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28 May 2026, 12:50
New Zealand Budget 2026: Government Forecasts 2.3% GDP Growth for 2026/27
BitcoinWorld New Zealand Budget 2026: Government Forecasts 2.3% GDP Growth for 2026/27 New Zealand’s Treasury has released the government’s 2026 budget, forecasting a GDP growth rate of 2.3% for the 2026/27 fiscal year. The projection, outlined in the budget documents tabled in Parliament today, reflects the government’s cautious optimism about the nation’s economic trajectory amid persistent global headwinds and domestic fiscal pressures. Budget Forecasts and Economic Context The 2.3% growth forecast for 2026/27 marks a moderate acceleration from the estimated 1.8% growth in the current fiscal year. Treasury officials attribute the expected uptick to easing inflation, a recovery in household consumption, and a gradual improvement in business investment. However, they also note that the outlook remains subject to significant risks, including global trade tensions, geopolitical instability, and the lingering effects of tight monetary policy. The budget also outlines a narrowing fiscal deficit, with the government projecting a return to surplus by 2028/29, contingent on sustained revenue growth and disciplined spending. Key spending priorities include healthcare, infrastructure, and climate resilience, reflecting the government’s stated focus on long-term productivity and social wellbeing. Key Spending Allocations and Policy Measures Major allocations in the 2026 budget include an additional NZ$3.2 billion for the public health system, aimed at reducing waiting times and expanding mental health services. Infrastructure spending is set to rise by 12%, with a focus on transport, housing, and renewable energy projects. The government has also committed NZ$1.5 billion to flood protection and climate adaptation measures, following the severe weather events of recent years. On the revenue side, the budget introduces no major tax changes but confirms the continuation of the temporary cost-of-living support payments, which are set to phase out by mid-2027. Treasury estimates that these payments have helped cushion household budgets but have also contributed to fiscal pressure. Implications for Businesses and Households For businesses, the 2.3% growth forecast signals a modestly improving demand environment, though many firms continue to face high borrowing costs and labor shortages. The budget includes targeted support for small and medium-sized enterprises, including extended access to digital skills training and a small business loan guarantee scheme. For households, the outlook remains mixed. While inflation is expected to moderate to around 2.5% by late 2026, mortgage rates are projected to stay elevated, keeping pressure on household budgets. The government has emphasized that its fiscal strategy is designed to avoid adding to inflationary pressures while supporting the most vulnerable. Conclusion New Zealand’s 2026 budget presents a measured economic forecast, with 2.3% GDP growth for 2026/27 as a central projection. While the outlook is cautiously positive, the budget acknowledges significant uncertainties. The government’s spending priorities reflect a balance between supporting recovery and maintaining fiscal discipline. The coming months will reveal whether these projections hold as global and domestic conditions evolve. FAQs Q1: What is the GDP growth forecast for New Zealand in 2026/27? The New Zealand Treasury forecasts GDP growth of 2.3% for the 2026/27 fiscal year, as outlined in the 2026 budget. Q2: When will New Zealand’s budget return to surplus? The budget projects a return to fiscal surplus by 2028/29, assuming sustained revenue growth and controlled spending. Q3: What are the main spending priorities in the 2026 budget? Key spending areas include healthcare (NZ$3.2 billion), infrastructure (12% increase), and climate resilience (NZ$1.5 billion for flood protection and adaptation). This post New Zealand Budget 2026: Government Forecasts 2.3% GDP Growth for 2026/27 first appeared on BitcoinWorld .
