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The Better Business Bureau’s (BBB) National Advertising Division (NAD) is referring prediction market platform Kalshi to regulatory authorities after the company declined to participate in an inquiry into its social media advertising practices, adding another layer of scrutiny to the fast-growing event trading platform.In a statement published Monday, NAD said it will refer the matter to the appropriate regulatory authorities, including relevant state Attorneys General, for possible enforcement action.The inquiry examined whether Kalshi’s influencers and affiliates clearly disclosed paid relationships in social media promotions and whether the company took adequate steps to comply with Federal Trade Commission endorsement guidelines.According to the BBB, Kalshi declined to participate in NAD’s voluntary self-regulatory review of its advertising practices. As a result, the organization will also notify the social media platforms where the advertising appeared.“At issue for NAD was whether material connections between Kalshi and influencers or affiliates were clearly and conspicuously disclosed in social media advertising,” BBB said.Crypto influencer John Wang joined Kalshi in August. Source: John Wang on X.com.Kalshi’s advertising practices have also drawn scrutiny from Media Matters for America, a nonprofit media watchdog organization, which highlighted the platform’s viral marketing campaigns on TikTok and Instagram that promoted prediction trading as a “side hustle.”Related: Kalshi joins Polymarket in sweeping user bans to head off insider tradingPrediction markets continue rapid growth despite regulatory scrutinySocial media marketing has fueled Kalshi’s explosive growth, helping the platform attract new users and drive trading volumes tied to real-world events. A Kalshi spokesperson told Bloomberg that the company is on track for a $1.5 billion annualized revenue run rate, momentum that helped secure a $1 billion funding round valuing the company at $22 billion.Kalshi is a leading centralized prediction market platform alongside decentralized rival Polymarket. Source: Bitget WalletDespite an ongoing jurisdictional dispute between state regulators and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) over event contracts, as well as allegations of insider trading, prediction markets continue to gain traction among retail and institutional participants.A May research report from Bernstein argued that the sector is entering an “institutional” era, with analysts citing a block trade executed on Kalshi as evidence of improving liquidity and more efficient price discovery.“We believe the introduction of block trading and bespoke contracts could expand participation from institutional investors seeking targeted exposure to event risks,” the Bernstein analysts wrote.Related: Prediction markets legal battles heat up in Minnesota, Rhode Island

Blockchain researchers have raised concerns about the United Kingdom’s sanctions against crypto exchange HTX, arguing that the move may have created broad collateral damage across the industry’s compliance system.In an X post, Galaxy Digital’s head of research, Alex Thorn, said the UK adding “all of HTX” to its sanctions was “problematic” because the exchange has many legitimate users. Thorn pointed to differences in how stablecoin issuers decide when to freeze tokens, saying there’s a big divergence in enforcement practices.Security researcher Taylor Monahan said in an X post that the HTX sanctions undermined years of work to encourage decentralized finance (DeFi) protocols to screen and block stolen funds. She argued that most HTX users are legitimate.Source: Taylor MonahanBlockchain investigator ZachXBT also criticized the sanctions, calling them “a bit of an overreach.” He said HTX address tainting onchain has been “catastrophic.”“Basically now I’ve had to ignore the sanctions category when tracing cases by exposure since ‘risk’ itself has become meaningless,” he said.The criticism follows the UK’s May 26 sanctions against Huobi Global S.A., the Panamanian company behind HTX, over alleged support for Russia-linked financial networks.HTX disputes UK sanctionsUK authorities said there were reasonable grounds to suspect HTX had supported Russia’s government through financial services and funds facilitated by A7 Limited Liability Company and Garantex, both sanctioned entities.Related: UK regulator takes High Court action against HTX over crypto promotionsHTX has since denied the allegations, saying the sanctioned entity is separate from the online exchange. Despite this, a Global Ledger report said that HTX processed about $21.06 billion in high-risk crypto flows between 2021 and May 2026. Of that total, at least $7.64 billion was linked to Russian high-risk entities and darknet markets, including Garantex, its successor Grinex, A7A5 and Hydra.The sanctions appeared to have had effects downstream. Trump-linked DeFi project World Liberty Financial later froze HTX-linked addresses after what it described as sanctions compliance reviews. HTX responded by delisting the DeFi platform’s USD1 stablecoin and suspending several trading pairs. Magazine: Vietnam preps crypto pilot, HK pushes tokenization: Asia ExpressCointelegraph 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.

