Senate adds CBDC ban to housing legislation

Legislative summaries and committee releases say the measure would stop the Federal Reserve from issuing, creating, or indirectly distributing any central bank digital currency “widely available to the general public” until December 31, 2030. The provision was included in the 21st Century ROAD to Housing Act, which passed the Senate Monday by an 85 to 5 vote.

Republican lawmakers argue that CBDCs could enable state surveillance and have sought to prevent the United States from following European or Chinese frameworks. If the House approves the bill and President Donald Trump signs it, the CBDC language would become federal law with the housing package.

Temporary digital dollar restriction follows Trump order

The restriction would not be permanent. If enacted, it would expire at the end of 2030. In January, Trump directed his administration not to pursue a CBDC, saying it could threaten privacy rights and financial system stability.

Trump allies in Congress added an amendment to the housing bill that would block the Federal Reserve System from creating a CBDC or similar digital asset through financial intermediaries. The Federal Reserve has said a U.S. digital currency remains only a theoretical research subject.

That position contrasts with Europe and China, where government-backed digital currency projects have advanced further. Europe is preparing to test a digital euro next year before a full launch in 2029. China has continued developing its digital yuan under the People’s Bank of China.

Former Fed Chair Jerome Powell said any digital dollar would be issued through private banks, countering Republican concerns about direct government control. New Fed Chair Kevin Warsh told lawmakers during his nomination hearing that he does not support a U.S. CBDC, calling it a “bad policy choice.” House lawmakers could approve the package as early as Tuesday.

South Korea and Europe advance CBDC work

South Korea is moving its CBDC work into a second phase led by the Bank of Korea. The pilot now focuses on placing deposit tokens inside banking systems after earlier retail tests.

Participating banks will add e-wallets, voucher tools, and blockchain functions to core banking operations. Authorities want to test whether central bank-guided tokens can handle payments and settlements within the banking infrastructure.

The European Parliament approved the digital euro in February, calling it “necessary” for monetary independence and smoother retail payments. The ECB spent March and April on technical work for the digital euro and tokenized cash systems, with launch dependent on legislation.

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The organization said through PR Newswire on June 22 that it focuses on infrastructure for institutional use. Its work will cover settlement speed, cross-chain infrastructure, mainnet capacity, native asset issuance, and ETH economics.

Funding includes Anchorage, Octant, SNZ, and more than 50 community partners, Decrypt reported. Ethlabs did not disclose the amount raised. Its backers show institutional interest in Ethereum research, as Bitmine has disclosed more than 5.4 million ETH, and SharpLink remains a major ETH treasury firm.

Former Foundation Researchers Lead Ethlabs

Ethlabs was founded by Ansgar Dietrichs, Barnabé Monnot, Caspar Schwarz-Schilling, Josh Rudolf, and Julian Ma. They worked on Ethereum finality, scaling, data availability, the Ethereum Virtual Machine, and protocol economics.

Dietrichs, the executive director, said Ethereum is “uniquely positioned to become the shared base layer” of the emerging on-chain economy. He also described it as “the neutral foundation the broader on-chain ecosystem is built on.”

“As longtime contributors to the core protocol, we are establishing an independent non-profit organization to advance Ethereum’s core technology and the shared standards and infrastructure builders depend on,” Dietrichs said.

The launch follows Foundation leadership changes. Hsiao-Wei Wang, a co-executive director, stepped down on June 18 after a sabbatical. Tomasz Stańczak resigned earlier in 2026.

Institutional Ethereum Needs a Shape Research Agenda

Ethlabs said its early work will address technical areas tied to institutional adoption. Faster settlement, higher capacity, stronger interoperability, and clearer ETH monetary properties are central.

Those priorities reflect current Ethereum use across stablecoins, tokenized real-world assets, on-chain portfolios, and AI-driven commercial transactions. Each area depends on reliable infrastructure and better coordination across networks.

Tom Lee, chairman of Bitmine, said the ecosystem needs to “dramatically expand its investment in talent and research” as institutional and AI-driven activity grows. SharpLink CEO Joseph Chalom called the launch “the beginning of an institutional supercycle on Ethereum.”

