Luno CEO James Lanigan said South Africa's proposed Capital Flow Management Regulations could weaken the country's competitiveness by constraining stablecoin use and cross-border payments. He pointed to Bloomberg figures showing stablecoins handled $33 trillion in 2025 payments and blockchain transfers, warning restrictive wording could keep local businesses from accessing that market. The National Treasury and SARB extended the public comment deadline from May 18 to June 30, 2026, and plan to publish a draft manual defining what counts as a cross-border crypto transaction.

UAE-based ASK Group and U.S. blockchain firm Keeta have formed a joint venture to build a public exchange that turns commodities such as oil, gold, silver and copper into fractional tokens, with a planned launch by 2027. The project targets 1-to-1 reserve backing with audited holdings, 400-millisecond settlement, and on-chain proof of reserves, while also positioning Keeta's Layer 1 network for cross-border remittances.

Nigeria's Senate advanced a cryptocurrency regulation bill through a second reading on June 9, sending it to the Senate Committee on Capital Market for a four-week review and public hearing. The proposal would require licensing for crypto exchanges and add investor-protection measures alongside tighter oversight aimed at money laundering and terrorism financing. Lawmakers and industry voices said the lack of clear rules has increased exposure to fraud and other illicit activity.

Bitcoin moved back above $62,000 on Wednesday after sliding to an intraday low of $60,679, briefly reaching just under $62,800 before easing. The rebound lifted bitcoin's market cap to $1.24 trillion and helped push total crypto market value to $2.21 trillion, while about $94 million in leveraged BTC positions were liquidated over 24 hours.

Botanix said it will wind down its Bitcoin layer-two network after four years, with mainnet operations expected to stop this summer. Users have until July 9, 2026 to withdraw bitcoin and other assets from Spiderchain, after which remaining balances will be swept by the federation and become unrecoverable. The team cited insufficient fee income versus infrastructure costs and a market shift toward more convenient, centralized venues.

Bitcoin slipped under $61,000 on Tuesday before rebounding to around $61,700, a 2.9% daily decline that pushed its market cap from $1.27 trillion to about $1.24 trillion. The move sparked $467.5 million in crypto liquidations, including $104 million in BTC longs and nearly $27 million in BTC shorts. Glassnode said the reset left more than 8 million bitcoin held at unrealized losses.

Bitcoin moved back above $64,000 on June 8 after a multi-day slide that had pushed it below $60,000. The rebound lifted bitcoin's market cap to $1.27 trillion and helped raise the total crypto market cap to $2.26 trillion, while derivatives liquidations hit $282.5 million in BTC and $611 million across the market.

BitMEX Group CEO Stephan Lutz said the Oct. 10, 2025 cascading liquidations functioned as a stress test that highlighted systemic risk created by fragmented liquidity and collateral across crypto venues. He argued that while regulation and frameworks such as MiFID II can provide clarity, derivatives flow will ultimately concentrate where liquidity, execution quality, and infrastructure reliability hold up under peak load.

Travala said it launched its Travala Travel MCP on June 5, enabling autonomous software agents to search, book, and pay for stays across more than 2.2 million hotels, with users authorizing only the final payment. The Base-built system supports gasless USDC payments via x402 with settlement costs of about 1 cent per booking, and offers developers a programmatic 10% cbBTC rebate for agent-executed bookings. Travala also said it will extend the protocol beyond hotels to additional travel products, including flights.