Crypto World
Pi at around $0.15 today, what happens to PI if it ever becomes a GENIUS Act stablecoin?
Pi Network is trading near $0.15 today, and the real question is whether a GENIUS Act-style shift toward regulated, reserve-backed digital dollars would cap its upside or finally give it a credible path to parity with the U.S. dollar.
Summary
- Pi Network is trading around $0.15, with most models seeing either flat or modestly higher prices into 2026
- The GENIUS Act framework for fully backed, bank-style stablecoins could one day turn PI from a speculative asset into a regulated dollar proxy
- That trade-off would likely swap 10x moonshot upside for a hard $1 target and a shot at mainstream payments and savings use cases
Pi Network’s (PI) various IOU markets are currently pricing PI just under the $0.15 mark, with recent data from Bybit showing the token at roughly $0.17 and analytics platforms such as CoinCodex and CoinCheckup clustering the live price in the $0.14–$0.15 band as of late May 2026. Price prediction engines are broadly cautious: CoinCodex, for example, projects Pi could slip toward $0.11 by late June 2026, implying downside of roughly 25% from current levels, while its 2026 full-year model sees an average price near $0.11 within a $0.10–$0.15 trading channel. Longer-term forecasts are more generous, with some outlets modeling potential paths toward $0.50–$0.80 by 2030 and even north of $1 by 2050, but those curves assume PI remains a high-beta, speculative asset tied to broader crypto liquidity cycles rather than a tightly managed stablecoin.
The GENIUS (National Innovation Guidance and Establishment for American Stablecoins) Act points to a radically different future. The law is designed to create a category of fully reserved, U.S.-regulated stablecoins that hold one-to-one backing in cash or ultra-safe assets like U.S. Treasuries and live inside a bank-like supervisory perimeter. In a viral explainer circulating in the Pi community, one commentary describes how GENIUS-compliant issuers “must hold one-to-one reserves, one real dollar or super safe equivalents in protected accounts,” and notes that Pi teams are “actively exploring the path to register Pi as a GENIUS-certified stablecoin pegged to the U.S. dollar,” with the explicit goal that “one Pi equal…1 U.S.” dollar. In that vision, the Pi users have been mining for years would “no longer have a fluctuating unknown value” but would convert into a regulated digital dollar with real-world purchasing power.
What a GENIUS-style pivot would mean for PI’s price path
If Pi ever did complete that pivot—from an IOU-like, thinly traded altcoin at $0.15 into a GENIUS Act registered, reserve-backed stablecoin—the price prediction game changes completely. Under a strict one-to-one reserve model, the long-term “target” price is effectively hard-coded at $1, with variations only around market confidence, liquidity and short-term technical noise. Overnight, the question “Can PI hit $10?” becomes nonsensical; the relevant question becomes “Can PI credibly defend $1 through cycles?” That is the trade-off: accept a ceiling on upside in exchange for dramatically lower volatility, better regulatory clarity and access to mainstream payments rails and bank integrations.
From today’s roughly $0.15 spot price, even that path is non-trivial. To credibly peg PI at $1 under GENIUS rules, its backers would have to amass and ring-fence reserves that match whatever portion of the existing supply they convert into the new instrument, plus manage redemptions in a way that avoids bank-run dynamics. For existing holders who mined or bought PI on the expectation of uncapped upside, a forced migration into a $1-anchored instrument could feel like an expropriation of optionality, especially if conversion terms do not fully reward early risk-taking. On the other hand, a regulated stablecoin backed by one-to-one reserves could be the only realistic path to turning Pi from a speculative IOU priced at cents into something that merchants, payroll platforms and even conservative fintechs will actually touch.
Price prediction in a bifurcated future
In the base case where Pi never becomes a GENIUS-compliant stablecoin, the numbers on the table are modest. CoinCodex’s mid-range scenario has PI averaging around $0.11 in 2026 and potentially climbing toward $0.49 by 2030, with bullish tails that extend above $0.80 by 2040 and $1.70 by 2050, assuming the project stays alive and the broader crypto cycle cooperates. Other forecasters sketch similar arcs, generally keeping PI below $0.20 in the near term but allowing for multi-bagger potential over a decade if adoption, listings and network effects materialize. In that world, Pi is another high-risk token riding crypto’s liquidity waves, not a serious monetary instrument.
