News linked to both this project and an event.
According to The Block, Susie Ward, CEO of Bitcoin Policy UK, publicly criticized Strategy founder Michael Saylor’s promotional video for STRC during an interview at last week’s BTC Conference in Prague, calling it “dishonest” for failing to accurately disclose the product’s risk profile. STRC is a perpetual preferred share offering an 11.25% dividend; Strategy raises funds through its issuance to continuously purchase bitcoin. Ward stated that although she is a staunch bitcoin supporter and also a shareholder of Strategy, she remains cautious about the company’s model of accumulating bitcoin via leverage and equity dilution—arguing that such practices tie bitcoin’s reputation to “fiat games,” with some projects resembling meme coin pump-and-dump schemes.
According to The Block, approximately one month after the launch of the first spot HYPE ETFs, the cumulative trading volume across three issuers—21Shares (THYP), Bitwise (BHYP), and Grayscale (HYPG)—has approached $900 million, with net inflows reaching $153 million, reflecting strong institutional allocation intent. All three products hold HYPE tokens directly and pass through staking rewards to investors. The current annualized staking reward rate is approximately 2.25%, accrued per minute, distributed daily, and automatically compounded. Currently, about 45% of the stakable supply—approximately 434 million HYPE tokens—is staked.
: Danny Sanders, Chief Business Officer of hardware wallet manufacturer Trezor, stated that "putting everything into ETFs" might be the worst development path for the Bitcoin ecosystem. Since the launch of US spot Bitcoin ETFs in early 2024, cumulative inflows have exceeded $53 billion, making them a significant driver of BTC prices, but also potentially altering the structure of how users hold their assets.Sanders believes that over-reliance on ETFs will weaken Bitcoin's core principle of "self-custody," gradually shifting asset control to third-party institutions instead of users holding their private keys. Although self-custody carries risks such as lost seed phrases or unrecoverable private key leaks, he considers these more of a psychological barrier than a technical challenge, adding that "it's not difficult once you actually start doing it."Data shows that out of approximately 600 million crypto users globally, only about 10% practice self-custody, and only around 12 to 13 million users employ hardware wallets.As an early hardware wallet provider in the industry, Trezor helped popularize the BIP-39 seed phrase standard and continues to advocate for lowering the barriers to self-custody through improved user experience and educational tools, rather than relying on intermediary custody.Sanders concluded that the industry's long-term goal should be to gradually approach a Web2-level user experience, rather than simply replacing self-custody with ETFs. "That would probably be the worst possible outcome for the entire industry." (The Block)
According to The Block, Kraken has launched cryptocurrency perpetual futures trading in the U.S., with the related products available via Kraken Pro. This launch follows Kraken’s acquisition of Bitnomial—a CFTC-licensed exchange, clearinghouse, and broker—in May.
: Latin American cross-border payment app El Dorado has completed a $9 million Series A funding round, led by venture capital firm Paradigm, with participation from Coinbase Ventures and Verda Ventures. The company stated that its current key growth paths include "non-mainstream payment corridors" such as Brazil and Bolivia. It is already operating in 12 countries, covering markets including Argentina, Brazil, and Colombia, with over 100,000 active users and 5 million processed transactions.Additionally, El Dorado has launched a cross-border payment product for enterprises, incorporating multi-signature and multi-organization architecture, and integrating stablecoin and fiat channels. It operates on a Layer 1 network supported by Tempo, primarily serving real trade scenarios such as electric vehicle imports. (The Block)
Bernstein suggests Robinhood is poised for a "strong tailwind" as prediction market trading volumes hit record highs during the World Cup.Data shows that daily trading volume in prediction markets during the early stages of the FIFA World Cup surged from $2.2 billion on June 11 to $4.8 billion on June 12, setting a new all-time high, surpassing the $1.4 billion traded during the previous Super Bowl.Analysts note that prediction markets have become one of Robinhood's fastest-growing revenue lines since their launch. The firm projects Robinhood's prediction market revenue will grow from $150 million in 2025 to $586 million in 2026, representing an increase of approximately 286% year-over-year, and is expected to account for 17% of trading-related revenue and 10% of total revenue in 2026.Bernstein believes Robinhood's partnership with exchange and clearing house Rothera, which is regulated by the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), is a competitive advantage. Since its launch on May 28, Rothera has processed approximately 200 million contracts in 18 days, with FIFA World Cup and MLB-related contracts contributing nearly all of the trading volume. Analysts state that Robinhood's core strength lies in its distribution capability, with its massive user base, a commission of $0.01 per contract, and strategies like up to 50% fee discounts for Gold members helping to drive user engagement.Furthermore, Bernstein indicates that competition in the prediction market space is expanding, including Polymarket launching event contracts for private companies and Kalshi introducing cryptocurrency perpetual contracts. The firm estimates that the World Cup will bring over $3 billion in new betting volume to prediction markets and boost overall consumer trading volume in the industry by $5 billion to $10 billion. (The Block)
Bitget, in collaboration with Block Scholes, has released an RWA perpetual contract liquidity report. Data shows that Bitget’s tokenized stock and commodity markets have continued to mature since 2026. Taking NVIDIA (NVDA-USDT) as an example, as of mid-May, the order book liquidity within a ±2% spread reached approximately $4.1 million—roughly 75% of Bitget’s Bitcoin spot market depth.
