Apple is being re-rated as an AI winner on the back of “agentic” iPhone and Mac ecosystems rather than frontier models, and the next question is whether on-device agents eventually plug into tokenized payments and assets.

Apple’s perceived AI weakness, a sluggish Siri upgrade cycle and no marquee in-house foundation modeL, is being reframed as a strategic strength built around the iPhone and Mac as “agentic AI” hubs. In a recent investor note, Bank of America technology analyst Wamsi Mohan argued that Apple’s control of silicon, operating systems and the services stack gives it an “agentic AI moat,” because the value in an AI agent world accrues less to the model and more to the platform that owns intent, identity and payments. “In an agentic world, value accrues to the platform that controls user intent, personal context, app access, permissions, identity, authentication, payments, and trust,” he wrote, adding that the smartphone is “the scaled consumer device where these factors already converge.”

Mohan’s thesis is simple: if AI assistants become the new front door for search, apps, commerce, scheduling, payments and workflow completion, then the device and ecosystem that intermediate those interactions will hold leverage over model providers, app developers, merchants, advertisers and payment networks. Apple, with the iPhone at the center of a tightly integrated ecosystem and the Mac emerging as a go-to workstation for AI, looks uniquely positioned to capture that choke point. On the back of that argument, he maintained a Buy rating on the stock and raised his price target from $330 to $380, implying about 20% upside from Apple’s roughly $312.69 level in recent trading.

Agentic AI meets the iPhone – and eventually tokenization

Agentic AI, in this framing, is not just “smarter Siri.” It is a layer of semi-autonomous and fully autonomous digital helpers that live across devices and constantly execute tasks: sorting files, reading email, booking travel, managing subscriptions, triaging notifications and, crucially, initiating and settling payments. Mohan notes that “Apple does not need to own the best frontier model if it owns the trusted interface that routes intent across local models, Apple-controlled cloud models, external models, and app actions.” That interface is the iPhone, fortified by secure enclaves, biometric identity, App Store curation and a deeply entrenched payments stack in Apple Pay and Apple Cash.

As AI agents are given more autonomy over money flows from paying bills, moving savings, refinancing loans, rebalancing portfolios, topping up stablecoins, the underlying financial rails matter. The same GENIUS-Act style logic that is now being used to define compliant, fully reserved stablecoins and tokenized deposits for institutions points toward a future where “money” inside an agentic Apple ecosystem is not just a bank balance, but a collection of tokenized claims: regulated stablecoins, tokenized Treasuries, tokenized card receivables, even tokenized Apple services credits. Apple already controls identity, authentication and payments; plugging tokenized instruments into that stack is not a philosophical leap, it is an implementation detail. In that world, the moat is not just AI, but AI plus tokenized, programmable value moving through a closed, trusted interface.

Mac Mini, Mac Studio and the hardware side of the moat

This shift is not theoretical on the hardware side. While the iPhone is the obvious agentic endpoint, Apple’s Macs are already functioning as agent workhorses. The Mac Mini and Mac Studio, powered by Apple Silicon and priced aggressively relative to competing AI-capable desktops, have been selling out as developers and power users adopt them as local agent platforms. Tim Cook underscored this dynamic on Apple’s latest earnings call, calling the Mac Mini and Mac Studio “amazing platforms for AI and agentic tools” and noting that “customer recognition of that is happening faster than what we had predicted,” leading to higher-than-expected demand and several months of anticipated supply-demand imbalance.

That hardware story matters for tokenization too. If developers are building agents on Mac that will eventually run on iPhone, those agents will need to integrate with whatever financial primitives regulators allow at scale: bank APIs, card networks, and increasingly, compliant tokenized instruments. Apple’s incentive is to keep that complexity invisible to the user while keeping the trust layer entirely under its control. For investors staring at a $312 share price and a $380 target, the question is whether the market is properly pricing not just Apple’s agentic AI positioning, but the second-order effect of becoming the default interface for tokenized money and assets in a world where agents do most of the transacting.

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An attacker minted more than 5.4 trillion vsdCRV on Arbitrum after a suspected compromise of a StakeDAO-linked deployer key, though thin liquidity limited the realized proceeds to about $91,000.

Blockchain security firm PeckShield said Wednesday the attacker swapped part of the minted vsdCRV for 43.7 Ether (ETH), worth about $91,000, and bridged the funds to Ethereum. Onchain analyst EmberCN said the attacker swapped about 16.83 million vsdCRV, while the remaining tokens had little meaningful liquidity to exit.

