The US House and Senate have reached a deal to move forward with a housing bill that includes a ban on the Federal Reserve creating a central bank digital currency (CBDC) until 2030.

A bipartisan group of House and Senate leaders released an updated version of the 21st Century Road to Housing Act on Tuesday, which aims to address housing affordability and bans institutional investors from buying existing single-family homes to rent out.

The bill has included a CBDC ban since the Senate passed it in March. The House also passed its version of the bill with strong support in May, but the House and Senate disagreed on some aspects. The Senate has now added further amendments that will be put before the House for a final vote.

The bill is likely to pass quickly and would hand a win to Republicans who have tried to pass a CBDC ban for years, as earlier standalone bills had stalled in Congress. Crypto advocates have long criticized CBDCs, which they see as an attempt by governments to repurpose crypto technology to a centrally-controlled asset.

Source: US Senate Banking Committee GOP

The deal also means Congress can focus on passing other legislation before the August recess and the November midterm elections, in particular, the crypto-regulating CLARITY Act that many lawmakers have been pushing to advance.

House Republican leaders plan to put the bill up for a vote after the House returns from recess on June 23, two people familiar with the plan told Politico.

The housing bill includes language that says the Federal Reserve may not, directly or indirectly, “issue or create a central bank digital currency or any digital asset that is substantially similar to a central bank digital currency.”

Related: South Carolina governor signs bill protecting Bitcoin miners, banning CBDC

It adds the clause will expire on Dec. 31, 2030, and creates a carveout for crypto stablecoins, or “dollar-denominated currency that is open, permissionless, and private.”

The clause revives much of the language from Republican Representative Tom Emmer’s Anti-CBDC Surveillance State Act, which was introduced in June 2025, passed by the House the next month, but was never picked up in the Senate.

US President Donald Trump signed an executive order in January 2025 banning federal agencies from all work related to CBDCs, saying they threatened “the stability of the financial system, individual privacy, and the sovereignty of the United States.”

Magazine: How crypto laws changed in 2025 — and how they’ll change in 2026

Source: cointelegraph.com

Cryptocurrency exchange Binance, whose application under the European Union’s Markets in Crypto Assets (MiCA) framework is under consideration, has generally deferred responding to a report that the company’s licensed activities in the region could be at risk.

In a Tuesday blog post, Binance said that Greece’s Hellenic Capital Market Commission (HCMC), one of the regulators responsible for overseeing MiCA, had completed its review of the crypto exchange’s application and “considered it compliant with MiCA requirements,” subject to review at the European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA). The post came just a few hours after Reuters reported that EU regulators were preparing to reject Binance’s licensing bid, potentially cutting off the exchange’s ability to offer services to residents.

“Binance serves more users in Europe than any other crypto exchange, and any delay or distortion in our MiCA path has consequences beyond Binance,” said the company. “It risks weakening liquidity, reducing competition and user choice, and pushing activity, jobs, investment, and tax revenue outside the EU.”

Source: Binance

Under the MiCA framework, companies operating in the EU only have until the end of June to gain approval to offer services to residents. Should Binance’s application with HCMC be rejected, the exchange would likely be unable to legally operate in the EU starting on July 1.

Related: Robinhood cuts 10% of workforce as Tenev touts business strength

A Binance spokesperson told Cointelegraph that the company expected that ESMA “intended to progress the licence and move to authorise at an upcoming board meeting.” The company did not immediately respond to an additional request for clarification on the Reuters report, but added in the blog post it would update users by June 30, the deadline for the MiCA application.

The crypto exchange applied for its MiCA licensing in Greece under HCMC in January. Several regulators, including those in Germany and the Netherlands, have already approved licenses for crypto companies seeking to be MiCA compliant with the deadline approaching in a matter of weeks.

Binance still under scrutiny by US authorities

In 2023, Binance reached an agreement with US authorities in which then-CEO Changpeng Zhao stepped down and pleaded guilty to one felony charge, and the company agreed to a $4.3 billion settlement with the US Treasury Department and Department of Justice and to follow a monitoring program. Amid the US-Israel war with Iran and reports that the exchange facilitated $1 billion to sanctioned entities, US lawmakers have been pressing for answers regarding Binance’s compliance.

Magazine: Bitcoin, the ‘canary in the coal mine,’ XRP transaction demand falls 91.5%: Market Moves

Source: cointelegraph.com

Non-fungible token (NFT) project Pudgy Penguins is winding down its mobile game Pudgy Party and halting further development.

In an X post, the team said on Saturday that it would shift its gaming resources toward Pudgy World, a browser-based experience which it described as the flagship gaming product for the Pudgy Penguins ecosystem. 

