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Institutions such as Anchorpoint Financial, OSL Group, and PantherTrade have successfully completed Hong Kong's first approved stablecoin HKDAP's initial end-to-end financial transaction on the Ethereum public blockchain. This digital asset operates under the supervision of the Hong Kong Monetary Authority.The technical execution was jointly completed by Anchorpoint Financial, a fintech company supported by Standard Chartered Hong Kong, and digital brokers OSL Group and PantherTrade. In this blockchain test, participants directly converted traditional physical Hong Kong dollars into reserve assets, triggering the minting of on-chain digital balances, and after the transaction was completed, exchanged the tokens back to fiat bank balances through a redemption agreement.Standard Chartered provided the custody framework and trust services for this. The stablecoin is scheduled to begin phased public issuance by the end of the second quarter of this year.

According to Fireblocks' "2025 Stablecoin Status Report," the trading volume of euro stablecoins processed by retail virtual asset service providers (VASP) has grown 12 times in 15 months, reaching $777 million.European banks and fintech companies are accelerating the production and deployment of compliant stablecoins following the implementation of the EU's Markets in Crypto-Assets Regulation (MiCA). Banking Circle and SG-Forge have become pioneers of MiCA-compliant stablecoins, launching euro-backed digital assets EURI and EURCV, respectively, both of which are currently expanding their production operations.This growth reflects a broader transformation of the European digital asset infrastructure, as banks have moved from pilot projects to building production systems for tokenized assets and stablecoin payment rails. Fireblocks' research indicates that European banks view stablecoins and tokenized asset infrastructure as key components of their 2026 roadmap, with MiCA compliance reducing regulatory uncertainty and accelerating the deployment process.

According to on-chain data monitored by Catcher Predict, significant capital movements are predicted in the market Polymarket. A large whale invested $186,472.36 in the event "Will the US and Iran reach a permanent peace agreement before...?" with a single purchase on "May 31." Based on the current transaction price, the latest corresponding probability of this subject is 82.6%.

According to The Wall Street Journal, the U.S. Department of Commerce announced a total of $2 billion in government subsidies to nine quantum computing companies, including IBM, and will acquire equity in the related transactions. This move aims to accelerate the cultivation of the emerging quantum computing industry and promote the development of more stable and scalable quantum computing systems. The report states that this round of funding is part of the Trump administration's plan to maintain the U.S. competitive advantage in the field of frontier computing and to initiate a "new era of technological innovation."

According to an official announcement, the South Korean cryptocurrency exchange Bithumb has announced that starting from May 21, 2026, it will immediately restrict all virtual asset deposit and withdrawal transactions related to the overseas payment platform Heleket.The announcement stated that Heleket is suspected of being associated with illegal activities such as money laundering and funding intimidation. Bithumb indicated that this move is to comply with relevant regulations such as the Specific Financial Information Act and the Virtual Asset User Protection Act, and to protect user asset security. Bithumb also reminded users that using unverified overseas services may face risks such as hacking attacks and interruptions in deposits and withdrawals.

According to the latest video interview by Cointelegraph, Dr. Han, the founder and CEO of Gate, stated that the crypto industry is gradually moving from the infrastructure construction phase to the phase of real application implementation. The most promising directions for the future include Prediction Markets and Real World Assets (RWA).Dr. Han mentioned, "In the next 2 to 5 years, the trading volume of RWA could grow by 100 times, even surpassing the trading volume of cryptocurrencies themselves." He believes that as on-chain infrastructure matures, more traditional assets will enter the blockchain system, shifting the industry's growth logic from asset speculation to the circulation of real value.In line with this trend, Gate has been continuously advancing relevant layouts. As the first centralized exchange (CEX) platform to connect with Polymarket, Gate has consistently ranked among the top three in cooperative channels, allowing users to directly participate in prediction markets through the Gate App. Additionally, Gate's digital subscription mechanism for Pre-IPOs has launched its first project, SpaceX (SPCX), raising nearly $395 million and continuously expanding the integration scenarios between crypto and traditional finance.

According to Caixin, the "Global Payments Report 2026" released by global payment technology and software company Global Payments indicates that digital wallets account for more than half of global online transaction volume and one-third of offline transactions. Digital wallets can flexibly integrate different payment methods, including cryptocurrencies. The report predicts that direct cryptocurrency payments will become the fastest-growing online payment method, with a compound annual growth rate of 16% from 2025 to 2030. This means that by 2030, the volume of e-commerce transactions using direct cryptocurrency payments could account for 0.28% of global e-commerce transaction volume, nearly $31 billion.However, despite the global total market value of cryptocurrencies nearing $3.2 trillion by the end of 2025, it remains a relatively marginalized payment method for consumers to merchants. Reports from MRC and Visa show that only 10% of merchants globally accept cryptocurrency payments directly. In 2025, cryptocurrencies will account for only 0.19% of global e-commerce transaction volume, approximately $15 billion.

