Author: Simon Mugo

The MEXC crypto exchange’s latest monthly snapshot shows BTC reserves at 269% of user holdings, though ratios dipped slightly from May across most assets.

Australian institutional digital asset prime broker LTP has secured an AFSL from ASIC, enabling it to advise and deal in financial products for wholesale clients.

Copy-trading platform Pelican powering 60+ brokers with a cross-broker, cross-platform strategy network, has expanded its services by integrating with DXtrade.

Centroid Solutions has partnered with TRAction to allow trading data flows seamlessly from Centroid’s infrastructure directly into TRAction’s reporting systems.

Cboe BZX pulled Defiance’s leveraged space ETF from trading less than two hours into SpaceX’s first session on Nasdaq. The exchange expected to resume trading no earlier than today.

The CFTC’s Division of Market Oversight issued no-action relief letting both exchanges convert existing perpetual-style digital commodity futures into true perpetual futures with immediate effect.

BitMart partnered with infrastructure provider Plaee to offer event contracts across sports, economics, politics, and digital assets in 48 US states.

Funding Pips has obtained a Securities Dealer licence in Mauritius, which gives it a regulated presence in one of the more reputable offshore financial centres.

ETF issuer Defiance ETFs said its SPCL fund would seek 2X daily leveraged exposure to SpaceX from the open of its Nasdaq IPO, with exposure set at the IPO price.

Genesis Global won Best Solution for Fixed Income Trading for its Primary Bond Issuance platform, which it plans to extend into municipal bonds, syndicated loans.

The real SpaceX trading story begins the morning after the IPO when the gap between IPO narrative and fundamental delivery starts to close, one event at a time.

Exodus, a wallet provider, is giving its users in-app access to 200+ tokenized equities and ETFs, though holders won’t have shareholder rights in the securities.

A bug in Zcash’s Orchard privacy pool went undetected for four years. An AI-assisted audit surfaced the issue, which was fixed, but ZEC still fell 50%+ after.

Crypto exchange HTX added 51 new futures assets in May, including stock-linked contracts on AMD, JPM, and pre-IPO names like SpaceX and OpenAI with $1bn+ volume.

The Dutch AFM gave the national AI Act implementing law a conditional go ahead, raising concerns about how supervisory tasks will be divided between it and DNB.

Toobit crypto exchange just launched an upgrade that reduces entry-price drift for copiers replicating lead traders, with a dynamic fee structure varying by pair.

The SEC pushed back compliance dates for tick-size and access-fee changes by a full year while simultaneously proposing to rescind Rule 611.

Canadian securities regulators finalized rules confining principal distributor status to a single mutual fund family while requiring disclosure of compensation.

Five companies join the Nasdaq-100 and five exit ahead of the June 22 open, triggering positioning across more than $800 billion in index-linked products.

The CME Group will offer round-the-clock access for a new 10-Barrel WTI Crude Oil contract and its existing 1-Ounce Gold futures, including weekends and holidays.

The exchange’s first support for a Canton-native asset opens a path to broader connectivity with the institutional settlement network.

The SEC has proposed removing Rules 611 and 610(e) of Regulation NMS, which cover trade-through prohibition and restrictions on locking and crossing quotations.

The FCA’s 11 June update cycle covered three separate actions spanning senior manager conduct, payments-sector financial crime, and consumer lending distress.

Australia’s Federal Court ordered record penalties of $300.2m against Union Standard, EuropeFX, and TradeFred after finding systemic unconscionable conduct.

The US CFTC wants to make smaller whistleblower award determinations more formulaic, mirroring a framework the SEC has used since 2020.

Bitget is bundling professional-grade Level 2 US stock market data into its VIP program, days after launching its tokenized equities product Stocks 2.0.

Tokenized equity firm Dinari has deployed SpaceX dShares on Hyperliquid, marking the first tokenized U.S. equity available for spot trading on HyperCore.

CoinShares, the Jersey digital asset manager, was included in Fortune’s first crypto industry list, two months after migrating its listing to the U.S. Nasdaq.

CME will launch new E-mini futures contracts that will track the Morningstar US Total Market, Russell 3000, S&P Composite 1500, and S&P Total Market indices.

Fortune magazine placed Kraken in its CeFi category, citing its banking charter, $1.5bn NinjaTrader acquisition, and over $2bn in average daily volume in Q1’26.

Tradeinformer sat down with Prakash Bhudia, Chief Growth Officer at Deriv, to talk about a quiet but measurable shift in when retail traders are trading.

CME just launched new options contracts that will be one-tenth the size of existing E-mini options, with Monday-to-Friday expiries and financial settlement.

