Key Highlights

• Annualized total prediction market volume at DraftKings climbed 34% month-over-month to reach $3.1B in May
• Consumer-driven volume in the Predictions platform increased 24% sequentially to $1.3B
• Shares of DKNG advanced 1.4% during premarket hours on Tuesday
• TD Cowen maintained its Buy recommendation with a price objective of $30; shares traded at $25.01
• The company is working toward deploying its super app platform across all U.S. states

DraftKings (DKNG) shares advanced 1.4% during Tuesday’s premarket session following the release of robust operational data from the company’s rapidly expanding Predictions platform.

DraftKings Inc., DKNG

The Massachusetts-based gaming operator reported that annualized consumer-driven volume within its Predictions vertical increased 24% from the prior month to $1.3B in May. Total annualized volume across the platform surged 34% month-over-month to $3.1B. The company clarified that these metrics are preliminary, have not been audited, and derive from internal tracking systems.

DraftKings officially rolled out its DraftKings Predictions platform on December 19, 2025. The offering is currently accessible in 38 states across at least certain event contract types, while sports-related event contracts are available in 17 states.

While the expansion metrics appear strong, understanding the nuances is essential. Prediction market volume represents the total dollar value of contracts exchanged, encompassing multiple trades of the same position. This measurement differs from traditional sports betting handle, which reflects only the initial capital wagered.

For perspective, Kalshi reportedly processes notional volume in the mid-tens of billions monthly. Polymarket typically registers high single-digit to low-teen billions in volume depending on market activity. While DraftKings remains a comparatively smaller participant, its trajectory shows significant acceleration.

Wall Street Maintains Positive Stance

TD Cowen reaffirmed its Buy thesis on DKNG shares Monday, maintaining a $30 valuation target. Trading at $25.01, the firm’s internal models suggest the equity remains undervalued. InvestingPro analysis indicates fair value exceeds both the current market price and TD Cowen’s projection.

The investment firm highlighted DraftKings‘ established online sports wagering and iGaming infrastructure as the cornerstone for sustainable profitability. Analysts emphasized product diversity, structural hold advantages, and operational efficiency as critical growth catalysts. The company maintains a gross profit margin of 76.7%.

TD Cowen also observed that leadership is financing the prediction markets expansion through cash flow from an increasingly robust core operation. The firm characterizes prediction markets as a substantial and undervalued addressable opportunity, including DKNG in its Best Smidcap Ideas portfolio.

UBS elevated its price objective to $49 after first-quarter results exceeded analyst consensus on both top-line revenue and EBITDA. Benchmark reaffirmed its Buy rating with a $29 target. Citizens JMP Securities maintained its Market Outperform designation with a $34 price objective.

Nationwide Super App Strategy Advances

DraftKings’ strategic vision centers on achieving nationwide availability for its super app architecture, targeting presence in all 50 U.S. states. The specific product offerings within the application will fluctuate by jurisdiction based on regulatory frameworks.

The operator has submitted additional exchange-based products through CFTC channels as part of its prediction markets expansion strategy. Bank of America research analysts have identified emerging convergence among sports wagering, cryptocurrency, and financial market platforms as a potential sustained growth catalyst for operators such as DraftKings.

According to InvestingPro projections, net income is anticipated to expand during the current fiscal year.

Humanity Protocol explained how attackers were able to steal more than $36 million of its H token, and the cause was a serious lapse in how it secured its keys.

In an incident update shared with CoinDesk, the decentralized identity project said the breach started when an employee’s laptop was compromised. The machine held several keys that controlled the project’s token bridges, the tools that move H (and other tokens) between blockchains.

Those bridges ran through multisignature wallets, which require a number of separate keys to approve any change. A multisignature wallet is supposed to spread keys across different people and devices so that no single machine can move funds.

In this case, all the keys were stored on a single device, meaning a compromise allowed the exploier to cross the approval threshold on both chains, Humanity said.

The attacker obtained three of the six keys controlling the bridge’s admin account on Ethereum, enough to seize controls linked to the project’s deployment on the network.

