Michael Saylor spent nearly seven minutes at the BTC Prague 2026 conference this week explaining the meaning of the term “multiple-to-Net Asset Value” or “mNAV.”

However, the clip of Saylor’s rambling response went viral for the wrong reason. Almost nobody could follow the answer.

The length and complexity of the definition was also humorous given that Saylor is the founder of Strategy (formerly MicroStrategy), a DAT that publishes its mNAV on its homepage: 1.18x.

How can the answer be precisely 1.18x, yet be so difficult to define?

The first problem? There is no NAV.

Debt-laden companies with payables and other obligations don’t have “NAV” in the first place, which is a controlled term reserved for regulated funds.

Nonetheless, crypto investors likened “NAV” to the value of the crypto holdings at a digital asset treasury (DAT) company.

According to Strategy’s website, the company owns $52.9 billion worth of bitcoin (BTC), and Strategy’s enterprise value is $62.1 billion. Therefore, Strategy has a 1.18x multiple above its $52.9 billion “NAV,” which isn’t really a NAV, but well, whatever.

And it would be whatever, if only the reality were that simple. In fact, it gets worse.

Indeed, at BTC Prague 2026 on Wednesday, Twenty One executive Jack Mallers asked Saylor to define mNAV. Like Saylor, Mallers is a leader of a publicly-traded DAT but remains a little confused about what mNAV really means.

A Bitcoin media outlet posted the exchange with a blunt caption: “Saylor gives nearly a 10-minute answer when Jack Mallers asks him to define mNAV.”

The recording started trending immediately on X, earning hundreds of thousands of combined views.

South Korean police have booked Bithumb CEO Lee Jae-won on suspicion of bribery after he allegedly agreed to give a politician’s son a job in exchange for legislative favors.

That’s according to Yonhap media, which reports police began their investigation on June 11.

Lee was allegedly asked by the lawmaker Kim Byung-ki, who was on the National Assembly’s Political Affairs Committee, to hire his son while sharing a drink together at a restaurant in November 2024.

In addition to this, Kim allegedly requested that Bithumb hire an aide who worked in Kim’s office. 

Authorities suspect that Kim then used his legislative powers to draw attention to “monopoly issues” around Bithumb rival Dunamu. 

Japan’s Lower House reportedly passed a bill that would bring crypto assets under the country’s financial instruments framework, potentially opening a path to exchange-traded funds (ETFs) and lower tax treatment for digital assets. 

The bill would move crypto assets closer to the regulatory treatment of stocks and bonds by subjecting them to stricter trading rules, Bloomberg reported on Thursday. The legislation is expected to take effect next year after going through the Upper House. 

The proposed changes could lower the capital gains tax on crypto assets like Bitcoin (BTC) and Ether (ETH) from a current maximum of 55% to a 20% flat rate, in line with stocks and bonds. The tax change is expected to take effect in 2028.

Official records showed the bill had cleared the Committee on Financial Affairs on June 10, although the bill-tracking page had not yet updated the plenary vote field at the time of writing.

Status of the bill on the House of Representatives website. Source: House of Representatives of Japan

Japan shifts crypto into a financial-market framework

The latest parliamentary advance follows months of signals that Japan was preparing to shift crypto from a payment-focused regime into a financial-market framework. 

In November 2025, media outlet Asahi Shimbun reported that the Financial Services Agency (FSA) had decided to apply the Financial Instruments and Exchange Act to crypto, including Bitcoin (BTC), Ether (ETH) and other tokens handled by local exchanges. 

Related: SBI Shinsei links bank deposits to crypto rewards in Japan: Nikkei

FSA materials dated April 2026 said the proposal would move crypto-asset transaction rules from the Payment Services Act to the Financial Instruments and Exchange Act. 

The FSA said the bill would treat crypto assets as financial products separate from securities, while introducing disclosure rules, tighter exchange oversight, insider trading restrictions and stronger penalties for unregistered operators. 

The proposed framework would also require crypto-asset transaction business operators to publish information on the assets they handle, while issuers of certain assets would face disclosure requirements when conducting offerings or secondary distributions. 

