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Zuckerberg Urges Meta to Explore Polymarket and Kalshi Partnerships

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Zuckerberg Urges Meta to Explore Polymarket and Kalshi Partnerships

Mark Zuckerberg has pushed Meta’s leadership to explore partnerships with Polymarket and Kalshi, per a new New York Times report, days after a separate report revealed Meta is building its own prediction-market app called Arena.

Mark Zuckerberg has urged Meta’s senior leadership to explore partnerships with Polymarket and Kalshi, according to a New York Times report cited by The Block on Friday, days after the paper revealed Meta was building its own competing prediction-market app codenamed Arena.

The new reporting adds a partnership track to a strategy that had previously been framed as a build-it-themselves effort. The Block reported the development Friday, citing the Times. The Times reported three days earlier that Zuckerberg ordered a small team to build Arena, a standalone prediction-market app to be kept separate from Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp. The partnership exploration is framed as exploratory, per the reporting.

Platform Precedent

Meta would not be the first major social platform to integrate prediction markets. X named Polymarket as its official prediction-market partner in June 2025, embedding live market probabilities and Grok-powered annotations alongside posts. A Meta partnership would offer a substantially larger potential audience: Meta’s Family of Apps reached 3.56 billion daily active people in Q1 2026, per the company’s earnings report.

Polymarket and Kalshi have expanded rapidly over the past year. Combined event-contract trading volume crossed $60 billion in 2026, drawing institutional market makers including Wintermute as liquidity providers. Kalshi closed a $1 billion raise at a $22 billion valuation in May and is now targeting a $40 billion valuation in a new round, per reports this week.

Meta’s Dual Track

Zuckerberg’s push for partnerships alongside Arena’s development indicates Meta is evaluating both a proprietary platform and a distribution deal with incumbents, per the Times reporting. Insiders described Arena as experimental but a top priority within the company.

Meta briefly operated a prediction platform called Forecast from 2020 to 2022 before shutting it down due to low usage. The company’s renewed interest comes as Meta’s Family of Apps saw its daily active people count slip quarter-over-quarter for the first time in Q1 2026, a decline Meta attributed to internet disruptions in Iran and a restriction on access to WhatsApp in Russia.

Polymarket and Kalshi have each made no public statement on the reported partnership interest. Meta has made no public announcement about the partnership exploration.

Ripple Launches RLUSD in Japan via SBI as Circle and Nomura Join Stablecoin Race

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Ripple Launches RLUSD in Japan via SBI as Circle and Nomura Join Stablecoin Race

Ripple’s RLUSD stablecoin went live in Japan on Tuesday after receiving approval from Japan’s Financial Services Agency, becoming the first foreign-issued stablecoin classified under Japan’s revised Payment Services Act.

Ripple’s RLUSD stablecoin went live in Japan on Wednesday after receiving approval from Japan’s Financial Services Agency, becoming among the first foreign-issued stablecoins classified under Japan’s revised Payment Services Act.

Ripple and SBI Holdings announced the launch on June 24, distributing RLUSD to institutional and retail users through SBI VC Trade’s VCTRADE platform. The JFSA classified RLUSD as a new category of electronic payment instrument for foreign-issued stablecoins under Japan’s Payment Services Act, a regulatory designation created specifically for that asset class. “Japan has long been a leader in digital asset adoption, underpinned by both regulatory clarity and financial innovation,” said Jack McDonald, Ripple’s Senior Vice President of Stablecoins, in the press release. RLUSD carries a circulating supply of roughly $1.7 billion since its launch in late 2024, per Ripple.

SBI’s Stablecoin Shelf

SBI Group invested in Ripple in 2016, and the decade-long partnership already underpins SBI Remit’s cross-border remittance corridors on Ripple Payments. RLUSD is the second US dollar stablecoin on SBI VC Trade’s platform alongside USDC. SBI VC Trade also co-launched JPYSC, a yen-denominated stablecoin, the same week as RLUSD. The FSA-registered electronic payment instruments list now shows SBI VC Trade handling USDC, RLUSD, and JPYSC simultaneously, making SBI an access layer for multiple stablecoin issuers regardless of which token wins each use case.

