Standard Chartered Bank projects the tokenized real-world asset market will grow from approximately $35 billion to $2 trillion by end-2028, a 5,600% increase. Geoffrey Kendrick, head of digital assets research at the bank, expects Ethereum to capture the majority of this activity due to its decade-long mainnet reliability without outages. The forecast excludes stablecoins and mirrors the bank's stablecoin market cap projection in scale and timeframe.

Garden Finance has rejected reports of a $5.5 million protocol hack, stating only a third-party solver was affected and user funds remain secure. Blockchain investigator ZachXBT presented on-chain evidence suggesting the breach impacted multiple blockchains, according to a message recorded on Ethereum block 23,690,488. The platform remains offline as investigations continue.

Garden Finance suffered a cross-chain bridge attack that drained at least $5.5 million across multiple blockchains including Arbitrum and Solana. The protocol's native SEED token dropped 64% following the breach. Blockchain investigators suspect the DPRK-linked hacker group "Dangerous Password" may be responsible for the exploit.

Garden Finance suffered a security breach resulting in losses exceeding $10.8 million across multiple blockchain networks. Blockchain investigator ZachXBT revealed that over 25% of the platform's historical transaction volume involved assets stolen from major hacks, including the Bybit incident. The platform has faced criticism for allegedly facilitating illicit fund flows.

Mastercard is in final-stage negotiations to acquire Zerohash, a B2B crypto infrastructure provider, in a deal valued at around $2 billion, Fortune reported citing five sources. Zerohash enables financial institutions to integrate stablecoin and digital-asset services without building proprietary backends. The deal has not yet been finalized.

Coinbase launched the x402 protocol in May 2025, allowing AI agents to manage cryptocurrency wallets and execute stablecoin transactions independently. The protocol experienced a 10,000% surge in transactions within one month. AI systems can now handle payments for subscriptions, cloud services, and content rewards without human intervention.

The Australian Securities and Investments Commission has issued guidance bringing stablecoins, wrapped tokens, tokenized securities, and digital wallets under existing financial product regulations. Service providers must obtain a financial services license by June 30, 2026, under a temporary no-action relief program. The move follows industry consultation and builds on national efforts to strengthen crypto market oversight.

Visa will support four stablecoins operating on four separate blockchains, CEO Ryan McInerney said during a Tuesday earnings call. Stablecoin-linked card spending in Q4 2024 quadrupled year-over-year. The company now operates over 130 stablecoin-linked card programs across more than 40 countries.