The World Foundation, the nonprofit steward of the World Network protocol, has secured $52.5 million through a locked token sale to strategic investors.
The round was led by Pantera Capital, with participation from Bain Capital Crypto and Eightco Holdings, targeting digital verification expansion.
Investors who participated in the raise agreed to a 12-month lockup on World’s native token, WLD, as part of the deal structure.
The Sam Altman-backed digital identity project aims to use the fresh capital to scale its Orb-based “proof of human” verification technology across enterprise platforms and AI agents.
Growing concerns across the tech industry over bots, deepfakes, and AI agents impersonating real humans online have intensified demand for reliable identity verification infrastructure.
More than 39 million people have joined the World Network, with over 18 million verified through an Orb device and more than 475 million World ID proofs issued to date.
World ID functions by having users visit a physical Orb that scans their iris, generating a unique cryptographic credential stored locally on the user’s phone.
The system relies on zero-knowledge proofs and what World describes as anonymised multi-party computation to confirm someone is a unique human without exposing personal identity data.
The project, originally conceived by Sam Altman, Max Novendstern, and Alex Blania, has faced sustained regulatory scrutiny over its approach to biometric data collection.
Docusign, Okta, Vercel, and Tinder have each signed integration deals with World, addressing different dimensions of the bot and deepfake trust problem on digital platforms.
World is collaborating with Zoom on a feature called “Deep Face,” which verifies that a meeting participant is a real human rather than a deepfake representation.
A partnership with Docusign is also underway to incorporate proof-of-human checks directly into digital agreements, adding a verification layer to legally sensitive workflows.
World is additionally rolling out a developer toolkit called “AgentKit,” designed to attach human-verified credentials to AI agents handling sensitive or commerce-related tasks.
The company is working with Okta, Vercel, and Browserbase on these agent-focused capabilities, aiming to establish a trust layer for automated workflows that requires no personal data disclosure.
The White House is pressing Senate Democrats to accept ethics restrictions on President Donald Trump’s crypto dealings embedded in the Digital Asset Market Clarity Act.
Trump agreed to certain limits on his crypto business interests, a concession that surprised many observers following months of contentious negotiations over government conflict-of-interest rules.
The ethics section, revealed for the first time in a final working draft of the Clarity Act circulated this week, would impose unprecedented constraints on a sitting president’s crypto activities.
Democrats have responded with sharp criticism, arguing the restrictions are too weak and poorly enforced to meaningfully curb the president’s multi-billion-dollar crypto business interests.
Senator Elizabeth Warren, the Massachusetts Democrat and ranking member on the Senate Banking Committee, was particularly blunt in her assessment of the bill’s ethics provisions.
“Donald Trump raked in more than $1.4 billion from cryptocurrency ventures, and this bill does nothing to prevent him from vacuuming up his next $1.4 billion in crypto profits,” Warren said, referring to Trump’s disclosed crypto earnings for 2025.
Warren also warned that the president will “simply ignore the law” as it is currently proposed, deepening Democratic skepticism about the bill’s enforceability and long-term impact.
A White House official fired back, framing Democratic resistance as bad-faith opposition to legislation the administration says reflects historic compromise.
“If Senate Democrats block this historic legislation after the administration has bent over backward to accommodate their concerns, stakeholders should make no mistake: It is the Democrats who are blocking this legislation because they were never serious about a legislative outcome,” the White House official said.
Trump “has agreed to the most comprehensive and wide-ranging ethics provision in history,” the White House official added, though specific details of the restrictions remain undisclosed.
Democratic negotiators including Senators Kirsten Gillibrand, Ruben Gallego, and Angela Alsobrooks reportedly have not received details of the agreement, despite Trump having met personally with Republican senators last week.
The proposed restrictions would reportedly apply to the president, the vice president, and members of Congress, representing a broad scope of government officials subject to crypto trading limits.
With the ethics debate consuming legislative bandwidth for months, the window for passing the Clarity Act in 2026 is narrowing with each day the impasse continues.
