News linked to both this project and an event.
crypto market maker and investment firm Keyrock has released a new report indicating that as traditional bank card payment systems struggle to meet micro-payment needs, blockchain-based stablecoin payment rails are gradually becoming the default payment layer for AI agents.The report shows that between May 2025 and April 2026, AI agents have completed over 176 million transactions through on-chain infrastructure, settling more than $73 million.The so-called "Agentic Payments" refer to AI software that can autonomously purchase data, computing power, API access, or AI services without requiring human authorization for each individual transaction. For example, an AI trading agent can continuously and automatically buy market data, cloud computing resources, or AI analysis services. Keyrock believes this growth rate may even surpass the early explosive phase of stablecoins.Currently, Coinbase's x402 protocol has emerged as one of the leading crypto-native machine payment solutions, allowing AI agents to directly pay for on-chain data analysis, cloud services, and other resources using USDC, without the need for accounts or subscription systems.Data shows that approximately 76% of AI agent payment amounts fall below the common 30-cent fixed fee threshold of traditional bank cards, with most transactions ranging from just 1 to 10 cents. This makes traditional payment networks unsuitable for machine-to-machine micropayments. In contrast, on chains like Base and Tempo, the settlement cost for stablecoins is "less than one cent."However, regulation may still become a limiting factor for industry growth. The report points out that new regulatory frameworks, including Europe's MiCA, the US's GENIUS Act, and the EU's AI Act, have yet to directly cover critical issues such as autonomous transactions by AI agents, liability attribution, and identity authentication. (CoinDesk)
the proposed U.S. crypto market structure bill, the "Clarity Act," could foster a new "Yield-as-a-Service" market in the crypto industry. It may also push the sector away from a passive "hold-to-earn" model toward an AI-driven compliant yield infrastructure.Currently, the core of the debate centers on Section 404 of the bill, which would prohibit Digital Asset Service Providers (DASPs) from directly offering yields solely based on users holding a specific digital asset. Joe Vollono believes this means the industry will shift from "Hold-to-Earn" to "Use-to-Earn," making the future market more reliant on active and compliant yield strategies.Joe Vollono, Chief Business Officer at STBL, stated that the bill could drive development in areas such as DeFi infrastructure, treasury management, collateral management, automated capital management, on-chain lending, and reward systems. AI is expected to become a crucial foundational layer for coordinating regulated capital flows.At this stage, the Clarity Act has passed the U.S. Senate Banking Committee. It is expected to move next to a full Senate vote, where it will be reconciled with the version from the Agriculture Committee. The market generally believes this bill could, for the first time, establish a complete regulatory framework for the U.S. digital asset market, clearly defining the regulatory boundaries between the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission for digital assets. This would pave the way for large institutional capital to enter the crypto market. (CoinDesk)
recently, Liu Feng, former founder of ChainNews, and Dan Romero, former Farcaster founder and Tempo team member, engaged in a series of discussions on topics such as payments, cryptocurrency, and AI Agents. During the conversation, Dan Romero addressed some key questions raised by both Liu Feng and the public. The highlights are as follows:1. The reason for the shift from idealistic socialfi products to public chains dominated by large enterprises: "The crypto landscape has changed. Now we have stablecoins and crypto (more native) as two distinct things." Tempo and Playbook's goal is: "Starting with payment services, collaborating with large, established companies to help them conduct on-chain payments and advance their own business development. Then, by integrating DeFi applications, we will launch yield-generating products that end users actually need."2. "Tempo has no meme coins or anything similar, which is a good thing for a conservative bank. Tempo has other characteristics: compliance and privacy. This might not be as exciting for crypto natives, but it is very attractive to banks."3. Regarding core use cases for payments: "Platform-based marketplaces and cross-border payments are two clear stablecoin use cases."4. Micropayment-driven agent-to-agent payments are worth anticipating; stablecoin-based micropayments will usher in a new spring. Regarding payments between agents: "Traditional payment methods are too costly to use at scale. This level of granularity and speed can only be achieved through cryptocurrencies and streaming payments."5. "I deeply respect Ethereum's adherence to cypherpunk principles regarding decentralization. I really like their new mission; it's good for the world. But the reality is that businesses don't care about these things; they care about whether it can solve real problems." "If Tempo can attract 1 million businesses and 1 billion consumers, it won't be a bad thing for either cryptocurrency or Ethereum."6. Regarding Tempo's decentralization process: Hoping to achieve it within two years. "We are not a bunch of suit-wearing outsiders; we truly understand the space. We know how important decentralization is, but at the same time, we are very pragmatic. I guarantee that we will actually drive application adoption."7. Regarding the Machine Payment Protocol (MPP) and the X402 protocol, AI Agents don't care about the differences between them. The key to satisfying them is the elimination of human intervention.8. Tempo's Asian market lead is now in place and will be operating out of Singapore.
