Cryptopolitan

The derivatives regulator, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, is rescinding a 30-year rule that stopped settled parties from defending themselves publicly. According to agency announcement on Wednesday, the 1998 gag rule will be abolished immediately upon its Federal Register publication.
Earlier criticism from conservatives centered on claims that the rule undermined defendants’ freedom of speech, a view that the CFTC appears to share. In explaining its position, the agency stated that, “The Rule directly infringes upon the First Amendment rights of Americans and works to conceal the operations of agency enforcement from the American people.”
Supporters of the rollback argue that the previous policy blurred the line between legal accountability and reputational control, effectively preventing settled parties from offering their own version of events. Moreover, critics of gag clauses have long argued that they created an imbalance in enforcement settlements, where defendants paid penalties but were also restricted from defending their reputations in public.
The New Civil Liberties Alliance had petitioned against the CFTC gag rule in 2019
Rescinding the provision harmonizes the CFTC practice with the federal majority, enhancing enforcement flexibility to preserve administrative resources, establish certainty, and accelerate victim restitution.
Director of the Division of Enforcement David Miller, noted, “Today’s action harmonizes the Commission’s settlement approach with those taken by other agencies and ensures fairer resolutions in enforcement matters.”
CFTC Chairman Michael S. Selig, also remarked, “I am pleased that we are rescinding the no-deny policy consistent with regulators throughout the government.”
The CFTC policy had faced no formal opposition until 2019, when the New Civil Liberties Alliance, a nonprofit legal group, petitioned to end it. The group had claimed that the rule restricts truthful expression and fails to serve the public good. It further claimed that the CFTC had no legal basis for issuing the Gag Rule.
More recently, the group asserted that the commission had shelved their petition for months, keeping countless targets gagged during that time. It hoped that the agency would provide relief to the affected individuals.
Nevertheless, the CFTC announced Wednesday that it will not enforce no-deny clauses already embedded in existing settlements, and said it would take no action if parties violate them.
The SEC earlier removed its 50-year-old gag rule
In May, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) ended its gag rule. At the time, the agency’s Chair, Paul Atkins, stated, “Speech critical of the government is ​an important part of the American tradition,” adding that the change would allow settling defendants to publicly criticize the agency.
The American Securities Association’s president, Chris Iacovella, applauded the shift, contending that the SEC’s former policy had undermined free expression by discouraging defendants from speaking out after settling.
For more than five decades, the rule has prohibited settling defendants from denying allegations they chose not to admit. Reportedly, the rule was instituted to discourage any perception that the agency’s allegations were unfounded.
However, Ben Schiffrin of the financial advocacy group Better Markets called out the SEC for implementing the rule change without public consultation. “The ​SEC should want the public to have no doubt that its sanctions are based on violations of the securities laws,” ​he said in a statement.
Prior to the rescission, the agency had resisted policy amendments. In 2024, Commissioner Hester Peirce stated that the rule was an outlier among regulators and that public denials didn’t actually cause problems. In 2017, James Valvo, Counsel & Senior Policy Advisor at Cause of Action Institute, had written a paper addressing concerns about both the SEC and CFTC gag rules. At the time, he had called for judicial intervention on the policies, though no meaningful action was taken.
In its last announcement on the rule change, the SEC stated that it does not intend to revisit prior enforcement actions if defendants breach their original no-deny provisions, even after rescission.
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Bitcoin is back in the danger zone, as prices fell to their lowest level since January on Thursday after selling pressure got worse across the crypto market.
Bitcoin’s price is currently at $63,300, down by over 16% for the week. Over the past seven days, Bitcoin has lost about 13% and slipped into the $67,000 area. That is a long way from the high above $120,000 reached last October. From that peak, Bitcoin is now down more than 45%.
Traders bet Bitcoin can fall below $60,000 as six-figure odds keep shrinking
Traders on Kalshi now see the current stretch as a full “crypto winter,” pricing in more pain, not a clean recovery. The platform shows close to an 80% chance that Bitcoin falls below $60,000 in 2026. That would put the price under its February low, when Bitcoin dropped to $60,062.
The downside bets do not stop there. Kalshi traders also give Bitcoin a 52% chance of falling below $50,000 this year. The last time Bitcoin traded with a four at the front of its price was August 2024.
The excitement about Bitcoin reclaiming $100,000 has faded. Kalshi traders think it only has a 27% chance of reaching that mark by 2026. Just in early May, the odds were nearly 50%, so there’s been a big shift in perception in less than a month.
On Polymarket, the traders there see only a 12% chance that Bitcoin reaches a new all-time high in 2026. The pressure is also coming from macro markets.
The 10-year Treasury yield climbed back above 4.45%. Traders now see more than a 50% chance that the Federal Reserve raises rates by the end of the year. Rate cuts are no longer priced into the outlook. The U.S. Dollar Index is still above 99.
That is a rough setup for risk assets, and Bitcoin has taken the hit harder than most. U.S. spot Bitcoin ETFs have seen $4.21 billion in outflows over three weeks. That is the biggest institutional redemption streak of 2026.
The big money guys are scaling back now, even before there’s any real price recovery. The nonfarm payrolls report on Friday will be super crucial. If the jobs numbers are strong, selling pressure may continue. If they come in weak, it could finally give the market a break.
On-chain data puts Bitcoin between $77,800 resistance and $53,900 support
Meanwhile on-chain, Bitcoin has fallen away from the True Market Mean at $77,800. That level tracks the average cost of coins that are actively changing hands. Traders often use it as a line between stronger and weaker market phases.
The current lower zone is right at the Realized Price of $53,900, which is the average cost for all the coins out there. Since Bitcoin’s at $63,000, it’s caught in the middle of these values. Because it hasn’t stayed above the True Market Mean, the bear-market setup is still on.
Things aren’t looking great for short-term holders either, as they’ve got a cost basis of around $76,400, which is also above that mean, and the last time this happened was back in January 2022.
Newer buyers are now at the primary valuation level, so time is testing their patience. Usually, we see this scenario towards the end of a bear market, where those with weaker positions or long-term holdings get exposed.
The options market is anxious too. One-month implied volatility is around 42%, and realized volatility sits at about 32%. So, the volatility risk premium is hitting its highest in three months.
While spot trading is challenging, option traders think things will pick up. As Bitcoin fell below critical support, implied volatility skyrocketed, indicating higher demand for safety through options.
Put options stay more expensive than calls across the board. With skew calculated by puts minus calls, the positive readings indicate that protection against a downturn still costs more. For one month, three months, and six months, this gap is around 13% to 14%.
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Binance has announced that it will shut down NFT support on its centralized exchange on July 3, 2026. Any current holders are expected to move their assets to self-custodial wallets or lose access permanently.
NFT trading volumes have crashed from nearly $24 billion in 2022 to roughly $1.2 billion in 2026 so far. Other than Binance, other platforms that traded NFTs, like Nifty Gateway and Kraken NFT, have shut down.