According to CoinDesk, bipartisan lawmakers Steven Horsford, Max Miller, Suzan DelBene, and Mike Carey jointly reintroduced the "Digital Asset Protection, Accountability, Regulatory, Innovation, Taxation, and Revenue Act" (also known as the "Equality Act") this Wednesday. The new version of the bill mainly covers the following points: first, it stipulates that regulated payment stablecoins do not generate gains or losses if the cost basis is not less than 99% of the redemption value; second, it establishes a safe harbor for broker-dealer transactions or taxpayer account transactions; third, it clarifies that "wash sale" rules apply to digital assets; fourth, it requires the IRS to assess the current tax burden of small cryptocurrency transactions and to study the feasibility of establishing a tax exemption for transactions under $200 and the potential risks of abuse.The cryptocurrency industry has long advocated for tax exemptions on small transactions to promote the use of cryptocurrencies in everyday payment scenarios. Lawmaker Horsford stated that tax policy is the foundation of the cryptocurrency regulatory framework, and that current tax laws have not clearly addressed many core issues related to digital assets.

According to Decrypt, digital asset market infrastructure provider Prometheum has officially completed its first batch of cryptocurrency transactions after nearly a decade of establishment and raising approximately $100 million, currently only supporting Ethereum transactions.Prometheum has been controversial in the industry for supporting the compliance path and regulatory stance of the U.S. SEC during Gary Gensler's tenure, and in 2023 became the first company to obtain a Special Purpose Broker-Dealer (SPBD) license from the U.S. SEC and FINRA, allowing it to custody digital asset securities under a federal regulatory framework. However, with Gary Gensler's departure, the U.S. SEC's withdrawal of lawsuits against companies like Coinbase, and the regulatory framework shifting to a more lenient model, the compliance and custody license advantages that Prometheum has built over the long term are being weakened.

According to Slow Fog's Yu Xian monitoring, multiple user wallets of Bankr have been stolen. @bankrbot replied that the incident was a social engineering attack targeting the trust layer between automated agents, specifically involving the interaction between Grok and Bankrbot, which led to unauthorized transaction signatures.

According to Bits.media, the Russian government's bill on cryptocurrency regulation will be revised during its second reading, aiming to grant the central bank the authority to set requirements for anti-money laundering verification services for cryptocurrency transactions. Alexey Yakovlev, head of the Financial Policy Department of the Ministry of Finance, stated that he hopes to authorize the central bank to impose requirements on AML services, enabling them to verify whether transactions comply with current Russian laws and regulations.A representative from the Ministry of Finance stated that the authorities plan to mandate AML services to consider an "external perspective," analyzing the performance of Russian cryptocurrency wallets in international services and the "image of the Russian system formed abroad." At the same time, such services must "maintain the confidentiality of Russian financial infrastructure," not disclosing their operational principles and internal process details to outsiders. AML services are platforms that help users verify the risks of cryptocurrency wallets concerning international sanctions, anti-money laundering, and counter-terrorism financing. Currently, the main regulatory body for such platforms in Russia is the Federal Financial Monitoring Service of the Russian Federation.

On May 14, BNB Chain released the "BSC Post-Quantum Cryptography Migration Report," stating that it has completed the migration testing for quantum-resistant cryptography for transaction signatures and the consensus layer, using the NIST standardized post-quantum signature algorithm ML-DSA-44 (Dilithium) and the pqSTARK aggregation scheme.The report shows that BSC has replaced transaction signatures from ECDSA to ML-DSA-44 and switched consensus voting aggregation from BLS12-381 to pqSTARK to address the potential threats posed by future quantum computing to the existing elliptic curve cryptography system. However, post-quantum signatures also significantly increase the on-chain data volume: the size of a single transaction has increased from about 110 bytes to approximately 2.5KB; the block size in a 2000 TPS scenario has increased from about 130KB to around 2MB; and the TPS in the testing environment has decreased by about 40%-50%.BSC stated that the current network bottleneck mainly comes from the larger transaction data propagation, rather than the consensus protocol itself. Meanwhile, the consensus layer aggregation still maintains high efficiency, with pqSTARK achieving a signature compression ratio of about 43:1, and the additional burden on validators remains within a controllable range. The report concludes that existing technology can achieve "quantum-resistant" deployment for blockchain, but future issues related to network bandwidth and data scalability still need to be addressed.

Echo Protocol announced that it is investigating a security incident affecting the Echo cross-chain bridge on Monad. During the investigation, all cross-chain transactions remain suspended.According to previous reports, market news indicated that Echo Protocol was hacked on Monad. The attacker minted 1,000 eBTC (approximately $76.7 million) and used a tested process to deposit 45 eBTC (approximately $34.5 million) into Curvance. Subsequently, they borrowed approximately 11.29 WBTC (approximately $867,700) using this as collateral, bridged the WBTC to Ethereum, exchanged it for ETH, and ultimately transferred 384 ETH (approximately $821,700) to Tornado Cash.Yuxian, the founder of Slow Mist, stated that Echo Protocol may have been compromised due to the Admin single point private key being breached.