Independent Funding Tests Ethereum Governance

Ethlabs said its funding model is designed to protect research independence. An external grants administrator will screen, evaluate, and allocate capital. Funders will receive quarterly reporting and an annual independent audit, but they will not control the research agenda.

That structure matters because some backers hold major ETH exposure. Ethlabs said final technical decisions will remain with its leadership.

Lubin, who also co-founded Consensys, described Ethlabs as part of Ethereum’s move toward a broader set of steward nodes that can help evolve and protect the network.

The launch widens Ethereum’s research map beyond one central foundation. It also shows how open-source blockchain development is spreading across independent organizations with separate missions, funding sources, and technical mandates.

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The Nasdaq-listed firm, trading under ASST, bought the coins between June 15 and June 21 at an average price of $65,850 each, according to an 8-K filing disclosed on June 22. The deal pushed its holdings beyond 19,800 BTC.

Strive buys Bitcoin at a lower average cost

The latest purchase was cheaper than Strive’s major May acquisition. The Vivek Ramaswamy-founded company then paid an average price of $74,092 for more than 2,500 BTC, spending $185.2 million. 

The June average was about 11% lower, showing how Bitcoin volatility can change a corporate buyer’s cost basis within one quarter.

Chief Executive Matt Cole announced the June acquisition on X, writing that Strive “acquired an additional 759 $BTC for ~$50M.” Since January, the company has added more than 3,700 BTC to its balance sheet. 

That total includes Bitcoin gained through Strive’s acquisition of Semler Scientific earlier this year, along with continuing open-market purchases.

SATA funding supports Bitcoin accumulation

Strive has funded accumulation through SATA, a perpetual preferred stock paying daily dividends at a 13% rate. 

The company uses SATA instead of a convertible note or an at-the-market common equity offering. It says the structure helps avoid dilution for existing ASST shareholders.

BitcoinTreasuries.net data showed SATA generated meaningful capital during its first full week of daily dividend payments, from June 15 through June 19. 

The mechanism raised enough to acquire an estimated 603 BTC. Its strongest day was June 16, when net proceeds reached roughly $19.45 million and supported an estimated 296 BTC purchase.

SATA still faced market pressure. Its price slipped below the $100 par value and traded as low as $93 at midday before recovering to $97.70 at the close on June 18. Cole called that session “the most difficult day in the history of Digital Credit,” attributing the decline to a leverage liquidation event. Strategy’s competing STRC preferred stock fell further, touching a record low of $82.53.

Strive ranks among the top corporate holders

As of June 22, Strive ranked seventh among public companies by Bitcoin holdings. Its 19,864 BTC were valued at about $1.3 billion.

Strategy, formerly MicroStrategy, remained the largest holder with 847,363 BTC. Twenty One Capital, Metaplanet, and MARA Holdings ranked second, third, and fourth. 

Strategy also bought 520 BTC for $35 million while increasing its dollar reserve to $1.4 billion, according to Cryptopolitan. Executive Chairman Michael Saylor said the company “plans to continue replenishing” that reserve to back preferred stock offerings. 

The parallel purchases show public firms using structured finance as Strive positions SATA apart from Strategy’s convertible-note-heavy playbook for Bitcoin accumulation.

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The agreement gives South Korea’s third-largest internet-only bank a framework to explore blockchain-based settlement as part of a broader push into digital financial services and customer-focused financial infrastructure.

Toss Bank Plans Stablecoin Remittance Testing

The bank said the partnership will begin with overseas remittances and settlement. The cooperation covers three areas, with remittance proof of concept forming the initial stage before broader payment and digital asset reviews later. 

The first phase will focus on a proof of concept designed to assess whether stablecoins can reduce transfer costs and improve payment speed across borders. 

The initiative will also review blockchain-based payment and settlement models, along with potential uses for stablecoins and digital assets in financial services.

Park Jin-hyeon, head of strategy at Toss Bank, said the agreement will help the bank move gradually into blockchain-based finance. “We will work together to build a future where Toss Bank’s 15 million customers can experience faster and more cost-effective global digital finance with Solana,” said Jin-hyeon.

