This week sent crypto in two different directions. Regulation in the U.S. is no longer neutral – the White House and CFTC are clearing prediction markets for structures linked to the Trump family, while Europe and Asia are closing those same platforms. Meanwhile, traditional finance is integrating crypto into its domain quietly and steadily: banking licenses, stock indices, spot ETFs, acquisitions in Asian exchanges. Prediction Markets in the U.S. According to the New York Times, acting chair of the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) Caroline Pham and legal counsel Bridget Vails guided Polymarket, Crypto.com, and Gemini through license approvals outside standard procedures. Later, Vails joined Gemini Titan. On May 28, Trump publicly affirmed the CFTC's exclusive jurisdiction over the sector. On the same day, CFTC and Gemini filed a motion to lift 2025 sanctions – the Winklevoss founders finance Trump's companies. Meanwhile, Spain blocked Polymarket and Kalshi on May 27 with a criminal case, and Indonesia shut down Polymarket after bets on the president's resignation. Traditional Finance On May 28, Mastercard received a BitLicense in New York — the third company to receive this license in 2026 — and expanded its network to over 100 crypto services, including Binance, Circle, and Ripple. On May 29, Samsung purchased 4% of exchange owner Upbit — Dunamu — for $408 million, and OKX along with Korea Investment acquired 20% each of the Coinone exchange for $53 million each. Sanctions, Payments, and Recovery of Stolen Funds On May 27, the UK imposed sanctions against the HTX exchange for supporting Russia – the platform is linked to the issuer of the ruble stablecoin A7A5, which, according to Chainalysis, accounted for $72 billion in illegal transfers in 2025. HTX's assets under UK jurisdiction were blocked, and local companies are prohibited from processing its payments. Legal consultant and auditor FTX — Fenwick & West and Prager Metis — agreed on May 25 to pay $66 million for helping conceal the withdrawal of client funds to Alameda. Kelp DAO fully restored rsETH on May 26 after a $196 million hack by Lazarus, which had reduced the protocol's TVL from $26.4 billion to $13.9 billion.