Today's top news highlights:

Nasdaq receives SEC approval to list Bitcoin index options

a16z has accumulated 5.93 million HYPE tokens this year, with a floating profit of $86.72 million.

Futu Holdings: The China Securities Regulatory Commission (CSRC) proposes to impose a total fine of approximately RMB 1.85 billion on the company, and a personal fine of RMB 1.25 million on the company's founder.

BitMine appears to have purchased another 60,000 ETH, worth $125.9 million.

The U.S. SEC has postponed its exemption program for tokenized assets due to concerns about the risks associated with third-party issuance.

JPYC, the issuer of the Japanese yen stablecoin, raised approximately 5 billion yen in its Series B funding round.

Grayscale submits third S-1 amendment to Hyperliquid ETF

SpaceX completes the 12th test flight of its Starship spacecraft.

The U.S. House of Representatives plans to launch an insider trading investigation into prediction market firms Polymarket and Kalshi.

Trump attended Warsh's inauguration ceremony as Federal Reserve Chairman and stated that the Fed will make its own decisions.

Regulation & Macro

Nasdaq receives SEC approval to list Bitcoin index options

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has approved Nasdaq's listing of an index-based options product based on Bitcoin prices. This European-style option, benchmarked against the CME Bitcoin Real-Time Index, is cash-settled and allows investors to directly bet on or hedge Bitcoin price fluctuations in the stock market without needing to hold Bitcoin or a Bitcoin ETF. The product still requires approval from the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) before its official listing.

Warsh sworn in as Chairman of the Federal Reserve

Kevin Warsh was sworn in as Chairman of the Federal Reserve.

Futu Holdings announced that it has received an investigation notice and a preliminary notice of administrative penalty from the China Securities Regulatory Commission (CSRC) and its Shenzhen branch. The CSRC stated that certain Futu entities in mainland China and Hong Kong have been conducting securities business, public fund sales business, and futures business in mainland China without obtaining the necessary licenses or approvals, violating relevant laws. The CSRC intends to order the relevant companies to rectify or cease such activities, confiscate illegal gains, and impose fines totaling approximately RMB 1.85 billion (approximately US$271 million). In addition, the CSRC intends to impose a personal fine of RMB 1.25 million (approximately US$183,575) on Mr. Li Hua, the company's founder and CEO. The proposed fines are subject to further procedures and the CSRC's final decision.

Trump: We will get rid of debt through growth, and the government will fully support Warsh's work.

At Warsh's inauguration ceremony as Federal Reserve Chairman, Trump stated that Warsh understands that when the economy is doing well, it should be allowed to prosper. "We have some debt to deal with. The good performance of the stock market means that Warsh, the nominee for Fed Chairman, is popular. We will get rid of the debt through growth. Warsh, the nominee for Fed Chairman, will have the full support of my administration. We want to curb inflation, but we don't want to hinder our great progress. We don't want to stop economic growth. Warsh will bring reform and modernization to the Fed."

The U.S. SEC has postponed its exemption program for tokenized assets due to concerns about the risks associated with third-party issuance.

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has postponed a planned exemption program aimed at providing broad exemptions for U.S. cryptocurrency companies to trade tokenized assets linked to stocks, due to concerns about third-party issuers. Over the past few days, SEC staff have discussed the issue with securities exchange officials and market participants and are weighing their feedback. A particularly thorny issue is so-called third-party tokens, which are issued without the backing or consent of the relevant publicly traded company. Several former regulatory officials have expressed concern about how to ensure that tokenized assets enjoy the same rights as regulated securities, such as dividends and voting rights. Because tokens can be traded through blockchain networks, it remains unclear how companies will fulfill these obligations.

The U.S. House of Representatives plans to launch an insider trading investigation into prediction market firms Polymarket and Kalshi.

The U.S. House Oversight Committee plans to investigate prediction market platforms due to concerns that U.S. government employees may use insider information to profit from policy and national security events. James Comer, chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, stated that he is reviewing internal records of the CEOs of Polymarket and Kalshi to determine whether government employees used insider information to profit from policy, geopolitical, and military operations. He indicated that he may push for legislation to ban members of Congress, government officials, and other government employees from participating in prediction markets. This investigation comes at a time of rapid growth for prediction markets, which are facing increasingly stringent scrutiny from both parties in Congress.

