A U.S. judge sentenced Chinese businessman Miles Guo, the billionaire behind the fraudulent crypto venture Himalaya Coin, to 30 years in prison, long after a trial jury found the well-connected defendant was guilty of several crimes in 2024.

Guo, 55, also known as Ho Wan Kwok and a number of other aliases, was a self-imposed exile from China who had a close relationship with Steve Bannon, the former strategist of President Donald Trump who has had his own legal entanglements. In 2021, Guo had pushed his fraudulent crypto token, known as H-Coin, telling prospective buyers that it was 20% backed by gold and that the operation would cover 100% of investment losses.

He was said to pull in $500 million in investments, which was just one element of what U.S. authorities called “interrelated fraud schemes” perpetrated over five years, leading to his conviction on counts including racketeering, fraud and money laundering.

Key Takeaways

• RZLV shares advance 9.42% following shareholder endorsement of $300M share repurchase authorization

• Company anticipates UK Court clearance by mid-September 2026

• Rezolve Ai maintains FY26 revenue projection of approximately $360 million

• Company aims for minimum $500 million annual recurring revenue by year-end 2026

• Repurchase program provides board discretion without mandating specific share quantities

Rezolve AI PLC (RZLV) shares climbed 9.42% to reach $2.8450 following shareholder authorization of a substantial share repurchase program. The stock experienced an early jump after market open and maintained strength throughout the session near session highs. This approval provides the company with a strategic mechanism to address what management views as a market valuation disconnect.

Rezolve AI PLC, RZLV

Annual Meeting Delivers Buyback Mandate

During the company’s Annual General Meeting, Rezolve Ai shareholders voted to authorize both capital reduction and share repurchase capabilities. This mandate permits the board to execute buybacks totaling up to $300 million. The initiative still requires customary UK Court confirmation before any share repurchases can commence.

This authorization grants Rezolve Ai operational latitude to acquire ordinary shares in accordance with UK Companies Act 2006 provisions. Management anticipates completing the court approval process by mid-September 2026. Following judicial clearance, the company intends to initiate repurchases when market dynamics align with strategic board determinations.

According to Rezolve Ai’s announcement, the repurchase program may leverage open market acquisitions, block transactions, or private negotiations. The company noted it may occasionally repurchase shares from BTIG. Importantly, the program establishes no obligation to purchase any predetermined share volume.

Company Connects Repurchase Plan to Expansion Trajectory

Rezolve Ai characterized the shareholder vote as validation of its strategic direction and expansion prospects. Management stated that current market capitalization fails to capture the company’s operational scale. The company also highlighted accelerating commercial traction within its enterprise client portfolio.

The firm disclosed it currently supports over 1,000 enterprise clients worldwide. Additionally, Rezolve Ai reported approximately $60 million in preliminary revenue for the first quarter of 2026. Management reiterated its full fiscal year 2026 revenue target of roughly $360 million.

This projection represents approximately 7.5 times the company’s fiscal 2025 revenue baseline. Rezolve Ai also forecasts exiting 2026 with no less than $500 million in annual recurring revenue. Consequently, the buyback authorization coincides with an aggressive growth narrative the company continues to advance.

Brain Suite Platform Powers Digital Commerce Strategy

Rezolve Ai competes in the AI-powered commerce sector through its Brain Suite platform. This technology assists retailers, consumer brands, and financial services organizations in optimizing digital sales workflows. The platform facilitates search functionality, customer interaction, product suggestions, and transaction completion.

The company markets Brain Suite as foundational infrastructure for instantaneous commerce intelligence. It serves enterprises requiring accelerated product discovery and enhanced customer personalization. Accordingly, Rezolve Ai attributes its growth trajectory to rising enterprise adoption of automated commerce solutions.

RZLV’s rally demonstrated robust investor response to the buyback authorization combined with refreshed growth indicators. The stock’s 9.42% appreciation renewed market attention following the shareholder decision. Nevertheless, the repurchase program remains contingent upon court confirmation and board execution.

Care Bears is becoming part of the Authentic Brands Group portfolio.

On Tuesday, the brand and entertainment platform said it has signed a definitive agreement to acquire the intellectual property of Care Bears, a global entertainment franchise that has generated more than $12 billion in retail sales since being introduced as a greeting card concept in the early 1980s.

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Terms of the purchase from Ivest Consumer Partners and Cloverlay were not disclosed but the deal is expected to close in the third quarter. The private equity firms acquired Care Bears in 2023 from the Weiss family, sole owners of the brand for more than 40 years. The brand is on track to exceed $750 million in retail sales by year-end 2026.

Authentic Studios and Authentic Live, divisions of Authentic Brands Group, will be key to extending the Care Bears universe through new stories, audiences and fan experiences. Since launching in 2023, Authentic Studios has introduced new ways for audiences to engage with the company’s brands through original content and experiences, such as Beckham, Shaq’s Dunkman League and EPiC Elvis Presley. Authentic Live connects brands with the world’s biggest moments in sports, culture and entertainment through more than 60 annual events.