StarkWare and Sui launched new privacy features this week that allow users to conceal transaction data without fully sacrificing auditability or regulatory oversight.StarkWare said Tuesday that it launched STRK20, a privacy framework for ERC-20 tokens on Starknet that allows users to shield balances and transaction data while providing mechanisms for disclosure under certain circumstances.Eli Ben-Sasson, co-founder and CEO of StarkWare, told Cointelegraph that “compliance-ready” does not mean STRK20 itself determines legal compliance or guarantees regulatory approval. He said the framework is built around a risk-based model in which privacy is conditional rather than absolute, with screening applied at entry into the shielded pool and viewing-key-based disclosure available under lawful request.Separately, Sui launched a public beta for confidential transfers, a feature that conceals transaction amounts while allowing authorized parties to access information when required for auditing or compliance purposes.The launches reflect a broader shift in crypto privacy away from complete anonymity and toward models favored by institutions that incorporate audit and disclosure mechanisms.Sui launches confidential transfers. Source: SuiCompliance shift in privacy systems In recent weeks, privacy-focused projects have been forced to address questions around both oversight and reliability.Zama, a blockchain privacy project, said on June 2 that it would accelerate its compliance roadmap. The announcement came after a court-ordered freeze of about $12.5 million in USDC held in its confidential USDC wrapper, which was later lifted following resolution of the underlying legal request.The project subsequently highlighted its disclosure mechanisms and approach to regulatory coordination for encrypted transactions.Related: Canton, ZKsync clash over how blockchains enforce rulesThe broader push also comes amid renewed scrutiny of one of the crypto industry’s most prominent privacy projects after Zcash disclosed a bug that raised concerns that counterfeit tokens could have been created undetected.Zcash developers said the vulnerability was addressed through an emergency network upgrade completed in early June, with no confirmed evidence of exploitation, though the nature of shielded pools makes it difficult to fully reconstruct transaction history after vulnerabilities are disclosed.Market Moves: Why is Ethereum Foundation selling? BTC futures warning signsCointelegraph 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.

The European Union should focus on a broader digital asset framework covering real-world assets and tokenization instead of regulating decentralized finance through a second version of the Markets in Crypto-Assets Regulation (MiCA), an adviser at the European Commission said.The European Commission launched a public consultation on MiCA in May, seeking feedback through Aug. 31. “I do not believe that [MiCA] is outdated now. That’s my personal opinion, but it does not matter. That’s why we have this consultation,” Peter Kerstens told Cointelegraph during a fireside chat at WAIB Summit Monaco 2026.Kerstens, one of MiCA’s architects, said that the feedback received during the European Commission’s current review period will help shape the bloc’s next regulatory steps.MiCA is approaching the end of its transitional period on July 1, after which crypto asset service providers will be required to hold a MiCA license or stop servicing EU clients.Related: Crypto firms face July 1 EU cutoff as MiCA grace period endsEU doesn’t need to regulate DeFi, says MiCA architectDecentralized finance (DeFi) protocols were included among the emerging risk areas examined in the consultation, even though they are largely outside MiCA’s current scope.An excerpt from the public consultation on the MiCA review. Source: European CommissionHowever, Kerstens said regulating DeFi would be difficult because laws can be applied to people and organizations, but not directly to computer networks. He said lawmakers would need a new legal doctrine to regulate non-entities.Kerstens added that he doesn’t see a need to regulate DeFi, which he described as a “movement” that has “no representatives.”“I don’t see what the problem is. And if there is no problem, why should it be regulated?”Earlier in March, a working paper from the European Central Bank questioned whether decentralized autonomous organizations (DAOs) are decentralized enough to remain outside MiCA’s scope. Looking at Aave, MakerDAO, Ampleforth and Uniswap, the paper found that the top 100 governance token holders controlled over 80% of the supply in each protocol, based on holdings snapshots from November 2022 and May 2023.The authors said these findings question whether DAOs are inherently decentralized and whether they should remain outside of the MiCA regulation as “fully decentralized” services.Magazine: Crypto wanted to overthrow banks, now it’s becoming them in stablecoin fight

