Augustus Bank’s CEO, Ferdinand Dabitz, says legacy clearing banks cannot truly rebuild their cores for artificial intelligence and programmable money, as his startup moves closer to launching a US national bank designed around both.

The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) granted conditional approval for Augustus Bank N.A. on Monday under the Guiding and Establishing National Innovation for US Stablecoins (GENIUS) Act, which created a federal framework for payment stablecoins and clarified how banks and certain nonbank entities can issue and integrate dollar-pegged tokens under federal oversight.

Augustus now plans to establish a full-service national bank in Dallas, Texas, focused on fully reserved stablecoins, AI-driven compliance and automation-heavy back-office processes. Dabitz told Cointelegraph it was just “a couple of months” from full approval and launch. However, final approval remains subject to pre-opening conditions.

The company is targeting the “broken” correspondent clearing business dominated by global banks such as Citi, arguing that incumbents cannot fully re-platform systems built for humans, not machines, that still close on weekends and rely on decades-old cores.

“The short answer is replacing them,” Dabitz said when asked whether Augustus could coexist alongside traditional clearing banks.

Augustus bets stablecoins and AI can remake clearing

Augustus began life in Berlin in 2021 as Ivy, a euro-clearing fintech that built a transaction banking platform for non-US financial institutions, fintechs and crypto firms.

Augustus received conditional OCC approval this week. Source: PR Newswire

The bank already runs euro payments and instant settlement for clients, including crypto exchange Kraken. “The clearing bank bond is truly broken,” he said, arguing there’s an opportunity to “rethink it as an application and deliver something pretty terrific.”

Related: JPMorgan to launch tokenized money market fund for stablecoin issuers

Central to Dabitz’s pitch is the belief that large banks can upgrade legacy infrastructure but cannot fundamentally rebuild around AI and tokenized money. “I’ve come to the conclusion it’s impossible to re-platform a bank,” he said.

Augustus plans a three-layer stablecoin model: using stablecoins as a funding rail for payments, as a treasury and liquidity tool to release what Dabitz estimates is around $3 trillion in trapped idle capital, and as the interface layer for AI agents interacting directly with money.

He said the model could enable real-time treasury optimization and allow AI systems to become “first-class customers” of the bank, handling tasks such as liquidity management and transaction monitoring on behalf of corporates.

Competition from banking giants

Dabitz’s argument comes as major banks accelerate their own AI and digital asset initiatives.

JPMorgan Chase says it invests more than $18 billion annually in technology, including AI, and Citi reported over $6.1 billion in clearing-related revenue in Q1 alone, highlighting the scale of the incumbent profit pool Augustus is targeting.

Dabitz argues his team can still move faster because it is designing AI and stablecoin workflows into its operating model from the outset rather than retrofitting existing systems.

Related: Argentine banks testing JPMorgan’s JPM Coin to speed up settlements: Report

He also described the US banking market as structurally under-innovated, noting that banking is unusually labor-heavy compared with other major industries, with people rather than assets forming a major part of operating costs.

Pushing AI deeper into banking operations

Augustus wants to compress processes such as transaction monitoring, case handling and suspicious activity reporting from “20 hours to 20 minutes” using AI, with humans supervising the systems rather than manually performing every step.

Critics question whether a young, AI-focused bank with a 25-year-old leader at its helm can safely automate compliance-heavy operations without introducing model risk, explainability problems or operational failures.

Dabitz said that only makes the challenge “more exciting” and that the company plans to work closely with regulators and banking executives to ensure “the checks and balances and the harness for the AI to operate in a safe and sound manner.”

Magazine: Bitcoin will not hit $1M by 2030, says veteran trader Peter Brandt

Gemini’s “agentic trading” lets AI models like ChatGPT and Claude plug into user accounts via MCP, executing crypto trades autonomously and turning AI from signal vendor into primary CEX client.

Gemini has rolled out “agentic trading,” a feature that lets AI systems like ChatGPT and Claude connect directly to user accounts and execute crypto trades autonomously on the exchange, rather than just spitting out trade ideas for humans to click. The move quietly shifts AI from being a glorified signal service to being a client class in its own right, with opaque, proprietary models now sourcing, routing, and managing a chunk of CEX order flow on their own.

