News linked to both this project and an event.
According to CoinDesk, cryptocurrency custody firm Copper is seeking to sell the company at a valuation of approximately $500 million and has engaged Wall Street investment bank Cantor Fitzgerald to assist with the transaction. Copper’s core asset is its ClearLoop custody-based settlement system, which enables institutional clients to execute delivery versus payment (DvP) transactions without moving assets on-chain, effectively eliminating settlement risk. The company currently boasts over 1,000 active counterparties and processes over $50 billion in notional trading volume monthly. Copper had previously considered an IPO, but the broader crypto IPO market has entered a wait-and-see phase amid sluggish Bitcoin prices and the capital-attracting effect of the AI sector.
USDF, a custom stablecoin on the Solana blockchain jointly launched by Coinbase and Flipcash, has gone live. It is part of the "Custom Stablecoins" initiative, enabling businesses and protocols to easily issue their own branded USD stablecoins for payments, payroll, cross-border settlements, and more, while maintaining regulatory compliance.
According to the South China Morning Post, Hong Kong’s Financial Secretary and Secretary for Financial Services and the Treasury, Christopher Hui, stated that gold can serve as a potential bridge between traditional finance and new finance. He emphasized that Hong Kong needs to provide more development opportunities for the digital asset market to support its sustainable growth. He also noted that, given the “convergence” trend between traditional and innovative finance, Hong Kong has opted not to establish a separate digital asset regulatory authority. Hui pointed out that both gold ETFs and blockchain-based tokenized gold products are already available in the market. Earlier, HSBC and Hang Seng Investment launched Hong Kong’s first tokenized, non-listed Hang Seng Gold ETF product on HashKey Exchange in April.
According to The Block, privacy computing company Zama has acquired TokenOps, an enterprise-grade token lifecycle management platform, with plans to integrate fully homomorphic encryption (FHE) into institutional-grade token vesting, airdrops, and equity structure management. Zama stated that TokenOps has processed over $2 billion in distributions. Following the acquisition, issuers will be able to execute end-to-end token distribution, release schedules, and recipient identity verification—all on-chain and encrypted—based on the ERC-7984 Confidential Token standard. This solution is already live in production at KAIO, whose partner institutions include BlackRock, Hamilton Lane, and Brevan Howard. TokenOps will continue operating under its independent brand post-acquisition.
According to the Financial Times, Amsterdam-based company Qivalis has secured support from 37 European banks—including BNP Paribas, ING, and UniCredit—for its yet-to-launch euro-pegged stablecoin, making it the single euro stablecoin project with the largest number of European backers to date. Newly added supporters include ABN AMRO, Intesa Sanpaolo, and Rabobank. Qivalis has applied for a license from the Dutch Central Bank (De Nederlandsche Bank), aiming for approval in the second half of this year, and plans to complete operational readiness upon license issuance.
According to CoinDesk, crypto infrastructure firm Zerohash is seeking new funding at a valuation exceeding $1.5 billion. This comes after Mastercard abandoned its investment plans for Zerohash following its $1.8 billion acquisition of UK-based stablecoin infrastructure company BVNK. Founded in 2017, Zerohash provides APIs and embedded development tools to financial institutions and fintech companies, enabling support for cryptocurrencies, stablecoins, and tokenized products. The company now serves over 5 million users across 190 countries, with clients including Morgan Stanley, Stripe, Interactive Brokers, BlackRock’s BUIDL Fund, and Franklin Templeton. In September 2025, Zerohash closed its $104 million Series D-2 round, valuing the company at $1 billion at that time.
According to The Block, crypto market maker Wintermute has launched Armitage, a DeFi treasury curation platform offering non-custodial treasuries tailored to varying risk appetites to access decentralized lending opportunities. Wintermute stated that, leveraging its market-making operations and liquidation execution capabilities, Armitage can accept “collateral types unsupported by other curators.” The announcement notes that user deposits require no KYC, and users retain full control over their funds. As institutions continue to deploy treasury strategies on Ethereum-based Morpho, Solana-based Kamino, and others, treasuries are becoming a key tool for institutional participation in crypto markets.