Humanity Protocol said an employee’s laptop compromise allowed attackers to seize bridge controls, upgrade contracts and steal over $36 million in H tokens. In an incident update on Tuesday, the protocol said the Monday attack affected the H token across Ethereum and BNB Chain. The team said three of six Gnosis Safe owner keys were compromised, allowing attackers to take control of bridge administration on both networks. Once they had control, the attackers changed the bridge contracts into different malicious versions, Humanity said. On Ethereum, they drained around 141.2 million tokens. On BSC, they added a function that let them create unlimited tokens, then minted 200 million tokens directly to their own wallet. Humanity founder Terence Kwok told Cointelegraph that the project had multisignature controls spread across four individuals, but that some keys may have been exposed during setup. “What we believe happened was some of the keys were accidentally backed up to a compromised device,” Kwok told Cointelegraph. He said Humanity uses “a licensed custodian for the majority of token treasury” and MPC for its operations treasury, but that “for certain contracts, multisig keys were set up in one place and then dispersed,” leaving some keys backed up on a compromised device. The incident shows how a compromised endpoint can become a protocol-level crisis when different authorities are concentrated behind a small number of keys. Humanity said it halted deposits and withdrawals to the affected bridges and is working with exchanges and related parties to minimize damage and investigate recovery options. Humanity Protocol’s H token fell by over 85% after the project disclosed the private key compromise. At the time, Kwok warned users not to interact with the bridge or liquidity pools. Source: Humanity ProtocolSecurity firms examine exploit patternThe case drew scrutiny from blockchain investigators over whether the attack was purely an external compromise or connected to unusual token activity before an upcoming unlock, as some community members pointed out. Blockchain investigator ZachXBT initially questioned whether Humanity’s market maker and over-the-counter (OTC) activity were connected to the exploit. However, he later said that after further analysis, the market-maker and OTC activity appeared to be independent from the private key compromise. Related: ZEC drops 30% as Shielded Labs reveals more about infinite counterfeit bugHakan Unal, the senior security operations lead at Cyvers, told Cointelegraph that the onchain pattern can look similar at first, whether an incident is a genuine compromise or a staged event, because the attacker holds legitimate admin rights in both cases.“What distinguishes them is the surrounding behavior,” Unal said. “A genuine compromise usually shows speed and improvisation: funds rushed to fresh wallets, swaps at bad prices, mixer use, and no insider timing.”By contrast, Unal said a staged incident may show suspicious timing near unlocks or vesting, concentrated supply, orderly movement or proceeds that eventually route back toward team-linked addresses or market makers. “Right now the evidence is mixed, which is why the question is open,” he added.Researcher suspects the Humanity incident was coordinatedMeanwhile, Allium Labs research lead Elton Shehdula said the exploit’s onchain pattern pointed to a potentially planned and coordinated operation rather than a lone opportunist.Wallet funding and timeline. Source: Allium LabsShehdula said wallets were funded from an exchange and a mixer weeks in advance, the minting authority was “warmed up” days before the attack and the dump occurred across two chains simultaneously.He said the level of setup and access was consistent with either an “insider or an outside actor” who had quietly held the compromised key for some time.Magazine: Vietnam preps crypto pilot, HK pushes tokenization: Asia Express

OKX is rolling out perpetual futures tied to the Magnificent 7, SPY, QQQ and major commodity benchmarks for European retail customers.In a Tuesday release shared with Cointelegraph, OKX said the new X-Perps markets allow users to trade futures tied to top US technology stocks, alongside index-linked contracts based on the S&P 500 and Nasdaq-100 via SPY and QQQ.The products also provide exposure to gold, silver and oil with up to 10x leverage, using the same margin pool as customers’ crypto holdings.OKX defines its X-Perps lineup as a regulated derivatives product that combines leveraged trading with a funding-rate mechanism designed to track underlying spot prices. It launched in April with crypto-linked contracts including Bitcoin (BTC), Ether (ETH), Solana (SOL) and XRP.Crypto exchanges are increasingly converging equities and derivatives trading into single retail platforms in Europe, where regulatory