According to Gemini’s own blog, “agentic trading means your AI agent acts on your behalf — placing trades, monitoring markets, and managing risk automatically,” with users defining strategies and constraints while the agent handles execution. Under the hood, Gemini has integrated its full trading API with the Model Context Protocol (MCP), an open standard originally built by Anthropic that lets AI agents call external tools and services; compatible models include Claude and ChatGPT, which can query markets, place orders and adjust positions over time. Third‑party write‑ups emphasize that Gemini is the first regulated US exchange to expose a dedicated “agentic” interface, turning centralized exchange infrastructure into a native venue for autonomous trading agents rather than just human click‑flow and traditional algos.

Gemini heats up the AI race

Practically, the system is built around modular “Trading Skills” — pre‑built functions AI agents can invoke to get real‑time market data, inspect order‑book depth and spreads, and pull historical candle data, with more complex order‑routing and risk modules promised over time. Users link their accounts to an AI model via MCP, set budget and risk limits, and then let the agent run strategies that can range from simple DCA or grid trading to multi‑leg structures and volatility plays, with Gemini stressing that “human oversight remains part of the design” through caps and rules. But the microstructure implication is obvious: once enough people plug in agents and walk away, a material share of resting and market orders on Gemini will be coming from black‑box models tuned to optimize for particular objectives, not from human decision cycles.

That changes who you are actually trading against. Historically, the story was “retail vs HFT vs a few prop‑shop algos”; now Gemini is effectively advertising “AI as a client type,” more akin to how prime brokers have algorithmic clients that are not directly human‑decisioned on each trade. In high‑volatility periods, tightly coupled agent strategies can amplify feedback loops — especially if many users are copying off the same “AI signals” or fine‑tuning similar models on overlapping data — and you can easily imagine clusters of agents front‑running naive human behavior or unintentionally engaging in coordinated patterns that look a lot like cartelized flow.

There is a clean contrast here with TON’s on‑chain “Agentic Wallets.” TON is pushing autonomy to the network edge: agents live in Telegram, manage non‑custodial wallets on TON, and interact with DeFi directly on an L1. Gemini is doing the opposite: recenters agentic trading inside a regulated, custodial CEX, where AI agents are tightly coupled to one exchange’s API and compliance perimeter. In both cases the future is the same: the next “HFT villain” in crypto will not be a named firm on the other side of your order, but a swarm of un‑audited models, systematically optimized around the fee, tax and KYC constraints their operators face — and increasingly treated by the infrastructure itself as the primary customer, with humans demoted to parameter‑setters and occasional override buttons.

Dogecoin price debate heats up as Poly Truth and Meme Punch enter cheap crypto conversations in 2026.

The search for a Dogecoin price prediction picks up every May, and 2026 is no different. DOGE is still one of the most recognized names in crypto, and the price keeps it well within “cheap crypto” territory.

The question is whether DOGE is still the smartest cheap pick, or whether other low-cost projects deserve more attention. Names like Poly Truth (PTRUE) and Meme Punch (MEPU) are starting to show up in the same conversations.

Dogecoin price prediction May 2026

DOGE is currently sitting around $0.11, and the short-term outlook for May points to a mixed but mostly recovering month. According to Changelly, the first half of May looks softer, with the price dipping as low as $0.108 around May 22 before turning back up.

The second half is where things get more interesting. From around May 25 onward, the forecast shows steady gains almost every day, reaching about $0.129 by May 31. That works out to roughly a 12% rise from current levels by the end of the month.

So the picture for DOGE in May isn’t a straight run. It starts slow, takes a small dip mid-month, then builds momentum into the final week.

A few things could help that momentum hold. Spot DOGE ETFs are already live, and any pickup in inflows would give the price a real lift. The same goes for any movement on X Money adding DOGE as a payment option, which has been talked about for months.

Is DOGE still the best cheap crypto to buy?

DOGE is still extremely cheap per token. Anyone can purchase a stack of coins for a few dollars, which contributes to its following. 