Trump: Warsh will limit the Fed's forward guidance practices

During his attendance at Warsh's inauguration ceremony as Federal Reserve Chairman, US President Trump stated that Warsh would limit the Fed's forward guidance practices.

Trump attended Warsh's inauguration ceremony as Federal Reserve Chairman and stated that the Fed will make its own decisions.

US President Trump and Federal Reserve Chair nominee Warsh entered the meeting room. Trump stated that he expects Warsh to be a great Fed Chair, and that no one is better suited to lead the Fed than Warsh. He said Warsh has the utmost respect for the Fed, which is the pillar of the global financial system. Warsh will lead the Fed starting today, and he hopes Warsh will perform his job independently and excellently. Warsh spoke about the necessity of restoring the Fed's credibility, stating that he will restore market confidence in the Fed. He said the world is watching Warsh, and the Fed will make its own decisions. Warsh will maintain the integrity of the Fed and hopes to curb inflation. He emphasized that economic growth does not necessarily mean inflation. He also praised Justices Thomas and Kavanaugh.

Tiger Brokers: Subsidiary fined RMB 308.1 million by Beijing Regulatory Bureau

Uplink Securities (formerly Tiger Brokers) issued an announcement stating that some of its subsidiaries received a notice today from the Beijing Regulatory Bureau of the China Securities Regulatory Commission (CSRC), indicating that the bureau has launched an investigation into their suspected illegal activities in the securities, fund, and futures businesses. The investigation found that these subsidiaries engaged in unlicensed cross-border securities business and illegal fund and futures-related activities in mainland China. Based on the investigation results, the Beijing Regulatory Bureau imposed administrative penalties totaling approximately RMB 308.1 million and confiscated illegal gains totaling approximately RMB 103.1 million. Mr. Wu Tianhua, the company's director, CEO, and actual controller, also received a warning and was fined RMB 1.25 million. As of the end of 2025, retail client assets in mainland China accounted for approximately 10% of the company's total client assets in its consolidated financial statements.

Trump signed two major executive orders on finance, tightening risk control for individuals and bringing unprecedented benefits to institutions.

US President Trump recently signed two executive orders. The first, "Restoring the Integrity of the US Financial System," will rigorously investigate tax evasion and off-book payroll for non-US citizens. As a result, banks will significantly upgrade their KYC (Know Your Customer) risk control measures for non-US individuals, and non-US cryptocurrency investors will face stricter scrutiny and the risk of having their fiat currency deposits and withdrawals frozen. The second, "Integrating Financial Technology Innovation into the Regulatory Framework," gives a green light to cryptocurrency and fintech institutions, requiring the Federal Reserve to assess policies that allow cryptocurrency banks and non-bank digital asset companies direct access to the Federal Reserve's clearing accounts and payment tracks. Overall, the regulatory logic presents a pattern of "strict control over individual identities, but liberalization of industry institutions."

The U.S. House Speaker has launched a congressional investigation into Kalshi and Polymarket for alleged insider trading.

House Oversight and Reform Committee Chairman James Comer launched an investigation into prediction market platforms Kalshi and Polymarket, sending letters to the company's CEOs requesting internal documentation on measures to prevent insider trading, identity verification, geographic restrictions, and anomaly monitoring. Comer stated that internal records are the only way to identify accounts suspected of profiting from national security secrets, and the investigation focuses on transactions related to election results, U.S. military actions against Iran and Venezuela. Previously, a U.S. soldier was arrested for profiting approximately $400,000 from Polymarket using intelligence related to regime change in Venezuela, and more than 80 users were exposed for placing orders hours before the U.S.-Israeli airstrikes on Iran. Several lawmakers have already introduced legislation to restrict prediction markets.

Project Updates

Harbor Funds has applied to launch a Lab ETF focusing on a top-tier AI lab ecosystem.

Harbor Funds has filed documents with regulators to launch five actively managed “Lab ETFs” that will invest in companies related to Anthropic, Google DeepMind, Meta, OpenAI, and xAI/SpaceXAI.

Bitmine has been shortlisted for the 2026 Russell 3000 Index.

Bitmine has been confirmed as a preliminary candidate for inclusion in the 2026 Russell 3000 Index, announced today. Final inclusion will be confirmed by the end of June. The Russell 3000 Index is a representative index of the top 3,000 companies by market capitalization in the U.S. stock market.