Crypto insiders are expecting the bill to reach the Senate floor as early as next week, consistent with signals previously given by Senate Majority Leader John Thune, with a final vote potentially taking several additional days.
LMAX Group, a global financial technology company operating institutional execution venues for crypto and foreign exchange trading, is exploring a potential sale or IPO.
The London-based firm has built a significant presence in institutional crypto markets, reporting $8.2 trillion in trading volume last year alone.
That figure underscores the scale of LMAX’s operations and likely makes it an attractive target for prospective buyers or public market investors.
LMAX Group posted revenue of £149.36 million in 2024, alongside a net income of £56.62 million, reflecting strong profitability across its trading venues.
The company operates electronic execution venues catering to institutional clients across both cryptocurrency and foreign exchange markets globally.
Private equity firm JC Flowers agreed in July 2021 to acquire a 30% stake in LMAX for $300 million, a deal that valued the group at $1 billion at the time.
That valuation now appears conservative given the dramatic expansion of institutional crypto trading volumes since 2021.
A public listing would allow LMAX to tap capital markets at a moment when appetite for crypto-adjacent financial infrastructure companies remains strong among institutional investors.
The IPO route would also provide existing shareholders, including JC Flowers, with a structured path to realizing returns on their investment in the company.
A sale, meanwhile, could attract interest from major exchanges, financial technology firms, or other private equity players seeking exposure to institutional-grade crypto trading infrastructure.
The crypto trading infrastructure sector has grown increasingly competitive, with institutions demanding faster execution, deeper liquidity, and more sophisticated tools than retail-focused platforms can offer.
LMAX has positioned itself squarely within that institutional segment, differentiating its venues through transparent, neutral execution models that appeal to banks and asset managers.
Any transaction, whether a sale or a listing, would represent one of the more significant liquidity events in the institutional crypto trading space in recent years.
Webull EU has received formal approval under Europe’s Markets in Crypto Assets Regulation, clearing the way for the platform to offer digital asset services to clients across the region.
The approval comes from the Autoriteit Financiële Markten, the Dutch financial regulator, making Webull one of the first dual-regulated investment firms in the Netherlands to hold MiCAR authorization.
Under the new framework, Webull users will be able to place orders for crypto assets directly through the platform, with custody handled internally by the European subsidiary.
Trade execution will run through a partnership with Coinbase Luxembourg, giving Webull a regulated pipeline for order routing without building its own exchange infrastructure from scratch.
Andries van Luijk, chief executive of Webull Securities Europe, called the approval a major milestone in the company’s push to expand its footprint across the continent.
He said the authorization reflects Webull’s commitment to giving European clients secure and compliant access to digital assets under the bloc’s regulatory standards.
MiCAR requires firms to meet strict investor protection and operational benchmarks, giving traders added assurance when holding or trading crypto through licensed platforms.
Approval currently covers only the Netherlands, though Webull has submitted passporting requests that would let it extend services across other EU member states.
Passporting is the mechanism that allows a firm licensed in one EU country to operate across the entire bloc without separate national licenses.
Webull expects to launch its crypto operations in late 2026, giving the company several months to build out infrastructure before going live.
The Nasdaq-listed firm operates in sixteen markets worldwide and serves more than twenty seven million registered users across stocks, options, futures, and now digital assets.
This approval lands amid a wider scramble among brokers and exchanges to secure MiCAR licensing before Europe’s compliance deadlines tighten further this year.
Rivals including Bitget and BingX have filed similar applications in Austria, while Ripple and Bridge have already secured licenses through Luxembourg regulators.
The trend signals growing competition among global financial firms racing to capture regulated crypto market share inside one of the world’s largest trading blocs.
BTC and ETH prices are sliding again as renewed conflict in the Middle East rattles risk assets across the board. Bitcoin opened lower on Thursday, dropping to the $62,200 range before clawing back some ground during the session.