Binance pulls the plug on NFTs
Binance first closed its dedicated NFT marketplace back in 2023. Now, the exchange is going further by removing NFT support from its main platform entirely. The company says this is an “upgrade” that moves NFT management to Binance Wallet, where users can access “Web3 and decentralized features” more easily.
But for regular users who kept their NFTs on Binance to avoid dealing with seed phrases and gas fees, they have exactly one month to move their assets or have them become inaccessible.
Non-transferable NFTs like Binance Academy certificates and certain event-based NFTs will become completely inaccessible after the deadline passes. However, Binance says it will issue PDF certificates to users holding non-transferable NFTs that certify course completion.
Binance is offering 1 USDC to up to 100,000 users for completing eligible NFT withdrawals, but only for non-CR7 assets and only before June 17, 2026.
Holders of Cristiano Ronaldo-linked CR7 NFTs are eligible for reimbursement until the 19th of July, but anyone who misses the June 17 cutoff for standard NFTs pays their own gas.
What does the NFT market look like in 2026?
Annual NFT trading volume reached roughly $23.8 billion in 2022, but in 2024 that figure dropped to about $8.9 billion. Even worse, in 2026, the current trading volume is roughly $1.2 billion.
The NFT sector has been facing a prolonged downturn that has collapsed prices, leaving the current annual NFT trading volume at around $5.5 billion.
Binance joins a growing list of platforms that have abandoned NFT operations. Gemini-owned Nifty Gateway, one of the oldest NFT trading platforms, shut down in February 2026 after facilitating over $300 million in sales at its peak during the 2021 digital art era. Kraken NFT and X2Y2 have also closed.
NFT Paris, one of the sector’s marquee conferences, canceled its 2026 edition after four consecutive years, and Cryptopolitan reported that the organizers said the decision was due to the market crash and illiquid conditions.
The cancellation reportedly left over 500,000 euros in sponsor fees unreimbursed, and the core team running the event was said to have left just before the final decision
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Polymarket and Kalshi recorded $176 million and $108 million, respectively, in daily crypto-category volume on June 2, according to data shared by analytics firm Artemis.
Both figures are all-time highs for the respective prediction market platforms, and they come on the same day crypto markets saw their heaviest liquidation event since February.
Did the crypto liquidation day fuel the surge?
The two prediction market platforms posted their highest single-day crypto volumes during a session that saw over $1.76 billion in leveraged positions wiped out across crypto markets.
Bitcoin fell below $67,000 for the first time since April 2, and the total crypto market capitalization shed around $137 billion.
Kalshi crossed the $100 million mark for the first time in its crypto category with its $108 million, topping a previous daily record set on March 16. Polymarket’s $176 million session was also a new peak, per Artemis’ tweet.
The sector was running hot before the spike
Prediction markets generally have been having a relatively good year, as the sector posted $28.4 billion in total volume during May, a new monthly record that extended a streak of four consecutive months with rising volumes.
Kalshi accounted for $17.3 billion of May’s total, which is around 61% of all prediction market volume and close to double Polymarket’s $8.4 billion, according to the Artemis data.
Kalshi has pulled away from Polymarket since February across multiple categories. In crypto-specific contracts, Kalshi held a 60.45% share for the week ending May 17, which is a reversal from Polymarket’s 91.11% dominance at the start of the year.
The gap has gotten wider at the platform level, with Kalshi crossing $4 billion in total weekly notional volume for the first time in the week ending May 17, and this is a 7,424% increase from $54.5 million a year earlier. Polymarket processed $2 billion the same week.
Kalshi adds perpetual futures on the same day
Kalshi announced on X on June 3 that Bitcoin perpetual futures are now live for trading on its platform, calling it “the first American perpetual future.”
Perpetual futures are a mainstay of offshore crypto exchanges like Binance and Bybit, but have not been available on a CFTC-regulated venue until now. The product adds continuous exposure alongside Kalshi’s existing binary event contracts.
Polymarket still commands liquidity depth
Polymarket trails Kalshi on volume share but holds a larger pool of locked capital. DefiLlama data shows Polymarket with $535.58 million in total value locked, $488.35 million in open interest, and over 108,000 active addresses in the past 24 hours. Cumulative trading volume on the platform has reached $36.1 billion across its Polygon-based and off-chain order books.
Polymarket’s revenue has also picked up. The platform generated $20.94 million in revenue over the past 30 days on $3.89 billion in trading volume during the same period, according to DefiLlama.
New entrants eye the space
The prediction market sector is also seeing new players enter the market, and one of them is Hyperliquid’s HIP-4. Cryptopolitan has previously reported that Hyperliquid launched HIP-4 outcome contracts on its mainnet on May 2, allowing developers to deploy prediction markets on top of an exchange already clearing hundreds of billions in monthly perpetual futures volume.
HIP-4 has reached roughly 1% of Polymarket’s volumes so far, with about 500 active traders and 1 million trades processed, according to Dune Analytics data. Hyperliquid’s approach uses its own validators for market resolution rather than third-party oracles, and the platform plans to let third-party builders launch their own outcome pairs.
The prediction market category now holds $595.91 million in total value locked across all platforms, according to DefiLlama.
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Popular prediction market platform Kalshi has officially begun offering Bitcoin perpetual futures for the U.S. public on June 3, making it the very first platform to list a CFTC-approved perpetual contract for American traders.
This is a move that has been in the making for months, with expected competition to come up in the coming weeks from other prediction market platforms and institutions.
Kalshi BTCPERP has been cooking for months
The Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) signed off on the proposed contract on May 29 under Commission Regulation 40.3. Listed as BTCPERP, the novel product tracks Bitcoin’s spot price, has no expiration date, and is entirely cash-settled. Trading is expected to run 24/7, and the contracts will use a funding rate mechanism that is anchored to market spot prices, according to Binance News.
Kalshi announced the launch on X, calling it “The First American Perpetual Future,” a post that drew hundreds of reposts and nearly 500 likes within hours, according to the company’s official account.
Bitcoin Perpetuals are now live for trading.
The First American Perpetual Future.
Only on Kalshi. pic.twitter.com/P8oXcFeosy
— Kalshi (@Kalshi) June 3, 2026
How Kalshi BTC perpetual futures will benefit U.S. traders
Perpetual futures are among the most traded instruments in crypto worldwide. Reuters data put 2025 trading volume at $61.7 trillion, a 29% increase over 2024’s figures. Kalshi’s own figures placed the offshore total even higher, at $92.9 trillion for the same year of 2025.
Almost all of that activity has run through offshore venues like Binance and Hyperliquid, platforms that American institutions could not easily access through regulated channels. The CFTC approval of the Kalshi Bitcoin perpetual futures opens a domestic alternative to American traders.
Kalshi CEO Tarek Mansour told CNBC’s Squawk on the Street that perpetual futures represent “the purest form of trading.” Mansour framed the product as a step in Kalshi’s expansion from a prediction market into a more comprehensive derivatives exchange, and argued that regulated perpetual contracts would strengthen capital allocation and risk management for U.S. businesses as a whole.
