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According to BBX data, last weekend Japan's largest financial group completed the most important cryptocurrency acquisition, and U.S. bipartisan senators launched a new regulatory offensive against prediction market platforms. The core developments are as follows:SBI Holdings, Inc. (Tokyo Stock Exchange: 8473) announced the acquisition of the Japanese cryptocurrency exchange Bitbank (privately held) for approximately $289 million. After the transaction is completed, SBI's cryptocurrency business will surpass all competitors, creating Japan's largest cryptocurrency exchange. SBI Holdings is one of Japan's largest independent financial services groups, already owning cryptocurrency-friendly network bank SBI Shinsei Bank, cryptocurrency asset custodian SBI Digital Asset Holdings, and multiple Bitcoin mining and cryptocurrency venture capital investments. Bitbank is one of Japan's largest spot BTC exchanges and holds an official cryptocurrency exchange license from the Financial Services Agency (FSA) of Japan. This acquisition marks a shift for traditional Japanese financial institutions from "strategic trial" in the cryptocurrency sector to "scale acquisition dominance," alongside the joint stablecoin plan of the three major banks: Mitsubishi UFJ ($MUFG), Sumitomo Mitsui ($SMFG), and Mizuho ($MFG) (targeting March 2027), forming the most intensive wave of cryptocurrency layout in Japan's financial industry by 2026.U.S. Senators John Curtis (Republican, Utah) and Adam Schiff (Democrat, California) reported on June 28 that they jointly sent a letter to the CFTC, urging it to conduct a formal investigation into the prediction market platform Polymarket (privately held), citing a "concerning" investigative report regarding Polymarket's "deceptive marketing" practices, which accused it of systematic misleading in user acquisition and risk disclosure. This is the third regulatory offensive against prediction market platforms initiated by Congress this year (previously, the House Oversight Committee launched an insider trading investigation on May 22); the two senators come from different parties, which is significant. For Robinhood Markets, Inc. (NASDAQ: $HOOD), this investigation poses indirect pressure—Robinhood's prediction market/event contract business (which achieved a record daily trading volume in June) faces the same regulatory qualitative disputes as Polymarket; however, Robinhood's defensive advantage lies in its ongoing application for a CFTC Designated Contract Market (DCM) license, providing a clearer compliance path compared to Polymarket.

Blockchain intelligence company AMLBot's monitoring data shows that recently Polymarket users on the Polygon network had approximately $3.1 million PUSD stolen due to a front-end malicious script intrusion.The attackers implanted a malicious script that induced users to sign authorization transactions (involving EIP-7702 delegated execution), resulting in the users' wallets being emptied. The stolen funds were then converted to USDC.e through Relay, bridged to Ethereum, and ultimately exchanged for ETH, which was concentrated in a designated address. Currently, about 1891.9 ETH is distributed across three new wallets.AMLBot pointed out that this attack is similar to the incident involving the 2024 1inch web application, where a wallet theft script was implanted in the Lottie Player library, both cases involved third-party scripts being compromised, leading to front-end contamination.

According to CoinDesk, Binance founder Zhao Changpeng stated that the significant decline in the crypto market in the first half of 2026 does not have a single cause. Geopolitical tensions, investors shifting funds to AI, and the typical four-year cycle of crypto may collectively lead to the continued decline of Bitcoin and other crypto assets. Bitcoin reached a historical high of over $126,000 last October and has since fallen by about 50%. At the beginning of this year, Bitcoin opened near $89,000, briefly rose to just above $96,000, and then dropped to around $60,000.In the long term, the crypto industry will continue to develop, and the demand for fintech will increase as the number of transactions continues to rise, so they are not concerned about the industry itself or short-term price fluctuations. They stated that emerging industries like AI are absorbing "hot money" from the crypto sector, but in the long run, this could be a positive factor. When discussing prediction markets, Zhao Changpeng mentioned that the rapid growth of prediction markets as tools for price discovery and liquidity is a good thing for the public.Regarding regulation, Zhao Changpeng stated that separate bills like the U.S. Clarity Act are important but more tactical matters that will not determine the long-term growth of the crypto industry. He hopes the Clarity Act can pass and believes that if U.S. legislation is delayed, other countries may take the lead in advancing rule-making.Zhao Changpeng also mentioned that if the U.S. Democratic Party regains control of at least one chamber of Congress after the midterm elections, there may be a review of Trump's support for the crypto industry and his pardons for crypto executives. Zhao Changpeng stated he "has nothing to hide" and is willing to cooperate if relevant parties seek information. When discussing political influence, Zhao Changpeng said he tries to stay away from U.S. politics but believes that any anti-crypto individuals may now lose a significant number of votes.