The attacker then transferred ownership to their own wallet, swapped the bridge’s code for a malicious version and drained about 141 million H in one transaction.

In a Telegram message to CoinDesk, Humanity founder Terence Kwok said the team had set up a multisig wallet across four individuals (as it should have).

Humanity suspects that “some of the keys were accidentally backed up to a compromised device during setup,” Kwok said. “We use a licensed custodian for the majority of token treasury, mpc for operations treasury, and for certain contracts multisig keys were set up in one place and then dispersed.

“Unfortunately in this scenario, the keys were backed up on a compromised device,” he said.

The attacker executed similar steps on BNB Chain with three of five keys. This time, installing code with an unlimited mint function, which allowed the creation of tokens at will, and minted about 200 million new H straight to their wallet.

Humanity has since removed the team page from its website. The project said it has halted deposits and withdrawals on the affected bridges and is working with exchanges and the police to recover funds.

Humanity raised $20 million from Pantera Capital and Jump Crypto last year at a $1.1 billion valuation.

ZachXBT, a prominent onchain investigator, said the key compromise and a separate round of suspicious market-making in the token were not connected.

He also raised questions about how the token traded in the weeks before the breach, ahead of a large scheduled token unlock, as H token prices shot up from 20 cents to 70 cents within two weeks.

The token has clawed back some of the lost ground. After falling as low as about 5 cents during the attack, it recovered to around 20 cents, according to CoinGecko data. It remains well below the roughly pre-breach level of 67 cents.

Key Takeaways

• Futures point to strong open: Nasdaq 100 up 0.7%, S&P 500 up 0.4%, Dow up 0.2%
• Semiconductor names including Micron, Nvidia, and Broadcom spearhead recovery
• OpenAI submits confidential IPO filing, following Anthropic’s move last week
• Bitcoin trades at $63,090, down 0.3% in the last 24 hours
• SpaceX IPO could arrive Friday, potentially setting new records

Technology stocks are staging a strong comeback Tuesday morning as Wall Street returns to growth names following the previous week’s artificial intelligence-fueled market decline. For the second consecutive session, tech shares are pacing broader market gains.

Futures contracts on the Nasdaq 100 advanced 0.7%. The S&P 500 futures contract gained 0.4%. Dow Jones Industrial Average futures increased 76 points, representing a 0.2% climb.

Tuesday’s positive momentum extends Monday’s session, when traders aggressively purchased semiconductor manufacturers and high-growth technology companies. Market participants appear willing to capitalize on discounted valuations following last week’s correction.

Semiconductor Sector Leads Recovery

Micron Technology climbed approximately 4% during pre-market hours. Nvidia and Broadcom posted modest gains as well, continuing their rebound from Friday’s sharp declines.

The rally signals sustained optimism surrounding artificial intelligence infrastructure demand, even as inflation anxieties persist. A segment of market watchers fears that stubborn inflation readings might compel the Federal Reserve to implement rate increases in 2025.

“The tech stock pullback was a gift for investors, and we remain buyers on the dips,” said Robert Edwards, chief investment officer at Edwards Asset Management.

Edwards emphasized that robust revenue expansion and profit growth continue to underpin the sector, encouraging institutional buyers to accumulate shares during temporary selloffs.

Market attention now turns to Wednesday’s calendar. The release of consumer price index figures and Oracle’s quarterly financial results could determine whether the current rally maintains momentum or loses steam.

AI Giants Race to Public Markets

Following Monday’s trading session, OpenAI announced it had submitted confidential registration documents for a public stock offering. The filing arrives just seven days after competitor Anthropic initiated its own IPO process.

Both artificial intelligence powerhouses are positioning themselves for potential public market debuts as early as autumn. The simultaneous filings represent a watershed development for the AI sector.

Market observers are also monitoring Friday’s calendar, when SpaceX may complete its public offering. The aerospace company’s listing could establish a new benchmark for the largest market debut on record.

Cryptocurrency Drifts Lower as Greenback Softens

Bitcoin decreased 0.3% during the previous 24-hour period, settling at $63,090. Market strategists indicate the digital asset requires substantial dollar weakness to mount a significant rally.