EmberCN estimated the 5.4 trillion vsdCRV at about $763 billion on paper, though the figure does not represent the attacker’s realized profit or the protocol’s confirmed loss.

The incident highlights the gap between nominal token values and extractable value in decentralized finance exploits, where attackers can mint enormous token amounts but only cash out what available liquidity allows. In this case, the attacker’s proceeds were limited by the small size of vsdCRV liquidity pools.

StakeDAO said it was aware of the incident and warned its users not to interact with vsdCRV.

Stake DAO said it was aware of the incident. Source: Stake DAO

Incident points to a deployer-key compromise 

Shalev Keren, chief product officer and co-founder of crypto key-management firm Sodot, told Cointelegraph that the StakeDAO incident was “structurally similar” to other deployer-key compromises seen this year, including the Wasabi incident last month, which drained about $5.5 million in crypto. 

Keren said a single StakeDAO deployer key on Arbitrum was used to repoint the vsdCRV cross-chain bridge configuration to an attacker-controlled contract on Ethereum. About 25 seconds later, that contract sent a LayerZero message back to Arbitrum, causing the legitimate Arbitrum token to mint more than 5 trillion vsdCRV to the attacker.

Related: Crypto hackers stole $17B over past 10 years: DefiLlama

“There is no smart contract bug here and no flaw in LayerZero,” Keren said. “There is one private key, controlling one privileged configuration function, with no multi-signature and no delay between the configuration change going through and the mint clearing onchain.” 

Keren said the broader issue for DeFi protocols in 2026 is no longer only whether contracts are audited, but whether the operational keys behind those contracts remain single points of failure. 

Magazine: ETH bears growling, Tom Lee’s buying, XRP to ‘explode’: Market Moves

JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon has said the bank could spend as much as $20 billion on a major acquisition over the next two years if the right target appears.

According to CNBC, Dimon made the comments on Wednesday during a fireside chat at the Bernstein Strategic Decisions Conference, where he said JPMorgan may have the opportunity to invest between $10 billion and $20 billion in buying another company.

Dimon sets conditions for any deal

During the conference, Dimon said JPMorgan would not pursue a takeover simply because it has the balance sheet to do so. Per CNBC, he said any company bought by the bank would need to fit properly inside JPMorgan’s existing operations and culture.

Dimon also pushed back against the idea that acquisitions should replace day-to-day business growth. CNBC quoted him as saying he did not want to hear only about mergers and acquisitions, but about work being done in sales, branches, technology, profits, products, and services.

The JPMorgan chief described dealmaking as a last-resort tool, according to the report. He said companies that lean too heavily on acquisitions may be using them to cover weak internal growth.

First Republic remains JPMorgan’s largest recent deal

Under Dimon, JPMorgan has completed several major purchases, though none have reached the $20 billion level he discussed at the conference. In 2023, JPMorgan acquired a substantial majority of First Republic Bank’s assets for $10.6 billion after regulators seized the lender. The deal expanded JPMorgan’s deposits and wealth management business.

During the 2008 financial crisis, JPMorgan bought Bear Stearns for about $1.4 billion and acquired Washington Mutual’s banking operations for $1.9 billion. Those transactions added scale to the bank’s investment banking and consumer banking franchises.

Other deals under Dimon include JPMorgan’s purchase of the remaining stake in U.K. broker Cazenove for about $1.7 billion in 2009, fintech firm WePay for roughly $220 million in 2017, and healthcare payments company InstaMed for more than $500 million in 2019.

JPMorgan also tracks digital finance trends

The acquisition comments came as JPMorgan continues to publish research on changes in digital finance and payments.

As previously reported by crypto.news, JPMorgan said in a May 21 report that tokenized funds account for only 5% of the stablecoin market supply, even though they offer higher yields.

According to the bank’s report, stablecoins remain the main cash tool across crypto trading, collateral use, and payments. JPMorgan said stablecoins hold that role because they are already built into centralized exchanges, DeFi protocols, and cross-border payment systems.

The same report said tokenized funds face more friction because users must go through subscription and redemption steps. JPMorgan said those extra steps limit their use in fast on-chain activity.

