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The prediction market platform Polymarket believes that its competitor Kalshi may be engaging in corporate espionage against its New York office and employees. Polymarket's marketing director confirmed that the company is conducting an internal investigation and stated that "there are too many coincidences," suspecting that Kalshi has malicious intentions.Reports indicate that Polymarket has compiled an internal dossier titled "Imitators," documenting about a dozen suspicious incidents. These include Polymarket's original plan to launch a free grocery flash event on February 12, while Kalshi launched a similar event about 9 days earlier; additionally, Polymarket was set to announce its perpetual contract product plan on April 21, but about 1 hour before the announcement, the tech media The Information reported that Kalshi was also preparing to launch a similar product.Polymarket employees are also concerned that the venture capital firm Paradigm, which supports Kalshi, has an office directly across from theirs, posing a risk of employees' computer screens being spied on. It is reported that Polymarket installed privacy film on some office windows this spring.In response, a Kalshi spokesperson denied all allegations, stating that Polymarket's suspicions are "sad and almost delusional."

According to CoinDesk, global payment networks Stripe, Visa, and Mastercard are preparing to launch a new stablecoin platform. Sources reveal that cryptocurrency exchange Binance is also exploring the possibility of participating in this stablecoin platform.Currently, Coinbase, Stripe, and Visa have all declined to comment, and Mastercard did not respond to comment requests before publication. In addition, the revenue-sharing agreement between Coinbase and Circle Internet is set to renew in August this year, with the current market capitalization of USDC reaching 76 billion dollars.

According to CoinDesk, Mastercard is expanding its settlement network to support regulated stablecoins, planning to offer stablecoin settlement, intraday settlement, weekend and holiday settlement services to meet the demand for real-time fund flow.The new framework will run in parallel with existing fiat settlement processes, aiming to provide financial institutions with more flexible liquidity management. Mastercard will initially support Circle's USDC, Paxos-issued PYUSD, USDG and USDP, Ripple's RLUSD, and SoFiUSD, covering blockchain networks such as Ethereum, Solana, Polygon, Base, Arbitrum, and XRPL. Financial institutions such as Cross River, Lead Bank, CBW Bank, ARQ, and Nuvei will be among the first participants.

According to CoinDesk, Bittensor co-founder Ala Shaabana stated at the Proof of Talk summit in Paris that Bitcoin's computing power exceeds that of the top 100 supercomputers in the world combined by 600,000 times, demonstrating the scale of distributed computing.Shaabana pointed out that true computing power no longer belongs to isolated corporate data centers, but to open, global networks. Shaabana believes that through programmatic goal setting, open networks attract talent and computing power far more efficiently than traditional enterprises. The long-term bullish logic is no longer primarily based on technology, but driven by debt, liquidity, and a decline in trust in traditional sovereign systems.

According to The Defiant, the Chicago Mercantile Exchange Group (CME Group) announced a comprehensive upgrade to its cryptocurrency derivatives business, with Bitcoin and Ethereum futures and options products now supporting 24/7 trading, eliminating the previous fixed trading hours.This move aims to align with the around-the-clock nature of the spot market, providing a more flexible trading environment for institutional and retail traders, and is expected to further enhance trading volume and price discovery efficiency.

According to official news, the application channel for Gate Card is currently open, and global user participation continues to rise. Currently, Gate Card supports over 100 countries and regions worldwide, covering approximately 130 million merchants that accept Visa, and is compatible with Apple Pay and Google Pay, usable for various consumption scenarios such as online shopping, offline retail, and dining travel.At the same time, Gate Card has launched a brand video that showcases scenarios around global consumption, mobile payments, and the everyday application of crypto assets, further conveying the product concept of "integrating crypto payments into real life."It is reported that Gate Card offers up to 5% cashback on spending, supports cashback in multiple currencies including BTC, ETH, USDT, GT, and provides benefits such as free card application, no annual fee, and no monthly fee. Industry insiders believe that as the mobile payment ecosystem and crypto assets become further integrated, crypto payment products are gradually extending from transaction scenarios to high-frequency consumption scenarios. In addition, Gate Card has recently launched a limited-time referral reward activity. Users who invite friends to complete card opening and spending can both receive up to 165 USDT in rewards.

