The CFTC opened the U.S. perps market in May, approving Kalshi's first bitcoin perpetual futures contract. CME went to court to stop it, arguing perps are swaps, not futures — which would mean a different regulatory framework entirely. The CFTC fired back Friday, arguing CME hasn't shown it's actually being harmed, noting pointedly that CME's own crypto futures volume has risen since the policy shift. TD Cowen's Jaret Seiberg says CME may still have the edge on the merits, but the bigger risk is that the perps market keeps growing while the litigation plays out — making it harder to unwind if CME ultimately wins.
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APAC accounts for 51.2% of identified global stablecoin payment volume — the largest regional share in the world — driven by fragmented currency corridors, large cross-border trade flows, and increasingly active regulatory hubs in Singapore, Hong Kong, Japan, and Australia. CoinDesk Research maps the region's regulatory landscape, real-world use cases across payments, treasury and tokenized capital markets, and the role RLUSD is playing as institutional demand for compliant stablecoin infrastructure grows.
Hoskinson announced he's personally building a new programming language for Cardano alongside IOG engineer Lucas Rosa — the co-creator of Aiken, one of Cardano's main smart contract languages. The language would bundle transaction intents, proof-carrying data, and Groth16 proofs: in short, letting a user say what they want a transaction to do, with cryptographic proof baked in that the rules were followed. No name, no specs, no release date — but the fact that Hoskinson is writing it himself is notable for a network his size.
