Crypto Market Update: House Bill Aims to Ban Lawmakers from Crypto Prediction Markets

Bitcoin (BTC) was priced at US$59,269.83, trading 6.9 percent lower over the past 24 hours.

Ether (ETH) was priced at US$1,548.56, trading 12.6 percent lower over the last 24 hours.

Altcoin price update

• XRP (XRP) was priced at US$1.08, trading 8.1 percent lower in 24 hours.

• Solana (SOL) was trading at US$62.90, trading 9.5 percent lower over the past 24 hours.

Today's crypto news to know

House Republicans move to ban lawmakers from betting on prediction markets

Restrictions faced by lawmakers under a bill intended to stop insider stock trading on Capitol Hill should also apply to prediction markets, Representative Bryan Steil signaled on Thursday (June 4).

Steil, who leads the House Administration Committee, told Bloomberg Government that lawmakers plan to add language to the stock ban bill to explicitly cover platforms such as Polymarket and Kalshi.

The underlying legislation, known as HR 7008, would completely ban lawmakers, spouses and dependents from purchasing publicly traded stocks, while requiring them to file public "intent to sell" notices at least seven days before executing sales. Violators face stiff penalties equal to US$2,000 or 10 percent of the investment’s value — whichever is greater — alongside the mandatory forfeiture of any realized gains.

While the current version of the bill cleared committee hurdles in February and sits on the chamber's calendar, it does not explicitly cover digital assets.

Strategy faces US$11.2 billion unrealized Bitcoin loss

Corporate Bitcoin whale Strategy (NASDAQ:MSTR) is facing immense balance sheet pressure as its massive 843,706 BTC treasury position sits on an US$11.2 billion unrealized loss.

With Bitcoin trading near US$62,560, the reserve value has dipped far below the company’s steep US$75,699 average cost basis, which represents a total cost basis of roughly US$63.8 billion. This paper loss does not include a separate US$14.46 billion unrealized loss recorded for the first quarter under FASB fair value accounting rules, which force the company to mark its holdings to market quarterly through its income statement.

Compounding these accounting headaches, Strategy recently ended its famous four year "never sell" streak by liquidating 32 Bitcoin for US$2.5 million to fund dividend distributions on its STRC perpetual preferred stock. The firm's cash reserves have dwindled from US$2.25 billion to US$900 million in just five months, exhausting its capacity to accumulate more Bitcoin while managing US$750 million to US$800 million in annual preferred dividend obligations.

Hut 8 bond sale draws US$17 billion for AI data center

A massive corporate bond sale undertaken by Hut 8 (TSX:HUT,NASDAQ:HUT) has attracted US$17 billion in investor orders. The Canadian Bitcoin miner turned data center operator raised four times the US$4.25 billion it had originally targeted to fund an aggressive infrastructure project in Texas.

Management confirmed the proceeds will support the development of a 352 megawatt data center facility located in Nueces County, Texas. Crucially, the entire high-density facility has been leased out to leading semiconductor chipmaker NVIDIA (NASDAQ:NVDA). The blowout bond execution follows Hut 8’s announcement last month that it had secured a lucrative 15 year lease agreement with a leading US technology firm carrying a total value of US$9.8 billion.

The company's share price has surged 127 percent so far this year to trade at US$116.20.

Hayes liquidates Zcash positions

Maelstrom Fund CIO Arthur Hayes said he liquidated his entire Zcash position after Shielded Labs said a major issue went undetected for four years and could have allowed a hacker to print unlimited counterfeit tokens.

“I just dumped my entire $HYPE and $NEAR position(s), I will explain why in my essay 'Reality Test,' dropping next Tuesday,” Hayes posted to X on Wednesday (June 3). Since the donation-funded Zcash organization broke the news on May 29, the token’s value has fallen by nearly 42 percent. The bug was fixed on June 1.

Banks develop tokenized deposit network

Major US banks JPMorgan Chase (NYSE:JPM), Citigroup (NYSE:C) and Bank of America (NYSE:BAC) will build a shared tokenized deposit network by mid-2027, according to a Wall Street Journal report.

The Clearing House, the payments company collectively owned by the banks, will operate the system.

People familiar with the plans told the Wall Street Journal that the banks plan to convert traditional bank deposits into blockchain-based tokens, with the funds kept inside the regulated banking system.

Coinbase launches pre-IPO futures

Coinbase Global (NASDAQ:COIN) has launched USDC-settled pre-IPO perpetual futures, with SpaceX as the first listing, providing institutional-style exposure to private company valuations. When SpaceX makes its debut, open positions will automatically transition to the SpaceX Perp with no rollover needed.