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Donald Trump made an income of $57.35 million from World Liberty Financial’s token sales in 2024, according to his latest public financial disclosure.

Truth Social, the social media platform run by Trump Media & Technology Group, filed a second crypto ETF application with the SEC on Monday, aiming to track both bitcoin and ether.

I hope you had a good weekend, folks. Bitcoin edged higher to start the week, showing resilience in the face of ongoing geopolitical uncertainty as analysts point to "optimistic but measured" trader sentiment.

In today's newsletter, Trump makes over $57 million from WLFI sales, Truth Social files for a Bitcoin and Ethereum combo ETF, Strategy picks up another $1 billion worth of bitcoin as Metaplanet hits 10,000 BTC, and more.

Meanwhile, a new survey from crypto exchange Kraken finds that 48% of respondents fear themselves as their biggest security risk.

Let's get started.

Trump makes over $57 million from WLFI salesDonald Trump made an income of $57.35 million from World Liberty Financial's token sales in 2024, according to his latest public financial disclosure.

The filing revealed Trump owns 15.75 billion World Liberty governance tokens, providing potential voting power to its "chief crypto advocate" and co-founder emeritus.Trump's sons also hold co-founder positions at the DeFi project but do not hold officer, director, founder, owner, or operator roles.World Liberty completed its most recent WLFI sale in March, raising $550 million from 25% of the token's 100 billion total supply.Another co-founder, Zak Folkman, has said that 63% of the total supply would eventually be sold to the public.World Liberty has recently focused its efforts on promoting its U.S. dollar-backed stablecoin, airdropping the USD1 tokens to WLFI holders earlier this month.However, Trump's deep ties to World Liberty have drawn criticism from Democratic senators over potential conflicts of interest.Truth Social files for Bitcoin and Ethereum combo ETFTruth Social, the social media platform run by Trump Media & Technology Group, filed a second crypto ETF application with the SEC on Monday, aiming to track both bitcoin and ether.

The proposed fund, sponsored by Yorkville America Digital, plans to allocate about 75% to bitcoin and 25% to ether, with the flexibility to adjust the ratio over time.Foris DAX Trust Co. is listed as the fund's custodian, as in Truth Social's earlier single-asset Bitcoin ETF filing.

Truth Social joins Bitwise and Hashdex as the third firm to seek the agency's approval for a spot Bitcoin and Ethereum ETF, while Volatility Shares and ProShares have also filed for futures-based versions.Strategy bags $1 billion in bitcoin as Metaplanet hits 10,000 BTCStrategy (formerly MicroStrategy) announced Monday it had acquired another 10,100 BTC for $1.05 billion, boosting its total holdings to 592,100 BTC — worth over $63 billion and the equivalent of more than 2.8% of bitcoin's total supply.

Reported by The Block: Circle’s institutional stablecoin creation platform Circle Mint and developer-focused Circle API now support USDC on the XRPL, bolstering USDC’s liquidity on the network.

The Layer 1 blockchain XRP Ledger (XRPL) mainnet adopted the stablecoin USDC one week after its issuer, Circle, went public, marking further adoption of the world's second-largest stablecoin by supply.

Circle's institutional stablecoin creation platform, Circle Mint, and its developer-focused Circle API now support USDC on the XRPL, bolstering USDC's liquidity on the network, according to a press release issued on Thursday by the company.

The XRP Ledger is associated with the cross-border payment company Ripple.  As XRPL expands its stablecoin offerings with USDC, the blockchain also plans to launch an Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM) sidechain in the second fiscal quarter of 2025, The Block previously reported.

XRP, the native token of XRPL, is the fourth-largest cryptocurrency by its market capitalization of $131.8 billion.  The token was trading at $2.24 at the time of writing, having decreased 3.41% in the past day, and generated $2.2 billion in 24-hour trading volume.  The Block's XRP Price Page shows.

After attempting to go public since at least 2021, Circle completed its initial public offering on June 5.  The firm shares soared to $90 shortly after going live, marking a nearly 200% increase from its IPO stock price of about $30, The Block previously reported.

Circle's stablecoin USDC comprises about 25% of the total 240 billion stablecoin supply, second only to Tether's dollar-pegged asset USDT, which accounts for 65% of the supply.

Reported by The Block: The Depository Trust & Clearing Corporation (DTCC), a cornerstone of global financial market infrastructure, is reportedly working on a stablecoin, according to The Information.

The firm recently published a blog noting the “increasing use cases for stablecoins,” including “for corporate cross-border treasury management and payment systems.”

The Depository Trust & Clearing Corporation (DTCC), a cornerstone of global financial infrastructure, is reportedly developing a stablecoin, according to The Information.  Such a move would signal DTCC’s growing interest in digital assets, a sector led internally by Nadine Chakar, Global Head of Digital Assets.

DTCC has not publicly commented on the report.  The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC)-registered company provides post-trade clearance, settlement, custody, and information services.  Along with its subsidiaries, DTCC processes quadrillions of dollars in securities transactions each year.

In a recent blog post, DTCC noted the "increasing use cases for stablecoins," including "for corporate cross-border treasury management and payment systems."

"Stablecoins are emerging as an alternative settlement mechanism, as a means for payment efficiency and a definitive use case for blockchain technology," the firm wrote.  "Through updating payment infrastructures, stablecoins are now a payment option within various segments of the ecosystem, from retail cross-border transactions to securities settlement."

The Block has reached out to a DTCC representative for comment.

This would not be the DTCC’s first foray into blockchain infrastructure. In April, DTCC unveiled its AppChain tokenized collateral management platform, which is used to bridge traditionally "siloed" systems.

It is also not the only institution looking at stablecoins to improve global financial rails. For instance, banks such as Societe Generale and Bank of America have been investigating launching dollar-pegged tokens, largely driven by recent progress on the GENIUS Act which would standardize stablecoin regulation in the U.S.

U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said in a Wednesday Senate hearing that the U.S. dollar-backed stablecoin market has the potential to surpass $2 trillion in the next three years.

