The memecoin trenches are showing signs of renewed life this week, led by an unlikely catalyst, a Shiba Inu plush toy that once floated in zero gravity aboard a SpaceX spacecraft.

ASTEROID, an Ethereum-based memecoin named after the toy that flew on SpaceX’s Polaris Dawn mission in September 2024, surged more than 70,000% in 24 hours to a $28 million market cap on Friday. Trading volume spiked above $43 million, according to DexScreener data, with some early holders recording six-figure gains.

The rally was sparked by a viral post from Glenn Beck on X highlighting the story of Liv Perrotto, the 15-year-old cancer patient who designed the Asteroid plush. Perrotto, who passed away from cancer, had dreamed of meeting Elon Musk and had written a list of questions for him, including whether he would make Asteroid SpaceX’s official mascot. Her mother, Rebecca Perrotto, shared the story through Beck’s platform.

Musk replied to the post with “Will answer shortly,” and that response was all the memecoin market needed. Buying pressure flooded both the Ethereum and Solana versions of the token.

On-chain analyst Lookonchain flagged a wallet that spent 12 ETH (about $31,000) on ASTEROID back in September 2024 and held it for more than 580 days at near-zero value. After Musk’s engagement, that position swelled to roughly $292,000 in unrealized gains.

Arkham highlighted another wallet that is sitting on more than $400,000 in unrealized profits after spending 1 ETH ($2,400) on the token shortly after Musk’s response.

UNC Catches a Bid

ASTEROID is not the only micro-cap drawing attention. On Solana, the UNC memecoin surged above $21 million on Thursday with $15.3 million in trading volume, the highest on the chain that day.

The token, built around Gen Z “cool uncle” internet culture, caught fire after a trader known as fibonacki purchased 37.45% of UNC’s supply when its market cap sat at just $6,000. That trader then airdropped 33.85% of the total supply to over 2,000 on-chain addresses, including several well-known figures.

Broader Memecoin Sector Stirs

The micro-cap action comes as the broader memecoin sector attempts to stabilize after a punishing 2025, during which total memecoin market capitalization fell from $93.1 billion to roughly $36.5 billion.

Data from CoinGecko shows the sector currently sits near $39 billion, up 10% over the past 24 hours.

All of the top-10 memecoins by market cap, including DOGE, SHIB, PEPE, TRUMP, BONK, Pudgy Penguins (PENGU), and FLOKI, are green on the week as activity has picked up alongside the broader risk-on rotation earlier this week.

This article was written with the assistance of AI workflows. All our stories are curated, edited and fact-checked by a human.

TLDR:

• Iran’s foreign minister confirmed the Strait of Hormuz is open to all commercial vessels during the ceasefire period.
  
• President Trump stated the U.S. naval blockade will remain active until a deal with Iran is fully and completely finalized.
  
• The Trump administration is weighing the unfreezing of $20 billion in Iranian assets as part of ongoing nuclear negotiations.
  
• A 10-day Lebanon ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah is holding, easing a key sticking point in the broader Iran talks.

The Strait of Hormuz is currently open to all commercial shipping vessels following a ceasefire between the United States and Iran.

Iran’s foreign minister confirmed the vital trade route would remain accessible during the truce period. However, President Donald Trump stated that the U.S. naval blockade will stay active. A broader agreement must be fully completed before any military presence is withdrawn from the region.

Iran Commits to Keeping the Strait of Hormuz Open

Iran’s foreign minister officially announced that the Strait of Hormuz would be open to commercial vessels. The waterway handles a substantial portion of the world’s oil trade and remains critical to global markets. This announcement came alongside a ceasefire agreement reached between Tehran and Washington.

Despite the announcement, Iranian state media introduced some uncertainty around the commitment. Shipping companies are also expressing caution and have not fully resumed normal operations through the strait. Industry players are waiting for clearer guarantees before adjusting their routes or schedules.

President Trump publicly confirmed Iran’s pledge, stating that Tehran has committed not to close the waterway. However, he made clear that U.S. naval forces would not stand down just yet. Trump said the blockade would remain until a deal with Iran is “100% complete.”