CFTC Chairman Michael Selig, a Trump appointee, gave hints toward the approvals months earlier. Speaking at the Milken Institute in March 2026, Selig said U.S.-listed perpetual futures were expected “in the next month or so.” Selig has mentioned that the Kalshi approval was “a major step forward” in the administration’s stated goal of positioning the United States as a global crypto hub.
The CFTC said it would evaluate other perpetual futures contracts submissions for approval on a case-by-case basis, per the same report.
Competition already forming
Kalshi plans to expand the product line to more than a dozen cryptocurrencies pending regulatory clearance, after reaching a $22 billion valuation following a May 2026 funding round.
More importantly, other platforms and exchanges are moving quickly to get their Bitcoin perpetual futures products approved. Kraken has stated that it intends to list its own CFTC-regulated perpetual futures within 30 days of Kalshi’s approval, covering Bitcoin and other crypto assets.
Robinhood and Gemini have also both signaled interest in the same market.
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Adam Iza, a 25-year-old California cryptocurrency businessman known as “The Godfather,” pleaded guilty on Monday, June 1, to orchestrating an attempted kidnapping of a Connecticut couple.
Apparently, the son of the couple had stolen 4,100 Bitcoin worth roughly $245 million, leading to the kidnapping. According to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Connecticut, federal prosecutors are asking for at least 14 years in prison when Iza is sentenced on August 12.
From nightclub beef to violent abduction
The story starts with a fight at a Miami nightclub in mid-2024 between Veer Chetal and James Schwab, an alleged co-conspirator of Adam Iza. Weeks after the incident, Chetal and two others pulled off an elaborate social engineering scheme, pretending to be Google and crypto exchange tech support and siphoning 4,100 Bitcoins from a Washington, D.C., resident, according to court documents.
Prosecutors also shared that Chetal and his accomplices blew the stolen funds on a lavish lifestyle, including luxury cars, jewelry, rented mansions, and expensive nights out at nightclubs before their eventual arrest. While Chetal pleaded guilty to his involvement last November, his two co-defendants have maintained their innocence and pleaded not guilty.
Adam Iza and James Schwab allegedly identified an opportunity to profit from the situation by plotting to kidnap Veer Chetal’s parents. According to the FBI, citing information from informants, the pair intended to use the parents as leverage to force the group to hand over part of the stolen Bitcoin.
The Danbury abduction fell apart fast
On August 25, 2024, the group recruited six men who executed a violent kidnapping. According to the court records, the attackers staged a collision by rear-ending Sushil and Radhika Chetal’s Lamborghini SUV near Danbury High School in Connecticut and using a white van to block their path.
The victims were then removed from their vehicle, and Sushil Chetal was beaten with a baseball bat, after which both parents were bound with duct tape and taken away.
The crime was reported immediately after multiple witnesses called the police, and an off-duty FBI agent who also happened to be nearby assisted.
Law enforcement located the van within minutes and chased it until the vehicle crashed. Four men fled on foot and were arrested, while the remaining two were found at a nearby rental home.
According to the Associated Press, all six Floridian men have pleaded guilty. Two received 11-year sentences, and the others await sentencing.
Iza pleaded guilty on Monday to conspiracy to interfere with commerce by robbery, which is a Hobbs Act offense carrying up to 20 years, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Connecticut.
Iza is not a first-time federal offender
Before the Connecticut arrest, federal investigators in Los Angeles had been building a separate case against Iza. In January, he pleaded guilty in the Central District of California to wire fraud, conspiracy against rights, and tax evasion, according to the Department of Justice.
Prosecutors in that case noticed a pattern of corruption, revealing that while Iza lived in a Bel Air mansion running a cryptocurrency trading firm named Zort, he spent approximately $100,000 monthly on private security.
According to the Department of Justice, the security was provided by a firm founded by Eric Chase Saavedra, a deputy with the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department (LASD), who used active LASD deputies and other law enforcement officers as staff for Iza’s entourage.
Apparently, Iza directed those off-duty deputies to intimidate, extort, and surveil people he had disputes with, according to the court filings. The deputies would then access law enforcement databases for personal information on Iza’s targets, obtain search warrants under false pretenses, and, in one instance, hold a victim at gunpoint inside Iza’s home to force a $25,000 bank transfer.
According to the DOJ, Iza also admitted to stealing up to $37 million by fraudulently accessing Meta Platforms’ business manager accounts and their advertising credit lines between 2020 and 2022. As such, prosecutors in California are seeking a 35-year sentence.
Two LASD deputies, David Rodriguez and Christopher Michael Cadman, also pleaded guilty in July 2025 for their roles in the scheme, according to Cryptopolitan.
A growing pattern of crypto-based violence
The case against Adam Iza reflects a broader trend of violent attacks directed at crypto holders and their families.
Blockchain security firm CertiK reported that there were 34 verified “wrench attacks” (a term describing the use of physical force to steal digital assets) during the first four months of 2026. This is a 41% increase compared to the same period last year, with these incidents resulting in estimated losses totaling $101 million according to Cryptopolitan.
These incidents are happening everywhere across the world. In the U.S., three Tennessee men were indicted in May for allegedly posing as delivery drivers to rob cryptocurrency holders in California, with one victim forced at gunpoint to transfer approximately $6.5 million.
Additionally, earlier this year in Arizona, the 84-year-old mother of journalist Savannah Guthrie was kidnapped in an attempt to extort a $6 million Bitcoin ransom. In France, authorities indicted 88 suspects in late April for organized crypto kidnappings, including more than ten minors.
At this rate, CertiK projects that there could be approximately 130 of these incidents by the end of the year.
Meanwhile, Iza is scheduled for sentencing in the Connecticut case on August 12, though a date for his California sentencing has not yet been publicly announced. According to the Associated Press, his legal counsel in both cases declined to comment or did not respond to requests for comment.
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Britain’s Competition and Markets Authority just pulled off what it’s calling a world first. Google now has to let publishers yank their content out of AI Overviews, AI Mode, and the rest of its generative search lineup.
Google rolled out the new control on Tuesday as part of a bigger set of tools for site owners. The CMA says the opt-out gives publishers leverage when they negotiate licensing deals with Google.
Publishers and site owners can stop Google’s AI search
Publishers can flip the toggle, and their site stops showing up in Google’s generative AI products. The website will no longer be part of AI Overviews, AI Mode, or AI Overviews in Discover.
The content won’t get used to generate those AI responses either. Google says the opt-out won’t touch websites’ rankings in regular search results.
The feature goes live first with a small batch of UK publishers. Google plans to roll it out globally after testing. Google’s also adding performance data to Search Console.
Publishers will see impression counts for their pages inside AI responses, broken down by page and country. Google will add more metrics later based on what publishers ask for.
The regulator designated Google as having “strategic market status” back in October 2025. That classification handed the CMA the authority to impose rules on how Google operates.
In January 2026, the CMA told Google to give publishers a choice and let them decide if their content gets pulled into AI search features or used to train standalone AI models.