Circle and Nomura’s 2027 Target

Circle and Nomura plan to launch a USDC-based digital asset settlement and corporate payment service in Japan as early as 2027, per Nikkei. The service targets supplier payments, overseas affiliate transfers, and FX settlement, compressing transfers that currently take two to three business days. A Nomura and Laser Digital survey of 518 Japanese investment professionals found 63% saw stablecoin use cases spanning treasury management, cross-border payments, and tokenized securities settlement. Stablecoins issued by major financial institutions received the highest trust ratings.

Megabank Yen Track

Japan’s three largest banks, MUFG, SMBC, and Mizuho, plan to jointly issue yen-based stablecoins by the end of Japan’s current fiscal year. The megabank timeline runs in parallel with Circle and Nomura’s 2027 corporate-payments target, placing dollar and yen stablecoin infrastructure on the same buildout schedule. For Japanese firms settling in yen, bank-issued domestic instruments carry a structural FX advantage that positions them as the dominant lane for domestic B2B flows, leaving Ripple’s cross-border and crypto-settlement corridors as the most defensible ground for RLUSD.

Spain Regulator Rules out Extension for Non-MiCA Compliant Crypto Companies

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Spain Regulator Rules out Extension for Non-MiCA Compliant Crypto Companies

The chair of the Spanish National Securities Market Commission reportedly said that there would be no extensions or waivers for crypto companies that did not receive approval to operate in European Union member states under the Markets in Crypto-Assets (MiCA) framework by July 1. 

According to a Friday Reuters report, Chair Carlos San Basilio said that “there will be no exceptions ​or extensions” to the July 1 MiCA deadline, referring to Binance and other cryptocurrency exchanges affected by the framework. Binance’s operations in the EU are expected to scale back after it withdrew its application with Greece’s Hellenic Capital Market Commission and had not received approval from any other authority as of Friday.

“What we are concerned about, however, is how this period — the end of the transitional period — will unfold, and how the adaptation to the new environment will take place; that is why ​we are in ​contact with the ⁠organisations that have not been granted a licence,” said Basilio, according to Reuters.

Should Binance fail to secure approval from a financial regulator in the next few days, the exchange will be required to halt the onboarding of new EU-based users and limit certain services for EU-based accounts starting on July 1. Other crypto exchanges have secured last-minute approvals under MiCA, but Binance, with millions of users in the EU, could have a far greater impact on the region’s crypto market.

Related: Binance’s MiCA fight raises questions over ECB influence

“This is Binance’s philosophy of doing business,” said OKX founder and CEO Mingxing Xu in response to former Binance CEO Changpeng “CZ” Zhao’s comments on the exchange’s EU deadline. “They ignore laws and regulations, while misleading the public with bullshits. According to public media reports and court filings, the platform’s so-called ‘best liquidity’ included trading activity associated with risks involving money laundering, sanctions violations, and market manipulation.”

Cointelegraph reached out to a Binance spokesperson, who referred to the company’s Wednesday statement.

Binance users looking to other exchanges?

With the crypto exchange expected to wind down some operations for EU-based users, some are reporting leaving Binance entirely without a definitive timeline on its return.

Some Reddit users said that they were considering Kraken for their funds. Payward, doing business as Kraken, has a Crypto Asset Service Provider license through the Central Bank of Ireland.

Magazine: AI is banking the unbanked in Africa… faster than crypto

Cointelegraph is committed to independent, transparent journalism. This news article is produced in accordance with Cointelegraph’s Editorial Policy and aims to provide accurate and timely information. Readers are encouraged to verify information independently.

U.S. House Democrat, who may soon run key committee, condemns crypto in 401(k)s

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U.S. House Democrat, who may soon run key committee, condemns crypto in 401(k)s

U.S. Representative Maxine Waters may soon return to the helm of the House Financial Services Committee if Democrats perform as expected in the November elections, and she’s asking that the Department of Labor back away from a proposal that would encourage the managers of 401(k) retirement plans to offer alternative investments, including cryptocurrency.

In March, the Labor Department proposed a rule to implement what President Donald Trump had ordered: that people’s 401(k) accounts be open to investments in private equity, private credit, real estate, commodities and digital assets. Waters filed a detailed, 11-page comment letter with the department this week, requesting that the idea be withdrawn.