: The U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with the National Hockey League (NHL) to strengthen the regulation of prediction markets. The two parties will enhance information sharing and collaboration to safeguard the fairness and integrity of the market for contracts related to professional hockey games and related events. This includes strengthening their existing event integrity monitoring systems and improving their ability to identify, prevent, and respond to potential risks. As platforms like Kalshi and Polymarket continue to gain traction, especially following the 2024 U.S. election cycle, sports and event-based prediction markets are increasingly moving into the mainstream financial and regulatory spotlight. (The Block)
Seturion, a tokenized securities settlement platform under the Stuttgart Stock Exchange Group, is collaborating with Société Générale, its crypto subsidiary SG-Forge, and online broker flatexDEGIRO to build a blockchain-based securities settlement system in Europe. Société Générale will issue tokenized structured securities—such as Turbo warrants and investment certificates—on its Seturion platform. SG-Forge, which holds a crypto-asset market operator authorization from French regulators, will use its CoinVertible euro and U.S. dollar stablecoins (EURCV and USDCV) for transaction settlement. Meanwhile, flatexDEGIRO will connect the platform to its European retail distribution channels for tokenized securities trading.
Odaily Odaily News: Flipcash, an app created by Kik founder Ted Livingston, has launched a native stablecoin USDF on Solana, based on Coinbase's "Stablecoin as a Service" platform.According to reports, USDF is pegged 1:1 to the US dollar and fully backed by USDC. Coinbase handles issuance, reserves, and compliance matters. Flipcash has become the first application to use the Coinbase stablecoin-as-a-service platform.It is understood that USDF will primarily be used for cash-like payment scenarios within the Flipcash app. Flipcash is a digital payment application built on Solana, allowing users to create and trade "community currencies" with a fixed supply.Coinbase launched its stablecoin-as-a-service platform in late 2025, aiming to help enterprises issue branded stablecoins without needing to build their own infrastructure. (The Block)
USDF, a custom stablecoin on the Solana blockchain jointly launched by Coinbase and Flipcash, has gone live. It is part of the "Custom Stablecoins" initiative, enabling businesses and protocols to easily issue their own branded USD stablecoins for payments, payroll, cross-border settlements, and more, while maintaining regulatory compliance.
Intercontinental Exchange (ICE), the parent company of the New York Stock Exchange, announced plans to launch futures contracts with "computing power" as the underlying asset, designed to track cost changes for GPUs and other computing resources supporting the AI industry. The product still requires regulatory approval. According to reports, ICE will collaborate with financial infrastructure company Ornn to develop a related derivatives pricing system based on its GPU Cost Index. This index will be used to underpin computing power futures contracts. (Bloomberg)
According to the South China Morning Post, Hong Kong’s Financial Secretary and Secretary for Financial Services and the Treasury, Christopher Hui, stated that gold can serve as a potential bridge between traditional finance and new finance. He emphasized that Hong Kong needs to provide more development opportunities for the digital asset market to support its sustainable growth. He also noted that, given the “convergence” trend between traditional and innovative finance, Hong Kong has opted not to establish a separate digital asset regulatory authority. Hui pointed out that both gold ETFs and blockchain-based tokenized gold products are already available in the market. Earlier, HSBC and Hang Seng Investment launched Hong Kong’s first tokenized, non-listed Hang Seng Gold ETF product on HashKey Exchange in April.
According to the Financial Times, Amsterdam-based company Qivalis has secured support from 37 European banks—including BNP Paribas, ING, and UniCredit—for its yet-to-launch euro-pegged stablecoin, making it the single euro stablecoin project with the largest number of European backers to date. Newly added supporters include ABN AMRO, Intesa Sanpaolo, and Rabobank. Qivalis has applied for a license from the Dutch Central Bank (De Nederlandsche Bank), aiming for approval in the second half of this year, and plans to complete operational readiness upon license issuance.
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.
the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) is preparing to introduce a new regulatory framework for trading tokenized stocks, which could be announced as early as this week. It is reported that the SEC is studying an "innovation exemption" mechanism, allowing trading platforms to offer digital versions of listed securities on-chain under more relaxed regulatory conditions. This move is seen as a significant signal that U.S. regulators are further shifting towards supporting tokenized securities.Currently, multiple Wall Street institutions have accelerated their layout in related businesses. The Depository Trust & Clearing Corporation (DTCC) plans to launch limited production trading of tokenized assets in July and expand promotion in October; Nasdaq is developing a blockchain-based stock issuance framework; and Intercontinental Exchange (ICE) is advancing tokenized stocks and crypto-related products through its partnership with OKX.SEC Chairman Paul Atkins previously stated that the SEC is considering establishing formal rules for on-chain trading systems, blockchain settlement infrastructure, and crypto custody models, and believes that existing securities regulations are no longer suitable for on-chain protocols that integrate trading, clearing, and settlement. (CoinDesk)
According to CoinDesk, Simone Maini, CEO of blockchain analytics firm Elliptic, stated that the biggest emerging risk to crypto security is not larger-scale hacking attacks, but rather AI-driven financial activity operating at a speed and scale that human compliance teams cannot keep up with. As AI lowers the barriers to hacking, scams, and fraud, security firms like Elliptic are responding by deploying AI agents to analyze on-chain data in real time—sparking an automated arms race between adversaries and defenders. Maini noted that current compliance systems remain heavily reliant on manual review, and the global pool of compliance analysts specializing in digital assets is simply insufficient to meet future demand. Elliptic has raised $120 million in funding—including from Nasdaq and Deutsche Bank—to build an “agent-based compliance system” that leverages AI to automate transaction monitoring and investigation workflows, thereby reducing the cost per alert and per investigation.