According to The Block, Ethena Labs will allocate $250 million to Securitize’s tokenized AAA-rated CLO fund STAC, which has already launched on Solana. STAC—launched by Securitize in partnership with BNY—invests in U.S. dollar-denominated AAA-rated collateralized loan obligations (CLOs) targeting the structured credit market.
Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei has stated that if new AI models pose specific risks, governments should have the authority to prevent their deployment. In a lengthy post on Wednesday, Amodei argued that AI models should undergo mandatory third-party testing to assess potential risks across multiple domains. He wrote that if an AI is deemed to pose "unacceptable risks," then "governments should have the power to block or constrain its deployment." This is one of Amodei's strongest statements to date advocating for stricter AI regulation. "I believe that, at least during this current exponential growth phase, the most appropriate analogy is cars, airplanes, or pharmaceuticals—technologies that are essential to the modern economy but can also lead to significant loss of life if poorly designed or misused," Amodei wrote. Anthropic has previously warned that its AI model, Mythos, possesses the ability to discover and exploit critical software vulnerabilities, leading the company to restrict access to a small number of partners. This week, Anthropic also released a new version that removes related cybersecurity attack capabilities. (Jinshi)
Consensys CEO Joseph Lubin stated that Ethereum is expected to develop into a fully zero-knowledge proof (ZK Proof) based protocol within the next three to five years. This will not only optimize the main chain but also enhance Ethereum’s composability with Layer 2 solutions. Lubin expressed support for the "Rollup-centric roadmap," believing that by strengthening Layer 1, introducing the "Lean Ethereum" initiative, and promoting ZK proofs, the Ethereum base layer can be significantly upgraded. Lean Ethereum aims to achieve over 10,000 transactions per second while maintaining a high degree of decentralization on the mainnet, and also supports privacy and quantum-resistant computing solutions.On the Layer 2 front, Lubin pointed out that ZK technology has already enabled real-time proof generation on some L2 networks, with plans to extend this capability to Layer 1, ultimately transitioning to a fully ZK-based base protocol supported by multiple provers. For instance, projects like Consensys’ Linea chain and Gnosis are leveraging zero-knowledge proofs to achieve cross-network synchronized transactions, which could potentially eliminate the need for bridges and unify fragmented liquidity.Lubin emphasized that the initial "differentiation phase" of the Rollup roadmap aims to provide experimental space for Layer 2 technology. Although it may disperse liquidity in the short term, it lays the foundation for Ethereum’s future infinite scalability and technological iteration. He believes that some L2 technologies will become systemically important components, and this exploration process is necessary.Additionally, Lubin addressed recent personnel changes at the Ethereum Foundation (EF) and rumors of a "second foundation," stating that no second foundation will emerge. The EF will continue to focus on core protocol development, usability and scalability, and institutional partnerships, while also supporting at least three independent teams spun off from the EF to concentrate on protocol development, user experience, and institutional outreach efforts. (The Block)
Ripple has announced a new toolkit for developers to build "agentic payments" applications on the XRP Ledger (XRPL), enabling AI agents to execute automated financial transactions.Ripple stated that AI agents are no longer a future concept; they are already actively participating in paying for computing power, settling invoices, and completing transactions without human intervention. As the application of AI agents expands, the market is accelerating the construction of machine-oriented payment infrastructure, including wallets and stablecoin payment channels, allowing AI to autonomously handle service payments and asset trading.This week, Robinhood also launched a related initiative, allowing users to try stock trading executed by AI agents, with plans to expand into the crypto asset sector in the future; MetaMask has also released a non-custodial wallet solution for AI agents.Ripple pointed out that traditional payment systems are primarily designed for human-initiated and approved processes, whereas AI agents require infrastructure that enables rapid settlement, predictable outcomes, and no need for manual approval. It emphasized that its new toolkit also supports payments based on the x402 protocol, allowing settlement using XRP and Ripple USD (RLUSD).Meanwhile, the IC3 team, composed of researchers from multiple universities, stated that while combining AI with blockchain can achieve automated transactions, AI agents remain highly dependent on humans and the underlying infrastructure and do not possess complete autonomy. (The Block)