The registered U.S. equities exchange appointed the Baruch College professor, known as the “father of electronic call auctions,” as it develops its AuctionEQ intraday auction product for a planned H2 2026 launch.

zerohash said it now supports HYPE, USDC.HYPE and USDT.HYPE. The addition lets banks, brokerages and fintechs offer Hyperliquid assets via a single integration.

The UK regulator says Carlos Fuenmayor withheld a US investigation, a subsequent FINRA sanction and a Venezuelan account freeze from disclosure forms. He has referred the decision to the Upper Tribunal.

The bull and bear debate is not a sign of market confusion. It is a sign that SpaceX is genuinely, structurally unlike anything that has ever IPO’d before.

XTB has appointed Pavlina Irodotou as Head of Risk. She joined the broker in March and is based in Cyprus. She has a decade of experience in risk management.

Defiance ETFs plans to launch SPCU, a daily-reset leveraged ETF seeking 200% of SpaceX’s daily move, on June 15, just days after SpaceX’s IPO on the Nasdaq.

Decentralized GPU network io.net has switched on its Incentive Dynamic Engine, tying token burns directly to customer revenue as it reports its largest commercial contract to date.

CME Group has signed a multi-year deal covering futures and options on six Morningstar Market Indexes, marking the first time derivatives will be offered.

SurancePlus and HCI Group have agreed to issue three tokenized reinsurance securities tied to Fortex Re’s 2026-2027 catastrophe program, targeting $12 million.

Deutsche Börse Group’s post-trade arm, Clearstream, launched a hybrid digital securities system, enabling clients to manage traditional and digital securities.

Hester Peirce told attendees at a Washington summit on Tuesday that she is leaving the city after nearly 30 years. She will take up a teaching role in November.

The FCA’s emerging tech report identifies personalised intelligence, synthetic crime, and programmable finance as the four forces reshaping financial services.

Bitget launched a commission-free CFD account alongside its existing ECN mode, after its daily volume doubled from $4 billion in January to $8 billion in May.

Axel Merk quit his unpaid COO role at ASA Gold and Precious Metals Ltd. on Wednesday, saying the board excluded him from discussions affecting internal controls.

The US CFTC published a proposed rulemaking that would create a structured framework for reviewing event contracts tied to sports, gaming, and other activities.

Capital markets software vendor Genesis Global elevated executives across sales, technology, delivery, engineering, and India as it helps banks deploy AI systems.

Nasdaq Verafin is expanding its agentic AI lineup with role-based analysts for AML and ACH fraud, plus a platform-agnostic deployment option for institutions.

Figure takes Kiavi’s origination engine while a joint venture with Sixth Street buys the loan book, adding over $7bn in first-lien volume to Figure’s marketplace.

Pepperstone is the latest broker to launch a new CFD that allows traders to speculate on SpaceX’s valuation ahead of the company’s June 12 Nasdaq listing.

Dubai-based neobroker Amana hires former ADSS and EBS quantitative trading executive to strengthen pricing, execution, and automation infrastructure.

IUX says it surpassed $1.5 trillion in monthly trading volume in 2026, with commodities accounting for 76% of trades, and is building low-latency infrastructure.

Nasdaq-listed Marex completed a $500m perpetual subordinated notes offering in London, cutting its funding cost from 13.25% to 7.7%, and will retire $100m debt.

Bitget wallet’s DEX Aggregator API now routes any-token-to-RWA trades through an all-RFQ multi-hop model, with Ondo Finance and xStocks as launch integrations.

Alternative asset manager Apollo is leading the largest private financing, backing Broadcom’s new AI compute platform with Anthropic as the first demand anchor.

ICE Compass combines exchange data with client trading history and counterparty inputs to rank dealers and estimate pricing before execution across bond markets.

Kraken secures FIFA category sponsorship covering 16 host cities across Canada, Mexico and the USA, with activations starting on the eve of the tournament.

W Group and WhiteBIT founder acquires a significant stake in Spyker, pairing blockchain infrastructure with a heritage auto brand via a new digital venture.

Leverate just released a conversational AI agent that gives brokers greater visibility into what their clients are searching for asking about, and engaging with.

The CFTC completed the first step of a 2022 law requiring common reporting standards across nine federal financial agencies, after missing the initial deadline.

Spotware, the leading financial technology provider, announces Risk Management Week, an online event series taking place from 22 to 26 June.

Dutch regulator AFM fined neobank bunq B.V. €170,000 for responding too slowly to customer fraud complaints, signalling that it monitors complaint-handling.

The SEC sustained a $50,000 joint fine against Titan Securities and one-year suspension of its sole owner Brad C. Brooks tied to a 2012 private placement.

Payward will send engineers into federal agencies on two-year assignments and plans to recruit Tech Force participants back into its own teams afterward.

Woodstock K.K. says its new MCP service lets users connect AI assistants like Claude and ChatGPT to live accounts for research, analysis and order placement.

