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Singapore-based crypto travel platform Travala has launched a protocol it says lets artificial intelligence agents search, reserve and pay for hotels with USDC (USDC) on layer-2 blockchain Base, extending agentic AI stablecoin payments into travel bookings.The Travala Travel MCP is live through Claude Desktop, with outside developers able to integrate it into their own travel agents, Travala said in a statement sent to Cointelegraph.The company said the system connects Travala’s hotel inventory to AI agents through the Model Context Protocol, an open standard for linking AI apps to external tools. Payments use Coinbase’s x402 protocol on Base, with Travala saying the setup allows gasless USDC transactions, near-instant settlement and transaction costs of about $0.01 per booking.AI travel still needs human approvalHowever, final payment authorization still requires manual approval from the traveler, meaning it’s not fully autonomous but more advanced than a chatbot that only recommends itineraries.The launch comes as crypto companies try to make stablecoins useful for machine-to-machine commerce and follows a wave of crypto payment infrastructure aimed at AI agents. Cointelegraph reported recently that x402-linked wallets on Base surpassed 100 million transactions, while Fireblocks, MoonPay, Exodus and Oobit have launched products for AI-driven stablecoin payments.Cumulative agentic transfer volumes on Base. Source: ChainalysisTravala framed the launch as an early step toward autonomous travel booking, even as travelers still retain final approval over payments, and said it is offering developers a 10% Coinbase Wrapped BTC (cbBTC) rebate on completed stays booked through its agents.“The launch of the world’s first agentic AI travel protocol marks the death of the checkout button,” Travala CEO Juan Otero said, calling it the start of “a truly autonomous travel economy.”Travala said the setup uses ERC-7715 session keys, allowing the AI agent to request a payment while keeping final signing authority inside the traveler’s wallet. The company said the protocol can maintain context across searches, bookings and cancellations in a single chat thread.Related: Coinbase-backed x402 adds batch settlement for AI agent paymentsTravala plans broader travel rolloutTravala said the protocol covers more than 2.2 million hotels, including listings from Marriott, Hilton and IHG, which are sourced through its aggregator partners. The company said it plans to expand the protocol beyond hotels to other travel products, including flights, and expects its Travala (AVA) loyalty token to support future Travel MCP use cases.Travala was founded in 2017 and competes with crypto-friendly travel platforms such as Sleap.io and Alternative Airlines, though its latest protocol shifts the comparison from crypto checkout toward AI-agent booking infrastructure. The company says it accepts more than 100 cryptocurrencies alongside fiat currencies. Magazine: AI-driven hacks could kill DeFi — unless projects act nowAdditional reporting by Christina Comben.

The US House Ways and Means Committee circulated seven discussion drafts of bills to address digital asset taxation ahead of a Tuesday hearing on the matter, covering stablecoins, staking, mining and transactions.Among proposals in the draft legislation are reducing the tax paperwork required for crypto holders, providing clarity for mining and staking tokens and a potential “de minimis” reporting exception for transactions. The seven discussion draft bills preceded a Tuesday hearing on digital asset taxation in the House committee, chaired by Republican Jason Smith.Crypto industry advocates have been urging US lawmakers to address lessening the reporting burden for taxes on mining and staking as well as eliminating requirements for small crypto transactions through “de minimis” exceptions. A draft law released by members of Congress in March and officially introduced in May as the Digital Asset PARITY Act proposed a $200 reporting threshold for stablecoin transactions, but not one on cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin.“We need digital asset tax clarity or activity will never fully onshore,” said The Digital Chamber CEO Cody Carbone in response to the PARITY Act.Source: Max MillerAny bill or amendment to legislation addressing crypto tax policy will need bipartisan support in Congress before being signed into law. Although the House hearing is scheduled for Tuesday, US lawmakers in the Senate are expected to focus on a budget reconciliation bill before consideration of a digital asset market structure bill called the CLARITY Act.Related: Israel’s tax authority ‘disappointed’ in voluntary crypto disclosures: ReportAccording to Wyoming Senator Cynthia Lummis, the House Ways and Means Committee and the Senate Finance Committee were considering a $300 “de minimus” exemption for Bitcoin transactions. The proposed change to capital gains taxes built upon the Wyoming lawmaker’s draft bill released in July 2025.Illinois crypto tax expected to be signed into law soonThis week, the Illinois General Assembly signed off on a $56 billion state budget that included provisions for taxing digital assets. If signed into law by Governor JB Pritzker, crypto users can expect to pay a 0.2% tax on transactions through brokers, which also must be registered with the state.Magazine: Bitcoin miners are pivoting to AI, so why is the hashrate near ATHs?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.