28 May 2026, 12:40
DTCC to Integrate Tokenized Assets on Stellar XLM
The Depository Trust & Clearing Corporation (DTCC), a Wall Street central clearinghouse that processes $2.5 quadrillion in securities transactions annually, announced plans Wednesday to connect its tokenized securities platform to the Stellar network by the first half of 2027. This is the first time DTC-custodied securities will live on a public chain. This will also bring the core of U.S. market infrastructure onto an open ledger, and to do it under an SEC no-action letter that covers Russell 1000 stocks, ETFs, and U.S. Treasuries. Today, @The_DTCC and SDF are announcing plans to enable the tokenization of DTC-custodied assets on Stellar. The connection supports the rapid conversion of traditional assets into tokenized form, and the full asset lifecycle, including corporate actions and reporting. pic.twitter.com/jSBbtA6Dzx — Stellar (@StellarOrg) May 27, 2026 Discover: The Best Crypto to Diversify Your Portfolio DTCC-Stellar Integration Mechanism DTCC’s Depository Trust Company retains the authoritative legal record, or the so-called “golden record,” while Stellar hosts a synchronized on-chain representation of the same asset. The blockchain token functions as a mirrored record. This embedded in the SEC’s December 2025 no-action letter, is what makes broker-dealer and ATS integration legally tractable. The integration will support issuance, settlement, and lifecycle management of blockchain-based versions of traditional securities, with explicit plans to extend into highly liquid assets, including major indices and U.S. Treasury debt instruments. Post-trade settlement on Stellar compresses the timeline from T+1 to near-instantaneous finality, freeing collateral, reducing counterparty exposure, and enabling markets to operate outside standard trading hours. DTCC is not stopping at Stellar. Nadine Chakar, DTCC’s global head of digital assets, confirmed the firm plans to connect to “multiple layer-1 and layer-2 networks,” framing Stellar as the first node in a deliberate multi-chain strategy. DTCC and the Stellar Development Foundation announced today plans to enable the tokenization of DTC‑custodied assets on the @StellarOrg network. This collaboration advances DTCC’s multi chain strategy and expands how traditional assets move across digital ecosystems.… pic.twitter.com/bdeX0JmDGY — DTCC (@The_DTCC) May 27, 2026 Chakar also noted that Stellar is first because of its compliance-oriented design, built-in asset clawback and restricted transfer features, and an established track record with regulated institutions, including MoneyGram and Circle’s USDC. The RWA tokenization narrative has been building for two years. What has been missing is a systemically important institution putting its own custodied inventory on a public chain under a regulatory framework that holds. Frank La Salla, DTCC’s President and CEO, stated the collaboration “represents another step forward in DTCC’s efforts to build an open, interoperable digital infrastructure that bridges traditional and digital markets.” Discover: The Best Token Presales Sets in Motion for Market Structure The immediate forward pressure is on competing CCPs and central securities depositories globally. If DTCC’s model produces clean outcomes through 2027, the blueprint becomes exportable. Other market infrastructures watching regulatory outcomes in the U.S. will face direct institutional pressure to replicate or fall behind. RIPPLE PARTNER SECURITIZE JUST POSTED THIS: „TOKENIZATION IS GOING TO ALLOW US TO DO IS GO 24 BY 7, 365 VIA THE INTERNET, DISTRIBUTED EVERYWHERE IN THE WORLD. MOVE CAPITAL AS YOU & I SLEEP – WE‘RE GOING TO HAVE TO CHANGE THE TECHNOLOGY!“ pic.twitter.com/gCeTzXJ0zP — 𝓐𝓶𝓮𝓵𝓲𝓮 (@_Crypto_Barbie) May 26, 2026 Analysts expect DTCC to run additional pilots testing intraday tokenized settlement, corporate actions processing, and cross-chain interoperability between Stellar and permissioned ledgers before expanding the eligible asset set. The legislative environment around digital asset infrastructure will determine how quickly this expansion happens. Tens of billions in Treasuries and money-market fund shares are already tokenized across siloed platforms. DTCC bringing its own custodial inventory on-chain collapses the distance between pilot-scale tokenization and core market plumbing. Discover: The Best Crypto to Diversify Your Portfolio The post DTCC to Integrate Tokenized Assets on Stellar XLM appeared first on Cryptonews .
