News linked to both this project and an event.
According to an official announcement, Circle has launched cirBTC on Ethereum. cirBTC is a wrapped Bitcoin asset backed 1:1 by native BTC and can be used in on-chain financial applications such as lending protocols, over-the-counter (OTC) trading, market making, treasury management, and settlement—enabling institutions to use their BTC as collateral without selling it.
Bitcoin Treasury Capital has just announced the launch of Sweden's first BTC-backed preferred stock, BTC PREF, offering an annual dividend of 10%. Trading is expected to commence on July 20 on the Spotlight Stock Market. The issuance is anticipated to raise $2.5 million to purchase additional BTC. (BitcoinTreasuries.NET)
According to Cointelegraph, Coinbase and Better Home & Finance announced they will launch a cryptocurrency-backed mortgage program in summer 2026, enabling qualified borrowers to use bitcoin (BTC) or USDC as collateral to fund down payments on mortgages backed by Fannie Mae. This initiative follows the U.S. Federal Housing Finance Agency’s (FHFA) directive in June 2025 instructing Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to include crypto assets in mortgage risk assessments—without requiring conversion into fiat currency. Other lenders, including Newrez, have already begun adopting similar measures. However, some U.S. senators have expressed concerns that cryptocurrency price volatility could threaten housing market stability. Republican Senator Cynthia Lummis has introduced the “21st Century Mortgage Act,” aiming to codify this policy into law.
Coinbase announced on the X platform that the first mortgage in the United States backed by Bitcoin as the underlying asset and guaranteed by Fannie Mae has been successfully issued. The loan was originated and serviced by Better, with technology provided by Coinbase. Coinbase stated that the product will be rolled out nationwide this summer, offering innovative mortgage options for Bitcoin holders while advancing the application of crypto assets in traditional finance.
Helion, a nuclear fusion energy startup backed by OpenAI founder Sam Altman, has announced the completion of a $465 million funding round, led by Thrive Capital. The post-investment valuation has reached $15.5 billion, nearly three times its previous valuation of $543 million. It is reported that the company is dedicated to developing nuclear fusion technology to power data centers and other customers. However, it has yet to prove the feasibility of its technology in actual electricity production. Investors remain highly confident in its potential, and this round of funding will be used to accelerate technology development and commercial advancement. (The Information)
According to an official announcement, Tether has partnered with digital banking and investment platform Fasset to launch the world’s first gold-backed Visa card.
Solana ecosystem Perp DEX project BULK has announced the launch of its Season 1 points program. Pre-deposits are now open, with 1 million AURA (points) distributed weekly until the exchange officially goes live.Previously, BULK announced the completion of an $8 million seed funding round, led by 6th Man Ventures and Robot Ventures, with participation from Big Brain Holdings, Wintermute, and Solana co-founder Anatoly Yakovenko, among others.
Bitget Wallet has announced the completion of its RWA trading upgrade and integrated xStocks as a new source of tokenized stocks, providing users with global tokenized stock trading capabilities. From May 19 to June 14 (Beijing time), Bitget Wallet users who complete tiered trading tasks can receive up to $264 in rewards, with a total prize pool of $100,000. Additionally, users who hold, add liquidity to, or participate in the lending market for any xStocks token will receive a 20% exclusive xPoints bonus.Through this upgrade, users can now trade over 300 types of RWA tokens across Ethereum, Solana, and BNB Chain, covering various assets such as US stocks, ETFs, oil, precious metals, and country indices. The service supports 24/7 trading, low transaction fees, and gas-free execution, with trading starting from $0 and no minimum threshold requirement. Currently, Bitget Wallet supports a dual RFQ + AMM trading mechanism, enabling instant execution and effectively reducing spread slippage. It has also integrated AI market signals to assist in trading decisions.xStocks is developed in collaboration between Kraken and Backed. Its tokenized stock products adopt a 1:1 full collateral mechanism with underlying assets. Since its launch in June 2025, the platform has processed a cumulative trading volume exceeding $30 billion. This integration will further advance Bitget Wallet's "Everyday Finance, Onchain" strategy, aiming to enable users to conduct daily trading of traditional financial assets through on-chain wallets, breaking down the geographical and entry barriers imposed by traditional financial infrastructure.