The shift could also open the door to crypto-tracking ETFs in Japan, giving local investors a regulated route to digital asset exposure beyond crypto exchanges and listed companies with token holdings, Bloomberg reported.

Magazine: Vietnam preps crypto pilot, HK pushes tokenization: Asia Express

Hungary is set to decriminalize crypto trading, reversing restrictions that imposed potential jail terms for certain crypto-to-fiat and crypto-to-crypto transactions, according to Tisza government spokesperson Anita Köböl. 

Speaking at a Thursday press conference, Köböl said Hungary would unwind rules introduced last year that required approved validation for crypto conversions and attached criminal penalties to violations. She said the restrictions contributed to a decline in crypto trading activity in the country. 

“This was an unnecessary piece of legislation. It made practical operation impossible and frightened the market participants,” Köböl said, according to a translation by Cointelegraph. “The criminal consequences also negatively impacted several hundred thousand people.”

The rules also prompted several digital asset platforms, including Revolut, to suspend crypto services in the country, Köböl said. She added that regulation had also led to a European Union probe into whether Hungary’s restrictions were compatible with the bloc’s rules. 

The reversal would mark a policy shift for Hungary after its 2025 crypto framework created a restrictive approval system around crypto, exposing users and service providers to criminal liability.

Hungary’s officials speaking at a press conference. Source: Péter Magyar/YouTube

Hungary’s 2025 crypto rules threatened traders with prison time 

The restrictions stemmed from a legislative package passed in 2025 that amended Hungary’s Criminal Code and its Act VII of 2024 on the crypto market, known as the Crypto Act.

Under the amendments that took effect on July 1, 2025, exchanging crypto may be carried out only with a compliance certificate issued by an authorized crypto asset conversion validation service provider.

Transactions lacking that certificate were treated as “unauthorised crypto-transactions,” with linked asset transfers deemed invalid and unable to produce legal effect.

Related: European Commission calls on 12 countries to implement crypto tax rules

The framework also created a new type of entity, a crypto conversion validation service provider, which required authorization from Hungary’s Supervisory Authority of Regulated Activities.

These providers were tasked with checking the origin of crypto assets, identifying wallet or device ownership, assessing user profiles and verifying transactions against external databases before issuing compliance certificates. 

A highlighted excerpt of Hungary’s updated Criminal Code with the new penalties for using unauthorized crypto exchanges. Source: National Legislation Database of Hungary 

Individuals or entities exchanging crypto worth between 5 million Hungarian forint and 50 million forint (about $16,000 to $160,000) through an unauthorized exchange service could face up to two years in prison. 

Penalties increased to five years for transactions between 50 million forint and 500 million forint, and up to eight years for transactions above 500 million forint. 

The crypto reversal comes after Hungary’s April 12 parliamentary election, which ended the 16-year rule of longtime nationalist Prime Minister Viktor Orban and brought Peter Magyar’s pro-European Tisza Party into government, with the new administration moving to ease tensions after years of conflict between Hungary and the EU.

With additional reporting from Zoltan Vardai

Magazine: Does ‘Paper Bitcoin’ mean there’s an unlimited supply of BTC?

Pi Network borrowed crypto’s most powerful word and built a very different machine behind it.

The full supply math runs from the 3.1415926 starting rate to the unlock schedule that now swamps it, and that math defines what the price can realistically do. Few words in crypto carry the weight of “halving.” Bitcoin built a 16-year religion around it: a clockwork cut to new supply, every four years, that has preceded every major bull market the asset has had.

So when Pi Network describes its own mining system in halving language, and when its team points to halvings as the reason a 100 billion token supply will not drown the price, the word does a lot of persuading on its own. That persuasion needs an audit. Pi does have halvings, real ones, with a history and a schedule of sorts. It also has a supply system in which those halvings are close to irrelevant for the question holders actually care about.

The tokens pressuring the price in 2026 were not mined yesterday at the current rate. They were mined years ago at far higher rates, and they are arriving on the market through a different door entirely. With PI trading near $0.12, down from a $2.99 peak in the first days of open trading, the gap between the scarcity story and the supply reality has become the most important piece of math in the ecosystem. What follows walks the math from the beginning: the original mining formula, the milestone halvings, the switch to monthly supply caps at mainnet, the unlock schedule that now dominates everything, and what would have to change for the halving narrative to start mattering.