The situation reflects a delicate balance between military posture and diplomatic progress. Both sides appear committed to keeping talks moving forward while maintaining their respective positions. Commercial shipping remains cautious but operational through the strait at this stage.

Nuclear Deal Talks and Broader Conflict Resolution Progress

Peace negotiations between the U.S. and Iran are actively ongoing, with Trump expressing confidence in a near-term resolution.

He told reporters a deal could be reached “in the next day or two.” Talks are also expected to continue through the weekend, according to the president.

One notable development involves a proposal to unfreeze approximately $20 billion in Iranian assets. This measure is being considered as part of broader incentives to bring Iran to a final agreement. Sources familiar with the discussions confirmed this option is currently on the table.

Trump also stated that the United States intends to acquire Iran’s enriched uranium stockpile as part of any deal. He said the U.S. “will acquire Iran’s enriched uranium” under the terms being negotiated. The exact conditions surrounding uranium transfers remain a point of active discussion.

Separately, a 10-day ceasefire in Lebanon appears to be holding steadily. The conflict between Israel and Hezbollah has been described as a “key sticking point” in the broader Iran negotiations. Stability in Lebanon could support momentum toward a wider regional agreement in the coming days.

In Solana news today, DoubleZero Foundation launched Edge, a public beta platform that delivers raw Solana block data through a private global fiber network using multicast, bypassing the public internet to cut average delivery times by 6 milliseconds — the same data distribution standard that traditional exchanges have used for decades.

In Solana news today, DoubleZero Foundation launched Edge, a public beta platform that delivers raw Solana block data through a private global fiber network using multicast, bypassing the public internet and cutting average data delivery times by 6 milliseconds compared to conventional routing. The service went live Thursday with 379 validators actively publishing shreds.

The data subscribers receive is raw — the same UDP packets emitted by the Solana leader before any third-party processing. Reconstruction, decoding, and strategy logic remain on the subscriber’s side. Access is permissionless; payment is in USDC per device per epoch, approximately every two days.

Solana’s block data currently travels over the public internet, introducing unpredictable latency, forcing trading firms to piece together combinations of APIs, RPC nodes, and CDN connections with varying performance ceilings. Edge replaces that path with multicast. A single stream is sent once and replicated at the network level, reaching all subscribers in one hop from the Solana leader with no relay tree and no positional advantages between participants.

The 6-millisecond gain is an average. During peak network activity — the conditions that matter most to high-frequency trading firms and market makers — the advantage from dedicated fiber compounds. Solana’s growing DEX volume has already placed five Solana-native protocols in the global top-10 by daily trading activity. Traders competing in that environment operate on execution margins where milliseconds translate directly to profitability.

DoubleZero co-founder Andrew McConnell stated the case plainly. “Traditional finance has spent decades building infrastructure where speed and deterministic performance are a real competitive advantage,” he said. “On-chain markets didn’t get that foundation, which left even sophisticated trading firms working on uneven ground.”

The Validator Revenue Model

Validators earn additional income by publishing shreds to Edge, creating a direct economic incentive for consistent, low-latency data publication that operates independently of block rewards and staking yields. Current subscription prices run from $30 to $100 per epoch depending on the city through May 2026. Revenue is distributed each epoch: 50% to network contributors who supply fiber links, 32.5% to validators originating shreds, and 17.5% to protocol clients. An additional 10% burns the protocol’s native token.

DoubleZero plans to expand Edge’s data coverage beyond Solana shreds to include centralized exchange feeds, prediction market data, and traditional exchange order-by-order data, positioning the platform as a unified data layer across on-chain and off-chain markets. That ambition sits directly within Solana’s broader upgrade narrative for 2026, which includes the Alpenglow consensus overhaul targeting 150ms finality and the Firedancer client targeting over one million transactions per second.

The Institutional Context

DoubleZero raised $28 million from Multicoin Capital and Dragonfly Capital in March 2025. The project is co-founded by Austin Federa, who previously served as head of strategy and communications at the Solana Foundation, giving it direct lineage to the network’s infrastructure development community. The launch of Edge beta marks the first time a dedicated market data distribution product has gone live on a major Layer-1 blockchain in a format that explicitly mirrors what Bloomberg and Reuters-style direct data feeds provide in traditional markets — a gap that institutional trading firms have cited as a structural disadvantage of on-chain venues since DeFi began competing for institutional flow.

