The U.S. Treasury reportedly pressed Binance to align with an independent monitoring program linked to a 2023 settlement, as reports emerged that the exchange facilitated about $1 billion in transfers to Iran-linked entities. The Information reported on Thursday that the Treasury privately demanded Binance comply with the three-year oversight regime established after the settlement with U.S. authorities, a development that underscores ongoing regulatory pressure on the world’s largest crypto exchange as authorities scrutinize sanctions evasion and anti-money‑laundering controls.

The 2023 settlement between Binance, the Treasury, and the U.S. Department of Justice required the exchange to operate under a government‑supervised monitoring program for three years. The Information’s account ties the Treasury’s current push to those terms, signaling that the oversight is far from complete and that regulators remain vigilant about potential sanctions risks associated with the platform.

The reporting also cited internal disclosures that Binance had “fired individuals responsible for telling executives that $1 billion flowed through the platform to Iran‑linked entities.” The development prompted a follow‑up from a group of senators urging Treasury Secretary John Bessent to report on Binance’s compliance with the 2023 settlement, signaling that congressional scrutiny is intensifying alongside regulatory enforcement actions across the crypto sector.

“Binance is committed to cooperating with the independent monitor and our ongoing collaboration with relevant agencies,” a Binance spokesperson told Cointelegraph in response to the report. “We welcome constructive feedback from the Treasury and view this oversight as an important part of continuously strengthening our compliance and anti-money laundering controls. We are providing the monitor with full cooperation and transparency.”

The unfolding narrative sits within a broader regulatory backdrop that has seen U.S. officials increasingly tie sanctions enforcement to digital asset platforms. The Information’s reporting aligns with a pattern of heightened scrutiny that regulators have pursued since the 2023 settlement, which was accompanied by a multi‑billion‑dollar financial penalty and an obligation to implement robust AML systems and monitoring arrangements.

Zhao at Consensus: leadership plans and regulatory coming‑led scrutiny

The Information’s article coincided with Changpeng Zhao’s appearance at the Consensus conference in Miami. Zhao, the former Binance CEO who stepped down in November 2023, used the venue to frame his current stance in the wake of ongoing investigations and regulatory pressure. He signaled that he has no appetite for leading another crypto company and downplayed the prospect of returning to a top executive role, saying he is “a one‑trick pony” and that he’s done with running a startup.

Earlier in the day, Zhao touched on the possibility of reviving Binance.US to improve access to global liquidity, but he emphasized that his focus is not on reclaiming leadership at a crypto company. The remarks arrived as Binance has navigated a complex web of U.S. and international regulatory inquiries that extend beyond sanctions enforcement to questions about compliance infrastructure and governance. Zhao’s public comments come as Binance and its executives remain under intense regulatory scrutiny in multiple jurisdictions.

The thread of regulatory tension has, at times, blurred the boundary between enforcement actions and broader market implications. Zhao’s stance at Consensus underscores a sectorwide pivot from rapid growth to governance, risk controls, and transparent oversight. While the former executive has signaled detachment from future leadership duties in the industry, the regulatory spotlight on Binance and similar exchanges remains bright as policymakers pursue stricter AML standards and clearer accountability for platform operators.

Amid the coverage, a note of caution hangs over the broader market: statements about sanctions compliance, internal controls, and monitoring programs carry real consequences for users, traders, and liquidity providers who rely on timely, predictable enforcement and governance clarity. The Binance narrative reflects a broader shift in which regulators are increasingly demanding demonstrable, verifiable compliance benchmarks from large crypto players, not merely settlement settlements and generic commitments.

Additionally, the article notes a controversial thread about ties to political events and figures, including references to a UAE‑based investor and to past political actions concerning Binance leadership. While these details are part of the public discourse surrounding Binance’s regulatory journey, readers should treat such links as part of a broader storytelling arc rather than definitive conclusions about platform operations or future outcomes.

What this means for investors and users

For traders and investors, the key takeaway is that regulatory oversight is moving from broad investigations toward enforceable, codified compliance regimes embedded in settlement terms and independent monitoring. The ongoing exposure of Binance to an independent monitor—if maintained—could influence how banks, payment rails, and regional regulators interact with the exchange, potentially affecting on‑ramps, withdrawal flows, and the pace of new product launches that depend on regulatory clarity.

From a risk management perspective, the situation highlights the importance of clear AML controls, provenance tracking for flows, and transparent reporting to oversight bodies. Firms in the space are watching closely how governments interpret and enforce the combination of penalties, monitoring commitments, and ongoing cooperation obligations, given that the balance of deterrence and operational practicality shapes the broader adoption trajectory for compliant crypto services.