The CFTC has moved a proposed rule on prediction-markets event contracts into White House review as federal and state officials fight over who should police the fast-growing sector.

Bloomberg first reported that the proposal is now before the White House Office of Management and Budget, a step that precedes the Commodity Futures Trading Commission’s release of the plan for public comment. The details have not yet been published.

CFTC pushes toward event contract rules

The proposed rule is expected to draw from a CFTC consultation held in the spring, which attracted more than 3,000 public comments. Those responses covered insider trading, barred contracts, market safeguards, and the legal structure around event contracts.

If adopted, the rule would give the US its first full federal framework for prediction-market contracts. It could also affect how platforms such as Kalshi and Polymarket serve US users, especially as the industry faces rising legal pressure from state regulators.

At the center of the issue is whether contracts tied to elections, sports, and public events should be treated as federally regulated derivatives or as gambling products subject to state law.

States challenge federal control

Nevada, New Jersey, Maryland, Ohio, Montana, Illinois, and other states have taken action against prediction-market operators. State officials have argued that some contracts resemble sports betting or other gambling products and should follow local gaming, tax, and consumer-protection rules.

Kalshi and other operators have said their event contracts are allowed under the Commodity Exchange Act. State regulators have rejected that view in several disputes, saying federal approval should not block enforcement of state gambling laws.

The question is now moving through the courts, where judges have split on whether CFTC jurisdiction overrides state gaming authority. Those cases could shape how much room states have to regulate platforms that list event-based contracts.

Pritzker criticizes Trump over prediction markets

President Donald Trump entered the dispute on Tuesday, publicly supporting Brian Selig and arguing that the CFTC should have exclusive authority over prediction markets. Trump said the issue was “critically important” and framed federal control as necessary for clear national rules.

In his post, Trump also attacked former New Jersey Governor Chris Christie, New York Attorney General Letitia James, Minnesota Governor Tim Walz, and Illinois Governor JB Pritzker. Trump said his administration was setting “rules of the road” for states and used harsh language against the officials. 

Illinois Governor JB Pritzker responded on X, saying that Illinois had taken action to stop and ban insider trading in online prediction markets. Pritzker accused Trump of trying to stop states from regulating the sector so people close to him could benefit.

Illinois took action to prevent and ban insider trading with online prediction markets in our state.

The most corrupt President in our nation’s history wants to make sure states like ours can’t regulate prediction markets so his family and administration can keep profiting. pic.twitter.com/JZyS3aqNfA

— Governor JB Pritzker (@GovPritzker) May 26, 2026

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Donald Trump Jr. has ties to the industry. He invested in Polymarket through venture capital firm 1789 Capital and also serves as a strategic adviser to Kalshi.

Crypto exchange Kraken has launched a non-custodial Bitcoin product, giving a 2.5% yearly yield, adding to the company’s yield product offerings amid a rising investor demand for crypto reward products.

Kraken unveiled the product on Wednesday with the support of crypto yield infrastructure provider Veda, which said the offering seeks to remove “the headaches that come with wrapping Bitcoin, moving assets, or managing a crypto wallet.”

Kraken’s offering comes as Bitcoin (BTC) holders’ demand for yield products has risen, but have seen limited development as the Bitcoin blockchain does not have mechanisms for users to generate yield compared to blockchains such as Ethereum and Solana.

“Many Bitcoin holders on Kraken have made it clear they want simple ways to earn on the Bitcoin they already plan to hold,” Kraken Earn product director John Zettler said in a statement.  

Source: Kraken

About 10 hours after the launch, Veda said the Bitcoin yield product had passed $30 million worth of Bitcoin deposits from 4,000 unique wallets. 

Kraken’s three stablecoin yield products that it launched in January have exceeded around $245 million in customer deposits and generated over $2.2 million in yield since launching on Jan. 26.

Related: Coinbase, Apex Group tokenize Bitcoin Yield Fund on Base 

Kraken’s product generates yield from Bitcoin by swapping it to Kraken Wrapped Bitcoin (kBTC), a token replicating Bitcoin’s price, which crypto platform Sentora then allocates across crypto lending platforms such as Aave, Morpho and Tydro. 

The product is non-custodial, meaning only depositors can withdraw or transfer their funds. Withdrawals are estimated to take five days to process, and the service providers take a 25% performance fee on rewards.

Magazine: Big Questions: Do we really only need 2–5 cryptocurrencies? 

