The Commodity Futures Trading Commission permanently barred Celsius founder Alex Mashinsky from commodity trading and from registering with the agency under a consent order entered on June 18 in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York. The order closes the regulator’s July 2023 fraud case and what the CFTC has described as its first crypto-lending enforcement action. The ban also prevents Mashinsky from soliciting customer funds for commodity transactions and from taking senior or operational roles at CFTC-registered firms.

Agentic AI is moving from an infrastructure-led buildout to application-layer commercialization, as enterprises begin paying at scale for AI-enabled software. Microsoft’s Copilot products reached a $37 billion annual revenue run rate in Q1 2026, up 123% year over year, pointing to a shift from pilots to paid deployments. While NVIDIA continues to dominate AI compute infrastructure, the next phase of outsized gains is increasingly tied to software companies with distribution, vertical specialization, and proven ARR growth.

President Javier Milei’s administration issued an executive order granting tax exemptions to registered virtual asset service providers (VASPs) in Argentina from a 1.2% levy on money flows. The change means users will no longer bear that surcharge when depositing or withdrawing fiat funds through VASPs. The move is intended to put regulated crypto exchanges on a more equal footing with traditional financial institutions.

Trump’s envoys are rushing to revive U.S.-Iran talks in Switzerland after Iranian negotiators withdrew following Israeli air strikes in Lebanon. The Trump administration helped broker a temporary Israel-Hezbollah ceasefire to clear the way for talks to resume. A deal could lift Western sanctions on Iran and reshape expectations for global oil supply, while easing geopolitical risk could reduce demand for gold as a safe haven.

Bearish technical pressure continued to dominate XRP’s price action. XRP traded near $1.13 after losing the $1.30 support area earlier this month, while indicators showed sellers remained in control. Although the token held above support around $1.09, buyers had yet to regain enough momentum to shift the trend.

Stellar is outperforming as its real-world asset (RWA) footprint expands, with distributed asset value at $2.83 billion, while XRP trades near $1.13. Data from RWA.xyz show Stellar’s 30-day RWA transfer volume and holder count rising sharply, even as XRPL posts smaller figures despite having more RWA projects launched. Technical indicators also diverge, with XRP’s Bollinger Bands tightening and setting up a potential breakout from its current range.

Abu Dhabi-backed AI investor MGX is weighing a multibillion-dollar acquisition of DayOne, which operates a data center in Singapore. The deal would be MGX’s first acquisition in Asia. It would underscore intensifying competition to secure the data center infrastructure needed to support AI growth.

F2Pool co-founder Wang Chun withdrew about 54,500 ETH from Binance over a two-week period. The activity has drawn attention from market watchers focused on Ethereum flows, exchange balances and sentiment.