SEC Chair Paul Atkins said Friday the agency is considering changes to how securities regulations apply to blockchain-based financial markets and AI-powered financial applications, as digital asset firms increasingly move trading and settlement activity onchain.

Speaking at the AI+ Expo in Washington, Atkins said the SEC is considering formal rulemaking around onchain trading systems, blockchain settlement infrastructure, automated financial applications and crypto vaults that increasingly blur the lines between traditional players.

Existing securities rules were designed around traditional market intermediaries such as brokers, exchanges and clearinghouses, he argued, while newer blockchain systems often combine those functions into a single software protocol. Atkins’ predecessor, Gary Gensler, had held a similar view, though he focused more on centralized exchanges that the SEC argued provided those different functions under one roof at the time, mostly through lawsuits.

“A single protocol can execute a trade, manage collateral, route liquidity, execute trading strategies through vault structures and settle the transaction,” Atkins said.

“We should remember that onchain market structures today are often hybrid in nature, combining elements of what are often referred to as ‘traditional’ and ‘decentralized’ finance,” he said. “We should clarify how the Commission views the spectrum of models that may implicate our statutes through notice and comment rulemaking, using our exemptive authorities where necessary and prudent.”

Atkins’ remarks highlighted the latest step in the regulatory agency’s pivot away from the enforcement-heavy approach under former Chair Gary Gensler. Under President Donald Trump’s administartion, the SEC has issued crypto-related staff guidance, no-action reliefs and public statements aimed at reducing legal uncertainty for digital asset firms.

The chair framed the potential changes as part of a broader shift toward an AI-driven and automated financial infrastructure. He argued that artificial intelligence agents will increasingly participate in markets and financial decision-making at machine speed, while blockchain rails allow those systems to move value instantly.

The SEC, he said, should avoid locking emerging technologies into outdated rules.

“Our job is to set the rules of play and referee the game, not to pick the winning team,” Atkins said.

He also reiterated support for congressional efforts to pass crypto market structure legislation, including the CLARITY Act, which would establish a regulatory framework for digital assets shared between the SEC and Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC).

TeraWulf’s Q1 2026 results show $21 million in AI/HPC hosting revenue versus under $13 million from Bitcoin mining, marking the first quarter where high‑performance compute has overtaken BTC as the company’s primary revenue driver.

TeraWulf’s latest earnings show its business model tilting decisively away from pure Bitcoin mining and toward rented compute for AI and cloud workloads.

In its first-quarter 2026 results, the company reported total revenue of $34 million, with HPC leasing income reaching $21 million and digital asset mining bringing in just under $13 million, according to its earnings release. That marks the first time HPC has overtaken Bitcoin as TeraWulf’s primary revenue driver and follows several quarters of ramp-up at its Lake Mariner facility in New York.

A summary from NS3.AI, cited by Binance’s news feed, noted that Q1 revenue was “relatively stable compared to the same period last year,” but emphasized that the revenue mix has flipped, with more than 60% now coming from HPC hosting. MarketBeat’s transcript of the company’s earnings call highlights the same shift, describing Q1 as “a business in transition from volatile Bitcoin mining revenue to stable, credit-backed, contracted HPC revenue streams.”

From volatile mining to contracted AI compute

Chief financial officer Patrick Fleury told analysts that TeraWulf is deliberately swapping out exposure to Bitcoin’s price cycle for multi‑year, fixed‑fee compute deals. “In summary, 1Q reflects a business in transition from volatile Bitcoin mining revenue to stable contracted HPC revenue,” he said on the call, adding that “mining continues to strategically support this transition” while the company brings more AI capacity online.

The shift is already visible in operations. TeraWulf disclosed that it has 60 megawatts of HPC capacity generating revenue at its Lake Mariner data center and plans to expand that footprint over the rest of 2026. A prior 2025 update said the firm had begun building “dedicated HPC data halls” and remained on track to deliver 72.5 MW of gross HPC hosting infrastructure to Abu Dhabi’s Core42 unit, underlining that its growth market is now AI infrastructure, not new ASIC halls.