Under a GENIUS-style pivot, the price path compresses. The bull case is not a 10x from $0.15 to $1.50; it is a roughly 6–7x move to $1 followed by a plateau where returns come from using Pi in real-world commerce, payments and yield-bearing wrappers rather than capital gains on the token itself. The bear case shifts too: instead of grinding down toward zero in a liquidity winter, a fully reserved, well-governed Pi stablecoin would either hold the peg or fail outright if governance, reserves or regulation blow up. For now, Pi trades and is modeled as if the GENIUS Act is background noise. If the project ever actually crosses that regulatory Rubicon, every price prediction you see today will need to be rewritten from scratch.
Stellar (XLM), up 1.7%, joined Internet Computer (ICP) as a top performer.
Crypto World
Ripple Price Prediction: XRP Slides Toward Critical $1.20 Support as Bears Stay in Control
XRP is trading at $1.33 as May draws to a close. It is quietly slipping to its lowest levels since March without any particular catalyst. The move is just a slow, grinding drift lower that has characterized the altcoin’s performance throughout the second half of the month.
The $1.20 support band is the closest it has been in weeks, and the 100-day moving average has been surrendered once again. The XRP/BTC pair is also testing its recent low and has looked increasingly fragile.
Ripple Price Analysis: The USDT Pair
Against USDT, the cryptocurrency is just below the upper boundary of the descending channel. The 100-day moving average at approximately $1.40 is now an overhead resistance after being surrendered during the May rollover, and the 200-day moving average continues to decline around $1.60.
The RSI is also hovering around 40, a soft reading with no sign of a floor forming.
The $1.20 demand zone is now close by, which makes the next few daily closes genuinely consequential. A potential breakdown below $1.20 would mark the first breach of that level since the February wick, potentially triggering a further crash toward the $0.60 zone. On the other hand, any recovery attempt first needs to reclaim $1.40 and the 100-day moving average to suggest a genuine recovery could form.
The BTC Pair
The XRP/BTC pair is trading at 1,760 sats and is pressing the pink horizontal support level, which marks the recent low near 1,730 sats.
The price has struggled to sustain a modest recovery above 1800 sats. The RSI oscillating between 30 and 60 throughout May, without any sustained directional move, reflects a pair in exhausted equilibrium rather than clear directional momentum.
The 100-day moving average at approximately 1,900 sats and the 200-day moving average near 2,050 sats remain the dynamic recovery targets on both sides of the critical 2,000 supply zone.
Below, the lower channel boundary and the demand area near 1,500 sats are the next potential targets if the recent low breaks down. As things stand, XRP is expected to continue underperforming BTC, as the market remains largely unoptimistic about Ripple.
The post Ripple Price Prediction: XRP Slides Toward Critical $1.20 Support as Bears Stay in Control appeared first on CryptoPotato.
Several major cryptocurrency exchanges warned users this week that transfers involving HTX could face additional compliance checks after the United Kingdom sanctioned the exchange over alleged ties to Russian financial networks.
The U.K. government added HTX to its Russia sanctions list as part of a broader package targeting entities accused of helping sanctions evasion and illicit financial activity linked to Moscow.
British authorities said they had “reasonable grounds to suspect” HTX provided financial services connected to sanctioned entities including crypto exchange Garantex and the A7 network, whose A7 LLC issues the ruble-pegged A7A5 stablecoin.
The Foreign Office said the A7 network had used a Kyrgyz bank and a major cryptocurrency exchange to channel an estimated $1.5 billion back into Russia. The A7 network claimed to have moved more than $90 billion last year, the Foreign Office said, roughly half of Russia’s annual military expenditure.
The designation carries immediate practical consequences. U.K. financial institutions are now barred from doing business with the exchange and may face penalties for interacting with crypto transactions that pass through it.
U.K.-registered virtual asset service providers are legally required to freeze funds connected to the designated entities, blockchain analytics firm Elliptic said, and the sanctions extend to restrictions on correspondent banking relationships and payments involving HTX.
Following the announcement, exchanges including Binance, OKX, Bybit and Bitget issued notices warning users about heightened scrutiny tied to HTX-related transactions.
Bitget said it updated its sanctions screening systems and warned that transactions involving sanctioned entities or linked addresses could face rejection, restrictions or account termination.