The FCA alleges Woodford and UAE-registered W4.0 have been providing regulated investment advice and making financial promotions without authorisation.

NASDAQ-listed Marex adds Sigma Lending CEO and former Nomura executive to its board with immediate effect, placing him on the Risk Committee.

Social investing platform, Stocktwits, is packaging private-company pricing, valuations, and prediction markets into a single symbol-page experience for users.

PropMarket says it is the first prop firm built for prediction markets, funding traders on Polymarket with accounts up to $100,000 and a 90% profit split.

Intercontinental Exchange (ICE) said ESMA has granted recognition to ICE Data Indices’ under the EU benchmarks, making them available for supervised entities.

The FCA plans to issue new rules for UK moeny market funds. It will keep current daily liquid asset minimums, with stable NAV funds at 40% weekly liquid assets.

eToro’s May 2026 operating snapshot reveals a sharp divergence: capital markets trades jumped 59%, while crypto activity fell, as AUA climbed to $20.1 billion.

The UK’s FCA has given firms until 19 June to feed AI use cases, challenges, and governance questions in order to identify where regulatory clarity would help.

Alpha Capital Group has appointed industry veteran David Rapp as Chief Executive Officer of ACG Markets, the company’s newly launched brokerage arm in the UK.

UAE-based broker ADSS has appointed Manuel Del Aguila Barbero as Senior Director of Growth and Marketing. Barbero will report directly to the company’s CCO.

Western Asset accepted a $100m fine from the SEC and created a Fair Fund for investors affected by its former co-CIO’s alleged cherry-picking of trade allocations.

Kraken just launched a cash-settled perpetual contract tied to SpaceX, using a synthetic pricing engine built for a market with no public stock feed.

Companies House filings show Alpha Capital Group Ltd replaced three direct PSCs with a single holding firm, Alpha Group UK Holdings Ltd, effective 1 April 2026.

Capital.com has launched an MCP Server that lets traders access live market data, portfolio context, and order execution via AI assistants like Claude and Cursor.

The FCA secured court-appointed interim managers over the EES e-money firm, citing weaknesses in its financial crime controls, safeguarding, and governance.

CME Group’s new Bitcoin volatility contracts attracted immediate institutional trades, extending its 24/7 crypto framework into pure volatility risk transfer.

TRON’s native token gains regulated U.S. trading access through Bitnomial’s exchange, adding to the network’s growing list of institutional touchpoints.

Crypto exchange Kraken says eligible clients can register for SpaceX’s IPO via its tokenized equities product, with 24/7 trading from day one of listing.

SEC Commissioner Mark Uyeda told the Investor Advisory Committee that redemption caps worked as designed, but investor surprise points were a concern.

Kraken says it is the first platform to list Canada’s QCAD stablecoin, launching rewards for holders just weeks after Bill C-15 gave stablecoins formal status.

Aussie broker Fusion Markets has switched its global payments operation to 24/7 processing, with median withdrawal handling falling to 45 minutes in May 2026.

Bitget, the Seychelles-based exchange, is running a month-long security campaign as it expands into tokenized stocks, commodities, and other asset classes.

DAK Markets has adopted Spotware’s platform as a package, bundling trading infrastructure with AI-agent connectivity and a free client acquisition channel.

The UK FCA wants to replace detailed climate reporting for retail investors with narrower ones, while institutional clients can request emissions data on demand.

Block Scholes noted that BTC and ETH perpetual volumes on Hyperliquid sit near multi-quarter lows while equity-index and pre-IPO perp activity have surged.

Trade Tech Solutions has integrated prediction markets as a native module in the Match‑Trader trading platform, allowing clients to offer event-driven markets.

The SEC’s Hester Pierce used the Investor Advisory Committee meeting to challenge retail investor protections for private markets and passive index fund voting.

The Cayman Islands regulator (CIMA) published decision notices naming two firms and two directors in enforcement action that includes cancelled registrations.

Atkins told the Investor Advisory Committee that expanding retail access to private markets and concentration of voting power in passive funds are its key focus.

Fintech platform Wealthfront reported fiscal Q1 2027 results today. Total platform assets jumped 19% to $96.6 billion, while revenues rose 7% y/y to $90.5m.

Kraken said that payments blockchain Tempo selected it as its first US centralized exchange partner, giving clients access to Kraken’s full institutional stack.

Moomoo has partnered with Kalshi to offer prediction market contracts alongside equities and options inside an established, regulated retail brokerage platform.

Crypto exchange MEXC has integrated trade execution into TradingView’s charting platform, letting users place spot and derivatives orders without leaving charts.

cTrader integrates AppsFlyer, The Modern Marketing Cloud, to give brokers the opportunity to launch and track mobile advertising campaigns for their branded mobile apps.