response, Mistral stated that its investigation found the attack originated from compromised developer devices, and its corporate infrastructure was not breached.
JPMorgan Chase has filed an application to launch a tokenized money market fund, JLTXX, on the Ethereum blockchain. Officially named the JPMorgan OnChain Liquidity-Token Money Market Fund, this fund will invest exclusively in US Treasuries and overnight repurchase agreements fully collateralized by US Treasuries or cash. It is designed to meet the eligible reserve asset requirements for stablecoin issuers under the GENIUS Act.Last year, JPMorgan launched its first tokenized money market fund, MONY, on Ethereum.