“Care Bears is the gold standard of family entertainment,” said Corey Salter, chief executive officer of Authentic’s entertainment division. “It arrives with a nearly 45-year history of genuine emotional connection, an active content pipeline, a vast network of more than 500 licensing partners and a devoted fan base that keeps growing. Our opportunity is not simply to steward the brand and its message of positivity; it’s to bring Care Bears into Authentic’s powerful platform and write the next great chapter in one of entertainment’s most enduring franchises.”

The company had no further comment on its plans on Tuesday. This marks the fourth merger or acquisition Authentic has made this year after Kevin Hart, Guess and Lee.

Since its founding, Care Bears has grown into one of the most loved family entertainment franchises. It offers more than 100 bears, each representing a distinct emotion such as Cheer Bear and Grumpy Bear. It reaches consumers in more than 190 countries and offers short-form content, gaming, live experiences and films in 26 languages.

“Care Bears had extraordinary cultural equity that had been fundamentally undercommercialized for decades,” said Mark Matheny, chair of Care Bears and operating partner, Ivest Consumer Partners and Aston Loch, co-founding partner, Ivest. “We transformed it from a children’s entertainment business into a consumer products licensing company. We are proud of what the Care Bears team built, and we look forward to seeing Authentic carry it into its next chapter.”

Ironically, on the same day as Authentic announced its acquisition, Skechers unveiled a footwear collaboration with the brand featuring women’s and kids. The shoes in the Skechers x Care Bears collection feature many of the brand’s most popular bears including Funshine Bear and Good Luck Bear.

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Theo, an onchain capital markets platform, has invested $20 million in Fidelity International’s USD Digital Liquidity Fund (FILQ). Theo said the investment makes it the first crypto-native platform to allocate capital to the asset manager’s tokenized fund.

Executed through Sygnum, a Swiss digital asset bank that provides regulated banking, custody and tokenization services for institutional clients, the allocation adds FILQ to Theo’s institutional tokenized Treasury product, thBILL.

FILQ is a Moody’s Aaa-mf-rated tokenized US dollar liquidity fund built on Sygnum’s Desygnate platform that invests in diversified short-term money market instruments designed to preserve capital and liquidity. Chainlink provides onchain net asset value and distribution data for the fund through its Runtime Environment, while JPMorgan receives and approves the daily NAV data, according to the release.

Fidelity International managed $1.06 trillion in total assets as of March 31, according to the company, while Theo said its products have processed more than $1 billion in cumulative trading volume across more than 80,000 users in over 60 countries.

RWA.xyz data shows FILQ currently manages about $55.1 million in onchain assets, suggesting Theo’s $20 million allocation represents a significant share of the fund.

Source: RWA.xzy

Related: Franklin Templeton launches dedicated crypto division after closing 250 Digital acquisition

Traditional asset managers expand tokenized fund offerings

Tokenized US Treasury products have become the largest segment of the tokenized real-world asset market. According to RWA.xyz, the sector has more than doubled over the past year, growing from about $6.9 billion in distributed value in late June 2025 to approximately $14.6 billion as of late June 2026.

RWA.xyz tracks 83 tokenized Treasury products held by more than 64,000 investors, with offerings from Circle, BlackRock, Ondo, Franklin Templeton and Securitize each managing more than $2 billion in distributed value.

Tokenized US Treasuries. Source: RWA.xyz

The market’s growth has been accompanied by new fund launches and distribution partnerships from traditional financial firms. In May, JPMorgan launched JLTXX, a tokenized government money market fund on Ethereum (ETH) that invests in US Treasury bills and overnight repurchase agreements.

The following month, Franklin Templeton partnered with MoonPay to expand institutional access to its BENJI tokenized money market fund, allowing eligible institutions to move between supported stablecoins and tokenized fund exposure through an onchain trading workflow.

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Michael Saylor’s Strategy won support from some Wall Street analysts after unveiling a new capital framework, but the changes also sparked debate over the company’s long-term Bitcoin strategy and sustainability.

Benchmark Equity Research on Monday reiterated its Buy rating on Strategy’s Class A stock MSTR and maintained a 12-month price target of $570, according to a report reviewed by Cointelegraph.

Strategy’s common Class A stock, MSTR, rose 12.6% to about $92.70 on Monday, while its STRC preferred shares climbed 12.2% to around $83.70, according to TradingView and Yahoo Finance.

However, both stocks edged lower in premarket activity on Tuesday as some investors and industry observers remained skeptical about the durability of the new capital model.

What changed in Strategy’s capital framework

With its latest capital framework update, Strategy authorized potential Bitcoin (BTC) sales of up to $1.25 billion to raise capital instead of relying solely on issuing stock or debt.

The amount is equal to roughly 21,082 BTC at current prices, according to CoinGecko, or about 2.5% of the company’s total holdings of 847,363 BTC.

Source: TradingView

While Strategy has long described itself as a long-term accumulator of Bitcoin, the move is not the first time it has sold the biggest cryptocurrency. The company sold 32 BTC for $2.5 million in May 2026 and previously sold 704 BTC in 2022 as part of a tax-related transaction strategy, later repurchasing a similar amount of BTC.