The pullback comes after a second straight day of exchanged airstrikes between the United States and Iran. That exchange has effectively unraveled the fragile ceasefire reached in late June, sending shockwaves through global markets.
Shipping traffic through the Strait of Hormuz has slowed to a crawl as tankers avoid the contested waterway. Roughly a fifth of the world’s oil supply usually moves through that corridor, so any disruption ripples fast.
Oil prices have jumped on the news, adding fresh inflation worries just as central banks were starting to ease their tightening stance. Higher oil costs tend to squeeze consumer spending, which historically weighs on riskier assets like crypto.
ETH mirrored the bitcoin move, opening near $1,742 before ticking modestly higher through the morning session. Ether has now underperformed bitcoin for much of the past week as capital rotates toward safer positioning.
Despite the pullback, both BTC and ETH remain in stronger territory than they were just seven days earlier. Traders describe the current setup as choppy but not panicked, with dip buyers still showing up at key support levels.
A missile strike on a tanker near Qatar earlier in the week already tested market nerves once. Bitcoin briefly touched above $64,000 overnight before easing back, still holding a weekly gain near six percent.
Analysts say the market’s relatively muted reaction shows how desensitized traders have become to geopolitical shocks this year. Repeated flare-ups without full-scale escalation have left many treating these headlines as background noise rather than a reason to sell.
Options markets are pricing in continued volatility over the coming days as the ceasefire’s fate remains uncertain. Implied volatility on short-dated BTC contracts has ticked up, signaling traders expect bigger swings either direction.
For now, the $60,000 to $65,000 range continues to act as the battleground for bitcoin bulls and bears alike. Whether that range holds likely depends on how quickly diplomatic channels can pull the region back from the brink.
Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse criticizes Michael Saylor’s approach to funding Bitcoin purchases, arguing it has added pressure to the wider crypto market during the recent downturn.
Strategy recently authorized up to $1.25 billion in Bitcoin sales to support dividends, reserves and buybacks. The move marked a shift from the company’s long standing refusal to sell any of its holdings.
Garlinghouse addressed the topic in a CNBC interview shared by Squawk on the Street. “I think team Michael Saylor wasn’t focused on the right stuff, and that has hurt the overall market.”
He reinforced the point afterward on X, framing his criticism around a broader principle. “Financial engineering doesn’t drive long-term value. Utility does.”
Garlinghouse argues that lasting value in digital assets should come from real world use rather than complex capital structures built to keep buying Bitcoin.
His comments place XRP and Ripple’s strategy in direct contrast with Strategy’s model. Garlinghouse has positioned XRP at the center of Ripple’s 2026 push into payments, custody and treasury management.
Strategy’s enterprise value recently fell below the value of its own Bitcoin holdings for the first time. Its mNAV ratio sits at 0.99, a milestone that could weaken confidence in the company’s long running bet.
The company’s STRC preferred stock, designed to trade near a $100 reference level, has continued sliding well below that mark. Investor demand for the product has come under increasing scrutiny.
Strategy has approved a new Digital Credit Capital Framework allowing it to monetize up to $1.25 billion of Bitcoin if needed. The company still holds 847,363 BTC bought for roughly $64 billion.
That average cost sits near $75,650 per coin, leaving the position billions of dollars underwater whenever Bitcoin trades below $60,000.
Garlinghouse was careful to separate his criticism of Strategy’s financing method from his broader view on Bitcoin itself, saying he remains bullish on the asset long term.
His remarks land as both Bitcoin and XRP stay under pressure following months of weak price action across the wider crypto market.
Circle Internet Financial has announced a partnership with Japanese financial giant Nomura Holdings to launch a blockchain-based foreign exchange settlement service in Japan, with a planned rollout targeting 2027.
The collaboration will allow Japanese businesses to convert yen directly into USDC, Circle’s US dollar-pegged stablecoin, enabling cross-border payments and FX transactions to clear in near real time.