Reported by The Block: SINGAPORE, June 6, 2025 – Foresight Ventures, a leading crypto-focused venture capital firm bridging Eastern aand Western markets, today unveiled its latest report, "Beyond Payments: Building the Financial OS for Global Commerce." The report thoroughly analyzes how global financial infrastructures are increasingly shifting toward crypto-native financial solutions.

In 2025 – the year of stablecoins– merchants worldwide are actively exploring more efficient, cost-effective alternatives to traditional payment systems. With global crypto ownership reaching 660 million users, merchants are adapting to meet this growing demand.

The report presents a comprehensive examination of how crypto-native payment solutions are reshaping payment infrastructure, merchant acquisition models, and global business operations.

Key insights from the report include:

Over 30,000 merchants now accept crypto payments globally, driven by aggressive channel partnerships and integrations.Traditional payment systems process trillions annually but impose billions in fees on merchants, illustrating inefficiencies in legacy rails.

Crypto payment providers often charge a flat 1% transaction fee, with instant or near-instant settlement and significantly reduced intermediary costs. 

Coinbase Commerce and Binance Pay lead in crypto-native merchant payments with over $1.5 billion in payment volume. Channel partnerships are key for scaling—Binance Pay’s integration with xMoney helped grow its merchant network from 12,000 to 32,000 in just three months.

Custodial, non-custodial, and hybrid custody models each offer distinct advantages and trade-offs in regulatory compliance, operational complexity, and merchant experience.Stablecoin-first strategies provide critical price stability and simplify reconciliation for merchants. 

Cross-product revenue streams, including treasury management and FX optimization, are becoming integral monetization strategies beyond transaction fees.

The detailed analysis highlights major inefficiencies in traditional payment systems, where multiple intermediaries drive up costs, delay settlements, and complicate global transactions. Crypto-based solutions address these issues with lower fees, faster cross-border settlements, and direct access to new customer segments.

The report outlines key custody and settlement models—custodial, non-custodial, and hybrid—each with trade-offs in compliance, complexity, onboarding, and revenue. Non-custodial setups give merchants greater transparency and direct fund control, appealing to crypto-native businesses. In contrast, custodial solutions like Binance Pay’s internal ledger offer a simplified, Web2-style experience.

A hybrid model is also gaining popularity, especially among traditional businesses, blending on-chain payments with automated fiat conversions and traditional settlement methods. Platforms such as BitPay exemplify this approach, allowing merchants to receive crypto payments seamlessly converted into fiat currencies, significantly reducing volatility risk.

Highlighting innovations in product design, the report emphasizes the importance of stablecoin-first strategies, intelligent treasury management, and gas abstraction to streamline user experiences. For instance, using stablecoins like USDC for invoicing and settlement provides merchants with price stability and minimizes operational complexity.

"Payments infrastructure is evolving rapidly, becoming far more integrated into broader financial operations. The future of global commerce is about flexible, embedded financial services that businesses can leverage to manage their treasuries, optimize FX, and seamlessly integrate with existing systems," said Alice Li, Investment Partner at Foresight Ventures.

Finally, the report notes a shift in monetization models. Beyond transaction fees, platforms are adopting cross-product revenue strategies, including embedded credit and yield-bearing treasury products. Distribution partnerships and channel strategies are also central to scaling adoption globally.

As crypto payments mature, they’re becoming more than just payment tools — they’re evolving into full-fledged financial operating systems, offering adjacent services that traditional finance cannot match.

Reported by The Block: The trading volume metric serves as a proxy for relative dominance within the perp landscape, and Hyperliquid’s encroachment into Binance’s long-held dominance is becoming harder to ignore.The following is excerpted from The Block’s Data and Insights newsletter.

Hyperliquid has recorded a new all-time high in monthly perpetual futures volume, facilitating over $248 billion in perp trading activity for May. This represents a 51.5% month-over-month increase compared to April’s $187.5 billion worth of volume.

For context, Hyperliquid facilitated just $26.3 billion in perp trading volume in May 2024, representing an 843% year-over-year increase. This explosive growth underscores the protocol’s position as the dominant player in the onchain perps vertical, having successfully blended CEX-grade performance with native crypto rails.

Further, the ratio between Hyperliquid and centralized exchange Binance's monthly perpetual volumes surged to a record high of 10.54%. This figure surpasses April’s previous high of 9.76%, which marked a peak ratio at the time.

The metric serves as a proxy for relative dominance within the overall perp landscape, and Hyperliquid’s encroachment into Binance’s long-held dominance is becoming harder to ignore. The main drivers behind Hyperliquid's rising momentum against Binance are Hyperliquid’s UX, which rivals CEX functionality while mitigating custodial risks, as well as its Season 2 points campaign, which lured in traders following a highly successful and lucrative Season 1 airdrop.

These dynamics have also buoyed the ratio of total DEX to CEX futures volume, which has hovered near record highs for the past several months. For May, the metric printed 6.84%, marginally below its all-time high of 7.06% in February. Year-to-date, this figure has averaged 6.7%, establishing a new baseline far above historical norms.

In 2022, DEX futures captured under 2% of global perp flow. This figure more than doubled to a high of 5.19% in mid-2024, and has since kept steadily above 6.8% in 2025. If this trend continues as DEX infrastructure keeps tightening spreads and integrating native stablecoin on-ramps, a double-digit share before the year ends seems plausible.

Reported by The Block: Cetus Protocol, a decentralized exchange on the Sui and Aptos blockchains, relaunched on Sunday just 17 days after suffering a $223 million exploit.

The protocol recovered around $162 million worth of funds, and restarted with the help of a $30 million loan from the Sui foundation.Affected liquidity pools were restored to at least 85% of their initial value, pledging remaining compensation coming in the form of CETUS tokens.

Cetus continues to legally pursue its attacker, who ignored the protocol’s attempts to negotiate and has begun attempting to launder the stolen assets.

