Digital Asset Raises $355M, Japan Advances Crypto ETF Bill, Hungary Reverses Ban

Crypto News

Digital Asset Holdings secured $355 million in fresh funding led by Andreessen Horowitz’s crypto arm, valuing the firm near $2 billion and underscoring Wall Street’s deepening commitment to permissioned blockchain infrastructure. a16z crypto anchored the round with $100 million, joined by 7RIDGE, the Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, Citadel Securities and Optiver. The capital will scale the Canton Network, a settlement layer built for institutions to tokenize traditional securities while shielding sensitive trade data. Canton has already been piloted by Goldman Sachs, BNY Mellon, BNP Paribas, Standard Chartered, Société Générale and Deutsche Börse, signaling that tokenized settlement is moving from concept toward production-grade banking rails rather than remaining a research experiment.

Hungary moved to decriminalize crypto trading, reversing 2025 rules that attached prison terms to certain crypto-to-fiat and crypto-to-crypto transactions. A government spokesperson said the framework — which required a compliance certificate from an authorized validation provider for every conversion — had frightened market participants and pushed trading activity sharply lower. The restrictions forced platforms including Revolut to suspend services locally and triggered a European Union probe into whether the measures breached bloc rules. Officials called the legislation unnecessary, noting the criminal exposure affected several hundred thousand users. The rollback realigns Hungary with the EU’s broader push toward harmonized, less punitive digital-asset oversight across member states.

Japan’s Lower House reportedly passed a landmark bill that would fold crypto assets into the country’s financial instruments framework, treating tokens more like stocks and bonds. The legislation opens a credible path to spot exchange-traded funds and would slash the top capital-gains tax on assets such as Bitcoin and Ether from as high as 55% to a flat 20%, with the tax change expected in 2028. The measure cleared the Committee on Financial Affairs on June 10 and now heads to the Upper House, with full effect anticipated next year. It marks Japan’s decisive shift from a payments-era regime toward institutional-grade market regulation.

BitMEX launched its 2026 Trading Cup, staking a 200,000 USDT prize pool across four reward tiers as competition among centralized and decentralized exchange (DEX) venues intensifies. Running from June 11 to July 20, the campaign splits participants into two teams chasing volume milestones, while side missions offer up to $15 in trading credits for deposits above $100, referral bonuses and a lucky draw for an iPhone 17. The exchange, which publishes on-chain proof-of-reserves and proof-of-liabilities twice weekly, is leaning on incentives to capture active traders as spot and altcoin liquidity thins during a risk-off market.

The latest round caps a multiyear capital stack that has steadily pulled traditional finance toward on-chain settlement. Digital Asset raised $135 million in June 2025 from backers including DRW Venture Capital, Tradeweb, Citadel Securities, Goldman Sachs and Virtu, then added a $50 million strategic round in December from BNY Mellon, Nasdaq, S&P Global and iCapital. Earlier financings drew JPMorgan, Citi, IBM, Samsung and Salesforce. Unlike permissionless DeFi, Canton targets regulated institutions that demand privacy and compliance, positioning tokenized securities as a parallel track to public-chain experimentation and reinforcing the thesis that banks will adopt settlement rails on their own terms.

Beneath the headline tax cut, Japan’s Financial Services Agency is engineering a structural overhaul. FSA materials indicate crypto-asset transaction rules would migrate from the Payment Services Act to the Financial Instruments and Exchange Act, classifying tokens as financial products distinct from securities. The framework introduces disclosure obligations, insider-trading restrictions, tighter exchange oversight and stiffer penalties for unregistered operators. Issuers conducting offerings or secondary distributions would face formal disclosure requirements, while exchanges must publish details on every asset they list. The redesign aims to protect investors and lure institutional capital, mirroring a global trend toward treating digital assets within established securities-law perimeters rather than improvised payment-era rules.

Taken together, these developments trace a single arc: institutional infrastructure is maturing even as retail sentiment buckles. COINOTAG’s aggregate market data shows the Fear & Greed Index pinned at 12, deep in extreme-fear territory, with Bitcoin dominance elevated at 70.4% and total crypto market capitalization near $1.79 trillion — a backdrop where capital concentrates in majors while speculative appetite drains. The contrast is stark: a16z, Wall Street banks, Tokyo lawmakers and regulators in Budapest are building durable rails precisely as prices sag, with Bitcoin trading around $63,000. History suggests that infrastructure laid during fear, not euphoria, tends to define the next cycle’s winners.