The U.S. dollar index declined 0.1% versus major trading partners’ currencies. The pullback followed diplomatic progress between Iran and Israel, who committed to suspending recent military confrontations after intervention from President Trump.

Energy markets responded to the geopolitical developments. Brent crude retreated 1.2% to $93.14 per barrel. West Texas Intermediate decreased 1.6% to $89.82.

The benchmark 10-year Treasury yield edged lower to 4.55%.

As the trading week progresses, market participants remain concentrated on artificial intelligence investments. Wednesday’s inflation report and Oracle’s earnings release will command attention, with SpaceX’s potential Friday offering capping an eventful period for financial markets.

The line between traditional finance (TradFi) and crypto is disappearing, with tokenization consistently a dominant narrative of the digital asset industry for a number of years.

Edwin Mata, CEO and founder of tokenization platform Brickken, projects that Wall Street will run entirely on blockchain technology by 2030. Mata told CoinDesk that tech industry buzzwords like “Web3” are fading as major banks adopt the technology for standard financial plumbing, such as settlements and payments.

“The merge between Wall Street and technology is going to dissipate,” Mata said in an interview. “We’re not going to talk anymore about blockchain. It’s merging into fintech.”

While institutional interest in tokenizing real-world assets is growing, driven by major moves like BlackRock’s BUIDL fund, Mata warned that Europe is over-regulating itself out of the race.

This push toward blockchain-native infrastructure was highlighted by Bullish’s (BLSH) $4.2 billion acquisition of transfer agent Equiniti. The deal targets corporate shareholder recordkeeping to ensure shares are issued and recorded directly on-chain from the start, rather than using synthetic digital “wrappers.” Bullish is also the parent company of CoinDesk.

The next shift for tokenization will not be driven by humans, but by software, Mata said. Brickken, a Barcelona, Spain-based tokenization platform that has served as a pathway for bringing $500 million of real-world assets onchain, is currently integrating AI agents to automate the onboarding of assets and the sourcing of liquidity for its 200 clients. .

Mata predicts that traditional software dashboards will soon be replaced by simple chat prompts, where AI agents handle the backend work of finding the best financial yields.

“The decision-maker is not going to be us anymore. It’s going to be AI,” Mata said.

Mata also criticized the European Union’s MiCA regulatory framework, which he said protects legacy banks by imposing expensive, slow-moving compliance rules on small startups.

“Smaller players cannot access the market, which creates a moat for the bigger players,” Mata said. “It can take you nine months [to get a license], and if you’re a startup, nine months without monetizing, you’re dead.”

Startups may choose to move to the UAE and Southeast Asia rather than tackle these steep barriers. Mata believes the U.S. will remain the main powerhouse for crypto innovation simply because it controls the world’s largest capital market, rendering current regulatory disputes in Washington temporary noise.

France-based Ledger CTO Charles Guillemet shared Mata’s criticism. He told CoinDesk the EU’s regulatory framework has transformed the competitive landscape of Web3, unintendedly affecting crypto startups, and instead hugely benefiting legacy financial institutions

Read More: Abra’s Bill Barhydt says Wall Street’s next crypto bet is tokenization

SBI Shinsei Bank is piloting a program that rewards ordinary and time-deposit customers with cryptocurrency exchange vouchers tied to their interest payments. According to a Nikkei report, vouchers will be issued equal to 20% of the interest earned, in addition to the standard yen-denominated interest, and can be exchanged for Bitcoin (BTC), Ether (ETH) or XRP within a defined redemption window. Access to the vouchers requires opening an account with SBI’s crypto exchange arm, SBI VC Trade. The initiative marks a shift from conventional savings toward a crypto-onramp within a regulated banking framework.

The trial run is set to launch ahead of a permanent rollout, with a three-month campaign that will cover ordinary deposits and time deposits ranging from three months to five years.