Binance, meanwhile, said transactions involving HTX “may be subject to additional compliance review” as part of its sanctions controls.
OKX separately warned users who previously engaged in arbitrage trading between HTX and OKX that continued transfers between the platforms after the sanctions action could trigger additional scrutiny on their accounts.
Bybit also cautioned that deposits or withdrawals involving HTX-linked addresses may face added anti-money laundering and risk-control checks.
“Users are advised to avoid using HTX-related addresses when interacting with Bybit and to ensure that all account activities remain compliant with local laws and platform policies,” Bybit wrote.
HTX rejected the U.K.’s claims it helped Russia’s financial infrastructure, even saying it has refused a listing application for the A7A5 stablecoin.
“To clarify, the listed entity Huobi Global S. A. is distinct from the online HTX exchange,” the company said. “While Huobi Global S.A. will work with relevant UK authorities to understand the basis for the action and to address any concerns promptly, the designation does not and should not have any impact on the online HTX exchange.”
TLDR:
- Nium joins Circle Payments Network as a global payout partner across 190+ countries and 100 currencies.
- Financial institutions can now access USDC settlement and last-mile fiat payouts through a single integration.
- The partnership reduces prefunding requirements across corridors while adding real-time onchain transaction tracking.
- CPN has reached $8.3 billion in annualized volume, reflecting rising institutional adoption of USDC-based rails.
Circle Payments Network (CPN) has added Nium as a global payout partner, linking USDC settlement with last-mile delivery across more than 190 countries.
The partnership gives financial institutions on CPN direct access to Nium’s payout infrastructure in 100 currencies through a single integration.
This move addresses a long-standing gap between fast stablecoin settlement and reliable local currency delivery worldwide.
Nium Joins CPN to Streamline Cross-Border Payments
Financial institutions using CPN can now route payments directly through Nium’s real-time payout rails. This removes the need to manage multiple local providers across different corridors.
Institutions gain access to Nium’s full country and currency portfolio without building separate integrations for each market.
The partnership also brings integrated FX optimization and smart routing to CPN transactions. Funds can be converted and delivered efficiently without institutions sourcing individual providers.
This reduces both operational complexity and the capital tied up in prefunding accounts across multiple corridors.
Prajit Nanu, Founder and CEO of Nium, pointed to the broader shift happening across the payments industry. “Traditional and onchain payment rails are converging, and that convergence demands infrastructure that banks, fintechs, and global enterprises can rely on at scale,” he said.
Nanu added that the deal combines Circle’s regulated settlement instrument with Nium’s global payout reach for a more seamless cross-border experience.
The partnership targets a key challenge that has long slowed institutional adoption of stablecoin rails. Bridging fast, transparent settlement with dependable last-mile delivery has remained difficult at scale. CPN and Nium now tackle both sides of that equation through one connected network.
USDC Settlement Meets Real-Time Last-Mile Delivery
Circle brings regulated USDC-powered settlement to the partnership, with built-in compliance and a governed network for institutional use.
Nium handles the final step, delivering funds in local currency into accounts, wallets, and cards worldwide. Together, the two companies offer a unified foundation for end-to-end global payments.
Kash Razzaghi, Chief Commercial Officer at Circle, explained what the integration means for institutions exploring stablecoin payments. “Financial institutions are increasingly looking for ways to use stablecoins to solve persistent payments pain points,” he said.
Razzaghi added that the Nium integration extends USDC from a settlement instrument into a complete payments flow, offering greater speed, transparency, and capital efficiency.
CPN has reached $8.3 billion in annualized transaction volume, based on trailing 30-day activity as of March 31, 2026.
Circle notined that CPN participants can expect faster end-to-end payments, reduced prefunding across corridors, and local fiat payouts through a single integration. That figure reflects growing institutional demand for USDC-based payment infrastructure.
Institutions on CPN can also track transactions in real time through onchain transparency. This visibility supports both payment operations teams and compliance functions managing multi-jurisdiction reporting.
The Nium integration marks a broader step in CPN’s growth as a governed network for institutional stablecoin payments at scale.
Trading infrastructure in digital assets is no longer judged only by speed, liquidity, or exchange volume. Institutions now need reliable execution, custody separation, collateral flexibility, transparent market data, and infrastructure that can scale under pressure.
