News linked to both this project and an event.
According to the <i>Nikkei</i>, SBI Securities and Rakuten Securities plan to launch cryptocurrency investment trusts. Meanwhile, several major brokerages—including Nomura Securities—have stated they will consider following suit once the regulatory framework is established. A <i>Nikkei</i> survey of 18 major brokerages found that 11 indicated they would consider offering such products after regulations are finalized. SBI Securities plans to sell funds developed by its subsidiary SBI Global Asset Management, covering ETFs and investment trusts focused on highly liquid cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin and Ethereum; the entire process—from product development to distribution—will be handled internally within the SBI Group. Similarly, Rakuten Securities plans to jointly develop its own products with group members including Rakuten Investment Management, aiming to enable trading of cryptocurrency investment trusts via smartphone apps.
According to Russian financial media RBK, the Moscow Exchange is in discussions with multiple brokers regarding cryptocurrency trading solutions. It is currently testing a 7×24全天候 trading model and digital asset deposit/withdrawal functionality, and plans to launch dedicated cryptocurrency accounts. However, due to constraints imposed by the clearing system’s operating hours, round-the-clock trading is unlikely to be implemented in the short term. Meanwhile, Russia’s “Digital Currency and Digital Rights Bill” has passed its first reading. The bill stipulates that Russian citizens may only purchase cryptocurrencies through licensed intermediaries, and that listed cryptocurrencies must meet stringent criteria—including an average market capitalization exceeding 5 trillion rubles over the past two years, an average daily trading volume exceeding 1 trillion rubles, and a trading history of at least five years. In practice, only major cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin, Ethereum, and Solana meet these requirements.
on-chain detective ZachXBT stated that the hacker "Dritan Kapplani Jr" transferred approximately $2.59 million in assets today, including 1.99 million DAI and 259 ETH. The funds were moved from address 0x4487...bba6 to address 0x67ec...125d. The stolen funds currently remain dormant.ZachXBT stated that on May 12, they published an investigation detailing the connection between Dritan Kapplani Jr and Trenton (Trent) Johnson in a social engineering theft involving 185 Bitcoin (approximately $13 million).
The regulatory environment for the crypto industry continues to improve, but macro interest rate risks are dampening market sentiment. The US CLARITY Act has passed the Senate Banking Committee with a 15:9 vote, moving closer to a full Senate vote. The market expects that this bill could provide a clearer regulatory framework for tokenization, stablecoins, and smart contract platforms, potentially accelerating institutional capital inflow.Kavi Jain, Senior Research Associate at Bitwise, stated that the progress of the CLARITY Act is a significant milestone for US digital asset regulation. It is expected to particularly benefit smart contract platforms like Ethereum and Solana, and drive growth in institutional activities related to stablecoins, tokenized funds, and on-chain capital markets.However, the macro environment continues to exert pressure on the crypto market. US April inflation data came in higher than expected, driven primarily by rising energy prices. The market is now even beginning to price in the possibility of another rate hike by the Federal Reserve before April 2027. Meanwhile, the US 30-year Treasury yield has reached 5% for the first time since 2007, indicating growing market concern over long-term inflation risks. Analysts suggest that in a high-interest-rate environment, the appeal of high-risk assets, including Bitcoin, may be suppressed. (CoinDesk)
According to analyst [email protected] (@BTC__options), the options expiry data for May 15 is as follows: For BTC, 25,000 contracts expired, with a Put-Call Ratio of 0.59, a maximum pain point at $80,000, and a notional value of $2 billion. For ETH, 274,000 contracts expired, with a Put-Call Ratio of 0.4, a maximum pain point at $2,300, and a notional value of $620 million. This week, Bitcoin traded sideways near $80,000, exhibiting clear technical support; market attention remained low, with only 6% of BTC options expiring, versus 11% for ETH. BTC’s key-term implied volatility (IV) stood at approximately 35%, while ETH’s was around 50%. Skew has fluctuated minimally over the past month, reflecting neutral directional sentiment, and options activity remains extremely low—approximately 20% of open interest is expected to remain by end-May and roughly 30% by end-June. Overall, Bitcoin performed relatively well in both price and market热度 during Q2 2024, supported by favorable legal, regulatory, and macroeconomic developments. However, market热度 still falls short of expectations. Against this long-term bullish backdrop, Bitcoin remains the primary trading instrument, and positioning in medium-to-long-dated options is widely viewed as a reasonable strategy.
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.