Crypto exchange Kraken is giving customers access to the upcoming SpaceX initial public offering through xStocks, a tokenized equities platform, highlighting the growing convergence between crypto infrastructure and traditional capital markets.Kraken announced Friday that SpaceX will be the first public offering available through xStocks IPO Access, which allows eligible users to participate in the offering through tokenized equity instruments.To participate, users must have a verified Kraken account on the Kraken mobile app and submit an application for IPO access. The offering is not available through Kraken Pro or the company’s desktop platform.According to Kraken, IPO Access is available across the European Economic Area (EEA) and more than 110 international markets, though participation is restricted in the United States, Canada, Australia and the United Kingdom due to regulatory limitations.Source: KrakenEligible users can register interest in purchasing SpaceX shares before the company begins public trading. Investors who receive an allocation will be issued SPCXx, a tokenized representation of SpaceX equity backed 1:1 by the underlying shares. The tokens can be traded 24/7 on Kraken and other participating xStocks platforms.Related: Kraken’s xStocks tops $25B in volume with more than 80K onchain holdersSpaceX targets $1.8 trillion valuation, record debutSpaceX is expected to begin trading publicly on June 12, giving investors their first opportunity to own shares in Elon Musk’s rocket and satellite company.According to Bloomberg, demand for the offering has already exceeded the number of shares available, with SpaceX seeking to raise roughly $75 billion at a valuation of at least $1.8 trillion. If achieved, the listing would be the largest IPO ever, exceeding Saudi Aramco’s $29.4 billion deal in 2019, Bloomberg said.The company’s growth story is largely tied to Starlink, its satellite internet business, which has become a major source of revenue and profitability. However, SpaceX’s capital-intensive launch and space exploration operations continue to incur high costs, raising questions about how investors will value the company once it begins trading on the public market.Source: Lance RobertsRelated: SpaceX reveals larger-than-expected Bitcoin holdings in IPO filing

Some digital asset industry advocates are pushing back against a provision in a $56 billion state budget passed by the Illinois General Assembly on Monday, due to its impact on crypto users. In a Senate bill included as part of the Illinois state budget for the fiscal year 2027, lawmakers proposed a 0.2% tax on crypto transactions, to be imposed by the “digital asset broker making or effectuating the sale of the digital asset business activity.” The 1624-page bill, part of the revenue and tax package to fund the state’s 2027 budget, passed along party lines early on Monday.Senate Bill 3019. Source: Illinois General AssemblyThe measure, described as a “privilege tax” within the Digital Asset Privilege Tax Act amendment to the bill, included registration requirements for any entity operating as a digital asset broker in Illinois. Brokers who failed to follow the guidelines from Jan. 1 could be found guilty of a Class 3 felony in the state and subject to a prison sentence of two to five years and fines up to $25,000.Passed by the state general assembly on Monday, the budget bill still needs Governor JB Pritzker’s signature before becoming law. Pritzker made several public statements signaling that he plans to sign the bill soon, but had not done so as of Friday morning. Lawmakers expect the crypto tax to generate $60 million for the state.Related: Crypto industry ties were a liability in Illinois primaryThis crypto tax measure has prompted accusations from industry advocates of “burying” the rule within a massive budget proposal. The Digital Chamber and Illinois Blockchain Association penned a letter on Wednesday urging the state to reject the Digital Asset Privilege Tax Act, claiming that it would be “economically destructive” and gave the industry no notice of its intentions.“No other state has imposed a similar tax, and the lack of stakeholder engagement surrounding this proposal raises significant concerns,” said The Digital Chamber in a Thursday X post.Source: The Digital ChamberIllinois governor goes after insider trading on prediction markets The crypto tax proposal in Illinois’ budget followed Pritzker’s signing of an executive order banning state employees from betting on prediction market event contracts with companies such as Kalshi and Polymarket. The EO, signed on April 21, came in response to concerns elected officials could use the platforms “for personal enrichment and advantage based on access to nonpublic information.”Magazine: Bitcoin miners are pivoting to AI, so why is the hashrate near ATHs?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.