Succinct Labs, backed by Paradigm, has launched the iPhone camera app ZCAM, which uses cryptographic technology to generate a "digital fingerprint" for photos and videos, addressing the risk of forgery brought by AI-generated content (AIGC).ZCAM can sign images at the moment of capture, creating an immutable record and binding the content to the capture device. This allows users to independently verify whether the footage comes from a genuine device, has been tampered with, or was generated by AI.Unlike solutions that rely on AI detection, Succinct chooses to start at the device hardware level, generating a unique cryptographic signature for each shot. The company states that existing AI detection tools are prone to failure, whereas this approach enhances the reliability of authenticity verification.Similar projects include World, which reduces risks by distinguishing between real people and AI identities.
According to CoinDesk, custody provider Fireblocks will handle the issuance and distribution of the Qivalis consortium’s euro-pegged stablecoin. The project is expected to launch in the second half of 2026, under supervision by the Dutch Central Bank and in compliance with the EU’s Markets in Crypto-Assets Regulation (MiCA). Qivalis members include 12 European banks, such as BBVA, BNP Paribas, ING, and UniCredit. The report notes that the current stablecoin market size stands at approximately $30.5 billion, of which about 99% consists of U.S. dollar–pegged stablecoins, while euro-pegged stablecoins account for roughly $650 million. Qivalis aims to boost institutional adoption of euro stablecoins through a compliant product.
Odaily News, Spark's strategy lead monetsupply.eth posted on X, stating that as the stablecoin market begins to face a liquidity shortage, the situation is entering a more dangerous phase, in my opinion. Approximately 16.5% of the ETH market is backed by rsETH. If losses on rsETH-backed loans are shared across the mainnet and external chains, they could face a 10% to 15% cut in emode, with the remaining 2% to 3% cut left for ETH suppliers to flatten the umbrella structure. ETH suppliers naturally tend to exit as soon as possible to avoid this risk, so utilization is locked at 100%, and the borrowing rate is insufficient to incentivize the repayment of unrelated LST loops (wstETH, weETH) to release liquidity. Since ETH cannot be withdrawn, users who borrowed stablecoins like USDT using ETH as collateral cannot close their positions even when stablecoin borrowing rates rise, which cuts off the typical incentive mechanisms that maintain market health. Currently, there are two unhealthy incentives causing market utilization to be locked at 100%:1) ETH holders cannot close positions to maintain a healthy LTV, and liquidators cannot atomically withdraw or sell collateral. A drop in the ETHUSD price could lead to bad debt.2) Users supplying USDT, in order to exit their holdings, tend to maximize borrowing of other stablecoins. This position is currently generating positive yield (temporarily), so the exit cost is low; if conditions worsen, they can recover at least 75% of the position's value.The bottom line is that for these pooled/restaking lending markets to function properly, liquidity must be maintained at all costs. The recent weakening of the slope2 for Aave's maximum borrowing rate is having a negative impact and significantly increasing the risk of cascading market failure.
According to CoinDesk, French Finance Minister Roland Lescure publicly stated on April 17 that Europe needs more euro-denominated stablecoins and strongly encouraged EU banks to explore launching tokenized deposits. Lescure explicitly backed the Qivalis consortium—a group of 12 European banks including BBVA, ING, UniCredit, and BNP Paribas—that plans to launch a euro-pegged stablecoin in the second half of 2026, aiming to counter U.S. dominance in digital payments. He also noted that the current scale of euro-pegged stablecoins remains far smaller than that of dollar-pegged stablecoins—a situation he described as “unsatisfactory.” This statement marks a clear departure from France’s previous hardline regulatory stance: former Finance Minister Le Maire had declared that private stablecoins “have no place in Europe,” while Bank of France Governor Villeroy de Galhau has repeatedly warned that stablecoins pose risks of monetary privatization.