“Today, we have introduced a world first requirement on Google’s search services in the UK, enabling fair treatment, greater transparency and meaningful choice for businesses and consumers. With features like AI Overviews rapidly reshaping online search, it is crucial that content publishers, including news organisations, have appropriate bargaining power over how their content is used,” said Sarah Cardell, CMA chief executive.
Google shares AI mode usage numbers
Google dropped usage figures alongside the opt-out announcement.
AI Overviews hits more than 2.5 billion monthly active users. AI Mode just passed one billion. Those numbers put publishers in a spot, because opting out means walking away from all that traffic and visibility.
Google’s new Search Console metrics play the same role. Publishers can now see exactly how much reach they’re getting from AI search. Any website owner weighing the opt-out will have data showing what they’d be giving up.
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Trezor and the chip maker Tropic Square have disclosed a hardware vulnerability in the TROPIC01 secure element chip used in the Trezor Safe 7 wallet.
The vulnerability was found during an independent audit by rival Ledger’s security research team, Donjon. So far, Trezor claims that user funds and private keys were not compromised.
What did Ledger’s audit of Trezor reveal?
Researchers from Ledger’s Donjon team, the security division of Trezor’s direct competitor, found a flaw in the TROPIC01 secure element chip during an audit. This chip is made by Tropic Square, Trezor’s sister company, and is billed as the first secure element chip with publicly available hardware design and firmware source code.
The researchers used a high-tech method called laser fault injection. The researchers physically opened the chip package and then shot a precise infrared laser at the silicon to mess with the signature verification process. This allowed them to run their own unauthorized code on that specific chip.
Tropic Square provided commercial chip samples to Donjon for evaluation, and the team reported the flaw in late January 2026.
After receiving Donjon’s findings, Tropic Square’s own engineers found a related attack path that could extract an additional secret tied to the chip’s PIN protection functions.
What can Tropic Square or Trezor do to secure users more?
Due to the vulnerability being at the hardware level, it cannot be patched through a software update for existing Safe 7 devices, Trezor confirmed. Tropic Square said it is already producing a new chip batch that addresses the flaw, but users do not need to take any action.
The company stressed that the Safe 7 uses three independent physical security layers, and the TROPIC01 chip is only one of them. Private keys and wallet backups are not stored on the affected chip.
Exploiting the vulnerability also requires physical possession of the device, disassembly, backside decapsulation of the chip package, and access to specialized laser fault injection equipment.
Blockchain security firm Cyvers said that the attack appears “highly impractical” for real-world use. “Hardware wallet security should not be evaluated only by whether a chip can eventually be attacked in a lab,” Cyvers CEO Deddy Lavid said. In his view, phishing, seed phrase theft, and blind-signing are far larger threats for most users.
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Amazon now displays AI-generated images inside its shopping app’s search bar. The images show up as users type, rendering visual interpretations of the query before actual products appear.
The feature went live on Tuesday. Amazon says it’s for shoppers who struggle to describe items using exact retail terms.
A user types descriptive language into the search field, and synthetic product images are generated in real time. Each word a user adds refreshes the visuals.
“A customer may want a shirt with a draped collar but can’t think of the term “cowl neck,” or a couch with woven side panels but doesn’t know the word “rattan,” wrote Amazon in its announcement. The user then taps one of those generated images, and they land on results showing real products with a similar look.
U.S. customers on iOS and Android can use the new feature now. However, it’s limited to apparel and home categories for the moment, with more product types in the pipeline.
Source: Amazon News.
Amazon’s bigger visual search bet
The search bar images feature is part of a set of visual shopping tools Amazon outlined in the same blog post.
One of the new features, called “Shop by style,” presents AI-generated outfit collages organized by themes like “Urban luxe.” There’s also Amazon Lens Live, a camera-based feature that scans real-world objects and surfaces, matching products in a swipeable carousel.
Amazon integrated Alexa as a Shopping assistant into the Lens Live camera view, taking the place of Rufus AI chatbot for natural language product queries.
Amazon sold bonds worth more than $3 billion in Swiss francs and started a deal worth $37 billion in multiple tranches. That’s part of what Cryptopolitan reported as a combined $800 billion AI infrastructure spend projected across the five largest tech companies in 2026.
Amazon thinks that visual advice can help customers get from what they see to what they can type into a search box. Some people say the store already has millions of real product images that could be used for the same purpose.
The feature’s rolling out now. Shoppers in the U.S. can see it by updating the Amazon Shopping app on iOS or Android.
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Following the crash of its EDGE token, decentralized derivatives exchange edgeX, has shared an update stating that it will compensate users affected by the 70% crash.
The exchange debunked the allegations that the crash came as a result of insider manipulation, maintaining that the price collapse resulted from external actors.
edgeX posted what appears to be a refund commitment on X on June 3, following two earlier statements in which it blamed “deliberate” market-price manipulation by external actors for the sell-off, according to the project’s official account.
However, blockchain investigator ZachXBT did not buy the exchange’s explanation, stating that concentrated insider ownership and a thin float better explain the collapse.
What happened to EDGE?
EDGE dropped from roughly $1.14 to a low of $0.366 during the June 1 session, a peak-to-trough decline of about 70%, according to CoinMarketCap data.
edgeX’s own account of the timeline puts the sharpest move in the early hours of June 2 UTC, with EDGE falling from around $1.12 to approximately $0.32 within a single hour before stabilizing between $0.63 and $0.71.
The crash triggered more than $2.81 million in liquidations within that window, with long positions accounting for $1.96 million and shorts roughly $849,000, per Cryptopolitan’s earlier reporting.
As of June 3, EDGE was trading near $0.69 with a market capitalization of about $242 million and a circulating supply of 350 million tokens out of a 1 billion maximum, according to CoinMarketCap.
What is edgeX’s response?
In the early hours of June 2, edgeX ruled out any hack, exploit, or security breach while attributing the sell-off to deliberate manipulation by outside participants.
edgeX also addressed community concerns about a smart contract address that users had flagged as suspicious, stating that it belonged to the exchange and was used solely for user deposits and withdrawals.
On June 3, the exchange followed up with a refund announcement for affected users, calling it a goodwill payment that matches their actual losses. It stated that eligible users will receive the refund seven days after verification.
However, it added that the refund is capped at a maximum of 100,000 USDC per individual user.
What was ZachXBT and the community’s reaction to the initial token crash?
ZachXBT responded to edgeX’s explanation on X by stating that “EDGE supply was being controlled by a few insiders with a low float,” and called on the project to name “the counterparties / MM agreements which lead to these events.”
ZachXBT has a track record of flagging similar collapses. In April, ZachXBT investigated the RAVE token, where addresses linked to the initial distribution controlled around 95% of the supply before a crash exceeding 95% from peak.
He connected that playbook to several other tokens, including RIVER, SIREN, MYX, and SKYAI. Analytics firm BubbleMaps also flagged SIREN’s concentrated ownership weeks before its market cap fell from $1.52 billion to $320 million.