KuCoin is building around that requirement. The exchange is nominated for Best Trading Infrastructure at the BeInCrypto Institutional 100 Awards 2026.
Infrastructure Metric
Latest Verified Data
Partner ecosystem
Approximately 1,000 professional partners across brokers, fintech platforms, market makers, and asset managers
Institutional connectivity
200+ active institutional API integrations
Account and trading infrastructure
Unified account and trading connectivity across key market functions
Custody and OES framework
Off-Exchange Settlement and third-party custody integrations, including BitGo Singapore Go Network, Cactus Custody / Cactus Oasis, and Ceffu MirrorX
RWA collateral infrastructure
RCMS with UBS uMINT and Asseto CASH+
Market data integration
KuCoin Futures market data on TradingView
Operational reliability and security
24/7 security operations, multi-layer defense, real-time risk monitoring, WAF and DDoS protection, DNS security, centralized logging, backup and recovery readiness, cloud-native scalability, and recognized security and privacy standards
Trust-First Infrastructure as the Foundation
For KuCoin CEO BC Wong, the definition of trading infrastructure has expanded.
In the past, trading infrastructure was defined primarily by speed and liquidity. Today, we believe infrastructure must also be measured by trust, transparency, resilience, and accountability,” BC said in an interview with BeInCrypto.
That view sits behind KuCoin’s “Trust First. Trade Next.” philosophy. Matching engines, APIs, and liquidity access remain important, but they are no longer enough on their own.
Professional traders, institutions, and everyday users need confidence that the venue they trade on is secure, transparent, resilient, and operationally reliable.
For KuCoin, trust is not a supporting function around trading infrastructure. It is part of the infrastructure itself. That means combining high-performance execution with transparent asset safeguards, Proof of Reserves, institutional-grade custody and settlement options, and a platform architecture designed to support both professional and retail users.
Building for Professional-Grade Demand Without Leaving Retail Behind
The nomination focuses on institutional infrastructure, but KuCoin’s architecture is not designed for institutions at the expense of retail users. Its underlying approach is to support professional-grade demand while preserving the accessibility, responsiveness, and ease of use expected by everyday traders.
This reflects what KuCoin describes as asymmetric resilience. Institutional clients typically require low latency, high determinism, scalable account structures, advanced risk controls, and reliable execution under complex market conditions.
Retail users care most about availability, responsiveness, intuitive product design, and a smooth experience during periods of high market activity.
Both user groups are supported by the same trusted market foundation. Retail users may never see the underlying architecture, but they experience its impact through tighter spreads, more stable execution, and greater platform reliability. This is why KuCoin’s infrastructure case should be framed not only as an institutional story, but as a broader market infrastructure story.
Deterministic Scalability for Partner and Institutional Growth
KuCoin’s infrastructure case also rests on scale. The platform supports approximately 1,000 professional partners across brokers, fintech platforms, market makers, and asset managers, and has more than 200 active institutional API integrations.
BC described this as a shift in how exchanges operate.
“As crypto markets evolve, exchanges are no longer serving only end users. They are increasingly becoming infrastructure providers for brokers, fintech platforms, market makers, and asset managers,” he said.
Supporting this ecosystem requires more than raw system capacity. It requires deterministic scalability: the ability to maintain stable execution quality, predictable latency, and operational certainty as market demand grows.
KuCoin supports this through proactive simulation, capacity planning, and early-warning mechanisms designed to identify potential bottlenecks before localized pressure becomes broader platform stress. It also isolates critical trading flows through dedicated pathways for high-frequency trading, market making, broker connectivity, and other professional use cases.
Modular system expansion, dynamic traffic balancing, and real-time resource optimization further help maintain stable execution quality as partner activity increases.
Plug-and-Play Institutional Connectivity
For institutional firms, connectivity is not merely a technical feature. It is part of the trading infrastructure itself.
In this context, “plug-and-play” does not mean turning institutional infrastructure into a basic connection. It means reducing unnecessary integration friction while preserving the flexibility, control, and customization that professional firms require.
KuCoin has improved its connectivity layer through a more unified API framework, standardized documentation, SDK support across major programming languages, WebSocket-based market data, testing tools, and partner dashboard capabilities.
These improvements help institutional engineering teams move more efficiently from technical evaluation to production deployment.
