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According to BBX data, yesterday (May 5) marked the dual arrival of the earnings season for cryptocurrency concept stocks and a wave of industry layoffs. The core dynamics are as follows:Strategy, Inc. (NASDAQ: $MSTR) released its Q1 2026 earnings report after the market on May 5 (official press release): net loss of $12.54 billion (per share -$38.25), primarily driven by an unrealized loss of $14.46 billion on Bitcoin holdings------the price of Bitcoin fell from about $87,000 to about $68,000 during Q1; revenue of $124.3 million (up 11.9% year-on-year), slightly exceeding consensus expectations of $123.2 million. As of May 3, the company held a total of 818,334 BTC, with an average price of $75,537 and a total cost of $61.81 billion; approximately 89,600 BTC were added in Q1 (costing about $5.5 billion), marking the second-largest single-quarter purchase in the company's history. The company's annualized return (BTC Yield) for Q1 continued to improve compared to the beginning of the year, with specific values to be disclosed in the official earnings report. Notably, the company mentioned for the first time in its risk disclosures that it may sell Bitcoin to fulfill its annual dividend obligation of about $1.5 billion, with current reserves covering only about 18 months of dividend expenses; management referred to the STRC preferred stock financing as a "great success," raising approximately $5.58 billion through STRC in Q1.Coinbase Global, Inc. (NASDAQ: $COIN) CEO Brian Armstrong announced on May 5 via the X platform and an official memo that the company will lay off about 700 employees (about 14% of the global workforce), citing the downturn in the cryptocurrency market and AI accelerating the reshaping of the company's operational model. Armstrong stated that AI has enabled the engineering team to complete in days what previously took weeks. The company will compress management levels to a maximum of five layers below the CEO/COO and replace traditional functional departments with "AI-native pods," where each manager must directly oversee at least 15 subordinates while maintaining a personal contributor role; affected employees in the U.S. will receive at least 16 weeks of base salary plus an additional two weeks of severance for each year of service. The company's Q1 2026 earnings report will be released tomorrow (May 7) after the market closes, with current analyst consensus expecting revenue of about $1.5 billion and EPS of approximately $0.23---$0.36.

According to official news, Circle announced that it has submitted a comment letter to the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) regarding the implementation rules of the GENIUS Act, outlining 6 core points:The U.S. standard should become the global benchmark: Strengthen international trust and institutional export capability of the U.S. dollar stablecoin;Stablecoins should serve as a unified payment tool: Avoid market fragmentation that affects liquidity and settlement efficiency;Consumer protection is paramount: Ensure that holders can redeem assets at face value at any time;Fair competition regulatory framework: Banks and non-bank issuers should be under the same regulatory boundary;Strengthen systemic risk management: Cover liquidity, credit, operational, and compliance risks;Distinguish between stablecoins and tokenized deposits: The functions of the two are different and should be regulated separately.

According to official news, the asset tokenization platform Securitize has announced that it has received approval from the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) to expand its brokerage proprietary business through its subsidiary Securitize Market. This allows it to conduct tokenized securities custody business within the framework of traditional brokerages, enabling on-chain atomic swaps and clearing settlements between tokenized securities and stablecoins, as well as participating in the primary and secondary issuance underwriting and sales of tokenized securities.

The largest regulated electronic currency token issuer in the EU, Circle, announced that it has obtained approval from the French Financial Markets Authority (AMF) on April 20, 2026, to provide crypto asset services under the framework of the Markets in Crypto-Assets Regulation (MiCA).This approval allows Circle France to provide custody and transfer services for its issued stablecoins USDC and EURC in accordance with Article 60(4) of MiCA. This move enables Circle France to offer these services to customers in the European Economic Area (EEA).Dante Disparte, Circle's Chief Strategy Officer and Global Head of Policy and Operations, stated, "This milestone reflects our ongoing commitment to operate within the European regulatory framework and support the establishment of a trusted digital financial infrastructure in France and across the EU." This move marks another significant step in Circle's ongoing commitment to regulatory compliance and building a trusted digital financial infrastructure in Europe.

Miles Jennings, the policy head and general counsel of a16z Crypto, and others wrote "Getting prediction market regulation right," which points out that the current push by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) to reform the regulatory framework for prediction markets is at a critical juncture, as prediction markets are transitioning from niche products to important infrastructure.With the integration of AI and blockchain-driven new risk management models, prediction markets can enable AI agents to automatically hedge risks, adjust on-chain event contract positions in real-time, and play a core role in risk management, information aggregation, and authenticity judgment. a16z Crypto believes that if the regulatory framework is too conservative, it will limit the development potential of prediction markets. Therefore, they have submitted a comment letter providing opinions on key issues such as the application of statutory core principles and CFTC regulations in prediction markets, and public interest considerations related to event contracts. They also proposed five regulatory recommendations for prediction markets, including: the CFTC implementing unified regulatory authority over event contracts, optimizing contract dispute resolution mechanisms, strengthening monitoring of insider trading and market manipulation, re-evaluating "special rules," and exploring clearer compliance pathways for on-chain prediction markets.