Sui- and Aptos-based decentralized exchange Cetus Protocol relaunched on Sunday after recovering from a $223 million exploit on May 22, restoring the platform to full functionality and replenishing affected pools with 85% to 99% of their original liquidity, the Cetus team said.

The hack, which occurred after an unknown attacker exploited an integer overflow flaw in a shared math library used by Cetus' contracts to make one deposited token seem like millions of dollars in value, was the most devastating attack on any DeFi protocol in May.  Yet shortly after the hack, $162 million was frozen on Sui by validators and eventually returned to the protocol.

Now, Cetus has relaunched, plugging the holes in affected liquidity pools with the recovered funds, its entire cash reserves worth $7 million, and a $30 million USDC loan from the Sui foundation, the protocol said in an announcement.  The recovery rate for affected LPs ranges between 85% and 99%;  the remainder will be returned as CETUS tokens over the course of 12 months following a linear unlock schedule, barring any further recoveries from the attacker.

Cetus said it identified and patched the vulnerability that led to the exploit, thoroughly audited the protocol, and rebalanced all affected liquidity pools to prepare for the relaunch.  Yet assets worth tens of millions of dollars still remain under the control of the hacker, who transferred some assets to an EVM address and has begun to launder some of the funds with transfers to "mixer" service Tornado Cash.

"The attacker ignored our previous whitehat offer and has begun attempting to launder assets — a futile and traceable act," Cetus wrote.  "We are highly confident that successful arrest and recovering the remaining assets is only a matter of time."

An analysis of the hack by blockchain security firm SlowMist found that the hacker prepared the attack two days prior by funding a wallet with enough funds for gas to carry out the attack, and even attempted an earlier version of the exploit which failed.  The exploit affected only Sui-based pools, with the protocol's Aptos side unaffected.

"The attacker precisely selected parameters and exploited the flaw in the checked_shlw function to obtain liquidity worth billions at the cost of only 1 token," SlowMist wrote. "This was an extremely sophisticated mathematical attack."

In the future, Cetus Protocol said it plans to initiate an additional round of comprehensive audits, upgrade the protocol's real-time monitoring system, initiate a new white-hat bounty program, and revise their roadmap for upcoming product features.

"This restart signifies more than just a relaunch, but a renewal," Cetus wrote.

Reported by The Block: Pump.fun, the memecoin generator that revitalized the Solana ecosystem, plans to raise $1 billion through a token sale at a $4 billion valuation, according to Blockworks.The token will reportedly be offered to public and private investors, though it is unclear when or where the token launch will occur.

Pump.fun, the memecoin generator that revitalized the Solana ecosystem, plans to raise $1 billion through a token sale at a $4 billion valuation, according to a Tuesday Blockworks report citing unnamed sources.

The token will reportedly be offered to public and private investors. It is unclear when or where the token launch will occur. The Block has reached out to Pump.fun representatives for confirmation.

Pump.fun, launched in early 2024, has been a breakout success. The platform enables anyone to quickly and easily deploy a token — and is now responsible for the majority of memecoin launches and trading on Solana, driving significant revenue to the network.

The platform’s daily revenue peaked at over $7 million on Jan. 23, though it has since decreased to around $1 million per day, according to The Block data.

The platform was designed with a bonding curve that adjusts token prices based on supply and demand.

Initially, once a token launched on Pump reached a market cap of $69,000, it "graduated" to the decentralized trading platform Raydium. However, Pump.fun made waves when it launched a bespoke automated market maker, called PumpSwap, which Raydium responded to by launching a rival memecoin generator, LaunchLab.

Pump.fun also recently re-launched its controversial live-streaming feature that was suspended following a series of content moderation complaints.

Reported by The Block: Cecilia Hsueh is stepping down as CEO of the Dragonfly-backed Morph.

Morph’s Chief Growth Officer in recent months and former Binance executive Colin Goltra will take her place.

Cecilia Hsueh, co-founder and CEO of the Bitget-incubated Ethereum Layer 2 project Morph, said on Monday she's stepping down.

"This news might feel a bit heavy, but I think it’s time to share this decision with everyone. After careful reflection, I’ve decided to officially step aside as CEO," Hsueh said in a post on X.

The move comes shortly after Morph co-founder and COO Azeem Khan also announced a departure from the project.

Founded in 2023, Singapore-based Morph has been developing a Layer 2 network using a combination of optimistic and zero-knowledge rollup technologies. Last year, it raised $20 million in seed and angel funding rounds. Dragonfly led the $19 million seed round.

"We began the transition 3 months ago, and today, it’s complete," Hsueh wrote on Monday, noting that the company's new CEO will be current Chief Growth Officer Colin Goltra. "Our new leadership, is someone I deeply trust. 10+ years in Web3, former COO of YGG and ex-Binance," added Hsueh. "He’s the right person to lead Morph in its next chapter."

Goltra has been at Morph since January, according to LinkedIn. He also spent a little more than one year and a half at Binance, with his last position listed as director of APAC expansion. Hsueh previously served as chief marketing officer and, later, chief executive officer of crypto exchange Phemex.

Morph has said it is building the first Ethereum Layer 2 with a decentralized sequencer — a component in Layer 2 networks that organizes and batches multiple off-chain transactions before submitting them to the Ethereum blockchain. The tech is meant to enable "limitless possibilities" for decentralized applications, including finance, gaming, social media, and entertainment, according to the company.

Morph's mainnet launched in October 2024. Bitget Wallet announced an integration shortly after.

Hsueh said she would remain an advisor to the project.

Other Morph backers include Pantera Capital, Foresight Ventures, the Spartan Group, and Symbolic Capital. Polygon's Sandeep Nailwal and Nansen's Alex Svanevik have also invested.

Reported by The Block: Cobie’s Echo has launched Sonar, a new ICO platform for public token sales, with Plasma as its first project.

Plasma is offering 10% of its XPL token supply to the public and planning to raise $50 million in the sale, co-founder Paul Faecks told The Block.