Odaily Planet Daily reported that Pump.fun will launch a new token USDC pairing feature on May 21, and existing SOL-based pairings will not be affected by this change. Since its launch in January 2024, it is estimated that at least 5.07 million SOL has been locked in liquidity pools, valued at $430 million.According to on-chain data, over $382 million has been allocated for PUMP buybacks, removing 37.9% of the circulating supply from the market and offsetting 13.4% of the total supply. (solanafloor)
According to the official announcement, Bybit has today launched perpetual contracts for three new assets: the Direxion Daily Semiconductor Bull 3x Shares ETF (SOXLUSDT), the Roundhill Memory ETF (DRAMUSDT), and Cerebras Systems (CBRSUSDT). These contracts cover popular sectors including leveraged ETFs, semiconductor memory, and AI chips. All are USDT-margin based, support both long and short positions, and remain tradable even during related market holidays. Users can also enjoy a limited-time fee discount: from now until 10:00 UTC on May 31, 2026, maker fees are 0%, and taker fees are reduced by 50%. With exposure across multiple high-potential sectors, now is the ideal time to enter at these low fees.
According to The Block, Japan’s ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) has officially approved a policy proposal to build a next-generation national financial system based on blockchain and AI. The proposal also supports advancing tokenized deposits and yen-denominated stablecoins. The report notes that this initiative is being formally advanced at the ruling party level and involves strategic directions for Web3 and financial infrastructure development.
Bitget PoolX will soon list the ILY project, with a total airdrop of 220,000 ILY tokens. This event will open 2 BTC staking pools, with the staking channel open from 19:00 on May 19 to 19:00 on May 25 (UTC+8).Among them, the BTC static staking pool is allocated 97,000 ILY, with a personal staking limit of 30 BTC; the BTC dynamic staking pool is allocated 123,000 ILY, where the tiered staking cap will be unlocked based on the user's trading volume in the past 15 days, with a maximum personal staking of 50 BTC.Additionally, during the event, users with a positive net BTC deposit can receive a 2% BTC wealth management booster coupon after the event ends; users participating in PoolX for the first time who meet the net deposit conditions can receive a 10% BTC booster coupon. The net deposit statistics period is from 17:00 on May 19 to 17:00 on May 24 (UTC+8). For more details, please refer to the official Bitget platform.
Musk's social platform X has announced the launch of Creator Connect. This tool, powered by artificial intelligence (AI), matches suitable content creators in real time based on brand placement goals and audience trends. It aims to achieve more precise content collaboration by leveraging AI to analyze creators' audience composition, content style, and real-time trends. (Cointelegraph)
the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) is preparing to introduce a new regulatory framework for trading tokenized stocks, which could be announced as early as this week. It is reported that the SEC is studying an "innovation exemption" mechanism, allowing trading platforms to offer digital versions of listed securities on-chain under more relaxed regulatory conditions. This move is seen as a significant signal that U.S. regulators are further shifting towards supporting tokenized securities.Currently, multiple Wall Street institutions have accelerated their layout in related businesses. The Depository Trust & Clearing Corporation (DTCC) plans to launch limited production trading of tokenized assets in July and expand promotion in October; Nasdaq is developing a blockchain-based stock issuance framework; and Intercontinental Exchange (ICE) is advancing tokenized stocks and crypto-related products through its partnership with OKX.SEC Chairman Paul Atkins previously stated that the SEC is considering establishing formal rules for on-chain trading systems, blockchain settlement infrastructure, and crypto custody models, and believes that existing securities regulations are no longer suitable for on-chain protocols that integrate trading, clearing, and settlement. (CoinDesk)
Anza, a core Solana development team, announced that it has recommended Solana mainnet validators upgrade to Agave 4.0. This release includes XDP for Turbine, TPU transaction ingestion exclusively over QUIC, faster replay stages, and a suite of feature-gated SIMD instructions set to activate during this cycle. Production environment results from large mainnet validators show Turbine retransmission latency has dropped from 600 ms to approximately 0.8 ms. Additionally, UDP-based transaction ingestion has been removed, making QUIC the sole transaction submission method; simple vote transactions now follow the same cost model as regular transactions. Features including p-token, Stake Program v5, SBPFv3 program support, pre-funded account creation, and BLS12-381 system calls will also be enabled during the 4.0 cycle.
The BNBAgent SDK has officially launched on the BSC mainnet, providing core infrastructure for scaling AI agents on-chain. The SDK comprises four modular components: identity and trust based on ERC-8004; commerce and custody based on ERC-8183 (APEX); autonomous payments integrating MPP and x402; and memory and storage built on BNB Greenfield. This framework addresses key challenges faced by AI agents—including identity verification, commercial collaboration, automated settlement, and cross-execution-environment memory continuity—enabling developers to build, deploy, and monetize AI agents on BNB Chain. Initial partners include Google, AWS, Virtuals, Binance Pay, Trust Wallet, Binance Wallet, and United Stables.
