Cryptopolitan

Binance’s Asia-Pacific head SB Seker said crypto’s 2026 outlook will depend on three factors: regulation, liquidity, and the industry’s shift from speculation toward real utility.
In an interview with Business Standard, Seker said the next phase of crypto growth will be shaped less by meme-driven trading and more by infrastructure, stablecoins, tokenization, and institutional participation.
His comments come at a difficult moment for Binance. Reuters reported that the exchange is set to lose permission to serve clients in the European Union after Greece’s market regulator moved to reject its application under the EU’s MiCA framework, according to two people familiar with the matter.
Under MiCA, crypto firms must secure the required licence by the end of June to continue serving customers across the bloc. Binance has said it believes it meets all MiCA requirements and will work to support an orderly process while minimizing disruption to users.
Binance points to utility as the next crypto cycle
Seker said higher interest rates, changing regulation, and the move away from purely speculative trading are the main forces shaping digital assets in 2026, according to Business Standard.
He argued that the next stage of the market will be led by infrastructure use cases rather than short-term hype. Stablecoins, tokenized real-world assets, and institutional trading are expected to play a larger role as the market matures.
The numbers support part of that argument. Seker said the total crypto market capitalization crossed $4 trillion in 2025. Binance also reported a year-over-year increase in institutional trading volume, while its over-the-counter fiat trading rose 210% in 2025.
Stablecoin supply now stands above $300 billion, while tokenized real-world assets crossed $19.3 billion by the end of the first quarter of 2026, Seker said in the interview.
Europe tests Binance’s regulatory pitch
Seker pointed to regulatory clarity as one of the biggest catalysts for institutional participation. He cited the US GENIUS and CLARITY Acts, Europe’s MiCA framework, and licensing regimes in Asia as examples of rules that could make it easier for institutions to enter the market.
That message now sits beside Binance’s own regulatory challenge in Europe. Reuters reported that the Greek Hellenic Capital Market Commission is expected to reject Binance’s MiCA application, which would prevent the exchange from continuing to serve EU-based customers from July.
Binance said in a post on X that it would “support an orderly process and minimise disruption” to users. The company also said it believes it has satisfied MiCA’s requirements and that the Greek regulator completed its review without giving a formal indication of rejection.
The contrast is significant. Binance is publicly arguing that clear regulation will support the next stage of crypto growth, while its own access to one of the world’s largest regulated markets remains uncertain.
India remains a growth market despite tax friction
Seker described India as a strategic priority for Binance. He said India has ranked first globally in crypto adoption for three consecutive years, supported by a young population, mobile penetration above 80%, and adoption across tier-1 to tier-4 cities.
But taxation remains a major constraint. Seker said India’s 1% Tax Deducted at Source on virtual digital assets affects capital efficiency and trading frequency because it limits how quickly traders can reuse capital.
He called for a risk-proportionate framework covering custody standards, client asset segregation, and consumer protections. That would allow India to maintain oversight while giving crypto businesses clearer rules for growth.
Binance executive Richard Teng made a similar argument earlier in 2026. In an interview with the Economic Times during the World Economic Forum, he said regulatory clarity would be important for India’s crypto adoption and argued that digital assets could complement the country’s UPI payment system by enabling 24/7 borderless payments.
Stablecoins and tokenization lead the APAC thesis
Seker identified three growth drivers for Asia over the next three to five years.
The first is the integration of blockchain into traditional banking through tokenized real-world assets. The second is the use of stablecoins as settlement instruments in equity markets and cross-border payments. The third is Web3 infrastructure, including layer 2 networks that can support scalable applications.
He also pointed to growing institutional exposure to Bitcoin. More than 1.07 million BTC is already controlled by 174 public companies and ETFs, Seker said, arguing that institutional involvement has moved beyond early experimentation.
The broader point is that Binance sees the next growth cycle as infrastructure-led. Instead of relying mainly on speculative trading, the industry is trying to build use cases tied to settlement, asset issuance, custody, and institutional access.
Binance faces a deadline for its EU future
The next test is regulatory rather than technical. If Binance fails to secure MiCA approval by the end of June, it could lose the ability to serve EU customers from July.
That would create a major setback for a company that is publicly promoting regulatory clarity as a path to mainstream adoption.
For investors and crypto firms, the tension is clear. The industry’s long-term growth story depends on stablecoins, tokenization, institutional liquidity, and clearer rules. But Binance’s European troubles show that regulatory clarity can also exclude major players that fail to meet local expectations.
The next few weeks will determine whether Binance can preserve its EU access or become the clearest example of how MiCA is reshaping the crypto market.



The smartest crypto minds already read our newsletter. Want in? Join them.

The US Federal Reserve begins its two-day policy meeting this week under its new chair, Kevin Warsh, with interest rates widely expected to remain at 3.5% to 3.75%.
The bigger question for markets is no longer when rate cuts will arrive, but whether inflation will force the Fed to stay tighter for longer. That shift matters for crypto traders, who had been expecting easier monetary policy to support risk assets.
Warsh, who succeeded Jerome Powell last month, begins his tenure with inflation still running well above the Fed’s 2% target. The Consumer Price Index rose 4.2% year over year in May, its fastest pace in roughly three years, partly driven by higher energy costs linked to geopolitical tensions, according to CBS News.
That inflation backdrop has changed the tone around the Fed’s next move. Instead of pricing in a clear path toward cuts, traders are now weighing whether persistent inflation could keep rates elevated or even revive discussion of hikes.
Warsh opens Fed tenure with rates on hold
The Fed is expected to leave rates unchanged at the end of its meeting on Wednesday. A hold would give Warsh time to establish his policy approach without immediately forcing a major shift in rates.
Still, his first meeting comes at a difficult moment. Inflation has moved higher, energy prices remain volatile, and financial markets are trying to understand whether the Fed will maintain an easing bias or remove it entirely.
The decision will be released at 2 p.m. ET on Wednesday, followed by Warsh’s first press conference as Fed chair at 2:30 p.m. ET. Traders will watch closely for any change in language around inflation, cuts, and the balance of risks.
Inflation shifts the debate from cuts to hikes
The May inflation report has weakened the case for near-term easing. A 4.2% CPI reading leaves the Fed with limited room to signal rate cuts, especially if officials believe price pressures are becoming more persistent.
Bank of America economist Aditya Bhave told clients that several Fed policymakers may project higher rates in the June dot plot. The report identified officials including Beth Hammack, Lorie Logan, Jeff Schmid, Neel Kashkari, Alberto Musalem, and Austan Goolsbee as policymakers who could lean more hawkish.
Elizabeth Renter, senior economist at NerdWallet, said the balance of risks has shifted toward inflation being the bigger concern, according to CBS News. That means previous language pointing toward cuts could disappear from the Fed’s communication.
For crypto markets, the shift is important because higher rates increase the opportunity cost of holding non-yielding assets such as Bitcoin. If investors can earn more from cash or Treasury securities, speculative assets need a stronger demand story to attract capital.
Bitcoin loses a key liquidity tailwind
Bitcoin has historically performed better when liquidity conditions ease and real yields fall. The 2020–2021 rally came during a period of near-zero rates, expanding central bank balance sheets, and broad risk-taking across markets.
The opposite happened in 2022, when aggressive tightening pushed real yields higher and compressed risk assets. Bitcoin fell sharply during that phase as liquidity dried up and investors moved away from speculative trades.
That relationship is not mechanical, but it matters. Bitcoin has no cash flows, dividends, or earnings, which makes it more dependent on marginal capital inflows and liquidity conditions than traditional assets.
ETF flows have become another short-term signal. Since the launch of US spot Bitcoin ETFs, inflows into products such as BlackRock’s IBIT and Fidelity’s FBTC have often supported Bitcoin price momentum. Periods of slower inflows or outflows have usually coincided with weaker price action or consolidation.
Higher yields can pressure those flows by making cash and bonds more attractive. If rate-cut expectations fade further, crypto markets may lose one of the main macro tailwinds traders had expected for 2026.
Less Fed guidance may raise market volatility
Warsh’s communication style will also matter. Reuters has reported that he has previously criticized forward guidance and the Fed’s dot plot, both of which markets use to estimate the future path of rates.
If Warsh reduces the Fed’s reliance on detailed signaling, markets may face more uncertainty around future policy. That could raise volatility in interest-rate expectations.
For crypto, that is a direct risk. Bitcoin does not only react to actual rate decisions; it also reacts to changes in expected policy. A less predictable Fed could make those expectations swing more sharply.
Deutsche Bank strategist Jim Reid said uncertainty could rise around both the signaling and communication of Fed decisions, according to Fortune.
Warsh entered the job with expectations that he could be more open to easing, partly because of his past comments on productivity gains from AI. But the current inflation data gives him little room to sound dovish. His first press conference will show whether he still leaves the door open to cuts or uses the moment to reset expectations around a longer period of tight policy.
If you're reading this, you’re already ahead. Stay there with our newsletter.

Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) Chairman Michael Selig has reaffirmed that the agency will be evaluating perpetual futures listings individually for each asset because different assets pose different risks.
This statement pushes back against industry expectations of blanket approvals after the commission approved its first Bitcoin perpetual future last month.
Will the CFTC give blanket approvals for perpetual futures?
The Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) Chairman Selig has confirmed that the agency will evaluate perpetual futures contracts one asset at a time.
Selig clarified this after the CFTC approved its first Bitcoin perpetual contract on May 29. The main reason for the case-by-case review is that perpetual contracts for different assets present different risks.
The CFTC’s official policy statement refers to perpetual contracts as having “unique characteristics” that can vary depending on the asset they reference. For example, a Bitcoin perpetual and an oil perpetual could raise very different questions about market safety and customer protection.
Due to the complex nature of perpetual futures contracts, the CFTC’s policy statement also clarifies that exchanges are expected to stop “self-certifying” their contracts.
There has been some discussion regarding whether or not perpetual contracts count as “futures” or “swaps” under the Commodity Exchange Act, because perpetuals do not have a fixed expiration date.
The legal distinction matters because futures trade on regulated exchanges with clear rules while swaps have different reporting and registration requirements. Selig wrote on X that futures don’t necessarily have a fixed end date.
Courts and the CFTC have been in charge of which contracts count as futures over the years.
Is the perpetual market thriving in the U.S.?
The total global perpetual market hit over $60 trillion in 2025. Most of the market activity was coming from offshore, unaffected by U.S. rules.
However, now that the CFTC is handing out approvals for U.S. regulated perpetuals, exchanges are rushing to get it. Kraken, for instance, launched CFTC-regulated perpetual futures for eligible U.S. traders on June 14, 2026.
The contracts are listed on Bitnomial, a CFTC-regulated exchange that Kraken’s parent company, Payward, recently bought. The initial lineup includes nine tokens: Bitcoin, Ether, Solana, XRP, Cardano, Chainlink, Dogecoin, Litecoin, and Avalanche.
Kraken co-CEO Arjun Sethi said the launch lets customers trade spot, margin, futures, and perpetuals all in the same account.
The CFTC’s Market Participants Division issued a letter confirming that some crypto perpetuals listed on foreign exchanges can be treated as “foreign futures,” allowing Coinbase Financial Markets to connect U.S. customers to offshore perpetual futures contracts markets through its license.
Coinbase plans to launch its own U.S. perpetual-style futures product on July 21, 2026.
Kalshi, which received the original Bitcoin perpetual approval, saw more than $1 billion in trading volume in its first week.
Selig wrote, in his May 29 CoinDesk op-ed published on the CFTC website, that the commission’s previous failure to offer a workable domestic framework “predictably” drove trading offshore.
Selig is currently the CFTC’s sole active commissioner on what is normally a five-member panel, giving him outsized influence over the pace and direction of these approvals.
Don’t just read crypto news. Understand it. Subscribe to our newsletter. It's free.

The G7 has agreed to hit Russia’s energy income harder as leaders prepare new steps against oil and gas sales that help fund Vladimir Putin’s war.
The deal came at talks in Évian-les-Bains, where French President Emmanuel Macron is hosting the group through Wednesday. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy joined talks, while Britain and Canada announced sanctions.
A French diplomat said the countries reached a shared position after the meeting. “Leaders agree to increase pressure on Russia, notably through sanctions on oil and gas,” the diplomat said.
The Middle East had taken much of the attention away from Ukraine. With a longer US-Iran ceasefire close to being signed, the group pressed President Trump to focus on Kyiv.
G7 leaders target Russian energy income as attention returns to Ukraine
Ukraine wants stronger action because Russian troops have struggled to make major gains on the ground. Moscow has answered with more missile and drone attacks.
Kyiv says those strikes have made better air protection urgent, especially against ballistic missiles that can hit cities and infrastructure.
Trump said Monday that Ukraine would return to the top of his list after the Iran talks. “Now that this is finished, we are going to be focusing on that and see if we can get that one done,” he said. He also signaled that Washington could pressure Russian energy exports, but gave no details.
The US has allowed Russian crude and fuel cargoes to travel by sea under temporary waivers. Washington issued those exemptions during the war involving Iran to limit stress in energy markets. The waivers have been renewed before, but the latest period is due to end within days.
French representatives noted that lower oil and gas prices have eased the way towards reaching an agreement because of progress towards a US-Iran peace deal that removed any risks of a supply shock.
This meant that the G7 had more opportunities to introduce harsher export sanctions against Russia without increasing the burden on global energy costs.
In addition, talks about strengthening air defense systems in Ukraine were conducted at the summit. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy requested approval from Washington for launching Patriot interceptor missile production in the country. Patriot missiles are manufactured by the American company Lockheed Martin (NYSE: LMT).
Ukrainian attacks cut Russian output while seaborne crude sales climb
Russia’s oil production fell for a sixth straight month as Ukrainian drones damaged storage, transport, refining, and exports.
OPEC data put crude and condensate production at 9.009 million barrels per day in May, down from 9.38 million barrels per day in November. That equals a loss of about 370,000 barrels per day.
Bloomberg data based on the OPEC figures put Russia roughly 690,000 barrels per day below its OPEC+ target. The gap widened as Ukraine increased attacks on energy sites.
At least 31 strikes hit refineries, pipelines, and export terminals in May. The aforementioned data said that it was the largest monthly number since the war started. Most attacks hit plants that turn crude into fuel, sending refinery runs to their weakest level since 2009.
The damage continued in June. Energy Aspects said processing early in the month dropped to its lowest level in 20 years. Less refining left Russia with more unprocessed crude available for sale abroad.
That extra supply reached buyers after Russia reopened facilities at Baltic and Black Sea ports damaged during Ukrainian attacks this year.
Seaborne crude shipments averaged 3.64 million barrels per day in the four weeks through May 31. They had averaged 3.17 million barrels per day in the four weeks through April 17, when attacks on ports and export links were more severe.
The larger export flow could bring more cash to Russian producers and the middlemen handling them, even while domestic processing remains weak. That is the revenue stream the G7 now wants to squeeze.
Britain said Monday that its new package would go after Russia’s shadow fleet, including ships carrying sanctioned Russian liquefied natural gas.
London also plans action against a military intelligence network tied to a company called Neptune. British officials said the GRU-linked operation was “covertly procuring western technology for Russia’s military.”
Don’t just read crypto news. Understand it. Subscribe to our newsletter. It's free.

