Autor Cointelegraph By Andrew Fenton

ZK STARKs are the best way to deal with the issues created with making Bitcoin quantum-safe — and to reach mass adoption at the same time — says StarkWare co-founder Eli Ben-Sasson.What’s more, he claims Blockstream founder Adam Back agrees.Ben-Sasson has been in the news this week for his controversial suggestion on X to increase Bitcoin inflation to 4% annually. Grok’s analysis of the replies found “zero clear support for the proposal.”But as the co-inventor of STARKs — quantum-secure, hash-based zero-knowledge proofs — he’s on much firmer ground, with some leading Bitcoin researchers supporting the concept.Ben-Sasson’s own project Starknet last week announced its own three phase project to become quantum secure.The problem of large PQ signatures on BitcoinAdding zero-knowledge proofs to Bitcoin does not make the blockchain quantum secure by itself. ZK proofs are a way to deal with the problems caused by adding much larger post-quantum (PQ) signature schemes to Bitcoin. The current crop of PQ signatures approved by the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) is 10 to 100 times larger than Bitcoin’s existing ECDSA and Schnorr signature schemes.Some argue this could slow the blockchain to fewer than 1 transaction per second. But all of the large transaction signatures for a block could be compressed into a tiny ZK STARK proof. Because the proof would be much smaller than even including the existing signatures, the blockchain may end up running faster. “If they don’t allow for ZK STARK aggregation, then definitely it will be a very unfortunate move because it won’t really solve the problem … where the problem is ‘can everyone actually use Bitcoin?’” Ben-Sasson said.“So for that you need massive scale. And for that, you need things like signature aggregation and just increasing the block size isn’t enough.”Related: StarkWare CEO suggests 4% annual Bitcoin inflation to replace 21M capEli on OP_CATSource: Eli Ben-SassonThe quantum alternative: Increase Bitcoin’s block sizeMarin Ivezic, author of PostQuantum.com and founder of Applied Quantum, told Cointelegraph that Bitcoin’s SegWit scheme reduced the impact of large signatures by up to 75%. But his modeling of NIST’s ML-DSA-44 scheme, which has 2,420 bytes per signature, “puts block capacity at roughly 500 to 700 transactions, down from 2,500 to 3,000 today. That is where the block-size debate comes in.”Increasing Bitcoin’s block size is a genuine alternative, but the community split over a proposal to double the block size back in 2017. Many of the arguments against remain relevant, as it’s a blunt fix that requires every node to carry, store and verify much more data. That’s more expensive and requires more equipment, which critics argue pushes the network toward centralization.Blockstream Research has been experimenting in recent months with compressing the size of hash-based post-quantum signature schemes for use with Bitcoin. It has come up with the promising SHRINCS and SHRIMPS schemes, which have everyday signatures around five times larger than Bitcoin’s current ones, but up to 40 times larger if you lose your wallet and need to resurrect it.While SHRINCS has been used to sign real transactions on the Liquid sidechain, its development is at an early stage and there are drawbacks in terms of complexity and usability. The much larger signatures would also slow the blockchain down, unless the block size was increased.“Raising capacity natively is the simple engineering answer and the hardest governance answer,” said Marin Ivezic, author of PostQuantum.com and founder of Applied Quantum, about a block size increase. “We just don’t have time for those debates.”Blockstream SHRINCSZK proof aggregation has advantagesncrease, but it would arguably be much better at preserving decentralization while also making Bitcoin more efficient. At their simplest, ZK proofs are a way to mathematically prove that something exists without needing to include all the details. For example, a ZK proof could demonstrate that you know the combination to a safe, without telling the other person what the combination is.  Generating a ZK proof for a single block technically only needs to be done once (although it’s safer to generate additional backups for redundancy), and the equipment required to do so looks like it would be much less expensive than a commercial mining setup. Lean Ethereum’s specs are for proving equipment that costs under $100,000 (and can be run from an ordinary home). Verifying a ZK proof, meanwhile, can be done on almost any equipment, including a Raspberry Pi.Ben-Sasson said that early Bitcoin devs like Greg Maxwell and Mike Hearn were “very bullish about ZK STARKs, which are post-quantum secure and have no trusted setup,” and that he believes Bitcoin Core developer Luke Dashjr and Blockstream founder Adam Back are coming around to the idea.“I heard this myself from them. They are bullish on things related to and using ZK STARKs. I think each of them has spoken well, definitely privately but also publicly, in favor. Adam Back and Luke Dashjr don’t exactly see everything eye to eye, but on this I think they actually agree that it’s a great technology that, under the right terms, could find its way to Bitcoin.”Cointelegraph contacted Back for comment, but did not receive a response.Ethereum researcher Justin Drake has spoken publicly about his desire for Bitcoin to adopt Lean Ethereum’s ZK proof aggregation technology so that it becomes standard across the industry. This may be unfeasible for political reasons.Ethereum’s strawmapEthereum aims to be post quantum by 2029. Source: Ethereum FoundationBitcoin specific ZK proposalsGiven Bitcoin’s conservative culture, the most politically pragmatic way to add ZK to Bitcoin would likely be to re-enable OP_CAT, which is nine lines of code written by Satoshi.