According to Cointelegraph, cryptocurrency analysts are divided on whether Bitcoin will reenact its historical “Sell in May” pattern in 2026. In the two midterm election years—2018 and 2022—Bitcoin experienced sharp declines in May, falling approximately 30% and 70%, respectively. Analyst Merlijn Enkelaar warned that this historical pattern could repeat, with Bitcoin potentially dropping to $33,000. Joao Wedson, CEO of Alphractal, also noted that if Bitcoin remains persistently below $78,000, the likelihood of a new capitulation phase increases. However, Jeff Ko, Chief Analyst at CoinEx, argued that past crashes stemmed from specific shocks—including the Mt. Gox incident, China’s ICO regulations, the Federal Reserve’s monetary tightening, and the collapses of Terra and FTX—not from calendar-based seasonality. He added that the launch of spot ETFs, corporate treasury allocations, and progress on the CLARITY Act have significantly broadened the institutional buyer base, making a 70–80% deep correction unlikely this cycle. Analyst Michaël van de Poppe highlighted $76,000 as the current critical support level; failure to hold it would likely trigger further downside pressure.
According to an official announcement by the U.S. Department of Justice, Olena Oblamska, a 42-year-old Ukrainian woman, was recently extradited from Thailand to the United States to face charges of conspiracy to commit wire fraud. Court documents allege that Oblamska and her co-conspirators marketed Forsage as a decentralized multi-level marketing project built on blockchain-based smart contracts, falsely promoting it to global investors as a low-risk, high-return investment opportunity—when in fact it was a Ponzi and pyramid scheme that defrauded victims of approximately $340 million. Oblamska has appeared in court and pleaded not guilty; jury trial is scheduled to begin on July 14, 2026. If convicted, she faces up to 20 years in federal prison and a fine of up to $250,000. The case was jointly investigated by the FBI, the U.S. Secret Service, and Homeland Security Investigations.
the Hyperliquid Policy Center stated on X that Bloomberg’s coverage of some traditional exchanges’ concerns regarding the integrity and influence of Hyperliquid’s perpetual contract market is “unfounded.” Hyperliquid achieves market transparency through fully on-chain records, with every transaction publicly available in real-time, traceable, and immutable. This mechanism significantly reduces the potential for insider trading and price manipulation, and aids regulators and law enforcement in monitoring, identifying, and investigating activities.Furthermore, Hyperliquid emphasized that its 24/7 trading mechanism significantly enhances market efficiency, allowing prices to continuously reflect information changes even during traditional exchange holidays. This reduces price gaps and liquidity fragmentation caused by segmented trading hours, thereby optimizing overall price discovery.On regulatory matters, Hyperliquid pointed out that the current U.S. legal system has not yet fully adapted to the structure of public chain-based derivatives markets. However, it expressed a welcome and anticipation for cooperation with policymakers in Washington to progressively incorporate on-chain markets within the regulatory framework.
CME Group announced plans to launch Nasdaq CME Crypto Index futures on June 8, 2026, subject to regulatory review. This will be its first market-cap-weighted futures contract, offered in both micro and standard sizes, and cash-settled. Final settlement will be based on the Nasdaq CME Crypto Settlement Price Index, which measures the performance of the largest and most actively traded cryptocurrencies by market capitalization—currently including BTC, ETH, SOL, XRP, ADA, LINK, and XLM.
According to Cointelegraph, the Bank of England (BoE) is reassessing its regulatory framework for sterling-backed stablecoins. Previously, in its November 2025 consultation paper, the BoE proposed a cap of £20,000 on individual holdings of any single sterling-backed stablecoin and a cap of approximately $13.5 million for enterprises, while also requiring at least 40% of reserve assets to be held at the central bank in non-interest-bearing form. Industry bodies have widely criticized these proposals as operationally cumbersome, profit-margin-constraining, and potentially detrimental to the competitiveness of UK-based stablecoins in institutional markets. Sarah Breeden, Deputy Governor of the BoE, stated that the central bank is exploring alternative approaches to strike a balance between financial stability and market competitiveness. Currently, sterling-backed stablecoins account for a negligible share of the global stablecoin market—valued at roughly $300 billion—where dollar-pegged tokens continue to dominate.
According to an official announcement, based on a recent review, the following tokens do not meet the Binance Alpha standards and will be removed from the selected list on May 14, 2026 at 06:00 (UTC): PRAI, COMMON, PINGPONG, TAKER, JANITOR, GATA, KLINK, CORL, SWTCH, ARIAIP, LONG, ZKWASM, GORILLA, ECHO, LITKEY, FIR, GM, DELABS, DONKEY, WHY. After removal, users can still withdraw or sell these tokens through Binance Alpha or the Binance wallet.