Circle to Mint 250 Million USDC on Solana

June 11 — South Korean police have identified Lee Jae-won, CEO of cryptocurrency exchange Bithumb, as a suspect in a bribery case tied to the hiring of the son of South Korean National Assembly member Kim Byung-kee by Bithumb. The Seoul Metropolitan Police Department’s Public Crime Investigation Team is probing Lee and Bithumb over the hiring allegations. According to reports, police secured a statement from a former aide of Kim’s, who claimed Kim requested Lee hire his second son in November 2024. The son joined Bithumb two months later and worked there for six months. Kim also allegedly pushed Bithumb to hire another aide, who joined the exchange last September and remains employed there. Investigators believe Kim, as a member of the National Assembly’s Financial Affairs Committee, took legislative action against Dunamu — the company behind Bithumb rival Upbit — including raising concerns about Upbit’s market monopoly. This development follows months of police scrutiny into Kim’s

On June 11, cryptocurrency analyst Ali Charts shared that Bitcoin is on the verge of a breakout. Right now, all eyes are on the symmetrical triangle pattern forming for BTC, with resistance pegged at $63,000 and support sitting at $61,000. This range will dictate where its price moves next. If BTC manages to close convincingly outside this range on the hourly chart, a momentum-fueled swing could spark a roughly 10% price expansion. It’s critical to keep a close eye on volume shifts near the range’s boundaries to catch early signals of a sustained breakout.

**Bernstein: 2026 FIFA World Cup to Drive Record Growth for Global Prediction Markets, Benefit DraftKings, Robinhood, Coinbase** June 11 — A Bernstein Research analyst says the 2026 FIFA World Cup, kicking off today across North America, will serve as the single biggest growth catalyst the prediction market industry has ever seen. The firm projects the tournament will add over $30 billion in incremental trading volume for global prediction markets, while lifting consumer prediction trading activity between $50 billion and $100 billion. Featuring an expanded field of 48 teams, the World Cup will include 104 matches — roughly a 60% jump from a standard World Cup edition. Bernstein adds the 2026 tournament could prove prediction markets have permanently outgrown their reliance on election cycles and niche political contracts. Earlier forecasts from the firm called for annual prediction market trading volume to rise from $51 billion in 2025 to $1 trillion by 2030, with 2026’s total

On June 11, official sources announced that Binance has fully launched its Full-Asset Securities Lending (FASL) service, enabling users to earn passive income by lending out their securities. FASL is a widely adopted securities lending mechanism in traditional financial markets, usually facilitated by brokers or custodians. It allows investors to lend their idle securities to institutions that need them for short selling, arbitrage, or market making.

June 11 — XBIT DEX has officially launched its leveraged prediction market feature, making it the first platform to support up to 5x leverage for high-liquidity market trading, per an official announcement from the decentralized exchange. Concurrently, XBIT has rolled out a World Cup event with a total prize pool of 1.1 million USDC, covering matches from the tournament’s opening game all the way through the final on July 19. Platform metrics show the first prediction market — for the matchup between Mexico and South Africa — is now open. Current market forecasts put Mexico’s win rate at approximately 69%, a draw at 21%, and South Africa’s at 11%. This prediction market includes multiple betting categories, such as win/loss results, handicaps, total scores, exact scores, and corner kicks. The event encompasses 48 teams and a total of 104 matches. Users can earn prediction tickets via contract trading or prediction market trading to enter daily featured match predictions. Those who m

On June 11, data from Onchain Lens shows BlackRock deposited 2,100 BTC (worth about $132 million) and 12,679 ETH (valued at roughly $21 million) into Binance, and could make more such deposits in the future.