finance

According to Bloomberg, Ghanaian cryptocurrency exchange Hyro Exchange is considering reissuing about 10% equity after completing a new round of seed financing to accelerate its expansion in Ghana and key markets in Africa. A local Ghanaian investment firm recently acquired approximately 10% equity in the company, raising its valuation to several million dollars. Hyro plans to sell an equivalent proportion of shares to overseas investors as part of its compliance expansion capital strategy. Currently, the platform has been selected for Ghana's virtual asset trading pilot project, betting on the demand for faster and lower-cost cross-border payments in Africa, which will continue to drive the growth of cryptocurrency usage.

According to Jinshi reports, Japan's Finance Minister Katsuyuki Kitagawa held an emergency online meeting with U.S. Treasury officials on the evening of June 22 local time. As the yen approaches its lowest level in 39 years, sources say she may have discussed trends in the foreign exchange market and the possibility of foreign exchange intervention with U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen. Previously, the USD/JPY experienced a rapid decline during trading, raising market speculation that Japanese authorities had intervened.

Chairman of the U.S. House Military and Foreign Affairs Subcommittee, Republican Congressman William Timmons, announced that a roundtable meeting will be held on June 25, focusing on how digital assets and cryptocurrencies can help individuals protect their wealth, access assistance, and maintain economic autonomy. In addition, this roundtable will also explore the intersection of digital finance and U.S. national security interests, and examine how the U.S. can promote financial innovation and maintain competitiveness in the digital finance sector.

Curve Finance announced that its lending product LlamaLend V2 has officially launched on the Ethereum Layer 2 network Optimism. Users can engage in borrowing, lending, or circular leverage operations in the isolated market based on the Curve LLAMMA mechanism. It is reported that this upgrade will open a new market and distribute OP rewards to eligible users through Merkl.

According to Cointelegraph, Michelle Bond, the wife of former FTX executive Ryan Salame, is facing criminal charges for allegedly using FTX funds to finance her 2022 congressional campaign. Manhattan federal judge George Daniels has denied Bond's request to dismiss the charges, ruling that the case will proceed. Bond previously claimed that prosecutors had promised not to prosecute her in exchange for Salame's guilty plea, but the judge found no such promise in the plea agreement. Prosecutors allege that Bond received $400,000 from FTX through a consulting agreement and accepted hundreds of thousands of dollars in additional funds transferred by Salame to illegally finance her campaign, while concealing the source of the funds and making false statements to the Federal Election Commission. Bond faces a total of four charges, each carrying a maximum sentence of five years in prison. The case may become the last criminal trial related to the collapse of FTX.

According to the official announcement, the decentralized perpetual contract exchange Satori Finance, supported by Coinbase Ventures and Jump Capital, has announced that due to a prolonged market downturn leading to unsustainable revenue, it has decided to gradually shut down the platform.All services of Satori will officially terminate at 19:59 Eastern Time on July 16, 2026. The official reminds users to close positions and withdraw all assets as soon as possible before this deadline, as funds may become inaccessible after the deadline. It is reported that the platform completed a $10 million financing in 2022, with a historical cumulative trading volume of nearly $99 billion.Recently, due to a significant correction in the crypto market, several industry startups (such as Botanix, Syndicate Labs, etc.) have announced shutdowns.

Stablecoin payment infrastructure company Trace Finance has completed a $32 million Series A financing round, led by CoinFund, with participation from Coinbase Ventures, Haun Ventures, Jump Capital, Paxos, Chainlink Labs, HOF Capital, and others. Bernardo Brites, co-founder and CEO of Trace Finance, stated that the company's valuation has increased approximately tenfold since the seed round in 2022, but did not disclose the specific valuation.Trace Finance is headquartered in Brazil and primarily provides stablecoin cross-border payment infrastructure, integrating local banking channels, foreign exchange, compliance, and stablecoin settlement capabilities. The company currently holds licenses in the United States and Brazil and operates through partner banks in Mexico, Colombia, Europe, and Asia. Trace Finance plans to expand its operations in Mexico, Colombia, and Argentina, followed by entry into the Singapore, Hong Kong, Japan, South Korea, and Southeast Asia markets. Brites also mentioned that the company will continue to apply for additional licenses in Singapore, the United States, and the Asia-Pacific region in the future.

The Financial Secretary of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region Government, Paul Chan, stated in a blog that the HKSAR Government will launch the first public consultation for Hong Kong's five-year plan on June 15 next week, lasting for two months. This plan aims not only to enhance economic development momentum and promote better application of technology but also hopes to achieve a more inclusive society, where citizens enjoy more quality job opportunities and a better life."AI+" and "Finance+" are two strategic directions worth exploring in depth. AI is no longer just about the innovation and technology industry itself; it plays a key role in enhancing the competitiveness of various sectors. For finance, it can strengthen data analysis, risk management, and customer service. "Finance+" means making good use of Hong Kong's full chain of fundraising functions, including building a more comprehensive patient capital system to inject development momentum into cutting-edge technology enterprises.