Community sentiment on edgeX’s posts was far from welcoming, with the initial post getting responses from users, with many accusing the team of involvement in the crash.
edgeX has promised to share its core conclusions from the incident. ZachXBT has made clear he expects it to include names of counterparties and market-maker agreements, while EDGE holders and traders who took losses in the crash will be watching both the report and the refund mechanics closely.
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Meta introduced an AI business agent that uses Facebook Messenger, Instagram, and WhatsApp to schedule meetings, manage payments, and close deals for companies. The statement was made on Wednesday at Meta’s Conversations conference in London. It places the business in direct rivalry with Google, Anthropic, and OpenAI.
Over 1 million businesses already use older chatbots on WhatsApp and Messenger. The new agent acts on its own instead of walking users through prewritten scripts.
“We actually want to take actions now. We actually want it to be able to complete the payment, to process the booking, to place the order,” Naomi Gleit, Meta’s head of product, told Reuters. She called it a shift away from “rule-based automations” that older business bots relied on.
Meta’s new agent vets sales leads
The Business Agent fields customer questions across Meta’s messaging apps and matches the company’s brand voice. It answers common questions, vets sales leads, and passes tricky stuff to human staff. Businesses get it free at launch. Paid tiers are coming later.
Meta is also launching a Business Agent Platform. Its infrastructure lets companies build custom AI agents for work outside Meta’s apps. The platform hooks into hundreds of third party tools like Shopify, Zendesk, and Shopee. It includes enterprise controls and analytics, the company said.
Gleit runs a new team called Enterprise Solutions, formed during an AI focused restructure. The team will plant engineers directly inside big customers’ offices. It’s a move borrowed from AI startups like Anthropic, who use embedded engineers to get past internal pushback and write custom integrations.
The unit’s first project is the new business agents, but it’s also working on AI tools for internal company workflows. Gleit said she’s trying to merge several overlapping AI agents Meta has built, including an internal productivity tool, a consumer facing Meta AI support bot, and a global ads assistant.
“The number one thing I hear, especially from small businesses, is ‘I just want to go to one place that can do all the things,'” Gleit said.
Meta embeds business tools where customers already message
Meta’s approach goes after reach. WhatsApp alone has over 2 billion users. Instagram and Messenger add billions more. Meta is essentially dropping business automation into messaging platforms where customers already hang out.
The company is also dumping money into the AI infrastructure needed to make this work. Meta is pulling together ~$13 billion in financing for its El Paso, Texas data center campus through Morgan Stanley and JPMorgan, according to Cryptopolitan.
That facility started as a $1.5 billion commitment in October 2025 and has grown into a one gigawatt campus. At its Q1 2026 earnings call on April 29, Meta lifted its 2026 capital expenditure forecast to between $115 billion and $145 billion. Almost all of it goes toward AI data centers, Cryptopolitan reported.
At the time of writing, META is trading at $618.78 with gains of 3.54% today. Google Finance shows that Meta Platforms Inc is in the green zone with +20.84.
The business agent launches globally today. Any size company can use it. Meta didn’t say when the paid subscription tiers will arrive.
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Popular payments platform Mastercard has announced that it will let card issuers and its customers settle card transactions using more stablecoins across eight different blockchains. This comes alongside reports of a new stablecoin platform in the works in partnership with Visa and Stripe.
The stablecoin expansion by the payments platform will support six new dollar-pegged tokens including Circle’s USDC, PayPal USD (PYUSD) and Pax Dollar (USDP) from Paxos, Ripple USD (RLUSD), Global Dollar (USDG), and SoFi’s SoFiUSD. The transactions will be made across the Ethereum, Solana, Polygon, Base, Arbitrum, XRPL, Canton, and Tempo blockchains, according to Mastercard’s press release.
This upgrade also adds intraday settlement windows in addition to weekend and holiday processing for fiat currencies. Mastercard mentioned that both changes are intended to give partners more control over liquidity and timing, especially for cross-border payments and payouts.
Rollout timeline for Mastercard stablecoin changes
Initial participants of these changes will be in the United States and Latin America. ARQ (formerly DolarApp), CBW Bank, Cross River, Lead Bank, and Nuvei will all be among these participants, according to the statement. Further expansion into other zones, continents and issuers are planned till the end of 2026.
These changes come after months of positioning by the payments platform to integrate crypto payments into its infrastructure. Mastercard had secured a BitLicense from the New York State Department of Financial Services in May 2026 and agreed in March to acquire stablecoin infrastructure firm BVNK for up to $1.8 billion (an initial $1.5 billion price with an additional $300 million in performance-linked payments).
Payment platforms embrace stablecoins
Mastercard is not alone in working toward stablecoin integration for payments. Visa also expanded its own supported stablecoins to nine blockchains in April 2026, amounting to a $7 billion ARR (annualized run rate), representing a 50% increase from the prior quarter according to CoinMarketCap.
Stripe also entered the space in late 2024 when it acquired stablecoin infrastructure company Bridge for $1.1 billion. MoneyGram launched its own MGUSD stablecoin on Stellar on June 2, issued through the Stripe-owned Bridge, further proving the rate of increase in institutional adoption of stablecoins.
The new joint stablecoin platform with Visa and Stripe
Stripe, Visa, and Mastercard are also close to introducing a totally new joint stablecoin platform. Coinbase is also exploring whether to participate, according to reports. None of the companies have confirmed this project publicly.
The total stablecoin market is now at a combined market capitalization of almost $325 billion, according to CoinGecko data, with Tether’s USDT holding the highest share.
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The chief risk officer of Strive, Jeff Walton, just shared that the Bitcoin treasury firm is raising $8.1 million in capital per day. At this pace, he claims Strive could generate enough capital to issue up to $15.5 billion in preferred stock and use those funds to purchase approximately 175,000 more Bitcoins at current market prices.
He made those comments today, June 3, as Strive (NASDAQ: ASST) continues its trend of record-breaking weekly Bitcoin purchases.
Walton claims that if the firm sustains its current fundraising pace through its SATA preferred stock program, it would be able to increase its total Bitcoin holdings by almost ten times.
Strive breaking records each week
Strive’s Bitcoin treasury currently holds 19,000 BTC, after an aggressive acquisition of 2,500 coins between May 23 and June 1 for roughly $185.2 million, according to Cryptopolitan’s previous reports. The purchase was funded almost entirely through SATA sales, at an average cost of about $74,092 per coin.
Walton also stated yesterday, June 2, that last week was “the largest non-IPO single week buy in company history,” beating the record the company had set just two weeks earlier. “Strive team hit the BTC order book hard last week,” Walton said. “19,000 total BTC and picking up steam.”
As the seventh-largest public corporate Bitcoin holder according to BitcoinTreasuries.net, Strive sits ahead of Coinbase at 16,492 BTC and Riot Platforms at 15,680 BTC. According to Cryptopolitan, the company made 17 separate purchases since September 2025, when it held just 69 BTC.
Strive continues to accumulate BTC at a faster pace than anyone else. Source: BitcoinTreasuries.net.
