Russia is moving to bring some of the world’s largest cryptocurrencies into its regulated financial system, with the central bank proposing Bitcoin, Ether and Tether’s USDT as the first digital assets eligible for trading on official exchanges.

Harry Chun Tak Yeh, founder and managing partner of crypto investment firm Quantum Fintech Group, was found dead in Asunción, Paraguay, after falling from his luxury high-rise apartment, with authorities investigating whether the death was an accident, suicide or homicide.

Australia has switched off 96 Bitcoin ATMs operated by Cryptolink after the country’s financial-crime regulator found the company had failed to meet basic anti-money laundering reporting obligations, in the latest sign that authorities are preparing to take a harder line on the country’s rapidly expanding crypto-ATM industry.

OpenAI has paused internal development work on its upcoming Astra AI model after safety evaluations indicated that the system may have reached the company’s highest cybersecurity risk threshold — raising the possibility that the model could eventually conduct sophisticated cyberattacks with little or no human assistance.

Trump Media & Technology Group is backing away from a major crypto expansion, abandoning plans for a multibillion-dollar CRO treasury and scaling back its ambitions for prediction markets on Truth Social as new leadership refocuses the company on media, data licensing and its planned merger with fusion-energy company TAE.

A Bitcoin security researcher says restrictions on OpenAI’s advanced cybersecurity tools have forced him to turn back to Chinese open-source AI models to continue searching for vulnerabilities in Bitcoin infrastructure.

Japan has formally urged the Trump administration to stop using iconic Japanese characters such as Mario, Pokémon and Naruto in official government social media posts, turning what began as a series of internet memes into an unusual diplomatic dispute over intellectual property.

Crypto exchange Bitget is seeking an early foothold in Bhutan's emerging digital asset sector after signing a cooperation agreement with the Gelephu Mindfulness City Authority (GMCA), becoming the latest crypto firm to target the country's ambitious Bitcoin-backed financial hub.

Western Union is expanding beyond traditional money transfers with the launch of Stablecard, a Visa-backed payment card and digital wallet that allows customers to receive, hold and spend its USDPT stablecoin.

Shaw Walters, founder of Eliza Labs, has declared the ELIZAOS token “completely dead,” leaving holders without a treasury, buyback plan or any future project support after a class-action lawsuit settlement exhausted the foundation’s remaining funds. The announcement effectively closes the chapter on one of the most recognizable AI-agent tokens from the 2024 boom, with Walters making clear there will be no attempt to revive the asset.