The Commodity Futures Trading Commission has appointed SEC crypto task force adviser Donald Battle as chief data innovation officer as lawmakers continue debating the future of U.S. digital asset regulation.

According to a Monday announcement from CFTC Chair Michael Selig, Donald Battle will serve as the agency’s new chief data innovation officer.

Battle most recently advised the Securities and Exchange Commission’s crypto task force and previously held roles at the CFTC and the Treasury Department’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network.

In the announcement, Selig pointed to Battle’s background in data science, blockchain forensics, application programming interfaces, and artificial intelligence as factors behind the appointment.

Battle joined the SEC crypto task force in January 2025 after the Trump administration took office and has worked on cryptocurrency-related investigations and analytics across multiple federal agencies.

The hire comes as lawmakers in Washington continue work on the CLARITY Act, legislation that would redefine the responsibilities of the SEC and CFTC in overseeing digital assets. While Congress debates those jurisdictional boundaries, the CFTC has remained deeply involved in both crypto-related enforcement and prediction market regulation.

CFTC expands focus on digital asset oversight

Responsibility for many of the agency’s digital asset activities currently rests with the CFTC, which, under Selig, has taken an active role in disputes involving federally regulated event contracts and prediction markets.

Court filings cited by the commission show the agency recently sued New Mexico after state officials attempted to apply local gaming laws to contracts listed on prediction market platform Kalshi. The lawsuit names Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham, Attorney General Raúl Torrez, and other state officials.

According to the complaint, the CFTC argues that federally regulated event contracts fall under its authority and cannot be governed by state gambling rules.

The case followed allegations from New Mexico authorities that Kalshi was operating without a required license and allowing participation by users younger than the state’s legal gaming age of 21.

Federal regulators have made similar arguments in other disputes involving prediction markets, maintaining that contracts listed on platforms operating under CFTC oversight should be regulated at the federal level.

Sports contract proposal enters public review

At the same time, the commission has opened a public consultation process on a proposed framework covering sports event contracts.

According to the CFTC, the draft rule seeks to distinguish sports event contracts offered by platforms such as Kalshi and Polymarket from what the agency described as games of random chance.

The proposal could play a key role in determining how federal regulators treat sports-related prediction markets and how those markets interact with state gaming laws.

The commission said the public will have 45 days to submit comments on the proposal before regulators consider next steps.

Battle’s arrival places a veteran blockchain investigator inside the agency’s data leadership team as the commission navigates overlapping debates involving crypto markets, prediction platforms, and the future division of authority between federal regulators.

With Congress still considering market structure legislation, the CFTC continues to play a central role in several of the industry’s most closely watched regulatory battles.

Kraken on Monday launched perpetual futures trading for eligible US users through Bitnomial, expanding its domestic derivatives offerings months after acquiring the federally regulated exchange.

The products are available through Kraken Pro and include contracts tied to major cryptocurrencies including Bitcoin (BTC), Ether (ETH), Solana (SOL), XRP (XRP), Cardano (ADA), Chainlink (LINK), Dogecoin (DOGE), Litecoin (LTC) and Avalanche (AVAX).

According to Monday’s announcement, the contracts share the same futures wallet as Kraken’s existing CME-listed crypto futures products, allowing traders to manage both positions from a single account.

Source: Kraken Pro

Kraken said perpetual futures, a type of derivative contract with no expiration date, generated more than $60 trillion in global trading volume in 2025 and have largely been traded on offshore platforms rather than regulated US venues.

Kraken has expanded its US trading offerings over the past year, adding support for CME-listed crypto futures in July 2025 and launching margin trading for eligible US customers earlier this month.

Monday’s launch follows Kraken’s late-May announcement that it planned to introduce Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) regulated perpetual futures through Bitnomial, the crypto derivatives platform acquired by parent company Payward in April.

Related: OKX expands X-Perps in Europe with Magnificent 7, gold and oil futures

US exchanges compete for crypto derivatives market

Kraken’s launch comes amid a broader push by USexchanges to bring crypto derivatives trading onshore.

On May 29, the CFTC approved Kalshi’s Bitcoin perpetual futures contract and issued a no-action position for Coinbase, paving the way for regulated perpetual futures products in the domestic market.

That same day, the company announced that its Coinbase Financial Markets unit would provide US institutional clients access to global crypto perpetual futures and options markets, which the exchange said account for roughly 80% of global crypto trading volume.