Walton pushes back on Strategy skeptics
Walton also used the opportunity to defend Strategy (NASDAQ: MSTR), which is currently the largest corporate Bitcoin holder with 843,706 BTC, as Strategy recently faced questions following the decision to sell 32 Bitcoins last week for roughly $2.5 million, which it used to cover dividends for its preferred stock.
Walton argued that most observers missed the bigger picture: selling a small amount of Bitcoin allowed Strategy to simultaneously boost its cash reserves by up to $29 million (a 3.3% weekly increase). He also projected that if the company maintains this trajectory, its cash position will grow to $2.25 billion by December, demonstrating a focus on overall liquidity alongside its Bitcoin accumulation.
Speaking on Strategy’s stock performance, Walton also noted that its market capitalization had stayed “relatively flat” over the past 34 trading days, even while the price of Bitcoin declined by 10% during that same period.
As such, the stability reduced the impact on Strategy’s market standing, with the company dropping only five positions in the market cap rankings to 233rd among all U.S. public companies.
“Yes composite stock markets are at ATH’s but middle of the pack is relatively flat,” Walton stated.
He also compared Strategy’s balance sheet to eBay’s, which sits just above MSTR at 232nd by market cap, highlighting the contrast between a traditional e-commerce company and one built around a Bitcoin treasury.
Does Strive’s math add up?
Walton’s projection that Strive could acquire 175,000 additional BTC depends on various factors, one of them being that the firm maintains its current daily fundraising rate indefinitely and invests every dollar into Bitcoin at today’s market price.
In reality, however, achieving this goal is more complex, as the $15.5 billion in proposed SATA issuance would require significant regulatory steps, including amended SEC filings that would allow Strive to officially expand its “at-the-market” programs by $4.2 billion as it previously announced.
Strive opened trading today at $15.81. Source: Google Finance.
According to Google Finance data, ASST shares are trading at $15.43 as of today, updating the company’s market cap to approximately $1.19 billion. The stock remains down sharply from its 2025 highs despite gaining over 100% in the past three months.
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On June 2, Kalshi pushed past the $100 million mark for the first time when it comes to spot volume within crypto-based event contracts. Data from Artemis shows that spot volume in this category reached $107.6 million yesterday surpassing the previous high set on March 16. The timing of this record is what makes it interesting as it landed on a day wherein the crypto markets experienced its largest liquidation event since February.
A Record on the Largest Liquidation Day of 2026
June 2 saw Bitcoin slide below $67k for the first time since April 2. The total crypto market cap fell by over 5%, shedding roughly $137 billion. The dip resulted in around $1.76 billion in crypto liquidations over 24 hours, making yesterday the heaviest de-leveraging day since February 5, according to CoinGlass data. The majority of liquidations came from the long side with around $1.59 billion worth of positions wiped.
The selloff didn’t come out of nowhere. Institutional demand has waned over the past two weeks adding to the bleak sentiment. Bitcoin spot ETFs are on a 12 day outflow streak, making it the longest ever losing streak since its inception in January 2024. Ethereum Spot ETFs haven’t fared any better notching 16 consecutive days of outflows. Uncertainty was compounded by the news of Saylor’s Strategy BTC sale, rattling holders who counted on the firm never touching its stack.
Mt. Gox Moved Coins and the Drop Picked Up Speed
Mt. Gox just moved 10,306 BTC ($731M).
We’ve seen similar transfers before, tied to creditor repayments and distribution preparation.
Importantly, they did not lead to immediate selling pressure. pic.twitter.com/Zz58rDdbsp
— CryptoQuant.com (@cryptoquant_com) June 2, 2026
On June 2, the Mt. Gox estate moved 10,306 BTC worth about $731 million, according to CryptoQuant. Blockchain data placed the transfer in the early hours, with most of it routed to a fresh address that had no prior history. CryptoQuant analysts were quick to note the coins didn’t hit an exchange and that past transfers like this haven’t led to immediate selling. Markets didn’t wait around for that nuance. Bitcoin dropped fast as the headline crossed, and leveraged positions got run over in the move.
That’s the backdrop Kalshi set its crypto record against. Same session, two very different stories.
Why the Carnage Is Becoming Kalshi’s Edge
Here’s the part worth sitting with. The record didn’t happen despite the liquidations. It happened because of them. When leverage breaks, traders who just got flushed need somewhere to express a view without getting wrecked again. Binary price contracts do that. You buy a “BTC above X” or “below X” contract, your downside is capped at what you paid, and there’s no liquidation price to defend. So flow rotated. Some of it as hedges, some as straight directional bets on where Bitcoin lands next.
This fits a pattern that’s been building for months. Kalshi’s crypto-category volume went vertical from February, and the week ending May 17 already set a $454.2 million all-time high on Artemis numbers, flipping Polymarket’s early-year lead. A single day above $100 million is the daily version of that same trend.
The bigger read is about what Kalshi is turning into. Not a sportsbook with a crypto tab bolted on the side. A volatility venue. The place flow goes when leverage breaks rather than a fair-weather add-on. If that holds, the crypto category should compound on exactly the chaos that hurts everyone else in the market.
The thing to watch now is whether these levels stick. Records set during a liquidation event are easy. Holding them once the tape goes quiet is the real test, and that’s the number that’ll tell you whether June 2 was a one-off or a floor.
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Britain’s Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) has warned Premier League clubs to stop making sponsorship deals with unauthorized crypto firms and trading platforms risk exposing both fans and clubs to financial harm.
The regulator insisted that Premier League clubs that sign sponsorship deals with crypto firms and trading platforms that are not allowed to operate in the UK are misusing the trust of millions of fans.
Do Premier League teams sign deals with unauthorized companies?
Top-flight football runs on cash and sponsorship deals have become the biggest source of income for many clubs. So for many of them, saying no to a big check is very hard.
Manchester City, the former Premier League champions, earned a massive €408 million ($475 million) from commercial and sponsorship deals in 2025, more money than the €332 million the club got from selling TV rights.
While no individual companies were named in its warning, OKX, one of the world’s largest crypto exchanges and a Manchester City sponsor, is not registered with the FCA and agreed to pay over $500 million for violating U.S. anti-money laundering laws.
Lucy Castledine, the FCA’s director of consumer investments said through these partnerships, football clubs allow unauthorized financial firms to exploit the loyalty of millions of fans by putting “potentially dodgy products” in front of them.
UK football clubs are now expected to run proper due diligence on financial services sponsors before signing, and to continue those checks on an ongoing basis. The FCA also confirmed it is coordinating with the UK government, the Premier League, and the Independent Football Regulator to address the issue across the sport.
What happens if clubs ignore the FCA’s warning?
The FCA included in its statement that clubs that go ahead with partnerships with unauthorized firms will be potentially exposed to “legal liability, money laundering risks and serious reputational damage.” Some clubs have already been contacted regarding existing partnerships.
The FCA’s actions are prompted by a number of previous incidents in which unauthorized sponsorships ended badly.