overlap between the Markets in Financial Instruments Directive (MiFID II) and the European Union’s Markets in Crypto Assets (MiCA) framework is reshaping how traditional and digital asset exposure is packaged for retail investors.OKX Europe launched X-Perps. Source: OKXCrypto exchanges race to bring stock derivatives onshoreThe addition of contracts linked to the Magnificent 7, a nickname for seven of the largest US tech companies, comes as exchanges increasingly package traditional financial assets into crypto-native trading products.Kraken rolled out regulated tokenized equity perpetual futures for non-US clients in February, including instruments tied to the S&P 500, Nasdaq 100, Magnificent 7 and gold, built on its xStocks framework.Coinbase followed in March, launching stock perpetual futures for non-US users via Coinbase Advanced and Coinbase International Exchange with crypto-settled margin.Binance has also expanded into equities-linked products, rolling out commission-free trading for US-listed stocks and exchange-traded funds for non-US users earlier in June.Related: France’s AMF regulator sets June 30 deadline for MiCA licensingOKX’s bet is that X-Perps bring that equity derivatives functionality for European retail in a single, regulated account, rather than forcing traders to juggle a broker regulated under the MiFID II for stocks and an offshore crypto exchange for perpetual futures.Erald Ghoos, chief executive of OKX Europe, told Cointelegraph that X-Perps volumes in Europe have risen more than 447% since May 1 and are “predominantly” being driven by new clients who previously traded US equity-linked derivatives on offshore or unlicensed platforms.Regulators weigh rules for crypto-linked derivativesThe growth of stock-linked products on crypto platforms comes as European regulators examine how existing securities and derivatives rules apply to crypto-linked investment products.The European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA) warned in February that leveraged crypto-linked derivatives may fall under existing EU CFD rules, which impose limits on leverage, margin close-out protections and risk warnings.European regulators are also examining how investor protection rules apply to perpetual derivatives and tokenized stock products ahead of the EU’s full MiCA framework implementation on July 1, 2026.Crypto asset service providers that fail to obtain authorization will be required to stop serving EU clients.Magazine: Guide to the top and emerging global crypto hubs — Mid-2026

SBI Shinsei Bank will reportedly launch a service that rewards deposit customers with cryptocurrency exchange vouchers based on their account balances.According to a Nikkei report, customers will receive vouchers equal to 20% of their interest payments, in addition to their yen-denominated interest. The vouchers can be exchanged for Bitcoin (BTC), Ether (ETH) or XRP within a specified period. Customers would need to open an account with SBI’s crypto exchange arm, SBI VC Trade, to redeem the vouchers.The rollout turns a conventional savings product into a crypto on-ramp, potentially exposing mainstream bank customers to digital assets without requiring them to make direct purchases. Ahead of the permanent launch, SBI Shinsei will reportedly run a three-month campaign starting Wednesday, covering ordinary deposits and time deposits ranging from three months to five years.SBI expands crypto push across deposits, lending and investment productsThe deposit-voucher service follows several crypto moves by SBI Group as the financial conglomerate prepares for broader digital asset adoption in Japan.On March 18, SBI VC Trade launched a retail USDC lending service, allowing users to lend the stablecoin to the platform under fixed-term agreements in exchange for returns. The product is structured as a loan to the exchange rather than a bank deposit, which means that users take direct counterparty risk.Related: Startale raises $50M from SBI to complete $63M Series ASBI has also been expanding its position in the local crypto exchange market. On May 1, the group said it was considering acquiring shares in the Bitbank trading platform and making it a consolidated subsidiary, a month after SBI VC Trade absorbed Bitpoint Japan. Top crypto exchanges in Japan. Source: CoinGeckoThe group’s securities arm is also preparing crypto investment products. SBI Securities reportedly plans to sell funds developed by SBI Global Asset Management, including investment trusts and exchange-traded funds (ETFs) focused on crypto assets like BTC and ETH. The moves show that the group is working to build crypto access points across regulated channels, from bank deposits and exchange services to securities products and stablecoin lending. Magazine: Vietnam preps crypto pilot, HK pushes tokenization: Asia ExpressCointelegraph 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.