Financially, the quarter still looked messy. MarketBeat data show that the company’s net loss widened to about $427.6 million, driven in large part by a non‑cash loss on warrant revaluation as its share price and capital structure shifted. But Fleury stressed that underlying cash generation is improving as more HPC contracts ramp, and that “with more than 50% of first quarter 2026 revenue derived from HPC hosting, and additional compute capacity expected to come online in the second quarter and throughout the remainder of the year, we expect our revenue mix to continue shifting toward stable, contracted HPC hosting revenues backed by investment-grade counterparties,” according to a preliminary statement.

Miners race to become AI infrastructure plays

TeraWulf is not alone in this pivot. Riot Platforms has already reported its own first-quarter 2026 results, showing $167.22 million in total revenue, including $33.2 million from data center operations tied to AI and cloud customers, according to a Yahoo Finance recap. Reuters recently reported that activist investor Starboard Value is pressing Riot to “speed up AI data center deals,” arguing that the company is “well‑positioned to capitalize on booming demand for artificial intelligence infrastructure” thanks to its cheap power and existing campuses.

Crypto.news has chronicled this evolution in a broader story on miners’ post‑halving strategies, noting that firms from TeraWulf to Riot and Core Scientific are increasingly describing themselves as “compute infrastructure” companies rather than simply miners. Another crypto.news story contrasted the economics of AI compute versus Bitcoin mining, pointing out that long‑term AI contracts can offer steadier returns than block rewards in a high‑hashrate, high‑difficulty environment.

TeraWulf’s Q1 numbers show that shift moving from pitch deck to P&L. If AI demand for power‑dense, low‑latency data centers keeps rising and BTC’s economics remain cyclical and margin‑compressed, more miners are likely to follow — turning the “hashrate arms race” into a broader fight for who controls the world’s cheapest and most scalable compute.

This story was originally published on CFO.com. To receive daily news and insights, subscribe to our free daily CFO.com newsletter.

Josh Greear didn’t expect to fall in love with the franchise industry when he accepted his first CFO role at Primrose Schools, an early childhood education franchise organization, in 2018. Hooked on the franchise model, Greear stayed with the company for almost eight years.

Greear came to Primrose Schools from restaurant chain Cracker Barrel, where he started as FP&A director in 2009 before being named vice president of strategy and development in 2013. Greear previously held finance positions at organizations that included a healthcare management company and a Home Depot-owned wholesale distribution company.

In September 2025, Greear remained in franchising by joining Authority Brands, which owns 15 home service franchise companies. As CFO, he oversees a finance and technology team of about 100 people serving more than 1,000 franchise owners.

Josh Greear

CFO, Authority Brands

First CFO position: 2018

Notable previous employers:

• Primrose Schools

• Cracker Barrel

• HD Supply

• The Home Depot

This interview has been edited for brevity and clarity.

SANDRA BECKWITH: You joined Authority Brands one month after the current CEO did and following a significant growth period. Why were you the right choice at that pivotal moment?

JOSH GREEAR: Authority Brands has historically grown by adding brands, and that will continue. But the real value is going to come from driving improved unit-level economics for our franchise owners.

In addition to my franchise industry experience, leadership was excited about my background leading operational initiatives, delivering margin expansion, supporting improvements for franchisees, spearheading development and growth and transforming businesses with data.

Your path to CFO ran through a vice president of strategy and business development role at Cracker Barrel – great experience for a CFO-to-be. Was that a deliberate career move? And what did it teach you that pure finance roles hadn’t?

It was absolutely intentional. Sandy Cochran, who hired me when she was CFO before being named CEO, and Larry Hyatt, the subsequent CFO, worked closely with me on my professional development. They eventually created the strategy and development role so I could get experience beyond the traditional finance disciplines.

I worked closely with the board to figure out how to grow the core business, which at the time was producing a lot of cash but had limited future growth options. We needed to determine exactly what the company needed to look like in the future.