“[He] even introduced and then he removed it,” said Ben-Sasson said. “And if you add that, you can get things like STARK proofs and then aggregation and post-quantum security.”“I think it’s the best and safest solution that will really, really just jump-start again this journey that Satoshi really started and wanted.”But despite a flurry of interest in OP_CAT about 12 to 24 months ago, it seems to have lost momentum more recently (although Bitcoin governance moves in mysterious ways).There are also more speculative proposals, including OP_STARK_VERIFY, that would add opcodes specifically designed to more efficiently verify STARKs on Bitcoin. And BIP-360 co-author Ethan Heilman proposed aggregating Bitcoin’s signatures and public keys into a single STARK proof under the name BitZip. Heilman told Cointelegraph earlier this year there are two main ways to achieve the desired result:“Either add a bunch of general purpose opcodes to Bitcoin and then build something like a ZKRollup in Bitcoin or support STARKs at the consensus layer of Bitcoin. Alternatively, other less powerful aggregation schemes, such as CISA [Cross Input Signature Aggregation] might help here as well.”  QuantumWhat are the chances though?Ivezic says Bitcoin governance, rather than technological capability, is the sticking point. “Eli’s cryptography is rock solid: pure hash assumptions, no trusted setup, thousands of signatures compressed into one small proof. The problem is everything around the cryptography,” he says. “Bitcoin Script cannot verify a STARK today, and a production verifier is a massive consensus surface compared with a narrow hash-signature opcode. Given that a tiny opcode like OP_CAT has spent years in debate, a base-layer STARK verifier is realistically a 2030s conversation.”Meanwhile, Ethereum is targeting 2029 for its transition to post-quantum, and Solana has also been experimenting with adding post-quantum signatures. StarkNet’s three-phase transition will benefit from account abstraction, which enables the underlying cryptography to be upgraded without making every user manually transfer to new accounts.As a result, Ben-Sasson said that Solana and Ethereum’s post-quantum roadmap will be “extremely hard.”  “On Starknet, we have this big advantage that we have already native account abstraction and smart wallets, which means that nothing is enshrined so its very easy to upgrade the wallets and the infrastructure to be post quantum.“Features: The biggest blockchain upgrades still to come in 2026

Strategy sells 3,588 Bitcoin for $216M to fund dividendsMichael Saylor’s Strategy sold 3,588 Bitcoin (BTC) to fund preferred stock dividend payments and replenish its cash reserves.Strategy sold the Bitcoin for $216 million, reducing its total holdings to 843,775 Bitcoin, according to a Monday 8-K filing with the US Securities and Exchange Commission.This included 1,363 Bitcoin sold at an average price of $59,256 between last Monday and Tuesday, and 2,225 Bitcoin sold at an average price of $60,773 between Wednesday and Sunday.Strategy disclosed the sale of 32 Bitcoin in early June, as its first reported Bitcoin sale since the 2022 tax-loss transaction.Before Strategy disclosed its latest Bitcoin sale, Bernstein said the company was unlikely to be forced to sell its holdings, citing its liquidity position and cash reserve coverage.Bernstein’s report said Strategy had 17 months of cash to cover dividend obligations and interest payments. It added that the company remained a net buyer of Bitcoin and served as a strong “balancing force” in a market where leading US Bitcoin miners are net sellers due to their pivot to AI.Donald Trump says ‘nothing wrong’ with $1.4B crypto windfall while in officeUS President Donald Trump has responded to criticism of his 2025 financial disclosures, showing that he earned $1.4 billion in income from crypto-related ventures while in office.In a Thursday interview with CNBC’s Joe Kernen, Trump said that there was “nothing illegal” and “nothing wrong” with profiting from his crypto investments as president. He claimed that other people were responsible for his investments and he didn’t “even know who they are,” not directly answering questions about perceived conflicts of interest as president.Trump’s comments followed the release of his 2025 financial disclosure report by the US Office of Government Ethics, showing that he took in more than $2 billion from his businesses and investments, about $1.4 billion of which was connected to crypto projects like his memecoin and family’s platform World Liberty Financial. Many advocacy organizations have characterized the investments as a “grift” allowing the president to influence related legislation like the Digital Asset Market Clarity (CLARITY) Act.Trump disclosed that his memecoin generated about $636 million, World Liberty sales about $588 million and $197 million from equity in a stablecoin venture.TrumpUS senator calls for ban on elected officials issuing memecoinsSenator Kirsten Gillibrand, one of the US lawmakers behind negotiations for a digital asset market structure bill in Congress, has proposed barring elected officials and the president from issuing or sponsoring their own tokens, citing President Donald Trump’s and First Lady Melania Trump’s memecoins.In a Friday notice, Gillibrand said