Key Takeaways

• GOOGL shares currently hover near $164.26, approximately 10% beneath the all-time peak of $408.61
• First-quarter revenue climbed 22% compared to the prior year; operating income expanded 30%
• Gemini application monthly active users reached 900 million, representing a doubling
• Google Cloud sales soared 63%, while operating margins widened from 18% to 33%
• Wall Street consensus rating stands at “Moderate Buy” with a mean price objective of $413.13

Alphabet (GOOGL) began Wednesday’s trading session at $364.26, positioned roughly 10% beneath its 52-week peak of $408.61. Shares have climbed approximately 107% during the trailing twelve months, though recent sessions have witnessed a retreat as market participants balance valuation metrics against robust operational performance.

Alphabet Inc., GOOGL

The first-quarter financial results proved difficult to dismiss. Total revenue reached $109.9 billion, representing a 22% year-over-year increase and surpassing Wall Street’s projection of $106.98 billion. Operating income expanded by 30%. Earnings per share landed at $5.11, substantially exceeding the analyst consensus of $2.64 by nearly doubling expectations.

Google Search revenue expanded 19% during the three-month period. This core business segment continues generating the substantial cash flow that finances Alphabet’s broader strategic initiatives.

Google Cloud emerged as the quarter’s standout performer. Revenue rocketed 63% higher, propelled by robust cloud infrastructure demand and accelerating external purchases of its proprietary AI processors — the Tensor Processing Units (TPUs). The segment’s operating margin experienced remarkable expansion, growing from 18% to 33% within just twelve months.

The Gemini application achieved 900 million monthly active users, effectively doubling its user base. This represents tangible evidence of market traction for a product facing scrutiny regarding its commercial viability.

The Valuation Question

Valuation metrics present a more complex picture. When examined through the lens of price-to-cash-from-operations (CFO), Alphabet currently trades above its historical 10-year average. However, Microsoft and Apple have maintained price-to-CFO ratios averaging 25.7 and 26.7 respectively over the past five years, suggesting Alphabet’s multiple isn’t dramatically disconnected from major technology sector comparables.

The stock currently trades at a P/E ratio of 27.78 alongside a P/E/G ratio of 1.56. Market capitalization stands at $4.41 trillion.

Wall Street analysts generally maintain a supportive stance. Rothschild & Co Redburn elevated its price objective from $390 to $430 while reaffirming a Buy rating. Wells Fargo preserved its Overweight stance and increased its target to $435. JPMorgan sustained its Buy recommendation. The aggregated view across 54 covering analysts yields a “Moderate Buy” consensus with a mean price target of $413.13.

Dissenting voices exist — Sanford C. Bernstein maintains a Market Perform rating with a $390 objective, while Wolfe Research reduced its target to $360, albeit while maintaining an Outperform rating.

Institutional investors control 40.03% of available shares.

Management Transactions and Shareholder Returns

Regarding insider transactions, Chief Executive Officer Sundar Pichai divested 32,500 shares on March 18 at an average price of $307.89, generating proceeds exceeding $10 million. The transaction occurred under a predetermined 10b5-1 trading arrangement and decreased his ownership position by 1.94%.

Chief Accounting Officer Amie Thuener O’Toole similarly sold 617 shares on April 1 at $289.63. Collectively, company insiders disposed of 193,016 shares valued at $17.28 million throughout the most recent quarter. Corporate insiders maintain an 11.61% ownership stake.

Alphabet increased its quarterly dividend payment to $0.22 per share, up from the previous $0.21. The distribution was executed on June 15 for shareholders of record as of June 8. The annualized dividend yield stands at 0.2%.

Analyst projections anticipate full-year earnings per share of $14.29. The 50-day moving average sits at $356.15, while the 200-day moving average is positioned at $329.17.