According to Finance Feeds, payment giant Mastercard has partnered with the decentralized oracle protocol Chainlink to establish a direct fiat-to-cryptocurrency gateway for its global users.This collaboration allows Mastercard cardholders to bypass centralized exchanges and directly acquire digital assets within on-chain smart contracts. The initial card transaction layer is handled by Shift4 Payments, while Zero Hash is responsible for compliance tracking, custody routing, and instant settlement from fiat to cryptocurrency. Ultimately, the funds are pushed to a public distributed ledger through Chainlink's infrastructure and integrated into the Swapper Finance platform, which utilizes XSwap to obtain liquidity from decentralized exchanges like Uniswap.This integration compresses card processing, regulatory review, cross-chain messaging, and AMM Swap into a single continuous transaction.

According to DEGEN NEWS, Jeff Sprecher, founder and CEO of the Intercontinental Exchange (ICE), stated that he has met with the Hyperliquid team multiple times to discuss business overlaps and potential collaboration opportunities.He pointed out that Hyperliquid conducts oil trading on weekends when the traditional oil market is closed, which has attracted attention. The platform has also launched derivatives trading for SpaceX, and he expects that on June 11, when SpaceX goes public, it will be very interesting to see whether the prices discovered in the private market will affect the IPO. He also mentioned that, depending on the allowed leverage levels, retail investors may invest a significant amount of money in this IPO, potentially exceeding the size of the IPO itself.

According to BBX data, yesterday global payment giants and publicly listed treasury companies made key progress in obtaining compliance licenses and strategic asset allocation, with the core dynamics as follows:Mastercard secures compliance entry ticket in the U.S.: Mastercard Incorporated (NYSE: $MA) subsidiary Mastercard Transaction Services (U.S.) LLC has officially obtained a cryptocurrency business license (BitLicense) issued by the New York State Department of Financial Services (NYDFS), allowing it to legally conduct digital asset-related business in the state. This approval marks Mastercard's full-scale efforts in on-chain payment and settlement infrastructure centered around stablecoins and tokenized deposits.DDC treasury holdings rise to 2,714 coins: DDC Enterprise Limited (NYSE: $DDC) officially announced an additional purchase of 131 bitcoins. As of now, the company's total bitcoin holdings have reached 2,714 BTC, with an overall average purchase cost of $79,135. Benefiting from recent capital operations, its year-to-date bitcoin yield has reached 43.5%.

According to CoinDesk, Mastercard Transaction Services (U.S.) LLC, a subsidiary of Mastercard, has been granted a BitLicense by the New York State Department of Financial Services (NYDFS), allowing it to conduct digital asset-related business in the state. This approval is part of its strategy to build a blockchain-based payment and settlement infrastructure, focusing on stablecoins and tokenized deposits.The New York BitLicense requires licensed institutions to meet strict standards in areas such as capital, cybersecurity, compliance, and consumer protection. Mastercard stated that this license will support its layout in digital currencies such as stablecoins and tokenized deposits, while continuing to adhere to the compliance and operational standards of its global payment network, promoting the parallel development of traditional financial systems and blockchain payment tracks.

OpenSea announced the launch of the Ethereum open standard ERC-8257 (Agent Tool Registry), positioning it as the "app store for AI agent tools," allowing developers to register tools on-chain, declare access rules and pricing, and support AI agents in autonomously discovering, purchasing access rights, and invoking tools without human intervention.OpenSea stated that this standard is layered and combined with protocols such as ERC-8004 (Agent Identity), MCP (Tool Discovery), and x402 (Payment Protocol), collectively forming the operational infrastructure for AI agents on-chain. Currently, ERC-8257 is still in the draft stage, and OpenSea invites developers to participate in refining the specification.

