financial

According to Citywire, Jalina Kerr, head of advisor experience at Charles Schwab, stated that the company plans to launch cryptocurrency spot trading features for advisors on its custody platform by 2027. Progress is currently smooth, and the expected launch time may be closer to mid-year, although a specific date has not yet been determined. Charles Schwab has already introduced Bitcoin and Ethereum spot trading to retail clients this year.Kerr pointed out that digital assets are not uniformly regulated like other brokerage and securities products, and careful consideration is needed from fund deposits to withdrawals. She mentioned that advisors currently prefer to allocate crypto assets for clients through Charles Schwab's exchange-traded products, but interest in spot trading has recently increased. Charles Schwab's competitor, Fidelity, is currently offering cryptocurrency custody and trading solutions for wealth management managers.

SpaceX disclosed in its latest S-1 filing that it holds approximately 18,712 bitcoins, with a current market value of about $1.4 billion, significantly higher than previous market expectations, with a cost of about $661 million. This bitcoin holding has become an important component of SpaceX's balance sheet, accounting for about 1.8% of total assets, making it one of the major corporate bitcoin holders, second only to a few institutions.The more critical issue lies in the financial volatility risk brought about by accounting treatment. Analysts say that measuring bitcoin at fair value will cause its price fluctuations to be directly reflected in the financial reports each quarter, potentially leading to significant profit volatility unrelated to core business (rocket launches, satellite business), creating significant "accounting noise." Market participants believe that this mechanism may make it more difficult for investors to assess SpaceX's true operational performance, with the bitcoin holding potentially evolving from a "strategic reserve asset" to a key variable affecting the stability of financial reports.

According to hket, Hong Kong's Acting Secretary for Financial Services and the Treasury, Chen Haolian, stated that the authorities will submit legislative proposals to the Legislative Council within the year regarding the provision of virtual asset services and management, promoting the establishment of a comprehensive regulatory system covering trading, custody, advisory, and asset management, and implementing a mandatory licensing arrangement.The new framework will be advanced according to the principle of "same business, same risk, same rules," aligning with the current regulated activities under the Securities and Futures Ordinance, and will focus on strengthening private key management and client asset security requirements in virtual asset custody.The Hong Kong Securities and Futures Commission stated that the current applications for licenses related to virtual assets continue to increase, but licensing will adhere to the principle of "quality over quantity," balancing market capacity and quality.

According to CoinDesk, digital asset management company Grayscale pointed out in its latest report that the decentralized trading platform Hyperliquid is rapidly evolving from a cryptocurrency perpetual contract exchange into a blockchain financial infrastructure platform, and may even challenge traditional derivatives trading and exchange systems in the future, growing into a "financial services giant."The report shows that Hyperliquid is expected to achieve approximately $800 million in revenue by 2025, with an annual perpetual contract trading volume of about $2.9 trillion and an open interest size of around $7 billion, occupying a significant share of the cryptocurrency derivatives market. Grayscale believes that the platform is no longer limited to cryptocurrency trading but is expanding into tokenized stocks, commodities, and prediction markets through the HIP-3 and HIP-4 systems, gradually building an all-weather on-chain trading infrastructure.FalconX also pointed out in another report that Hyperliquid is competing with traditional derivatives exchanges such as CME Group and prediction market platforms like Kalshi and Polymarket, making progress in new markets such as Pre-IPO. The report also emphasizes that regulation remains a key variable. Although Hyperliquid currently restricts access for U.S. users, as the regulatory framework becomes clearer and institutions like Coinbase, Robinhood, and Kraken explore perpetual contract products, this sector may welcome broader growth opportunities in the future.

According to Cointelegraph, SEC Commissioner Hester Peirce defended cryptocurrency privacy tools, calling them legitimate financial infrastructure, and warned regulators not to be skeptical of privacy-enhancing technologies.

According to the official website of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), SEC Commissioner Hester M. Peirce delivered a speech at the "Regulating the PETshop Series" seminar at Georgetown University Law Center, calling for the inclusion of Privacy-Enhancing Technologies (PETs) in the financial regulatory framework.She criticized the current regulatory approach for being overly inclined towards government surveillance, arguing that technology should serve to protect personal privacy rather than expand the scope of surveillance, and pointed out that blockchain public wallet addresses can reduce the risk of personal information leakage for investors while meeting compliance requirements.Peirce also invited technology teams that can minimize personal information collection while meeting KYC and anti-money laundering regulatory requirements to actively collaborate with the SEC's Crypto Task Force.

According to The Block, Bitcoin mining company Bitdeer announced that Chief Financial Officer Jianchun Liu will resign at the end of June for personal reasons and will transition to Chief Advisor, with former Corsair Gaming CFO Michael Potter taking over.Michael Potter served as CFO of Corsair Gaming from 2019 to 2025 and was involved in the company's 2020 IPO; he previously held senior positions at technology and semiconductor companies such as Lattice Semiconductor, Honeywell, NeoPhotonics, and STATS ChipPAC. Bitdeer is currently expanding from Bitcoin mining into AI and cloud computing infrastructure, with its annualized AI cloud revenue recently approaching $70 million.

