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According to CoinDesk, Jim Ferraioli, Director of Digital Asset Research at Charles Schwab, stated that the recent weakness in Bitcoin is not due to a decline in institutional demand or Michael Saylor selling Bitcoin, but rather it is losing its position as the market's dominant momentum trading asset.He pointed out that crypto investors have traditionally followed momentum, and currently, momentum has left the crypto space. Funds are flowing into hot narratives such as AI-related stocks and IPOs, with SpaceX's IPO potentially valued at $1.8 trillion, and a number of other IPOs collectively raising over $200 billion, drawing liquidity away from the crypto market. Crypto traders are also speculating on pre-IPO stocks through synthetic derivative contracts on DEXs like Hyperliquid.Ferraioli downplayed the impact of Strategy selling 32 Bitcoins, believing it merely provided a convenient narrative for a broader trend that has already occurred. He noted that while Bitcoin ETFs have expanded access channels, this asset class is still primarily dominated by retail and momentum traders. Summer has historically been a season of weakness for Bitcoin, and there is currently a lack of buying reasons as investors have other options.

The U.S. Department of the Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) announced that it has added Iran's largest cryptocurrency exchange Nobitex, as well as three Iranian cryptocurrency exchanges Wallex, Bitpin, and Ramzinex, to its sanctions list, and imposed sanctions on Nobitex's chairman and co-founder Amir Hossein Rad, current CEO Seyed Ali Khoee, and several co-founders and executives.The U.S. Treasury accused Nobitex of processing over 50% of Iran's cryptocurrency inflows in 2025 and providing support for transactions related to the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), ransomware organizations, and sanction evasion activities. It also assisted the Central Bank of Iran in obtaining hundreds of millions of dollars in stablecoin funding. U.S. officials stated that after U.S. military actions against Iran, Nobitex helped transfer and protect the assets of the Iranian regime.In addition, the Treasury stated that Iran's second-largest cryptocurrency exchange Wallex, as well as Bitpin and Ramzinex, were also found to have links to transactions related to the IRGC. Among them, Wallex received about 12% of Iran's cryptocurrency inflows in 2025, Bitpin accounted for about 10%, while Ramzinex, established in 2018, has processed over $2.45 billion in transactions.This action is part of the Trump administration's "Economic Fury" strategy to exert maximum pressure on Iran. The U.S. Treasury stated that it will continue to combat Iran's use of digital assets for terrorist financing and sanction evasion and reserves the right to impose secondary sanctions on foreign financial institutions and companies that assist Iran's illegal trade.

According to Bloomberg, Bank of America (BofA) has appointed its senior trading executive Adam Dixon to lead the bank's digital asset strategy. According to an internal memo, Dixon has been with the bank for over 20 years, previously serving as the head of global market financial resource management, and is now appointed as the global head of digital asset transformation, based in the London office, responsible for coordinating related initiatives across the company.In his new role, Dixon will help oversee several enterprise-level initiatives, including tokenized assets.

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.

Gate announced the completion of a new round of product upgrades for Gate Pay for AI Agent and the launch of multiple new features, further enhancing the payment and automatic execution capabilities in AI Agent scenarios. This upgrade focuses on core capabilities such as service discovery, automatic payment, pay-per-use billing, high-frequency micro-payments, multi-wallet collaboration, and automatic settlement, further integrating the payment mechanism into the AI workflow.The upgrade emphasizes enhancing the service discovery and automatic payment capabilities of Gate Pay for AI Agent. Within the scope of user authorization, AI can automatically complete payments, signatures, and result retrieval based on payment requirements during the service invocation process, reducing the need for frequent user intervention and allowing complex tasks to be completed continuously within a unified process. At the same time, Gate Pay for AI Agent supports aggregated payments and automatic settlements for high-frequency, small-value calls, thereby reducing payment overhead and improving overall execution continuity, significantly enhancing execution efficiency and reducing transaction friction.In the future, Gate will continue to promote the capability development of Gate Pay for AI Agent in the directions of automated payments, on-chain settlements, and AI service collaboration, further connecting AI Agents, digital assets, and real commercial scenarios, providing more open and efficient infrastructure support for the next generation of AI-native economy.

The Ethereum Foundation stated that the Open Intents Framework aims to serve as a shared infrastructure for cross-chain intents, providing a modular open framework for deploying, discovering, and executing intents for the ecosystem.At the same time, LI FI announced the launch of LI FI Intents, a full-stack execution engine for same-chain and cross-chain transfers, which competes for quotes and completes order execution through a professional Solver network. LI FI documentation shows that its Intent/Solver Marketplace is one of the official foundations of the Open Intents Framework, and the Ethereum Foundation claims that the framework is entering a phase of large-scale adoption.

According to official news, KelpDAO stated that the last batch of 20,373.72 rsETH has been transferred to the rsETH OFT adapter earlier, thus completing the operational part of the rsETH recovery plan. KelpDAO also attached the relevant transaction information.