Why Benchmark sees framework as positive

Benchmark argued the new framework addresses the main concerns investors had raised following weeks of volatility, giving the company more flexibility to manage its capital structure.

In the report, the research analysts said the changes transform Strategy from a “one-way” Bitcoin accumulation vehicle into an active manager of both sides of its balance sheet.

Source: Benchmark Equity Research

“The upshot is that Strategy is now an active manager of both sides of its capital structure, an approach that we view as a significant positive for its shareholders,” Benchmark’s analysts wrote.

Related: Grayscale’s Pandl says Strategy should sell $3B Bitcoin to restore confidence

Investor Simon Dedic said the move could mark a local bottom, suggesting that recent concerns around the company’s structure may have been overdone. The Moonrock Capital founder and managing partner also suggested some of the recent selling pressure may have come from Strategy preparing liquidity in advance of the update.

Skeptics question long-term implications

Not everyone viewed the new framework as a positive. Trader and investor Scott Melker said Strategy appears to be making the changes investors wanted to see, including building a larger cash reserve and adopting a more flexible capital strategy.

However, he cautioned that “only time will tell” whether the new framework restores investor confidence, adding that Strategy has been the market’s main Bitcoin buyer.

Arca chief investment officer Jeff Dorman said that Strategy may need to sell about $2 billion to $3 billion worth of Bitcoin to eliminate a “constant overhang” on the market.

Source: Jeff Dorman

Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse also criticized the company’s approach, arguing that “financial engineering doesn’t drive long-term value.” He told CNBC’s “Squawk on the Street” that Michael Saylor’s team “wasn’t focused on the right stuff” and that the strategy had “hurt the overall market.”

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Cryptocurrency exchange OKX has rolled out the beta launch of its marketplace for artificial intelligence (AI) agents.

The OKX AI platform enables users to list their own AI agents, enables AI agents to find work, transact autonomously and build an onchain reputation, according to a Tuesday announcement shared with Cointelegraph.

The platform connects two marketplaces: An agent marketplace where builders can earn income by listing their AI agents for services and a task marketplace where agents post work and find other agents for their tasks.

Agentic AI is expected to drive a 24-fold increase in token consumption, that is units of compute, by 2030 as consumers and enterprises adopt the technology, Goldman Sachs Research said last month. OKX is the latest crypto platform to venture into AI infrastructure, following similar initiatives from Coinbase, MetaMask and Nansen. 

The marketplace will remain in beta until “consistent, repeat usage patterns” emerge among users, with trading, onchain activity and research tasks expected to become the primary early categories on the platform, a spokesperson for OKX told Cointelegraph. 

“OKX is economic infrastructure for agentic commerce. Nobody is combining identity, reputation, payments, and a skills marketplace into one platform,” explained the spokesperson.

OKX AI agent marketplace. Source: OKX.ai 

AI agent builds will be paid in Stablecoins, initially Tether’s USDT (USDT) and Paxos’ Global Dollar (USDG). Payments will settle through escrow-based contracts for complex work or instant pay-per-call transactions for standardized services.

Disputes will be resolved by a staked network of evaluators, instead of a central entity. All types of tasks will contribute to the same onchain reputation of AI agents, which is managed through the OKX Agentic Wallet.

The marketplace launches with support from companies including Amazon Web Services (AWS), AltLayer, CertiK, the Ethereum Foundation, the Solana Foundation, Opentensor Foundation and StraitsX.

Onchain reputation seeks to prevent malicious AI agents

The onchain reputation and escrow system is built to create trust in AI agents by tracking their work history. Agents with no track record or a history of failed or disputed work will be less likely to get hired by other agents.

For larger projects, payment sits in escrow until the task is completed and verified, which aims to “limit” the damage a bad actor can cause in a single transaction.

A spokesperson for OKX said that the onchain reputation system will prevent agents from hiring other malicious agents, especially as more transaction history accumulates.

The spokesperson said the platform is working on additional defense layers, including more sophisticated dispute resolution and an anomaly detection system against coordinated bad-actor behavior.

Crypto platforms join AI wave as agentic payments increase

Cryptocurrency platforms are venturing into autonomous AI infrastructure. On June 12, Coinbase launched a tool that allows AI agents to make payments and trade crypto on behalf of users.

Days earlier, MetaMask launched a self-custodial cryptocurrency wallet that enables AI agents to transact across decentralized finance protocols within user-defined spending and security limits, as reported by Cointelegraph on June 8.

In January, crypto analytics platform Nansen launched autonomous cryptocurrency trading tools that enabled users to execute trades through natural language prompts, instead of traditional charts or order books.

Related: Not every AI agent needs its own cryptocurrency: CZ 

Agentic payment activity on Coinbase’s Base network topped 100 million transactions on June 3, signaling that machine-to-machine payments have moved beyond the proof-of-concept.

Cumulative agentic transfer volumes on Base. Source: Chainalysis

The x402 protocol allows software agents to make onchain payments directly through web requests. 

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