Category: Peer to Peer

Variational has raised about $50 million in a Series A round led by Dragonfly, giving the peer-to-peer derivatives startup fresh capital to expand perpetual futures tied to real-world assets including oil, gold, silver and copper.The funding marks a sharper push by decentralised finance firms into traditional market instruments at a time when traders are seeking broader access to commodities, indices, foreign exchange and equities through blockchain-based platforms. Variational is positioning its protocol as an alternative to order-book exchanges, using a

Washington’s derivatives regulator and the National Hockey League have signed a memorandum of understanding to share information and co-ordinate oversight of prediction markets tied to professional hockey, extending federal scrutiny over a fast-growing sector that sits between financial derivatives, sports data and gambling regulation.The agreement, signed by Commodity Futures Trading Commission Chairman Michael S. Selig and NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman on 21 May 2026, creates regular communication channels between the regulator and the league, including confidential information-sharing on integrity risks

Shiba Inu is drawing fresh attention from crypto traders after a market analyst said the meme token could enter a high-momentum breakout phase if it clears a long-running resistance structure that has capped its valuation since late 2024.The token was trading near $0.000006 on Friday, with a market value of roughly $3.4 billion and a circulating supply of more than 589 trillion SHIB. The latest technical focus is on whether the asset can push decisively above a market-capitalisation zone near

Sui has launched gasless stablecoin transfers on its mainnet, allowing users and businesses to send supported dollar-pegged tokens without paying network fees or holding SUI separately for gas.The protocol-level feature, backed at launch by Fireblocks, marks a push by the layer-1 blockchain to strengthen its role in payments, treasury movement and on-chain settlement. The change applies to supported stablecoins including USDC, USDsui, suiUSDe, AUSD, FDUSD, USDB and USDY, with qualifying peer-to-peer transfers carrying a stated network fee of $0.00.The move

DipCoin has completed its first year on the Sui blockchain, seeking to strengthen its position in decentralised multi-asset trading after building its platform around perpetual contracts, self-custody, transparency and faster execution.Launched on May 21, 2025, the Sui-based decentralised exchange has used its first anniversary to highlight what it describes as a zero-incident operating record, a key claim in a market where security failures, liquidity shocks and smart-contract vulnerabilities continue to shape user confidence. The platform’s development has focused on crypto

Singapore’s central bank has revoked Bsquared Technology’s major payment institution licence after finding serious regulatory breaches, barring the local crypto liquidity provider from offering digital payment token services in the city-state.The Monetary Authority of Singapore said the revocation took effect on 14 May 2026, marking a firm enforcement step in one of Asia’s most closely watched digital-asset markets. Bsquared Technology Pte Ltd, also referred to as BSQ, had been licensed on 1 January 2025, meaning the company lost its authorisation

Washington regulators are preparing a major shift in digital-asset oversight that could allow tokenised versions of stocks to trade on crypto platforms, opening a new front in the contest between blockchain firms and traditional exchanges.The U. S. Securities and Exchange Commission is expected to unveil an “innovation exemption” during the week of 18 May, giving selected market participants limited relief from existing securities rules while they test tokenised equities and related trading models. The proposal is being shaped under SEC

AI Financial has warned that it may not remain viable over the next year after a steep fall in the value of its World Liberty Financial token holdings exposed the fragility of a balance sheet built around a volatile crypto treasury.The Nasdaq-listed company, formerly known as ALT5 Sigma, disclosed that it held 7,283,585,650 WLFI tokens at the end of its first quarter, carrying them at a fair value of about $706.4 million against a cost basis of nearly $1.46 billion.

Cardano’s payments push is moving into Japan through a partnership linking EMURGO, SecondFi and Slash Vision Labs, in a move designed to bring stablecoin spending into one of Asia’s most sophisticated cashless markets.EMURGO, a co-founding entity of the Cardano blockchain, has tied its consumer finance strategy to Slash Vision Labs’ payments infrastructure to make the Cardano Card available to users in Japan through the SecondFi app. The arrangement is expected to allow customers to order the card and use stablecoins

Tehran has moved to turn the Strait of Hormuz crisis into a new insurance and payments channel, with an Iran-linked platform branded Hormuz Safe offering maritime cargo cover tied to cryptocurrency settlement for vessels using the strategic waterway.The initiative targets shipowners, charterers and cargo interests facing sharply higher war-risk costs, disrupted routing and mounting legal uncertainty across a corridor that remains central to global energy trade. Details available so far indicate that the platform offers digitally verifiable policies for

Strategy has moved to buy back about $1.5 billion of its 2029 convertible notes, sharpening a capital-management push that sits alongside its ambition to build one of the world’s most dominant Bitcoin reserves.The Virginia-based company, formerly known as MicroStrategy, agreed on May 14 to repurchase roughly $1.50 billion in principal amount of its 0 per cent convertible senior notes due 2029 for an estimated cash price of about $1.38 billion. The transaction is expected to settle around May 19, subject

CertiK has warned that attackers are using artificial intelligence to scan ageing smart contracts for exploitable flaws, raising the risk level for decentralised finance projects that still rely on older code, inherited protocol designs and under-maintained deployments.The blockchain security firm’s May 15 alert points to a shift in the economics of crypto attacks. Vulnerability hunting that once required time, specialist knowledge and manual review can now be accelerated by AI systems trained to recognise recurring weaknesses across thousands of contracts.