Japan’s FX market processes roughly $440 billion in daily transactions, according to Bank for International Settlements data.
Traditional bank wire transfers between yen and foreign currencies currently take two to three business days to settle.
The new system aims to bring that timeline down to minutes by routing transactions over a blockchain network.
Nomura will take responsibility for client onboarding, regulatory compliance, and integration with existing Japanese banking infrastructure.
Circle will supply the USDC payment rails through Circle Japan, its local entity that already works with SBI Holdings on domestic distribution.
The move follows Japan’s Financial Services Agency clearing USDC under updated payment rules, making it the first global dollar stablecoin approved for domestic corporate use in the country.
Target use cases include cross-border supplier payments, transfers between overseas subsidiaries, and corporate foreign exchange settlement.
Circle issued USDC carries a market capitalisation of approximately $73.8 billion, ranking it as the second-largest dollar-backed stablecoin globally.
The Circle-Nomura deal follows Ripple’s own Japanese expansion, with the company launching its RLUSD stablecoin through SBI VC Trade just one day earlier after securing separate approval from the Financial Services Agency.
Bitcoin steadied above $64,000 this weekend as traders monitored competing signals from the Middle East, with US-Iran peace discussions set to continue in Switzerland alongside a renewed Iranian threat to close the Strait of Hormuz.
The cryptocurrency (BTC) traded around $64,200 on Sunday, up roughly 0.9% over 24 hours but essentially flat across the week. BTC had dipped below $63,000 on Friday before clawing back losses as risk sentiment improved slightly heading into the weekend.
Most major digital assets posted modest gains alongside Bitcoin. Ether rose 0.5% on the day and 3.3% across the week to approximately $1,734, while Solana added 1.5% to reach $73. Tron gained 1.2% while Hyperliquid’s HYPE token emerged as the week’s standout performer, surging 14.8% over seven days despite a small Sunday decline. Dogecoin lagged the broader market, dropping 4.9% across the week.
Geopolitical developments continue to dominate sentiment across crypto markets. US and Iranian officials including Vice President JD Vance are due to open permanent ceasefire talks in Switzerland, though Iran’s separate order to close the Strait of Hormuz has complicated expectations around a lasting resolution.
The Hormuz strait carries approximately 20% of global seaborne oil and its closure would push energy prices higher, raising inflation concerns and increasing pressure on risk assets including Bitcoin. Analysts note that a confirmed reopening would remove a significant overhang, while any genuine disruption to oil flows could drag prices back lower.
Bitcoin has effectively tracked the arc of Middle East diplomacy in recent weeks. The token initially rallied on early ceasefire news before selling off when a prior truce collapsed, then again when US strikes followed a brief agreement in June. Traders have grown increasingly cautious about pricing in deals before they are formally signed.
Markets are also watching exchange volumes. Combined crypto exchange activity fell 3.45% in May to $4.41 trillion, the lowest monthly figure since September 2024. Real-world asset perpetual futures were a notable exception, with volumes rising 10.4% against the broader trend and hitting a new record high.
With Swiss talks now underway, the market’s next direction will largely depend on whether a durable agreement takes hold or tensions escalate further. Analysts say a ceasefire that holds would clear the macro uncertainty weighing on Bitcoin, while a breakdown would likely trigger renewed selling across risk assets.
Traders are watching the $63,000 level as near-term support, with a reclaim of $66,000 on strong spot volume seen as the key signal of a recovery in underlying demand.
Cryptocurrency is making its most prominent mainstream sports appearance to date at FIFA World Cup 2026, with Kraken holding the role of official crypto exchange supporter and blockchain-powered prediction markets processing over two billion dollars in trading volume since the tournament kicked off on June 11.
The scale of crypto’s involvement in the 2026 World Cup marks a meaningful shift from previous editions, where digital asset brands participated primarily through peripheral advertising. This time, blockchain infrastructure is woven directly into the operational fabric of the event.