Strategy’s sale of 32 Bitcoin shouldn’t have mattered. The company still holds hundreds of thousands of BTC, and the transaction barely moved the needle on its balance sheet. Yet the market reaction was swift, exposing how much of the Bitcoin treasury trade had been built on a simple assumption: companies buy Bitcoin… and they never sell it.Elsewhere in crypto this week, JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon escalated his fight against the industry’s preferred market structure bill and a French Bitcoin treasury company pushed the limits of capital formation by asking shareholders to approve a massive $122 billion fundraising mandate.Strategy’s Bitcoin sale tests treasury tradeMichael Saylor’s Strategy rattled the market after disclosing the sale of 32 Bitcoin — its first reported BTC liquidation outside a 2022 tax-related transaction. The sale itself was tiny relative to the company’s massive holdings, but it challenged the long-standing narrative that Strategy would only accumulate Bitcoin and never sell. Shares of MSTR fell sharply following the disclosure as investors reassessed the assumptions underpinning the Bitcoin treasury model.“The market learned that Strategy is no longer read as a pure one-way accumulation vehicle,” Delphi Digital wrote in a market summary. “The old ‘never sell’ meme is now broken in practice, not just in conference call language,” Delphi added. The transaction has reignited debate over how Bitcoin treasury companies should be valued. While Strategy remains committed to growing its Bitcoin-per-share metric, the sale served as a reminder that even the most committed corporate hodlers face financial realities.Source: Michael SaylorJPMorgan CEO draws a line in the sand on CLARITYThe battle over US crypto regulation intensified after JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon said banks would oppose the latest version of the CLARITY Act, arguing that crypto companies are being granted privileges without being subject to the same regulatory burdens as traditional financial institutions. Dimon specifically criticized provisions that would allow crypto companies to offer interest-bearing products while avoiding the capital and compliance requirements imposed on banks.The comments underscore a growing divide between the banking sector and the crypto industry as lawmakers push for market structure legislation. Supporters see CLARITY as a long-awaited framework that would provide regulatory certainty and encourage innovation. Critics, however, argue that the bill risks creating an uneven playing field. Jamie Dimon said the banking industry opposes the latest CLARITY markup. Source: Fox BusinessCapital B seeks approval for $122 billion Bitcoin war chestBitcoin treasury company Capital B is asking shareholders to approve a sweeping expansion of its fundraising capacity, seeking authorization to issue up to 5 billion euros ($5.8 billion) in new equity and roughly $116 billion in credit instruments to finance future Bitcoin purchases.The proposal, which will be voted on at Capital B’s June 17 shareholder meeting, would give management access to a vastly larger pool of capital than it has raised to date. According to the company, Capital B has secured about $325 million in funding so far, including a recent raise backed by Blockstream CEO Adam Back and asset manager TOBAM.The company purchased 192 BTC for $15.2 million last month and added another 4 BTC on Monday, bringing its total holdings to 3,139 BTC.Source: Alexandre LaizetCoinbase invests in ProShares stablecoin reserve ETFCoinbase has invested an undisclosed amount in the ProShares GENIUS Money Market ETF (IQMM), a fund designed to hold assets that qualify as stablecoin reserves under the GENIUS Act.The exchange-traded fund provides exposure to the cash, bank deposits and short-term US Treasury securities that payment stablecoin issuers are required to hold under the legislation. The GENIUS Act mandates that stablecoins be backed by highly liquid reserves, creating demand for investment products tied to those assets.The investment highlights growing interest in stablecoin reserve assets as the US moves closer to establishing a federal regulatory framework for the sector. Stablecoin issuers are expected to become major buyers of Treasury bills and other highly liquid securities if adoption continues to grow.Source: ProSharesCrypto Biz is your weekly pulse on the business behind blockchain and crypto, delivered directly to your inbox every Thursday.