“It is incoherent for the department to bless digital assets as suitable for the retirement savings of everyday Americans while the [Securities and Exchange Commission] is still building the investor-protection regime intended to make those same assets safe for ordinary investors,” Waters argued in the letter. “The hazard is not confined to the volatility of individual tokens, severe as that is. It reflects a broader deterioration across the digital‑asset ecosystem, where trading activity, developer engagement, and user participation have collapsed.”

Aave, Solana lead crypto price gains as bitcoin (BTC) steadies near $60,000

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Aave, Solana lead crypto price gains as bitcoin (BTC) steadies near $60,000

Bitcoin BTC$59,698.59 found some footing around $60,000 on Friday after this week’s selloff, but the biggest gains came from decentralized finance (DeFi) and the Solana ecosystem.

Leading the advance was the native token of Aave AAVE$94.60, the largest DeFi lending protocol, which jumped 19% over the past 24 hours. CoinDesk reported Thursday that crypto exchange Kraken is exploring a strategic investment tied to the lending protocol, acquiring a 15% stake at a $385 million valuation.

Aave founder Stani Kulechov pushed back in an X post against the suggestion that Aave assets could be sold at a steep discount. He reiterated that all protocol revenue — currently running at an annualized $134 million, he said. — flows to the Aave DAO and ultimately benefits AAVE token holders under the protocol’s recently adopted “Aave Will Win” framework.

Kulechov also teased “Aavenomics 3.0,” an upcoming overhaul for the token’s design that will introduce an automated buyback mechanism.

Solana activity boosted by tokenized stocks

Solana (SOL), the layer-1 blockchain known for its fast speed, and its ecosystem also outperformed, with SOL climbing nearly 10% on Friday.

Former Ethereum Foundation leader warns of funding gap as governance shifts

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Former Ethereum Foundation leader warns of funding gap as governance shifts

Latest developments: Trent Van Epps says Ethereum’s long-term decentralization strategy is entering a critical transition phase.

  • Van Epps said he left the Ethereum Foundation after it became clear the organization would accelerate its “subtraction” philosophy of pushing authority and legitimacy into the broader ecosystem.
  • He described the Ethereum Foundation as intentionally reducing its central role rather than consolidating power, arguing that multiple independent institutions should eventually coordinate the ecosystem.
  • The comments come after recent Ethereum Foundation leadership changes and workforce reductions, which have fueled questions about Ethereum’s future governance.
  • Van Epps joined CoinDesk’s Jennifer Sanasie on Markets Outlook.

What this means: Van Epps argues Ethereum faces a practical funding challenge rather than an existential crisis.

  • He estimated core protocol development requires roughly $30 million annually, even as the Ethereum Foundation’s treasury gradually declines over time.
  • According to Van Epps, the issue is not shrinking technical needs but identifying new organizations willing to finance public goods that keep the network reliable and secure.
  • He said his Protocol Guild initiative has distributed nearly $40 million to Ethereum core developers over roughly four years but is not sufficient on its own to replace broader ecosystem funding.

Bitcoin Risks A $60,000 Resistance Flip As Asia Stocks Weakness Returns

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Bitcoin Risks A $60,000 Resistance Flip As Asia Stocks Weakness Returns

Bitcoin (BTC) struggled to reclaim $60,000 on Friday amid continued global market volatility.

Key points:

  • Bitcoin closes below $60,000 on daily time frames for the first time since September 2024.
  • Asian stock markets see another day of major losses on tech-stock concerns.
  • BTC price analysis hopes for a reclaim of the 200-week trend line as the bull case.

Bitcoin risks $60,000 resistance flip as tech selling persists

Data from TradingView showed that prior support was increasingly becoming the bulls’ new hurdle after Bitcoin’s first sub-$60,000 daily close since September 2024.

BTC/USD one-hour chart. Source: Cointelegraph/TradingView

Asia stock markets saw more downside on the day, with South Korean circuit-breakers kicking in on a new 8% crash.

Like on Tuesday, US stocks managed to avoid contagion, with the S&P 500 and the Dow Jones in the green at the time of writing.

S&P 500 one-day chart. Source: Cointelegraph/TradingView

Surrounding the weakness, tech-stock performance remained a popular talking point. Earlier, Micron Technologies boosted the mood with stronger-than-expected earnings data.