Curve Finance has launched its lending protocol Llamalend v2 on Optimism as the first phase of a major upgrade, with plans to deploy it on the Ethereum mainnet in the second half of 2026. The new version removes the restriction of only supporting crvUSD, allowing nearly any combination of collateral and lending assets, and introduces LlamaRisk to handle collateral assessment and market management. Users can stake Curve LP tokens as collateral, borrowing funds while retaining market-making exposure, thereby improving capital efficiency. (The Block)
the U.S. Department of Justice stated in a press release that a 47-year-old resident of Newcastle, Washington, Geoffrey K. Auyeung, has been sentenced to 5 years in prison for conspiracy to commit money laundering.Geoffrey K. Auyeung assisted overseas scammers in transferring nearly $100 million in investment fraud proceeds through bank accounts and cryptocurrency exchanges. The scammers deceived victims into investing in the oil and gas industry, luring them to transfer funds into so-called escrow accounts. To facilitate this, Geoffrey K. Auyeung established at least nine entities to receive funds, which were then transferred overseas or exchanged for cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin, Ethereum, USDT, and USDC via exchanges like Gemini, Coinbase, and BitStamp. Most of these cryptocurrencies were subsequently sent to Binance accounts controlled by individuals in Nigeria and Russia.Geoffrey K. Auyeung opened at least 81 bank accounts across 24 financial institutions and 19 accounts across 8 cryptocurrency exchanges, receiving a total of $97.1 million in wire transfers and deposits. Through his involvement in the scheme, he earned at least $4 million in commissions and received an additional $400,000 in commissions through accounts under his wife's name between August 2024 and December 2025. Auyeung pleaded guilty in February of this year. He will forfeit approximately $2.3 million seized from bank accounts and his home, an Audi SQ8, and has agreed to forfeit approximately $7.1 million worth of cryptocurrency. (The Block)
Japan's SBI Shinsei Bank will launch a pilot program on June 10, allowing customers to convert a portion of their deposit interest into BTC, ETH, or XRP. The initiative uses "interest exchange" as an entry point to introduce crypto assets into traditional deposit products, enabling users to gain cryptocurrency exposure without direct purchase. Future expansion will depend on customer participation and the regulatory environment. (The Block)
IC3, a research group composed of researchers from multiple top universities, has released a research report stating that claims about crypto technology being able to solve core AI problems are often exaggerated. These exaggerated claims include identifying AI-generated content, eliminating algorithmic bias, and enabling AI Agents to achieve full autonomy.The report points out that AI systems do not become smarter simply by having a crypto wallet, nor are they more resistant to human manipulation or shutdown. The primary function of the wallet is to enhance automation capabilities, allowing AI Agents to conduct on-chain transactions, payments, and call infrastructure without requiring manual approval for each step.The researchers believe that AI Agents will still rely on humans and underlying infrastructure. Traditional payment systems can also support partial automation. Therefore, while blockchain may have some application value in AI payment and trust mechanisms, it is not a universal solution.The report also responds to the recent industry热议 regarding on-chain payments by AI Agents. MetaMask recently launched a non-custodial wallet for AI Agents, and Robinhood also plans to allow users to conduct crypto transactions through AI Agents. (The Block)
Nasdaq-listed company TON Strategy disclosed that it received approximately 3.3 million TON in rewards in May from staking about 227 million Toncoin, valued at roughly $5.6 million at market prices, with an initial annualized staking yield of around 1.48%. The company staked nearly all of its TON holdings and supported a series of network upgrades that have taken effect in the latest governance proposal, including improvements to smart contract execution efficiency, block synchronization, and validation capabilities, aimed at enhancing throughput and scalability. (The Block)