28 May 2026, 12:00
Strive Deepens Bitcoin Bet With Fresh 1,109 BTC Purchase
Jeff Walton thinks the idea is almost too simple. The chief risk officer at Strive Asset Management said this week that Bitcoin-backed securities could reshape how people think about money and credit — and that skepticism around the sector partly stems from how straightforward the concept seems. A Growing Class Of Yield-Bearing Products Strive is not alone in betting on that idea. The Dallas-based firm has joined a field of companies issuing preferred securities tied to Bitcoin treasury holdings, a category that issuers are calling “digital credit.” Strategy , the world’s largest corporate Bitcoin holder, offers four such products: STRC, STRD, STRF, and STRK, with STRC emerging as the dominant instrument since its launch in July 2025. Strive’s own entry into that space, its SATA preferred shares, carries a 13% annualized dividend rate and was described by the company as the first listed US security structured to pay dividends every business day. The firm recently cleared all outstanding debt and announced that daily dividend payments on SATA would begin in June. SATA’s market capitalization currently sits at around $332 million, a fraction of STRC’s more than $10 billion. Strive Climbs The Bitcoin Treasury Rankings The fresh purchase puts Strive at 16,500 BTC total, according to a Securities and Exchange Commission filing covering the period of May 19 to 22. At current valuations, that positions the firm seventh among public companies holding Bitcoin on their balance sheets, with roughly $1.3 billion in BTC. The company also reported about $93 million in cash and cash equivalents as of May 22, along with approximately $50.1 million in fair value tied to its holdings of Strategy’s STRC product. Strive also grew its Class A common shares outstanding by more than 2 million during the period, while SATA preferred share count rose by about 515,000, reflecting continued use of equity-linked financing to fund Bitcoin acquisitions. The company said it is evaluating refreshed at-the-market stock sale programs that could support further purchases. The Broader Digital Credit Push STRC recorded a single-day trading volume of $1.53 billion earlier this month, a record for the product. Strategy chairman Michael Saylor called STRC the company’s main vehicle for funding Bitcoin purchases in 2026, and shareholders are set to vote soon on a proposal to shift dividend payments to twice monthly. Strive was founded by Vivek Ramaswamy, who ran for US president before pivoting to a Republican gubernatorial campaign in Ohio. Featured image from Getty Images, chart from TradingView
28 May 2026, 11:31
Lummis Warns of ‘Regulatory Dark Ages’ if CLARITY Act Stalls This Session
Senator Cynthia Lummis posted a stark warning on X this week: if the CLARITY Act fails to clear Congress in this session, American software developers will face prosecution simply for publishing code. She called the scenario a descent into ‘regulatory dark ages’, a direct indictment of the SEC’s regulation-by-enforcement posture that has defined U.S. crypto policy for the past three years. The stakes, in Lummis’s framing, are not abstract: this is the last realistic legislative window until at least 2030. If the Clarity Act doesn't pass this Congress, American software developers will be targeted again for prosecution in the near future just for publishing code. These are the stakes. — Senator Cynthia Lummis (@SenLummis) May 27, 2026 The Senate Banking Committee passed the CLARITY Act last week, but floor passage is a different calculation entirely. Crypto advocacy groups have been running an all-out lobbying campaign to sustain momentum, arguing that the bill represents the industry’s only near-term path to a defined market structure framework. Without it, the SEC’s case-by-case Howey Test application to digital assets continues unchallenged. Discover: The Best Crypto to Diversify Your Portfolio What the CLARITY Act Would Actually Change, and Why the SEC’s Current Approach Is the Baseline Risk The CLARITY Act’s core function is jurisdictional clarity. It would formally define ancillary assets , the category covering most altcoins, and establish which digital tokens linked to investment contracts are not securities, resolving the ambiguity the SEC has exploited to pursue enforcement actions without formal rulemaking. The bill would require the SEC to create Regulation DA , exempting certain ancillary-asset offerings from full registration if they raise $75 million or less over 4 years. Beyond registration thresholds, the legislation would direct the SEC to modernize its investment contract definitions and set examination standards targeting illicit finance, replacing informal supervisory pressure and guidance letters with binding rulemaking. Photo: Senator Cynthia Lummis That shift matters because the current framework gives the SEC discretion to threaten enforcement without triggering the procedural protections that formal rules would require. It also addresses stablecoins through 1:1 reserve mandates, a provision Lummis frames as critical to preserving the digital dollar’s credibility internationally. The CLARITY Act’s market structure provisions would split oversight between the SEC and CFTC based on asset classification, the same architecture that traditional finance already operates under. Lummis has argued that the absence of this framework is directly accelerating capital flight to offshore hubs in the UAE and Hong Kong, where institutional players can operate under defined rules. The SEC’s continued reliance on enforcement as policy is not a neutral holding position. It is actively reshaping where crypto infrastructure gets built. Discover: The Best Token Presales The post Lummis Warns of ‘Regulatory Dark Ages’ if CLARITY Act Stalls This Session appeared first on Cryptonews .