Broker Fast API and Broker Dashboard upgrades also support a more streamlined onboarding process, including authorization, API creation, user management, trading visibility, and commission tracking.
For brokers, asset managers, and trading technology firms, this turns KuCoin integration from a one-off engineering project into a repeatable infrastructure connection.
Custody Separation and RWA Collateral
KuCoin’s Off-Exchange Settlement framework is another core part of the nomination.
Institutional clients can trade on KuCoin while keeping assets with qualified custodians. Its custody integrations include BitGo Singapore Go Network, Cactus Custody, and Ceffu MirrorX. This helps reduce counterparty concentration risk while maintaining access to KuCoin’s liquidity.
The same logic applies to KuCoin’s RWA Collateral Mirroring Solution, or RCMS.
Through RCMS, institutions can use tokenized real-world assets as trading collateral without moving the underlying assets out of their regulated structures. UBS uMINT and Asseto CASH+ are both supported inside this framework.
That matters because tokenized assets are moving from passive holdings into trading workflows. KuCoin’s infrastructure allows a tokenized money market fund position to remain inside its qualified wrapper while being mirrored as usable collateral.
Data as Trading Infrastructure
KuCoin’s TradingView integration adds another layer to the nomination.
With KuCoin Futures market data integrated into TradingView, professional traders can analyze derivatives markets through familiar charting tools, alerts, indicators, Pine Script strategies, and research workflows.
“The value is not simply better charting,” BC said. “The integration allows professional traders to incorporate KuCoin’s market data into their existing analytics infrastructure, making it easier to benchmark liquidity, monitor market quality, and build more data-driven trading strategies.”
Security, Resilience, and Operational Reliability
Institutional-grade infrastructure also requires operational resilience. For KuCoin, reliability is built through multiple layers rather than a single certification, system claim, or point solution.
At the platform level, KuCoin has invested in 24/7 security operations, multi-layer defense mechanisms, real-time risk monitoring, WAF and DDoS protection, DNS security, centralized security logging, backup and recovery mechanisms, and ongoing system upgrades.
Its infrastructure approach also emphasizes cloud-native scalability, distributed system monitoring, capacity planning, resource redundancy, and tested operational procedures.
The result is a more resilient infrastructure model: security protects the system, transparency verifies it, and custody and settlement design reduce structural risk.
That is why KuCoin’s nomination fits the Best Trading Infrastructure category. The exchange is being assessed as a trading stack: execution, settlement, custody connectivity, collateral design, partner infrastructure, and market data.
The BeInCrypto Institutional 100 Awards recognize firms building the systems that could define the next phase of digital finance.
KuCoin’s nomination reflects its role in building the rails that enable brokers, institutions, and professional traders to access digital asset markets with greater control, improved connectivity, and clearer operational safeguards.
The post BeInCrypto 100 Institutional Awards Nomination: KuCoin for Best Trading Infrastructure appeared first on BeInCrypto.
SpaceX’s June 12 listing is triggering a parallel pricing race in crypto. Synthetic perpetuals on Hyperliquid already imply a $2 trillion valuation for the rocket and satellite-internet group.
Three forward-looking calls now define the trade. The IPO targets $1.75 trillion and a $75 billion raise, the largest float ever attempted.
1. Perp Convergence Within Six Hours
Hyperliquid’s SPCX-USDC contract, launched May 18 at a $150 reference, spiked to $216 before settling near $203. Funding rates have run steeply positive since launch.
Arbitrageurs are expected to short the perp and buy real shares the moment SPCX opens on Nasdaq. That trade should pull the synthetic back toward the listed price.
“SPCX perps trading $216 on Hyperliquid vs $525 predicted Nasdaq IPO on June 12. That 60% gap exists because the arbs [Arbitrageur] is structurally broken…CBRS proved convergence happens violently in the final 72 hours before listing,” one user noted.
Arbitrageurs are traders who make money by spotting tiny price differences for the same thing in different places.
They buy low in one market and sell high in another at the same time, locking in risk-free profit as prices snap together.
In the CBRS example, they shorted expensive pretend shares on crypto, bought real shares on Nasdaq, and profited when prices converged.
A 100 to 250 basis-point gap is the most plausible convergence window. The bulk of that move should land in the first six trading hours of June 12.
