News linked to both this project and an event.
Nansen CEO Alex Svanevik stated that open-weights models may pose greater competitive pressure on Anthropic and OpenAI in the future, because not all tasks require a "150 IQ level" frontier model. In many scenarios, a model with around 115 IQ but costing about 90% less is "fully sufficient," offering a clear cost-performance advantage. Since the AI industry has generally believed that profits would come from the most advanced frontier models, this logic may now face challenges, especially if governments impose restrictions or block access to frontier models, potentially impacting the revenue expectations of related companies.Alex Svanevik further questioned whether the business model of relying on high-end models for profitability remains viable when regulations begin to limit the capabilities or deployment of frontier models, calling it a core issue that the industry needs to reassess.
Odaily News: Prediction market platform Polymarket's Chief Marketing Officer, Matthew Modabber, was reportedly found to have paid content creators at least $350,000 through his personal PayPal account between January 2025 and February 2026, to promote Polymarket and its prediction market data.Reports indicate that Modabber transferred over $2.5 million to more than 800 individuals over 14 months. According to a Politico investigation, at least 20 influencers who received payments subsequently posted approximately 490 pieces of content related to Polymarket on social media platform X, with the majority failing to clearly disclose the paid partnership.Creators involved include conservative commentator Alex LoRusso, political commentator Brian Krassenstein, and Fox News contributor Riley Gaines. The related posts often described Polymarket's odds changes as "BREAKING" news or event bellwethers, aiming to reinforce the public perception of the platform's predictive accuracy.A Polymarket spokesperson responded that collaborating with content creators is a standard marketing strategy for the company, intended to provide global users with "the most accurate, transparent, and data-driven market insights." However, the company did not address questions regarding why personal accounts were used for payments or whether the related promotions complied with disclosure requirements.The report notes that following Trump's election victory, interest in prediction markets surged, and Polymarket's trading volume grew rapidly. As the platform seeks to re-enter the U.S. market, it is expanding its brand influence through social media and opinion leaders, while also facing scrutiny over information disclosure, market influence, and regulatory compliance. (Politico)
Odaily Celsius founder Alex Mashinsky has filed a motion with a New York court, seeking to overturn his 12-year sentence for fraud and market manipulation.Court documents show that Mashinsky chose to proceed pro se after his lawyers withdrew, claiming they 'stopped communicating' with him, forcing him to file documents personally with the court. He argues that his previous defense constituted 'ineffective assistance of counsel' and invokes the 'fruit of the poisonous tree' doctrine, challenging the legality of certain evidence in the case.In his filings, Mashinsky also accused Sam Bankman-Fried of intending to 'destroy Celsius' and attributed market manipulation related to the CEL token to FTX. Additionally, he publicly disclosed text messages with former Celsius Chief Revenue Officer Roni Cohen-Pavon, alleging that Cohen-Pavon attempted a 'hostile takeover' of the company.In 2025, Mashinsky pleaded guilty to commodities fraud and securities fraud, was ordered to forfeit $48 million, and must also pay a $10 million settlement to the U.S. Federal Trade Commission. Cohen-Pavon, who previously testified as a cooperating witness for the prosecution, has been sentenced to 'time served' and ordered to pay over $1 million in fines. (Cointelegraph)
According to The Block, Bitcoin Depot (BTM), a Nasdaq-listed Bitcoin ATM operator, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection on the 18th in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Texas, announcing an orderly liquidation and asset sale. CEO Alex Holmes stated that increasingly stringent state-level compliance requirements, transaction limit restrictions, and operational bans in certain regions have rendered the company’s existing business model unsustainable. Previously, the company suffered a security breach in April 2026, resulting in a $3.7 million loss; its Q1 2026 revenue declined 49.2% year-on-year, with a net loss of $9.5 million. Currently, all over 9,000 Bitcoin ATMs operated globally by Bitcoin Depot have been taken offline, and its overseas entities—including those in Canada—will also be shut down.
Alex Thorn, Head of Research at Galaxy, posted on X that the U.S. Senate Banking Committee voted 15–9 this week to advance the CLARITY Act to a full Senate vote. With time running short—approximately nine weeks remain—the projected timeline for next steps is as follows: June 1: Begin reconciling the Senate Banking Committee’s and Senate Agriculture Committee’s versions of the bill; June 15: Full Senate debate begins; June 22: The Senate may complete its final vote; July 13: Senate–House reconciliation concludes; Early August: President Trump signs the bill into law (assuming the schedule stays on track). Alex Thorn analyzed that Democrats are focusing heavily on “ethics provisions” designed to restrict digital asset holdings and profits by senior officials and their family members. Meanwhile, negotiations continue on the Decentralized Finance Regulation and Blockchain Regulatory Certainty Act (BRCA). The CLARITY Act will lay the groundwork for innovation in the U.S. digital asset market and for investor protection.