that Congress should support measures barring elected officials and their spouses from “issuing or sponsoring their own digital assets.” The New York lawmaker said that the proposed restriction would include any US president and their spouse, but did not specifically mention extending the provision to the office of the vice president or other members of their families. “This is a commonsense requirement that should get broad bipartisan support – public officials and their spouses should not be issuing memecoins,” said Gillibrand. “We cannot let self-dealing destroy an opportunity to strengthen consumer protections, crack down on illicit finance, and expand economic opportunity for the millions of Americans our financial system has left behind.”GellibrandVitalik Buterin shares top priorities for new ‘Lean Ethereum’ strawmap Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin has named quantum resistance, scalability and privacy as three of Ethereum’s top priorities under a new “Lean Ethereum” strawmap, which lays out the network’s technical direction for the remainder of the decade. In a post to X on Saturday, Buterin said the collection of upgrades will roll out over the next three to four years, touching nearly every layer of Ethereum in a transformation he compared in scale to the September 2022 Merge, which shifted the network away from energy-intensive mining. “Quantum safety has shifted up a LOT in priority,” he said, adding that finalizing a quantum-safe solution for blobs has “become urgent.” Enhancing privacy is another priority, Buterin said, stating that it has become a “first class goal.”Dankrad Feist, a former Ethereum Foundation researcher behind the payments-focused layer-1 Tempo blockchain, praised the new plan but argued the 3-4 year timeline is too slow, stating that AI could help developers ship the upgrades within a year. Financial companies join forces for US dollar stablecoin, keeping reserve earningsMore than 140 companies have reportedly signed onto a US dollar-pegged stablecoin project that allows them to “receive all of the earnings” from its reserves. In a Tuesday notice, Open Standard said it was launching the Open USD (OUSD) stablecoin, a US dollar-pegged coin supported by financial companies including Visa and Mastercard, as well as crypto companies Coinbase, Ripple, OKX and Bybit. The project will allow businesses to mint OUSD “at no cost and with no artificial limits on volume,” and keep earnings from the coin’s reserves.“When Visa, Stripe, Mastercard, Coinbase and Google coordinate on a new stablecoin, the signal is unmistakable,” said Rhino.fi co-founder and CEO Will Harborne. “Open USD is the first launch with a real chance to win share from USDT and USDC, because reserve revenue flows back to everyone who holds it. But that same incentive is what drives fragmentation at scale.”As the week continued, some of the signatories denied making any firm commitments to the consortium.OUSDWinners and losersAt the end of the week, Bitcoin (BTC) is at $64,039, Ether (ETH) at $1798, and XRP (XRP) is at $1.14. The total market cap is at $2.12 trillion, according to CoinMarketCap.Among the biggest 100 cryptocurrencies, the top three altcoin winners of the week are MemeCore (M) at 105%, Lighter (LIT) at 39%, and ether.fi (ETHFI) at 29%.The top three altcoin losers of the week are Venice Token (VVV) at -13%, Stable (STABLE) at -10% and Audiera (BEAT) at -5%.Top Prediction of the WeekBollinger Bands creator eyes Bitcoin bear-market end, ‘W’-shaped reversalJohn Bollinger, creator of the Bollinger Bands volatility indicator, believes he has spied a “W”-shaped double bottom on BTC/USD on the charts.“$BTC has seen a series of bullish patterns broken, evidence of the power of the downtrend,” he commented in X posts on Friday. “Will this ‘W’ be the one that breaks the trend?”“W”-shaped reversals involve two swing lows with a rejected rebound in between, with price ultimately breaking through that rejection level to form a new uptrend.Bollinger has been bullish on BTC for some time. In early May, he revealed a new long position via his Bitcoin investment vehicle.As Cointelegraph reported, an increasing number of price indicators are flashing signals not seen since the last bear market in 2022. Despite this, market participants broadly believe that the next macro bottom is still to come and is due in Q3 or later.Top FUD of the weekTim Draper says Arkham got Bitcoin wallet attribution ‘wrong’Billionaire investor and longtime Bitcoin bull Tim Draper said blockchain analytics company Arkham incorrectly linked him to a wallet involved in a large Bitcoin transfer to Coinbase Prime.“It just wasn’t me. I haven’t touched it. Arkham has it wrong,” Draper told Cointelegraph, adding that he still expects Bitcoin to reach $250,000 within one year.The statement came after blockchain analytics platform Lookonchain reported Friday that a wallet “possibly linked” to Draper had transferred 1,000 Bitcoin worth about $62 million to Coinbase Prime, citing data from Arkham.Draper is best known in the crypto community as one of Bitcoin’s earliest high-profile investors, having won a US Marshals Service auction for nearly 30,000 Bitcoin seized by US authorities from Silk Road-related holdings in 2014. The holdings are now worth $1.9 billion, meaning Draper selling could have a big impact on Bitcoin’s.Bitcoin profit and loss ratio falls to 43-month lowBitcoin’s realized profit and loss ratio has fallen to a 43-month low of -0.35, a figure that signals extreme market-wide loss conditions but has historically coincided with market bottoms, blockchain analytics platform CryptoQuant said.The Bitcoin realized P&L ratio — which measures the net percentage of Bitcoin (BTC) in profit or loss relative to total supply — hasn’t fallen this low since December 2022, shortly after FTX shockingly collapsed and sent Bitcoin below $16,000.