Kraken secured FIFA’s Official Crypto Exchange Supporter designation on June 9, becoming the first cryptocurrency exchange to hold a formal sponsorship title in World Cup history. The partnership is focused on fan activation across North America and Europe, aligning with the tournament’s expanded footprint across Canada, the United States, and Mexico. This edition is also the largest World Cup ever staged, featuring 48 competing nations, up from the traditional 32-team format.
Prediction markets have emerged as one of the most closely watched crypto use cases tied to the tournament. Over two billion dollars in volume has been processed since June 11, with Chainlink’s oracle infrastructure providing the real-world data feeds that connect match outcomes to on-chain settlement. ADI Predictstreet holds an official partnership for World Cup prediction markets, adding an institutional layer to what has historically been a fragmented and unregulated segment of the market.
Today’s slate of matches, which includes Czechia versus South Africa in Atlanta, Canada versus Qatar in Vancouver, and Mexico versus South Korea, is serving as a live stress test for several blockchain projects that have staked meaningful positioning on the tournament.
Chiliz needs to demonstrate that fan tokens can sustain genuine engagement beyond the initial novelty of tournament fever. Avalanche, whose infrastructure is supporting ticketing and digital collectible systems, faces a peak demand test across multiple high-traffic venues simultaneously. Chainlink’s oracle network must settle prediction markets accurately and at speed throughout the remainder of the group stage.
Fan tokens have a historically volatile track record around major football tournaments. They tend to spike ahead of event kick-offs and decline sharply as the tournament progresses and attention dissipates. Whether the scale and official integration of this World Cup changes that pattern is one of the more consequential questions for the broader fan engagement token sector in the second half of 2026.
For investors tracking CHZ, AVAX, and LINK, the coming weeks will provide an unusually clear data set on whether blockchain-based sports engagement products can hold value under sustained mainstream exposure.
Two of crypto’s most closely watched research desks have reached opposite conclusions on Bitcoin’s cycle low.
Standard Chartered says the bottom is already behind us, while Galaxy Research argues it is still ahead.
Geoffrey Kendrick, Standard Chartered’s global head of digital asset research, made his call in a Friday note.
He wrote that the cycle low for Bitcoin (BTC) has likely already been set at fifty nine thousand dollars.
That figure represents a fifty three percent drawdown from Bitcoin’s all time high near one hundred twenty six thousand dollars.
Kendrick pointed to three catalysts behind the turn, including the SpaceX initial public offering on Nasdaq.
He noted that some exchange traded fund holders sold positions to free up cash for the SpaceX listing.
Falling oil prices and an anticipated Bitcoin purchase from Strategy were cited as the other supporting factors.
Standard Chartered is watching for net positive spot Bitcoin exchange traded fund inflows as a confirmation signal.
Renewed corporate treasury buying and continued declines in oil prices are the other signals on its checklist.
The bank maintains a year end target of one hundred thousand dollars for Bitcoin and four thousand for Ethereum (ETH).
Galaxy Research, led by Alex Thorn, reached a markedly different conclusion in a separate cycle study this week.
Thorn argued that the traditional four year cycle is compressing, which shifts where the eventual floor sits.
Galaxy’s base case places the bottom between forty thousand and forty six thousand dollars by late this year.
The firm found that only four of thirteen historical indicators tied to past cycle bottoms have triggered so far.
Bitcoin’s current decline of around fifty one percent remains shallower than the seventy seven to eighty five percent drops of past cycles.
Galaxy also outlined a harsher scenario in which a deeper washout could push prices toward thirty to thirty seven thousand dollars.
A milder outcome was also flagged, with steady buying potentially holding a floor near fifty one to fifty four thousand dollars.
Despite their disagreement on timing and price levels, both firms reject the steep eighty percent style collapses of prior cycles.
Bitcoin traded near sixty three thousand eight hundred dollars as the competing forecasts circulated among traders this weekend.
The split highlights how differently major research desks are reading the same on chain and flow based data.