MetaMask has officially launched Agent Wallet, a self-custody wallet designed for AI agents. It enables automated trading, perpetual contracts, and liquidity provision on Ethereum, multiple EVM-compatible chains, and the Hyperliquid network. The product is equipped with multiple security mechanisms, including transaction simulation, spending limits, and address whitelisting. It integrates with Blockaid's risk scanning, requiring user secondary confirmation for high-risk transactions. The platform also introduces a transaction guarantee service, offering up to $10,000 in compensation for compliant and secure transactions. Currently, the product is only being tested by a small group of users via the command line, with plans for a full public release this summer. (The Block)
a joint letter initiated by Stand With Crypto, in collaboration with the Blockchain Association, the Crypto Council for Innovation, and The Digital Chamber, has been submitted to U.S. Senate Majority Leader John Thune and Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, urging a full floor vote on the Digital Asset Market Clarity Act (the "CLARITY Act") as soon as possible.Over 200 crypto enterprises, industry associations, and community organizations, including Coinbase, Ripple, Kraken, a16z, Circle, and Binance.US, have participated in signing the letter. The joint letter points out that the CLARITY Act would establish a comprehensive federal regulatory framework for the digital asset market, clearly delineate regulatory responsibilities, provide feasible registration pathways, protect software developer innovation, and simultaneously promote the return of more digital asset businesses to the U.S. market.The signatories stated that the bill would help retain innovation, jobs, investment, and market activity within the United States, further solidifying America's leading position in the global digital asset innovation sector.It is understood that the CLARITY Act received bipartisan support and passed committee review in the Senate Banking Committee last month. Senator Cynthia Lummis subsequently stated that the next step for the bill is to enter the full Senate deliberation stage.Additionally, 160 former national security and law enforcement officials have previously signed a letter supporting the bill. U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and White House Crypto Advisor Patrick Witt have also publicly called for advancing the legislative process. However, the issue of conflicts of interest between the Trump family and the crypto industry is still regarded as one of the main obstacles to the bill's progress. (The Block)
the UK Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) has proposed allowing authorized investment funds (including UCITS schemes and most non-UCITS retail schemes) to allocate up to 10% of their assets to crypto Exchange Traded Notes (ETNs). This proposal is included in the FCA's Consultation Paper 52, with a five-week public and institutional comment period ending on July 13.The FCA stated that this move aims to bridge the regulatory gap between individual retail investors and authorized funds. Since the FCA lifted its four-year retail ban on crypto ETNs in August 2025, individual investors have been able to invest directly in ETNs, but funds had remained subject to an "effective ban." The FCA emphasized that the 10% limit is intentionally set, and exceeding this threshold could force a fund to be reclassified as a restricted mass-market investment product, impacting its retail fund status.Under the proposal, professional and qualified investor schemes are not subject to the cap; long-term asset funds and non-UCITS retail schemes operating as alternative investment funds are excluded. The FCA noted that cryptocurrencies do not align with the investment objectives of these funds.On the industry side, the Investment Association supports the proposal, believing that gaining exposure to crypto assets through regulated listed products is manageable in terms of risk, and that the 10% cap helps manage fund risk. Fund managers will need to ensure that holdings are consistent with the fund's disclosed investment objectives and risk profile, and disclose significant crypto ETN holdings.The FCA emphasized that it is not currently considering allowing authorized funds to hold crypto assets directly for investment purposes, and will decide after evaluating the impact of the upcoming crypto asset regulatory regime and client asset protection rules. (The Block)
According to The Block, blockchain analytics firm Chainalysis’ latest report states that as the gray-market peptide industry’s scale exceeds an annualized $100 million, leading suppliers are accelerating adoption of Bitcoin and stablecoins as primary settlement instruments. In Q1 2026, cryptocurrency inflows into this industry reached $32 million—a 159% quarter-on-quarter surge. Due to widespread bans imposed by traditional banks and credit card payment channels on prescription-grade compounds and unregulated substances, numerous Chinese chemical manufacturers have turned to cryptocurrencies for transactions, with high-value orders especially favoring stablecoins to hedge against price volatility risk.