According to CoinDesk, Coinbase's Head of European Policy Katie Harries stated that Coinbase is not worried about large Wall Street institutions and traditional financial institutions increasing their participation in the cryptocurrency space, claiming that the crypto industry has a community foundation that traditional financial institutions cannot replicate.She mentioned that the advocacy group Stand With Crypto has over 3.7 million members globally, and members have made over 2.5 million contacts with lawmakers. Katie Harries also stated that cryptocurrency voters have become a long-term force in the global political landscape, and policymakers should expedite the development of a coordinated and reasonable cryptocurrency regulatory framework.

Bitcoin mining company MARA Holdings allocated approximately $4.3 million for CEO Fred Thiel's personal security expenses in fiscal year 2025, which includes $430,780 for vehicle bulletproof modifications, as well as expenses for bodyguards and residential security facilities. According to documents submitted to the U.S. SEC, MARA also provided approximately $3.9 million in security expenses for CFO Salman Khan, including $438,380 for vehicle bulletproof costs.Reports indicate that as incidents of "ransom attacks" targeting executives and investors in the crypto industry increase, crypto companies are significantly ramping up their investment in executive physical security. The so-called "ransom attack" typically refers to forcing victims to hand over private keys or account access through kidnapping, violence, or coercion. Data shows that in 2025, there were 72 confirmed incidents of crypto-related entity coercion globally, a year-on-year increase of 75%. Among these, France recorded 19 incidents, the highest in the world.

According to informed sources, U.S. President Trump is expected to issue an executive order aimed at strengthening cybersecurity for artificial intelligence as early as Thursday and has invited leaders from the tech industry to attend the signing event. Media reports previously indicated that the order Trump is expected to sign will modify the existing cybersecurity information sharing program to include artificial intelligence companies, but it will not require federal approval for cutting-edge models.Instead, the order will call for voluntary testing of cutting-edge artificial intelligence systems by the government to identify and patch vulnerabilities in federal, state, and local networks as well as critical infrastructure in the U.S., without the need for extensive new regulations. Informed sources stated that invitations have been sent to several tech industry executives to attend the signing ceremony at the White House on Thursday, but it is currently unclear who will attend.

According to the Form 144 document recently disclosed by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), Strategy Inc. Executive Vice President Andrew Kang acquired 5,597 shares of the company's Class A common stock on May 18 through the vesting of restricted stock. This batch of shares was sold on May 19 at an average price of $165.78 per share, with a total transaction value of approximately $927,866.The document notes that part of the proceeds from this sale will be used to pay tax obligations arising from the settlement of equity awards. The transaction was executed under the 10b5-1 trading plan adopted by Kang on May 2, 2024.According to SEC regulations, company insiders can disclose planned sales in advance through Form 144. Kang currently serves as the Executive Vice President of Strategy Inc.

According to BBX data, yesterday the global digital asset compliance process welcomed a historic policy dividend, as the U.S. federal government and the top securities regulatory agency are jointly breaking down the payment and securities boundaries between the crypto ecosystem and traditional finance. The core dynamics are as follows:Trump signs digital asset executive order: U.S. President Trump officially signed an executive order on Tuesday local time, requiring U.S. financial regulatory agencies to review existing rules within the next three months, identify and dismantle regulations that hinder fintech companies from collaborating with federally regulated financial institutions. The order specifically requires the Federal Reserve to take measures to encourage innovation within six months, reassess the eligibility of non-bank financial companies to access Federal Reserve payment accounts and services, and appoint 12 regional Federal Reserve banks to study the feasibility of independent open payment accounts.SEC poised to release "innovation exemption" framework: According to Bloomberg Law, the "Project Crypto" plan led by SEC Chairman Paul Atkins is expected to officially launch the tokenized stock "innovation exemption" framework as early as this week. This framework will allow crypto-native platforms to provide trading and clearing services for tokenized U.S. stocks to the market during the experimental period without undergoing full broker registration.Traditional exchange giants race to tokenize: Regulatory easing has already sparked competition for existing market share on Wall Street. Nasdaq, Inc. (NASDAQ: $NDAQ) has officially received SEC approval to launch trading of DTC-compliant security token versions by March 2026; meanwhile, the NYSE parent company Intercontinental Exchange, Inc. (NYSE: $ICE) has also submitted its independently developed 24/7 tokenized securities platform for final approval, which is currently pending.