However, DOGE is no longer cheap in terms of market capitalization. It is already among the top ten coins with a value of more than $17 billion. Because the amount of money required to double the price has increased along with it, it is much more difficult to replicate the kind of returns it produced in 2021 at this size.

The trade-off is that. Although DOGE offers a cheap entry fee and a well-known brand, there is less space for expansion than in the past. Smaller projects are beginning to close the gap for buyers looking for cheap tokens with greater potential. 

Two cheaper picks worth knowing

Two projects worth a closer look for those who are after smaller market caps and more growth potential.

Poly Truth (PTRUE)

Poly Truth is an AI-powered research tool for prediction markets. Drop in any active prediction event, like an election or a sports final, and the platform digs through news, market data, and community signals to figure out the most likely outcome.

The whole thing runs on a three-part system. Scrapers pull the data, an AI analyst weighs it and works out the probabilities, and the final report shows which outcome has the strongest case and why.

What stands out about PTRUE:

• Real product – The tool is the project, not a future promise.
• Tiered access – Bigger holders unlock more features inside the platform.
• Staking during presale – Holders can stake their tokens to earn rewards before launch.
• Audited – Both SolidProof and Coinsult have audited the contract.
• Locked team tokens – 12-month vest with a 3-month cliff.

The token is currently in Stage 1 of the presale at $0.001190, with the next price step at $0.001216. 

Meme Punch (MEPU)

Meme Punch puts a different spin on memecoins. Instead of asking the investor to buy and hold, it builds the meme into a game they can actually play.

The setup is a medieval battle arena where five of the most familiar meme characters in crypto, Pepe, Doge, Floki, Brett, and Pudgy Penguin, fight each other in PvP combat. Pick a character, jump into battles, and climb the leaderboard. Winning earns MEPU, and the token can also be spent inside the game on weapons, skins, and special powers.

That makes MEPU one of the few meme tokens with actual in-game utility. It’s a currency players use, not just a coin sitting in a wallet.

The basics:

• Built on Ethereum, with a total supply of 10 billion
• Presale takes 40%, with staking and game rewards together taking another 24%
• Payment options cover ETH, BNB, SOL, USDT, USDC, and card

Final thoughts

Any Dogecoin price prediction for May 2026 points to a slow but mostly positive month, with most of the gains showing up in the final week. DOGE is still cheap on a per-token basis, but the room left to grow isn’t what it used to be.

That’s why picks like Poly Truth (PTRUE) and Meme Punch (MEPU) are worth knowing about. Smaller market caps, real products behind them, and more upside if either one delivers.

Frequently asked questions

How high will Dogecoin go in 2030?

Most long-term forecasts put DOGE between $0.30 and $1 by 2030, depending on ETF flows and adoption. Smaller picks like Poly Truth (PTRUE) and Meme Punch (MEPU) tend to come up for buyers chasing bigger returns over the same window.

Will Dogecoin reach $1 dollar? 

A $1 DOGE would need a market cap close to $150 billion, which is doable in a strong bull cycle but far from certain. Early-stage tokens like $PTRUE and $MEPU have more room to deliver bigger percentage moves.

What will Dogecoin be worth in 5 years? 

Forecasts land mostly between $0.40 and $1.50, depending on which model to look at. The same window is usually where presale picks like PTRUE and MEPU either prove themselves or fade.

Can Dogecoin reach $3 dollars? 

$3 would push DOGE past $400 billion in market cap, which isn’t realistic without a massive shift in supply or demand. That kind of return is more often found in low-cap projects, which is where PTRUE and MEPU come into the conversation.

Cross-chain liquidity protocol THORChain has reportedly been exploited for $10 million worth of crypto. 

That’s according to investigator ZachXBT, who revealed in his Telegram channel that the fund movements suggest the protocol was likely exploited.

As a result, THORChain has paused its trading activity. THORChain’s X account and the account of its founder, John-Paul Thorbjornsen, have yet to comment on the exploit. 

ZachXBT listed three theft addresses as part of his findings:

• bc1ql4u94klk265lnfur2ujk9p6uh52f2a8jhf6f37
• 0x82fc0d5150f3548027e971ec04c065f3c93154eb
• 0xd477b69551f49c0519f9b18c55030676138890bd

Read more: THORChain pauses lending, savings but $200M restructure ‘no big deal’

The sleuth initially posted that around $7 million was exploited, but later updated it to $10 million. 