According to Bitcoin.com, the European Cybercrime Centre recently led a joint operation codenamed "Endgame," which was the result of collaboration among law enforcement agencies from Canada, Denmark, Germany, the Netherlands, and the United States.These agencies jointly targeted the network infrastructure that provided services to criminals, utilizing three key types of "cybercrime-as-a-service" (CaaS) malware: SocGholish, Amadey, and StealC, to collect victims' information and sensitive data.Law enforcement agencies took action against a total of 326 servers and 142 domain names, seizing illegal cryptocurrency worth approximately $47 million and recovering over 27 million stolen credentials.

Polymarket's Vice President of Product Engineering and former Craft co-founder Balint Orosz tweeted that Polymarket has acquired the productivity app Craft Agents, and some team members from Craft will join Polymarket.

According to the Wall Street Journal, several U.S. lawmakers are calling for an investigation into the prediction market platform Polymarket, as its advertising is alleged to potentially contain misleading content.It is reported that the lawmakers believe Polymarket may not clearly disclose the nature of its products and associated risks in its marketing, which could mislead users. Some legislators have requested regulatory agencies to intervene and assess the compliance of its advertising and information disclosure standards.

According to CNBC, Polymarket stated that its annual revenue has significantly exceeded $1 billion, a development that comes just six weeks after its U.S. trading platform lifted the waiting list. The platform operates independently from its international DeFi prediction market and will gradually expand user access after its launch in December this year.Driven by the FIFA World Cup, the trading activity in the prediction market has significantly increased, with trading volumes across multiple platforms rising simultaneously. Data shows that the daily trading volume on the U.S. platform has grown from about $50 million in mid-May to over $200 million on June 20 (based on Dune Analytics data).Meanwhile, its international platform set a record for weekly trading volume during the World Cup, reversing the downward trend seen in April and May. The U.S. business was previously restricted due to regulatory issues in 2022, but resumed operations in the form of a regulated exchange after the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) and the Department of Justice dropped their investigation and did not file charges in 2024.Currently, the U.S. platform is primarily mobile-based, requiring users to download the app via a QR code to trade, with the desktop version not yet available. Polymarket stated that it will continue to optimize market experience, liquidity, and product design to enhance both institutional and consumer-level experiences in the prediction market.

According to the official announcement, Gate has optimized and upgraded the VIP level evaluation rules. Starting today, Polymarket trading volume and asset holdings will officially be included in the VIP level evaluation system. This adjustment further broadens the VIP upgrade path, allowing Polymarket trading users to fully enjoy the level growth and exclusive rights brought by trading activities and asset holdings.It is reported that Gate continues to improve the VIP exclusive rights ecosystem, creating a high-end service system around multiple dimensions such as trading, wealth management, and lifestyle. Recently, the platform has successively launched VIP exclusive airdrop activities for whiskey, gold jewelry, and more, as well as providing exclusive financial products, higher-level income rights, and diversified benefits such as sports event viewing and invitations to offline activities.Gate will continue to organize VIP users to watch events at Inter Milan and F1 venues, experiencing exclusive hospitality and the atmosphere of top-tier events, creating a richer exclusive experience for high-level users.

According to data from @defioasis, the total amount of Polymarket pUSD has surpassed 500 million dollars, with the total number of holders exceeding 1 million. Among them, 567 addresses hold more than 100,000 pUSD, meaning that 0.06% of addresses hold 55.34% of the pUSD balance; addresses holding more than 1,000 pUSD account for 2.76%, collectively holding 90.34% of the pUSD balance; 51.96% of holders possess less than 10 pUSD, which only accounts for 0.19% of the pUSD balance. pUSD represents the cash flow balance of Polymarket users. Although some users have all their funds tied up in positions, this still reflects the extreme wealth disparity phenomenon in the prediction market.

According to Jinshi reports, Federal Reserve's Williams stated that monetary policy is at a "suitable position" for the current economy.

According to Cointelegraph, a study based on 857,000 active users of Polymarket shows that about 60% of users who placed their first bets during the World Cup had never interacted with blockchain protocols before.Alvin Kan, Chief Operating Officer of Bitget Wallet, stated that prediction markets have changed the traditional logic for crypto users to get involved—users no longer need to understand blockchain technology first, but can participate directly because they have opinions on real-world events. This has made prediction markets a new entry point for some users into the crypto space.Data shows that the trading volume of Polymarket's World Cup champion contracts has exceeded $3.1 billion, with sports contracts contributing over $4.9 billion in trading volume to Polymarket in the past 30 days, and reaching $8.5 billion on Kalshi, becoming the main trading category on both platforms.