“Historically the indicator has marked BTC bottoms with extreme precision,” CryptoQuant said on Thursday. In 2015 and 2019, the Bitcoin realized P&L ratio also fell below -0.35 before price rallies followed. The data could lift market sentiment, which has repeatedly fallen to near-record lows during the course of Bitcoin’s latest 50% drawdown from $126,080, set in October. Market sentiment has risen cautiously over the last 10 days, with Bitcoin up more than 7% since tanking to a near two-year low of $58,190 on June 25.Upbit says it only expressed interest in future OUSD participationSouth Korean crypto exchange Upbit said it is not participating in the issuance of Open USD, after its operator Dunamu was named among more than 140 businesses involved in the new stablecoin initiative. “Upbit has only indicated our potential willingness to consider taking part in the future expansion of the OpenStandard ecosystem,” an Upbit spokesperson told Cointelegraph. The clarification follows similar pushback from Samsung Electronics and other South Korean companies listed by Open Standard. According to a Friday report by ChosunBiz, Samsung said it had not held formal discussions with the project and did not know what role it was expected to perform. Meanwhile, Shinhan Financial Group and KBank reportedly said they had only indicated that they would consider the initiative. Cointelegraph reached out to Open Standard for comments but did not receive a response before publication. Top Cointelegraph Features of the WeekThe biggest blockchain upgrades still to come in 2026From Ethereum’s Glamsterdam and Solana’s Alpenglow, to proposed post quantum security changes for Bitcoin, 2026’s key crypto upgrades are some of the most significant in years.Has Strategy’s capital overhaul put an end to ‘death spiral’ fears?Has Strategy’s new capital overhaul defused the fears swirling around STRC, or has it simply bought more time before the next bout of stress?From Bitcoin critics to blockchain believers: The 5 biggest crypto backflipsFrom crypto hater Nouriel Roubini launching the Technodollar to Bitcoin critic Peter Schiff putting out tokenized gold, meet the skeptics who are now cashing in on crypto.

India’s central bank revives push to isolate banks from crypto: ReportThe Indian central bank reportedly urged lawmakers to keep banks insulated from crypto and private stablecoins while preserving room for regulated tokenization.According to a report by The Economic Times, RBI Deputy Governor Rohit Jain and Executive Director P. Vasudevan presented the central bank’s position to the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Finance on Thursday.In a background note submitted to the panel, the RBI reportedly said prohibition remained a recognized policy option and recommended preventing the use of crypto in payments and settlements while restricting banking-sector exposure.The central bank reportedly warned that applying traditional regulation to crypto could legitimize speculative assets and create a false perception of safety among users. However, it urged policymakers to distinguish crypto from tokenized government securities, corporate bonds and other regulated financial instruments so that restrictions would not hinder tokenization. ChainalysisSource: ChainalysisRussia on track for digital ruble rollout on Sept. 1: Central bank governorRussia’s central bank governor, Elvira Nabiullina, confirmed that the country was prepared to roll out its central bank digital currency (CBDC) in two months, following the timeline it laid out last year. According to a Thursday report from Russian state media outlet RIA Novosti, Nabiullina said that “everyone is ready” for a Sept. 1 digital ruble launch. The CBDC will launch as a complement to Russia’s fiat currency, the ruble, and will initially be accepted by financial and credit institutions.The digital ruble has already been targeted by preemptive sanctions from European Union authorities, which announced restrictions on the CBDC in April in response to Russia’s “war of aggression against Ukraine.” SBI Crypto shuts Bitcoin mining pool after 5-year runSBI Crypto, a cryptocurrency-focused division of Japanese financial conglomerate SBI, is shutting down its Bitcoin mining pool after a five-year run.Data from SimpleMining shows SBI Crypto currently ranks as the 12th largest Bitcoin mining pool globally, with about 21.46 exahashes per second (EH/s) of hashrate and roughly 2.24% of total Bitcoin network share.The company announced Wednesday that it will end mining pool operations on July 31 and will stop accepting mining shares at the same time. It did not provide its rationale for closing the pool.SBI Crypto said miners should keep directing hashrate to the pool until the cutoff so final payouts can be calculated correctly before operations end. “We would sincerely appreciate your continued support by mining with us until the final day of operation,” it said.SimpleMiningSource: SimpleMiningOFAC sanctions 134 ISIS-K crypto wallet addresses as Tether freezes fundsThe US Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) sanctioned 134 cryptocurrency wallet addresses identified as belonging to terrorist group ISIS-Khorasan (ISIS-K). ISIS-K has historically solicited crypto through donation campaigns on various websites