Looking ahead, market participants should monitor updates on the monitoring program’s status, any new findings from the independent monitor, and congressional or regulatory responses to the latest disclosures. While the Treasury’s private communications suggest continued emphasis on compliance, the exact contours of future enforcement actions, potential penalties, or remedial requirements remain uncertain, and could influence regulatory expectations for other major exchanges as well.

In the meantime, Zhao’s public remarks at Consensus reiterate a cautious posture: leadership ambitions may take a back seat to a wider industry push toward governance and compliance. For users who rely on cross‑border liquidity and access to global markets, the episode reinforces the importance of choosing platforms with transparent oversight and proven AML capabilities—criteria that could shape platform selection in the months ahead.

Readers should stay tuned for official updates from the independent monitor and from U.S. regulators, as well as any new statements from Binance regarding progress on the monitoring program and the handling of past internal reports. The regulatory narrative around Binance is continuing to evolve, with consequences that extend beyond a single settlement to the way the industry defines legitimacy and operational discipline in the digital asset era.

Kraken parent company Payward agreed to acquire stablecoin-focused payments firm Reap Technologies in a $600 million cash-and-stock deal, Bloomberg reported Thursday, citing Payward and Kraken co-CEO Arjunt Sethi.

The acquisition values Payward stock at $20 billion and marks Kraken’s first infrastructure acquisition in Asia, according to the report. Sethin told Bloomberg the deal is also the company’s third-largest to date.

Reap, based in Hong Kong, provides cross-border and business payments infrastructure that connects traditional financial systems with digital assets. The company focuses heavily on stablecoin-powered settlement and business-to-business payment flows.

“If you take Europe out, the fastest growing market is Asia, not just revenue but also asset-on-platform,” Sethi told Bloomberg. “They have already done it in Asia. They can expand into the US overnight with us.”

On Tuesday at Consensus Miami 2026, Sethi announced Kraken is “about 80% ready” to go public, highlighting the company’s initial public offering (IPO) plans as it rolls out a new partnership with MoneyGram aimed at solving crypto’s “last mile” problem.

The Reap deal announcement also follows Payward’s April 17 deal to acquire digital asset derivatives platform Bitnomial for up to $550 million, in a cash-and-stock transaction that values the firm at $20 billion. Bitnomial, founded over a decade ago, is the first crypto-native platform to secure all three licenses required to operate a full-stack derivatives business in the U.S. It has approvals to operate a designated contract market, a derivatives clearing organization and a futures commission merchant. The acquisition effectively shortcuts years of regulatory buildout for Payward as it expands its U.S. footprint.

The acquisition announced Thursday expands Kraken’s footprint in Asia, which has emerged as one of the fastest-growing regions for crypto adoption and stablecoin activity.

Reap was founded by Daren Guo, who previously launched Stripe’s Asia-Pacific business, and Kevin Kang, a former investment banker, according to the company’s website.

A joint proposal to release the roughly $71 million in Ether frozen after the Kelp DAO exploit is set to pass later on Thursday, moving a cross-protocol recovery effort closer to restoring part of rsETH’s backing.

Over 90.5% of the tokens were cast in favor of the motion, representing 173.9 million Arbitrum (ARB) tokens, while 9.4%, or 18.1 million tokens, abstained. Less than 1%, or 1,700 tokens, voted against the proposal before the voting period’s scheduled end at 6:54 pm UTC, according to a Snapshot at the time of writing.

Co-authored by Aave Labs, Kelp DAO, LayerZero, EtherFi and Compound, the proposal seeks to unfreeze the 30,765 Ether (ETH) that was frozen by Arbitrum’s Security Council on April 21, days after an attacker drained about 116,500 restaked Ether (rsETH) from Kelp Dao, worth between $290 million and $293 million at the time.

The proposal marks the end of the first round of voting, bringing the “DeFi United” recovery effort closer to restoring part of rsETH’s backing and moving the motion to a definitive onchain governance proposal. It comes shortly after Aave Labs liquidated the Kelp DAO hacker’s remaining rsETH positions on Ethereum and Arbitrum, moving one step closer to resolution.

“DeFi United” is a recovery effort initiated by DeFi protocols, including Mantle, EtherFi Foundation, Golem Foundation, Lido DAO, Ethena, LayerZero, Ink Foundation and Tydro, who have pledged a cumulative 43,000 Ether (worth about $101 million) to reduce the contagion effect of the Kelp DAO exploit.

As the next step, the protocols will conduct a snapshot “temperature check” to gauge delegate sentiment before the proposal is finally submitted onchain via Tally as a Constitutional Arbitrum Improvement Proposal (AIP). 

Joint proposal to release funds frozen by Arbitrum’s security council. Source: Snapshot.org

Subject to a binding onchain governance vote, the funds would be released in a designated recovery address ‘0xf22’ in a 3-of-4 Gnosis Safe (SAFE) with signers from Aave Labs, Kelp DAO, Certora and EtherFi.