It gave me a different type of exposure to the board, one that involved thinking through more longer-term, forward-looking questions. Even more important than that, though, was the opportunity to be a leader driving change. It’s something a traditional finance role doesn’t always expose you to.

You spent about two-thirds of your career outside the franchising world before moving into that industry. How does franchise finance leadership differ?

I am in love with the franchise model because I enjoy working with franchisees who are small business owners with everything on the line.

The biggest finance leadership difference is the opportunity to build relationships with these small business owners. I might be working with a group of owners from The Cleaning Authority or an individual One Hour Heating & Air Conditioning franchisee to help them drive their business and profitability.

It’s not just the number of businesses I can influence, though. It’s also the range, from emerging operators and single- or two-territory owners to more established businesses and larger operators backed by private equity.

Looking back on your career, what do you think was the most pivotal moment … or what “aha” has had a significant impact?

When I worked at HD Supply during the global recession, my business unit was truly fighting to stay in business every day. As we were grinding through that and making tough decisions, I realized that the weight of our choices included whether or not some of our team members had jobs.

Really understanding that people are at the end of these decisions changed my perspective from that point forward.

What are you most proud of in your career?

First, it’s the people I’ve been able to develop.

From a project standpoint, it’s my role in creating a new restaurant concept from scratch for Cracker Barrel. From deciding what space and format we should target to creating the brand and business model, I led concept creation for fast-casual chain Holler & Dash Biscuit House. Watching it open, then win awards, was a really exciting time for me.

What advice would you give to others in finance hoping to become CFOs?

Find good mentors who can help you think about your development. I’ve benefited from several.

Make sure you learn your business, too. When I was in Home Depot’s internal audit leadership training program, working in stores helped make the numbers real while I built trust and increased my influence.

• HYPE token gains driven by strong earnings and rising protocol revenue.
• HIP-3 growth lifts Hyperliquid’s open interest to about $1.43 billion.
• Hyperliquid price eyes $45–$50 if the support near $43.5 holds.

Hyperliquid (HYPE) is currently trading around $42.78, up roughly 1.6% in the last 24 hours, and has been showing resilience within a tight intraday range between $42.06 and $43.06.

Over the past week, HYPE’s price action has expanded slightly, with HYPE moving between $40.75 and $44.65, showing a gradual buildup rather than sharp volatility.

The uptick is coming from ecosystem growth, institutional involvement, and a steady rise in derivatives activity across the platform.

Earnings-driven momentum and ecosystem expansion

The HYPE price hike is closely tied to strong performance updates from Hyperliquid Strategies Inc., one of the largest holders of the token.

The firm reported a Q1 net profit of around $152.5 million, largely driven by gains linked to its HYPE holdings.

However, Hyperliquid Strategies has recorded a $165 million net loss over the past nine months, mainly due to unrealised valuation swings and tax adjustments.

This contrast highlights how closely its financial performance is tied to HYPE price action.

Despite the volatility in earnings, the company has remained consistent with its HYPE accumulation strategy.

The company continues to hold roughly 20 million HYPE tokens and has deployed more than $220 million into building its position.

Hyperliquid Strategies also maintains a debt-free structure with over $100 million in cash reserves, reinforcing long-term conviction rather than short-term trading behaviour.

At the Hyperliquid protocol level, activity has also been expanding.

The HIP-3 upgrade has pushed open interest to approximately $1.43 billion, with total derivatives open interest across the platform now estimated near $1.75 billion.

A large portion of this activity is coming from tokenised real-world assets such as oil, gold, and equities, showing that usage is not limited to crypto-native trading pairs.

Buybacks, burn mechanics, and institutional flows

One of the strongest structural drivers behind HYPE’s bullish stance remains its evolving token economy.

Across recent updates, more than 45 million HYPE tokens have been removed through buybacks and burns, tightening supply dynamics at a steady pace.