Kraken has been named the official crypto exchange supporter of the FIFA World Cup 2026, giving the crypto exchange a presence at one of the world’s largest sporting events.The company said Tuesday that the partnership will include fan activations and product experiences throughout the tournament.The 2026 World Cup is expected to be the largest in FIFA history, with an expanded field of 48 teams and 104 matches across 16 host cities in the United States, Mexico and Canada. FIFA projects the competition will attract a cumulative global audience of more than 6 billion viewers during its seven-week run.The partnership places Kraken alongside some of FIFA’s longest-standing corporate sponsors, including Adidas, Coca-Cola, Visa and Hyundai-Kia.The agreement also expands Kraken’s sports sponsorship efforts, which already include partnerships with Tottenham Hotspur, Atlético de Madrid, RB Leipzig and Atlassian Williams Racing.The tournament kicks off on June 11 in Mexico City, where Mexico is scheduled to face South Africa at Estadio Azteca.Source: KrakenRelated: Kraken offers SpaceX IPO access through xStocksPrediction markets expand their sports presenceThe partnership comes four years after the 2022 “Crypto Bowl,” when Coinbase, FTX, Crypto.com and eToro aired advertisements during Super Bowl LVI. Sports marketing activity across the crypto industry slowed following the collapse of FTX later that year and the broader market downturn.While some digital asset companies have returned to major sporting events, their approach has been more measured. Coinbase aired its first Super Bowl commercial since 2022 during this year’s broadcast, while Crypto.com used the event to launch its AI-focused platform, ai.com.At the same time, prediction markets, where users buy and sell contracts tied to the likelihood of specific outcomes, have expanded their presence in professional sports.In November 2025, Polymarket became the official prediction market partner of UFC and Zuffa Boxing under a multiyear agreement that brought prediction market data into live events and broadcasts.Source: UFCIn January, the company signed a multiyear agreement with Major League Soccer to become the league’s exclusive prediction market partner for MLS and the Leagues Cup. Major League Baseball followed in March, naming Polymarket its official prediction market exchange while signing a separate integrity agreement with the US Commodity Futures Trading Commission.FIFA’s commercial roster also includes ADI Predict, a blockchain-based prediction market platform backed by Abu Dhabi institutions.Magazine: Korea probes Polymarket users, crypto PACs sweep primaries: Hodler’s Digest, May 31- June 6

More than 200 crypto companies and organizations have urged the US Senate to pass the CLARITY Act, amid concerns that continued stalling could see it miss an important legislative window.In a letter on Monday shared by crypto lobby group Stand With Crypto, the group called on Senate Majority Leader John Thune and Minority Leader Chuck Schumer “to bring the Clarity Act to the Senate floor without delay.”It said the Senate Banking Committee’s vote last month to pass the bill took “months of serious, bipartisan work” and the Senate should “build on that momentum and give members the opportunity to advance durable market structure legislation.”The bill would outline how the Securities and Exchange Commission and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission would regulate crypto, but it has stalled multiple times in the Senate this year as lawmakers and lobbyists have disagreed on its provisions.Source: Stand With CryptoBanking groups have pushed for the bill to include a ban on platforms offering stablecoin yields, while the crypto industry has lobbied to include protections for developers of decentralized crypto platforms, both sparking months of negotiations between the groups. The letter, signed by the lobby groups Stand With Crypto, The Digital Chamber, the Blockchain Association, and the Crypto Council for Innovation, said the bill would keep crypto jobs, investment and market activity in the US and make the country a “global leader in digital asset innovation.”