Autor Cointelegraph by Zoltan Vardai

Intercontinental Exchange, the parent company of the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE), is urging regulators to allow regulated exchanges to offer 24/7 onchain perpetual futures trading, according to ICE CEO Jeffrey Sprecher.Speaking at a Bernstein conference on Wednesday, Sprecher said that he was urging regulators to create a “level playing field” for launching 24/7 onchain perps contracts, arguing that regulators are “prohibiting us from doing this when it’s already happening.” The CEO said that ICE had multiple exploratory discussions with decentralized exchange Hyperliquid about the synergies between the crypto and traditional finance (TradFi) industries, where ICE sought to “learn” more about onchain perps.The comments are the latest testament on how more TradFi companies are exploring ways to enable 24/7 trading for stocks and commodities via blockchain rails, following Hyperliquid’s success. The remarks come a week after OKX said it will introduce perpetual futures based on ICE’s Brent crude and West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude benchmarks, two of the world’s most widely used oil price indicators, Cointelegraph reported on May 22.The trading products are the first initiative announced under a broader partnership between  ICE and OKX, after ICE invested in the cryptocurrency exchange at a $25 billion valuation in March.Earlier in March, the NYSE also partnered with tokenization platform Securitize as part of a broader effort to develop blockchain-based stock trading infrastructure with 24/7 trading and settlement for Wall Street.Cointelegraph has approached ICE for comment on whether the exchange operator was planning to launch an onchain perps trading platform via Hyperliquid.Related: UK proposes near-24/7 settlement to prepare markets for tokenizationHyperliquid is “bigger than Nasdaq,” says ICE CEOSprecher praised Hyperliquid’s rapid growth as a trading platform, which facilitated the creation of multiple new billionaires, said the CEO, adding:“If you haven’t heard about it, it’s bigger than Nasdaq, okay? It’s 11 people.”Hyperliquid remains far smaller than Nasdaq by conventional trading volume measures, but Sprecher’s comment underscored the pressure that always-on crypto derivatives venues are putting on regulated exchanges.Hyperliquid is ranked as the 7th largest decentralized exchange on CoinGecko, with a 3.7% market share and $195 million in daily trading volume.It ranks as the fourth-largest fee-generating protocol in the crypto industry, generating $15.6 million in weekly fees in the past seven days, DefiLlama data shows.Top decentralized exchanges by trading volume and market share. Source: CoinGeckoHyperliquid has been expanding its functionalities and recently launched canonical prediction markets for offchain events, Cointelegraph reported on Tuesday.The platform’s growing functionalities are positioning Hyperliquid as the crypto industry’s next “super-app,” making the Hyperliquid (HYPE) token “one of the most mispriced assets in crypto today,” as investors are still evaluating it as just a perp DEX, said Matt Hougan, chief investment officer at crypto asset manager Bitwise. Magazine: Would Bitcoin really be at $200K if not for Jane Street? Trade Secrets

Memecoin launch platform DxSale was drained of $7.3 million in funds in a cyberattack that affected around 1,400 liquidity providers (LPs) on the BNB Chain. The attacker’s address “0xC457” transferred $1.87 million worth of BNB (BNB) tokens into two main wallets and subsequently deposited them into multiple Binance deposit addresses, according to blockchain data platform PeckShield in a Friday X post.Back in 2021, DxSale was used to lock in liquidity for tokens launched on the BNB Chain. Blockchain analyst Tahax estimated that the locker still holds liquidity from projects launched years ago and explained that the exploiter wallet was freshly created and funded through crypto exchange Bybit.The exploit adds to the renewed concerns around decentralized finance (DeFi) hacks, which have stolen $52 million so far in May, down from $634 million in April, which marked an over one-year high last seen in February 2025, according to data aggregator DefiLlama.Mounting cyberattacks have led to widespread concerns about whether the wider DeFi sector is unsafe, partly due to the growing use of AI by malicious actors. “I now consider *all* of DeFi unsafe,” Manuel Aráoz, founder of the blockchain security platform OpenZeppelin, said on Tuesday, citing AI’s growing ability to identify smart contract vulnerabilities.Source: PeckShieldDxSale stolen funds are already untraceable: onchain analystThe attacker has already moved some funds through infrastructure that may make tracing more difficult, according to Tahax.The analyst said that the DxSale deployer quietly transferred ownership of the locker contract to a new wallet 269 days ago, alleging that a “backdoor was left in” without an official migration announcement.Source: TahaxThe analyst pointed to onchain evidence of another 80 transactions that executed subsequent ownership hops for obfuscation, before contract ownership landed at wallet ‘0xC45,’ which started the mass BNB withdrawals.Related: Mystery Bitcoin burn destroys 107 BTC worth about $8.5MThe backdoor in the deployer contract, paired with a backdated lock, enabled the hacker to exploit withdrawal loops and extract the BNB tokens, wrote Web3 security platform Coinsult, in a Friday X post, adding:“A privileged setFee plus a backdated lock turned ‘locked’ deposits into a withdrawable balance.”Cointelegraph has approached DxSale for comment on the exploit and the final number of affected liquidity providers.The exploit adds to more than $17 billion in crypto exploit losses tracked by DefiLlama, including about $7.8 billion from DeFi protocols.Magazine: Agent wastes 14 hours of scammers’ time, LLMs ‘poisoned’ by Iran: AI Eye