Key takeaways

• Depositors can earn crypto exchange vouchers worth 20% of their interest payments, in addition to standard yen interest.
• Vouchers are redeemable for BTC, ETH or XRP within a defined window, but require accounts with SBI VC Trade to redeem.
• The three-month promotional phase targets both ordinary deposits and time deposits (three months to five years) ahead of a long-term plan.
• The program fits into SBI’s broader push to integrate crypto access points across regulated channels, including exchanges, lending and securities products.
• Recent SBI moves signal a broader strategy to mainstream crypto: retail USDC lending, potential Bitbank consolidation, and crypto-focused funds from its securities unit.

From savings to on-ramp: SBI’s broader crypto strategy takes shape

The deposit-voucher concept is part of a wider pattern in which SBI Group seeks to embed cryptocurrency access within traditional financial services. The Nikkei report frames the plan as a way to turn conventional savings products into on-ramps for digital assets, potentially exposing a broad base of mainstream bank customers to crypto without requiring an outright purchase.

Earlier this year, SBI’s crypto arm expanded its product line. On March 18, SBI VC Trade launched a retail USDC lending service, enabling users to lend stablecoins to the platform under fixed-term agreements in exchange for a return. The product is structured as a loan to the exchange rather than a bank deposit, which means users assume direct counterparty risk rather than FDIC-style guarantees. This aligns with SBI’s aim to broaden crypto utility across its customer base while maintaining clear risk delineation for end users.

The group has also been actively reorganizing its crypto footprint in Japan. On May 1, SBI announced it was examining a potential acquisition of shares in Bitbank, a major trading venue, with the intention of making it a consolidated subsidiary. The move followed SBI VC Trade’s absorption of Bitpoint Japan the previous month, signaling a push toward greater consolidation in the country’s crypto exchange landscape.

Beyond trading venues, SBI’s securities arm is positioning itself to offer crypto investment products. Reports indicate SBI Securities plans to distribute funds developed by SBI Global Asset Management, including crypto-focused investment trusts and exchange-traded funds (ETFs) centered on assets like BTC and ETH. Taken together, these steps illustrate a deliberate strategy to provide crypto access through regulated, traditional financial channels—from deposits and custody to trading and investment products.

Implications for investors, users and the broader market

By tying crypto vouchers to deposit interest, SBI is lowering the barrier to crypto exposure for ordinary savers who might not otherwise engage with digital assets. For investors, the model creates a visible link between traditional income streams and crypto assets, albeit via a structured product that relies on the bank’s ability to issue and redeem vouchers through its exchange arm. The approach also emphasizes the counterparty risks inherent in SBI’s USDC lending offering, where users lend stablecoins to the platform rather than participating in a bank-backed product.

In Japan, SBI’s multi-pronged approach—from on-ramp deposits to lending and securities products—reflects a broader market shift toward regulated crypto access. If successful, the program could accelerate mainstream adoption and push other financial institutions to test on-ramps within compliance frameworks. However, observers will be watching for details such as redemption windows, voucher liquidity, tax treatment of voucher-derived crypto, and the regulatory stance on hybrid products that blend traditional savings with digital assets.

Market participants should also monitor the evolving landscape of SBI’s ecosystem moves, including the Bitbank consolidation and the roll-out of crypto funds via SBI Securities. These developments could influence liquidity, competition among Japanese exchanges, and the availability of crypto investment options through traditional savings and investment vehicles. As SBI expands its footprint across deposits, lending and securities, it is carving a blueprint for how a major financial group could normalize crypto access while navigating the associated risk and compliance considerations.

Readers should keep an eye on how the redemption mechanics are implemented in practice and what this means for user experience, pricing, and tax implications. The coming weeks will reveal more details on the redemption window, eligible deposits, and any caps or fees tied to the voucher program, as well as how these crypto access points perform alongside existing SBI offerings.

For years, crypto has transformed how people think about money, ownership, and digital assets. Now, a new asset class is emerging at the intersection of artificial intelligence and blockchain technology: data.

As AI models become more powerful, the demand for high-quality datasets is exploding. The companies and individuals who control valuable data may soon hold one of the most important resources in the digital economy. Just as oil fueled the industrial age and computing powered the internet age, data is becoming the fuel of the AI era.