Binance will support the RIF network upgrade and hard fork. Starting around May 4, 2026, at 17:00, Binance will suspend token deposits and withdrawals on the Rootstock Infrastructure Framework (RIF) network.The network upgrade and hard fork will take place at block height 8,804,200, or approximately at 18:00 on May 4, 2026. Once the upgraded network is stable, the token deposit and withdrawal functions on the aforementioned network will be reopened.

The DeFi Education Fund, along with Aave Labs, Uniswap Labs, Paradigm, Andreessen Horowitz, and other organizations, has sent a letter to the U.S. SEC in response to the recent statement released by the trading and markets division regarding the registration of "non-custodial user interface" brokers for crypto asset securities.The signatories support the statement that the "non-custodial user interface," which only provides a technical entry point and allows users to manage their assets independently, should be excluded from broker registration. They also urge the SEC to establish clearer and more sustainable definitions of "broker" through formal rulemaking, to avoid incorrectly categorizing neutral software tool providers, validators, RPC/API, oracles, cloud services, and other infrastructure under broker regulations. This would provide long-term legal certainty for blockchain infrastructure innovation while ensuring investor protection.Previously, the SEC's trading and markets division indicated that some DeFi trading interfaces do not need to register as brokers, allowing for policy space for related applications. Supporters believe that the new regulations could cover infrastructure participants such as validators, APIs, and oracles. Currently, the U.S. crypto market legislation, the CLARITY Act, is stalled in the Senate.

The South African Treasury has released the "Draft Regulations on Capital Flow Management for 2026" and is seeking public comments. The draft aims to restructure the current foreign exchange control framework based on the "Currency and Exchange Act," focusing on: aligning with the OECD and FATF recommendations on anti-money laundering, counter-terrorism financing, and curbing illegal capital flows; including crypto-assets in the foreign exchange control scope for enhanced risk management and regulation for the first time; further clarifying exemptions, licenses, and applicable conditions; and introducing an administrative penalty mechanism for violations of the regulations. Comments must be submitted via email to the address designated by the National Treasury within 30 days of the announcement.

Glassnode indicates that Bitcoin is currently showing bullish signals, with its Vector framework triggering a clear signal. Among them, a momentum indicator above 0.5 is considered bullish, while below -0.5 is considered bearish, and the current value is 1; meanwhile, the risk index has completely reset to 0.Glassnode states that from the blue shaded area in the chart, it can be seen that after this signal is triggered, the price has historically corresponded to significant upward trends and provided avoidance references during market downturns.

According to the Belarusian National News Agency BELTA, Alexander Yegorov, the First Deputy Chairman of the National Bank of Belarus, revealed at the "Digital Banking - 2026" conference that Belarus has signed Decree No. 19, officially establishing a regulatory framework for crypto banking.According to the relevant regulations, crypto banks will support 26 types of cryptocurrencies, including Bitcoin (BTC), Ethereum (ETH), TON (Toncoin), Solana (SOL), and various stablecoins; at the same time, they will open 11 types of operations, including crypto deposits, crypto loans, crypto staking, crypto collateral, crypto transfers, issuing their own tokens, and crypto storage and exchange, among others. Yegorov stated that the list of currencies and operations mentioned above is not yet closed and will continue to be updated and improved as investor demand and new ideas emerge.

According to BeInCrypto, Mastercard has joined the Blockchain Security Standards Committee (BSSC) as a charter-level member, collaborating with members such as Coinbase, Fireblocks, Anchorage Digital, and BitGo to develop a security framework for blockchain networks and tokenized assets.Mastercard will also join a working group focused on security and privacy guidelines, with Claire Le Gal from the security solutions department, responsible for fraud prevention, cyber resilience, disputes, and threat intelligence, representing Mastercard on the BSSC board. The executive director of BSSC stated that Mastercard's payment experience is of significant value in establishing robust blockchain security rules. Mastercard has launched multi-token networks and crypto credential products aimed at embedding trust in blockchain and tokenized infrastructure.

The Hong Kong Securities and Futures Commission has announced a new regulatory framework that allows tokenized investment products approved by the Commission to be traded in the secondary market, in order to promote the development of digital asset trading activities in Hong Kong.The new guidelines primarily facilitate the secondary market trading of tokenized open-ended funds on licensed virtual asset trading platforms and will consider allowing over-the-counter trading arrangements on a case-by-case basis. As of March 2026, there are already 13 tokenized products available to the public in Hong Kong, with the total asset value of tokenized equity management assets increasing to approximately 10.7 billion. The first batch of products is expected to mainly consist of tokenized money market funds. The new measures cover fair pricing, orderly trading, liquidity provision, and information disclosure.