Connecticut Senator Richard Blumenthal has intensified congressional oversight of Binance, asking the Justice Department and FinCEN for detailed updates on whether the exchange is meeting anti-money-laundering and sanctions obligations embedded in its 2023 monitoring regime. A Fortune report on Friday describes Blumenthal’s letters as requesting a current assessment of Binance’s compliance with the agreement.

The 2023 settlement required Binance to pay $4.3 billion in civil penalties and to fall under ongoing U.S. monitoring and reporting by regulators. Changpeng “CZ” Zhao, Binance’s founder, agreed to plead guilty to one felony as part of the resolution. DOJ and FinCEN officials responsible for overseeing the monitoring reportedly did not comment when approached by Fortune.

Blumenthal’s correspondence reportedly highlighted “mounting allegations of dangerously lax anti-money laundering prevention by Binance,” underscoring ongoing questions about the effectiveness of post‑settlement oversight and the sufficiency of the program’s controls.

Fortune also notes that the case has broader sanctions implications, including Iran-related scrutiny. The outlet reports that Binance had been accused of sanction evasion and that employees who flagged potential violations were reportedly dismissed; a Binance spokesperson denied the specific claims.

Separately, a bipartisan group of lawmakers pressed for action earlier this year. In February, Senator Chris Van Hollen and 10 colleagues urged Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and former Attorney General Pamela Bondi to complete a “prompt, comprehensive review” of Binance’s compliance controls. The letter, circulated by Van Hollen’s office, signals continued bipartisan concern over how Binance’s regulatory posture is being assessed and enforced. Source: Van Hollen’s office.

Key takeaways

• A sitting U.S. senator asks DOJ and FinCEN for a current update on Binance’s compliance with AML and sanctions monitoring, citing a Fortune report on the matter.
• The 2023 settlement’s monitoring regime remains under scrutiny, with regulators yet to publicly detail its effectiveness or any gaps.
• Iran sanctions-related inquiries and related staffing changes at Binance are part of the ongoing oversight narrative, though Binance denies the specific allegations.
• Lawmakers have pressed for a rapid, comprehensive review of Binance’s controls, illustrating sustained bipartisan concern about crypto exchanges’ regulatory compliance.
• Questions about Binance’s political associations and external partnerships continue to surface, adding a political dimension to regulatory risk for the sector.

Regulatory monitoring under the 2023 settlement

The 2023 settlement placed Binance under an active regime of monitoring and reporting to U.S. authorities. As part of the deal, the exchange faced a substantial civil penalty and agreed to ongoing regulatory scrutiny designed to police anti-money-laundering controls and sanctions compliance. The latest inquiries focus on whether those measures are functioning as intended and how regulators verify ongoing adherence. Fortune’s reporting emphasizes that lawmakers want a transparent, current account of the program’s status, including any identified shortcomings and planned fixes.

Sanctions scrutiny and Iran-related dynamics

Iran sanctions have repeatedly surfaced in discussions around Binance. Reports cited by Fortune suggest that concerns about evasion tactics prompted internal reviews and staff changes, with claims that one billion dollars’ worth of activity may have moved toward Iran-linked entities. Binance has publicly denied these allegations through a spokesperson, underscoring the ongoing dispute over what actually occurred and how it should be interpreted within the monitoring framework.

Political entanglements and ongoing oversight tensions

The regulatory conversation around Binance is taking place against a backdrop of broader political considerations. In March 2025, a UAE-based entity reportedly acquired a $2 billion stake in Binance using a USD1 stablecoin issued by World Liberty Financial, a company associated with Donald Trump. In a separate development, Trump pardoned CZ in October 2025 after a four‑month prison stint tied to the 2023 settlement. While these items are part of public discourse around Binance, they contribute to a broader risk perception for investors and users who weigh regulatory certainty against political influence in the crypto space.

For readers tracking the regulatory arc, these disclosures reinforce why a formal, auditable update from U.S. authorities and Binance remains pivotal. The evolving status of the monitoring program, forthcoming agency statements, and any new enforcement steps will be essential to watch in the coming months.