However, even if the final governance proposal passes, rsETH’s backing is still facing a shortfall of about 76,127 rsETH, currently worth about $174.5 million. The proposal argued that even partially restoring rsETH’s backing will help stabilize market conditions in the broader DeFi ecosystem.

Cointelegraph reached out to Arbitrum and Aave for comment on the next steps in the governance process and the proposed timeline for restoring rsETH’s backing.

Related: Aave deposits fall by $15B as Kelp exploit sparks flight from DeFi lender 

Arbitrum to pass proposal to deploy 6,000 ETH for yield

The Arbitrum DAO is also poised to approve a separate proposal to move 6,000 ETH, currently worth about $14 million, from the DAO treasury into its Treasury Management Portfolio.

The proposal increases the planned ETH allocation from 5,000 ETH to 6,000 ETH after forum feedback, according to the Arbitrum governance forum. It also seeks to transfer about $150,000 worth of idle USDC into the portfolio to generate additional yield

More than 99.9% of voting power was in favor of the proposal, representing 185.7 million ARB tokens, while 0.1%, or 266,930 ARB, abstained. The voting window is scheduled to close Friday at 2:22 pm UTC, according to Tally.

Proposal to transfer 6,000 ETH to Arbitrum DAO’s portfolio. Source: alt.gov.arbitrum.foundation.

The 6,000 ETH allocated to yield strategies is projected to generate an additional 288 ETH worth about $625,000 in the next year, assuming an ETH price of $2,200, based on the current 30-day-average annualized rate.

Magazine: 53 DeFi projects infiltrated, 50M NEO tokens could be ‘given back’: Asia Express

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.

CoinDesk Indices presents its daily market update, highlighting the performance of leaders and laggards in the CoinDesk 20 Index.

The CoinDesk 20 is currently trading at 2171.96, down 0.2% (-4.96) since 4 p.m. ET on Wednesday.

Thirteen of 20 assets are trading higher.

Leaders: ICP (+9.7%) and DOT (+1.7%).

Laggards: BCH (-1.2%) and NEAR (-1.0%).

The CoinDesk 20 is a broad-based index traded on multiple platforms in several regions globally.

Mason Lynaugh, executive director of Stand With Crypto, took the Consensus Miami 2026 stage on Thursday to outline how the group’s 2.7 million advocates will engage in the November midterms.

Mason Lynaugh, executive director of Stand With Crypto, outlined the Coinbase-backed group’s 2026 midterm strategy at the Consensus Miami Policy Summit on Thursday, appearing alongside Fellowship PAC’s Jesse Spiro and Sternhell Group’s Alex Sternhell.

The session formed part of a broader Day 3 programme that put crypto’s political infrastructure on public display for the first time at Consensus.

Stand With Crypto has endorsed six congressional incumbents in its first round for 2026: Representatives Zach Nunn, Susie Lee, Mike Lawler, Don Davis, Greg Landsman, and Rob Bresnahan.

The group is simultaneously opposing Representatives Scott Perry and Marcy Kaptur. “This year crypto voters are poised to play a powerful and decisive role at the ballot box,” Lynaugh said, adding that the goal is to ensure the 120th Congress is “the most pro-crypto session in America’s history.”

Why November matters for crypto policy

The midterm context is defined by the CLARITY Act’s fate. As crypto.news reported, Senator Bernie Moreno has warned that missing the May Senate window could push comprehensive crypto legislation off the calendar until after the midterms, and potentially beyond.

The composition of the next Congress will determine whether the regulatory framework crypto companies have been pushing for gets a second chance.

Stand With Crypto’s Impact Research polling found nearly six in 10 crypto owners do not reliably vote for one party, and close to half said they would support a candidate they agree with on crypto even if they disagree on other issues.

As crypto.news reported, the broader crypto PAC ecosystem, led by Fairshake, has over $221 million in unspent funds ready to deploy across House and Senate races through November.

It’s the third and final day of Consensus Miami.

To recap yesterday, ICYMI, Patrick Witt, the Executive Director of the President’s Council on Digital Assets, told the audience at day 2 of Consensus Miami that if the Senate Banking Committee holds a markup this month, it would give the Senate four weeks to merge the bill with the Senate Agriculture Committee version and June to work out issues with the House of Representatives. It’s an aggressive timeline, “but it is an achievable timeline,” he said.

Michael Saylor followed up to lay out his case for yieldcoins, laying out a vision for the potential future of the digital assets sector.

And the time is now to start working on post-quantum security, Project Eleven CEO Alex Pruden said.

Catch up on all of the coverage here.

Today will see panels addressing prediction markets and sports betting, stablecoins, banking and more. Privacy and agentic payments will again take the stage.