Solana-based memecoin launchpad Pump.fun introduced a new open bounty platform where users have posted crypto rewards for bizarre promotional tasks, such as tattooing the ticker symbols of memecoins, quitting their current job live on camera or skydiving into a World Cup match.Pump.fun introduced the new platform on Thursday, positioning it as an open marketplace to “complete bounties for ANY task and leverage the power of humans & money across the globe.” The submissions are reviewed by Pump.fun while funds are in escrow. If accepted, the bounty is paid out to the submitter. Pump.fun said that bounties that “may be deemed as spam by X are not allowed” in its Terms and Conditions document.Some of the highest-paid tasks included a bounty of about $57,000 to skydive into a World Cup match in a memecoin mascot, a $25,000 bounty to interview the family of Henry Nowak’s killer, and $3,000 to quit your job live on camera.Some listings reviewed by Cointelegraph offered thousands of dollars for risky or degrading promotional acts, raising questions about moderation, safety and legal exposure“This is a horrible market. It’s like playing with poor people’s lives and paying them to entertain you,” commented X user Old Hawk. “Yep, reminds me of Squid Game,” wrote crypto investor Fabiano.sol in response.Source: Pump.funUsers can rank open bounties by highest reward, time left, or those that have received the most submissions so far.Open bounties are launched with an expiration date and include descriptions of the exact deliverables needed to fulfill the task and qualify for the payout.Bounty to interview Henry Nowak’s Killer’s family. Source: Pump.funAt the time of writing, the platform showed an unclaimed pool of $115,000 across 225 live bounties and 509 total bounty submissions.Related: South Korea police probe Polymarket users over illegal gambling claims: ReportCrypto rewards fund viral stuntsThe new bounty platform has already attracted listings seeking to fund unusual memecoin marketing stunts.One task offered a $3,572 bounty to spray paint the ticker symbol “$memecoin” on a car and set it alight, with 29 days left to complete the challenge while wearing a memecoin mascot and filming the entire process.Bounty to spray a $memecoin car & explode or set it alight. Source: Pump.funAnother task offered a $2,630 bounty for users to tattoo the ticker symbol “$boutywork” on their foreheads, requesting video proof of the action. So far, the task has received four submissions with people completing the tattoo.Bounty to tattoo memecoin ticker symbol on the forehead. Source: Pump.funMagazine: Polymarket seeks Japan entry, Harvard dumps entire ETH position: Hodler’s Digest, May 17 – 23 

Strategy co-founder and executive chairman Michael Saylor said Bitcoin needs “disciplined expansion” through banks, companies, securities, credit and capital markets, laying out a path for the asset as spot exchange-traded fund (ETF) outflows and a broader market sell-off test institutional demand.On Friday, Saylor published an essay, saying Bitcoin’s base layer should be treated as “sacred infrastructure,” with most innovation occurring through higher layers, applications, custody systems, credit instruments and financial infrastructure.The comments frame Bitcoin’s next phase as a clash between two institutional channels: passive spot ETF exposure, which has broadened access but remains sensitive to redemptions, and the corporate and credit-market adoption model favored by Saylor’s Strategy.Saylor argued Bitcoin should become embedded in the machinery of finance rather than depend only on spot buyers or ETF inflows. He said Bitcoin’s future requires balancing adoption, innovation and self-custody while preserving the network’s core properties.The essay comes during a sharp Bitcoin market sell-off that has put both major institutional channels under pressure. Spot Bitcoin ETFs posted weekly net outflows of $1.42 billion, $1.26 billion and $1 billion in the last three weeks of May, while the current week’s outflows have reached $1.4 billion so far. Strategy also recently sold 32 Bitcoin to fund preferred stock dividends, its first sale since 2022, denting the “never sell” narrative that has long surrounded Saylor’s corporate Bitcoin strategy.Spot Bitcoin ETF inflows and outflows in the last four weeks. Source: SoSoValueAnalysts split on demand reset The pressure has sharpened a broader debate over whether Bitcoin’s recent decline is a temporary reset after excessive leverage, or a sign that institutional demand is weakening after months of ETF-led buying.Lacie Zhang, research analyst at Bitget Wallet, said Bitcoin