Binance’s plan to serve customers in the European Union legally may be in jeopardy, as two people who are familiar with the matter told Reuters that Greece’s capital markets regulator is preparing to deny the world’s largest crypto exchange application for a Markets in Crypto-Assets (MiCA) license.
The exchange has since put out a measured response about its plan to “minimize disruption and keep users informed” as it approaches the June 30 MiCA deadline when unregistered crypto exchanges will be cut off from markets operating under the EU regulatory framework.
Binance clarified that “We will provide a further update before 30 June 2026.”
This matters beyond Binance.
Any delay or distortion in the MiCA authorisation process risks reducing liquidity, weakening competition and user choice, and pushing activity outside the EU.
— Binance (@binance) June 16, 2026
What does this rejection mean for Binance and the bloc?
MiCA requires every crypto-asset service provider operating in the EU to hold a valid license by July 1, 2026.
Binance filed its application with Greece’s Hellenic Capital Market Commission (HCMC) in January, choosing Athens over established financial hubs like Frankfurt or Amsterdam.
If the approval fails to come through, Binance would have no pathway to continued operations anywhere in the 27-member bloc, at least for now.
The HCMC has not made any comment regarding the application, citing confidentiality rules.
A Binance spokesperson reportedly stated that the company had worked constructively with regulators over the past 18 months and believed it had satisfied MiCA requirements. “HCMC has given no formal indication of the contrary,” the spokesperson said.
Why did Binance pick Greece as the hub for its European operations?
Co-CEO Richard Teng explained the rationale behind them settling for Greece at the Global Finance & Technology Network forum in Tokyo in February.
“The license is pretty standard throughout Europe, so we have to think through many other factors, whether it’s social, whether it’s talent pool, safety and security issues,” Teng said at the time, as reported by Cryptopolitan. “Greece is where we think will be a good base for us to expand in Europe.”
However, the bet on Greece came with a risk because at the time of Binance’s application, Greece had not approved a single MiCA license. Germany, by contrast, had granted more than 45, and the Netherlands had issued 22, according to European Securities and Markets Authority data.
Binance set up a local holding company, Binary Greece, to anchor its European operations around the same time it submitted the application.
Is regulatory pressure building across the EU?
The Greek rejection would not be an isolated regulatory headache for Binance. France’s Autorité des Marchés Financiers had previously identified Binance among over 90 firms operating in the country without proper MiCA authorization.
More than 50 crypto companies now hold MiCA licenses across the EU, according to Cryptopolitan. Competitors, including Kraken, KuCoin, Coinbase, and OKX, have already secured their approvals and can operate across the European Economic Area.
Binance currently holds registrations in at least six European countries through various national regulators, Cryptopolitan reported in January. But those legacy permits expire once MiCA’s hard deadline passes.
If the HCMC formally rejects the application, Binance would need to either appeal the decision or apply through a regulator in another EU member state, with less than two weeks before the July 1 cutoff.
Teng acknowledged the timeline risk back in February, telling reporters he would “leave it to the EU to determine” whether Binance secures its license before the deadline.
Don’t just read crypto news. Understand it. Subscribe to our newsletter. It's free.

SpaceX (NASDAQ: SPCX) briefly shook up the rankings among the highest valued US firms today after it confirmed that it will buy Anysphere, the company behind AI code editor Cursor, for $60 billion in stock.
The stock surge that the rocket maker enjoyed shot its valuation into a new stratosphere as it closed a deal for the largest acquisition of a developer tools company on record. It will also be SpaceX’s first major move since its historic Nasdaq listing.
Why did SpaceX acquire Anysphere?
Just four days after SpaceX (NASDAQ: SPCX) launched the biggest IPO in history, the company has completed one of the largest acquisitions of a developer tools company ever by buying Anysphere, the company that makes the AI code editor Cursor, for $60 billion in an all-stock deal.
The deal, which was disclosed in an 8-K regulatory filing, changes an option SpaceX first got in April into a final agreement. At that time, SpaceX could have chosen between paying $10 billion for a partnership or buying the whole startup for $60 billion.
Following the announcement of the news, SpaceX’s stock rose about 14% to about $219, pushing its total value past $2.9 trillion. This briefly made it the fourth most valuable public company in the U.S., ahead of Amazon and close behind Microsoft’s roughly $2.95 trillion valuation.
Cursor is a tool that lets developers pick between different AI models to help them write computer code. It was launched in 2022 by a team of MIT graduates led by 25-year-old CEO Michael Truell.
The company has grown very fast, with its annual revenue already being over $1 billion as of November last year. By early June 2026, that figure had surpassed $4 billion total, with enterprise customers accounting for about $2.6 billion. One survey cited by TechTimes found the tool deployed inside 64% of Fortune 500 companies.
SpaceX already has a lot of powerful computers for training AI. For instance, earlier this year, the company merged with Elon Musk’s AI company, xAI, leading to the integration of the Grok chatbot and a huge supercomputer called Colossus, which has over 220,000 powerful computer chips.
However, the new AI division didn’t have many products for developers. Cursor fills that gap by giving SpaceX an AI product that is already popular and making money, since xAI itself lost $6.35 billion last year.
What will happen to Cursor following the acquisition?
A major question after the deal is whether Cursor will continue to support AI models from other companies, like Anthropic and OpenAI.
SpaceX has said the two companies have been working together on a new AI model that will appear in both Cursor and its own Grok tool. However, the company has not said if it will keep supporting other AI models.
Cursor’s appeal rests heavily on letting developers pick whichever AI model suits a given task, so it’s possible that a loss of that flexibility will mean a loss of the existing customer base as well.
For now, the deal is expected to be completed in the third quarter of 2026, pending approval from regulators.
Because the transaction is structured entirely in SpaceX stock, Cursor will not receive any proceeds from SpaceX’s IPO, which raised $75 billion at $135 per share.
If the deal collapses under certain conditions, SpaceX owes a $10 billion termination fee, and a separate $4 billion “regulatory” termination fee applies if antitrust issues block the transaction.
The smartest crypto minds already read our newsletter. Want in? Join them.

State Street Investment Management has officially joined the stablecoin reserve race with a new fund designed to manage stablecoin assets today. The top investment financing firm’s new money market fund will be purely for issuers operating under the GENIUS Act’s reserve requirements.
The State Street Stablecoin Reserves Money Market Fund (ticker: SSCXX) has been launched as a registered investment vehicle for direct cash holdings and short-term U.S. Treasuries maturing within 93 days. The fund will also hold overnight repurchase agreements collateralized by those Treasuries, according to the firm’s press release.
Anchorage Digital is the fund’s first external backer, operating the only federally chartered crypto bank in the United States. State Street Bank and Trust Company are also financial facilitators, according to the firm’s investor relations page.
State Street SSCXX holdings
State Street’s new money market fund has launched with about $121 million in assets under management, a 3.51% yield, and a 0.18% net expense ratio on its Capital Class, carrying a $15 million minimum investment.
The fund targets a stable $1.00 net asset value and currently carries a three-day weighted average maturity, well inside the 60-day regulatory cap, with investment access available to only issuers under the GENIUS Act’s oversight.
This comes with tradeoffs, as the fund carries no FDIC insurance and no principal guarantee from State Street, per the firm’s own risk disclosures. The restricted asset mix could also compress yields when compared to other government or prime money market alternatives.
The launch follows State Street’s recent introduction of SWEEP, a tokenized liquidity product built with Galaxy Digital that enables around-the-clock cash management on the blockchain. Together, the two products form the core of State Street’s recent push into tokenized money infrastructure.
Why does a dedicated stablecoin fund matter?
The GENIUS Act, signed into law in July 2025, gave stablecoin issuers their first federal framework in the United States. The act requires one-to-one backing for stablecoins with high-quality liquid assets and explicitly allows registered 1940 Act money market funds to qualify as reserve vehicles.
The lucid understanding granted by the act has helped to create a product in stablecoin reserve management. BlackRock already manages a large share of the Treasury portfolio behind Circle’s almost $75 billion USDC. Franklin Templeton, Fidelity, JPMorgan, Goldman Sachs, and BNY have all rolled out competing products targeting the same pool of assets over the past year.
“For more than 40 years, the cash management business of State Street Investment Management has delivered liquidity solutions to the world’s largest and most sophisticated institutional investors,” said Yie-Hsin Hung, president and CEO of State Street Investment Management, in the company’s announcement. “We’re excited to partner with Anchorage Digital to bring these capabilities to the digital assets space.”
Nathan McCauley, co-founder and CEO of Anchorage Digital, framed the partnership around infrastructure credibility. “Stablecoins are quickly becoming core financial infrastructure, making the quality and management of their reserves critically important,” McCauley said in the same release.
State Street pointed to Citi Institute research from September 2025 projecting that global stablecoin issuance could reach $1.9 trillion to $4 trillion by 2030, according to the firm’s press release. These projections, if realized, would lead to the growth of reserve assets generating management fees by multiples from today’s current levels.
Don’t just read crypto news. Understand it. Subscribe to our newsletter. It's free.