Tom Lee will present a keynote, while stablecoin executives will weigh in on recent regulatory advancements. World Liberty Financial’s Donald Trump, Jr. and Zach Witkoff will take the main stage right after lunch, while payments executives will lay out how crypto cards and other tools will work.

CoinDesk will host its Policy & Regulation Summit, diving deep into the key regulatory issues you should be paying attention to: DeFi regulation, the 2026 election and more. The day will end with a debate on prediction markets. Are they just gambling products dressed up in a fancy costume? Or are these contracts actually a novel financial product? And what does that all mean for you? Come through and find out.

Animoca Brands chairman Yat Siu told Consensus Miami 2026 that the metaverse is over as a consumer destination, and that 100 billion AI agents will become blockchain’s primary users.

Animoca Brands chairman Yat Siu told Consensus Miami 2026 on Thursday that the metaverse, as the crypto industry imagined it during the pandemic, was never really built for humans.

“Where we’re landing is that the metaverse, the blockchain-based one, was really the proof of concept for agents,” he said. “In other words, it was never really destined for humans as a prime consumer.”

The remarks mark a clean break from Animoca’s earlier positioning. The firm was among the most prominent advocates of the pandemic-era metaverse vision, which assumed users would spend growing amounts of their social and economic lives in immersive virtual environments.

Siu attributed that misconception to the distorting conditions of COVID lockdowns, when it seemed remote digital life would become permanent. “Everyone thought, ‘Oh, we’re going to be at home, and we’re never going to travel as much anymore,’” he said. “Which, of course, turned out to be quite the opposite.”

What comes next: the agent economy

Siu’s new thesis is that blockchain’s most scalable user base will not be humans but autonomous AI agents. “I think the point is that it’s going to be more agents than humans,” he said, estimating 50 to 100 billion agents could eventually operate on the internet.

On current population math, 10 to 20 agents per human produces between 70 and 140 billion agents globally. “Blockchain technology is the ideal financial system for machines,” Siu said. “We, the humans, were basically the guinea pigs.”

The argument centres on a practical problem that has limited crypto’s reach. Approximately 700 to 800 million people globally own some form of cryptocurrency, but as crypto.news reported, fewer than 70 million actively use blockchain applications, largely because the technology remains too complex for mainstream consumers. AI agents do not face that barrier.

They interact directly through code, require no traditional banking infrastructure, and can transact autonomously on-chain. As part of the pivot, Animoca announced a $10 million initiative for developers building AI agent applications through its Animoca Minds platform, framing agents as its next major investment category after the metaverse era closes.

The MEV gods do not discriminate.

Vitalik Buterin, Ethereum’s co-founder and a vocal advocate for fixing toxic maximal extractable value, got hit by the very kind of attack he has been campaigning against, blockchain data from earlier this week shows.

Data shows a transaction by Buterin on April 30 was sandwiched by the bot in block 24993038, per Etherscan data, resulting in a worse execution price for the Ethereum co-founder.

A sandwich attack is when a bot spots a trader’s pending transaction, places its own buy order in front to push the price up, lets the victim execute at the inflated price, then dumps the tokens immediately after to pocket the difference. The victim usually does not even notice, as they just get a slightly worse fill than they should have.

Analysis by CoinDesk shows Buterin swapped 26,544 digitalbits (XDB) tokens worth roughly $3.86 for 0.00197 ETH worth $4.56. The bot ran $1.14 million worth of WETH through SushiSwap and Uniswap V2 to manipulate the XDB price between the two pools right before Buterin’s swap landed.

After gas fees of $5.14, Jared appears to have lost money on this particular sandwich, and Buterin’s slippage was likely in a few cents.

This shows the bot is so industrialized that it scans every pending transaction in the mempool for any opportunity to insert itself, profitable or not.

Buterin has spent the past several months pitching encrypted mempools as a fix for toxic MEV in Ethereum’s 2026 roadmap.

MEV is the profit that whoever orders transactions on a blockchain can pocket by reshuffling them. Anyone running a bot that watches the public mempool, the holding pen where pending transactions sit before being added to a block, can spot opportunities to insert their own trades around someone else’s.

Sandwich attacks are the most aggressive form, with cumulative MEV extracted on Ethereum is now over $1.2 billion and these type of attacks accounting for roughly 51% of the total volume.

Buterin, among other developers, argue that MEV creates a hidden tax on regular users that can favour large, specialized operators over everyone else.

Jaredfromsubway.eth rose to prominence in 2023 as it sandwiched traders of meme coins like pepe and wojak during the then meme frenzy.

It briefly accounted for 7% of all gas fees on the network in April that year, and has reportedly extracted more than $7 million from victims across hundreds of thousands of transactions since.

The bot adapts faster than the protocols trying to stop it. It has survived contract upgrades, mempool filtering, and several attempts by builders to design exploits that drain its funds.