Franklin Templeton Closes 250 Digital Acquisition, Launches Franklin Crypto for Institutional Allocators

The $1.78 trillion asset manager stands up a dedicated institutional crypto unit, extending a platform that already includes the BENJI tokenized money-market fund and a proposed pair of dividend-into-bitcoin ETFs.

Five Former EF Researchers Launch Ethlabs, an Independent Non-Profit R&D Lab for Ethereum

Ansgar Dietrichs, Barnabé Monnot, Caspar Schwarz-Schilling, Josh Rudolf, and Julian Ma have launched Ethlabs, an independent non-profit R&D lab backed by Bitmine, Sharplink, and Consensys founder Joe Lubin, with a thesis that Ethereum will become the universal onchain settlement layer.

Ethereum Foundation’s CSA Lays Out Execution Plan: MEV Elimination, Default Privacy, ETH Pay

Aerugo, the Ethereum Foundation’s Chief Strategy Advisor, outlined how EF will implement its new mandate: treating MEV extraction as a structural threat, making privacy a protocol default, and moving EF compensation into ETH and Ethereum-native stablecoins.

NYSE Parent ICE and OKX Form 50-50 Joint Venture for Tokenized Equities, Co-Chaired by Andrew Cuomo

Intercontinental Exchange and OKX will build a U.S. broker-dealer to route OKX's customers into NYSE tokenized equities and ICE futures, pending regulatory approval.

Aztec Reaches L2Beat Stage 2 After Governance Revokes Rollup Contract Ownership

On-chain governance stripped admin control over Aztec's rollup contract, freezing the code in place and clearing the technical bar for L2Beat's top decentralization tier.

Chainlink Brings Samsung, Toyota and Sony Pricing On-Chain With APAC Equities Streams

Chainlink launched APAC Equities Streams on Monday, putting live pricing for large-cap Asian companies on-chain to power equity perps, prediction markets and structured products in Asian time zones.

a16z-Backed Goldfinch Finance Winds Down After Originating $100M in Loans

Warbler Labs posted an official governance proposal on June 12 to wind down Goldfinch Prime and move the protocol to maintenance mode. A Snapshot vote is passing 100% in favor. Depositors face a two-or-more-year recovery horizon as GFI trades 99.8% below its January 2022 all-time high.

CFTC Opens Comment on 24/7 Energy Futures and Perpetual Oil Contracts

The CFTC issued a request for comment on running standard futures around the clock and on perpetual contracts referencing physically delivered energy commodities such as crude oil, extending the perpetual-contract model from crypto into oil and gas derivatives.

Secret Network's Axelar Bridge Drained $4.67M via Infinite-Mint Flaw

Secret Network's cross-chain bridge to Axelar has been suspended after an attacker exploited a years-old minting flaw in a CW20-ICS20 contract to drain $4.67 million in wrapped tokens over seven undetected days. The exploit ran from June 10 to June 17, drained seven Axelar-wrapped assets, and has

Micron Stock Goes On-Chain 48 Hours Before Earnings as Backpack Securities Lists $MU on Solana

Sunrise and Backpack Securities tokenized Micron Technology ($MU) stock on Solana on Monday, landing the asset on-chain 48 hours before the chipmaker's fiscal Q3 earnings report. Each MU token is backed 1:1 by a real share held in custody and redeemable through Backpack Exchange into a traditional

Baillie Gifford Launches UK-Regulated Tokenized Bond Fund on Solana and Ethereum With BNY

Scottish asset manager Baillie Gifford has launched BAGEY, the first publicly available, fully native UK-regulated tokenized bond fund, with BNY providing custody and wallet infrastructure across Solana and Ethereum.

Bithumb Lists Canton (CC) in Korean Won Market as Institutional Blockchain Eyes Retail Liquidity

South Korea’s second-largest exchange has listed Canton Coin in its KRW market, opening the Goldman-backed, DTCC-integrated blockchain to retail investors ahead of the 14:00 KST trading start on June 23.

SoFi's Bank-Issued Stablecoin Hits $150M as Bullish Becomes First CEX to List It

SoFiUSD, the first stablecoin issued by a US national bank, crossed $150 million in circulating supply on Tuesday as Bullish became the first centralized exchange to list the token.

MoneyGram Becomes Solana Validator, Joins Institutional Developer Platform

MoneyGram has launched an active validator node on Solana and joined its institutional developer platform, making Solana the payments giant’s third blockchain validator commitment alongside Tempo and Midnight. The move deepens a blockchain infrastructure push that began with Stellar remittances in

Ethereum Foundation Cuts 20% of Staff in Sweeping Reorganization

The nonprofit is eliminating 54 roles and reorganizing around five core divisions focused on Ethereum’s protocol, users, community and institutional adoption.

USDC and USDT Supply Both Contracted This Week as Stablecoin Bills Dominate Headlines

The two largest stablecoins shed supply over the past seven days, even as stablecoin legislation and a steady run of institutional partnerships pushed the sector to the front of the policy conversation.

Tokenized-Equity Headlines Multiply While On-Chain TVL Slips at Ondo and Backed

Tokenized-equity issuance and institutional deals are accelerating, but the two protocols DefiLlama tracks under the category, Ondo and Backed, show TVL contracting on both 7-day and 30-day windows.

Aztec Tells V4 Users to Withdraw Before June 25 as V5 Upgrade Exposes Security Flaws

Aztec Network is urging Alpha V4 users to pull funds before June 25, when the V5 governance vote will publicly disclose the current version's critical proving-system vulnerability.

Ethereum Foundation Cuts 20% of Staff in Sweeping Reorganization

The Ethereum Foundation has eliminated 54 positions, about 20% of its workforce, as part of a restructuring tied to its updated spending mandate. Vitalik Buterin announced a 40% annual budget cut targeting a reduction in treasury spend from 15% to 5% by 2030. Arkham Intelligence places EF's ETH

ENS DAO Delegates Call Foundation Proposal a Governance Attack as Johnson Self-Delegates

Multiple named delegates escalated opposition to the ENS Foundation empowerment temp check Monday, with Security Council member Brantly Millegan threatening a veto and ENS Labs founder Nick Johnson having self-delegated enough tokens to pass the proposal over their objections.

Securitize Wraps Roubini's SEC-Registered ETF as Dubai VARA Digital Security

Securitize has been selected to tokenize economist Nouriel Roubini's Atlas America Fund into USAFi, a digital security issued under Dubai's VARA regulatory framework with BNY custody, designed for 24/7 institutional-grade collateral portability.