News linked to both this project and an event.
Binance founder CZ stated that the company's MiCA license application in Greece fully met regulatory requirements before its withdrawal and was close to approval. However, the process was ultimately disrupted due to the intervention of "external political factors."In an interview, CZ mentioned that several countries within the EU had expressed interest in the license, with some even showing a degree of "competitive pursuit." Ultimately, the regulatory progress was affected by factors outside the regulatory sphere, forcing the withdrawal of the application. Binance formally withdrew its Greek application last week and stated it would pursue MiCA authorization in other EU member states. Addressing market rumors linking him to high-level EU political figures, CZ said he had not seen any verifiable documents and had only encountered similar claims online, which he could not confirm.CZ also noted that the MiCA transitional period in the EU is set to end on July 1st. After that date, platforms without a license must cease related services. National regulatory bodies have made it clear there will be no extensions. He described the outcome as a "lose-lose situation" and, citing the regulatory histories of Japan and Singapore, emphasized that compliance processes often require a longer cycle.Furthermore, when discussing Strategy's STRC preferred stock product, CZ described its structure as "too complex" and said he found it difficult to fully understand its mechanism. However, he stressed that he was not making a judgment on the credibility of its founder, Michael Saylor, whom he considers a "staunch Bitcoin supporter." (The Block)
blockchain IP project Story Protocol has announced its transition into the DATA Foundation, shifting its core focus from general intellectual property (IP) infrastructure to an AI training data network. This move addresses the rapidly growing demand for "licensable and traceable training data."Alongside this transition, the project launched a new product called Trace. As an on-chain AI training data registration and auditing system, Trace generates verifiable on-chain "contribution certificates" for each piece of data. These certificates record the source, licensing terms, user consent, and payment information, helping AI model trainers confirm data compliance and traceability. (The Block)
According to The Block, Ripple’s USD-pegged stablecoin RLUSD has received regulatory approval from Japan’s Financial Services Agency (FSA) and has officially launched in Japan, classified as a “new type of electronic payment instrument” under the Payment Services Act. The stablecoin is available to institutional and retail users via SBI VC Trade, the cryptocurrency platform operated by Japanese financial conglomerate SBI Holdings.
Ink, an Ethereum Layer 2 network incubated by Kraken, has reached a multi-year infrastructure agreement with Optimism, upgrading to OP Enterprise Fully Managed.Under the agreement, Optimism will be responsible for running Ink's production infrastructure, while the Ink Foundation will focus on ecosystem growth and new financial products. Additionally, Ink will serve as a deep design partner for OP Enterprise, jointly advancing roadmap plans including programmable block construction, one-day Ethereum withdrawals, and sequencer-level compliance tools.Currently, applications built on the Ink network generate nearly $40 million in annual revenue. This partnership makes Ink another exchange-related blockchain network to join the fully managed layer service, following Bitpanda's Vision Chain. (The Block)
According to the mid-year crypto market report released by 21Shares, after Bitcoin peaks at approximately $126,000 in October 2025, the base target price for the end of 2026 is set at $100,000.The report shows that as of May 2026, the global crypto ETP assets under management stood at approximately $140 billion, with total holdings of 1.25 million BTC. Furthermore, prediction market trading volume reached $57.5 billion by the end of May; total value locked in DeFi remained around $140 billion; within the Ethereum Layer 2 ecosystem, Base, Arbitrum, and Optimism accounted for approximately 83% of total DeFi TVL; and the total value of tokenized assets on public blockchains reached $31 billion, including $15 billion in tokenized U.S. Treasury bonds. (The Block)
Odaily, the decentralized cross-chain liquidity protocol THORChain has resumed trading after being down for over five weeks following a May attack. Signing, swapping, liquidity provider operations, and redemptions have all been restored.On May 15, blockchain investigator ZachXBT and security firm PeckShield identified that the protocol had likely been exploited, prompting THORChain to halt trading. The vulnerability resulted in a loss of approximately $10.7 million from one of its six Asgard vaults, while the other five vaults were unaffected.THORChain stated that each vault has now been verified, and every key share has been cross-checked. Native Monero swaps are currently undergoing end-to-end testing and will be launched subsequently. (The Block)
: Polymarket has been appointed as the exclusive predictive market partner for the German Football Bundesliga in the US market.Polymarket stated that official event prediction contracts related to the Bundesliga and its clubs are now live, allowing users to engage in prediction trading on related matches and events. (The Block)
According to The Block, Kraken officially launched its on-chain DEX trading functionality on June 18, enabling users to directly access thousands of tokens within the Solana ecosystem through Kraken’s main app—without leaving their familiar interface. This launch is powered by Kraken’s embedded wallet infrastructure Privy and several leading Solana DEX protocols. DEX assets will be displayed alongside existing assets in the Portfolio view, and users can trade using their USD or USDC balances. Kraken stated that it plans to expand DEX functionality to additional ecosystems in the future.