BitMEX senior research analyst Shang Wu stated that the continued rise in government bond yields signals an impending "structural" shift, which will create a "super cycle" for Bitcoin's price increase.Shang Wu pointed out that under the pressure of the $39 trillion U.S. debt and massive spending on AI infrastructure, central banks will ultimately respond through currency devaluation and invisible liquidity injections. At that time, investors will sell off devalued traditional assets and turn to allocate Bitcoin, a scarce asset that cannot be inflated.Last week, the yield on the 30-year U.S. Treasury bond broke 5.14%, while the yield on Japan's 10-year government bond reached 2.8%.He believes that while short-term volatility is inevitable, in the long run, this will be the biggest structural benefit for Bitcoin.

The cross-chain network Everclear officially announced on social media that it has decided to end the operations of the Everclear Foundation and Labs, and to stop product development. Currently, the protocol has been shut down, and the Everclear UI and chain have ceased operation. The team stated that the remaining TVL in the protocol has been fully withdrawn, and to their knowledge, no user funds are trapped.Regarding the reasons for the shutdown, Everclear stated that although the monthly trading volume had previously reached $500 million, the team failed to establish sufficient commercial depth and convert it into effective revenue due to users' high price sensitivity in the cross-chain solver field. Additionally, the team exhausted its funds (runway) during the transition to a B2B2C model over the past six months, and several acquisition proposals explored were also unsuccessful.For future arrangements, Everclear is conducting an orderly liquidation to address outstanding debts. The team stated that if there are remaining funds after the debts are settled, they will explore repurchasing existing tokens, with a potential total repurchase amount estimated between $50,000 and $200,000, but this has not yet been finalized. Furthermore, the foundation is considering open-sourcing the protocol's intellectual property (IP) to give the DAO the option to continue advancing work under new management; currently, the DAO itself is still operational.

According to The Wall Street Journal, the U.S. Department of Commerce announced a total of $2 billion in government subsidies to nine quantum computing companies, including IBM, and will acquire equity in the related transactions. This move aims to accelerate the cultivation of the emerging quantum computing industry and promote the development of more stable and scalable quantum computing systems. The report states that this round of funding is part of the Trump administration's plan to maintain the U.S. competitive advantage in the field of frontier computing and to initiate a "new era of technological innovation."

According to monitoring by Specter Analyst, a high-net-worth investor holding significant assets on the Kraken and Coinbase trading platforms was subjected to a suspected personal coercion attack, resulting in a total loss of approximately $6.7 million in various assets. The attacker withdrew 1,554 ETH (approximately $3.3 million) from the user's Kraken account and 10.5 BTC.At the same time, the attacker also breached the defenses of their Coinbase account, withdrawing 34.1 cbBTC. Subsequently, the attacker directly deposited over $5.3 million of the stolen funds into the privacy protocol Tornado Cash to obscure the transaction path.

According to BBX data, yesterday the layout of traditional payment institutions in the cryptocurrency infrastructure showed divergence, with institutions having clear differences in their views on ETH and the altcoin sector. The core dynamics are as follows:Mastercard Incorporated (NYSE: $MA) signed an acquisition agreement for the UK stablecoin infrastructure company BVNK on March 17 for a maximum of $1.8 billion (including $300 million in performance-based payments), which directly led Mastercard to abandon its previously pursued strategic investment plan in Zerohash (a privately held company). According to CoinDesk on May 19, Mastercard exited negotiations with Zerohash after the completion of the BVNK acquisition, and Zerohash is currently seeking to initiate a new financing round with a valuation of over $1.5 billion (higher than the $1 billion valuation established during the D-2 round of financing of $104 million in September 2025); the strategic logic behind Mastercard's acquisition of BVNK is that BVNK has a stablecoin payment infrastructure covering over 130 countries and a difficult-to-replicate combination of multi-country payment licenses; Mastercard's Chief Product Officer Jorn Lambert stated that the goal is to integrate stablecoins into the core network of Mastercard Move cross-border payments, rather than treating them as a peripheral experiment.JPMorgan Chase & Co. (NYSE: $JPM) analysts cited by CoinDesk on May 19 released the latest research report indicating that in the current market environment, Ethereum and the broader altcoin sector will continue to lag behind Bitcoin, primarily due to three structural weaknesses: weak network activity, stagnation in DeFi ecosystem growth (Solana's TVL has dropped from a peak of $13.1 billion in 2025 to about $5.5 billion), and limited real-world adoption scenarios; analysts believe that for the altcoin sector to catch up with Bitcoin's performance, a "significant network activity explosion" is a prerequisite, and this condition currently lacks visible short-term catalysts.