Solana Foundation Deepens Korean Finance Links

The MoU marks another partnership between the Solana Foundation and a major South Korean financial company. In April, the foundation worked with Shinhan Card on a proof of concept to test a real-world payment system using stablecoins on Solana.

Toss Bank said blockchain adoption will proceed in phases. After remittances, the bank plans to expand the review into payments, digital assets, and tokenized real-world assets. Park described the deal as a starting point for integrating digital financial infrastructure into the bank’s wider services.

The agreement also adds a blockchain element to the roadmap of Viva Republica, Toss Bank’s parent company. Viva Republica is preparing for a U.S. initial public offering in 2026 and is targeting a valuation above $10 billion.

Korea Crypto Rules Shape Stablecoin Strategy

The partnership comes as South Korea tightens oversight of digital asset activity. Authorities last week announced plans to place cross-border crypto transfers under formal foreign exchange supervision, with registration expected to begin in December 2026.

The new approach will require the Travel Rule to apply to both sending and receiving virtual asset service providers. The rule requires exchanges to verify and share information about senders and recipients during transfers. Its scope will also extend below existing minimum thresholds, covering small-value transactions, according to Cryptopolitan.

Toss Bank said it now “plans to proactively respond to domestic legislative trends regarding stablecoins” as Korea’s regulatory framework changes. The bank’s Solana agreement, therefore, places remittance testing at the center of its blockchain plans while keeping the focus on compliance.

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According to the investigators, operators had tampered with electricity meters and tapped into the grid illegally to keep the rigs running. In total, the authorities determined that the miners stole over 40.38 million baht, down to 5.38 million baht in penalties for the electricity violations themselves and roughly 35 million baht in unpaid power charges. Thailand Deputy Government Spokesperson Lalida Periswivattana said they noticed abnormal electricity consumption patterns in the region and took an interest. Coupled with consistent power outages, the authorities were convinced that illegal mining was taking place in the region.

Thailand goes after illegal crypto miners in different regions

Isan is one of the less developed regions in Thailand, with cheaper land and less stringent utility oversight than in the country’s industrial centers. Such conditions make it an easy place for off-grid mining setups to go unnoticed for a while. Thailand has handled several such cases before. This recent arrest is at least the fourth documented meter-tampering bust in the region in the past 18 months.

In January, police in Chon Buri seized 996 mining rigs from a company called JIT Co. that had been running its meters straight during the day and switching to illegal taps at night. The authorities revealed total estimated losses in the hundreds of millions of baht. Smaller busts later followed in Nan and Pathum Thani earlier this year. In December, Thailand’s Department of Special Investigation also raided seven mining operations in Samut Sakhon and Uthai Thani, seizing 3,642 rigs valued at an estimated $8.6 million.

Investigators in Thailand also traced the operation to Chinese transnational scam networks operating out of Myanmar, with financial transactions totaling more than $143 million flowing through the setup. The UN Office on Drugs and Crime warned in April that transnational criminal groups across East and Southeast Asia are using illegal crypto mining as a tool to launder billions in illicit proceeds. The criminal groups are allegedly turning stolen power into “clean,” freshly mined coins.

The Mining rigs double down as a means to generate revenue while also integrating dirty money into the system through a process that, on paper, looks like ordinary network activity. Still, within South East Asia, Malaysia’s state utility, Tenaga Nasional Berhad, has reported that illegal crypto mining has drained roughly $1.1 billion worth of electricity from its grid over the past five years.

Malaysian authorities have started deploying drones with thermal imaging to track down hidden rigs and crack down on these illegal activities. Although Thailand has a well-developed framework for crypto exchanges and token offerings through its Securities and Exchange Commission, the physical infrastructure of mining largely falls outside that system’s reach.

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The platform said it was working with its Security Council and ecosystem partners to contain the incident. The Ethereum layer 2 project said they are pausing all affected systems and taking all necessary technical and legal actions. It urged users to withdraw from all bridges immediately, with further notice to follow once the situation stabilized. Shortly after, the team published a second post listing two attacker wallet addresses and requested that centralized exchanges halt all TAIKO deposits until they received official clearance from the protocol.