Echo — the angel investing platform founded by popular crypto trader Jordan Fish, better known as Cobie — has launched a new initial coin offering (ICO) platform it first hinted at in February. Called Sonar, the platform goes live with Plasma's fundraise as its debut sale.

Plasma, a blockchain purpose-built for stablecoins, will offer 10% of its total XPL token supply in the Sonar sale, aiming to raise $50 million, co-founder Paul Faecks told The Block. The 10% amounts to 1 billion tokens out of a 10 billion total supply, at a price of $0.05 per XPL, Faecks said.

Pre-deposits for the XPL token sale will open on June 9, with the actual sale set to begin a few weeks later, Faecks said. Users around the world will be able to participate, except UK residents and individuals in sanctioned jurisdictions. U.S. participants will face a 12-month lockup period, while most others will be subject to a 40-day lockup, Faecks said.

The XPL token sale is priced at a $500 million fully diluted valuation — the same valuation used in Founders Fund's recent equity-plus-token warrant investment in Plasma, Faecks said. Last week, Founders Fund invested an undisclosed amount in the project. Prior to that, Plasma raised $24 million across its seed and Series A rounds from backers including Peter Thiel, Cobie, Tether CEO Paolo Ardoino, Bitfinex, USDT0 and Bybit.

Faecks said that to participate in the XPL sale on Sonar, users must deposit stablecoins — USDT, USDC, and USDS (formerly DAI) — into a Plasma vault on Ethereum. Allocations will be determined by each participant's time-weighted share of total vault deposits. Once deposits close, positions are locked until Plasma's mainnet beta goes live, after which XPL tokens will be distributed.

Cobie did not immediately respond to The Block's request for comment.

What is Plasma?Plasma is a new blockchain being built for stablecoins. It is being designed as a sidechain to Bitcoin — meaning it will run alongside the Bitcoin network but operate independently — and will be fully compatible with the Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM), allowing developers to easily build Ethereum-style apps on Plasma.

"The XPL token plays a central role in the system. It secures the PlasmaBFT consensus mechanism, powers execution through the Reth-based EVM, and underpins the trust-minimized Bitcoin bridge," Plasma said. "This sale marks the beginning of XPL distribution to those who want to help scale the network from the ground up."

The Plasma blockchain is currently in private testnet, Faecks said, with a public testnet expected to launch in the coming weeks and mainnet targeted for late summer.

When asked how Plasma plans to use the $50 million if raised, Faecks said, "We're aggressively expanding the team and building out local infrastructure in key regions." The project currently has 25 team members and is hiring across both tech and business functions, he added.

Overall, Plasma's vision is to "power the stablecoin economy at scale," including enabling zero-fee USDT transfers, Faecks said.

"Our ecosystem is taking shape. We're securing integrations with key DeFi protocols, including Ethena, Aave, Morpho, Curve, and Maker, as well as global infrastructure providers focused on payments," Faecks said. "We've also started deeper regional work with institutional partners and physical peer-to-peer networks in our target regions."

Cetus Protocol confirmed that an attacker exploited a flaw in an open-source library used by its CLMM smart contract, leading to the $223 million drain.

Moving forward, Cetus plans to bolster security through rigorous testing, expanded audits, and a strengthened bug bounty program.

After suffering a $223 million attack last week, Sui-based decentralized exchange Cetus Protocol confirmed that a flaw in an open-source library used by its smart contract was behind the exploit that drained users' funds.

More specifically, the attack targeted Cetus' Concentrated Liquidity Market Maker (CLMM) pools using the smart contract. It involved manipulating pool prices using a flash swap, exploiting an overflow check error to inject artificially large liquidity value with a minimal amount of tokens, and then repeatedly removing liquidity to siphon assets, according to a full incident report.

The vulnerability stemmed from a misapplied integer overflow safeguard in the inter_mate library, particularly in the checked_shlw method, which incorrectly validated inputs against a 256-bit limit instead of a 192-bit limit, allowing for unchecked liquidity injections, the team explained.

"It is necessary to clarify that recently some people on social media wrongly believed that the exploit was caused by an arithmetic error of MAX_U64 checking flagged in the previous audit report, which misled many people who did not know the fact," Cetus noted. "We hereby declare that this issue has nothing to do with the recent exploit."

According to Cetus's timeline of events, its core CLMM pools were disabled to prevent further loss within 30 minutes of the exploit commencing. Approximately $223 million had already been siphoned by that point, causing various Sui-based tokens to plunge in price amid the chaos. Within an hour and 20 minutes of the attack, Sui validators began voting to reject transactions from the attacker's addresses, and once the vote surpassed 33% of the total stake, addresses that had drained around $162 million were effectively "frozen," Cetus said.

This blocked the attacker's addresses from transacting with those funds on Sui, triggering a backlash from critics who argued the censorship exposed centralization risks. However, roughly $60 million had already been converted to USDC, bridged to Ethereum, and swapped for ETH, onchain analysts previously noted.

The vulnerable contract was later patched and upgraded, though it has yet to be fully restarted.

Negotiations and bounties

In a message to the attacker, Cetus and data analytics company Inca Digital then requested the return of 20,920 ETH and the funds frozen on the exploiter's Sui wallets, stating that no further legal or public action would be taken if the settlement was accepted.

Cetus said it did not receive any communication from the hacker, and the team subsequently announced a $5 million bounty for relevant information that resulted in the successful identification and arrest of the hacker, payable at the Sui Foundation's discretion.

At the same time, Cetus also asked the Sui community to support a protocol upgrade to recover the $162 million of frozen funds and return them to their rightful owners. "No one can make this decision unilaterally. We propose an onchain vote involving the network's major participants, including validators and SUI stakers, to decide on whether this upgrade is in the best interest of the Sui community," it said. "We want to recover and return the stolen funds, but we will respect whatever the community decides."

What's next?

Cetus said it had heavily invested in smart contract audits and system safeguards since it launched, believing multiple reviews and widespread developer adoption offered sufficient protection. However, the team acknowledged the recent exploit made it clear that this sense of security was misplaced and that it "must do more."