On Tuesday local time, U.S. President Trump signed an executive order requiring the federal government and the Federal Reserve to review the existing regulatory framework to promote deeper integration of digital assets and financial technology into traditional financial services and payment systems. The executive order mandates U.S. financial regulators to review current rules within the next three months and identify any "unreasonable barriers" to cooperation between fintech companies and federally regulated financial institutions. Within six months, regulators must also take measures to encourage financial innovation. Among other things, the order specifically requires the Federal Reserve to reassess the eligibility of uninsured deposit institutions and non-bank financial companies for payment accounts and payment services.The document also requests the 12 regional Federal Reserve Banks to study whether they can independently open payment accounts to relevant institutions without relying on the approval of the Federal Reserve Board. Analysts believe this policy may benefit special purpose deposit institutions in Wyoming and similar structures for cryptocurrency companies. Previously, Kraken's Wyoming SPDI had obtained a limited version of "master account" authority from the Kansas Federal Reserve, and other cryptocurrency institutions are also seeking similar qualifications. Reports indicate that the Federal Reserve is currently also studying a more formal "streamlined master account" mechanism and had announced related proposals last December.

According to official news, Gate Europe CEO Giovanni Cunti attended the Digital Assets Forum 2026 held in Malta on May 14 and participated in a roundtable discussion titled "Do We Need a MiCA 2.0? The Industry's Perspective," alongside OKX CEO Erald Ghoos, Crypto.com Executive Vice President Mariana Kushev, and Blockchain.com Non-Executive Director and European Policy Advisor Giles Swan. They discussed the regulatory practices, industry opportunities, and future development directions of the European crypto industry following the implementation of MiCA.Giovanni shared the phased achievements of Gate Europe in advancing the compliance process in Europe, as well as the challenges and opportunities the industry faces under the MiCA framework. He stated that Gate will continue to be at the forefront of compliant crypto asset service providers in Europe and actively promote the standardized development of the industry.As an important forum focusing on European digital asset regulation and industry trends, the Digital Assets Forum 2026 gathered regulators, industry executives, and practitioners to review the key progress made in the 18 months since the implementation of MiCA. Currently, Gate's Malta company, Gate Europe, has obtained European MiCA and PI licenses under the supervision of the Malta Financial Services Authority (MFSA). As the European digital asset regulatory framework matures, Gate is deepening its compliance layout in the European market and enhancing its influence in the global digital asset industry through active participation in industry dialogue and regulatory practices.

The U.S. Attorney's Office for the Southern District of New York stated in a court filing on Tuesday that Roni Cohen-Pavon, the former Chief Revenue Officer of the defunct crypto lending platform Celsius, has agreed to a forfeiture judgment of $1.07 million, representing the proceeds traceable to his criminal conduct. Cohen-Pavon pleaded guilty in September 2023 to charges of fraud and conspiracy to manipulate the price related to Celsius's CEL token, and is scheduled to be sentenced this Thursday. Cohen-Pavon's lawyer previously requested a sentence of time served, citing his cooperation agreement with the government and his potential role in the guilty plea of former Celsius CEO Alex Mashinsky.Mashinsky was sentenced to 12 years in prison in May 2025 for commodity and securities fraud and agreed to forfeit over $48 million. In a letter to the judge, Cohen-Pavon stated, "I plead guilty because I am guilty. I participated in the manipulation of the CEL token. I should have stopped it but did not, I could have left but did not. I take full responsibility for this."Additionally, on Thursday, Judge Lewis Kaplan of the same court ordered that $10 million in assets associated with former FTX CEO Sam Bankman-Fried be used to fulfill his forfeiture agreement. Bankman-Fried was sentenced to 25 years in prison for defrauding FTX users and investors and is subject to over $11 billion in forfeiture. His appeal to overturn the conviction and sentence is still pending.

On the last day of the evidence-gathering phase of Elon Musk's lawsuit against OpenAI, a Microsoft executive revealed in court that by June 2026, Microsoft's total investment in OpenAI (including investment commitments, infrastructure, and computing power hosting costs) will exceed $100 billion.Reports indicate that this figure is significantly higher than the previously understood cash investment scale of $13 billion, marking the first disclosure of the overall costs Microsoft has incurred in supporting OpenAI in terms of underlying computing power and infrastructure. Microsoft CTO Kevin Scott also confirmed that during the early setup of their first supercomputer, they deployed tens of thousands of GPUs in a single instance.Furthermore, after Microsoft and OpenAI concluded their evidence presentation, Musk's team chose to forgo the rebuttal phase, officially ending the three-week evidence-gathering stage, with the court expected to enter the closing arguments phase on Thursday.

The BAI platform announced user data for May 11, showing that the platform gained 8,756 new users that day. While maintaining strong growth, the proportion of Stripe payments among the core paying group has risen to 69.0%, indicating a steady improvement in retention rates among traditional developers and production-level users. In terms of business structure, the DeepSeek-V4 series has contributed nearly 60% of Token consumption due to its extreme cost advantages. This series of models, with ultra-low latency, high concurrency, and high throughput capabilities, is becoming an indispensable core execution engine in the AI Agent era. The B.AI platform will continue to provide developers with efficient and economical model services, helping more AI-native applications to be implemented.