Latest Crypto News & Market Updates

Coinbase CEO floats Chinese open-weight AI models as antidote to runaway bills

Coinbases CEO has proposed experimenting with cheaper open-weight AI models to keep AI spending in check as token consumption climbs.　　This proposal has led to concerns over the security and geopolitical risks of directing enterprise workloads through Chinese-origin systems.　　Why are companies using Chinese AI models？　　U.S. export controls have made it harder for Chinese companies to access American AI chips, but that hasnt stopped them from building competitive models and selling them at much lower prices.　　For instance, Zhipu‘s $GLM 5.2 costs $1.40 per million input tokens and $4.40 per million output tokens compared to Anthropic’s Opus 4.8 at $5 and $25 for the same volume.　　$GLM 5.2 scored 62.1 on SWE-bench Pro, a key coding benchmark, beating OpenAIs GPT-5.5 at 58.6. One AI researcher said $GLM 5.2 “is at least as good as Opus 4.8 and GPT 5.5.”　　Another called it “the first open model that can really compete with closed-source systems.”　　Is Coinbase using Chinese AI models　　Coinbases CEO Brian Armstrong says the best way to control rising AI costs is to use cheaper open-weight models, including systems from China like $GLM 5.2.　　Armstrong said instead of spending more and more on AI, companies need “better defaults, routing, and caching.” His suggestion to use Chinese models,

06-28Exchange

Coinbase CEO responds to criticism over betting prompts in app

Coinbase CEO backs user choice but warns high-risk products need careful in-app promotion rules.Zookos complaint turned Coinbase prediction markets into a debate over vulnerable users and app design.Coinbases broader product push adds betting-style markets while regulators argue over sports event contracts nationwide.　　The exchange chief defended user choice, but said platforms should treat high-risk products with care when serving less experienced users.　　You might also like:　　Base says same sequencer bug caused June 25 and 26 outages　　Zooko criticizes betting prompts　　Zooko said on X that he had spoken with a young and financially vulnerable Coinbase user. He claimed the app had started prompting that user to bet on sports and the price of Bitcoin.　　He said the situation made him “ashamed” to be part of the crypto industry. His post quickly turned into a wider debate about how large crypto apps should promote prediction markets and similar products.　　The criticism comes as Coinbase expands beyond spot crypto trading. Recent coverage of Coinbase‘s pre-IPO perpetual futures described the firm’s push to combine crypto, stocks, prediction markets and futures inside one account.　　That wider product strategy gives users more ways to trade. It also raises questions about how trading apps present risk, especially when products look simple inside a

06-28Exchange

Coinbase, OKX chase Binance users as MiCA deadline bites

Coinbase and OKX are trying to win European crypto users after Binance moved to suspend several services in the European Union. The shift comes before the July 1 MiCA deadline, when crypto firms must hold approval from one EU state to keep serving the bloc.　　SummaryCoinbase and OKX moved fast as Binance prepared to restrict several EU services under MiCA.Transfer bonuses show licensed exchanges are competing for users before Europes crypto rulebook fully starts.Binance says assets remain accessible while it searches for a new EU authorization route elsewhere.　　The campaigns add a commercial race to a regulatory deadline. Binance has told users that access to some services will change because it has not secured a MiCA license in time.　　You might also like:　　Binance is locked out of Europe on July 1. Here is what actually happened　　Rivals move with transfer offers　　As reported, Coinbase is using the opening to court users in Germany, France, Italy, Belgium, Poland, Sweden and the U.K. The exchange says it holds MiCA approval and is offering a “5% transfer bonus” for users who move funds before July 13.　　The offer puts Coinbases regulated status at the center of its pitch. It also gives affected users a time-limited reason to move funds

06-28Exchange

Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong Says Tokenized Stocks Could Open US Markets To 4 Billion Unbrokered People