The question is no longer whether data has value—it is who owns it, who profits from it, and how it will be traded.

Why Data Is Becoming a Commodity

Every AI system depends on data.

Large language models require text datasets. Image generators need billions of images. Recommendation engines rely on user behavior data. Autonomous systems need real-world sensor information.

As AI adoption accelerates, quality data is becoming increasingly scarce and valuable. Organizations are beginning to realize that proprietary datasets can create competitive advantages that are difficult to replicate.

This creates a new market dynamic where data itself becomes a tradable asset.

Just as commodities such as gold, oil, or electricity have markets, AI may create global marketplaces where datasets are bought, sold, licensed, and exchanged.

The Problem of Data Ownership

Today’s internet economy has a major imbalance.

Users generate enormous amounts of valuable information through social media activity, browsing habits, purchases, conversations, and digital interactions. Yet most of the economic value is captured by large technology platforms.

Individuals rarely receive compensation despite being the source of the data.

AI is bringing this issue into sharper focus. If an AI model learns from content, behavior, or information generated by millions of people, should those contributors receive a share of the value created?

Many blockchain-based projects argue the answer is yes.

Tokenized ownership systems could allow individuals to maintain control over their data while selectively granting access to AI developers in exchange for compensation.

This shift could fundamentally change the economics of digital ownership.

Decentralized AI Training

Traditional AI development is highly centralized.

Large corporations collect datasets, train models, and capture most of the resulting profits. Access to both data and computing resources is concentrated among a small number of players.

Decentralized AI seeks to change that model.

Using blockchain networks, contributors can provide datasets, computing power, or model improvements while receiving rewards for their participation.

In a decentralized training ecosystem:

• Data providers contribute valuable datasets.
• Compute providers supply processing power.
• Developers improve models and algorithms.
• Token incentives coordinate participation.

Instead of a single company controlling the entire process, AI development becomes a collaborative network economy.

This approach mirrors how decentralized finance replaced traditional financial intermediaries with open protocols.

Data Monetization: A New Digital Income Stream

One of the most exciting opportunities in AI data markets is direct data monetization.

Imagine being able to:

• License your content to AI models.
• Earn revenue from proprietary datasets.
• Sell specialized industry knowledge.
• Monetize IoT and sensor-generated information.
• Participate in data-sharing networks while maintaining privacy controls.

In this model, data becomes a productive asset capable of generating ongoing revenue.

Businesses may also benefit from unlocking value from previously underutilized datasets. Healthcare records, supply-chain information, scientific research, and financial datasets could become important components of future AI marketplaces.

The result is an entirely new category of digital economic activity.

The Role of Blockchain

Blockchain technology provides the infrastructure needed to support AI data markets.

Smart contracts can automate payments, verify ownership, track usage rights, and distribute rewards without relying on centralized intermediaries.

Key benefits include:

• Transparent ownership records
• Permissionless participation
• Automated royalty payments
• Auditable data usage
• Global accessibility

These features make blockchain a natural complement to AI-driven economies.

Challenges Ahead

Despite the opportunity, significant challenges remain.

Questions regarding privacy, intellectual property rights, data quality, and regulatory compliance remain unresolved.

Data markets must also address:

• Fraudulent or low-quality datasets
• Data provenance verification
• Fair compensation mechanisms
• Privacy-preserving AI training
• Cross-border legal frameworks

The success of AI data markets will depend on balancing openness with trust and accountability.

Conclusion

AI is creating unprecedented demand for high-quality data, transforming information into one of the world’s most valuable digital resources.

As decentralized networks emerge, ownership and monetization models are likely to evolve beyond today’s platform-driven economy. Individuals may gain greater control over their data, contributors may earn rewards for participation, and AI development could become more open and collaborative.

The next major crypto commodity may not be a token, a blockchain, or a financial asset.

It may be the data itself.

And the platforms that successfully connect AI demand with data supply could become some of the most important economic infrastructure of the coming decade.

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