News linked to both this project and an event.
According to The Block, Texas man Robert Dunlap was sentenced to 23 years in federal prison for a cryptocurrency fraud scheme exceeding $20 million and ordered to pay restitution to nearly 1,000 victims. Prosecutors alleged that Dunlap operated cryptocurrency projects and sold Meta-1 Coin, falsely claiming the token was backed by $44 billion in gold and approximately $1 billion in artworks—including pieces by Pablo Picasso, Vincent van Gogh, and Salvador Dalí—and that the assets had been audited. Last year, a jury found him guilty of mail fraud.
According to The Block, Layer 1 blockchain Tempo has launched a privacy solution called Zones, designed for institutional use cases such as payroll distribution, treasury management, and payment settlement. Zones provide a confidential execution environment in the form of parallel blockchains connected to the Tempo mainnet; transactions within a Zone are confidential by default, yet assets remain interoperable with the Tempo mainnet, other Zones, fiat on/off-ramps, and liquidity pools. Tempo states that each Zone will be managed by a trusted entity, whose operators can view activities within the Zone and enforce access controls—but do not control the underlying assets. Users retain full control and may withdraw funds locked in smart contracts on the mainnet at any time.
According to The Block, Yuga Labs, the developer behind the Bored Ape Yacht Club (BAYC) collection, has appointed Michael Figge as its new CEO, while former CEO Greg Solano has transitioned to Chairman of the Board. Solano stated that Figge joined the company in 2021 and has served as CEO for several weeks, previously holding the role of Chief Product Officer. This leadership reshuffle coincides with Yuga Labs’ ongoing development of its metaverse project, Otherside. The company describes Otherside as a metaRPG platform enabling players to own digital assets and engage in real-time multiplayer interactions. Moving forward, Solano will continue contributing to creative direction, writing, and the development of new ideas.
According to The Block, the UK’s Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) has published a new consultation paper seeking feedback on how to bring digital asset activities—including stablecoin issuance, trading platforms, custody, and staking—under regulatory oversight. The consultation period ends on 3 June 2026. Crypto firms will be able to begin applying for FCA authorization as early as 30 September 2026, and the new regulatory regime is expected to officially take effect in 2027. The FCA stated that, prior to the new regime coming into force, crypto assets are largely unregulated in the UK—except for financial promotions and anti-financial crime oversight. Industry insiders note that the UK’s progress on crypto regulation clearly lags behind Europe, which has already established a comprehensive enforcement framework; however, some practitioners view the FCA’s systematic, phased implementation approach positively.
According to The Block, the Washington-based think tank Cato Institute published a critique of the U.S.’s current Bitcoin tax policy. Researcher Nick Anthony pointed out that the existing tax framework—which classifies Bitcoin as “property” rather than “currency”—requires users to calculate capital gains or losses for every single transaction, including routine, small-value purchases. This makes tax filing extremely cumbersome and effectively hinders Bitcoin’s adoption as a payment instrument. In response, the Cato Institute proposed several reform measures, including fully eliminating capital gains taxes on cryptocurrency payments and introducing a de minimis exemption threshold for small transactions. The report also referenced the existing Virtual Currency Tax Fairness Act—a bill that would exempt crypto transactions under $200—but Anthony argued that this threshold is too low to reflect real-world consumer spending levels. Currently, the Trump administration has expressed support for establishing a de minimis exemption for cryptocurrency transactions and will continue evaluating related legislative options.
According to The Block, Sentinel Action Fund—a U.S. super PAC backed by the Solana Foundation—announced it will join forces with its sister advocacy organization Right Vote to spend $8 million supporting Republican Senator Jon Husted in Ohio’s upcoming election against Sherrod Brown, aiming to prevent the former senator and crypto skeptic Sherrod Brown from returning to the Senate. Jon Husted has long supported crypto innovation and backed several pro-crypto legislative initiatives, including the GENIUS Act. Per filings with the U.S. Federal Election Commission, the Solana Foundation has donated $750,000 to Sentinel Action Fund, while Multicoin Capital contributed $250,000.
According to The Block, Brix—a startup focused on tokenizing emerging-market assets—has announced a $5.5 million funding round. Participants include Yapi Kredi’s venture capital arm, FRWRD, IS Asset Management, and crypto investment firms Circle Ventures, ConsenSys, and Borderless Capital. Brix plans to launch on the MegaETH network, aiming to bring traditionally institutional trading strategies—such as Turkish lira arbitrage—on-chain.
According to The Block, SIX Group, a leading European stock exchange operator, announced that its Swiss exchange, SIX Swiss Exchange, and Spain’s BME Exchange will bring stock market data on-chain via Chainlink nodes. This collaboration enables smart contracts to directly read market data from both exchanges, facilitating the development of blockchain use cases such as tokenized stock indices, structured products, decentralized finance (DeFi) applications, and prediction markets. The combined market capitalization of the two SIX Group exchanges totals €2 trillion, making this initiative a trusted data source for the global financial ecosystem. Previously, prominent financial institutions—including Deutsche Börse, FTSE Russell, and S&P Global—as well as cryptocurrency companies such as Coinbase, have also launched similar partnerships with Chainlink. Since its launch last year, Chainlink’s DataLink service has been integrated into thousands of decentralized applications and across dozens of blockchains.