According to Edaily, South Korea's FIU plans to tighten cryptocurrency regulation, proposing a reporting obligation for overseas cryptocurrency transactions exceeding 10 million won (approximately 7,200 USD), and strengthening KYC information verification and the applicability of the Travel Rule.The FIU is expected to hold its first discussion today (May 19) with the CEOs of the five major South Korean cryptocurrency exchanges: Upbit, Bithumb, Coinone, Korbit, and GOPAX, as well as DAXA.Some industry experts in South Korea have warned that implementing "full reporting" for large transactions may constitute excessive regulation and could lead to users and funds flowing to overseas platforms. They suggest that regulators should focus more on abnormal trading patterns rather than a single monetary threshold.

According to a report by Reuters, since 2023, Iran's largest cryptocurrency exchange Nobitex has processed at least $2.3 billion in transactions through TRON and BNB Chain. These two blockchains were founded by crypto tycoons Justin Sun and Changpeng Zhao, both of whom are major supporters of the Trump family's World Liberty Financial.On-chain data first disclosed by Reuters shows that since the outbreak of the war in Iran in February, at least $22.6 million in crypto assets have flowed through Nobitex on the BNB Chain, with at least $550,000 flowing through TRON. Nobitex is widely used by sanctioned Iranian institutions, including the Central Bank of Iran and the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps. A White House spokesperson denied any conflict of interest in Trump's business dealings. World Liberty stated that it has no connection to Nobitex. Binance and BNB Chain responded that BNB Chain is a decentralized public blockchain, and Binance does not operate or control the network. TRON stated that it cannot monitor every transaction.

According to Bits.media, the State Duma of Russia is reviewing a supplementary bill parallel to the "Digital Currency and Digital Rights Law," which aims to enforce mandatory monitoring of cryptocurrency transactions exceeding 1 million rubles (approximately $13,700). The bill requires operators to identify customers, recognize suspicious transactions, implement internal controls and documentation management, transmit data to government agencies, and interface with the Central Bank of Russia.Digital compliance will become a mandatory requirement, including checks for money laundering and risks associated with funding organizations deemed undesirable. Exchange operators may delegate customer identification procedures to banks and must operate as non-credit institutions. The Central Bank has the authority to restrict their activities, demand changes in management, remove them from the register, or even liquidate the company through the courts.The supplementary bill also includes administrative and criminal liabilities, with fines for violations ranging from 30,000 to 50,000 rubles for public officials and 700,000 to 1 million rubles for legal entities. Illegal circulation of cryptocurrency by organizations may result in a maximum sentence of seven years in prison.

Binance Research released a report stating that cryptocurrencies are not a haven for illegal finance. In 2025, approximately 11% of illegal cryptocurrency transaction volume was seized, which is about 55 times the recovery rate of fiat currency. This data comes from public reports by organizations such as Tether, Interpol, and T3 Financial Crime Unit, rather than estimates from a single entity.For reference, the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) estimates that less than 1% of illegal fiat currency transaction volume is seized globally each year. Even excluding the Prince Group case (involving approximately $15 billion in Bitcoin), the remaining cryptocurrency seizures in 2025 are still about 10 times that of the traditional financial system. Additionally, SlowMist and PeckShield tracked that the proportion of stolen funds recovered or frozen in 2025 was between 8.3% and 13.2%. This reflects the rapid event response and close coordination among exchanges, issuers, and law enforcement agencies.The report concludes that cryptocurrency crime has not been resolved. However, the view that cryptocurrencies are particularly prone to fostering illegal activities is gradually being misunderstood.

TRONSCAN's latest data shows that the total number of transactions on the TRON network has reached 14,001,026,800, officially surpassing the 14 billion mark. It is reported that the total number of transactions refers to the cumulative number of all transactions on the TRON network.As a major global payment network and blockchain infrastructure, TRON has a large user base, with on-chain transaction activity continuously rising and user demand steadily increasing. Currently, the total number of TRON accounts has reached 381 million, and the total value locked (TVL) exceeds 28.9 billion USD. In addition, the issuance of TRC20-USDT has recently hit new highs, increasing to 89.3 billion coins, with a cumulative increase of 8 billion coins this year.

Strategy's preferred stock STRC recorded a record trading volume on Thursday, with a transaction amount reaching $1.53 billion, more than quadrupling the average over the past 30 days. Reports indicate that this peak in trading mainly occurred on the eve of the ex-dividend date, with a large number of trades priced at or above the $100 par value level. STRC currently offers an annualized cash dividend of approximately 11.5%, paid monthly.The high trading volume propelled Strategy to complete a new round of Bitcoin accumulation through its ATM (at-the-market) financing mechanism, purchasing approximately 11,707 BTC, allowing the company to continue expanding its position as the largest publicly traded Bitcoin holder in the world. Market data shows that STRC slightly retreated by about 1% in pre-market trading after entering ex-dividend trading, approaching the trading range just below $100, consistent with the usual price adjustment pattern for dividend-paying assets after the ex-dividend date. During the same period, the price of Bitcoin slightly weakened to around $80,500, and Strategy's common stock also fell by about 2%, reflecting the continued significant correlation between cryptocurrency assets and the company's stock price.