Grayscale submits third S-1 amendment to Hyperliquid ETF

Grayscale has submitted its third S-1 amendment to the Hyperliquid ETF to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). Once approved, the ETF will trade under the ticker symbol GHYP. With its launch expected to draw closer, U.S. exchanges will eventually see three HYPE ETFs.

SpaceX completes the 12th test flight of its Starship spacecraft.

SpaceX completed the 12th test flight of Starship, with the second stage of the Starship spacecraft splashing down in the Indian Ocean.

Robinhood Crypto COO Tanya Denisova reportedly resigned due to underperformance in revenue expectations.

Two sources familiar with the matter revealed that Robinhood Crypto's Chief Operating Officer, Tanya Denisova, is leaving the company after more than five years in the role. This departure comes as Robinhood's first-quarter earnings and revenue missed expectations, primarily due to weak cryptocurrency trading activity. Cryptocurrency-related revenue is one of Robinhood's largest sources of transaction revenue, but it fell 47% year-over-year to $134 million, down from $252 million last year. This revenue decline comes as the company strives to reduce its reliance on cryptocurrency market volatility and reposition its business to be less susceptible to price cycle fluctuations.

The Polymarket private key breach has frozen $164,000 in funds.

Josh Stevens, VP of Engineering at Polymarket, disclosed that with the assistance of ZachXBT, BitcoinVN, and ChangeNOW, $164,000 in funds related to the Polymarket private key breach has been frozen, representing approximately 28.6% of the total $573,200 transferred. Josh stated that the incident did not affect Polymarket or the UMA smart contract; user funds are safe, and the platform is operating normally. The investigation revealed that the incident stemmed from the leakage of a private key that had existed for approximately six years. This private key was used for internal recharge configuration, causing funds to be continuously sent to affected addresses. The team is currently continuing to track the remaining stolen funds.

Polymarket's internal operating address private key was leaked, resulting in the transfer of approximately $600,000.

A contract related to the prediction market platform Polymarket has been suspected of being compromised, with attackers transferring approximately 5,000 POL every 30 seconds, resulting in a total theft of about $600,000. On-chain analyst zachxbt pointed out that the affected address was a Polymarket UMA CTF adapter contract, and the attackers had dispersed the funds across 15 addresses. Polymarket employees subsequently responded that the issue stemmed from the leakage of a wallet private key used for internal operations and rewards distribution. User funds and market settlement contracts were unaffected, and core infrastructure remains secure; further updates will be released later.

Intercontinental Exchange and Euronext will launch perpetual futures contracts for Brent crude and WTI crude.

Intercontinental Exchange (ICE) and Euronext will launch perpetual futures contracts for Brent crude and WTI crude.

Pyth Network's pricing service experienced an outage; core and sponsored price feeds are being restarted and restored.

The Pyth Network status page indicates that the Pyth Core price feed and Sponsored Feeds on the Pythnet chain are currently experiencing a service outage. The team has identified the root cause of the issue, and the Pythnet/Hermes related components are being restarted through validator coordination. The official statement says that Pyth Core Feeds and Sponsored Feeds are expected to return to normal around 12:30 PM UTC today. The outage has currently lasted approximately 4 hours. Other components, such as Entropy and Price Feeds Beta, are unaffected.

Investment and financing news

Cross-chain platform Squid completes $6 million strategic funding round, led by North Island Ventures.

Cross-chain infrastructure platform Squid has raised $6 million in strategic funding to launch a new consumer-facing product. The round was led by North Island Ventures, with participation from Ripple, Dialectic, and Borderless. Angel investors including Georgios Vlachos, co-founder and former director of Axelar, Connor Howe, founder of Enso Finance, and Dan Lynch, founder of Constructive, also participated. This new funding brings Squid's total funding to $13.5 million, following a $3.5 million seed round in 2023 and a $4 million strategic round in 2024.

JPYC, the issuer of the Japanese yen stablecoin, raised approximately 5 billion yen in its Series B funding round.

JPYC Corporation, the issuer of the Japanese yen stablecoin, announced the completion of its Series B funding round, raising a total of ¥5 billion (approximately US$31.4 million) through its first and second rounds of financing. Four new investors joined the round: Life Design Fund, IHD STRATEGY FUND, Awagin Future Creation Investment Limited Partnership, and Meiji Yasuda Future Co-creation Investment Limited Partnership. The funds raised will be used to expand the ecosystem in the financial and Web3 sectors, further accelerating the adoption of the JPYC stablecoin.