China’s Supreme People’s Court (SPC) said it will study new adjudication rules for virtual currency and cross-border finance cases as part of a broader push to clarify how courts handle digital economy disputes.“We will conduct in-depth research on the adjudication rules for new cases such as virtual currencies and cross-border finance, formulate judicial interpretations on civil compensation involving insider trading and market manipulation as soon as possible,” said Liu Guixiang, Judicial Committee member of the SPC, during a press conference, reported Chinese news outlet Yicai on Wednesday.The court also plans to study judicial protection rules for artificial intelligence cases and data property rights, including disputes involving data ownership, data transactions and AI-generated content.The development aims to draft clearer internal judicial standards on how courts should decide disputes and liability in crypto and AI intellectual property rights-related lawsuits. The promised guidelines may improve the court’s consistency in the growing number of crypto and AI-linked cases in the country.The comments come months after a high-profile lawsuit involving Chen Zhi, the Chinese-born founder and chairman of Cambodia’s Prince Group, who was arrested in Cambodia on Jan. 6, 2026, and extradited to China shortly after, where he faces charges related to operating pig butchering scam compounds. In October 2025, the US Department of Justice seized about $15 billion worth of Bitcoin (BTC) from Zhi’s suspected operations.US authorities charge Chen Zhi and seize $15 billion in Bitcoin. Source: Justice.govChina’s ban on all crypto transactions remains in placeMainland China has had a rocky relationship with the cryptocurrency industry.In December 2013, the People’s Bank of China (PBOC) banned financial institutions from offering Bitcoin-related services and stated that Bitcoin was not recognized as a currency, in its first major prohibitive step against the crypto industry.Related: South Korean funeral company records $33M unrealized loss on leveraged ETH ETFsIn September 2021, ten Chinese agencies, including the central bank and securities regulators, issued a blanket ban on all crypto transactions, Bitcoin mining and activities tied to initial coin offerings (ICOs) in the country. In February, the PBOC banned the issuance of unauthorized offshore Chinese yuan-pegged stablecoins and the unapproved issuance of tokenized real-world assets (RWAs).The structure of the digital yuan, China’s CBDC. Sources: CointelegraphThe latest ban came shortly after the Chinese government approved commercial banks to share interest with clients holding the country’s digital yuan, a central bank digital currency (CBDC) managed by state authorities. The development signal that the PBOC is doubling down on its efforts to launch its own yuan-backed CBDC as a new form of digital fiat money, instead of stablecoins.Magazine: 50K investors fight Korean crypto tax, Singapore cancels Bsquared: Asia Express