may already be closer to clearing the episode than equity markets after a $1.8 billion liquidation wave, deeply negative funding rates and a sharp reset in open interest. Zhang said a retest of $55,000 to $57,000 remains possible if outflows persist. She added:“The key question is not just whether BTC holds $63K, but whether ETF flows stabilize, exchange reserves keep falling, and whale accumulation picks up.”Nicolai Sondergaard, research analyst at Nansen, gave a more cautious view, saying exchange flow data suggests participants are using Bitcoin’s bounce from around $61,000 to reduce exposure rather than add to positions.Sondergaard said Bitcoin’s ETF demand narrative has been unwinding since May, and that a durable recovery would require more than the removal of immediate market pressure. Without visible re-entry from institutional buyers, he said the market may struggle to rebuild momentum. Related: Strategy’s leveraged Bitcoin model has faced its first stress test: GrayscaleSaylor argues for Bitcoin beyond ETFsSaylor, in his essay, described four broad Bitcoin ideologies: maximalists, capitalists, technologists and fundamentalists. He said each group protects something important, but each can also go too far if its view becomes absolute.The “disciplined expansion” thesis most closely fits the capitalist view, which treats Bitcoin as digital capital that can be integrated into balance sheets, securities, credit markets, banks, brokers, insurers and asset managers.That framing differs from ETF-based exposure, where institutional adoption is measured largely through inflows and outflows.Saylor’s preferred channel points to a more embedded model, where Bitcoin is used in corporate treasuries, collateral structures and capital markets rather than held only through spot investment products.Strategy’s BTC holdings versus USD value. Source: BitcoinTreasuries.netMagazine: Bitcoin miners are pivoting to AI, so why is the hashrate near ATHs?

Visa is testing whether privacy-enabled blockchain networks can support institutional stablecoin settlement without exposing sensitive transaction data, in a proof of concept with stablecoin infrastructure company Brale and the Canton Network, a permissioned ledger backed by major Wall Street firms.The project, announced Thursday, uses SBC, a US dollar-backed stablecoin issued by Brale, to simulate institutional payment flows on Canton as Visa evaluates whether SBC could become another stablecoin option in its settlement program.The initiative extends Visa’s earlier experiments using stablecoins for settlement on public blockchains, which began in 2021 with USDC settlement on Ethereum but now target banks and market infrastructure providers that want onchain efficiency without broadcasting counterparties, positions or flows on a public ledger.The push comes as policymakers and analysts anticipate a broader shift in how payment stablecoins are used. S&P Global Ratings said in a Thursday report that global stablecoin issuance has already surpassed $300 billion across currencies, with most demand still tied to crypto trading. Related: Solayer launches Visa-compatible card for USDC paymentsUS payment stablecoins that comply with the Guiding and Establishing National Innovation in US Stablecoins (GENIUS) Act are poised to expand into merchant remittances and certain types of commercial payments once rules are finalized, the report said, with one of the most promising near-term use cases being cross-border payments. However, such flows currently represent only a minimal, if growing, share of global international payment volumes.Canton network at center of institutional privacy push Canton, developed by Digital Asset, connects permissioned blockchain applications operated by institutions including JPMorgan, Goldman Sachs, BNP Paribas and the Depository Trust & Clearing Corporation.Visa and Brale explore private stablecoin settlement. Source: BusinesswireUnlike public chains, Canton is designed so that only transaction participants and authorized regulators can see specific deal data, while still allowing atomic settlement across tokenized assets, cash-like instruments and other financial contracts.The proof of concept will assess how Canton’s privacy architecture can support faster, more programmable settlement while allowing financial institutions and payment companies to retain strict control over the visibility of sensitive transaction and settlement data, Visa and Brale said in the release.For banks, the stakes go beyond technology experimentation. Over time, S&P Global said stablecoins could threaten a portion of banks’ payments income and shift funding from insured retail deposits toward more concentrated wholesale balances. Banks that issue stablecoins or tokenized deposits themselves may also capture new fee and funding opportunities, driving large financial institutions to test privacy-preserving settlement networks that can support GENIUS-style payment stablecoins and tokenized deposits, according to the report.Cointelegraph reached out to Visa, Brale and Digital Asset, but had not received a response by publication.Magazine: AI-driven hacks could kill DeFi — unless projects act now