According to Globenewswire, Bitcoin financial services company Fold announced a four-year secured revolving credit agreement with Encina Lender Finance, securing a credit line of $150 million to support the expansion of its Bitcoin rewards credit card business, facilitating ongoing card issuance and scalable growth.

According to Cryptopolitan, the Council of Ministers and the National Bank of Belarus have passed a resolution to include cryptocurrencies (including Bitcoin) in the list of eligible underlying assets for non-deliverable over-the-counter financial instruments, which takes effect today.Non-deliverable OTC instruments are direct contracts between market participants that do not involve the actual delivery of the underlying asset, with both parties settling the price difference in cash at maturity. This move is expected to further integrate cryptocurrencies into Belarus's traditional financial system, creating new investment opportunities.

According to Jinshi News, the Hong Kong Financial Services and the Treasury Bureau and the Hong Kong Securities and Futures Commission have released a consultation summary regarding the regulatory framework for virtual asset provision and management services. The proposed licensing system for virtual asset provision and management received broad support from the market during the consultation period.The new licensing system will follow the principle of "same business, same risk, same rules," and its scope will be consistent with the regulated activities under the Securities and Futures Ordinance. This series of new systems will enhance participation in Hong Kong's digital asset market and help build a robust and secure ecosystem.

The Wall Street Journal published an article pointing out that although the GENIUS Act and the CLARITY Act are promoting the compliance of stablecoins, the essence of stablecoins still belongs to "private currency," which may pose structural risks to the financial system.The article notes that stablecoins aim to combine the stability of the US dollar with the efficiency of blockchain payments, but because they operate on fragmented, privatized infrastructure, they do not possess the unity of the traditional US dollar system. Although USDT and USDC are pegged to the dollar, their prices may still deviate from 1 dollar.In addition, there is an incentive for stablecoin issuers to enhance returns by allocating high-risk, low-liquidity assets. If the value of these related assets declines, it could trigger de-pegging and concentrated redemption risks. The article cites Chainalysis data stating that stablecoins account for 84% of illegal activities in cryptocurrency, mainly involving sanctions evasion and money laundering, while real economic payment scenarios account for less than 1%.The Wall Street Journal believes that stablecoins are replaying the path of private currency experiments from the "Free Banking Era" in 19th century America, and in the future, they may need to accept stricter regulation like banks and integrate more deeply into the central bank system.

Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong posted on X, listing eight areas of the current financial system that still need updates: 1. Tokenization of real-world assets, bringing assets like real estate, stocks, and bonds on-chain for instant settlement and fractional ownership; 2. 24/7 global trading, aggregating global liquidity to enhance capital efficiency; 3. Next-generation payments, using stablecoins for near-instant, low-cost global transfers, including AI agent payments; 4. AI-driven risk, credit, compliance, and consulting, providing everyone access to quality financial advisory services; 5. Innovation-friendly regulation, shifting from a one-size-fits-all approach to risk-based rules; 6. Expanding access, allowing all smartphone users to participate through open protocols and self-custody wallets; 7. Capital formation, lowering the barriers for financing any good ideas; 8. Sound money, providing a safe haven against inflation when fiat currency discipline is lost.Armstrong stated that achieving these goals requires significant technological innovation and policy support.

The U.S. government, through the Department of the Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC), has initiated a multi-agency coordinated financial action aimed at systematically targeting Iran's domestic digital asset infrastructure, with the goal of dismantling Tehran's parallel shadow banking system. According to officially disclosed information, this operation has successfully identified and incapacitated a large interconnected digital wallet network directly controlled by the Iranian regime, and has immediately frozen nearly $500 million in sovereign-related crypto assets.The U.S. intends to disrupt Iran's ability to bypass long-standing Western trade embargoes by blocking these alternative capital channels, cutting off its resources to regional proxy networks, and systematically weakening the regime's ability to transfer or repatriate wealth outside the oversight of traditional global clearing institutions. The focus of this enforcement action is to systematically identify state-sponsored large cryptocurrency trading portals, which have quietly evolved into core nodes for evading sanctions.Federal intelligence reports indicate that these regional platforms have processed billions of dollars in high-frequency digital asset transactions, heavily relying on mainstream stablecoins and high-throughput alternative blockchain networks to obscure their illegal settlement flows. Under the newly implemented executive directive, the Treasury is actively blacklisting specific crypto addresses, tracking mining pool variables, and imposing sanctions on foreign technology providers that facilitate these state-supported networks.Additionally, the U.S. is leveraging its dominant position in international banking to compel foreign financial intermediaries to fully comply with its aggressive crypto asset control protocols. The Treasury has issued stern warnings to international technology centers that any platform providing clearing services or liquidity assistance to designated Iranian digital entities will face immediate risks of exclusion from the U.S. financial system.This comprehensive containment model shifts regulatory responsibility to global exchanges, forcing them to deploy advanced real-time blockchain analysis tools to programmatically identify and block any inbound transactions originating from Iranian internet protocol or historical wallet clusters. By installing these stringent crypto safeguards at the level of global gateways, the U.S. government is transforming permissionless distributed ledgers into highly controlled economic zones, ensuring that alternative payment infrastructures cannot be used to undermine broader Western geopolitical security objectives in the next decade.