The upcoming HIP-4 upgrade is expected to further strengthen this structure by directing trading fees toward additional buyback and burn activity.

On the revenue side, the platform has been generating consistent traction.

Weekly protocol revenue has been reported at around $11.58 million, while total value locked stands near $5.42 billion, reflecting sustained capital participation.

HYPE technical analysis

From a technical standpoint, HYPE has been attempting to stabilise above a key breakout zone around $43.50–$43.60.

Holding this region is seen as important for continuation, while resistance remains positioned near $45.70–$45.80.

Momentum indicators remain supportive, with the Relative Strength Index (RSI) hovering around 57.61, suggesting strong but not overheated conditions.

At the same time, MACD trends remain positive, aligning with the broader upward bias seen over the past several sessions.

Hyperliquid (HYPE) price forecast

The short-term outlook for HYPE remains cautiously bullish, driven by a combination of earnings-backed narratives, rising derivatives activity, and ongoing token supply reduction mechanisms.

If HYPE holds above the $43.50 support zone, momentum could extend toward the next resistance at $45.70.

A clean breakout above this level would open the path toward the widely watched $50 price zone, which aligns with both technical projections and recent analyst expectations tied to expanding open interest and protocol revenue growth.

On the downside, failure to maintain support could trigger a pullback toward the $40–$42 range, where earlier accumulation has previously taken place.

Coinbase (COIN) reported a multi-hour disruption to crypto trading on Thursday, which the Nasdaq-listed exchange attributed to an outage at Amazon Web Services. The incident drew criticism as Coinbase continues to grapple with declining trading activity, quarterly losses, and staff layoffs.

The crypto trading platform said users were unable to transact across web and mobile services after failures hit multiple AWS availability zones in the U.S. Eastern Region, located in Virginia.

“Coinbase experienced service disruptions due to increased temperatures in the affected AWS service,” the trading platform said in a status-page update. Trading was later restored after markets were briefly placed into a “cancel only” mode.

“This primary issue is now fully resolved – thank you for your patience,” said Coinbase on Friday in an X post, adding its team would investigate the incident. “Details may change as our investigation progresses and more information is received from AWS’s official retrospective, once published.”

In a separate statement on X, Coinbase said systems initially flagged “high error rates across multiple services,” and engineers traced the issue to failures in AWS infrastructure.

“Coinbase systems are designed to be resilient to a single zone outage,” the company said. “In this case, we observed failures impacting multiple AWS zones, which caused an extended outage of core trading services.”

However, the disruption drew criticism from software engineer Gergely Orosz, formerly at Uber and Skype, who has over 310,000 followers on X.

“Unfortunate optics for Coinbase to have an hours-long outage when customers could not trade, a few days after their CEO said how non-technical teams are shipping code to production,” Orosz wrote on Friday.

Coinbase has faced scrutiny in the past due to outages during periods of high market volatility and infrastructure stress. In 2020, Coinbase experienced a brief outage as the price of bitcoin crashed 10% from $9,500 to $8,100 in 30 minutes. Other U.S. exchanges, including Kraken, had reported all systems as operational during the same period. A week prior to that, Coinbase experienced a similar outage when bitcoin rallied 15% to $8,900.

For Coinbase, which, as of now, appears to be the only crypto exchange affected by the May 7, 2026, outage, the disruption comes at a time when the company is facing financial and operational challenges.

On Thursday, Coinbase shares fell more than 5% in after-hours trading after it reported weaker-than-expected Q1 2026 results as decreasing crypto prices affected trading activity, one of the firm’s main revenue streams. The company posted a loss of $1.49 per share, compared with analyst expectations for a $0.27 profit. Revenue came in at $1.41 billion, below estimates of $1.52 billion.

It also follows its May 5 decision to slash its workforce by 14% or roughly 660 employees in response to negative market conditions and AI challenges. CEO Brian Armstrong announced the cuts in an X post on Tuesday, citing the “two forces” that converged in his firm’s decision to slash staff.