News linked to both this project and an event.
According to CoinDesk, Payward, Kraken’s parent company, announced on May 9 that it has submitted an application to the U.S. Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) for a national trust company charter. If approved, Payward National Trust Company (PNTC) will be established to provide federally regulated digital asset custody and fiduciary services to institutional and individual clients.
Payward (Kraken's parent company) has applied to the OCC for a national trust company charter, planning to establish Payward National Trust Company (PNTC).The entity will offer regulated, bank-grade digital asset custody and trust services to both institutional and individual clients.Previously, Coinbase and Ripple have received conditional approval for similar charters, indicating that crypto institutions are accelerating their alignment with compliant financial systems.
: According to official sources, the Jito Foundation is partnering with Solana Company (NASDAQ: HSDT) to provide institutional-grade Solana infrastructure in the Asia-Pacific region. The two parties will operate BAM validators using Pacific Backbone in Hong Kong, Singapore, Japan, and South Korea. This low-latency infrastructure network supports staking, validation, and trading services in the Asia-Pacific region. Additionally, they will jointly develop an institutional-grade JitoSOL staking product, delivered through Solana Company's consulting service model, to meet the compliance requirements of large capital allocators. The head of the Jito Foundation for the Asia-Pacific region stated that this collaboration aims to combine Jito's market layer technology with Solana Company's regional experience and institutional network, laying the foundation for scalable and compliant participation within the Solana ecosystem.
According to Fox News, the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), in collaboration with law enforcement agencies in Dubai, China, and Thailand, conducted a large-scale multinational joint operation that successfully dismantled at least nine overseas cryptocurrency scam centers and arrested 276 suspects, involving millions of dollars in illicit funds. In this operation, the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of California filed federal charges of wire fraud and money laundering against six suspects. Those charged include nationals from Myanmar and Indonesia, who operated scam organizations under names such as “Sanduo Group” and “Giant Company.” Dubai police arrested 275 suspects, while the Royal Thai Police apprehended one additional fugitive. These scam networks employed the “pig-butchering” scheme—building fake friendships or romantic relationships to gain victims’ trust, then luring them into transferring funds to fraudulent cryptocurrency investment platforms, after which the proceeds were laundered and transferred to criminal accounts. This operation aligns with the executive order signed by Trump on March 6, 2026, aimed at combating overseas criminal networks that exploit U.S. citizens. The FBI’s dedicated initiative, “Operation Level Up,” has notified approximately 9,000 victims and recovered roughly $562 million in losses for U.S. citizens. The FBI urges victims to report incidents through the Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3).
According to an official announcement by the Securities and Exchange Commission of Thailand (SEC), the Thai SEC is soliciting public comments on proposed amendments to the regulations governing futures contract business licenses. The key proposals include permitting existing digital asset service providers to directly apply for futures contract business licenses without having to establish new entities, and formally including digital assets within the scope of underlying assets eligible for futures contracts.
According to filings with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) submitted a proposed rule change (File No. SR-NYSE-2026-17) to the SEC on April 9, 2026, seeking to introduce Rule 7.50 and amend related provisions to permit the trading of eligible securities in tokenized form on the exchange. The proposal builds upon the Depository Trust Company’s (DTC) three-year tokenization pilot program and follows the framework of Nasdaq’s similar rules, which have already received SEC approval. Under the proposal, tokenized securities must share the same CUSIP number, ticker symbol, and shareholder rights as their traditional counterparts to be traded on equal footing and at the same priority level within the same order book. Initially, the rule will apply only to constituents of the Russell 1000 Index and ETFs tracking major indices; the settlement cycle will remain T+1, and existing regulatory requirements will apply equally to tokenized securities.
Odaily News: Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk stated that a cryptocurrency company linked to "Russian mafia and intelligence agencies" is funding political opponents and influencing domestic crypto regulatory legislation. During a parliamentary vote on Friday, Tusk pointed out that some Polish politicians are obstructing crypto regulatory legislation to serve a company named Zondacrypto, which is alleged to provide "financial support" to political figures and has ties to Russia.Tusk further claimed that the company sponsored the CPAC (Conservative Political Action Conference) event held in Poland last year, during which former U.S. Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem publicly supported President Karol Nawrocki's campaign.Tusk bluntly stated that the company's funding sources not only involve "funds related to the Russian mafia (Bratva)" but may also be connected to Russian intelligence agencies.Meanwhile, President Nawrocki won the election last June, with his camp receiving support from former U.S. President Donald Trump. The President's Office responded that it is not opposed to crypto regulation itself but opposes the "flawed regulatory model" proposed by the government.This controversy arises amidst the political tug-of-war in Poland over the crypto regulatory bill. The bill aims to align with the EU's MiCA (Markets in Crypto-Assets Regulation) framework. However, the President previously vetoed the relevant bill and blocked parliament from overriding the veto in December, stalling the regulatory process. (The Block)
According to News1, Circle, the issuer of the stablecoin USDC, has signed a comprehensive Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with Dunamu, the operator of Upbit—the largest virtual asset exchange in South Korea. The two parties will jointly advance digital asset education initiatives—including stablecoins—to enhance market participants’ access to information and bolster the credibility of South Korea’s digital asset ecosystem. Oh Kyung-seok, Dunamu’s representative, stated, “Collaborating with Circle—experienced in compliant operations—is highly significant.” Jeremy Allaire, Circle’s representative, emphasized, “South Korea is an exceptionally important market for digital asset innovation.”