For instance, FC Barcelona confirmed a partnership with a Samoa-registered firm Zero-Knowledge Proof back in November 2025, describing it as a data privacy project. Within days, ZKP began promoting a token sale.
Barcelona was forced to issue a late-night statement insisting it had “no connection whatsoever” to the token and that no token activity was included in the sponsorship agreement. The former Barcelona director Xavier Vilajoana publicly asked the club to explain how it vetted the deal.
In a separate case, FTX had signed a 19-year, $135 million naming rights deal with Miami-Dade County for the arena housing the NBA’s Miami Heat, a $210 million partnership with esports organization TSM, and sponsorship agreements with Formula 1 team Mercedes-AMG Petronas, according to Stinson LLP.
All three partners ended up in bankruptcy court seeking to exit their contracts.
In cycling, professional women’s team Canyon//SRAM terminated its partnership with the embattled cryptocurrency exchange Zondacrypto on June 2, citing alleged breaches of contract. The team is now removing all sponsor branding from its equipment, clothing, and digital platforms.
The FCA has urged supporters to check any financial services firm on its online Firm Checker tool before using their products. Any firm providing financial services that does not appear on the register is not regulated, and consumers will have no regulatory protection if something goes wrong.
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Traders looking for silver linings as Bitcoin price dropped to $65,710 on June 3 are not getting it from analysts who point to how derivatives trades are setting up and the long line to exit crypto funds in their warnings that more pain could be coming.
The money leaving crypto is not disappearing into thin air, though. Cryptopolitan has reported how this latest selloff has been a result of money leaving crypto positions for traditional equities, AI-related IPOs have sucked the air out of the room, and even BTC miners have pivoted to AI infrastructure plays often funded with token sales that led to a record offload amount in Q1 2026.
Bad news from crypto ETF outflows and liquidations
Between them, U.S. spot Bitcoin ETFs hold $85 billion and represent 6.28% of Bitcoin’s market capitalization, so any day of big inflows or outflows is often reflected on the price charts.
Investors pulled out $519 million from spot Bitcoin ETFs on June 2, according to SoSoValue data. BlackRock’s IBIT was deepest in the red, reporting $388.6 million in single-day redemptions. Grayscale’s GBTC followed at $83.5 million and Fidelity’s FBTC at $45.1 million.
Ethereum spot ETFs had an almost equally awful day, as cumulative net inflows into Ether ETFs have now shrunk to $11.24 billion. SoSoValue showed that $90.15 million was left in Ether funds on June 2, with BlackRock’s ETHA accounting for $44.27 million and Grayscale’s ETH product losing $25.41 million.
Not only did the sustained withdrawals from ETFs represent a reversal from the strong institutional demand that supported prices earlier in 2026, but the accompanying price drop triggered forced selling across derivatives markets.
Reports note that between $1.33 and $1.8 billion in leveraged crypto positions were liquidated within 24 hours, with traders betting on the long side taking hits of over $1.35 billion.
Analysts struggle to find positives
Axel Adler Jr., an on-chain analyst, published data on June 3 showing that the market is deep in risk-off territory. He pointed to Bitcoin’s slow impulse indicator, which has collapsed to -59, and the fast impulse indicator is pinned near -90.
Another source of concern is the 30-day net taker volume, which has crossed below zero for the first time in nearly three months. The 30-day net taker volume is supposed to be an indicator of whether aggressive buyers or sellers dominate futures order flow.
“The fuel that supported the spring rally has been exhausted, but the process itself is still in its early stage,” Adler wrote.
Strategy selling Bitcoin is no small headache
After making news on an almost weekly basis for buying Bitcoin, Strategy, the largest corporate Bitcoin holder, disclosed a small sale of its holdings on Monday. That $32 million offload was the firm’s first in nearly four years, but it sent the wrong kind of message at a time the market was already fragile.
CoinMarketCap data showed Bitcoin trading near $66,949 as of June 3, down roughly 4% over the last 24 hours and more than 11% in the last week. Ethereum, XRP, Solana, Dogecoin, and other large-cap altcoins are also nursing losses between 5% and 8% across the board.
For now, the signs are not so good, and max pain may be ahead for traders, according to analyst sentiments backed by cooling ETF demand data, negative momentum indicators, selling by the market’s largest corporate holder for the first time in years, and forcibly cleared leverage.
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The 2026 IPO market is bracing for the effect of three giants going public – SpaceX, OpenAI, and Anthropic. Crypto traders see parallels with the ICO trend, especially the period of VC-backed companies.
The 2026 IPO market expects a valuation of up to $3B for SpaceX, OpenAI, and Anthropic, according to analyst Thomas Tunguz. These valuations create the need to raise between $432B and $576B (for a 20% float).
That raise will put pressure on the liquidity markets, as all three IPOs are expected in a single quarter. The amount needed is higher than all the IPO raises from US companies between 2016 and 2025. The year may also contain other high-profile IPOs, including Kraken, Anduril, and Canva, using the increased interest in new stocks to fulfill their intended raises.
Due to the high valuations, the IPOs will launch with a limited free float, as low as 3-8%. This limitation may create problems with index inclusion and a real market impact.
The upcoming IPOs are valued much higher than previous leaders, Aramco and Alibaba, with SpaceX expected to raise $75B in its initial round.
Is the 2026 IPO market using the crypto playbook?
For years, the crypto space boosted the ICO model, selling tokens in place of stocks. While the model met multiple obstacles, including US Securities and Exchange Commission regulations, it turned out to be a successful direct tool for fundraising. As a result, projects with big promises raised significant sums, securing a long-term runway. The upcoming IPO valuations are also seeking scale to secure the runway for the companies’ ambitious expansion.
Initially, ICOs targeted early adopters, BTC holders, and crypto natives. The second round of ICOs, during the 2021 bull market, changed their way of distributing the token float, often leading to a series of projects with a limited free float and a large share of controlled supply held by insiders.
The market performance of those tokens was a long unraveling of value, leaving retail traders with deep losses, while VC backers used the market as exit liquidity.
SpaceX structured its IPO in a way resembling crypto sales
The SpaceX IPO is showing an internal structure similar to some crypto projects. The expected free float of 5% leaves 95% of shares in the hands of early backers.
While the IPO has a standard 180-day lockup period, up to 20% of the Early Release Eligible shares may be released before that. In its S-1 filing, SpaceX listed the exceptions, allowing the early release to happen a full trading day after the first quarterly results release of SpaceX. The date has not been finalized, but is expected between mid-July and August.
An even earlier release will be possible for early buyers if the post-IPO stock trades at over 30% greater than the IPO price. Those conditions may release an additional 10% of the Early Release Eligible Shares.
What worries investors the most is the rule changes around SpaceX and IPOs in general. Nasdaq will potentially list SpaceX in 15 days, instead of the previously required 90 days. The S&P index waived the profitability requirement, opening the 2026 IPO market to pension funds.