Trading resource The Kobeissi Letter suggested that a broader bullish turnaround could already be due.

“Most people do not realize how many tech giants are already deep bear market territory,” it wrote in a post on X.

Kobeissi noted that many major tech companies were already down more than 50% versus their all-time highs, with crypto exchange Coinbase leading at -69%.

“The S&P 500 won’t tell you this,” it added.

Coinbase stock one-week chart. Source: Cointelegraph/TradingView

In its latest analysis, trading company QCP Capital stressed the influence of US inflation trends on risk assets going forward. 

As Cointelegraph reported, the May print of the Personal Consumption Expenditures (PCE) index, known as the Federal Reserve’s “preferred” inflation gauge, recorded its highest year-on-year increase since mid-2023. 

“Core PCE is nowcast at 3.30%, while headline PCE is nowcast at 3.82%, both still above target,” QCP wrote. 

“The Fed’s 2026 inflation forecast has also moved up to 3.6%, from 2.7%, reinforcing the view that inflation, rather than growth, remains the binding constraint.”

US PCE Index one-month % change (screenshot). Source: Bureau of Economic Analysis

BTC price 200-week trend line reclaim in focus

Looking at the short term, crypto trader and analyst Michaël Van de Poppe asked whether BTC price action would continue its downward trend.

Related: BTC price four-year trend calls for $76K as analysis says Bitcoin ‘not broken’

“It’s an interesting day for Bitcoin,” he told X followers, noting the upcoming quarterly options expiry event.

Van de Poppe drew attention to the performance of Strategy, the company with the world’s largest Bitcoin treasury, and its Bitcoin funding vehicle, Stretch (STRC).

“In all honesty, the fact that STRC has seen a relatively big drop yesterday and Bitcoin essentially stalled at $60,000 is not a weak signal. Other than that, there’s a bullish divergence on the daily timeframe, which is still far from confirmed,” he continued.

“It can signal that we’re bouncing back upwards, and, yes, the markets need to bounce back upwards in order to close above the 200-Week MA.”

BTC/USD one-day chart with 200-week SMA. Source: Cointelegraph/TradingView

The trend line in question, the 200-week simple moving average (SMA), stood at $62,243 at the time of writing.

Anti-trafficking group says CLARITY Act’s Section 604 could weaken accountability

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Anti-trafficking group says CLARITY Act’s Section 604 could weaken accountability

Latest developments: The Alliance to End Human Trafficking is urging lawmakers to revisit Section 604 of the Clarity Act, arguing the provision could make it harder to hold some crypto platform developers accountable when their technology is used to facilitate human trafficking.

  • Katie Boller Gosewisch, executive director of the Alliance to End Human Trafficking, said her organization’s primary concern is language stating that developers who do not control user funds are not money transmitters.
  • Boller Gosewisch argued the provision could allow some third-party platform developers to “hide behind” a lack of liability if their software is used to facilitate trafficking-related payments.
  • The Alliance and Catholic Charities recently sent a letter to Senate Majority Leader John Thune and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer outlining their concerns with the legislation.
  • Boller Gosewisch joined Rebecca Rettig and Renato Mariotti on CoinDesk’s The Policy Protocol.

The debate: Rettig argued Section 604 reflects longstanding U.S. anti-money laundering policy rather than creating a new legal shield.

  • Rettig said the provision simply clarifies that developers who do not control customer assets are not considered money transmitters, consistent with existing Bank Secrecy Act and FinCEN guidance.
  • She argued the bill preserves liability for parties that do control user funds and does not eliminate exposure under other criminal statutes.
  • She also pointed to existing money laundering laws, including 18 U.S.C. § 1956, as tools prosecutors can use against developers who knowingly facilitate criminal activity.

SEC, CFTC Seek Input on Unified Portfolio Margin Rules

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SEC, CFTC Seek Input on Unified Portfolio Margin Rules

The US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) have opened a joint public consultation on whether to better align portfolio margin rules across securities and derivatives markets, seeking feedback on approaches that could expand cross-margining and reduce market fragmentation.

The agencies are requesting input on cross-margining, collateral treatment, risk management, customer protections and the potential effects on market liquidity and competition. The public comment period will remain open for 60 days after the request is published in the Federal Register.