“Digital asset markets are global, growing, and central to the future of financial infrastructure,” the letter said. “The question before Congress is whether that future will be built in the United States — under U.S. law, U.S. oversight, and American values — or continue moving to offshore jurisdictions with less transparency, weaker consumer protections, and limited accountability.”Related: Crypto’s CLARITY Act faces partisan fight over ethics on Senate floorThe Senate has yet to schedule floor time for the bill ahead of the midterm elections in November, which has led analysts to drop their odds of the bill passing this year.Galaxy Digital said on Friday that it lowered its odds of the bill passing in 2026 to 60% from 75%, saying it must pass the Senate before the August recess in late July, as “after that, the window effectively closes.”The Senate Agriculture and Banking Committees passed their versions of the bill concerning commodities and securities laws, and each of those needs to be married up before being put to the Senate for debate.Lawmakers have also flagged the bill needs amendments around ethics and policing illicit finance if it is to receive support for the at least 60 votes required for the legislation to pass without prolonged debate.Senator Cynthia Lummis, who has worked to advance the bill, told CNBC on Wednesday that lawmakers are addressing the issues of ethics and illicit finance that could see it lose support on the floor.Galaxy said it has not seen information showing that the bill, or negotiations around it, have advanced, or that the provisions at issue have been resolved.Magazine: Will the CLARITY Act be good — or bad — for DeFi?

Artificial intelligence agents that have autonomous access to crypto wallets could become unstoppable if deployed maliciously or if they escape from sandboxes, experts from a leading academic research consortium warned.“Unstoppable Autonomous Agents” (UAAs) pose a clear threat if they are deployed to persist automatically and have access to digital assets, according to a June 8 industry review written by 25 academics and experts from top US universities for the Initiative for Cryptocurrencies and Contracts (IC3).“When combined systematically, crypto tools can channel AI’s fluid power into secure, reliable, and highly autonomous systems,” the researchers wrote. However, this combination could have “far-reaching consequences for users and the financial system,” they added. UAAs may also be equipped with access to cryptocurrency wallets, social media accounts, APIs, and other external tools, said the researchers.“The capabilities enabling such agents are already emerging and improving rapidly.” The warning comes as crypto projects and executives have been pushing the agentic payment and micropayment economy narrative this year, suggesting it could be the biggest use case for decentralized digital assets. AI self-replication alarm bellsThe paper also revealed that existing models can already “surpass self-replication red lines” in local environments, by autonomously creating a live, separate copy of themselves on the same machine, “a capability that could let a system evade shutdown and proliferate.”Because reward signals used in training often fail to perfectly capture the intended objectives, “UAAs deployed for benign purposes may inadvertently cause harm,” or pursue resource acquisition as a default strategy, they said. However, the authors noted that models have yet to replicate themselves onto external infrastructure.Potential AI agent insider trading advantages A fleet of self-replicating, resource-acquiring agents could also create unpredictable demand and liquidity dynamics in crypto markets. “AI-powered trading systems could enable collusion between autonomous agents and create unfair insider advantages through opaque strategies.”Related: China already has compute to train its own Mythos-like AI: Nvidia CEOThe tech sector is already dealing with difficult questions about the threat of unmitigated AI. Models such as Anthropic’s Claude Mythos have already been shown to be capable of finding and exploiting zero-day vulnerabilities in major operating systems. Meanwhile, Gartner warned in late May that governance failures around autonomous AI agents could trigger widespread enterprise failures, predicting 40% of companies will be forced to decommission their agents by 2027. “The harms that could follow from fully autonomous agents of this kind are severe,” the researchers said, suggesting circuit breaker guardrails.Professor Ari Juels, IC3 co-director and Chainlink Labs chief scientist, presents the paper at ETHConf. Source: IC3Magazine: Vietnam preps crypto pilot, HK pushes tokenization: Asia Express

