Morning Report | Korea Investment & Securities and OKX plan to jointly acquire 40% of Coinone; Polymarket denies implementing KYC comprehensively; Grayscale delays U.S. stock IPO plans

Compiled by: ChainCatcher

Important News:

• Samsung Securities will invest approximately $204 million to acquire 2% of Upbit's parent company Dunamu
• Polymarket denies implementing KYC universally, only requiring some users to verify for the beta product
• Korea Investment & Securities and OKX plan to jointly acquire 40% of Coinone, with a total amount possibly exceeding $300 million
• Grayscale postpones US IPO plans, will reassess at least until the fourth quarter
• Yi Lihua: After the rebound ends, will prepare to bottom fish for a new round of market, and increase AI investment research
• Aztec Labs acquires Obsidion, the company behind the privacy identity tool ZKPassport

What important events have occurred in the past 24 hours?

Yi Lihua: After the rebound ends, will prepare to bottom fish for a new round of market, and increase AI investment research

According to ChainCatcher, Liquid Capital founder Yi Lihua stated on the X platform that in the last cycle, "I got it right eight times and wrong once," but the cost of a single mistake was significant, although the related losses mainly belong to previous profit withdrawals.

Yi Lihua indicated that after the current rebound ends, he will fully prepare to bottom fish for a new round of market, while dedicating more than half of his time and energy to AI stocks and AI investment research, stating, "Optimists always choose to believe in trends; only by believing can one avoid panicking at crypto lows and AI highs."

Sequans completes Bitcoin reserve liquidation, shifting focus to IoT semiconductor business

According to ChainCatcher, Sequans Communications, a publicly listed company in Paris, announced the completion of all convertible debt redemptions related to Bitcoin reserves, having sold approximately 80% of its Bitcoin holdings to repay debts, with only 658 BTC remaining and all restrictions lifted.

CEO Georges Karam stated that this move marks a strengthening of the company's balance sheet and simplification of its capital structure, with a future focus on scaling 4G/5G IoT semiconductors, RF transceivers, and defense wireless applications.

Insider trading cases in prediction markets reported by Polymarket

According to ChainCatcher, the U.S. Department of Justice recently indicted Google software engineer Michele Spagnuolo, accusing him of using confidential internal information to trade in prediction markets on Polymarket, illegally profiting approximately $1.2 million.

Polymarket stated on the X platform that Michele Spagnuolo's insider trading behavior had long been flagged by its market integrity system, and Polymarket proactively reported it to the authorities, ultimately leading to Michele Spagnuolo's successful arrest. Polymarket noted that the two insider trading cases resulting in arrests in the prediction market originated from criminal reports made by the platform.

Another individual arrested by the U.S. Department of Justice for insider trading in prediction markets is Gannon Ken Van Dyke, who profited over $409,000 in prediction markets using insider information as a participant in the U.S. military's operation to capture Maduro, and was arrested on April 23.

Grayscale postpones US IPO plans, will reassess at least until the fourth quarter

According to ChainCatcher, as reported by CoinDesk, digital asset management company Grayscale has suspended its preparations for a public listing in the U.S. due to the current unfavorable market environment, expecting to restart the relevant process no earlier than the fourth quarter of this year. Grayscale, which belongs to DCG, is the issuer of several crypto investment products, including the Bitcoin spot ETF GBTC.

2026 was originally seen as a peak year for crypto company IPOs, but with declining trading volumes and underwhelming performances from new listings like BitGo, companies such as Kraken's parent company Payward, ConsenSys, and Ledger have also chosen to delay their listing plans. Meanwhile, Blockchain.com is still advancing its IPO application in the U.S.

Korea Investment & Securities and OKX plan to jointly acquire 40% of Coinone, with a total amount possibly exceeding $300 million

According to ChainCatcher, Korea Investment & Securities will sign an agreement with OKX on May 29 to each acquire 20% of the South Korean cryptocurrency exchange Coinone, totaling a 40% acquisition.

Reports indicate that the total transaction amount is expected to be between 500 billion to 600 billion Korean won (approximately $332 million to $398 million), primarily completed through new stock issuance, with the existing major shareholders' management rights remaining unchanged.

Korea Investment & Securities stated that it will promote token securities issuance and circulation, corporate client expansion, and large-scale brokerage of digital assets based on this acquisition.

Futu and Long Bridge clean up accounts opened with false documentation and empty accounts

According to ChainCatcher, as reported by Yicai, Futu and Long Bridge have recently cleaned up accounts that were opened using false documentation and empty accounts with no assets or holdings, processing account closures for both types.