Taiko halts all operations amid $1.7M exploit

On-chain security firm Blockaid was the first to flag the ongoing exploit on Taiko’s ERC20 Vault on Ethereum. At the time, Blockaid estimated that total losses had already exceeded $1 million. Blockaid attributed the exploit to a weakness in Taiko’s bridge source-signal proof verification mechanism. According to Blockaid’s analysis, the system was manipulated to accept crafted proof messages as valid on the Ethereum L1.

The attackers created fake proofs that bypassed the bridge’s verification, enabling them to register fraudulent cross-chain messages and withdraw assets from the ERC20 vault. PeckShield later published its analysis, estimating the total loss to be approximately $1.7 million. On-chain tracking platform Lookonchain also noted that the attacker’s wallet had moved 1.99 million TAIKO tokens to an address on MEXC, worth about $189,000. According to Lookonchain, the rest of the estimated $1.7 million in stolen assets was still sitting in other wallets.

Taiko halted block production in the interim, creating a full network standstill designed to prevent further exploitation. South Korea’s largest cryptocurrency exchanges, Upbit and Bithumb, both suspended TAIKO deposits and withdrawals within hours of the incident going public, citing an unspecified issue on the mainnet. Both exchanges have since placed TAIKO on their delisting watchlists.

In 2026, total hackers have hit Gravity Bridge ($5.4 million), Axelar-Secret Network ($4.67 million), Hyperbridge ($2.5 million), and Alephium TokenBridge ($815,000). DeFiLlama’s tracker shows more than 20 crypto hacks in June alone. So far, the Taiko exploit ranks as the month’s most structurally significant. Taiko launched on mainnet in May 2024 after two years of development. Taiko uniquely relies on Ethereum’s own block validators to sequence transactions rather than a separate sequencer network.

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Record Open Interest Extends

Open interest differs from volume because it measures unsettled positions active in the market. It shows capital still at risk, not daily turnover. A16z Crypto data showed open interest has increased sixfold over the past year.

Activity spans politics, macroeconomic events, culture, cryptocurrency, and other categories. Major events still attract attention, but activity extends beyond headline-driven trading.

WSJ Report Raises Marketing Questions

The Wall Street Journal reported that Polymarket paid social media creators to publish fake trading and profit videos promoting the platform. According to the report, some creators used nearly identical versions of Polymarket’s website and recorded fictitious wagers.

The Journal said several videos presented profits that did not occur. Some clips were allegedly sent back for review. Creators said Polymarket requested retakes when videos appeared dull or staged.

Creators also told the Journal they were instructed not to disclose that they were paid. Payments often ranged from $2,000 to $3,000 per month. Many videos showed a creator opening Polymarket, placing a bet, and calling the result “free money.”

The Journal also reported that Polymarket hired Virality to manage influencer campaigns. Social media accounts reposted the videos.

The campaign allegedly targeted American users, even though Polymarket has been barred from operating its main crypto platform in the United States since 2022. The Journal also reported that Polymarket signed a multimillion-dollar deal with Adin Ross.

Polymarket said it is “committed to maintaining accurate, fair, and transparent markets. We are part of a rapidly growing industry and are constantly evaluating ways to improve how we’re engaging and earning the trust of our audience.” The company also said it would review promotional content.

Podcast Push Targets Culture

Polymarket has expanded its media strategy through Dear Media. The companies launched “What Are the Odds?”, its first podcast, as a weekly audio and video show mixing pop culture coverage with live market data.

The show moves the brand toward celebrity news, film releases, and award coverage. Polymarket’s user base remains concentrated in several categories. Sports betting accounts for about 39% of trading volume, while crypto represents about 20%, and politics accounts for another 32%.

That leaves 9% for other topics. The podcast is designed to broaden that share through market pricing.

“Our partnership with Dear Media marks a new chapter in how prediction markets capture the pulse of culture around the world,” said Josh Tucker, Polymarket’s head of creative marketing. Episodes are released on YouTube, Spotify, and Apple Podcasts.

