Aztec Labs said it is investigating an exploit involving a discontinued product after attackers drained around $2.2 million from an old payments rollup. The company said the affected system was a deprecated Stage 2 rollup launched in 2021 and retired in 2022. Aztec added that the incident does not affect its current network because the immutable contract cannot be paused or upgraded.

Kraken became FIFA’s first official crypto sponsor on June 9, 2026. More than $2B in on-chain prediction market volume was recorded over roughly a week. The development has put renewed focus on what it could mean for tokens such as CHZ and AVAX.

The Federal Reserve and other U.S. regulators have proposed new identity-verification requirements for payment stablecoin issuers operating under the GENIUS Act. The joint proposal would require issuers to adopt customer identification programs similar to those used by banks and other financial institutions. If finalized, the rules would bring regulated stablecoin issuers into the Bank Secrecy Act’s customer verification framework, according to TechGaged.

Uniswap has ramped up activity over recent months after UNI shifted from a governance token to an asset tied to protocol revenue via buybacks and token burns. The UNI token rebounded from $2.40 in early June to $3.02 as whale buying increased. The exchange is also drawing additional usage by offering its own tokenized equities. RWA tokenization is expected to further lift daily activity.

Illinois has enacted a 0.2% tax on digital asset transfers that will take effect Jan. 1, 2027, applying whether a trade ends in profit or loss. Industry groups have labeled it the most punitive crypto tax in the U.S. and are pushing for repeal. The levy is assessed on the gross value of each covered transaction rather than gains.

Microsoft has warned about a sophisticated crypto-stealing malware campaign dubbed CryptoBandits that has been active since at least February 2026. The malware spreads through infected USB drives and can hijack wallet addresses by replacing copied destinations. It also targets seed phrases and private keys to gain full access to victims’ wallets.

The CLARITY Act, formally the Digital Asset Market Clarity Act, is a proposed U.S. market structure bill that would create a federal framework for how digital assets are issued, traded and regulated. It focuses on how crypto firms would comply with federal law and which regulators they would need to register with. The measure is aimed at standardizing digital asset regulation across the U.S. market.

Binance founder Changpeng Zhao told Galaxy Research that artificial intelligence may pose an existential risk to humanity, but not to crypto. He argued that digital assets could become the payment rails for autonomous AI systems before traditional banks are ready for machine-driven transactions. Zhao said wallets and stablecoins could be easier for autonomous software to use than bank accounts, according to the interview released on June 18.