While ZachXBT noted that it was a “likely” exploit, various crypto security firms have since confirmed it. Crypto security analysts PeckShieldAlert claimed that the attacker was able to steal $3 million worth of bitcoin and roughly $7 million of crypto assets from BNBChain, Ethereum, and Base.

Another self-proclaimed crypto investigator who goes by the username “tanuki42” claimed that the exploiter’s gas funds were supplied by bridging protocol Wagyu xyz. 

It’s unclear exactly what caused the exploit. 

THORChain has a love-hate relationship with North Korea

Earlier this week, crypto researcher “meow mfer” claimed that THORSwap hired a suspected North Korean IT worker. 

THORChain describes THORSwap as the “leading multi-chain decentralized exchange aggregator and flagship interface for all THORChain features.”

Meow mfer claims the individual “had at least three pull requests MERGED into the official swapkit/SwapKit repository — the core SDK powering ThorSwap’s cross-chain swap infrastructure.”

They note that this individual was building wallet integration code for THORSwap, and that they also built “MEV extraction tools” and possessed concealment software used by North Korea.

Last year, THORSwap offered a bounty after Thorbjornsen’s personal wallet was drained of $1.2 million worth of crypto assets. 

ZachXBT attributed the hack to North Korea and noted that “JP is one of the people whose has greatly benefited financially from the laundering of DPRK hacks/exploits.”

Read more: Vultisig founder says DPRK-linked Bybit transactions are ‘legitimate’

Indeed, funds stolen in North Korea are often moved through THORChain and its founders’ affiliated services in transactions that have resulted in significant profits for THORChain.  

Protos has reached out to ZachXBT for comment and will update this piece should we hear anything back. 

Got a tip? Send us an email securely via Protos Leaks. For more informed news and investigations, follow us on X, Bluesky, and Google News, or subscribe to our YouTube channel.

South Korea’s Financial Services Commission (FSC) plans to release detailed tokenized securities rules in July as the country prepares to bring blockchain-based securities under its capital markets framework in 2027.

The measures are expected to include a roadmap for tokenizing stocks, bonds and money market funds, possible changes to over-the-counter trading limits and rules allowing some fractional investment products to pool similar underlying assets, the FSC announced on Friday at the second meeting of its public-private tokenized securities council, which was launched in March to design issuance, trading, infrastructure and settlement rules before the framework takes effect in 2027.

“The goal is to make an announcement in July,” said FSC Vice Chairman Kwon Dae-young, adding that the new rules will serve for the “institutionalization” of tokenized securities.

The July package will be an important test of how far South Korea is willing to open regulated capital markets to distributed ledger infrastructure while keeping tokenized securities inside existing investor-protection rules.

The announcement followed the new Bank of Korea Governor, Hyun-Song Shin, who voiced support for tokenized deposits in his first public address, as Cointelegraph reported on April 21.

A week earlier, on April 16, South Korea’s Ministry of Economy and Finance announced a pilot project that will use tokenized deposits to execute government operational spending, with a full rollout set for the fourth quarter of 2026.

The Second Public-Private Joint Tokenized Securities Council. Source: FSC.go.kr

FSC accelerates tokenized regulation efforts ahead of 2027 rollout

The news comes amid the planned implementation of the amended Capital Markets Act and Electronic Securities Act, the country’s first tokenized securities framework, which is scheduled to take full effect on Feb. 4, 2027.

The implementation will mark the launch of South Korea’s first regulated environment for issuing, distributing and trading tokenized securities on distributed blockchain ledgers.

Related: South Korea’s Shinhan Card taps Solana to test real-world stablecoin payments

The framework will legally recognize blockchain-ledgers as valid securities registries, bringing tokenized assets under the FSC’s jurisdiction out of their current experimental stage.

The FSC first announced the incoming amendments to the legislation on Jan. 15, 2026, setting a one-year preparatory period for lawmakers.

Magazine: Singapore isn’t a ‘crypto hub’ — it’s something better: StraitsX CEO