To strengthen its defenses, Cetus is implementing enhanced real-time monitoring, stricter risk management configurations, deeper test coverage, and more frequent, milestone-based audits, alongside committing to greater transparency through public reporting of code coverage metrics.

In the immediate term, Cetus is working with the Sui security team and audit partners to revalidate all upgraded contracts before reactivating its CLMM pools. Cetus is also collaborating with ecosystem partners on a recovery plan to restore liquidity access for impacted LPs, including the onchain vote to help return user assets.

Meanwhile, legal proceedings are underway, though Cetus has also extended its white hat offer to the attacker in the hope of recovering funds without further damage. A final notice will be sent to the hacker soon, it said.

Reported by The Block: Crypto leaders and pro-crypto senators are celebrating Monday’s Senate vote to advance a key stablecoin bill.

The Senate voted 66-32 to invoke cloture on the GENIUS Act.

The U.S. Senate's vote Monday to advance the key stablecoin bill, known as the GENIUS Act, is "historic" and could help "ensure U.S. dollar dominance," according to several senators and crypto industry leaders.

"This groundbreaking, bipartisan legislation will bring America's payment system into the 21st century," said Republican Sen. Bill Hagerty, who led the legislation.

The Senate voted 66-32 on Monday night to invoke cloture on the Guiding and Establishing National Innovation for U.S. Stablecoins Act — a procedural step that allows the bill to proceed to further debate. Following the cloture vote, lawmakers must vote on potential amendments before holding a final vote.

The bill would mandate that stablecoins be fully backed by U.S. dollars or similar highly liquid assets. It would also require annual audits for issuers with market capitalizations exceeding $50 billion, and introduce provisions related to foreign issuers.

Sen. Hagerty said that the GENIUS Act would "skyrocket" the country forward with a digital payment framework built on the fastest rails possible. "It will ensure U.S. dollar dominance," he said. "Customers will be protected, the demand for U.S. treasuries will balloon to the tune of more than $1 trillion, and innovation in the digital asset space will thrive in the United States going forward."

The bill required 60 votes to advance, necessitating bipartisan support. Sixteen Democratic senators voted in favor, despite no Democratic support for the bill last week.

"Today's successful vote to advance Senate consideration of GENIUS is truly historic and demonstrates exactly how Congress is meant to work," said Ji Kim, president and acting CEO of the Crypto Council for Innovation. "This vote reflects months of dedicated staff work and significant negotiations and input from both Republican and Democratic offices that substantially improved this bill."

Sen. Cynthia Lummis, who co-sponsored the bill, voiced support. "Digital assets are the future and now we're one step closer to ensuring America leads the way," she said.

Crypto industry leaders are also celebrating. "Many steps to go, but a historic early win on the road to getting a stablecoin bill enacted into law," said Faryar Shirzad, chief policy officer of crypto exchange Coinbase. "Crypto is again showing that it's the biggest bipartisan issue in play on the Hill."

Variant Fund Chief Legal Officer Jake Chervinsky also weighed in. "There's still more work to do — another formal vote on GENIUS in the Senate, and passing STABLE in the House — but this was the hardest part," Chervinsky said on X.

In the hours leading up to Monday's vote, crypto supporters sent more than 60,000 emails to senators urging them to support the bill, according to advocacy group Stand With Crypto.

However, Democratic Sen. Elizabeth Warren argued the bill falls short in addressing President Donald Trump's ties to the crypto industry and criticized USD1, a newly launched stablecoin by World Liberty Financial.

"There is no excuse for Congress to pass a crypto bill that will turbocharge Trump's corruption," said Warren.

Reported by The Block: Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin proposed “partially stateless nodes,” which can save up storage space by saving only a selected portion of data.

Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin proposed a new roadmap on Monday to solve issues linked with scaling Ethereum Layer-1 through higher gas limits, including a new concept called "partially stateless nodes."

"The most common criticism of increasing the L1 gas limit, beyond concerns about network safety, is that it makes it harder to run a full node," Buterin wrote in his recent post.

Running a full node is valuable as it offers a "trustless, censorship-resistant and privacy-friendly way" for users in accessing the chain, the Ethereum co-founder added.

To scale the L1 gas limit without sacrificing running full nodes, Buterin proposed short-term priorities, which include implementing EIP-4444 that limits nodes to contain only up to 36 days of historical data, reducing disk space for other participants.

Running a full Ethereum node requires storing the entire blockchain state (~1TB for state, ~500GB for history). EIP-4444 would offload historical data storage, making nodes lighter.

Other short-term proposals by Buterin were building a distributed history data storage solution and adjusting gas pricing to make storage more expensive and execution less expensive.

Buterin's roadmap highlighted "stateless verification" as a medium-term change, which could allow nodes to interact with the blockchain without maintaining Merkle branches, which are used to verify data integrity. This could cut storage needs by roughly 50%, making nodes significantly lighter, Buterin said.

In his latest proposal, the Ethereum co-founder unveiled a new concept called "partially stateless nodes." Buterin said these have the potential to increase the L1 gas limit by 10 to 100 times.

According to Buterin, these nodes verify blocks and the entire chain without storing all the data by utilizing stateless verification or zkEVM. They will be programmed to store a selected subset of data instead of a full set, and are still able to perform requests pertaining to data in the selected portion.

Reported by The Block: Synthetix contributors have proposed acquiring Derive (formerly Lyra) via an SNX-for-DRV token swap.

The proposed valuation is $27 million, and the swap ratio would be 27 DRV to 1 SNX.

Synthetix contributors proposed acquiring Derive (formerly Lyra), a decentralized options protocol, through an SNX-for-DRV token swap.

If approved, Synthetix would acquire Derive's treasury, technology, and product suite, with DRV holders receiving SNX under a defined vesting schedule.

The proposed valuation is $27 million, per Synthetix Improvement Proposal (SIP-415). The proposal is subject to community approval through an onchain vote.