Cointelegraph is committed to independent, transparent journalism. This news article is produced in accordance with Cointelegraph’s Editorial Policy and aims to provide accurate and timely information. Readers are encouraged to verify information independently.

Strive, Inc. has used its SATA preferred stock program to buy an estimated 490 BTC in a single day, surpassing the Bitcoin network’s average daily issuance of roughly 450 BTC.

According to the Bitcoin for Corporations SATA Tracker dashboard, Wednesday’s activity showed about $66.9 million in total SATA volume, a 13% yield, and 95% of volume above the $100 par level set by Strive’s board for new issuance.

SATA absorbs more Bitcoin than daily mining supply

The tracker estimated a 58% capture rate from Wednesday’s trading, which placed at-the-market proceeds near $35.3 million while bitcoin traded around $74,956. Based on those figures, the SATA program was estimated to have acquired around 490 BTC during the session.

Bitcoin miners currently earn 3.125 BTC per block after the April 2024 halving, and the network normally produces about 144 blocks each day. Based on that block schedule, the network adds about 450 new Bitcoin to circulation every 24 hours.

Wednesday’s estimate means Strive’s preferred stock program bought more bitcoin in a single session than miners produced across the entire network in an average day.

Weekly Data Shows Heavy Treasury Buying

For the week ended May 24, SATA recorded about 794 BTC in purchases, according to the tracker data cited in the report. Wednesday’s revised estimate of 475 BTC was listed as the second confirmed daily supply absorption event by the instrument over the past eight days.

At the same time, Strive’s 8-K data, as shown through the tracker, covered the period from May 18 to May 26. During that filing window, SATA produced $50 million in total proceeds and added about 650 BTC to Strive’s treasury at a 48% capture rate.

Strive’s latest SEC filing also confirmed that the company purchased 1,109 bitcoin between May 19 and May 22. The filing placed the average purchase price at about $76,989 per bitcoin and brought the company’s total holdings to 16,500 BTC.

Strive uses preferred equity instead of debt

Strive describes itself as a Dallas-based corporate treasury and structured finance company focused on bitcoin accumulation. The company uses Variable Rate Series A Perpetual Preferred Stock, branded SATA, as one of its main funding tools.

The preferred stock is designed to pay cash dividends on each business day at a stated annual rate of 13%, with frequent distributions allowing the dividend structure to compound. Strive has said that the $100 per-share threshold serves as a floor below which management should not issue shares.

Rather than relying on traditional debt, Strive uses preferred equity to raise long-duration capital. The company has said this structure supports its bitcoin treasury strategy while reducing pressure tied to conventional loan maturities.

According to Strive’s disclosures, proceeds from SATA offerings are used for bitcoin purchases, the retirement of convertible notes connected to its Semler Scientific acquisition, and repayment of a Coinbase Credit loan.

Bitdeer names ex-Corsair finance chief Michael Potter as CFO, effective Tuesday, replacing Jianchun Liu.

Bitdeer names ex-Corsair finance chief Michael Potter as CFO, effective Tuesday, replacing Jianchun Liu. Liu will remain through June 30.

The Nasdaq-listed Bitcoin miner disclosed the change in a Form 6-K filing. The board approved Potter’s appointment as the company pushes deeper into AI cloud and data center infrastructure.

Why the Bitdeer CFO change matters for the AI pivot

Potter served as CFO of Corsair Gaming from November 2019 through December 2025. He led the gaming hardware manufacturer’s September 2020 IPO and oversaw multiple capital markets transactions, according to the filing.

Before Corsair, Potter held CFO roles at a string of hardware-intensive public firms. Those included Canadian Solar, Lattice Semiconductor, NeoPhotonics, and STATS ChipPAC, giving him a track record across semiconductors and renewable energy.

The filing said Liu’s resignation was “due to personal reasons and was not the result of any dispute or disagreement with the Company on any matter relating to the Company’s operations, policies or practices.”

Liu will continue as a principal advisor after the transition. The overlap gives Bitdeer roughly five weeks with both finance executives in place before the handover.

How the appointment fits Bitdeer’s strategic mix

Bitdeer has spent the past year repositioning from pure Bitcoin mining toward AI infrastructure. The company self-mined 783 BTC in April 2026, a 372% year-over-year increase, while pushing its self-mining hash rate above 65 EH/s.