It is reported that Byreal has now launched the SpaceX Pre-IPO perpetual contract market, with the contract ticker SPCX and up to 5x leverage. This market is based on a fully diluted share count of 11.87 billion shares; at the current price of $210, SpaceX’s market capitalization stands at $2.49 trillion.
According to the official announcement, HTX (formerly Huobi) has launched perpetual contracts for HD/USDT, DIS/USDT, and CBRS/USDT on May 18, with a maximum leverage of 10x for each. Concurrently, HTX is hosting an HD, DIS, and CBRS perpetual contract trading party from 15:00 on May 18 to 15:00 on May 25 (UTC+8), with a total prize pool of up to $20,000. During the event, users who register and trade HD/USDT, DIS/USDT, or CBRS/USDT perpetual contracts—achieving a cumulative effective trading volume of ≥$5,000—will share the prize pool based on their trading volume ranking. Additionally, new users trading HD/USDT, DIS/USDT, or CBRS/USDT perpetual contracts will receive exclusive benefits.
According to Yonhap News Agency, KB Financial Group announced that it has successfully completed a full-process technical proof-of-concept (PoC) for the Korean won (KRW) stablecoin—from issuance and offline payments to merchant settlement and cross-border remittances—in collaboration with electronic payment provider KG Inicis, the Kaia public blockchain, and digital asset solutions provider OpenAsset. This PoC upgraded the internal settlement infrastructure to a blockchain-based system while preserving customers’ existing financial service habits. Real-world payment scenarios were implemented via self-service kiosks at the连锁 coffee chain Hollys: consumers need not install a digital wallet and can simply make QR-code-based payments, with blockchain smart contracts automatically executed during settlement. In the cross-border remittance validation, KRW stablecoins were first converted into USD stablecoins using liquidity on the Kaia chain, then transferred by local Vietnamese partners into actual bank accounts. The entire process took only three minutes and reduced fees by approximately 87% compared to traditional SWIFT-based methods.
The Public Security Ministry’s Criminal Investigation Bureau published an article titled “Beware of Online Fraud Targeting Minors” on its official WeChat account, exposing a new type of online fraud characterized by “gaming-based traffic diversion + impersonation of public security, procuratorial, and judicial organs + virtual currency money laundering.” Fraudsters lure minors into adding them as friends via advertisements posted on gaming and social media platforms, then use intimidation and other tactics to obtain funds from the minors’ parents’ accounts. The illicit proceeds are split and withdrawn through black-market and gray-market platforms before being used to purchase virtual currencies. These virtual currencies face no geographical restrictions and can silently flow back to overseas fraud dens, achieving “physical isolation” for cross-border fund transfers. The Public Security Ministry’s Criminal Investigation Bureau warns: Public security, procuratorial, and judicial organs never conduct investigations online, never threaten to deduct funds, and never request passwords or verification codes.
Adam Hollander, Chief Marketing Officer of OpenSea, stated that the next cycle of NFTs could look very different from the speculative frenzy of 2022, which saw over $1.6 billion in trading volume. Speaking to The Block at Consensus Miami, Hollander noted that it "makes perfect sense" to put assets like collectible cards, luxury watches, and digital tickets on-chain for trading, and that these could be the core drivers of a new wave of NFTs.Adam Hollander emphasized that although avatar-based NFTs like Bored Apes and CryptoPunks have experienced a value crash, NFT technology still has potential to prove ownership of both digital and physical assets. He believes the previous NFT boom relied too heavily on speculation, with buyers treating NFTs more like a digital casino rather than focusing on their technology and real-world value. The future application of NFTs will be driven by actual demand for collectibles, in-game items, AI tools, and more. The development of artificial intelligence will also lower the barrier to creating digital art, animations, and games, thereby accelerating NFT adoption.Regarding platform development, OpenSea is working to build an ecosystem that allows users to manage all their crypto assets and NFTs across different wallets and chains, while optimizing the user experience. This includes simplifying the onboarding process, supporting Apple Pay-like fiat payments, and displaying NFT prices in US dollars. When asked about the delay in launching the much-anticipated SEA token, Hollander stated that the decision lies with the OpenSea Foundation, and he personally has no further information on the timeline. He emphasized that if the token were merely an "airdrop meme coin," it would not create value for users. (The Block)