A federal judge in New York entered a $5.5 million default judgment against NanoBit Limited and five related defendants over an alleged relationship-investment scam built on a fake crypto trading platform.

The U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of New York ordered $5,518,902 in combined disgorgement, prejudgment interest, and civil penalties on June 16, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) announced.

The agency alleged that from September 2023 to June 2024, scheme participants posed as financial-industry professionals in WhatsApp groups, built trust with investors, and then directed them to deposit funds into NanoBit.

Although users’ dashboards displayed what appeared to be profitable trades, the SEC alleged the platform never executed any crypto transactions. At least 18 investors lost nearly $1 million in crypto and fiat currency, according to the SEC’s complaint.

Investor funds weren’t used to trade, but rather went to bank accounts in Hong Kong, the SEC said. Participants wired more than $2 million offshore and misappropriated hundreds of thousands of dollars in investors’ crypto assets.

NanoBit also falsely claimed an affiliate, NanobitUS Securities, was SEC-registered and tied to reputable financial firms.

Key Highlights

• Stablecoin payment integration launches for European UCITS Treasury bill funds

• USDC and EURC enable fund subscriptions and withdrawal processing

• Infrastructure provided by Coinbase Payments includes wallet, API, and settlement layers

• Base layer-2 network facilitates efficient blockchain transaction settlement

• Payment method addition maintains existing fund structure and regulatory framework

A collaboration between Coinbase and Spiko has introduced stablecoin payment functionality to European Union-regulated Treasury bill investment vehicles. Eligible investors can now utilize digital currency payment methods for entering and exiting two UCITS-compliant money market products. The development integrates Circle’s USDC and EURC stablecoins within established European regulatory frameworks for mutual funds.

Dollar-Denominated T-Bill Fund Activates USDC Payment Channel

The US T-Bills Money Market Fund managed by Spiko has activated USDC acceptance through Coinbase Payments technology. This investment product delivers exposure to short-duration United States Treasury securities while operating within UCITS regulatory parameters. The payment infrastructure encompasses digital wallet functionality, transaction APIs, and backend processing systems supplied by Coinbase.

Transaction finalization occurs on Base, the layer-2 blockchain network developed by Coinbase. This technical architecture creates a bridge between onchain digital assets and traditionally regulated investment vehicles. The arrangement diminishes reliance on conventional banking hours and legacy payment processing systems that impose delays.

The innovation particularly serves corporate treasury operations requiring rapid reallocation between liquid assets and fund positions. Investors gain the ability to initiate subscription requests outside typical banking schedules, encompassing weekends and public holidays. Spiko emphasized that this development introduces an alternative payment channel without modifying the fund’s underlying operational structure or investment strategy.

Euro T-Bill Product Enables EURC Transaction Capability

Spiko’s EU T-Bills Money Market Fund has implemented EURC payment acceptance utilizing identical Coinbase technological infrastructure. This fund adheres to UCITS regulatory requirements, which establish European Union benchmarks for investor protection and operational oversight. Coinbase characterized these products as pioneering European UCITS funds offering direct stablecoin payment acceptance.

Upon liquidation, redemption payments can transfer to designated stablecoin wallets in a matter of minutes. This capability provides treasury management teams with accelerated access to capital following position exits. The fund continues operating within its established regulatory guidelines governing subscription and redemption procedures.

This launch arrives during a period of robust UCITS market activity across Europe. According to EFAMA statistics, UCITS products attracted 104 billion euros in net capital inflows during April. This represented a significant reversal from the 41 billion euro net outflow recorded in March, while cumulative 2025 net sales have reached 828 billion euros.

Partnership Advances Tokenized Investment Product Infrastructure

Coinbase positioned this collaboration as progress toward modernized payment systems for regulated investment products. Stablecoin-based payment networks can minimize operational friction when clients allocate capital to or withdraw from compliant financial products. The integration creates connectivity between blockchain-based settlement mechanisms and traditional mutual fund administration.

This framework does not transform the underlying investment vehicles into continuously operating products. Rather, it provides qualified investors with an additional funding mechanism for subscriptions and proceeds distribution. This differentiation carries significance because payment processing velocity and fund operational cycles function as distinct elements.