A new group of tech companies is challenging Wall Street’s traditional favorites.
This shift is happening at a time when the tech world has seen a huge IPO, a $60 billion buyout, and a government order that shut off access to one of America’s most powerful AI systems.
Investors have long rallied around the Magnificent Seven: Alphabet, Amazon, Apple, Meta, Microsoft, Nvidia, and Tesla.
But market watchers say a new grouping, the FAB 10, is quickly taking their place at the top of the conversation.
SpaceX leads the FAB10 into record territory
SpaceX is leading that charge. The FAB10 group is increasingly viewed as the next generation of market-leading technology companies.
Shares of Elon Musk’s rocket and satellite company climbed sharply in early Tuesday trading, opening above $200 for the first time.
That price put SpaceX’s market value at more than $2.8 trillion, pushing it past Amazon’s $2.66 trillion to become the fifth most valuable company in the world.
The listing also made Musk the world’s first trillionaire.
Right after going public, SpaceX quickly put its financial strength to use.
On Tuesday, the company announced it would buy Anysphere, the creator of the AI coding tool Cursor, in a $60 billion stock-only deal.
SpaceX acquired Cursor to stay ahead in the FAB10 era.
Source: @SpaceX
Once the deal is completed, expected in the third quarter of 2026, Cursor will become a fully owned part of SpaceX.
The company said it will not use any money raised from its IPO to pay for the acquisition.
Cursor CEO Michael Truell said in a statement: “We are excited to share that SpaceX has exercised their option to acquire Cursor in an all-stock transaction with the goal of building the world’s most useful AI models.”
SpaceX had been eyeing Cursor for months. Back in April, it secured an option to either acquire the company outright for $60 billion or pay $10 billion for a partnership arrangement.
At the time, Cursor said working with SpaceX’s xAI unit would allow it to use xAI’s AI data center in Memphis, Tennessee, to build future products.
Analyst Adam Crisafulli of Vital Knowledge wrote in a note to investors Tuesday that “SpaceX hopes the Cursor team/product will give a jolt to its Grok AI business, especially in coding, which has so far failed to make a dent in the frontier market, which is led by Anthropic, OpenAI, Google, and Meta in the US, in that order.”
The deal puts SpaceX in more direct competition with Anthropic and OpenAI, both of which already offer AI coding products.
Those two companies also have their own major milestones on the horizon.
Anthropic filed confidentially with the SEC on June 1, 2026, and OpenAI followed a week later on June 8.
Anthropic is currently valued at $965 billion, while OpenAI trails at $852 billion. Both companies are targeting a public listing this fall.
Federal crackdown hits Anthropic at a critical moment
But even as these valuations reach record territory, Anthropic ran into serious trouble last week.
On Friday, the company revealed that the U.S. Department of Commerce had ordered it to stop allowing anyone outside the United States from accessing its frontier AI models. Anthropic responded by cutting off access for all users worldwide.
The company had been running a limited early access program called Project Glasswing, through which institutions in around 15 countries, including U.S. allies Japan and South Korea, were granted access to test Mythos for security research purposes.
Paul Triolo, a partner at DGA-Albright Stonebridge Group, called the move unprecedented: “It is the first time that a government has ordered a model developer to restrict access to a particular model based on nationality.”
Triolo warned that governments and companies will now start rethinking which AI systems they rely on.
He said that until clearer criteria emerge from Washington, many will explore alternatives, including models from European firms like Mistral and Cohere, as well as capable open-source Chinese models.
That shift, he added, could end up benefiting AI developers like DeepSeek and Moonshot AI.
If you're reading this, you’re already ahead. Stay there with our newsletter.

OpenAI is asking investors to look past a brutal cost base as it prepares for a stock market debut. The ChatGPT owner spent $34 billion in 2025, brought in about $13 billion, and ended the year with a reported $39 billion loss.
Its bills came from developing new systems, buying computing power, running data centers, hiring researchers, and sales.
The San Francisco company sent confidential IPO documents to the US Securities and Exchange Commission earlier this month. A listing could happen this fall, although chief executive Sam Altman has said the filing simply keeps that option open. Sam told staff that staying private may still make more sense.
OpenAI spends heavily while ChatGPT brings in more money each month
Audited records of OpenAI allegedly show that R&D costs ate up about $19 billion dollars alone. Almost $6 billion went into sales and marketing costs. The remaining money was spent on operating costs involving the training of models, building out infrastructure, running data centers, and attracting skilled researchers.
According to data from independent journalist Ed Zitron via the Financial Times, OpenAI’s revenue rose fast, but costs stayed higher. By December 2025, OpenAI was collecting around $2 billion every month, whereas a year earlier at the end of 2024, the company was making about $1 billion per quarter, placing it among history’s fastest-growing companies.
The headline loss was almost eight times the $5 billion reported for 2024. Most of the increase, however, came from an accounting entry connected to OpenAI’s old legal setup, not cash leaving the company.
Prior to transforming itself into a public benefit corporation at the end of 2025, OpenAI provided the investors with convertible interest rather than stocks. According to US accounting principles, convertible interests were regarded as debt liabilities. Every rise in the company’s valuation made it necessary to revalue the liability on its balance sheet upward.
Such a move entailed an expense amounting to about $30 billion. The expenditure was non-cash-based and was not expected to recur in the revised structure. Taking out this expense, along with the employees’ bonus and Microsoft’s cloud computing credits (NASDAQ: MSFT), the deficit stood at approximately $8 billion.
The investment has been employed to cover up this deficit. OpenAI has gained $122 billion in March, when its valuation reached $730 billion without considering the recent influx of capital. Its IPO would give it an estimated valuation exceeding $1 trillion.
OpenAI scraps side projects as it faces rival Anthropic in competition for public listings
Sam instructed his staff last year to increase their dedication to developing the ChatGPT application, as well as the emerging business applications for the use of AI. Following this directive, management canceled several costly projects, including those on the Sora video synthesizer. Management stated that the company had to cut its side quests and not miss out on “this opportunity.”
This emphasis is driven by the success of the ChatGPT app, which was launched late last year and is completely free. The app offers access to the models developed by the company and has been downloaded hundreds of millions of times.
The company is also carrying legal and safety disputes into any IPO process. Last month, OpenAI came through a legal fight with Elon Musk, who challenged its attempt to leave its nonprofit structure behind. Elon argued that the conversion broke the company’s original mission.
Separate lawsuits have accused ChatGPT of contributing to harm involving younger users. OpenAI has rejected those claims. In one recent case, it said the company was not responsible for the alleged outcome.
Anthropic filed for a public offering on June 1 after raising $65 billion. One funding round valued it at $900 billion, while its latest financing placed the startup near $952 billion. Anthropic’s private price is now higher than OpenAI’s stated valuation.
Neither OpenAI nor Anthropic has a public ticker. If both complete listings in 2026, they would become the second and third giant technology IPOs after SpaceX’s offering. SpaceX is private and has no exchange symbol. Microsoft remains the only publicly traded company named in OpenAI’s disclosed cost structure.
If you're reading this, you’re already ahead. Stay there with our newsletter.

Following a report by Cryptopolitan regarding an imposed federal export ban on the sale of its AI software to users who are not Americans, Anthropic has deployed security researchers and AI models to Washington.
The Monday meetings were the first face-to-face talks between the startup and senior Trump administration officials since the order took effect.
The White House does not expect the dispute to disappear within a few days, though officials have not ruled out a fast settlement.
According to Politico, one senior official placed the burden on the company, saying, “That’s up to Anthropic.” The restriction was introduced over possible security weaknesses in the new model and now blocks non-U.S. users from reaching the company’s top technology.
Anthropic sends its security team to explain the model’s defenses
Anthropic spent the weekend trying to keep the issue from growing, as co-founder Tom Brown and Sarah Heck, who leads public policy at the company, joined long calls with Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick and National Cyber Director Sean Cairncross.
These communications led to meetings on Monday involving the Commerce Department and the office of Cairncross. The staff took care of the discussions. One such official was Chris Fall who heads the Center for AI Standards and Innovation at the Commerce Department.
At the meeting, Anthropic presented the security measures surrounding the model in great detail to the federal employees. It talked about testing systems, looking for vulnerabilities, and limiting undesirable behavior before releasing the product. This was aimed at convincing Washington that it could offer the model overseas without presenting any national security threat.
The company sent Logan Graham from the Frontier Red Team, where he tests systems by trying to break their protections. Dave Orr, the head of safeguards, joined him. Nicholas Carlini, the company’s lead security researcher, was also part of the delegation.
The government action has already removed foreign access to Anthropic’s strongest models. It has also created uncertainty over whether federal officials can stop an AI release after a company follows a voluntary review system.
Trump officials defend the order while industry leaders warn about wider damage
Trump’s latest AI executive order has requested that major tech firms send their new models for government assessment 30 days ahead of releasing them. The participation was entirely voluntary. In its final form, the order scrapped previous proposals that would have forced AI models to undergo government approval or licensing prior to their launch.
David Sacks, a venture capitalist who advised the Trump administration on AI, had been part of crafting the policy and still has ties with the president. The move against Anthropic has prompted concerns within the administration about the government being secretly developing an approval process the order sought to avoid.
According to Kush Desai, spokesman for the White House, the administration is working with leaders from the AI industry to ensure that innovation and national security interests are taken into account.
Kush also said, “The United States is by far the world leader in the global AI race, and President Trump is committed to ensuring America’s technological dominance.”
One administration official said the conflict may still fit the executive order if the restriction ends quickly. “If this blows over, if the restrictions are lifted tomorrow, then I would say, ‘Oh OK, this is still kind of consistent with the executive order, and we’ll just keep going for it,’” the official said.
The same person drew a harder line if the ban remains. “If the situation is still f***** a week from now, then I think we have a clear understanding of what’s going on.”
That official allegedly called a prolonged clash “a huge problem” for the U.S. AI sector and warned that every future model developer could end up asking Washington for permission before launch. “That’s an extremely bad situation, and it would completely cripple the whole industry,” the official said. “It would really put the whole AI industry at a disadvantage and be a recruiting and retention problem for AI researchers.”
If you're reading this, you’re already ahead. Stay there with our newsletter.