Readers should keep an eye on forthcoming confirmations from the DOJ, FinCEN, and Binance about any adjustments to the monitoring regime, as well as any legislative or administrative signals that could reshape how large crypto platforms are governed in the United States.

Neo co-founder Da Hongfei has proposed a sweeping overhaul of the Neo Foundation after years of deadlock with co-founder Erik Zhang left one of crypto’s oldest networks effectively paralyzed.

The plan follows Neo’s first public financial disclosure since 2019, showing about $461 million in assets held across the Neo Foundation (NF) and Neo Global Development (NGD) at the end of 2025.

The proposed restructuring aims to replace what Hongfei described as informal, founder-driven governance, arguing the outcome could serve as a test case for how aging blockchain networks manage large treasuries and transition away from founder control.

Zhang has pushed back on key elements of the proposal, exposing further divisions at the top of the project and increasing scrutiny from users and investors.

Hongfei told Cointelegraph that at the core of the restructuring is a break with the founder-centric model that defined Neo’s first decade.

The proposal would redomicile the foundation to the Cayman Islands, create a five-member board and an independent Supervisor with power to block bylaw breaches, and impose a 24-month ban on either founder sitting on the board or supervisory body. 

Neo’s fight has become a case study in how older blockchain networks with large treasuries struggle to move beyond founder-centric governance, especially after years of informal control and limited public financial disclosure.

Related: Aave DAO approves $25M funding grant, token allocation for Aave Labs

Returning NEO tokens to the community

According to the disclosure, NF and NGD currently control about 41 million NEO (31.3%), mainly under single-signature control. Hongfei’s “Giveback II” plan would return 49.5 million reserved NEO (NEO) to the community and consolidate NGD-managed investments back into the foundation, which would operate under mandatory annual financial reports, onchain attestations for large transfers, and fully disclosed multi-signature wallets for Bitcoin (BTC), Ether (ETH), stablecoins and other liquid assets.

He said the changes are designed to replace “trust me” governance around treasury and custody, pointing to Ethereum creator Vitalik Buterin’s influence-through-research model as a standard founders should emulate.

Zhang remains unconvinced, arguing that the proposal grounds Neo’s legitimacy in offchain legal structures and still leaves room for opaque third-party attestations instead of directly verifiable onchain addresses.

He said excluding him from the board for 24 months strips Neo of essential technical oversight, calling the Cayman “reset” a cosmetic shell change that dodges historical accountability and unresolved transparency issues.

Governance woes across decentralized finance

The push comes as governance fights and perceived insider advantages dominate debate across decentralized finance. Aave’s long-running dispute between the founder-aligned Aave Chan Initiative and other stakeholders has raised questions about how much power entrenched service providers should wield inside decentralized autonomous organizations.

Related: WLFI proposes governance staking system and USD1 usage incentives

The Trump family-linked World Liberty Financial drew scathing criticism from stakeholders this week, including Tron founder Justin Sun, over a proposed new unlock schedule for its WLFI governance token and discretionary control over treasury assets.

Neo’s bet to revive network relevance

Behind the governance reset sits an attempt to give Neo a credible new thesis in a market where activity has consolidated onto Ethereum, a few layer-2s, Solana, and a handful of other chains. 

Hongfei conceded Neo’s user base today is “not where it was in the 2017 to 2021 cycle,” and the numbers “reflect a project that has seen better days.”

He said users are more concentrated in long-term holders and community groups; the Chinese market that once fueled activity has shrunk under Beijing’s bans, and Neo missed “DeFi Summer” after delays in shipping its N3 upgrade.

He now argues that the next decade of onchain activity will be driven less by humans than by autonomous AI agents transacting on their behalf, positioning Neo X as an “agent-first” blockchain optimized for the shift. 

He said the real test for both the governance reboot and the AI thesis will be whether, over the next 12 to 24 months, Neo can complete its restructuring and attract a meaningful pipeline of agent-native projects, and whether he would still seek a board seat if those milestones are missed.

Magazine: Will the CLARITY Act be good — or bad — for DeFi?