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Blockaid reported, “Blockaid Exploit Detection system detected an exploit involving the MEV bot on Ethereum. The incident resulted from attacker-controlled contracts tricking an automated MEV execution system into granting token approvals, later used to drain funds.”

Fake pools targeted automated approvals

The exploit was not typical phishing and did not necessarily come from a smart contract weakness. Attackers shaped the trap around the bot’s execution logic, making fake opportunities appear profitable enough to trigger approvals.

Blockaid said attackers created a fabricated ecosystem of 66 fake tokens and pools. These included versions of Wrapped ETH, USDC, and USDt, paired with CAP tokens. The setup imitated MEV signals that Jaredfromsubway.eth was built to detect, leading the bot to authorize attacker-controlled contracts.

Blockaid chief technology officer Raz Niv said, “Ironically, in the process, it provided the attacker the keys to millions in the bot’s treasury.” Etherscan data showed losses of $7.5 million. Blockchain records suggested some funds were sent to Tornado Cash.

Sandwich bot record draws scrutiny

Jaredfromsubway.eth had become one of Ethereum’s most visible sandwich bots. Earlier research found that Ethereum traders lose about $60 million each year to sandwich attacks. From November 2024 to October 2025, Ethereum telemetry recorded 60,000 to 90,000 sandwich attacks monthly, with Jaredfromsubway.eth responsible for about 70%.

Crypto investor and commentator David Gokhshtein said, “We shouldn’t be happy about this; no one should celebrate … but if this has sandwiched … I’m pretty sure you’re not upset about this news.”

In May, the bot targeted Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin’s transaction involving 26,544 DigitalBits. The loss was small, but it showed how MEV systems pursue minor opportunities. Etherscan records show the transaction was sandwiched between block 24993038 and 24993039.

MEV debate returns to the Ethereum roadmap

Before Buterin’s swap was executed, the bot routed about $1.14 million in WETH through SushiSwap and Uniswap V2 to move XDB pricing across pools. EigenPhi warned that slippage lets Jared push prices higher, forcing traders to pay more while the bot captures the spread.

EigenPhi wrote, “Jared 2.0 would use adding liquidity transactions as the front piece and/or the centerpiece and removing liquidity transactions as the back piece. The combination can be various, putting several transactions in between, becoming sandwich attack victims.”

By May, MEV extraction on Ethereum had exceeded $1.2 billion, with sandwich attacks accounting for about 51% of total volume. Buterin has advocated for encrypted mempools as Ethereum developers consider ways to reduce harmful MEV practices.

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The project also made an appeal to the hacker to return the funds, saying, “If you are the white hat hacker behind this exploit, please get in touch with us.” The shielded pool that suffered the attack is known as the multi-asset shielded pool (MASP), and it is Namada’s core privacy feature, designed to let users hold and transfer multiple token types with encrypted balances. Following the exploit, Namada’s total value locked (TVL) crashed from around $600,000 to just $598 in the span of a day. Also, Namada’s block explorer appears stalled with the most recent indexed block dating to June 7.

Namada exploit shows a disturbing trend

The development has led to several questions about the chain’s data infrastructure and whether it was functioning normally before the attack. The Namada exploit came hours after a separate incident hit Secret Network, where an attacker drained $4.67 million in Axelar-bridged tokens by exploiting a missing validation check in a cross-chain smart contract. That vulnerability that was exploited had been existing, unpatched, in the deployed code since March 2023, according to blockchain security firm Common Prefix.

Ed, the founder of AirdropGlideApp, posted on X that the back-to-back incidents made it “worrying leaving assets” in the Cosmos ecosystem, pointing to the Axelar/Secret exploit and the Namada drain alongside an earlier attack on Saga. Security researcher fr1ko.eth noted that in the 24 hours ending June 20, both Namada and mySwap (a Starknet-based DEX) had been compromised, with the two hacks totaling roughly $900,000. The security failures compound what has already been a difficult year for the Cosmos ecosystem.