28 May 2026, 11:30
Strive Buys 1,109 Bitcoin as Treasury Rises to 16,500 BTC
Strive bought 1,109 bitcoin last week, raising its total holdings to 16,500 BTC and strengthening its place among major public corporate holders. The company is also reviewing new capital-raising tools as it prepares to expand its bitcoin-linked treasury strategy. ASST Climbs 133% as Strive Expands Bitcoin Treasury With $85M Addition Strive has added over 1,000
28 May 2026, 11:16
Google Engineer Arrested For Using Company’s Own Search Data To Win $1.2 Million On Polymarket
A Google information security engineer has been arrested and charged with commodities fraud, wire fraud, and money laundering after allegedly using confidential internal company data to place a series of bets on Polymarket — the crypto-based prediction market platform — winning approximately $1.2 million by knowing the outcomes of his wagers before the trading public did. The US Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York unsealed the complaint against Michele Spagnuolo, 36 — also known by his Polymarket account alias “AlphaRaccoon” — on May 27, 2026. Spagnuolo, an Italian citizen residing in Switzerland, was arrested in New York and appeared before US Magistrate Judge Sarah Netburn, where he was released on a $2.25 million bond secured by $1 million in cash, per the DOJ’s official statement. He did not enter a plea. How The Scheme Worked According to the unsealed complaint , Spagnuolo had access to an internal Google software tool — bearing a banner marked “Google Confidential” in red text — that provided real-time visibility into what users were searching across Google’s platform, including data that fed directly into Google’s annual “Year in Search” rankings, per the DOJ filing. Beginning in May 2024, Spagnuolo created a Polymarket account and began placing bets on contracts tied to which individuals would rank on Google’s most-searched list for 2025 — markets Polymarket launched last fall, per the complaint. Prosecutors allege Spagnuolo transferred approximately $3.8 million in USDC to his Polymarket address and placed bets including a $381.12 “yes” wager that the artist d4vd would rank in Google’s most-searched list and correctly predicted contracts such as “Will Zohran Mamdani rank in the Top 5 most searched” and “Will Squid Game be the number one searched TV show,” per CNBC’s reporting of the complaint. His success rate across these markets was, according to the complaint, no accident. He knew the answers before the markets settled. The CFTC filed a simultaneous civil case against Spagnuolo seeking monetary disgorgement, restitution, and additional penalties, per the complaint. Google confirmed it had placed Spagnuolo on leave and was cooperating with law enforcement — noting that the tool he used was technically available to all employees, but that using confidential information to place bets represented a serious breach of company policy, per a statement reported by ABC News. The Second Case In Thirty Days The Spagnuolo arrest is the second federal criminal case tied to Polymarket insider trading in just over a month. In April 2026, US Army Special Forces Master Sergeant Gannon Ken Van Dyke was arrested for allegedly using classified military knowledge of the planned capture of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro to place bets on Polymarket, reportedly netting more than $400,000. Van Dyke has pleaded not guilty, per CNN’s reporting. Polymarket’s chief legal officer Olivia Chalos said in a statement that the company worked closely with the US Attorney’s Office and the CFTC on the Spagnuolo case — noting that Polymarket is the only prediction platform to date whose cooperation has led to insider trading charges in the United States, and that the blockchain-based nature of the platform means bad actors leave footprints. This development marks a critical and accelerating moment for the nascent prediction market sector. Two federal insider trading arrests in thirty days — one involving military classified information, the other corporate search data — arriving simultaneously with an active congressional investigation into Polymarket and Kalshi, confirms that the legal perimeter around prediction markets is closing fast. The transparency of blockchain trading, once seen primarily as a feature for users, is now functioning as a forensic trail for federal prosecutors. Cover image from Grok, ETHUSD chart from Tradingview