According to CNBC, fintech company Mercury announced the completion of a new round of financing of $200 million, led by TCV, with participation from institutions such as Sequoia Capital, Andreessen Horowitz (a16z), and Coatue Management.Mercury primarily provides banking services for startups, currently serving over 300,000 clients and achieving approximately $650 million in annualized revenue. The company stated that the recent AI startup boom has significantly driven the demand for new company registrations and account openings, becoming an important driver of its growth.At the same time, Mercury also announced that it has received conditional approval from the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) and plans to apply for a federal banking license to expand its lending and payment network (such as Zelle) access capabilities, while reducing reliance on partner banks. The company's founder stated that the future goal remains to go public rather than being acquired.

Mastercard has abandoned its investment plan for the cryptocurrency infrastructure company Zerohash, which had previously agreed in March to acquire the UK stablecoin infrastructure company BVNK for $1.8 billion. Mastercard had considered a strategic investment in Chicago-based Zerohash in January of this year. At that time, Zerohash was seeking to raise $250 million at a valuation of $1.5 billion, while the company is currently advancing a new funding round at a higher valuation. Founded in 2017, Zerohash primarily provides APIs and developer tools for cryptocurrencies, stablecoins, and tokenized products.Meanwhile, recent transactions involving Kraken's parent company Payward and Bullish indicate that consolidation in the digital asset infrastructure sector is ongoing. In terms of stablecoin payment arrangements, Mastercard has acquired BVNK for $1.8 billion and may pay an additional $300 million in performance-based compensation. BVNK currently serves payment and payroll platforms like Worldpay and Deel for cross-border payments, fund settlement, and financial management.Mastercard plans to integrate BVNK's technology into its Mastercard Move network to support 24/7 stablecoin settlement for payment institutions and merchant acquirers, and to explore adding stablecoin checkout functionality in payment gateways. Analysts believe that this transaction will further intensify the competition between Mastercard and Visa in the networked strategy of payment networks and accelerate the evolution of traditional cross-border clearing systems towards stablecoin settlement models.

According to Protos, Myanmar has proposed introducing the death penalty for criminals who use violent means to coerce victims into participating in cryptocurrency scam centers. According to the draft of the country's Anti-Cyber Fraud Bill, criminals who use violence, torture, illegal arrest and detention, or cruel treatment against others to force them to commit cyber fraud will be sentenced to death.The bill will be submitted to parliament for review in June. In addition, operators of scam centers or perpetrators of cryptocurrency scams will face life imprisonment. Last month, the President of Myanmar reduced all death sentences to life imprisonment.

On May 13, BNB Chain announced the launch of an on-chain autonomous agent framework, enabling autonomous agents to obtain decentralized identities through the ERC-8004 standard, conduct peer-to-peer payments, delegate tasks to other agents via ERC-8183, and accumulate verifiable on-chain reputation on 8004scan. The entire system operates fully on-chain, with transactions being transparent and auditable, supporting hierarchical agency relationships.The framework integrates various skill modules, including native BNB Chain smart contract execution, querying on-chain data through natural language, Nodereal's MegaNode API infrastructure (providing access to over 25 blockchain networks), and meme token management capabilities provided by fourdotmemezh Agent Skills. Additionally, the BNB Chain Knowledge Base Model Context Protocol (MCP) allows agents to query blockchain documents and receive instant answers, extending agent functionalities to applications such as DeFi and asset management.