Tokenized Stocks Aim to Unlock Global Equity Access　　“There‘s actually about four billion people in the world today who are unbrokered,” Armstrong said in an episode of Sourcery with Molly O’Shea that aired on Saturday. “Half the planet basically can‘t get access to any high-quality U.S. companies to invest in. They’re stuck holding cash and lower-quality investments.”　　“Thats going to totally change the world,” Armstrong said of the shift to tokenized equities on modern financial rails.　　Armstrong pointed to the pending Clarity Act, which he described as “right on the horizon,” as the next crypto bill expected to speed up adoption of tokenized equities, similar to how the Genius Act supported stablecoins.　　“If you survey Americans, something like 83% of them say that the financial system is not currently working for them,” Armstrong said, highlighting that the access issue extends beyond emerging markets.　　Recent market data also supports Armstrongs point, , signaling growing institutional and retail interest in blockchain-based equity exposure.　　Disclaimer:This content was partially produced with the help of AI tools and was reviewed and published by Benzinga editors.

06-28Exchange

Will the CLARITY Act miss out on approval？ ‘The window continues to narrow each day’

Galaxy Research has reviewed its CLARITY Act outlook downwards from 60% to 50/50 (neutral).　　According to Alex Thorn, head of research at Galaxy, the tight Senate calendar following recent President Donald Trumps stance on a separate, unrelated bill was the main reason for the downgrade.　　President Trump said Wednesday he won‘t sign a housing bill unless Congress passes the SAVE Act, intensifying competition for scarce Senate floor time, and thereby hurting the CLARITY Act’s odds.　　After passing the Senate Banking Committee vote last May, the bill cleared a key hurdle to proceed to the Senate floor vote.　　However, before that, both the bills versions from the Senate Banking and Agriculture committees must be reconciled into a single piece of legislation.　　On a positive note, Galaxy noted there was some ‘constructive’ progress on the reconciliation efforts.　　Reconciliation of the Banking and Agriculture committee texts continues at the staff level, and there are some indications that constructive negotiations continue.　　However, Thorn cautioned that,　　But there has been no public announcement that Banking and Agriculture have agreed on a combined bill, no release of unified legislative text, and no signal on timing for floor consideration.　　He added that the sticky issues, such as stablecoin yield, ethics provision, and Section 604 (developer protections),

06-28Exchange

Base post-mortem reveals sequencer bug behind back-to-back outages

A sequencer bug was responsible for two outages of the Coinbase layer-2 network Base last week, according to a post-mortem.　　The Base engineering team said in a Saturday post-mortem that they identified a bug in sequencer block-building logic that allowed “stale journal state” to persist after a transaction validation failure.　　“An invalid transaction was received by the block builder and failed during execution, as expected, but erroneously did not clear the journal state that contained the accounts and storage slots that had been accessed,” said the team.　　The Base layer-2 network runs a single sequencer, which means one bug can stop everything. It is a centralized blockchain component that decides the order of transactions and has been responsible for outages on other layer-2 chains, including Arbitrum, OP Mainnet and zkSync Era.　　On Thursday and Friday, Base mainnet experienced two block production outages, the first incident lasted 116 minutes and the second lasted 20 minutes.　　There was a complete halt of new layer-2 blocks, and the sequencer and validator nodes could not progress past the invalid block until sequencing was restored.　　The team fixed the outages by applying a patch to the sequencers to ensure the journal state was properly updated during execution.　　However, mitigation took longer than

06-28Exchange

Coinbase, Circle underperform Big Tech as crypto stock slump deepens

A broad selloff in technology stocks has weighed even more heavily on crypto-focused companies, highlighting a growing divergence between digital asset equities and the broader US stock market.　　Shares of Coinbase (COIN) and Circle (CRCL) have fallen 69% and 72%, respectively, from their all-time highs. Those declines exceed the drawdowns seen in several major technology companies, including Oracle (ORCL), Salesforce (CRM), Netflix (NFLX) and Palantir (PLTR), which are down between 48% and 57% from their peaks, according to data from The Kobeissi Letter　　By comparison, the large-cap Ss high.　　Bear market conditions have also weighed on corporate earnings, with Coinbase reporting first-quarter results that missed Wall Street expectations. Revenue fell 21% from the previous quarter, while the company posted a loss of $1.49 per share, versus analysts expectations for a profit of $0.27 per share.　　Analysts downgrade crypto markets 2026 outlook despite strong institutional adoption　　The crypto markets prolonged downturn has prompted analysts at 21Shares to lower their expectations for 2026, arguing that digital asset prices have significantly underperformed the industrys underlying fundamentals.　　In its midyear outlook, 21shares said institutional adoption continues to strengthen, particularly in stablecoins, tokenization and prediction markets. However, the asset manager argued that Bitcoins four-year market cycle remains the dominant force driving