“We’ve made the difficult decision to wind down Pudgy Party and halt further development,” the team wrote, adding that Pudgy World offered greater potential for scalability and introducing new users to the Pudgy Penguins brand. 

The mobile game launched in August 2025 and surpassed 500,000 downloads on Google Play alone. Pudgy Party said total downloads have exceeded 1 million.

Pudgy Penguins is consolidating its gaming ambitions around a single flagship product as the project expands beyond NFTs through initiatives spanning toys, gaming, licensing and entertainment.

Total NFT market capitalization climbed to nearly $1.5 billion on Monday from more than $1.3 billion on Friday, according to CoinGecko, but remains far below its 2022 peak of over $17 billion.

7-day NFT market capitalization data. Source: CoinGecko

Crypto games struggle to find sustainable business models 

Pudgy Party’s wind-down comes as another Web3 gaming project, Fishing Frenzy, and its developer, Uncharted, announced they would cease operations after failing to establish a viable crypto-gaming model.

“Despite our best efforts, we were ultimately unable to prove our thesis on crypto gaming and could not find product-market-business fit,” Fishing Frenzy said in an X post on Monday.

The team said the company had spent the last year testing approaches and different audiences, but had not found a path that inspired the confidence to continue. 

Related: Binance to end NFT support on exchange, shift service to wallet

Fishing Frenzy will shut down its servers on June 25 at 2:00 am UTC. The project has stopped selling USDC packages and made its FISH token spend-only and untradable.

The team said that the USDC remaining in the FISH/USDC liquidity pool would be redistributed to community members and stakers. 

Magazine: Does ‘Paper Bitcoin’ mean there’s an unlimited supply of BTC?

Source: cointelegraph.com

BitMine Immersion Technologies continued to expand its Ether holdings last week, acquiring more of the second-biggest digital asset despite a prolonged market downturn as its large staking operation continues to generate yield.

On Monday, the crypto treasury company reported that it acquired 76,881 Ether (ETH) over the past week, potentially reducing its average cost basis as ETH briefly plunged below $1,600 during the period. The company has been steadily acquiring Ether during the bear market, regardless of price action.

BitMine now holds 5,620,754 ETH acquired at an average price of $1,718.

BitMine is sitting on large unrealized losses on its ETH holdings. Source: DropsTab

At current prices, the company’s ETH portfolio is worth roughly $10.2 billion, though it is sitting on an unrealized loss of nearly $9 billion, according to DropsTab data. At last look on Monday, Ether was trading at $1,843.69, according to CoinMarketCap data.

Bitmine’s latest purchases brings the company closer to its stated goal of owning 5% of Ether’s total circulating supply of 120.68 million tokens. The company currently controls approximately 4.66% of all ETH.

At the same time, BitMine has staked more than 4.1 million ETH, worth roughly $8.1 billion at current prices. Staking allows the company to earn protocol rewards by helping secure the Ethereum network, providing a recurring source of yield even during periods of price weakness.

Related: Ethereum can quantum-proof accounts for just 7 cents, says Ethereum’s Kohaku lead

Ethereum faces structural headwinds

The crypto treasury model has come under pressure this year as digital asset prices retreated sharply. The downturn has also weighed on spot Ether exchange-traded funds (ETFs), which recorded four consecutive days of net outflows last week. 

Selling pressure has persisted since early May, with daily net outflows exceeding $60 million on several occasions.

BlackRock’s iShares Ethereum Trust ETF (ETHA) remains the biggest US-traded ETH ETF, with net assets of $4.75 billion. It holds 2.36% of the crypto’s circulating supply.

ETH’s decline has coincided with large outflows from spot ETFs. Source: SoSoValue

For Ethereum, however, the challenges extend beyond price action.

The network’s layer-2 scaling strategy, designed to deliver faster and cheaper transactions, has come under scrutiny. As more activity migrates to layer-2 networks, the Ethereum mainnet captures less transaction-fee revenue and burns less ETH, potentially weakening its deflationary dynamics.

Internal changes at the Ethereum Foundation have added to the uncertainty. At least nine senior leaders, researchers and core contributors have departed the nonprofit so far this year, marking one of the largest waves of talent attrition in its history. The departures have coincided with the foundation’s organizational overhaul and renewed community debate over its governance, strategic direction and role in Ethereum’s long-term development.

Related: Crypto Biz: Nobody told Saylor ‘never sell’

Source: cointelegraph.com

New Mexico is the latest US state to be pulled into the Commodity Futures Trading Commission’s legal fight for its jurisdiction over prediction markets after the state sued Kalshi for allegedly offering illegal sports betting.