Its AI cloud annual recurring revenue grew roughly 60% month-over-month to about $69 million in the same period, according to company disclosures. The Tydal site in Norway remains in advanced negotiations as a colocation deal.

“April marked another month of disciplined execution across our integrated AI and Bitcoin mining platform,” Bitdeer CEO Linghui Kong said in the company’s most recent operations update.

Potter’s resume overlaps cleanly with each leg of that mix. Corsair Gaming dealt in hardware procurement and supply chain, Canadian Solar covered renewable power economics, and the semiconductor roles touched chip design cycles that mirror Bitdeer’s SEALMINER pipeline.

What the market reaction signals

Bitdeer shares fell about 3% in early trading after the announcement, though the stock remains near six-month highs. The dip suggested investors are reading the CFO change as a routine transition rather than a strategic break.

The miner has steadily scaled infrastructure across the US, Norway, Bhutan, and Ethiopia, with capacity targeting 3 GW. Several of those crypto sites are being reevaluated for AI cloud and colocation workloads, the company’s Q1 filing noted.

Potter also served as audit committee chair of Cordelio Power, a renewable energy platform backed by CPP Investments, from 2018 to March 2026.

That board seat aligns directly with the energy and capital structure questions Bitdeer’s expansion keeps raising for public-market investors.

New GENIUS-ready stablecoin targets institutional custody and reserve economics

Falcon Finance and Anchorage Digital Bank on Tuesday introduced fUSD, a U.S. dollar stablecoin designed explicitly for institutional counterparties operating under tight compliance constraints. The coin is issued by Anchorage Digital Bank, a federally chartered crypto bank, and is supported by Ceffu’s institutional custody and collateral infrastructure. Falcon Finance, which runs a top-ten synthetic dollar product, will operate a separate rewards program that shares a portion of reserve economics with qualifying institutional holders.

What fUSD is and how it works

fUSD is a regulated dollar payment stablecoin issued by Anchorage Digital Bank, N.A. The bank provides the issuance and reserve attestations, while custody and collateral management are handled through Ceffu, a platform used by many professional trading firms and liquidity providers. Falcon Finance will act as the commercial partner and will also be a launch holder, committing a portion of its corporate reserves to the new token.

Key distinguishing feature: qualifying institutional holders who enter bilateral agreements with Falcon Finance can receive rewards tied to the economics of the stablecoin’s reserves. Falcon has said it is targeting roughly 3% per year for eligible counterparties. Importantly, those rewards will be paid by Falcon under separate contractual arrangements, rather than by Anchorage or Ceffu.

Regulatory context: the GENIUS Act

fUSD is described as GENIUS-ready, referencing the federal framework for payment stablecoins enacted in July 2025. Under that framework, stablecoin issuers face limits on directly paying interest or yield to token holders. The structure behind fUSD appears designed to comply with those rules by separating issuance from the rewards program: Anchorage issues the coin and maintains reserves, while Falcon offers rewards through private contracts tied to the underlying collateral.

This separation aims to allow regulated desks and treasury functions to access a regulated stablecoin while recouping some of the yield that would otherwise accrue to issuers or sit idle on institutional balance sheets. The approach, however, depends on clear legal separation and may attract regulatory scrutiny if authorities view the arrangement as an attempt to circumvent the GENIUS Act provisions.

Market rationale and demand dynamics

The launch comes as the dollar stablecoin market tops several hundred billion dollars and short-dated Treasury yields sit near the 4% range. Many institutional desks and treasury operations currently hold large stablecoin balances that do not generate yield, creating a demand opportunity for products that can combine regulatory compliance with improved economics.

By issuing a bank-backed dollar and placing it on the custody and collateral rails used by professional players, Falcon and Anchorage are targeting custody-constrained participants such as treasury desks, high-frequency traders, and market makers who require regulated settlement and collateral replenishment workflows.

Operational and counterparty considerations

While fUSD aims to preserve regulatory compliance through issuance and custody choices, the rewards mechanism introduces operational and counterparty complexity. Payouts are contingent on contractual arrangements with Falcon, meaning qualifying entities will need to perform credit and counterparty assessment, negotiate terms, and reconcile the reward mechanics with their internal compliance and accounting rules.