Synthetix's move aligns with its strategy of vertical reintegration to improve its protocol capabilities on the Ethereum mainnet, particularly for Synthetix v4.

"This acquisition accelerates Synthetix's push towards a leading Ethereum mainnet perps engine by integrating Derive's capabilities and team into the core protocol," the Synthetix team noted in a blog post.

The proposal entails a DRV-to-SNX token swap at a ratio of 27:1 — meaning 27 DRV tokens would be exchanged for 1 SNX token. DRV holders would receive SNX under vesting terms, including a three-month lock-up and nine-month linear vesting.

Synthetix plans to issue 29.3 million new SNX tokens ($27 million) to facilitate the acquisition. The proposed move is part of Synthetix's broader strategy to consolidate and improve its ecosystem, following previous acquisitions such as Kwenta (a perpetual futures platform) and TLX (a leveraged tokens platform).

Derive's technology enables CLOB perpetuals with onchain settlement acceleration. The acquisition could potentially open the possibility of launching a dedicated Synthetix derivatives exchange — leveraging Derive's CLOB infrastructure. According to Synthetix, this infrastructure "can be merged with Synthetix to rival Hyperliquid, Binance, Deribit, and dYdX."

Reported by The Block: FalconX has entered a strategic partnership with Standard Chartered to strengthen its crypto offerings to institutional clients.

Standard Chartered is set to provide its banking infrastructure and array of currency pairs to FalconX, with plans to expand in target clients and regions.

Digital asset prime broker FalconX has entered a strategic partnership with Standard Chartered to strengthen its crypto offerings for institutional clients.

"Standard Chartered will provide a comprehensive suite of banking services to FalconX globally, further strengthening the platform's offerings for institutional clients," the brokerage said in a statement on Wednesday.

Initially, the partnership would see FalconX integrate Standard Chartered's banking infrastructure and wider range of currency pairs to improve the speed, scale, and reliability of cross-border settlements for its global institutional clients.

The pair plans to expand their products and services to target a larger group of entities, including asset managers, hedge funds, token issuers, and payment platforms.

According to a Reuters report, the collaboration is set to begin its expansion in Singapore and later expand its presence to other Asian markets, the Middle East and the U.S.

Founded in 2018, FalconX claims it is the largest crypto-focused prime brokerage firm that has executed over $1.5 trillion in trading volume, according to its website. It is backed by investors, including Accel, American Express Ventures, GIC and Tiger Global Management.

Reported by The Block: Crypto investment products added $882 million worth of net inflows for the fourth week in a row as U.S. ETFs reached a cumulative milestone, according to asset manager CoinShares.

Bitcoin funds dominated the inflows, though Sui-based products outperformed major altcoins to attract $11.7 million last week — surpassing Solana year-to-date.

Crypto investment products run by asset managers such as BlackRock, Bitwise, Fidelity, Grayscale, ProShares and 21Shares registered $882 million worth of net inflows globally last week, according to CoinShares data.

It marks the fourth consecutive week of gains, with year-to-date inflows now standing at $6.7 billion — nearing the $7.3 billion peak reached in February, CoinShares Head of Research James Butterfill wrote in a Monday report. "We believe the sharp increase in both prices and inflows is driven by a combination of factors: a global rise in M2 money supply, stagflationary risks in the U.S., and several U.S. states approving bitcoin as a strategic reserve asset," he said.

In a week that saw bitcoin rise toward $105,000 with a more than 10% gain, according to The Block's Bitcoin price page, while the GMCI 30 index of leading cryptocurrencies gained 21.7%, total assets under management at the funds reached $169.3 billion — again approaching record levels.

Bitcoin dominates but Sui outperforms as US ETFs hit cumulative inflow recordBitcoin-based funds continued their dominance last week, accounting for $867 million in net inflows.

U.S. spot Bitcoin exchange-traded funds accounted for just over $920 million of the net weekly inflows alone, according to data compiled by The Block, with net outflows in other regions reducing the global figure.

The U.S. market attracted overall net inflows of $840 million last week, with U.S.-listed ETFs hitting a record cumulative total of $62.9 billion — surpassing the previous high of $61.6 billion in early February, Butterfill noted.

Crypto funds based in Germany and Australia also attracted net weekly inflows of $44.5 million and $10.2 million, respectively. However, digital asset investment products in Sweden, Canada, and Hong Kong witnessed net outflows of $12 million, $8 million, and $4.3 million.

While Ethereum saw one of the largest price gains last week, rising a substantial 41.1%, according to The Block's price page, Ethereum investment product inflows were relatively muted globally at just $1.5 million — driven by significant outflows from U.S. ETFs.

Sui-based funds were the notable outperformer, bringing in $11.7 million worth of weekly inflows compared to $3.4 million in outflows for Solana investment products. Year-to-date, Sui funds have now added $84 million — overtaking Solana's $76 million.

Reported by The Block: A protocol reporting oracle for Ethereum staking protocol Lido was compromised on Saturday, sparking a Lido DAO vote to rotate the address.

Only about 1.5 ETH was lost in the attack, which oracle operator Chorus One called an “isolated incident.”

“The protocol remains secure and fully operational,” Lido said.

Ethereum staking protocol Lido remains "fully secure and operational" after an attacker compromised one of its protocol reporting oracles, draining nearly 1.5 ETH and sparking an emergency DAO vote to rotate the oracle's address.

Chorus One, which operates the oracle, said the attack appears to be an "isolated incident" without further threats to the protocol. "We have thoroughly audited our entire infrastructure and found no evidence of any broader compromise," Chorus One wrote on X.

The attacker drained 1.46 ETH worth about $3,800 from the compromised address, blockchain data shows. "Investigation on all fronts is still ongoing; we will share a full postmortem after we conclude the investigation," Chorus One added on Lido's governance forum. "Activity of the exploiter points towards an automated system, rather than a targeted attack."