Sources say Anthropic could complete its latest funding round, raising over $30 billion, as early as next week.

Sources say Anthropic could close its latest funding round as early as next week, raising more than $30 billion. Anthropic expects its annualized revenue to exceed $50 billion next month.

Opinions & Analysis

Santiment: Bitcoin ETFs have seen outflows for nine consecutive days, indicating retail investor capitulation rather than a bearish price signal.

Cryptocurrency sentiment platform Santiment reported that Bitcoin ETFs experienced outflows for nine out of the past ten days, suggesting retail investors may have lost patience after Bitcoin failed to break the $80,000 mark. Santiment analysts believe this reflects retail capitulation rather than a bearish outlook, as ETFs reflect retail confidence more than professional fund positions. Historically, sustained selling by retail investors through ETFs has often coincided with periods of partial accumulation by long-term holders. Furthermore, Ethereum ETFs have seen outflows since mid-May, but the scale is far smaller than suggested by social media commentary, and the most recent trading day actually saw net inflows. Overall trading volume in Ethereum ETFs has declined since its early February peak, indicating the market is moving away from trading rather than selling. The research team points out that this appears more like a market hibernation rather than the panic selling described by some commentators.

Important data

Maji closed out some of his long Ethereum positions, resulting in a total loss of nearly $33 million.

As the market declined, Maji (Huang Licheng) closed out most of his long Ethereum positions (25x leverage). During this process, he faced further partial liquidation. Maji currently holds 1700 ETH, just $23 away from the next liquidation. His total losses have approached $33 million.

Bitcoin spot ETFs saw a net outflow of $105 million yesterday, marking the sixth consecutive day of net outflows.

Yesterday (May 22, Eastern Time), Bitcoin spot ETFs saw a total net outflow of $105 million. The Bitcoin spot ETF with the largest single-day net outflow was BlackRock ETF IBIT, with a net outflow of $68.8944 million. IBIT's historical total net inflow is currently $64.773 billion. This was followed by Fidelity ETF FBTC, with a single-day net outflow of $36.2913 million. FBTC's historical total net inflow is currently $10.764 billion. As of press time, the total net asset value of Bitcoin spot ETFs is $98.866 billion, with an ETF net asset ratio of 6.49%, and a historical cumulative net inflow of $57.084 billion.

a16z has accumulated 5.93 million HYPE tokens this year, with a floating profit of $86.72 million.

The largest external entity for HYPE, a16z (suspected), withdrew 114,533.98 HYPE tokens from exchanges and MMs in the past 24 hours, worth $6.45 million, at an average price of $56.31. Since 2026, a16z has accumulated 5.93 million HYPE tokens ($240 million), with a floating profit of $86.72 million.

BitMine appears to have purchased another 60,000 ETH, worth $125.9 million.

BitMine appears to have purchased another 60,000 ETH. Two new wallets, possibly linked to BitMine, received a total of 60,000 ETH (worth $125.9 million) from Kraken and BitGo, respectively.

Arthur Hayes' linked wallet deposited $6.33 million in HYPE and $785,000 in AERO into Bybit.

Arthur Hayes' linked wallet deposited 115,453 HYPEs ($6.33 million) and 1.76 million AEROs ($785,000) into Bybit. Arthur still holds 247,334 HYPEs ($13.6 million).

Traders have fully priced in a 25 basis point rate hike by the Federal Reserve by the end of 2026.

Market pricing indicates that traders have fully priced in a 25 basis point rate hike by the Federal Reserve by the end of 2026. In terms of news, Federal Reserve Governor Waller stated that the Fed should not signal further rate cuts and should remain on hold for the foreseeable future.

The USDC Treasury minted an additional 250 million USDC on the Solana blockchain.

On-chain data shows that at 21:29 Beijing time, the USDC Treasury minted 250 million USDC on the Solana chain. A few hours earlier, at 18:13, the same address also minted 250 million USDC on Solana. Earlier today at 21:20, the USDC Treasury burned approximately $100 million worth of USDC on the Ethereum chain.

American fast food chain Steak 'n Shake launches "Bitcoin Steakburger"

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