According to a report by Bloomvingbit, the South Korean Ministry of Finance and Economy stated that tokenized stocks are considered securities rather than virtual assets. If the Financial Services Commission confirms their securities nature, taxes can be imposed immediately under the current Capital Markets Act, potentially as early as the second half of this year. Officials from the Ministry of Finance pointed out that although tokenized stocks are formally virtual assets, they are essentially closer to securities.The Financial Services Commission has previously clarified in its token securities guidelines that token securities are securities issued in the form of digital assets and fall under the jurisdiction of the Capital Markets Act. Currently, the market generally believes that tokenized stocks are classified as virtual assets (non-taxable assets) and can enjoy tax exemption until the implementation of virtual asset taxation next year. However, the Ministry of Finance emphasizes its stance on taxation and is establishing an information exchange system with overseas tax authorities such as the IRS. Offshore transactions on overseas platforms are also included in the taxation scope; regardless of where they are issued, as long as the economic value and rights structure essentially belong to securities, they can be subject to dividend income tax.

According to CoinDesk, Ondo Finance has hired former Invesco ETF executive and Grayscale Managing Director John Hoffman, aiming to expand its tokenized investment products beyond stocks and government bonds.John Hoffman will serve as Managing Director and Head of Portfolio, focusing on building and distributing tokenized portfolios, including portfolios co-developed with asset management companies and strategies built around Ondo's existing products.This move indicates that Ondo Finance plans to go beyond tokenized versions of single assets and shift towards custodial investment products on the blockchain. Currently, the market size for tokenized assets has exceeded $30 billion.

According to Jinshi reports, the Secretary for Financial Services and the Treasury of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, Xu Zhengyu, stated that two licensed stablecoin issuers participated in the central bank digital currency and tokenized deposit-related projects led by the Monetary Authority. The Monetary Authority will continue to follow up, urging institutions to implement relevant application scenarios and explore more applications of compliant stablecoins in the digital finance sector.In addition, the Monetary Authority has established the Ensemble project framework working group to promote the construction of local unified standards and achieve interoperability between central bank digital currency and tokenized assets.

Circle plans to release the Arc Privacy confidential smart contract engine, aimed at addressing the barriers to institutional adoption caused by the current blockchain's default complete transparency through "Opt-in Privacy." Arc Privacy will allow users and developers to selectively mask sensitive information in transactions and smart contracts based on actual needs, rather than forcing all data to be public. At the same time, it retains the authorized access required for compliance, auditing, and governance, achieving a balance between privacy and auditability.The engine supports the EVM environment and emphasizes composability, allowing developers to build multi-step private application processes in the Ethereum environment. The article lists several real business scenarios, including confidential salary payments, treasury fund transfers, tokenized asset management, confidential perpetual contract trading, and privacy lending.

Crypto journalist Eleanor Terrett revealed that three informed sources disclosed that U.S. government officials will hold a meeting with law enforcement groups at the White House on Wednesday to address concerns that certain provisions in the Clarity Act (including developer protection provisions derived from the Blockchain Regulatory Certainty Act) may increase the difficulty of cracking down on illegal finance.This issue, along with the ethical provisions, is one of the main obstacles that must be resolved before the bill is submitted for a full vote in the Senate. Several Democrats have stated that they will not support the bill unless the concerns of law enforcement are adequately addressed. Prior to this meeting, the crypto industry has conducted broader outreach, including holding town hall meetings and inviting former law enforcement officials currently working in the crypto industry to participate in lobbying.

According to the latest research report "Institutional Footprints" released by CryptoQuant, Gate has performed outstandingly in several core indicators such as institutional trading activity, market liquidity, and TradFi derivatives trading, becoming one of the trading platforms with the highest institutional participation in the current crypto market. Among them, Gate ranks first in the average trading volume indicators in four major markets: Bitcoin spot, Bitcoin perpetual contracts, Ethereum spot, and Ethereum perpetual contracts, reflecting that institutional funds continue to gather at Gate. In addition, Gate ranks third globally with a cumulative spot trading volume of $253 billion for 2026, firmly establishing itself among the top global crypto asset trading platforms.It is noteworthy that as traditional finance and the crypto market accelerate their integration, Gate has performed particularly well in the TradFi perpetual contract sector. In March of this year, Gate's monthly TradFi perpetual contract trading volume approached $290 billion, setting an industry-leading level. CryptoQuant believes that with its layout of tokenized stocks, metals, index products, and a 24/7 derivatives trading system, Gate is at the forefront of the integration of traditional finance and crypto finance.