According to The Block, a survey by CoinShares of 261 wealth management professionals in Europe shows that 52% of UK wealth advisors indicate that most of their clients' crypto asset exposure is outside their management scope (with a management gap exceeding 50%), while the overall percentage in Europe is one-quarter.The report points out that this "management blind spot" is primarily driven by company policies rather than a lack of advisor knowledge or client demand. In companies with explicit restrictions or a lack of internal guidance, the proportion of advisors actively recommending crypto assets is only 1%, while the management gap reaches 34%; in contrast, in companies with clear support, the recommendation rate is 48%, and the management gap is only 4%.The survey also found that the changes advisors most want to see are regulatory recognition of digital assets as a mainstream asset class (45%) and access to exchange-traded products (ETPs) (43%), rather than purely educational training.Currently, the UK's Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) has proposed allowing authorized funds to hold up to 10% in crypto ETPs, and the European regulatory environment is gradually shifting towards support, which may help narrow this management gap.

On-chain security analyst Specter stated that a phishing attack suspected to target Polymarket users is currently occurring, with total losses amounting to approximately $2.94 million.According to its monitoring, attackers have transferred funds from more than 11 victim wallets holding PUSD, converting the stolen assets into ETH, while reminding users to be cautious of phishing risks and stating that the incident is still under ongoing investigation.

According to "On-Chain Detective" ZachXBT's post on his personal channel, Polish social engineering attacker Wojtek Kulisz (online name "Merry") was recently suspected of being raided by Polish law enforcement, along with three others being taken away.Although the official press release did not disclose his name or photo, several designer clothing and jewelry items displayed on his public Instagram account "wojtekk" are highly consistent with the items seized during the police operation. The related case is led by the Polish Central Cyber Crime Fighting Department (CBZC) and has received assistance from agencies such as the FBI and HSI.

The predictive market analysis platform Polysights announced the completion of a $1.5 million financing round, with investors including YZi Labs S3, Maven 11 Capital, Varys Capital, Contribution Capital, and Edge Ventures.Polysights is building an automated and intelligent infrastructure for predictive markets. According to reports, Polysights is based on artificial intelligence technology and is aimed at individual traders and various institutions, enabling wallet-associated cluster screening, market anomaly detection, and the ability to analyze various trading strategies in predictive markets.

Blockchain data infrastructure startup Cambrian has completed a $6 million seed round financing, led by Franklin Templeton and Polychain Capital, with participation from Flow Traders, Selini Capital, Paper Ventures, Nomad Capital, and others.Cambrian also previously secured $5.9 million in pre-seed financing led by a16z Crypto Startup Accelerator, bringing the total funding to $11.9 million. It is reported that Cambrian was established in 2024 and currently provides APIs for institutions and AI Agents, covering real-time and historical on-chain data such as yield, risk, lending rates, trading activity, liquidity positions, and market sentiment, helping users allocate capital on-chain.The company plans to expand its existing APIs into a verifiable blockchain data oracle network, serving institutional financial clients, AI Agent builders, and protocols that need reliable data to control the flow of funds. Unlike traditional oracles that mainly provide price data, Cambrian aims to aggregate lending protocol data, DEX liquidity, social sentiment, developer activity, and historical market data.According to Cambrian, its platform has processed millions of API calls, currently indexing approximately $4.5 billion TVL across four major lending protocols, tracking 1,789 vaults under 895 curators, and monitoring over 320,000 DEX liquidity pools on Base and Solana. The company also plans to expand trading data support, adding Hyperliquid and richer perpetual contract data.

According to CoinDesk, Federal Reserve Chairman Kevin Warsh will testify before Congress for the first time on July 14 at 10 AM (Eastern Time), and traders are closely watching for signals regarding stablecoins, bank custody, and interest rate policy.

According to the Korea Economic Daily, at least seven companies, including Dunamu, the operator of the South Korean cryptocurrency exchange Upbit, have submitted proposals to bid to become the first private custodian of virtual assets seized by the Korean National Police Agency. Other bidders include major custodians Korea Digital Asset (KODA), Korea Digital Asset Custody (KDAC), BDACS, Hecto Wallet One, Infinite Block, and DSRV.An official from a virtual asset custody institution explained that the selection results may be finalized next month. The official pointed out that in a previous pilot project conducted for the National Tax Service, the winning bidder was determined within one to two weeks after the proposal presentation concluded.