Bitcoin mining company HIVE's subsidiary BUZZ High Performance Computing has signed a three-year sovereign AI cloud infrastructure contract worth approximately $220 million with Bell AI Fabric and Cohere. Under the contract, BUZZ HPC will deploy a cluster containing 2,304 Nvidia Grace Blackwell GPUs at Bell's facility in Merritt, British Columbia.Funding for the Blackwell systems comes from the $115 million convertible note financing completed in April. The deployment is expected to become operational between late 2026 and early 2027, and is projected to add approximately $70 million to the company's current $35 million in annual recurring revenue. Additionally, HIVE has received approval to acquire a 32-megawatt data center in Big Boden, Sweden, and plans to upgrade it to support enterprise-grade AI workloads. (The Block)
Range, a stablecoin compliance startup, announced the completion of an $8.3 million Series A funding round, with participation from TX Ventures, SixThirty, Maven 11 Capital, Onigiri Capital, and others. The project's total funding to date has reached $11 million.Range provides a unified platform for companies operating both stablecoins and fiat currencies. Its core products include Unify, a real-time ledger system, and Protect, an on-chain transaction screening tool. Its clients include Circle, Solana Foundation, Stellar, Squads, and Jupiter, among others. The funds from this round will be used to expand the Unify and Protect products, grow the engineering and business development teams, and increase integrations and network coverage. (The Block)
Odaily报道: Satori Finance, a multi-chain decentralized exchange backed by investors including Polychain Capital and Coinbase Ventures, has announced it will cease operations and begin the closure process. The platform stated that due to "prolonged unfavorable market conditions," its revenue is insufficient to support continued operations, leading to the decision to gradually wind down. Users must withdraw their assets before 23:59 UTC on July 16, after which the platform will no longer be accessible.In 2022, Satori Finance completed a $10 million seed funding round led by Polychain Capital, with participation from Coinbase Ventures and Jump Crypto. The platform was deployed across multiple networks including Arbitrum, Optimism, and BNB Chain, and initially featured 25x leverage and an "points mining" incentive model. (The Block)
EarnOS, a blockchain-based digital advertising startup, has announced the completion of a $6 million Pre-A funding round, led by 1kx with participation from Coinbase Ventures, Circle Ventures, and Social Graph Ventures. Additionally, EarnOS has secured a four-year, $12.5 million non-dilutive strategic investment from Verona (formerly XION) to support application verification, user onboarding, and reward distribution systems. The company also announced a brand restructuring, noting that its L1 network will provide underlying support for EarnOS, enabling large-scale user authentication and task incentive mechanisms. (The Block)
Benchmark has maintained a "Buy" rating for Coinbase with a $270 price target, implying approximately 59.5% upside from its Tuesday closing price of $169.27. The firm noted that Coinbase's latest "System Update" indicates it is accelerating its transformation from a crypto trading platform into an "everything exchange" that bridges traditional finance and the on-chain economy.Analyst Mark Palmer stated that this product update covers tokenized stocks, stock and crypto options, pre-IPO perpetual contracts, prediction markets, AI-driven investment tools, agent payment infrastructure, and retail financial products, signaling the continuous expansion of its business boundaries.Key progress highlighted by Benchmark also includes: the U.S. CFTC's approval for it to operate as a regulated Futures Commission Merchant (FCM), global derivatives capabilities obtained through the acquisition of Deribit, and integrating crypto perpetuals and options into a compliant framework, thereby achieving cross-market liquidity consolidation.Furthermore, the company's strategic moves in the Base ecosystem, prediction markets, and AI agent payments are also seen as key signals of its evolution from "spot crypto trading" to a comprehensive on-chain financial infrastructure. (The Block)
According to The Block, Zama, Morpho, and Steakhouse Financial will launch Steakhouse Confidential USDC Prime Vault, an Ethereum-based confidential DeFi yield product that enables institutional users to deposit encrypted USDC and earn yield without revealing on-chain positions, transaction amounts, or strategy information.
According to The Block, Australia’s High Court unanimously ruled that Block Earner’s previously launched fixed-income digital asset product, Earner, qualifies as a regulated financial product, requiring providers to hold an Australian Financial Services Licence (AFSL). The court upheld the appeal filed by the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) and overturned the lower court’s earlier ruling, which had been more favorable to Block Earner.
According to The Block, U.S. Senate and House leaders jointly released an updated version of the “Pathway to 21st Century Housing Act,” confirming a bipartisan agreement between both chambers. The bill’s core focus is housing affordability reform, including expanding housing supply and curbing market monopolization by corporate landlords. Notably, an attached provision explicitly prohibits the Federal Reserve from issuing or creating a central bank digital currency (CBDC) or any “substantially similar” digital asset before December 31, 2030—a clause spearheaded by Republican members of the House. The Trump administration maintains a consistent stance: Treasury Secretary Bessent has previously stated unequivocally that a CBDC is “not under consideration.” The bill will first undergo a procedural vote in the Senate and is expected to be submitted to the House for consideration after Congress resumes on June 23, following its recess; it will then proceed to the President for signature.
World Liberty Financial, a crypto project backed by the Trump family, is expected to receive approval from the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) to operate as a national trust bank in the near future. Two former OCC employees who spoke on condition of anonymity revealed that the application is almost certain to be approved.World Liberty Financial established a U.S. trust company in January of this year and submitted an application to the OCC. Obtaining a federal trust bank charter would allow the project to issue and redeem its USD1 stablecoin, manage reserves, provide digital asset custody, and offer conversion and settlement services under a single federal regulatory body, without relying on third-party intermediaries. Currently, the project's intermediary institution is BitGo. (The Block)
According to The Block, Alexandre Laizet, Director of Capital B—a French-listed Bitcoin reserve company—said the company is developing a Bitcoin-backed digital credit instrument for the European market, modeled after Strategy’s STRC and Strive’s SATA.
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.