The network experienced an exodus of projects late last year, and that continued into the new year, per a Cryptopolitan report. Noble, a stablecoin infrastructure project that had processed billions in volume, left Cosmos for an EVM-based layer-1. Penumbra, a privacy-focused chain, shut down entirely. Comdex, Kujira, and Evmos halted development, while projects including Omniflix, Elys, and Jackal migrated elsewhere. Cosmos’s native token, ATOM, currently trades around $1.78 and is in the depths of a decline of over 96% from the all-time high it achieved in 2021.

Cosmos races against time to stabilize its ecosystem

Cosmos is not oblivious to the happenings and has taken steps to stabilize. In June, Cosmos Labs acquired the Mintscan blockchain explorer and opened a Seoul subsidiary to consolidate operations around the Cosmos Hub, Skip:Go, IBC Eureka, and Mintscan under one roof, according to a Cryptopolitan report. Leadership has also signaled plans to redesign ATOM’s tokenomics and pursue institutional use cases.

However, repeated exploits across Cosmos-linked chains undermine the effort. Bridge and smart contract vulnerabilities have been a persistent weak point plaguing the ecosystem. Namada launched with an unusual token structure that was unpopular before any exploit occurred. In August 2024, on-chain investigator ZachXBT noted that the NAM token shipped with 100% of supply unlocked at its token generation event, with no lockups for the 18.5% team allocation or the 32% investor share.

At the time, ZachXBT questioned how participants would stay motivated to build “when it’s a race to dump all tokens from day 1.” With the latest exploit, users now face limited visibility into what happened and what, if anything, remains recoverable. The Namada team has released neither a post-mortem nor an update on when it will restore services as of the time of publishing.

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Patel pointed out that crypto fraudsters have been scamming and exploiting the American people for too long. He also attached a video showing the magnitude of the problem crypto scammers are causing unsuspecting victims. Over the past few months, the FBI has ramped up its public stance on digital asset crime. Last year alone, Americans lost over $20 billion to cybercrime, with over half of that amount due to crypto-related fraud. Digital asset crime in the U.S accounted for $11 billion according to data from the FBI Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3).

FBI Director issues warning as crypto fraud continues to jump

Investment fraud, the broader bucket that includes most pig-butchering and fake-platform schemes, was the single costliest category at $10.7 billion. Elderly Americans were the most affected demographic, constituting over one-third of the total recorded losses. According to the reports, California, Florida, and Texas topped the list of states most affected by crypto-specific scams. FBI director Kash Patel said he prefers following the money trail over chasing individuals.

He credited the Trump administration’s new relationships with foreign governments, which have allowed the agency to conduct investigations in areas previously beyond its reach. He cited recent wins as proof that the approach works, including an operation earlier this year that led to roughly 300 arrests in Dubai tied to an estimated $4 billion in fraud. The bureau also froze more than 3,000 illicit crypto wallets to date and recovered more than $500 million. Patel’s latest statement shows plans to intensify the asset recovery process further.

Earlier, the UK’s National Crime Agency closed out Operation Atlantic, in collaboration with the US Secret Service, the Ontario Provincial Police, and the Ontario Securities Commission, which targeted “approval phishing.” A phishing scam in which victims are tricked into signing a transaction that grants the criminal direct control of their wallet. During the operation, more than 20,000 victims were identified across 30-plus countries, and $12 million was frozen.

Another $33 million in suspected fraud was flagged for further investigation, and over 120 scam-linked web domains were taken down. NCA Deputy Director of Investigations Miles Bonfield called it proof of what’s possible “when international agencies and private industry work side by side. U.S. Secret Service Assistant Director Brent Daniels applauded the operation, saying it denied criminals the ability to prey on unsuspecting victims.

The Blockchain analytics firm Chainalysis estimates that crypto-based money laundering reached $82 billion globally in 2025, an eightfold increase since 2020. Chinese-language money laundering networks are reportedly now processing roughly a fifth of all illicit crypto flows over the past five years, according to Chris Skinner. A separate estimate from TRM Labs puts total illicit crypto activity even higher, at $158 billion for the year, a 145% jump from 2024.

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