CME Group announced plans to launch Nasdaq CME Cryptocurrency Index Futures on June 8, pending regulatory review. The Nasdaq CME Cryptocurrency Index Futures will be the company’s first market-capitalization-weighted futures contract and will be available in both micro and standard contract sizes. These contracts will provide market participants with a capital-efficient way to gain exposure to the top-ranked cryptocurrencies by market capitalization through a single financially settled futures contract. At expiration, the Nasdaq CME Cryptocurrency Index Futures will settle against the Nasdaq CME Cryptocurrency Settlement Price Index, which measures the performance of the most actively traded and liquid cryptocurrencies. As of May 14, the index includes Bitcoin, Ethereum, SOL, XRP, ADA, LINK, and Lumens (XLM).
According to CoinDesk, Consensys—an Ethereum application developer—has postponed its initial public offering (IPO) plans due to the significant downturn in the cryptocurrency market in February 2026. Sources familiar with the matter said Consensys had originally planned to confidentially file its S-1 registration statement with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) around the end of February this year—a step typically marking the first formal stage of the IPO process. In response, a Consensys spokesperson stated that the company does not comment on market speculation. The report notes that although improved regulatory clarity in the U.S. has prompted several crypto firms to plan for public listings, prolonged market weakness has led companies including Kraken and Ledger to pause their IPO plans.
According to The Block, Matt Hougan, Chief Investment Officer at Bitwise, noted that three enterprise-grade blockchains—Arc (by Circle), Canton Network, and Tempo (by Stripe)—have collectively raised over $1 billion in funding recently. All three funding rounds occurred after the signing of the GENIUS Act in July 2025. Hougan believes this legislation broke a prior regulatory stalemate that had discouraged institutional capital from entering the space. Hougan identified three key signals: First, all three blockchains prioritize native privacy-preserving transactions as a core design feature, addressing institutions’ need for transaction confidentiality. Second, the implementation of the GENIUS Act has significantly reduced regulatory uncertainty; the next critical variable is the pending Clarity Act, from which stablecoins and tokenization infrastructure stand to benefit. Third, these blockchains are backed by top-tier institutions—including Goldman Sachs, Citadel, BlackRock, Stripe, and Visa—marking a stark contrast to Ethereum and Solana, which emerged from grassroots origins. Hougan stated that his firm’s capital remains primarily allocated to native crypto projects, and he believes these emerging enterprise chains will raise the overall competitive bar and attract additional capital inflows.
According to CoinPost, Japanese blockchain infrastructure company Nihon Blockchain Kiban has officially decided to issue the trust-based JPY-pegged stablecoin EJPY. The stablecoin is planned to be deployed on Japan Open Chain (JOC) and Ethereum, with the goal of launching issuance and circulation on JOC within fiscal year 2026. The announcement states that the trust-based architecture required for EJPY has achieved phased progress. The company noted that EJPY will primarily serve inter-corporate settlements, digital asset payments, fund transfers, and various Web3 payment use cases, and that it will advance a multi-chain strategy centered on JOC. Specific details—including the actual launch date, issuance terms, partner institutions, and supported blockchains—will be announced separately after consultations with regulatory authorities and relevant organizations and completion of necessary procedures.
JPMorgan Chase has filed an application to launch a tokenized money market fund, JLTXX, on the Ethereum blockchain. Officially named the JPMorgan OnChain Liquidity-Token Money Market Fund, this fund will invest exclusively in US Treasuries and overnight repurchase agreements fully collateralized by US Treasuries or cash. It is designed to meet the eligible reserve asset requirements for stablecoin issuers under the GENIUS Act.Last year, JPMorgan launched its first tokenized money market fund, MONY, on Ethereum.
Odaily Odaily News According to the latest weekly report from Gate Ventures, global markets continued to strengthen last week, driven by the technology sector. Both the S&P 500 and the Nasdaq index hit new record highs, with the S&P 500 gaining 2.36% for the week and the Nasdaq rising 4.52%. In the crypto market, BTC rose 4.6% last week, ETH rose 2.1%, spot BTC ETFs recorded net inflows for the fifth consecutive week, and market sentiment recovered to the neutral range. Additionally, the total market cap of cryptocurrencies excluding the top ten assets increased by 12.6% for the week.On the macroeconomic front, the ISM Services Price Index rose to 70.7, a two-year high, coupled with energy price fluctuations and the Federal Reserve's policy expectation of "keeping interest rates higher for longer," leading to increased market focus on a "stagflation" environment. On the industry level, Payward, the parent company of Kraken, has applied to the OCC for a national trust charter, highlighting the increasingly evident trend of industry compliance. In terms of investment and financing, 10 deals were completed last week totaling $34.2 million, primarily concentrated in the DeFi and infrastructure sectors. Among them, OpenTrade completed a $17 million funding round to accelerate the development of institutional-grade stablecoin yield infrastructure; OnRe secured a $5 million Series A round to advance its Solana-based tokenized reinsurance product offerings.
