Circle sold 740 million ARC tokens at $0.30 each in a private placement, valuing its upcoming Arc blockchain at $3 billion. The funding round was led by a16z crypto with participation from BlackRock, Apollo Funds, and ARK Invest. The announcement coincided with Circle’s Q1 2026 results, showing USDC circulation hit $77 billion while net income dipped due to post-IPO costs. Circle Internet Group, the issuer of the USDC stablecoin, has...

MicroStrategy has resumed its Bitcoin acquisition strategy, purchasing 535 BTC for approximately $43 million between May 4 and May 10. Chairman Michael Saylor clarified his famous “never sell” mantra, stating the firm’s actual goal is to “never be a net seller” of the digital asset. The company is considering tapping its Bitcoin holdings to fund dividend obligations for its STRC perpetual preferred stock program. ...

Payward Inc. has signed a definitive agreement to acquire Reap Technologies for up to $600 million in a mix of cash and stock. The deal values the Kraken parent company at $20 billion and marks its third major acquisition in a year, totaling over $2.6 billion in spending. Reap’s API-driven infrastructure will be integrated into Payward Services, enabling partners to embed card issuance and stablecoin treasury tools. Payward Inc., the parent...

TrustedVolumes, a prominent market maker and resolver for 1inch Fusion, was exploited for $6.7 million on Thursday. The attacker abused a publicly accessible function to register as an authorized order signer, bypassing traditional security checks. 1inch Network clarified that its core aggregation protocols and user funds remain unaffected by the third-party breach. Liquidity provider TrustedVolumes, a key market maker and resolver utilized...