China is closing in on a commercial rollout of mBridge, a proposed blockchain-based settlement network that will directly compete with SWIFT. Beijing is pushing for the newly proposed settlement network, which already has over $69 billion in successful transactions outside the legacy SWIFT messaging system.
China’s mBridge project poses a direct threat to the dollar and the SWIFT ecosystem. The move is in line with China’s consistent efforts to address overdependence on the dollar. As of now, mBridge has processed over $69 billion outside traditional frameworks and aims to internationalize the Chinese yuan as an alternative to the dominant USD.
According to reports, the mBridge platform offers significantly lower transaction costs, estimated at approximately half the typical costs in the SWIFT network. The mBridge project is targeting mainly smaller institutions, which often find SWIFT expensive and, at times, inconvenient, especially for cross-border transactions with significant wait times.
Although the project is still in its early stages, people familiar with the matter have revealed that a specialized legal entity based in Hong Kong will handle mBridge’s daily operations once it reaches commercial status.
Central banks in Asia and the Middle East back mBridge
The mBridge project has been in development since 2021. The Hong Kong Monetary Authority collaborated with the Bank of Thailand, PBoC, and the central bank of the UAE to begin preliminary experiments.
Saudi Arabia and the BIS later joined the 2024. The BIS came on board to provide oversight after mBridge was flagged for potentially sidestepping dollar-based sanctions. mBridge first went live in 2025, when the UAE became the first major country to test live transactions directly on its network.
Currently, mBridge operates in 6 territories with hopes to expand in the future. mBridge facilitates cross-border transactions between China, Hong Kong, the UAE, Saudi Arabia, Thailand, and, most recently, Macau.
Tom Keatinge, founding director of the Center for Finance and Security at the Royal United Services Institute, described the broader strategy behind the project as a kind of digital-currency version of China’s Belt and Road infrastructure push, framing it as one piece of a longer-term plan to give digital currencies a permanent seat at the global settlement table.
How is mBridge a threat to SWIFT?
SWIFT still remains the undisputed king of cross-border transactions, with roughly over $150 trillion in annual transaction volume. However, technological advancements in the financial space have continuously challenged the status quo. Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies have been touted as a proper alternative to the existing TradFi ecosystem.
However, as stablecoins now account for a significant share of digital transactions, mBridge is challenging SWIFT, with its main focus on yuan-based stablecoins that offer alternatives to players moving away from the dollar.
Unlike SWIFT, the Chinese-backed project reportedly addressed the structural weaknesses in the SWIFT ecosystem. The platform implements blockchain technology to settle transactions directly on a shared ledger using multiple CBDCs. The implementation completely removes the correspondent-banking layer entirely, cutting settlement time from multiple days under the SWIFT ecosystem to just a few seconds.
Wang Jian, chief financial sector analyst at Guosen Securities, has argued that mBridge adoption could ease liquidity strain and accelerate cash turnover for participating central banks. However, other observers also note that most current volume still flows between just two members, China and Hong Kong, meaning the network’s claim to global impact has not yet been tested at scale.
The smartest crypto minds already read our newsletter. Want in? Join them.

One of the strongest signals of a healthy and lively project community is people showing up in person to talk about something they believe in. Over the past several weeks, Seasons did exactly that, three times.
The community events were hosted across three cities in Germany, and every single event was fully booked.
The Seasons Germany Roadshow made stops near Dortmund, Karlsruhe, and Stuttgart, and all three of those events gained strong community support, reaching full capacity.
Besides the existing community members, the events drew the attention of people encountering the project for the first time, showing growing interest in Seasons and its bold vision of decentralized wealth generation.
Seasons is a Solana-based autonomous, non-custodial yield system that generates sustainable, real-asset yield.
The project aims to solve the problem of complicated products, market cycles driven by fear and speculation, and communities being left behind, which continue to persist in crypto. So, CEO Andrey Didovskiy, CCO Caroline Möllers, and CFO Pavel Klachko build a product that’s community-driven, transparent, and independent of market direction, while allowing users to maintain full control of their assets.
What sets it apart from others is Seasons’ mechanism, which derives yield from real economic activity to deliver the best, non-directional yield possible in DeFi.
Also, it simplifies the user experience by enabling them to just hold 10,000+ $SEAS tokens in their non-custodial Solana wallets to earn steady cashflow in real assets: wrapped Bitcoin (wBTC), tokenized gold (XAUt0), and yield-bearing USDC (jlUSDC), delivered directly to their wallets, twice weekly.
So far, the project has completed 54 distribution rounds without missing a single payout.
Bringing the Seasons Community Together
The Germany roadshow offered a rare opportunity for the Seasons community to move beyond online conversations and engage face-to-face.
The consistency of the turnout across different cities and demographics reflects both the quality of the Seasons product and its community, which is genuinely invested, not only financially in the project but also in its direction and long-term vision.
The Seasons team kept the format of their event deliberately open, which means instead of a polished one-way pitch, each event was structured around open and honest conversation around where the project stands today, what has been built, what the numbers actually look like, and where things are going next.
Attendees had direct access to team members, giving them the opportunity to ask real questions, challenge assumptions, and walk away with more than a slide deck’s worth of information.
By exchanging ideas and having meaningful conversations with actual users, these events have helped strengthen the connection between Seasons and its growing community.
Presentations were held but they were only part of it all; more meaningful conversations were held between people from entirely different professional and personal backgrounds.
This was the most stand out part of the roadshow, this diverse and lively atmosphere. Individuals with varied experiences came together due to having a shared interest in what Seasons is building, a testament of the project’s right direction.
The positive feedback from the participants further suggests that people felt their time was well spent and this kind of enthusiasm is hard to incite and also what continues to define the Seasons ecosystem.
While a celebration of what the project has already accomplished, the Germany roadshow was more than just that. It was actually a preparation phase for a larger international expansion, with upcoming events planned in Singapore and Japan.
The insights gained and relationships built during these community gatherings will directly shape future engagement initiatives and ecosystem growth.
Already, participation and support from both community members and partners are increasing, with new contributors joining, additional infrastructure being connected to the network, and several exciting developments already in motion.
One development worth watching is the creation of the first physical Seasons Hub, which the team has signalled is now within reach.
While the details are still being finalized, the concept points towards a more permanent point in the physical world where the Seasons community can gather, collaborate, and grow. Given that most DeFi communities exist entirely in digital form on X and Discord, much like the projects as lines of code and smart contracts, if this Hub materializes, it would mark a meaningful shift in what Seasons is.
Overall, the wildly successful German roadshow demonstrates that Seasons isn’t just a yield mechanism but a community organized around a shared understanding of how value should be generated, distributed, and owned, and that community is growing.
Following the success of these events, the team is planning to return to Germany after the summer for another round of such gatherings, before continuing the conversation with communities around the world.

