🗣 DeFi's Regulatory Honeymoon: Insights from Bybit's CEO

👀 At the Paris Blockchain Week 2026, Bybit's co-founder and CEO Ben Zhou candidly discussed the current state of decentralized finance (DeFi) in relation to global regulators. He emphasized that DeFi is currently enjoying a window of opportunity that won't last forever, urging the industry not to mistake regulatory silence for ongoing acceptance.

DeFi is currently in a regulatory honeymoon period,

Zhou stated.

But regulators will figure this out, and when they do, decentralized exchanges will be the first target.

🤔 Zhou explained that the reason DeFi has largely avoided formal oversight so far is due to its cross-border and decentralized nature, which directly contradicts the principles of centralized regulation. Regulators are designed to oversee organizations with offices, executives, and identifiable clients—none of which DeFi inherently possesses.

📌 He pointed out that the EU's MiCA framework, the most comprehensive crypto-regulation adopted to date, has not provided a workable definition of what a DeFi protocol actually is. This definitional gap creates space for regulatory arbitrage, which the industry is currently exploiting.

🚨 Bitcoin Conference 2026 Faces Criticism Over Low Attendance Claims

🗓 The Bitcoin Conference 2026 kicked off on April 28 at The Venetian in Las Vegas amidst controversy regarding reported low attendance. Jacob King, CEO and co-founder of SwanDesk, claimed that the event saw a record low turnout with only a few dozen attendees in some areas. He also noted that several speakers were absent and parts of the event ended four hours early.

BREAKING: The Bitcoin conference saw a record low turnout this year, with only a few dozen attendees. Several speakers also didn’t show, and the event ended 4 hours early.

tweeted King.

🤖 These claims were quickly countered by AI bot Grok, which stated that Bitcoin 2026 had a record high attendance with estimates from organizers ranging between 30,000 to 40,000 people. Grok referenced reports from Bitcoin Magazine and CoinDesk, asserting that videos from the venue showed packed seats and crowded halls.

🚫 Despite the organizers' claims of high overall attendance, early footage from the main stage revealed many empty seats during the opening. Two senior U.S. officials spoke in a slightly filled hall on the first day. Later, one of the most popular panels, "Code is Speech", featured FBI Director Kash Patel and Acting U.S. Attorney General Todd Blanche, neither of whom appeared in person.

💬 Bitcoin investor Philip Prymek defended the event, stating that low attendance at industry events is normal as this part of the conference is dedicated to business meetings and networking. He added that attendance picked up later and the event was successful.

🔔 Central Bank of Kenya Begins Hiring for VASP Oversight Team

🚫 The Central Bank of Kenya (CBK) is actively recruiting for its first-ever specialized team to oversee Virtual Asset Service Providers (VASP). This move comes after the 2025 VASP Act was passed, indicating the CBK's commitment to professionalizing and stabilizing the growing cryptocurrency market in Kenya.

📈 The CBK has announced four vacancies in its Digital Payment Services Department, with applications closing on May 18. These positions focus on licensing, product approval, and compliance oversight for VASPs. This is the first time the CBK has specifically advertised roles for VASP supervision.

🔍 A manager-level employee will lead the licensing function, reviewing applications and developing standard operating procedures. Two deputy managers will handle licensing and product approval as well as compliance oversight. Their responsibilities include monitoring licensed VASPs for anti-money laundering (AML) compliance and cybersecurity assessments. An senior business analyst will also be part of the team, focusing on application reviews and regulatory guidance for applicants.

➡️ This recruitment campaign follows the October 2025 passage of the VASP Act by the Kenyan parliament, which established the first legal framework for cryptocurrency oversight in the country. The law mandates the CBK to regulate virtual assets used for payments, a market that is rapidly expanding with cryptocurrency-related money transfers and mobile money integration.

🚨 Warning Against Greed in Bitcoin Market

🔍 As the excitement around Bitcoin's rise continues, analytical company Santiment has issued a warning against "greed." Following a volatile week in the cryptocurrency markets, optimism prevailing after Bitcoin's breakthrough above $82,000 is being interpreted as a "risk signal".

