IMF questions Pakistan’s plan to allocate 2,000 megawatts of electricity for Bitcoin mining amid energy shortages and budget talks. The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has raised concerns over Pakistan’s decision to allocate 2,000 megawatts of electricity for Bitcoin mining and artificial intelligence data centers amid ongoing negotiations tied to the country’s extended financial program. The initiative, announced last week, is designed to attract autonomous miners, blockchain companies, and AI firms to Pakistan. However, the IMF has raised red flags about the move, requesting urgent clarification from the Finance Ministry regarding the legality of crypto mining and the power allocations, particularly as the nation struggles with chronic energy shortages and fiscal pressures, according to a report by local news outlets Samaa. Read more
US government argues Coinbase user James Harper has no right to block IRS access to his crypto records in Supreme Court filing. The US government has urged the Supreme Court not to take up a Coinbase user’s challenge against the Internal Revenue Service’s (IRS) effort to obtain his crypto transaction records. In a filing dated May 30, Solicitor General D. John Sauer argued that Coinbase user James Harper has no Fourth Amendment right to shield his financial records held by the exchange. The government claimed that Harper “voluntarily” shared his data with Coinbase, and that the IRS followed proper legal procedures to obtain it through a judicially approved summons. Read more
BlackRock ended its spot Bitcoin ETF inflow streak with its largest outflow on record, nearly $12.7 million more than its previous biggest outflow day. The world’s largest asset manager, BlackRock, has ended its 31-day spot Bitcoin exchange-traded fund (ETF) inflow streak with its biggest recorded outflow day since the product launched in January 2024. On May 30, BlackRock’s iShares Bitcoin Trust (IBIT) ended its significant inflow streak with its largest daily outflow of $430.8 million, according to Farside data. Before this, IBIT’s largest outflow day was on Feb. 26, with $418.1 million in outflows. ETF analyst Nate Geraci said in a May 31 X post, “What a run over the past 30+ days, though.” Geraci highlighted that BlackRock is “now pushing” approximately $70 billion in Bitcoin (BTC) holdings since it launched. “Not sure I have words to describe how ridiculous this is,” Geraci said. Read more
SharpLink Gaming intends to use most of the proceeds from its proposed share sell-off to purchase Ether, according to a recent SEC filing. US sports betting platform SharpLink Gaming has filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to offer up to $1 billion in shares of common stock in an effort to increase the holdings of its newly launched Ether treasury. “We intend to use substantially all of the proceeds from this offering to acquire Ether, the native cryptocurrency of the Ethereum blockchain commonly referred to as “ETH,” SharpLink Gaming said in the May 30 filing. “We also intend to use the proceeds from this offering for working capital needs, general corporate purposes, operating expenses and core affiliate marketing operations,” it said. Read more
REX Shares took a “regulatory end-around” with its Ethereum and Solana staking ETF filings, and the launch looks “imminent,” an ETF analyst says. The first Ethereum and Solana staking exchange-traded funds (ETFs) could debut in the United States within a matter of weeks, following a recent filing by ETF provider REX Shares that used “regulatory workarounds,” according to ETF analysts. The staking component has been highly anticipated for spot Ether (ETH) ETFs since their launch in July 2024, with some industry executives arguing the product feels incomplete without it. “These ETFs are structured as c-corps. Which is very rare in the ETF world,” ETF analyst James Seyffart said of the REX Shares filing in a May 30 X post. Read more
ETH holds on to the bulk of its weekly gains, while BTC and altcoins sell off. Key takeaways: Ethereum network fundamentals improve alongside its resilient ETH futures markets. An increase in layer-2 transactions highlights ecosystem growth. Read more