Moreover, the rewards are described as tied to reserve assets such as Treasuries. That linkage creates exposure to the performance of those reserves and to the mechanics of how Falcon passes through or shares reserve yields, rather than a guaranteed deposit-like return from the issuer. For institutions weighing adoption, operational integration with Ceffu’s custody stack and legal clarity on the reward contracts will be key.

Implications for stablecoin market and competitors

fUSD’s model could prompt similar product experiments from other regulated issuers and commercial partners seeking to serve institutional clients. Firms that control both issuance and treasury functions might explore distinct commercial channels to share reserve economics without altering the issuer’s regulatory obligations. That could expand the variety of regulated dollar primitives available to professional market participants.

At the same time, the market will watch for regulatory responses. Agencies may scrutinize arrangements that shift yield from issuers to third parties to ensure they are not effectively recreating disallowed interest payments. Any enforcement action or regulatory guidance could materially affect the viability of such structures.

Bottom line

fUSD represents a calibrated attempt to marry bank-issued stablecoins with commercial reward programs aimed at institutional users. The product leverages Anchorage’s federal charter and Ceffu’s custody rails to address compliance needs, while Falcon’s rewards contracts seek to reclaim some reserve yield for holders. For treasury desks and professional trading firms, the offering could improve the economics of holding regulated dollars, but adoption will hinge on legal clarity, operational integration and regulatory reception.

Aztec Labs has acquired ZKPassport but will keep the privacy-focused passport-scanning app fully open source.

Aztec Labs has acquired ZKPassport but will keep the privacy-focused passport-scanning app fully open source. The deal preserves the iOS NFC scanner and Noir circuits.

The Ethereum layer-2 privacy network confirmed the acquisition on Wednesday. ZKPassport, built on Aztec’s Noir programming language, lets users prove identity attributes from government-issued IDs without revealing the underlying personal data.

Why the Aztec Labs deal keeps ZKPassport public

ZKPassport works by scanning the NFC chip embedded in a passport or national ID, generating a zero-knowledge proof on the user’s phone, and disclosing only the specific attribute a service needs.

This is just the beginning. We’re excited to join forces with Aztec and their world-class team as we continue building toward a more private and cypherpunk future.

Thank you to everyone who supported us on our journey so far. Much more to come https://t.co/8ptCayjZT2

— Michael Elliot (@michaelelliot) May 27, 2026

The app first gained traction on Aztec’s testnet, where it solved a Sybil-attack problem that was choking the validator set. Within weeks of integration, the network lifted its daily quota of new sequencers.

By keeping the codebase open source, Aztec Labs retains the public-good framing that grew the project. Michael Elliot’s ZKPassport had positioned itself as a non-profit identity solution before the deal.

“In the future, all crypto will be private,” Aztec Labs CEO Zac Williamson told crypto.news in a prior interview, framing ZKPassport-style verification as one path to compliant, privacy-preserving on-chain identity.

How the iOS app fits Aztec’s wider stack

ZKPassport’s iOS app already plugs into Ethereum, Base, Aztec, and other EVM chains through on-chain verifiers. The acquisition consolidates those rails under one product team while keeping integration permissionless for outside developers.

Aztec’s broader push has centred on programmable privacy. Its Ignition Chain went live in November 2025 as the first decentralised L2 on Ethereum, and the network entered alpha with a full execution environment for private smart contracts shortly after.

ZKPassport’s Noir circuits also underpinned Aztec’s recent $AZTEC token sale, where they ran compliant sanctions checks during the December 2025 continuous-clearing auction without leaking participant data.

That use case proved the tech in production. The acquisition formalises a relationship that had already passed multiple live audits, with Consensys Diligence and TU Vienna both contributing security reviews.

What the deal signals for ZK identity competition

The market for privacy-preserving identity has tightened in 2026. World, Self Protocol, Holonym, Rarimo, and zkEmail all run variations of the same playbook: client-side proofs, document scans, selective disclosure.

ZKPassport’s distinguishing feature was always its document-native approach, leaning on the cryptographic signature already baked into ePassports and government IDs.

By absorbing ZKPassport while keeping it open, Aztec Labs effectively claims that infrastructure tier without forcing competitors off the technology. The bet is that programmable privacy wins through composability rather than enclosure.

Aztec’s testnet attracted more than 24,000 validators through 2025, with ZKPassport-gated humanity checks playing a central role in the decentralisation push across rival privacy networks. The acquisition aligns the two roadmaps for the network’s full mainnet phase.