📈 This week, Bitcoin soared to $82,800, marking its best performance in three months. However, Ethereum's drop below $2,300 and the overall decrease in market capitalization indicate a decline in investor interest. Analysts note that this significant drop in trading volume suggests a more stable period compared to the previous week's volatility.

⚠️ According to Santiment's internal metrics, current market sentiments have entered the zone of "extreme greed." Experts warn that this often signals a correction, with prices potentially falling to $75,000. The short-term MVRV ratio (market value – realized value) of about 3.5% also increases the risk of profit-taking.

📉 Data shows the largest decline in the number of Bitcoin wallets since summer 2024. In the past six days, approximately 272,000 wallets belonging to small (individual) investors have been emptied. Santiment interprets this situation as "the exit of individual investors from the market," noting that large shareholders (whales) are currently refraining from investments and not accumulating wealth.

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🚀 IG Expands Cryptocurrency Offerings in the UK

🌟 Financial giant IG has significantly expanded its cryptocurrency platform in the UK, adding over 50 new digital assets to bring its total offerings to more than 100. This expansion follows the company's approval from regulatory authorities to operate in the cryptocurrency space and includes the launch of swaps, enhanced charting features, and upcoming support for wallet transfers.

📈 The addition of these new cryptocurrencies strengthens IG's trading capabilities amidst increasing competition in the regulated UK cryptocurrency market. The planned wallet transfers will allow clients to manage external assets through their IG accounts.

🗓 On May 13, IG announced the expansion of its cryptocurrency offerings in the UK by adding over 50 additional digital assets. This update increases the available range of cryptocurrencies to more than 100 and introduces the swap feature, updated charting tools, and planned support for wallet transfers for clients.

🔔 This expansion follows the company's registration of crypto assets with the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) in October 2025. UK clients can now access a wider selection of cryptocurrencies through the company's licensed crypto product. The launch also introduced the swap feature, allowing clients to exchange one cryptocurrency directly for another.

🔔 FTX legal adviser Fenwick settles customer lawsuit for $54m

⚠️ According to court filings tied to the proposed settlement, the Silicon Valley law firm reached the agreement after initially trying to dismiss the case brought by former FTX users in 2023. The settlement still requires approval from a U.S. judge before it can take effect.

⚠️ Former customers of the exchange alleged that Fenwick played a central role in legal and corporate arrangements that allowed FTX and its affiliated trading firm, Alameda Research, to move and commingle customer funds without proper safeguards. Plaintiffs claimed the firm helped create structures and entities designed to obscure how customer assets were handled inside the FTX group.

📊 Court records from the original complaint alleged that Fenwick also advised FTX on legal strategies intended to avoid money transmitter licensing requirements in some jurisdictions.
Earlier filings from August 2025 added further accusations against the law firm after plaintiffs sought permission to amend their complaint using evidence from Sam Bankman-Fried’s criminal trial and the FTX bankruptcy process. In that proposed amended filing, former FTX customers argued that testimony from senior insiders and findings from an independent bankruptcy examiner showed Fenwick had become “deeply intertwined” with the exchange’s operations.

🔔 Dogecoin holds $0.10 as Paxos deal opens door to PayPal and Venmo’s 100M+ users

⚠️ House of Doge, the official corporate arm of the Dogecoin Foundation, has announced a strategic partnership with Paxos that will route DOGE into Paxos’ regulated crypto brokerage and custody stack, potentially putting Dogecoin in front of PayPal and Venmo’s mainstream user bases, just as the token trades near $0.10 with a market capitalization of about $16.9 billion. In a GlobeNewswire release, House of Doge said the deal will “integrate the listing of Dogecoin (DOGE) across Paxos’ enterprise‑grade crypto brokerage and custody infrastructure,” opening distribution via clients including PayPal, Venmo, Interactive Brokers and Mercado Libre across more than 150 countries.