A Canadian teenager has admitted to a conspiracy to launder money tied to a multimillion-dollar cryptocurrency theft carried out through social-engineering ploys that purported to be trusted firms. Prosecutors say Trenton Richard Johnston, who turned 20 this year, and his co-conspirators impersonated Google, Trezor and other crypto industry figures to access victims’ digital wallets, culminating in a more than $13 million drain. The scheme funded a high-end lifestyle in Miami and Los Angeles, including luxury cars, jewelry, and private-jet travel. Johnston had been charged in May 2024 and, this week, pleaded guilty to money-laundering conspiracy as part of a plea agreement that prosecutors say could yield a prison term in the mid‑range of four to five years.

According to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Florida, the operation began in January 2024. In February, Johnston allegedly convinced a victim that his Google email and Coinbase accounts had been compromised, enabling the theft of roughly $41,000 in Ether. Less than a month later, the group posed as Google and Trezor representatives to trick a California resident into believing someone was attempting to access their cryptocurrency wallet, resulting in the loss of about $13 million in Bitcoin.

About $1.2 million of the stolen funds were used to finance a lavish lifestyle in Miami and Los Angeles over a two‑month span, prosecutors say. The group leveraged an exotic-car rental business, with Johnston and accomplice Brandon Tardibone—a car‑rental company owner—acquiring and leasing luxury vehicles, including two BMWs and a Lamborghini Aventador SVJ. The spending also extended to private jet arrangements, a North Miami rental home, and plane tickets for “two girls from New York.”

Johnston’s run of alleged fraud ended in March when a traffic stop for speeding in a Rolls‑Royce led to the discovery of 21 suspected amphetamine tablets in his possession. Investigators seized his computer, cellphone, and handwritten notes, linking him to the broader scheme. Since then, Johnston has turned over approximately 53.16 Bitcoin and 275.23 Ether, valued at about $3.7 million at current prices. In exchange for a full cooperation, prosecutors have recommended a sentence of 51 to 63 months in prison and dismissal of wire‑fraud charges. Tardibone, the car‑rental partner, faces a recommended sentence of 27 to 33 months.

Key takeaways

• Social engineering remains a dominant vector for crypto theft, with attackers targeting trust and human error rather than relying solely on software exploits.
• The case emphasizes how quickly crypto transfers can be executed and how difficult it can be to reverse a loss once funds leave a compromised account.
• Prosecutors highlight a pattern where a portion of stolen funds are spent on conspicuous consumption, underscoring the “lifestyle” incentives behind many frauds.
• The defendants face prison time under a plea deal, illustrating U.S. law enforcement’s ongoing pivot from post‑crime investigation to prevention and pre‑transaction security measures.
• The broader crackdown on crypto scams continues, with recent high‑profile sentences signaling a tighter torque on perpetrators, including cases in California and other jurisdictions.

How the scheme unfolded and what changed for victims

The Florida case traces a sequence of social‑engineering moves designed to lull victims into a false sense of security. In the February incident, a victim was persuaded that his Google email and Coinbase accounts had been compromised, enabling the attackers to siphon Ether worth about $41,000. Within weeks, the operation escalated, with Johnston and collaborators posing as Google and Trezor representatives in an attempt to dupe a California resident into believing someone was trying to access their cryptocurrency wallet. The result was a theft of roughly $13 million in Bitcoin, illustrating how the combination of misrepresentation and rapid, irreversible blockchain transfers can produce outsized losses in moments.

The financial footprint extended far beyond the wallet drain. Prosecutors say about $1.2 million of the stolen crypto was diverted to fund a glamorous two‑month Miami‑Los Angeles lifestyle, including rental of luxury cars and other upscale expenditures. The involvement of an exotic‑car rental operator—Brandon Tardibone—helped sustain the shopping spree, with Johnston described as the principal beneficiary of the proceeds. The case highlights how proceeds from fraud can be laundered through real‑world assets and services that are quick to monetize and difficult to reclaim once spent.

Law enforcement efforts culminated in Johnston’s March arrest after a traffic stop in a Rolls‑Royce revealed further incriminating materials, including handwritten notes and electronic devices. Investigators recovered a record of the scheme and the links between the illicit cryptocurrency movements and the lifestyle purchases, reinforcing prosecutors’ assertions that the case was less about complex code exploits and more about human manipulation in a fast, high‑stakes environment.