Though the attacker was able to drain the oracle address's ETH balance (which was purposely held at a low level, Chorus One said), the attack didn't threaten Lido's operations, as its protocol reporting oracles require a 5-of-9 consensus.

"In the worst case, [compromised oracles] may mean something like stETH rebases (whether positive or negative) take longer to materialize, which will affect stETH holders but mostly in a negligible manner apart from those who may be using stETH in a leveraged manner in DeFi," wrote Lido head of validators Izzy on X.

The Lido DAO vote to rotate the compromised address currently has unanimous support, though it has not yet reached quorum. "Oracles are complex and vary in their usage across DeFi," Izzy wrote. "In Lido, they're a carefully considered part of the protocol, and possible negative impact is meaningfully mitigated through effective decentralization, segregation of duties, and multiple layers of checks."

Reported by The Block: Sei Labs has put forward a proposal to streamline Sei’s Layer 1 blockchain architecture to an EVM-only model.The proposal aims to improve the user and developer experience ahead of its forthcoming Giga upgrade.

Sei Labs, the primary developer and main contributor to the Sei blockchain, has submitted a Sei Improvement Proposal to go EVM-only. It recommends deprecating CosmWasm and native Cosmos accounts in favor of a more streamlined architecture.

Sei is an Ethereum Virtual Machine-compatible Layer 1 blockchain built using the Cosmos SDK, offering high-speed execution and cross-chain interoperability. It currently supports both EVM and native Cosmos accounts, enabling interaction across EVM and CosmWasm-based applications.

While this dual architecture has provided flexibility, it also introduces significant complexity and friction for both users and developers, Sei Labs argued in the SIP-3 proposal. Users are required to manage and link both EVM and native addresses, while developers and infrastructure providers need to build custom logic to support interoperability, increasing code complexity, maintenance overhead, and making debugging and testing more difficult, SIP author Philip Su explained.

The proposal aims to address this by improving the developer experience and simplifying Sei's infrastructure to fully leverage its parallelized EVM as it advances toward Giga — a major upgrade targeting more than 100,000 transactions per second — Sei posted on X.

EVM-only could lead to greater adoptionMore specifically, if SIP-3 is implemented, only EVM addresses would be allowed to initiate transactions on Sei, the network would only support EVM transactions going forward, and CosmWasm contracts and native Cosmos message handling would be deprecated and removed. Users would need to move assets to EVM wallets or exit Cosmos-native ones, and CosmWasm developers would have to migrate their apps and frontends to the EVM. However, Cosmos-native Sei addresses may still be used internally by the protocol, such as for validator operations, while core features like staking and governance will remain accessible, Sei Labs said.

The proposal argues the transition would lead to greater adoption, improved developer experience, a more cohesive community, and position Sei more strongly within the broader EVM ecosystem.

Since the introduction of Sei v2 in July 2024, introducing its parallelized EVM on mainnet, EVM usage has rapidly grown to dominate network activity, Su noted.

The SIP process lets anyone in the Sei ecosystem give feedback, ask questions, and help guide the network’s development. After a SIP is submitted, it goes through community discussion, possible revisions, a Snapshot vote, and, if approved, onchain implementation.

Sei gaining tractionSei's native cryptocurrency has gained significant traction over the past year, reaching a market cap of $1.1 billion to surpass projects including Optimism, Curve, and Raydium. SEI is up around 6% since SIP-3 was announced, currently trading for $0.21, according to The Block's Sei price page.

Last week, Canary Capital filed an S-1 registration statement with the Securities and Exchange Commission in a bid to manage what could be the first spot Sei exchange-traded fund in the United States, including a staking component.

Ethereum developers deployed the Pectra upgrade at epoch 364032, around 6:05 a.m. ET.

Pectra improves staking efficiency, user experience, validator operations, and Layer 2 scalability.

Ethereum developers have activated Pectra on the mainnet, the network’s most important upgrade since the 2022 Merge.

Activated at epoch 364032 around 6:05 a.m. ET, the Pectra upgrade is Ethereum’s largest-ever update by EIP count. It includes code changes that improve staking efficiency, user experience, validator operations, and Layer 2 scalability.

It was deployed after rigorous testing on the Holesky, Sepolia, and Hoodi testnets, which initially faced configuration hiccups. Despite challenges on the testnets, including validator misconfigurations on Holesky, the Hoodi testnet deployment in March 2025 paved the way for today’s launch.

Pectra builds on the Dencun upgrade of March 2024, which introduced proto-danksharding via EIP-4844. With 11 Ethereum Improvement Proposals (EIPs), Pectra addresses key bottlenecks in the network. The upgrade’s objectives are threefold: fix network inefficiencies, enhance user experience, and lay the groundwork for future upgrades like Fusaka, which will introduce Verkle Trees and PeerDAS for further network scaling.

Here are the key EIPs in Pectra and their impact.

EIP-7702: Account abstractionAuthored with input from Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin, EIP-7702 — included in Pectra — enables user wallets to temporarily execute smart contract logic, a step toward full account abstraction. This EIP allows wallets to support features such as letting third parties, like dApps, cover gas fees, enabling “freemium” models where users can interact without ETH.

Users can also combine multiple actions, such as token approvals and swaps, into one transaction, which is expected to reduce gas costs and user friction.

Finally, account abstraction is expected to enable features like social recovery, allowing users to restore lost keys via trusted contacts.

EIP-7251: Staking with higher validator limitsEIP-7251 increases the maximum effective validator balance from 32 ETH to 2,048 ETH, allowing for reward compounding and validator consolidation.

Previously, stakers with more than 32 ETH had to split stakes across multiple validators, creating operational complexity. Large operators can now merge multiple 32 ETH validators into one, reducing network bandwidth demands. Solo and institutional validators will have fewer nodes to manage, lowering hardware and maintenance costs.

However, critics warn that EIP-7251 may increase centralization, as wealthier stakers or pools could dominate.

EIP-7691: Doubling blob throughput for Layer 2 scalabilityBuilding on Dencun’s proto-danksharding, EIP-7691 increases blob throughput from 3 (target) and 6 (max) to 6 and 9 per block, respectively.