Zcash developers and researchers are discussing whether a new shielded pool could help restore supply verification confidence after a recently patched Orchard vulnerability.Shielded Labs, an independent Swiss-based Zcash support organization, said in a security update on Friday that it is exploring a proposed network upgrade that would deploy a new shielded pool and enforce “turnstile accounting” on coins moving from Orchard, giving users a clearer way to verify the integrity of funds moving out of the pool.The group said the proposal is still subject to further explanation and community review. Shielded Labs said it plans to publish a follow-up post next week explaining how the upgrade would work and what tradeoffs it could involve. Zcash Open Development Lab (ZODL) founder Josh Swihart said in a separate X post that a second Orchard pool could, in principle, be targeted for Zcash’s NU7 upgrade at the end of July. However, he said he was not taking a fixed position on whether the community should build a second Orchard pool. The discussion follows an emergency Zcash upgrade that patched an Orchard vulnerability Shielded Labs said could have allowed counterfeit ZEC within the pool, though it said prior exploitation was unlikely.Cointelegraph reached out to ZODL, the Zcash team and Shielded Labs for comment but had not received a response by publication.Source: Josh SwihartZEC falls after vulnerability disclosureIn the security update, Shielded Labs said the Orchard vulnerability could have allowed a bad actor to create an unlimited amount of counterfeit ZEC within the Orchard pool. The group said there is no cryptographic way to prove whether the bug had been exploited before it was fixed, though it believes that prior exploitation is unlikely. As Cointelegraph reported on Wednesday, Zcash developers temporarily suspended Orchard transactions after discovering the vulnerability and restored functionality through an emergency network upgrade. On Friday, ZEC fell by around 50% from a daily high of $550.30 to as low as $264.80 after the team publicly disclosed the vulnerability, according to CoinGecko data. The token had recovered to $308.07 at the time of writing, still down sharply from its Friday high.Zcash token’s 24-hour price chart. Source: CoinGeckoWhile the market crashed, some community members defended the team’s response to the incident. Justin Bons, founder and chief investment officer of CyberCapital, said the market was overreacting because the bug had been fixed and “the good guys caught it first.” Gemini co-founder Cameron Winklevoss said the discovery reflected Zcash’s investment in security researchers rather than a reason for alarm, arguing that bugs are inevitable in layer-1 networks and that the key issue is whether teams can find and fix them before attackers do. Related: Crypto exploit losses in May fall 90% over month to $68M: CertiKFormal verification enters security debateThe incident renewed discussion around formal verification, a method that uses mathematical proofs to check whether software or cryptographic circuits follow their intended specifications. Zcash developer and cryptography researcher Sean Bowe said that shielded protocols provide privacy by relying on cryptographic assumptions to preserve supply integrity. He said the long-term answer is to make shielded protocols and their implementations formally verifiable. Swihart echoed that view, saying the Orchard vulnerability was a flaw in the circuit’s handwritten rules rather than in the underlying cryptography. He said formal verification could reduce human review to a concise specification and allow computers to check whether the circuit matches those rules.Wei Dai, a research partner at blockchain venture firm 1kx, also said in an X post that the Orchard circuit bug appeared “obvious in retrospect” but had been missed by diligent protocol designers, cryptographers and auditors. He said expanding formal verification coverage is “probably the only long-term solution.”Magazine: Bitcoin miners are pivoting to AI, so why is the hashrate near ATHs?

