Sony Bank Signs MOU to Integrate Yen Stablecoin JPYC

Sony Bank said it has signed a memorandum of understanding with stablecoin issuer JPYC Inc. to study whether the Japanese yen-pegged stablecoin JPYC can be connected more directly to the bank’s deposit rails. In a statement Monday, the companies said they will study real-time account transfers that would allow users to purchase JPYC instantly from their Sony Bank accounts through the JPYC EX platform, eliminating the need for manual bank transfers.  Sony Bank said its Web3-focused subsidiary, BlockBloom, will play a central role in designing how the bank link, stablecoin…

Aave Proposal Clears First Hurdle After Split Vote

Aave’s “Aave Will Win” framework has passed its Temp Check vote, clearing the first formal stage of the protocol’s governance process.  On Sunday, the off-chain Snapshot vote closed with 52.58% voting in favor, 42% against and 5.42% abstaining. The result advances the measure to the Aave Request for Final Comment (ARFC) stage, where terms may be revised before any binding on-chain vote. The framework asks tokenholders to approve up to $42.5 million in stablecoins and 75,000 Aave (AAVE) tokens for Aave Labs. In return, the organization would route 100% of…

Fed Will Print Money for Iran War, Boosting Crypto

The US Federal Reserve could ease its hawkish monetary policy to help finance the country’s conflict with Iran, which would boost crypto markets, says BitMEX co-founder Arthur Hayes. Hayes said in a blog post on Monday that every US president since 1985 has launched military action in the Middle East, and each time, the Federal Reserve has responded by cutting rates and expanding the money supply to finance the conflict. “The longer Trump engages in the extremely costly activity of Iranian nation-building, the higher the likelihood that the Fed lowers…

Vitalik Buterin Says AI Coding Could Help Ethereum Roadmap

Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin says an experiment that used artificial intelligence to prototype the blockchain’s roadmap out to 2030 in just a few weeks could have lessons for developers.  “This is quite an impressive experiment. Vibe-coding the entire 2030 roadmap within weeks,” Buterin posted to X on Saturday after a developer made a bet with Vitalik in February that one person could use AI to code a reference implementation of the blockchain’s roadmap. Buterin added that AI is “massively accelerating coding” and that people “should be open to the possibility…

Kalshi Founder Outlines Next Steps for ‘Iran Leader Ousted By’ Market

Tarek Mansour, the co-founder of prediction market Kalshi, provided an update, following the platform’s decision to void some positions that were opened after the death of Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei was confirmed. “We don’t list markets directly tied to death. When there are markets where potential outcomes involve death, we design the rules to prevent people from profiting from death. That is what we did here,” Mansour said in a post on X. Iranian state media reported the death early Sunday, after an attack launched by Israel and…

US Military Used Anthropic AI in Iran Strike Despite Trump Ban: Report

The US military reportedly used Anthropic during a major air strike on Iran, only hours after President Donald Trump ordered federal agencies to halt use of the company’s systems. Military commands, including US Central Command (CENTCOM) in the Middle East, used Anthropic’s Claude AI model for operational support, according to people familiar with the matter cited by The Wall Street Journal. The tool has reportedly assisted with intelligence analysis, identifying potential targets and running battlefield simulations. The incident shows how deeply advanced AI systems have become embedded in defense operations.…

Ethereum Smart Accounts Coming in Hegota Fork

Ethereum account abstraction, or smart accounts, will be shipped with the Hegota upgrade “within a year,” said Vitalik Buterin on Saturday. “We have been talking about account abstraction ever since early 2016,” said the Ethereum co-founder over the weekend.  He added that now, “we finally have EIP-8141, an omnibus that wraps up and solves every remaining problem that AA [account abstraction] was intended to address (plus more),” and it is slated for deployment this year.   “Finally, after over a decade of research and refinement of these techniques, this all looks…

Anthropic CEO Slams Pentagon Decision As ‘Unprecedented’

The CEO of AI company Anthropic, Dario Amodei, has responded to the United States Department of Defense and the White House, ordering military defense contractors that do business with the Department of Defense to stop using Anthropic’s products. Anthropic objected to the use of its AI models for mass domestic surveillance and fully autonomous weapons that can fire without any human input, Amodei told CBS on Saturday.  He added that Anthropic was fine with all of the US government’s proposed use cases for its AI models, except for surveillance and…

11 US Senators Urge Probe Into Binance’s AML Controls

A group of 11 US senators has asked federal authorities to investigate whether crypto exchange Binance is complying with US sanctions and Anti-Money Laundering (AML) requirements, citing recent reports. In a letter on Friday to Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and Attorney General Pamela Bondi, the lawmakers urged a “prompt, comprehensive review” of the exchange’s compliance controls and its adherence to settlement agreements reached in 2023. The senators pointed to allegations that approximately $1.7 billion in digital assets flowed through Binance to Iranian entities linked to terrorism, including groups connected to…

Alchemy Launches USDC Payment System for Autonomous AI Agents

Blockchain infrastructure company Alchemy has launched a system that allows autonomous AI agents to buy compute credits and access its blockchain data services using onchain wallets and USDC on Base. According to the company’s announcement, the initial release allows AI agents to directly query blockchain networks, check nonfungible token (NFT) ownership, view wallet balances across multiple chains and access live token price data, with additional networks and services planned. If an agent exhausts its prepaid compute credits, Alchemy issues a payment request that can be automatically settled in USDC (USDC) on…