European Central Bank (ECB) President Christine Lagarde is rallying support for the digital euro as the bloc’s primary tool to counter the growing influence of USD-pegged stablecoins in global payments, dismissing euro-denominated stablecoins as an inadequate alternative.
Dollar stablecoins command a market cap of around $317 billion per CoinMarketCap data. Euro stablecoins, on the other hand, have less than a $1 billion market cap.
While some quarters, which include major banks, have been pushing for more adoption of private euro-denominated stablecoins, the ECB is taking a different approach as it views its own central bank digital currency as the only credible path forward.
How do Lagarde and the ECB plan on countering USD-denominated stablecoins?
Speaking at the Banco de España LatAm Economic Forum in May, Lagarde called the case for euro-denominated stablecoins “far weaker than it appears.”
She pointed to their vulnerability during market stress and the risk they pose to the ECB’s ability to transmit interest-rate policy across the economy.
“If we want to strengthen the international appeal of the euro, stablecoins are not an efficient way of doing so,” Lagarde told the audience in Spain.
According to her, the depegging of USD Coin (USDC) during the Silicon Valley Bank collapse in 2023 is evidence of the structural fragility that is baked into stablecoin design.
Lagarde stated that ECB research showed that if stablecoins replaced bank deposits at scale, the result would be weaker lending to firms and a diminished ability for rate changes to reach the real economy.
Instead, she endorsed tokenized commercial bank deposits as a safer blockchain-compatible option, arguing they avoid the run risk that plagues stablecoins while still enabling on-chain circulation.
ECB Executive Board member Isabel Schnabel reinforced that position on June 1 at a Bank of Korea conference in Seoul. Schnabel drew a parallel between modern stablecoins and the money market funds that pulled deposits out of banks in the 1970s, warning that both promise stability while creating fragility underneath.
Because nearly all stablecoins in circulation are pegged to the dollar, Schnabel argued their spread would entrench American monetary influence at the expense of other currencies.
“The dollar’s dominance would be reinforced, not necessarily owing to stronger economic fundamentals but due to network effects, scale and first-mover advantages,” Cryptopolitan quoted her at the time.
Schnabel also warned that persistent dollar-stablecoin dominance is not good for Europe, as it could limit the euro’s role in tokenized finance and, by extension, in the international monetary system.
Is the digital euro operational?
The ECB’s preferred solution, the digital euro, is not close to launch. A pilot program is not expected to begin until the second half of 2027, according to Cryptopolitan’s previous reporting.
That pilot is expected to run for 12 months with a limited number of banks and merchants. Even under the most optimistic timeline, the ECB does not expect to issue a digital euro before 2029.
The European Parliament voted in February to endorse the digital euro framework, with 420 lawmakers backing an amendment supporting online and offline functionality.
Lagarde has said the digital euro would run on European infrastructure, reducing reliance on foreign payment providers like Visa and Mastercard.
But the timeline leaves a gap that private-sector players are racing to fill. Ten major European banks, including BNP Paribas, ING, and UniCredit, formed a consortium called Qivalis to launch a euro-backed stablecoin.
The consortium applied for an electronic money institution license with the Dutch Central Bank.
Euro stablecoin transaction volume grew from $69 million in January 2025 to $777 million by March 2026, according to TRM Labs. Circle’s EURC holds over 50% of the euro stablecoin market after securing an early French electronic money institution license under MiCA, the bloc’s crypto regulatory framework.
Are all member states on board with Lagarde’s stance?
Lagarde’s stance puts her at odds with the European Commission and several member-state governments. France, in particular, sees euro stablecoins as a tool for boosting the currency’s international standing, according to Reuters.
A report from Blockchain for Europe released in April and co-authored by former ECB Director General Ulrich Bindseil stated that MiCA’s restrictions are too harsh and risk pushing stablecoin businesses out of Europe entirely.
Bundesbank board member Michael Theurer said to reporters that both tokenized deposits and stablecoins are “crucial,” even as he recognized the risks tied to the latter.
If you're reading this, you’re already ahead. Stay there with our newsletter.

Seoul police have dismantled a cryptocurrency laundering operation that moved approximately 16.8 billion won ($11.2 million) through Tether for a phishing syndicate based in Cambodia.
56 people have been arrested in connection with the operation, and the ringleader, who is currently a fugitive, has been placed on an Interpol red notice.
Seoul police bust money laundering operation
South Korean police have arrested 56 people accused of laundering 16.8 billion won ($11.2 million) in proceeds from phishing and romance scams through the cryptocurrency Tether (USDT) for a criminal organization based in Cambodia.
The Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency’s Metropolitan Investigation Unit said it referred all 56 suspects to prosecutors on charges including violations of the Foreign Exchange Transactions Act and the Specific Financial Information Act.
Nine of the 56 arrested suspects, led by a person identified only by the initial “A” who is believed to be based in Cambodia, received Tether from foreign exchanges between February 2024 and April 2025.
They sold the tokens on South Korean platforms and routed the won proceeds into shell-company accounts that the organizer controlled. Investigators traced approximately 14 billion won through this channel alone.
A second cluster of 14 suspects operated inside what police described as a romance-scam cell also run from Cambodia. That group converted roughly 2.8 billion won in fraud proceeds into Tether on domestic exchanges, switched it back to local currency, and wired the cash to the organization’s leadership.
Police in Daegu had already arrested and charged these individuals with defrauding 79 victims of about 4.4 billion won.
The remaining 33 suspects ran a separate illegal currency-exchange service for foreign tourists and personal contacts where they charged flat fees to buy Tether on one exchange, transfer it to another, and pay out in foreign currency or won, handling an estimated 6.3 billion won.
An analysis of roughly 11,300 accounts linked to the first two groups of suspects uncovered 265 confirmed cases of voice phishing and investment fraud totaling about 25.7 billion won ($17.1 million) in victim losses.
Police said the money gotten from phishing scams was recycled as “bait funds” after they were laundered. These funds are the initial payouts scammers use to simulate returns and lure victims into larger deposits.
Investigators seized approximately 650 million won in criminal proceeds before indictment. So far, the organizer of the operation known as “A” remains at large, under an Interpol red notice.
No money laundering in South Korea
South Korea has put in a lot of work toward curbing the rise of crypto-enabled money laundering. In January, customs authorities dismantled a separate $107 million laundering ring operated by three Chinese nationals who disguised the illicit transfers as payments for cosmetic surgery and university tuition over a four-year period.
In March, the Financial Supervisory Service, Korea Customs Service, and nine credit card companies signed an agreement to share overseas card-usage data in real time, specifically targeting phishing groups that operate across borders and move stolen funds through international card transactions and crypto exchanges.
Separately, Bithumb, South Korea’s second-largest crypto exchange, severed ties with payment processor Heleket in May after blockchain intelligence firm TRM Labs linked the service to a Russia-connected platform fined nearly CAD 177 million by Canadian regulators for money-laundering and terrorism-financing violations.
Don’t just read crypto news. Understand it. Subscribe to our newsletter. It's free.