The CFTC said on Friday that it sued New Mexico Governor Michelle Lujan Grisham, state Attorney General Raúl Torrez, and members of the New Mexico Gaming Control Board in federal court “to block the state’s efforts to apply state gaming laws against CFTC-registered contract markets.”

New Mexico sued Kalshi on June 4, arguing the company is offering sports betting to residents without a license and that its sports event contracts function the same as traditional sports bets.

The state also claimed Kalshi allowed those aged between 18 and 20 to use the platform, below New Mexico’s minimum gaming age of 21.

New Mexico is the eighth state that the CFTC has sued after state authorities had taken enforcement action against prediction market platforms, with Rhode Island, Wisconsin, Minnesota, New York, Arizona, Connecticut and Illinois also facing lawsuits from the regulator.

In its complaint against New Mexico, the CFTC claimed that event contracts are “swaps” under federal commodities laws, and Kalshi is a Designated Contract Market (DCM) under the “exclusive jurisdiction” of the CFTC.

“New Mexico’s attempt to prevent a CFTC-regulated DCM from offering CFTC-approved financial products intrudes on the exclusive federal scheme Congress designed to oversee United States commodity derivatives markets,” the CFTC argued.

“New Mexico is the latest state seeking to nullify black letter law and decades of judicial precedent by imposing state gaming laws on federally regulated derivatives exchanges subject to the CFTC’s exclusive jurisdiction,” CFTC Chairman Mike Selig said in a statement.

Source: Mike Selig

“The CFTC has the expertise and responsibility to protect its exclusive jurisdiction over commodity derivatives, and that’s exactly what we’ll continue to do,” he said.

The CFTC asked the court to rule that New Mexico state laws that would apply to transactions on CFTC-regulated DCMs are invalid and for a permanent injunction prohibiting the state from taking action against prediction market platforms.

Gary Gensler doubts CFTC claim over sports bets

Gary Gensler, a former chair of the Securities and Exchange Commission and the CFTC, also weighed in on the CFTC’s legal battle with the states, casting doubt on the federal regulator’s claim that it has authority over sports event contracts.

In an amicus brief filed to the Sixth Circuit on Thursday in Kalshi’s fight with Ohio’s authorities, Gensler argued that the Dodd-Frank Act, passed in 2010 in response to the 2008 financial crisis to regulate swaps, was not meant to encompass sports event contracts.

Related: CFTC proposes framework favoring sports event contracts over gambling

“Congress did not include sports betting contracts within the statutory Dodd-Frank definition of swap,” Gensler argued. He added that sports event contracts do not fit the purpose or language defining a swap under commodities laws, “which focus on hedging economic risk.”

Gary Gensler appearing on CNBC to discuss his amicus brief. Source: YouTube

“Sports bets are very rarely, if ever, about hedging,” Gensler argued.

Gensler told CNBC on Thursday that the question “at the core of this issue is did Congress in 2010 say, ‘No, none of the states can regulate this’ — it’s going to this little small agency that I once was proud to run — and the answer is categorically ‘No.’”

Magazine: Should users be allowed to bet on war and death in prediction markets?

Source: cointelegraph.com

South Korean tech giant LG Electronics is working with the Ethereum layer-2 network Arbitrum to build a blockchain-based advertising network aimed at serving the digital ad industry. 

Arbitrum would give advertisers and publishers a shared database of ad inventory and track how customers interact with advertisements, with the company exploring how to bring the service to market this year, Fortune reported on Thursday.

“We are evaluating whether this approach can deliver meaningful value to advertisers, publishers and audiences,” said Samuel Byungsun Park, the head of LG Electronics’ blockchain research lab. 

LG Group’s headquarters is in Seoul, South Korea. Source: Seoul Institute

Digital ad spend is estimated to have reached $679 billion in 2025, making up 68% of worldwide ad spend, according to global advertising giant Dentsu. 

Traditional ad networks require costly intermediaries to automate and manage the buying and selling of ad space between advertisers and publishers.

A blockchain-based ad network would cut out intermediaries, aiming to make ad buys more efficient and provide transparency to advertisers about who their ads have reached. 

“It means that you can basically run the market in an automated way in software,” Arbitrum co-founder Steven Goldfeder told Fortune. “You don’t need manual intervention.”

The price of Arbitrum (ARB) gained 5.44% on Thursday on news of the new layer-2 blockchain, which Arbitrum confirmed on X. 

Cointelegraph contacted Arbitrum and LG Electronics for comment. 

Related: Citi launches blockchain marketplace for private companies’ shares: Report

LG has been exploring opportunities in crypto for nearly a decade. 