The low float and high valuations may expose those pension funds to over-inflated valuations, using the accumulated $30T of pension fund money. At the same time, IPO stocks have also shown price weakness in the first year of trading.
Based on pre-market trading, SpaceX shows a disparity between its IPO price and market price discovery. SpaceX plans to IPO at $135 per share, while on-chain trading has valued the stock at up to $744.
The coming months will show how liquidity shifts, which may further dry out inflows to the crypto market.
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Hyperliquid processed $10.319 billion in volume yesterday out of the total $20.306 billion across all chains, which equates to just over half of the entire field, according to DeFiLlama. The next chain, at a distant second, was Solana with $5.307 billion while Ethereum and Arbitrum both saw figures below $2 billion.
What really puts things into perspective is the fact that at the start of the year, the split in perp volume across chains was broadly even. The 50.8% volume dominance is being driven by a combination of factors such as letting anyone launch their own perp market via HIP-3 and a wave of institutional products now built around HYPE.
Hyperliquid Now Owns Half the Perp Market
Hyperliquid has spent months pulling perps traders off rival venues, and Tuesday’s print showed how lopsided the gap has become. Beating the rest of the field combined means close to one in every two perp dollars on-chain is now clearing through a single platform.
Why traders keep picking it comes down to how it trades. The order book runs more like Binance than a typical AMM, with fast fills and low fees. Its listings also run wider than what rivals put up. None of this happened overnight. The platform built its base through a long points and airdrop run, then held onto those users once the token went live.
Perps volume moves around between chains depending on what’s trending, and a 50.8% read on a violent liquidation day like yesterday actually shows Hyperliquid absorbing the volatility flow. Ethereum and Arbitrum sitting under $2 billion each only sharpens that stance. The chains that used to be the dominant on-chain derivatives are now fighting over what’s left after Hyperliquid takes its cut.
HYPE Flips Dogecoin and Outruns Bitcoin
HYPE currently trades above $72 and its market cap now stands at over $18 billion. It is now the ninth largest cryptocurrency by market cap after leapfrogging DOGE.
HYPE breaching new highs is taking place during a broader corrective phase for the crypto market. Despite Bitcoin slipping below $67k for the first time this week in close to two months, HYPE has shown incredible relative strength. In fact when we look at HYPE’s performance relative to BTC, over the past month, it has outpaced the largest crypto by over 100%.
The Catalysts Keep Stacking
Grayscale’s HYPG staking ETF is expected to begin trading this week, which would hand traditional money a regulated way to earn yield on HYPE without ever touching the chain.
Grayscale Hyperliquid Staking ETF (Ticker: $HYPG), the $HYPE ETP with the lowest gross management fee in the U.S.¹, starts trading tomorrow. $HYPE is the asset powering 24/7 onchain markets, with @HyperliquidX driving trillions in perpetual trading volume²
Direct $HYPE… pic.twitter.com/u56CntzEXK
— Grayscale (@Grayscale) June 2, 2026
Spot HYPE ETF inflows have run unbroken for fourteen days since the mid-May launch, a clean streak that’s rare for any product this new.
Wall Street keeps circling, and the reason is simple. Hyperliquid runs 24/7 and lists perps on markets the traditional system won’t go near, from crude oil to pre-IPO names like SpaceX. That kind of access paired with that kind of exposure is hard to find anywhere else, on-chain or off.
The volume crown can flip fast in this market. One heavy day on a rival chain, one quiet stretch from Hyperliquid, and the share drops. For now, Tuesday’s numbers say the lead is real and the rest of the field has a long way to go to catch up.
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Most financial infrastructure was built in markets where payments already work. Bitnob was built in markets where they don’t.
Bitnob has operated at the intersection of some of the world’s most complex financial environments: markets where businesses navigate currency volatility, limited access to dollars, fragmented payment networks, long settlement timelines, and costly cross-border transactions as part of everyday operations.
Today, the company is introducing the next evolution of its infrastructure platform.
Bitnob announced the launch of Bitnob Enterprise, a non-custodial infrastructure stack, alongside the next generation of Bitnob Business, its managed platform for businesses building with modern financial rails.
Together, the two offerings provide businesses with a choice between managed and non-custodial operating models while leveraging the same underlying infrastructure.
“We’ve spent years building infrastructure in environments where financial inefficiency is not an inconvenience but a business risk,” said Bernard Parah, Founder and CEO of Bitnob.
“When your customers deal with currency volatility, delayed settlements, restricted access to global currencies, and expensive cross-border payments, you learn very quickly what matters and what doesn’t. The infrastructure we built to solve those problems is increasingly relevant far beyond the markets where we started.”
Over the last five years, Bitnob has built infrastructure powering wallets-as-a-service, payments, treasury operations, stablecoin settlement, swaps, collections, payouts, and virtual card products used by businesses operating across global markets. Today, more than $4.5 billion has moved through its infrastructure.
First launched in 2022, Bitnob Business provides businesses with access to managed infrastructure via APIs and dashboards, enabling them to launch and scale financial products without managing blockchain infrastructure or internal operational complexity.
The next generation of Bitnob Business introduces a redesigned experience and enhanced infrastructure designed to support growing treasury workflows and operational requirements.
Alongside it, Bitnob Enterprise introduces a non-custodial infrastructure layer for organizations and developers that prefer greater ownership and control over how financial products are built and operated.
Customers using Enterprise retain control of their custody architecture while leveraging Bitnob’s infrastructure for wallets, payments, treasury operations, market intelligence, and embedded financial services. It is available to regulated financial institutions, fintechs, and developers building products that prefer a non-custodial architecture from day one.
The launch comes at a time when businesses across emerging markets are increasingly turning to stablecoin infrastructure to move money more efficiently across borders.
According to a 2025 Oui Capital report, Africa’s cross-border payments corridor is projected to grow from approximately $329 billion annually today to nearly $1 trillion by 2035. Across Sub-Saharan Africa, stablecoins now account for roughly 43% of digital asset transaction activity, driven increasingly by practical use cases such as supplier payments, treasury management, payroll, and international commerce.
At the same time, institutional adoption continues to accelerate globally. Stablecoin frameworks are emerging across major jurisdictions, financial institutions are increasing participation, and programmable financial infrastructure is becoming an increasingly important part of the global financial system.
Bitnob believes the future of financial infrastructure will be shaped not by geography, but by utility. As businesses become increasingly global from day one, the demand for infrastructure that is programmable, borderless, and accessible continues to grow.
The same infrastructure that helps a business in Lagos access global markets can help a company in São Paulo manage treasury more efficiently, or enable a fintech company in Nairobi to move money across borders faster and at lower cost.
Bitnob Business and Bitnob Enterprise are available free beginning today. For more information, visit https://bitnob.com/ or schedule a call with the sales team
About Bitnob
Founded in 2020, Bitnob is a financial infrastructure company helping businesses build, move, and manage money globally. Through APIs and managed infrastructure, Bitnob powers wallets-as-a-service, payments, treasury operations, stablecoin settlement, card programs, collections, payouts, and embedded financial services for businesses across global markets.