At the same time, the Futu NiuNiu app has added a quick entry for "Update Identity Information" in the "Account" section, along with a "Notice on Updating Identity Information," reminding customers that if they hold valid foreign identification, account trading, fund deposits, and withdrawals will not be affected after the information update is completed.

Polymarket denies implementing KYC universally, only requiring some users to verify for the beta product

According to ChainCatcher, in response to The Information's report that "Polymarket plans to require users to complete KYC due to compliance pressure," Polymarket's Vice President of Engineering Josh Stevens stated that the report is not true.

Josh Stevens indicated that Polymarket is currently testing a new beta product that only requires some trial users to complete KYC verification during the testing period, and the existing Polymarket website has not added any KYC requirements.

He further stated that after the testing of the beta product ends, users will no longer need KYC to use it.

Samsung Securities will invest approximately $204 million to acquire 2% of Upbit's parent company Dunamu

According to ChainCatcher, as reported by Yonhap News Agency, Samsung Securities has resolved through its board of directors to acquire 2% of Dunamu for 306.3 billion won (approximately $204 million), about 697,000 shares, at an acquisition price of approximately 439,000 won per share. The sellers include Kakao Investment, Kakao Ventures, Kakao Youth Entrepreneurship Fund, and KIF-Kakao Yuanta Bank Technology Financial Investment Fund. Based on this estimate, Dunamu's overall valuation is approximately 15.3 trillion won (about $10.2 billion).

Samsung Securities stated that this investment aims to enhance the competitiveness of its digital asset business and expand synergies. Previously, Hanwha Investment & Securities also acquired Dunamu shares held by Kakao Investment at the same valuation.

Standard Chartered compares Ethereum to Amazon during the 2001 internet bubble burst, bullish on ETH until 2030

According to ChainCatcher, as reported by The Block, Standard Chartered Bank believes that the recent sharp drop in ETH prices does not reflect the ongoing improvement in Ethereum network internal metrics, comparing it to Amazon's phase after the 2001 tech bubble burst. The bank maintains its price targets for ETH: $4,000 by the end of 2026 and $40,000 by the end of 2030, and expects the ETH/BTC exchange rate to rebound to about 0.08 by the end of this decade.

The bank stated that Ethereum dominates the stablecoin and RWA (real-world asset tokenization) sectors, predicting that by 2028, the market value of both stablecoins and non-stablecoin RWAs could increase to about $2 trillion, driving Ethereum's trading volume and TVL to new highs, thus boosting ETH prices.

VanEck launches the first spot BNB ETF in the U.S., VBNB
According to ChainCatcher, as reported by The Block, asset management company VanEck officially launched the VanEck BNB ETF (ticker: VBNB) on Thursday, becoming the first exchange-traded product in the U.S. to provide spot exposure to BNB. VBNB is backed by physical BNB held in a cold wallet at Anchorage Digital Bank, with a management fee rate of 0.39%, and does not currently support staking.

The White House initiates review of CFTC's prediction market rule-making

According to ChainCatcher, as reported by The Block, the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs (OIRA) under the U.S. Office of Management and Budget stated on its website that it has received proposed rules for prediction markets submitted by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) and is currently under review. A CFTC spokesperson stated that more information will be released after the OIRA review is completed.

CFTC Chairman Michael Selig has consistently argued that prediction markets fall under the "exclusive jurisdiction" of his agency and has filed lawsuits against five states, including Wisconsin, Illinois, Arizona, Connecticut, and New York. Trump publicly supported Selig on Tuesday, stating that the CFTC's exclusive jurisdiction over prediction markets is "crucial."
Aztec Labs acquires Obsidion, the company behind the privacy identity tool ZKPassport

According to ChainCatcher, as reported by The Block, Aztec Labs has acquired Obsidion, the company behind the open-source privacy identity verification tool ZKPassport. Co-founders Michael Elliot and Theo Madzou and their team will join Aztec Labs to continue developing ZKPassport and related applications.

Aztec Labs is building the Ethereum privacy layer 2 network Aztec Network, having raised approximately $60 million worth of ETH through the AZTEC token sale last year, and previously secured about $125 million in venture capital.

ZKPassport allows users to read passports or government documents via mobile NFC, generating cryptographic signatures locally for verifying age, nationality, and "real identity" without exposing full privacy. It has been used for ticketing at the Devconnect conference and for compliance identity verification in the Aztec community token sale. Aztec stated it will continue to keep the ZKPassport protocol and iOS application open source.