In 2018, LG CNS, a subsidiary of the LG Corporation, launched an in-house blockchain called “Monachain” aimed at businesses that could be used for digital authentication, payments and supply chain management. 

LG Electronics developed a decentralized crypto wallet called Wallypto using the Hedera Hashgraph network at the height of the 2022 NFT boom. It served as a companion wallet for the LG Art Lab, an NFT platform that allowed users to display digital artwork on their TVs. 

The NFT platform was shut down in June 2025, adding to a wave of NFT marketplace closures that year, while LG Electronics terminated Wallypto a few months later in September. 

Magazine: Does ‘Paper Bitcoin’ mean there’s an unlimited supply of BTC?

Source: cointelegraph.com

US President Donald Trump said a deal to end the fighting between the US and Iran is scheduled to be signed on Sunday, despite officials in Tehran previously casting doubt on the timeline. 

“The Deal is scheduled to get signed tomorrow, and immediately after it is signed, the Hormuz Strait is OPEN TO ALL,” said Trump on Truth Social on Saturday. 

Source: Donald Trump

Pakistan, which is mediating talks between the US and Iran, also signaled an agreement could be reached within 24 hours. 

The deal, a memorandum of understanding, is expected to extend the ceasefire between the US and Iran for 60 days and reopen the Strait of Hormuz. 

The naval blockade has choked 20% of the world’s supply of oil and liquefied natural gas, which has led to higher global asset prices and a sentiment shock that has pressured crypto markets for months. 

“We are closer to a peace deal than ever before,” Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif said on X on Saturday. “With finalisation likely expected in the next 24 hours, Pakistan is preparing for the electronic signing of the peace deal immediately after, followed by technical level talks next week.” 

Iran has not confirmed the Sunday signing. 

Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Esmaeil Baghaei told state media earlier that the memorandum wouldn’t be signed on Sunday, but could happen “in the coming days.” 

“We will have to wait and see about the exact date of the signing of the memorandum of understanding, although it will not be tomorrow,” Baghaei said.

Analysts say peace deal will benefit crypto

Crypto analyst Michaël van de Poppe said a peace deal between Iran and the US will likely prompt a surge in Bitcoin, along with positive ETF flows. 

Spot Bitcoin exchange-traded funds (ETFs) recorded about $315.84 million in net outflows for the week ended Friday, marking the fifth consecutive week of outflows for the Bitcoin-linked crypto funds. 

Related: Bitcoin tags $63.2K as BTC price action ignores inflation, Iran Hormuz closure

“Liquidity will pour back into risk-on assets as liquidity will seek for an opportunity and after SpaceX IPO was done, most likely this will go towards crypto,” he added. 

On Wednesday, CoinShares head of research James Butterfill told Cointelegraph the recent outflow from digital asset investment products was being primarily driven by geopolitics, with uncertainty around the Iran conflict weighing on the outlook for interest rates.

Bitcoin was trading at $64,491 at the time of writing, up 1.5% over the past 24 hours. 

Magazine: Bitcoin, the ‘canary in the coal mine,’ XRP transaction demand falls 91.5%: Market Moves

Source: cointelegraph.com

Polish President Karol Nawrocki vetoed a cryptocurrency regulatory bill for the third time, which sought to implement Europe’s Markets in Crypto Assets Regulation (MiCA) in the country.

Nawrocki said Thursday he supports regulating the cryptocurrency market but argued that the government incorporated only one of 16 key amendments proposed by his office. He said that the text was nearly identical to the previous two drafts he refused.

The third veto of the bill delays Poland’s alignment with the EU-wide regulatory framework just weeks before the end of MiCA’s transitional period on July 1. Following the end of the grace period, crypto asset service providers will be required to hold a MiCA license or stop servicing EU clients.

Poland is currently the only EU member state without a domestic MiCA implementation. Following the July 1 deadline, Poland-based crypto asset service providers without a MiCA license may lose the legal basis to serve EU customers.

Related: MiCA architect says EU should prioritize tokenization over DeFi rules

Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk slammed the veto in a Thursday X post, writing: “It sounds unbelievable, but the president has vetoed the cryptocurrency bill again. He seems more entangled in it than everyone thought.”

Source: Donald Tusk

Political deadlock deepens over crypto bill

The decision adds to Poland’s political standoff on how the country should oversee crypto assets. It comes nearly two months after Poland’s parliament failed to reverse the second veto issued by President Nawrocki.

Lawmakers fell short of the 263 votes needed to override the veto in an April vote on the bill, which is backed by Tusk’s government and seeks to align Poland with MiCA.

Nawrocki has reportedly defended his opposition by citing concerns about excessive regulation, limited transparency and the potential burden on small businesses.