Kalshi also launched perpetual futures contracts on May 29, describing the products as its most significant expansion beyond prediction markets and a step toward becoming a broader derivatives exchange.

The regulatory approvals followed months of discussion around bringing crypto perpetual futures to the United States.

“The CFTC’s approval of the KalshiEX BTCPERP is not the end of the regulatory story; it is the beginning,” said Gontran de Quillacq, CEO and founder of Navesink International.

In a January speech, CFTC Chair Michael Selig said the agency would use its existing authority to support perpetual futures and other novel derivatives products in the US, arguing that years of regulatory uncertainty had pushed trading activity offshore.

Speaking at the Milken Institute’s Future of Finance conference a few months later, Selig said the CFTC was working to establish a framework for “true perpetual futures” in the US.

Source: Mike Selig

Magazine: Bitcoin, the ‘canary in the coal mine,’ XRP transaction demand falls 91.5%: Market Moves

BitMine Immersion Technologies continued to expand its Ether holdings last week, acquiring more of the second-biggest digital asset despite a prolonged market downturn as its large staking operation continues to generate yield.

On Monday, the crypto treasury company reported that it acquired 76,881 Ether (ETH) over the past week, potentially reducing its average cost basis as ETH briefly plunged below $1,600 during the period. The company has been steadily acquiring Ether during the bear market, regardless of price action.

BitMine now holds 5,620,754 ETH acquired at an average price of $1,718.

BitMine is sitting on large unrealized losses on its ETH holdings. Source: DropsTab

At current prices, the company’s ETH portfolio is worth roughly $10.2 billion, though it is sitting on an unrealized loss of nearly $9 billion, according to DropsTab data. At last look on Monday, Ether was trading at $1,843.69, according to CoinMarketCap data.

Bitmine’s latest purchases brings the company closer to its stated goal of owning 5% of Ether’s total circulating supply of 120.68 million tokens. The company currently controls approximately 4.66% of all ETH.

At the same time, BitMine has staked more than 4.1 million ETH, worth roughly $8.1 billion at current prices. Staking allows the company to earn protocol rewards by helping secure the Ethereum network, providing a recurring source of yield even during periods of price weakness.

Related: Ethereum can quantum-proof accounts for just 7 cents, says Ethereum’s Kohaku lead

Ethereum faces structural headwinds

The crypto treasury model has come under pressure this year as digital asset prices retreated sharply. The downturn has also weighed on spot Ether exchange-traded funds (ETFs), which recorded four consecutive days of net outflows last week. 

Selling pressure has persisted since early May, with daily net outflows exceeding $60 million on several occasions.

BlackRock’s iShares Ethereum Trust ETF (ETHA) remains the biggest US-traded ETH ETF, with net assets of $4.75 billion. It holds 2.36% of the crypto’s circulating supply.

ETH’s decline has coincided with large outflows from spot ETFs. Source: SoSoValue

For Ethereum, however, the challenges extend beyond price action.

The network’s layer-2 scaling strategy, designed to deliver faster and cheaper transactions, has come under scrutiny. As more activity migrates to layer-2 networks, the Ethereum mainnet captures less transaction-fee revenue and burns less ETH, potentially weakening its deflationary dynamics.

Internal changes at the Ethereum Foundation have added to the uncertainty. At least nine senior leaders, researchers and core contributors have departed the nonprofit so far this year, marking one of the largest waves of talent attrition in its history. The departures have coincided with the foundation’s organizational overhaul and renewed community debate over its governance, strategic direction and role in Ethereum’s long-term development.

Related: Crypto Biz: Nobody told Saylor ‘never sell’

NFT brand Pudgy Penguins is winding down its mobile game Pudgy Party and pausing any further development, according to an announcement from the project’s team on X. The studio says it will redirect its gaming efforts toward Pudgy World, a browser-based experience it frames as the “flagship” game within the Pudgy Penguins ecosystem.

The shift comes after Pudgy Party launched in August 2025. The team said the game exceeded 500,000 downloads on Google Play, with total downloads topping 1 million across platforms. By consolidating its roadmap behind Pudgy World, Pudgy Penguins is signaling that it wants a single gaming product designed for broader reach and longer-term scalability.

Key takeaways

• Pudgy Party is being sunset: the team says it will wind down operations and halt further development.
• Pudgy Penguins is consolidating gaming around Pudgy World, described as the ecosystem’s flagship browser experience.
• Pudgy Party hit 500,000+ downloads on Google Play and more than 1 million total downloads, despite the pivot.
• The move reflects ongoing difficulty in Web3 gaming: another project, Fishing Frenzy, is also shutting down.