Blobs — temporary data stores for Layer 2 rollups — reduce L1 fees for rollups like Arbitrum and Optimism by 10–100x. This EIP may boost rollup efficiency, resulting in more blobs, which can mean lower transaction fees and faster processing for Layer 2 users.

It also allows rollup developers to scale dApps more cost-effectively, which is important as Layer 2 TVL grows.

EIP-7002: Allowing stakers execution layer controlPectra’s EIP-7002 allows validator exits and withdrawals on the mainnet to be triggered from the execution layer, reducing reliance on validator operators’ active keys, which are vulnerable as “hot” keys.

Ethereum’s architecture splits responsibilities between the consensus and execution layers, as well as the operational requirements for validator keys. The consensus layer handles Ethereum’s proof-of-stake mechanism, where validators propose and attest to blocks. Validators must continuously sign data to avoid penalties or slashing for misbehavior (e.g., double-signing). Signing keys are typically held on a validator client running on a server or cloud, often connected to the internet, increasing exposure to attacks.

In Pectra, EIP-7002 enables withdrawal credentials to initiate validator exits, bypassing the need for the consensus layer’s active key. The execution layer handles transactions, smart contracts, and account balances.

EIP-2935: Saving historical block hashes in stateEIP-2935 modifies Ethereum’s execution layer to store historical block hashes in the state, rather than relying on transient memory or external queries, making them accessible via a new smart contract at address 0xff…2935.

This enables trustless access to recent block hashes (up to 8,192 blocks or about 36 hours) for smart contracts, supporting applications such as decentralized oracles, cross-layer communication, and historical data verification without relying on centralized providers.

EIP-6110: Faster validator onboarding

EIP-6110 moves validator deposit processing to the execution layer, reducing activation time from roughly 12 hours to about 13 minutes.

This streamlines onboarding for new validators, thereby supporting participation and reducing delays for staking firms.

Other EIPsSeveral other EIPs have been introduced in Pectra. EIP-7623 raises calldata costs to incentivize blob usage, optimizing data storage for Layer 2 rollups.

EIP-2537 introduces precompiles, reducing gas costs for cryptographic verifications.

EIP-7685 establishes a framework for execution layer requests, simplifying validator deposits and exits.

EIP-7549 streamlines validator operations and improves consensus layer efficiency.

Finally, EIP-7840 adds blob base fee schedules to help stabilize fees for Layer 2 users.

Reported by The Block: Riot Platforms sold 475 BTC in April, its first major bitcoin sale since January 2024, generating approximately $38.8 million in net proceeds.

Last week, the Nasdaq-traded bitcoin miner reported $161.4 million in total revenue in the first quarter.

Riot Platforms, one of the largest publicly traded bitcoin mining companies, said Monday it sold the bitcoin it mined in April, marking its first sale of mined bitcoin in more than a year.

The company sold 475 BTC during the month, generating approximately $38.8 million in net proceeds. The sale included 463 BTC mined in April and an additional 12 BTC from reserves. Riot last sold a significant amount of bitcoin in January 2024.

"We continuously evaluate the best funding sources considering a multitude of factors and prioritizing a strong balance sheet," Riot CEO Jason Les said in a press release. "These sales reduce the need for equity fundraising, limiting the amount of dilution in our stock."

Riot held 19,211 BTC as of May 5 and is still one of the largest corporate holders of bitcoin, behind only Strategy and fellow miner MARA Holdings.

Les added that the company would continue to monitor market conditions and use available tools to sustainably finance operations while maintaining its long-term bitcoin treasury strategy.

Riot reported $161.4 million in total revenue for the first quarter, The Block's Timmy Shen previously reported, driven partly by a $71.5 million increase in bitcoin mining revenue. Despite the boost, the company posted a net loss of $296.4 million, compared to net income of $211.8 million in the year-ago period.

Following April’s bitcoin halving, the average cost to mine one bitcoin rose to $43,808 in the first quarter, up from $23,034 during the same period in 2024.

According to The Block's RIOT price data, Riot's stock traded down 4% to $8.04 at publication time.

Reported by The Block: The Solana Foundation announced that a recent zero-day vulnerability affecting confidential transfers on Solana has been patched after validators coordinated a network update.

The bug, which was discovered on April 16 and fixed within two days, could have given an attacker unlimited control over certain Solana tokens.

A recent "zero-day" vulnerability affecting certain tokens on the Solana blockchain was patched after the Solana Foundation, which stewards the network, privately organized validators to deploy a critical fix.

According to the Foundation's post-mortem, the vulnerability was first identified on April 16, and was fully patched two days later following two fixes deployed to the network by a majority of Solana's validators. The validators were privately organized by the Solana Foundation, which did not seek to publicize the vulnerability before a fix could be made.

The severe vulnerability affected the ZK ElGamal Proof program, the system which verifies zero-knowledge proofs that power confidential transfers of certain tokens that follow Solana's Token-2022 standard. An attacker could have theoretically minted an unlimited number of tokens or stolen tokens from any user's account using sophisticated forged proofs.

Though the confidential transfers feature has been supported on Solana since October 2023, the feature has seen little adoption. Though some reports indicate Paxos' USDP stablecoin leverages the feature, Paxos denied the reports in a statement to The Block. "Confidential transfers are currently not live on any Paxos-issued stablecoins," a spokesperson said. "Therefore this Solana patch did not impact Paxos nor its products."

"All funds are safe, and there is no known exploit of the potential vulnerability," the Foundation's post states. It is currently unclear who initially flagged the vulnerability and whether or not they will be entitled to a bug bounty; the Solana Foundation could not be immediately reached for comment.

Solana co-founder Anatoly Yakovenko defended the Foundation's efforts to coordinate the upgrade from critics on X. "It’s the same people to get to 70% [consensus] on ethereum," Yakovenko said. "All the lido validators (chorus one, p2p, etc..) binance, coinbase, and kraken."