Prior grey-market resets on Reddit and ServiceTitan closed in four to six hours. The crypto pricing race gives arbs a clean entry at the open.
2. Smaller Venues Face 90-Day Delisting Risk
Synthetic pre-IPO products from Binance, OKX, Bitget, BingX, and Hyperliquid have no precedent in US securities law. The rationale for the synthetics fades the moment SPCX trades publicly.
Regulators have not opened a formal inquiry yet. If the SEC or CFTC starts asking questions, the smallest venues are the most exposed.
BingX and OKX run lighter compliance benches than Binance, while Hyperliquid’s on-chain architecture limits its surface area.
BTCC’s SpaceX futures and other mid-tier venues do not have that cushion if a subpoena lands during the post-IPO window.
At least one venue restricting or delisting SPCX within 90 days is the base case.
That risk weighs heaviest on platforms that followed Bitget’s pre-IPO product onto the trade.
3. Bitcoin Treasury Becomes the Next IPO Playbook
SpaceX’s S-1 disclosed 18,712 Bitcoin (BTC) at a $661 million cost basis. That position is worth roughly $1.42 billion at the current BTC spot price of $75,690.
The 18,712 figure puts the company ahead of Tesla, which holds about 11,509 BTC.
The disclosure landed alongside Starlink revenue in the prospectus, signaling a marketing pitch to BTC-correlated allocators rather than a Musk-only quirk.
OpenAI and Anthropic are the most likely candidates to copy the SpaceX template before year-end. Anthropic’s pre-IPO valuation already crossed $1 trillion on private markets.
The OpenAI IPO filing is reportedly being drafted at an $852 billion post-money mark.
Either company could disclose a BTC position to secure a 5 to 8% premium from crypto-correlated allocators on the book.
What to Watch Next
SpaceX’s roadshow opens June 4, with pricing on June 11 and first Nasdaq trading on June 12. The first hour of SPCX activity will decide the trade.
A clean convergence inside six hours validates crypto’s pre-IPO experiment.
A wider gap, or any regulatory action against a venue, would say the opposite.
The post 3 Massive Things That Could Happen After SpaceX Goes Public in June 2026 appeared first on BeInCrypto.
TLDR:
- WLD surged 15.72% in 24 hours, trading at $0.3813 while most altcoins posted losses on the same day.
- Whale transactions hit 64 in one day, marking the highest level of 2026 according to Santiment on-chain data.
- Oku Trade integration into World App launched swap competitions, pushing trading volume up 266% to $768 million.
- New wallet creation reached 379 in a single day, setting a 2026 record as retail interest in WLD accelerated.
Worldcoin (WLD) recorded a 15.72% price gain in 24 hours, trading at $0.3813 on a broadly red market day. On-chain data from Santiment showed whale transactions, active addresses, and new wallet creation all reaching their highest or second-highest levels of 2026.
Trading volume climbed 266% to $768 million. Open interest in WLD futures rose to $281 million from $217 million the previous day.
Whale and Retail Activity Reach Record Levels in 2026
Santiment data recorded 64 whale transactions within a single 24-hour window. That figure marked the highest whale activity for WLD so far in 2026.
Active addresses also jumped to 1,309 during the same period, which ranked as the second-highest reading of the year.
Network growth, measured by new wallet creation, reached 379 addresses in one day. This figure also set a 2026 record for the project.
Together, these three metrics rising at once pointed to growing participation from both large and small investors.
However, Santiment noted that the spikes appeared tied to the price surge itself. The data provider flagged the activity as potentially FOMO-driven rather than organic accumulation. That distinction matters when assessing whether the engagement will persist beyond the rally.
Still, the convergence of whale moves and retail interest in a short window is relatively uncommon. When both groups enter a market simultaneously, it can reflect broader shifts in sentiment around a project.
DeFi Integration and AI Narrative Drive WLD Momentum
The immediate catalyst behind the price move was the integration of DeFi aggregator Oku Trade into the World App.
The aggregator routes transactions through Worldchain and launched weekly swap competitions. Winners can earn up to 100 WLD per competition round.
According to BSCNews, the competition mechanics encourage repeat swap behavior from participants. That pattern showed up directly in spot volume figures, which more than tripled over the prior session. The structural incentive behind the volume spike differs from purely speculative buying.