Additional asset management firms have explored comparable tokenized fund applications. WisdomTree secured regulatory authorization this year for continuous secondary market trading in a tokenized Treasury product. Franklin Templeton and Binance have similarly launched tokenized fund instruments available as institutional collateral in off-exchange environments.

MetaMask has launched a new self-custodial account that combines stablecoin yield, payments and trading in a single product, as wallet providers increasingly compete to become broader financial platforms rather than simple crypto storage tools.

The new “Money Account,” announced Tuesday by MetaMask parent Consensys, is built on the Monad blockchain and allows users to earn yield on stablecoin balances while spending funds through the MetaMask Card at merchants that accept Mastercard.

The account is centered around mUSD, MetaMask’s proprietary dollar-pegged stablecoin. Users who opt in can earn a variable annual percentage yield of up to 4% by having deposits automatically allocated to decentralized lending protocols including Morpho, with Aave integrations planned. Consensys said users retain custody of their assets throughout the process.

The launch reflects a broader push to make stablecoins more useful beyond trading and transfers. The stablecoin market has grown to more than $320 billion, according to MetaMask, while crypto-linked payment cards have gained traction as issuers look to bridge onchain assets with everyday spending.

Carl Rinsch, the director of 47 Ronin, has been sentenced to 30 months in prison after taking $11 million from Netflix, intended to fund the production of his sci-fi series White Horse, and blowing it on luxury goods and investments in dogecoin.

Rinsch was reportedly handed the lenient sentence on Monday after Judge Jed Rakoff heard statements from the likes of Keanu Reeves, and others who knew Rinsch, attesting to his poor mental health and good character. 

He was convicted of wire fraud in December 2025 after he misappropriated the millions Netflix gave him in 2020, during the COVID-19 pandemic, to help finish his series that had already cost $44 million. 

Rinsch moved the funds to personal brokerage accounts and lost most of it betting on COVID-related market trades. He was eventually left with $4 million and decided to spend it all on dogecoin. 

The move sort of paid off, and he managed to make $27 million from the investment. Rinsch later thanked a Kraken online chat representative, telling them, “god bless crypto.” 

He then reportedly bought five Rolls-Royces, a Ferrari, luxury watches, designer clothes, and spent millions on high-end furniture, including mattresses and antiques. 

Michael Saylor’s Strategy has paused its Bitcoin (BTC) acquisitions and announced plans to bolster its USD reserves and approve a Digital Credit Capital Framework to manage capital.

The Bitcoin treasury company is moving to overhaul its financing model, giving itself the power to buy back securities and sell up to $1.25 billion in BTC as it attempts to preserve liquidity and mitigate market pressure.

Digital Credit Capital Framework

The company disclosed the pause in acquisitions in an 8-K filing with the United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). Instead of further acquisitions, Strategy plans to expand its USD reserves under a new Digital Credit Capital Framework. As part of the framework, the company has established a new policy to govern its USD reserve. The new policy mandates that the reserve be used only to support stock dividend obligations and interest payments on outstanding debt. The policy also mandates that the minimum USD reserve must cover at least 12 months of its expected annual preferred stock dividend and interest obligations.

Strategy disclosed a reserve balance of $2.55 billion as of June 28, up from $1.4 billion on June 21. The company is using proceeds from the at-the-market sale of MSTR, its Class A common stock, selling 12,669,017 MSTR shares for $1.15 billion. According to Strategy’s filing, it has $24.3 billion worth of MSTR shares available for issuance.

Digital Credit Securities Repurchase Program

Strategy also announced the Digital Credit Securities Repurchase Program, which allows it to repurchase up to $1 billion of its preferred securities, including STRC, STRF, STRD, and STRK. The program will initially focus on STRC, making periodic repurchases of the preferred stock. The company also announced a STRC dividend policy to evaluate the monthly dividend rate based on market yield, STRC trading levels, credit spreads, USD reserve coverage, capital market conditions, Bitcoin price and volatility, along with Strategy’s capital structure. The company stated in its filing, “The company will not necessarily increase the STRC dividend rate solely because STRC trades below its stated amount.”