and messaging platforms. The wallet addresses were added to the OFAC’s Specially Designated Nationals (SDN) list on Wednesday.Stablecoin issuer Tether has frozen the balances associated with 131 Tron addresses, while the remaining three sanctioned addresses were on the Monero network, blockchain forensics company Chainalysis said in a Wednesday report.The development comes over a week after the OFAC’s previous round of sanctions against ISIS-supporting financiers using cryptocurrency. On June 22, the OFAC sanctioned three individuals and six entities across Europe, the Middle East and West Africa, including Syria-based MSB Bitcoin Xchange and Turkish MSB Spider.OFAC said the previous round of sanctions targeted “key facilitators who enable ISIS to move funds among its regional affiliates.”Metaplanet buys 2,823 BTC, surpasses 43,000 in Bitcoin holdingsJapanese investment company Metaplanet acquired 2,823 Bitcoin during the second quarter at a price below its average purchase price, as its holdings surpassed 43,000 BTC.The company acquired its latest trove at an average price of about 12.71 million yen ($78,850 at current exchange rates), reducing its average acquisition cost to about $95,117 per BTC from $96,258, according to a Thursday announcement.Metaplanet now holds 43,000 Bitcoin acquired for about $4.1 billion. It also reported about $10.95 million in revenue from its Bitcoin income generation strategy in the quarter, which earns premiums by selling cash-secured options and employing other Bitcoin-related yield strategies.Meanwhile Nasdaq-listed South Korean company K Wave Media sold its remaining 88 BTC to repay $6 million in debt, exiting the Bitcoin treasury strategy, according to a Tuesday filing with the US Securities and Exchange Commission.Dubai crypto market hits 50 licensed firms after new VARA approvalThe Virtual Assets Regulatory Authority (VARA), Dubai’s crypto regulator, has granted its 50th virtual asset service provider (VASP) license.On Thursday, VARA said its latest approval went to tokenized assets platform Tribe Tokenisation FZE.The milestone provides one measure of the growth of Dubai’s crypto licensing regime, though license totals alone do not show how many firms are operational or the level of business they generate.Against that backdrop, Dubai’s 50 licensed VASPs exceed the totals reported in Hong Kong (13) and Singapore (37).Bank of Korea governor outlines tokenized bond vision, unified ledger planHyun Song Shin, the governor of the Bank of Korea, praised tokenization for its ability to simplify the issuance and management of government bonds.Shin said during a Wednesday panel discussion at the European Central Bank (ECB) Forum on Central Banking in Sintra, Portugal, that tokenized bonds would make it easier to verify collateral, credit the asset provider’s account and reverse transactions at the appropriate time.“The big prize is tokenizing government bonds,” Shin said, adding that it is “much easier, much less prone to mistakes if you have everything tokenized.”US Treasury debt is the largest tokenized real-world asset category, representing $14.6 billion, or about 46% of the $31.7 billion RWA market, according to data provider RWA.xyz. Shin also outlined plans to bring tokenized government bonds, wholesale central bank digital currencies and tokenized commercial bank deposits on a unified ledger, as part of an extension to “Project Hangang,” a Bank of Korea-led pilot project testing a blockchain-based wholesale CBDC system.Related: South Korea adds token securities to capital market overhaulTaiwan’s legislature passes crypto, stablecoin regulationsTaiwanese lawmakers have passed a law to establish a regulatory framework for crypto, which includes licensing and rules for stablecoins.Taiwan’s financial watchdog, the Financial Supervisory Commission (FSC), said that the Legislative Yuan passed the law requiring all virtual asset service providers, or VASPs, to get approval from the regulator to operate.The law also says stablecoins issued in Taiwan must get approval from the central bank and the FSC, and issuers must maintain sufficient reserves with a trustee and undergo regular audits.The law is the first to regulate crypto and stablecoins in Taiwan, bringing it in line with other governments in the region, such as Japan, Singapore and Hong Kong, that have long passed laws to regulate the sector in a bid to attract the industry.Solana Company to back Kazakhstan’s $6B crypto megacity ambitionNasdaq-listed crypto treasury firm Solana Company signed an agreement to support the development of Alatau City, Kazakhstan’s planned digital-first megacity.The company signed an MOU to help build Alatau City’s blockchain and crypto infrastructure during the Alatau City Roadshow in Shenzhen and Hong Kong in June, which reportedly secured 30 cooperation agreements with a combined investment potential of over $6 billion.“We look forward to deepening this partnership and expanding the Solana ecosystem’s footprint across the region,” said Solana Company chair and CEO Joseph Chee.The deal further pushes Kazakhstan into Solana’s corner. Last year, Kazakhstan launched Central Asia’s first Solana Economic Zone in the country’s capital of Astana with the Solana Foundation.The Kazakhstan Stock Exchange (KASE) launched its first Solana ETF last week, giving investors regulated exposure to Solana (SOL) through one of the biggest stock exchanges in Central Asia. AlatauThe village of Zhetygen will become Alatau. Source: Wikimedia CommonsFeatures: Has Strategy’s capital overhaul put an end to ‘death spiral’ fears?