The UK’s Financial Conduct Authority has proposed allowing some authorized investment funds to hold up to a 10% allocation of crypto exchange-traded notes, closing a regulatory gap between retail investors and funds.The FCA floated the idea in a quarterly consultation paper on Friday, which would allow retail-focused funds called undertakings for collective investment in transferable securities, or UCITS funds, and some non-UCITS funds to gain exposure to crypto.The regulator said it wanted authorized funds to “remain contemporary and consistent with the demands of investors” while ensuring consumers “are adequately protected and markets function well.”The proposal seeks to align rules on who can buy crypto products after the FCA lifted its ban on retail investors being able to trade crypto exchange-traded notes in August, as the regulator looked to align retail access to crypto with other countries.The FCA said in its consultation that its proposed 10% cap would “set conservative restrictions on assets to which a fund can be exposed, in exchange for allowing these funds to be marketed to retail consumers.”An excerpt from the FCA’s consultation pitching allowing retail funds limited exposure to crypto products. Source: FCAThe regulator added that it didn’t believe allowing retail-focused funds “to have significant exposure” to crypto products was appropriate, “given the speculative nature of the underlying cryptoassets.”Related: UK Lords warn BoE could regulate pound stablecoins into irrelevanceRetail funds that want to invest in crypto must also show that the investment is “consistent with the disclosed investment objectives and risk profile of a given fund,” the FCA said.The proposal said that unregulated and qualified investor schemes could invest in “more speculative assets,” and it would not apply a limit to holdings, but those funds can’t be marketed or sold to retail investors. The FCA is also seeking input on whether it should prevent funds centered on holding so-called “long-term assets” such as property and other retail-focused funds from holding crypto exchange-traded notes, arguing that it does not consider crypto to be consistent with the funds’ investment objectives.The consultation on the proposal will last for five weeks, until July 13.It comes as the UK has been clearing a path for crypto, with the FCA and Bank of England consulting on proposed rules for stablecoins, crypto custody and staking.The Bank of England last month said it was reconsidering parts of its proposed stablecoin regime after crypto companies warned that holding caps and reserve requirements could stifle adoption.In April, the FCA also made new rules for tokenized funds to make it easier for asset managers to use blockchains and sought feedback on guidance to clarify requirements for stablecoin issuance, crypto trading, custody and staking.Magazine: How crypto laws changed in 2025 — and how they’ll change in 2026

The Humanity Protocol, dubbed the “Chinese Worldcoin,” has been exploited for more than $30 million through a private key compromise, sending the price of H tokens plummeting on Tuesday. “We’ve detected a security incident involving the compromise of private keys belonging to a member of the Humanity Foundation,” said Terence Kwok, founder and CEO of Humanity Protocol, on Tuesday.Kwok advised users not to interact with the bridge or any liquidity pools until it has been deemed safe and added that the team was working with security experts, but did not provide any further details at the time. Humanity is a zkEVM blockchain-based decentralized identity project focused on Proof of Humanity and uses privacy-preserving palm biometrics. Prices for the H token have collapsed over the past 12 hours, falling 85% from around $0.70 to $0.08 at the time of writing, according to CoinGecko.Onchain investigator “Specter” said it appears that wallets linked to, or that have interacted with Humanity Protocol, are being compromised in an ongoing attack that has drained as much as $30 million in the project’s native H token. Arkham Intelligence also reported that the exploiter had stolen more than $30 million and was swapping H tokens through Kyber Network and PancakeSwap, among other DEXes. Source: Arkham IntelligencePrivate key compromises continue to increaseThere have been several high-profile private key compromises this year, one of the largest being the Drift Protocol exploit in April. Attackers affiliated with the North Korean Lazarus Group gained control of the security council admin keys, resulting in the loss of $280 million.Related: ZEC drops 30% as Shielded Labs reveals more about infinite counterfeit bugOthers include Step Finance, Resolv, Volo Vault, Echo Bridge, Bankr, Polymarket, StablR, Stake DAO, Gravity Bridge, and Aelphium Bridge.Wallet or private key compromises were the second-most costly attack vector in May, with $13.7 million stolen, CertiK reported. Magazine: Korea probes Polymarket users, crypto PACs sweep primaries: Hodler’s Digest