From a restitution and asset‑recovery standpoint, the defendant has already turned over a substantial portion of the stolen assets: 53.16 BTC and 275.23 ETH, collectively valued at about $3.7 million at today’s prices. The plea agreement contemplates a sentence that would dismiss wire‑fraud charges, conditional on continued cooperation, and would place Johnston in a prison range of roughly five years.

A broader pattern: enforcement momentum in crypto crime

The Johnston case sits within a wider pattern of aggressive enforcement against crypto‑related fraud. In April, a California resident received a 70‑month sentence for involvement in a criminal enterprise that purportedly stole $263 million in cryptocurrency through social engineering and burglary, with another defendant—Evan Tangeman, 22—pleading guilty to laundering at least $3.5 million of illicit funds. In February, a Chinese national was sentenced to 20 years in a federal prison for a global crypto scam that allegedly defrauded investors of more than $73 million.

Analysts emphasize that technology alone cannot shield users from this category of crime. Deddy Lavid, CEO and co‑founder of Cyvers, told Cointelegraph that the most significant thefts today often hinge on genuine human interaction rather than pure software flaws. “Crypto makes this especially dangerous because transactions are fast and largely irreversible,” Lavid said. “The attacker only needs to win the victim’s trust once, for a few minutes, and the loss can be permanent.”

Experts argue that the industry must evolve beyond awareness and education. They advocate real‑time, pre‑transaction security controls across wallets, exchanges, custodians, and banking partners to detect suspicious behavior, risky destination wallets, and laundering patterns before funds leave an account. The shift, they say, should move toward preventing fraud before execution rather than solely responding after a theft has occurred.

Related reading: authorities crack down on crypto fraud networks and enforcement actions continue to expand beyond U.S. borders.

As the legal process unfolds for Johnston and his co‑conspirators, readers should monitor the formal sentencing schedule and any additional charges or asset‑recovery actions that may emerge. The emphasis from regulators and prosecutors on prevention—alongside punishment—signals a broader trend that could shape how projects, exchanges, and wallets approach security in the coming months.

Digital Asset Holdings has raised $355 million in a new round led by Andreessen Horowitz’s crypto arm, highlighting Wall Street’s accelerating push into permissioned blockchain infrastructure.

A16z crypto contributed $100 million, alongside 7RIDGE, the Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, Citadel Securities and Optiver, in a deal that values Digital Asset at around $2 billion, according to a Thursday Bloomberg Law report citing people familiar with the matter.

The capital will be used to scale the Canton Network, developed and maintained by Digital Asset, designed for financial institutions to tokenize and settle traditional securities while keeping commercially sensitive data private.

Canton has already been piloted by institutions such as Goldman Sachs, BNY Mellon, BNP Paribas, Standard Chartered, Société Générale and Deutsche Börse.

Last month, Bloomberg reported that Digital Asset had initially been seeking roughly $300 million at that valuation and expected to close the financing within weeks.

“We knew institutional adoption was the path,” cofounder and chief executive of Digital Asset, Yuval Rooz, wrote on X after the raise was announced, reflecting on Digital Asset’s nearly 12‑year journey from DRW spin‑out to Canton Network. “We failed. We made bad decisions… But we never let go of our North Star.”

Raise builds on a multiyear funding stack for Digital Asset

The latest raise extends a run of Wall Street-backed funding for Digital Asset. In June 2025, the company secured $135 million from DRW Venture Capital, Tradeweb, Citadel Securities, IMC, Optiver, Goldman Sachs, Virtu and others, followed by a $50 million strategic round that December from BNY Mellon, Nasdaq, S&P Global and iCapital.

Those rounds added to more than $120 million raised in 2021 from investors including 7RIDGE and Eldridge, following earlier investments from JPMorgan, Citi, Deutsche Börse, Goldman Sachs, IBM, Samsung and Salesforce.

Cointelegraph reached out to Digital Asset for comment, but had not received a response by publication.

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