ChainCatcher reported live that the Deputy Secretary for Financial Services and the Treasury of Hong Kong, Chan Ho Lam, delivered a keynote speech at the 2026 Hong Kong Web3 Carnival. He pointed out that Hong Kong has developed into the third global financial center index and the first international financial center in Asia, providing a solid foundation for Web3 innovation.He stated that the digital asset development policy declaration 2.0 released last year proposed the LEAP framework, which covers four pillars: optimizing legal regulation (L), expanding the variety of tokenized products (E), promoting application scenarios and cross-border cooperation (A), and developing talent and partnerships (P).He revealed that there are currently over 10 licensed trading platforms in Hong Kong, and the Monetary Authority has issued the first two stablecoin issuer licenses this month. The SAR government issued the third batch of tokenized green bonds last year, which is the largest scale globally, and is actively formulating regulatory systems for digital asset trading service providers and custodial service providers.

The UK's Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) has released the final draft of the crypto asset framework. This new regulation is set to bring most crypto activities under the regulation of the Financial Services and Markets Act by October 25, 2027.According to the proposal, any institution that holds customer crypto assets for more than 24 hours or has the ability to revoke customer permissions will be considered a regulated custodian and must hold a full safeguarding license. Validators and node operators that provide value-added features such as yield or reward reinvestment will lose their technical exemptions. In addition, stablecoin issuers within the UK must control the entire lifecycle from issuance to redemption. Relevant institutions must submit authorization applications between September 30, 2026, and February 28, 2027.

According to Cointelegraph, the UK's Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) has announced that it is seeking industry feedback on guidance for the future regulatory framework for crypto assets in the UK, aimed at facilitating the implementation of a comprehensive regulatory framework that will take effect on October 25, 2027.According to the announcement, this consultation will last until June 3, 2026, and aims to help businesses understand the impact of the new regulations on their operations, providing compliance guidance for key areas such as stablecoin issuance, crypto trading, custody, and staking.The FCA stated that it hopes to establish a "competitive and sustainable" crypto market, allowing compliant institutions to better serve UK users. The FCA also disclosed that the application process for relevant crypto business licenses is expected to open in September 2026 and continue until February 2027.All institutions providing crypto asset services will need to obtain authorization under the Financial Services and Markets Act (FSMA) in the future, and previous registration under anti-money laundering frameworks will not automatically exempt them. This guidance consultation is seen as an important step in the UK's gradual improvement of its crypto regulatory system, marking an accelerated transition from partial regulation to a comprehensive licensing system.

JPMorgan CFO Jeremy Barnum stated during the earnings call that if regulatory rules are not aligned with traditional bank deposits, stablecoins may evolve into a "regulatory arbitrage" tool. He pointed out that some stablecoin models already exhibit deposit-like characteristics, such as providing incentives similar to yields, but are not subject to banking regulatory requirements like capital, liquidity, and consumer protection, which could create an unfair competitive environment. "If the same products are not regulated equally, it will open up arbitrage opportunities," Barnum said.Currently, U.S. legislation is pushing for a cryptocurrency regulatory framework, including the Clarity Act, to clarify the regulatory division of labor between the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, and to regulate the development of the stablecoin market. Additionally, whether to allow stablecoins to distribute reserve earnings to users has become a point of contention. Cryptocurrency companies, including Coinbase, support "interest-bearing stablecoins," while banks believe this would bring them closer to deposit products but lack corresponding regulatory constraints. JPMorgan expressed support for regulatory clarity but emphasized that "regulatory consistency" takes precedence over speed. At the same time, the bank is advancing product layouts, including JPM Coin and tokenized deposits, through its blockchain division Kinexys to modernize the payment system.

The Dubai Virtual Assets Regulatory Authority (VARA) released guidelines for the issuance of virtual assets on Thursday, providing clear regulations on the structural design, information disclosure, and distribution methods for stablecoins and real-world asset (RWA) tokens.The guidelines categorize token issuance into three pathways: Category 1 covers fiat-pegged and asset-pegged virtual assets; Category 2 must be distributed through licensed intermediaries, which are responsible for due diligence and ongoing compliance verification; the third category consists of functionally restricted exempt virtual assets.VARA's General Counsel Ruben Bombardi stated that the framework enhances transparency through white papers and independent risk disclosure statements, providing issuers with "greater regulatory certainty" and offering market participants a "single, exclusive reference." These guidelines serve as an interpretative document for the existing "Virtual Asset Issuance Rules Manual" and do not constitute new legislation.