According to The Block, Visa, Stripe, and Zodia Custody—a digital asset custody firm backed by Standard Chartered Bank—have become the first validators on the Tempo payment blockchain. Tempo is an Ethereum-compatible Layer 1 blockchain designed specifically for high-throughput payments and stablecoin settlement, primarily targeting large institutions. Validators are responsible for verifying, ordering, and finalizing on-chain transactions, and are typically mature organizations with global operational capabilities. Tempo was incubated by Stripe and Paradigm, launched its private testnet in September 2025, and closed a $500 million Series A funding round in October at a valuation of approximately $5 billion. Recently, Tempo introduced its “Agent Payments” protocol—executed by AI agents—and has attracted infrastructure integrations including RedStone.
According to The Block, U.S. Republican Senator Thom Tillis stated that a draft bill aimed at resolving the long-standing dispute between banks and crypto firms over stablecoin yield—under the “Clarity for Payment Stablecoins Act” (the “Clarity Act”)—will be publicly released this week. Tillis co-drafted the provisions with Democratic Senator Angela Alsobrooks. The draft has already undergone review by both banking and crypto industry stakeholders, though banks remain opposed. Tillis indicated he is open to further revisions of the text. The issue of stablecoin yield represents the central point of contention in the Clarity Act: banks fear that permitting crypto firms to pay interest on idle stablecoins would trigger massive deposit outflows, while crypto enterprises such as Coinbase argue that banning such interest payments would stifle innovation. Additionally, Tillis proposed hosting a “Crypto Summit” to bring all stakeholders to Capitol Hill for negotiations toward a resolution. The Clarity Act has not yet advanced through the Senate Banking Committee and remains far from final enactment.
According to The Block, renowned startup accelerator Y Combinator has completed its first fully stablecoin investment, paying $500,000 in USDC to prediction market startup Totalis via three on-chain transactions on Solana. The funds are held in custody by Ramp, a financial operations platform. Y Combinator CEO Garry Tan stated that the accelerator will make stablecoin payments available to all YC-backed startups—not limited to crypto-related companies. Totalis plans to use Ramp to execute both stablecoin and fiat transactions simultaneously and to pay credit card bills from its stablecoin account.
According to The Block, Korean payment service provider NHN KCP has signed a memorandum of understanding with Ava Labs to jointly build a Layer 1 network for payment use cases on Ava Cloud. The initiative will focus on three key areas: sub-second payment confirmation, on-chain transaction data encryption, and customizable merchant payment infrastructure. The two parties will also explore business opportunities including tokenized deposit models, multi-stablecoin settlement architectures, and cross-border payments. Justin Kim, Head of Asia at Ava Labs, stated that the mainnet launch timeline for this L1 will depend significantly on the progress of South Korea’s cryptocurrency regulatory framework.
According to The Block, Circle CEO Jeremy Allaire responded at a press conference in Seoul, South Korea, to criticism over Circle’s decision not to freeze the stolen USDC involved in the Drift incident. He stated that Circle fulfills its legal obligations and freezes wallets only upon instruction from law enforcement agencies or courts; unilaterally freezing assets would constitute a “major ethical dilemma.” He also revealed that Circle is engaging with U.S. legislative bodies regarding the Clarity Act, seeking to establish a “safe harbor” mechanism for stablecoin issuers in extreme circumstances—but emphasized that any such authority must be explicitly granted through legislation, not exercised unilaterally by the company.
According to The Block, Avihu Levy, a researcher at StarkWare, published a paper proposing the Quantum Safe Bitcoin (QSB) scheme, claiming it enables quantum-resistant transactions under Bitcoin’s existing script rules—without requiring a soft fork. This scheme replaces elliptic-curve cryptography with the RIPEMD-160 hash function via a “hash-to-signature” puzzle, thereby enhancing resilience against quantum attacks. The paper notes that QSB’s current per-transaction cost ranges from $75 to $150—significantly higher than today’s average transaction fee—and involves complex user experience; thus, it is recommended only as a “last resort.” The scheme remains constrained by script opcodes and size limits, and does not yet support all use cases—such as the Lightning Network. Compared to BIP-360—which requires protocol-level changes—QSB needs no modifications to the Bitcoin protocol, but remains experimental.
According to The Block, Galaxy Digital released its full-year 2025 financial results. Although the company reported a net loss of $241 million for the year, its core business achieved profitability on a non-GAAP basis. Specifically, its digital asset business segment—which includes trading, lending, asset management, and staking services—generated adjusted gross profit of $505 million. Boosted by this performance, GLXY’s stock closed up 11.3% that day at $21.15. CEO Mike Novogratz stated that the company’s Helios data center has received ERCOT approval to expand capacity to 1.6 gigawatts, and CoreWeave has signed a long-term lease for 800 megawatts of that capacity, securing a stable, long-term revenue stream. He emphasized that the industry is shifting from “narrative-driven” to “infrastructure-driven,” and Galaxy will continue to focus on core areas including the institutional market, asset management, onchain infrastructure, and AI data centers.
According to The Block, AlphaTON Capital has announced plans to raise $43 million through a strategic partnership with Vertical Data Inc. to expand its AI compute infrastructure; the transaction is expected to close in Q2 2026. AlphaTON CEO Brittany Kaiser stated that the funding will be used to deploy additional NVIDIA B300 GPUs, with the core objective of advancing the convergence of AI, digital assets, and confidential computing—and scaling up the platform’s overall compute capacity. On the business front, AlphaTON not only holds a substantial amount of TON tokens as corporate treasury assets but also actively participates in building infrastructure for the Telegram and TON ecosystems, with key investment focus areas including Cocoon, Telegram’s decentralized AI platform. Background-wise, AlphaTON was formed through the restructuring and transformation of former biotech public company Portage Biotech Inc., which had previously focused on cancer therapy research; the company completed the spin-off of its cancer therapy subsidiary in February this year.