It also announced a Common Stock Repurchase Program, authorizing the company to purchase up to $1 billion of its Class A common stock. However, these purchases will not be covered by the USD reserve.

STRC And MSTR Struggle

Strategy currently holds 847,363 BTC, valued at $50.9 billion at current prices. These coins were purchased at an average price of $75,651 per coin, bringing the total acquisition cost to $64.1 billion, saddling the company with a paper loss of $13.1 billion. Strategy’s STRC is a variable-rate cumulative preferred stock offering that offers monthly dividends. Adjustable rates are designed to keep it close to its $100 par value. The asset had become the driving force behind Strategy’s aggressive Bitcoin acquisitions. However, it has struggled to trade near $100 since mid-May, taking a backseat in Strategy’s recent acquisitions.

STRC fell to a new low of $71.25 as BTC plunged below $60,000. MSTR followed a similar trajectory, falling 30% in five days to $82.31, its lowest level since 2024. The Class A common stock is trading 82% lower than its July 2025 high of $455.90.

mNAV Falls Below 1

Strategy’s mNAV also fell below 1 on Friday, putting more pressure on the Bitcoin treasury company. Several Bitcoin treasury companies have seen their mNAV trade close to or slip below 1, according to data from mnav.com. Strategy executive chairman Michael Saylor stated he expects Strategy to be disciplined when issuing MSTR, especially when the company is trading near 1x mNAV.

Disclaimer: This article is provided for informational purposes only. It is not offered or intended to be used as legal, tax, investment, financial, or other advice.

Bitcoin BTC$58,399.61 fell 1.5% on Tuesday after failing to hold above $60,000 on Monday. It now trades at $59,250, looking set to challenge the weekend lows of $58,800. Ether (ETH) is down by 1.73% since midnight UTC, trading at $1,580 after failing to break through $1,640.

Both assets are now testing critical multiyear support levels. Ether has bounced from this level twice before, in April 2025 and October 2023, while bitcoin is trading around its lowest point since late 2024. A failure to hold would leave both tokens without an obvious floor.

The altcoin market saw exaggerated downside on Tuesday, with DeFi tokens ethena (ENA), jupiter (JUP) and ether.fi (ETHFI) all falling between 3.3% and 7.5% as risk appetite continues to wane.

The weakness stands in contrast to traditional markets, where U.S. equities have been steady since midnight. The S&P 500 and Nasdaq 100 futures posted gains of 0.03%, while the Dollar Index (DXY) added 0.25%.

Derivatives positioning

• HYPE, the native token of decentralized exchange Hyperliquid, has gained over 4.3% in the past 24 hours and is the only major token trading noticeably in the green.
• The rally looks spot-driven, and hasn’t excited traders into taking on more derivatives risk for now. Open interest (OI) in HYPE futures remains around 40 million tokens, a level it’s held since at least June 22.
• While overall positioning stays light, it leans bullish. Annualized funding rates are sitting close to 10%, a sign that perpetual futures are trading above the spot price.
• The biggest OI gainer of the past 24 hours among major cryptocurrencies is DOGE$0.07017, the largest memecoin by market value. Open interest has jumped to 16 billion tokens, the highest since the Oct. 10 crash and up from 13 billion a day earlier.
• The inflows look bearish rather than bullish, however, given the negative funding rates and negative 24-hour OI-adjusted cumulative volume delta. The CVD signals that sellers are the more aggressive side, hitting sell orders to cross the spread and fill their bearish bets at the best available bid.
• Bitcoin, ether and XRP futures markets offer little excitement, with open interest locked in recent ranges. Positioning in SOL remains elevated, with OI near record highs, a signal of potential volatility ahead.
• Volatility indexes continue to point to market calm. BTC’s 30-day implied volatility gauge, BVIV, dropped by 11% to 44% on Monday and has held around that level since. Ether’s equivalent index, EVIV, is telling the same story.
• On Deribit, BTC puts continue to trade at a 10%-plus premium to calls across all time frames, a sign of persistent downside concerns. ETH shows a similar pattern at the short end — weekly puts carry a comparable premium — while further out puts are noticeably cheaper than calls.
• Block flows featured a BTC short straddle, an options strategy that profits from low volatility and price consolidation.