Government officials warned that delays leave consumers and businesses exposed to fraud and abuse.

The third veto comes as scrutiny of Poland’s crypto sector intensifies. Prosecutors are investigating one of Poland’s largest crypto exchanges, Zondacrypto, for suspected fraud and money laundering involving 2,000 customers with alleged links to Russian organized crime.

Zonda CEO Przemysław Kral has denied accusations of misappropriating funds.

Magazine: Crypto wanted to overthrow banks, now it’s becoming them in stablecoin fight

Source: cointelegraph.com

TRM Labs warned that crypto scammers are targeting FIFA World Cup fans through fake ticketing sites, fixed-match betting schemes and event-themed crypto promotions. 

The blockchain intelligence company said it identified several World Cup-related scam operations, including two fake-ticketing sites and one fixed-match betting pitch tied to four crypto addresses.

“Criminals always look to exploit major events and cultural moments and they don’t wait until kickoff,” Ari Redbord, global head of policy at TRM Labs, told Cointelegraph. “Scammers build and position their infrastructure weeks in advance, then scale it the moment public attention peaks.”

Redbord told Cointelegraph that the onchain nature of crypto payments allows investigators and compliance teams to act before losses grow.

The 2026 World Cup opened on Thursday, with FIFA expecting attendance of about 6.5 million fans throughout the tournament and about $40.9 billion in global gross domestic product impact, creating a large pool of ticketing, travel and betting demand for scammers to target.

Impact propagation of the World Cup 2026. Source: FIFA

FIFA and FBI warn World Cup fans of fake ticket scams

The World Cup is being held in Canada, Mexico and the US and is expected to drive a surge in ticketing, travel and betting activity.

That concentration of demand has already drawn warnings from authorities. In May, the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) said threat actors were spoofing FIFA websites ahead of the tournament to collect personal information, sell fake tickets and products and potentially carry out other malicious activity.

FBI warns of fake domains spoofing the official FIFA website. Source: FBI

FIFA has also warned fans that tickets purchased outside the official website may expose buyers to fraud. FIFA said tickets obtained through unofficial channels may be deemed invalid and subject to cancellation without notice.

Related: International sting shuts down $390M crypto money-laundering ring

World Cup organizers face a more complicated ticketing environment. The Council on Foreign Relations reported that several opening matches in the US and Canada were not sold out on FIFA’s platform as of Monday, while the Financial Times reported on Tuesday that official resale portals still had 176,000 unsold tickets across the group stages of the tournament.

Magazine: Korea’s first memecoin rug-pull case, China’s crypto rules review: Asia Express

Source: cointelegraph.com

Former FTX CEO Sam Bankman-Fried failed to overturn his fraud conviction and 25-year prison sentence tied to the collapse of FTX after a three-judge appeals panel rejected his bid for relief.

The unanimous ruling by the 2nd US Circuit Court of Appeals in Manhattan, New York, found that the government’s case against Bankman-Fried was, in the court’s words, “conservatively stated, robust,” according to Reuters.

Source: Toby Cunningham

“While he ‌was publicly reassuring customers, investors and regulators ‌that FTX customer funds were safe, he was simultaneously using FTX as his own personal piggy bank, spending customer funds ⁠on real estate, ⁠political contributions, and investments,” wrote Circuit Judge Barrington Parker.

The decision comes as Bankman-Fried pursues another avenue to challenge his conviction. As Cointelegraph recently reported, he has formally applied for a presidential pardon from US President Donald Trump, with the request appearing on the US Department of Justice Office of the Pardon Attorney website in early June.

Bankman-Fried was sentenced to 25 years in prison in 2024 after being convicted on fraud and conspiracy charges stemming from the multibillion-dollar collapse of FTX.

Related: Sam Bankman-Fried ramps up Trump support following Ellison’s release

Bankman-Fried’s pardon bid faces long odds

In a recent interview with Fox Business, Bankman-Fried said he was “absolutely” seeking a presidential pardon from Donald Trump. However, the former FTX CEO does not appear to have much support from the president. 

Trump told The New York Times in January that he had no plans to pardon Bankman-Fried. A White House spokesperson also declined to comment on the clemency request, referring Bloomberg last week to the president’s earlier remarks.

Still, Trump has shown a willingness to grant high-profile pardons, including one for Silk Road founder Ross Ulbricht shortly after returning to office.

Ulbricht operated the dark web marketplace Silk Road, which used Bitcoin as a primary payment method. He was serving two life sentences plus 40 years before Trump pardoned him in January 2025.

Related: FTX law firm Fenwick & West to pay $54M to victims in settlement

Source: cointelegraph.com