South Korean prosecutors charged a group in an alleged rug pull involving the Solana-based memecoin Catpie, or CATFI, in what local media described as the country’s first decentralized exchange (DEX) rug-pull prosecution.The group was reportedly apprehended by the Seoul Southern District Prosecutors’ Office’s Virtual Asset Crime Joint Investigation Division. The main suspect, surnamed Park, allegedly posed as “Eth Father” on social media platforms and falsely promoted CATFI as an independent third-party before executing a rug pull that caused about 900 million won ($599,000) in financial damage to at least 256 investors, local news outlet Digital Asset Works said Wednesday.Prosecutors allege the group promoted CATFI on social media, drove the token’s price up more than 1,000-fold within 26 hours and then sold their holdings for about 400 million won ($260,000) in illegal profit.The move marks South Korea’s first arrest tied to a memecoin rug pull under the Virtual Asset User Protection Act and signals that authorities are taking steps against coordinated crypto price manipulation. Rug pulls are deceptive exit scams where the token deployers promote a project to attract outside investment before suddenly abandoning it and selling their funds, causing significant financial losses to later buyers.Cointelegraph reached out to the Supreme Prosecutors’ Office for comment but had not received a response by publication.KOSPI trading volume versus volume on won-based domestic South Korean exchanges. Source: Digital Asset WorksThe development comes amid a significant contraction of South Korea’s domestic digital asset trading market, which saw trading volume on major won-based cryptocurrency exchanges decline to just 8% of the KOSPI stock market’s trading volume, Digital Asset Works reported earlier on Wednesday.Related: Bubblemaps flags MYSTERY token over 90-wallet launch sniping clusterCATFI token crashes 99% after rug pullFollowing its initial surge to an $8.99 million market capitalization in February 2025, the CATFI token has since crashed by 99% to an $57,000 market capitalization at the time of writing.Despite the crash, 1,512 investors were still holding the token in hopes of recovery, with the largest holder, wallet “5Q54,” holding 18% of the token’s total supply, data from Pump.fun shows.The X account that previously promoted the project has since been deleted.CATFI/USD, all-time chart. Source: Pump/funRug pulls and coordinated manipulation attempts continue threatening the wider cryptocurrency space.Earlier in May, a Solana memecoin linked to Keith Gill’s Roaring Kitty X account suffered a similar rug pull, as the anonymous developer cashed out about $729,000 while the token lost most of its value, Cointelegraph reported.One unfortunate cryptocurrency trader lost nearly $190,000 on the memecoin within an hour, underscoring the risks of memecoin trading.Magazine: Bitcoiners eye ‘sell in May,’ SBF’s bid for new trial shut down: Hodler’s Digest, April 26 – May 2

Michael Saylor’s Strategy, the largest corporate Bitcoin holder, has repurchased $1.5 billion of its 0% convertible senior notes due in 2029 for $1.38 billion at an 8% discount to par, in a move that significantly cuts future debt obligations.The purchase reduces Strategy’s outstanding debt through convertible notes from $8.2 billion to $6.7 billion for 2029, the company announced on Tuesday. The notes were repurchased using the company’s cash reserves.Strategy also reported an additional $15.5 billion in aggregate notional amount of outstanding preferred stock and a USD reserve of $871 million.Buying back debt at a discount can strengthen the balance sheet of a company by reducing future payment obligations and shows active debt management from Strategy, typically seen as a positive sign by shareholders.The update comes after Strategy did not announce a fresh Bitcoin purchase this week, following its $2.01 billion purchase the prior week. Four smaller Bitcoin treasuries stepped in to buy a cumulative 602.6 BTC worth about $46 million last week, Cointelegraph reported earlier on Tuesday.Strategy announces $1.5 billion outstanding note buyback. Source: Strategy.comCrypto industry watchers praised the debt buyback. “Great move by Strategy,” wrote asset management firm Bitwise’s European head of research, André Dragosch, adding that the debt reduction removes a “major uncertainty around the cash repayment wall in mid-2028,” as investors would likely demand repayment due to the relatively high conversion price of these notes, around $672.Related: New York lawsuit tests lost property claim over dormant Bitcoin Strategy shares sink 3% after announcementWhile a reduction in outstanding debt is typically a positive sign for shareholders, Strategy’s stock price fell 3% in pre-market trading on Tuesday and was changing hands at above $159 at the time of writing.The slide adds additional pressure to Strategy’s declining share price, which fell 10% during the past month and 59% during the past year, data from Yahoo Finance shows.Bitcoin’s price also fell by about 1.2% during the past month and by 29% over the past year, according to TradingView.MSTR/USD, 1-day chart. Source: Yahoo FinanceThe move comes a week after Strategy announced its third-largest investment of 2026, as it acquired  24,869 BTC for $2.01 billion between May 11 and 17, at an average purchasing price of $80,985 per BTC, Cointelegraph reported last Monday.Magazine: Bitcoin ETFs bleed $1B, Aave’s $71M ETH unfreeze bid delayed: Hodler’s Digest, May 10 – 16