OpenAI will be releasing its new flagship language model GPT-5.6 on June 23rd, as per recently leaked documents in developer forums and prediction markets. The release coincides with a brief period during which Anthropic’s Claude Fable 5 model, which was released on June 9 and recalled by the US Department of Commerce on June 12 due to a security flaw, transitions to a subscription-based service.
The timing of the GPT-5.6 release holds strategic significance for the international AI market. According to Polymarket information available up until June 15, the probability of GPT-5.6’s unveiling between June 22 and 28 was estimated at 83%, which indicates that investors were increasingly certain about OpenAI making swift use of their rival’s misstep.
The prediction market has increasingly converged around a late-June launch. Polymarket contracts concerning GPT-5.6 coming out between June 22 and 28 have been steadily rising since early June, reaching 83% on June 15. Prediction markets are not necessarily indicative of insider information but rather a measure of market sentiment and information aggregation around major technology events.
GPT 5.6 Insights gained from leaks
The developers’ community has pieced together the profile of GPT-5.6 using routing traces available from the internal tests process. According to Android Headlines, the chief scientist of OpenAI, Jakub Pachocki, announced the model as a “meaningful improvement” compared to GPT-5.5, which was rolled out on April 23. Routing traces of the latest version have been found in OpenAI’s Codex backend log since mid-May by several codenames such as “iris-alpha,” “ember-alpha,” and “kindle-alpha”. Kindle-alpha is identified as the release candidate.
Two key capabilities of the model are an improved context window of up to 1.5 million tokens and increased agentic coding capability. As reported by Developer Mark Kretschmann on X, “from what I am hearing, GPT-5.6 is super strong and beats anthropic mythos on many agentic coding benchmarks.” Code generation in the front end has also been highlighted. According to reports, Kindle Alpha can create high-quality UI code with the use of simple prompts and not complex instructions, as in previous models.
However, not all comments have been positive. A developer reportedly has conducted tests comparing Kindle-alpha with Kepler, an earlier version of a checkpoint. Using the same prompts and at the same tier level, he found out that Kindle Alpha is worse than Kepler.
Price war
The biggest commercial aspect revealed in the leaks is the price. Sources show that the API of GPT-5.6 will be around one-third cheaper than that of Fable 5. Anthropic priced Fable 5 at $10 per million input tokens and $50 per million output tokens, which is twice the price of its previous version. Currently, GPT-5.5’s price is $5 and $30 per million input and output tokens, respectively.
The cost difference is crucial when it comes to adoption. In contrast to Claude Fable 5, with costs of $10 per million input tokens and $50 per million output tokens, DeepSeek’s V4-Pro model has prices of $0.435 and $0.87, respectively. The costs for GPT-5.5 are placed somewhere between the two competing models, costing $5 and $30, respectively.
If OpenAI releases a version of GPT-5.6 with performance matching that of Fable 5, or better yet, surpassing its performance levels, while keeping the same pricing structure as GPT-5.5 or even beating it, the company will certainly put more pressure on Anthropic’s bottom line, particularly for enterprises deploying long-running AI agents and coding workflows.
Such pricing strategies of the models illustrate the changing economic environment of AI. Prices on Claude rose 100% from Opus 4.8 to Fable 5 by Anthropic. DeepSeek lowered the cost of V4-Pro permanently after a promotional period and positioned itself as one of the cheapest frontier providers.
According to Wharton Professor Ethan Mollick, who used Fable 5 to perform his tests, the model is able to run without human intervention for about nine and a half hours, though the cost implications of doing so make it a production nightmare.
The economics of agentic AI have become an active research topic.
In recent research carried out by MIT and Stanford University, researchers revealed that autonomous coding agents use up to 1,000 times more tokens compared to regular chat and coding workload. In this case, input tokens make up a larger part of the expense. It was discovered that the greater number of tokens used is not always associated with higher results, meaning that pricing efficiency will soon take its place along with benchmark leadership in enterprise deployments.
An intense month for frontier AI
Three of the most noteworthy AI models may all launch this month: Fable 5, Google’s Gemini 3.5 Pro, and GPT-5.6. It underscores how narrow the release window has become. After just less than three months from GPT-5.4, OpenAI has managed to release a model every seven weeks or so.
Apart from competitive dynamics, there is another layer of pressure from the markets. Anthropic announced its S-1 filing with the SEC on June 1, followed by OpenAI announcing its S-1 filing on June 8. Once SpaceXAI finishes its roadshow next month, the combined market cap of the three firms will be higher than $3.6 trillion. The first mover can set expectations in the market.
There have been some opposing opinions on the launch date of GPT-5.6. On June 16, Kai (@hqmank) commented on X, saying that OpenAI faces an unwinnable situation with respect to the launch date. If OpenAI releases a model with lesser capability than Fable 5, then Anthropic owns the frontier narrative. But if OpenAI releases a better model, then it would face similar regulatory scrutiny as Fable 5. “Model capability is no longer the only bottleneck,” he added.
The smartest crypto minds already read our newsletter. Want in? Join them.

Oil prices sank on Tuesday while a U.S. military network kept Gulf exports running around the Strait of Hormuz. Brent crude lost 1.25% and traded at $82.13. July West Texas Intermediate dropped 1.41% to $79.67, taking the U.S. benchmark below $80. Prices rose overnight before falling. Monday’s losses had already taken the market to its lowest since March 4.
Traders are waiting for the full terms of the U.S.-Iran peace plan. Washington and Tehran reached a deal Sunday that would keep their ceasefire in place for 60 days and allow vessels through the strait. G7 leaders meeting in Évian-les-Bains, France, will discuss the war, while more details from the memorandum are expected later this week.
Washington runs a covert tanker system while diplomats prepare the formal deal
According to Trump at the G7 conference, the agreement was now signed. Further, Trump stated that the Strait of Hormuz would “completely reopen” by Friday and that the Iranians’ payments for passage would be stopped. A signing ceremony will take place on Friday in Geneva.
Well before this news, the United States had developed an alternative way of transporting the oil by its military. It involves the use of smaller ships to carry the goods via the area, then pumping it out into large ships once outside. Drones, unmanned watercrafts, and helicopters follow the convoy.
The transfers began in early May near two coastal points. One sits off Fujairah in the United Arab Emirates. The other is near Sohar in Oman. Eleven sources identified those locations. Shipping records and satellite pictures showed at least 92 vessels taking part.
The transfer network had already been running for several weeks before Washington and Tehran announced their provisional truce. Investigators could not establish whether the agreement changed the missions, their routes, or their pace. No public link has been confirmed between the tanker operation and the planned Geneva ceremony so far.
Activity continued on June 11. Images from space showed 17 ship pairs transferring cargo at the same time across both areas. Two days earlier, Iran shot down an Apache helicopter tied to the mission.
That attack led to U.S. bombing raids. Four sources linked the aircraft to the tanker work, including a former American official briefed on the strike. Satellite pictures from June 9 also showed six tanker pairs packed into waters off Sohar.
The arrangement borrows a method Iran has used to bypass sanctions. Tankers carry oil in stages instead of sending one ship through the full trip. That makes the process slower and more dangerous, but it keeps exports leaving the Gulf while normal passage remains restricted.
Military crews track darkened tankers before crews pump cargo into VLCCs
Eight sources said the American military controls the entire operation. One was a private security contractor who had worked inside the transfer program.
Each ship begins by heading for an assembly point before entering the strait. The ships are then allowed to sail in intervals of about 3,000-4,000 meters. Their transponders are switched off. Deck lights are kept low. A chain of checkpoints lets American forces follow every vessel during the crossing. One participant said the military is “obviously watching you all the time.”
After passing the Strait, the smaller ships travel just outside the sea area claimed by Iran. They then pull beside waiting Very Large Crude Carriers, known as VLCCs. Crews need between 24 and 40 hours to pump the oil across. The emptied tankers head back through the same corridor. The filled VLCCs continue toward buyers abroad.
The system works because a small group of shipping operators still accepts the risk of crossing the Iranian blockade. Their vessels bring the cargo to larger carriers positioned beyond the main choke point.
Iran also runs a separate traffic network on the other side of the strait. A May 20 investigation found that Tehran uses island inspection points, state-level negotiations and, in some cases, transit charges to guide ships through its side.
Don’t just read crypto news. Understand it. Subscribe to our newsletter. It's free.

SPCX perpetual futures on Hyperliquid flipped Solana (SOL). The tokenized version of SpaceX also broke above $1B in daily volumes on HIP-3.
Crypto natives are starting to warm up to SPCX trading, achieving the most active day of trading following the IPO on June 12. Based on Hyperliquid volumes data, SPCX volumes moved ahead of Solana (SOL) trading, while moving close to the volumes of the ETH/USD trading pair.
SPCX recovered from the initial slump to briefly trade nearly $230 on HIP-3. The decentralized trading contract trades at a premium compared to the price on traditional markets, which hovers at around $192.
SPCX activity on Hyperliquid picked up four days after the IPO, as the perpetual futures contract traded with up to 20% premium to traditional markets. | Source: Hyperliquid HIP-3
As a result, the Hyperliquid venue may become an arbitrage tool, offering a more volatile version of SPCX trading. At one point, the premium on Hyperliquid was over 20% above traditional markets. Hyperliquid also valued the SPCX IPO higher even before the shares started trading.
Hyperliquid has also become a market for quickly flipping SPCX, a move that has been discouraged for traditional retail investors.
As Cryptopolitan reported, crypto companies could not get direct exposure to SPCX allocations, leading to the shift to futures trading on Binance and Hyperliquid. Currently, Binance holds over 60% of perpetual futures trading for SPCX, but Hyperliquid’s markets are catching up.
SPCX becomes a top 3 asset on HIP-3
In the past 24 hours, SPCX trading became more active. HIP-3 contracts increased their maximum leverage from 5X to 10X, building the opportunity for risky directional bets.
SPCX reached $302.33M in open interest on HIP-3, with over $1.1B in volumes for the past 24 hours. The
The current SPCX trading follows a trajectory similar to crypto tokens, with significant influence from whales. SPCX traders are still waiting for the effect of the accelerated index inclusion when SPCX gets added to the Nasdaq and the S&P500 in the next two weeks. Pension fund buying may become a major factor for the new stock, leading to accelerated trading on HIP-3.
HIP-3 traders attempt to short SPCX
Despite the general enthusiasm for SPCX, HIP-3 whales are predominantly going short on the stock. A total of 36 positions are shorting SPCX, with most carrying unrealized losses. The biggest short position is at $23.34M notional value, carrying $4.38M in unrealized losses.
Only 24 whales have taken a long position on SPCX, with the biggest position at around $21M in notional value.
At this point, short positions may bet on the normalization of SPCX trading and a shrinking premium compared to traditional markets. Long positions are simply bullish on SPCX, after the stock made Elon Musk the first trillionaire in business.
SPCX is also appealing to crypto traders for its signs of momentum and conviction. As a result, the perpetual futures version trades with some similarities to meme stocks or even meme tokens. As a result, short positions are squeezed for significant losses.
The current perpetual futures trading is a snapshot of sentiment just days after the IPO. In the coming months, SPCX will face other factors, including the SpaceX Q2 results and the first unlocks for large-scale early investors.
SPCX is the latest opportunity for crypto traders to recover some of their losses from the past nine months since October 2025, by focusing on direct access to equities and trying to capture directional moves.
The smartest crypto minds already read our newsletter. Want in? Join them.

