A New York Times investigation said senior Commodity Futures Trading Commission staff who questioned prediction-market firms such as Polymarket, Crypto.com and a Gemini affiliate were suspended, investigated and ultimately pushed out. The report also said the agency later scaled back crypto enforcement, including dropping at least five crypto investigations and reducing cases from more than 80 under Biden to two under Trump.

The StablR incident undermined stablecoin confidence after attackers abused a low-threshold 1-of-3 multisig to gain effective minting authority. The breach enabled unauthorized issuance of about 8.35 million USDR and 4.5 million EURR, which later saw EURR fall toward $0.86 and USDR drop below the $0.80 area. Attackers then swapped nearly $10.4 million in newly minted tokens and extracted around 1,115 ETH amid deteriorating liquidity.

On May 24, 2026, Zerohash Europe said it became the first firm operating under the EU's MiCA regime to also obtain a full Electronic Money Institution (EMI) license, enabling wider regulated stablecoin and brokerage services across Europe. The EMI authorization from De Nederlandsche Bank allows the company to pair crypto-asset services with electronic-money capabilities throughout the European Economic Area, ahead of MiCA's full rollout in July.

Part one of a 2026 legal guide explains how U.S. securities law is applied to crypto mainly through the Howey “investment contract” framework rather than a digital-asset-specific statute. It outlines the four Howey elements and describes how courts assess token sales by focusing on economic reality, marketing, and issuer conduct. The report also highlights the growing distinction between a token and the investment contract that may arise from how it is offered or sold.

Nasdaq has teamed up with decentralized trading platform Ostium to supply market data for blockchain-based perpetual contracts linked to US equities. The integration supports onchain equity perps without requiring traditional brokerage accounts, as Ostium says its platform has surpassed $50 billion in cumulative volume across more than 26,000 traders.

StablR's EURR and USDR stablecoins fell off-peg during an ongoing exploit that Blockaid said was likely caused by a compromised private key tied to the minting multisig. Blockaid estimated about $2.8 million has been extracted after the attacker minted 8.35 million USDR and 4.5 million EURR and swapped the tokens for 1,115 ETH amid thin liquidity.

The tokenized asset market has climbed to $34.01 billion, with tokenized U.S. Treasury products emerging as the largest segment and approaching $16 billion by May 2026. The market was below $3 billion around mid-2024, indicating more than a tenfold expansion over the period. Commodities neared $6 billion and asset-backed credit topped $3 billion as broader institutional use of onchain settlement systems increased.

Binance CEO Richard Teng said on May 21 that tokenization is nearing a major inflection point as regulation, institutional connectivity, real-world adoption, and market infrastructure begin to align. He added that regulatory frameworks are moving toward operational rules for tokenized finance in 2026, and argued the next 12–18 months could be decisive for how tokenized markets develop.