Odaily Planet Daily reported that Starknet, the Ethereum Layer 2 network developed by StarkWare, has officially launched strkBTC. This is a new Bitcoin-based asset designed to achieve private balances and anonymous transfers through zero-knowledge proof (ZK) technology while maintaining composability with DeFi applications. After its launch, strkBTC supports "re-anonymization," allowing assets to be bridged back to entirely new, unlinked Bitcoin addresses, and also provides compliance audit and asset screening features. (The Block)
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.
: Marc, the head of cryptocurrency donations at St. Jude Children's Research Hospital, stated that the hospital received a donation equivalent to 0.5% of the total supply of ASTEROID tokens approximately two years ago. However, due to the lack of compliant exchange channels at the time, the assets remained in the on-chain wallet.He noted that as ASTEROID's market cap rose from roughly $20,000 to over $150 million, the hospital's holdings were once valued between $500,000 and $1 million. To avoid impacting the community's liquidity, the hospital ultimately sold the holdings in 12 batches over two days, continuously monitoring liquidity throughout the process.Marc stated that the proceeds totaled over 290 ETH, worth approximately $676,000, and the funds will be used to support the treatment and research of childhood diseases at St. Jude Children's Research Hospital.
the Bank of New York Mellon (BNY) has announced the launch of a compliant institutional-grade digital asset custody service in the Abu Dhabi Global Market (ADGM), aiming to position Abu Dhabi as a global digital finance hub. The service is designed to provide institutional clients with highly secure and scalable digital asset custody solutions. Initially, the service will support the custody of Bitcoin and Ethereum, with subsequent phases expanding to stablecoins, tokenized real-world assets (RWAs), and more regulated digital financial products. The project remains subject to final agreement confirmation and relevant regulatory approvals. (Crowdfundinsider)
Vitalik Buterin published a research article on May 10, proposing to replace traditional on-chain transfer solutions with zero-knowledge proof (ZK) transactions, pushing crypto payments from "pseudonymity" toward "privacy by default." This solution allows users to complete payment verification without disclosing their full balance and transaction history.Vitalik specifically mentioned that in the era of AI agents, autonomous AI agents need to pay for services such as LLM APIs without leaving traceable footprints. He stated that through recursive SNARKs and a ZK API credit mechanism, Ethereum Layer 2 can achieve private payments at speeds and costs close to those of transparent transactions.Additionally, the proposal includes selective disclosure and "proof of innocence" mechanisms, allowing users to provide compliance proof to regulators or tax authorities without revealing on-chain privacy data, thereby meeting anti-money laundering requirements. Vitalik believes that the transparent and public nature of blockchain is a major obstacle to the widespread adoption of crypto payments.
Wasabi Protocol released a security incident update, stating that the attacker exploited a Spring Boot Actuator configuration vulnerability in its AWS infrastructure to steal private keys controlling EVM smart contracts, and subsequently drained approximately $4.8 million in user funds and $900,000 from the protocol’s treasury—totaling roughly $5.7 million in losses. The attack chain originated from a public-facing analysis server whose Actuator heap dump was not properly password-protected, enabling the attacker to obtain credentials for another server and ultimately gain control of the smart contract private keys. This incident affected only EVM deployments—including certain treasuries on Ethereum, Base, Blast, and Berachain—while Solana deployments and the Prop AMM remained unaffected. No final user compensation plan has been announced yet; however, “ensuring all affected users are compensated” remains the team’s top priority. Updates on the investigation will be shared with the community via Discord.
CoinMarketCap’s April 2026 Exchange Monthly Report shows that the total trading volume across the 12 tracked cryptocurrency exchanges amounted to $4.50 trillion, with Binance holding a 36.23% market share. Overall derivatives trading volume was 5.38 times that of spot trading, and the combined proof-of-reserves across eight exchanges totaled $220.07 billion. The report also notes that Coinbase surpassed Binance in BTC spot order book depth within ±2%, becoming the exchange with the deepest liquidity; for ETH spot liquidity, Binance remains the leader. On the regulatory front, Binance is advancing its MiCA authorization application in Greece, while Gemini completed its withdrawal from the UK, EEA, and Australian markets on April 6.
According to The Block, BNY announced the expansion of its crypto custody business into the Abu Dhabi Global Market (ADGM) in the UAE through partnerships with Finstreet and the ADI Foundation, offering institutional clients crypto-asset custody services. Initially, the service will support custody for BTC and ETH. The three parties will subsequently explore extending these services to the ADI Foundation’s underlying blockchain infrastructure and gradually expand to stablecoins, tokenized real-world assets, and other regulated digital instruments.