Republicans in the US House of Representatives are moving to add prediction market restrictions to a stalled congressional stock trading ban, as lawmakers scrutinize whether members of Congress should be allowed to wager on elections or public policy.House Administration Committee Chair Bryan Steil plans to attach prediction market provisions to H.R. 7008, the House’s stalled stock trading ban bill, before it reaches the floor, Bloomberg Government reported Thursday.Steil said he expects House leaders to schedule a vote on the measure, which would combine stock trading limits with new restrictions on lawmakers’ use of prediction markets.The push comes amid growing scrutiny of prediction markets and renewed efforts to tighten rules on lawmakers’ financial trading.No full ban on lawmakers’ prediction market use in Steil proposalSteil’s proposal does not seek to ban prediction markets outright for members of Congress, but would restrict certain types of contracts lawmakers could trade. He said bets tied to sports or entertainment outcomes, such as the Super Bowl, would remain allowed, while contracts tied to elections or public policy would be limited.Steil said the House still lacks clear rules for how members should engage with prediction markets.“I don’t think this is a critique of the underlying product one way or the other,” Steil said.Related: Polymarket users cry foul after Strategy sale market resolves to ‘no’Politico says influencers promoted Polymarket after paymentsAccording to a Friday report by Politico, influencers promoted Polymarket after receiving payments linked to the company’s chief marketing officer.PayPal transaction records reviewed by Politico show at least $350,000 in payments routed through a personal account tied to CMO Matthew Modabber, alongside a broader flow of more than $2.5 million to hundreds of recipients over 14 months.At least 20 creators later posted about Polymarket on X, often without disclosing financial ties, including figures such as Brian Krassenstein and Riley Gaines.Cointelegraph reached out to Polymarket for comment on the promotions but had not received a response by publication.Source: Brian KrassensteinPolymarket attracted attention in 2024 after users successfully bet on Donald Trump’s election victory, reinforcing claims that prediction markets can reflect political outcomes in real time.Prediction markets have also faced regulatory pushback in multiple jurisdictions over election-related contracts, gambling concerns and alleged insider-style trading.Magazine: Should users be allowed to bet on war and death in prediction markets?

Some of the largest US banks are reportedly planning to launch a tokenized deposit network in the first half of 2027 in response to growing competition from blockchain companies expanding into traditional finance. The network will be operated by The Clearing House, the bank-owned payments operator, and will connect traditional payment rails with digital asset infrastructure for 24/7 settlement, CEO David Watson told The Wall Street Journal.The Clearing House is co-owned by some of the largest US banks, including JPMorgan Chase, Bank of America, Citibank, Barclays, BNY and Wells Fargo, among others, according to its website.The plan shows how banks are trying to keep deposits inside regulated banking channels while offering some of the speed and programmability that have made stablecoins attractive for settlement and treasury use.Cointelegraph reached out to The Clearing House for comment but had not received a response by publication.US banks have pushed back against US crypto market legislation, which could allow stablecoin issuers to pay users yield on their holdings, similar to interest on traditional bank deposits.The report comes after JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon said that the banking industry would continue to “fight” against the current version of the Digital Asset Market Clarity Act (CLARITY) and said that crypto companies that want to offer yield-bearing products should apply for banking charters, Cointelegraph reported in late May.The comments followed a May committee vote to advance the CLARITY Act in the Senate Banking Committee, but the bill still needs to pass through both chambers of Congress before going to US President Donald Trump.The Clearing House, owner banks. Source: TheClearingHouse.orgThe plan shows that banking giants are “reacting to where value is already moving,” Carl Grimstad, CEO of digital asset infrastructure