: Galaxy Research Head of Research Alex Thorn stated that the U.S. Senate Banking Committee has released the first updated complete draft of the CLARITY Act since January. The new draft features significant adjustments in several key chapters, including:A substantial rewrite of Chapter I concerning definitions and the scope of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) authority; the addition of Section 109 on insider trading; an update in Chapter II changing "common control" to "coordinated control"; a rewrite of Section 301 to further clarify the regulatory boundary between DeFi and CeFi; an update to Section 404 incorporating the compromise proposal from Tillis and Alsobrooks; adjustments to Section 505 narrowing the scope of SEC authority limitations in the tokenization field; and a restructuring of the bankruptcy and insolvency framework in Sections 701 and 702. Additionally, Section 904 is a new addition, namely the "Build Now Act."Alex Thorn also noted that the developer protection provisions in the Blockchain Regulatory Certainty Act, found in Section 604, remain largely intact with only minor modifications, without weakening their core protections.
According to The Block, the Ethereum Foundation is restructuring its Protocol team, appointing Will Corcoran, Kev Wedderburn, and Fredrik as the new co-leads of the Protocol cluster. This reorganization comes as Barnabé Monnot and Tim Beiko plan to depart the organization, and Alex Stokes begins a sabbatical. The Protocol team is the Ethereum Foundation’s core team responsible for the design, research, development, and coordination of Ethereum’s base layer, covering areas such as security, cryptography, zkEVM, and peer-to-peer networking. The team is currently advancing Ethereum’s next major scalability upgrade, Glamsterdam, which aims to raise the gas limit ceiling and floor to 200 million and introduce ePBS. Subsequently, the team will shift its R&D focus toward the Hegotá upgrade and the FOCIL prototype to enhance Ethereum’s censorship resistance.
U.S. SEC Commissioner Hester Peirce stated in a speech that she does not endorse certain speculative phenomena currently present in the market; financial products that function like lotteries—sparking hopes of short-term wealth—may fade as investor interest wanes. Alex Thorn, Head of Research at Galaxy Digital, shared the remarks, noting that Peirce anticipates the underlying legal, technological, and market infrastructure supporting these products could be repurposed in the future for more enduring investment and risk-management products. Meanwhile, Nate Geraci, President of The ETF Store, commented that the SEC’s balancing of regulation and innovation is reassuring, and he speculates that the compliant yet controversial products described by Peirce are in fact “prediction-market ETFs,” which he expects will soon receive approval for listing.
Alex Thorn (@intangiblecoins), Head of Research at Galaxy Research, published a post revealing that Galaxy Research has released a new report refuting banking industry claims that the GENIUS Act would erode U.S. bank deposits—and providing quantitative estimates. Key findings from the report include: - Under the GENIUS Act framework, 60%–70% of new stablecoin issuance would originate overseas; inflows of foreign deposits would be approximately twice the volume of domestic deposit migration—indicating a net increase in total deposits rather than a zero-sum reallocation. - Each newly minted GENIUS stablecoin would generate approximately $0.32 in net credit for the U.S. economy. - In the base-case scenario, total credit expansion by 2030 would reach roughly $400 billion; under the optimistic scenario, it could reach $1.2 trillion. - Short-term U.S. Treasury yields (T-bills) would compress by 3–5 basis points, potentially saving taxpayers up to $3 billion annually in borrowing costs. - The report also notes that the interest pass-through mechanism does not pose an existential threat to U.S. banks—it merely represents a reallocation of profit margins and will not reduce overall credit capacity.
Alex Thorn, Head of Research at Galaxy, posted on X stating that the CLARITY Act has taken on heightened urgency, partly due to the exceptionally tight race for control of the U.S. Senate. If Democrats regain control of the Senate, former Senator Sherrod Brown could resume his role as Chair of the Senate Banking Committee; alternatively, if Brown fails to win re-election to the Senate from Ohio but Democrats still secure Senate control, the committee may instead be led by Elizabeth Warren. Such potential leadership changes could significantly influence the regulatory direction for the crypto industry, thereby increasing the practical urgency of advancing the CLARITY Act. Note: Elizabeth Warren is not friendly toward the crypto industry. She has urged the U.S. Department of the Treasury to issue stringent implementing rules for the GENIUS Act and explicitly issued guidance prohibiting the use of federal resources—including the Exchange Stabilization Fund or Federal Reserve emergency lending facilities—to backstop stablecoins or the broader crypto industry.
Alex Thorn, Head of Research at Galaxy Research, stated that the U.S. crypto market structure bill—the CLARITY Act—has entered a critical legislative phase. With the Senate’s key compromise proposal on stablecoin yield officially released, positive signals have emerged for the bill’s advancement. The Senate Banking Committee could begin formal consideration as early as the week of May 11. The new proposal explicitly expands the scope of stablecoin yield restrictions—from issuers to third-party platforms, including crypto exchanges such as Coinbase—and stipulates that yields must not be paid solely because users hold stablecoins (i.e., idle balances), nor may rewards be distributed in forms that are economically or functionally equivalent to bank deposit interest.
Alex Thorn, Head of Research at Galaxy Digital, stated that the Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) sanctions list—the Specially Designated Nationals (SDN) List—has historically included 518 Bitcoin addresses, which collectively received 249,814 BTC and sent 239,708 BTC, leaving a current net balance of approximately 9,306 BTC—valued at roughly $707 million at current market prices. Thorn also noted that OFAC sanctions represent only one of several U.S. tools for intercepting illicit assets, and the CLARITY Act would further expand the Treasury Department’s related authorities.