Decentralised Finance

Binance Pay has teamed up with French fintech Lyzi to introduce cryptocurrency payments to over 80 businesses across the French Riviera, including the glamorous cities of Cannes, Nice, Antibes, and Monaco.

Garden Finance was accused of helping move stolen crypto linked to North Korea’s Lazarus Group, after earning $300,000 in fees in 12 days. An investigator said most of the funds came from the Bybit hack, but the platform’s founder denies any wrongdoing.

Bybit is launching Byreal, a new decentralised trading platform on Solana, with a testnet set for 30 June and mainnet in Q3 2025. It aims to combine the speed and liquidity of a centralised exchange with the fairness and openness of DeFi, using hybrid features like RFQ and CLMM routing.

Cryptocurrency wallet firm Tangem is collaborating with Visa to bring self-custody and mainstream payments together.

A U.S. court has sentenced a man to 30 years for funding ISIS with crypto—marking one of the harshest penalties in digital asset-linked terrorism cases.

The small Italian town of Fornelli is unveiling Italy’s first Satoshi Nakamoto monument on 1 May 2025, funded by the local government. The village, known for its high Bitcoin adoption, is positioning itself as a crypto-friendly destination.

Cardano founder Charles Hoskinson said Ethereum could become outdated in the next 10 to 15 years due to poor design choices and weak governance. He claimed its current systems are flawed and not strong enough to support future growth.

Sam Altman, CEO of OpenAI, has praised Bitcoin as a global currency beyond government control. He called it a smart and important step towards changing how the world handles money.

Cardano’s Midnight sidechain will distribute tokens to 37 million users across eight major blockchains, including Bitcoin and Ethereum, in one of the largest airdrops in blockchain history. The airdrop, called the Glacier Drop, will issue NIGHT and DUST tokens and aims to promote privacy in decentralized finance.

Solana has launched the Solana Policy Institute (SPI) to help shape blockchain regulations and educate policymakers about decentralised networks. The move comes as Solana faces regulatory uncertainty while gaining more institutional support and market growth.