Pudgy Penguins exits one mobile game to focus on a “flagship”

In its X post, the Pudgy Party team described the decision as difficult, but argued that Pudgy World holds “greater potential for scalability” and is more likely to bring new users into the Pudgy Penguins brand.

That reasoning matters for investors and players because it points to a core challenge in crypto-gaming: building a product that can sustain a player base while integrating with Web3 monetization and brand ecosystems. A mobile launch can generate early traction—as Pudgy Party did—but the team’s decision suggests that user acquisition and retention may not have translated into a durable long-term plan.

Pudgy Penguins has positioned itself beyond NFTs, pursuing initiatives across toys, gaming, licensing, and broader entertainment. The gaming consolidation therefore appears less like an abandonment of the category and more like a strategic attempt to concentrate development resources behind one experience that can serve as a stable on-ramp for the brand.

What Pudgy Party’s download numbers imply—and what they don’t

Pudgy Party’s stated reach—500,000+ downloads on Google Play and over 1 million total—signals that there was consumer interest. But a pivot after those milestones suggests that download counts alone may not be sufficient to justify ongoing development.

For readers watching Web3 gaming, the important distinction is between “top-of-funnel” adoption and “business model” sustainability. Mobile downloads can be driven by marketing, brand recognition, or viral momentum. Turning that into long-term engagement and a viable revenue structure is typically harder—especially for projects that must balance Web2-style game economics with token incentives, on-chain components, or crypto-native distribution.

Pudgy Penguins’ rationale explicitly mentions scalability and onboarding, which hints that the team believes the browser-based format or ecosystem design of Pudgy World may better support ongoing growth.

Web3 gaming’s recurring problem: product-market-business fit

Pudgy Party’s wind-down arrives during a broader wave of uncertainty in Web3 gaming. Earlier, Fishing Frenzy and its developer, Uncharted, announced they would cease operations after concluding they couldn’t establish a sustainable crypto-gaming thesis.

In an X post shared on Monday, Fishing Frenzy said it was “unable to prove our thesis on crypto gaming” and “could not find product-market-business fit.” The team said it spent the previous year testing multiple approaches and targeting different audiences without finding a path that gave them confidence to continue.

This parallel is significant: it suggests that even projects that experiment actively and iterate for extended periods may struggle to find a stable formula that combines gameplay appeal, user retention, and a monetization model that can withstand market and platform realities.

How Fishing Frenzy is shutting down—and what it’s doing with USDC and tokens

Fishing Frenzy said it will shut down its servers on June 25 at 2:00 a.m. UTC. The project also made notable changes to its token and sales mechanics: it stopped selling USDC packages and adjusted the FISH token so it is spend-only and untradable.

The team said remaining USDC in the FISH/USDC liquidity pool would be redistributed to community members and stakers. By outlining a specific redistribution plan rather than a vague “we’ll figure it out,” the project is trying to manage expectations as it exits.

These details matter because they show the practical constraints that Web3 gaming projects face when they can’t scale their business: token utility can be constrained, markets can lose liquidity, and teams may ultimately need to wind down infrastructure while addressing on-chain balances and user expectations.

NFT market backdrop: capitalization rises, but the sector is still far from prior highs

Alongside the gaming-specific developments, NFT market conditions have been fluctuating. CoinGecko data cited in the original reporting shows total NFT market capitalization climbed to nearly $1.5 billion on Monday, up from more than $1.3 billion on Friday. Still, that level remains dramatically below the sector’s 2022 peak of over $17 billion.

For builders and brand-led NFT ecosystems like Pudgy Penguins, this environment can increase pressure to demonstrate real utility. When the broader market is well below prior highs, it often becomes harder to finance development through speculative demand alone—making it more likely that teams will prune or restructure product lines to focus on what can be scaled efficiently.

At the same time, modest rebounds in market capitalization can give projects breathing room, but the trajectory of Web3 gaming may depend less on NFT prices day-to-day and more on whether games can stand alone as compelling user experiences while delivering coherent incentives.

Going forward, the key question is whether Pudgy World can deliver the scalability and new-user onboarding that Pudgy Penguins is targeting, especially in a market where other crypto games have struggled to prove long-term business fit. Readers should watch for updates on Pudgy World’s rollout and for any further clarification from Pudgy Penguins on how gaming will tie back into the broader brand beyond NFTs.