Hyperliquid added to Singapore’s Investor Alert ListThe Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS), the city-state’s central bank and financial regulator, has added decentralized perpetuals exchange Hyperliquid to its Investor Alert List.The entry, added on Friday, includes the Hyper Foundation website and the Hyperliquid trading app.The Investor Alert List is a consumer protection measure that identifies entities that may be wrongly perceived as licensed or regulated by MAS. Inclusion on the list does not constitute a ban or enforcement action.MAS added crypto exchange Bybit to the list on June 17 and KuCoin and Bitget also appear.Hyperliquid said that it has never claimed to be licensed or authorized by MAS and that nothing about its permissionless infrastructure has changed.HyperliquidDon’t look at this if you are in Singapore. (Hyperliquid)Indonesia sets certification rules for influencers recommending cryptoIndonesia’s financial regulator has introduced certification requirements for influencers who recommend crypto and other digital financial assets, as the country expands oversight of financial promotions on social media.Under Financial Services Authority Regulation No. 6 of 2026, announced Wednesday, individuals recommending digital assets must obtain competency certifications unless they are already subject to a separate licensing requirement.Influencers may recommend only digital assets listed on authorized exchanges, while any service provider they recommend must also be licensed. Marketing campaigns must be conducted through regulated financial services businesses, which are responsible for the promotional content, and distributed through their official communication channels.Indonesia joins a growing number of jurisdictions tightening oversight of financial influencers, also called finfluencers, with Australia and the United Kingdom introducing broader rules for investment promotions and the Philippines adopting crypto-specific marketing restrictions.South Korean authorities fine Bithumb $136K over sharing user information overseasSouth Korean cryptocurrency exchange Bithumb was order to pay a $136,000 fine after it was found to have breached personal information protections rules when it sent user data overseas.In a Thursday notice, the country’s Personal Information Protection Commission (PIPC) said that its investigation into Bithumb found that the exchange had “transferred personal information overseas without the separate consent of the data subjects during the process of order book sharing and virtual asset transfer with overseas virtual asset exchanges.”The incident was connected to Bithumb sharing its Tether (USDT) order books between September and November 2025 with BingX, despite obtaining consent to share the data with Stellar, as well as sharing user information with 13 overseas exchanges.BithumbSource: PIPCSBI to acquire Bitbank in $289M deal creating Japan’s biggest crypto exchangeJapan’s SBI Holdings has signed agreements to acquire full control of crypto exchange Bitbank through a 46.7 billion Japanese yen ($289 million) transaction, advancing a deal first disclosed in May that would create the country’s biggest crypto exchange.SBI expects the transaction to close around October, subject to regulatory clearance.The acquisition would expand SBI’s regulated crypto exchange footprint and customer base, giving it another potential distribution channel for the stablecoins, tokenized assets and onchain financial products.Bitbank’s daily trading volume has hovered below $50 million for most of the last four months, CoinGecko data showed. Volume is dominated by the BTC/JPY pair (39.5%), followed by XRP/JPY and ETH/JPY (both at 19.7%).SBI said combining Bitbank with SBI VC Trade would give the group about 1.1 trillion yen in assets under custody and roughly 2.92 million crypto accounts, meaning the combined business would rank first among Japanese crypto exchanges.Chainlink joins European and Korean bank consortia to develop FX settlement networkChainlink has joined a working group with European and South Korean banking organizations to explore the use of stablecoins for foreign exchange (FX) settlement.The protocol has announced Project Pangea alongside South Korean digital asset infrastructure company FairSquareLab, the Unified Korea Alliance (UniKA) — a consortium that includes more than a dozen Korean commercial banks — and Qivalis, a euro stablecoin consortium backed by 37 European banks.Project Pangea aims to bring together financial institutions across Europe and South Korea to evaluate direct, atomic swaps of euro- and South Korean won-denominated stablecoins using Chainlink’s data infrastructure alongside FairSquareLab’s onchain foreign exchange settlement technology.The initiative is another example of financial institutions evaluating stablecoins for wholesale financial infrastructure rather than consumer payments. According to the Bank for International Settlements, the global foreign exchange market processes roughly $9.6 trillion in daily trading volume.South Korea adds token securities to capital market overhaulSouth Korea’s financial regulator folded token securities infrastructure into a broader overhaul of the country’s capital markets, alongside plans for faster settlement, longer trading hours and greater use of artificial intelligence.On Tuesday, the Financial Services Commission (FSC) said it had launched a capital market infrastructure review meeting to coordinate reforms across government agencies and market operators. According to the FSC, plans for token securities will be further discussed separately through a public-private council before being linked to the wider initiative. The initiative includes a roadmap for shortening the securities settlement cycle, expected by October, and a Korea Securities Depository (KSD) system for settling over-the-counter trades in unlisted shares and fractional investment products by the end of 2026. Circle, Nomura eye Japan corporate FX with stablecoin settlement: ReportStablecoin issuer Circle and Japan’s largest investment bank Nomura have reportedly partnered to enable instant foreign exchange settlement for Japanese companies as early as 2027.The service would enable companies to convert yen into dollar-denominated stablecoins for cross-border transactions and instant settlement, reducing delays caused by banking hours and time zone differences, Nikkei reported on Thursday.The partnership would bring one of the world’s largest dollar stablecoins into Japan’s corporate foreign exchange market, expanding the use of stablecoins for business-to-business cross-border settlement.Australian regulator extends no-action period for crypto licensingThe Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) has given digital asset businesses another three months (to September 30) apply for licenses required under its updated regulatory guidance.The extension applies to businesses seeking an Australian Financial Services (AFS) license, as well as companies that may require market or clearing and settlement authorizations.The regulator said it has received about 30 license applications since updating its digital asset guidance in October 2025 to clarify that many crypto products are financial products under the law and require an AFSL.It noted its recent court victory against BlockEarner emphasized that point.