🌐 The partnership is explicitly about scale: Paxos “powers crypto brokerage and infrastructure solutions for a number of globally recognized platforms, including PayPal, Venmo, Interactive Brokers, and Mercado Libre,” while the Dogecoin side frames this as a bridge to “hundreds of millions of users” reachable through that network.

📊 “This partnership with Paxos represents a major step forward in accelerating global access for Dogecoin,” House of Doge CEO Marco Margiotta said, adding that “by integrating with Paxos’ trusted and regulated infrastructure, we are creating a powerful pathway for leading global fintech platforms to make Dogecoin accessible to their users.” Paxos, for its part, has already been the back‑end engine for PayPal’s crypto services and the issuer of its PYUSD stablecoin, which PayPal recently expanded to 70 markets, reinforcing the idea that DOGE is hitching a ride on a maturing, regulated payments stack rather than a pure meme trade.

🔔 Is now the time to buy the dip? A framework, not a cheer

📈 With Bitcoin down sharply toward the $60,000 region, the Fear and Greed Index in extreme fear, and on-chain data showing more than 10 million BTC held at a loss, the question dominating crypto searches and group chats is whether now is the moment to buy. Most of the answers on offer are cheers, “buy the dip” shouted as a slogan by people who want prices to go up, with no framework behind it. This piece is not that.

⚠️ It is a decision framework instead of a cheer, built to help you think through whether buying this dip makes sense for you, because the honest answer is that it depends on factors specific to your situation, the actual signals in the market, and a clear-eyed view of what could go wrong. Before building the framework, it is worth understanding why the phrase itself is a trap when treated as a slogan rather than a question, because the framing error causes real damage.

‼️ “Buy the dip” embeds an assumption that is the entire question in disguise: that what you are looking at is a dip, a temporary decline within a larger uptrend, not the early or middle stage of a sustained bear market.

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🔔 Solana price clears $80 resistance as technicals point to $90 next

🔖 According to cryptonews data, Solana price traded around $81.3 at the time of writing, up nearly 10% over the past 24 hours after breaking above the psychological $80 barrier for the first time in weeks. The recovery followed a series of network milestones that revived investor sentiment, while the broader crypto market also benefited from improving risk appetite after June’s steep correction.

📌 Fresh on-chain data added fundamental support to the rally. Solana recently activated its Governance Proposal (SGP) framework, allowing validators and delegators to vote directly on network decisions. At the same time, the blockchain recorded an all-time monthly high of 3.77 billion non-vote transactions over the past 30 days.

📊 Network activity also continued to dominate tokenized equities, with Solana processing more than $3.31 billion in decentralized stock trading and capturing roughly 95.6% of the sector’s volume. The network has now led all Layer-1 blockchains in decentralized application revenue for nine consecutive quarters.

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⚠️ Binance ignores summer slowdown as futures volume tops $1.6 trillion

‼️ Binance’s monthly futures trading volume has climbed to about $1.63 trillion in June, reaching its highest level of 2026 despite cautious crypto market sentiment and the seasonal slowdown that usually weighs on trading activity. According to CryptoQuant analyst JA Maartun, Binance recorded roughly $1.63 trillion in futures trading volume during June, even as Bitcoin continued to trade around the mid-$60,000 range. The analyst said the increase came while many market participants remained cautious and several conditions typically associated with weaker trading were already in place.

🔖 In his market update, JA Maartun pointed to several factors that would normally reduce trading interest. Bitcoin has remained range-bound around the mid-$60,000 level, traders have continued to assess the market cautiously, Europe has been adapting to the Markets in Crypto-Assets (MiCA) framework, and the summer holiday period has traditionally brought lower market participation. According to JA Maartun, the jump in futures volume suggests traders are still actively opening and managing positions on the exchange instead of stepping away from leveraged markets during the seasonal lull.

⭐️ The analyst also noted that the gap between cautious market sentiment and elevated derivatives participation deserves attention as traders continue positioning in Binance’s futures market. The consultation followed the approval of U.S. crypto perpetual futures and seeks industry feedback on whether closer coordination between the two agencies could improve risk management, reduce market fragmentation and strengthen consumer protections as crypto derivatives and tokenized financial products expand in the United States.