Zimbabwe Finance Minister Mthuli Ncube issued guidelines requiring crypto businesses offering buying, selling, transfers, or custody to register annually with the Financial Intelligence Unit and pay a 500 fee, with unregistered activity deemed a violation. The move is Zimbabwe’s first dedicated crypto regulatory framework after years of legal uncertainty.

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission has moved to unwind two long-standing pillars of U.S. equity market structure—changes that could make it easier for tokenized U.S. stocks to trade via decentralized finance, though the proposal does not amount to an approval. On June 11, the SEC proposed rescinding Rules 611 and 610(e) of Regulation NMS, in place since 2005, along with related definitions in Rule 600 and other conforming edits. Rule 611 prohibits "trade-throughs," preventing a venue from executing at an inferior price when a better protected quote is available elsewhere. Rule 610(e) restricts trading centers from displaying quotes that lock or cross the national best bid and offer. The proposal will be open for public comment for 60 days after publication in the Federal Register. Market participants say the potential rollback matters for tokenized equities because Reg NMS was built around centralized matching engines and order routing. DeFi liquidity, dominated by automated market makers (AMMs) that price trades via bonding curves and pooled liquidity, does not map neatly onto a protected-quote regime. Galaxy Digital's Alex Thorn has argued the mismatch helps explain why tokenized U.S. equities have struggled to gain traction in DeFi. In his view, AMMs cannot comply with Rule 611 "by construction" because they execute at the pool price with slippage at block-time intervals, without the ability to continuously monitor protected quotes across venues or route orders like traditional brokers. He added that Rule 610(e) can pose similar issues, as AMM prices move with order flow and may lock or cross displayed quotes. If the SEC removes these guardrails, attention could shift toward broker-level best-execution obligations, such as FINRA Rule 5310, which requires brokers to seek the most favorable terms reasonably available for customer orders. Observers say that framework may be more compatible with tokenized markets than a trade-by-trade protected-quote approach. Even so, major hurdles would remain for tokenized stocks, including exchange registration or alternative trading system (ATS) compliance, clearing and settlement logistics, and ensuring tokenized shares carry the full set of investor rights, including dividends and voting. Separately, the SEC has been exploring an innovation exemption that could explicitly allow tokenized public stocks to trade on blockchain platforms, potentially conditioned on tokens providing the same shareholder rights as ordinary shares. Commissioner Hester Peirce has indicated any such relief would likely be narrow, aimed at tokenized versions of existing public equities rather than synthetic instruments that do not confer shareholder rights. The SEC's proposal initiates a rulemaking process rather than authorizing tokenized-stock trading. While it could remove a meaningful market-structure barrier for DeFi-based trading of U.S. equities, the ultimate impact will depend on public feedback, subsequent SEC action, and whether tokenized shares can clear substantial legal and operational requirements.

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit upheld former FTX CEO Sam BankmanFried's 25year sentence and rejected his request for a new trial. The panel affirmed the 2023 New York jury verdict finding him guilty on seven fraud and conspiracy counts, citing overwhelming evidence he knowingly carried out largescale fraud.

A US appeals court has rejected Sam BankmanFried's bid for a new trial in the FTX fraud case, keeping the existing conviction in place. The ruling leaves the current trial outcome unchanged and marks the latest court decision in the ongoing legal proceedings tied to FTX's collapse.

Sam Bankman-Fried has failed in his latest attempt to overturn his fraud conviction and 25-year prison sentence, with his bid denied.

Sam Bankman-Fried has lost his bid to overturn his fraud conviction and 25-year prison sentence, Reuters reported.

Analysts said the SEC proposal to roll back key NMS rules could support tokenized U.S. stocks. BlackRock filed Form 8A for its proposed yieldbearing bitcoin ETF, signaling a near launch, while U.S. spot bitcoin ETFs are set to top $2 trillion in cumulative volume in under 2.5 years. South Korea's finance ministry said tokenized stocks should be treated as securities.

CoinDesk reports that on June 11 the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission proposed amendments to certain rules under Regulation NMS, seeking to remove structural constraints embedded in how U.S. stocks trade. While the effort is aimed at traditional equity markets, market participants say it could also reduce key compliance frictions for tokenized stocks traded onchain. The proposal would rescind two provisions: Rule 611 and Rule 610(e). Rule 610(e) mainly limits cross-market quoting, while Rule 611 requires trading venues to prevent executions at prices worse than other protected quotes. SEC Chair Paul Atkins said the current framework has not reliably improved market efficiency over the last two decades, and has instead contributed to higher trading costs while limiting the evolution of market structure. The SEC argues that rolling back these rules would simplify the market and give competition and innovation more room to shape trading. Galaxy Digital's head of research, Alex Thorn, said Rule 611 has been one of the main obstacles keeping tokenized U.S. equities from being traded within DeFi. He noted that automated market makers (AMMs) execute against pool-based pricing and slippage, which makes it difficult to satisfy traditional "best execution" expectations designed for centralized equity venues. Thorn said that if the SEC ultimately approves the proposal, the scope for tokenized-stock trading via DeFi frontends and onchain liquidity pools could expand materially. In Galaxy's view, the updated approach would better fit AMM-style onchain trading models that the existing rules have struggled to accommodate. Galaxy cautioned that the changes would not resolve the full set of operational and regulatory issues. Even if Rule 611 is repealed, tokenized equities would still face practical hurdles including clearing, settlement, and registration with relevant trading venues. Thorn said these challenges could eventually be addressed through the SEC's so-called "innovation exemption" framework. That initiative was delayed last month after pushback from traditional financial institutions, leaving the timeline uncertain. Tokenized equities continue to scale. The market is currently about $3.5 billion, with monthly transaction volume nearing $5 billion and roughly 357,000 holding addresses. Reported data indicate the segment has grown about 44% over the past month, suggesting that further easing of regulatory constraints could accelerate onchain issuance and trading.