About 60% of World Cup bettors on Polymarket are first-time crypto usersAbout 60% of users who placed their first World Cup bets on Polymarket had never interacted with blockchain protocols before, suggesting prediction markets are becoming an entry point into crypto.The finding is based on a 90-day Bitget Wallet study that tracked the onchain activity of 857,000 active Polymarket users.Alvin Kan, chief operating officer at Bitget Wallet, told Cointelegraph that earlier crypto onboarding efforts largely focused on making blockchain technology easier to understand through simpler wallets and better user interfaces, but users were still expected to learn how crypto worked before they could participate.“Prediction markets shifted that dynamic. Users show up because they have a view on something happening in the world,” Kan said.Trump cancels signing of housing bill with CBDC banUS President Donald Trump canceled the signing ceremony for a housing bill containing a ban on a central bank digital currency (CBDC) as he looked for Republicans in Congress to prioritize a controversial voting bill.In a Wednesday morning Truth Social post, Trump said that the signing for the 21st Century ROAD to Housing Act, passed by the US Senate and House of Representatives, would be canceled “until such time as we pass the desperately needed SAVE America Act.”The housing bill, passed by the House on Tuesday, included a provision barring the US Federal Reserve from issuing or creating a CBDC “or any digital asset that is substantially similar” until the end of 2030. Many had expected Trump to sign the bill, aimed at tackling housing affordability, into law on Wednesday without issues. However, the president said in March that he would “not sign other bills” until the SAVE America Act was passed. The legislation would require voters to provide proof of US citizenship in person to register, with critics saying the measure would disenfranchise citizens already eligible to vote.Trump on housing billBitmine, Sharplink and Joe Lubin back Ethereum R&D nonprofitFormer Ethereum Foundation contributors and Ether treasury firms Bitmine and Sharplink have backed a new research and development nonprofit that aims to make Ethereum ready for institutional use.Sharplink said on Monday that the organization, Ethlabs, was formed to “ready Ethereum for the next phase of institutional adoption,” with the company pitching in with Bitmine, Ethereum co-founder Joe Lubin and other Ethereum contributors on its funding effort.“As stablecoins, tokenized real-world assets, funds and autonomous AI commerce move on-chain, they are converging on Ethereum as the neutral, credibly permissionless settlement layer for the global economy,” Sharplink said. “Ethlabs exists to ensure the network is ready to absorb that demand at scale.”The launch comes days after former Ethereum Foundation contributor Trenton Van Epps warned that Ethereum is facing a core development funding crisis and amid an ongoing wave of departures from the Foundation, most recently co-executive director Hsiao-Wei Wang, who left last week.Vitalik ButerinCryptoQuant warns on Strategy’s dividend coverage as cash reserve falls 38%After Strategy’s dividend coverage fell to 14 months from seven years, CryptoQuant said the company led by Michael Saylor should pause Bitcoin purchases and focus on replenishing its cash reserve, which is down 38% year-to-date.Strategy’s dividend obligations have nearly quadrupled to $1.2 billion, as the company issued substantial new STRC preferred stock, which carries an 11.5% yield.“They should pause Bitcoin purchases, rebuild cash reserves, and adopt a systematic framework for purchase timing,” wrote the market data analytics provider’s CEO Ki Young Ju in a Wednesday X post, adding that the biggest public Bitcoin treasury holder should also create a “disciplined selling framework” for the next bull market.Strategy’s cash reserve fell 38% after the company repurchased $1.5 billion of its 2029 senior notes at a discount, Cointelegraph reported on May 26. Those coffers have since recovered to $1.4 billion after it sold $335.5 million in MSTR shares, which added $300 million to its US dollar reserve on Monday, although it is near a record-low of 14 months’ of funds available to pay dividends.Catholic leaders, US authorities challenge CLARITY Act over illicit activityA group of law enforcement organizations and a coalition of Catholic organizations have become the latest two groups urging caution over the US CLARITY Act, which is heading for a key hearing in July.  In letters sent Tuesday, four law enforcement organizations reached out to White House officials with concerns that the CLARITY Act could create oversight gaps when it comes to illicit activity. “Regulatory certainty should not come at the expense of accountability, transparency, victim protection, or public safety,” they said. The Alliance to End Human Trafficking, founded by US Catholic Sisters, said these oversights could make it harder to crack down on human trafficking. Senator Cynthia Lummis said this week, the final text for the bill would be released July 4, with the House Financial Service Committee scheduling a hearing into the Clarity Act on July 17. Cynthia LummisWinners and LosersAt the end of the week, Bitcoin (BTC) is at $59,359 which represents a 6.8% decline, while Ether (ETH) is at $1,565, after falling 8.8% for the week.  