“Cross-margining offers a clear opportunity to unlock liquidity that remains frozen in separate accounts,” SEC Chair Paul Atkins said, adding that harmonizing the agencies’ frameworks could help prevent jurisdictional overlap from limiting innovation and market efficiency.

Cross-margining allows offsetting positions across different products or markets to be considered together when calculating margin requirements, rather than treating each position separately. By recognizing these offsets, companies can often post less collateral against hedged positions because margin is based on the portfolio’s overall risk rather than each position in isolation.

The SEC oversees securities and security-based swaps, while the CFTC regulates futures, swaps and commodity derivatives. As crypto exchanges and brokerages increasingly operate across both markets, the agencies’ joint review reflects the growing need for coordinated oversight.

Related: CFTC hires SEC crypto task force adviser with blockchain forensics chops

Crypto derivatives expand across regulated markets

The joint request for comment follows recent regulatory approvals that paved the way for a broader expansion of crypto derivatives offerings.

On May 29, the CFTC approved Bitcoin (BTC) perpetual futures for prediction market platform Kalshi and cleared Coinbase Financial Markets to offer eligible US institutional clients access to certain Deribit-listed crypto options and perpetual futures. Coinbase began offering that access the same day through its integration with Deribit.

A few weeks later, Kraken launched CFTC-regulated perpetual futures for eligible US users through its recently acquired Bitnomial platform, expanding its domestic derivatives offerings beyond CME-listed crypto futures.

Source: Kraken Pro

The expansion of crypto derivatives in the US has also raised broader questions about whether existing regulatory frameworks remain appropriate across different markets.

Earlier this week, CFTC Chair Mike Selig said cryptocurrency perpetual futures were not a “natural fit” for traditional commodity markets such as agriculture, highlighting the challenges regulators face in applying existing frameworks across increasingly diverse asset classes.

Magazine: Bitcoin slides to $58K, XRP hits $1 but onchain data promising: Market Moves

Ondo Finance Launches 24/7 Minting and Redemption for Tokenized US Stocks and ETFs

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Ondo Finance Launches 24/7 Minting and Redemption for Tokenized US Stocks and ETFs

Ondo Finance has enabled around-the-clock minting and redemption for tokenized US stocks and ETFs on Ethereum and BNB Chain, removing the weekday-only constraint that had tied position creation and cancellation to US market hours.

Ondo Finance has enabled around-the-clock minting and redemption for tokenized US stocks and ETFs on Ethereum and BNB Chain, removing the prior weekday-only constraint that had tied the creation and cancellation of positions to US market hours. The upgrade, announced by Ondo Finance on Wednesday, applies initially to six of the platform’s most actively traded instruments: SPYon, QQQon, CRCLon, NVDAon, TSLAon, and GOOGLon.

Additional tokenized stocks and ETFs will be added in coming weeks, with Solana support coming next. Ondo described the feature as a first for the sector, noting that rivals offering “24/7 trading” have confined continuous access to secondary-market transfers on centralized and decentralized exchanges, while issuance and redemption remained tied to market hours.

Why It Changes Things

Transfers of Ondo’s tokenized securities have always been available at any hour, letting holders move, lend, or use assets in DeFi protocols regardless of whether US markets are open. What was missing was the ability to create new positions or exit them directly on weekends and holidays. The new feature closes that gap, giving institutional and qualified investors a full lifecycle for tokenized equities on blockchain infrastructure that never closes.

Ondo Global Markets, which now lists more than 430 tokenized stocks and ETFs across Ethereum, Solana, and BNB Chain, became the first tokenized-stock platform to surpass $1 billion in total value locked, exceeding the combined TVL of competing platforms, the company said.

Broader RWA Context

The launch comes as the tokenized real-world asset sector has broadened rapidly. Earlier this month, Ondo added 173 stocks and ETFs to its catalog, pushing the platform past 430 assets on three chains. Rival approaches to continuous equity access have varied: Binance launched bStocks on BNB Chain in June, while Coinbase has outlined plans for 1:1-backed tokenized US stocks with on-chain dividends.

Ondo noted that AI agents on the Virtuals protocol can now access the 24/7 minting and redemption feature, extending programmable round-the-clock equity exposure to automated strategies. The Solana rollout of the feature is expected in the near future.

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