Token talk

• Native DeFi tokens struggled on Tuesday, and the negative sentiment didn’t stop there. AI tokens FET, TAO and RENDER all fell, as did privacy coins zcash (ZEC) and monero (XMR).
• Even hyperliquid (HYPE), which has outperformed its peers in recent weeks, is trading at $65.3 after dropping by 2.2% on Tuesday. HYPE’s chart appears to be in more of a consolidation phase after last month’s rally as opposed to a corrective phase, this is characterized by two higher highs alongside two higher lows.
• One token in the black on Tuesday is stellar lumens (XLM). The token forked from Ripple in 2014 is maintaining bullish sentiment after DTCC, the largest U.S. financial markets clearinghouse, said it will connect its tokenized securities platform to the Stellar network in the first half of 2027. The announcement spurred a 100% rally in late May.
• Another token bucking the trend is lighter (LIT), which is benefiting from its similarities to HYPE in that it is the native token of a decentralized perpetual exchange. LIT is up by 23% over the past week, notching a double-digit gain in the past 24 hours alone.

But familiar forms of market exposure, including brokerage-held securities, ETFs, depository receipts, structured notes, and other equity-linked instruments, are well-established parts of the market today. Tokenization alone does not make them more or less legitimate. Their economic and legal structures should dictate their regulatory treatment.

The third model is issuer-sponsored tokenization. A company and its transfer agent support tokenized ownership directly. This may be the right model for many issuers. It can connect tokenized records to shareholder systems and support familiar processes for corporate actions, recordkeeping and communications.

Brokerage held securities, depository receipts, structured notes, and direct registration all coexist in today’s market. They do not provide identical rights. Investors choose among them because they serve different needs. The important questions are whether the structure is clear, the risks are disclosed, the backing is real where promised, and the product does what it says it does.

That is the right standard for tokenized markets as well.

One wrong outcome of the current tokenization debate would be a market where products borrow the language of stocks without telling investors what they actually hold or misleading investors altogether. That would harm investors and undermine confidence in the technology.

Another wrong outcome would be a market where tokenization becomes a set of private walled gardens. That would convert a promising new technology into a tool that narrows competition before the market has had a chance to learn what works.

For years, crypto promoters sold blockchain technologies with a simple pitch: Digital assets trade round the clock, while sleepy traditional finance exchanges shut their doors at 4pm and stay closed until the next morning.

This week, the world’s largest clearinghouse decimated that pitch.

The National Securities Clearing Corporation (NSCC) is the equities subsidiary of the multi-quadrillion dollar clearinghouse Depository Trust and Clearing Corporation (DTCC).

According to a new announcement, NSCC is now clearing trades 24 hours a day, every business day of the week. 

For context, DTCC processed roughly $3.7 quadrillion in securities transactions last year. Its equities-clearing engine now clears stocks and other TradFi equities all night long.

Nasdaq is expanding the distribution of its market data into blockchain infrastructure, making one of its flagship equity data products available through the Pyth Network as financial firms increasingly build trading and settlement applications on blockchain rails.

The exchange operator said Tuesday it will publish its TotalView market data through the Pyth Data Marketplace, a platform that distributes institutional datasets to blockchain networks, financial applications and software developers. The move gives a wider range of users access to one of Nasdaq’s core market data offerings through a programmable interface rather than traditional market data delivery channels.

TotalView provides full depth-of-book data, showing buy and sell orders at every price level for securities trading on Nasdaq, including Nasdaq-, NYSE- and regional-listed stocks. The product also includes Nasdaq’s Net Order Imbalance Indicator, which offers a real-time view of buy and sell imbalances before the opening and closing auctions.

For Nasdaq, the partnership expands how its market data reaches customers as financial infrastructure evolves beyond trading terminals and dedicated market data feeds toward cloud-based software and blockchain-powered applications.