Strategy Buys Back $1.5B of Debt; Sharplink and Forward Set to Enter Russell Indexes

Israel presses U.S. to preserve Lebanon "freedom of action" in Iran deal People familiar with the talks say Israel is urging Washington to write Israel's freedom of action in Lebanon into a proposed Iran peace arrangement. The request risks complicating negotiations, as Iran has insisted any ceasefire must include an end to the Lebanon conflict. Trump taps ex-Attorney General Pam Bondi for White House AI panel Axios reports President Trump has appointed former Attorney General Pam Bondi to an AI-policy advisory role on the President's Council of Advisors on Science and Technology. The committee is cochaired by former White House AI advisor David Sacks and White House science advisor Michael Kratsios, and includes more than a dozen tech leaders such as NVIDIA cofounder Jensen Huang, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg, and Oracle cofounder Larry Ellison. Bondi is expected to coordinate work between the administration and the participating tech companies. SEC weighs loosening IPO "gun-jumping" limits to encourage listings SEC Chair Paul Atkins said Tuesday at Stanford University that the agency is considering updates to long-standing IPO communication restrictions, often referred to as "gun-jumping" rules. He noted the framework has not been meaningfully refreshed in more than 20 years and no longer reflects how companies communicate with employees, customers, and investors today. Atkins has repeatedly pointed to the long-term decline in the number of U.S. public companies since the 1990s and has signaled a push toward simpler, more industry-friendly rules. The SEC last week also released broader proposals that could let some large issuers temporarily avoid certain stringent disclosure requirements. Under the plan, companies classified as "large accelerated filers" could be allowed to skip some obligations for up to five years. The agency will collect public feedback for 60 days. Resolv Foundation unveils recovery plan, launches tokenized RWA unit Vault Street Following a protocol security incident, the Resolv Foundation detailed a recovery framework: USR/wstUSR held and snapshotted prior to the incident will be exchanged 1:1 for USDC, while USR/wstUSR acquired after the incident will be exchanged 1:0.5 for USDC. RLP will be restored at 0.71 USDC per token, with additional RESOLV token allocations calculated using a $0.03 reference price. Eligible users can claim funds between May 26, 2026, and August 26, 2026. Resolv also launched Vault Street, a foundation-governed tokenized real-world-asset business line. Its first product, primeUSD, is in private testing and is scheduled for a public launch in June. Umbra and Streamflow introduce private token vesting on Solana The Block reports Solana privacy layer Umbra has partnered with token distribution platform Streamflow to roll out private onchain token vesting. The feature uses Arcium's encrypted execution engine to keep token transfers confidential while maintaining vesting rules such as time locks and price conditions. Streamflow says it serves more than 1.3 million users and over 40,000 projects. Babylon proposal targets native Bitcoin collateral in Aave v4 Aave founder Stani said on X that Babylon has submitted a proposal to the Aave Governance Forum to integrate the Trustless BTC Vault into Aave v4. The proposal calls for adding two new Aave v4 Spokes to enable native Bitcoin as collateral and invites community feedback. The broader aim is a trustless model that would let users access Aave v4 lending functionality without leaving the Bitcoin network. The Aave DAO has previously discussed integrating Babylon into V4 to support BTC-backed borrowing and lending without wrapped BTC or centralized custodians. Canadian regulators clear Robinhood's WonderFi acquisition Canadian investment regulator CIRO has approved Robinhood's acquisition of WonderFi, a digital-asset products and services provider. WonderFi said the deal should strengthen Robinhood's programmable finance capabilities and broaden crypto trading access for Canadian users. The closing date, initially expected in the second half of last year, has been extended to June 1, 2026, to give Robinhood time to deploy its own technology in Canada and complete remaining approvals. WonderFi's assets include Bitbuy and Coinsquare, which offer crypto trading, staking, and custody. Strategy completes $1.5B convertible bond buyback; reports 13.3% YTD BTC yield Strategy (@Strategy) said it repurchased $1.5 billion of 2029 convertible notes at roughly an 8% discount, generating an additional 0.7% BTC yield and reducing total debt to $6.7 billion. Since the start of 2026, the company reports a BTC yield of 13.3%, adding 89,378 BTC valued at about $6.8 billion. As of May 25, 2026, Strategy held 843,738 BTC acquired for approximately $63.87 billion, at an average purchase price near $75,700 per BTC. Sharplink and Forward to join Russell indexes, offering indirect ETH and SOL exposure The Block reports Sharplink and Forward Industries—both pursuing crypto-asset treasury strategies—will be added to the Russell 2000 and Russell 3000 as part of FTSE Russell's annual reconstitution, effective at the U.S. market open on June 29. Index-tracking investors would gain indirect exposure to ETH and SOL through the two stocks. Sharplink reportedly holds 868,699 ETH worth nearly $1.8 billion, while Forward Industries holds about $585 million in SOL. FTSE Russell has previously said roughly $12.2 trillion in assets are benchmarked to the Russell U.S. Indexes. Quantinuum targets $1.05B IPO raise Bloomberg reports Honeywell International's quantum computing unit Quantinuum Inc. has filed confidentially/publicly (filing noted as submitted to the SEC) for an IPO, seeking to sell about 21 million shares at $45–$50 each for proceeds of roughly $1.05 billion. At the top of the range, the implied valuation would be $12.7 billion. Recommended reading • Tether's next move: helping smaller countries issue stablecoins—Tether partnered with the Georgian government on GEL₮, a lari-pegged stablecoin aimed at lower costs, faster settlement, and smoother cross-border payments. • Anthropic cofounder Chris Olah and the Vatican—a look at the company's engagement with religious groups after Pope Leo XIV's encyclical Magnifica Humanitas warned about AI's threat to human dignity and called for a global slowdown. • Conversation with Arthur Hayes and a NEAR cofounder—market outlook, the role of privacy assets, and analysis of NEAR, Zcash (ZEC), and Hyperliquid (HYPE). • Semiconductors +78% YoY, software -12%—an analysis of capital rotation and "liquidity suction" within tech. • Microsoft's AI strategy in 2026—the company's reliance on OpenAI, enterprise defensiveness, and challenges in security and cost control, alongside the outlook for its in-house MAI model.