Kelp DAO has moved rsETH back towards normal operations after a $292 million April exploit exposed weaknesses in cross-chain verification and triggered one of decentralised finance’s largest recovery efforts of the year.The liquid restaking protocol, working with Aave and other ecosystem participants, has completed the burn of exploiter-linked rsETH on Arbitrum and begun restoring the token’s backing through a staged refill into the LayerZero OFT adapter on Ethereum mainnet. The recovery covers 117,132 rsETH, with funds drawn from the Aave

XRP has returned to the centre of speculative crypto trading after market commentator X Finance Bull argued that the token could be nearing a sharp breakout, citing the XRP Ledger’s rising position in real-world asset tokenisation and renewed interest in institutional blockchain settlement.The call has focused attention on a possible move towards $10, a level that would require XRP to rise more than sevenfold from about $1.42, where it has been trading with a market value near $88 billion. Such

Ethereum is entering a critical trading phase as BitMine Immersion Technologies pushes its corporate treasury close to 5 per cent of the network’s total supply, sharpening debate over whether concentrated accumulation can support prices or magnify volatility.The token was trading near $2,227 on Saturday, after slipping during the session from an intraday high above $2,310. The move kept ether above the $2,100 level watched by some market participants as a sign of improving momentum, but it also showed how fragile

Crypto exchange MEXC has closed its first USD1 event series with more than 161,000 participants and $2.4 billion in futures trading volume from new users, underscoring how fee promotions and stablecoin-linked incentives are reshaping competition among digital asset platforms.The campaign, which ended on May 13, centred on USD1, the dollar-pegged stablecoin associated with World Liberty Financial. MEXC positioned the initiative as part of its wider 0-fee strategy, offering users lower-cost access to spot and futures markets while using prize pools

Bitcoin traders are positioning for a possible push towards $90,000 after the CLARITY Act cleared a key Senate committee vote, giving digital asset markets their strongest regulatory signal from Washington this year.The largest cryptocurrency traded near $80,600 on Friday after briefly testing the $82,000 area, with market participants watching whether legislative momentum in the United States can extend a rally that has already lifted sentiment across tokens and crypto-linked equities. A clean break above the $82,000–$83,000 band is being viewed

Circle’s first-quarter results have sharpened investor focus on whether its planned Arc network can turn USDC’s growing scale into a broader valuation story beyond reserve income.The stablecoin issuer reported total revenue and reserve income of $694 million for the first quarter of 2026, up 20 per cent from a year earlier, while USDC in circulation reached $77 billion at quarter-end. The operating picture, however, was more nuanced. Net income fell to $55 million from $65 million a year earlier, showing

Ondo Finance has opened a new route for tokenised US stocks and exchange-traded funds to move onto Hyperliquid, using LayerZero’s interoperability infrastructure to connect assets from Ethereum and BNB Chain to Hyperliquid’s HyperEVM environment.The move gives eligible users a way to transfer Ondo’s tokenised equity products through the Ondo Bridge and deploy them within one of decentralised finance’s most active trading ecosystems. The initial rollout covers 35 tokenised assets, including instruments linked to the SPDR S&P 500 ETF, Invesco QQQ

Dogecoin held near the 11-cent level after a volatile trading stretch, with large holders increasing their exposure even as the wider digital asset market continued to absorb selling pressure and cautious positioning across major tokens.The world’s largest memecoin by market value traded in a tight band after retreating earlier in the week, reflecting a market caught between renewed speculative appetite and resistance from profit-taking. Its latest price action has been shaped by whale accumulation, shifting derivatives activity and renewed comparisons

Washington’s push to regulate digital assets has entered a sharper phase after Senator Bernie Moreno accused major banks of trying to block stablecoin competition as Congress prepares for a decisive test of the CLARITY Act this week.Moreno, a Republican from Ohio and one of the Senate’s most vocal crypto advocates, said the “banking cartel” was “in full panic mode” over legislation that could reshape the relationship between conventional finance and digital money. His intervention followed an intensified lobbying drive by

Binance Bahrain has renewed its ISO/IEC 27001 and ISO/IEC 27701 certifications, strengthening its information security and privacy credentials as regulated crypto platforms face rising scrutiny over user protection, operational resilience and compliance standards across the Gulf.The Manama-based crypto asset platform said the renewed certifications cover its information security management and privacy information management systems. The development places data governance at the centre of its Bahrain operations, where digital asset firms are being pushed to demonstrate stronger internal controls as adoption

ForexCoupons. com has launched from London as a specialist coupon and discount-code platform aimed at forex, cryptocurrency, proprietary trading and wider retail trading users, entering a crowded online market where traders face rising costs, uneven transparency and tougher regulatory scrutiny.The website presents itself as a dedicated savings portal for traders seeking verified promotional codes on broker services, crypto exchanges, prop-firm evaluations, funded-account programmes, trading tools, signal services and related subscriptions. Its launch pitch places proprietary trading firms at the centre

Starknet is moving Bitcoin deeper into decentralised finance with strkBTC, a 1:1 Bitcoin-backed wrapper designed to let holders choose between public transfers and shielded transactions while keeping access to Starknet-based trading, lending, staking and collateral markets. The asset is due to go live on May 12, 2026, after governance approval for proposals defining the wrapper and making it eligible for staking on the network.strkBTC’s central pitch is that Bitcoin can become more useful on-chain without forcing every balance, counterparty