Autor Cointelegraph By Felix Ng

US President Donald Trump and tech executives have signed a voluntary accord aimed at ensuring their AI models “behave as intended.”The accord comes amid growing concerns over the safety of increasingly capable frontier AI systems. Trump has resisted a slowdown, citing competition with China. The agreement places much of the responsibility of managing AI risk on the companies developing the systems. The White House accord, named “Joint Commitment on Frontier Responsibilities,” calls for internal controls, independent external audits and board-level oversight “to ensure its models do not hack or access technical systems in unintended ways.” The accord also leaves open the possibility of turning those commitments into law or regulation, saying it may make sense to do so over time.Source: Rapid Response 47“I think I’m seeing tremendous self-policing. And they understand that they have to self-police,” Trump told reporters at the White House. The accord was signed at the White House by Google CEO Sundar Pichai, Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg, OpenAI President Greg Brockman, Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang and xAI CEO Elon Musk.The meeting addressed AI safety, the industry’s growth and data center development, while Trump ruled out a US-China joint venture to develop AI. It also came on the same day Trump signed an executive order directing the executive branch to use “Super Intelligence” instead of “Artificial Intelligence,” arguing the term “more appropriately captures the promise, potential, and rapidly advancing capabilities of these technologies.” Related: Trump says US will form ‘AI Force’ and appoint AI czar: Reports Cointelegraph is committed to independent, transparent journalism. This news article is produced in accordance with Cointelegraph’s Editorial Policy and aims to provide accurate and timely information. Readers are encouraged to verify information independently.

Stablecoin issuer Tether said it helped authorities freeze nearly $550 million in Iran-linked USDT during 2026, as a Senate Democrat called for an investigation into the stablecoin issuer on Monday.In a statement on Monday, the company said it has been working closely with international law enforcement for years. This year alone, it froze more than $130 million in USDT across four wallets, and in April, it froze more than $344 million linked to the Central Bank of Iran. “Tether has consistently demonstrated that USDT is not a haven for sanctioned actors, terrorist organizations or criminal networks,” said Tether CEO Paolo Ardoino.  The statement from Tether came as Democratic investigators on the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations released a report alleging USDT had become a key channel for Iran to evade sanctions. Investigators found that 84% of 846 crypto wallets sanctioned over ties to Iran had transacted exclusively or nearly exclusively in USDT. The findings prompted US Senator Richard Blumenthal to call on the Treasury and Justice departments to investigate potential sanctions violations.Tether said its cooperation with authorities globally had resulted in more than $4.9 billion in assets being frozen, including more than $2.4 billion connected to US authorities. “The record is public: the DOJ, FBI, Secret Service, HSI, OFAC and authorities around the world have repeatedly worked with Tether to trace, freeze and recover assets. We will continue to make that capability available to authorities working to stop terrorism, sanctions evasion, fraud and other serious crimes,” Ardoino said. Related: Manhattan US Attorney leading probe into Binance’s Iran compliance: BloombergCointelegraph is committed to independent, transparent journalism. This news article is produced in accordance with Cointelegraph’s Editorial Policy and aims to provide accurate and timely information. Readers are encouraged to verify information independently.

Coinbase has received approval from the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) to launch Coinbase Clearing LLC, its own US-based derivatives clearing organization. The registration became effective Monday, permitting the clearinghouse to clear fully collateralized futures, options on futures and swaps, though the registration does not permit the clearinghouse to clear its leveraged products. “Today’s CFTC approval completes Coinbase’s end-to-end derivatives infrastructure, enabling us to bring more regulated derivatives products to market with native USDC collateral and 24/7 settlement,” said Molly Abraham, Coinbase’s general counsel.The approval gives Coinbase control over another key part of its derivatives business, alongside its existing futures broker, Coinbase Financial Markets Inc., and exchange, Coinbase Derivatives LLC. It also marks another step in Coinbase’s expansion from a crypto trading platform into a provider of financial market infrastructure. A derivatives clearing organization stands between the buyer and seller in a derivatives trade, and helps manage settlement and counterparty risk, including if one party defaults. Through its derivatives exchange, Coinbase lists US-regulated futures tied to cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin and Ether, alongside commodity and equity-index futures. It also provides long-dated perpetual-style crypto futures. Other crypto companies have also moved to bring US derivatives infrastructure in-house. Kraken parent Payward completed its acquisition of Bitnomial in May, gaining a CFTC-regulated exchange, clearinghouse and futures brokerage.Related: Kalshi joins Coinbase with own filing for US stock perpetual futuresCointelegraph is committed to independent, transparent journalism. This news article is produced in accordance with Cointelegraph’s Editorial Policy and aims to provide accurate and timely information. Readers are encouraged to verify information independently.

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NEAR Intents said it blocked more than $50 million in attempted transfers linked to the Bitget hack. Attackers stole $387.5 million from Bitget on Thursday. A significant portion of these funds moved across chains to Ethereum, according to Alex Shevchenko, general manager of NEAR Intents, a protocol that lets users swap crypto assets across blockchains. Shevchenko said its SHIELD system detected and blocked more than $50 million in attempted transfers, which subsequently went to other providers. It managed to freeze $503,000 in funds during execution, while around $166,000 in suspected stolen funds passed through.The post came as THORChain faced calls to block addresses linked to the attack, underscoring a tension that permissionless crypto protocols face — offering open access while seeking to curb illicit activity. Shevchenko argued that permissionless systems do not necessarily have to be neutral. “The people who build these systems make choices about what those protocols enable. Refusing to help launder stolen assets is one of ours,” Shevchenko said.“Property rights are fundamental to functioning markets. A financial system where stealing an asset gives you an unrestricted right to monetize it isn’t a freer system. It is simply a system that protects the thief. Such systems cannot become the economic backbone of the future,” he added.NEAR Intents said it will forego the 5% bounty offered by Bitget for freezing attacker funds and an additional 5% for their recovery, allowing more funds to be returned to Bitget. Shevchenko said the frozen funds would be returned through an appropriate legal process. Related: Bitget CEO says $388M hack exploited third-party security vulnerabilityThe move comes after Circle and Tether blacklisted a wallet linked to the Bitget exploiter on Friday, freezing $318,013 of USDt (USDT) and USDC (USDC), according to onchain data.Source: Gracy ChenBitget CEO Gracy Chen on Friday also called on THORChain, a decentralized protocol for swapping assets between blockchains, to refuse services to addresses linked to the attack. THORChain, however, said it doesn’t censor by design, and that while it has halted the network in the past, this is an emergency security mechanism that affects the protocol broadly and “is not a selective freeze of specific funds or an individual swap.” Shevchenko said NEAR Intents would actively fight the laundering of hacked funds. “Crypto cannot simultaneously demand recognition of digital property rights and build infrastructure optimized for monetizing stolen property,” he said.Magazine: Asia dominates Crypto Adoption Index, Bitget’s $352M hack: Asia Express