provider Lydian, said, adding:“This announcement shows that 24/7 programmable settlement is becoming increasingly important.”While banks have experimented with tokenization in controlled environments, public blockchain networks have settled value at a global scale, said Grimstad, adding that the real question is how value will move across an “increasingly fragmented mix of bank ledgers, public chains and digital assets.”Related: US financial markets ‘poised to move on-chain’ amid DTCC tokenization greenlight Wall Street participants accelerate tokenization initiativesOther Wall Street banks are also accelerating tokenization initiatives.On March 24, the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) partnered with tokenization platform Securitize to develop blockchain-based trading infrastructure for Wall Street by enabling the minting of tokenized shares of stocks and exchange-traded funds (ETFs).Days earlier, on March 18, the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) gave the regulatory green light to Nasdaq’s pilot proposal to support the trading of tokenized versions of high-volume stocks and securities.  Earlier in January, the NYSE’s parent company, the Intercontinental Exchange (ICE), shared plans for a tokenized securities venue designed for 24/7 trading, instant settlement, stablecoin-based funding and onchain settlement.  Over in Asia, South Korea’s Ministry of Economy and Finance announced a pilot project that will use tokenized deposits to execute government operational spending, with a full rollout set for the fourth quarter of 2026, Cointelegraph reported on April 16. Magazine: Can Robinhood or Kraken’s tokenized stocks ever be truly decentralized? 

Forward Industries transferred roughly $31.9 million worth of Solana tokens to Coinbase Prime Thursday, according to blockchain data, marking its first onchain activity in a month.Data from Arkham Intelligence shows a wallet tied to the Nasdaq-listed company moved 455,784 SOL to the institutional trading platform. The transfer comes as the firm sits on steep unrealized losses tied to its large-scale bet on the token.The deposit to Coinbase Prime does not necessarily confirm an immediate sale but is commonly interpreted as a precursor to trading activity, particularly for institutional holders seeking liquidity or risk reduction. Shares of Forward Industries were down about 6% in the pre-market on Friday following the transfer, trading at $3.97, down from Thursday’s close of $4.22, according to Yahoo Finance data.Forward Industries moves 455,784 SOL to Coinbase Prime. Source: ArkhamThe move comes as publicly listed companies that adopted crypto treasury strategies face mounting pressure from the sector’s prolonged downturn, with several firms sitting on significant unrealized losses and investors increasingly focused on balance sheet risk.Forward Industries began accumulating Solana in September 2025 as part of a treasury strategy that positioned it as the largest corporate holder of the asset, according to a December shareholder update.Related: Solana open interest drops 30% as altcoins slump: Is $68 SOL next?The company said it had purchased about 6.83 million SOL for approximately $1.59 billion at an average cost of $232.08 per token.The SOL price has since fallen by roughly 72%, according to CoinGecko data, trading at around $64.63 at the time of writing. That would value the company’s original holdings at about $441 million, implying an unrealized loss of roughly $1.15 billion.Solana price has slumped 72% since September 2025. Source: CoingeckoForward Industries remains the largest publicly listed Solana holder with more than 7 million SOL, according to the most recent data available.Corporate crypto treasuries face mounting pressureThe move comes amid broader signs of strain across corporate crypto treasury strategies. On Thursday, publicly listed digital asset firm FG Nexus reportedly sold an additional $17.8 million in Ether, adding to a series of disposals across the sector.Strategy, the largest corporate Bitcoin holder, is also facing mounting pressure after Bitcoin’s recent decline pushed the unrealized loss on its holdings to about $11.2 billion. The company disclosed this week that it sold 32 BTC for roughly $2.5 million, its first Bitcoin sale since December 2022, when it sold 704 BTC as part of a tax-loss harvesting transaction before repurchasing more Bitcoin days later.Market Moves: Why is Ethereum Foundation selling? BTC futures warning signs