Spain temporarily bans Polymarket and Kalshi, investigation may last for months

According to ChainCatcher, the Gambling Regulatory Authority (DGOJ) under Spain's Ministry of Consumer Affairs has requested internet service providers to temporarily ban the prediction market platforms Polymarket and Kalshi.

The regulatory body believes that both platforms may violate local gambling laws by offering prediction trading products based on future event outcomes to local users without obtaining gambling licenses in Spain. The Spanish authorities stated that unlicensed platforms lack necessary consumer protection measures such as identity verification, minor protection, and self-restriction mechanisms.

Reports indicate that the investigation is expected to last 3 to 4 months. During the investigation, Spanish users will receive risk warnings when accessing the relevant websites. The regulatory authorities may subsequently impose fines, permanent restrictions, or require applications for local licenses.

Strive's SATA raises enough funds this week to purchase 798 Bitcoins
According to ChainCatcher, Bitcoin Treasuries.NET stated on the X platform that Strive's SATA has raised enough funds today to purchase 396 Bitcoins, exceeding the previous weekly record in just two trading days, with a total fundraising scale this week sufficient to purchase 798 Bitcoins and still increasing.
Cash App supports USDC stablecoin transactions on Ethereum and other networks
According to ChainCatcher, Block's payment application Cash App has enabled users to send and receive USDC stablecoins issued by Circle on Ethereum, Solana, Polygon, and Arbitrum, with no fees currently charged for these transfers.

The stablecoins received by Cash App will be automatically converted to a dollar balance. This feature is not currently available to customers in New York State, and users must complete identity verification and are subject to transaction limits.

Block has previously focused on Bitcoin, including developing mining hardware and the self-custody wallet BitKey; Jack Dorsey stated earlier this year that stablecoins represent "a shift from one gatekeeper to another," while acknowledging the growing customer demand.

Meme Popularity Rankings

According to the meme token tracking and analysis platform GMGN, as of May 29, 09:00,

The top five popular tokens on ETH in the past 24 hours are: HEX, SHIB, LINK, PEPE, mUSD

The top five popular tokens on Solana in the past 24 hours are: TROLL, swarms, SAOS, WORLDCUP, neet

The top five popular tokens on Base in the past 24 hours are: toby, ODOS, ELSA, BNKR, SKI

What are some interesting articles worth reading in the past 24 hours?

Hash Global Founder: Why I also chose to liquidate all my ETH?

The regulatory clarity brought by the CLARITY Act can certainly repair ETH's compliance discount, but this does not equate to granting it a monetary premium similar to gold or BTC. The core positioning of ETH remains as on-chain financial infrastructure, and its long-term valuation should revert to fundamentals such as network revenue, ecological activity, and value capture, rather than blindly applying the grand narrative of global reserve assets.

Tokenized U.S. stocks duel: Ondo vs. xStocks, who is defining on-chain Nasdaq?

In recent years, the RWA boom has quietly made tokenized U.S. stocks the forefront experiment connecting traditional finance and blockchain. It allows popular stocks like Apple, Nvidia, and Tesla, as well as popular ETFs like SPY and QQQ, to achieve 1:1 physical anchoring through blockchain, enabling non-U.S. investors to trade 24/7 with instant settlement, seamlessly integrating these assets into DeFi lending, DEX trading, and cross-chain liquidity pools.

Ondo and xStocks (issued by Backed Finance, later deeply acquired and integrated by Kraken) are the absolute duopoly in this track, representing two complementary yet distinct paths, together pushing tokenized stocks from the experimental stage to a multi-billion dollar mainstream narrative.

The end of regulatory arbitrage era, a comparison of the value of crypto exchange licenses

Over the past decade, the expansion logic of cryptocurrency exchanges has been "first users, then compliance." However, this logic has been completely reversed in 2026, and now, what truly makes a difference is the compliance dividends brought by licenses.

As the era of regulatory arbitrage comes to an end, how will Binance, OKX, Bitget, Bybit, and Gate compete for entry tickets in the next round of landscape with vastly different strategies?

Six major accusations from an Ethereum developer

When you don't want to blame those who have made Ethereum what it is today, you say, "ETH has gotten the market cap it deserves." But the reason this cap is what it is now is behind specific people, specific dates, and not some vague coordination theory.

Before making accusations, let me make a statement. As an early financing participant, I am still developing on Ethereum. I respect its vision and liquidity.

At the same time, I am also a disgruntled holder stuck with my coins, and that is the point: this is an insider speaking the truth, not a Solana shill throwing stones from the sidelines.

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