XRP (XRP) is at $1.04 and down 8% for the week. The total market cap is at $2.06 trillion according to CoinMarketCap.Among the biggest 100 cryptocurrencies the top three altcoin gainers are Velvet (VELVET) at 290%, DeXe (DEXE) on 55% and Audiera (BEAT) which was up 49%.The top three altcoin losers of the week are MemeCore (M), which lost 76%, WorldCoin (WLD), which lost 28%, and Mantle (MNT), which was down 20%. Prediction of the weekBitcoin may fall lower but BTC power-law frames crash to $58K as ‘normal’Bitcoin’s drop to $58,000 lines up with the power-law model’s cycle lows, even though futures market data points to deeper lows for BTC price.Giovanni’s Bitcoin power-law model places the network’s long-term trend price near $135,000, making the recent drop to $58,000 roughly 54% below the all-time high and 1.22 standard deviations beneath that trend.According to the analyst, the key takeaway is straightforward: the previous cycle lows in 2012, 2015, 2019, 2020, and 2022 all fell within a similar statistical range. By that measure, the latest decline falls within a territory that has historically marked the deep bear-market lows rather than a break in Bitcoin’s long-term growth path.Top FUD of the weekBinance faces EU service limits as MiCA rules take effectBinance has notified European Union users that access to key services will be restricted after the exchange failed to secure Markets in Crypto-Assets (MiCA) authorization from a member state before a July 1 deadline.Those restrictions include halting the onboarding of new EU users and limiting certain services for EU-based accounts effective July 1, according to exchange notices shared by users on social media.The notices said users will still be able to withdraw their assets after that date, stating that “all digital assets are still available for withdrawal,” in line with applicable regulatory requirements.The move marks one of the first major transitions under the EU’s MiCA framework after Binance announced it withdrew its MiCA license application in Greece on Wednesday.Binance recorded over $400 million in net outflows during the week beginning June 22. Binance’s public messaging is that the company intends to continue pursuing a MiCA license, despite being on pace to miss the July 1 buzzer.Iran-linked entities moved $3.8B through CoinEx, TRM saysWallets with identifiable links to sanctioned Iranian entities have moved over $3.84 billion through cryptocurrency exchange CoinEx since 2019, making it one of the main channels used to bypass US economic sanctions, according to blockchain analytics company TRM Labs.About 60 Iranian platforms were tied to the funds, with $2.7 billion of this flowing between CoinEx and Nobitex, Iran’s largest domestic cryptocurrency exchange, at an average rate of about $1 million per day since 2018, wrote TRM Labs in a Wednesday report.By 2024, CoinEx was Nobitex’s largest external counterpart, nearly nine times that of the next-largest exchange, a pattern that TRM Labs called “inconsistent with independent market behaviour.”CoinEx denied having any commercial relationship with the Iranian government or domestic Iranian exchanges and disputed TRM Labs’ interpretation, saying onchain fund flows do not demonstrate a platform’s knowledge of or participation in illicit activity.Ethereum Foundation sacks 20% of workforce amid strategic restructuringThe Ethereum Foundation (EF) has laid off 54 employees, roughly 20% of its workforce, as part of a major organizational restructuring.According to a blog post published Tuesday, the EF will reorganize around five specialized clusters covering protocol, access, user, community and institutional work. The Foundation said the changes are intended to concentrate resources on Ethereum’s long-term technical priorities, including scaling, privacy, security and censorship resistance.Under the new structure, separate teams will oversee Ethereum’s core protocol, user access tools, community engagement and work with institutions, while management and operations functions remain organized independently.Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin said the Ethereum Foundation is reducing its budget by roughly 40% as it transitions toward a long-term, endowment-based organization. He said the foundation aims to lower annual spending from about 15% of its remaining funds to roughly 5% after 2030, a shift he said necessitated difficult staffing decisions.Top feature stories of the weekThe failure of Botanix suggests that Bitcoiners still prefer Ethereum DeFi to Bitcoin L2s. How can Bitcoin L2s change to win hodlers over?Ethereum’s latest “funding crisis” has triggered a fierce debate over whether to tax staking rewards or to pursue funding from large ETH holders for new organizations like EthLabs.AI is banking the unbanked in Africa… faster than cryptoAI is widening access to banking for the unbanked across Africa. But used badly, it can simply automate financial exclusion at greater speed.