Beyond the DeFi integration, WLD also benefits from its positioning within the AI narrative. Worldcoin is a crypto and digital identity project co-founded by OpenAI CEO Sam Altman. The project uses biometric verification through Orb devices to build a global proof-of-personhood system.
As AI adoption accelerates through 2026, concerns around bots, fake identities, and AI-generated content have grown. That backdrop keeps WLD relevant in news cycles tied to AI fraud and digital identity.
On a day when Bitcoin sat near $76,006 and Ethereum traded around $2,072, WLD stood out as one of the few assets posting gains across the broader altcoin market.
A Google security engineer, Michele Spagnuolo, was arrested and charged over alleged insider trading by placing bets on Polymarket about what Google users were searching, U.S. officials alleged on Wednesday.
According to a complaint unsealed by the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York, Spagnuolo used “material nonpublic information” to place bets on who would appear on Google’s list of most-searched for individuals for 2025, after Polymarket began offering these markets last fall.
Spagnuolo allegedly used an internal Google tool to track who the most-searched-for individuals were and transferred some $3.8 million in USDC to a Polymarket address, said the complaint, which was signed by FBI Special Agent Brandon Racz.
The account, which used the username “AlphaRaccoon,” bet that D4vd (a rapper recently charged with murdering a 14-year-old girl) would be one of the most-searched for individuals in late November. Spagnuolo allegedly accessed Google’s internal tool, which showed D4vd trending, a few hours before the AlphaRaccoon account placed the bet.
The user AlphaRaccoon moved 5 million USDC.e from their Polymarket account to a wallet, before moving the funds through a swapping service and a privacy tool, the complaint said. Some of the funds were ultimately moved to an account at a payment processor in Italy, which had been opened by someone using Michele Spagnuolo’s government identification card.
“Unlike the counterparties to his trades, Spagnuolo knew the outcome of these wagers before the trading public did because he had accessed Google’s confidential, commercially valuable internal data,” the complaint said. “Spagnuolo personally profited more than approximately $1,200,000 from his trades based on nonpublic information. Once he won, Spagnuolo then took deliberate steps to conceal his unlawful use of nonpublic information by attempting to obscure the source and ownership of his unlawful proceeds.”
Spagnuolo is being charged with commodities fraud, wire fraud and money laundering, according to the complaint.
Wednesday’s charges mark the second major arrest of someone who allegedly traded on Polymarket using insider information, following an earlier arrest of a U.S. Army soldier who allegedly bet on the Nicolas Maduro raid he was part of.
Crypto World
Cash App Goes Live With Fee-Free USDC Transfers, Framing Stablecoins as a Path to Bitcoin
Cash App, the payments platform owned by Block, the financial technology company co-founded by Jack Dorsey, launched support for sending and receiving USDC on Wednesday, offering fee-free stablecoin transfers across four blockchain networks with no separate wallet or crypto setup required. Users… Read the full story at The Defiant
Banca Sella said it became the first Italian lender to secure a crypto services license from the Bank of Italy under the European Union’s Markets in Crypto-Assets (MiCA) regulation.
The private bank, which has 50 billion euros ($54 billion) in assets under management and more than 3.1 million customers, said it completed a formal 40-day notification process, clearing it to roll out crypto services to clients later this year.
“Being approved as a crypto-asset services provider will enable Banca Sella to launch in 2026 a solution dedicated to the custody, transfer and receipt of digital assets aimed at selected categories of customers,” the bank said in a website statement.
While the bank’s initial retail crypto plans were routed through its mobile-banking venture, Hype. This new corporate-facing infrastructure relies on a compliance partnership with blockchain intelligence firm Chainalysis and an internal digital asset pilot initially built alongside Fireblocks.
Sella joins the roughly 20 major European banks offering crypto asset services under MiCA, including Germany’s Commerzbank and LBBW, France’s Société Générale FORGE and Spain’s BBVA.
The bank is among the founders of Qivalis, a group of 37 European banks aiming to issue a euro-denominated stablecoin this year.
Sella said it is involved in EU tokenization of deposits and payments projects such as Pontes and Appia projects, which are aimed at bolstering the bloc’s financial autonomy.
“The evolution of payments toward instant, interoperable, and programmable models – also driven by the tokenization of currencies and assets – is redefining financial infrastructures at European and global level,” said Andrea Tessera, the bank’s managing director of digital banking.
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