BlackRock is expanding its crypto exchange-traded fund offerings as its new iShares Bitcoin Premium Income ETF prepares to begin trading on Nasdaq.
The launch follows regulatory approval from the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission and marks the latest addition to the asset manager’s growing lineup of digital asset investment products.
At the same time, discussion of a possible XRP-focused fund has resurfaced after market participants noted increasing institutional interest in the XRP Ledger. While BlackRock has not announced any plans for an XRP ETF, remarks from industry observers have fueled debate about the possibility as adoption of XRPL-related products continues to develop.
BlackRock launches new Bitcoin income ETF
Nasdaq has confirmed that BlackRock’s iShares Bitcoin Premium Income ETF will begin trading on June 16 under the ticker BITA. The confirmation came shortly after the SEC approved the fund’s notice of effectiveness on June 15. BlackRock submitted the filing for the product on June 12.
According to Bloomberg ETF analyst Eric Balchunas, the fund aims to deliver annual yields of 15% to 25% while retaining exposure to a large portion of Bitcoin’s price gains.
ALL SET: the iShares Bitcoin Premium Income ETF $BITA is launching TOMORROW (tue). Confirmed by Nasdaq. Also, the ETF will target 15-25% annual yield while trying to capture at least 70% of bitcoin's upside in process. pic.twitter.com/BK0M4cO4mj
— Eric Balchunas (@EricBalchunas) June 15, 2026
Unlike a spot Bitcoin ETF, BITA will not be a legal trust that owns the actual Bitcoin. Rather, the fund will focus its investment on IBIT shares. It will also sell call options against those holdings to realize income from option premiums.
The final prospectus states that the sponsor fee will be 0.65% per year. The fee will be charged daily and collected four times a year. Other costs include brokerage commissions, financing costs, legal costs, and the expense of option trading activity.
The debut came earlier than some market participants anticipated. Balchunas had previously said the ETF could start trading later in the week.
XRP ETF discussion emerges alongside institutional interest
As BlackRock expands its Bitcoin-related offerings, attention has shifted toward XRP after comments from Digital Ascension Group Chairman Jake Claver. In a recent interview, Claver said he believes BlackRock could eventually pursue an XRP ETF.
Claver further said that he believes there will be greater usage of the XRP Ledger in the next few months. He cited real-time settlement projects underway and said that, for widespread adoption to be practical, more expensive XRP valuations might be required.
His remarks coincided with those of analyst Ali Martinez, who said XRP could break above $1.30. But BlackRock has not released any filings or applications for an XRP ETF into the public domain.
Growing activity around the XRP Ledger
Discussion surrounding a possible XRP investment product comes as interest in the XRP Ledger continues to expand among financial institutions.
Earlier this year, XRPL Commons director Odelia Torteman said several major financial firms had shown interest in the XRP Ledger network. She highlighted features designed for regulated institutions and pointed to the network’s ability to support cross-asset transactions.
Other firms, as highlighted earlier by Cryptopolitan, such as Mastercard, BlackRock, and Franklin Templeton, had investigated “some parts” of the XRP Ledger ecosystem, Torteman said. She added that institutions were also evaluating various tools, including the decentralized exchange and automated market-making features of XRPL.
Apart from this, Ripple has released new AI tools associated with XRPL. Last week, the company also unveiled an AI Starter Kit for developers to create agent-based payment applications on the network. Ripple also announced support for the X402 protocol, which will enable AI agents to transact with XRP and RLUSD.
If you're reading this, you’re already ahead. Stay there with our newsletter.

Chinese AI startup DeepSeek raised more than $7 billion during its first-ever fundraising round, valuing the firm at over $50 billion and showing that the race for AI supremacy has a well-funded new player in China apart from America.
This deal is important for the AI industry as a whole since three of the world’s top private AI firms have already raised a total of more than $190 billion in 2026, with the other two being OpenAI, which has raised $122 billion, and Anthropic, which has raised $65 billion. DeepSeek’s round, while smaller, confirms that investor appetite for frontier AI extends well beyond Silicon Valley.
An unusual structure to preserve founder control
The fundraising made use of a unique method that makes it different from regular venture funding operations. The external investors did not purchase any shares of DeepSeek directly. They only invested their funds in a limited partnership entity run by Liang Wenfeng, who is both the founder and the CEO of the company, The Information reports. With this structure, Liang is able to make all the decisions regarding the company’s operations.
Liang invested 20 billion yuan ($3 billion) of his own money, which accounts for nearly 40 percent of the entire investment. Other investors include Tencent (10 billion yuan), battery manufacturing company CATL (5 billion yuan), JD.com, NetEase, and IDG Capital (3 billion yuan each), as per Reuters.
Outside investors did not have any voting power and were restricted from selling their stake for five years due to the lock-up provisions. The only company that received both voting rights and no such lock-up provision was China’s National Artificial Intelligence Industry Investment Fund, which invested 1 billion yuan in DeepSeek.
Why DeepSeek reversed course on outside capital
DeepSeek has been funded exclusively by Liang’s quantitative hedge fund, High-Flyer since its inception in 2023. This system of financing helped the organization avoid being subjected to any commercial pressures and provided the ability to conduct open-weight research, which allowed DeepSeek to develop models comparable to the US frontier labs but with substantially lower costs of training.
A shift to external financing is determined by new challenges facing DeepSeek. According to reports, AI technology has evolved to the point where the low-cost, open-source chatbots that made DeepSeek famous no longer have any competitive advantage. Now, AI agents able to do complex work with minimal human supervision require much more computing resources.
Export restrictions applied to advanced Nvidia processors from the West pose additional challenges for DeepSeek. “Western export bans mean DeepSeek cannot access frontier American silicon,” explained Alfredo Montufar-Helu, managing director of Ankura China Advisors based in Beijing. External financing will give the organization an opportunity to develop other sources of computing capabilities and domestic chip supply chains.
What this means for the global AI market
The funding round for DeepSeek positions it alongside other privately held AI firms like OpenAI and Anthropic in a select group that is worth over $50 billion. The funding sources include many Chinese tech corporations and government-backed funds, highlighting the Chinese government’s effort to establish a self-reliant AI ecosystem comprising models, computational capacity, and energy infrastructure.
Tencent, which has struggled to create a presence with its AI project Hunyuan against ByteDance’s Doubao, is able to keep up with Alibaba’s backing of its proprietary Qwen model through its investment in DeepSeek.
CATL’s involvement, on the other hand, is how AI investment is pulling in players far beyond traditional tech. The company, which recently ventured into building power systems for AI data centers and energy storage, has positioned itself as a supplier of infrastructure that large-scale AI workloads require.
The closed funding round comes amid preparations for the IPOs by OpenAI and Anthropic. For DeepSeek to be valued at over $50 billion using an investor structure that gives little governance control to outside investors provides a benchmark that public market investors will consider during the IPO process.
Don’t just read crypto news. Understand it. Subscribe to our newsletter. It's free.