06-28Exchange

The Stablecoin Founder Map Doesn't Match the Stablecoin Volume Map

In briefStablecoin volume topped $28 trillion in 2025, beating Visa and Mastercard combined, yet founders and venture capital stay concentrated in the U.S. and Europe.The real demand is in emerging markets, where stablecoins are a financial lifeline: Nigeria has 26 million-plus crypto users, and Argentinas stablecoin purchases top half of all exchange trades.Alex Witt, General Partner at Verda Ventures, argues the funds backing founders in Lagos, São Paulo, and Manila now will reap the biggest stablecoin returns of the next decade.　　Most assume the stablecoin opportunity is centered where the capital is, in New York, San Francisco, and London. The largest stablecoin markets on Earth are in countries where most VCs have never held a meeting.　　In 2025, stablecoin transaction volume crossed $28 trillion globally, surpassing Visa and Mastercard combined. Most founders and capital remain concentrated in the U.S. and Europe, where stablecoins remain an institutional product. That layer is already contested: BlackRock, JPMorgan, and Fidelity are moving into tokenized money markets and enterprise settlement, leaving far less room for venture-backed startups than the narrative implies.　　The real demand is happening somewhere else. Nigeria alone has over 26 million crypto users, more than one in eight adults, and 59% of them hold USDT.

06-28Exchange

Ethereum down 45% YTD – So why do SharpLink and whales keep buying？

Amid the ongoing crypto weakness, Ethereum [$ETH] remains underwater, down 20%-45% YTD. Despite this drawdown, the leading altcoin continues to draw institutional interest.　　SharpLink resumed purchases after eight months, adding 5,000 $ETH, worth roughly $7.88 million at an average price of $1,576, through FalconX.　　Moments later, the crypto treasury reinforced the inflow with another 26.324K LSETH worth $45.54 million. These purchases pushed Sharplinks total holdings to 876,285 $ETH, including 22,102 staked tokens.　　Source: Arkham　　Although the treasury holds nearly $1.71 billion in unrealized losses, accumulation suggests conviction in Ethereums long-term utility and staking income.　　If broader institutions continue absorbing weakness, selling pressure could gradually ease. However, sustained recovery still depends on renewed network demand and improving market sentiment.　　Whales increase Ethereum exposure　　That institutional conviction is no longer limited to corporate treasuries. Instead, whale wallets are beginning to mirror the same accumulation pattern despite lingering market uncertainty.　　In the last nine days, a newly created wallet accumulated 18,361 $ETH worth $28.9 million, alongside 152,986 Hyperliquid [HYPE] worth $9.73 million through FalconX.　　Source: Arkham　　The consistent buildup of assets by this whale indicates that these larger whales are creating exposures for future price swings instead of trying to react to each days price movement.　　At the same time, BlackRock moved 2,700 Bitcoin

06-28Exchange

The UK softened stablecoin rules, but may still be capping its own market

The Bank of England has dropped the piece of its stablecoin plan that the industry hated most, the proposed £20,000 limit on how much sterling stablecoin any one person could hold, along with the £10 million ceiling for businesses. In their place, the central banks June 22 policy statement set a single £40 billion cap on how much of each systemic sterling stablecoin can exist in the UK, and loosened the reserve rules so issuers can finally earn a decent yield on the money backing their coins.　　Households and companies can now hold as much of a regulated pound stablecoin as they like, and any one of those coins can grow to £40 billion before it has to stop.　　This puts the UK in a rather unusual spot among large economies. The US and the EU both regulate stablecoins heavily, yet neither puts a hard ceiling on how large a token denominated in its own currency may become. The UK was the first to do that, while calling the limit “temporary” and promising to review it.　　Sterling tokens account for roughly 0.5% of a global stablecoin market worth around $315 billion, which puts the real test of the new regime well past legality

06-28Exchange

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